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The Student's Ancient History.

THE ANCIENT HISTORY

OF

THE EAST.

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE CONQUEST BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

INCLUDING EGYPT, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA, MEDIA, PERSIA; ASIA .MINOR, AND PHOENICIA.

By PHILIP SMITH, B.A.,

AUTHOR OF TUE " UISTOllY OF THE WOULD."

Early Assyrian Chariot.

Illustrated by Engravings on Wood,

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

NEW YORK AND LONDON,

Assyrian Cylinder.

PREFACE.

A knowledge of the History of the East is indispensable to the student of Classical Literature. In the earliest records, he meets with doubtful traditions—and further study reveals undoubted signs — of older forms of civilization, which helped to determine those of Greece and Rome. Egypt and Phoenicia loom up, however vaguely, in what he learns of the origin of Greek society, arts, and letters. The earliest and noblest poetry of Greece and of the world, as well as the legend of Koine's original, bring him at once in contact with an Asiatic kingdom, of whose real existence even he is left in doubt. As his first reading of Greek poetry excites his curiosity about Troy, so his earliest lessons in Greek prose plunge him into the midst of the history of Persia, and into the heart of the region of the great Eastern empires. His first guide to the history of Greece is an author who—with a wise prescience of that method of study which we have only learned of late—carries him at once to Assyria and Babylon, Egypt and Libya, Lydia and Persia, that, in the light of the knowledge of the East, he may see the true meaning of the victories which form the glory of the history of Greece. And, at every succeeding step, he finds himself in contact with Oriental forms of government and civilization, and he learns that the victories of Alexander, Scipio, and Augustus were the decisive steps in the <n*eat confiict between Eastern aiul Western principles of Social life. 44l6id

viii

PREFACE.

Clearly, therefore, he has learned but half the lesson of an cient history, so long as he sees the Oriental element only in that background which is all that can be allotted to it in the special histories of Greece and Rome. To present the other half is the object of the present work, which is designed to be at once a necessary supplement to those histories, and a sketch of the Oriental states which deserve study for their own intrinsic interest.

That interest has been immeasurably increased, within the period of one generation, by those wonderful discoveries in hieroglyphic and cuneiform literature which—at least in the principles of interpretation and in a large mass of positive results—have outlived the stage of incredulity, and become a recognized branch of ancient learning. That the results thus gained may be made more clear and interesting, the present work contains some account of the processes of discovery. How much the interest of these discoveries is enhanced by the light they throw npon Scripture history, will be apparent to every reader of the following pages.

The diversities of interpretation—though based on the same essential principles, and leading to results for the most part wonderfully consistent—have given rise to what may be almost called two schools of cuneiform scholarship : the English, headed by Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, and the French, headed by M. Jules Oppert. The authorities quoted in the following pages will show the desire of the writer to use the best results of the labors of both schools. The nature of these inquiries—so novel, and still in a state so progressive—has made it necessary to give authorities and explanatory notes more fully than in other volumes of this series. The advanced student, for whom this work is designed, will thus be aided to distinguish certain from doubt' ful results, and will see the lines along which his further studies should be directed.

The work is based on an independent study of the ancient writers, and a careful use of the best modern authorities. Great advantage has, of course, been derived from the inval

PREFACE.

liable materials collected in the Notes and Essays to Professor Raavlinson's Translation of Herodotus by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Sir H. C. Raavlinson, and the Editor himself ; and from Professor Raavlinson's " Five Ancient Monarchies."¹ For Egypi^ besides the works of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Professor Kenrick's "Ancient Egypt" has been constantly consulted; and so, also, has the same author's scholarly Avork upon " Phoenicia." The book on Assyria and .Babylonia could not have been written without the works of Mr. La yard, and some invaluable results of the latest researches are due to the writings of M. Oppert, Special acknowledgment has to be made of the use made throughout the work of M. Charles Lenormant's " Histoirc Ancienne de l'Orient."² How little the present writer has adhered slavishly to that work, the merits of which marked it as a good general guide, how often he has maintained other views, and how constantly he has expressed his own judgment on the events related, will be best seen by a comparison of the two books. Moreover, the present work is brought down to Alexander's conquest, the true epoch at which the East yielded to the West; whereas M. Lenormant stops, with a somewhat startling abruptness, at the beginning of the Persian wars with Greece.

As the History of the Jews has been treated at length in the " Student's Old Testament History," the writer has thereby acquired fuller space for the other branches of the subject. For the object has not been to draw up a mere skeleton or epitome, but a narrative full and circumstantial enough to possess life and interest, and to leave that impression on the memory which mere outlines can never produce; since a summary can only be of real service as an index to knowledge already acquired. To this narrative only so much has been added in the way of discussion as the nature

¹ The first editions of both these works are quoted throughout, except in a feu-special instances.

² It may be weli to explain that the whole of this work was written, printed, and revised (excepting the two concluding chapters on Phoenicia) before the appearance of the English translation of M. Lenormant's history.

x

PREFACE.

of the, subject seemed actually to require. In fine, an ear nest effort has been made to produce a Manual, both for the student and general reader, of the present state of our knowledge on a subject the interest of which is daily growing, its bounds enlarging, and its details becoming more definite and certain by the progress of inquiry.

Plants from Egyptian Sculptures.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

pagb

The Nations and their Abodes.........................-...................... 17

Notes and Illustrations:

(A.) Table of the Indo-European Family of Languages.... 2* (B.) Table of the Semitic Family of Languages............. 29

BOOK I. EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

OHAP.

I. The Country, the River, and the People.................. 30

II. Authorities for the History of Egypt...................... 47

Notes and Illustrations:

Contemporaneousness of Dynasties............................... 59

III. The Old Memphian Monarchy.................................. 00

IV. The Middle Monarchy and the Shepherd Kings........ 81

V. The New Theban Monarchy.—The Eighteenth Dynasty................................................................... 103

VI. The new Theban Monarchy (continued).—The Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties........................... 118

VII. New Kingdoms in the Delta and the Ethiopian Dynasty— Dynasties XXI.-XXV.—u. c. 1100 (about)-

GG-t..................................................................... 135

VIII. The Later Sa'ite Monarchy—Twenty-sixth Dynasty—

b.c. (5G5-527 or 525...........................,.................... 1G3

IX. The Institutions, Religion, and Art? of Egypt.......... 181

xii

CONTENTS.

BOOK II. ASSYRIA AND BABYLON.

OIIAP. PAGE

X. The Region of the Euphrates and Tigris—Primitive

Kingdoms............................................................. 219

Notes and Illustrations:

(A.) Early Babylonian Chronology.............................. 243

(B.) On the Chaldajans and the Akkad........................ 244

XI. Early History of Assyria. The Mythical Legends ;

and the Earlier Kings of the Old Monarchy......... 247

Notes and Illustrations :

On the Site and Extent of Nineveh.............................. 273

XII. The Old Assyrian Empire, b.c. 886-746................... 27G

XIII. The New Assyrian Empire, Part I. Tiglath-Pileser

II., Shalmaneser, and Sargon. b.c. 745-704........... 300

XIV. The New Assyrian Empire (concluded). Sennacherib

and his Successors, b.c. 704-625........................... 316

XV. The Babylonian or Ciiald^ean Empire, b.c. 625-538... 339 Notes and Illustrations:

^Standard Inscription" of Nebuchadnezzar.................. 362

XVI. The Art and Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria... 364 XVII. The Cuneiform Writing and Literature, the Science

and Religion, of the Babylonians and Assyrians.... 387

BOOK III.

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE, AND ITS SUBJECT-COUNTRIES

IN ASIA.

XVIII. The Primitive Aryans and the Religion of Zoroaster 413

XIX. Rise of the Median Kingdom.................................... 439

XX. The Nations of Asia Minor—The Table-land and

North Coast......................................................... 457

XXI. The Nations of Asia Minor—The South and West

Coasts................................................................. 473

XXII. Early History of Lydia........................................... 498

XXIII. Lydia and Media.—From Gyges to Cyaxares and Aly-

attes.—About b.c. 716 to b.c. 560.—The Cimmerian and Scythian Invasions of Asia.............................. 508

XXIV. The Median Empire overthrown by Cyrus.—b.c. 594-

558...................................................................... S26

CONTENTS. _s

hap. , _p^

XXV. Crnus the Great and Cr<esus. Overthrow of Lydia

and Babylon.—b.c. 560-529................................... 542

XXVI. Cambyses.—The Magian Usurpation.—Restoration of

the Monarchy by Darius.—b.c. 529-522.................. 552

XXVII. Climax of the Persian Empire.—Darius, the Son of

Hystaspes.—b.c. 521-486....................................... 567

XXVIII. The Decline and Fall of the Persian Empire.—Xerxes

I. to Darius III., b.c. 486-330................................ 581

THE HISTOIIY OF PHOENICIA.

XXIX. Part I.—To the Time of Tyre's Supremacy............... 594

XXX. Part II.—From the Age of David and Hiram r<> the taking of Tyre by Alexander.—About b.c. 1050 to

b.c. 332................................................................ G18

Index..................................................................... Go 7

Head of a Persian King (Persepoiis).

HIEROGLYPHICS.

AN EGYPTIAN THRESHING-SONG.

{From a Tomb at Eileithyias).

0 ~vvv^

// /vwnaa /vwwva III III

//......

/WVWNA I I I

» « b b'

I I I

I t

TRANSLATION. (By Champoilion.)

(1) "Thresh for yourselves {twice, a),

(2) 0 Oxen,

(3) Thresh for yourselves {twice, b),

(4) Measures for yourselves,

(5) Measures for your masters."— {From Sir J. G. Wilkinson.)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

An Egyptian Temple, with the Priests bringing in the Ark of the

God.........................................................................Frontispiece.

Early Assyrian Chariot....................................................Title-Paye.

Assyrian Cylinder................................................Back of Title-Page.

pagr

Plants from Egyptian Sculptures.........,........................................ xi

Head of a Persian King (Persepolis)............................................ xiii

Hieroglyphics—An Egyptian Threshing-Song............................. xiv

Assyrian Pattern (Nimrud)......................................................... 17

The Nile during the Inundation................................................... 30

Boat of the Nile....................................................................... 46

Ruins and Vicinity of Philas....................................................... 47

Hieroglyph of Menes................................................................. 56

Sphinx and Pyramids................................................................ 60

Quarry-marks on Stones in the Great Pyramid................................ 62

Plan of the Pyramids of Jizeh..................................................... 63

Hieroglyph of Shafre................................................................ 64

Hieroglyph of Memphis............................................................. 71

Bull-Fight......................................................................... 81

Memnonium during the Inundation.............................................. 103

Pavilion of Rameses III............................................................ 118

An Egyptian Archer carrying spare Arrows.................................... 134

Allies of the Egyptians.............................................................. 135

Dress of an Egyptian King...................................................•..... 163

Funeral Boat, or Baris............................................................... 181

Hieroglyphic Characters............................................................. 213

Tomb at Sakhara, arched with Stone, inscribed with the Name of Psam-

atikll...............................................................................• 217

The Mound of Birs-Nimrud......................................................... 219

Figures from the Signet Cylinder of King Urukh............................. 245

The Mesopotamian Plain........................................................... 247

Figure of Tiglath-pileser I. (From a Rock-Tablet near Korkhar.)....... 269

Site of Nineveh........................................................................ 272

Ruins of Nineveh...................................................................... 274

The Mound of Nimrud.............................................................. 276

Plan of the Mound of Nimrud..................................................... 279

Plan of Palace of Asshur-nasir-pal................................................ 282

Black Obelisk, from Nimrud....................................................... 289

Prisoners presented by the Chief Eunuch (Nimrud Obelisk)................ 293

xvi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAOfl

Nebo (from a Statue in the British Museum)..........................,.....296

Excavations at Koyunjik....................................„....................„.. 300

Glass Vase, bearing the Name of Sargon, from Nimrud...................... 314

King punishing Prisoners (Khorsabad).......................................... 315

Assyrians flaying their Prisoners.................................................. 316

Hound held in Leash (Koyunjik)................................................. 338

View of Babil from the West...................................................... 339

Ancient Assyrian Cylinder in Serpentine........................................ 364

Babylonian Brick..............................................................._s..... 366

Chaldaiau Reeds (from a Slab of Sennacherib)................................. 367

Bowariyeh............................................................................. 368

Temple of the Moon, Mugheir..................................................... 372

Seal-Cylinder on metal Axis....................................................... 375

Serio-Comic Drawing. (From a Cylinder).................................... 386

Fallen Rock Sculptures at Bavian................................................ 387

Cuneiform Characters................................................................ 389

Hieratic Characters................................................................... 390

Emblems of Asshur (after Lajard)................................................ 410

Royal Cylinder of Sennacherib.................................................... 410

Emblems of the Principal Gods. (From an Obelisk in the British

Museum)............................................................................ 412

Persepolis............................................................................... 413

The Persian "Ferouher"........................................................... 437

The Rock of Behistun................................................................ 438

Sculptures on the Rock of Behistun.............................................. 456

Mons Argasus, in Cappadocia....................................................... 457

Rock-cut Lycian Tomb.............................................................. 473

Coin of Lycia......................................................................... 497

Tomb of Midas, King of Phrygia, at Nacolicia............................. .. 498

Coin of Sardis......................................................................... 506

Ruins of Miletus...................................................................... 508

Tomb of Alyattes, Sepulchral Chamber.......................................... 525

Tomb of Cyrus at Murg/idb, the ancient Pasargadaj......................... 526

Ruins of Sardis........................................................................ 542

Double Griffin Capital (Persepolis)............................................... 551

Bronze Figure of Apis............................................................... 552

Gateway to Hall of a Hundred Columns (Persepolis)........................ 565

Tomb of Darius........................................................................ 567

Mound of Susa......................................................................... 581

Grand Range of Lebanon........................................................... 594

Damascus............................................................................ 618

Bronze Lion, from Nimrud.............. ........................ ................. 624

Assyrian Pattern (Nimrud),

THE

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST.

INTRODUCTION.

THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

5 1. The province and limits of Secular History. § 2. Distinguished from Sacred History. § 3. Antediluvian and Postdiluvian civilization. Primitive arts and institutions, § 4. Cradle of the Human Race. § 5. Geographical view of the Ancient World. Mountain-systems of Asia, Europe, and Africa. § G. The Great Desert Zone and its interruptions. The Nile, Euphrates, and Red Sea. The Oxns and Jaxartes. The outposts of aucient civilization. §7. The Races of mankind, and theirfirst migrations. The record in Genesis x. Four principles of Classification : race, language, country, and nation. § 8. Physiological distinction of Races. The Caucasian alone belongs to ancient history. § 9. Range of the ethnological table in Genesis. § 10. The Hamite Race, in Ethiopia and Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Palestine, and Babylonia. Cushite Kingdom of Nimrod. Characteristics of the race. 5 11. The Japhethite Race in Asia and Europe. § 12. The Shemite Race, in s. W Asia. § 13. Classification according to Language. § 14. Threefold division of Languages, the isolating, agglutinative, and inflecting; not-perfect tests of race. The Turanian family, almost beyond the range of ancient history, f 15. The two families of inflectional languages. § 10. The Indo-European Family. § 17. The Semitic Family. Sub-Semitic branch. The Egyptian language. § is. Correspondence of the families of languages with the classification of races. § 19. Distinction between the Eastern and Western nations. Its physical and moral causes. § 20. Antagonism of the East and West. Importance of the history of the East.

§ 1. Secular History treats of the human race as civilized, and as organized into political societies. It begins only when it can be based upon contemporary records. Mere indications of man's presence on the earth at some uncertain period are insufficient authorities. For the most part, they relate to the natural history of the species, not to the civil history of the race; and what further significance they may have belongs to historical hypothesis rather than to history. The flint implements and weapons found in certain strata of the earth's surface, and bearing the marks of human contriv ance—the piles covered by Swiss lakes, which have supported human habitations—the human bones carefully hidden in sepulchral barrows, or rudely scattered amidst the remains

18

THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

of extinct animals—are of the deepest interest to the student of anthropological science. Diffused over the surface of the world, both old and new, they may bear witness to the almost universal existence at some primeval age, whether antediluvian or still earlier, of men whose civilization was of the lowest and their labor of the hardest; but whose implements, however rude, prove that they rose above and had dominion over the brutes; whose rough pictures show some idea of art, while their care for sepulchral rites suggests their belief in a future state. But such inferences form no materials for history, unless these remains could be connected (like the monuments of Egypt) with races of which we have authentic records.

§ 2. On the other hand, the authoritative accounts, derived only from revelation, of the creation of man and the preparation of the earth for his abode ; of his primeval innocence and his fall; of the entrance of sin and the promise of redemption ; of his first probation and his destruction by the Flood; of the new patriarchal line that sprang from Noah, and their renewed declension ; of the choice of Abraham and his race to preserve religious truth and hope amidst a new moral deluge; and of the law given to them by Moses ; in short, the whole period till Israel, as a nation, comes in contact with the other nations, is best treated separately as Sacred History.¹

§ 3. With the antediluvian age, therefore, we have now no concern, except in so far as the relics of its civilization, preserved by Noali, were revived in the New World. Marriae/e had been ordained from the creation ; but polygamy was practised by Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain. Material civilization received its stimulus from the curse which first made needful labor painful. The pursuits of the first two sons of Adam gave an example of the different occupations of the husbandman and the ])asto?'al life. The Cainite race, in their spirit of proud independence, gathered themselves into civic communities, and invented the industrial and some of the fine arts. Cain built the first city ; and of Lamech's two pairs of children, Jabal and Jubal represent the nomad pastoral life and the invention of musical instruments ; while Tubal Cain was the first worker in brass and iron, and (tradition adds) his sister, Naamah, invented spinning and weaving. Here are all the essential germs of material civilization, to which was added by Noah (if not before) the culture of the vine, and the art of wine-making.

¹ This part of Ancient History will be found in the "Student's Old Testament History," books i., ii., and iii.

CRADLE OF THE HUMAN RACE.

19

The use of animal food, perhaps already practised in the bloody banquets of the lawless antediluvians, was permitted to Noah, under the restriction of abstinence from blood ; and the new law against murder granted the power of life and death to the civil magistrate." That authority belonged for the present to the patriarch, whose family embraced (so far as the only historic record gives us any information) the whole surviving race of man." The narrative of the Deluge itself, and the wide-spread traditions which preserve its memory over the earth, are best referred to Sacred History.²

§ 4. Neither the place nor the time of the second origin of our race can be determined with any certainty.

The latter rests on calculations, for which we have neither a fixed starting-point nor undisputed methods. We have no trustworthy chronology till the time of the Babylonian empire.³

As to the former, there is more agreement. Nearly all interpreters of Scripture place the cradle of the Postdiluvian race in the highlands of Asia; and, while some contend for the Alpine plateau of Little Bokhara (the Belourtac/li) as the Merou and Berezat or Albora of Indian and Persian tradition, the more general opinion adheres to the mountains of Armenia. If the former is the more natural centre for the Aryan race, which took possession of Iran and Northern India, the latter (which prevalent tradition identifies with Ararat) seems the appropriate starting-place for the peoples of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa.

§ 5. The regions just named form the whole scene of Ancient History; for of India we only have an occasional glimpse, as it is touched by the conquerors of Western Asia. That portion of the tripartite continent of the Old World which is the field of Ancient History lies wholly within the northern temperate zone ; for the tropic of Cancer passes just south of the Persian Gulf and the frontier of Egypt, It is divided by great mountain-chains and table-lands into three portions, both physically and historically distinct. The chief nucleus of its mountain system is in Armenia, whence ranges, prolonged to the west and east, sever the seats of ancient civilization from the great plain of Northern Europe and Asia, which slopes away to the Arctic Ocean.

The central Asiatic range, after sweeping round the southern margin of the Caspian Sea, pursues an easterly course to the Hindoo Koofth (the Indian Caucasus of the ancients),

² " Student's Old Testament History," chap. iv.

³ See the note on Scripture Chronology iu the " Student's Old Testament nistory," chap, iii., note A.

20

THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

north of Afghanistan and the Punjab, where another great knot is formed. One system running to the north-east under the names of Moussour and Altai, and another, the Himalayas, to the east, inclose between them the great table-lands of Tibet and Mongolia, which the former chains divide from the great Siberian plain, and the latter from the two Indian peninsulas ; while a third range, prolonged from the Himalayas to the north-east, divides the plateaux of Tibet and Mongolia from the maritime plains of China and Manchouria, From the central knot in Armenia, another chain runs to the southeast, along the edge of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the Persian Gulf, aiuf the northern shore of the Indian Ocean, to the Delta of the Indus, where it is linked to the Hindoo Koosh by the Soliman Mountains, running north and south along the western margin of the Indus valley. These three ranges inclose the table-land of Iran.

The two chief Asiatic ranges are extended westward from Armenia in the chains of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which support between them the Peninsula of Asia Minor; while the Taurus throws off a southern branch, the Amanus, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, prolonged in the ranges of Lebanon, and culminating in the awful granite masses of the Peninsula of Sinai. The islands of the ^Egean connect, as by stepping-stones, the mountains of Asia Minor with those of Greece ; while the northern chain of Anti-Taurus (here called the Mysian Olympus) is only severed by the Bosporus from the Thracian system of Hremus (the Balkaii). Thence, prolonged to the north-west along the southern margin of the Danube valley, and thus linking itself to the Alps, and through them to the Pyrenees, this chief range of En-rope serves as the northern barrier of the three fair peninsulas which are formed by its southern branches. Above this chain (in latitude, not in height) a second, like a vast arch with its ends resting also on the Pyrenees and the Black Sea, the Cevennes, the Jura, the Vosges, the mountains of South German)-, and the Carpathians, inclose the valleys of the Rhone and Danube. From this second range the great plain of Northern and Western Europe slopes away ; but along its north-west edge, though broken by the sea into severed links, a transverse chain^runs through Scandinavia, the British Isles, Brittany, and the western side of the Spanish Peninsula, exhibiting in its geological formation some of the most ancient rocks of the earth's surface. Crossing the straits to Africa, the chain of Atlas forms the southern wall of the Western Mediterranean, and looks across to the mountains of Sicily from its eastern termination at Cape Bon.

RACES OF MANKIND.

2i

A secondary and much lower chain runs off to the southeast, skirting the Syrtes and forming the Libyan shore, to the Delta of the Nile, except where the Cyrenaic Peninsula rises to a greater height.

§ 6. South of the Atlas, the Syrtes, and the Libyan shore, the low land of the Great Libyan Desert (commonly, but scarcely accurately, called the Sahara) interposes its rainless waste of sand, broken only by an oasis here and tl er > between the basin of the Mediterranean and the rest o Africa, excluding the latter regions from the sphere of ancunt civilization. But this desert is only the western portion ol a great belt, of the same physical character, which stretches in an east and north-easterly curve from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the mountains of Manchouria ; rising into the desert table-lands of Arabia and Syria, Iran and Turan, and Gobi in Eastern Tartary. ■ -The valley of the Nile, the chasm filled by the Red Sea, and the basin through which the Tigris and Euphrates flow to the Persian Gulf, are breaks in this desert belt.

The valley of the Nile was the most ancient seat of a mighty kingdom, whose independent isolation was aided by its physical character, while its opening to the Mediterranean connected it with the European world. The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates was the ground on which various races disputed the mastery of Western Asia, from the age of Nimrod to the Caliphs ; while its possessors came in contact with the West by extending their conquests to Syria and * Asia Minor. The waters of the Red Sea, running up almost to the Mediterranean, have formed in all ages the highway of commerce between the countries of Europe and the shores of the Indian Ocean. So early was this commerce and that by way of the Persian Gulf opened, that we find the kings of Egypt and Assyria, as well as Solomon, supplied with the products of India; and, at a later period, the silk of China was used by the Asiatic Greeks and by imperial Rome.

On the north, the farthest part of Central Asia knowui to the ancients was the table-land of Turan, which, sloping westward to the Sea of Arcd, is traversed by the Oxus (Amou or Jy/nin) and the Jaxartes (Syr-deria). Their upper streams watered the fertile districts of Bactriana and Sogdi-ana, which formed the outposts of civilization, both under the Persians and the successors of Alexander; and through their passes commercial routes were established with China.

§ 7. Of the several races of mankind which peopled^ the ancient world—their first movements from their primitive seats ; their successive displacements by conquest or volunta

22

THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

ry migration ; and the positions they occupied at each period —our information depends chiefly upon the science of ethnology, ami still more on the comparison of languages, aided by tradition. But of the first steps in these movements we have one trustworthy record, clear in many points, though difficult in some, which is more and more confirmed by every conclusion to which science comes.

The Book of Genesis affirms the unity of the human race, while it distinguishes the three families which sprang from the three sons of Noah ; and describes their first diffusion from their primeval centre.⁴ That ancient record distinguishes the four principles of classification, which, to this day, are constantly confounded. The component members of the three races are described "after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, and in their nations:" and all sound research must still have regard to race and language, geographical position and political nationality;'° though each of these elements is more or less mixed up with the others. Nor must we forget the complex nature of the inquiry. We have to seek, not for any single movement from a common centre, nor even for successive impulses at intervals of time; but we must allow for the frequent flux and reflux of the tides of population.

§ 8. The most obvious test of race is physiological formation, as seen in the stature and proportions of the body, the complexion of the skin, the color and set of the hair, and, above all, the size and shape of the skull. Four races are thus distinguished—the White, or Caucasian / the Yellow, or Mongolian; the Black, Negro, or Xigritian ; and the Red, or American. The first was the sole possessor of ancient civilization; the second appears only occasionally on the scene of ancient history, when its nomad hordes come down from their homes in the plateaux of Central Asia, over which they have always wandered ; the third is only represented by the slaves depicted on Egyptian monuments ; the fourth does not yet appear at all.' The three last are excluded from the families enumerated in Genesis x.; not as negativing their descent from Noah, but because they lay beyond the geographical range embraced by the writer.

§ 9. That range is limited to the primary settlements of the Caucasian race. It seems to lie entirely within the 20th

⁴ Genesis x.

⁵ The tendency of onr own age to confound the first and last of these elements leads to remarkable complications.

⁶ This name does not prejudge the question of the primitive abode of the race: but it is given because the most perfect physical types are regularly found among the natives of the Caucasian ir-thmus.

RACES OF MANKIND.

23

arid 60th meridians of east longitude, and the 10th and 50th parallels of north latitude ; extending from the peninsula of Greece to the table-land of Iran, and from the northern shores of the Black Sea to the mouth of the Red Sea. Without discussing the several names in detail, we may be tolerably sure of these general results.

§ 10.—I. The Hamite Race, which seems first to have left the common home, is located in Africa and South Arabia, in four branches: 1. The Oushites. in Ethiopia and the South part of Arabia, separated only by, the Straits of Bab-el-Man-deb. 2. The Egyptians, under their historic name of M'iz-raim; with the kindred Philistines on the one side, and (probably) North African tribes on the other. 3. The Libyans (probably), designated by the name of Phut. 4. The Ca-. naanites, whose tribes are particularly enumerated. The mention of Sidon among these indicates that the first settlers in Phoenicia were Hamite; though the Phoenicians of history were undoubtedly Semitic. The like displacement clearly happened in Arabia, where the same names (Havilah and SJieba) occur among the sons of Cush, and again among those of the Shemite JoMan.

Besides these nations, the record mentions a personal name among the sons of Cush, JVi?nrod, the founder of a kingdom, with four cities, in the plain of Babylonia ;⁷ and there are later traces of Cushites in the East. They seem, in fact, to have spread over India and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.

In all the countries of their abode, the Hamite race seem to have been the pioneers of material civilization, and the founders of states based on mere force. Their enduring monuments are gigantic buildings, the sculptures upon which attest the grossness of their worship of nature. Everywhere except in Egypt (and there also at last) they gave way before the races of Shem and Japheth, fulfilling Noah's prophetic curse, that Ham should be the servant of his brethren. Material grandeur yielded to spiritual power and the active energy of political life.

§ 11.—II. The Japhethite Race extends from the Caucasian region to the south-east over the table-land of Iran ; to the west over the peninsula of Asia Minor and the neighboring islands, as far as Greece (the " Isles of the Gentiles ") ; and to the north-west all round the shores of the Black Sea. That the tribes enumerated in the record were the parents of those which overspread all Europe on the one hand, and became masters of Northern India on the other, admits of no reasonable doubt.

⁷ See below, Book II., chap. x.

24 THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

§ 12.—TIL Between the other two, the Shemite Race remained nearer its primeval seats, as the destined guardian of the primeval religion and traditions. Its nucleus in Armenia (probably represented by the name Arpliasad) forms the apex of a triangle, resting on the Arabian peninsula ; along the east side of which we have the Assyrians (Asshur) and Elymaaans (Elam), the latter of whom gave way to the Japhethite Persians ; and on its west side the Aramaean race (Aram, denoting highland) of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, whose Hebrew descendants (Eber) afterwards possessed the land of Canaan. The middle space of the Syrian Desert and the whole peninsula of Arabia is the seat of the Arab tribes denoted by JoMan, the son of Eber, with whom were afterwards mingled other Semitic descendants of Abraham.

§ 13. These general results are in striking agreement with the conclusions derived from the science of Comparative Language, which is now universally regarded as the best test of national affinity. As thought 1s the most characteristic function of man, so language, the organ of thought, is his most characteristic and permanent possession—permanent in its modifications as well as in its substance. Some caution is, indeed, necessary in applying the principle. That language is not always, and of itself alone, a sufficient test of race, we see in the English-speaking Celts of our own islands, whose native dialects are only partially retained, and still more in the nations of South-western Europe, absurdly called " the Latin races,¹' because of the language which they adopted from their Roman conquerors. Such acquired languages may generally, but not always, be distinguished by direct sources of historical information.

§ 14. Languages are divided, according to their form, into the three classes of isolating, agglutinative, and inflecting. Those of the first class consist of monosyllabic root^, entirely destitute of composition and grammatical inflection. In the second, grammatical changes are denoted by the mere juxtaposition of different roots. In the third, the prefixes and terminations which modify the meaning and relations of the principal root are welded with it into one word, having lost their radical character. But we can not regard these different forms of speech as tests of different races: they seem rather to be stages through which all languages have passed. They run into each other by imperceptible gradations ; from which we may safely conclude that every inflecting language must once have been agglutinative, and every agglutinative language once isolathig. The great type of an

THE SEMITIC "FAMILY, 25

isolating language is the Chinese. The agglutinative dialects are spoken chiefly by the nomad tribes of Asia and Northern Europe, and by some of those of Southern India, the Malay peninsula, and the Indian and Pacific archipelagos. Modern ethnologists regard them as characteristic of what they call the Turanian family. As this family lies almost entirely without the range of ancient history, we are under no necessity t& discuss the questions involved in this attempted classification.

§ 15. The inflectional languages are divided into two families, distinguished with great clearness, and comprehending those of all the nations with whose history we are now concerned. With sufficient resemblance in some of their most important roots to justify belief in their ultimate common origin, these two families exhibit the most striking diversities from one another and resemblances among their respective members. These diversities and resemblances are seen, not only in the roots, but chiefly in the grammatical inflections—elements necessarily developed by processes of change which make accidental coincidences on a large scale impossible. The two families are known by the names of Indo-European and Semitic.

§ 16.—I. The^Indo-European or Indo-Germanic languages are so named from the two extremities of the chain in which they stretch from south-east to north-west across Asia and Europe. They are sometimes also called Aryan, from the races which peopled Eastern Persia and Northern India. The sacred language of India, the Sanskrit, stands first in the series. The latter is also, organically, the most complete in its forms ; but it is too much to affirm that it is always the nearest to the common parent tongue, to which all the languages of the family point back. Next come the ancient and modern languages of Persia and the other countries on the table-land of Iran : then those of Armenia and the Caucasian isthmus; whence the family spreads out over all Europe, to the shores of the North Sea and the Atlantic.⁸

§ 17.—II. The. Semitic languages are so called, not as implying necessarily the common descent of the nations speaking them from Shem—for the linguistic classification is independent of', though co-ordinate with, the classification by race—but because the most conspicuous members of the family are those whose Shemite descent is affirmed in Scrip-ture : the Hebrews and Arabs, Syrians and Assyrians. These nations occupied, and for the most part still occupy, the south-west corner of Asia, to the left of the Lido-Germanic

⁸ See Notes and Illustrations—(A.) "Tabic of th« Indo-European Languages."

26-

TH E NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

zone ; pent in between the highlands of Armenia and Iran on the east, the Mediterranean and Red Sea on the west, and the Gulf of Arabia on the south.

But some languages are included in the family which have by no means the same marked affinity with the rest as that which unites the Indo-European tongues. Some authorities, guided by theories respecting the early relations of the Shemite and Hamite races, consider the Semitic family as originally Hamitic. But, as yet, comparative philology has not succeeded in establishing a distinct family of languages corresponding to the Hamitic race; and the languages of the latter are meanwhile classed as Sub-Semitic. Hence, we have the division into (1) Semitic Proper, including Ara-ma?an, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic ; and (2) the Sub-Semitic, including the Egyptian or Coptic, and perhaps the languages of the ancient Libyans, still preserved by the Ka-byles and Touargs of North Africa, and by some tribes of the Upper Nile.⁹ The affinities of the Egyptian language, however, are still an open question. It has elements in common with the Indo-European as well as the Semitic families, which may perhaps aid in guiding us a step nearer to the common original of human speech.

§ 18. The classification of nations by their languages has the great advantage of enabling us to construct an ethnological picture for any period at which the languages are known, and to follow the migrations of the peoples speaking the several tongues. Thus, for example, the common evidence of a Low German tongue enables us to trace back our own ancestors to their homes on the other side of the German Ocean. Language is a living fact, while the recorded or traditional history of the movements of races are in many points most doubtful.

Still, what has now been said will show the striking general agreement of the record in Genesis with the results of comparative philology. The Indo-European family corresponds to the Japhethite races, not only as far as the range included in the biblical record, but the extensions of the former are what might be expected from the latter. The range of the Semitic family proper is precisely that assigned to the Shemite races, with the addition of Ethiopia, where, as in neighboring parts of Arabia, they displaced the Cushites; while the more complicated relations of the sub-Semitic languages are what we might have expected from the movements of the Hamites and Shemites. The whole result is to divide the nations of the ancient world into two great

⁹ See Notes and Illustrations—(B.) "Table of Semitic Languages."

EASTERN AND WESTERN NATIONS.

27

groups, of which the one expanded, and made more free and powerful, the civilization begun by the other. The very names of Shera (exaltation) and Japheth (enlargement) are symbolical of those destinies of the races which, were foretold in Noah's prophecy:—" God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tabernacles (inherit the power and high privileges) of Shem."

§ 19. The course of history establishes another broad division of the ancient nations into the Eastern and the Western. The latter represents the free energy of the Indo-European races ; the former, not uninfluenced" by the same element, as contributed by the Aryan stock, absorbed it into its own mass of immobility and despotism. Thus the Median and Persian conquerors of the Babylonian Empire, and long afterwards the Greek rulers of Egypt and Syria, conformed to the Oriental type. The causes of this were both physical and moral. In those early ages, when men saw that

"The world was all before them, where to choose,'

the virgin basins of great rivers like the Euphrates and the Nile, teeming beneath a sub-tropical sun, became the flrst seats of civilization. An agricultural population, wedded to the soil, easily submitted to the royal claims which were the exaggeration of patriarchal power, and consoled themselves by admiring the pomp and luxury of their kings. The principle of obedience to authority, which preserved the true religion among the chosen people of God, was elsewhere debased into a religious reverence for despots. The same causes, which at first stimulated civilization, gave it a fixed and immobile character. The vast river basins, with only a narrow opening to the sea, were excluded from the vivifying influences which were ever moving on the indented shores of the Mediterranean, and on the varied surface of its great peninsulas; and the climate of the East admitted not the free life of European energy.

§ 20. From these causes, quite as much as from difference of race, springs that great distinction which marks the two different streams, and the two antagonistic principles, of ancient history; the eastern and the western ; the civilization of the Nile and the Euphrates with the fixed principles of their great monarchies, and the higher civilization and no-bier political, literary, and artistic life which grew up on the shores of the Mediterranean, and was destined to cover the whole world. Our early study of, and sympathy with the latter, is, however, left imperfect, unless we are familiar with what the former did to prepare its way-, so as to under

28

THE NATIONS AND THEIR ABODES.

stand the full significance of the ultimate triumph of the West.

The permanent character of Asiatic civilization enables us still to study its principles in their ancient abodes; and though the old Asiatic empires have long since vanished before the energy of conquering races, dissolving as easily as they were formed, leaving but fragmentary notices in ancient literature, the time has come when the newly deciphered records of Egypt and Assyria supply materials for the authentic ancient history of the East.

(A). Classes.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Table or the Indo-European Family or Languages.

Branches.

Indic.

Iranic.

f Cymric..

Celtic... \

LGadhelic

Illyric... Hellenic.

Lettic.

Windic... <

Dead Languages. Living Languages,

Dialects of: (Prakrit and Pali, Modern) India.

\ and Vedic Sanskrit........)" The gypsies.

'Parsi, Pelilevi, Zend.......... Persia.

Afghanistan. Kurdistan. Bokhara.

Old Armenian................. Armenia.

.................................... Ossetlii.

⁷................................... Wales.

....................... Brittany.

< Cornish (...........

Scotland. Ireland. Isle of Man. Portugal. Spain. Provence.

.Dialects of Greek.

Oscan .................

Unibrian - Langue d'oc .

Latin ) Langue d'oil...... France.

................................... Italy.

jWallachia.

.................................... (The Grisons.

(Albania.

...... "(Greece.

f................................. Lithuania.

j Old Prussian................................

] (Friesland and

I .................................... - Livonia (Let-

( tish).

. _{t c}„ (Ecclesiastical Slavonic........ Bulgaria.

Southeast Sla- ^x Russia

^vonic........(.;."'. v.'.v.V....... . .........myna.'

(................................... Poland.

• Old Bohemian.................. Bohemia.

(Polabian............Eusatm._

West nic.

Slavo-

»° From Professor Max.Mi'iller's " Lectures on the Science of Language," p. 380.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

20

Classes.

Teutonic. <

Branches. Dead Languages. Living Languages.

Dialects of:

* . . r, (Old High German and) _n___

High German. -J _Middt_e High German.} ^Ge™y-

f Gothic...................................

! Anglo-Saxon............... England.

Low German.. { Old Dutch.................. Holland.

| Old Friesian................ Friesland.

I^Old Saxon.................. North Germany

(Piatt Deutsch). f Den mark.

Scandinavian.. Old Norse...................<j ^^way'

^Iceland.

(B). Table of the Semitic Family of Languages.

Classes. Dead Languages. Living Languages.

Arabic (....................................................... Dialects of Arabic.

or - Ethiopic............................................. Amharic.

Southern. (Himvaritic Inscriptions.....................................

f Biblical Hebrew................................."1 Dialects of the

Hebraic j ^ _Jews

or

at' 111 i Samaritan Pentateuch, 6a centnrv a.d..... ............

Middle. ^Q_arti_ing:_ni_ani Phoenician Inscriptions......J ............

f Chaldee, Masora, Talmud, Targum, Bibli-^j

Aramaic j cal Chaldee.................................... | ............

or { Syria e, Peshito, 2d century a.d............... } Neo-Syriac.

Northern, j Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Nip.- I

L even............................................. J ...........«

The Nile during the InundatioH.

BOOK I.

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTRY, THE RIVER, AND THE PEOPLE.

§ 1. The Egyptians were the first civilized state. § 2. Egypt formed by the valley of the Nile. Its boundaries. § 3. Description of the Nile. The Blue and White Rivers. Sources of the Nile. § 4. Course of the Nile : (i.) to its junction with the Tacazze. The Island of Meroe. § 5. (ii.) Through Nnbia to Syene. The Cataracts. Islands of Philai and Elephantine. Legend related by Herodotus. Proximity to the tropic. § G. (iii.) To the apex of the Delta. The Fyum. The Pyramids. § 7. (iv.) The Delta. Distinction of Lower aud Upper Egypt. Months of the Nile in ancient and modern times. Lakes and Canals. Extent of the Delta. Its formation. § 8. Annual inundation of the Nile. Its regularity and beneficial effect. Its cause and season. Fertility of Egypt. § 0. Causes of the early prosperity of Egypt, (i.) Its inaccessibility to foreign invasion. § 10. (ii.) Its abundant supply of food. § 11. (iii.) Means of communication afforded by the Nile. § 12. The Nile a stimulus to mental effort and the cultivation of the sciences. Astronomy, Geometry, Engineering. § 13. Inflnence of the Nile upon the ideas aud religion of the Egyptians. The Nile and the Desert: Life and Death: Osiris aud Typhon. Burial of the Dead. Belief in a future state. §14. The geological formation of Egypt supplied abundant materials for the workman. Limestone, granite, marble, porphyry, basalt, etc. Iron and other mines in Sinai worked by the early Kings. § 15. Origin of the Egyptians. Hypotheses of their Ethiopian and Indian origin untenable. § 10. Physiological evidence. The Egyptian mummies and portraits show an Asiatic type. § 17. The Egyptian language is intermediate between the Asiatic and African dialects. § IS. Names of Egypt: native : Hebrew and Arabic: and Greek.

§ 1. In the earliest dawn of history the Egyptians appear as a highly civilized and powerful people. Many centuries

INFLUENCE OF RIVERS.

31

before any empire had been established on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and while the Hebrew patriarchs were wandering with their flocks and herds on the plains of Mesopotamia,¹ the valley of the Nile wns governed by a great and mighty sovereign, whose country was the granary of_% the surrounding nations,² and whose people cultivated the arts which refine and embellish life. But even then the pyramids were old, and the tombs at their base reveal a high degree of civilization. The inquisitive Greeks, who visited Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries before the Christian era-, gazed with wonder upon the stupendous monuments which we still behold, and were powerfully impressed with the immemorial antiquity of the people.³ Tn short, there can be no doubt, from the concurrent testimony of Hebrew and Greek literature, and from the evidence afforded by the monuments of the country, that the Egyptians formed a great and civilized community long anterior to any other people, and consequently that they deserve the earliest place in the history of the ancient world.

§ 2. The history of all nations has been influenced by their rivers; and the course of civilization has usually followed, whether upward or downward, the course of the streams. But the influence exercised by the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Ganges, upon the inhabitants of their plains, has been small compared with the influence of the Nile upon the people of its valley. To the Nile the Egyptians owed, not only their civilization and their peculiar institutions, but the very existence of their country. Egypt has been emphatically called " the gift of the Nile,"⁴ without whose fertilizing waters it would have been only a rocky desert. It is a long narrow valley, shut in by two ranges of mountains, through which flows the deep and mighty river, leaving on either side a slip of fertile land created by the deposits of its inundation. The average breadth of this valley is about seven miles ; but the mountain-ranges sometimes approach so near as almost to touch the river, and in no place are they more than eleven miles apart.

The boundaries of Egypt are marked by nature, and have been in all ages the same. On the east and west the Arabian and Libyan hills accompany the Nile, till the valley expands into the broad plain of the Delta upon the Mediterranean Sea, where the xYrabian Desert separates it from Pal-

¹ The history of the wars of the petty princes of Mesopotamia, recorded in Genesis xiv., proves that no powerful kingdom existed in that, country in the time of Abraham. ² Genesis xiii. 10 ; xlii. 1.

^s See especially the striking words of Plato, ^il De Leg.," ii. 0, p. 050.

⁴ Herod, ii. 5.

32

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

estine upon'the east, and the Libyan Desert forms its western boundary. On the south, Egypt was divided from Ethiopia by the rapids (or "first cataract") between the islands of Elephantine and Philae. An ancient oracle of Amnion defined the Egyptians to be the people who dwelt below the cataracts, and drank of the waters of the Nile.⁵ Under the Romans these rapids were the southern boundary, not only of Egypt, but of their own empire ;⁶ and at the present day they separate the Egyptians and the Arabic language, to the north, from Uie Nubians and the Berber language to the south.⁷. But the Egyptian monarchy, in its palmy days, extended far beyond the First Cataract. The course of civilization and empire has always followed the course of the Nile, either upward or downward ; and this mysterious river is so closely interwoven with the history and institutions of the Egyptians, that a brief description of its course and its physical phenomena is an essential preliminary to the history of the country.

§ 3. The Nile⁶ is formed by the junction of two rivers, which meet in the latitude of 15° 37' north and longitude 33° east of Greenwich, near the modern village of Khartum, where it is above two miles broad. From the color of their waters these streams have received the names of the White and the Blue rivers. The White River flows from the south-west, and brings down the larger volume of water; the Blue River comes from the south-east, and is much the more rapid. The latter, and the Black River, Atbarah, or Tacazz'e (the ancient Astaboras), which joins the Nile from the east, both flow down from the highlands of Abyssinia with a moderate volume, except at the season of the summer rains, when their swollen and turbid waters wash down the earthy matters from which they derive their color and their najnes. The clear perennial stream of the White River has always been recognized as the true Nile; and its sources have been from the remotest times a mystery, and have given rise to various conjectures.⁹ Herodotus supposed that the river, which the Nasamones, after crossing the Great Desert, found flowing eastward, was really the

⁵ Herod, ii. IS. ⁶ Tac. "Ann.," ii. CI.

⁷ Parthey, "De Philis Insula." Berlin, 1S30.

⁸ The name of the Xile (NelXos-, Nilns) comes to us from the Greeks, who probably derived it from the Phoenicians. By Homer the river is called uEggjAus (Od. iii. 300, iv. 477); but in Hesiod (Theng. 33S) the name of Xile appears, and tin's designation is uniformly used by succeeding Greek writers. In hieroglyphic inscriptions the Nile is termed Hcipimu, or "the abyss of waters," and in Coptic Pcro,ov "The River." The Hebrews entitled it Xahal-Misrairn, or "River of Egypt" (Genesis xv. 18), and sometime¹? SiJwr, or " The Black " (Isaiah xxiii. 3 ; Jerem. ii. IS).

⁹ The sources of the Bine River were discovered by the traveller Bruce (a.o. 1770); but they had been visited before by the Jesuit missionary PaOz.

COURSE OF THE NILE THROUGH EGYPT.

3.3

Nile.¹⁰ Under the Roman empire, it was believed by many that the Nile rose in Mauretania, and, after flowing through the centre of Africa as the Niger, at last entered Ethiopia as the Nile.¹¹ Ptolemy, with that wonderful amount of information which he derived from adventurous traders, for later ages to lose and rediscover, marks the Nile as rising from some lakes or swamps, the " Paludes Nili," south of the Equator, which are in their turn fed by streams flowing from a range which he calls the " Mountains of the Moon.'' His views had been discredited for centuries, when the discoveries of Speke and Grant (in 1862), and Baker (in 1864), proved that the Nile issues, in lat. 2° 45' north and long. 31° 25' east from the reservoir of the lake Albert Nyanza, which receives, near the outlet of the river, a secondary stream from the lake Victoria Nyanza; these two lakes covering a vast space under and on both sides of the Equator.¹² Still, in strict geographical science, the problem is not finally solved, till the sources which feed these lakes, and especially the Albert Nyanza, shall have been discovered.

§ 4. From the Albert Nyanza the Nile flows to the north and north-east, increased by numerous tributaries, for about 1000 miles, to its junction with the Blue River at Khartum, and thence 170 miles farther, till, in lat. 17° 40' north and long. 34° east, it receives the Black River, its last confluent. The vast plain inclosed between these two chief tributaries was called the island of Meroe,¹³ and was the seat of the great sacerdotal kingdom of Ethiopia, connected by kindred and customs with Egypt, over which it once ruled for a time. In this part of its course the river flows by ruined temples and pyramids, which clearly indicate the connection.

§ 5. From the Astaboras to Syene, a distance of about 700 miles through Nubia, the navigation of the Nile is interrupted by various rapids, or, as the Greeks called them, cataracts. They are seven in number, and are formed by shelves of granite lying across the bed of the river. For a long distance the Nile traverses almost a desert till a little below the fourth cataract,¹⁴ where pyramids and temples, and oth-

¹⁹ Herod, ii. 33.

¹¹ This was stated by Juba, who lived in the reign of Augustus, ou the authority of Carthaginiau writers (Plin. v. 9, § 10). It is repeated by Dion Cassias (Ixxv. 13).

¹² The Victoria Nyanza lies betweeu lat. 0° 15' N. and 2° 30' S: the Albert Nyanza Is reported by the natives to be known as far as 2° S., and thence to trend away W, to an unknown distance. It is in this quarter that some considerable affluent may perhaps be looked for.

¹³ The ancient geographers frequently applied the name of isla7id to a space included between two or more confluent rivers. The modern name of Sennaar, denoting the country between the White and Blue Rivers, is probably identical with that of Shinar, in Mesopotamia, being both Semitic terms signifying Twc Rivers.

^u The cataracts are numbered in the order of the ascent of the river.

o*

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

er traces of ancient civilization again appear. Between the second, or Great Cataract, and the First Cataract at Syene, the remains of ancient art are still more numerous; but the two ranges of hills almost shut in the river, and leave little space for cultivation.

" Immediately above the First Cataract lies the sacred island ofPhila?, the burial-place of the god Osiris, still coverecVwith numerous temples and colonnades. The fails extend from Philae to Syene¹⁵ and the island of Elephantine, a distance of five miles. Throughout this space the river is broken by fantastic masses of black porphyry and granite, which rise to the height of forty feet, and between which the waters force their" way in violent eddies and currents. According to a tale which Herodotus heard from the treasurer at Sai's, in Lower Egypt, the Nile rose at this point between two peaked mountains, called Crophi and Mophi, from which it ran down northward into Egypt, and southward into Ethiopia.¹⁶ It is not difficult to imagine that an inhabitant of Lower Egypt, who had been accustomed to the cairn unbroken flow of his majestic river, would be astonished at the strange convulsion of the water, and would endeavor to account for it by supposing that the river here burst forth from unfathomable caverns. Marvellous tales reached the "West of the deafening sound with which the water descended from lofty precipices ;¹⁷ whereas, in reality, the entire descent is only eighty feet in a space of five miles.

The statement of the ancient geographers, that the sun passed vertically over Syene at the summer solstice—his image being reflected perpendicularly in a well, and an upright stick casting no shadow, at noon—though not precisely accurate, may serve to remind us that the southern limit of Egypt is only just outside of the tropic of Cancel'. The true latitude of Syene is 24° 5' 23", and the least shadow of a vertical stick is only injTjth of its length.

§ 6. From its entrance into Egypt at Syene, the Nile flows in one unbroken stream for upward of 600 miles, as far as the apex of the Delta. The two chains of mountains which inclose its valley press unequally upon its banks. The western range recedes farther from the river, and hence most of the Egyptian cities were on its western side. The breadth of the valley varies from ten miles at the most to as little as two miles in some parts of Upper Egypt: the river itself is from 2000 to 4000 feet wide. For abo*ut fifty miles north of

¹⁵ The frontier city of Syene (Assouan) stood on the right bank of the river, just opposite to Elephantine. ¹⁶ Herod, ii. 28.

¹¹ Cicero, '• Soinn. Scip." 5; Seneca, "Nat. Qnsest." iv. 2.

COURSE OF THE NILE THROUGH EGYPT.

35

Syene, the valley is contracted and sterile, since the inundation is checked by the'rocks which approach the banks on either side; but at Apollinopolis the Great (JEklfou, in 25° north lat.) the valley begins to expand, and becomes still wider at Latopolis (EsneJi). Below this, it again contracts so closely as barely to leave space for the passage of the river; but almost immediately afterwards it opens out into a still wider plain, in which stood the royal city of Thebes. Here the western hills attain their greatest elevation, rising precipitously from the plain to the height of 1200 feet above the level of the river. The plain of Thebes is shut in on the north by another approach of the hills ; but they soon recede again, and henceforth the Xile flows through a valley of considerable width. Near Diospolis Parva, on the left bank, begins the canal called the Bahr- Ymsuf (Canal of Joseph¹"), which is, however, more probably an ancient branch of the Xile. It runs in a direction nearly parallel to the river, at a distance varying from three to six miles.

About eighty miles before reaching Memphis, the Libyan hills take a wide sweep to the north-west, and, again approaching the river, inclose a considerable space, known in ancient times as the district (nome) of Arsinoe, and now called the Fyum. This district, which was one of the most fertile in Egypt, contained the Lake of Moeris and the Labyrinth. Before reaching Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, and sometimes of the^whole land, we see the gigantic Pyramids standing upon a natural terrace of rock on the borders of the Libyan Desert. In that vast level, as they grow and grow upon the approaching traveller, they bear a nearer resemblance to artificial mountains than could have seemed within the compass of human art.

§ 7. A little below Memphis, the hills, which have so long accompanied the river, turn off on either side, leaving a flat alluvial plain, called from its triangular shape the Delta (A), through which the Xile finds its way into the sea by several sluggish streams. The Delta was also called Lower Egypt, while the valley of the Xile, from above the Delta to Syene, received the name of Upper Egypt.¹⁹ The apex of the Delta, or the point where the Xile divides, was in the time of Herodotus at the city of Cercasorus, about ten miles below Memphis; but it is now six or seven miles lower down the river.

The ancients reckoned seven branches of the Xile, of which

¹⁸ So named, not from the patriarch, bnt from an Arab ruler who improved it.

¹⁹ The term Middlk E^vrx is of late origin. As Mr. Kenrick truly observes, " the distinction of Upper aud Lower Egypt exists in geological structure, iu language, in religion, and in historical tradition."

36

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

five were natural and two artificial; but the main arms were the Pelusiac, which formed the eastern boundary of the Delta ; the Ototopic, which formed the western ; and the Sebennytic, which continued in the direction of the river before its division. The bifurcation of the western branch made the Bolbitine mouth, east of the Canopic ; and three branches from the middle stream made the Phatnitic, the Meudesian, and the Tanitic or Static mouths, between the Sebennytic and Pelusiac. The navigable arms are now reduced to two, that of Posetta, the ancient Bolbitine, and that of Damiat, the ancient Phatnitic; and a vast tract between this and the old Pelusiac mouth is converted into the lake of Menzaleh, which communicates with the sea by the old Mendesian and Tanitic mouths. In fact, the Delta has always been fringed by lakes; such as that of Mareotis (now a mere lagoon), on the bank between which and the sea Alexandria was built; Buto (Bourlos), through which the Sebennytic mouth flowed ; and, half-way between Pelusium and the frontier of Palestine, the lake or morass of Serbonis, celebrated for the disaster of the army of Darius Ochus in b.c. 350 :

"That Serbonian bog, Betwixt Damiata aud Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have snnk."—Milton.

Besides the mouths of the Xile, the Delta was intersected bv numerous canals, said to have been dug by the hosts of prisoners whom Sesostris brought home after his victorious expeditions.²⁰ Of the canal designed to unite the Mediterranean ami the Red Sea we shall have to speak in another place.

The alluvial plain of the Delta forms a vast expanse unbroken by a single elevation, except where mounds of earth mark the site of ruined cities, or raise the towns and villages above the inundation. Its length in a straight line, from north to south,is nearly 100 miles; the breadth of its base, following the line of the coast from the Canopic to the Pelusiac mouth, is more than 200 miles; but the name of Delta is now applied only to the space between the Rosetta and Damiat branches, which is about 90 miles in extent,

Geological science shows that the Delta was once a deep bay and the valley of Upper Egypt an arm of the sea, from the bottom of which it has been raised, together with the adjoining isthmus of Suez. But during the whole course of human history, the country has shown the same chief features ; and the moderate rate of deposit of the soil, within the period measured by the existing monuments, leaves no ground for the speculations of Herodotus on the myriads of

²⁰ Herod, ii. 10S.

INUNDATION OF THE NILE.

37

years which the Nile must have taken in filling up a gulf which once resembled the Red Sea. The alluvium is only a superficial deposit on a bed of limestone, and the sea-shore of the Delta has rather receded than advanced within the memory of man.

§ 8. The most wonderful occurrence in Egypt, the event upon which the very existence of the people depends, is the annual inundation of the Xile. In all hot countries an abundant supply of water is indispensable to agriculture; and as .Egypt possesses no natural springs, and rain rarely falls in the upper country,³¹ the inhabitants can rely upon nothing but the waters of the Xile. The inundations of other rivers are capricious and uncertain, and carry with them desolation and destruction of life and property ; but the overflow of the Xile occurs at a regular and certain period, and spreads fertility and opulence over the land. The reasons of this periodical overflow early excited the curiosity of observers ■■ and various theories were invented to account for it.

The true cause, the periodical rains which fall in Ethiopia, was first pointed out by Agatharcides of Cnidus,²² who wrote in the second century before the Christian era. The periodic storms which, as in all tropical countries, follow the course of the vertical sun, descend in torrents of rain on the lofty mountains of Abyssinia. The White and Blue rivers are filled in May; but it is not till after the summer solstice that the Xile begins to rise in Egypt. At the beginning of July the rise becomes clearly visible, and the water mounts higher and higher every day. About the middle of August, the dams are cut, and the flood is drawn off by numerous canals; but the waters still continue to rise, and attain their greatest height in the last week of September, The. level of the flood remains stationary for about a fortnight, and then begins gradually to decline. During the inundation the land bears the aspect of a vast lake, out of which the towns rise like islands."

When the waters subside, they leave behind a thick black mud, which is superior to the richest manure, and produces crops of extraordinary fertility with hardly any cultivation. The ground requires the labor neither of the plough nor of the spade to prepare it for the seed, which, after being scattered upon the soil, and trodden in by cattle, springs up-rapidly under the warm sun of Egypt.²⁴. It was this which

3¹ Herodotus says, not at all (iii. 10); but, in fact, rain falls nbnfrt four or five limes^: a year in Upper Egypt ²² Bfiodonrs, i. 41.

²³ Herodotns (ii. 97) compares them to the islands rising out of the iEgean Sea.

²⁴ The intermixture of the black mud and bright green with v»Mch the land i* covered at this season i? happily alluded to by the poet (Virg.'^; Georg^ iv. 291) :•

"Et Viridem iEgyptum nigra fecnndat arena."

3>s

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

made Egypt the granary of the ancient world from the time of the Jewish patriarchs to the downfall of the Roman empire.

Sometimes,however,the Nile fails to reach its usual height; large districts are left beyond its reach ; the harvest is scanty, and much misery is the consequence. For this reason intense anxiety prevails throughout Egypt, when the Nile begins to increase; and from the 3d of July its rise is proclaimed daily in the streets of Cairo.²⁵ In ancient times also its rise was carefully noted at Memphis, and messengers were sent to different parts of Egypt to inform the inhabitants of its increase or decline.²⁶ There were Kilometers in different parts of Egypt: that at Elephantine, remains of which still exist, was in the form of a staircase. The height of a good inundation is now about 24 feet, which appears to have been the usual quantity in ancient times.²⁷ If it falls below 18 feet dreadful famines ensue, and the wretched population perishes by thousands. So terrible have been their sufferings upon these occasions, that instances have occurred, both in ancient and modern times, when they have been driven to feed on human flesh.²⁸ On the other hand, an excessive inundation overflows the villages, and causes much destruction.²⁹

§ 9. The physical features of Egypt enable us easily to account for the early prosperity of the country. In the first place, its inhabitants were shut off from the rest of the world in a rock-bound valley, and had little to apprehend from foreign intruders. On its western side, it stood in little fear of the barbarous tribes of the desert; while, on the only open part of its eastern side, over the isthmus of Suez, the broad sandy desert which separated it from Asia presented obstacles to an invading army, which even Cambyses, wielding the whole power of the Persian empire, found it difficult to surmount. Hence, while other lands were constantly changing their inhabitants, and one nomad tribe was chasing another nomad tribe, the Egyptians remained stationary in the valley where they originally settled, cultivating the arts of agriculture and peace, and retaining the civilization which they early acquired. We shall see, as we proceed, the contrast presented by the revolutions that fol-

²⁵ Lane, Mod. Ewwtiavs, vol. ii. p. 257. ²⁶ Died. i. 36.

^J7 In the time of Herodotus (ii. 13) the height of a good Nile was fifteen or sixteen cubits; and the statue of the Nile, which Vespasian placed in the Temple of Peace, at Eome, was surrounded by sixteen diminutive figures emblematic of there measures (Plin. xxxvi. 9, § 14). This statue is preserved in the Vatican (Visconti, "Museo Pio Clement," vol. i. p. 291). See Kenrick's " Ancient Egypt." vol. i. p. S4.

²⁸ D;od. i. s4 ; Abdallatiph's " History of Egypt," p. 107, ed. White. ^ .

^ai For example, in January, 1x70. the Nile has risen higher than within living memory, causing a damage e^tnmrerl at £8,000,000 steiling.

CAUSES OF EGYPT'S PROSPERITY.

lowed one another in the more open valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, surrounded by the homes of warlike and conquering races.

§ 10. Two other causes contributed to the rapid growth of the nation—an abundant supply of food, and easy means of communication between different parts of the country. The increase of population in every country depends mainly upon the food which it produces; and, till there is a surplus quantity of food, and a part of the population is relieved from the necessity of tilling the ground for its subsistence, a nation can make no progress in the cultivation of the arts and sciences. In Egypt, the annual inundation of the Xile made a nomad life impossible; and the abundant crops, which the rich deposits yielded, stimulated population, and required the labor of only a small portion of the community.

§11. The other cause which favored the growth of the nation was the easy and uninterrupted communication at-forded to the inhabitants by the Xile. One of the great difficulties with which an infant state has to struggle is the absence of roads; and, till these are made, each part of the community must remain isolated, and dependent upon itself for the supply of its wants. It has taken powerful nations many centuries before they have been able to establish safe and easy means of communication bet ween distant parts of their dominions. But the Egyptians possessed from the beginning a natural highway—broad, level, aud uninterrupted. In Ethiopia, the cataracts of the river and the intervening deserts prevented intercourse between neighboring tribes, and confined each to its own district; whereas in Egypt the river flows on, without any impediments to navigation, from Syene to the Mediterranean.

There is another remarkable provision of nature, which renders the Xile a still easier means of communication. While the force of the current carries vessels downward, the northerly winds, which blow nearly nine months in the year, enable them to ascend the river. Moreover, these winds blow the most steadily during the time of the Hoods, when the stream is strongest, and when navigation upward would otherwise be impossible. These winds we're called by the Greeks Etesian, or yearly winds.³⁰

§ 12. While the Xile conferred so many material blessings upon the inhabitants of its valley, it also stimulated their rational faculties, and taught them to exercise forethought and prudence. Though it yielded an abundant supply of

³⁰ Herod, ii. 20. Some supposed that they caused Ihe iuuudatiou of the Nile bj folding back its waters from euteriug Ihe sea.

40

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

food with little labor, yet it did not cherish habits of idleness. The Egyptians (lid not find, like the South Sea islanders, a continuous supply of food growing upon the trees over their heads, and were not able to neglect provision for the future. The annual inundation of the Nile compelled them to secure their dwellings and their property from the violence of the floods, and to collect a sufficient supj/ly of food to last while the land was covered with water.

As the inundation occurred at a stated period of the year, it became necessary to calculate the time of its recurrence, which could only be done by observing the course of the heavenly bodies. Hence the Egyptians divide with the Chaldeans the honor of having laid the foundations of Astronomy; and Herodotus tells us that they discovered the solar year, that is, the circuit of the sun among the stars, and divided it into 12 months and 365 days.³¹ As the inundation swept away all natural landmarks, it was necessary, when the floods subsided, to make an accurate division of the land, and to assign to each proprietor his proper fields. Hence arose the* science of Geometry.³³ With an increasing population, and with a territory limited by the sands of the desert, it became necessary to extend the inundation by artificial means to spots which it did not naturally reach. Experience taught that the fields were the most productive where the flood remained the longest, and had most time to deposit its fertilizing mud. Hence engineering science was early called into existence. Canals were dug to conduct the water where it was wanted, and its course was controlled by sluices, dikes, and similar works.

§ 13. But this was not all. This beneficent river, regarded as a god by the ancient Egyptians,³³ exercised a powerful influence upon their ideas, and especially upon their whole system of religion. Alongside of the Kile, the giver of every blessing, there was a potent enemy, the Desert, whose wasting sands were continually driving through the ravines of the mountains, and threatening to destroy the life-giving powers of the river. Hence there was ever before the eyes of the Egyptians a struggle between Life and Death, The Kile, never growing old, renewing its life every year, and calling forth nature into new and vigorous existence, was

⁵¹ Herod, ii. 9. He adds that their method of adding every year live days to their twelve months of thirty days each made the circuit of the seasons to return with uniformity} which it would not do, unless they also intercalated the odd quarter of a day which belongs to every year. This was in fact d me. though Herodotus did not Understand it, by the Sot Me (or Dog-Star) period of the priests, in which 14(5') Sot hi? years of P.e.H days were equal to 14">1 "vulgar" or " vairue" years of P,i>5 days ; f.»f one day in every four ye.irs make.? up a year (;!G,'5 days; in li'JO years.

³³ Herod, ii. 109. ³³ Herodoats (ii. 90) speaks of ^u the priests of the Nile."

IDEAS CONNECTED WITH THE NILE.

+ 1

the symbol of Life. The Desert, with its sombre hues, its unchanging appearance, its deadening and desolating influence, was the symbol of Death. The Xile, representing Life, became the Good Power, or Osiris; the Desert, representing Death, the Evil Power, or Typhon.

The nature of their country also determined the Egyptians respecting the disposal of their dead. They could not inter them in the valley, where the remains would be disturbed by the inundation ; they could not consign them to the river, which was too sacred to be polluted by any mortal body. But above the valley was the long line of rocks, in which caves could easily be excavated for the reception of the dead. The dryness of the climate was favorable to their preservation ; and the practice of embalming still further secured them from corruption and decay.

After a few generations the number of the dead in these receptacles far exceeded the number of the living. Hence the idea of death was brought prominently before the Egyptians. The contest, which was ever going on for the very existence of their land, gave a more present reality to the conflict of humanity itself; and while, on the margin of their valley, they were disputing the means of their existence with the devouring sand, they were also disputing with corruption their ofrn persons and immortality. The present life seemed only a small moment in time ; while the other world appeared vast, unlimited, and eternal. Accordingly, the present life was regarded by the Egyptians as only a preparation for a higher and better state of existence.³⁴

§ 14. Xo nation of antiquity possessed such a vast variety of monuments as the Egyptians. They studded the whole valley of the Xile in one long series. Of this, again, a reason is to be found in the physical formation of the country. The rocks on either side of the river yielded an unlimited supply of stone, of almost every variety, for the Egyptian workman; while the Xile afforded the ready means of conveying the largest masses from one part of the country to the other. In ascending the Xile from the Delta, two parallel courses of limestone accompany the traveller for a long distance. A little above Thebes begins the red sandstone, of which most of the Egyptian temples were built. In the neighborhood of Syene the particular kind of granite appears to which the name of syenite has been given; and on the eastern bank of the river are the granite quarries, from

³¹ There are some striking remarks respecting the influence of the Nile on the ideas anl religious system of the Egyptians in Miss Martine.iu's "Eastern Life. Past aud Pier-eut," vol. i. p. G-t seq.

42

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

which the obelisks and colossal statues have been hewn. One obelisk still remains there, cut out but never removed from its native rock. In the mountainous district between the Nile and the Red Sea there is a still greater variety. Here are found quarries of white marble, of porphyry, of basalt, and of the line green breccia, which is known by the name of Verde d^Egitto. The same district was rich in othei mineral treasures ; in gold, emerald, iron, copper, and lead. The Egyptians must have possessed iron at an early period, since without it they could not have worked the hard rocks of the granite quarries. Accordingly we find on the western flank of Mount Sinai heaps of scoriae, produced by the ancient smelting of the copper, mixed with iron ore, which still exist in this locality; and hieroglyphic inscriptions still attest the working of the mines of the peninsula by the same early kings of the Fourth Dynasty who built the Great Pyramid.

§ 15. The origin of the inhabitants of this singular country has been, from the earliest times, a favorite subject of speculation. The Egyptians themselves, like many other nations of antiquity, believed that they were sprung from the soil.³⁵ Diodorus,who had conversed with Ethiopian envoys in Egypt, held that the tide of civilization had descended the Nile, and that the Egyptians were a colony from the Ethiopians of Meroe.³⁶ This hypothesis has been revived in modern times, with much ingenuity, by Heeren; but it rests upon no historical facts, is improbable in itself, and is almost disproved by the absence of all ancient monuments in Upper Nubia, where nothing is found earlier than the times of the Ptolemies and the Romans. Even where the evidence of inscriptions is wanting, the monuments reveal, in their more careless workmanship and debased forms and decorations, not the primitive efforts of a ruder age, but the decay of the more perfect Egyptian art.

When the Greeks became acquainted with Western India by the conquests of Alexander, they were struck with certain similarities between the Egyptians and Hindoos, and were induced to assign a common origin to both.³⁷ This hypothesis, likewise, has been received with much favor by some modern scholars, who have pointed out the striking resemblance between the system of castes, the religious doctrines, and the temple-architecture of the two nations. But the points of difference are very striking, even in many of their institutions. The rite of circumcision was practised from time immemorial by the Egyptians, but was unknown to the Hindoos till the Mohammedan conquest. The system of hiero-

35 Diodor. i. 10. ^3fi Diodor. iii. 11- ³⁷ Arrimi, " Indica," c. G.-

ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIANS.

43

glyphic writing, which is peculiarly characteristic of Egypt, never existed in India; and it is impossible to believe'that an Egyptian colony would have settled in India without bringing with them their hieroglyphics, or that the Hindoos would have colonized Egypt without introducing their alphabetic writing and their religious books (the " Vedas"). Lastly, the languages spoken by the two nations are so different, that we may safely dismiss the hypothesis of a common origin of the Egyptians and Hindoos."

§ 16. As we have seen in the Introduction, the only sure means of ascertaining the origin of any people is a knowledge of their physical features and their language. Xo peo-pie has bequeathed to us so many memorials of its form, complexion, and physiognomy, as the Egyptians. From the countless mummies preserved by the dryness of the climate we can ascertain their crania and osteology. From the numerous paintings upon the tombs, which have been preserved through the same cause, we also obtain a vivid idea of their forms and appearance. If we were left to form an opinion upon the subject by the description of the Egyptians left by the Greek writers, we should conclude that they were, if not negroes, at least closely akin to the negro race. That they were much darker in color than the neighboring Asiatics'; that they had hair frizzled either by nature or by art; that their lips were thick and projecting and their limbs slender, rests upon the authority of eye-witnesses, who had travelled in the country, and who could have had no motive to deceive.³⁹ But, on the other hand, the mummies and the paintings clearly prove that the Egyptians were not negroes; and, even if no mummies or paintings had been preserved, there are other circumstances which would make us hesitate before ascribing to the Egyptians the true negro character. If they had resembled the inhabitants of the coast of Guinea, the striking difference between their appearance and that of all the other nations of antiquity would have been distinctly stated ; and their intermarriages with fairer races would have excited remark. So far was this from being the case, that Joseph's brethren, when they saw him in

³⁸ One of the most learned snpporters of this hypothesis was the late Von Bohlen, in his work entitled "Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Rucksicht auf Aegypteu ;" but the author subsequently abandoned the hypothesis as untenable. The arguments, both for and against the theory, are fairly stated by Prichard ("Researches into the Physical History of .Mankind," vol. ii. p. 21T), who, however, attributes more importance to the similarity between the institutions of the two peoples than is perhaps warranted by the facts of the case.

³⁹ Herodotus, in proof that the Colchians were an Egyptian colony, says (ii. 104) that they were neXnyxpo^ re kuI ouXorpixer, or "black in complexion and with curl' ing hair," bnt not " woolly," as Prichard translates it. See also Lucir.ii, "Xavigiuin," C. 2, and Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 16, § 23.

44

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Egypt, took him for an Egyptian ;⁴⁰ that the Jewish legislator permitted intermarriages with the Egyptians ;⁴¹ and that Solomon married an Egyptian princess. It is also worthy of remark that no part of Africa situated in the latitude of Egypt is the native country of a genuine negro race.⁴³

The existing mummies are of various ages, going back at least as far as the time of the patriarch Joseph, and coming down to the time of St. Augustine. During this long period Egypt was repeatedly conquered and overrun. Various races took up their permanent abode in the valley of the Nile; and natives as well as foreigners were alike embalmed according to the Egyptian fashion. But the vast majority of the mummies are those of the native Egyptians, and their osteo-logical character proves that they belonged to the Caucasian and not to the African race. The monuments and paintings, however,show thatthe Egyptians possessed a peculiarphysiog-nomy, differing from both these races, approaching more nearly to the negro type than to any of the other Caucasian races.⁴³ The'fullness of the lips, seen in the Sphinx of the Pyramids and in the portraits of the kings, is characteristic of the negro, and the elongation of the eye is a Nubian peculiarity.

New light has recently been thrown upon the whole subject by M. Mariette's discovery, in the north-easternmost part of Egypt, of a race of men of a type quite different from the Egyptians, both ancient and modern, who seemed not improbably to represent a more ancient population. The distinct separation of classes, though it be incorrect to term them castes, is an indication that the dominant Egyptians had overcome a previous population; and it now appears that there was sueh a population, more nearly approaching to the African type, but decidely not negroes. Whether this aboriginal population entered Egypt from the south of Arabia and down the Nile, is an hypothesis which awaits further discussion.

§ IV. The intermediate position of the Egyptians between the Asiatic and African races is also proved by an examination of their language. This language is preserved in the Coptic,⁴⁴ which was the native tongue of the Christian pop-

⁴⁰ Genesis xlii. 23, 30, 33. n Deuteron. xxiii. 7, 8.

⁴² Prichard, vol. ii. p. 230. The American writers, Nott and Gliddon (" Types of Mankind," Philadelphia, 1854, p. 21G), are of course opposed to the negro origin of the Egyptians; but they have stated the argument fairly and, it seems to us, conclusively against this hypothesis.

⁴³ See K. O. Midler, "Archaologie der Knnst," § 215, n. 1.

⁴⁴ Many Egyptian words, preserved by Greek writers, are clearly Coptic. The following examples, among others, are quoted by Ken rick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. i. p. 102. Herodotus (ii. G9) says that the crocodile was called x''M<l"*: in hieroglyphics it is hremso; in Coptic amsah. Instruction was called by the Egyptians Sbo (Horapollo, i. 38), which is the Coptic word for learning. Erjris was an Egyptian word lor wins

NAMES OF EGYPT.

45

ulntion in Egypt, and -which, though it has now ceased to he spoken,⁴⁵ is still preserved in the translation of the Scriptures and in other ecclesiastical works. Many of the words and grammatical forms of the Coptic are akin to those found in the Semitic languages ; but the peculiarities of its grammatical structure have a still stronger resemblance to those of several of the native idioms of Africa.⁴⁶

§ 18. The Egyptians themselves called their land Chem?¹ or the Black, in opposition to the blinding whiteness of the adjacent desert. In the Hebrew Scriptures it is usually called Mizraim™ the name of the second son of Ham in the genealogical table in Genesis x. But this name, although employed as a singular, is a dual in form, and is appropriately applied to a country which is divided by nature into the upper and lower provinces. By the Arabs it is called JSIisr, which is only the singular of the Hebrew Mizraim, and which signifies in Arabic red, or reddish brown. Hence the ordinary Hebrew and Arabic name of Egypt has the same signification as the native name. Moreover, in the Hebrew records, Egypt is frequently called the Land of Ham,;™ and it is merely our faulty orthography that conceals the identity of the name of Noah's son, Cham, with the Egyptian Chem. According to the strictly geographical interpreta-

(Eustath. ad Od. i. p. 1633); removing the Greek termination, we have the Coptic erp. The origin of the word Coptic is doubtful. Some derive it from the city Coptos; but this is only a guess from the similarity of the names. Others connect it with the Christian sect of Jacobites ClaKw/firat), to which the Egyptians belonged. But it is perhaps the ancient form of the name Egypt, by which the Greeks designated the country (Gypt, Kypt, Kox>t). See Prichard, "Researches, etc.," who decides, however, in favor of the second of the above etymologies.

⁴⁵ It is usually stated that the last person who could speak Coptic died in 1GG3; but it is said, on credible authority, that it was spoken-as recently as ninety years ago. See Nott and Gliddon's " Types of Mankind," p. 234. A recent writer in the " Quarterly Review" (July, 1SG9, vol. xxvii. p. 40) says:—"The ancient Coptic language is, indeed, still maintained in church rituals and the like; but though all among the. clergy can read, we have never found any one of them who could understand the meaning of its characters. Coptic was, however, till within recent memory spoken by the peasantry in some towns of Upper Egypt, at Achmim in particular; but want of school instruction has allowed this curious remnant of the past to fade away and ultimately disappear altogether."

⁴⁰ This question is fully discussed by Prichard ("Researches," vol. ii. p. 213, seq.) Ths arguments of this writer are more convincing than those of Bunsen, who maintains that the Coptic stands clearly between the Semitic and Indo-European, since its forms and roots can not be explained by either of these singly, but are evidently a combination of the two. (See "Egypt's Place in Universal History," Preface, p. x. trans.; and "Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History," vol. i. p. 185. seq.) _

⁴⁷ Chem or Khem is the name of Egypt in hieroglyphic inscriptions : in Coptic it is written Chemi. Plutarch savs that the Egyptians called their land Chernia on account of the blackness of the earth ("De Iside et Osiride,"c. 33). This name is apparently preserved in that of Chemmix, a large city in the Thebaid, which the Greeks called Panopolis (Herod.ii. 91).

⁴⁸ Genesis x. G. In the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions Egypt is called Misir, Mu-sur, Miifiuri, and Mn-its-ri; in the Persian inscriptions Mudraim.

⁴⁹ Psalm cv. 23, 27 ; cvi. 22.

46

EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

tion of Genesis x., we may suppose the original name of Chem, for the whole land, to have been superseded by the dual Mizraim, when the two divisions were fully recognized.

The origin of the Greek name,⁵⁰ by which the country is known throughout Western Europe, is uncertain ; but the most plausible conjecture connects it with the name of the Copts.⁵¹

⁶¹ Some writers have connected the first half of A'i-yvnTos, with ala (land), so that the word would mean " the land of the Copts," but this interpretation of the first syllable is doubtful.

Boat of the Nil*.

Ruins and Vicinity of Philae.

CHAPTER II.

AUTHORITIES FOR THE HISTORY OF EGYPT.

! 1. The earliest historical records are Egyptian. The Scripture notices of Egypt no* a history of the country. § 2. Greek writers on Egypt. Herodotus. Eratosthe. nes. Diodorus. Strabo. Pliny. § 3. Manetiio. His Egyptian History lost. His List of Dynasties. Its defects and value. § 4. The real history of Egypt is in her own monuments and books. Testimony of Bunsen and Lepsins. Multitude and permanence of the records. Constant use of hieroglyphics. Private documents. § 5. Order of the monuments along the Valley of the Nile. Extant Books. § 0. Monuments of special historical value. Class I., for the general history of Egypt, (i.) Turin Papyrus, (ii.) Chamber of Ancestors, (iii.) Old aud New Tables of Abydos. (iv.) Table of Sakkara. (v.) The Apis-Stela;. § 6. Class II., relating to particular reigns. A book of the time of Rameses II. Historical value of the private monuments. Method of studying the History .of Egypt. § T. Fabulous antiquity of the nation. Divine rulers; Phthah; Ra ; Agathodamion ; Seb and Netpe ; Osiris and Isis ; Typhon and Horns. § s. Mkxes the first man who reigned over Egypt; perhaps a mythical impersonation. § 0. Egyptian History of Hekop-otits. 330 kings from Menes to Moeris. Nitocris, Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, and Rhampsinitus. Cheops, Cephren, Myceriuus, Asychis, and Anysis. The Ethiopian conquest by Sabacos. His story first becomes historical with Psammetichus. § 10. The Lists of Manetiio. Are they consecutive or, in part, contemporaneous? Periods of Egyptian History.

§ 1. This most ancient of the nations offers to us the most ancient of contemporary records; and in this sense, also, history begins with Egypt. If the sacred story of the patriarchs embodies documents of an earlier age than that of the Pentateuch itself, they preserve the narrative of individual lives, for a moral and religions purpose, not the history of a nation. While the Hebrew patriarchs had as yet no possession in their promised land, they had dealings with powerful kings of Egypt; and the Exodus, which first made Israel a nation, falls under an advanced period of the Egyptian monarchy. These relations, as well as the part afterwards taken by Egypt in conflict with Assyria and Babylon over the dying body of .the Hebrew monarchy, add a peculiar interest to Egyptian history. "Egypt, in fact, appears as the insU'u

48

HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

merit of Providence for furthering its eternal purpose, but only as forming the background and contrast to that free spiritual and moral element which was to arise out of Israel."¹ But it is not the design of Scripture to satisfy the curiosity thus stimulated. Its scenes of Egyptian events and of Egyptian life are most real and most truthful ; but they supply no history of Egypt. The kings who received Abraham and Isaac, Joseph and Jacob; the new ruler, who " knew not Joseph;" and he whose "heart was hardened;" are all merely "Pharaohs," whose own names are unrecorded, and of whom we have no chronology.

§ 2. The Greeks took an interest in Egypt similar to our own ; but the relation which excited it was even more direct. Egyptian kings were among the mythical founders of their own nation ; in" Egypt they sought the chief source of their religion and civilization, their philosophy and art; and even Egyptian jealousy of foreigners did not forbid them a footing in the land as traders and mercenary soldiers. The Persian conquest of Egypt was a prelude to the like attack on their own liberty ; and they allied themselves with Egyptian insurgents to oppose the common enemy.²

It was, then, most natural that the inquisitive ^reek traveller, who conceived the design of gathering up all-jie^Hj-M learn of the East into a focus which should throw light on the great conflict of his age, allotted the largest space in his preliminary work to Egypt, of which he tells us all he could learn down to its conquest by Cambyses.³ The testimony of Herodotus to what he himself saw of Egyptian life and manners is in the highest degree trustworthy and valuable ; but all the information that he gives at second-hand needs to be tested by other lights. Precious, indeed, would have been his testimony, had"he known the native tongue, and could he have read those hieroglyphics which lie saw in their freshness, and of which he has only given one triviaHransla-tion, to the effect that the radishes, onions, and garlick, consumed by the laborers who built the Great Pyramid, cost 1600 talents of silver !⁴

Much wasted labor might have been spared, had critics been content to heed the historian's own warning: ''Such as think the tales told by the Egyptians credible, are free to accept them for history. For my own part, I propose to myself, throughout my\vhole work, faithfully to record the traditions of the severed nations.""

¹ Bun sen, " Egypt's Place in Universal History," vol. iv. p. 104.

² See below, chapters viii. and xxviii.

³ Herodotus, book ii., and the earlier part of book iii. Herodotus wrote his history about 445 u.o. ⁴ Herod, ii. 125. ⁵ Herod, ii. 123.

HERODOTUS—DIODORUS—MANETHO 4U

The information doled out to him by the priests was such as suited their ^purpose and their traditions, and it was of course frequently misunderstood; nor did he attempt to weave it into a consecutive history of Egypt. He relates such .anecdotes as seemed to him interesting or amusing; but his chronological order is in complete confusion. He avowedly repeats just what he was told. His own ingenuous statement marks the reign of Psammetichus (b.c. 664) as the epoch at which his account begins to be historical. " Thus far," he says, " my narrative rests on the account given by the Egyptians ;"⁶ and then he resumes, " In what follows I have the authority, not of the Egyptians only, but of others also who agree with them. I shall speak likewise in part from my own observation."⁷

The new means of knowledge acquired under the Ptolemies bore little fruit in the Greek and Roman literature. Eratosthenes, who lived in Egypt under Ptolemy II. Philadelphia,⁰ drew up for that king, in Greek, a list of the " Theban kings " (meaning kings of all Egypt) whose names he received from the priests or hierogramniatists of Thebes : its chief use is for comparison with Manetho. Diodorus⁹ increases darkness, rather than light, by his additions to the anecdotes of Herodotus, whose ingenuous care he entirely lacked ; nor do Strabo¹⁰ and Pliny'¹ yield much further information, except quite incidentally.

§ 3. There remains one writer, who alone professed to give a complete history of Egypt. This was Manetho, an Egyptian priest, of Sebennytiis in the Delta, who lived in" the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (b.c 285-247), and was the first Egyptian who wrote the history of his country in Greek, from information preserved in the records of the temple. Of the body of his work we have only a few fragments ; but the chronographers, Julius Africanus and Eusebius, who wrote in the third and fourth centuries after Christ, have preserved the list of" Dynasties " which was appended to Manetho's history. This list has come down to us with many obvious imperfections, and with the distortions due to ignorance of Egyptian names on the part of the Greek copy-

^{6 IIerod}- »• 14G, fin. n u_)ici. _c. 14T, imt.

* B.C. 2S5-247. Eratosthenes was born in 275, n.o. His List is preserved by Geor-gins Syncellus. See the criticism on Eratosthenes by Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 97 seq.

⁹ Abont c.o. 5S. It is very important to observe one distinction between Herodotus and Diodorus, as to their sources of information, which is well put by Mr. Kenrick: "The history of Hf.roootus turns abont Memphis as a centre: he mention! Thebes only incidentally, and does not describe or allude to ono of its monuments. DropoRLs, on the contrary, is full in hie description of Thebes, and says little of Mem-l^)u'^s-" ¹⁰ Abont a.i>. IS. ¹¹ About jj.o. 70.

3

50

HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

ists. Its early stages are manifestly fabulous, and, like every other document of a similar origin, it reflects the tendency of priests to give their own version of history, in the interest of the ruling classes. But it unquestionably embodies a large amount of real information ; and the statements of Manetho are continually being confirmed by the monuments, as an index to the study of which the list has real value. But there is danger in feeling bound to Manetho's arrange ment, which is probably his own; and the lengths of the reigns, often doubtless mere computations of the chronographers, are frequently contradicted by the monuments. While professed Egyptologers are more and more disposed to believe in Manetho, Sir George Cornewall Lewis regards his list as " his own invention ; aided, doubtless, by some traditionary names and stories derived from his predecessors."

§ 4. The real records of Egypt's history are to be found in her own monuments and her own books. The nation which stands first in history was also the first to write it, and the record has been preserved by a concurrence of favorable circumstances. Bunsen says, " No nation of the earth has •shown so much zeal and ingenuity, so much method and regularity, in recording the details of private life, as the Egyptians. No country in the world afforded greater facilities for indulging such a propensity than Egypt, with its limestone and its granite, its dry climate, and the protection afforded by its desert against the overpowering force of nature in southern zones. Such a country was adapted, not only for securing its monuments against dilapidation, both above and below ground, for thousands of years, but even for preserving them as perfect as the day they were erected. In the North, rain and frost corrode; in the South, the luxuriant vegetation cracks or obliterates the monuments of time. China has no architecture to bid defiance to thousands of years ; Babylon had but bricks; in India the rocks can bare ly resist the wanton power of nature. Egypt is the monumental land of the earth, as the Egyptians are the monumental people of history. Their contemporary records, therefore, are at once the earliest and most certain source of all Egyptian research."

Let us add the testimony of Lepsius to the nature and multiplicity of these records: "An intense desire after posthumous fame and a place in history seems to have been universal in ancient Egypt. This exhibits itself in the incredible multitude of monuments of all descriptions which have been found in the valley of the Nile, Ail the principal cities of

THE NATIVE RECORDS.

51

Egypt were adorned with temples and palaces. Towns of lesser note, and even villages, were always distinguished by one temple at least—oftener more. These temples were filled with the statues of gods and kings, generally colossal, and hewn from costly stones. Their walls, also, within and without, were covered with colored reliefs. To adorn and maintain these public buildings was at once the duty and pride of the kings of Egypt. But even these were rivalled by the more opulent classes of the people in their care for the dead, and in the hewing and decoration of sepulchral chambers. In these things the Egyptians very far surpassed the Greeks and Romans, as well as other known nations of antiquity.

" Still further to enhance to after-times the value of these ever-during monuments of ancient Egypt, it was universal with the inhabitants to cover their works of art of every description with hieroglyphics, the purport of which related strictly to the monuments on which they^T were inscribed. No nation that ever lived on the earth has made so much use of its written system, or applied it to a purpose so strictly historical, as ancient Egypt. There was not a wall, a platform, a pillar, an architrave, a frieze, or even a doorpost, in an Egyptian temple, which was not carved, within, without, and on every available surface, with pictures in relief. There is not one of these reliefs that is not history; some of them representing the conquests of foreign nations ; others the offerings and devotional exercises of the monarch by whom the temple, or portion of the temple, on which the relief stood, had been constructed. Widely different from the temples of Greece and Rome, on which inscriptions were evidently regarded as unwelcome additions, forming no part of the original architectural design, but, on the contrary, interfering with and marring it—the hieroglyphic writings were absolutely essential and indispensable to the decoration of a perfect Egyptian temple.

" This writing, moreover, was by no means confined to constructions of a public nature, such as temples or tombs, but was also inscribed on objects of art of every other conceivable description. Nothing, even down to the palette of a scribe, the style with which a lady painted her eyelashes with powdered antimony, or even a walking-stick, was deemed too insignificant to be inscribed with the name of the owner, and a votive dedication of the object itself to his patron divinity. Inscriptions with the names of the artists or owners, so rare on the remains of Greece and Rome, are the universal rule in Egyptian art. There was no colossus too great, and no amulet too small, to be inscribed with the

52 HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

name of its owner, and some account of the occasion on which it was executed."¹³

The vast variety of these inscriptions supplies a check oil their trustworthiness. In those of a public character, we may suspect a fictitious history composed by priests, or displayed for their own glory by despotic monarchs; but we can turn to the private records of tombs which have been sealed up since the day when they were closed.

§ 5. It has already been said that those monuments stud the whole valley of the Nile, with one interruption, from the Delta, through "Upper Egypt and Nubia, to the island of Meroe. Their antiquity and perfection corresponds very nearly with their order along the river, the best and oldest being the lowest—one striking proof that the civilization which they represent ascended the course of the river. They may be grouped in the following series :¹³ (i.) About Memphis.—The Pyramids and tombs at Abou-Boash,Jizeh, Abou-Seir, Sakkara, and Das/ioor. These are the monuments of the Old Monarchy, chiefly of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties of Manetho. (ii.) Contemporary with the oldest of these are the monuments in the peninsula of Sixai, at Wady-Feiran (Paran), Wady-el-Mayharali, and Sarbut-el-Kadern. (iii.) In Middle Egypt.—The monuments, partly perhaps of the kings of Manetho's Ninth and Tenth Dynasties, but chiefly of those of the Twelfth, at Jfeidnn, Illahiln, and the Fydm. (iv.) Returning to Sals, Taxis, and Heliopolis, we find monuments which break the geographical series, owing to the power which the New Monarchy, of Theban Kings, held also over Lower Egypt, (v.) But in their own proper district the series continues upward, in the sculptured tombs of Beni-hassan, opposite Hermopolis the Great, and at Tel-Amarna. (ri.) At This and Abydos (about Arabat-el-Mad-foitneh), the old seat of Manetho's First and Second Thinite Dynasties (but none of the monuments are theirs), (vii.) The stupendous remains of Thebes about the villages of Medinet-Abou, Luxor, and Karnak. (viii.) The remains at Esneh (Latopolis), El-Kab and El-ITdlaal (Eileithyia), Edfou (Apollinopolis), Iladjar-Selseleh (Silsilis), with its quarries, (ix.) The quarries of Syene, and the rock-hewn temples of Elephantine and Phi lie. (x.) Above Egypt itself; the monuments at Abou Simbel, fioleb, and Barhd. (xi.) And lastly, those of Meroe, at Sofra, Nay a, etc. These last are the smallest, the poorest in* style, and the most decayed, though

« On the Hieroglyphic Writing, see chap. ix. sec. 5.

¹³ Lepsius: " Der.kmaler." This great work has tiie advantage of depicting the Egyptian monuments in chronological order.

RECORDS OF SPECIAL VALUE.

tlie most modern. To these monuments must be added the innumerable extant book's, chiefly of religious ritual and moral precepts, which the Egyptians wrote, from time immemorial, upon the delicate membrane prepared from the reed called papyrus, which anciently fringed the banks of the Nile, and which gave its name lo paper.

§ 6. Among these records there are some which deserve especial mention for their historical value. They may be divided into two classes, according as they relate to the history of Egypt in general, or to particular reigns. Of the first class, the following are the most important: (i.) The Turin Papyrus, if perfect, would give us an authoritative Egyptian counterpart of the Lists of Manetho, down to the most flourishing period of the monarchy. It is a list drawn up under, and apparently by order of, the great Rameses II. (of the 19th dynasty), of ali the personages, whether mythological or historical, who were believed to have reigned in Egypt from the earliest age. Lmfortunately it only exists in 164 small fragments, which it is often impossible to piece together, (ii.) The Chamber of Ancestors was found at Kar-nak, and is now in the Imperial Library at Paris. It is a sort of shrine, on the- walls of which is depicted Thothmes III., the greatest king of the 18th dynasty, making offerings before the images of 61 of his predecessors, whose names, as usual, are inscribed in hieroglyphics. Besides, however, some unfortunate mutilations, the ancestors form a selection, not a complete list, (iii.) The Table of Abydos, now in the British Museum, represents a similar adoration of ancestors by Rameses II., but in a sadly mutilated condition. Of 50 names, only 30 remain more or less legible. Happily, however, nearly all the lacuna* have been supplied by the New Table of Abydos, of Seti I., the father of Rameses II., recently discovered by M. Mariette. (iv.) The Table of Sakkara, another discovery of M. Mariette, and now in the Museum at Cairo, was found in the tomb of a priest named Tonnari, who lived under Rameses II. In accordance with the belief cf the Egyptians, it represents the pious deceased as admitted, in the other world, to the society of the kings, of whom 58 are represented on the monument. These are doubtless the kings most honored at Memphis; and the selection corresponds very nearly with that on the Table of Abydos, but with a few interesting differences. It must not be forgotten that, while these lists are, beyond all reasonable doubt, the authentic memorials of the historical belief of the priests and scribes who compiled them, they are no more conclusive evidence that all the kings they represent ever lived and reign

54

HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

ed,than are the pictures of the Scottish sovereigns at Holy-rood ; and that their conformity with the lists of Manetho carries us back no farther than the same priestly tradition. But they are invaluable aids in determining the succession of the kings whose names we find on contemporary documents, (v.) For the Apis-stela, or Apis-tablets, we are also indebted to M. Mariette's discovery of the sepulchre of the sacred bulls at Memphis. We have to speak, in the proper place, of that celebrated article of the Egyptian faith, that Osiris was periodically revealed in the form of a bull, known by certain marks, and named Apis at Memphis, and Ifnevis at Heliopolis. When an Apis died, he was buried with a pomp that sometimes ruined his curator. The sepulchre is an arched gallery, hewn in the rock, about 20 feet in width and height, to the length of 2000- feet, besides a lateral branch. On both sides of the gallery are hewn recesses, or, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson calls them, stalls, each containing a sarcophagus of granite 15 feet by 8, on only a few of which is a cartouche of the name of the inclosed Apis. But on the walls at the entrance of the cavern, as well as scattered on the floor beneath, tablets were found, recording the visits paid to the sepulchre by kings and other persons. These "Apis-stela}" are contemporary documents.

§ 6. Of the second class of monuments—those referring to particular reigns—the most important will require notice as we proceed. "They are of two descriptions—papyrus MSS. and monumental inscriptions. Among the former are panegyrics on the deeds of kings, official correspondence and accounts, and literary compositions of a more general nature. We may mention one interesting example. At the brilliant court of Rameses II. there werenine principal men of learning attached to the person of the king ; and at their head one whom we may venture to style Pharaoh's Master of the Rolls. This officer, named Kagabu, who is described as unrivalled in elegance of style, wrote a work for the use of the crown prince,"Seti Menephtha (who is now identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus), the moral of which resembles that of the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife.¹⁴

The monumental inscriptions of this class are both public and private. The former are engraven on obelisks or tablets, or on the walls of temples, where they often serve as the written exposition of scenes presented more vividly to the eve bv immense colored bas-reliefs, depicting the military exploits of the kings, or their triumphs after battle. The in-

¹⁴ This papyrus, acquired by Mrs. D'Orbiney in 1S52, and now in the British Museum, is translated, among other documents, by Brngsch, -'Aus dem Orient," 1365.

REIGNS OF THE GODS IN EGYPT.

sorptions and paintings relating to private persons throw a flood of light on the daily life of the people, the condition of their families and slaves, the economy of their estates, the construction of their houses and gardens, their banquets and recreations, within and out of doors, and sometimes even on their individual history and character. Besides all this, they ijive most important data for history and chronology; when, for instance, we find it recorded that the occupant of the tomb was born on a particular day and month and year of the reign of one king, and died at such an age on a particular day and month and year of another.

This mass of records, however, was sealed up in an unknown character till the present century ; when, among the fruits of the French exhibition to Egypt, the famous " Roset-ta Stone" was brought to our Museum. This trilingual inscription, in the hieroglyphic, demotic (or ordinary Egyptian), and Greek characters, supplied the key by which the ingenuity of Young and Champollion independently unlocked the secret of hieroglyphic writing, and gave a living voice to ancient Egypt.¹⁵" The results of this discovery have prescribed the course of all inquiries into Egyptian history. We must rest upon the native records as our only sure foundation, but of course submitting them to the laws of criticism. The scanty accounts of ancient writers are generally to be interpreted by the monuments; but sometimes they supply other facts. The Lists of Manetho may serve to some extent as a guide to the order of the whole.

§ 7. As in India and China, so in Egypt, a fabulous antiquity was claimed for the beginning of the nation. The reign of the gods, for ages before that of human kings, is supposed to indicate a primeval hierarchy. Manetho prefixes to his list of purely human dynasties, reckoned from Menes, a period of about 25,000 years for the reigns of gods, demigods, heroes, and manes (the souls of the departed). The series of the seven divine rulers looks like a religious allegory of the creative energy and conflicts of nature, by which the land was prepared for human habitation. The first is the creative Phtiia, the worker by the energy of Fire. Next comes Ra, the Sun, who was worshipped from time immemorial at On (Heliopolis). The third is Agathod^emox, the Greek translation of an Egyptian name,.which is supposed to represent the vital principle generated from the 'waters, The middle place is filled by Seb (Cronos or Saturn), the personification of Time, standing between the creative powers and those hy which the world'is governed. The latter are the children of

¹⁵ Sec chap. ix. sec:t. 5.

56

HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

Seb and Nctpe ; and among them are Osiris and Isis. Of these, Osiris appeared in human form, as the fifth divine ruler, who, after working all manner of good for men, is put to death by the malice of Typhon, the evil principle, but is restored to life and made the judge of souls. Typhon, the usurper, is slain by Isis, with the assistance of her son IIorus, who fills the seventh and last place (as a demigod) among the divine kings of Egypt, and, as the type of youthful energy perpetually renewed (like Apollo), lie is the source of succeeding dynasties and the special leader of the Egyptians. The demigods of Manetho (on the authority of Syncellus) were eight: Mars, Anubis, Hercules, Apollo, Amnion, Tithoes, Zosos, Jupiter.¹⁶ This mythological age is called on the inscriptions "the times of the JTor-sJieson " (servants of Horns).

§ 8. The Lists of Manetho, the statements of the priests to Herodotus and Diodorus, and the inscriptions, all agree in making Men or Menes the first man who reigned in Egypt; and the very name suggests a mythical impersonation of the human race, like the Indian Menu, the Greek Minyas and Minos, the Etruscan Menerfa, and the German Mcnnus. His claim to historical existence fails before the only proper test; for the hieroglyphs of his name are not contemporary.™ The priestly tradition connected him with the widest range of Egypt's dominion, placing his birth and early kingdom at This, in Upper Egypt, his great works at Memphis, and his conquests and death in Ethiopia, where he was killed by a hippopotamus. The significance of the legends respecting Menes will be seen better when we gain some sure basis of genuine history.

§ 9. The priests read to Herodotus, from a papyrus, the names of 330 kings, the successors of Menes, among whom were eighteen Ethiopian kings and one native queen, Nito-cris ; all the rest were kings and Egyptians. The last of them was Mceris, the constructor of the great lake in the Fyilm, who had not been dead 900 years when Herodotus visited Egypt.¹⁸ Mceris, as we shall see, represents probably one or more kings of Manetho's 12th dynasty. Herodotus then passes on to Sesostris,¹⁹ the great conqueror, and his son Piieron,²⁰ who was struck blind; names which, like Mceris, are disguised under their Greek form, but point to the great exploits of the 18th and 19th dynasties, though the name of Sesostris may possibly come from the 12th. The Mem-

¹⁶ See Sir G. Wilkinson's Note on Herod, ii. 44 (Rawlinson).

¹⁷ His hieroglyph reads Mna or Meimi. ¹⁶ Herod, ii. 101 and 13. MENES. ¹⁹ Herod, ii. 102 seq. ²⁰ Herod, ii. 111.

CONQUEST BY SABACOS.

phian Proteus, the successor of Pheron,²¹ is made com temporary with the Trojan war, a pseudo-chronological inference from the Homeric fable of Proteus ; while the amusing anecdote about his successor, Rhampsixitus,²² and the thief, puts all chronology at defiance by placing a Rhamses (as the name seems to imply) before the Py rain id-kings. It would seem, in fact, that Herodotus had before him two lists of kings, the one belonging to Upper and the oilier to Lower Egypt; and, having told all that he found interesting about the Thinites and Thebans, from the 1st dynasty to the 19th, he passes to the earliest Mempbians of the 4th, unaware of his chronological disorder.²³ We shall have to notice in their proper place his statements about the pyramid-builders, Cheops, Cephrex, and Mycerinus,⁸⁴ names now perfectly identified. That of Asychis, the builder of a brick pyramid, is more doubtful ;²⁵ and so is Anysis, the blind king, who was driven into the marshes, while Egypt was conquered by a vast army of Ethiopians, led by Sabacos, who ruled for fifty years.'²" This conquest corresponds to the 25th (Ethiopian) dynasty of Manetho, which we find synchronizing with Assyrian and Hebrew history about the time of the downfall of the kingdom of Israel ; and the restoration of Anysis maybe probably connected with the revolution by which the native princes who had preserved their independence in the Delta expelled the Ethiopians.²⁷

With the completion of that revolution by the establishment of Psammeticiius on the throne (about b.c. 664), the notes of Herodotus fall into historical order. We have now collected into one view the outline of his contributions to the earlier history of Egypt. His order, or rather disorder, is followed by Diodorus, with the addition of a few facts of some importance, of which, however, no separate statement need be made at present.²⁸

²¹ Herod, ii. 112 seq. The "successor," iu these anecdotes, is simply the king whom Herodotus pleases to mention next. ²² Herod, ii. 121 seq.

²³ See Sir G. Wilkinson's note to Herodotus, ii. 124 (Rawliuson). The two following sets of five comprise all the kings selected by Herodotus from the 330 read out to him by the priests:

hinites and Thebans. Memphite*. Menes. Cheops. Mceris. Cephren. Sesostris. Mycerinus. Pheron. Asychis. Rhampsinitns. Anysis.

²⁴ Herod, ii. 124 s"q.

²⁵ Herod, ii. 136. Sir G. Wilkinson supposes him to have been Shishak, of the 22(1 dynasty (called Asocha?us by Josephus), perhaps partly confounded with some other king. Iu Rawlinson's " Herodotus," I. c.

²⁶ Herod, ii. 137. See further iu chap. vii.

²⁷ Herod, ii. 139,140. The legend of the priest-king Setuos (c. 141) seems to be a confusion of various stories belonging to different times. ²⁸ Diod. i. 45-6S

3*

58

HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES.

•

§ 10. Turning to the Lists of Manetho, we find the whola succession of kings, from Menes to the final conquest of Egypt by the Persians, divided into 30 dynasties, to which is added a 31st, composed of the Persian kings till the conquest by Alexander. The 30 dynasties are distinguished by the seats of the royal power, except the three dynasties of Shepherd Kings (15-17),²⁹ the Ethiopians (25), and the Persians (27) of the first Persian conquest. The se capitals were, in Upper Egypt, This, Elephantine, and Thebes; in Middle Egypt, Heracleopolis ; and in Eower Egypt, Memphis, Xoi's, Tanis, Bubas.tis, Sais, Mendes, and Sebennytus. The years assigned by Manetho to the respective dynasties make up a total of 5462 years ; but his own statement at the end gives a period of 3555 years.³⁰

This discrepancy seems almost decisive of the question whether the dynasties of Manetho are successive and contin-"uous or in part contemporaneous.³¹ The former alternative seems quite incredible, with refprence both to the times and places; and, if not irreconcilable with the monuments, it is certainly not confirmed by them. The latter view is adopted by the best modern authorities, with a few distinguished exceptions;³² nor is the difficulty of arranging the contemporaneous dynasties in an exact scheme a sufficient objection to the principle. Neither is the attempt of much consequence ; for the whole history of Egypt may easily be grouped under the following broad divisions : (i). The Old Monarchy, which had its capital at Memphis, in Lower Egypt, but probably ruled over the whole land, (ii.) The Middle Monarchy, and the foreign domination of the Shepherd Kings. (iii). The New Monarchy of Thebes, under which Egypt was reunited and raised to the acme of its power, (iv.) A period during which power was held by various princes of Lower Egypt, till the establishment of a second foreign domination —the Ethiopian, (v.) The later Sa'ite Monarchy, which reunited Egypt till it was conquered by Cambyses. (vi.) The Persian Domination, with one episode of recovered independence, down to the conquest by Alexander, (vii.) The Hellenist Kingdom of the Pi-olenites, till Egypt became a Roman province, (viii.) The Roman Province of Egypt, till tho conquest of the' country by the Arabs..

²⁰ But in some copies these are Theban.

³⁰ Reckoning back from abont n.c, 350, the former date would carry us to b.o. 5S12, the latter to n.o. 39C5. But the numbers vary in different copies.

³¹ Manetho himself speaks of contemporary "kings of Thebais and of the othe? provinces of Egypt."

³² Bunsen and Renan are the mosi eminent advocates of the long chronology.

ARRANGEMENT OF DYNASTIES.

NOTE.

contemporaneousness of dynasties.

The following is the arrangement proposed by Mr. Lane and Mr. Stuart Poole for the Dynasties down to the New Theban Monarchy.

jl. THIXITES.	II.
| III. Memphites.	IV.	|v,.		VII. | VIII. |
	V. Elephantiues.			1
		IX. Heracleopolites. | X.
i>iospolites.		XI. |	XII.	| XIII.	XVIII. | XIX.
			XIV. Xoites.
			xv. i XVI. f	Shepherds.
				j XVII. Shepherds.

Sphinx and Pyramid*.

CHAPTER HI.

THE OLD MEMPHIAN MONARCHY.

1. Memphis the first seat of the Egyptian monarchy. What is meant by the origin of Menes from Tins? § i. The First and Second (TJrinite) Dynasties of Manetho. Introduction of animal-worship. Succession of women to the crown. § 3. The Third Dynasty (Memphian). The Libyans subdued. § 4. Contemporary History begins with the Fourth Dynasty (Memphian), and the Pyramids. Names of Knc-fu and his brother in the Great Pyramid: the Ciieoto of Herodotus. § 5. The Second Pyramid of Ckpiiben or Suafee. His temple and statue. 5 G. The Third Pyramid of Mycf.eincs or Mknkabe. His coffin and mummy. Soris and the Pyramid of Abou-Seir. § 7. The Pyramids in general. Motives for their construction. § S. Their testimony to the power and art of the Memphian kings. Absence of all figured decorations and inscriptions. They are the temple-tombs of deified kings. § 9. The colossal Sphinx: probably of the time of Shafre. Symbolical meaning of the figure. § 10. Tombs of the Pyramid-period. Their vivid pictures of life under the Old Monarchy. Physical appearance and dress. Social and economical condition. Wealth and oppression of the land-owners. Pastoral and agricultural operations. Amusements. Domesticated animals. Absence of the horse. Mechanical arts. Writing. High state of art. Moral philosophy of the age. § 11. It was a period of peace and prosperity. Sudden appearance of this high civilization. §12. Traditions of earlier works. Menes turned the conrse oftheNile. §13. The city of Memphis. Its precedence over Thebes and Heliopolis. § 14. Necropolis of Memphis. Architecture of the tombs. § 15. The Memphian Dynasties: 3d, 4th, 6th, 7th, Sth. Connection of the Fifth (Elephantine) Dynasty with Memphis. Relations between Upper and Lower Egypt. § 1G. Religious conflicts under the Fourth Dynasty. Impiety and oppression of Cheops and Cephren. Piety and deification of Mycerinus. Confirmations from the monnments. § 17. Bnnsen's view of the religions and political union of Upper and Lower Egypt. § IS. The Sixth Dynasty: difficulties abont its origin. Pepi-Maire andPepi Nefer-

MEMPHIS.

Gl

gera. Nitookts. Her connection with the Third Pyramid. 5 13. Seventh and Eighth Dynasties. Fall of the Memphian monarchy. Sinth and Tenth Dynasties at Heracleopolis. § 20. Absence of a chronology thus far. Various hypotheses.

§ 1. Memphis was the earliest seat of the Egyptian kingdom. There are the oldest monuments, and its foundation is ascribed to Menes. If the origin of Menes from This¹ indicates a still older local kingdom in Upper Egypt, that kingdom has disappeared, leaving no contemporary records, but only the traditions recorded in the List of Manetho. The removal of Menes from This to Memphis implies the subjection of the former to the latter; and the New Table of Abydos and the Table of Sakkara appear to make the two contemporaneous. The traditions seem to indicate a rivalry between the priests of Upper and Lower Egypt for the first honors of national civilization. While both rendered equal reverence to Menes, Necherophes, the head of the Third (the first Mem-phite) Dynasty was regarded as his contemporary ; and to Athothis, the son of Menes, and Tosorthus, the son of Xeche-rophes (who seem indeed to be identical) are ascribed in common the possession of great medical knowledge, the patronage of letters, and the first use of hewn stones in building a temple at Memphis.

§ 2. Manetho assigns to his First (Tuinite) Dynasty seven kings during a period of 250 years. The fifth king, Hesep-ti (Usaphaidos, M.²), is often mentioned in the Funereal Ritual (an extant papyrus) as the author of some sacred books. The Second Dynasty, also of T/iinites, consisting of nine kings in 302 years, is signalized as the period of the introduction of animal-worship, which is thus marked as an inno-.vation. In the reign of Caiechos (Kekeoii), the second king of this dynasty, the bulls Apis and Mnevis were worshipped at Memphis and Heliopolis respectively, and the goat at Mendes; all, be it observed, in Lower Egypt. His successor, Binothris (Ba?iete?'-en),is said to have legalized the succession of women to the crown ; and the eighth king, Seso-chris, is described as a giant.

§ 3. The Third Dynasty of Manetho consists of nine or eleven Memphian kings, for a space of 214 years. The first king, Necherophes, the contemporary of Menes, subdued a revolt of the Libyans, the rebels being panic-stricken at a sudden increase of the moon ; so early did tradition place the subjugation of the tribes of the Western Desert.

§ 4. These notices are culled by Manetho from the tradi-

¹ This was a city of Upper Egypt, about 100 miles below Thebes, and near Abydoe (Arabat-el-Madfov.nah), which supplanted it.

² This abbreviation indicates the name given by Manetho.

G2

THE OLD MONARCHY.

tions of the priests; but now we approach the confines of that real history which is attested by contemporary records. The ovals³ of the first and second dynasties are certainly none of them contemporary; they are votive or traditional inscriptions on buildings, tablets, or writings of a much later date. Some are ascribed to the Third Dynasty; but the only three legible names, which are clearly contemporary, are assigned by the highest authority, Lepsius, to the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The most important of these is on a bus-relief carved on the rocks of the Sinai group, representing Kins: Snofru (commonly identified with Sephuris of Manetho's Third Dynasty) as subduing the Arabs of the peninsula.

It is with the Fourth Dynasty of Memphian kings that we first find monumental records coinciding with historical tradition ; and with them the real history of Egypt begins. Their names are recorded alike in the pages of the father of histo-rv and on the stones of the oldest and most majestic monuments of the world, the Pyramids of Jizeh, north-west of Memphis. If the mound of the Birs-Nimroud be indeed the remains of the Tower of Babel,⁴ it has been for ages a shapeless ruin, while the oldest Pyramids, preserving their first form, and not entirely stript even of the outermost stones, still rise like everlasting mountains over the vast level plain, challenging, from the beginning of recorded history, research into the mystery of their meaning.

Hidden during all those ages in the very centre of the mass of the Great Pyramid, safe from defacement and mutilation, and so placed as to be beyond all suspicion of their genuineness,⁵ General Howard Vyse discovered, as lately as the year 1837, the hieroglyphic characters which the workmen painted, for their own mechanical uses, on the huge stones before they left the quarry; and those characters have been deciphered as Kiiufu or Siiofo, and Num-Khufu or Nu-Siiofo (the brother of Khnfu or Shofo, and doubtless co-reo-ent with him).⁶ In these kings we at once recognize the Suphis I. and II. of Manetho⁷ and the royal tablets, and in

³ In hieroglyphic writing the name of a king is always inclosed in an oval or cartouche, as the name of Menes on p. 5G. ⁴ See below, chap. x. » On the rough surfaces of stones built into the mass.

⁶ On Horace's principle, "Segnins irritant auimos, etc.," we give copies of these

quarry-marks

Khvfu, or, iu an abridged form.

⁷ That these two reigned together, in part at least, is confirmed by the lengths of their reigns as stated by Manetho, either fifty and fifty-six years, or sixty-three and sixty-six; for even the smaller pair could hardly have been filled up by two brothers successively.

THE PYRAMIDS.

63

the former the Cheops to whom Herodotus expressly ascribes the Great Pyramid. Justly, therefore, does Lepsius describe this work as " the Pyramid of Cheops, to ichich the first link of our monumental liistory is fastened immovably, not only for Egyptian, but for Universal History."

§ 5. The Second Pyramid of Jizeh is doubtless that which

Plan of the Pyramids of -Jii.eh.

Herodotus says was built by Cephren, th° successor of Cheops, close to the former, and of nearly the same size, but somewhat lower.⁸ This king is probably identified with Shcrfre, the Sephres of Manetho's Fifth Dynasty, but, according to Lepsius, of the Fourth. His name has not, indeed, been found on the Pyramid, but it appears on several tombs

* Herod, ii. 127. In calling Cephren the brother of Cheops, Herodotus seems to have confused him with Nnm-Khufu or Snphis II. Diodorus (i.64) mentions a tradition, that this king was the xon (not the brother) of Cheops, and that his true name was Chabryis, a much nearer approach to Shafrc.

THE OLD MONARCHY.

and tablets, often with the addition " of the Lesser Pyramid." It is also distinguished, in the tablets of kings, like that of Cheops, by a pyramid among its component hieroglyphics.

A most interesting monument of this king is the great temple, close to the Sphinx, only lately uncovered by M. Mariette, wlio found in it a life-sized portrait-statue of the king, sculptured in the hard trap-rock called diorite, and inscribed

with his name, j^"*^ fz^j ; besides fragments of other

statues with the same inscription.

§ 6. The Third Pyramid, much inferior in size to the other two, but excelling them in beauty, as it was cased half-way up with Ethiopian granite, is ascribed by Herodotus to Mycerinus, whom he makes the successor of Cephren ;⁹ and, in Manetho, Suphis II. is followed by Mencheres.¹⁰ In this case, the identification is even more striking than in that of the Pyramid of Cheops. The Third Pyramid still retains some courses of its granite facing, bevelled at the edges ; and when Belzoni entered the edifice, he found indeed that Arab spoilers had been there before him ; the coffin had been taken from the sarcophagus, and broken open ; but there lay the coffin-lid, inscribed with the name of Mex-ka-re, and in the neighboring passage, were the withered relics of a body, supposed to be that of the king himself; though some say tli.it it is the corpse of an Arab, who perished in the Pyramid when it was entered by Othman. The human relics and the fragments of the case may both be seen in the British Museumand the hieroglyphics of the name are repeated on the tablets of kings, in one of the small pyramids which are grouped abont the great ones, and elsewhere.

The Middle Pyramid of Aboa-Seir, to the south of those of Jizeh,has been claimed, on the authority of a name inscribed as a quarry-mark, for Soris, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty; but Lepsius refers it to Usercheres, of the Fifth.

§ 7. These Pyramids are but the chief and the most ancient of a series extending along the rocky platform, which raises them beyond reach of the inundation, to the west of Memphis, along a space of about twenty miles, from Jizeh on the north to Pashoar on the south.

Such was the extent of the vast cemetery, where the myriads of the Memphian dead reposed in their rock-hewn sepulchres, high over which the temple-tombs of their sovereigns pointed tq the sky. Monuments of haughty grandeur and despotic power as they are, common sense suggests the

⁹ Herod, ii. 129,134. ¹' The name also occurs in the Fifth Dynasty.

THE PYRAMIDS.

higher artistic motive for their size and form ; a motive which is felt as soon as they are seen. Like the cathedral, spires of the Middle Ages, they are the landmarks of a vast space which sets them before the eye in their sacred dignity while their huge mass is in harmony with all the objects that surround them, and with the very atmosphere through which they are seen. The emotions excited in a thousand generations are the justification of their builders.

§ .8. It is a misleading generality to speak of the Pyramids simply as Egyptian. "They are the characteristic monuments of the old Memphian Monarchy, just as the vast temples of Luxor and Karnak, with their pillared naves and towering propyls, are of the New Theban Monarchy. The practice of pyramid - building can not be traced" beyond the Twelfth Dynasty, for the pyramids of Nubia are later and very inferior resuscitations of the form. Equally distinct is the religious idea of the Pyramids from that of"the palaces and temples of after-ages. While the walls of the latter display immense reliefs and paintings, and are covered with hieroglyphics, to the glory of their kings and their patron deities, the former are almost, and in the best and oldest example, the Great Pyramid, quite bare of even structural decoration. Not for want of skill and art, as is abundantly shown by the contemporary tombs around them, and by the perfection of their own workmanship. Had we no other monuments of the age, the mechanical skill required to remove the huge stones" from the opposite side of the Nile, and to raise^ them to the height of nearly 500 feet; to quarry, and polish, and transport the granite used in the linings and sarcophagi ; to preserve every form and angle with geometrical exactitude, and to fit the masonry with joints as thin as writing-paper (not to insist on the supposed evidences of high astronomical and other science)—all this would, of itself, display the work of a highly civilized people, governed by a power which, in the security of peace, could command unlimited resources of labor, and was ready to expend the human material with the unsparing selfishness of a despot. The priests told Herodotus¹¹ that "Cheops closed the temples and forbade the Egyptians to sacrifice, compelling them instead to labor, one and all, in his service. A hundred thousand men labored constantly, and were relieved every three months by a fresh lot. It took ten years' oppression of the people to make the causeway for the conveyance of the stones. The Pyramid itself was twenty years in building."

The fairest conclusion from the absence of those decora-

¹¹ Herod, ii. 100.

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THE OLD MONARCHY.

tions which were lavished on private tombs, is that the Pyramids were regarded as temples, us well as tombs, in an age and nation which had not yet adopted image worship ; and when, as we have seen, the pantheistic symbolism of animal worship was new. Tombs, in general, were sacred to the deities of Amenti, the Egyptian Uncles; but the pyramid-kin^s seem themselves to have aspired to divine honors after death, and among the epitaphs of their subjects we find such titles as "priest of Khufu," "priest of Shafre;" nay,the Great Pyramid is called the "Temple of King Khufu.*" The absence of decoration is equally remarkable in the great temple of Shafre, near the Pyramids. The temple-towers of Babylonia, though in many respects of a different type,¹² have a sufficient resemblance to the Pyramids to suggest a common derivation of the idea from the Tower of Babel, a suggestion quite consistent with the Cushite origin of the Egyptians, and the position of the Pyramids in time as the earliest extant of human works. Their perfection shows that they were no first rude essays in architecture.

§ 9. In front of the Pyramids, on the edge of the platform of rock on which they stand, but lower down and looking eastward over the Nile, stands the colossal Sphinx (at e on the Plan). A man's head rises above the sands which leave visible only the back of the body of a lion, both hewn out of the solid rock, the strata of which are not only clearly seen, but " the figure appears all cruelly cut into by the weathering of its rock."¹³ " The head and face are reddish, the neck and line of the back white, on the yellow sand."¹⁴ "About the face and head, though nowhere else, there is much of the original statuary surface still, occasionally painted dull red ; and the curvature of the cheeks and cheek-bones shows a certain degree of high sculpture, especially when we observe the scale on which it~is wrought."¹⁵ The temporary clearance of the sand effected by Captain Caviglia, in 1818, showed that the length of the body is 140 feet f the fore-paws, which are constructed in masonry, project fifty feet farther; and the height from the platform between the paws to the top of the head is 62 feet, the original elevation of the native rock.¹⁵

The rock is not, however, levelled to this depth, but the platform is approached from the side of the Nile by a sloping descent cut in the rock for 135 feet, and ending in a flight of 13 steps; from the platform there is another descent of 30 steps to the space between the Sphinx's feet. Like the

¹² See below, cbap. x.

¹³ Piazzi Smyth. " Life ami Work at the Great Pyramid," vol. i. p. 322.

« Ibid., vol.i. p!5S. ¹⁵ Ibid., vol. i. p. 323.

^la Howard 7yse, " Pyramids of Gizeh," vol. iii. Appendix, pp. 109-110.

THE COLOSSAL SPHINX.

07

Pyramids, it is free from hieroglyphics ; but, on the side of a little temple between its paws, Caviglia discovered tablets representing Thothmes IV., of the 18th~dynasty, and Rameses the Great, of the 19th, worshipping the figure of" the Sphinx, liar-Hat, the giver of life, etc., the ruler of the upper and lower world, etc., like the sun forever and ever." These tablets only prove it to be older than the kings who set them ud ; its real age is probably, from many indications, that of the Pyramids themselves.

Its meaning has no connection with the classic fable of CEdipus. The Greek Sphinx was female;¹⁷ the Egyptian was male—the symbolical statue of a god or king, uniting the attributes of power and intelligence~in the lion's body and the man's head, crowned with the royal fillet.¹⁸ From the proximity of the Sphinx to the building called Shafre's temple, and some other indications, it is thought by some to be the statue of that king, by others a divine image which he consecrated. If the former, it was doubtless a portrait; but the weathering of the strata has worn the essentially Egyptian features into what some have mistaken for the negro type. In the later ages of Egypt, we find sphinxes used in the decoration of temples ; and the human head is often replaced by those of animals symbolical of divine attributes, such as the ram and hawk.

§ 10. The silence of the Pyramids respecting the life of the Egyptians under the Old Monarchy is made up for by the surrounding tombs. Their internal walls are covered with hieroglyphics and with the more universally intelligible language of pictures, which show us the subjects of the Old Memphian kingdom in the midst of their daily business, banquets, and recreations. "Here we see the regular physical type of the Egyptians : a reddish-brown complexion, with the nose long, and either straight or slightly aquiline, the lips rather full, and the forehead not high \ but the shape of the head is hidden by the already universal wiy™ Other clothing is scanty; a short kilt, sandals, a necklace; and in some cases a leopard's skin over the shoulders, the distinctive dress of the priests. The complexion of the women is a yellowish pale olive; they wear a single, close-fitting,elastic dress of a brilliant scarlet, supported under the breasts by shoulder-straps, and coming down, without a fold or wrinkle, to the ankles, where it^is wide enough to allow of

^1T If the Greeks borrowed the idea from the Egyptians, they may have been misled as to the sex by the wig aud head-dress. It is remarkable that the sphinx is not mentioned by Herodotus, nor by any Greek or Latin author earlier than Pliny.

>s Clemens "Alex. Strom." 5, p. G71 (Potter). 'AXxn? Me™ Twlaew o6y.(3o\ov h o<pint.

¹⁹ An Egyptian wig may be seen in the British Museum.

GS

THE OLD MONARCHY.

the separation of the feet in walking or dancing. The wig is larger than that of the men ; and princesses are only distinguished from servants by their necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of blue and white glass beads."

The social state is that of an aristocracy of land-owners, using with harsh oppression the labor of a servile peasantry and of domestic slaves. " Throughout the whole of the pictured'scenes, there is not a single instance of a peasant enjoying, or working for, himself under his own vine and his own tig-tree; no independent thought, or look,or action, on the part of the poor men is allowed; but they are all in official training to serve the prince of the time being; and administration is the order of the day."²⁰ According to a constant convention in Egyptian pictures, the owner of the tomb is represented by a colossal figure, armed with a baton, and standing the whole height of the wall, which is divided, in front ofhim, into horizontal compartments, in which his servants are at their various occupations. The task-master is always present,and the bastinado at work: not even the cripples are exempt from labor; and over them we often find the words " Slaves born in the house (registered) in the books of the house forever."

The estates were large, as many as ten or fifteen belonging to one owner, who receives from his overseers accounts of the produce, which a scribe records, each with its distinctive name. Every thing seems done on a scale of vastness and profusion : the droves of oxen are numbered by thousands; two or three rows of cows are milked at once ; long trains of servants come in laden with provisions; whole droves of oxen are slaughtered before the master; and his table is piled up with slices of bread, pyramids of fruit, joints of meat, and the favorite dishes of roast geese. Pastoral operations are on a larger scale than agricultural. The seed is sown broadcast, and^beaten in by driving sheep²¹ and goats over the newly-inundated land; reaping is performed with a sickle; threshing by driving herds of donkeys about a floor; and winnowing with spades.

The amusements of the field are eagerly pursued : hunting, fishing, and fowling. We see the fowler, in his papyrus boat, approaching the reeds that then fringed the banks of the

²⁰ Piazzi Smyth, " Life and Work, etc.," vol. iii. p. 3S0.

²¹ M. Kenan (in his valuable article in the " Revue des Deux Mondes," April, 18G5) denies that there are any sheep; but Professor Piazzi Smyth (p. 3S1) distinguishes the sheep, "long-legged things, with horizontal and mutually-diverging horns, and the goats with venerable beards and lyre-shaped retreating horns." But neither are numerous, compared with the oxen, "of magnificent quality, and of a portliness which shows them rather intended for the butcher than the farmer."

LIFE DEPICTED IN THE TOMBS.

GO

Nile, to strike the birds which fly into the clap-nets spread by his servants. The chief in-door amusements arc concerts and the performances of dancing-girls, witnessed by the master and by ladies, who sit on chairs of an elegant form.

One curious feature of these scenes is the number and variety of the domestic animals : donkeys, dogs, apes, antelopes, gazelles, geese, ducks, tame storks, and pigeons ; but others, familiar to a latter age of Egypt, are never seen, as fowls, camels, giraffes, elephants, aud horses. The absence of the horse is peculiarly interesting, as showing that we have not reached the period of that Pharaoh who made Joseph to ride in the second chariot that he had.²² It was to their Semitic neighbors, and probably to the invasion of the Shepherd Kings that the Egyptians were indebted for the horse.

Among the mechanical arts depicted are cabinet-making, and what has been interpreted as glass-blowing; but the handleless hammers of the carpenters show an age in which human labor was unrelieved by even the simplest machinery. Writing with a reed on papyrus is in constant use; and the cursive characters of the quarry-marks in the Great Pyramid prove that it had passed out of its earliest stage. Iu short, the civilization represented is in every respect as high as that of any later period of the Egyptian monarchy; and the art is even higher. The ignorance of perspective, common to every period of Egyptian art, and the absence of any idealizing power, must not lead us to undervalue the perfect truth to nature with which the animals and other objects are depicted, or the freedom of form and motion in the human figure, not yet trammelled by the sacred conventionalism of later ages. This free style of art is thought to show a period when the sacerdotal power was not dominant; and the inscriptions, which tell us of the social position and offices of these long-buried dead, confirm the view that the country had readied that political stage in which the government had passed from the priestly to the military class.

Nor are we without testimony to the moral views of these oldest Egyptians. In the Imperial Library at Paris there is a papyrus written by PhtJia-hotep, an old man of the royal blood'in the reign of Assa-Tatkera (probably the Tancheres of Manetho's 5th dynasty), and containing thirty-five moral precepts addressed to his son ; in which filial obedience is made the basis of morality, and its principle is extended to the duties of a subject to his king—the sign of an age of patriarchal despotism. It contains such precepts as the following : "The son who receives the words of his father shall

²² Genesis xli. 43. Comp. chap. v. § 10,

70

THE OLD MONARCHY.

grow old thereby. The obedience of a son to his father is happiness. He is dear to his father, and his renown is on the tongues of the living who walk upon the earth. The rebellious sees knowledge in ignorance, virtue in vice; each day he audaciously perpetrates frauds of every kind ; and so he lives as one already dead. That which the wise know to be death, is his daily life; he goes on in his way, loaded with maledictions."²³

The conclusion is interesting as an example of longevity, and breathes the spirit of self-satisfaction which characterized the religion and morality of the old Egyptians : " I have become one of the old men of the land ; I have accomplished one hundred and ten years with the grace of the king and the approbation of the elders, fulfilling my duty towards the king in the place of favor."

§ 11. The monuments, inscriptions, and pictured scenes of this period, all testify to a period of prosperity and peace.

Xo soldiers appear on the monuments; and none of the great men carry arms. The only sign of war is the coercion of troublesome Arab tribes in the peninsula of Sinai, where the Memphian kings, as we have seen, worked copper mines.²⁴ The country is at a high pitch of wealth under a powerful government. That such should be the earliest scene presented to us in the ancient world, fills every student of history with amazement. "When we think of this civilization," says M. Kenan, "that it had no known infancy ; that this art, of which there remain innumerable monuments, had no archaic epoch; that the Egypt of Cheops and Cephren is superior, in a sense, to all that followed, on est jyrjs de verthje"

Of the ruder labors which prepare the country for this high condition, we have no other indication than the traditions preserved by Herodotus about Menes.

§ 12. Before the time of Menes, he says, the Xile flowed close under the sandy range of hills which skirts Egypt on the side of Libya. By raising a dike at the bend which the river forms about a hundred furlongs south of Memphis, Menes turned the river into a new course half-way between the two lines of hills ; and on the site thus reclaimed on the left bank he built Memphis. He also built the temple of IIepha?stus (Phtha) within the city.²⁵ Herodotus testifies²⁶ to the care with which the dike was preserved by the Persians

²³ Lenormant, " Histoire Aueienne," vol. i. p. 208. ²⁴ See chap. i. 5 14.

²⁵ The Temple was enlarged by successive kings at distant periods. See Herod, ii. 99, 101, 10S-110, 121, 100, 15f:, 1TG; Diod. i. 45, 51, 62, 07. Its grand avenue (dromos) was used for bull-lights, which are represented on the tombs ; though the bull Apis was the sacred animal of Memphis. ²⁶ Herod, ii. 99.

ENGINEERING WORKS OF MENES.

71

in his time, lest the inundation should hurst upon Memphis. There seems no reason to reject this tradition of some great engineering works connected with the lirst establishment of Memphis; but their nature may have been misunderstood.

It is not improbable that the true object was to confine the Nile to its clayey bed, and to prevent the percolation of its waters through the sand-hills of the Libyan Desert and behind the pyramid-hills, into the chain of the lower Natron Lakes on the west of the Delta, which wasted its fertilizing waters and caused its lower arms to be lost in marshes, which, in the earliest age of Egypt, were probably uninhabitable, so that the population was confined to the narrow valley. The bifurcation of the river appears to have been at one time some 14 miles above Memphis, at JCasr-el-Syat, whence an ancient bed may be traced to the Libyan hills. Here is the elbow of which Herodotus speaks ; and the dike of Menes (of which all trace is obliterated by the rise of the soil) may have stopped up this western branch, and diverted the rest of its water into the lake which, Herodotus says, Menes constructed on the west of Memphis.²⁷

§ 13. This securing of the site of Memphis was the first pressing labor of its founders. Of the city itself our knowledge is sadly small. Its position " in the narrow part of Egypt"²⁸ —just below the expansion of the valley towards the Fytim, and above the opening to the Delta—commanded the passage between Upper and Lower Egypt, and fitted it to be the capital of the whole country.²⁹

It seems to have occupied the whole space of about three miles between the river and the hills. Its circuit is said by Diodorus to have been 150 stadia, or 15 geographical miles. Its walls contained three inclosures, of which the innermost, or citadel was called " the White Wall ;"³⁰ and one of its hieroglyphic names is " the white building." It is also called " the land of the pyramid " and " the abode of Phtha,"³¹ its

²⁷ It was across this lake the dead were ferried to their sepulchres. See Piazzf Smyth, vol. iii. p. 3S6 seq.; and Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. i. pp. 112,113.

²« Herod, ii. 99; comp. ii. S. ²⁹ Diod. i. 50. ao Thucyd. i. 10S; Herod, iii. 13,91.

³¹ Memphis is the Greek form of the Egyptian name, which is compounded of th« hieroglyphics, "Men" = foundation, or station, and ".Vo/re" = good, variously interpreted as " the place or haven of good men," or "the gate of the blessed," and " the tomb of the good man," i. e. Osiris. Plutarch (" De Isid. et Osir." 20) explains it by '6_Pfio^ uyaOiLv or ratpov'Oatpidov. Both senses, Gesenins remarks, are applicable to Memphis, as the sepulchre of Osiris, the Necropolis of the Egyptians, and hence also the haven of the blessed, ftV^&ft since the right of burial was conceded only to the good. The name seems vww\ also connected with that of Men-en, the hero eponymus of the city. In He- t A brew, it was No])h (Isaiah xix. 13; Jeremiah ii. 1G, xlvi. 14, 19; Ezekiel A A xxx. 13,10), or Moph (Hosea ix. (i). The name is preserved in the Coptic Qdfcfl Mephi, Memphi, Menofre, Mojjh, and Panovf; aud in the modern Manouf of the Delta. See Sir G. Wilkimon's Note to Herod, ii. 91, Rawlinson.

72

THE OLD MONARCHY.

great patron deity. The worship of that oldest of the gods marks its religious precedence Jjefore both Heliopolis and Thebes, whose patron deity was Ra, the Sun. As is usual in the old lands of castes, the priestly Memphis preceded the warlike Thebes. The substructions of the temple of Phtha, and of other buildings, as well as the colossal statues and stelae of Rameses II., and a broken statue bearing the name of Sabaco, identify its site with the plain covered with palm-trees, in which stands the village of Mitrahenny or Mitrauich, about 10 miles south of Cairo. (This modern capital, how ever, is on the opposite, or right, bank of the river.) The mounds which mark the ancient site extend over a circumference of three leagues.³²

§ 14. To the west, on the foot-terraces of the Libyan range of hills, the great Plain of the Pyramids extends from Abou-Moash, a little to the north-west of Cairo, to Meydoom, about 40 miles to the south, and thence in a south-westerly direction about 25 miles farther, to the pyramids of Howard and BlaJuuu; containing about 60 pyramids great and small. But the proper Memphite Necropolis is comprised within a length of about 15 miles from Jlzeh, to Sakkara, and contains, probably, 30 tombs of the sovereigns of Memphis.³³ There are no tombs on the eastern side of the Xile: the West was regarded as the land of darkness and of death.

The internal architecture of these tombs is instructive. The sepulchral abodes of the dead, who only slept, would naturally be modelled after the homes of the living. Partaking of that simplicity which we have seen in the Pyramids and in the temple of Shafre, their only decoration consists in bands, both vertical and horizontal, with rounded surfaces, as if reproducing in stone the trunks of trees most common in Egypt, the palm and sycamore. It may be inferred that the primitive Egyptians were no dwellers in caves (troglodyte), as some have supposed, but that their habitations were wooden houses, in which the natural trunks served for pillars and mouldings.

§ 15. Memphis was unquestionably the seat pf the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Dynasties of Manetho. He styles his Fifth Dynasty Elephantine; and assigns to it 31 kings³⁴ and nearly 600 years. Their names are associated in Memphian tombs with those of the Fourth Dynasty; and some are identical in both lists. Xo facts are recorded of

³² Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. i. p. 111.

³³ Bnnsen, "Egypt's Place," etc., vol. ii. p. ss.

⁸⁴ According to the better reading in the Armenian Chronicle of Ensebins: th9 Greek text has only nine in 21S years. The hypothesis that they reigned at some unknown Elephantine in Lower Egypt violates a sound canon of criticism.

THE MEMPHIAN DYNASTIES.

73

these kings. They seem to have been a contemporary branch of the royal house of Memphis, ruling at Elephantine on the southern border of Egypt; the t wo governments being sometimes united under the sovereign reigning at Memphis.

But, in truth, the relation of the Memphian Monarchy to Upper Egypt is altogether obscure. " No mention is even incidentally made of Thebes; a city may have existed there, but not of sufficient importance to be a rival power to Memphis. Hitherto no trace of the dominion of the Memphian kings has been found at Thebes or elsewhere in Upper Egypt, except some alabaster vases from Abydos, bearing the standard of Chufu ; and portable antiquities afford no decisive evidence. But this is no proof of Theban independence, since the fixed monuments of this age are entirely sepulchral; and the Memphian kings and their great officers would be buried near their own capital. Ii' Thebes has no monuments of Memphian dominion, neither has it any of its own, and it appears probable that, till the Twelfth Dynasty of Manetho, it continued to be a place of little account."³⁰

§ 16. The period of these great Memphian kings of the Fourth Dynasty seems to have been one of religious strife and convulsion. Their memory had an ill-savor with the sacerdotal colleges. The priests told Herodotus that Egypt was well governed till the reign of Cheops,who closed the temples and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice; a statement contradicted by the evidence of contemporary tombs.³⁶ Manetho only says that Suphis I. (Cheops) was arrogant towards the gods,but, repenting, wrote the sacred book; but Diodorus declares that Chembes (i. e. Cheops) was excluded after death from his own pyramid, and buried in a secret place to save his body from the insults of the oppressed people.³⁷ The period of oppression, Herodotus adds, lasted for 106 years, the united reigns of Cheops and Cephren, whose names the Egyptians so detested that they chose rather to call the Pyramids after Philition, a shepherd who at that time fed his flocks about the place.³⁸

Mycerinus at length opened the temples, and allowed the

« Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. pp. 142,143. The removal of the dead to their family sepulchre?, however distant, was a sacred custom of the Egyptians.

³⁹ Herod, ii. 194: comp. the absurd tale in c. 120. Observe the historian's own caution (c. 123), already quoted. See chap. ii. § 2.

³⁷ Diod. i. G4. The argument has been urged, that the traditional character of Cheops but ill accords with the prosperity shown on the monuments of his reign. But this prosperity of the landed aristocracy is quite consistent with the oppression of the common people; and of their happiness, as we have seen, the monuments give lib proof.

³⁸ Herod, ii. 12S. Iu this curious and obscure tradition thcro may possibly be an allusion to the inroad of the Shepherd Kings from the side of Palestine; and their oppression may have been confounded with that of the Pyramid Kings.

4

74

THE OLD MONARCHY.

people to return to their occupations and to resume the rites of sacrifice. He surpassed all former kings in justice ; and, if any man was dissatisfied with his decision, he paid the penalty he had awarded out of his own purse. Yet another story made him die of grief from a passion for his own daughter, and another shows forth the opposition between king and priest in his grotesque device for proving the oracle of Buto a liar. The fatalism of the Egyptian religion is shown in the sentence on Mycerinus for his very virtues towards his people, because he had not fulfilled the destined term of their oppression for 150 years.³⁹

These traditions of a religious conflict are not unconfirmed by the monuments. In the temple of Shafre is a well, containing broken fragments of statues of that king, made of the most costly stones, and evidently flung in by violence; a token, so far as it goes for any thing, of an outburst of revolutionary hatred. The respect of the priests for the memory of Mycerinus looks like their tribute to the author of a new establishment, which secured the sway they afterwards exercised over the whole life of the Egyptians. We have many proofs of his deification. On the coffin-lid found in the Great Pyramid, Menkera is identified with Osiris. In the Tablet of Abydos, his shield contains the sign denoting " god." In the "Ritual of the Dead" he appears as a deceased and deified king; and his name is often found on the carved beetles (scarabcei), which were used as amulets, of a date (as their workmanship proves) long subsequent to his death.⁴⁰

§ 17. According to the view of Bunsen, "The amalgamation of the religions of Upper and Lower Egypt had already united the two provinces, before the power of the race of This in the Thebaid extended itself to Memphis ; and before the giant work of Menes converted the Delta from a desert, checkered over with lakes and morasses, into a blooming garden." After this, the political union of the two divisions was effected by the builder of Memphis. " Menes founded the Empire of Egypt by raising the people who inhabited the valley of the Nile from a little provincial station to that of an historical nation."⁴¹ The process of consolidating this power would not unnaturally lead to conflicts with the priests of the local deities that were revered in every part of Egypt. At all events, it seems certain that the main elements of the

³⁹ Herod, ii. 129-133. Two kings of the same name are perhaps mixed up in these Ptories. Lepsius suspects that the skeptical Psammetichus, on whose shield we find ihe name Menkera as an "augmentation," may have been confonuded Avith the pious r.vramid-kiug. ⁴⁰ Kenrick, " Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 138.

⁴¹ Buuseu, "Egypt'sPlace," etc., vol. i. p. 441; vol. ii. p.409.

UNION OF UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT.

75

Egyptian religion had received their permanent form under the old Memphian kings. M. Mariette has found the names of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, the great deities common to all Egypt, on monuments at Sakkara, which he regards as contemporary with Cheops.

§ 18. The Sixth Dynasty, of six kings in 203 years, is styled by Manetho Memphian. Some hold that this Sixth Dynasty succeeded the Fourth at Memphis, while the Fifth continued to reign at Elephantine, even as late as the domination of the Shepherd-kings in Lower Egypt.⁴² In the absence of Manetho's History, his mere List fails to show the ground of distinction between the dynasties, or the causes which handed down, or handed over, the power from each to its successor. But he tells us that the first king of the Sixth Dynasty, Othoes, was killed by his guards, after a reign of thirty years.⁴³ Now, if the critics are right who identify this Othoes with the Onnos who closes the Fifth Dynasty, we have the not improbable inference that the original Memphian monarchy was supplanted by a revolution, which had its beginning with the guards stationed on the frontier at Elephantine.

But, be the cause what it might, the second king of the Sixth Dynasty, Pepi-Maire or Pepi-Pemai (Phios, M.),⁴⁴ ruled over the whole country, with a power attested by the number and variety of his monuments, from Syene at the cataracts to Tanis in the Delta.

The monument which gives us his titular name indicate? that he constructed or improved the road to the port of Kos-seir, on the Red Sea, and so raises the presumption of a conv merce between Egypt and the seas of Arabia, and perhaps India. The military prowess of Pepi is attested by his monuments to the east and south of Egypt. We see him warring

⁴² The evidence for this is an inscription, making Unas, the last king of the Fifth Dynasty (Onnos in Manetho) contemporary with Assa, the Fifth king of the Fifteenth Dynasty (of Shepherds) at Memphis ; but the reading is very doubtful. Lepsius con-eiders not only the fifth dynasty (whose seat at Elephantine bordered on Ethiopia) bat the sixth also, as Ethiopian ; their fifteen kings, with the three of the twenty-fifth dynasty, making up the eighteen Ethiopian kiugs of Herodotus.

⁴³ The monuments show two competitors against this king, whose name appears as A ti.

⁴⁴ Either reading has the same meaning—" beloved of Re (the Sun)." The full form of the name is Pepi-meri-ro. The title is derived from a monument on the road to Kosseir, on the Red Sea, exhibiting two kings, named I'^n, and Maire or Remai, seated on thrones side by side, one wearing the crown oi Upper, the other that of Lower Egypt. At first sight we should take them for contemporary sovereigns; but, as the second name appears nowhere else, and as its meaning is perfectly analogous to the titles which the Theban kiugs prefixed in a separate shield to that containing the phonetic characters of their own names, it seems most pr.obable that this was another mode of signifying the same thiug. If so, Pepi's is the first example of a titular prse-nomen among the Egyptian kings" The kings of the Fourth and other eai ly dynasties have but one shield, containing their names in phonetic characters.

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THE OLD MONARCHY.

against the Arabs of the peninsula of Sinai (like the kings of the Fourth Dynasty) ; against other Arab tribes between Upper Egypt and the Red^Sea; and in Ethiopia, above the second cataract, against the Wa-Wa, a people of a decidedly negro type.⁴⁵ A second Pepi, surnamed Neferkera (Fhiops, M.), is distinguished by Manetho for the phenomenon of a centenarian reign. He came to the throne at six years of age, and reigned for 100 years all but a month;⁴⁶ but nothing else is recorded of him ; only his monuments confirm the length of his reign by the festivals which he celebrated at the^completion of its several periods.

The successor of Phiops reigned but one year, and then we come to the one queen, whose name was read to Herodotus among the 330 kings, the " rosy-cheeked " Nitocris⁴⁷ of Manetho, who also calls her " the most spirited and most beautiful woman of her time." The character is justified, and the shortness of her predecessor's reign accounted for, by the legend which the priests related to Herodotus, that she succeeded her brother, who had been put to death by his subjects ; and, having invited the principal murderers to a banquet in a subterranean chamber, she let in the river upon them as they were feasting. Then, to escape the vengeance of their friends, she threw herself into an apartment full of ashes.⁴⁸

Manetho assigns 12 years to her reign, and says that she built the Thirdly ram id, that, namely, of Mycerinus^ Now it is remarkable that this pyramid has been at some time enlarged, the original entrance having been built over by the new masonry, and a second entrance constructed, as if to receive a second occupant. Even the story, which Herodotus himself rejects, of the building of the Third Pyramid by the courtesan Rhodope, is an undesigned corroboration of its connection with Nitocris, for the Greek word Rlwdope has the same meaning as the " rosy-cheeked" queen of Manetho.⁴"

⁴⁵ It is enousrh to mention, without discussing, the inference, that Nubia was at this time occuoied by a negro population, previous to the entrance of the Cushite Ethiopians from S. Arabia across the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. (See Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne," vol. i. p. 200.)

⁴⁶ Eratosthenes assigns 100 years to Apappus; and the name Pepi may be read Apap. The Turin papyrus gives 00 years to a nameless king; and that this was Pepi is confirmed by the one year and one month assigned to his successor.

⁴⁷ In Egyptian Xeitakri, i. e. " Neith (Minerva) the Victorious." Her name is iu the Turin papyrus. There is another Nitocris of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, living about the same time as the celebrated Babylonian queen of the same name, who (Sir G. Wilkiuson conjectures) may have been au Egyptian princess, demanded in marriage by the King of Babylon on his invasion of Egypt. The wife of Psammetichus III. was also named Neitakri. See'Rawlinson's " Herodotus," Note to ii. 100.

^4S Herod, ii. 100. The last part of the story, at all events, seems of foreign origin. Smotheriug in ashes was a Persian punishment, but unknown to the Egyptians. ⁴⁹ Herod, ii. 134. The historical Ithodope, whose proper name was Doricha (as

NITOCRIS.

77

§ 19. With Nicotris ends the splendor of the Old Memphian Monarchy ; and the result of the preceding troubles is traced in the eclipse that settles over Egyptian history from the Sixth Dynasty to the Eleventh. For this interval the monuments are dumb ; or rather, there are no monuments to speak.⁵⁰ The Seventh Dynasty, of 70 kings in as many days, looks like an interregnum of a senate or a priestly college.¹'¹ To the Eighth Dynasty Manetho assigns 28 kings in 146 years,⁵² and that is all we know. On the hypothesis that 'Manetho's dynasties are in part contemporary, these shadowy dynasties seem the remnants left at Memphis of a divided empire,-on the ruins of which new kingdoms were founded in Middle and Upper Egypt, probably during the troublous times of the Sixth Dynasty.⁵³ The seat of the former was at Heracleopolis ;⁵⁴ that of the latter was at the new capital of Upper Egypt, which the Greeks called Thebes, and of which we have soon to speak more fully.

The double conflict which Heracleopolis must have had to maintain, against Thebes on the one side, and the Shepherd invaders on the other, will account for the darkness of its history. Of the 4 kings of the Ninth Dynasty in 100 years⁵⁶ and the 19 of the Tenth in 185 years, we are only told that the first, Achthoes, was the most atrocious of all who preceded him, and having done much mischief to the people of all Egypt, he went mad, and was killed by a crocodile. His

Sappho calls her) lived in Egypt in the reign of Amasis. The story of her marriage to Psammetichus, under circumstances resembling the tale of Cinderella, and of her burial iu the Third Pyramid, seems to have arisen from a double confusion with the two Neitakris, the ancient queen and the wife of Psammetichus III. (^Eliau. " Var. Hist." xiii. 33 ; Strabo, xvii. p. 300.

⁵⁰ The hypothesis of a foreign invasion has been snggested, on the ground that the comparison of the skulls found in the tombs prior to the sixth dynasty with those subsequent to the eleventh, shows the introduction of a new element of race. But this is confessedly very doubtful. See Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne," vol. i. p. 211.

⁶¹ The reading of Eusebins (Armenian Version), five kings in seventy-five days, seems an arbitrary correction. Mr. Poole regards the seventh and eighth as native dynasties who temporarily recovered power at Memphis, at the end of the Fifteenth Dynasty, the first of the Shepherd Kings.

⁵² Or five kings in one hundred years.—Euseb. " Chron. Arm."

⁶« Even M. Lenormant, who sees no reason to question the continuity of Manetho's dynasties, speaks of an energetic struggle of the Theban kings of the eleventh dynasty against the separatists of the Delta, represented in the ninth aud tenth Herac-leopolite dynasties.

⁵⁴ Heracleopolis the Great is doubtless meant, since Heracleopolis Parva, in the Delta, is only mentioned in later times. The former (so named by the Greeks after its patron deity, whom they identified with Hercules) stood at the month of the opening from the valley of the Nile into the Fyum, on an island formed by the Nile, the Bahr Yusnf, and a canal, in a position well suited for a capital both of Upper and Lower E<rypt. Its site is marked by the mounds about the village of Anasieh or Anas-el-Mcdineh, the Coptic Hues. There is, however, a doubt both as to the name and numbers of these two dynasties. See chap. iv. § 3.

" So in Eusebins, " Chron. Arm." Africanus has 19 kings in 409 years.

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THE OLD MONARCHY.

fate looks like a local tradition, to account for the permanent hostility of the Heraeleopolites to the crocodile, which was worshipped by their neighbors of Arsinoe in the Fytlm.

