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FROM THE LIBRARY OF
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PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
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THE ANCIENT
EMPIRES OF THE EAST

•
THE ANCIENT
EMPIRES OF THE EAST
rectibrid
BY
AH. SAYCE
DEPUTY-PROFESSOR OF comparaTIVE PHILOLOGY, OXFORD
HONORARY LL.D., DUBLIN
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1884
All rights reserved.
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Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh.
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PREFACE
CONTENTS.
PAGE
vii
I. EGYPT
7
II. BABYLONIA AND Assyria
91
III. THE PHOENICIANS
181
IV. LYDIA
213
V. THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
231
>
Į
1
E
T
PREFACE.
THE following chapters were written to accompany
an edition of the first three books of Hêrodotos.
The discoveries which have been pouring in upon
us of late years from all parts of the oriental world
have made it possible to test the value of our chief
classical authority for the history of the ancient
East, and at the same time to give some idea of
what that history actually was. So rapid, indeed,
has been the progress of research, that not only have
the essays attached to Rawlinson's translation of
Hêrodotos already become antiquated, but even
François Lenormant's well-known Manual of Ancient
History has long since needed to be re-written.
The genial author, however, had scarcely begun the
task when it was arrested by a premature death.
The charming Histoire ancienne des Peuples de
l'Orient, by Professor Maspero, has equally been left
behind by the advance of science. Much in his
account of Egypt requires to be modified, more still
in what he tells us of Assyria and Khaldæa, while
viii
PREFACE.
the important part once played by the Hittite race
is not as yet recognised. It is time, therefore, that
stock should once more be taken of our present
knowledge, and the ever-increasing mass of facts—
many of them hidden away in obscure periodicals-
be reduced to order and consistency.
This is the work that has been attempted in the
following pages. The life and history of the ancient
civilisations of the East has been sketched on the
authority of the monuments they have themselves.
bequeathed to us. But while it pretends to be no
more than a sketch, no detail of importance or
interest has, I believe, been omitted. Some of these
details are here published for the first time; and
with most of them the author can claim a first-hand
acquaintance. The text is unencumbered with
references, partly because the larger part would
have to be made to inscriptions (several of which
are still unedited), partly because the statements
that depend on the authority of classical or modern
writers have been given in the notes to the Greek
text of Herodotos. Those, therefore, who demand
references must turn to the whole work of which
this volume forms but the second part. I may add
that in preparing it for the press in its present
shape, a few misprints have been corrected, while
•
PREFACE.
ix
two or three changes and additions have been made
which the progress of discovery during the past year
has rendered necessary.
Before learning, however, what it is that the
monuments have to teach us, we must form a clear
idea of the worth of the information about the nations
of the East, which we have received from classical
antiquity. We need only compare the following
chapters with a work on ancient history, like that of
Rollin, founded entirely on the statements of Greek
and Latin authors, to see how different-nay, how
inconsistent they are. If the one is true, the other
cannot be. If the record of the contemporaneous
monument is correct, we must give up our faith in
the legends of a later age, reported by writers who
scorned to know an oriental language.
It was just this scorn which has caused the pro-
found difference between the history of the East as
told by the great writers of classical antiquity and by
the native monuments themselves. The historians
of Greece and Rome might have made themselves
acquainted with the latter, if they had chosen. The
Egyptian hieroglyphics were still written and read in
the time of Decius, the cuneiform characters of Baby-
lon were still employed in the age of Domitian. Long
before either, the Egyptian records had been trans-
Χ
PREFACE.
-
lated into Greek by the priest Manetho, and the Baby-
lonian records by the priest Bêrôsos. But Manetho
and Bêrôsos were alike neglected by the literary
world; they savoured too much of the "barbarian,"
and it was only a Jew like Jôsêphos, or orientalising
Christians like Eusêbios, who made any use of them.
Hêrodotos, eked out with excerpts from Ktêsias or
Hekatæos of Abdêra, and expanded by compilers.
like Diodôros, continued to be the chief source of
information on things eastern for the literary circles
of Greece and Rome. Amid the wreck of the
Roman Empire it was only an author who had
many readers that had any chance of surviving.
The few manuscripts which once contained the
works of Manetho or Bêrôsos have long ago perished,
and since the revival of learning the modern world
has been forced to model its conception of the
ancient East on the pages of Hêrodotos. What
wonder, therefore, that Hêrodotos has received the
proud title of "Father of History," or that classical
scholars should resent any impugnment of the
authority of a writer whose literary powers still
exercise on them so great a charm?
But before the ground can be cleared for recon-
structing the fabric of oriental antiquity from the
remains it has itself left behind, it is absolutely
PREFACE.
xi
necessary that the works of Hêrodotos and his
followers should be set in their true light and esti-
mated at their true value. Hêrodotos cannot be
accepted as a guide unless we are first assured that
his historical information is trustworthy, and his
literary honesty unimpeachable.
Whatever the cause or causes may have been,
from the first he met with hostile criticism. Hardly
had the generation for whom he wrote passed away
before Thukydidês tacitly accused him of errors
which the Attic historian corrected without even
naming the author to whom they were due. While
his statements on matters of Greek history were
thus called in question by a writer of that very
nationality whose deeds he had done so much to
exalt, his history of the East was categorically
declared to be false by Ktêsias, the physician of the
Persian King Artaxerxês Mnêmôn. Born at Knidos,
almost within sight of Halikarnassos, the birthplace
of Herodotos, the position of Ktêsias gave him
exceptional opportunities for ascertaining the true
facts of Persian history; and his contemporaries
naturally concluded that a critic who had lived long
at the Persian Court, and had there consulted the
parchment archives of Persia, was better informed
than a mere tourist whose travels had never extended
b
xii
PREFACE.
so far as the Persian capital, and who was obliged
to depend upon ignorant dragomen for the informa-
tion he retailed. The very fact, however, that
Ktêsias considered Hêrodotos worthy of attack
shows that the latter already held a high rank in the
Greek literary world, whatever opinion there might
be as to the character and credibility of his writings.
But the attack of Ktêsias produced its desired result;
the work of Hêrodotos fell more and more into con-
tempt and neglect; the florid rhetoric of Ephoros
superseded it among the readers of a later day, and
even the antiquarian philologists of Alexandria paid
it no special attention. Manetho and Harpokratiôn
wrote books to disprove the assertions of Hêrodotos;
Theopompos, Strabo, Cicero, and Lucian challenged
his veracity, and Jôsêphos declares that "all" Greek
authors acknowledged him to have "lied in most of
his assertions"; while the Pseudo-Plutarch went yet
further, and composed a treatise on the malignity of
Hêrodotos, in which he sought to prove that the
misstatements of "the Father of History" were
intentional distortions of fact. That with all this
Hêrodotos continued to be read, and that his work
escaped the wreck from which but a few fragments
of his critic Ktêsias have been preserved, was due to
the charm of his style.
PREFACE.
xiii
A worse fate than hostile criticism had befallen
the works of his predecessors-they were neglected
and lost. Many of them had been laid by Hêrodotos
under contribution, though he seldom refers to them,
and usually contents himself with implicitly contra-
dicting their statements, as Thukydidês subsequently
did in the case of his own. Foremost among these
predecessors was Hekatæos of Milêtos, who had
travelled in Egypt when the Persian conquest of the
country first made it possible for a Persian subject
like a Greek of Ionia to do so.
Hekatæos pene-
trated as far south as Thebes, and the political
circumstances of his time gave him opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the country and its
inhabitants which were denied to his successor
Hêrodotos. Hêrodotos was a mere tourist, unable
to speak the language of the country, and furnished
with no introductions to cultivated natives. He
was left to the mercies of Karian dragomen and the
inferior servants of the temples, who were allowed
to gain a little bakshish by showing them to inquisi-
tive strangers. Hêrodotos dignifies them, indeed,
with the name of priests; but the Egyptian priest
did not speak the language of the Greek barbarian.
Every traveller will know what a strange idea he
would carry away with him of the history and char-
xiv
PREFACE.
acter of the monuments he visits, and the manners
and customs of the natives, if he had to depend on
what he was told by his guides and ciceroni. How
little Herodotos saw of the higher society of Egypt
may be gathered, as Sir G. Wilkinson has noticed,
from his assertions that the Egyptians drank only
out of bronze cups, and did not eat wheaten bread.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the monuments
have proved decisively that the knowledge Hêrodotos
possessed of Egyptian history was extremely slight.
He himself admits that before the settlement of the
Greeks in Egypt, in the time of Psammetikhos I.,
the history of the country was not "accurately"
known. But even after that event it is dangerous
to accept the statements of the Greek writer, unless
they are confirmed by the monuments.
The story
of the madness of Kambysês and his wounding the
bull Apis, short as the interval of time was that
separated it from the visit of Hêrodotos, has been
shown by the monuments themselves to be a fable
of the guides. Before the age of Psammetikhos
the place of history is taken by folk-tales, attached
by the ciceroni to the monuments the traveller visited.
The order of the royal names occurring in them has
been determined by the order in which he saw the
monuments and copied in his note-book the stories
PREFACE.
XV
of the guides. As the pyramids of Gizeh were
visited after the buildings of Memphis, the pyramid-
builders, Kheops, Khephrên, and Mykerinos, are
made to reign after Rhampsinitos or Ramses III.,
whom they really preceded by about three thousand
years. But the "history" of Egypt as detailed by
Hêrodotos is no further removed from the truth than
his "history" of Assyria and Babylonia, or of the
rise of the Persian empire. Myths and folk-lore,
such as were current among the Greek loungers and
half-caste dragomen on the skirts of the Persian
empire, have usurped the place of actual history,
and have lent to the pages of the old Greek writer
that charm of naïveté and confidential gossip, which
still makes them delightful to read. But the loss of
his History of Assyria, if it was ever written, need
not be regretted; a writer who knows the legend
of Sardanapallos, who calls Sennacherib king of
the Arabs, and confounds Nebuchadrezzar with
Nabonidos, must have had a very slight acquaintance
with the real history of the Euphratean kingdoms.
Even the most stiff-necked opponents of Eastern
learning have been forced to admit that the authority
of Herodotos as an historian of the Orient is but
small, though, in spite of this admission, they still not
unfrequently make use of his unsupported assertions,
xvi
PREFACE.
!
or even oppose them to the revelations of the native
records. Nevertheless, part of the accusation brought
against him by ancient writers has been confessedly
substantiated; the early history of the East, based
on his version of it, has needed to be re-written. It
only remains to enquire whether the second part of
the accusation can be equally verified—whether
Hêrodotos was not only mistaken, but dishonest.
The materials for answering this question have
again been furnished by the discovery and decipher-
ment of the contemporaneous monuments of Asia
and Egypt. Hêrodotos claims to report things at
first hand, which, it can be shown, he must have
derived from unacknowledged sources; he also claims
an extent for his travels which they never had.
Porphyry tells us that there were three things
which it was notorious he had stolen from Hekatæos
-his descriptions of the hippopotamus, the crocodile,
and the phoenix. Now the phoenix, he gives us to
understand, was seen by himself painted on the walls
of the temple of Heliopolis, but, as Prof. Wiedemann
has pointed out, no two independent eyewitnesses
could have imagined that the heron they saw drawn
with Egyptian fidelity was intended for an eagle,
and have described it accordingly. So, too, the
assertion that the hippopotamus had the mane and
PREFACE.
xvii
voice of a horse only proves that "Hêrodotos had
never seen the animal either dead or alive." If
Hekatæos had already given these erroneous descrip-
tions, he must have been simply copied by Hêrodotos.
No two writers could have independently hit upon
descriptions so discordant from the actual facts.¹
1
Here, then, we have an affectation of first-hand
knowledge, which was really second-hand. Hêrodotos
has copied an older writer without acknowledgment,
and has repeated the errors of his text, while endea-
vouring all the time to leave the impression on the
reader's mind that they are the result of his own
observation. This teaches us to be careful about
accepting his testimony in other cases where he
seems to claim the credit due to personal experience,
but where we cannot test his statements so easily.
Thus, to judge from the way in which he writes, he
must have been a marvellous linguist, able to con-
verse freely with Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabians,
Carthaginians, Babylonians, Skythians, Taurians,
Kolkhians, Thrakians, Karians, Kaunians, and Per-
sians. Yet when he ventures to explain words
belonging to any of these languages he generally
¹ Wiedemann has satisfactorily removed the doubts cast upon the
authenticity of the fragments of Hekatæos (Geschichte Ægyptens von
Psammetich I. bis auf Alexander den Grossen, p. 83).
xviii
PREFACE.
!
makes mistakes, and displays his total ignorance of
them. In one passage he goes so far as to compare
Egyptian and Kolkhian together, and pronounce
them to be alike; but as he proceeds to say
that the two populations resembled one another in
having black skins and woolly hair, our faith in his
judgment is considerably shaken. It is scarcely
needful to observe that black skins and woolly hair
are unknown among the inhabitants of the Caucasus,
while the only black-skinned and woolly-haired
people in Egypt were the negro slaves. How little
he understood of the Egyptian language may be
gathered from his assertion that it sounded like the
chirping of birds-an assertion, too, on which he
builds an argument.
Perhaps the best illustration of an affectation of
knowledge which really concealed ignorance is to
be found in his allusions to an Egyptian god whose
name he will not mention, he says, for religious
reasons. The god is shown by the context to be
Osiris; and, as Prof. Wiedemann was the first to
remark, the only religious scruple the Greek traveller
could have had against pronouncing the name of a
deity which was constantly in every native's mouth,
and was perpetually meeting his eyes on numberless
monuments, must have been-ignorance. Hêrodotos
PREFACE.
xix
:
or his authorities had not caught the name when
taking notes, but, instead of confessing the fact, "the
father of history" deliberately deceives his readers.
After this we need not be surprised if we find
sufficient evidence that Hêrodotos never visited
either Upper Egypt or Babylonia, as he implies
was the case, and that consequently the information
he gives about these countries cannot be reported at
first hand. It must have surprised every one who
goes to Egypt with Hêrodotos in his hand that
while the Greek writer bestows such extravagant
admiration upon the Labyrinth, he has not a word
to say about the magnificent buildings of Thebes.
When, however, we come to examine his text
closely, we soon discover that in his descriptions
of Egyptian buildings he never ascends the river
higher than the Fayûm. But Hekatæos, whom he
wished to supplant, had been as far as Thebes, and
it was therefore needful that Hêrodotos, too, should
be thought to have been equally far. Hence it is
that in one place he speaks of having come" as an
eyewitness as far as the city of Elephantinê." In
calling Elephantinê a city, however, instead of an
island, he betrays his ignorance of the locality,
which is further shown by his repeating a story
that made the Nile rise in the same neighbour-
XX
PREFACE.
hood.
Perhaps the most curious example of the
mode in which he endeavours to insinuate that he,
like Hekatæos, had visited Thebes, is a passage in
which he contrasts his own wisdom and modesty
with the ignorant vanity of the older historian,
whom he here names for the first time. By a sort
of verbal legerdemain he mixes together 345 statues
seen by Hekatæos at Thebes two generations pre-
viously with 341 seen by himself at Memphis, and
the confusion is so complete as to have imposed
ever since on his commentators and readers.
That Herodotos could not have visited Babylonia
is suggested by the geographical difficulties involved,
as Mr. Bunbury has shown, in his description of the
royal road from Sardes to Susa. No account is
taken of the distance to be traversed between the
Euphrates and Tigris, and
Tigris, and the march through
Armenia is enormously exaggerated, while no one
who had actually crossed the Gyndes could have
believed, as Hêrodotos did, that it was dissipated
by Kyros into 360 rivulets. In fact, a wrong
situation altogether is assigned to this river by
Hêrodotos, who supposes it to join the Tigris
not far from the city of Opis.
acquaintance with any other way of reaching
Babylonia, his comparative silence about such im-
As he shows no
PREFACE.
.xxi
portant and interesting countries as Syria and
Assyria is well explained. But when he comes
to speak about Babylonia itself, he makes slips
which prove that he must be quoting the experiences
of older authorities as though they were his own.
Thus he calls Babylonia Assyria, and confuses the
Babylonian with the Assyrian empire. Both state-
ments would be natural in a writer who lived before
the fall of Nineveh, when Babylonia was an Assyrian
satrapy; but after that event they could not have
been made by anyone who had actually been in the
country. Not only had the Babylonian empire
taken the place of the Assyrian empire, but the
very name of Assyria was remembered only by
antiquarians. Other assertions of Hêrodotos in
regard to Babylonia are equally convincing to the
Assyriologist. He fancies, for example, that rain falls
but seldom there, the canals serving the same purpose
as in Egypt; and he speaks of "immense stones
being hewn in a country which is absolutely devoid
of them. And yet, in spite of all these evidences
to the contrary, he has endeavoured to produce the
impression that his travels had actually extended
as far as Babylon, and has been eminently successful
in the attempt. When describing the great temple
of Bel he refers to the words of the priests as if
xxii
PREFACE.
they had been addressed to himself, and even
implies that he did not see the golden image of
the god because it had been removed by Xerxês.
The prevarication would have more easily escaped
detection if he had said he did not see the temple
itself as well as the image it contained, since the
whole building had been destroyed by Xerxês at
the same time that the statue was carried off. But
unluckily Hêrodotos did not know this, and accord-
ingly describes the temple at length, leaving it to
be understood that he had carefully examined it
himself.
Modern research, then, obliges us to endorse the
judgment passed upon Hêrodotos almost as soon
as his History was published: it is not only untrust-
worthy but unveracious.
We cannot accept a
statement made by the author, even where he seems
to be describing his own personal experiences, unless
it is verified by other and better testimony. The
so-called history of the East and account of the
oriental world, which classical literature has handed
down to us from him, is thus found to be poisoned
at its fountainhead.
Let us not be unjust, however, to "the father of
history." In what he did he in no way offended
against the literary morality of his age and race.
PREFACE.
xxiii
Just as in the decrepit civilisation of ancient Egypt,
or in the Roman world of the second and third
centuries, the surest mode of securing the popularity
of a book was by ascribing it to some older writer, so
among the growing Greek communities of the age
of Hêrodotos it was the exactly opposite course
which proved a passport to fame. To plagiarise
from his predecessors whom he wished to supplant,
to contradict them silently, to assume a knowledge
they did not possess, was the recognised rule of the
successful literary man. Hêrodotos seems to have
been a greater sinner than most of his contemporaries,
and to have provoked a greater amount of jealousy
and criticism; that was all. Moreover, if we cannot
extract oriental history from his pages, we can
extract from them what is quite as valuable, since
we cannot find it elsewhere. He has given us a
collection of delightful folk-tales, which constitute
almost the only record we have of the folk-lore of
the eastern Mediterranean in the fifth century before
our era. But apart from the folk-lore, the worth
of what he tells us about things oriental is small
indeed.
The compilers who followed him were even less
careful than himself to collect at first-hand the in-
formation they retailed. Diodôros, it is true, incor-
xxiv
PREFACE.
porated in his account of Egypt the statements of
Hekatæos of Abdêra, who made a lengthened stay
in Upper Egypt in the time of the earlier Ptolemies,
and, as Wiedemann has shown, must have been
partially acquainted with the Egyptian language.
Where Hekatæos, however, has not been his guide,
Diodôros is no less untrustworthy than Herodotos.
The case of Ktêsias, the critic of Hêrodotos, is not
so clear, since fragments only remain of his writings,
which are not always consistent with each other.
But here, too, recent discoveries have helped us
towards forming an opinion. They have proved
that Ktêsias really derived his information from
the "parchment" records of Persia, as he claims
to have done, and that his history of Assyria
consists for the most part of Assyro-Babylonian
myths rationalised and transformed in the manner
peculiar to the Persians. The Shah-nameh or book
of kings of the great Persian poet, Firdusi, is a well-
known illustration of this mode of restoring the
past. If Herodotos has given us the dragomen's
version of oriental history, Ktêsias gave the Persian
version of it. When he came to deal with the
history of Persia itself, however, Ktêsias naturally
entered upon surer ground. But even here his
fragments show that his anxiety to convict Hêrod-
PREFACE.
XXV
otos of error sometimes led him to put faith in
statements which were either more incorrect than
those of his predecessor, or equally far from the
truth. On the other hand, many of his errors are
due to a misunderstanding of his Persian authorities.
Thus the name he assigns to the Magian Gaumáta
is the title Sphendadates (speñta-dâta, “given to the
holy one"); and as Duncker has pointed out, he has
substituted the names of the sons of the seven con-
spirators who overthrew the Magian usurper for the
names of the conspirators themselves.
We are thus compelled to turn from the great
writers of Greece and Rome as from unsafe guides.
The literary value of their works can never be
depreciated, and for Western history their authority
is supreme. But the Orientalist can never again
go to them for instruction and argument with the
faith of former generations; living witnesses, as it
were, have started out of the grave of centuries to
convict them of error and deceit. We have at last
learned the true worth of "quicquid Græcia mendax
Audet in historiâ.”
QUEEN'S COLLEGE, Oxford.
A. H. SAYCE.
/
I.
EGYPT.
EGYPT, historically the oldest of countries, is geo-
logically the youngest. It consists entirely of the
soil deposited in comparatively recent times by the
Nile. The triangle of the Delta marks the site of
the ancient mouth of the river; and though the
land has encroached upon the sea but slightly since
the age of the Pharaohs, its height has year by year
been slowly increasing. Some of the mouths of the
river which were navigable streams in classical times
have now ceased to be so; the Serbonian lake has
in part become dry land, while desolate marshes are
now cultivated fields. To the south of the Delta,-
with the exception of the Fayûm, which owes its
fertility to the canal called Bahr Yusuf, the former
feeder of Lake Moris,-Egypt is confined to the
narrow strip of mud which lines both sides of the
river, and is bounded by low hills of limestone, or
the shifting sands of the desert. The Nile now
flows for 1600 miles without receiving a single
B
2 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
tributary; the heated deserts on either bank absorb
all the moisture of the air, and almost wholly prevent
a rainfall, and it is consequently only where the
waters of the river extend during the annual inunda-
tion, or where they can be dispersed by artificial
irrigation, that cultivation and settled life are pos-
sible. This, however, was not always the case.
The channels of rivers and water-courses that once
fell into the Nile can still be traced on both sides of
it, from the Delta to the Second Cataract; and the
petrified forests that are found in the desert, one
about five miles westward of the pyramids of Gizeh,
and two others, an hour and a half and four hours
to the east of Cairo, show that the desert was not
always the barren waste that it now is. The wadis,
or valleys, and cliffs are water-worn, and covered
with boulders and pebbles, which bear witness to
the former existence of mountain-torrents and a
considerable amount of rain; and the discovery of
palæolithic implements near the Little Petrified
Forest, and in the breccia of Kurnah, at Thebes, as
well as other geological indications, make it clear
that the geographical and climatic changes the
country has undergone have taken place since it
was first inhabited by man.
It was long maintained that no traces of a pre-
historic age existed in Egypt. Arcelin and the
Vicomte de Murard, however, in 1868-9, discovered
numerous relics of the neolithic age at Gizeh, El
1.]
3
EGYPT.
1
Kab, and the Biban el-Muluk, or Valley of the
Kings, at Thebes; and MM. Hamy and Fr. Lenor-
mant in 1869 collected further specimens of the
same early epoch. Since then neolithic implements
and chippings have been found as far south as the
Second Cataract, and more especially on the plateau
which overlooks Helwan. Though the discovery
was at first disputed by certain Egyptian scholars,
who knew more of the Egyptian monuments than
of prehistoric archæology, no reasonable doubts in
regard to it can any longer exist.¹
1
It is impossible to calculate the rate at which
the deposit of Nile-mud is taking place, since the
amount deposited varies from year to year, and the
soil left by the inundation of one year may be
entirely carried away by the next. Shafts were
sunk in it in ninety-six different places at Memphis
by Hekekyan Bey in 1851-4, and in one of them,
near the colossal statue of Ramses II., a fragment of
· pottery was found at a depth of 39 feet under strata
of soil which had been covered by sand from the
desert. As the statue, which was erected in the
1 Many of the neolithic flints belong to the historical age. Those
found at Gizeh, for example, are associated with Roman remains, while
the flint weapons in the neighbourhood of the Roman mud-brick fortress
at Sheykh Gebel Embárak were probably the work of the wild tribes
who destroyed it. The worked flints discovered by Gen. Pitt-Rivers in
the breccia on the north side of the temple of Kurnah must be of great
antiquity. See his and Mr. R. P. Greg's papers on the subject in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, x. 4, xi. 4 (May 1881, May
1882).
4
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
fourteenth century B.C., is now 10 feet below the
surface, it would seem that the deposits have been
increasing at the rate of 3.5 inches in each century,
and that consequently the fragment of pottery is
13,530 years old. Such calculations, however, are
exceedingly precarious, and at Heliopolis the alluvial
soil has accumulated to a height of between 5 and
6 feet around the base of the obelisk erected by
Usertasen I. (about B.C. 3000).
All we can say is,
that the Delta had no existence when the Nile was
still fed by a number of tributaries, and flowed at a
much higher level than it does at present.
In some places the river has left behind it evidence.
of its former level. Thus, at Abu-Simbel, a line of
water-worn caves on either bank, just above the
heads of the sitting figures of the great rock-cut
temple, proves the depth of the channel it has
scooped out for itself; while we can actually
determine the date at which the First Cataract was
removed from Gebel Silsileh, or Silsilis, to Assuân
(Syênê), and the highest rise of the river in Ethiopia
was 27 feet 3 inches above its rise at the present
day. Certain inscriptions of the reign of Amen-em-
hat III. of the twelfth dynasty, and of the fourth
king of the thirteenth dynasty, found at Semneh
(about thirty miles south of the Second Cataract),
show that this was the level to which the inundation
then reached, and that the plains of Ethiopia, which
are now far above the fertilising reach of the river,
1.]
5
EGYPT.
were then annually inundated.
Before the accession
of the eighteenth dynasty, however, the catastrophe
had happened; the Nile forsook its old channel,
still very visible, to the south-east of Assuâŋ, the
First Cataract was formed, and the highest level of
the inundation above it was that attained at present.
The earliest traces of man in Egypt since the
country assumed its modern features are probably to
be found in the stone implements already mentioned.
There is no evidence to show that Egyptian civilisa-
tion was introduced from abroad; on the contrary,
everything seems to point to its having been of
indigenous growth. And the high perfection it had
reached before the date of the earliest monuments
with which we are acquainted implies unnumbered
ages of previous development. The civilisations of
the ancient world-of Egypt, of China, and of
Babylonia-were all the creations of great rivers.
Every attempt hitherto made to discover a primitive
connection between them has failed.
Race. The racial affinity of the ancient Egyptians
is still an open question. It is certain, however, that
after the age of the Old Empire the dominant race
ceased to be pure. Thus, the Pharaohs of the
twelfth dynasty seem to have had Nubian blood in
their veins, the Phoenicians of the Delta have left
descendants in the natives of Lake Menzaleh, and
the long dominion of the Hyksos cannot but have
affected the population of the country. Even the
6 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
conquering princes of the eighteenth dynasty married
foreign wives and peopled Egypt with foreign
captives, the twenty-fifth dynasty came from
Ethiopia, and the Saites of the twenty-sixth were
probably of Semitic, or, as Brugsch is inclined to
think, of Libyan origin. At all events they intro-
duced a new element, the Greek, into the population
of Egypt. The type of features presented by the
monuments of the Old Empire is essentially different
from that presented by the monuments of a later
period; and while Egyptian skulls earlier than the
sixth dynasty are dolichocephalic, those subsequent
to the close of the Old Empire are brachycephalic.
The physiological type of the Egyptian of the Old
Empire of the founders, that is, of Egyptian art
and civilisation-is that of a somewhat short, thick-
set man, with massive, good-tempered mouth, smooth
hair, full nostrils, broad forehead, and reddish-brown
complexion. He belongs to what ethnologists have
vaguely termed the Caucasian or Mediterranean
stock. Up to the last the Egyptian showed no
resemblance whatsoever to the negro, and the colour
of his skin alone would effectually mark him off
from the Nubian. On the other hand, the monu-
ments draw a careful distinction between him and
the Libyans, who are painted white or pale yellow.
Language casts no light on the question, since
linguistic relationship proves nothing more than that
races speaking allied forms of speech were once in
1.]
7
EGYPT.
social contact with one another. Moreover, the
philological position of the Old Egyptian language
presents many difficulties, though it seems probable
that either it or its parent-speech was the sister of
the parent-speech of the modern Libyan, Haussa,
and Galla dialects on the one side, and of the parent-
speech of the Semitic idioms on the other. We
may, if we like, class the Egyptians and their
language as “Hamitic," but nothing is thereby
explained. In fact, so far as our present materials
and knowledge are concerned, the Egyptians were as
autochthonous and isolated as their own civilisation.
Geography.-Egypt naturally falls into two divi-
sions the Delta, formed by the mouths of the Nile,
in the north; and the land fertilised by the Nile,
between the Delta and the First Cataract, in the
south. Below Syene and the First Cataract we are
in Nubia. At the apex of the triangle formed by
the Delta stood Memphis, built by Menes upon the
ground he had reclaimed from the Nile by construct-
ing a dyke,-that of Kosheish,-the remains of
which may still be detected near Mitrahenny, and
so confining the river to its western channel. Older
than Memphis was Tini or This, the birthplace of
Menes, and in after times a mere suburb of the
younger Abydos. Here was the tomb of Osiris, in
the neighbourhood of which every Egyptian of
sufficient wealth and dignity desired to be buried.
The accumulated graves formed the huge mound
8 THE ANCIENT EMPires of thE EAST. [1.
About one
now known as the Kom es-Sultân.
hundred miles southwards of This and Abydos stood
Thebes, which under the Middle Empire became
the metropolis of Egypt, and attained its chief glory
under the kings of the eighteenth and nineteenth
dynasties. It is doubtful whether even a village
stood on the spot in the time of the Old Empire;
indeed, it is possible that the population of the
district at that early epoch was still mainly Nubian.
Subsequently, the town extended from the east to
the west bank, where the temple and palace of
Ramses III. (now Medinet Abu), the Memnonium
or Ramesseum,-perhaps the tomb of Ramses II.,-
and the temples built by Seti I. at Kurnah, by
Queen Hatasu at Deir el-Bahri, and by Amenophis
III. farther south, rose at the foot of the vast necro-
polis of the city. In the classical era Thebes gave
its name to the southern half of Egypt. In the
extreme south, on the Egyptian side of the First
Cataract, was Suan or Syênê, now Assuân, opposite
the island of Elephantinê, called Âb, "the
elephant" isle, by the Egyptians, from which came
the sixth dynasty. Two small islands southward of
Elephantinê acquired the reputation of sanctity at
least as early as the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties,
and one of them, Senem, now Bigeh-Konosso, in the
fourth and third centuries B.C., communicated its
sanctity to the neighbouring island of Philæ. Philæ
soon became the religious centre of Egypt, the
to
1.]
9
EGYPT.
reputed tomb of Osiris having been transferred to it
after the decay of Abydos. The granite cliffs and
boulders between Phile and Syênê furnished the
material for the obelisks, the sphinxes, the colossi,
and the other great monuments of the Egyptian
monarchs; and the early date at which they were
worked may be gathered from the fact that the so-
called granite-temple, close to the Sphinx of Gizeh,
whose building may have preceded the reign of
Menes, is constructed of blocks which must have
been brought from Assuân.
Southward of the First Cataract was Nubia, and
above that again Cush or Ethiopia. Nubia formed
part of the kingdom of the sixth dynasty, while
Usertasen III. fixed the boundaries of the empire at
Semneh and Kummeh; and an Egyptian officer,
entitled "the Prince of Kush," and first named in
inscriptions of Thothmes I., whose capital was as far
south as Napata, governed the country up to the
age of the twenty-first dynasty. The most perfect
remains of Pharaonic fortifications now existing are
the fortresses of sun-dried brick erected by Thothmes
III. at Kobbân, opposite Dakkeh, and on both sides
of the river at Semneh, thirty-five miles south of the
Second Cataract.
The division of Egypt into Upper and Lower
dates from the age preceding Menes, the first known
king, who united the two kingdoms (B.C. 5004).
Lower Egypt, called To Meh or To Mera—“ the
IO
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. · [1.
northern country"-extended from the Mediterranean
to Beni-Suef, and consequently included the marshes
of the Delta, occupied in the time of the Old Empire
by the long-forgotten hippopotamus, crocodile, and
papyrus.
It was defended from the attacks of the
Amu or Semitic tribes of Western Asia by a line of
fortresses called Matsor in Hebrew (whence Mizraim,
or "the two matsors,"—that is, Upper and Lower
Egypt). The line stretched from Migdol in the
north to the neighbourhood of Suez in the south,
and was originally established by the founders of
the eighteenth dynasty. The main channels through
which the Nile flowed into the sea were seven,—the
Pelusiac, Tanitic, Mendesian, Bukolic or Phatnitic,
Sebennytic, Bolbitinic, and Kanopic,—of which two
only are now navigable. The Kanopic branch, ten
miles from the mouth of which Alexandria was
founded under the auspices of Alexander the Great,
is now represented by a marshy inlet near Abukir.
In the eastern part of the Delta lay the land of
Goshen, with its cities of Tanis or Zoan, Bubastis,
Pharbæthus, Pithom, and On or Heliopolis (near
Cairo), not far from which was the site now known
as the Tel el-Yehudîyeh, where the Jewish priest
Onias, with the aid of Ptolemy Philomêtôr, raised
the rival temple to that of Jerusalem. From Tanis
and Daphne to Pelusium the fortified high-road led
from Egypt to Palestine, along the edge of the
Mediterranean. Upper Egypt, extending from Beni-
1.]
II
EGYPT.
Suef to Assuân, was known as To Kemâ, or To Res,
-"the southern country,"-which, with the article
pa prefixed, is the original of the Hebrew and Greek
Pathros. Like Lower Egypt, it was divided into
nomes or districts,―hesoph in Egyptian,—supposed
to represent the numerous small states of the pre-
historic age out of which the historic Egypt was
constituted.
Under
Each nome was subdivided into its
nut or capital, its uu or cultivated land, fertilised by
the Nile, the marsh lands (pehu), and the portion of
cultivated land watered by canals. The civil and
military administration of the nome was in the hands
either of a hereditary governor (hik), or of a monarch
(mer-nut-zât-to), appointed by the king.
the Ptolemies these monarchs were usually termed
στρατηγοί, presided over by an ἐπιστρατηγός; the
religious affairs of the province being managed by
the high-priests of the principal temples, assisted by
a numerous staff of prophets, scribes, astrologers,
and sacristans. At the same time the nome was
further subdivided into a certain number of τοπαρχίαι,
composed of groups of towns (TÓTTO) and villages.
The number of nomes varied at different periods.
Thus the hieroglyphic list at Edfu mentions thirty-
nine, nineteen being in Lower Egypt; while Diodôros
(liv. 3) and Strabo (xxviii. 1, 3) reckon thirty-six.
12
[I.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
LIST OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN NOMES.
UPPER EGYPT.

Egyptian.
NOMES.
CAPITALS.
Greek.
Egyptian.
Greek.
Arabic.
Ombos (Egn.
Nubti)
in
(Geziret-As-
suân, and
Kom Ombu.
2. Tes-Hor.
3. Ten.
Latopolites.
4. Uas.
(Diospolites.
Phatyrites.
Hermonthites.
5. Horui.
Koptites.
Kebti.
6. Emsuh (?).
Tentyrites.
7. Ha-Sekhekh
(Hut-sokhem).
Diospolites.
Ha or Hu.
8. Tenai (?).
Thinites.
9. Khem or
Apu.
10. Tuf.
Panopolites.
Antæopolites.
1. To Kens.
Ombites.
Abu (Elephantinê).
Teb (Copt. Atbu)
Apollinopolites.hennu.
Nekheb.
Sni.
Ni-Amun or T-
Apu, afterwards
Her Mont (An
Res an Munt).
Teni, afterwards
Ab-tu or Abud
with suburb Sui.
Khem
or Apu
the Roman
period.
(Apollinopolis
Magna.
Silsilis.
Eileithyia.
Latopolis.
Thebai (Dios-
polis Magna)
Hermonthis.
Parva.
This or Thin-
is, afterwards
Abydos, sub-
urb Ptolemais
Panopolis or
Khemmis.
Edfu.
Silsileh.
El Kab.
Esneh.
Luxor-Kar-
nak and
Medinet Abu
Erment.
Kuft.
Denderah.
Hû.
Girgeh and
Kharâbet el-
Madfûneh.
Akhmîm.
Koptos.
Ta-rer or Ta-n-
taru (or Ta-nutri,
Tentyris
or
Copt. Pi Tentore.
Tentyra.
Diospolis
(Copt. Shmin).
Ni-ent-bak.
Antæopolis.
Gau el-Kebir.
14. Uaz.
15. Unnu.
II. Bâar.
12. Atef Khent
(Upper Atef).
13. Atef Pehu
(Lower Atef).
Lykopolites.
Part of Lyko-
polites and
Hermopolites.
Hermopolites.
Hypselites.
Shas-hotep (Copt.
1 Shotp).
Hypselê.
Satb.
Siaut (Copt. Siut). Lykopolis.
Asyût.
Kus or Kast.
Khusai.
Kusiyeh.
Tebti.
Sesunnu or Khim-
unu (Copt.
Shmun).
Hermopolis.
Ashmunen.
16. Meh (or Sah).
17. Anup.
18. Uab.
North part of
Hermopolites.
Kynopolites.
Oxyrrhinkhites.
Hebennu or Hat-
uer (Copt. Tuho).
Nofrus.
Panubt.
Menât-Khufu.
Ko or Ha-Suten.
Pa-Mâzat (Copt.
Pemje).
Sapt-moru.
Theodosio-
polis.
Speos Arte-
midos.
Taha el-Me-
dineh (?).
Kûm el-Ah-
mar.
Beni-Hassan
Minieh,
Kynopolis.
El-Kes.
Oxyrrhin-
Behnesa.
khos.
1.]
13
EGYPT.
Egyptian.
UPPER EGYPT—Continued.

NOMES.
Capitals.
Greek.
Egyptian.
Greek.
Arabic.
Arsinoites.
19. Neht Khent. Herakleopolites.
20. Pa.
21. Neht Peht,
including
(To-she or).
Ha-Khnensu, or
Pi - her - Shefni
(Copt. Hnes).
Ha-bennu.
Meri Tum,
Meitum.
Shed (Pi-Sebek).
Herakleopo-
lis Magna.
Ahnâs el-
Medîneh.
Hipponon.
?
or
?
Mêdûm.
Krokodilopo-
lis.
Medinet el-
Fayûm.
22. Matennu.
Aphroditopol-
ites.
Pa Neb-tep-ahe.
Aphroditopo-
Atfieh.
lis.
LOWER EGYPT.
1. Anbu-hat or
Sebt-hat
("the white
wall").
2. Aa.
Memphites.
Letopolites.
Sekhem-t.
3. Ament.
Nomos Libya.
Ni Ent Hapi.
4. Sepi Res.
Saites.
Zoka.
5 Sepi Emhit.
Saites.
Sai.
6. Ka-sit.
Xoites.
Khesauu.
7. Ament.
?
Sonti-nofer.
8.
•
9. At-pi.
10. Ka-Kem.
Abot.
Sethroites.
Busirites.
P-Usir-Neb-tat.
Busiris.
11. Ka-Hebes.
Athribites.
Kabasites.
Ha-ta-Hir-ab.
Athribis.
Ka-hebes.
Men-noferl
("good place").
Memphis.
{ Letopolis and
1 Kerkasoros.
Various vil-
lages.
Near Abukir.
Sâ el-Hager.
N.E. of Sais.
?
Pi-Tum (Pithom). Heroopolis. Tel el-Mask-
huta.
A busîr.
Tell Atrib.
?
A pis.
Kanopos.
Sais.
Xois.
Metelis.
?
?
Kabasos.
12. Ka-Theb.
Sebennytes
Theb en-Nuter.
Superior.
Sebennytos.
Semennûd.
13. Hak-at.
Heliopolites.
{ Anu (On) and Pi-
Ra.
Heliopolis.
Near Cairo.2
Zân (Zoan)
or
14. Khent Abot.
Tanites.
15. T-Hut.
16. Khar.
17. Sam-hut.
Mendesios.
Diospolites.
18 Am Khent.
Bubastites.
Pi-Bast.
19. Am Pehu or
Pa-To-Nuz.
Butikos or
Pa-Uz.
Phtheneotes.
20. Lapt.
Pharbæthites.
Sheten.
Hermopolites.
Zân pi-Ramses
(Raainses).
Pi-T-hut.
Paba-Neb-tat or
Tatu.
Pi-khun en-Amun.
Hermopolis.
Mendes.
( Takhnamunis
1 or Diospolis.
Bubastis.
Tanis.
Sân.
?
STmey el-
Amdid (?).
?
Tel Basta
(Zagazig).
Buto.
?
Pharbæthos.
Horbet.
1 Contracted into Moph and Noph (modern Tel-Monf). Memphis was also called
Kha-nofer, "the good appearance;" Makha-ta, "land of the scales;" and Ha-ka-Ptah,
"house of worship of Ptah,” whence perhaps the Greek AïуʊπтOS. The fortified part
was named Anbuhat or "white wall." (See Thuk. i. 104).
2 Brugsch would identify Heliopolis or Pi-Ra, on the north side of On, with Tel el-
Yehudiyeh.
14
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
Chronology and History.-Egyptian chronology
is full of difficulties, and without more materials
than we possess at present can be little else than a
system of guess-work. We must be content to date
the period preceding the seventh century B.C. by
dynasties rather than by years. All we can state
with certainty is that the chronology, historically
considered, is an enormously long one, and that the
earlier dynasties must be placed at least 6000 years
ago. Our authorities are partly classical, partly
monumental. The most important is Manetho (in
Egyptian Mei en- Tahuti-" Beloved of Thoth "), a
priest of Sebennytos, who was intrusted by Ptolemy
Philadelphus (B.C. 284-246) with the task of trans-
lating into Greek the historical works contained in
the Egyptian temples. Unfortunately Manetho's
work is lost, and we have to depend for our know-
ledge of it upon the meagre and sometimes contra-
dictory extracts made by Josephus, Eusebius, Julius
Africanus,¹ and George Syncellus.2
Eusebius and Africanus profess to give us Mane-
tho's list of the Egyptian dynasties, with the length
of time each lasted, and in many cases the names
and regnal years of the monarchs of whom they
1 Bishop of Emmaus (Nikopolis) at the beginning of the third century.
Only fragments of his work on Chronology in five books have been
preserved. (See Routh, Reliquiæ Sacræ, ii.)
2 i.e. the “cell-companion" of the Patriarch of Constantinople, A.D.
800. His work was continued from 285 down to 813 by Theophanes
the Isaurian.
1.]
15
EGYPT.
were composed. The names and numbers, however,
do not always correspond, nor does even the duration
of certain dynasties agree with the totals of the reigns
comprised in them, when added together. But what
is most serious is, that the names of the kings, and
the length of time they are said to have reigned, are
not unfrequently irreconcilable with the statements
of the monuments. Sometimes, too, reigns for
which we have monumental evidence are omitted
altogether. It is plain, therefore, that Manetho's
list has come to us in a very corrupt condition, and
that the numbers contained in it must be received
with extreme caution. Moreover, the Christian
writers who have handed them down were intent on
reconciling the chronology of the Egyptian historian
with that of the Old Testament, and were conse-
quently likely to curtail it as much as possible.
Nevertheless, in the want of other authorities, all
attempts to restore Egyptian chronology must be
based upon this imperfect reproduction of Manetho,
to whom, it may be observed, the distribution of the
kings into dynasties is due. That Manetho himself
faithfully reported the evidence of the monuments
-or rather, perhaps, of the native histories compiled
from them-has been abundantly proved by the
decipherment of the inscriptions. His statements,
notwithstanding the imperfect state in which they
have reached us, are in the main correct. The
monumental names can generally be detected under
16 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
*.
their Greek disguises, the scheme of dynasties has
received full confirmation, and the chronology of the
Sebennytic priest seems rather to err on the side of
defect than of excess. Startled by the long chrono-
logy Manetho's list necessitates, Egyptian scholars
formerly imagined that several of the dynasties were
contemporaneous. M. Mariette's researches, how-
ever, have shown that this is not the case. Thus
the theory which made the fifth dynasty reign at
Elephantinê, while the sixth was reigning at Mem-
phis, has been overthrown by the discovery of monu-
ments belonging to the two dynasties in both places;
and the discovery of the colossi of the thirteenth
Theban dynasty at Sân or Tanis, near Xois, upsets
the scheme according to which this dynasty was
contemporaneous with the Xoites of the fourteenth.
In fact, as M. Mariette says, if the lists of Manetho
"contain collateral dynasties, we should find in them,
before or after the the twenty-first, the dynasty of
high-priests which (as we learn from the monuments)
reigned at Thebes, while the twenty-first occupied
Tanis; in the same way we should have to reckon
before or after the twenty-third the seven or eight in-
dependent kings who were contemporary with it, and
who ought, if Manetho had not disregarded them, to
have added so many successive royal families to the
list of the Egyptian priest; similarly the 'dodecarchy'
would count, at least, as one dynasty coming between
the twenty-fifth and the twenty-sixth; and finally, the
3
I.]
-
EGYPT.
17
Theban princes, the rivals of the Shepherds, would
take their place before or after the seventeenth."1
There were several periods in the history of Egypt,
it is true, when more than one line of kings was
ruling in the country; but it is clear that either
Manetho or his epitomisers struck out all except the
one line which was considered legitimate, and so
drew up a catalogue of successive dynasties.
It is probable, however, that gaps occur between
some of the latter. If at any period there was no
dynasty which the Egyptian priests considered le-
gitimate, it would necessarily be passed over in the
annals of Manetho. Indeed, of one such period we
have actual proof. No mention is made by Manetho
of the so-called dodecarchy, when, for more than twenty
years, Egypt was under the domination of Assyria.
The twenty-sixth dynasty is made to follow im-
mediately upon the twenty-fifth. And there is no
reason to think that this is an isolated case. The
interval of 750 years, for instance, which, according to
Africanus, intervened between the close of the Old
Empire with the sixth dynasty, and the rise of the
Middle Empire with the eleventh, seems hardly
sufficient to account for the changes undergone by
Egypt and its people during the time, and the
interval is still further reduced to 391 or 466 years
by Eusebius.
Reigns, too, have dropped out of the list in many
1
¹ Aperçu de l'Histoire ancienne d'Égypte, p. 67.
C
18 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
i
places; thus, to take only the earlier dynasties,
Noferkara or Nebkara is omitted in the third;
Ratat-ef, the successor of Kheops, in the fourth;
and Keka in the fifth. The efforts of Eusebius to
shorten the chronology make his excerpts less trust-
worthy than those of Africanus; Kheneres, for
instance, the Tefa or Hutefa of the tablet of Sak-
kârah, is omitted by him at the end of the second
dynasty (though he makes Nepherkheres or Nofer-
kafra the seventh and not the fifth successor of
Binothris or Bainuter), and an example of the way
in which he reduces the number of regnal years has
already been noticed.
In commemorating the earlier monarchs of the
country the priests of the various temples compiled
selected lists of them. Thus at Abydos Seti I. is
represented as honouring the spirits of sixty-five of
his predecessors, beginning with Menes and ending
with the last king of the twelfth dynasty, the kings
of the eighteenth dynasty, who are made to follow
immediately, being reckoned as twelve. At Karnak,
again, Thothmes III. is pictured making offerings to
the images of sixty-one of his predecessors; while a
second list of kings, discovered at Abydos, in the
temple of Ramses II., repeats the list given by Seti,
with a few omissions. At Sakkârah, too, in the
tomb of a priest named Tunari, who flourished
under Ramses II., we see the dead man admitted to
eternal life in the presence of fifty-eight of the earlier
I.]
19
EGYPT.
Y
kings of Egypt. The principles upon which these
selected lists were drawn up are still unknown to us.
Certain prominent kings, such as Menes, the founder
of the empire, or Kheops, the builder of the great
pyramid, occur in them all, but in other parts of the
lists the names chosen are different. Possibly the
priests selected those monarchs who were reputed to
have been benefactors to the particular shrines in
which the lists are found; more probably the de-
ceased is brought into spiritual relation with those
who in some special way were supposed to have
been his ancestors. At all events, it is one of these
selected temple-lists that is embodied in the cata-
logue of thirty-eight "Theban" kings extracted from
the Greek mathematician Eratosthenês (B.C. 276-194)
by Christian writers. The introductory sentence,
which calls Menes a Theban, shows plainly the
source from which it was derived.¹
A sketch of Egyptian history is given by Diodôros,
who probably derived it from Ephoros. The sketch
is on the whole fairly accurate, though the blunder
of Herodotos is repeated, which placed Kheops,
Khephren, and Mykerinos 2000 years too late.
Herodotos (see Introd.) derived his information as
to earlier Egyptian history from the inventive ignor-
ance of half-caste ciceroni, so that we need not
1 The list of Eratosthenês, in which an attempt is made to give the
meaning of the royal names, was edited by Apollodôros of Athens
(about B.C. 140).
20 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
wonder at its utter incompatibility with the truth.
In saying, however, that the 341 generations of
kings who preceded Sethos extended over 11,340
years, the Greek historian has made a gratuitous
mistake of his own; not only is his arithmetic at
fault, but he has confounded together reigns and
generations.
It is possible that the sources from which Manetho
composed his history may yet be recovered. What
they were we may gather from the famous Turin
papyrus, written in the time of Ramses II., and
found probably in a tomb at Thebes. The careless-
ness of the natives who discovered it, and of the
Europeans who brought it home, has unfortunately
shivered it into more than 160 minute fragments,
many of which it is impossible to put in their right
places. In spite of this horribly mutilated condition,
the papyrus is nevertheless of the highest value.
considerable number of royal names are preserved,
many of them otherwise unknown, as well as the
years and months each king reigned. With a com-
plete papyrus of this kind we should be able to
restore the whole skeleton of Egyptian history.
A
Like the histories of all other great nations, this
history begins with its mythical age. The first
dynasty of prehistoric Egypt was believed to have
consisted of the gods. Each temple had its own
peculiar list of these divine monarchs, in which its
presiding deity took the first place. Thus at Mem-
1.]
21
EGYPT.
phis the dynasty of gods was composed as follows :—
(1) Ptah or Hephastos, "the father of the gods;"
(2) Ra, the Sun-god, his son; (3) Shu (Agatho-
dæmon), the Air-god, his son; (4) Seb, the earth,
his son; (5) Osiris, his son; (6) Set (Typhon), the
son of Seb; (7) Horos, "the redeemer," the son of
Osiris. At Thebes, on the other hand, the order
was: (1) Amun-Ra, "the king of the gods;" (2)
Mont, his son; (3) Shu, the son of Ra; (4) Seb, his
son; (5) Osiris, his son; (6) Horos, his son; Set, the
evil principle, not being reckoned among the legiti-
mate rulers. Next to these royal gods came the
Hor-shesu, or "successors of Horos," divided by
Manetho into the two dynasties of demi-gods and
Manes; among the latter, according to the Turin
papyrus, being the sacred animals, the Apis of
Memphis and the Mnêvis of On. The reign of the
Manes closed the mythical age of Egypt; they were
followed by Menes of This, the founder of the united
monarchy and the leader of the historical dynasties.
Modern research, however, has caught glimpses of
the epoch which preceded the age of Menes, and was
relegated by the Egyptian scribes to the reigns of
the mysterious Hor-shesu. The country of the Nile
was then divided into a number of small kingdoms,
inhabited by a race similar in origin and customs,
and already possessed of a considerable civilisation.
The so-called granite temple, near the Sphinx of
Gizeh, built of huge monoliths of Syenite granite, ex-
22
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
'
quisitely cut and polished and fitted together, perhaps
belongs to this remote period. It must have origi-
nally been a tomb, but when it was discovered in the
sand in the time of Kheops, the builder of the great
pyramid, the king seems to have imagined it to be
the shrine of Harmachis,¹ the Sphinx. The building
carries us back to an age when neither cement nor
sculpture nor writing was known; but even at that
remote date the principles of architecture had been
studied, and the chieftain who lived on the edge of
the Delta was able to have huge blocks of granite
cut and transported for him from the distant quarries
of Assuân. The Sphinx itself probably belongs to
the same early time. At all events it was already
in existence in the age of Khephren and the fourth
dynasty, and no mention is made of its construction
in the excerpts from Manetho.
Whoever has seen the rich plain in which the city
of This once stood will easily understand how it was
that the founder of the united monarchy came from
thence. The plain is at once one of the largest and
most fertile of those in the valley of the Nile, while
it is protected from attack on three sides by the
Libyan hills, and on the fourth side by the river.
1 Egyptian Hor-em-khuti, "the sun on the horizon." In the inscrip-
tion, which states that Khufu found a temple of Isis beside the temple
of the Sphinx, the Sphinx is called Hu. The inscription, though pro-
bably dating from the age of the twenty-first dynasty, is a copy of an
older text. But see Fl. Petrie, Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, pp.
133-157.
1.]
23
EGYPT.
Everything was in favour of the progress of its in-
habitants in wealth and power. At any rate it
was from here, from the precincts of the tomb of
Osiris himself, that Menes or Mena, "the constant,"
made his way northwards, passing on his road the
ancient kingdoms of Ni ent-Bak (Antæopolis) and
Sesunnu (Hermopolis), where Horus had defeated
and slain his enemy Set, with the aid of Thoth.
last he established himself in the near neighbourhood
of the Sphinx, which may possibly record his deeds
and features, and by means of the great dyke of
Kosheish won the land from the Nile whereon to
build his capital, Men-nofer or Memphis.
At
The date to which this event was assigned by
Manetho has, for reasons already given, been variously
computed. Boeckh makes it B.C. 5702, Unger 5613,
Mariette 5004, Brugsch 4455, Lauth 4157, Pessl
3917, Lepsius 3892, and Bunsen 3623.
We shall provisionally adopt the dates of Mariette,
whose long-continued excavations in Egypt have
given him an exceptional authority to speak upon
the matter; but those who have sailed up the Nile,
and observed the various phases through which
Egyptian art has passed will be inclined to think
that he has rather fallen short of the mark than gone
beyond it.
Menes, we are told, undertook a campaign against
the Libyans, and after a reign of sixty-two years was
eaten by a crocodile (or hippopotamus), a legend
་
24 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
which may have originated in the belief that Set, the
enemy of order and government, revenged himself
upon the successor of the royal Osiris. Teta, who
followed him, was said to have written treatises upon
medicine and anatomy, and the medical papyrus of
Ebers contains a chapter which was supposed to have
been "discovered" in his reign, while the sixty-fourth
chapter of the Book of the Dead was ascribed to the
same date. The only other noteworthy king of the
first dynasty was Uenephes, the builder in all prob-
ability of the so-called step-pyramid of Sakkârah.
The second king of the second dynasty, Kakau or
Kaiekhos, established or more probably regulated the
worship of the bulls Apis and Mnêvis, and the goat
of Mendes. After him Bainuter or Binothris laid
down that women as well as men might henceforward
inherit the throne.
With the death of the last king of the second
dynasty (B.C. 4449) the line of Menes seems to have
come to an end. It had succeeded in welding the
whole country together, and suppressing those colla-
teral princes whose names are occasionally met with
on the monuments. The third dynasty was Memphite.
To it belongs Snefru or Sephuris (B.C. 4290-4260),
whose inscriptions in the Wady Magharah tell us
that the turquoise-mines of Sinai were worked for
his benefit, and guarded by Egyptian soldiers. The
lofty pyramid of Meidûm is his tomb, close to which
are the sepulchres of his princes and officials, still
1.]
25
EGYPT.
:
brilliant with coloured mosaic-work of pictures and
hieroglyphics.
But it is the era of the fourth dynasty that is
emphatically the building era. The pyramid-tombs
of Khufu (Kheops), Khafra (Khephren), and Men-
ka-ra (Mykerinos or Menkheres), in the necropolis of
Memphis, still excite the astonishment of mankind
by their size and solidity.
Gizeh, with its two companions, towers like a moun-
tain above the sandy plain, and neither the ruin of
six thousand years nor the builders of Cairo have
been able to destroy them. Khufu and Khafra,
"The great pyramid " of
whose impiety was one of the "travellers' tales" told
to Hêrodotos by his ignorant guides, were separated
from each other by the reign of Tat-ef-Ra or Ra-tatf,
who was possibly the son of Khufu, “the long-haired,"
and the brother of Khafra. The statue of Khafra,
of hard diorite, found by M. Mariette, and preserved in
the Museum of Bûlak, is one of the most beautiful
and realistic specimens of Egyptian art, characteristic
of its early phase, and illustrating the features of the
Egyptians of the Old Empire. Men-ka-ra was
followed by Ases-ka-f, the Asykhis of Hêrodotos,
who built the pyramid of brick, and was, according
to Diodôros, one of the five great lawgivers of Egypt.
After a few more reigns, the fifth dynasty succeeds
to the fourth, and we pass to the age of Ti, whose
tomb at Sakkârah is among the choicest of Egyptian
monuments. Its walls of white stone are covered with
26 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
delicate sculptures, brilliantly coloured, and resembling
the most exquisite embroidery on stone. They trace
for us the scenes of Ti's life; here he is superintend-
ing his labourers in the field; here he is watching a
party of carpenters or shipbuilders; here, again, he
is hunting hippopotami among the papyri of the
Delta, while a kingfisher hard-by is seeking, with
loud cries and outstretched wings, to drive a croco-
dile from her young. The kings of the fifth dynasty
introduced the fashion of adding a second cartouche,
with the name of honour, to that which contains their
names as individuals. One of them, Tat-ka-ra Assa,
who has left us monuments among the mines of
Sinai, was the prince under whom the Papyrus Prisse
was written by "the governor Ptah-Hotep." This,
the most ancient book in the world, is a treatise on
practical philosophy, very like the Book of Proverbs
in the Old Testament. Thus, it tells us, that “if
thou art become great after thou hast been lowly,
and if thou hast heaped up riches after poverty, being
because of that the chiefest in thy city; if thou art
known for thy wealth and art become a great lord;
-let not thy heart be puffed up because of thy
riches, for it is God who has given them unto thee.
