Class Book COPYRfGHT DEPOSIT OUTLINES OF ANCIENT HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE, A.D. 476 EMBRACING THE EGYPTIANS, CHALD/EANS, ASSYRIANS BABYLONIANS, HEBREWS, PHCENICIANS, MEDES PERSIANS, GREEKS, AND ROMANS Designed for PravATE Reading and as a Manual of Instruction . D ^ P. V. N. MYERS, A.M. PRESIDENT OF FARMERS COLLEGE, OHIO AUTHOR OF "remains OF LOST EMPIRES" AND ASSOCIATE AUTHOR OF "life and nature under the tropics" 25 1882 ;, NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1882 Entered according t Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HAR R & BROTHERS, [n the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All riglds reserved. l!5^ PREFACE. It is a very general complaint that the Manuals of History 't into the hands of students are dry and uninteresting. The mplaint is not unfounded. Such introductory works are too ren mere crowded inventories of events, and so not only fail awakening an intelligent interest in what should be the most 'gaging of studies, but repel and dishearten the student. If is fault has been avoided, and the narrative is connected id interesting, still the perspective is almost sure to be false id misleading, and the picture of early times foreshortened and distorted. Usually all that lies back of Grecian annals is compressed into a few pages, where everything is lost — or rather brought into being — in a sort of creative nimbus. In- deed, in several works in extensive use in our schools, that vast background is treated as a kind of Hyperborean region, being filled indiscriminately with all manner of myths and legends, until there is no more rational connection between the story thus told of the men and agencies of those early times and the history of later periods than exists between the double writings of the palimpsest. One of our objects, then, in pre- paring the present volume is to join hands with those who are laboring to turn that period to use in education, and give it that character and prominence in the manual which it has as- sumed in the larger works of all our best historical scholars. Moreover, we conceive History to be a worthier thing than a trivial record of court intrigues and genealogies. So some- times, departing from precedent, we have devoted more space IV PREFACE. to giving an account of the growing arts, sciences, literature, or religion of a people than to the recital of the doings of their rulers. The dynastic or political annals of a nation are often of the least possible interest and importance. We think, and have acted upon the thought, that the character and work of a Moses, a Solon, or a Lycurgus have been far more potent ele- ments in the formation of the complex product we call Civiliza- tion, and therefore more worthy of a place in our thoughts as students of a growing humanity, than the petty wars and in- trigues of kings and emperors, whose only claim upon our at- tention is that the accidents of history have made them titled personages. It is only when, through force of character or circumstances, they become in fact representative men that we have shown much concern respecting them or their doings. The plan of our work combines, as will be seen, the ethnolog- ical and chronological methods — the former, however, having been allowed to exert the greater influence upon the arrange- ment. The ethnological treatment of history has been com- pared to the tracing separately of each tributary of a great river system from its source to its union with the main stream ; while the chronological or synchronistic plan has been likened to working down all the streams at once, by constant crossing and recrossing from valley to valley. A close adherence to the latter gives a confused and fragmentary view of the sub- ject; hence our preference for the former. When once upon an historic stream, we have followed it to its junction with the principal current, or to where some sub-tributary has joined it of such size and importance as to induce us to turn aside, in order to explore the sources and character of the new affluent. We have thus been enabled to secure a continuity and sim- plicity of narrative which we are sure will be appreciated by those who have had experience in guiding scholars amidst the bewildering and hopeless interlacings of synchronistically ar- ranged text-books. The division of the text into distinctly marked paragraphs PllEFACE. V will be found, we think, to add very much to the value of the book as a manual of instruction. Under each sub -head is placed as much matter as naturally gathers there, so that, when any particular passage has been once carefully read, the head- ing will afterwards recall the contents of the entire paragraph. We have avoided the extensive use of foot-notes, being con- vinced that any matter which it is desirable to bring to the notice of the student should be incorporated with the text, where it may meet the eye without the attention being drawn from the narrative. References to authorities which it was our first intention to insert in place we have been led to omit, both on account of the growing size of the book and also because of the conviction that to the great majority of the readers of such a general sketch they could be of no real value; there- fore, in this place we wish to acknowledge, in the most ample manner possible, our special and frequent indebtedness to the following authors and works: Rawlinson's "Ancient Mon- archies;" Lenormant and Chevallier's " History of the East;'* Milman's " History of the Jews ;" Wilkinson's " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians;" Grote's, Thirlwall's, and Smith's works on Grecian history ; Arnold's, Mommsen's, Nie- buhr's, Merivale's, LiddelTs, and Leighton's histories of Rome; Long's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic ;" Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ;" Smith's " Rome and Carthage ;" Froude's " Caesar ;" Guhl and Koner's " Life of the Greeks and Romans ;" Hadley's " Introduction to Ro- man Law;" and Dunlop's, Cruttwell's, Eugene Lawrence's, and Charles Morris's histories and manuals of Greek and Roman Literature. College Hill, O., July, 1882. V CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. Introduction.— Antiquity of Man.— The Races of Mankind.— The White Race and its Families. — The Turanian Tribes. — The Hamitic Peo- ples.— The Semitic Nations.— The Aryan Family. — Migrations of the Aryans. — Early Culture of the Aryans. — Importance of Aryan Studies Pages i-^ CHAPTER n. HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. Egypt and the Nile.— Inundation of the Nile.— Cataracts of the Nile.— Climate. — Dynasties and Chronology. — Menes, Founder of the Old Empire.— The Pyramid Kings.— The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings.— Amosis, Founder of the New Empire. — Thothmes III.— Amunoph Iir.— Rameses IL— Psammetik I.— Necho II.— The Last of the Pha- raohs 13-25 CHAPTER HI. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. Classes of Society. — The Priesthood. — The Warrior Class. — Religious Doctrines. — Osiris, Isis, and Horus. — Typhon. — Animal -worship. — Explanation of Animal-worship. — The Sacred Bull Apis. — Judgment of the Dead. — Tombs. — The Pyramids. — Palaces and Temples. — Sculpture : Sphinxes and Colossi. — Glass Manufactures. — The Papyrus Paper. — Forms of Writing. — Key to Egyptian Writing. — Astronomy, Geometry, and Arithmetic. — Medicine. — Egypt's Influence upon His- tory 26-44 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. Basin of the Tigris and the Euphrates. — The Three Great Monarchies.— The Chaldaeans a Mixed People. — Chaldaean Dynasties : Great Kings. — Nimrod the Founder. — Urukh the Builder. — Chedorlaomer the Conqueror. — Religion of the Chaldaeans. — Chaldaean Tower-temples. — Burial-mounds. — Cuneiform Writing. — Books and Libraries. — Chal- daean Literature. — Astronomy and Arithmetic. — Chaldaeans as Pio- neers in Civilization Pages 45-55 CHAPTER V. THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. Introduction. — Tiglath - Pileser I. — Asshur-izer-pal. — Shalmaneser II. — Vul-Lush in. and Semiramis. — .Sargon. — Sennacherib. — Esarhaddon. — Asshur-bani-pal. — Saracus 56-63 ^ CHAPTER VI. INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, AND LITERATURE OF THE ASSYRIANS. Nature of the Assyri/n Empire. — Character of the Assyrians. — Royal Sports. — The Royal Cities. — The Ruins of Nineveh. — Palace-mounds and Palaces. — Assyrian Explorations. — The Royal Library at Nine- veh. — The Tablets and their Contents. — Influence of Assyria upon Civilization 64-73 CHAPTER VII. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. The Country and its People. — Babylonian Affairs from 1300 to 625 B.C. — Nabopolassar. — Nebuchadnezzar. — Successors of Nebuchadnezzar. — The Fall of Babylon.— The Great Edifices of Babylon.— The Temple of the Seven Spheres. — Palaces. — The Hanging Gardens. — The Walls of Babylon 74-86 CHAPTER VIII. THE HEBREW NATION. Importance of Hebrew Plistory. — The Patriarchal Age. — The Hebrews in Egypt. — The Exodus. — Conquest of Canaan. — The Apportionment of the Land. — The Judges. — Founding of the Hebrew Monarchy. — The CONTENTS. IX Reign of David.— The Reign of Solomon.— The Division of the King- dom.— The Kingdom of Israel.— The Kingdom of Judah. — Hebrew Religion and Literature Pages 87-100 CHAPTER IX. THE PHCENICIANS. Origin of the Phoenicians.- Products of the Country.— Tyre and Sidon.— Phoenician Commerce.— Phoenician Colonies.— Routes of Trade.— Arts Disseminated by the Phoenicians. — Great Enterprises Aided by the Phoenicians 101-^07 CHAPTER X. THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. Kinship of the Medes and Persians. — The Medes at First the Leading Race.— Reign of Cyrus the Great.— Character of Cyrus. — Reign of Cambyses.— Reign of the Pseudo-Smerdis.— Reign of Darius.— Reign of Xerxes L — The Decline of the Persian Empire. — The Last of the Persian Kings 108-119 CHAPTER XL INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS. The Persian Government — Literature and Religion: Zoroastrianism.— Dualism in the Persian Religion. — Zoroastrianism Influenced by Maoianism. — Persian Architecture.— Remains of the Persian Pal- aces - . . . . 120-125 CHAPTER XXL THE HEROIC OR LEGENDARY HISTORY OF GREECE. Divisions of Greece.— Mountains.— Islands about Greece. — Other Lands Peopled by the Greeks.— Influence of Country.— The Pelasgians.— Foreign Influence.— The Hellenes.— The Heroic Age.— The Heroes. —The Argonautic Expedition. — The Trojan War. — Return of the Grecian Heroes.— Hellenic Migrations and Settlements. . . 126-135 CHAPTER XIII. EARLY HISTORY OF SPARTA. Classes in the Spartan State.— The Lycurgean Institutions.— Lycurgus.— X CONTENTS. The Spartan Senate. — Regulations as to Land and Money. — The Pub- lic Tables. — Education of the Youth. — Estimate of the Lycurgean In- stitutions. — The Messenian Wars. — Power of Sparta . Pages 136-143 CHAPTER XIV. EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS. Founding of Athens. — The Kings of Athens. — The Archons. — Laws of Draco. — The Rebellion of Cylon. — The Laws of Solon. — Changes in the Athenian Constitution. — The Tribunal of the Areopagus. — The Public Assembly. — The Tyrant Pisistratus. — Expulsion of the Tyrants from Athens. — Ostracism 144-149 CHAPTER XV. THE GRiECO-PERSIAN WARS. Expeditions of Darius against Greece. — Battle of Marathon. — Results of the Battle of Marathon. — Xerxes' Preparations to Invade Greece. — The Hellespontine Bridges Broken. — Passage of the Hellespont. — The Review and Census. — Provisioning the Persian Army. — Battle of Thermopylae.— The Burning of Athens.— The Naval Battle of Sala- mis. — The Battles of Plataea and Mycale. — Memorials and Trophies of the War 150-159 CHAPTER XVI. PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. Loyalty of Athens to the Grecian Cause. — Rebuilding the Walls of Athens. — Themistocles as an Envoy. — The Long Walls. — Aristides the Just. — The Confederacy of Delos. — Pericles and the Periclean Age. 160-169 CHAPTER XVII. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR: SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACY. Cause and Beginning of the War. — Pestilence at Athens. — Progress of the War.— The Mityleneans. — Close of the Peloponnesian War. — Spartan Supremacy. — Expedition of the Ten Thousand.— Decline of the Spar- tan State. — Theban Supremacy 170-177 CHAPTER XVIII. PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. Macedonian Rulers of Hellenic Race. — Philip of Macedon. — Battle of Chaeronea. — Plan to Invade Asia. — Alexander the Great. — Alexander CONTENTS. X\ Crosses the Hellespont.— The Gordian Knot.— The Battle of Issus.— Siege of Tyre.— Alexander in Egypt.— The Battle of Arbela.— Alexan- der in the Aryan Home.— Conquests in India.— Plans and Death of Alexander.— Character of Alexander Pages 178-187 CHAPTER XIX. STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. Division of the Empire of Alexander.— Thrace. — Macedonia. — Syria, or the Kingdom of the Seleucidae.- Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt. —Ptolemy I. Soter.— Ptolemy II. Philadel phus.— Ptolemy III. Euer- getes Pergamus. — Pontus. — Greece.— Achaean and /Etolian Leagues. -Review T 1S8-196 CHAPTER XX. RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. Cosmography of the Greeks.— The Olympian Council.— Lesser Deities and Monsters.— Explanation of the Mythological Monsters.— Nature of the Gods.— Modes of Divine Communication.— Grecian Oracles.— Ideas of the Future.— The Sacred Games.— The Olympian Games.— Influ- ence of the Grecian Games.— The Amphictyonic Council.— The First Sacred War. — Hospitality among the Ancient Greeks.— The Sup- pliant.— Humanity of the Greeks .......... 197-207 CHAPTER XXL GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING. Pelasgian Architecture. — Orders of Architecture.- Temple of Diana at Ephesus.— The Delphian Temple.— The Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon.— The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. — Progress in the Art of Sculpture. — Phidias.— Praxiteles.— Lysippus. — Chares and the Rhodian Colossus. — Polygnotus.— Apelles. — Zeuxis and Par- rhasius 208-218 CHAPTER XXn. GREEK LITERATURE. Homer and the "Iliad."— Hesiod and Pindar.— The Greek Drama.— Greek Dramatists. — History and Historians. — Herodotus.— Thucydides.— Xenophon.— Oratory.— Influence of the Assembly.— Themistocles and Pericles.— Demosthenes and ^schines 219-227 XU CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. Relation of Mythology to Philosophy. — The Seven Sages. — Pythagoras. — ^sop. — Socrates. — Plato. — Aristotle. — Zeno and the Stoics. — Epicu- rus and the Epicureans. — Science among the Greeks. — Euclid. — Ar- chimedes. — Strabo and Claudius Ptolemy Pages 228-238 CHAPTER XXIV. THE ROMAN KINGDOM. Divisions of Italy. — Early Inhabitants of Italy. — The Latins. — The Ram- nes, or Romans. — The Beginnings of Rome. — Rome's First Conquest. — Rome Becomes a Great City. — Classes of Society. — Early Govern- ment : King, Senate, and Popular Assembly. — The Legendary Kings. — The Constitution of Servius Tullius. — The Expulsion of the Kings. — The Roman Religion. — Influence upon Political Affairs. — Chief Deities. — Eternal Fires of Vesta. — Oracles and Divination. — Sacred Colleges 239-252 CHAPTER XXV. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC: THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. The First Consuls. — First Secession of the Plebeians. — The Covenant and the Tribunes. — Coriolanus. — Cincinnatus. — The Decemvirs and the Tables of Laws. — Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs. — Military Tribunes. — The Censors. — Siege of Veii. — Sack of Rome by the Gauls. — Rebuilding of Rome. — Treason and Death of Manlius. — Plebeians Admitted to the Consulship. — Wars for the Mastery of Italy. — The First Samnite War. — Revolt of the Latin Cities. — Sec- ond Samnite War. — Third Samnite War. — War with Pyrrhus. 253-270 CHAPTER XXVI. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. The City of Carthage. — The Carthaginian Empire. — Carthaginian Govern- ment and Religion. — Rome and Carthage Compared. — First Punic War. — Beginning of the Contest. — The Romans Build their First Fleet. — The First Sea-fight. — Naval Battle of Ecnomus. — Regulus. — : Loss of a Second Roman Fleet. — Battle of Panormus. — Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — Loss of Two Roman Fleets. — Close of the First Punic War 271-283 CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER XXVII. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. Rome between the First and Second Punic Wars.— The First Roman Prov- ince.— Rome Acquires Sardinia and Corsica.— The Illyrian Corsairs are Punished.— Carthage between the First and Second Punic Wars. —The Truceless War.— Hamilcar in Spain.— Hannibal's Vow.— Han- nibal Attacks Saguntum.— The Second Punic War Begun.— Hanni- bal Begins his March. — Passage of the Pyrenees and the Rhone.— Passage of the Alps. —Battles of Ticinus, Trebia, and Lake Trasi- menus.— Hannibal's Policy.— Fabius the Delayer.— The Policy of Fa- bius Vindicated.— The Battle of Cannae.— Events after the Battle of Cannae.— The Fall of Syracuse. — Fall of Capua. — Hannibal before Rome.— Hasdrubal in Spain.— Battle of Metaurus.— War in Africa.— BattleofZama.— Close of the War Pages 284-299 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. Events between the Second and Third Punic Wars.— The Battle of Cynos- cephalK.— The Battle of Magnesia.— The Battle of Pydna.— The De- struction of Corinth.— The Fate of Hannibal and Scipio.— Carthage must be Destroyed.— Roman Perfidy.— Carthaginians Prepare to De- fend their City.— The Destruction of Carthage.— War in Spain.— Siege ofNumantia " 300-307 CHAPTER XXIX. THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. The Servile War in Sicily. — The Public Lands.— The Reforms of the Gracchi.— The War with Jugurtha.— Invasion of the Cimbri and Teu- tones.— The Social or Marsic War.— The Civil W^ar of Marius and Sulla. — The Wanderings of Marius.— Return of Marius to Italy.— Sulla and the Mithridatic War. — The Proscriptions of Sulla.— The Triumph and Death of Sulla 308-325 CHAPTER XXX. THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC {concludcd). Pompey the Great in Spain.— Spartacus : War of the Gladiators.— The Abuses of Verres.— War with the Mediterranean Pirates. — Pompey and the Mithridatic War.— Pompey's Triumph.— The Conspiracy of Catiline. — Csesar, Crassus, and Pompey. — The First Triumvirate.— XIV CONTENTS. Caesar's Conquests in Can] and Britain.— Results of the Gallic Wars. — Crassus in the East. — Caesar Crosses the Rubicon. — The Civil War of Ccesar and Pompey.— The Battle of Pharsalia. — Close of the Civil War. — Ccesar as a Statesman. — The Death of Csesar. — Funeral Ora- tion by Mark Antony. — The Second Triumvirate. — Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi. — The New Division of the Roman World. — Antony and Cleopatra. — The Battle of Actium.— Deaths of Antony and Cleopatra Pages 326-354 CHAPTER XXXI. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Reign of Augustus Caesar. — Reign of Tiberius. — Reign of Caligula. — Reign of Claudius. — Reign of Nero. — Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. — Reign of Vespasian.— Reign of Titus. — Domitian. — Last of the Twelve Caesars. — Reign of Nerva. — Reign of Trajan. — Reign of Hadrian. — First Two of the Antonines 355-37^ CHAPTER XXXH. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. Reign of Commodus. — The Public Sale of the Empire. — Reign of Septim- ius Severus. — Reign of Caracalla. — Reign of Elagabalus. — Reign of Alexander Severus. — The Thirty Tyrants. — The Fall of Palmyra. — Reign of Diocletian. — Reign of Constantine the Great. — Reign of Ju- lian the Apostate. — Reign of Jovian. — Valentinian and Valens. — The Movements of the Barbarians. — The Goths Cross the Danube. — The- odosius the Great. — Final Division of the Empire. — The Eastern Em- pire. — Last Days of the Empire of the West. — First Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Last Triumph at Rome. — Last Gladiatorial Combat. — Invasion of Italy by the German Tribes. — The Ransom of Rome. — Sack of Rome by Alaric. — Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The Death of Alaric. — The Barbarians Seize the W^estern Provinces. — Invasion of the Huns. — Battle of Chalons. — The Death of Attila. — Sack of Rome by the Vandals. — Fall of the Roman Empire of the West 379-411 CHAPTER XXXni. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. Introductory. — Greek Origin of Roman Architecture. — Roman Temples. — The Circus. — The Games of the Circus. — Theatres. — The Amphithea- tre.— The Shows of the Amphitheatre. — The Gladiatorial Combats. — CONTENTS. XV Suppression of the Gladiatorial Shows. — Military Roads. — Aque- ducts. — Thermae, or Baths. — Palaces and Villas. — Triumphal Col- umns and Arches. — The Roman Triumph. — Sepulchral Monu- ments Pages 412-434 CHAPTER XXXIV. LATIN LITERATURE. Literature among the Romans. — The Period of Literary Activity. — Greek Learning and Latin Literature. — Epochs and their Writers. — Lays and Ballads of the Legendary Age. — The Roman Dramatists. — Poets of the Republic. — Poets of the Augustan Age. — Satire and Satirists. — Oratory among the Romans. — Latin Historians. — Science, Ethics, and Philosophy. — Writers of the Early Latin Church. — Roman Law and Law Literature. — Close of Latin Literature 435~47i INDEX 473 ANCIENT HISTORY. CHAPTER I. THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. Introduction. — History is a narrative of events so told as to show the origin and growth of customs and manners, of arts and sciences, of government and religion, among men. For convenience, History is divided into three periods — Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern. Ancient History begins with the first appearance of man upon the earth, and extends to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a.d. 476. Mediaeval History em- braces 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 Mediaeval period and extends to the present lime. Antiquity of Man. — We do not know when man first came into possession of the earth. His antiquity, like the age of the planet he inhabits, is shrouded in obscurity. But as the science of geology has taught us that' the earth is very old, much older than we once thought, so different sciences are telling us that man has been upon the earth a much longer time than we had inferred from a wrong interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis. Yet we can set no definite date to his first appearance. We only know that when the historic curtain first rises, about 3000 B.C., vast migratory movements. 