Considering the position of Heracleopolis, and the number of years assigned to its two dynasties, it seems not improbable that the great engineering works by which the Lake Mceris was made a reservoir for regulating the inundation of the Nile, were at least commenced during this period. " If the Fyum was rendered habitable and fertile by the kings of the Heracleopolitan dynasties, it will be explained how it becomes of so much importance under the Twelfth.⁵⁶

§ 20. In this account of the old Memphian Monarchy, we have not attempted to give a single date. There is, thus far, and long after, no established Egyptian chronology; and, if data exist from which it might be constructed, the results as yet obtained are purely hypothetical. Various Schools of Egyptologers place the era of Menes as high as b.c. 5735, and as low as b.c. 2429, and that of the Great Pyramid at the beginning of the fifth or the second chiliad b.c. All the stronger for this diversity is that body of testimony to the antiquity of Egyptian civilization which places the lowest date, not of its beginning, but of its perfection, in all essential elements, at least 4000 years ago!

The. chief principles on which the construction of a chronology has been attempted are the following: — (i.) The simple expedient of adding together the numbers assigned by Manetho to his dynasties, leads us back to the sixth chiliad b.c.⁵⁷ But, besides that the various numbers in the different texts make even this method inexact, it falls to the ground if any of the dynasties were contemporary, (ii.) A more refined and more probable system is based on calculations derived from the various epochs and periods which are known to have been used by the Egyptians, bnt which are too technical to be explained here. Following this method, authorities such as Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Mr. Lane, and Mr. Stuart Pool, place the Era of Menes at or about b.c. 2700, and that of the Fourth Dynasty about b.c. 2440.'⁸' (iii.) Partly in conjunction with the preceding method, and partly

⁵⁶ Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 156.

⁵⁷ The priests told Herodotus that there had been S41 generations, both of kings and high priests, from Menes to Sethos ; and this he calculates at 11,340 years. The " Loug Chronology " has been adopted, with various modifications, by the most distinguished Continental Egyptologers, as Bunsen, Lepsius, aud Kenan. Lepsius, in his "Letters from Egypt" (1S52), makes the Era of Menes n.c. 4S00, and that of the Fourth Dynasty i$.o. 4000 ; bnt in his " Konigsbuch " he brings down the same dates about 900 years lower, namely, u.o. 3S92 and n.o. 3124. Bunsen puts them at u.o. 3623 and b.o. 320D respectively.

⁵⁸ See Mr. Poole's " Horse E°-yptiaca;," and art. Egypt in the "Encyclopaedia Bri-tannica," ninth editiou.

EARLY CHRONOLOGY.

7ii

by itself, the Great Pyramid has been made, by astronomical calculations, to tell the date of its own erection. This method is too interesting to be passed over in silence ; but its very ingenuity is a ground of suspicion. It has been mixed up with certain extraordinary theories about the origin and object of the Pyramid, which lie quite beyond our province.⁵⁹ The three chief pyramids are all accurately placed with their four faces to the four points of the compass, a fact itself suggestive of the astronomical knowledge of their builders. Their entrance is always on the northern face, by a long sloping passage, the angle of which with the horizon differs but slightly from 30°, which is just the latitude of Jizeh. Moreover, this difference is almost uniform in the three pyramids, and its mean gives 26° 16' for the inclination of the passage. If the angle were exactly 30°, the passage would point to the true North Pole of the heavens. But this is an invisible point, though at present marked very nearly by what Ave therefore call the Polar Star, a in Ursa Minor. Owing, however, to the precession of the equinoxes, the true Pole, though fixed in our celestial hemisphere, is always changing its place among the stars; and about 4000 years ago the star a Draconis was the only conspicuous star near the Pole, its distance from which was then just 3° 44'. Consequently, its lower culmination on the meridian would be 26° 16' above the horizon. Astronomy enables us to calculate the exact date when these conditions were fulfilled, and that (it is argued) must have been the date of the Great Pyramid.

By an elaborate comparison with various other data, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland has fixed this date within narrower limits than preceding inquirers—at 21*70 b.c.

The reasoning is beautiful; and, to those who know how many scientific discoveries have been based on the mutual coherence of observed facts, it is not improbable. But the sterner spirit of criticism hesitates to accept it in the absence of some independent evidence that its assumed principle is true—that the inclination of the entrance-passage was intended to point to the polar star.⁶⁰ On the whole, however,

⁵⁹ The curious in such matters are referred to the late Mr. John Taylor's work on " The Great Pyramid " (1S5⁽.) and 1S64), which is at all events worthy of the ingenious author of "Junius Identified;" and to Professor Piazzi Smyth's two books, "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid" (1S'J4), and "Life and Work at the Great Pyramid in 1S65 " (3 vols. 1S67). The leading idea of these authors is that the Great Pyramid is (whether with any other purpose or not) a monument of metrological standards. Bnt the pains-taking measurements and scientific authority of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland give his work a valne, which is quite independent of his theory.

⁶⁰ Sir Henry James—in his valuable tract ("Notes on the Great Pyramid of Egypt and the Cubits u-:ed in its Design"), 1SG9, giving the results of the measurements of the Great Pyramid by the Ordnance Surveyors in the winter of 1S6S-9—points out that the 8loi>e of the entrance passage (a little over 20°) is just the "angle of rest" for

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THE OLD MONARCHY.

we may venture so far as to say that there is a concurrence of probability in favor of a date, for the Fourth Dynasty and the Great Pyramids, not exceeding b.c. 2000. But this is hypothesis, not chronology.

The chronology of Scripture, even if thoroughly established, would only aid us with a maximum limit of time; for it is agreed on all hands that we have not yet reached the epoch of Abraham's visit to Egypt.

such materials as the stoue of the Pyramids, and therefore the proper inclination for enabling the sarcophagus to be easily moved, without lettiug it descend of itself. This is just as good a " sufficient reason" as the astronomical theory, and equally accounts for the near agreement of the slope in both of the passages, and in all the chief pyramids. The exact slope in the Great Pyramid is 26° 23'.

Bull-fight.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MIDDLE MONARCHY AND THE SHEPHERD KINGS.

5 1 Summary of the Period. Dynasties XI. to XVII. The Theban, Shepherd, and Xolte Kingdoms. § 2. The Eleventh Dynasty. Infancy of the Theban Monarchy. § 3. Monuments of the Enente/s and Muntotps. Ame.nf..mks I. § 4. Order of the Kings of the Twelfth Dyuasty. § 5. Their recovery of Egypt and Sinai. Monuments of Sesortaseu I. § 6. Amenemks II., killed by his eunuchs. Arabian conquests. § 7. Sf.sortasen III. Prototype of SEsorsTins. His conquests and fortresses in Ethiopia. His deification. State of Ethiopia at this time. His brick pyramid at Dashoor. § 8. Amenemes III., builder of the Labyrinth. § 9, The Lake Moeris, as described by Herodotus. The natural lake, Birket-el-Kerun, not the Lake Mceris. Discovery of the latter by M. Linaut. § 10. Use of the Lake Mceris. Change in the Nile by the breaking of the rocky barrier at Silsilis. § 11. The Art of the Twelfth Dynasty. § 12. Sepulchral grottoes of Beni-hassan. Scenes of life under the Middle Monarchy. Great lords: their possessions and functions. § 13. Tomb of Ameni: its pictures and epitaph. § 14. First appearance of military exploits aud captives. Group of Jebusites, formerly taken from the Family of Jacob. § 15. The Thirteenth (Theban), and Fourteenth (Xolte) Dynasties: their relations to each other and to the Shepherd Kings. 5 16. The Hvk-sos, or Shepherd Kings. Their story as qnoted from Manetho by Josephns. Absurdity of their identification with the Hebrews. § 17. Real meaning of the narrative. Race of the Shepherd Kings. § IS. Progress of the conquest. Their relations to the kingdom of Upper Egypt. § 19. Mounmental Discoveriesr Saites or Set-aa-pehti Xoubti their chief King. Worship of the Hittite god, Set, or Sou-tekh. Indications of time and place. Importance of Tanis. Style of the Shepherd Monuments. 5 20. Adoption of Egyptian customs. Time of JosErn. § 21. Expulsion of the Hyksos. Interesting contemporary narrative. § 22. Relations of Egypt with Phoenicia and Greece.

§ 1. As a key to the difficulties of the ensuing period, it may be well to prefix the general results which seem to be established. During the decline and fall of the Memphian Monarchy, a new kingdom arose in Upper Egypt; new, at least, in its extensive power, though perhaps developed from an old local monarchy or viceroyalty. This kingdom is called by Manetho Diospolitan (that is, Tlteban); but that capital was only as yet in the infancy of its power. Beginning with the obscure Eleventh Dynasty, this monarchv, m the

4*

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THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

Twelfth Dynasty, extended its power over all Egypt, and gave a presage of the brilliant period of the New Theban Monarchy of the 18th and 19th Dynasties.

About or just after the time of this dynasty, nomad hordes, probably of Semitic race (or of Hamite and Semitic intermingled), who are included under the general name of Ilyk-sos, or Shepherd Kings, entered the Delta from the East, whether in mere rapacity for the country's wealth, or pressed forward by other conquerors, or invited by the decayed princes of Lower Egypt to aid them against their southern masters, or from a combination of these motives. Becoming masters of the lower country, and fixing their capital at Memphis—where they appear at length to have respected the religion and adopted the usages, as well as the name, of the Egyptians—they waged long wars with the kingdom of the Theba'id. The Hyksos were ultimately successful; but the continuity of the Theban Monarchy was never entirely broken. Sometimes, as under a part of the Thirteenth Dynasty, its kings took refuge in Ethiopia, and used the military resources of that country against the invaders ; sometimes they seem to have become tributary to the Hyksos; and so intricate were their relations that, in the various copies of Manetho's Lists, the 15th, 16th, and 17th dynasties figure both as Shepherd and Theban,

At the same time another native dynasty, the 14th, survived at Xoi's, in Lower Egypt, perhaps protected by the Shepherds, or even coalescing with them in rivalry against Thebes. At length, by a great national movement, the people of Upper Egypt rallied their force under Amosis (or Aahmes),who expelled the shepherds, and reunited all Egypt under the Eighteenth Dynasty, with its capital at Thebes.¹

§ 2. A line of demarcation is drawn by Manetho, or his copyists, at the end of his Eleventh Dynasty:—"Thus far Manetho brought his first volume, altogether 192 kings, 2300 years, 70 days." To this eleventh dynasty he assigns 16 Diospolitan kings in 43 years, " after whom Ammeiiemes," the immediate ancestor of the Twelfth Dynasty. The monuments confirm the view that the 12th dynasty sprang from the 11th; and the line of demarkation is* best drawn at the beginning of the Eleventh Dynasty, as the true commencement of the dominion of Upper Egypt. Such a line is justified by the monuments :—" When/' says M. Mariette, " with the Eleventh Dynasty we see Egypt awake from her long sleep, the old traditions are forgotten. The proper names used in the old families, the titles given to the functionaries,

¹ The description of Thebes belongs more properly to the next chapter.

THE ENENTEFS AND MUNTOTPS. 8*

the writing itself, and every thing, even to the religion, seem,, to he new. Thinis, Elephantine, Memphis, are no longer the chosen capitals: it is Thebes which becomes, for the first time, the seat of the sovereign power. Egypt is, besides, dispossessed of a notable part of her territory, and the authority of the legitimate kings no longer extends beyond a limited district of the Thebaid. The study of the monuments confirms these general views. They are rude, primitive, sometimes clumsy; and, from their appearance, we might believe that Egypt, under the Eleventh Dynasty, was recommencing the period of infancy through which it had passed under the Third."

§ 3. Very few monuments, however, of the Middle Monarchy are found at Thebes. Those of the Eleventh are chiefly at Hermdnthis, and the most remarkable of the Twelfth are about Lake Mceris (in the Fyum) and in the rock-hewn tombs of JBeni-hassan, opposite to Hermopolis the Great, just where the line was afterwards drawn between Upper and Middle Egypt. At Hermonthis (Erment), a great seat of the worship of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, we find the monuments of several kings, all of whom have the same name, Nentef or Enentef except two, who are called Mandopt or Muntotp, from Mctndoo or Munt, the patron god of Hermonthis.² It was to Muntotp I., probably the founder of this dynasty, that the*later Theban kings traced back their origin ; for in the List of Rameses II. his name alone occurs between that of Menes and that of Aahmes, the founder of the 18th dynasty ; and he is repeatedly mentioned as an ancestor on the monuments of other kings of the 18th and 19th dynasties. On a monument at Silsilis we see an Enentef doing homage to Muntotp I. Muntotp IT. is mentioned on a tablet on the road to Kosseir, with Amenemes I.,³ whom he may have established in the kingdom during his own lifetime. The Turin papyrus shows that Amenemes was twice deposed by othei kings; and several other synchronisms, too intricate for discussion here, confirmed Manetho's mention of "Theban and other kings." In the name of Amenemes, compounded as it is of Amen or Anain, the patron god of Thebes, we at length see a decisive proof of the supremacy of that city; and his name is the earliest found upon its monuments.

² Sir Gardner Wilkinson refers these kings to the Ninth Dynasty; the title of which (as well as of the Tenth), HeraclcopolUe, he supposes to "ho an error fir Hcr-monthite, arising from the circumstance that the immea of the Euentefn begin with the hieroglyphic characters which constitute the title of Hercules. (App, to Herod. II., ch. viii. § 12: Rawlinson.)

³ We use this, the Greek form of the name, f>r convenience of pronunciation. The hieroglyphic name is read Amenemhe or Amun-m-he. Manetho's copyists spell it -aminenemes.

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THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

§ 4. In the Twelfth Dynasty the name of Amenemes alternates with that of Osirtasen, or (for the first syllable is doubtful) Sesortasen or Sesertesen, in which we may trace the Se-sostris of the Greeks, at least as far as the name only is concerned.⁴ The series of kings has been made out satisfactorily through the correction of Manetho's list by the monuments:

The names are found in their due succession, partly in the tables of Abydos, and partly in the Turin papyrus.

§ 5. From the beginning of this dynasty the monarchy of Egypt has recovered its widest ancient limits.⁵ The monuments of Sesortasen I. (son of Amenemes I.)⁶ are found, not only from the Delta to Syene, but upward in Nubia as far as the second cataract, on the tablet of Wady-halfa ; while his name, inscribed on the rocks of Sinai, proves the re-conquest of that peninsula and the renewed working of its mines. So far as the monuments are concerned, he may claim to rank as the founder of Thebes, for his name is seen on the oldest portion of t he great temple of Karnak, and on a broken statue. Sepulchral tablets bearing his name are found in the necropolis of Abydos and in that of Memphis. In Lower Egypt an obelisk of his is still erect at Ileliopolis, aud a fallen one in the FyUm is the first sign of the great works of his dynasty in that district.

§ 6. Of Amenemes II. Manetho only says that he was killed by his own eunuchs ;⁷ but a monument of his 28th year records his conquests over the people of Pount, while its position at a watering-place on the road to Kosseir attests commercial intercourse with the Arabian Gulf.⁸ This monument even indicates Egyptian conquests in Arabia; for "the Pount, with whom the kings of the 18th and 19th dynasties were afterwards at war, were a northern race, being placed, on monuments at Soleb and elsewhere, with the Asiatic tribes. They

* Lepsius, Bunsen, etc., read the Si: Sir G. Wilkinson adheres to the 0.

⁵ This fact seems to contradict the theory which places the irruption of the Shepherds at or before this epoch. ⁸ Manetho.

⁷ Kenrick translates e'uvov_Xot literally " guards of the bed-chamber," on the ground, maintained by Wilkinson, that the Egyptians had no ennuchs. On this question see ^u Diet, of the Bible," art. Eunuch.

^b There is a tablet of Sesortasen ii. at the same place.

Manetho.

1. Sesonchosis.

2. Ammenemes.

3. Sesostris.

4. Laclmres. f>. Ameres.

G. Ammenemes.

7. Skemiophris (his sister).

2. Amenemlie II.

3. Sesortasen II.

4. Sesortasen III.

5. Amenemlie III.

6. Amenemlie IV.

7. Ka-SebeknofVu.

1. Sesortasen I.

Monuments.

SESORTASEN II., A SESOSTRIS.

85

appear to have lived in Arabia, probably in the southern as well as northern part; and their tribute at Thebes, in the time of Thothmes III., consisted of ivory, ebony, apes, and other southern productions; partly, perhaps, obtained by commerce."⁹

§ 7. The next king, Sesortasen II., was the greatest of this dynasty. In his 8th year he completed the conquests of his two predecessors in Ethiopia, and built the fortress of Semneh, some distance above the second cataract. Here a temple was erected to him, as a deified king, by his descendant, Thothmes III., and he was also worshipped as a god by Thothmes IV. at Amada, in lower Ethiopia; and one variation of his name has the epithet good. These divine honors were probably paid to Sesortasen II. on account of the vast importance of his Ethiopian conquests, in respect of which also he was the prototype of the Greek Sesostris, a personage, however, made up of several kings of different dynasties and ej)och$.¹⁰

On these conquests Lenormant observes : "At this epoch a state extended beyond the First Cataract almost to the extremity of Abyssinia, which was to Ancient Egypt what Soudan is to Modern Egypt; this was the Land of Gash (Kesh), or Ethiopia. Without well-defined limits, Avithout unity of organization or territory, Ethiopia supported numerous tribes, differing in origin and in race; but the bulk of the nation was formed by the Cushites of the race of Ham, who had lately established themselves there since the time of the Sixth Egyptian Dynasty. These Cushites appear to have been, under the Twelfth Dynasty, the real enemies of Egypt. Jt was towards Ethiopia that the forces of the nation were

⁹ Sir G. Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. 102, Rawlinson.

¹⁰ In the List of Manetho, Sesortasen ii. is expressly identified with Sesostris, who " was esteemed by the Egj'ptians the first after Osiris." The exploits added are evidently copied front Herodotus by the Greek editors. Sesostris may also include Sesortasen i., whose name in Manetho, Sesonchosis, seems even to point backward to Sesochris, the eighth king'of the second dynasty, and downward to Sesonchis (She-shonk) of the twenty-second. The former was a giant (Manetho): and such both Herodotus and Manetho make Sesostris. The name Sesonchosis is also found in the "Scholiast to Apollonius Rhodins " (iv. 272), as "King of all Egypt after Horus, son of Isis and Osiris : he conquered all Asia and the greater part of Europe: Herodotus calls him Seisin's.'" Here is a confusion of the mythical age with both the nineteenth dynasty aud twenty-second dynasty ; for the wider conquests of Sesostris answer to those of Rameses ii. and his father Sefi L, who was the son of Horus, the last of the eighteenth dynasty; and the true Sesonchis (Sheshonk) was really a great foreign conqueror, and inscribed the palace of Karuak with the representations of numerous sovereigns whom he had led captive. In the same spirit, " Dicaearchus, whom the Scholiast appears to follow, ascribes to Sesonchosis the institution of castes and of the use of horses for riding—a fresh illustration of the propensity to refer the origin of customs lost in immemorial antiquity to some eminent name."—Kenrick's "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 1G3. On Sesostris as the representative of Rameses ii., sea the reign of that king, chap. vi. § 5.

86

THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

then turned ; against the tribes of Cush were raised, on both banks of the Nile above the second cataract, the fortresses of Khumneh and of Semneh, which mark the southern limit at which the empire of the Pharaohs then stopped."¹¹ The testimony of an inscription at Semneh, that the frontier was thus fixed by Sesortasen II., accords with the statement of Herodotus, that Sesostris was the only (he should rather have said the first) Egyptian monarch that ever ruled over Ethiopia.¹²

The monuments on the Kosseir road may justify our repeating here also the story which the priests told Herodotus, that Sesostris was the first of all who proceeded in a fleet of ships of war from the Arabian Gulf along the shores of the Ery-thnean Sea (i. e., from the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean) until he finally reached a sea which could not be navigated by reason of the shoals.¹³ All else that Herodotus relates of Sesostris seems to belong to Seti I. and Rameses II., of the Nineteenth Dynasty. An evidence that the Twelfth Dynasty recovered the power of the old monarchy is the burial of Sesortasen II. (or perhaps III.) in the pyramid of Lashoor, the southernmost of the Memphian pyramids, remarkable as the first example of a building constructed of bricks. (It was, however, faced with stone.) This might connect him with the Asychis of Herodotus, the sage legislator, who left a brick pyramid as his peculiar monument; but there are several pyramids of brick.¹⁴

§ 8. The name of Amenemes III. is associated with his father's in the records of their victories in Ethiopia and over the negroes, but it shines with a higher splendor in those of art and civilization. The monuments have now cleared up the riddle hidden in the words of Manetho: "Labaris (or La-cheres), who prepared the Labyrinth in the Arsinoite nome " (the Fyuni) "as a tomb for himself." The false name, La-baris, perpetuated by the copyists for the sake of an etymol ogy of Labyrinth, and written Lamar is by Eusebins, probably conceals the Mceris, whom Herodotus makes the greatest king after Menes, and to whom he ascribes the formation of the great lake named after him ; but, since meri is the Egyptian for lake, it would rather seem that the name of the king

¹¹ Lenormant, "Histoire Ancienne," vol. i.p.215. Besides the evidence of the inscription referred to in the text, the water-gates of both fortresses are on the Egyptian side of the works. (Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. 102.)

¹² Herod, ii. 130. See Sir G. Wilkinson's Note on the power of Egypt in Ethiopia.

¹³ Herod, ii. 102. "This is perhaps an indication that the Egyptians, in the time of Herodotus, were aware of the difficulties of the navigation towards the mouths of the Indus."—Sir G. Wilkinson, who, however, regards " the conquests of Sesostris iu this direction " (Herodotus only speaks of a voyage) as pure fables.

¹⁴ Herod, ii. 130. See Sir G. Wilkinson's Note, in Rawlinson's translation.

LAKE MCERIS—VALLEY OF THE FYUM.

8?

was invented from his work of engineering.¹⁵ But, in fact, both Labaris of the labyrinth, and Mceris of the mere, may now be disentangled and merged in the historic name of Amexemhe III., discovered by Lepsius on the ruins of that great palace, which the Greek traveller, bewildered as he was led in darkness through its countless halls and corridors, called a labyrinth.™ This discovery proves, what the style of the building attests, the great mistake of Herodotus in assigning the edifice to the much later age of the Dodec-archy. From his own observation he declares that the Pyramids surpass description, and are severally equal to a number of the greatest works of the Greeks; but the Labyrinth surpasses the Pyramids.¹⁷

§9. "Wonderful as is the Labyrinth," Herodotus goes on to say, " the work called the Lake of Mceris, which is close by the Labyrinth, is yet more astonishing.¹⁶ And with good reason ; for in utility it excelled the Labyrinth as much as the works on the channel of the Nile, ascribed to Menes, excelled the Pyramids. He gives its circuit as 60 schoeni, or 3600 stadia (360 geographical miles), equal to the entire length of Egypt along the sea-coast.¹⁹ Its longest direction was from north to south, and its greatest depth 50 fathoms. " It is manifestly," he adds, " an artificial excavation, for nearly in the centre there stand two pyramids, rising to the height of 50 fathoms above the surface of the water, and extending as far beneath, crowned each of them with a colossal statue sitting upon a throne. Thus the whole height is 600 feet" (which is one-fourth higher than the great Pyramid). "The water of the lake does not come out of the ground, which is here excessively dry,²⁰ but is introduced by a canal from the Nile. The current sets for six months from the lake into the river, aud for the next six months from the river into the lake"—that is, evidently, according to the rise and ebb of the inundation. Till yery^ recently, this account was as great a puzzle as the origin of the lake itself was to the ancients.

In describing the country of Egypt, we have mentioned the position of the great valley, or basin, called in the Ptole-

¹⁶ The other Egyptian name of the lake, pi-om (the sea), is preserved in the modern Fyum, the province in which it lies.

¹⁸ This passage of Herodotus atfords the earliest known example of the nse of the word ~\_apipn0o<;, hut it is clearly not an Egyptian word. It is probably connected etymologically with \avpa, an alley.

¹⁷ Herod, ii. 148. Comp. chap. ix. § 13. ¹⁸ Herod, ii. 149.

¹⁹ The manifest exaggeration may be explained, at least in part, by the supposition that the visit' of Herodotus was at the time of the iuundatiou, when the whole valley was under water, and the natural lake was united with the artificial excavation.

²⁰ The whole valley of the Nile is almost destitute of springs: bnt there are some in the BUh:t-el-Kerun.

88

THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

maic age the Nome of Arsinoe, and in modern times the Fyum. It is formed by a depression in the limestone plateau which here intersects the valley of the Nile transversely, and is inclosed on the north and south by ridges of natural rocks. The bottom of the valley sinks on the north-western side ; and this depression is filled up by the lake called Blrkei-el-Kertin, the water of which is supplied partly by springs, and partly by an artificial branch of the Yusuf canal, which connects it with the Nile. This lake is now 30 miles long and 7 broad ; its greatest depth is only 24 feet, and is gradually becoming shallower from the mud brought into it by the canals. Its level is inconsistent with Ilerodotus's account of the influx and efflux of the Nile, the bed of which was then much lower. In short, this natural lake (for such it unquestionably is) was not the Lake Mceris, which had vanished even in Pliny's time.²¹ The site of the artificial lake has been recently discovered by M. Linant, on the limestone plateau between the Blrket-el-Kerun and the river, near Me-clinet-el-Fyum, the ancient Crocodilopolis. It has long formed part of the cultivated plain of the Fyum, which is still irrigated from " a small reservoir at the modern town, a very humble imitation of the Lake Mceris."²²

§ 10. The function of the ancient lake, however, was far more extensive ; it evidently formed a reservoir for regulating the inundation over a considerable part of the valley of the Nile, and recent discoveries on this point have added a strong argument for its date to the presumption raised by its connection with the labyrinth. In remote ages, the hills which border the valley of the Nile approached so close to one another at some points, as either to form lakes, or at least to dam up the waters of the inundation in certain parts, till the river forced its way through the barrier of rocks. Such a barrier once existed at Silsilis (Ilcaljar Scheldt), some 40 miles below the first cataract.²³ The effect of this, in spreading the water of the inundation over the now barren plains of Nubia, is still seen in. ancient alluvial deposits, which reach northward as far as Silsilis, and in water-worn rocks at a considerable distance from the river. But this is not

²¹ As is proved by the word fuit. Plin. v. 9, s. 9. Of course, however, from the nature of the case, the natural lake would have some connection with the artificial basin, and would be used as a second reservoir.

²² Sir G. Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. US, Rawlinson.

²³ By a coincidence not nuusual in names, silsili is the Arabic for a chain; and there is a tradition that a king at one time threw a chain across the channel, which is here only 1095 feet broad. Wilkinson thinks that the ancient name represents the Coptic Golgel, an earthquake, as the supposed cause of the catastrophe, or Golgol, alluding to the many channels of the cataracts, or to the breaking away of the rocks at the time of the fall of the barrier. (Appendix to Herod, ii. chap. 4, § 4; Rawlinson.)

ART IN TH*.TWELFTH DYNASTY.

89

all: we can determine the historic period within which the barrier was broken down. On the rocks at Semneh, Inscriptions of Amenemes III. and other kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, show that the inundation then reached 27 feet above its present height; while on the other hand, the foundations of buildings on the old deposit, and the caves in the rocks near the Nile, prove that the lower level was permanently established by the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty. What period, then, could be so suited for the construction of the Lake Mceris as that in which these mighty changes were affecting the regularity of the inundation, and what kings so likely to do the work as those who were then erecting gigantic buildings in the neighborhood of the lake ? These were Amenemes III. and his successors. But it must be observed that the name of this king gives us only an upncard limit; and among the inscriptions at Semneh, some are now said to bring down the period of the river's higher rise into the Thirteenth Dynasty.²⁴

The Avant of any particulars concerning Amenemes IV. and his sister Skemiophris (or Sebel'nofru, whom some make a king) is perhaps a sign that the dynasty was beginning to suffer from the attacks of the Shepherds.

§ 11. Besides the ruins of the Labyrinth, the principal remains of art of the 12th dynasty are the two obelisks of Osirtasen I. at Heliopolis and in the Fyum, and some fine fragments of colossal statues ; among them one of the same king found at Thebes. The style of the sculpture is scarcely inferior to the finest works of the 18th and 19th dynasties. The realistic freedom of the primitive school has yielded to the hieratic canons which henceforth prevail; but traces of it are seen in the powerful rendering of the muscles of the arms and legs. The distinctive excellences of this period are harmony of proportions and delicacy of execution in the most refractory materials. The mode in which the colossal statues were transported on a sledge is represented in a tomb near El-Bershehr.

§ 12. In architecture we have the remarkable phenomenon of columns, Avhich seem to furnish the prototype of the Doric order.²⁵ This occurs in the rock-hewn frontispiece to the sepulchral grottoes at Beni-hassan (the ancient Speos Artemidos, Cave of Artemis or Diana) on the east side of the Nile, opposite to Hermopolis Magna.²⁶ Within

²⁴ We can only just allude to the ingenious suggestion which connects the catastrophe at Silsilis with the seven years' plenty and seven years' famine in the time ot Joseph. (See Piazzi Smyth, " Life and Work," etc. vol. iii. pp. 410-413.)

²⁵ The prototype of the Ionic has been fonud in Assyria. ²⁸ Also in a similar position at Kalabsclie in Nubia.

90

THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

those caverns are preserved pictures of life under the Middle Monarchy, as. vivid and instructive as those of the Old Monarchy which we have seen in the Memphian tombs:— "Egypt caught in the fact," says Kenan. "The actors therein are still, in their leading characteristics, the same people as under the fourth dynasty, or at least their literal descendants. All the occupations, manners, or customs, represented of old in the tombs around the Great Pyramid, are represented in those of Beni-hassan ; there are the same toiling multitude, the same official system of scribes, overseers, and task-masters, and the same feasting according to order. Something, indeed, of the gloomy sameness is gone ; manufactures now compete with agricultural operations; the plough drawn by oxen dispenses with many sheep treading the seed into the soft mud ; the cultivation of the vine, and the process of wine-making, diversify the scenes; flax may be traced through its several stages—men reaping it in the fields, and women weaving its fibres in-doors. But there sits the great man still in colossal grandeur and unbending severity, overlooking the busy hive, every one of whose human bees is working for his benefit. And he still enjoys his field-sports much as his ancestors did before him, but with a variation ; for now the ropes of the clap-nets are led by ingenious devices to his hands, as he sits far away on an easy-chair, so that he may have the honor, by giving a little pull to the trigger, of appearing to have caught all the birds himself. Or, if his designs are against four-footed game, as the graceful antelopes of the desert—no longer content with taking them alive and taming them—he pursues them now cruelly, both tearing them with dogs and transfixing them with long arrows; whence some most touching pictures of a poor gazelle turning round in pain to lick the place where one of these darts"is sticking in its flesh, and even protruding through the opposite side of its body ; or another that has fallen lifeless on its tender offspring.

"Very great lords are still the many chiefs who ruled over the people, under the king ; one of them records his estates and privileges ; first, the range of the eastern desert and its oasis, for his antelope-hunting ; and of the hinder and nether pools for his bird-catching ; second, the land of Kao-phis, or a track near the month of the Fyum, and a sluice in the eastern bank of the canal to water it; third, the land of the Hawk mountain, and another sluice from the canal of the Fyum; fourth, the land of the two streams, or a narrow slip of ground between the canal and the Nile, together with a license for enlarging the sluices from both, so as to irrigate

TOMB OF AMENI.

91

the fields to the extent prescribed in the sacred book for the growth of the plant asut; and the fifth, the land of the hare, with a permit to construct two sluices on the Nile.²⁷ But this chief is described as holding honorable offices both in church and state; being, first, the eustos of the divine stable of the sacred baJJ ; second, the constable of the palace of the King Amenemes; and, third, steward of the laud-tax for the support of the schools of the sons of the kings of Lower Egypt."⁸⁸

§ 13. Thus it is, as M. Kenan observes, that, in these tombs, " the dead lifts up his voice and relates his life." Perhaps the inost interesting of these two-fold utterances is that which we both see and read on the tomb of another o;reat functionary of this highly-administered monarchy, whose name was Ameni. On one wall we see the fat oxen grazing, and the sheaves of wheat carried in carts of the very model still used by the Fellahs of Egypt, and threshed out by the feet of oxen ; on another is depicted the navigation of the Nile ; the building and lading of large ships ; the fashioning of elegant furniture from costly woods ; and the preparation of garments : in a word, ths scenes of busy husbandry and navigation, commerce and handicrafts. These pictures are interpreted by Ameni himself in a long inscription. As a general, he made a campaign in Ethiopia, and was charged with the protection of the caravans, which transported the gold of Jebel-Atoky across the desert to Coptos. As the gov* ernor of a province, he recites the praises of his administration :—"All the lands under me were ploughed and sown from north to south. Thanks were given to me on behalf of the royal house for the tribute of"fat cattle which I collected. Nothing was ever stolen out of my workshops; I worked myself, and kept the whole province at work. Never was a child afflicted, never a widow ill-treated by me ; never did I disturb the fisherman, or molest the shepherd. Famine never occurred in my time, nor did I let any one hunger in years of short produce. I have given equally to the widow and the married woman ; and I have not preferred the great to the small in the judgments I have given."

§ 14. Now, for the first time, too, the military element begins to appear upon the tombs; "and'in vaults beneath some of them, and not yet discovered, are deposited the mummies (so the hieroglyphics tell us) of many hundred soldiers who had fallen in the wars of King Sesortosis against the black Cushites in Nubia. Prisoners, moreover, are brought back

²⁷ All these "water-privileges" suggest the age of the lake Mceris.

²⁸ Piazzi Smyth, " Life and Work," etc., vol. iii. pp. 403, '4. Since it is clear that the twelfth dynasty were not "Kings of Lower Egypt" exclusively, it would seem to follow that there were such kings under their protection.

92

THE MIDDLE MONARCHY.

from these, campaigns, and account for the negro slaves now occasionally seen in the great man's household ; while under previous dynasties, we had met with no closer acquaintance with Southern lands than the unpacking of a box containing elephant's tusks. At the same time, however, other personages now appear on the scene, sometimes singly,sometimes in groups ; men of aquiline features, brighter color than, and different dress from, the Egyptians; immigrants from Arabia and Palestine."'²*

One such picture at Beni-hassan startled the world some years back oy its supposed discovery of the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt, and their presentation to Pharaoh. It is on the tomb of a man of the military caste named Neoofth; and depicts the presentation of a procession of foreigners to a standing figure, whom some make the son of Neoofth, and others the King Sesortasen II. They are preceded by a royal scribe, holding forth a scroll inscribed with the 6th year of Sesortasen II., and declaring that they are 37 vanquished foreigners ; though only 12 adults and 3 children are seen, all unbound. The king of the strangers advances, bowing reverently, and leading an ibex by the horns; he wears a tunic of bright colors and elaborate pattern, and carries a curved staff resembling that of Osiris. A man of humbler rank leads another ibex. Then, preceded by four armed men, comes an ass, carrying two children in a pannier; next, a boy on foot, armed with a lance, precedes four females, who are followed by another ass with panniers; and the procession is closed by two men, one of whom carries a lyre and plectrum, the other a bow and club. Their light complexion and aquiline noses show a Semitic race from a more northern climate than Egypt; and the gift of the ibex implies a pastoral tribe from Arabia or Palestine.³⁰ The inscription has been read by Mr. Osburn, as a group of 37 Jebusites, purchased for slaves by one of their petty kings, and presented by the chief Neoofth to King Sesortasen II. in the 6th year of his reign, on account of their skill in preparing stibium, a black powder produced from antimony, and used profusely throughout ancient Egypt as a cosmetic.³¹ It is scarcely, perhaps, necessary to remind the student of Scripture that the Jebusites, or Canaanite people of Jerusalem, were a race alien to that of the Hebrew patriarchs.

39 Piazzi Smyth, I. c, p. 405.

⁸⁰ Mr. Kenrick. whose description we follow in the main, compares Isaiah lx. 7. "The rams ol'Nebaioth shall minister unto thee."—" Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 1G9.

³¹ Osbnm, "Egypt, her Testimony to the Truth of the Bible," pp. 3S, 39. The labors of this painstaking author have not been sufficiently recognized by the Egyptologers.

THE HYKSOS OK SHEPHERD KINGS.

93

§ 15. After the Twelfth Dynasty comes a period .of great obscurity, the darkness of the Middle Age of Egypt, preceding the splendid dawn of the New Theban Monarchy under the Eighteenth Dynasty. At this time, it is confessed on all hands, the dynasties of Manetho become contemporary; but very different interpretations are given of their names, localities, and relations to each other.

The Thirteenth Dynasty, of 60 Diospolitan kings, reigned 453 years, and the Fourteenth Dynasty, of 76 Xoi'te kings (that is, of Xois, in the Delta), reigned 184 years:³² this is all we learn from Manetho, but we hud numerous monuments in Ethiopia, which are ascribed to the former dynasty ; and the generally-received view is that, under the domination of the Hyksos, the native Theban line took refuge in Ethiopia, which the preceding dynasty had conquered; while the rival dynasty of Lower Egypt, which had never abandoned its pretensions, held some local power at Xois, either in defiance, or under the protection, of the Hyksos. But there is another opinion, that the earlier kings of the 13th dynasty retained the power of the 12th over all Egypt; but that the Xoi'te Dynasty was set up against them in the Delta, and that the invasion of the Hyksos was brought about by these dissensions.

It is argued, on the one hand, that the monuments found at Tanis, as well as at Abydos, of several kings who all bear the names of Seveklwtep or Xofrehotep>, belong to this dynasty ; and on the other, the name Sevekhotep (Sabaco), which characterizes the Ethiopian kings of the 25th dynasty, is pleaded as a sign of the Ethiopian oeat of the 13th.³³ At all events, the principal monuments of this dynasty are in Ethiopia, where a colossus at the island of Argo, in Dongola, shows that their power reached far beyond the old frontier at Semneh, and above the Third Cataract; and there are no monuments whatever of the later kings, whose names are only known from the royal lists. It may be safely concluded that the conquest of the Thebaid by the so-called " Hyksos " or "Shepherd Kings" was completed in the course of the 13th dynasty, if not at its beginning. Of the Xoi'te kings we

³² Or4S4years: the Armenian "Chronicle" of Ensehins has 434; evidently making the 13th and 14th Dynasties nearly contemporary.

³³ Sir Gardner Wilkinson finds in the Sabaco* of the 13th dynasty the "IS Ethiopian kings" of the list which the priests read to Herodotus (Herod, ii. 100: see note by G. W. in Rawlinson). He also makes their flight into Ethiopia the origin of Manetho's story of the similar flight of Ainenophis III. of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The colossus of that, king, in rose-colored granite, now in the Louvre, is referred by some Egyptian antiquaries, from its style, to the 13th dynasty, and supposed to have been adopted by Amenophis as his own. »Such appropriations are not uncommon in all ages.

THE SHEPHERD KINGS.

have no monuments whatever ; and even the locality of Xois is uncertain.³⁴

§ 16. The great catastrophe of the kingdom of Egypt, brought about by the invasion of the Hyksos, is related in one of the few extant fragments of the History of Manetho, a fragment preserved by the strange ambition of the Jewish historian, Josephus, to glorify his nation by identifying the conquering hordes, whom the Egyptians at length expelled, with the chosen people who were led forth in triumph by the power of C4od and the hand of Moses ! It is the answer of Josephus to the taunt of his antagonist Philo on the mean origin of the Jews ; and the narrative of Manetho has evidently been tampered with in some points to suit this purpose. As it stands, the following is the passage cited by Josephus from the Second Book of Manetho's "iEgyptiaca :"³⁵ " We had once a king named Timasus (or Amintima3us), under whom, from some cause unknown to me, the Deity was unfavorable to us; and there came unexpectedly,from the eastern parts, a race of obscure extraction, who boldly invaded the country and easily took forcible possession of it without a battle. Having subdued those who commanded in it, they proceeded savagely to burn the cities, and razed the temples tff the gods; inhumanly treating all the natives; murdering some, and carrying the wives and children of others into slavery. In the end they also established one of themselves as a king, whose name was Salatis (Saites in the list); and he took up his abode at 3Iemp1ds, exacting tribute from both the upper and the lower country, and leaving garrisons in the most suitable places. He especially strengthened the parts towards the east, foreseeing that on the part of t\\o, Assyrians^ who were then powerful, there would be a desire to invade their kingdom. Finding, therefore, in the Sethroi'te noine U city very conveniently placed, lying eastward of the Bubas-tic river, and called from some old religious reason Avaris (or Abaris), he built it up and made it very strong with walls, settling there also a great number of heavy-armed soldiers, to the amount of 240,000 men, for a guard. Hither he used to come in the summer season, partly to distribute the rations of corn and pay the troops, partly to exercise them carefully by musters and reviews, in order to inspire fear

³⁴ Champollion placed it at Sakkra or Sakha, the Arabic synonym of the Coptic Xeos and the old ^Egyptian Skhoo: its position, on an island formed by the Sebennytic and Phatnitic branches of the Nile, defended by the marshes, would enable it to hold out long against the Hyksos, or to come to terms by paying them tribute. So, in later times, Anysis and Inarus long held out in the marshes against the Ethiopian and Persian masters of Egypt.

³⁵ Joseph, contra "Apion," i. 14. We mark some of the most important points in italics. The translation is, in the main, IVlr. Kenrick's.

NOT OF HEBREW ORIGIN.

into foreign nations." After enumerating the five successors of this first king, he proceeds : " Their whole nation was called Hyksos, that is, Shepherd Kings; for Hyk in the sacred language denotes King, and Sos is a shepherd in the common dialect.³⁶ The before-named kings, he says, and their descendants, were masters of Egypt for 511 years. After this, he says that a revolt of the khigs of the Thebald and the rest of Egypt took place against the Shepherds, and a great and prolonged war was carried on with them. Under a king whose name was Jllsjdiragmuthosls,³'' he says that the Shepherds were expelled by him from the rest of Egypt after a defeat, and shut up in a place having a circuit of 10,000 arurae. This place was called Avarls. Manetho says that the Shepherds surrounded it entirely with a large and strong wall, in order that they might have a secure deposit for all their possessions and all their plunder. Thuthmosis, the son of Misphragmuthosis, endeavored to take the place by siege, attacking the walls "with 480,000 men. Despairing of taking-it by siege, he made a treaty with them, that they should leave Egypt, and withdraw without injury whithersoever they pleased; and, in virtue of this agreement, they withdrew- from Egypt, with all their families and possessions, to the number of not fewer than 240,000, and traversed the desert Into Syria. Fearing the power of the Assyrians, icho were at that time masters of Asia, they built a city in that which is now called Judcea, which should suffice for so many myriads of men, and called it Jerusalem."

It will be observed that, in the words quoted from Manetho, there is nothing to identify, or even to eonnect, the Hyksos with the Hebrews ; for the words "our forefathers" are put in by Josephus. They come, indeed, from tne East, and they retreat into Palestine; but every other circumstance of their entrance into Egypt, their conduct and condi-

³⁶ Josephus here interpolates a statement, which he presently repeats, from another copy, or another book, of Manetho, evidently to get rid of the objection, that the Hebrews were not kings, bnt slaves. He says that Hyk or Hak, with the aspirate, means Captives, and so Hyksos is cai>tive-shephcrds; adding, "And he, (Manetho) says rightly; for the keeping of sheep was the ancient habit of our forefathers ; and they were not unnaturally described nsca])tives by the Egyptians, since our forefather Joseph declares himself to the King of the Egyptians to be a captive." As to the true meaning, Wilkinson says that hyk is the common title, signifying king or rider, given even to the Pharaohs on the monuments, and shos signifies shcp>herd. But sha-80 means Arabs, and hyk seems cognate to sheik; so that the name may perhaps signify Arab kings or sheiks. This view becomes more probable if, as some say, hak denotes, on the monuments, the chiefs of Semitic tribes. The invaders are designated on the monuments Mena or A mv, i. e. shepherds of oxen," and Aadu, "detested."

³⁷ This name, which occurs again in the list of the eighteenth dynasty, seems to be for Miphra Thouthmosis, i. e. " Thothmes beloved of Phra (or Ba)." The true founder of the eighteenth dynasty was not a Thothmes but Amasis: but, as the war was long, Thotmes I. (the third king) may hay finished it.

9G

THE SHEPHERD KINGS.

tion there, and their final retreat, is totally opposite to the true biblical history of "Israel in Egypt." Even the startling mention of Jerusalem is an argument against the identity, for that city belonged to the Canaanite Jebusites for some time after the entrance of Israel into the Holy Land.

§ 1 7. The only likeness of the Hyksos to the Hebrews is their occupation as shepherds, and (probably) their Semitic race. They were a nomad pastoral horde, like those which have ever been descending upon the rich settled countries of the East for the sake of plunder. They ravage all before them, with religious hatred, as is attested by the ruins of Memphis and the demolished mpnuments of the twelfth dynasty at Thebes ;³⁸ and they collect their plunder into a great fortified city. That fortress, moreover, is established near the eastern frontier, against the constantly threatened attacks of a powerful enemy, who is expressly named. That enemy, Assyria, is the master of Asia, both when the shep-herds'enter Egypt and when they depart; and the inference seems almost irresistible that, as most great movements of nomad tribes are due to pressure from behind, the Shepherd invasion of Egypt was due to the growth of the Assyrian empire. But which Assyrian empire? for the term Assyrian, in Greek writers, includes the old obscure Chaldtean monarchy, and the Assyrian properly so called. An answer to this question has been sought in the name Phoenician,²⁹ which is applied in the List of Manetho to the same kings who are enumerated in his text, as quoted by Josephus; and the entrance of the Hyksos into Egypt has been connected with that great Phoenician migration of which we have to speak in its°proper place. The latest view derived from recent monumental discoveries is that the Hamite Canaanites, who had recently entered the land of Canaan⁴⁰ as a part of the great migration referred to, pressed forward into Egypt at the head" of a mixed horde of nomads, of whom the chief tribe appears to have been the Kheta so often named on the Theban monuments, the Ilittites of the Bible.

§ 18. Entering the country from the side of Arabia and Palestine, they "first subdued Lower Egypt, and fixed their capital at Memphis. The statement, that this was effected without a battle, is best explained by a confederacy with the native powers of Lower Egypt, who had risen against the

³⁸ Of all the temples prior to this time, bnt one is left, standing.

³⁹ But it is possible that the name may be only used in its Greek meaning of red, as opposed to the swarthy Egyptians.

⁴⁰ "The Canaanite was then (already, recently) iu the land." Genesis, xil. b. Among the synchronisms now generally received is that of Abraham with the time of the Twelfth Dynasty.

PROGRESS OF THE CONQUEST.

i>7

Theban Dynasty.⁴¹ The latter was unable to resist the coalition of its enemies, and the Shepherd King who consolidated the power of his dynasty received tribute from Upper as ivell as Lower Egypt. But, when we come to details, the difficulty of tracing the relations between the several parties may be judged from Manetho's lists of the 15th, 16th, and 17th dynasties, which fall within the period of the Hyksos. A comparison of the ordinary text (of Africanus and Syncellus) with that of Eusebins gives the following curious results :

Ordinary Text. Years.

15th Dynasty........ Of Shepherds: C foreign Phoenician Kings............ 248

lGth Dynasty........ bJ othe* Shepherd Kings............................. 51S

17th Dynasty........43 other Shepherd Kings and 43 Theban Diospolites.

Together they reigned.............................. 151

Ev.sebius. Years.

15th Dynasty.......Diospolitan Kings.................................... 250

10th Dynasty........ 5 Theban Kings..................................... 190

17th Dynasty........ Foreign Phoenician Shepherd Kings...-............... 103

Moreover, the names and remarks given in the 15th dynasty of the ordinary text are the same (as far as they go) as those of the 17th in Eusebins, whom Syncellus censures for the transposition.⁴² Of the other dynasties no names are given ; and the exact correspondence of "43 Shepherd Kings," and "43 Theban Diospolites," iu the same dynasty, is manifestly artificial. Thus much,however, we may safely infer: that the continuity of the Theban Monarch}- was never entirely broken during the Shepherd rule, though it was probably reduced to a tributary condition in Upper Egypt, while Lower and Middle Egypt were ruled by the Shepherd Kings in person.

§ 19. It is only of late that light has been thrown on this

⁴¹ Osbnrn and some others go so far as to reject a Shepherd Kingdom altogether; making the immigrants the auxiliary allies, and not the conquerors, of the native Dynasty of Lower Egypt, on which the ultimately victorious Thebans fastened, from this alliance, the hateful name of Shepherd*.* But this view can hardly be pressed iuto consistency with Manetho and the monuments.

⁴² The following comparison is instructive as showing what distortions the lists of Manetho have suffered, and consequently how little dependence can be placed on them when unconfirmed by the monuments :

Shepherd Kings. 1 lUh Dyn. of Shepherds. Yllh Dyn. of Phoen. Shep.

(Manetho ix Josephus). I (Manetho's List). (Eusebiis).

1. Salatis.............. 19 j 1. Sa'ites............... 19 1. Suites............... 19

2. Bnon (? Anon)...... 44 2. Bnon (? Anon)...... 44 2. Boon ............... 40

3. Apachnas........... 30 I 3. Pachuan............61 3. Aphophis...........14

4. Apophis............ 01 4. Staan............... 50 4. Archies.............30

5. Jannas..............51 5. Archies.............49 -

6. Asses...............49 I 0. Aphobis ............ 61 l

* "Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians" (Gen. xlvi. 34; eomp xliii. 32), a feeling of caste, we think, much older than the Shepherd Kings. If derived from hatred of them, it would surely not have been felt by them; but, if older, its being felt by the Egyptianized nomads towards strangers whose actual occupation was pastoral, is a proof (as is every part of Joseph's story) of tl;?:r thorough adoption of Egyptian ideas and usages.

5

THE SHE1TIEKD KENGS.

period by the monuments; and very important light it is. The first* Shepherd king, Suites, or, in Egyptian, Set-aa-pe/tti N'oubti, is mentioned on a tablet of Rameses II., found at Tanis, as having, 400 years before, rebuilt the city, and reared in it the temple of Set or Soutekh, the national god of the Khetas (Hittites). This is invaluable testimony in respect to time, place, nationality, and religion. The fabulous length of the Shepherd domination is reduced within reasonable limits ;⁴³ for, by a very probable computation, 400 years before Barneses II would leave only about 200 years for the whole Shepherd rule, and would bring the date of King Saites to about the ISth century.'¹⁴

Next, as to the p>lace. The Avaris of the Shepherds has been usually identified with Pelusium, on the eastern side of the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, which was the frontier fortress of later times; but the discoveries of M. Mariette have proved it to be Tanis (San). The inscription says that the Shepherd King rebuilt Tanis ; Manetho says that the Shepherds found Avaris an old town and built up its walls ; we have the testimony of Scripture to the high antiquity of Zoau (the Greek lanis aud the Coptic San): at this city the Pharaoh of the Exodus held his court when "God wrought his wonders in the field of Zoan ;"⁴⁵ and this city, not Memphis, is the seat of the dynasty that succeeded the great Theban Empire (the 21st), as well as of the 23d. All these indications point to the elevation of Tanis by the Shepherd Kings to a rank above Memphis, which seems never to have recovered from their devastation. Now it is also at Tanis that we find the chief monuments of the Shepherd Kings; and those monuments are as thoroughly Egyptian as are these of the Ptolemies of later times. Nay, their art is finer, their workmanship more delicate and more perfect, than in the contemporary monument of Thebes; and they are in perfect accordance with the Egyptian religion. It seems from the discoveries made at Tanis that the Shepherd Kings set up again the statues of former ages, belonging to the temples overthrown in the first violence of their invasion, only carving their own names upon them as dedicators. Their monuments are entirely of sculpture, none of architecture: all yet found are in the museum at Cairo. There is a splendid group in granite, representing two persons in Egyptian costume, but with the thick beard .and large locks of hair foreign to Egyptian use. There are four spinxes in diorite, bearing the name

⁴³ This particular example throws a strong light on the general chronological ex< aggeration of the Egyptian trnditiors. ⁴⁴ Sec chapter vi.

⁴⁵ Psalm lxxviii. 43. On the identity of Tanis and Avaris, and the meaning of the latter name, see further in chap. § 2.

ADOPTION OF EGYPTIAN CUSTOMS.

of Apepi¹⁶ (the Aphophis of Manetho); but with the lion's mane in place of the regular Egyptian head-dress. In a word, these sculptures represent the type of a Semitic race.

§ 20. The monuments prove how completely the Shepherd Kings became true Pharaohs. As is usual when a wilder race subdues a more civilized people, without exterminating them wholly or in part, they and their followers were assimilated to the conquered nation. Though they intruded their god, Set or Soutekh (the Egyptian name of Baal), into the Egyptian Pantheon, and built his temple beside the temples of the old gods, they gave the latter the supreme place. They and their followers adopted the manners of their new country, mixed with some Semitic usages.

Now this is precisely the state in which the narrative of Genesis depicts Egypt under the Pharaoh whom Joseph served. The King and his people are "Egyptians," both in name and customs, and yet they have some characters of a foreign race. Such are their cordial reception of strangers, whom the Egyptians hated and despised; and the pure despotism of Joseph's Pharaoh, whose will is absolute, and who reduces the Egyptians to serfdom, whereas the native mon-arehs were restrained bylaw, and set a high value on the attachment of their subjects. A Semitic ruler would be much more likely than a native king to make a Hebrew slave prime minister, in contempt of the objections which the people dared not utter; and the policy of Joseph would be more easily enforced on a conquered country.

And here the contemporary monuments reveal a most striking coincidence. The only names of the contemporary Theban kings, as yet made out, are those of the last two before the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. They are Tia-aken and Kamls ; and the last bears the title of "nourisher of the world," written in the very same form, Tsaf-en-to, as the title (in Hebrew Zaphnath) which was conferred on Joseph by Pharaoh.⁴⁷ Is this a mere coincidence, or did the Theban king adopt the title in^ rivalry with the Memphian government, or does he assume the merit of the policy which he had to administer? That policy would, at all events, be sure to aggravate the hatred of the subject Thebans; and the oppression of Israel may have been, in part at least, a retaliation, when the power was recovered by the "King who knew not Joseph." All these things, as well as the indications of time and place already pointed out, tend to confirm

48 The-Turin papyrus has the name of Anovb, which corresponds to the Anon of

?rT,'metho (an emendation for Bnon), followed by a name beginning Ap.....whiV-

inay be Manetho's Apachnas. *⁷ Genesis xli. 45.

THE SHEPHERD KINGS.

the express statement made in a fragment of Manetho, that Joseph was brought into Egypt under the Shepherd Ei?ig Aphophis—the Apepi, whose monuments are by fur the most numerous of this dynasty.⁴⁸ The invitation of Semitic settlers was a natural act of policy on the part of the Shepherds, to strengthen themselves against a native rising. On this point there is now a general consent among Egyptologers ; and thus we find what has generally been esteemed the " Egyptian darkness" of the country's early history, emerging into the light and life of Scripture; and in its turn helping to weave the fragmentary allusions of Scripture into the web of general history.

§ 21. The expulsion of the Hyksos is related, not only in the passage quoted from Manetho by Josephus, but in contemporary Egyptian records. An invaluable papyrus in the British Museum begins with a description of the vassalage of the Theban Dynasty: "Now it came to pass that the land of Egypt fell into the hands of enemies; and there was no longer any king (i.e. of the whole country) at the time when this happened. And it was so, that the king Tiaaken was only a hak (vassal prince) of Upper Egypt. The enemies were in Heliopolis, and their chief Apepi (Aphophis, M.) in Avaris."⁴⁹ Here, the document tells us, Apepi received the news of a virtual renunciation of subjection by the Theban Tiaaken, who refused to worship Soutekh, the god to whom Apepi had built " an everlasting temple." To the formal demand now made by Apepi, Tiaaken sent a contemptuous rejoinder, and both kings prepared, for war. This account shows that the Hyksos, residing in Lower Egypt, and occupied with the military cars of the eastern frontier, had allowed the native dynasty to consolidate itself in the Thebaid,till it had strength to begin a religious revolt.

Manetho, as quoted by Josephus, says that " the kings of the rest of Egypt" joined those of. the Thebaid in this revolt; and he agrees with the papyrus in representing the ensuing

⁴⁸ Mr. Stuart Poole, who, even before the most important discoveries from the monuments, argued convincingly that the Pharaoh of Joseph was a Shepherd King, identifies him with Asses, the last of the first series of six kings mentioned in Jose-phns's extract from Manetho, and the Assa of the monuments. But it is very doubtful if this Assa is the same as Asses. In Manetho's List of the 15th dynasty the sixth place is occupied by Aphobis, of course the Aphojihis of the fragment.

⁴⁹ It will be observed that the royal title is here withheld from the chief of the Hyksos: but an inscription, comparing a new invasion in the time of Menephtha, son of Rameses II., with the calamities inflicted by the Shepherds, uses some remarkable expressions :—" Nothing was seen the like of this even in the time of the Kings of Lower Egypt, when this land of Egypt was in their power, and the calamity lasted, at the time when the Kings of Upper Egypt had not the, strength to repulse the foreigners:"—expressions which countenance the view that the war was as much one for the supremacy of Upper Egypt, as for the liberation of the whole country.

EXPULSION OF THE HYKSOS.

101

war as long and bloody. It occupied the remainder of Tia-aken's time, the short reign of his successor, Karnes, and the greater part of that of Aahmes, who brought it to an end.⁵⁰ The soil of Egypt seems to have been disputed foot by foot between the insurgent patriots, animated with religious enthusiasm, and the disciplined hordes of the Semitic invaders, till the latter were shut up in their great fortress of Avaris. We have already quoted the account of Manetho, in Josephus, how they withdrew from Egypt, under a convention, to the number of 240,000, and crossing the desert into Syria, built Jerusalem.⁵¹

It is one very striking result of recent Egyptian discoveries, that we are able to quote, if not exactly the dispatch of the admiral who commanded Pharaoh's fleet, its equivalent in his epitaph. This officer, who bore the same name as the kino-, Aahmes, says:—"When I was born in the fortress (if Ilithyia [in Upper Egypt], my father was lieutenant of the late king Tiaaken. .. . I acted as lieutenant in turn with him on board the vessel named the Calf, in the time of the late King Aahmes⁵² .... I went to the fleet of the north to fight. It was my duty to accompany the sovereign when he mounted his chariot. They were besieging the fortress of Tanis,⁵³ and I fought on my legs before His Majesty. This is what followed on board the vessel named the Enthroniza-tion of Memphis.™ A naval battle was fought on the Water of Tanis (Lake Menzaleh). . . . The praise of the king was bestowed on me, and I received a collar of gold for my bravery. . . . The (decisive) combat took place at the southern part of the fortress. . . . They took the fortress of Tanis ; and I carried off a manand two women, three heads in all, whom His Majesty granted me as slaves."⁵⁵ This very moderate booty, while it shows the veracity of the narrator, seems to indicate the very partial success of the assault, and so far confirms the account of Manetho, that the fortress was evacuated under a capitulation.

⁵⁰ This is according to the Egyptian accounts: bnt Manetho (ap. Joseph.) places the eveut under Misphragmnthosis and his sou Thnthmosis (as crown prince), who seem (from a comparison of the lists aud monnments) to correspond to Thothmes III. and IV.: for the former is probably for Mi-])hra-Touthmosis (Thotmes beloved of Phra). There may, however, be a confusion between the names of Amosis and Tethmosis.

⁵¹ The last statement, which looks like a willfnl gloss of the Jewish historian, may have arisen from a confusion between the sacred name of Jerusalem (Kodesh, i.e. holy) with the other Kadcsh, or sacred city, of the Ilittites on the Orontes, which is often mentioned in the wars of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties.

⁵² The ship was doubtless so named in honor of Apis.

This leaves little doubt of the identity of Avaris and Tauis. ⁶⁴ Perhaps in honor of the coronation of Aahmes as king of Lower Enypt. ⁵⁵ Prom the translation of M. le Viscomte de Kongo, in Lenormant's "Histoire An lienne," vol. i. p. 231.

102

THE SHEPHERD KINGS.

It must not, however, be supposed that the whole mass of the invaders were driven, with their warriors, from the soil of Egypt. Many were permitted to remain as cultivators of the lands on which they had long been settled, in a condition very similar to that of the Hebrews. In fact, the more the condition of ancient Egypt unfolds itself to our researches, the more clearly do we see that the Delta was largely peopled (at all events in the east) by Semitic races, forming a nationality distinct from that of the true Egyptians, and becoming at last, under the tyrants of the XlXth dynasty, the Poland of the New Monarchy. The descendants of some of these Shemites, perhaps of the Hyksos themselves, are supposed to have been discovered by M. Mariette in the ptrong-limbed people, with long faces and a grave expression, who live at the present day on the borders of the Lake Menzaleh.⁵⁶

§ 22. This episode of Egyptian history has some very interesting relations to other countries. " The account given by Apollodorus," that ^Egyptus, the son of Belus, brother of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, came from Arabia and conquered Egypt, unhistorical as it is, may have had its origin in the invasion of the Hyksos, who are called both Phoenicians and Arabians, and who settled in Palestine on their expulsion from Egy)-^f. The connection of the myth of Isis, Osiris, and Typhon, with Phoenicia, of the Tyrian with the Egyptian Hercules,⁵* and generally of Phoenician with Egyptian civilization, will be best explained by the supposition that the nomad tribes of Palestine were masters of Egypt for several generations, and subsequently returned to the same country, carrying with them the knowledge of letters and the arts, which they were the instruments of diffusing over Asia Minor and Greece. Phoenicia has evidently been the co)meeting link between these countries and Egypt, which directly can have exercised only a very slight and transient influence upon them."⁵⁹

³⁶ It will be sufficient merely to refer to the speculations of Dr. Beke on the Shepherd Kings, and on the distinction which he imagines between the Semitic Mizralm of the Delta, and the true Cushite Enji]ih'nnH. (See Beke's " Origines Biblica?," and the " Athensenm," June 12th, 19th, and 26th, 1SG9.) ⁵⁷ Apollod. ii. 1, § 3.

58 Herod, ii. 44 ⁶⁹ Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. pp. 192; 193.

Memnomium during the Iuuudation.

CHAPTER V.

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.-THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY

k 1 Aahmes, or Amasig, founder of the Thebau Monarchy. The XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth Dynasties. § 2. The city of Tiieises. Classical notices. Its gates and war-chariots. § 3. Site of Thebes. Its extent. Villages on its site. Vestiges of the city and its streets. § 4. Remains of its principal edifices. The Necropolis and tombs of the Kings. Kartiak and Luxor. § 5. Sources of the prosperity of Thebes. Its manufactures and population. The religious capital of Egypt and Ethiopia. § 6. The rise, decline, and fall of Thebes. § 7. The Eighteenth Dynasty. Rapid revival of Egypt. Aahmes. His Ethiopian queen, and the consequent dynastic claims. § 8. His Asiatic wars. Peoples of Western Asia. The Shasou (Arabs). Canaanites. Klteta (Hittites) on the Orontes. The Rotennou audXaharain (Mesopotamia). Armenia. 5 9. Amen-hotepor Amenophis I. His wars in Asia aud Ethiopia. Policy of Egypt to subject states. The Egyptian calendar. Brick arches. § 10. Thothmes I. reaches the Euphrates. The home brought into Egypt. Temple of Karnak begun. § 11. Tuotumes II. Ethiopia becomes a viceroyalty. Tuothmes III. Regency of Hatasou. Her obelisks at Karnak and other works. Conquest of Arabia Felix. Her name erased from her monuments. § 12. The reign of Thothmes III. the climax of the power of Egypfc Extent of her empire, from the Euphrates to Abyssinia. The "Numerical WaU of Karnak." Victory over the Syrians at Meyiddo. Submission of Assyria. §13. Conquest of Coele-Syria. Foreign princes brought np in Egypt. Conquest of Nineveh and Babylon. Armenia reached. § 14 Maritime power of Thothmes

III. Conquests in the Mediterranean. § 15. His monuments in Ethiopia. Expeditions into Negro-land. § 16. General view of the nations and tributes represented on his monuments. § 17. Buildings of Thothmes III. Brick-making by captives. Thirty variations of his name. § IS. Amen-hotep II. and Thothmes

IV. Conquests aud monuments of Amen-iiotep III. Great slave-hunting raids. Arrogance of his titles. § 19. Identification of him with the Memnon of the Greeks and Romans. His colossi on the plain of Thebes. " The vocal Memnon." Solution of the mystery. § 20. Religious revolution. Amen-hotep IV. and the " Stranger Kings." Subsequent Kings. Amontouonk and Hae-em-iiebi or Ho-eus. Restoration of the gods of Egypt. End of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

§ 1. The conqueror of the Hyksos, Aahmes, A/wies, or Ames (i. e., the Moon : Ames or Amosis in Manetho),¹ was the

¹ He is sometimes called Aahmes I., in contradictiuction to Aahmes II., the Amosis of the Greek writers.

104

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

founder of the New Theban Monarchy, which raised Egypt to the climax of her power under the XVIIItli dynasty; maintained her empire with splendor, but not without many struggles, under the XlXth; and lost it after some flashes of dying glory (as kings use the word) under the XXth ; when the supremacy passed finally from Thebes. The monarchy lasted, according to Manetho, nearly 600 years; but more probable calculations limit its duration to about 430 years, from b.c. 1530 to about b.c. 1100.

§ 2. The seat of this power was the great city of Upper Egypt, which the Greeks called Thebes (G/j/ku), not by any perversion, but by one of those curious coincidences which are often found in names that have no connection. It represents the form AP-T or T-AP, which is the usual name of the city in the hieroglyphic inscriptions.⁸ But the resemblance of name led to a confusion of the legends relating to the Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes. The fame of the former city, and of the war-chariots of its kings, was well-known to Homer, who speaks of "Egyptian Thebes, where are vast treasures laid up in the houses; where are a hundred gates, and from each two hundred men go forth with horses and chariots;" that is, 10,000 chariots, with two men for each. The numbers are of course poetical, but the epithet of Ilecatom-pylos endured.³

All traces of the city wall had already disappeared in the time of Diodorus, and the absence of any vestige of a wall goes far to show that there never was one.⁴ As Pliny describes Thebes as " a hanging city," built upon arches, so that an army could be led forth from beneath it, without the knowledge of the inhabitants, it has been suggested that there may have been near the river-line arched buildings used as barracks, from whose gateways 10,000 war-chariots may have issued forth.

² The name is Ap or Ape (head, i.e. capital), with the feminine article T. Tape was prononuced, in the Memphite dialect of Coptic, Thaba, whence the Greek Thebce, and the Latin Thcbe, a.- Pliny and Jnvenal write it. The city was also called Za'm, the name of its noni", the fourth in order proceeding northward from the cataracts: this name was applied in later times to a particular locality on the western side of Thebes. It had, besides, the sacred name of P-amen or Aviun-ei (the abode of Amnn), from its patron deity, whom the Greeks identified with their Jove, under the special title of Zeus Ammon (Jupiter Amnion, Lat.); and hence they called the city also Diospolis the Great, in contradistinction to Diospolis the Less near Abydos. The Hebrew name of No-Amon (Jer. xlvi. 25 ; Nah. iii. S), or simply Xo (Ezek. xxx. 14,1G), has a similar origin, though the force of the Xo is disputed : it is commonly interpreted " the portion of Amun." (See " Diet, of the Bible," arts. Xo-Amon and Thebes.)

³ Horn. "II." ix. 3S1-3S5. The explanation of Diodorus (i. 45, § 7) that the "100 gates" refer to the propiilwa of the temples is as decidedly nnpeetical.

⁴ Sir G. Wilkinson holds that it was not the custom of the Egyptians to wall in their cities. See his account of their fortifications in Kawlinson's "Herodotus," vol. ii. p. 25= •

SITE AND EXTENT OF THEBES.

§ S. The site of Thebes seems marked by nature for the •capital city of Upper Egypt. In about 25° 40' of north latitude, the two chains of hills which hem in the valley of the Nile sweep away on both sides, and return again on the north, leaving a circular plain of about ten miles In diameter, divided almost equally by the river, and protected by a narrow entrance against a force ascending the Nile. In the days of its magnificence, the city, with "its necropolis, seems to have covered the whole plain ; but our earliest accounts date from a thousand years after the days of its glory, and five hundred years from the time when itwas devastated by Cambyses.⁶ Diodorus gives it a circuit of 140 stadia (14 geographical miles); and states that some of its private houses were four or live stories high. But these houses, which were chiefly on the eastern side of the river, occupied a small space as compared with the temples, palaces, and tombs, which still remain to attest its grandeur and to reveal its history. Strabo, just at the Christian era, writes :—"Vestiges of its magnitude still exist, which extend 80 stadia (8 geographical miles) in length.⁶ . . . The spot is at present occupied by villages."

And so it is' at this day: the site is marked by the villages of Karnak and Luxor (or El- Uqsor) on the east, or Arabian side, and Kurneh and Medinet-Abou on the west, or Libyan side, of the Nile. The river averages about half a mile in width ; but at the inundation it overflows the plain, especially on the western side, over a breadth of two miles or more : in ancient times it may have been embanked, perhaps by the arched constructions mentioned by Pliny. The alluvial deposit has, in about 32 centuries, raised the surface to the height of seven feet round the bases of the twin colossi of Amunoph III., which stand several hundred yards from the bed of the low Nile. The four villages named mark the angles of a quadrangle, measuring two miles from north to south, and four from east to west,'which forms the site of the present monumental city, and probably defines that of the ancient royal and sacred quarters. At these four angles are the ruins of four great temples,⁷ each of which seems to have been connected with those facing it on two sides by grand avenues (dromoi) lined with sphinxes and other colossal figures. Upon the western bank there was an almost continuous line of temples and public edifices for a distance of two

⁶ Herodotus gives no particular account of it; and some critics even question his statement that he visited the city. (Herod, ii. S, 9.)

⁶ This gives a circuit much greater than that assigned by Diodorus.

* The student should bear in mind, when the temples, etc., of Karnak, Luxor, Kur-nah, and Medinet-Abou are referred to, that they are all monuments of Thebkb itself

10G

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

miles, from Kurneh to Medinet-Abou; and Wilkinson conjee-tures that from a point near the latter, perhaps in a line of the colossi, the "Royal Street" ran down to the river, which was crossed by a ferry terminating at Luxor on the eastern side.

§ 4. The principal edifices, which we have frequent occasion to mention for their historical testimony, are the following : (1) At the north-west corner, the Menephtheion^ or palace-temple of Seti I. of the 19th dynasty, at the deserted village of Old Kurneh: (2) Nearly a mile to the south is the so-called Memnoulum (now also called the Jlatneseion), the palace-temple of Rameses IE, Miamun," the son of Seti I., with its marvellous shattered colossus of the king ; and, about a third of a mile farther south, the twin colossi above named, one of which is the famed " vocal Memnon." Farther south, at Medinet-Abou, are (3) A temple built by Thothmes I., and (4) The magnificent southern Bameselon, or palace-temple of Rameses III., of the 20th dynasty, with its splendid battle-scenes from that king's history. (5) On the same (west) side of the river is the vast Necropolis, excavated to a depth of several hundred feet in the Libyan hills, over a length of five miles. The extent of the tombs may be imagined from the example of one of them, which has an area of 22,217 square feet. A retired valley in the mountains, the Blban-el-Melook, " Gates of the Kings," contains the sepulchres of the kings. These tombs, like those of Memphis, preserve treasures of the knowledge of ancient Egypt, which explorers have only begun to gather up. The whole western quarter bore the distinctive name of Fathy-rls,⁹ or the abode of Atur {Athor), the goddess who was believed to receive the sun in her arms as he sank behind the Libyan hills. It was divided into separate quarters, as the Meninoneia, and the Thynabunum, where the priests of Osiris were interred.

On the eastern side, the monuments of Karnak and Luxor are far too numerous to mention. The site of Karnak (probably the original city of Amun), at the north-east angle of the quadrangle, forms a city of temples. Its grandest edifice is a temple, covering a space of nearly 1800 feet square, with its courts and propylrea, the work of nearly every age of Egypt (except that of the old Memphian Monarchy), from the Twelfth Dynasty to the Ptolemies. Here are the oldest monuments of Thebes, belonging to Sesortasen I.¹⁰

⁸ One derivation of the Greek names Memnon and Memnmnum is from this surname of Rameses.

⁹ The Greek form of the word is Pathros (comp. Isa. rl. il; Ezek. xxix. 14, xxx. 13-1S). The Pathros of Jeremiah (xMv. 31) may be another city of Athor in the Delta.

¹⁰ Excepting the few fragments of n building on the W. side, where Wilkinson has

KISE, DECLINE, AND FALL OF THEBES.

107

§ 5. The power and prosperity of Thebes arose from three sources—trade, manufactures, and religior, Its position on the Xile, near the great avenues through the Arabian hills to^ the lied Sea, and to the interior of Libya through the Western Desert—rendering it a common entrepot for the Indian trade, on the one side, and the caravan trade with the gold, ivory, and aromatic districts, on the other—and its comparative vicinity to the mines which intersect the limestone borders of the Red Sea, combined to make Thebes the greatest emporium in Eastern Africa, until the foundation of Alexandria turned the stream of commerce into another channel.

It was also celebrated for its linen manufacture—an important fabric in a-country where a numerous priesthood was interdicted from the use of woollen garments.¹¹ The glass, pottery, and intaglios of Thebes were in high repute; and, generally, the number and magnitude of its edifices, sacred and secular, must have attracted to the city a multitude of artisans, who were employed in constructing, decorating, or repairing them. The priests alone and their attendants doubtless constituted an enormous population; for, as regarded Egypt, and for centuries Ethiopia also, Thebes stood in the relation occupied by Rome to medieval Christendom—it was the sacerdotal capital of all who worshipped Amnion, from Pelusium to Axnme, and from the Oases of Libya to the Red Sea.

^ § 6. We have seen that Thebes disputed the palm of antiquity with Memphis; but its political importance dates from the Twelfth Dynasty, and its supremacy from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth. But its continued importance under the succeeding dynasties, whether sprung from the Deltaor from Ethiopia, is attested by their pictures and inscriptions on its walls. The first great blow that fell upon it from a foreign conqueror was struck by the Assyrian As-shur-banipal, and repeated more severely by Nebuchadnezzar ;¹² and " the Persian invader completed the destruction that the Babylonian had begun. The hammer of Cambyses levelled the proud statue of Rameses, and his torch consumed the temples and palaces of the city of the hundred gates. No-Ammon, the shrine of the Egyptian Jupiter, 'that was situate among the rivers, and whose rampart was the sea,' sank from its metropolitan splendor to the position of a mere provincial town; and, notwithstanding the spas-discovered the name of Amenemes I. The non-appearance of earlier names, and the dilapidated state of the oldest part of the building, are doubtless due to the ravages of revolution and invasion, and especially to the Hyksos.

^{11 plin}M ix. 1, s. 4. i'2 See below, chap. vii. and viii.

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THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

niodie efforts of the Ptolemies to revive its ancient glory,¹⁵ became at last only the desolate and ruined sepulchre of the empire it had once imbodied. It lies to-day a nest of Arab hovels amid crumbling columns and drifting sands."¹⁴ But on those crumbling stones, and preserved while hidden by those drifting sands, are the pictorial scenes and the inscriptions which enable us to reproduce the history of the Theban Monarchy as if from authentic books.

§ 7. With the Eighteenth Dynasty begins a continuous monumental history' of Egypt, which reveals the confusion that has been introduced into the lists of Manetho. For example, his copyists have tacked on the first three kings of the XlXth dynasty to the XVIIIth, and have repeated them in the XlXth dynasty. The succession of kings determined from the monuments is as follows:—(l) Aahmes or Ames: (2) Amex-hotep I.: (3) Thothmes I.: (4) Thothmes II. and the queen-regent Hatasou : (5) Thothmes III.: (6) Amex-hotep II.: (7) Thothmes IV.: (8) Amen-hotep III.: (9) Amex-hotep IV.: (10) Hap-em-heei, the Horus of Manetho.

It is surprising how rapidly Egypt seems to have recovered from the effects of the Shepherd invasion ; perhaps we should rather say that their conformity to Egyptian manners fostered the revival. Agriculture, commerce, art, are all in full vigor at the beginning of the new era. The perfection of the jeweller's art is shown in the ornaments (now in the Cairo Museum) discovered by M. Mariette on the mummy of Queen Aah-hotep, the widow of Karnes and mother of Aahmes. The care of the new king in restoring the temples destroyed by the Hyksos, especially at Memphis and Thebes, is proved by an inscription, of his 22d year, in the quarries of Jebel Mokattem, opposite to Cairo ; which also shows that Lower Egypt was then under his sway. Aahmes quelled a revolt in Nubia, and married an Ethiopian princess, Ntfre-t-arl, whom the monuments represent with regular Caucasian features, but a black skin. This marriage appears to have been the ground of the claims raised by his successors to the throne of Ethiopia.

§ 8. On the other side, Aahmes, going to attack the Hyksos in their new abodes, began those wars in Western Asia, which his descendants carried on even beyond the Euphrates. The chief populations of that region, with whom the Egyptians thus came into contact, were the following : (l) The Arab tribes (called Mtasou on the monuments), in the deserts on the north-eastern frontier, including the Midianites and Edom-

¹² Its trade with Arabia and Ethiopia was at this time diverted to Coptos and Apol linopolis.

¹⁴ Dr. J. p. Thompson, in the " Diet, of the Bible," vol. iii. p. 1175.

. WARS JN ASIA AND ETHIOPIA.

ites (or Idumeans), besides the Amalekites, who were the chief of these tribes. (2) Palestine was occupied, as at the time of the'conquest under Joshua, by the numerous tribes of the (Janaanites, under their petty kings, who often ruled over only a single city—a condition which made conquest easy, but favored insurrection. The great maritime plain along the Mediterranean, afterwards the seat of the Philistine confederacy, was early taken into the military occupation of Egypt, as the highway into Asia. (3) North of Canaan, in Coele-Syria and the valley of the Orontes, was the great nation of the Kheta or Hittites, the wars with whom form so conspicuous a part of the history of the XlXth dynasty. (4) Eastward through the whole of Aram, as far as and beyond the Euphrates, was the great confederacy of the •Bot-u-uo, or Pot-en-nou,ov Paten, whose name is constantly reappearing on the monuments. Marked by no well-defined territory or unity of race, it embraced all Mesopotamia,¹⁵ and possessed the cities of Nineveh and Babylon, where the Old Chalda'an monarchy had probably lost its strength, and the Assyrian empire had not yet risen. The Semitic Assyrio-Chaldteans, then under petty kings, seem to have formed the kernel of the confederacy, which, perhaps, derived its name from Pesen,one of the oldest and greatest cities of Assyria;¹' but it included also all the Aramaean tribes on both sides of the Euphrates. (5) The farthest people reached by the Egyp tian arms were the Japhetic races in the mountains of Armenia; for the conquests of Sesostris beyond the Caucasus seem to be wholly fabulous.

§ 9. The war in Asia was pursued by Amex-hotep I. (i. e. Serenity of Amnion), the son and successor of Aahmes,-who is otherwise called Amunoph,oY, in G\'Qek,Amenophis" He chastised the Bedouin S/iasou, and made progress in the reduction of Palestine. In dealing with the petty principalities of Asia, the policy of the Egyptian kings was the same that was afterwards followed by the Assyrians and Persians, as well as by the Tnrks to this day. The little royalties were rendered tributary without being suppressed. So long as his sovereignty was acknowledged, the tribute paid, and the military contingents furnished, the Pharaoh viewed the quarrels of the petty princes rather as a security for the maintenance of his power. The wars of this king in Ethiopia are attested by a passage of the above-quoted inscription of the mariner Aahmes :—"I conducted the ship of King Amen-ho-

¹⁵ The name Naharain (two rivers) is found on the monuments, and seems identical with the Aram-Xaharaim of the Bible. ¹⁶ See Genesis x. 12

¹⁷ Chebson, whom Manetho places second iu the dynasty, is not named on the monuments.

no

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

tep, when he made an expedition against Ethiopia to enlarge the boundaries of Egypt. The king took the mountain-chief prisoner in the midst of his warriors."

From a sepulchral box and a mummy-case bearing this king's name, it is evident that the Egyptians had already adopted the five intercalary days to complete the year of 365 days, as well as the division of day and night into 12 hours each. His name is also found on arches of crude brick at Thebes. But there is reason to believe that all these inventions had been made long before the time at which these proofs occur.¹⁸ Amenophis was deified after his death.

§ 10. Thothmes I.¹⁹ has left the proof of his progress in Ethiopia by an inscription, belonging to his second year, on the rocks opposite to the Isle of Toni.bos, recording nis victories over the Nahsi, or Negroes. But his great exploits were in Asia. Having finished the conquest of the Canaan-ites, he gained a great victory over the llotennou, nearDamas-cus, and pressed on to the Euphrates, which he crossed at Carchenush.'²⁰ Tablets commemorating his passage were set up on the banks of the river, as well as of the Upper Nile; and the same mariner, who has been twice cited, records his service under Thothmes I. when he captured 21 men,« horse, and a chariot in the land of Naharain. This is the first appearance of the horse (under its Semitic name of S/ts) in the Egyptian records; and henceforth we find the Theban kings using war-chariots; but the chariots of Joseph's Pharaoh afford a proof that the horse and the war-chariot had already been introduced by the Hyksos. Thothmes I. also leads the way in the great architectural works which distinguished this and the following dynasties. He seems to have begun the great palace of Karnak, in the central court of which stood two obelisks bearing his name. One of these records a victory over the nation of the Nine Botes, who are supposed to be the Libyans.

§11. The final submission of Ethiopia is all that marks the reign of Thothmes II. We now first find, on the rocks of Syene, the title of" Royal Son of Cush,'⁵ which appears to denote a viceroy of Ethiopia, of the royal blood.

¹⁰ Wilkinson's " App. to Herod, book ii.," in Rawlinson's " Herod." vol. ii. p. 355.

¹⁹ The name is also written Thoiithmes and Thotitmen, and, by Manetho, ThoutmonU. It is derived from Thoth (the Egyptian Hervics), the god of letters and of the moon.

²⁰ This city, so often mentioned on the Egyptian monuments, and also in the Bible, as a chief key to the line of the Euphrates, is usually identified with the classical Cir-cesium (KarkMa) at the junction of the Chaboras (Khabur) with the Euphrates ; but some place it, on the authority of the Assyrian inscriptions, much higher up the river, at or near the site of the later Mabocj or Hicrapolis. The word means the fort of Chemosh, the well-known deity of the Moabites. At about u.o. 1000 it was iu the possession of the Hittites.

THOTHMES HE— HATASOU.

lit

After a very short reign, Thothmes II. was succeeded by his brother Thothmes III., who was still a child. His eldest sister, Hatasotj (also called JYemt-Amen), who seems to have had a large share in the government during the preceding reign, now assumed the full style and functions of royalty for seventeen years. She has left a monument of her splendor in the two great obelisks in the central court of the palace of Karnak, one of which is still erect. It is of rose-colored granite, 90 feet high, and carved with figures and hieroglyphics of such fine and free workmanship that, as Kosellini says, " every figure seems rather to have been impressed with a seal than graven with a chisel." From the inscription on the base we learn that the obelisk was a monument to her father, Thothmes I., that seven months were occupied in cutting it out from the rocks at Syene and transporting it to Thebes, and that the pyramidion on its summit was made of gold taken from enemies.

On the walls of the temple of Deir-el-Bahari, at Thebes, Hatasou has recorded, in splendid reliefs, her conquest of Pount, or Arabia Felix. Her name has been cut out of many of her monuments, probably to brand her royal style as an usurpation. Her power seems to have lasted till her death, even after the young king attained his majority, for her name is found on an inscription at Wady Magharah in the sixteenth year of the reign of Thothmes III., whose first military expedition was made in his twenty-second year.

§12. It is the reign of Thothmes HE, not that of Rameses IE, that forms the true climax of the power of Egypt, who now boasted that " she fixed her frontiers where she would." She now attained a real Empire, embracing on the south Abyssinia, Soudan, and Nubia; on the west a part of Libya ; on the east the peninsula of Sinai, and Yemien ; and on the north Syria, Mesopotamia, and Irak-Araby to the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan; and her internal organization was never more complete. On the greatest of his architectural works, the Temple of Karnak, Thothmes has left the record of his chief exploits in a magnificent bas-relief, which is known, from its statistics of booty and of prisoners, as the " Numerical Wall of Karnak," or the "Annals of Thothmes IH."²'

In the twenty-second year of the king^ys reign, probably soon after the death of Hatasou, the Rotennou had refused to pay tribute and had stirred up an insurrection in Canaan. Gaza, one of the few strong places left, was chosen by Thothmes as his base of operations. Here, in the following

⁸¹ The moderation of many of these numbers gives a strong presumption of veracity.

112

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

spring, he learned that the confederated Syrians and Canaan-ites, under the King of Kadesh (on the Orontes), had posted themselves in the valley of Megiddo. Rejecting more cautious counsels, he marched straight against them, and gained a decisive victory on the field of battle where Necho, long afterwards, slew Josiah. No less than 2132 horses and 914 war-chariots were the prize of the victory, though the enemy lost only 83 killed and 340 prisoners. Perhaps the neighboring mountains saved the fugitives. Megiddo, where the hostile chiefs had taken refuge, was soon reduced by famine, and Thothmes marched in triumph to the Euphrates.

Returning the next year, he crossed the river at Carche-mish, where he built a fortress, and the Rotennou submitted without a battle. Among the kings who paid tribute were those of Resen and of Asshur, or Elas.sar (KalaJi-tihergat). It should here be remembered that, according to the custom of those days, chiefs " often agreed to make this acknowledgment of their defeat without yielding up their country to the victorious enemy as a conquered province; and, in some eases, a country may have been called conquered (by the Egyptians, Assyrians, or others), when in fact a victory had only been gained over its army; perhaps even when that army was beyond its own frontier."²²

§ 13. Four years of peace were followed in the 29th year of the king's reign, by the conquest of Coele-Syria, whose people are seen bringing their tribute of wine, wheat, cattle, honey, and iron. Aradus, which was taken in this campaign, had to be retaken in the following year, when also Kadesh, on the Orontes, fell for the first time before the arms of Egypt.²³, The Assyrian princes beyond the Euphrates now renewed their submission, giving their sons and brothers as hostages to be brought up in Egypt, and agreeing that, in case of death, their successor should be appointed by Pharaoh, doubtless from the E«_rypti.mized princes. This campaign in his 30th year is called his sixth expedition.

In his 31st year Thothmes repaired in person to Mesopotamia to receive tribute ; and in his 33d he appears to have completed the conquest of the country, for the inscription says that " he stopped at Nineveh (N'inieu), where he set up" his stela in Naharai'u, having enlarged the frontiers of Egypt." Singar and Babylon also are represented as belonging to his empire; and, in Syria beyond the Jordan, Heshbon and Rabbath-Ammon appear first as tributaries. Carrying on his conquests to their farthest limits, he received

²³ Wilkinson's " App. to Herod, ii.," in Rawlinson's " Herod." ii. p. 257. 23 rp_h^ ruins of ihia ci^ <?xist a little above Emesa,

MARITIME POWER OF THOTHMES III.

113

tribute from the Pemenen, who are supposed to be the people of Armenia, " where," says a hieroglyphic inscription, "heaven rests upon its four pillars."

§ 14. Meanwhile the maritime power of Thothmes HE gave a promise of supremacy in the Mediterranean, which Egypt was not however destined to acquire. As in later ages, her fleet was manned by the Phoenicians, who seem to have submitted to Thothmes on favorable terms, and (except some cities, as Aradus) remained for ages the faithful allies of Egypt. A monumental stela, discovered at Thebes by M. Mariette, and translated by M. de Kongo, describes, in a Biblical style of poetry, the conquest of Cyprus, Crete, and the southern isles of the iEgean, the neighboring shores of Asia Minor and of Greece, and perhaps the southern extremity of Italy. It has even been conjectured, from the mention of the Asi among the northern nations who paid tribute to the fleet of Thothmes, that his maritime expeditions reached the shores of the Black Sea, where the Col-chians were believed by Herodotus to have been a colony founded by the Egyptians to work the mines. Monuments of the power of Thothmes along the northern shore of Africa have been found at Zershell, in Algeria, the Cassarea Julia of the Mauretanian kings.

§ 15. Ethiopia was still peaceably subject to the Egyptian viceroy, " the royal son of Cush," who is seen in the grotto of I brim, in Lower Nubia, bringing to Thothmes the tribute of gold, silver, and grain. At Amada he dedicated a temple to the sun, which was completed by Amen-hotep II. and Thothmes IV.; and at Semneh, as already mentioned, he restored that of the deified Sesortasen. Besides other monuments between the first and second cataracts, records of his power are found at Kumneh, opposite to Semneh, which seems still to have been the frontier fortress, and at the isle of Sdi, higher up the river. Frequent expeditions were made into the negro country; and a bas-relief at Karnak shows no less than 115 conquered African tribes, each represented, as is usual, by a single figure with the name of his tribe.

§ 16. The following general view of the nations and tributes represented on the monuments of Thothmes III., is given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson :—" The successes obtained by Thothmes over the Pount (a nation of Arabia), the Kvfa (supposed to be the people of Cyprus), the Pot-h-no, and the southern Ethiopians, are commemorated on the monuments of Thebes. . . . The elephant and bear, horses, rare woods, bitumen, and the rich gold and silver vases brought by the

114

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

Rotai-no ; the ebony, ivory, and precious metals, by those of Fount; the gold aud silver vases of the Kufa ; and the cameleopards, apes, ostrich-feathers, ebony, ivory, and gold (in dust, ingots, and rings), from Ethiopia, show the distance from which they were brought, as well as the richness of the tribute. The tight dresses, the long gloves, the red hair and blue eyes of the Rot-n-no, also proclaim them to be of a colder climate than Syria, though the jars of bitumen appear to place them in the neighborhood of the Euphrates or the Tigris. The beauty of their silver, gold and porcelain vases, at all events, point them out as a people far advanced in luxury and taste.¹'²⁴

§ 1 7. The monuments of this king, which are found through the whole valley of the Nile, from the Delta to above the Second Cataract, exhibit almost the perfection of Egyptian art. The most important of them, besides those already mentioned, are at Memphis, Ileliopolis, Coptos, Ombos, and Thebes. The extent of his buildings at the capital is proved by the inclosures of crude brick that surrounded them. "There are, indeed, more bricks bearing his name than that of any other king; and it is on the tomb where the tribute before mentioned is recorded that the curious process of brick-making is represented, which tallies so exactly with that described in Exodus. In these pictures we see the reprisals of Egypt on their Shemite oppressors of the time of the Hyksos. Thousands of Semitic prisoners are represented on the temple-walls in the act of carrying water to knead the mortar, forming bricks in wooden "frames, spreading them out to dry in the sun, carrying them to the buildings in course of erection, and the like; all this being done under the eye of Egyptian officials, lounging about armed with weighty sticks, while different inscriptions inform us of the nature of the special work done by these ' prisoners whom the king has taken, that they might build temples to his gods.'"²⁵ The British Museum" contains the head and arm of his huge colossal statue in red granite at Karnak. His ovals also appear far more commonly on the smaller scarabsei than those of any other Pharaoh, and he is remarkable for the great variety in the mode of writing his name, of which we have more than thirty variations"™ Manetho assigns him (under the name of Misphragmuthosis) only 2G years ; but his 47th year is found on the monuments. The difference may be accounted for in part by the time of his sister's regency.

²⁴ Appendix to Herod, book ii., in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. ii. p. 357-S. ²*> Brr.gsch, " Aus dem Orient," quoted in the " Saturday Review," Dec.1SG5. ²⁶ Sir G. Wilkinson, I c. p. 359.

CONQUESTS ()P AMEX-HOTEP III.

115

§ 18. During the short reigns of Amex-hotep IE (who is omitted by Manetho) and Thothmes TV., the condition and boundaries of the empire remained much the same. The former repressed an insurrection of Mesopotamia, and scjit the dead bodies of seven kings to be hung, six under the walls of Thebes and the seventh at Napata, the capital of Ethiopia," that the blacks might see that the king's victories went on forever, in all lands and all peoples of the world, since he at once held possession of the nations of the south, and chastised the nations of the north."²⁷ Thothmes IV. is represented in his 7th year as conquering the negroes and receiving tribute from Assyria. Manetho assigns him nine years. His name is found on the Great Sphinx.²"

His son, Amex-hotep HE, rivalled the fame of Thothmes III. as a conqueror and a builder; and, adds Manetho,"he is thought to be Memnon and the Speaking Statue." The list assigns him 31 years, but his 36th is found on the monuments. On the columns of his beautiful temple at JSoleb, in Nubia, he records the names of the nations conquered by him in Asia and in Africa; the former including the Poiuit, Carchemish, the fort of Aiesh (Kctdesh ?), Ntihardin (i. e. Mesopotamia), and many others. His arms were carried above Napata (Jebel Berkel), the capital of Ethiopia, and an inscription on one of the large scarabcet, which he frequently used as records, boasts that his empire extended from Mesopotamia to Killee or Karo, in Abyssinia.²⁰ He appears to have carried on those great slave-hunting raids into the Negro-land, which have disgraced the rulers of Egypt down to recent times, for on an inscription at Semneh we read of 740 and 1052 "living head" of negroes, many of them children, as among his captives.

His buildings in Egypt are at Syene, Elephantine, Silsilis, Ilithyia,the Serapeum at Memphis, and especially at Thebes, where he added to the temple of Karnak and erected a chief part of that of Luxor. The dedication of this temple is worth quoting, as an example of the style and titles arrogated to themselves by the Egyptian kings :—" He is Horus, the potent bull, who governs by the sword and destroys all the Barbarians; he is the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the absolute master, the son of the Sun ; he smites the chiefs of all countries; he marches on and gathers victory, like Horus, son of Isis, like the Sun in the heaven ; he overthrows their fortresses ; lie obtains for Egypt the tribute of all na-

²⁷ From an inscription at the temple of Amada in Nnhia. ²⁸ See p. <>G.

²⁹ This place is supposed to be the same as ColoC, about 100 miles e. or e.x.e. of A.xum.

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tions by bis valor, he, the lord of the two worlds, the son of the Sun."

§ 19. It was in this last character that the Greeks and Romans identified Amenophis III. with Memxox,³⁰ son of Aurora, whom Homer represents as coming from Ethiopia to the aid of Troy. His colossal statue on the plain of Thebes was heard, at sunrise, to emit sounds, which were taken to be his morning salutation to his father. This celebrated statue, hence called the Vocal Memnon, is one of two seated colossi, of breccia, 47 feet high, or 53 feet with their bases, which Amenophis set up in front of a temple which he erected in the western quarter of Thebes. It was broken in half (some said by Cambyses, others by an earthquake under Tiberius) and repaired with several layers of sandstone in the time of Septimius Severns. On its "back is the name of Amen-hotep III., with the title "Phra (the Sun), the Lord of Truth ;" and on its legs are numerous attestations in Greek and Latin, by visitors in the time of the Roman empire, who heard it emit a sound like a harp-string, or, as Strabo says, like a slight blou\^3]

The last statement tends to confirm the explanation of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who found in the lap of the colossus (where, he suggests, a priest or servant may have been concealed) a stone which, on being struck with a hammer, emitted a metallic sound, such that the peasants, whom he had placed to listen below, said," You are striking brass." Another modern traveller says, "Not at sunrise, but in the glaring noon, the statue emitted a sharp clear sound, like the ringing of a disk of brass under a sudden concussion. This was produced by a ragged urchin, who, for a few piastres, clambered up the knee^T of the ' vocal Memnon,' and there, effectually concealing himself from observation, struck with a hammer a sonorous stone in the lap of the statue."³²

³⁰ How easily these fancied resemblances of names led to confusion, we have seen in the probable derivation of the Memnonium at Thebes from the surname of Rameses II. Miamun. There is no connection between the Memnonium and the vocal Memnon. Pansanias (i. 42, § 3) preserves the true name of the statue slightly altered : —" The Thebans say this is not a statue of Memnon, but of Phamenoph, a native of the country.

⁵¹ Strabo xvii. 46. It.is worth while to notice the great geographer's caution in describing even a marvel witnessed by himself: "When I was at those places, with iElius Gall us, and numerous friends and soldiers about him, I heard a noise at the first hour of the day, but whether proceeding from the base, or from the colossus, or produced on purpose by some of those standing around the base, I can not con fidently assert.

³² Dr. j. P. Thompson, in the ¹¹ Diet, of the Bible," art. Theism?, vol. iii. p. 1472. Le tronue, however, explained the sounds as produced by a crepitation of the stone under the heat of the snn, when impregnated with the morning dew. It is urged that all the attestations of the sounds belong to the time during which the upper part of the statue lay upon the ground, and the broken surface of the seated part exposed \t> veins to the action of the dew. We have little doubt that Wilkinson's solution is r.^ht-

CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY.

11?

§ 20. The death of Amen-hotep III. was followed by an attempted religious revolution, of which the records arc-obscure. Both the Lists of Manetho and the monuments give the name of several occupants of the throne, some of whom are designated " Stranger Kings." The chief of these, Amex-hotep IV., claims to be the son of Amen-hotep III., but his features are essentially un-Egyptian.³³ It is supposed to have been under the influence of his mother Taia, whose portraits show her to have been a foreigner, that he discarded the old gods of Egypt for the direct worship of the Sun, under the Syrian name of At en; changed his own name to Chou-en-Aten {brilliancy of the solar disk); and set up a new capital, in the ruins of which, at Tel-Amarna, he is seen presiding over the new cult.

Amon^ his obscure successors, the monuments furnish the names of Amontouonkh and Har-cm-hebi, sons of Amenophis III. To the latter of these, under the name of Horus, Manetho assigns 36 to 38 years;³⁴ but the only date upon the monuments is that of his 2d year, when an inscription and relief at Silsilis represent his triumphant return from a campaign in Ethiopia. The features of Horus are remarkable for their likeness to Amenophis III. There are traces of a violent reaction against the religious innovations of Amenophis IV, whose buildings have been overthrown, and his capital at Tel-Amarna systematically devastated; and the names of the "Stranger Kings" are effaced from their monuments. Amidst these troubles the Eighteenth Dynasty came to an end, having lasted about 200 years, from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 14th century b.c.

³³ Wilkinson regards the features of Amunoph III. himself as nu-Egyptian, and observes that his tomb at Thebes is placed apart from those of the other Pharaohs, and in company with that of one of the " Stranger Kings."

³⁴ Sir Gardner Wilkinson supposes the 36 to 3S years to have covered the whole period of the Stranger Kings. M. Mariette found on an Apis-stela the name of a successor of Horus, Reai-totiov R&sitot, who would be the Raihos of Manetlio.

Pavilion of Rameses HI.

CHAPTER VI.

the new theban monarchy (continued).-THE nineteenth and twentieth dynasties.

S 1. Character of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Rameses i. § 2. Seti. i. His position in the dynasty. Perhaps descended from the Hyksos. His son shares the kingdom. § 3. Bnildings of Seti i. Hall of Columns at Xarnak. § 4. The reliefs on its walla —a Sethcicl of his conquests. Absence of nnu itime exploits. The Red Sea Canal. §5. Rameses ii. Meriamun. His fictitious glory. Legend of Sesostris—contrast-eel with the facts. His campaigns defensive. His character; a cruel despot. §6. His first wars. Epic of the scribe Pentaour: a. Rameseid. War in Syria against a great confederacy. Siege operations. § 7. a personal exploit of Rameses, related by the poet. § 8. Renewal of the war. Treaty with the Hittite King. Submission of Mesopotamia. Peace for the rest of his reign. § 9. Character of his Administration. His immense harem. Cruelsentenc.es. § 10. Oppression of the subject races of the Delta ; especially of the Hebrews. Rameses ii. proved to he their oppressor. The Hebrews named as the builders of the city Rameses. § 11. Wretched condition of the native peasantry. Razzias to kidnap negroes. Deportation of whole tribes. § 12. Buildings of Rameses ii. His colossal statues § 13. Egypt's power begins to decline. Invasion from Libya and the Mediterranean. § 14. Mebenfhtha. or Mehepiitha, the Pharoah of the Exodus. Progress and defeat of the Libyan invaders. The Exonus, and its disastrous consequences to Egypt. § 15. New invasion from the East. Distorted account of Manetho. Flight of Menephtha. § 10. Intrnsive dynasty at Chev. Sen ii., son of Menephtha, restored. Conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. The military route to Asia preserved. § 17. The Twentieth Dynasty founded by Seti iii. Rameses iii. restores the empire. His exploits depicted at Medinet-A bou. §18. His great campaign in Syria. Naval victory at the "Tower of Rameses." Wealth of Rameses iii. His tomb. § 19. Series of Kings named Rameses. Rameses viii. Decline of Egypt. Power of the Priests of Amnion. Relations of Rameses xii. with Mesopotamia. § 20. Rise of Assyria. Usurpation of the priests of the liue of Her-Hor. Their relation to the XXIst Dynasty.

§ 1. The Nineteenth Dynasty is often regarded, in the light of the splendid records of Rameses II., as having reached a climax above its predecessor. But the true difference has been well put by M. Lfuiorinant: " Egypt, so threatening under the Eighteenth Dynasty, becomes now almost ah

NINETEENTH DYNASTY—SETI L »

119

ways threatened." Riiamses, or Rameses L, the founder of the* dynasty, was either the grandson of Horns by the female line, or, according to those who believe Amenophis HE to have been of foreign race, the pedigree of Rameses is to be traced from Amenophis I. and his queen Ames-nofri-are. At all events, he represented the legitimate line of the Theban kings. His position as the head of a new dynasty is marked by his tomb at Thebes being the first that was made in the valley of Piban-el-Molooh. His reign was short, and his monuments are few. His only recorded expedition was against the KJieta (Hittites) of the Orontes, who seem to have taken advantage of the recent troubles in Egypt to acquire the power which now makes them conspicuous.

§ 2. The glories of the XlXth dynasty begin with Seti I., surnamed Merenphtlia or Menephtha {dear to Phtha), whose exploits, however, are often confounded with those of his son Rameses II. For this there seems to have been a reason. M. Mariette has discovered inscriptions in which Rameses says that he was king before his birth, and that his father Seti only governed for him. The probable explanation is, that Seti, though called the son, was really the son-in-law of Rameses E, whose rights were transmitted direct to Rameses II. as soon as he was born, or rather conceived ; and that the latter was associated with his father iu the kingdom. This will account for the ascription by Manetho of 51 or 55 yeara to Sethos, and 61 or 68 to Rameses II. It even appears that Seti was not of pure Egyptian race, but had a share of Hyksos blood. Foreign features have been traced in his portrait and his son's ; and, what is most remarkable, an inscription, discovered at Tanis by M. Mariette, exhibits Rameses II, as restoring the worship of the god Soutekh in the ancient capital of the Shepherds, and calling the founder of their dynasty, Set-aa-pehti JSToubti, his ancestor. In that name, too, the resemblance to Seti is worth noting.

§ 3. Seti and his son were the most magnificent builders imong the Egyptian kings; and the latter finished many • » works begun by the former. Among the monuments of Seti are the grand temple of Osiris at Abydos, recently brought to light, the palace of Kurneh at Thebes, and his tomb, which, by its sculptures and colored decorations, and its alabaster sarcophagus, excels all the other sepulchres of the Theban kings ; but all these are surpassed in majesty by the hypostyle hall, or "Hall of Columns," in the palace of Karnak, the triumph of Egyptian architecture.¹ This grand

¹ The reader may he aided in perceiving the design, but must not imagine that he at all sees the effect, of this edifice from the miniature reproduction in the Crystal Palace

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THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

hail is a forest of sculptured columns: in the central avenue are twelve, measuring each 60 feet in height by 12 in diame* * ter, which formerly supported the most elevated portion of the roof, answering to the clerestory in Gothic architecture; on either side of these are seven rows, each column nearly 42 feet high by nine in diameter, making a total of 134 pillars in an area measuring 170 feet by 330. Most of the pillars are yet standing in their original site, though in many places the roof has fallen in. A moonlight view of this hall is the most weird and impressive scene to be witnessed among all the ruins of antiquity—the Coliseum of Rome not excepted.

§ 4. The walls of this vast hall are eovered with the exploits of its founder, in the most powerfully-executed reliefs, accompanied by inscriptions, the whole forming what has been well called "an epic of war, a real Setheul." In one picture, the king attacks the S/tasoa of the Arabian Desert; in another, the Assyrians are partly cut in pieces, and partly Dringing tribute. In Armenia,the Remenen are felling trees to open the conqueror a passage through their forests; in Syria, great victories are gained over the Kheta. Another picture shows Seti's triumphant return to Egypt with hosts of captives. Among the vanquished nations are the SJtasou, the Pount, the Rotennou, JVahara'm, Singar, and about forty more, including the Cushites and other Africans. In short, the empire of Egypt in Asia and Africa recovered the extent Avon for it by Thothmes III. On the side of Ethiopia there seem to have been only slave-hunting expeditions. The Libyans were kept down, and the fleet commanded the Red Sea; but the total absence of maritime exploits in the Mediterranean has been accounted for by the mastery of the seas acquired by the Pelasgo-Tyrrhenians. More peaceful works were the sinking of an artesian well to aid in working the gold-mines of the south; and, if we may trust Brugsch's interpretation of a picture, Seti began the canal uniting the Nile to the Red Sea, which appears to have been completed by his successor, whose monuments are found along its course. Ho monument has been discovered later than Seti's 30th year.

§ 5. Rameses II., surnamed Meriamun or Miamun {beloved of Amwi)* has long been invested with a fictitious glory by the splendor of the works executed during his long reign, and covered with poetical records of his exploits, and, above all, through their exaggeration by the Greeks in the legend of Sesostris³—a legend which bears the same relation

² Rameses III. bore the same title, but only as a ]>ra??iomen, not a part of his name.

³ One of the many attempts to connect the name Sesostris with the known kings of Egypt derives it from a title actually borne by Rameses ii., Sestestou or Sesou-\- Ba (the Sun).

UAMESES II.—LEGEND OF iSESOiSTKIS.

121

to his real deeds tliat tlie Lays of Charlemagne bear to the history of Charles the Great. Even the real facts which it embodies are combined, as we have already seen, from the exploits of different kings and dynasties.

His education and training to martial exercises, with the youths born on the same day, reads like a chapter of the Cyropaidia; but we have evidence of the care with which Egyptian princes were trained in the extant lessons prepared for his son, Merenphtha, by a royal scribe, as well as in the case of Moses. His first conquests were in Ethiopia and the Arabian Gulf, where he maintained a fleet of 400 ships of war, the first that the Egyptians had seen! Meanwhile he led his conquering army through Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Persia, Bactria, and India, even beyond the Ganges ! Thence, turning northward, he subdued the Scythian tribes as far as the Tanai's, placed a colony in Colchis, and traversed Asia Minor, where he set up stelw as monuments of his victories, carved with male or female emblems according as he had been met with courage or cowardice. Crossing the Bosporus, he was at length stopped by famine and by the rugged land and inhospitable climate of Thrace; and so he led back his army to Egypt, after nine years' absence, laden with booty, and dragging after him hosts of captives.*

On the very face of this legend we see that it was framed so as to include all the countries known to its inventors. The evidence of his own monuments confines the victories of Rameses almost entirely to the nortltern part of Syria. Though a great warrior, he was not a conqueror. His campaigns were essentially defensive; and it was only by prodigious efforts that he maintained the limits of the empire. For the rest, he was a cruel, headstrong despot. We may venture to call him the Louis XIV. of the Egyptian monarchy ; and " after him came the deluge."

§ 6. Rameses II. first appears in the later wars of his father, with whom, as we have seen, he was probably associated in the throne. But his regnal years are counted from the death of Seti I., when his age was about 28. His accession was attended by a revolt of southern Ethiopia, which was only subdued by the viceroys after long wars,⁵ in which Rameses took part in person, in his second or third year.

* Compare the remarkable passage in which Tacitus ("Ann.¹' ii. 60) relates the interpretation which the priests gave to Germanicus of the inscriptions at Thebes relating to the exploits of Ruamses, theextent of his cmpire, and his tributes. Tacitus does not call the king Sesostris, but he speaks of Sesosis in his account of the Phoenix ("Ann." vi. 2s).

⁶ These wars are depicted on the walls of the rock-hewn temples of Abou-uiml>el and Beit-Wa'Uy.

6

122

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

But the great scene of his own exploits was in Syria ; and we have the record of them not only on the Avails of the Ra-meseum, but in a remarkable epic poem by the scribe Pen* taour, which has been justly called the Bamese'id.

It was in his fifth year that he was called to meet a great uprising of the Kheta, who seem to have seized the opportunity of the troubles in Ethiopia to attack Palestine, and to threaten Egypt itself, at the head of a great confederacy of Western Asia. Among the twelve nations leagued togeth er, besides the Kheta, the Aramaeans, the Rotennou, the Phoenicians of Aradus, and the Canaanites, some interpreters have found the principal peoples of Asia Minor, and Troy itself! The chief theatre of the war was the valley of the Orontes, where was a stronghold of the Kheta, protected by the river and a double ditch, bridged with planks. The sculptures exhibit the whole system of attack and defense : here are the scaling-ladder and the testudo, with its Avicker roof covering the terebra, or boring-pike ; there the pioneers attack the gates Avith axes, Avhile the archers clear the wall of its defenders. " Nor have the sculptures failed to show the strength of the enemy in the attack made upon them by Rameses^or the skill with which they drew up their army to oppose him; and the tale of their defeat is graphically told by the death of their chief, drowned as he endeavored to pass the river, and by the dispersion of their numerous chariots."⁶

§ 7. To these general scenes of the Avar the epic of Pen-taour adds a personal exploit of Rameses, told in a true Homeric spirit, even to the vow which the king makes in the moment of extremest danger. By the fault of his generals and scouts, Rameses had fallen into an ambush, where, disdaining to fly, and deserted by his followers, he rushes with his charioteer alone into the midst of the enemy, and cuts his Avay through their 2500 chariots of Avar. The passage is too long to quote, but the following version of a feAV lines may serve to give some rough idea of it:

•Nor foot nor horse could make a stand: against the warlike foe, AVho on Orontes'farther bank: held Kadesh' citadel. Then forth in glorious health and strength: came Rameses the King: Like Mouth the god he roused himself: and donned his dress of war: Clad in resplendent arms he shone: like Baal in his might. Right on he urged his chariot wheels: amidst the Hittite foes:

⁶ Sir G. Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. ii. p. 3G9. The wars of Rameses II. in Syria were doubtless the occasion of his carving the three tablets which bear his name in the living rock at the month .of the Lycos (Xahr-cl-Kclb), north of Beyrout. According to Lepsius the three refer to different campaigns: one in his fourth year, the other in his second or tenth. These are doubtless the stelce mentioned by Herodotus, though he mistook their character. Besides them are six others of Assyrian kings.

OPPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT.

15?3

Ad by himself alone was he: none other by him stood.

The chariots compassed him about: by hundreds twenty-five;

The swiftest of the Hittites fluug themselves across his path.

And round him surged the unnumbered hosts: that followed them to war.

Each chariot held three warriors: but with him there was none,

Captain, nor geueral of the cars: nor of the archer band."

The scene ends with an Homeric reproof to his warriors and praise of his horses, who alone have saved him, in reward whereof they are to be served each day with grain in his palace, before the god Ka. After the final victory, we have his return to Egypt, and his welcome by Amun : "Health to thee, Rameses, our cherished son. We grant thee terms of years innumerable. Sit forever on the throne of thy father Amun, and let the barbarians be crushed beneath thy sandals."

§ 8. Notwithstanding all this glorification, the war was renewed two years later, and lasted fourteen years. At one time Palestine is nearly lost, and Rameses has to retake As-calon to save the military road; at another he advances to the very north of Syria. At length, in his 21st year, he makes peace with the Hittite king, on terms of remarkable equality, and in language which raises a smile from its likeness to the phraseology of modern treaties—perpetual amity —surrender of deserters—equality of commercial privileges —and so forth. These terms set in a clear light the contrast between Rameses and the conqueror Sesostris ! An interesting article is the provision for the restoration of the worship of Soutekh at Tanis ; while the Hittite king, Khetasar, engages on his part to pay like honor to the gods of Egypt. This peace was followed by the submission of Mesopotamia ; the limits of the empire of Thothmes III. were once more recovered ; aud the rest of the reign of Rameses II. was tranquil. In a stela set up at Abou-simbel, in his 35th year, he represents the god Phtha-Sokari as granting to him that the whole world should obey him like the Kheta.

§9. Of his internal administ. ation, the more the monuments reveal, the more do Ave see that the epithet " Great" is, as usual in history, but the tribute rendered by the weak judgment of men to arrogant despotism and barbaric pomp. He showed it in his enormous harem: 170 children were born to him during the 67th year of his reign; and one of his w^rives was his own daughter, Bent Anat. A papyrus at Turin, containing the notes of a criminal process, shows the cruelty with which he punished a conspiracy of the harem. The sentences pronounced being too mild to please him, he commuted them all into death, and beheaded the judges themselves.

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THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

§ 10. The splendor of his court, and the magnificence of the buildings with which he covered all Egypt, were purchased by that cruel oppression, not only of the Hebrews, but of the subject populations of the Delta, of which Ave have the true picture in the Book of Exodus.

It appears now—as Ave shall presently see—placed beyond a doubt that the great individual oppressor of the Israelites Avas Rameses II.; and it is generally agreed by the best modern authorities that the persecuting dynasty—" the neAv king that arose over Egypt," and " that kneAV not Joseph"— Avas the XlXth, rather than the XVIIIth.⁷ Secure in their conquests abroad, the Thothmeses and Amunophs seem to have cherished the Shemites of the Delta as useful subjects; though they doubtless exacted from them the full tribute of their fertile lands; for the extreme harshness of the field-labor was a feature of the subsequent oppression.⁸

During this period the children of Israel multiplied so as to excite the jealous fears of the Egyptians, lest, seizing the occasion of the great Hittite Avar, they might join the enemy of kindred race, and, AA'hile adding to the dangers of Egypt, deprive her of a useful peasantry.⁹ They Avere therefore organized into gangs,under task-masters, as Ave see in the vivid pictures of the monuments,¹⁰ to Avork upon public edifices, and especially in building tAVO treasure-cities, one of Avhich Avas called by the name of their oppressor. " But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and greAV;" and so grew the jealousy of the Egyptians.¹¹

The oppression Avas now redoubled. "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in cdl manner of service in the field."™ These means still failing, the diabolical expedient of infanticide Avas attempted, which stamps the character of the tyrant, and which prepared its retribution in the training up at his OAvn court of the deliverer,¹³ who at length led out Israel, while

⁷ Perhaps sufficient notice has not been taken of the distinction between the generality of the language in Exodus i. 9,11, 12,14 ("he," and "his people," "they," " the Egyptians"), aud the individuality of the "Pharaoh" for whom "they built Pithom and Rameses" (v. 11); of the infanticide "King of Egypt" (ver. 15, IT, IS), and again of " Pharaoh" (ver. 19, 22). ⁸ Exodus i. 14.

⁹ Exodus i. 7-11. AA^re see a striking confirmation of this in the treaty of Rameses with the Hittite King (§ 8, above), which provides that—"If the subjects of King Rameses should come to the King of the Hittites, the King of the Hittites is not to receive them, but to force them to return to Rameses, the King of Egypt"—as if he knew that the one desire of the Semitic population was to escape from Egypt and join their brethren at home in their wars against the Pharaohs, or rather now to renew those wars.

¹⁰ See above, chap. v. § 17. ¹¹ Exodus i. 12> ¹² Exodus i. 14. ¹³ Dr. Brngsch holds that Moses was born abont the Gth year of Rameses IL He

considers the name to be Egyptian, from mas or vnasu (child).

OPPRESSION OF THE HEBREWS.

12.-.

Egypt was plagued in her turn and her first-born were slain.¹⁴

Critics who distrust the "unerring instinct," by which any reader of the Bible would identify Rameses II. (or at least some great Barneses) with the " Pharaoh " for whom " the children of Israel built treasure-cities, Pithom and Raam-se6-,"¹⁵have wasted much ingenuity in explaining away the coincidence of the names; but the question is now set at rest by the distinct testimony of Egyptian literature. Papyri of the time of Rameses II. give a glowing description of the chain of fortified cities which the hieroglyphics tell us that Per-aa for Phera-o¹⁶ erected from Pelusium to Heliopolis, and of which the principal two bore the names of Bhamses and Pachtum; both situated in the present Wady-Tumeilat, near the sweet-water canal that joined the Nile with the Red Sea. along the course of which we still find monuments bearing the name of Rameses II. One of these documents describes the reception of the king at the city of Rameses, in the tenth year of his reign.¹⁷ But this is not all. Hie very name of the Hebrews is officially recorded by their persecutors as the*builders of the city. In a papyrus preserved in the Museum of Leyden, the scribe Kautsir reports to his superior, the scribe Baken-phtha, that in compliance with his instructions he has " distributed the rations among the soldiers, and likewise among the Hebrews (Aberiou or Apuru) who carry the stones to the great city of King Rameses Mia-mux, the lover of truth, and who are under the orders of the captain of the police-soldiers, Ameneman. I distribute the food among them monthly, according to the excellent instructions which my lord has given me." Similar distinct indications of the people and their state of serfdom are found in another Leyden papyrus, and also in the long rock-inscription of Hamamat.™

§ 11. Nor was the condition of the native peasantry much better. Among the precious relics of Egyptian literature is a papyrus containing a correspondence between Ameneman, the chief librarian of Rameses II., and his pupil, the poet Pen-

¹⁴ The view that the oppression included the foreign populations of the Delta generally will help to account for the " mixed multitude," or, literally, "great mixture," that went up out of Egypt with the Israelites, and proved so troublesome in the wilderness (Exod. xii. 38; Numbers xi. 4).

¹⁵ Exod. i. 11. Let the reader remember that Rhamses is the Egyptian form : we have only adopted the more common Greek form Rameses for the sake of accentual euphony.

¹⁶ This title, which is usually derived from (Ph)ra (the Szm), Is explained by Brugsch as meaning high house. It is at all events an equivalent of " king."

¹⁷ This was 11 years before the end of his long war with the Hittites; whence wa may infer the object of these fortresses.

is Brugsch ; " Aus dem Orient," as quoted above.

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THE NEW THERAN MONARCHY.

taour. "Have you ever figured to yourself," says one of these letters," what is the life of the peasant who tills the land ? Even before he has reaped, the insects destroy a portion of his crop ; there are multitudes of rats in the fields; then come the flights of locusts, the beasts that ravage his harvest, the sparrows that settle in flocks upon his sheaves. If he is slow to get in what he has reaped, thieves come and take it from him: so his horse dies with fatigue in dragging the cart. The tax-gatherer arrives at the store-house of the district, having with him officers armed with sticks, and negroes armed w^Tith palm-branches. All cry, ' Give us your corn,' and he has no means of repelling their extortions. Then the Wretch is seized, bound, and carried off to forced labor at the canals : his wife is bound: his children are stripped of their all. During all this time his neighbors are each at his own work, unable to help, and fearing for his own turn." The Egyptian peasant under " the great " Rameses was no better off than the fellah under the Mameluke or Turk.

The mania of Rameses for building could not find an adequate supply of labor in Egypt, even in the myriads of captives that worked under the stick, bedewing every brick and stone with sweat and blood. So the system of slave-hunting was carried on to a vaster extent than ever; and nearly every year we find records of razzias into Soudan, bringing back thousands of negroes. Rameses II. appears also to have been the first king of Egypt who practised the system, afterwards so common with the Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors, of deporting whole tribes from one part of his dominions to another, settling negroes in Asia and Asiatics in Nubia.

§ 12. The works of Rameses in architecture and sculpture are found along the course of the Nile, from Tanis in the Delta to Napata,the capital of Ethiopia. There is scarcely a ruin or a colossal fragment that does not bear his mark; but, with characteristic arrogance, he often erased the names of his predecessors to substitute his own. Among his greatest buildings are the wonderful rock-hewn temples of Abou-sim-bel in Nubia; at Thebes the Rameseuni* (or Memnonium) at Kurneh, on the walls of which are the sculptured records of his reign ; and a large portion of the temple-palaces of Karnak and Luxor ; a small temple at Abydos; besides several works in the Fyum, and at Memphis, where he beautified the temple of Phtha, and at Tanis, which was a favorite residence of his family.

¹⁹ This is the edifice which Diodorus describes as the tomb of Osymandyas,

MENEPHTHA.

127

But the most characteristic of all his works are his colossal statues, for the most part portraits of himself. Such are-the four seated colossi, the largest of all in Egypt except the Sphinx, carved in the rock as the frontispiece to the great temple of Abou-simbel. Next in size was the colossus, of which the fallen fragments still mark the site of the temple of Phtha at Memphis.²⁰ The most beautiful was the statue, about 60 feet high, which adorned the great court of the Rameseum, and the bust of which was brought to England by Belzoni. Every visitor to the British Museum may admire the features, so finely chiselled, though of so huge a size, marked by an expression of dignity, with a cpiiet smile about the lips characteristic of the self-satisfied despot. As a portrait, it carries its own evidence, and strikingly resembles a small wooden statue of Rameses in the same room.

§ 13. In these works, the art of Egypt reached its climax, and began to show the first symptoms of decline. And so was it also with her power. The weakness produced by sixty years of despotism showed itself in the old age of Rameses II. The command of the Mediterranean had passed into the hands of the Pelasgo-Tyrrhenians, who were allied with a race of Japhetic settlers on the north coast of Africa, who had displaced the Hamite race of Phut. These were the Zebu or Bebu (Libyans) and Mashuash (Maxyes) of the Egyptian monuments, which also designate the confederates as 'Tamdhou (men of the north) and ^Tohennou (men of the mists). With them were also joined the people of Crete, Sicily, and Sardinia. Having begun to threaten the coasts of Egypt as early as the time of Seti I., their assaults had been repulsed by Rameses II., whose armies were recruited by prisoners taken from them ; but in his last years they renewed their attacks, and effected settlements in the west of the Delta. Under his successor we have the most vivid accounts of their ravages, as surpassing any thing that Egypt had suffered even in the time of the Shepherd Kings.

§ 14. This state of things, at the accession of Merenphtha or Menephtha,²¹ the 13th son of Rameses II., together with his conflict with Moses, will account for the fact that nearly all his monuments are found at Memphis; a fact which tends to identify him with the Pharaoh of the Exodus. At first,

²⁰ Its vast proportions may be estimated from the fist, in the British Museum, which measures 32 inches in length from the wrist to the knuckle of the middle linger, and 3fti inches in breadth. a cast of the head is also in the British Museum: it is less effective as a portrait than that from the Rameseum.

²¹ He is also called Seti Menephtha II. in contradistinction to his grandfather. Other readings of his name are Menphtha and Phthamen. In Manetho's list he is Ammenephthes, a form which passes into Amenophism an extract quoted from Manetho by Josephus, thus making a confusion with the Amen-hoteps of Dyu. XVIII.

128

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

indeed, the progress of the invaders, who took Ileliopolis and Memphis, and advanced as far as a town called Paari, in Middle Egypt, drove him for refuge to the Thebaid. Thence he dispatched an army under the generals of his father, which defeated the Libyans and their allies at Paari. An inscription records the losses of the several contingents. The mass of the invaders was driven out of Egypt; but lands were assigned to some bodies of them in the Delta.

The result of this campaign would naturally lead Menephtha to take up his residence in Lower Egypt, chiefly at Memphis, but sometimes also at Tanis, which, from its proximity to the land of Goshen, is the probable scene of his contest with Moses, when " Jehovah did wondrous things in the field of Zoan."²² Tt is, however, a mistake to suppose that Pharaoh himself perished in the lied Sea : the Scripture narrative declares only the destruction of his army. Menephtha survived the Exodus, the date of which is probably early in his reign, for many years, and was buried in his royal tomb, which is one of the most magnificent at Thebes. His reign, to which Manetho assigns 20 or (in Euseb.) 40 years, is known from the monuments to have lasted at least 30 years. But the state of Egypt in his later years, and after his death, confirms one striking expression in the Scripture: " Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?" The part of the land left vacant by the Israelites appears to have been occupied by a new invasion from the side of Palestine, the details of which, as quoted from Manetho by Josephus, are again obscured (like the story of the Shepherd Kings) by an attempt (this time on the part of his antagonist Philo) to connect it with the Exodus.

§ 15. The story is, that King Menophis, or Amenophis (but Menephtha, the "son of Rameses, is evidently meant), resolved to propitiate the gods by purging the land of all lepers and unclean persons, whom he banished to the eastern hills; but he afterwards gave them the city of Avaris, from which the Shepherds had been expelled. They numbered 80,000; and, from the leprous priests among them, they chose as their leader an apostate priest of Heliopolis, whose name of Osarseph was changed to Moses. He gave them new laws, bidding them to disregard the gods and sacrifice the sacred animals, and forbidding all intercourLe with the Egyptians. He fortified Avaris, and called in the aid of the expelled Shepherds, who heal settled at Jeruscdem, and who

²² Psalm lxxviii. 12, 43. All the circumstances of the narrative, and especially the point of departure of the Israelites, make it certain that the scene was in Lower Egypt For the story of the contest itself, and of the Exodus, the reader is referred to the " Student's O.T. History," chap. xi.

THE JEWISH EXODUS

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advanced to Avaris with an army of 200,000 men. The king of Egypt marched against them with 300,000 men, but returned to Memphis through fear of an ancient prophecy. He then fled to Ethiopia, whence he returned after an absence of 13 years, drove the rebels out of Egypt, and pursued them to the confines of Syria.

The key to the story seems to lie in the confusion, already mentioned, between Jerusalem (Kodesh, or Kadusha, the Holy) and the holy city of the Hittites, Kadesh on the Orontes. The truth seems to be that, the calamities attending the Exodus having left Lower Egypt in a state of confusion and of partial revolt, the KJieta seized the opportunity for an invasion, before which Menephtha fled to Thebes, sending his infant son, Seti, for safety, to Ethiopia.

§ 16. The monuments do not mention the invasion, any more than the Exodus; nor is it the custom of any nation to make monumental record of its disastrous defeats. But we learn from them that, on the death of Menephtha, and while his young son was still in Ethiopia,'a prince of the royal family, named Amexmneses (Ammenemnes, M.), assumed the crown at Chev (Aphroditopolis) in the Fyum, and soon recovered most of Egypt from the invaders. His son, who assumed the name of Merexphtha Siphtha,²³ sought to legitimate his power by marriage with the princess Taosiri, daughter of the late king Merenphtha; and her rights were formally acknowledged ; so that,*on the monuments, she takes precedence of her husband. The prince Seti was at first content with the rank of viceroy of Ethiopia (Roycd Son of Cush); but, as soon as he found himself strong enough, he marched down the Nile, took Thebes and Meinphis, and regained the throne as Seti II. The kings of Chev were now regarded as usurpers, and their names erased from the monuments ; but Amenmneses and Taosiri have a place in the lists of Manetho, the latter under the disguise of a king Thuoris, whom the Greek copyists identify With the Poly-bus of Homer, at the epoch of the fill of Troy.

Amidst these internal troubles, Egypt was manifestly in no state to interfere with Israel's conquest of Canaan, though a land which she regarded as her territory. On the contrary, some of the tribes that once obeyed her rose up, in their turn, to oppress Israel, in the time of the judges. But Egypt had not lost her hold on Syria and Mesopotamia, so long as she commanded the route along the maritime plain of Palestine; and this was the very portion of the Promised Land that Joshua was not strong enough to attack. The Nineteenth

²³ Also written Phthamen-se-Phtha. 0*

130

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

Dynasty ends with Seti II., having lasted, according to Manetho, 174 vears.

§ 17. Of the Twentieth Dynasty the List of Manetho only says that it consisted of twelve Diospolitan ^ (i. e. Theban) kings, who reigned 135 years, or, in the Armenian version of Eusebins, 172. Their names, now recovered from the monuments, show that they claimed descent from the great Rameses of the XlXth Dynasty, and adopted his name as an appellation of royalty, like that of Cmsar. The first of the line, Nekht-tkt (whom some call Seti III.), is followed by a series of kings, who are all called Rameses, as far as Rameses XII., and perhaps even farther. The line was ended by a sacerdotal usurpation.

The one great king of this dynasty was Rameses III., whose exploits threw a dying lustre over the last years in which Egypt had an empire ; but his campaigns, like those of the great Roman emperors, were essentially defensive. Their memorial is preserved in some of the most splendid of the Egyptian bas-reliefs, in the palace-temple of Medinet-Aboti, called the southern Rameseum.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson describes this edifice as " one of the most interesting monuments in Thebes, the battle-scenes most spirited, and the history of his campaigns most important, and if the style of the sculptures is not quite equal to those of Sethi I. and his son, their designs are full of spirit; . . . . but the change he made in the mode of sculpturing the figures and hieroglyphics seems to have been the prelude to the decadence of art."²⁴

Having been Viceroy of Lower Egypt at Heliopolis under his lather, Rameses was still young when he came to the throne. In his fifth year, Egypt was attacked on the northwestern side by the "Libyans, in league with the Tokari or Zakkaro, apparently a maritime people, but of doubtful locality. Their repulse is the subject of three great pictures at Medinet-Abou ; but the hieroglyphic text is obscure.

§ 18. A long and more intelligible inscription relates the most important of the king's campaigns, in which he^recov-ered the dominions of Thothmes III. and Seti I. in Western Asia. The maritime peoples of the Mediterranean, who had been repulsed from the western side of the Delta, seem to have chosen a new point of assault on the coast of Syria, and to have allied themselves to the Kheta. The leaders of the maritime invasion were the Zakkaro and the IvJiairetana or Shairetana, who are supposed to be the same as the Chert-thim or Cretans, a race allied to the Philistines.

^s* Iu Rawlinson's " Herod.," vol. ii. pp. 372-3,

TWENTIETH DYNASTY.—RAMESES III.

131

Rameses anticipated their attack by assailing them in detail, and the ensuing war occupies several large pictures. In the first, his departure from Thebes is accompanied by a grandiloquent description : "The king starts for the country of Tsahi (Ccele-Syria), like an image of the god Month, to trample under foot the nations that have violated his frontiers. His soldiers are like bulls charging flocks of sheep, his horses like hawks in a flock of small birds."

In the second scene, Rameses marches through several friendly countries, and in one place he traverses a mountainous and woody country, abounding in lions, probably a spur or advanced range of Lebanon. In Ccele-Syria he finds the Kheta and their allies in force; among the latter are the Phoenicians of Aradus, the people of Carchemish and the Kalti; but the Mesopotamians seem to have kept to their loyalty. He takes by escalade several fortified towns, some of them surrounded by water, and defended b)^r double walls; and finally defeats the enemy in a great battle in the valley of the Orontes. "I have blotted out," he says, "these nations and their country, as if they had never been."

He now turns to meet the maritime invaders, who had already disembarked, and are seen advancing along the coast in the guise of a migrating nation, their women and children carried in wagons drawn by oxen. They are composed of the Shai/etana and the Zebu (or Rebu), the Mashuash or Maxyes of Libya. Their utter defeat is followed by a calculation of the slain, represented by several heaps of hands, 12,500 in all, while the prisoners are drawn up in two lines, each of 1000 men. On the scene of his victory, the king erected a fort called " the Tower of Rameses;" and here, joined \>f his fleet, which " appeared upon the waters like a strong wall," he awaited the arrival of the next body of the foes by sea. These consisted principally of the Zakkaro, with whom were joined Libyans, Sicilians, Sardinians, Tyrrhenians, and (if we may trust the interpreters) Greeks from the Peloponnesus, called no longer Achfeans (as in the time of Menephtha),. but Danai. The sea-fight off the tower of Rameses forms one of the grandest bas-reliefs on the Egyptian monuments. The ships of Rameses, ornamented with a lion's head upon each prow, have shut in the enemy's fleet between themselves and the lofty shore, whence the soldiers, commanded by the king himself, hurl showers of missiles.²⁵ In a long inscription Rameses vaunts the prowess of his sol-

²⁵ The naval battle which is thus depicted before our eyes must be dated between 500 and GOO years earlier than the sea-fight between the Corinthians and Coreyraeans. which the Greek historians considered as the first on record.

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THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

diers ; and especially his own : as for his enemies, " they will reap no more harvests in this world; the time of their soul is counted in eternity."

But the war was followed by an arrangement disastrous for the power of Egypt. The prisoners taken in the first victory, chiefly of Philistine race, were settled in the maritime plain of Palestine, where this new population aided the rise of the confederacy which soon gained power as the Egyptians lost theirs. The bas-reliefs of Medinet-Abou represent other campaigns of Rameses in Asia and Africa, and an inscription records the tribute brought to him by the people of the south and other regions: vessels of gold and silver, bags of gold-dust, objects made of various metals, lapis-lazuli, and all sorts of precious stones. The deposit of all this wealth in his treasury at Thebes reminds us of the curious story of Herodotus about the treasury of Rhampsinitus and the cleverest of all thieves.²⁶ The vast subterranean tomb of Rameses III. is one of the finest in the Biban-el-Molook at Thebes.

§ 19. Rameses IV. seems to have succeeded to the full power of his father, and to have died without leaving a son. Then follow at least three younger sons of Rameses HI., all bearing the same name, not without indications of rivalry and of partitions of the kingdom.

Rameses VIII., whose descent is traced by a different line from Amunopb I., appears to have restored the unity of Egypt, and to have maintained her foreign empire. He made some additions to the great temple at Karnak, and we have historical papyri of his reign. His face, conspicuous for the high bridge of the nose, furnishes one of the most decisive proofs that the effigies of the Egyptian kings are real portraits.

He is followed by a succession of other Rameses (some say six or even more), of whom we know little more than of the long evanescent line of kings shown in vision to Macbeth ; and with them the empire of Egypt recedes to a vanishing-point. She succumbed to the inherent weakness of all despotisms, and even her foreign conquests hastened her decay. Asia revenged herself by inroads upon that exclusive nationality which was Egypt's strength. Semitic words had appeared in her language, foreign gods in her inaccessible sanctuaries. And now the sacerdotal power attempted to restore itself on the ruins of the royal authority that hnd held it in check. Strong in their corporate character and their hereditary functions, the high-priests of Ammon,

26 Herod, ii. 121.

PRIEST-KINGS.

133

after assuming all the civil and military offices of the kingdom, ended by usurping the crown. But the process was long and gradual. As Tate as the time of Rameses XII. Ave find Mesopotamia still tributary to Egypt, as is seen by a curious tale recorded on a stela found at Thebes, some incidents of which have a resemblance to points of Scripture history.

While passing through Mesopotamia, to collect his tribute, the king was captivated by the beauty of a chief's daughter, and married her. Some time afterwards, in the fifteenth year of Rameses, the chieftain came to Thebes, to ask the services of one of the king's physicians for his younger daughter, who was possessed by an evil spirit. This spirit proved stronger than the physician; and eleven years later the father made another journey to Thebes, to seek more effectual aid from the gods of Egypt. The king granted him the use of the ark of the goS'Chons, which reached Mesopotamia after a journey of eighteen months; and the desired cure was at once wrought. Bnt the Mesopotamian prince was unwilling to part with so potent a talisman, till, after three years and three quarters, a dream, in which he saw the god fly back to Egypt, in the form of a golden hawk, showed that he could not retain him against his will. So the ark was sent back to Egypt, in the thirty-third year of the reign of Rameses. The whole tenor of the story shows how loosely the authority of Rameses sat upon his Mesopotamian vassal.

§ 20. In fact, we have now reached the period when the Assyrian monarchy of Nineveh, established since the beginning of the fourteenth century b.c, was consolidating itself behind the Euphrates, though"not yet strong enough to pass that boundary; while, nearer home, the Philistines had barred the great military road to Asia, and for a time obtained the mastery which Egypt had once held in Canaan. It was at this epoch, when Egypt was thrown back within her natural limits, that the high-priest of Amnion, at Thebes, Her-Hor, "the supreme Horns,''assumed the crown of the Pharaohs. To establish his power at home, it seems that the new ruler gave up all claim to dominion in Asia, as the price of an alliance with the power now ruling at Nineveh. Hence, probably, the Assyrian names which we find in his family and the following dynasty. After his death, the old line of Thebes appears to have regained power for a time ; and Piankh (or Pionkh), the son of-Her-Hor, bears only the title of high-priest. But the royal title revives with his son, Pinetsem: I. (or Pisham), and is continued through several generations of priest-kinos, who also appear as the heads of the military class, by the title of " Commander of the Soldiers" (or

134

THE NEW THEBAN MONARCHY.

"Archers "). The power of the new line was legitimated by a marriage with the princess Isi-em- Chev, a descendant of the competitors of Seti II., and the house and name of the Rameses finally disappears.

It has been doubted whether these priest-kings formed the Twenty-first (Tanite) Dynasty of .Manetho, or whether the latter was one of the old rival houses of Lower Egypt, which seized the opportunity of the troubles attending the fall of the Theban line to establish itself at Tanis. In favor of the former hypothesis is the resemblance of the names of Her-Hor, Piankh, and Pinetsem, to Osochor, Psinaches, and Psouennes, who stand in Manetho's list as the last three of the seven kings of the tw^Tenty-first dynasty. Perhaps we may reconcile the two vieAvs by supposing that the priest-kings obtained a place in the Tanite dynasty by marriage ; and this adoption of the claims of a monarchy in LoAver Egypt, together with their Assyrian alliance, would confirm their power against the legitimate Theban line.

An Egyptian Archer carrying spare Arrows.

Allies of the Egyptians.

CHAPTER VII.

NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA AND THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY -DYNASTIES XXI.-XXV.—B.C. 1100 (AB0UT)-664.

§ 1. Twenty-first Dynasty. Transfer of the capital from Thebes to Tanis. Convergence of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Jewish history. Alliance of a Tanite king with Solomon. Commerce'between Egypt and Judaea. § 2. Origin of Tanis or Zoan, the Avaris of the Shepherds. Connection of Zoan and Hebron. §3. Site of Tanis, the "field of Zoan." Its value as a fortress. § 4. Tanis as a residence of the Theban kings. The capital of the XXIst and XXIIId dynasties. Decline. § 5. The ruins and plain of San. Researches of M. Mariette. § G. The Twenty-second (Bubastite) Dynasty. Military adventurers of Assyrian origin. § 7. Bubastis, the sacred city of Pasht. Temple and festival of Bubastis. § 8. Its ruins at Tel-Bas-ta. § 9. SniisnoNK I., the Shisuak of Scripture. Protects Jeroboam. Conquers Rehoboam and makes Judah tributary. Name of Judah on his monuments. Narrow limits of his conquests. Osorohon I. Question involved iu the defeat of Ze-rah, the Ethiopian, by Asa, King of Judah. Kingdom of Napata. Priests of the Bubastite house. § 10. Twenty-third (Tanite) Dynasty. Rival Kings of Lower and Middle Egypt. Invasion of the Ethiopian Piankh. Tnephachthus, of Sais. His curse on Menes. § 11. Bokenkanf or Bocchokis, sole king of the Twenty-fourth (Salte) Dynasty. Greek traditions of his character. He is conquered and burnt alive by Sabaco, the Ethiopian. § 12. The Twenty-fifth (Ethiopian) Dynasty. Account of Ethiopia. MeroG. Napata. Its wealth. Ruins of Jebel-Berkel. § 13. Ethiopia under the Egyptian rule. Kingdom of Napata. Affinity of the two states. Limited effect of the Ethiopian conqnest. § 14. The kings of the XXVth dynasty. Sabaco I. aids Hoshea, King of Israel. Capture of Samaria by Sargon. Conqnest of Syria claimed by Sabaco. Assyrian account; Sargon's victory at Raphia; defeat and flight of Sabaco. § 15. Sabaoo II. Sargon's mention of a "Pharaoh." War of Ashdod. The "King of Ethiopia" makes peace with Sargon. § 16. Sennacherib^ Jewish campaign. His victory at Altakn. State of Egypt at this time. Destruction of Sennacherib's army. Egyptian version of the miracle: The priest-kin^ Setuos of Herodotus. § 17. Tak-haka or Tiruakau. His conquests compared with those of Sesostkis. Long and fluctuating conflict

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NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA.

with Assyria. New light from the Assyrian annals. § IS. His son Rotmen driven out by Asshur-bani-pal. Disastrous invasion of Egypt. Sack of Thebes. § 19. Prophecies of Isaiah and Nahum. § 20. New invasion and retirement of the Ethiopian Amen-meri-Nout. Retirement both of the Assyrians and the Ethiopians.

§ 1. The transfer of the sceptre, under the Twenty-first Dynasty, from Thebes to Taxis, the new capital of Lower Egypt, forms an epoch of great importance. The separate currents of the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Jewish annals now converge into the stream of universal history; and Ave at length obtain a basis of chronology.

During the decline of Egypt, and before Assyrian conquests Avere carried Avest of the Euphrates, the newly-founded kingdom of Israel had fought out its hard conflict with the Philistines; and David, having subdued his enemies on every side, left to his son,Solomon (the "peaceful"), a real empire, the greatest at this time in Western Asia, occupying the region promised to Abraham,

"From the bordering flood Of old Euphrates to the stream that parts Egypt from Syrian ground."

The building of Solomon's temple, on the hill of Jerusalem, recovered by David from the Jebusites, marks a fixed epoch in chronology—the millennium before the birth of Christ.¹ Now, in the early part of his reign, Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married his daughter,² and since Ave shall presently find, by the double testimony of Scripture and the monuments, Shishak, the first King of the 22d dynasty, harboring the enemies of Solomon and invading Judah under Rehoboam, it follows, almost to demonstration, that the ally of Solomon Avas one of the last kings of the 21st dynasty. The presentation by Pharaoh to his daughter of the site of Gezar, between Jaffa and Jerusalem, which he had taken from the Canaanites and destroyed, and which Solomon rebuilt and fortified,³ seems to indicate, first, that the kings of Egypt had recovered their hold upon the route to Asia by the maritime plain, and, secondly, that this last remnant of their sovereignty over Palestine audits neighborhood Avas now surrendered as the price of Solomon's alliance.

The protection involved in that sovereignty had been ex-

¹ The Epoch of the Destruction of the Temple by-Nebuchadnezzar is fixed so accurately, by a concurrence of proofs from sacred aud secular history, that the limits of doubt lie within two years, between is.o. 5SS and 5SI5; and the Babylonian Canon decides for the latter date. Reckoning backward by the Jewish annals, Ave have a margin of ouly fifteen years of doubt in the period fr«uv the building of the Temple to its destruction. The highest date for the former is n.o. 1027 : the received dates are n.o. 1005 for its completion, u.o. 1012 for its commencement, and u.o. 1015 for tha accession of Solomon.

² 1 Kings iii. 1; vii. 8; ix. 24. a ₁ Kings ix. 15-17.

ORIGIN OF TANIS.

137

ereised during the reign of David, in the case of Hadad, an Edomite prince, who had been carried as an infant to Egypt, after escaping from the massacre of Joab, and had received in marriage the sister of Tahpenes, the queen of Pharaoh.⁴ The total silence of Scripture about the history and state of Egypt from the Exodus to the time of Solomon proves at least the absence of active hostility ; and Solomon carried on a steady commerce with Egypt in linen yarn, and in horses and chariots: the latter he not only imported for his own use, but sold them to the kings of tlie Hittites and of Syria. The price of a chariot, as it came from Egypt, was 600 silver shekels, and of each horse 150 shekels.⁵ We may well pause to notice the change from the time when the Theban kings fought against the chariots of the Hittites and their Syrian allies, to that when these nations were supplied with chariots from Egypt through the medium of a great commercial empire founded by a people once her slaves. The old maritime power of Egypt, both in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which had long declined or ceased, was now superseded by the commerce carried on by the fleets of Solomon, in conjunction with those of Tyre, from the ports of Joppa on the one side, and of Elath and Ezion-Geber on the other.

§ 2. The revival of a monarchy of Lower Egypt at Tanis, rather than at Memphis, may be easily accounted for by the importance which the former city had acquired under the Shepherds and the kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties. Taxis is the Greek form of the Semitic name Zoan (in modern Arabic Sun), which signifies & place of removal, doubtless as being the point of departure for caravans on the eastern frontier. This sense is confirmed by the Egyptian name HA-AWAR or PA-AWAR (house of going forth or departure), the Avaris (Ouapig) of Manetho's story of the Shepherd Kings. The Scripture has assigned its date with a precision such as few of the oldest cities of the world can claim : " Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt."⁰ This statement shows a knowledge of the origin of both cities, which was most probably derived from the residence of Abraham at Hebron (then Kirjath-Arha, the City ofArba,& name curiously like Awar); and the two cities would hardly have been thus compared had there not been some connection in

⁴ 1 Kings xi. 14-22. As the name of Tahpencs has not been found on the monuments, we can not identify this Pharaoh. The relnctance with which Pharaoh allowed Hadad to return to Edom may have been a tribute to the obligations of the alliance with Solomon ; but it is not clear whether this Pharaoh was the last of the Tanites, or Shishak, the first of the 22d dynasty, who protected Jeroboam against Solomon. See further in the " Diet, of the Bible," «. v. Tahpenes.

⁵ 1 Kings x. 2S, 29. At the value of 3s. for the shekel, each chariot would cost £00, and each horse £22 10s. 6 Numbers xiii. 22.

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NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA.

their origin. Now Hebron was under the rule of the Anakim; who were of the old warlike Palestinian race that long dominated over the southern Canaanites. The Shepherds who built Avaris were apparently of the Phoenician stock, which was referred to the same race. Hebron was already built in Abraham's time, and the Shepherd invasion may be dated about the same period. Hence, whether or not, as Manetho states, some older village or city was succeeded by Avaris, its building and fortification by the Shepherd Kings forms the t rue'beginning of the history of the city of Tanis.

§ 3. Its site was admirably chosen for their great fortress.⁷ Like the other principal cities of this tract—Pelu-sium, Bubastis, and Heliopolis—it lay on the east bank ot the river, towards Syria. Its ruins are situate in 31° N. latitude and 31° o E. longitude, on the eastern bank of the canal which was formerly the Tanitic branch of the Nile. Anciently a rich plain extended due east as far as Pelusium, about 30 miles distant, gradually narrowing towards the east, so that in a direction S.E. from Tanis it was not more than half this breadth. The whole of this plain was known as the fields or plains, the marshes or pasturedands (JJucolia). Anciently, it was rich marsh-land, watered by four of the seven branches of the Nile, and swept by the cool breezes of the Mediterranean ; but, through the subsidence of the coast, it is now almost covered by the great lake Menzxdeh.

The city, lying outside of the main line of defense along the Nile, afforded a protection to the cultivated lands to the east, and an obstacle to an invader; while to retreat from it was always possible, as long as the Egyptians held the river. But Tanis was too far inland to be properly the frontier fortress. It was near enough to be the place of departure for caravans—perhaps it was the last town in the Shepherd-period—but not near enough to command the entrance of Egypt. Pelusium lay upon the great road to Palestine—it has been, until lately, placed too far north—and the plain was here narrow from north to south, so that no invader could safely pass the fortress; but it soon became broader, and, by turning in a south-westerly direction, an advancing enemy would leave Tanis far to the northward, and a bold general would detach a force to. keep its garrison in check, and

⁷ Mr. Poole, whose account of Tanis we mainly follow (" Diet, of the Bible," art. Zoan), points out the caution with which Manetho's statement of the policy of the Shepherds must be received : "Throughout, we trace the influence of the pride that made the Egyptians hate, and aflfect to despise, the Shepherds above all their conquerors, except the Persians. The motive of Salatis (in building Avaris) is not to overawe Egypt, bnt to keep out the Assyrians: not to terrify the natives, but these foreigners, who, if other history be correct, did not then form an important state."

TANIS A RESIDENCE OF THE THEBAN KINGS. 139

march upon Heliopolis and Memphis. An enormous standing militia, settled in the Bacolia, as the Egyptian militia afterwards was in the neighboring tracts of the Delta, and with its head-quarters at Tanis, would overawe Egypt, and secure a retreat in case of disaster, besides maintaining hold of some of the most productive land in the country ; and mainly for the two former objects we believe Avaris to have been fortified.

§ 4. After the expulsion of the Shepherds, Tanis would naturally continue of importance to the kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties, both for their maritime operations in the Mediterranean and for their expeditions into Asia. "Although Thebes continued to be the place in which the splendor of the monarchy was chiefly displayed, and where the sovereigns held their court during intervals of peace, they must have needed a residence in that part of Lower Egypt which was nearest to the scene of their most important operations. That it should be at the same time not very distant from the sea was also necessary..... And, as the

eastern branches of the Nile one afte/another became silted up, it is probable that even in this age the Pelusiac mouth may have been too shallow to admit ships of war."⁸

We have seen that Tanis received the special care of Rameses II., and that "the held of Zoan" was the scene of his son's contest with God's prophet.⁹ It is well worthy of remark that the season of the plagues and Exodus (the beginning of harvest, at the vernal equinox) was the very time of the year at which the Shepherd Kings were wont to visit their armies at Avaris. The custom may have been kept up ; and thus Menephtha would have had his frontier militia ready for the pursuit of the Israelites. The position of Tanis would be alike valuable in the naval and Asiatic wars of Rameses III., and for the commerce carried on with Solomon by the XXIst dynasty, which at length made it the capital of Egypt.

That dignity was transferred to Bubastis under the XXIId dynasty, whose abolition of the worship of Set or Soutekh must have given a great blow to Tanis ; and it may have been a religious war that re-established the latter as the capital of the XXIIId dynasty. In this position it appears in the contemporary Hebrew prophecies. " The princes of Zoan, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh," are named by Isaiah before " the princes of JSToph " (Memphis).¹⁰ At a later time

⁸ Kenrick, " Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 341.

⁹ Psalm lxxviii. 12, 43: where the word field may mean territory, name, or even kinadom.

¹⁰ Isaiah, xix. 11,13; comp. xxx. 4, where Mr. Poole takes Hanea for Tahpanhcr, (Daphme) not Heracleopolis.

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NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA.