Despise not another who is as thou wast; be towards
him as towards thy equal." Ptah-Hotep must have
been advanced in years at the time he wrote his
book, if we may judge from the feeling language in
which he describes old age.
1.]
27
EGYPT.
With the fifth dynasty the Memphite dynasties
come to an end. The sixth was from Elephantinê.
Its most illustrious monarch was Merira Pepi I.,
whose able minister Una has left us a record of his
widespread activity. Ships of war were built at the
First Cataract to convey blocks of granite to the
north; multitudes of negroes were enrolled in the
Egyptian army for campaigns against the Semites
of Asia and the Herusha or Beduins of the isthmus
of Suez; the garrisons in the Sinaitic peninsula were
strengthened; and the temple of Hathor, at Denderah,
built by the Horshesu in the mythical age, and
repaired by Khufu, was rebuilt from the foundations
according to the original plans, which had been acci-
dentally discovered.¹
The sixth dynasty ended with Queen Neit-akrit,
or Nitokris, "with the rosy cheeks," who completed the
third pyramid, left unfinished by Men-ka-ra, and, if we
may believe Hêrodotos, avenged herself on the mur-
derers of her brother. An age of trouble and disaster,
it would seem, followed upon her death. The copyists
of Manetho give but a short duration to the seventh
dynasty, and the three kings placed after Neit-akrit
by the Turin papyrus are made to reign severally only
two years a month and a day, four years two months
and a day, and two years a month and a day.
1 Wiedemann doubts this, and believes that the whole story was in-
vented in the time of Thothmes III., the real builder of the temple, in
order to give the shrine the reputation of antiquity. .
28 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
With the close of the sixth dynasty (B.C. 3500) we
may also date the close of the Old Empire. For
several centuries the history of Egypt is a blank. A
few royal names are met with on scarabs, or in the
tablets of Abydos and Sakkârah, but their tombs and
temples have not yet been found. When the dark-
ness that envelops them is cleared away, it is with
the rise of the eleventh dynasty and the Middle
Empire (B.C. 3064). How long it lasted we do not
know, but the period cannot have been a short one.
Profound changes have taken place when the veil is
once more lifted from Egyptian history. We find
ourselves in a new Egypt; the seat of power has
been transferred to Thebes, the physical type of the
ruling caste is no longer that of the Old Empire, and
a change has passed over the religion of the people.
It has become gloomy, introspective, and mystical ;
the light-hearted freedom and practical character
that formerly distinguished it are gone. Art, too,
has undergone modifications which imply a long age
of development. It has ceased to be spontaneous
and realistic, and has become conventional. Even
the fauna and flora are different, and the domestic
cat, imported from Nubia, for the first time makes its
appearance on the threshold of history.
Thebes is the capital of the Middle Empire, and
a new deity, Amun, the god of Thebes, presides over
it. Its princes were long the vassals of the legitimate
dynasties of Herakleopolis, and the first of whom we
1.]
29
EGYPT.
know, Entef I., claimed to be no more than a simple
noble. His son, Mentu-hotep I., still calls himself
hor, or subordinate king, and it is not until three
generations afterwards that Entef IV. throws off the
supremacy of the sovereigns in the north, assumes
the title of monarch of Upper and Lower Egypt,
and founds the eleventh dynasty; though this
honour is also claimed by Mentu-hotep IV. The
era of Theban greatness, however, begins with the
Amen-em-hats and Usertasens of the twelfth dynasty.
Its founder, Amen-em-hat I., won the throne by war,
and followed the fashion of the old Memphite kings
by building for himself a pyramid. We possess in
the Sallier papyrus the instructions which he wrote
for his son. The relations between Egypt and the
adjoining districts of Palestine are revealed to us in
the story of an adventurer named Saneha, who is
made to fly from the court of the Theban monarch
to that of Ammu-enshi, king of Tennu in Edom,
where, like David, the Egyptian killed a "champion,"
famous for his strength and size. The obelisk which
marks the site of Heliopolis, near Cairo, was raised
by Usertasen I., the son and successor of Amen-em-
hat; it is the oldest of which we know. It charac-
terises the Middle Empire, just as the pyramid
characterised the Old Empire, and, in the later times
at all events, was intended to serve as a lightning-
conductor. At any rate, an inscription at Edfu
speaks of it as thus employed. Meanwhile, new
30 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
✓
colonists were sent to Sinai, and the turquoise-mines
were re-opened. The Nubians and negroes of Aken
and Kush were conquered, and in the eighth year of
the reign of Usertasen III. the southern boundary of
the empire was fixed at the fortresses of Semneh
and Kummeh, thirty-five miles beyond the Second
Cataract, no negro being allowed to come northward
of them, except for purposes of trade.
Here, in
succeeding reigns, the height of the inundation was
marked year by year on the rocks, from which we
learn that its highest rise was 27 feet 3 inches above
its rise at the present day. The enormous basin,
with its tunnel and canal, dug by Amen-em-hat III.
on the western bank of the Nile, created the modern
province of the Fayûm. Its name, Meri, or “lake,”
was changed by the Greeks into the name of an
imaginary being, Mœris. Its site is now marked
by a depression in the south-east of the Fayûm.
Strangely enough, the province and its inhabitants
were so abhorred by the Egyptians on account of
their worship of the god Sebek, and his sacred
animal, the crocodile, that they are never mentioned
on the monuments. It is possible that Amen-em-hat
peopled the district with the captives he had carried
away from the south. We know from the paintings
on the tomb of Prince Khnum-hotep at Beni-hassan
that the immigration of the Semites into the Delta,
which eventually gave it the name of Keft-ur, or
Caphtor, "Greater Phoenicia," had already begun in
+
"
I.]
EGYPT.
31
the reign of Usertasen II. In the sixth year of the
latter's reign a family of thirty-seven Amu or Semites
from Absha arrived with their asses and goods, and
craved permission to settle on the banks of the Nile.
We may still see them with their black hair and
hooked noses, and Phoenician garments of many
colours like the one which Joseph wore. They were
the forerunners of numerous hordes, who succeeded at
last not only in making the Delta their own, but even
in conquering the whole country that had given them
hospitality, and under the name of the Hyksos ruling
over it for more than 500 years. They borrowed
the alphabet of the Egyptians, under the form
assumed by it in the hieratic papyri of the Middle
Empire; and this alphabet, after being carried to
Phoenicia, has become the mother of the alphabets
of the civilised world.
The kings of the thirteenth dynasty ably main-
tained the empire which had been handed down to
them. More than 150 are named in the Turin
papyrus, proving that the number 60, given by the
copyists of Manetho, is incorrect. Monuments of
some of them have been found at Asyut, at Abydos,
at Bubastis, at Tanis, and elsewhere. The twenty-
sixth sovereign of them erected colossi in the island
of Argo, in the very heart of Ethiopia, thus penetrat-
ing far beyond the southernmost limits of the conquests
of the twelfth dynasty. But the following dynasty
from Xois (Sakha), whose seventy-six kings, according
32
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
to Manetho, reigned for 484 or 134 years, allowed
the power it inherited to slip through its hands. The
fifteenth dynasty bears the ominous title of Shep-
herds, or Hyksos, and testifies to the fact that
Egypt had passed under the yoke of a foreign
domination.
Hyksos is the Egyptian hik-shasu, “chief of the
Beduins," or "Shepherds," Shasu being the name
given to the Semitic nomades of North-western
Arabia. The Hyksos, however, are called Men or
Menti in the inscriptions, Menti being explained in
the geographical table of Edfu to be the natives of
Syria. In accordance with this, Manetho speaks of
Jerusalem as a Hyksos town, and their Egyptian
capital, Zoan or Tanis, is connected with Hebron in
Numb. xiii. 22. It is possible that their leaders
were Hittite princes, though Lepsius believes them
to have come from Punt or Southern Arabia; at
any rate, their features, as revealed by the few
memorials of them that exist, more especially the
lion of Sân, belong to a very peculiar and non-
Semitic type.¹ But their monuments are rare ;
after their expulsion the Egyptians did their utmost
to destroy all that reminded them of the hated
strangers, and it is only within the last few years
that M. Mariette's excavations at Sân or Tanis have
1 M. Maspero has lately questioned whether the peculiar type
represented by the monuments of Sân is really that of the Hyksos, and
not rather of the original population of the district.
•
1.]
33
EGYPT.
!
brought to light some scanty relics of the Shepherd
kings.
Their rule lasted, according to Manetho, for 511
years,¹ and this seems to be confirmed by a granite
slab found at Sân, of the time of Ramses II., which
is dated in the 400th year of the (Hyksos) king,
Set-aa-pehti Nubti,-if, that is, the latter can be
identified with the Saites who leads the seventeenth
dynasty of Manetho (B.C. 1806). It must, however,
2
1 This number is obtained from the valuable fragment of Manetho
preserved by Josephus (Cont. Ap. i. 14, 15). Africanus and Eusebius
are hopelessly confused. Africanus makes the fifteenth dynasty consist
of six "Phoenician" kings, reigning in all 284 years; but the number
of years assigned to each does not always agree with that given by
Josephus, and the leader of the dynasty, Salatis, is confounded with
Saites, the leader of the seventeenth. Africanus further makes the
sixteenth dynasty consist of thirty-two "Greek" Shepherd kings and
last 518 years, the seventeenth dynasty consisting of forty-three Shep-
herd kings for 151 years. Eusebius, on the other hand, passes over
two of the Shepherd dynasties, and, doubtless following the example of
Manetho, reckons the contemporary native princes at Thebes as alone
legitimate. His fifteenth dynasty consequently consists of Thebans for
250 years, and his sixteenth dynasty also of five Thebans for 190 years.
In the seventeenth dynasty he enumerates four Phoenician Shepherd
kings for 103 years, though forty-three independent sovereigns had time
meanwhile to reign at Thebes. While, therefore, according to Africanus,
the Shepherds occupied the country for 953 years, according to Eusebius
the contemporary Theban dynasties extended over only 543 years (or,
supposing the seventeenth dynasty to be contemporary with the latter,
only 440 years). The numbers are plainly exaggerated, and the round
numbers in Eusebius suspicious; but it is probable that the Theban
princes did not recover their independence until some time after the
Hyksos conquest, so that it was only during the reigns of the later
Shepherd kings that Manetho was able to reckon the Theban dynasties
as collateral. The seventeenth Shepherd dynasty is distinguished on
the monuments from the two preceding ones by the name of Menti-Petti.
2 Maspero, however, holds that the date merely refers to the 400th
D
34
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
be admitted that Set was specially the god of the
Shepherds, and that his name enters into the com-
position of several of theirs (such as Staan, Asseth,
and Sethos). Some time appears to have elapsed
before the Semitic hordes consolidated themselves
under the rule of a single prince, to whom the name
of Salatis or Shaladh, "the Sultan," is given, and
who established his court at Memphis. Like the
Moors in Spain, the Hyksos seem never to have
succeeded in reducing the whole of Egypt to sub-
jection, though the few native princes who managed
to maintain themselves in the south were no doubt
tributary to the earlier Shepherd monarchs; and
Wiedemann's discovery that the granite statue (A)
in the Louvre, which was usurped by Amenophis
III., is really a monument of the Hyksos prince
Apepi, proves that the latter subjected to his sway
thirty-six districts of Nubia. Gradually, however,
the power of the Hyksos became weaker, the tribu-
tary princes made themselves independent, and the
hik or governor of Thebes collected around him a
rival court. Meanwhile the Hyksos kings had fully
submitted themselves to the influence of Egyptian
civilisation. They had adopted the manners and
customs, the art and literature, even the religion and
the gods, of their conquered subjects. They gave
themselves the titles of their predecessors, and raised
year of the mythical reign of Set or Typhon, like the year 363 of
Harmakhis mentioned at Edfu.
•
1.]
35
EGYPT.
temples and sphinxes in honour of the deities of Egypt.
Zoan or Tanis was made their capital and adorned with
splendid buildings, so that its foundation could well
be ascribed to them. Here they surrounded them-
selves with the scribes and savans of both Egypt
and Asia, and a geometrical papyrus written under
their patronage has survived to tell us of the culture
they professed. Their hold upon the country was
confirmed by the construction of two fortresses
at Ha-uar or Avaris, in the Sethroite nome, and
Sherohan¹ on the frontier, the first of which was
garrisoned with 240,000 men; but their direct
power does not seem to have extended further south
than the Fayûm. It was during the domination of
one of the three Hyksos dynasties that first Abraham
and then Joseph must have entered Egypt, and
found a ready welcome among a people of kindred
race.
But the rule of the Shepherds was drawing to a
close. Their monarch Apepi or Apophis, as we
learn from the legend in the Sallier papyrus, had
deserted Tanis and established his capital at Avaris,
—an indication, perhaps, that the limits of Hyksos
authority had been gradually contracting. Never-
theless, he still claimed supremacy over the sub-
ordinate native princes of the south, and in an evil
day determined to displace Ra-skenen, the hik or
governor of Thebes. Ra-skenen submitted to his
1 Sharuhen in Josh. xix. 6.
36 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[I.
>
first demand that he should worship no other gods
but Amun-Ra; but when the tyrant sent a still
more exacting message, Ra-skenen ventured to raise
the standard of revolt, and summoned the other
oppressed chieftains of Egypt to his aid.
The war
of independence was begun, the foreigners were
driven from one position to another, and a national
fleet was built by Ra-skenen Taa II., whose three
successors, Ra-skenen III., Kames,¹ and Aahmes,
concluded the work. Avaris was captured in the
fifth year of the last-named prince and Sherohan in
the sixth, and Egypt was now free. Aahmes founded
the eighteenth dynasty and the new empire (B. C.
1703), and with it a new era of prosperity and glory
for the country of his ancestors.
The same outburst of vigour and military activity
that followed the expulsion of the Moors from Spain
followed also the expulsion of the Hyksos. The
injuries Egypt had endured at the hands of Asia
were avenged upon Asia itself. The old policy of
exclusiveness and non-interference in Asiatic affairs
was renounced, the war was carried into the East,
and the boundaries of the empire were laid on the
banks of the Euphrates. Palestine was occupied by
Egyptian garrisons, and in thus flinging herself upon
Asia, Egypt became an Asiatic power. The penalty
¹ Uot-kheper-Ra-Kames is the Alisphragmuthosis of Manetho, who
captured Memphis, 7 being read for t, and kh represented by s, as in
Suphis for Khufu. Men-kheper-Ra (Thothmes III.) is Mespheres
(Misaphris) in Manetho and Pliny.
1.]
37
EGYPT.
was paid by a future generation. Asiatic customs
and aspirations penetrated into the kingdom of the
Pharaohs, the population and the court itself became
semi-Asiatic, and, exhausted by the efforts it had
made, Egypt at last fell a prey to internal dissensions
and the assaults of foreign enemies.
But for a time, under the great monarchs of the
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, the brilliant
policy they had inaugurated seemed eminently
successful. Time after time their armies marched
out of "hundred-gated Thebes," returning with new
rolls of conquered provinces, with the plunder and
tribute of the East, and with trains of captives for
the erection of the gigantic monuments in which
the spirit of the conquerors sought expression. The
city-like ruin of Karnak, with its obelisks and columns
and carvings, the huge monoliths of granite that
watched over the plain of Thebes, the temple of
Abu-Simbel, hewn out of a mountain and guarded
by colossi, whose countenances betokened the divine
calm of undisputed majesty, were all so many
memorials of titanic conceptions and more than
human pride. Nobler and better than these, how-
ever, were the earlier monuments of a Thothmes or
a Hatasu, in which Egyptian art gave utterance to
its renaissance in delicately-finished and brilliantly-
painted sculpture on stone. The little temple of
Amada in Nubia, built by Thothmes III. in honour
of his young wife, or the ruined walls of Queen
38
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
!
Hatasu's temple at Deir el-Bahri, on which is carved
the story of Egyptian exploration in the land of
Punt, are, in the artist's eyes, worth far more than
the colossal monuments of Ramses II.
The first care of Aahmes or Amosis, after driving
out the foreigner, was to unite Egypt again into a
single monarchy. Gradually the petty kings were
reduced to the rank of feudal princes, and the defeat
of the Nubian sovereign Teta placed the country
between the Cataracts once more in Egyptian hands.
But it was his second successor, Thothmes I., who
was the first of a long line of great conquerors.
In
the south he added the Soudan to Egypt, and
appointed "a governor of Kush;
a governor of Kush;" in the east he
carried his arms as far as Naharina, or the land of
the Orontes. But his achievements were eclipsed
by those of his second son, Thothmes III.
For a
while his elder sister Hatasu ruled as regent with
more than masculine energy and ability, and her
little brother was believed in later legend to have
fled, like the god Horos, to the marshes of Buto in
the north. The loftiest obelisk in the world was, by
her orders, carved out of the granite rocks of Assuân,
engraved, floated down the Nile, and set up at
Karnak, in the short space of seven months. Stately
temples rose at her command, and a voyage of
discovery was made to the land of Punt and the
African coast near Cape Guardafui, whence the
explorers brought back strange plants and stones
1.]
39
EGYPT.
and animals, among them a chimpanzee. For fifteen
years Hatasu ruled supreme.
Then the youthful
Thothmes, grown to man's estate, claimed and
received a share in the government, and six years
later the queen died.
As a military power, as the arbiter of the destinies
of the ancient civilised world, Egypt reached its
zenith under the sway of Thothmes. During his
long reign of fifty-three years, eleven months, and
four days, the country was covered with monuments,
and became the centre of trade and intercourse.
Countless treasures flowed into it, and Thebes took
rank as the capital of the world. A royal botanical
and zoological garden was established, stocked with
the curious plants and animals the king had brought
back with him from his campaigns, among which
we may recognise the mama or dom-palm. In the
year after his sister's death, he shattered the combined
Canaanite forces, under the Hittite king of Kadesh
on the Orontes, at Megiddo, where the enemy left
behind them, among other spoil, chariots of silver
and gold that had been made in Cyprus. A fortress
was built at the foot of Lebanon, near Arados, to
secure the new conquests. But it needed fourteen
campaigns before Western Asia could be thoroughly
subdued, and in the course of these we hear of the
Egyptian king hunting elephants near the town of Ni,
midway between Carchemish and Kadesh. After
this, year by year tribute and taxes of every kind
40 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
came in regularly to the Egyptian treasury from the
towns of Palestine and Phoenicia, from Cyprus and
the Hittites, from Mesopotamia, Assyria, and perhaps
even Babylon itself. Kush, too, sent its offering,
and Egyptian officials visited the Soudan; while
Punt the coasts of Somali and Southern Arabia-
poured its products into the trading vessels of the
Egyptian king.
His successors, Amen-hotep or Amenophis II.,
Thothmes III., and Amenophis III., maintained the
empire they had inherited, with occasional raids upon
the negroes, for the sake partly of slaves, partly of
the gold found in their country. The two colossi
in the plain of Thebes, one of them the miracle-
working Memnon of classical days, are statues of
Amenophis III. But the latter sovereign left a legacy
of trouble behind him. He seems to have made
a mésalliance by marrying a wife neither royal nor
Egyptian, named Taia, and their son, Amenophis IV.
or Khu-en-Aten, was regarded as an usurper by the
priestly aristocracy of Thebes.¹ But Amenophis IV.
was more than an unlawful ruler. He was a heretic,
1
1 The tomb discovered by Mr. Villiers-Stewart at Thebes shows no
more than that the peculiar style of art introduced by the architects of
Khu-en-Aten at Tel el-Amarna, was introduced into Thebes itself during
the latter part of the king's reign. The right-hand side of the façade
of the tomb which is decorated in this peculiar way is unfinished, and
both on the right and on the left-hand sides the cartouches of Amenophis
IV. and Khu-en-Arten are joined together. M. Maspero has shown
that Taia was an Egyptian name, so that the Asiatic origin of the
princess is not absolutely certain. A fragment of sculptured stone with
I.]
4I
EGYPT.
acknowledging only the one God of Light, whom
he worshipped, like his mother, under the symbol of
the solar disk (aten), and fanatically intolerant of
Amun-Ra and the state-gods of Thebes. Open war
soon broke out between him and the priests. By
royal edict the sacred names of Amun and Mut
were erased from the monuments of Egypt, the
king's own name was changed to Khu-en-Aten-
"the splendour of the solar disk;" and Thebes, the
city of Amun, with all its temples and monuments of
victory, was left, in order that a new capital might
be founded at Tel el-Amarna. Here a magnificent
shrine was built to the new divinity of the Pharaoh,
not after the venerable model of the temples of
Egypt, but of those of the subject Phoenicians. It
would seem that the king had originally intended to
plant this in the city of Thebes itself, and that his
retirement to his new capital was an enforced flight.
Here he surrounded himself by his relations and
the converts to the new doctrines,—one of the latter,
Meri-Ra, being made chief prophet of his temple,
and adorned with a golden chain. His generals,
indeed, continued to gain victories in Syria and
Ethiopia, but the upper classes of Egypt were in
secret revolt, and the country was fermenting with
the suppressed bitterness of religious hatred. He
the uneffaced cartouches of Khu-en-Aten, found at Erment, a little
south of Thebes, proves that the "heretic king" built a temple in the
near vicinity of the old capital.
42
[I.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
died, leaving seven daughters and no sons, and was
followed by two of his sons-in-law and the master of
his horse, whose united reigns hardly filled up a
single generation. Ai, the master of the horse, had
married the foster-mother of Khu-en-Aten, and during
his short reign seems to have carried out a vigorous
policy. He returned to the orthodox worship of
Amun, and was accordingly allowed a place in the
royal burial-ground of Thebes by the priests.
his death was the signal for fresh dissensions, which
were healed only by the accession of Hor-em-hib,
the Armais-not Horos—of Manetho (whose list of
the kings of the eighteenth dynasty is in the greatest
confusion). Hor-em-hib had married the sister-in-
law of Khu-en-Aten. He enlarged the great temple
But
of Amun at Thebes, re-conquered Kush, and received
tribute from Punt. With him the eighteenth dynasty
came to an end.¹
Ramses (Ramessu) I., the founder of the nine-
teenth dynasty, came from Lower Egypt, and was
probably of Semitic extraction. He was related-
apparently by marriage-to Hor-em-hib, and his
short reign of six years was chiefly signalised by the
1 Among the kings belonging to the close of the eighteenth dynasty
may be mentioned Teta Menephthah, who was worshipped under the
nineteenth dynasty. Ra-en-tui, another king of the same period, is
called king of Lower Egypt only in the temple of Ramses II. at Abydos,
from which we may infer that the nineteenth dynasty began with reign-
ing over the Thebaid alone. Ai seems to have been followed by his
two brothers-in-law, Tut-ankh-Amun and Ra-s-aa-ka-nekht-kheperu.
1.]
43
EGYPT.
beginning of the long struggle with the Kheta or
Hittites, now the most powerful people in Western
Asia. His son, Seti Menephthah I., or Sethos, the
builder of the great hall of columns at Karnak and
the principal temple of Abydos, once more restored
the waning military fame of Egypt. The incursions
of the Beduins into the Delta were mercilessly
avenged. Palestine was overrun from one end to
the other; the Phoenicians of the Lebanon submitted
voluntarily; Kadesh, "in the land of the Amorites,"
once the southern stronghold of the Hittites, was
captured; and Mautenur, the Hittite monarch, after
several years of conflict, was forced to make alliance
with the Egyptian conqueror. A new enemy had
meanwhile appeared on the coast in the shape of
the Libyans. They, too, however, were defeated,
and Thebes was filled with the spoil of the stranger.¹
Such victories were needed to condone the religious
failings of the new dynasty, which worshipped the
foreign gods of Canaan, at the head of them all
Baal-Sutekh, or Set, once the patron-deity of the
hated Hyksos, but now the divinity after whom the
Egyptian king was himself named. Ramses II. or
Sestura, the Sesostris of the Greeks, son and successor
of Seti, seems to have been a boy of about ten years
at his accession, and to have died at the ripe age of
1 It is difficult to determine the exact extent of Seti's successes, since,
like many other Egyptian kings, he has at Karnak usurped the inscrip-
tions and victories of one of his predecessors, Thothmes III., without
taking the trouble to draw up a list of his own.
44 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
eighty. He was the grand monarque of Egypt.
His long reign, his colossal buildings, his incessant
wars, and the victories he claimed, all make him the
prototype of Louis Quatorze. For a time he had
been associated in the government with his father,
whose death was the signal for a renewal of the war
between Egypt and the Hittites. The Hittites had
summoned their allies from the furthest regions of
their empire. The Dardanians (Dardani) came from
the Troad, the Masu or Mysians from their cities of
Ilion (Iluna)¹ and Pedasos, the Kolkhians or Kesh-
kesh from the Kaukasos, the Syrians from the
Orontes, the Phoenicians from Arvad. Kadesh, on
the Orontes, was the centre of the war. It was here
that Ramses saved himself from an ambush of the
enemy, partly perhaps by his personal bravery, partly
by the swiftness of his horses. But the event was
made the subject of a long heroic poem by Pentaur,
the Egyptian Homer, who won the prize for his
verses above all other competitors in the seventh
year of the king's reign. It was treated with true
epic exaggeration; the interference of the gods was
freely invoked, and the achievement transferred to
the region of myth. But the vanity of Ramses never
wearied of reading the legend in which he played
the leading part. The poem was inscribed on the
walls of Abydos, of Luxor, of Karnak, of Abu-Simbel,
-everywhere, in short, where the grand monarque
1 Brugsch reads this as Mauna, "Mæonia."
1.]
45
EGYPT.
raised his buildings and allowed his subjects to read
the record of his deeds. As a matter of fact his
victories over the Hittites were Kadmeian ones. At
one time the Egyptian generals prevailed over the
enemy, and the statues of Ramses were erected in
the city of Tunep, or carved in stone at the mouth
of the Nahr el-Kelb, while hymns of victory were
sung at Thebes, and gangs of captives were lashed
to work at the monuments of the mighty conqueror;
but at another time the tide of fortune changed, and
Carchemish rather than Thebes had reason to
triumph. For years the struggle continued, until, in
the thirty-fourth year of Ramses, the two nations,
exhausted with the equally-balanced conflict, were
fain to make peace.
Ramses and Khita-sira, "the
great king of the Hittites," entered into an alliance,
defensive and offensive, agreeing that neither side
should punish the political offenders who had fled
from the one country into the other during the time
of war.
The Hittite text of the treaty was engraved
on a tablet of silver in the peculiar characters of
Carchemish, while the Egyptian copy was sculptured
on the walls of the temples of Ramses. It was rati-
fied by the marriage of Ramses with the daughter
of the Hittite king.
Meanwhile raids were made upon the hapless
negroes in the south, and Askalon, which had dared
to resist the will of the Egyptian monarch, was
stormed and sacked. The Libyans sent tribute, and
46 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
fresh gold-mines were opened in Nubia, where miser-
able captives rotted to death. The Israelites in
Goshen built the treasure - cities of Pithom and
Raamses, or Zoan, and colossal statues of the
monarch were carved out of the granite rocks of
Syene, and set up in front of the temple of Ptah at
Memphis, and of the Ramesseum, "the tomb of
Osymandyas," at Thebes. The monolith of the
Ramesseum, now shattered by earthquake, was no
less than sixty feet high. But Ramses cared more
for the size and number of his buildings than for
their careful construction and artistic finish. The
work is mostly "scamped," the walls ill-built, the
sculptures coarse and tasteless. To this, however,
Abu-Simbel forms a striking exception.
Here,
among the silent sands of Nubia, one of the world's
wonders was carved in the rock. A huge and
solemn temple was hewn out of a mountain, and its
entrance guarded by four colossi, each with a divine
calm imprinted upon its mighty features, and with
eyes fixed towards the rising of the sun. Abu-
Simbel is the noblest memorial left us by the barren
wars and vainglorious monuments of Ramses -
Sesostris.
His family must have been a large one. The
temple of Abydos records the names of sixty
daughters and fifty-nine sons, the fourteenth of
whom, Menephthah II., was the next king. His
first work was to repel a formidable naval attack by
1.]
47
EGYPT.
Libyans and various tribes from the north, in whom
some have seen Sardinians, Sicilians, and Akhæans.
They were led by the Libyan king, Marmaiu, the
son of Did, and had penetrated as far as Heliopolis,
sweeping over the Delta like a swarm of locusts.
The invaders were almost completely destroyed, and
prodigious booty fell into the hands of the royal
army. This was in the fifth year of the king's
reign. Shortly afterwards, according to the most
accepted theory, the exodus of the Israelites took
place (B.C. 1320).
Three more inglorious reigns over a divided
Egypt bring us to the end of the nineteenth dynasty.
It had been a period of civil war and foreign inva-
sion. Arisu, a Syrian from Phoenicia, made himself
master of a large part of the country, at the head of
an army of revolted slaves. The history of this
troubled time is glanced at in the great Harris
Papyrus; it is given in more detail by Diodôros
Siculus,¹ who calls the rebels Babylonians, and by
Manetho,² who terms their leader Osarsiph, and
2
2
1 i. 1, 56.
Ap. Joseph. Cont. Ap. i. 27. As Manetho makes the legitimate
king under whom this happened an Amenophis, it is possible he has
divided the name of Menephthah Si-ptah, the tomb of whose wife,
Ta-user (the Thuoris of Manetho), is at Thebes, between Amenophis
and Osar-siph. Menephthah Si-ptah was one of the kings or anti-kings
who preceded Arisu, with whom he has sometimes been identified, and
owed the crown to a Theban noble, Bai, and Seti the governor of
Kush. The foreign slaves were called lepers by the Egyptians, which
Manetho has mistaken for leprous Egyptians.
48
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
Egypt
identifies him with Moses. Osarsiph had been a
priest of Heliopolis, and in conjunction with the
Hyksos, who had sent troops from Jerusalem, occu-
pied Avaris, the old fortress of the Shepherds. For
thirteen years Egypt suffered under this foreign rule;
then Set-nekht, whom Manetho names Amenophis,
advanced with an army from the south, drove out
the Semites and slaves, put down the rival chiefs,
and united the country under one sceptre.
He
ushered in the twentieth dynasty (B.C. 1288), and
was succeeded by his son, Ramses III., the Rhamp-
sinitos of Herodotos, who had been a boy of five
years of age at the time of his father's successes.
Ramses III. is the last of the native heroes.
was surrounded by its enemies when he assumed its
double crown. The Libyans, under their princes
Zamar and Zautmar, were the first to attack it.
But they were driven off after a fierce battle, in
which they left 12,535 dead upon the field. The
next struggle was by sea. The Hittites of Carche-
mish, and their allies from the islands of the Medi-
terranean, from Asia Minor, and from the Kaukasos,
came in overwhelming force in the ships of Arados.
But they, too, were defeated and the waters reddened
with their slaughter, while their camp on land was
plundered and burned. Then, in the king's eleventh
year, came a new assault by the Maxyes under their
chief Massala, the son of Kapur. They had pene-
trated as far as the Kanopic branch of the Nile
I.]
49
EGYPT.
when the avenging hand of Ramses fell upon them.
They were partly slain, partly drafted into the
Egyptian forces, for Egypt was now obliged to
depend largely upon mercenary troops. Even the
negroes had ventured to invade the south, but they
too were chastised, and the country was at last at
peace. Ramses had filled his coffers with the spoil
of his enemies, and now increased his wealth by
building a fleet of merchantmen in the harbour of
Suez, by renewing the mining-stations of Sinai, and
by opening mines of copper elsewhere. The con-
struction of new temples marked the revival of
Egyptian prosperity; and at Medinet-Abu, opposite
Luxor, the solitary example of an Egyptian palace
that remains was erected. But with all his riches
and success, Ramses was not preserved from a
dangerous harem-conspiracy, which, however, was
detected and its authors put to death. When he
died he left his son, Ramses IV., a prosperous and
peaceful kingdom; the empire of earlier days had
gone, and Egypt was contracted to its own borders,
but within those borders it was at peace.
The suc-
ceeding kings of the nineteenth dynasty were all
named Ramses, and each was as insignificant as his
predecessor. The high priests of Amun at Thebes
gradually supplanted their power, until at last all
things were ripe for revolution, and the high priest
Hirhor seized the throne and established a new
dynasty (B.C. II10).
E
50 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
But though Hirhor claimed to be king of Upper
and Lower Egypt, it was only in the Thebaid that
his authority was undisputed. The descendants of
Ramses XIII. and their adherents had been banished
to the Great Oasis; but a rival dynasty, alone
recognised by Manetho under the title of the twenty-
first, and founded by Si-Mentu Mei-Amun or
Smendês, ruled at Tanis. Another power, however,
soon appeared upon the scene. A great-grandson
of Ramses XIII., the last king of the twentieth
dynasty, had married the daughter of Panu-res-nes,
"the great prince" of the Libyan mercenaries in the
Delta, whom Brugsch supposes to have been an
Assyrian monarch. But the names which he
believes to be Assyrian are in no way so, and are
probably to be regarded as Libyan.¹ Pinotem
(Pinetsem) II., the great-grandson of Hirhor, had
been succeeded by his son Men-kheper-Ra, when
Sheshank or Shishak, the leader of the mercenaries
in the Delta, and fifth in descent from a certain
foreigner named Bubuï or Buaï, with his son
Naromath, established himself as independent king
at Bubastis. A movement seems to have previously
broken out at Thebes in favour of the banished
1 The Mat, of whom Panu-res-nes and his successors were princes,
were the Libyan Mashuash or Maxyes. Wiedemann (Geschichte
Aegyptens von Psammetich I. bis auf Alexander den Grossen, p. 34),
points out that the passage rendered by Brugsch, "A memorial tablet
was erected in the language of the land of Bab(el)," is really, “A stele
was set up to her made of stone from the land of Ba . . su-t."
1.]
51
EGYPT.
1
Ramessids, in consequence of which the latter were
recalled. Sheshank must have extended his power
as far as Middle Egypt, since his son Naromath
was buried in state during his father's lifetime at
Abydos, while the throne of Tanis was occupied by
Psiunkha or Pisebkhan I.,¹ the Psusennes of Manetho.
It was during this period of internal dissension that
the bodies of Thothmes III., of Ramses II., and of
the other great princes of the 18th and 19th
dynasties, were transferred from their tombs to the
secret cavern near Deir el-Bahâri, at Thebes, where
they were interred along with the members of the
family of Pinotem.2 Hor Psiunkha II.3 was the
successor of Psiunkha I., and was perhaps the king
who sought to strengthen himself against the growing
power of the Libyan mercenaries by marrying his
daughter to Solomon. But all precautions were in
vain. Sheshank I., the descendant of the She-
shank already mentioned, overthrew both the rival
1 Called Pasiuenkha by Birch.
2 The discovery of these mummies has enabled M. Maspero to
restore the genealogy of the line of Hirhor as follows: (1) Hir-hor,
high-priest and king, reigned at least sixteen years; (2) Pionkhi, his
son, high-priest; (3) Pinotem I., his son, high-priest; (4) Pinotem II.,
his son, king. His two sons were (5) Masahirti, the high-priest, and
(6) Men-kheper-Ra, the king. Men-kheper-Ra's son and successor
was (7) Pinotem III. Pinotem II. had married, first, Tiu-Hathor-
Honttou, by whom he had Masahirti, whose daughter was the princess
Isimkheb (Ast-em-kheb), and, secondly, queen Mâ-ke-Ra, whose son
was Men-kheper-Ra. The latter married Isimkheb, and built the
great mud-brick fortress of El Haybî, between Beni-Suef and Minieh.
3 Called Har-pasebensha by Birch.
52 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
dynasties of Tanis and Thebes, and heads the twenty-
second dynasty, B.C. 980, establishing his court at
Bubastis.
Sheshank signalised his reign by overrunning
Judah, Edom, and the southern part of Israel, and
capturing Jerusalem, a list of the conquered towns
being engraved on the wall of Karnak. His suc-
cessors, whose names have been erroneously imagined
to be Assyrian, proved a race of rois fainéants.
Egypt became once more divided among a number
of petty kings, and the Ethiopian monarchs of
Napata, who derived their origin from the banished
family of Hirhor, claimed suzerainty over their
former rulers. One of these, Pi-ankhi, has left us a
record of his triumphs over Tefnekht of Sais,—called
Tnêphakhthos, the father of Bocchoris, by Diodôros,
-who had captured Memphis and made himself
master of all Lower Egypt. The rebel prince him-
self fled to Cyprus, but was pardoned and allowed
to return to Egypt. His son Bak-en-ran-ef, or
Bocchoris, occupied the whole of Manetho's twenty-
fourth dynasty, while Mi-Amun Nut, the son of
Piankhi, reigned at Thebes. Bocchoris was captured
and burned alive by the Ethiopian Shabaka or
Sabako,¹ the son of Kashta, who founded the twenty-
fifth dynasty and reunited the Egyptian monarchy.
After his defeat by Sargon, the Assyrian king, at
Raphia in B.C. 720, he died, and was followed first
1 Called So in 2 Kings xvii. 4.
1.]
53
EGYPT.
by Shabatuk and then by Taharka (Tirhakah or
Tarakos), the brother-in-law of Sabako. Tirhakah
found himself in possession of a prosperous kingdom,
-threatened, however, by the rising power of the
Assyrians, and undermined by native discontent at the
rule of the Ethiopian stranger. After the indecisive
battle with Sennacherib at Eltekeh in B.C. 701, Tir-
hakah was left in peace for some years, until, in the
twenty-third year of his reign (B.C. 672), he was
attacked and driven out of Egypt by the Assyrian
armies of Esar-haddon. Egypt became a province of
Assyria, divided into twenty satrapies, each governed
by a native prince. It was these twenty satrapies
that constituted the dodecarchy of Herodotos.
But more than once Tirhakah marched down
from Ethiopia and endeavoured to recover his lost
dominion. He was aided by the satraps and people,
who naturally preferred the rule of the Ethiopian to
that of the Assyrian. Twice did he advance as far
as the Delta, and twice was he driven back again by
the Assyrians, Necho of Memphis and Sais, and the
chief ally of Tirhakah, being on the second occasion
sent in chains to Nineveh. At last the old Ethiopian
monarch died, and his successor Rut-Amen, or
Urdaman, the son of Sabako, determined once more
to
wrest the sovereignty of Egypt from Asia.
Thebes and Memphis opened their gates, and even
Tyre sent help. But the Assyrians returned and
executed terrible vengeance. No-Amon or Thebes
54
[1.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
was plundered and destroyed, the ground strewn
with its ruins, and two of the obelisks at Karnak
sent as trophies to Nineveh.¹
But the Assyrian yoke was at last shaken off.
Psamtik or Psammetikhos, the son of Necho of Sais,
led the insurgents. Born in the Delta, he was prob-
ably of Semitic origin, but his marriage with a
princess of the house of Bocchoris gave him the
rights of a legitimate king. The moment was a
favourable one for revolt. The Assyrian empire
had been exhausted by the conquest of Elam, and
the Viceroy of Babylonia was in open rebellion in
concert with the nations of the west.
Gyges of
Lydia sent Karian and Ionian troops to the aid of
Psammetikhos, and with these he drove out the
Assyrian garrisons and reduced the vassal-kings.
The decisive battle was fought at Menuf or Momem-
phis. Psammetikhos became the sole and inde-
pendent lord of united Egypt, and the foreign
mercenaries were rewarded with a permanent settle-
ment near Bubastis. With the twenty-sixth dynasty
(B.C. 660), the St. Luke's summer of Egyptian history
begins. The revival of peace, of power, and of
prosperity, was marked also by a revival of art.
Sais was adorned with buildings which almost
rivalled the mighty monuments of Thebes; the
sacred bulls were enshrined in vast sarcophagi
in a new gallery of the Serapeum; screens were
1 The destruction of the city is alluded to in Nahum iii. 8-10.
1.]
55
EGYPT.
introduced into the temples to hide the interior
from the vulgar gaze; and a new cursive hand, the
demotic, came into use. But the government had
ceased to be national; it had gained its power by
Hellenic aid, and from this time forward Greek
influence began to prevail. The king's person is
protected by a Greek bodyguard; the native soldiers
desert to Ethiopia, and the oldest Ionic inscription
we possess records the pursuit of them by the foreign
mercenaries of Psammetikhos. The mart of Nau-
kratis is founded by the Milesians at the mouth of
the Kanopic channel, and a new class of persons,
interpreters or dragomen, spring up in the country.
Necho the son of Psammetikhos flung aside the
old exclusive policy of Egypt, and in rivalry with
the merchant cities of Ionia strove to make the
Egyptians the chief trading people of the world.
An attempt was accordingly made to unite the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean by cutting a canal from
Bubastis to the Bitter Lakes, and only given up
after the death of 120,000 of the labourers. Pho-
nician ships were sent to circumnavigate Africa, and
returned successful after three years' absence. But
the inland trade of Asia, which passed through
Carchemish and Tyre, still remained to be secured.
The fall of the Assyrian empire allowed this project
also to be realised, and Josiah, who stood in the way
But
of the Egyptian army, was defeated and slain.
the hymns of triumph once chanted to Amun were
56
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
now replaced by an embassy to the Greek oracle of
Brankhidæ, carrying with it the war-tunic of the
Egyptian king. Egypt was fast becoming Hellenised;
the old riddle of the sphinx was being solved, and
the venerable mystery of Egypt yielding to the
innovating rationalism of the upstart Greek. Necho's
dreams of Asiatic sovereignty were dissipated by his
defeat at Carchemish at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar.
His successor, Psammetikhos II., reigned but five
years; Uah-ab-ra (Hophra), or Apries, who followed
(B.C. 589), avenging his grandfather's reverses by
capturing Sidon and Gaza. But Nebuchadrezzar
again shattered the Egyptian forces, and even over-
ran Egypt itself. Then came the ill-fated expedition
against Kyrênê and Barka, followed by the revolt of
the army and the accession of Aahmes II., or Amasis,
to the throne (B.C. 570). Apries and his Greek
mercenaries were overthrown at Momemphis, and
Apries himself soon afterwards put to death. Amasis,
a nobleman of Siuf, who had married a sister of the
late king, and whose mother, Tapert, was related to
Apries, continued the policy of his predecessors.
One of his wives was a Greek of Kyrênê. Naukratis
was granted a charter and constitution, all Hellenes
whatsoever being admitted to its privileges, and
temples were raised to Hellenic gods. Meantime
Kypros was conquered, and wealth and plenty
flowed into Egypt. The end, however, was at hand.
1 Révillout in Rev. égyptologique, 1881, pp. 96-8.
1.]
57
EGYPT.
Kambyses declared war against the Egyptian king,
and, led across the desert by a Greek refugee, entered
Egypt (B.C. 525). Amasis died at this critical mo-
ment, and his young and inexperienced successor,
Psammetikhos II., was defeated, captured in Memphis,
and put to death. And so the land of Thothmes
and Ramses became a dependency of the Persian
Empire.
In B.C. 486 a revolt broke out under Khabash,
the effect of which was to divert the preparations
Darius had made for attacking Greece, and thus
save Greece and the West. But the revolt itself
was crushed by Xerxes in 483, and Achæmenes
Kyros, whose tomb still exists at Murghab, the
brother of Xerxes, was appointed satrap. Once
more, in B.C. 463, Egypt revolted again. Its leaders
were Amyrtaeos and the Libyan king Inaros. Aided
by the Athenians they won the battle of Paprêmis
and fortified themselves in Memphis. But Megabyzus,
the Persian general (B.C. 457), finally succeeded in
capturing the Egyptian capital. Inaros was impaled,
and Amyrtaeos fled to the marshes of Elbo, his
son Pausiris being appointed Persian viceroy, and
Thannyras vassal king of Libya.¹
In B.C. 415 came the third revolt. This time
the insurgents were successful. Amyrtaeos emerged
from his place of refuge,—if, indeed, he were the
Amyrtaeos who had escaped from the Persians near
1 See bk. iii. 15, note 9.
58
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
half a century before, and ruled over an independent
Egypt for six years. His successor, Naifaarut or
Nepherites I., founded the twenty-ninth or Mendesian
dynasty. Then came Hakar or Akhoris, who sent
help to the Spartan king Agêsilaos during his
campaigns against Persia (B.C. 395), and allied
himself with Evagoras of Kypros, who had driven
the Persians from the island. His son was the
last of the dynasty. He was followed by Nekht-
hor-heb or Nektanebos I., the leader of the thirtieth,
who entrusted the command of his fleet to the Greek
Khabrias. The army of Artaxerxes was repulsed,
and temples were built or restored in Lower Egypt.
But it was the last effort of the old Egyptian spirit.
Tsiho or Teos, his successor, with the help of
Agêsilaos, was deposed by his nephew, Nektanebos
II., and fled to the Persian Court. Eighteen years
later Artaxerxes Okhos despatched an army to
avenge the wrongs of Teos and recover a lost
province to Persia. Sidon, with its Egyptian garrison,
was taken, and the Persians, aided by Greek mer-
cenaries, besieged and captured Pelusium. The
Greek garrison of Bubastis surrendered, Nektanebos
fled with his treasures to Ethiopia, and the last
native dynasty ceased to exist (B.C. 340).
The Persians did not enjoy their victory long.
The empire soon passed from them to Alexander
(B.C. 332). But for Egypt it meant only a change
of masters. The Ptolemies might assume the dress
1.]
59
EGYPT.
and titles of the ancient Pharaohs, might worship
the same gods and build the same temples, but they
were as Greek in spirit as in language. The mission
of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled; it had lit
the torch of civilisation in ages inconceivably remote,
and had passed it on to the other peoples of the West.
Its task now was to receive and shelter Alexandria,
through which the culture of the West might be
carried in turn to the decaying nations of the ancient
East. In Alexandria, the meeting-place of Orient and
Occident, of old and new, of mysticism and science, the
history of Pharaonic Egypt fitly comes to a close.
Religion and Mythology.-The exact character of
Egyptian religion is a matter of dispute. All we
can assert is that, as everywhere else, it underwent
change and development during its long period of
existence, and that there was a considerable differ-
ence between the religious ideas of the upper and
lower classes. The chief difficulty it presents is the
mixture of high spiritual conceptions and debased
animal-worship which we find in it.
Hence the
According
conflicting theories it has called forth.
to De Rougé, Egyptian religion was essentially
monotheistic, other scholars see in it a pure pantheism,
while Renouf makes it what has been termed heno-
theistic. The animal-worship has been accounted
for by a mixture of race, a primitive Nigritian
population being supposed to have been conquered
by monotheistic or pantheistic conquerors from Asia,
60 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
+
who allowed the subject race to retain its old super-
stitions. But this hypothesis is overthrown by further
acquaintance with the monuments.
One thing is quite clear. The kernel of the
Egyptian state religion was solar. Each great city
had its own deities, which, before the time of Menes,
had been united into a hierarchy. But at the head
of each hierarchy stood a form of the Sun-god,
worshipped as Ptah at Memphis, Amun-Ra at Thebes,
Tum at Heliopolis, Osiris at This and Abydos, Mentu
at Hermonthis. The unification of the empire brought
with it the unification of these various circles of
gods. They were all grouped together under the
sovereignty of Ptah while the Old Empire lasted, of
Amun when Thebes gained the supremacy.
Nuter, "god," has been shown by Renouf to have
originally meant "the strong one," a curious parallel
to the Greek iepós, the equivalent of the Sanskrit
ishiras, whose primitive signification is still preserved
in such Homeric phrases as iepóv μévos. Like men
and animals, each god had his ka or "shadow," which
was regarded not only as a second self, but also as
more real and permanent than the self which we
perceive. The abstract notion of divinity presented
itself to the mind of the Egyptian as the ka or soul
of the universe. God in the abstract, with which
each of the gods was identified in turn by the
worshipper, or, in the later pantheistic period, into
which they were all resolved, was conceived as one
1.]
61
EGYPT.
perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent being, eternally
unchangeable, yet eternally begetting himself in the
liquid chaos called Nu. The sun, which afterwards
symbolised him, was primarily the object of adoration
itself. And since the sun rises as the youthful Har-
makhis or Horos, shines in his full strength at mid-
day as Ra, and sets in the evening as Tum, the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity found its counter-
part in Egyptian religion from the dawn of the
historical period. Even the sun that shines at night
in the lower world received also his name and
worship, and ended by becoming the enemy of light
and of the sun that illuminates the day. By the
side of the Sun-god stood Isis, the dawn, the mother,
sister, wife, and double of the Sun-god himself. Out
of the manifold myths that described the relations
of the sun to the dawn and the evening arose various
deities and conceptions of the divine, each of which
assumed a different form in different localities, and
eventually found a place in the syncretic religion of
the united empire.
The oldest and most widespread of these myths
was that embodied in the legend of Osiris. The
Sun-god Osiris, like his sister Isis, was the child of
Nut, the vault of heaven, and of Seb, the earth.
While still in their mother's womb they produced
the ever-youthful Horos, who is one with his father,
and yet a different divinity. Set or Typhon, the
husband of his sister Nephthys or Neb-hat, and
62 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
brother of Horos, imprisoned Osiris in an ark or
chest, which, with the help of seventy-two of his
followers (the seventy-two days of summer drought),
he flung into the sacred Nile. The ark was borne
across the sea to the holy city of Phoenicia, Byblos
or Gebal, and there found by the disconsolate Isis.
Isis, however, after hiding the corpse of the god,
made her way to Horos, who had been banished to
the marshes of Buto, and during her absence Set
discovered the body of Osiris, which he cut into
fourteen pieces and scattered to the winds. They
were again carefully collected by Isis and buried in
a stately tomb, while Horos made ready to avenge
his father's death. But Osiris had died only to
rise again, after ruling for awhile, during the hours
of night, in the dark regions of the under world. It
was thus that he became the judge and monarch
of the dead. The struggle between Horos and
Set was long and fierce; but at length the god of
light triumphed, and Set, the symbol of night and
evil, was driven from his throne in the upper world.
Horos became the mediator and saviour of mankind,
through whom the righteous dead are justified before
the tribunal of his father.
In the philosophic system of the priesthood, Nun
or Chaos was the first cause from which all proceed,-
unshaped, eternal, and immutable matter. Kheper,
the scarabæus with the sun's disk, was the creative
principle of life which implanted in matter the seeds
1.]
63
EGYPT.
of life and light. Ptah, "the opener," was the
personal creator or demiurge, who, along with the
seven Khnumu or architects, gave form to these
seeds, and was at once the creator and opener of
the primæval egg of the universe-the ball of earth
rolled along by Kheper-out of which came the
sun and moon according to the older myth, the
elements and forms of heaven and earth according
to the later philosophy. Nut, the sky, with the
star and boat of the sun upon her back; Seb, the
earth, the symbol of time and eternity; and Amenti
or Hades, now took their several shapes and places.
Over this threefold world the gods and other divine
beings presided.
It would be wearisome to recount more than a
few of the principal divinities. Ptah, with his wife.
Sekhet, the cat-headed goddess of Bubastis, and his
son Im-hotep or Esculapius, comes first. He is
represented with the body of a mummy and the
symbols of power, life, or stability in his hands. It
was to him that the bull Hapi or Apis, the repre-
sentative of the creative powers of nature and the
fertilising waters of the Nile, was sacred. Next to
Ptah stands Ra, the Sun-god of Heliopolis, worshipped
under seventy-five forms, and called the king of gods
and men.
Into his hands Ptah had delivered the
germs of creation, and, like Ptah, he had existed in
the womb of Nu. Here he first appeared as Tum,
the setting sun; then, as he passed in his boat over
64 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[I.
querox
the waters of the lower world and the folds of the
serpent Apepi during the night, he was known as
Khnum; while it is as the child Har-makhis (Hor-
em-khuti), whose symbol is the sphinx, that he rises
again from death and sleep each morning on the
bud of the lotus-flower that floats on the breast of
Nu. This daily birth was held to take place in the
bosom of Isis, Mut, or Hathor. Ra is represented
with the head of his sacred bird, the hawk, and the
solar disk surmounted by the uræus above; and the
mystical Phoenix (bennu), which brings the ashes of
its former self to Heliopolis every 500 years, seems
also to have been his symbol. When worshipped
as Tum (or Atum), he has a man's head, with the
combined crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, though
as Nofer-Tum he wears a lion's head, above which
stands a hawk with a lotus crown. The name of
Khnum (Khnubis or Knuphis) was originally derived
from the local cult of Elephantinê, but came to be
applied to Ra when regarded as passing from one
day to another after his descent to the infernal world.
His old attributes remained attached to him, so that
he sometimes takes the place of Ptah, being repre-
sented as moulding the egg of the universe, and
fashioning mankind. He has a ram's head, and the
symbols connected with him show that his primitive
worshippers regarded him as presiding over genera-
tion. Horos, symbolised now by the winged solar
disk, now by a hawk-headed man, now by the hawk
1.]
65
EGYPT.
bearing a scourge, now again by a child on a lotus
flower, merges in the days of the united monarchy
into Har-makhis, the avenger of Osiris.
But after the rise of the Theban dynasty the
supreme form under which Ra was worshipped was
Amun, "the hidden one." In course of time he
absorbed into himself almost all the other deities of
Egypt, more especially Ra and Khnum.
He reigns
over this earth, as his representatives, the Pharaohs,
over Egypt, and inspires mankind with the sense of
right. He is called Khem as the self-begetting deity,
"the living Osiris" as the animating principle of the
universe. On his head he wears a lofty crown of
feathers, sometimes replaced by the crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt or the ram's head of Khnum, and
Mut and Khunsu form with him the trinity of
Thebes. Ma or T-mei, the goddess of truth and
justice, was the daughter of the Sun-god, who
carries on her head the upright ostrich-feather, and
has her eyes covered with a bandage. Beside her
stands Isis, at once the sister and wife of Osiris, and
the mother of Horos. At Thebes she was known
as Mut, "the mother," with the vulture's head; at
Bubastis as Sekhet, the bride of Ptah and daughter
of Ra. As mother of Horos, she was named Hathor
or Athor, "the house of Horos," identified by the
Greeks with their Aphroditê, and confused with
Astoreth by the Semites. The cow, with its horns,
symbolising the crescent moon, which in Egypt
F
66 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
appears to lie upon its back, was consecrated to her,
indicating at how early a time the bride of Osiris,
She was
the Sun-god, was held to be the moon.
also identified with Sothis, the dog-star, and in later
days with the planet Venus. All that is good and
beautiful among men comes from her; she watches
over the birth of children, and rocks the cradle of
the Nile. As Neit, too, she is the authoress of
weaving and of the arts of female life.
Against her stands Set or Typhon, primarily the
night, into whose character and attributes a moral
meaning was gradually read, so that in the time of
the New Empire he became the representative of
evil, the enemy of the bright powers of light and
The
goodness, the prince of the powers of darkness.
crocodile was sacred to him, though Sebek, the
crocodile-god, continued to be worshipped in the
Fayûm and the neighbourhood of Kom-Ombos up
to the classical period. Apepi also, the serpent of
night, was associated with him, and came to partake
of his demoniac character. His wife Nephthys or
Neb-hat, the queen of the lower world, was the nurse
of Horos and the sympathising sister of Isis. Her
son, by Osiris, was the jackal-headed Anubis, “the
master of Hades," who, like the Greek Hermês,
guides the dead to the shades below.
But it was with Tehuti or Thoth that the Greeks
preferred to identify their Hermês. Originally the
god of the moon, like Khunsu, the ibis-headed Thoth,
1
I.]
67
EGYPT.
爨
​with his consort Safekhu, became the inventor of
writing, the regulator of time and numbers, and the
patron of science and literature. The cynocephalous
ape and the ibis were his sacred animals.
These animal forms, in which a later myth saw
the shapes assumed by the affrighted gods during
the great war between Horos and Typhon, take us
back to a remote prehistoric age, when the religious
creed of Egypt was still totemism. They are sur-
vivals from a long-forgotten past, and prove that
Egyptian civilisation was of slow and independent
growth, the latest stage only of which is revealed to
us by the monuments. Apis of Memphis, Mnêvis
of Heliopolis, and Pakis of Hermonthis, are all links
that bind together the Egypt of the Pharaohs and
the Egypt of the stone age. They were the sacred
animals of the clans which first settled in these
localities, and their identification with the deities of
the official religion must have been a slow process,
never fully carried out, in fact, in the minds of the
lower classes.
Another conception which the primitive Egyptians
shared with most other barbarous or semi-barbarous
tribes was the magical virtue of names. This also
survived into the historical epoch, and, in union with
the later spirit of personal ambition, produced an
absorbing passion for preserving the name of the
individual after death. His continued existence was
imagined to depend upon the continued remembrance
68
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
of his name. The Egyptian belief in the immortality
of the soul and the resurrection of the body thus
had its root in the old childlike superstition which
confused together words and things. In the philo-
sophical system of the priesthood, however, it was
given a new and more rational form. According to
this, man consists of three parts: the khat or body,
which belongs to matter; the ba or soul, which
ultimately returns to its home in the lower world;
and the khu or spirit, an emanation from the divine
essence.1 Each of these parts can exist separately,
and each is eternal and immutable. But it is the
soul which receives after death the rewards or punish-
ments due to it for its thoughts and actions while in
the body. If the soul had triumphed over the
bodily passions,—had been pious towards the gods,
and righteous towards men,-it passed in safety
through all the trials that awaited it below. Fortified
by sacred texts and hymns and amulets, and trusting
in Horos the mediator, it subdued the demons and
horrible beasts that opposed its way, and at length
reached the hall of justice where Osiris with his
forty-two assessors sat as judge. Horos and Anubis
now weighed the soul in its vase against the goddess
of truth, and Thoth recorded the result. If the soul
went down, it was sentenced to the various torments
""
1 Khu is strictly the luminous envelope or intelligence, and thus
"double,'
closely allied to the Johannine Logos. Every one has a ka or
which may be compared with the Accadian zi or "spirit."