2 ANCIENT HISTORY. manifestly begun long before that date, are going on among the families and tribes of the different races of mankind; and that in some favored regions, as in the Valley of the Nile, are nations and civilizations already venerable with age, and pos- sessing arts, governments, and institutions that bear evidence of slow growth through very long periods of prehistoric times. The Races of Mankind. — Distinctions in form, color, and physiognomy divide the human species into four great types, or races, known as the Black (Ethiopian), the Red (American), the Yellow (Mongolian), and the White (Caucasian). These races subdivide themselves into families; and these, again, into nations, tribes, and clans. As to which of these great races is the oldest, or the original type, we have no positive knowledge; however, many testimonies — ethnological, linguistic, and his- torical — concur in leading us to assume that they all stand in the relation of children to an original mother-type that is lost. We must not suppose these four types to be sharply marked off each from all the others: they shade into one another by insensible gradations. Thus, passing from the temperate re- gions of Northern Africa to the tropical countries of the in- terior of that continent, we find the different tribes encountered exhibiting a "chromatic scale" that embraces all the shades of color, from the slightly bronzed Caucasian to the jet-black ne- gro. Yet we know that those race characteristics to which we have referred, though capable of being greatly modified by climate and the varying conditions of life, are very persistent. There has been no perceptible change in the great types dur- ing historic times. The paintings upon the oldest Egyptian monuments show us that at the dawn of history, about five 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 perma- nency of physical characteristics had passed into the proverb, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 3 On account of this persistent character of form, complexion, and physiognomy, these physical distinctions form a better basis of classification than language ; for migrations and con- quests often result in a people's giving up their own and adopt- ing a foreign tongue, while at the same time retaining all their physical peculiarities. To efface these requires a great lapse of time. Thus the Jews have in general adopted the languages of the different peoples among whom they have found a home ; but the Hebrew physiognomy is as marked to-day as it was three thousand years ago. Still we must not forget that any classifi- cation which we may make, ethnic or linguistic, is rather con- venient than absolutely accurate. The White Race and its Families. — The White race exhibits the most perfect type, physically, intellectually, and morally, of all the varieties of mankind. It is the race with which we shall be almost exclusively concerned, as the first three races — the Black, the Red, and the Yellow — have scarcely assumed any part in the drama of history. Possessing richer mental and spiritual en- dowments than the other races, and animated, in most of its branches, with a wonderful energy, the migrations and con- quests of its different peoples, and the achievements of its vari- ous families in the fields of science, art, literature, philosophy, and religion, fill most of the pages of the historian, and render instructive the story he has to tell. This type subdivides itself into four great families— the Tu- ranian, the Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan, or Indo-Euro- pean (formerly called Japhetic). Each of these branches in- cludes a large number of nations and tribes. In intellectual and spiritual gifts, these families rank inversely as named above. The Turanians have never evinced any aptitude for the arts and sciences, or love for the higher walks of culture; while the last three, in the order mentioned, have been successively the standard-bearers of the constantly advancing culture and civil- ization of the world. 4 ANCIENT HISTORY. The Turanian Tribes.— The Turanian family includes many : and widely separated nations and tribes, which occupy a great part of Northern and Central Asia and large regions in Europe, i Among its chief peoples may be enumerated the Turks, Huns, j Hungarians, Tartars, Avars, Esthonians, Finns, Lapps, Iberi- \ ans, and Basques. In the remotest times the peoples of this race ' had spread themselves over all Europe and Asia. They were : the first intruders upon these virgin continents, save in some ' quarters, as in India, where they seem to have encountered a : still earlier negro population. Whence they came, or at how ' early a period they took possession of the continents, we can- I not say; we are only certain that when, between 2000 and j 3000 B.C., the Semites and Aryans left their overcrowded ! homes in Central Asia, and v;ent out in search of new abodes, * everywhere they went, in India, in Persia, in Mesopotamia, in Asia Minor, and in Europe, they found tribes of this family al-, i ready in possession of the soil. These aboriginal inhabitants were either exterminated or ab- : sorbed by the new-comers. 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. (Some consider the Etrurians in ' Italy as another remnant of the same race.) These little \ patches of primitive population have been likened to islands '. rising above the waters of a destructive inundation. The Hun- \ garians and Turks are Turanian peoples that have thrust them- selves into Europe during historic times. The rude stone implements found in the caves and river- ' gravels of Western Europe ; the shell -mounds, or kitchen-, middens, upon the shores of the Baltic ; and the Swiss lake- ; habitations, are supposed to be relics of this prehistoric race. | The Hamitic Peoples. — The Hamites are called the pioneers i in art, science, and government. They embraced the earliest | communities that emerged from barbarism — the Cushites, or ! THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 5 Ethiopians, the Egyptians, the early Chaldasans, and the Ca- naanites. AVe shall see hereafter in how great a degree the Semites and Aryans were indebted to this race for the germs of their learning and culture. As in the case of the Turanians, we are without any positive knowledge respecting the original seats of the Hamites and their prehistoric migrations. In the very first dawn of historic time, we discover the chief peoples of this race already in place : the Egyptians are settled in the Valley of the Nile, the Cush- iies in Ethiopia and Southern Arabia, and the Chaldaeans are building great cities in the lowlands of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some think that in the dim historic twilight the ancestors of the Canaanites and the Phoenicians (earlier) may be descried moving from the shores of the Persian Gulf across the MesojDOtamian plains, towards the hill country of Palestine. The Semitic Nations, — The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Hebrews, the later Phoenicians, and the Arabians. Many tes- timonies point to the hill country (Armenia) bordering the Valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates on the north, as the original abode of this family. From that region its clans and tribes pushed southward, and in time distributed themselves over the greater part of Southwestern Asia. In the upper portion of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley, they es- tablished the great Assyrian Empire, which for many centuries held proud sway over all the peoples between the hills of Persia and the Mediterranean. In the lowland country of the same river-basin, they mingled with the Hamites, already in possession of the soil, and formed the mixed people of the later Babylonian Empire. The evidence of language and other testi- monies also lead some to believe that other portions of the same race penetrated into Egypt in the most remote times, and blend- ed their blood and culture with the Hamitic people of the Nile Valley. ANCIENT HISTORY. We possess more definite knowledge of the movements of , another branch of this family. About 2000 B.C., differences in . religious belief led a Semitic tribe, called the Abrahamic, tO| separate itself fi-om kindred clans then dwelling near the head ' of the Persian Gulf, and go out in search of new abodes. Their j patriarch Abraham, who was inspired with a lofty faith in the God whom he served, led this little company across the Mesopota- \ mian plains, and up into the country now called Palestine. I'he | little band became in time strong enough to drive out or ex- j terminate the Canaanitish (Hamitic) inhabitants of the land, > and grew into the great Hebrew nation, which was destined; to exert a moulding influence upon the religion and civiliz.'aion ■ of the world. j It was not until the beginning of the Mediaeval period thatij the Arabian tribes assumed any important part in the trans- actions of history. Then, under the name of Saracens, and as ; teachers of a new faith, called from its founder Mohammedan-- ism, they issued from the deserts of the Arabian peninsula, and ; swiftly spread their authority and religion over all the countries! of Western Asia and large parts of Africa. j The varied movements of the Semites, their displacement of J the Hamites, and their comminglings with these earlier peoples, render it extremely difficult to classify the nations that arose in ; the regions where these two families, or races, touched and over-j lapped each other. Especially is this true in the case of the ^ Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Chaldaeans. By some, all j these peoples have been declared to be Semitic ; while others have called them all Hamitic. From the evidence we now' possess, we must think of the original settlers of Egypt, Chaldsea, | and probably Phoenicia, as Hamites, who were afterwards Semit- ; ized by the different Semitic peoples with whom they came in : contact and blended. ] The Aryan Family. — The Aryan, or Indo-European, though j probably the youngest, is the most widely scattered family of ] THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 7 the White race. It includes among its members the ancient Hindus, the Medes and Persians, the classic Greeks and Ro- mans, and the modern descendants of all these nations; also the Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic peoples of Europe, and their colonists that have peopled the New World, and taken posses- sion of other parts of the earth. This is the family to which we ourselves belong. Migrations of the Aryans.— The original seats of the Aryan peoples were the highlands of Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea and north of the Hindu Kush Mountains. This upland country, now for the most part arid and uninviting, was in re- mote times a delightful region that drew forth unbounded praise from the early Aryan poets. Gradual changes in the climate, which rendered the country inhospitable, pressure of population, and religious disputes and wars caused the Ar3^an household, at a period that cannot be placed later than 3000 B.C., to begin to break up and scatter, and the different clans and tribes to set out in search of new dwelling-places. One branch of the f:imily, called the Indo-Iranic, the ances- tors of the Hindus and the Persians, turning from the primitive home, moved southward, and, for a long time after separation from the other members of the household, lived together as one family, united in a single fiiith and worship. But difference in religious belief arising, caused, it is supposed, by the teachings of the great prophet Zoroaster, the company was divided into two bands, which parted abruptly the one from the other. One of these, holding on their way to the south, climbed the snowy passes of the Hindu Kush, which lay in their path, and, descending upon the plains beyond, drove out the Turanian tribes they found occupying the land, and became the ancestors of the Hindus. The other company turned to the southwest, and, spreading themselves over the table-lands of Iran, became the progenitors of the Medes and Persians. About the time of these migrations to the south and south- 8 ANCIENT HISTORY. west, other clans set their faces towards Europe. The journey of these families was long and eventful. The stream of migration that set in this direction was divided into two branches. One division skirted the southern shore of the Euxine, and, enter- ing Europe by the way of the Hellespont or over the thickly strewn islands of the ^gean, pushed themselves into the peninsulas of Greece and Italy, and founded the Greek and Roman nations. The second division passed to the north of the Black Sea, and, crossing the rivers that lay in their path, poured into Cen- tral Europe. The vanguard of these tribes are known as the Celts. After them came the Germanic tribes, who crowded the former out on the westernmost edge of Europe — up into the corners of France 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 Germanic 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 Rus- sians, Bohemians, Poles, Servians, and other kindred nations. Although these migratory movements of the various clans and tribes of this wonderful Aryan family commenced in the early morning of history, some five thousand 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 continuance of the outpourings of the primitive Aryan household into the surrounding countries. Everywhere the other races liave given way before the ad- vance of the Aryan peoples, or have been absorbed by them. Having possessed themselves of the riches of the Hamitic and Semitic civilizations — having made their own the wisdom of the Egyptians, the arts of the Assyrians, the religion of the He- brews — they have assumed the position of teachers among the THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 9 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 and beliefs of the early Aryan peoples while their ancestors were yet living together as a single household in Central Asia. Upon comparing the myths, legends, ballads, and nursery tales of the different Aryan peoples, we discover the curious fact that, under various disguises, they are the same. Jack the Giant- killer with his seven-league boots is identical with Mercury with his winged sandals. William Tell with his unerring aim is the archer-god Apollo with his " twanging bow." And many of 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 sepa- ration 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; hence we infer that these words were used in the primitive household. Such words, preserved in the strata of language, are to the philologist what fossils, buried in the strata of the earth, are to the geologist. Each has a story to tell. Thus take our word daughter. This occurs with little change of form in several of the Aryan tongues (Sanscrit, or old Hindu, duhitor; Zend, or old Persian, dughdhor; Teutonic, or German, dughtor). Now, in Sanscrit, which language has preserved most unchanged the ancient Aryan speech, this word means a milk- maid. Here, then, we have two facts : that the cow or goat had been domesticated by our ancestors before they left Cen- tral Asia ; and that the girls of the family tended and milked the herds. lO ANCIENT HISTORY. Our knowledge of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans, thus gained by the science of comparative philology and mythology, may be summed up as follows : They possessed a simple mono- theistic faith, or belief in a Supreme Being, whom they called the Heaven-Father (Dyaus-Pitar). They htid advanced beyond the nomadic state — were farmers and herdsmen, and dwelt in towns defended by walls. "Their wealth was reckoned in cows, and cows were the circulating medium, with sheep and pigs for small change." They introduced these animals, as well as the horse, goat, and dog, into Europe. (The Turanian people whom they displaced had no domestic animals.) They kept bees and got intoxicated upon a beverage made from the honey. " Their wheat was cut with the sickle, threshed and winnowed, and carried to mill in wagons fitted with wheels and axletrees. The blacksmith's work, with hammer and anvil and forge and bellows, was also carried on. Sewing and spinning were feminine occupations, and garments were woven out of sheep's wool. The art of tanning was also practised, and leather shoes were worn" (Fiske). They were fair builders, and navigated the rivers and inland seas of their regions with canoes or skiffs. They rode in wag- ons, but did not ride horseback. They were versed in the art of war, and had made beginnings in astronomy and mathemat- ics. The father was head of the family, in which the wife held an honored position. The children were given names express- ive of love and endearment. The families were united to form village-communities, ruled by a chief, or patriarch, who was as- sisted by a council of seven. These village-communities again united to form clans or tribes, at the head of which was a king, or feudal lord, chosen from among the patriarchs. This " peo- ple's father " was consecrated to his office by being seated on a stone, a custom still preserved in the coronation of the sov- ereigns of England.* From the decision of the king, who was * The early Scottish monaichs were crowned at Scone on the Tay. The > i THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. II also judge of his people, an appeal could be made, by the or- deal of fire and water, to the judgment of Heaven. 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 modern European na- tions. Thus, in the honored position assigned the wife in the Aryan household are prefigured the institutions of European chivalry; and in the council of seven around the village patri- arch, political historians trace the beginnings of the Parliament of England. 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." coronation ceremony was performed by seating the king upon a stone. Edward I., having conquered the Scots, carried the sacred stone to Eng- land, and it now forms the seat of the coronation-chair in Westminster Abbey. Note to Table on page 12. The peoples of modern Germany are the descendants of various Teu- tonic tribes. The Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes represent the Scandina- vian branch of the Germanic family. The Irish, the Welsh, and the Scotch Highlanders are the representatives of the ancient Celts. The French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians have sprung from a blending of the Celts, the ancient Romans, and the Germanic tribes that thrust themselves within the limits of the Western Roman Empire. The English are the descendants of the Angles and Saxons, slightly modified by contact and interminglings with the Celts, Danes, and Normans. \ 12 ANCIENT HISTORY. Yellow (Mongolian).. Turanian or Scyth- ian llamitic. Semitic RACES OF MANKIND, WITH CHIEF FAMILIES AND TRIBES. ■Di 1 /TVT \ i Tribes of Central and Southern Africa, the Papu- Black (Negro) | ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ Australians. f The Indian tribes of North and South America. Red (American) -i (Many ethnologists reckon this group as a sub- [ division of the following Mongolian race). [ The chief peoples of this race are the Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Siamese, Tibetans, Mongol Tartars, and the Malays (often classified as a distinct race). Turks, Tartars, Huns, Hungarians, Avars, Finns, Lapps, Basques, Iberians. Canaanites, Chaldaeans (earlier), Cushites, Egyptians. Arabians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Babylonians (later), Phoenicians (later). Bactrians, Hindus, Persians, Medes, Greeks, Romans, ^ ^^^ C^J^^^ i Britons. • Goths, Franks, Heruli, Bavarians, Batavians, Burgundians, Alemanni, Vandals, Lombards, Angles, Saxons, Scandinavians. Russians, Servians, Montenegrins, Poles, Bohemians, Dalmatians. White (Caucasian) .... Aryan or Indo- European Germanic or Teutonic . Slavonian HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. I3 CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. (From unknown antiquity to 525 B.C.) Egypt and the Nile. — The ancient writers, who often put much meaning in a phrase, called Egypt "the gift of the Nile." Be- fore historic times, what is now the Great Sahara was covered by the waters of the Atlantic. Geologic changes at last lifted the rocky sea-floor — covered, for the most part, with a heavy mantle of sand — and it became the Libyan Desert. The Nile then flowed through a long, narrow, hill-bordered valley to the Mediterranean. At each annual rise of the river, caused by the tropical summer rains among the Abyssinian mountains, a thin layer of sediment was deposited over the narrow strip of submerged land along either bank of the stream.