Ezekiel predicts the destruction of Zoan by fire as a consequence of the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar;¹¹ but long before this blow the capital had been transferred to Sais under the XXIVth dynasty. In the time of Strabo Tanis was still a large town, the capital of a nome ;¹² in the age of Titus it was a small place.¹³

§ 5. The site of this ancient capital is described by Sir Gardner Wilkinson as " remarkable for the height and extent of its mounds, which are upward of a mile from N. to S., and nearly three-quarters of a mile from E. to W. The area in which the sacred inclosure of the temple stood is about 1500 feet by 1250, surrounded by mounds of fallen houses. The temple was adorned by Rameses II. with numerous obelisks and most of it sculptures. It is very ruinous, but its remains prove its former grandeur. The number of its obelisks, ten or twelve, all now fallen, is unequalled, and the labor of transporting them from Syene shows the lavish magnificence of the Egyptian kings. The oldest name found here is that of Sesertesen III. of the Xllth dynasty; the latest that of Tirhakah. The plain of San is very extensive, but thinly inhabited : no village exists in the immediate vicinity of the ancient Tanis ; and, when looking from the mounds of this once splendid city towards the distant palms of indistinct villages, we perceive the desolation spread around it. 'The field of Zoan' is now a barren waste: a canal passes through it without being able to fertilize the soil; ' fire ' has been ' set in Zoan ;' and one of the principal capitals or royal abodes of the Pharaohs is now the habitation of fishermen, the resort of wild beasts, and infested with reptiles and malignant fevers." Its desolation and nnhealthi-ness caused it to be neglected by explorers, till the task was undertaken by M. Mariette, whose researches have' already thrown immense light on the history of the Shepherd Kings.

§ 6. The same indefatigable explorer has recovered, from the Apis-steke and the Serapeum at Memphis, the true order of the nine kings whom Manetho assigns to the 7\centy-sec-ond Dynasty, of Bubastis. With one exception (Iler-sha-se£),they all bear the distinctly Assyrian names of Sheshonk, Osorchon (the same as Sargon), and Tiklat or Tiglath or Takeloth (Tigulti in pure Assyrian).¹⁴ They were a military dynasty, sprung (like the Mamelukes) from the king's body-guard ; and the history of their accession is now known from the monuments. A certain officer named Sargon, who was posted at Bubastis, being already allied by marriage to

ii Ezek. xxx. 14. ^J2 Strabo, xvii. p. S02. 1³ Joseph." Bell. Jud." iv. 11.

1⁴ This is said to be identical with the old Assyrian name of the river Tigris.

BUBASTIS.

141

the royal sacerdotal line of Her-Hor, appears to have married the daughter of the last king of the XXIst dynasty. Their son, Sheshonk, having been adopted by his grandfather, became at first regent, and afterwards king.

§ 7. Bubastis (or Bubastus), the seat of the new dynasty, was the sacred city of the goddess by whose name simply it is usually denoted in the hieroglyphics, I3A-HEST or BAST.¹⁵ This goddess was the same as Pasht, the goddess of fire. The cat was sacred to her, and she is represented by a lion-headed figure: eats were buried at Bubastis. The Greeks identified her with Artemis,¹⁶ whence her rock-hewn temple near Beni-hassan was called Speos Artemiclos (the Cave of Artemis) ; and her oracle at Bubastis was very popular with the Greek visitors to Egypt. Though the city was so ancient that Manetho mentions it as the scene of a most destructive earthquake in the time of Boethus, or Bochus, the first king of the Second Dynasty, it does not appear in history till the accession of the Twenty-second Dynasty, whose foreign origin and policy accounts for their choice of it as their eapital.

Bubastis was situate about half-way up the Pelusiac or Bubastite branch of the Nile, on the route of an invader marching from the East against Heliopolis and Memphis, and a little below the mouth of the Red Sea canal.¹⁷ The city seems to have reached the height of its prosperity shortly before the Persian Invasion ; and Iierodotus takes pains to describe it.¹⁸ It was raised, he says, more than any other city above the inundation by the embankments constructed, first by those who dug the canals in the time of Sesostris, and afterwards by the criminals whom the Ethiopian Sabaco condemned to this sort of labor. Of the temple of" Bubastis "as he calls the goddess, he says, " Other temples maybe grander, and may have cost more in the building, but there is none so pleasant to the eye as this of Bubastis. . . . Excepting the entrance, the whole forms an island. Two artificial channels from the Nile, one on either side of the temple, encompass the building, leaving only a narrow passage by which it is approached. These channels arc each a hundred feet wide, and are thickly shaded with trees. The gateway is sixty feet in height, and is ornamented with figures put upon the stone, six cubits high and well worthy of notice.

¹⁵ Also with the prefix HA-BAHEST, which appears to have been the sacred form. It seems to have been by prefixing the mascnline definite article that the name became PA-BAHEST the (city) of Pasht, whence the Hebrew Pi-beseth (Ezek. xxx. IT: Bou/3a<rTor LXX.), the Coptic Pi-Bast, Poubast, Pouasti, Bouasti, and the Greek aud Latin Bubastis (Boiz/Wti?, Herod.), or Bubastus (Bcm''/3u<tto?, Strabo, Diod., Plin., Ptol.). There 13 a similar variety in the name of HA-HESAR, the Coptic Bousiri and Pousiri, aud the Greek aud Latin liov<n_P^. Busiris.

¹⁶ Herod, ii. 137. ¹⁷ Herod, ii. 15S. ¹⁸ Herod, ii. 137,138.

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The temple stands in the middle of the city, and is visible on all sides as one walks round it; for, as the city has been raised up by embankment, while the temple has been left untouched in its original condition, you look down upon it wheresoever you are. A low wall runs round the Enclosure, having figures engraved upon it, and inside there is a grove of beautiful tall trees growing round the shrine which contains the image of the goddess. The inclosure is a furlong in length and the same in breadth. The entrance to it is by a road paved with stone for a distance of about three furlongs, which passes straight through the market-place, with an easterly direction, and is 400 feet in width. Trees of an extraordinary height grow on each side the road, which conducts from the temple of Bubastis to that of Hermes."

In another passage¹⁹ he describes the festival of Bubastis as the best attended of all the yearly local feasts of Egypt; the proceedings being as follows: " Men and women come sailing all together, vast numbers in each boat, many of the women with "castanets, which they strike, while some of the men pipe during the whole time of the voyage ; the remainder of the voyagers, male and female, sing the while, and make a clapping with their hands. "When they arrive opposite any of the towns upon the banks of the stream, they approach the shore, and, while some of the women continue to play and sing, others call aloud to the females of the place and load them with abuse, while a certain number dance, and some standing up uncover themselves. After proceeding in this way all along the river-course, they reach Bubastis, where they celebrate the feast with abundant sacrifices. More grape-wine²⁰ is consumed at this festival than in all the rest of the year besides. The number of those who attend, counting only the men and women, and omitting the children, amounts according to the native reports to 700,000."

§ 8. The great"mounds of Tel-Basta (the hill of Pasht) confirm the "description of Herodotus: "The height of the mound, the site of the temple in a low space beneath the houses, from which you look down upon it, are the very peculiarities any one would remark on visiting the remains at Tel-Basta. The street which Herodotus mentions as leading to the temple of Mercury is quite apparent, and his length of three stadia falls short of its real length, which is 2250 feet. On the way is the square he speaks of, 900 feet from the temple of Pasht, and apparently 200 feet broad, though now much reduced in size by the fallen materials of

'9 Herod, ii.5'.), 00.

-'•»-' In contradistinction to barley-wine, which was largely made in. Egypt.

SI1ESII0NK I.

113

the houses that surrounded it. Some fallen blocks mark the position of the temple of Mercury ; but the remains of that of Pasht are rather more extensive, and show that it measured about 500 feet iu length. We may readily credit the assertion of Herodotus respecting its beauty, since the whole was of the finest red granite, and was surrounded by a sacred inelosure about 600 feet square (agreeing with the stadium of Herodotus), beyond which was a larger circuit, measuring 940 feet by 1200, containing the minor one and the canal he mentions, and once planted, like the other, with a grove of trees. In this perhaps was the usual lake belonging to the temple. Among the sculptures are the names of a goddess (who may be either Pasht or Buto), and of Re-meses II., of Osorkon I., and of Amyrtams (?) ; and as the two first kings reigned long before the visit of Herodotus, we know that the temple was the one he saw. The columns of the vestibule had capitals representing the buds of water-plants, but near the old branch of the river (the modern canal of Moez) is another column with a palm-tree capital, said to have been taken from this temple, which has the names of Remeses II. and Osorkon I. Amidst the houses on the north-west side are the thick walls of a fort, which protected the temple below ; and to the east of the town is a large open space, inclosed by a wall now converted into mounds."²¹ The two royal names found upon these remains afford another proof of the care of Rameses H. for the cities of Lower Egypt, and also connect the temple of Bubastis with the Twenty-second Dynasty.

§ 9. We now meet with one of the most important synchronisms between sacred and.secular history. Siiesiioxk I., the first Pharaoh icho is mentioned in Scripture by his personal name, is also the first on whose monuments we read the name of the Jewish kingdom. A new military dynasty of Asiatic origin would naturally revive the claim of Egypt to suzerainty over Palestine ; and opportunities were offered by the declining power of Solomon and the weakness of his headstrong son. Eirst, we find Pharaoh permitting the return of the Edomite prince, Hadad, to reclaim his birthright.²² Next, Jeroboam, flying for his life from Solomon, is received by the king of Egypt, whose name Shishak (i. e. Sheshonk) b now expressly mentioned ;²³ and he starts from Egypt at the invitation of the ten tribes.²⁴ That he returned as a vassal of Egypt, is a fact implied in his being allowed to depart,

²¹ Sir G. Wilkinson's Xote to Herod, ii. loS, Rawlinson.

²² 1 Kings xi. 14-22. ²³ 1 Kings xi. 40.

²⁴1 Kings x4i. 2, 3; 2 Chron. x. 2, 3. Hence it appears that Jeroboam's rebellion involved the gnilt so constantly denounced by the prophets as "looking back to

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NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA.

and confirmed by his setting up the worship of the Egyptian gods at the two ends of his kingdom.²⁵ This by no means involved hostilities between Egypt and Judah, except, perhaps, in the case of the latter attacking Israel—an attempt contemplated by the headstrong Rehoboam, but forbidden by a prophet.²⁶

*It was not till Rehoboam proved his resolution to reject the friendship as well as the suzerainty of Egypt by fortifying and garrisoning the cities of southern Judah, and even of the maritime plain,²⁷ that Shishak marched against him, in the fifth year of his reign,²⁸ with 1200 war-chariots, 60,000 cavalry, and an immense body of infantry, composed of Libyans (Lubim), Sukkiim, and Ethiopians.²⁹ After reducing the newly fortified places, Shishak advanced to Jerusalem, where, under the direction of the prophet, Rehoboam and the princes of Judah made unreserved submisflp5n ;³⁰ and Shishak, entering the city, carried off the treasures of the temple, and the golden shields dedicated by Solomon. It is quite in accordance with the policy of Egypt towards her vassals that Rehoboam, having made this submission, "strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned," while "in Judah things went well;" and that Pharaoh abstained from interference during his unceasing war with Jeroboam.³¹ Such is the history in the Jewish records: now let us turn to the Egyptian.

In a great bas-relief on the outer wall of thehypostyle hall of Karnak, a Pharaoh, with his name appended—Amunmai (or Micumini) S/ieshonk^S2—depicted, as usual, of gigantic size, stands before the god Amun-re, who with one hand holds out to him a seimiter, and with the other leads up, by cords passed round their necks, five rows of bound figures, emblematic of conquered cities: for each figure is covered (except the head) by an embattled shield, inscribed with its name. There are thirteen shields in each row, making 65; and on the same wall a goddess holds, in like manner, four cords,

Egypt," "going down for aid to Egypt," and so forth; and thns the schismatic kingdom of Israel was tainted from its origin with vassalage to Egypt.

²⁵ 1 Kings xii. 2S, 29; 2 Chron. xi. 15. ²⁶ 1 Kings xii. 21-24; 2 Chron. xi. 1-1.

²⁷ 2 Chron. xi 5-12. ²« 1 Kings xiv. 25, 2G; n.c. 971 of the received -chronology.

²⁹ 2 Chron. xii. 2 seq. The Sukkiim seem to have been the Troglodyte; (cave-choe.llers) on the W. shore of the Red Sea, where there was a town called Suche, probably the modern SvaJcin (PIin. " H. N." vi. 34). They were skillful sliugers, and very useful as light troops (Heliod. "^Eth." viii. 10). Kenrick, " Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 34S, note.

^3C The words in 2 Chron. xii. S clearly imply a state oT vassalage—" Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know (the difference between) my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.'"

³¹ 1 Kings xiv. 30; xv. G.

³² Here we see Sheshonk using tlie surname of Rameses II., " beloved of Amnion," but only as a praeuomen.

OSORCHOX I,

with 17 shields attached to each ; in all 113 shields. The first of the rows is distinguished by the lotus, the symbol of the south; the second by the papyrus, the symbol of the north. Several of the shields refer to Ethiopia and Libya, countries of which Shishak was master, since their people inarched with him against Rehoboam. Among the rest are a large number of cities of Judah, well-known from Scripture; confirming the statement that Shishak "took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah."³³ The most important figure bears the inscription "Jeiiouada-Malek," with the usuaf character for land. The identification is equally clear, whether we read the phrase, with some, " the Land of the King of Judah," or, with others, " Judah the royal (city) of the land'"

There is no reason to believe that Sheshonk's expedition extended beyond Judah. The Assyrian kingdom was now fully established; and the smaller but powerful Syrian kingdom had lately been established by Rezon at Damascus/*⁴ In spite of the parade he has made of his conquests " in the long list of places, amounting to more than thirty times the number of those previously recorded by the o-Veat Egyptian conquerors, they have not," as Wilkinson observes, " the same importance, from the mention of large districts, as the * oldest lists; and none of these conquests, on which the older Pharaohs justly prided themselves, arc here mentioned. We look in vain for Carchemish, Xaharayn, or the Rot-h-?io."^3b Manetho assigns 21 years to Sesonchis; and a stele of his 21st year records his excavations in the quarries at Silsilis for buildings at Thebes. Bunsen suggests his identification with the Asychis (Sasychis in Diodorus), whom Herodotus celebrates as a wise legislator, as well as conqueror—the author of the law by which a debtor could pledge his father's body and his family sepulchre, as a security certain to be redeemed.

The obscure reign of Osorchox I. (Sargon in Assyrian), son of Sheshonk I., whose 11th year is found on the monu-ments,³⁶ involves one point of much interest. From the Second Book of Chronicles we find that, for the space of a generation after the conquest by Shishak, the kingdom of Judah waxed stronger and stronger, and inflicted severe defeats on Israel, under Rehoboam, Abijah, and especially under Asa, who restored the fortresses of Judah, and maintained an army (according to the received text) of 580,000 men—all without any interference from Egypt. Bnt now " there came

³³ 2 Chron. xii. 4. - 34 i Kings xi. 23-25.

³⁵ Append, to Herod., Rook IT., in Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. 377.

³⁶ Manetho gives him fifteen years. The name, Osorthon, is repeated in the Twenty-third dynastv in the more correct form, Osorchon.

7

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NEW KINGDOMS IN THE DELTA.

out against them Zerah (Zerach) the Cushite (or Mhiopian\ with a host of a million, and 300 chariots;" and over him Asa gained a most complete victory in the valley of Zapathah at Mareshah, near the later Eleutheropolis.³⁷ This was in, or immediately before, the 15th year of Asa (b.c. 941, received chronology),³⁸ exactly 30 years after the invasion of Shishak, and consequently, by an easy calculation from the years assigned to Shishak and Osorchon, about the end of the reign of the latter.

Considering the absence of any sign of an invasion of Egypt from Ethiopia at this time, and the fact that Zerah's army was composed, like that of Shishak, of" Ethiopians and Lubim,"³⁹ whence he himself also might be called an Ethiopian, especially at the late period when the Chronicles were written—on these grounds, and a sufficient likeness in the names, Ewald and "some Egyptologers identify Zerach with Osorchon I. Others believe that there was at this time a real invasion of Egypt by Azerch-Amen, ruler of the Ethiopian kingdom of Napata, whose overthrow by Asa involved also the Toss of Egypt and his retreat into his own country.⁴⁰ The question requires further light. Thus much, however, seems clear, that while the Tanite and Bubastite dynasties established their power over Egypt, the priests of the line of Her-Hor retired to Ethiopia, and founded the purely sacerdotal kingdom of Xapata, with an oracle of Amnion in rivalry with that of Thebes. While, however, they claimed to have transferred the legitimate rights of the priesthood to their new capital, we find its functions exercised by members of the royal house of Bubastis, named Sheshonk and Osorchon, and bearing the old title of "captain of the archers" besides that of "priest."

§ 10. The sacerdotal monarchy of Xapata would, of course, watch every opportunity for recovering Egypt ; and recent discoveries nave shown that they had a party in Thebes. The later years of the 22d dynasty, and the time of the twenty-third (Tanite) Dynasty, which succeeded it, appear to have been a time of constant trouble and internal division.

³" 2 Chron. xiv. 9-13. The numbers of the received text are not to be trusted.

³⁸ 2 Chron. xv. lo, tixes the date, as the convocation was the immediate result of the victory over Zerah.

³⁹ 2 Chron. xvi. S. On the other hand, these nations would of course appear in the army of an Ethiopian king who had conquered Egypt. The important place occupied by the Libyans in the militia of Egypt is in itself an interesting fact, and disposes of the theory that Zerah was an eastern Cushite, and any other than an invader from Egyj)t, as is shown also by liis retreat by way of Gerar. In fact, there was at this time no great eastern Cushite monarchy.

⁴⁰ "The Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves;" 2 Chron. xiv. 13.

TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY.

147

"The princes of Zoan (Tanis) have become fools, the princes of Xoph (Memphis) are deceived," says Isaiah, in his prophecy of the destruction coming upon Egypt—thereby testifying to the existence of rival dynasties; and three Memphite kings of this age have been discovered from the inscriptions of the Serapeum. It ^nust be remembered that Manetho only registers the kings and dynasties which were ultimately admitted as legitimate in the archives of the priests. But we have now the Ethiopian version of this period, on a stela discovered at Xapata by M. Mariette. It appears that Lower and Middle Egypt were divided among no less than thirteen petty states when the Ethiopian king Piankh marched from Xapata, and, having been welcomed at Thebes as a deliverer, took Memphis by force and gained several battles against the princes of the Delta. Among these princes, several of whom were military adventurers of the Libyan race, live only are called kings. The most powerful were Osorchon (or Sargon) and Pefaa-bus- (or Pet-se-Pasht),⁴¹ both of whom are placed by Manetho in the 23d Tau.te Dynasty, and Taf-nekht, of Sais, the Tnephachthus of Diodorus Siculus. The curse said to have been pronounced by this Tnephachthus upon Menes, observes Wilkinson, " is consistent with the fact of his seeing the decline of Egyptian power, and with the common habit of attributing to some irrelevant cause (such as the innovations of an early king) the gradual tall of a nation ; aud is only worth noticing as illustrating the declining condition of Egypt during the age of Tnephachthus and his son."⁴² § 11. Under that son, Bokexraxf, the Bocchoris of Manetho and. the Greeks,⁴³ who stands alone as forming the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, the capital was transferred to Sais (Sa-el-IIagar), which afterwards became the seat of a race of kings who raised Egypt to revived splendor before the final extinction of the monarchy. The Greeks had many traditions about Bocchoris, as of all the kings of Sa'is, the city which they frequented more than any other in Egypt. These traditions are consistent only in representing him as an able administrator and judge. Though eminent for the wisdom of his decisions, and especially for his laws regulating commercial contracts and the royal prerogatives and duties, he is charged with meanness and severity, and even with wanton cruelty and sacrilege—a composite portrait which may reflect the prejudices excited by his reforms. He

⁴¹ This name contains that of the goddess Pasht. Oppert explains it as "the man of Pasht." But the king was of a different race from the Osorchons and Sheshonka of the Bubastite and Tanite lines.

⁴² Append, to Herod., Book ii. in Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. S79.

⁴³ Hiod. i. 45. For a description of Sais. see chap. viii.

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THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

reigned for six years, according to the Greek copyists of Manetho ; but the Armenian version of Eusebins assigns him 44.⁴⁴ Xo details of his reign are found on the monuments ; and it is doubtful whether, as some say, he expelled the Ethiopians for a time, or whether lie reigned as their vassal. If the latter, we may account for the statement that he was burnt alive by Sabaco, as the punishment of an attempt at rebellion. At all events, he was overthrown by that conqueror. Sais continued, however, the seat of a native line of princes—one of many which reigned over the cities of the Delta, a country easy of defense—during the rule of the Ethiopians, on whose retirement they regained power as the twenty-sixth dynasty. There seems reason to believe, from the annals of the Assyrian kings, that the Sa'ite princes were distinguished from the rest by being the line especially recognized by Assyria.

§ 12."Meanwhile the Ethiopians, who had figured for so many ages on the monuments of the great Egyptian dynasties "as "the vile race of Cush," came in their turn to rule Egypt, as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. It is time to speak more precisely of these Ethiopians and their country. The Greek word Ethiopian (Aldio^, burnt-faced), like the Semitic Cush, is a generic term for the dark races.⁴⁵ In this wide sense it included not only the people of Central Africa, from the Atlantic to the Red and Arabian Seas, but also the black find swarthy races of Asia.⁴⁰ In a narrower sense, like the Cush of the Egyptian monuments, there was an " Ethiopia nbove Egypt, which may be described generally as the country watered by the Xile and its tributaries above the First Cataract, so far as it was known, and answering pretty nearly to the modern Nubia and Sennaar, with the neighboring regions of Northern Abyssinia and Kordofan. As a geographical term, it may have included so much as was known of Negro-land ; and we have seen that there were probably mutual displacements of the negro and the Cushite races; but the two must not be confounded. The Ethiopians or Cushites of Egyptian history—the probable ancestors of the Bisharies and Sham/cdlas—were a straight-haired race, having the Egyptian physiognomy, but with those features that border oil" the negro type somewhat more pronounced, and

⁴⁴ The Cth year of Bocchoris is said to be fixed by an Apis-stela to u.c. 715; a very Drobable date for the time of his being put to death by Sabaco.

⁴⁵ The name of Eih'^rla has also been traced to the Egyptian name of the country Ethaush or Ethosh. If this is the true derivation, we have another example of the practice, so common with the Greeks, of assimilating a foreign name to a significant form in their own language. The Arabs have followed the same practice; and so have all nations, more or less.

Herod, iii. 04 ; vii. 70.

ACCOUNT of ETHIOPIA.

149

darker, but not jet-black. The Nubian eye, more elongated than the Egyptian, is still seen in the Shany alias.

But still more definite limits may be assigned to " Ethiopia above Egypt" in the political sense, in which it coincides with the kingdoms of Napata and of Meroe, and very nearly with Nubia and Sennaar. The southern boundary, indeed, can not be precisely fixed; but it seems not to have been higher than the junction of the Blue and White Rivers at the village of Khartum. The Astaboras (Atbarah or la-cazze) formed the eastern boundary both of the kingdom and of the island of Meroe: below its junction with the Nile, the deserts bordering the. river assigned natural limits on both sides. The northern region, for about a degree and a quarter of latitude above the First Cataract, hence called the Dodecascluxmus (80 miles' space) or ^Ethiopia jEyypti,\vns a debatable land, reckoned sometimes to Egypt, though properly in Ethiopia.

A natural division of the whole country is formed by the great desert and the range of hills which cross the valley of the Nile between the Fourth Cataract and the confluence of the Astaboras; and there is an equally marked division, in its political history, between the old Ethiopian kingdom of Napata and the later kingdom of Meroe. Of the latter we know little till the time of the Ptolemies and the Roman empire, though it is mentioned by Herodotus as the capital of Upper Ethiopia.⁴⁷ Napata,⁴⁸ the capital of the older kingdom, is a place whose position has been much disputed, and some have even supposed the name to denote simply the royal city, which might have occupied different positions at different times. But it is now generally identi-

⁴⁷ Herod.'ii. 29. There are very different opinions abont the origin of Meroe. The story mentioned by Diodorus and Strabo, that it was built by Cambyses, is simply absurd. Some modern writers trace its origin to the Deserters from Psammetichus {see the next chapter); bnt others hold it to have been the seat of an independent kingdom as early as Napata, arguing its antiquity from the appearance of its pyramids at Dankalah. Though M. Oppert can hardly be wrong in regarding the Miluh-ha or Miluhhi of the Assyrian inscriptions (which some read Mirukh) as the etymological equivalent of Meroe, it does not follow that the name denotes specifically the inland of Meroe, or a kingdom with its seat there. On the contrary, its most definite use is for the kingdom of Tirhakah; and his monumental records are found, not at Meroe, but at Napata. Esar-haddon, in styling himself " King of Egypt and Ethiopia," uses both Miluhhi and Kuxi (Cnsh) for the latter name, and that in the same set of inscriptions. Sometimes, indeed, there seems to be a distinction, as if Miluhhi were the more general term for the whole valley of the Nile. In any case, it seems in vain at this early period to seek for any more specific sense of Miluhhi than as a general name for Ethiopia. It seems not unlikely that, in what Herodotus says of Meroe, he may sometimes mean Xapata, which he does not name.

⁴⁸ Sir G. Wilkinson says that the name "h-ape-t" seems to signify "0/ Ape-t or Tape," i. e., Thebes, as if it were derived from Thebes, and that it was not unusual to give the names of Egyptian cities to those of Ethiopia, as was often done in Nubia. Note to Herod, ii. 29, Rawlinson.

ISO THE ETHIOITAX DYNASTY.

fied with the extensive ruins at Iebel-Berkel,n little below the Fourth Cataract, the highest point on the Nile at which we find any considerable monuments of the Pharaohs.⁴⁹ It was also the farthest point reached by the Roman expedition which was sent under Petronius, in the time of Augustus, against Candace, queen of the Ethiopians (n.c. 22).⁵⁰ Can-dace was the title of a race of queens who reigned at Napata,, which was probably at this time a dependency of Meroe.

Napata owed much of its wealth and importance to its be ing the terminus of two considerable caravan routes, one crossing the desert of BaJdouda S.E. to Meroe, the other running in the opposite direction to the island of Gagaudes (Argo),m the Nile. Its commerce consisted in an interchange of the products of Libya and Arabia, and it was near enough to the marshes of the Nile to enjoy a share of the profitable trade in the hides and ivory which were obtained from the chase of the hippopotamus and elephant. The ruins at Jebel-Berkel denote a city well deserving the epithet of golden, which was given to Napata as well as to Meroe. On the western bank of the Nile are found two temples and a considerable necropolis. The former were dedicated to Osiris and Amun,⁵¹ and the sculptures representing the worship of those deities are inferior to none of the Nubian monuments in design and execution. Avenues of sphinxes lead up to the Ammonium, which exhibits the plan of the great temples of Egypt. On the walls of the Osirian temple are represented Amun-re and his usual attendants. The intaglios exhibit Amun or Osiris receiving gifts of fruit, cattle, and other articles, or offering sacrifice : strings of captives taken in war are kneeling before their conqueror. On the gateway leading to the court of the necropolis Osiris was carved, in the act of receiving gifts as lord of the lower world. The pyramids are of considerable magnitude, but, having been built of tiie sandstone of Mount Berkel, they have suffered greatly from the periodical rains, and have been still more injured

⁴⁹ The two lions of red. granite now in the British Museum, bearing the names of Amen-hotep III. and Amnntuonkh, which some have supposed to mark the farthest limit of the dominions of the XVIIIth dynasty, were originally at Solt-b, as the inscription on them shows, and were removed by Tirhakah to adorn his Ethiopian capital. Sir G. Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. ii. p. 362.

⁵⁰ Strabo, xvii. p. S20: Plin. " H. N." vi. 35.

⁵¹ Herodotus (ii. 29) says that great honors were paid at Meroe, the capital of the Ethiopians, to Jove and Dionysus, i. c, Amun and CMrU. By the former he means the ram-headed god (Xou, Xoub, Xoum, or Knsph), who was the chief deity of Ethiopia ; bnt the Theban Amun was also worshipped in Ethiopia, as well as most of the Egyptian gods. There were also gods peculiar to Ethiopia, and of uncommon forms. " At Wachj Owatayb is one with three lions' heads and fonr arms, more like an Indian than an Egyptian god, though he wears a head-dress common to gods and kings, especially in Ptolemaic and Roman times."—Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. 29, Rawlinson.

POLITICAL STATE OF ETHIOPIA.

151

bv man.⁶² "There are some curiously-fortified lines on the hills about five or six miles below Jebel-Berkel, commanding the approaches to that place by the river and on the shore, apparently of Ethiopian origin."⁵³

§ 13. Of the political state of Ethiopia, before its conquest by the kings of the XHth and XVIIIth and following dynasties we know next to nothing. We have seen that it became a vice-royalty under a prince of the reigning family, " the royal son of Cush," and occasionally the refuge of the Pharaohs from invasion and revolution. At length, when the capital of Egypt was finally fixed in the Delta, under the XXIst dynasty, the expelled family of the priest-king, Iler-Hor, set up a sacerdotal kingdom at Xapata, the institutions of which were doubtless perpetuated in those of Meroe, as described by the Greek and Roman writers. The latter resembled those of Egypt, except that the priest had supreme power over the king" * " In Ethiopia," says Diodorus, " the priests send a sentence of death to the king, when they think he has lived long enough. The order to die is a mandate of the gods."⁵⁴ The Ethiopians of the 8th century, therefore, were kindred to the Egyptians in race, religion, and institutions ; nor were they inferior in civilization ; and they used the same system of hieroglyphics.⁵⁵ "Both the historical and prophetic books of the Jews afford evidence of their military power. They bear a part in the invasion of Palestine ; they are joined by Isaiah with the Egyptians when he endeavors to dissuade his countrymen from relying on thebaic! to resist Assyria. In the 87th Psalm Ethiopia is mentioned, along with Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, and Philistia, as one of the most illustrious nations. Throughout the prophetic writings the Ethiopians are very generally conjoined with Egypt, so as to show that the union between them, produced sometimes by the ascendency of one country, sometimes of the other, was so close that their foreign policy was usually the same.⁵⁸ "We are not, therefore, to consider the subjugation of Egypt by the Ethiopians as if they had fallen

under the dominion of a horde of Arabs or Scythians.....

The dynasty was changed, but the order of government appears to have suffered little change. Xo difference of religion or manners imbittered the animosity of the two nations;

⁵² Iloskius, "Travels in Ethiopia," pp. 161, 2SS; Calliaud, "LTsle de Merou."

⁵³ Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. 29, Rawlinson.

⁵⁴ Diod. iii. 6. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus the influence of Greek culture lad the King Ergamenes to throw off the yoke of the priests aud put them to death.

⁵⁵ Being applied, however, to a different and less known language, this system has been found more difficult to decipher.

⁵⁶ Isa. xxx. 5 : Nahum iii. 9; Ezek. xxx. 4.

152

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

they had been connected by royal intermarriages.....and

to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt the Ethiopians would seem hardly so foreign as the people of Sa'is."⁶⁷ In fact, we now know that their power was thoroughly established in the Thebiad before, and during the greater part of, the time when they were struggling for ascendency in the Delta. Politically, Egypt seems now to be divided between the Se» mitized states of the Delta, leaning more or less upon Assyria, and Upper Egypt and Ethiopia as the stronghold of the old and genuine Egyptians.

§ 14. The Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt is called Sabacos by Herodotus, who says that, after a rule of fifty years, he quitted Egypt of his own free-will, moved by religious scruples.⁵⁸ But the historian, by including two kings of the same name in one, and omitting a third, has confounded the duration of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty with the reign of its founder. Manetho's three Ethiopian kings, Sabaco, SebicJm or Sevechos, his son, and Tarkus or Tarakus, correspond to the Shabaka or Shebek I, Shabatoka or Shebek II., and Tar-haka, of the monuments.⁶⁹ Under them Egypt again comes into contact with Judaea and Assyria, and we have reached the decisive period "when Egypt with Assyria strove" for the mastery of Western Asia. The warlike Ethiopian, after conquering Egypt, carried his arms into Asia, on the opportunity afforded by Hoshea, king of Samaria, who asked the support of Sabaco I. in his rebellion against Assyria. Slial-maneser invested Samaria before aid came from Egypt, and his successor, Sargon, took the city after a three years' siege.⁶⁰ Meanwhile. Sabaco seems to have undertaken some opera, tions on the strength of which he indulged himself in the flattery of claiming Syria as his tributary in an inscription at Karnak.

Bat now for the Assyrian version. In the great inscription on his palace at Khorsabad, Sargon tells us that, after

⁵⁷ Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. pp. 365, 366.

⁵⁸ Herod, ii. 137, 139. We have already had occasion to refer to what Herodotus says of his having substituted for the punishment of death the labor of embanking the cities, so as to raise them above the inundation. Diodorus says that he surpassed all his predecessors in piety and clemency.

⁵⁹ The syllable ka, in which all these names end, was the article in the Cushite lan guage, and the Semitic forms seem to drop the peculiar Ethiopic guttural. The Ethiopian origin of the name of Sabaco is confirmed by its occurrence on the monuments of private persons, calling themselves "natives of Cush." Thus,, the name which stands in the Egyptian monuments and the list of Manetho as Shabaka, with the article, becomes in"the Bible Seba or Seva or Sua (with the Masoretic points, So, 2 Kings xvii.4; Sin up in the LXX.), and Sab'e in Assyrian (the ' marking an hiatus). The second Sabaco is always distinguished on the monuments from the first by the t in the final syllable of his name. So in Assyrian he is Sabti'. This is a strong argument for "Mis identification with the Sethos of Herodotus (ii. 141). See § 15.

⁰⁰ u.o. 721 in the received chronology, confirmed by the canon. See c. xiii. §§ 0. 7-

THE TWO SABACOS.

153

the capture of Samaria, Hanon, king of Gaza, and SaVe, sultan of Egypt, met the king of Assyria in battle at Rapih (Raphia), and were defeated. Sabaco disappeared, but Hanon was captured⁶¹ (about b.c. 718). The night of the Ethiopian sultan may have some connection with the statement of Herodotus that Sabaco withdrew from Egypt; but we shall presently see that the Ethiopians were driven back more than once into the upper country. Of course, we do not expect a record of his flight on the monuments of Sabaco; but his name is found, with the full titles of Egyptian sovereignty, on the internal face of the propylaea at Luxor, built by Rameses II., whose name he has erased. Among others of his monuments, there is a fragment inscribed with his 12th year, his last, according to Eusebins.⁶²

§ 15. Sabaco II. (Shebetek, Shabatoka, or, in Assyrian, Sabti) is now considered by the best authorities to be identified with the priest-king Sethos, whom Herodotus places immediately after the retirement of Sabaco I.⁶³ Further light is thrown on the state of Egypt in his time by the annals of Sargon and Sennacherib, with both of whom he was contemporary.

Four years after the battle of Raphia (in b.c 714), Sargon records the receipt of tribute from " Pharaoh (Pir'u), king of Egypt," as well as from a queen of Arabia and a Sabasan king. Here we have a sovereign of Egypt recognized both by the old royal name, and by the title which Sargon withholds from the " sultan " who had fought at Raphia. In his great inscription at Khorsabad, this "Pharaoh" is mentioned immediately after the record of that battle.

Four years later still (in b.c. 710), Sargon was again on the confines of Egypt, chastising a revolt of Ashdod. Yaman, the rebel king of that city, had fled, at Sargon's approach, " beyond Egypt, on the side of Ethiopia." But now, instead of marching out to resist the Assyrian, " the king of Ethio-

⁶¹ Oppert, " Les Inscriptions Assyriennes des Sargonides," etc., p. 22.

⁰² It seems that his flight marked, or very shortly preceded, the end of his reign, which M. Oppert places in i$.c. TIC. If his reign ended between n.o. 71S and 716, it began between b.c. 730 and 72S ; possibly earlier, for it may have exceeded 12 years. Comparing the close of his reign with another computation, we have the evidence of an Apis-stela for placing the accession of Tirhakah in «.o. 693. Adding to this the 12 years assigned by Manetho to Sabaco II. (or rather 14, as in Eusebins), we reach b.o. 707; bnt if 14 is an error for 24, we come to u.o. 717, the very year after the battle of Raphia and the flight of Sabaco I. This result is highly probable on other grounds.

⁶³ The identification, which is maintained byM. de Rouge and M. Oppert, is said to be now clearly established by Dr. Brugsch. The modes of reconciling the characters ascribed to the king—as an Ethiopian (Manetho, etc.), as a priest-king reigning after the withdrawal of the Ethiopian (for Herodotus knows of but one), and as a Pharaoh —can not be conveniently discussed here. The story told of him by Herodotus ia given below (§ 16).

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

]>ia, dwelling in a remote country, whose fathers had never, from the remotest days, sent ambassadors to the kings, my ancestors, to demand peace and friendship," sends an embassy to sue for peace. " The immense terror inspired by my royalty took possession of him, and fear changed his purpose. He threw Yaman into chains and fetters of iron, sent him to Assyria, and had him brought before me."⁶⁴

§16. The distinction between the kings of Egypt and of Ethiopia appeal's still more clearly ten years later, in the Jewish campaign of Sennacherib, both from his own annals and from the Bible (b.c. TOO). After subduing Phoenicia and Philistia, he was on his march to chastise Migron™ the revolt of which had been encouraged by " Hezekiah, king of Judah." But he found his way barred, precisely as his lather's had been in the campaign of Raphia, by the united forces of Egypt and Ethiopia.

He tells us that " the men of Migron had called to their aid the kings ofEgypt^l,and the archers, the chariots, and the horses of the king of Ethiopia; and they came to their help, an innumerable host. Near the town of Altaku their line of battle confronted me, and they tried their arms. In the adoration of my lord Asshur, I fought with them and put them to flight. My hands seized the charioteers and sons of the king of Egypt, together with the charioteers of the king of Ethiopia. The town of Altaku and the town of Tamna I besieged, I took ; I spoiled their spoils."⁶⁶

Here, besides a '* king of Ethiopia " (probably the great Tirhakah), who was not yet king of Egypt in b.c. TOO,⁶⁷ we have, first, ^u kings of Egypt," and then one who seems to be recognized as "the king of Egypt" in some special sense. The latter is supposed to have been Sabaco II. (or Sethos) : the full meaning of the plural will presently be made apparent." The sequel of this campaign, in its relation to Judah and Hezekiah, will be related in the history of Sennacherib.

⁶⁴ Oppert, " L'Egypte et l'Assyrie," p. IS. Of course, ou the view stated above, this " king of Ethiopia " was not Sabaco II., who was uow reigning in Egypt as Pharaoh. M. Oppert thinks he may have been the father of Tirhakah ; for it is only by a gratuitous assumption that Tirhakah is made the son of Sabaco II.

⁶⁵ The Migron mentioned in Isaiah x. 2S, among the cities attacked by the Assyrian, was near Ai and Michmash, on the western edge of the Jewish highlands, towards the maritime plain. But some take the Migron of Sennacherib's annals for Ekron.

⁶⁶ Oppert, " L'Egypte et l'Assyrie," pp. 25-27. Altaku is evidently the Levitical city of Eltekeh (Joshua xix. 44; xxi. 2?»); and Tamna is Timnath, famous in the story of Samson (Judges xiv. 1, 2, 5). Both were in the border of Dan, in, or on the edge of the maritime plain.

⁶⁷ Respecting the time of Tirhakah's accession, see above, note G2.

⁶⁸ M. Oppert considers the "kings of Egypt" to have been those of the Upper and Lower conntry respectively; but this is not in accordance with the subsequent mention of many more in both parts, and Upper Egypt seems to have been now subject to Ethiopia.

SETHOS AND SENNACHERIB.

Meanwhile we have to notice the distinct mention, in the scriptural narrative also, of a " king of Egypt " and a " kino-of Ethiopia," the former by the usual title of Pharaoh, the latter by his name, Tirhakah.

In the course of his operations against " the fenced cities of Judah," after the battle of Altaku, Sennacherib had laid siege to Lachish ; and thence he sent a summons to Jerusalem. Our knowledge of his recent victory sets in a new light the taunt of the Assyrian envoys, " Behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this braised reed ; upon Egypt, on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is i-.'ia-raoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust on him."⁶⁹ Presently afterwards we find the movement of Sennacherib from Lachish to Libnah connected with a report, which had reached him, that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight with him.⁷⁰

Such is the concurrence of testimony to the fact that, both when Sargon gained the victory of Kaphia and when Sennacherib made war on Egypt and Judah, there were distinct but allied kingdoms of Egypt and Ethiopia. It is in, as weli as after, this interval that the reign of Sabaco Ik seems to fall (about b.c 717-693). If this king was the Sethos of Herodotus, his destitution of an army may perhaps be explained by the flight of the warriors with Tirhakah to the upper country after their great defeat. There Tirhakah may have rallied his forces for another struggle with Sennacherib, while he was occupied with the siege of Lachish ; and the movement of the Assyrian to Libnah may have been designed to crush that " bruised reed," the destitute king of Egypt, before his powerful ally could return to help him.⁷¹

The reader of the Scripture narrative, whose attention is fixed on what was going on at Jerusalem, is apt to think that Sennacherib's army perished before that city. But ordinary attention to the narrative shows that the real scene of the catastrophe was near the confines of Egypt; and the Egyp-

⁰⁹ 2 Kings xviii. 21; Isaiah xxxvi. G. The figure, which is repeated in Ezekiel xxix. G, 7, becomes doubly expressive when we findrt bent reed as the initial prefixed to tba common hieroglyphic for the Egyptian word suten, "king." The annals of Sennach erib show that his attack on the Jewish fortresses, and consequently the summons to Jerusalem, was immediately after the battle of Altaku. M. Oppert well says, "La victoire seule a pu dieter ces hautaincs paroles." Observe that the king of Ethiopia is not mentioned here; as if no more were to he hoped from him since his flight from Altaku.

⁷⁰ 2 Kings xix. 8, 9; Isaiah xxxvii. 9. It is not said that Tirhakah came into con flict with Sennacherib ; on the contrary, it seems to be implied that he had not ar rived before the miraculous overthrow of the Assyrian host.

⁷¹ The Libnah of the Scripture narrative agrees* fairly with the place of that nanii iu or near the maritime plain, near Lachish (Joshua x. 31; xv. 42); but M. Oppert argues very ingeniously that here it is nothing else than a Hebrew rendering of the name of Pelusium (" L'Egypte et l'Assyrie," pp. 34, 35).

15G

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY".

tians gave their gods the honor of the miracle. There was, Herodotus tells us, a priest of Hephaestus (Phtha), named Sethos, who reigned soon after the retirement of Sabaco.⁷² Having neglected and despoiled the warrior class, he was reduced to great straits by their refusal to serve, when " San-acharib, king of the Arabians⁷³ and Assyrians," marched his vast army into Egypt. Encouraged, however, by the god, Sethos gathered an army of traders, artisans, and market-people, and marched to Pelusium, which commands the entrance into Egypt, and there pitched his camp. "Here, as the two armies lay opposite one another, there came an army of field-mice, which devoured all the quivers and bow-strings of the enemy, and ate the thongs by which they managed their shields. Next morning they commenced their flight, and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms with which to defend themselves. The historian saw in the temple of Phtha a stone statue of Sethos, with a mouse in his hand,⁷⁴ and an inscription to this effect: ' Look on me, and learn to reverence the gods.' "

§ 17. Besides the mention thus made of him in Scripture, Tahraka (Tirhakah), the Tarkus or Tarakus of Manetho, appears on his monuments and in the Greek writers as one of the most famous kings in the later history of Egypt. Strabo⁷⁵ speaks of him, by the name of Tearko, as rivalling Sesostris, by carrying his foreign expeditions as far as the Pillars of Hercules; and a bas-relief at Medinet-Abou represents him as about to cut off the heads of a mass of captives whom he holds by the hair—the usual symbol of a number of conquered tribes. But his most interesting relations are those with Assyria, against which empire he maintained a constant struggle, with alternate successes and reverses. The particulars are learnt chiefly from the Assyrian monuments; but some light is thrown on the Ethiopian version by stelee at the capital of Xapata.

We* have already distinguished, by aid of the records of Sargon and Sennacherib, the actual sovereignty of the

™ Herod, ii. 141.

⁷³ It is quite natural that the Arabians bordering on Mesopotamia should have served in the army of Sennacherib.

⁷⁴ This mouse was, of course, a sacred emblem, perhaps of the generative principle_; and prophetic power was ascribed to mice. The people of Troas are said to have revered mice ^i; because they gnawed the bow-strings of their enemies and the leathern part of their arms " (Eustath. ad Horn. II. i. 30 ; Strab. xiii. p. 416), and their Apollo Smintheus was represented with a mouse in his hand. Wilkinson's Xote to Herod I.e.

Strabo i. p. 67; xv. p. gs". M. Oppert considers Tearko to be nearest to the true form of the name, which he reads Tearqu. The Scriptural form, which we adopt as the best known, is obtained by a transposition of the r ; the i comes from the Ma-soretic punctuation.

TIRHAKAH AND THE KINGS OF EGYPT.

157

Ethiopians in Egypt from the state of things in which there was not only a " king of Egypt," but more than one, in alliance—though doubtless subordinate alliance—with a " king of Ethiopia." Instead of Tirhakah's simply succeeding Sabaco II. as the third Ethiopian king of Egypt, his first appearance (by his name) has been made in b.c 700, when there appear with him " kings of Egypt," and a " Pharaoh, king of Egypt."

These relations come out far mure clearly in the records before us, which for the first time explain the state of Egypt just before the well-known period of the Sai'te dynasty. From their comparison it seems clear that Esar-haddon, who was the first Assyrian that invaded Egypt, made his campaign in that land near the very end of his reign (b.c. 670, or even later). The success which gave him the title of *' King of Egypt and Ethiopia" was gained (as we learn from his son's annals) against Tirhakah; but the Ethiopian king is now recognized in the character of " King of Egypt and Ethiopia;"⁷" and Ave are expressly told that, when Esar-haddon conquered Tirhakah, lie did not deprive him of the sovereignty of the country. If the dates on the Apis-stelas are rightly calculated, the reign of Tirhakah over Egypt began in e.g. 693, by his succession (as we may suppose) to Sabaco II. or Sethos. But the petty kings of the several cities were always attempting to regain their independence; and it was by their aid that Esar-haddon forced Tirhakah to retire to the upper country, under an engagement to remain there. It seems that Upper Egypt and Ethiopia were left to him, while Esar-haddon set up Assyrian officers beside the vassal petty princes

It is his son Asshur-bani-pal who gives us the above information by way of preface to his own first campaign in Egypt (n.e. 667-666).⁷⁷ On the departure of Esar-haddon, or

⁷⁶ In the Annals of Esar-haddon, Egypt is only mentioned in one doubtful passage ; and what we know of his conquests there is from the records of his son. Bui_r in his other inscriptions, Esar-haddon has repeated the above title (which he bore first and last of the Assyriau kings) in a variety of very interesting forms: (1.) He is a "King of the Kings of Egypt and conqueror of Ethiopia showing the plurality of native princes in Egypt. (2.) Not only in different inscriptions, but in the same (at Ximrud), the last country is called both Kusi (the more usual name in his records) aud Miluhhi. (3.) In two cases a word intervenes between " Egypt" and " Ethiopia." In one the copy is doubtful; in the other, though the third element is uncertain, the reading appears to be Pa-tulruysi; from which M. Oppert dednces a strong confirmation of the view that Pathros (Isaiah xi. 11 ; Jerem. xliv. 1, 15 ; Ezek. xxix. 14) and Patrmim (Gen. x. 13,14) denote Upper Egypt, and especially the Thebaid. (See Oppert, "L'Egypte et l'Assyrie," pp. 41, 42 fund Dr. Smith's "Diet, of the. Bible," s. c. Pa-turos.) On the whole of these Assyrian records, comp. ch. xiv.

⁷⁷ These annals have come down to us in a very mutilated condition. The fragments fonnd in his palace at Calah reached our Museum thoroughly shuffled, and the utmost ingenuity of Mr. Cox and M. Oppert has only produced a conjectural restoration. Fortnuately, there are separate copies on four decagonal prisms (but ali broken to pieces), besides other copies on fragments of tablets.

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

at least on his death, Tirhakah had returned, retaken Memphis, where he established his capital, and killed, imprisoned, or carried away as hostages, many of the officers set up by the Assyrian. The rest sent to Nineveh to implore aid, and Asshur-bani-pal led his whole army to a place called Kar-ban it, probably the new Assyrian name given by Esar-haddon to some border fortress of the Delta. Tirhakah marched out from Memphis to meet him there ; and, being defeated in a great battle, tied in his ships, leaving his tent as a spoil, but carrying away his captives of the Assyrian party as hostages to Thebes, which is described as "the city of the empire of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia." After a difficult march of forty days, Asshur-bani-pal reached Thebes, whence Tirhakah had fled at his approach, and took the city with a great slaughter.

But the vassal kings, who had sided with Tirhakah on his return, did not submit till they were defeated in another great battle.⁷⁸ And here it is that these annals throw their great light on the political state of Egypt, The names of these kings and of their cities are mentioned, to the number of twenty" including cities of Upper Egypt as well as of the Delta; not only Sais, Tanis, Sebennytus, Mendes, Bubastis, etc., but Chemmis, This, and Thebes itself, the name of whose king contains the second element (ankh), which occurs in the priestly line of Her-Hor.⁷⁹ A Sheshonk is still reigning at Bubastis. Neciio (doubtless the father of Psammetichus) is kino; of Memphis as well as Sa'is, and leader of the confederacy. This marks the " hegemony " of Sais, which was established by Bocchoris and doubtless confirmed by Esar-haddon, and helps to explain the jealousy which Herodotus ascribes to the princes of the so-called " dodecarchy,'¹ lest one of them, and especially Psammetichus, should gain the supremacy.

Hence, too, it is that Necho, fearing special punishment for his rebellion, flies to Thebes, leaving his gods at Memphis, which the Assyrian takes by storm. Presently, however, we find him submitting, with"the other kings, whom the Assyrian restores " to the place suitable to their subjection ;" while he " places Egypt and Ethiopia under a new government." He then returns to Nineveh, " laden with a great booty and splendid spoils," after strengthening the garrisons and fortifications of the cities, a very needful precaution against Tirhakah's return.

⁷⁸ lie expressly pays that thev had rendered homage to his father ; but " on the occasion of Tirhakah's lifting up' his bucklers" they had forgotten their duty, and had revolted.

⁷⁹ For a full discussion of the names in this list, and the many questions they involve, see Oppert, " L'Egypte et l'Assyrie," p. SS foil.

ASSYRIAN CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

159

For the annals here explain, with an amusing frankness, the dilemma in which the Egyptian kings were left between the rival sovereigns, and the motives which drew them to the nearer. " They said among themselves, Tirhakah will never renounce his designs on Egypt; it is him we have to fear." So they sent ambassadors to " the king of Ethiopia," to make a treaty of peace and friendship, promising not to desert him any more. They also tried to corrupt the Assyrian army; but the officers discovered their plots, intercepted their messengers, and bound the kings themselves hand and foot in fetters and chains of iron. Asshur-bani-pal came back in person to exact vengeance. Memphis, Sais, Mendes, Tanis, and the other rebel cities, were taken, and their people massacred : " I left not one," boasts the conqueror. The captive kings appear to have been carried to Nineveh; whence Necho was sent back to his throne at Sais (the name of which was changed to Kar-bel-mate),⁸⁰ to hold Lower Egypt against Tirhakah, who had again retired to Thebes, if indeed he had left it.

The end of this campaign is, unfortunately, wanting in the annals, which are resumed after the death of Tirhakah. But we have a curious piece of evidence that the Ethiopian regained his power over all Egypt. For a stela in the Serape-•um records that an Apis, born in the 26th year of Tirhakah, died in the 21st year of Psamatik, aged 21 years.⁶¹ It follows that Tirhakah was the king recognized at Memphis in the 26th and last year of his reign, a monumental testimony all the more important from the silence of Herodotus and Diodorus concerning this great conqueror.⁸² The Egyptian priests in the interest of the Saite dynasty would have all the more reason to suppress his name if it be true that he put Necho to death.⁸³ Be this as it may, the removal of

⁸⁰ M. cle Rouge interprets this as "lord of the two regions," a title which marks Sais as the capital Qf Upper and Lower Egypt. The restoration of Necho may he compared to that of Manasseh by Esar-haddon.

⁸¹ Manetho also assigns Tirhakah 26 years, and we have here the elements for a settlement of the chronology within a very slight limit of error. For, as already stated, an Apis-stela places the accession of Tirhakah in n.o. G93 (say G93-2). His death, therefore, would fall (allowing him 26 full years) in u.o. G67 or GGG. Now, is.c. 667-666 is the first year of Asshur-bani-pal, and Tirhakah appears to have died between that king's first and second years, which would be in n.o. GGG. On quite distinct grounds, the Egyptologers place the accession of Psammetichus (whose years, as we see from this record, are dated at once from the death of Tirhakah) in the year u.o. G65 to 664.

^:"² Herodotus appears to preserve the name of Tirhakah (Tearqu, Taracus, Tarcns) in his incidental mention of Etearchus, a king of the Ammonites (ii. 3-2). But whether this was the great Tirhakah. or another Ethiopian king of the same name, or a king of the Ethiopian house reigning separately at the Oas-is of Amnion, we have no means of deciding.

⁸³ Herodotus (ii. 152) says that.Necho was put to death by Sabaco, who died about 50 years earlier ! But as Sabaco i-= llie only Ethiopian conqueror known to Herodo-

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY

Necho might he the occasion for the final recognition of Tir hakah in the royal lists, as the immediate predecessor of the restored Sai'te line.

§ 18. Both from the monuments of Napata and from the Assyrian annals, we learn that Tirhakah was succeeded, as king of Ethiopia, by his son Rut-amen, or Rot-men, or, as the°Assyrian texts say, by his wife's son, Urdaman'e, which :s evidently the same' name. The absence of any recognition of him as king of Egypt seems to imply that he was in Ethiopia when Tirhakah died, and that the petty kings of Egypt seized the opportunity to cast oft* the Ethiopian yoke, under the protection of Assyria.⁸⁴ But Rot-men resolved to strike a blow for his inheritance in Egypt. Having first recovered the Thebaid (if he did not possess it already), he invaded Lower Egypt. The Assyrian annals are resumed with an allusion to the death of Tirhakah, and to this invasion by Urdamane, who was totally defeated by Asshur-bani-pal, and "escaped alone to Thebes, the city of his royalty." The pursuit of the Assyrians occupied, as before, 40 days, through difficult roads ; and, like Tirhakah, Urdamane fled, at their approach, to Kip-Hp, evidently a place in Ethiopia.

The second capture of Thebes by Asshur-bani-pal was far more terrible than the first. " They took possession," says the king, " of the whole city, and sacked it to its foundations. They carried off in this city the gold, the silver, the metals, the precious stones, all the treasures of Ins palace" (another copy has "all the treasures of the country"), "dyed stuffs of berom and linen, great horses (elephants ?), huge apes, natives of their hills—the whole not to be computed by accountants and they treated it as a captured city. They brought this booty safe to Nineveh, and they kissed my feet." In another copy the king mentions the captives, " men male and female, great and small," as well as the works in basalt and in marble, and the palace-gates, which he tore off and carried to Assyria.⁸⁵

§ 19. Till the discovery of this record, we knew of no As Syrian invasion and captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia, and particularly of Thebes, which could correspond to the warn-

tus, the error may be only in the r,ame. It is possible, however, that Necho may have been put to death by Asshur-bani-pnl. Of course, the priests suppressed every allusion to the Assyrian conquest of Egypt.

⁸⁴ Here, probably, begins that period of transition which is marked by the Dodcc-archy and anarchy of Herodotus and Diodorus.

⁸⁵ The former version preserves the third person throughout; bnt the latter has the first, ending with "I returned in safety to Nineveh, the city of my dominion." Wc may suppose the king to have led his army into Egypt (as, in fact, he says), hut not to have marched iu persou against Thebes.

SECOND CAPTURE OF THEBES.

ing which Tsaiali uttered to the Egyptian party in Judah at the time of the siege of Ashdod,or to the still more striking prophecy (or, rather, the historical allusion) of Xahum. But here at length we see " the king of Assyria leading away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, to the shame of Egypt."⁸⁶ In the very hour of her triumph, Xahum denounces on " Nineveh, the city of bloods"—we have seen how well she earned the title!—the very fate she had inflicted upon Thebes: "Art thou better than populous Ao, that was situate among the rivers " (on both sides of the Xile) ; " that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea ? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets ; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains."⁸⁷

§ 20. This is the last notice of Egypt in the Assyrian annals; and we may assume that the country was now left to its native princes, under the suzerainty of Assyria, which her rapid decline soon made an empty name. The sack and captivity of Thebes must have broken the power of Ethiopia in Upper Egypt, and the princes of the Delta were now strong enough to repel her last attempt. The curious record of that attempt, lately discovered by M. Mariette, on a stela at Xapata, evidently conceals a decisive repulse.

Rot-men, the son of Tirhakah, having died without heirs, the crown of Ethiopia was assumed by a certain Amen-meri jXout** in consequence of a prophetic dream, which had also

⁸⁶ Isaiah xx. 1. The prophecy, uttered at a time when the forces of Egypt and Ethiopia were united against Sargon, is peculiarly appropriate to a conquest gained over Thebes as the capital of an Ethiopian king, many of whose best soldiers, Avho were led away as captives, Avere of course Ethiopians. The express mention of " the Assyrian"" excludes the idea that this prophecy was first fulfilled by the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar (see chap. viii. 5 14). The three years, during which the prophet went naked and barefoot for a sign, aud Avhich had probably a primary reference to the duration of the war of Ashdod, may also denote the three separate campaigns made in Egypt (very likely in three successive years), one by Esar-haddon, and two by Asshur-bani-pal.

⁸⁷ Nahum iii. S-10. This important passage is fully disenssedin Dr. Smith's "Diet. r>f the Bible," art. No Ammon, and Oppert's "L'Egypte et l'Assyrie." Besides Ihe clear allusions to the aid which the Arabs and Libyans on the borders of Egypt (Put and Lubim) gave to Assyria in the war against. Thebes, M. Oppert has an ingenious argument to show that Carthage (named as Karbanit in the annals) joined Avith Assyria to avenge the attacks of Tirhakah on the northern coasts of Africa; or at least that there were Carthaginian auxiliaries in the Assyrian army. Iu this event he sees the origin of a tradition preserved by Ammianns I.larccllinns, that Thebes had onre been taken and sacked by the Carthaginians.

*^H Evidently the Ethiopian Ammcris, whom Mauetho (Enseb.) places at the head of the XX*^TIth (Saite) Dynasty.

1G2

THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

promised him the two crowns of Egypt. Marching down the Nile, he was received at Thebes with acclamations; but he only gained Memphis after a bloody battle with the chiefs of the Delta, whom he drove into the Marshes.⁶⁹ But he was unable to take their towns, and the inundation soon forced him to withdraw from Memphis. AY'bile preparing for a new attack, he received a large tribute from the chiefs, content with which he retired finally into Uper Egypt.

In the long struggle which was thus ended, we can not fail to see how essentially there was involved a contest between Upper Egypt, which sided with the old priestly party, and Lower Egypt, where a number of rival claimants were more or less influenced by connections with Assyria⁹⁰ and ideas derived from intercourse with foreign countries. The triumph of these influences was the spirit of the new era, in which Egypt at last connects herself with Europe. She now presents the aspect of a stage, from which the chief actors have just retired; and, after a last scene of confusion, the curtain rises again amidst the full light of well-known history.

^S9 Herodotns's story of the blind King, Anysis, a native of Auysis (perhaps Ei-h-si, city of Isis, or Hemes, if Hanes be Daphnre)—who was conquered by Sabaco, and took refuge in the marshes, where the natives brought him food, unbeknown to the Ethiopians, and whence be came forth and was restored, after the forty years of Ethiopian domination—may perhaps refer to one of the minor princes of the Delta. At all events, it is a testimony both to the perpetuation of the native royal houses in the Delta and to the sympathy of the people with them during the Ethiopian rule. The information we have obtained from the Assyrian annals as to the state of Egypt gives a caution against hastily rejecting the notices in Herodotus and Diodorus of kings otherwise unknown. The monuments, also, are constantly giving royal names which are not in the lists of Manetho.

⁹⁰ We have traced such coimectnms for at least 300 years, from the time of the She shonks. At the time before us several of the petty kings were clearly set up by As* eyria.

Dress of an Egyptian King.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LATER SAITE MONARCHY—TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY—-

B.C. 665-527 or 525.

II. The Dodecarchy. Oracles of the Bronze Cnp and Brazen Men. Psammetichus, son of Nechao I., becomes king. § 2. Psamatik or Psammeticucs I. His name Libyan. Marries an Ethiopian princess, and reunites Egypt. Dates his reign from the death of Tirhakah. Chronological Epoch. § 3. Position of Sais, the sacred city of Keith (Athena). Remains at Sa-el-Hagar. § 4. Feast of Lamps at Sais. § 5. Connection of Sais with the Greeks, especially Athens. § 6. Psammetichus encourages Greek commerce. His Greek and other mercenaries, and Phoenician sailors. Siege of Azotns. § T. Desertion of the Egyptian military caste. Their settlement in Ethiopia. Greek inscription. § S. Works of Psammetichus. Renaismnee of Egyptian art. § 9. Neciiao II., Nf.oo, or PnARAOn-Nn-cno, invades Asia. Battle of Megiddo and death of Josiah. Neco advances to Carchemish, on the Euphrates. Deposes Jehoahaz, and sets up Jehoiakim ae tributary King of Judah. § 10. Neco's power in Asia extinguished by Nebnchad-nezzar. Prophecies against Egypt. §11. Partial reopening of the Red Sea Canal § 12. Maritime enterprises of Neco. Story of the circumnavigation of Africa Growth of Hellenic influence. Psamatik II., or Psammis. Ambassadors from Elis: the Olympic Games. § 13. Reign of Wah-jwa-hat, PnARAon-HornRA or Apkiks, as related by Herodotus. Successes against Si don and Tyre. War with Cyreue. Mutiny of the Egyptian army. Elevation of Amasis. Death of Apries. § 14. The Scriptural account of Pharaoh-Hophra. His Alliance with Zedekiah. Prophetic testimonies to the destructive invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. § 15. Amasis or Aahmes II. His early life and character. Union of business and pleasure. § 10. Prosperity of Egypt. Law against idleness. § 17. Encouragement of foreign commerce. Greeks allowed to reside at Naucratis, and to build temples. The Ht llenion. § IS. Flourishing state of Egyptian art. Works

lGi

THE LATER SATTE MONARCHY.

of Amasis. His gifts to Greek temples. Friendship with Polycrates. Alliance with Cyreue. § 19. League with Lydia and Babylon against Cyrus. Pbammen iTva. Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. Dynasty XX VII. of Persians. §20. Revolts against Persia. Dynasties XX VIII. {Salte), XXIX. (Mendesian), XXX. {Se-bennyte). Final conquest by Ochus. XXX 1st Persian Dy:msty. Conquest by Alexander.

§ 1. "Ix what follows,"says Herodotus at this point, " I have the authority, not of the Egyptians only, but of others also who agree with them."¹ The republican historian sarcastically remarks, that the liberated Egyptians were unable to continue any longer without a king ; and so they divided Egypt into twelve districts,² and set twelve kings over them, who ruled in peace, bound to each other .by intermarriages and by the most solemn engagements. This Dodecarchy, as it is called, seems to have been a union of the petty princes of the Delta against the Ethiopian power iii Upper Egypt. Of course, it could not last; and its end, after 15 years, is related by Herodotus in the spirit of the age.

The voice of oracles had great weight in public affairs, but ambitious men had learned how to bribe the oracles or to contrive the fulfillment of their ambiguous responses. The twelve chiefs had been the stricter in making their mutual engagements, as an oracle had predicted "that he among them who should pour in the temple of Phtha a libation from a cap of bronze would become monarch of the whole land of Egypt." They were wont to worship together in all the chief temples; and they had thus met in the temple of Phtha, when the high-priest (of course, by accident) brought out only eleven golden goblets for the libations of the twelve kings. The one who stood last was Psammetichus, the son of that Xechno who had been put to death by Sabaco (or by Tirhakah). He forthwith took off his helmet of bronze, stretched it out to receive the liquor, and so made his libation. His colleagues remembered the oracle, and banished Psammetichus to the marshes. Meditating revenge, he sent to the oracle of Buto, the most veracious of all the Egyptian oracles, and received with incredulity the answer that "Vengeance would come from the sea, when brazen men should appear." Shortly afterwards, certain Carian and Ionian adventurers, in search of plunder, being driven by stress of weather to Egypt, disembarked in their brazen armor; and a terrified native carried the tidings to Psammetichus that brazen men had come from the sea,aw(\ were plundering the plain. Psammetichus engaged the strangers in his service ;

¹ Herod, ii. 147.

² Wilkinson supposes these to be the twelve nomes of the Delta. M. Lenormant supposes the twelve rulers to have beeu military chiefs of the Libyan (.Maxyan) militia. They would rather seem to have been the chief local princes.

ACCESSION OF PSAMMETICHUS I.

165

and by their aid, and that of the Egyptians who sided with him, he vanquished the eleven and made himself king of Egypt.³

§ 2. Such is the picturesque dress of the bare fact that Psamatik I., the son of Xechao, or Necho L, and consequently the representative of the Sai'te and Memphian monarchy, regained the throne of Egypt by the aid of Greek mercenaries, whose regular employment dates from his reign. His apparently Libyan name is thought by some to mark his origin from the Maxyan militia. We have seen the part played by his father in the late contests,⁴ and the son had taken refuge in the marshes when Necho was put to death.⁵ But now the politic chief formed a matrimonial alliance with the Ethiopians, whether after a successful campaign or to avoid war does not appear; and thus he reunited the whole of Egypt under the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, of jSa'is* He asserted his legitimate claim to the throne by ignoring the 17 years of the anarchy and dodecarchy, and dating his reign from the death of Tirhakah.⁷

The chronology of the Sai'te kings is now pretty well fixed within a limit of doubt not exceeding two years ; the accession of Psammetichus being from b.c 666 to 664, and the Persian conquest in b.c. 527 or 525. The succession of kings is as follows:

³ Herod, ii. 147,151,152. Respecting the obvious inconsistencies and improbabilities of the story, and the whole question of the previous employment of foreign auxiliaries and mercenaries by the Kings of Egypt, see Wilkinson's note on the passage, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus." ⁴ See chap. vii. § 17. •'

⁵ Herod, ii. 152. We have no positive information of a relationship between the Saites of the XXVIth dynasty and Bocchoris of the XXIVth ; but it seems now quite clear that the monarchy of Psammetichus was a revival of that founded by Bocchons at Sais. Manetho places Nechao next before Psammetichus in his XXVIth Dynasty; the name being probably inserted to recognize his right rather than in order of time. So also before him stand Xechepsos and Stephnuites, who may have been princes of the Dodecarchy. Before them Eusebins places as the lirst King of the Dynasty "Ammeris, the Ethiopian," who is evidently the Ethiopian invader, Amen-meri-nout.

⁶ We learn from the monuments of Thebes that, during the Dodecarchy, Upper Egypt was governed by the Ethiopian Piankh II, who reigned conjointly with bis wife, Ameniritis (or Amunatix), sister of Shabaka, a woman of high intelligence, who had been several times regent of Upper Egypt under the Ethiopian dynasty. It was their daughter and heir, Shap-cn-ap, or (Tapesiifa^e-s), that Psamatik I. married.

⁷ See chap. vii. § 17.

⁸ The computation depends on the Jpis-stcla>, the numbers given by Mauetho and Herodotus, and the Assyrian and Jewish annals. We have seen how the annals of Asshur-bani-pal bear on the beginning of the period : its end depends on the date of the Persian conquest, which is usually placed in the 5th year of Cambyses (n.o.525) ; but some of the highest authorities (as M. de Rouge) refer it to that king's 3d year

1. Psammetichus I........ .

2. Neco (Pharaoh-Nechoh) .

3. Psammetichus II.........

4. Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra)

5. Amasis (Aahmes II.).....

6. Psammenitns............

Years.

..54

..16

.. 6

..19

..44

Accession B.C. G6G or G64 G12 or G10 59G or 594 590 or 5SS 571 or 5G9 527 or 525«

G mo.

166

THE LATER SA1TE MONARCHY.

§ 3. The very position of Sais, the last capital of independent Egypt, is significant of the foreign relations which now begin to be conspicuous. It was situate in 31° 4' N. lat., on the right bank of the Ototopic, the most westerly branch of the Nile, more than 40 miles from the sea. The great embankment which raised it above the inundation made the city conspicuous to voyagers ascending the river; and its site is still marked by the great mounds to the north of Sa-el-Ha* f/ar (Sa of the stone),⁹ the village which preserves the old Egyptian name of Ssa, the sacred city of Keith, whom the Greeks identified with Athena. The splendid temple of the goddess, which Amasis decorated with great works of art, besides building its magnificent propyhea,¹⁰ contained the tombs of the Sai'te kings,¹¹ and the burial-place of Osiris, whose mysteries were celebrated in a lake near the temple.

" The remains are now confined to a few broken blocks, some ruins of houses, and a large inclosure surrounded by massive crude-brick walls. These last are about 70 feet thick, and of very solid construction. Between the courses of bricks are layers of reeds, intended to serve as binders.

. . The walls inclose a space measuring 2325 feet long by 1960, the north side of which is occupied by the lake mentioned by Herodotus. As he says it was of circular form, and it is now long and irregular, we may conclude that it has since encroached on part of the temenos, or sacred incisures, where the temple of Minerva and the tombs of the Sai'te kings stood. The site of the temple appears to have been in the low open space to the west, and parts of the wall of its temenos may be traced on two sides: it was about 720 feet in breadth, or a little more than that around the temple of Tanis. To the east of it are mounds, with remains of crude-brick houses, the walls of which are partially standing, and here and there bear evident signs of having been burnt. This part has received the name of 'el Kala' (the citadel), from its being higher than the rest, and from the appearance of two massive buildings at the upper and lower end, which seem to have been intended for defense. It is not impossible that this was the royal palace."¹²

(h.c. 527). The important testimony of a stela, which mentions a man as born in the 3d year of Neco, and dying in the 35th of Amasis, seems to prove that the shorter of the two lengths assigned to the reign of Apries (19 years and 25 years) is to be preferred. Herodotus places the accession of Psammetichus 14^ years before the invasion of Cambyses, which carries us back to about u.o. 670. The difference is slight; and these long periods are seldom exact. The total would probably be lengthened by the overlapping of reigns.

⁹ So called from the broken blocks of stone that belonged to the ancient city.

¹⁰ Herod, ii.175.

¹¹ Herodotus (ii. 169) particularly mentions those of Amasis, and of Apries and his family, and describes the latter. ¹² Wilkinsou's " Handbook to Egypt," p. 102.

THE CITY OF SAIS.

1g7

§ 4. At Sais was celebrated the " Feast of Lamps," in honor of Xeith, which Herodotus ranks third in honor among the annual festivals of Egypt; and it must have been among the most beautiful. "At Sais, when the assembly takes place for the sacrifices, there is one night on which the inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights round their houses in the open air. They use lamps, which are flat saucers filled with a mixture of oil and salt, on the top of which the wick floats. These burn the whole night, and give to the festival the name of the Feast of Lamps. The Egyptians who are absent from the festival observe the night of the sacrifice, no less than the rest, by a general lighting of lamps; so that the illumination is not confined to the city of Sa'is, but extends over the whole of Egypt."¹³

§ 5. Lying on that branch of the Nile along which was the direct route of the Greeks into Egypt, and a little above Naucratis, which was assigned for their abode, Sais was especially interesting to the Athenians from the identification of its patron goddess with their own.¹⁴ Their civic hero, Cecrops, was said to be a native of Sais; and another tradition even made Sais a colony of Athens,¹⁵ so strong was the Hellenic element in the Egyptian city. How early the connection began it is impossible to say. Eusebins¹⁶ says that, in the reign of Bocchoris, the Milesians became powerful at sea, and built the city of Xaucratis ; but the reign of Psammetichus was certainly the epoch at which the Chinese-like exclusiveness of Egypt was broken through by the admission of foreigners to that harbor, whence they would proceed to the neighboring capital. Pythagoras is said to have visited Sais in the reign of Amasis ;¹⁷ and there, about the same time, Solon conversed with a Saite priest,¹⁸ from whom he learnt the fable of Atlantis and the primeval renown of Athens.¹⁹ Diodorus mentions a number of instances which show the anxiety of the priests of Sals to ingratiate themselves with the Athenians, by discovering resemblances between Attic and Egyptian institutions.²⁰ Manetho says that the Greek population of Sais was governed by their own laws and magistrates, and had a separate quarter of the city assigned to them.

§ 6. Diodorus thus describes the Hellenizing policy of

¹³ Herod, ii. 62.

¹⁴ It has been observed that the essential letters of Xeith and 'AO^a are the same in the inverse order.

¹⁵ Compare Diod. i. 28, § 3, and v. 57, § 45.

¹⁶ Chron. Canon, under Olymp. vi. ¹⁷ Plin. xxxvi. 9, s. 14.

¹⁸ Pint. Solon, 26. Herodotns (ii. 177) speaks of his adopting the law of Amasis, that all who could show no visible means of subsistence should be put to death.

¹⁹ Plato, " Timaeus," iii. p. 25. ²⁰ Diod. i. 2S.

168

THE LATER SAITE MONARCHY.

Psammetichus: " He received with hospitality the strangers who came to visit Egypt; he loved Greece so much that he caused his children to be taught its language.²¹ He was the first of the Egyptian kings who opened to other nations em-poria for their merchandise, and gave security to voyagers ; for his predecessors had rendered Egypt inaccessible to foreigners by putting some to death, and condemning others to slavery." He kept on foot a large body of mercenaries, Ionians,²² and Carians, as well as Arabians, and assigned to his Greek soldiers two "camps " (as the abodes of foreign settlers were called) on the two banks of the Pelusiac branch, a little below Bubastis, evidently as a garrison for the eastern frontier.²³

" From the date of the original settlement of these persons in Egypt," says Herodotus, "we Greeks, through our intercourse with them, have acquired an accurate knowledge of the several events of Egyptian history, from the reign of Psammetichus downward; but before his time no foreigners had ever taken up their residence in that land."

Besides these Greeks, Psammetichus engaged Phoenician sailors ; and, with such forces at his command, he aspired to recover the empire of Western Asia, where the power of Assyria was in the last stage of its decline. But his enterprise was stopped on the very threshold by the resistance of the Philistine city of Azotus (Ashdod) key to the great military route, which he only took afler a siege of twenty-nine years.²⁴

§ 7. Meanwhile an event occurred which proved that the "new wine" of Hellenism, instead of infusing new life-blood into Egypt, would " burst the old bottles " of her rigid institutions, and cause both to perish together. The favors heaped by Psammetichus-upon his mercenaries roused the jealousy of the native military class, which broke out into open mutiny when, in his Syrian expedition, he gave the foreigners the post of honor on the right wing. Upon this the whole class of warriors, to the number of 200,000 (Herodotus says 240,000), deserted in a body, and marched away into Ethiopia. This is the account of Diodorus, which is not

Herodotus (loc. inf. cit.) says that he intrusted certain Egyptian children to his Greek soldiers to learn Greek;" aud that those so taught became the parents of the class of " interpreters."

22 Ionian,* was now the Egyptian name for the Greeks in general.

2* Herod, ii. 151. He adds that Amasis removed the Greeks to Memphis, to guard him against the native Egvptians.

24 Herod, ii. 157. He adds that this was the longest siege known. The captura aud colonization of the city by Sargon accounts for its long resistance. Ashdod (which, like the Arabic shedeed, menus strong) was the great stronghold of the Philistines (1 Sam. v. 2), and continued the main fortress on this frontier. It was repeatedly taken and retaken iu the wars between E;;ypt and Asia.

DESERTION OF THE WARRIORS.

169

only more probable than the motive assigned by Herodotus for the desertion, but is confirmed by Herodotus's own statement that these Automoli (deserters) bore the name of As-mach, meaning " the men on the left hand of the king " (or, rather, the left icing of the army).²⁵ Herodotus adds that Psammetichus pursued and overtook them; but his entreat-ties that they, would return were insolently repelled; and they received from the king of Ethiopia the grant of the lands of certain Ethiopians with whom he was at feud. "From the time that this settlement was formed their acquaintance with Egyptian manners has tended to civilize the Ethiopians,"²⁶ is a remark which, however inaccurate, proves that Herodotus did not believe that the course of civilization was down the Xile.

From a curious Greek inscription at Abou-Simbel, it appears that Psammetichus himself did not follow the deserters higher than Elephantine, but that the pursuit was continued to a considerable distance up the river by his Greek soldiers, who, on their return, left this record of the adventure." The part of Ethiopia in which these deserters settled is hard to determine. Herodotus makes it as far above Meroe as Meroe is above Elephantine, which would be in Abyssinia.²⁸ Dio-dorus says that they settled in the most fertile part of Ethiopia, which would answer to the neighborhood of Meroe ; and the geographers mention a people called Euonymitw (those on the left hand, equivalent to the Asmach of Herodotus), to the north-west of Meroe.²⁹

§ 8. The desertion of the military caste was a reason why Psammetichus should show the more favor to the priests. He erected propylaea to the great temple of Phtha at Memphis, and built or enlarged the edifice where the bull Apis was kept. The sacred books, and especially the Ritual of

²⁵ Herod, ii. CO. The motive which he assigns for the desertion is the non-relief for three years of the frontier garrisons, which were kept in Elephantine against the Ethiopians, in the Pelusiac Daphnaj against the Syrians and Arabians, and in Marea against the Libyans, who, he says, consulted together, and, having determined by common consent to revolt, marched away towards Ethiopia-a highly improbable combination.

²⁶ Herod. I. e.

²⁷ For the inscription, see Wilkinson's Note to Herod, ii. 30, Rawlinson. There is no reasonable doubt that it refers to the occasion in question. The king's name is spelt Psamatichos, a form nearer the Egyptian than that of Herodotus. The names of " Psamcctichus, the sou of Theocles," the leader of the force, as well as of ''Amasis," indicate that Egyptian names of honor were given to the Greek commanders, as in the case of Joseph. No inference can be drawn as to any connection of this "Amasis" with the family of the later king of that r.ame. The words describing the farthest point reached by the soldiers are unfortunately obscure.

²⁸ It is possible that Herodotus may have confused .Meroe with Napata, which he does not mention. (See chap. vii. § 13. note 4T.)

²⁹ Strabo, xvii. p. 7S6 ; Pliu. vi. 30. These writers, however, olace the Automoli above Meroe.

S

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the Dead, appear to have been revised in his reign. In fact, the whole period of the twenty-sixth dynasty may be justly called the renaissance of the religious art of Egypt. Manetho assigns fifty-four years to his reign; and his fifty-fourth year is found on the monuments.

§ 9. Under Keku or Neciiao II.,³⁰ the JYecos of Herodotus, and the Pliaraoh-necho of the Bible, the Saite monarchy reached its acme, only to receive a decisive blow from the new power of Babylon. The capture of Ashdod had opened the road to Asia; and the fall of Nineveh, whether accomplished or impending, left the empire of Western Asia once more, as a Greek would have said, "in the midst,"as the prize of a contest between Egypt and Babylon.³¹ Neco set out for the Euphrates along the well-worn road through the maritime plain and the valley of Esdraelon. ' Here, however, he encountered an unexpected obstacle. Josiah, the reforming King of Judah, faithful to his liege, and ardent in the anti-Egyptian policy prescribed by the prophets to his house, marched out to withstand him. Disregarding the friendly remonstrance of Neco, except so far as to disguise his own person, the King of Judah marched down from the highlands of Manasseh,by the pass which issues near Megiddo, only to be carried off in his chariot, mortally wounded by the Egyptian archers.³²

Having won this last of Egypt's victories in Asia, on the

³⁰ Herodotus calls him the son of Psammetichns; but he appears, from the monuments, to have been his son-in-law, as he married Neit-akri (Nitocris), the daughter of Psammetichus. But it is quite possible that he may have married his half-sister. We adopt the simplest spelling of the name.

³¹ The text is so worded as not to involve a decision of the doubt respecting the epoch of the fall of Nineveh. Those who adopt the date of b.c. 625 regard Nabopo-Jassar as too much engaged with the consolidation of his new power, and with the aid he rendered to Cyaxares in the Lydian war, to concern himself with the provinces west of the Euphrates. On the other hand, the express statement, in the book of Kings, that " Pharaoh-nechoh went np against the king of Assyria,"' is a strong argument for the later date of the fall of Nineveh (b.o. 606): for the date of Josiah's death is fixed both by Egyptian and Biblical chronology (see note 35). The Jewish writers do not confound Assyria and Babylon. (2 Kings xxiii. 29: in 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, Necho goes up " to tight against Carcliemish," neither Assyria nor Babylon being mentioned.) It seems probable that Neco would have used the opportunity for joining in the general attack on Assyria, when, as Herodotus says, "she stood alone, de sorted by her allies" (Herod, i. 102). Comp. chap. xiv. § 20.

^3S 2 Kings xxiii. 20, 30; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-24. The latter passage is remarkable for giving the nar.ie of the king without the title of Pharaoh. Herodotus (ii. 150) says that Neco? made war by land upon the Syrians, and defeated them in a pitched battle at Magdolus (evidently not here, as elsewhere, Migdol, in Egypt); after which he made himself master of Cadytis, a large city of Syria. This is commonly supposed to mean Jerusalem (Kodcsh or Kadnsha, the Holy); but some take it for Kadesh on the Orontes, the old capital of the Hittites. It may have been worth Neco's while to complete the conquest of Syria ; but it seems more probable that he would not delay his march to the Euphrates. He may, however, have taken Kadesh on his return through Ccele-Syria (see what follows in the text). In the other passage where Herodotus mentions Cadytis (iii. 5), Gaza is generally supposed to be meant.

NECO AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

171

old battle-field of Thothmes III., Neco advanced to Carchemish, the object of his expedition,³³ and once more posted an Egyptian garrison in that key to the line of the Euphrates. Returning through Cade-Syria (Hamath), Neco sent for Je-hoahaz, whom the people had made king at Jerusalem, and put him in bonds, making his brother Eliakim (who was now called Jehoiakim) king in his place; and imposed a heavy tribute on Judah. He then returned to Egypt, taking with him Jehoahaz, who died there.³⁴

§ 10. The recovery of the boundary of the Euphrates was but a dying gleam of military glory for the Sai'te Pharaohs. Four years later (b.c 604) Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne of Babylon,³⁵ having, in the previous year, before his father's death, crushed the Egyptian army at Carchemish,³' marched on to Jerusalem, received the submission of Jehoiakim, and at one blow stripped Egypt of all power in Asia. In the emphatic words of the sacred annalist, " The king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land ; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt."³⁷ The brief warlike enterprise of Neco was out of date, and left nothing but its fame. "Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise ; he hath passed the time appointed," says Jeremiah,³" in the great prophecies delivered while the armies were marshalled at Carchemish for the " sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in the north country b}^r the river Euphrates ;" in which he predicts the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and her destruction like one of her own sacred heifers ; the fall of Memphis, and the punishment of Thebes and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and all that trust in Pharaoh.³⁰ The prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Pharaoh-Hophra or Apries, the second from Neeo.

§ 11. In the works of Neco at home we trace those new movements of foreign intercourse which give to the Sa'ite dynasty its peculiar character. Foremost among them was

³³ 2 Chron, xxxv. 20.

³⁴ 2 Kiugs xxiii. 30-35; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1-4. There is nothing to show that Neco -nsited Jerusalem. From this time to the captivity the course of events in Judaea was mainly influenced by the struggles between the Egyptian and Babylonian parties, as before between the Egyptian and Assyrian parties, at Jerusalem. Jeremiah is now, as Isaiah was before, the great opponent of the Egyptianizing'priests and princes.

³³ In Jerem. xxv. 1-3, the fourth year of Jehoiakim is reckoned as the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and also as the 23d year from the 13th year of Josiah. Supposing the fourth of Jehoiakim to be current at Nebuchadnezzar's accession (Jan. b.c 604), it follows that the first of Jehoiakim was b.c. 60S-607; aud, adding the three months of Jehoahaz, we have the beginning of b.o. 60S, or the very end of b.c. 609, as the ear' iest possible date for Oosiah's death.

³³ Jerem. xlvi. 1, 2, 6,10. ³⁷ 2 Kiugs xxiv. 7. ³⁸ Jcreui. xlvi. 17.

⁸⁹ Jerem. xlvi. 1-27.

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his attempt to re-open and complete the canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which had been begun and perhaps completed by Seti I. and Rameses II.⁴⁰ The canal, which was four days' journey in length, and wide enough to admit of two triremes being rowed abreast, left the Pelusiac branch of the Nile a little" above Bubastis, and was carried by a circuitous route, first eastward and then southward, to the head of the Gulf of Suez.⁴¹ It cost the lives of a hundred and twenty thousand of the Egyptians during the reign of Neco, who at length desisted on account of an oracle, which warned him that he was laboring for the barbarians⁴² —a sign of the growth of foreign commerce, and probably of the "obstructive power of the old Egyptian party.

§ 12. Neco maintained fleets both" in the Mediterranean and the Erythraean Seas ; and Herodotus says that the docks on the Red Rea for the latter fleet were visible in his time.⁴³ To his Red Sea fleet Herodotus ascribes the most signal achievement of ancient maritime discovery—the circumnavigation of Africa.⁴⁴ The story is that Neco, when disappointed of connecting the Mediterranean and Eastern Seas by his canal, sent to sea a fleet manned by Phcenicians,with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to Egypt through them and by the Northern Sea (/. e. the Mediterranean). They sailed through the Erythraean Sea into the Southern Ocean. When autumn came, they went on shore, wherever they might be, and, having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut.⁴⁵ Having reaped it,

⁴⁰ Ilerod. ii. 15S; iv. 39. The mistake of Herodotus, in saying that Neco was the first to construct the canal, arose from its being filled up by the sandy soil, so that the attempt to open it was virtually a new work. Aristotle, Strabo, and Pliny ascribe its commencement to Sesostris, and monuments of Rameses II. mark its course. Its completion by Darius is still a disputed question. There is on the Suez stone, near its ancient mouth, a cuneiform inscription with the name of "Daryaoush naga waz-arka" (Darius the Great King), stating that he completed it, but filled up a part of it again ; which may be a mode of evadiug a confession of failure. For an account of the course and history of the canals, see Wilkinson's Note to Ilerod. ii. 15S, aud " Handbook for Egypt," pp. 194-190.

⁴¹ The modern canal of M. de Lesseps, opened in November, 1S69, proceeds, not from the Nile, but southward from Lake Menzaleh to join the course of the old canal where it bends to the S. near the Bitter Lakes, between which and Suez it is said to have been still open as late as the time of Mohammed Ali. The ancient canal was of fresh water.

⁴- Ilerod. ii. 15S. Diodorus ascribes the cessation of the work to the discovery that the level of the Red Sea was higher than the soil of Egypt; and Pliny repeats the statement in connection with its resumption by Ptolemy Philadelphus, an imaginary reason for a doubtful fact. Herodotus in the one case and Strabo in the other assert that both kings did open the canal to the Red Sea: nor would the difference of level (if real) have been an obstacle, for we learn, from Diodorus himself, as well as from Strabo, that there were sluices at the mouth of the canal, probably to keep out the sea-waler and to suit the change of level at the time of the inundation.

^ Herod, ii. 159. ⁴⁴ Herod, iv. 42.

⁴⁵ Wilkinson observes that this is less surprising i_n an African climate, where bar-lei', doora, peas, etc., are reaped in from 3 months to 100 days after sowing.

APRIES OR PHARAOH-HOPHRA.

173

they again set sail; and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules and made good their voyage home. True to his principle of honestly reporting even what he deemed incredible, the historian has added the, very circumstance which affords the strongest argument against his own incredulity: " On their return they declared—for my part, I don't believe them—that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand"—which would be a simple astronomical fact.⁴⁶. It is remarkable that the king, who is said to have been so fully occupied with his wars and maritime expeditions, has left no great buildings : but his 16th year appears upon an Apis-stela; and this is the length assigned by Manetho to his reign.

The growing influence of Greek ideas is shown by the statement of Herodotus that Neco dedicated the dress which he wore in the campaign of Megiddo to Apollo at Branchida?, near Miletus. His son, Psammis, is represented as discussing with an embassy from Elis the fairness of the rules for the Olympic games.⁴⁷ This king, the Psamatik II. of the monuments, and the Psammuthis of Manetho, reigned only six years, and died soon after his return from an expedition against Ethiopia.⁴⁸ He made several additions to the temples at Thebes (at Karnak) and in Lower Eg'ypt.

§ 13. His son and successor was Wah-pra-hat (the San enlarges his heart), the Pharaoh-Jlophra of Scripture, the Vaphris of Manetho, and the Apries of Herodotus, who es* teemed him as, excepting Psammetichus, his great-grandfather, the most prosperous of all the kings that ever ruled over Egypt.⁴⁹ He inarched an army to attack Sidon, and fought a battle with the king of Tyre at sea/⁰ At length he came in conflict with the Greek colony of Cyrene, on the

⁴⁶ We must cot, however, lay too much stress on the argument that such statements could hardly have been invented had they not been true. An Egyptian mariner, accnstomed to the Red Sea, the greater part of which lies within the tropics, would know that the snn was sometimes to the north of the zenith, and might infer that it was always so to an observer sufficiently far south. After all that has been written by Major Rennell and others, respecting the aid derived from the currents round the African coast, and so forth, the great argument—uuless the story be an entire fabrication—is the statement that the fleet did get round to the mouth of the Nile. (See fnrther in the " Diet, of Greek aud Roman Geography," art. Libya.)

⁴⁷ Herod, ii. 1(50.

⁴⁸ Herod, ii. 161. His name frequently occurs at Syene, as well as those of Psamatik I. and Amasis.

⁴⁹ Herod, ii. 161. Here, as also in his account of the unexampled prosperity of Egypt under Amasis, it would seem that Herodotus, having once fixed his limit for the trustworthy history of Egypt at the accession of Psammetichus, tacitly ignores all the older traditions of the priests. He could not have meant to imply, for example, that these Saite kings were more prosperous than Sesostris, had he really believed his own story of Sesostris.

⁶⁰ He also appears to have attacked Cyprns, which was an old dependency of Egypt.

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northern shore of Libya. His protection was sought by the natives, who had been driven out by the rapid growth of the colony; and he levied a vast array of Egyptians, and sent them against Cyrene.⁵¹ The native warrior class once more found themselves in arms, far from the seat of royal power, and the old jealousy burst forth on the first occasion. Despising their unknown enemy, they suffered a severe defeat from the Greeks ; and, like so many beaten armies since, they cried that they were betrayed—the king had, of malice prepense, sent them into the jaws of destruction. " They believed he had wished a vast number of them to be slain, in order that he might reign with more security over the rest of the Egyptians." They returned in open revolt, and were joined by the friends of the slain.⁵²

They were met by an envoy of the king, who happened to bear the name of the founder of the XVIIIth dynasty, Amasis (i. e. Aahmes). As he was haranguing the mutineers, a soldier, coming behind him, placed a crown upon his helmet and proclaimed him king. Amasis, not displeased, led the army against Apries, and dismissed with insult a second envoy," Patarbemis, who was sent to bring him alive to the king. The cruelty with which Apries wreaked his rage on Patarbemis drove the loyal Egyptians over to the rebels, and the king was left at Sa'is with his 30,000 Greek and Carian mercenaries.⁵³ He led them out to meet the vastly superior numbers of Amasis at Momemphis (on the edge of the desert), where he was utterly defeated, and brought back a prisoner to the palace at Sais. Amasis treated him kindly at first; but,yielding to the remonstrances of the Egyptians, he gave Apries into their hands. " Then the Egyptians took him and strangled him, but, having so done, they buried him in the sepulchre of his fathers."⁵⁴

§ 14. On the story thus told by Herodotus, Scripture throws a new light. The successful expedition against Si-don and Tyre⁵⁵ was part of an effort to recover the supremacy of Western Asia, in which Pharaoh-Hophra ventured to measure himself against Nebuchadnezzar. He espoused the cause of Zedekiah⁵⁶ in the Jewish king's rebellion against

⁵¹ Herod, iv. 159. Here we see that a new native army had been formed, probably from the children whom the deserters are expressly said to have left behind them; and Apries would naturally send them, rather than his Greek mercenaries, against a Greek state. ⁶² Herod, ii. 161; iv. 159.

⁵³ Herod, ii. 162, 163. ⁵⁴ Herod, ii. 169.

⁵⁵ The sea-fight with the King of Tyre is connected with the question of Nebuchadnezzar's 13 years' siege of Tyre, and its alleged capture in u.o.5S5. It seems to imply that Tyre had submitted to Nebuchadnezzar as a vassal, and that Apries attacked its fleet as beinc; a powerful auxiliary to the King of Babylon.

⁵⁶ The terms of "the compact are stated by Ezekiel (xvii.15): "He (Zedekiah) re-v.ded against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they mtssht give him

PROPHECIES AGAINST PHARAOH-HOPHRA.

175

Nebuchadnezzar; and, when Jerusalem was invested, the approach of an Egyptian army under Pharaoh-IIophra forced the Chaldieans to raise, the siege.⁵⁷ But the relief was momentary;⁵⁸ the king of Egypt did not venture to meet the army of Nebuchadnezzar in the field, and the only further help he gave was to receive the remnant who took refuge in Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem.⁵⁹

He had done enough to draw upon him the chastisement which is described by the Jewish prophets.⁶⁰ The arrogance of Pharaoh-Hophra, in the time of his prosperity, is denounced in language precisely answering to that of the Greek historian. Herodotus tells us "that Apries believed that there was not a god who could cast him down from his eminence, so firmly did he think he had established himself in his kingdom ;"⁶¹ but Ezekiel speaks in the name of the God who declares himself against " Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great crocodile that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself."⁶² It is expressly declared that the land and spoil and people of Egypt, with Amun in Thebes, and all their gods, should be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as a reward for his fruitless service against Tyre;⁶³ and the king's own fate is thus predicted: "Behold, I will give Pharaoh-Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of them that seek his life;"⁶⁴ and, after the land of Egypt had been desolated "from Mig-dol to Syene and the border of Ethiopia," it was to be restored as " the basest of the kingdoms "—that is, a subject and tributary state—never more to "exalt itself to rule over the nations."'⁶⁵

These and several other passages in the prophecies clearly attest the fact that Egypt was invaded, conquered, and

horses and much people." It is doubtful on chronological grounds, whether the first league of Zedekiah with Egypt does not fall in the reign of Psammetichus II. ⁵⁷ Jerem. xxxvii. 5. sa Jerem. xxxvii. 5-S; Ezek. xvii. 11-18.

⁵⁹ Jerem. xliii. 5-7. ⁶⁰ Jerem. xliii., xliv., xlvi.; Ezek. xxix.-xxxii.

⁶¹ Herod, ii. 1G9. 62 _{Ezek- xxix> 3-}

⁶³ Jerem. xlvi. 25, 26; Ezek. xxix. IS, 19. The latter passsge is important for the question whether Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Comp. below c. xv. § 11. This prophecy seems also to clearly mention Lydia (Lud) as the ally of Egypt (Ezek. xxx. 5). 64 Jerem. xliv. 30.

6s Ezek. xxix. 13-16. Difficulties arise from the 40 years assigned as the period of desolation, aud from the strong langnage in which that desolation is described, especially when compared with Herodotns's account of the prosperity of Egypt under Amasis. But the historian is describing the internal state of the country, while the prophet refers mainly to her political subjection; and the former speaks of a time when the long reign of Amasis, corresponding very nearly to the 40 years of the prophecy, had healed the wounds of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion with a completeness only attainable in such a country as Egypt. As to the date of the iuvasion, v/e only know, from Ezek. xxix. 17, that the prophecy was still unfulfilled in the '27th year of the Great Captivity, b.c. 571, that is, about two years before the accession of Amasis.

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devastated, by Nebuchadnezzar,''⁶ who probably seized the opportunity offered by the disastrous campaign against Gyrene and the civil war between Apries and Amasis,⁶⁷ and confirmed the latter in the kingdom as his vassal. That the connection of the two kingdoms was drawn closer by marriage is shown by the famous Babylonian queen, who bears the Sai'te name of Nitocris (iVeit-akri, i. e." Neith the Victorious)." With Apries, to whom Herodotus assigns 25 years,⁶³ ended the direct line of the Sai'te house, just about a century after the accession of Psammetichus I. (b.c. 569).

§ 15. Amasis or Aahmes II., ends " the long majestic line of Egypt's kings," with the name of the great founder of the Theban monarchy—a coincidence which may have soothed the old Egyptian party who had raised him to the throne, though the name was borne by a vassal to Babylon. His place in the Saite dynasty was confirmed by his marriage with Ankhs-en-Ranofrehet, the daughter of Psammetichus II.,⁶⁹ and he adopted the title of Keit-se (son of Keith). He was a native of Siouph, in the Sait nome, and belonged to a house of no high distinction. Finding that this lessened his consideration with his subjects, he caused (says Herodotus) a golden foot-pan to be made into the image of a god ; and when the Egyptians nocked to worship the image, he called them to an assembly, and, by comparing its change of condition to his own, won the respect which was due, at all events, to his cleverness.

In his youth he had been fond of pleasure, and had roamed about to rob people when his resources failed him. When charged with such an offense, his denial was brought to the test before the nearest oracle ; and, when he became king, in the same spirit which we see in Croesus, he honored or neglected the temples of the gods according as they had succeeded or failed in detecting his crimes. He carried his love of pleasure to the throne; but did not permit it to interfere with business, nor his business with his pleasure. From early dawn to the busy time of the forenoon—the " full market," as the Greeks called the third hour after sunrise—he sedulously transacted all the business that was brought before him : during the remainder of the day he drank and

^S6 This invasion is mentioned by Berosus, who says that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Egypt aud put Apries to death. Comp. c. xv. § 12.

^C7 Another theory is that the Babylonian invasion was the cause of the disaffection of the Egyptians towards Apries.

⁶⁸ We prefer this date to Mauethc/s 19 years, both from its better agreement with the Scripture chronology and from the constant corruption of Manetho's numbers.

⁶⁹ According to some authorities, this princess was the daughter of a King Psammetichus iii., whose name is found on some monuments at Thebes. Ilis place in ihe series—whether before, or after, or tontempcrary with Apries—is very doubtful

PROSPERITY OP EGYPT UNDER AMASIS. 177

joked with his guests, often beyond the limits of propriety. To the friends who would have had the Egyptians always see him in royal dignity upon his throne he replied by the celebrated metaphor of the mischief of keeping a bow always bent.

§ 16. Such a spirit suited the subject state of Egypt; and, first as an unambitious vassal, afterwards favored by the declining power of Babylon, Amasis raised the country to a very high state of material prosperity, and adorned the temples with admirable works of art. Herodotus reports the saying " that the reign of Amasis was the most prosperous time that Egypt ever saw—the river was more liberal to the land, and the land brought forth more abundantly for the service of man, than had ever been known before, while the number of inhabited cities was not less than 20,000."⁷⁰ However this prosperity may have been exaggerated by the priests, who dwelt with fond regret on the period just before the Persian conquest, we ha ve abundant evidence of Egypt's wealth, both from the tombs of private persons at Thebes and from the vast booty carried off by the army of Cam-byses.

The rule of Amasis was as hostile to idleness as that of any of the old Pharaohs. Herodotus ascribes to him the law (which Solon adopted) requiring all Egyptians to present themselves once a year before the governor of their nome, and to show their means of living, on pain of death ; but the monuments exhibit such registration-scenes at a much earlier date.⁷¹

§ 17. A main source of this prosperity, besides the irrepressible fertility of Egypt, was the full development which Amasis gave to the commercial policy begun by Psammetichus. He permitted the Greeks to settle at Naucratis, below Sais, on the Canopic branch of the Nile, to which chan* nel their commerce was restricted.⁷² As was usual with the ancient nations, the concession of a residence to foreigners involved the free exercise of their worship ; but Amasis also granted sites for temples to those who wished only to trade upon the coast, without taking up their residence in Egypt. The most famous and most frequented of such temples was the Ilellenlon, built conjointly by the Ionians, Dorians, and

⁷⁰ Herod.1T7.

⁷¹ Wilkinson suggests that Aahmes T. (Amosis) may have been the author of the law; but we have seeu that the Old Monarchy of Memphis was equally intolerant of idleness.

⁷² Herod. 77S. 179. WPkinson observes that this restriction, which resembles the poiicy of the Chinese towards Europeans, was also a wise precaution against the Greek pir^es »vho itii'ested the Mediterranean.- The exact position of Naucratis is unknown.

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iEolians of Asia Minor; and the contributing cities had ths right of appointing the governors of the factory with which the temple was connected. Separate temples were erected by the JEginetans to Jove ; by the Samians to Hera; and by the Milesians to Apollo.⁷³

§ 18. Such works, executed at a time when Grecian art was approaching its acme, must have had some influence on the art of Egypt, and thus Greece repaid a part of an ancient debt. The Egyptian monuments of this age, while retaining their national style and conventional forms, are distinguished by a new freedom and grace, especially in those figures which were unfettered by hieratic rules. Nor did the Egyptian artist want for occupation under Amasis,who emulated the old kings in the colossal size of his Avorks. At Memphis he built a vast temple to Isis, and adorned the temple of Phtha with colossal statues.⁷⁴ At Sa'is he built the propylrea of the temple of Neith, " an astonishing work, far surpassing all other buildings of the same kind, both in extent and height, and built with stones of rare size and excellency" (Herod.). He also repaired the temple with stones of a most extraordinary size, some of limestone from the quarries opposite Memphis, but the largest were granite blocks from Elephantine. Of these huge masses the most wonderful was a monolith chamber, the conveyance of which from Elephantine to Sais (commonly a voyage of twenty days) occupied 2000 laborers three years, and after all an omen prevented its being placed in the temple.⁷⁵ Amasis also placed there several immense andro-sphinxes, and other colossal statues, among which was a recumbent colossus of the same size as that at Memphis.⁷⁶

While thus adorning the sanctuaries of his native gods, he gave 100 talents (about £25,000) towards the rebuilding of the temple at Delphi, which was burnt in B.C. 548, and he dedicated statues and other works of art to various Greek deities: to Athena at Lindus, in regard for the tradition

'3 Herod, ii. ITS.

⁷⁴ Herod, ii. 176. One of these was a recumbent colossus 75 feet long, in front of the temple—an attitude so unusual that (as Wilkinson suggests) the monolith was probably left on the ground on account of the troubles which soon befell Eg3*pt, a reason which the priests would not confess to Herodotus. The others were two pairs of twin colossi ou the same base, 20 feet high, carved in the stone of Ethiopia, on each side of the temple.

⁷⁵ So Herodotus was told ; but the true reason was probably that mentioned in the preceding note. A similar monolith of the same king at Thmni's or Leontopolis (Teh et-Mai), measures 21 feet 9 inches high, 13 feet broad, and 11 feet 7 inches deep, exter nally. The dimensions given by Herodotus are equal to 31 feet 6 inches hisrh. 22 feet broad, and 12 feet deep, outside, and inside 23 feet 3 inches, IS feet, aud 7£ feet. What he calls the lenqth was the height, when the chamber stood erect.

'<> Herod, ii. 17P.

EGYPT UNDER PERSIA.

179

that the temple was built by the daughters of Danaiis, when they touched there on their flight from the sons of iEgyp-tus; to Hera at Samos, in memory of his friendship for the ill-fated Polycrates, an episode in ancient history made famous by Herodotus and Schiller;⁷⁷ and to Athena at Gyrene, with which state he formed a close alliance, marrying Ladice, the daughter of the king or of a Cyrenaic noble", " either as a sign of friendly feeling, or because he had a fancy to marry a Greek woman."⁷⁸

§ 19. But his foreign policy was not entirely pacific. He used the navy which Neco had founded to take Cyprus, which was a dependency of Phoenicia, and to reduce it to tribute.⁷⁹ In the final effort to resist the Persian conqueror Cyrus, Amasis appears as the ally of the Lydian Croesus and the Babylonian Nabonidus, the latter being still probably his nominal suzerain. If we may believe Xenophon, Amasis sent to the aid of Croesus a force of 120,000 Egyptians, who, after a very brave resistance, were admitted to an honorable capitulation, and settled in Larissa and Cyllene. Amasis seems afterwards to have been on friendly terms with Cyrus, to whose aid he sent one of the famous Egyptian eye-doctors.⁸⁰ But this man's resentment is said to have suggested the pretext which the ambition of Cambyses found for the attack which he meditated from the beginning of his reign. Amasis died just as the invasion began (b.c 527 or 525), leaving the inheritance of a lost throne to his son Psammext-tus, who was defeated at Pelusium, and put to death with every indignity, after a nominal reign of six months.

§ 20. The story of the conquest, and of the renewed attempts of Egypt to throw off the yoke, belong to the history of Persia. The Persian kings, from Cambyses to Darius II. Nothus, are enrolled as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Manetho. The ensuing .revolts are recognized in the Twenty-eighth (Scute) Dynasty, consisting only of Amyrtams, who restored the independence of Egypt (b.c 414-408),and the Twenty-ninth (Mendesian) and Thirtieth (Sebennyte) Dynasties (about b.c 408-353),⁸¹ of whose intricate history we need only here say that they ruled with great prosperity and have left beautiful monuments of art.⁸² The last king of independent Egypt was Nectanebo II., who succumbed to the invasion of Artaxerxes Ochus, and fled to Ethiopia (b.c.

⁷⁷ Ilerod. iii. 39-43 ; Schiller, "Der Ring des Polykrates;" see Lord Lytton's tra'ns. lations of Schiller's ballads. ⁷⁸ Herod, ii. ISO. ⁷⁹ Herorl. ii. 1^2.

⁸⁰ Ilerod. iii. 1. Ophthalmia has always been one of the plagues of Egypt. Wilkinson ascribes it to the transition from excessive dryness to damp.

^M See Book iii. chap, xxviii.

⁸² The British Museum is particularly rich in their monuments.

180

THE LATER SAITE MONARCHY.

353). The last three kings of Persia, Ochus, Arses, and Da* rius Codomannus, form the Thirty-first Dynasty or Manetho, ending with the submission of Egypt to Alexander the Great (b.c. 332).

His foundation of Alexaxdeia prepared the three centuries of prosperity which Egypt enjoyed under the Ptolemies (b.c. 323 to b.c. 30) ; till Mark Antony bartered the chance of a new Eastern Empire, with its seat in Egypt, for the charms of Cleopatra at the battle of Actium ; which made Egypt a Roman province, and decided the victory of European progress over the despotic spirit and barbarian immobility of the East.

"Funeral Boat, or Baris."

CHAPTER IX.

THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OP EGYPT.

Section I. Social Institutions. § 1. Character of the Egyptians. ? 2. Common view of caste called in question. But the hereditary system of occupations the general rule. § 3. Classes enumerated by the Greek writers. The lower classes distinguished from the priests and warriors. Agriculturists aud herdsmen. § 4. Occupations depicted on the monuments. Unenumerated classes. Independent proprietors. City Populace. § 5. The highest Class: the Priests. Their lauded property and other resources. Their ritual observances. Monogamy. Sacerdotal Colleges. § 6. The second or Military Class. Hermotybiaus and Calasirians. Distribution of the forces:—Land ; Body-guard ; Allowances ; Auxiliaries, and Mercenaries.

Section II. Political Institutions. § 7. Power of the King. His divinity. Distance above his subjects. No independent nobility. § 8. Sacerdotal rules for the King's daily life. "The King can do no wrong." Fiction of a posthumous judgment by the people. § 9. Hereditary Succession. Royal Princes. Erection. Initiation into sacerdotal knowledge. The King bound to govern according to law. Stability of the government. § 10. Egyptian legislation. Admired aud copied by the Greeks. Likeness to the Mosaic laws. Criminal code. Forced labor iu the mines. Cnrions law of theft. Civil law. Debtor and Creditor. § 11. Independence of the judicial administration. Court of the Thirty. Conrse of procedure ; wholly in writing. Reports of two trials. § 12. General Administration by the corporation of Scribes. Chief departments. Sources of Revenue. § 13. Division

' of Egypt into Xomes. Nomarchs and Toparchs. Central Representation at the Labyrinth. The people excluded from the government.

Section III. Religious Institutions. § 14. Greek Tiew of the popular superstitions. Esoteric religion of the priests. Doctrine of one self-existing God. "I am tiiat I am." § 15. His unity lost in His manifestations. Symbolic spirit of Egyptian polytheism and idolatry. Triads of deities ; father, mother, aud son. § 16. Doctrine of a future life: symbolized by the conrse and power of the Sun. His various personifications, Pa, Atoum, Khepcr. Inert Matter the universal Mother. Created and vivified by Xoum, the first demiurgns: symbol, the Ram. The region of darkness and death personified in Athor (symbol, the Cow), mother of Horus. Boat of Osiris. Fable of Osiris, Isis, Horns, and Typhon. § 17. The chief Egyptian Triads—(i.) Of Thebes: Amun, Maut, Chons. (ii.) Of Memphis: Phtha, Pasht, Month, (iii.) Of Hermonthis: Month, Ritho, and Horus. (iv.) Universal triad of Osiris, Isis, and Homs. Three orders of deities. The eight great gods. § IS. Animal Worship of the Egyptians. Various explanations. Theory of utility, inadequate. § 19. True origin of the practice in symbolism. Three stages. Cases of positive incarnation. The bull Apis. His revelation, maintenance, and burial. His new manifestation as Osir-Hapi, the Serapis of the Greeks. $ 20. Care of the sacred animals. Laws for their protection. Sacrilege of Camby

182 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

ses. The Roman soldier. Description of Clemens Alexaudrinus. § 21. Sacrifices and worship. Circumcision. Embalmment. Doctriue of immortality and resurrection, and of future rewards and pnnishnieuts. Judgmeut of the Dead. Fate of the wicked. Trials and bliss of the just. His identification with " Ositis the Good."

Section iv. Egyptian Arts. § 22. Antiquity and excellence of Egyptian art. Its religious sonrce. Arcfritecture: monumental and permanent in its forms, but not°wautingin grace. § 23. Four classes of buildings: pyramids, tombs, palaces, and temples. Description of an Egyptian temple. Buildings attached. Sphinxes, obelisks, and colossi. § 24. Sculpture: its religious character, aud development from the temple. Its symbolic spirit. Repose and absence of detail. Symmetry aud rhythmical postures. § 25. Five epochs of Egyptian Scnlptnre. § 26. Painting: chiefly decorative. Colors and pigments. Painted tablets aud vignettes.

Section v. Writing, Literature, and Science. § 27. Writing — its antiquity and general use. Materials : papyrus, peus, ink. § 28. Three forms of letters: hiero-*glyphic, hieratic, and demotic. Essentially the same. § 29. Interpretation of the hieroglyphics. § 30. Phonetic and ideographic characters. § 31. Egyptian Literature. Libraries. Ritual of tlie'Dcad and other Religious works. Hermetic Books. Historical Literature. Poems. Literary exercises. Romances. § 32. Egyptian Science. Mediciue. Geometry. Astrouomy. Astrology. Numerals.

Section I.—Social Institutions—Classes of the People.

§ 1. A people who lived for more than two thousand years, at the least, under a despotic government, amidst all the dynastic changes of which we never meet with a popular revolution, must have had the strongest elements of permanence both in their character and their institutions. The Egyptians were serious, as became believers in an immortal lite"and the subjects of a supreme ruler, living under a fixed system of laws, and inhabiting a climate whose very changes show its regularity. But the sombre style of their monuments, and the composed features given to their statues .by conventional rules of art, perhaps even the very preservation of so many of their dead, have produced an exaggerated impression of their gravity. They have left scenes of feasting and amusement enough tO prove that they could be cheerful, and something more.

§ 2. The assertion constantly made, on the authority of the ancients, that Egyptian society was founded on the immutable law of caste, has been called in question by Rossellini and Ampere. In the strict sense of the term, the three conditions of caste—devotion to the profession of the caste, abstinence from all other professions, and from intermarriage with other castes—were not fulfilled by the Egyptians. Fromthe monuments we find the sacerdotal and military functions borne by the same persons, and combined with civil oftices: priests and soldiers intermarry with each others' daughters; and members of the same family follow these two several professions. For example, a monument, in the museum at Naples, to one who was himself a general of infantry, records that his elder brother was a chief of public works, and at the

CLASSES AND OCCUPATIONS.

183

tame time a priest.¹ The nobility of an Egyptian, moreover, consisted in his high functions; and high birth is never put forward in the laudatory epitaphs. Except the royal race, who claimed a divine descent—whether as a fact or a figure is not quite clear—all Egyptians were equally well born.²

But there was a tendency, as in some modern aristocracies, for the higher services of religion and the state to become hereditary in certain families of the nobles, to whom such functions were strictly confined. The line of division was clear and broad between these privileged classes and those who were occupied with the wants of daily life; and among the latter it was customary, if not established by law, that the same occupations were handed down from father to son. Such, indeed, is the natural result of a state of society in which, the land and the government being in the hands of the upper classes, they can prescribe to the lower the conditions under which they shall earn their daily bread.- The general rule, at all events, in Egypt was that every man should be limited to his hereditary business.V The monuments show clearly the distinct line between the privileged classes of the priests and warriors, who also held the higher administrative offices, and the rest of the population ; but, for that very reason, they give no indications of any fixed distribution of employments among the lower classes. " Priests, warriors, judges, architects, chiefs of districts and provinces, are nearly the only ranks or classes that appear in the inscriptions. We do not find the laborer, the agriculturist, the artist, or the physician, receiving those funereal honors which consist in the'representation of the deceased as offering to the gods and praying for their protection in another world."⁴

§ 3. Of such classes, then, rather than castes, Herodotus enumerates seven, Diodorus five ; but neither account is exact. Both agree in making the priests and soldiers the two highest classes: the rest, forming the common people, are divided by Diodorus into shepherds (or herdsmen), agriculturists,and artisans; by Herodotus into herdsmen, sieine-herds, tradesmen, interpreters, and steersmen (or pilots). ^ The last two classes (as Herodotus expressly tells us of the interpreters) would naturally be formed into distinct corporations under tn,e Sai'te kings,Vho encouraged foreigners and their

i Ampere, in the " Revue des Deux Mondes," 184S, p. 410. ² Diod. i. 92.

³ Diciearchna attributes to Sesostris the law, n^deva KaraXmeiv rljv -rra-rpwav Ttxw-Sehol. to Ap. Rhod. iv. p. 272-27C. * Ampere, as quoted by Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. c. 24.

184 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, A 1ST) ARTS OF EGYPT.

commerce ;⁵ and it must be constantly remembered that Herodotus describes Egypt (and chiefly Lower Egypt) as the Sai'te kings had left it to their Persian conquerors. The separation of the unclean swine-herds from the other pastoral people is a mere subdivision, or vice versa; and the remarkable omission of the agriculturists may be explained by the fact that they were virtually serfs, adscripti glebce, not recognized as following a calling of their own. All the land of Egypt being-owned by the king, priests, and soldiers, the peasants tilled it for their masters, paying a full and rigidly exacted rent of the produce. Their condition was much like that of the fellahs of this day.⁶ J No class seem to have been social outcasts like the Indian pariahs, except perhaps the swine-herds, who (Herodotus tells us) were not permitted to enter a temple. As to the supposed hatred and contempt for shepherds and herdsmen in general—" every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians'"⁷—it seems probable that some distinction should be drawn between the Semitic nomad races, the detested kinsmen of t/ie Hyksos, and the native Egyptians who tended their iords^v flocks and herds. But the antipathy to the former class would naturally include all the subject pastoral races of the 'Delta, the marshes of which were the greatest pasture-ground of Egypt.

§ 4. The vast variety of the occupations followed by the several classes of artisans, who are seen on the monuments in the actual work of their several callings, has been partly described in our account of the life of Egypt under the Old Monarchy. A full account hes quite beyond our limits, and it has been already given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson,⁸ in whose descriptions and plates the reader will find the old Egyptians engaged in all the operations of agriculture, gardening, hunting, and boating ; in the manufactures of glass_? pottery, metal-work, and textile fabrics ; in the handicrafts ot shoe-making and carpentry, masonry and building, polishing pillars and colossal statues ; in the occupations of shop-keepers, public weighers and notaries, fowlers, fishermen, brick-

⁵ The large class of ordinary sailors, especially boatmen navigating the Nile, would be included in Diodorns's class of artificers or, as we may say, craftsmen.

⁶ It would seem, however, from Genesis xlvii. 1S-21, that there was once a class of jidepeudeut proprietors who, on their extinction as land-owners, were added to the urban population.

⁷ Genesis xlvi. 34. Sir G. Wilkinson adds to the text the evidence of_#the monuments : "As if to prove how much they despised every order of pastors, the artists, both of Upper and Lower Egypt, delighted on all occasions iu caricaturing their appearance." ("Anc. Egyptians," vol. ii. p. 1G9, popular edit.) Dr. Beke has attempted to show that the word translated "abomination" really means "an object of reverence." (See "Athenrenm," June, 1SG9.)

⁸ "The Ancient Egyptians," 0 vols. Svo ; and "A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians," 2 vols, crown Svo.

THE PRIESTS.

makers, and common laborers; besides other scenes too many to enumerate.

The classification attempted by the Greek writers could not, from the nature of the case, be complete. " In a country so fertile as Egypt, in which manufactures, art, and internal commerce were carried on to such an extent, wealth must have accumulated among those engaged in civil life, and have given rise to a class of independent proprietors not included in^any of the genea. On the other hand, we find that in large cities a p>op>ulace forms itself, depending on casual expedients for subsistence, and, as having no definite occupation, equally excluded from the list. Such a class in later times existed in Egypt; Sethos employed it in support of his usurpation ;⁹ Amasis endeavored to check its growth by compelling every man to declare his occupation before the magistrate."¹⁰

§ 5. The highest class was that of the Peiests ; and their office was strictly hereditary. The priests of Amun at Thebes, and of Phtha at Memphis, boasted to Hecatams and Herodotus their descent from father to son for 345 and 340 generations respectively.¹¹ They were the great hereditary nobility of Egypt; and they shared with the king and the warrior-clnss the ownership of all the land. They claimed their possessions as the gift of Isis, who had granted one-third of the soil of Egypt to the priests ; and in fact they held the greatest part of it, though we do not know the exact proportion. When Joseph accomplished his new policy of land tenure, the land of the priests was exempted from'the paramount ownership of the king, and from the tax of one-'nTttr of the produce; and the exemption remained permanent.^ The lands were let out to tenants, whose rents were carried into the treasury of the temples, of which the cultivators were considered as the servants. Hence were defrayed the expenses of the temples, their pompous ritual, and their numerous hierarchy of ministers; but the priests received, besides, daily rations of cooked food, and contributions of oxen, sheep, and wine: fish was forbidden to them. So abundant were these resources that they had no need to expend their

⁹ Herod, ii. 141. io Kenrick, "Ancieut Egypt," vol. ii. p. 4S.

¹¹ Herod, ii. 142,143. Taken literally, the statement is of coiirse incredible, aud its artificial character is further shown by the number of generations of the kiu<rs being the same as that of the priests. Bnt it is a good argument for the law of hereditary succession in both cases. A similar case of hereditary succession in the civil service is cited by Lepsius from an inscription in the Sinaitic peninsula, in which a chief of the mining works declares that twenty-three of his ancestors had filled the same office before him.

¹² Genesis xlvii. 22; Diod. i. T3. Bnt it appears from the Ptosetta stone that the Ptolemies received a tax from the priests.

LSG THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

private property/³ They lived in wealth and luxury; and the minute ritual observances of their lives, in a climate like that of Egypt, were agreeable rather than ascetic. They shaved the head and body every other day, washed in cold water twice every day and twice every night, and wore robes of linen and shoes of papyrus, wool and leather being forbidden them.¹¹ The endless variety of their services filled up the time for which there was no other occupation (for the sciences, of which the priests held the key, could only be mastered by the few); and even amusement might be found in ritual observances. They were bound by no law of celibacy; but they were the only class to whom polygamy was forbidden.¹⁵ Women could not hold the priesthood, even to female deities ;¹⁶ but they might minister in the temples.¹⁷ For each deity there was a high-priest, whose dignity was hereditary, at the head of a numerous hierarchy of priests, scribes, and attendants of all sorts. The most famous sacerdotal colleges were those, of the three religious capitals, Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes.

§ G. The Military Class ranked second. None of them practised any trade ; and the son succeeded to the profession of the father.¹⁸ Herodotus divides them into the two bodies called Uermcjtybians and Calasirians™ Each body consisted of the forces of different nomes; the Hermotybians belonging to five nomes of Lower Egypt and one of Upper Egypt, namely, Chemmis ; the Calasirians to eleven nomes of Lower Egypt and one of Upper, namely, Thebes.²⁰ As Kenrick observes, " It was on the side of Asia that the country was most exposed to attack; .... and the abundance and fertility of land in the Delta pointed out this as the part most suitable for the settlement of the soldiery." Here, also, the foreign auxiliaries were stationed in their separate " camps." To the native soldiery, as we have seen, were intrusted the three great frontier garrisons of Elephantine towards Ethiopia, Pelusium towards Syria, and Marea towards Libya.

The military class shared the soil of Egypt with the king and the priests ; and an expression of Diodorus seems to ini"

¹³ Herod, ii. 3T. ¹⁴ Herod, ii. 37.

¹⁵ Diod. i. SO : comp. Herod, ii. 92. ¹⁶ Herod, ii. 35.

¹⁷ Herod, ii. 55; confirmed by the monuments. But the Rosetta stone shows that the deified Ptolemies had their priestesses as well as their priests.

^1S Herod, ii. 165,1156. Priests also, as we have already seeu, held military commands ; aud there is no proof that men of daring and promise were not received from other classes into the military.

¹⁹ The latter name is found on the monuments as Klashr, followed by the figure of an archer or a soldier, the Egyptian infantry being chiefly archers. Wilkinson, note to Herod, ii. 164.

²⁰ Here aeain it should be observed that the information of Herodotus relates t« Ihe state of Egypt under the Sai'te kings.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

187

ply that they employed their leisure in cultivating their lands :²¹ hut they were interdicted from all handicrafts. Herodotus says that each soldier had 12 arurce (about 3 roods) exempt from all imposts. There was no privileged corps, like our Guards ; but the king's body-guard was furnished every year by 1000 men from each of the two bodies; and, during this service, each man received, as daily allowance, 5 mince²² of baked head or parched corn, 2 mince of beef, and about a quart of wine. Their peculiar arms, clothing, and ensigns, are seen on the monuments.

From all this it is clear that the Egyptian army had no resemblance to forces of paid soldiers enlisted from the lower classes, and commanded by privileged officers. The whole profession was privileged ; and, in the flourishing times of the monarchy, it was strictly national. The foreign auxiliaries were kept in a thoroughly subordinate position; till, in the course of generations, they became Egyptian citizens, like the Matoi, under the Middle Monarchy, and the Libyan Maxyans, under the New. The reliance of Psammetichus on his Greek and Carian mercenaries broke up this system, and caused, first, the secession of the bulk of the native soldiers, and afterwards those intestine struggles of the two forces which left Egypt an easy prey to Persia.

Sectiox II.—Political Ixstitutioxs.

§ 7. The government of Egypt was an absolute monarchy, only qualified by a definite system of laws, and by the strong influence of religion on the conscience of the king and of rules imposed by the priests upon his daily life. He held unlimited power over a people who ^ere unquestioning believers in the divine right of kings, on the only sure ground of a real belief in their divine origin. " The Egyptians," says Diodorus Siculus, "adore their kings as equal to the gods;" and the monuments confirm him. In the earliest age of the monarchy we find the king invested with the sacerdotal character; and the priests are in a state of absolute dependence on him as their head. As the priests gained more independent power, the king added to his rank as sovereign pontiff the character of a visible god upon the earth. Hence the sublime epithet of Pharaoh, son of the Sun-god Pa, which was prefixed to the name of every king, in an oval surmounted by a crowned hawk, the symbol ofRa.²³ "The king is the image of Ra among men," says an inscription,

²¹ Diod. i. 28.

²² The Attic mina was about 1£ lb. avoirdupois, the Egiuetau about

²³ This is the earliest use of crests, when crests had a real meaning.

188 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

Hence the constant identification of the king with Horus, and Ids titles of "the great god," "the good god," "the sun, the lord of justice ;" for he ruled the lower world as the sun rules the order of the universe. In short, as a modern writer puts it, in the act of mounting the throne, he was transfigured before the eyes of his subjects, and enjoyed an apotheosis during his life besides his apotheosis after death. The divine and regal emblems are so interchanged on the monuments, the god and king are so associated, that it is often difficult to say which is which; and the king is even seen in the act of worshipping his own image. After death, the long line of kings are worshipped by their successors, as we have seen in the " Chamber of Ancestors " and the " Tables of Abydos." But during life, also, they had their own priests and altars.

The distance was immeasurable between the king and the highest of his subjects. He might not be ministered to by slaves; but priests and military nobles were his domestics; and their epitaphs record exemption from abject reverence as the most distinguished favor. One rejoices in being allowed to touch the king's knees in place of prostration before him; another is even permitted to wear his sandals in the palace. This system endured even under the Ptolemies; who, we must remember, were not free Greeks, but semi-barbarians, prone to adopt Oriental forms and Oriental vices. Such a view of the royal person, as one to whom reverence and obedience was a religious duty even in the highest subject, excluded that personal dignity and independence which are essential to a true nobility, and left no separate power or rank between the divine Pharaoh on the throne and the people at his footstool. Such was the full theory of Egyptian royalty, however modified in practice by the power of the priests and soldiers.

§ 8. One class of restrictions arose from the very dignity of the royal nature. The divine Pharaoh must himself observe an etiquette of order worthy of a god ; and of this the priests made themselves the interpreters and ministers. His food and the quantity of his wine, his exercises and his pleasures, were all prescribed by a ceremonial contained in one of the books of Hermes (i. e. Thoth).²⁴ " It was his duty," says Diodorus," when he rose in the early morning,first of all to read the letters sent from all parts, that he might transact all business with accurate knowledge of what was being done everywhere in his kingdom. Having bathed, and arrayed

²⁴ Clem. Alex. " Strom." vi. 4, p. 757, cel. Potter. Concerning these books, see below, 5 30.

THE KING.—HIS DIVINITY AND RULES OF LIFE. 189

himself in splendid robes and the insigna of sovereignty, he sacrificed to the gods.²⁵ The victims being placed beside the altar, the high-priest, standing near the king, prayed with a loud voice (the people standing round) that the gods would give health and all other blessings to the king, he observing justice towards his subjects. It was the priest's office, also, to declare the king's several virtues, saying that he showed piety towards the gods and clemency towards men ; that he was temperate and magnanimous, truthful and liberal, and master of all his passions ; that he inflicted on offenders punishments lighter than their misdeeds deserved, and repaid benefits with more than a proportionate return. After many similar prayers, the priest pronounced an imprecation respecting things done in ignorance, exempting the king from all accusation, and fixing the injury and the penalty on those who had been his ministers and who had wrongfully instructed him." So early in the history of the world do we find the doctrine of the ministerial responsibility brought to support the maxim that " the king can do no wrong."

It is, indeed, affirmed that his own responsibility was enforced by a form of posthumous judgment, to which he was subjected in the person of his mummy. Any one who had an accusation to bring against him was heard; and, after the priests had pleaded his merits, the honors of sepulture were granted or refused by the applause or murmurs of the assembled people.²⁶ But this singular statement receives no confirmation from the monuments; and when we find the memorials of a deceased king defaced, it is generally by some rival who wished to brand him as a usurper.

§ 9. The succession to the crown was hereditary; and the princes of the royal family were distinguished by appropriate titles and insignia.²⁷ These princes generally followed the military profession, to which most of the Egyptian kings belonged : we find them mentioned as generals of the cavalry, archers, and other corps, and admirals of the fleet. Many held honorable offices in the royal household, such as tan-bearers on the right of their father, royal scribes, superintendents of the granaries or of the land, and treasurers of the king. That " the king never dies " was a fundamental maxim of the monarchy ; and, amidst all the dynastic revolu-

²⁵ The monuments constantly show the king offering sacrifices in person. For a representation of the royal robes and apron, see Wilkinson, "Popular Account," etc., vol. ii. p. 323. 26 mod. i. T2.

²⁷ Their regular distinction was a badge, hanging from the side of the head, which iuclosed, or represented, the lock of hair emblematic of a " son," in imitation of the youthful god Horns, Avho was the type of royal virtue aud the model for all princes. (See this head-dress in Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 312.)

190 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

tions the priestly registers (as we see from Manetho) were made to show an unbroken succession from Menes to Psam-menitus.

The ceremonies of election, spoken of by some late writers, seem to have been only formal, the people, as at modern coronations, welcoming the new king by their acclamations. In the case of a real or formal election, owing to a dynastic revolution or the failure of the royal line, the new king must be either a priest or soldier; and, if the latter, he was admitted to the sacerdotal order and initiated in the hidden wisdom of the priests.²⁸ In every case, the king was diligently instructed by the scribes in the moral precepts, and in the histories of eminent and virtuous men, contained in the sacred books. He was bound to use his power according to the law, and nothing was left to caprice or passion ;²⁹ and, amidst some striking cases of tyranny,³⁰ the absence of popular revolutions is a strong argument that the rulers generally respected the laws and revered their religious sanctions.

"The union of priestly sanctity, military power, and monarchical authority, in one person, gave the government a degree of stability not belonging to forms of polity in which these powers were dissociated or hostile. At the same time the influence of the sacerdotal order, who were almost the sole possessors of knowledge, stamped it with a character of mildness and humanity ; as in the Middle Ages the influence of the Church tempered the rigors of feudalism. It substituted religious awe for constitutional checks and sanctions in the mind of the monarch, and by this sentiment more effectually controlled him as long as religion and its ministers were respected."³¹

§ ]0. Legislative power seems to have been vested in the sovereign alone ; and among the kings famous as lawgivers are Menes, Sasychis, Bocchoris, and Amasis. But it is impossible to doubt that they consulted the learning of the priests and the wishes of the higher classes generally in making new laws. The Greeks regarded the laws of Egypt as the expression of the highest wisdom and the fountain of inspiration to their own great legislators and philosophers, Ly-curgus, Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato; and the likeness be-

²⁸ Plato, " Polit." ii. p. 290; Plut. " Is. et Osir." p. 354, B. It seems also that a royal prince (whether by birth or adoption) was similarly initiated ; and thus it was that " Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." (Acts vii. 22.) What has been said of the occupations of the royal princes will illustrate the further statement that he " was mighty in words and deeds," aud the military exploits ascribed to him by Josephns, though with details evidently fabulous.

²9 Diod. i. 94. so Notably the Pharaoh of the Exodus. ³¹ Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 35.

EGYPTIAN LEGISLATION.

191

tween the Egyptian and Jewish codes is a decisive testimony alike to the merit of the former and to the purpose for which Moses was led to acquire his Egyptian learning.

Unfortunately, both the monuments and the papyri, so rich in historical facts and religious lore, are almost silent about the laws ; but Diodorus gives the outline of the criminal code.³² First of all, perjury was punished by death, as combining the two greatest crimes that can be committed against God and against man. The false accuser was subject to the penalty of the offense charged. The willful murder, whether of a free man or of a slave, was alike punished by death ; and the same penalty was inflicted on the by-stander who refused to assist a man attacked by an assassin. If, being really unable to give effectual help, he failed to denounce the culprit before the tribunals, he received a certain number of stripes, and was kept without food for three days. A parent who killed his child was compelled to sit three days ami three nights embracing its body, under the guard of a public officer. The exposure of infants was forbidden, nor was a mother allowed to be executed with an unborn child ; for it was held supremely unjust to make an innocent being share the penalty of the guilty, and to take two lives in expiation of the crime of one. A thousand stripes were inflicted on an adulterer, and mutilation of the nose on the adulteress, to spoil her beauty. Makers of false weights and measures, counterfeiters of money and seals, forgers of documents, and those who altered public acts, had both hands cut off.³³ Desertion was punished, not by death, but by infamy, in order that the soldier might fear shame more than death, and also to incite him to valiant efforts to regain his rank; while, if put to death, he would have been useless to the state. The spy who betrayed secret plans to an enemy had his tongue cut out.

There were other forms of punishment. We have seen that Herodotus mentions the substitution, by Sabaco, for the punishment of death, of forced labor in embanking the cities of the Delta. It is probable that, in the times of the Pharaohs, as well as those of the Ptolemies, the working of the gold mines of Nubia, and of the mines in the Arabian Desert, was one of the punishments of criminals. The labor was cruelly severe, and was exacted by the scourge; in the low and winding passages in which they wrought, the miners were compelled to assume painful and unnatural postures in

⁸² Diod. i. 77, 78.

³³ A grave was found at Sakkara containing bodies, the hands and feet of which had been mutilated at the joints.

192 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

order to carry on their work.³⁴ Their complaints could excite no sympathy, for guards were placed over them who did not understand their language. Children, women, and old men were employed in different operations, and neither infirmity nor disease procured a respite while there remained any strength which blows could compel them to exert.³⁵ The law of theft was very curious. The " habitual criminals " of this class (if criminals they could be called under such a law) were organized under a chief, who kept a register of their names, and acted as their " receiver-general." On application to him, a person who had been robbed could recover his property by paying one-fourth of its value; and probably nowhere, as Kenrick observes, has stolen property been so cheaply recovered.³⁶ Unless the law referred to some peculiar cases, it would have amounted—as some later writers represent it—to a general permission of theft in Egypt.³⁷

Of the civil law—besides the general statement that Boc-choris legislated for commerce—the only details given by the ancients relate to debtors and creditors. Where no written acknowledgment could be produced, a claim might be rebutted by the oath of the alleged debtor; and in no case was interest allowed to exceed twice the principal. A debtor was answerable to the extent of his property, but not in his person, for the latter was held to be at the disposal of the state. We have already mentioned the pledging of the mummy of a debtor's father, and of his family tomb. The numerous existing papyri, containing contracts of sale and lease of lands and houses—found among other family papers in the tombs—show the strict forms and guaranties by which property was secured.

S 11. Egypt had the blessing of a judicial administration almost independent of the crown. The kings reserved for the last resort (except probably in political cases) those judicial functions which, as in all the ancient monarchies, were the prerogative of royalty. There was the supreme court of Thirty (or rather thirty-one) persons, ten from each of the cities of Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes; they chose their president, who was replaced by another representative from the same city. As these were the three great seats of priestly colleges, it is inferred, and it is probable on other grounds, that the judges were of the sacerdotal order, which alone possessed the necessary knowledge of the law.

All cases were conducted in writing, that the decision

³¹ "Distorting their bodies in many ways to suit the peculiarities of the rocks." Diod. iii. 14. ³⁵ Diod. /. c.; Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," ii. p. 55.

³⁶ Diod. i. SO. ⁸? Aulus Gellius. xi. IS.

CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.

193

might be uninfluenced either by eloquence or supplication. "A collection of the laws, in eight volumes, lay before the judges: the plaintiff, or accuser, declared in writing how he had been injured, cited the portion of the law on which he relied, and laid the amount of his damages, or claimed the penalty which, in his view, the law awarded. The defendant, or culprit, replied in writing, point by point, denying the fact alleged, or showing that his act had not been unlawful, or that the penalty claimed was excessive. The plaintiff having rejoined, and the defendant replied again, the judges deliberated among themselves. A chain of gold and precious stones was worn by the president, to which was attached an image of Thmei (or Ma), the goddess of truth ; and he pronounced sentence by touching with this image the plaintiff's or defendant's pleadings. We are not told how the facts were established, and Indeed the whole account suggests the idea of a Court of Appeal, rather than of primaryjuris-diction."³⁸ Ordinary suits were probably judged by the Nomarchs and Toparchs on the spot. We possess papyri containing the official records of two criminal trials. The one, under Rameses II., has been already mentioned.³⁹ The other, under Rameses IV., relates to the trial of a band of thieves, who had carried on a systematic pillage of the Theban tombs. We have no similar record of any civil process.

§ 12. The Administration was conducted by an army of officials, unsurpassed in number and organization by the most bureaucratic of modern governments. It was intrusted to the great corporation of Scribes—a branch of the sacerdotal order—and was carried on by means of written orders and reports passing between the superior and inferior officers. "Papyrus," in ancient Esrypt, might have furnished the same by-word as our "red-tape." Many of these reports, and fragments of public accounts, are extant. We have already given an example, relating to the captive Hebrews. The elaborate phrases of respect, and the general style of these state papers, bear a resemblance to those of the Chinese.

The chief departments were those of public icorks, icar, and finance. As coined money appears to have been unknown, all taxes and dues were collected in kind ; and for this purpose the land was divided into three categories, the arable lands (ouou), the marshes (pehoic), and the cancds (maou), which paid their respective imposts in com, cattle, and fish. As one-third of the whole land of Egypt belonged to the

Kenrick, " Hist, of Egypt," vol. ii. pp. 52, 53.

9

³⁹ Chap. vi. § 9.

191 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

king, and the tenants of the royal demesne paid him one-fifth of the produce; and as the land of the priests, and a part at least of that of the warriors, was exempt from taxation; it would appear that the taxes spoken of by ancient writers were for the most part the same thing as the rent (or double-tithe) of the crown lands. Such a revenue might well support the splendid state in which the Pharaohs held their court, and their vast outlay on building and sculptures, especially with the aid of forced labor. The enormous expenses of their foreign wars were defrayed, according to ancient custom, by plunder and exaction during the campaign, and by the tributes of conquered countries.

§ 13. The whole territory of Egypt was divided, for administrative purposes, into names; of which some of the most important, at least, seem to have been originally independent states. To the latest times they were the seats of what we may call a cantonal worship, each nome having its own local deity, whose temple marked the chief city of the nome. The number of nomes under the Pharaohs, Ptolemies, and early Caesars was 36 : 10 in Upper Egypt, 16 in Middle Egypt,⁴⁰ and 10 in Lower Egypt: but these numbers were greatly increased by the later Roman emperors, till in the time of Arcadius there were 58.⁴¹ Each nome had a governor, whom the Greeks call nomarch, and under him were local magistrates called toparchs.™ There was (according to Strabo) a central organization of these nomes for common purposes, by delegations composed of persons of station and character from each nome, accompanied by the priests of its chief temple. The delegates were lodged in the Labyrinth, the 27 halls of which corresponded to the number of the nomes; they made offerings to the gods, and settled questions of doubtful jurisdiction.⁴³

The whole of this system was in the hands of the two privileged orders. "The great body of the Egyptian people appear to have had no public duties whatever, neither political, judicial, nor military ; the idea of a citizen was unknown among them. This exclusion of all but priests and soldiers from political functions would insure revolution in any modern government; but the privileged orders were so firmly established by the threefold monopoly of knowledge, sa-

⁴⁰ The division between Upper and Middle Egypt was drawn differently at different periods; and at one time (Strabo says origiually) the latter only contained 7 nomes, whence its Greek name of Heptanomix. Afterwards the Fyum was added as an eighth, under the name of Xomos Arttinoltex.

⁴¹ In this division the Oasis of Amnion was reckoned as one of the 35 nomes of the Delta.

⁴² The corresponding Egyptian titles are unknown. ⁴³ Strabo, xvii. p. SI 1.

TWO SYSTEMS OF RELIGION,

rred and secular, arms, and landed property, that we do not read even of an attempt to disturb them, on the part of the excluded millions, till the last century of the history of the Pharaohs."⁴⁴

Sectiox III.—Religious Ixstitutioxs.

§ 14. The great bond of this thoroughly organized system was Religion. Herodotus says that the Egyptians are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men ;⁴⁵ and even when the gross excesses of a degenerate superstition provoked the ridicule of the Greeks and Romans, the Greek philosopher, who makes Glomus express his surprise that so many persons were allowed to share divine honors, his indignation at the Egyptian crew of apes, ibises, bulls, and other ridiculous creatures who intruded themselves into heaven, and his wonder how Jove could allow himself to be caricatured with the horns of a ram—the same philosopher makes Jove reply, that these were mysteries, not to be derided by the uninitiated.⁴⁶

Egypt had, in fact, two religions: one, which Herodotus saw captivating the eyes of the people with pompous ceremonies, and governing their lives by minute observances; the other, of which the priests barely allowed him to catch a glimpse, and even that glimpse he was too reverent to repeat."⁴⁷ It may be that some portions of the esoteric doctrine were revealed to Pythagoras and Plato, and afterwards in those mysteries of Isis, so popular under the Roman empire, the meaning of which has been discussed by Plutarch ;^4fc but all that we could learn with certainty from these sources has been either lost in antiquity, or inextricably involved with the speculations of the Greeks themselves. At length, however, modern science has, in the language of the ancients, " lifted the veil of Isis ;" and in the Egyptian papyri we read the secrets of Egyptian theology.

The first revelation is somewhat startling. Even Herodotus had learned that, amidst their system of polytheism, the Egyptians of Thebes recognized one supreme God, who had no beginning, and would have no end ; and Jamblichus quotes from the old Hermetic books the statement—"Before all the things that actually exist, and before all beginnings, there is one God, prior even to the first god and king, remaining unmoved in the singleness of his own Unity."⁴⁹ And now if, like

⁴⁴ Kenrick. "Ancient Egypt," vol. ii. p. 49.

⁴⁵ Herod, ii. 37.

⁴⁷ See Herod, ii. 02,132,171. ⁴⁹ Cory's "Anc. Frag." p. 283.

⁶ Lucian, "Deor. Cone." 10. ⁴⁸ " De Iside et Osiride."

PJC THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION. AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

the prophet on his mission to Egypt, we ask by what name we shall announce this God, the sacred books of Egypt give the very same answer—an answer which the initiated took with them to the grave, inscribed on a scroll as their confession of faith :—" Nuk pit Nuk "—" I am that I am."^b0 Other papyri tell us " that He is the sole generator in heaven and on earth, and that He is not engendered—that He is verily the sole living God who has engendered Himself—He who is from the beginning—He who created all, but is Himself uncreated."⁵¹

That the original worship of Egypt was in accordance with this theology is indicated by at least one ancient monument, the temple of King Shafre, in its freedom not only from idols but even from symbolic decorations, and perhaps by the oldest pyramids.⁵²

§ 15. Whence then the outrageous polytheism—the gross superstition—which

"With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused Fanatic Egypt aud her priests, to seek Their wandering gods distinguished in brutish forms Rather than human— ***** Likening their Maker to the grazed ox-Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke Both her first-born and all her bleating gods?"

The answer is not difficult; and it shows one origin of polytheism and idolatry. The unity of God was lost in the plurality of his manifestations. Each of these, embodied in a personal form, became a god ; while the allegorical representations of the divine qualities gave birth to the monstrous combinations of animal and human forms, and to the worship of animals themselves. All these were—so to speak—religious masks, grotesque allegorical embodiments of the originally pure dogma communicated to the initiated at the mysteries. When once invested with a distinct personality, and with attributes which were regarded as their own, the gods became secondary agents, taking their part in the organization of the world and the preservation of its creatures; and this polytheism was extended to embrace all nature.

The principle of anthropomorphism was carried out, as iii all systems of polytheism, to the length of ascribing to the

⁵⁰ Brugsch, "Aus dem Orient." It is evident what a new light this discovery throws on the sublime passage in Exodus iii. 14; where Moses, whom we may suppose to have been initiated into this formula, is sent both to his people and to Pharaoh, to proclaim the true God by this very title, and to declare that the God of the highest Egyptian theology was also the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. The case is parallel to that of Paul at Athens.

si Lenormant, "Hist. Ancienue," vol. i. p. 361. ⁵² See chap. iii. § S.

ORIGIN OF EGYPTIAN POLYTHEISM.

107

deities the distinction of sex, and the ordinary family relations. Hence, at all the chief religious centres, we find, not one god alone, but a triad, consisting of father, mother, and son. *" From the involved character of this system, from the numerous centres of worship, and from the many forms of symbolism used to embody the same idea, we find in these triads an extraordinary mixture and repetition, not only of attributes, but even of personalities.

§ 16. Throughout the whole system there is a constant reference to the dogma which, next to the divine unity, is the one most characteristic of the Egyptian religion, the immortality of the soid and a future state of existence after death. Of this truth a thousand symbols and promises were recognized in the natural world, and embodied in the conceptions of the gods. The prevailing emblem was furnished by the Sun's daily course, as it passed alternately through the abodes of darkness—or death, and of light—or life; for, with the Egyptians, as with the Hebrews, the evening and morning were the day. But the Sun was the source as well as the sign of life, the vivifier of the world, the universal father; and, as it shines in the firmament above superior to all the other lights of heaven, it is the universal lord. These conceptions were embodied in different names—Ra, the Sun in his meridian splendor; Atoum, in his nocturnal course; Kheper,^ the giver and sustainer of life;—and we may perhaps go so far as to say that, in all the varied combinations of the Egyptian Pantheon, the supreme god has, at least, some connection with the Sun. Correlative to this living, active, vivifying principle was inert matter, the universal mother (Maut)—one form under many names, as ^Es-chylus says of the earth—nay, in one aspect, as JVeith, the mother of the Sun himself, as well as of all the gods; and itself a creation of the god JYoum (or Kmtphis), the divine breath which animates matter, and the first creator, or demi-urg'us,whose symbol is the ram. Thus, in the Egyptian doctrine, inert matter—the receptacle of all life—was not co-eternal with God, but was created by his breath: and here we have again a close resemblance to the cosmogony of Moses.

Another set of symbols was suggested by the general idea of the solar course. The lower hemisphere, or more vaguely the Western region, into which the Sun sinks to rest, was personified in Athor (or Atur)" the mother of Ra, whose symbol is the cow. As springing from her, when he resumes his daily course, the Sun becomes the youthful Horus; and

⁶³ The Greeks identified this goddess with Aphrodite.

198 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

the same cow, appearing to welcome him in the upper world, is again deified under the name of Nbub.

In accordance with the usual mode of travelling in Egypt, the mystic journey of the Sun is made in a boat or bark; and this gives rise to a new set of personifications. This voyager through the shades, with the twelve hours of the night for his companion deities, was distinguished from the other personifications of the Sun by the famous name of Osiris. This god, and his wife Isis (who unites the characters of Maut and Keith and Athor), were the children of the god Seb, another personification of the earth, and of the goddess JVout, the firmament of heaven. Their son, the ever youthful Horus, the chief of the twelve companions of his father, and the lord of the hour of dawn, personified the rising Sun, piercing with his dart the serpent Apap, or Apophis, who represents the vapors of the dawn. This contest was generalized into the whole conflict between good and evil, in which the serpent, or evil principle, is embodied in a special * deity, Set or Soutekh, the Egyptian name for the Bead of the Syrians and Shepherds, whom the Greeks confounded with Typhon.⁶⁴ The table, which became the most popular article of faith among all the Egyptians, and the most mysterious of their tenets iu the eyes of their Greek visitors,⁶⁵ related how Osiris manifested himself among men, and ruled Egypt with beneficent sway;⁵⁶ how he was killed in combat with the serpent Typhon, and raised to life again through the prayers and invocations of Isis; and how his son Horus took vengeance upon Typhon. The substance of the legend appears in all the Eastern systems of nature-worship, and especially in the myths of Cybele and Atys, and of Venus and Adonis.

§ 17. Osiris, Isis, and Jlorus formed ihe most popular, though the last in order, of the Egyptian triads. Their worship was common to all Egypt; but the other chief triads had local centres.

(i.) The first in rank was that of Thebes, headed by Amun, the supreme god of Egypt, at least from the time when Thebes was made the capital by the twelfth dynasty. Amun, whose name means hidden, was the highest personal embodiment of the invisible and inconceivable god, the creator and governor, not only of the world, but of all the other gods, who personify his attributes : thus the Ritual of the

^ai As Baal was also a sun-god, the fable may have signified, in part, tlie trinmph of the gods of Egypt over those of her enemies. ^S5 Herodotus makes it a rule generally to suppress the name of Osiris. ⁶⁶ This was one reason of his identification with Dionysus. (See Herod, ii. 42.)

TRIADS.—THREE ORDERS OF DEITIES.

Dead says, "Amun creates his members, and they become his associate gods." Hence the Greeks identified him with their Jove, " the father of gods and men." He was worshipped at Thebes as Amun-Ra (Amnion the Sun), in conjunction with Maut ("the Mother," par excellence), and Ohons,^\s\\o is at once the son of Amun, and another form of him: Indeed, in all these triads the son is another impersonation of the attributes of the father.

(ii.) The Triad of Memphis consisted of Phtha, Pasht, and Month. In the time of Lower Egypt's supremacy, Phtha might dispute with Amun the first place among the Egyptian gods. He seems, in fact, to represent a somewhat different system of physico-theology, based on the secret working of the powers of nature. Phtha is the personification, not of the sun, but of the all-working power of fire;⁵⁷ the second demiurgus, an emanation from the first creative principle, Nouph or Knuphis. His spouse was Pasht, the lion-headed goddess of Bubastis, the universal mother (like Maut), and specially the avenger of crimes. From them sprang the Sun-god, whose most brilliant and terrible form, as ho darts abroad his piercing and sometimes pestilential rays, like sharp arrows, is embodied in Month, with the symbol of the hawk.

(iii.) Month himself, with his consort Ritho, and their son Harphre- (Horus the Sun) formed the Triad of Hermonthis.

(iv.) The triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus was, as we have just said, revered throughout all Egypt.

Herodotus was perhaps guided by the system of triads in his division of the Egyptian gods into three orders: " the eight," who existed before the rest, and of whom Pan (i. e. Khem) was one; "the twelve" of the second order, one of whom was Hercules (under whose name he seems to confound Khons and Moid, the srod of Sebennytus) ; and th^ gods of the third order, whom "the twelve" produced, among whom was Dionysus (i. e. Osiris). Ancient and modern writers have framed very different theories to illustrate or confirm or refute this statement; and we must abstain here from any attempt to complete the Egyptian Pantheon.⁵⁸

⁵⁷ Hence the Greeks identified him with Hephsestur.

⁵⁸ For further information see Kenrick's "Ancient Egypt," vol. i. chap, xxt, aud Wilkinson's Appendix to Book ii. of "Herodotus,' chap. iii. (in Rawlinson'?Herodotus"). Both agree in makiug up the list of the " eight" by 4 deities o." eec^ sex; but with slight differences:

Kenrick. Amun aud Maut. Pthah aud Pasht. Kneph and Xeith. Khem and Athor.

Nouro (K'icph'* and Sav\

Khem nvA pV<?Hit.

Amun and Maut. Pthah and Xeith

Wilkinson.