1
1.]
69
EGYPT.
r
of hell, or to wander like a vampire between heaven
and earth, scourged and buffeted by the tempests, or
else doomed to transmigrate into the bodies of
animals, until permitted to regain its original body
and undergo a fresh trial; there were cases even in
which it might be annihilated. If, on the other
hand, the soul remained evenly balanced, it was
allowed to enter the blissful fields of Aalu, there to
be purified from all the stains of its early life, and,
after becoming perfect in wisdom and knowledge, to
be absorbed into the divine essence, or to live again
upon earth in any form it chose. Finally, however,
in the great day of resurrection, soul, spirit, and
body were again to be united, and for this purpose
every care had to be taken lest the body should
decay or become injured.
Our knowledge of Egyptian mythology as distinct
from Egyptian religion is still but scanty. Mention
has already been made of the Osiris myth, which
entered so largely into the religious faith of the
people. There was another legend which told how
mankind had emanated from the eyes of the deity,
and spread themselves over the earth as "the flock
of Ra," the Rotu, or Egyptians, and Nahsi, or negroes,
being under the guardianship of Horos; the 'Amu,
or Semites, and the white-skinned populations of
Libya and the north, being under that of Sekhet.
According to another version, however, mankind,
with the exception of the negroes, had sprung from
70
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
י!
the tears of Horos and Sekhet. Another myth,
again, discovered by M. Naville in the tomb of Seti
I., states that mankind once uttered hostile words
against their creator Ra, who took counsel with Nun.
Hathor or Sekhet, accordingly, was sent to slay them,
and the earth was covered with their blood as far as
Herakleopolis. Then Ra drank 7000 cups of wine
made by Sekti of Heliopolis from the fruits of Egypt
and mingled with the blood of the slain; his heart
rejoiced, and he swore that he would not again
destroy mankind. Rain filled the wells near Lake
Mareotis, and Ra went forth to fight against his
human foes. Their bows were broken, and them-
selves slaughtered, and the god returned victorious
to heaven, where he created the Elysian fields of
Aalu and the people of the stars, charging the sacred
cow, the incarnation of Nut, and the prototype of
the Greek Io, with their guardianship; while Shu,
like Atlas, supports her on his two hands.
Seb was
then ordered to keep watch over the reptiles of earth
and water, and Thoth over the lower world; the
ibis, the cynocephalous ape, and the lunar disk, com-
ing into existence at the same time.
Though it is difficult to trace much change or
development in the religion of Egypt during the
historical period as opposed to the prehistoric one,
it is nevertheless plain that as time went on it
assumed a more mystical and esoteric character,
which shows itself most conspicuously in the monu-
1.]
71
EGYPT.
ments of the Ptolemaic and Roman age.
It was
from this theosophic phase that the Neo-Platonism
of Alexandria and Neo-Platonic Christianity derived
a large part of their ideas and principles. At the
same time monotheism, or rather pantheism, became
more clearly defined among the educated classes, the
popular gods being resolved into mystical manifesta-
tions or emanations of the one divine substance.
From the first, however, as is shown more especially
by the solar hymns, the Egyptian priests had a clear
sense of the unity of God, in so far as to regard the
deity they happened to be addressing at the moment
as the one omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal ruler
of the universe, to the exclusion of all others. But
this is strictly what Professor Max Müller has called
henotheism. A further change may be observed in
the conception of the future life between the monu-
ments of the Old Empire and those of the Middle
and New Empires. The sadness and gloom that
overshadow the latter had not yet been felt. The
tomb of Ti at Sakkarah, for instance, presents us
with pictures of the after world, in which the dead
man lives over again his life in this; he farms, hunts,
superintends his workmen and slaves, and feasts, just
as he had done on earth. The shadow of the grave
was not yet ever before the eyes of the Egyptian,
and though he built tombs for himself while still
alive, they mostly took the shape of pyramids, raised
on the ground and pointing to the sky, not of dark
72
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
and gloomy subterranean chambers. We should
look in vain in them for those representations of the
torments and trials which await the dead below, of
the headless souls and horrible coils of the monstrous
serpent Apepi, that startle us on the pictured walls
of the royal tombs at Thebes. The myth of Osiris
had not yet begun to exercise the terrible influence
it afterwards obtained over the imagination of the
people, and the Book of the Dead still consisted of
only a few simple chapters.
The Apotheosis of the Roman emperors had been
long anticipated in Egypt. The kings were repre-
sentatives and, in a political sense, incarnations of the
deity; divine worship was offered to them, and
priests were attached to their cult. The cult of the
most powerful of the kings lasted for centuries, or
after being discontinued was sometimes revived for
dynastic and other reasons. Thus the cult of Sent
of the second dynasty, and Sahura of the fifth, lasted
into the age of the Ptolemies; that of Menes, of
Ser (of the third dynasty), of Kheops, Khephren,
Ra-tatf, Snefru, and Ramses II., down to the time
of the Persian conquest; that of Usertasen III. to
the reign of Thothmes III.; though the pyramid-
builders seem to have been forgotten in the epoch of
the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties. The adoration
paid to the kings had its root in that ancestor-
worship which was always popular in Egypt, and
was a survival from the prehistoric past.
--
1.]
73
EGYPT.
The priesthood was divided into several classes;
the high-priest of Amun and his associates ranking
at their head, at all events under the New Empire.
Next to these priests came the four orders of prophets,
out of whom the ministers of the worship of the
deceased kings were chosen; and below them again
the abu, or divine fathers. Sacred scribes were
attached to the temples, as well as servants and
slaves. Monks, too, lived in cells in the precincts.
Besides the priests and prophets there were also
priestesses and prophetesses; and women of the
highest rank were proud to be the prophetesses, the
singing-women, and the sistrum-players of Amun.
The priests and their families were supported out of
the revenues of the temple to which they belonged,
and so formed a corporation; and all matters relat-
ing to religion and public worship were under their
control. The embalmers were an inferior order of
priests.
Art, Science, and Literature.-Egyptian art falls
into two broadly-marked periods. The art of the
Old Empire is realistic, vigorous, and full of origina-
tive genius; that of later times, stiff, conventional,
and hieratic. Art is at its best in the age of the
pyramid-builders; its future history is a history of
continuous decline. Those who have not seen the
diorite statue of Khephren or the wooden statue of
the "Sheikh el-Belad" in the Bûlak Museum, or the
exquisitely-painted bas-reliefs of the tomb of Ti,
74 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[I.
have no conception of what Egyptian art once was.
The colossal productions of the Middle and New
Empires hardly make up by grandness of design for
the want of artistic originality. Spontaneousness
and faithfulness to nature were but ill replaced by
mysticism and symbolism.
Fluted columns with sixteen sides, which bear a
close general resemblance to the Doric column
(though wanting the echinus that distinguished the
latter), first meet us in the tombs of Beni-Hassan
and Siut, and thus make their appearance as soon as
the pyramid was superseded by the rock-cut tomb.
Columns in the shape of four lotus stalks bound
together, their blossoms forming the capital, also
occur along with them, and introduce a series of
columnar architecture, which reaches its final perfec-
tion in the papyrus and palm crowned pillars of Edfu
and Esneh. The most peculiar and unpleasing
feature of these columns is the square box on the
top of the capitals. In the Ptolemaic age the shaft
often terminates in a square adorned with four masks
of Hathor, above which is a miniature temple façade.
From the time of the eighteenth dynasty downwards,
the shaft of the column is frequently replaced by the
figure of Osiris, with the arms crossed over the
breast.
The Mastabas or mortuary chapels of the Old
Empire, several of which may still be seen adjoining
the pyramids of Gizeh, were replaced in later days
1.]
75
EGYPT.
by sumptuous temples, of which the Memnonium at
Thebes may be taken as an example. These temples
were built after the model of those raised to the gods
by the monarchs of the Middle Empire, since we
know of none that belong to the age of the Old
Empire. They were intended, not for religious
service, but for processions, and were jealously pro-
tected from the eyes of the "profanum vulgus."
Hence the lofty shrines of stone with which they
were surrounded; hence, too, the fact that walls and
columns and ceilings were covered with sculptures
and paintings that could not be seen until light was
introduced into them by the ruin of the buildings
themselves. Even the secret passages at Denderah
are decorated with carefully-executed bas-reliefs.
Since the temples were used as fortresses, as well as
for sacred purposes—a fact which will explain the
ruined condition of many of them-they were guarded
at the entrance by two pylons or towers, where the
temple-watchmen lived. Before the pylon standards
were planted, and between them was the entrance
through which the procession passed into court after
court, chamber after chamber, until the shrine itself
was at last reached. Here stood the images of the
gods. In the rock-cut temples of Nubia the Theban
Trinity is hewn out of the stone, with the king him-
self seated in its midst.
The surface of the stone was covered throughout
with bas-reliefs and brilliant paintings. In the latter
76 THE ANCIEnt empires of THE EAST. [1.
art the Egyptians excelled from the earliest period.
But they ostentatiously disregarded the most ele-
mentary rules of perspective, under the influence of
the hieratic canon, though such objects as flowers,
animals, fish, and butterflies, were produced with
pre-Raffaelite fidelity.
The Egyptians were skilful artificers. Their
chairs, couches, and other articles of household furni-
ture, display great taste and variety, and their work
in the precious metals and gems is of the highest
order. Porcelain and glass are among their earliest
productions, and they were acquainted with the art
of soldering metals, including iron,-which shows.
that Herodotos (i. 25) was wrong in ascribing the
discovery of this art to Glaukos-as far back at least
as the eighteenth dynasty. Imbrication, or the art
of laying plates of metal one upon the other, was also
known to them, as well as the art of damascening.
Art in Egypt, as elsewhere, attained an earlier
development than science. At the same time, the
monuments left by Egyptian art imply a consider-
able knowledge of mechanics, geometry, and engineer-
ing. The Great Pyramid faces the four points of
the compass with marvellous exactitude, and the
obelisk of Queen Hatasu at Karnak, the tallest in
the world, was cut out of the granite quarries of
Assuân, engraved, polished, floated down the Nile,
and set up in its place, in seven months! Professor
Eisenlohr has discovered that mathematics were
1.]
77
EGYPT.
studied at the court of the Hyksos princes, as the
Rhind Papyri contain a work on geometry (written
for Apepi I.) which may be described as a treatise
on applied arithmetic. Astronomy of a somewhat
elementary character was cultivated for the sake of
the calendar. The year was divided into twelve
months of thirty days, to which, in the prehistoric
age, were added five more; but as in this way a
whole day was lost every four years, recourse was
had to the famous Sothic cycle, determined by the
heliacal rising of Sopt or Sothis, the Dog-star, on
the first of Thoth (the 28th of July), once in 1460
years, when the year returned to its normal condition,
and the inundation of the Nile commenced on the
Egyptian New Year's Day. The end of one Sothic
cycle fell in A.D. 139;¹ and the festival which com-
memorated the rising of Sothis was ascribed to the
mythical days of the Hor-shesu. The akhimu-urdu
or planets (Har-tep-sheta Jupiter, Har-ka-her Saturn,
Harmakhis or Har-desher Mars, Sebek Mercury, and
Duau or Bennu Venus) were distinguished from the
akhimu-seku or fixed stars, and the sun was believed
to wander through the heavens like the planets. It
may be added that the month was divided into three
decades, as among the Greeks and early Latins (cp.
¹ See Censorinus: "De Die Nat." 13. Lauth has shown that the
era of Menophrês, mentioned by Theon, came to an end in B.C. 1321,
and that consequently Menophrês must have reigned B.C. 2781. Scarabs
exist bearing the name of Men-nofer-Ra.
78 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
the nundina), each day being further divided into
twelve hours, as in Chaldea.
It was in medicine, however, that Egypt attained
any real scientific eminence. According to Manetho,
the successor of Menes wrote treatises on anatomy,
and a medical work mentioned in the Berlin Papyrus
is said to have been first composed in the reign of
a predecessor of King Sent of the second dynasty.
Such statements, however, are due to the Egyptian
fancy for antedating literary productions, and the
oldest medical papyrus we possess (the Papyrus
Ebers) does not mount back beyond the eighteenth
dynasty. By that time medicine was in almost as
advanced a state as in the age of Galen; the various
diseases known were carefully distinguished from
one another, and their symptoms were minutely
described, as well as their treatment. The prescrip-
tions recommended in each case are made out in
precisely the same way as the prescriptions of a
modern doctor. One of these was derived from a
fashionable Semitic oculist of Byblos, but the greater
part belonged to earlier Egyptian medical men, some
of whom flourished under the first dynasties.
medicines used were of four kinds-draughts, blisters,
powders, and clysters, minerals as well as vegetables
being employed in their composition. But progress
in medical knowledge, as in art, was checked in the
time of the Middle Empire by the rule that new
medicines and treatment were adopted by the doctor
The
1.]
79
EGYPT.
+
at the risk of being put to death if the patient died.
Anatomy does not seem to have advanced so far as
medicine, and Sir E. Wilson disputes the statement
that mummies have been found with their teeth
stopped with gold, while some have been found with
broken bones grown together naturally. In fact, the
anatomical theory of the Egyptians is sufficient to
show that anatomy was still in its infancy. Accord-
ing to this the breath is drawn from the breast to
the head, through thirty-two channels or veins, and
then transmitted to the limbs. In the later days
of Egyptian history, magical formulæ and exorcisms
began to take the place of the older medical pre-
scriptions; diseases were referred to the malignity
of evil spirits, and the priest and sorcerer superseded
the physician. A demotic papyrus at Leyden is
almost wholly occupied with charms, especially love-
philtres.
Egyptian literature embraced the whole circle of
the knowledge of the time. Writing was as old as
the united monarchy, and the son of Menes was
believed to have been an author. Already, in the
time of the sixth dynasty, we find an official buried
at Gizeh who bears the title, "Controller of the
library." But of this literature only a few papyri,
and still fewer texts engraved on stone, like the poem
of Pentaur, have come down to us, the papyri being
written in hieratic and demotic. The most ancient
we possess is the "Papyrus Prisse," composed under
80 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
the eleventh dynasty, and containing two ethical
treatises, one by Kakimma, who lived in the reign
of Snefru, the other by Ptah-hotep, the son of king
Assa of the fifth dynasty. Both treatises are collec-
tions of homely, practical wisdom, resembling the
book of Proverbs, or the writings of Confucius.
Equanimity, honesty, benevolence, and prudence, are
inculcated, and the husband is told: "Love thy wife
and cherish her as long as thou livest; be not a
tyrant; flattery acts upon her better than rudeness."
"If thou art wise," says Ptah-hotep again, “bring up
thy son to fear God. If he obey thee, walking in
thy steps, and caring for thy goods as he ought, then
show him all favour. Yet thy foolish son is also
thine own offspring; estrange not thine heart from
him, but admonish him." Ptah-hotep lived to the
ripe age of 110 years, and though he begins by
enumerating all the miseries of old age, like the writer
of Ecclesiastes, he finds in the wisdom and experi-
ence it brings more than compensation.
The chief monument of the religious literature of
Egypt is the Book of the Dead, in 106 chapters, now
being critically edited by M. Naville. Portions of it
were inscribed on the mummy-cases and tombs, and
are met with in the latest of the demotic papyri. It
was, in fact, the funeral ritual of the Egyptians,
describing in mystical language the adventures of
the soul after death, and the texts it must quote in
order to escape the torments and trials of the lower
1.]
81
EGYPT.
world. It is the literary reflection of the Osiris myth,
and grew along with the latter. A hieratic text of
the eleventh dynasty gives two varying versions of
the sixty-fourth chapter, ascribed to King Men-ka-ra,
from which we may infer the antiquity of the latter.
But only the essence of the work went back to the
Old Empire. The rest consisted of additions and
glosses, and glosses of glosses, which continued to be
made up to the time of the Persians. The oldest
portion seems to have been of a practically moral
character, contrasting strikingly with the mystical
tone of the later accretions, where the doctrine of
justification by faith in Osiris has taken the place of
that of good works. Besides the Book of the Dead
may be quoted the Litanies to the Sun-god, which
are full of deep spiritual feeling, and are monotheistic
in tone. Magical works are plentiful, but they mostly
belong to the closing days of the kingdom. With
these may be coupled the popular tales and romances,
such as "The Tale of the Two Brothers," written by
Enna under the nineteenth dynasty, and bearing
some resemblance to the history of Joseph, or the
story of Setna, which turns on the magical powers
of the Book of Thoth, or the legend of the cure of
Bent-resh, the daughter of the prince of Bakhten and
sister-in-law of Ramses XII. A document at Leyden
contains an exorcism by the help of which a husband
sought to rid himself of the visits of his wife's ghost.
Correspondence also occupies a considerable place in
G
i
82 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
Egyptian literature.
letters, like that of "The Sotem Mersuatef to his
mistress, the priestess of Isis, Tanur," of public and
royal correspondence, and of collections similar to
Lord Chesterfield's letters or the "Complete Letter-
writer." Among these is a letter in which the scribe
contrasts the pursuit of literature with other trades
and professions, very much to the disadvantage of
the latter. The account of the Mohar's travels in
Syria and Palestine, where he visited Aleppo and
insular Tyre among other places, and describes his
sufferings at the hands of robbers, in the time of the
nineteenth dynasty, may also be included under this
head. So, too, may the autobiography of Saneha,
a Semite of the Delta, who fled from Egypt for
political reasons, and after slaying a sort of Goliah
obtained wealth and power in the court of Ammu-
anshi, king of Upper Tennu, the later Edom. The
desire of seeing his native land again came upon him
in his old age, and he obtained permission from
Amen-em-hat I. to return home. Perhaps, however,
this latter work should more fitly be classed, as it is
by Maspero, among the historical romances of the
Egyptians, like the story of the capture of Joppa by
Thutii, the general of Thothmes III., which bears a
striking resemblance to the tale of Ali-Baba in the
Arabian Nights. Closely connected with the epis-
tolary branch of Egyptian literature are the papyri,
which contain memoranda or accounts, as well as
We have copies of private
1.]
83
EGYPT.
the official documents kept by the royal scribes.
Among these are accounts, which show that provision
was made for the support of sick labourers. Tribute-
lists and geographical catalogues are perhaps the
most important of this class of documents, though
the mutilated Turin Papyrus, with its chronological
table of Egyptian kings, has a still higher value.
Judicial records, again, are not rare, even if the oldest
deeds are those of the time of Tirhakah. One record
describes the trial of certain conspirators against the
life of Ramses III., with the punishments allotted to
them. From others we learn that commissioners
might be appointed to investigate charges afterwards
brought before the judges in court, that the evidence
was taken down in writing, and that even cases
between master and slave had to come before the
judge. Petitions were presented directly to the king.
Egyptian law was mild; torture seems to have been
unknown, and mutilations exceptional. Even the
punishment of death was rare, and usually took the
form of decapitation or compulsory suicide. It is
noticeable that the artist who has portrayed the naval
victory of Ramses III. at Medinet Abu has depicted
some of the triumphant Egyptians attempting to
rescue the sinking crew of an enemy's ship—an act
of humanity unparalleled among the other nations of
the ancient world. The treaty between Ramses II.
and the Hittites gives us an insight into the inter-
national law of the time.
84
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
As in most despotic countries, satirical writing
and beast-fables were employed; indeed, Professor
Mahaffy suggests that the beast-fable owes its origin
to Africa. One of the caricatures in the satirical
papyrus of Turin represents Ramses III. with a lion's
head, playing draughts (a game of which he seems
to have been very fond) with one of his harem, who
is transformed into a gazelle.
Poetry, apart from the religious hymns, was much
cultivated. The Epic of Pentaur, the poet-laureate
of Ramses II., has been compared with the Iliad,
though it resembles the Greek poem only in general
character, since it never became popular, and owes
its preservation to the vanity of the king whose
imaginary deeds it records, and who, like Akhillês,
is made to address his horses by their names. The
poem seems to have been selected after a sort of
competitive examination. Its author, Pentaur, had
been the private secretary of the royal librarian,
Amenemen, who, in a letter preserved in the Sallier
Papyrus I., scolds him for not having sent the pro-
visions of the season to the palace. But epics and
religious hymns were not the only forms in which
Egyptian poetry clothed itself. A long poem on
the praise of learning, probably composed in the
time of the twelfth dynasty, is found in the Sallier
Papyrus II.; the ode to the Nile, by Enna (the
author of the “Tale of the Two Brothers "), is secular
rather than religious; and the lyrics contained in
1.]
85
EGYPT.
the Anastasi Papyri are of great beauty.
Egyptian
poetry was simple in structure, and chiefly depended,
like Hebrew poetry, upon the parallelism of ideas;
but Ebers has shown that it also made use of rhyme
and alliteration.
Historical literature is unfortunately rare, if we
except such documents as the Harris Papyrus, the
largest papyrus known, which gives the history of
Ramses III. For the annals of the kings we must
rather look to the walls of the temples and the tombs,
or to the stelæ and similar monuments. It is seldom
that we come across so straightforward an inscrip-
tion as that of Piankhi, or one so free from intermin-
able titles, and Piankhi was an Ethiopian.
It
Egyptian writing was a system of survivals.
was at once ideographic, syllabic, and alphabetic.
The older phases through which it passed were pre-
served along with those which, in a less conservative
country, would have superseded it. The oldest
written monuments we possess exhibit it already
formed and complete. Its invention must, therefore,
long precede the age of Menes. The characters are
pictorial, primarily representing objects and ideas,
while some are used as determinatives. Each char-
acter also denotes one or more syllables, and several
further represent the single letters with which the
words symbolised by them begin. For the sake of
clearness the same word may be expressed ideo-
graphically (by a pictorial hieroglyph), syllabically,
86 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [I.
་
Before the time of
and alphabetically, all at once.
the Middle Empire, and probably as early as the
first dynasty, a "hieratic" running-hand had been
formed out of the hieroglyphics, and in the ninth
century B.C. this became the "demotic" hand, the
characters of which are still more unlike the original
forms from which they were derived than those of
the hieratic papyri. Hieratic is always written from
right to left, whereas the hieroglyphics may run
indifferently from left to right, or from right to left.
As was shown by De Rougé, the Phoenicians of the
Delta or Caphtor (Keft-ur, "Greater Phoenicia ")
adopted the letters of the Egyptian alphabet in the
hieratic forms current in the Hyksos period, and
handed them on to their kindred in Canaan, among
whom they received new names, while retaining their
old values. The first letter, for example, ceased to be
called Ahom," the eagle," and became Aleph (alpha),
"the ox."
Language, Law, Trade, and Culture.-The Egypt-
ian language bears a distant resemblance to the
Semitic dialects in grammar, though not in vocab-
ulary. It is simple in structure, and inflectional in
form, marking the relations of words by suffixes and
composition. It is already an old language when
we first meet with it on the monuments, and it
changed considerably during the course of Egyptian
history. The language of the Old or Middle Empire
would have been unintelligible to the ordinary Egypt-
1.]
87
EGYPT.
ian of the time of Hêrodotos; thus on the phonetic
side, ts became successively d and t, and Khufu or
Kheops was called Shufu in later days.
Law has already been mentioned under the head
of literature. As in England, the king was regarded
as the source of justice, and at all events in the
Ptolemaic period the judges went on circuit. The
government was imperialistic. The king was a
deified autocrat, but affairs were really managed by
an organised bureaucracy. A council of thirty seems
to have accompanied the monarch on his military
expeditions, and he and the royal princes nominally
commanded the army. The latter was divided into
different corps, each named after its patron divinity.
From the time of the nineteenth dynasty downward
it consisted largely of Negro, Libyan, and other
mercenaries; in fact, as in the case of the Roman
Empire, it came eventually to consist of them almost
entirely. The fleet, with its one-oared galleys, never
attained a high development. The soldiers acted as
a police-force at home, under magistrates (ga), who
heard civil suits, and prefects (mer) were appointed
over the large cities. The nomes had each their ha
or governor.
Trade during the Old Empire seems to have been
small. Egypt mainly depended on domestic agri-
culture, and, like China, was jealous of strangers.
The mafka, or turquoise, and copper mines of Sinai,
however, were early occupied and worked, and the
88 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[I.
use of bronze implies a knowledge of tin. A frag-
ment of wrought plate-iron has been found in the
Great Pyramid,¹ but this may have been made of
baa en-pe or meteoric iron, rather than of ba-nu-ta or
terrestrial iron. Certainly Thothmes III. received
iron vessels as tribute from Syria and Phoenicia.
Gold was worked under the first dynasties, but it
was the Middle Empire that opened the Nubian gold
mines. A plan of those of Rhedesieh and Kuban
(Kobban) exists in a Turin papyrus of the nineteenth
dynasty. With the rise of the New Empire and the
Semitic occupation of the Delta, trade largely in-
creased, favoured by the conquests in Asia. Corn,
linen, and horses were exported in return for the
products of Asia and Cush. The expedition sent
by Hatasu to Punt, or the Somâli coast, had a com-
mercial object, and Punt henceforth supplied Egypt
with incense, gums, cosmetics, monkeys, apes, hounds,
and panther-skins. The Phoenicians brought vases
of gold, silver, and terra-cotta, many of them with
covers made in the shape of animals' heads. Sesostris
attempted to join the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea by a canal, and Necho despatched Phoenician
sailors to circumnavigate Africa.
From the age of the earliest monuments down-
wards, the Egyptians were acquainted with all the
luxuries and comforts of cultivated life. The country
1 See Transactions of the Oriental Congress in London, 1875, pp.
396, 397.
I.]
89
EGYPT.
swarmed with artisans and handicraftsmen of all
kinds. Glass-blowers are depicted on monuments
of the twelfth dynasty, and a fragment of dark-blue
glass bears the praenomen of Antef III. of the
eleventh. Vases of beautiful blue porcelain go back
to the age of the Old Empire, and the dyed cloths
of Egypt were justly celebrated. Wine and beer
were drunk, and dinner-parties were given by the
wealthy, at which the guests sat on chairs. For
amusements they had dancers, musicians, singers,
tumblers, and jugglers, games like that of draughts,
or field-sports. Their dress was light, as was natural
in a hot climate, and sandals were unknown before
the fifth dynasty. The head was shorn, and enormous
wigs worn over it, partly for the sake of cleanliness,
partly for protection from the sun. Artificial beards
were also used. Children went undressed before the
age of puberty, and were distinguished by a single
lock of hair on the left side. Their education was
carefully attended to, and they were trained in "all
the wisdom of the Egyptians." As stated by Hê-
rodotos, the Egyptians were monogamous; the king,
however, was allowed to have several wives, and the
great nobles might keep harems. Marriage between
brother and sister was also permitted, a survival
from a primitive condition of polyandry. But the
women in Egypt held a high position, very unlike
that occupied by her in Greece or in modern oriental
countries. She was the equal of her lord, went about
90
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [1.
:
freely and unveiled in public, and could ascend the
throne in her own right as far back as the beginning
of the second dynasty. Indeed, it would seem that
at this period the children traced their descent
through the mother rather than through the father.
In character the Egyptians formed a strong contrast
to the other leading nations of antiquity. Gentle,
good-tempered, unwarlike, and humane, they achieved
success in war only by the help of superior organisa-
tion and equipment. Home-loving and industrious,
they made their country the seat of culture and
material prosperity. If, like other southern races,
they had not the same notions of truth as the northern
European, their legal institutions show that they had
a profound sense of justice and equity. Under the
ever increasing tyranny and servility of the New
Empire, it is true, their political character deteriorated;
but up to the last the pure-blooded inhabitants of
Middle Egypt preserved some of that democratic
spirit which still distinguishes the Egyptian of to-
day. Their deep religious fervour was tempered by
light-heartedness, and prevented from passing into
fanaticism; and if from time to time they showed
themselves excitable, it was the excitability of healthy
children under a warm sun and a bright sky.
II.
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
GEOGRAPHICALLY, as well as ethnologically and
historically, Babylonia and Assyria form but one
country. It is therefore with justice that classical
writers sometimes speak of the whole district between
the Euphrates and Tigris as Assyria, though Baby-
lonia would no doubt have been a more accurate
name. The district naturally falls into two divisions,
the northern being more or less mountainous, while
the southern is flat and marshy, and a sharp line of
separation is drawn between them at a spot where
the two rivers approach closely to one another, and
the undulating table-land of the north sinks suddenly
into the alluvial flats of Babylonia. It was in these
rich and loamy flats, however, that the civilisation of
Western Asia first developed. The northern plateau
was inhabited by a mixture of uncultivated tribes at
the earliest period of which we have any knowledge,
and was known under the general name of Gutium
or Guti (Kutu in Assyrian), first identified by
Sir H. Rawlinson with the Goyim of Gen. xiv. 1.
92 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
it.
Gutium comprised the whole country which stretched
from the Euphrates on the west to Media on the
east; the land of Nizir, with the mountain of
Rowandiz, on which the ark of the Chaldean Noah
was believed to have rested, being included within
The later kingdom of Assyria formed a portion
of it, as well as the great plain of Mesopotamia,
which was bounded on the west by Palestine or
Martu, the land of "the path of the setting sun," and
on the north by Subarti, "the highlands" of Aram
or Syria. The plain of Mesopotamia, now known
as El-Jezireh, is about 250 miles in length, and is
intersected by a single mountain ridge, which rises
abruptly out of the plain, and, branching off from
the Zagros range, runs southward and eastward
under the modern names of Sarazúr, Hamrin, and
Sinjar. The numerous tels and other remains of old
habitations, even apart from the evidence of the
Assyrian inscriptions, show how thickly this level
region must once have been populated, though it is
now for the most part a wilderness. North of the
plateau rises a well-watered and undulating tract of
country, diversified by low ranges of limestone hills,
sometimes barren, sometimes clothed with dwarf-
oaks, which often shut in rich plains and fertile
valleys between their northern and north-eastern
slopes and the main mountain-line from which they
detach themselves. Beyond them are the lofty
summits of the Niphates and Zagros ranges, where
II.]
93
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
the Tigris and Euphrates have their sources, and by
which Assyria was cut off from Armenia and
Kurdistan.
Geography and Race.—Assyria took its name from
the primitive capital of A-sur (or A-usar, “water-
bank," later Assur), now Kaleh Sherghat, which
stood on the right bank of the Tigris, midway
between the Greater and the Lesser Zab, and was
founded in prae-Semitic times. Some sixty miles
to the north, beyond the greater Zab, was another
city of nearly equal age, but originally of smaller
size and importance, called Nina, Ninua, or Nineveh,
"the fish-town," now represented by the mounds of
Nebi Yunus and Kouyunjik, opposite Mossul, and
built on the banks of the Tigris and Khusur, the
modern Khosr. After the northward extension of
the Assyrian kingdom, the capital was moved from
Assur to Nineveh by Shalmaneser I. (about B.C.
1300), and from henceforward Nineveh remained
the chief city of the empire.
Calakh or Calah,
however, the modern Nimrúd, founded by the same
Shalmaneser, from time to time proved a formidable
rival of its sister city, and was a favourite residence
of Assur-natsir-pal, Shalmaneser II., and Tiglath-
Pileser II. Between Calah and Nineveh lay Res-eni
or Resen ("the head of the spring"), probably the
Larissa (Al Resen, "city of Resen ") of Xenophon
(Anab. iii. 4), occupying the site of the mound of
Selamiyeh. About ten miles to the north of
94 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
Nineveh was Dur-Sargina (now Khorsabad), built in
the shape of a square by Sargon, whose palace was
erected on a platform shaped like a T on its north-
west side. Nine miles to the east of Nimrúd is
Balâwat, called Imgur-Bel, "the habitation of Bel,"
by Assur-natsir-pal, who built a temple there to the
Dream-god, and from which the bronze gates com-
memorating the achievements of Shalmaneser II.,
and now in the British Museum, have been brought.
On the northern frontier of Assyria was Tarbitsu,
now Sherîf Khan, while Arbela, now Ervil, on the
east, was an early seat of the worship of Istar, and
a city of considerable importance. South-west of it
lay Kalzu, enlarged and fortified by Sennacherib;
while the Mespila (Muspilu, "low-ground ") of Xeno-
phon, where the Medes made a final stand against
Kyros, must have been a little to the north of
Nineveh. Besides these there were numerous other
cities, more than twenty of the most important of
which are enumerated among the insurgents against
Shalmaneser II.; while the Bavian inscription of
Sennacherib contains a long list of the smaller towns
and villages in the immediate neighbourhood of the
capital.
But in populousness and antiquity Assyria was
far exceeded by the southern kingdom of Babylonia.
Here were the centre and starting-point of the civilis-
ation which afterwards spread throughout Western
Asia. Its primitive inhabitants, whom we will term
II.]
95
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Accadians, traced their origin to the mountainous
country south of the Caspian, from whence they had
spread over Elam or Susiana, the shores of the
Persian Gulf, and the fertile plain of Babylonia.
The country subsequently known as Assyria was
also once inhabited by them; and even Harran, in
the western part of Mesopotamia, seems to have been
of Accadian foundation. Their physical type was a
peculiar one; the features were long and narrow,
the eyes small, the cheek-bones prominent, the nose
slightly retroussé, and the beard long and straight.
The languages and dialects spoken by them were
agglutinative, and in phonology,-more especially
the laws of vocalic harmony,-grammatical ma-
chinery, and vocabulary, approach more nearly to
the Ural-Altaic family of speech than to any other
known group of tongues. So far as we are at present
acquainted with them, they fall into two divisions,
-the first comprising the Amardian or Protomedic
of Susiana, the Cassite of Kossæa, and the dialect
spoken in the neighbourhood of Susa; while the
second includes the two closely-related dialects 2
spoken in Babylonia itself, chiefly distinguished by
different peculiarities of pronunciation and the em-
ployment of different words, such as duga and tsibba
for "good." The civilisation of Babylonia seems to
have originated in Anzan or Southern Susiana and
the coasts of the Persian Gulf, out of which, according
to the legend, the semi-human Oannes arose at dawn
96. THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
with the revelation of culture and knowledge. The
pictorial hieroglyphics which afterwards became the
cuneiform characters were first invented in Elam,
as is shown by such facts as the want of a simple
character to denote the palm, or the use of the pic-
ture of a mountain to signify a country.
In Baby-
lonia, however, the civilisation which had been
brought from the mountains of the East underwent a
rapid development. The country was divided into two
halves, the northern half, comprehending Sippara and
Babylon, being known as Accad (Acada), "the high-
lands," or rather the country of "the highlanders ;"
and the southern half, which included Erech, Lar'sa,
and perhaps Ur, as Sumer or Shinar. The land on
the western bank of the Euphrates went under the
general name of Edinna, “the desert," the Eden of
Scripture, the sacred grove and garden in the neigh-
bourhood of Eridu, at the junction of the Tigris and
Euphrates, being the "Garden of Eden" of Genesis.
The sea extended as far as the latter city, identified
by Sir H. Rawlinson with the modern Dhib, in
which we may perhaps see a reminiscence of its old
Sumerian title, Tsibba, "the good." The date of its
foundation may be approximately fixed by the rate
at which the alluvial soil has grown below it. In
the time of Alexander the Tigris and Euphrates
flowed by different mouths into the sea, as did also
the Eulæus or Karun in the Assyrian epoch; and
Dr. Delitzsch calculates that a delta of between forty
II.]
97
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
and fifty miles in length has been formed since the
sixth century B.C.¹
The land of Edinna was irrigated by canals, and
Ur, now Mugheir, was built on its outskirts. Sumer,
called also "the country of the black faces,” and
"the country" par excellence, was the earliest seat of
Chaldean civilisation, and consequently took rank
before Accad, the population of which had descended
from the mountains of Elam after the settlement of
the southern province. Among its cities may be
mentioned Erech or Uruk, now Warka, whose
Accadian name, "the city," implies that it had once
been the capital of the whole country; Nipur, the
city of Bel, now Niffer; Lar'sa, perhaps the Ellasar
of Genesis, the city of the sun, now Senkereh or
Sinkara; Zirgulla, now Zerghul; Dur or Diru, "the
fortress," now Deyr; Chilmad, now Kilwadha; Duran
or Duban, Karrak or Nisin, Amarda or Marad,
Esnunna or Umliyas, and Kul-unu, the biblical Calneh.
Babylon, however, and the neighbouring town of
Kis, now El-Hymer, were not included in Sumer.
Babylon consisted of the two Accadian towns of
Ca-dimirra, "the gate of God," and Din-Tir, "the
seat of the tree (of life)," on opposite sides of the
Euphrates, which, after the Semitic conquest, were
united into one, known as Bab-ili or Babel, the
Semitic translation of Ca-dimirra. The city was
made the capital of the country for the first time by
1 See Pliny, N. H. vi. 130.
H
98
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
Khammuragas, a position it retained up to its entire
destruction in B.C. 690 by Sennacherib, who choked
the stream of the Arakhtu with its ruins. Rebuilt
by Esar-haddon, it soon recovered its old importance,
and after being united with its suburb, Barzip or
Borsippa, became the centre of the empire of Nebu-
chadrezzar.
Agadhé subsequently
The chief city of Northern Accad was, like
Babylon, built on the two banks of the Euphrates,
the larger half being called 'Sipar or Sippara, “the
city of the sun" (now Abu Habba), and the smaller
half Accad (or Agadhé).
took the title of "Sippara of the moon-goddess,"
whence the scriptural name Sepharvaim, "the two
Sipparas." To the east of Sepharvaim was Tig-
gaba or Kute (Cuthah), now Tel-Ibrahim, and to
the north Dur-aba, now Akkerkuf, and Is, now Hit.
The northern part of the Accad is frequently termed
Kar-Duniyas or Gan-Duni.
The country was intersected by a network of
canals, the regulation of which was under special
officers. The three chief of those which carried
off the waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above
Babylon, were the Ar-malcha, entering the Tigris a
little below Bagdad; the Nahr-malcha, running across
to the site of Seleukeia; and the Nahr-Kutha, which
passed through Tel-Ibrahim. The Pallacopas, on
the western side of the Euphrates, supplied an
immense lake in the neighbourhood of Borsippa.
II.]
99
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
On the same side, to the south of Babylon, is the
fresh-water lake of Nedjef, surrounded by sandstone
cliffs of considerable height, forty miles in length
and thirty-five in breadth at the broadest part.
Below the lake the marshes where Alexander nearly
perished (Arrian, Exp. Al. vii. 22; Strabo, xvi. 1,
12) extend as far as the sea. Here, on the shores
of the Persian Gulf, lived the Caldai or Chaldeans,
with their capital Bit-Yakin, when we first hear of
them in the ninth century B.C. Under Merodach\
baladan they made themselves masters of Babylonia,
and gave their name to the whole country in the
Greek period. Northward of the Caldai were the
Gambulai and other nomad tribes, among whom
the Arameans, Nabatheans, and Pukudu or Pekod,
may be mentioned.
The fertility of the soil was great. Pliny tells
us (H. N. xviii. 17) that wheat after being cut
twice was good keep for sheep; and according to
Bêrôsos, wheat, barley, sesame, ochrys, palms, apples,
and many kinds of shelled fruit, grew wild. Indeed,
wheat still does so in the neighbourhood of Anah,
and we need not be surprised at the statement of
Hêrodotos that grain commonly returned two
hundredfold to the sower, and sometimes three
hundredfold. Chaldea was the native country of
the palm, the 360 uses of which were recounted
by a Persian poem (Strabo, xvi. 1, 14); and we
learn from Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiv. 3) that
100 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
from the point reached by Julian's army to the
margin of the Persian Gulf was one continuous
forest of verdure.
As already stated, the primitive population of
Babylonia and Assyria belonged to a race which
may have been allied to the Turanian or Finno-
Tatar. At all events it spoke an agglutinative
language which has many affinities with those of
the Ural-Altaic family. This primitive population
was supplanted by the Semites-the Casdim or
conquerors" of the Bible
of the Bible at some unknown
period before the second millennium B.C. The
Semitic element, however, was stronger and purer
in Assyria than in Babylonia, where it produced
a mixed type, which was still further crossed by the
Elamite and Chaldean conquests. The Assyrian,
on the other hand, displayed all the physical and
moral characteristics of the Semitic race; and while
Babylonia was the home of culture and learning,
Assyria produced a breed of ferocious warriors and
quick-witted traders.
History. Until the decipherment of the cunei-
form inscriptions our knowledge of Babylonian and
Assyrian history was at once meagre and uncertain.
With the exception of Hêrodotos, whose notices
were scanty and of doubtful value, we had to depend
almost entirely on the copyists and excerptists of
Ktêsias and Bêrôsos. Ktêsias was a native of
Knidos, and the physician of Artaxerxes Mnêmôn,
II.]
ΙΟΙ
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
but he seems to have been devoid of critical power.
Portions of the annals compiled by Persian writers
were translated for him, and with the help of these
he endeavoured to destroy the credit of Hêrodotos
as a historian. The annals, however, like those of
Firdusi or of later Arabic writers, consisted for the
most part of mere legendary tales and rationalised
myths; we have, therefore, to seek in them not
the history but the mythology of the Babylonians.
Semiramis was the goddess Istar, Ninos the city of
Nineveh, Ninyas or Zames the Sun-god. With
these legends Ktêsias mingled the Greek romance of
Sardanapallos, and eked out his list of Assyrian kings
with names partly imaginary, partly geographical.
Some of these were doubtless due to the translators
on whom he depended. In the later Persian period,
however, Ktêsias becomes more trustworthy.
The work of Bêrôsos was of a far different
character. He was a priest of the temple of Bel
at Babylon, and is said by Eusebios and Tatian to
have been a contemporary of Alexander the Great,
and to have lived into the reign of Antiokhos Sôtêr.
He had, therefore, special opportunities of knowing
the history and astronomy of his country, upon
which he wrote in Greek. Recent discoveries have
abundantly established the trustworthiness of this
Manetho of Babylonia, whose works, unfortunately,
are known to us only through quotations at second
and third hand. Since a cylinder of Antiokhos,
}
102 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
¡
the son of Seleukos, has been found inscribed in
Babylonian cuneiform, while bilingual fragments in
cuneiform and cursive Greek of the Seleukid age
have also been discovered; and a contract tablet in
Babylonian cuneiform, dated in the fifth year of
the Parthian king, Pakoros, the contemporary of
Domitian, exists in the Museum of Zürich, there
is no reason why Bêrôsos should not have been
equally well acquainted with both the Greek lan-
guage and the old literature of his native country.
And in spite of the fragmentary and corrupt state
in which his fragments have come down to us, we
now know that he was so. His account of the
Deluge, for instance, agrees even in its details with
that of the cuneiform texts.
Josephos seems to have known the original work
of Bêrôsos, but the Christian writers quote him only
indirectly through the compilation of Alexander
Polyhistor (B.C. 80). Hence we can put no con-
fidence in the numbers attached to the dynasties
in which Bêrôsos, like his contemporary, Manetho,
arranged the list of Babylonian kings. His Arabian
dynasty, for example, seems to correspond with the
Cassite dynasty of the inscriptions; but if so, the
title "Arabian" must be corrupt, as well as the
nine kings and 245 years assigned to it, since we
know of at least nineteen Cassite monarchs, and the
length of time the dynasty lasted must have been
over 600 years. Minor dynasties, again, have been
II.]
103
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
either run together or omitted from the list, as a
fragmentary tablet which once contained a complete
catalogue of legitimate Babylonian monarchs ar-
ranged in dynasties introduces a number of very
short ones. This was probably the work of either
Polyhistor or his copyists; at all events, the Assyrian
dynasty of forty-five kings which is made to follow
the Arabian one includes at least two dynasties,
that of the Assyrian conqueror Tiglath-Adar, which
lasted only a few years, and that of the native princes,
who succeeded in shaking off the Assyrian yoke and
maintaining their independence for more than four
centuries.
Bêrôsos confined his attention to Babylonian
history; the history of Assyria seems to have been
compiled by Megasthenês in the time of Seleukos
Nikator (B.C. 290), from whom (as Professor Schrader
has shown) it was extracted by Abydênos (B.C. 260).
Abydênos in turn survives only in the quotations
of the Christian writers. But as Nineveh and its
monuments had long been destroyed, the only sources
Abydênos could have had for his history must have
been the records of Babylonia; and it is not sur-
prising, therefore, that the extracts we possess from
his work all relate to the period of the Second
Assyrian Empire, when Babylonia was brought into
close contact with the northern kingdom. The
earlier period must have been for the most part a
mere blank, or else filled up with myth and legend.
04 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
One more classical authority for Babylonian
history remains. This is the valuable Canon of
Ptolemy, preserved in the Almagest, and giving the
chronology of Babylon from B.C. 747 downwards.
It probably came from Bêrôsos. Other classical
notices of Assyro-Babylonian history may be passed
over; like those of Diodôros, they are little more
than echoes of Ktêsias. It is only the Old Testa-
ment which gives us fuller and more trustworthy
information.
It is, therefore, to the native texts that we have
mainly to look for the history of Assyria and Baby-
lonia. These are partly contemporaneous with the
events they record, partly more recent compilations.
The statements of those that are contemporaneous
may be frankly accepted, due allowance being made
for oriental exaggeration and tendency to self-praise.
The Assyrian historical documents, however, are
singularly free from these faults. They were in-
tended to be read by a large and well-educated
public, and the practical character of the Assyrians
made them realistic in style. The historical in-
scriptions are scrupulous in recording the names,
and if possible the parentage, of the foreign princes
whom they mention; every small town is carefully
noted by name, and the numbers, whether of con-
quered populations and spoil, or of the Assyrian
armies, are seldom round and never excessive. Even
the disaster which befell Sennacherib-the least
II.]
105
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
trustworthy of all the royal authors-in Palestine
is not denied or glossed over; it is simply omitted,
leaving a break which presupposes it. Of course,
the same accuracy or trustworthiness cannot be
expected in later compilations, and many of these,
like the legend of Sargon of Agadê, merely embody
popular tales. But such legends belong rather to
Babylonia than to Assyria, where the historical sense.
was really remarkably developed, and the extreme
faithfulness with which old documents were copied
inspires us with confidence in the statements made
regarding them. The Assyrians early possessed a
fixed chronology, reckoned by the names of officers
called limmi, who were changed every year, and,
like the eponymous archons at Athens, gave their
name to their year of office. The chief events of
each year were added to the name of its eponym,
and in the earlier period of the empire the king
himself assumed the office in his year of accession.
We possess fragments of several editions of the
Canon in which the names of the eponyms were
recorded in order, and thus have an exact chron-
ology of the empire from B.C. 913 to B.C. 659.
Since the inscription of Rimmon-nirari I. is dated
in the eponymy of Shalman-karradu, it is clear that
the system of dating by eponyms was already in
existence in the fourteenth century B.C.; and we
may therefore trust Sennacherib when he asserts
that a seal which belonged to Tiglath-Adar was
106 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
carried off to Babylon 600 years before his own
capture of that city, and that 418 years had elapsed
between his invasion of Babylonia in B.C. 692 and
the defeat of Tiglath-Pileser I. by the Babylonians ;
or this same Tiglath-Pileser, when he tells us that
Samas-Rimmon had built the temple of Anu and
Rimmon at Kalah-Sherghat 701 years before his
own restoration of it. The system of eponyms,
however, seems to have been confined to Assyria,
and the early Chaldeans do not appear to have had
any settled system of chronology. Their inscriptions,
if dated at all, are dated by such events as the
capture of a city or an inundation of the river.
Still they must have had some more definite mode
of counting time, since Assur-bani-pal affirms that
Cudur-Nankhundi, the Elamite, had oppressed Accad
1635 years before his own conquest of Shushan;
while the table of Babylonian dynasties, first dis-
covered by Mr. Smith, assigns to each king the
length of his reign in years, months, and days. It
must have been some such table as this which was
used by Bêrôsos. It is unfortunate that only frag-
ments of this table are preserved, as our acquaintance
with early Babylonian history and chronology is
extremely meagre and uncertain, and has to be
gathered chiefly from the brick-legends of the early
kings or stray notices in later inscriptions. An in-
scription of Assyrian origin which gives brief notices
of the occasions on which the monarchs of Assyria
11.]
107
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
and Babylonia had come into contact with each other
since the reigns of Assur-bil-nisi-su and Cara-indas
is useful, since our knowledge of Assyrian chronology
enables us to tabulate the Babylonian kings men-
tioned in the text. It is only with the era of
Nabonasar (B.C. 747), and the mutual help afforded
by the Assyrian inscriptions and the Canon of
Ptolemy, that an exact chronology of Babylonia
begins. For the empire of Nebuchadrezzar the
records of the Egibi banking firm are invaluable-
dated deeds extending, year by year, from the reign
of Nebuchadrezzar to the close of that of Darius
Hystaspis.
The history of Babylonia, like that of most great
nations, begins with myth. Ten kings reigned over
the country before the Deluge, their reigns lasting
for 120 sari, or 432,000 years. The chronology as
well as the number of reigns has a purely astro-
nomical origin: the origin of the names has yet to
be discovered. The first of these antediluvian kings
was Alôros of Babylon, which indicates the Baby-
lonian parentage of the whole story. Alôros took
the title of "shepherd," a title which we find assumed
by the early Chaldean princes, and which, like the
πоíμην λaŵν of Homer, proves the pastoral habits
of the people before they became civilised citizens.
The second successor of Alôros, Amêlôn, came from
Pantibibla or Booktown, possibly Sippara, as did
also Daônus, the Dun or "mighty one" of the in-
108 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
scriptions. Otiartes, which the native name Ubara-
Tutu, "servant of the Setting Sun," shows must be
corrected to Opartes, was the ninth of the line, and
belonged to Larankha, the Surippak of the texts.
His son and successor was Xisuthros, the hero of
the Deluge.
With the Deluge the mythical history of Baby-
lonia takes a new departure. From this event to
the Persian conquest was a period of 36,000 years,
or an astronomical cycle called saros.¹ Xisuthros,
with his family and friends, alone survived the
waters which drowned the rest of mankind on
account of their sins. He had been ordered by the
gods to build a ship, to
and to stock it with
Xisuthros sent out first a dove, then a swallow, and
lastly a raven, to discover whether the earth was
dry; the dove and the swallow returned to the ship,
and it was only when the raven flew away that the
rescued hero ventured to leave his ark. He found
that he had been stranded on the peak of the moun-
tain of Nizir, "the mountain of the world," whereon
the Accadians believed the heaven to rest, where,
too, they placed the habitation of their gods and the
cradle of their own race. Since Nizir lay among the
mountains of Pir Mam, a little south of Rowandiz,
pitch it within and without,
animals of every species.
1 This assumes that Brandis is right in supplying 258 years for the
fourth dynasty of Alexander Polyhistor where the numerals have
dropped out in the MS.
II.]
109
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
its mountain must be identified with Rowandiz itself.
On its peak Xisuthros offered sacrifices, piling up
cups of wine by sevens; and the rainbow, "the glory
of Anu," appeared in heaven, in covenant that the
world should never again be destroyed by a flood.
Immediately afterwards Xisuthros and his wife, like
the biblical Enoch, were translated to the regions of
the blessed beyond Datilla, the river of death, and
his people made their way westward to Sippara.
Here they disinterred the books buried by their late
ruler before the Deluge had taken place, and re-
established themselves in their old country under
the government first of Evêkhoos, and then of his
son Khomasbolos. Meanwhile other colonists had
arrived in the plain of Sumer, and here, under the
leadership of the giant Etana, called Titan by the
Greek writers, they built a city of brick, and essayed
to erect a tower by means of which they might scale
the sky, and so win for themselves the immortality
granted to Xisuthros. The spot where the tower
was raised was the mound at Babylon, now known
as the Amrám, where stood the temple of Anu, the
palace of the kings, and the hanging gardens of
Nebuchadrezzar, and the season they chose for
building it was the autumnal equinox. But the
tower was overthrown in the night by the winds,
and Bel frustrated their purpose by confounding
their language, and scattering them on the mound.
Hence the place was called "the gate of God,"
•
IIO THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
though a later punning etymology connected it with
bâlal, "to confound."
Now happened the war waged by Etana, Bel,
Prometheus, and Ogygos, against Kronos or Hea,
and the adventures of the giant Ner, who, along
with Etana, finally found a seat among the crowned
heads in the underworld of Hades. Now, too, the
goddess Istar descended from heaven to woo the
sons of men ;-Alala, the wild eagle, the lion-son of
'Silele; Isullanu, the woodsman; and above all,
Tammuz, the young and beautiful Sun - god, the
Adônis of Semitic and Greek story. Slain by the
boar's tusk of winter, Tammuz sank to the under-
world, whither he was followed by Istar, and not
released till he had drunk of the waters of life.
More famous even than Tammuz, however, was the
solar hero whose name is provisionally read Gisdhubar,
and who has been identified with the biblical Nimrod.
Gisdhubar was the prototype of the Melkarth of Tyre
and the Hêraklês of Greece; and the twelve labours
of Hêraklês may be traced back to the adventures
of Gisdhubar, as recorded in the twelve books of
the great Epic of early Chaldea. The Epic, whose
authorship was ascribed to one Sinliki-unnini, was
preserved in the library of Erech, a city with which
Gisdhubar was specially associated, though his
birthplace was supposed to be Armarda, the city
of "solar glory." Its date may be roughly ascribed
to about B.C. 2000, but it belongs to the period
11.]
III
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
3
when the Semitic race was already in possession of
the land.
one.
The Semitic conquest must have been a gradual
The evidence of language shows that when
the Semites first came into contact with the civilisa-
tion of Accad, they were mere desert-nomads, dwell-
ing in tents, and wanting even the first elements of
culture. These, however, they soon acquired from
their neighbours, and with the trading instinct of
their race quickly made themselves indispensable to
the agricultural Accadians. Ur and the other towns
on the western bank of the Euphrates were the
earliest places in which they settled, but they soon
overflowed into the whole plain of Sumer. Among
the oldest contemporaneous records we possess are
those of Lig-Bagas or Ur-Bagas, king of Ur, whose
rule extended over the whole of both Accad and
Sumer. The great temple of the Moon-god at Ur
was founded by him, and he adorned Erech, Nipur,
Lar'sa, and other cities, with temples of vast size
dedicated to the Sun, to Istar, and to Bel. Viceroys
were established in different parts of the country;
Khassimir was the governor of Nipur; and Gudea,
the grandson of Lig-Bagas, ruled at Zerghul, where
the statue of his architect has lately been found.
Lig-Bagas seems to have been the first of the great
Babylonian builders, and the enormous brick struc-
tures he has left behind, cemented with bitumen in
the place of lime, show that architectural knowledge
II2 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
:
was already advanced. Buttresses, drains, and ·ex-
ternal ornamentation are all freely employed. The
cuneiform system of writing had attained its full
development; libraries, stocked with clay books,
existed in the towns, signet stones were carved with
artistic skill, and the country was intersected by
canals and roads. The amount of human labour at
the disposal of the monarch may be judged from the
fact that the Bowariyeh mound at Warka, which
covers the ruins of the temple of the Sun-god, is 200
feet square and 100 feet high, so that above 30,000,000
of bricks must have been used in building it. The
calendar was already fixed and regulated, and the
towers attached to the temples were used as observa-
tories. According to Nabonidos, Lig-Bagas lived
700 years before the age of Khammuragas.
His son and successor was Dungi, "the mighty
one." Among his Accadian inscriptions he has left
us a short one in Semitic,—a proof of the importance
to which the Semites had now attained. They had
in fact become a commercial aristocracy, and the
time was not far distant when this commercial
aristocracy would usurp the supreme power. It is
difficult to know with which of the dynasties of
Bêrôsos these kings of Ur are to be identified. If
the Arabian dynasty is that of the Cassite princes,
they ought to belong to the nameless dynasty which
followed the eight "Median" kings. These Medes,
it may be observed, must have taken their name
II.]
113
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
:
from the Accadian mada, “country," and may pos-
sibly have come from Sumer, often called Kingi,
"the land.” In this case the capture of Babylon by
them would represent the overthrow of a local line
of princes who held sway in that city.
The unification of the country under Lig-Bagas
and Dungi was of short duration. It soon broke up
again into small independent states.
When Cudur-
nankhundi, the powerful Elamite monarch, invaded
Babylonia he seems to have found kings with Semitic
names reigning there; but the book of Genesis re-
presents another Elamite conqueror, Chedorlaomer
or Cudur-Lagamar, as dominating over two Baby-
lonian princes, Amar-phel of Sumer, and Arioch of
Lar'sa, as well as over a king of Gutium. It is
curious that the inscriptions contain a record of a
second Eri-Acu or Arioch, king of Lar'sa, who was
son and vassal of an Elamite sovereign, Cudur-
Mabug; and it is still more curious that just as
Cudur - Lagamar extended his power to Palestine
according to Genesis, Cudur-Mabug also styles him-
self" the father of Phoenicia."