* Not until from forty to seventy feet of sediment had been laid down upon the limestone floor of the valley did it become the seat of that wonderful civilization whose monuments have come down to us ; although from fragments of pottery found in the very low- est strata of the river sediment, we know the valley to have been occupied many ages before that time by a ruder people. Besides covering with a deep soil the bottom of its narrow valley, the Nile has also built up at its mouth a great delta, through which it now seeks the sea by several different chan- nels. This delta country was known to the ancients as Lower *The valley has a varying breadth of from two to eleven miles. The rate of the fluviatile deposit is from three to five inches in a century. The coun- try at Thebes, as shown by the accumulations about the monuments, has been raised seven feet during the last seventeen hundred years. 14 ANCIENT HISTORY. 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. Inundation of the Nile. — Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created is the land each year still re- newed and fertilized. The Nile begins to rise in its lower parts late in June, and by the end of September, when the in- undation has attained its greatest height, the country presents the appearance of an inland sea, with the villages of the na- tives, which are built upon artificial hills or protected by dikes, rising like little islands above the water. By the end of No- vember the river has returned to its bed ; and the fields, over which has been spread a film of rich earth, are left black, reek- ing morasses. Upon this soft, yielding surface, even while still covered in places with pools of water, the grain is sown, and sometimes simply trampled in by flocks of sheep or goats. In a few weeks the entire land, so recently a flooded plain, is overspread with a sea of verdure, which forms a striking contrast with the desert sands and barren hills that rim the valley. Climate. — In Lower Egypt, near the sea, the rainfall in the winter is abundant j 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 thousands of years, in such wonderful freshness of color and with such sharpness of outline, the numerous paint- ings and sculptures of the palaces and tombs 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 matter of irrigation, Egypt became in early times the granary of the East. To it HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 1 5 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. Cataracts of the Nile. — 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. The sacred islands of Elephantine and Philas lie, the former just below, and the latter just above, the First Cataract. One hundred miles below Elephantine, the limestone hills recede from the river in such a way as to form an amphitheatral plain about twelve miles across. This region is called the Thebaid, and is now filled with the ruins of " hun- dred-gated Thebes." South of the First Cataract lay Ethiopia, a land of very shad- owy boundaries. The northern part of the region was debat- able ground between the Ethiopians and the Egyptians ; yet during the best days of the Pharaohs they extended their au- thority permanently far beyond the first rapids, as is attested by the ruins that line the banks of the Upper Nile — the desig- nation given the river above the First Cataract. Dynasties and Chronology. — The kings, or Pharaohs, that reigned in Egypt from the earliest times till the conquest of the country by Alexander {;^^^ 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 wrote a history of Egypt, compiled from the manuscripts kept in the archives of the Egyptian temples. Unfortunately, all of this work is lost save mere fragments. One of these contains the lists referred to. In connection with each dynasty Manetho gives the length of the reign of the family, and usually the names of the kings. 1 6 ANCIENT HISTORY. We cannot assign a positive date to the beginning of the first dynasty ; for Egyptologists are at a loss to know whether to consider the dynasties of Manetho's list as all successive or in part contemporaneous. Thus, it is held by some scholars that several of these families were reigning at the same time in This, Elephantine, Thebes, Memphis, Tanis, and Sais — the different capitals 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 era of Menes. Accordingly, Mariette and Lenormant place the beginning of the first dynasty at 5004 B.C., and others still earlier,"^ while Poole and Wilkinson put it at about 2700 B.C. The constantly growing evidence of the monuments is in favor of the higher figures.! As in journeying up the Nile the traveller passes without de- lay the long, monotonous reaches of the river, and only stops when his attention is arrested by a group of famous pyramids or the ruins of some celebrated temple, so shall we pass with- out notice the long, uneventful periods in these thirty-one dynas- ties, and only stop when we reach some great name, some important conquest, or some significant event. These shall be our landmarks along this great dynastic stream, which flows through more than half the historic centuries of the world. Menes, Founder of the Old Empire.— Menes is the first kingly personage, shadowy and indistinct in form, that we discover in * A comparison of authorities will be interesting. Bockh gives as the date of Menes 5702 ; linger, 5613 ; Brugsch, 4455 ; Lauth, 4157 ; Lepsius, 3852 ; Bunsen, 3623— later 3059 ; Poole, 2717 ; Wilkinson, 2691. t "The scholars who have attempted to compress the dates given by Man- etho have never yet been able to produce one single monument to prove that two dynasties named in his lists as successive were contemporar)'. On the contrary, there are abundant proofs, collected by very many Egyptologers, to convince us that all the royal races enumerated by the Sebennytic priest occupied the throne in succession."— Mariette. HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 1 7 the first dawn of Egyptian histoiy. This king holds the same relation to the beginnings of political life and organized society in the Valley of the Nile that Nimrod sustains to these same matters in the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. 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 nu- merous petty principalities of Lower Egypt into a single state, known as the Old Empire, \vhich existed with varying fortunes for at least a thousand years. The Pyramid Kings (about 2400 b.c.).— The kings of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned at Memphis, are called the Pyra- mid-builders. "With them the real history of Egypt begins." Tradition and the monuments here unite their testimony. Suphis (Khufu) 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 ; 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. Others of this famous group of pyramids were raised by Sha- fra and Menkara, successors of Cheops. To some king of this family is also ascribed the sculpture of the Sphinx at the foot of the Great Pyramid. The most astonishing feature of the monuments of these early Pharaohs is the remarkable perfec- tion of the sciences and arts exhibited in their construction. A competent judge declares that they have never been surpassed. These 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. The statues of Shafra, the builder of the second pyramid of the Gizeh group, have 2* l8 ANCIENT HISTORY. been discovered, broken into small pieces, at the bottom of a well near the Sphinx, into which the enraged people had thrown them during a political revolution soon after his death. The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings (from about 2100 to 1650 B c.*). — While the kings of the old Memphian Empire were ruling in Lower Egypt, and building the Great Pyramids, an- other monarchy was growing up at Thebes, which gradually pushed its authority towards the Delta. Other states also sprang up, and the little country of Egypt was divided into not less than five petty principalities, and thus prevented from using its undivided strength to repel invasion. Such united effort was needed ; for just at this time the nomadic tribes of Syria, probably headed by the Hittites, being hard-pushed by the growing empires of the Tigro-Euphrates Val- ley, crossed the eastern frontiers of Egypt, took possession of the inviting pasture-lands of the Delta, and established there the Empire of the Shepherd Kings. These rulers gradually extended their authority up the Nile, and the Theban kings were forced to seek refuge in Ethiopia — a country, as we have already seen, lying astride the Upper Nile. These Asiatic intruders, "Tartars of the South," as they have been called, were rude and barbarous, and destroyed or muti- lated the monuments of the conquered Egypdans. Not a single temple was spared. For about four hundred years (some say two hundred) these foreigners held sway in the valley, and this period is almost a blank in the records and monuments of the country. It constitutes what has been called the " Middle Ages " of Egyptian history. * These figures are those of Lenormant. But much uncertainty attaches to the date for the beginning of the reign of the Hyksos. Rawlinson says : "The author is strongly convinced of the shortness of the Shepherd period, and cannot bring himself to assign to it a duration of above two centuries. He regards it as commencing about B.C. 1840, and terminating B.C. 1640" (" Hist, of Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 22). HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 1 9 It was 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 were of the same pastoral habits, but also probably because of near kinship in race ; for it appears that, whatever may have been the original ethnic affinities of the invading tribes, they were partly or wholly Semitized before they entered Egypt. At last these intruders 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 im- portance from the fact that these nomadic peoples, while in the valley, adopted the manners and customs of the Egyptians, and became acquainted with their arts and sciences, so that when driven out, as in the caSe of the children of Israel at a later period, they carried this knowledge, including the germs of alphabetical writing, with them, and through the wide com- mercial relations of the Phoenicians spread the same among all the early nations of the Mediterranean area. Thus Egypt became indirectly the instructor of Greece and Rome. Amosis, Founder of the New Empire (about 1650 e.g.). — The revolt which drove the Hyksos from the country was led by Amosis, or Ahmes, a descendant of the Theban kings. He delivered the entire valley between the cataracts and the sea from the invaders, and restored the temples and monuments that had suffered from the rudeness of the conquerors. He was the first king of what is known as the Eighteenth Dynasty. The most eventful period of Egyptian history, covered by what is called the New Empire, now opens. Architecture and learn- ing seem to have recovered at a bound from their long depres- sion 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. 20 ANCIENT HISTORY. Thothmes III. (about 1600 b.c). — Thothmes has been called the greatest of the Pharaohs. He was at least a great warrior, and during his reign the frontiers of the empire reached their greatest expansion. His authority extended from the oases of the Libyan Desert to the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates. He built a strong fortress upon the latter river at Carchemish, added both Nineveh and Babylon to his kingdom, and exacted tribute and hostages from the various Mesopotamian princes. Tablets cut in the rocks, and various monuments commemora- tive of his conquests, are scattered from Algeria, in Northern Africa, to the Armenian Mountains, in Asia, and are found far up the Nile, in Abyssinia. Thothmes was also a magnificent builder. His architectural works in the Valley of the Nile Were almost numberless. There was scarcely a city in Egypt that he did not decorate with tem- ple or palace or obelisk. He built also a great part of the Temple of Karnak at Thebes, the remains of which form the most majestic ruin in the world. All his monuments are liter- ally covered with sculptures and inscriptions — records of his numerous expeditions and great works. Amunoph III. — This name stands next after that of Thoth- mes III. as one of the great sovereigns of the Eighteenth Dy- nasty. Although, like his rival, a famous warrior, still it is the remains of his splendid buildings, scattered over the sites of the ancient capitals of Egypt, that have given him so prominent a place in Egyptian history. He added to the Temple of Karnak, and erected portions of the superb Palace of Luxor, which was joined to the former edifice by a grand avenue lined with a thousand colossal sphinxes. To him, too, is as- cribed the erection at Thebes of the celebrated colossus known as the Vocal Memnon. Rameses II. (about 1400 b.c). — Rameses II., surnamed the Great, v/as the Sesostris of the Greeks. His is the most promi- HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 21 nent name of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Ancient writers, in fact, accorded him the first place among all the Egyptian sov- ereigns, and told mythical and most exaggerated stories of his conquests and achievements. His long reign, embracing sixty- six years, was, indeed, well occupied with military expeditions and the superintendence of great architectural works. But the empire of the Pharaohs had already passed to its culmination, and all Rameses's efforts were directed to upholding its falling fortunes. Fear of an invasion by the tribes of Syria led him to reduce to a position of grinding servitude the Semitic peo- ples 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," and oppressed the children of Israel. Especially was it under this monarch that their " lives were made bitter with hard bon'dage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field." Papyri recently interpreted tell us that the Hebrews were the builders of the treasure-cities of " Pithom and Raamses," as recorded in Exodus. Besides enslaving these Semitic tribes that migratory move- ments had brought into the Delta region, Rameses pressed to the work on his various edifices great multitudes of captives taken in his numerous wars, as well as negroes obtained by "man-hunting expeditions" into Central Africa. The native Egyptian peasants were also vexed by heartless taskmasters, taxes, extortions, and cruel punishments. As Dr. Smith ob- serves, "The epithet * Great' is, as usual in history, but the tribute rendered by the weak judgment of men to arrogant des- potism and barbaric pomp. . . . We may venture to call him^ the Louis XIV. of the Egyptian monarchy ; and * after him came the deluge.' " It was during the reign of his son Me- nephtha that the Exodus took place. Psammetik I. (625-610 b.c). — We pass without comment a long period of several centuries, marked, indeed, by great vicis- 22 ANCIENT HISTORY. situdes in the fortunes of the Egyptian monarchs, yet charac- terized throughout by a sure and rapid decline in the power and splendor of their empire. During the last one hundred years of this period, Egypt was, for the most part, tributary to the Assyrian kings. But when Nineveh fell before the Medes and Babylonians (625 B.C.), Egypt detached herself from the wreck of the empire, and a native prince, Psammetik, or Psammetichus, as he was called by the Greeks, succeeded in consolidating the many petty states into which the Assyrian conquerors had divided the country into a single well-ordered and powerful kingdom. Psammetichus thus became the foun- der of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian his- tory. He effected an entire and radical change in the policy of the government. Hitherto Egypt had secluded herself from the world behind barriers of jealousy, race, and pride. Psam- metichus, entertaining broad and enlightened views, did just what we have seen the Mikado of Japan do so recently in his dominions : he reversed the entire policy of the past, and threw 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. Diodorus says : " He loved Greece so much that he caused his children to be taught its language. He was the first of the Egyptian kings who opened to other nations emporia for their merchan- dise, and gave security to voyagers ; for his predecessors had rendered Egypt inaccessible to foreigners by putting some to death, and condemning others to slavery." This change of policy, occurring at just the period when the rising states of Greece and Rome were shaping their institu- tions, was a most significant event. Egypt became the Uni- versity of the Mediterranean nations. From this time forward Greek philosophers, as Pythagoras and Plato, are represented as becoming pupils of the Egyptian priests; and without ques- HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 2$ tion the learning and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians ex- erted 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 great advantage to foreign nations, brought a heavy misfortune upon his own. Displeased with the position assigned Greek mer- cenaries in the army, the native Egyptian soldiers revolted, and 200,000 of the troops, embracing the larger part of the warrior class of society, which ranked next in importance to the sacerdotal order, seceded in a body, and emigrated to Ethi- opia, whence no inducement which Psammetichus offered could persuade them to return. Necho II. (610-594 B.C.). — The son of Psammetichus, Necho II., the Pharaoh-Necho of the Bible, followed the liberal policy marked out by his father. To facilitate commerce, he reopened the old canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea — which had been cut by some former Pharaoh (probably Seti I. or Rameses II.). The lives of 120,000 of his subjects were sacrificed in the prosecution of this enterprise. But the priests, who, like the sol- dier class, opposed the foreign policy of this Saite dynasty, suc- ceeded in stopping the work by means of an unfavorable oracle. Necho then fitted out an exploring expedition for the cir- cumnavigation of Africa, in hopes 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 dis- believe it, is to us the very strongest evidence possible that the voyage was really performed. It is said, that the expedition 24 ANCIENT HISTORY. j was absent three years ; and that, their provisions failing, the i sailors landed each summer, sowed fields of grain, and, after i waiting for the same to ripen, harvested the crop, and then re- sumed their voyage. I The Last of the Pharaohs. — Before the close of his reign Necho j had come into collision with Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. j That powerful monarch wrested from the Egyptian king the , strong fortress of Carchemish, that watched the Euphrates. In j this event was. written the fate of the empire of the Nile. Hence- < forth the Egyptian princes were forced to acknowledge the suz- | erainty of the Babylonian kings. Under Amasis (569-525 B.C.), however, Egypt, although a vassal state, enjoyed a short period of unusual prosperity. , Diodorus says that at this time Egypt held eighteen thousand cities ; Herodotus makes the number twenty thousand. Vil- j lages and mere clusters of buildings were doubtless included j in this enumeration. Yet, although the country had a large | population, we must bear in mind that her military strength \ had been seriously weakened by the secession of the warrior ! class in the reign of Psammetichus. She could no longer offer ! formidable resistance to Asiatic conquerors. j In 525 B.C., the Persian king Cambyses invaded the Valley, ^ defeated and put to death the successor of Amasis — his son, Psammenitus, the last of the Pharaohs — and established the ] Persian authority throughout the country. 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 famous Graeco-Egyptian Empire of the Ptolemies, which lasted until the Romans annexed the region as a province to their all-absorbing empire (30 B.C.). \ HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 25 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE AND SUMMARY OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY. Old Empire (em- bracing first seventeen dy- nasties) Middle Empire (rule of the Shep- herd Kings) New Empire (em- bracing i8th - 2&th dynasties). Later Historv.. Menes, legendary founder of the empire. . Great Pyramids built by kings of Fourth Dynasty Hyksos (Asiatic invaders) overthrow the I Old Empire ■ Shepherd Kings become masters of Egypt. Monuments of early kings destroyed or mutilated. Dark Ages of Egyptian his- tory. During the latter part of this pe- riod the children of Israel settle in the land. Period closes with expulsion of Hyksos by Amosis, a Theban prince. . . Amosis establishes New Empire ****** Thothmes IIL, warrior and builder, reigns ****** Amunoph IIL, great builder ****** Ramesesl. establishes Nineteenth Dynasty. ****** Rameses II. the Great Menephthah (son of Rameses IL), Pharaoh of the Exodus Sheshonk (Shishak) Psammetichus I Neco (Pharaoh-Necho) Psammetichus II Apries (Pharaoh- Hophra) Amasis Psammenitus (reigned 6 months) Egypt a dependency of Persian Empire . . . Alexander conquers Egypt Ptolemies rule in Egypt Conquest of country by Romans. . .• B.C. about 2700 " 2400 " 2100 " 2100 1650 1650 1600 1550 1450 1400 1350 993-972 625-610 610-594 594-588 588-569 569-525 525 525-332 332 325-30 30 26 ANCIENT HISTORY. CHAPTER III. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. Classes of Society. — Egyptian society was divided into three great classes, or orders — priests, soldiers, and common peo- ple ', the last embracing shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans. These divisions are more properly designated as classes than castes ; for the characteristic features of the latter, as existing among the Hindus, are that the members " must abstain from certain forbidden occupations, contract no alliance beyond the limits of the caste, and must continue to practise the profession of their fathers ;" whereas among the Egyptians there were no such restrictions laid upon the two principal classes. The priest might become a soldier, and the soldier a priest, or the same person might be both at once. The Priesthood. — The sacerdotal order formed a perfect hier- archy, consisting of high-priest, prophets, scribes, keepers of the sacred robes and animals, sacred sculptors, masons and em- balmers, and a host of attendants and functionaries to care for the temples, and perform the complicated ceremonies of the national worship. They enjoyed freedom from taxation, and met the expenses of the temple services by 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 as often by night, and shaved the entire body every third day. Their inner cloth- ing was linen, woollen garments being thought unclean ; their RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 27 diet was plain and even abstemious, in order that, as Plutarch says, "their bodies might sit light as possible about their souls/' Perhaps to a greater degree than the priesthood of any other people did the religious teachers of the ancient Egyptians lay themselves open to the charge of deliberate and ingenious de- ception. They wilfully taught the people what they knew to be false. Their conduct in this respect will appear in the mat- ter of the Sacred Apis, of which we shall have occasion to speak a little further on. The Warrior Class. — 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 pro- fession, and there was no more effective soldiery in ancient times than that which marched beneath the standards of the Pharaohs. The military force of the nation numbered, in the best days of the empire, about five hundred thousand men, increased by allies and mercenaries, in case of special urgency, to more than one million. The army was made up of infantry, cavalry, and charioteers ; the archers of the first being the most effective branch of the service. The regiments are sometimes repre- sented upon the monuments as moving in a heavy mass, the prototype of the famous Macedonian phalanx. The Egyptian phalanx consisted of ten thousand men drawn up in a solid square, with one hundred men on each face. Protected with immense shields, this body, like its Macedonian successor, was practically impenetrable, and when moving over level ground bore down everything before it. The navy of the Egyptians was composed of Phoenician ships and sailors ; the Egyptians themselves hated the sea. Records have been discovered of naval engagements between the Egyp- 28 ANCIENT HISTORY. tian fleets and their enemies upon the Mediterranean more than two thousand years before our era. Religious Doctrines. — 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 papyri have revealed to us — more favored than the un- initiated of those times — the jealously guarded mysteries of Isis. The unity of God was the central doctrine in this esoteric sys- tem. They gave to this Supreme Being the very same name by which he was known to the Hebrews — Niik Pu Nuk, " I am that I am."=^ The sacred manuscripts say, "He is the one living and true God, who was begotten by himself. . . . He who has existed from the beginning, . . . who has made all things, and was not himself made." f To this Being were given many names, to express the modes of his manifestations ; just as we give different names to the Deity — as Creator, Eter- nal, Father — to indicate the various relations he sustains to the universe and to ourselves. The inferior deities were likewise given many designations: Isis was called "the goddess with ten thousand names." Osiris, Isis, and Horus. — The Egyptian divinities were 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. * " 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. t Lenormant's " Ancient History of the East," vol. i. p. 318. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 29 The Egyptians had whole libraries of myths and legends, some of them very beautiful and significant, respecting these favorite divinities.* Many of the other triads were composed of local deities. The origin of the triad, or threefold grouping of the gods, which is a feature characterizing many, if not all, polytheistic religions, is that anthropomorphic conception of the divinities which attributes to them all human distinctions, and creates a celestial family, composed, like the human, of father, mother, and son. Typhon. — Typhon, the principle of evil, was the Satan of Egyptian mythology. While the good and beneficent Osiris was symbolized by the Nile, the malignant Typhon was em- blemized by the terrors and barrenness of the desert ; or by a frightful serpent, slain by Horus ; and, again, by the hippopot- amus or the crocodile. Animal-worship. — As strange to us as to the Greeks seems the animal-worship of the ancient Egyptians. Clemens, after describing the superb temples of Egypt, the solemn ceremonies, and the magnificent processions of the priests, thus contrasts * " The peculiar character of Osiris, his coming upon earth for the benefit of mankind, with the title of * Manifestor of good and truth,' his being put to death by the malice of the evil one, his burial and resurrection, and his becoming the judge of the dead, are the most interesting features of the Egyptian religion. This was the great mystery; and this myth and his worship were of the earliest times, and universal in Egypt. He was to every Egyptian the great Judge of the dead ; and it is evident that Moses abstained from making any very pointed allusion to the future state of man because it would have recalled the well-known Judge of the dead and all the funeral ceremonies of Egypt, and have brought back the thoughts of the mixed multitude, and of all whose minds were not entirely uncontaminated by Egyptian habits, to the crude superstitions from which it was his object to free them." — Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," vol. i. p. 331. 30 ANCIENT HISTORY. all this with the deity which is the object of this adoration : " But if you enter the penetraha, and inquire for the image of the god, one of the attendants approaches with a solemn and mysterious aspect, and, putting aside the veil, suffers you to peep in and obtain a glimpse of the divinity. There you be- hold a snake, a crocodile, or a cat, or some other beast, a fitter inhabitant of a cavern or a bog than a temple." To kill one of these sacred animals was adjudged the greatest impiety. Persons so unfortunate as to kill one through acci- dent were sometimes murdered by the infuriated people. A Roman soldier, having killed a sacred cat, was set upon by the multitude and killed, in spite of the intercession of the reigning Ptolemy. Every one knows of the device of Cambyses, who placed in front of his ranks animals held sacred by the Egyp- tians, who, through fear of injuring them, dared not strike a blow. The destruction of a cat in a burning building was la- mented more than the loss of the property. Upon the death of a dog, every member of the family shaved his head. The scarabaeus, or beetle, was especially sacred, being considered an emblem of the sun. The Sacred Bull Apis.— The belief of the Egyptians that their gods incarnated themselves in various animals is best illustrated in their worship of the bull Apis. The soul of Osiris, it was imagined, animated the body of some bull, which might be known from certain spots and markings. One of these marks was a vulture with outspread wings upon the back of the ox. At Memphis was the sacred stable in which was kept " the fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris." Upon the death of the Apis, a great search, accompanied with loud lamentation, was made throughout the land for his suc- cessor ; 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 in- RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 3 1 convenience and pain to make the marks and hair conform to his description." The body of the deceased Apis — if he lived beyond twenty- five years he was drowned — was carefully embalmed, and, amid funeral ceremonies of great expense and magnificence, de- posited in the tomb of his ancestors. In 185 1, Mariette dis- covered this sepulchral chamber of the sacred bulls. It is a narrow galler}^, two thousand feet in length, cut in the limestone cliffs just opposite the site of ancient Memphis. Thirty of the immense granite sarcophagi, fifteen feet long and eight wide and high, have been brought to light. Explanation of Animal-worship. — Many explanations have been given to account for the existence of so low and debased a form of worship among a people so far advanced in the scale of culture as were the ancient Egyptians, and who, moreover, entertained such just and exalted conceptions of Deity. Plutarch said that the worship arose from the custom of using for military standards the figures of various animals, which gradually came to be regarded as sacred. Diodorus accounted for it by the fable that the gods, when hard pressed in their battle with the giants, sought safety in the disguise of animals, which hence became objects of adoration. The following seems the true solution : The ancient relig- ion of the Egyptians was the result of the meeting and partial blending and accommodation to each other of two very differ- ent systems of belief. Hence its dualistic character. The element which manifested itself in animal -worship had its origin and basis in that low form of religion existing at the present day among many African tribes, and knowm as fetich- ism, or the adoration of material objects, animate or inanimate. The purer monotheistic element, represented by the sacerdotal order, was introduced by the Hamites, or perhaps Semites, who mingled with the original dwellers in the Nile Valley. We know that the doctrines taught the initiated in the priestly col- 32 ANCIENT HISTORY. leges prevailed from the very remotest times among the an- cestors of at least the latter of these Asiatic intruders. This sacerdotal class, finding their doctrines too refined and spiritual for the masses, allowed them to retain their own sensuous wor- ship, but dignified it with temples and magnificent ceremonies. In course of time attempts to harmonize the two forms of be- lief led to a complicated and ingenious system of symbolism, till every sacred animal and object in the lower mode of wor- ship was made to emblemize some attribute of the Deity. As all nature is a parable, an emblem, it was not an entirely fanci- ful system that was evolved by this endeavor. 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. Be- tween 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 no proofs of impiety were es- tablished, the body was allowed to be borne across the sacred waters to the place of sepulture. But, if it appeared that the life of the deceased had been evil, passport to the boat of Charon, as the master of the barge was called, 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." Diodorus affirms that several Pharaohs were denied the usual funeral obsequies. The soul RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. S3 of the body thus adjudged unworthy of sepulture was con- demned to wander for a hundred years in the realms of the dead. 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, held by Horus and Anubis, was placed the heart of the deceased ; in the other scale, an image of Justice or Truth. The soul stands by watch- ing 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 re- turn to earth and do penance in long cycles of lives in the bodies of various animals. This doctrine is known as the transmi- gration of souls. These ceremonies at the sacred lake, and before the tribunal of Osiris and his assessors, are of great interest as showing the influence of the Egyptian religion upon the nations of Southern Europe ; for they are doubtless the original of the Acherusian lake, Charon and the Styx, and a whole series of Grecian and Roman fables and beliefs respecting the other world and the fortunes of the soul after death. Tombs. — "All Egypt bore the impress of religion." Before all things else, the tombs of the ancient Egyptians tell us of their faith and worship. They believed in the resurrection of the body and an immortal life beyond the grave. Hence little care was bestowed 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 3 34 ANCIENT HISTORY. realm of darkness and of death. The cliffs opposite the ancient Egyptian capitals are honeycombed with sepulchral cells. These tombs were owned by the priests, and were bought and sold like any other form of property. They were fitted up in various styles to suit different purchasers; even the paintings and legends were all finished, leaving nothing to be done save the insertion of the name of the deceased. Some of the wealthy class purchased sites from the priests, an:l then spent immense sums in embellishing family tombs, some of which are said to have rivalled those of the kings themselves. The poorer classes, who were unable to defray the expense of a separate tomb, were, after the embalming of the body in the rudest and most inexpensive manner, laid in tiers in great trenches dug in the desert sands. The sculptures and paintings of the tombs usually portray the occupation of the deceased, being representations of the various processes in different manufactures, scenes of social festivities, and domestic employments. Thus the artist has converted for us the Egyptian necropolis into a city of the liv- ing, where the Egypt of four thousand years ago seems to pass before our eyes. The Pyramids. — Remains of ancient pyramidal structures, the simple and durable character of which form of edifice led to its adoption by primitive builders, are found in all parts of the world — in Mexico, China, India, Chaldaea, and Egypt. But the enormous structures of this nature raised by the dwellers of the Nile Valley far surpass all other edifices of the same kind, and are the most wonderful and venerable monuments that have been preserved to us from the early v/orld. The Egyptian pyramids were all erected before the Twelfth Dynasty, or the era of the Shepherd kings ; and the largest and most perfect, as we have already learned, were raised by the raonarchs of the Fourth Dynasty. This fact lends to them the greatest in- terest; for although thus standing away back in the earliest RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 35 twilight of the historic morning, 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 repre- sent. It is this vast and mysterious background that astonishes us even more than these giant forms cast up against it. The principal Egyptian pyramids, sixty-seven in number, are found in groups along the edge of the Libyan Desert, for a dis- tance of about sixty miles above the present city of Cairo. Being sepulchral monuments, they are confined to the western side of the Nile Valley; for that, as we have already seen, was considered the region of darkness and death. The largest of the Gizeh group, the Pyramid of Cheops, rises from a base covering thirteen acres to a height of 480 feet. According to Herodotus, Cheops employed 100,000 men for twenty years in its erection, ten years' preparatory w^ork having been expended upon the great causeway over which the stones were dragged from the Nile. All the pyramids were constructed of stone, save three or four, which were built of sun-dried brick. These latter have crumbled into vast conical heaps, like the mounds left by the pyramid-temples of the Babylonians. Several of the pyramids have been opened, and sarcophagi discovered in their inner chambers, thus proving their sepul- chral character. Ambition, doubtless, as well as a desire to secure the royal body against any possible accident or vio- lence, determined their enormous size. After the body had been placed wdthin, the passage-way was closed by letting fall the stone portcullis; and all traces of the entrance were then obliterated by masonry. Palaces and Temples.— The early Memphian kings built great unadorned pyramids, but the later Theban monarchs constructed splendid palaces and temples. " Thebes," says Lenormant, "in spite of all the ravages of time and of the barbarian, still presents the grandest, the most prodigious 36 ANClKNr UISIORV. assembl.ii;o o\ lMuUlini;s ever cichMciI h\ \\\c luuul oi' man." 'I'ho ruins tliat cover the site ol this ancient cai^ilal are the remains of palaces and temples erectcil by the comliined labors ot" many of tlie Thaiaohs aiul Tlolemies iVom as early as the 'rwelfth Oynasiy to the Koman conquest. " iMost of the great temples, like our cathedrals, were the work of age after age" (Smith). 'Two of ihe nu^sl pionnnent masses of buiUlings are called, the one the Talace o( Karnak, and the other the 'iVm- plo of Luxor, tVom the names oi' two native villages built near im" wiiiiin the mined euv'losures. The former was the woik of seven kings, and was more than tive hundred years in process of building. Any detailed description o( these ruins is here impossible. ^Ve can only notice that the walls of bodi palace and temple, as well as the faces of the tbrest of coUnuns and obelisks that adorned the tunuerous courts and corridors, are covered with sculptures and iwintings, portraying the processions of the priests or the exploits of the kings. In connection with the temple jMoper were various build- ings lor the use of the priests and the sacred college, which corresponded to the chapter of the modern cathedral. As an adjunct of the temple at Karnak w.is a Hall of I'olunms, which consisted of a phalanx of one hundred and forty gigan- tic pillars. Some of these columns measure seventy feet in height, with capitals sixty-live feet in circun\ference. Although the ruins of the royal and sacred cditiccs at Thebes surpass all others in the Nile Valley, still there are many remains of a similar nature, though less remarkable in extent, found upon the ditVerent sites occupied by the other capitals and chief cities of Kgypt. Most o( these, however, are of a h\ter date than those of Karnak and laixor. In Nu- bia, beyond the First Cataract, is the famous rock-hewn tem- ple of Ipsambul, containing gigantic statues of Rameses 11. more than sixty feet in height. It is thought by some that the first Egyptian temples were RELIGION, MONUMEMTS, ETC, OF AWaEXT EGYPTIAirg, 37 caves, which in time were enlarged and embellished with sculptures. Then, when the sacred structure was raised be- neath the open sky, it retained the characteristic features of the subterranean temples. It is certain that the massive Egyptian column had its origin in the large square pillar of rock left to support the roof in the excavated edifice. All the changes can be traced, from the rough rectangular support through the polygonal to the round column. Sctilpture: Sphinxes and CoIobbL — Egyptian sculpture grew out of painting or hieroglyphical writing. ITie figure or char- acter, at first a mere outline drawing, was after a time cut into the rock surface, and next the rock was chiselled away so as to leave the figure in bass-relief Egyptian mimetic art barely reached the point so early attained by the Greeks, who cut the figure clear around, and forced it to stand out boldly away from all support. A strange immobility, at an early period, attached itself to Egyptian art, due to the influence of religion. The artist, in the portrayal of the figures of the gods, was not aIIo7/ed to change a single line in the sacred form. Hence the impossibility of improvement in sacred sculpture. Wilkin- son 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 " 10,000 years" before. The heroic or colossal size of many of the Egyptian statues excites ou/» admiration. The two colossi of Amunoph III. at Thebes are forty-seven feet high, and are hewn each from a single block of stone. The appearance of these gigantic fig- ures upon the solitary plain is peculiarly 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 I2g}'pt." At the same place, in connection with the Ramesseum, the supposed palace of Rameses II., is a granite statue of that 38 ANCIENT HISTORY. prince, over fifty feet in height. " This is the largest ruin of a statue that has ever been known ; the foot alone is more than thirteen feet long." * One of the colossi erected at Thebes by Amunoph III. ac- quired a wide reputation among the Greeks and Romans, un- der 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. These mysterious sounds, it has been af- firmed, were produced by a person concealed by the priests in the lap of the colossus. It is more probable that the musical notes were produced by the action of the sun upon the surface of the rock while wet with dew. "It had not been produced in the colossus before the earthquake that, about the time of Tiberius, threw down the upper part of the statue, and thus uncovered the fissures most exposed to the action of the dew ; it ceased when the statue was repaired by Septimius Severus, and put into the state in which we now see it" (Lenormant).t The sphinxes, figures having the head of a man and the body of a lion, symbolizing power and intelligence, were often ranked along the avenues forming the approaches to the pal- aces and temples. The most famous of the sphinxes of Egypt is the colossal figure at the base of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh. This immense statue, cut out of the native rock, is ninety feet long and seventy feet high. Excavations in the sand heaped about it revealed the ruin of a temple, or rather chapel, be- * Lenormant's " Ancient History of the East," vol. i. p. 336. t Musical rocks are found in different parts of the world. The phenom- enon is connected with granite rocks along the course of the Middle Ori- noco in South America. "By putting our ears close to this surface, we were able to detect low musical tones, which our guide observed were more audible in the early morning. The granite is split with deep crevices, that seem to give emission to these mysterious sounds" (Myers's "Life and Nature under the Tropics," p. 134). Humboldt explained the phenomenon by supposing currents of air, produced by the heating of the rocks, to beat against the spangles of mica that lined the crevices. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 39 tween its outstretched paws. This sanctuary was sacred to the setting sun, the deity of the reahns of death. " This huge, mutilated figure has an astonishing effect; it seems Uke an eternal spectre. The stone phantom seems attention ; one would say that it hears and sees. Its great ear appears to col- lect 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 maj- esty, a grand security, and even a sort of sweetness of expres- sion."* Glass Manufactures. — The manufacture of glass, a discov- ery usually attributed to the Phoenicians, was carried on in Egypt more than four thousand years ago. The paintings at Beni Hassen 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. They imitated, with marvel- lous 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 sacred scara- baei (beetles) were reproduced in glass, with linings so delicate that it is almost certain that magnifying-glasses were used in their manufacture. Glass coffins were sometimes used. Proc- esses for cutting and grinding glass — patented quite recently among us as a new discovery — were well known to the Egyp- tian artists. The various articles of glass manufacture, as well as objects of the lapidary's art, which were produced by the Egyptians, * Ampere, as quoted by Lenormant, " Ancient History of the East," vol. i- p. 331. 40 ANCIENT HISTORY. were sought after and highly prized by all the nations of an- tiquity. They are found in the tombs of Etruria and Greece and Asia Minor, and are dug from the palace-mounds of As- syria and Babylonia. The Phoenicians being the carriers of all this trade, they often received credit, among the peoples to whom they introduced these articles, for various inven- tions and discoveries of which they were simply the dissemi- nators. The Papyrus Paper. — The famous papyrus paper used by the ancient Egyptians was manufactured from a reed which grew in the marshes and along the water-channels of the Nile. From the names of this Egyptian plant, hyhlos or 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."* The costly nature of the papyrus paper led to the use of many substitutes for writing purposes — as leather, bro- ken pottery, tiles, stones, and wooden tablets. Forms ofWriting. — The Egyptians employed three forms of writing : the hieroglyphical, consisting of rude pictures of ma- terial objects, usually employed in monumental inscriptions; the hieratic^ an abbreviated or rather simplified form of the hie- roglyphical, adapted to writing, and forming the greater part of the papyrus manuscripts; and the demotic, or encorial, a still simpler form than the hieratic, and almost alphabetical in char- acter. The last did not come in use till about the seventh century B.C., and was then used for all ordinary documents, both of a civil and commercial nature. * Isa. xix. 7. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 4 1 Key to Egyptian Writing. — The key to the Egyptian writing was discovered by means of the Rosetta Stone, for which the world is indebted to the savants that accompanied the expedi- tion of Napoleon in 1798. This valuable relic, a heavy block of black basalt, is now in the British Museum. It holds a tri- lingual inscription, written in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters. Champollion, by comparing the characters com- posing the words Ptolemy and Cleopatra, in the different col- umns, discovered the value of several letters; and thus were opened the vast libraries of Egyptian learning. We have now read the Ritual of the Dead, which tells us what the Egyptians thought about the future life ; romances and fairy tales, among which is " Cinderella and the Glass Slipper," and a story written for the amusement of the little son of Ra- meses II. ; treatises on medicine, astronomy, and various scien- tific 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. — The cloudless and brilliant skies of Egypt must have early invited the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, like the dwellers of the Chaldaean plains, 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 prediction 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, which division we still follow. The birth of astrology was natural, and its absurdities are mingled with all the more solid astronomical attainments of the Egyptians. They noticed that the rise of the Nile began 3* 42 ANCIENT HISTORY. just at the heliacal rising of the bright dog-star Sirius, and they naturally inferred that the river obeyed some subtle influence of that body. In the Red Sea they saw, too, the tides rising and falling under some strange impulse from the wandering sun and moon. It was an easy step from these observed in- fluences of the heavenly bodies over the inanimate world to a belief in their benign or baneful influence upon the vegetable world and over human life and destiny. Geometry and Arithmetic. — 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 old boundaries of their fields — the inunda- tion obliterating old landmarks and divisions. Diodorus says, "The river, changing the appearance of the country very ma- terially every year, causes various and many discussions among neighboring proprietors about the extent of their property ; and it would be difficult for any person to decide upon their claims without geometrical proof." 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 solv- ing astronomical and geometrical problems. We ourselves are great debtors to the ancient Egyptians for much of our mathe- matical knowledge, which has come to us from the banks of the Nile, through the Greeks and Saracens. Both our decimal and duodecimal systems of notation were originated by the Egyptians. Medicine. — The custom of embalming the dead, aflbrding 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 em- balmers were physicians we know from various testimonies. RELIGION, MONUMENTS, ETC., OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 43 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; several of the Persian kings attached to their courts medical advisers from the schools of Egypt. Every doctor was a specialist, and was not allowed to take charge of cases out of his own branch. As the artist was for- bidden to change the lines of the sacred statues, so the phy- sician was not permitted to treat cases save in the manner prescribed by the customs of the past; and if he were so pre- sumptuous as to depart from the established mode of treatment, and the patient died, he was adjudged guilty of murder. We know that dentistry was practised; for mummies with teeth stopped with gold have been discovered. Many drugs and medicines were used; the ciphers, or characters, employed by modern apothecaries to designate grains and drams are of Egyptian invention. In the various processes of embalming, the physicians made use of oils, resins, bitumen, and various aromatic gums. The bodies of the wealthy were preserved by being filled with costly aromatic and resinous substances, and swathed in bandages of linen; while the bodies of the poorer class were simply "salted and dried," and wrapped in coarse mats, preparatory to burial. It is estimated that " between 2000 B.C. and 700 a.d., when embalming ceased, 420,000,000 mummied corpses" were placed in the various Egyptian cemeteries. Egypt's Influence upon History.— The influence of the arts, sciences, learning, and institutions of the ancient Egyptians upon the Mediterranean nations is but just beginning to be realized. From the Nile came the germs of much found in the later culture of Asia and of Europe. In speaking of the in- fluence of the political institutions of the Egyptians, Dr. Smith observes : " The Greeks regarded the laws of Egypt as the ex- pression of the highest wisdom and the fountain of inspiration 44 ANCIENT HISTORY. to their own legislators and philosophers — Lycurgus, Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato; and the likeness between the Egyptian and Jewish codes is a decisive testimony alike to the merit of the former and to the purpose for which Moses was led to ac- quire his Egyptian learning."* * Smith's "Ancient History of the East," p. 191. *' It has been said that * the forty-two laws of the Egyptian reh'gion con- tained in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead fall short in nothing of the teachings of Christianity,' and conjectured that Moses, in compiling his code of laws, did but * translate into Hebrew the religious precepts which he found in the sacred books' of the people among whom he had been brought up. Such expressions are, no doubt, exaggerated ; but they convey what must be allowed to be a fact — viz., that there is a very close agreement between the moral law of the Egyptians and the precepts of the Deca- logue." — Rawlinson's " History of Ancient Egypt," vol. i. p. 104. THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. 45 CHAPTER IV. THE CHALD.EAN MONARCHY. (From about 2300 to 1300 B.C.) Basin of the Tigris and Euphrates.— As in the case of Egypt, so the physical features of the Valley of the Tigris and Eu- phrates exerted a great influence upon the history of its ancient peoples. Differences in geological structure divide this region into an upper and a lower district ; and this division in natural feature is reflected throughout its political history. The north- ern part, which comprised ancient Assyria, forms undulating plains, so elevated above their streams that the waters of these can be rendered available only by laborious systems of irri- gation. But all the southern portion of this great river-basin presents quite a different aspect. This lower district has been formed by the gradual encroachment of the deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates upon the waters of the Persian Gulf, and on this ac- count has been called the " Asian Egypt." Owing to its origin, it is as level as the sea, and the soil is of inexhaustible fertil- ity. The climate is almost rainless, and 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 condi- tion, spread like a perfect network over the face of the country. 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 his countrymen the whole 46 ANCIENT HISTORY. truth, for fear they will doubt his veracity. The soil is as fer- tile now as in the time of the historian ; but, owing to the neg- lect of the ancient canals, the greater part of this once popu- lous district has been converted into alternating areas of marsh and desert. The Three Great Monarchies. — Within the Tigro- Euphrates basin, three great empires — the Chaldaean, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian — successively rose to prominence and domin- ion. Each, in turn, extended its authority not only 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 Chaldceans to their fuller and richer development under the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchies. The Chaldseans a Mixed People. — The Chaldaeans, who were the pioneers of civilization in the Tigro-Euphrates Valley, were, as we have already learned, a mixed people. They had their origin in the blending of the four great branches of the White race — the Turanian, Hamitic, Semitic, and Aryan. In this com- mingling of ethnic elements, the Hamitic race outweighed the others in number and influence, and stamped the character of the resulting culture. Hence we properly speak of the Chal- daeans as Hamites, although it is a fact — a fact repeated in the history of many of those peoples that have done most for civilization — that in their veins mingled the blood of various races. Chaldaean Dynasties: Great Kings. — Through a Babylonian priest named Berosus, who lived in the third century before our era, we have preserved to us a list of the dynasties that ruled in Chaldaea from the founding of the Chaldaean kingdom by Nimrod, about 2300 b.c, to its overthrow by the Assyrian king THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. 47 Tiglathi-Nin, about 1300 B.C. Although during this long period, a full millennium, there were frequent changes in the ruling family, and Elamitic and Arabian princes held sway for long periods over the country, still the empire remained essentially Hamitic in language and religion. Of all the kings included in the lists of Berosus only three can claim our special atten- tion : Nimrod, the Founder of the empire ; Urukh, the Builder; and Chedorlaomer, the Conqueror. Nimrod, the Founder. — About 2300 b.c, many centuries after Menes in Egypt, and fourteen hundred years before Solomon at Jerusalem, Nimrod set up in the Babylonian plains, at the head of the Persian Gulf, an Hamitic kingdom, which, with varying fortunes, maintained an existence for more than ten centuries. In Scriptural history (Genesis x.), we are told that Gush begat Nimrod, " a mighty hunter," the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Accad and Galneh, in the land of Shinar. Now, inscriptions and sculptures found on old Chaldaean seals represent Isdubar, one of the legendary kings of the country, supposed to be identical with Nimrod, as engaging in contests with lions and other monsters, or as a warrior subdu- ing and leading into captivity the peoples of surrounding coun- tries ; and the bricks composing different heaps of ruins on the Chaldaean plains have been recently discovered to be stamped with the Biblical names, so that antiquarians have been able positively to identify several of those crumbling masses of buildings with the Nimrodic cities mentioned in Genesis. The brief fragmentary notices of the Hebrew writer, and the corroborative inscriptions of the old seals and bricks, embrace almost all our certain knowledge of the Great Nimrod ; yet " the strength of his character and the greatness of his achieve- ments are remarkably indicated by a variety of testimonies, which place him among the foremost men of the old world, and guarantee him a never-ending remembrance. At least as early 48 ANCIENT HISTORY. as the time of Moses his name had passed into a proverb." * The Arabs ascribe to this legendary hero almost every great work in the entire valley, and many a mass of ruins is called " Nimrud " in his honor. Urukh, the Builder. — Urukh was a royal, and for the time in which he lived a magnificent, builder ; though to us the edifices he reared would appear rude and primitive. All the great structures of this king were tower-temples, built in several stages, and somewhat resembling the pyramids of Egypt. The sites of these edifices are marked at the present day by vast conical hills of crumbled ruins that dot thickly the Chaldaean plains. From the vast number and size of his works — for Urukh adorned each of the chief cities of his empire with a great temple — we may infer either that as a despot he had at his command the life and labors of his subjects, whom he op- pressed as the pyramid-building kings of Egypt burdened their people, or that as a conqueror he set to the task the captives of his numerous wars. Chedorlaomer, the Conqueror. — While the Chaldasan kings were building their great cities and pyramid-temples on the plains of Lower Babylonia, the princes of the Elamites, a peo- ple of Turanian race, were setting up a rival kingdom to the northeast, just at the foot of the hills of Persia. The capital of this Scythian Empire was Susa, thought to be one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, of Asiatic cities. In the year 2286 b.c, a king of Elam, Kudur-Nakhunta by name, overran Chaldaea, took all the cities founded by Nimrod and his successors, and from the temples of Urukh bore off in triumph to his capital, Susa, the statues of the Chaldaean gods, and set up in these lowland regions what is known as the Elamite dynasty. More than sixteen hundred years after this despoiling of the Chaldaean * Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," vol. i. p. 153. THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. 49 sanctuaries, a king of Nineveh (Asshur-bani-pal) captured the city of Susa, and found there these stolen statues and caused them to be restored to their original temples. These events, about which we are told by the inscriptions recently deciphered, derive great interest from the fact that this campaign of the Elamite prince is the earliest instance of war waged and of cities captured upon the continent of Asia of which we have any positive knowledge ; for we must bear in mind that we cannot hope to separate the mythological from the purely historical element in the legends of Nimrod. The first lifting of the historical curtain reveals to us a scene of con- quest and robbery as the opening acts of the historical drama in the Valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Kudur-Nakhunta was succeeded by his son Kudur-Lagamer, 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. Chedorlaomer is the first king of the Tigris and Eu- phrates Valley who pushed his conquests beyond the limits of that region, and conceived the ambitious project of uniting all the nations and tribes of Western Asia, between the hills of Persia and the Mediterranean, in one gigantic kingdom. He was at least partly successful in his plans ; for we know that the princes of Elam and Babylonia, and some of the kings of Syria, paid tribute to him. Rawlinson, in reviewing the char- acter of Chedorlaomer, says : " In thus effecting conquests which were not again made from the same quarter till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, fifteen or sixteen hundred years afterwards, Chedorlaomer has a good claim to be regarded as one of the most remarkable personages in the world's history — being, as he is, the forerunner and prototype of all great Oriental con- querors who from time to time have built up vast empires in Asia out of heterogeneous material, which have, in a longer or shorter space, successively crumbled to decay." 50 ANCIENT HISTORY. Religion^ Architecture, Literature, aiid Sciejice of the Ancient Chaldceans. Religion of the Chaldseans. — The Chaldoean religion, in its fun- damental features, was like the Egyptian. The deity at the head of the Pantheon was II, or Ra, the latter name being one of the titles of the Egyptian Osiris, and the former being the root of the Hebrew Elohim and of the Arabian Allah.* Below II was a triad — Ana, Belus, and Hoa ; and next to these divini- ties a second triad— -Sin (Moon), San (Sun), and Bin (Atmos- phere). Then come five planetary deities, representing Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, embracing all the planets visible to the naked eye. Besides these divinities, which con- stituted the twelve primary gods, were numerous secondary and local deities and genii. The feature in which this polytheistic system diverges most from that of the Nile Valley is the absence of animal-worship, or the adoration of material terrestrial objects, and the promi- nence accorded to the worship of celestial bodies. This is so marked a feature of the Chaldaean religion that it is often called Sabaeism, a worship of " the host of the heavens." The astral character of the Chaldaean worship greatly influenced, as we shall see, the sacred architecture of this primitive people, as well as that of the succeeding Assyrians and Babylonians. Chaldsean Tower-temples. — After the pyramids of Egypt, the tower-temples of the Chaldaeans are the oldest edifices erected by man of which traces have survived to our own day. They 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 sun- dried brick, the hills of Arabia and Persia being too distant to encourage the use of stone in any considerable quantity. The * Rawlinson's ''Ancient Monarchies," vol. i. p. 114. THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. 5 1 structure was sometimes protected by outer courses of burnt brick. Surmounting the upper platform was the temple proper, reached by stairs running up the sides of the stages. From the enamelled bricks, flakes of alabaster and marble, and occa- sional plates of gold, found in the rubbish on the top of the mounds, we may infer the beauty and richness of the shrine. 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 first mistaken. It is probable that they were used as astronomical observatories, and that from their summits the Chaldaean astrol- ogers watched the changing aspect of the stars. Burial Mounds. — The coffins of the Chaldaeans have been pronounced the most curious sepulchral monuments of an- tiquity (Rawlinson). One kind consisted of a large terra-cotta cover, which was turned over the body, placed on a mat. An- other kind was made of two large jars, placed mouth to mouth, the joint being closed by bitumen. These curious coffins were deposited in tiers, in artificial mounds, often of vast extent. In the burial mounds about the city of Wurka, identified as the Ur of the Bible, the coffins are piled fifty deep. All about these mounds, the ground for miles on every side is filled with graves. It has been estimated that a greater number of bodies rest here than in the Necropolis of Thebes (Loftus). So exalted was the sanctity that had attached to the ancient city of Nim- rod, that for more than two thousand years this spot was a sacred burial-place, not only for the Chaldaeans, but also, it is thought, for the Assyrians and Babylonians, as there are no tombs to be found in Assyria or Upper Babylonia. All the oldest cities in Chaldaea are thus surrounded by vast cemeteries. Bodies were transported long distances by the Tigris and the Euphrates, that they might repose at last in sacred ground. A similar sentiment still impels the Mohammedans in the same land to carry the bodies of friends vast distances, in order to lay them near the shrine of some celebrated saint. 