200 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

§ 18. The spirit of symbolism ran through the whole religion of Egypt; and never was there a stronger case of the abuses to which that fascinating principle may sink, than in the an imal worship of the Egyptians. Many fanciful theories have been devised to account for this strange religious aberration. Herodotus, after stating that Egypt does not abound in wild animals, but that its animals (whether domesticated or not) are all regarded as sacred, adds, "If I were to explain why they are consecrated to the several gods, I should be led to speak of religious matters, which I particularly shrink from mentioning."⁵⁹ Diodorus quotes three reasons which were commonly given by the Egyptians.⁶⁰ The first is a fable which tells how the originaf gods, being few in number, and no match for the iniquities and violence of men, took the shape of animals, in order to escape from them; and afterwards, when they became masters of the whole world, they consecrated and appropriated these animals to themselves, as an act of gratitude.⁶¹ The second story ascribed the custom to victories obtained by the army under standards bearing the heads of animals; an obvious inversion of the natural order; nor are such standards seen on the monuments.

The third reason is plausible enough to have been generally accepted by the ancient writers,''² as well as by modern utilitarians—that the animals were consecrated on account of the benefits which mankind derived from them ;⁶³ the bull and cow, from their services in agriculture and in supplying man with nourishment; the sheep, from its rapid multiplication and the utility of its fleece, its milk, and its cheese; the dog, for its use in hunting; the cat, because it destroys asps and other venomous reptiles; the ichneumon, because it sucks the eggs of the crocodile, and even destroys the animal itself by creeping into its mouth and gnawing its intestines ; the ibis and hawk, because they destroy snakes and vermin.

This theory may contain a germ of truth ; the general practice being once established, some animals may have been consecrated through gratitude, as the ichneumon and the ibis; but even in these cases a better reason might perhaps be found. Besides, the theory is inadequate : as Kenrick well asks—" If the ichneumon or the hawk were worshipped because they destroyed crocodiles and serpents, why the

w Herod, ii. 05. ⁶⁰ Diod. i. S5, SO.

⁶¹ Herodotus relates a somewhat similar fable to account both for the ram's head of Ammon, and for his name of "the hiddeu one." Herod, ii. 42.

« Comp. Cic. " N. D." i. 2D, 36, " Tusc. Quaest." v. 27 ; Porphyr. " De Sacrificiis."

⁶³ Some writers add that it was a wise measure of police to preserve the animals, which, as Herodotus says, were few.

SYMBOLISM; ITS THREE STAGES.

201

serpent and the crocodile? Or if the ibis was worshipped because it devours snakes aud vermin, why was it specially consecrated to Thoth, the god of letters?" Nor were the wants of the Egyptians so opposite in various nomes, as to account for their extirpating as noxious, in one, the very animals that were consecrated as useful in the next!

§ 19. Without naming many other reasons which are manifest inventions, or discussing mere philosophic theories— such as those which connect the practice with a Pantheistic creed, or with the doctrine of metempsychosis—there remains the one explanation from the universal tendency of mankind to find in the peculiar qualities of animals figures of the characters of rational beings, a tendency which survives in poetry and heraldry, and which may be traced in the symbolisms of other religions, though no people have carried it to the same length as the Egyptians. The application of this principle is admirably stated by Mr. Kenrick : " What those analogies were which the Egyptians found or fancied between the attributes of the gods and the specific qualities of the animals consecrated to them, we can in general only guess. The lordly bull, as a type at once of power and of production, seems a natural symbol of the mighty god Osiris, who—whether he represented originally the Earth, the Sun, or the Nile—was certainly revered as the great source of life. The_: god of Mendes, for a similar reason, was fitly represented by the goat. The bright and piercing eye of the hawk made it an appropriate emblem of Horus, who was also the sun ; the crocodile might naturally be adopted as a symbol of the Nile which it inhabits,⁶⁴ or, from its voracious habits and hostility to man, might, on the other hand, symbolize Typhon, the principle of evil. We may fancy that the Cynocephcdus was chosen to represent Thoth, the god of letters and science, from the near approach which this animal makes to human reason." But we can not expect to explain every example; and it is probably from our limited acquaintance with the Egyptian mythology that we have to leave some questions unanswered, as " Why was the ibis appropriated to Osiris ? or the cat to Pasht ? or the ram to Kneph ? or the vulture to Isis ? or what made the scara-bceus one of the most sacred of all the animal types of Egypt ?"

We may trace three stages of this symbolism. First, the placing the head of the animal on the human form of the god,

⁶⁴ We have this very symbolism in the Bible (Ezek. xxix. 3; Tsaiah xxvii. 1) as well as in the hieroglyphics, from which indeed many other confirmatory examples might be drawn.

9*

4

202 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

the almost universal type of the Egyptian idols.⁶⁵ ^ Next, the consecration of living animals as types of the deities: a symbolism which degenerated into actual worship. Lastly, the animal was believed to be the positive incarnation of the god in three cases only: the bull Apis, who was worshipped at Memphis as the incarnation of Phtha; the bull Mnevis, at Heliopolis, the incarnation of Osiris; and the goat at Mendes, the incarnation of Khem. The most revered was Apis (in Egyptian, Ilapi), who was revealed by certain marks : his color was black, with a white triangular spot on the forehead, a half-moon upon the back, and a swelling in the shape of a searabams on-the tongue. He was kept in great pomp, in a splendid building, and it was esteemed the highest honor to be one of his ministering priests. When he died, all Egypt went into mourning; and when a new Apis was manifested, the land gave itself up to rejoicing. His term of life was limited : if he did not then die naturally, the priests killed him, and then mourned for him. His body was embalmed, and buried in the sepulchre which we have already mentioned as discovered by M. Mariette with its invaluable records.⁶⁶ The Greeks called the temple of Apis the Sera-peum, a curious misnomer, which originated as follows. ^ The soul of the deceased Apis was supposed to become assimilated, in the lower world, to another manifestation of Osiris, and was worshipped under the name of Osir-IIapi, which the Greeks made Herapis: and, in the time of the Ptolemies, "the worship of Serapis became the religious bond between 'the old Egyptians and the Greek colonists.

§ 20. The other sacred animals had likewise their temples, where they were splendidly maintained. Besides the land assigned to them, they received the produce of vows, especially those made by "parents for the recovery of their children, and at death they were embalmed. Some, that were held in peculiar honor, had their special burial-places, as the cat at Bubastis, the hawk at Buto, the ibis at Hermopohs. The reverence paid to some was purely local: thus the hippopotamus was worshipped only at Papremis; the sheep in the Theban and Sa'itic nomes ; the wolf at Lycopolis; the lion at Leontopolis; and others in other places: the crocodile was held sacred in the Thebaid,but was hunted down elsewhere. The killing of a sacred animal was a sacrilege punished with death, if willful; if involuntary, by such a fine as the priests might impose: but the slayer of an ibis or hawk was in all cases put to death. It is said that when

⁶⁵ The converse symbolism represents a king by a human head on the body of ths animal whose qualities are ascribed to him. ⁶⁶ See chap. ii. § 6.

EMBALMMENT.—JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD.

203

Cambyses invaded Egypt, he placed sacred animals in his front line, and the Egyptians suffered defeat rather than harm them. The same conqueror showed a Persian's indignation for idolatry by slaying an x\pis, over whose discovery the Egyptians were rejoicing; and his madness was held to be the penalty of the outrage. Even under one of the last Ptolemies, when the fate of Egypt hung on the friendship or anger of Rome, the intercession of the king himself failed to save a Roman soldier, who had killed a cat, from the hands of the enraged people.⁶⁷

The superstition lasted till it gradually yielded to Christianity, and Clemens Alexandrinus describes it in a striking passage: "Among the Egyptians, the temples are surroumf-ed with groves and consecrated pastures; they are furnished with propylaea, and their courts are encircled with an infinite number of columns ; their walls glitter with foreign marbles and paintings of the highest art; the naos is ^splendent with gold and silver and electrum and variegated stones from India and Ethiopia ; the adytum is veiled by a curtain wrought with gold. But if you pass beyond, into the remotest part of the inclosure, hastening to behold something yet more excellent, and seek for the image which dwells in the temple, apastophorus, or some one else of those who minister in sacred things, with a pompous air, sinking a pa?an in the Egyptian tongue, draws aside a small portion of the curtain, as if about to show us the god, and makes us burst into a laugh. For no god is found within, but a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent sprung from the soil, or some such brute animal; the Egyptian deity appears a beast rolling himself on a purple coverlet !"⁶⁶

§ 21. It is unnecessary to describe the sacrifices and ceremonial worship of the Egyptians, which differed in no important respect from those of other nations; but it should be mentioned that they had the rite of circumcision. Their practice ov embalmment, the various forms of which are fully described by Herodotus, arose from their belief in a future life and in the resurrection of the body. So long as the body was preserved from corruption, it was believed to retain a germ of life, and mystic formulae were used for the preservation of the vital spark. The future life and resurrection are often depicted on the coffins by symbols connected with the course of the sun. The soul is represented by a hawk (the symbol of Ra) with a human head, holding m its claws the two rings of eternity, and surmounted by

⁶⁷ Diodorus relates this as an eve-witness.

⁶⁸ Clem. Alex. "Paedug." iii. 2, p. 253, Potter

204 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

the rising sun, with Isis and Nephthys for its attendants. Such a hawk is seen in a vignette of the Ritual of the Dead, carrying the ring-handled cross (crux ansata)—the emblem of life—to a mummy lying on its bier. When its subterranean pilgrimage is fulfilled, the soul arrives at the bark of the sun, and is received by Ra under the emblem of a scara-baeus.

But this was not the portion of all souls. The doctrine of rewards and punishments was inseparably linked with ihat of a future life. All the deceased went down to Ker-neter (the Egyptian Hades); but resurrection was the portion of those only who had committed no mortal sin, either in action or in thought. The judgment of the deeid is often represented on coffins and in the Ritual, under the figure of weighing the souls (psychostasy).™ This awful ceremony is conducted by Osiris and his forty-four assessors in the " hall of twofold justice:" the balances are held by Horus and Anubis: a figure, or sometimes the heart, of the deceased is placed in one scale, to be weighed against an image of Thoth, the god of justice, in the other, and the same deity registers the result. The reprobate is cond'emned to annihilation : he is beheaded by Horus or by Smou (another form of Set) on the nemma, or infernal scaffold, and devoured by a monster with the head of a hippopotamus. But before his annihilation he is subjected to a long course of torments, and returns to act as an evil genius upon earth, where his abode is in the bodies of unclean animals.

The just, on the contrary, purified by a fire guarded by four ape-headed genii, shares the bliss of Osiris, the "good being" (Ounnofre), and feasts with him on delicious food. But he has first to expiate his venial sins by a long series of trials, which occupy several chapters in the Ritual of the Dead. On his descent into Ker-neterhe has to pass through fifteen gates, guarded by genii with swords, at each of which he has to prove his good deeds and his knowledge of divine things: this constitutes his initiation. He has then to work hard in tilling the vast fields intersected with rivers and canals—an Egypt in the world below: the harvest he reaps is knowledge. Next, he sustains terrible combats with monsters of fantastic shapes, among' which the great serpent Refrof'or Apap is the one most bent on his destruction ; and his triumph depends on the use of a long series of exoreisms or on the last resource of assimilating each of his members to those of different deities. At length his whole being is absorbed in that of Osiris, who has himself

^6a Compare Dan. v. 27: "Thon art weighed in the balances aud found wanting."

ARCHITECTURE: PYRAMIDS.

205

borne the same trials and accompanies the soul through all. The god who was the giver of life becomes its redeemer and saviour: having himself been raised from death, he conducts the just to resurrection. The final state of identification with this deity is signified by prefixing the name of Osiris to that of the deceased.

Section IV.—Egyptian Art.

§ 22. Egypt, as we began by saying, not only possessed, but has handed down in forms as lasting as the world, the oldest monuments of building and sculpture, the oldest pictures, the oldest writing, literature, and science. In the formative arts she has had no superior except her pupil, Greece, and in majestic grandeur no rival: there is even a delicate beauty in her best colossi, partly concealed by their vast size and their attitudes of repose; and it has been said by no mean judge, " Give motion to these rocks, and Greek art would be surpassed."

The art of Egypt was consecrated to the service of her religion, and bears the impress of its character. In Architecture, taking little care for the abodes of the living, the builders lavished toil and skill on the tombs of the dead and the temples of the gods. The great palaces of the Theban kings, indeed, were the ostentatious works of despots; but these also partook of the character of temples. All their edifices look like the work of men who, believing in the immortality of the soul and of the body too, sought to give eternity to matter. Their endurance for periods reaching up to 4000 years is the result, not so much of their materials, as of their form and structure. The pyramid, in itself the most stable of all forms, has its stability enhanced, in the best examples, by a breadth greater than the height; and yet the Great Pyramid is the highest building in the world. The walls of the propylaia of the temples, besides their enormous thickness, have a pyramidal form. The columns have a great diameter in proportion to their height; the interco-lumniations are close; and, in all cases, the immense width of base gives the impression of imperishable stability. Nor does this grandeur exclude grace; many of the columns have capitals as beautiful in their style as the Greek "orders " in theirs; and all travellers agree that the architecture of Egypt has that peculiar adaptation to its vertical sun, its clear atmosphere, and its wide plains, which stamps it as perfect \y\ its kind.

§ 23. The buildings may be divided into four great classes: the Pyramids,characteristic of the early age, from the IVth

20(1 THE INSTITUTIONRELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

(perhaps the 1st) to the Xllth dynasty ; the Temples, belonging chiefly to the Theban and later monarchies, from the Xllth dynasty downward, though we have an earlier example, of a peculiar type, in the temple of Shafre, near the pyramids; the Palaces, belonging chiefly to the Theban kings, but with one great example of earlier times in the Labyrinth of the Xllth dynasty ; and the rock-hewn or subterranean Tombs, belonging to all periods. The detailed description of these buildings, so far as they have not been already mentioned, must be left to the special works on Egyptian antiquities.⁷" Of the general character of the pyramids and tombs we have had occasion to speak; and of the palaces it will be enough to add here that they consist of vast courts, halls, and corridors, the walls being adorned with paintings or colored bas-reliefs of the exploits of the kings, whose colossal statues were placed in the courts.

The temples are of two classes ; those hewn in the living rock, and those erected on the plain. The former are usually considered the oldest; but the true distinction seems rather one of place than of time—the rock-hewn temples belonging almost entirely to the narrow valley of Upper Egypt and Xubia. Certainly none of them is so old as the temple of Shafre; and the whole style of Egyptian architecture, in its clustered columns and other details, points back to an original structure of wood : besides, the construction of the rock-hewn temples, in their internal columns, architraves, etc., and their external porticoes, is assimilated to that of an independent edifice. The general form of an Egyptian temple⁷¹ consists of a large oblong area, inclosed on the sides and back by a massive wall, freed with gigantic propylma (literally front-gateway), which not only fill up the front but project beyond it on the two sides. The edifice thus named by the Greeks consists of a gate-way, flanked by a pair of wide and lofty masses (not towers, for they are of solid masonry or brick-work, faced with stone), in the form of tall truncated pyramids, covered on all their outward faces with three or more rows of gigantic figures in relief, painted with bright colors, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The propyla?a of Ed-fou (which is an excellent type of a temple) are each above 104 feet wide and 37 deep at the base, diminishing to an area of 84 feet x 20 feet at the summit, which is about 114 feet high, the total width of frontage being a little over 226 feet (the gate-way occupying above 17 feet clear). The area

⁷⁰ See, besides the works of Wilkinson, and the larger collections of plates, the admirable popular summary by Mr. George Long, "Egyptian Antiquities," 2 vols.

⁷¹ See Frontispiece.

TEMPLES.

207

was divided, about equally, into a front court, surrounded by a colonnade, and the temple itself, the latter being inclosed by its own wall, distinct from the outer wall of the area. VVithin this were three chief parts : in front the pronaos, a portico, or rather columnar hall, with the intercolumniations of the front row built up to a certain height, to form a screen on each side of the entrance ; then the naos, sekos, or cell, forming the first sanctuary, which is also columnar; and behind this, but with some smaller chambers between, the adytum, or most holy place, in which was the image of the god. The gate-way of the adytum was covered with a curtain.⁷² The naos was smaller than the pronaos, and the adytum much smaller still, each having its distinct wall, and the last (at least at Edfou) having two; so that there was ample space for treasuries, vestries, and other chambers for the priests, as well as ambulatories between the walls, from which stair cases led up to the roof; for the whole sanctuary was roofed in, and there were no windows. In spite of the darkness, the inner as well as outer walls of the sanctuary were painted in brilliant colors. How these chambers were lighted up we are not told.

This, which may be considered the complete form of an Egyptian temple, at least in its essential parts, was an aggregation of parts round the central sanctuary; and we know that most of the great temples, like our own eathedrals, were the w^Tork of age after age. The comparison may be extended ; for, just as most of our cathedrals and ministers are or were surrounded by a mass of conventual or other buildings, so, in connection with an Egyptian temple, there would be buildings required for all purposes of the colleges of priests. There were also some exterior appendages, which seem to have been essential to the temple—sphinxes, generally arranged in avenues; obelisks, which were memorial pillars ; and colosscd stafues.

§ 24. The Sculpture of Egypt is as entirely the product of religion as its'-architecture, of which it is. essentially the development. Its origin was in the temple, the plain walls of which furnished surfaces for the delineation, at first in mere outline, of subjects connected with religion or the exploits of the builders of the edifice. The figures were made more eifeetive and permanent by being sculptured in relief or sunk into the surface, the former being more usual on the exterior, the latter-on the interior walls. The relief became higher and bolder, till the figures were isolated, or nearly

^T3, See the passage quoted above from Clemens Alexandrians, which illustrates the use of the two chambers. No traces have been found of gates or their supports.

208 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

so ; for sculptures absolutely detached are rare ; even when they stand alone there is generally a sort of pilaster down, the back.

The whole spirit of Egyptian sculpture is symbolism, rather than the direct imitation of nature; and an attitude of repose, expressive of religious peace.⁷³ In these two principles we have the simple answer to many faults ignorantly charged upon the knowledge and power of the artists. The absence of anatomical display is not due to the want of that knowledge of the human figure which the Greeks acquired in the palaestra; for in Egypt the common people went all but, and often absolutely, naked. Details were designedly suppressed for the sake of simple majesty. Both in architecture and sculpture, the Egyptian artist had learned that great lesson—the ignorance or neglect of which is the ruin of the best technical skill, and never more so than in our own day—when to let tilings alone. He also adapted his workmanship to his material; and knew better than to make mouldings of hard stone like cabinet work, or a granite colossus like a figure carved in wood or cast in metal. All the curves are gentle ; the features broadly moulded; the arms (in a sitting statue) hang down from the shoulders, with the hands resting on the thighs, or supporting some shrine or sacred image on the knees—or (when the statue is erect) they are generally crossed over the breast, except when either hand has to hold out the emblem which is nearly always placed in it, as a sceptre or whip, a ring-handled cross or a lotus-fiower; the legs are generally joined, or, if one is advanced, the body rests upon the other, and both are often attached to supporting pilasters, the feet being parallel and fully resting on the ground—indicating rather an attitude than a forward motion.

But, where detail is appropriate, the execution is often most perfect, as in figures of animals, where the artist was. not bound by hieratic rules; and even the hieroglyphics, in which we might have expected mere indications of the objects, are often carved with the exactest truth. But also in the hugest works of the best ages tbere is an exquisite delicacy of work, besides the wonderful finish which must have cost untold labor ;⁷⁴ and perhaps the greatest triumph of Egyptian art is in the Avonderful expression given to the hugest colossi, in spite of—unless we rather say because of—the ab-

''³ The prevalence of symbolism is especially seen in those compound figures of which we have lately spoken. See § 19.

⁷⁴ Among the representations of their various work?, we have the process of polishing a granite colossus, and also its transport on a sled«,^r«. .

EGYPTIAN PAINTING.

209

Etinence from effects gained by detail or (if the phrase is permitted) by " sensational " action. If we miss the variety of real life, which pleases by its truthful rendering of what is familiar and by its appeal to human sympathies, we have in its place an appeal to what the Egyptian artist considered the far higher emotions of religious reverence in the symmetrical arrangement of all the members of the same figure, the general likeness of attitude in all, and a sort of harmonious rhythm of like postures where several figures are combined in one composition. In the same spirit the head is finished more carefully than the body. The power of portraiture is conspicuous in the physiognomies of the foreigners constantly represented in the bas-reliefs; we may venture to say, with literal etymological truth, that the Egyptian artist was an ethnographer.

§ 25. These general principles are common to all Egyptian sculpture ; but there are differences of style, which mark out five different periods of the art. First, the grand simplicity of the earliest age, as seen in the Memphite tombs of the pyramid period, keeps nearer to nature than was permitted by the hieratic canon of the human figure, which makes its appearance about the Twelfth Dynasty. The grand climax of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, as seen in the works of the Thothmes, the Amunophs, Seti, and Rameses II., is followed by a sudden decline, some of the later works of the last-named great patron of art being extremely rude and careless. The fifth and last age is that of the renaissance under the Saite kings, in which we have already traced the influence of the Greeks.

§ 26. Painting was chiefly used by the Egyptians as a decorative art, and very little for ideal compositions. They colored the columns and the architectural details of their buildings, and the bas-reliefs upon their walls. The plane surfaces, especially in the interior of the tombs, were covered with those painted scenes from which we derive such abundant knowledge of their life. On the wrappings of the mummies they painted effigies of the deceased, and the coffins were lined with painted hieroglyphics. They used primary colors almost exclusively, and, among the secondary, green only; never attempting to compound colors so as to produce a variety of tints. Their pigments, some mineral and some vegetable, were mostly the natural products of the country;⁷⁵ and the list is *pretty well exhausted by these six: white, black, red, blue, yellow, and green—remarkable

¹⁵ They manufactured indigo by a process the imperfection of which is shown by the sand which glitters on the painted surface.

210 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

for their purity and permanence. The colors are laid on in distinct patches, as a child paints a picture, especially in human figures; in those of animals there is some little attempt at blending and softening the contiguous parts. Red is their flesh color; but in the representation of conquered races they evidently used colors as conventional distinctions. Thus, in one picture, the people have yellow bodies and black beards : in another the men are red and the women yellow.⁷⁶ Of their use of painting for other than merely decorative purposes we have examples in a few tablets of wood; and the Ritual of the Dead is illustrated with vignettes drawn by the pen with a freedom, firmness, and purity, not far short of the Greek painted vases. One striking peculiarity of their pictures, in our eyes, is the total absence of perspective, as well as the curious substitutes for it in the mode of placing files of soldiers, or captives, or laborers, over one another's heads, rows of trees around a rectangular tank, and so forth. In some of the pictures of entertainments the seated figures overlap one another in such a manner as to suggest a receding line, though the heads and feet range in horizontal lines; and pairs of horses or rows of cattle are indicated by a portion of the outline of the farther figure or figures projecting beyond that of the forwarder with sometimes a different color or shading.

Section V.—Writing, Literature, and Science.

§ 27. As the pictorial art of the Egyptians, in its symbolical expression of ideas, approached to the significance of writing, so, on the other hand, their writing was founded on a pictorial representation of the ideas to be expressed, though it went far beyond a mere system of picture-writing. The antiquity of the art in Egypt is attested by the symbol of the scribe's implements—the ink-pot, reed, and palette—on the monuments of the pyramid period; its universal employment by the registration scenes, the method of legal procedure, the official correspondence, and the multitude of written documents, to which we have had frequent occasion to refer.

It would almost seem as if nature had assigned to Egypt the invention of writing by the gift of the papyrus reed (cy-peruspapyrus).''¹ Unlike the paper named after it, which is a manufactured tissue, the inner pellicles of the reed were

⁷⁸ Iu some cases the colors may be thot-e with which the people used to paint themselves ; as Herodotus (vii. G9) describes certain Ethiopian tribes as having one-half of their bodies paiuted with gypsum, and the other half with vermilion.

⁷⁷ The Egyptian name was (in its Greek form) bjihlus (Herod, ii. 93), whence Ihe Greek ftifiXiov (book); so that the very name of our Bible points to the country where Moses, and perhaps Abraham before him, learnt the art of writing.

WRITING AND LITERATURE.

211

used in their natural state, being spread out flat, and the slips joined together (Pliny says) with Nile water,⁷" but probably also with some gluten. The breadth of the pellicle determined that of the leaf of paper, which reaches about 13 fingers' breadth ; but it might be made of any length by joining pieces together; and the book so formed could and still can, from the toughness of the thin substance, be rolled up and unrolled without cracks or creasing. Writing was performed with a reed or goose-quill, and a carbonaceous ink, which has remained unchanged for centuries. The lines were in the direction of the length of the leaf, from right to left, in columns of convenient width (generally about six or eight inches), which also succeeded each other from right to left.⁷⁹ The writing engraved on the monuments is sometimes in horizontal lines, either from right to left or vice versa ; but more frequently the characters are arranged in vertical columns.

§ 28. The Greeks distinguished three forms of Egyptian writing, which they called the hieroglyphic (sacred carving), hieratic (priestly), and demotic (popular) or enchorial (of the country). The first two names arc apt to convey a wrong impression, as if the knowledge of these characters had been confined to the sacerdotal class ; whereas, in fact, they were employed in public monuments and in ordinary documents intended for universal reading, and on objects of every-day use. The last form is distinguished from the other two, not by its origin and its more popular use, but simply in respect of time. The hieroglyphic is an uncled, or fully-formed character, particularly suited to monumental inscriptions: the hieratic is a cursive, or more abbreviated form of the same characters, adapted to the flowing movement of the pen : the demotic is a further simplification of the hieroglyphic writing, which was introducetl, about the beginning of the 7th century b.c, for civil documents in the vulgar dialect, which had by that time departed considerably from the ancient language. The continued use of the older forms in the monuments and in the books of the priests gave the Greeks occasion to describe them by names implying sacredness.

§ 29. All three forms were alike unintelligible to the Greek travellers in Egypt, but they had the priests for interpreters. This key lost, the treasures of Egyptian learning—" a library of stones and papyri in myriads of volumes"—appeared to be sealed forever, till, early in the 19th century, the key

⁷⁸Plin."II. N."xiii. 11,12.

⁷⁹ The fact that the Egyptians wrote from right to left is distinctly stated by Herodotus, and abundantly proved by the papyri.

212 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

was found by Dr. Young, and successfully applied by M. Champollion-Eigeac.⁸⁰ The discovery was first made from the " Rosetta Stone," one of the gatherings of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, and now in the British Museum. It is a piece of black basalt, engraved with a trilingual inscription in honor of King Ptolemy Y. Epiphanes, about the beginning of the second century b.c. The same text (as was first assumed, and then proved by the result) is repeated, first in hieroglyphics, secondly in enchorial characters, lastly in Greek; but the stone is so mutilated at the corners and one edge that the first part of the hieroglyphic text and the last part of the Greek are lost, as well as the beginning of several lines of the enchorial. The first comparison made was that of certain names and titles, which occur frequently in the Greek text, with groups of characters similarly repeated in the corresponding parts of the enchorial.. Conspicuous among these was" the name of Ptolemy, which Dr. Young next found in the hieroglyphic text, guided.by a suggestion, previously made, that the oval rings, or cartouches, constantly seen in hieroglyphic inscriptions, formed the inclosure of setting of royal names. Hence he determined the phonetic or alphabetic value of the characters which he supposed to spell Ptolemaios, or Ptolemeos, and then those of Derenice.*¹ In 1822, the publication of the bilingual inscription on the obelisk at Philaa enabled Champollion (who was now a convert to Dr. Young's phonetic method) to decipher the name of Cleojxitra. The subsequent discovery of many other Greek and Roman names led him on to the deciphering of the letters of common words.

Thus far, it will be observed, nothing had been made out of the mecuiings of the words whose letters were beginning to be identified. This step was taken by aid of the principle that the old Egyptian language was kindred to the Coptic. At length, Champollion succeeded in constructing an Egyptian grammar and vocabulary, which has been since continually enlarged by the labors of Lepsius and Brugsch, Ampere, Mariette, De Rouge and Lenormant, Gliddon, Birch,

⁸⁰ We believe that this somewhat fignrative phrase fairly describes the respective claims of the English and French discoverers. It is true that Dr. Young's discoveries were only published in the Supplement to the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" in 1819, whereas Champollion's essay " De l'Ecritnre hieratiqnc des Anciens Egyptiens " appeared in 1S12; but this work was based on the fundamental error, that the hieratic characters arc entirely ideographic and not phonetic, signs of things and not of sounds. Still Champollion had already got hold of two important truths, that some of the characters are ideographic, and that the hieratic character is an abridgment of the hieroglyphics.

tn From so narrow an induction the result could of conrse be but imperfect: but it is wonderful how nearly this tirst attempt gave the true value of the characters.

THE HIEROGLYPHICS DECIPHERED.

213

Osburn, and others. Notwithstanding the ultra-skepticism of such a critic as Sir George Cornewall Lewis, we may safely say with Brugsch that "the rules of hieroglyphic grammar have now become the common property of science." De Rouge, one of the most successful decipherers, affirms that we can now translate three-quarters of the longest documents, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the difficulty of the subject. It is evident, for instance, tbat a text on mythological mysteries, or the metaphors of poetry, will be far more obscure than _a. simple narrative or a genealogy ;⁸² and yet many of the former kinds have been satisfactorily translated.

§ 30. The hieroglyphic characters (using the word now for all three kinds of writing) are partly phonetic and partly ideographic: the former representing alphabetic letters or syllabic sounds; the latter standing for the actual objects signified. The latter are probably the oldest, but the former are by far the most numerous, and the two are intermixed in all Egyptian texts. Both are pictorial in their origin. The picture which makes a phonetic character is that of an object whose name begins with the letter, or forms the syllable, to be represented; as if, for example, we made a lion

stand for the letter L, or the pictures of a man

and a drake *^>^f^F for the two syllables of the word mandrake**

The ideographic characters are of two classes, figurative and symbolic. In the tirst, the name of the object is expressed by its own figure, either real or conventional, as for the word man, @ for sun, for moon, for ox,

jr$t for road, L. mJ for house: all of this class are necessarily nouns. "The characters are sometimes abbreviated, as when the head of an ox is put for the whole,⁸⁴ or a pair of dots {•-) representing the pupils, for the eyes. In the sec-

⁸² De Rouge, "Notice des Monumeuts Egyptiens du Musee da Louvre," Paris, ISC9: a work invaluable for the amount of information in a very small compass. It is perhaps hardly necessary to observe that great use has to be made of the principle, that satisfactory results are an argument (we don't say more) for the truth of the method that led to them. The argunwntum in circulo is often the very reverse of a fallacy ; just as every brick in a circular tunnel helps to support every other.

⁸³ We are quite familiar, at this day, with similar combinations in the riddle called a rebus, and in " punning or canting heraldry."

⁸⁴ As iu our letter A, passing into or /\, the initial of the Hebrew and Phoenician Aleph, an ox.

214 THE INSTITUTION* RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

ond class, the concrete figure stands for a noun or verb of abstract meaning: and the variations of these symbolic forms show a wonderful fertility. The following are the chief heads: (1.) By synecdoche — a figurative abbreviation, in which a part is put for the whole, as two arms holding weapons for a battle. (2.) By metonymy—the cause for the effect, aud vice versa, or the instrument for the work, as the sun for day, the moon for month, a pair of eyes ( ° or pupils _x■* - ) for seeing, and the set of mederials formerly mentioned Q=^|/ f°^r writing. (3.) By metaphor—as a bee

for a king, from the monarchical Constitution of the hive; the anterior members of a lion, for priority or pyre-eminence, and its head for valor and vigilance, as it was believed to sleep with open eyes. (4.) By enigma—where the object depicted has only some remote or fanciful connection with the idea to be expressed. Thus, an ostrich-feather signifies justice;** a palrn-frenid typified the yew, from the belief that the tree bore twelve fronds, one for each month. Another important symbol of this class is the serpent uroeus, for divinity and royalty, as which it appears also in the head-dress of gods and kings.⁸⁶

§ 31. The wide field of Egyptian Litercdure laid open by these discoveries is as yet but very partially explored; and the treasures we possess are but a gleaning of those that are lost. The Books of Egypt are spoken of by the classical authors; and the "sacred library" which Diodorus mentions at Thebes, with the inscription "Dispensary of the Soul,"" has been discovered in the llameseum at Karnak. The jambs of the door-way leading from the great hall to a suite of nine small rooms are sculptured with figures of Thoth, the great god of letters, and his companion goddess Saf— the former with the emblem of sight, the latter with that of /tearing—and with the titles of "Lady of Letters " and "President of the Hall of Books." V£e can hardly doubt that libraries were attached to all the principal temples, especially to those of the three great colleges of priests.

The contents of these Pharaonic Libraries anticipated the fate of the treasures of Greek learning which the Ptolemies long after accumulated at Alexandria; and the later Egyp-

⁸⁵ The reason alleged, that all the feathers of the bird were believed to be equal, seems hardly satisfactory.

⁶⁶ We are necessarily content to indicate the general principles of hieroglyphic interpretation. For further details, see the works of Champollion aud Gliddon on Hieroglyphics, Sir G. Wilkinson's Appendix to Book ii. of " Herodotus," chap. v.; and Mr. Poole's article Hierof/l'ijihics in the 9th edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britaunica."

⁸⁷ ^i'xiis iaTpeiov : l)iod. i. 49.

LITERATURE.—LIBRARIES.

tian books shared that fate. The papyri that remain have been for the most part preserved in the closed tombs and mummy-cases of the dead. As might have been expected, their subjects are mainly religious, and by far the most important of this class is the often mentioned liitual of the Dead, or more properly the Book of Manifestation to the Light, which we may venture to call the Egyptian Bible. Like the Jewish Scriptures, it is the product of every age of the national religion. To say nothing of the traditions which ascribed its oldest parts to such kings as llesepti of the 1st Dynasty, and Menkera of the IVth, chapters of it are found oil monuments earlier than the Hyksos; but its final form was settled by an authoritative revision under the Saite kings Of the XXVIth Dynasty. It contains a complete account of the Egyptian doctrine of the Future Life; the pilgrimages of the soul through the infernal hemisphere; and the hymns, prayers, and manifold formularies and ceremonies, belonging to funerals and the worship of the dead. Incidentally to its main subject, it supplies a code of Egyptian morals, in the declarations made by the soul before its judges of the sins it has abstained from, and the good deeds it has done. It is striking to read among the latter—" I have given food to the hungry; I have given the thirsty to drink; I have furnished clothing to the naked :" but the parallel is not complete till we remember that what the judge will say, to the surprise of those on His right hand, is said by the self-righteous Egyptian of himself. Of the same class, a short treatise on the Migrations of the Soul is sometimes found in tombs of a late age ; and we have also copies of a picture-book on the voyages of the Sun through the lower world, and many fragments of religious hymns, which are often highly poetical.

The priests traced up the origin of all this religious literature to the first or celestial Thoth, the Hermes Trismegistus of the Greeks, who was inspired to write his books by the supreme god. He was, in fact, a personification of the divine intelligence. His earthly counterpart, the Second Thoth, was the author of all the social institutions of the land. It was he that organized the Egyptian nation ; established religion, and regulated worship ; taught men all the sciences ; astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, weights and measures, language, writing, and the fine arts ; in a word, all the elements of civilization. This knowledge was embodied in the forty-two sacred ^u hermetic books " of which the priests were the custodians, and the contents of which they were bound to master, in whole or in part, according to their rank in the sacerdotal hierarchy. In fact, their ex

210 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

elusive possession of this knowledge was guarded by the name of Thoth, who was the institutor of the priesthood, and the personified type of the learned class, just as Osiris typified the king.

We have spoken sufficiently of the historical literature engraved upon the monuments: of that written in books, though doubtless very extensive, the Turin papyrus of the Kings is our chief extant specimen. The Turin Museum also°contains a fragment of a map of the time of Seti I., representing the region of the Nubian gold mines. Of-metrical chronicles, or epic poems, we have cited an example from the account of the war of Rameses II. against_# the Kheta by Pentaour. Our own Museum is very rich in works composed by scribes in the form of letters as models of style, like the declamations of the Greek and Roman rhetoricians, or the Makameit of the Arabian poets. One written during the wars of the XlXth dynasty describes, in a series of verses in accentuated prose, the hardships, of the soldier's life. The oldest Romances in the world are found among these Egyptian books; but they all have a moral and religious bearing. We have already had occasion to mention one such—the oldest fairy-tale in the world—composed for the use of Menephtha, the son of Rameses II.⁸⁸

§ 32. We possess but few fragments of the great mass of scientific literature accumulated^by the priests. Two treatises on medicine in the Berlin Museum show that the remedies used were altogether empirical and often very absurd. With some good points of diagnosis, and a certain knowledge of anatomy, they combine the most fanciful theories of physiology. The exact position of Egyptian physicians is obscure; but most probably they belonged to the sacerdotal order. Herodotus tells us that there were special physicians for the diseases of each member of the human body.

The Greek historian reckons geometry among the sciences invented by the Egyptians from the necessity of marking out the boundaries of their lands afresh every year after the inundation. A papyrus in the British Museum contains a dozen theorems in practical geometry.

The Egyptian knowledge of astronomy has been exaggerated. The priests were diligent observers and recorders of phenomena;** and they applied their observations to the practical purpose of settling the sacred calendar with the same degree of accuracy which was long after attained by

⁸⁸ See chap. ii. § 7.

⁸⁹ Herod, ii. S2. We have already explained their Vague Year of 305 day?, ami their Sothic Year of 365*, and the Sothic Period of 14G1 years, which reconciled the two.

EGYPTIAN SCIENCE. 217

the Julian Reformation. But neither in this, nor in any other branch of physical science, did they generalize facts into laws, or establish them by proof. Of their addiction to astrology we have an example in the British Museum, a calendar of the time of the XlXth dynasty, specifying for each day the acts which were rendered lucky or unlucky by the

Tomb at Sakhara, arched with stone, inscribed with the name of Psamatic II.

influence of the stars. There is a papyrus containing some observations on the planets : but these are difficult to interpret, from our ignorance of the Egyptian names for the stars. Ihe received system of constellations was first introduced into Egypt by the Greeks; and the famous Zodiac on the ceding of the temple of Tentyra (JDendera) is now well known to belong to the time of the Ptolemies.

10

218 THE INSTITUTIONS, RELIGION, AND ARTS OF EGYPT.

Their system of numerals resembled the Roman in the expression of'units by strokes, and of tens, and powers of 10, by new symbols. They placed the units to the left, that is, last, according to their mode of writing; so as to read (as we do in our system) from the highest denomination to the lowest. In the demotic and hieratic characters, the strokes for the units are sometimes combined, so as to look curiously like the Indian (or, as we call them, Arabic) numerals.⁹⁰

⁹⁰ For further information on the scieuce and calendar of the Egyptians, see Ken. rick's "Ancient Egypt," vol. i. chap. xx.; and Wilkinson's Appendix to Book ii. of Herodotus, chaps, ii. and vii. We have not thought it necessary to enter into those details of manners and customs which are fully described by Sir G. Wilkinson, and which would require much more space than we can afford, and a large number of pictorial illustrations. The student who wishes to pursue the whole subject must not omit to frequent the Egyptian department of the British Museum, with Mr. Birch's descriptions for his guide.

The Mound of Birs-Ninirud.

BOOK II ASSYRIA AND BABYLON.

CHAPTER X.

THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.-PRIMITIVE

KINGDOMS.

§ 1. The Valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. Points of resemblance aud contrast with Egypt. Mixture of races ; and instability of political power. §2. Mesojjota-mia in the widest sense. Its position in Western Asia. § 3. The Euphrates and the Tigris. § 4. Divisions of Mesopotamia. The alluvial plain of Babylonia, Chal-clcea, or Shinar. Upper Mesopotamia. Padan-Aram. Assyria. Physical character, climate, and productions of Mesopotamia. §5. Canals of Babylonia. Sea of Nedjef. Chaldaean Marshes. Climate, fertility, and productions of Babylonia. Its present desolation. § 6. The City and Tower of Babel. Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar which seems to identify it with the site of his temple to Bel-Merodach at Borsippa. Historic gap after its building. 5 7. The early ethnography of Mesopotamia. Mixture of populations. The kingdoms of Ximrod and Asshur. Evidence of a Semitic population and a dominant Cushite race. § S. Native tradi

220 THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

tions and monuments. Berosus and his scheme of dynasties. His First Dynasty mythical. §0. The earliest monuments of Babylonia. Evidences of civilization. Astronomy, aud worship of the heavenly bodies. Cuneiform Writing. § lti. The earliest cities of Babylonia. The northern tctrapolis—-Babel, Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippara: and the southern—Erech, Calneh, Larsa, aud Hur. Greater antiquity ol the latter. § 11. Their relation to the original Babel. Probable interval of a Scytho-Aryan dominion, the Second Dynasty of Manetho. § 12. The Third (Chal-da'an) Dynasty of Berosus, probably represented by the Cushite kingdom of Nim-rod. Its capital at Hur. Inscriptions of Urukh and llyi. § 13. The Fourth Dynasty of Berosus, probably Cushite conquerors from Snsiana. Klmdur-Mabxik. Chedorlaonier—his allies, indicating the different races of Babylonia. The " Four Races." § 14. Extension of Babylonian power over Assyria. Ismidagon and his sons. Xaramsin. Merodach-Samana, "King of Babylon." Succeeding kings. Caual of Khammarubi. § 15. Egyptian conquests in Mesopotamia. Assyria independent of the Babylonian kingdom. Its overthrow. The Fifth or Arabian Dyiuisty of Berosus. Power returns to the Semitic race. § 1G. The name Chaldean never used on the monuments of these early kings. Its earliest application to Babylonia. Used by Berosus as a geographical term.

§ 1. Following the curve of the great desert zone, from its interruption by the valley of the Nile and its second break at the Red Sea, across the deserts of Arabia and Syria, we come to the wide valley watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris, and ending in the great bay of the Persian Gulf. Beyond this the desert region, which in Africa is a low plain, sometimes even below the level of the sea, rises into the table-land of Iran. The division is formed by the mountains of Kurdistan, and Luristan, whose chains run in a south-easterly direction from the great highland region of Armenia. This central knot gives birth to the two great rivers which, with their confluents from the eastern range, after watering the undulating region of foot-hills (the piedmont of Western Asia), flow down into the plain, and redeem a large portion of it from the desert, before they pour their united stream into the Persian Gulf.

The formation of this region has a certain resemblance to the valley of the Nile ; but it offers still more striking contrasts, the effects of which are marked in history. In both cases, rich alluvial plains, fertilized by great rivers, which formed at the same time a highway of intercourse, presented the fittest field for early civilization. But while the narrow chasm of Egypt was shut in by its bordering hills and the deserts beyond, and peopled by a homogeneous race, whose fixed institutions endured for millennium after millennium ; the broad valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, greatly varied in its own surface, was overhung on the north and east by hills, whence hardy races were ever ready to pour upon its fertile plains, which lay open on the west to the predatory tribes of the Desert; besides the great highway through Syria, which exposed its unconsolidated tribes to the attacks of the great Egyptian monarchy. The foot-hills which di'

MESOPOTAMIA.

221

vided it from Upper Asia marked also roughly the division between the Hamitic and Semitic races on the one side, and the Aryan and Turanian races on the other; and from the earliest times we find a remarkable intermixture of populations, especially on the lower course of the two rivers.

We have seen that the political stability of Egypt was not altogether uninterrupted, and that considerable foreign populations were, always settled in the Delta. But the monarchy retained a permanent character under all dynastic changes ; and those changes were as nothing compared with the waves of conquest which have swept like alternating tides both across and up and down the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. The region of Mesopotamia was the field on which all the races of the ancient world, from Nimrod to the successors of Mohammed, contended for the empire of Western Asia. It was subject in turn to Cushites, Aryans', and Semites—Chaldieans, Arabs, and Egyptians—Assyrians, and Chaldseans again—Medes, Persians, and Greeks—Partisans, and restored Persians — Mohammedan Arabs and Turks, and Persians again. The old rivalry of Egypt and Assyria was renewed in the Middle Ages, when Salad in marched from Cairo to the conquest of Western Asia; and, in our time, the renewal of Egypt's empire on the Euphrates has been prevented only by European intervention. The great capitals have been as transitory as the empires themselves. While the stone-built pyramids and tombs, palaces and temples, of Memphis and Thebes are still the wonder of the world, and Alexandria remains the great port of the Levant, the brick towers and walls and palaces of Nineveh, Babylon, and Susa, and even the later capitals of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, are formless mounds, the vague landmarks of vanished empires. But here comes in another happy resemblance to Egypt; for those mounds have begun in our time to yield up their long-hidden contributions to the history of the East.

§ 2. This whole region is included, for convenience, under the general name of Mesopotamia/ and in the most important periods of its history it formed the single empire, first of Assyria and afterwards of Babylon. But it was not thus united in the earliest times, and its political divisions correspond to marked physical diversities. From the great mass of Asia, its south-western portion is cut off, as a sort of pe-

¹ This Greek word signifies the country bcticeen the rivers, and is used loosely for the region of the two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates). It is the exact etymological equivalent of the Semitic dual, Naharaina (or in), which is found on the Egyptian monuments, and in the A ram-Xaharaim of Scripture.

222 THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

ninsula, first by the Caucasian isthmus between the Caspian and the Black Sea. From the southern part of this isthmus the Armenian mountains—which the valley of the Cyrus (Kilr) divides from the chain of Caucasus—throw out, on the one side, the ranges which form the peninsula of Asia Minor, with a southern branch down the sea-board of Syria, and, on the other, the above-named chains of Kurdistan and Luristan, reaching to the Persian Gulf. Thus, between this Gulf and the Mediterranean a smaller peninsula is cut off, consisting chiefly of the desert of Arabia, which is prolonged northward in a wedge-shape form between Syria on the west and the north-eastern portion which forms the region of Mesopotamia.

§ 3. The two great rivers of this country take their rise in the mountains of Armenia; but they start on very different courses.

The Euphrates² (Frat) is at first formed by two branches,³ both of which rise in the central knot of the Armenian highlands, and flow westward through distinct valleys, till the united stream—already 120 feet wide, and very deep— turns the western end of the chain of Mount Niphates (Ke-bad,the Snowy range), and flows southward, first between the chains of Taurus and Masius (Karja Barjlar) in a swift course, with many rapids, to Samosata, where it begins to be navigable ; and then past the foot-hills of Upper Mesopotamia, \ill (at 36° N. lat.) it reaches the level of the Great Syrian Desert, through which it flows to the south-east. Above the latitude of 35° it receives the Chaboras (Khabttr), which flows southward from Mount Masius: at the junction stood the celebrated city of Circesium. From this point to its junction with the Tigris, the Euphrates flows in a slow and winding stream for 800 miles, without receiving another tributary; and much of its water loses itself in the desert, or passes off into the Tigris. It is widest below its junction with the Khabur (700 or 800 miles above its mouth), being about 400 yards across: at Bemloon, some 100 miles below Babylon, its width has diminished to 120 yards, and its depth

² The word is probably of Aryan origin, the Greek prefix el having the same force as the Sanskrit su, the Zend hu, and the Teutonic gut, good; and the second element being fra, the particle of abundance; the Mdiole thus signifying "the good and abounding river." The Hebrew is just like the modern name; but it is generally denoted in the Bible by han-nahar, i. e. "the river," in grand contrast to the short-lived torrents of Palestine, aud perhaps also as the boundary of the promised land—"the bordering flood of old Euphrates" (Milton). In Gen. xv. IS, both terms are used, " the great river, the river Euphrates."

³ The northern branch, which rises near ML Ararat and flows past Erzeroum, is called Frat and also Kara-Su (the Black River); the southern, which rises to the north of the great lake Van, and flows along the northern foot of M. Niphates, is called Mxirad-Chai; but the latter is the principal stream.

THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

223

from 18 feet to 12. The same cause that diminishes its volume is continually changing its lower course.

The Tigris (the Hielelekel of Eden)⁴ rises on the south side of Mount Niphates, its chief source being a small lake, called Goljik, which is separated by an intervening hill from one of the bends of the Euphrates, at a distance of only 2 or 3 miles. It skirts the southern foot of Mount Niphates, as the infant Euphrates its northern foot, but in the opposite direction ; flowing to the east through the valley of JDiarbekr between that chain and Mount Masius, till the mountains of Kurdistan turn it in a direction varying between S.E. and S., along the foot of the chain anciently called Zagrus. Its waters, increased by many tributaries from these mountains, pour through a deep gorge of the secondary chain near Jezi-reh down to the upper undulating plain of Assyria Proper, and flow past the ruins of Nineveh opposite Mosul. Emerging on to the alluvial plain at Samara, the Tigris flows S.E., and then bends south towards the Euphrates till the rivers are less than 20 miles apart at Bagdad. A little lower, the two rivers are connected by the Kahr Malcha, or Royal Canal; and just at its junction with the Tigris stood the Greek and Parthian capitals, Seleucia and Ctesiphon, on the opposite banks of the rifrer. After a parallel course for many miles, the rivers again diverge; and, about half way towards their final junction, the Tigris pours a large portion of its waters due south into the Euphrates by a branch called the Shat-el-IIie; while the main river, keeping its southeasterly direction, joins the Euphrates in the same latitude (31° N.) as the Shat-el-IIie. The united stream (now called the Shat-el-Arab) kept the name of Tigris, though this was the narrower aud shorter of the two rivers ; having a length of 1146 miles, while that of the Euphrates was about 1780 miles.

Both rivers are subject to inundations, caused by the melt-

⁴ The name of this river, nncler forms only apjiarenlly different, has been as permanent as that of the Euphrates. Perhaps the oldest form was DigUt, the Diglath of the Targnms, etc., and the Diglit of Pliny (" H. N." vi. 2T); whence Hiddekel was formed by the Semitic prefix Hi, signifying lively (used of running water in Gen. xxvi. 19). This name occurs in the Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions, side by side with the Assyrian form Tiggar or Tigra (in Greek and Latin Tigris), which is said to have signified an arrow in Medo-Persian (Strab. xi. 14, § S: Plin. 1. c.). It seems, therefore, probable that there was in early Babylonian a root dik or dig, equivalent to the Aryan tig or tij; and that from these twp roots were formed independently the two names, Dekel, Dikla, or Digla, and Tiggar, Tigra, or Tigris. The Arab conquerors of Mesopotamia revived the true Semitic title in the modern native form of Digleh. The name (if rightly explained by Strabo and Pliny) wonld signify the nature of its rapid course, so much shorter and straighter, and therefore swifter, than the Euphrates; as Byron speaks of " the arrowy Rhone." But what seems the same word in the royal name of Tigutth-pfiesev is explained by cuneiform scholars as ado* ration; and thus the Tigris might be the sacred river.

224 THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

ing of the snow on the Armenian mountains. The Tigris, having its sources on the southern slope of Mount Niphates, begins to rise earlier; but nearly the whole inundation of the Babylonian plain is due to the Euphrates, whose immense alluvial deposits are said to advance the exit of the united stream into the Persian Gulf at the rate of a mile in from 30 to 70 years. The mouth, now in 30° North latitude, is estimated to have been, in the earliest historic age, as high as 31°, so that the two rivers flowed separately into the Gulf. In ancient history the Euphrates is pre-eminent as " the bordering flood " which has generally divided the rival combatants for the empire of Western Asia. It was also the usual course of communication between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. The Tigris was used for little more than local navigation, from the force of the stream and its natural obstructions, to which the Persians added dams, probably to regulate the inundation.

§ 4. The region watered by these great rivers is divided into two parts, which are physically very distinct, by a line drawn diagonally across the 34th parallel of latitude, from Hit on the Euphrates to Samara on the Tigris, and separating Upper Mesopotamia, or Assyria in the wider sense, from Lower Mesopotamia, or Babylonia. The former is an undulating country, of the secondary geological formation, sloping clown from the mountains on the north and east to the Euphrates and the desert on the south-west; and suddenly falling, at the boundary-line named, into the great alluvial plain of Babylonia.

The latter is a vast flat, about 100 miles in width, and extending about 400 miles along the rivers; merging on the west and south into the Arabian desert, whose tertiary sands and gravel reach generally within 20 or 30 miles of the Euphrates, and sometimes cross it; while on the east it reaches beyond the Tigris to the foot-hills of Elam (Elyma'is) or Susiana. This alluvial plain was again subdivided into Upper Babylonia, the country around and above Babylon, and Lower Babylonia, or (as the Greek geographers call it) Chalclcea—a name which we only use, for the present, as a pnirely geographical tern).⁵ The name of Chaldrea is sometimes applied to the whole plain, which is also designated in Scripture as " the land of S/rinar"⁹ a term which includes

⁵ This name is applied by the Greek and Latin geographers to a part of Babylonia, near the head of the Persian Gulf, and on the confines of Arabia (Strabo, xvi. pp. 739, YG7; Plin. vi. 37; Ptol. v. 20, § 3).

⁶ Probably Shin'-ar, the country of the two rivers, from the Semitic Shne (two) and ^%ar, the Babylonian equivalent of nahr (a river). We have already observed that the Ethiopian Sennaar has the same meaning. The lxx. render Shin'ar by Sennaar in Gen. xi. 3, and by Babylonia iu Isaiah xi. 11, aud Zech. v. 11.

UPPER MESOPOTAMIA.

225

^t£ Babel," in Upper Babylonia, as well as " Ereeh, Calneh, and Aecad," in Lower Babylonia.

Upper Mesopotamia was far more diversified, both in its physical character and its geographical subdivisions. Mesopotamia Proper (Aram-Nahara'int, Hob.; JYahara'in, Egypt.; now El-Jezireh, i. e. the Island), between the two rivers, as far south as the beginning of the alluvial plain, was divided into an upper and lower part by the Sinjar IIUls (Singaras Mons.),⁷ which reach from the Kliabur to the Tigris below Nineveh. The Khabur again subdivides the upper part into the hilly region about the foot of Mount Masius (the ancient Mygdonia or Ganzanitis), and the high undulating plain of Padan-Arani* or Osroene, surrounded by the upper course of the Euphrates. The latter is intersect! d from N. to S. by the river Belias, Balissus, or Belichus, which falls into the Euphrates near Callinicum : on its banks the town of Char-ran retains the name of liar an (the resting-place of Abraham, and the abode of Nahor and his family), and the memory of the defeat of Crassus by the Parthians. Lastly, Assyria Proper (the land of Asshnr both in the vernacular and in Scripture) lay between the Tigris and the mountains of Kurdistan, as far S. as the river Gyndes (Diala), which divided it from Elam or Susiana. In its northern and eastern parts, the fertile foot-hills, well watered by the tributaries of the Tigris, rise to the rich pastures and wooded heights of the mountains of Zagrus.

From above Nineveh downward, the country becomes a plain, of the same character as the general surface of Mesopotamia—a beautiful pasture-ground, enamelled with flowers during the spring and early summer, but afterward^ burned up, except along the courses of the rivers. In ancient times its fertility and verdure were better preserved by artificial irrigation. Wood was abundant, as it still is on the higher hills; for Trajan and Severus "built fleets on the Euphrates. Among its mineral products were naphtha, ammomum, and a kind of anthracite coal called f/anr/itis. The chief animals are the gazelle, the wild ass, and the lion, which has greatly multiplied in the neglected wastes. Along the course of the Euphrates, the Arabian desert seems always to have encroached on Mesopotamia Proper, and its sands now occupy a large district on its left bank.⁸

⁷ This name is derived from the town of Singara, a frontier fortress of the Roman emperors against Persia, and seems to have a connection with Shinar.

⁸ That is, either the table-land of Aram, or the field of Aram, or upland field or pasture-ground (for Aram means "high").

⁹ Hence Xenophon mentions a part of Arabia as along the left bank of the Euphrates ; and, at the present day, the prevalence of an Arab population, as troublesome as iu old times, gives to the country round Babylon the name of Irak-Arabi.

10*

226 THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

§ 5. Descending into the plain of Babylonia, we are in a part of the "rainless district;" and the rich alluvium depends for its fertility upon the rivers and canals. Babylonia, like Egypt, is " the gift of its rivers ;" which have inundations, but not with the periodic regularity of the Nile. Hence the waters require still more careful distribution; a work which engaged the best care of the ancient kings, and in a lesser degree of the Arab Caliphs; but which has been totally neglected under the Turks. The waters of the Euphrates run to waste in the desert, forming pestilential swamps,: ^vand the canals are little cared for. In ancient times, besides innumerable cuts for irrigation, there were three chief canals connecting the Tigris and Euphrates: the original " royal river " (Ar-Malcha of Berosus), in the line of the modern Saklawayeh Canal, which falls into the Tigris at Bagdad; the later "royal river" (Nahr-Maleha of the Arabs), which fell into the Tigris at Seleucia; and the Xahr-Kutha, which joined the Tigris 20 miles lower. A smaller canal, the Pallacopas of Arrian, supplied the artificial lake of Borsippa, from which the land south-west of Babylon was irrigated. But the greatest of these works was the canal from the Euphrates at Hit to the Persian Gulf, passing along the line dividing the alluvium from the desert; and, while regulating the inundation, preserving the fertility of a large extent of debatable land, on which the desert now encroaches even beyond the river. South of Babylon and Borsippa lies the great inland fresh-water sea of jYedjef, 40 miles in length and 35 in width, and about 20 miles from the Euphrates. Part of the water of the river flows through it at the time of the inundation; but it does not owe its origin to this cause: it is a permanent lake of considerable depth, surrounded by cliffs of a reddish sandstone, in places 40 feet high. Above and below this, lake, from Birs-Nimrud to Kufa, and from the south-eastern extremity of the lake to Samava, extend the famous " Chaldean marshes," where Alexander was nearly lost;¹⁰ but they are entirely distinct from the lake, depending on the state of the Hindiyeh canal, and disappearing when it is closed.

The climate of this vast rainless plain, lying under a burning sun, and with an atmosphere moistened by the rivers and marshes, is intolerably hot in summer, bnt mild and pleasant in winter. The ancient writers celebrate its unsurpassed fer tility; and it is the only country where wheat is known to be indigenous. The native historian, Berosus, notices this nrodnction, and also the spontaneous growth of barley, ses*

^J0 Strabo, xvi. 1, § 12: Arriau. "Auab." vii. 22.

THE PLAIN OF BABYLON.

227

ame, ochrys, palms, apples, and many kinds of shelled fruit. Herodotus¹¹ declares that grain commonly returned two hundredfold to the sower, and occasionally three hundredfold. Strabo¹² makes nearly the same assertion, and Pliny¹³ says that the wheat was cut twice, and was afterwards good keep for beasts. The date-palm was one of the principal ob' jects of cultivation. According to Strabo, it furnished the natives with bread, wine, vinegar, honey, porridge, and ropes; with a fuel equal to charcoal, and with a means of fattening cattle and sheep. A Persian poem celebrates its 360 uses. Herodotus says that the whole of the flat country was planted with palms, and Ainmianus Marcellinus¹⁴ observes that, from the point reached by Julian's army to the shores of the Persian Gulf, there was one continuous forest of verdure. At present palms are almost confined to the vicinity of the rivers, and even there they do not grow thickly, except about the villages, whose inhabitants, neglecting the rich virgin soil, subsist chiefly upon dates.

The contrast between the ancient and present state of Babylonia is thus described by a modern traveller: "The wants of a teeming population were supplied by a rich soil, not less bountiful than that on the banks of the Egyptian Nile. Like islands rising from a golden sea of waving corn, stood frequent groves of palm-trees and pleasant gardens, affording to the idler or traveller their grateful and highly valued shade. Crowds of passengers hurried along the dusty road to and from the busy city. The land was rich in corn and wine. How changed is the aspect of that region at the present day ! Long lines of mounds, it is true, mark the courses of those main arteries which formerly diffused life and vegetation along their banks; but their channels are now bereft of moisture and choked with drifted sand; the smaller offshoots are wholly effaced. All that remains of that ancient civilization — that ⁴ glory of kingdoms,' ' the praise of the whole earth'—is recognizable in the numerous mouldering heaps of brick rubbish which overspread the surface of the plain. Instead of the luxuriant fields, the groves and gardens, nothing now meets the eye but an arid waste—the dense population of the former times has vanished, and no man dwells there."¹⁵ The soil is still rich, but more than half the country is left dry and waste from the want of a proper system of irrigation; while the remaining half is to a great extent covered with marshes owing to the same neglect. Thus the prophecies, which to an ignorant reader

¹¹ Herod, i. 19.7. i² Strab. xvi. 1. 5 14. ¹³ " Hist. Nat." xviii. 17.

¹⁴ xxiv. 3. " Loftus. ^u Chaklaea aud Susiana," pp. 14,15.

228 THE REGION OF THE EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS.

might seem contradictory, are literally fulfilled: "A drought is upon her waters, and they are dried up:" "The sea is come up upon Babylon, and she is covered with the waves thereof."¹⁶ She is made " a possession for the bittern, and pools of water:" she is "wholly desolate"—"the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert."¹⁷

§ 6. This alluvial plain is entirely destitute of rocks and minerals, and yet it was the site of the earliest, and, among these, the one most famous, of the buildings of the post-diluvian world. "And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinetr; and they dwelt there." And they said to one another, Go to, let us make brick, and bum them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us et name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth:" and then, in consequence of the confusion of their speech, "they left off to build the city."¹⁸ That this city of Babel" was the origin of the famous capital of the same name, which the Greeks called Babylon, is now generally agreed.

Respecting the tower, a curious testimony ha's been discovered. One of the most conspicuous mounds about the site of Babylon is that to which tradition has given the name of Birs-NimrHd (the Citadel of Mmrod).²^ The ruins covered by this mound are now certainly identified, by their inscriptions, with the temple of Bel-Merodeich, built by Nebuchadnezzar at Borsippa, about seven miles south-west of

^1B Jerem. 1. 38; li. 42. ¹⁷ Isaiah xiv. 12,13, 23.

¹⁸ Genesis xi. 2-4, s. The common way of speaking only of the tower of Babel is apt to put out of sight the din and the name, which mark the real object of the scheme as the first attempt to found a great political power. (See further, ou this point, the " Student's O. T. History," chap. v. § 5.)

»⁹ Genesis xi. 9. The Chaldsean priests of Babylon preserved the tradition of the confusion of tongues, but they found an etymology for Babel in their own tongue, Bab-il, i. e. the gate of II (the god whom the Greeks identified with Kronos or Saturn). Either etymology may have arisen from the other by the universal tendency for each race to find a meaning for a proper name in its own language. But, in the case be. fore us, the Scripture etymology is so authoritative, and so inseparably connected with the events recorded, that it seems safer to consider the Semitic meaning the original, and the Chaldaic the adaptation. In this view we have an argument for the original Semitic population of the plain of Shinar. It is of the utmost importance to observe that Babel and Babylon are distinctly local and not ethnic names. Label does not occur iu the ethnic table of Genesis x.; and the Babylonians of history are simply the people whose capital was Babylon. The question of their true ethnic name will be considered presently.

²⁰ The prefix Birs, which has no meaning in Arabic, is explained by the local name of Boursa, which points to the Semitic form seen in the Idnmaean Bozrah and the Punic Byrsa (a citadel). It seems to retain the first syllable of the ancient name, Borsippa, in the Babvlonian form Barsij> or Barzipa, which M. Oppevt explains ns "Tower of Tongues." The Talmndists declare that the true site of the Tower of Babel was at Borsif, the Greek Boivippa.

INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

Babylon, which Herodotus describes as the temple of Jupiter Belns. It consisted of a large substructure, a stade (600 feet) in breadth, and 75 feet inheight, over which were built seven other stages of 25 feet each.²¹ Among its ruins has been found an inscription, which M. Oppert explains as Nebuchadnezzar's own account of the building, or rather the rebuilding of this "Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth" (the Sun, Moon, and planets). The inscription is well worth quoting entire, both for its historic value, and as a specimen of the style of similar documents :

"Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, shepherd of peoples, who attest the immutable affection of Merodach, the mighty ruler-exalting Nebo ;²² the saviour; the wise man, who lends his ears to the orders of the highest god ; the lieutenant without reproach, the repairer of the Pyramid and the Tower, eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon : We say :

"Merodach, the great master, has created me: he has imposed on me to reconstruct his building. Nebo, the guardian over the legions of the heaven and the earth, has charged my hands with the sceptre of justice.

" The Pyramid is the temple of the heaven and the earth, the s-nt of Merodach, the chief of the gods : the place of the oracles, the spot of his rest, I have adorned it in the form of a cupola with shining gold.²³

"The Tower, the eternal house, which I founded and built,"⁴ I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enamelled bricks, fir, and pine.

" The first, which is the house of the earth's base, the most ancient monument of Babylon, I built and finished it: I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper.²⁵

" We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the House of the Seven Lights of the Earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa : A former king built it {they reckon 12 ages), but he did not complete its head. Since a remote

time people had abandoned it, without order expressing their

>vords. Since that time the earthquake aud the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had been split; and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps.²⁶ Merodach, the great lord, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site, nor did I take away the foundation-stone. In a fortunate month, an auspicious day,²⁷ I undertook to build porticoes around the crude briek masses and the casing of burnt bricks. I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the porticoes. I set my hand to finish it, and to exalt its head. As it had been in former

²¹ The general form of the Chaldtean temple towers is described below (see chap, xvi.).

²² The king's name coutaius that of Nebo, his patron deity.

²³ This is the chapel, or shrine, on the top stage of the " tower," which is next de scribed.

²⁴ This seems a proof that Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt it from the old foundation.

²⁵ This is expressly mentioned, as a mode of Babylonian building, by Philostratus (Apoll. Tyau. i. 25).

²⁶ Here is the clearest allusion to the mode of building: successive stages of snn-dried bricks, round an earthen mound as core, and faced with highly burnt bricks: nor could any words describe more vividly the exact state which the ruins again present after another 2000 years.

²⁷ An allusion to the Chalda?an astrology.

230

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

times,²⁸ so I founded, I made it; as it had been in ancient days, so I exalt ed its summit.

" Nebo, son of himself, ruler who exaltest Merodach, be propitious to my works, to maintain my authority. Grant me a life until the remotest time, a sevenfold progeny, the stability of my throne, the victory of my sword, the pacification of foes,²⁹the triumph over the lands! In the columns of thy eternal table, that fixes the destinies of the heaven and earth, bless the course of my days, inscribe the fecundity of my race.

"Imitate, O Merodach, king of heaven and earth, the father who begot thee: bless my buildings, strengthen my authority. May Nebuchadnezzar, the king repairer, remain before thy face."

If this inscription is properly translated, and if the tradition preserved by the Chaldrean priests of Nebuchadnezzar's age was true, the inference seems irresistible, that the Tal-mudists were right in placing the Tower of Babel at Borsippa, and, moreover, that the ruins of Birs-Nimruel are on its original foundation. The distance of Borsippa from Babylon is no valid objection ; for Borsippa was a detached suburb of Babylon,"⁰ the sacred seat of the priests; and a suburban citadel also, where Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, held out when the city was taken by Cyrus. If the objection has any force, it would incline us to claim Borsippa as the original site of the city of Babel; which,like so many other great cities, may have been transferred to a neighboring site.³¹ At all events, there is a great historic gap between the city of the Babel-builders and the capital of Baby Ion : "They left off to build the city."™

§ 7. There is nothing in the Scripture narrative to prove the common assumption, that the Babel-builders were of the Hamite or Cushite race; and to connect the building of Babel (in Genesis xi.) with the kingdom of Nimrocl (in Genesis xi) is an arbitrary assumption, tending to confound events which were probably separated by a wide interval. The former narrative rather seems to describe a migration of mankind from their primeval seats before the distinctions of race were clearly established :³³ and this is one mode of accounting for the great mixture of races in that region from the earliest times.³⁴ That the prevalent race was originally Semitic, has been argued from the remarkable passage which gives us the

²⁸ That is, in design, for he has said that it was not finished.

²⁹ It seems that the Babylonian conqueror had the Roman idea of pacification.

³⁰ Mr. Layard has observed that the name of Borsippa occurs in every mention of Babylon on the inscriptions, from the earliest time to the latest. ("Asiatic Journal," vol. xii. part ii. pp. 436, 437.)

³¹ A reason for the change may have been that the banks of the river were not suited for a city till prepared by engineering works. We are not arguing that the change was actually made, bnt only suggesting it as an answer to the objection of distance. ³² Genesis xi. S. ³³ Compare Genesis xi. 1, 6, and !>.

³⁴ Berosus records the fact, which is proved by modern researches: "There were at first at Babylon a great number of men of differeut races, who colonized Chaldsea."

THE EARLY ETHNOGRAPHY OF MESOPOTAMIA. 231

first account of the establishment of a kingdom on the face of the earth: "And Cusn begat Nimrod : he first was a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. . . . And the beginning (or ceqriteil) of his kingdom was JBabel and Freeh, and Accad, and Cedneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city JRehoboth, and Cedeih, and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city."³⁵

Here we have the mention of two states, each forming a tetrapolis; and enough is known of the other cities named (besides Babel and Nineveh) to place the one in Lower Babylonia, the other in Assyria Proper. The founder of the one was a Cushite king; and the other is distinctly marked by the name of Asshur as Semitic. The latter was in some way the offshoot of the former: but how ? One theory is that Asshur went forth out of that land (Shinar), driven out by Nimrod, who certainly has all the appearance of a conqueror : in other words, that the original Semitic population of Shinar was overpowered and, in part at least, driven northward by a Cushite conquest. Another view—based upon the translation in the margin of our version, "Out of that land he went out into Assyria ⁵⁵—makes Nimrod the founder of the Assyrian as well as the Babylonian state. There can, indeed, be little doubt that, in a very early period of history, Nineveh and the neighboring cities were Subject to a kingdom which had its seat in Babylonia; and this accords with the tradition which makes Belus king of Nineveh before Ninus. But there is no evidence that the population of Assyria was ever other than Semitic ; and the prevalence of Semitic dialects throughout the whole of Mesopotamia shows what was its prevalent population. If the Cushite race, the presence of which is attested not only by what is said of Nimrod, but also by the Turanian element in the language of the earliest inscriptions of Babylonia, was really intrusive in that country, its entrance may be not improbably connected with the establishment of another great branch

³⁵ Genesis x. S-l-2. The passage is almost certainly an interpolation in the genealogical table.of the sons of Noah. Besides the use of the name Jehovah (which, by-the-by, is here only an intensive, as in Jonah iii. 3), the passage stands alone in the genealogy in its distinclly personal character; it has no connection with what precedes and follows; and the proverbial expression quoted in it seems to mark its fragmentary character. This later date would account for the precedence given to Babylop and Nineveh in each tetrapolis, even if they were not the original capitals. That the terms " mighty one" and " very mighty hunter" refer, as Jewish tradition held (Joseph. "Aut." i. 4, § 2), to a conqueror, if not an oppressor, seems the only adequate sense, and is confirmed by the mentiou of Nimrod's kingdom. The only other mention of Nimrod is in Micah v. (j, where " the land of Nimrod " seems to \w. Babylonia, but may possibly be Assyria. (See the art.NiMnon in the "Diet, of the Bible.")

232

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

of the Hamite family in Egypt; and civilization may have had a kindred origin, both in source and time, on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates.³⁶

§ 8. In the latter case, as in the former, we look for native traditional records, and still more for contemporary monuments, of the tirst establishment of an organized political society. Of the traditions, which in both countries were preserved by a learned sacerdotal class, we find in Babylonia also a recorder such as the Egyptian Manetho. This was Berosus, a priest of Belus, at Babylon, in the reign of An-tiochus II. (b.c. 261-246), who compiled, from the archives in the temple of the god, a " History of Babylon " or " Chal-dtea." Of this work, as of Manetho's, we possess only some fragments, which have been preserved by Josephus, Poly-histor, etc., by Eusebius and the other chroniclers, and by the Christian fathers. Their value must be tried by the same standards which have been applied to Manetho—confirmation by contemporary records or monuments, and agreement with other historic testimony of proved authenticity.³⁷ Berosus furnishes no such list of kings as Manetho; but he gives us a compendious statement of the dynasties that had reigned in Babylonia. Like Manetho, he begins with a mythical period, but one far surpassing the Egyptian in the extravagance of its chronology, which is manifestly adapted to a conventional system of arithmetic. From the destruction of Chaos by Bel, the god of light and air, to the Deluge, from which Xisuthrus was saved in an ark, he reckons 432,000 years.³⁸ The only tradition of this period worth mentioning is that which ascribes the origin of civilization to Oannes,³⁰ a being with the upper part of a man and the

³⁸ That the ruling race of Babylonia, in the earliest historic times, was Cushite, and connected with the Hamite populations of Egypt and Southern Arabia, is argned (1.) From the Biblical genealogy: (-2.) From the resemblance between the cuneiform and hieroglyphic (or, more exactly, the hieratic) systems of writing: (3.) From the language of some of the Babylonian inscriptions, of which the grammar seems "Turanian," but the vocabulary Hamite or "Sub-Semitic:" (4.) From the traditions of Babylonia and Assyria (and also some Greek traditions), which point to a connection of Babylonia with Ethiopia and Southern Arabia. (See Sir H.Rawlinson's "Essay VI. to Herod." Book i. in p. 442.)

³⁷ Among the classical writers, besides Herodotus, whose early accounts, both of Babylonia and Assyria, are manifestly fabulous, the only authority of any great weight is Ctesias, of Cnidns in Caria, who was physician to Artaxerxes II. Mnemon, aud was with him during his Avar against his brother Cyrus the Younger (u.o. 401), and wrote a history of Persia in 23 books. His statements are generally at variance both with Herodotns and Berosus. The tendency of cuneiform discovery, thus far, has been to confirm Berosns rather than Ctesias. The traditions followed by the Greek writers represent the contiuuous existence, from the earliest times, of'an Assyrian empire, to which Babylonia was subject till its comparatively late revolt. The error of this will be seen as we proceed.

³⁸ That is, 120 sars of 3600 years each, in the Babylonian system of computation (see below, chap. xvii.).

³⁹ As to the deity represented by the name Oannes, see chap. xvii.

BEROSUS AND HIS SCHEME OF DYNASTIES.

233

tail of a fish, who came up from the Indian Sea, and to six other similar fish-men—a tradition which, if worth any thing, indicates the belief of the priests of Babylon that their civilization began on the shores of the Persian Gulf.

From the Deluge of Xisuthrus to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus and the fall of the Babylonian empire, Berosus reckons Eight Dynasties, which, though the numbers of years assigned to them are imperfect, were evidently intended to fill up the cycle of 10 sars, or 36,000 years. The First Dy* nasty is obviously mythical, consisting of 86 demigods, whom he calls Chalclceans, and who reigned at Babylon for 34,080 years ; a number doubtless assigned so as to complete, with the length of the period which Berosus regarded as historical, the above total of 36,000 years. Thus the so-called historical period would consist of 1920 years; and reckoning backward from the fall of Babylon, it would begin in b.c 2458. Using this computation to supply some of the missing figures, Dr. Gutschmidt has framed the following scheme of the Dynasties of Berosus :⁴⁰

Dynasty.	Kings.	Rulers.	Years.	Begin	End
		Mythical.
I.	SG		34.0S0	15.0.	15.0.
		Historical.
II.	8		224	2453	2234
III.	Li		[25S]	2234	1976
IV.	45		458	1976	151S
V.	•)		245	151S	1273
VI.	45		526	1273	747
VII.	S		[122]	747	625
VIII.	6	Chaldseans..................	S7	625	538
		Total..............	36,000

§ 9. The first five of these dynasties represent a period respecting which our information is very scanty and doubtful, in spite of the light recently acquired from the inscriptions exhumed from the mounds that cover the ruined cities of Babylonia. Those ruins are believed to be the monuments of that passion for great buildings which characterized the race of Ham ; and which, while raising the everlasting stones of the pyramids in Egypt, found materials for edifices of a similar type even in the alluvial plain of Chaldaea.⁴¹ "They

⁴¹ The years of the 7th and Sth dynasties arc from the Canon of Eusebins, etc. The 258 years of the 3d dynasty are obtained from the total. See Notes and Illustrations—(A). Early Babylonian Chronology.

⁴¹ The similarity of type, of which we have to speak below, is an argument for the cognate origin of the races that built the Egyptian pyramids and the Chaldaean temple-towers.

234

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." The argillaceous plain supplied the material for bricks, which the tierce sun hardened sufficiently for the construction of the massive stages of the towers and walls of the palaces, while, for the protection of the outer surfaces, they "burnt them thoroughly."⁴² ' It is disputed whether the "slime" means the tenacious mud, or the bitumen which is one of the most characteristic mineral products of Chaldsea; but the existing ruins show that both were used for cement.

The objects found in the ruins prove a knowledge of the art of working metals for ornament as well as use, and of * pottery, which is used not only for drinking-vessels, ornamental vases, and lamps, but also for coffins; and there are articles of foreign importation, which seem to indicate a commerce by way of the Persian Gulf. Of their textile fabrics, the only remains are some fragments of linen adhering to the skeletons in the tombs, and the tasselled cushions on which their heads are laid ; but the delicately striped and fringed dresses shown on the most ancient signet-cylinders remind us of the "goodly Babylonish garments" which were imported into Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites.⁴³ The whole structure of the towers, and their emplacement towards the four quarters of the compass, can only be explained on the supposition that they had from the first that connection with astronomy which is distinctly affirmed, in Nebuchadnezzar's inscription, of the later towers raised on the same model. This implies the beginning of that astronomical science for which the Chaldean priests of Babylonia were always famous, favored by their cloudless sky and unbroken horizon, and moved to its cultivation by their religious system—the so-called " Sabsean " worship of the heavenly bodies. Last but not least among these proofs of civilization, the characters impressed upon the bricks, and upon the tablets and signet-cylinders found in the ruins, attest the knowledge of the art of writing. And these contemporary inscriptions, though comparatively few, furnish monumental testimony concerning this early age, which is in some cases confirmed by the records of later kings, representing, of course, only the traditions of their time.

§ 10. The names of the earliest cities of Babylonia are recorded in the Scriptural notice of Nimrod. Of the cities forming the southern tetrapolis (besides Babel), Erech and Calneh seem to be the Iluruk and Nipar of the cuneiform inscriptions, which are identified almost certainly with the ruins at Warka and JViffer: Accacl seems rather to be the « Genesis xi. 3. ⁴³ Joshua vii. 21.

THE SECOND DYNASTY.

23-3

name of a region than a city, and is sometimes used like the general name of the kingdom.⁴⁴ The testimony found in the ruins seems, however, to indicate the existence of t wo tetrap-oleis, corresponding to the twofold division of the Babylonian plain already mentioned—the upper, consisting of Babel, Borsippa, Cutha (now Ibrahim, N.E. of Babylon), and Sippara (the Sepharvcum** of Scripture, now Sura, on the Euphrates, 20 miles above Babylon); the lower comprising (besides Erech and Calneh) Larsa or Larancha (the Ellasar of Scripture,⁴⁶ and now Senkereh), and Ilur (now called Miff/heir, i.e. the mother of bitumen, from the vast quantity of bituminous cement found in its ruins). Each of the cities was under the special tutelage of one of the heavenly bodies; the Sun was worshipped at Larsa, the Moon at Hur; Bel (Bilu-JVipru) and his consort Beltis (or Mylitta) at Calneh⁴⁷ and Erech; Bel-Merodach and his consort Anuni at Babylon; the Sun at Sippara; Nergal at Cutha; and so forth. The superior ^antiquity of the cities of the southern tetrapolis (excepting of course the original Babel) has been inferred from the more ancient type of their ruined temple-towers, and from the character of their inscriptions.

§ 11. This seems, at first sight, to be a somewhat startling contradiction to the testimony of Scripture concerning the building of Babel. But this appearance of discrepancy rests solely on the improbable assumption of continuity in the political existence of the original Babel. When we are expressly told, not only that " they left off to build the city,¹' but also that they were " scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth,"⁴⁸—what state could survive such a catastrophe? Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that a secondary agency was employed in this "scattering abroad;" and the conquering race, who would be the appropriate instruments of such a work, may very possibly be represented by the Second or Mediein Dynasty of Berosus. The tradition preserved by that historian, that Zoroaster reigned as a conqueror at Babylon, seems to indicate an early stage of the great conflict between the elemental worship, which in the historic age characterized the Median Magians, and the Sa-

⁴⁴ (See below, § 21.) We read in the inscriptions of Sargon, u.o. 720 seq., of the removal of Accadiau colouies from Babylonia to Armenia.

⁴⁵ The dual form denotes its position on both sides of the river.

⁴⁶ In Gen. xiv. 1, it is the capital of Arioch, one of the allies of Chedorlaomer.

⁴⁷ The name of this city is said to mean " the fort of the god Ann." Its name of Xopher in the Talmud agrees with the modern Xiffer, which Arab tradition makes the site of the original Babylon, and also the place whence Nimrod endeavored to mount on eagle's wings to heaven. The LXX. (Isa. x. 9) make Calneh the seat of the tower of Babel. See further on the Babylonian Religion, in chap. xvii.

⁴⁸ Gen. xi. S, P.

230

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

basism which seems to have had its origin in Babylonia; and the zeal always shown by the former against the latter may have been one agent in the overthrow of the original Babel. It does not follow from the name of "Median" that these conquerors were of the Aryan race, to which the latter Medes undoubtedly belonged; for at a very early period, Scythian hordes overran the table-land of Asia; and the very name of Media seems to be a Turanian word, signifying the country. Besides, elemental worship seems to have originated with the Turanians. On the other hand, there is clear evidence of an Aryan element in the early population of Babylonia; and the* most recent philological inquiries tend to an approximation between the Turanian and Aryan dialects. In the absence of clearer tests and better information, the safest conclusion seems to be that the country was conquered by a mixed Scytho-Aryan race, who were called "Medians" in the old traditions of Babylonia, simply because they came from Iran. Obscure as is the part played by this race in the revolutions of Babylonia, it has left there the most durable monument of its power, at least if some of the best authorities are right in believing that cuneiform writing originated with the Turanians.

§ 12. The recovery of dominion in the country by a native race, and the final prevalence of Sabreism over the Magian elemental worship, appears to be represented by the Third Dynasty of Berosus;⁴⁹ to which (and the succeeding dynasty) alone can we refer the most ancient monuments of the Babylonian cities. The names of those cities connect them, on the other hand, with the monarchy of the Cushite Nimrod, whose own name seems to be preserved in the title of Bilu-Nipru, the god of the chase, and in that of the city of Nipru (Cal-neh,'now Niffer, S.E. of Babylon), which was the special seat of the worship of that deity.⁶⁰

The seat of this Cushite monarchy—the first which its monuments enable us to regard as properly historical—is placed by those monuments (as we have seen) in the southern tetrapolis of Babylonia. In that quarter, also, the oldest

. ⁴⁹ Respecting its chronological coincidence with the traditional beginning cf the Assyro-Babylonian kingdom, see Notes and Illustrations (A).

⁵⁰ This city seems to" be the &l\p*\ of Ptolemy. The etymological connection of Nimrod and Nipru, by the usual interchange of the labials m and jJ before r, is obvious. Sir H. Rawlinson finds the root-meaning in the Syriac napar (to pursue); and a two-fold light is thrown on Nimrod's own character, as a "hunter" and as the hero-eponymns of the Babylonians, by inscriptions of more than one Assyrian king, who are described as "hunting (or pursuing) the people of Bilu-Xipni " (Rawlinson, " Essay X. to Herod. Book i." p. 507). It is to be observed that Nimrod need not be absolutely taken as a person in Gen. x., where a power may be described by the name of the national divine hero. An Arab tradition identifies Nimrod with the constel lation of the "giant" (El Gjanza) which we call, after the Greeks, Orion.

THE THIRD DYNASTY.

237

traditions make civilization enter from the sea. Accordingly the city, which the oldest extant inscriptions seem to mark as the capital, was Hur (now Muglieir), the farthest to the south of all the cities of Chaldasa. Its site (a little below 31° N. latitude) was no doubt originally on the shore of the Persian Gulf; and its ships are mentioned in connection with those of Ethiopia. It was, in later times, the greater southern seat, as Borsippa was the northern, of the sacred learning of the Chaldseans.⁵¹

The bricks of the basement story⁵² of the chief temple-towers in the southern tetrapolis are stamped with the name of Urukh, or Urkham,⁵³ who is described as " King of Hur and Kingi-Accad ;"⁵⁴ and his seal-cylinder is engraved with figures showing considerable art.⁵⁵ His temples are dedicated to Belus and Beltis, and to the Sun and Moon. His son Ilgi is recorded as the finisher of some of his father's buildings at Hur, particularly the temple of the moon-goddess (Sin). These inscriptions, in a rough, bold character, on the buildings, whose rude workmanship and sun-dried bricks, with the absence of lime-mortar, show them to be the oldest in the Babylonian plain,remind us of the quarry-marks of Khufu and Nu-Khufu on their far more perfect pyramid. The contrast not only marks the vast superiority of the earliest architecture of Egypt to that of Chaldrea, but it reminds us of the want, in the latter case, of those treasures of information which are preserved in the pictures of the Memphian tombs.

§ 13. The next names on the monuments, in point of antiquity, are tho^e of Kudur-mabuk (or Eudur-raapula) and his father Sintishil-Khah', in which the highest authorities recognize an Elymaan c haracter.⁵⁶ Kudur-mabuk is desig-

⁵¹ Though Hur appears, iu extant inscriptions, as the seat of the worship of the Moon (Sin or Hurki), there is evidence of a more ancient worship of Anu, the supreme god of the Babylonians and Assyrians. The traditions mentioned above would seem rather to point to Calneh (Xipru) as the capital; but, in all probability, the four cities were originally independent, and dominated over one another in turn. The opinion that Hur was the Ur-Chasdim, or Ur of the Chaldees, of Scripture, whence the family of Tei ah and Abraham migrated (which can not be fully discussed here), is noticed incidentally below (§ 17, note).

⁵² The upper stories are stamped with other names, some well known and of a Into period—a proof of the higher antiqnily of the names below.

⁵³ His name (which is interpreted "light of the snn") seems to have been preserved by a tradition which turns np, curiously enough, as late as the time of Ovid, who, in the fable of Clytia aud Leucothea, mentions Orchamus as the seventh in succession from Belus ("Metam." iv. 212,213). It is almost superfluous to remark that the classical Belus is only the mythical impersonation of Bel, and the hero-eponymns of Babylon.

⁵⁴ This seems to be the territorial designation of the Hamites of Chakkea.

⁵⁵ It is now unfortunately lost; but Sir R. K. Porter, who had it, has left an engrav* ing of it in his "Travels," which is copied in Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol. i. p. lis (first edition).

⁶⁶ This element is seen in the prefix Kudur aud in the termination Khak, which

238

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

nated by the title of " Ravager of the West " (Apda Martu)_t Now Berosus marks a distinction between the Third Dynasty of 11 kings and the Fourth of 49; and the earliest biblical record of a conquering king (at least after Nimrod) is that of Chedorlaomer,Wn^ of Flam™ who—with his three associate kings, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of nations—made an expedition against the cities of Canaan on the Dead Sea, over which he had already ruled for twelve years, and defeated them and the neighboring Amalekites and Amorites, but was overtaken and defeated on his march home by Abraham and his Amorite allies, in the neighborhood of Damascus.⁵⁸ The Scripture narrative clearly shows that, as early as the 19th century b.c, a king, who* was at the head of a confederacy of several states (large or small), with its seat in the lower valley of the Euphrates, made conquests to the west of that river, as far as the banks of the Jordan, but was finally repulsed. Flam, the kingdom of Chedorlaomer, has but one meaning, the country beyond the Tigris, to the east of the Babylonian plain, which was peopled in the earliest times by a Cushite race. Shinar, the kingdom of Amraphel, is Babylonia itself, especially in the narrower sense; and the people of Amraphel may have been the original Semitic population, whose chief seat was Babylon. The name of Arioch, king of Ellasar, seems to point to the Aryan element, of whose presence in Babylonia we have other evidence. The " nations " which owned Tidal for their king were most probably the Scythian nomad tribes, whom tradition represents as spreading over all Western Asia in the earliest times, and whose influence has been traced in the Turanian element of the old Babylonian language. Such a combination of the four great races—Hamitic, Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian—is confirmed by the name of Kiprath-arbat (four tongues or na-. tions), given to the people of Babylonia in the cuneiform in-

appears again on the bricks of Susa in the name Tirkhak, the identity of which with the name of the celebrated Ethiopian Tirhakah confirms the Cushite nationality. Ak is said by Josephus to mean king in the sacred language of Egypt, and the same element snrvives in the Turkish Khakan. Several other names on the Chaldaean monuments, of torms clearly Turanian, are also found on those of Susiana. Besides these points of agreement, the characters of the Susianian inscriptions bear a close resemblance to the hieratic writing of Babylonia. On the state of Susiana at this period, see Sir H. Rawlinson, " Essay VI." etc., p. 44S.

⁵⁷ This name, given in the Septuagint version in the form Chodollogomor, is ex plained by Sir H. Rawlinson as Kudur-lagamer, i. e. the servant of Lagamer, a deity of Elam or Susiana. Sir Henry at first identified Chedorlaomer with Khudur-mapxi-la; but he now regards the former as the original Susianian conqueror who established his dominion over Babylonia, and the latter as a descendant, of far inferior consequence. The date of the 4th dynasty of Berosus agrees admirably with the received date of Abraham. (See Prof. Rawlinson's "Five Great Monarchies," vol. i. p. 206.) ⁶⁸ Genesis xiv. 1-16.

EARLY KINGS OE BABYLON.

239

scriptions. The mixture lasted (with the usual change of the merging of the Hamitic element in the Semitic) under all the succeeding empires, so that the Aledo-Persian kings found it necessary to publish their edicts in three distinct languages; their own, which was Aryan; the Assyrian, which was Semitic; and the Scythian or Turanian.⁵⁹ From all this we may draw the conclusion that, about the time of Abraham, a new line of conquerors—but still, like the former dynasty, of Cushite race—passed the Tigris from Elam into Babylonia, and pushed on across the Euphrates to the banks of the Jordan, where, however, their conquests were but temporary.⁶⁰

§ 14. The extension of the Babylonian dominion over Assyria had probably been effected under the previous dynasty ;⁶¹ but we have distinct evidence of that dominion about the middle of the 19th century b.c, under Ismi Dagon (i. e. Dagon hears him), whose son, Shamas-iva (or Shamas-Vul), is named, in a celebrated inscription of Tiglath-pileser I., as the builder of the temple of Anu at Kileh-Sherghat, on the Upper Tigris, 701 years before the temple was restored by the Assyrian king.⁶² Shamas-iva appears to have been a viceroy of Assyria,⁶³ while another son of Tsmi-Dagon (read doubtfully Ibil-anu-duma) is styled "governor of Hur." The latter built the public cemeteries, which are the most conspicuous, and the most remarkable for their construction, of the ruins at Mugheir. Nipru (Calneh, now Niffer), the city of Bel-Nipru** and apparently the capital of the northern tetrapolis of Babylonia, is mentioned in the titles of Ismi-Dagon. But the first king of whom records have been found at Babylon itself is Naram-sin, whose name is inscribed on an alabaster vase,⁶⁵ and who is named in an inscription of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, as the builder of the

⁶⁹ At the present clay, the Turkish government of the country issues proclamations in its own Turanian language, in the Semitic Arabic, and in the Aryan Persian.

⁶⁰ Those who identify "Ur of the Chasdim" with the Hur of Babylonia regard the migration of Terah's family as part of a great movement of Semitic colonization, of which the migration of the Phoenicians was another wave. Nay, as Sir H. Rawlinson observes, the expedition of Chedorlaomer, at the head of four tribes, over 2000 miles of country, looks itself like a movement of colonization. Mr. Poole suggests a connection between this great westward displacement of Semites and the iuvasion of Egypt by the Hyksos.

⁶¹ Especially according to the marginal reading of Genesis x. 11: see above, § 7.

⁶² See Notes and Illustrations (A).

⁶³ Sir Henry Rawlinson observes that Assyria seems at this time to have been weak and insignificant, administered ordinarily by Babylonian satraps, whose office was one of no great rank or dignity. The titles of three or four of them, on a tablet discovered at Kileh-Sherghat, belong to the most humble class of dignities. The name of Assyria never once occurs on the old Babylonian monuments.

⁶⁴ See above, p. 236, note 50.

⁶³ Some authorities hold this inscription to be one of the most ancient in Baby* Ionia.

240

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

great temple at Sippara (Sepharvaim, now Mosaib), anothei city of the northern tetrapolis, which Berosus makes the place where Xisuthrus (on the eve of the Deluge) hid the tables containing the sacred law.⁶⁶ These memorials tend to show that the seat of power had been transferred to the northern tetrapolis about the middle of the 18th century b:c The earliest use of the title of" King of Babylon" is by Me-roelaeh-neimetnei (but the reading is doubtful), on the bricks of a pavement at the great JBoicarieh mound at Wetrka (the ancient Erech), which contains the ruins of the temple built by Urukh to Beltis. From the titles of Sin-shetda on the upper bricks of the same temple, it appears that Erech was the capital of Lower Babylonia about b.c. 1700. Among several other kings, whose names are compounds of Sin (the Moon), Tursin is distinguished'as the founder of a remarkable city of unknown name, the ruins of which are now called Abu-Sharein. Parnapuriyas repaired Urukh's temple of the Sun at Senkereh (Larsa); and his son, Furri-galeizu (or Kouri-gedzu), built a fortress on the Assyrian frontier (Ilisr-Durrigalazu), which is mentioned long after on an inscription of Sargon, and the site of which is marked by the g-reat ruins of the Tel-Nimrud, at Akkcrkitf? N.W. of Bagdad : while his very name is still preserved by the ruined city of Zergul, near the confluence of the Shat-el-IIie with the Euphrates. The close of this important dynasty seems to be marked by Khammarubi and his son Sheimsi-luna, many of whose clay tablets have been found at Tel-Sifr and Babylon.⁶" The former was conspicuous for the greatness of his works. Besides repairing the temple of the Sun at Senkereh, and building a palace at Kalvmdha™ near Bagdad, it has been recently discovered that Khammarubi was the constructor of the Old Royed Caned, or Caned of Khammarubi, as he calls it in an inscription, which records how he carried the waters to the desert plains and dry ditches, and gathered the people of Sumir and Accad (the two chief races in Babylonia) into cities. A tablet in the British Museum has the names of twenty-two kings after Khammarubi; and the whole number of royal names discovered is nearly 50, a near correspondence with the 60 kings of the Third and Fourth Dyneisties of Berosus.

⁶⁶ Another reading ascribes this to Sagaraktiyas, the father of Naram-sin.

⁶⁷ The ruins themselves are of the Parthian period.

⁶⁸ There is also in the British Museum a stone tablet, said to have been brought from Babylon, engraved with the name and titles of Khammarubi.

«⁹ This, the traditional city of Hermes, is interesting both as the source from which some writers have traced the name of Chaldeean, and as the spot where the ark of the covenant was believed to have been buried during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. (See Sir H. Rawlinson. " Essay VI." etc., p. 440, note.)

EARLY KINGS OF BABYLON.

211

§ 15. The end of the latter dynasty, a little before b.c. 1500, according to the chronological scheme given above, corresponds very nearly with the most probable epoch of the expulsion of the Shepherds from Egypt and the beginning of the Asiatic conquests of the Egyptian kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. We have seen that those conquests extended into Mesopotamia and Assyria, and that both Nineveh and Babylon paid tribute to the Pharaohs. We have also seen that the Upper country, at least, was held by a number of tribes, comprised under the general name of jRo-tennou, each ruled by the king of its chief city, who again and again made submission to Egypt. All this indicates that Assyria had become independent of the southern kingdom, but was not yet organized into a kingdom of her own, and that the southern kingdom itself had correspondingly declined. Now it is just during this period of Egyptian supremacy in Western Asia, from the conquests of Thothmes I. to the last victories of Rameses III, that Berosus represents nine "Arabian " kings as ruling at Babylon for 245 years.⁷⁰ This indicates the overthrow of the old "Chaldaean" monarchy by a new Semitic conquest or revolution ; but whether the new rulers were the kings of an organized state ; or tribes that poured over the land as the sands of the desert encroach beyond the boundnry of the Euphrates; or the Semitic population of Babylonia itself, shaking off the yoke of their masters; and whether the change was connected with the Egyptian conquests as cause or as effect—all these are questions awaiting solution.

The theory, that these "Arabians" represent the growing power of the Hittites, anticipates the epoch of that power, and seems contradicted by the Egyptian monuments, which never place the Kheta, but always the Rotennou, in Mesopotamia. A more plausible opinion connects them with a great wave of Semitic pressure towards the East, set in motion by the expulsion of the Shepherds from Egypt. A curious tradition is preserved in a book on "Nabathrean Agriculture," written at Babylon about the beginning of the Christian era, and translated into Arabic in'the 10th century, that a dynasty of Canaanite kings succeeded, after long conflicts, in supplanting the Chaldrean dynasty in Babylonia, The chronographer, George Syncellus, gives the names of six kings of the Arab dynasty; but it is remarkable that their forms are distinctly Babylonian. One of them, Kabius, may be identified with Kabou, which is stamped on the bricks

⁷⁰ The number of kings is scarcely adequate to the number of years, uuless they indicate the supremacy of tribes.

11

242

PRIMITIVE KINGDOMS.

both of Erech and of Babylon.⁷¹ The end of this Arab dynasty appears to be connected with that great uprising of Mesopotamia which led to the campaigns of Rameses III. It was followed by the establishment of an independent kingdom at Nineveh, besides which that of Babylon continued for about six centuries and a half, sometimes in subjection, and oftener at war, till she recovered the supremacy under the new Chaldaean dynasty of Nabopolassar.

§ 16. Throughout this summary of the earliest history of Babylonia, we'llave been careful to avoid, as far as possible, the use of the words Chaldcea and Chetlcleean, except in the strictly geographical sense attached to them by the classical writers." Recent writers,⁷² chiefly on the authority of Berosus, speak of the early Babylonian kingdom as the Chal-elcean Monarchy, just as if the name were indisputably a native one. But the fact is, that the word is neither used in any original history nor in any contemporary inscription. In Scripture, the land is Shinar, and neither Nimrod nor Chedorlaomer is called a Chaldman (either in that form or in the Hebrew form of Chasdim). As to the inscriptions, let us hear one of the highest authorities in cuneiform literature :

"It is particularly worthy of remark that, throughout the series of legends" (i.e. inscriptions, not fables) "which remain to us of the kings of Hur and Accetd, the name of Chal-djex never once occurs in et single sentence. It would be hazardous to assert, on the strength of this negative evidence,

⁷¹ Two others of these names are Merodach and Bel, the tutelary deities of Babylon and Borsippa ; and the position of the whole six, in immediate succession to the seven primitive Chaldteans, seems to break their connection with the Arabian dynasty of Berosus.

⁷² Especially Professor Rawlinson, in the First Book of his " Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World." The phrase iu the text is not meant to imply that Berosus is the only authority for this use of the word. Bnt the other arguments can not be considered as more than confirmatory; and the chief of them— the mention in Scripture of " Ur of the Chaldees "—is to a great extent a pstitio prin-zipii: rather amusingly so when (for instance) it is said that " Casdim has been derived from Chescd, the son of Nahor (Gen. xxii. 22); bnt, if Ur ivas already a city of ;he Casdim before Abraham quitted it, the name of Casdim can not possibly have been derived from his nephew." (" Diet, of Bible," s. v.) Not to stand upon the previous question, concerning the correctness of the rendering of " Ur Chasd^" by Ur of the Chaldees, we must remember that it is merely a translation, and that the identification of the names rests, therefore, on the authority of the LXX. ; so that the question is—"What did they understand by the Chaldeest" Unless both Ur and CJuildcea could be shown to have a single and definite sense (the contrary of which is the fact), and unless it could be proved that the people of Babylonia were Chasdim, the distinctive epithet Chasdim might be an argument as much against, as for, the Ur on the Euphrates. M. Oppert maintains that Ur-Chasdim is simply the Babylonian for " Land of the Two Rivers" = Mesopotamia. Iu the three passages of SS., where aloi-e«it occurs, it may quite as well denote a country as a city (Gen. xi. 2S; xv. 7; Nehem. ix. 7). The Ur-Chasdim of these passages is represented by " the land of the Chaldees" in Acts vii. 4; and in Gen. xv. 7, it is contrasted with the land given by God to Abraham; and it is never called expressly a city.

THE NAME OF CHALDCEA*.

243

that the Chaldseans had no existence in the country during the age in question; but thus much is certain, that thev could not have been the dominant race at the time, and that Berosus, therefore, in naming the dynasty Chaldaean, must have used that term in a geographical, rather than in an ethnological, sense. The name of Kalclai (or Kaldi) for the ruling tribes on the Lower Euphrates is first met with in the Assyrian inscriptions which date from the early part of the 9th century b.c"⁷³

This mention of the name, however, is valuable as showing that it was a distinctive appellation of Lower Mesopotamia long before its well-known use under the later Babylonian empire ; and the continuity of the religious system, then known as Chaldaean, with that represented by the earliest temple-towers is an argument for the continuity of the name in this connection. Who the Chaldaeans were, and whence they derived their origin, will be best considered when their name appears unmistakably in history.⁷⁴

⁷³ Sir H. c Rawlinson, " Appendix to Herod." Book i. Essay VI., in Prof. Rawlin-son's " Herodotus," vol. i. p. 449. See Notes and Illustrations (B).

⁷⁴ The Hebrew Chasdim, which the LXX. and following translators render Chaldcea and Chaldaeans, never occurs before the time of the later Babylonian empire—when it is constantly applied to the king and people, as well as to the learned class (as in DanieV)—except in one passage, where the " bands of Chasdim " join the " Scbceans " in harrying the property of Job (Job i. 15-1T). This passage is a good proof that the name denotes a tribe, and not merely a class; but the scene of the book of Job is not certain enough to give an argument for the locality of this tribe. The question is very much that of Ur over again.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A.) EARLY BABYLONIAN" CHRONOLOGY.

It must not be supposed that tho date of b.c 245S (given at p. 233) is to be taken as an ascertained chronological epoch ; bnt it is desirable to show the results which would be obtained by accepting the system of Berosus, which acceptance can only be made when they are confirmed, as in the 7th and 8th (and to some extent in the Gth) dynasties, by positive historical information. Beyond that limit the degree of their probability depends on the value we may assign to the astronomical computations which we kuow to have beeu kept by the Chaldaean priests much more perfectly than by the Egyptians. Bnt there can be little doubt that, in both cases, the alleged observations are simply computations backward according to an artificial system. The statemeut that Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander to Babylon.

was able to send thence to Aristotle a series of astronomical observations taken by the Chaldaeans for an unbroken period of 1903 years, rests on a false reading: the true reading, 31,000 years, proves the artificial nature of the chronology.*

Sir Henry Rawlinson gives other computations of the traditional date of the Chaldaean kiugdom.t

Years.

Greek Era of Phoronens")

(see Clinton " f. I1.,"Wj.o. 1753

vol. i. p. 189).............j

Observations at Babylon]

before that time (accordA 4S0

ing to Berosus).........)

_b.c 2233t

* Simplicius, "Ad Aristot. de Ccelo," ii. p. 423. See Oppert, " Histoire de Chaldee et d'Assyrie," p. 7.

t For the details see Sir H. Rawlinson, " Kaeav Vt to Herod. L." p. 434.

X See Plin. " H. N." vii. 56.

244

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Years.

Age of Semiramis, or date) of siege of Troy (accord- > b.c. 1229 ing to Hellauicus).......j

Babylon built before that) ^qq₂

time..................../ _

b.c 2231*

Era of Ariphron at Athens..b.o. 826 Duration of the Assyrian) .._Rn monarchy.............../ ™

228C

Deduct reign of Belus 55 b.c 2231

It will be observed that these numbers lead up to the begiuniug of the Third Dynasty of Berosns, the first of the two which he calls " Chaldaean," i. e. native dynasties of Babylonia, to the exclusion of his " Median" dynasty. The probable reasons for considering the overthrow of the last-named dynasty, or rather domination, as the proper beginning of the earliest Babylonian kingdom are given in the text (p. 23C).

Another remarkable sequence of num-berst leads up to the accession of one of the kings named on the very early inscriptions, by putting together the data furnished by the inscriptions of certain Assyrian kings; the summary being as follows:

Years.

Date of Bavian inscrip-) tion (10th year of SenaAn.c. 092 cherib).................)

Defeat of Tiglath-pileser I.) 41S by Merodach-adan-akhi. j years before.

Interval between the de-) _1ft feat and the building of )■ ™ the temple (say).........j ^years'

Demolition of the tern-) 60 pie......................j years before.

Period during which the) C41 temple had stood.......j years.

Allow for two generations) ₄₀ (Shamas-Vul and Ismi-V _von,._a Dagon).................) ^yeais*

Date of Ismi-Dagon's ac-) _1QA1 cession................./ ^R-^c- ^LMH

The monuments mention several kings who were almost certainly before Ismi-Dagon.

(B.) ON THE CHALD.EANS AND THE AKKAD.

The following quotation from Sir Henry Rawlinson* gives a fair view of the opinions now generally entertained by cuneiform scholars (with some not very important modifications) on this important bnt difficult qnestion: "It is only receutly

* Steph. Byz. s. v. Ba.f3v\i>v. t See Sir H. Rawlinson," Essay VI." p. 433. X Note to Herod, i. 181, in Rawlinson's "Herodotus," vol. i. p. 319.

that the darkness which has so long en« veloped the history of the Chaldseans has been cleared up, but we are now able to present a tolerably clear account of them. The Chaldaeans, then, appear to have been a branch of the great Hamite race of Akkad, which inhabited Babylonia from the earliest times. With this race originated the art of writing, the building of cities, the institution of a religious system, aud the cultivation of all science, and of astronomy in particular. The language of these Akkad presents affinities with the African dialects on the one side, aud with the Tnranian, or those of High Asia, on the other. It stands somewhat in the same relation as the Egyptian to the Semitic languages, belonging, as it would seem, to the great parent-stock ^rnm which the trunk-stream of the Semilic tongues also sprung, before there was a ramification of Semitic dialects, and before Semit-ism even had become subject to its peculiar organization and developments. In this primitive Akkadian tongue (which I have been accustomed generally to denominate Scythic, from its near connection with the Scythic dialect of Persia) were preserved all the scientific treatises kuown to the Babylonians, long after the Semitic element had become predominant in the land—it was, in fact, the language of science in the East, as the Latin was in Europe during the Middle Ages.

" When Semitic tribes established an empire in Assyria in the 13th century b.c, they adopted the alphabet of the Akkad, and with certain modifications applied it to their own language; but during.the seven centuries wbich followed of Semitic dominion at Nineveh aud Babylon, this Assyrian language was merely used for historical records and official documents. The mythological, astronomical, and other scientific tablets found at Nineveh are exclusively in the Akkadian language, and are thus shown to belong to a priest-class, exactly answering to the Chaldaeans of profane history and of the book of Daniel.

" We thus see how it is that the Chal-dseans (taken generally for the Akkad) are spoken of in the prophetical books of Scripture as composing the armies of the Semitic kings of Babylon, and as the general inhabitants of the country, while in other authorities they are distinguished , as philosophers, astronomers, aud magicians—as, in fact, the special depositaries of science.

"It is further very interesting to find that parties of these Chaldaean Akkad were transplanted by the Assyrian kings from the plains of Babylon to the Armenian mountains in the 8th and 7th centuries

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

245

B.o., aud that this translation took place to such an exteut that iu the inscriptions of Sargon the geographical name of Akkad is sometimes applied to the mountains, instead of the vernacular title of Nararat or Ararat—an excellent illustration being thus afforded of the notices of Chaldaeans in this quarter by so many of the Greek historians and geographers. It is probable that both the Georgian and Armenian languages at the present day retain many traces of the old Chaldaean speech that was thus introduced into the country 2500 years ago."

Further light is thrown on the Akkad and their literature by the following remarks of a more recent writer (in the "British and Foreign Review," No. 102, January, 18T0, vol. Ii. p. 305): " The valley j

rniri or Kassi were a foreign tribe, called by the Babylonians Lisan-Kalbi, or ' the dog-tongned,'* probably in allusion to their strange language. They were most probably a branch of the tribes called Cos-scei, Cussii, and Cissii, by classical writ-ers.t These tribes lived to the east of Babylonia; and their dominion iu that country is probably alluded to iu the book of Genesis x. S-12. As the Sumiri appear to have been foreigners, it is natural to suppose, that the other tribe, the Akkadi, represents the original inhabitants of Babylonia; and we find that in early inscriptions the country is called Kingi-Ak-kad and Mat-Akkad, 'the country of Akkad.'

"The language of the Akkadi, who origi-j nally used the cuneiform signs, was difler-

Figures from the Signet Cylinder of King Uruk.

of the Euphrates was the seat of a very early civilization, and the birthplace of many of the arts and sciences known to the classical nations of antiquity. Babylonia was inhabited at an early period by a race of people entirely different from the Semitic population known in historic times. This people had an abundant literature; and they were the inventors of a system of writing which was at first hieroglyphic, but gradually changed into what is called the cuueiform or arrow-headed character.....Of the people

who invented this system of writing very little is known with certainty; and eveu their name is a matter of doubt. In the early Semitic period we find Babylonia inhabited by two races, who were called the Sumiri or Kassi, and the A kkadi. The Suent from any known to have existed in the country in historic times." Some of its peculiarities are described, and the writer proceeds: "These and similar peculiarities in its structure mark the Akkad as decidedly different from any Semitic tongue. The earliest cuneiform texts are written in the Akkad language, and well exhibit the peculiarities of its vocabulary aud grammar." Among the examples from Rawlinson and Norris's "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," stamped on the bricks of Babylonian temples, that of Urukh is cited, and the writer proceeds:

* Lisan-Kalbi is only the Semitic translation ; how the Akkad people pronounced the words when they gave this name to Sumir is quite unknown.

+ Herod, iii. 91, v. 49 ; Strabo, ii. p. 744 ; Diod. xvii, 111.- Pliny, vi. 27, s. 31.

2IG

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

"But the bulk of the Akkad literature consists of a large number of inscriptions, chiefly mythological, which were originally preserved in the libraries of Babylonia, and afterwards copied in Assyria, and accompanied by interlinear translations, to explain the Akkad to the Assyrians. Their subject matter, as a general rule, consists of lists of gods, hymns and prayers to the gods, accounts of the influence of various evil spirits to whom diseases were attributed, and prayers against them. . . . Real historical matter is very scarce in these early tablets; but we have part of an inscription of one early Babylonian king with an Assyrian translation.

" Such is the character of the earliest literary collections of Babylonia ; and the Akkad language, in which they were written, probably continued in use in that country down to the close of the 16th century b.c, and, for some official documents, even to a much later period. At some time anterior to the 19th century b.c, the valley of the Euphrates was conquered by a Semitic race. Of the origin of this race we at present know nothing : it is possible that they may have been the same as the Sumiri or Kassi, at one time the leading tribe in Babylonia. . . . The Semitic conquerors, whoever they were, gradually imposed their own language on the conn, try; but, on the other hand, they borrowed the system of writing in use there. From the time of the Semitic conquest the decline of the Akkad langnage began, and a period of mixed texts (part Akkad and part Semitic) commenced. It is rare that we find a text of any length purely Semitic."

The Mesopotamian Plain.

CHAPTER XL

EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA. THE MYTHICAL LEGENDS : AND THE EARLIER KINGS OF THE OLD MONARCHY.

I 1. Sources of Assyrian History. Vague notions of the Greeks. § 2. The mythical legend of Ctesias—of Persian origin. § 3. Ninus, the hero-eponymus of Nineveh. § 4. Semibamis—her divine birth—her works at Babylon and throughout Asia— her conquests, defeat in India, and apotheosis. Nature of the myth. § 5. Niny-as, and his successors, down to Sardanapai.us, types of the Achaemenid kings of Persia. § 6. Duration of the Assyrian Empire, according to Herodotus and Berosus. Two distinct periods. The Upper and Lower Dynasties. § 7. Evidences in the cuneiform inscriptions of an early Assyrian kingdom. Different classes and authority of those inscriptions. § 8. Interpretation of the Assyrian Royal Names. § 9. The original territory of Assyria. Its ancient tetrapolis. Its four capitals at Khorsabad, Mosul, Ximrud, and Kileh-Sheryhat. Ruins of Calau at Nimrud, and of a8shub at Kileh-Sherghat. Question of site of Resen. Full extent of Nineveh. Other cities of Assyria. § 10. The Assyrians a Semitic people. Their derivation from Babylonia. Early Scriptural notices of Assyria. Its relations to Mesopotamia. § 11. Classical accounts of its early history. Their little value. The Canon of Ptolemy. §12. Babylonian Inscriptions relating to Assyria. Beginning of an independent kingdom. § 13. Oldest Assyrian Insertions at Kileh-Sherghat. First series of six kings. Sualmaneser i., the founder of Calah, at Nimrud, and the first known conqueror. § 14. Tiglatui-Nin, the conqueror of Babylonia. State of that country during the Assyrian Empire. First date in the cuneiform records. § 15. Second series of six kings. Tioi.atii-pit.eber i. His cylinders at Kileh-Sherghat. His predecessors. § 10. Conquests recorded in his annals. His mode of warfare—cruelties. His hunting exploits. § 17. State of Assyria at this period. § 18. His defeat in Babylonia. § 19. His effigy and inscription. 5 20. Gap in the Assyrian History.

§ 1. Assyria is best known to classic.il students in connection with some of the most famous fictions which the Greek writers have handed down to us concerning the East. The accurate notices of the Scriptures are so few and de«

248

EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

tached, that they only served but very partially to correct the classic fables; till the excavations made by Mr. Layard and M. Botta, and the cuneiform inscriptions translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Dr. Hincks, M. Oppert, and others, brought the whole series of native Assyrian annals within the range of history. Even the name has no definite meaning in the classical authors; the most painstaking of whom, while pointing out the confusion made by the Greeks of Assyria with Syria, on the one hand,¹ includes in it Babylonia, on the other;² and he shows his vague use of the word by the distinctive mention of "those of the Assyrians who possessed Nineveh."³ Contrast with this the exactness of the primeval Scripture notices of Assyria, as the land into which the Tigris flows eastward* and as quite distinct from the kind of Shinar.^b

The political Assyria of the Greek historians is, in fact, a general name for the whole series of kingdoms and empires which succeeded one another in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, from a mythical antiquity to the time of Cyrus; but with some idea, more or less clear in the various writers, of the distinction between the last Babylonian empire and its predecessors. Of the succession and duration of those empires, Herodotus alone, as we shall presently see, had some idea.

§ 2. The stories which were repeated for above two thousand years, down to our time, as the early history of Assyria, are legends of heroes and a heroine, conceived in an Oriental spirit, and dressed up in the Greek mythical vein. Such facts as they may embrace are—as in the parallel, but less exaggerated, legend of Sesostris—gathered up from various periods into a single picture, and colored from pure imagination. Their great source is betrayed by the chief Greek writer who repeats them, Ctesias; who, while exalting his own authority above Herodotus, is a most untrustworthy witness on Oriental history. His very opportunities of information, at the court of Artaxerxes, were his greatest snare, for in every age the Persians have been singularly

¹ Ilerod. vii. 63. For instances of the confusion in classical writers—as Xenophon, etc., down to Pliny and Mela—and for the essential difference between the names, see Rawliuson's note, I.e. Syria is probably (by a softening of s for ts) the Greek name for the land of Tyre (Tsur); while Assyria is the Semitic Asshur. If we look in the Old Testament for the Semitic name of Syria, we always find Aram, i.e., the Highlands (as distinguished from the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and perhaps from the comparatively low lands of Canaan).

² Herod, i. 178. He calls Babylon "the most renowned and strongest city of Assyria" (in the time of Cyrns), "whither, after the fall of Xineveh, the seat of government had been removed"—as if he considered the Assyrian and Babylonian empire* essentially one. ³ Herod, i. 102.

⁴ Gen. ii. 14. This is the correct rendering. ⁵ Gen. x. 11.

NINUS.—SEMIRAMIS.

249

wanting in what has been called the historic sense. Their only modern historian is a poet, whose chronicles of the kings are mere romance; and similar poets seem to have decorated the legends of Assyria and Babylon, for the sake of enhancing the fame of the conqueror Cyrus.⁶ The poetic character and moral of these legends were such as the Greeks loved; representing as they do the rapid rise of a great conquering power under a mighty king and a mightier queen, who derive their lineage from the gods, and whose degenerate successors grow feebler and feebler, till the last of them perishes, as in the catastrophe of an Attic tragedy.

§ 3. The four heroes of the legend are Ninus and Semi-ramis, their son Ninyas, and the last king, Sardaxapalus. The founder of the monarchy is not one of its real kings at all, but simply the hero-eponymus of Nineveh (in Greek, Wivog) ;⁷ to whom are ascribed all the conquests of the Assyrian empire, and others that it never made. This Assyrian chieftain, says the legend, undertook the conquest of Babylonia, which had been overrun by the. Arabs. He first formed a band of youths, whom he trained to bear all fatigues and dangers; and then, having formed an alliance with an Arabian chief, he invaded Babylonia. The inhabitants of the populous cities, unused to war, were easily conquered, and the King of Babylon and his children were taken prisoners and put to death. Ninus now marched against Armenia, whose king, Barzanes, propitiated him with presents, and furnished auxiliaries to his army. The resistance of the King of Media, on the other hand, was punished by crucifixion ; and, in the course of seventeen years, Ninus made himself master of all the lands from the Indus to the Tana'is and the Mediterranean. He now rebuilt Nineveh, and called it after his own name; and, by attracting foreigners as well as natives to his capital, he made it the greatest and most flourishing city of the world.

§ 4. It was in the course of a war against Bactria that Semiramis⁶ attracted his attention. She was the daughter

⁶ The allusion of Herodotus to "those of the Persians who wished to dignify the exploits of Cyrus" (aeiivoiv t« Trepi Kvpov, i. 95) is remarkably illustrated by the highly legendary story which he repeats as the most truthfnl of the four accouuts of the conqueror's life. Herodotus knows nothing of Ninus, Ninyas, or Sardanapalns, and only so much of Semiramis as is connected with her great works at Babylon. Diodorus Siculus repeats the story of Ctesias with some variations.

⁷ Here is one proof of the lateness of the legend; far the true hero-eponymus of the nation was Asshttr (Gen. x. 11), the supreme deity of the Assyrians. (See chap, xvii.) Ninus and Ninyas are both impersonations of the god Am or Xinip (the Assyrian Hercules), after whom Nineveh was named. Ninus is no more to be identified with Xin-pala-zira than with any others of the kings in whose name Am is a component.

⁸ We shall presently see that the name Sammuramit was actually borne, iu the

Jl*

250

EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

of the great goddess of Ascalon, Derceto, who had exposed this fruit of her love for a mortal youth to perish ; but, being saved and brought up by the shepherd Simas, she became the wife of Oannes,⁹ governor of Syria, and went with him to the Bactrian war. In the disguise of a soldier she scaled the wall of the capital, which Ninus had failed to take. The king, in admiration of the exploit, took her for his wife, and, on his death soon afterwards, she became sole queen.

In emulation of her husband's creation of Nineveh, Semi-ramis built a new capital in Babylonia; and the legend ascribes to her the walls and bridges, quays and gates, temples, fortresses, and reservoirs at Babylon, which belong chiefly to Nebuchadnezzar and his successors.¹⁰ Nay more, in connection with a campaign against the rebellious Medes, she is made the builder of~Ecbatana, the capital of Dejoces, and its great canal, and of the palace at Mount Bagistan (now Behistttn). The rock-built city and palace of Van, the inscriptions on whose ruins still preserve the memory of a race of Armenian kings, are ascribed to her.

Extending the empire at both extremities, she conquered Egypt and a great part of Ethiopia, and resolved to be mistress of the wealth of India. Informed of her preparations, the Indian king, Stabobrates (or Stratobatis),¹¹ sent her a letter of defiance, reproaching her with her debaucheries, and threatening to crucify her." His elephants gave him the victory, and Semiramis only escaped with the loss of t wo-thirds of her army. This defeat was the term of her warlike expeditions, and the rest of her reign was occupied with her prodigious works; so that (as Strabo says) nearly every great work in every part of Asia was ascribed to her. Her edifices found their limit only at the bounds of the habitable world, on the frontiers of Scythia ; and there it was said that Alexander saw her own record of her deeds, in the inscription which is preserved by PolyaBnus: "Nature gave me the form of a woman, but my deeds have equalled those of the bravest men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which on the East touches the river Hinaman (Indus), on the South the land of frankincense and myrrh (Arabia Felix), on the North the Sacse and the Sogdians. Before me no Assyrian beheld

older historical kingdom of Assyria, by a queen who appears, like the mythical Semiramis, to have had a special connection with Babylon.

9 We have already seen that this was the fish-god of the legend preserved by Berosus, aud worshipped in Philistia. Derceto is also common to Philistia and Babylonia. (See chap, xvii.)

¹⁰ Another proof of the lateness of the legend.

¹¹ This name appears to be the Sanskrit Stavarapatis; that is, Lord of the Terra Firma. This, like other parts of the legend, may probably belong to the province of comparative mythology.

LEGEND OF SEMIRAMIS.

251

tne eeas: I looked upon four so remote that none had reached them. I forced rivers to flow where I wished, and I only wished it in places where they were useful. I made the barren soil fruitful, by watering it with my rivers. I raised impregnable fortresses; I pierced roads with iron across impracticable rocks. My chariots have rolled on roads where the wild beasts had found no path. And in the midst of all my labors, I found time for pleasure and for love."

At last, hearing that her son, Ninyas, was plotting against her, instead of punishing his treason, she resigned the crown to him, and, after commanding all the governors to obey their new king, she disappeared in the form of a dove, and was worshipped as a goddess. Her mythical character is clear at every step from her birth to her apotheosis. She is the ideal of a female demigod, according to the Oriental standard, which is reproduced in Astarte, Derceto, and Dido. The stories of her amours are doubtless connected with the licentious rites of Oriental worship, which we know to have been practised at Babylon ; and, in later times, many of the mounds which covered ruined cities were called the graves of her lovers. Ninus, the warrior and founder, with his wife, Semiramis, the conqueror and builder, aud their son Ninyas, the politic and self-indulgent ruler, represent on earth the supreme triad of the Babylonian and Assyrian religion. The Babylonian origin of the myth is seen in the parentage of Ninus, as the son of Belus, and in the connection of Semiramis with Babylon ; and, in every land once a seat of the Cushite race, from India to Mesopotamia, the primitive dynasties are headed by a similar triad.

§ 5. But the Persian coloring is most clear in the representation of Ninyas, a very pattern of the later Achremenid kings; withdrawn like a god from the eyes of his subjects amidst the pleasures of his palace, but yet securing their obedience by profound policy. He kept on foot an immense army, which was levied annually from all the provinces, over each of which he set a governor devoted to his person. The army was assembled at Nineveh, and was renewed at the end of every year; so that no close relations could be formed between the soldiers and their officers, and military plots were hard to concoct. This system continued under all his successors, down to Sardanapalus ;¹² and even that degenerate sovereign has a divine prototype in the androgynous deity Sandon, and a sort of apotheosis. His fate is

¹² Sardanapalus is the Greek form of one or more Assyrian royal names; and the story of his fate (so far as it contains any historical elements) appears to combine two different revolutions at distant times. (See the following chapters.)

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EARLY HISTORY OE ASSYRIA.

brought on, not by his luxurious effeminacy, but by his neglect of the policy which his predecessors had combined with their pleasures. When Arbaces, the satrap of Media, and Belesys, the chief of the Chaldaean priests of Babylon, march against him in rebellion, he suddenly takes the field, and performs prodigies of valor before he is defeated. After holding out in Nineveh for two years, he collects all his treasures, with his wives and concubines, on a vast funeral pile ; ascending which, and applying the torch with his own hand, he perishes in the conflagration of his palace. " Let who will make the history of the people; only let me make their ballads," might well have been the maxim of the poets who set before the subjects of a Xerxes such patterns of the lives and deaths of kings. Even the thirteen centuries, which Ctesias assigns to the empire of Nineveh, have a meaning from this point of view; for they represent this monarchy as lasting undisturbed through the whole period which the chronology of Berosus assigns to all the dynasties that preceded the fall of Nineveh.

§ 6. Herodotus evidently had some good authority for his far more modest statement, that " the Assyrians had held the empire of Upper Asia¹³ for 520 years, when the Medes first set the example of revolt from their authority.¹⁴. . . . Upon their success, the other nations also revolted, and regained their independence." These words mark an epoch which— though itself doubtful and probably (as we shall hereafter. see) misplaced—is clearly anterior to the final fall of Niu-eveh ; and the chronology of Herodotus assigns upward of 600 years for the whole duration of the empire,¹⁵ down to the destruction of that city ; an event now fixed, with great probability, to b.c. 625 or 606. Now the chronological scheme of Berosus¹⁶ gives us two Assyrian dynasties (the sixth and seventh) of 526 years and 122 years respectively; the former number corresponding to the round 520 years of Herodotus; and the latter carrying us back to b.c. 141 (=3,c. 625 + 122 years). This year is the date marked in the Canon of Ptolemy (a table unquestionably derived from the Babylonian chronology) as the Era of Nabonassar. What

¹³ As distinguished from Lower Asia, i.e. Asia Minor.

" Herod, i. 95. As Herodotus distinctly telle us that he received information from the Chakkean priests at Babylon (i. 1S1, ISP, bis), we may venture (in accordance with his declared principle of reporting) to apply to this case his own statement (with a play upon one word): "I did not myself see these figures, but I relate what ihe Chaldfeans report concerning them" (i.lS3). We can not doubt that he gives the very number which Berosus has preserved from the sacred records; while Ctesias is only repeating: the Persian legends.

¹⁵ For the full details of the computation, see Rawlinson's " Five Monarchies," Vol ii. pp. 2S7 seq. ¹⁶ See rbove, chap. x. §

AN EARLY ASSYRIAN KINGDOM.

the change was that caused this date to be made an era is unfortunately obscure; but some suppose that it was the setting up of an independent dynasty at Babylon.¹⁷ At all events, there seems to be sufficient authority for making this the division between two Assyrian dynasties, which modern writers called the Upper and the Lower; the former beginning in the middle of the 13th century B.C.¹⁸

§ 7. It must be remembered that Berosus represents his Sixth Dynasty, like all the rest, as the dominant power in the whole region of Mesopotamia, particularly in Babylonia. The attainment of this snp.vmacy implies, almost necessarily, a previous independent kingdom ; and of such a kingdom we have clear traces in the cuneiform inscriptions. Here, however, it is necessary to observe an important distinction between three classes of those inscriptions. They are by no means all native and contemporary records. Besides those which possess this highest degree of authenticity, there are others which are contemporary but notnativj, as the records of Babylonian kings concerning the contemporary princes of Assyria; and others which are neitiue but not contemporary,^ the records of later kings concerning their predecessors. Some of the most considerable inscriptions are of the last class; and corresponding caution is necessary in using them. It must also be borne in mind that there are uncertainties in the reading of many of the royal names, from the doubt whether the force of the characters employed is phonetic or ideographic. But in either case we have equally a real name, and the significance of its component elements is generally the same on either interpretation, the sound only being left in doubt.

§ 8. Most of these Assyrian royal names are so " outlandish " to modern ears, that it may aid the memory and make the whole subject more interesting to have some idea of their significance. For all of them have a distinct meaning, and by far the greater part have a religious meaning. The name of Asshur especially is an element as prevalent as Jeho or Jah (for Jehovah) and El (God) in Hebrew, or Theo (God) in Greek names. Like those significant names with which we are familiar in the Hebrew prophets (as Immanuel = God [is] toith its), the Assyrian names usually form complete sen-

¹⁷ See chap. xii. 5 17.

¹⁸ That is, n.c. 747 + 526 = 1273. But, as we observed before, these numbers represent a chronological scheme, highly convenient for reference, and probably not far from the truth ; but not absolute dates, like those based on the repeated concurrence of historical facts with chronological computations. M. Oppert aud others give u.c. 1314 for the beginning of the empire, and adopt a different division of the two dynasties, as is explained below.

?54

EARLY HISTORY OE ASSYRIA.

tences (full or elliptical), consisting either of subject and predicate (the copida being understood), or of subject, verb, and object. In the few in which we seem to have only a subject and adjective, the latter has probably a predicative force :¹⁹ thus Sar-gina (the proper form of Sargon)—from sar (or sarrii) — king, and gin (or kin), to establish—should be read, not simply the established king, but (I am) the established king, or the king (L) established.

The names are made up of two, three, or (very rarely) four elements. The above example is of the first form: another, containing the same verbal root in a participial form, is Saul-mugina — Said (is the) establishes-: another, Shamas-Iva = the servant of Iva, is interesting from the frequency of the first element, and the appearance of its equivalent in Hebrew and Arabic compounds, as Obad-iah (the servant of Jehovah), Abdiel and Abdullah (the servant of God). Sometimes the first element, instead of denoting the subject himself, is expressive of his homage to the deity whose name follows: as Tiglathi-Nin — Worship (be to) Nin (Hercules), and Mutag-giP°-jYebo=confiding in, or worshipping Nebo, which has its precise parallel in the name of the Caliph, Motawakkil-billah (trusting in Allah). The most interesting name of this class is that which Ave read in the Bible as Tiglath-pileser, where the substitution of a patronymic for the divine name gives the whole a tri-elemeatal appearance. For pal (in Assyrian) is son — bal (in Babylonian), and barm Syriac ;²¹ and the god Nin is called Palzira (the second element being of doubtful meaning, perhaps Lord); and hence Tiglath-pcd-zira —Worship (be paid to) the son of Zira. The form may be compared with the Arabic Abd-er-Rachman (the servant-of the-Merciful).

In the names of three elements, the subject, which stands first, is usually a god, to whom some titles of praise are given, or some mark of whose favor to the king is embodied in the name. Of the former class is Asshur-ris-elim — Asshur-(is the)head-of the gods: of the latter, Asshur-akh-iddina—Asshur-a-brother-has given, the Esar-haddon of Scripture, and his more famous father, Sennacherib, properly Sin-akhi-irib=Sin (the Moon) has multiplied brethren™ a

¹⁹ But in titles the adjective may have an attributive force, as in Sarra-danu—the powerful king (rather than, the king isjJowerful), a standard expression in all the royal inscriptions.

²⁰ This is a participial form of tiglath.

²¹ E. g. Bar-tholomeiv, Bar-nabas, Bar-jesus, in the N. T. The element which Sir Jl. Rawlinson reads pal is read by M. Oppert bahal. We keep the shorter form as more convenient.

²² Akhi here is the plural of akh above. The names of the two brothers, who murdered their father Sennacherib, are thus explained: Adram-melech—the king (is) glo'

ORIGINAL TERRITORY OF ASSYRIA.

255

name almost ironical, considering his fate. We have only two royal names of four elements, and those of no great importance : an interesting Hebrew example is the biblical Ma-her-shedal-heish-betz, the son of Isaiah.²³ Besides the greater reality which is given to Assyrian history by some understanding of the kings' and other names, a most important result is their thoroughly Semitic character (absolutely identical in some elements with Hebrew and Arabic names), thus furnishing one of the many proofs of the Semitic origin of the nation.

§ 9. The proper home of the Assyrians is marked by the four cities which are connected with the name of Asshur in the Book of Genesis—Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and the "great city" of Resen "between Nineveh and Calah."²⁴ Of these, Rehoboth is unknown ;²⁵ Calah is very probably identified with the large ruins at Nimrud, and Resen with those at Selamiyeh; but the certain identification of Nineveh with the mounds opposite 3/osul is enough to indicate the region which, down to the latest period of ancient history, preserved the name of Aturia.²⁶ That region is marked by very distinct physical features. Its chief part forms a triangle, inclosed by the Tigris and the Great Zab, or Zab Alei (the ancient Zabatas or Lycus), with its base "(or northern side) resting on the hills of Jebel Judi, between which and the Great Zab a smaller confluent (the Nhabour)²¹ flows into the Tigris. The confluence of the Great Zab with the Tigris is also the point at which the Sinjar range marks the descent from the foot-hills of Zagrus to the comparatively plain country in latitude 36° N. About three-quarters of a de-

rious (or, arranges), and Shar-ezer (if genuine) king protects, or (as in the Armenian version) San-asar—Sin (the Moon) protects. Babylonian names are formed on precisely the same principles, and Nebo, Merodach, Bel, and Nergal prevail in them, just like Asshur, Sin, and Shamas in the Assyrian. Besides those which will be explained in their places, we may here mention Abed-ncgo (for nebo), "the servant of Nebo," Merodach-idin-akhi, "Merodach, give brothers." See Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. Appendix A ; vol. iii. Appendix B. M. Oppert points out that, in a tablet containing above 500 proper names (Rawliuson's " Cun. Inscr." vol. ii. p. G), nearly 1T0 begin with Nabu: nf these IS end with uzur, th<* imperative of nazir "to protect," like Nabonassar, i. e. Nabunazir, "Let Nebo protect;" 25 end in imperatives, with the suffix ni, "me," like Nabu-sezibanni, "Nebo deliver me;" and IS in Hani, " the gods," like Nabu-edil-ilanni, "Nebo is the chief of the gods."

²³ Isaiah viii. 3. The exact force of the four elements is disputed: the symbolical names of Hebrew prophecy are more obscure than personal names.

²⁴ Geuesis, x. 11,12. It is important to remember that this enumeration does not necessarily put the cities in the order of antiquity, but, gives the list as knoum to the writer.

25 Very probably the name signifies not a city at all, bnt (as in the margin of our version) "the streets of the city," i. e. Nineveh. If so, the original tetrapolis may be made up by including Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat). •

²⁶ The interchange of t with s and sh is very ca ->on in those regions. Conversely, Tyrus is now Sur. ''.^r

²⁷ Not to be confounded with the great tributary of tcie Euphrates.

EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

gree farther south, the Lesser Zetb, or Zab Asfal (the ancient Caprus), joins the Tigris, like the Great Zab, from the east; and the country between these confluents (the Adiabene of the classical geographers)²⁸ must be added to make up the original Assyria, which also included a strip of land between the right bank of the Tigris and the sterile plain of Mesopotamia.' It is on this side, and a little above the Lesser Zab, that the mounds of Kileh-Sherghat mark the great city, anciently Asshur.

Thus, as Professor Rawlinson observes, "the true heart of Assyria was the country close along the Tigris, from lat. 35° to 36° 36'. Within these limits were the four great cities²⁹ marked by the mounds at Khorsabad, (opposite to) Mosul, Nimrud, and Kileh-Sherghat, besides a multitude of places of imerior consequence. It has been generally supposed that the left bank of the river was more properly Assyria than the right ;³⁰ and the idea is so far correct as that the left bank was in truth of primary value and importance, whence it naturally happened that" three out of the four capitals were built on that side of the river. Still, the very fact that one early capital was on the right bank is enough to show that both shores of the stream were alike occupied by the race from the first; arid this conclusion is abundantly confirmed by other indications throughout the region. Assyrian ruins, the remains of considerable towns, strew the whole country between the Tigris and the Khabour, both north and south of the Sin jar range.³! On the banks of the lower Khabour (at Arban) are the remains of a royal palace, besides many other traces of the tract through which it runs having been permanently occupied by the Assyrian people. Mounds, probably Assyrian, are known to exist along the course of the Khabour's great western affluent; and even near Serif j, in the country between Harrein and the Euphrates, some evidence has been found not only of conquest but of occupation. Remains are perhaps more frequent on the opposite side of the Tigris; at any rate, they are more striking and more important. Betman, Khorsabad, Shercef-Khan, Nebbi-Yunus, Koyunjik, and Nimrud, which have furnished by far the most valuable and interesting of the Assyrian monuments, ail lie east of the Tigris ; while, on the west, two

²⁸ Pliny expressly includes Adiabene in Assyria (" H. N." v. 12), as did the prophet Nahum, at least if his " Huzzab " is rightly interpreted as " the Zab country" A-diab-ene appears to have a similar etymoJr-gy.

²⁹ Not precisely the four of Genesis x. 11,12. See next page.

³⁰ Ptolemy bounds Assyria by t> ^igris.

³¹ They are less numerous m of the Sinjar. See Layard, "Nineveh and Baby loa," pp. 252, 334, 335. The K\abour here means the tributary of the Euphrates.

RUINS OF FOUR CAPITALS.

25?

places only have yielded relics worthy to be compared with these, Arban and Kileh-Sherghat."³*

Conspicuous among these ruins are the four which have been mentioned as capitals—Nineveh ; Nimrud (Calah), lower down the river; Kileh-Sherghat (Asshur), lower still; and Khorsabad or Dur-Sargina, north of Nineveh, on the little river Khosr-sit-, which joins the Tigris at Nineveh. The very name of the last, the " City of Sargon," excludes it from the original tetrapolis; it was, in fact, a new royal city supplemental to Nineveh. The largest ruins in Assyria are the mounds oiNebbi- Yunus and Koyunjik, on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite JIosul on the right bank, in lat. 36° 21' N., which mark the traditional site of the original Nineveh, and contain the palaces of Sennacherib and his successors.³³ About 20 miles farther south, or 30 along the Tigris, and five or six miles above its confluence with the Great Zab, are the ruins called Nimrud, the inscriptions of which preserve the ancient name of Calah. "These ruins at present occupy an area somewhat short of a thousand English acres, which is little more thai, one-half of the ruins of Nineveh ; but it is thought that the place was in ancient times considerably larger, and that the united action of the Tigris and some winter streams has swept away no small portion of the ruins. They form at present an irregular quadrangle, the sides of which face the four cardinal points. On the north and east the rampart may still be distinctly traced. It was flanked with towers along its whole course, and pierced at uncertain intervals by gates, but was nowhere of very great strength or dimensions. On the south side it must have been especially weak, for there it has disappeared altogether. Here, however, it seems probable that the Tigris and the Thor Deireh stream, to which the obliteration of the wall may be ascribed, formed in ancient times a sufficient protection. Towards the west, it seems to be certain that the Tigris (which is now a mile off) anciently flowed close to the city. On this side, directly facing the river, and extending along it a distance of 600 yards, or more than a third of a mile, was the royal quarter, or portion of the city occupied by the palaces of the kings. It consisted of a raised platform, forty feet above the level of the plain, composed in some parts of rubbish, in others of regular layers of sun-dried bricks, and cased on every side with solid stone masonry, containing an area of sixty English acres, and in shape almost a regular rectangle, 560 yiirds long, and from

³² Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 246-248.

³³ See Notes and Illustrations (A) on the Site and Extent of Nineveh.

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

350 to 450 broad. The greater part of its area is occupied by the remains of palaces constructed by various native kings. It contains also the ruins of two small temples, and abuts at its north-western angle on the most singular structure which has yet been discovered among the remains of the Assyrian cities. This is the famous tower or pyramid, which looms so conspicuously over the Assyrian plains, and which has always attracted the special notice of the traveller. It appears, from the inscriptions on its bricks, to have been commenced by one of the early kings, and completed by another. Its internal structure has led to the supposition that it was designed to be a place of burial for one or other of these monarchs."³⁴ Xenophon's notice of this pyramid identifies the ruins of Nimrud with the city whose name he has transformed into identity with the Thessalian Laris-sa,^Zb and which he describes as " a vast deserted city, formerly inhabited by the Medes," and as "surrounded by a wall 25 feet broad, 100 feet high, and nearly seven miles in circumference, built of baked brick, with a stone basement to the height of 20 feet."³⁶ *

The ruins of the third capital city, at Kileh-Sherghat, forty miles below Nimrud, but on the right bank of the Tigris, are scarcely inferior in extent to those of Calah. " Long lines of low mounds mark the position of the old walls, and show that the shape of the city was quadrangular. The chief object is a large square mound or platform, two and a half miles in circumference, and in places a hundred feet above the level cf the plain, composed in part of sun-dried bricks, in part of natural eminences, and exhibiting occasionally remains of a casing of hewn stone, which may once have encircled the whole structure. About midway on the north side of the platform, and close upon its edge, is a high cone or pyramid. The rest of the platform is covered with the remains of walls and with heaps of rubbish, but does not show much trace of important buildings."³⁷ Here, as we have already seen, Tiglath-pileser I. records that works were executed by some of the early kings of Babylonia in the 19th century b.c. ; and far more ancient inscriptions raise a strong presumption that it was the first capital of the independent Assyrian kingdom.³⁸ This seems confirmed by the

³¹ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 252-254. See Plan, p. 279.

³⁵ Possibly Bl-Assur, i. e. "the Assyrian (city)," a traditional local name given by the Arabs, like the Nimrud of to-day. M. Oppert and others use the name of Ellasar instead of Asshur for the ancient name of Kileh-Sherghat.

³⁶ Xenoph. "Anab." iii. 4, § 9.

³⁷ Rawlinson, I. e. pp. 254, 255.

³⁸ That is, after the recovery of it£ independence from Babylon. As to the superior antiquity of Nineveh itself, see Notes aud Illustrations (A).

SITES OF CALAH, ASSHUR, AND RESEN.

259

native name of the city, which appears to be inscribed on its bricks as Asshur.

Two of the Targums explain "Resen" by Tel-Assar, i. e. the Mound of Asshur; but this identification can not be reconciled with the position of Resen " between Nineveh and Calah."³⁹ If the position of Calah is fixed at Nimrud (for of that of Nineveh there is no doubt), Resen must be represented by the ruins near Selandyeh. It is objected that these inconsiderable ruins can hardly represent the city of which it is so emphatically said " the same is a great city;" and indeed that the distance of twenty miles between Nineveh and Nimrud hardly allows the intervention of a city of the first importance. As it is probable that the seat of Assyrian royalty was moved upward along the Tigris, it has been conjectured that "the city of Asshur" may have been the original Calah (a name actually preserved in Kileh-Sherghat)™ and that Resen may have been at Nimmd: afterwards, when the royal residence was moved northward from the former place to the latter, the name of Calah may have been transferred to the new capital—a kind of transfer by no means unfrequent. In this case, the Selamiyeh ruins might have a title to represent the Rehoboth of Genesis, 01 at least the southern portion of those "streets" or "suburbs" which, joining the main city to the older capital at Nimrud, made Nineveh, when at the height of its glory, " an exceeding great city, of three days' journey."⁴¹

We have thus, for the better understanding of the history, laid down the positions, and indicated the present state, both of the cities composing the original tetrapolis of Genesis, and also of the four great capitals: that of Sargon, at KJwrsa-bad, will be described more fully in its proper place. But there remains one city of Assyria Proper, too famous in later history to be passed over—Arbela, which is still represented by Arbil, several miles from the left bank of the Great Zab, between the latitudes of Nineveh and Nimrud. Many other Assyrian cities, which we need not particularly mention, are still found in the wide region of Upper Mesopotamia, to which the name of Assyria was extended with the extension of the kingdom. In this wider sense, Assyria was bounded on the east by Media, on the north by Armenia, on the west by the Euphrates⁴² and the Arabian Desert, and on the south by Babylonia.

The locus classicus in Genesis x. distinctly teaches that,

³⁹ Gen. x. 12. ⁴⁰ Mr. Layard spells £he name Kalah-Sherglmt.

⁴¹ Jonah iii. 3. See Notes and Illustrations (A).

⁴² Assyrian towns are found even west of the Khabour, in Padan-Aram.

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

though the Assyrians were of the Semitic race, the original civilization, if not the original population of the country, advanced northward from the plain of Babylonia.⁴³ And of this we have abundant confirmation. In the Perso-Greek legend, Ninus, the mythic founder of Nineveh, is the son of Belus, the mythic founder of Babylon. The religions of Assyria and Babylon are essentially the same ; but their common type is not Semitic, but the Cushite Sabaeism, which was first developed, and always had its principal seat, in the plain of Babylonia. The art of the former country is evidently an advance upon the enrliest art of the latter; and the system of cuneiform writing, which appears in a rude form on the earliest Babylonian ruins and gradually improves in the later ones, is in Assyria uniformly of an advanced type, arguing its introduction there in a perfect state. Perhaps the strongest proof is the nature of the cuneiform writing itself, which is rapidly punched with a very simple instrument upon moist clay, but is only with much labor and trouble inscribed by the chisel upon rock. Such a character must needs have been invented in a country where "they had brick for stone," and from such a country only could it have been imported into one where the monumental material was less suited for such writing.

'§ 10. Assyria was already known by that name to the-author (or authors) of the earliest records in the book of Genesis,⁴⁴ and the four cities mentioned there were probably as many separate states. The absence of any mention of a King of Assyria, or of any of its cities among the allies of Chedorlaomer, seems to prove its insignificance in the time of Abraham. The place assigned to it'as a conquering power in the prophecy of Balaam⁴⁵ indicates that it had risen into greater importance at the close of the life of Moses. This was just the time when Egypt, weakened by her disasters under the later kings of the Nineteenth Dynasty, was losing her hold of Mesopotamia; and the prophecy of the westward extension of the Assyrian power derives the more force from the fact that Balaam is sent for out of Aram. Its whole tenor seems suited to a time when the Midianites and Moabites were in close alliance with the tribes of Mesopotamia, before the Assyrian kingdom had acquired the force that was destined to subdue them. The independence of Mesopotamia seems still indicated by the oppression of Is-

⁴³ This follows equally from either reading of Genesis x. 11.

⁴⁴ Genesis ii. 14; x. 11. The latter passage, though later than the "Book of the generations of the sons of Noah," in which it occurs, is undoubtedly ancient.

⁴⁵ Numbers xxii. 22, 24

BIBLICAL AND CLASSICAL NOTICES.

261

rael by Chushan-Rishathaim, a " King of Aram," in the gem eration after Joshua.

After the repulse of this conqueror from Palestine by Oth-niel, we read no more of Mesopotamia as an aggressive power ; and, in the earliest Assyrian inscriptions (which date from about b.c. 1100), we find no centralized monarchy in this country, the proper Aram, between the Khabour and the Euphrates. It appears to be quite distinct from Assyria, and is inhabited by a people called JSTdiri, who are divided into a vast number of petty tribes, and offer but little resistance to the Assyrian armies. In the wars by which David extended his power to the Euphrates, we find Hadarezer, king of Zobah, calling to his help "the Syrians beyond the river," who are defeated by David in a great battle.⁴⁶ Excepting this notice, there is a great gap in the Scriptural notices from the period of the Judges till the Assyrian power, now at its height, begins to be felt by the kings of Israel. We learn from the cuneiform inscriptions that the lately consolidated Assyrian empire was engaged at this time in establishing its power within the Euphrates.

§ 11. Thus much concerning the light which the Bible throws on the earliest history of Assyria. The information furnished by classical authors looks far more abundant, but the bulk of it is worthless. The long list of Assyrian kings, which has come down to us in two or three forms, only slightly varied,⁴⁷ and which is almost certainly derived from Ctesias, must of necessity be discarded, together with his date for the kingdom. It covers a space of above 1200 years, and bears marks besides of audacious fraud, being composed of names snatched from all quarters, Aryan, Semitic, and Greek—names of gods, names of towns, names of rivers. Its estimate of time presents the impossible average of 34 or 35 years to a reign ; while the prevalence of round numbers betrays the artificial character of the list. Berosus gave the names of the 45 kings of his sixth dynasty ; but unfortunately they are all lost; they might have been a guide for comparison with the inscriptions, like that furnished by Manetho's lists of the Egyptian kings. Moses of Chorene, an Armenian historian, who often preserves valuable traditions, names the first kings of Assyria in the fol-

⁴⁶ 2 Sam. x. 1G; 1 Chron. xix. 1G; comp. title to Psalm Ix., "When David strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah." Iu the Aram-naharalm ("Aram of the two rivers") of Scripture we see the Xaharayn of the Egyptian records; but the Xairi of the Assyriau annals had either a double meaning or a wider extent; for some of the campaigns against them are clearly in the valley of the Upper Tigris, in Armenia.

⁴⁷ Clinton, "Fasti Hellenici," vol. i. p. 26T.

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

lowing order:—Ninus, Chalaos, Arbelus, Anebus, Babius. These are evidently geographical names, the first two representing the capitals of Nineveh and Chale (Calah), the third Arbela, and the other two probably Nipur and Babylon. If the list is worth any thing, it implies the early conquest by Assyria of two of the capitals of Babylonia. There remains the famous Canon, or Catalogue of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kings, compiled by the astronomer and geographer, Claudius Ptolemreus, in the time of the Anto-nines. The "Assyrian" portion—which is chiefly Babylonian, but throws much incidental light upon Assyria—owes its value to the probability that it was derived from Babylonian sources ; and its authenticity is remarkably confirmed by an Assyrian cuneiform Canon, or list of kings from the 10th century b.c. This does not, however, give the names of the earliest Assyrian kings, for which we are wholly dependent on the cuneiform inscriptions.

§ 12. The earliest of these, relating to Assyria, are Babylonian. The remote time at which the Assyrians settled on the part of Upper Tigris between the two Zabs may be inferred from the record of Tiglath-pileser at Kileh-Sherghat, that a temple of the god Ann was built at that place by Shamas-iva, the son of Ismi-dagon, both of whom he styles " high-priests of Asshur."⁴⁸ Here we find the lowest (along the Tigris) of the great Assyrian capitals, the seat of the worship of the chief Assyrian god, and the residence of the Babylonian viceroy; and here also other tablets of Babylonian governors have been found.

AVe have no statement of the time when a separate king* dom was first established in Assyria; but evidence of its existence in and about the time of the Babylonian Parnei-puri-yas is furnished by the names and actions of three Assyrian kings on a synchronistic tablet in the British Museum.⁴⁹ The first of these, Asshur-bel-nisis, makes a treaty with a Babylonian king; the second, JBitzar-Asshur, makes a treaty with Purnet-piiriyas, who marries the daughter of the third, Asshur-vatila. The son of Purna-puriyas having been killed in a rebellion, Asshur-vatila makes a successful war against the usurper, and places (probably) Kur-galazu upon the Babylonian throne.

⁴⁸ See chap. x. § 14; where it has been shown that the time referred to is probably abont the middle of the 19th century is.c. It is to be observed that Asslnir does not occur in the inscription as the name of the city.

⁴⁹ Rawlinson places them between n.o. 1G50 aud 1550. As the tablet is mutilated at the beginning, and the first name is some way down, there would seem to have been other kings before him. The date of the tablet is at least as late as Shalmaneser II. (b.c 858-823), to whose wars it alludes.