The power of Cudur-Mabug and his son Eri-Acu,
however, does not seem to have extended over the
whole of Chaldea, though Eri-Acu claimed to be
'king of Sumer and Accad." Accad, at all events,
including Babylon, was in the possession of a Semitic
dynasty, whose capital was Agadé. The most
brilliant representative of this dynasty was Sargon
I
114 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
I., whose patronage of learning caused the library of
Agadé to become one of the most famous in Baby-
lonia. It was for him that the great work on astro-
nomy and astrology was compiled in seventy-two
books, which Bêrôsos translated into Greek, and
another work on terrestrial omens was also compiled
for the same monarch. Legends naturally gathered
round the name of this Babylonian Solomon. Not
only was he entitled "the deviser of law, the deviser
of prosperity," but it was told of him how his father
had died while he was still unborn, how his mother
had fled to the mountains and there left him, like a
second Moses, to the care of the river in an ark of
reeds and bitumen; and how he was saved by Acci,
"the water-drawer," who brought him up as his own
son, until the time came when, under the protection
of Istar, his rank was discovered, and he took his
seat on the throne of his forefathers. It is indeed
possible that Sargon was a usurper, since his name
means the constituted king," and seems as if it had
been assumed after his accession to power. How-
ever this may be, he was a conqueror as well as a
legislator and friend of literature. More than once
he attacked the Elamites successfully, though he was
unable to wrest Sumer out of their hands. He made
several campaigns against Syria and Palestine, in the
course of which he crossed into Cyprus, and there,
as on the opposite shores of the mainland, he caused
images of himself to be erected. These campaigns
(C
11.]
115
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
occupied three years, and it was to them that the
influence of Babylonian culture upon the populations
of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean must first
be traced. Towards the end of his life he even
penetrated as far as Maganna, or the peninsula of
Sinai, in quest, no doubt, of the turquoise and copper
mines that had so long been worked there by the
Egyptians. It is perhaps to these expeditions that
Manetho refers when he asserts that the Hyksos
fortified Jerusalem for fear of the Assyrians. After
overthrowing Kastubila of Cazalla, and quelling an
insurrection which broke out among "the elders” of
Accad, Sargon ended his long reign of fifty-four,
years, and was succeeded by his son, Naram-Sin, who
maintained the military fame of his father by con-
quering Ris-Rimmon of Apirak and marching into
Maganna. A Babylonian cylinder, in which the
title of divinity is given to Naram-Sin, was found
by General di Cesnola in the treasury of the Cyprian
temple of Kurion, and not only shows that apotheosis
was not unknown in Babylonia, but also that the
influence of the kings of Agadé was still strong in
the far west. But the reign of this deified king
ended after all in disaster. The conquest of Ma-
ganna seems to have brought the dynasty of Sargon
under Egyptian influence, to which the apotheosis
of his son may perhaps be traced. At all events
in Agadé, as in Egypt, it became possible for a
woman to be at the head of the state, and Naram-
116 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
Sin was followed by a queen, Ellat-Gula. But a
custom which suited Egypt did not equally suit the
Semites of Babylonia, and Ellat-Gulla was the last
of her race. A horde of strangers swept over the
country, and Agadé or Accad never again held the
rank of a capital. If we may believe Nabonidos,
Naramsin, son of Sargon, had founded the temple
of the Sun-god at Sippara 3200 years before his
own time-that is to say, B.C. 3750.
The conquest of Babylonia which had the most
enduring consequences was that by the Cassi or
Kossæans of Western Susiania. Their leader seems
to have been named Khammuragas; if so he must
be distinguished from an earlier Khammuragas, the
son of Ebisu, whose conquest of Rim-Agu had united
the whole country under the sway of a. single ruler,
and had made Babylon a capital city. This Rim-
Agu of Sumer, after the conquest of Karrak and
Duran, which gave him possession of the marches
and the whole country as far as the shores of the
Persian Gulf, claimed the imperial title of "king of
Sumer and Accad," a title, however, to which he
had no right. He filled Ur, which at one time had
been subject to the princes of Karrak, as well as
other cities, with public buildings, though his capital
was fixed at Lar'sa. With the help of his Elamite
allies he succeeded in repulsing the first attack of
the northern invader; but a second attack proved
too strong for him; the forces of Elam and Sumer
II.]
117
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
were overthrown, and Khammuragas became king of
the whole of Babylonia. From this time onward
the country had remained a united monarchy.
The Cassite dynasty must have lasted for several
centuries, and probably included more than one line
of kings. At any rate it is otherwise difficult to find
a place for a Cassite dynasty which traced its descent
from the god Sukamuna, and one of whose kings,
Agu-kak-rimi, the son of Tassi-gurumas, has left us
a long inscription, unless we throw it back into the
period that preceded the era of Sargon of Agadé,
and identify it with the Median dynasty of Bêrôsos.
It is certainly noticeable that Agu-kak-rimi calls
himself king of Accad and Babylon only, not of
Sumer. However this may be, it was under the
Cassite dynasty that the kingdom of Assyria first
took its rise,—partly, perhaps, in consequence of the
Asiatic conquests of the Egyptian monarchs of the
eighteenth dynasty. Later legends ascribed the
foundation of the kingdom to the Moon-god, while
Sargon boasts of "the 350 kings" who had preceded
him and had "sent forth the people of the land of
Bel"; but Assyria was but a portion of the empire
of Gutium in the age of Cudur-Lagamar, and the
earliest Assyrian princes of whom we know were
merely petty rulers of Assur, the original capital of
Assyria, from which it derived its name. One of
these rulers was Samas-Rimmon, the son of Ismi-
Dagon, who built the temple of Anu and Rimmon
118 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
at Assur, and whose date is fixed at B.C. 1820 by
an inscription of Tiglath Pileser I. It was not till
long afterwards that "the kingdom was founded" by
Bel-sumeli-kapi, and the chieftains of Assur became
kings of Assyria. From this time forward, however,
their power continued steadily to grow; Assur-
zacir-esir and Adar-tukul-Assur even ventured to
contend with Babylonia, and in B.C. 1400 the Cassite
king married an Assyrian princess. Her son Kara-
Murdas was murdered by the party opposed to
Assyrian influence, but the usurper, Nazi-bugas, was
quickly overthrown by the Assyrians, who placed a
vassal-prince on the throne. This event may be
considered the turning-point in the history of the
kingdoms of the Tigris and Euphrates; Assyria
henceforth takes the place of the worn-out monarchy
of Babylonia, and plays the chief part in the affairs
of Western Asia until the day of its final fall. In
little more than a hundred years later the Assyrians
were again in Babylonia, but this time as avowed
enemies to all parties alike; Babylon was captured
by the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-Adar in B.C. 1270,
and the rule of the Cassite dynasty came to an end.
But the avenger was at hand. Hardly was
Tiglath-Adar dead when the Hittites assailed the
Assyrian empire on the north and west, and the
Babylonians seized the opportunity to make them-
selves free. The new line of Babylonian sovereigns,
however, was Semitic in name and race. It lasted a
II.]
119
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
short time only. The country was divided both in
nationality and in interests. Civil wars distracted
the kingdom, and shortlived dynasties were founded
by the non-Semitic tribes of the sea-coast or the
Semitic inhabitants of the great cities. The ad-
herents of the old Cassite dynasty, as well as the
partisans of Assyria, contrived from time to time to
place a nominee of their own upon the throne;
while the Elamites on the east and the Assyrians on
the north were perpetually at war with the unhappy
kingdom, or else intriguing in its midst. The
literature and culture of Babylonia migrated into
Assyria, where kings whose real delight was in war
and hunting affected to patronise learning and
encourage horticulture.
The most eminent among
these was Tiglath-Pileser I. He carried his arms as
far as Kilikia and the Mediterranean, shattered the
power of the Hittites and their kinsmen in the north,
swept the wild district of Kurdistan, and in B.C. 1130,
after a momentary repulse at the hands of Merodach-
iddin-akhi, the Babylonian king, defeated his antag-
onist on the banks of the Lower Zab and ravaged
Babylonia, capturing Sippara, Opis, and even Baby-
lon, the capital, itself. Merodach-iddin-akhi saved
himself by a timely submission; but a desultory war
continued between his successors and Assur-bel-kala,
the son of Tiglath-Pileser.
After this Assyria sinks for a while below the
horizon of history. Its power had been founded on
120 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
the individual energy and military skill of its
monarchs, and vanished altogether under a feeble
prince. Pethor, at the junction of the Sajur and
Euphrates, along with the adjacent territory, fell into
the hands of the Hittites and Syrians; David was
enabled to carry the Israelitish arms as far as the
banks of the Euphrates; and Assyria itself was
overrun by the victorious armies of the Babylonian
king, Sibir. Once more, however, it revived under
Assur-dayan II., whose son, Rimmon-nirari II. (B.C
911-889), and great-grandson, Assur-natsir-pal (B.C.
883-858), made the name of Assyria again terrible
to the surrounding nations. Assur-natsir-pal was the
most brutal and ferocious of even the Assyrian kings;
but he was also an energetic warrior and a great
conqueror. The limits of his empire exceeded those
of Tiglath-Pileser I.; Kurdistan, Armenia, and Meso-
potamia were traversed by his armies again and
again, and his image was sculptured on the rocks at
the sources of the Tigris by the side of those of
Tiglath-Pileser I. and his own father, Tiglath-Adar
II.
Nizir and its mountains, where the ark of the
Chaldean Noah had rested, were overrun and
ravaged, and the footsteps of the Assyrian conqueror
were marked by impalements, by pyramids of human
heads, and by unspeakable barbarities. Nebo-bal-
iddina of Babylon was defeated; Sangara of Car-
chemish and his brother princes paid tribute, and on
the shores of the Mediterranean Assur-natsir-pal
II.]
121
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
received the submission and treasure of the rich and
unwarlike cities of Phoenicia. But these distant
raids produced little else than misery abroad and
accession of wealth to the royal treasury at home;
no attempt was made to hold the conquests that had
been gained, or to compensate for the destruction of
culture in the West by introducing into the rude
regions of the East the borrowed civilisation of
Assyria. The cities of Assyria, nevertheless, were
enriched with the spoils of foreign victory. Splendid
palaces, temples, and other public buildings were
erected, and adorned with elaborate sculptures and
rich painting. Calah, which had been founded by
Shalmaneser I., B.C. 1300, was rebuilt by Assur-
natsir-pal, who made it his favourite residence, and
established a library there. His successor was his
son, Shalmaneser II., named probably after the
founder of Calah.
Shalmaneser II., whose long and prosperous reign
of thirty-five years marks the climax of the First
Assyrian Empire, inherited his father's vigour and
military talent, along with greater political ability
and appreciation of culture. His opening campaign
was directed against the wild tribes of the north-
east; Arame of Van and the Minnians of Urumiyeh
were next attacked; and after them the Hittites of
Carchemish and their allies, among whom Pikhirim
of Kilikia may be mentioned. By the conquest of
Tul-Barsip or Barsampsê, on the eastern bank of the
122 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
Euphrates, and the capture of Pethor (now Tash-
atan), the Assyrians regained possession of the ford
across the river, and in B.C. 854 came into conflict
with Hamath. Here Shalmaneser found himself
confronted by a confederacy of western princes,
under the leadership of Hadad-idri, or Hadadezer,
of Damascus and Irkhulena of Hamath, whom a
common danger had aroused to oppose the threatened
advance of the Assyrian forces. But the confederacy
was shattered in the battle of Karkar or Aroer, in
which, among others, Ahab of Israel took part with
2000 chariots and 10,000 infantry, and the Orontes
was choked with the slain.
The Assyrians, however,
much that Shalmaneser
had themselves suffered so
was unable to follow up his victory, and two years
afterwards turned his attention to Babylonia, which
he invaded and reduced to a state of vassalage,
under the pretext of helping the legitimate king,
Merodach-suma-izcur, against his insurgent brother.
It is on this occasion that we first hear of the
Caldai or Chaldeans, whom the Assyrians found
inhabiting the marshy district of the Persian Gulf.
After thus securing his frontier on the south, Shal-
maneser again marched against Syria (B.C. 850).
The war lasted, at intervals, for eleven years, during
which Hadadezer was succeeded by Hazael, and
Shalmaneser obtained several barren victories, and
claimed others which a strict criticism must deny to
him. In B.C. 842, however, Hazael really suffered
II.]
123
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
a decisive defeat on the heights of Shenir, and his
camp, along with 1121 chariots and 470 carriages,
fell into the hands of the Assyrians, who proceeded
to besiege him in his capital, Damascus. But the
siege was soon raised, though not before Jehu of
Israel had sent tribute; and after wasting the
Hauran, Shalmaneser marched to Beyrout, and there
carved an image of himself on the rocky promontory
of Bahli-rasi, at the entrance to the Nahr el-Kelb.
The defeat of Hazael had removed the only rival
Assyria had to fear. From this time forward Shal-
maneser contented himself with expeditions to
distant regions, such as Phoenicia, Melitêne, Kap-
padokia, and Armenia, for the sake of exacting
tribute. After B.C. 834 he ceased to command his
troops in person, the tartan or general-in-chief,
Dayan-Assur, taking his place. The infirmities of
old age, which had no doubt obliged him to take
this step, further led to the rebellion of his eldest
son, Assur-dayan-pal, which troubled the last days
of the old king, and well nigh proved fatal to him.
Twenty-seven cities, including Nineveh and Assur,
which probably resented the preference shown to
Calah, as well as numerous smaller towns, declared
for the pretender, and it was with considerable diffi-
culty that the revolt was put down by Shalmaneser's
second son, Samas-Rimmon, who shortly afterwards
succeeded him. Samas-Rimmon (824-811), and his
son, Rimmon-nirari III. (811-782), fairly maintained
124 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
1
*
the empire they had received; but their efforts were
chiefly expended upon campaigns in Armenia, Media,
and the neighbouring regions, from which we may
perhaps infer that the wild tribes of the east had
begun to infest the Assyrian frontier. Samas-
Rimmon, however, also endeavoured to restore the
supremacy of Assyria in Babylonia. Merodach-
baladhsu-ikbi of Babylon and his allies were defeated
with great slaughter at Dur-Papsukul about B.C. 820,
and eight years later he succeeded in entering
Babylon. Rimmon-nirari III. obliged Mariha of
Damascus to pay him tribute, as well as the Phœni-
cians, Israelites, Edomites, and Philistines. But
though the royal annals show that the kings still
led their armies out to battle year by year, it is
plain that the power and vigour of the reigning
dynasty were wearing out. The campaigns were
either resultless, or else were made for purely
defensive purposes.
The empire of Shalmaneser
had melted away. A few more princes followed
Rimmon-nirari III., and then in B.C. 763 an eclipse
of the sun took place on the 15th of June, and the
city of Assur revolted. In B.C. 761 the revolt had
spread to Arrapakhitis, and two years later to Gozan.
In B.C. 758 it was indeed stamped out in Assur, but
the more distant provinces were lost.
Three years
afterwards, Assur-nirari, the last of his line, ascended
the throne. His reign lasted only ten years.
was left of the Assyrian empire had been undermined
What
II.]
125
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
by decay and discontent, the army finally declared
against the monarch, and he and his dynasty fell
together. On the 30th of Iyyar, or April, B.C. 745,
Pul or Pôros seized the vacant crown, and assumed
the name of the ancient conqueror, Tiglath-Pileser.
With the accession of Tiglath-Pileser II. the
Second Assyrian Empire may be said to begin.
This Second Empire differed essentially from the
first. The usurper was an organiser as well as a
conqueror, and sought for the first time in the history
of Western Asia to give his conquests a consolidated
and permanent character. The conquered provinces
were no longer loosely connected with the central
power by the payment of tribute, which was refused
as soon as the Assyrian armies were out of sight;
nor were the campaigns undertaken by the kings of
Nineveh mere raids, whose chief objects were prestige
and plunder. The conquests of the Second Empire
were made with a fixed purpose, and in pursuance
of a definite line of policy, and, once made, they were
tenaciously preserved. The conquered nations be-
came subject provinces, governed, wherever possible,
by Assyrian satraps; while turbulent populations
were deported to some distant part of the empire.
Each province and capital city had its annual contri-
bution to the imperial treasury fixed and regulated;
and centralisation, with its attendant bureaucracy,
superseded the old loose union of mutually hostile
states and towns. Tiglath-Pileser took good care
126 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
that the revolts to which he owed the crown should
for the future be impossible. To him is due the
inauguration of the principle which was afterwards
applied by Darius Hystaspis with so much success
to the organisation of the Persian empire. The
title to power which his birth denied him was secured
by the institutions he established.
The Second Assyrian Empire was essentially a
commercial one. It was founded and maintained
for the purpose of attracting the trade and wealth of
Western Asia into Assyrian hands. The instincts of
the warrior and crusader had made way for the more
deeply-rooted trading instincts of the Semitic race.
The expeditions undertaken against the barbarous
tribes of the east and north were made solely for the
purpose of protecting the frontier and caravan roads,
and of keeping the predatory excursions of the
mountaineers in check. The resources of the empire
were really reserved for the subjugation of Babylonia,
Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, the rich and civilised
marts of the ancient world. It was to divert the
stream of commerce into their new satrapy of Car-
chemish that the Assyrian monarchs endeavoured to
destroy the merchant communities of Tyre and
Sidon.
Babylonia was necessarily the first to feel the
effects of the new policy. Before six months were
over Tiglath-Pileser was leading his forces against
the southern kingdom. The northern part of
II.]
127
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Babylonia was annexed to Assyria, and secured by
a chain of fortresses. After chastising the Kurds,
the Assyrian king next turned westward. Sarduris
of Armenia, at the head of a confederacy of northern
princes, in vain essayed to bar his way.
The con-
federacy was defeated in Komagênê, Arpad (now
Tel Erfâd) was captured, and all Syria lay at his
feet. For the present he was content with exacting
tribute from the Hittites, the Arameans, and the
Phoenicians. Hamath, then in alliance with Uzziah
of Judah, was conquered in 738, and its nineteen
districts placed under Assyrian officers. For the
first time we find the system of deportation applied
on a large scale. Three years later Sarduris of
Ararat was again attacked, and the neighbourhood
of his capital, Dhuspas or Tosp, now Van, was
devastated over a space of 450 miles. Freed from
any danger from the north, Tiglath-Pileser now
eagerly seized the opportunity of overthrowing the
power of Damascus offered by the request of the
Jewish king, Ahaz, for protection from his Syrian
and Israelitish enemies. Rezin was defeated and
besieged in his capital, Damascus, in 734, and the
whole country far and near, including Samaria,
Ammon, Moab, and the Philistines, was reduced to
subjection. At length, after a siege of two years,
Damascus surrendered, its inhabitants were enslaved,
and Rezin was put to death. Syria became an
Assyrian province, and all the princes of the West
128 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
were summoned thither to do homage to the con-
queror, while Tyre was fined 150 talents of gold,
about £400,000. One of the chief objects of
Tiglath-Pileser's policy had thus been achieved.
But Babylonia still remained. In B.C. 731, accord-
ingly, the Assyrian armies again marched into
Chaldea. Ukin-ziru, the Khin-ziros of Ptolemy,
was slain, Babylon and the other great cities were
taken, and in B.C. 729 Tiglath-Pileser assumed the
imperial title of "King of Sumer and Accad.”
But he did not live long to enjoy his success.
In B.C. 727 he died, probably without children, and
Shalmaneser III., one of his generals, succeeded to his
empire and his policy. Shalmaneser, however, failed
to found a dynasty. After an unsuccessful attempt
to capture Tyre, he died, or was murdered, during
the siege of Samaria in B.C. 722, and the supreme
power was seized by another general, who assumed
the venerable name of Sargon, "the constituted
king." Sargon claimed descent from two early
kings, Bel-bani and Adasi, but his claim was pro-
bably admitted only by the flattery of a court. In
B.C. 720 he took Samaria, and deported 27,200 of
its leading inhabitants into Gozan and Media, the
remainder being placed under an Assyrian governor.
Meanwhile Sargon had been reminded that the work
of Tiglath-Pileser had been but half accomplished.
As long as Elam remained unconquered, it was
always able to threaten Babylonia, and menace the
11.]
129
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
flank of the Assyrian empire. Entrenched behind
its mountains, however, and furnished with all the
resources of an ancient civilisation, Elam was difficult
to subdue, and its subjugation could bring no profit
to its conqueror. The news, therefore, that the
Elamite king, Khumba-nigas, had invaded Babylonia
was highly disturbing, but Sargon was obliged to
content himself with simply driving the Elamites
back. Affairs in the west more imperatively claimed
his attention. Here the weak point in the empire
was, strangely enough, the little kingdom of Judah.
But Judah was a mountainous country, its capital
was almost impregnable, and its conquest, trouble-
some as it would be, was valueless to the traders of
Nineveh. At the same time it screened Egypt,
whose Ethiopian conquerors endeavoured to defend
themselves against the growing power of Assyria by
stirring up trouble in Palestine. Sargon's aim,
therefore, was to inflict a blow upon the Egyptians
without throwing away his strength on the barren
conquest of Judah. He effected his purpose by
crushing the Philistines, and so making his way to
the Egyptian frontier along the sea-coast. The
Egyptian army was defeated at Raphia in B.C. 720,
and Sargon was satisfied with carrying the spoil of
Hanun, king of Gaza, to Nineveh. The last attempt
of Syria to free itself, under the leadership of a Jew,
Ilu-bihid or Yahu-bihid, had been already stamped
out in fire and blood, and Hamath, where he had
K
130 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
ruled, was colonised with 4300 Assyrians. In 717
all was ripe for the final assault upon Carchemish
(now Jerablûs), the wealthy capital of the once power-
ful Hittites. The city was taken: its last monarch,
Pisiris, with all his treasures, fell into the hands of
Sargon, and Assyria became mistress of the trade of
Western Asia. Carchemish commanded the great
caravan road from the East, and its satrap was one
of the most important of the Assyrian governors.
From this time onward every effort was made to
attract all the commerce of Asia to Carchemish: its
maund became the standard weight of the empire,
and no pains were spared to destroy the rival trade
of the Phoenicians.
But the fall of Carchemish was not unavenged
by the kindred population of the north. Mita of
the Moschians, Ursa of Armenia, and their allies
from the ranges of the Taurus, now fell upon the
conqueror. The struggle was long and bitter, but
at length Sargon prevailed. Van submitted, Armenia
was ravaged, and Ursa, the leader of the coalition,
committed suicide. The Assyrian forces penetrated
into the trackless mountains of distant Media;
Kilikia and the Tibarêni were placed under an
Assyrian governor, and the city of Malatiyeh was
razed to the ground. Sargon could now turn to
Palestine, where Hezekiah of Judah, encouraged by
Babylonia and Egypt, had refused to pay the
tribute due to his Assyrian lord.
But in 71I
11.]
131
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Sargon swept Phoenicia and Judah, Jerusalem was
captured, and the Jewish king compelled to submit.
The suppression of the revolt in Palestine came none
too soon. Aided by the Elamites, Yagina or Yugæos,
a Chaldean prince, had made himself master of
Babylonia after Tiglath-Pileser's death, and the
short campaign of Sargon in 721 did not prevent
his son, Merodach-baladan, from succeeding to his
power. For twelve years Merodach-baladan was
undisturbed. But he knew well that the Assyrian
king was only waiting to complete his work in the
east before asserting his claim to Babylonia. When,
therefore, the coalition of the northern nations was
breaking down before the Assyrian arms, the Baby-
lonian king sent embassies to Judah and the neigh-
bouring principalities, in order to concert measures
of defence against the common enemy. Sargon,
however, fell upon Palestine before either Babylonia
or Egypt was ready to move, and when Merodach-
baladan at last stirred he found himself single-handed
face to face with the whole might of the Assyrian
empire. The issue could not be doubtful, and
though the Elamites hastened to his assistance he
was driven first from Babylon, and then from the
cities of the south. His last refuge, Bit-Yagina in
the marshes, was taken by storm in 709, and he
himself was loaded with chains and sent to Nineveh.
Sargon now set himself to obliterate all traces of the
Chaldean usurpation. The turbulent desert tribes,
132 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
whom the late king had settled in Babylonia, were
exterminated or expelled, and Sargon did his utmost
to ingratiate himself with the native priesthood.
His coronation in Babylon was like the coronation
of the German emperors at Rome, and seemed to
give him that title of legitimacy which was wanting
in his own country. In the following year his pride
was gratified by the voluntary submission of Uperi
of Dilvun, in the Persian Gulf, the sacred island of
Accadian mythology, as well as of the Greek and
Phoenician kings of Kypros, the island of Yavnan or
the "Ionians," where he caused a monument of him-
self to be erected at Kition or Larnaka, inscribed with
pseudo-archaic cuneiform characters. It was the first
direct contact between Greek and Assyrian; the culture
of Babylonia and Assyria had long since been indirectly
leavening the Hellenic world, but the barrier that
had existed between them was now broken down.
The divided nationalities of Western Asia had been
fused into the Assyrian empire, and Assyria had
stepped into the place once occupied by Egypt in
the history of mankind. Elam was left the solitary
rival of the new power in Asia, and the last years of
Sargon's life were spent in a desultory war with it.
The political idea conceived by Tiglath-Pileser
was thus realised. Egypt, it is true, was still uncon-
quered, but for how long depended on the energy
and ability of Sargon's successors. At first, how-
ever, these seemed to be wanting. The fierce old
II.]
133
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
king was murdered in his new city of Dur-Sargina
or Khorsabad, and succeeded by his son Sennacherib
on the 12th of Ab (July), B.C. 705. Brought up in
the purple, Sennacherib had none of his father's
virtues or talents. Vain-glorious, tyrannical, and
weak, he owed the preservation of the empire that
had been bequeathed to him rather to the thorough-
ness with which all elements of opposition had been
crushed than to any efforts of his own. The boastful
style of his inscriptions contrasts sharply with the
plain simplicity of his father's, and makes it needful
to examine carefully the accuracy of their contents.
Merodach-baladan had escaped from captivity,
and the death of Sargon was the signal for a fresh
attempt on his part to establish himself at Babylon.
But a battle at Kis again drove him from the
country, and Sennacherib found himself free to
devastate Ellip (in the neighbourhood of the modern
Elwend). Then he fell upon Phoenicia (B.C. 701).
Zidon and other cities were captured, and the
Phoenician king, Lulia or Elulæus, forced to take
refuge in Kypros. The turn of Judah came next.
Hezekiah's allies in Askalon and Ekron were severely
punished; the Jewish towns, with a great quantity
of spoil and captives, were taken; and the Jewish
king himself sought forgiveness by the gift of 30
talents of gold, 300 talents of silver, precious stones,
couches of ivory, tusks of wild bulls, dancing girls
and eunuchs, and male and female musicians.
But
134 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
Sennacherib refused to be appeased, and the siege
of Jerusalem was determined upon. Then came the
disaster to the Assyrian arms, which Egyptian
legend ascribed to the piety of their own priest-king
Sethos. As a matter of fact, Sennacherib claims to
have defeated Tirhakah of Egypt at Eltekeh, when
the latter came to the help of Hezekiah; but as he
did not pursue his success, it is probable that he lost
as much as he gained. Like Xerxes in Greece,
Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the
disaster in Judah. He made no more expeditions
against either Southern Palestine or Egypt.
One cause of this was the unquiet state of Baby-
lonia, which could not forget that the power that
claimed supremacy over her was a mere parvenu.
The year after the campaign in Palestine (700 B.C.),
a Chaldean named Suzub stirred up revolt, which
Sennacherib had some difficulty in suppressing.
Merodach-Baladan and his followers had settled at
the mouth of the Eulæus, and in 697 Sennacherib
found it necessary to have a fleet built and manned
by Ionians and Phoenicians in the Persian Gulf, by
means of which he destroyed the Chaldean settle-
ment. But Suzub, with the help of the Elamites,
had excited an insurrection in his rear, which was,
however, put down by the Assyrian generals, who
captured Suzub and sacked the ancient city of Erech.
Meanwhile Sennacherib made an unsuccessful at-
tempt to invade Elam; and Suzub, having escaped
11.]
135
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
F
J
î
from Assyria and been admitted into Babylon, in
692 added his forces to those of Elam, Media, and
other eastern allies. But the decisive battle of
Khalule shattered the hopes of the confederate
princes; Babylon was besieged and captured the
following year, and then given to the flames. Its
inhabitants were sold into slavery, and the river
Arakhtu or Araxes was choked with its ruins. If,
however, we may judge from the interregnum which
marks the last eight years of Sennacherib's reign in
Ptolemy's Canon, Chaldea refused to acknowledge
the Assyrian domination up to the day of his death.
The barbarous destruction of the venerable city of
Babylon must have aroused against him the horror
of every inhabitant of the southern kingdom.
It was the last political achievement of Senna-
cherib of which we know. The latter years of his
life seem to have been spent in inactivity, or else in
constructing canals and aqueducts in Assyria, in em-
banking the Tigris, and in building himself a palace
at Nineveh on a grander scale than had ever been
attempted before. His partiality for his younger
son Esar-haddon excited the jealousy of the two
elder ones, Adrammelech and Nergal-sharezer, who
murdered their father in the month Tebet (December),
B.C. 681, while Esar-haddon was conducting a cam-
paign against the Armenians. The forces of Esar-
haddon's brothers, however, proved no match for the
veterans he commanded, and a battle fought near
136 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
Malatiyeh in December, B.C. 681, established him on
the throne and compelled his brothers to take refuge
in Armenia. Esar-haddon entered Nineveh the
following month, and immediately afterwards started
for Babylonia, where Ur was soon taken, and the
surviving son of Merodach-baladan compelled to sue
for his life. The conqueror presented him with the
government of his ancestral kingdom, and then turned
to the restoration of Babylon, rebuilding its walls and
temples, and bringing back its captured deities, its
plunder, and its people. Henceforward Babylon
became the second capital of the empire, the Assyrian
court residing alternately there and at Nineveh.
The event quickly showed the wise policy of this
measure of conciliation.
Esar-haddon's reign, in fact, is characterised
throughout by keen political tact. His political
sagacity was equal to the high military talents which
enabled him to complete the fabric of the Second
Empire by the conquest of Egypt. His disposition,
too, was unusually mild and humane for an Assyrian
prince, and his powers of conciliation enabled him to
consolidate what his military genius had won. One
of his most remarkable achievements was his expedi-
tion into the heart of Arabia, where he penetrated to
the kingdoms of Huz and Buz, 980 miles distant
from Nineveh, 280 miles of the march being through
arid desert. The feat has never since been excelled,
and the terror inspired by it among the desert tribes
1
II.]
137
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
was such that the country adjoining them was for
the first time rendered safe. In the north, too, the
Assyrian army penetrated almost equally far. Here
Teispes the Kimmerian was defeated between the
Zagros and Niphates, and thrown with his hordes.
westward into Asia Minor, while the copper mines
in the eastern frontiers of Media—the very name of
which had hitherto been barely known-were occu-
pied and worked. This part of the country was
already inhabited by Aryan Medes, and the great
Semitic empire accordingly found itself in contact
on both east and west with an Aryan population,
and with those small independent states which
seemed the natural political organisation of the
Aryan race. Among the twenty-two kings who
sent materials for the palace of Esarhaddon at
Nineveh were some Kyprian ones with Greek names.
Greeks and Medes were thus divided only by a single
empire. The day was preparing when the barrier
should be removed, and the great struggle of Asiatic
and European Aryan was to commence.
Early in his reign Esar-haddon had taken good
care to pick a quarrel with Sidon. The city was
destroyed, and its inhabitants settled elsewhere, Tyre
taking the place of Sidon as the chief city of Phoenicia.
But the trade of the Phoenicians was half ruined, and
Carchemish and Nineveh were enriched at their
expense. The conquest of Egypt was alone left to
be achieved.
"
138 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
The revolt of Baal of Tyre furnished the oppor-
tunity. The Arabian king provided water for the
Assyrian army in its march across the desert; Tir-
hakah was defeated, Memphis entered in triumph,
and Thebes compelled to open its gates. Egypt
was divided into twenty satrapies, governed partly
by Assyrians, partly by native vassal princes, who
were, however, watched by a number of Assyrian
garrisons. Necho of Sais and Memphis headed the
list of governors.
On his return from the campaign,
Esar-haddon associated Assur-bani-pal, the eldest of
his four sons, with himself on the throne (on the 12th
of Iyyar or April, B.C. 669), and died two years after-
wards. Assur-bani-pal's first act was to appoint his
brother, Saul-sum-yukin or Sammughes, viceroy of
Babylon.
Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks,
to whom he became known through the medium of
Lydia, was the "grand monarque" of Assyria.
Ambitious and luxurious, he was a munificent patron
of literature and art, and while recognising his own
military incapacity, selected able generals, who ex-
tended and maintained his empire. After the con-
quest of Elam, which took place during his reign, the
Assyrian empire reached its final limits; but it had
within it the elements of decay, and the pride and
ambition of the monarch brought about the coalition
which robbed him of Egypt, and well-nigh shattered
the whole empire. The court set an example of
II.]
139
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
costly magnificence, of cultivated luxury, and of
learned antiquarianism, and Assyrian literature
entered upon its Alexandrine stage.
G
Assur-bani-pal found Egypt in a state of revolt.
Two campaigns were requisite to quell it, to drive
Tirhakah back to the domains of his ancestors, and
to destroy Thebes. Meanwhile, the siege of Tyre,
begun before Esar haddon's death, was closely
pressed. The Tyrians at last submitted; their king
and his brothers had to send their daughters to the
harem of the Assyrian monarch, while Tubal and
Kilikia also owned the supremacy of Nineveh. The
name of the great king spread to the extreme west
of Asia Minor, and Gugu or Gyges of Lydia volun-
tarily sent him tribute, including two Kimmerian
chiefs whom the Lydian prince had captured with
his own hand. The submission of Gyges was ascribed
to a dream; more probably Gyges trusted to Assyria
for defence against the adherents of the dynasty he
had displaced, and the Kimmerian hordes that
menaced him from without.
But Gyges soon discovered that the friendship
of Nineveh was a burden rather than a gain. The
Assyrian empire was threatening to swallow up all
the East. Elam, the last civilised kingdom of the
old world which had held out, had finally fallen after
a long struggle before the arms of the Assyrian
generals, who had been aided by internal dissensions;
and Umman-igas, its titular sovereign, was really
140 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[II.
Elam, Baby-
little else than an Assyrian viceroy. But in B.C. 652
the blow was struck which eventually led to the over-
throw of the whole empire. A general insurrection
broke out, headed by Assur-bani-pal's brother, the
viceroy of Babylon, in the east, and by Psammetikhos
of Sais, the son of Necho, in the west.
lonia, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, and Lydia, made
common cause against the oppressor. Aided by the
Ionian and Karian mercenaries sent by Gyges,
Psammetikhos succeeded in shaking off the Assyrian
yoke; Assur-bani-pal, in fact, was too much occupied
nearer home to think any longer of so distant a pro-
vince. His agents in Babylonia had forewarned him
of the threatened insurrection there, but his natural
indolence inclined him to disregard them till the
event actually took place. With great difficulty the
revolt was crushed; Babylon and Cuthah were
reduced by famine in 649, and Sammughes burnt
himself to death in his palace. The wandering
tribes of Northern Arabia, Kedar, Zobah, Nabathæa,
etc., were chastised, and fire and sword were carried
through Elam. Umman-aldas, the last king of Elam,
fled to the mountains, the ancient capital of Shushan
was plundered and razed, and the whole of Susiana
was reduced to a wilderness. Babylonia was thus
avenged for its many invasions upon the country
whence its civilisation had originally come.
Its union with Assyria now became closer than
before. Assur-bani-pal would trust no more viceroys.
II.]
141
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Kandalanu, who appears as king of Babylon in
Ptolemy's list, was a mere subordinate officer, and a
prefect of Babylon is one of the Assyrian eponyms
in the later years of Assur-bani-pal's reign. The
date of the Assyrian king's death is uncertain, as well
as the number of kings who intervened between him
and the last, Esar-haddon II., the Sarakos of Bêrôsos.
After his death, however, the viceroys of Babylonia
again began to extend their power; and one of them,
Nabopolassar, made himself independent in B.C. 625.
Shorn of its empire, Assyria lasted for a few years
longer, but its end was near. The storm at last fell
upon it from the north.
Kaztarit, king of Media
and Caru-cassi; Mamit-arsu, "lord of the city of the
Medes;" the Kimmerians, the Minni, and the people
of 'Saparda,¹ united their forces against it; the frontier
cities fell first; and though Esar-haddon proclaimed
public fasts and prayers to the gods, Nineveh itself
was besieged, captured, and utterly destroyed. The
Assyrian empire was now shared between Media and
Babylon.
Nabu-cudur-utsur or Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolas-
sar's eldest son, was the real founder of the Baby-
lonian empire. The attempt of Pharaoh Necho to
win for Egypt the inheritance of Assyria was over-
thrown at the battle of Carchemish, and when
Nebuchadrezzar succeeded his father in B.C. 604,
he found himself the undisputed lord of Western
1 Or Sepharad (Obadiah 20).
142 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
Asia. Palestine was coerced in 602, and the de-
struction of Jerusalem in 587 laid a way open for
the invasion of Egypt, which took place twenty
years later. Tyre also underwent a long siege of
thirteen years, but it is doubtful whether it was
taken after all.
•
Babylon was now enriched with the spoils of
foreign conquest.
It owed as much to Nebuchad-
rezzar as Rome owed to Augustus. The buildings
and walls with which it was adorned were worthy
of the metropolis of the world. The palace, now
represented by the Kasr mound, was built in fifteen
days, and the outermost of its three walls was seven
miles in circuit. Hanging gardens were constructed
for Queen Amytis, the daughter of the Median
prince, and the great temple of Bel was roofed with
cedar and overlaid with gold. The temple of the
Seven Lights, dedicated to Nebo at Borsippa by an
early king, who had raised it to a height of forty-two
cubits, was completed, and various other temples
were erected on a sumptuous scale both in Babylon
and in the neighbouring cities, while new libraries
were established there. After a reign of forty-two
years six months and twenty-one days, Nebuchad-
rezzar died (B.C. 562), and left the crown to his son
Evil-Merodach, who had a short and inactive reign
of three years and thirty-four days, when he was
murdered by his brother-in-law Nergal-sharezer, the
Neriglissar of the Greeks. Nergal-sharezer calls him-
11.]
143
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
self the son of Bel-suma-iskun, "king of Babylon ;"
he seems to have been Rab-mag at the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem (Jer. xxxix. 3). The
chief event of his reign of four years and four months
was the construction of a new palace. His son, who
succeeded him, was a mere boy, and was murdered
after a brief reign of four months. The power now
passed from the house of Nabopolassar,-Nabu-nahid
or Nabonidos, who was raised to the throne, being
of another family. His reign lasted seventeen years
and five months, and witnessed the end of the
Babylonian empire.
Recent discoveries have made us acquainted with
the history of this event. Nabonidos found a new
power rising among the mountains of Elam. Aryan
settlers had made their way across the deserts of
Sagartia, and penetrated as far as the rear of the Tur-
anian population in Media and Susiana. Before the
death of Nebuchadrezzar half Media was Aryanised,
and an Aryan tribe had established itself almost
within sight of the Persian Gulf. This tribe subse-
quently became known under the name of Persian.
After the overthrow of Elam by Assyria, and then
of Assyria itself, there was nothing to bar its way to
the occupation of the waste lands of the old empire
of Anzan, and a portion of it accordingly occupied
Susa. Early in the reign of Nabonidos the recog-
nised chief of the Susians was Kyros, who claimed
descent from the Aryan clan of the Akhæmenids, but
1
+
144
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
whose non-Aryan name may indicate that he was
really of Elamite origin.
Kyros had the abilities and the will to found an
empire. Media was the first point of attack, then
Babylonia. The newly-built city of Ekbatana, con-
structed in imitation of Nebuchadrezzar's buildings
at Babylon, was the centre of a loosely-organised
empire. Here a prince of the old race ruled over
Protomedes and Aryan Medes alike, though it is
probable that the allegiance of the latter was doubtful
and scant.
But the elements of weakness in Babylonia were
almost as great as those in Media. Nabonidos was
regarded as a usurper by a considerable party, which
included the priests and aristocracy. A hostile
people, the Jews, were planted in the very heart of
the country, where, contrary to the experience and
expectation of their conquerors, they had refused to
amalgamate with the native population. That native
population itself consisted of ill-assorted elements—
Semites, Chaldeans, and nomad tribes. The distant
provinces of the empire could not be depended on;
that they were quiet was due rather to exhaustion
than to fear or loyalty. In fact, before the first year
of Nabu-nahid's reign was over, he had to face two
campaigns, the second against an insurgent named
Khume. Hamath rose in rebellion the very next
year, and the whole of B.C. 552 was spent by the
Babylonian king in putting it down. In the sixth
11.]
145
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
year of Nabonidos, B.C. 549, the Median monarchy
fell. The army of Istuvegu or Astyages revolted
against him while on the march against Kyros, and
gave him into the hands of his enemy. Perhaps it
was a revolt of the Aryan against the Protomede.
Ekbatana was captured and plundered by Kyros,
who spent the next few years in subduing the remains
of the Median empire. After the capture of Arbela
in B.C. 546, he overran what had once been the
kingdom of Assyria, taking among other places
Mespila (Muspilu) and Larissa or Resen (Xenophon,
Anab. iii. 4, 7-12), and then marched into Mesopo-
tamia. Meanwhile Nabonidos had been taking
measures to avert the coming attack. Babylon was
made impregnable; the river was paved with brick,
and lined with huge walls; and those wonderful
works of defence were constructed which Hêrodotos
ascribes to Queen Nitôkris. This queen may have
been the mother of Nabonidos, who died on the 5th
of Nisan or March, B.C. 546, in the camp near Sippara,
where the king had stationed an army under the
command of his eldest son, Belshazzar, to prevent
the attack of Kyros from the north.
The army successfully fulfilled its purpose. Foiled
of his intention to force an entrance from the north,
Kyros began to tamper with the disaffected elements
in the Babylonian population; and in B.C. 539, when
all was ready, he marched against Nabonidos from
the south-east. The Chaldeans on the coast revolted
L
146 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
and in the month Tammuz, or June, Kyros defeated
the army of Nabonidos at Rutum. Immediately
afterwards the people of Accad, or possibly the Jews
settled there, revolted; the Persians entered Sippara
on the 14th of the month without fighting, and
Nabonidos fled. Babylon opened its gates to the
Persian general Gobryas, and Nabonidos was captured
and put in chains. The only resistance made was
by the Kurdish bodyguard, who barricaded them-
selves in the temple of Saggil at the end of the
month, but they had no weapons. On the 3d of
Marchesvan (October) Kyros entered Babylon in
triumph, and the Babylonian empire was at an end.
Eight days later Nabonidos died, and Kyros, whose
political wisdom was equal to his military abilities,
allowed him to be buried sumptuously. The Persian
prince, however, adopted other means also for winning
the favour of his new subjects. The temples were
restored, the gods and their priests received large
offerings, and Kyros and his son Kambyses took
part in the religious processions, and styled them-
selves the servants of the gods Merodach and Nebo.
The death of Kambyses inspired the Babylonians
with the hope of recovering their independence. In
B.C. 521 they revolted under Nadintu-Bel, the son of
Aniru, who called himself Nebuchadrezzar, the son
of Nabonidos. A portrait of him, in the Greek style,
and with a Greek helmet, is carved on a cameo in
the Berlin Museum. But Darius overthrew the pre-
11.]
147
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
tender in two battles at Zazan, and pursued him into
Babylon, which he closely besieged (November, B.C.
521). The siege lasted nearly two years, but the
Persians finally captured the city by diverting the
Euphrates from its channel, and, after passing by
night along the river-bed, entering it through an
unguarded gate. It is this siege and capture which
Hêrodotos transfers to the age of Kyros.
more, in B.C. 515, a new impostor arose, Arakhu, the
son of the Armenian Khaldita. He too claimed to
be Nebuchadrezzar II., and he too was taken and
executed in Babylon after a short siege.
Once
Religion and Mythology.-The religion of Accad
was originally Shamanistic, like the religion of the
Siberians or Samoyeds at the present day. Every
object and force of Nature was supposed to have its
zi or spirit, who could be controlled by the magical
exorcisms of the Shaman or sorcerer-priest. These
spirits were good or bad, like the objects and forces
they represented, and like the latter, too, they were
innumerable. Naturally the demons were supposed
to outnumber the powers of good, and there was
scarcely an action which did not risk demoniac
possession. Diseases were all produced by their
malevolence, and it was necessary to guard the house
from them by placing at its entrance the figure of a
cherub or some similar composite creature, which
was regarded as a good genius. Even the dead were
believed sometimes to revisit the earth and devour
148 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[II.
Gradually,
the living under the form of vampires.
certain of these spirits, or rather deified forces of
nature, were elevated above the rest into the position
of gods, more especially Anu "the sky," Mul-ge or
Enum "the earth" and "underworld," and Hea
"the deep."
But old habits of thought were too
strong to be resisted, and even these deities had each
their zi attached to them.
J
Before the arrival of the Semites a liturgy was
already in the hands of the Accadians. This old
prayer-book consisted of exorcisms and magical
formulæ, interspersed with occasional hymns about
the spirits or legends of their achievements, and
ending with the words, "Take oath, O spirit of
heaven; take oath, O spirit of earth.” With the
rise of a united monarchy, however, the gods began
to assume importance and form themselves into a
hierarchy. The worship of special deities had become
associated with special cities; Ur was the city of the
Moon-god, Lar'sa of the Sun-god, Babylon of Mero-
dach; and the supremacy of a city implied the
supremacy of the deity it worshipped. The kings
vied with each other in erecting temples to these
great divinities, whose vicegerents on earth they
were, and those who were engaged in organising
men below at the same time organised the gods
above. The first monarch of all Chaldea of whom
we know is also the first great temple-builder.
It was when Accadian religion had reached this
II.]
149
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
stage that the Semite entered the land.
Shamanism
had developed into polytheism; the sorcerer had
become the priest. Along with the change had gone
an ever-increasing tendency to solar worship. The
sun and the daylight were the most potent powers
of good that affected the early Chaldean, and when
the spirits that were in Nature became the gods of
Nature, the sun and the daylight were accordingly
marked out for special adoration.
The supreme
deity of several of the great cities was the Sun-god
under varying forms; Merodach of Babylon, for
instance, was but "the solar brilliance," who, with
the rise of Babylon, was elevated to a chief place in
the Accadian pantheon. But there was another
cause which aided the growth of sun-worship. The
age of political unification was also the age of the
great outburst of Accadian literature. Poets started
up on all sides, and hymns innumerable were com-
posed in honour of the new gods. In course of time
these hymns were invested with a sacred character,
and, like the Rig-Veda in India, were arranged in
a collection which superseded the old collection of
magical exorcisms as the inspired liturgy of Chaldea.
It was to the Sun, the great benefactor of mankind,
that the majority of the hymns were addressed, and
the attributes ascribed to the Sun-god, and the
manifold names whereby he was invoked, became so
many new solar divinities. These in turn passed
into solar heroes, as the names given to them and
150 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[II.
the human actions recounted of them gave rise to
legends and myths.
As long, however, as the Accadian domination
lasted, the Sun-god had a formidable rival in the
Moon-god. The Chaldeans were emphatically a
people of astronomers and astrologers, the result of
their early pastoral life on the mountains of Susiana,
and the moon accordingly played the same part in
their religion and mythology that the sun has done
elsewhere. It was from the Moon-god that the
monarchs traced their descent; it was to him that
the imperial city of Ur was dedicated; and in the
hierarchical system of the priesthood the Moon-god
was the father of the Sun-god. But the Semitic
occupation of Babylonia turned the scale in favour
of the latter. The Semites, the children of the
desert, made the sun the centre of their faith and
worship; as Baal he was the Supreme Being, now
giving life and light to his adorers, now scorching
them with his fiery rays and demanding the sacrifice
of their nearest and dearest. As soon as the Semitic
element in the population of Chaldea became strong,
sun-worship began to absorb everything else.
the same time a new conception was introduced into
the religion of the country. The Semites brought
with them the idea of gender; each one of their
male deities consequently had a female consort and
reflection at his side. Baal or Bel presupposed
Baaltis or Bilat, Anu presupposed Anat.
At
Hitherto
II.]
151
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Accadian belief knew only of one female divinity,
Istar, the goddess of war and love, the patroness of
the moon and the planet Venus, and there were as
many Istars as there were centres of worship in the
land. But Istar now became the feminine Astoreth;
her attributes were divided among the goddesses of
Sippara, of Agadé, of Arbela, and other places; and
though she continued to the last to retain an inde-
pendent place by the side of the great male divinities,
there was a growing tendency to dissolve her into
Beltis, the shadowy female double of Baal.
Long before the second millennium B.C. the work
of fusing the religious ideas of the Accadian and
the Semite together was completed. The Semite
borrowed the old Accadian pantheon en bloc, classing
the inferior gods among the 300 spirits of heaven
and the 600 spirits of earth, and superadding his
own religious conceptions and his own divinities.
These were identified with the leading deities of the
Chaldean creed; Mul-ge, for example, becoming Bel,
Tin-sar Nebo, and Utuki Samas. But the great
majority of deities were adopted without change of
either name or attributes, though the names were in
some cases slightly Semitised.
This process of syncretism went along with a
curious development of astro-theology. The heavenly
bodies, like all other objects in Nature, had once had
their special spirits; when this old phase of religion
passed away, the spirits were replaced by the gods of
i
152 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
་
the new pantheon. The chief divinities were identi-
fied with the planets and other leading stars; the
sun and moon were already provided for. The state
religion of Babylonia thus became a strange mixture
of worn-out Accadian spirit-worship, of the Semitised
later Accadian hierarchy of gods, of Semitic religious
conceptions, and of astro-theology.
To this mixture must be added the early ancestor-
worship, which still survived under various forms,
and the cult paid to certain kings. This, however,
was but a form of ancestor-worship, and may have
been due to Egyptian influence.
In the higher and more gifted minds the mixture
led to monotheism. From resolving the gods of the
Semitic nomad into the gods of civilised Chaldea it
needed but a step to resolve the gods of Chaldea
themselves into varying aspects of one supreme deity.
Sir H. Rawlinson believes that Eridu, the Paradisiacal
city, was the chief seat of the monotheistic "sect";
however that may be, we find hymns in the sacred
collection addressed to "the one god," and other
tablets in which the manifold deities of the popular
faith are made but the different names and titles of
Anu. This monotheism must be carefully dis-
tinguished from the henotheism of some of the
hymns, in which the author seems to ascribe to the
deity he is addressing attributes which, according to
our ideas, would exclude the existence of any other
god, but which he ascribes the next moment, in the
II.]
153
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
same uncompromising way, to a wholly different
divinity. The monotheistic school appears to have
died out during the epoch of the Cassite dynasty.
The state religion, once elaborated, underwent no
material change. The places of the gods, indeed,
were moved from time to time, as one city or another
rose to pre-eminence; Assur, the local deity of the
old capital Assur, being set at the head of the divine
hierarchy in Assyria, and Merodach usurping the
place of the older Bel or Mul-ge in the Babylon of
Nebuchadrezzar. But the main outlines of the
system remained unaltered. While the Accadian
substructure, with its spirits and its exorcisms, faded
more and more out of view, especially in Assyria,—
while the religion of the Assyrian monarchs can
be with difficulty distinguished from that of their
Phoenician kindred, the creed that was based upon
it lasted to the end.
A time came, however, when the popular theology
entered into the schools of philosophy. The gods
were resolved into elements and abstractions, and it
was taught that they and the universe alike had
originated out of a chaos of waters. This system of
cosmogony has been embodied in the poem of the
Creation in seven days, which bears such a remark-
able likeness to the first chapter of Genesis, but does
not seem to be older than the age of Assur-bani-pal.
The system of the poem agrees with the statements
of Damascius (De Prim. Princip. 125, p. 384, ed.
154 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
Kopp), who tells us that Apasôn or Ap'su, "the
deep," and Mummu Tiamtu (Moymis¹ Tavthê), "the
chaos of the sea," were the original principles out of
which all things have been begotten. Of them were
born Lakhvu and Lakhva (Dakhos and Dakhê); of
them again Kisar and Sar (Kissarê and Assôros), the
lower and upper firmaments, who originated the three
supreme gods, Anu, Elum or Bel, and Hea, the latter
being the father of Bel-Merodach, the Demiurge.
This theory of emanations was the source of later
Gnostic speculation, while the philosophic explanation
of the universe it embodied made its way into Ionia,
and there started Greek speculative philosophy.
Thales and his doctrines drew their ultimate inspira-
tion from Babylonia.
An earlier cosmogonic system is found in an
Accadian legend of the Creation preserved in the
library of Cuthah. According to this the present
Kóσμos or regulated universe was preceded by an
anarchical chaos, in which Nature had made its first
essays in creating. Composite creatures had been
formed out of the earth and the deep, like those
engraved on the gems and cylinders, or painted,
according to Bêrôsos, on the walls of the temple of
Bel. There were men with the bodies of birds or
the tails of fish, and human beings with birds' faces.
The philosophy of Anaximander, which has been
1 Moymis is made the "only-begotten" son of Apason and Tavthê
by Damascius, contrary to the evidence of the cuneiform text.
II.]
155
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
1
termed an anticipation of Darwinism, may be traced
to this cosmological theory.
The after-life expected by the Babylonian was as
dreary as that expected by the Greek. Hades was
beneath the earth, a place of darkness and gloom,
from which none might return, where the spirits of
the dead flitted like bats, with dust alone for their
food. Here the shadowy phantoms of the heroes of
old time sate crowned, each on his throne (comp. Is.
xiv. 9), and in the midst rose the fortress-palace of
Nin-'sun or Allat, the goddess of death. Hades was
guarded by seven gates and seven warders, who
stripped the spirit that entered of all he possessed;
and in early days, when the geographical knowledge
of the Accadians was limited, its entrance was be-
lieved to be in the marshes beyond the mouth of the
Euphrates. But even within the abode of Nin'sun
the waters of life bubbled up at the foot of the
golden throne of the spirits of earth, and whosoever
could drink of them might return to the upper world..
A happier lot was reserved for a few. Xisuthros
and his wife were translated for their piety to the
blissful fields beyond Datilla, the river of death; the
spirit of Hea-bani, the friend of Gisdhubar, summoned
by the prayers of his friends, rose like a cloud of dust
out of the ground and ascended to heaven, where
gods and heroes lie on couches feasting and drinking
limpid water; while an Assyrian court-poet prays
that his lord may hereafter have "everlasting" life
156 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
in the land of the silver sky, where the gods revel
and know no ill.
But the fear of the evils that the demons were
perpetually devising against him while alive must
have made the life of the Babylonian almost intoler-
able. Every day and almost every hour had its
religious ceremony, the neglect or malperformance
of which brought down upon him some misfortune.
Banished from the state religion, magic became a
science. An elaborate system of augury was gradu-
ally formed, and omens were drawn from every
event that could possibly happen. The power once
exercised by the sorcerer-priest was now transferred
to the necromancer and witch,-who, by the way,
was supposed to fly through the air on a wooden
stick,-with the difference that the power of the
latter was believed to be exercised only for evil.
The exorcisms which had in early days formed a
prayer-book now formed a distinct branch of litera-
ture, and survived long after the fall of the Baby-
lonian monarchy. The bronze bowls found by Sir
A. H. Layard, as well as the part played by charms
and demons in the Talmud, show how strongly the
belief in magic had seized not only upon the native
mind, but on that of the Jews also who had settled
in the country. Through the Jews and various
Gnostic systems of early Christianity, aided in part
by the superstitions of imperial Rome, the belief
found its way into the medieval Church, and the
11.]
157
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
features of the mediæval devil may be traced in an
Assyrian bas-relief, which represents the dragon of
Chaos, with claws, tail, horns, and wings, pursued by
the Sun-god Merodach. Even the phylacteries of
the Jews go back to the same origin. Accadian
magic ordered the sorcerer to bind the charm, twice
knotted with seven knots, round the limbs of the
sick man; and this, with the further application of
holy water, or the binding of a sentence from " a
good book" about the sufferer's head, would infal-
libly produce a cure.
Babylonian mythology is a more pleasing subject
than the magic which made the "Chaldeans" famous
in later days. The myths of Accad were rich and
manifold, and necessarily gained much by the Semitic
conquest. Reference has already been made to
some of them, and there are many that reappear
under more or less changed forms in Jewish and
Greek literature. We have learned at last how great
was the debt owed by Greek mythology to the poets
of ancient Babylonia, whose legends found their way
to the west through the mouths of Phoenicians and
Hittites. Adônis and Aphroditê are the Tammuz
and Istar of Accadian story; and the death of
Adônis, and the descent of the goddess into Hades
to search for him, formed the subject of Accadian
poems before the Greek perhaps had yet reached
his future home. The theft of Prometheus has its
analogue in the story of the god Zu, "the divine
158 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
!
storm-bird," who stole the lightning of Bel, the
tablet wherein destiny is written, and was punished
for his crime by the father of the gods. Gisdhubar,
originally the old Accadian Fire-god, and then a
solar hero, is the prototype of Heraklês. Hea-bani,
the confidant and adviser of Gisdhubar, is the
Kentaur Kheiron, for Kheiron was the son of
Kronos, and Kronos is identified by Bêrôsos with
Hea, the “creator" of Hea-bani. The lion slain by
the Chaldean hero is the lion of Nemea; the winged
bull made by Anu to revenge the slight suffered by
Istar is the bull of Krete; the tyrant Khumbaba,
slain by Gisdhubar in "the land of the pine-trees,
the seat of the gods, the sanctuary of the spirits," is
the tyrant Geryon ;¹ the gems borne by the trees of
the forest beyond "the gateway of the sun" are the
apples of the Hesperides; and the deadly sickness
of Gisdhubar himself is but the fever caused by the
poisoned tunic of Nessos. Even the encircling ocean,
with its gates, where the women Sabitu and Siduri
keep eternal watch, is the Okeanos of Homeric
legend. Naturally the impress made by Babylonian
mythology upon the western Semites was deeper
than that which it made upon the Greeks. An
echo of the war waged between Merodach and the
powers of chaos and darkness, headed by the dragon
of the sea, the seven-headed "serpent of night," still
survives in the Apocalypse. The sacred tree, with
1
1 Khumbaba appears as Kombabos in Lucian, De Dea Syria, 19-26.
II.]