52 ANCIENT HISTORY. Cuneiform Writing. — We can trace the same stages of de- velopment in the art of writing among the Chaldasans that are observed in its growth among the ancient Egyptians. The earliest and the latest inscriptions, when compared, exhibit the art in all the stages of its advance from the purely pictorial form into the syllabic. We may distinguish five forms: the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, the archaic cuneiform, the moderfi cuneiform, and the cursive. The first and second are the same as the corresponding forms in Egyptian writing, and the one grew out of the other in the same way. The archaic cuneiform is the same as the hieratic, only the characters, instead of being formed of unbroken lines, are composed of wedge-like marks ; hence the name (from cuneus, a wedge). This form arose when soft tablets of clay were sub- stituted for stone as writing material, upon which the letters were impressed with a triangular stylus. The honor of the in- vention of this form of writing is now generally accorded to the Turanian Elamites, from whom it was adopted by the Chal- daeans. The modern cuneiform is simply an abbreviated form of the preceding ; and the cursive is a still further simplifica- tion of the last. The modern cuneiform and cursive were not developed by the Chaldaeans, but by the Assyrians, who bor- rowed their system of writing, as well as many other elements of their culture, from the people they had conquered. The characters employed in all these modes of writing were of two kinds — ideographic and phonetic. The former were symbols, representing entire words or ideas ; the latter, several hundred in number, represented each a syllable, and thus con- stituted a syllabarium rather than a true alphabet. In its earliest stages the archaic cuneiform writing was made up largely of ideo- graphs ; but it gradually became more and more phonetic, until the syllabic characters formed the larger part of the inscription. Although the Chaldaeans, and the Assyrians after them, ad- vanced so far in the difficult art of depicting thought, still they failed to take the last step — to analyze the syllable into its sim- THE CHALDiEAN MONARCHY. 53 pie elements or sounds, and then represent each of these by a simple character. The honor of this achievement was left to another people and race. It was not until more than two thousand years after the first improvements had been made in rude picture-writing by the Chaldaeans, that the Persians,* be- yond the Zagros ranges, to the east of the lowland country, took the step which marks the crowning achievement in the develop- ment of the greatest of human arts. That people reduced lan- guage to its ultimate elements, and with thirty -six characters represented all its elementary sounds, and thus replaced the cum- brous syllabic with the pliant alphabetical system. Thus the four different branches of the White race — the Turanian Elamites, the Hamitic Chaldceans, the Semitic Assyrians, and the Aryan Persians— all contributed to the grand result. So, slowly and painfully, are wrought out the elements of human arts and culture. The cuneiform mode of writing was in use about two thousand years, being employed by the nations in and near the Euphrates basin — that is, by the Chaldaeans, the Assyrians, the Baby- lonians, the Susianians, the Armenians, the Medes, and the Persians— down to the time of the conquest of the East by the Macedonians (about 330 ex.). Books and Libraries.— The books of the Chaldaeans were composed of clay tablets, varying in length from one to twelve inches, and being about one inch thick. They were closely written on both sides, and often over the edges, the characters employed being the cuneiform, already described. These tab- lets embrace the greatest possible variety of subjects. There are mythological tablets, which hold the myths of the Chal- daeans respecting their divinities; mathematical tablets, on * It is possible that the honor of the reduction of the hieroglyphical cunei- form writing to a purely alphabetical mode of representation should be given to the Medes rather than to the Persians. In any event, it must be allowed that the Persians, even though they be denied the honor of original inven- tors, improved and perfected the system. 54 ANCIENT HISTORY. which the extraction of roots, square and cube, is fully illus- trated ; legal tablets, containing laws, law-cases, contracts, wills, loans, and various other matters of a commercial nature ; and as- tronomical, geographical, historical, and legendary tablets, hold- ing the wisdom of the Chaldaeans in all these matters. Chaldsean Literature. — Periods in literature may be distin- guished as creative and elaborative. During a creative pe- riod, vast masses of literary material are originated or given birth j during the elaborative period, which always follows such an era of production, this literature is servilely copied, imitated, polished, and worked over into other and usually inferior forms. Thus, the Homeric age in Greece was a creative pe- riod, which gave birth to the great epic of the " Iliad ;" while the several centuries immediately succeeding were simply elaborative — the writers and poets of that era being content to copy blindly the great master Homer. Now, from 2200 to 1800 B.C. was a creative period in Chal- daean literature. It w^as an age of marvellous literary activ- ity and productiveness. A vast body of myths, legends, and traditions was then created, which became the prized and re- vered inheritance of the succeeding Assyrians and Babylonians. The discoveries and patient labors of different scholars have given us, from the legendary tablets, the Chaldaean tradition of the Creation of the World, of the Creation and Fall of Man, of the Deluge, of Izdubar (Nimrud?), and of the Babel Builders. All of these accounts are remarkably like the Hebrew tra- ditions of these several matters. They are, however, not so simple and pure as the Bible narratives ; for, being the legends of a people of a polytheistic belief, they necessarily contain many particulars respecting the popular deities. It is thought by some Biblical scholars that they are the distorted copies of the original traditions of these matters possessed by primi- tive man, and which were preserved in their monotheistic simplicity by the Abrahamic family. THE GHALD^AN MONARCHY, 55 Astronomy and Arithmetic. — In astronomy, and its associate science arithmetic, the early Chaldaeans made substantial prog- ress. The clear skies and unbroken horizon of the Chaldcean plains, lending an unusually brilliant aspect to the heavens, nat- urally led the Chaldaeans to the study of the stars. The tower- temples, as we have already noticed, were probably used as as- tronomical observatories. The careful emplacement of these edifices with the angles of the stages towards the cardinal points ; the use of sun-dials of various construction ; the divis- ion of the year into twelve months, which we have received as an unchanged inheritance from them through the Hebrews; and the great reputation which the Chaldaean astronomers en- joyed among all the nations of antiquity — all these things tes- tify to their attainments in astronomical science.* In arithmetic they made cpnsiderable progress : a tablet recently discovered contain^the squares of the numbers from one to sixty. Chaldaeans as Pioneers in Civilization. — In viewing the be- ginnings of civilization among the primitive peoples of the Eu- phrates Valley, we must not look with contempt upon their rude buildings and their small attainments in science and culture. We must bear in mind that, if not absolutely pioneers in the arts and sciences, they inherited only the simplest rudiments of learning from preceding ages. The first step in civilization is hard to take; but, with this made, each succeeding step becomes easier. They were toiling at the foundations, and though all they did for one thousand years, from 2300 to 1300 B.C., scarcely appears to view, still that which they laid with so much toil and care forms the basis upon which following ages have built. We shall hereafter see how the Semitic and Aryan races, upon the foundation laid by the Hamitic, proceeded to raise still higher the structure of civilization, adorning it at the same time with a hand nerved by a more vigorous intellectual life, and guided by a deeper and truer religious instinct. * Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," vol.i. p. loi. 56 ANCIENT HISTORY. CHAPTER V. THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. (From an unknown dale to 625 B.C.) Introduction. — We have seen how, for about one thousand years — from 2300 to 1300 B.C. — the Chaldaean monarchy held sway over all the southern part of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley. Meanwhile, farther to the north, upon the banks of the Tigris, was growing into strength and prominence a rival power of another people and race — the Semitic Assyrians — to whom were now to be transferred, for preservation and enrich- ment, the arts and sciences and primitive culture of the Chal- daean plains. In tracing the dynastic or political history of Assyria, we shall mention only those kings whose wide conquests or great works, or the strength of whose character or the greatness of whose misfortunes, have caused their names to live among the renowned personages of the ancient world. Tiglath-Pileser I. (1130-1110 b.c). — It is not unul about two centuries after the conquest of Chaldaea by the Ai^syrian prince Tiglathi-Nin, 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. We know more of his reign than of that of any preceding king, through the fortunate discovery of a clay cylinder containing the royal records. It details at great length the various war expeditions of Tiglath- Pileser, and describes the great works which he constructed. So we can listen to the king himself, while, in his self-laudatory y THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. 57 Style, he narrates his great exploits, and glories in the number and extent of his conquests. " There fell into my hands altogether," says this inscription, " between the commencement of my reign and my fifth year, forty-two countries, with their kings, from the banks of the river Zab to the banks of the Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of the setting sun [Mediter- ranean]. I brought them under one government; I took hostages from them -, and I imposed on them tribute and offerings."* He speaks as follows of the restoration of a temple : " In the beginning of my reign, Anu and Vul, the great gods, my lords, guardians of my steps, gave me a command to repair this their shrine. So I made bricks ; I levelled the earth ; . . , fifty feet deep I prepared the lower foundations of the temple of Anu and Vul. From its foundation to its roof I built it up better than it was before. I also built two lofty towers in hon- or of their noble godships ; and the holy place, a spacious hall, I consecrated for the convenience of their worshippers, and to accommodate their votaries, who were numerous as the stars of heaven. I repaired, and built, and completed my work. Outside the temple I fashioned everything with the same care as inside. The mound of earth on which it was built I en- larged like the firmament of the rising stars (?), and I beauti- fied the entire building. Its towers I raised to heaven, and its roofs I built entirely of brick." f The inscription closes as follows : " The list of my victories and the catalogue of my triumphs over foreigners hostile to Asshur, which Anu and Vul have granted to my arms, I have inscribed on my tablets and cylinders, and I have placed [to remain] to the last days, in the temples of my lords, Anu and Vul. ... In after-times, and in the latter days, if the temple of the Great Gods, my lords Anu and Vul, and these shrines * Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii, p. 68. t Ibid. p. 69. 4 5^ ANCIENT HISTORY. should become old and fall into decay, may the Prince who comes after me repair the ruins ! May he raise altars and sac- rifice victims before my tablets and cylinders, and may he set them up again in their places, and may he inscribe his name on them together with my name ! As Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, have ordained, may he worship honestly with a good heart and full trust ! "Whoever shall abrade or injure my tablets and cylinders, or shall moisten them with water, or scorch them with fire, or expose them to the air, or in the holy place of God shall assign them a place where they cannot be seen or understood, or shall erase the writing and inscribe his own name, or shall divide the sculptures (?) and break them off my tablets, may Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, my lords, assign his name to perdition ! May they curse him with an irrevocable curse! May they cause his sovereignty to perish ! May they pluck out the sta- bility of the throne of his empire ! Let not his offspring sur- vive him in the kingdom ! Let his servants be taken ! Let his troops be defeated ! Let him fly vanquished before his enemy ! ]\Liy Vul in his fury tear up the produce of his land ! . . . For one day may he not be called happy ! May his name and his race perish !" Asshur-izer-pal (883-858 e.g.). — We pass an interval of more than two centuries, and then find upon the throne As- shur-izer-pal, under whom the Assyrian Empire enjoyed an era of unusual magnificence. This king made several expeditions into the surrounding countries, punishing cruelly, by crucifixion and burning, all that dared resist his authority. But while, like all the Assyrian kings, cruel and unrelenting in war, he seemed not insensible to the gentler influences of peace ; for he was a generous patron of sculpture and archi- tecture. Many of the cities of his empire were adorned by him with magnificent palaces and temples. Of the capital Calah, overlooking the Tigris, which city Asshur-izer-pal em- THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. 59 belHshed with his most splendid edifices, Rawlinson, forming his picture from the nature and extent of the ruins, declares that "when the setting sun lighted up the view with the gor- geous hues seen only under an Eastern sky, it must have seemed to the traveller who beheld it for the first time like a vision from fairy-land." Shalmaneser II. (858-823 p.c.). — Asshur-izer-pal was fol- lowed by Shalmaneser II., who reigned thirty-five years. Dur- ing his rule this warlike king made between twenty and thirty military expeditions against various countries, and held in subjection almost all the peoples between the Mediterranean and the mountains of Persia. One of the most significant events of his reign was the submission to his power of the king- dom of Israel, which left Jerusalem exposed to the tides of As- syrian invasion which, in succeeding reigns, threatened to over- whelm the little kingdom of Judah, and blot out her name from the now short list of independent states in Western Asia. Vul-Lush III. and Semiramis. — Vul-Lush,who reigned from 810 to 781 E.G., has a place in the list of Assyrian monarchs noticed by us, not because of anything remarkable in his own character or achievements, but because of the mythical great- ness of his queen. Probably to strengthen his claim to the provinces of Baby- lonia, which country seems at this time to have sustained a sort of vassal relation to the Assyrian kings, Vul-Lush married a Babylonian princess, Sammuramit by name, supposed to be identical with the renov/ned Semiramis of the Greek writers. The many and extravagant stories told by Ctesias and Herod- otus of her great conquests and vast architectural works are now known to be fabulous. All these myths and legends gathered about her name on account of the very unusual cir- cumstance of her having enjoyed with her royal husband a sort of co-sovereignty in the government. Hers is the only name 6o ANCIENT HISTORY. of a queen that is mentioned in the records of the Assyrian kings. Sargon (722-705 b.c). — Sargon was one of the greatest of Assyrian conquerors. In 722 B.C. he captured Samaria, the siege of which had been commenced by Shalmaneser IV., and carried away the Ten Tribes into captivity beyond the Tigris. From this time the kingdom of Israel disappears from among the states of the East. The captives were scattered among the cities of Media, and probably became, for the most part, merged with the population of that province. During this reign the Egyptians and their allies, in the first encounter be- tween the empires of the Euphrates and the Nile Valley, suf- fered a severe defeat. 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 inscrip- tions 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 Sar- gon, came to the throne 705 b.c. We must accord to him the first place of renown among all the great names of the Assyr- ian Empire. His name, connected as it is with the narrative of Jerusalem's marvellous deliverance from the power of the As- syrian army, 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, like Tiglath-Pileser, to tell us in his own words of his great works and military expeditions. Re- specting 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 vdiole town a city shining like the sun." THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. 6 1 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 plun- dered 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 him- self I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and rais- ing banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape."* This siege resulted in the submission of Hezekiah and in his rendering homage and tribute to the Assyrian king. It was during another expedition, while aiming a defiant and revenge- ful stroke at both Egypt and Jerusalem, that his army, upon the eastern frontier of the former country, was smitten by an unseen hand, and " the king returned home to Nineveh, shorn of his glory, with the shattered remains of his great host, and cast that proud capital into a state of despair and grief which the genius of an ^schylus might have rejoiced to depict, but which no less powerful pen could adequately portray." Esarhaddon (681-668 b.c.).— Esarhaddon, son of Sennach- erib, was a great warrior and a great builder. He performed the feat, rarely achieved by any conqueror, of penetrating to and capturing the cities of Central Arabia. During another campaign he led his army up the Nile to the Plain of Thebes. He built four royal residences, and many temples in different cities of his empire. Sickness falling upon him, he abdicated in favor of his son Asshur-bani-pal. Asshur-bani-pal (668-626 ? b.c.).— This king is distinguish- ed for his magnificent patronage of art and literature. During his reign Assyria enjoyed her Augustan age. Under the inspira- tion of his example and the encouragement of his favor, a great * Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 161. 62 ANCIENT HISTORY. literary enthusiasm sprang up at Nineveh ; and within the walls of his palace in that city was collected the largest and most important library of the old Semitic world. But Asshur-bani-pal was also possessed of a warlike spirit. He broke to pieces, with a 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 (626 .^-625 b.c). — Saracus was the last of the long line of Assyrian kings. His reign was short, measured by a single year, and that filled with misfortune 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; nor 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 op- pressor 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 em- pire of the Aryan Medes, led by the renowned Cyaxares; from the southern lowlands, anxious to aid in the overthrow of the hated oppressor, the revolted Babylonians, led by the traitor Nabopolassar, joined the Medes as allies, and together they laid close siege to the Assyrian capital. The "gates of the river" were broken by an unusual inundation of the Tigris; a section of the city wall was undermined, and a breach thus prepared for the enemy. 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. THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. 63 Thus, amid engulfing waters and the smoke of the pyre of the last Ninevite king, the proud Assyrian capital sank into un- sightly heaps of earth and rubbish (625 B.C.). Four hundred years before Christ, when Xenophon with his Ten Thousand Greeks, in his memorable retreat, passed the spot, even the name of Nineveh seems to have been forgotten ; for the ruins were pointed out to him as those of "Mespila." 64 ANCIENT HISTORY* CHAPTER VI. INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, AND LITERATURE OF THE AS- SYRIANS. Nature of the Assyrian Empire. — The Assyrian state is a good type of all the great empires that have succeeded one an- other upon the soil of Asia. It was simply a heterogeneous mass of peoples and races, held together by external force, and united by no inner bonds of religion or customs or language. Two things were exacted, by the predominating state, of the vassal nations — tribute and homage. Attempts, indeed, were made by some of the Assyrian kings to consolidate the varied elements which wide conquests had brought within the limits of the empire into something like a national unity. But these efforts did not proceed from a desire to promote the welfare of the peoples over whom they ruled ; they had in view simply the strengthening of the power of the dominant state, and the riveting more securely of the chains of the subject nations. The sovereigns endeavored to Assyrianize the remotest prov- inces by the wholesale transference of the population of a con- quered country to a new region, in order that, with the old ties of country and home thus severed, the new generation might the more easily forget past wrongs and old traditions and cus- toms, and become blended with the peoples about them. Thus, the Ten Tribes of Israel were carried away from their homes, and scattered among the Median towns, where they became so mingled with the native population of the country as to be in- quired after even to this day as " the lost tribes." It was inevitable that a kingdom of this nature should be ever threatening dissolution the moment the organizing genius INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC., OF THE ASSYRIANS. 