OLDEST INSCRIPTIONS AT KILEH-SHERGHAT. 263

These transactions, which show that Assyria was not only independent but powerful, are followed by a blank of about 200 years, in which it has been very doubtfully proposed to place Bel-sumili-keipi, a king who must have been famous in Assyrian tradition ; for a genealogical tablet, of uncertain date, names him as having " established the authority " of the later kings, " of whom,/)'o/)^ that time, Asshur proclaimed the glory"—phrases which appear to mark the reputed founder of a dynasty.

§ 13. The oldest contemporary records of Assyria yet found are on the bricks of Kileh-Sherghat, which they seem to mark as the first capital of the kingdom ; and, as the Assyrians proceeded from Babylonia, and had at first to maintain their independence against her, it is natural that their first capital should be the lowest on the course of the Tigris. We find a series of six kings, in direct descent from father to son : Bel-lusli (perhaps the Belochus of the Greeks), Pacl-il, Iva-lush I., Shalmaneser I., Tiglathi-Nin, and Ivei-lush II.;^h0 of whom the first four stamped their names and royal titles (which are such as to prove their independence) on the bricks of the buildings which they raised or repaired at their capital city of Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat). The last three are also named in the genealogical tablet referred to above; and Tiglathi-Nin in a very important inscription of Sennacherib.

Shalmaneser J. is named in the " standard inscription " at Nimrud as the founder of the city of Calah on that site; a step which transferred the capital from its more exposed and less fertile site on the right bank of the Tigris to the rich and well protected ground between the Tigris and the Great Zab. Later inscriptions record his expeditions against the tribes on the Upper Tigris, where he built cities and began the policy of colonizing them from a distance. He is the first known Assyrian conqueror.

§ 14. The subjection of the upper country by Shalmaneser I. seems to have enabled his son Tiglathi-Nin" to dispute with Babylon the supremacy of Mesopotamia, Not only is he called, in the genealogical tablet mentioned above, " King of the Sumir and Accent" (i. e., of Babylonia), but a most interesting record of Sennacherib mentions that king's recovery,of a signet-ring which this ancient predecessor had left at Babylon, and which bore the inscription, " Tiglathi-Nin, King of Assyria, son of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, and

⁶⁰ Rawlinson places them approximately between n.c. 1350 and 1230, assigning 29 years to each as the average derived from the known reigus of two series of later kings in direct descent.

⁵¹ It is a curious coincidence that his name is one of those compounded from that of Ninus, the mythic conqueror of Babylon.

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

conqueror of Kar-Dunis " (i. e., Babylonia) : a testimony, not only to his power, but his presence at Babylon. Such an event seems the fittest to mark the epoch at which, according to Berosus, the first Assyrian dynasty began to reign at Babylon;™ signifying probably the establishment of a branch of the Assyrian royal house on the throne of Babylonia.

^u We must not, however, suppose," observes Professor Rawlinson, " that Babylonia was from this time really subject continuously to the court of Nineveh. The subjection may have been maintained for a little more than a century ; but about that time we find evidence that the yoke of Assyria had been shaken off, and that the Babylonian monarch s, who have Semitic names, and are probably Assyrians by descent, had become hostile to the Ninevite kings, and were engaged in frequent wars with them. No real permanent subjection of the Lower country to the Upper was effected till the time of Sargon ;⁵³ and even under the Sar-gonid dynasty revolts were frequent; nor were the Babylonians reconciled to the Assyrian sway till Esar-haddon united the two crowns in his own person, and reigned alternately at the two capitals. Still it is probable that, from the time of Tiglathi-Nin, the Upper country was recognized as the superior of the two; it had shown its might by a conquest and the imposition of a dynasty—proofs of power which were far from counterbalanced by a few retaliatory raids adventured upon under favorable circumstances by the Babylonian princes. Its influence was therefore felt, even while its yoke was refused ; and the Semitizing of the Chaldieans, commenced under the Arabs, continued during the whole time of Assyrian preponderance."⁵⁴

Tiglathi-Nin seems also to have extended his father's conquests to the north ; for the great Asshur-nasir-jml, of whom we have presently to speak, mentions a tablet set up by him near the sources of the Tsupnat, or Eastern Tigris. His son, Ivalush II, appears, from the genealogical tablet on which alone his name occurs, to have extended the Assyrian dominions still farther.

Tiglathi-Nin is the first Assyrian king for whom the cuneiform records give a date; for Sennacherib places him 600 years before his own capture of Babylon, which was in b.c. 702. This carries his reign back to about B.c. 1300, a date

⁵² It must be remembered that the dynasties of Berosus are those of Kings of Babylonia.

⁵³ In the last twenty years of the Sth century v..c

⁶⁴ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 305, 306.

ANNALS OF TIGLATH-PILESEIl I

265

near enough to the epoch of the Sixth Dynasty of Berosus (b.c 1270).⁵⁵

§ 15. The next great name in the Assyrian annals happens to be one having the same meaning, Tiglath-pileser (Tig lath-palzira) Z⁵⁶ He has left us the earliest of that most interesting class of records, which may truly be called Assyrian books — tablets, cylinders, or prisms of clay, covered with cuneiform inscriptions in a fine character, and then baked. Like books, too, they were multiplied for use and preservation ; and thus our museum possesses two perfect copies, besides fragments of others, of the cylinders inscribed with the annals of the first five years of Tiglath-pileser's reign.⁵⁷

The genuineness of the inscription is attested by the statement it contains : "The list of my victories, etc., I have inscribed on my tablets and cylinders, and I have placed it [to remain] to the last days, in the temple of my lords, Anu and Iva." Its completeness is testified by the concluding invocation and curse on any one who should destroy the records. The inscription gives the names and deeds of the king's four predecessors; and his own name occurs again, with that of his father and son, in the often-quoted synchronistic tablet.

_tThus we have a second series of six kings in succession from father and son, and only separated from the former series by about 20 years :⁵⁸ speaking roughly, they fill up the 12th century b.c. The first of these, Nin-pml-zira, is mentioned with a phrase which seems to mark the head of a dynasty. Asshur-clah-il and Mutaggil-Nebo reigned prosperously, but not without rebellions; and AssJair-ris-ilim is styled "the powerful king, the subduer of rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the accursed." Among his enemies was the first Babylonian king who bore the name of Nabuchoclonosor.™

§ 16. The Annals of Tiglath-pileser I. himself record the extension of the Assyrian power over the whole region of

⁶⁵ Rawlinson gets over the difference by supposing that Sennacherib used a round number; others take is.o. 1300 literally; bnt, remembering that the epoch derived from Berosus is a part of a cJironological scheme, we ought to be content with an approximation of 30 years. ⁵⁶ See above, § 8.

⁵⁷ This was the inscription which the Royal Asiatic Society proposed to Major (now Sir Henry) Rawlinson, Dr. Hiucks, Mr. Fox Talbot, aud M. Oppert, as a test of the principles of cuneiform interpretation ; and their agreement was sufficient "to prove the general soundness of their methods.

⁵⁸ RawPTnson places them between u.o. 1210 and 1090.

⁵⁹ Some details of this war are given by Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 310. It is thought that there are indications of his having made war in Southern Syria and Palestine; bnt the attempt to identify him with the Chushan-rishathaim of Judges iii. S, seems to involve a misconception of the relations between Assyria and Mesopotamia. It is perhaps more likely that Mesopotamia Avas tributary to Egypt, though little more thau nominally. (See chap. vi. § 19.)

12

200

EARLY HISTORY OE ASSYRIA.

Upper Mesopotamia and a large part of the mountains on its north. After invoking, as the guardians of his kingdom, the "great gods who rule" over heaven and earth," Bel, Sin, Shamas, Iva, Kin, and Ishtar, " the source of the gods, the queen of victory," and after a grandiloquent recital of his own royal titles⁶⁰—he relates the five campaigns in which he defeated the Muskai or Moschians, a mountain race in the Taurus or Niphates, and subdued Qammuhh (Commagene), which they had overrun; repulsed the Kiiatti or Hittites from the Assyrian territory; carried his arms, on the one side, into the mountains of Zagrus; and on the other, gained a great victory over the numerous tribes of the Xdiri, taking 120 chariots, and driving them and their allies as far as the " Upper Sea," which can only be the Mediterranean. The coincidence of the name of the Xdiri with the Aramnuha-ra'im of Scripture and the Xaharayn of the Egyptian monuments marks this as the decisive subjugation of the Mesopo-tamians west of the Khabour, together with their allies of Upper Syria, as far as the mouth of the Orontes.

Turning next to the middle course of the Euphrates, he attacked the Aramaeans, who occupied both banks of the river for some 250 miles below Circesium, as far as the Tsukhi, the Shiddtes of Scripture, whose country was between Anah and Hit. He smote them " at one blow," crossing the river on skins, and returned laden with plunder. This account sets in their true light a large proportion of the so-called conquests of the Assyrians—predatory excursions on a vast scale, to strike terror into hostile tribes, and to carry off slaves and booty to enhance the monarch's state at home.

In the story of his last campaign, Tiglath-pileser has been thought by some to claim the conquest of Egypt; but the name used, Musr or Jfusri, has two senses; and it seems here to denote the forward ranges of Zagrus, between the Great Zab and the Eastern Khabour, the mountaineers of which had hitherto maintained their independence, but were now subjected to tribute.⁶¹

⁸⁰ It is worth notice in connection with points mentioned before that he describes himself as " king of the people of various tongues; king of the four regions;'" " the exalted sovereign, whose servants Asshur has appointed to the government of the four region*." Possibly this may mean all the lands to the north, south, east, and west.

⁶¹ That this Musri was not Egypt is clear from the name of its capital, Arin, and, besides, it is described as a monutainous couutry. The probabilities of an attack on Egypt by Assyria at this time would involve an interesting but somewhat intricate discussion. It was just at this time that the Philistines and the Hittites were at the height of their power, thus barring the great military road ; and a conflict with these tribes, which must have occupied at least a whole campaign, would not have been passed over in so minute a record. Besides, the whole object of these campaigns was clearly to establish the Assyrian power within its natural limits, the very limits assigned to the kiug's conquests in the liual summary. The Egyptian records seem to show an alliance with Assyria about this time. See chap. vi. § 20.

ASSYRIA BECOMES AN EMPIRE.

267

The whole result of the five campaigns is summed up as follows: "Thus fell into my hands altogether, between the commencement of my reign and my fifth year, forty-two countries, with their kings, from the banks of the river Zab to the banks of the river Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I took hostages from them, and I imposed on them tribute and offerings." These phrases seem to warrant the assigning to Tiglath-pileser I. the first organization of Assyria as an empire; and the record of his great works, as a builder and restorer of temples, proves his care for the national religion. The details given of his mode of warfare agree exactly with those vivid pictures in bas-relief with which the later kings delighted to line their palace halls, and which may now be perused by all like an open book, on the walls of the British and French museums. Rivers are crossed on skins, strongholds stormed, cities burnt, lands laid waste, a vast booty in cattle and treasure carried off; and, as for the people—we must not spoil the king's own words—" The ranks of their warriors, fighting in the battle, were beaten down as if by the tempest. Their carcasses covered the valleys and the tops of the mountains. I cut off their heeals. Of the battlements of their cities I made heaps⁶² like mounds of earth. Their movables, their wealth, and their valuables I plundered to a countless amount. Six thousand of their common soldiers, who fled before my servants and accepted my yoke, I took and gave over to the men of my own territory as slaves."

Another set of representations in the royal pictures is illustrated by this narrative. The Assyrian kings had always a passion for the chase; they were literally "mighty hunters;" and Tiglath-pileser records his sporting achievements, just as his successors depicted theirs. " In the country of the Hittites, he boasts of having slain 'four wild bulls, strong and fierce,' with his arrows; while in the neighborhood of Harran, on the banks of the Khabour, he had killed ten large wild buffaloes, and taken four alive. These captured animals he had carried with him on his return to Asshur, his capital city, together with the horns and skins of the slain beasts. The lions which he had destroyed in his various journeys he estimates at 920 ! All these successes he ascribes to the powerful protection of Nin and Nerval."⁶³ This religious spirit pervades the whole inscription. "The exact-

⁸² Comp. Isaiah xxv. 2; Micah i. 6.

⁸³ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 317, 31S. Oil Assvrian hunting scenes in general, see Layard's " Nineveh," vol. ii. p. 431.

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

ness of its date is tantalizing, from our ignorance of the way in which the year is marked. " In the month Kuzatta (Chis-leu), on the 29th day in the year, presided over by Ina-Uiyei-pallik, the Redbi-Turi ™

§ 17. But far more important than its exact date is the insight which this self-drawn full-length portrait of one of its earliest kings gives us into the character of the Assyrian empire, and her position among her neighbors about the end of the 12th century b.c " She was a compact and powerful kingdom, centralized under a single monarch, and with a single great capital, in the midst of wild tribes, which clung to a separate independence, each in its own valley or village. At the approach of a great danger, these tribes might consent to coalesce and to form alliances, or even confedera tions ; but the federal tie, never one of much tenacity, and rarely capable of holding its ground in the presence of monarchic vigor, was here especially weak. After one defeat of their joint forces by the Assyrian troops the confederates commonly dispersed, each flying to the defense of his own city or territory, w ith a short-sighted selfishness which deserved and insured defeat. In one direction only was Assyria confronted by a rival state possessing a power and organization in character not unlike her own, though scarcely of equal strength. On her southern frontier the kingdom of Babylon was still existing; its Semitic kings, though originally established upon the throne by Assyrian influence, had dissolved all connection with* their old protectors, and asserted their thorough independence.""⁵

§ 18. The silence of the cylinder respecting Babylonia is partly compensated by two later records. The synchronistic tablet relates that he invaded the country in two successive years, wasting the "upper" or northern districts, taking the frontier fort of Kur-galazu (Akkerkuf), Sippara, and Babylon itself, and returning down the Euphrates,* where he took several cities of the Tsukhi. It appears to have been during this retreat that he was overtaken by the King Merodach-idin-akhi, who inflicted upon him some serious blow ;^rr> for Sennacherib records, in his celebrated rock inscription at JBavian, near Khorsabad, his recovery of certain idols which had been carried to Babylon by Merodach-idin-akhi, who had taken them from Tiglath-pileser at Hekalin (probably near

⁶⁴ This is one of the cponymi, whose names mark each year.

⁶⁵ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 32S.

⁶⁶ The liability of an Oriental army, when retreating carelessly, incumbered with its captives aud plunder, to such an attack from a resolute pursuer is illustrated by Abraham's pursuit and defeat of Chedorlaomer, which, iu its turn, receives light from the case before ue.

GAP IN THE ASSYRIAN HISTORY.

Tekrit). These idols had doubtless been carried with the army (as the Hebrews took the ark against the Philistines) as a security for victory.⁶⁷ The fact that such objects of veneration and trophies of victory were not recovered for above 400 years is significant of the strength of Babylon; while the monuments of successive Assyrian kino's testify their repeated efforts to subdue her. "A hostile and jealous spirit appears henceforth in the relations between Assyria and Babylon; we find no more' intermarriages of the one royal house with the other; wars are frequent, almost constant—nearly every Assyrian monarch whose history is known to us in detail conducting at least one expedition into Babylonia."⁶⁸

§ 19. Tiglath-pileser I. has still one more claim to be regarded as the typical king of the old monarchy. The earliest specimen of Assyrian sculpture is a figure of this king in bas-relief, on the face of the native rooks in a cavern near the eastern source of the Tigris — the memorial, probably, of the extent of his conquests in that direction. It represents the king in his sacerdotal dress, with the right arm extended, and the left hand grasping the sacrificial mace, and the rock bears the following inscription: "By the grace of Asshur, §hamas, and Iva, the Great Gods, I, Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria, son of Asshur-ris-ilim, King of Assyria, who was the son of Mutaggil-Nebo, King of Assyria, marching from the great sea of Akhiri, to the sea of JVa'iri, for the third time have invaded the country Of the JVa'irL"⁰⁹ The fact that Figure of Tiglath-pileser I (From . .. , a rock tablet near Korkbar.)

this monument was sought for and

found, in consequence of the record of its existence in this very locality in an inscription of a later king (see p. 283), is one of the experimenta cruris of cuneiform science. Another

«⁷ This supplies one of the leading chronological data. The Bavian inscription was set np in Sennacherib's 10th year, n.c. G92, and he says that the idols were captured 41S years previously, which brings us to n.c. 1110, probably just at the close of Tisrlath-pileser's reigu. ^6S Rawlinson, I. c. p. 330.

⁶⁹ The interpreters explain the Sea of Akhiri as the Mediterranean, and the Sza of Na'iri as Lake Van. It is clear that the country of the Xalri includes the locality of the monument, showing that Professor Rawliusou is right in giving these people a wider range than Mesopotamia.

270

EARLY HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

early specimen of sculpture, the mutilated statue in om museum of the goddess Ishtar, or Astarte, dates probably from the reign of Asshur-bil-kala, the son and successor of Tiglath-pileser I.

§ 20. At the close of what is called " the Tiglath-pileser series " of six kings, the leading English authorities find a great gap of a century and a half, broken by only one uncertain name.⁷⁰ But M. Oppert and the French writers place here the king who has been mentioned above as having "established the authority of the later kings." They read his name Belkatirassou, and identify him with the Belitaras, governor of the royal gardens, who (according to the Greek writers) formed a conspiracy against his sovereign, and became the head of the new dynasty, which lasted in an unbroken line to the end of the Old or Upper Empire. Whichever may be the correct view, it is remarkable that this break in the Assyrian dynasty, indicating a diminution of its power, occurs at the very time when the wars of David and the splendid government of Solomon established a real empire of Israel up to the Euphrates itself; and when, also—towards the close of the interval—Rezon founded the Syrian kingdom of Damascus, which maintained a constant conflict against Assyria till the final triumph of the latter.⁷¹ It is also remarkable that, just when the power of Assyria was thus circumscribed on the west, we begin to find apparent traces of Assyrian influence in Egypt in the names of the kings of the 22d Dynasty.⁷² And we can now see how the conquests of that dynasty iu Palestine were facilitated by the internal troubles which weakened Assyria.

Both sets of authorities come into agreement at the reign of Asshur-idin-akhi, from whom the list of kings is complete (with only two or three cases of doubt) down to the end of the Upper Monarchy.⁷³ But the first great name in this new series \s that of a king who vies with Tiglath-pileser I. in his conquests, and the fullness of his annals, and far surpasses him in his architectural monuments. We suspend till the next chapter the mention of his name, as it is read in different ways.

70 "The single name of Asshur-Maztir, which has been assigned to this period, is recovered from an inscription of Shalmaneser II. (the Black Obelisk King), who speaks of a city Muddinu, on the right bank of the Euphrates, which had been taken, before his time, by Tiglath-pileser and Asshur-Mazur, Kings of Assyria."—Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 334, note.

⁷¹ These remarks are founded on the chronology calculated by the English authorities, who place the whole series of kings, from Asshur-idin-akhi to Asshur-lush, between b.o. 950 and 747. But the French writers (Oppert, Lenormant, etc.) place the same series just 40 years higher. ⁷² See above, chap, vii § 6.

⁷³ See the list in Rawlinsou.

V

MOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

273

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CN THE SITE AMD SXTENT OF NINEVEH.

The traditional site of Nineveh is marked by the mounds of Koyunjik and Ncbbi-Yu-nus, opposite Mosul. This was certainly the Niueveh of Senuacherib; and it is the only one of the royal cities on the Tigris to which we have as yet found the name distinctly applied by the Assyrians themselves. But we must not rush to the con-rdusiou that this was either the original or the only Nineveh. It may even be possible to reconcile the views of those who regard all the other royal cities as distinct from Nineveh and from each other, and of those (especially Mr. Layard) who include all the ruins from Nimrud to Koyunjik and Nebbi-Ytinus under that name.

Kileh-Sherghat lies too far south to be included ; and Khorsabad is expressly dis-tiugnished by its founder, Sargon, from Niueveh, to which it stood (as a royal residence) somewhat in the relation of Windsor to London.

(1) The primeval antiquity of Nineveh (by that name) is attested both by Scripture, and by the Egyptian records of the ISth, 19th, and 20th dynasties; that is, as early as the 15th century n.o.,long before the age of the Assyrian kings who had their capitals at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat) and Calah (Nimrud). Mr. Layard observes that "there are now reasons for conjecturing that the mound of Koyunjik covers the remains of edifices erected by some of the earliest Assyrian kin<is." ("Smaller Nineveh and Babylon," Introd., page xxxv.)

(2) Kings of the Old Assyrian Monarchy, residing at Calah (Nimrud), mention Niueveh. Especially the great "Nimrud King," Asshur-naxii-pal, speaks of carrying materials to his palace at Nineveh. This may mean Nimrud (according to Mr. Layard's theory); bnt M. Place found a tablet of this same king at Koyunjik—Ihe only mouument yet found there of a date earlier than Sennacherib. Bnt it seems from the inscriptions that palaces and temples were built at Nimrud at least two Or three centuries before the north-west palace of this king, which is the most ancient edifice yet explored in that mound ; and the perfection of arts and manufactures found in that edifice points clearly to a long preceding progress.

(3) Sennacherib records his restoration of Nineveh to be his royal city; and describes it as having a circuit of between

12*

30 and 40 miles. The site of his Nineveh is undoubtedly marked by the mounds opposite to Mosul; but the extent of the remains of strong fortifications, whieh are still to be traced, is only 7£ miles in circuit. This is quite large enough for the primitive city, which probably became the royal quarter. Afrer this period, we still find the Assyrian kiugs, as Esar-haddon aud the supposed last king (Asshur-cmil-ilin), building palaces at Nimrud.

(4> All the mounds yet explored con~ tain the ruins .m>'ely of the royal 2>cdaces. Amoug the adjacent inclosnres, defiued by the remains of walls, and strewn with fragments of bricks and pottery, though large enough to mark fair-sized toivns, such as would grow up round a royal residence, none approaches to the description given by Sennacherib, nor to the statement that "Niueveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey"— nor to that of "Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that can not discern between their right hand and their left hand "—which, interpreted as children, argues a population of 600,000—"«jkZ cdso much cattle." (Jonah iii. 3; iv. 11.) The last statement is important as indicating that Nineveh, like the Eastern cities both cf ancient and modern times, comprised vast open spaces. It is no improbable inference, that the whole space from Nimrud to the m-.Minds opposite Mosul was occupied by scattered buildings which connected the old towns and the new royal towns and residences, and were included iu Nineveh in the widest seuse.

(5) But we must neither insist that the true specific meaning of Nineveh, was this great assemblage of palaces, fortresses, towns, and scattered houses, nor confine it to the inclosed space opposite Mosul • though probably the latter may have been its original s^ense. It is rather surprising: that the disputants have not made more of the analogy of our own capital. The name of London has been extended from the British village which crowned the hill of St. Paul's to the Roman Londininm which did not pass the Fleet valley; thence to the "City," which is about equal in area to Hyde Park; and lastly to the vast aggregate of town tuid suburbs winch grows year by year, and which (for some purposes) has a radius of 15 miles.

Whether the name of Nineveh spread thus, or whether it was applied to the

274

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Ruins of Nineveh.

capital for the time being; where was its original site, and how large its full extent ; are questions too nice to be determined till further records are recovered from the ruins.

(6) The city, which appears in one of the earliest chapters of the Bible, had disappeared before the time of the earliest Greek historians. Herodotus speaks of the Tigris as "the river upon which the city of Ninus (i. e., Nineveh) formerly stood " (i. 193); nor does he affect to describe the Ions since perished city. Later writers, with more or less accuracy, mention its position on the east bank of the Tigris, in Aturia, above the Lycus (Great Zab), though Diodorus, professing to follow Ctesias, places it on the Enphrates! The same writer gives a description of the city which, being merely traditional (and also in part doubtless imaginative), is of little value. It formed an oblong quadrangle of 150 stadia by 90 (15X9 geographical miles), which far exceeds the measures giveu by Sennacherib, and makes an area about twice as large as London and its suburbs. Its walls were 100 ffeet high, and thick enough to allow three chariots to pass upon them ; with 1500 towers, 20O feet in height. These statements are the less incredible when we remember that the walls were huge earthen embankments, faced only with masonry, such as we see in good preservation especially at Khorsabad. Strabo simply says that the city was larger than Babylon.

(7) Traditions hung about the neighborhood for ages after the destruction of the city. The mounds which cover the mined palaces were pointed out in aucient times as the tombs of Ninus and Sardanapalus: and we have to notice the stories told to Mr. Layard abont Nimrod and Asshur under the shadow of Nimrud. But the very name of Nineveh survived. Tacitus men-I tions the capture (in the Parthian civil

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

275

war in the time of Claudius) of " urbs Ni-nos, vetustissima sedes Assyriae" in Adi-abeue (Ann. xii. 13): Ammianus Marcelli-nus (xiv. 8), under Julian, mentions "ve-tus Ninus " in the same district; and coins exist of the reigns of Claudius, Trajan, Maximin, and Gordianus Pius, with the legend, Niniva Claudiopolib. Thus there seems to have beeu a specific Roman Nineveh; but the name, like that of Babylon, appears to have wandered about the neighborhood according to the importance of the city which claimed it for the time. Philostratns (Vit. Apoll. Tijan.i. 19) speaks of a Ninus west of the Euphrates; and Eu-sebius applies the name to Nisibis.

(3) The prevailing traditions of the Mohammedan age ultimately fixed on the site opposite Moml. Thus, Ibn Athir speaks of the forts of Ninaici to the east, and of Mosul to the west, of the Tigris, in the campaigns of Abdallah Ibn Mo'etewer

a.n. 16 (a.o. 63T); aud of Otbch Ibn Far-kad, a.ii. 20 (a.i>. 641), qnoting from Be-ladheri, in the annals of those years (Rawlinson, "As. Journal," 1S50). In the 12th ^x century, Benjamin of Tudela speaks of Nineveh as opposite to Mosul (" Travels," p. 91, ed. Asher, 1S40); and Abulfaraj notices it under the name of Ninue ("Hist. Dynast." pp. 404-441); see also his " Chro-nicon," p. 464. Lastly, Assemanni, in his account of the mission of Salukah, the patriarch of the Chaldaeans, to Rome in a.o. 1552, when describing Mosul, says, " a qua ex ad era ripai parte abest Ninive bis mille passus." ("Bibl. Orient." vol. i. p. 524.) In the same work of Assemauni are many notices of Nineveh as a Christian bishopric, first under the metropolitan of Mosul, and subsequently nnder the bishop of Assyria and Adiabene ("Bibl. Orient.'' vol. ii. p. 459; vol. iii. pp. 104, 269, 344, etc.).

The Mound of Nimrud.

CHAPTER XII.

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.-B.C. 886-746.

I 1. The two series of seven kings of the Old and New Empire. Assudr-nasir-pai,. § 2. Account of the recent Assyrian discoveries. M. Botta's Discoveries at Khorsabad. § 3. Mr. Layard's discoveries at Nimrud, Calah. Description of the Northwest Palace of Asshur-nasir-pal. § 4. Plan of the palace. Inscriptions, with the king's annals. § 5. His titles on his statne. Records of his conquests. His Hunting exploits. § G. His bas-reliefs in the British Museum. Witnesses to the cruel despotism of Assyria. § 7. Excellent art of the sculptures. Use of color. Other objects—bowls—ivory-tablets—weights. Signs of Egyptian and Phoenician work. § 8. The temples and ziggtirat of Nimrud. Canal and Tunnel of Negoub. § 9. Description of his capital of Calah. His works at Kileh-Sherghat. § 10. Shalmaneser II., the "Black Obelisk King." His "Central Palace" at Nimrud. Description of his Obelisks. § 11. Relations of Assyria to Syria and Israel. Mention of BenJiadad and Ahab, Hazael and Jehu, on Shalmaneser's monuments. § 12. His other campaigns. § 13. Rebellion of his elder son ; put down by Suamas-Iva. Campaigns of this king. § 14. Iva-Lush IV. His palace at Nineveh (iu the Nebbi-Yunus mound). Extent of his dominion. § 15. His power in Babylonia. His queen Samnutramit (Semiramis). § 1G. Doubtful period of abont 40 years. Shalmaneser III. and his two successors. § 17. Signs of disturbance and revolt. Probable independence of Babylon at the Era of Nabonassar. § IS. Question concerning the Pul of Scripture.

§ 1. We have seen the kingdom of Assyria grow into an empire; and we have reached the point from which we can follow both its history and chronology with tolerable certainty. The greatness of the empire may be divided into two nearly equal periods of less than a century and a half,¹ each comprising seven kings—the first seven belonging to the old empire, the last to the new.

The records of the first of these kings, named (as we shall presently see) Asshur-nasir-pal, have only been revealed within the last quarter of a century; and their interest, and

¹ Namely, from u.c. 8SG to v.a. 746, 140 years ; and from j$.c. 746 to 625, 121 years. But if we were to take the date of i;.o. C06 for the fall of Niueveh, both periods would be exactly equal—namely, 140 years.

RECENT ASSYRIAN DISCOVERIES.

277

that of the whole history of Assyria, is enhanced by their connection with one of the most startling of modern historical discoveries.

§ 2. Among the Eastern travellers who had been possessed with the desire to explore those vast mounds upon and near the Tigris—in the neighborhood where Nineveh was known to have stood—which local tradition set down as the works of Nimrod, Mr. (now the Right Hon.) Austen Henry Layard had been especially fascinated by those within the angle formed by the Tigris and Great Zab, to which the name of Nimrud was specifically given. While seeking for means to explore them, his zeal was quickened by the success of M. Botta, who, after some mere gleanings at Koyunjik (which afterwards proved to be on the site of Nineveh itself) in 1842, had turned his attention to Khormbad, and had there discovered an Assyrian edifice, " the first, probably, which had been exposed to the view of man since the fall of the Assyrian empire."²

The impression made by this first discovery ought not to be obliterated by the flood of knowledge since acquired. "He (M. Botta) soon found that he had opened a chamber which was connected with others, and constructed of slabs of gypsum,³ covered with sculptured representations of battles,* sieges, and similar events. His wonder may easily be imagined. A new history had been suddenly opened upon him—the records of an unknown people were before him. He was equally at a loss to account for the age and the nature of the monument. The art shown in the sculptures— the dresses of the figures—their arms, and the objects which accompanied them—were all new to him, and afforded no clue to the epoch of the erection of the edifice, and to the people who were its founders. Numerous inscriptions were cut between the bas-reliefs, and evidently contained the explanation of the events thus recorded in sculpture. The nature of these inscriptions afforded, at least, evidence that the building was of a period preceding the conquest of Alexander ; for it was generally admitted that, after the subjugation of the west "of Asia by the Macedonians, the cuneiform writing ceased to be employed. But too little was then

² The edifice was completely uncovered in 1S15. See Layard, "Niueveh and its Re mains," vol. i. pp. 10 seq. We still speak of the site of Sargon's capital as Khorsabad; but the village of that name was purchased and removed by M. Botta, in order to excavate the mound on which it stood. The name is probably from Khorsau-abad (the abode of Khosroes), one of those Persian names which many of the villages in this part of Assyria have obtained from their vicinity to the mountains of Kurdistan.

³ The reader sbould bear in mind that the bas-reliefs in the Assyrian buildings are for the most part of the gypsum aud alabaster fouud iu the neighborhood. Some are of limestone.

278

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

known of this character to enable M. Botta to draw any inference from the peculiar arrangement of the wedges, which distinguishes the varieties used in different countries. However, it was evident that the monument appertained to a very ancient and very civilized people; and it was natural, from its position, to refer it to the inhabitants of Nineveh, a city which, although it could not have occupied a site so distant from the Tigris, must have been in the vicinity of the place." It turned out that Mr. Layard's attention was fixed as much too far south as M. Botta's was too far north, but with the happy result, not only of converging upon the true Nineveh, but discovering two others of the great , capitals of Assyria.

§ 3. It was in 1845 that Mr. Layard was at length enabled⁴ to begin his explorations at Nimrud; and the Arab Sheikh, who first received the traveller into his hut, gave a curious foretaste of his success. " The palace," said he, " was built by Athur, the kiagah, or lieutenant, of Nimrod"— that very Nimrod, " out of whose land went forth Asshur, and builded . . . Cededi"* Such is the wondrous tenacity of tradition, for the mounds of Nimrud were soon found to contain the ruins of Calah.

Those who love to see results enlivened by the processes which unfold them can read in Mr. Layard's first book⁶ the steps by which he realized—and has enabled us to realize, not only by description, but by the objects in our Museum— those " visions of palaces underground, of gigantic monsters, of sculptured figures, and endless inscriptions," which " floated before his excited brain " that night. Our present concern is with one building which he discovered—that one of the four palaces built on the platform already mentioned⁷ as marking the royal quarter of Calah, which is called the "North-western Palace." First, to see its present state, as. an example of the royal ruins of Assyria, let us follow the explorer, abridging as we go. " I would wish "—says Mr. Layard, in recapitulating his discoveries — "before leaving

⁴ Writing these paragraphs under the conviction that a history of ancient Assyria would be wanting iu completeness and interest without some account of the history of these discoveries, we feel equally bound to repeat Mr. Layard's grateful acknowledgment to the one man who first supplied the means. "It is to Sir Stratford Canning" (Lord Stratford de Redclyffe) "we are maiuly indebted for the collection of Assyrian monuments with which the British Museum will be [is now] enriched; without his liberality and public spirit the treasures of Nimrud would have been reserved for the enterprise of those who have appreciated the value and importance of the discoveries at Khorsabad."

⁵ Genesis x. 11,12. Here we see the name of Asshur preserved in the same form aa the Greek name of the province, Aturia.

⁶ " Nineveh and its Remains," 2 vols. 1S49. Abridged edition in 1 vol., 1SC7.

⁷ See above, chap. xi. § 9.

MR. LAYARD'S DISCOVERIES AT NIMRUD.

279

Nimrud and re-burying⁸ its palaces, I would wish to lead the reader once more through the ruins of the principal edifice, and to convey as distinct an idea as I am able of the exca-

Plan of the Mound of Nimrud.

vated halls and chambers, as they appeared when fully explored. On approaching the mound, not a trace of building

⁸ This is not a figure of speech. The sculptures, etc., not removed were covered again with rubbish of the excavations, to preserve them from the atmosphere and from the Arab iconoclasts. At Khorsabad, the gypsum slabs first uncovered by M. Botta crumbled faster than they could be copied.

280

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

can be perceived," and so forth of the externa, appearance of the mounds. " By a flight of steps rudely cut into the earth, near the western face of the mound, we descend about twenty feet, and suddenly find ourselves between a pair of colossal lions, winged and human-headed, forming a portal. Before those wonderful forms Ezekiel, Jonah, and others of the prophets stood, and Sennacherib bowed. Leaving behind us a small chamber, in which the sculptures are distinguished by a want of finish in the execution and considerable rudeness in the design of the ornaments, Ave issue from between the winged lions and enter the remains of the principal hall. On both sides of us are sculptured gigantic winged figures, some with the heads of eagles, others entirely human, and carrying mysterious symbols in their hands. To the left is another portal, also formed by winged lions. One of them has, however, fallen across the entrance, and there is just room to creep beneath it. Beyond this portal is a winged figure, and two slabs with bas-reliefs ; but they have been so much injured that we can scarcely trace the subject upon them. Further on there are no traces of walls, although a deep trench has been opened. The opposite side of the hall has also disappeared, and we only see a high Avail of earth. On examining it attentively, Ave can detect the marks of masonry, and we soon find that it is a sblid structure, built of bricks of unbaked clay, uoav of the Inme color as the surrounding soil, and scarcely to be distinguished from it. The slabs of alabaster, fallen from their original position, have, hoAvever, been raised, and Ave tread in the midst of a maze of small bas-reliefs, representing chariots, horsemen, battles, and sieges.

"Having Avalked about one hundred feet amidst these scattered monuments of ancient history and art, Ave reach another door-Avay, formed by gigantic Avinged bulls in yellow limestone. One is still entire, but its companion has fallen and is broken into several pieces ; the great human head is at our feet. AVe pass on, without turning into the part of the building to which' this portal leads. Beyond it Ave see another winged figure, holding a graceful flower in its hand, and apparently presenting it as an offering to the winged bull. Adjoining this sculpture Ave find eight fine bas-reliefs. There is the king, hunting and triumphing over the lion and wild bull; and the siege of the castle, with the battering-ram. We have now reached the end of the hall, and find before us an elaborate and beautiful sculpture, representing tAvo kings, standing beneath the emblem of the supreme deity, and attended by winged figures; between them is the

DESCRIPTION OF NORTH-WEST PALACE.

281

sacred tree. In front of this bas-relief is the great stone platform upon which, in days of old, may have been placed the throne of the Assyrian monarch when he received his captive enemies or his courtiers. To the left of us is a fourth outlet from the hall, formed by another pair of lions. We issue from between them aud find ourselves on the edge of a deep ravine, to the north of which rises, high above us, the lofty pyramid. Figures of captives bearing objects of tribute—ear-rings, bracelets, and monkeys—may be seen on walls near this ravine; and two enormous bulls, and two winged figures above fourteen feet high, are lying on its very edge.

"As the ravine bounds the ruins on this side, we must return to the yellow bulls. Passing through the entrance formed by them, we enter a large chamber, surrounded by eagle-headed figures: at one end of it is a door-way, guarded by two priests or divinities, and in the centre another portal with winged bulls. Whichever way we turn, we find ourselves in the midst of a nest of rooms; and, without an acquaintance with the intricacies of the place, we should soon lose ourselves in this labyrinth. The accumulated rubbish being generally left in the centre of the chambers, the whole excavation consists of a number of narrow passages, panelled on one side with slabs of alabaster, and shut in on the other by a high wall of earth, half buried in which may here and there be seen a broken vase, or a brick painted with brilliant colors. We may wander through these galleries for an hour or two, examining the marvellous sculptures, or the numerous inscriptions, that surround us. Here we meet long rows of kings, attended by their eunuchs and priests; there, lines of winged figures, carrying fir-cones and religious emblems, and seemingly in adoration before the mystic tree. Other entrances, formed by winged lions and bulls, lead us into new chambers : in every one of them are fresh objects of curiosity and surprise. At length, wearied, we issue from the buried edifice by a trench on the opposite side to that by which we entered, and find ourselves again upon the naked platform. We look around in vain for any traces of the wonderful remains we have just seen, and are half inclined to believe that we have dreamed a dream, or have been listening to some tale of Eastern romance. Some who may hereafter tread on the spot where the grass again grows over the ruins of the Assyrian palaces may indeed suspect that I have been relating a vision."⁹

§ 4. The ground-plan of the palace may be described, in a

⁹ Layard, "Niueveh and its Remains," vol. ii. pp. 109-114.

282

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

word, as consisting of a great central court, open to the sky (about 130 feet by 100 feet),, surrounded by six large galleries and many small square rooms, opening into one another—the galleries being remarkable for the length and narrowness of their proportions: the largest, which appears to have been the throne-room, is more than 170 feet long by less than 35 feet wide. The whole building was 360 feet long by 300 feet wide. The one of the smaller chambers which was first discovered was lined with slabs of alabaster abqut 8 feet high, and from 6 to 4 feet in breadth, unsculp-tured, but with the same inscription of about 20 lines on the

Plan of Palace of Asshitr-nasir-pal.

middle of each slab ; and even the slabs of the pavement were similarly inscribed, not only on their upper but on their under surfaces, which had also transferred a cast of the writing to the asphalt bedding of the floor. From its repetition in various parts of the building, this inscription is called " the Standard Inscription of Nimrud." Another remarkable inscription is engraved (according to the Assyrian fashion) across a figure of the monarch, which is sculptured in low relief within'an arched recess, on one side of the entrance to the temple of Nin, which he built at Nimrud. The

THE STANDARD INSCRIPTION OF NIMRUD. 283

divine emblems over his head, and the triangular altar in front of the figure, show that the king was worshipped.¹³ It is in this inscription that he mentions his building of the palace now described, which had been founded by Shalmaneser I., but allowed to go to ruin. A third important inscription is on an obelisk in white stone, also found at Nimrud, and now in the British Museum. It is twelve or thirteen feet high, on a base of two feet by less than 14 inches, and in shape similar to the black obelisk which has given to this king's son the name of the " Black Obelisk King." It is covered with a detailed record of his exploits in war and the chase, which are also related in his other inscriptions. The fullest of all these annals is that on an immense monolith slab, which formed the threshold of the temple just mentioned.

§ 5. The king's name was at first read Asshur-idanni-pal; a form which seemed to give the startling result that the original Sardanapcdus (or at least one of the kings who bore that name) was the mightiest and most splendid monarch of the Old Dynasty—the Sardanapcdus whom the Greeks called, by way of distinction, " Sardanapalus the Conqueror." But we"are now told that the true name is Asshur-nasir-pal; that is, Asshur p>rotects (my or his) son.¹¹ Across the breast of his statue we read his style and titles, and the extent of his empire : "Asshur-nasir-pal, the great king, the powerful king, king of hosts, king of Assyria ;—the son of Tiglath-pileser, the great king, the powerful king, king of hosts, king of Assyria;—the son of Iva-lush, the great king, the powerful king, king of Assyria.¹² He possessed the countries from the banks of the Tigris to Lebanon : he subjected to his power the great seas, and all the lands from the rising to the setting of the sun."

This comprehensive claim is definitely explained by the narrative of the ten campaigns which he made in his first six years, and which it is the less necessary to describe, as they extend nearly over the same ground as those of Ti glath-pileser I. ; though they were somewhat wider, and probably more complete. Thus, to the north-east, in the mountains

¹⁰ a similar stela of this king was found near Diarbekr, and is now in our Museum. It was the mention in his annals of the erection of this monument near that of Tiglath-pileser that led to the discovery of both, as above stated.

¹¹ M. Oppert prefers this form, oh grammatical grounds, to Sir H. Rawlinson's latest reading, Asshur-izir-pal; but both agree in the sense.

¹² There is nothing strange in finding the father of the king called by a name which we have seen to be equivalent in meaning to Tiglathi-Xin; and indeed the reading of the last syllable in the latter form of the name is doubtful. In his great historical inscription, the king styles himself the son of Tiglathi-Xinip (= Tiglathi-Xin), son of Iva-lush (or Vul-htsh), son of Asshur-dan-il.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

of Kurdistan and Armenia, lie claims to have penetrated to a region "never approached by the kings, his fathers.'' Sev-eraf expeditions were made into the mountains of Armenia and of Zagrus. Mesopotamia had to be reconquered, and the boundary along the middle Euphrates recovered. Here he built two" cities, naming that on the right bank after the god Asshur, and that on the left bank after himself.¹³ From Northern Mesopotamia he made an invasion of Syria, the account of which is extremely interesting. Carchemish, on the Euphrates, once the stronghold of Egypt, was taken from the Hittites; and the king having traversed the skirts of Lebanon and the valley of Orontes, and offered sacrifice on the shore of the Mediterranean, received the submission of. the chief cities of Phoenicia—Tyre, Sidon, Byblus, and Ara-dus are distinctly named—and reached the Amanus, where he set up a sculptured memorial, and cut timber, which was conveyed to Nineveh. The white obelisk already mentioned appears to have been set up on his return from this expedition ; and the visitor to our Museum sees at this day the beautiful grain of the cedar used in the Assyrian palaces.¹⁴ As in the annals of Tiglath-pileser, the records of the chase are given with as much minuteness as those of war ; and the king had a park stocked with wild animals (like the " paradise " of a Persian prince),¹⁵ the supply of which was kept up by tributes and presents.¹⁶

§ 6. Both sets of exploits are illustrated by that wonderful" series of bas-reliefs—wonderful for their artistic execution, their exact details, and their vivid reality—which Mr. Layard has brought, partly from the principal gallery of the North-west Palace of Nimrud, and partly from the two adjacent temples. Wonderful, most of all, is the impression which is received from a perusal of the scenes on the wajls of the " Nimrud Gallery,"\and the accompanying" Koyunjik Gallery" (of the age of Sennacherib and his successor) in thc-British Museum, concerning the true character of this type of Oriental despotisms. All breathes the spirit of Nimrod,

is One of these cities may have been the " Tel-Asshur (Telassar or Thelasar)," in which "dwelt the children of Eden," when they were conquered by Sennacherib (2 Kings xix. 12; Isaiah xxvii. 12); for we find the people Beth-Adina among those on the Enphrates subdued by Asshur-nasir-pal.

¹⁴ The section of the wood has been recently polished, to show its grain and its soundness. The "cedar work" of the Assyrian palaces is mentioned by Zephaniah (ii. 14).

>s Xenoph. " Anab." i. 4, 10; " Cyr." i. 3, § 14, etc.

»⁶ Thus the Phoenicians sent animals called pagdts, supposed by some to be elephants; aud the elephant is presented to the life on the "Black Obelisk" of this king's son. There are special records of this king's hunting exploits on the broken obelisk, and on the altar in front of his divine effig3\ The mention of the crocodile on the broken obelisk does no!, prove the gift t'> be from Egypt.

BAS-RELIEFS IX THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

285

the "mighty hunter," both of men and beasts; and all—if we may be allowed so to turn the Hebrew intensive phrase —is done " before the Lord "—by the help and to the greater glory of those gods whose name—whether true or false— has ever been invoked to sanctify the excesses of a despot's cruel will. Everywhere the king, with the emblem of divinity often hovering above him, rides down his foes, bends his bow against their battlements, or receives their abject submission, which is rewarded with torture and death. No detail is spared of the carnage of the battle-field, or the cruelties inflicted on the prisoners. In one place, headless corpses, or convulsed wretches pierced with spears and arrows, are floated down the stream (for most of the battle-scenes and sieges are upon the banks of a river) ;¹⁷ in another the scribes are counting the heads as they are laid before the king.

And these pictures are the faithful illustrations of "his annals. In his first campaign a captive chief of the Kirkhi,o\\ the Upper Tigris, was carried to Arbela, and there flayed and hung up upon the town wall. In the second, a rebellious city on the Euphrates was given up to plunder; and some of the ringleaders were burnt, others crucified, and the rest mutilated of their ears and noses; proceedings summed up in a phrase—" while the king was arranging these matters "—which reminds us of Caesar's "his rebus compositis." The king's own words are needed to do justice to his treatment of another revolted city: " Their men, young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and hands; of others I cut off the noses, ears, and lips ; of the young men's ears I made a heap ; of the old men's heads I built a minaret. I exposed their bends as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burnt in the flames. The city I destroyed and consumed and burnt with fire." Such boasts, illustrated by such pictures, reveal the self-confessed character of the Assyrian empire ; and, if the first feeling excited by these monuments is admiration at the recovery of a lost chapter in the history of nations, the next is a renewed sympathy with the prophets who denounced such an empire, and a confirmation of that unmitigated hatred of all despotism which is one of the best lessons taught by history.

§ 7. These sculptures from the North-west Palace of Nimrud are in the best style of Assyrian art, which—as in the case of Egypt—is most truthful and vigorous in its earliest

¹⁷ In several cases, the river is donbtless meant lor the Euphrates, in others for the Upper Tigris. One of the most curious scenes represents fugitives swimming a river »u inflated skins, to gain their fortress on the farther bank.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

examples. In the human figures the profiles are sharply outlined and most expressive, the limbs are delineated with peculiar accuracy, and the muscles and bones are faithfully, though somewhat too strongly, marked. The composition, though sometimes grotesque through the want of perspective—for which, indeed, bas-relief does not give much scope —is very expressive and animated; the pictures clearly tell their own story. The scenes of battle and siege, with all the appliances of movable towers and battering-rams, the testudo and terebra, seem in real action ; and there is a lion-hunt, which is pronounced, by so good a judge as Mr. Layard, to be—"from the knowledge of art displayed in the treatment and composition, the correct and effective delineation of the men and animals, the spirit of the grouping, and its extraordinary preservation—probably the finest specimen of Assyrian art in existence." These earlier bas-reliefs show few traces of color, and those entirely local and. distinctive, as on the hair, beard, and eyes, on the sandals and bows, on the tongues of the eagle-headed figures, and A ery faintly on a garland round the head of a winged priest, and on the representation of fire in the bas-relief of a siege.

But the colors as Avell as forms of the painted bricks and fresco ornaments on the Avails are perfect models of good taste; as are also the patterns on the robes of the figures; and the engravings, both geometrical and of men and animals, on a large number of bronze bowls; and the carvings on tablets of ivory, from this N.W. Palace. Many of the ivories are gilt, and quantities of gold-leaf were found among the ruins. The bowls and ivories are also remarkable for their unmistakably Egyptian patterns ; and there are other Egyptian objects, as the scarabceus and the crux ansata (or ring-handled cross).- There is also a collection of bronze iceights, inscribed with their values, both in cuneiform and in Phoenician characters—" 2, 3, 5, etc., manahs of the country," " 2 shekels," " one-fifth," apd so forth ; which seem to indicate commercial dealings with Phoenicia.

These, with many minor objects of art and luxury, as Avell as those depicted on the sculptures, prove the great progress already made by the Assyrians in manufactures — such as " the metallurgy Avhich produced the swords, sword-sheaths, daggers, ear-rings, necklaces, armlets, and bracelets of this period; the coach-building which constructed the chariots, the saddlery which made the harness of the horses, the embroidery which ornamented the robes"—all, in short, proves that " the Assyrians were already a great and luxurious people, that most of the useful arts not only existed among them

TEMPLES AND PYRAMID OF NIMRUD.

281

but were cultivated to the highest pitch, and that in dress, furniture, jewelry, etc., they were not very much behind the moderns."¹⁸

§ 8. Besides the North-west Palace, Asshur-nasir-pal built the two temples (already incidentally referred to) at the north-west corner of the platform. Adjoining to one of these, and standing out from the angle of the platform, was the high tower (or ziggurat), the ruins of which form the celebrated pyramid (or rather conical mound) of Nimrud™ It appears to have been a royal mausoleum, begun by Asshur-nasir-pal, and finished by his son, Shalmaneser II. "Its basement," says Mr. Layard, " was encased with massive masonry of stone, relieved by recesses and other architectural ornaments. The upper part, built of brick, was most probably painted, like the palaces of Babylon, with figures and mythic emblems. Its summit I conjecture to have consisted of several receding gradines, like the top of the black obelisk, and I have ventured to crown it with an altar, on which may have burnt the eternal fire."²⁰ To these works of state and religion may be added one of utility, the Canal, which not only supplied the city with water, but appears to have irrigated the whole country in the angle between the Tigris and the Great Zab. It is named as the work of As shur-nasir-pal, both in his annals and on the tablet set up in the tunnel of Negoub (the hole), through which it was originally supplied from the Zab.²¹

§ 9. All these works indicate the establishment or renewal by Asshur-nasir-pal of a new royal residence at Nimrud, which the inscribed bricks and the king's own record of its building identify with Calah. "Here, in a strong and healthy position, on a low spur from the Jebel JTcddub, protected on either side by a deep river, the new capital grew to greatness. Palace after palace rose on its lofty platform, rich with carved wood-work, gilding, painting, sculpture, and enamel, each aiming to outshine its predecessors; while stone lions, sphinxes, obelisks, shrines, and temple-towers embellished the scene, breaking its monotonous sameness by variety. The lofty ziggurat attached to the temple of Nin (or Hercules), dominating over the whole, gave unity to the vast mass of palatial and sacred edifices. The Tigris, skirting the entire western base of the mound, glassed it in its

¹⁸ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 353.

¹⁹ Respecting the Assyrian ziggurats in general, see chap. xvi. § 16.

²⁰ Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 653.

²¹ This stone was unfortunately broken before the inscription could be properly copied. For a full description of the canal see Layard, " Nineveh," vol. i. pp. SO, SI; Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 195,19G.

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waves, and, doubling the apparent height, rendered less observable the chief weakness of the architecture. When the setting sun lighted up the whole with the gorgeous hues seen only under an Eastern sky, Calah must have seemed to the traveller who beheld it for the first time like a vision from fairy-land."²² The old residence of Asshur was not, however, deserted by this king and his successors. Besides various notices of it in his annals, its repairs are mentioned on the truncated obelisk which records his hunting exploits in Syria ;²³ and the remarkable statue of his son, Shalmaneser II., seated on a throne covered with inscriptions—a monolith in black basalt, now in the British Museum—was found at KUeh-SSherghat.

§ 10. This Shalmaneser II., the "Black Obelisk King," is conspicuous in the Assyrian annals for the length of his 35 years' reign (b.c S58-823),²⁴ the interesting nature of his principal monuments, and the mention on them, for the first time, of kings of Israel and Syria, whose names occur in Scripture. The chronicles of Israel and Judah, according to their plan, mention no king of Assyria till one exacts a tribute, and another makes a conquest, in the land itself, about a century later; but the annals of Shalmaneser show the beginning of the process by which the conquest of the great Syrian kingdom of Damascus prepared the way for the first captivity of the Israelites.

This king, not content with his father's palace, built another in the centre of the Nimrud platform; and it was afterwards rebuilt almost entirely by a later king, probably Tiglath-pileser II. But the edifice was so utterly destroyed by~Esar-baddon, who used the materials in the construction of the S.\Y. Nimrud palace, that even the.plan can no longer be traced. Amidst a few gleanings of slabs Mr. Layard

²² Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol.ii. p. 357. Mr. Fergnssou has ventured on a restoration of the river front of the palaces of Calah. (See the frontispiece to Layard's "Monuments of Niueveh.") Even to the present day the pyramid gives a picturesque unity to the long line of the Nimrud mounds. (See the vignette to this chapter.) It is worthy of particular notice that this kiug speaks of conveying materials to Xineveh—a strong argument for either extending that name so as to include Calah, or regarding it as the name of the Assyrian capital for the time being. See note A to chapter xi.

²³ This is the obelisk of which we have only the upper part (in the British Museum). Both this and the fragments of his other broken obelisk were found at Koyunjik, having unquestionably been removed thither from Kileh-Sherghat, according to the practice of the later kings.

²⁴ This is the longest reign of any Assyrian kiug, and is only exceeded by the 43 years of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar. Iva-lush IV., Shalmaneser's grandson, reigned 29 years; but no other monarch in Ptolemy's list much exceeds 20 years. (Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 357, note.) The name of this king has been variously read as Divanubar or Divannbra, and Shalmanubar; but the best authorities are now agreed on Shalmaneser. M. Oppert makes him the 5th (iustead of the 2d) of the name,

SHALMANESER II. AND HIS " BLACK OBELISK.' 283

found two gigantic winged bulls—gatekeepers, like those in the older palace—and one of the most precious monuments of Assyria. This is the celebrated Obelisk, in black marble,

Black Obelisk, from NimrnCt.

smaller than the white obelisk of the king's father, but of finer material and workmanship.²⁵ This obelisk was found on its side, 10 feet below the surface, and now stands erect in the middle of the "Nimrud Saloon" of our Museum. It

²⁵ The Black Obelisk is about 7 feet high, and 22 inches wide on the broader side of the base: the other is 12 or 13 feet high and 2 feet wide at the base. The shattered obelisk of Asshnr-nasir-pal (not the one merely broken in half) must have been larger still, for its area at top was 2 feet S inches by nearly 2 feet, implying a height of from 15 to 20 feet. Both obelisks taper slightly, and are terminated at top by 3 steps or gradines, instead of the puramidion of the Egyptian obelisks. By this difference, and that of the section (the Egyptian being square, the Assyrian oblong), the Assyrian obelifk seems to be marked as a native form. The truncated obelisk has 2 gradines; the terminatiou of the other broken oue is doubtful.

13

290

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

may be called an illustrated history of tin* twenty-seven campaigns of Shalmaneser; the upper half being occupied by twenty bas-reliefs in sunken compartments, five on each face ; and the lower half, as well as the spaces between the reliefs, and the gradines at the top, being covered with the cuneiform text. The minute letters of the inscription are sharply cut, and the whole is in the best state of preservation. The bas-reliefs represent the king receiving the tribute of five nations, each nation filling the four compartments in one horizontal row.²⁶ " The gifts brought are, in part, objects carried in the hand—gold, silver, copper in bars and cubes, goblets, elephants' tusks, tissues, and the like—in part, animals, such as horses, camels, monkeys and baboons of different kinds, stags, lions, wild bulls, antelopes, and—strangest of all—the rhinoceros and the elephant."²⁷ The first impression produced by the sight of these animals and of the two-humped Bactrian camel—that there may, after all, be some truth in the Bactrian and Indian wars of Ninus and Semira-mis—is corrected by the enumeration of the five nations. The first of these is Israel, of whom more presently; the second are the people of Kirzan, on the borders of Armenia, which still retains the name; the central row represents the 3Iuzri, in northern Ivitrdisttut y²⁸ the fourth, the Tsukhi, or Shuhites, from the Euphrates ; and the last, the Patently from the Orontes.

§ 11. The interest, which this obelisk excited was enhanced by the discovery that the king who is seen, in the highest row, prostrating himself before the Assyrian monarch, and whose followers bring a tribute of gold and silver in various forms, is styled iu the inscription "Jehu, son of Omri," a patronymic derived from the founder of the capital city of Samaria.²⁹ When the full inscription was deciphered, there was found a still earlier point of contact between Assyria

²⁶ To this there is one exception. The first compartment of the bottom row seems to belong not to the fifth nation, but to the first or second.

²⁷ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. SGT.

2» These are the people who bring the Bactrian camel, the Indian rhinoceros, and elephant (which is depicted so as to be clearly distinguished from the African), and other animals almost certainly Indian, among them a sacred ox—all pointing to a traffic with India. The proud Assyrian may have demanded these gifts, at whatever labor aud risk to his Eastern subjects. The idea that the sculptor invented them, to extend the range of the king's conquests, is excluded by the absence of any such claim in the inscription. The Egyptian monuments show that the Indian elephant was also brought to the Pharaohs as a tribute from some people of Western Asia. (Wilkinson, "Ancient Egj-ptians," vol. v. p. 17G ; vol.i. plate iv.)

-⁹ 1 Kings xvi. 24. The Assyrians were familiar with Samaria under the name of Bcth-Khnmri (the hmise or city of Omri). Besides, Jehu would probably seek to legitimate his usurpation by claiming descent from the founder of the dynasty he overthrew, as well of the capital; and, for aught we kuow, the claim may have had gome grouud.

NAME OF JEHU, KING OF ISRAEL.

291

Prisoners presented by the Chief Eunuch (Nimrud Obelisk).

and the kingdom of Israel, and one most strikingly confirmative—as, we may observe in passing, every new Assyrian discovery is more and more confirmative³⁰—of the Scripture history.

To explain this, we must glance at the position now occupied by Syria between Assyria, on the one side, and Israel and Phoenicia on the other. The valley of the Orontes was still occupied by the Hittites, the old foes of Egypt, who extended eastward to the Euphrates ; but the conquest of their eastern tribes by Asshur-nasir-pal appears to have been permanent. South of them, towards Ccele-Syria, was the kingdom of Hiimath ; and the part of Syria between the eastern chain of Lebanon and the desert was occupied by a powerful kingdom—

"Whose delightful seat Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks Of Abana aud Pharphar—lucid streams."

In that city—one of the oldest in the world, which the native tradition made the resting-place of Abraham on his journey from Charran into Canaan,³¹ and which David reduced in hfs war with Hadadezer, king of Zobah, then a great Syrian kingdom farther north³²—a certain Rezon, who seems to'have been outlawed by Hadadezer, had established himself at the head of an irregular band, in the declining days of Solomon. "And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of

³⁰ So striking has this agreement been, from the very beginnings of cuneiform science, that the present writer remembers when his own skepticism took the form of a doubt whether the concord of interpreters might not be explained by their use (to ftn extent of which they were unconscious) of the common key they possessed in Scripture history; but the results obtained have loug since outgrowu any possibility of being thus explained.

³¹ Nicolaiis Damasc. Fr. 30; comp. Genesis xv. 2.

³² 2 Sam. viii. 5, G; 1 Chron. xviii. 5.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

Solomon ; . . . . and he abhorred Israel, and reigned' ovei Syria."³³

According to the native historian, Nicolas of Damascus— an eminent rhetorician in the service of Herod the Great— the former king of Damascus was named Hadad y^S4 and either his descendants recovered the throne, or the line of Bezon affected descent from him ; for all the kings we know of, down to the usurpation of Hazael, bear the name of Ben-hadad (the son 'of Hadad). The kingdom, thus hostile from its origin, appears in constant conflict with one branch or the other of the Hebrew monarchy. Ben-hadad I. of Scripture (probably the Hadad III. of Nicolaiis Damascenus)— after taking part, in turn, with each kingdom against the other, and so weakening both³⁵—availed himself of the civil war at the accession of Omri to add several cities of Israel to his dominion, and seems even to have exercised rights of suzerainty in the new capital of Israel.³⁶ But the attempt of his successor, Ben-hadad II. (or Hadad IY.)—who appears at the head of 32 confederate kings—to take Samaria and crush Israel altogether, led to his utter defeat by Ahab, and to a new alliance, in which the former relations of dependence were reversed : "And Ben-hadad said unto him (Ahab), the cities which my father took from thy father I will restore ; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria..... So he made a covenant with

him, and sent him away."³⁷

Now, among the campaigns of Shalmaneser II., no less than five were directed against Syria; and the express mention of "Khazail (Hazael) of Damascus" in the last two

leaves no doubt that the "-of Damascus," mentioned in

the first three, was no other than Ben-hadad.³⁸ It was in the ninth year of Shalmaneser that the king of Damascus, alarmed, doubtless, by the growing power of Assyria, anticipated her attack at the head of a great confederacy, among whom were the kings of the Hittites, and those of the Phoenicians, the king of Hamath, and Aiiab of Jezreel,³⁹ who contributed 10,000 men and 20 chariots, out of the whole army of 77,900 men, 1940 chariots, and 1000 camels. Ben-

³³ 1 Kings xi. 23-25.

³⁴ He makes the descendants of Hadad reign for ten generations, omitting Rezon altogether. ³⁵ 1 Kings xv. 19, 20 ; 2 Chron. xvi. 3.

³⁶ 1 Kings xx. 34: comp. Nic. Dam. Fr. 31, acl Jin.

³⁷ 1 Kings xx. 1-34.

³⁸ The characters used will not make Ben-hadad, thongh some read Bcn-idri. It is not improbable that Benhadad is used as the regular title of the Syrian king, like Pharaoh and Caesar, and that, like them, each king had a proper name besides.

³⁹ This, which has lately boen determined as the reading of a phrase formerly doubtful, corresponds precisely to the fact that Ahab's favorite residence wag at his summer palace at Jezreel.

WAR WITH HAZAEL OF SYRIA.

293

hadad's own force was 20,000 men and 1200 chariots; and it is interesting, as bearing on the relations between Egypt and Assyria, to find 1000 men sent by the king of E<rvpt.*° The allies were defeated, with the loss of 20^000 men; but the Assyrian king mentions no conquest of territory, nor even imposition of tribute ; and another campaign, after five years, ends with another claim of barren, victory."

Three years later, Shalmaneser collected his forces for a decisive blow, and led 102,000 men across the Euphrates. The allies were put to flight, and the confederacy was dissolved ; and Ben-hadad, sick and depressed after such a blow,⁴¹ incurred the fate which has befallen many a defeated king, from the treachery of his servant Hazael'.⁴² Accordingly, it is against " Khazail of Damascus" that Shalmaneser pursues his advantage in the following year, and defeats him in the strong position he had taken up*ni the passes of Am tilibanus. On the return of the Assyrian king, three years later, Hazael seems to have made no" resistance to the plunder of his cities by the invader, who passed on to receive the tribute of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus. In this state of things we can readily understand that, the frontier of Israel being uncovered on the east and north, Jehu would offer his submission to Assyria; but, as there was no actual invasion of the kingdom, the event is not recorded in the chronicles of Israel^ The mention of Ahab is said to be repeated on the monolith set up by Shalmaneser by the side of his father's, atlCork/iar, near Biarbekr, on the tsupnat, or eastern branch of the Tigris. The only other campaign which requires notice is that of his eighth year against Babylonia. Taking advantage of a civil war between king Merodach-sum-adiifand his younger brother, Shalmaneser^overran the country as far as the south of Chaldrea, at that time under its separate kings, whom he reduced to tribute. "The power of his army," he says, " struck terror as far as the sea."

§12. The other campaigns would be only wearisome to describe, even if we had the space. They are related in a much dryer style than those of the preceding king, and extend, for the most part, over the same regions; the novelty, besides the wars with Damascus, being the receipt of tribute from the Bartsu or Partsu, who are supposed by some to be the Persians, or rather their Turanian predecessors. Twenty-three campaigns were made by Shalmaneser in person, and three or four others by a nobleman named Dayn-Asshur,

¹³ This, if the. reading be correct, is the one solitary indication of any hostile relations between Egypt and Assyria under the Old Monarchy. ⁴¹ 2 Kings viii. T. 42 ₂ Kings viii. 15.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

whose exploits are, of course, regarded as the king's ; and the result is an amusing mixture of the tirst and third persons in the annals. Of the truly Assyrian spirit in which the wars were conducted, one specimen may suffice: " I slew his fighting men, and carried away his spoil ; I overthrew, beat to pieces, and consumed with fire towns without number; I swept the country with my troops, and impressed on the inhabitants the fear of my presence."

This and the preceding reign had established the true Empire of Assyria, which now extended on the west to the Mediterranean, embracing the whole coast of Syria and Phoenicia, as far south as Mount Oarmel, or rather Joppa, for Israel must be regarded as a vassal kingdom. As the border of the Euphrates had thus been passed to the west, so had the range of Zagrus to the east, and the Semitic yoke was imposed upon the Aryans of the table-land of Iran. But these people, afterwards so mighty, were as yet but scattered tribes, dispersed in unfortified towns and villages, and neither united under a king nor possessing a capital. The weakness of the tribes on her frontiers explains the rapid growth of Assyria.

§ 13. The last years of Shalmaneser were troubled by a rebellion of his eldest son, Asshur-danin-jxd, who was acknowledged as king by no less than twenty-seven of the most important cities of Assyria, including Asshur, Arbela, and Amida (Biarbekr). The dominion of Shalmaneser appears to have been confined to Calah and Nineveh during the last five years of his reign, which are assigned in the Assyrian Canon to Asshur-danin-pal.⁴³ The rebellion was at length put down by a younger son, Shaaias-Iva ⁴⁴ who succeeded his father, and reigned 13 years (b.c. 823-810). We owe the account of the rebellion to" a square, arch-headed stela of this king, with his effigy in bas-relief, and an inscription in the hieratic character, containing the annals only of his first four years, found at the central palace of Nimrud.*⁶ He relates expeditions against the Nairi, Media, and (the most important) against "Babylonia, where he gained a great victory over the king, Merodorach-belatru-ikbi, and his Chaldtean, Susianian, and Aramaean allies, and forced that king to flee into the desert. A newly discovered fragment shows that he was still occupied, during his last three years, with expeditions against Babylonia and elsewhere.⁴⁶

⁴³ The annals of Shalmaneser also end in the 5th year before bis death

⁴⁴ This name is also read Shamas-(or Santsi-)Vul, and by AI. Oppert Samsi-Hou. The second element, the name of a god, which enters also into several other royal names, is one of which the phonetic value is very uncertain.

« Sir ii. Rawlinson's " Inscriptions," p'ates 29 to 34.

⁴« See Rawliuson, "Five Monarchies," Appendix to vol. iv.note B.

IVA-LUSH, OR VUL-LUSH IV.

295

§14. Iva-lush (or Vul-lush) IV.,⁴⁷ son of Shamas-iva, M^ras another enterprising warrior. Of the 29 years of his reign (b.c. 810 to 781), 26 were occupied by military expeditions, seven of which were against Media, three into the central regions of Zagrus. and three into Palestine, indicating an extension of the empire both to the east and to the south-west. We possess no detailed annals of his campaigns, like those of the former kings ; but his few monuments are very interesting. From inscribed bricks at Nimrud, we find that he added some rooms to the palaces at Calah, and other bricks, found in the mound of Nebbi-Yunus, mark him as the first Assyrian king who is known to have built a palace at Nineveh.⁴⁸ He calls himself "the restorer of noble buildings that had gone to decay."⁴⁹

His chief monuments are a genealogical tablet, found at Nimrud, and a pair of statues of the god Nebo. On the former, he describes himself as ruling from the country of Sile-ma, on the east, over lands extending from the foot of the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf,⁵⁰ and embracing (besides many other names) Elam, and parts of Persia and Media; and on the west, beyond the Euphrates, over Syria, Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon), the "city of Omri" (Samaria), Edom, and the country of the Philistines, to " the sea of the setting sun," that is, the Mediterranean. He says that he took a king of Syria (whose name is doubtfully read Jfari/t) in his capital of Damascus.

§ 15. In Babylonia he appears to have exercised a sort of regal power, receiving homage from the Chaldoeans, and offering sacrifices to the chief gods of the country—Bel, Nebo, and Nergal—in the chief cities, Babylon, Borsippa, and Cutha. And here arises a most interesting question, connected with the two statues of Nebo which were found by Mr. Rassam in a temple of the god dedicated by this king, adjoining to the S.E. palace of Nimrud.'⁰¹ They are nearly alike, and of a form so constrained and disproportioned, and workmanship so rude and inferior to contemporary sculptures, as evidently to show a conventional model. The inscription across the

⁴⁷ Both the elements of this name are of uncertain phonetic value. M. Oppert reads it Houlikhous: aud on the statues of Nebo mentioned below it has been read Phahtkha, which is merely another form of Vul-lush. On the strength of the distant resemblance in this form of the name, he has been identified with the Pcl of Scripture ; but this is contradicted by the chronology.

⁴⁸ The cit'j of Nineveh itself had existed from unknown antiquity, origiually under its own kings. It is often mentioned before this time, especially in Egyptian records.

⁴⁹ M. Lenormant ascribes to him the broken obelisk (mentioned above, §9) which records the restoration of the capital Asshur.

⁵⁰ " The sea of the rising sun :" which some take for the Caspian.

⁰¹ The statues are in the British Mnsenm. Six other statues were fouud with them : four were colossal, and two resembled those in the Museum.

29G

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

middle of both figures records that they were dedicated to Nebo by an officer, who was governor of Calah (and other places), as a votive offering for the life of hi* lord, Ivadush, and of /a's lady, Sammu-randt. Here then, at length, we have an historical Semiramis, at a time, and of a character, totally different from the legend, but under

circumstances of great interest. As it was never the custom of the East thus to associate a queen consort with the king⁵² —in fact Sammuramit is the only princess mentioned in the Assyrian annals—we may safely infer that this queen had a royal dignity in her own right; and what that was may be inferred from the legendary connection of Semiramis with Babylon. She may very probably have been the daughter and heiress of that king of Babylon who was conquered by Shamas-iva, or, at all events, a princess married to Iva-lush to legitimate his acts of sovereignty in Babylo-with Eastern custom that, in their own country wife, he should build their temples, in her

Nebo (from a statue in the British Museum).

nia. It is quite in accordance while worshipping the native gods in right of

⁶³ Iudeedit is almost a misnomer to use the honorable name of queen consort in this connection. It is one great vice of the- Oriental despotisms that the queeu for the time bonis means only the most favored lady of the harem.

IVA-LUSH AND SAMMURAMIT.

297

honor, in his own capital.⁵³ Herodotus, whose omission of the mythical legend of Semiramis adds an historical value to his account of her connection with Babylon (at least as to the main fact),⁵⁴ places her a century and a, half before Nitocris, the wife of Xabopolassar—not a bad approximation to the probable date of the real queen. In short— as M. Lenormant puts the case with French felicity—lea-lush and Sammuramit were " the Ferdinand and Isabella of Mesopotamia." Hence the peculiar significance of the style adopted by Iva-lush, as " the king to whose son (not to himself), Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon." The result of the union, however, seems to have been very different from the modern parallel; and it is not improbable that the son, thus established on the throne of Babylon, founded there a rival branch of the royal family, which was ready to claim, if it did not actually overturn, the kingdom of Assyria itself.

That the latter catastrophe, involving the utter destruction of Xineveh, actually happened, within about 40 years, by the conspiracy of Arbaces, the satrap of Media, and Belesys, a Chaldaean priest of Babylon—as related by Ctesias—is a story beset by improbabilities, contradictions, and anticipations of facts and names ; but it seems that some revolution did occur about that time, which gave to Babylon a momentary supremacy.

§ 16. The entire absence (so far as we yet know)⁵⁵ of new buildings, or any other monuments, of itself marks this period of about forty years as one of decline, and probably of internal disturbance. Still the Assyrian Canon fills up this interval with the names of three kings, the first of whom, Shal-

⁸³ This argument must riot be pressed too far, as Nebo was a god of both countries ; but, of the two, how much more he was honored in Babylonia is at once seen by a mere comparison of the Assyrian and Babylonian royal names.

⁵⁴ The Babylonian annals, from which the Chaldaean priests gave information to Herodotus, would naturally record the name of Sammuramit alone.

⁶⁵ What records of this period may be hidden in the mound of Xebbi-Yimus—from a brick of which we have just seen a sign of the period when the Assyrian monarchs began to reside at Nineveh—is a question whose solution is postponed by the fanatical opposition of the Arabs to any meddling with the mound which local tradition sanctified by the name of the prophet at whose preachiug Nineveh repented. The question of Jonah's own age is too difficult to be discnssed here; bnt it wonld add mnch to the interest of this period of the history if the opinion of Mr. Drake could be established — that the prophet preached at Nineveh under Iva-lush IV. (formerly called Adram-melech II.)—the very time when the empire was at the height of its glory, and on the eve of its decline. (See "Notes on the Prophecies of Ilosea and Jonah," by the Rev.W.Drake, Cambridge, 1S53.) The period of "forty days" allotted by the prophet (Jonah iii. 4) has a striking correspondence with the forty years of weakness indicated by the history ; and the grace granted on the repentance of the kins: and people might well consist in the mitigation of the crisis prepared by the faults of the rulers, and in the period of greater prosperity enjoyed under the new dynasty.

13*

208

THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

maneser III., is now found to have been an active warrior.⁶' Every one of his ten years (b.c 781—771) had its military expedition, mainly in Eastern Armenia; and two were against the Syrians of Damascus. In his successor, Asshnr-danin-il II, we trace the decline of the military spirit, for he remains quietly at home 9 years of his 18 (b.c 771-753); while the last king of this series, Asshur-Iush, gives only 2 years out of 7 or 8 (b.c 753-746) to a war in the mountains of Zagrus, which, as his only one, was most probably defensive. This is the king whom some make the Sardanapalus of Ctesias.

§ 17. The Assyrian empire was, as we have already shown, from its very constitution, ever liable to a sudden collapse. Its conquests were mere raids, attended by slaughter, plunder, and the imposition of tribute; and followed by no attempt to unite the conquered provinces with the central power, or to gain the good-will of the subject populations. The empire had no internal cohesion; and each successive king had to master it anew by his own exploits. The first attempt to lead a quiet life at home would give the signal for a general revolt; and, from all that we can gather of the condition of Babylon, that kingdom stood up beside Assyria, ready to seize the abandoned empire, or at least to resume its independence.

In the absence of distinct information from the monuments, it is only a probable conjecture that some such revolution is marked by the Babylonian Era of Naeoxassar, b.c 747, which coincides (within a year or two) with the end of the reign of the last-named Assyrian king, according to Ptolemy and the Assyrian Canon, and with the close of the Sixth Dynasty of Berosus. But as this era also corresponds nearly with the accession of an Assyrian king, who began a new course of foreign conquest, we may suppose it to mark, not the beginning of a revolt, but the recognition of the independence which Babylonia had gained under the weak kings who closed the old Assyrian dynasty.⁵⁷

§ 18. And here we have a probable solution of the greatest, indeed almost the only serious, difficulty in harmonizing the Assyrian annals with the chronicles of the Hebrew monarchy, "in the reign of Menahern, King of Israel, we read that*" Pul,*⁸ the King of Assyria, came up against the land ;

^£6 From Sir h. Rawlinson's newly discovered tablet. (Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. Appendix b.)

⁵⁷ The exact epoch of the era of Nabonassar corresponds to the 15th of February, u.o. T47, of our calendar. M. Oppert and others deny that the epoch has any political significance ; and this question must be regarded as still "sub jndice."

^5y The lxx. render the name Phaloeh (*a\a'»x), which is identical with the Phahtkha read by some on the statues of Nebo. Various readings of the lxx. are <ta\J><;, *ov\a, and <tW. Pul is certainly an abbreviation, for no Assyrian name consists of a single element.

QUESTION CONCERNING THE PUL OF SCRIP TURE. 29!)

and Menahem gave Pul 1000 talents of silver," etc. ; and, content with this tribute, " the King of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land."⁶¹' Presently afterwards, in the reign of the usurper, Pekah, who had murdered Peka-hiah, the son of Menahera, we are told of the expedition in which (as we shall presently see in the proper place) Tiglath-pileser II. carried the Israelites on the east of Jordan into captivity.

This latter expedition is duly recorded in the annals of Tiglath-pileser; but, before it, he mentions the reduction of Samaria, and the receipt of tribute from Menahem. Now, as the Assyrian annals give a series of kings' names, none of which at all resemble Pul, after Iva-lush IV. (or Phalukha), who is excluded on chronological grounds,⁶⁰ the first and simplest alternative is to identify Pul and Tiglath-pileser, and for this there are some arguments worth notice.⁶¹ But it is quite evident that the Jewish chroniclers meant two different kings by Pul and Tiglath-pileser;⁶² and, if they were one, it is quite incredible that the writer, Avho gives the full name of Tiglath-pileser so accurately, should just before corrupt it into Pul.⁶³ There remains the ingenious hypothesis of Professor Rawlinson, that Pul was a king of the branch of the royal family reigning in Babylonia, and not improbably over Assyria also as suzerain. He might be a predecessor of Nabonassar ; and if, as a descendant of Iva-lush and Semiramis, he bore the same name as the former, the identification which chronology forbids in the case of the ancestor may be applied to the descendant. Perhaps we may even trace the name of this Babylonian king in the legendary Be-lesys of Ctesias. After all, we can only hope that future discoveries will give a satisfactory explanation.

" 2 Kiugs xv. 19, 20.

⁶⁰ For Menahem reigned only 10 years, and the interval between Iva-lush and Tiglath-pileser II. is 35 years (u.o. "81-746). The apparently decisive argument from the names of the intervening kings is, however, qualified by the confessed doubt about their phonetic reading; aud we have lost their annals, except the brief chronological notices of the newly-discovered Canon. Sril!, that Canon would surely have found room for so important an expedition, which must have fallen either in the leign of the unwarlike Asshur-lnsh, or at the close of that of his predecessor, just when a less important expedition against the Syrians of Hadraeh is dnly chronicled.

⁶¹ See the statement of them by Rawlinson ("Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 388, note), who, however, rejects the identification. The middle element of Tiglathi-jp«Z. zira might j>os8ibly give the name Pal.

⁶² See especially 1 Chron. v. 2G. ⁶¹ Comp. 2 Kings xv. 29, with ver. 19, 20.

Excavations at Koyunjik.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, PART I. TIGLATH-PILESER II., SHALMANESER, AND SARGON.-B.C. 745-704.

5 1. Duration of the empire. Its seven known kings. Chronological epochs compared. § 2. TiGLATn-pn.ESEu ii. His obscure origin. His palaces at Ximru I.. Subjects ou his bas-reliefs. Mention of Menahem. §3. Annals of Tiglath-pileser. Conquest of Babylonia. § 4. His wars in Syria and Palestine. § 5. Great Syrian War. Destruction of the kingdom of Damascus. Captivity of the Israelites east of Jordan. Conquests in Phoenicia, etc. Ahaz, King of Judah, made tributary. § G. Siiai.ma>'f.ser IV. Conquest of Samaria (completed by Sargon), and final captivity of Israel. Maritime campaign against Sidon. § 7. Saegon or Sarkin, a military adventurer. His annals. War in Chaldrea and Elam. Conqnest of Samaria completed. Wars in Syria and Philistia. Defeat of the Egyptians at Raphia. § 8. Invasion of Arabia. Capture of Ashdod. Submission of the King of Ethiopia. •§ 9. Great war with Merodach-Baladan and the Elamites, and conquest of Babylonia. Transplantations of conquered peoples. § 10. Embassies from an island in the Persian Gulf, and from Cyprus. § 11. His town and palace at Hisr-Sargon (Khorsabad); and buildings at Calah unci Nineveh.

§ 1. The Xew or Lower Assyrian Empire was governed in its duration of 120 or 139 years (b.c. 745-625 or 600) by a

TIGLATH-PILESER II.

301

succession of seven known kings,¹ among whom we recognize the well-known Scriptural names of Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon: while in the sixth, Asshur-bani-pal, we at length find the name of the mythic Sardanapalus, though the final catastrophe of Nineveh befell under his son, Asshur-emid-ilin, the Assaracus of the Greeks, or perhaps under one more successor. Except the last one or two, respecting whom there is much uncertainty, we are now at length free from serious doubts about their names, their order of succession, their chronology, and the principal events of their reigns; while, as to some of them (the celebrated Sennacherib, for instance), our chief embarrassment arises from the abundance of their records.

We have also reached a sure chronological epoch ; for the modern authorities, who have differed up to this point, are all agreed in placing the new foundation of the empire by Tiglath-pileser II. within a year or two of b.c 747, the Era. of Nabonassar. It is worth while to observe that this epoch is just 6 years later than that commonly accepted for the foundation of Rome (b.c 753), and one generation after the chronology of Greece becomes fixed by the first recorded Olympic victory (b.c 776) ; and that it agrees almost exactly with the time when Pheidon of Argos is said to have first coined money in Greece (b.c 748).

§ 2. Tiglath-pileser II. either first became the king, or, at all events, the independent king of Assyria, in b.c 745,² and reigned 18 or 19 years, to b.c 72 /. Without attaching any weight to the story repeated by some later Greek writers, that he was originally a vine-dresser in the royal gardens," we may infer that he was an adventurer of obscure origin from his never mentioning his father's name in his inscriptions, which speak in general terms of " the kings his fathers " and the "palaces of his fathers" at Calah, which continued to be the capital. There, besides repairing the central edifice of Shalmaneser II., he built a new palace at the southeastern angle of the Nimrud platform.

Both were barbarously torn to pieces by Esar-haddon, when, wishing to emulate former kings as a builder, he obtained the materials for decorating his own palace by strip-

¹ M. Oppert adds an eighth or even a ninth : see end of this chapter.

² This date is fixed by the Assyrian Canon and the Canon of Ptolemy, in whicl* ^!A is consecutive with the reign of Asshnr-lush. BntM. Oppert—who, as we have seen, puts all the Old Assyrian kings higher up—infers, from an elaborate comparison of

he Scripture chronology with the Assyrian monuments, that Tiglath-pileser came to the throne in u.o. 76!), and achieved h\s independence of Babylon in u.o. 747.

³ That is, if he is the kirn; mcint. by Lclitaras, a name apnarently formed from the latter part of his name, Pal-Tsiru. E^t we have seen that M. Oppert places Belitara? much earlier.

302

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

ping those of his predecessors of their bas-reliefs. The southeast palace was almost completely destroyed, whether in war or revolution,and the last king ₀f Nineveh built a new palace over its remains.⁴ Amidst the ruins of the central edifice Mr. Layard found many of the alabaster slabs with which its walls had been lined" removed and heaped on the pavement. They were placed as the spoiler had left them above 2500 years before, " in rows one against the other, like the leaves of a gigantic book. Every slab was sculptured ; and as they followed each other according to the subjects upon them,"it was evident that they had been moved, in the order in which they stood, from their original positions, and had been left as they were found, preparatory to their removal elsewhere. That they had not been thus collected prior to their arrangement against the walls was evident from the fact that the Assyrian sculptors carved the bas-reliefs, though not the great bulls and lions, after the slabs had been placed. The backs of the slabs had also been cut away, in order to reduce their dimensions, and to make the work of transport more easy. The bas-reliefs resembled, in many respects, some o'f those discovered in the S. YV. Palace, in which the sculptured faces of the slabs were turned towards the walls of unbaked brick. It would appear, therefore, that the one building had been destroyed, to supply materials for the construction of the other." This conclusion is placed beyond doubt by the occurrence, among the sculptures in the Southwest Nimrud palace of Esar-haddon, of some which their subjects and inscriptions identify as belonging to Tiglath-pileser II.

Amono- these is the important monument referred to above, in which the king is represented in his war-chariot, with an inscription recording the receipt of tribute from sev eral princes, among whom is the name of Menahem, king of Samaria. Some of the unremoved sculptures contain remarkable pictures of sieges. One represents a testudo on wheels, protecting a pair "of boring spears, mi an artificial mound raised against a tower of a city, which is also (Hke those of the Assyrians) built on an embankment: the king, whose height is equal to that of mound and tower together, bends his bow against the city, under cover of a huge wicker shield held before him by an attendant; while, besides a corpse lying at the foot of the mound, another falling, and a person apparently in an imploring attitude on the turret top, the effect is heightened by three prisoners impeded. Such

⁴ Enough has been left, however, to enable Mr. Loftus to make out its ground-plan, which may be seen in the Assyrian basement room at the British Museum.

ANNALS OF TIGLATH-PILESER.

305

scenes, which the Assyrian despots loved to have before their eves in their palaces, have come down to us to illustrate many passages in which the prophets speak of enemies "building forts" (these are often seen in the sculptures), "casting mounds" and "setting battering-rams" against Jerusalem ; and the relief now described exactly illustrates the passage in Isaiah: " Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot ^rj)i arrow there, nor come before it icith shields, nor cast a bank against it."'⁰

§ 3. Through the destruction of his palaces, the records of Tiglath-pileser have come down to us in a very fragmentary form ; but enough remains to show that he was engaged in constant wars for the re-establishment of the empire. His first enterprise was against Babylonia, which had now fallen into confusion. There is no mention, in his annals, of Nabonassar, whom Ptolemy's Canon represents as now reigning at Babylon ; but he names several princes of the upper country, whom he attacked and defeated, taking Xur-Gala-zu and Sippara; while, in the maritime region of Chaldaea, he received the submission of Merodach-Baladan, the son of Yakin, whose capital was the city of Bit-Yakin.⁶

§ 4. Thus secured against the rival kingdom, Tiglath-pileser was able to turn his attention to that great object of policy with the later Assyrian kings, the reduction of Syria and Palestine : countries which were already regarded as tributary.⁷ The newly discovered canon shows that he was engaged for three years (b.c 742-740) in the conquest of Ar-pad,^b near Damascus, and his own annals relate a series of campaigns—apparently from his fourth year to his eighth (b.c 742-736)—in which he reduced Damascus, Samaria, and Tyre (whose kings are mentioned by the familiar names of Kezin, Menahem, and Hiram), and the Arabs on the frontier of Egypt, who were governed by a queen named Khahiba." But these conquests did not reach Judaea, Philistia, or Idu-

⁵ Isaiah xxxvii. 33 ; comp. 2 Kings xix. 32 ; Jeveni. xxxii. 24 ; xxxiii. 4; Ezek. xvii. 17; see the wood-cnt in Layard's "Nineveh," p. 270, smaller ed.

⁶ Probably the father of the celebrated Merodach-Baladan. (See below, § 9.)

⁷ We have seen that this was the position of the kingdoms of Damascus and Samaria. With regard to that of Judah, though the treaty of Ahaz with Tiglath-pileser is the first connection recorded in the annals of both countries, Professor Rawlinson has conjectured that the suzerainty of Assyria had been admitted as early as the reign of Amaziah, because "the kingdom was confirmed in his hand" (2 Kings xiv. 5), the very expression used of Menahem's confirmation by Pul (2 Kings xv. 19). But historical facts can not safely be inferred from snch mere verbal coincidences. ⁸ This mention of Arpad illustrates Isaiah x. 9.

⁹ "The Arabs of the tract bordering on Egypt seem to have been regularly governed hy queens. Thiee such are mentioned in the inscriptions." (Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. :>£G, note )

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRR

niaea. His second attack on the kingdom of Israel may have been provoked by the usurpation of Pekah, and his murder of Menahem's son, Pekahiah, the vassal of Assyria; and it was on this occasion that Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Xaphthali, and carried them captive to Assyria.¹⁰ This captivity included that part of the Israelites east of Jordan who dwelt in tlm land of Gilead, and a portion of the tribes ot Zebulon and Naphthali in the northern part of Galilee, a population so affected by the neighborhood of Phoenicia as to have acquired already the name of "Galilee of the Gentiles."¹¹ But, to use the words of Isaiah, in the same passage, these tribes were but " lightly afflicted," in compari- " son with "a more grievous affliction" which was to befall them, in connection with the utter destruction and dreadful carnage, which he describes in some of the grandest passages of hisTprophecies, as about to fall upon the kingdom of Damascus ; while the devastating triumph of Assyria would spread from Cade-Syria to Arabia and Egypt.¹²

§ 5. The cause of this catastrophe was an alliance between Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, to dethrone Ahaz, the "new king of Judah, and to set up in his place a creature of their own, who is called "the son ofTabeal;"¹³ with the manifest object of organizing a powerful resistance to the progress of Assyria. The exact order of events is obscure ; but it seems that the confederates invaded Judah from different quarters, and, while Uezin defeated the Jews and carried awav a great multitude of captives to Damascus, Pekah gained a still more decisive victory, in which "he

1° 2 Kings xv. 25-29. This event, so important in the history of Israel, is only slightly mentioned in the annals of Tiglath-pileser; audit is not clear to which year of his rei^n it should be referred. Perhaps it formed the last of the four campaigns named above. At all events, the annals of Tiglath-pileser seem .to mention two separate expeditions against Pekah; and two separate captivities-the former less extensive and severe than the latter-appear to be indicated, not only in Isaiah ix. 1 (see the following note), but by the comparison of 2 Kings xv. 29, with 1 Chron. v. 26. The former passage mentions only a few places in the extreme north of Galilee, and Gilead alone of tlie Transjordauic countries; while the latter specifies the whole Transjordanic region, and says nothing of Galilee. The regions to which the captives are carried in the two cases would be different only if Assyria is to be takeu in its narrower sense; nor can any argument be drawn from the order of 2 Kiugs xv. 29 before 2 Kings xvi., as the former is a mere summary of the reign of Pekah, down to his death (ver. 30). ... _e

n Isaiah is. 1. This passage is best explained by the well-known rnterchange ot the Hebrew preterite and future. On this first occasion "he lightly afiicted the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphthali;" bnt " afterward? he would more grievously afflict" (them or Israel at large), either iu the final captivity, or rather in connection with the destruction of Svria. For the whole prophecy seems to imply, what the nature of the case suggests, that Israel was again severely chastised for Pekah's confederacy with Rezin. "1,1^ ^v,,-~*"; 1³ Isaiah vii.f>: for the whole narrative see 2 Kings xvi 1-9; 2 Chrm. xxvni. 1-.;

DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF DAMASCUS. 305

slew in Judah 120,000 men in one day, which were all valiant men," among them the king's son and other princes ; and " the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren 200,000 women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, aud brought the spoil to Samaria."¹⁴ Jerusalem was besieged ; but Ahaz wtfs moved by the encouragement of Isaiah to a vigorous resistance,¹⁵ and the siege was doubtless raised the sooner from the eagerness of both kings to carry off their prisoners and spoil.

But this was only a respite. The operations of Rezin on the south-eastern frontier deprived Judah of* Elath (zElana), her great port on the Red Sea, and raised the Edomites against her, while the Philistines invaded her on the west and south. In this extremity Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser, with the most unreserved admission of his vassalage —" I am thy servant and thy son "—supported by a tribute from the treasures of the temple.¹⁶ The Assyrian king first attacked Rezin,¹⁷ who was defeated and slain—either in battle, or by one of those barbarous executions which we see in the Assyrian monuments inflicted on rebellious kings.

At all events, the scenes on those monuments and the boasts in their inscriptions furnish an ample comment on the prophetic warning of the horrors which this conquest was to bring on Israel, as well as Syria: "For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." "Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkened, and the eople shall be as the fuel of the fire; no man shall spare his rother; .... they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Thou, O Assyrian, art the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation."

Other neighboring nations are alluded toby Isaiah as feeling the scourge of this great conquest; and the prophet Amos speaks particularly, not only of the people of northern Israel and Damascus, but also of the Philistines of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron ; the Phoenicians of Tyre ; the Edomites, the Ammonites of Rabbah, and the Moabites of Kirioth.¹⁸ From the annals of Tiglath-pileser we find that

¹⁴ 2 ChroD.xxviii.5-S. The release of these captives, at the command of the prophet Obed, is a redeeming incident of this war, too touching to be passed over.

¹⁵ 2 Kings xvi. 5.

¹⁶ This language, viewed in connection with the attack of the confederates and the exemption of Judah in previous Assyrian invasions, goes far to prove a former admission of vassalage to Assyria. Bnt the want of any previous mention of tribute from Jndah on the Assyrian monuments tells the other way.

¹¹ 2 Kings xvi. 9. A mutilated inscription in the British Museum is said to COI* tain an imperfect notice of his defeat aud death. ¹⁸ Amos ii.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

he chastised the Arabs of the peninsula of Sinai, and received the submission of Mi'fenna,¹⁹ king of Tyre, of Khanun, king of Gaza, of Mitinti, king of Ascalon, and of the people of Aradus, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Idumreans. The king of Judah, at whose entreaty the war had been made, was summoned to Damascus to pay his homage to the conqueror,²⁰ whose exactions appear to have reduced Judah to great misery. "Ahaz made Judah naked," says the chronicler, and "Tiglath-pilneser"—for so he writes the king's name — "distressed him, but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the Lord's house, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but he helped him not:"²¹ which may mean that he left him unprotected against the wild tribes around him. In the annals of the Assyrian king we find a record of his receipt of tribute from a king of Judah, whom he calls Yahu-khazi, which seems to stand for Jehoahaz.'²'² We also learn from his annals that on his return to Damascus Tiglath-pileser had another encounter with a son of Rezin, whose capital he took and destroyed.

It was in these campaigns against Syria and Israel that Tiglath-pileser set the example of that far-sighted bnt cruel policy, which attempted to eradicate the feeling of local patriotism by transporting conquered peoples in mass to distant parts of his empire—a policy steadily pursued afterwards by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings. The Syrians of Damascus were removed to Kir, the very place whence the prophet Amos traces their original migration; but its position is very uncertain.²³ The whole Israelite population east of the Jordan, comprising the tribes of Reuben, Gad, aud half Manasseh, were removed to Halah, and Habor, and Hara (i. e., Harran), and to the river Gozan ; names which have been clearly proved to denote the land of Mesopotamia Proper, upon and west of the Khabour—the very country from which Abraham started, at all events on the final stage of his mi-

¹⁹ Professor Rawlinson points out the resemblance of this name to the Matgcnus, who is mentioned by Menander \Fr. 1) as the father of Dido and Pygmalion.

²⁰ 2 Kings xix. 10. ' ²¹ 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21.

²² The kings of this name in Scripture are much too remote from this period to be meant; and there can be no doubt but that the name stands for Ahaz. Oue plausible conjecture is that Jehoahaz was his real name, but the official chroniclers of Judah expressed their abhorrence for his memory by striking off the sacred prefix, just as he had been refused burial in the royal sepulchre (2 Chron. xxviii. 27).

²³ 2 Kings xvi. 9 ; Amos i. 5; ix. 7. Kir is joined with Elam in Isaiah xxn. G; and this conjunction is used in support of the theory which derives the Semitic population of Syria, as well as of Palestine and Phoenicia, from the great plain at the head of the Persian Gulf. The more prevalent opinion makes Kir the valley of the Kur or Cyrus; but we have no proof that the Assyrian empire extended to the north of the mountain.- of Armenia. (See the " Diet, of Ihe Bible," art. Kir.)

SHALMANESER IV. 'S CONQUEST OF SAMARIA.

gration to Palestine. Was it altogether without design that both populations were deported to their ancestral homes ? In Galilee the territory occupied by Tiglath-pileser seems to have reached as far south as the plain of Esdraelon, where Megiddo (JIagidu) is named as a frontier fortress, in connection with Manasseh (Jfemcitsuah) and the city of Dur or Dora (Dura), upon the sea-coast.

These campaigns appear to be placed by the newly discovered Assyrian Canon in the years b.c "734, 733, and 732 ; and on the same authority, the last year of Tiglath-pileser II. is b.c. 728-7.

§ 6. Tiglath-pileser II. was succeeded by a king whose name, omitted from the Assyrian Canon, and not found on any monuments, is supplied both by the Book of Kings and by the historian Alenander.²⁴ This was Shalmaneser IV., who is familiar to us in Scripture as the destroyer of the kingdom of Samaria, though it seems that he did not live to complete the conquest. He reigned seven years (b.c 727— 721). In connection with the fall of the kingdom of Israel, his reign is memorable for the first collision between the Assyrian and Egyptian empires.

An attentive reader of the Scripture narrative will observe three stages in his transactions with Hoshea, the last king of Israel, who had obtained the throne, by murdering the usurper Pekah. From the character given of him by the sacred writer, aud from other indications,²⁵ it is probable that Hoshea ha'd, at least, a patriotic sympathy with that movement for reform in Israel which breathes in the earnest exhortations of the prophet his namesake, and which was fostered by Hezekiah, who succeeded to the throne of Judah in Ho-shea's third }^ear (b.c 726). It was probably about this time that Hoshea seized the occasion of a new reign in Assyria to refuse the payment of tribute; but he submitted on Shal-maneser's marching against him,²⁰ not, however, till at least one of his cities had been treated after the true Assyrian fashion—" as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother teas dashed in pieces upon Iter children.™¹ This was the first campaign.

It was not long before Hoshea ventured again to refuse the tribute, in reliance on the support promised by the v/ar-

²⁴ His monuments may probably have been destroyed by the usurper Sargon, who succeeded him. Some see in the omission of his name from the royal lists a sign that he himseif was a usurper; but this is mere conjecture.

²⁵ 2 Kings xvii. 2: see the " Student's Old Testament History," ch. xxiv. §? 0,10. ^2rt "* Kings xvi. 3.

²⁷ lL>sea x. 14. Here is a precedent for the retribntion invoked in Psalm exxxvii. 0 : for the spirit of Assyrian and Babylonian warfare was the same.

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like Sabaco, king of Egypt.²⁸ But, before his ally could march to his support, he was seized by Shalmaneser—perhaps on a summons to the court to plead his excuse—and thrown into prison; "cut off"—says the prophet—"as the foam upon the water."²⁹ This second blow was followed up by an invasion, in which "the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land " and laid siege to Samaria, in the fourth year of Hezekiah and the seventh of Hoshea (b.c 723). The city was besieged for three years, till the 6th of Hezekiah and the 9th of irioshea,'⁰ when it was taken (Josephus says, by storm³¹), and the whole remaining people of Israel were carried captive, partly to join their brethren of the former captivity "in Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan," and partly in the far remoter "cities of the Medes."³² (The mention of "the king of Assyria"—no longer by the name of Shalmaneser—in the latter part of this narrative, is in remarkable agreement with the fact that Shalmaneser died before Samaria was taken.)

It may have been during the progress of the siege that he undertook a maritime campaign against Tyre with sixty ships manned by 800 rowers from the Phoenician cities of Sidon, Old Tyre, and Acco.³³ The Tyrians, under their king Elulsens, with only twelve ships, gained a sea-fight and took 500 prisoners. The Assyrians then blockaded the city and cut off its aqueducts ; bnt the Tyrians dug pits and held out for five years. Here the fragment breaks off; but the failure of the blockade may be probably inferred from the* absence of the "gods of Tyre "in Kabshakeh's list of Assyrian conquests.³⁴

§ 7. Shalmaneser died during the last year of the siege of •Samaria, leaving only an infant son, Ninip-iluya (i. e., Ninip is my god). The king's long absence may have prepared the way for a dynastic revolution,³⁵ especially if he himself had been originally an adventurer. The throne was seized by the Tartan, or general-in-chief, a man of obscure birth, who assumed a royal name significant of his elevation, Sargon, or, more properly, Sarkin or Sar-yukin (the king [is] sstpblis/red).³⁶ The one solitary mention of his name in

²⁸ 1 Kiugs xvii. 4. See chap. vii. § 14. ²⁹ Hosea x. 7.

³⁰ 2 Kings xvii. 5; xviii. 9,10.

³¹ Joseph. " Ant." ix. 3; compare the highly poetical description in Isaiah xxviii 1-4. ³² 2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11.

³³ Menander, ap. Joseph. "Ant." ix. 13. It is probable, however, that Josephus-here as elsewhere—has confounded Shalmaneser with Sargon, and that this Tyrian War belongs to the latter king. ³⁴ 2 Kings xviii. 33,34.

³⁵ See the remarks of Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 406, 407.

³⁶ M. Oppert, who prefers the form Sarkin, makes his original name Iielpatisaxnour. Uis obscure (that is, at all events, not royal) descent is inferred, as in the case of

CAMPAIGNS OF SARGON.

309

Scripture, and that but incidentally in a prophecy,³⁷ and the confusion in our present text between him and his son Sennacherib, had brought his very existence into doubt, till the discovery of his annals in his magnificent palace at Khorsabad revealed him as one of the most splendid kings and most successful warriors of Assyria.³⁸ He came to the throne, as he tells us, in the same year in which Merodach-Baladan became king of Babylon/that is according to the Canon of Ptolemy, in March, b.c. 721; and this date is eon-firmed by the capture of Samaria. His reign lasted seventeen years, till August, b.c. 704, of which his annals embrace fifteen. They open with the following statements :

" This is what I have done from the beginning of my reio-n to my fifteenth campaign. I defeated, in the plains of Chal-dsea (Ktdou) Khumbanigas, king of Elam." It will be remembered that Lower Chaldcea had been made tributary to Tiglath-pileser II., while native princes ruled in Upper Babylonia. He goes on: "I besieged, took, and occupied the city of Samaria, and carried away 27,280 persons who dwelt in it. I changed the former establishments of the country and set over them my lieutenants." This was in the first year of his reign. The small number of captives, so precisely stated, proves the straits to which the city had been reduced. The people of the country had probably been carried into captivity by Shalmaneser, when " he came up throughout all the land."³⁹ The new constitution of the country isdnphat-ically mentioned, as it was contrary to the usual Assyrian policy of setting up dependent kings. It was required by the occupation of Samaria by deported settlers from Upper Babylonia and Hamath, for it is an error to suppose that the country was left desolate till Esar-haddon colonized it from Lower Babylonia.⁴⁰

Sargon's next campaign was against Yahu-bid, an usurp ing king of Hamath, above Ccele-Syria, at the head of a rebellion of several Syrian towns; among which it is strange

Tiglath-pileser II., from his merely general mention of former kings, of Babylonia as well as Assyria, as his ancestors." From this, and his name, he may probably have been a Babylonian ; an idea supported by his repairs of the temples of the Babylonian tetrapolis. It appears from the Canon of E2)onymous Officers that Sargon reigned during his first three years in the name of the infant eon of Shalmaneser, and only assumed sole authority in u.c. T1S. But if, as there seems little doubt, his annals date from his actual accession in b.o. T21, as his first year, the fall of Samaria would be brought clown to the same date.

³⁷ Isaiah xx. 1.

³⁸ The records of Sargon aud his successors are edited and translated in VT. Op-pert's "Inscriptions des Sargonides." An equally important work is his receut "Memoire snr les Rapports de l'Egypte et de l'Assyrie dans l'Antiquite," 1S69. Sargon's annals exist in two forms—on a cylinder, and in an inscription on the wall of the great hall of Khorsabad.

^{39 1} Kings xvii. 5. 40 y_ee below, § 9.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

to find Damascus and Samaria reappear so soon. Kar-kar, their stronghold, was stormed and burned ; the insurgent was taken and flayed; the other rebel chiefs were killed, and their towns destroyed. Sargon, bent on punishing Sabaco for the aid given to Hoshea, marched against Gaza, which belonged to Egypt. We have already had occasion to mention his great victory at Raphia over " Hanun, king of Gaza, and Sabaco (SalSe), sultan*¹ of Egypt;" of whom the former was carried prisoner to Assyria, while the latter fled. " They came into my presence: I routed them "—are the words of the king, (b.c 718-17.)

§ 8. The next four years were occupied with wars to the north and east of Assyria. To this period chiefly, but partly to his later years, belong his conquests to the north and east, over the Armenians, the Albanians, the Syrians of Com-magene, the people of the Taurus and Cilicia, the Afedes,⁴² Parthians, and the mountaineers of Zagrus, and his defeat of Stttuk-Xakhunta, the king of Elam, who had his capital at Susa.⁴³ Sargon records that he " subdued the uncultivated plains of the remote Arabia which had never before given tribute to Assyria." On this occasion he transported some Arabs to Samaria, where Nehemiah mentions an Arabian element in the population.⁴⁴ He adds: "I imposed tribute on Pharaoh (Ptrhi) of Egypt, on Tsamsi, queen of Arabia, on Ithamar the Sabtean, in gold, spices, horses, and camels." (b.c 714-713.)

Three years later, a rebellion of Ashdod led—after some putting down and setting up of kings, which it is needless to recount—to the capture of that city,⁴⁵ which gave Sargon the command of the maritime route into Egypt; and he peopled this important post with captives taken in his eastern wars : " I set over them my lieutenant to govern them,

41 There is some dispute about this title, which Sir H. Rawlinson reads Tar-danu (explaining it as a title of honor, high in rank), while M. Oppert makes it Sil-tan, and considers it equivalent to the Hebrew Shilton aud the Arabic Sultan. Either term denotes a rank below that of king. That Sargon did not regard Shebek as king of Egyvt is clear from the great inscription of Khorsabad, where mention is made in the very next paragraph of a " Pharaoh of Esypt" who paid tribute to Assyria (comp. ch. vii.). Raphia (still called Refah) lay between Gaza and Rhinocnrnra, the frontier town of Egypt, about a day's march from each.

⁴² The completion of the conquest of Media explains the settlement of the captive Israelites " in the cities of the Medes."

⁴³ The inscriptions of this king have been found at Susa.

⁴⁴ Nehern. iv. 7; comp. ii. 10.

⁴⁵ It is on this occasion that we have the only mention of Sargon in the Scripture (Is. xx. 1). The mission of the " Tartan" (i. c, chief genera]) must have preceded that of the king, probably to install the vassal, whose rejection afterwards provoked Sargon to march against the city. Probably the "three years," during which Isaiah gave a sign to the Esyptiauizing party at Jerusalem, mark the whole duration of the war of Ashdod (b.o! 712-710, inclusive). In n.c. 712 Sargon himself was reducing Milid (probably Meliteue).

CONQUEST OE BABYLONIA.

311

and I treated them eis Assyrians"—a phrase which always implies the complete subjugation of a country, as opposed to mere vassalage. This stroke of policy explains the easenvith which succeeding Assyrian kings enter Egypt, and the obstinate resistance of Ashdod to Psammetichus.⁴⁶ There is no mention in the annals of Sargon of that invasion of Egvpt, which some writers suppose him to have made. It would rather seem that he was.content with the tribute and submission brought to him in order to avert invasion. He represents the kings as resorting to him in consequence of " the immense terror which my majesty inspired."⁴⁷ This campaign of Ashdod, in Sargon's eleventh year (b.c. 711-710), was Sargon's last expedition to the west.⁴⁸

§ 9. The remainder of this reign was fully occupied with affairs nearer home. The chief of these was the conquest of Babylonia, where Merodach-Baladan had been on the throne twelve years.⁴⁹ This " king of Chakbea," says Sargon, " called to his aid Khumbanigas, king of Elam, and raised against me all the nomad tribes"—the Aramaeans of Irak-Araby, whom we have seen repeatedly in arms against the kings of Assyria. The extent to which Merodach-Baladan intrigued among the vassals of Assyria is proved by his embassy to congratulate Hezekiah on his miraculous recovery from his mortal illness. But the promptness of Sargon left the king of Judah no opportunity to declare openly for his ally ; and his ostentatious display of his resources to the ambassadors of Babylon called forth the prophecy of Isaiah, that this—and not Assyria—was the power to which Judnli was destined to succumb, though not in his days.⁵⁰

Sargon inarched against Babylon with all his forces ; and Merodach-Baladan, retreating into Chaldaa, took up a well fortified post in front of Bit- J "akin, or Bar-Yakin,⁰¹ on the

⁴⁶ See chap. viii. § G.

⁴⁷ Respecting the submission of the king of Ethiopia, Avhich Sargon here claims, see chap. vii. § 16.

⁴⁸ If the date assigned to the events noticed in 1 Kings xviii. 13 and Isaiah xxxvi. 1, were correct, we must infer an attack on Judah al the same time that the Tartan was sent to Ashdod, and we must then (as some have rashly proposed) read Sargon for Sennacherib; for the "14th year of Hezekiah" is b.c. 713-712, nine years before the accession of Senuacherib. But we shall presently see how perfectly the whole narrative hangs together with Sennacherib's account of his Syrian expedition (see the following chapter).

⁴⁹ It is the mention of this, in Sargon's 12th year, that gives us the synchronism of the two kings.

⁵⁰ 2 Kings xx.; Isaiah xxxix.; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. In the last passage the embassv is said to have been "to inquire of the wonder done in the land"—an inquiry mos"t natural iu a people so devoted to astronomy as the Babyloniaus ; and a good pretext for the other objects of the embassy.

⁵¹ That is, the house or town of Vakin, the grandfather of Merodach-Baladan. The names of Merodach-Baladan mean "Merodach has given us a son." He is the Mardo-ccmpalus of Ptolemy,

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

Euphrates, near its mouth. Defeated there, he threw himself into the city, and was taken prisoner at its capture. His life was spared, but his kingdom was placed under an Assyrian viceroy, Nabu-pakilidi™ Following that policy of transplantation, of which no Assyrian king made more constant use, Sargon settled his captives from Commagene in Lower Chaldaea and Susiana, and Ave can have little doubt that it was after the conquest of Babylon that he sent to Samaria those colonists from "Babylon, and Cuthah, and Sepharvaim," whose struggles form an interesting episode in the Scripture history.⁵³ Among the spoils of Merodach-Bala-dan's camp are mentioned his golden tiara, sceptre, throne, and parasol, and his silver chariot.

§ 10. At Babylon, Sargon received two embassies, bringing the tribute sent by islanders who dwelt, he says," in the midst of the seas " that washed the two extremities of his empire. The one was from Upir, king of Asmun, supposed to be an island of the Persian Gulf: the other from " the seven kings of the country of Iatnan (Cyprus), who," he says, " have fixed their abode at seven days' voyage⁵⁴ in the middle of the sea of the setting sun, and whose name was never pronounced by any one of the kings my fathers, in Assyria and in Chakbea." But his glory—he adds—had reached them, even in the midst of the sea, and, abasing their pride, they presented themselves at Babylon with their tribute of works iu metal, gold, silver, vases, and ebony. The fact that he sent an expedition thither is confirmed by a stela found at Larnaca, the ancient Citium, in Cyprus, similar to some already noticed, bearing the effigy and titles of Sargon.⁵⁵ These embassies are assigned by an inscription to the year 708 b.c. If the supposition be correct, that Sargon conducted the maritime campaign against Tyre, which Josephus as-scribes to Shalmaneser, that war may be reckoned a failure amidst so many successes — a fact rather confirmed than contradicted by the brief conclusion of the following boast: "Arbiter of combats, I traversed the sea of Jamnia like a fish. I annexed Koui and Tyre."

Bnt more serious reverses beset his closing years, especially from a new insurrection in Babylonia, where Jlerodach-Baladan recovered the throne. Sargon, perhaps too aged to

⁵² The Canon of Ptolemy places here a king of Babylon named Arceanus, whomM. Oppert supposes to be Sargon himself: Sarkina = (S)arceani<s.

⁶³ 2 Kings xvii. 24 seq. The colonists from Hamath (above CcEle-Syria) were probably sent in after his devastation of that land in the second campaign- As to the distinction between this settlement and that under Esar-haddon, see below, chap, xiv. 5 9.

⁵⁴ The real distance of Cyprus from the coast of Syria is 65 miles. ⁶⁵ This tablet is in the Berlin Museum.

SARGON'S PALACE AT KHORSABAD.

take the field, intrusted the suppression of this rebellion to his son Sennacherib ; and a tablet has been discovered at Koyunjik, containing a report from the son to the father of his ill success. This seems to belong to the interval after the cessation of Sargon's annals in b.c. 706. These reverses may have provoked the conspiracy which effected his assassination in August, b.c. 704.

§ 11. By a curious fate, this king, whose very existence was so long doubted, was the first whose monuments were discovered, when his palace at Khorsabad revealed itself to the researches of M. Botta in 1842.⁵⁶ It is from the walls of that palace, and the various tablets on gold, silver, and other materials, and from the clay cylinders discovered in the ruins, that Sargon's annals have been obtained. At the beginning of his reign, his residence was at Calah (Nimrud), where two inscriptions record his repairs of the north-west palace— that of Asshur-nasirmaV He also rebuilt the walls of Nineveh ; but it was his ambition to replace that capital by a new city and royal residence, which the inscriptions at Khorsabcul prove to have been entirely his work, neither prepared by former nor improved or mutilated by later kings. The fidelity of tradition preserved the builder's name centuries after his work had become a shapeless mound ; for an Arab geographer calls that mound " the old ruined city of Sarghitn."

The site chosen, about 10 miles X.N.E. of Xineveh, was at the foot of the JIakloub hills, watered by streams which now make it a pestilential waste ; and we have—what is rare indeed in the history of great cities—the king's own account of its foundation : "At the foot of the Musri hills, to replace Nineveh, I raised, after the divine will and the wishes of my heart, a city which I called Ilisr-Sargina,"™ the splendid marvels and superb streets of which, he adds, were blessed by great gods and goddesses whom he names. Describing the "palace of incomparable splendor," which he built in this city, "for the abode of his royalty," he recounts the choice kinds of timber; the beams cased with enamelled tiles; the spired stairceise imitated from a Syrian temple; the stones from the mountain sculptured with art; the decorations of the lintels and jambs of the gates. Of its ornamentation and treasures he says: " My palace contains gold,

⁶⁶ See chap. xii. § 2.

⁵⁷ One of these contains the name of Judah (Jahouda). It is convenient to mention here Sargon's restoration of the great sanctuaries of the Babylonian tetrapolis—at Sippara, Nipur, Babylon, and Borsippa.

⁶⁸ Other forms of the name are Bit-Sargina and Dur-Sargina (the house or fort of Sargon).

14

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

silver, ana vessels of both these metals ; colors ; iron ; the productions of many mines ; stuffs dyed with saffron, blue, and purple robes, amber, skins of sea-calves, pearl, sandal-wood, and ebony ; Egyptian horses ; asses, mules, camels ; booty* of every kind." These magnificent boasts are sustained even by the ruins that survive alter twenty-five centuries. " Compared with the later, and even with the earlier buildings of a similar kind erected by other kings, it was not remarkable for its size. But its ornamentation was unsurpassed by that of any Assyrian edifice, with the single exception of the great palace of Asshur-bani-pal at Koyunjik. Covered with sculptures, both internally and externally, generally in two lines, one over the other, and, above this, adorned with enamelled bricks, arranged in elegant and tasteful patterns; approached by noble nights of steps and through splendid propylrea ; having the advantage, moreover, of standing by itself, and of not" being interfered with by any other edifice, it had peculiar beauties of its own, and may be pronounced in many respects the most interesting of the Assyrian buildings.

United to this palace was a town, inclosed by strong walls, which formed a square two thousand yards each way. Allowing fifty square yards to each individual, this space would have been capable of accommodating eighty thousand persons.

" The progress of mimetic art under Sargon is not striking; but there are indications of an advance in several branches of industry, and of an improved taste in design and ornamentation. Transparent glass seems now to have been first brought

Glass Vase, bearing the name of into use,⁵⁰ and intaqlios to have been Sargon, from Nimrnd. r> . i V mi

nrst cut upon hard stones. Ihofurniture of the period is generally superior in design to any previously represented, and the modelling of sword-hilts, maces, armlets, and other ornaments, is peculiarly good. The enamelling of bricks was carried, under Sargon, to its greatest perfection ; and the shape of vases, goblets, and boats, shows a marked improvement upon the works of

⁵⁹ At all events, the earliest knmvn specimens arc of this reign. Among them is the celebrated glass vase, now in the British Museum, inscribed with the name of Sargon. Respecting the Assyrian glass in general, and especially its iridescent colors, due to partial decomposition, see Sir David Brewster's "Notes on Assyrian Glass," in the Appendix to Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon."

PROGRESS OE ART.

315

former times. The advance in animal forms, traceable in the sculptures of Tiglath-pileser, continues; and the drawing ot horses' heads, in particular, leaves little to desire."⁸⁰

•o Rawlinson « Five Monarchies," vol. ii. pp. 424-42G. For a full description of the palace, and of the remains of the town and its temples, see the same work vol i rm 255, 250, 358-385, 407, 408: vol. ii. pp. 241, 257; and Mr. Layard's works ' ^PP*

King punishing Prisoners (Khorsabad).

Assyrians flaying their Prisoners.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE XEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE (concluded). SENNACHERIB and his SUCCESSORS.—B.c. 704-625.

Sennacuerik. Coincidence cf sac-ed, secular, and monumental history. His voluminous auuals. § 2. Probable troubles in Sargon's later years. Revolt of Babylonia. Its conquest by Sennacherib. § 3. Reconquest of Phoenicia, etc. Great victory of Altaku o"er the Egyptians and Ethiopiaus. § 4. His first attack on Hezekiah. Devastation of Judah. Siege aud defense of Jerusalem. Hezekiah submits, by payment of a tribute, but saves his city and people. Destruction of Seuuacherib's army. § 5. His other campaigns. Wars with Babylon. Maritime invasion of Susiana. New revolt of Babylonia. Victory of Khaluli. The king's description. § G. Babylon probably revolts again. Signs of disturbance. Sennacherib murdeied by his sous. His character as drawn by himself. His palace at Niueveh {Koyunjik). § 7. Esae-uaddon, king both of Assyria and Babylon. His annals. War against Sidon. Captivity and release of Manasseh. New colonization of Samaria. § S. First appearance of the Cimmerians. Wars in Cilicia, Idurcaa, Arabia, Media, etc. § 9. His wars with Egypt. § 10. His great buildings. Palaces at Calah, Babylon, and Niueveh (Xebbi-Yunus). His character and place in history. § 11. Assiice-ijant-pat.. His invasion of Egypt. Wars in Phoenicia and Cilicia. Contact with Gyges, King of Lydia. § 12. Great wars with Susiana and Babylon — represented on his bas-reliefs in the British Museum. Cruelties to the captives. § 13. His palace at Koyunjik—beautiful sculptures of hunting scenes, etc. §14. His relation to Saedanapat.tjs. §15. Asshur-emid-ilin. His palace at Ximrud. Evidences of the decline and destruction of Nineveh. 5 16. Fragmentary stories of Herodotus aud other writers. Attacks of the Medes. Cyaxares takes Nineveh. § 17. Share of Babylon and Nabopolassar iu the event Saracus, the last king, burns himself with his palace. § IS. Canses of the fall of Assyria in the nature of her empire. § 19. Vivid descriptions of the prophets Ezekiel, Nahum, aud Zephaniah. § 20. Epoch of the Fall of Nineveh. Different views.

§ 1. In the reign of Sennacherib,¹ the son and successor of Sargon, we have the most definite results of the recent Assyrian discoveries. In most cases the names recovered

¹ In Assyrian. Sin-akhi-irib, i. e., Sin (the Moon God) has multiplied (my) brethren.

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317

from the monuments of Egypt and Assyria are either strange to history, or they are variously read, or it requires some ingenuity and perhaps faith to identify them with known persons. But here is a name familiar to our childhood, from its occurrence in one of the most striking scenes of Jewish history—the more familiar, perhaps, from its uncouth sound; occurring in Herodotus with the slightest difference of orthography,² and now plainly deciphered in the king's own inscriptions.³ More than this, the great enemy of Judah and Hezekiah, whose conquests are boasted by " railing Rabshakeh" just before

" He melted like snow at the breath of the Lord,"

has left us his own records in the longest of Assyrian annals ; and his palace at Ivoyunjik; perhaps the grandest yet displayed, was the first discovered on the site of Nineveh itself, and the one from which our Museum possesses the richest gleanings, even exceeding those from the N.W. palace of Nimrud.

His reign lasted 24 years (b.c. 704-680),⁴ for all but three of which (at least)⁵ we possess his annals in the remarkable document called the " Taylor Cylinder," a six-sided prism of terra-cotta, inscribed with 480 lines of writing in an exceedingly fine and minute character.⁶ Besides this and some other monumental records, Eusebins gives some fragments from Polyhistor, which are the sole authority for the last

² 2aiax''P'/3o9, Herod, ii. 141.

³ His name is one of the few about the phonetic value of which there is so little doubt that, amidst the varied spellings (differing chiefly in consequence of the usages of the modern languages employed by the interpreters) the sound is essentially the same; while all are agreed upon the meaning.

⁴ After all the pains taken to settle the synchronisms of Assyrian, Jewish, and Egyptian history, there is still a slight difference among the best authorities, between the years 704 and 702 «.o.; bnt the lately discovered Assyrian Canon seems to fix Sennacherib's accession in the former year.

⁵ The campaigns, however, are interrupted by unknown intervals, and are not always assigned to their respective years.

⁶ The date of the Taylor Cylinder (which may be seen in the British Museum) is iu the year of office of Bel-Simiani, who stands in the Table of Eponyms both for the ICth and 21st years of Sennacherib. Sir H. Rawlinson assigns the former date to the cylinder, M. Oppert the latter. An abstract of the document first appeared iu Sir H. Rawlinson's "Outlines of Assyrian History," 1S52_: and full translations have been made by Mr. Fox Talbot (" Jonrnal of the Asiatic.Society," vol. xix. pp. 135-1SH and by M. Oppert ("Inscriptions des Sargonides," pp. 41-53). For the king's first four years, we have also in the British Museum the "Bellini Cylinder,"inscribed with an accouut of his first two campaigns and of his earlier buildings at Nineveh. It is translated in Mr. Fox Talbot's "Assyrian Texts," pp. 1-9. The annals of his first six years are recorded in two inscriptions, one on the pair of colossal bulls flanking the entrance to his palace at Koyunjik, and the other (in duplicate) on the two pairs of bulls on the facade at each side of the entrance. The other original materials for Sennacherib's history are the inscriptions on the walls of his palace, on detached slabs, on tablets of clay, and on the monnmeuts carved by him on the rocks at Bavi' an. ut the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb in Syria, and in other parts of his dominions.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

few years of Sennacherib's reign, except the Scriptural notice of his death.

§ 2. The- troubles of the latter part of Sargon's reign left his son master of little beyond Assyria Proper. We find Babylon in open revolt, and Sennacherib does not attempt its reconquest till the third year of his reign. The Canon of Ptolemy marks a period of anarchy for the two years between the death of Arceanus (Sargon) and the accession of Belibus in b.c. 702. The annals of Sennacherib begin with a victory over Merodach-Baladan and his Elamite allies, at Kis, in Chaldsea, followed by the capture of Babylon, where he sets up a vassal king, named Bel-ipni (Belibus). Merodach-Baladan once more escaped. We pass over the vast items of captured cities, prisoners, and plunder. In his second campaign (b.c. 701) he restored, and perhaps extended, his power in Media, Parthia, Armenia, Albania, and Comma-gene.

§ 3. The third campaign of Sennacherib, in b.c. 700, brings his annals into contact with the Scripture history; and the results are as wonderful for the light gained from the apparent discrepancies, as for their striking agreement in all essential points. The evidence is the stronger, as we possess two or three repetitions of the story in different inscriptions.⁷

He first marched against Phoenicia, which had revolted, like Babylon at the other extremity of the empire—under Elouli or Luliya (Elulceus), king of the Sidonians ; and the revolt extended to " the Great and Little Sidon, Betzitti, Sarepta, Ecdippa, and Akko." The Assyrian—who strikes this key-note of his annals, " I have reduced beneath my power all who lifted up the head"—relates neither the circumstances of the insurrection nor the details of his conquest. "Terrified at the reputation of his majesty," Elouli flies across the sea, and Toubaal is made king in his room. The rebel cities submit, and tribute is brought by the kings of Sidon, Aradus, Azotus, Amnion, Moab, and Edom, all of whom are named.⁸ Sidka, of Ascalon, who alone resisted, was carried captive to Assyria, with his family and his gods.

Sennacherib advanced south to Migron (which some sup*

⁷ After much consideration, we feel pretty certain that M. Oppert is right in rejecting Sir H. Rawlinson's suggestion of two campaign*. No form of historical hypothesis is more suspicions than the duplication of events or persons to get over a difficulty. The points in the Bible which have been thought to require it may be explained otherwise; and the annals of Sennacherib appear to leave no room for the second expedition.

⁸ It is interesting, especially with reference to the newly discovered Moabite inscription, in which the national God Chemo.sk is so often mentioned, and Mesha, king of Moab, calls himself son of a king in whose name "Chemosh" is an element, to find the Moabite king of Sennacherib's inscription named Kammush-unadbi.

KECONQUEST OF PHOENICIA.

319

pose to be Ekron), where the (Assyrian) lieutenants and dignitaries had joined with the people in expelling Padi, a king •'inspired with friendship aud zeal for Assyria," and had given hini up to " Hezekiah, king of Judah." Sennacherib's great victory at Altaku over the forces of Egypt and Ethiopia/ which the men of Migron had called to their aid, has been related, and the light it throws on the state of Egypt explained, in the proper place.⁹ It now remains to show the part of Judah in the campaign.

In relating the prosperity which rewarded the piety of Hezekiah, the sacred historian says — "And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the King of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof,"¹" etc. Hence it appears that Hezekiah — taking advantage probably of the weakness of Egypt and Ethiopia after the battle of Raphia on the one hand, and of the troubles of Sargon's later years on the other, had extended his power as far as the maritime plain of Philistia, and declared his independence of Assyria ; for the words " he served him not" imply no modified form of disobedience. To chastise this revolt would be the first object of Sennacherib after the submission of Migron, where the " lieutenants and dignitaries" were killed, and their bodies crucified as traitors, and Padi was restored.

§ 4. "Hezekiah of Judah" made no attempt to retain the Ekronite king, but " did not submit himself." The ensuing account of the capture of "44 walled cities and an infinite number of towns, by the force of fire, massacre, battles, and besieging-towers," with the captivity of 200,150 persons, and innumerable cattle, forms a truly Assyrian comment on the text,'.' Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them."¹¹

•"Chap. vii. § 10.

¹⁰ 2 Kings xviii. 7, S (comp. 1 Chron. iv. 41 ; Isaiah xiv. 20-32). The passage stands at the beginning of Hezekiah's reign, as a summary of his prosperity, not in order of time. His religious reformation must have occupied some years ; and accordingly, iu the fuller account of 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxi., the next event recorded, " after these things and the establishment thereof," is the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib. (Here also the margin of our Version gives the mistaken date of the 14th year of Hezekiah.)

¹¹ 2 Kings xviii. 13; Isaiah xxxvi. 1; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1. The date in Kings and Isaiah, which can not possibly apply to this occasion (see chap. xiii. § 0), is not given in Chronicles. On the contrary, the invasion is placed after the "establishment" of Hezekiah's religious reformation, for the completion of which the years of peace en suing upon Sargon's last Syrian campaigns would afford free scope. The error or the date may have arisen, partly from the displacement of the account of Hezekiah's illness, which was in his fourteenth year, and partly from the fact that the invasion was in the fourteenth year (inclusive) after his illness.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

The agreement in what follows is even more striking. The Book of Chronicles records the vigorous preparations of Hezekiah to defend Jerusalem against the siege which Sennacherib appears to have formed.¹² "As for him"—say the annals, after describing the devastation of Judaea,—" I shut him up in Jerusalem, the city of his power"—a sort of apology for not taking it—" like a bird in its cage. I built towers round the city to hem him in, and raised banks of e'arth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. Those who came, out of the great gate of the city were seized and made prisoners"—perhaps impaled, as we see in a picture of a siege on the walls of Sennacherib's palace. "The towns which I had spoiled I severed from his country, and gave them to Mitinti, king of Azotus, to Padi, king of Migron, and to Is-mihiljking of Gaza, so as to make his country small. Then the immense fear of my majesty terrified this Hezekiah of Judah ;" whose real spirit, however, is recorded on better testimony — how "he gathered the people together in the street of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably unto them, saying, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid noi dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him : for there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh ; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, kino; of Ju-

dab."¹³ ;

At first sight it might seem that—to quote a famous saying in a connection which brings its profanity to light—-" Providence was on the side of strong battalions." For not only does Sennacherib proceed to tell us that "Hezekiah," moved by the fear imputed to him, " dismissed the garrison which he had assembled for the defense of Jerusalem,¹⁴ and sent after me to Nineveh, the city of my sovereignty, with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents"of silver" and other gifts which he enumerates ; but we read in the Book of Kings that "Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria, saying, I have offended ; return from me : that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed, unto Hezekiah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold."¹⁶

¹² The opinion that Sennacherib appeared in person before Jernsalem on this occasion, seems contradicted by 2 Chron. xxxii. 2, 9, and 2 Kings xix. 32. That the siege and the occupation of Judsea were so strict as to suspend all cultivation of the land, appears from 2 Kings xix. 29. ¹³ 2 Chron. xxxii. 7,9.

¹⁴ It will be observed that the king's narrative confirms the account of the defense given in Chronicles. On the other hand, the submission of Hezekiah, omitted in the Chronicles—like other calamitous events in the history of Judah—is duly recorded iu Kings.

¹⁵ 2 Kings xviii. 14-16. The agreement in the amount of gold is very striking;

SIEGE AND DEFENSE OF JERUSALEM.

321

Studied in connection with the attendant circumstances, this is the record of a treaty of submission, at the cost of a heavy tribute, instead of the utter destruction which the Assyrian kings were wont to inflict on rebellious cities and their kings. The firm resistance of Hezekiah saved his capital, his own life, and his people from captivity, and reserved them for that deliverance from the conqueror in which we see the final issue of his trust in God.

During these proceedings, Sennacherib was besieging Lachish with his full force.¹⁶ He seems to have counted on the submission of Jerusalem, while he himself was clearing the way to Egypt. The victory of Altaku may have been less complete than his annals represent it; and the sequel proves that there was good reason to expect a renewed attack from Tirhakah. Meanwhile, having stripped Hezekiah of his wealth and strength, he designed to follow up his exactions by extermination. Three of his chief officers were sent with a great host against Jerusalem, to defy the helpless king, and to invite the people to accept a complete transplantation, recommended by the pictures which despots and their admirers are fond of drawing of the material blessings attendant on political servitude.¹⁷ The tone of this celebrated address so strikingly resembles the Assyrian annals, as to leave little doubt that at least the king's own message was couched (as on the next occasion) in a letter, of which we have the substance. The opening," Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria," repeats a constant title ; and the boast of the power of his gods over those of the conquered

and the difference in the amount of the silver (to say nothing of a possible error in the Assyrian or Hebrew text) may be explained by the metal in bars and vessels included in the S00 talents, but not in the 300 ; perhaps as a propitiatory preseut in addition to the stipulated sum. There is, however, one of those apparent discrepancies, which turn out to be more instructive than literal agreement. Sennacherib says that the gifts were sent to him at Xineveh; but the Scripture narrative expressly says that they were sent to him at Lachish. The explanation seems to be that the treasures, etc., would be sent on to Assyria; and when Sennacherib returned, after the overthrow of his army (perhaps even overtaking the convoy in his hasty flight), he would claim these spoils of the campaign as evidence of victory. We have ample proof that the Assyrian annals could "lie like a bulletin."

¹⁶ 2 Chron. xxxii. 9. This passage seems decisive of the continuity of the campaign on the frontier towards Egypt. The question, whether the investment of Jerusalem, aud the partial submission of Hezekiah, preceded the mission of the three officers (as it stauds in Kings), may perhaps be solved by supposing that their force formed the siege, and continued before the city, while summonses aud answers passed and repassed between the head-quarters at Lachish and Jerusalem. The importance of the siege of Lachish is manifest from the notices of the city in Scripture, as one of the strongest on the frontier of Judah towards the maritime plain (see esp. Josh. x. 3, 5, 26, 31-33, 35).

¹⁷ 2 Kings xviii. 7-xx. 7; 2 Chron. xxiii. 9-16; Isaiah xxxvi. 2-xxxvii. 7. The three officers are specified by their titles; namely, the Tartan, or "chief general" (i-.s in Isaiah xx. 1) ; Rab-saris, the "chief-eunuch;" and Rab-shakeh, the "chief cupbearer."

14*

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

peoples agrees with the frequent statement, that " the im mense fear of Asshur fell upon the nations." The piety of Hezekiah obtained the promise that Jehovah would accept the challenge; and no answer was given to the envoys.

Meanwhile Sennacherib had advanced to the place where that promise was fulfilled; not, as the careless reader of the Scripture narrative thinks, and as even Josephus says, before Jerusalem, but on the frontier of the Jewish territory towards Egypt. This is quite clear: " So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. And when he heard say of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, Behold he is come out to fight against thee, he sent messengers to Hezekiah."¹⁸ This new message, which was accompanied by a letter of open defiance to the God of Israel, called forth the final promise of the destruction of the Assyrian and the salvation of Jerusalem. It was in the same night, and (as it seems) before the warlike Ethiopian came upon the field, that a miraculous destruction swept away a vast number of the Assyrian host, and Sennacherib himself returned to Nineveh.¹⁹*

On that great catastrophe the monuments of Sennacherib are silent, as might have been expected. Even the siege of Lachish is not mentioned in the annals; but it forms the subject of a bas-relief at Koyunjik now in our Museum, with the inscription, " Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment before the city of Lakhisha. I give permission for its slaughter." This was the last attempt of Assyria upon Judaea; and it is refreshing, in the long annals of her despotism, to mark the triumph of a purer polity and religion. The promise of the complete liberation from Assyria was fulfilled, "That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders."²⁰

¹⁸ 2 Kings xix. 8, 9 ; Isaiah xxxvi.8, ft. We have had occasion to speak of the site of Libnah in noticing the striking confirmation of the Scriptural acconut furnished (thongh in a distorted form) by the story told by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus. Whether Lachish was actually taken, does not appear from the Scripture narrative; aud the silence of Sennacherib's annals increases the probability that the monument referred to presently was a boast to gloss over a disaster. It seems most likely that he broke up the siege and advanced to Libnah to crush Pharaoh, the " braised reed," before the arrival of Tirhakah. (See chap. vii. § 1G.)

¹⁹ 2 Kings xix. 35,3(5; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21; Isaiah xxxvii. 30, 37. The number of those who perished is stated at 1S5,000; which may be exaggerated, like so many other numbers in the ordinary Hebrew text. We are not to suppose that the whole army was destroyed; and the Chronicles specifies "all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains.'" The secondary agency is usually supposed to be a pestilence, caused (if the event occurred at or re \r Pelusium) by the malaria of the Delta marshes. ²⁰ Isaiah xiv. 25.

AVARS WITH BABYLON.

323

§ 5. Of Sennacherib's other campaigns, the most important are those connected with the frequent revolutions of Babylon. In b.c. 699 he had again to encounter the irrepressible Merodach-Baladan, who was once more defeated in Chaldtea and driven to an island in the Persian Gulf, where he died, Sennacherib deposed Belibus, and placed on the throne his own eldest son, Asshur-inadi-sa, the Assaranadius of Ptolemy's Canon. But the Babylonian insurgents, instead of submitting, took refuge in Susiana with Kuduv-N'akhunta, the ally of Merodach-Baladan ; and Sennacherib conceived the novel project of invading that country from the sea. For lais purpose he transported shipwrights and mariners from Tyre and Sidon to the Tigris, where a fleet was built on Phoenician models ; for the warfare of the Mediterranean had created a class of ships far fitter for service than the merchantmen in which the Chaldieans had long navigated their peaceful Gulf. "The masts and sails, the double tiers ot oars, the sharp beaks of the Phoenician ships, were (it is probable) novelties to the nations of those parts, who saw now, for the first time, a fleet debouch from the Tigris with which their own vessels were quite incapable of contending."³¹

This -attack from the sea seems to have taken the refugees by surprise ; and Sennacherib, after destroying their new city and several Elamite towns, sailed back to crush a new^r revolt of Babylonia, which had risen in his rear under Susub, an old ally of Merodach-Baladan. The king gained two battles against the insurgents and the Susianians, who afterwards came to their aid; and Susub was carried a prisoner to Assyria, with a host of captive Babylonians and Ely-mseans. These campaigns, which occupied three years (b.c. 699-696), were followed by another invasion of Susiana, for the recovery of certain cities which Sutruk-Nakhunta, the father of Kudur-Nakhunta, had taken from Sargon.²² Having soon accomplished this, Sennacherib pursued his success, taking, razing, and burning thirty-four large towns aud many villages. On his approach to Vadakat™ the second city of Susiana, Kudur-Nakhunta fled to Khidcdu,'M the foot of the mountains; and Sennacherib, having taken Badaca,returned home with a great booty. The king of Elam seems to have survived his defeat only three months.

§ 6. After a few years of peace, Sennacherib was called to meet a still more formidable insurrection of Babylonia, which

²¹ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 44!).

²² Here is an incidental confession of some of Sargon's reverses.

²³ This is the Badaca which Diodorus places on the Eulseus, between Susa and Ec batana.

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THE IS STY" ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

broke out on the death of Asshur-inadi-sn, under Nabolmlei-riskim (or Nebosumiskun), son of Merodach-Baladan, and Su-sub, who had escaped from prison. The insurgents were supported by the new king of Elam, Umman-minein, whom Susub bribed with the treasures of the temple of Bel, and by the Aramtean tribes on the middle Euphrates. This time the insurgents took the offensive, and advanced to the Tigris, where, after a long and bloody battle, they were defeated at K/taluli The general of the Elymrean king had been bribed by Sennacherib, who thus exults over the horrors of a victory as decisive as that of Altaku had been : " On the sodden battle-field, the arms and armor floated in the blood of the enemies as in a river; for the war-chariots, bearing down men and horses, had crushed their bleeding bodies and limbs. I heaped up the bodies of their soldiers as trophies, and cut off their extremities. I mutilated those whom I took alive, like stalks of straw; and for punishment I cut off their hands." Susub²⁴ and the Elamite king escaped, and the son of Merodach was taken prisoner. Babylon was now placed under two successive viceroys, Regibelus and Mesesimorda-chus, whom the Canon of Ptolemy places in the 12th and 13th years of Sennacherib, n.c. 693 and 692.

That Babylon again threw off the yoke of Assyria, may be inferred from the Canon's marking an interregnum²'* from n.c. 688 to the accession of Esar-haddon, in b.c. 680. Thrice during this period Sennacherib records successful rebellions by Susub (n.c. 688,685, and 684-3), and though he boasts of the sack of Babylon on the last occasion, the silence of his annals for the last three years raises a presumption of disaster, or at least disorder. It is such periods of reverse that . conspirators, especially in the royal family, choose for their attempts on a king's life. It may have been after some great defeat (though long since the catastrophe in Palestine) that," as Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of Nis-roch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon, his son, reigned in his stead."²⁰

Such was the end of the first of those two mighty kings who stand forth in Scripture history as the chief types of Oriental despotism; and if in Nebuchadnezzar we trace some redeeming features of the character, Sennacherib presents it

²⁴ His reign, though omitted by Ptolemy, is proved by the date of a contract for the sale of some land on a tablet in the British Museum.

²⁵ The words e-rn u/3aai\evTa in the Canon always indicate "periods of extreme disturbance, when pretender succeeded to pretender, or when the country was split up into a number of petty kingdoms " (Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 455).

²⁶ 2 Kings xix. 37 ; Isaiah xxxvii. 3S.

CHARACTER OE SENNACHERIB.

325

in its unmitigated ferocity. His arrogant defiance of Jehovah, by the mouth of Kab-shakeh, is well matched by the titles assumed in his own annals—"The great king, the powerful king, the king of nations, the king of Assyria, the king of the four regions, the diligent ruler, the favorite of the great gods, the observer of sworn faith, the guardian of the law, the embellisher of public buildings, the noble hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the punisher of unbelievers,²⁷ the destroyer of wicked men."

Besides the graver lessons of his reign, he has left us a striking example of that irony which history is ever casting over the utterances of men about the future, in the words inscribed on his "palace of alabaster and cedar" at Nineveh : "This palace will grow old and fall in ruins in the lapse of time. Let my successor raise up its ruins ; let him restore the lines which contain the writing of my name. Let him renovate the paintings and clean the bas-reliefs, and replace them on the walls. Then will Asshur and Ishtar hear his prayer. But whoever should deface the writing of my name, may Asshur, the great god, the father of the gods, treat him as a rebel; may he take away his sceptre and his throne ; may he break his sword !" Two or three generations only passed away before the palace and Nineveh were buried under their own ruins; and, twenty-five centuries later, the bas-reliefs were " cleaned and replaced on the walls" of our Museum, and " the writing of his name " and his annals were deciphered, to confirm a free people, who inherit the faith against which he warred, in our belief of the sacred records, and our abhorrence of all despotism.

After the details already given of the North-west Palace of Nimrud and its sculptures, it is needless to describe those of Sennacherib at Koyunjik?* The edifice formed part of a grand scheme for the restoration of Nineveh, which had been neglected by former kings for Calah, and by his father for his new city of Dur-Sargina (Khorsabad). An inscription of Sennacherib says: " I have raised again all the edifices of Nineveh, my royal city. I have reconstructed its old streets, and have widened those which were too narrow. I have made the whole town a city shining like the sun."

§ V. Esar-iiaddox,²⁹ the fourth son of Sennacherib, appears

²⁷ Blasphemers are represented on his monuments having their tongues torn out.

²⁸ Ajninute description is the less necessary as the sculptnres in the British Museum m clearly tell their own story—for the art of Sennacherib is peculiarly realistic. Full descriptions of the palace and its ornaments, and the history of its discovery, are accessible to every reader in Mr. Layard's two smaller books, on "Nineveh and its Remains," and "Niueveh and Babylon," each forming one volume, 1SGT.

²⁹ This is the Hebrew form (as given in our version, but Assur-haddon would be

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

to have already reconquered Babylon at the time of his father's murder, and to have used the forces of that kingdom, first to compel his traitor brothers to fiy to Armenia, and next to resist the attempt of the elder to regain the crown. Adrammelech, leading into Assyria an army of mercenaries, probably levied in Armenia, was taken prisoner and put to death.³⁰ He alone, of all the Assyrian kings, reigned at Babylon during his whole reign at Nineveh—perhaps even longer, for there is reason to suppose that the crown of Assyria was delegated'to one of his sons towards the end of his reign. He not only reigned over, but at Babylon, as we shall see presently. His reign over Babylon is fixed, by the Canon of Ptolemy, from b.c. 080 to b.c. C67. During these thirteen years, his annals, which we possess in duplicate on two cylinders in the British Museum, contain the records of nine campaigns; and those of his son add some important details of his later years.³¹

The full subjection of Babylonia left him at liberty to restore the power of Assyria in the West, and to carry her arms for the first time into Egypt. His first campaign was against Phoenicia ; where a revolt of Sidon was supported by one of the sheikhs of Lebanon. He says: "I attacked the city of Sidon, in the midst of the sea: I put to death all its chief men : I razed its walls and houses, and threw them into the sea: I tore up the foundations of its altars. Abdi-Mil-kut, the king of the city, had fled from my power to the middle of the sea. Like a fish, I traversed the waves, and beat down his pride. I carried away all that I could of his treasures, gold, silver, precious stones, amber, seal-skins, sandal-wood and ebony, stuffs dyed with purple and blue ; all that his house contained.³² I carried away into Assyria the men and the women in vast numbers, oxen, sheep, and beasts of burden. I distributed the inhabitants of Syria and of the sea-coast all in foreign countries. I built in Syria a fortress (or city) which I called Hisr-Esar-haddon; and there I set-better) of the Assyrian name, Asshur-akh-idin (or iddina), i. e., Asshur give (or lias given) a brother. Ptolemy has ' o-upi'&ior, Josephus 'Ao-o-upxo<5<3ar, and the Armenian Chronicle of Eusebins gives Asordanss and Axerdis.

³⁰ Abydenus, ap. Euseb. " Chron."

³¹ The date of this record is fixed by M. Oppert at u.o. G72-G71. The name of Esar-haddon is also fonnd in a mutilated inscription on one of the six stela', or tablets, of Assyrian kings which are sculptured in the living rock, besides the three of Rameses II., near the month of the river Lycus (Xahr-el-Kclb), north of Beirut, on the Phoenician coast of Syria. There are some important records of his titles on the slabs of his own palace at Ximrud, and of that which he built for his son at Tarbm (the mound of Shereef-Khan), N.N.W. of Khorsabad.

³³ Observe the correspondence of some of these materials with those used by the Assyrian kings for their palaces, showing whence, and how, they obtained them; especially in Sargon's account of his palace. (See above, chap. xiii. § 11.)

REIGN OF ESAR-HADDON.

327

tied the men conquered by my bow in the mountains and near the sea of the rising sun " (the Persian Gulf).³³ The last passage points to the continued resistance of Chaldtea and Susiana, where we find Esar-haddon engaged in a war (probably in liis 6th year), which ended in the establishment of two princes favorable to Assyria over different parts of Lower Babylonia.

This campaign in the west seems the natural occasion for that chastisement of Manasseh and Judah, which furnishes another striking point of contact with the sacred history. Manasseh, having succeeded his father at the age of twelve, three years after the great deliverance from Sennacherib (b.c 697), had reigned seventeen years at the accession of Esar-haddon in b.c. 680. /Besides adopting as his own the idolatries, cruelties, and vices of the reactionary party in Judah, which had gained strength during his minority, he seems to have rebelled against Assyria, very probably in reliance on Egypt. "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon."³⁴ The apparent discrepancy of the officers of a king of Assyria carrying the captive king to Babylon is turned into a striking confirmation by the fact, not only that Esar-haddon was the one Assyrian king who reigned in person over both countries, but that he resided at Babylon as well as Nineveh. Bricks, stamped with his name, testify to his erection of a palace at Babylon.

The restoration of Manasseh, when thoroughly humbled by his severe captivity ³⁵ to the position of a subject ally on the frontier of Egypt, seems a part of the same policy which led Esar-haddon to reinforce the population of Samaria from the conquered peoples chiefly of Chaldrea and Susiana. For the people of heathen origin, who opposed the restored Jews nearly a century and a half later, traced their settlement expressly to Esar-haddon;³⁶ and among them are the Susan-chiles and the Elamites, and other nations not included among the settlers at first placed there by Sargon.³⁷ The

³³ But interpreted by M. Oppert, here as before, the Caspian Sea.

³⁴ 1 Chrou. xxxviii. 11.

³⁵ When he was in affliction: 2 Chron.xxxiii. 12, 10. Though these events are not mentioned in the annals of Esar-haddon, the name of Manasseh (Minasi) occurs, as a tributary, in one of his inscriptions. Hezekiah had died n.o. 697.

³⁶ Ezra iv. 2. "The great and noble Asnapper" who is named in ver. 10, is supposed by some to be Esar-haddou himself; bnt it seems more probable that he was the Assyrian officer who led the colony.

³⁷ Ezra iv. 9, compared with 2 Kings xvii. 24. The former settlers were all from Upper Babylonia. Babylon alone is common to the two lists, and in the second the word "Babylonians" may be creneric. The absence of the other names in the first list from the second suggests that the original colonies were reduced to insignificance

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

adoption by these people of the worship of Jehovah,in conjunction with that of the several gods of their own localities, is an interesting fact in the history of the Assyrian transplantations.

§ 8. In the second campaign of Esar-haddon, which seems to have been in Armenia or Mt. Zagrus, we first meet with the name of a people famous in history. If the reading be correct, he received the submission of Tiuspa, the Cimmerian; and we are now very near the time at which Herodotus places the great Cimmerian invasion of Asia. Of his remaining campaigns, the most interesting are those against the Ciliciansand their allies, the Tibareni; against the Edomites; and against certain Arab tribes, when he seems to have performed the hitherto unexampled feat of leading an army through a large portion of the great desert of Arabia. Like his predecessors, he had to engage in war with the Ara-mrean nomads on the Euphrates, and with the mountaineers of Armenia; and his last recorded expedition reached a remote region of Media, perhaps Azerbijan.

§ 9. It was towards the end of his reign that he resumed that great contest with the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt, which Sargon had begun, and in which Sennacherib received his disastrous check. It now seems clear that Esar-haddon was the first Assyrian king who actually invaded Egypt; and he was the first and last who bore the title, " King of the kings of Egypt, and conqueror of Ethiopia." He adorned his palace with sphinxes and other Egyptian ornaments,³⁸ and a bronze lion, dug up by the Turks at JYebbi-Yitmts (now in the Museum at Constantinople), bears the inscription, "The property of Esar-haddon, king of hosts, king of Assyria, the spoil of Egypt and Ethiopia." Though such titles occur several times in his inscriptions, his own annals only mention Egypt in one doubtful passage; and all we know of his deeds there is from his son's account of the sequel of the war with Tirhakah and the Egyptian princes.³⁹

§ 10. Of his great works as a builder Esar-haddon has left us descriptions so minute as to be only tantalizing, for the technical terms employed have as yet baffled the interpreters. He tells us that he reared three palaces and above thirty temples.⁴⁰ Traces of the three palaces have been dis-

by the hardships referred to in 2 Kings xvii. 25. In the second list, the Apharsites are thought to be Persians, and the Archcvitcs from Erech (Orchoe).

³⁸ Layard, "Nineveh and its Remains," vol. i. p. 34S.

³⁹ See chap. vii. § 10. The mutilated inscription on his stela at the mouth of the Nahr-cl-kelb (a cast of which is in the British Museum) is said to record his victory over Tirhakah (Tarqv), his capture of Memphis, and other conquests in Africa. His conquest of Egypt is also mentioned by Abydenus (ap. Euseb. " Chron." part i. ch. ix.).

⁴⁰ According to M. Oppert: but Sir H. Rawlinson reads the passage that "he re* paired ten of the strongholds of Assyria and Babylonia."

ESAR-HADDONS GREAT BUILDINGS.

32'd

covered, at Nineveh, Calah, and Babylon. Of the last, there only remain a few inscribed bricks to prove the name of its builder: the exploration of the first, in the mound of Nebbi-Yunus, is still hindered by local fanaticism. He describes it as a splendid edifice, erected on the site of a former palace of the Assyrian kings. He names 22 kings, chiefly of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus, who furnished the materials. In this list we find the name of "JIi?iasi (Manasseh), kino-of Judah."