159
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
its guardian cherubs, as well as the flaming sword
of the lightning, with its fifty points and seven heads,
recall biblical analogies; and the legend of the
plague-demon Lubara brings to our remembrance
the vision of David when the angel of pestilence
hovered over Jerusalem.
Art, Literature, and Science.-The art of Assyria
was the copy and offspring of that of Babylonia.
At the same time the copy was a free one, and in
many points differed very materially from its model.
The difference was caused in part by the want of
stone in Babylonia and its abundance in Assyria.
In Babylonia brick had to take the place of stone;
stone, in fact, was costly, and used only for such
objects as seals and signets, for boundary-marks and
royal statues. It is a curious illustration of the
servile dependence of Assyria upon Babylonia in
artistic matters, that up to the last brick was largely
used there in the construction of the royal palaces,
in spite of its rapid decay and the ease with which
stone might have been procured. Slabs of alabaster
were nevertheless employed to line the walls, and
where, therefore, the Babylonians were forced to
have recourse to painting, the Assyrians made a
liberal use of sculpture in relief.
The existing remains of Babylonian and Assyrian
architecture are further distinguished by the religious
character of the one and the secular character of the
other. The attention which was primarily devoted
160 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
to the construction of temples in Babylonia was
devoted to the construction of palaces in Assyria.
The temple in Assyria was a mere appendage of the
palace, whereas in the sister kingdom, while the only
palaces of which we know are those of the dynasty
of Nebuchadrezzar, the site of every great city is
marked by the ruins of its temples. Hence the
general style of architecture was different, the temple,
with its huge masses of brickwork, rising stage upon
stage, each brilliantly painted and surmounted
by a chamber which was at once a shrine and an
observatory, while the palace was built upon a
heap of rubble, with open courts and imposing
entrances, but never more than two or three stories
high.
Columnar architecture had its natural home upon
the banks of the Euphrates. Wood and brick had
to take the place of stone, and naturally suggested
the employment of the column, which soon became
a mere ornament and developed into a great variety
of forms. Coloured half-columns were used in the
temple of Lig-Bagas at Erech for decorative purposes
long ages before they were employed in the same
way by Sargon at Khorsabad, and it is to Babylonia
and Assyria rather than to Egypt that we must trace
the Doric and Ionic pillars of Greece. But the
chasteness of Greek taste preserved it from the many
fantastic forms into which the column branched out
in Babylonia and Assyria, where we find it resting
11.]
161
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
•
with a circular base on the backs of lions, dogs, and
winged bulls.
While the column thus became an ornament
rather than a support, the buttresses against which
the early Chaldean temples rested never lost their
original character. Like the walls, they were covered
with plaster and painted with bright colours or over-
laid with plates of shining metal. Enamelled bricks,
which were first painted, then glazed, and finally
baked in the fire, were often used for the purpose;
sometimes, as at Warka, we see cones of various
colours and embedded in plaster taking their place.
The rain was carried off by elaborately constructed
drains, some of which afford us the earliest examples
of the arch, and which occasionally consisted of
leaden pipes.
In Assyria sculpture was used in the stead of
painting, although the bas-reliefs were judiciously
picked out with red, blue, black, and white colours,
none of which, however, were of the same brilliancy
as the colours used in Babylonia. This use of colour
to heighten the effect of sculpture, which we find
also in Egypt, was adopted by the Greeks, who
probably derived it, with so many other elements of
art, from the cultured populations of the Euphrates
valley. Assyrian sculpture in relief may be said to
have passed through three phases of development.
The first phase, best represented by the reign of
Assur-natsir-pal, is characterised by a simplicity and
M
162 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
vigour which shows itself especially in the drawing
of animal forms. Nothing, for instance, can be
bolder and more lifelike than a scene in which the
monarch is depicted hunting lions; but the freshness
and freedom of the work are marred by an almost
total want of perspective, an absence of delicacy in
the execution, and a servile minuteness in reproduc-
ing the outlines. No attempt is made to fill in the
background. The second phase lasts from the be-
ginning of the Second Empire to the reign of Esar-
haddon, and was doubtless influenced by the delicate
work in bronze and ivory executed by the Phoenician
settlers in Nineveh. The care formerly expended
on the chief figures is now extended to the back-
ground, which is finished with a pre-Raffaelite
minuteness that reminds us of elaborate embroidery.
What has been lost in vigour is gained in richness,
though the realism of the work is too obtrusive to
allow it to be examined with microscopic eyes. The
reign of Assur-bani-pal marks the third and best
phase of Assyrian art in relief. Drawing has much
improved, and the sculptures furnish several instances
of successful foreshortening. The exactitude with
which animal and vegetable forms are represented
is relieved by a general softness of tone, while the
overcrowding of the previous period is avoided by a
recurrence to the earlier mode of leaving the back-
ground bare, or else by introducing merely the
outlines of a landscape. Nevertheless, the art shows
II.]
163
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
symptoms of the same effeminacy and decay that
strike us also in the choice of subjects. Scenes are
taken for the first time from the harem; and in
contrast with the lion-hunts of a former age in the
open field, Assur-bani-pal is made to enjoy the
pleasures of a royal battue, where tame lions are let
out of their cages and whipped into activity.
Admirable as the Assyrian artists were when
they sculptured in relief, they failed altogether as
soon as they came to the round. Here the artists
of Babylonia much surpassed them. In Babylonia
stone was too precious to be used for other than
decorative or legal purposes, and the largest stones
procurable were blocks of black basalt or diorite,
which could be carved into statues but not cut up
into slabs. Statuary of a certain kind, therefore,
flourished there from the earliest epoch. But it was
always heavy, the figures being represented in a
sitting posture, though much skill was shown in the
delineation of the face. On the other hand, the
carved gems are often very good, a spirit of humour
and light-heartedness appearing in them which we
look for in vain in Assyria. Gem-cutting, in fact,
originated in Babylonia, and thence spread through
the western world. Though frequently rude, the
very earliest intaglios are invariably clear and
vigorous. Emery must have been used in their
manufacture, and the work is sometimes extremely
fine.
164 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
The Accadians were also skilled in terra-cotta
and bronze work. The terra-cotta and bronze
images of King Gudea are quite astonishing when
we consider their antiquity. Spirited bas-reliefs in
terra-cotta have been found at Senkereh, and many
of the vases made by the Accadian potters display
great beauty of form, and must plainly have been
modelled on the wheel, though the majority are
handmade and rude. Assyrian pottery is also very
good, but the native work in bronze is poor. The
bronze gates of Balawât, for example, where the
bas-reliefs have all been hammered out from behind
and then chiselled, belong to the infancy of art,
though the forms are bold and vigorous. The
engraved bronze bowls and similar objects found at
Nineveh were the work of Phoenicians.
Babylonia was celebrated from the first for the
manufacture of textile fabrics, and the oldest gems
furnish us with specimens of richly embroidered
dresses. Goldsmiths' work, too, had already attained
a high perfection in the Accadian period.
At a
later epoch the Assyrians equally excelled in metal-
lurgy, and their bronze casts, as distinguished from
hammer-work in relief, are of a high order of merit.
Their gold earrings and bracelets are admirable both
in design and in workmanship, and so well were they
acquainted with the art of inlaying one metal with
another that our modern artists have been content
to learn from them the method of covering iron with
1
II.]
165
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
bronze. Their chairs and other articles of household
furniture are equally worthy of imitation. Besides
porcelain, they were acquainted with glass, though
transparent glass does not seem to have come into
use before the age of Sargon. Coloured glass was
known at a much earlier date.
But the Assyrians had none of that love of
brilliant colours which characterised their neighbours
in the south. Though the introduction of vegetable
forms into their bas-reliefs shows that their art was
less intensely human than that of the Greeks, they
were never led to cultivate the gardens for which
Babylon was renowned. It was Babylonia, again,
and not Assyria, that was famous for the manufacture
of dyed and variegated stuffs.
Iron was little used in the Accadian period, and
we may infer from the ideographs which represent
it that the only iron known was meteoric. On the
other hand, besides stone implements, bronze and
copper weapons and tools were largely in use, and
bronze bowls are found in nearly all the early tombs,
fashioned sometimes with considerable skill. With
the Semitic period the employment of iron becomes
more common.
Of Babylonian and Assyrian music little is known
beyond the fact that there were different instruments
for producing it.
Accad was the China of Western Asia. Almost
everyone could read and write. Clay was plentiful,
166 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
and the writing-paper of the Accadians was mostly
of clay. The characters were impressed with a
metal stylus upon clay tablets (the laterculæ coctiles
of Pliny), which were then baked in the sun, or (in
Assyria) in a kiln. Papyrus, however, was also
extensively used, though it has all now perished.
Indeed papyrus, or some similar vegetable substance,
preceded clay as a writing-material, the primitive
hieroglyphics out of which the cuneiform characters
arose having been painted on it by the Accadians
before they left their original home in Elam. The
hieroglyphics were arranged in vertical columns like
the Chinese.
After their settlement in the alluvial
plain of Babylonia, and their adoption of clay as a
writing-material, the Accadians altered the arrange-
ment of their characters, the vertical lines becoming
horizontal ones, and running from left to right. By
this process the old hieroglyphics were laid upon
their sides. At the same time the forms of the
hieroglyphics themselves underwent a change. It
was difficult to make curved lines upon the clay,
while the impress of the stylus assumed a wedge-
like shape. The primitive pictures thus became
cuneiform or wedge-shaped characters, which had
already come to be employed phonetically as well
as ideographically. When the Semites borrowed
them, a great extension was given to the phonetic
element, the sounds which expressed words in
Accadian becoming mere phonetic values in the
II.]
167
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Semitic syllabary.
Hence the same character can
denote more than one syllabic sound, and at the
same time can be used ideographically.
Long before the Semitic period, or even before
the earliest period of which we have contemporaneous
record, the Accadian characters had all been classified
and arranged. Compound characters were naturally
called by the names of those out of which they were
composed, though the proof of this has sometimes
been obliterated even in the archaic forms of the
characters found on the bricks of Lig-Bagas.
After the Semitic conquest no pains were spared
to facilitate a knowledge of the Accadian literature
and the characters in which it was written. Like
the syllabary, the literature of the Semitic Baby-
lonians and Assyrians was mostly of Accadian
origin, and it was consequently necessary for them
to be acquainted with the language in which it was
embodied. Syllabaries, grammars, vocabularies, and
reading-books were accordingly drawn up in Accadian
and Semitic, and the old Accadian texts were
accompanied by interlinear translations, sometimes
arranged in a parallel column. When Accadian
became extinct, about the seventeenth century B.C.,
the translations alone of many of the old texts were
preserved; it was only where the original text was
important, as in legal documents or in the sacred
hymns-the very language of which was held to be
inspired—that it continued to be copied. In the
168 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
time of Assur-bani-pal an attempt was made by the
litterati to revive the old language, and it became
fashionable to write compositions in Accadian, many
of which, however, resembled the "dog-Latin" of our
own day. A knowledge of the old mode of writing
continued down to the Christian era, the latest
document so written being, as has been already
mentioned, a contract-tablet, dated in the reign of
the Parthian king Pakoros, the contemporary of
Domitian.
From the earliest period the literature of Chaldea
was stored in public libraries. According to Bêrôsos,
Pantibibla, or "book-town," was one of the ante-
diluvian cities of Babylonia, and Xisuthros had
buried his books at Sippara-perhaps in reference
to the Semitic sepher, "book"-before the Flood.
Every great city had at least one library, and the
office of librarian was considered honourable enough
to be held by the brother of the king. The most
famous of the Babylonian libraries were those of
Erech, Lar'sa, and Ur, and (after the Semitic con-
quest) of Agadé. The older library of Babylon
perished for the most part when the town was
destroyed by Sennacherib. Scribes were kept busily
employed in copying and re-editing old texts, and
more rarely in preparing new ones. The copies
were made with scrupulous care, and an illegible
character or word was denoted by the statement
that there was a "lacuna," or a
(C recent lacuna,"
11.]
169
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
while attention was drawn to the breakage of a
tablet. When an Assyrian scribe was in doubt as
to the meaning of a character in his Babylonian
copy, he either reproduced it or gave it two or more
possible equivalents in the Assyrian syllabary.
The libraries established by the Assyrian kings
at Assur, Calah, and Nineveh, were formed in imita-
tion of those of Babylonia. Like the Babylonian
libraries, also, they were thrown open to the public,
though it is extremely doubtful whether the read-
ing public was so large in Assyria as in the sister
kingdom. At any rate, their contents were derived
almost entirely from Babylonia. The tablets or
books were all numbered and arranged in order, and
the table of the chapters in the great astronomical
work compiled for Sargon's library at Agadé (B.C.
3800) enjoins the student to hand to the librarian
in writing the number of the book or chapter he
wishes to procure.
The literature contained in these libraries com-
prised every branch of learning known at the time.
Historical and mythological documents; religious
compositions; legal, geographical, astronomical, and
astrological treatises; magical formulæ and omen
tablets; poems, fables, and proverbs; grammatical
and lexical disquisitions; lists of stones and trees, of
birds and beasts, of tribute and eponyms; copies of
treaties, of commercial transactions, of correspondence,
of petitions to the king, of royal proclamations, and
170 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
of despatches from generals in the field,—all were
represented. The mythological and religious litera-
ture was particularly extensive and interesting.
Along with the latter must be classed certain peni-
tential hymns, which may favourably compare with
the Hebrew psalms. Thus in one of them we read:
"O my God, my transgression is great, my sins are
many I lay on the ground, and none seized
me by the hand; I wept, and my palms none took.
I cried aloud; there was none that would hear me.
I am in darkness and trouble; I lifted not myself
up. To my God my distress I referred, my prayer
I addressed." The omen-tablets chiefly belong to a
work in 137 books, compiled for Sargon of Agadé.
Among the fables may be mentioned a dialogue
between the ox and the horse, and another between
the eagle and the sun; while we may reckon with
the proverbs not only the riddle which the wise man
propounded to the gods, and to which the answer is
plainly the air, but also the songs with which the
Accadian ox-drivers beguiled their labours in the
field. Two of these are worth quoting: "An heifer
am I; to the cow thou art yoked; the plough's
handle is strong; lift it up, lift it up!" "The
knees are marching, the feet are not resting; with
no wealth of thine own, grain thou begettest for
me." Folklore was more poorly represented than
mythology, though some specimens of it have been
preserved. It was the great epics and mythological
II.]
171
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
poems, however, which naturally occupied the chief
place in each library. A fragmentary catalogue of
them has come down to us along with the reputed
authors of these standard works. Thus the Epic of
Gisdhubar was ascribed to a certain Sin-liki-unnini ;
the legend of Etana to Nis-Sin; the story of the
fox to Kak-Merodach, the son of Eri-Turnunna.
Some of their titles are quoted in Accadian, and
their composition referred to Accadian poets; others
belong to the Semitic period. Among the latter is
the Epic of Gisdhubar in its present form, which is
based upon an astronomical principle, the subject-
matter of each of its twelve books corresponding
with the name of a Zodiacal sign. The lion is slain,
for instance, under the Zodiacal Leo, the sign of
Virgo answers to the wooing of the hero by Istar,
and the sign of Aquarius to the episode of the
Deluge. This is rather violently introduced into the
eleventh book, and, like the rest of the epic, is
pieced together out of older poems, fragments of
some of which we possess in the original Accadian
text. Perhaps the most beautiful of these early
legends is that which describes the descent of Istar
into Hades in search of her husband, the Sun-god
Tammuz, slain by the boar's tusk of winter. The
legend curiously survives in a moral form in the
Talmud, where Istar has been changed into the
demon of lust.
Science was chiefly represented by astronomy,
172 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
which had its first home among the Accadians.
But
it soon connected itself with the pseudo-science of
astrology, the false assumption having been made
that whatever event had been observed to follow a
particular celestial phenomenon would recur if the
phenomenon happened again. Observatories were
established in all the chief towns, and astronomers-
royal were appointed, who had to send fortnightly
reports to the king. At an early date the stars were
numbered and named; the Zodiacal signs had been
mapped out while the vernal equinox still fell in
Taurus; and eclipses of the sun and moon had been
found to recur after a certain fixed time, and were
consequently calculated and looked for.
The equator
was divided into degrees, sixty being the unit, as in
other departments of mathematics. A table of lunar
longitudes belongs to the Accadian period, and frag-
ments of a planisphere, which marks the appearance
of the sky at the vernal equinox, are now in the
British Museum. The year was reckoned to consist
of twelve lunar months of thirty days each, inter-
calary months being counted in by the priests when
necessary. In Accadian times the commencement
of the year was determined by the position of the
star Capella (a Auriga), called Dilgan," the mes-
senger of light," in relation to the new moon at the
vernal equinox. The night was originally divided
into three watches, but this was afterwards super-
seded by the more accurate division of the day into
II.]
173
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
twelve casbu, or "double hours," corresponding to
the divisions of the equator, each casbu of two hours
being further subdivided into sixty minutes, and these
again into sixty seconds. Time was measured, at
all events at a later epoch, by means of the clepsydra,
and the gnomon or dial was a Babylonian invention.
So also was the week of seven days, which was
closely connected with the early astronomical studies
of the Accadians, the days of the week being dedi-
cated to the moon, sun, and five planets. The 7th,
14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the lunar month
were kept like the Jewish Sabbath, and were actually
so named in Assyrian. They were termed dies
nefasti in Accadian, rendered "days of completion
(of labour)" in Assyrian; the Assyrian Sabattu or
"Sabbath" itself being further defined as meaning
completion of work" and "a day of rest for the
soul." On these days it was forbidden, at all events
in the Accadian period, to cook food, to change one's
dress or wear white robes, to offer sacrifice, to ride
in a chariot, to legislate, to practise augury, or even
to use medicine. The month was further divided
into two halves of fifteen days each, these being
again subdivided into three periods of five days.
((
The standard work on astronomy and astrology
was that in seventy-two books, compiled for the
library of Sargon at Agadé, and entitled the Obser-
vations of Bel. It was subsequently translated into
Greek by Bêrôsos.
The table of contents shows that
174 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
it treated of various matters,-eclipses, comets, the
pole-star, the phases of Venus and Mars, the con-
junction of the sun and moon, the changes of the
weather, and the like. After each observation comes
the event which was believed to have happened in
connection with it, and the number of observations.
shows for how long a period they must have been
accumulating before the second millennium B.C.
We can in fact trace the beginnings of Babylonian
astronomy back to an age when the Accadians were
still shepherds and herdsmen among the mountains
of Elam; it was above Elam that the zenith was
fixed, and the heaven was regarded as a great pasture
land, the ecliptic being "the bull of light" or "the
furrow of the sky," and the stars "the heavenly
flock," whose shepherd was Arcturus (a Bootis). It
may be added that Tammuz represented Orion.
The attention given to astronomy presupposes a
considerable advance in mathematics. This in fact
was the case. The system of cyphers was a com-
paratively easy one to handle, and was simplified by
the habit of understanding the multiple 60 in ex-
pressing high numbers,—IV., for instance, denoting
4 × 60 = 240. Sixty was also the unexpressed
denominator of a fraction, 13 being represented by
I.XL., ie., 148. A tablet from the library of Lar'sa
gives a table of squares and cubes correctly calcu-
lated from 1 to 60, and a series of geometrical figures
used for augural purposes implies the existence of a
II.]
175
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Babylonian Euclid.
Even the plan of an estate
outside the gate of Zamama at Babylon, in the time
of Nebuchadrezzar, has been discovered which shows
no mean knowledge of surveying. Some acquaint-
ance with mechanics is evidenced by the use of the
lever and pulley; and the discovery of a crystal
lens on the site of Nineveh suggests that some of
the microscopic characters on the tablets were in-
scribed with artificial aid, as well as the possibility
of a rude kind of telescope having been employed
for astronomical observations. At all events, one
astronomical record states that "Venus rises, and in
its orbit duly grows in size." Mr. Rassam has
discovered on the site of Babylon remains of the
hydraulic machinery used for watering the Hanging
Gardens of Nebuchadrezzar, and the fragments of a
work on medicine, closely resembling the Egyptian
Papyrus Ebers, have recently been found.
The ideas of that primitive epoch, when as yet as-
tronomy in its simplest form was unknown, survived in
the popular mythology. The "mountain of the world,"
or Rowandiz, the Accadian Olympos, was believed
to be the pivot on which the heaven rested, covering
the earth like a huge extinguisher.
The world was
bound to it by a rope, like that with which the sea
was churned in Hindu legend, or the golden cord of
Homer, wherewith Zeus proposed to suspend the
nether earth after binding the cord about Olympos
(II. viii. 19-26).
Eclipses were caused by the war
176 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
1
of the seven evil spirits or storm-demons against the
moon, and a long poem tells how Samas and Istar
fled to the upper heaven of Anu when the war
began, and how Merodach had finally to come to
the rescue of the troubled moon.
Language, Law, Trade, and Agriculture.-As
already stated, the original languages of Accad and
Sumer were agglutinative, the cases of the noun
being indicated by postpositions, and were related
to the dialects spoken in Elam (Susian, Cassite, and
Amardian). The Semitic language known as As-
syrian consisted of the two dialects, Babylonian and
Assyrian, the first being distinguished by a preference
for softer sounds and a longer retention of the mim-
mation. It was closely allied to Hebrew and
Phoenician, more distantly to Arabic, and more
distantly still to Aramaic, while it had many points
of resemblance to Ethiopic. The archaic and
finished character of its grammar, and the fulness of
its vocabulary, make it the Sanskrit of the Semitic
tongues. The literary dialect underwent little change
during the 1500 years that we can trace its career,
the result being that it came to differ very consider-
ably from the language of everyday life spoken at
Nineveh or Babylon in later times. Aramaic became
the lingua franca of trade and diplomacy after the
overthrow of Tyre and Sidon under the Second
Assyrian Empire, and in course of time gradually
superseded the older language of the country.
In
11.]
177
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Babylonia, however, this did not happen until after
the Persian conquest.
""
Law was highly developed in Chaldea from an
early period, and a large number of the precedents
of an Assyrian judge, like the titles on which he had
to decide, went back to the Accadian epoch. An
Accadian code of laws shows us that the mother
occupied the same prominent place in the community
as among other "Turanian peoples. A married
woman was permitted to hold property; at the same
time the husband might repudiate his wife after
paying a fine, but the wife who repudiated her
husband was punished by drowning. The master
who ill-treated or killed his slave was fined, and the
slave was allowed to purchase his freedom. Property
was carefully protected; the maximum rate of in-
terest was fixed; and houses, land, or slaves could
be taken as security for debt. Judges were appointed
throughout the kingdom, and forbidden to accept
bribes, while prisons were established in every town.
The most ancient written code was ascribed to the
god Hea or Oannes. As in Attika, the boundaries
of property were marked by stela, one of which
informs us that the ground mentioned on it was
bestowed by the king on a poet-laureate in return
for some complimentary verses; and deeds were
drawn up on tablets, often enclosed in an outer
coating of clay, and connected by a string with a
papyrus docket. These deeds were duly witnessed
N
178 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
14
and sealed.
Sennacherib has left behind a sort of
will, in which he leaves certain property to his
favourite son, Esar-haddon. The taxpayers were
divided into burghers and aliens, some of the taxes
being paid for the use of the public brickyards
and roads. In the time of the Second Assyrian
Empire municipal taxes and the tribute of subject
states formed an important part of the imperial
revenue. Nineveh, for instance, paid every year 30
talents, 20 of which went to the maintenance of the
fleet, Assyria as a whole being assessed at 274
talents; Carchemish paid 100 talents, Arpad 30,
and Megiddo 15.
Trade and commerce were the creation of the
Semites, and were particularly active in the later
days of the Assyrian monarchy. The trade of
Assyria was mainly overland-that of Babylonia
maritime. The teak found at Mugheir proves that
it extended as far as India; on the other side wares
came from the coasts and islands of Asia Minor,
from Egypt, and from Southern Arabia. Coined
money, however, was as yet unknown, and the maneh
of Carchemish, after the capture of that city, was
made the standard of weight. Interest was usually
at four per cent; but sometimes, more especially
when objects like iron were borrowed, at three per
cent. Houses were let on lease, and the deeds which
conveyed them gave a careful inventory of their
contents. A house sold at Nineveh on the 16th of
II.]
179
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Sivan, or May, B.C. 692, fetched one maneh of silver,
or £9, the average price of a slave. The records of
the Egibi banking firm recently discovered in Baby-
lonia extend from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar to
that of Darius Hystaspis; the deeds were kept in
large jars, and, like the Rothschilds of modern days,
the firm increased its wealth by lending money to
kings. The father generally took his sons into
partnership during his lifetime.
While the Semite devoted himself to trade, the
Accadian was an agriculturist, and up to the last
agriculture occupied a more prominent place in
Babylonia than it ever did in Assyria. The canals
were a matter of special importance, and their
management was superintended by the state.
Market-gardeners might lease the ground of richer
proprietors, and the tenant had to give one-third of
the produce to the owner. The country was covered
with gardens; Merodach-baladan has left us a list of
no less than seventy-three belonging to himself. At
an earlier date, Tiglath-Pileser I., in imitation of
the Babylonian princes, tried to acclimatise in royal
botanical gardens some of the trees he had met with
in his campaigns; but his example does not seem
to have been followed, and agriculture of all kinds
was never popular in Assyria, where it was relegated
to the slaves.
Our knowledge of Assyro-Babylonian administra-
tion is too slight to allow us to say more of it than
180 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [II.
:
that the government was an absolute monarchy, the
court consisting of a large number of officials who
owed their rank to the king. After the time of
Tiglath-Pileser I., the subject provinces were placed
under satraps, the cities of the empire being governed
by prefects. Besides the turtannu (tartan), or com-
mander-in-chief, who stood on the king's right, there
were other military officers, such as the "sultan," the
colonel ("man of three troops "), "the captain of
fifty," and "the captain of ten," who might assume
the command in his absence. Among the chief
officials of state may be mentioned the Rab-saki
(Rab-shakeh), or Vizier, the Rab-saris or Chamberlain,
the Music-director, and the Astronomer-Royal.
III.
THE PHOENICIANS.
WHILE the struggle for supremacy between Accadian
and Semite was going on in the east, another branch
of the Semitic race was establishing itself on the
western coast of Asia. A narrow but fertile strip of
land, from 10 to 15 miles in breadth and 150 in
length, shut in between the snow-clad peaks of
Lebanon and the sea, and stretching from the Bay
of Antioch to the promontory of Carmel, was the
home of the Phoenicians. They called it Canaan,
"the lowlands," a name which was afterwards ex-
tended to denote the whole district of Palestine
inhabited by kindred tribes. The Egyptians named
it the land of Keft, or the "palm," of which the
Greek Phoenikê is but a translation. The early date
at which it was occupied is shown by the emigrations
from it to the Delta in the time of the Middle
Egyptian Empire; by the time the Hyksos were
ruling at Memphis the mouths of the Nile had become
so thickly populated by Phoenicians as to cause the
182 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
whole coastland to be termed Keft-ur (Caphtor), or
"Greater Phoenicia."
According to Genesis, Sidon, "the fishing city,"
was the firstborn of Canaan. Native legends, how-
ever, claimed an older foundation for the sacred city
of Gebal or Byblos, northward of Beyrût. Beyrût
itself, the Bêrytos of classical writers, was dependent
on Gebal, and along with it formed a distinct terri-
tory in the midst of the Phoenician states. These
consisted of nine chief cities, Akko (now Acre),
Achzib or Ekdippa (now Zib), Tyre (now Sûr), Sidon
(now Saida), Botrys (now Batrun), Tripolis (now
Tarâbolus), Marathus (now Amrit), Arvad or Aradus
and Antaradus (now Ruâd and Tartûs), and Ramantha
or Laodikeia (now Ladakiyeh). With these may be
counted Zemar or Simyra (now Sumra), to the north
of Tripolis, inhabited by an independent tribe, like
Arka (now Tel 'Arka). The country was watered
by rivers, six of which were invested with divine
attributes like the mountains from which they flowed.
The Eleutheros (Nahr el-Kebîr) in the north is
followed by the Adônis (Nahr el-Ibrahim), by whose
banks the women of Byblos lamented the dead Sun-
god Tammuz; the Lykos (Nahr el-Kelb), where
Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian conquerors have
erected their memorials; the Tamyras (Nahr Damûr);
the Bostrenos (Nahr el-'Awâly); and the Belos
(Nahr Na'mân).
With the mountains in their rear the inhabitants
III.]
183
THE PHŒNICIANS.
of the Phoenician cities were driven to the sea.
They became fishermen, traders, and colonists.
First Kypros, called Kittim from the town of Kition,
was colonised; then Rhodes, Thêra, Mêlos, and other
islands of the Ægean; then came the settlements on
the coasts of Greece itself, in Sicily and Sardinia, and
on the northern shores of Africa; and finally the
colonies of Karteia, near Gibraltar, and Gades or
Cadiz, which led the adventurous emigrants into the
waters of the unknown Atlantic. Karteia lay in the
district of Tarshish or Tartessos, long the extreme
western boundary both of Phoenician voyages and of
the known world. But before the sixth century B.C.,
the Phoenicians had not only penetrated to the north-
western coast of India, but probably to the island of
Britain as well.
The
Tradition brought them originally from the Persian
Gulf, and the similarity of name caused the island of
Tylos or Tyros, now Bahrein, to be named as the
country from which the forefathers of the Tyrians.
had come. The tradition pointed to a fact.
close resemblance between the Phoniko-Hebrew and
Assyro-Babylonian languages proves that the speakers
of them must have lived together for some time after
their separation from the rest of their Semitic kindred,
as does also the common possession of such deities
as Malik or Moloch, Baal or Bel, perhaps also Dakan
and Dagon, which were not of Accadian origin.
Most of the tribes comprehended under the title
184 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [111.
of Canaanites in the Old Testament were really
Phoenician, though the Egyptian monuments show
that the Amorites were of Arab descent, while the
Hittites belonged to a different stock from the
Semites. The Hebrews themselves, if we may trust
the evidence of language, physiognomy, and character,
had the same ancestors as the Phoenicians, and at
the time of the conquest of Canaan only differed
from the people they expelled in being rude nomads
instead of cultivated citizens. It is nevertheless
possible that intermarriage with the aborigines of
the country-a race of whom we know but little-
had produced a modification of type and character
among the natives of Phoenicia; but if so, the modi-
fication was not great. Towards the north the
Phoenicians were affected by contact with their
cousins, the Arameans or Syrians, who occupied
Damascus and the southern coast of the Orontes,
and under the name of the Rutennu appear in the
Egyptian inscriptions as extending southward of the
Hittites as far as the banks of the Euphrates.
Sidon and Tyre alike consisted of two towns.
Those of Sidon were both on the mainland, and were
known as the Less and the Greater; those of Tyre.
were distinguished as insular Tyre and Palætyros.
Palætyros stood on the coast, and, if we may trust
its name, was older than the city which occupied a
double island at a little distance from the shore, and
eventually claimed supremacy over it. But insular
III.]
185
THE PHŒNICIANS.
Tyre was of itself of early foundation, since the great
temple of Baal Melkarth, the Phoenician Hêraklês,
which rose on the eastern side of the smaller island,
was built, as the priests told Hêrodotos, 2300 years
before his time, or about 2750 B.C.; and the name
Tyre itself-Tsor in Phoenician-denoted the "rock
on which the insular city stood. When it was visited
by the Egyptian Mohar in the time of Ramses II.,
the water drunk by its inhabitants had all to be
conveyed from the mainland in boats. Tsarau or
Palætyros, we learn, had been recently burnt. Arvad
or Arados was similarly on an island, and held rule
over the two cities of the neighbouring coast, Marathos
and Karnê. Gebal had originally been built inland,
on the northern bank of the Nahr el-Kelb, before its
inhabitants migrated to the shore.
Phoenicia was known to the Accadians under the
names of Titnum and Martu, the latter of which
signified "the path of the setting sun," and was
rendered into Semitic by Akharru, "the back" or
western" land. An old geographical tablet makes
Khikhi and Lakhi the two divisions of Phoenicia, a
word which has been compared with the Fenekh of
the Egyptian inscriptions. Cudur-Mabug, the Ela-
mite, was the "father" of the land of Martu, though
this may mean the West generally and not Phoenicia
in particular; and Chedor-laomer had held Palestine
under his sway for thirteen years in the age of
Abraham. Sargon of Agadé not only set up his
186 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
image on the shores of the Mediterranean, but even
penetrated as far as Kypros, bringing with him the
elements of that Babylonian civilisation which spread
from Kypros into Asia Minor. Phoenicia itself was
equally affected by Chaldean culture, which long
dominated over the art of the eastern basin of the
Mediterranean.
The Phoenicians, indeed, were an eminently recep-
tive people. Like the rest of their Semitic brethren,
they lacked originality, but they were gifted beyond
most other races with the power of assimilating and
combining, of adapting and improving on their
models. Phoenician art derives its origin from
Babylonia, from Egypt, and in later times from
Assyria; but it knew how to combine together the
elements it had received, and to return them, modi-
fied and improved, to the countries from which they
had been borrowed. The Phoenicians were the most
skilful workmen of the ancient world, and the empire
of the Euphrates, which had first taught them the
art of gem-cutting, of pottery-making, and of dyeing
embroidery, was glad to learn in turn from its pupils.
Already, in the age of Thothmes III., we see the
Phoenicians on the walls of Rekhmara's tomb at
Thebes bringing as tribute vases with animals' heads,
similar to those found at Rhodes and Hissarlik, and
clad in richly-embroidered kilts. But the most
precious acquisition of the Phoenicians was the alpha-
bet.
This was borrowed by the settlers in Caphtor
III.]
187
THE PHŒNICIANS.
or the Delta from their Egyptian neighbours in the
time of the Middle Empire or the early days of
Hyksos dominion,—all the other incumbrances of
the Egyptian system of writing being discarded by
a people who possessed the practical habits of traders
and merchants. It soon found its way to the
mother-country, where the Egyptian names of the
letters were replaced by native ones, drawn possibly
from an older script now termed Hittite, and from
the mother-country it was disseminated through the
western world.
The Phoenicians were the intermediaries of
ancient civilisation. It was they who inaugurated
the trade of the West, and their trading voyages
carried the art, the culture, and the knowledge they
themselves possessed to the other nations of the
Mediterranean. Modern research has abundantly
confirmed the tradition embodied in the opening
page of the history of Hêrodotos, that the chief
elements of early Greek art and civilisation came
from Assyria through the hands of the Phoenicians.
•
In
It was
But the influence of Phoenicia was exercised
differently at different periods in its history.
the early period the influence was indirect.
brought by solitary traders, who trafficked in slaves,
and above all in that purple-fish which formed the
staple of Phoenician wealth, and whose voyages were
intermittent and private. This was the period of
what we may call Babylonian culture.
The con-
188 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
quests of the Egyptian monarchs of the eighteenth
dynasty forced the trading communities of Phoenicia
to pay tribute to the empire of the Nile, or at times
to join in the efforts made to resist its further
progress in Palestine; and the result was that
Egyptian fashions found their way among them,
the sphinx became domesticated on the coast of
Keft, and Phoenician art passed into its Egyptianising
phase. Meanwhile the population had been increas-
ing along with wealth and prosperity, new regions
had been discovered by adventurous voyagers, and
experiments in colonisation had been made on the
coasts of Kypros and the Delta. The same moun-
tain-chain which had originally forced the inhabitants
of Phoenicia to the sea now induced them to relieve
the pressure of population by sending out organised
colonies to the recently-discovered lands of the West.
Commercial marts were accordingly established in
favourable positions; Thêra and Mêlos, with their
volcanic clay, became centres of Phoenician trade in
pottery; the gold mines of Thasos were worked for
Phoenician masters by Greek slaves; the temple of
Astartê rose on the southern headland of Kythêra;
Lesbos was ruled by Makar or Melkarth, the Tyrian
god (Il. xxiv. 544), and Krêtê by Minos; the three
cities of Rhodes were planned by Phoenician archi-
tects; Attika received a Phoenician colony; while
the Minyans of Orkhomenos found themselves
confronted by the Kadmeians or "Easterns" of
III.]
189
THE PHOENICIANS.
Thebes; and the isthmus of Korinth itself, the key
to the western sea, was held by Phoenician lords.
But Greece was not to be the furthest bound of
Phoenician colonisation. Settlements were estab-
lished on the coast of Africa, in Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica, and finally the columns of the Phoenician
Hêraklês themselves were cleared, and the son of
Phoenix led a colony to Gadeira, "the walled town,"
at the very limit of the setting sun.
The influence exercised by these colonies upon
the still barbarous nations of the west was necessarily
profound. The Assyrian character of early Greek
art is due to its Phoenician inspiration. The pottery
with which the sites of ancient cities like Mykênæ
and Orkhomenos, or Kameiros in Rhodes, are strewn,
was made by the Phoenician potters of Thêra and
Mêlos. Megara, Minoa, Cothôn, the "little" island
by the side of Kythêra, are all Phoenician words.
The Greek alphabet, as the forms and names of its
letters declare, was a Phoenician gift. Tradition
ascribes it to Kadmos, "the ancient" or "eastern
of Thebes, the son of Khna or Canaan, or, as other
legends affirmed, of Agênor, perhaps a form of
Kinyras. His wife, Harmonia, is the Semitic Khar-
môn, the "holy" mistress of the harem; and the
serpent into which he was changed is the γέρων ὄφιων,
the Serpent-god of Tyre, whose image is carved on
one of the rocks of Thêra. Kadmos himself was
worshipped not at Thebes only, but at Sparta as
"}
190 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
well, just as Melikertês or Melkarth remained the
deity of the Korinthian isthmus into the historical
age. The sacred emblems of the Greek divinities
-the myrtle, the pomegranate, and the olive-are
plants that the Phoenicians must have brought with
them ; the rites with which Dêmêtêr Akhaa was
worshipped bear a Semitic stamp; and the attributes
of the Hellenic Aphroditê are really those of the
Assyrian Istar, the Phoenician Astartê. Astartê,
too, is Europa, the daughter of Phoenix, brought to
the continent to which she was to give a name by
the bull-formed Phoenician Baal. The Babylonian
prototype of the myth of Aphroditê and Adônis, the
Phoenician Adonai, "lord," has been discovered; so
also have the Babylonian Hêraklês and his twelve
labours, as recounted in the great Epic of early
Chaldea.
Sidon seems to have taken the initiative in
sending out the colonists. But it was quickly
supplanted by Tyre, which claimed supremacy over
the cities of Kypros. Arvad and Zemar, however,
seem to be the first Phoenician states mentioned on
the Egyptian monuments, if they can be identified
with the Arathutu and Zemar, whose territories
were ravaged by Thothmes III. in his sixth cam-
paign. Perhaps the land of Son-Tsar, or "the other
Tyre," mentioned in an inscription of the reign of
Amenophis II., refers to the double city of Tyre;
at any rate, insular Tyre was conquered by Seti I.
III.]
191
THE PHŒNICIANS.
shortly before his death. His son, Ramses II., at
the beginning of his reign, carved his likeness, in
imitation of Sargon of Agadé, on the rocks at the
mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, and three years later
defeated the king of Arvad, with the other allies of
the Hittites, in the battle of Kadesh. In the age of
David, Tyre had become the leading city of Phoenicia.
Hiram, the son of Abibaal, was the friend of both
David and Solomon, who found an alliance with
the wealthy trading community of Tyre at once
profitable and honourable. Phoenician culture was
introduced among the rude tribes of Israel, and the
temple of Jerusalem was built by Phoenician artists,
after the model of a Phoenician one. Even the two
columns or cones at the entrance, the symbols of the
Sun-god, as well as the brazen sea or reservoir, with
the twelve solar bulls on which it rested, were
reproduced in the Jewish sanctuary. The conquest
of Edom had given David the possession of the Gulf
of Akaba, and Tyrian commerce was accordingly
able to sail down the Red Sea, hitherto the monopoly
of the Egyptians, and find its way to Ophir or
Abhîra, at the mouths of the Indus. The name
given to the peacocks brought from thence shows
that the Dravidian race then extended thus far
north. Insular Tyre was enlarged and strongly
fortified, and the temples of Melkarth and Astartê
beautified and restored. After a reign of thirty-four
years, Hiram died at the age of fifty-three. His
192 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
grandson, Abd-Astoreth, was murdered by the sons
of his nurse, the eldest of whom usurped the throne
for twelve years. For a while the legitimate dynasty
returned to power, but Phelês, a brother of Abd-
Astoreth, was put to death by Ethbaal, the priest of
Astartê, and with him the line of Hiram came to an
end. Ethbaal had a long and prosperous reign of
thirty-two years. His daughter Jezebel married the
king of Israel, and attempted to break down the
barrier of religion which separated that country from
Phoenicia. Sidon was made subject to the Tyrian
sway, and Auza was founded in the interior of Africa,
south of the ancient colony of Itykê. But the first
cloud of danger had already appeared on the horizon.
Since the time of Assur-bil-kala, the son of Tiglath-
Pileser I., the name of Assyria had not been heard
in the West; now, however, Assur-natsir-pal marched
into the fastnesses of Lebanon, and in B.C. 870, the
kings of Tyre, Sidon, Gebal, and Arvad offered
tribute. Arvad, indeed, almost more intimately
connected with Syria than the other states further
south, took part in the battle of Aroer against
Shalmaneser in B.C. 854. The great-grandson of
Ethbaal was Pygmalion, whose sovereignty in Kypros
caused his name to become familiar in Greek story.
Seven years after his accession, at the age of sixteen,
he murdered the regent, his uncle, Sichar-baal, a
name corrupted into Akerbas and Sichæus by
classical writers. His sister Elissa, the wife of
III.]
193
THE PHŒNICIANS:
!
Sichar-baal, fled with other opponents of the new
king, and found a home on the coast of Africa,
not far from the old Phoenician settlement of Itykê
or Utica. The site they chose was named Kartha
khadasha, “the new city," a name which has become
famous under the form of Carthage. Legends soon
gathered round the foundress of the city. She was
identified with Dido, the title under which Astartê
was worshipped as the consort of the fierce and cruel
Moloch; while Anna, "the gracious," the name of
Astartê as the giver of life and blessing, was made
into her sister. Even the Bosrâh or "citadel" of
the new state, where a temple rose to Eshmun, was
identified with the Greek Búpoa, a "hide," and gave
birth to the myth which told how Iarbas, the Lybian
prince, had been cheated of his land by the ox-hide
for which he sold it being cut into strips. Carthage
was destined to take the place of Tyre as the mistress
of the commerce of the western seas, when the mother
city had been ruined by Assyria. Pygmalion's reign
lasted for forty-seven years, almost down to the
period when Tyre and Sidon paid tribute to
Rimmon-nirari III. When next we hear of Tyre
it is under Hiram II., who sent tribute to Tiglath-
Pileser II. at Arpad in B.C. 743, and is possibly the
King Hiram mentioned on an ancient broken bronze
vase found in Cyprus, and deciphered by M. Clermont-
Ganneau. His successor, Matgenos II. (Metenna),
revolted against Assyria, and was punished by a fine
194 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [11.
of 150 talents in B.C. 731. On his death, the
Zidonian prince, Elulæus or Luli, was raised to the
Tyrian throne. Hardly was he seated on it when
the Assyrian monarch Shalmaneser invaded Phoenicia,
and closely besieged Tyre. Sidon, Acre, and Palæ-
tyros submitted to the invader, but the Assyrian
fleet of sixty vessels was utterly destroyed by the
besieged. Tyre did not capitulate till after the
accession of Sargon, who was obliged to grant it
easy terms. Sidon was soon afterwards compelled
to return to its former allegiance. In 701 B.C.,
however, Sennacherib captured both the Greater and
Lesser Sidon, as well as Sarepta, Achzib, and Acre;
and though he was unable to take Tyre, Elulæus
fled to Kypros, possibly to obtain help. Tubaal or
Ethbaal was made king of Sidon, and for a while
Sidon became the leading state in Phoenicia. It is
to this period of Sidonian supremacy that the early
traditions of historical Greece looked back, and in
the Homeric poems the Sidonians, and not the
Tyrians, are the representatives of Phoenicia. The
Greeks of Kypros from this time forward know only
of Sidon, not of Tyre. But the supremacy of Sidon
was short-lived. Abd-Melkarth, its king, was mis-
guided enough to ally himself with Sandon-arri of
Kilikia, and refuse the homage due to Esar-haddon.
Sidon was captured and razed, its prince beheaded,
and a new Zidon built, and stocked with the in-
habitants of the old one. The tide of commerce
111.]
195
THE PHOENICIANS.
now flowed again into Tyre, and though under Baal
I. it joined the Egyptian revolt against Assyria
towards the close of Esar-haddon's reign, it was
strong enough to defy all attempts to take it, and
Assur-bani-pal was glad to receive its submission on
the easy condition of adding the daughters and
nieces of its monarch to the harem at Nineveh.
When Tyre again saw an enemy before its walls, it
was the Chaldean army under Nebuchadrezzar.
But the founder of the Babylonian empire was no
more successful than Assur-bani-pal had been, though
he joined the island to the mainland by a mole.
After a siege of thirteen years, he consented to treat
with the Tyrian king, Ethbaal (B.C. 674), and was
thus left free to turn his arms against Egypt. On
the death of Ethbaal's successor royalty was abolished
for a time, and the Tyrians elected Sufetes or Judges;
but in 557 B.C. the old line of kings was again
established in the person of Baletor.
The conquest
of Kypros by Amasis seems to have induced the
Phoenicians to recognise the hegemony of Egypt,
but with the rise of the Persian empire they passed
over to the new power.
The Persians, however, who
depended on Phoenicia for a fleet, allowed the
Phoenician states to be still governed by their own
kings, one of whom, Eshmunezer II., the son of
Tabnith or Tennês, tells us on his sarcophagus that
he ruled for fourteen years as "king of the Sidonians,"
and had built temples to Baal, Astoreth, and Eshmun,
196 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
and been lord of the rich cornfields of Dor and Jaffa.
The maritime experience of the Phoenicians made.
them indispensable to their Persian masters, and
when they refused to attack Carthage, Kambyses
was able neither to accomplish his expedition
against that city, nor to punish his refractory
subjects. Their commercial empire, however, had
long since departed. The Dorians had driven them
from their possessions in the Greek waters, Ionic
sailors and colonists had followed them to the Pillars
of Heraklês, the Etruscans had occupied their ports
in the Tyrrhene Sea, and Assyria had ruined them
at home. Their power passed to Carthage, which
in time avenged them upon the Greeks. Sicily and
Sardinia once more became Semitic, the Hellenic
states in the former island with difficulty maintaining
their ground against the admirals of Carthage; while
the northern coast of Africa was rendered tributary,
and a Carthaginian empire erected in Spain.
while the old strength and spirit of Phoenicia thus
revived in its African colony, the last stronghold of
native independence fell before the Greek conqueror
Alexander. Tyre was besieged by the army that
had just overthrown the Persians at Issos; the mole
made by Nebuchadrezzar—and still to be seen on
the sandy flat which marks the ancient sea-bed
between Palætyros and insular Tyre—was recon-
structed, and in July B.C. 332 the city, which had
defied Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian, at last fell.
But
III.]
197
THE PHOENICIANS.
Thirty thousand of its citizens were sold into slavery,
thousands of others were massacred or crucified, and
the wealth of the richest and most luxurious city of
the world became the prey of an exasperated army.
Its trade was inherited by its neighbour Sidon.
Religion and Mythology.-Phoenician religion was
typically Semitic. It centred in the worship of the
Sun-god, adored now as the beneficent giver of light
and life, now as the stern god of fire and summer
heat, who must be appeased by human sacrifice.
Each aspect of the Sun-god had its own name, and
became a separate divinity. By the side of each
stood its reflection and double, that female power
presupposed by all the operations of nature, as well
as by the Semitic languages themselves, with their
distinction between masculine and feminine. Baal,
"the lord," therefore, must have his consort Baalath,
"lady." But just as Baal was the common title
given to the masculine deity in all his forms, so it was
rather Ashtoreth than Baalath which was the common
title given to the female deity--a title originally
derived from an Accadian source. Ashtoreth was
also identified with the moon, the pale consort of the
diurnal sun, and, under the name of Astartê, was
known to the Greeks as the goddess "with the
crescent horns, to whose bright image nightly by
the moon Sidonian maidens paid their vows and
songs." Greek mythology, too, knew her as Iô and
Europa, and she was fitly symbolised by the cow
198 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
whose horns resemble the supine lunar crescent as
seen in the south. But it was as the female power
of generation-as pale reflections of the Sun-god-
that the manifold goddesses of the popular cult were
included among the Ashtaroth or "Ashtoreths by
the side of the Baalim or "Baals." Ashtoreth must
be carefully distinguished from Ashêrah, the goddess
of fertility, symbolised by the asherim, "upright
cones of stone, or bare tree-stems, which stood at
the entrance of a Phoenician temple. Ashêrah was
more particularly adored among the Canaanites of
the south.
Baal Samên, "the lord of heaven,” called Agênor
by the Greeks, was the supreme Baal of Phoenicia.
But it was rather to Baal as the fierce and cruel
Moloch or Milcom, the "king," that worship was
specially paid. Moloch demanded the best and
dearest that the worshipper could grant him, and
the parent was required to offer his eldest or only
son as a sacrifice, while the victim's cries were
drowned by the noise of drums and flutes. When
Agathoklês defeated the Carthaginians, the noblest
of the citizens offered in expiation 300 of their
children to Baal-Moloch. In later times a ram (or
hart) was substituted for the human offering, as we
learn from the Phoenician tariffs of sacrifices found
at Marseilles and Carthage. The priests scourged
themselves or gashed their arms and breasts to win
the favour of the god, and similar horrors were
III.]
199
THE PHOENICIANS.
perpetrated in the name of Ashtoreth. To her, too,
boys and maidens were burned, and young men
made themselves eunuchs in her honour.
The two aspects of the Sun-god, the baneful and
the beneficent, were united in Baal Melkarth, "the
king of the city," the patron god of Tyre. Melkarth,
Græcised into Melikertês and Makar, is a sure sign
of Tyrian presence, and his temple at Tyre, where
he was invoked as Baal Tsur, was the oldest building
of the city. In his passage through the year
Melkarth endured all those trials and adventures
which Chaldean poets had told of their great solar
hero, and which, under Phoenician tuition, the Greeks
subsequently ascribed to their own Hêraklês. Hê-
raklês, in fact, is but the Tyrian Melkarth in a Greek
dress, and the two pillars of rocks which guarded
the approach to the ocean the Phoenicians had
discovered in the west were rightly termed the
columns of Hêraklês. The temples of Melkarth
were said to have been without images, and no
women, dogs, or swine were allowed within them.
The fire that symbolised him burnt perpetually on
his altar, and, under the form of Baal-Khammam,
the Ammon of the African Oasis, whom the Greeks
confounded with the Egyptian Amun, he was wor-
shipped as the great deity of solar heat which at
once creates and destroys. At Carthage the goddess
Tanith was his "face" or female reflection.
In early times the Sun-god was invoked as El,
200 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
“god,” or “exalted one,”¹ and El accordingly became
a separate divinity. As El Shaddai he was the
thunderer, as El Elyon "the most high god,” of whom
Melchizedek was priest. The rationalising mytho-
logy of a later day told how El, the Kronos of
Greece, was the founder of Gebal, the first of
Phoenician cities; how, armed with iron sickle and
·lance, he had driven his father Uranos (Baal-samêm)
from the throne; how, in the thirty-second year of
his reign, he had fertilised the streams by mutilating
his sire; how he had thrown his brother Atlas (Atel,
"the darkness ") into the nether abyss; and how in
the time of plague he had burnt his "only" son,
Yeud, on the altar of Uranos, and circumcised himself
and his companions. Yeud (or 'Ekhad) means "the
only one," like the Accadian Dumuzi or Tammuz,
whose name and worship had been carried to Gebal
by the first Phoenician settlers. Under the title of
Adônis (Adonai), " master," he was lamented by the
women of Byblos in the month of July, when the
Nahr Ibrahim runs red with the earth washed down
from the mountains.
The rivers themselves were worshipped, and,
addressed as Baal, were merged into the Sun-god.
Thus the Tamyras was adored as Baal-Tamar, called
by Philo Zeus Dêmarûs, the son of Uranos, who
ruled over Phoenicia in the days of El along with
¹ As Delitzsch has pointed out, el is of Accadian origin, and is not
connected with the Semitic root meaning "to be strong."
ว
111.]
201
THE PHŒNICIANS.
Astartê and Adôdos or Hadad, "the king of the
gods." The mountains, too, were Baalim, the wor-
ship of the Sun-god on a mountain-peak being
transferred to the peak itself. On the two mounts
Kasios, southward of Antioch, and again to the north
of the Sirbonian lake on the African coast, rose the
temples of Baal-Zephon, "Baal of the north;" else-
where we find Baal-Gad, "Baal of good luck," Baal
Meon, Baal Hazor, Baal Perazim, Baal-Peor. Peniel,
"the face of El," was a mountain deity, and accord-
ing to Philo, the fourth divine generation consisted
of the giants Kasios, Lebanon, and Hermon, after
whom the mountains were named. But the titles
and forms under which Baal was adored were not
yet exhausted. Sometimes he was known as Baal-
Shemesh, "the sun," sometimes as Baal-Zebub, the
oracle god of "flies," the sun being imaged as a huge
fly; at other times he was invoked by names as
manifold as the local cults and individual caprices of
the Canaanitish race. But the fact that it was
everywhere the same deity, the same force of Nature,
that was worshipped, caused the popular polytheism
to tend towards monotheism; the Baalim tended to
become Baal, symbolised by a gilded bull.
There were, indeed, other deities recognised by
the Phoenicians besides the Baalim and Ashtaroth, of
whom, however, we know but little. Among these
may be mentioned the Kabeiri, the makers of the
world, the founders of civilisation, and the inventors
202 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
of ships and medicine. They were represented as
dwarfs, the Greek word for which, Tuyμaîol, was con-
founded with the name of the Phoenician god Pugm.
The most famous of the Kabeiri was Eshmun, “the
eighth," identified by the Greeks with their Asklepios,
who carried snakes in his hands, and was restored to
life by Astronoê or Astoreth Na'amah, after he had
mutilated himself to escape her love. The Kabeiri
were originally the seven planets, and M. J. Darme-
steter has tried to show¹ that they are on the one
side the " sons of God" of Genesis, and on the other
the husbands of the Lemnian women, slain, according
to the Greek story, by their wives. It is needless to
mention other Phoenician deities, such as Sikkun and
Mut, "death," of whom we know hardly more than
the names.
The character of Phoenician religion and of the
people who held it was at once impure and cruel.
It reflected the sensualism of nature. Intoxicated
with the frenzy of nature-worship under the burning
sky of the east, the Canaanite destroyed his children,
maimed himself, or became the victim of consecrated
lust. Men and women sought to win the favour
of heaven by sodomy and prostitution, and every
woman had to begin life by public prostitution in the
temple of Astartê. This practice, indeed, was brought
from Babylonia, along with the sacrifice of the first-
born by fire; but though we may ascribe the origin
¹ Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, IV. 2 (1880).
III.]
203
THE PHŒNICIANS.
of the latter to the Accadians,-an Accadian text
stating expressly that sin may be expiated by the
vicarious sacrifice of the eldest son,—the immorality
performed in the name of religion was the invention
of the Semitic race itself.
Up to the last, customs that had originated in a
primitive period of Semitic belief survived in Phoe-
nician religion. Stones, more especially aerolites, as
well as trees, were accounted sacred. The stones,
after being consecrated by a libation of oil, were
called Baituλo, or Beth-els, "habitations of God,"
and regarded as filled with the indwelling presence
of the Deity. The Caaba at Mecca is a curious relic
of this old Semitic superstition, which is alluded to
in the Gisdhubar Epic of Chaldea, and may have
suggested the metaphor of a rock applied to the
Deity in Hebrew poetry. Prof. Robertson Smith,
again, has pointed out that numerous traces of an
early totemism lasted down into the historical period
of the Semitic race, more especially among the ruder
nomad tribes of Arabia.
Tribes were named each after its peculiar totem,-
an animal, plant, or heavenly body,-which was wor-
shipped by it and regarded as its protecting divinity.
The division between clean and unclean animals arose
out of this ancient totemism, the totem of a tribe being
forbidden to it as food, or eaten only sacramentally.
Exogamy and polyandry almost invariably accom-
pany totemism, and it is not surprising, therefore, to
204 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
:
·
find clear traces of both among the Semites. The
member of one tribe was required to marry into
another. Hence the same family with the same
totem might exist in different tribes, and the ties of
the totem-relation were stronger than those of blood.
David, for instance, belonged to the serpent-family,
as is shown by the name of his ancestor Nahshon,
and Prof. Smith suggests that the brazen serpent
found by Hezekiah in the Solomonic temple was the
symbol of it. We find David and the family of
Nahash, "or the serpent," the king of Ammon, on
friendly terms even after the deadly war between
Israel and Ammon that had resulted in the conquest
and decimation of the latter.
One result of the absorbing Baal-worship of Pho-
nicia, and the tendency to monotheism it produced,
was the rationalising of the old myths which took
place in the Greek period. Euhêmeros had his pre-
decessors in Phoenicia; in fact, it was from Phœnicia
that he probably derived the principles of his system.
In the pages of Philo Byblios the gods became men,
and the symbolic legends told of them are changed
into human actions. At the same time, with the
syncretic spirit of Phoenician art, the gods and myths
of Syria, of Egypt, and of Greece, are all fused
together along with those of Phoenicia itself. Two
systems of cosmogony are quoted from him, one of
which probably belongs to the school of Byblos, the
other that of Tyre. According to one of these, the
III.]