65 that had consoUdated it was embarrassed by accident or removed by death. Hence the constant efforts necessary to reconquer revolted provinces, and to refasten the chains upon states that were constantly breaking away from the central authority. And hence, also, the disturbances and uprisings that accompanied almost every dynastic change. Character of the Assyrians. — The Assyrian character was most cruel and barbarous. Although possessing deep religious feeling, and having a real love for art and literature, still the Assyrian monarchs often displayed in the 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 : some are being flayed alive ; the eyes of others are being bored out with the point of a spear; and still others are having their tongues torn out. An inscription by Asshur-nasir-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 minaret. 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 * In strange contrast to the tone of this inscription is a prayer of King Asshur-bani-pal which reads thus : " May the look of pity that shines in thine eternal face dispel my griefs. May I never feel the anger and wrath of the God. May my omissions and my sins be wiped out. May I find reconcilia- tion with him, for I am the servant of his power, the author of the great gods. May thy powerful face come to my help : may it shine like heaven, and bless me with happiness and abundance of riches." See Lenormant's " Ancient History of the East," vol. i. p. 418. 66 ANCIENT HISTORY. great Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord." In his in- scriptions the wild beasts he has slain are as carefully enu- merated as the cities he has captured.* The monuments are covered with sculptures that represent the king engaged in the favorite royal sport. We see him slaying lions, bulls, and boars, as well as less dangerous animals of the chase, with which the uncultivated tracts of the country appear to have abounded. Asshur-izer-pal had at Nineveh a menagerie, or hunting-park, filled with various animals, many of which were sent him as tribute by vassal princes. During a single hunting expedition into the desert regions of Mesopotamia, this monarch, accord- ing to his own inscriptions, slew three hundred and sixty lions, two hundred and fifty-seven wild cattle, and tliirty buffaloes, besides capturing for his menagerie an immense number of ostriches, bears, and hyenas. f The Royal Cities. — The capital of the Assyrian monarchy, like that of almost every other empire in Asia, was of a migra- tory character. There are scattered along the course of the Tigris the ruins of three royal cities — Asshur, Calneh, and Nin- eveh, or, as called at the present time, Kileh-Sherghat, Nimrud, and Koyunjik. Away from the Tigris, about ten miles to the northeast of Nineveh, is the mound of Khorsabad, which marks the site of the royal residence of Sargon. The ruins of these royal cities of Assyria are very unlike those of the capital cities of Egypt. Enormous grass-grown mounds, enclosed by long-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. Palaces, city walls, and temples were constructed chiefly of sun- dried bricks, so that the generation that raised them had scarce- * Lenormant's " Ancient History of the East," vol. i. p. 431. t Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," vol. i. p. 91. INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC., OF THE ASSYRIANS. 67 ly 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. The Euins of Nineveh.— Lying upon the left bank of the Up- per Tigris is a large quadrangular enclosure 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 crum- bled condition, about fifty feet high (Xenophon says that they were one hundred and fifty feet high when he saw them), 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 quarry the stone from these old walls for their modern buildings. The bridge that spans the Tigris at Mosul (a na- tive town just opposite the ruins of Nineveh) is constructed of stone dug from these ancient ramparts. The regularity of the old walls is broken by large heaps of rubbish, which mark the position of the city gates and their flanking towers. In one of these mounds, excavated by Layard, were found several colossal winged bulls, the wardens of the entrance. The stone pavement was discovered worn into deep ruts by the chariot-wheels. But the most interesting feature of the ruins is the great palace-mound called by the natives Koyunjik. This mound covers an area of one hundred acres, and is from seventy to ninety feet high. It is traversed by deep ravines, worn in its mass by centuries of storms. Upon this great platform stood several of the most splendid palaces of the Ninevite kings. Palace-Mounds and Palaces.— In order to give a certain dig- 68 ANCIENT HISTORY. J nity to the royal residence, to secure the fresh breezes, and to render them more easily defended, the Assyrians, as well as the Babylonians and Persians, lifted their palaces upon lofty artificial terraces, or platforms. These eminences, which ap- pear like natural flat-topped hills, were constructed with an almost incredible expenditure of human labor. Out of the material composing the mound of Koyunjik at Nineveh could be built four pyramids as large as that of Cheops. One or more of these gigantic mounds marks the site of each of the royal cities already mentioned. The tops of these platforms are loaded with the debris of the Assyrian palaces. The swiftness with which the mud- walled edifices fell into dilapidation, an ambition to surpass all predecessors, and a superstitious fear of occupying the pal- ace of a deceased monarch led each king, upon his accession to the throne, to commence the erection of a new royal resi- dence. Sometimes an entirely new site was chosen ; but often- times the new palace was erected alongside the old upon the same platform. 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 surmount- ed the 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, were faced with slabs of alabaster, covered with sculptures and inscriptions, the illustrated narrative of the wars and labors of the monarch. At the entrance of these panelled halls, as if to guard the approach, were stationed the colossal human-headed bulls. The immense courts upon which the chambers opened were the most important feature of the palace, as is still the case in all Oriental residences, and were sumptuously decorated with INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC., OF THE ASSYRIANS. 69 symbolic sculptures, and surrounded with carved and painted balconies, supported usually upon wood columns encased in bronze plates, and crowned with capitals that were the original of the Grecian Ionic. These superb courts were used on spe- cial state occasions ; the assembly being protected from the sun and weather by a rich awning, as the Roman emperors in later times shielded the multitudes in the amphitheatre. An important adjunct of the palace was the temple, a copy of the tower-temples of the Chaldasans. Its position is marked at present by a lofty conical mound, rising amidst and over- looking the palace ruins. Assyrian Explorations. — Upon the decay of the Assyrian pal- aces, 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. In 1844 M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, excavated the mound of Khorsabad, and astonished the world with most won- derful specimens of Assyrian art from the Palace of Sargon. The sculptured and lettered slabs were removed to the Mu- seum of the Louvre in Paris. Some years later, Layard disen- tombed the Palace of Sennacherib, and those of other kings at Nineveh and Calneh, and enriched the British Museum with the treasures of his search. These disentombed palaces have thrown as strong a light upon the arts and history of the ancient Assyrians as the excavated cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum have shed upon the arts and domestic life of the Romans. • The Royal Library at Nineveh. — ^Within the Palace of Asshur- bani-pal at Nineveh, Layard discovered what is known as the Royal Librar}^ There were two chambers, the floors of which were heaped with books, like the Chaldaean tablets already de- scribed. The number of books in the collection has been esti- 70 ANCIENT HISTORY. mated at ten thousand. The writing upon some of the tablets is so minute that it cannot be read without the aid of a magni- fying-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 instruc- tion of my people." Asshur-bani-pal, as we have already learned, was the Augus- tus 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 Chaldaean tablets ; for the literature of the Assyrians, as well as their arts and sciences, was borrowed almost in a body from the Chaldaeans. All the old libraries of the low-country were ransacked, and copies of their tablets made for the Royal Li- brary at Nineveh. In this way was preserved much of the early Chaldaean literature which would otherwise have been lost to the world. The Tablets and their Contents. — The Assyrian tablets were in form like the Chaldaean. Those holding records of special importance were, after having been once written over and baked, covered with a thin coating of clay, the matter 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 contents of the tablets embrace a great variety of sub- jects; 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. Tablets of this character have been found bearing date as early as 625 B.C. It would seem from this that the Assyrians had very cor- INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC., OF THE ASSYRIANS. 71 rect notions of the nature of paper (tablet) money. Others of the books treat of laws, of chronology and history, and of the natural sciences. In natural history we find tablets exhibiting classifications into families and genera of all the animals in- habiting the different provinces of the Assyrian Empire — a common and scientific name being attached to each species. " No doubt," says Lenormant, " the great divisions of this clas- sification are those of a very rudimentary science, but we may well be astonished to find that the Assyrians had already in- vented a scientific nomenclature similar in principle to that of Linnaeus." Influence of Assyria upon Civilization. — The recent excava- tions among the Assyrian palaces, and the discovery of the key to the cuneiform inscriptions,* which has opened to us *"Many will be interested in a more particular account of the method in which the first steps in cuneiform decipherment were effected. . . . While Professor Grotefend was studying some Persepolitan inscriptions (copied by Niebuhr) in his study in Europe, Rawlinson was at work upon the tablet of Ilamadan, amid the deserts of Persia. Each solved the problem inde- pendently ; at least, each took the first steps in the way of a true solution without any aid or suggestion from the other. Both arrived at the same result in a strikingly similar manner. We will give very briefly the way in which Rawlinson was led to his discovery, condensing from his own account as given in a paper entitled * Memoir on Cuneiform Inscriptions,' in Journals of the Asiatic Society, vol. x. The tablets which Rawlinson chose for his work were the famous Behistun inscriptions, comprising two trilingual records by Darius Hystaspis and his son Xerxes. He observed these in- scriptions to be identical throughout, save in certain groups of characters. There are two of these groups in each tablet, but the last group of one was the same as the first group of the other. This fact suggested to Rawlinson that the groups represented proper names — three Persian kings, following one another successively upon the throne. Taking at random three names — Hystaspes, Darius, and Xerxes — he applied them to the groups. Fortu- nately, he had lighted upon the right names, and was able to determine the power of several letters. Other proper names gave additional letters ; and thus an alphabet was slowly elaborated. And thus the clew to the decipher- ment of the cuneiform writings, the most important of all philological dis- 72 ANCIENT HISTORY. the treasures of the libraries of the Euphrates Valley, have greatly modified our views of the ancient empires of the East and the influence of Asiatic art and culture upon European civilization. As many of the elements of our modern civiliza- tion were received as an inheritance from Greece and Rome, so in turn, we now find, was their culture enriched by valua- ble gifts from the older civilizations of the East. As the Tiber and the liissus are classic streams to us, so were the Nile and the Euphrates classic rivers to the Greeks and the Romans. Thence these received much that the Oriental peoples had in- vented or sought out in art, science, and philosophy. The Greeks received the germs of their mimetic or sculpt- ural art from the Euphrates by the way of Asia Minor. " Be- tween the works of Ninevite artists and the early works of the Greeks," says Lenormant, "even to the ^ginetans, we may observe an astonishing connection; the celebrated primitive bass-relief at Athens known by the common name of the * War- rior of Marathon ' seems as if detached from the walls of Khor- sabad or Koyunjik."* But the genius of the Greek artists always transformed what they borrowed. Beneath their touch "the hard and rigid lines of Assyrian sculpture," as Layard says, "were converted into the flowing draperies and classic forms of the highest order of art." Fergusson sums up the results of his studies among the pal- aces of Nineveh and Persepolis by asserting, "Egypt may, in- deed, have been the schoolmistress from whom the ancient world derived half her science and her art; but the nations from whom we are descended were born in Assyria, and out of her they brought all their sympathies, all their innate civiliza- tion." f And Rawlinson, after acquainting himself with the coveries after that of the key to the hieroglyphics of Egypt, was found by what has been termed a series of 'happy guesses.' " — Myers's ** Remains of Lost Empires," p. 130, note. * Lenormant's " Ancient History of the East," vol. i. p. 465. t Fergusson's " Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis," p. 4. INSTITUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC., OF THE ASSYRIANS. 73 arts and sciences of the Euphrates Valley, and the contents of the Assyrian libraries, declares that " it was from the East . . . that Greece derived her architecture, her sculpture, her science, her philosophy, her mathematical knowledge — in a word, her intellectual life." * * Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," vol. ill. p. 76. 74 ANCIENT HISTORY. CHAPTER YIL THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. (625-538 B.C.) The Country and People. — The Babylonian monarchy occu- pied the lowland, or alluvial tract, of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the seat of the early Chaldaean Kingdom. Although seventeen hundred years had passed since Nimrod made his conquests and Urukh built his temples, during which time the rivers had built up a considerable tract of new land at the head of the Gulf, and skilful irrigation had reclaimed wide strips of land from the inroads of the desert sands on the Arabian frontier, still, notwithstanding these changes, it will be suffi- ciently accurate for us to say that the Chaldaean and Baby- lonian monarchies grew up and flourished upon the same soil and beneath the same sky. This fact will explain many resemblances which we shall not fail to notice between the Chaldaeans and Babylonians, in their arts, manners, customs, religion, and government. And yet we shall be constantly reminded of Assyria ; for during the period of Assyrian supremacy, Babylonia being a mere depend- ency of the northern empire, the language and many of the customs of the conquerors were introduced into the lower coun- try, and a gradual transformation took place in the population. The people became at last completely Assyrianized. So some, viewing the Babylonians as simply the changed descendants of the Chaldaeans, call this new empire, which we term the Babylonian, the Later Chaldaean.* * The ethnic character of the early Chaldaeans, and their relation to the THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 75 Babylonian Affairs from 1300 to 625 b.c. — During the six centuries and more that intervened between the conquest of the old Chaldaean monarchy by the Assyrian king Tiglathi- Nin and the successful revolt of the low countries under Nabopolassar, the Babylonian peoples bore very impatiently the Assyrian yoke. 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. Two names, however, appear during this period which we should fix in our minds before we proceed to speak of the great kings of the later Babylonian monarchy. These are Nabonassar and Merodach-Baladan. The former reigned in Babylon about one hundred years before the overthrow of Nineveh (from 747 to 733 B.C.). He was evidently a man of great force of character ; for under him Babylon succeeded in freeing herself from the Assyrian yoke, and enjoyed a short- lived independence. Nabonassar destroyed the records of the kings that preceded him, probably because he thought they re- flected no glory on his country. Consequently, following ages were obliged to reckon dates from his reign, which was called the " Era of Nabonassar." Merodach-Baladan (721-709 B.C.) is brought to our notice because it was he who, when Hezekiah, King of Judcea, was sick, and it was reported in Babylon that, as a sign of his re- covery, the shadow had gone back several degrees on the dial of Ahaz, sent commissioners to Jerusalem, ostensibly to con- gratulate the Hebrew monarch on his recovery, and to make later Babylonians, has been a matter of much discussion, but the facts are now very satisfactorily established, as above indicated. History abounds in instances of such transformation wrought on both conquered and conquer- ing races. A whole series of words witnesses the fact ; for instance, " Sem. itized," " Assyrianized, ** Hellenized," " Romanized." 76 ANCIENT HISTORY. inquiry respecting the reported astronomical wonder, a matter in which the Chaldsean astrologers would be naturally inter- ested. From what followed, it is thought that the embassy was really a political one, having for its object the forming of an alliance, embracing Judah, Egypt, and Babylonia, against the Assyrian king. Nabopolassar (625-604 b.c). — Nabopolassar was the first king of what is properly called the Babylonian monarchy. When troubles and misfortunes began to thicken about the last Assyrian king, Saracus, he intrusted to the care of Nabo- polassar, 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 leagued with Cyaxares against his sovereign. For his treachery he received a double reward — the throne of Babylon for him- self; and for his little son, the prince Nebuchadnezzar, he re- ceived as a bride the young and beautiful princess Amytis, daughter of the Median king. Nabopolassar in his old age intrusted the conduct of impor- tant expeditions to his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose relations to his royal sire, and his brilliant victories over his father's enemies, remind us of the " Black Prince " and Edward III. of England. Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 b.c). — Nebuchadnezzar was far away from Babylon, either in Southern Palestine or in Egypt, chastising Pharaoh-Necho for an invasion of Syria, when intel- ligence reached him of his father's death. He acted with that quick decision and energy which characterized all his subse- quent life. Leaving his army to be led back to Babylonia by the usual military route up through Syria and around the north- ern edge of the desert, he himself, with a few attendants, pushed directly across the desert, and in a few days reached the capital, before any plots against his succession could be perfected. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 77 With the energy of a Napoleon, Nebuchadnezzar now began the conduct of his brilliant campaigns, and the superintendence of those gigantic works that rendered Babylon the wonder of the Greeks, and have caused her name to pass into all histories and literatures as the synonym of material power and magnifi- cence. Jerusalem, having four times revolted, was as often subdued ; the temple was stripped of its sacred vessels of silver and of gold, which were carried away to Babylon ; the people, save a mis- erable remnant, were also borne away into the "Great Cap- tivity." Zedekiah, under whom the last revolt took place, was punished by having his eyes put out, after having seen " his sons slain before his face." The story of Daniel belongs to this period. With Jerusalem subdued, Nebuchadnezzar pushed with all his forces the siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, whose in- vestment had been commenced several years before. After a siege of thirteen years, the city fell into the hands of the Baby- Ionian 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 Nebuchad- nezzar to rival even the Egyptian Rameses in the execution of enormous works requiring an immense expenditure of hu- man labor. The works which we may with very great cer- tainty ascribe to this prince are the following: the repair of the Great Walls of Babylon ; the Great Palace in the royal quarter of the city; the famous Hanging Gardens; vast quays along the Euphrates, to confine it in its course through the capital ; 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 78 ANCIENT HISTORY. 