The palace at Calah, which occupied the S.W. corner of the great platform of Nimrud, was never finished; and it is chiefly remarkable for the bas-reliefs removed from other edifices, mostly from the central and S.E. palaces, and set up with their sculptures inward against the wall of sun-dried bricks, and the back surfaces smoothed preparatory to being carved anew.⁴¹ Of such sculptures as had been completed, many were split to fragments or calcined to crumbling lime by a fierce conflagration that had destroyed the building. Among these were the sphinxes already mentioned. Besides these palaces, a far inferior edifice was built at Nineveh for his eldest son ; its ruins are at SJiereef-Khein, on the bank of the Tigris, where Sargon had previously built a fort and a temple of Nergal.

§ 11. The name of Esar-haddon's son and successor, Asshur-bani-pal {Asshur create a son), occurring almost at the end of the list of Assyrian kings, so irresistibly suggests that of .Sardaneqxdus, that the mind pre-occnpied with the legend of Ctesias is astounded when the monuments reveal one of the greatest conquerors and most magnificent mon-archs of the whole series, and the only one" who has left proofs of a systematic care for literature. His accession is fixed by the Canon to n.c. 067 ; but the darkness into which Assyrian history falls back towards the end of his reign makes its length uncertain. His annals only embrace the seven or eight years to b.c. 660.⁴² His great contest with Tirhakah and Potmen for the possession of Egypt—the most important results gained from the Assyrian records—has been related in the history of that country.⁴³

Amidst and after these wars, he conducted operations in Phoenicia and Cilicia; and he was the first Assyrian king who crossed the Taurus into the interior of Asia'Minor, and

⁴¹ Layard, "Niueveh and its Remains," vol. i. pp. 59 seq., 347-352; Rawlinson. "Five Monarchies," vol. ii.pp. 47S-4S3. This proves that (sometimes at least, and probably always) the slabs were carved after being tixed to the walls.

⁴² M. Oppert makes this the end of his reign, which Sir Henry and Professor Raw iinscn extend to n.o. G47. See below, § 20.

⁴³ Chap. vii. § 7, where the present state of this king's annals is described.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

came in contact with the great Lydian monarchy. These are his own words, if rightly read : " Gyges, king of Lydia, a country on the sea-coast, a remote place, of which the kings my ancestors had -never even heard the name, learned in a dream (?) the fame of my empire, and the same day sent officers to my presence to perform homage on his behalf." Gyges further sent to Asshur-bani-pal, at Nineveh, some Cimmerian chiefs, who had been taken alive in a battle ; and mention is also made of another Cimmerian chief, with whom the Assyrian himself came in contact.⁴⁴

§ 12. Like his predecessors, he made campaigns in Armenia and Media; but the most interesting of his wars were those in Susiana and Babylonia, the incidents of which are depicted in the reliefs which he added to the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. Tiie connection which Esar-haddon had established between Assyria and Babylon was dissolved, perhaps before his death, by that king's re-partition of Mesopotamia between his sons. Babylon fell to the lot of SaVd-Miajlna, the Saosduchimis of the Canon, and the Sam* muf/hes, whom the compilers from Berosus have converted into a king of Assyria. The relations between Assyria, Babylon, and Susiana are obscure; but instead of involving the reader in these difficulties, we notice the four years' war, in which Asshur-bani-pal conquered Susiana, chiefly to call attention to some of the scenes which every one can behold to this day on the walls of our Museum. On one slab we see the capture of a city at the confluence of two rivers ; probably Susa, which the annals record to have been taken, with the express mention of its position on the Ilidai (Eulaeus).⁴⁵ On another are vividly depicted scenes of horrible cruelty, the meaning of which is plainly stated in the annals: "Temin-Umman (the king of Susiana) was taken prisoner, decapitated, and his head exposed over one of the gates of Nineveh. A son of Temin-Ummaii was executed with his father:" and, whether in this or another case, the sculptures show one prisoner brought to execution with the head of another hung about his neck. "Several grandees of Merodach-Baladan suffered mutilation ; a Chaldaean prince and one of the chieftains of the Gambalu had their tongues torn out by the roots; two of Temin-Umman's principal officers were chained and flayed:" and there are both operations before our eyes, in the alabaster which has perpetuated them

⁴⁴ It is important to observe tbe express statement of Herodotus, that the Assyrian empire reached as far west as the Halys. (Ilerod. i. 95.)

⁴⁵ Comp. Dan. viii. 1: "I was at Shtushan, in the province of Elam, by the river of Mai."

ASSHUR-BANI-PAL'S PALACE AT KOYUNJIK. 331

for twenty-five centuries. On other slabs we see the sconrgers in attendance upon the king, carrying their whips in their girdles, and the executioners striking a bound prisoner with his fist before he puts him to death. Well might the prophet, probably at this very time, call Nineveh " the city of bloods."⁴⁶

§ 13. The like pictures of war, and of what his annals boast us justice, were repeated, side by side with an immense variety of hunting scenes, on the walls of another palace, which Asshur-bani-pal built at Koyunjik, within a few hundred yards of his grandfather's. The palace is remarkable for its peculiar ground-plan, in the form of a T, and for the beauty of its elaborate ornamentation. Both the battle and the hunting scenes excel all previous bas-reliefs in the variety, grace, and freedom of the figures; but in simple dignity they fall as far short of those of Asshur-nasir-pal as the spirit of the sport—in which the lions are let out of cages—is below that monarch's famous lion-hunt. Among them is almost the only strictly domestic scene yet known in Assyrian art—and one only too significant—a banquet at which the king is reclining on his couch with the queen sitting at his feet."

Never, in the whole history of Assyria, have we stronger evidence than under this king of that prosperity which the prophet describes in his celebrated parable :

" The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; . . .. under his shadow dwelt all great nations; . . . . nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty."⁴⁸

§ 14. If this Asshur-bani-pal furnished the Greeks with the name of Sardanapalus, we may now perhaps account for the twofold character of that king.⁴⁹ As the last famous king of Assyria, he may have been confounded, in Ctesias's legend of the fall of Nineveh, with a degenerate son or grandson, whose name was better known to other authors. But there are Greek writers who preserve a truer memory of a Sardanapalus, whom they distinguish from the other by the title of " the warlike Sardanapalus ;"⁵⁰ but under whose name (as in the case of Sesostris) they include the achievements of diner-

⁴⁹ Nahum iii. i. On this prophecy comp. chap. vii. § IS.

⁴⁷ This splendid series of sculptures, obtained chiellyby Mr. Hormnzd Rassam and Mr. Loftus from Koyunjik, may be seen (for the present, 1ST0) in the basement (!) of our Museum.

⁴⁸ Ezekiel xxxi. 3-8: the whole of this very striking passage should be read here.

⁴⁹ Hellanicus expressly mentioned "two kings called Sardanapalus," Fr. 15S.

³⁰ Callisthenes, in Suidas, s. v. 2up5ui/«7r«\o9. We have already seen that the identification formerly made of Asshur-nasir-pal with Sardanapalus I. (as Sir II. Rawliuson and Mr. Layard call him) rested on a wrong reading of the name, as Asshur-idanni-pal.

332

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

cut kings, as, for example, the building of Tarsus, which others assign to Sennacherib. Near that city was a lofty monument, which they called the tomb of Sardanapalus, crowned with a statue of the king, having on its base this inscription in Assyrian characters! " Sardanapalus, son of Anaeynda-raxes, built Tarsus and Anchialus in one day," etc.⁵¹ The monument was probably one of those steke with an arched head, of the type which we have more than once mentioned ; and it may have represented either Sennacherib or his grandson.

§ 15. Most cuneiform authorities agree that after the reign of Asshur-bani-pal came that of his son, whose name is variously read Ass/iur-emit-ilin, or Asshur-idililan, or Asshur-kinatili-kain, and who is identified with the Saracus ox Aby-denus and Polvhistor, or with the Chiniladanus or Cinnela-danus of Ptolemy's Canon, or with both." The only native records of this king are a few inscribed bricks, which identify him as the builder of the south-east palace at Nimrud, and a stela found there, with his effigy and a genealogical inscription.⁵³ The palace, built upon the ruins of a former edifice,⁵⁴ bears striking witness to the decline and probably the sudden cessation of the monarchy, by its vastly inferior style, its small and misshapen chambers, its unfinished state, and its unsculptured walls.⁵⁵ Decisive evidence is borne to the violent overthrow of the kingdom, and the utter destruction of its capital cities by the heaps of charcoal, and other signs of devouring fire, which are found in all the palaces, alike at Nimrud, Koyunjik, and K/wrsetbad.

§ 16. It is in vain to attempt to recover the true history of the fall of Nineveh by piecing together the few extant

³¹ We do not think it necessary to add the somewhat trivial details, which have led to a discnssion that may be seen fully iu Professor Rawlinson's work (vol. ii. p. 500). He adduces the varied readings of the latter part of the inscription as a proof that it was not understood—which seems most probable. But M. Lenormant holds, on the contrary, that some of the learned Greeks had mastered the cnueiform writing, a feat which none of them had performed for the Egyptian hieroglyphics; and of this he fiuds an indication even iu their errors. For instance, in the name Anacynda-raxes he traces the royal title "Anaku-nadu-sarra-Asshur "—" I am the august king of Assyria." Eusebins (Chron. aun. Ab. 11S1) applies the words of the alleged inscription to the Sardanapalus of the Old Monarchy, who was overthrown by Arbaces and Belesys. Polvhistor and Abydenus (ap. Enseb. Chron. pars i. cc. v. ix.) say that Sennacherib defeated a Greek fleet off the coast of Cilicia, and built Tarsus after the model of Babylon, and set up his own monumeut. There is very probably a confusion of names. ⁵² See below, § 19.

⁵³ This is iu the British Mnsenm.

⁵⁴ That of Esar-haddon : see § 10.

⁵⁵ See Layard, " Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. pp. 38, 39 ; " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 655. The fact that this latest known palace is at Calah is instructive as to the question about the Assyrian capital. But it does not follow that Calah was a part of the true Nineveh. All the royal resides zes would perish in a conqnest of externa! nation.

THE FALL OF NINEVEH.

333

fragments of writers who lived long after the event. It is better simply to place their statements upon record, and await the light of further criticism and future discoveries.

That the story of Ctesias, respecting the earlier overthrow of Nineveh by Arbaces and Belesys, may preserve some details of its final fall, is the more probable from the resemblance in Oriental revolutions caused by the likeness of Eastern states and wars : but still this is mere conjecture. Our really historical authorities are, on the one hand, the incidental notices by Herodotus, in his story of the Medes, evidently after Persian accounts; and a few fragments, chiefly of Abydenus and Polyhistor, which derive their value from being founded on the high authority of Berosus.⁵⁶ As is natural, the latter class of writers lay the greater stress on the part taken by Babylon in the achievement, which Herodotus assigns wholly to the Medes.⁵⁷

He recognizes three distinct attacks of the Medes upon Assyria. First, Phraortes, having subjected the Persians, " proceeded to subdue Asia, nation after nation, till he marched against the Assyrians — those of the Assyrians, I mean, who held Nineveh, and formerly ruled over all [the rest]; but then they stood alone, being deserted by their allies ; but, in other respects, their internal condition was flourishing. Phraortes attacked them, but perished himself, with the greater part of his army."⁵⁸

He then tells us how Cyaxares, the son of Phraortes, devoted his efforts to organize the Median forces; and, having mentioned (not necessarily in order of time) this king's contest with Lydia, and his conquest of all Asia beyond the River Halys, he goes on : "Now collecting all who were under his rule, he marched against the city of Ninus, both to avenge his father and wishing to take the city. And when, after defeating the Assyrians in a battle, he had formed the siege of Ninus, there came upon him a great army of Scythians."⁵⁹

⁵⁶ The passages are collected by Muller, "Frag. Hist. Grsec." vol. ii. p. 505.

⁵⁷ Eusebins also, who mentions the destruction of Niueveh in two passages of his "Chronicle" (*. an. A b. 1397 aud 1408), ascribes it in both to Cyaxares the Mede, without mentioning the Babylonians. Of the dates we have to speak presently.

⁵⁸ Herod, i. 102. The position of Phraortes in Median history will be noticed in the proper place. The Median chronology (as interpreted by Cliutou aud most ar thorities) places this event in is.c. 634.

⁵⁹ Herod, i. 103. Without entering here on the question, which is one of the great chronological difficulties, whether the Lydian war preceded or followed the capture of Niueveh, it is enough to point ont the incidental character of the allusion to the former. The words which (coming after this mention of the Lydian war) might seem to imply that Cyaxares led against Nineveh all the forces of the Median empire, after its extension to the Halys, need not be so interpreted. The\^r are simply, <riA-At'fa? 6e -rot''? I'V ea)i»Tu» u_f>xofitvovi irdira^. Still this phrase implies the acquisition of some considerable dominion in Asia before the attack on Nineveh—of the dominion

33+

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

Here he digresses to the Scythian invasion, and their domination over Asia for twenty-eight years, till Cyaxares drove them out, and the Medes recovered their former empire.⁶⁰ "And they took Ninus—but how they took it I will show in other books (or another history)—and made the Assyrians their subjects, except the part belonging to Babylon" (literally " the portion of Babylon ").⁶¹

The last phrase is merely geographical; but, in another place, Herodotus refers to Babylon as not only in an independent, but even a hostile, attitude towards the victorious Medes. Speaking of Nitocris, he says: "Seeing the great and restless power of the Medes, who had taken both other cities, and among them also Ninus, she proceeded to guard against them as much as possible" by her works of defense at Babylon.⁶² But we shall see that this really refers to a much later period ; and Herodotus himself makes the king of Babylon an ally of Cyaxares in his Lydian AYar.⁶³

§ 17. That Babylon had a real and important share in the overthrow of Nineveh seems established by the second set of authorities above mentioned. The locus classicus on this subject is the passage quoted by Eusebins from Abydenus, who follows the " Chaldaean History " of Berosus. Having spoken of Sennacherib, Axerdis (Esetr-Jieiddon), and Sardanapalus {Asshur-bani-pal), he proceeds : "After him Saracus reigned over the Assyrians; and, having received tidings that a ver// great band of barbarians had come up from (he sea to attack him, he quickly sent the general Jiusalossor (unquestionably JYabopolassar, as in Syncellus) to Babylon. But he, plotting a rebellion, arranged the betrothal of Amu-hia (called by others Aro'itis and Amy'itis), a daughter of Asdahages (Astyages), the Mede, a prince (or the head) of the (royal) family, to Nabuchodrossor, his son. Thereupon, setting out forthwith, he hastens to attack Ninus,that is, the city of Ninive. When Saracus the king was informed of all this, he burnt his royal palace at Evewitas"^ The last word

of which they were deprived by the Scythians, t>> upx's KareXvOwav (chap. 104), and which they recovered when they got rid of the Scythians, and before the final attack

OU Nineveh, ixitcrwaavTO Ti/i' upxh¹¹ M'/doi, Kat ineKpureov twv Trep nai nporepov, km Tijv Mvov elXov (Chap. 106).

⁶⁰ Observe iu passing, that if t lie 2S years of Herodotus be correct, n.c 681 — 2S years =: u.o. 61)6.

⁶¹ Herod, i. 106. The question has beeu long discussed whether the words h tTt-

poioi ko-yoio-i driXuHTa), and again (more Specifically) twv tv roiai 'Aacvpioioi Xo^oiai

uvhp.w ■Koii]<rop.ai (i. 184), refer to a book of "Assyrian History" which he intended to write. The future seems to imply this; and certainly none of his other eight books answer to the title. The passage adduced from Aristotie to prove the existence of such a work is not decisive.

⁶² Herod, i. 1S5: co?np. chap. xv. § IS. ⁶³ Herod, i. 74.

⁶⁴ Euseb. "Chron. Arm," pars i. c. ix. (ed. Mai), bnt the better version is civen by Aucher. There is the less difficulty, about the substitution of Astyayes for Cyaxares,

THE FALL OF NINEVEH.

33".

is confessed by all the interpreters to be quite unintelligible in the Armenian text; and the Greek of Syncellus gives " fearing whose [Xabopolassar's] attack, Saracus burnt himself with his palace; and Xabopolasarus, the father of Nab u-chodonosor, received the government of the Chaldaeans and of Babylon."⁶⁵

§ 18."In some very important features these accounts agree with one another, and with the well-known character of the Assyrian empire. As we have seen before, there was no organized administration, held together by the central power. The cases in which conquered cities or countries were placed under Assyrian governors—or, in the language of the annals, " treated as Assyrians "—were exceptional. Generally they were left under their own kings, as vassals of Assyria; and she only asked submission and tribute ; but she punished open rebellion with a ferocity which utterly alienated her subjects.

While all were thus destitute of any bond of willing union, some of those nearest to the seat of government were animated with the spirit, and possessed the power, of perpetual resistance. Even at the rare times when the rival kingdom of Babylon was really subdued, the Chaldaeans and Elamites were ever ready to renew the contest in their marshes. Almost every Assyrian king had to fight again and again with the Aramaeans on the middle Euphrates, and with the mountaineers of Armenia and Zagrus. And, beyond the latter range, the victories which are claimed over the Medes may often but attest the increasing'pressure of the Aryan tribes that were gathering on this frontier of Assyria.

A king who indulged in luxury, to the neglect of military expeditions, at once invited rebellion in the provinces and invasion on the frontiers ; and it was quite possible, as Herodotus puts it, that, at the very height of apparent prosperity, he might find himself standing alone, deserted by his allies, and left bare before his enemies. The crisis, which so soon followed the splendid reign of Asshur-bani-pal, appears to have been hastened by a fresh Aryan migration into Media ; and their attack on the eastern frontier, perhaps, found Assyria weakened by the inroads of those very Scythians who interrupted the progress of the Medes.

The renewed assault of the latter appears to have coincided with a new uprising of all the mingled races of Chah daea and Susiana (for thus only can we understand " the

as the former appears to have been a title of the Median kings (see chap. xix. § 9). Respecting the name of Busalosser for Xabopolassor, see chap. xv. § 5.

⁶⁵ "Syncell." p. 210, n; but the passage is both confused and interpolated. He calls Astyages satrap of Media, which seems borrowed from the Arbaces of Cte-pif.s.

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THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

troops of barbarians who came up from the seet"). The treason, or patriotism,⁶⁶ of the officer sent to quell the revolt in Babylonia has been often parallelled by the servants of a falling king ;⁶⁷ and the self-immolation of Saracus in the flames of his own palace—whether it be a fact or the adornment of a tale—has an exact precedent in the death of the Israelite king at Tirzah : "And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the kind's house, and burnt the kind's house over him with fire,and'died."⁶⁸

§ 19. But, after all, the real picture of the fall of Assyria (as of Babylon) and of the utter destruction of Nineveh, never to rise again, is drawn with the most literal truth, as well as poetic coloring, by the Jewish prophets, one of whom (Ezekiel) is, in fact, writing the history of Nineveh's fall as the type of Babylon's. The following passages are quoted only to attract attention to the whole prophecies of which they form a part.

We have seen how Ezekiel's figure of the Assyrian as a cedar in Lebanon was realized under Asshur-bani-pal; but now " the multitude of waters that nourished him"—that is, the subject nations—not only withdrew their tributary streams, but swelled up to help his destruction, as (in the phrase of Herodotus) he "stood alone " to undergo the sentence : " I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty

one of the heathen ; in dealing he shall deal with him.....

And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land ; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him."⁶⁰

The prophetic warning, which Nahum gives to Nineveh from the fate inflicted by her own king on Thebes,⁷⁰ contains a powerful description of the easy capture of the fortresses and the siege of the city itself: "All thy strongholds' shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs : if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the month of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women : the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off."⁷¹

⁶⁶ See chap. xv. § 2.

⁶⁷ It is enough to mention the almost contemporary example of Amasis and Apries. (See chap. viii. § 13.) ⁶⁸ 1 Kings xvi. IS. ⁰⁹ Ezek. xxxi. 11,12.

⁷⁰ Comp. chap. vii. § 19. ⁷¹ Nahum iii. 12-15.

THE FALL OF NINEVEH.

337

The utter and final nature of the destruction is pointed by Zephaniah in words rendered doubly emphatic by the recent discoveries beneath the mounds among which nomad tribes have pitched their tents, and wild beasts and birds have had their haunts for five-and-twenty centuries : "He will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows ; desolation shall be in the thresholds : for he shall uncover the cedar-work. This is the rejoicing city that dicelt carelessly, that said in her heart, /'am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in ! Every one that passeth bv her shall hiss, and wa«-his hand."⁷²

§ 20. The precise epoch of the fall of Nineveh is still unsettled, and the question is complicated with another, concerning the date of the great battle between Cyaxares and the Lydians.⁷³ Thus much is pretty well agreed, that the choice lies between b.c 625 and b.c COG. The older writers give the latter date, which rests on a distinct statement in the chronicle of Eusebius, and is supported by the high authority of Clinton.⁷⁴

The English school of Assyriologers, represented by Sir Henry and Professor Rawlinson, adopt the date of b.c 625, which is fixed by the Canon as that of Nabopolassar's accession at Babylon. They regard his predecessor, Chinilealei-nus, whose accession is placed by the Canon in b.c 647, as the last king of Assyria, the Asshur-emit-ilin of the monuments, and the Saracus of Berosus and his followers, but with the admission that Saracus may perhaps represent a king who followed Asshur-emit-ilin. These views seem to rest too much on the dependence of Babylon upon Assyria up to the moment not only of Nabopolassar's revolt, but" of the actual capture of Nineveh.

M. Oppert and the French school return to the date of b.c 606, and make the accession of Nabopolassar at Babylon, and his league with the Medes, synchronize with that first attack of Cyaxares upon Nineveh which was interrupted by the Scythian?. M. Oppert ends the reign of Asshur-bani-pal at

⁷² Zephaniah ii. 13-15. ™ See below, chap. xv. § 7, aud chap, xxiii. § 14.

⁷⁴ "Fast. Hellen." vol. i. sub ami. His arguments are open to much discussion. Eusebius gives two dates, O1.40. 2. (u.o. 619-18), aud 01. 43.1 (b.o. GOS-7); the former seems to be for the first attack of Cyaxares, the latter for the destruction of the city. Jerome's version brings each date oue year lower; so that the latter would come down to b.o. 606.

15

838

THE NEW ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

the close of his annals in b.c. 660, and assigns the thirteen years to b.c. 647 to his brother Tiglath-pileser. Then comes Asshur-emit-ilin (Chiniladanns) down to the first attack by Cyaxares in b.c. 625. The remaining nineteen or twenty years, to the fall of Nineveh, in b.c. 606, are assigned to a king (the son or younger brother of his predecessor), whose name is conjectured to have been either Esar-haddon, or some such form, which would be represented by the Greek Saracus (=Asshur-akh—third element wanting), or one of those names beginning with Asshur and ending with pal, which the Greeks made Sardanapalus. It is to be observed, however, that the writers who give us the name of Saracus for the last king know no other Sardanapalus but him who answers to Asshur-bani-pal, and whom they make the father of Saracus.⁷⁵

⁷⁵ It will be seen that M. Oppert cuts down the 28 years, assigned by Herodotus to the Scythian domination, to 18 or 19 years, and for this there seems to be some authority in the dates given by Eusebius (see note ⁷⁴). M. Oppert seems also open to the objection of arranging the Assyrian reigns too much by the Babylonian chronology. Thus the authors who mention Saracus assign him 23 or 21 years, and there seems no necessity to cut this down to 19 or 20, in order to make it agree with the end of the reign of Chiniladanns at Babylon. The Canon places Nabopolassa? ini-mediately after Chiniladanus at u.c. 025.

Hound held in Leash (Koyunjik).

View of Babil from the West.

CHAPTER XV.

THE BABYLONIAN OR CHALDAEAN EMPIRE.—B.C. 625-538.

§ 1. Babylon during the Old Assyrian Empire. Destruction of native records by Nabonassar. § 2. List of Kings from the Era of Nabonassar. Babylon under the New Assyrian Empire. § 3. Brief duration, but great importance, of the Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar its one great monarch. Its six kings. § 4. The monarchy Chaldcean, with its capital at Babylon. §5. NAisoroLASciAR. His origin. Revolt from Assyria aud alliance with Cyaxares. Distinction between the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires. Nabopolassar mediates between Cyaxares and Alyattes. § G. War with Egypt. The defeat of Neco at Carchemish gives Babylon all Asia west of the Euphrates. Death of Nabopolassar. His works at Babylon. § 7. Nebucuaonezzar. His name. His place in history. § 8. Revolt of Phoenicia and Judah. Chronological difficulty about the siege of Tyre. First capture of Jerusalem, and first captivity, including Daniel. Rebellion of Jehoiakim. Second capture of Jerusalem. § 9. Rebellion and deposition of Jehoiachin. Third capture of Jerusalem. The Great Cap>tivity. Zedekiah made king. Probable motive for sparing Jerusalem. Vision of the imperial colossus § 10. Zede-kiah's league with Pharaoh-Hophra, and rebellion. Siege of Jerusalem, and retreat of Pharaoh. Fourth capture and destruction of Jerusalem. Final captivity Exemption of Judah from colonization. Fate of the remuant left. § 11. Siege of Tyre and conquest of Phoenicia—aud of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, and all Syria. § 12. Invasion of Egypt—probably twice. Egypt really conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. § 13. Peace during his last years. Means furnished bv his wars for his great works at Babylon. § 14. Pride engendered by prosperity. His Lycanthropy, restoration, and death. § 15. Causes of the immediate decliue of the Empire. § 10. Evil-Mekodacu. His favor to Jehoiachin. Put to death by a conspiracy. § 17. Neeiot.issar, the Rab-Ma«r, and his sou Laboeoso-AKonon. End of the' dynasty of Nabopolassar. § 18. Nabo»abiug. His works for the defense of Babylon. Nitocris. § 19. Alliance with Croesus. Defeat by Cyrus. Flight to Borsippa. § 20. Belsuazzaii in Babylon. Capture of the city. Surrender of Nabonadius.

§ 1. During the whole conrse of the Assyrian history, we have scon Babylon" constantly appearing, nominally as a subject state, but frequently in successful revolt ; and some

340

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

times recognized as a co-ordinate kingdom. Her subordination to Assyria has been unquestionably exaggerated, especially by the Greek writers, who merged her whole history in that of the Assyrian empire. This mistake may have been owing chiefly to the deed which Berosus ascribes to Nabonassar, who "collected and destroyed the acts of the kings before him, in order that the series of the Chaldaean kings should begin from him."¹ Before his time, therefore, we are dependent on Assyrian accounts for the history of Babylon ; with the exception of some fragmentary inscriptions, recording chiefly private transactions, in which the name of the reigning king is mentioned. Yet even the Assyrian accounts bear out the statement that " during the whole time of the Upper Dynasty in Assyria, Babylon was clearly the most powerful of all those kingdoms by which the Assyrian empire was surrounded."²

§ 2. From the Era of Nabonassar (Feb. 27, b.c. 747),^s both the Canon of Ptolemy and the fragments of Berosus furnish a continuous list of kings, to the fall of Babylon in b.c. 538; but for two-thirds of this period we have little more than their mere names. For Eusebius, who preserves a few details from Berosus, hurries carelessly over the whole time that precedes the accession of Nebuchadnezzar (b.c. 604), in order to reach the point at which Jewish history comes in contact with the Babylonian empire. We are again dependent, therefore, chiefly on Assyrian sources of information for the history of Babylon under the Lower Assyrian Empire; when, if its conquest was more thoroughly effected than before, its fits of resistance are attested by the boasts made of the victories that overpowered them. The brief independence won by Nabonassar, and again by AEerodach-Baladan, gave a foretaste of the empire secured by Nabopolassar.

§ 3. The brief duration of that empire may account in part for its confusion with the Assyrian by the Greek writers, who had not our knowledge of its true importance. The greatness of Babylon took a powerful hold on their imagination, principally on account of its marvellous conquest by Cyrus ; for their whole interest in Oriental history centred in the growth of the Persian power :⁴ and this greatness was that of the city which they regarded as the second capital of the Assyrian empire. But to us the magnificence of Babylon is eclipsed by the important part assigned to the empire in the scheme of the providential government of the

¹ Svncell. p. 207, B.

² Rawlinson, Appendix to Book I. of Herodotus, Essay VIII.

³ See Clinton, "F. II." vol. iii. p. xvii.

⁴ This is the key-note of the history of Herodotus.

THE CHALDJEAN KINGS.

341

world ; and especially to its one great monarch, the most complete type of an Oriental despot, who is himself controlled by a still higher power. Of the 88 years which form the duration of the empire (b.c 625-538) just half (43 years) are filled up by the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; and, with the exception of the fall of Babylon itself, the whole interest of the story centres in him. Of the six kings who form the Eighth (Chaldtean) Dynasty of Berosus, three (the third, fourth, and fifth) are of the slightest possible importance, their united reigns only just reaching six years; and the first and last bear no comparison with Nebuchadnezzar. The chronology of the whole series is fixed, with almost absolute certainty, as follows:

Years. b.c.

1. Nabopolassar.........................21....................625^004

2. Nebuchadnezzar......................43......................004-561

3. Evil-Meeodacii....................... 2......................501-559

4. Neriglissar.........................3-4 ...................... 559-550

5. Laborosoaroiiod....................(9 m.).....................550-555

6. Nabonadids...........................17......................555-53S

Belsiiazzar, associated with his father towards the end of his reign.

§ 4. These kings are not only called Chaldaans by Berosus and several of the classical writers; but in contemporary Jewish history and prophecy this epithet⁵ is regularly applied to them, their kingdom, and their armies. Whatever its origin, it is now clearly no longer a mere geographical expression. There can be little doubt that these sovereigns belonged to the sacred caste;⁶ and, after all the discussions about their origin, the series of royal names obtained from the cuneiform inscriptions makes it probable that they represented (whether in fact or by a genealogical fiction) the ancient native dynasties. In this respect, the revolution which overthrew the Assyrian monarchy, and gave Babylon the supremacy under Nabopolassar, seems to have resembled that by which Ardshir long afterwards wrested the dominion of Persia from the Parthians.

While in this sense Chaldcean, and perhaps partly for that very reason, the monarchy was more strictly Babylonian than ever before. During the Assyrian supremacy, we have seen Babylonia divided among different princes; and the centre of resistance, as was natural for strategic reasons, is generally m the lower country, or Chaldtea, Nabonassar

⁵ That is, iu the Hebrew form of Chasdim.

⁰ Among other indications, observe in the Book of Daniel the ascendency of the Chaldaean caste at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The sacred elements in their names are some sign of that sacerdotal character which we kuow to have belonged both to the Assyrian and Babylonian, kings. Whatever be the origin of the name, the idea that it now first arose, with the descent of a conquering race from the region of Zagrus, is quite exploded. The name of Kaldi has occurred long before this in the Assyrian annals for a people in Babylonia.

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THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

was reigning at Babylon, apparently unmolested by Tjglath-pileser II., while the latter was conquering Chaldrea ; and the weight of the wars of Sargon, Sennacherib, and Asshur-bani-pal, fell upon the lower country. While the southern cities thus suffered—as is attested by the early date of the memorials found in their ruins—Babylon grew into importance as the seat of the Assyrian government, and the centre of the national worship. In the time of Sennacherib (or even earlier) Isaiah describes it as " the golden city," " the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees's excellency."⁷ Esar-haddon's residence and building of a palace there mark its undisputed rank as the capital; and such it remained under its new kings.

§ 5. Nabopolassar⁸ (b.c 625-604) first appears as an Assyrian officer, who was sent by the last king of Assyria to Babylon, as we have seen, against the insurrectionary bands of the Babylonians and Susianians. In choosing a Babylonian for this mission—as we may suppose Nabopolassar to have been, from his name, and still more from his being called a Chaldaean—the king of Assyria would naturally seek to conciliate his southern subjects, and to use the local influence of Nabopolassar. But, whether from ambition, or patriotism, or necessity, that influence was thrown into the opposite scale, and we have seen how Nabopolassar caused himself to be proclaimed king of Babylon^ and joined with Cyaxares in overthrowing the Assyrian empire.⁹

We must here guard against the mistake that the new Babylonian kingdom succeeded to the empire of Assyria. After the fall of Nineveh, all that, had been most properly Assyria?!—the districts on the upper and middle Tigris— fell to the share of the Medes; what Babylon gained was the independence of her own country, enlarged by a union with Susiana, and the part of the Assyrian empire which lay along and to the west of the Euphrates. This division marks at once the new part she had to play in Western Asia. Separated from the regions of Zagrus and Armenia, on which the Assyrians had only kept their hold by incessant wars, she was at liberty to seek expansion towards the west, where she would naturally be brought into conflict with Judaaa and

⁷ Isaiah xiii. 19; xiv. 14. Of course some allowance must be made here for prophetic anticipatiou.

⁸ Xabu-jml-uzur, i. e., Xebo, 'protect (thy or my) son. All our information about Nabopolassar is obtained from the fragments of Berosus, Polyhistor, Abydenus, etc., chiefly through Eusebius and the other chronographers. Some of these writers abbreviate his name into Busalussor (more probably, Bapolussor) by the same process by which the .modern Arabs convert Xebuchadnezzar into Bokht-i-nazc^: His accession is tixed by the astronomical Canon to Jau. 27, b.o. 625, whatever may be the date of his alliance with the Medes. ⁹ See chap. xiv. § 17.

REIGN of NABOPOLASSAR.

343

Egypt. But, for nearly the whole of his reign, Nabopolassar appears to have found occupation in organizing his new kingdom, and in aiding—probably under the terms of their treaty—his Median ally in his course of conquest in Asia Minor. While he was thus engaged and co-operating in the great war of Cyaxares against Alyattes, king of Lydia, he availed himself of the terror caused in both armies by an eclipse of the sun in the very crisis of a great battle, and negotiated the peace which fixed the boundary of the Median and Lydian empires at the river Halys.¹⁰

§ 6. Just about this time, the politic old king Psammetichus was succeeded on the throne of Egypt by his enterprising son, Neco, who forced Nabopolassar to a defensive war upon the Euphrates. We have seen how Neco's first success was turned into disaster by the defeat which he suffered at Carchemish from Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar. This victory at once transferred to Babylon all the territory west of the Euphrates once belonging to Egypt, then to the kingdom of Israel, afterwards to Assyria, and lately reconquered by Neco, and gave her at one blow the empire of Western Asia. "And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt, unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt" (b.c 605).¹¹

Nebuchadnezzar had pursued the Egyptian to his own frontier, when news was brought to him of his father's death. Intrusting his army, and his booty, and his droves of captives, to chosen officers, to lead them home by the usual route, he sped across the desert with a small escort, to secure his rights. Arriving at Babylon, he quietly received the crown from the chief of the Chaldaaan priests, who had kept it for him, and acted as regent in his absence.¹²

We learn, from the testimony of his son, that Nabopolassar commenced those great works of fortification and engineering at Babylon which Nebuchadnezzar completed, and

¹⁰ Herod, i. T4. Comp. chap, xxiii. § 14. But if the fall of Nineveh be placed in n.c. COG, this war would fall in the latter part of this reign. It is worthy of notice that Abydenns mentions the accession of Nebuchadnezzar directly after the taking of Nineveh, which indeed the Book of Tobit (xiv. 15) ascribes to Nebuchaduezzar himself in conjunction with Assuerus (i. e., Cyaxares). If jj.c. 000 be the true date, Nebuchadnezzar, whom we find the next year commanding for his father on the Euphrates, may very well have had a share in the campaign. Herodotus calls the king of Baby-Ion Labynetus, a name quite unlike Xabopolassar, but afterwards applied to Xabo-nadius, the last king of Babylon (Xabunahid = Labynet). M. Oppert supposes that Herodotus used this name for all the kings whose names began with Xebo, viz. Xebo-pola&sar, Xebuchadiwzzar, and Xabonadius, just as Sardanapahis represents all the Assyrian names formed from Asshur-(. . )-pal. The L may perhaps be an Ionic softening. The same change seems to have taken place in the name Ltbo-ro-soarchod*

¹¹ 2 Kings xxiv. 7 ; comp. c. viii. 5 9. ¹² Berosus, Fr. 14.

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

which appear to have been strengthened when the last king of Babylon was expecting the attack of Cyrus.¹³

§ 7. Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuchadrezzar, or Nabu-chodonosor,¹⁴ came to the throne, according to Ptolemy's Canon, on the 21st of January, b.c. 604, and "died about the beginning of b.c. .561 ; by far the longest reign of any in the whole series of Assyrian and Babylonian kings. Of his position in the annals of the Babylonian empire, it has been truly said that " its military glory is due chiefly to him; while the constructive energy, which constitutes its especial characteristic, belongs to it still more markedly through his character and genius. It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians would have had no place in history."¹⁵

If he left annals like those of the great Assyrian kings, they have perished in the utter destruction of Babylon ; but, for the true lessons of his history, their place is more than supplied by the sacred writings. No long and boastful details of countries overrun and subjected to tribute, of cities stormed and razed, and prisoners and spoil carried away to Babylon, would have had half the value of the brief record of the part he played as the instrument of Providence in the captivity of the Jews, or of the dramatic pictures in the Book of Daniel of his humiliation before the God of the conquered people; while all the poetry to which history has given birth, whether of the tragic muse or the patriotic song, is surpassed by the sublime prophecies of the fate reserved for proud Babylon and her mighty king.¹⁶

§ 8. We have seen how Nebuchadnezzar, just before his accession to the throne, created the empire of Babylon at

, ¹³ See Notes and Illustrations (a). Herodotus (i. 1S5) ascribes these works to Nitocris, whom he clearly regards as a queen regnant, and whom he makes the mother of " Labynetus " (i. e., Nabonadius) the last kiug of Babylon (i. 1SS). She executed them, he tells ns, through fear of an attack from the Metier, " who had taken a large number of cities, and among them Nineveh ;" but the attack apprehended is plainly that of Cyprus, which he proceeds to relate as taking place under Labynetus. There seems, therefore, no sufficient ground for the view of those writers who make Nitocris the wife of Nabopolassar. See Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne," vol. ii. pp. 7-9.

¹⁴ Of the Greek forms (iu which the penult is short)—N afiovxddovoutcp (LXX.), Nu-fiovxa&ovoo-opos (Beros.), NaftoKokucrapo? (Ptol. Can.), KajloKobpoaopo? (Strab.), and Nu-fiovaodpucropos (Abyd. and Megasth.)—the last comes nearest to the true name, Xabu-kudtirri-tizur, which M. Oppert explains "Nebo, -protect my race (or, tlic youth)," but Sir Henry Rawlinson, "Nebo is- the protector of landmarks" (the middle element, Icudur, being of doubtful-meaning). Hence, of the Hebrew forms, the exceptional one with the r (Nebiiehadrezzar), which is used by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is clearly preferable to the usual form in Kings, Chronicles, and Daniel; but tha latter is too fixed in onr usage to be changed. Perhaps the difference may be accounted for by a Semitic reading of the middle elemeut, the Kudur being Hamitic, as in Cftedorlaomer, etc. The Persian cuneiform inscriptions have Nabukudrachara (Bab. Inscr.).

¹⁵ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii., p. 4S9.

¹⁶ Besides the notices of Scripture, our chief sources for the whole history of Babylon are the fragments already mentioned as preserved by the chrouographers.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR.—TYRE AND JUDAH.

345

one stroke by the victory of Carchemish. But within the region west of the Euphrates, formerly ruled by Assyria, there remained two powers, almost contemptible in magnitude, but yet mighty—the one in its commercial wealth and colonial empire, the other in its exclusive spirit of religious patriotism.

Tyre, now at the height of her prosperity, drew the rest of Phoenicia into resistance ; and Judjea, which religious declension and political weakness had left as helpless between Babylon and Egypt as a ship on which two fields of ice are closing, assumed that courage of despair which was wont to be most tenacious when her religion was at its lowest ebb. Unfortunately, the campaign of Nebuchadnezzar against Tyre is involved in so much obscurity, that the question is still disputed whether it was simultaneous with or whether it succeeded the Jewish wars.

When Nebuchadnezzar pursued Pharaoh Neco from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt, Jehoiakim, who had recently been placed by Neco on the Jewish throne, ventured to withstand the conqueror. Jerusalem was taken after* a brief siege; and, among the spoil and captives left by Nebuchadnezzar to be brought after him to Babylon, were some of the vessels of the temple, and certain chosen youths of the royal and princely families, including Daniel and his three companions. Jehoiakim himself, though destined, at first to share their captivity, was however restored to his throne.¹⁷

He ha.d now to make his choice between the loyal acceptance of his position as a vassal, or reliance on the aid of Egypt. In spite of the lesson of Carchemish, and the essentially anti-Egyptian principles of the Hebrew monarchy, which were earnestly enforced by Jeremiah, Jehoiakim chose the latter policy, to which the princes of Judah always inclined.¹⁸ After being " the servant of Nebuchadnezzar for three years, he turned and rebelled against him,"¹⁹ in the seventh year of his reign (b.c. 602). His reliance on Egypt, which Josephus expressly assigns as a motive,²⁰ is implied in

¹⁷ 2 Kings xxiv. 1: 2. Chron. xxxvi. G, 7 ; Dan. i. 1, 2. The last passage places Nebuchadnezzar's advance against Jerusalem in the 3d year of Jehoiakim (u.o. 005); and one of the most important synchronisms of this period is that of the first year of Nebuchadnezzar with the 4th of Jehoiakim (Jerem. xxi. 1). The apparent discrepancy is iu truth a confirmation, as the capture of Jerusalem was before his accession; and the date is confirmed by comparing Dan. i. 5 with ii. 1. Of course, there is no difficulty in his being styled king. Some writers (apparently ou no other ground than the title) assert that he was associated by his father in the throne about u.c. G07. But this seems improbable from his haste to go home and secure the crown.

¹⁸ For a fuller account of the state of parties at Jerusalem, and especially of the testimony borne by Jeremiah, and his persecution by the king and princes of Judah, see the " Student's Old Testament History," chap. xxv. § 9.

« 2 Kings xxiv. 1. ²⁰ " Ant." x. G, 5 2.

15*

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THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

what seems to be the statement that he was disappointed of such aid, for—in consequence of the blow received at Carchemish—" The king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land."²¹ But there were other circumstances that favored the attempt, though what they were is doubtful, from the uncertainty about Nebuchadnezzar's movements at this time.²²

Here the Scripture narrative becomes so brief that we are dependent on Josephus and a fragment of Alexander Poly-histor²³ for what followed. In his seventh year (n.c. 598), according to Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Tyre and Jerusalem, investing the former city, and advancing in person against the latter. At all events, the date of his attack on Jerusalem (b.c. 597) is fixed by the eleven years of Jehoiakim's reign.²⁴ Polyhistor, who speaks only of the expedition against Judaea, says that Nebuchadnezzar was aided by his Median ally,²⁵ and that the united armies made up 10,000 chariots, 120,000 horse, and 180,000 foot.²⁸ Having overrun Galilee, Samaria, and Gilead, and taken Scy-thopolis, he invested Jerusalem. As no help came from Egypt, Jehoiakim surrendered ; and Nebuchadnezzar not only put him to death, but treated his dead body with indignity. This fact, stated by Josephus only, is confirmed by the repeated prophecies of Jeremiah—"They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord ! or, Ah his glory ! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth

²" 2 Kings xxiv. 7.

²² This could hardly have been the war with Phoenicia, since, according to the earliest date, Nebuchadnezzar did not march against Tyre till his 7th year (Joseph, "c. Ap." i. 21), at the same time that he marched against Jehoiakim. Nor could it have been the war of Media agaiust Lydia, if the date of u.o. 610 for the peace between those two empires be correct. Bnt there may have been some other enterprise in which Nebuchadnezzar was bound to aid his ally Cyaxares, or he may have waited for his aid.

²³ Fr. 24, Midler. This writer, whom we have had occasion to quote before, was a native of Miletus, where he was taken prisoner by the Romans and became a freed-man of the celebrated Snlla, whence his full name, Cornelius Alexander Poi.v-niGTOR. Among other works, he wrote " Histories of Assyria" and of "Babylonia or ChakUea," in which he followed Berosus chiefly, aud a work "On the Jews," for which one of his chief authorities was Eupolemus, the author of a work "On the Kings of Judrea," who lived about i;.o. 140-100. It is from this Eupolemus that the account now cited is derived. The fragments of Eupolemus are collected in Muller's "Fragmenta Ilistoricorum Graecornm," vol. fit pp. 206, fol. (ed. Didot).

²⁴ 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5, 6.

' ²⁵ He calls the king Astibares instead of Cyaxares.

²⁶ From 2 Kings xxiv. 2, it appears that " bauds of Syrians, and Moabite?. and Ammonites" were joined in the army of Nebuchadnezzar with his own "bands of Chal-d?eans;" for there seems no sufficient reason for regarding the attacks of these bands, which "Jehovah sent against Jndah to destroy it," as minor predatory incursions, preceding Nebuchadnezzar's own invasion. It may have been so: bnt such an inference can not be drawn with certainly from a passage which briefly epitomizes the whole process of the destruction of Judah under Jehoiakim. It is dangerous to piece out history by making principal facts of these incidental notices.

THE GREAT CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH.

347

beyond the gates of Jerusalem."—"His dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost."²⁷

§ 9. Equally emphatic is the ensuing denunciation of his son and successor, Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar set upon the vacant throne : "As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence ; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee oat, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born ; and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return..... O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the

Lord ! Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of Detvid, and ruling any more in -Judah."²⁹ Such was the final denunciation of the Greett Captivity of Judah, and the extinction of the Jewish temporal monarchy, handed down from Solomon, in the person of Jehoiachin.

The former event was brought about in three months and ten clays²⁹ from the accession of the young king; probably through renewed intrigues with Egypt by his mother Ne-hushta and the princes of Judah, who governed in his name; for it appears to have been chiefly in this sense that the young king "did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his" father had done."³⁰

Nebuchadnezzar (who, according to Josephus, had returned to the siege of Tyre) first sent an army to form the siege of Jerusalem,³¹ and then came in person to receive the surrender of the city. "And Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he, aud his mother, and his

²⁷ Jerem. xxii. IS, 19 ; xxxvi. 30.

²⁸ Jerem. xxii. 24-30. The prophecy proceeds with the prediction of the spiritual restoration of the monarchy in Ihe reign of the Messiah. The line of Solomon, to whom the temporal kingdom had been promised, ending with Jehoiachin : and the genealogy of Jesus Christ is traced from "David through Nathan (Luke iii.). The genealogy in Matthew i.—which appears to make Jesus the descendant of Solomon and the line of the Jewish kings, through SalaUiiel, a son born to Jehoiachin during the captivity--is really the technical expression of his claim to the throne through Salathiel, the heir of Jehoiachin, who stands in the other genealogy as the son of Neri. (See the " Diet, of the Bible," art. " Genealogy of Jesns Christ.")

²⁹ March to June, b.o. 597.

³⁰ 2 Kings xxiv. 8, 9 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9. The age of the king is 18 in the former passage, bnt S in the latter. He appears, at all events, to have been under his mother's tutelage. 31 ₂ Kings xxiv. 10.

348

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

servants, and his princes, and his officers (or eunuchs) : and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign "³² (b.c. 597). The temple was stripped of all its remaining sacred vessels. The king was carried captive to Babylon, with his mother, his wives, his officers, and all the princes, to the number of 2000; " all the mighty men of valor," " all that were strong and apt for war," reduced as they were to 7000 by previous captivities and losses; with all the craftsmen and smiths, to the number of 1000, that those left behind might be helpless. The captives amounted in all to 10,000, and "none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land."³³ Over this miserable remnant, Mattaniah, the youngest son of Josiah, and the uncle of the late king, was set up to reign under the new name of Zedekiah, and bound to fidelity by a solemn oath.³⁴ To this oath, and the whole policy now pursued by Nebuchadnezzar towards Judah, Ezekiel alludes in a very striking passage: "The king of Babylon hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him : he hath also taken the mighty of the land: that the kingdom might be base, and might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand."³⁶

The surprising part of this transaction is that, after the provocation he had received now for the third time, Nebuchadnezzar did not utterly destroy the rebellious city. Such a wretched phantom of a kingdom, deprived of every man fit for war and even of the craftsmen to forge their weapons, could be of no use as a frontier garrison against Egypt. Some higher motive to forbearance seems to be implied in the passage quoted from Ezekiel; and such a motive may be found in those wonderful revelations recorded in the Book of Daniel, which surround the great figure of Nebuchadnezzar with a light reflected from a source above all earthly splendor. For it was as early as the secondyear of his reign™ (b.c. 603) that the young king, lately returned from his conquests beyond the Euphrates, his mind filled with the great prospect before him, and prepared by his initiation into the mysteries of the Chaldseans to believe in prophetic visions— "dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him." We need not give the details of

¹³ 2 Kings xxiv. 12. From this epoch are dated the 70 years of the captivity, and also the prophecies of Ezekiel.

³³ 2 Kings xxiv. 13-16 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. Among the captives were the prophet Ezekiel aud the grandfather of Mordecai. Jeremiah remained at Jerusalem.

⁸⁴ 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13.

³⁵ Ezek. xvii. 13,14. See the repeated allusions to the oath in this chapter. ³⁸ Dan. ii. 1.

REBELLION OF ZEDEKIAH.

that most fascinating chapter, which tells how a captive Hebrew youth, who had just completed the training that fitted him to stand before the king,³⁷ revealed the mystery of that colossal image of the empires of the world, with the king himself for its golden head, which he saw- dashed to pieces by a heavenly power: our present concern is with the king's confession of'the supreme deity and royalty of Daniel's God. It is not strange that the monarch should spare the sacred city of the God whose power he thus confessed. A similar feeling urged Titus to untiring efforts to save the temple: and, in both cases, it was the obstinacy of the Jews that frustrated the forbearance of their heathen conquerors.

§ 10. Such Avas now the course of the infatuated Zedekiah. For eight or nine years he remained in helpless submission. Of the occupations of Nebuchadnezzar during that interval we are not informed. According to Josephus the thirteen years' siege of Tyre Avas still in progress ; but this would not prevent his residence at Babylon during at least parts of every year; and he was probably proceeding with his great works at that capital.³⁸ His watchfulness over the condition of Jerusalem (and the need for it) is proved by the example he made of two of the false prophets, men of profligate lives, who kept promising a speedy return_ from the captivity, and " whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire ;"³⁹ an example to which the escape of Shadrach, Me-shach, and Abednego gave peculiar emphasis. We find Zedekiah himself going to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign (b.c 594-3).⁴⁰

If he was summoned thither to clear himself from doubts cast on his loyalty, he soon justified the suspicion. Neco, king of Egypt, had received too severe a lesson to " venture anymore out of his land," where we have seen him engaged in far more useful enterprises.⁴¹ But the accession of the rash and arrogant Pharaoh-Hophra (to call him by his Scripture name) roused Zedekiah to the courage of despair.

⁸⁷ An incidental confirmation of the date. Comp. Dan. i. 5 and IS: the "three years" wonld, by Hebrew reckoning, extend from any part of b.c C05 to any part of b.c 603.

³⁸ The way in which his standard inscription speaks of these works as begun by his father and continued by himself, and of the pressing necessity for guarding the city against inundation, would be sufficient to show that they went on from the beginning of his reign. (See notes and Illustrations—A.)

³⁹ Jerem. xxix. 22, 23. Concerning the opposition of these false prophets to Jeremiah; his exhortations to the Jews at home and at Babylon ; and the general state of parties at Jerusalem ; see the "Student's Old Testament History," chap. xxv. § 11.

⁴⁰ Jer. 1. 51. It was on this occasion that Jeremiah sent to the captive Jews, by the hand of Seraiah, that wonderful prophecy of the fall of Babylon in which the snblime poetry is not more striking than the dramatic details of the capture of the city, and the exact description of its desolation to the present day. Jerem. 1., Ii.

⁴¹ Chap. viii. 5 12 : for the character of Apries, or Pharaoh-Hophra, see ib. § 14.

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THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

The intrigues, which the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel" prove to have gone on during the whole reign of Zedekiah, now ripened into a conspiracy for the aid of Egypt and into open rebellion. The Hebrew annalist distinctly marks that it was from no spirit of patriotism, but in proud resistance to " Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord," that " he rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God;" and Ezekiel names the very terms of the treaty: "He rebelled against him,in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people"⁴³—cavalry and infantry. His treachery was punished just as the prophet goes on to foretell, and as the annalist relates: "It came to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about;⁴⁴ and on the very same day Ezekiel uttered to the exiles at Babylon a prophecy of its destruction. The army of Nebuchadnezzar, comprising "all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion,"⁴⁵ had first overrun the whole country,⁴⁰ and taken all the fortified cities, except Lachish and Azekah, which were still invested.⁴⁷ Zedekiah, while reinforcing his weak garrison by manumitting all Hebrew slaves, imprisoned the prophet whom he could not silence; and Jeremiah, in denouncing the failure of the defense, even from his prison, gave a pledge of the future restoration which he now prophesied, by an act which was repeated nearly four centuries later by the Roman who bought for its full value the field on which Hannibal had piiched his camp before Rome. It is full time that the patriotism of God's people should be placed as high as that of heathens in the page of history.⁴⁸

The siege of Jerusalem continued for two years and a half, to the eleventh year of Zedekiah ;⁴⁹ but not without interruption. Pharaoh-Hophra marched to its relief with a great

⁴² For the details see the "Student's Old Testament History," I. c.

⁴³ Ezek. xvii. 15.

⁴¹ 2 Kings xxv. 1 ; Jerem. xxxix. 1 ; lil. 1. The date of the investment was the 10th of Thebet, abont Dec. 20, n.c 5S0, an anniversary still kept as a fast by the Jews. When dates are given to the day, it must be remembered that their conversion into days of our calendar is only approximate. The Jewish calendar was (and is) strictly lunar; and the year began with a new moon : the saCred year (that now in question) with the new moon nearest the vernal equinox; the civil year with the new moon nearest the autumnal equinox. Instead of attempting (except where great exactness is required) to eompnte astronomically the precise correspondence of the calendars for each particular year, it is convenient to give it as for a normal year, viz. one in which the new moon of the first month falls precisely at the vernal equinox. ⁴⁵ Jerem. xxxiv. 1.

⁴⁶ Joseph. "Ant." x. 7, § 3. 47 j_erem. xxxiv. 7.

⁴⁸ Jerem. xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv. •. Liv. xxxvi. 11. ⁴⁹ 2 Kings xxv. 2; Jerem. Hi. 5.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

Sol

army, and took Gaza.⁶⁰ Jeremiah's prophecy, that the Egyptian himself was doomed to perish, was regarded as treason amidst the joy which filled the city, " when the army of the Chaldaeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army."⁵¹ Josephus says that the Egyptians were defeated in a battle; but the prophet seems rather to imply that they retreated before the overwhelming forces of Nebuchadnezzar : " Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land."⁵² At all events the Chaldaeans returned, as the prophet had foretold; and Jerusalem w.\.; again invested (according to Josephus for 18 months)⁵³ and reduced to the last extremity of famine.⁵⁴

On the 9th day of the 4th month, in the 11th year of Zedekiah and the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar (b.c. 58G),⁵⁵ a breach was made in the wall; and the great officers of Nebuchadnezzar entered the city, while Zedekiah and his men of war fled by the garden gate of the palace."⁰ They were pursued to the plain of Jericho, where the little army was dispersed, and the king was taken and brought to Nebuchadnezzar, who had retired to Riblah, in Hamath (according to Josephus, to watch the progress of the siege of Tyre). There " they gave judgment upon Zedekiah." His eyes were put out after he had seen his sons slain before his face; and he was carried in fetters of brass to Babylon, where he died ;⁵⁷ exactly as the prophet had foretold : " 5fet shall he not see it, though he shall die there."⁵⁸

The systematic destruction of Jerusalem was begun by Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, on the 7th day of the 5th month (Ab = July-August).⁵⁹ The Temple was given to the flames, with all the palaces and private houses; its

⁵⁰ Jerem. xxxvii. 5; xlvii. 5. ⁵¹ Jerem. xxxvii. ⁰² Jerem. xxxvii. 7.

⁵³ Joseph. "Ant." x. 7, § 4. This would place the retreat of Pharaoh at the end of b. o. 5SS.

⁶⁴ 2 Kings xxv. 3; Jerem. xxxvii. 21 ; xxxviii. 0. Respecting the state of things in the city, and especially the dealings of the kiug and prince* with Jeremiah, see the " Student's Old Testament History," chap. xxv. § 12.

^C5 The 0th of Thammnz, about the 2Gth of June.

⁶⁶ 2 Kinirs xxv. 4 ; Jerem. xxxix. 3,13.

« 2 Kings xxv. 4-7. ^as Ezek. xii. 13.

⁵³ 2 Kings xxiv. S ; where the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar is expressly named, the previous dates having been given by the years of Zedekiah. In comparing them it should be remembered that the years of Nebuchadnezzar date from Jam-try n.o. G04; those of Zedekiah from Midsummer, u.c. 597; and that the months nre sot those of the years of either king, but of the Jewish sacred year. The epoch of the destruction of Jerusalem, on which the whole system of sacred and (to a great extent) of Oriental chronology may be said to hang is now fixed with certainty to is.o. 5SG, if the date of the Canon for Nebuchadnezzar's accession is right. (The received chronology of Archbp. Ussher gives is.o. 5SS; Clinton, is.o.5S7.) The great Fast of the Jews for the twofold Destruction of the Temple (for that by Titus is fixed by them to the same day) is held on the 10th of Ab (about the 26th of July in a normal year).

352

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

brass-work having been broken up, and carried away with the sacred vessels. The scanty gleanings of its population, with those who had deserted to the Chaldaeans during the siege, were carried into captivity ; only the poorest being left to till the ground and dress tbe vines, with a few men of consideration, who, like Jeremiah, were held to deserve special favor. On the other hand, the high-priest, the second priest, and several other officers, with sixty of the citizens, were chosen for examples of the conqueror's vengeance, and put to death at Riblah. The small number of these victims and the sparing of Zedekiah's life, after so many rebellions and such signal treachery, not only seems mercy itself compared with the massacres recorded of the Assyrian kings, but places the Babylonian despot in favorable contrast with Titus, that strange " delieiae humani generis." We can not but trace the motive already referred to, in this conduct, in the respectful treatment of Jeremiah, and more especially in the singular exemption of Judaea from the usual system of colonization, which had been carried out in northern Israel; leaving the land ready for the promised return of its chastened people, after it had rested for the sabbatic years of which their avarice had deprived it.⁰⁰ The remnant left behind were committed to the care of a Jewish governor, Ged-aliah, who was soon after murdered by Ishmael, a prince of the royal blood; and the remnant of the people were led or forced mto Egypt.⁶¹

§ 11. The residence of Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, in Ccele-Syria (probably a fortress which had succeeded to the rank of Hamath), points clearly to operations in that quarter; and, if the dates of Josephus are right,⁶² the thirteen years' siege of Tyre ended the year after the fall of Jerusalem, namely, in b.c. 585. Those who make the wars consecutive place the fall of Tyre in b.c. 574. There are passages of the Hebrew prophets which would go far to settle the question, if we could be sure whether they refer to a siege actually in progress or only to an imminent attack._t At all events, they furnish a most striking picture of the wealth and power of Tyre, as the commercial capital of the world, with all its nations enumerated as pouring their riches into her lap, and their astonishment and desolation at her fall.⁶³ *In their full-

⁶⁰ 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21.

⁶¹ For a fuller account of this remnant, who formed an important colony iu Egypt, see the " Student's Old Testament History," chap. xxv. § 13. ⁶² See above, § S.

⁶³ See Isaiah xxiii.; Jerem. xxv.,xxvii., xlvii., and especially the great prophecies rf E/ekiel (xxvi., xxvii., xxviii.), which, in their turn, furnish the type of the apocalyptic prophecy of the fall of the mystic Babylon (Rev. xviii.). We have to recur to the subject under the history of Phoenicia.

CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

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est sense, those prophecies seem to look forward to the later destruction of Tyre by Alexander; and it has even been questioned—from a passage in which Ezekiel intimates that Nebuchadnezzar and his army lost the fruit of their labor⁶⁴ —whether he really took the island city, or only " Old Tyre " on the main-land.

At all events, he became master of all Phoenicia and Syria,⁶⁵ and followed up their conquest by that of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, whose hatred had led them to serve willingly in the Avar against the JeAVS, and Avho uoav felt the cruelties over which they then exulted."⁶ The fabulous accounts, Avhich make Nebuchadnezzar advance to the Pillars of Hercules, and conquer the Iberians of Spain, settling his captives on the shores of Colchis.⁰⁷ are perhaps "founded on a claim to sovereignty over the Tyrian colonies, as involved in the conquest of the mother city. There is not the least reason to suppose that such a claim was acknoAvl-edged by tribute or in any other Avay. The result of these campaigns was the submission of all the countries of Western Asia, from the Euphrates to the frontier of Egypt, to the Babylonian yoke, with a completeness of conquest never attained by Assyria.

§ 12. Next came the turn of Egypt, with which the Babylonian had a long account to settle. Josephus⁰⁸ says that, within four years of the fall of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar led an army into Egypt to punish Yaphres (Pharaoh-Hophra) for the aid he had given to Zedekiah ; but (according to his own date, b.c 581) he is clearly wrong in adding that (on this occasion at least) Vaphres Avas put to death, and a vassal king set up by Nebuchadnezzar. The element of truth, however, in the latter statement, combined with the passage cited above from Ezekiel, suggests the possible explanation that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt twice—about b.c 581, and again about 570.

At the former time, there Avas a sufficient motive, not only in the aid which Apries had given to Zedekiah, bnt in the shelter granted to the Jewish rebels who had murdered

⁶⁴ Ezek. xxix. IS. This prophecy is dated on the first day of the 27th year of the great captivity, that is, n. o. 571 (the epoch being n.o. 597), the very year of the end of the Tyrian war, according to the later date. But this is not quite decisive; for the reference to Tyre is only introductory to the mention of the reward which the king was to have in Egypt. Still it is an argument for the later date.

⁶⁵ Berosus, ap. Joseph. " c. Ap." i. 20.

⁶⁶ See the repeated allusions in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and Psalm exxxvii. 7.

⁶⁷ Megasthenes, quoted by Abydeuus (Enseb. " Prsep. Ev." ix. 41; " Chron." i. 10, §3); Moses Choren. " Hist." Armcn." ii. 7. These stories have a suspicions resemblance to those abont Sesostris, by whom, perhaps, it'was not thought fit that Nebuchadnezzar should be surpassed. ⁶⁸ " Antiq."x. 9, § 7-

354

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

Gedaliah. The degree of cliastisement then inflicted depends on the question whether the prophetic description of the devastation and shameful captivity of Thebes refers to this or to the later invasion, which appears to have been a serious war of conquest, and—though the Egyptian version of the story conceals the fact—a conquest actually effected by the elevation of Amasis to the throne.⁰⁹ Having regard to the same system of concealment, it is by no means impossible that Apries may have been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar.⁷⁰ In the long series of wars between Egypt and the powers of Mesopotamia—much as she suffered from the invasions of Esar-haddon and his son—this was the only occasion on which she was really conquered.

§ 13. Thus the wars of Nebuchadnezzar came to an end, probably about his 35th year (n.c. 570), leaving him some nine years of peace so secure that it was not even disturbed by the loss of reason which clouded (according to the popular reckoning) more than two-thirds of that period. During his thirty-four years of war his great works at Babylon not only went on, but his conquests furnished the means for their erection. As we have seen in the Assyrian records, the spoils of war supplied an abundance of costly materials; and from his mode of dealing with the "conquered nations, "he obtained that enormous command of naked human strength which enabled him, without undue oppression of his own people, to carry out on the grandest scale his schemes for at once beautifying and benefiting his kingdom. From the time when he first took the field at the head of an army, he adopted the Assyrian system of forcibly removing almost the whole population of a conquered country and planting it in a distant part of his dominions. Crowds of captives, the produce of his various wars—Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites—were settled in various parts of Mesopotamia," more especially about Babylon. From these unfortunates forced labor was, as a matter of course, required ;⁷² and it seems to have been chiefly, if not solely, by their exertions that the magnificent series of great works was accomplished which formed the special glory of the Babylonian monarchy.

" The chief works expressly ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar by the ancient writers are the following: He built the great wall of Babylon, which, according to the lowest estimate,

⁶⁹ Berosus made a direct statement that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Egypt (ap. Joseph, "c. Ap." i. 19).

⁷⁰ For Sue story of this revolution, as told by Herodotus, see chap. viii. § 14.

⁷¹ Beros. Fr. 14; and the passages of SS. already .cited.

⁷² Polyhistor, Fr. 24.

ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE.

355

must have contained 500,000,000 cubic feet of solid masonry, and must have required three or four times that number of bricks.⁷³ He constructed a new and magnificent palace in the neighborhood of the ancient residence of the kings. H_e made the celebrated Hanging Garden for the gratification of his wife Amyitis. He repaired and beautified the great Temple of Belus, at Babylon.⁷⁴ He dug the huge reservoir near Sippara, said to have been 140 miles in circumference and 180 feet deep, furnishing it with flood-gates, through which its waters could be drawn oft* for purposes of irrigation. He constructed a number of canals, among them the Na.hr Malcha, or " Royal River," a broad and deep channel, which connects the Euphrates with the Tigris.⁷⁵ He built quays and breakwaters along the shores of the Persian Gulf, and he at the same time founded the city of Diridotis, or Teredon, in the vicinity of that sea.

" To these constructions may be added, on the authority either of Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions or of the existing remains, the Birs-i-Nimrud, or great Temple of Nebo at Borsippa; a vast resen oir in Babylon itself, called the Yajmr-SJaqm; an extensive embankment along the course of the Tigris, near Baghdad ;⁷⁶ and almost innumerable temples, waifs, and other public buildings at Cutha, Sippara, Borsippa, Babylon, Chilmad, Bit-Digla, etc. The indefatigable monarch seems to have either rebuilt or at least repaired almost every city and temple throughout the entire country. There are said to be at least a hundred sites in the tract immediately about Babylon which give evidence, by inscribed bricks bearing his legend, of the marvellous activity and energy of this king."⁷⁷

§ 14. It is not surprising that the praise which his inscriptions give to his deities, for the ability to execute such works, should have been mingled with his own glorification. But his pride was chastised by the Power before whom "Bel boweth down: Nebo stoop'eth :"—a Power whom the " servant " of those gods, nay, their " son," as he ventures to style himself, had learned to reverence. For it is the point most noteworthy in his whole history, that this greatest type of the Oriental despot was himself taught—and became, unlike others, the conscious instrument of teaching the world

⁷³ Babylonian bricks are about a foot square, and from 3 to 4 inches thick.

⁷⁴ "All the inscribed bricks hitherto discovered in the Babil mound bear Nebuchadnezzar's legend."

™ "This is perhaps the Chebar of Ezekiel." This was a restoration: the canal "lad been dug ages before by Khammurabi. See chap. x. § 14.

⁷⁶ This embankment is entirely composed of bricks which have never neen disturbed, and which bear Nebuchadnezzar's name."

⁷⁷ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 40G-4S3.

3f>G THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

—to give glory where only it is due. The BooJ^ of Daniel records the three great lessons, which form a series, coming home closer and closer to the king's own person. First, as we have seen, in the beginning of his reign, his youthful dreams of ambition were turned to the only universal empire which the King of kings will suffer to be set up over the earth.⁷³ Next, at a time not specified, but when—as it would seem—his conquests were completed, he celebrated them by the dedication of the colossal golden image of his patron deity'⁹ on the plain of Dura, and called on the representatives of " every people, nation, and language," whom he had brought together at Babylon, to adore the god by whose power they had been conquered: but the salvation of the three Hebrew youths from the flames which slew their persecutors drew from him a formal decree, confessing that " no other god can deliver after this sort," and securing toleration for those who would not " serve nor worship any god except their own god."⁸⁰ Thus Bel was humbled ; but it needed a third lesson to humble the king himself: nor let it be forgotten that that lesson is recorded bj himself in a form not the less authentic because it is preserved for us in the Bible, and not in a cuneiform inscription.⁸¹

It was when " he was at rest in his house, and flourishing in his palace"⁸² — amidst the empire he had won and the capital he had finished⁸³—that, as the whole narrative most clearly implies, the temptation gained upon him to give the glory of his greatness to himself. As at the beginning of Ids reign, the thought shaped itself into a dream, and the dream was made a warning revelation. It is needless to explain the image (used on more than one other occasion) of the stately tree which gave a home to all the birds of heaven, shelter to the beasts of the earth, and food to the inhabitants of the world; or of its fate as expounded by Daniel. One year of grace was granted to him," to break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it might be a lengthening of his tranquillity."⁸⁴ But the prosperity and magnificence around him were too captivating. "At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and

⁷⁸ Daniel il.

⁷⁹ This may be assumed from the worship demanded; though it is not expressly stated. ⁸⁰ Daniel iii.

^bl Daniel iv. is a simple translation of the king's own proclamation, made when there was no doubt about the interpretation of cuneiform writing. Or rather, it has the force of an original; for we may be sure that, according to custom, and like the previous decree, it was published in versions intelligible to " all the peoples, nations, and languages" to whom it is addressed (verse 1).

^b2 Daniel iv. 4. ^b3 See verses 20, 30. ^b4 Dan. iv. 27.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S LYCANTHROPY.

357

said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty r*⁸⁵ While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee: and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field : they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs grew like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws."⁸⁶

In fact, Nebuchadnezzar fell a victim to that mental aberration which has often proved the penalty of despotism, but in the strange and degrading form to which physicians have given the name of Lycanthropyy⁸⁷ in which the patient, fancying himself a beast, rejects clothing and ordinary food, and even (as in this case) the shelter of a roof, disuses articulate speech, and sometimes persists in going on all fours. We may assume that Nebuchadnezzar was allowed the range of the private gardens of his palace, and that his condition was concealed from his subjects; to whom, however, he himself formally proclaimed it on his recovery, to teach the lesson he had learnt, " that the heavens do rule,"⁸⁸ and to "praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment; and those that walk in pride He is able to abase."™

It seems, from an inscription, that the government was carried on by the father of the king's son-in-law, who was probably the~ Rob-Mag, or chief of the order of Chaldreans.⁹" Though of course only regent, he assumed the title of "King," like " Darius the Median "under Cyrus. We are not sure whether to infer undisturbed loyalty or disconcerted intrigues from the readiness with which Nebuchadnezzar's " counsellors and his lords sought unto him ; and he was established in his kingdom; when "his reason returned to him," apparently as suddenly as he had lost it, and, with

^bS Compare these phrases with those of the " Standard Inscription," in Notes and Illustrations (A). ⁸⁶ Dan. iv. 29-33.

»⁷ The word is not a modern coiuage, but genuine Greek, \vKavO,>ooTria, fr. Xvk<'<v-0pw7ro9, the were wolf. See the E.«say iii Welcker's " Kleiue Schrifteu " (vol. ii. p. 15T), entitled " Die Lycanthropic ein Aberglanbe nnd eine Krankheit;" and Pnsey's " Lectures on Daniel," pp. 425-430. *•« Dan. iv. 25, 26. ^6U Verse 37.

^uu His name is read Bel-sum-iskin,or Bel-imi-ingar, or Bellcibahsrouk. His dignity is inferred from the fact that his sun Neriglissar'was a Rab-Mag (or, in Babylonian, liabu-emga).

358

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

it, " for the glory of his kingdom, his honor and Brightness returned unto him, and excellent majesty was added unto him.""¹

How long this greater brightness of his closing days lasted depends upon the meaning of the " seven times " appointed for his humiliation, which are commonly interpreted, with Josephus, seven years; though some understand but seven months. The former supposition would leave but two or three years before this great king—to use the simple language of Berosus—fell ill and departed this life,⁰² after a reign of just 43 years (b.c. 581).

§ 15. The real greatness of the Babylonian empire ended, as it had begun, with Nebuchadnezzar. The apocryphal prophecy, which a Greek writer ascribes to the dying monarch, had been indicated in his dream of the colossal image, and was soon plainly revealed in Daniel's counterpart vision of the four beasts ;⁰³ and the germs of its fulfillment were working within and without the empire. Within—the golden head of the colossus was borne up on feet of clay, and its fall was sure to be as sudden as its rise. It possessed no military strength like that with which the Assyrians had for so many centuries conquered and re-conquered the warlike tribes around them. Its chief force consisted in the fiery cavalry of Iretk-Aretby and Lower Chaldrea, well described by the prophet as "terrible and dreadful, swifter than leopards, and sharper than evening wolves"—a " bitter and hasty nation, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs"⁰⁴ —an admirable instrument of rapid conquest, but not of lasting dominion. Without—the better-organized power of the Medes was not likely to remain content with the partition made between Cyaxares and Nabopolassar; and that power was at this very moment passing into the stronger hands of the kindred Persians. The revolt of Cyrus against Astyages, within three years of the death of Nebuchadnezzar, was the prelude to his conquest of Western Asia.

§ 16. Court intrigues and dynastic revolutions came to hasten on the end. Among the three successors of Nebuchadnezzar, not only is there none to compare with him in personal distinction, but their brief history of only 21 years

°i Daniel iv. 36.

^y2 Berosus, Fr. 14. "This sober account of the Chakhean historian "—observes Professor Rawlinson—" contrasts favorably with the marvellous narrative of Aby-deuus, who makes Nebuchadnezzar first proplfcsy the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, and then vanish away out of the sight of men (Euseb. "Pnep. Ev." ix. 41, p. 456, D)." The same historian calculates the age of Nebuchadnezzar as follows: "If we suppose him 15 when he was contracted to the daughter of Cyaxares (is.c. 625), he would have been 30 at his accession, and 70 at his death, in is.o. 561."

»³ Dauiel vii. ^a4 llabakkuk i. 6-10.

EV1L-MER0DACH.—NERIGLISSAR.—LABOROSOARCHOD. 359

is full of obscurities and difficulties. The following is the most probable account:

Of Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, but one act is recorded. Soon after his accession he released Jehoiachin, the captive king of Judah, from his 37 years' imprisonment, and gave him a daily allowance, and a place at his own table above all the other kings that were in captivity at Babylon.⁹⁵ A.fter reigning, according to Berosus, lawlessly and profligately for two years (b.c 561-559),^05a he fell the victim of a conspiracy headed by his brother-in-law, Nenghssar, the chief of the Chaldaean order.⁹⁶

8 17. Neriglissar⁹⁷ styles himself Rab-Mag, and son of " King Bel-sum-iskin," on the bricks of the " smaller palace" of Babylon, which he built on the western bank of the Euphrates.⁹⁸ Diodorus describes this as a splendid edifice, having its walls covered with fine battle and hunting scenes, and adorned- with numerous bronze statues, which were be* lieved to represent Belus and Ninus and Semiramis, with their officers.⁹⁹ He also placed statues of solid silver in the several stories of the temple of Belus. After a reign of less than four years (b.c 559-556),¹⁰⁰ he died quietly in his palace, according to the prevailing account, or, as others say, in a battle which he fought with Cyrus for the possession of Media.

His son, Laborosoarciiod,¹⁰¹ a mere boy, was m nine months put to death with tortures, on the plea that he gave signs of a vicious disposition, by a conspiracy of his near connections,¹⁰² probably the chiefs of the Chaldaean order, who conferred the crown on one of their own number. Thus ended the house of Nabopolassar, if, as we are expressly^.old, the new king was in no way related to his predecessor.¹⁰³

⁹⁵ 2 Kiugs xxv. 2T-30 ; Jerem. Iii. 31, 32. It seems to be implied that the other captive kings" vere released, and their royal rank recognized. The date is three days before the end of the 37th year of the captivity, midsummer, u.o. 5G0.

»^5a This is the date of Berosus and the Astronomical Canon ; Polyhistor gives him 12 years, and Josephns IS.

⁹⁶ We naturally suspect that this was the accomplishment of a design first formed by his father when regent, dining Nebuchadnezzar's madness.

⁹⁷ Properly Xcrgal-ficir-uzur, i. e., " Nerval, protect the king." We have the name in " Ner^al-sharezer, the Rab-Musr," who was one of the princes left by Nebuchadnezzar to finish the siege of Jerusalem (Jerem. xxxix. 3,13). This was not improbably the usurper's grandfather.

⁹⁸ An inscribed cvlinder of his was also fonud among the ruins. (See the Bnt. Mus. Series, Plate 67.) ⁹⁹ Diod. Sic. ii. S, § 7.

io° As the 9 months of Labcrosoarchod are not reckoned in the Canon, they have to be allowed for in the time assigned to Neriglissar and Nabonadius.

¹⁰¹ Under this strange Greek form M. Oppert sees the name of Bellabarisroick, which had been borne by the young king's grandfather.

¹⁰² E7r</3ou\evt>e<? 6k dt<i to ttoWu t/JiQaiveiv KaKo^On, vno tSv (piXwv aireTvp-TravlaOn.—

Beros. Fr. 14. .„,,.«

>«» npoc^ovra o\ oMtV—Abyden. Fr. 9. Berosus calls hiin ««a certain Babylonian. -Fr. 14.

360

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

§ 18. N abona])ius,¹⁰⁴ the last king of Babylon (b.c. 555538), and Nitocris (probably his queen) are celebrated by the Greek historians for the magnificence of works which really testify to the dangers that were now closing in upon the doomed kingdom. The chief of these was the construction or repair of the quays along the Euphrates within the city, with their walls and gates, the neglect of which by his rash son admitted the army of the Persians. The bricks of the retaining walls still bear his name.¹⁰⁵ At some distance to the north of Babylon he made certain cuttings, rsservoirs, and sluices, to oppose the march of an invader. A curious testimony to the hopeless condition of his kingdom is given by an inscription of his last year, discovered by Mr. Loftus at Calneh, in which he confesses his neglect of the worship of the gods, and undertakes the restoration of the temple of Sin (the Moon) to obtain their protection.

§ 19. At the beginning of his reign he relied on more sublunary means of resisting the progress of the Persian conqueror. Cyrus was now engaged in his attack on the Lydian empire—the old rival of Media—which had grown to its height under Croesus; and the latter sought to strengthen himself by alliances with the kings of Egypt and Babylon.¹⁰⁶ After his defeat at Pteria, Croesus summoned his allies to his aid, but we are not informed whether any Babylonian contingent reached him before his decisive overthrow in front of Sardis.¹⁰⁷

Even without this provocation, Cyrus would have taken the earliest convenient opportunity of assailing Babylon. In the sixteenth year of Nabonadius (b.c 539) he marched from Ecbatana, and, having wintered on the banks of the Gyndes, crossed the Tigris, and overran all the country as far as Babylon, where Nabonadius had concentrated his defense. The whole Chaldjean army, which was posted in front of the city under the king in person, was routed in a single battle, and Nabonadius threw himself into the fortress of

104 "The real name is Nabu-nahid (i. e., Nebo, make jwosperous) in Assyrian (Semitic), and Nabu-induk in Hamitic Babylonian. The former is the groundwork of Nabt.nnedm (Berosus), Nabonadius (Astr. Can.), and Labynetus (Herod.); the latter of Nabannidochus (Abydeu.), and Naboandclus, which should probably be Naboande-chm (Josephus)."—Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 507, note. That he was of the Chaldaean order is shown by the inscriptions in -which he calls himself "son of Nabu-**-dirba (or N'abu-bala-tirib), the Rab-Mag." M. Oppert stands alone iu distinguishing Nabu-naliid and Nabu-induk. Herodotus (i. 1SS) applies the name of Labynetus both to the last king of Babylon and to his father (whom he calls the son of Nitocris). Bnt whether he regards the father as the Labynetus of chap. 74 does not appear.

¹⁰⁵ Berosus (Fr. 14) expressly says that he built this wall of baked brick and asphalt. Herodotus ascribes it to Nitocris. ¹⁰⁶ Ilerod. i. 77.

¹⁰⁷ Herod, i. SO. The date of the capture of Sardis is a point in dispute. The ordinary date is 546. See chap, xxiii. § 2.

CAPTURE OF BABYLON.

361

Borsippa. The defense of Babylon was left to his son Belshazzar, who is proved by the inscriptions of his father to have been associated in the kingdom,^1UB and whose youth was aided by the maturer counsels of the queen-mother.¹⁰⁹

§ 20. For some time the defense was so well conducted as to drive Cyrus almost to despair.¹¹⁰ As a last effort, he diverted the course of the Euphrates above the city, either into the reservoir of Mitocris¹¹¹ or by a canal returning to the river lower down.¹¹' His opportunity soon came with that festival¹¹³ and its attendant license, of which the vivid drama is so familiar to us in the Book of Daniel.¹¹⁴ That night's revelry in the palace was imitated throughout the city.¹¹⁶ The Persians, marching along the dried bed of the Euphrates, entered the neglected river gates: had these been closed, they would have been caught, as Herodotus says, " in a trap."¹¹⁶ Then followed the scene of hurry, confusion, tire, and massacre, which Jeremiah had foretold in one of those marvellous prophecies which only differ from minute history by their vivid poetic coloring.¹¹⁷ Caught in the midst of dance and revelry,¹¹⁸ " the mighty men of Babylon forbore to fight: they became as women."^UB In vain did "one post run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one end, and that the passages were stopped :" " her prinees were made drunk, her wise men, her captains, her rulers, and her mighty men: they slept a perpetual sleep." "The broad walls of Babylon were utterly broken, and her high gates were burned with tire; the people labored in vain and the

108 "The proof of this association is contained in the cylinders of Nabonadius foiujd at Mugheir, where the protection of the gods is asked for Nabu-nahid aud his son, Bil-shar-uzur (1 e.,' Bel, protect the king'), who are coupled together iu a way that implies the co-sovereignty of the latter. (Brit. Mns. Series, PI. 68, No. 1.) The date of the association was at the latest n.c. 540, Nabonadius's fifteenth year, siuce the third year of Belshazzar is mentioned in Daniel (viii. 1)." Rawlinson (vol. iii. p. 515); who also suggests the following motive for the association: That the Nitocris of Herodotus (whose name is purely Egyptian, and is found among the contemporary Sai'te princesses) was the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar by an Egyptian wife, and was married by Nabonadius, to aid in legitimating his usurpation:—in which case Belshazzar would be really the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, aud his legitimate representative. Nebuchaduezzar is seven times called his father by Daniel, by the king himself, and by the queeu (Dan. v. 2,11,13, IS, 22). Nitocris may also have been previously the wife of Neriglissar. The appointment of Daniel as "third (not_tsecond) ruler iu the kingdom " (ver. 7, 29) furnishes a striking proof of the genuineness of the narrative from the absence of any mention of Nabonadius.

¹⁰⁹ Dan. v. 10-12. That such was her dignity seems clear from the previous mention of Belshazzar's wives (ver. 2), and is consistent with the tone she assumes.

¹¹⁰ Herod, i. 190. m Herod, i. 191.

¹¹² Xen. " Cyrop." vii- 5, § 10; Jerem. Ii. 39. "3 Herod. I. c.; Xen. I. c. § 15.

¹¹⁴ Daniel v. ¹¹⁵ Herod., Xen., II. cc. ¹¹⁰ Herod, i. 191.

¹¹⁷ Jerem. Ii.; comp. Herod., Xen., II. cc.

¹¹⁸ Xopevetv Kai iv evnaOtu.ai tt*a«.—Herod, i. 191. ¹¹⁹ Jerem. Ii. 30.

16

362

THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

folk in the lire."¹²⁰ "In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, slain"¹²¹ (b.c. 538).

Nabonadius, having no further power or motive of resistance, surrendered on the approach of Cyrus, who admitted him not only to mercy but to his favor, and assigned him an abode in Carmania.¹²' Only the outer wall of Babylon was dismantled ; and the city, though fearfully injured by the storm, became the second capital of the Persian kings, and was destined by Alexander for his Eastern seat of empire. The transference of its population to Seleucia, on the Tigris, by the Greek kings of Syria, began that long decay which has fulfilled the most awfully sublime picture of desolation that was ever drawn even by an inspired pen,¹²³ and has left "Babylon—the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency—as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah"—a type of the doom reserved for every scheme of universal empire.

Jerem. Ii. 58. ¹²¹ Dan. v. 31.

¹²² Berosus, Fr. 14: Abydenus says that he made him governor of Carmania.

¹²³ Isaiah xiii. 10-22: comp. Jerem. 1. Ii.; and the descriptions of its present state by Layard, " Nin. and Bab." p. 4S4 ; and Loftus, " Chaldwa and Susiana," p. 20.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

In his "Standard Inscription" Nebuchadnezzar says of the works executed at Babylon by his father: " The double in-closure, which Nabopolassar my father had made but not completed, I finished. Nabopolassar made its ditch. With two long embankments of brick and mortar he bound its bed. He made the embankment of the Arakha. He lined the other side of the Euphrates with brick. He made a bridge over the Euphrates, but did not finish its bnttresses. From * * * [some place] he made with bricks burnt as hard as stones, by the help of the great lord, Merodach, a way for the branch of the Shimat to the waters of the Yapur-Shapu, the great reservoir of Babylon, opposite to the gate of Nin."

Then follows Nebuchadnezzar's account of the works added by himself to the city: "The Ingur-Bel and the Ximiti-Bel—the great double wall of Babylon—I finished. With two long embankments of brick and mortar, I built the side of its ditch. I joined it on with that which my father had made. I strengthened the city. Across the river, to the west, I built the wall of Babylon with brick. The Yapur-Shapu^-the reservoir of Babylon—by the grace of

Merodach I filled completely full of water. With bricks burnt as hard as stones, and with bricks in huge masses like mountains, the Yapur-Shapu, from the gate of Mula as far as Nana, who is the protectress of her votaries, by the grace of his godship Merodach) I strengthened. With that which my father had ma*de I joined it. I made the way of Xana, the protectress of her votaries. The great gates of the Ingur-Bel and the Ximiti-Bel —the reservoir of Babylon at the time of the, flood inundated them. These gates I raised. Against the waters their foundations with brick and mortar I built. [Here follows a description of the gales, with various architectural details, and an account of the decorations, hangings, etc! For the delight of mankind, I filled the reservoir. Behold! besides the Ingur-Bel, the impregnable fortification of Babylon, I constructed iuside Babylon, on the eastern side of the river, a fortification such as no king had ever made before me, namely, a long rampart, 4000 ammas sqnare, as an extra defense. I excavated the ditch: with brick and mortar I bound its bed; a long rampart at its head 1 strongly built. I adorned its gates. The

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

3G3

folding-doors and pillars I plated with copper. Against presumptuous enemies, who were hostile to the men of Babylon, great waters, like the waters of the ocean, I made use of abundantly. Their depths were like the depths of the vast ocean. I did not allow the waters to overflow, but the fulluess of their floods I caused to flow on, restraining them with a brick embankment. Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon. May it last forever!" After a similar account of works at Borsippa, he proceeds: "In Babylon—the city which is the delight of my eyes, and which I have glorified—when the waters were in flood, they inundated the foundations of the great palace called Taiiratinisi, or ' the Wonder of Mankind ;' (a palace) with many chambers aud lofty towers; the high place of Royalty; iu the laud of Babylon, and in the middle of Babylon; stretching from the Ingur-Bel to the bed of *he Shebil, the Eastern canal, and from the bauk of the Sippara River to the water of the Yctjnir-Shapu; which Nabopolassar my father built with brick and raised up; when the reservoir of Babylon was full, the gates of this palace were flooded. I raised the mound of brick on which it was built, and made smooth its platform. I cut off the floods of the water, and the foundations (of the palace) I protected against the water with bricks and mortar ; and I finished it completely. Long beams I set up to support it; with pillars and beams plated with copper and strengthened with iron I built up its gates. Silver and gold, aud precious stones whose names were almost unknown, etc., I stored up inside, and placed there the treasure-house of my kingdom. ... In all my dominions I did not build a high place of power; the precious treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. Iu Babylon, buildings for myself and the houor of my kingdom I did not lay out. In the worship of Merodach my lord, the joy of my heart, in Babylon, the city of his sovereignty and the seat of my empire, I did not sing his praises (?), and I did not furnish his altars (with victims), nor did I clear out the canals. . . .*

"As a further defeuse in war, at the Ingur-Bel, the impreguable outer wall, the rampart of the Babylonians — with two strong lines of brick and mortar I made a strong fort, 400 ammas square. Inside the Ximiti-Bel, the iuuer defense of the Babylonians, I constructed masonry of brick within them (the lines). In a happy mouth and on an auspicious day I laid its foundations in the earth. ... I completely finished its top. In fifteen days I completed it, and made it the high place of my kingdom. [Here follows a description of the oruameutatiou of the palace.] A strong fort of brick and mortar in strength I constructed. Inside the brick fortification I made another great fortification of long stones, of the size of great mountains. Like Shcdim I raised up its head. And this building I raised for a wonder; for the defense of the people I constructed it."t

* Several negative clauses follow, in which, as in those quoted, the not seems to have the force either of except (" I only did all this at Babylon "), or perhapt rather of an interrogation, " Did I not'"etc.

t Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii., Appendix A. For an account of the topography and ruins of Babylon, see the "Student's Ancient Geography," pp. 212 uq.

Ancient Assyrian Cylinder in Serpentine.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ART AND CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

i 1. Present state of our knowledge. What remains to be done. Results gained thus far. § 2. Architecture. Its various remains. § 3. Building materials. General use of brick. Partial use of stone. § 4. The Babylonian temple-towers. Their astronomical character. § 5. Description of the temple at Borsippa (the Birs Ximrud). Colors and arrangement of its seven stages. Compared with the Egyptian pyramids. § 6. Simpler ancient forms. The Babil at Babylon. The Chaldaean towers of two or three stories. Temple of the Moon at Mugheir. § 7. Internal decorations. § S. Remains of domestic architecture. Modes of decoration. § 9. The Tombs of Lower Babylonia. Their vast numbers. Three modes of burial. Arched vaults. Dish-cover shaped tombs. Double bell-jars. Drainage of the sepulchral mounds. § 10. Objects found in the tombs. Use of metals. Bas-reliefs and seal-cylinders. Seal of King Urukh. § 11. Later Babylonian sculpture. Its rude and stationary character. § 12. Later Babylonian architecture, paiuting, and decoration. § 13. Assyrian architecture — chiefly palatial. Probable derivation of the art from Babylonia. § 14. The use of earthen platforms and embankments. Double platform at Khorsabad. Platform of Ximrud. § 15. Continned use of brick and walls of rammed earth. Cases in which the Assyrians used stone. General arrangement of the palaces. § 16. Assyrian ziggu-rats and temples. Type different from the Babylonian. Their internal and external decorations. Resemblance to Greek forms—" Ionic " capital. Other capitals and bases. Wooden columns. § 17. Forts, cities, and villages. § IS. Use of the arch. § 19. Assyrian sculpture. Inferiority of single statues. Characteristics of the bas-reliefs. Their three epochs. § 20. Painting and other arts.

§ 1. The foregoing chapters give an outline of the present state of our knowledge of the history of Assyria and Babylonia. That much still remains to be discovered is a truth most evident to those who have already discovered most. It is less than half a century since all the bricks and fragments gathered by Mr. Rich at Hillah (Babylon), Nimrud, and the mounds opposite Mosul, were exhibited in a case scarcely three feet square ; and imaginary restorations of the

ARCHITECTURE.

temple of Belus, after the description of Herodotus, did duty in our picture Bibles for the Tower of Babel. It is not likely that another half century will throw our present knowledge into the shade in any similar degree; but a vast work remains in adding to it and setting its results in a clearer light. Mr. Layard himself observes that " those extensive and systematic excavations which are absolutely necessary before we can determine the exact period and nature of the numerous ruins existing in Assyria, and before we can deal with confidence with the materials at our disposal, have yet to be carried on. . . . The vast mounds of earth which cover the Assyrian ruins will have to be explored to their very foundations, and tunnels or trenches carried through them in every direction ; for it is impossible to conjecture what may yet remain beneath the edifices hitherto explored at Nimrud, Koyunjik, and elsewhere. . . . Until this is done, it can not be said that we have obtained the materials which are necessary to enable us to restore the history and to illustrate the arts and manners of the ancient Assyrians." Meanwhile, however, " although our knowledge is far from complete, yet the sculptures and inscriptions have enabled us to put together a part of the skeleton of Assyrian history, and to illustrate to a certain extent the manners, arts, sciences, and literature of the Assyrian people. . . . The discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia have enabled us to reach one of the remotest sources of that mighty stream of human progress which has been developed, through Greece and Rome, into our present civilization."¹

§ 2. The works of Building, whose ruins have yielded all the other discoveries, claim notice first. They consist of temples, palaces, and tombs, with some very scanty remains of private houses; and a distinction is to be observed between the buildings which belong to different ages and different parts of the country. The temple-towers — which seem to be a primitive type of Cushite architecture—are characteristic of Babylonia. The most ancient examples are found in the mounds of the great plain of Chaldsea and Susiana, especially at Warka, Mugheir, Senkereh, and Abu-Shedi-rein. The latest are at Babylon, the mounds of which contain no monuments which are certainly older than the time of Nebuchadnezzar; but, as we have seen from his own records, his temple-towers were restorations or imitations of much more ancient buildings. The palaces are the characteristic buildings of the mounds at and about Nineveh ; but it still remains to be seen what older types are hidden among

» Lny.ird, "Nineveh and Babylon," Introd. to the abridged edition of 18G7.

3GG CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

the ruins of the primeval city. The same remark applies to the sepulchral buildings; for, in most striking contrast with the vast cemeteries of the Egyptian cities, not a single old Assyrian tomb has been discovered; while in Chalda3a, on the other hand, the oldest cities are begirt with a broad belt of tombs—a suburb of the dead.

§ 3. The meiteried common to nearly all the edifices, not only in the alluvial plain, but in Assyria—where it was not a case of necessity—is brick, in its two forms, sun-dried and hard-burnt. The bricks differed greatly from ours, both in size and shape, and they had also more variety among themselves. They approached more nearly to the square and thin Roman pattern, though they were smaller and thicker. The

Babylonian Brick.

oldest baked bricks of Chaldoea are about 11^ inches square and 2\ inches thick ; the later Babylonian are about 13 inches square and 3 inches thick; so that we might roughly describe them all as about a foot square and from 2 to 3 inches thick. In the sun-dried bricks greater difference was allowed : their size varies from 16 to 6 inches square, and from 7 to 2 inches in thickness. The baked bricks differ much in color and quality. " The best quality of baked brick is of a yellowish tinge, and very much resembles our Stourbridge or fire-brick; another kind,extremely hard, but brittle, is of a blockish blue ; a third, the coarsest of all, is slack-dried, and of a pale red. The earliest baked bricks are of this last color."² Besides the regular shapes, some were triangular, for the corners of walls; others wedge-shaped, for

² Rawlinson, vol. i. p. 91; Loftus, " Chaldsea and Susiana," p. 130.

ARCHITECTURE. 3C7

the construction of the arch, the use of which in Assyria we have presently to describe.

The sun-dried bricks are rarely used alone ; as they are in the Bowariyeh ruin at Warka (probably the ancient Erech).

Chaldaean Reeds (from a slab of SennacheribV

They generally form the interior mass, protected from the weather bv a casing of burnt bricks, which is often as much as ten feet thick. In both cases the crude brick wall was strengthened by the reeds with which the marshes of Baby-lonialibounded—not in mere strips, like our bonds of timber

3G8 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

or hoop-iron—but in the form of thick layers of reed-matting, steeped in bitumen, which are laid in along the whole building at every four or five feet of its height, and project beyond the surface of the wall. Thus the reeds served not only as a bond, but a protection from the weather, and they present a curious appearance. " They stripe the whole building with continuous horizontal lines, having at a distance somewhat the effect of the courses of dark marble in an Italian structure of the Byzantine period."³ Hence it is that the chief mound at Warka derives its name of Bowariyeh (i. e.,

Bowariyeh.

reed-mats).* Reeds are never found in walls of burnt brick, Another method of obtaining strength was to use the crude and burnt bricks in alternate layers, each of several feet in thickness. The cement employed was either mud (or clay), sometimes mixed with chopped straw, or the bitumen which is a characteristic production of Babylonia—the crude bricks being laid in the former and the burnt bricks in the latter. In the earliest buildings the walls, especially when of crude brick, were strengthened by massive buttresses of burnt brick.

In a few cases, use has been made of the limestone and sandstone obtained from the hills on the margin of the Arabian desert. Thus at Abu-Shahrein—the most southern considerable mound on the Euphrates, and the nearest to the Arabian hills—the platform of the temple, which is of beaten clay, is cased with a stone wall, in some places 20 feet thick; and the stairs leading up to the first story are made of blocks of polished marble, fastened by copper bolts above the steps of sun-dried bricks. This edifice also shows the

³ Uawlinsoi), vol. i. pp. 92-3.

⁴ See the description of Mr. Loft us, "Chaldiea and Susiana," pp. 167-170.

BABYLON IAN TEMPLE-TOWERS.

369

peculiarity of a pair of columns flanking the foot of the staircase, and of curious construction. "A circular nucleus, composed of sandstone slabs and small cylindrical pieces of marble, disposed in alternate layers, was coated externally with coarse lime, mixed with stones and pebbles."⁵ In Assyria, where there was no such absence of stone as in the alluvial plain of Chaldaea, bricks—generally sun-dried—were still preferred for the body of the wails, which were faced externally with blocks of stone and architectural decorations in the same material, and internally with the sculptured slabs of alabaster and gypsum, so frequently mentioned already, and with patterns in enamelled brick, plates of metal, and panels of choice woods ; while in other parts the bare walls were covered with costly hangings.

§ 4. The oldest type of building is the temple-tower, or ziggurat, which the Tower of Bethel has made familiar to us in name. Numerous examples have been discovered in the mounds, which, in fact, owe their peculiar appearance to the form of the edifice. It was a tower built up of stories on a massive substructure or platform ; and as the upper stories have fallen about the lower, the latter have been preserved as the core of the conical heaps. The mounds of Mugheir, Senkereh, and JSfiffer are about 70 feet high, and the Bowariyeh mound at Weerkec reaches 100 feet; the great mound of Beibil, at Babylon,is 130 or 140 feet high; and the famous Birs-i-Nimruel, the latest and probably the most perfect example of these buildings, rises 153^ feet above the plain, having lost (as is supposed) only three feet of its original height.

The account of the last-named edifice by its builder, Nebuchadnezzar, leaves no doubt that its stages were in some way connected with the several planets ;⁶ and we know that the temples of the Chaldaean cities were sacred to the deities who impersonated the heavenly bodies. Add to these facts the exact "orientation" of the buildings, and the astronomical fame of the Chaldaean priests, and there can remain little doubt that all these buildings were used as observatories as well as temples. Elevated on their stages above the mists of the plain below, the priest tracked through the cloudless sky the mysterious movements of the heavenly bodies which he served :

"Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid, Progressive, retrograde, or standing still."

§ 5. In the completest form—" the Temple of the Seven Lights of Heaven" at Borsippa (the Birs-i-Nimriul)—there

⁸ Rawlinson, vol. i. p. 101. ⁶ See above, chap. x. 5 G.

1G*

370 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

was one stage for each of the chief heavenly bodies, arranged in the order of the so-called " Ptolemaic system," and distinguished by the appropriate color of its facing of enamelled bricks or metal plates.⁷ The highest story {silver?) was that of the Moon, as at once the nearest to the earth, and one of the chief objects of old Chaldrean worship: them, counting downward, came Mercury {blue) ; Venus {yellow), the Sun (gold?), Mars (red), Jupiter (orange), and Saturn (black). The whole was raised a few feet above the plain on a platform of crude brick, and was surmounted by the shrine or chapel of the god, which was richly ornamented within and without.

The proportions of the building are very curious. Each stage is an exact square, with the angles (not the feiees) to the cardinal points ; and each is less than the one below; thus forming an ascent of seven huge steps from the platform to the shrine : but, whereas the first three of these steps rose 26 feet each, the last four rose 15 feet each ; and this seems also to have been the height of the chapel. Each stage was smaller than the one below by the same eibsolute quantity, namely, 42 feet, of the side—thus diminishing from a square of 272 feet, at the base, to one of 20 feet, at the summit ; but the stages were not placed centrically upon each other. On the N.W. and S.E. sides the recess of the steps was equal; but on the N.E., which may be considered as the front, each stage receded 30 feet, leaving only 12 feet at the back, or the S.W. side. Thus the axis of the building—that is, the line joining the centres of the stages—was inclined to the horizon ; and if we imagine the building inclosed by lines joining the corresponding corners of the steps, the figure so formed would be an obliejue pyramid.

Tin's last observation is not a mere matter of curiosity; it points to an interesting relation between the Babylonian temple-towers and the "Egyptian pyramids. As the former might be completed to pyramids by filling up their steps to a sloping surface between their edges; so the latter, by a converse process, might be converted into a graduated tower, or ziggurat; and this—certainly in some cases, and probably in all—was the actual form of the pyramid at a certain stage of its construction—a form at which it has stopped in one remarkable case, the " pyramid of degrees" at Sakkara*

i The silver and gold casing ol' the highest and middle stories (which we mark as doubtfui) have been lost; bnt they may be inferred from Nebuchadnezzar's inscription.

⁸ The distinction must, however, be observed—that the steps of the " pyramid of degrees " are much more numerous and smaller than they would be in a temple-tower of the same size. There is no sufficient proof of the opinion that this is the oldest of the pyramids.

TEMPLE OF THE MOON AT MUGHIER.

371

But, though the analogy between these two primeval forms is thus shown to be more than a geometrical fancy, the two marked distinctions remain—that the Egyptian pyramid is always right (its axis is perpendicular), and its faces (not its angles) front the cardinal points.

§ 6. The form now described is the most finished type of the edifice: the earlier examples are much simpler. In the mound of Babil? within the ruins of Babylon—with its almost perpendicular sides and flat top, upon a base forming an irregular square of about 200 feet—some antiquarians see an example of a single gigantic basement, on which they suppose the chapel to have been placed, without intervening stages. But if—as seems from its position—this was the temple of Belus, which Herodotus describes as (like the Birs-i-Nimrud at Borsippa) an edifice of eight stages,¹⁰ its present form must be accounted for by the spoliation of ages preceding its final ruin.

It is in the mounds of the Chaldaaan plain that we find the oldest existing types, with two or at the most three stories; the lowest being of crude, and the upper of baked bricks: aud, in the chief of these, the style of construction confirms what the names on the inscribed bricks prove, that the present superstructure has been added or repaired at a much later age. We have seen the Babylonian kings boasting their piety as restorers of temples; and we have found the last king of Babylon expressly stating that he renovated the very edifice which is still the most perfect, and is supposed to be the oldest, example of the ancient temples, that of the Moon at Mugheir.

This building is raised on a platform about 20 feet above the plain, and consists at present of t wo stories: the Arabs told the explorer, Mr. Taylor, that remains existed half a century ago of a third story, in the form of a chamber, which appears to have been the shrine of a god." A number of bricks or tiles glazed with a blue enamel, and many of the large copper nails that fastened them to the walls, were found about the ruins at such a distance that they might very well have fallen from the chapel on the summit. The plan of the building is not a square, but a rectangle of 198 feet by 133 feet, the longer side (or front) facing the S.E. ; and the upper story, a rectangle of 119 feet-by 75 feet, is so placed upon the lower that its S.E. face recedes 47 feet, and the opposite

⁹ This was formerly mistaken for the remains of the Tower of Babel. ^J0 Ilerod, i. 1S1. The seven stages and the platform would make eight. ¹¹ See Mr. Taylor's account of the ruins in the "Journal of the Asiatic Society, * vol. xv. p. 264.

372 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

(N.AV.) face only 30 feet; the recess of the two other sides being about equal, namely 28 feet.

The lower story is a mass of small crude bricks, faced with a wall of burnt bricks ten feet thick, against which are built a number of shallow buttresses, about eight feet wide and one foot in projection, nine on the longer faces and six cm the shorter, counting in those at the angles. The effect is curiously like a medieval keep or donjon. Both Avails anil buttresses have an inward slope of about nine degrees, giving the same stable pyramidal appearance which characterizes Egyptian architecture. On the north-eastern side, there is an external staircase, nine feet wide, with sides or balustrades three feet wide; but it is conjectured that the grand staircase was on the S.E. face, and equal in width to the whole of the upper story.¹² The brick-work of this story is laid entirely in bitumen ;¹³ and the whole mass is ventilated by a number of narrow air-holes, pierced from side to side, through walls and buttresses. The upper story is similarly constructed, except that the bricks of the inner mass are partly burnt, of a light red color, and laid in a cement of lime and ashes, and the burnt bricks of the lacing are laid in excellent lime-mortar, except on the N.W. face, where bitumen is used. This story had no buttresses. The height of the lower story, at present only 27 feet, is calculated to have been 40 feet; the upper story evidently much exceeded its present height of 19 feet. The probable appearance of the building is shown in the cut.

§ 7. Neither this nor any of the similar remains exhibit any appearance of external ornament beyond the variety of surface given by the buttresses. ..Like the Egyptian pyramids, these edifices depended for their effect upon the mass seen far and wide over the level plain; and, unlike them, with a striking quaintness from being built in stages. ^ The signs of internal ornament, already noticed at Mugheir, are still more conspicuous at Abu-Shahrein, where " the ground

¹² Korodotus mentions the external staircases of the temple of Belus at Babylon, is Hence the-name of Mugheir, which Sir II. R;,wlinsor, explains as Um-quir {mother of bitumen); but Professor Rawlinson as a participial form, the bitumcned.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS.

373

about the basement of the second story was covered with small pieces of agate, alabaster, and marble, finely cut and polished, from half an inch to two inches long, and half an inch (or somewhat less) in breadth, each with a hole drilled through its back, containing often a fragment of a copper bolt. It was also strewn less thickly with small plates of pure gold, and with a number of gold-headed or gilt-headed nails, used apparently to attach the gold plates to the internal plaster or wood-work. These fragments seem to attest the high ornamentation of the shrine in this instance, which we have no reason to regard as singular or in any way exceptional."¹⁴

§ 8. The plain of Chaldsea has furnished one or two remains of domestic architecture, which may or may not belong to the most ancient period. These also are built of sun-dried brick, and are raised on a platform of the same material, paved with burnt brick. The chambers have the same long and narrow proportions which we see on a much larger scale in the Assyrian palaces, probably for the better support of a flat roof of the wood of the date-palm ; for much charred wood was found among the ruins. There are two arched door-ways—the arch being a real one, constructed of wedge-shaped bricks made for the purpose. The external w^Talls are in part flat, covered with a diapered pattern of colored bricks, in part moulded into half-columns, ornamented with a variety of scaly, zigzag, and wavy patterns, apparently in imitation of the trunk of the date-palm, and suggesting an original form of building, in which the walls were made of such trunks set „up side by side. Internally the chambers are lined with smooth plaster, painted with colored bands, and, in one case, with a rude picture of a man holding a bird on his wrist, with a smaller figure near him, in red paint. The inlaid patterns on the walls were often made by a curious and ingenious process. Colored cones of terra-cot-ta were imbedded in the plaster, so as to show either their bases, or their points, or a portion of their sides, arranged in a great variety of combinations.

9. Among the most curious remains found in the lower plain are the Tombs, which encircle the old cities in such numbers as—combined with the non-discovery of tombs in Upper Babylonia and Assyria—to suggest the theory that both the Babylonians and the Assyrians may have made the sacred land of Chaldaea the general depository of their dead.¹⁵

¹⁴ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. i. p. 103.

-⁵ Rawlinson, vol. i. p. 10T ; Loftus, p. 199. Of coarse this is, at present, only a conjecture.

371 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

"At Warka, for instance, excepting the triangular space between the three principal ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, the whole space within the wails, and an unknown extent of desert beyond them, are everywhere filled with human bones and sepulchres. In places coffins are piled upon coffins, certainly to the depth of 30, probably to the depth of 60 feet; and for miles on each side of the ruins the traveller walks upon a soil teeming with the relies of ancient and now probably extinct races."¹⁶ In some cases the remains of very different times are evidently mingled; in others there are thought to be signs restricting them to particular limits of time.¹⁷

The tombs which seem to be the most ancient are of three kinds. The first are vaults, about 7 feet long, 3 feet 7 inches broad, and 5 feet high; the pavement, walls, and roof being of sun-dried bricks, laid in mud. The walls slope slightly outward, as far as the spring of the roof, which is a false arch, formed by layers of bricks, each projecting inward over the next below, and closed at the top by a single brick. A similar construction is seen in the Scythian tombs;¹⁸ and, on a larger scale, in Egyptian architecture. These vaults appear to have been family sepulchres, the number of skeletons contained in them being often three or four, and in one case as many as eleven.

The second form resembles a huge dish-cover—or, to use a likeness rather incongruous to a subject so grave, the crust of a raised pie—in one piece of terra-cotta, covering the body, which lies on a platform of sun-dried brick. No more than two skeletons—and, when two, always male and female—are found beneath these covers : children were buried separately under smaller covers. In both these forms of burial the skeleton is laid upon a reed-mat, generally upon its left side, with the right arm across the body, its fingers resting on the edge of a copper bowl, which lies on the palm of the left hand. The head is pillowed on a sun-dried brick, on which may sometimes be seen the remains of a tasselled cushion of tapestry-work. Besides the copper bowl, the tombs contain a variety of articles, among which are always vessels for the food and drink which the deceased was supposed to need upon his long journey.

In the third form of burial a single corpse was laid in an earthenware coffin, formed by two bell-jars placed mouth to mouth, and sealed at the joint with bitumen, an opening being left at one end for the escape of the gases resulting from

¹⁶ Rawlinson, I. c.; Loftus, p. 199. i" Loft us, p. 134.

¹⁸ See Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. iii. p. 61.

TOMBS—OBJECTS OF UTILITY FOUND THEREIN. 375

decomposition. Another precaution, which shows the care bestowed on the remains, was an elaborate system of drainage by earthenware pipes, from top to bottom of the mounds in which the coffins were deposited.¹³

Another form of coffin—found in large numbers by Mr. Loftus at "Warka²⁰—is a single piece of earthenware, coated with a blue vitreous glaze, nearly in the shape of our coffins, only largest at the head, where the body was inserted through a hole in the upper surface.²¹

§ 10. The objects of utility found in these tombs, and elsewhere among the ruins, are vessels and lamps of pottery —a manufacture in which the construction of the tombs themselves shows considerable skill; knives, hatchets, arrowheads, and other implements both of flint and bronze—the former seeming to bear witness of a time when the latter was still scarce; and chains, nails, fish-hooks, etc., of the same metal; and some leaden pipes and jars—but this metal is rare. Iron appears only in articles of ornament, such as coarse armlets, bracelets, and finger-rings; and similar articles are found in bronze. The golden ear-rings are of doubtful age,and silver is "conspicuous by its absence."

The fine arts are represented by a few rude bas-reliefs on clay tablets, and more particularly by the curious cylinders which were used as seals. " It is clearly established that the cylinders in question, which are generally of serpentine, meteoric stone, jasper, chalcedony, or other similar substance, were the seals or signets of their possessors, who impressed them upon the moist clay which formed the ordinary material for writing. They are round, or nearly so—sometimes slightly concave, as in the figure—and measure from half an inch to three inches in length; ordinarily they are about one-third of their length in diameter. A hole is bored through the stone from end to end, so that it could be worn upon a string; and cylinders are found Seal-Cylinder on metal axis, in some of the earliest tombs which have been worn round the wrist in this way. In early times they may have been impressed by the hand, but afterwards it was common to place them upon a bronze or copper axis attached to a handle, by

¹⁹ For a full description see Rawlinson, vol. i. p. 113.

²⁰ A specimen may be seen in the British Museum.

²¹ This form may perhaps beloug to the Parthian period.

376

CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

means of which they were rolled across the clay from one end to the other.²² The cylinders are most frequently unengraved, and this is most commonly their condition in the primitive tombs; but there is some very curious evidence, from which it appears that the art of engraving them was really known and practiced (though doubtless in rare instances) at a very early date. The signet-cylinder of the monarch who founded the most ancie:.. of the buildings at Mugheir, Warka, Senkereh, and Niffer, and who thus stands at the head of the monumental kings, was in the possession of Sir R. Porter; and, though it is now lost, an engraving made from it is preserved in his 'Travels.' From this representation it would appear that the art had already made considerable progress. The letters of the inscription, which gives the name of the king and his titles, are somewhat rudely formed, as they are on the stamped bricks of the period ; but the figures appear to have been as well cut, and as flowingly traced, as those of a much later date."²³ The British Museum has a fragment of a statue in black basalt, which is thought to represent the same king.

§ 11. It is a fact strangely in contrast with the progress made in Assyria, that in Babylonia the plastic art scarcely shows any advance from the remote antiquity of Urukh to the time of Nebuchadnezzar. The cylinders and other engraved stones, and the enamelled bricks which represent religious subjects, show the same lank proportions of the human figure, the same clumsy attitudes and stiffness of composition, the same want of life and freedom, in the latest as in the earliest age. M. Etienne Quatremere has ventured to apply the canon of proportion to Daniel's description of Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, and has found the same fault as in the above works — the height is ten times the breadth. But we may take the sole existing specimen of Babylonian sculpture which has come down to us—the celebrated group in black basalt of a lion devouring a man, on the summit of the mound of Kasr, the ancient palace of Babylon—as a decisive proof of the rudeness of plastic art. The striking difference between the proportions of the human figure in the Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures—the former, at least in the hieratic examples, being thick and short, while the latter are elongated and slender—appears to show not only the independence of the two styles, but that they took different races for their models.

²² Mr. Layard found remains of the bronze in one specimen ("Nineveh and Babylon," p. 609). The above representation shows the probable form of the bronze setting.

²³ Rawlinson. " Five Monarchies," vol. i. pp. 117-119. See engraving, p. 215.

BABYLONIAN SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE. 377

§ 12. The architecture of later Babylon seems to have been, for the most part, a mere development of the most ancient forms, with more ornamental details. Such was certainly the case with the temple - towers ; and the famous hanging gardens — which Nebuchadnezzar is said to have created in order to gratify the longing of his Aledian queen for the park-scenery of her native uplands—may have been an immense ziggurat, with planted terraces.

The palace architecture of Babylon appears to have been of the same type as, and probably borrowed from, that of Assyria. We possess an inscription in which Nebuchadnezzar describes several of his edifices. '' Minute details are given of the various ornaments used in some of the temples and palaces, and these decorations appear to have been very rich. If the tablets could be completely deciphered, and the meaning of many doubtful words accurately ascertained, much information would be obtained relating to Babylonian architecture. The walls were built of burnt bricks and bitumen, lined with gypsum and other materials. Some seem to have been wainscoted. Over these walls was wood-work, and on the top an awning sustained by poles, like ' the white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble' in Ahasuerus's palace at Shushan.²⁴ Some of the wood-work is said to have been gilt, other parts silvered ; and a large portion of it was brought from Lebanon."²⁵ One particular, recorded by Strabo, seems to point to a feature by which Babylonian architecture bore witness of its origin. He says that the Babylonians, being unable to procure other wood, made their beams and columns of the trunks of palm-trees, binding them together with twisted reeds, and then painting the whole with colors.²⁶

The chief distinctive feature of Babylonian architecture was the profuse employment of colored decorations. Ctesias describes the palace of Semiramis (in reality, of Nebuchadnezzar), at Babylon, as having its walls adorned with scenes of war and hunting, such as we possess from the Assyrian nalaees. Berosus gives some details of the subjects of re-»gion and cosmogony painted on the walls of the temple of Bel. These decorations are referred to in two striking passages of Ezekiel. In the one, the prophet, in vision, enters the temple of Jerusalem, as modern explorers have made their way into the Assyrian edifices—" when I had digged in the wall, behold a door"—and sees the "chambers of imagery " desecrated with scenes borrowed from Babylon; — "So I

²⁴ Esther i. G. ²⁵ Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 530. ²⁶ Strab. xvi.p. 1050.

378

CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

went in and saw ; and behold every form of creeping tilings, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about."²⁷ ^ In the other, Aholibah—the personification of Jerusalem—is said to have been enticed " when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldceans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Bcaoylonians of Chaldcea, the land of their nativity."™ Similar paintings, executed in enamelled brickwork, covered the outer walls of the buildings, together with cuneiform inscriptions in large painted characters, which seem never to have been used by the Assyrians.

The ruins of some Babylonian edifices—especially of the palace in the mound of Kasr—furnish abundant specimens of a curious sort of colored bas-reliefs in enamelled brick, quite different from any thing Assyrian. The process appears to have been something of this kind : The subject was modelled on a sheet of clay of sufficient size, which was then cut up into bricks, stamped with guide-marks. These bricks were coated with the desired colors, which were vitrified by firing ; and the sculpture was then put in its place according to the guide-marks. The colors chiefly used are a brilliant blue, red, a deep yellow, white, and black.²⁰ ^ A fragment of a limestone frieze, with two figures of deities, was found in the same ruins.³⁰

§ 13. If the general truth, that architecture springs from religion, was at first applicable to Assyria, the art had passed bevond that early stage, and had become the handmaid of royal pomp, at the time to which the earliest edifices belong. It may, however, be from the accidents of modern discovery, rather than from the ancient practice of the nation, that the few temples yet found seem to be only appendages to the royal palaces. What we have had occasion to say of those palaces and their sculptures, as illustrating the history of their builders, leaves only the necessity for a brief review of their general structure and arrangements.

Nor need we discuss in full the question already touched upon, whether Assyria owed her art to Babylon, or—as some have contended—the contrary. The most probable opinion is that, while the art of building great edifices was brought from the plain of Shinar to the banks of the Tigris, the Assyrian kings gave it a new development, and that the

²⁷ Ezek. viii. 7, seq. ²⁸ Ezek. xxiii. 14,15.

²⁹ For the metallic constituents of these colors, see Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 1GG, note, aud Appendix, p. G72. ³⁰ Layard, I. e. p. 50S.

ASSYRIAN PALACES AND TEMPLES.

370

sculpture which decorated their palaces was of native growth.

§ 14. The first conspicuous feature of Assyrian building—• derived from the Babylonian plain, and carried out on a greater scale—was the elevation, not only of their temples *_d palaces, but of the chief parts of their cities, on artificial mounds of earth. This explains the Greek accounts of the enormous thickness of the walls of Nineveh. We learn from an inscription of Sennacherib, that the city walls had a circuit of between thirty and forty miles, faced throughout with brick, but backed up on the inner side by a great embankment of earth. Hence it happened that, when the outer facing of bricks gave way, the piled-up earth poured over its ruins, and was confounded with the soil.

In some of the separate mounds formed by the ruins of the palaces, we still find the containing wall, which is either of brick, or—in the best examples, as at Khorsabad—of massive stone masonry, rising from the surface of the ground to a height somewhat above the level of the platform, to which it formed a plain or baulemented parapet. The platform was paved, either with very large kiln-dried bricks or with slabs of stone, which were sometimes covered with inscriptions, and sometimes ornamented with elegant patterns. The platform always abutted, on one side, upon the city wall —at Nineveh overhanging the river—thus gaining fresh air and a view over the surrounding country ; and the stairs which gave access to it were on the inner side, towards the city.

Sometimes one platform rose above another, as at Khorsa-Ejad, where the lower terrace forms a long rectangle placed like the head of a T across the foot of the upper terrace, which is square. This edifice is remarkable for its unity; having been built by a single king, Sargon, in a moderate time.* In most other cases, the additions made by successive kings, who built palace after palace on the same platform, gave the mound a very irregular shape. The mound of Nimrud furnishes, as we have seen, the most fully explored case of several palaces on the same platform.

§15. If this use of platforms was borrowed from Babylonia (where it was a necessity), a still more striking instance of adherence to tradition is furnished by the continued employment of crude brick in a country which abounded in excellent building-stone, and where we see the transport of huge blocks of stone on rafts of inflated skins represented on the monuments. The Assyrians did, in fact, substitute this material in many places where the Babylonians used burnt

380 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

brick, " as in the facings of platforms and of temples, 5/i dams across streams, in pavements sometimes, and universally in the ornamentation of the lower portions of palace and temple-walls."³¹ But all inner masses were either formed of sun-dried brick, or, as a convenient substitute, the walls were made of earth rammed into a wooden mould, and then allowed to dry. This construction was adopted even for the roofs; thoug-h whether in the form of an arch, or of a flat roof of wood covered with rammed earth, is a point still in dispute.³'' These thick earthen walls and ceilings must have secured a grateful coolness.

Of the general arrangements of courts, halls, galleries, and chambers, and the decoration of the interior with bas-reliefs, enamelled tiles, and other ornaments, we have already said as much as our space allows. The reader can pursue the subject in the full description, given by the leading authorities, of the palace of Sargon at Khorsabad ; the only one which has been so systematically explored as to make its plan completely intelligible.³³

§ 10. The Assyrian temples hitherto discovered are remarkable for their difference from the Babylonian type. The ziggurat appears, indeed, at Kileh-Sherghat, at Khorsabad, and at Nimrud, where it forms a conspicuous object on the palace platform ;³⁴ but so little is it the entire temple, that some writers regard it as a mere appendage to the palace, kept up for the astrological observations to which the Assyrian kings attached supreme importance.³⁵ But this use of the zig-gurats would be quasi-religious; and perhaps we may be allowed the homely illustration that they bore to the Assyrian temples somewhat of the relation of a steeple to a church.

The true Assyrian temple, at all events, had a plan more like the Egyptian and the Jewish. A long quadrangular chamber formed the sacred cell, with a niche at the upper

³¹ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 422.

³² On the whole of the contested questions about the roofing and lighting of the Assyrian palaces, and the existence of an upper story, we must be content to refer to the works of Mr. Layard, Mr. Fergnson, and Professor Rawlinson.

³³ Speaking of the latest discoveries of M. Place at Koyuujik, Mr. Layard observes tnat "a careful examination of the ruins, and the discovery of a variety of architectural details, have enabled him to restore many external features of the Assyrian palaces, and to settle several interesting qucstions'of construction which had previously been undetermined." (" Nin. and Babylon," abridged edition, Introduction, p. xxxiv.)

³⁴ The discoveries of M. Place have shown that the Khorsabad tower had seven stages, like the Birs Nimrud at Borsippa, and probably colored after the same fashion. That of Nimrud only shows the remains of one lofty stage, pierced with a curious arched gallery, 100 feet long, 12 feet high, and G feet wide ; but it probably had other stages (see Layard, "Nin. and Bab." p. 129 ; Rawlinson, vol. i. pp. 394-399). A bas-relief found at Koyunjik has an interesting representation of a ziyyurat of four stages (and probably more, the slab being broken), on a monnd: for the details, which are very enrious, see Rawlinson, vol. i. p. 393.

³⁵ See below, chap. xvii. { 15.

ASSYRIAN ZIGGURATS AND TEMPLES.

381

end for the statue of the god. Sometimes there was a smaller antechamber (a pronaos or vestibule), sometimes not. In the former case, the entrance to the sacred cell was at the lower end, as in the Egyptian and Jewish temples; in the latter case, the entrance was at the side, so that the sacred image was not exposed to a passer-by when the door was open. The cell was surrounded by small chambers for the use of the priests. The inner walls were covered with bas-reliefs of religious subjects; and the pavement was either enriched with patterns or covered with inscriptions: for example, as above stated, the great inscription of Asshur-nasir-pal was found on a single slab which paved the door-way of one of the small temples at Nimrud. The door-way was flanked by colossal figures, generally of man-bulls; a compound which some regard as the emblem of Ninip or Bel-Merodach ; others as a more general symbol of the divine power, like the Egyptian sphinx, representing the union of material force and intelligence by the combination of the human head upon the body of the most vigorous of animals.³⁶

The outer walls of the temple were covered with enamelled bricks; and this is all we know from their remains. But further information of the greatest interest is afforded from representations on the bas-reliefs of buildings which the attendant objects prove almost certainly to be temples. A description of these would be of little use without the pictures, which may be seen in the works of Layard and Rawlinson; but the one great point of interest is this—they show a columnar facade not unlike the oldest examples of the architecture of Greece and Western Asia: in fact, in one case, we have the distinct type of the Ionic capital?¹ There are other capitals and bases of very varied forms : among them are figures of lions and griffins, forming bases (as in the Gothic of Northern Italy); and figures of the ibex, not as capitals, but as finials to columns or pilasters prolonged above the roof Of the former use of animal figures—literally as supjporters—AT. Place found a very curious example in the city gate of Khorsabad, the arch of" which springs from the back of the man-bulls, which usually only flank the entrance.

That the use of columns was not confined to temples, but

³⁶ In the temple at Nimrud, just mentioned, the flanking figures are lions, not man-Mows,. The lion appears to have been the symbol of Nergal.

³⁷ We purposely avoid saying, " the prototype;" for, as the figure occurs iu a bas-relief of Sargon at Khorsabad, it may have been borrowed from Western Asia. We have seen that Sargon's palace contained a staircase imitated from a Syrian temple (chap. xiii. § II).

382 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

that they were also employed in colonnades round the palace courts and elsewhere, is clear from the inscriptions. ^ The surprising absence of any columns from the ruins is explained, on the same authority, by the fact that they were usually of wood—another tradition derived from Babylonia. Mr. Layard found at Koyunjik some curious globular stone Bases—exactly like those of a temple figured at the same place—which, when complete, had formed a double line from the edge of the platform to an entrance of the palace, probably supporting the wooden pillars of a corridor. Besides the columns, with their bases and capitals, the temples figured on the reliefs show an entablature ; which—in the more archaic pattern, from Khorsabad—projects as a simple massive cornice; while—in the more elaborate work of Asshur-bani-pal, at Koyunjik, we have architrave, frieze, and cornice : in both cases, the sky line is finished with a pTj^V^L row of tiles or bricks in the form of gradines, the ' favorite form of Assyrian terminal, which is seen

also in the obelisks.

§ 17. Besides the palaces and temples, the sculptures show the walls of forts and cities, with all the appliances of turrets and loop-holes, parapets and battlements, singularly like a medieval castle. These are generally the fortifications of enemies, but in some cases of the Assyrians themselves; and the system of fortification seems to have been common to the peoples of Western Asia. We have had occasion to allude to the vivid scenes of the attack and defense of these walls by all the methods afterwards known to the Romans, the agger, testudo. and movable tower, the battering-ram and terebra, the catapult or balista, the wicker shield covering the archer who clears the walls, or the pioneer who works at°their foundation with his pick-axe ; and the lines of cir-cumvallation with their towers—all illustrating the words of the prophet: .

" I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee."³⁸

Of domestic buildings we have a single and very curious example in one of the sculptures, which seems to represent an unfortified Assyrian village : " It is observable here, in the first place, that the houses have no windows, and are, therefore, probably lighted from the roof; next, that the roofs are very curious, since, although flat insome instances, they consist more often either of hemispherical domes, such as are still so common in the East, or of steep and high

3» Isaiah xxix. 3; cf. Jerem. vi. 6; Ezek. iv. 2; xxi. 22: xxvi. S.

USE OF THE ARCH.

383

cones, such as are hut seldom seen anywhere. Mr. Layard finds a parallel for these last in certain villages of Northern Syria, where all the houses have conical roofs, built of mud, which present a very singular appearance. Both the domes and the cones of the Assyrian example have evidently an opening at the top, which may have admitted as much light into the houses as was thought necessary. The doors are of two kinds, square at the top, and arched : they are placed commonly towards the sides of the houses. The nouses themselves seem to stand separate, though in close juxtaposition."—Raidinson.

§ 18. It only remains to mention more particularly the use of the arch, which we have met with before in the oldest structures of lower Babylonia, and which is found in Egypt at a time as remote as the 15th century b.c. What is most remarkable in the Assyrian examples is that they show the three stages in the progress of the arch, subsequent to the mere overlapping courses of masonry or brick-work. First, these overlapping courses are curved off so as to form a false pointed arch. This construction, which is not uncommon in very old Greek architecture, seems to be shown in a viaduct leading to one of the temples noticed above (that on the sculpture of Asshur-bani-pal). That it was used for convenience, and not from ignorance, is proved by its being much later than the examples of the true arch. Next (in order of simplicity, but intermediate iu time) is an arched drain beneath the S.E. palace at Nimrud, built of plain bricks (not wedge-shaped), which rise in two segments of a circle—like the sides of a Saracenic arch, the curve being given by wedges of mortar—till the lower edges of the topmost bricks meet, when they are wedged apart by a Hat brick laid horizontally between them—thus forming a curious parody on the pointed arch.³⁹ Earliest of all, in the golden age of art under Asshur-nasir-pal, we have an arched drain beneath the N.W. palace at Nimrud, and an arched gallery in the ziggurat of the same place, in which a true semicircular arch is formed of bricks moulded expressly for the purpose, in the shape of a wedge, with a convex top aud a concave bottom to fit the curve of the arch. The greatest span of the arches yet discovered is 15 feet.⁴⁰

§ 19. The plastic art of the Assyrians is seen in its perfection in those bas-reliefs, the subjects of which have occupied so much of our attention. The few isolated statues are so inferior, that we might be tempted to refer them to quite a

⁵⁹ See the wood-cut in the " Student's Ancient Geography," p. 21S. ho fergusson, "Hand-book of Architecture," vol. i. p. 173.

384 CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

different age and school, were it not for the names inscribed upon them, and for the fact that their faults are common to the works of every age. They are clumsy and ill-proportioned, with features so flat as to be scarcely visible in profile. The fetters imposed by conventional forms furnish no adequate explanation ; for the Egyptian sculptors knew how to wear those fetters with dignity and even grace. It would seem as if the Assyrian artist, accustomed to work in the soft materials of the bas-reliefs, had not the patience to deal with the hard black basalt which is the usual material of the single statues, and contented himself with a coarse imitation of the rude archaic forms.

In the bas-reliefs, on the contrary, he expended his strength in details; and in this respect Assyrian art contrasts strikingly with Egyptian. The embroidery of the robes, the locks of the hair and beard, the muscles of the arms and legs, the manes and trappings of the horses, and the accessories in general, are executed with a care so great as even to give secondary matters a primary importance, and to injure the general effect. The breadth and dignity, the religious and monumental repose, of Egyptian art are altogether absent; but, in place of them, we have life, energy, and motion. This difference gives a striking illustration of the different national characters of the two peoples.

We may trace three distinct periods and styles of Assyrian art. The first is the golden age of the North-west palace of Nimrud ; wanting, indeed, in technical skill and freedom, but distinguished by strength and firmness, spirit and variety. The composition is of the simplest kind; the figures, with one or two exceptions, are always shown in profile, and with an entire absence of perspective, which leads to confusion when—as in some sieges—more than a very few figures are introduced. The sculptures of the second age— that of Sargon and Sennacherib — aim at a greater multiplicity of detail, and succeed to a certain extent by cleverness of arrangement, though still with an entire absence of perspective. The dragging of a colossal bull by several lines of captives, flanked by soldiers and by attendants with various appliances, and some of the battle scenes, are triumphs of ingenuity. Effects of landscape scenery are attempted as backgrounds: such as a mountainous country; forests, with their various denizens ; rivers and marshes, with their reeds and fishes—the latter sometimes as large as the boats. (See cut on p. 3G7.) As a whole, the sculpture has the fault of invading the province of painting; but, from the realistic point of view, it tells its story well.

ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.

385

In the last age—that of Asshur-bani-pal —we might fancy-that some new influence has come in to correct the faults of composition, while keeping closer than ever to the imitation of nature. There is a return to the true principles of bas-relief, in the absence of backgrounds of scenery or of attempts to represent objects on different planes. The accessories of the battle and hunting scenes are merely indicated by the outline of a fortress, or by a tree or two, most faithfully represented ; and the power of delineating plants is conspicuous in scenes where they form the principal objects, and where the human figures are only the accessories, as in a slab representing a garden. But it is chiefly in their animal forms that the artists have shown a truth and freedom, a variety and energy, worthy of at least the later age of Greek art. " Lions, wild apes, dogs, deer, wild goats, are represented in profusion ; and we scarcely find a single form that is repeated." Among the best examples are a dog held in a leash, a wild ass pulled down by hounds, and several wounded lions in their last agonies. But the human forms are as stiff, and their faces as inexpressive, as in the older sculptures ; while " in that which constitutes the highest quality of art, in variety of detail and ornament, in attempts at composition, in severity of style, and purity of outline, they are inferior to the earliest Assyrian monuments with which we are acquainted—those from the North-west palace at Nimrud. They bear, indeed, the same relation to them as the later Egyptian monuments do to the earlier.""'¹

§ 20. Of Assyrian painting little need be said, as it was almost entirely decorative, displaying great skill in the choice of colors and the arrangement of patterns. Whether the bas-reliefs were fully colored, like those of the Egyptians, is still a disputed point. Those in our museums are now free from color; but when first discovered, both at Nimrud and Khorsabad, they showed traces of local coloring. Rawlinson sums up the case as follows: "All leads to the conclusion that in Assyrian, as in classical sculpture, color was sparingly applied, being confined to such parts as the hair, eyes, and beards of men, to the fringes of dresses, to horse-trappings, and other accessory parts. In this the lower part of the walls was made to harmonize sufficiently with the upper portion, which was wholly colored, but chiefly with pale hues. At the same time a greater distinctness was given to the scenes represented upon the sculptured slabs, the color

⁴¹ Layard, "Nin. and Bab." abridged edit. Iutrod. p. xxiii.; where, as well as in Rawlinson (vol. i. c. vi.) willlbe found a description of these sculptures for which we have not space.

17

386

CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

being judiciously applied to disentangle human from animal figures, dress from flesh, or human figures from one another!"⁴² In the arts of gem-engraving, especially of signet-cylinders, intaglio-work, and ivory-cutting, engraving upon metals, and casting a vast variety of ornaments, the excellence attained by the Assyrians can be best seen by inspecting the objects in our Museum.

43 "Five Monarchies," vol. i. pp. 450, 451.

Serio-Coinic Drawing. (From a Cylinder.)

Fallen Rock Sculptures at Bavian.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CUNEIFORM WRITING AND LITERATURE, THE SCIENCE AND RELIGION, OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS.

3 1. Antiquity of letters both iu Egypt and Mesopotamia. The three stages othiero glypthic, hieratic, and cuneiform writing. An example. § 2. Three stages of cuneiform writing—archaic, modem, and cursive. § 3. Aryannna\ Anarian writing. Dialects of the latter. § 4. Origin of the Persian trilingual and bilingual inscriptions. The key to cuneiform interpretation. § 5. Progress of the discovery. Royal names deciphered. Help from cognate dialects. The Behistun inscription. Persian cuneiform inscriptions conquered. § G. Progress of Anarian interpretation. § 7. Difficulties of the Anarian texts. Variety of characters. Their ideographic and phonetic power. Limits of the uncertainty. § S. Materials used in writing. Clay cylinders, tablets, etc. Evidence of the use of paper (or some such material) from existing seals. $ 9. Assyrian literature. The library of Asshur-bani-pal. § 10. The great work on Assyrian grammar. Books of history, chronology, statistics, law, religion, etc. § 11. Mathematical and astronomical science—derived from Babylonia. § 12. The Chaldaean caste, the possessors of this science—the ruling order in the state. Their appearance in the Book of Daniel. § 13. Account of the Chaldseaus by Diodorus. Their chief colleges. Their name becomes a by-word. § 14. Extent of Chaldaean science. Astronomy. Cosmical year of 43,200 years. The soss, ner, and sar. Divisions of time. Months—Days of the week—Hours of the day. Sun-dial and water-clock. § 15. Their astronomical observations. Eclipses. Lunar cycle. Constellations. A Babylonian Zodiac. The planets. Chaldaean astrology. Prophetic almanacs. Influence of the astrologers. Cases of Nebuchadnezzar and Sennacherib. § 16. Geometry and arithmetic. System of notation. Table of squares. § 17. Rki.igion of Assyria and Babylon—essentially the same. Points of difference. Gross Babylonian idolatry- § IS. The religion not pure Saboeism. The supreme god—11 in Babylon— Asshur in Assyria. His titles, temples, and emblems. The Ferouher and sacred tree. § 19. The other deities. First triad: Ana, Bil, and Hoa; cosmogonic.

388 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

Second triad : Sin, Shamas, Iva, the Sun, Moon, and Atmosphere ; cosmic. The five planetary deities, Xinij) (Saturn), Merodach (Jupiter), Xergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), Nebo (Mercury). Their relations to the superior gods. § 20. Genii and inferior deities. General remarks.

§ 1. The two great nations of Mesopotamia were the only-people of antiquity who could dispute with the Egyptians the fii'st development of the elements of knowledge. It would be a profitless quest to decide the order of precedence, or to determine how far the science of Mesopotamia was independent of that of the Nile valley ; but it can hardly be doubted that both derived much from the primeval civilization of the Hamite and Cushite race.

The art of writing—the instrument of all the sciences—is of immemorial antiquity at both these centres. Alike on the quarry stones of the Great Pyramid, and on the bricks of the oldest Chaldoean cities, we find letters in use, and that not in their first stage : the Egyptian hieroglyphics have already assumed the cursive form, and the Babylonian writing has passed beyond the hieroglyphic stage. For that it was originally hieroglyphic, is a fact beyond dispute. Some combinations still recall the images of the original objects; and the hieroglyphic stage is still preserved by a complete inscription at Susa, which has not yet, however, been properly examined.

The first departure from strict picture writing was to represent the objects by conventional groups of straight lines (for this form of writing admits no curves), sometimes retaining much of the former likeness; as zzd for " hand," 1 1

for " house," <^> for " sun" (in place of Q), and 3 |=, which is clearly some object, though what\s a disputed point. In this form, the writing is called hieratic, simply as being in its second stage, like the so-called Egyptian hieratic, and not from any peculiarly sacred use. It was evidently produced by the scratch of a pointed instrument on soft clay, for that was the sole material at first used by these people, instead of pen and ink, papyrus or parchment.

But a more expeditious mode came to be invented by simple pressure of the style (many specimens of which are found among the ruins) upon the soft clay, which produced a mark like a nail or wedge, |, whence the writing is called cuneiform? Be it remembered that this form—whether perpen-

¹ The term arrow-headed has also been used; but cuneiform is now quite established. The other term is also ambiguous, as there is a combination of two cuneiform elements V which may be more properly described as an arrow-head.

HIEROGLYPHIC AND CUNEIFORM WRITING. 389

dicular, horizontal, or oblique ; whether elongated, as above, or short, [ ; or forming (for convenience) a solid triangle,

large or small, as in the combination —that this, we say,

is but another form of the straight stroke of the so-called hieratic writing, and the one element, by the repetition of which, in various combinations, all the letters of the alphabet are made. Were further illustration of this primary point needed, it would be easy to construct an English alphabet of cuneiform elements, for A,^ for E, etc.

The hieratic and cuneiform characters may be seen m some of their earliest combinations, and their essential identity may be at once traced, by comparing the inscriptions on two bricks found at Warka, and bearing the name of the (supposed) most ancient king mentioned on the monuments:

Cuneiform Characters.

m

tWmM

N.B.—Compare the Hieratic form on p. 390.

This inscription has been read as follows: "Beltis, his lady, has caused IJrukh (or Urkham), the pious chief, King of Hur, and king of the land (?) of Akkad, to build a temple to her."

§ 2. The cuneiform writing itself assumes three distinct types—the original, or archaic, the modern, and the cursive. The first only is found on all the monuments of the Chaldaean plain, except such as can be clearly traced to the later Babylonian kings. The second, which is a simplification of the first, is used in most of the older Assyrian inscriptions down to b.c. 1000. The last, which is a still more abbrevi

390 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

ated form, for the sake of quicker writing, is the common type of the later Assyrian inscriptions on clay, from the 10th to the 7th century b.c :² those on stone were either in the archaic or modem character, apparently at the mere choice of the engraver, just as we carve inscriptions either in Roman or Gothic letters. The cuneiform writing is always from left to right; the cursive from right to left. Further, the archaic is of one uniform type; the modern and cursive arc varied in the different dialects that employed them.

§ 3. For the cuneiform writing is not confined to the Assyrians and Babylonians : it was used by all the nations that

held dominion in the plain of Mesopotamia, down to the time of Alexander. Some few inscriptions are even found later than the Macedonian conquest; but from that epoch it rapidly died out. There are, however, remarkable differences in the cuneiform writing of the Persians and of the other nations who employed it. The Persian type being Aryan, the others are called collectively Anarian. These are : (l) The Assyrian, which includes the Babylonian, for the slight differences between these two are merely graphic, that is, in the mode of arranging the same combinations of strokes. (2) The Armenian, an Aryan language expressed in the Anarian type of writing, in the inscriptions from the 9th to the 7th centuries b.c. on the rocks about the city and lake of Van. (3) The Susian, a Turanian dialect used in all the inscriptions of Elam or Susiana. (4) The Medo-Scythic, also a Turanian dialect, established in Media before the Aryan conquest, and surviving there as the language of the common people. (5) The Casdo-Scythic, or ChaTdcean, another Turanian dialect, the proper tongue of the dominant Chaldaeans

² The cursive characters sometimes approach so near to the Phoenician as to suggest that the source of the latter, and consequently of all^-the Semetic and European alphabets, may have been from the cuneiform writing. (See the engraving in Layard, " Nin. and Bab." p. 171, abridged edition.) As is natural, the strokes of the cursive writing approach the straight lines of the hieratic. This form also admits some curves.

Hieratic Characters.

N.B.—Compare the cut on p. 3S9.

CUNEIFORM INTERPRETATION.

391

of Babylonia, who preserved it among themselves as a sacred language.

§ 4. When the Persians became masters of the whole region of these languages, they wrote their decrees and public records in the three chief dialects spoken by their subjects, the Persian, Meclo-Scythic (or, as it is called for brevity, Median), and the Assyrian: sometimes in only two. These three dialects represent the Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic families of language. Hence the perpetuation of those bilingual and trilingual inscriptions, which have at length furnished, in our own day, a key to cuneiform interpretation, like that which the Rosetta stone supplied for the hieroglyphics; but with this most important difference, that whereas in the Rosetta stone one of the three versions is in a well-known language (Greek), in the trilingual cuneiform inscriptions the characters and languages were all alike unknown. Of these inscriptions, before the great Assyrian discoveries, the principal were those which had long excited wonder at the ruins of Persepolis and Ecbatana (Ilamadan); and a few bricks inscribed with cuneiform characters, which had been brought from Babylon.

§ 5. With such materials, the German scholar Grotefend undertook the task of decipherment in the same year in which the Rosetta stone was brought from Egypt. Like Young, he sought first for the royatnames; but there was no cartouche to guide him. He found, however, a clue of a different kind. In the Persian column, the elementary wedge

was constantly appearing by itself in an oblique position ^.

This had already been conjectured to mark the ends of sentences; just as,'in fact, the short-hand writer uses/for .

Next Grotefend observed that, on comparing different inscriptions, there were groups of signs constantly appearing in one,close to other prevalent groups; but in another, while one of these connected groups "kept its place, the other had disappeared, and was replaced by a totally different group. Now this was just what would happen in the inscriptions of successive kings, each recording his father's name with his own; as when one inscription is of "Darius, son of Hystas-])es," another of "Xerxes, son of Darius." This happy conjecture (and conjecture is the beginning of all discovery) supplied the missing key. The royal names, once found, could be compared with their Greek forms, not indeed (as in the Rosetta stone) on the same inscription, but in the pages of history, their forms being few and well marked. There are differences of orthography indeed, but not such as to

392 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

make it difficult to discover the name of "Xerxes (the son of) Darius, the Achcemenid" as "Khshayarsha (the son of) Daryavahush Ilakhamau ishiya."

A certain number of alphabetic characters being thus determined with probability, other words of frequent occurrence could be spelt. True, they were in an unknown language* but the ancient Persian was known to be of the Aryan family ; and words soon came out which had their fellows in the Zend, in the modern Persian, aud in the cognate tongues. For example, the word which we have represented by (the son), and which stood where that meaning was required, came out as putra, a well-known Sanscrit word ; nor was it difficult to render the title Khshayathiya, which constantly preceded and followed the royal names, as king. By such a process the phrase from which our examples have been taken came out in full as " Khshayarsha khshayathiya wazarka, khshayathiya khshayathiyanam, Daryavahush khshayathiya-hya putra, Hakhainanishiya," meaning, "Xerxes the king great, the king of kings, of Darius the king the son, the Achaa-menid." An examination of the phrase will show some examples of grammatical inflection.

In 1815, Grotefend published a complete translation of some of the inscriptions ; and the subsequent labors of Sanscrit scholars confirmed the general truth of this method all the more for the correction of some errors of detail.

The next great step was made by the transcription of the famous trilingual rock inscription of Behistun, on the western frontier of Persia. This had been difficult, from its inaccessible position; but it was effected by Sir Henry Rawlinson iu 1835, and more perfectly in 1844 ; and in 1846, this great pioneer of recent cuneiform discovery published a translation of the Persian column, which proved to be the record by Darius, the son of Hystaspes (whose effigy is sculptured on the tablets), of the leading events of his reign.³ " This translation has been subjected to the most rigorous examination and criticism by Sanscrit scholars ; and those who have taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with the subject, and are competent to form an opinion upon it, do not hesitate to admit that the interpretation of the Per sieen cuneiform is placed beyond a doubt."* This result was achieved at the very time that Botta and Layard were opening up the bu-

³ "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," 1S4G. Comp. chap. xix. § 5.

⁴ Layard, introduction to the abridged edition of "Nineveh and Babylon," p. xliv. "A list, iu the three cuneiform characters, of the various satrapies included within the dominions of the king of Persia, had previously been discovered at Persepolis, and had enabled Bnrnouf and Lassen to determine the value of several letters of the Persian cuneiform alphabet." (Ibid.)

CUNEIFORM INTERPRETATION.

803

iied treasures of Nineveh and Nimrud ; and thus, as so often happens, the key of a new knowledge was obtained just when it was most wanted.

§ 6. Its application, however, to the Anarian dialects still presented immense difficulties; which, let it be at once confessed, are still only imperfectly overcome. That the three columns of the Behistun and other trilingual inscriptions contained the same matter could scarcely be doubted, and was proved by the recurrence of groups of characters in positions corresponding to the names of persons, places, and so forth, in the Persian text. Where these names differed from the latter in form, as they often did, classical and biblical literature came in to aid; and it was proved that the column presumed to be Assyrian was really in a Semitic dialect. This point once established, the affinities of the Semitic languages helped to determine the meanings of the words and the grammatical inflections. By the continued labors of Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late Dr. Hincks, Mr. Norris, Air. Fox Talbot, M. Oppert, and others, a system of cuneiform interpretation has been definitely established ; the general meaning of almost any text can now be deciphered ; and the last named scholar has published a Cuneiform Grammar.

§ 7. The difficulties of the Anarian texts consist partly in the vast multiplicity and variety of the forms, and partly (as with hieroglyphics) in the mixture of ideographic and pJio-netic characters. The Persian cuneiform alphabet contains only 36 characters, and these are alphabetic; in the Assyrian the characters are syllabic, and seem to admit of an almost endless variety, thus resembling the structure of the Chinese rather than of European alphabets; one mark, by-the-way, of a Turanian origin. The characters are of three kinds : letters, monograms, and determinatives. The second (like the arbitrary signs of short-hand) are an abbreviated mode of expressing proper names and other words of frequent recurrence: thus the simple element f stands for the god Asshur, as the primal source of all being. The third are signs prefixed to words to indicate the class to which

they belong: thus an eight-rayed star ^jc^" , hieratic, with its corresponding cuneiform *m^r^—^ indicates that the

following word is the name of a god. The difficulty from the mixture of ideographic and phonetic sounds has been explained in speaking of the Egyptian hieroglyphics; but in the Assyrian character it is greater in degree.

It should be remembered, however, that this difficulty at-

]7*

394 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

fects the sound rather than the m'eaning of the words; and this is the answer to those skeptics who, instead of investigating the subject, point to the immense discrepancy in the readings of proper names, especially those of kings. For these are the very names which are compounded of ideographic elements ; and it is only in some few cases (as that of Sennacherib) that their phonetic value has been fully determined. But this does not affect our knowledge of the person and his deeds, as recorded in his annals and depicted on his monuments. Take, for instance, the builder of the North-west Palace of Nimrud : we explore his edifices ; we see in our own Museum his sculptured effigy and the pictures of his battles and huntings, with all their accessories; we read his annals in the reiterated copies of the standard inscription of Nimrud; and through all we trace a certain groupj of characters which identify his name. Not to be quite sure of the reading of that name is certainly annoying; but what does it matter to his history? Whether the king, of whom we have so much certain knowledge, was really called Assliur-idanni-pcd,ox: Ass hur-izir-ped, or Asshur-nasir-ped, or something else, is of no more moment than whether we record the deeds of our own greatest king under the name of " Edward " or of " Longshanks."

§ 8. One word more as to the materials of Assyrio-Baby-lonian writing. We have had occasion to speak again and again of the impressed bricks; of the clay cylinders and tablets, which were the books of these ancient people, and of which we now possess an extensive library; of the inscriptions on stone ; and the innumerable legends on small objects, such as metals, gems, and even glass. In their intercourse with other nations, and especially with Egypt, it is incredible that they should not have used parchment or paper; and the fact of their having done so is made clear, notwithstanding that nearly all researches thus far have been in palaces where fire has destroyed every thing combustible; for, in the great Assyrian library, of which we are about to speak, there "were discovered a number of pieces of fine clay, bearing the impressions of seals, which had evidently been attached, like modern official seals of wax, to documents written on leather, papyrus, or parchment. The documents themselves had perished. In the clay seals may still be seen holes for the string or strips of skin, by which the seal was fastened to them. In some instances the very ashes remained, and the marks of the thumb and finger which had been used to mould the clay can still be traced."⁵ Among

⁶ Layard "Nin. and Bab." pp. 171-2, abridged edition. The curiousiiermancnce of tfficud forms is shown in the manner of affixing the seals.

ASSYRIAN LITERATURE.

them is a piece of clay bearing the impress of two seals, one Assyrian and the other Egyptian, suggesting a treaty between kings of the two countries. The Assyrian signet is unfortunately illegible, but the Egyptian bears the effigy and name of Sabaco, the contemporary of Sargon. This and other seals of the sort described may be seen in the British Museum.