205
THE PHŒNICIANS.
*
wind or breath (Kolpia) brooded over the original
chaos (Baau, bohu; Assyrian, Bahu), and produced
first Desire and then Môt, the watery element which
underlies all things. Môt, in the form of an egg,
generated the universe.
Æôn and Protogenos.
Then came the first men,
Their offspring were Genos
(Cain) and Genea, who dwelt in Phoenicia and
worshipped Baal-Samêm. Next followed Phôs, Pyr,
and Phlox, the discoverers of fire; the giants Kasios,
Libanos, Anti-libanos, and Hermon; and finally
Samim-rum, "the most high," and Usôos (Esau).
Samim-rum lived in Tyre, where he built huts and
fought with Usôos, the inventor of ships and cloth-
ing made of the skins of wild beasts, who gave his
name to the city Hosah. Among their descendants
were Khusôr, the first worker in iron, and his brother
Meilikhios, the discoverer of fish-hooks, who together
invented the art of brickmaking. Afterwards came
the husbandman Agrotês, Sydyk "the righteous," the
father of the Kabeiri, and Uranos and Gê, the
children of Elyon and Bêrytos. One of the sons of
the latter was Dagon, the corn-god, and Astartê was
his sister. El, the son of Uranos, gave Byblos to
Beltis, Bêrytos to the sea-god, the Kabeiri, and the
descendants of Agrotês and Halieus; while Egypt
fell to Taautos, the Egyptian Thoth.
Art, Science, and Literature.-Phoenician art, as
has been stated, was essentially catholic. It assimi-
lated and combined the art of Babylonia, of Egypt,
206 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
·
and of Assyria, superadding, perhaps, something of
its own, and improving at the same time upon its
models. It borrowed the rosette and palm-leaf from
Babylonia, the sphinx from Egypt, the cherub from
Assyria, but gave to each a form and spirit of its
own. Its gem-cutters came to excel those of Chaldea,
its artists in bronze and stone those of Assyria,
while the sarcophagus of Eshmunezer aims at rival-
ling the massive coffins of Egypt. Its decorative art
as well as the plan of its temples can best be learned
from the construction and ornamentation of Solomon's
temple at Jerusalem. The carved gems and ivories
and bronze bowls found at Nineveh, or the treasure
discovered at Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, are
examples of Phoenician workmanship. Everywhere
we have the same combination of Assyrian and
Egyptian elements, of scenes copied now from
Egyptian paintings, now from Assyrian bas-reliefs,
sometimes mingled together, sometimes divided into
separate zones. If we may listen to M. Clermont-
Ganneau, the central medallion of the sculptured
bowls gave the first idea of money; at any rate, we
know that the bronze vessels of Phoenicia were fre-
quently broken up for the purposes of exchange.
In the early art of Greece, and above all in the
art of Kypros, we may trace the outlines and spirit
of the art of Phoenicia. We shall see hereafter,
however, that Phoenician art was but one element in
the art of primitive Greece, though it was the most
III.]
207
THE PHŒNICIANS.
important one; the other element being the art long
supposed to be peculiar to Asia Minor, but now
traceable to the Hittites. But this element was
naturally weaker on the Grecian mainland, which
owed even its alphabet to the Phoenicians, than in
the islands. A bronze plate like that recently found
at Olympia, the lowest compartment of which is
occupied by a figure of the winged Astartê, or the
pottery of Mykenæ and other prehistoric sites, are the
products of Phoenician rather than of Hellenic skill.
The so-called Korinthian or Phoeniko-Greek vases,
with their quaint animal forms and Babylonian
rosettes, belong to that transition period when
Phoenician art was passing into Greek. The patterns
upon them owe their inspiration to the embroidered
dresses for which Thêra was long famous.
earliest attempts at statuary in Greece are Assyro-
Phoenician, as may be seen from the statues dis-
covered by General di Cesnola at Golgoi in Kypros,
or the sitting figures disentombed by Mr. Newton at
Brankhida; and it seems difficult to believe that the
genius of Athens so soon transformed these stiff
models of the Orient into the marvellous creations
of a Pheidias or a Praxitelês. But the art of Homer
is still Phoenician in character; the shield of Akhillês
might have been wrought by one of the artists who
have left us the bronze bowls of Nineveh.
The
In science Phoenicia inherited the discoveries and
inventions of its neighbours. Glass, according to
208 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
Pliny, had been an invention of the Phoenicians, but
it was known to the Egyptians long before the Phœ-
nicians had emerged from their primitive barbarism.¹
In the art of navigation, however, the Phoenicians no
doubt made an independent advance. The gaulos,
with its high rounded prow and stern, the fifty-oar
galley, and "the ship of Tarshish," or merchantman,
were the oldest of their vessels, and the Byblians
were held to be the best ship-builders, the men of
Sidon and Arvad being the best rowers. It was at
Carthage that a ship with more than three banks of
oars was first built, and its pilots steered by the pole-
star, not, like the Greeks, by the Great Bear. The
Phoenician galley seems to have been the model of
the Greek one. As for medicine, a Phoenician of
Gebal was one of the most famous of oculists in the
time of the eighteenth dynasty, and even the
Egyptian doctors did not disdain to make use of his
receipts. The renown of the Phoenicians as builders
and carpenters implies their knowledge of mechanics
and the use of the lever and pulley.
But their buildings have mostly perished, and so,
too, has their literature. All that we possess are the
scanty quotations, chiefly by Jôsêphos, from the
history of Tyre by Dios and Mênander of Ephesos,
who seem to have derived it from the native annals;
references to Mokhos, Moskhos, or Okhos, who wrote
1 The earliest dated specimen of Egyptian glass bears the name of
Antef III., of the eleventh dynasty.
III.]
209
THE PHOENICIANS.
1
on Phoenician history, and is made by Strabo, on the
authority of Poseidonios, to have lived before the
Trojan War, and started the atomic theory; and,
above all, the fragments of Philo Byblius, who
flourished in the second century B.C. and professed
to have translated into Greek older works by San-
chuniathon and others on Phoenician history and
religion. Sanchuniathon (Sikkun-yitten) is said to
have been one of a series of hierophants, among
whom Thabion and Isiris may be named, and to
have lived, like Mokhos, before the war of Troy.
His works were based on the archives preserved in
the temples, a book composed by Hierombaal or
Jerubbaal in the days of Abelbaal, king of Berytos,
and the sacred scriptures of Taautos and Eshmun.
If, however, Sanchuniathon had any real existence,
he must have written but shortly before the time of
Philo himself, since the cosmogony and theology of
the latter is wholly the product of a syncretic and
rationalising age. The works of Mokhos, as well as
two other Phoenician writers, Hyksikratês and Theo-
dotos (? Sanchuniathon), are said to have been trans-
lated into Greek by a certain Khaitos. It may be
added that the Carthaginian general Mago was the
author of twenty-eight books on agriculture, turned
into Greek by Dionysios of Utica, and into Latin by
Silanus; and Hanno of an account of his voyage
along the west coast of Africa, in the course of which
he fell in with a "savage people" called gorillas.
Р
210
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
Government and Trade.-The government of the
several states was
was a monarchy tempered by an
oligarchy of wealth. The king seems to have been
but the first among a body of ruling merchant
princes and still more powerful and wealthy chiefs.
In time the monarchy disappeared altogether, its
place being supplied by suffetes or "judges," whose
term of office lasted sometimes for a year, sometimes
for more, sometimes even for life. At Carthage the
suffetes were two in number, who were merely pre-
sidents of the senate of thirty. The power of the
senate was subsequently checked by the creation of
a board of one hundred and four, chosen by self-
electing committees of five, to whom the judges,
senate, and generals were alike accountable. By
providing that no member of the board should hold
office for two years running, Hannibal changed the
government into a democracy. The colonies of
Phoenicia were permitted to manage their own affairs
so long as they paid tribute and supplied ships and
soldiers to the mother city, though their inhabitants
were allowed no rights or privileges in Phoenicia
itself. Many of them, however, were wholly inde-
pendent, governed by their own kings, and benefiting
Phoenicia only in the way of trade.
The cities of Phoenicia were, in fact, the first
trading communities the world had seen. Their
power and wealth, and even their existence, depended
on commerce. Their colonies were originally mere
III.]
211
THE PHŒNICIANS.
But the purple
The
marts, and their voyages of discovery were under-
taken in the interests of trade. The tin of Britain,
the silver of Spain, the birds of the Canaries, the
frankincense of Arabia, the pearls and ivories of
India, all flowed into their harbours.
trade was the staple of their industry. It was by
the help of the murex or purple-fish that they had
first become prosperous, and when the coasts of
Palestine could no longer supply sufficient purple for
the demands of the world, they made their way in
search of it to the coasts of Greece, of Sicily, and of
Africa. The purple manufactories of Tyre must
always have spoilt a traveller's enjoyment of the
place. Slaves, too, formed part of Phoenician traffic
from the earliest times, as also did pottery.
copper of Kypros was no doubt their attraction to
that island, and, mixed with the tin of Britain and
the Caucasus, it became the bronze for which they
were famous. In mining they excelled, and the
gold mines of Thasos, where, according to Hêrodotos,
they had "overturned a whole mountain," were
worked before the thirteenth century B.C. Their
woven and embroidered garments, dyed crimson and
violet, were sent all over the civilised world. The
weights and measures they used were borrowed from
Babylonia, and passed over to Greece along with the
ancient Accadian name of the mina or maund.¹ At
Carthage we hear of loans made from foreign states,
1 Accadian mana.
:
212
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [III.
and, along with bars of gold and silver, even of a
token-money, like our bank-notes, which had no
intrinsic value of its own. The revenues were derived
chiefly from the customs, and were largely expended
upon the mercenaries, who formed the bulk of the
army. The citizens themselves preferred to serve on
ship-board.
IV.
LYDIA.
LYDIA is the link that binds together the geography
and history of Asia and Europe. It occupied the
western extremity of that great peninsula of Asia
Minor, 750 miles in length and 400 in breadth,
which runs out from the mountains of Armenia and
divides the nations of the north from the happier
inhabitants of a southern clime. The broad plains
of the Hermos and Kayster, in which the Lydian
monarchy grew up, are the richest in Asia Minor,
and the mountain chains by which they are girdled,
while sufficiently high to protect them, form cool and
bracing sites for cities, and are rich in minerals of
various kinds. The bays of Smyrna and Ephesos
formed incomparable harbours; here the products of
the inland could be safely shipped and carried past
the bridge of islands which spans the Ægean to the
nations of the West. Asia Minor, naturally the
richest of countries and blessed with an almost infinite
diversity of climates, finds, as it were, in the ancient
territory of Lydia the summing-up of its manifold
214 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
perfections and characteristics. Rightly, therefore,
did the loamy plain of the Kayster give its name of
Asian¹ to the rest of the peninsula of which it formed
the apex. This peninsula is cut in two by the Halys,
which flows from that part of the Taurus range—the
western spur of the Armenian mountains-which
overlooks the eastern basin of the Mediterranean and
forms the background of Kilikia. This geographical
division had an influence on the ethnology of the
country. As Asia Minor was but a prolongation of
Armenia, so too, originally, its population was the
same as that which in prehistoric days inhabited the
Armenian plateau. From hence it spread westward
and southward, down the slopes of the mountains,
under the various names of Hittites, Moschi and
Tibareni, Komagenians, Kappadokians, and the like.
We may term it Proto-Armenian, and see in the
Georgians its modern representatives, though doubt-
less the Circassians and other half-extinct races,
which, before the Russian conquest, found a refuge
in the fastnesses of the Caucasus, once had their share
in populating the neighbouring regions. But a time
came when Aryan tribes forced their way along the
northern shore of the Caspian, across the Ural moun-
tains, and into the plains of Southern Russia and
Central Germany, and when some of them penetrated
yet further into the lands afterwards known as
Thrakê and Greece. From Thrakê they sailed
1 Il. ii. 461.
Iv.]
215
LYDIA.
<<
Other
across the Hellespont, and one tribe at least, the
Briges or "Free-men," occupied so large a tract of
country as to give their name to Phrygia.
tribes found their way across the Ægean from Greece
itself, and under the general title of Ionians or
emigrants" established themselves on the more
accessible parts of the western coast of Asia Minor,
where they were joined in the later days of the Dorian
conquest by other emigrants from their old home.
The older settlers intermarried with the native popu-
lation and formed in many districts a mixed race.
If we might argue from language alone, we should
infer that the Phrygians, Mysians, and Lydians were
not only Aryans, but more closely allied to the
Hellenic stock than any other members of the Aryan
family, the Lykians and possibly the Karians alone
belonging to the old population. But language can
prove no more than social contact; it can give us
but little clue to the race of the speakers; and other
facts go to show that the Phrygians alone could
claim a fairly pure Aryan ancestry, the Mysians and
Lydians being essentially mixed. But the Aryans
never passed eastward of the Halys; the Assyrian
inscriptions make it clear that as late as the seventh
century B.C. a non-Aryan population still held the
country between that river and Media. It was only
when the stream of emigration had brought the
Aryan Medes into Media, and the Aryan Persians
into Elam, that Aryans also forced their way into
216 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [iv.
Armenia, changed the Namri of the Assyrian inscrip-
tions into Aryan Kurds, and planted the colony of
the Iron or Ossetes in the Caucasus itself.
The Proto-Armenian race has left memorials of
itself in the monuments and inscriptions of Lake Van
and its neighbourhood. In the ninth century B.C. it
borrowed the characters of the Assyrian syllabary,
selecting those only which were needed to express
the sounds of its language; and the line of monarchs
that then ruled at Dhuspas, the modern Van, showed
themselves to be able administrators and good
generals. Menuas, Argistis, and Sar-duris II., all
added to the kingdom, and brought the barbarous
tribes of the north and east under their more civilised
domination. The gods they worshipped were
numerous: Khaldis the supreme god, Teisbas the
air-god, Ardinis the sun-god, and Selardis the moon-
god, standing at the head. There were, in fact, as
many Khaldises as there were local cults; and an
inscription of Isbuinis, the father of Menuas, distin-
guishes four of them by name. The dress of the
people consisted of a long fringed robe which reached
to the ankles, or of a short tunic resembling that
worn by the Greeks, over which an embroidered
cloak was sometimes thrown. The short tunic was
worn by the soldiers, whose helmets so closely
resemble those of the Greeks as to confirm the state-
ment of Hêrodotos (i. 171) that the Greeks derived
the crests that adorned them from the Karians.
A
Iv.]
217
LYDIA.
short dirk was slung in the belt, and the hands were
armed with a small round shield and a long spear.
The most peculiar part of the dress, however, were
the boots with the ends turned up, such as are still
worn by the mountaineers of Asia Minor and Greece.
They indicate the cold and hilly region in which
their inventors lived. The head was covered some-
times by a close-fitting cap, sometimes by a lofty
tiara, sometimes by the Phrygian cap; and the
double-headed axe which characterised the aboriginal
populations of Asia Minor, and gave a name to Zeus
Labrandeus, "Zeus with the double-headed axe,"
worshipped in Karia, was also used by them.
language of the Vannic inscriptions, as they are
termed, may, like Georgian, be called inflectional,
though it is neither Aryan nor Semitic. The lan-
guage revealed by the bilingual inscriptions of Lykia
is of the same character.
The
The most important branch of the Proto-Armenian
race were the Hittites, who established themselves in
the heart of the Semitic territory, and founded an
empire which contended on equal terms with Egypt,
and once extended its sway as far as the Ægean.
Its two capitals were Kadesh, on an island in the
Orontes, and Carchemish, now Jerablûs, the classical
Hierapolis, on the Euphrates, about sixteen miles
south of Birejik. A Hittite tribe even succeeded in
settling in the south of Palestine, in the neighbour-
hood of Hebron, which, like Jerusalem, would have
218 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
:
•
been a Hittite foundation if Mariette is right in
making the leaders of the Hyksos dynasties Hittites.
But the Semites gradually managed to push the
Hittites to the north, whence they had come.
Kadesh, the southern capital, fell into Syrian hands,
and before the reign of Solomon Hamath also had
ceased to belong to them. As late, however, as the
eighth century B.C. the allied tribe of Patinians
extended from the gulf of Antioch to Aleppo, where
the territory of the Hittite princes of Carchemish
and Pethor (at the junction of the Sajur and
Euphrates) commenced.¹ But the Patinians were
conquered by Tiglath - Pileser II., and the fall of
Carchemish in B.C. 717, when Sargon put its last
king, Pisiris, to death, and made it the seat of an
Assyrian satrap, marked the final victory of the
Semitic race. The Hittite empire, while it lasted,
had done much for civilisation. The Hittites
invented a system of hieroglyphic writing, suggested
doubtless by that of Egypt, and the art developed
at Carchemish was a peculiar combination and
modification of early Babylonian and Egyptian, in
which, however, the Babylonian elements much pre-
ponderated. This art, along with the accompanying
culture and writing, was carried by them into Asia
Minor, which they overran and subdued. They have
1 The district occupied by the Patinians is called in the Egyptian
Inscriptions the land of Nahraina or "the two rivers," from which
Kirgipa, the daughter of King Satarona, was brought as a gift to Thi,
the wife of Amenophis III.
IV.]
219
LYDIA.
+
left memorials of their empire there in the sculptures
of Boghaz Keui and Eyuk in Kappadokia, of Ivrîs
in Lykaonia, of Ghiaur Kalessi in Phrygia, and of
Karabel and "the Niobê" of Sipylos in Lydia. The
two figures at Karabel which Hêrodotos, after his
visit to Egypt, imagined to be those of Sesostris,
were really those of the bitterest enemies of Egypt,
and the hieroglyphics which accompanied them were
the hieroglyphics, not of Thebes, but of Carchemish.
The monuments were erected as sign-posts to the
travellers through the pass, and as witnesses that the
power which carved them was mistress of Ephesos,
of Smyrna, and of Sardes.
The date of this westward extension of the Hittite
empire may be fixed from the fifteenth to the
thirteenth centuries B.C. Though the Hittites are
mentioned in the work on Babylonian astronomy
compiled for Sargon of Agadé, they are unknown to
the Egyptian monuments till the reign of Thothmes
III. In the time of Ramses II. they are able to
summon to their aid not only the Kolkhians, but
also the Masu or Mysians and the Dardani of the
Troad, as well as the Mauna or Mæonians, and the
people of Pidasa or Pedasus, showing that at that
period their power in the extreme west was unim-
paired. But it seems to have decayed soon after-
wards, though, according to Tiglath-Pileser I. (B.C.
1130), the Hittites in his time still held possession
of Semitic Syria, garrisoning it with Kolkhian
220 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
soldiers. The legend reported by Hêrodotos which
makes the founder of the Herakleid dynasty of Lydia
the son of Ninos, and grandson of Belos, may pos-
sibly be an echo of the fact that Carchemish was
called Ninus Vetus, "the old Nineveh " (Amm.
Marcell. xiv. 8; Diod. ii. 3, 7), and that its culture
had come from the land of Bel. At all events, the
Hêraklês or Sandon who wedded Omphalê, the
daughter of Iardanos, and from whom the dynasty
derived its name, is the Babylonian sun-god, as
modified by Hittite belief, Omphalê being perhaps
the Hittite name of the Asiatic goddess.¹
There were other legends which connected Lydia
with the Euphrates; and these were supposed to
point to an Assyrian conquest of the country before
the Assyrian inscriptions themselves had told us that
the Assyrians never passed westward of the Halys,
much less knew the name of Lydia, until the age of
Assur-bani-pal. The art and culture, the deities and
rites, which Lydia owed to Babylonia were brought
by the hands of the Hittites, and bore upon them a
Hittite stamp.
It is with the Hittite period, so
strangely recovered but the other day, that Lydian
history begins. The legends of an earlier epoch
1 According to Eusebios, Sardes was first captured by Kimmerian
invaders three centuries before the first Olympiad (B. C. 1078). This
seems to embody a tradition of the invasion of the Hittites, who came
from the same locality as did the Kimmerians in later days. When
Strabo says that Lygdamis with a horde of Kimmerians made his way
to Lydia and conquered Sardes, though he himself remained in Kilikia,
it is possible that the Hittite conquest is also referred to.
Iv.]
221
LYDIA.
given by the native historian Xanthos, according to
the fragments of Nikolas of Damascus, are mere
myths and fables. The first Lydian dynasty of
Atyads was headed by Attys and the moon-god
Manes or Mên, and included geographical personages
like Lydos, Asios, and Mêlês, or such heroes of folk-
lore as Kamblêtês, who devoured his wife, and Tylôn,
the son of Omphalê, who was bitten by a snake, but
restored to life by a marvellous herb. Here and
there we come across faint reminiscences of the
Hittite supremacy and the struggle which ended in
its overthrow; Akiamos, the successor of the good
king Alkimos, sent Askalos or Kayster, the brother
of Tantalos, to conquer Syria; and Moxos (or
Mopsos) marched into the same region, where he
took Atargatis, the goddess of Carchemish, captive,
and threw her into the sacred lake. It is probable
that the Herakleidæ were at the outset the Hittite
satraps of Sardes, whose power increased as that of
the distant empire declined, and who finally made
themselves independent rulers of the Lydian plain.
According to Hêrodotos, Agrôn, called Agelaos by
Apollodorus, Kleodaios or Lamos by Diodôros, was
the first of the Herakleids, whose rule lasted for 505
years. Xanthos, however, was doubtless more correct
in making Sadyattês and Lixos the successors of
Tylon, the son of Omphalê. The dynasty ended
with Kandaulês, the twenty-second prince. Gygês,
called Gugu in the Assyrian inscriptions, Gog in the
222
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
Old Testament, who seems to have been of Karian
descent, put him to death, and established the
dynasty of the Mermnadæ about B.C. 690.¹ Gygês
extended the Lydian dominion as far as the Helles-
pont, though he was unsuccessful in his attempt to
capture the Ionic port of Old Smyrna. Towards
the middle of his reign, however, Lydia was overrun
by the Kimmerians, the Gimirrai of the Assyrian
texts, the Gomer of the Old Testament, who had
been driven from their ancient seats on the sea of
Azof by an invasion of Skythians, and thrown upon
Asia Minor by the defeat they suffered at the hands
of Esar-haddon on the northern frontier of the
Assyrian empire. The Greek colony of Sinôpê was
sacked, and the fame of the barbarian hordes pene-
trated to Hellenic lands, where the redactor of the
Odyssey, the Homer whom Theopompos and Eupho-
riôn make a contemporary of Gygês, spoke of them²
as still in the misty region of the eastern Euxine. The
lower town of Sardes itself was taken by the Kim-
merians, who were mentioned by Kallinos, the Greek
poet of Ephesos; and Gygês in his extremity turned
to the power which alone had been able to inflict
defeat on the barbarian hordes. Accordingly an
embassy was sent to Assur-bani-pal; Lydia con-
sented to become the tributary of Assyria, and
presents were made to the great king, including two
Kimmerian chieftains whom Gygês had captured
1 According to Eusebios, B. C. 698.
2 Od. xi. 12-19.
IV.]
223
LYDIA.
with his own hand. It was some time before an
interpreter could be found for the ambassadors. The
danger passed, and the Lydian king shook off his
allegiance, aiding Egypt to do the same. But
Assyria was soon avenged. Once more the Kim-
merians appeared before Sardes, Gygês was slain and
beheaded in battle after a reign of thirty-eight years,
and his son Ardys II. again submitted to be the
vassal of Sardanapallos. Upon this occasion Sardes
seems to have fallen a second time into the hands of
its enemies, an event alluded to by Kallisthenês.
Alyattês III., the grandson of Ardys, finally succeeded
in extirpating the Kimmerian scourge, as well as in
taking Smyrna, and thus providing his kingdom
with a port. Lydia rapidly progressed in power and
prosperity; its ships trafficked in all parts of the
Ægean, and its kings sent offerings to Delphi and
affected to be Greek. It remained for Krosos, how-
ever, the son of Alyattês, to carry out the policy first
planned by Gygês, and make himself suzerain of the
wealthy trading cities of Ionia. They were allowed
to retain their own institutions and government on
condition of recognising the authority of the Lydian
monarch, and paying customs and dues to the
imperial exchequer. With the commerce of Ionia
and the native treasures of Lydia alike at his com-
mand, Krosos became the richest monarch of his
age. He reigned alone only fifteen years, but he
seems to have shared the royal power for several
224 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
1
The
years previously with his father. All the nations of
Asia Minor as far as the Halys owned his sway.
He was on friendly terms with the states of Greece,
with Babylonia, and with Media. In fact, Astyagês
of Media was his brother-in-law, his sister Aryênis
having been married to Astyagês in order to cement
the treaty between Alyattês and Kyaxarês, brought
about (in B.C. 585), after six years of fighting, by the
kindly offices of the Babylonian king, and the inter-
vention of the eclipse foretold by Thalês.
Lydian empire, however, did not long survive the fall
of the Median empire. Kyros and Krosos met in
battle on the banks of the Halys about B.C. 540,1
and though the engagement was indecisive it was
followed by a winter campaign of the Persians,
which resulted in the defeat of the Lydians before
they could summon their allies to their aid, and the
capture of Sardes and its citadel. The vulnerable.
spot was believed to be where the legendary monarch
Mêlês had failed to carry the lion, which was a
symbol alike of Hittite and of Lydian power; but it
was really the path made by one of those ever-
recurring landslips which have reduced the crumbling
sandstone cliff of the Acropolis to a mere shell, and
threaten in a few years to obliterate all traces of the
ancient citadel of the Lydian kings.
Religion and Mythology.-The religion of Lydia,
¹ Eusebios makes it B. C. 546, but this is probably a few years too
soon.
IV.]
225
LYDIA.
as of the rest of Asia Minor, was profoundly in-
fluenced by that of Babylonia after the modification
it had undergone at Carchemish. The Hittites had
received the religious conceptions of Chaldea, along
with the germs of art and culture, before the rise of
Assyria; it is Babylonia, therefore, and not Assyria,
that explains them. The Babylonian Nana became
the goddess of Carchemish, where in the days of
Semitic ascendency she was known as Atargatis and
Derketo. The Babylonian sun - god passed into
Sandôn of Kilikia and Lydia, the Baal-Tars or Baal
of Tarsos of the Aramaic coins. Even the Chaldean
story of the Deluge was transplanted to "the sacred
city" of Carchemish, the ship becoming an ark,
Xisuthros Sisythês, and the mountain of Nizir a
pool in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates. From
hence the legend was passed on to Apamea, and
possibly other towns of Asia Minor as well.
The form and worship of Atargatis were similarly
carried westward. The terra-cotta images of Nana,
which represent the goddess as nude, with the hands
upon the breast, may be traced through Asia Minor
into the islands of the Ægean, and even into Greece
itself. Dr. Schliemann has found them at Hissarlik,
where the "owl-headed vases are adorned with
representations of the same goddess, and they occur
plentifully in Kypros. At Carchemish they under-
went two different modifications. Sometimes the
goddess was provided with a conical cap and four
"}
Q
226 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
At
wings, which branched out behind the back; some-
times she was robed in a long garment, with the
modius or mural crown upon the head. Terra-cotta
statues of her, discovered by Major di Cesnola in
Cyprus, set under the mural crown a row of eagles,
like the double-headed eagle which appears in the
Hittite sculptures at Boghaz Keui and Eyuk.
times the mural crown becomes the polos, as in the
images disinterred at Mykenæ and Tanagra; at
other times the body of the deity takes the shape of
a cone, or rather of the aerolite which symbolised
her at Troy, at Ephesos, and elsewhere, while the
surface is thickly covered with breasts. It was under
this latter form, and with the mural crown upon the
head, that the Hittite settlers in Ephesos represented
the divinity they had brought with them. Here the
bee was sacred to her, and her priestesses were called
"bees," while the chief priest was eσonv, "the king
bee." The bee is similarly employed on Hittite
gems, and a gem found near Aleppo represents
Atargatis standing on the insect.
The Hittite priestesses who accompanied the
worship of the goddess as it spread through Asia
Minor were known to Greek legend as Amazons.
The cities founded by Amazons-Ephesos, Smyrna,
Kymê, Myrina, Priênê, Pitanê-were all of Hittite
origin. In early art the Amazons are robed in
Hittite costume and armed with the double-headed
axe, and the dances they performed with shield and
IV.]
227
LYDIA.
bow in honour of the goddess of war and love gave
rise to the myths which saw in them a nation of
woman-warriors. The Thermôdôn, on whose banks
the poets placed them, was in the neighbourhood of
the Hittite monuments of Boghaz Keui and Eyuk,
and at Komana in Kappadokia the goddess Ma was
served by 6000 ministers.
By the side of Atargatis or Ma, the Ephesian
Artemis, called also Kybelê, Kybêbê, and Amma,
stood the sun-god Attys or Agdistis, at once the son
and bridegroom of the "great goddess" of Asia.
Among the Phrygians he was named Papas or
"father," and invoked as "the shepherd of the bright
stars," a title which reminds us of the Accadian
name of the star Arcturus. Attys was symbolised
by the fir-tree into which he had been changed after
mutilating himself to avoid the love of Kybelê. He
is, in fact, the Semitic Adônis; or rather, just as the
old Hittite goddess assumed the attributes and
functions of the Babylonian Nana, so, too, Attys
took upon him the character of Tammuz or Adônis.
The rites with which Istar and Tammuz had been
worshipped at Babylon were transferred first to
Carchemish and then to Asia Minor. The prostitu
tion by which Atargatis was honoured was paralleled
by the mutilation and self-torture practised in the
name of Attys. His untimely death was mourned
by women like the death of Tammuz, and his galli
or priests were all eunuchs. At Pessinus, where each
228 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
was termed an Attys, the chief priest had the title
of archigallos.
But underneath these imported religious concep-
tions and rites lay the old nature-worship of the
natives of Armenia and Asia Minor.
The frenzy
that marked the cult of Attys or of Zeus Sabazios
in Phrygia, the wild dances, the wanderings in the
pine-woods, the use of cymbals and tambourines, the
invention of which was ascribed to Asia Minor, were
all of older date than the period of Babylonian and
Semitic influence. The story of Apollo and the
Phrygian flute - player Marsyas, the follower of
Kybelê, may imply that the Aryan occupation of
Phrygia exorcised the wild and exciting spirit of the
native music and of the worship to which it was
consecrated, At any rate, as the language of the
Phrygian inscriptions proves, the non-Aryan element
in the population of that part of Asia Minor was
reduced to insignificance, and the supreme god of
the country became the Aryan Bagaios.
The close connection between Phrygia and Hellas
is shown by the early mythology of Greece. Phry-
gian heroes like Gordios and Midas form as integral
a part of Greek story as do the heroes and poets of
Thrakê. It is different with those other lands of
Asia Minor which enter into Greek legend. The
plain of Troy was rendered famous by the struggles
made by the Akhæan fugitives from the Dorian
invasion of the Peloponnesos to gain a foothold in
IV.]
229
LYDIA.
Æolis; the immemorial story of the storming of the
sky by the bright powers of day, which had been
localised in Thebes, where Greeks and Phoenicians
had contended for possession, being again localised
by Akhæan poets in the land of their adoption.
Sarpêdôn, the Lykian hero, was celebrated in Ionic
song, because Apollo Lykios, "the god of light,” had
been associated with the eastern hills behind which
the light-bringing sun-god rose each morning for the
Hellenic settlers on the coast; and the tales that
grew around the names of Tantalos and Pelops
enshrined a real tradition of the day when Hittite
culture and Lydian wealth came to the feudal lords
of Mykênæ from the golden sands of the Paktôlos.
Art and Literature.-Hittite art was a modifica-
tion of the art of early Babylonia, though the sphinxes
at Eyuk, the Hittite form of the feroher or winged
solar disk, and the scarabs found in the neighbour-
hood of Aleppo, show that Egypt had also exercised
an influence upon it. It was characterised by
solidity, roundness, and work in relief. The mural
crown was a Hittite invention, and the animal forms,
in which the Hittite artists specially excelled, were
frequently combined to form composite creatures,
among which may be mentioned the double-headed
eagle, afterwards adopted by the Seljukian sultans,
and carried by the crusaders to the German states.
This Hittite art is the source of the peculiar art of
Asia Minor, which forms a well-marked element in
230 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
that of primitive Greece. The famous sculpture at
Mykênæ, over the gate to which it has given its
name, finds its analogue in a similar heraldic sculpture
above a rock-tomb at Kumbet, in the valley of the
Sangarios; and the tombs of Midas and other Phry-
gian kings in the same spot exhibit the architectural
devices, the key pattern, and other kinds of orna-
mentation which we meet with in the early art of
Greece. An archaic lion's head from Sardes, built
into a wall at Akhmetlü, forms a link between the
lions of Hittite sculpture on the one side, and the
lions found among the ruins of Mykênæ on the
other. The lentoid gems, again, discovered in the
islands of the Archipelago, in Krete, at the Heræon
of Argos, and on other prehistoric sites, are all closely
allied in artistic style to the Hittite carved stones
which owe their inspiration to the archaic gems of
Babylonia. Still more nearly Hittite in character
are the engraved cylinders and seals of chalcedony,
and similar stones, brought from Kypros and from
Lydia itself. Long supposed to be rude imitations
of Phoenician workmanship, they now turn out to be
engraved after Hittite models. They were, indeed,
ultimately derived from the art of Babylonia, but
through the northern, and not through the southern,
channel. It is possible that the gold chatons of
rings engraved in imitation of archaic Babylonian
patterns, and found by Dr. Schliemann at Mykênæ,
may have made their way into Argolis, not directly
IV.]
231
LYDIA.
from the Babylonians at the time when Sargon of
Agadê carried his arms as far as Kypros, but through
the intervention of the Hittites, since the double-
headed battle-axe of Asia Minor is introduced upon
one of them, and a row of animals' heads in true
Hittite style appears upon the other.
Greek tradition remembered that Karians as well
as Phoenicians had brought the West the culture of
the East. Karian tombs were discovered in Delos
when the island was purified by the Athenians
during the Peloponnesian War.¹ The Greek helmet,
a Karian gift, may be ultimately traced back to the
warriors of Armenia, and the emblems of the shield
to which Herodotos ascribes a Karian origin were
possibly at the outset the hieroglyphics of Hittite
writing. Dr. Köhler once wished to see in the rock-
tombs of Spata (perhaps the Attic deme of Sphêttos),
the resting-places of Karian dead; and though the
discovery of similar remains in Rhodes, in the tomb
of Menidi in Attica, at Mykênæ, and elsewhere,
shows that the sepulchres themselves belonged to
Greek natives, and that their contents mostly exhibit
Phoenician influence and trade, yet there are certain
objects like an ivory human head crowned with the
Hittite tiara which refer us unmistakably to Asia
Minor. The butterfly which occurs so plentifully
at Mykênæ, and of which specimens, conventionally
treated, may be seen on the glass ornaments of
1 In the winter of B.C. 426. Thuk. i. 8, iii. 104.
232 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
Menidi,¹ came more probably from Asia Minor than
from Phoenicia. On the other hand, the gold masks
with which the faces of the dead were covered seem
to be of Phoenician derivation, since they were sug-
gested by the gilded mummy faces of the Egyptians,
who sometimes used gold masks besides, as is evi-
denced by the golden mask of Prince Kha-em-Uas
of the eighteenth dynasty, now in the Louvre; while
the corpse of a child covered with a mask of gold
has been disinterred at Arvad.
Silver was the metal which more especially
attracted the Hittites. Their monuments in Asia
Minor are chiefly in the neighbourhood of silver
mines, which they were the first to work. The
Hittite copy of the treaty with Ramses II. was
accompanied by a plate of silver, with a likeness of
the god Sutekh in the middle, and an inscription
running round it. A similar circular plate has been
found, which apparently covered the handle of a dirk,
with a figure of a king in the centre, a Hittite inscrip-
tion twice repeated on either side, and a cuneiform
legend running round the rim. These circular silver
disks, with an image in the middle, and an inscrip-
tion surrounding it, very probably suggested the idea
of coined money, which was primarily of silver, and
the invention of which was ascribed to the Lydians.
The practice of using silver as a writing material
seems to have been general among the Hittite tribes.
1 See "Das Kuppelgrab bei Menidi” (1880), pl. iv. 12.
1
Iv.]
233
LYDIA.
M. Renan has found niches cut in the rocks of
Syria which would fit the written silver-plates of the
Hittites as depicted on the monuments of Egypt,
and the Hittite hieroglyphics are always carved in
relief, even when the material is hard stone.
There hieroglyphics were of native invention,
though probably suggested by the sight of Egyptian
writing. The Egyptian monuments speak of Khilip-
sira, "the writer of books of the vile Kheta," and
Kirjath-sepher, or "book town," was one of their
settlements in Southern Palestine. They carried
their writing with them into the furthest extremity
of Asia Minor-one of the pseudo-Sesostres in the
pass of Karabel having a Hittite inscription still
legible upon it; and out of it, apparently, was formed
a syllabary, which we may term Asianic. This
syllabary was in use throughout Asia Minor before
the introduction of the simpler Phoenician alphabet,
and a local branch of it was employed in conservative
Kypros as late as the fourth or third century B.C.
Elsewhere we find it only on objects discovered by
Dr. Schliemann in the lower strata of Hissarlik,
though certain characters belonging to it were re-
tained in historical times in the various Asianic
alphabets-Kappadokian, Mysian, Lydian, Lykian,
Karian, Pamphylian, and Kilikian-to express sounds
not represented by the letters of the Ionic alphabet.
As the latter alphabet still contained the digamma
when it superseded the older syllabary, its adoption
234 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [Iv.
could not have been later than the middle of the
seventh century B.C.
Lydian literature has wholly perished, though the
fragments of the native historian, Xanthos, prove
that annals had been kept for some generations at
least previous to the accession of the Mermnadæ;
and we may infer from the Babylonian character
and colouring of the earliest Ionic philosophies that
Lydian writers had already made the philosophic
ideas of the far East familiar to their countrymen.
Trade.-Lydia was essentially a trading com-
munity. But just as the complexion of the Baby-
lonian culture brought by the Hittites to the West
differed from that brought by the Phoenicians in
being carried overland by conquerors, and in there-
fore being more penetrating and permanent, so too
the industrial character of the Lydians differed from
that of the Phoenicians. Their trade was an inland,
not a maritime one. Sardes was the meeting-place
of the caravans that journeyed from the interior along
the two high-roads constructed by the Hittites,—the
one traversed by Krosos when he marched against
Kyros, and leading by Ghiaur-Kalessi and Ancyra
to Boghaz Keui; the other, afterwards used by
Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, which ran south-
wards through Lykaonia and Ikonion, and after pass-
ing through the Kilikian Gates, joined the thorough-
fare from Carchemish to Antioch and the bay of
Scanderûn. Unlike Phoenicia, moreover, Lydia was
IV.]
235
LYDIA.
rich in its own resources. Gold, emery, and other
minerals were dug out of its mountains; its plains
were luxuriant beyond description; its hill-sides
clothed with thick forests. The policy of the Merm-
nada was to make their state the industrial centre
of East and West. The conquest of the Ionian
cities which had succeeded to the commercial empire
of the Phoenicians threw into their hands the trade
of the Mediterranean, and Abydos was occupied by
Gygês in order to command the entrance to the
cornlands of the Euxine. Pamphaês of Ephesos was
the banker of Krosos, and money was coined for the
first time by the Lydian kings. The standard, as
Mr. Barclay Head has shown, was the silver “mina
of Carchemish," as the Assyrians called it, the
Babylonian, as it was termed by the Greeks, which
contained 8656 grains. This standard, originally
derived by the Hittites from Babylonia, but modified
by themselves, was passed on to the nations of Asia
Minor during the epoch of Hittite conquest, and
from them was received by Pheidon of Argos and
the Greeks. The standard, it will be observed, was
a silver, and not a gold one, silver being the favourite
Hittite metal. Six small silver bars, each originally
weighing the third part of the "Babylonian" mina,
were discovered by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, and
the standard was that according to which the electron
coins of Gygês were struck. Little by little, how-
ever, it was superseded by the heavier Phoenician
236 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [IV.
mina of 11,225 grains, also, no doubt, primitively of
Babylonian origin. Thrakê, Lydia, and the western
and southern coast of Asia Minor, all adopted the
new standard, and it was only in conservative Kypros
and on the neighbouring shores of Kilikia that the old
mina remained in use down to the age of Alexander
the Great.
V.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
PERSIA proper, roughly corresponding to the modern
province of Farsistan, was comparatively a small
district, about 450 miles in length by 250 in breadth.
Eastward it touched on Kermân or Karamania,
westward it was bounded by Susiana, southward by
the Persian Gulf. Its inhabitants were Aryans,
whose immigration into the country called after their
name was hardly earlier than the period of the fall
of the first Assyrian empire. The Assyrian inscrip-
Under leaders termed
tions know little about them.
Akhæmenians (from Hakhámanish, "the friendly")
the tribe of the Persians pushed its way into the old
kingdom of Anzan, or Southern Elam, which had
been destroyed and desolated by the armies of Assur-
bani-pal, and subsequently left a prey to the first
invader by the decay of the Assyrian power. The
tribe was but one out of many which had long been
steadily advancing westward from the regions of the
Hindu Kush. The first great wave of Aryan emigra-
tion, which had resulted in the establishment of the
238 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
<<
European nations, had been followed by another
wave which first carried the Hindus into the Punjab,
and then the Iranian populations into the vast
districts of Baktria and Ariana. Mountains and
deserts checked for a time their further progress, but
at length a number of tribes, each under its own
chiefs, crept along the southern shores of the Caspian
or the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. These
tribes were known in later history as the Aryan
Medes and Persians.
The Medes are first mentioned on the Assyrian
monuments by Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 840) under the
double name of Amadai and Matai, and placed in
Matiênê. Between them and the Namri of Kurdistan
intervened the people of Par'suas, with their twenty-
seven kings, who occupied the south-western shore
of Lake Urumiyeh. But it is doubtful whether these
Matai were really the Aryan Medes and not rather
Protomedes," allied in race and language to the
Kossæans and Elamites, and more distantly to the
Accadians of primæval Babylonia.
the name seems derived from the Accadian mada,
"country," a title appropriately given to the country
where the "mountain of the world" was situated,
and which was held to be the cradle of the Accadian
race; while the name of Khanatsiruka, who ruled
over the Matai in B.C. 820, certainly has not an
Aryan sound. Most of the Median districts on the
southern and south-western shores of the Caspian
-
At any rate
v.]
239
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
enumerated by Tiglath-Pileser II. have non-Aryan
names, and the Median chieftains with such Aryan
names as Pharnes, Ariya, and Vastakku, who are
mentioned by Sargon (in B.C. 713), belonged to the
extreme east. In fact the district of Partakanu,
which represents the Median Parêtakêni of Hêrodotos,
is recorded last in Sargon's list; and Esar-haddon,
who divides it into the two provinces of Partakka
and Partukka, describes it as the furthest place east
in the known world. The other Median tribes of
Hêrodotos were still unknown to the Assyrian kings.
With the fall of the Assyrian empire, however,
came a change. The scattered tribes of præ-Aryan
Media were united under a single monarchy by
Kastarit or Kyaxarês. Hitherto they had been
divided into a multitude of small states, each governed
independently by its own chief, or "city lord,” as he
is termed by Esar-haddon. Kyaxarês, according to
Hêrodotos, was the descendant of Dêiokês, the
builder of Ekbatana, a name which appears as
Daiukku in the Assyrian records. One Daiukku, a
chief of the Minni (on the western shore of Lake
Urumiyeh) under their king Ullusun, was transported
to Hamath by Sargon in 715 B.C., and two or three
years later the Assyrian monarch made an expedition
to the three adjoining districts of Ellibi, Karalla,
and Bit-Daiukku, "the house of Dêiokês.” Ellibi
lay on the eastern frontier of Kurdistan, and included
the land of Aranzi—a name preserved in the Orontes
240 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
mountains of classical geography, the Urvanda of the
old Persians-where Ekbatana was afterwards
founded. Karalla intervened between the northern
boundary of Ellibi and the south-eastern shores of
Lake Urumiyeh. It is just possible that the Median
kings of Ktêsias, Astibaras, and Artaios, may re-
present (Rita or) Dalta, who was placed on the
throne of Ellibi by Sargon in B.C. 709, and his son,
Ispabara, who came into conflict with Sennacherib.
However this may be, Kastarit was king of that part
only of Media in which the city of Caru-kassi was
situated, his ally Mamiti-arsu having the general title
city lord of the Medes." Along with the Minni,
the people of 'Saparda or Sepharad-a small district.
on the east of Ellibi—and the Kimmerians, the two
allies attacked and overthrew the Assyrian power.
Kastarit now seems to have turned
seems to have turned against his
friends, and to have gradually extended his sway
over the whole region vaguely known as Armenia
and Western Media. Peace was established between
him and Alyattês of Lydia in B.C. 585 through the
kindly offices of his ally Nebuchadrezzar, and the
Halys made the boundary of the Median and Lydian
empires. Under the shadow of Mount Urvanda or
Elwend, Agamtanu or Ekbatana (now Hamadan)
was founded in imitation of the new Babylon
Nebuchadrezzer had built. The kingdom of Ek-
batana usurped the name of Media, partly owing to
the Median conquests of Kyaxarês, partly in con-
v.]
241
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
sequence of a confusion of words.
Istuvegu or
Astyagês, the successor of Kyaxarês, is never styled
king of Media in the contemporaneous Babylonian
inscriptions of Nabonidos and Kyros. He is, on the
contrary, king of "the barbarians" or tsab manda;
manda being a term of general meaning applied by
Esar-haddon to the Kimmerians and in older
documents to the Kurdish tribes. The Mada or
Medes, on the other hand, were the heterogeneous
populations east of Kurdistan. But the Persian
writers and the Greeks who followed them must
have confused the two words together and changed
the king of "the barbarians" into the king of
"Medes." The whole passage in the cylinder-
inscription of Nabonidos, which gives to Astyagês
the title of king of the barbarians, is worth quoting.
Nabonidos first states that the "temple of Rejoicing,"
the shrine of the Moon-god at Harran, had been
destroyed by the tsab manda, or "barbarian host,"
when they captured and ruined the city. Then he
goes on to say: "At the beginning of my long
reign, Merodach, the great lord, and Sin, the illumin-
ator of heaven and earth, the strengthener of the
universe, revealed to me a dream.
Merodach says
to me: 'O Nabonidos, king of Babylon, go up with
the horse of thy chariot; make bricks for the Temple
of Rejoicing, and place within it the seat of Sin, the
great lord.'
Reverently I say to Merodach supreme
among the gods: 'I will build this temple whereof
R
242
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
thou speakest. The barbarians went about it, and
their forces were terrible.' Merodach answered me:
'The barbarians of whom thou hast spoken shall not
exist, neither they nor their land, nor the kings their
allies.' In the third year when it came, when (the
barbarians) had caused Kyros, the king of Anzan,
his young servant, to march with his army, they
provoked him (to battle): the widespread barbarians
he overthrew; he captured Astyagês, king of the
barbarians, and seized his treasures; to his own
land he took (them)." After this Nabonidos carried
out the will of the gods. His "vast army
vast army" was
summoned from Gaza on the one side, to the Persian
Gulf on the other, and set to work to restore the
temple of Harran, which had been built three cen-
turies previously by the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser
II., and subsequently repaired by Assur-bani-pal.
On his own cylinder, Kyros, "king of Anzan,"
similarly declares that Merodach had made the
Kurds of Gutium and the Manda or barbarians
"bow down before his feet.”
Kyaxarês was succeeded by his son Istuvegu, the
Astyagês of the Greek writers, whom later Persian
legend confounded with the tyrant Zohak or Azhi-
dahâka, "the biting snake" of night and darkness,
celebrated in ancient Aryan mythology. The
classical historians connected him by marriage with
his conqueror Kyros, but the recent discovery of
contemporaneous records has proved their accounts
v.]
243
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
to be so largely mixed with fable that it becomes
unsafe to accept any statement not supported by
monumental authority. Kyros was the son of
Kambysês, the son of Kyros, the son of Teispês,
who had been the first to establish the Persian rule
in Anzan or Western Elam, which extended from
the district of Susa in the north to the Persian Gulf
in the south.¹
Dareios, the son of Hystaspês, who
traces his descent through Arsamês and Ariaramnês
to Teispês, the son of Akhæmenês, probably refers to
the same Teispês, and would therefore be justified in
his claim to be of the royal race. It is even possible
that while Kyros I. and Kambysês I. were ruling in
Anzan, Ariaramnês and Arsamês governed the more
unmixed Aryan part of the population in Persis.
At any rate Dareios declares that eight of his race
had been kings before him; and while his own
ancestors all bear thoroughly Aryan names, the
names Kyros and Kambysês seem to be of Elamite
derivation. Strabo,2 indeed, says that Kyros was
originally called Agradates, and took the name
of Kurus or Kuras from the river that flows past
Pasargada; while Nikolaus Damascenus, doubtless
quoting Ktêsias, made him the son of the peasant
¹ Sir H. Rawlinson has pointed out that the learned Arabic writer,
Ibn en-Nadim, "who had unusually good means of information as to
genuine Persian traditions," ascribes the invention of Persian writing to
Jemshid, the son of Vivenghan, who dwelt at Assan, one of the districts
of Shushan (Jrl. R. A. S. xii. 1, Jan. 1880).
2 xv. 3.
244 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
Atradates, the Mitradates of Hêrodotos, whom he
calls an Amardian. The Amardians, it must be
remembered, were an Elamite tribe bordering upon
the Persians and intervening between them and the
Susians, whose dialects closely resembled their own.
They seem to be the Khapirti or Apirti of the
inscriptions, who inhabited the plain of Mal-Amir.
It was in B.C. 549 that Astyagês was overthrown.
On his march against Kyros his own soldiers, drawn
probably from his Aryan subjects, revolted against
him and gave him into the hands of his enemy.
"The land of Ekbatana and the royal city" were
ravaged and plundered by the conqueror; the
Aryan Medes at once acknowledged the supremacy
of Kyros, and the empire of Kyaxarês was destroyed.
Some time, however, was still needed to complete
the conquest; the older Medic population still held
out in the more distant regions of the empire, and
probably received encouragement and promises of
help from Babylonia. In B.C. 546, however, Kyros
marched from Arbêla, crossed the Tigris, and
destroyed the last relics of Median independence.
It was on this occasion that he must have captured
Larissa or Resen and Mespila or Muspilu, near the
site of Nineveh, whose ruins were seen by Xenophon
(Anab. iii. 4). The daughter of Astyagês had taken
refuge in Mespila, which was strongly fortified. The
following year saw the opening of the campaign
against Babylonia. But the Babylonian army, en-
v.]
245
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
camped near Sippara, formed a barrier which the
Persians were unable to overcome; and trusting,
therefore, to undermine the power of Nabonidos by
secret intrigues with his subjects, Kyros proceeded
against Krosos. A single campaign sufficed to
capture Sardes and its monarch, and to add Asia
Minor to the Persian dominions. The Persian
conqueror was now free to attack Babylonia.
Here his intrigues were already bearing fruit.
The Jewish exiles were anxiously expecting him to
redeem them from captivity, and the tribes on the
sea coast were ready to welcome a new master. In
B.C. 538 the blow was struck. The Persian army
entered Babylonia from the south. The army of
Nabonidos was defeated at Rata in June; on the
14th of that month Sippara opened its gates, and
two days later Gobryas, the Persian general, marched
into Babylon itself "without battle and fighting.
The elaborate fortifications of the queen-mother had
been in vain; traitors had worked on the side of the
invader. In October Kyros himself entered his new
capital in triumph; priests and scribes alike strove
to do him honour, and to account him as one of
their native kings. The fall of Nabonidos was
attributed to his neglect of the gods, and the politic
Kyros did his best to encourage the illusion by
professing, along with his son Kambysês, to be a
zealous worshipper of the Babylonian deities. Their
images were restored to their shrines with great
}
246 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[v.
*
}
state, the Persian monarch and his heir-apparent
taking part in the solemn processions, and the new
sovereign styled himself, like his predecessors, “the
worshipper" and "servant" of Bel-Merodach and
Nebo. It is probable that the ruler of Western
Elam had always been a polytheist. Zoroastrian
monotheism was first made the state-religion by
Darius Hystaspis, who represented a more genuinely
Aryan stock than the collateral family of Kyros.
The excesses of Kambysês in Egypt were dictated
not by religious fanaticism, but by political suspicion,
as is proved by the inscriptions in which he avows
his adherence to the old Egyptian creed. The stelê
which commemorates the death of the Apis bull,
said by Herodotos to have been slain by Kambysês,
shows that, on the contrary, it had died a natural
death, had been buried under his auspices, and had
monumental authority for accounting him one of its
worshippers.
The fall of Babylon brought with it the submission
of the tributary kings, including those of Phoenicia.
If we may listen to Greek legend, Kyros fell in
battle with the wild Skythian tribes of the north-east.
But the same myths that grew up around his birth
and early history seem also to have gathered round
his death. Just as Persian ballads fastened upon
him the old story of the solar hero who is exposed
to death in infancy, and after being saved by miracle,
and brought up in obscurity, is finally discovered
v.]
247
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
and restored to his high estate, so too the old lesson
of the punishment of human pride and greatness
was taught by the legend of his death. The
woman-warrior Tomyris was made to quell the great
conqueror, and to throw his head into the bowl of
human blood where he might drink his fill.
Before his death Kyros had made his son
Kambysês king of Babylon, reserving for himself the
supreme title, "king of the world." His death
occurred in B.C. 529, at least two years afterwards.
The first act of Kambysês, as sole ruler, was to
murder his brother Bardes, the Smerdis of Hêrodotos,
to whom his father had bequeathed a portion of the
empire. Then followed the invasion and conquest
of Egypt, and the distant expeditions against
Ethiopia and the Oasis of Ammon. The long
absence of the monarch and the army soon pro-
duced its inevitable consequences. The loosely-
cemented empire began to fall to pieces. The
revolt was headed by the Medic tribe of Magians.
The Magian Gomates personated the murdered
Bardes, and seized the throne. He represented the
non-Aryan portion of the population, which viewed
with jealousy the increasing influence of the Aryan
element. Kambysês, like Kyros, it is true, had not
been a Zoroastrian, and the personator of his brother
could thus overthrow the altars and temples of
Zoroastrianism without imperilling his imposture ;
but he had countenanced and probably favoured it.
248 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[v.
During his absence the government had been in the
hands of the great Aryan families, who traced their
descent from the royal clan of Akhæmenês, and these
families were all Zoroastrian. Hence in the Magian
usurpation we see at once a political and a religious
revolt. It was directed against Aryan supremacy
and the worship of Ormazd, the supreme deity of
the Zoroastrian creed, and it was at the same time a
signal for the different nationalities which composed
the empire of Kyros to recover their independence.
Before it could be crushed Kambysês committed
suicide, after reigning eleven years as king of
Babylon, and about eight years as sole monarch.
The reign of Gomates did not last a year. Da-
reios the son of Hystaspês, with six other Persian
nobles, overthrew the usurper and slew him in Nisaa
in Media, where he had taken refuge among his
clansmen (B.C. 521). Zoroastrianism was made the
religion of the empire; the temples of Ormazd,
which Gomates had destroyed, were restored; and
the Aryan families of Persia and Media were brought
back from exile. If we may trust Dr. Oppert's
rendering of a passage in the "Protomedic" tran-
script of the great Behistun Inscription, where Da-
reios records the deeds and successes of his life, the
Avesta or sacred book of Zoroastrianism, along with
its commentary, was republished and promulgated
throughout the empire.
The flight of Gomates was the signal for the
v.]
249
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
massacre of all his followers and tribesmen who
were left in Persia. The Magophonia long continued
to be a popular festival in Persia, when it was unsafe
for a Magian to venture out of doors. But the
spirit of revolt was by no means extinguished. Im-
mediately after the death of the pseudo- Bardes,
Susiana and Babylonia alike shook off the Persian
yoke. Under the leadership of Assina the Susians
claimed again the freedom which Teispês had taken
from them, and the extinction of the family of Kyros
seemed a favourable opportunity for recovering it.
Babylon revolted under Nidintabel, who called him-
self "Nebuchadrezzar the son of Nabonidos," the
last Babylonian king. But the Susian rebellion was
soon put down. Babylon took longer to reduce.
After defeating Nidintabel at Zazana, Dareios laid
siege to the city. It was taken June B.C. 519 after
a blockade of nearly two years, the Persians pene-
trating into the city during a festival by marching
along the dry channel of the Euphrates. By this
time, however, the non-Aryan population of Media
was in revolt under Phraortês, who called himself
Sattarritta or Kyaxarês, the descendant of Vakistarra.
Battle after battle was fought in Armenia by the
Persian generals; until at last Phraortês was captured
in Rhage and impaled. It was the last struggle for
independence; from this time forward the older
population acknowledged the supremacy of the Aryan
intruders, and became merged in the latter. Hence-
250 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
forth by Medians are meant the Aryan kindred of
the Persians themselves.
It cost Dareios some trouble yet to reconquer the
empire of Kyros. A second revolt, promptly sup-
pressed, took place among the Susians, and a second
one also among the Babylonians. This time it was
an Armenian who professed to be Nebuchadrezzar
the son of Nabonidos, but his career was soon closed
by the capture of Babylon in B.C. 513. The Sagar-
tians arose in unsuccessful insurrection under a leader
who claimed to be a descendant of the Median Va-
kistarra, a proof that the Median empire had once
included Sagartia. As the Parthians and Hyr-
kanians had followed Phraortês, we may perhaps
infer that Parthia and Hyrkania also had formed
part of the old Median monarchy. A second pseudo-
Bardes also had to be crushed; he was a native of
Tarava, the modern Tarun in Luristan, but, though
born in Aryan territory, was followed not by Persians,
but by Susianians. He, too, was defeated and slain
in Arachosia. Margiana, moreover, had risen in
revolt; but as unsuccessfully as the other provinces
of the empire. Dareios was at last free to organise
and settle what he had won back with so much
difficulty and labour.