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 brilHant court of councillors and flatterers, the reason of the king was suddenly and mysteriously clouded. t After a pe- riod 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 a1; the age of eighty, worn out by the toils and cares of a reign of forty-four years, the longest and most memorable and instructive in the annals of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings. Successors of Nebuchadnezzar (561-555 b.c). — The reigns of Evil-Merodach (son of Nebuchadnezzar), Neriglissar, and Labossoracus (Laborosoarchod) were all short and uneventful. The first and last both met with violent deaths. With Labos- soracus ended the dynasty of Nabopolassar. The Fall of Babylon.— In 555 b.c, Nabonadius, one of the nobles that had conspired against the life of the last sovereign, was placed upon the throne. He seems to have associated with him 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 where we have now arrived, had excited by its aggressive * Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 57. t " Nebuchadnezzar fell a victim to that mental aberration which has of- ten 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, disuses articulate speech, and sometimes persists in going on all-fours."— Smith's " Ancient History of the East," p. 357. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 79 spirit the alarm of all the nations of Western Asia. For pur- poses of mutual defence, the King of Babylon, and Croesus, the famous 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 resent- ment of Cyrus, and after punishing Crcesus, and depriving him of his kingdom, he collected his forces to chastise the Babylo- nian king. It is related that, while the Persian army was crossing the Gnydes, a river that separated the frontiers of the Persian and Babylonian empires, one of the sacred white horses attached to the chariot of Ormazd wae drowned; and that Cyrus, to pun- ish the insolence of the river, set his soldiers to work and dug three hundred and sixty channels, whereby the waters of the stream were dispersed and absorbed in the sands of the desert. The story is not an improbable one ; for we know that Xerxes scourged the Hellespont for breaking to pieces his bridge of boats. The Persian kings entertained the idea that the powers of nature ought to be obedient to them and subservient to their wishes and plans. With the insolent river chastised, Cyrus advanced into the plain of Babylonia. Nabonadius risked a battle in the open field, but his army was scattered and driven within the walls of the capital. The king himself, however, with a part of his forces, took refuge in the city of Borsippa, a little to the south of Babylon. The prince, Belshazzar, had thus devolved upon him the defence of the capital. Had the Babylonians been vigilant, it is very doubtful whether Cyrus would have been able to reduce the city to sub- mission, so strong were its walls and so well provided were its inhabitants with provisions for a long siege. But the youthful Belshazzar, insolent in his fancied security, neglected even the most ordinary measures of precaution. The river gates, which led into the heart of the city from the quays along the banks of the Euphrates, were, it would seem, left open or improperly 8o ANCIENT HISTORY. ^^H I guarded. At the dead of night, when the young king and all his court were giving themselves up to song and revelry, attendant upon the celebration of a great Babylonian festival, Cyrus, hav- ing previously dug with great labor immense channels, turned the course of the Euphrates, which ran directly through the city enclosure, and then led his troops along the river bed till within the line of the ramparts. Upon mounting the river steps, the soldiers found, as they had hoped, the gates unguarded, and in a few moments were in the streets of the capital. The cry of alarm ran along the broad avenues,* and at last fell upon the affrighted ears of the revellers in the palace. To add to their dismay, a warning hand, it is said^ appeared against the wall, and traced there the words Me?ie^ mene, tekel, upharsin, which Daniel, hastily called, interpreted to the king as meaning, " God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." " In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, slain "f (538 B.C.). Nabonadius, shut up in Borsippa, yielded to inevitable fate and surrendered to Cyrus, who not only spared his life, but generously gave him a position of trust and honor in his king- dom. That kingdom now embraced the greater part of West- ern Asia. The Transfer of Empire. — By the fall of Babylon, the seat of empire in the East, which now for nearly two thousand years (from 2300 to 538 B.C.) had been in the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, moving up and down those rivers — finding an abode first at Ur, then at Nineveh, and lastly at Babylon — was transferred to Persepolis, the Persian capital, on the table- lands of Iran. Thus the sceptre of universal sovereignty, borne * " One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at 07ie end."— Jer. li. 31. t Dan. V. 30. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 8 1 first by the Hamitic race, then for so many centuries swayed by the Semitic, was now given to the Aryan, which race was destined from this time on 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 effected chiefly by her vast architect- ural works — her temples, palaces, and elevated gardens. The famous Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Walls of the city, were reckoned among the Seven Wonders of the World. The Temple of the Seven Spheres.— The Babylonians, like their predecessors the Chaldaeans, accorded to the sacred edi- fices the place of pre-eminence among their architectural works. Upon the temples of the gods were lavished the wealth of the people and the skill of their artists. Sacred architecture in the time of Nebuchadnezzar had changed but little from the early Chaldsean models ; only the temples were now larger, and more sumptuous in their embellishments, being made, in the language of the inscriptions, "to shine like the sun." The celebrated Temple of the Seven Spheres, which may serve as a representative of the later Babylonian temples, was located at Borsippa, a suburb of Babylon proper. This struct- ure was a vast pyramid, 270 feet square at the base, and rising in seven successive stages, or platforms, to a height of 156 feet. Each of the stages was dedicated to one of the seven planets, or spheres. (The sun and moon were reckoned as planets.) Various means were adopted to give the platforms the conven- tional tint assigned to the different planetary bodies. Thus the stages sacred to the sun and moon were covered respec- tively with plates of gold and silver. "* The chapel, or shrine proper, surmounted the uppermost * "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," vol. xviii. art. i. p. 6. 5 82 ANCIENT HISTORY. Stage, and, as described by Herodotus, must have been sumptu- ous in the extreme. The tower, thus crowned by the sanctu- ary and zoned with all the planetary colors, with the gilded stages glistening, as the inscriptions declare, " like the sun," presented a splendid and imposing appearance, that struck every beholder with astonishment and awe. 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 tem- ple was the restoration by Nebuchadnezzar of a very ancient one, which in his day had become, from " extreme old age," a heap of rubbish.* Some scholars have thought that the de- cayed edifice thus restored by Nebuchadnezzar was the unfin- ished Tower of Babel, of which great undertaking by the primi- tive people of Babylonia we have several confused traditions among the Chaldaean legends, besides an account handed down by the Hebrews. This edifice in its decay has left one of the grandest and most impressive ruins in all the East. The great mass of the crumbled stages is now deeply furrowed with ravines worn by the rains of twenty centuries, and at a distance over the level desert appears like a mountain crowned with ruined walls. Palaces. — The Babylonian palaces were so like those of the Assyrians, already described, that any detailed account of them * " And by his [the god Marduk's] power," says the inscription, " I re- built the Temple of the Seven Spheres, which is the tower of Borsippa, which a former king had built, and had raised it to the height of forty-two cubits, but had not completed its crown or summit : from extreme old age it had crumbled down. The water-courses which once drained it had been entirely neglected. From their own weight the bricks had fallen down. . . . Then the great Lord Marduk moved my heart to complete this temple ; for its site or foundation had not been destroyed. ... Its summit and its up- per story I made like the old ones. I rebuilt entirely this upper portion, and I made its crown or summit as it had been planned in former days." — " Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. xviii. art. ii. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 8;^ here is unnecessary. They were built upon platforms, or enor- mous substructions, similar to those we have seen at Nineveh. One of the largest of these, called by the natives El-Kasr, which supported the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, covers an area of over one hundred acres. Its height varies from sixty to ninety feet. Numerous excavations have been made in this mound by the natives, in search of bricks. For two thousand years Babylon has been an inexhaustible brick quarry. Selu- cia of the Greeks, Al-Maydan of the Persians, and Cufa and Bagdad of the caliphs, were all built of material mined from these ruins. All the modern towns and caravansaries of the adjoining regions are constructed chiefly of brick dug out of the ruined edifices of the old capital. The Arab brick-mer- chants of the country, at the present day, engage as a regular business in the work of quarrying material from the old mounds and walls. The Hanging Gardens. — This structure excited the greatest admiration of the ancient Greek visitors to Babylon. It was 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 edifice was probably built somewhat in the form of the tower-temples, stages being erected one upon another, so as to form a vast pyramidal structure. The successive terraces, which overhung the city at a great height, were covered with earth, and beauti- fied with rare plants and trees, so as to simulate the appear- ance of a mountain rising in cultivated terraces towards the sky. The gardens were irrigated by means of curious hydrau- lic devices, which elevated and distributed over the terraces water drawn from the Euphrates. * * Recent excavations (i 880-81) made by Hormuzd Rassam amid the ruins of Babylon have resulted in important and interesting discoveries. At what is called the Babel mound, one of the largest and most imposing upon the ancient site, the explorer has brought to light ruined hydraulic 84 ANCIENT HISTORY. The Walls of Babylon. — The walls of Babylon proper are represented at the present time by enormous ramparts about eight miles in circuit, in eveiy respect similar to those at Nin- eveh. Within these defences lie most of the heaps and mounds that mark the position of the various Babylonian edifices. Under the later kings, it appears that walls of vast strength and circuit were constructed. Herodotus says that these walls enclosed an area just fourteen miles square. An inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, recently discovered, exactly confirms the statements of the historian. The space they enclosed must not be regarded as a city, but rather as a fortified district. The walls embraced several cities, including Babylon proper and Borsippa. We may compare these ramparts to the long walls of Themistocles, by means of which Athens was united works of great extent, reservoirs, and stone-lined aqueducts evidently de- signed for bringing water from the Euphrates. These discoveries seem to point out the great Babel mound as the remains of the celebrated Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar. "The supposition receives additional support from the recovery of a small inscribed tablet, which clearly proves the fondness of the Babylonian kings for horticulture. A scribe attached to one of the palace or temple libraries of Babylonia has transmitted to us a list of the gar- dens or paradises of the Babylonian monarch Merodach-Baladan, the con- temporary of Sargon, Sennacherib, and Hezekiah. This monarch appears to have been a lavish patron of horticulture, for the list furnishes the names of more than sixty gardens and parks in and about Babylon constructed by the royal order." . . . The explorer has also added many valuable tablets to those collected by George Smith, of the British Museum. The matter held by some of these documents is of intense interest. " They show that for a long period, probably several centuries, the family of the Beni Egibi were the leading commercial firm of Babylon, and to them was confided all the business of the Babylonian ministry of finance. The building whose ruins are marked by the mound of Jumjuma was the chancellerie of the firm, and from its ruins come the records of every class of monetary transaction. . . . From the tax receipts we learn how the revenue was raised by duties levied on land, on crops of dates, and even on cattle, by imposts for the use of the irrigation canals, and for the use of the public roads." In view of what has been already secured, we may reasonably hope for a rich harvest from the more thorough working of the Babylonian mounds. THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. 85 with her seaports. The object in enclosing such an enormous district seems to have been to bring sufficient cultivatable ground within the defences to support the inhabitants in case of a protracted siege. No certain traces of these outer ram- parts can now be found. * * Herodotus says the walls were eighty-five feet thick and three hundred and twenty-five feet high. Strabo gives thirty-two feet for the thickness, and seventy-three feet for the height. There was an inner wall, very infe- rior to the great outer wall, and enclosing only about one half of the area embraced by the latter. (Neither of these must be confused with the wall that surrounded the royal city, or Babylon proper.) " Both the violence of man and the action of the elements combined to break these ramparts down. Cyrus dismantled them; and when the city was retaken by Darius, after its revolt from the Persian authority, that conqueror reduced the height, in or- der that the city might not possess such powers of resistance a second time to his army ; and thus again Xerxes, Demetrius Poliorcetes, and Alexander are all said to have successively dismantled and broken down the reduced ramparts. If these conquerors did not throw them down entirely, the ele- ments could easily have completed the work ; for the walls were only earth- en ramparts, and would readily drop back into the deep moat from which the material had been taken." — " Remains of Lost Empires," p. 248. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CHALDiEAN, ASSYRIAN, AND BABYLONIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS. (Based on the Authority of Rawlinson.) Dynasties or Periods. Chaldaean (P-2286 Kings. B.C. founder of the empire about 2300 B.C. Elamite ( 2286 2052 B.C.) Unknown Chaldaean (2004 1546 B.C.).... 2286 Arab B.C. (I546' Early Empire 1300 B.C.). . Nimrod, Urukh,, Ilgi Kudur-Nakhunta (Zoroaster) conquers Chaldsea Kudur-Lagamer (Chedorlaomer), con- temporary with Abraham about 2000 (2052-2004 B.C.) f Ismi-dagon about 1850-1830 -^ Nur-Vul «' 1586-1566 [Rim-Sin " 1566-1546 f Khammu-rabi " 1546-1520 ^ -I Succession of obscure names. [ Chaldsea conquered by Tiglathi-Nin. . . 1300 First names obscure and dates uncertain. Bel-lush about 1380-1360 Great Empire (1300-745 B.C.). Later Empire (745-625 B.C.). First Period (1300-625 B.C.). Second Period (625-538 B.C.) . Pud-il " 1360-1340 Vul-lush I " 1340-1320 Shalmaneser I " 1320-1300 Tiglathi-Nin, conqueror of Chaldaea. " 1300-1280 ****** Tiglath-pileser I about 1 130-1 1 10 Vul-lush II 911-889 Tiglathi-Nin II 889-883 Asshur-izer-pal 883-858 Shalmaneser II 858-823 Shamas-Vul II 823-810 Vul-lush III 810-781 Shalmaneser III 781-771 Asshur-dayan III 771-753 Asshur-lush 753-745 ' Tiglath-pileser II 745-72/ Shalmaneser IV 727-722 Sargon 722-705 Sennacherib 705-681 Esarhaddon 681-668 Asshur-bani-pal 668-625 Asshur-emid-ilin (Saracus) 625 Babylon ruled, for the most part, by Assyrian viceroys 1300-747 Re-establishes her independence under Nabonassar 747 Merodach-Baladan 721-709 Assyrian Sargon reconquers Babylon. . 709 Successive revolts and their suppression. 709-626 Assyrian Empire destroyed and Baby- lon becomes independent 625 Nabopolassar 625-604 Nebuchadnezzar 604-561 Evil-Merodach 561-559 Neriglissar 559-55^ Labossoracus 55^-555 Nabonadius 555-538 Belshazzar (shares the government with his father). THE HEBREW NATION. 87 CHAPTER VIII. THE HEBREW NATION. Importance of Hebrew History. — The history of no other people in so eminent a degree as that of the Hebrew nation illustrates the fact — a fact which we must in our study keep steadily in view — that the germ of all that is best in our mod- ern civilization is to be sought among the institutions of an- tiquity. The nations already passed in review enriched the world by their labors and discoveries in art, science, and phi- losophy. The Hebrews did nothing in these matters. Their mission was a grander one — to teach righteousness. Of all the elements of the rich legacy bequeathed to the modern by the ancient world, by far the most important, in their influence upon the course of events, were those transmitted to us by the ancient Hebrews. The Patriarchal Age. — Hebrew story begins with the de- parture of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, about 2000 B.C. This patriarch was one of the most remarkable personages of the ancient world. Although living in the midst of a people engrossed in a polytheistic nature -worship, he professed a simple belief in one God. Stirred by the idolatry about him, inspired with a grand faith in God, and firm in the conviction that his was destined to be the idea and worship of the future, Abraham left the land of his fathers, and led his little band of dissenters across the Mesopotamian plains, over the Euphra- tes, and up into the hill country now known as Palestine, which overlooks the Mediterranean. The story of Abraham and his nephew Lot, of Isaac and his 88 ANCIENT HISTORY.' sons Jacob and Esau, and of the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob, is told in the Hebrew Scriptures with a charm and sim- plicity that have made all these names the familiar possessions of childhood. During all the Patriarchal Age, the descendants of Abraham felt themselves to be strangers and sojourners in a country not their own. Their life was the simple wandering one of the Bedawin of to-day, who each summer come up from the Mes- opotamian region, and dot the valleys and plains of this same land with their black tents and flocks. In the times of the He- brew patriarchs, this region seems to have been but sparsely settled, and these wanderers from beyond the Euphrates were permitted to rove over the country about at will. Thus mov- ing from place to place in search of pasturage for their flocks, they pitched their tents on almost every spot in Palestine. The Hebrews in Egypt (from i8th to 14th century b.c. ?). An event of frequent occurrence in the East now gave an entirely new turn to Hebrew history. A long drought, and consequent failure of crops and pasturage in Palestine, forced the families of Israel to look to the more favored Valley of the Nile for sus- tenance for themselves and their flocks. The way for their kind reception by the King of Egypt had been providentially prepared. Joseph, having been sold by his jealous broth- ers into slaver}^, had won, through the generosity of events and his personal ability, the favor of the Egyptian monarch, and had been advanced to the position of prime -minister of the empire. Through his regard for his trusted minister, Pharaoh admitted the Hebrews to an audience, and assigned them lands for their families and flocks in the land of Goshen, a most fertile section of the Delta country, and one well adapt- ed to their pastoral habits. Here the Hebrews increased rap- idly in numbers, and soon became an important element in the Egyptian state. A change in the ruling dynasty led to an entire reversal of THE HEBREW NATION. 89 the policy of the Egyptian sovereigns in their treatment of the Hebrews, as well as of other Semitic peoples whom migratory movements had brought into the Delta from the neighboring regions of Asia. Fearing their increasing numbers, lest in case of invasion or revolt they should join the enemies of the Egyptians — an apprehension not by any means groundless, for the country had but just been delivered from those Asiatic in- truders called the Shepherd Kings — a severe persecution was waged against them. They were treated like prisoners of war, and by unfeeling taskmasters forced to hard labor upon the various edifices of the Pharaohs. All their m?le rhiJdrcr were destroyed. The persecution gradually assumed a relig:- ious character, and became more bitter; for the pure theism of the Hebrews and the debased aDimal-worshi). Egyptians were in direct antagonism. A long and scvc; test arose between Moses and Aaron, the leaders of U brews, and the priests and magicians of the Egyptians. Moses had been providentially prepared for the part he w:i to act in this great struggle, and for leadership among th; tribes of Israel in this crisis of their affairs. Forty years '>' his life had been spent in Egypt as a member of the