§ 9. Connected with the system of cuneiform writing, there is a mass of Assyrian grammatical literature such as was possessed by no other people of antiquity, except the Sanscritic Aryans of India, and the Greeks. Our wonder at the difficulties of modern cuneiform scholars ceases, and our admiration of their degree of success grows, when we see the pains imposed on the Assyrians themselves by the complication of their writing and the varieties of the Anarian dialects. These books — and, in fact, the greater part of the whole mass of Assyrian literature, besides that inscribed upon the monuments—were found in two rooms of the palace of Asshur-bani-pal at Nineveh, to which Air. Layard gave the name of the " Chambers of Records." The discovery is so much the more interesting than that of the library in the Ramesseum,⁶ as that was empty, while this retained its multitudinous treasures, most of which are now in our Museum. Like the other, it was dedicated to the god and goddess of learning ; and (probably unlike the other) it was a-public library ; for one of its most important books bears the following inscription: "Palace of Asshur-bani-pal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the god Nebo and the goddess Tasmit (the goddess of knowledge) have given the ears to hear and opened the eyes to see what is the true foundation of government. They revealed to the kings, my predecessors, this cuneiform writing, the manifestation of the god Nebo, the god of supreme intelligence : I wrote it upon tablets, I signed and arranged them, and I placed them in my palace for the instruction of my subjects"

Thus far the founder of the library: now let us hear its discoverer. " The door-way guarded by the fish-gods led into two small chambers opening into each other, and once panelled with bas-reliefs, the greaterpart of which have been destroyed. I shall call these chambers 'the chambers of records,' for they appear to have contained the decrees of the Assyrian kings, and the archives of the empire"—(how much more various were their contents, we shall see presently). " To the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with them—some entire, but the greater

⁶ See chap; ix. 5 31.

39f> WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

part broken into fragments. They were of different sizes ; the largest tablets were flat, and measured about 9 inches by 6^ inches ; the smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long, with but one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were singularly sharp and well-defined, but so minute in some instances as to be almost illegible without a magnifying-glass. They had been impressed by an instrument on the moist clay, which had been afterwards baked.

" These documents appear to be of various kinds, principally historical records of wars and distant expeditions undertaken by the Assyrians; royal decrees stamped with the king's name ; lists of the gods, and probably a register of offerings made in their temples ; prayers; tables of the value of certain, cuneiform letters, expressed by different alphabetical signs ; trilingual and bilingual vocabularies of the Assyrian and of an ancient language once spoken in the country [the Accadian] ; grammatical phrases; calendars ; lists of sacred days; astronomical calculations; lists of animals, birds, and various objects, etc., etc. Many are sealed with seals, and prove to be legal contracts, or conveyances of land. Others bear impressions of engraved cylinders. On some tablets are found Phoenician or cursive Assyrian characters, and other signs. The adjoining chambers contained similar relics, but in far smaller numbers. Many cases were filled with these tablets, which are deposited in the British Museum. We can not overrate their value. They furnish us with materials for the complete decipherment of the cuneiform character, for restoring the language and history of Assyria, and for inquiring into the customs, sciences, and, it may perhaps even be added, literature of its people. The documents that have thus been discovered at Nineveh probably exceed all that have yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt."⁷

§ 10. Some progress has been already made in deciphering these documents. The one which bears the inscription above quoted proves to be nothing less than a vast Uncyclopedia of Ascyrio-Babylonian Grammar, explaining the difficulties both of the writing and the language, and consisting of the following five parts : (1) A Lexicon of the Accadian (Oas-do-Scythic or Ghcddoian) Language, with the meanings of the words in Assyrian. This work removes any remaining doubt about the fact that the Chaldaean order had a peculiar language, in which their sacred and scientific treatises were composed, and opens the way for the full understanding of

'• Layurd, "Nineveh and Babylon," abridged edition, pp. 1GJ-1T1.

"ROYAL LIBRARY OF NINEVEH."

397

that language. (2) A Dictionary of Assyrian Synonyms: (3) An Assyrian Grammar, containing the conjugations of verbs : (4) A Dictionary of the Charcicters of the Anarian Cuneiform Writing, with their ideographic meanings and their phonetic values: (5) Another Dictionary of the same Characters, compared with the primitive hieroglyphics from which they were derived. The mere enumeration of these titles is enough to raise the highest expectations of light to be gained from their complete decipherment. The several tablets which form (so to speak) the leaves or folios of this great work, as well as those of the other books in the library —often written on both sides—are carefully numbered, and they were doubtless arranged in cases in the order of this paging.

Among the other treasures of this "Royal Library of Nineveh," roughly enumerated above by Mr. Layard, the most important are the following : For history and chronology we have only fragments—but invaluable fragments—of the Table of Eponymous Officers, complete for almost three centuries (b.c. 911 to 660), which, like the lists of Athenian Ar-chons and the Roman Fasti Consulares, constantly assigns the events recorded iu the royal annals to their proper years, and fixes the succession of the kings themselves. A single fragment, unhappily, is all that remains of a Synchronical History of Assyria and Babylon, in parallel columns. There are the fragments of a Geographical Dictionary, containing an enumeration of the countries, cities, mountains, and rivers known to the Assyrians ; and those of a List of the Proper Names used in the country: as well as a vast mass of statistical documents relating to the hierarchy of administrative officers, and the different provinces of the empire, their productions and revenues. Laic is represented by the fragments of a treatise on private rights; and Religion by a vast number of mythological fragments, not yet deciphered, and by the remains of a collection of Hymns, the style of which'often resembles the Hebrew Psalms. The taste thus shown for these compositions throws light on the call made upon the captive Jews, so familiar to us in the pathetic language of their own Psalmody: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song y and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion."*

§ 11. Next to grammar, however, the collection appears to

⁶ Psalm cxxxvii. 1-3. See note b to chapter x.

398 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

be richest in that mathematical and astronomical science, which there can be little doubt that the Assyrians learnt from the Babylonians. This science—consisting chiefly of arithmetic, and of astronomy, with its perversions in astrology, magic, and divination—seems to have sprung up, like the art of building, among the primeval Cushite race. The universal tradition of antiquity divided the invention of these sciences between Egypt and Babylonia; and modern inquiries tend to show that their priority and superiority was in the latter country. The exact emplacement of their earliest temple towers, the Sabaean character of their religion, the astronomical symbols found on their earliest monuments,⁹ concur to indicate that the Babylonians observed the heavens from remote antiquity. The elaborate chronological computations of Berosus, and the stories of astronomical observations going back to a fabulous antiquity,¹⁰ prove, at least, that they possessed a science the origin of which was forgotten even by themselves.

§ 12. This science was in the hands of a priestly caste, called the Chaldeans. They were a true caste, for their learning was both exclusive and hereditary. We call them priestly, because a certain religious character was attached to the whole body, though all did not necessarily fulfill sacerdotal functions. Every priest must be a Chaldaean ; but not every Chaldaean was in practice a priest. At Babylon they were in all respects the ruling order in the body politic, uniting in themselves the characters of the Egyptian sacerdotal and military classes. They filled all the highest offices of state under the king, who himself belonged to the order. In the Jewish campaigns, both of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, we find the Rabu-Eniaja or Rab May (that is, the Archimayus) of the Chaldaeans one of the principal generals; and we have seen the same functionary acting as regent twice in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The mention of a Rab Mag under Sennacherib, combined with the sacerdotal character clearly assumed by the Assyrian kings, seems to show that a common religion gave to the Chalda\'in caste a similar influence in Assyria as in Babylon, and that the Assyrian kings were initiated into the order."

It is in the Book of Daniel that the Chaldaean caste make, their appearance most distinctly, as the possessors not only of a special " learning," but of a peculiar " tongue."¹² They

⁹ As the moon on the signet-cylinder of Urulih. ¹⁰ See above, chap. x. note A.

¹¹ The continuance of this royal co-optation, even when Babylon was under the Greek kings of Syria, may perhaps be iudicated by the fact that Strabo calls Seleucus a Chaldaean (xvi. 1. Z 6); but this may mean only " King of Chaldsea."

¹² Daniel i. 4.

THE CHALDJEAN ORDER.

399

are associated with the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and soothsayers—probably classes of the order.¹³ They are applied to by Nebuchadnezzar to expound his dreams, and by Belshazzar in their character of " interpreters " of oracles in an unknown tongue. The jealousy characteristic of a privileged religious order is seen in their readiness to accuse Shadrach, Aleshach, and Abednego before Nebuchadnezzar.¹⁴ We have examples of initiation into their order in the case of these three Jews and Daniel ;¹⁵ and the latter was made by Nebuchadnezzar the ^u master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldaeans, and soothsayers."¹⁶ Herodotus and Ctesias both conversed with the Chaldaean priests at Babylon; and the account given of them by the latter is preserved by Diodorus Siculus.

§ 13. This writer says that the Chaldreans were the most ancient of the Babylonians—a most important testimony in reference to the vexed question of their origin—and that they formed in the state a class like the priests of Egypt, Established to practice the worship of the gods, they passed! their whole lives in meditating questions of philosophy, and. acquired a great reputation for their astrology.¹⁷ They were addicted especially to the art of divination, and framed predictions of the future. They sought to avert evil and to insure good by purifications, sacrifices, and enchantments. They were versed in the arts of prophesying by means of the flight of birds, and of explaining dreams and prodigies, and the omens furnished by the entrails of victims offered in sacrifice. The writer adds that this knowledge was not acquired in the same manner as among the Greeks; for the learning of the Chaldaeans was a family tradition. The son who inherited it from his father was exempt from all public imposts. Having their parents for instructors, they had the double advantage of being taught every thing without reserve, and of giving more implicit credit to their teachers. Trained to the study from their infancy, they made great progress in astrology—both from the facility with which the young learn and from the long period of their instruction. The Chaldaeans, always resting at the same fixed stage of learning, receive their traditions unaltered ; while the Greeks (says Diodorus), thinking only of gain, are always forming new sects, contradicting one another about the most important doctrines, and thus disturbing the minds of their disciples, who, tossed about in a continual uncertainty, end by

¹³ Daniel ii. 2,10 ; iv. 7; v. 7,11. ¹⁴ Dan. iii. S.

¹⁵ Dan. i. "Dan. v. 11.

¹⁷ The uarpoXofla of Diodorus is primarily astronomy, including also astrology.

400 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

believing nothing. Divested of the cynical way of putting the motives and results, we have here a valuable allusion to the difference between the stereotyped learning of an authoritative caste and the vigorous spirit of free inquiry.

The Chaldseans were settled throughout the whole country, but there were some special places where they had regular colleges. The chief of these were Borsippa, near Babylon, and Ur (Orchoo), in the lower country; whence Strabo recognizes two schools of the Chalda?ans, the Borsippeni and Orchoeni.¹⁸ Their next seats in importance were Babylon itself, and the twin cities of Sippara (Sepharvaim).^ly Under the supremacy of Home, their contributions to science were still remembered with honor;²⁰ but more generally their name had become a by-word for the arts of prophetic and magical imposture.²¹ Just as the fortune-tellers of modern times have been called Egyptians (Gypsies), so were astrologers and conjurers in general styled Babylonians and Chaldwans ; their occult science was the Ars Chaldaorum y their genethliacal calculations, Babylonii numeri and ra-tiones Chaldaictey²² their replies to inquirers into the future, Chaldceornm monita, C/ialdceorum natalitia pra?dicta.

§ 14. The real science on which this mixed reputation was based was, as we have said, chiefly astronomical and arithmetical; involving also a regular calendar, an elaborate scheme of astronomical chronology, and the system of weights and measures which has been handed down, through Phoenicia and Greece, to all the nations of Europe.²³

There can be no doubt that the Babylonian astronomy was more truly scientific than the Egyptian,²⁴ and that it reached the highest perfection attainable without the aid of optical

¹⁸ Strab. xvi. p. 739. ¹⁹ Plin. " H. N." vi. 26.

²⁰ Cic. "De Div." i. 41 — "Chaldsei cognitione astrornm sollertiaqne ingeniornm antecellnnt:" comp. Strab. xv. p.20S ; Diod. ii. 29.

²¹ Cic. "Div." I. c.; Hor. "Od." i. 11, 2 ; Jnv. vi. 552, x. 94; Appian. Syr. c. 58; Curt, i. 10, v. 1; Cato, " R. R." v. 4; Joseph. " B. J." ii. 7, § 3.

²² Also in Greek, XaXdalmv i±0)ooot, XaXdaluv \l/ri<pi6e9.

²³ For the exposition of this system, which would be out of place here, see Bockh'a Metrologische Untersnchungen," Mr. Grote's discussion of that work in the " Classical Museum," and the articles on Weights and Measures in the " Dictionary of Antiquities." 2d edition. It is enough here to say that the system is based on the only really natural and scientific foundations, of the dimensions of the human body for smaller measures and the sexagesimal subdivision of a large circle of the earth for the larger, the former being corrected by the latter; and the measures of surface, solid capacity, and Aveight, being derh'ed from these. Hence it appears that the modern French metric system is as much at variance with history as it is with nature (in its abandonment of the measures of the human body), and with science (in its basis on the centesimal division of the quadrant, which was rejected by mathematicians aud astronomers almost as soon as it was invented by the fanatical decimalists of the Revolution. It is not even properly decimal; for then the circle would have to be divided into 100 or 1000 degrees, not 400).

²⁴ See above, chap. ix. § 2.

CHALDiEAN ASTRONOMY.

401

instruments. The Chaldreans knew the synodic period of the moon, the equinoctial and solstitial points, the true length of the year, as dependent on the annual course of the sun (within a narrow limit of error), and even the precession of the equinoxes. But, as might have been expected from their want of accurate instruments, they made a mistake in the amount of the precession, and calculated it at 30 seconds instead of 50. Hence their great cosmical year—that is, one complete revolution of the equinoctial points among the fixed stars—was made too long in the like proportion, namely, 43,200 solar years instead of 26,000 (to use round numbers). This period ot 43,200 years was the basis both of their arithmetical and chronological computations: and we have already seen that the antediluvian age of Berosus contained 10 such cosmic years (432,000 solar years). If we consider this as a greater cosmical year, his so-called historical period of 36,000 years (including the mythical first dynasty) would be the month, or twelfth part, of such a year; and this, again, is 10 times the period of 3600 years, which the Babylonians called the sar. Berosus tells us that their chronological computations were based on these three denominations—the soss (a^fTfTog) of 60 years, the ner (v^pog) of 600 years, and the sar (rrapoc) of 3600 years; and his antediluvian period of 432,000 years is composed of 120 sars.²⁵

With regard to the more prevalent divisions of time, they appear to have used the month of 30 days, and the year of 12 months, from immemorial antiquity ; and also the week of 7 days, the nomenclature of which, from the 7 chief heavenly bodies, coincides with the 7 stages of their temple-towers, and seems on other grounds also to have been invented by them. The system is well worth a few words of explanation, especially as it is often derived from mistaken data. The Latin names of the days will best show the planets from which they are derived: (1) Dies Solis; (2) D. Lunse; (3) D. Martis ; (4) D. Mercurii ; (5) D. Jovis; (6) D. Veneris; (7) D. Saturni.

³⁵ Beros. "Chaldaica," ap. Syneell, p. 17, Euseb. "Chron. Arm." Pars i. c. 1, §§ 1, 2. The statement of Apollodorus, that Berosus represented Alorus, the first Chaldean King of Babylon, as reigning 10 sens (30,000 years) is a very valuable testimony that Berosus recognized the period; but Moses of Choreuc pointed out that the King's name arose from the tendency of ancient writers to personify periods of time. It is also to be observed that Berosus says nothing of the mode by which the sar was derived from the ner and the ner from the soss. It is obvious, arithmetically, that as the soss — GO years, the ner = 10 sossi = GOO (?. e., GO X 10) years, and the sar == G neri — GC sossi = 3G00 (i. c, either GO X 10 X 6, or at once GO X GO) years. Professor Rawlinson considers that the system went on by alternate multiples of 6 and 10: thns GX 10 = GO, the soss; GO X 10 = GOO, the ner; 600 X GO = 3600, the sar; 3GO0 x 10 = 30,000, the " period of Alorus;" but the next multiple is not G but 12, giving the antediluvian period of 412,000, which Berosus, however, at ouce derived from the sar, as 120 sars.

402 WHITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

The curious point here is the want of any astronomical sequence, whether on the Ptolemaic, or Copernican, or any conceivable system. One simple solution is that each hour was under planetary government, and the influence ruling the day was that presiding over its first hour. As the day contains 24 ( = 3 x 7-f 3) hours, the ruler of the second day is the 3d in order after the ruler of the first day, and so on. Beginning the 1st day with Saturn, the chief Babylonian planetary god, and counting inward according to the most ancient (the so-called Ptolemaic) solar system, the 25th hour, or the first of the 2d day, falls to the Sim; the first of the 3d day to the Moon; of the 4th to Mercury; of the 5th to Mars; of the 6th to Jupiter; of the 7th to Venus.

This explanation is furnished by Dion Cassius; but Sir Henry Rawlinson prefers a scheme based on the sexagesimal division of the day (into 60 hours), which he maintains that the Babylonians had in common with the Hindoos. Beginning with the planet nearest to the earth, the first hour belongs to the Moon, and the first day is Monday; the 61st hour falls to Mars, and the day is Tues-(Tuisco's-)day; the 121st to Mercury, Wednes-(Woden's-)day ; the 181st to Ju-p)iter,Thurs\Thor''s-)day; the 241st to Venus, Fri-{FrigeCs-)-day; the 301st to Saturn, Satur-day; the 361st to the Sun, Sun-day.

Herodotus tells us that the Greeks learned from the Babylonians the division of the day into 12 hours (i. e., of the day and night into 24), as well as the sun-dial and the gnomon ;²⁶ a testimony the more important as it occurs incidentally in a passage recounting Egyptian contributions to science. But their hours were the true equinoctial hours, whereas those of the Greeks were of variable length, according to the time of sunrise and sunset, They also measured time by the water-clock—the clepsydra of the Greeks.

§ 15. The report of their famous series of observations, going back to 1903 years before Alexander's conquest of Babylon, has now been proved to be a mistake ; but Pliny quotes the testimony of Epigenes, that they had similar records for 720 years, inscribed on tablets of burnt brick.²⁷ Berosus states that these observations reached back to the time of Nabonassar, who destined the records of previous kings; and this, therefore, is not to be considered the limit of their observations. Ptolemy specifies the same limit (of b.c 747)

²⁶ Herod, ii. 109. The gnomon was the style or other edge which casts the shadow on the dial.—See "Diet, of Ants." art. Pot.us.

. ²⁷ Plin. " II. N." yii. 50. " Epigenes apnd Babylonias DCCXX. anuonnn ohserva-tiones siderum coctilibus latercnlis inscriptas docet."

CIIALDJEAN ASTRONOMY.

403

fn speaking of their accurate observation of eclipses; and among those he quotes are five of the moon, which have been verified as falling in the years b.c. 721, 720, 621, 523. The first (on March 10, b.c 721) is especially noteworthy as having been total at Babylon. They ascribed solar eclipses to their true cause; but, according to Diodorus, their skill only extended to the prediction of lunar eclipses, and they were content with observing the solar. Among recent discoveries is a tablet containing the record of a sofar eclipse in the reign of Asshur-danin-il II, June 15, b.c 763, which, with the help of the Canons, fixes Assyrian chronology as far back as b.c 900. This power of calculating eclipses implies a knowledge of the "Metonic " or "golden cycle" of 223 lunations, after which the eclipses recur in the same order; and we are expressly told that they reckoned this cycle at 18 years 10 days.²⁸

Their observations of the apparent motions of the sun, moon, and planets, imply a careful identification of the fixed stars; and there is little, if any, doubt that they invented the system of constellate ns, of which mention is made as early as the Book of Job.^2J We have in the British Museum a conical black stone, carved with figures, which seem evidently to represent some of the signs of the Zodiac and other constellations. The Sun, in its twofold form—male and female—and the Moon, are grouped as a triad in the centre ; and among the surrounding figures are clearly the Bam, the Bull, the Serpent, the Scorpion, the Dog, the Eagle, and the Arrow. There are also quadrangular figures (like a house or altar), surmounted by emblems, which may perhaps represent the "Houses" of the Sun and the positions of the planets at the time of engraving the stone.³⁰ The Babylonians appear to have divided the Zodiac in two ways, according to the paths of the'Sun and the Moon; the one set of divisions being called the "Houses of the Sun," the other the " Houses of the Moon ;" but the nature of the distinction is not understood. The existing records of planetary observations are said to contain notices of the satellites of Jupiter and even of Saturn. Of the former, at least one has been seen with the naked eye even in our own climate ;³¹ but the

²⁸ Geminns, § 15. The exact period is IS years, 10 days, 7 hours, 43 miuutes. The Greek astronomer Meton, in the lime of the Peloponnesian War, reckoned it at 19 years inclusive, which is really IS years. ²⁹ Job xxxviii. 31, 32.

³⁰ For views of the stone and the figures upon it, see Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 418, 419. The date is said to be of the 12th century n.c. Over one of the so-called "Houses" is the exact symbol now used for Venus $, and an arrow-head $ , which is still the symbol of Mars $ . looking singularly like a conjunc-tiou of the two planets: but this may be mere fancy.

³¹ This statement is made from personal knowledge, confirmed by several observer's

404 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

latter can hardly have been visible, even to the most practiced eyes and in a Chaldaean atmosphere, without telescopic aid. The possibility of this is suggested by the discovery of a convex lens, which is now in the British Museum.

The Astrology of the Chaldaeans—so constantly referred to in Scripture and in classical literature—was the exact prototype of all the later forms of that gigantic but seductive imposture. Its leading character was genethliacal—the system, namely, which foretold the fortune that would follow the " native" through life, and especially at certain epochs, from the configuration of the heavenly bodies at the moment of his birth, or" (as some astrologers preferred to reckon) of his conception. It was believed (as Diodorus tells us)³² that every human being was born under the influence of some stju-—benignant or malignant; but this influence might be crossed, opposed, or intensified, by various others ; so that, to tell the fortune of any " native," it was necessary to reproduce by calculation the exact figure of the heavenly bodies at his natal hour: and this was his "horoscope."

But Diodorus³³ also informs us—and existing tablets confirm his testimony —that the Babylonian astrology had a wider range. " The Chaldaeans professed to predict from the stars such things as the changes of the weather, high winds and storms, great heats, the appearance of comets, eclipses, earthquakes, and the like. They published lists of lucky and unlucky days, and tables showing what aspects of the heavens portended good or evil to particular countries. Lists of these two kinds have been found by Sir Henry Rawlinson .among the tablets.....The great majority of the tablets are of an astrological character, recording the supposed influence of the heavenly bodies, singly, in conjunction, or in opposition, upon all sublunary affairs, from the fate of empires to the washing of hands or the paring of nails."³⁴ They also ventured to predict the weather which would occur on particular days of the year.³⁵ Thus it appears that these Chaldaean almanacs were the veritable prototypes of our own "Moore's," "Murphy's," and "ZadkielV—in short, of the utterly abominable class of astrological almanacs, with their predictions about kings and states, and their fortunate or unfortunate influences attached to the several days, by means of which even now a few knaves or crazy enthusiastic^ prey upon ignorance or sillier cariosity.

a² Diod. Sic. ii. 31, 61. ³³ Di°d\ ii. 30,5 5.

3* Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 425, 420. The examination of the whole series of tablets, on which Sir Henry Rawlinson is now engaged, may be expected to throw much fuither light on the astronomical knowledge of the Babylonians. ³⁵ Colum. xi. 1. 5 3.

GEOMETRY AND ARITHMETIC.

405

Bnt in those days the faith was real; and, whether as scribes and interpreters, as framers of horoscopes, or utterers of magic formularies, or exorcists of evil spirits, the Chaldaeans were, in a great measure the masters of public and private life : if they could not control destiny, they directed the steps which brought it on. The picture drawn by Ezekiel of Nebuchadnezzar's mode of deciding whether to march against Rabbah or Jerusalem—" For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two Mays, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver"³⁶—receives the fullest confirmation from Sennacherib's records of his own faith in astrology. On one occasion this king refused to give a decisive battle, and on another he kept back from a promising campaign, because the conjunctions of the stars were unfavorable.³⁷

§ 16. The astronomical and astrological calculations imply a considerable knowledge of geometrical constructions; and Strabo says that the Greek geometers often quoted the works of certain Chaldaeans—as Ciden, Naburianus, and Sudinus.³⁸ But of the system of Arithmetic which was used in Babylonia from a very high antiquity, we know something from existing tablets, and from the occurrence of numerals in inscriptions. Their system of decimal notation had a remarkable likeness to the Roman. The simple wedge | stands for 1 ; and there are new signs for 10, ^; for 50, the simple wedge again, jf; and for 100, y^. From 1 to 9, the units are

merely accumulated with a peculiar grouping (the Roman system of subtracting units by prefixing them to X being unknown). From 11 to 19, we have the unit groups with

the sign of 10 prefixed, just like the Roman XL, etc.

So 20, 30, 40 are expressed by two, three, and four of the signs for 10, just like XX., etc, and from 60 to 90 by the proper number of 10's with the sign of 50 prefixed, like LX., etc.³⁹ Xot so, however, with the hundreds, which are expressed by prefixing the proper number of units to the sign for 100, just as we say o?ze-hundred, ^co-hundred, etc., up to 1000, which is owe-teH-hundred. The system will now be

³⁶ Ezek. xxi. 21; compare Isaiah xlvii. 13.

⁸⁷ See further, respectiug the Chaldsean astrology, Clitarchus, ap Diog. Laert< Procem. § G ; Theophrastns, ap. Procl. " Comment, in Plat. Tim." p. 2S5, F. ^3S Strab. xvi. 1, 5 G.

³⁹ Bnt sometimes the arrow-heads are accumulated (like the wedges for um'ts) from 10 to 90, giving ^5 for 50, and so ou.

40G WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

easily seen in the following table (from Professor Rawlin« son):

1	1	ii	<1	100	1 T-
2	rr	12		200	H>
3	rrr	20	«	300	Wh
4	V	30		400	VI-
5		40		500	Vr^T J-
6	yyy yyy	50	T	GOO	yyy y^_ yyy I
7	y	GO	K	700	W y_ y I
8	vvv yy	70	K<	800	yy I
9	yyy	80	T«<	900	V" y^ yyy I
10	<	90		1000	Kf- _____

The same notation was employed for the sosses and sars, by which large numbers were expressed. Thus a single wedge y represents, besides the simple unit 1, the unit of the soss, 60, and the unit of the sar, 3600 ; and the arrow-head ^ represents not only 10, but also 10 sosses (i. e., 600 = 1 ner), audioes, or 36,000. Thus the group ^ ^ ^ | means

45 sosses and 21 units—4=3 x 60 + 21 = 2601. This example is taken from a curious table of squares of all numbers from 1

to 60; in which it stands as equal to Cf^f ^ i.e., the

square of 51. This table was found at SenhereJi, and is supposed to be of high antiquity. The numbers are accurate throughout. The very fact of such a table being compiled implies the constant practice of considerable arithmetical operations, in which it would be of use. The library of Asshur-bani-pal at Nineveh, which has furnished us with the astronomical tables above referred to, contained also several treatises on arithmetic, among the fragments of which seem to be those of a multiplication table, like that which has become famous under the name of Pythagoras. Such discov-

RELIGION OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLON.

407

eries—with others that we have noticed from time to time —have a double importance, not only as revealing the actual state of ancient Oriental civilization, but as throwing new light on the Eastern contributions to European civilization, which are attested by the uniform tradition of those " quickwitted Greeks " whom some moderns believe to have learnt nothing from the dull stagnation of the Asiatic mind !

§ 17. The Religion of Assyria and Babylon was essentially the. same. With the exception of a difference in the name of the Supreme Deity, and in a few minor particulars, they had the same Pantheon, the same symbols, the same connection of their divinities with the heavenly bodies, the same forms of worship, and the same system of sacred learning in the hands of an exclusive caste. The chief differences are in the peculiar identification of certain deities with the interests and honor of the two nations, and of particular kings and dynasties; and in certain developments which show the Cushite or Semitic character respectively.

Few now contest the statement that the religion had its primitive seat in Babylonia, where the Chaldaeans were its chief ministers to the latest age of its existence. It is in Babylonia that we find most developed its character of a Pantheistic Sabaeism, side by side with those grosser forms of popular religion which have always prevailed among the Hamite race; while in Assyria the Semitic mind gave to the same original conceptions»all the spiritual elevation of which they were susceptible. It was from their connection with Babylon that Israel learnt to worship and burn incense to the sun, the moon, and the heavenly host,⁴⁰ or—in the prophet's comprehensive phrase—" the frame of heaven ;"⁴¹ and it was in imitation of a Babylonian custom that the kings of Judah dedicated horses to the sun.⁴² The corruption of a purer nature-worship into idolatry took place in both nations ; but the immense number and variety of the Babylonian idols, in particular, is proved by the languages alike of Hebrew prophets and classical historians, and by the existing monuments, cylinders, and engraved stones. Up to the very hour of the city's fall, " they praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."⁴³

,§18. From the prominence given to its astronomical emblems, the religion is often called Sabceism. But this is not strictly correct. Pure Sabaeism, in ascribing divine intelligence to the heavenly bodies, excludes every other personal

⁴⁰ 2 Kings xvii. 1C; xxi. 3,5; 2 Chr. xxxiii. 5; Jer. viii. 2; xix. 13.

<i Jer. vii. IS ; xliv. 17,18,19, 25. ⁴² 2 Kings xxiii. 11. ⁴³ Dan. v. 4.

408 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

conception of them, and especially all anthropomorphism and all idolatry. But the gods of Babylon and Assyria are distinctly j^ersons; they are represented in human and animal forms, and by other symbols besides those of the heavenly host: in fact, the highest deities of all were not those represented by the sun, moon, and planets. - In the compendious summary of Berosus — "they (the Chaldaeans) worshipped Belus, and the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the live planets "—Bel takes precedence of the heavenly host.

The same author seems to recognize an original element of monotheism in the fabulous account of the origin of Babylonian civilization. Without entering into.a wide controversy, it is enough here to record the opinion, that the primeval idea of one god is indicated in the supreme deity who is placed above all the other divinities of the Assyrio-Babylo-nian Pantheon. The very name of this deity, II (or Iloii), seems to attest a connection with the Hebrew El; while his other name, Ra, tits in as strikingly with the Egyptian religion. In Babylonia—where there was a marked preference for local deities, and where the partialities of kings and dynasties gave the supreme place variously to Bel-Aterodach or to Nebo—we find few traces of the worship of II, and no temple seems to have been raised to him after that first which— according to the native etymology of Bab-il—was called simply the Gate or House of God"

The Assyrians attached a much more definite and permanent conception to this supreme deity, to whom they gave the national name of Asshur™ As this name is introduced in the list of Genesis x., without explanation of its meaning —and as no significant etymology of it seems to have been discovered—we are left in doubt as to the precedence of the divine or ethnic name—whether the nation was called Assyr* ian, as being the people of Asshur, or the deity Asshur, as being the god of the Assyrians.⁴⁶ The latter seems the more probable, and in this case we may perhaps regard the name,

⁴⁴ The Greeks found an analogy in this deity to the original conception of Cronus.

⁴⁵ It may be here observed, with regard to the whole religion of the nation, that "in Assyria ampler evidence exists of what was material in the religions system, more abundant representations of the objects and modes of worship, so that it is possible to give, by means of illustrations, a more graphic portraiture of the externals of the religion of the Assyrians than the scantiness of the remains permits in the case of the primitive Chaldeans (or even of the later Babylonians)."—Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. ii. chap. viii. p. 229. For the graphic illustrations, which we have not space to give, and for a fuller account of the Assyrian religion, the reader is referred to the chapter cited.

⁴⁶ It mnst be remembered that both iu the Assyrian language aud in Hebrew the names of the country and the people are identical with that of the god, Asshur. The only difference (common to all three senses) is that between the.forms A~shur and As-shur. In Assyrian inscriptions the meanings are distinguished by the determinative prefix. See above, § 7. The name is also abbreviated to As.

ASSHUR THE SUPREME GOD.

409

not as the proper name of the deity, but as an ellipsis for " the god of Asshur."⁴⁷

At all events, the national character of this deity is conspicuous. He is regarded throughout all the Assyrian inscriptions as the special tutelary deity both of the kings and of the country. " He places the monarchs upon their throne, firmly establishes them in the government, lengthens the years of their reigns, preserves their power, protects their forts and armies, makes their names celebrated, and the like. To him they look to give them victory over their enemies, to grant them all the wishes of their heart, and to allow them to be succeeded on their thrones by their sons and their sons' sons, to a remote posterity. Their usual phrase, when speaking of him, is Asshur, my lord. They represent themselves as passing their lives in his service. It is to spread his worship that they carry on their wars. They fight, ravage, destroy, in his name. Finally, when they subdue a country, they are careful to ' set up the emblems of Asshur,' and teach the people his laws and worship."⁴⁸ We have seen how the kings at once glorify and honor his name, and claim his special protection, by the formation of their own names from his. The people are described as " the servants of Asshur ;" their enemies as " the enemies of Asshur ;" and the Assyrian religion as " the worship of Asshur."

His supremacy above all the other gods is shown by the precedence given to his name in all invocations, and by his titles—" the great god "—"the king of all the gods "—" he who rules supreme over the gods." We can not but trace in all this a certain degree of Semitic tenacity of the highest conception of a personal deity. " It is indicative of the (comparatively speaking) elevated character of Assyrian polytheism, that this exalted and awful deity continued from first to last the main object of worship, and was not superseded in the thoughts of men by the lower and more intel- " ligible divinities, such as Shamas and Sin, the Sun and Moon, JYeryal, the god of war, A⁷???, the god of hunting, or Jva, the wielder of the thunder-bolt."⁴⁹ The same supremacy is shown by the universal worship of Asshur throughout all Assyria; though the great temple at Asshur seems to indicate that he was peculiarly honored at the city which bore his name.⁵⁰ This is, however, the only temple yet dis-

⁴⁷ We have a similar ellipsis in at least one passage of the Bible: "This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, 6 Jacob." (Psalm xxiv. G.)

⁴⁸ Rawlinson, vol. ii. pp. 229, 230. ⁴⁹ Rawlinson, I. c. p. 2?,',.. ⁵⁰ The bricks of this temple, at Kileh-Sherghat, bear the name of A shit, which Sir

Henry Rawlinson supposes to be an archaic form of Asshur (Essay X. " On the Re-

1S

410 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

WiIM

Emblems of Asshur (after Lajarcl).

covered that was specially dedicated to him; and it has been supposed that, instead of separate temples, he had a first place in the fanes of all the other gods.

Asshur is represented by a curious emblem, which is seen on the sculptures of the kings—often hovering over their heads in battle—and on their signet-cylinders: the emblem was also used by the Persians, under the name of Ferouher, as the symbol of deity. It is a winged circle, from which issues a small human figure, with the horned cap, generally holding a ring, and often a bow, the latter sometimes bent and with the arrow on the string.

The symbol is explained as denoting eternity by the circle, omnipresence by the wings, and intelligence by the human figure. That this figure, however, was not essential, appears from the frequent form of the emblem as a simple winged circle, closely resembling the Egyptian winged globe. It appears in one very curious form on the signet-cylinder of Sennacherib, where—besides the principal human figure—the wings of the circle support two other heads ; but what triad this indicates is unknown.

Here the symbol is seen in one of its frequent positions_f over the sacred tree, which is another constant emblem of Asshur, and which is often placed, as here, between two worshipping figures, one of them being the king. " Like the winged circle, this emblem has various forms. The simplest consists of a short pillar springing from a single pair of rams' horns, and surmounted by a capital composed of two pairs of rams' horns separated by one, two, or three horizontal bands; above is, first, a scroll resembling that which commonly surmounts the winged circle, and then a flower, very much like the ' honeysuckle' ornament of the Greeks. More advanced specimens show the pillar elongated, with a capital in the middle in addition to the capital at the top, while the blossom above the upper capital, and generally

iigiou of the Babylonians and Assyrians,"in the Appendix to Rawlinson's "Herodotus," vol. i. p. 5SS).

Royal Cylinder of Sennacherib.

which there

THE OTHER DEITIES.

411

the stem likewise, throw out a number of similar smaller blossoms, which are sometimes replaced by fir-cones or pomegranates. Where the tree is most elaborately portrayed, we see, besides the stem and the blossoms, a complicated net-work of branches, which, after interlacing with one another, form a sort of arch, surrounding the tree itself, as with a frame."⁵¹

§ 19. After this supreme god, the mysterious source of all being, come a series of external manifestations, in an order indicating the connection of cosmogony with religion. They are arranged in Triads; not composed—like those of Egypt —of father, mother, and son, but of three male deities, each of whom is accompanied by a goddess. The First Triad consists of Ana or Ami, Bil or Bel or Belus, and Ilea or Hoa, whose attributes resemble those of Hades (Pluto), Jupiter, and Neptune, in the classical mythology. The attendant female deities—in the language of the inscriptions, the reflection of those attributes—are Anal (Ana'itis), Bilit (Bel-tis) or Mylitta, and Baokbia. This triad has a cosmoyonic character; Ann representing the primordial chaos; Bel (or, more specifically, Bel-Xipnt),™ the power that reduces it to order; and Ilea or Hoa, the intelligent spirit of the universe —the fish-god Oannes of Berosus, who brought in the earliest civilization.⁵³

The Second Triad consists of Sin or Hurki, Shamas, San, or Sansi, and Ivct*—the Moon, Sun, and the Atmosphere or JEther, with their consorts, ^u the great lady,"⁵⁵ Gala or Ann-it, and Shala or Tola. The cosmic character of this triad forms a transition to the sidereal group of inferior divinities, representing the five planets known from the earliest times —Ninip (Saturn), Merodach (Jupiter), Xergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), and Xebo (Mercury). Though inferior to the old deities of the triads, these deities became especially popular. Merodach was the supreme deity of Babylon; Ninip, the As-

⁵¹ Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. 23G. On the cnrions question of a probable connection of the Assyrian sacred tree with the Asherah ("grove" in onr version), which was an object of idolatry with the Jewish kings, see the ensuing remarks of Rawlinson, and the article Grove in the "Dictionary of the Bible," where also a representation of the sacred tree will be found.

⁵² This title (in which some see a deification of Nimrod) distinguishes the older Bel from Bel-Merodach, i. e., Lord Merodach, the great god of the later Babylonian kings.

⁵³ Some identify Oannes with Ann; but Oa seems to be the older name of the fish-god ("fin in Helladins, 'a« in Damascins); and one title of Hoa is "the intelligent-lish." His consort Dawkina also points to the same character uuder the name of Dagan or Dagon.

⁶⁴ This is one of the cases where the phonetic power is quite uncertain. Other readings are Vul and Ao. The uncertainty, of course, extends to the royal names compounded of this element.

⁵⁵ The proper name of the Moon-goddess has not been found ; but she is often confounded with Beltis.

412 WRITING, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION.

Syrian Hercules—also personified as the fish-god—was a favorite deity at Nineveh : and in both countries Nebo (like Hermes and Mercury) was the patron of learning, the inspiring genius of prophecy and eloquence, and of royal authority? " These sidereal deities reproduce to some extent the characters of the first triad ; Ninip of Ann ; Merodach of Bel; Nebo of Ao ; Ishtar of Beltis. The last was the great goddess of nature ; and her serious and voluptuous characters were embodied in the twofold form of Taauth and Zar-panit (or Nana), like the celestial and popular Venus of the Greeks and Romans. The grossly licentious worship of the latter at Babylon is described by Herodotus.⁵⁶

Emblems of the Principal Gods. (From an Obelisk in the British Museum.)

§ 20. The supreme deity, II or Asshur, with the two triad's and the five planets," appear to make up the "twelve great gods."⁵⁷ Below these there were a host of genii and "inferior deities ; such as Nisroch or Salman, the eagle-headed and winged deity of the Assyrian sculptures, " the king of fluids," and "governor of the "conrse of human destiny;" and Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of the two Sipparas (Sepharvaim), whose people made their children pass through the fire to these deities.⁵⁸ But to enumerate these minor deities, and even to specify the titles, attributes, genealogical relations, temples, and other important particulars relating to the greater gods, and to describe the system of cosmogony which was connected with the Babylonian religion, would far exceed our limits. This is the less to be regretted, as the whole subject is beset with complications and difficulties, the solution of which awaits the light to be gained from the immense mass of undeciphered cuneiform literature.⁵⁹

b« Herod, i. 109. , . .

o? Otherwise, excluding Asshur as above all the rest, the twelve are made up by introducing Beltis. There are also other ways of reckoning them.

⁵⁸ 2 Kings xvii. 31. .

*» For a full account of all that is at present known on the subject (to say notmng of what is only conjectured) see Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay X. to Herodotus, Book I.; and Trofessor Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol i. c. vii. ; vol.n. c. vm.; vol. in. pt. ii. c. vii.; aud Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne," chnp. viii. § 5; chap. vm. §4 <, S.

Persepolis.

BOOK III.

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE, AND ITS SUBJECT COUNTRIES IN ASIA.

CHAPTER XVIII.

the PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

§ 1. Place of the Medo-Persians in history. § 2. Both were branches of the Aryan race. § 3. Its country the fable-land of Iran. Its two branches—the Aryas and Tavanas. § 4. Testimony of langnage to their primitive condition. § 5. Their social life, moral and political condition. § G. The primitive Aryan religion. Its corruption into dualism and pantheistic nature-worship. Cosmogony. Tradition of the Deluge. 5 7. Westward migration of the Yavanas. Mythical legends of the Iranian Aryans— Jemshid—Zohak — Caneh — Feridun. The sacred leather standard. § 8. Conflict of the Iranians and the Turanians. Social organization at this period. § v. The religious reform ascribed to Zoroastkr. His personal history unknown. Antiquity of the Zoroastrian religion. § 10. Its origin in Bactria. Marvels about Zoroaster, only found in later writers. § 11. The sacred books called Zendavesta. High antiqnity of the Gfithas, etc. § 12. Nature of the Zoroastrian religion, or Mazdeism. Its reaction from pantheistic naturalism. The Ahuras (good spirits) and Daevas (evil spirits). § 13. Doctrine of Ahurc-mazda (Ormazd), the one snpreme god. His attributes. His symbol Liylit. § 14. His creative work by the creative Word. § 15. The doctrine of Dualism. Question of its origin. Anyromainyus (Ahriman), the opponent of Ahnramazda. His ultimate destruction. Later opinions. § 16. The antagonistic spiritual hierarchies. § 17. The doctrine of creation. The temptation and fall of man. § IS. Future rewards and punishments. § 19. Zoroastrian morality. § 20. The Zoroastrian Worship. § 21. Opposition to the Zoroastrian reform. Separation of the Iranian and Indian Aryans. § 22. Settlement of the Iranians in Media and Persia. § 23. Adoption of Magism in Media.

§ 1. The nations whose history we have thus far followed were of the Hamitic and Semitic races ; but now we see the

411 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

third family of mankind entering on the dominion assigned to it by Providence and prophecy. The Japhetic race, " enlarged " by increase and by conquest, begins to make Ham his " servant," and to " dwell in the tents of Shem." The former races, settling in the two great fertile plains which were ready to nourish the earliest civilization, have built up kingdoms on a vast scale of despotic power and rude magnificence, and cultivated the arts and sciences which minister to the material wants of man ; but their despotisms have grown effete, and their science has been prostituted to superstition. Even the nation chosen out of the rest to preserve a pure religion and a simple commonwealth, has proved unfaithful to its trust, and been doomed, for a time, to learn its errors by the discipline of captivity and servitude. At this juncture the third race—the hardy natives of the ruder climate and the freer air of highlands; trained to war by conflicts with the nomad Turanian tribes; and animated by a religion based on pure and spiritual principles—takes possession of the fruits of civilization prepared for it, and reorganizes an empire which is destined in its turn to succumb before the more vigorous spirit of Western freedom.

§ 2. The united Medes and Persians, to whom this part in history was assigned, belonged to the great race which ancient usage and modern science concur in denoting by the name of Aryan.¹ This has never been doubted in the case of the Persians; but as to the Medes, some confusion has arisen from the fact that the land always called Media by the ancient writers had in early times a Turanian (or Scy-thic) population. Hence we have seen that the so-called "Median" column of the trilingual inscriptions of the Persian kings is really in a Turanian dialect, which we call for convenience Medo-Scythic. But the Medes of history—those who founded the empire to which, the Persians succeeded— were indubitably Aryans. "The Medes were anciently called by all people Arians," says Herodotus ;² and they are always so called by the Armenian writers. The ethnic affinity is moreover implied in that inseparable connection of the "Medes and Persians," which was already a proverb in the time of Cyrus, and of which, indeed, some find traces much earlier in the Assyrian inscriptions. They had the same language and religion, the same customs and dress;

¹ It was usual, till recently, to adopt the Greek orthography Avian (Apioi, Herod, rii. 62 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. etc.); but, besides the inconvenient ideutity of this form With a term of totally different meaning (a follower of Arius), the y represents the original native orthography. The twofold parallels between the ethnic Aryan and Armenian and the theological Arian and Arminian are illustrations of the frequency of curious coincidences. ² Herod, vii. 02.

THE TABLE-LAND OF IRAN.

415

and Herodotus, in mentioning the identity of their equipments, observes that the dress common to both was rather Median than Persian. Their common institutions are attested by their own celebrated formula," The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."³ Their affinity with the races of Northern India on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with the European races which follow them in the course of history, calls for some general notice of the great family to which they belonged.

§ 3. Let us first glance at the region of which we have . now to speak. Repeated mention has been made of the great table-land of Iran, which reaches in longitude from the mountains of Kurdistan and Luristan, which form the eastern boundary of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, to those of Suleiman, which skirt the Indus valley on the west. On the south it rises from the shores of the Indian Ocean by the desert steppes of Beloochistan (the ancient Gedrosia); and it is backed up on the north by the chain of the Indian Caucasus. The northern slopes of this chain, as we follow it from west to east, look down first upon the burning strip of land along the shore of the Caspian ; then over the vast desert of Khiva, which extends to the Sea of Aral and the Oxus ; and lastly upon the fair region of mountains and valleys watered by the upper course and tributaries of this river, and lying in the angle between the Hindoo Koosh (Par-opamisus M.) and the" great range of Bolor Taejh, which runs to the north. To this region, anciently called Bactria, or one not far from it, the traditions of the chief nations of the Aryan family point as the primeval cradle of the race, and they recognize a distinction, even in that primitive abode, between the Aryas, or " elder " branch, who dwelt to the east, and the Yavanas, or "younger" stock, who dwelt to the west. The former were the ancestors of those who remained in Asia, and peopled India and the table-land of Iran ; while the latter migrated to the west, and spread in successive waves over Europe. Their original name is preserved in the Javan of Genesis x., in the Greek Ionians, and in the words signifying young \\\ the several languages of the Indo-European Germanic family.

§ 4. The evidence of those languages throws a fiood of light on the primitive condition of the Aryan race. It is alelf-evident principle of comparative philology, that words identical in several cognate languages—or, what is more decisive still, differing only, by the changes characteristic of the several languages—belong to the common stock of the origi-

Dan. vi. S, 1?, 15.

410 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

nal mother tongue; and from their identity we infer the existence among the undivided race of the objects, customs, and institutions which they denote. When, for example, we find the leading terms relating to the life of the shepherd and the herdsman, and the names of the chief domestic animals—the ox, sheep, goat, swine, horse, dog, goose—common to the Aryan languages, we infer that the primitive Aryans were a pastoral people, and that they possessed and tended these animals. On similar evidence, we conclude that they harnessed horses and oxen to carriages, but that riding on horseback was unknown, as indeed we find it still rare among the Greeks and Trojans of the Homeric age. They had acquired the art of working in gold, silver, and bronze, but not yet in iron : their arms were furbished, and not rude masses ; and they made ornaments of metal. Though a pastoral people, they were not nomad dwellers in tents, but had fixed abodes, and built themselves houses. They tilled the soil, but only by the rudest methods; and it was in the course of their subsequent migrations that they learned from races more advanced in agriculture the use of the plough, the growing of various kinds of grains and vegetables, and the production of wine and oil. Still they raised corn enough to form the staple of their diet, and to distinguish them, as they advanced westward and northward, from the aborigines who fed on acorns and berries. They also ate meat, and seasoned it with salt. They had begun to venture on rivers and lakes in skiffs; but masts and sails were as yet unknown.

§ 5. Still more important is the evidence borne by language to their social life, morals, and religion. Marriage was not only known, but was contracted with solemn ceremonies, and by the sign which still forms its chief symbol and frequent name, the union of hands. They were uncorrupted by polygamy; and the wife was treated with the honor which has been transmitted to modern times by that Teutonic branch of the race which preserved its primitive simplicity the longest. The happiness of possessing children, their mutual help and love, and the reward reaped from their industry, shine forth in most expressive terms. A boy is the "giver of joy," the " increaser of happiness," the " dispellcr of vexation;" a girl is "she that causes rejoicing." The brother is " he who supports," and the sister is " the good," "the friendly :" the son is the " protector" and "nourisher" of the family; the daughter is "the keeper of the flocks," " the tender of the cows."

The family constitution formed the basis of that wider union of the tribe, the gens, the brotherhood (frparpia), the clem,

PRIMITIVE ARYAN RELIGION.

417

which has survived to the present day at the eastern and western extremities of the chain of Aryan nations, among the Persians and our own Celts. The authority of the patriarch, chief, or paterfamilias, rested on a law of nature, but was kept from arbitrary abuse by a council of elders, generally consisting of seven heads of families. The chief of these patriarchs was the Kixg, who was chosen for his wisdom and courage. The mode of his installation, by being placed upon a stone, is probably referred to in the Greek name ftamXeuQ; and many memorials of the custom, ancient as well as modern, might be added to the example of the ancient Scottish coronation stone, upon which our kings are still crowned at Westminster.

The king's chief function was to lead in war; for the early Aryans were a martial race: and the same evidence of language proves their knowledge of weapons and of some defensive armor—the sword and pike, the javelin and arrow, the bow and quiver, the helmet, shield, and breastplate. Towns and villages were already fortified, though but rudely. The prisoner taken in battle was made a slave. The king was also the chief judge ; but from his limited discernment there was an appeal to the judgment of God in the very forms familiar to us as a Teutonic custom, and in our own early history. The old Indian laws of Mann, which are doubtless based on primitive traditions, and the Itamaydna, the most ancient Sanscrit epic, refer to the ordeals by fire and by hot and cold water.

§ 6. Concerning the primitive Aryan religion, the recent science of comparative mythology has addedinuch to the information derived from the sacred books of the old Indians and Persians, the Veelas and the Zen da vest a; but the subject is too large for full exposition here, especially as we shall have to speak more particularly of the Median and Persian developments of religion. Its monotheistic basis is preserved in the name of the Supreme Being, Dewa, Dens, Qeoc, God; and in the titles which attest His spiritual essence : " the living "—Ashura of the Indians, Ahura of the Iranians, JEsar of the Etruscans, Esns of the Celts : " the spirit "—Manyu in the Vedas, Mainyu among the Iranians : and JVara, " the divine and eternal spirit which pervades the universe." The tone of the Hebrew Psalms is recalled to mind by the language of a hymn of the Rig-Veda : "He is the only master of the world : he fills heaven and earth : he gives life ; he gives strength : all the other gods seek for his blessing : death and immortality are but his shadow : the mountains covered with frost, the ocean with its waves, the

18*

418 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

vast regions of heaven, proclaim his power. By him the heaven and earth, space and the firmament, have been solidly founded: he spread abroad the light in the atmosphere. Heaven and earth tremble for fear before him. He is God | above all the gods."

The usual first step in the corruption of monotheism can be seen, in this case, in another hymn of the Rig-Veda, which says that " the wise men give many names to the Being who is one," according to the ways in which He manifests himself or is regarded by His worshippers. The pantheistic polytheism of the Aryans assumed a more terrestrial form than that of the Egyptians or of the Babylonians. Besides the Sun and Moon, the Earth and the visible Heaven, they deified the powers of earth, air, and water, trees and forests, fountains, rivers, and seas, winds, rain, clouds, and lightning. Their imagination was strongly attracted, as we see in the Vedas, to the perpetual conflict between the forces of the physical world—the day contending with the night, the solar rays struggling with the mists covering the earth, the lightning striking the cloud and setting free its fertilizing showers ; in all of which they saw types of the warfare between good and evil in the moral world. Wanting the science which teaches the balance of physical forces, and the faith in moral order inspired by revelation, and yet believing in a divine government, they were early led by all these antagonisms to that dualistic doctrine of two opposite divine principles, which received its full development in the religion of Zoroaster. Of their worship, the most important element was sacrifice, usually resembling the " meat-offering " and "drink-offering" of the Hebrew ritual; but the most solemn occasions demanded the blood of a victim, which was generally a horse. The material sacrifice was accompanied with the spiritual offerings of prayers and hymns, taught—it was held—by the holy "Word (Vde, i. e., vox), the organ of all wisdom both for gods and men, and the inspiring spirit, breathing like the winds through all the worlds—"My greatness " says a hymn of the Rig-Veda, " exalts itself above this earth, above the heaven itself."

From this pantheistic religion sprang the cosmogony which we have already learned from Hesiod and Ovid ; in which the universe springs from chaos, not by the process of creation, but of emanation. Among the oldest traditions of the Aryan race, that of the Deluge and the Ark appears in a great variety of forms. These can not be recounted here ; but it is worth while to observe that the Indian legend says nothing of that moral reason for the catastrophe—the cor-

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rupticm of the human race—which is conspicuous in the Greek story of Deucalion's deluge, as well as in the sacred narrative of Noah's flood.

§ 7. It is beyond the scope of our work to discuss the movements which impelled the Yavanas on their migrations westward, and which caused the Aryas, who were left behind, to spread from Bactria northward to Sogdiana, between the Oxns and Jaxartes, and southward over the tableland of Iran, the Ariana of classical geography. The mythical reign of Jemshid, in Firdusi's " Book of the Persian Kings," represents the time when, being settled in this region, they advanced in social organization, improved their agriculture, began to build great towns, and gave _ttheir religion a more polytheistic development; for the legend, animated with the Zoroastrian spirit, reproaches Jemshid with tarnishing his glory by establishing idolatry.

This period is followed by the tyranny of the "Arabian" Zohak, in which some have seen traces of a Cushite conquest; but the legend has better claims to notice from its connection with the later history of Persia. This Zohak was a ferocious tyrant, who outraged morality, and practiced an obscene and monstrous religion. Among the victims whom he seized daily, to feed 'two serpents which twined about his shoulders, were two of the fairest youths of Isfahan —for the scene of the legend is transferred, in its existing Mohammedan version, to the later capital of Persia. The father of these youths, a smith named Caveh, was at work at his forge when the news of his children's fate was brought to him. Rushing out just as he was, in his working-dress, he raised his leather apron on a stick, and the people rallying round this strange standard helped him to slay the tyrant, and to place Feridun, the son of Jemshid, on the throne. In memory of this national tradition, the Sassanids, who, in the third century of our era, overthrew the Parthian dynasty and re-established the religion of Zoroaster, adopted a sacred standard of leather emblazoned with gems. It was regarded as the palladium of the monarchy and religion, only to be unfurled in a great crisis, when the king took the field in person, and its loss at the battle of Kadesieh was the signal of the triumph of Islamism in Persia.

§ 8.^ The next stage in Iranian tradition relates to that interesting conflict of races, one phase of which we have seen in the traditions of Mesopotamia. The Tory as or Turanians —the great family now represented by the Tatar and Finnish tribes—the Asiatic Scythians of the Greek writers-had wandered or been forced back into the inhospitable re

420 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

gions of Central Asia, north of the Jaxartes, whence they made repeated descents upon the more fertile countries to the south.⁴ The ancient writers preserve a constant tradition of a Scythian domination in Western Asia—Justin says for 1500 years. Their first movements brought them into conflict with the Aryans, who represent the war as one of kindred races. This tradition agrees with modern ethnographical researches, which tend to the conclusion that the Turanians were a Japhetic race, who had separated themselves very early from the main stock. They had attained to a high degree of material culture ; but their moral state was degraded, and their religion was a mixture of the grossest forms of Sabteism with" serpent-worship. Their chief deity was the great serpent, called apparently by themselves Farroarsarrabba, and by the Iranians Afrasiab, whom Zoroaster chose for the emblem of the evil principle, Ahriman.

In their conflict with the Aryans, the animosity of a religious war was added to the collision of nations which were already neighbors, and were struggling for the possession of lands contiguous to both. While, to the east, the Turanians tried to drive the Aryans from the fertile valleys of Bactri-ana and Sogdiana, another portion of their tribes advanced through Margiana upon the highlands of Media and Kurdistan, to which'the Aryans were spreading as their increasing numbers overflowed from the east. The ascendency which the Turanians at first obtained in this western part of the table-land of Iran explains the Scythic character of the early population of Media.

The most ancient Vedas—which belong to this interval between the western migration of the Yavanas and the division of the Aryans into their two great branches, the Iranian and the Indian—exhibit a further development of the social state described above. With the growth of population, large cities are multiplied, agriculture is improved, and the occupation of the husbandman becomes more important than the shepherd's. The organization of society tends to the formation of classes in which occupations, are hereditary, though not yet of castes separated by impassable limits. The classes are those of priests, warriors, and countrymen—the last sometimes divided into shepherds and laborers. These ' are the three classes which the Avesta recognizes among the Iranians, and into which Herodotus describes the Persians

⁴ It is an interesting question for future research, to what extent the migrations of mankind may have been affected by changes of climate within the history of our race; and especially whether the northern regions, which certainly had once a milder climate than now, may not at first have invited the settlers whom they afterwards repelled.

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as divided. It Avas in India, under the influence of the JBrahminical religion and the circumstances of the conquest, that these three classes became the three superior castes, while the conquered Hamites were distributed into the lower and despised castes.

§ 9. It is to this period also that the preponderance both of ancient tradition and of modern opinion ascribes the great religious reform which is personified under the famous name of Zoroaster. Some writers, indeed, of high authority— influenced by an idea that the reformation suits a period when the old Aryan faith had been corrupted by the Median development of Magism—catch at the one piece of seeming evidence offered by the name of Vistacpa, the Persian Gvsh-tasp, to make Zoroaster contemporary with Ilystaspes, the father of Darius I., in the 6th century b.c. Had this been the case, we can not doubt that Zoroaster would have been presented to us in the pages of Herodotus in his clear personal identity, instead of only looming as he does through the mists of traditions so legendary as to have led Niebuhr to pronounce him a mere myth.

The records of Medo-Persian history in the ancient writers leave a clear impression that the national religion was settled long before the time even of Cyrus ; and we now find its essential elements in the Zendavesta. Royal names are so constantly repeated, that a name alone proves nothing ; and, except the name, the Gushtasp of Zoroaster has not one point in common with the father of Darius. The former is king of Bactria (not of Persia), and son of king Auravatacpa, or Lohrasp, of the dynasty of the Kayanians: the latter is the son of Arshama (in Greek Arsames), of the family of the Achremenids, and neither he nor his father was a king.

All ancient writers agree in giving Zoroaster a very remote date ; and some assign him a fabulous antiquity. Her-mippus, the Greek translator of his reputed works, places him 5000 years before the taking of Troy; Eudoxus, 6000 years before the death of Plato. Among more moderate dates, the lowest is that assigned by Xanthus of Lydia, six centuries before Darius I. (/. e., about 1100 b.c) ; while Pliny, placing him 1000 years before Moses (that is, about the middle of the 25th century b.c), falls into a curious agreement with the tradition of Berosus, making Zoroaster the leader of the Median dynasty in Chaldrea. M. Spiegel and M. Oppert accept this as the true date; but, without attempting to decide this question, or even that of the personal existence of Zoroaster, we may be content with the probability that the system embodied*under his name belongs to the remote tra

422 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

ditional times of the united Aryan race. The legends of his personal history are, of course, only valuable for the light they throw on the development of the system. These legends are found in the Zendavesta, the later classical writers, and Oriental works of the Mohammedan period.

§ 10. All agree in placing the scene of his mission in Bac-triana, which some make his native land ;⁵ and the title of " the happy Bakhdi (Bactria) with the lofty banner " (in one of the earliest sections of the Zendavesta)⁶ seems to mark the land as then the chief seat of the Aryan race.

The Zendavesta simply records the appearance of Zara-thrustra' in Bactriana, then ruled by the king Vistacpa (the Gushtasp of the Persians and JTt/staspes of the Greeks), the son of Auravata9pa (the Lohrasp of the later Persians), son of Kava Oucrava (Ixa'i-Khosrcni), son of KavaOns (Ka'l-Ka-ous), son of Kava Khavata {Ka'i-Kobad), founder of the dynasty of the Kavja (in modern Persian, Kayanians). It knows nothing of the marvels recorded by late Greek and Latin writers—from traditions of various countries and ages —as attendant upon his birth and career. Thus it is said that he laughed on the day of his birth, and that his brain palpitated so violently as to heave up the hand that was placed on his head ; that he retired into the desert at the age of ten, and lived there for twenty years on cheese, and was thus preserved from feeling old age ; that during this seclusion, which the later Median legend places in a cave of Mt. Elburz, he received from Ahuramazda and his attendant spirits the revelations which he recorded in the Zendavesta; that, coming forth from his retirement, he appeared at the court of Hystaspes at Bactria, and by the power of his miracles converted the king to the new faith, which was soon adopted by all Bactria, though a part of the Aryans refused to accept it.

From this point the legend assumes two different characters. According to one story, the Turanians, who were hostile to the new religion, invaded Bactria, took the capital by storm, profaned its temples with fire, and killed Zoroaster. According to another, the reformer appears in a character

* Cephalion, Fr. 1 ; Arnob. "Adv. Gent." i. 52. Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6, 5 2), who must have obtained his information from the Persians timing the campaign of Julian, makes Zoroaster a Bactrian ; Ctesias (pp. 70, 91, ed. Lion.), copied by Justin (i. 1), calls him a king of Bactria, and so does Moses of Chorene (i. 6). The statements which make him a Median (Clem. Alex. " Strom." i. p. 399), a Perso-Median (Suidas, s. v.), a Persian (Diog. Laert. "Praef."), an Armenian, a Pamphylian (Arnob. i. 12), and even a native of Proconnesns (Plin. " H. N." xxx. 1, § 2), seem to have arisen as the Zoroastrian religion spread westward.

⁶ First Fargard of the Vendidad, § 7.

⁷ The name is explained as "splendor of gold," evidently denoting the purity and lustre of the religion. The later Persian form is Zerdusht.

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compounded of Moses and Mohammed, a religious and polit> ical legislator, who becomes king of Bactria, and leads forth his armies to impose his new religion on the rest of the Aryans, and even (according to Berosus) on the Hamites of Babylonia.

Of all this, as we have said, the Zendavesta knows nothing. In it Zoroaster appears only as the recipient of the revelations made to him by Ahuramazda in the formula "Ahuramazda said to the holy Zoroaster." While this absence of fabulous embellishments is, on the one hand, an argument against regarding Zoroaster as merely mythical, it leaves so little of his distinct personality, that we" can only use his name as a convenient embodiment of the doctrine which formed a reaction from the pantheistic naturalism and polytheism which had corrupted the early Aryan faith.

§ 11. This doctrine is contained iu the remains of the sacred books usually called the Zend-avesta, but more properly Avesta-zend, a contraction of Anesta-u-zeiu^ ("Avesta and Zend"), that is, "Text and Comment," or, as some interpret, "Law and Reform;" for the Zoroastrian religion always claims to be no new doctrine, but a restoration of the old Aryan faith before its corruption by the tyrant Zohak. The fragments which have come down to us belong, in theirpresent foi-m, to the age of the Persian dynasty of the Sassanids, who overthrew the Parthians in a.d. 226, and re-established the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. The books were then transcribed in the existing alphabet, and subjected to a re-' vision, which has been compared to that of the Old Testament by Ezra. But the ancient lunguage was preserved ; and that language (hence called Zend), which bears a close resemblance to that of the Achaemenian inscriptions, is proved by its affinity to Sanscrit to be one of the oldest forms of Aryan speech.

At the time of its collection under the Sassanids, the Zendavesta comprised 21 books (napfais), of which the greater part have perished, not so much by lapse of time as by

⁸ This is the form always nscd in the Pehlevi books. "Avesta (ava-xtha) means •text,' 'scripture ;' its Pehlevi form is apistak, and it is cognate with the late Sanscrit and Mahratta pustak, 'book.' Zend (zand) is 'explanation,' 'comment.' (See Hang's 'Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees,' Bombay, 1SG2, pp. 120-122)."—Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 93. The Zendavesta has been printed by Westergaard (1S52-54) and Spiegel (1S51-6S). The latter has translated it into German, and the former is understood to be engaged on a translation into English. Partial translations have been made of the first and 9th chapters of the Yacna by Burnonf (" Commentaire sur le Yacna," Paris, 1S33), and of the Ga-thas by Dr. Martin Hang (2 vols. Leipsic, 1S5S-G0), whose "Essays" above quoted form the best source of information on the Zendavesta. An excellent account o"f the Zoroastrian doctrine is given in Milman's "History of Christian]tv," vol. i- pp, 65, foil.

424 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OE ZOROASTER.

Mussulman fanaticism after the conquest of Persia in a.d, 651. The only book which has come down to us entire is the Vidae-vadata (in Persian Vendidad), that is, " the law against demons." The Ya?na and Vispered are collections of fragments. The former, or book of " sacrifice," contains some of the most precious parts of the collection in the Gdthds or "hymns," which were used, with the prayers, in the sacrificial rites. These three — the Vendidad, Yapia, and Vispered—form the collection called Vendidad-Sad'e. There is another collection, called the Yesht-Sade. These comprise all that remains in the Zend language ; but we have also a portion of the sacred books, treating of Cosmogony, and called Bundekesh, translated into Pehlevi, the ordinary language of Persia under the Sassajiidae.

Even those who maintain that Zoroaster himself lived under Hystaspes, the father of Darius, admit that its internal evidence shows the first section (Fargard) of the Vendidad to have been written before the migration of the Aryans into Media; and that the Gathds, which tradition specially assigns to Zoroaster himself, are of higher antiquity still^ and belong to " a time when the Aryan race was not yet separated into two branches; and when the Easterns and Westerns, the Indians and Iranians, had not yet adopted the conflicting creeds of Zoroastrianism and Brahminism."⁹ These Gathas are distinguished from the other fragments by a more archaic style and a much greater simplicity. M. Haug •places them as high as the time of Moses.

§ 12. The Zendavesta claims to be the revelation of Meiz-deism (" universal knowledge"), made by " the excellent Word, the pure and active," to Zoroaster, and through him to all mankind as "the good law." This religious law is essentially a reaction from ♦ pantheistic naturalism, sensuous worship, and polytheism ; and from that of emanation in cosmogony. One result of this reaction is a curious confusion of divine names : the gods (daevas) of the old system become the devils of the new ; and thus the very deity of light (Indra), whose conflict with the spirit of darkness (Vritra) shows the original germ of Aryan dualism, becomes a principal of evil. The process is analogous to that by which the early Christians identified the heathen deities with the followers of Satan—as worked out in Milton's catalogue of the fallen angels—and by which the Greek daemon has come down to us in the sense of devil. In contrast with

⁹ Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 94. In our complete darkness as to the personal life of Zoroaster, the question of his age resolves itself, after all, into that of the date of the oldest Zoroastrian literature.

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these daevas (in Persian devs), or evil spirits, the old word Ahum¹⁰ (which signified living or spiritual being) is appropriated to the good spirits. But some of the old daevas are ranked exceptionally with the eihuras, under the name of izeds, or angels.

§ 13. Thus the doctrine of superior beings is personed, as opposed to pantheism ; but it is equally remote from polytheism. The Ahuras are created beings, all inferior to the supreme Ahuro-Mazddo¹¹ or Ahuramazda (the Persian Or-mazd or Ormuzel, and the Greek Oromasdes). Notwithstanding a mixture of physical conceptions, such as the ascription to him of health—which may, perhaps, be likened to the anthropomorphism of our Scriptures—this supreme being is really a spiritual god, self-existent, uncreated, and eternal, of a nature essentially good, the creator, preserver, and governor of the universe, and the proper object of adoration. He is called the "holy spirit" {gpento meiinyus), and is symbolized by the sun, and the fire, which is called his son.

A long collection of titles might be culled, ascribing to him the creation of all good things, and the attributes of goodness, truth, purity, holiness, happiness, health, wealth, virtue, wisdom, immortality; but a clearer conception may be formed from a very ancient invocation in the Yacna: "I invoke and celebrate the creator Ahuramazda, luminous, resplendent, most great and good, most perfect and energetic, most intelligent and beautiful, excelling in purity, the possessor of all good knowledge, the source of pleasure, who created, formed, and nourished us, the most perfect of intelligent beings." The special quality of light, which seems to be attributed to him in no mere metaphorical sense, is thus expressed: " He is true, lucid, shining, the originator of the best things, of the spirit in nature, and of the growth in nature, of the luminaries, and of the self-shining brightness which is in the luminaries "—words which irresistibly suggest the invocation drawn by 3Iilton from a more sacred source:

"Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born, Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam May I express thee uublamed? Since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate."

The last line exactly expresses the teaching of the Yacna,

¹⁰ In Sanscrit Asura.

¹¹ This name is variously interpreted as " the .living wise," " the living creator," "the divine much-knowing," "the divine much-giving," "the great giver of life." Both its elements are used to express the sense of " god;" but. when used apart, the latter (JIazdao or Mazda) seems to be more specifically the name of the supreme god.

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which makes Ahuramazda the source of light, which most resembles him, and calls him gdthro—that is, " having his own light."

§ 14. Equally pure and near to revealed, truth is the conception of his creative work, by means of "the creative Word which existed before all things." On this point the Yacna contains the following most remarkable conversation:

" Zoroaster asks of Ahuramazda : O Ahuramazda, most holy spirit, creator of existent worlds, truth-telling ! What, O Ahuramazda, was the Speech which existed before the heaven, before the water, before the cow, before the tree, before the lire, the son of Ahuramazda, before the truthful man, before the Deievas and the carnivorous animals, before all the existent universe, before all the good created by Mazda, and having its germ in truth ?

"Then Ahuramazda replies: I will tell thee, most holy Zoroaster, what was the whole of the creative Word. It existed before the heaven, etc. (as above). Such is the whole of the creative Word, which, even when unpronounced and unrecited, outweighs a thousand breathed prayers, which are not pronounced, nor uttered, nor recited, nor sung. And he who, in this existent world, O most holy Zoroaster, remembers the whole of the creative Word, or utters it when he remembers it, or sings it when he utters it, I will lead his soul thrice across the bridge of the better world, to the better existence, to the better truth, to the better days. ... I pronounced this Speech which contains the Word and its working to accomplish the creation of this heaven ; before the creation of the water, of the earth, of the tree, of the four-footed cow, before the birth of the truthful man who walks upon two feet."

This Word appears to be the utterance of that spirit of Truth, which is a chief attribute of Ahuramazda, and which formed the glory of Persian morality. The celebrated " prayer of 21 words," which is ascribed to Zoroaster himself, and which his followers were commanded to repeat a hundred times a day, is in the following terms: "As the Word from the supreme Will, so the effect only exists because it proceeds from the truth. The creation of what is good in thought or action belongs in the world to Mazda, and the kingdom is Ah lira's, who is constituted by his own Word the destroyer of the wicked."

§ 15. Thus far the ancient Zoroastrianism of the undivided Iranian race appears as a pure monotheistic religion, opposed alike to pantheism and polytheism. It is distinguished by the spiritual and philosophic character, which seems a

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natural gift of the Aryan intellect. But this very intellectual refinement tempted to its great corruption. The mystery of evil ever working in the world—seeming to " labor to pervert that end " for which the earth and heavens, living beings and men, were created—turning light into darkness, genial warmth into biting cold, fertility into desolation, pleasure into pain, life into death, and, in the world of mind and spirit, joy into sorrow, and virtue into vice—led this thoughtful race to confront the great problem of the origin of evil. Raised above the pantheism which, in Egypt, and in some of the later philosophies of Greece, was content to accept good and evil as parts of the existing state of things, opposite only in appearance; and destitute, on the other hand, of the special revelation which, without satisfying our curiosity as to the source of evil, and the reason for its permission, assures our faith that it does but enhance the final triumph of good ; the Iranians were driven to the solution known by the name of Dualism, the doctrine of two independent and co-ordinate principles, one the source of all good, the other of all evil.

It is still disputed how early this doctrine assumed its fully developed form, in which the principles of good and evil are divine persons; and whether it was an original part of the Zoroastrian system. Its germs are confessedly to be found in the oldest Aryan faith ; and the picture of the antagonism of the two principles in the oldest portions of the Zendavesta is recognized even by those who contend that Ahriman is not yet acknowledged as a person. "The contrast between good and evil is strongly marked in the Ga-thas; the writers continually harp upon it; their minds are evidently struck with this sad antithesis, which colors the moral world to them. They see everywhere a struggle between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, purity and impurity. Apparently they are blind to the evidences of harmony and agreement' in the universe, discerning nothing anywhere but strife, conflict, antagonism. Nor is this all. They go a step farther, and personify the two parties to the struggle. One is a 'white' or holy 'spirit' (gpento mai-nyus), and the other a ' dark spirit' (ane/ro mainyus)."¹² But it is contended that " this personification is merely poetical or metaphorical, not real. The ' white spirit' is not Ahuramazda, and the ' dark spirit' is not a hostile intelligence. Both resolve themselves, on examination, into mere figures of speech—phantoms of poetic imagery—abstract notions, clothed by language with an apparent, not a real,

¹² " See especially Yacna, xiv. 2, and compare xxx. 3-0."—Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 105.

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personality." And the final descent to dualism is ascribe** to that principle by which "language exercises a tyranny over thought, and abstractions in the ancient world were ever becoming persons."¹³ The other view regards the primitive germs of dualism as distinctly adopted, and developed into a personal form, in the original Zoroastrian theology, as the logical solution of the difficulty presented by the apparent limits of and opposition to Ahuramazda's power for good. At all events, it is agreed that this full development appears in the First Fargard of the Vendidad, which is next in antiquity to the Gathas, and before the settlement of the Iranians in Media.

Ahuramazda is perpetually, and from all past eternity has been, opposed in all his works of creation, of goodness, and of truth, by a principle like to him in nature, and equal in power, the " dark " or " evil spirit," Angro-mainyus (in Persian Ahriman), the author of all moral and material evil, and of death itself. The creation came from the hands of Ahuramazda, pure and perfect as himself. Ahriman corrupts and turns it upside down, and labors to destroy it; for he is emphatically "the destroyer," as well as the spirit of evil. In the First Fargard of the Vendidad we have an enumeration, doubly interesting from its geographical character, of the fair regions, which Ahuramazda created successively for the habitation of the Aryan race; bnt which Ahriman forthwith set himself to blast by creating " a mighty serpent," deep snow, hail, and earthquake, pestilence, war, and pillage, buzzing insects and poisonous plants, poverty and devastation, sickness, unknown (" Un-aryan ") plagues, and fevers; and, besides these physical evils, unbelief, un natural vices, inexpiable crimes, witchcraft, and the power of evil spirits : thus ever striving, like Milton's Satan,

"To waste the whole creation, and possess All as his own:"

and, in relation to intelligent creatures, having, like him,

"So deep a malice, to confound the race Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell To mingle and involve, done all to spite The great Creator. But this spite still serves His glory to augment:"—

and of this conclusion Zoroaster seems to have been not altogether without some idea. His system was not at first pushed to the hard consistency of making the two principles eternally equal, and their conflict everlasting. In the past they are co-equal and co-eternal: in the present, the balance

is See Professor Max Midler's Es ay in the "Oxford Essays " for 1S5G, pp. 34-37.

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of victory inclines to neither side : and yet, even here, a sort of precedence is given to Onnazd, whose good work is done before Ahriman comes to mar it; and in that precedence, as well as in the sympathy of the whole system with the good power, we seem to see the issue to which the whole is tending; but as to the future, Zoroaster appears to have been inspired by a better hope, or at least to have shrunk from an eternity of evil. Though Ahriman is without beginning, he will have an end. The time will come, at the end of the ages, when three prophets, sprung from Zoroaster, Ukhsyad-Greta (the "increasing truth"), Ukhsyad-eremds (the "increasing light"), and Aptuad-ereta (the "existing truth"), will bri.eg into the world the three last books of the Zendavesta, and will convert all mankind to Mazdeism : evil will be conquered and annihilated : creation will return to its pristine purity; and Ahriman will vanish forever.

It was reserved for later sects to pervert the Zoroastrian doctrine into that essential and eternal conflict of good and evil, so necessary and so equal as to exclude a moral preference for eithei'j which has become famous under the name of Manichadsm. The morality of primitive Zoroastrianism is preserved at the expense of its metaphysics. It abstains from any attempt to reconcile the principles of dualism; and, in so abstaining, confounds the essential distinction of eternity and time. Its past eternity is but an indefinite extension backward of present time. But a new sect arose long afterwards, apparently about the age of Alexander—the Zarvanians (who are represented by the modern Gnebres and Parsees), who held that time itself was eternal, at least in the only sense in which they conceived eternity. " Time," they said, " existed before all else : to conceive of its beginning would be impossible: hence it is in it and by it that Ormazd himself was produced." This conception was personified as Zarvdnakarana (" Time without bounds"), whose * essence seems to be confounded with the material universe. From him both Onnazd and Ahriman proceeded by emanation, and in him they will be absorbed again. Of this essentially pantheistic conception—which substitutes emanation for creation, confounds the moral distinction between good and evil by making both alike the offspring of one principle, and reduces Ormazd from the supreme creator to the demiurgus, who merely organizes the pre-existent matter into which he will be again absorbed—no trace appears in the Zendavesta. It is essentially opposed to the spirit of Zoroastrianism, and appears to spring from an infusion of the gross material pantheism of the Chaldaean system.

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§16. Both Ahuramazda and Angromainyus rule over a hierachy of spirits, strictly personal, but as strictly created beings; in no sense deities, but angels and demons, who counsel and serve them—

"And works of love or enmity fulfill/'

The first creatures of Ahuramazda were his six Councillors, called Ameshao Spentao, " Immortal Saints " (in Persian, Ams/iashpa?ids) : Vohu-mano (Bahman), " the good mind," who maintained life in animals and goodness in man : Ashdvahistd (Ardibehesht), "the brightest truth" or "best purity," who was the light of the universe, maintaining the splendor of the heavenly luminaries, and preserving all the forms of being that depend on light: KJishat/iso-vairyo or Khshathra-vcdrya (Shahravar), the " powerful" or " wealthy king," presiding over metals and dispensing riches: (fpenta-armditi (Isfand-armat), the "white" or "holy earth," at once the genius of the earth and the goddess of piety, for agriculture was a sacred duty with the Iranians: Ilauroatat (lOiorddd), explained by some "the universe," by others " health ;" and Ameretdt (Amerddt) " Immortality:" the two last had the care of the vegetable world.

In "opposition to these Amshas/ipands Ahriman created his six Barvands: Akd-mano, the "bad mind," or, more exactly, the " naughty mind," who prompts men to evil thoughts, words, and deeds : Ander (the ancient god of fire, and the Indra of the Sanscritic Aryans), the wiclder of the thunder-bolt, and the demon of storm, war, and all violent destruction : (faurva, whose identification with the Indian Siva is doubtful: Naonhaitya, a single demon, corresponding to the Vedic JYasatyas or two Aswins, the Dioscuri of the Indian mythology; and lastly, Taric and Zaric, the personifications of "Darkness" and "Poison." The true char* acter of the whole system, as spiritual rather than physical, is seen in the precedence given in each council to the "good mind " and the " bad mind."

After the six councillors, in each of the kingdoms of good and evil, come hosts of other spirits in a graduated hierarchy. On the side of Ahuramazda are the Yazatas (in Persian Yzeds), good spirits distributed throughout the universe, watching over the preservation of its several parts, and resisting the destructive attempts of the evil spirits. "At the head of Ahuramazda's army is the angel Sraosha (Serosh),' the sincere, the beautiful, the victorious, the true, the master of truth.' He protects the territories of the Iranians, wounds and sometimes even slays the demons, and is

ANTAGONISTIC SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES. 431

engaged in a perpetual struggle against them, never slumbering day nor night, but guarding the world with his drawn sword, more particularly after sunset, when the demons have the greatest power."¹⁴ Below the Yetzatas were the Fervers, elemental spirits, not confounded with, but corresponding to, the terrestrial and other objects, of which they are the immortal types. Every created being — stars, animals, men, even angels—had its Fewer, an invisible and ever-watchful protector, to be honored and propitiated by prayer and sacrifice. When a man died, his Ferver remained in heaven, and prayers for the dead were offered to their Fervers. Funeral ceremonies were instituted in their honor, and the last ten days of the year were sacred to them. The higher a man's character for nobleness and justice during life, the more powerful was his Feroer after death.

To this angelic hierarchy Ahriman opposed his Daevas (in Persian Devs), " devils " or " demons," with attributes directly contrary. They seem to have no leader corresponding to Serosh ; but high rank is given to Drukhs, "destruction," Aeshemo, "rapine," Daivis, " deceit," Driicis, " poverty," and others. They are the tempters of mankind, and by them the first man was enticed into the fallen state from which the revelation of the Zendavesta is to raise him up. But his restoration can only be accomplished by a mediator, who partakes of the divine essence: and this character is not assumed by Zoroaster, as it was later in the Indian system by Qahya-Mouni (Buddha). Zoroaster is but the inspired prophet, to whom Ahuramazda addresses his revelation : the true mediator is Mithra, who appears to proceed from Ahuramazda, and to be consubstantial with him.¹⁰ The development of the Mithraic worship, in its more material form, in which Mithra personifies the Sun, belongs to the later Persian religion; but the worship itself is common both to the Iranian and Indian systems; and it clearly belonged, in its elements at least, to the old Zoroastrian faith. Though Mithra is not mentioned in the Gathas, we find in the next oldest portions of the Zendavesta his name ; his title of " the victorious," who drove Ahriman from heaven in the form of the two-footed serpent; and his supreme rank as the guardian of men during life, and their judge after death. He also has his antagonist in the kingdom of Ahriman, called Mithra Daraxlj, "Mithra the Bad," who is ever laboring to destroy the other's works of goodness.

¹⁴ " See the Serosh Yasht, or hymn in praise of Serosh (Yacna, lvii. 2)."—Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 112.

¹⁵ The origin of Mithra is not clearly set forth in the Zendavesta.

432 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

§17. The great work of Ahuramazda in creating the world and man, and the corruption of this work by Ahriman as the tempter, is related in a form only differing in details from the account in the book of Genesis. The simple idea of creation distinguishes Mazdeism from the elaborate cosmogonies of the Chaldaean and other systems.¹⁶ Ahuramazda, with the aid of the Amshashpands as his ministers, created the universe out of nothing in six periods, each of which is called Gahanbdr (a "union of the times"), and has also its appropriate name, appended to the story of each period's work, as in the following formula: "In 45 days, I Ormazd, with the Amshashpands, wrought well; I gave the heaven : then I celebrated the Gahanbdr, and gave it the name of Gah-Mediozerem." In the Gah-JIedioshem, of 65 days, water was given : in the Gedi-Peteshem, of 75 days, the earth : in the Gah-Eiathrem, of 30 days, the trees: in the Gah-Jfediareh, of 80 days, the animals: finally, in the Gah-Ha-mesptlimedeon, of 75 days, man. Each of these epochs is celebrated by a sacrifice ; and the last is called "that of the long sacrifice, of the perpetual sacrifice." The sum of these periods, 370 days, seems to point to a cosmic year; especially if there be somewhere an error of 5 days in excess.

The temptation and fall of man is related in the Pehlevi version of the Bundehesh : "Ormazd speaks of Meshia and Meshiane (the first man and woman). Man, the father of the world, existed. His destiny was heaven, on condition that he was humble in heart, and that he bore with humility the work of the law, that he was pure in his thoughts, pure in his words, and that he did not invoke the Devs. ... At first they spoke these words—' It is Ormazd who has given the water, the earth, the trees, the animals, the stars, the moon, the sun, and all the blessings which come from a pure root and a pure fruit.' Then the Lie (the Dev of falsehood) invaded their thoughts : he subverted their dispositions, and said to them—' It is Ahriman who has given the water, the earth, the trees, the animals, and all that has been named above.' It is thus that in the beginning Ahriman deceived them in what related to the Devs; and to the end this cruel being has sought only to seduce them. By believing this lie, they both became Darveinds, and their souls will be in hell till the renewal of their bodies. . . . The Dev who uttered the lie, becoming bolder, presented himself a second time, and brought them fruits which they ate, whereby of

¹⁶ Those who speak of the "Mosaic cosmogony" and the "Zoroastrian cosmogony " use a term totally inapplicable to systems which reject the essential idea implied in the word "cosmo-tfcmy."

FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 433

a thousand blessings they enjoyed there remained not one."

The Deluge is not mentioned in the Zendavesta; but we have already found it in the oldest traditions of the Aryan race.

§ 18. The doctrine of future rewards and punishments is . clearly, though briefly, taught in the Zendavesta; the lost books of which probably contained further details. Here tve have the original of Mohammed's famous " way, extended over the middle of hell, which is sharper than a sword and finer than a hair, over which all must pass." In the Zendavesta, this passage is called chinvat peretu,'-'- the bridge of the gatherer;" and there the souls of all who died are assembled on the day following the third night from their death. The wicked fall into the gulf below, into the darkness of the kingdom of Angromainyus, where they are condemned to feed on poisoned banquets. The good, upheld by the Yazatas and especially by the angel Serosh, and aided by the prayers of their surviving friends, are received on the other side by the archangel Yohumano, who rises from his throne to give them the greeting—" How happy art thou who hast come here to us, from mortality to immortality." Thence they are conducted to Paradise, where Ahuramazda and the Amshashpands sit on golden thrones; and their glorified spirits at once join the conflict against evil, and be-become formidable antagonists to the Daevas. Whether the resurrection of the body, which was held in the Magian creed,¹⁷ and is found in some ancient portions of the Zendavesta, was an article of the orginal Zoroastrian faith, is still disputed.

§ 19. The morality, which was thus rewarded by an eternal abode in Paradise, was at once simple and pure, practical and spiritual. The one great duty of the faithful was to work with Ormazd in combating all forms of evil, both within and without. Truth and purity, piety and industry, were tlm highest virtues: lying is regarded with profound horror; and agriculture is the most honorable work. "Evil was traced up to its root in the heart of man ; and it was distinctly taught that no virtue deserved the name but such as was co-extensive with the whole sphere of human activity, including the thought, as well as the word and deed."¹⁸ Of its practice the Zendavesta speaks as follows : " He is a holy

¹⁷ Theopoinpns, ap. Diog. Laorf. "Proosm." § 0, and JEn. Gaz. " Dial, dc An. Im-mort." p. 7T. See Hang, "Essays," pp. 143, 20G ; and Rawlinson, vol. iii. pp. 110,117.

¹⁸ "On the triad of thought, word, and act, see Yacna, xii. S; xxxii. 5; xxxiii.2_: xxxv. 1 ; xlvii. 1; xlix. 4, etc."—Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 113.

1!)

434 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

man, says Ahuramazda, who constructs upon the earth a habitation in which he maintains fire, cattle, bis wife, his children, and good flocks. lie who makes the earth produce com, who cultivates the fruits of the fields, he maintains purity; he promotes the law of Ahuramazda as much as if he offered a hundred sacrifices." For such a course aided in preserving the good creation, and combated the work of Angro-mainyus, who had brought thorns, weeds, and barrenness upon the earth. In fact, the earth itself, the genius of which we have seen to be one of the Amshashpands, was an object of even superstitious reverence : which must not be defiled by the burial of the dead. For a like reason, they must not be burned, for fire was too pure to be brought in contact with corruption ; and it only remained to leave them to be devoured by birds of prey in inclosures set apart for the purpose. On a similar principle, all the objects of creation were divided into two classes, as belonging to the respective empires of Ormazd or of Ahriman. Useful animals, corn, pasture, water, fire, are sacred things, as being the work of the good principle; while noxious animals are regarded as the creatures and instruments of the evil principle. But, by a curious inference, the condition of each creature in this respect is changed by death ; for Ahriman, in putting an end to the life which was received from Ormazd, remains master of the dead body, which is therefore impure: and the contrary happens when Ormazd kills a creature of Ahriman. On this principle, bloody sacrifices were interdicted in the pure Mazdean worship; for the creatures of Ormazd might not be destroyed (except from necessity, for food), and the creatures of Ahriman would pollute the altars of Ormazd.

§ 20. The pure Zoroastrian worship consisted of prayers and hymns (such as the Gathas), both to Ahuramazda and to his councillors and angels. For, though the former was the only object of supreme adoration, a sort of inferior worship was rendered to the Amshashpands and Yazatas, and to all creatures superior to man; among the rest to the heavenly bodies, the worship of which received a great development under the Aehaemenids, perhaps through Chaldaean influence. With these prayers and hymns were combined the maintenance of the sacred and sacrificial fire, and the curious ceremony, derived from the highest Aryan antiquity, of ottering the juice of the plant called Iloma (the Soma of the Vedas, where the rite is much more developed, and Soma becomes the Moon-god, in association with Mithra as the Sun-god). "The ceremony consisted in the extraction of the juice of the Homa plant by the priests during the recitation of

ZOROASTRIAN WORSHIP.

435

prayers, the formal presentation of the liquid extracted to the sacrificial fire,¹⁸ the consumption of a small portion of it by one of the officiating priests, and the division of the remainder among the worshippers. As the juice was drunk immediately after extraction, and before fermentation had set in, it was not intoxicating."²⁰ Such was the compromise, so to speak, under which the Zoroastrian system retained a rite which in the old nature-worship had been one of gross intoxication.

The utter abhorrence of all idolatry, by which Zoroastrianism was distinguished, is testified by Herodotus in his interesting account of the religion of the Persians.²¹ "They have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Jove, which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise oiler to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times. At a later period they began the worship of Urania, which they borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. Mylitta is the name by which the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta, and the Persians Mitra.²² To these gods the Persians offer sacrifice in the following manner: they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations ; there is no sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no consecrated barley-cake; but the man who wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name of the god to whom he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encircled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is not allowed to pray for blessings on himself alone, but he prays for the welfare of the king, and of the whole Persian people, among whom he is of necessity included. He cuts the victim in pieces, and, having boiled

¹⁹ Ic was shoicn to the fire, not poured upon it (Hang, " Essays," p. 239).

²⁰ Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 114.

²¹ The ou'.'y approach to a representation of the deity (in a symbolic, not personal, form) is the emblem called Ferouher, which is universally associated on Persian inscriptions with the effigy of the king as early as the time of Darins I., and which we know to have been of Assyrian origin (see the picture on p. 410). There seem also to be signs of the adoption of Egyptian religions emblems in sculptures of the time of Cyrus at Pasargadse (Murghaub). See Rawlinson's " Herodotus," note to Book I. c. 131.

²² Herodotus here confounds Mithra with Anaitis, whose worship appears in the Aetnemenian inscriptions as late as Artaxerxes Mnamon iu conjunction with that o" Mithra.

436 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

the flesh, he lays it out upon the tenderest herbage that he can find, trefoil especially. When all is ready, one of the Magi comes forward and chants a hymn, which they say recounts the origin of the gods. It is not lawful to sacrifice unless there is a Magus present. After waiting a short time the sacrificer carries the flesh of the victim away with him, and makes whatever use of it he may please."²³ In this description of ceremonies, to which Herodotus was doubtless often an eye-witness during his travels, we see elements strange to primitive Zoroastrianism — nature-worship, animal sacrifices, and the Magian priesthood — the origin of which is a most interesting question iu the history of the Iranians.

§ 21. The Iranian traditions represent the reformation of Zoroaster as encountered by vehement opposition, leading to long and bloody religious wars among the Aryans. Such an opposition would be certain on the part of the adherents to the pantheistic nature-worship, which had corrupted the ancient Aryan faith, and its natural leaders would be the priests. Accordingly, the Persian traditions of Zoroaster mention as his chief antagonists a portion of the Aryan priesthood. The very anachronism by which these are called Bra/tmana tells us where to seek their successors; and when we find the hymns of the Rig- Veda heaping maledictions upon Zoroaster (DjaraddsJtti), we can scarcely doubt that the two parties in this religious war were those represented by the doctrines of the Zendavesta and the Vedas, aud that it caused the separation of the Iranian and Indian branches of the Aryan race. The latter appear to have been worsted in the struggle, and to have been driven out of the common home in Bactria. Crossing the Hindoo Koosh, they occupied successively the regions of Paropamisus, Drangiana, Arachosia, and finally the valley of the Indus and its tributaries (Scinde and the Punjab). Here their religion was developed into Brahminism, which still retains the gross naturalism which they had defended against the reforms of Zoroaster. After a struggle, which lasted for centuries, they conquered the Cushite aborigines of the Indian peninsula, and reduced them to the position of inferior castes. It does not lie within our plan to follow further, at present, the history of the Indian branch.

§ 22. The Iranian branch kept possession of Bactriana, Sogdiana, and Margiana, on the northern side of the Indian Caucasus. As their numbers increased, they passed that lange into the western part of the table-land of Iran, and

²³ Herod, i. 131,132.

THE IRANIANS IN MEDIA AND PERSIA.

43?

overran Media, eastern Susiana, Persia, and the fertile parts of Cannania ; expelling from those countries or reducing the old Cushite inhabitants, whom the Iranian legends describe as men of a black complexion, with short and woolly hair. Thus the power of the Aryans was established throughout the highlands bordering the Tigris and Euphrates valley on the east; and we have seen indications of their dominion for a time in that valley itself. But the degree of their power was very different in different parts of these regions. In Persia and Carmania they scarcely encountered a serious resistance; and those countries became the great seats of the pure Zoroastrian faith. In Susiana the Cushite population held their ground in the congenial lowlands; while in the adjacent hills the names of the Cosstei and Elymtei²⁴ show the presence of a mixed Cushite and Semitic population.

In Media the Turanians, who had long been established in the country, and given it the name it has since borne,²⁵ renewed the'old conflict of race and religion with the Aryan invaders. The contest seems to have lasted for abont a thousand years,.and only to have been decided at last by the aid which the Persians gave to their brethren in Media. It is to these great wars of Iran and Turan that the Persian legends, in Firdousi's poem of "the Book of Kings," refer the greatest exploits of their national heroes, Rustem, Kai-Kbosru, Farrukhzad.

§ 23. When the Aryans at last prevailed in Media, it was as a conquering minority among a conquered people, who retained their own language and corrupted the religion of their masters. We have seen that the Aehaemenid kings addressed edicts to their Median subjects in a Turanian dialect; and it was from the Turanians of Media that the Iranian religion derived that Mayian character which has often been mistaken for the real nature of Zoroastrianism. The contusion dates from Herodotus, who saw the worship in its Median form, but did not visit Persia Proper ; and it was confirmed by the proneness of the later Achaemenids to adopt foreign forms of worship. Thus Artaxerxes Mnemon, who was a chief corrupter of the old religion, introduced the worship of Anaitis, and gave prominence to that of the stars. The old Turanian religion was essentially elemental, and the Magi were its priests. The chief points of their worship, when it was ingrafted upon that of the Aryans, are enumerated in the above extract from Herodotus.

It is still in dispute whether the fire-worship, which is so conspicuous a feature in the later Persian religion/was de-

²¹ In Gen. x. 22, Elam is the eldest son of Sheni. ²⁵ See chap. xix. § 0.

♦

438 PRIMITIVE ARYANS AND RELIGION OF ZOROASTER.

rived from the Magi, or whether they only gave a grosser form to mi old Zoroastrian adoration of light and fire as the symbols of Ahuramazda. The pyrwthra, or fire-towers, the only Medo-Persian temples, are found along the mountain heights of Armenia, Azerbijan, Kurdistan, and Luristan, which would naturally be the native strongholds, and where we also find inscriptions in the Turanian dialect; and it was here that tradition placed the primitive seat of the Magian worship. It seems more certain that demon-worship was a corruption which arose from the Turanian eult of the serpent Afrasiab. Identifying him with Ahriman, they adopted the heresy which made the latter in all respects co-equal with Ormazd ; and, contrary to the spirit of pure Zoroastrianism, they worshipped the evil power as much as the good. Hence, not improbably, the origin of the sect of Yezidis, or "devil-worshippers," which still exists in Irak-Ajemy and Northern Mesopotamia. From the fusion of Zoroastrianism with Ma-gism in Media, while it retained its purity in Persia, arose a distinction between the two nations which had political consequences of great importance.

The Persian " Ferou'ier."

»

The Rock of Behistun.

CHAPTER XIX.

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

5 1. Relation of Media and Persia to Ariana. Geneiai sketch of Media. § 2. And of Persia. § 3. Extent of Media. Atropatene and Media Magna. The Caspian shores. § 4. Physical character of Media. The sterile highlands. Lake Urum-iyeh. The rivers. Irrigation of the desert. The great horse pastures. § 5. Cities of Media. Echatana. Rhagfe. Bagistan (Behistun), and its monumental rock. Aspadana (Isfahan). § 0. Origin of the Median people. § T. Assyrian notices of the Medes! Conquests by Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon. Imperfect subjection to Assvria. § S. Classical accounts of Media—inconsistent and in great part fabulous. The scheme .of Ctesias. His chronology artificial. § 9. Account of Herodotus. Elevation of Deiooes to the kingdom. The story conceived in a Greek spirit. His name a representative title. § 10. The six tribes of the Medians. § 11. The capital of Ecbatana, as described by Herodotus. Traces of Sabse-ism. Hypothesis of two Ecbatanas. The historic capital. § 12. The Administration of Deioces — typical of an Oriental despotism. § 13. Putiaortes, Fra-vartish, probably derived in part from a personage of later times. First collision of the Medes with Assyria, perhaps led by Phraortes and his son Cyaxares. The Medes repulsed and Phraortes slain. Cyaxares organizes the Median anoy. § H-Cyaxakes, the true founder of the Median kingdom. § 15. Beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire.

§ 1. The preceding chapter followed that great branch of the Aryan race, which was destined to possess the empire

140

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

of Western Asia, to their settlements in Media and Persia. Those countries may be roughly described as formed by the mountain belt included by the ancients under the general name of Zagrus, which, running in a south-easterly direction from Armenia to the eastern side of the Persian Gulf, separates the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris from the higher table-land of Iran ; to which we must add a portion of the table-land itself. The eastern limit was determined by the physical character of the region. The Iranian plateau, which nowhere rises so much as 3000 feet above the sea, is for the most part a sandy desert. On the north and north-east, indeed, the rivers flowing from the Indian Caucasus and the Paropamisus redeem from the desert regions of more or less fertility, forming the districts of Parthia, Aria, Drangiana, and Aracbosia. But these streams, like those flowing from the eastern slopes of Zagrus, form an exception to the law,

" As to the sea returning rivers roll,"

and are lost in the rainless desert which occupies the central portion of the table-land, down to the shore of the Indian Ocean. The desert resembles a vast parallelogram standing on this shore as its base, and extending obliquely with a north-westerly slope upward to the mountains south of the Caspian.

The whole table-land, exclusive of Media and Persia—but inclusive (in the widest sense of the term) of the eastern slopes of the mountains down to the Indus, and the Aryan regions of Bactriana, Sogdiana, and Margiana, on the northern side of the Indian Caucasus—was included by the geographers of the Roman Empire¹ under the general name of Ariaxa, which answers to the later Persian Iran² and the land of the Airy a in the Vendidad, the Ariya in the Achaa-menian inscriptions.³ The Airyanem vaejo ("source" or •'native land of the Aryans") of the Vendidad, which some suppose to denote this region, designates evidently the primeval abode of the race.

The mountains, which divide this great table-land on the west from Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, consist of no less than six or seven parallel ranges, all converging, at their

¹ In particular Strabo (xv.) and Pliny ("II. N." vi.23).

² This form is found on the coins of the Sassanidse.

³ The old Persian records distinguish between Ariana in the wide sense and the province of Aria (the country of the "\_Peiot of Herod, iii. 93). The latter has an aspirate, which is preserved by the modern Herat, being Haroyu in the Vendidad, and Hariva in the Acluemenian inscriptions. Herodotus, in another part of his work, u.-es "\ptoi both in the generic and specific sense (vii. 62, CC).

SKETCH OF MEDIA AND PERSIA.

northern extremity, in the great central knot of the Armenian highlands, where they join the chain which skirts the south and south-western margin of the Caspian. In this latter chain, now called Mount JElburz (anciently designated by the general name of Caspii AEontes), and overlooking the modern Persian capital of Teheran, is the snowy peak of Demavend (Jaso-nius M.),the highest mountain of Asia west of the Himalayas. Aline drawn somewhat to the east of the middle of the Caspian Sea and of this peak, nearly along the meridian of 52^-° E. long., may be allowed to mark the rather indefinite limit at which Media merged on the east into Parthia and the great salt desert of Khorassan. The former country included the mountainous regions formed by the western part of the Caspian chain and the northern part of the Zagrus range, with the portion of the plateau lying in the angle between them, and the strip of coast on the S. and S. W. of the Caspian: the S.E. part of this slip belonged to Hyrcania. Following the course of Mt. Zagrus to the south-east, the Medians bordered upon the kindred Persians,⁴ who occupied the highlands along the eastern side of the Persian Gulf, and a portion of the adjoining table-land, merging in the desert of Carmania.

§ 2. The last-named region — Persia Proper, or Persis, corresponding to the modern provinces of Farsistdn (which preserves the ancient name),⁵ Laristdn, and Kerman — had a homogeneous character, adapted to preserve the pure nucleus of the Iranian race, which was ultimately to wield the empire of Asia. The mountain ranges, while following the bend of the coast, expand into a highland territory 200 miles in width, defended nearly on all sides by the sea and desert. The great plain of Fhuz-istan (Susiana), whose proximity had so momentous an influence on the history of the Elam-ites and Medes, narrows along the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf into an arid strip of sand and gravel, from ten to fifty miles in width, almost uninhabitable from its extreme heat, and in extent only about one-seventh of the highland region. In the latter " lay the bulk of the ancient Persia,

* The exact boundary is naturally doubtful, being described by the ancient geographers at a time when the distiuction between the two nations was indefinite. The later writers place it at the chain of Parachoathras (Elwend), a branch of Mt. Zagrus. But the important province of Paraetacene (now Isfahan), which is thus given to Persia, is assigned by Herodotus to Media (i. 101); which would place the boundary about the parallel of 32°, corresponding with the present division between Irak-Ajemi and Farsistdn.

⁵ In modern Persian / represents the p of the ancient names. Thus Farsistdn = "theplace or land (stun, in old Persian itana) of the Parsa," for such was the old native form, which is preserved almost unchanged iu Parsee. Some interpret the name as " tigers."

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RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

consisting of alternate mountain, plain, and narrow valley, curiously'intermixed, and as yet very incompletely mapped. This region is of varied character. In places richly fertile, picturesque, and romantic almost beyond imagination, with lovely wooded dells, green mountain-sides, and broad plains suited for the production of almost any crops, it has yet, on the whole, a predominant character of sterility and barrenness, especially towards its more northern and eastern portions. The supply of water is everywhere scanty. Scarcely any of the streams are strong enough to reach the sea. After short courses, they are either absorbed by the sand or end in small salt lakes, from which the superfluous water is evaporated."⁶ It has only two rivers of importance: one, the Arotis or Oroatis (now the Tab), falling into the Persian Gulf on the borders of Susiana (in 30° N. lat.) ; the other, the Araxes (Bendamir), whien flows eastward through the beautiful valley of MerdasJit into the desert, and is lost in the salt lake of Jkiktegan towards the borders of Carmania, At the spot where the Araxes receives its tributary, the Cyrus {Km'¹ or Piddvar), stood the Achamienid capital, Persepolis, and about 30 miles higher up on the Cyrus was the older capital of Pasargada?, with the tomb of Cyrus.

So effectually did these secluded highlands separate the Persians from the rest of the world, that their name is not mentioned in the ethnical list of Genesis x.: perhaps, however, at that period they were not a separate nation. If the Bartsuor Partsu of the" Assyrian monuments were the Persians—which }_{s no}t certain—they are first found in the 9th and 8th centuries b.c. in the S.E. of Armenia, in close contact with, but independent of, the Medes; and again, in the time of Sennacherib, in the mountains N. and N.E. of Susiana, close upon, if not within, the limits of Persia Proper. From these notices it has been inferred that the Persians at first accompanied the migrations of the Medes, and did not settle in their own proper country till near the end of the Assyrian empire, which, in fact, appears, from the records of Darius, to have been about the time of the traditional origin of the Achremenid dynasty. But this late separation from the Medes seems scarcely consistent with the preservation of the pure Zoroastrian faith by the Persians: nor mustthe date of a dynasty be confounded with the origin of a nation which seems to have been long a sort of patriarchal republic.

At all events, it is not till the time of Cyrus that the Persians begin to play their part in history ; and then the name

⁶ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 5.

⁷ The name Kur is sometime? applied to the Bendamir

PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF MEDIA.

413

of their country is merged in that of the empire which Cyrus founded. But, while the empire was called Persia, the proper country of the original Persians was always distinguished by the name of Persis, which is perpetuated to the present day in that of Farsistdn. We may here observe that the modern kingdom of Persia corresponds very nearly to the western and larger half of the Iranian plateau, including the ancient Media, Susiana, Persis, and Carmania, with the central desert of Fhorassan, and the mountainous region on the north (the ancient Parthia and Hyrcania). The eastern part of the plateau forms the countries of Afghanistan, SeisLan, and Beloocliistan.

^ § 3. The physical character of Media was much more varied. The ancient writers recognize the two great divisions of Media Atropatene⁸ and Media Magna, corresponding nearly, the one to Azerbijan, the other to Irak-Ajemi, with the mountains of Kurdistan and Luristan, down to the boundary of Persia. The former (Atropatene) seems to have been the country in which the Medes first settled on their migration from the east (though they would also occupy on their way the part of Media Magna directly south of the Caspian). It was a mass of mountains, between Armenia on the north, Assyria on the west, and the Caspian on the east. It was divided from Armenia by a mountain chain and by the lower course of the Araxes.

On the side of the Caspian, the proper boundary seems to have reached only to the mountains bordering the sea. The slip of coast extending round the south-west and southern shores, with the overhanging slopes of Tedisldn, Elburz, and Demavend or Karun (now forming the districts of Ghileui and JIazetnderan), though claimed as a part of Media, seems really to have been held by independent tribes, the Cadusii and others.⁹ This fertile region is scarcely equalled on the surface of the earth for its rich woods and abundant fruits; but the intense heats of summer and the frequent inundations make it most pestilential. It is connected with Media Atropatene, on the west, by the valley of the Kizil- Uzen or Sefid-Eud, and with Great Media, on the south, by a pass some 80 or 90 miles east of Teheran, the Caspia3 Pylle of the ancients.

§ 4. Most of the surface, both of Atropatene and Media Magna, is covered with bare rocky ranges, sterile downs and

⁸ The Greeks derived this name from the satrap Atropates, who was allowed by Alexander to retain the government of the province, where he made himself independent. But it seems to contain the old Median Atra or Adan (the Sun) = the Persian Mithra (Sir II. Rawlinson's nore to Ilerod. i. 110).

^s Ctesias mentions their wars with, and bitter hostility to, the Medians,

1

444 RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

sandy valleys; having a climate of keen severity in winter and intense neat in summer; as is natural in a highland region, the valleys of which are from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea-level, lying between the parallels of 30° aud 40° X. latitude, and scantily supplied with water. On the plateau bordering upon the sandy desert, the sterility is of course greater T the summers are still hotter, and the winters colder. But the two spring months of April and May form a delicious exception to this rigor and sterility. " In the worst parts of the region, there is a time, after the spring rains, when Nature puts on a holiday dress, and the country becomes gay and cheerful. The slopes at the base of the rocky ranges are tinged with an emerald green; a richer vegetation springs up over the plains, which are covered with a tine herbage, or with _aa variety of crops. The orchards are a mass of blossoms; the rose gardens come into bloom; the cultivated lands are covered with springing crops ; the desert itself wears a light livery of green. Every sense is gratified : the nightingale bursts out into a full gush of song; the air plays softly upon the cheek, and comes loaded with fragrance."¹⁰

Some favored spots, however, enjoy constant fertility and beauty; especially the basin of the great lake Urumiyeh (the ancient Spauta or Martiana), iu Azerbijan, and the valleys of its tributary streams, the Aji-Sn (on which stands the royal summer residence of Tabriz), and the Jaghetu, on the south of the lake. The lake itself is a large, shallow,, sluggish piece of water, intensely blue, and so deeply impregnated with salt that no fish can live in it; in short, a Median Dead Sea. The other fertile regions are the plain of the lower Araxes, where the Persians say the grass is t.-ill enough to hide an army in its camp ; the valley of the Kizil-Uzen (the ancient Amardus), which flows through Azerbijan into the Caspian Sea; and, in the south of Media Magnet, the Zenelerud waters the valley of Isfahan, and is not lost in the desert till it has redeemed from sterility a considerable tract of country by means of the curious underground canals called Kanats.'¹¹ Under this system of irrigation, Large crops of grain and vegetables are grown; and fruit and forest trees abound on the slopes and in the valleys of Zagrus, and in the more sheltered parts of Azerbijan.^ The upland plains among the western 'chains of Zagrus, in the southern part of Media Magna, near Betgistan, furnished

¹⁰ Rawlinson, vol. iii. pp. 7, S, 4G, from the descriptions of Ker Porter, Kinneir, Mo rier, Eraser, etc.

¹¹ For a description of this mode of irrigation, see Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 54.

CITIES OF MEDIA.

445

pasturage to the thousands of horses which, so careful a writer as Polybius says, supplied almost all Asia,¹² and especially to the celebrated Nissean breed, which the Medes seem to have brought from Parthia on their westward migration.¹³

§ 5. The most important cities of Media Avere Ecbatana (or the two Ecbatanas), of which we have presently to speak; and Khaga or Phages, on the south side of Elburz, near the Caspian Gates, the chief city of Rhagiana, the north-easternmost district of Media. This Avas probably one of the most ancient foundations of the Iranians on their migration westward ; for in the First Fargard of the Vendidad, Bhaga is their twelfth settlement, in which the faithful were mingled with unbelievers. Traditions of its importance in Assyrian times are familiar to readers of the Apocrypha.¹⁴ The first Darius mentions it as the scene of the final struggle in the great Median revolt;'⁵ and it is connected with the fall of the last Darius.¹⁰ It was rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator under the name of Europus, which was changed to Arsacia under the Parthians.

Another most interesting site was Baglsian (called Ba-gistana or Bastanaby the Greeks), which Isidore of Charax describes as ^ua city situated on a hill, where there was a pillar and statue of Semii-amis.¹"⁷ The hill is the Mom Ba-gistanus of Diodorus,¹⁸ who relates how Semiramis, having finished her works in Babylon, and proceeding to make war upon Media, encamped near it on her march to Ecbatana. At the foot of the precipitous rock, 17 stades in height,¹⁵'

¹² Polyb. x. 27, § 2. Diodorus says that the number of horses annually fed on these pastures was at one time 160,000 (xvii. 110, § 6). The annual tribute of Media to the Persian kings included 3000 horses (Strab. xi. 13, § S).

¹³ Herod, vii. 40 ; Strab. xi. 13, § 7; Arrian, " Exp. Alex." vii. 13 ; Amm. Marc. xxm. G; Snid. s. v. tiiaatov. These writers observe the peculiar shape, size, speed, and stoutness of the Nissean horses, and their resemblance to the Parthian: their color was generally, if not always, white. They were probably of the same stock as the horses of the Turcoman breed, now derived from Khorassan, the old Parthian country. Arrian transfers the name of the Xiscean Plains to the southern pastures.

" Tobit i. 14; iv. 1 ; ix. 2, etc.; Judith i. 5,15: in the latter passage Nebuchadnezzar, king of Niueveh (!), makes war upon Arphaxad, king of Media, "in the great plain, which is the plain on the borders of Rhagan," and takes and kills him " in the mountains of Rhagan." On the probable meaning of this, see chap, xxvii. § 7.

¹⁵ Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 13.

¹⁰ Arrian, "Exp. Alex." iii. 19. The district of Rhagiaua is the strip of fertile territory between Mt. Elburz and the Desert, and the city was near its eastern extremity ; but its exact site is doubtful. It is usually identified with Rhci; but Professor Rawlinson shows reasons for placing it much nearer the Caspian Gates, probably at Kaleh Erij (Erij being perhaps corrupted from the ancient name).—" Five Monarchies," vol. iii., pp. 29, 30.

¹⁷ Mans. Parth. p. 6. The text has Euirrava, perhaps a corruption of Bd<r-ava. In

Steph. Byz. it is Bayiarava. ¹⁸ Diod. ii. 13: opoc Uayiirravov.

¹⁹ That is, 17 X 600 Greek feet; more than six times too much: the real height is only about 1700 English feet. Sec the views of the rock and inscription at the beginning and end of this chapter.

ELSE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

which was sacred to Jove,²⁰ she made a paradise (a park or pleasure-ground) oi'12 stadia in circumference, which, being in the plain, had a great spring from which all the plants could be watered. Having cut away the lower part of the rock, she caused her own portrait to be sculptured there, together with those of 100 attendant guards. She engraved also the following inscription in Syrian (he means, of course, Assyrian) letters : " Semiramis, having piled up one upon another the pack-saddles of the beasts of burden which accompanied her, ascended by this means from the plain to the top of the rock." Such is the account of Diodorus, who elsewhere states that Alexander, on his march from Susa to Ecbatana, turned a little out of his course to see the fruitful and delightful district of Bagistana,²¹ where he marched through the great horse-pastures already mentioned.

All these indications clearly identify the place with the rock of Behistun, which lies in the direct route from Babylon to Ilametdan, the site of Ecbatana, and " where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock, and the scarped surface are still to be seen."²² The spot seems marked out by nature for records to be " graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever :"²³ and the traces of four sets of carvings are thus perpetuated on the face of the cliff, (i.) On the upper part of the principal mass of rock, the whole surface of which has been scarped away, are the remains of the heads of three colossal figures, apparently of very early workmanship, and above them are traces of characters.²⁴ (ii.) At the north extremity of the mountain, iu a nook or retiring angle of the hill, high upon the rock, and almost inaccessible, is the famous record of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, known as The

²⁰ Professor Rawlinson interprets Bagistan as "the place of God" (from Baga, "god," and ctana "place"). Others explain it (from the analogy of modern Persian) as "the place of gardens," derived from the "paradise" which Diodorns ascribes to Semiramis. Both may be right, according to the well-known principle of assimilating names to the different interpretations which forms accidentally alike will bear in different languages. Thus, also, the modern form Behistun (according to Sir Henry Rawlinson), whicli represents the ancient name, is read as Behistun, "the place of paradise, or delight," by Mr. Masson, who says that the local form of the name is Bisitun, and of the sculptures Bostun ("Journal of R. As. Sue." vol. xii. pt. 1, p. 10S).

²¹ Diod. Sic. xvii. 110.

²² Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. Hi. pp. 31,32; Sir H. Rawlinson, "Journal of Geog. Soc." vol. ix. pp. 112, 113 ; Ker Porter, " Travels," vol. ii. pp. 150,151.

²³ Job xix. 24.

²⁴ From the account of Mr. Masson, the only traveller who has described these sculptures, they do not seem perfect enough to convey any information. They may be the remains of the sculptures and inscription which Diodorns and Isidore ascribe to Semiramis; but the silence of those authors abont the great inscription of Darius would incline us to believe that it was this latter winch they ascribed to Semiramis, following the common tradition respecting most of the great monuments of Western Asia. Mr. Rawlinson suggests that the sculptures of Semiramis may have been destroyed by Chosroe Parviz, when he prepared to build a palace on the site.

ORIGIN OF THE MEDES.

447

Behistun Inscription, of which we shall have to speak again.²' (iii.) Still farther to the north, and of much later workmanship, is a group, composed originally of five or six figures, but now much mutilated, representing a person trampling on a prostrate enemy, while Victory presents him with a wreath. The inscription is in Greek and much defaced; but, from the occurrence of the name of Goteirzes twice, it is supposed to record the great victory gained in a neighboring plain by Gotarzes over" his rival Meherdates in the time ol the Emperor Claudius.²⁶ (iv.) Besides these historic records, there is a comparatively modern inscription in Arabic, recording a grant of land as an endowment of the adjacent caravanserai.

The only other city that claims notice is Aspadana, so famous as the modern capital, Isfahan:¹¹ But, in ancient geography, it is only mentioned by Ptolemy.

§ 6. How and when the country thus described first acquired the name of Media, is one of the doubtful problems of ethnography. That at least the dominant race in historic times—the JIada of the Achamienid inscriptions—were an Aryan people, is unquestionable; and it seems equally certain that they conquered and, to a great extent, displaced an older Turanian population. As the Zendavesta does not mention the Medes in its list of the Aryan migrations, it is natural to infer that the name was adopted from the country in which they settled; and a Turanian etymology has been found for it. On the other hand, the name of Mealed occurs among the Japhetic races in Genesis x.; and arguments are urged, both from language and tradition, to show the existence of the Aryan race and the Median name, both in Western Asia and in Eastern Europe, in the earliest ages; and to suggest the inference that the Aryan migration from the east was the second settlement of the Japhetic race in Media.²⁸

§ 7. The first historical notices of the Medes occur in the annals of Shalmaneser II., the " Black Obelisk King " of Assyria, about the middle of the 9th century b.c They appear

²⁵ Respecting the relation of this inscription to the history of cuneiform interpretation, see chap. xvii. § 5.

²⁶ Josephus, "Ant." xx. 3, § 4; Tac. "Ann." xi. S, xii. 13; Sir H. Rawlinson, in " Geo?. Journal," vol. ix. pp. 114-116.

²⁷ The name preserves the memory of the famous Median horses, and probably belonged originally to the province which contained the great pastures. Asx>a is the old Persian a:pa, " horse," and appears also in the Median towns of Phavaspa, Phan-aspa, Vesaspa, named by Ptolemy. The dana may be either from ctana, "place" (as in llama-dan from Hagma-ctan), or from danhu or dainhu, "a province." (Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 14T.)

²⁸ These argnments may be found in Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. c. vl pp. 157, foil. The question is too speculative to be pursued here.

448

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

to be a tribe of no great strength, occupying the district of Media Magna, now called Ardelan. Shalmaneser and his son make raids into their country, and the next king reduces them to tribute ; but this probably applies only to the tribes in and near Zagrus, and there is no evidence that these campaigns extended far into the country. Tiglath-pileser II. (b.c. 745 and onward) made campaigns in Media, exacted tribute, and even sent an officer to exercise authority in the country. A more considerable conquest was made about b.c. 710 by Sargon, who not only annexed several Median cities to Assyria, and established fortified posts in the country, but colonized some parts of it with his captives from Samaria.²³ The tribute of horses which he exacted shows his power over the country in which the great pastures lay. The spread of the Assyrian arms to the east is attested by the boast of Sennacherib (about b.c. 701) that he had received an embassy of submission from remote parts of Media, "of which the kings his fathers had not even heard." Esar-haddon, in his tenth year (b.c. 670), applies the same formula to his invasion of Bikni or Bikan (apparently Azerbijan), which appears to have been a real conquest. He represents the country as held by a number of independent chiefs, whose Aryan names deserve notice. " The condition of Media during this period, like that of the other countries upon the borders of the great Assyrian kingdom, seems one which can not properly be termed either subjection or independence. The Assyrian monarchs claimed a species of sovereignty, and regarded a tribute as due to them ; but the Medes, whenever they dared, withheld the tribute, and it was probably seldom paid unless enforced by the presence of an army. Media was throughout governed by her own princes, no single chief exercising any paramount rule, but each tribe or district acknowledging its own prince or chieftain."³⁰ These distinct records agree with the traditional history in so far as the latter makes Media at one time subject to the Assyrian Empire; but the divergence in other respects is extraordinary.

§ 8. The classical writers give us two different schemes of Median history. As in the case of Assyria, Ctesias and Herodotus are quite at variance; and both seem to have been misled—but the former in the far greater degree—by the same causes which have been explained before.³¹ The two accounts only converge (at first sight) at the accession of Astyages, whom Ctesias calls Aspadas, the last king of Media, in b.c 594. Before him Ctesias (followed by Diodorus,

²⁹ 2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11.

*° Rawlinson's "Herodotus," vol. i. p. 405³¹ See chap. xi. 5 2.

CLASSICAL ACCOUNTS OF MEDIA. 419

the chronographers, and other writers) places a series of eight kings, whose united reigns make up 282 years ; thus carrying back the foundation of the Median Monarchy to b.c. 876?² Herodotus enumerates only four kings, including Astyages, whose three predecessors till up 115 years; and thus the foundation of the monarchy is placed in b.c. 709 or (in round numbers) 710. On comparing these statements with the Assyrian records, we obtain the curious results that, of the two epochs at which the Medes are represented as consolidated into a kingdom, the former—when also, according to the same authority, they razed Nineveh to the ground —coincides very nearly with the time when the powerful "Black Obelisk'King" is making his first inroads into Media; and the latter coincides exactly with the date of Sargon's conquests in that country.³³

The chronology of Ctesias betrays its artificial character by the prevalence of round numbers, and still more by the repetition of the same periods for the lengths of the kings' reigns ; and a very ingenious suggestion has been made, that the longer chronology was derived from the shorter by a reduplication of the same reigns under different names.³⁴ It will be observed that, in this scheme, the Cyaxares of Herodotus (with whom we shall presently see that the real history of the Median kingdom begins) has his duplicate representatives in the Artreus and Astibaras of Ctesias; and the only details which the latter gives of any of his kings, after Arbaces, consist in wars of Art a? us and Artynes with the Cadusii and Saca?, which may very well correspond to the Scythian war of Cyaxares. In short, the Median history of Ctesias is now generally regarded as founded on the exaggerated legends of national pride repeated to him at the court of Artaxerxes, in which dates were exaggerated, and names and events misplaced and misunderstood.

³² Ctesias, " Pers." Fr. xxvii. ed. Lion.

³³ The modern writers who accept the story of Ctesias and Diodorns—that Arbaces. the governor of Media nnder Assyria, leagued with the Babylonian priest Belesys to overthrow the effeminate tyrant Sardanapalus and destroy Niueveh—evade the chronological difficulty by bringing down the date nearly a century, to n.o. TSS.

³⁴ The following table shows the comparison suggested by Professor Rawlinson (" Herod." vol. i. p. 409 ; " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 173):

Ctesias. Years.

! Arbaces.........2s

i Maudaces.........50

S Sosarinus.........30

i Artycas.........__50

Arbianes........."~2^

Art sens..........40

| Artynes.........22

| Astibaras.........<n

Heropotus. Years.

[Iiiterreynum, repeated ..... —]

[Deioces. repeated...... 53]

Interregnum........ —

Deioces.......... 53

IPhraortes, repeated..... 22]

iCyaxares, repeated...... 40]

Phraortes......... 22

Cyaxares......... 40

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

§ 9. Nor is the more circumstantial story of Herodotus free from the like fabulous ingredients ; but it is worth repeating as a whole. The Assyrians, he tells us,³⁵ had held the empire of Upper Asia for the space of 520 years,³⁰ when the Medes set the example of revolt from their authority. They took arms for the recovery of their freedom, and fought a battle with the Assyrians, in which they behaved with such gallantry as to shake off the yoke of servitude, and to become a free people. For a time they enjoyed self-government in their scattered villages ; but the lawlessness resulting from the absence of any central authority enabled Deioces, the son of Phraortes, to bring them again under the kingly yoke, through the reputation he acquired as a just judge. The historical value of the story of his election to the crown will be better understood from the comments of Mr. Grote than from the bare narrative of Herodotus : " Of the real history of Deioces we can not be said to know any thing, for the interesting narrative of Herodotus presents to us in all points Grecian society and ideas, not Oriental. . . . The story of Deioces describes what may be called the des-2?ofs progress, first as candidate, and afterwards as fully established. . . . Deioces begins like a cleveit Greek among other Greeks, equal, free, and disorderly; he is athirst for despotism from the beginning, and is forward in manifesting his rectitude and justice, ' as beseems a candidate for command he passes into a despot by the public vote, and receives, what to the Greeks was the great symbol and instrument of such transition, a personal body-guard; he ends by organizing both the machinery and the etiquette of a despotism in the Oriental fashion, like the Cyrus of Xeno-phon ; only that both these authors maintain the superiority of their Grecian ideal over Oriental reality by ascribing both to Deioces and Cyrus a just, systematic, and laborious administration, such as their own experience did not present to them in Asia."³⁷

The very name of Deioces is scarcely more substantial than the details of his elevation to the throne. The Median and Persian royal names were as significant as the Assyrian, and form, like'them, a sort of recurring list, in which none like Deioces appears. But the name does resemble a title, which is an. element of one Median royal name JJcdiak," the biting," the Zohak of the old Aryan'traditions, the serpent worshipped by the Turanians, and probably adopted as an

Herod, i. 9G seq.

³⁶ Corresponding to the 52G years of Berosus. Sec above chap. s. J S.

³⁷ Grote, " History of Greece." vol. iii. pp. 307, SOS.

ECBATANA.

emblem by their .Median conquerors.³⁸ Thus Deioces may be regarded as the hero-eponymus of these conquerors.³⁹

§ 10. The chief traditions of early Median history, which Herodotus refers to the reign of Deioces, are the gathering of the tribes into one political body, and the building of the capital and royal palace. Some light is thrown on the national constitution by the names of the six tribes. These were the Busa?, Paretaceni, Struchates, Arizanti, Budii, and Magi.⁴⁰ In four of these we recognize the four original Aryan classes: the Magi taking the place of the priests; the Arizantes being the Aryan warriors (Ariyetzeuitu, " those of the race of the Aryans"); the Busa?, the agriculturists (the Sanscrit bouja, " indigenous") ; the Struchates, the nomad shepherds (the Persian pcitrctuvat," living under tents"). As to the other two, the Budii may possibly be another form of boitjet, applied to the Turanian natives;⁴¹ and the Paretaceni⁴² (a name applied also to the border province, which is variously assigned to Media and to Persia) are perhaps mountaineers (from the Persian peirutei and the Sanscrit par-vetta, " a mountain ").

§ 11. Herodotus says further that, when Deioces was settled upon the throne, he required the people, neglecting their petty towns, to build the single great city of Agbatana, or Ecbatana.⁴³ It consisted of a great citadel inclosing the royal palace, the dwellings of the people being outside of the walls : a plan which appears to have been usual with the Median and Persian cities.⁴⁴ He describes the walls as " of great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other. The fortification is so planned that each of the cir-

³⁸ Astyages, which seems rather a title than the proper name of the last king of Media, is in the native tongue Aj-dahak, " the biting snake." Moses of Choreue confirms this interpretation (i. 29): " Quippe vox Astyages in nostra lingua dracouem significat."

³⁹ Herod, i. 101.

⁴⁰ The mention of the Magi last, in close connection with the Bndii, who probably represent the Turanian natives, has been thought to indicate the addition of these two tribes after the nation was constituted (Rawlinson, vol. iii. p. 127, note).

⁴¹ The meaning.of the name is, however, very donbtfnl. We have Budim in Eastern Europe.

⁴² This name is spelt with e and ce in the second syllable almost indifferently.

⁴³ Herod, i. 9S. His 'k^pdrava is nearer than the 'Ek/Jhtoi/o of later writers to the Hagmatana or Hagmatd'n of the cuneiform inscriptions, a name which Sir Henry Rawlinson regards as purely Aryan, and as signifying " th£ place of assemblage." (From ham, "with;" gam, "to go;ⁿ and (ton, "a place," the whole = Lat. com-i-tinm.) Dropping the final n, we get the Chaldee form "Achmetha, the palace that is in the province of the Medes " (Ezra vi. 2). The details of the building of the walls of Ecbatana by " Arphaxad," in the book of Judith (i. 1-1), seem to have been derived merely from the writer's imagination. This book, which is one of the earliest examples of historical fiction, was probably written by an Alexandrian Jew in the 2d century n.c.

⁴⁴ Herod. 5. 99 (init.). This corrects the. frequent misapprehension of the description in the preceding chapter, as referring to the city instead of the fortifications (Te/xeu, c. 9S) around the palace (7repi n't 6 tv-ov oi<a'a, c. 99).

452

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

cles should outtop the one beyond it by the battlements only (the nature of the ground, which is a gentle hill, favors this arrangement in some degree, but it was mainly effected by art),⁴⁵ the whole number of the circles being seven: within the last are contained the royal palace and the treasuries. The greatest of the walls is very nearly the same in size as the iuclosure of Athens. Of the first circle, the battlements are white; of the second, block; of the third circle, scarlet; of the fourth, blue; of the fifth, orange: of all these circles the battlements are colored with pigments, but the battlements of the two last are coated, the one with silver, and the other with gold."*⁶

Now, in all except the order of the colors (which Herodotus may easily have transposed, from not knowing the principle of the arrangement), this description answers to the seven stages of the Chaldaean zigguretts." It clearly points to a similar system of sidereal worship ; and if there really was such a building at the capital of Media, it confirms the corruption of Zoroastrianism by that system. Nay, more, the description furnishes some evidence of the old Sabaean religion of the country, even if Herodotus be only repeating a tradition, with which his informants amused him, like those of similar edifices found in the Persian writers.⁴⁸

In this case, it would be the less necessary to seek for a site for the Agbatana of Herodotus distinct from the well-known capital of Media Magna. But Moses of Chorene positively identifies " the second Ecbatana, the seven-wallen city," with Geireizac Shabasdan, in Azerbijan; and Sir Henry Rawlinson has adduced strong arguments in favor of this

⁴5 This remark seems to exclude the necessity of seeking for a conical hill as the site, which must, however, have been a hill of some sort. The bearing of this observation on the question of a twofold Ecba'.ma will be presently apparent.

⁴⁶ Ilerod. i. 1)8. The words may mean either silvered and gilt or covered with 2>lates of the precious metals, as was the case with the temple at Borsippa. "The sober Polybius relates that at the southern Agbatana, the capital of Media Magna, the entire wood-work of the royal palace, including beams, ceilings, and pillars, was covered with plates either of gold or silver, and that the whole building was roofed with silver ;iles. The temple of Anaitis was adorned in a similar way (Polyb. x. 27, §§ 10-12). Consequently, though Darius, when he retreated before Alexander, carried off from Media gold "and silver to the amount of 7000 talents (more than £1,700,000), and though the town was largely plundered by the soldiers of Alexander and Seleucus Nicator, there still remained tiles and plating enough to produce to Antiochus the Great on his occupation of the plnce a sum of very nearly 4000 taleuts, or £975,000 sterling ! (See Arrian. ^pExp. Alex.' iii. 19 ; Polyb. I. e.)."—Rawlinson, note to " Herod." I. c.

⁴⁷ See chap. xvi. § 5.

48 ""Thus Nizami, in his poem of the ' Heft Peiher,' describes a seven-bodied palace, built by Bahrain Gur, nearly in the same, terms as Herodotus. The palace dedicated to Saturn, he says, was black; that of Jupiter, orange, or, more strictly, sandal-wood color (Sandali); of Mars, scarlet; of the Sun, golden; of Venus, white; of Mercury, azure; and of the moon, green-a hue which is still applied by the Orientals to silver.' ("Journal of Geog. Soc." vol. x. pt. i.p. 127.)

DEIOCES.

453

site (now called Tcikht i-Sole and n) for a northern Ecbatana, the special capital of Media Atropatene.⁴⁹

The native name of the historical capital, the Ecbatana of all writers later than Herodotus, is still preserved in the modern Hamadan. Its situation in a grassy and wooded plain, watered by streams flowing from Mt. JEhcend, corresponds to the site of Ecbatana as described by the ancients, at the foot of Mt. Orontes, a little to the east of the Zagrus range, in the southern part of Media Magna.⁵⁰ It appears to have been an unwalled city—for it yielded without resistance to Cyrus, to Alexander, and to Antiochus the Great— with a citadel, and a magnificent palace, which tradition (as usual) ascribed to Semiramis.⁵¹ Polybius states the circumference of the palace at seven stadia, or rather more than four-fifths of an English mile.⁵'²

§ 12. Herodotus carries out his ideal picture of the Median despot in a mode of life and government such as Diodorus ascribes to Ninyas and his successors. "Deioces allowed no one to have direct access to the person of the king, but made all communication pass through the hands of messengers, and forbade the king to be seen by any of his subjects. This ceremonial, of which he was the first inventor, Deioces established for his own security, fearing that his compeers, who were brought up together with him, and were of as good family as he, and no whit inferior to him in manly qualities, would be pained at the sight, and would therefore be likely to conspire against him; whereas, if they did not see him, they would think him quite a different sort of being from themselves."⁵³ In the seclusion of his palace, however, he continued to administer justice with the same strictness that had won his crown; the causes being stated, and his decisions given, in writing ; and a constant surveillance being kept up throughout his dominions by spies and eavesdroppers.⁵⁴ Not only is this great organizer of a new kingdom unknown to the Assyrian annals, but in the very midst of his alleged reign (b.c. 709-656) we find Esar-haddon (about b.c. 670) reducing the "more distant Medes," who are under the government of their petty chiefs.

⁴⁹ "Journal of the Geog. Soc." vol. x. pt. i. art. 1; Rawlinson's "Herod." ad lor:.; and " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 25-2S (where the site and the rnins on it are fully described). For a plan of the site, see " Student's Anc. Gcog." p. 239.

⁵⁰ Polyb. x. 27; Diod. Sic. ii. 13, § 16: This writer gives a circuit of 250 stades=25 geographical miles (probably a considerable exaggeration); comp. Eratosth. ap. Strab. ii. p. 79; Arrian. "Exp. Alex." iii. 19, 20; PHn. "H. X." vi. 14 and 26; Isid. " Mans. Par.'h." p. 6, in Hudson's " Geog. Min." For a description of the site (which has not vet been explored), and what little is known of the citv, see Rawlinson, vol. iii. pp. lfi-24. ⁵¹ Diod. Sic. ii. 13, § G. ⁵² Polyb. x. 29, § 19.

⁶³ Ilerod. i. 99. ⁶⁴ Herod, i. 100.

454

RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

§ 13. After a reign of 53 years—Herodotus proceeds—Deioces was succeeded by his son Phraortes, who began to extend the Median dominion by conquering the Persians, and then overran Asia, province after province. At last he attacked the Assyrians of Nineveh, who were now left alone by the revolt and desertion of their allies, though their internal condition was as flourishing as ever. Phraortes perished in this expedition, with the greatest part of his army, after reigning over the Medes 22 years.⁵⁶

Phraortes is a genuine proper name, in old Persian Fra-vartish, signifying a guardian or protector;™ a sense which might well suit the traditional founder of the nation's greatness. But we shall see in a moment that that honor rather belongs to Cyaxares: and it has been suggested that the alleged conquest of the Persians by PhraoYtes, and his violent death, may have been transposed by the vanity of a national annalist from the attempt of a Mede of the same name, who headed a rebellion against Darius the son of Hystaspes, which that king thus describes: "A man named Phraortes, a Mede, rose up. To the state of Media thus he said—' I am Xathrites, of the reice of Cgaxares: Then the Median troops who were at home revolted from me. They went over to that Phraortes. He became king of Jfedia."^bl In subsequent paragraphs, Darius relates the victories gained first by his general," and then by himself,⁵⁹ over the pretender " who was called king of .Media"⁶⁰ and the flight of Phraortes to Phages, where he was taken prisoner, and, says Darius, " brought before me. I cut oft" his nose and his ears and his tongue, and I led him away captive. He was kept chained at my door; all the kingdom beheld him. Afterwards I crucified him at Agbatana. And the men who were his chief followers, I slew within the citadel of Agbatana."⁰¹ Among the countries which declared in favor of Phraortes were Parthia and Hyrcania, which are included in the conquests ascribed to the Phraortes of Herodotus.

Such a transposition would be the more easily made if Phraortes was also the name of the father of Cyaxares ; and

⁵⁵ is.o. G56-C34, according to the chronology of Herodotus.

⁵⁶ Professor Rawlinson (following Haug) states that the name " seems to be a mere variant of the word which appears in the Zendavesta as fravashi, and designates each man's tutelary genius. (These genii are called fravardin in the Pehlevi, and frohars in the modern Persian.) The derivation is certainly from fra = npo-, and probably from a root akin to the German wahren, French gardcr, English, watch, ward, etc." —"Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 144. The whole of his "Analysis of Median Names " is worthy of attentive perusal.

⁵⁷ Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 5, G. The circumstances, that this Phraortes changed his name to Xathrites, and claimed descent from Cyaxares, are strong arguments that the royal line of Media began from Cyaxares, and that there had not been a king named Phraortes. ⁵« Par. 6. ⁶⁹ Par. 12. ⁶⁰ Ibid. ⁸¹ Par. 13.

CYAXARES.

455

this seems highly probable, from the custom of announcing the name of a king's father in public documents. In this case, though Phraortes were not a king of Media, his Asiatic conquests and collision with Assyria might represent actual events. The historical empire of Media starts into such sudden existence under Cyaxares as to give great countenance to the theory of a fresh migration of Aryans into the Zagrus region, displacing the Scythian inhabitants, and conquering, as^Herodotus says, " nation after nation," till they came in contact with Assyria.

The splendid and warlike Asshur-bani-pal had been succeeded by his son, the last king of Nineveh (b.c 647).⁶² But tradition makes even this feeble prince show courage when attacked, and, as Herodotus says, the resources of his empire were still great. His disciplined troops and war-chariots proved too powerful for the mountaineers when they came down into the plains : the Medes were repulsed, with the loss of one of their leaders, Phraortes : and his son, Cyaxares, withdrew into Media, and there pursued the work, ascribed to him by Herodotus, of converting his warlike hordes into a disciplined army: "Of him it is reported that he was still more warlike than any of his ancestors, and that he was the lirst who gave organization to an Asiatic army, dividing the troops info companies, and forming distinct bodies of the spearmen, the archers, and the cavalry, who before his time had been mingled in one mass, and confused together."⁶³ Such an organization of his army would naturally involve the full establishment of his royal authority, for the Median kingdom was essentially military.

§ 14. That CvAXARES (' Uvakhshataray* was the true founder of the Median kingdom, may be inferred from his being claimed as the ancestor of the royal race, not only (as we have seen) by the pretender Phraortes, but also by Cliitrata-khma, who led a rebellion of Sagartia against Darius, saying, " I am the king of Sagartia, of the race of Cyaxares."⁰⁵ And even the Greek writers confirm this view, notwithstanding their lists of earlier kings. The oldest and most remarkable testimony is that of ^Eschylus, who may have received from Persian or Median prisoners, during the invasion of Greece,

•a Comp. c. xiv. 55 15,1G. ⁶³ Herod, i. 103.

*t " Cyaxares, the Persian form of which was'Uvakhshatara (Behistun Inscr. col. ii. par. 5, 5 4), seems to be formed from the two elements, hi or hu (Grk. el), ' well/ 'good,' and aklisha (Zend arsna), 'the eye,' which is the final element of the name Cyavarsna in the Zendavesta—Cyavarsna is 'dark-eyed;' 'Uv-akhsha '(= Zend Hav-arsna) would be 'beautiful-eyed.' 'Uvakhshatara appears to be the comparative of this adjective, and would mean 'more beautiful-eyed' (than others)."—Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 141.

⁶⁵ Behistun Inscr. col. ii. par. 14. Rawlinson considers this is some indication that Engartia (in Khorasmn) was the original country of Cyaxares.

450 KISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM.

the statement which he puts into the mouth of Darius, that —" The first leader of our host was' a Alede ; but another, his son, completed this work; but the third from him was Cyrus:" the other two being manifestly Astyages, the predecessor of Cyrus, and Cyaxares the father of Astyages.⁰⁶ Perhaps even Diodorus is not altogether blundering when he says that, " according to Herodotus, Cyaxares founded the dynasty of Median kings ;"^C7 for we have seen that Herodotus does ascribe to Cyaxares the organization of the nomad host of Media into the military array.

§ 15. At all events, Cyaxares, whose accession is placed by Herodotus in n.c. 634, was ihe first Median king whose history is really known, and the real founder (as is implied in the statement quoted from ^Eschylus) of the JSLedo-Per-sian Kingdom. We say " Medo-Persian," rather than " Median,"' because, from the history of the following reign, there can be no doubt that the Persians were already closely connected with the Medes. Whether their secondary position in the alliance was due to a conquest, such as Herodotus ascribes to Phraortes, or simply the result of their numerical inferiority, is a question hardly to be decided. All that we really know on this point is summed up in the prophet Daniel's impersonation of the Medo-Persian kingdom as a powerful "ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one" was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand ; but he did according to his will, and became great."⁰⁶

In order to follow the course of these conquests, we must now look "westward" and "northward" to the nations with which the Medes first came into contact under Cyaxares.

" ^Ksch. " Persre," vv. 761-4. ⁶⁷ mod. ii. 32. ⁶⁸ Dan. viii. 3, 4.

Sculptures on the Rock of Behistun.

Mons Argaeus in Cappadocia,

CHAPTER XX.

the NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.-THE TABLE-LAND and NORTH

coast.

§ 1. Importance of Asia Minor in ancient history. § 2. Its geographical structure. § 3. Counection of its mouutaiu-system with Asia and Europe. The central tableland. The Taurus. The northern range. The Anti-Taurus. The eastern boundary. § 4. Lakes and rivers. § 5. Climate and productions. § G. Dimensions of Asia Minor. Cyprus. § T. Great mixture of populations. Turanians: The Moschi and Tibareni. § S. The Cappakocians. Why called Syrians. Probably an Aryan race. § 9. Extent of Cappadocia. Other nations withiu its limits. The Chalybes. The Matieui Ciliciaus in Cappadocia according to Herodotus. § 10. The Phrygians. Their great antiquity. Likeness of their langnage to Greek. § 11. They probably belonged to an early Aryan migration from the east. Connection with the old inhabitants of Thrace, etc. § 12. Greek traditions about the Phrygians. § 13. The Pelasgians of Asia Minor: their connection with those of Europe. § 14. Remains of Phrygian architecture. § 15. The Phrygian religion. § 16. The Phrygians pressed back into Asia Minor by the Thracians. § IT. Tiikaciaks in Asia Minor. The Thyui aud Bithyni. § IS. The Papiilagoxians— probably akin to the Cappadocians. § 19. Narrow limits of Phrygia in historic times. Its cities. § 20. The Mysians—probably connected with the Phrygians.

§ 1. Asia Minor,¹ or Lesser Asia, is the great peninsula, which runs out westward between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, as if to form a bridge between Asia and Eu-

¹ Respecting the origin and application of the name, see the '* Student'j Ancient Geography," p. S4. The older name was Lower Asia, as distinguished from Ujrpcr Asia, the boundary being the Halys. German writers call it Fore-Asia (Vorderasien), and the rest of the continent Hinder-Asia (Hinierasien).

20

458

THE NATIONS 01 ASIA MINOR.

rope, along which the teeming races of the one continent might find a passage to the other, and, when prepared by the civilization brought to them by the same route, might return to reconquer their primeval seats. It was by this way that the largest portion of the races which peopled the south of Europe made entrance to their new abode. From the splendid harbors of the Western coast, and by the stepping-stones of the Archipelago, they received the commerce of Asia, with its wealth and civilizing power. When, by a reflex movement, large bodies of the Greeks settled on those western shores, it was there that they first cultivated, under Asiatic influences, commerce and art, philosophy and literature. The Asiatic Greeks of Miletus and Phoerea traded and founded colonies in the west of the Mediterranean. The model of all epic poetry took its subject from a city in the north-western corner of the peninsula, and was sung by an Asiatic Greek.² The heroic and tender poetry of the lyre and flute sprang up in the islands of zEolis and Ionia; and its music was borrowed, in great part, from Lydia and Phrvgia. The earliest Greek annalists were natives of Asia Minor, and the " father of history " united the vigorous blood of her Dorian settlers with the sweetness of the Ionian tongue. The earliest school of Greek philosophy, and some of the earliest triumphs of Greek architecture, had their home on the same shores. And, while the western coast was thus linked with Greece, the southern looks across the waters of the Levant to Syria and Egypt; and the northern across the Euxine to the plains of southern Russia, receiving various influences from the former, and conveying commerce and colonies to the latter; while the three narrow straits, which on this side divide Europe from Asia, were, as the name of two of them imports, but fords or ferries, easily crossed by migrating or warlike hosts.³

§ 2. Thus placed between the two continents, Asia Minor is, in some respects, a miniature of both. Its structure, like that of Asia, is a central table-land, sinking down to the sea on the north and south, and throwing out other peninsulas to the west. These projections, with the continuous sea that washes its northern,'western, and southern shores, constitute its likeness to Europe: while it resembles both conti-

² Not to trouble ourselves with saving clauses about the origin of the Homeric poems, the statement is certainly true of their chief author, whose name is not likely to be changed till the study of classical literature is abandoned. Let us hope, in spite of certain tendencies of our age, that the latter eventmay notbe the first to happen.

^s The Greek Bosporus (abominably corrupted into the ever-to-be-avoided form of Bosjihorus) is the precise etymological equivalent of Ox-ford, and was probably derived from the custom of ferrying over cattle from one shore to the other, when both were possessed by the same tribes, according to the state of the pastures.

MOUNTAIN-SYSTEM. 459

nents in that general formation, by which the highest mountain ranges skirt the southern shores, and the surface has a general slope towards the north. Hence its largest rivers, as the Halys and Sangarius, rising in the central table-land, traverse a large portion of its surface to reach the Euxine ; while those in the south, except the few that find a passage through the chain of Taurus, run in a brief and rapid course from its southern chain.

§ 3. The skeleton of the whole peninsula is formed by a westerly prolongation of the highlands and mountain chains of Armenia, which arc again continued eastward in the table-land of Iran. This fact has an historical importance, as showing the continuity of the highland belt from Media by Armenia to Asia Minor, surrounding the plain of Mesopotamia ; so that tribes might migrate and armies march over the former, without descending into the latter. The great Greek geographer, Strabo, goes so far as to connect the mountain-chains which skirt the northern and southern shores of the peninsula with those which form the north and south edges of the table-land of Iran;⁴

This connection is perfectly clear in the southern range— the famous chain of Taurus⁵—which passes westward from its junction with Mount Zagrus, in Armenia, through the Syrian district of Commagene, to the south-western promontories of Caria. It reaches a general elevation of 10,000 feet. Its course is pretty well represented by the waving line of the southern coast, the mountains retiring, more or less, to leave the rich plain of Eastern Cilicia and the narrower riviera of Pamphylia, and again throwing out bold terraces to form the convex shore of Tracheia (the "rough land") in Western Cilicia, and the great projection ofLycia. Beyond its termination on the continent, the chain may be traced to the south-west by the islands of Rhodes, Carpathus, and Crete, even to the south-eastern headland of Laconia, and to the west by the Sporades and Cyclades to Attica and Euboea. Just above (and in fact forming) the angle between Cilicia and Syria, the Taurus throws off the chain of Amanus to the south, round the Gulf of Issus, which runs far up into the fork. The passes or "Gates" of "Issus" and "Amanus" furnish a passage from Syria to Asia Minor, which was doubtless as important in primeval migrations as it was famous for the march of later armies. Hence it is that the prevailing population of the southern coast was Semitic.

⁴ Sec the Skeleton Map of the Mountain Rauges, Plateaux, and Plains of Asia, as known to the Ancients, in the "Student's Ancient Geography,"p. 73. ^s The name is probably derived from the Aramaic Tur, "height."

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

The northern range proceeds from that part of the Armenian mountains at which they are connected with the central part of the Caucasus; and, sweeping round the south-eastern curve of the Black Sea (the ancient Euxine, or simply Pom tus, "sea"), where it was called the Aloschici Montes, skirts its southern shore in a series of parallel ranges, called Pary-adres in the east, Olgassys in the centre, and the jlysian Olympus in the west. The last forks into two chains, inclosing the Propontus (Sea of Ma mora) on the north and south; the northern severed only by the Bosporus from the chain of Hremus, the latter ending with Ida in the Troad, and prolonged across the Hellespont and the ^Egean by the Chersonese and the islands of the Thracian Sea.

The central table-land, supported by these two chains, breaks into the ranges which form the bold promontories and lono- peninsulas of the western coasts, with the neighboring large islands of Lesbos, Chios, and Samos; and between these ranges lie the rich valleys of the rivers which flow west ward" from the table-land, the Hermus and Maaander, and between them the smaller Cayster. The eastern part of the table-land is intersected diagonally by the Anti-Taurus mountains, which first strike off from the Taurus between 35° and 36° E. long, nearly northward as far as Mons Arsons (the " white mountain," now Aryteh Dayh). This volcanic mountain, which stands detached to the west of the chain, forms the culminating point of the whole peninsula. From its snow-capped summit, which is 13,000 feet high, Strabo states that both the Euxine and the Bay of Issus could be seen on a clear day. Hamilton⁵ -who reached the highest attainable point, a ridge, "above which is a mass of rock, with steep perpendicular sides, rising to the height of 20 or 25 fret"—was not able, from the state of the weather, to put Strabo's statement to the proof; but he doubts if the two seas can be seen, on account of the high mountains which intervene to the north and south. At its northern foot stood Mazaca, the capital of Cappadocia, famous in history under its later name of Csesarea. From about this point the chain branches into two : the Anti-Taurus, turning eastward to the Euphrates, which severs it from the Armenian mountains of Sophene ; while the northern branch, under the name of Scydisses, pursues a north-easterly course to join the mountain-chain of the north coast in north-western Armenia.

The country inclosed between the two chains of the Anti-Taurus system, though sometimes reckoned to Cappadocia,

6 '-Researches in Asia Minor," voJ- ii. p. 274.

LAKES AND RIVERS. 401

was properly called Armenia Minor; and under that name it is famous in the wars of Rome with Mithridates and Ti-granes. The boundary of Asia Minor on this side is, in fact, somewhat indefinite: that usually accepted begins where Amanus comes close to the eastern shore of the Gulf of Issus (at the pass of the "Syrian Gates'¹), and follows the crests of Amanus and Taurus to the Euphrates, which forms the boundary on the side of Armenia, from about 30° 20' to nearly 40° N. lat., whence the boundary continued along Anti-Taurus and the Moschici Mountains to the river Phasis (Rion), which divided Asia Minor from Colchis. It is important to observe that at this north-eastern extremity (as at the south-eastern, round the Gulf of Issus), the mountains leave a passage round the coast of the Euxine, by which the tribes beyond its northern shores could make their way into Asia Minor.