In the work of organisation Dareios proved him-
self a master. The empire was made a homogeneous
whole, with its centre at Susa or Shushan. For the
first time in history centralisation becomes a political
v.]
251
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
fact. The king was the source of all authority and
all dignities; every subject was equal before the
throne, which was the fountain of law. It is true
that a council, consisting of the seven leading families
and a hereditary sub-nobility, sat without the will of
the king; but this relic of a period when Persia had
not yet become an empire had neither power nor
influence against the bureaucracy which managed
the government, and even the great king himself.
The government of Persia became what the govern-
ment of Turkey has been of late years—a highly
centralised bureaucracy, the members of which owed
their offices to an irresponsible despot. The cen-
tralisation of Persia stands in marked contrast to
the decentralisation of Greece, as well as of the
Aryan Medes themselves before the rise of the
Median monarchy. The empire was divided into
at least twenty satrapies, communication being kept
up between them by roads and posts which all met
in Susa. Each satrap was responsible for a fixed
tribute of from 170 to 1000 Euboic silver talents
(£42,000 to £250,000), out of which the civil and
military officers, the army, and the satrap himself,
were paid. It was of course the interest of the
crown to prevent the provinces from being exhausted
by additional taxation, but the satrap generally
managed to squeeze a good deal more than the fixed
1
1 Dareios mentions twenty-three at Behistun, twenty-nine on his
tomb at Naksh-i-Rustám.
252 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
tribute out of his subjects. The satraps were like
small kings; indeed their official residences were
called palaces, and in some cases, as for example in
Kilikia, the native princes were allowed to hold rule.
The danger to the Government caused by the power
of the satrap and his distance from the central
authority was diminished in several ways. Royal
scribes or secretaries were employed to send up
reports of the satraps and their actions to the king,
and from time to time an officer came down from
the court with an armed force to inspect a province.
The satraps themselves were generally connected
with the king by birth or marriage, and in Persia
proper royal judges went on circuit at least once a
year. According to Xenophon the control of the
troops was further handed over to a separate com-
mander, and it would seem that important fortresses
like Sardes were also entrusted to an independent
officer. Owing, however, to the weakness occasioned
by this division of authority, the civil and military
powers were united in the satrapies which bordered
on dangerous enemies, such as the Greeks, and it
was accordingly in these frontier satrapies that revolts
like that of the younger Kyros broke out. The
districts of which a satrapy was composed were not
always contiguous. The imperial exchequer received
no less than 7740 talents or £2,964,000 a year
from nineteen of the provinces, which paid in silver,
and of which Babylonia contributed the most, and
v.]
253
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
4680 Euboic talents or £1,290,000 from the twen-
tieth or Indian province, which paid in gold. The
provinces had further to furnish tribute in kind,
grain, sheep, and the like, and rates were levied in
many places for the use of water and of the royal
demesnes, while the taxes derived from such things
as fisheries were farmed by the State. The gold
and silver darics coined from the specie collected at
Susa, and impressed with a rude representation of
an archer, were remarkably pure, containing respect-
ively 124 and 224 to 230 grains of pure metal.
While this work of organisation was being
completed the empire was at peace. Then came
a war against Iskunka the Sakian chief, succeeded
by a campaign in the East. The Indus was first
explored by a naval expedition under Skylax, a
Karian Greek; this was followed by the conquest
of the Punjab. Dareios was now free to secure his
north-western frontier. The Skythian coast on the
Black Sea was explored as the Indus had been, the
Bosporus was bridged by Mandroklês the Samian,
and the steppes of Southern Russia were swept by
the Persian army.
The impression left on the
Skythian mind was never wiped out; the empire
was henceforward safe on that side. Meanwhile
Megabazos with another army had reduced Thrakê,
and made Makedonia a tributary kingdom.
Shortly afterwards, in B.C. 501, came the Ionic
revolt. Sardes was burnt by the Athenians, and
254 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[v.
Dareios, bent on vengeance, no longer delayed to listen
to the exile Hippias, and to demand the submission of
Athens and the restoration of its tyrant. Mardonios
was sent against the offending city with a large
army. But his fleet was wrecked off Mount Athos,
and the land-force surprised by the wild Thrakian
tribe of Briges. Two years later (B.C. 490) the
Persian army under Datis was again hurled against
Attika; but Athenian valour at Marathon drove
back a power hitherto held invincible, and saved
Greece. For three years Asia was now astir with
preparations for crushing the handful of citizens that
had dared to resist the mighty Persian empire.
Fortunately for Athens, Egypt revolted at the
moment when the preparations were completed
(B.C. 487), and diverted the blow which would have
fallen upon her. Before the revolt could be sup-
pressed Dareios died in the sixty-third year of his
age and the thirty-sixth of his reign (B.C. 486).
His son and successor Xerxês, born in the purple,
was a different man from his father. Weak, vain,
and luxurious, it need not surprise us that the huge
and unwieldy host he led against Hellas returned
shattered and discomfited, and that after the defeat of
Mardonios with his picked Persian and Median
troops at Platea, the war that Persia carried into
Europe should have recoiled back into Asia. The
islands of the Ægean, the Greek colonies of Asia
Minor, the wild coasts of Thrakê, the command of
v.]
255
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
the Hellespont, were one by one wrested from the
great king by Athenian skill and enterprise. The
sole result of the attempt to enslave Greece was to
found the Athenian empire, and to make Athens
the intellectual and artistic leader of the world then
and thereafter. Before the campaign against Greece
had been entered upon, Xerxês had punished the
Babylonians for their murder of the satrap Zopyros
by destroying the temple of Bel and the other
shrines of the ancient gods.
Xerxês was murdered by two of his courtiers in
B.C. 466, at the instigation, it was believed, of
Amestris, the only wife he had ever married. His
third son, Artaxerxês I. Longimanus, had to win
his way to the throne by crushing the Baktrians
under his brother Hystaspês, and murdering another
brother. In B.C. 455 an Egyptian revolt was put
down after lasting for five years, and in B.C. 449 a
treaty of peace, known as that of Kallias, was made
between Persia and Athens, Athens agreeing to
relinquish Kypros, and Persia renouncing her claims
to supremacy over the Greek cities of Asia Minor.
Not long afterwards Megabyzos, the satrap of Syria,
revolted, and extorted terms of peace from his
suzerain, the first open sign of the inner decay of
the empire.
Artaxerxês, who, like his father, had but one
legitimate wife, Damaspia, was succeeded by his son
Xerxês II. (B.C. 425), who was assassinated at a ban-
256 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
quet forty-five days after by his illegitimate brother,
Sekydianos or Sogdianos. Sogdianos was murdered
in turn by Okhos, another bastard son of Artaxerxês,
about six months later. Okhos took the name of
Dareios, and is known to history as Dareios II. Nothos.
He had married his aunt Parysatis, daughter of
Xerxês, and his reign of nineteen years was one long
series of revolts, most of which were crushed mer-
cilessly. The first was headed by his brother Arsitês;
then came those of Pissuthnês, the Lydian satrap, of
Media, and of Egypt. The loss of Egypt, however,
was compensated by the restoration of Persian author-
ity over the Greeks of Asia Minor in consequence of
the destruction of the Athenian power at Syrakuse.
Dareios II. was followed by his son, Artaxerxês
II. Mnêmon (B.C. 405), in spite of the efforts of his
wife Parysatias to substitute for the latter her
younger and abler son, Kyros. Four years later
Kyros left his satrapy in Asia Minor, and marched
against his brother with about 1 3,000 Greek mercen-
aries and 100,000 native troops. The battle of
Cunaxa ended his life and his claim to the throne,
and the retreat of the Greeks under Xenophôn
became one of the great feats of history. But the
authority of the Persian king was gone in the West.
Mysia, Pisidia, and Paphlagonia were all practically
independent; Sparta protected the Greek colonies,
and her forces under Derkyllidas and Agesilaos
made themselves masters of Western Asia (B.C. 399-
v.]
257
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
i
395), and might have anticipated Alexander had
not Persian gold sowed dissension at home. A
league was formed between Persia, Athens, and
other Greek states; the Long Walls were rebuilt at
Athens with Persian money, and Sparta was forced
to sign the disgraceful peace of Antalkidas (B.C.
387), by which all Asia was restored to the great
king. In B.C. 379 Evagoras of Salamis, who, with
Egyptian and Athenian help, had made Kypros and
Kilikia independent and conquered Tyre, was finally
crushed. But the decay of the empire could not be
checked. The satraps of Phrygia and Kappadokia
shook off their allegiance, and in B.C. 362 a general
but unsuccessful revolt took place in Asia Minor and
Syria. Three years later Artaxerxês died at the
age of ninety-four, according to the doubtful state-
ment of Plutarch. His son and successor, Okhos,
had already caused the deaths of three of his
brothers, and his first act on mounting the throne
was to destroy, as far as he could, the other princes
of the royal family. His attempt to recover Egypt
failed, and Phoenicia and Kypros declared themselves
free. Idrieus, vassal king of Karia, however, re-
duced Kypros. Sidon, the head of the Phoenician
revolt, was destroyed, and Egypt reconquered by
the Persian general, the eunuch Bagôas, and the
able Greek admiral Mentor, the Rhodian. For six
years there was peace, thanks to Bagôas, who had
become Vizier, and Mentôr, who was entrusted with
S
258 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
the protection of the sea-board. But in B.C. 338
Okhos was poisoned by his Vizier, who raised his
son Arsês to the throne after murdering all his
brothers. Two years afterwards Arsês also and his
children were assassinated, and Bagôas now placed
the crown on the head of a personal friend, Kodo-
mannos, the son of Arsanês. Kodomannos, who
took the name of Dareios III., was not of the royal
family, according to Strabo (xv. 3, 24), though this
is contradicted by Diodôros (xvii. 5, 5). It was not
long before he was called upon to contest his empire
with Alexander of Makedon. In the spring of B.C.
334 Alexander crossed the Hellespont with a force
of over 30,000 foot, and between four and five
thousand horse. In May the battle of the Graneikos
placed Asia Minor at his feet. Memnon, the brother
of the Rhodian Mentôr, the only Persian general
equal to the task of checking the Makedonian
conqueror, died early in the following year, and
Alexander was now free to advance into the heart
of Persia. Dareios and his army were well nigh
annihilated in the Pass of Issos on the Bay of
Antioch (in November); his wife, mother, and
baggage fell into the hands of the enemy; Tyre
and Gaza were besieged and captured; Egypt was
occupied by the Greeks; and at the Oasis of
Ammon Alexander was hailed as the son of Zeus.
At length, in B.C. 331, the decisive moment came.
A new army had been collected by the Persian
v.]
259
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
king from his eastern dominions, and was strongly
posted about thirty miles from the site of Nineveh
awaiting the attack of the Makedonians. The
battle was fought in October at Gaugamela, twenty
miles distant from Arbêla, and ended with the total
rout of the Persian host, the flight of Dareios, and
the fall of his empire. Alexander entered Babylon
in triumph, assumed imperial pomp at Susa, where
the spoils carried from Greece by Xerxês were
discovered and sent back, and, if we may believe
the current story, fired the royal palace of Persepolis
in a fit of drunken insanity. Dareios was then
pursued, first to Ekbatana, next to Rhage and
Baktria, where the hapless monarch was seized and
finally murdered by the satrap Bessos. The reduc-
tion of the rest of the Persian empire by Alexander
quickly followed.
Religion and Mythology.—The religion of Persia
was Zoroastrianism. But the nature and teaching of
Zoroastrianism varied at different times and in differ-
ent localities. The inscriptions make it plain that
the Zoroastrianism of Dareios and his successors was
widely different from that of later times. The early
populations of Media and Elam, dispossessed or
overlaid by the Aryan invaders, had the same
shamanistic form of religion as the Accadians of
primitive Chaldea. They were grossly polytheistic,
and the polytheism of Elam had in later days been
largely affected by the religious beliefs and practices
260
[v.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
of Semitic Babylonia, more especially by the worship
of Nana or Istar. On the other hand, the Iranian
emigrants had monotheistic tendencies. The supreme
god Ahura-mazda, "the lord who gives knowledge,”
tended to absorb all the other deities of the original
Aryan creed. The gods of Vedic nature-worship
became his attributes and creatures. But this nature-
worship had included evil powers as well as beneficent
powers, night as well as darkness, pain as well as
pleasure, the serpent as well as the sun-god who slays
him. Gradually the conflict between these opposites
assumed a moral form in the minds of the Iranian
wanderers; the struggle between night and day, be-
tween the storm and the blue sky, of which the
Vedic poets sang, was transformed into a struggle
between good and evil. In place of the careless
nature-worshipper of the Panjâb, a race of stern and
earnest Puritans grew up among the deserts and
rugged mountains of Ariana.
M. Darmesteter has tried to show that the trans-
formation and development were natural. But the
attempt is unsuccessful. Though there is much
in Zoroastrianism (or Mazdeism) that is clearly a
natural development out of the elements we find in
Vedic religion,—though the fundamental ideas upon
which Mazdeism rests have grown out of the con-
ceptions common to all the primitive Aryans alike,
it is nevertheless impossible to explain the indi-
vidual character that has been stamped upon it
v.]
261
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
without assuming the existence of an individual
founder. We must accept the historical reality of
Zoroaster or Spitama Zarathustra. Zoroastrianism
implies a prophet as much as Mohammedanism.
According to the usual opinion, this prophet lived
and taught in Baktriana. Zend, the language of the
Avesta, the sacred book of Mazdeism, differs dialectic-
ally from the Old Persian spoken in Persia Proper
by Dareios and his subjects, and is ordinarily be-
lieved to have been the language of Baktriana. M.
Darmesteter, however, supposes the original home of
Mazdeism to have been Atropatênê; but as he further
supposes that Mazdeism did not take its start here
till the sixth century B.C., his views do not clash with
the received theory which makes Baktriana the first
seat of Zoroastrianism and of the language of its
sacred books. Another theory has been started by
M. de Harlez.¹ He makes Rhage (now Kaleh Erij)
and Mouru or Meru the birthplace of the new creed
in the seventh century B.C. But Rhagæ, again, under
the shadow of Mount Demavend, only marks a
stage in the western progress of the Iranian tribes;
and the same Parsi legend which relates that the
prophet was born in Rai or Rhagæ makes him
teach his religion in Baktria at the court of King
Vistâsp.
A more important question, however, remains
¹ See his exhaustive review of the subject in his Introduction à
l'Étude de l'Avesta, 1882.
262 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
behind. The two scholars just mentioned not only
think that Zend was the language of Aryan Media
rather than of Baktria, but they also hold that Maz-
deism itself, as embodied in the Avesta, was taught
and promulgated by the Magi. In the revolt of the
pseudo-Bardes M. Darmesteter sees not an uprising
of the old non-Aryan faith, but an attempt to impose
the peculiar tenets of the priestly tribe of Magians
upon the rest of the people. The chief arguments
in favour of this hypothesis are sought in the classical
writers. Strabo (xv. 14) describes the Magi as a
sacerdotal caste spread over the land, and Hêrodotos
(i. 140) states that it was the Magi who practised
the peculiarly Mazdean duty of killing noxious ani-
mals, and required the corpse to be devoured by
birds, not buried in the ground. But in Strabo's
time the old distinctions between the Aryan and the
non-Aryan portions of the population had been
obliterated, and the Greeks had come to apply the
term Magian indiscriminately to the various priests
and sorcerers of the East; while, as is shown in the
note upon the passage, the statement of Hêrodotos
admits of another interpretation, and is corrected by
his own description of the Magi elsewhere as a
Median tribe, neither more nor less sacerdotal than
the other five tribes mentioned along with them.
Against these doubtful quotations we have the ex-
press testimony of Dareios himself, engraved on the
rock of Behistun, where he tells us that the Magian
v.]
263
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
usurpation had destroyed the temples of his gods
and the sacred hymns of the Zoroastrian faith.¹
According to Dr. Oppert the Behistun Inscription
further informs us that the Avesta had existed before
the days of the Magian revolt, and was restored by
Dareios after the revolt was suppressed.
He would
thus render a clause at the end of the inscription
found only in the "Protomedic" transcript: "By
the favour of Ormazd I have made elsewhere a col-
lection of texts in the Aryan language, which
formerly did not exist. And I have made a text of
the law and a commentary on the law, and the
prayer and the translations. And this was written,
and I promulgated it; then I restored the ancient
book in all countries, and the people followed it."2
The Persian equivalents of "the law" and "the prayer”
1 Col. i. Par. 14. Persian text: Ayadaná tyá Gaumáta hya Magush
viyaka, adam niyatrárayam káṛahyá abácharish gaithámchá mani-
yamchá, "The temples which Gomates the Magian had destroyed, I
rebuilt. I reinstituted for the state both the religious chants and the
worship." Babylonian text: Biti sa ilani sa Gumatu haga-su Magusu
ibbulu anaku (ultakan). . . .“ The temples of the gods which Gomates
the Magian had thrown down I (restored). . . ." Amardian (" Proto-
medic ") text: Hu sityan annappanna khudda appa Gaumadda akka
Makuis's arisda, a'ak hu tassutum-na gatas, a'ak AS, a'ak kurtas, “I
the temples of the gods restored which Gomates the Magian destroyed,
and I (re-establish) for the people the hymns and the sacred invocation
and the worship." AS is an ideograph which properly means sacred
hymn." Gaitham, borrowed by the Elamites under the form of gatas,
must be connected with the gåthas of the Avesta.
66
* The following is the literal rendering of the passage, the meaning
of all the words of which is certain except the three written in italics :
"By the grace of Ormazd, I have made the writings for others in the
Aryan language, which was not done before; and the text (?) of the law
CC
264 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[v.
4.
What-
are abasta and zandi, "Avesta" and "Zend."
ever doubt may hang over the renderings of particular
words, the general sense of this translation may be
accepted; Dareios claims to have restored the
ancient writings that had been destroyed or injured
by the Magian revolt. It is highly probable that
both Kyros and his son, as well as their predecessors,
the kings of Anzan, had been almost equally respons-
ible for the loss or neglect of the sacred books; and
the fact that the people needed to be "taught " the
law implies that among the Persians themselves a
knowledge of the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism had
been half forgotten. But the Avesta had not yet
become a technical term. Abastâ is rendered simply
“law” and “laws" in the Elamite and Babylonian
versions; it was the pious care of Dareios which first
gave it its fixed and restricted sense. His words
seem to show that the Zend text was translated into
the Old Persian of his western provinces.
We must not suppose, however, that the Avesta
was completed at once, or that the beliefs and customs
of the Sassanian age were familiar to the Persians in
the age of the Akhæmenians. Dareios speaks of
other gods by the side of Ormazd; Ormazd is
supreme among them; he has created them, like all
things else; but nevertheless other gods also exist.
and the knowledge of the law and the collection (?) and the . . . I made
and wrote, and I sent abroad; then the old writings among all countries
I restored for the sake (?) of the people."
v.]
265
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
Temples, too, are erected to him and them, contrary
to the later teaching of Mazdeism. The dead were
buried, sometimes the living also, and there is no
trace of those elaborate regulations in regard to purity
which occupy so large a part of the Avesta, and
must have been devised, as M. Bréal has shown, at
a time when Mazdeism had ceased to be the religion
of the state. In fact, the sacred literature of Zoro-
astrianism was a slow and gradual growth, like the
sacred literatures of most other religions.
The five Gâthas or "hymns," written in an older
dialect than the rest of the Avesta, form the earliest
portion of this literature. They are embodied in the
Yasna, which, like the Vispêrad, is a collection of
litanies for the sacrifice. Together with the Ven-
dîdad, a compilation of religious laws and mythical
tales, the Yasna and Vispêrad make up the Avesta
properly so called. By the side of this stands the
Khorda Avesta or "Small Avesta," consisting of
short prayers, and divided into the five Gâh, the
thirty formulæ of the Sirôzah, the three Afrîgân, and
the six Nyâyish. To these are generally added the
Yashts or hymns of praise, and a number of frag-
ments, of which the most important is the Hadhokht
Nosk. The sacredness of the Avesta is to some
extent reflected on certain literature written in
Pahlavi or mediæval Persian towards the end of the
Sassanian period, among which may be named the
Bundehesh, an exposition of Mazdean cosmogony
266 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
1
and mythology. This sacred literature, however, is
but a fragment of what once existed; according to
Parsi tradition, the Vendîdad is the only survivor of
the twenty-one Nosks or books which formed the
primitive Avesta revealed by Ormazd to Zoroaster,
the eighteen Yashts were originally thirty in number,
and the Bundehesh has many references which are
not found in existing Zend texts. Hermippos
analysed 2,000,000 lines in the books of Zoroaster,
and Pausanias heard Magian priests singing hymns
from a book.2 A tradition which may be traced
back to the Sassanian age asserts that the present
Avesta consists of the fragments put together by the
priests, partly from memory, after the destruction of
the sacred books by Alexander the Great, and the
Mohammedan conquest brought with it further injury
and loss.
Dr. Oppert thinks that a reference to Angro-
Mainyus, the evil spirit, is found in an inscription of
Dareios. However this may be, it is pretty clear
that the distinctive dualism of Zoroastrian doctrine
was already fully developed in Akhæmenian times.
The world was divided into the mutually-hostile
kingdoms of good and evil, though Ormazd (Ahura-
mazda) had originally created all things, and evil
would therefore be again swallowed up in the king-
dom of good. On the side of Ormazd and the faith-
1 Pliny, N. H. xxx. 1, 2; Diog. Laert. Proam. 8.
2 v. 27, 3. Cp. Hêrod. i. 132.
v.]
267
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
ful follower of his prophet stand the Ahuras or "liv-
ing" spirits, called "gods" by Dareios, and subse-
quently converted into the Yazatas (Izeds) or angels
and the seven Amesha-Spentas (Amshashpands),
"the undying and well-doing ones." These, origin-
ally identical with the Âdityas of Hindu mythology,
became the deified abstractions, Vohu-manô (“good
thought "), Asha Vahishta ("excellent holiness "),
Khshathra vaviya ("perfect sovereignty"), Spenta
Armaiti (“divine piety"), Haurvatât (“health "), and
Ameretât ("immortality "). But Armaiti had once
been the goddess of earth, like Vayu, the wind-god,
who appears in the Gâthas, Varena "the sky," and
Mithra "the sun." From the first Varena had been
identified with Ormazd, or rather Varena was the
supreme being specially invoked as Ahura-mazda,
while Mithra became in time his material symbol.
Under the Akhæmenian dynasty, however, the com-
plete absorption of Mithra into Ormazd had not
yet been effected; and though Dareios shows no
taint of Mithra worship, his descendant Artaxerxês
Mnêmôn, corrupted by Babylonian superstition,
adopted the popular cult, and not only invoked the
sun-god Mithra, but even set up images to Anahit
or Tanata, the Babylonian Nana, at Susa, at Perse-
polis, at Ekbatana, at Babylon, at Damascus, at
Sardes, and at Baktra. The Mithraic worship of
later days, which symbolised the passage of the sun
into Taurus by the figure of a bull slain by a man,
268 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
was the last survival of a faith that had once pene-
trated deeply into the minds of the people.
Angro-Mainyus (Ahriman), "the dark spirit," the
opponent of Ormazd, was primitively the darkness
of night and storm. The Devas, or "gods," who had
assisted him in the old mythological combat between
night and day, became the demons of Mazdeism, and
some of the gods of light also were in time included
among them. The archangels and angels of good
were matched by those of evil. Ako-manô ("bad
thought") opposes Vohu-manô ("good thought "),
and with his companions, Sauru, the arrow of death,
Indra, once the rain-god of India, Nâunhaithya (the
Vedic Dioskuri), Tauru and Zairi, sickness and decay,
form the council of the prince of darkness. What-
ever Ormazd creates, Ahriman destroys. At the
head of the army of Ormazd is the priest - god
Sraosha (Serosh), who first offered sacrifice to Ahura
and sang the holy hymns. Thrice each day and
night he descends to smite Angro-Mainyus and his
crew, the Kahvaredhas and Kahvaredhis, the Kay-
adhas and Kayadhis, the Zandas and Yatûs, Aêshma
("the raving"), the leader of the Drvants, Drukhs,
"destruction," Daivis, "deceit," and Drivis, "poverty."
Sraosha dwelt in a palace of a thousand pillars, orna-
mented without by the stars, lit within by its own
light, and reared on the peak of Elburz or Demavend,
to which the Olympos of Accadian and Protomedic
mythology had been transferred. The legend had
4
v.]
269
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
filtered into Mazdeism through a Protomedic
channel.
"
The weapons with which the worshipper of
Ormazd had to fight against his spiritual foes were
prayer, sacrifice, purity, the sacrament of the Haoma,
and various ceremonies, among which may be par-
ticularised the use of the khrafsthraghna or instru-
ment for destroying noxious animals, the creation
of Ahriman,—and the baresma (barsom) or divining
rod, which had played a large part in Accadian
religion, and must have been borrowed from the
"Protomedic" part of the population. Sacrifice,
which consisted partly of offerings, partly of prayers,
aided the gods as well as men. The costliest victim
was the horse, human sacrifices being ascribed to the
Persians by Greek writers erroneously. The flesh of
the victim was eaten by the priest and the wor-
shippers; the "soul" of it only was enjoyed by
Ormazd. The Haoma was the Soma of the Indians,
an intoxicating plant which symbolised the powers
of vegetable life, and the juice of which was drunk
by the faithful for the benefit of themselves and the
gods. Answering to the yellow haoma of earth is
the white haoma of heaven, which will make men
immortal on the day of resurrection. For the Zoro-
astrians believed in the immortality of the soul, and
at least as early as the time of Theopompos¹ in a
resurrection of the body. It was from them that
¹ Diog. Laert. Proœm. 9; Æn. Gaz. Dial. de anim. immort. p. 77.
270 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST.
[v.
Mohammed borrowed the notion of the narrow bridge
(chinvat peretu) which the soul of the good passed
safely by the help of Sraosha, while the wicked fell
from it into the bottomless pit of Angro-Mainyus.
Fire was from the first the sacred element; it was
the material manifestation of Ormazd, and nothing
was allowed to pollute it. At one time, no doubt,
fire itself was worshipped, like the primitive Aryan
hearth on which it had originally blazed, and Âtar,
the fire-god, held high rank among the Zoroastrians;
but eventually it became the medium through which
the worshipper approached his deity. Earth and
water were also reverenced, and since a corpse would
have defiled these sacred elements, it was left to be
devoured by the beasts and birds. The dog was a
sacred animal, perhaps because of his scavenger-like
habits; but it is now difficult to explain the prin-
ciples upon which certain animals were handed over
to Ormazd and certain others to Ahriman.
The existence of the world was held to be limited.
After 12,000 years it was to end in winter or storm,
to be followed by an eternal spring, when the
earth would be repeopled by the risen bodies of the
righteous. It is possible that this doctrine was
taught as early as the time of Dareios. But a later
date must be assigned to the further conception of
the final victory of good and absorption of evil into
it. This conception led to the pure monotheism
which believed that above and beyond both Ormazd
V.
271
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
and Ahriman there was one abiding principle, called
by various sects, Space or Infinite Light or Fate or
Zṛvan akarana, "boundless time.” The early date,
however, at which the belief grew up may be judged
from the fact that Eudêmos, the pupil of Aristotle,
already makes time and space the first principles of
the Magi.¹ But it is unknown to the greater part
of the Avesta, from which we may infer the age of
the latter. This is not the only instance in which
we can assign a relative date to different portions
of the sacred book. When the tenth Fargard or
chapter of the Vendîdad was written, and the nine-
teenth Yasht composed, the opposition between the
six archangels and the six arch-fiends, mentioned in
the Bundehesh and already found in Plutarch, was
unknown, and, as M. Darmesteter says, "the stars were
not yet members of the Ormazdean army when the
bulk of the eighth Yasht was compiled." But the
old opposition between the athrava or Mazdean
priest and the magus or "Protomedic " sorcerer was
already passing away; under the unifying influences
of the Persian empire magian and priest became
inextricably confounded; the magian adopted the
outlines of the Zoroastrian faith, and in later days
hardened them into a system of sacerdotal laws and
lifeless ceremonies; while the priest took over the
beliefs of the older population, modifying and alter-
ing them in the process. Thus, as M. Lenormant
1 Ap. Damascium, ed. Kopp 384.
272
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [V.
:.
has shown, the spirits of the shamanistic cult of
Accad and Elam were changed into the fravashis or
fervers of Mazdeism, the genii which correspond
with all created things, and watch over the servants
of Ormazd.
A rich mythology was associated with the religion
of Zoroaster. The cosmogony of his followers and
the successive creations of Ormazd, the places, pos-
sibly, occupied by the Iranians in their westward
migration, may be read in the Bundehesh and the
first fargard of the Vendîdad. The paradise of the
Aryan races was laid in Airyanem vaêjo, between
the Oxus and Jaxartes, where they were ruled in
the golden age by Yima, the son of Vivanghvat,-
called Yama, son of Vivasvat, in the Veda,—the
first man, the lord of the departed, originally the
evening darkness. In the Shahnameh of Firdusi,
the great Epic of medieval Persia, Yima became
Jemshid. But the sovereign light, the hwarenô, was
carried off from Yima Khshaêta, "the shining Yima,"
by the three-headed serpent of night, Azhi-dahâka,
the biting snake, the tyrant Zohak of Firdusi's epic.
Thraêtaona, the son of Athwyô, was the chosen
hero who subdued the monster, and whom the
Shahnameh has changed into Feridun. Born in the
"four-cornered Varena" or heaven, he is the Vedic
Traitana or Trita Âptya, "the dawn, the son of the
waters," whose name reappears in the Homeric
epithet of Athena, TρITоyéveia. The serpent was
τριτογένεια.
v.]
273
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
bound to the highest peak of Demâvend, not to be
loosed till the end of the world, when he will be
slain by Keresâspa, the Gershasp of Firdusi, the
Krishâshva of Hindu legend. Keresâspa has already
killed other monstrous creations of Ahriman, Shravara,
the Greek Kerberos, among them, and his reign
restored the glory of that of Yima. When Azhi-
dahâka is finally slain, a son, Saoshyant, will be
born to Zoroaster who will bring eternal life and
light to glorified mankind, as his father once brought
them the law and the truth.
Art and Literature.-Persian art was derived
from Babylonia through that of Susiania. But it
lacked the humorous freedom of Babylonian art; it
was stiff, severe, and formal. The carved gems
were poor imitations of those of Chaldea; even the
signet of Dareios is rudely cut, and shows little
artistic skill. The palaces were raised on lofty
platforms like those of Babylonia, where such a pro-
tection from the marshy ground was needful; and
the platforms were adorned with broad, handsome
flights of stairs which led to their top. The build-
ings which stood on them were comparatively small
and low, but this was compensated by a profusion
of light and elegant columns. The columns, again,
were due to Babylonian inspiration, and their capitals,
with sitting figures of animals, placed back to back
and turned sideways towards the spectators, resemble
those of Babylon and Nineveh. The colouring of
T
274 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
the walls and ceilings was also borrowed from Baby-
lonia, and the bas-reliefs with which the walls were
ornamented find their counterpart in the palaces of
Assyria. But the subjects were treated in Babylonian
and not Assyrian style; Gizdhubar, transformed
into a Persian hero, again slays the demon monster
with all the thickness of limb that characterised
Babylonian art, and the Babylonian rosette makes
its appearance everywhere. On the other hand, the
long processions of men and animals, the winged
solar disk that symbolises Ormazd, and the struggle
between the lion and the bull, remind us of Assyria,
though the treatment is thoroughly Babylonian. We
feel that the same Accadian artists who inspired the
art of Babylonia must have inspired the art of Persia
as well as the lost art of Elam which preceded it.
As in Babylonia, the animal figures are better than
the human ones. The winged bulls which guard
the entrances of the palaces are Assyrian; not so,
however, the fashion of ornamenting the panels of
the doorways with figures in relief. On the whole,
Persian work in relief is clumsy, but vigorous.
The same substantial solidity characterises the
architecture, in spite of the forests of pillars, by
which its general effect was lightened. The plat-
forms and staircases are alike massive, the walls are
thick, the doors too narrow for their height. On
the other hand, a spirit of harmony and proportion
is everywhere observable. The doors exactly face
v.]
275
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
each other; the columns are erected in uniform rows.
Egyptian influence may perhaps be detected in the
propylæa through which the royal palaces were
approached, as well as in the head-dress of the man
who has the attributes of the winged Asiatic goddess
on one of the pillars of the tomb falsely ascribed to
Kyros at Murghâb.
Persian architecture may best be studied in the
remains of the palace near Persepolis, burnt by
Alexander. The buildings erected on the different
terraces which form the platform were not connected
with one another. Of the five largest buildings, one
was the palace of Dareios, the second that of Xerxês,
and the third that of Artaxerxês Okhos, while the
other two are known as the Chehl Minár or hall of
a hundred columns-supported as it was by a
hundred columns in ten rows of ten, each thirty-five
feet high and twenty feet distant from its companion
—and the Eastern Palace. The latter contains four
groups of pillars, the largest being a square of thirty-
six pillars in six rows of six, and covering an area
of over 20,000 square feet. The rooms seem to
have been built round the walls of the several palaces,
while a portico of columns fronted the visitor.
The tombs of the Persian monarchs consisted of
chambers cut out of the rock, that at Murghâb
alone excepted.
Persian literature has perished, with the excep-
tion of the older parts of the Avesta, though the
276 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
references to it in Hêrodotos, Ktêsias, and other
classical writers, show that a good deal once existed.
The so-called historical literature, however, seems to
have resembled Firdusi's Shahnameh, or the histories
of foreign nations given by Arabic authors, and to
have been mostly legendary. The cursive writing
employed for this literature is unknown. The cunei-
form alphabet, used for monumental purposes, was
probably introduced in the reign of Dareios. The
tomb at Murghâb, which bears the cuneiform legend,
"I am Kyros, the king, the Akhæmenian," cannot
belong to the older Kyros, since Murghâb was not
Pasargada, where he was buried. It is possibly the
sepulchre of the satrap of Egypt, the brother of
Xerxês, who is called Akhæmenês by Ktêsias. This
would explain the Egyptian head-dress of the
sculpture which adorns it. It may, however, have
been intended to commemorate a cult of Kyros; at
any rate, the figure represented in the sculptures is
not that of a human being, but of a god. The
cuneiform alphabet was last employed by Artaxerxês
Okhos.
The
Trade and Manners.-The Persians were not a
commercial people, and the trade of the empire was
therefore left in the hands of their subjects.
coinage of Dareios was, however, remarkably pure.
Various devices were cut upon one side of the coin,
but the only inscription known is one in Greek
letters which records the name Pythagoras. Pytha-
v.]
277
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
goras may have been a captain of the mercenaries,
since a. Greek inscription on the upturned base of a
column at Susa is dedicated by "Pythagoras, son of
Aristarkhos, captain of the bodyguard," to "his
friend Arreneides, the son of Arreneides, governor
of Susiana." Attic coins were allowed to pass
current in Persia, after being impressed with a mark
in the shape of a bar.
The Persian form of government after the reign
of Dareios has already been described (p. 442). Its
nearest parallel in modern times is that of the
Turkish empire. But the exaggerated flattery and
meanspirited subservience of the Persian towards his
monarch would be hard to match. His dress implied
a cold climate. Drawers and boots were worn by
all classes, stockings and gloves by the rich. Horses
were largely employed both in war and in peace,
and the Persian bowmen were celebrated. Spiked
balls were strewn over the field of battle by Dareios
Kodomannos, and there were six ranks of military
officers under the commander-in-chief, who was
always a Persian or a Mede. Prisoners of war were
treated kindly, unless they happened to be rebels.
The luxury and etiquette of the court were pro-
verbial. The harem was guarded by a dense body
of eunuchs, and the king seldom emerged from the
secresy of his palace. Cooks and "tasters" abounded,
and the king reclined on a couch with golden feet,
drinking the wine of Helbon, while an inferior
278 THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. [v.
beverage was served to his guests seated below.
Drunkenness, it may be observed, was as much a
Persian failing as truthfulness was reputed to be a
Persian virtue. Hunting, more especially battue
shooting in paradeisoi or enclosed parks, shared the
monarch's time with dice-playing, at which large
bets were lost and won. Criminals were put to
death for slight offences and in peculiarly cruel
ways, and distinctions of class were rigidly main-
tained. Polygamy was allowed, education neglected,
and the queen-mother permitted to exercise an
injurious influence over the king, the court, and the
empire. In short, the empire contained within it
from the first all the elements of decay, and the
Persian character was one which could with difficulty
be respected and never loved.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
KINGS OF EGYPT.
From the Egyptian Chronicle (Synkellos, Chron. 51; Eusêb. Chron. 6).
Egypt was ruled by thirty dynasties for 36,525 years, the first series of princes
being Auritæ, the second Mestræans, and the third Egyptians.
Hephæstos.
Helios for 30,000 years.
20th, Thebans; 8 kings, 228 years.
21st, Tanites; 6 kings, 121 years.
Kronos and the other twelve gods, 3984 | 22d, Tanites; 3 kings, 48 years.
years.
Eight demigods for 217 years.
Fifteen generations for 443 years.
16th dynasty, Tanites; 8 kings for 190
years.
រ
17th, Memphites; 4 kings, 103 years. I
18th, Memphites; 14 kings, 348 years.
19th, Thebans; 5 kings, 194 years.
23d, Thebans; 2 kings, 19 years.
24th, Saites; 3 kings, 44 years.
25th, Ethiopians; 3 kings, 44 years.
26th, Memphites; 7 kings, 177 years.
27th, Persians; 5 kings, 124 years.
28th,
29th, Tanites ;
kings, 39 years.
30th, Tanite; 1 king, 18 years.
•
MANETHO (as quoted by Julius Africanus).
(The excerpts of Africanus are only known from Georgios Synkellos and Eusebios,
DYN. I.-THINITES; 8 kings.
DYN. II.—Continued.
6. Khairês (unnamed by Eus.)
7. Nepherkherês (the 7th succes-
sor of Biophis, Eus.)
8. Sesôkhris
Chron. I. 19, 20.)
Regnal
Years.
1. Mênês
•
62
2. Athôthis, his son
57
3. Kenkenés, his son
-31
4. Quenephês, his son
•
23
5. Ousaphaidos, his son (Ousa-
phaês, Eus.).
6. Miebidos, his son (Niebaês,
Eus.)
7. Semempsês, his son .
8. Biênakhês, his son (Oubienthês,
or Vibesthês, Eus.)
20
6000 600
26
18
26
Regnal
Years.
•
17
25
·
48
9. Khenerês (unnamed by Eus.). 30
Sum
(Eus. 297)
302
•
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
•
DYN. II.-THINITES; 9 kings.
1. Boêthos (Bôkhos, Eus.)
2. Kaiekhos (Khôos, or Kekhous,
Eus.)
3. Binôthris (Biophis, Eus.).
4. Tlas (unnamed by Eus.)
5. Sethenês (unnamed by Eus.)
253
252)
263)
38
39
47
•
17
•
41
DYN. III.-Memphites; 9 kings.
1. Nekherôphês (Nekherôkhis,
Eus.)
•
2. Tosorthros (Sethorthos, Eus.)
3. Tyreis (unnamed by Eus.)
4. Mesôkhris (omitted by Eus.)
5. Sôuphis (unnamed by Eus.)
6. Tosertasis (unnamed by Eus.).
7. Akhês (unnamed by Eus.)
8. Sephouris (unnamed by Eus.).
9. Kerpherês (unnamed by Eus.)
•
·
28
29
· 7
•
17
16
19
42
30
26
Sum
(Eus.
•
214
197)
280
DYNASTIC TABLES.
DYN. IV.-MEMPHITES; 8 kings
(Eus.: 19).
1. Sôris (unnamed by Eus.).
2. Souphis I. (3d king of dyn.,
Eus.)
Regnal
Years.
29
63
•
តនន
3. Souphis II. (unnamed by Eus.)
4. Menkherês (unnamed by Eus.) 63
5. Ratoisês (unnamed by Eus.) 25
6. Bikherês (unnamed by Eus.)
7. Seberkherês (unnamed by Eus.)
8. Thamphthis (unnamed by Eus.) 9
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
22
7
•
227
•
448)
•
284)
DYN. V.-ELEPHANTINES; 9 kings.
(Eus.: 31 kings, including Othios,
the first, and Phiops; the others
unnamed.)
1. Ouserkherês
2. Sephrês
3. Nepherkherês
4. Sisirês
5. Kherês
28
13
20
7
20
6. Rathourês
•
44
7. Menkherês
•
9
8. Tankherês
•
44
9. Ounos (Obnos).
•
33
Sum.
(Really
•
248
218)
DYN. X.-19 HERAKLEOPOLITES
for 185 years.
43
DYN. XI.-16 Thebans for
years, of whom Ammenemês
reigned 16 years (after the 16
Thebans, Eus.)
End of Manetho's first book, the
kings of the first eleven dynas-
ties reigning altogether 2300
years and 70 days (really 2287
years 70 days).
DYN. XII.-7 Thebans.
1. Sesonkhosis (Gesongosis), son of
Ammenemês
2. Ammanemês
3. Sesôstris
Regnal
Years.
48
60000000000
46
38
4. Lakharês (Lamaris or Lampares,
Eus.), the builder of the Laby-
rinth
5. Amerês (unnamed by Eus.)
6. Amenemês (unnamed by Eus.)
7. Skemiophris, his sister (un-
named by Eus.)
•
(Eus. makes the total of the three
last reigns 42 years.)
8
8
∞ ∞ ∞
Sum
•
160
(Eus.
•
245)
I. Othoês
2. Phios
DYN. VI.—Memphites; 6 kings
(no number in Eus.
3. Methou-Souphis
4. Phiôps (lived 100 years)
5. Menthe-Souphis
6. Nitôkris
Sum
•
•
30
53
7
94
•
I
12
1
•
203
(So Eus.; really 197)
DYN. VII.-70 MEMPHITES for 70
days (Eus.: 5 kings for 75 days,
or years according to the Arme-
nian version).
DYN. VIII.-27 MEMPHITES for
146 years (Eus.: 5 kings for 106
years, or 9 kings according to
the Arm. version).
DYN. IX.-19 HERAKLEOPOLITES
for 409 years (Eus.: 4 kings for
100 years).
I. Akhthôês.
DYN. XIII.-THEBANS; 60 kings
for 453 years.
DYN. XIV.-XOITES; 76 kings for
134 years (Eus.: 484 years).
DYN. XV.-Shepherds; 6 Phœ-
nician strangers at Memphis for
284 years (Eus.: Thebans for
250 years).
I. Saïtês
2. Bnôn.
3. Staan
4. Arklês
·
5. Aphôbis
•
—
19
44
50
49
61
Sum 284
(Really. 223)
DYN. XVI. · HELLENIC SHEP-
HERDS; 32 kings for 582 years
(Eus.: 5 Thebans for 190 years).
DYN. XVII. —
SHEPHERDS; 43
kings for 151 years, and THE-
BANS; 43 kings for 151 years
(Eus.: 5 Shepherds, Phoenician
strangers, for 103 years).
I. Saïtês
2. Bnôn.
19
40
DYNASTIC TABLES.
281
DYN. XVII.—Continued.
Regnal
Years.
DYN. XXI.—Tanites ; 7 kings.
Regnal
Years.
3. Arklês (Arm. version)
30
I. Smendês
26
4. Aphôphis (Arm. version) .
14
2. Psousennês (Eus. : 41 years)
46
Sum
103
3. Nephelkherês (Eus.: Nepher-
kherês)
4. Amenôphthis
5. Osokhổr
6. Psinakhês
466
•
9
7. Psousennês (Eus.: 35 years)
•
14
25
13
•
24
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
•
130
130)
•
114)
DYN. XVIII.-THEBANS; 16 kings
(Eus.: 14 kings).
1. Amôsis
2. Khebrôs (Eus.: Khebrôn)
3. Amenôphthis (Eus.: Amenô-
phis, 21 years)
4. Amensis (omitted by Eus.)
5. Misaphris (Eus. : Miphris, 12
years)

• 22
2 mo a
13
26
6. Misphragmouthôsis
7. Touthmosis
8. Amenôphis (Memnon)
31
9. Hôros (Eus.: Oros)
10. Akherrês (Eus.: Akhenkher
sês, 16 or 12 years)
37
32
II. Rathôs (omitted by Eus.)
12. Khebrês (Eus.: Akherrês, 8
6
years)
12
SH
348)
SI
·
61
DYN. XXII.-BUBASTITES; 9
kings (Eus. : 3 kings).
1. Sesonkhis (Eus.: Sesonkhôsis)
2. Osorthôn
•
3, 4, 5. Unnamed (omitted by Eus.)
6. Takelôthis
7, 8, 9. Unnamed (omitted by Eus.)
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
·
•
DYN. XXIII.-TANITES; 4 kings
(Eus.: 3 kings).
1. Petoubatês (Eus.: Petoubastês,
25 years)
2. Osorkhô Hêrakiês (Eus.: Osor-
thôn, 9 years)
3. Psammos
•
4. Zêt (omitted by Eus.)
21
15
25
13
42
120
44)
116)
40
8
•
ΤΟ
31
Sum
(Eus.
•
89
44)
13. Akherrês (Eus.: Kherrês, 15
years)
•
14. Armessês (Eus.: Armais Da-
naos)
15. Ramessês (Eus.: 68 years)
16. Amenôphis (Eus.: 40 years)
12
5
•
I
·
19
•
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
•
263
•
•
287)
DYN. XIX.-Thebans; 7 kings
(Eus.: 5 kings).
1. Sethôs (Eus.: 55 years)
2. Rapsakes (Eus.: Rampsês, 66
years)
3. Ammenephthês (Eus. : Amene-
phthis, 8 years)
4. Ramesses (omitted by Eus.)
5. Amenemês (Eus.: 26 years)
6. Thouôris (Polybos)
•
20
бо
•
DYN. XXIV.-ONE Saite.
Bokkhoris the Wise (Eus.: 44 years) 6
•
47
5
7
DYN. XXV.—ETHIOPIANS; 3 kings.
Sum
(Eus.
(Really
•
209
•
194)
204)
1. Sabakôn (Eus.: 12 years)
8
2. Sebikhôs, his son (Eus.: 12
years)
3. Tearkos (Eus.: Tarakos, 20
years)
14
18
Sum
(Eus.
40
44)
In the 2d book of Manetho are 96
kings for 2121 years.
DYN. XX.-Thebans; 12 kings for
135 years (Eus.: 172 or 178 years.)1
1 Synkellos gives in the 20th dynasty :-
Nekhepsos
Psammouthis
•
19 years.
""
13
4
Okhuras
Kertos
Rhampsis
16 years.
45
""
Amensês, or Amenemês 26
14 years.
282
DYNASTIC TABLES.
·
•
DYN. XXVI.—SAITES; 9 kings. Years.
(Eus.: 1. Ammeris, the Ethio-
pian, 18 or 12 years.)
1. Stephinatês (Eus.: 2. Stephina-
this)
2. Nekhepsôs (Eus. : 3.
3. Nekhao (Eus.: 4. for 6 years).
4. Psammêtikhos (Eus.: 5. for 44
or 45 years)
5. Nekhaô (Eus. : 6.)
6. Psammouthis (Eus.: 7. Psam-
mouthis II., or Psammati-
khos, for 17 years)
•
7. Ouaphris (Eus.: 8. for 25 years) 19
8. Amôsis (Eus.: 9. for 42 years). 44
9. Psammekheritês (omitted by
Regnal
DYN. XXVIII.—ONE SAITE.
760
Amyrtaios
DYN. XXIX.-MENDESIANS;
4 kings.
Regnal
Years.
6
8
1. Nepheritês I. (or Nekheritês).
2. Akhôris
. 6
•
13
54
3. Psammouthês
I
[Eus. inserts Mouthês here for
I year.]
4. Nepheritês II.
•
6
4 mths.
Sum
201
Eus.)
+
Sum
(Eus.
•
1501
167)
DYN. XXVII.-Persians; 8 kings.
2. Dareios,
1. Kambysês, in the 5th year of
his reign (Eus. : for 3 years)
son of Hystaspês
(Eus. prefixes the Magian 7
months)
3. Xerxês
4. Artabanos (omitted by Eus.)
5. Artaxerxês
6. Xerxês II.
7. Sogdianos.
8. Dareios, son of Xerxês
6
•
36
21
7 mths.
•
4I
2 mths.
7 mths.
19
+ Sum
•
(Eus.
•
1241
1201)
DYN. XXX.-SEBENNYTES;
3 kings.
I. Nektanebês I. (Eus.: for 10
years)
2. Teôs.
•
3. Nektanebês II. (Eus.: for 8
years)
18
∞
2
18
Sum
(Eus.
•
38
20)
DYN. XXXI. PERSIANS; 3 kings.
1. Okhos, in his 20th year (Eus. :
for 6 years)
2. Arsês (Eus.: for 4 years).
3. Dareios (Eus.: for six years)
234
Sum
9
(Eus.
16)
ERATOSTHENES (as quoted by Synkellos from the Excerpt of
The Theban kings are :-
Apollodoros of Athens).
1. Mênês, the Thinite, whose name means "everlasting"
2. Athôthês, son of Mênês, whose name means "born of Hermês " (Thoth)
Athôthês II.
3.
4. Diabiês, son of Athôthês, whose name means "friendly to others"
5. Pemphôs (? Semphôs), son of Athôthês, whose name means
""
Hêraklês
dundant in limbs
6. Toigar Amakhos Momkheiri, the Memphite, i.e."
7. Stoikhos, his son, i.e.
Arês the senseless"
8. Gosormiês, i.e. desire of all" (?)
9. Marês, his son, i.e. "gift of the sun
10. Anôyphis, i.e. "long-haired
"
""
Years.
62
•
59
•
32
19
son of
18
man-avenger, re-
•
79
6
30
26
20
18
·
22
13
•
IO
"
29
27
II. Sirios, i.e. son of the pupil of the eye," or, as others, "not to be be-
witched by the evil eye
"
12. Knoubos Gneuros, .e. the golden son of the golden"
13. Rayôsis, i.e. "chief ruler"
14. Biyris
15. Saôphis, i.e.“the long-haired," or, as others, "the extortioner
16. Saôphis II.
17. Moskherês, i.e. "gift of the sun
sun"
31
t
DYNASTIC TABLES.
283
18. Mosthês
19. Pammês Arkhondês
20. Apappos, the very great
21. Ekheskosokaras.
•
•
Years.
•
33
35
one hour less than 100
I
22. Nitôkris, a woman, ¿.e.
Athena the victorious"
•
6
31. Peteathyrês
•
23. Myrtaios Ammônodotos ("gift of Amun")
24. Thyosimarês, "the strong," i.e. "the sun
25. Thinillos, i.e. "the augmenter of his father's strength'
26. Semphroukratês, ¿.e. “Hêraklês Harpokratês”
27. Khouthêr Tauros, a tyrant
28. Meurês Philoskoros
29. Khômaephtha Kosmos Philêphaistos ("world-loving Pthah,” kheper mer-
en-Pthah) *.
30. Soikynios Okho, a tyrant
32. Ammenemês II.
33. Sistosikhermês, "strength of Hêraklês"
34. Marês
35. Siphoas, i.e. "Hermês, son of Hephaistos" (Thoth, son of Pthah)
36. Phrourón, z.e. the Nile
37. Amouthantaios
•
22
•
12
8
•
18
7
12
II
•
60
16
·
23
·
55
•
43
5
5 (or 19)
63
Apollodoros added
53 other names,
which are not given by Synkellos.
HÊRODOTOS.
Minôs.
18 Ethiopians, and
Queen Nitôkris.
Moris.
Sesôstris.
Pherôn, his son.
Prôteus, a Memphite.
Rhampsinitos.
Kheops for 50 years.
Kephrên, his brother, for 56 years.
Mykerinos, son of Kheops.
Asykhis.
Anysis, the blind.
Sabakón, the Ethiopian, 50 years.
Anysis restored.
Sethôs, the priest of Pthah.
The 12 kings of the Dodekarkhy.
Psammetikhos for 54 years.
Nekhôs, his son, 11 years.
Psammis, his son, 6 years.
Apriês, his son, 25 years.
Amasis, an usurper, 44 years.
Psammênitos, his son, 6 months.
Menas.
DIODOROS.
Then 54 kings for more than 1400 years.
Bousiris.
Then eight of his descendants, the last
being Bousiris II., the founder of
Thebes.
Oukhoreus I., the 7th in descent from
Bousiris II.
Oukhoreus II., his son, the founder of
Memphis.
Ægyptos, his son.
Then 12 generations.
Moris.
Sesôôsis I.
Sesôôsis II.
After many kings, Amasis, who was con
quered by
Aktisanês, the Ethiopian.
Mendês, or Marrhos, who built the
Labyrinth.
Interregnum for 5 generations.
Ketês, or Proteus.
Rhemphis.
7 kings, of whom one was Neilos.
Khembês, or Khemmis, the Memphite,
for 50 years.
Kephrên, or Khabryas, his brother or son.
Mykerinos, son of Khemmis.
Tnêphakhthos (Plutarch's Tekhnatis).
Bokkhôris, the Wise, his son.
After many years Sabakôn, the Ethiopian.
Interregnum of 2 years.
12 nomarchs for 18 years.
Psammetikhos, the Saite, for 54 years.
After 4 generations Apriês for 22 years.
Amasis, 55 years.
Diodôros also names Sasykhis, Osy-
mandyas, and 5 queens, and states that
according to some the first Pyramid was
built by Armaios, the second by Amasis,
and the third by Inarôn.
THE ARABIC WRITERS.
I.
The Dynasty before Adam; Gian ben Gian builds the Pyramids.
284
DYNASTIC TABLES.
{
II.
1. Kraus, 5th descendant of Adam, son of Mesr, builds Mesr, and reigns 180 years.
2. Tegar, or Natras, his son.
3. Mesram, the magician, his brother.
3. Gamgam, the magician, his son.
4. Aryak, the sage, his son.
5. Lukhanam, his son.
6. Khasalim, his son, invented the Nilometer.
7. Harsal, or Husal, his son, in whose reign Noah was born.
8. Yadonsak, who first made canals.
9. Semrond, his son.
10. Sariak, or Sarkak, his son.
II. Sahaluk.
12. Saurid, the Wise, for 107 years. Built the three pyramids of Gizeh, and was
buried in the largest of them.
13. Hargib, his son, the chemist, for 99 years. Was buried in the pyramid of
Dashûr which he had built.
14. Menaos, or Menkaus, his son, the tyrant, killed by a fall from his horse.
15. Ekros, his son..
16. Ermelinus, not related to the royal family.
17. Firaun, his cousin ; asked King Darmasel to kill Noah and burn the ark; was
drowned by the Deluge while drunk.
III.
1. Bansar, or Beisar, son of Cush, saved in the ark with the high-priest of Egypt;
built Mesr or Memphis.
2. Mesr, his son, who divided Egypt between his three sons.
3. Koptim who had Middle Egypt, Ashmun who had Upper Egypt, and Athrib who
had the Delta.
4. Koptarim, son of Koptim.
5. Budesir, his son.
6. Gad, or Gadim, his son.
7. Sedeth, his son.
8. Mankaus, his son.
9. Kasaus, his son.
10. Marbis, his son.
II. Asmar, his son.
12. Kitin, his son.
13. Elsabas, his son.
14. Sa, his son, who built Sais.
15. Malil, his son.
16. Hadares, his son.
17. Kheribas, his son.
18. Kalkan, his son.
19. Totis, or Tulis, his son, for 70 years; poisoned by his daughter.
20. Interregnum.
21. Kharoba, or Juriak, daughter of Totis.
IV.
Egypt conquered by the Amalekites. Among their kings were
Riyan, whose minister was Joseph.
Darem, his son, a tyrant, drowned in the Nile. Succeeded by
Kathim.
Kabus, grandson of Riyan.
Wâlid, his brother, the Adite, in the time of Moses, drowned in the Red Sea.
Daluka, his daughter, built the walls of Mesr.
V.
Darkum, a young Egyptian, drove out the Amalekites.
Ashya
f.
Firaun el Araj ( the lame"), conquered by Nebuchadrezzar, the last native king of
Egypt.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
285
THE MONUMENTS.
DYN. I.
Tablets of Abydos.
Sakkârah.
Turin Papyrus.
Manetho.
1. Mena.
2. Teta.
Mena.
Atet.
Mênes.
Athôthis.
3. Atota.
4. Ata.
5.
6. Hesep (or Sapti).
7. Merba.
8. Semen Ptah?
Merbaipen.
9. Kabeh.
Kabehu.
Kenkenês.
Uenephês I.
Uenephês II.
Usaphaidos.
Miebidos.
Semempsês.
Bienekhês.
DYN. II.
I. Butau.
2. Kakau.
Kakau.
3. Bainuteru.
Bainuter.
4. Utnas.
Utnas.
5. Sent,1
Sent.
Boêthos.
Kaiekhos.
Binôthris.
Tlas.
Sethenês.
6.
Aakar.
7. Tata I.
8.
9.
IO.
....
Nofer-ka-ra.
Khairês.
Nepherkherês.
Sekeri Nofer-ka.
II.
Tefa.
Bubui.
Nofer - ka Seker, Sesôkhris.
8 y. 3 m. 4 d.
Hu-tefa (? 3)1 y. Khenerês.
8 m. 4 d.
Bubu, 27 y. 2 m. id.
....
DYN. III.
1. Neb-ka.
Neb-ka, 19 y.
2. Ser-bes.
Ser.
Sera, 19 y. 1 m.
3. Tata II.
Ser-Teta
Ser-Teta.
4. Set-es.
5.
Neb-ka-ra.
6. Nofer-ka-ra.
7.
8.
Huni.
9. Snefru.
....
Hu(ni).
Snefru.
ΙΟ.
Nekherôphês.
Tosorthros.
Tyreis.
Mesôkhris.
Sôyphis.
Tosertasis.
Akhês.
Sephouris.
Kerpherês.
DYN. IV.
I.
Sôris.
2. Khufu(f).
Khufu.
Souphis I. (Kheops).
3. Ra-tatf2
Ra-tatf.
4. Khafra.
Khafra.
5. Men-ka-ra.3
6.
Souphis II. (Khephren).
Menkherês (Mykerinos).
Ratoisês.
7.
Bikherês.
8. Shepseskaf, or
Aseskaf.
9.
Seberkherês.
Thamphthis.
1 The inscription of Sera seems to make Per-ab-sen the immediate successor of
Sent.
2 Perhaps the same as Khnum-Khufu who is mentioned along with Khufu on con-
temporaneous monuments.
3 More than one earlier Men-ka-ra is known from the monuments; but as they
are not named by Manetho or the list of Abydos their places cannot be determined.
286
DYNASTIC TABLES.
Tablets of Abydos.
DYN. V.
Sakkârah.
Turin Papyrus.
1. Userkaf.
Manetho.
Ouserkherês.
2. Sahu-ra.
3. Keka.
4. Nofer-f-ra.
7. Ra-en-user.
8. Men-kau-hor.
9. Tat-ka-ra.
10. Unas.
....
Sahu-ra.
Nofer-ar-ka-ra.
Shepses-ka-ra.
Kha-nofer-ra.
Sephrês.
Nepherkherês.
Sisirês.
Kherês.
Rathourês.
Men-ka-hor.
Men-ka-hor, 8 y. Menkherês.
Tat-ka-ra.
Tat, 28 y.
Tankherês.
Unas.
Unas, 30 y.
Ounos.
DYN. VI.
I. Teta.
Teta.
6 m. 21 d.
Othoês.
2. User-ka-ra.
•
·
20 y.
Phios.
3.
[Ati, stêlê of .
Una.]
•
•
4 Y.
Methou-souphis.
4. Meri-ra.
Pepi (Meri-ra).
9(4) Y.
Phiôps.
5. Meren-ra (? Men-
tu-hotep).
6. Nofer-ka-ra.
7.
8.
9.
IO.
II.
..
Tablets of Abydos.
1. Merem-ra Zaf-em-saf.
2. Nuter-ka-ra.
3. Men-ka-ra.
4. Nofer-ka-ra.
ள் + ம் ம் ன்
Meren-ra, 1 y. I m. Menthe-souphis.
Nit-aker (a queen). Nitôkris.
I. Nofer-ka, 2 y.
I m. 1 d.
2. Nefrus, 4 y.2m. ....
I d.
3. Ab-en-ra I., 2 y.
4.
I m. 1 d.
....
5. Ab-en-ra II.
6. Hanti.
7. Pest - sat-en-
Sepd.
8. Paitasu.
9. Serhlinib[Lauth].
DYNS. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI.
I.
2.
Turin Papyrus.
3.
• • •
...
6 y.
4. Nofer-ka-ra.
5. Khrati.
6. Se...
7.
8. Ur.
9. Set
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
IO.
10. Ha .
II.
II. ....
12.
12.
• •
ra.
13.
Nofer-ka-ra Nebi.
13.
·
•
ra.
14. Tat-ka-ra Shema.
14.
• • •
ra.
15. Nofer-ka-ra Khontu.
15.
•
•
ra.
Other Monuments.
Manetho.
And 3 others de-
stroyed.
(Sum of years of
Ioth dynasty:—
355 y. 10 d.)
1. Ahetus (Akhthoês).
2. Nofer-ka-ra.
....
....
Mer-en-hor.
Snofer-ka.
....
DYNASTIC TABLES.
287
DYNS. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI.—Continued.
Tablets of Abydos.
Ra-en-ka.
Nofer-ka-ra Terel.
Nofer-ka-hor.
Nofer-ka-ra Pepi-seneb.
Snofer-ka Annu.
(Nofer-)kau-ra.
Nofer-kau-ra II.
Nofer-kau-hor.
Nofer-ar-ka-ra.
Neb - khru - ra (Mentu-
hotep IV.)
S-ankh-ka-ra.2
Turin Papyrus.
Other Monuments.
Manetho.
....
· 9 y.
. 8 y.
Neb-khru-ra, 51 y.
Ra-user, 12 y.
(Sum of years of
11th dynasty:—
243 y.)
Sekhem-em-apu-ma-
ra Antuf Aa.
Ra-nub-kheper An-
tuf IV. (XI.
dynasty).1
Ra-neb-taui Mentu-
hotep III.
Ra-neb-khru Men-
tu-hotep (46 y.)
....
Monuments.
1. Amen-em-hat I., alone
With Usurtasen I.
DYN. XII.
Turin Papyrus.
20 y. S-hotep-ab-ra.
Manetho.
Ammenemês.
ΙΟ
•
""
·
•
32,9
3,1
48 y.
Sesonkhosis.
Ammanemês.
Sesostris.
2. Usurtasen I. Kheper-ka-ra, alone
With Amen-em-hat II.
3. Amen-em-hat II. Nub-kau-ra, alone
With Usurtasen II.
4. Usurtasen II. Ra-kha-kheper
5. Usurtasen III. Kha-kau-ra
6. Amen-em-hat III.
7. Amen-em-hat IV.
•
8. Sebek-nofru-ra (queen)
29,,
6
""
•
•
•
13,,
•
26
•
42
19 y.
3 y.
(Ra)-en-mât.
Ra-ma-khru, 9 y.
3 m. 17 d.
Sebek-nofru-ra, 3 y.
ro m. 24 d.
(Sum of years of
12th dyn. :-
213 y. 1 m. 17 d.)
DYN. XIII.-According to the Turin Papyrus.
1. Sebek-hotep I. Ra-khu-taui (son of
Sebek-nofru-ra), 1 y. 3 m. 24 d.
2. Sokhem-ka-ra, 6 y.
3. Ra-Amen-em-hat I.
4. S-hotep-ab-ra I.
5. Aufni, 2 y.
6. S-ankh-ab-ra, 1 y.
7. S-men-ka-ra.
8. S-hotep-ab-ra II.
9.
ka-ra
10-11. Destroyed.
12. Notem-ab-ra.
13. Ra-Sebek-hotep II.
14. Ran-(sen)eb.
15. Autu-ab-ra I.
16. Setef..
•
ra.
Lakharês.
Ammerês.
Ammenemês.
Skemiophris.
17. Ra-Sokhem - khu - taui (Sebek-hotep
III.)
18. Ra-user
•
19. S-monkh-ka-ra Mermesha.
1 Twelve Antufs are known, six being mentioned in the list of Karnak. Two bear
the title of Aa, “great.”
2 Lieblein makes the ten kings of the 11th dynasty :—
(1.) Snofer-ka-ra.
User-en-ra.
Neb-nem-ra.
ra.
Sa-ra Mentu-hotep I.
(6.) Mentu-hotep-ra.
(7.) Neb-hotep-sa-ra Mentu-hotep II.
(8.) Neb-taui-ra Mentu-hotep III.
(9.) Neb-khru-ra Mentu-hotep IV.
(10.) S-ankh-ka-ra.
288
DYNASTIC TABLES.
20.
21.
•
ka-ra.
user-Ser.
DYN. XIII.-Continued.
22. Ra-Sokhem - (khu - taui) Sebek-hotep
IV.
23. Kha-seshesh-ra Nofer-hotep, son of
Ha-ankh-ef.
24. Ra-si-Hathor.
25. Kha-nofer-ra Sebek-hotep V.
26. (? Kha-ka-ra).
27. Kha-ankh-ra (Sebek-hotep VI.)
28. Kha-hotep-ra (Sebek-hotep VII.),
4 y. 8 m. 29 d.
29. Uab-ra Aa-ab, 10 y. 8 m. 28 d.
30. Mer-nofer-ra Ai, 23 y. 8 m. 18 d.
31. Mer-hotep-ra, 2 y. 2 m. 9 d.
32. S-ankh-nef-ra Utu, 3 y. 2 m.
33. Mer-Sokhem-ra Anran, 3 y. 1 m.
34. Sut-ka-ra Ura, 5 y. m. 8 d.
35. Anemen
•
•
•
•
ro.
36-46. Destroyed.
47. Mer-kheper-ra.
48. Mer-ka-ra.
49-53. Destroyed.
•
54.
55. Ra
56.
•
•
mes.
mât Aba.
Uben-Ra I.
57-60. Destroyed.
61. Nahasi-ra.
62. Kha-khru-Ra.
63. Neb-ef-autu-Ra, 2 y. 5 m. 15 d.
64. S-heb-ra, 3 y.
65. Mer-tefa-ra, 3 y.
66. Sut-ka-ra.
I.
•
ka.
2. Sut-en-ra.
3. S-ankh-ab-ra.
67. Neb-tefa-ra.
68. Uben-ra II.
69-70. Destroyed.
71.
• •
tefa-ra.
72. Uben-ra III.
73. Autu-ab-ra II.
74. Har-ab-ra.
75. Neb-sen-ra.
76-79. Destroyed.
80. S-kheper-en-ra.
81. Tat-khru-ra.
82. S-ankh-(ka-)ra.
83. Nofer-tum-ra.
84. Sokhem
85. Ka..
•
·
.. ra.
ra.
86. Nofer-ab-ra.
87. Ra-a....
88. Ra-kha... 2 y.
89. Nut-ka-ra, 2 y.
go. S-men . . . ra.
91-111. Destroyed.
112. Ra-Sokhem
113. Ra-Sokhem
114. Ra-Sokhem-us
115. Ra-sesen
•
116. Ra-neb-ari.
•
117. Ra-neb-aten.
118. Ra-s-ment
119. Ra-user-aten.
120. Ra-Sokhem
•
• •
•
•
From thirty to forty more names are
destroyed.
[DYN. XIII.-According to the Tablet of Karnak.
4. Ra-Sokhem-khu-taui.
5. Ra-Sokhem-sut-taui.
1. Destroyed.
2. Ab-nu.
3. Sotep-en-mau.
4. Pan-n-set-sotep.
5. Pah-as?
6. Sor-hem-t,
7. Af
8. Seti
9. Nun
•
6. Kha-seshes-ra.
7. Kha-nofer-ra.
8. Kha-ka-ra.
9. Kha-ankh-ra.
10. Kha-hotep-ra.]
DYN. XIV. According to the Turin Papyrus.
1
Io. Hor
II.
•
•
.ka.
12. Destroyed.
13.
14. .
15..
16.
17.
18.
• ·
•
• •
• •
• •
•
•
Hapi.
ka-Mentu?
·
ka-beb-nu
3 y.
kheti.
en-neb-Erget.
19, etc. Destroyed.
[Ra-men-nofer (Menophrês) on Scarabs, B.C. 2785.]
DYNS. XV., XVI.
Set-Shalati (Salatis), on the Colossus of Tell Mokdam
Set-aa-pehuti Nub-ti (? Saites)
Ra-Set-Nub (on the Lion of Bagdad)
Apepi (Aphobis) I. Ra-aa-user (geometrical papyrus written
in his 33d year)
Apepi II. Ra-aa-ab-taui (? Aphôphis of Euseb.)
Turin Papyrus (Lauth).
· •
44 years.
Hap (Apakhnas).
Aan-Nub (Staan).
Ap(epi), 61 years.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
289
{{
DYN. XVII.
1. Ra-sekenen Taa I. Contemporary with Apepi II.
2. Ra-sekenen Taa II. Aa.
3. Ra-sekenen Taa III. Ken.
4. Ut-kheper-ra Kames and his wife Aah-hotep.
DYN. XVIII.
Monuments.
1. Neb-pehuti-ra Aahmes (more than 22 years), and wife
2. Ser-ka-ra Amun-hotep I., 20 y. 7 m.; his mother at first
regent.
3. Aa-kheper-ka-ra Tehuti-mes I., and wife Aahmes Meri-
Amun.
4. Aa-kheper-en-ra Tehuti-mes II. (more than 9 years), and
wife Khnum Amun Hatasu (or Hat-shepsu) Ma-ka-ra.
5. Hatasu (Hatsepsu) Ma-ka-ra (queen), 16 years.
6. Ra-men-khaper Tehuti-mes III., 37 y. 11 m. 1 d.
7. Aa-khepru-ra Amun-hotep IV.
8. Men-khepru-ra Tehuti-mes IV., and wife Mut-em-ua.
9. Ma-neb-ra Amun-hotep III. (more than 35 years), and
wife Thi.
10. Nofer-kheper-ra Ua-en-ra Amun-hotep IV.
10. Khu-en-Aten (more than 12 years), and wife Nofri-Thi.
11. Sa'a-nekht and wife Meri-Aten.
{
Manetho.
Amôsis.
Amenophis I.
Amensis.
Misaphris.
Misphragmuthôsis.
Touthmosis.
Amenôphis II.
Hôros.
Akherrês.
Rathôs.
Khebrês.
Akherrês.
12. Tut-ankh-Amun Ra-khepru-neb, and wife Ankh-nes-
Amun.
13. Nuter Atef Ai Ra-kheper-khepru-ar-mâ, and wife Thi.
14 (?). Hor-em-heb Mi-Amun Ser-khepru-ra.
Armessês.
15 (?). Bek-ra (Ra-nefer-i, Lauth).
DYN. XIX.
1. Men-pehuti-ra Ramessu I. (more than 2 years).
2. Ma-men-ra Seti I. Meren-Ptah, and wife Tua.
3. Ra-user-ma Sotep-en-ra Ramessu II. Mi-Amun, 67 years.
4. Meren-Ptah I. Hotep-hi-ma Ban-ra Mi-Amun.
5. User-khepru-ra Seti ÎI. Meren-Ptah.
6. Amun-mesu Men-kha-ra Sotep-en-ra.
7. Khu-en-ra Sotep-en-ra Meren-Ptah II. Si-Pthah.
Ramessês.
Amenôphis.
Sethôs.
Rapsakês.
Ammenephthês.
Ramessês.
Thuôris.
Amenemês.
DYN. XX.
1. User-kha-ra Sotep-en-ra Set-nekht Merer Mi-Amun (recovered the kingdom
from the Phoenician Arisu).
2. User-ma-ra Mi-Amun Ramessu III. (more than 32 years).
3.
Ramessu. IV. Mi-Amun.
4. Ramessu V. Amun-hi-khepesh-ef Mi-Amun.
5. Ramessu Meri-Tum (in Northern Egypt).
5. Ramessu VI. Ra-neb-ma Mi-Amun Amun-hi-khepesh-ef.
6. Ramessu VII. At-Amun User-ma-ra Mi-Amun Sotep-en-ra.
7. Ramessu VIII. Set-hi-khepesh-ef Mi-Amun User-ma-ra Khu-en-Amun.
8. Ramessu IX. Si-Pthah Se-kha-en-ra Mi-Amun.
9. Ramessu X. Nofer-ka-ra Mi-Amun Sotep-en-ra (more than 10 years).
10. Ramessu XI. User-ma-ra Mi-Amun Sotep-en-ra.
11. Ramessu XII. Men-ma-ra Mi-Amun Sotep-en-Ptah Khamus (more than 27
years).
12. Ramessu XIII. Amun-hi-khepesh-ef Kheper-ma-ra Sotep-en-ra (more than 15
years).
[Brugsch makes Ramessu XIII. precede Ramessu XII.]
U
290
DYNASTIC TABLES.
DYN. XXI.—ILLEGITIMATE.
1. Hirhor, the high-priest of Amun at Thebes (more than 16 years) (wife, Notem-
Mut).
2. Piankhi, the high-priest (wife, Tent-Amun).
3. Pinotem I., the high-priest (wife, Hontaui).
4. Pinotem II., king, and wife Ma-ka-ra (descendant of Ramses).
5. Men-kheper-ra, brother of the high-priest Masahirti (wife, Ast-em-kheb).
6. Pinotem III., son of Men-kheper-ra.
DYN. XXI.-LEGITIMATE (TANITES).
Monuments.
Si-Mentu Mi-Amun Nuter-kheper-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
P-seb-en-kha¹ Mi-Amun Aa-kheper-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
P-seb-en-kha II. 2 Mi-Amun Ra-uts-hik
Amun-em-kam Mi-Amun User-ma-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
•
Manetho.
Smendês,
Psousennês.
Hor.
Osokhôr.
Psinakhês.
Psousennês.
Nephelkherês.
Amenôphthis.
DYN. XXII.
1. Shashank I. Mi-Amun Hat-kheper-ra Sotep-en-ra (more than Sesonkhis.
21 years).
2. Usarkon I. Mi-Amun Sekhem-kheper-ra (marries the daughter
of P-seb-en-kha).
3. Takelet I. Mi-Amun Si-Ast Hat-ra Sotep-en-Amun, and wife
Kapos.
4. Usarkon II. Mi-Amun Si-Bast User-ma-ra Sotep-en-Amun (more
than 23 years).
5. Shashank II. Mi-Amun Sekhem-kheper-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
Osorthôn.
....
....
6. Takelet II. Mi-Amun Si-Ast Hat-kheper-ra Sotep-en-ra (more Takelôthis.
than 15 years).
7. Shashank III. Mi-Amun Si-Bast User-ma-ra Sotep-en-ra, 52 years.
8. Pimai Mi-Amun User-ma-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
9. Shashank IV. Aa-kheper-ra (more than 37 years).
...
DYN. XXIII.
1. Se-her-ab-ra Pet-si-Bast.
2. Usarkon III. Mi-Amun Aa-kheper-ra Sotep-en-Amun.
3. P-si-Mut User-ra Sotep-en-Ptah.
[Lauth: 4. Kashet, father of Shabaka.]
INTERREGNUM.
Petoubastês.
Osorkhô.
Psammos.
Zêt.
Egypt divided among several princes, including Tef-nekht (Tnêphakhtos), father
of Bek-en-ran-ef. It is overrun by Piankhi the Ethiopian, while Osarkon IÍÍ. rules
at Bubastis. The son and successor of Piankhi is Mi-Amun-Nut.
DYN. XXIV.
Monuments.
Bek-en-ran-ef Uah-ka-ra (more than 6 years).
Manetho.
Bokkhoris.
DYN. XXV.
1. Shabaka (Assyrian Sibahe), defeated by Sargon B.C. 720 (more Sabakôn.
than 12 years).
2. Shabataka.
3. Taharka (Assyrian Tarku), 26 years.
Sebikhôs.
Tearkos.
1 Brugsch reads Pi-seb-khan. The name may also be read P-siu-en-kha.
2 Perhaps the Psinakhês of Manetho.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
291
INTERREGNUM.
The Assyrian conquest and division of Egypt into 20 satrapies, B.C. 672-650.
Taharka and his successor Rud-Amun (Assyrian Urdamanu, the Ammeris of Euseb.)
make vain efforts to recover it. In Manetho the period is represented by Stephinatês,
Nekhepsôs, and Nekhao, the latter being the Niku, satrap of Memphis and Sais,
and father of Psammetikhos, of the Assyrian inscriptions.
DYN. XXVI.
Monuments.
1. Psamtik I. Uah-ab-ra, and wife Mehet-usekh, 54 years, B.C.
660-610.1
2. Neku I. Uahem-ab-ra, and wife Mi-Mut Nit-aker, 15 years,
B.C. 610-594.
3. Psamtik II. Nofer-hat-ra, and wife Nit-Aker, 5 years, B.C.
594-589.
4. Uah-ab-ra Haa-ab-ra, and wife Aah-hotep, 19 years, B.C. 589-
570.
5. Aah-mes Si-Nit Khnum-ab-ra, and wife Thent-kheta, 44
years, B.C. 570-526.
6. Psamtik III. Ankh-ka-en-ra, 6 months, B.C. 526-525.
Manetho.
Psammêtikhos.
Nekhao.
Psammouthis.
Ouaphris.
Amôsis.
Psammekheritês.
DYN. XXVII.
1. Kambathet Sem-taui Mestu-ra, 6 years, B.C. 525-519.
2. Ntaruish I. Settu-ra, 36 years, B.C. 519-483 (485).
3. Khabbash Senen Tanen Sotep-en-Ptah (native prince),
B.C. 484 (486).
3. Khsherish (more than 13 years), B.C. 483 (485)-463 (465).
4.
5. Artaksharsha (more than 16 years), B.C. 463 (465)-423
6.
7.
(425).
8. Ntaruish II. Mi-Amun-ra.
Kambysês.
Dareios I.
Xerxês I.
Artabanos.
Artaxerxês.
Xerxês II.
Sogdianos.
Dareios II.
DYN. XXVIII.
Amyrtaios.
Amun-ar-t-rut (more than 6 years)2 (B.C. 415).
DYN. XXIX.
1. Nef-a-rut I. Ban-ra Mi-nuteru (more than 4 years).
2. Hakori Ra-khnum Mat Sotep-en-khnum, 13 years.
3. P-si-Mut, 1 year.
4. Har-neb-kha, 1 year.
5. Nef-a-rut II., 1 year.
Nepheritês I.
Akhôris.
Psammouthês.
Mouthês.
Nepheritês II.
DYN. XXX.
1. Nekht-hor-heb Ra-snotsem-het Sotep-en-anhur Ast-anhur Nektanebês I.
Si-Ast, son of Nef-a-rut I., 9 years (16 years from the death
of Nef-a-rut I.)
2. Tsi-hu, 1 year.
3. Nekht-neb-ef Ra-kheper-ka, 18 years.
Teôs.
Nektanebês II.
1 The dates are Wiedemann's.
2 So Wiedemann.
Revillout makes the Demotic name Amun-hir.
292
DYNASTIC TABLES.
KINGS OF BABYLONIA.
BÊRÔSOS (APOLLODÔROS) AND ABYDÊNOS.
BEFORE THE Deluge:—
1. Alôros of Babylon, "the Shepherd of the People," for 10 sari (36,000 years).
2. Alaparos or Alasparos, for 3 sari (10,800 years).
3. Amelôn or Amillaros, of Pantibiblon, for 13 sari (46,800 years).
comes from the Persian Gulf.
Annêdôtos
4. Ammenôn, the Khaldæan, of Pantibiblon, for 12 sari (43,200 years). The
Mousaros,¹ Oannes, or Annêdôtos, comes from the Persian Gulf.
5. Amegalaros, or Megalaros, or Metalaros, or Megalanos, of Pantibiblon, for 18
sari (64,800 years).
6. Daônos or Daôs, the Shepherd, of Pantibiblon, for 10 sari (36,000 years). Eue-
dokos, Eneugamos, Eneuboulos, and Anementos come from the Persian Gulf.
7. Euedôreskhos or Euedôrakhos, of Pantibiblon, for 18 sari (64,800 years). Odakon
or Anodaphos comes from the Persian Gulf.
8. Amempsinos, a Khaldæan of Larankha,2 for 10 sari (36,000 years).
9. Otiartês (Opartês), called Ardatês by Alex. Polyhistôr, a Khaldæan of Larankha,
for 8 sari (28,800 years).
10. Xisouthros, or Sisithros, his son, who was saved from the Deluge, for 18 sari
(64,800 years).
ALEXANDER POLYHISTÔR.
AFTER THE Deluge:—
I. First Dynasty of 86 (Khaldæan) kings for 34,080 or 33,091 years, headed by
Euêkhoos, or Evêxios, or Eutykhios (identified with Nimrod by Synkellos),
for 4 neri (2400 years), and his son Khosmasbolos, or Komosbelos, or
Khomasbelos, for 4 neri 5 sossi (2700 years). Their five next successors
5. Abios, 48 years.
6. Oniballos, 40 years.
were:
3. Pôros, for 35 years.
4. Nekhoubês, 43 years.
7. Zinziros, 46 years.
II. Second Dynasty of 8 Median kings for 224 years, headed by Zoroaster.
III. Third Dynasty of 11 kings (? for 258 years).
IV. Fourth Dynasty of 49 Khaldæan kings for 458 years.
V. Fifth Dynasty of 9 Arabian kings for 245 years.
1. Mardokentês, 45 years.
2.
3. Sisimardakos, 28 years.
VI. Semiramis, Queen of Assyria.
4. Nabios, 37 years.
5. Parannos, 40 years.
6. Nabonnabos, 25 years.
VII. Seventh Dynasty of 45 kings for 526 years.
VIII. Phoulos and Nabonassar.
THE CANON OF PTOLEMY (in the Almagest).
1. Nabonassar, 14 years
2. Nabios, 2 years
3. Khinziros and Pôros, 5 years
4.
Iloulaios or Yougaios, 5 years
5. Mardokempados, 12 years
6. Arkeanos (Sarkeanos), 5 years
•
•
•
B.C.
•
747
·
•
•
733
•
7. Interregnum, 2 years (Hagisa or Akisês, 30 d., and Merodach Baladan,
6 m., ac. to Alex. Polyhist.).
8. Bêlibos (Alex. P.: Elibos), 3 years
9. Aparanadios (Alex. P.: Assordanios) 6 years
10. Rêgebêlos, 1 year
11. Mesêsimordakos, 4 years
•
731
•
726
•
721
•
709
704
702
•
700
694
693
1 Accadian mu-sar, "writing."
2 The Surippak of the monuments.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
293
12. Interregnum, 8 years
13. Asaridinos, 13 years (Alex. P.: 8 years)
14. Saosdoukhinos, for 20 years (Alex. P.: Sammugês, for 21 years)
15. Kinêladanos, 22 years (Alex. P.: 21 years)
16. Nabopolassaros (Alex. P.: Nabupalsar, Abyd.; Busalossoros, General of
the Assyrian king Sarakos), 21 years
17. Nabokolassaros (Alex. P.: Nabukodrossoros), 43 years
18. Ilouaroudamos, 2 years (Alex. P.: Amilmarudokos, 12 years)
19. Nêrigasolasaros (Alex. P.: Neglisaros), 4 years
[20. Josephos: Laborosoarkhodos, 3 m.
•
:
21. Nabonadios (Alex. P.: Nabodênos; Joseph.: Nabonidos), 17 years
Kyros captures Babylon
KINGS OF ASSYRIA.
KTÊSIAS (ac. to Eusebios, Synkellos, and Moses of Khorene).
Yrs. B.C.
Synkell.
Euseb.
[Arm. vers.: Nimrod. 2116] Bêlos (= Bel-Merod-
...
ach)
Ninos("Nineveh") 52 2036 Ninos
Semiramis (= Istar) • 42 1984 Semiramis
Zameis (Samas the
Sun-god), or Ninyas 38
Arios (= Nergal, lord
of Hades)
Aralios (= Arali,
"Hades").
Xerxês or Baleus
Armamitrês
Bêlôkhos
•
•
Ninyas (= "the Nine-
vite") or Zamês
•
30
Arios.
40
Aralios
30
Xerxês
B.C.
•
689
681
668
648
626
·
605
562
•
560
•
556]
•
556
•
538
Mos. Kho.
Yrs. B.C.
Nimrod.
55 2284 Bab (= “Babylon”).
Anebis.
Arbel (=
Arbela").
Khael (= "Calah").
52 2229 Ninos.
42 2177 Semiramis.
•
38
Zamessis or Ninyas.
•
30
Arios.
Aralios.
•
40
Sosares.
Xerxês.
•
30
·
38
35
Galeus.
Armamitres.
Belokhos.
Balaios.
Altadas
Mamitos
Mankhaleos
Sphêros
Mamitos II.
Sparetos
Astakadis
•
40
Amyntês
•
45
Bêlokhos II. (? Bel-
•
•
·
·
•
•
38
35
52
32
· 30
32
20
30
• 40
Armamithrês
Bêlôkhos
Balaios
Sethôs
Mamythos
Askhalios
Sphairos
Mamylos
Sparthaiôs
Askatadês
Amyntês
•
52
32
Altadas.
30
Mamithos.
•
28 (or 22)}
•
22 (or 28)
Makhalaos.
Sphairos.
•
30
Mamylos.
•
42
Sparethos.
•
48 (or 38)
Askatades.
•
45
Amynthas.
kudur-utsur)
•
25
Bêlokhos II.
•
25
Belokhos.
Belleparês
·
30
Lampridês
32
Sôsarês
20
•
Lamparês
Panyas.
• 30
Balatorês 1
Lampridês
Sôsarês
Lampraês
Panyas
•
30
•
30
Sôsarmos
Mitreos
Tautanês (sent troops
to Priam)
Teuteos
•
30
45
•
45
•
19
•
27
Sôsarmos
Mithraios
•
22
Sosarmos.
•
27
Mithreos.
•
·
32
40
Teutamos orTautanês 32
Teutamos.
Teutaios
44
Teuteos.
Arabêlos
42
20
Balatores.
Lamprides.
Sosares.
Lampares.
Panyas.
1 Bêletares, who had been the former king's gardener, is the same as Tiglath-
Pileser, ac. to Agathias (II. 25, 15). Biôn and Polyhistor made him overthrow
Beleous, the last of the Delketades or descendants of Semiramis.
294
DYNASTIC TABLES.
Thinæos
Euseb.
KTÊSIAS-Continued.
Yrs. B.C.
•
30
Synkell.
Khalaos
Anebos
Yrs. B.C.
Mos. Kho.
45
Tineos.
38
Derkilos
Eupalês
Laosthenês
Pyriatidês
•
Ophrateos (?" Euphra-
tes").
•
Ophratenês
•
Okrazapês
•
AUN WAWA
30
40
Babios or Tautanês
II.,called Tithônos
by the Greeks
Derkylos
Enpakmês
Laosthenês
Pertiadês
•
•
•
•
•
30
WAWBWW
37
30
40
38
45
20
50
Ophrataios
Ephekherês
Akraganês
•
21
•
Derkylos.
Eupalmeos.
Laosthenes.
Prietiades.
Ophrateos.
52
•
42
Ophratanes.
Akraganes.
Tônos Konkoleros or
Sardanapallos
20
Thônos Konkoleros. 15
Sardanapalos.1
Sum
1241
Sum
1469
Diod. Sik. (II.).—Ktêsias made 30 generations from Ninos to Sardanapalos for 1360
years.
Thallos (Theophylact. ad Autolycum, 282).—Bêlos 322 years before the Trojan War.
Ovid (Met. iv. 212).-Orchamus, the 7th king of Babylon from Bêlos.
Horus, King of Assyria (Pliny, N. H. xxx. 51), may be the same as the Thouros of
Kedrenos. Thilgamos, in Ælian, must be Tiglath-Pileser.
ABYDÊNOS.
1. Senekherib, the 25th king of Assyria (defeated a Greek fleet off Kilikia, and built
Tarsus).
2. Nergilos, murdered by his son.
3. Adramêlos, slain by his half-brother.
4. Axerdês (Esarhaddon) (conquered Egypt and Syria, had Pythagoras in his pay).
5. Sardanapallos.
6. Sarakos, last king of Nineveh; burnt himself in his palace.
ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR.
Sinnekherim or Senekherib, 18 years, murdered by his son Ardu-Mousanos.
Assordanios, his son.
Sardanapallos, the Khaldæan, father of Nebuchadrezzar.
Sarakos, last king of Nineveh.
HÊRODOTUS.
Ninos, son of Bêlos, cir. B.C. 1250. The Assyrian empire for 520 years till the revolt
of the Medes, cir. B.C. 730.
Senekherim, king of the Arabians.
Sardanapallos.
Nineveh destroyed, cir. B.C. 600.
Semiramis, queen of Babylon.
Nitôkris, queen five generations later.
Labynêtos I., king of Babylon, B.C. 585.
Labynêtos II., his son, conquered by Kyros.
1 Sardanapallos fought with Perseus ac. to the Paschal Chron., p. 68; the anta-
gonist of Perseus was Belimos, 640 years after Ninos, ac. to Kephaliôn (Frg. I.)
Kephaliôn made it 1000 years from Semiramis to Mêtraios, whose successor was
Tautanos, the 22d Assyrian king. He sent aid to Priam.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
295
Ubara-Tutu of Surippak.
THE MONUMENTS.
BABYLONIA.
Before the Deluge.
Zi-Susru (Assn. Samas-napisti) or Adra-khasis, his son, who was saved from the Flood.
'LIST OF KINGS WHO REIGNED AFTER THe Deluge, nOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL
ORDER' (but according to the signification of their names).1
Assyrian Translation.
Accadian Original.
Amil-Gula.
Samsu-natsir.
.la.
Amil-Sin.
Ur-Babara.
Iscipal.
Gulkhisar.
Aa-lugal-calama.
Akur-ulana.
Sar-gina.
Queen Azag-Bahu.
Kassite (Kossæan)
Original.
Khammu-ragas.
Ammi-saduga.
Cur-gal-zu.
Simmas-Sipak.
Ulam-bur-ya'as.
Nazi-Urudas.
Meli-Sipak.
Burna-bur-ya'as.
Cadar-Cit.
Sumerian Original.
Ci-Tutu(?)-ta-khegal.
Ci-Tutu(?)-ankhegal.
Lu-Siliklusar.
Un-kur Silikalim.
Ca-sermal-Tutu.
Amil-Samsi.
Sapin-mat-nukurti.
Muabbid-cissati.
Apil-Hea-sar-mati.
Apil-Bilu-usum-same.
Sarru-cinu.
Bahu-ellitu.
Meaning.
Man of Gula.'
'Defend, O Sun-god.'
'Man of the Moon-god.'
'Man of Samas.'
'Sweeper of the hostile land.'
'Destroyer of legions.'
Son of Hea, king of the earth.'
'Son of Bel, sovereign of heaven.'
•
King established.'
'Bahu the illustrious.'
KASSITE DYNASTY.
Assyrian Translation.
Cimta-rapastu.
Cimtu-cittu.
Rie-bisi.
Lidan-Maruduk.
Lidan-bil-matati.
Tsil-Adari.2
Amil-Maruduk.
Cidin-bil-matati.
Tukulti-Bili.
Meaning.
'Large of family.'
Family established.'
'Be a shepherd.'
'Offspring of Merodach.'
Offspring of the lord of the world.'
'Shadow (protection) of Adar.'
Man of Merodach.'
Servant of the lord of the world.'
'Minister of Bel.'
About 33 names lost.
Assyrian Translation.
Itti-Maruduk-baladhu.
Itti-Maruduk-banu.
Amil-Maruduk.
Bil-mati-Maruduk.
Emid-pi-Maruduk.
Maruduk-tsululu.
Meaning.
'With Merodach (is) life.'
'With Merodach one creates.'
Man of Merodach.'
'Lord of the earth (is) Merodach.'
mouth (is)
<
Supporter of the mouth
Merodach.'
'Merodach overshadows.'
Maruduk-baladh-su-ikbi. Merodach proclaimed life to him.'
Sazuab-kusvu.
Sazuab-tila-nengu.
Ur-Nin-arali.
Amil-Gula.
Khumeme.
Amil-Gula.
Amil-Papsukul.
Suma-libsi.
Dili-Khedu.
Muna-tila.
Uruci-satu.
Uruci-amal-duabi.
Labar-Nudimmud.
Urudu-mansum.
Sin-ibni.
Sin-lie-cullati.
Arad-Hea
Nusci-iddina.
Man of Gula.'
'Man of Gula.'
'Man of Papsukul.'
May my name exist.' 3
'Sin has begotten.'
'Sin the benefactor of all.’
Servant of Hea.'
'Nuscu has given.'
1 About 38 names are lost before these.
2 This may also be read Rub-Adaru, ‘a prince is Adar.'
3 The Sumerian is 'O live his name.'
296
DYNASTIC TABLES.
Sumerian Original.
Ucu-sema-Alima.
Dun-im-ba-khetil.
KASSITE Dynasty—Continued.
Assyrian Translation.
<
Bahu-taci-sa-bullidh.
Dhabu-udli-Bili.
Damu-mu-dili-khegal. Gula-sume-edi-libsi.
Dun-gal-dhumuta-e. Gula -rubi - va - duma -
lumur.
Tutu-bul-antamal.
Dugga-makh-Sazu.
Khedu-alat-ra.
Enum-kherak.
Sar-Uru-ibila.
Sar-ibila.
Enuci-ibila-ru.
Dun-ru(?)-ibila.
a-edina.
•
Si-ru.
Meaning.
Sweet to the bond of Bel.'
'O Bahu, vivify her womb.'
'O Gula, may the name of him
alone exist.'
May Gula see prince and son.'
Maruduk-tappe-ediru-si. 'O Merodach, arrange for her a
Tsirat-cibit-Maruduki.
Lamassi-Papsukul.
Tanitti-Bili.
Sin-abil-Uri.
Abil-Sin.
-Hea-abla-epis.
Bahu-abla-epis (?)
Limmur-Zirpanitu.
Bilu-ibni.
3 names lost.
Kurnigin-garra-kursis- Adaru-asarid-sunu.
nene.
Ninip-saggubtar(?)-zae- Adaru-pakidat.
men.
Mul-Nipur-ci-bi-gin.
Lakhlaggi-Dimsar.
Kurgalmar-mu-pada.
Aba-Sanabi-dari.
Es-Guzi-gin-dur.
comrade.
'Supreme (is) the command of
Merodach.'
Papsukul is a colossus.'
'The glory of Bel.'
'Sin the son of Ur.'
'The son of Sin.'
'O Hea, make a son.'
'O Bahu, make a son (?)'
May Zirpanit see.'
Bel has created.'
'Adar their chief.'
'Adar thou presidest.'
Bil-Nippuri-ana-asri-su- 'Bel of Nipur return to his place.'
ter.
Ebib-Nabu.
'Nebo illuminates.'
'Bel the recorder of the name.'
Mannu-cima-Bil-khadin. 'Who is like Hea.'
Bilu-zacir-sume.
Bit-Saggil-cin-abli.
Bilu-mude-nisi.
Bilu-dumek-anni.
Barsugal-Babaragude. Sikhabiti-Ramanu.
Amil-Hea.
Amil-Gula.
Samsu-yupakhkhir.
6
Beth-Saggil the establisher of the
son.'
>
>
'Bel who knows men.'
'O Bel, prosper me."
Rimmon.'
'The man of Hea.'
'The man of Gula.'
C
Samas has collected.'
Enuçuru-duga-nu-pal- Papsukal-sa-ikbu-ul-ini. 'Papsukal changes not his word.'
Khu-un-zuh.
Mul-curu-menna.
Ur-Sanabi.
Lu-Damu.
Duldul-Samul.
pal.
Agu-sak-algin.
Agu-ba-tila.
Larru-sadu-al.
Lubar-Egirazag.
Us-Mul,
Cidin-Bili.
Uruci-gula.
Sinu-rabi.
nularakh-rag-calga-
•
su-mu-aldibba.
kati-tsabat.
•
•
Sin-iddina-abla.
Sin-irtsita-sa-libludh.
Bilu-kudurri-utsur.
Arad-Nergalli.
'Sin has given a son.'
'O Moon-god, may his earth live.'
'O Bel, defend the landmark.'
(
Servant of Nergal.'
'Servant of Bel.
'Sin (is) great.'
.ina-puski-u-dannati- ' .. in difficulties and force take
Es-Guzi-kharsak-men. Bit-Saggil-saddu-ni.
Kassite Original.
Ulam-Urus.
Meli-Khali.
Meli-Sumu.
Meli-Sibarru.
Meli-Cit.
Nimgiragas.
Samsu-ritsua.
Nabu-edir-napsati.
my hand.'
'Beth-Saggil (is) our mountain.'
'Samas (is) my help.'
'Nebo the arranger of life.'
About 30 names lost.
Assyrian Translation.
Lidan-Bili.
Amil-Gula.
Amil-Sukamuna.
Amil-Simalia,
Amil-Samsi.
Ediru.
Nimgiragas-Cit.
Ediru-Samsu.
Meaning.
Offspring of Bel.'
'Man of Gula.'
Man of Sukamuna.'
'Man of Simalia.'
'Man of Samas.'
'The arranger.
'The arranger, the sun-god.'
DYNASTIC TABLES.
297
KASSITE DYNASTY-Continued.
Kassite Original. Assyrian Translation.
Nimgiragas-Bur-ya'as. Ediru-bil-matati.
Cadar-Bur-ya'as.
Tuculti-bil-matati.
Cadar-Cit.
Tuculti-Samsi.
Nazi-Sipak.
Tsil-Maruduk.
Nazi-bur-ya'as.
Tsil-bil-matati.
6 names lost.
Meaning.
'The arranger, the lord of the
world.'
'Minister of the lord of the
world.'
'Minister of Samas.'
'The protection of Merodach.'
'The protection of the lord of the
world.'
EARLY ACCADIAN DYNASTY.
Banini, with his wife Melili and 7 sons, Memantakh, Medudu, etc.
nini.
Dingir-illat, his son.
Mul-ega-nunna.
Ane-Cis, his son.
...
Ur-Bagas (capital at Ur).
Dungi, his son.
Gudea, his son, viceroy (builder of Zerghul, where he was followed by the
viceroys Me-sa-Nana-calama, son of Be.. khuk, Idadu, Enum-Anu, Enum-
te-na and his son En-Na-dun).
Earlier kings of Zerghul were Úr-Nin, son of Khal-an-du, and his son Mena(?)-
kur-gal.
Su-Agu.
Amar-Agu,
KING OF ERECH:-
Agu-gasid, son of the goddess Nin-'sun.
ELAMITE DYNASTY.
Cudur-Nankhundi I., B.C. 2280.
Chedorlaomer (= Cudur-Lagamar).
Cudur-Mabuk, son of Simtisilkhak.
Eri-Agu, his son.
Sargon I.
Dynasty of Agadé (Accad.)
Sega-ni-sar-likh.
SEMITIC DYNASTY OF Agadé.
Naram-Sin, his son, B.C. 3750 according to Nabonidos.
Camaru-Sin (Ga-Sin).
Sin-idina, his son.
Nur-Rimmon.
Gamil-Adar.
Libit-Nana.
SEMITIC Kings of Ur.
Ismi-Dagon.
Gungunnum, his son.
Rim-Sin (conquered Erech, was con-
quered by Khammuragas), reigned
more than 30 years.
1
298
<
DYNASTIC TABLES.
"The 11 Kings of the DYNASTY Of Babylon.”
1. Sumu-abi, 15 years.
2. Sumu-la-ilu, 35 years.
3. Zabu (built temples at Sippara), his son, 14 years.
4. Abil-Sin, his son, 18 years.
5. Sin-muballidh, his son, 30 years.
6. Khammuragas,1 his son, 55 years, cir. B.C. 2000.
7. Samsu-ilu-na, his son, 35 years.
8. Ebisu, his son, 25 years.
9. Ammi-satana, his son, 25 years.
10. Ammi-saduga, his son, 21 years.
II. Cit-satana, his son, 31 years.
The Dynasty of Erech (?) (Accadian).
1. Anman.
2. Ci-dingir-nibi.
3. Damci-ili-su.
4. Iscipal.
5. Sussi.
6. Gulkhisar.
7. Kir-gal-dubbar, his son.
8. Adub-calama, his son.
9. Akur-ulana.
10. Melam-kurkura.
11. Hea-gȧka (?).
KASSITE Dynasty.
1. Ummikh-zirritu.
2. Agu-ragas, his son.
3. Abi . . his son.
4. Tassi-gurumas, his son.
5. Agu-kak-rimi, his son.
Cudur-Cit.
Sagasaltiyas-Buryas, his son.
Murudas-Sipak.
Simmas-Sipak.
Cara-indas
Burna-bur-ya'as
Cara-murudas
Nazi-Bugas.
•
Cur-gal-zu
Meli-Sipak
Merodach-Baladan i.
Nazi-Murudas
•
ASSYRIAN Dynasty.
Tiglath-Adar
Rimmon. bi
·
Zamama-zacir-iddin
cir. B.C. 1450
1430
1410
1400
1380
•
1350
1325
1300
1270
1230
1200
1 The Kassite names which appear at the end of this dynasty must be due to the
marriage of Sin-muballidh with a Kassite princess.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
299
Khaldæn Kings.
cir. B.C.
Nabu-kudurra-utsur I. (Nebochadrezzar) 1150
Merodach-nadin-akhi
Cara-bur-ya'as
Merodach-sapik-zirrat
•
1120
1100
•
•
1097
1080
sadua
DYNASTY FROM THE PERSIAN GULF.
1. Simmas-Sipak, son of Erba-sin, for 17 years (buried in Sargon's palace).
2. Hea-mucin-ziri (an usurper), son of Cutmar, for 3 months.
3. Kassu-nadin-akhi, son of Sappa, for 6 years.
DYNASTY OF THE HOUSE OF BAZU.
1. Ulbar-surci-iddin, son of Bazu, for 15 years.
2. Nebuchadrezzar II., his brother, for 2 years.
3. (Amil?) Sukamuna, his brother, for 3 years 3 months.
4. An Elamite for 6 years.
Rimmon-pal-iddina.
Erba-Merodach.
Merodach-baladan II., his son.
Sibir.
Rimmon-suma-utsur
Nabu-bal-iddina (Nebo-baladan)
Merodach-suma-izcur
•
Merodach-baladhsu-ikbu
Samsu-izcir-dumki
Nebo-suma-iscun, his son
Nebo-cargin-abba
•
•
B.C. 900
880
853
820
810
Nabu-natsir
Nabu-yusapsi
Yucin-ziru
Tiglath-Pileser (Pul or Poros) of Assyria
Yagina, Chief of the Kaldai
Merodach-baladan III., his son
Sargon of Assyria
Merodach-baladan restored
Bilu-ebus
Assur-nadin-sume
Suzub
Esarhaddon of Assyria
Samul-mucinu
Assur-bani-pal
Kandalanul
Nabu-pal-utsur
•
Nabu-kudurra-utsur III.
Amil-Maruduk
·
Nergal-sarra-utsur
Nabu-nahid
Conquered by Kuras
•
747
733
731
729
726
721
·
•
709
•
704
703
700
693
681
668
648 (?)
• 626 (?)
605
562
560
556
538
•
·
1 A contract-tablet is dated in the 20th year of Kandalanu or Kinêladanos.
300
DYNASTIC TABLES.
ASSYRIA.
Sargon says he was preceded by 330
Assyrian kings.
ACCADIAN VICEROYS Of Assur
(KALAH SHERGHAT).
Isme-Dagon
Samsi-Rimmon I., his son
Igur-sumeli-capu
•
Samsi-Rimmon II., his son
Bilu-cudurra-utsur
Adar-pal-esar
Assur-da'an I., his son
Nuscu, his son
cir. B.C.
•
1240
•
1220
1200
Mutaggill - Nabu
or Mutaggil-
•
1170
1150
1130
1100
1080
Assur-ris-isi, his son
B.C. 1850 Tiglath - Pileser I. (Tuculti - pal-
•
•
•
1820
•
esar), his son
·
Assur-bil-cala, his son
Samsi-Rimmon I., his brother
Assur-rab-buri
Teba (?)
•
Iritak, his son
Assur-tsalmati
cir. B.C. 1450
KINGS OF ASSYRIA.
Bilu-sumeli-capi, the founder.
Adasi.
Bilu-bani, his son.
Assur-suma-esir.
Adar-tuklat-Assuri, his son.
Erba-Rimmon.
Assur-nadin-akhi, his son.
Assir-nirari I.
Nabu-da'an, his son.
Assur-bil-nisi-su
Assur-da'an II.
Rimmon-nirari II., his son
•
•
Tiglath-Adar II., his son
Assur-natsir-pal, his son
Shalmaneser II., his son
Assur-dain-pal, his son (rebel king)
Samsi-Rimmon II., his brother
Rimmon-nirari III., his son
Shalmaneser III.
Assur-da'an III.
Assur-nirari II.
•
Tiglath-Pileser II. (Poros or Pul),
usurper
·
Shalmaneser IV., usurper
Sargon, usurper
Sennacherib (Sin-akhi-erba), his
•
930
B.C
B.C. 913
•
•
891
885
860
827
•
825
812
•
783
•
773
755
725
·
727
722
Buzur-Assur
Assur-yuballidh
Bil-nirari, his son
•
Pudilu, his son
son
705
•
1420
·
1400
Esar-haddon I. (Assur-akh-iddina),
his son
681
1370
1350
Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalos), his
Rimmon-nirari I., his son
Shalmaneser I. (Sallimmanu-esir),
his son
•
Tiglath-Adar I., his son
son
668
1330
Assur-etil-ilani, his son
?
suma-iscun
?
1300
·
1271
Esar-haddon II. (Sarakos) last king
?
TYRE.
PHOENICIA.
Baleazor, his
Tyre built 2300 years before Hêrodotos
(II. 44).
Baal-merom-gabu, 3d year of Menephtah
II.
Abibal (Joseph. c. Ap. I. 17-18).
Hiram I., his son, for 34 years (lived 53
years), contemporary with David and
Solomon.
son, 7 years (lived 43 years).
Abdastartos, his son, 9 years (lived 29
years).
Astartos, son of Deleastartos, an usurper,
12 years (lived 54 years).1
Astarymos, his brother, 9 years (lived 54
years).
Phelês, his brother, 8 months (lived 50
years).
Eithobalos (Ethbaal) I., priest of Astartê,
an usurper, 32 years (lived 68 years).
1 Oppert's conjecture. The text is corrupt, reading: "the four sons of his nurse
slew (Abdastartos), the eldest of whom reigned 12 years, μelov 'Aσтαptos son of
Deleastartos 12 out of 54 years." Theophilos has Methuastartos, and neither Theo-
philos nor Eusêbios has the double 12 years.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
301
TYRE-Continued.
Baalezor (Badezor), his son, 6 years (Eus.
and Synkell.: 8 years), lived 45 years.
Matgenos (Mutton), his son, 9 years (Eus.
and Theoph.: 29 years), lived 32 years.
Pygmalion, his son, 47 years (lived 56
years); his sister Dido founds Carthage
in his 7th year, 155 years 8 months
after Hiram.
Khirummu (Hiram II.), reigning
Mietenna (Mutton II.)
Elulaios Pya¹ (Assn. Lulie), 36 yrs.
Bahlu (Baal) I.
•
Eithobalos II. (besieged by Nebu-
chadrezzar)
Baal II., 10 years
Eknibal, son of Baslakh, judge, 2
months
B.C.
738
Tetramnêstos, son of Anysos (Herod. iii.
98), age of Xerxês.
Bod-Ashtoreth I.
Bod-Ashtoreth II., his son.
Esmunezer I.
Tabnith I., his son.
Esmunezer II., his son, 14 years.
Straton (Ashtoreth), age of Artaxerxês.2
•
Gebal (Byblos).
•
•
730
725
B.C.
675 and 665
Tennês (Tabnith II.)
Straton II., deposed by Alexander
Ballônymos
·
351
332
575
·
565
Khelbês, son of Abdaios, judge, xo
months
565
Abbartos, the high-priest, judge, 3
Sibitti-bihil (Sebedh-Baal)
Urumilki (Urimelech)
Milki-asapi
•
738
•
700
675
months
•
564
Baal, age of Xerxês?
Enil I., age of Artaxerxês I.
Azbaal, his successor.
557
Enylos (Enil II.)
•
•
556
330
552
Mutton and Gerastratos, sons of
Abdelemos, judges, 6 years
Balator (king), 1 year
Merbalos (brought from Babylon),
4 years
Hiram III., his brother, 20 years.
Hiram IV. (Seirômos).
Mattenos (Mutton III.) (Herod. vii. 97),
his son, contemporary of Xerxês.
SIDON.
Subject to Tyre, Ethbaal I. and Elu-
laios being Kings of Sidon as well as
of Tyre.
ARVAD.
Matinubahli (Matan-baal) I.
(Ma)tan-Bihli II.
•
Abdilihti
Kilu-Baal
Yakin(i)lu
Azi-bahal, his son.
Merbaal, son of Agbaal (Herod. vii.
98), age of Xerxês.
B.C.
Ethbaal II. (Assn. Tubahlu), after
the flight of Elulaios'
700
Abd-Melkarth (Abdimilkutti)
• 678
Stratôn
854
•
732
700
·
675
665
333
LYDIA.
Mythical Period.
DYNASTY OF THE ÅTYADÆ.
Manês (the Moon-god), son of Zeus.
Cotys, son of Manês, married Haliê, dau.
of Tyllos.
Attys (the Sun-god), son of Kotys (of
Manês ac. to Herod.)
Lydos and Torybos, sons of Attys.
1 Joseph. Ant. ix. 14, 2.
Alkimos the pious.
Akiamos, whose general Askalos founded
Askalon.
Arimos.
Mêlês.
Moxos, his son.
Kamblês or Kamblêtês (Kamblitas).
2 Athen. Deipn. xii. p. 531.
302
DYNASTIC TABLES.
THE HITTITE Conquest (? B.C. 1076).
Iardanos, the opponent of Kamblêtês.
Omphalê, his daughter, marries Hêraklês
(Sandan).
Alkaios or Lamos, their son (Hêraklês
also had Akelis, or Agelaos, or Kleo-
daios, by the slave Malis or Damalis).
DYNASTY OF THE HÊRAKLEIDÆ.
Nik. Dam.
(¿.e. Xanthos).
I. Tylôn succeeds
Omphalê.
2. Sadyattês I.
3. Lixos.
Adyattês I. (Eus.:
Alyattês).
Ardys I. (brother
of Kadys), his
son, for 70 years
(Eus.: for
years).
36
Hêrodotos.
Agrôn, son of Ni-
nos, son of Bêlos,
son of Alkaios,
founds the dynas-
ty B.C. 1192; his
Nik. Dam. (i.e. Xanthos).
Adyattês II., his son (Eus.: Alyattês
II. for 14 years).
Mêlês II., his son (Eus.: for 12 years).
Myrsos, his son (Eus. omits).
Sadyattês II. (Kandaulês), his son.
DYNASTY of the MerMNADÆ.
1. Gygês (Herod.: 38 years; Eus.: B.C.
36 years)
2. Ardys II., his son (Herod.: 49
years; Eus. 38 years)
4.
21st successor was
5.
Myrsos.
Kandaulês Myrsi-
los, his son, the
last of the dynas-
ty, which lasted
505 years.
687
•
653
·
615
•
603
3. Sadyattês II., his son (Herod.:
12 years; Eus.: 15 years)
Alyattês III., his son (Herod.:
57 years; Eus.: 49 years)
Kroisos (brother of Pantalêon),
his son (Herod.: 14 years; Eus.:
15 years)
Conquered by Kyros
•
•
554
540
MEDIA.
KTESIAS (Diod. Sik. ii. 33).
1. Arbakês for 28 years after the over-
throw of Sardanapallos.
2. Mandaukês for 30 (or 20) years.
3. Sôsarmos for 20 (or 30) years.
4. Artykas for 50 (or 30) years.
5.
Arbianês for 22 years.
6. Artaios for 40 years.
7. Artynês for 22 years.
8. Astibaras for 40 years.
9. Aspadas, called Astyagês by the
Greeks, for 35 years.
HERODOTUS.
1. Dêiokês (Ass. Daiukku), 53 years.
2. Phraortês (Frawartish), 22 years.
3. Kyaxarês (Ass. Kastarit), 40 years.
4. Astyagês (Ass. Istuvegu), 35 years.
VAN (BIAINIS) OR ARARAT (ARMENIA).
1. Aramis (wars with Assyria, B.C. 857
and 845).
2. Sarduris I., son of Lutipris, B.C. 833.
3. Ispuinis, his son.
4. Ispuinis and his son Menuas.
5. Menuas alone.
6. Argistis I., his son.
7. Sarduris II., his son.
8. Ur'sa
9. Argistis II.
10. Erimenas, his son
II. Ru'sas, his son
12. Sarduris III.
•
Conquered by Media about
B.C.
. 730
•
714
•
660
645
610
PERSIA.
He
I. Akhæmenes (Hakhâmanish).
2. Teispês (Chaishpâish), his son.
conquers Susiania and rules at
Susa, B.C. 600.
3. Ariaramnês (Ariyârâmna), his son,
in Persia.
3. Kyros I.(Kuras), his son, in Susiania.
4. Arsamês (Arshâma), son of Ariar-
amnês, in Persia.
4. Kambysês I. (Kambujiya), son of
Kyros, in Susiania.
5. Kyros III., son of Kambysês, in
Susiania. He conquers Media,
B.C. 550, and Persia, 548.
DYNASTIC TABLES.
303
6. Kambysês II., his son
•
7. Gomatês (Gaumâta), the Ma-
gian, the pseudo- Bardes
(Bardiya), for 7 months
8. Dareios (Dârayavaush), son of
Hystaspês (Vishtâspa), and
grandson of Arsamês, for 36
years
•
9. Xerxês I. (Khshayârshâ), his
son, for 21 or 12 years
10. Artaxerxês I. (Artakhshatra),
Longimanus, his son, for 40
years
B.C.
529
521
521
•
485
465
B.C.
11. Xerxês II., his son, for 2 months 425
12. Sogdianos, his half-brother, for

7 months
13. Dareios II. Nothos (Okhos),
his brother, for 19 years
14. Artaxerxês II. Mnêmôn,' his
son, for 43 years
·
Revolt of Kyros the younger
•
425
424
405
•
401
•
•
462
339
15. Okhos, son of Artaxerxês, for
23 years
16. Arses, his son, for 3 years
17. Dareios Kodomannos, for 6 years 336
Conquered by Alexander.
•
• 331
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