§ 4. Besides the three great ranges which thus support the table-land on the north" the south, and the east, it is intersected by many others; and the drainage of the extensive plains between'them gathers into large lakes, for the most part strongly impregnated with salt. 'The Tatta Pains (Tu.z Got), in the'centre of the plateau, on the borders of Phrygia and Cappadocia, is 75 miles in circumference, and 2500 feet above the level of the sea, The slope of the table-land from east to" west, as well as**from north to south, combines with the varied course of its intersecting ranges to make its rivers singularly circuitous. Thus the Halys (Khil Trmak)— which demands our especial notice as a great ethnic and historic boundary—rises in the X.E. of the peninsula, on the north side of the M. Scydisses, and flows W.S.W parallel to the chain of Anti-Taurus and past the northern foot of M. Argasus, as for south as 39° lat., and goes on as if to fall into the Tatta Palus; but here a cross-chain turns it to the north, as far as the southern slopes of Olympus, which again guide it to the north-east, till, finding a circuitous passage through this (the Kiish Dagh), and the parallel chain of M. Orgassys (^1/ Goz Dagh), it falls into the Euxine in 36° E. long., having risen about the longitude of 40°, and reached as far west as 34£°. The part of the table-land which it h'rst intersects and then encircles,forms the modern province of RumilL The western part of the peninsula, with the whole northern sea-board, is now called Anadoli (from the later Greek Anatolia, "the East"); and the south-eastern part forms the province of Karaman.

§ 5. The climate and productions of Asia Minor have the variety to be expected from its physical character. The ah

4G2

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

hi vial plains of the rivers are very fertile, especially those of Cilicia, and of the western valleys which open to the .zEgean. These extensive plains are remarkable for their flatness, and for the suddenness with which the mountains rise up from their surface, "like islands out of the ocean."⁷ They are sheltered from the severe cold of the upper regions, and are for the most part well watered. The most extensive of these alluvial plains is in the eastern part of Cilicia, hence designated Campestris, which is formed by the rivers Cyd-nus, Sams, and Pyramus. Of a similar character are the lands which surround many of the lakes in the interior. These having at one period occupied larger basins than at present, the dry margins are consequently beds of rich alluvial soil. Fertile plains of a different class are found occasionally on the sea-coast: of these, that of Attalia, on the southern" coast, was the most extensive. The hills of the western district are clothed with shrubs and wood, and in some cases cultivated to their very summits. The climate of the maritime region is fine, but the heat is sometimes excessive.

The western portion of the central plateau consists of extensive barren plains, traversed by deep gullies, which the streams have worked out for themselves. The southern part is subdivided into numerous portions by ranges of considerable height; in the northern part the hills are of less height, and consequently the plains present a more unbroken appearance. The same peculiarity which we have already noted in regard to the alluvial plains also characterizes the upper plains; " they extend without any previous slope to the foot of the mountains, which rise from them like lofty islands out of the surface of the ocean."⁸ The climate of the central district is severe, the loftier hills being tipped with snow during the greater part of the year. But it is almost a champaign country when compared with the ruggedness of Armenia. Its summer climate was delightful; and its broad and well-watered plains furnished the best possible pasturage for sheep, and bore excellent crops of wheat.

The northern district along the shores of the Euxine, from the Iris to the Sangarius, is fertile, the hills being of no great elevation ; on either side of these limits the country is too mountainous to admit of much cultivation. ^ These shores were rejnarkable for their fine timber, including the noble Oriental plane ; among their numerous fruits, the cherry still preserves the name of Cerasus in Pontus; and the pheasemt bears witness to its native home upon the Phasis.

' Fellowes, " Asia Minor," p. 26. ^b Leake's "Asia Minor," p. 95.

DIMENSIONS OF CYPRUS.

403

§ 6. The average length of the peninsula may be estimated at 600 miles ; the southern coast being just 500, and the northern more than 800: it lies between the meridian of 26° E. long, and those of 36°, on the south coast, and 4U° on the north coast. Its greatest breadth, from the promontory of Septe (west of Sinope) to that of Anemurium (opposite to Cyprus), lies almost exactly between the parallels of 38° and 42° N". lat., and is therefore 360 geographical miles:' the average breadth may be estimated" at 300 miles. The whole forms an irregular rectangle, except that the eastern side has a north-eastern slope from the Gulf of Issus to the south-east corner of the Euxine.

Mention should here be made of Cyprus, which lies nearly equidistant from the coast of Cilicia and Syria (45 m. and 65 m. respectively between the nearest promontories), being 140 m. in length, and 60 in its greatest breadth. It was rich in wood, wine, corn, and oil, and its name preserves the memory of its productive mines of copper.

§ 7. Forming a sort of bridge between Europe and Asia, and connected by the central highlands, and by the passages round the Gulf of Issus and the Euxine, with" parts of A°ia inhabited by all the races of mankind, Asia Minor presents a most remarkable mixture of populations. In the ethnic table of Genesis x. a general distribution of the peninsula be- * tween Japhetic and Semitic races, entering from the east and south respectively, seems to be indicated by certain names among the sons of Japheth and of Shem. Among the former are Tubal and Meschech (the Tibareni and Moschi of known geography, in the eastern part of the northern coast) ; Ashkeneiz, whom the best ethnographers place along the north coast, west of the Halys; and Dodanim, a name representing the Pelasgian race,"of whose presence in the peninsula we have other proofs : while among the sons of Shem, Lud (the brother of Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, and Aram) is supposed to be the ethnic progenitor of the Lyd-ians. According to the test of language, it would seem that the table-land and the northenr coast were originally occupied by a Turanian¹⁰ or mixed Scytho-Aryan race^which partly held its ground (like primitive "races in general) in the more inaccessible regions, and was partly overpowered by

⁹ It is to be regretted that geographers and historians recognize any other standard than the geographical mile; which, besides being the only natural measure of the earth's mrface (as being the minute of a degree of a great circle), has the historical advantage of commensnrability with the Greek stadium, which was also derived from the degree: for 10 stadia = 1 geog. mile.

^}0 It must be remembered that the earliest development of the Japhetic race is supposed to have been Turanian.

4G4

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

fresh migrations of Aryans from the east and Semites from the south.

The regions in which the Turanians chiefly held their ground were the eastern part of the great plateau, and the portion of the north coast to the east of the river Halys. In the latter district we still find, in the times of the classical writers, the Moschi (Meshec/i), always coupled with the Ti-bareni (Tubed), just as the Assyrian inscriptions couple the Masked and Tuplai as the inhabitants of the Cappadocian table-land, where their memory seems preserved by the name of the ancient capital Mazaca.¹¹ From that region, where the inscriptions constantly mention them from the 12th to as late as the 7th century n.c, they were driven by the Cap-padocians northward into Georgia and round the Black Sea coast into Southern Russia, where the names of Moscow (Muskuu) and Muscovy attest their presence. An ancient scholiast distinctly call's them Scythians (that is, Turanians), and Professor Max Midler regards the Georgian and other Caucasian dialects as "one of the outstanding and degenerated colonies of the Turanian family of speech."¹²

§ 8. It is still a disputed point whether the Cappadocians, who displaced the Turanian Moschi, were Aryans who entered the country from che east, or Semites who crossed the Taurus from the south. The chief argument adduced for the latter view is the statement of Herodotus, confirmed by several writers, that '*' the Cappadocians are known to the Greeks as Syrians.¹¹¹³ Elsewhere he tells us that these Syrians were called Cappadocians by the Persians; and their name appears as Katupatuka in the Persian Inscriptions.¹⁴ But the name of Syrians may merely indicate the route by which they were believed to have entered the country, and that of W/iite Syrians¹" implies a difterence of race by one

¹¹ "Josephus ('Ant. Jud.' i. G) speaks of this town as founded by Meshech, the son of Japheth, whom he makes the progenitor of the Mosocheni or Moschi; aud he expressly asserts that this people came afterwards to be called Cajipadocians." (Rawlinson, "Essay XI. to Herod. Book i." vol. i. p. G53.) The Moschian kings of the Inscriptions have Turanian names.

¹² "Languages of the Seat of War," p. 113.

¹³ Herod, i. 72; Strab. xii. p. 7SS; Dionys. Perieg. 772, and Eustath. ad loc.; Scylax, p. SO ; Apoll. Rhod. ii. 946 ; Ptol. v. 6.

'* Herod, vii. 72; Sir H. Rawlinson's "Memoir on the Behistun Inscription," vol. ii, p. 95. The Greek stem KcnnradoK exactly represents the Persian Katapiatuk, allowing for the well-known principle of contracting two like syllables into one.

¹⁵ Aevnoaupot. This name is often used by Greek writers for the people, even while they call the country Cappadocia. It is more specifically applied to the inhabitants of the coast, between the rivers Halys and Iris ; and by Ptolemy only to those abont Ihe latter river, whose country he regards as a part of Cappadocia. It Is worth while to observe that the coast region east of the Halys was not distinguished in historical geography by any new ethnic name, but is simply called Pontus, equivalent to "the province of the Sea," like " See-land." This name appears first iu Xenophon ("Anab.^:: v. 6, $ 15>.

THE CAPPADOCIANS.

4g5

test, that of color. In favor of their Aryan origin, we have their late entrance into the country, which, moreover, coincides precisely with the time of that new migration of Aryans to which some ascribe the foundation of the Median kingdom under Cyaxares. Strabo states that the Cappadocians worshipped Persian deities; and he mentions (besides Anartis) Omanus and Amandates, who are evidently the Zoroastrian Va/ifnan (Vohumand) and Amerdad (in Pehlevi, Amendat). These Aryan immigrants seem to have mingled with the old Turanian inhabitants, so that the population of Cappadocia may be regarded as Scytho-Aryan; distinct from the pure Aryans west of the Halys, and the Semites south of the Taurus.

§ 9. In following what has now been said of Cappadocia (and the same remark applies to other parts of Asia Minor), the reader must not be misled by the divisions marked on the ordinary maps, which belong to the period (in some cases to a very late period) of the Roman Empire. In the Persian Inscriptions no countries are named between Armenia and Ionia but Cappadocia and Saparda, which together fill up the whole of Asia Minor, except the western coast. The Cappadocians are expressly named by Herodotus as inhabitants of the later Pontus. The historian also makes some interesting allusions to other tribes within the limits of Cappadocia. Such are the Chali/bes,¹⁶ who are also mentioned by JEschylus,¹⁷ Xenophon, and other writers, as workers of the iron mines in the mountains, and whose name became the Greek appellation of steel.¹⁸ On the right bank of the Halys, in the later province of Galatia, Herodotus places the JIatieni.¹⁹ The identity of this name with the Matieni in the north-west of Media, and the probability that it contains the same root as the name of the Medes themselves,²⁰ confirm the argument for the Aryan population of Cappadocia.

On the other hand, Herodotus at least appears to place the Cilicians, a people undoubtedly Semitic, so far within Cappadocia as the north-eastern part of the table-land ; for

¹⁶ Herod, i. 2S. Strictly interpreted, the statement of Herodotus includes them among the nations west of the Halys ; but, as all other writers place them some distance to the east of that river, we must suppose either that they had a much wider extension in the time of Herodotus, or that he names with the nations west of the Halys some tribes farther along the coast to whom the conquests of Croesus may have reached. In the poem of Apollonius Rhodius on the Argonauts, the Chalybes are placed beyond Themiscyra and the River Thermodon (the Therma, east of the Iris), and they are described as "digging into the iron-bearing hard earth," and "enduring grievous labor with the black smut and smoke."

¹⁷ ^E?ch. "Prom. Vinct."714.

¹⁸ Xen. " Anal)." v. 5. § 1; Catnll. Ixvi. 48; Virg. "JEn" viii. 4S.

¹⁹ Herod, i. 79 20 Mad-a or Mad-ai; Mat-ieni.

£0*

406

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

he describes the Halys as rising in the mountain country of Armenia, and running first through Cilicia. Unless, therefore, he mistook the upper course of the river (which seems unlikely, as he notices its great bend to the north), we must inter that the Semitic population of Cilicia spread beyond the Taurus over the eastern part of the table-land ; which would thus be peopled with representatives of the three great families of mankind.

§ 10. The other great nation, who inhabited the western part of the table-land, and spread beyond it to the west and north-west, were the Phrygians, a people unquestionably of Aryan or Japhetic origin. The amusing story of Herodotus, of the experiment by which Psammetichus proved that the Phrygians were the oldest people of the world—even before the Egyptians, who despised the late origin of the Greeks²¹ —may have an ethnical value after all, for /3fW, the Phrygian for bread, contains the same root as the whole class of Indo-Germanic words signifying to bake." Nor does this case stand alone the Greeks noticed the likeness of the Phrygian names for fire, iceiter, dog, and other common objects, to their own,²³ and modern philology has supplied a long list of similar instances.²⁴ We still possess examples of the Phrygian language in inscriptions, of which the characters, the words, and the grammatical forms, closely resemble the Greek, with variations approaching to the Latin and more ancient Italian dialects ; all proving that this language represents the older stock from which both Greek and Latin sprang.

§ 11. All these facts point to the conclusion that the Phrygians formed part of a very early migration of the Japhetic race, and that the later migration of the Cappadocians drove them from the eastern to the western part of the table-land. According to the more probable hypothesis, which places the original cradle of the human race in Armenia, we should look to that region for the source of the Phrygian migration; as is natural from the contiguity of the highlands. When Herodotus says that the Armenians are Phrygian colonists, he confirms the connection, though he has doubtless inverted the order of derivation.²⁵ He seems to have been misled by

²¹ Herod, ii. 2. The classical writers generally regard Phrygians as the oldest in-hahitants of Asia Minor (Pans. i. 14, § 2;^ Claudian. "in Entrop."ii. 251, foil.; Appnl. "Metain."xi. p. 762).

²² Sanscrit pac, Servian pec-cn, German back-en, Anglo-Saxon bac-en, Erse bac-ail-im. -³ Plat. " Cratyl." p. 410, a.

²⁴ Rawlinson, " Essay xi. to Herod.," Book i. vol. i. pp. 6gg, 7.

²⁵ Hc-i>d. vii. 73. Stephanns Byzantinns makes the same statement (». v. '.-'p/ifwu), and nor.ces a connection between the languages, saying of the Armenians tf/ £*nf/ n-.j/W V cppvy t^ovji. In the army of Xerxes, the Phrygians and Armenians were 'armed

THE PHRYGIANS. ₄₆₇

what lie calls the Macedonian account, that the Phrygians had formerly dwelt in Macedonia under the name of Bii gians, but on their removal into Asia they changed their designation at the same time with their dwelling-place ²⁷' V migration of the Phrygians from Thrace into Asia is' mentioned by other Greek writers; Xanthus,²⁸ the old historian ox Lydia, places it after the Trojan war, and says that they conquered Troy and settled in its territory; Conon makes them enter Asia under their King Midas, ninety years before the war. If there be any literal truth in these statements they must refer to the return of a portion of the Phryo-i _ins from Europe to their former seats in Asia; the main fact to be inferred front them is that the migration of the Phrygians extended to Europe, after they had covered nearly the whole ot the western part of Asia Minor.

§ 12. This conclusion is supported by many facts derived from ancient writers. Independently of several Greek and Irojan legends referring to the southern coasts of Asia Minor, the name of the Phrygian mountain Olympus occurs also in the south of the plateau. To the north of Phryo-ia a part of Bithyma was called in early times Bebrycia. The Trojan riiebe bore the name of Mygdonia, which is synonymous with Phrygia The Mysians and Phrygians were so intermingled that their frontiers could scarcely be distinguished; and the Mysian language is said to have been a mixture of the Phrygian and Lydian. As to the western maritime region (afterwards Ionia), we find Mygdonians in the neighborhood of Miletus, and Bebrtjces assisting the Pho-creans in a war. ' ^&

From these and other like indications we may infer that Irojans, Mysians Mygdonians, and other Western tribes, were branches of the great Phrygian race. In the Iliad, the Irojans and Phrygians appear in the closest relation. Priam is the ally of the Phrygians against the Amazons; his wife Hecuoa is a Phrygian princess: Hector, Paris, and Seaman-clnus are said to be Phrygian names; the two latter bein-equivalent to the Greek forms, Alexander and Astyana" On uio other hand, the Trojans appear, throughout the Homeric poems, as a people related to the Greeks ; and this relationship would extend to the Phrygians.

iu the same manner, and were under the same eommauder (Herod I c ) Both wer* believed to have been originally troglodytes (dwellers in caves) and their name \ e even _{sed as} synonymous (Xen. «Anab.» iv. 5, § 25 ; Diod. xiv 2S • Vitruv. ii T Cra-SJmn J ^{te< 257}>- ^The Phrygian traditions of the DelZo bear the

^In thJ^h^Y^Y-^h]gVT^lqt^{ty nml} °^{f a co}»»^ti₍m with Armenia. ° 2 * *^Iacedoma" "mlect, B held the place of the Greek Heiod. I. c. » _Ap. _{strab> xil 5?2 xiy cso}

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

It may be said that Homer assumed this relationship as a point of poetical convenience ; but we have abundant evidence that he was following a uniform tradition, which preserved an ethnic fact. The" whole region to the north of the Hellenic peninsula, from the Euxine to the Adriatic, is full of names which are also found in the west of Asia Minor, among which the Bnjgians occur in several places; and the Dan-ubian provinces of Mtesia and Pannonia seem only other foi ins of the names Mysia and Pteonia. In short, the Phrygians at one time constituted the bulk of the population of the greater part of Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyricum.

§13. Of their relationship to the early population of Greece itself we have traditional evidence, iu addition to the affinities of language already mentioned; and this evidence is highly interesting. Amidst all the obscurity that hangs about the name of the Pelasgians, it is admitted that they were the earliest known inhabitants both of Greece and "' Southern Italy — at least of the Indo-Germanic stock; for throughout Europe, as well as Asia, there appears to have been a still earlier Turanian population. Now we are distinctly told that the whole sea-board of Ionia and the neighboring islands were formerly peopled by Pelasgians:²⁹ _# ^Tlley are enumerated by Homer among the allies of the Trojans ;³⁰ Herodotus found traces of them on the Propontis,³¹ and Aga-thias in Caria ;³² and the name of Magnesia, which occurs twice in Lydia, as well as in Thessaly, seems to be certainly as Pelasgic. They were found in the islands of the ^Egean, from Samothrace, Imbros, and Lemnos, in the north, to Crete, in the south, as well as in the Cyclades,which form the natural stepping-stones from Asia Minor to the Peloponnesus. Hence they seem to have passed from one continent to the other, both round the head of the ^Egean and across its islands ; and accordingly, the chief remnants of the race, after tliev were overpowered by the Hellenes, are found in Thessaly, in Epirus,in Attica, and in the heart of Arcadia. From Greece they crossed over to Southern Italy; where, perhaps, the "golden age of Saturn¹' is a tradition of the peaceful agricultural character which is everywhere attributed to the Pelasgians, in contrast to the piratical habits of the Carians and Leleges. It remains, however, a question whether the Pelasgi were a branch of the Phrygian migration, or a still earlier movement of the Indo-European race from their primeval seats. The latter seems highly probable; but at all events the two races were very nearly akin, and it is hardly practicable to distinguish their migrations.

²⁹ Menecrate?, ap. Strab. xiii. p. G21; Fr. 1, cel. Mfiller. ³⁰ Horn. " II." ii. S40.

³¹ Herod, i. 57. ³² Agnthins, ii. p. 54.

REMAINS OF PHRYGIAN ARCHITECTURE.

§ 14. The whole argument is illustrated by the remains of Phrygian architecture. Vitruvius remarks that the Phrygians hollowed out the natural hills of their country, and formed in them passages and rooms for habitation, so far as the nature of the hills permitted. This statement is fully confirmed by modern travellers, who have found such habitations cut into the rocks in almost all parts of the peninsula. M. Texier describes an immense town thus cut out of the natural rock near JBoghagkieni, between the Halys and the Iris.³³ On some of these mountains are the inscriptions referred to above ; the Phrygian origin of which is attested by sueh proper names as Midas, Ates, Aregastes, and others, though some have unsuccessfully attempted to make out that they are Greek.³⁴ The impression which these stupendous works, and above all the rock-city, make upon the beholder, is that he has before him works executed by human hands at a most remote period; not, as vitruvius intimates, because there was a want of timber, but because the first robust inhabitants thought it safest and most convenient to construct such habitations for themselves. They display a striking resemblance to those structures which in Greece we are in the habit of calling Pelasgian or Cyclopean, whence Texier designates the above-mentioned rock-city by the name of a Pelasgian city. Even the lion gate of Mycenae appears in several places.³⁵ These facts throw a surprising light upon the legend about the migration of the Phrygian Pelops into Argolis, and the so-called tombs of the Phrygians in Peloponnesus.³⁶ Much remains to be done by a more systematic exploration of the monuments of Asia Minor.

§ 15. The religious systems of the two countries also display a manifest connection. Many a mysterious tradition and legend among the Greeks is to be traced to Phrygia, and especially the worship of the " Great Mother of the Gods " —Cybele, Rhea, or Agdistis—and of Sabazius, the Phrygian name of Dionysus.³⁷ These deities were worshipped with orgiastic rites, accompanied by wild music and dances, in

³³ Hamilton, "Researches," vol.ii. pp. 250, 2SS; Texier, "Description de l'Asie mi-ueure," vol. i. p. 210.

³⁴ Texier and Stenart's "Description of some Ancient Monuments, with Inscriptions, still existing in Lydia and Phrygia," Loud. 1S42.

³⁵ Hamilton, "Researches," vol. i. pp. IS, 490; vol. ii. pp. 226 seq.; Leake, "Asia Minor," p. 2S; Ainsworth, " Travels and Researches," vol. ii. p. 58. It must he remembered that the word Pelasgian, as applied to these remains, is as truly arbitrary as the Cgclojis themselves are fabulous. We knoiv pretty well that the oue-eyed monsters did not build them; we do not knoiv that the Pelasgi did build them. As is now generally believed in the parallel case of the remains called Druidical and Celtic, so those called Pelasgian may have been the works of some still earlier builders. But even if so, they indicate the direction in which the successive waves of population rolled. ³⁶ Athenams, xiv. p. 625. ³⁷ Strabo, x. pp. 470, fol).

470

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

w hich the early religion of the Phrygians seems to have been, corrupted by the practices cither of the Turanians or of the Syro-Pluenician tribes. Prom Phrygia these rites were introduced into Greece, especially by the way of Thrace.

§ 16. We have already hinted that the tradition, which ascribes the origin of the Phrygians to Macedonia and Thrace, may preserve the memory of a reflux migration from Europe into Asia. Such a movement seems, in fact, to have been caused by the pressure of the Theaciaxs, descending from the north of the Danube into the country which afterwards bore their name. Of these Thracians we shall have to speak again : for the present, it is enough to say that they appear to have been a rude and warlike branch of that part of the great Aryan migration which had entered Europe by the northern side of the Euxine, and that they were akin to the Teutonic family.

Their displacement of the more civilized inhabitants of the country—Phrygians, or Pelasgians, or both—affords an explanation of the paradoxical fact that the Greeks traced the origin of a large part of their poetic culture to a land whose people, through the whole course of classical history, were regarded as rude warriors and brawling revellers. Thrace was the mythic home of Orpheus; and Pieria—the sacred land of Apollo and the Muses—was within its limits. By these legends, again, Thrace is connected with Phrygia, one of the earliest homes of music ; and Phrygia is the scene of that mythical conflict of Apollo with Marsyas, which symbolizes the preference of the Greeks for the dignified music of the lyre above the wilder orgiastic strains of the flute.

§ 17. The Thracians not only drove back the Phrygians out of Europe (leaving only some detached remnants), but pressed across the Hellespont and Bosporus, and occupied the northern coast of Asia Minor as far as the promontory on which Heraclea Pontica afterwards stood. Thracians form a part of the mixed population of Mysia. The Phrygians, however, held their ground on the Hellespont and in the Troad ; and the whole north-western part of Mysia retained, in historic times, the proper name of" Lesser Phrygia," or "Phrygia on the Hellespont." The country afterwards called Bi-thynia is assigned by Herodotus to the Thracians in their two tribes of the Thyni and Bithyni, with the kindred tribe of the Mariandyni.³⁶ Scattered remnants only of the Phrygians wore left upon this coast—such as the Caucones, in the east of Bithynia. The contests between the ancient Phryg-

3« Herod, i. 28; vii. 75- comp. Strab. vii. p. 427.

THRACIANS AND PAPHLAGONIANS.

471

ians and the Thracians are alluded to in several legends. Thus, King Midas killed himself when the Treves ravaged Asia Minor as far as Paphlagonia and Cilicia ;³⁹ and the Ma-riandyni are described as engaged in a war against the Mysians and Bebryces, in which Mygdon, the king of the latter people, and a Phrygian hero, was slain.⁴⁰ The brief period during which the Phrygians are said to have exercised the supremacy at sea—for twenty-five, or, according to others, for only five years—and which is assigned to the beginning of the 9th century b.c, is probably connected with that age in which the Phrygians were engaged in perpetual wars';⁴¹ and it may have been about the same time that the Phrygians from the Seamander and from Troy migrated to Sicily.⁴²

§ 18. The remaining part of the north coast, for 230 miles from the Parthenius (Chati Su) to the Iris, was occupied in historic times by " the brave shield - bearing Papiilagoxi-axs" of Homer.⁴³ Situated to the west of the Halys, and wearing a dress closely resembling the Phrygian,⁴⁴ they may have been connected politically with that people; but the likeness of their equipments to those of the Matieni and Cappadocians,⁴⁵ and the general characteristics assigned to them by the ancient writers, seem to imply an ethnic affinity with the Cappadocians.⁴⁶ If so, that race, which had already severed the Phrygians from the kindred Armenians, cut them oil" from the remaining portion of the northern coast.

§ 19. Driven into narrower limits also on the south by the pressure of the Semitic tribes across the Taurus, and on the west by the Lydians and the Greek colonists, the Phrygians were restricted to an inland position in the west of the plateau. Their severance from the sea deprived them of the commerce which they seem to have possessed in early times ; and it is remarkable that all " the well-built towns" for which they are celebrated in Homer—Pessinus, Gordium, Celamae, and Apamea—date their origin from the mythic ages. Their peaceful disposition and entire devotion to agriculture made them an easy prey to conquerors; till at length these Franks"

³⁹ Strabo, i. p. 61. See chap, xxiii. § 6.

⁴⁰ Apollod. i. 9, § 23; ii. 5, § 9 ; Apollon. Rood. ii. 752, 7S0, 7S6.

⁴¹ Diod. vii. 13; Synceil. p. 1S1. 42 p_{aug- v#} 05, § 6. ⁴³ " II." v. 577. ⁴⁴ Herod, vii. 73. 45 Herod, vii. 72.

«⁶ When Herodotus (ii. 104) speaks of "the Syrians (i. e., Cappadocians) who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Partheni^ls,^,, he seems to exteud the Cappadocians to the western limits of Paphlagonia. But more probably (from the context) the Parthenius means some other river, near the Thermodon. Elsewhere he always places the Cappadocians east of the Halys, and which he expressly makes the boundary between them and the Paphlagonians (i. 72).

⁴⁷ The name Bryyi or Briges, which we have seen to be equivalent to Phryges, is said by Hesychius to siguify freemen. This is etymologically probable; for, taking the stems, fipuy^ippvy —frey or frei (German); and the resemblance is the closer when

472

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

of the ancient world became a servile by-word, and the names of their mythic kings and heroes—Midas and Manes —were among the commonest appellations of slaves.⁴⁸

§ 20. The Mysians, in the north-western corner of the peninsula, were undoubtedly, as we have already implied, connected with the Phrygians. They are mentioned in the Iliad,⁴⁹ and they seem to be conceived by the poet as dwelling on the Hellespont. Thence they appear to have extended themselves, in the period subsequent to the Trojan war, both westward and southward as far as Pergamum, and to the south-east as far as the region of Catacecmtmene, on the borders'of Lydia and Phrygia. About the time of the migration of the ^Eolians to their shores, the Mysian Teuthras is said to have founded the kingdom which, though soon destroyed by the Greeks, gave the name of Teuthrania to the country about Pergamum. Strabo regards the Mysians as immigrants from Europe into Asia;⁵⁰ and it seems most probable that they were a part of the reflux migration from Thrace and from the region on the Lower Danube, which retained their name under the form of Mcesia.⁵¹ The opinion of Herodotus, that the Mysians were colonists of the Lydi-ans, with whom they served in the army of Xerxes,⁵² seems to have no other foundation than the close alliance of the Mysians, Lydians, and Carians, which those nations proba^ bly formed to strengthen themselves against the Greek colonists.

we remember the thin sound of the Greek v.—<t>pw), with the guttural softened, would be pronounced, in the greater part, of Germany, exactly like/rei.

48 Cic. "pro Flacc." 27 ; Curt. vi. 11; Strab. vii. p. 304.

4» Horn. "II." ii. S5S, x. 430, xiii. 5.

⁵⁰ Strabo, vii. pp. 205, 303 ; xii. pp. 542, 564, etc.

⁵¹ It is still doubtful whether the name originated in Europe or in Asia. If the etymology be correct which derives Moesia from a Celtic word signifying marsh, the Mysians would seem to have brought the name back with them from Europe. Race.s frequently receive new names from geographical circumstances.

⁶² Herod, vii. 74. On the supposed connection of the Mysians, Lydians, and Cari« ans, see farther in chap. xxi. §§ 14,15.

Roek-cnt Lycian tomb.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.—THE SOUTH AND WEST COASTS,

i A. Semitic nations on the sonth coast. § 2. The Cilicians. Signs of an earlier Aryan population. Assyrian conquests in Cilicia. Persian rule. Greek settlements in Cilicia. Cilicia under the Romans. Remains of the old population. § 3. The Solymi in Lycia. Conflict with new settlers. Legend of Bellerophon. Signification of the Chimfera. The Solymi a Semitic people. § 4. The PismiANs akin to the Solymi. § 5. The Isaurians. Their union with the Ciliciaus. Their long independence. § G. The P a m r n y li a >; s. A mixed race. Predominance of the Greek element. Its origin: fables about it. Habits of the Pamphvlians. Extent of Pamphylia at different times. § 7. The Lycians. Recent discoveries. § S. Greek legends of their origin. § 9. Probably a very early Indo-Germanie race. The Lycian inscriptions and language. The Leka of Egyptian records. The Termiloe. § 10. Greek influence on the Lycians. Lycian sculpture and architecture. The monuments in the British Museum. Tomb of Paiafa. Harpy Tomb. "Xanthian trophy." "Inscribed monument." Remains of Lycian cities. Religion of Lycia. § 11. The Lycian confederacy. Character of the Lyciaus. § 12. The Caumaxs—probably a Lycian people. Account of them by Herodotus. A story of Cauuian figs. § 13. The Caeians. Notice of them in the "Iliad." Extent of their country. ? 14. Two accounts of their origin. Their customs and inventions. 5 15. Not originally immigrants from the^islands. Probably the oldest people of Asia Minor. Their connection with the Lei.eges. § 1G. Character of the Carians. Their maritime power. Carian mercenaries. Their federation. Kingdom of Halicarnassus. § 17. Lyiha. Plain of Sardis. TheM.fxrNiAxs. § IS. Expelled-by the Lyoians. Mythical eeuealogies. Lydians and Torrhebians. Poetical use of the name Mseonin. § 19. The Mieonians an Aryan race. Their alleged colonization of Etruria. § 20. Origin and ethnic affinities of the Lydians: generally regarded as a Semitic race. Their manners and character.

Si. The nations mentioned by Herodotus on the south coast, and in the overhanging chain of Taurus, are the Gilt

THE NATIONS OE ASIA MINOR.

vians, Pamphylians, Lycians, and Caunians;^ besides the Solymi and Milyans, who were ancient inhabitants of Lycia. To these must be added the Pisidians and Isaurians, who were famous in later times. The Carians belong both to the southern and the western coast, but are usually reckoned to the latter. Of these, the Cilicians and Solymi, as well as the kindred Pisidians and Isanrians, were peoples of the Semitic race ; who, entering Asia Minor by the pass round the Gulf of Issus, overspread the sea-board beneath the chain of Taurus, and occupied its slopes and heights.

§2. This coast also lay open to invasion-by sea from the shores of Syria; and it is not improbable that the maritime predominance of the Phoenicians was the cause of the decidedly Phoenician character which i§ ascribed to the population of Cilicia. The fact is attested by their own traditions; which, however varied in details, were on this point unanimous.¹ In the navy of Xerxes, they appeared with nearly the same equipment as the Phoenicians : " The crews wore upon their heads the helmet of their country, and carried instead of shields light targes made of rawhide; they were clad in woollen tunics, and were armed each with two javelins, and a sword closely resembling the cutlass of the Egyptians."² The connection is confirmed by a long list of common names and customs,³ and by the Phoenician legends on the coins of Cilicia, Herodotus expresses the Phoenician origin of the Cilicians by the legend, that " the people bore anciently the name of Itypachccans; but took their present title from Cilix, the son of Agenor, a Phoenician."⁴

The idea suggested by the ancient name of the people (which no other author mentions), of a relationship to the AchaBans, might be dismissed as a Greek fancy, were it not for another set of traditions placing Cilicians in the northwest of Asia Minor. Thus, in the " Iliad," Eetion, the father of Andromache, whose chief city was Thebe Hypoplacie, in the Troad, was king of the Cilices, whom, as Strabo observes, Homer places on the borders of the Pelasgi.⁵ Strabo makes the country of these Cilicians comprehend the territories of Adramyttium and neighboring cities, and extend to the month of the Ca'icus. Respecting their connection with the historical Cilicians, Strabo observes : " They say that in the tract between Phaselus in Lycia and Attalia "—that is, not in Cilicia, bnt in the extreme west of Pamphylia, on the bor-

1 Apollod. iii. 1, § 1; 14, § 3.

² Herod, vii. 01: comp. c. 89 for the Phoenician equipment.

s Bochart, " Phaleg," part ii. book i. c. 5. ⁴ Herod, vii. 91.

6 " II." vi. 395, 415; ii. S40; Strabo, p. 221.

THE CILICIANS.

475

ders of Lycia—" there are pointed out a Thebe and Lymes-sus, a part of the Troic Cilices, who were ejected from the plain of Thebe, having gone to Pamphylia, as Callisthenes has said."⁶ There was a tradition that these Troic Cilicians drove the Syrians from the country afterwards called Cilicia; but it was a disputed question which of the two Cilices were the parent stock. If any weight is to be attached to these traditions, they would seem to imply an early occupation of the southern coast by an Aryan (or Scytho-Aryan) race, akin to those of the table-land, who were driven out by the Semitic invaders, but left their name to the country. No Semitic etymology has been found for the name of Cilicia, We have seen that Herodotus extends the Cilicians over the eastern part of the table-land, as far north as the upper course of the Halys ; and he makes the Euphrates the boundary between Cilicia and Armenia.⁷

The great Assyrian kings of the later empire extended their conquests to Cilicia; and the foundation of Tarsus— the capital of the country, and the birthplace of St. Paul— which Greek tradition uniformly ascribed to "Sardanapalus," is more specifically assigned to Sennacherib by Polvhistor and Abydenus.⁸ In the great war of the Median Cyaxares against the Lydian Alyattes, the Cilician king Syennesis appears as an ally of the former, but independent and powerful enough to join with Labynetus, king of Babylon, in mediating a peace. His line continued to reign under the Persian Empire, down to the time of the younger Cyrus (b.c. 401), and probably to the end of the empire.⁹ The country, however, formed one of the satrapies of Darius, and it paid the king a yearly tribute of 360 white horses and 500 talents of silver; of which sum 140 talents were expended on the cavalry duty in Cilicia, and the rest came into the king's treasury.¹⁰ The Cilicians maintained the maritime habits of their Phoenician kinsmen and neighbors, and furnished 100 ships to the fleet of Xerxes for the invasion of Greece.¹¹

There were various traditions of ancient Greek colonies in Cilicia; such as the settlement of Amphilochus, the son of Amphiaraus, at Posidium, on the borders of the Cilicians and the Syrians¹²—a tradition which again points to a gradual displacement of aboriginal Cilicians by Semites advancing from the east; for Posidium was on the promontory just east of Aneinurium, the southernmost headland both of Cilicia and of Asia Minor. The same Amphilochus is said to have gone

⁸ Strabo, p. 667. ⁷ Ilerod. v. 52. « Euseb. " Chrou." pars i. cc. 5, 0.

⁰ Herod, v. IIS; Xeu. "Anab." i. 2, § 26. " Herod, v. 52.

¹¹ Herod, vii. 73. 12 Herod, iii. 91.

470

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

from Troy with Mopsus, the son of Apollo, aud to have founded Mallus, on the more easterly promontory of Megar-sus, near the River Pyramns ; and here the heroes' tombs were shown in the time of Strabo. But, if we look to historical evidence, the Greeks do not appear to have settled in Cilicia before the time of Alexander, except in a few places on the coast. Soli (afterwards Pompeiopolis) is said to have been colonized by Achaians and Rhodians from Lindus. Under the successors of Alexander, the Greek kings of Syria, in whose dominions Cilicia was included, the country was gradually Hellenized, and Tarsus became one of the greatest schools of Greek literature and science. The native Cilicians probably disappeared from the plain-country, or were mingled first with Greeks and other foreigners; but they held the mountains, even to Cicero's time, under the name of Eleuthero-cilices (Free Cilicians). Cicero, who was proconsul of Cilicia, describes them as a fierce and warlike race; and he took their strong town, Pindenissus.¹³ Strabo says that the Amanus, which lies above Cilicia on the east, was always governed by several kings, or chiefs, who had strong places; and in his time a man of mark was set over all oAhem, and styled king by the Romans for his merits: his name was Tarcondimotus, doubtless a free Cilician. In the western division of the country—"the rugged Cilicia" (Cilicia Tracheia, or Aspera), the proximity of the mountains to the sea afforded opportunities for an organized system of slave-dealing. The Cilicians were encouraged to man-stealing by the great demand for slaves among the Romans after the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, and they found a ready sale at Delos for all the slaves they took to that central market. Pirates soon started up pretending to be slave-dealers; and Cilicia became the nest of all the pirates of the Levant, till Pompey rooted them out, and brought Cilicia Tracheia under the dominion of Rome (b.c. 07). °

§ 3. That the Semitic population extended westward along the coast, as far as the peninsula of Lycia, may be inferred from the ancient habitation of that country by the Solymi, who left their name in Mount Solyma. " Milyas," says Herodotus, " was the ancient name of- the country now inhabited by the Lycians : the Milyui of the present day were, in those times, called Solymi."¹⁴ The name of Milyas survived to late times as that of the northern highlands on the borders of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia, to an indefinite extent. Strabo regards both the Milyans and Cabalians—an

" Cic. "ad Att." v. 20. ¹⁴ Herod, i. 1T3-

THE SOLYMI IN LYCIA.

477

other mountain-tribe of Northern Lycia—as Solymi,- and he considers that a people of this name had once held the heights of Taurus from Lycia to Pisidia.¹⁵ The Pisidians are also represented by other writers as being Solymi.¹⁰ It is clear that the Solymi were driven back into'the mountains by the entrance of a new race, whose long and arduous struggles with the old inhabitants are indicated by the conflicts of Bellerophon and other mythical heroes* with the Solymi.¹⁷

The fire-breathing monster Chimasra in these legends is said by some to represent the valor and agility of the mountaineers, while others view it as a personification of the volcano of the same name near Phaselis, in Lycia ;¹⁸ but both the matter of fact and the physical explanations of such crea^ tions are always to be distrusted, and they are to be explained more probably as religious symbols. According to Homer, the Chimera was of divine origin : the fore part of her body was that of a lion, the hinder part that of a dragon, the middle that of a goat¹⁹—a description reminding us of the monsters or demons whom the Assyrian kings are represented on their bas-reliefs as slaying ; while her birth from Typhon and Echidna²⁰ seems to connect her with the wide-spread symbolization of the evil principle in the form of & serpent. That she was no mere creature of the imagination of the Greek poets, but a symbolic form accepted by the nation—like the sphinx and gryphon of Egypt, and the Assyrian bulls, lions, and other such figures—is proved by the frequent occurrence of the type on the Lycian monuments.

AlMhis agrees with the theory that the Solymi were a Semitic people, perhaps of that ancient type which is blended with Hamitic characters. The chief direct testimony to t his effect is that of Choerilus of Samos, the contemporary of Herodotus, who wrote a poem on the Persian War, in which he mentions the Solymi as serving in the army of Xerxes, and says that their language was Phoenician.²¹ * This statement is confirmed by then- habit of shaving the head, with the exception of a tuft²²—a custom ascribed by Herodotus to the Arabians,²³ and mentioned in Scripture as practised by the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites,²⁴ who were all Semitic

¹⁵ Strabo, i. p. 32; xiii. p. 904; xiv. p. 952. « Pliu. v. 27: Steph. Bvz. s. v. n«r«5/_u. ¹⁷ Horn. "Il."vi. 1S4,204; "0d."v.2S3. ¹⁸ Plin. "II. N."ii. 106;'v. 27; Mela i. 15.

¹⁹ Horn. " II." vi. ISO; xvi. 328: comp. Ov. "Metam."ix. G4G.

²⁰ Hesiod. "Theog."319.

²¹ Euseb. "Praep. Evans." ix. 9 ; Joseph, "e. Apion.'M.

²²Tzetzes (Chil. vii. Hist. 149) calls them t_Po_XoKovpd6t<;, "shorn all round their heads." 23 Herod, iii. S. « Jerem. ix. 26.

478

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

peoples—by their special worship of Saturn,²⁵ and by the occurrence of a number of Phoenician names in their country.²⁶ Sir H. Rawlinson derives their name from a Semitic word, signifying the West."¹¹

§ 4. The highlands of Pisidia—forming the part of the upper chain of Taurus between Mount Cadmus, on the borders of Lycia and Phrygia, and the mountains of Cilicia Tracheia—were a principal stronghold of the Solymi, whose descendants may, perhaps, be recognized to the present day in the wild and rapacious Karamanians. But the Solymi . of these mountains were mingled with Phrygian tribes; and the greater part of the country belonged to Phrygia (the rest being included in Pamphylia), till Pisidia was first made a province under Constantine the Great. Their rugged mountains and deep ravines preserved the Pisidians from subjection either by the Persians or the Greek kings of Syria, and enabled them to harass the neighboring countries with predatory inroads. The Romans curbed and nominally conquered thern; but they never established a garrison nor planted a colony in the interior : and even the submission of the towns seems to have consisted mainly in paying tribute to their rulers. Among those towns we must refer, in passing, to the fame of Antioch (distinguished from the capital of Syria by the title of Antiochia Pisidiev) as the scene of St. Paul's first preaching in Asia Minor.^2B Pisidia is remarkable for its chain of large lakes, between the northern slopes of Taurus and the mountains of Phrygia.

§ 5. In the eastern part of Pisidia—more properly regarded as a distinct region, under the name of Isauria—dwelt the kindred race of the Isauri, or Isaurica f/ens, who obtained a famous name in history. More formidable as banditti than even the Pisidians, they also leagued themselves with the Cilician pirates ; and, in spite of the blows inflicted on them by Publius Servilius Isauricus (b.c. 78 seq.), they continued to defy the power of Rome. Even when the Romans attempted to hem them in with a ring of fortresses, the Isaurians constantly broke through the cordon. In the

25 Pint. " De Def. Orac." ii. p. 421, D.

²⁰ Professor Rawlinson, who points out these Semitic characters, gives as examples of Phoenician names in Lycia, "the mountains Solyma, Phoenix, and Massicytus (Heb. Metzuka); the district Cabalia (i. e., mountainous: Heb. Gebal, as in Psalm ixxxiii. 7, Arabic Gebel").—"Essay XI. to Herod." book i. (vol. i. p. 658): "On the Ethnic Affinities of the Nations of Western Asia."

²⁷ The term Shalamu was used by the Assyrians for the West, in allusion to the Sun's retiring to rest—and this may be the origin of the name of the Solymi."—Sir H. Rawlinson, in Rawlinson's "Herod." i. p. 65S. If this view be correct the resem blance of the name to that of Salem or Jerusalem (Solyma, Hicrosolyma) is accounted for; and at all events the resemblance tends to show that the very name of the So-lymi is Semitic- ²⁸ Acts xiii. 14 seq.

THE PAMPHYLIAXS.

479

third century of our era, they had become so powerful as to unite the kindred highlanders of Cilicia with themselves to form the famous Isaurian nation, which not only furnished a pretender to the purple, Trebellianus,²⁹ but a famous emperor of the East, Zeno, the Isaurian (a.d. 474-491). The Isau-rians of Cilicia were especially formidable to the Greek emperors, cutting to pieces whole armies that were sent against them ; but they were at length greatly reduced by Anas-tasius, the successor of Zeno'" (a.d. 491-518), so that, under Justinian (a.d. 527-565), they had ceased to be formidable. In the ■accounts of these wars the Isaurians are described as an ugly race, of low stature—characteristics which suggest a considerable mixture of Turanian blood. They were' imperfectly armed, and formed bad soldiers in the open field, but were irresistible in irregular warfare. Traditions originating in the favorite pursuits of the ancient Isaurians are still current among the present inhabitants of the country, and an interesting specimen is related by Hamilton.³⁰

§ 6. We have thus followed the settlements of the Semitic races of Asia Minor (including probably a strong infusion of the older Hamitic and Turanian inhabitants) along the chain of Taurus, and the southern sea-board, with the exception of the coast round the deep bay bet ween Lycia and Cilicia, which formed the country of Pampiiylia.

This purely Greek name,³¹ which the country already bore as early as the time of Herodotus, indicates the mixture of races which formed its population, and which naturally resulted from the formation of the region. The parallel ranges running down from the chain of Taurus to the coast leave valleys open to invasion from the sea, but adapted to preserve their inhabitants from intermixture with each other. It can not be doubted that the Semites, whom we have found both in Cilicia and Lycia, and iu the connecting mountains, spread also over this coast, where they were mingled with the aboriginal inhabitants.

In historic times, the chief element of the population was considered to be Hellenic. Herodotus says that the Pam-phyhansin the navy of Xerxes were armed exactly like the Greeks.³² Their language is described as a mixture of Greek and some barbarous tongues, so that it could scarcely be recognized as a Greek dialect.³³ Their coins bear witness to an intimate acquaintance with the Greek gymnastic con-

²⁹ One of the " Thirty Tyrants" in the third century. He was defeated and killed by a general of Gallieims. so "Researches," vol. ii. p. 331.

n«_M0u\o(, "a collection of all races," a name equivalent to the " Allemanni " of Germany. 32 Herod, vii. 91. 33 Arrian. " Anab." i. 20

THE NATIONS OE ASIA MINOR.

tests, and with the Greek deities, among whom Zeus, Artemis, and Dionysus are often represented.

The origin of this Hellenic element may be traced, in part at least, to the natural exposure of the country to invasion from the sea ; and in this way kindred elements probably entered the country still earlier from the north-west of Asia Minor, perhaps during the time of the maritime ascendency of the Phrygians. Theopompus says, in general terms, that .Pamphylia was colonized by the Greeks,³⁴ but the more specific traditions refer their first settlements to that great movement of maritime enterprise, which is mythically connected with the adventures of the Greek chiefs on their return from Troy — a mode of confessing their unknown antiquity. Thus Herodotus says that the nation is descended from those who, on the return from Troy, were dispersed with Archilochus and Calchas ; and Pliny repeats a tradition that the country was originally called Mopsopsia, from a leader of one of those bands of Greeks who settled, after the Trojan war, along the coasts of Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Syria.³⁵ The known Greek colonies on the Pamphylian bay were numerous and important, and some of them (as Side and Aspendus) retained their independence under the Persians.

In their manners and social habits the Pamphyiians strongly resembled the Cilicians,³⁶ and they took part with them in their piratical proceedings : their maritime towns were, in fact, the great marts where the spoils of the Cilician pirates were disposed of. Navigation seems to have been their principal occupation, as is evident from the coins of several of their towns. They furnished thirty ships to the armament of Xerxes for the invasion of Greece.³⁷

On the inland side, the limits of the country varied at different times. The Romans reckoned to it all Pisidia, on both sides of Taurus ; so that Polybius even doubts whether to include Pamphylia among the countries within or without Taurus.³⁸ Ultimately the formation of the new province of Pisidia under Constantine confined Pamphylia to a narrow strip along the coast. Its length, from Olbia to Ptolemais, is reckoned by Strabo at 640 stadia, or 64 geographical miles.³⁹

§ 7. Lycia had already acquired its historic name, and the Lycians had overpowered the older Solymi and Milyans, in

³⁴ Frag. Ill

³⁵ Herod, vii. 91; PI in. "H. N." v. 20: comp. Pans. vii. 3, § 4; Strab. xiv. pp. 06^, 921,903—besides other passages in the historians and geographers.

³⁶ Strabo, xii. p. 570; xiv. pp. 0G4,070. ³⁷ Herod, vii. 91.

³⁸ Polyb. xxii. 27. ³⁹ Strabc_: xiv. p. 868.

THE LYCIANS—THEIR ORIGIN.

481

the time of Homer, who seems well acquainted with the country. He knows the River Xanthus and Cape Chirarera; and his chief heroes, on the Trojan side, after Hector and ^Eneas, are the Lycians, Sarpedon and Glaucus, and the archer Pandarus.⁴⁰ The ethnic relations of this people present a curious problem, which has been rendered doubly iiv-teresting through the recent discoveries of Sir Charles Fellows (in 1838 and 1840), and by the remains of Lycian art with which our national collection has been enriched by expeditions sent out under his conduct (iu 1842 and 1846). It must be remembered, however, that the earliest of these sculptures (which are nearly all from the city of Xanthus) belong to a period when Lycia had come very decidedly under Hellenic influence. Their dates range from (probably) the sixth century b.c.—that is, about the time of the Persian conquest — down to the period of the Byzantine Empire. Among them are several inscriptions in the Lycian language, and some bilingual inscriptions in Lycian and Greek.

§ 8. "The Lycians," says Herodotus,⁴¹ "are in good truth anciently from Crete; which island, in former days, was wholly occupied by barbarians. A quarrel arising there between the two sons of Europa, Sarpedon⁴² and Minos, as to which of them should be king, Minos, whose party prevailed, drove Sarpedon and his followers into banishment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and landed on the Milyan territory. Milyas was the ancient name of the country now inhabited by the Lycians : the Milyre of the present day were in those times called Solymi. So long as Sarpedon reigned, his followers kept the name which they brought with them from Crete, and were called Tcrmikc, as the Lycians still are by those who live in their neighborhood. But after Lycus, the son of Pandion, banished from Athens by his brother iEgeus, had found a refuge with Sarpedon in the country of these Termilre, they came, in course of time, to be called, from him, Lycians.™ Their customs are partly Cretan, partly Carian. They have, however, one singular custom, in which they differ from every other nation in the world : they take the mother's and not the father's name. Ask a Lycian who he is, and he answers by giving his own name and that of his mother, and so on in the female line. Moreover, if a free woman marry a man who is a slave, their children are full citizens; but if a free man marry a foreign woman, or

⁴⁰ Horn. " II." v. 16C seq.; vi. 171; x. 430 ; xii. 312, foil.; " Od." v. 2S2, foil. Panda-rns belongs to the Lycians of the Troad; bnt their affinity with the Southern Lycian6 can hardly be donbted. ⁴¹ Herod, i. 173.

⁴² The maternal grandfather, according to the mythic genealogies, of Homer's Sar pedon, who was also a son of Jove. ⁴³ Comp. Herod, vii. 92,

21

482

THE NATIONS OE ASIA MINOR.

live with "a concubine, even though he be the first person in the state, the children forfeit all the rights of citizenship."

Another form of the legend connects Sarpedon with Cilicia as well as Lycia. Having quarrelled with his brother Minos about their common love for Lycus, he takes refuge with Cilix. assists him against the Lycians, and ultimately becomes king of Lycia.⁴⁴ If the myth seems to trace the common origin of the Cretans and the Lycians to Europe, by making Minos and Sarpedon sons of Europa, it must be remembered, on the other hand, that Europa herself was carried over from Asia, and was the daughter of the Phoenician king, Agenor. Here, also, the legend seems again to connect the Lycians with the Asiatic settlers in Cilicia, for Cilix, the hero-eponymus of that country, is a son of Agenor.

On the whole, the legends are far from favoring the theory of any close original connection (we are not now speaking of later influence) between the Lycians and the Greeks. Nor do the remains of Lycian art and language, when properly examined, favor that theory. To a cursory observer of the Lycian remains, indeed, the points of likeness to Grecian art are so striking that he ought to pause and inquire whether his first impressions are correct.⁴⁵ In proportion as we ascend in antiquity, the likeness becomes less and less; and the earliest sculptures are considered by good judges to be more like the Persepolitan than the Athenian.⁴⁶ Of course the resemblance in the alphabets merely proves their com-, mon derivation from che Phoenician letters; but the peculiarity of some of the Lycian characters sufficiently distinguishes their alphabet from the Greek. The Lycian inscriptions have now been so far deciphered as to enable us to refer their language to the Aryan family, but of a type nearer to the Zend than to the Thraco-Pelasgian or Hellenic—and, moreover, so ancient as to stand to Zend rather in the relation of a sister than a daughter.⁴.⁷

§ 9. All this points to the conclusion that the Lycians be-

⁴⁴ Apollod. iii. 1, £ 2: comp. Pans. vii. 3, § 4 : Strabo, xii. p. 573.

⁴⁶ This is not the place to discuss whether the characters which make this resemblance were derived by the one nation directly from the other (and by which from which), or by both from a common source. The same remark applies to those subjects of the sculptures which appear also iu the Greek mythology, such as Pandarus and his daughters, and the Harpies. ⁴⁶ See Fellows's "Lycia."p. 173.

47 "Professor Lassen, of Bonn, has recently published accounts of these iuscrip lions ('Ueber die Lykischen Inschriften,' aud 'Die alten Sprachen Kleiuasicns," in the 'Zeitschrift v. Morgenland'), in which he has proved more scientifically than former writers the Indo-European character of the language. This, however, had long been sufficiently apparent from the labors of Sir C. Fellows aud Mr. Daniel Sharpe. Bilingual inscriptions, in Greek and Lycian, upon tombs reudeietl the work of decipherment comparatively easy." (Rawlinson, " Essay XI. to Herodotus," Book i. : to which are appended several specimens of the inscriptions.)

LYCIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND LANGUAGE.

483

longed to one ot* the earliest western migrations of the Iranian branch of the Japhetic race—a migration which extended far and wide over Asia Minor, the Archipelago, and Greece; and the remains of which, when overpowered by other waves, set in motion from the east, would naturally find refuge in such remote and rugged regions as the peninsula of Lycia and the island of Crete. Egyptologers suppose that they find memorials of the wide extension and maritime power of this people in the mention of the Leka^ who appear, in the reigns of Menephtha and Rameses III., among the most formidable enemies of Egypt " coming from the isles and the coasts of the Northern sea." But the very likeness of the name raises a difficulty; for the statement of Herodotus about the hero-epoin mus Lycus (however worthless as an historic fact) seems to imply that the name Lycians was of late origin, and rather the Greek than the native appellation. Of course, Herodotus might easily be mistaken about the antiquity of the name; but the name of Tevmiia, by which he says that the Lycians were known to their neighbors, appears in the inscriptions as their only name.⁴⁸ Lycia and Lycians appear in the Greek portion of the inscriptions,⁴'but there is no similar name in the Lycian, One explanation is that Lycian was a widely-extended generic term, which ultimately got fixed on the people whose own more proper name, or that of their principal tribe, was Tremiloi™

§ 10. The great influence exerted upon the Lycians by the Greeks from a very early time is proved by their inscriptions, their works of art, and their religion; and Herodotus tells us that the Lycians gave kings to the neighboring Greek colonies (i. 147). The mere fact that many"of their inscriptions are engraved in Greek as well as Lycian, shows

⁴⁶ The form on the Lycian inscriptions is ipxmeaa, Tramele, like ti-c TpefxiXat of Hecalams. Fr. 364, and the T^tXeli of Stephanus Byzantinus. " YrainciC' is a name of frequent occurrence, aud even lingers in the country at the present day. There is a village called Tremili iu the mountains at the extreme north of aucient Lycia, not far from the lake of Ghieul Hissar. (See ' Geograph. Journal,' vol. xii. p. 156; Spratt aud Forbes's 'Lycia,' vol. i. p. 260.) Sir Charles Fellows thinks that the Lycians, whose real ethnic title is unknown to us, were divided into three tribes—the Tra-melce, the Trots, and the Teklcefw, whom he identifies with the Carmians of Herodotus. The Tram-elm were the most important tribe, occupying all southern Lycia from the gulf of Adalia to the valley of the Xanthus. Above them, on the east, were the districts called Milyas and Cibyratis, inhabited by tribes not Lycian; while the upper part of the valley ^f the Xanthus, aud the mountain tract to the westward, as far as the range which bounds on the east the valley of the Calbis, was inhabited by the Tro'es; and the region west of that, to the borders of Caria, by the Tekkefa> (see the 'Essay on the Coins of Lycia,' London, 1855)."—Rawlinson, "Note to Ilerod. 1.173," vol. i. p. 309.

^4U The Greek spelling of the inscriptions Is a'.kia, aifciol

⁶⁰ Some writers, who adopt this view, liud in the Leka of the Egyptian inscriptions not only the Lycians, but also the Leleges, and even the Laconians.

484

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

that the former language had become so familiar to the people, as to make it desirable, or even necessary, to employ it along with the vernacular in public decrees and laws about and after the time of the Persian wars. The influence of Greek literature is also attested by the theatres which existed in almost every town, and in which Greek plays must have been performed, and have been understood and admired by the people.

In the arts of sculpture and architecture the Lycians attained a degree of perfection but little inferior to the Greeks. Their temples and tombs abound in the finest sculptures, representing mythological subjects and the events of their military history. Among the former class, we find the local legends of the rape of the daughters of Pandarus by the Harpies, and the fight of Bellerophon with the Chimaera, side by side with subjects from the Greek mythology; among the latter class, the capture of Xanthus by Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, and other monuments in his honor and that of succeeding satraps, show the use made of the native artists by their Persian conquerors.⁵¹

Their architecture, especially that of their tombs and sarcophagi, has quite a peculiar character, enabling travellers to distinguish whether any particular monument is Lycian or Greek. The sarcophagi are surmounted by a roof in the form of a pointed arch, surmounted with a ridge, and richly decorated with sculptures—as may be seen in the complete specimen set up in the British Museum. It is the tomb of a satrap of Lydia named Paiafa, whom the bas-reliefs on the lower part represent as sitting amidst other figures of men and gods, and warriors engaged in combat, with inscriptions. The roof bears the name of its artist, Itimse: on each of its sides is an armed figure, perhaps Glaucus or Sarpedon, in a four-horsed chariot; and along the ridge a combat of warriors on horseback, with a Lycian inscription. The pointed eireh, which gives the roof of this structure its characteristic form, appeal's also over the entrances of numerous tombs cut in the faces of lofty rocks throughout, the country.

Another interesting monument is the "Harpy Tomb," which stood on the Acropolis of Xanthus, and the style of which indicates a date probably not later than b.c. 500. It is a rectangular solid shaft, about 17 feet high, surmounted by a small chamber, the door of which is visible on the west side of the monument.⁵²

⁵¹ Concerning the desperate defense and capture of Xanthus, see the "Student's Greece," chap. xv. § 10. There seems reason to infer from the monuments that the satrapy of Lycia was for some time hereditary in the family of Harpagus.

⁵² The sculptures from this and the edifice next noticed, in the British Museum, are accompanied by models, showing their original position upon the structure.

^cc INSCRIBED MONUMENT."

485

The finest of all—bnt bearing very decided marks of Greek influence—is an Ionic peristyle building, with fourteen columns running round a solid cella, and statues in the interco-lumniations, the whole elevated on a base, which stands upon two steps. The sculptures in our Museum—representing scenes of battle, siege, hunting, sacrifice, and feasting—belong to various friezes, which encircled the building and its base: among them we see Greek warriors in conflict with Asiatics. The building is supposed by some to have been a trophy in memory of the conquest of Lycia by the Persians under Harpagus (b.c 545), though it was probably not erected till some time in the following century. Another conjecture is that the bas-reliefs represent the suppression by the Persian satrap of Lycia of the revolt of the Cilicians in b.c. 387.

Still more important, for its bearing on the Lycian language, is the "Inscribed Monument" — a square stela, covered with an inscription in the Lycian language, in which there is mention of the son of Harpagus, and of several Lycian towns and states. On the north side is a Greek inscription, commencing with a line of the poet Simonides, who flourished in b.c. 556, and recording the exploits of the son of Harpagus, in whose honor the monument was erected in the Market-place of the Twelve Gods."

These monuments are all from Xanthus, the chief city oi Lycia: an inspection of the remains of other towns, as figured in the works of Sir Charles Fellows, Forbes and Spratt, and Texier, shows that in all the arts of civilized life the Lycians, though always accounted barbarians in the Hellenic sense, were little inferior to the Greeks themselves. The Greek influence on their religion has been traced in their worship of Apollo, especially at Patara; but though the legend of Patarus raises a presumption that this was the Greek deity, the point is not certain.

§ 11. The "Iliad" exhibits the Lycians as a leading member of that great confederacy of the Aryan states of Asia Minor which contended with the Greeks in the war of Troy; and the branch of the nation of which Pandarus was prince is represented as settled on the KiveryEsepus, in the Troad.⁵⁴ They do not appear again in history till Herodotus mentions them as exempt, with the Cilicians, from subjugation by Croesus. The exterminating character of their conquest by Cyrus must have left the more room for that Greek influence which begins thenceforth to be conspicuous. But they still retained their own peculiar constitution, which is often held

ⁱ³ Our Museum contains a cast of this monument. ⁶* Horn., " II." ii. 824 seq.; iv. 91; v. 105.

480

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

up as one of the wisest in all antiquity. Lycia was a confederacy of free cities ; and the political unity among its towns seems to have been the source of that strength which enabled it to resist Croesus, and which earned a large amount of freedom under its subsequent masters.

In consequence mainly of their strong federal government, the Lycians were a peaceable and well-conducted people, who took no part in the piracy of their maritime neighbors, but remained faithful to their ancient institutions; and on this account they were allowed by the Romans the enjoyment of their free constitution. Strabo, who saw its working under the supremacy of Rome, describes the confederacy as consisting of 23 towns, whose deputies met at a place fixed upon each time by common consent. The six largest towns— Xanthus, Patara, Pinara, Olympus, Myra, and Tlos — had each three votes in the Diet. the towns of more moderate size had two, and the remaining small places one vote each. The executive of the confederacy was m the hands of a magistrate called. Lysiarch, whose election was the first business of the congress, and after whom the other officers of the confederacy were chosen. The judges also, as well as the magistrates, were elected from each city, according to the number of its votes. taxation and other public duties were regulated on the same principle. In former times, the deputies constituting the congress had also decided upon peace, war, and alliances; but this, of course, ceased when Lycia acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. This happy constitution lasted till the time of the Emperor Claudius, when Lycia became a Roman province.

The maritime habits of the Lycians are attested by their serving with 50 ships in the navy of Xerxes, when (Herodotus tells us) " their crews wore greaves and breastplates, while for arms they had bows of cornel-wood, reed-arrows without feathers, and javelins. Their outer garment was the skin of a goat, which hung from their shoulders—their head' dress a hat encircled with plumes; and, besides their other weapons, they carried daggers and falchions."⁵⁵

§ 12. The Cauniaxs, whom Herodotus alone mentions as a distinct people,⁵⁰ are now regarded as Lycians, on the evidence of their coins and architecture. They resisted Harpagus precisely in the same manner as the Lycians, and Caunus had precisely the fate of Xanthus. They inhabited a small territory to the west of Lycia, between the Gulf of Glaucus

^c5 Herod, vii. 92. Iu c. 77 he speaks of " Lycian bows " as carried by the Milyans. ⁵⁶ Thucydides, however, speaks of the expedition of Pericles "towards Caria aud Caunus." as if he did not consider Caunus to be included in Caria Proper {i. 11G).

THE CAUNIANS.—THE CARIANS.

48?

and Port Panormus, on the coast of Caria ;⁵¹ their city, Caunus, has been identified by an inscription, with some extensive ruins, including walls of Cyclopean masonry, on tin right bank of a small stream (now called Koi-gez), which carries off the water of a large lake about 10 miles inland.⁵⁶

Herodotus gives the following account of the people: "The Caunians, in my judgment, are aboriginals, but by their own account they came from Crete. In their language either they have approximated to the Carians, or the Carians to them ; on this point I can not speak with certainty. In their customs, however, they differ greatly from the Carians, and not only so, but from all other men. They think it a most honorable practice for friends, or persons of the same age, whether they be men, women, or children, to meet together in large companies, for the purpose of drinking wine. Again, on one occasion they determined that they would no longer make use of the foreign temples, which had long been established among them, but would worship their own old ancestral gods alone. Then their whole youth took arms, and, striking the air with their spears, marched to the Ca-lyndic frontier," declaring that they were driving out the foreign gods."⁰⁰ Caunus possessed an excellent defensible harbor and dock-yards/'¹ Under the Romans it was a place of considerable trade, and was famous for its dried figs,^si which have acquired lasting celebrity through an incident related by Cicero.⁶³ When Crassus was embarking his army at Brundisium, to assume that proconsulate of Syria which ended in his Parthian disaster, a seller of dried figs imported from Caunus kept crying on the quay " Cauneas /" (sc. ,foits)" which was interpreted, after the event, as Cave ne eas, " Beware of going!"

§13. The south-western corner of Asia Minor was occupied by the Carians, one of the oldest and most important nations of the peninsula. In the time of Homer, who gives them the epithet of " strange-speaking,"⁶⁵ they dwelt be-

⁵⁷ Scylax, "Periplns,"p. 92 Strabo, xiv. p. 932. ^5S " Geog. Journal," vol. xii. p. 15S.

⁵⁹ That is, to the city of Calynda, on the borders of Lycia and Caria.

⁶⁰ Herod, i. 172. ⁸¹ Thncyd. viii. 39 _; Strabo, p. G51. ⁶² Strabo mentions the abundance of fruit about Caunus as one reason for the place

being unhealthy in summer and antumn—a very likely result if the people ate too much of the fruit. The truer cause was marsh-malaria. ⁶³ " De Div." ii. 40, S4.

⁶* Just as our oramre-sellers cry St. Michael's, or as (thanks to the excellent street government of London), one of the various distracting noises, amidst which these lines are written, is "Yarmouth! fine Yarmouth .'" The interest of the story lies in the evidence it affords of the contraction of short syllables in pronunciation, Cave=z Cau—ti principle which helped Dr. Bentley and. Mr. Key to make out the metres of Plautus and Terence.

⁶⁵ " II." ii. S67-9. The epithet pa_P/3apo<pwvwv is understood by Strabo as implying that the Carians were so nearly related to the Greeks as to attempt to use the Greek

488

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

tween the Lycians and Maaonians (the old inhabitants of Lydia), and extended along the western coast as far north as "Miletus and Mount Ptheira (a spur of Latmus), and the streams of Mseander, and the lofty summits of Myeale." Thus it appears that they possessed the valley of the Maeander.⁶⁶ On the north-east, the range of Cadmus formed a natural division of Caria fro.m the table-land of Phrygia. The eastern boundary is chiefly the range westward of the River Indus; but on the coast Strabo carries it to the eastern side of the Gulf of Glaucus. The country is formed by mountain-ranges running far into the sea, which penetrates far into the intervening valleys, as in the firths of Scotland ; the deepest being the Ceramic Gulf, with the long and narrow peninsula of Cnidus on the south. Hence the country, which might be included in a rectangle about 110 miles long by 90 wide, has on its two maritime sides a coast-line estimated by Strabo at 4900 stadia, or 490 geographical miles.

§ 14. Herodotus gives an interesting account of the Carians, which has the higher value from the fact that he was a native of the country: " The Carians are a race who came into the main-land from the islands. In ancient times they were the subjects of King Minos, and went by the name of Lelegeb, dwelling among the isles, and, so far as I have been able to push my inquiries, never liable to give tribute to any man. They served on board the ships of King Minos whenever he required ; and thus, as he was a great conqueror, and prospered in his wars, the Carians were in his day the most famous by far of all the nations of the earth. They likewise were the inventors of three things, the use of which was borrowed from them by the Greeks: they were the first to fasten crests on helmets and to put devices on shields, and

they also invented handles for shields..... Long after

the time of Minos, the Carians were driven from the islands by the Ionians and Dorians, and so settled upon the mainland.

" The above is the account which the Cretans give of the

language, their imperfect command of which was more offensive to a Greek ear than an absolutely foreign tongue. Though this interpretation is admitted by Lassen ("Ueber die Sprache Kleinasieus," p. 3S1)—who, however, maintains the Semitic character of the Carians—it is a forced construction of the epithet, which properly applies to those who spoke a language unintelligible to Greeks; and it was probably suggested by that later adoption of the Greek language, which was the natural result of the Dorian colonization of Caria. In historic times, we are expressly told, by a Carian historian, that the language of the Carians was mixed with a very great number of Greek words.—Philip of Theangela Fr. 2, in Midler's "Frag. Hist. Gnec." vol. iv. p. 4T5.

⁶⁶ In historic times, also, the proper boundary of Caria was Mount Messogis, the northern margin of the valley of the Mseander, though some maps place the boundary at the river itself.

THE CARIANS.

489

Carians: the Carians themselves say very differently. They maintain that they are the aboriginal inhabitants of the part of the main-land in which they now dwell, and never had any other name than that which they still bear. And in proof of this they show an ancient temple of Carian Jove in the country of the Mylasians,⁶⁷ in which the Mysians and Lydians have the right of worshipping, as brother races to the Carians; for Lydus and Mysus, they say, were brothers of Car. These nations, therefore, have the aforesaid right; but such as are of a different race, even though they have come to use the Carian tongue, are excluded from the temple."⁶⁸ This would seem especially to apply to the Caunians, for he adds, as we have seen, that the Carians and the Caunians spoke the same language."⁸

Strabo follows what Herodotus calls the Cretan account, that the Carians were driven from the islands to the mainland by the Ionians and Dorians ; and he specifies the people whom they displaced as Leleges and Pelasgi ;⁷⁰ in fact, every writer but Herodotus distinguishes the Leleges from the Carians. The account of Thucydides differs in the details. He says that the early inhabitants of the ^Egean were pirates, and that they were Phoenicians and Carians; and that Minos expelled the Carians from the Cyclades.⁷¹ In proof of their habitation of that group, he mentions that when the Athenians purified Delos (during the Peloponne-sian war), above one-half of the dead bodies that were removed appeared to be Carians, who were recognized by their arms, which were buried with them, and by the manner of their interment, which was the same that they used in his time.⁷²

§ 15. Of the two accounts of the origin of the Carians, there can be little doubt that their own should be preferred. That they had an affinity with the people of the islands which continue their mountain-system—the Cyclades to the west, and Rhodes, Carpathus, and Crete to the south-west—can hardly be questioned. The Cretans would naturally regard themselves as the parent-stock ; and, as in the parallel case of the Phrygians, there may have been a backward wave of Carian migration from the islands to the continent, caused by the great colonizing movement of the Greeks. But their presence on the main-land dates from a period before that

⁶⁷ Mylasa (Melasso) was an inland town of Caria, abont 20 miles from the sea, and the capital of Ihe later Carian kingdom (n.c. 3S5-334). ⁶⁸ Ilerod. i. 171.

⁶⁹ Ibid. c. 172. In Book v. c. SS, Herodotus observes, incidentally, that the so-called Ionian female dross, consisting of a linen tunic which did not require fastening by brooches, was originally Carian.

™ Strabo, p. 6C1. ⁷¹ Thuc. i. 4. ⁷² Thnc. V. 3.

21*

490

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

which the Greek traditions assign to the Ionian and Dorian colonies.

The Homeric "catalogue of the ships" is too much adapted to later geographical ideas to furnish any decisive argument ; but in another passage, Homer mentions the Carians in close connection with the Paeonians, Leleges, Caucones, aud Pelasgi—races which have this in common, that they were all among the earliest reputed inhabitants both of Asia Minor and the Grecian peninsula.⁷³ Besides, to derive the Carians originally from Europe is to invert the general course of early migration, to which we have no ground for supposing that they formed an exception. On the contrary, their position, in one of those corners of countries into which primitive races are so often driven,⁷⁴ argues them the remnant of a very ancient population of the southern coast, forced into this position by the Semitic Cilicians advancing along the shore, and by the Aryan Lycians descending from the table-• land, or entering by the sea. When thus pent up in the extreme corner of the peninsula, the Carians would naturally pass over into the islands; and, being a numerous people, they would overspread them far and wide. Some regard them as the last remnant of the old Hamitic population of the whole peninsula; but there is not sufficient evidence to decide this point. The mythic genealogy, which made Car, Lydus, and Mysus brothers, is doubtless a Greek invention ; and the close connection with the Lydians and Mysians, which Herodotus regards as a proof of affinity, was probably an alliance against the common danger from the Greek settlers. It is important to observe that, besides the common temple of the three nations at Mylasa, the Carians had a special temple for the assembly of their own people.

As to their connection with the Leleges, Herodotus seems to be clearly mistaken in making this an older name of the Carians. The two nations are distinguished by all other writers, and the Leleges are closely connected with the Pelasgians: the two seem to have been sister races, which, at a very early period, overspread the western coast of Asia Minor, the islands of the Archipelago, and Greece. But, though the Leleges are thus connected by affinity with the Pelasgians, their abodes in Asia Minor are constantly

⁷³ Horn. "11." x. 42S, 9. The passage is the /ess n'kely to be corrupt, as the settlements of these peoples in historic times were widely apart. An interpolater would aave had more regard for geographical symmetry. It hardly needs proof that the Carians meant are those of the continent. The Greeks are represented as masters of the ^Egean, and the Cretans in particular are their allies.

⁷⁴ Like the Celts in Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Algarvo, the Cimmerians in the Crimen, cic.

THE CARIANS AND LELEGES.

401

near those of the Carians. Strabo says that the Leleges and Carians once occupied the whole of Ionia, and that in the Milesian territory, and in all Caria, tombs of the Leleges, and forts and vestiges of buildings, were shown. He adds that the two were so intermingled as to be frequently regarded as one people.⁷⁵ He even makes the original inhabitants of Ephesus to have been Carians and Leleges; and the Leleges were believed to have been the earliest-known inhabitants of Samos." In Greece the two peoples Avere connected by the tradition that, in the twelfth generation after Car, Lelex came over from Egypt to Megara, and gave his name to the people.⁷⁷

The Lacedaemonian traditions made Lelex the first native king of Laeonia, the aborigines of which were called, after him, Leleges, and the land Lelegia.⁷⁸ Other traditions made the Leleges the aborigines of Messenia and Elis. In Northern Greece, Lelex is represented as the first autochthon of Acarnania and the Ionian Islands; and the Locrians, Pho-cians, Boeotians, and other tribes, are sometimes described as Leleges—because the Leleges were the people who sprang from the stones with which Deucalion repeopled the earth after the deluge.⁷" In short, the Leleges are found from the western shores of Greece to Lycia; but Caria seems to have been the last region in which they held their ground as a distinct people. Here they were represented by one writer as serfs to the Carians—just as the Helots were to the Lacedaemonians, and the Penestae to the Thessalians.⁸⁰ Among the theories framed to explain these statements, special attention seems due to that which holds that the Leleges were a part of that very early Japhetic migration before which the Hamite Carians had to yield, while both peoples again were driven forward by the advance of the Phrygians in the upper, and the Cilicians in the lower, part of the peninsula: that the Leleges, like the kindred Pelasgians, adopting peaceful agricultural habits, were overcome by more powerful tribes (such as the Phrygians, Mysians, and Lydians), except in the remote south-western corner of the peninsula; till the Carians, driven back from the islands by the pressure of the Greeks, fixed their final abode in the part of the country which thenceforth bore their name, and reduced to subjection the Leleges who remained in it.⁸¹

§ 16. The Carians are always represented as a warlike

⁷⁶ Strabo, vii. p. 321; xiii. p. Oil. ⁷⁶ Athenseus, xv. p. 672.

⁷⁷ Paus. i. 39, § 6. This tradition, whatever may be its value, makes the Carians a much more ancient people than the Leleges. ^7S Paus. iii. 1,§1; iv. 1, §§ 1,5.

^7a Strabo, vii. pp. 321, 322: comp. Dion. Hal. i. 17. ^f'^J At hen. vi. p. 271.

Strabo, I. c.; Philip of Theangela, Fr. 1.

492

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

race. The legend of their service in the fleet of Minos seems to point to their maritime supremacy during the time when they formed the chief population of the islands. When afterwards they were driven back upon Caria, and even that narrow region was invaded by the Dorian settlers, they took to the trade of mercenary soldiers. A scholiast on Plato says that they were the first to adopt this profession, for which their name is used as a by-word by the poet Archilochus.⁸² In this capacity they served in Egypt under Psammetichus, and they fought desperately for Psam-menitus in the decisive battle with Cambyses." Another practice, to which the Carians appear to have resorted in consequence of their confined territory, was the sale of their children to slave-merchants, whence the name of Carian is sometimes used synonymously with slave.

When the whole western coast of Caria was taken possession of by the Ionians to the north of the Maeander, and by the Dorians to the south of that river, the Carians became subject, as we have seen, in a large degree to Greek influence ; but they preserved their own language—though with a large admixture of Greek words—and their own political institutions. They lived in small towns and villages, and were united in a kind of federation. Their place of meeting was a spot in the interior, where the Macedonians, after the time of Alexander, founded the colony of Stratonieea. They met, for sacrifice and deliberation on their common interests, at the temple of Zeus Chrysaoreus ("Jove with the golden sword"), whence the federation was called Chrysaoreum. This confederation, which may probably have been formed after the Carians were driven into the interior by the Ionians and Dorians, still existed after the Macedonian conquest. The extent to which their power survived the Greek colonization, as well as the continuance of their maritime habits, is indicated by the fact that the Carians furnished seventy ships to the navy of Xerxes, while all the Dorians of Asia furnished but thirty.⁸⁴ It is reasonable to assume that the Hellenizing of the Carians added vigor to, the nationality which they ])reserved.

Meanwhile, however, one of the Greek cities of Caria had become the seat of a famous monarchy, which afterwards extended its power over the eonntiy. The Argive colony of Halicarnassus (Buclrum), having been excluded from the con-

⁸² Some find an allusion to the practice as early as Homer's time, in the phrase ei/ Kap6f aian (" II." ix. 3TS); while others even see Carian mercenaries in the Cher-ethites and Pelethites who formed David's body-guard at Jerusalem.

»³ Herod, ii. 152,154; Vii. 11: sec chap. xxvi. § 6. Ilerod. vii. 93.

TIIK KINGDOM of CARIA.

federacy of the six Dorian cities, stood alone when both the Carians and Greeks submitted to Harpagus, the general of Cyrus. A certain Lygdamis seized the opportunity to obtain kingly power in Haliearnassus, and Artemisia, his daughter by a Cretan mother, gave the kingdom strength and lustre by qualities which put to shame the men who followed Xerxes to Greece. Her wisdom in council and bravery in battle are dwelt upon by Herodotus with a manifest fervor of patriotism, which does him the more honor when we remember that he joined in expelling from his native city her grandson, the tyrant Lygdamis. The successive kings continued to be most faithful vassals to Persia, which thus possessed in Haliearnassus its best stronghold on the coast of Asia Minor. The kingdom reached its height under Mauso his and his sister-wife Artemisia, who built for her husband's remains the celebrated Mausoleum (b.c. 377-350). The details of this kingdom belong to the history of Greece.

§ 17. We have now gone through the list of the chief nations of Asia Minor (exclusive of the Greek colonies), with the exception of the Lydians. This people are historically the most important, and ethnically one of the most difficult, of the whole. They were not the first-known inhabitants of the country which bore their name.

The great plain at the northern foot of Mount Tmolns, in the very centre of the western maritime region—watered by the Hermus and its southern tributary, Pactolus with the golden sands, on the right bank of which stood the famous capital of Sardis⁸⁵—was formerly possessed by the M^eoni-ans, whose name was preserved to after-times by the city of Maeonia, now^r Megne, among the hills east of the valley.⁸⁶ They are mentioned by Homer with local circumstances

⁸⁵ The student should remember that the last syllable of this word is long, and should form the habit of pronouncing it so. The name Zupdi? is an Ionic plural contracted from 2«p5ic? (in common Greek Zupdeis, in Latin Sardes). The little village of Sart still preserves the old name among its extensive ruins, which consist of the remains of a stadium, a theatre, and the triple walls of the acropolis, with lofty towers. It was destroyed by Tamerlane in the 13th century. As to the origin of the city, Strabo remarks that, it was very ancient, but later than the Trojan war (Strabo, xiii. p. 625); but its acropolis was supposed to be mentioned by Homer under the name of Hyde, "beneath the snowy Tmolus" (Horn. " Iliad," xx. 3S5; Strabo, i.e. p. G26; Piin. v. 20; Eustath. ad .Dion. Perieg. S30). Sardis is first named by ^Eschylus ("Pers."45).

⁶⁶ Pliu. v. 29, s. 30; Hierocl. p. 670; Notit. Episc.; and coins: Hamilton's "Researches," vol. ii. p. 139. The original Maeonia and Lydia must be carefully distinguished from the district called Lydia under the Romans (and so marked on our maps), which extended westward to the sea, so as to embrace all Ionia, and eastward to the River Lycus, including part of the Phrygian table-land. On the north it was separated from Mysia by Mount Temnus, on the south from Caria by Mount Messo-gis, thus embracing the valley of the Cayster. Strabo carries the southern boundary as low as the course of the Mseander (xii. p. 577), and oi.her writers make the Carian cities of Trades, Nysia, and Magnesia on the Ma>ander, Lydian.

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

which are unmistakable. The Mreonians, whose native land is at the foot of Tmolus, are led to the war by two brothers born of the Gygaan lake.⁸⁷ This name points to Gyges, the founder of the later Lydian dynasty ; and the lake—which Homer elsewhere mentions in connection with the Hermus and its tributary the Hyllus⁸⁸—is always identified with that afterwards called Coloe' (now Mermere, on the northern side of the HermiL_v, near which was the Necropolis of Sardis, and the tomb of Alyattes.⁸⁹ In the Trojan camp the Mreonians are placed near the Lycians and Mysians and Phrygians; and the epithets describing the common mode of warfare, of

"The Phrygians fighting on horseback and IVLeuns with horses equipp'd,"

seem to give a mark of affinity.⁹⁰ While thus speaking of the Mreonians Homer nowhere mentions the Lydians.

§ 18. Herodotus observes that "this whole people,formerly called Maonian, was called Lydian from Lydus, the son of Atys ;"⁹¹ as if the Lydians were the same people as the Mreonians. But such a change of name is the sure sign of the coming in of another race; and Strabo is more correct in supposing the Mreonians to have been subdued or expelled by the Lydians.⁰² When once the name of Lydian had been established, it was applied indiscriminately to the whole nation, before as well as after the conquest; and hence it happens that later writers use the name Lydian even when speaking of a time when there were no Lydians in the country, but only Mreonians.

The co-existence of the two races in the country, after the conquest, seems to be indicated by the mythical genealogy preserved by the native historian, Xanthus of Sardis, one of the most important Greek writers of history before Herodotus.⁰³ He says that Atys had two sons, Lydus and Torriie-bus, who, having divided their father's kingdom, remained both in Asia. Their names, Xanthus says, were given to the

^8r Horn. •' II." ii. S64-C; comp. v. 43. 88 Horn. " II." xx. 391-2.

^K3 Ilerod. i. 93; Strab. xiii. p. 026; Plin.'v. 30.

⁰⁰ Horn. '• II." x. 431: Kcu (fcpi'^e? 'imr6iJ.axot'-Kai ftltjoves 'nriroKopvcnai. It would be unnecessary to remark that the »/' used by Homer and Herodotus is merely the Ionic form of the diphthong _Uc, were'it not'that the name is "sometimes barbarously spelt Meonians.

⁹¹ Herod, i. 7.—Elsewhere, as we have seen, he makes Lydus, Mysus, and Car brothers. The genealogical position of Atys will be seen more clearly when we come to the Lydian History. See chap. xxii. § 6.

⁹² Strabo, xii. p. 572 ; xiv. p. 079.

⁹³ Dionysius of Haliearnassus, in introducing the very quotation now referred to, describes Xanthus as "skilled iu ancient history, if any other ever was so." (Dion, i. 2S.) Unfortunately, we possess only a few fragments of his "Lydian History" {Lydiaca). The fables in which Xanthus indulges detract somewhat from the high authority assigned to him. On this genealogy see further in chap. xxii. § 0.

LYDIA—MREONIANS.

495

nations they ruled: "From Lydus are descended the Lydians, but from Torrhebus the "Torrhebians: their language differs but little from one another, and to the present day they still take from one another not a few words, just like the Ionians and Dorians."⁹⁴

Now, when we find Lydia divided, from a very ancient time, into Lydia Proper, in the western plain, and Torrhebia, in the eastern hills; and when Ave also find the Maeonians maintaining their ground in the latter quarter, on the upper Hermus, and giving their name to the district and city of Maeonia;⁹⁵ it is natural to connect the Torrhebians of Xanthus with the Maeonians of other writers. The Latin poets were'glad to preserve the euphonious name of Mceon ia, and the epithet of Maionius, which they apply not only to Lydia but to Ionia; and hence that well-known name of Homer, which has been consecrated in Milton's pathetic recollection of—

"Those other two equalled with me in fate, So I were equalled with them in renown, Blind Thamyris, and blind Mceonides."'^J6

§ 19. The Maeonians unquestionably belonged to the Indo-European family of nations. Either they were of that Pelasgian stock which is said to have once inhabited the whole coast of Ionia and of ^Eolis,⁹⁷ or they were the first Aryan conquerors of the Pelasgians. The latter view seems probable, from Homer's description of them as warriors fighting on horseback, as well as from their being strong enough to maintain themselves in the upper country after their conquest by the Lydians. Naturally, however, a portion of the conquered race would be pushed out of the country; and there was a well-known tradition, that Tyrrhenia (that is, Etruria) was colonized from Lydia.⁹⁸

As Herodotus tells the tale, there was a great famine in all Lydia in the days of Atys, the son of Manes, who had two sons, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus (or, in other dialects, Tyr-senus). For eighteen years the people bore it patiently, by

⁹⁴ Xanth. Fr. 1, ed. Midler, from Dionys. Hal. (I. c), who quotes the passage marked above as the express words of Xanthus. It is to be observed that Dionysius cites the passage for its bearing on the question of the colonization of Etruria by the Lydians or Mreonians. He says that Xanthus "nowhere names Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians, nor does he know of any Mreoniau colony having reached Italy, nor has he anywhere mentioned Tyrrhenia as a colony of the Lydians;" and then he adds the above genealogy, iu which Torrhebus appears in the place (or its equivalent) assigned by other writers to Tyrrhenus.

⁹⁵ Plin. (v. 30) mentions the Mceonii; and Ptolemy (v. 2, 5 21) reckons Mceonia as a part of Lydia.

⁹⁶ The title is applied to Homer by the Latin poets, with reference to omyma as n;a alleged birthplace. (Ov. " Trist." iv. 10, 22, etc.)

⁹⁷ See above, chap. xx. § 13. ⁹⁸ Herod, i. 94.

490

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

help of various games (as dice, huckle-bones, and ball), the invention of which was claimed by the Lydians.³⁹ At length the king determined to divide the nation in half, and to decide by lot for one part to stay, and for the other to leave the land under his son Tyrrhenus. Those on whom the lot fell to depart built ships in Smyrna, and sailed to Umbria.¹⁰⁰ Here they fixed their residence, and, laying' aside the name of Lydians, called themselves Tyrrhenians, after their leader.

That, at least in one form of the tradition, the emigration was represented as that of the Mceonians, rather than the Lydians proper, appears from the statement of Xanthus, qnoted above; but that historian rejected it even in that form. The scholars who accept it regard the Tyrrhenian settlers, not as the body of the Etrurian nation, but as a conquering race, who imposed their rule on the former Pelasgian inhabitants, and became the aristocracy of Etruria. Such appears to have been the view of Horace, when he addressed Maecenas, the descendant of a long line of Etruscan kings, as among the noblest of all the Lydians that inhabited the country. Few modern scholars accept the tradition in any other sense than as a vague testimony to the unity of the race that once dwelt from the western shores of Italy to the foot of the table-land of Asia Minor. The discussion of the question, however, belongs rather to the history of Italy than to that of the East.

§ 20. As to the origin and affinities of the Lydian race, which supplanted the primitive Maeonians, opinions are widely divided. The majority of the best^ authorities maintain their Semitic origin, chiefly from the few remains of their language that have come down to us, and from the genealogical legends which we have to mention in the next chapter. The chief arguments for their Aryan origin are the testimony of Herodotus to the close resemblance of their customs to the Greek—which, however, may be explained by Ionian influence —and the mythical genealogy of the brothers Lydus, Mysus, and Car,¹⁰¹ of which we have suggested the true explanation.

Herodotus describes the Lydians as a warlike equestrian

⁹⁹ However little historical value we may attach to this statement, it seems to indicate that the Greeks received these games through the Ioniaus from the Lydians; and, as similar games are found in Egypt at very remote times, we may have here a sign of that connection between Egypt and Asia Minor to which the monuments bear testimony. See Sir G. Wilkinson's Note on the passage, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus."

100 The Uvibria of Herodotus, as Niebuhr observes, "is of large and indefinite extent," including apparently almost the whole of Northern Italy. ("History of Home," vol. i. p. 112, Euglish translation.)

¹⁰¹ This would prove too much, for the original Carians were certainly of a verj different race.

RACE OF THE LYDIANS.

407

race. "In all Asia," he says, " there was not at that time (the time of Croesus) a braver or more warlike people. Their manner of fighting was on horseback; they carried long lances, and were clever in the management of their steeds."¹^ It was not till after they had lost their liberty, and very much through the policy of their Persian conquerors,¹⁰³ that they sank into the effeminate luxury which made their name a by-word.¹⁰⁴ But their civilization and corruption will be more properly considered in connection with the history of the Lydian kingdom.

»"2 Herod, i. 79. 103 Herod, i. 155.

*m ^Eschylns (" Per?." 40) calls them hppobianot. See Mr. Grote's remarks 011 the joutrast between the earlier and later national character of the Lydians and Phryu--Rns. (" Hist, of Greece," vol. iii. pp. 2S9-291.)

Coin of I<ycia.

Tomb of Midas, Kiug of Phrygia, at Nacolicia.

CHAPTER XXII.

EARLY HISTORY OF LYDIA.

I 1. Ancient kingdoms in Asia Minor. The Dardaniam of Troy. § 2. The kingdom of PufvYgta. Its mythical traditions. Goeoius : the Gordian knot. Mioas: a type of the rise, wealth, religion, civilization, and fall of the kingdom. § 3. Historical elements in these legends. Inscription on the "Tomb of Midas." §4. Alleged naval supremacy of the nations of Asia Minor. § 5. The kingdom of Lyoia. Its antiquity. Its three dynasties. Sources of its history. Legendary vein throughout. § G. First dynasty, the AUjadce. Its mythical genealogy. Its probable connection with the Maeonian period. § 7. Second Dynasty, the Hcra-clidce. Mythical complexion of their genealogy. § S. Theory of the Assyrian origin of the dynasty. § 9. And of the Semitic origin of the Lydians. Probability of their former abode in Upper Assyria. Adoption of Greek customs. § 10. Kings of the Heraclide dynasty. Insignificance of Lydia under them. Its real history begins from their fall.

§ 1. The nations of Asia Minor were only politically united when Lydia attained an empire over the rest, which became powerful enough to check the whole force of Media, and to wage a doubtful conflict with the Persian conqueror. Before the rise of the Lydian dynasty which ended with Croesus, the history of the peninsula is a blank, except for a few vague traditions, one glorious poetical episode, and notices in the records of Egypt and Assyria, which await further examination.

TROY AND PHRYGIA.

409

On the sound principle which forbids us to spoil good poetry only to turn it into bad history, the Trojan War and the Empire of Priam might be left as the sacred domain of Homer—but for the certainty, on the one hand, that the simple realistic bard followed a national tradition, and, on the other hand, for the notices of the Dardanian empire, and (as some read) of Troy itself, in the annals of Egypt and Assyria.

Ctesias and Moses of Chorene, indeed, affirm that the Assyrian annals mention an expedition to the Troad to give aid against the Achaaans; and some Orientalists of-high repute hold that the Ethiopian Memnon, at the head of his eastern Cushites, was sent by an Assyrian monarch to help his Trojan vassal! The more sober statement of Herodotus limits the Assyrian empire to the country east of the Halys j¹ and the earliest conquests in the peninsula, recorded by the monuments themselves, are those of Sargon and Sennacherib in Cilicia. The Egyptian monuments seem to speak of the Dardanians and Beka as dividing the dominion of the peninsula, while the Carians are powerful on the coast; and it is said that the Pisidians, Lycians, Dardanians, and Mysians are found confederated with the Hittites of Syria and the Bitten (or Botennou) of Mesopotamia, against Rameses III. But the identification of these names is still doubtful.

§ 2. The Phrygian traditions of a line of native kings receive support from the monuments and other marks of civilization, which, as we have already seen, indicate a powerful and wealthy state. Such a state would naturally obtain a fuller development after the fall of Troy, to which it appears in the " Iliad " as a subordinate ally. But all the details recorded of the Phrygian kingdom are purely mythical —a mere Gordietn knot of genealogy and legend.

The origin of the kingdom is represented by the tale of the peasant Gordius, who dedicated at Gordium the yoke of the car in which he was riding, when the people saluted bun as the king promised them by an oracle. The same oracle declared that the empire of Asia was destined for him who should untie the knot of the yoke; and Alexander proved his claim to the prize by solving the problem with his sword.

Midas,² the son of Gordins, typifies the growth of the kingdom; its wealth, luxury, and effeminacy; the introduc-

¹ Herod, i. 95.

³ The name is spelt Mi/clas in Euseb. (" Chron." Pars ii. s. a. Ab. 12TS), and in the Armenian Version Mindas (.<?. a. Ab. 707), which seems the genuine old form, the n liaviug been dropped (as frequently) before the dental.

500

EARLY HISTORY OF LYDIA.

tion of the Dionysiac worship, and the cultivation of music in Phrygia. It seems as if the Greek fabulists chose him (on the principle, omne ignotam 2^W0 miwfico) to personify their vague conceptions of the early wonders of Western Asia. We need only glance at the well-known legends.

While he was yet a child, ants carried grains of wheat to his mouth, foretelling the abundant resources that would flow in to him. But he lived to learn that gold may be a " precious bane;" for, Dionysus having granted him his wish, that every object he touched should be turned into gold, he was fain to-pray for the recall of the gift before he perished with hunger. The god broke the spell by ordering Midas to bathe in the source of the Paetolus, the sands of which were thenceforth mixed with grains of gold.

The connection of Phrygia with the orgiastic and Dionys-iac worship is denoted by the stories which made Midas a son of Cybele,³ and a sharer in the blood of the Satyrs ;⁴ and by those which tell how, on one occasion, the intoxicated Silenus was made his captive, and, after being forced to answer various questions,⁵ was restored by him to Dionysus; and how, at another time, he caught a satyr by mixing wine with a well, which was shown by some near Thymbrium and Tyrasum," by others at Aneyra.⁷ The traditional scene of the capture of Silenus has more than a fabulous interest. The Macedonians placed it at the so-called "Gardens of Midas," at the foot of Mount Bermius, probably near Beroea, in the district of the Bryges, who are thus connected by the legend, as well as by their name, with the Asiatic Phrygians.⁸

As the type of the early cultivation of music among the Phrygians, Midas is made the son of Orpheus; and the contest between the Greek and Phrygian modes is symbolized by his decision against Apollo in the musical contest with Pan, or, as others said, with Marsyas. The penalty incurred by this decision is one among several instances of the retributive spirit which enters into the fables of Midas. He is the type, not only of the wealth and prosperity, but of the

³ Hygin. "Fab." 274. The authors who believed they were writing history made his mother a girl of Telmessus, possessed of prophetic powers, who explained to Gordius the prodigy Avhich announced his future greatness, and became his wife.

⁴ The tale that he had satyr's ears is probably derived from some symbolical work ot art. How they were changed into asses' ears, as a punishment for his deciding agaiust Apollo in the musical contest with Pan or Marsyas—how Midas hid his ears beneath a Phrygian cap—and how the barber who discovered the secret whispered it into a hole of the earth and bnried it, only to have it spread abroad by every rustle of the reed which sprang up on the spot—all this is among the choice fairy-tales of Greece.

⁶ For these questions, see Theopomp. Fr. 76; Aristot. ap. Plut. vol. ii. p. 115; Cic "Tusc." i. 4S. ⁶ Xen. "Anab." i. 2, § 13.

⁷ Paus. i 4, § 5: comp. Athen. ii. 45; Plut. " de Fluv." 10. » Herod, viii. 13S.

MIDAS, KING OF PHRYGIA.

501

degenerate effeminacy, of the Phrygians ;⁹ and at last he kills himself by drinking bull's blood.¹⁰

§ 3. Amidst these legendary stories, it is not improbable that we have signs of a line of Phrygian kings, who bore the names of Gordius and Midas, perhaps alternately.¹¹ Herodotus evidently believed in the historical character of the "Midas, son of Gordius, king of Phrygia," whom he names as the only exception to the statement that Gyges was the first of the barbarians known to have sent offerings to Delphi. " Midas dedicated the royal throne, whereon he was accustomed to sit and administer justice, an object well worth looking at."¹² In another passage he seems to imply that this royal line continued down to, or even after, the conquest of Phrygia by Croesus; for, in the celebrated story of Adras-tus, the Phrygian refugee announces himself as " the son of Gordius, son of Midas."¹³ It is unsafe to argue from the incidental details of a story of which the main part is mythical; but the conclusion is probable in itself.

Midas is twice mentioned, as King of the Phrygians, in the Chronicle of Eusebius: first, as the contemporary of Rameses II., and two years after the foundation of Ilium ;¹⁴ again, as the contemporary of Bocchoris ;¹⁵ and his death by drinking bull's blood is placed in the reign of Tirhakah.¹⁶ But the most decisive proof of the historical reality of this line of kings is an inscription on a tomb, commonly called the "Tomb of Midas," at Doganbe, near Kutaya, the ancient Cotvaeum, in Phrygia. The inscription has been read thus: "Ates Arciaefas, the Acenanogafus, built (this) to Midas, the warrior-Icing."¹¹

⁹ Philostrat. " Icon." i. 22; Athen. xii. p. 515.

¹⁰ Strabo, i. p. 61; Pint, "de Superstit." 7; Euseb. "Chron."sub aun. Ab. 1321.

¹¹ Professor Rawlinson (Note to Herod, i. 14) compares this Phrygian dynasty to the alternation of a Battus and an Arcesilaus in the royal line of Cyrene. He quotes Bouhie ("Dissertations," ch. viii.) as reckoning four kings of Phrygia named Midas, each the son of a Gordius, and adds, "Three of these are mentioned by Herodotus (i. 14, 35, viii. 13S)." But there is clearly no ground for asserting that, in these three detached notices, Herodotus was conscionsly speaking of three different kings, each of whom is to be regarded as a distinct historic personage. ¹² Herod, i. 105.

¹³ Herod, i. 35.—Rawlinson observes, in a note: "Here the legend has forgotten that Phrygian independence was at an end. We might, indeed, get over the difficulty of a Phrygian royal house and a king Gordius at this time, by supposing, with Larcbcr, that Phrygia had become tributary, while retaining her kiugs ; but the language of Croesus is not suitable to such a supposition. Equality appears in the phrase, 'Thou art the offspring of a house friendly to mine, aud thon art come to friends;' and the independence of Phrygia seems clearly implied in. the proviso, 'Thon shalt want for nothing as long as thou abidest in my dominions.' Phrygia is not nuder Croesus." But this is surely a far-fetched inference from language which, after all, is that not of the king, but of the historian, who does not himself perceive the inconsistency. Such language might well be used iu courtesy to the son of a vassal kiug.

¹⁴ Euseb. "Chron."Pars ii. Ann. Ab.707, corresponding to i$.c. 1310.

is An. Ab. 1278, 01. x. 2=».o. 739. ™ An. Ab. 1321, Ol. xxi. l = u.c. 690.

¹⁷ See Texier's "Asie Mineure" (vol. i. p. 155), where a view of the tomb is given,

502

EARLY HISTORY OF LYDIA.

§ 4. There are curious notices in Eusebius (on the authority of Diodorus) of the order in which the nations of Asia Minor held the supremacy of the sea, during a period of 304 years after the Trojan war, from b.o. 1183 to b.c. 880. The result of these statements is repeated for what it may be worth; but it is beyond our present scope to discuss its value.¹⁸

§ 5. The kingdom of Lydia, which finally obtained the empire of Asia Minor, claimed—or the Greeks claimed for it—a higher antiquity than either the Dardanian or the Phrygian monarchies; and the second of its three dynasties is made contemporary with the Greek heroic age. These dynasties are the Atyadce, the Hereiclidec, and the Mermneidw. The first is purely mythical: the second partakes, to say the least, of the same character : the real history of Lydia begins with the third, but even through this there runs a legendary vein. Nearly all our information is derived from Herodotus, the few fragments of Xanthus, and the miscellaneous details of Ctesias, Diodorus, some minor historians, and the chronog-raphers. Herodotus writes with the manifest view of holding up Croesus, the first barbarian who made war upon the Greeks, as an example of judicial infatuation, and of the ruin to which it leads; and this poetic view colors his history of Lydia throughout. Xanthus, amidst many signs of intimate acquaintance with the annals of his country, spoils his credit by the marvels he indulges in.

§ 6. Herodotus derives the first line of kings from Lydus, the son of Atys, the son of Manes ;^ly and Diodorus gives the full genealogy as follows:

Zeus and Go (Terra).

Manes = Callirhoo, daughter of Oceanus. Cotys = Halie, daughter of Tyllus.

Asies. Atys - Callithea, daughter of Cliorseus.

Lydus. Tyrsenus (Ion. Tyrrhenus, Herod.).

¹⁸ The following are the statements, in a tabular form, with the dates calculated by Clinton (" F. II." vol. i. p. 23): "Maris imperinm post Trojanum imperium exercuerunt.

1. Lydii et Maxmes, annis 92 ; is.o. 11S3 to 1091.

2. Pelasgi.......... " S5; " 1091 " 100C.

3. Thraces......... " 79; " 1006 " 927.

4. Rhodii.......... " 23; " 927 " 904.

5. Phryges......... " 25; " 904 " 880.

¹⁹ Ilerod. i. 7,94. We have already had occasion to refer to his statements in thesa

THE ATYADJE AND HERACLID^E.

503

Not only is the mythical nature of the genealogy obvious on its face, but it, as well as the statements of Herodotus and Xanthus, has (as Rawlinson observes) " the appearance, with which the early Greek annals make us so familiar, of artificial arrangements of the lieroes-eponymi of the nation. The Manes, Atys, Lydus, Asies, Tyrsenus, of Herodotus and Diodorus, and even the Torybus (or Torrhebus) and Adramy-tes of Xanthus Lydus, stand in Lydian history where Pelas-gus, Hellen, Ion, Dorus, Achams, ^Eolus, stand in Greek."²⁰ It seems also that this first dynasty represents the 3Ieeo?iian period of Lydian history. Its computed end falls about the close of the 13th century b.c.

§ 7. The Second Dynasty, or Heraclid^e, are said by Herodotus to have been intrusted with the government by the Atyada?, and to have obtained the kingdom by an oracle.²¹ Supposing this account to be historical, it would make the relation of the new kings to the old that of usurping maires da pedals, like the Carlings to the Merovingians. But, at all events at first sight, their origin appears not only mythical, but presents a heterogeneous mixture of Greek and Oriental names. Herodotus traces their origin to Alceeus, the son of Hercules and the slave-girl of Jardanus.²² Alceeus was the father of Belus, he of Ninus, and he of Agrox, the founder of the dynasty, From Agron the crown descended in a direct line from father to son, through twenty-two generations, a space of 505 years, to Caxdaules, the last king.²³ As the end of the dynasty is fixed (as we shall presently

two passages, about the change of name from Masonians to Lydians, after Lydus, aud the partition of the nation into Lydians and Tyrrhenians, under Atvs. The recurrence of the name of Atys (the son of Cfcesus) at the end of the last'dynastv, if historical, would evidently be a mark of honor paid to the traditional founder of the monarchy. But some consider that in Herodotns's purely poetical treatment of the story of Atys and Adrastus (Her. i. 34-45), the former is a significant Greek name, as certainly the latter is: Atys being "the judicially blind and fated" (from St*), as Adrastus is "the inevitable" or "unescapable"—not, as some say, "the man who can not escape." (See Mure's " Literature of Greece," vol. iv. p. 32G.)

²⁰ Rawlinson, "Essay i. to Ilerod." book i. § 4. Manes is regarded by some as the hero-eponymus of the Maeonians (Freret, "Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions," torn. v. p. SOS); by others as the first man who ruled in the land, like the Egyptian Menes, etc. (See chap. ii. § S.) Aries, whom Herodotus also makes the grandson of Manes, is rightly placed in the genealogy as the hero-eponymus of Asia; for that name was at first applied, at. least by the Greeks (Horn. " II." ii. 4G1), to a small district on the river Cayster, in Lydia. (See " Diet, of Grk. aud Rom. Geog.," art. Asia.)

²¹ Herod, i. 7. This statement has been used as an argument for the affiuity of the Lydians with the Greeks, since the Asiatics seem to have had no proper oracles of their own, but consulted the Greek oracles (comp. Herod, i. 14,19, 46, etc. • Rawlinson, " Note to Herod." /. c).'

²² This girl was Malis, the slave of Omphale (the wife or daughter of Jardainus), whom Hercules served, according to the well-known legend.

²³ Herod, i. 7. The historian's departure from his usual reckoning of three generations to a century (see Book ii. c. 142) is an indication that he is here not computing, but repeating definite statements both as to the number of kings in the dynasty and the number of years that it lasted.

501

EARLY HISTORY OF LYDIA.

see) to within a few years before b.c. 700, the date of its commencement would fall in the last few years of the 13th century. The different computations place it between 1229 and 1208 b.c.

§ 8. The first impression naturally made by this genealogy is that expressed by Professor Rawlinson: "Among the wide range of fabulous descents with which ancient authors have delighted to fill their pages, it would be difficult to find a transition so abrupt and startling as that from Alereus, son of Hercules, to Belus, father of Ninus. It seems necessary absolutely to reject one portion of the genealogy or the other, for the elements refuse to amalgamate." But, in fact, the very grossness of the apparent inconsistency is a strong sign that the genealogy is no invention of a Greek, but that Herodotus is following some native tradition, only translating (as is his wont) Oriental names into their supposed equivalents in Greek. The historian of the Eastern empires seems to have forgotten, for the moment, that there was an Assyrian god, whom the Greeks called Hercules, and whose introduction into the genealogy is consistent with the appearance of Belus and Ninus. That god, Ninip, has an epithet Seimdan, "the strong," which answers very fairly to Alcams; and M. Oppert considers the triad of names, BrjXog 'AAk-atoe 'Hpa/cAr/c, to represent the full title of the deity, Bel-Ninip-Samdan ("Lord Ninip the Mighty "), who stands, according to custom, at the head of an Assyrian royal line. In Ninus the same Orientalist discovers, not merely the hero-eponymus, who marks the Assyrian origin of the dynasty, but the very king, Nhup-pxd-zira, who was reigning at Nineveh about the time at which its beginning is calculated, a little before 1200 b.c, and who is sometimes regarded as the first historical founder of the real greatness of Assyria itself.²⁴ In Agron he recognizes a Semitic word, signifying fugitive; and from the elements thus ingeniously brought together, he frames the theory that this Agron, the true founder of the Lydian kingdom, was a younger son of Ninip-pal-zira, whom one of the conflicts, so frequent in Oriental royal families, drove to seek his fortune beyond the region of Armenia, which his father had already conquered.²⁵ Traversing the table-land in search of a perma-

³⁴ See chap. xi. § 15. Professor Rawlinson himself, while rejecting the Semitic origin of the Lydians, remarks the close coincidence in time between the foundation of the Upper Assyrian dynasty and of the Lydian dynasty of the Heraclidte.

²⁵ The successful campaigns of Ninip-pal-zira in Armenia are recorded in the Assyrian annals. Ctesias ascribes to Ninus the conquest of Lydia and all Asia Minor; but this is a part of a statement which is in other respects manifestly extravagant and fabulous.

ORIGIN OF THE HERACLIDJE.

505

nent settlement, he fell upon the rich plain occupied by the Maeonians, and imposed upon them the new dynasty of^ " the sons of Ninip," whom the Greeks called Heraclidaa.

§ 9. This ingenious scheme has, at all events, the merit of giving a more definite form to the theory of the Semitic origin of the Lydians, which appears to have been the native tradition,²⁶ and which is now generally adopted by the best authorities;²⁷ and the objections to that theory are diminished by regarding the Lydians rather as a conquering race than mainly as a migrating people. In the ethnic table of Genesis x., the position of Lud, as the fourth son of Shem, seems to mark the Lydians as a branch of the Semitic family distinct from the Aramaeans ;²⁸ for all biblical authorities, from Josephus²⁹ downward, regard this Lud as the progenitor of the Lydians.

The very objection, that Lydia lies beyond the range of the ethnic table, turns in favor of the theory; for it points to the original abode of the Lydians in Upper Assyria, between Arphaxad (probably Kurdistan) and Aram (Mesopotamia Proper). Quite independently of the historic theory of M. Oppert, a distinguished Orientalist has suggested the connection of the Lialim with the Ruten (or Rotennoii), whom the Egyptian records constantly mention in this very region.³⁰ These tribes, which so pertinaciously resisted the arms of a Thothmes and a Rameses, are not likely to have submitted quietly to the kings of Nineveh, and the progress of the Assyrian empire may have driven a part of them to seek new abodes in Asia Minor. The remains of ancient Lydian art—such as the rock-sculptures of Nymphi, near Smyrna, and those of Giaour Kale—are of a decidedly Assyrian type.

The arguments on the other side, so far as they have any force, may be explained, partly (perhaps) by the remains of the old Pelasgian population in the country, and certainly to a great extent by Hellenic influence from Ionia. Thus we can understand the resemblance of the Lydians to the

-^G Both from the above genealogy, and from the statement that the Lydians had nothing in common with the Pelasgians (Diod. i. 30).

²⁷ Niebuhr, "Lectures on Ancient History, "vol. i. p. S7 ; and "Philosophy of Univ. Hist." vol. ii. p. 10; O. Midler, " Sandon and Sardanapal," p. 3S; Movers, " Die Phoe-uicier," vol. i. p. 475; Prichard, "Phys. Hist, of Mankind," vol. iv. p. 5G2; Lassen, "Ueber die Sprachen Kleinasiens," pp. 382, 3. Niebuhr, however, brings down the conquest of the Maeonians by the Lydians to the accession of the third dynasty, the Mermnada', near the end of the Sth century n.c.

²⁸ Gen. x. 22; comp. 1 Chron. i. 17. ²⁹ Joseph. Ant. i. G, 5 4. ³⁰ Mr. Stuart Poole's art. Lui> in the "Diet, of the Bible." The letter-, r and I are

constantly interchanged in the hieroglyphic writing, as in Lebu and Jlebu for the Libyans. On the relation of the supposed African Ludim of Gem r. 13 to the whole ftuestion see Mr. Poole's art. Ludim.

22

506

EARLY HISTORY OF LYDIA.

Greeks in manners, customs, and arms;³¹ their habit of com suiting the Greek oracles ;³² and the curious mixture of Semitic and Aryan etymologies, which high authorities have proposed for their proper names.³³

§ 10. All the interest belonging to the Heraclide dynasty is exhausted by this ethnical question about their origin. Of the twenty kings between Agron and Candaules, we have only a few doubtful names,³⁴ and one or two fabulous stories,⁸⁵ "before the interesting legends relating to the^ end of the dynasty. Herodotus connects the fortification of Sar-

•■ Cum of Sardis " (Diet, of Georg. II. p. 906).

dis with one such story of a King Meles, whom Eusebius makes the predecessor of Candaules.³⁶ " One conclusion may be drawn alike from the silence of the foreign and the fictions of the native historian—that the Lydians of the fifth century b.c possessed no authentic information concerning their ancestors farther back than the time of Gyges, the first king of the race called Mermnadae. From this we may derive, as a corollary, the further consequence of the insignifi-

³ⁱ Herod, i. 35, 94: vii. 74. ³² Herod, i. 14,19, 46, etc.

³³ Thus, for example (excluding Belus, Ninus, and Agron, which Ihe advocates of the Aryan theory regard as purely mythical), we have, on the one side, in the royal names Sadyattes =. " potens per Attidem," and A lyattes =>" elevatus per Attidem," not only a Semitic origin, but an exact analogy to the form of Assyrian royal names. (P. Boetticher, "Rndimenta Mythologiae Semiticae:" Rawlinson's objection, that Attis was the Phrygian form of the god's name, while the Lydian was Atys, is too minute.) On the other hand, Candaules is said to be compounded of the Sanscrit equivalent for kvuv, canis, and hund (a dog), and dri (" to tear " = dli), a derivation referred to by the poet Hippouax (Fr. 1) and Tzetzes (Chil. vi. Hist. 54). Sardis is said to have meant, in Lydian, year = sarat or sard! in Sanscrit and Armenian, and Thrada in Old Persian (Lydus ⁴⁴ de Mensibus," iii. 14). See Sir H. Rawlinson's Note to Herod, i. 7, and Prof. Rawlinson's ⁴⁴Essay to Herod." book ii. § 3.

³*Nicol. Damasc. ap. Miiller, ⁴¹ Frag. Hist. Grajc." vol. iii. pp. 370 seq.; Euseb. " Chron." pars i. c. xv.

³⁵ See specimens from Xanthus in Rawlinson, ⁴⁴ Essay i. to Herod." i. § 9.

³⁶ Herod, i. 84 ; Euseb. ⁴⁴ Chron." 1. e., and s. a. Ab. 12S9, 01.13.2 = n.c. 727.

ORIGINALLY A PETTY STATE.

507

cance cf Lydia in times anterior to his date. Previously to the accession of the last dynasty, Lydia was, it is probable, but one out of the many petty states or kingdoms into which Lower Asia was parcelled out. Lycia, which gave kings to the Greek colonies upon the coast," and maintained ifs independence even against Croesus, must have been at least as powerful; and the really predominant state was the central kingdom of the Phrygians, who exercised a greater influence over the Greeks of the coast than any other of the Asiatic peoples with whom they came in contact, and whose kings were the first of all foreigners to send offerings to the oracle at Delphi. Lydia, until the time of Gyges, was a petty state, which made no conquests, and exercised but little influence beyond its borders."³⁸ It was only under the third dynasty of five kings, whose united reigns amounted to above 170 years, that Lydia acquired the supremacy which won for it a place in history among the foremost of the nations.

™ Herod, i. 147.

Rawlinson, "Essay i. to Herod." Book L 510.

Ruins of Miletus.

CHAPTER XXIII.

LYDIA AND MEDIA.—from gyges TO CYAXARES AND ALY-

attes.-ABOUT B.C. 716 TO B.C. 560.—THE cimmerian AND

SCYTHIAN invasions OF ASIA.

5 1. Transfer of the Lydian crown from the Heraelidce to the Mermnadm. Three forms of the legend of Candaui.es and Gyoes. In Herodotus. In Plato: the "Ring of Gyges." The third form: a contest of factions. Presents of Gyges to Delphi. § 2. The five Mermnad Kings. Chronology. Relations of Lydia to the Ionian colonies. Gyges begins to attack the Greek cities. His presents to Asshur-bani-pal, king of Assyria. §3. Aroys. The Cimmerian invasion of Asia Minor. Country of the Cimmerians. § 4. The Scythian conquest and expulsion of the Cimmerians, and their invasion of Asia Minor, according to Herodotus. § 5. Criticism of the story. Westward migrations of the Cimmerians, who were probably Cymry, or Celts. § 6. Their early invasions of Asia Minor. Allusions of the Ionian poets. Extent of their devastations. § 7. Reign of Sadyattes. His war against Miletus, continued by Alyattes. Its curious history. Peace with Miletus. Offerings at Delphi. § 8. Alyattes drives the Cimmerians out of Asia. Collision with Cyaxares, king of Media. § 9. Herodotns's summary of the reign of Cyaxares. Invasion of Media by the Scythians. Their domination in Western Asia. § 10. Different senses of the name Scythian, § 11. The Scythians of the Greek poets and of Herodotus. Origin of the name. § 12. The Asiatic Scythians (Sacse), the Saka of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions. Their two classes and habitations. § 13. Different interpretations of the Scythian invasion. Scriptural allusions. § 14. Median and Lydian war and alliance. The "Eclipse of Thales." Nineveh taken by Cyaxares. § 15. Deaths of Cyaxares and Alyattes. The Tomb of Alyattes.

§ 1. Every classical student is familiar with the story related by Herodotus of the transfer of the crown of Lydia from the Heraelidce to the Mermnadce, through the revenge which the queen of Candaules, the last Heraclid, compelled Gyges to take upon her husband, for the insult to her modesty contrived by the king in his foolish admiration of her

THE "RING OF GYGES.

509

beauty.¹ But this story, which the historian derived from the iambic poet Archilochus of Paros,² is but one of the three forms of the legend.

In Plato³ we have it with the embellishment of the magic "Ring of Gyges." This story is best told by Mr. Grote: "According to the legend in Plato, Gyges is a mere herdsman of the King of Lydia. After a terrible storm and earthquake, he sees near him a chasm in the earth, into which he descends, and finds a vast horse of brass, hollow and partly open, wherein there lies a gigantic corpse with a golden ring. This ring he carries away, and discovers, unexpectedly, that it possesses the miraculous property of rendering him invisible at pleasure. Being sent on a message to the king, he makes the magic ring available to his ambition : he first possesses himself of the person of the queen, then with her aid assassinates the king, and finally seizes the sceptre."⁴

The third form of the legend, as given by Nicolaus Da-mascenus⁵ (not improbably from Xanthus), makes the revolution the final issue of a long feud between the houses of the Heraclidaa and the Mermnadse, and represents the latter as a Lydian family of distinction.⁶ Some struggle between the two parties is also implied by Herodotus: " Gyges then seized the kingdom, and was confirmed in it by the^Delphic oracle. For when the Lydians were enraged at the fate of Candaules, and had taken up arms, an agreement was come to by the partisans of Gyges and the rest of the Lydians, that if the oracle should pronounce him to be king of the Lydians, he should be king; but if not, he should give back the rule to the Heraclidse. But the oracle answered; and ⁸⁰ Gyges reigned. Thus much, however, the Pythian priestess said, that vengeance for the Heraclidaa should fall upon the fifth descendant of Gyges."⁷ Meanwhile Gyges paid the

¹ Herod, i. 8-12.

² Herod. I. c.fin. A line is extant, in the metre mentioned by Herodotus (the Iambic Trimeter), in which Archilochus names "the wealthy Gyges:" otf

rod noXvxpvvou /ueXet. (Aristot. "Rhet." iii. 17; Plut. " Op. Mon." vol. ii. p. 470, C.)

³ Repub. ii. 3.

⁴ " Hist, of Greece," vol. iii. p. 298.

⁵ Midler, " Frag. Hist. Grsec." vol. iii. p. 3S3 seq. For the details of this story, which rejects the complicity of the queen in the murder of Candaules, see Rawlinson, "Essay i. to Herod." book i. vol. i. pp. 364, 5, notes.

⁶ It is remarkable that no authority explains the name of the Mermnadae. Lenormant (" Histoire Ancienne," torn. ii. p. 146) regards the revolution as a reaction on the part of the old Pelasgian or Maeonian element against the Semitic or Lydian; and hence he explains the devotion of the Mermnadas to the Delphic oracle. It is some objection to this view, that both parties agreed to consult the oracle. He also says (but we do not know on what authority) that the Carians gave an active support to the new dynasty against the lydian malcontents.

⁷ Herod, i. 13.

510

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

price of the decision, in the rich presents of gold and silver which were preserved at Delphi as " the Gygean offering."⁸ § 2. The five generations of kings referred to by the oracle, with the length of their respective reigns, are these :

Kings. b.c. Years.

1. Gyges........................................(T1G-67S) 3S

2. Ardys.......................................(G7S-629) 49

3. Sadyattes....................................(629-617) 12

4. Alyattes......................................(G17-5G0) 57

5. Croesus.......................................(560-546) 14

Duration of the monarchy................. 170⁹

From the first accession of the new dynasty, the kingdom of Lydia comes into close contact with the Greeks. Its coast was occupied by the Ionians, the most wealthy and refined of the Hellenic colonists, whose great cities—such as Miletus, Ephesus, Colophon, Smyrna, Phocaea, and many others—enriched the neighboring countries, as well as themselves, by the commerce which they carried on between Asia and all the shores of the Mediterranean. Sharing the benefits of that commerce, and bound by many ties of affinity, the Asiatics appear to have cultivated friendly relations with the Greek colonists, after the effects of the first collisions had subsided.¹⁰

These relations continued under the supremacy of the peaceful Phrygians, whose great influence on the Greeks has been already noticed.¹¹ But the third Lydian dynasty was aggressive from the first. The great Ionian cities were too close to Lydia not to be coveted by the ambition of the new kings; and their wealth had brought with it the curse

⁸ Tvy«6a<!, Herod. 5.14. We have had occasion already to meution the statement, that these were the first offerings presented at Delphi by any foreigner, except Midas, king of Phrygia. Some ancient writers say that they were the first gold and silver offerings made to the shrine. (Theopomp. Fr. 219 ; Phanias Eres. Fr. 12.) As to the bribery of the oracle, see Herod, v. 63, vi. 66.

⁸ The dates given are those of Clinton; but there is some doubt as to the exact time of the end of the monarchy. Rawlinson places it at b.c 554, and consequently carries back the accession of Gyges to b.o. 724. Lenormant puts the fall of Croesus two years later than Clinton, at b.c 544; but, by assigning one year less to Alyattes aud ten years less to Ardys (to whom Ensebins gives only 3S years), he brings down the accession of Gyges to b.o. 703, in order to adapt his date to the mention of him in the annals of Asshur-bani-pal, as that kiug records his receipt of presents from Gougou, king of the Ludim, in b.c G67 or G66. It is too soon yet to take the Assyrian chronology for an absolute guide ; but such approximations are very valuable.

¹⁰ That such collisions must have taken place is obvious, and we have direct testimony to their occurrence, as at Miletus and Colophon (Mimnerm. ap. Strab. xiv. p. 634). But even from them there ensued a mixture of the Greeks and Asiatics, as when the Ionians from Athens married the Carian girls whose fathers they had slain at Miletus (Herod, i. 146). Herodotus adds that these same Milesians set over them Lycian kings of the blood of Glaucus (c. 147). The Greeks showed a great readiness to uuite with the Asiatic tribes, and most of their cities appear to have had a mixed population: such was especially the case at Teos (Paus. vii. 3, § 3; Boeckh, "Corp. Inscr." No. 3064; Rawlinson, " Essay i. to Herod." i. vol. i. pp. 36G, 7).

¹¹ As to this influence, see Grote, " Hist, of Greece," vol. ii. pp. 2S4-291.

CIMMERIAN INVASION.

511

of luxurious indulgence, inviting the attacks which were now begun by Gyges. Herodotus says that, as soon as Gyges became king, he made an inroad, on Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city of Colophon, but he performed no other great deed during his reign of thirty-eight years.¹² The presents which he sent to Asshur-bani-pal imply friendly relations with Assyria.

§ 3. The reign of Ardys, the son of Gyges, which Herodotus relates in two short sentences, brings a new nation into the field of Asiatic history: "Ardys took Priene, and made war upon Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia, and captured Sardis, all but the citadel."™ Elsewhere the historian says that " the Cimmerian attack upon Ionia, which was earlier than Croesus, was not a conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for plundering."¹⁴ His account of this great movement—apart from the statements of other writers, and the very interesting questions thence arising—is extremely clear and simple.

The native land of the Cimmerians was in Europey¹⁵ and it was the country afterwards called Scythia¹⁶—a country most carefully defined by Herodotus as the region round the northern side of the Euxine and Palus Maeotis (Sect of Azov), from the Ister or Danube to the Tanai's or Don; and extending indefinitely to the north.¹⁷ At a much later period, another invasion of Asiatic tribes gave the country the name of Sarmatiei. The student has to guard against innumerable sources of confusion from the application of these three names—Cimmeria, Scythia, and Sarmatia—to the same re-

^Vi Herod, i. 14. "To this war belongs, apparently, the narrative which Plutarch quotes from Dosithens, who wrote a Lydian history (Dosilh. Fr. C). The Smyrnaeans seem to have been hard pressed, but by a stratagem, which they commemorated ever afterwards by the festival of the Eleutheria, they destroyed the army which had been sent against them. According to one account, Gyges and his Lydians had actually • seized the city, when the Smyrnaaans rose up and expelled them (Pans. iv. 21, § 3). Mimnermus, the elegiac poet, celebrated the event in one of his pieces (lb. ix. 29. 5 2)." Rawlinson's Note to Herod. I. c. Respecting the war upon and capture of Magnesia for the sake of Magues, which Nicolas of Damascus (p. 52, Orell.) ascribes to Gyges, see Grote, "Hist, of Greece," vol. iii. p. 300, and Rawlinson, "Essay i. to Herod." i. § 12, note. Strabo (xiii. p. 590) ascribes the conquest of the Troad to Gyges, but this appears from Herodotus to be an anticipation.

" Herod, i. 15. i* Herod, i. C. ¹⁵ Herod, i. 103.

¹⁶ Herod, iv. 11. When Herodotus says that the wandering Scythians passed from Asia into the land of Cimmeria across the Araxes, it seems clear that he can only mean the Volga. (See Heeren, " As. Nat." vol. ii. p. 258.) Not only is it certain that the Volga was sometimes called by the Greeks Araxes (Aristot. "Meteor." i. 13; Scymnus Chins, p. 12S; "Periplns," p. 13S); but the names seem to have had the same meaning, "irs aud Aras signified, in primitive Scythic, the same as Volga in Aryan Slavonic, viz. 'great;' and the name was thus applied to any great river." (SirH. Rawlinson's Note to Herod. I.e.)

¹⁷ Herod, iv. passim. This European Scythia must be carefully distinguished from the Asiatic Scythia, beyond the Caucasus, the Caspian, and the Oxus and Jaxartes.

512

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

gion. In modern geography it corresponds (speaking very generally) to the steppes of Southern Russia, and the term Ukraine may be conveniently, though vaguely, used as its compendious name.

This remote and inhospitable country, on an almost unknown shore, may well answer to Homer's " people and city of the Cimmerians, covered in mist and cloud, at the bounds of the deep-flowing ocean."¹⁸ ^Eschylus knows the Cimmerian Isthmus and Bosporus at the Lake Maeotis;³⁹ and Herodotus traces the former presence of the Cimmerians in Scythia by " Cimmerian castles, a tract called Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian Bosporus."²⁰ The name survives to the present day in the Crimea, or Crim-Tartary, and in JEski Crim (Old Crim), the site of the town of Cimmerium. It must be remembered that, remote as this region was from Greece and Ionia, it was well known through the Greek colonies on its shore—such as Tiras, at the mouth of the Tiras or Danastus (Dniester); Olbia or Borysthenis,at the mouth of the Hypanis (Dnieper), and others; and Herodotus himself visited the country between those rivers.²¹

§ 4. The historian's account of the conquest of the country by the Scythians implies, amidst details that appear fabulous, a complete extirpation of the old inhabitants. The barrow on the bank of the Dniester, whicb was shown to Herodotus as the tomb of the Royal Tribe—who chose to fall in battle against the rest of the nation, who preferred exile— was more probably the monument of the last sanguinary conflicts with the invaders.²² The survivors, he says, fled before the Scythians by the coast of the Euxine along the foot of the Caucasus, and so, entering Asia Minor from the north-east, settled in the peninsula where the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built.²³ Advancing thence, as seems • to be implied, still along the coast, they ravaged Lydia and Ionia, and were only driven out by Alyattes, the grandson of Ardys.²⁴

¹⁸ Horn. " Od." xi. 13 seq.: cf. Eustath. ad loc. ¹⁹ " Prom. Vinct." 729 seq.

²⁰ Herod, iv. 12. Other snch names are preserved by Hecataeus (Fr. 2) and Strabo (vii. p. 447, xi. p. 721).

²¹ Herod, iv. 81. ²² Herod, iv. 11; Niebuhr, "Scythia,"p. 52. ²³ Herod, iv. 12. It would seem that Herodotus, finding Cimmeriaus at Sinope,

near the point, and on the route, by which he conceives them to have entered Asia Minor, assumed that they settled there at once. It rather appears that this was a position at which a remnant maintained themselves when the main body were driven out.

On another point Herodotus needs correction. Assuming that the invaders entered Asia Minor from the north-east, they could not have come from their original home by the sea-coast ronte round the western edge of the Caucasus, for this route is quite impracticable. But they may have come through the Caucasian Gates (Pass f)f Dariel), and so westward into Colchis and down to the coast.

²* Ilerod. i. 16. The duration of the invasion is very doubtful, as Herodotus does

THE CIMMERIANS CELTS.

513

§ 5. The improbabilities of this story, and the statements of other writers, suggest that Herodotus confined his attention to that one out of a series of Cimmerian invasions, whicb was connected with his main subject for the time—the history of the Mermnad kings of Lydia, and this only as a preface to the story of Croesus and Cyrus. It is unlikely that the whole Cimmerian nation should have been expelled by the Scythians at one blow : such a displacement is effected by the nomad hordes coming down wave upon wave. Even more unlikely is the route pursued by the displaced nation. As Niebuhr observes — "All the wandering tribes which have successively occupied Scythia, when overpowered by new swarms from the east, have retired to the open country to the west, and towards the Danube."²⁵

That the great mass of the Cimmerian nation really pursued that course, and spread over Europe, on the western shores of which they still exist, and in one case under their own name—the Camru or Gymry of Wales: in a word, that their movement to the west formed at least one wave of the great Celtic migration—is the opinion now generally held by the best ethnologers; but its discussion lies beyond the scope of the present work. If this opinion be correct, the Cimmerians' capture of Sardis was effected by the same race —as it certainly was of the same character—as the Gallic sack of Rome ; and the invaders who occupied and gave their name to Galatia,m the third century b.c, formed a reflux of the tide which poured upon Lydia in the seventh. We may add — as a point of curiosity — that if, as some think, the Chalybes of the northern coast were a settlement of this people,²⁶ the first iron-workers celebrated by the Greek poets were of the same race as those who now extract the metal from the Welsh mines.²⁷

not say at what part of the reigns of Ardys and Alyattes the Cimmerians entered and were expelled.

²⁵ " Scythia," p. 50, Eng. trans.

²⁶ See Grote, " Hist, of Greece," vol. iii. p. 836. ^Eschylus has XdXvfios IkvQwv 'ditot-kos (Sept. c. Theb. 725).

²⁷ The Cimmerians are supposed to be first named as the Gomer of Gen. x. 2, 3, the eldest son of Japheth, and the father of Ashke?iaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, who reappears iu Ezek. xxxviii. 6, as the subject or ally of the Scythian Gog; and iu the Gimiri of the Persian cuneiform records. (See Sir H. Rawlinson, in "Journal of As. Soc." vol. xiv. pt. i. p. xxi., and in Rawlinson's "Herod." vol. i. p. 1S3, note.) These notices connect them to some exteut with Armenia (the supposed ceutre of ethnic diffusion), and the Armenian historians make Gamir the ancestor of their Haichian race of kings. (Mos. Chor. i. 11, sub fin.) Their ethnic position, as the progenitors of the Cymry, and even of all the Celtic races—who have a uuiform tradition of their eastern origin—is maintained by Niebuhr, Prichard, and many others. A very good summary of the whole question is given in Prof. Rawlinson's "Essay i. to Herod." book iv. "On the Cimmerians of Herodotus and the Migrations of the Cymric Race." After showing the early importance of the Cimmerians, and describing their geographical extent, he argues their identity with the Cymry from the close

22*

514

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

§ 6. That some part of this westward migration would pass the Danube, and then the Bosporus and Hellespont, to plunder Asia Minor, is a probability confirmed by abundant testimony. In these inroads they are found (as might have been expected) mingled with Thracian tribes, especially the Treres. Strabo (apparently confounding the two races) says that " the Cimmerians, who are also named Trerones, or some tribe of them, frequently overran the right-hand shores of the Pontus and the parts adjacent — invading sometimes the Paphlagonians, sometimes the Phrygians."²⁸ In other passages—in which he ventures to place their invasions of ^Eolis and Ionia about, or a little before, the time of Homer —he distinctly states that they entered by the Bosporus;²⁹ and Eusebius places an incursion of the Cimmerians (with the Amazons !) into Asia in the reign of Codrus, king of Attica, 300 years before the first Olympiad.³⁰ Orosius assigns this irruption of the Cimmerians and Amazons to b.c 782 ;³¹ and the Cimmerians are affirmed, on the authority of Aristotle, to have held Antandrus, in Mysia, for a hundred years.³²

These accounts are probably exaggerated ; but we have the evidence of the Ionian poet, Callinus of Ephesus, to the ravages which he witnessed with his own eyes, when the wagons of the barbarians stood on the plain of the Cayster. One of the noblest remains of Greek elegiac poetry is that in which he tries to rouse the soft and dejected Ionians to face the danger and hurl each his last javelin at the foe; for war was upon them while they sat in peace; not even the descendant of demigods can escape his fate ; and a whole nation mourns for the brave who falls in fight.³³ The testimony of other writers to the extent of their devastations-is thus summed up by Rawlinson: "Like the bands of Gauls, which, at a later date, ravaged these same regions in the same ruth-

resemblauce of the two names; from the history of the early migrations of the Cimmerians, and the later movements of the Cimbri and the Gauls—comparative philology being silent, but not adverse. An account is added of the migrations of the race —first from east to west, and in later ages back from west to east. ^2H Strabo, i. p. 61.

^2a Strabo, i. p. 6, iii. p. 149: the Thracian Bosporus is clearly meant. ³⁰ Euseb. " Chron." «. Ab. 939 = u.o. 107S ; Syucell. p. 142, c It is worth noting that the Armenian version has Gimmerians. ³¹ Oros. i. 21.

³² Steph. Byz. s. v. "hvTavhpos. See Clinton (" F. H." vol. i. s. aa. 635, 616), who, reckoning Strabo's highest date at 100 years before the first Olympiad, makes the interval from the first appearance of the Cimmerians in Asia Minor to their final expulsion at least 260 years (b.c 876-C16).

³³ Callin. Fr. 2. The poet mentioned both the Cimmerians and Treres as concerned in the iuvasiou (Strabo, xiv. pp. 633-647), which is aa argument for Niebuhr's opinion that they passed through Thrace, and not by the eastern route. But former invasions by way of Thrace may have led the Greeks then, like Strabo in a later age, to confound the two peoples. Some snppose Calliuns to refer to an earlier invasion than that mentioned by Herodotus; but it is most probable that he was contemporary with the capture of Sardis.

RAVAGES OF THE CIMMERIANS.

515

less way,³⁴ the Cimmerian invaders carried ruin and devastation over all the fairest regions of Lower Asia. Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Ionia, Phrygia, even Cilicia—as well as Lydia —were plundered and laid waste. In Phrygia, Midas, the king, despairing of any effectual resistance on the approach of the dreaded foe, is said to have committed suicide.³⁵ In Lydia, as we know from Herodotus, they took the capital city, all but the acropolis. In Ionia they ravaged the valley of the Cayster, besieged Ephesus, and, according to some accounts, burnt the temple of Artemis in its vicinity ;³⁶ after which they are thought to have proceeded southward into the plain of the Marauder, and to have sacked the city of Magnesia.³⁷ One body, under a leader whom the Greeks call Lygdamis, even penetrated as far as Cilicia, and there sustained a terrible reverse at the hands of the hardy mountaineers. The Greeks regarded this as the vengeance of Artemis, for Lygdamis had been the leader in the attack on Ephesus."³⁸

Whether all these devastations belong to the inroad mentioned by Herodotus, can hardly be determined. At all events, this, which he seems to consider the only invasion of the Cimmerians, appears to have been the last. Its peculiar direction may be accounted for by supposing that the invaders were the last portion of the nation displaced by the Scythians, who, hemming them in upon all sides, left them no exit but through the passes of the Caucasus.

§ 7. The Cimmerian invasion lasted during the twelve years of Sadyattes, the son of Ardys;³⁰ but its force must have been spent in the first half of his reign, for he "kindled the flame of war" (to use the phrase of Herodotus) against Miletus, and made incursions into its territory during six years.⁴⁰ The war was left as an inheritance to "his son Alyattes, and occupied the first five of the fifty-seven years that his long reign lasted. In the course of the war, the Milesians sustained two great defeats—one in their own territory, in the district of Limeneium, the other in the plain of the Mseander.⁴¹ But, in spite of these blows, and though they received no aid from any of the Ionians — except the islanders of Chios, who sent them troops, in requital of a like service rendered by Miletus in their war with Erythrag—the

³⁴ Liv. xxxviii. 16, speaking of the Galatians.

³⁵ Enstath. ad Horn. " Od." xi. 14.

³⁶ Hesych. s. v. Avyda/jm. W^Tas his Celtic name Lloyd t

³⁷ Eustath. I. c. But the destruction of Magnesia seems, from Strabo, to have been later than the invasion in which Sardis was taken. (See Rawlinson's Note.)

³⁸ Callimach. "Hymn, ad Dian." 24S-2GO; Rawlinson, "Essay i. to Ilerod." bk.i, § 14.

³⁹ Herod, i. 15. ⁴° Herod, i. IS. ⁴i Ilerod. i. IS.

516

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

city held out for eleven years, and obtained an honorable peace at last.

How this happened is best told in the graphic words of Herodotus, which illustrate a mode of Asiatic warfare : " Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians, Alyattes pressed the siege against the city, by attacking it in the following manner: When the harvest was ripe on the ground, he marched in his army to the sound of pipes and harps, and the male and female flute.⁴² The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them standing as they were. He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed, all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then retired back again. For the Milesians were masters of the sea ; so that there was nothing for his army to do in the way of a blockade. The reason that the Lydians did not destroy the houses was this, that the Milesians might have them to use as homesteads, from which they might go forth to sow and till their lands ; and so, each time that he invaded the country, he might have something to plunder. In this way he carried on the war with the Milesians for eleven years. . . . But in the twelfth year of the war the following mischance occurred from the firing of tlie harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn been set alight, when a violent wind carried the flames against the temple of Athena, surnamed Assesia, which caught fire and was burnt to the ground. At the time, no one made any account of the circumstance ; but afterwards, on the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes fell sick. His illness continuing, .... he sent messengers to Delphi, to inquire of the god concerning his malady. On their arrival, the Pythoness refused to give them a response till they should have rebuilt the temple of Athena, which they had burnt at Assesus, in the Milesian territory."⁴³

He goes on to relate how Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, informed of the oracle by the friendship of Periander, and expecting a message from the Lydian king, had all the corn in the city brought into the market-place, and ordered the people to be ready, the moment he should give the signal, to fall to drinking and revelry. The herald, whom Alyattes ,. sent to demand a truce for the time necessary to rebuild the temple, carried back word to Sardis that he had found all Miletus engaged in feasting. Thereupon the king, who had hoped to hear that the city was in the last stage of famine,

⁴² Larcher seems right in explaining this of a double flute, one shrill and the other grave (treble and base), like the male and female voice. ^t3 Herod, i. 17-19.

REIGN OF CYAXARES.

17

was glad to make a treaty of close alliance with the Milesians. " He then built at Assesus two temples to Athena, instead of one, and shortly after recovered from his malady."⁴⁴

On his recovery, he imitated the example of Gyges by sending offerings to the shrines at Delphi—a silver bowl on an iron base, the latter chased with small figures of animals, insects, and plants; which remained famous through all antiquity as the work of a Chian artist, named Glaucus, who invented the art of joining metals by a solder, or cement, without nails, clamps, or similar fastenings. This Glaucus seems to have lived about a century before Alyattes.⁴⁵

§ 8. Alyattes was consoled for his disappointment at Miletus by the capture of Smyrna; but he suffered a severe defeat in an invasion of the territory of Clazomena?.⁴⁶ The en terprise of driving the Cimmerians out of Asia Minor⁴⁷ seems to have interrupted the attempts upon the Greek cities, in which his success had been so imperfect. The Cimmerian settlement, which remained at Sinope, indicates the direction in which the Cimmerians retired; and it was probably in pushing on the war against them that Alyattes was led to extend his conquests towards the Halys, and was brought into contact with Cyaxares, who was advancing westward perhaps through a similar cause, the pursuit of the expelled Scythians.⁴⁸

§ 9. Cyaxares, as we have seen,⁴⁹ succeeded to the throne of Media after the death of his father Phraortes in the attack on Media; or rather, as is more probable, he founded the Median kingdom itself, about b.c. 634. This was seventeen years before the accession of Alyattes in Lydia, b.c 6l7.^6a After telling how Cyaxares organized the Median army, which would of course be his first business, Herodotus says: "This is he who fought with the Lydians, when the night

⁴⁴ Herod, i. 22.

⁴⁵ Herod, i. 25; Paus. x. 16, § 1; Atheu. v. p. 210, b, c; Plutarch. " de Del". Orac." 47, p. 436, a. See " Diet, of Grk. and Rom. Biography," art. Glacccs.

⁴⁶ Herod, i. 16.

⁴⁷ Herod, i. 16.

^4S Lenormant says that Alyattes, turning from his Ionian wars to the interior of Asia Minor, subjugated in a few years not only Phrygia, but Cappadocia, aud was thus brought into that conflict with Cyaxares which resulted in confining the Lydian power within the Halys, and giving Cappadocia to Media. For this we can find no authority, and Herodotus seems to imply that Phrygia was conquered by Croesus. But, considering the length of the reign of Alyattes, which lasted (according to the chronology generally received) nearly fifty years after the Median war, it is very likely that he began to reduce the countries within the limit assigned by the treaty, and that Croesus only completed the work.

⁴⁹ See chap, xix., fin.

⁵⁰ That is, according to Clinton's chronology. According to Rawlinson, who places the accession of Alyattes in b.c 625, the difference would be only nine years. The latter date places the accession of Alyattes in the very year to which the same author assigns the taking of Nineveh by Cyaxares.

518

I.YDIA AND MEDIA.

was turned into day as they fought, and who brought under his dominion the whole of Asia above the River Halys."⁵¹

The form of this sentence looks like a general notice of the king's chief exploit; and this is not necessarily meant to be ■—as, in fact, it could hardly have been — previous to the events which Herodotus goes on to relate: "But having collected all who were subject to him, he marched against Nineveh, to take vengeance for his father, and wishing to destroy this city. And when he had defeated the Assyrians in an engagement, there came against him a great army of the Scythians, led by Madyes, king of the Scythians, son of Prothyes. These invaded Asia, having driven the Cimmerians out of Europe, and following them in their flight till they reached the Median territory." How these Scythians reached Media, while pursuing the Cimmerians who fled into Asia Minor, he explains as follows : " While the Cimmerians kept the line by the sea-shore, the Scythians missed their road, and struck inland, keeping the Caucasus on their right, and so poured into Media;⁵² which must mean that they came down through Dayhestan and the Pass of Derbend, between the eastern extremity of Caucasus and the western shore of the Caspian.⁵³ The Medes gave them battle, but were defeated and lost their empire, and the Scythians became masters of Asia. They marched forward with the design of invading Egypt; but were met in Palestine by Psammetichus, who prevailed on them, by gifts and prayers, to advance no farther."⁵⁴

After telling how some of the Scythians, on tlieir return, plundered the temple of the celestial Aphrodite⁵⁵ at Ascalon, and how the goddess visited their sacrilege with a perpetual punishment, he adds that " the dominion of the Scythians over Asia lasted twenty-eight years,⁵" during which time

⁶¹ Herod, i. 103. Even admitting that Herodotus meant his order for that of the events, his idea of their order is of course subject to criticism.

⁶² Herod, i. 104; iv. 12-53. Herodotus adds that this account is common both to the Greeks and the barbariaus—a statement of more than usual importance here, as suggesting that he may have been misled by supposing that the names used by the Orientals referred to the same people whom the Greeks called Scythians.

^£S This, which the aucieuts called the Caspice or Albania; Pylce, is the onby practicable pass of the Caucasus, besides the Pass of Dariel (Caucasia? Pyla>) in the middle of the chain, which has been already mentioned as that by which the Cimmerians Q>ust have entered Asia; at least if Herodotus is right in bringing them from the aast at all.

⁶⁴ Herod, i. 105. Psammetichus would be engaged at this time in the siege of Azotns (Ilerod. ii. 157).

⁵⁵ Atergatis or Derceto, the female deity associated with Dagon.

⁶⁶ Herod, i. 1G0. He clearly means (from the last words of the chapter) these 2S years to be included in, and to be reckoned a part of, the 40 years of Cyaxares (b.o. 634-594); and it is equally clear that he puts the capture of Nineveh after (in fact as a result of) the expulsion of the Scythians. If we could feel bound by these statements in their exact numerical details, they would furnish a strong argument for

THE ASIATIC SCYTHIANS.

their insolence and oppression spread ruin on every side. For, besides the regular tribute,⁵⁷ they exacted from the several nations additional imposts, which they fixed at pleasure; and, further, they scoured the country, and plundered every one of whatever they could. At length Cyaxares and the Medes invited the greater part of them to a banquet, and made them drunk with wine, after which they were all massacred. The Medes then recovered their empire, and had the same extent of dominion as before. They took Nineveh, and conquered all Assyria, except the district of Babylonia. After this Cyaxares died, having reigned over the Medes, if we include the time of the Scythian rule, forty years."⁶⁸

§ 10. This story forms one of the puzzles of ancient Asiatic history. The precise nationality of these " Scythians," the nature and time of their dominion, aud its relation to the history of Media—all these are problems awaiting their full solution. For, first, when we read of Scythians at this period, we must not rush to the conclusion that they belonged to that great Turanian or Tartar race of Central Asia, which is generally known by that name in ancient geography. This is only one of three significations of the name. It is applied also to the remains, which existed in all the countries of Western Asia, of that primitive Turanian race which was once the prevailing population, and of which the Tartars of Central Asia were but one family, if indeed they belonged to it at all.^5a Lastly, there are the'Scyths of Europe—so called by Herodotus, Hippocrates, and other Greeks—whose generally admitted relation to the Mongolian race has been questioned, but not on very strong grounds.⁶⁰

§ 11. There seems, indeed, reason to doubt whether Scythian was originally an ethnic name, and not rather, as we now

u.o. G06 as the date of the capture of Nineveh. The 2S years of Scythian domination would then begin at the accession of Cyaxares, in u.o. 034; and this must be the date of his first attack on Nineveh ; and room must be found before it for his previous organization and conquests. Those who accept the date of n.c. GOG (as MM. Oppert and Lenormant) feel compelled to make the arbitrary alteration of 2S into 18, in order to bring the first attack on Nineveh to u.o. 025, the epoch of Nabopolassar's independent reign at Babylon. It is, however, remarkable that Herodotus knows nothing of the Babylonian alliance, and ascribes the attack on Nineveh to the Medes alone.

⁵⁷ This seems to imply a full usurpation of the functions of government, and not a mere predatory inroad. ⁵⁸ Herod, i. 106.

^£9 This qualification has respect to the indications—which seem to come out more iu proportion as the snbject is pursued farther—of that close connection between these primitive Turanians and the Aryan type, which is sometimes expressed by calling them Scytho-Aryans, as if they were a mixed population, and sometimes by regarding them as an ancient type of theJaphetic race, before its decided bifurcation into the Aryan and Turanian families. There seems now to be established a close connection between the Turanian and Aryan races, on the one hand, as between the Hamitic and Semitic on the other.

⁶⁰ See Rawlinson, "Essay ii. to Herodotus," bookiv.

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LYDIA AND MEDIA.

use Nomad, a generic designation of certain wandering or pastoral tribes—Tartars in habit, but not necessarily in race. Such was evidently the idea attached to the name on its first introduction into the Greek language ; for Hesiod applies it to the Hippemolgi (" milkers of mares ") whom Homer had already described, by this as well as the names of Galactopha-gi ("milk-eaters") and Abii ("abstainers from violence"),⁶¹ as a pastoral race of primitive simplicity and justice; and iEschylus had a similar idea of "the Scythians living according to just laws, eaters of mares'-milk cheese."⁶² Elsewhere, however, following less poetical sources, and referring to the region called Scythia by Herodotus, he describes "the nomad Scythians, who inhabit houses of wicker-work mounted on wheeled cars, with far-darting bows slung to them," as a people to be avoided.⁶³ Thus the name, which seems to have come into the Greek language between the times of Homeland of Hesiod, has with vEschylus, besides the old poetical sense, the more definite meaning which is fully worked out in Herodotus. Both name and information doubtless came from the same source—Greek intercourse with the shores of the Euxine, at first through the nearer nations, the Thracians and the tribes between the Danube. For the name is not Greek, and neither is it native. There is not a trace of it among any of the nations whom the Greeks described by it; and the European Scythians, the first people to whom it was definitely applied, are distinctly said to have called themselves by a different name. " Collectively they are named Seoloti, after one of their kings; the Greeks, however, call them Scythians."⁰⁴

⁶¹ "II." xiii. 5, G; "Hesiod," Fr. G3, 04. The word 'A/3iav, in the former passage, may be derived either from <i privative and (3ia (as in the text), or from u and /3/or, "with scanty means of life." Homer's "Abii, justest of men," clearly reappear iu the Gabii of iEschylus: " You will come to a people the most just of all mortals aud most hospitable to strangers, the Gabii, where neither plough nor earth-cuttiug spade cuts the furrows, but the self-sown fields bear abundant food to mortals." ("Prom. Sol." Fr. 1S4.) Homer connects his Hippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii with the Thracians and Mysians (i. e., of Europe), as if speaking in general of the pas. toral tribes north of Thrace (cf. Strabo, vii. 3, §§ 7, 8).

" "Prometh. Solut."Fr. 180, ed.Dindorf.

°3 ^Esch. "Prom. Vinct." 709-711. Their locality is away, but not far, from a sea-coast, evidently that of the Euxine, and their habitations answer to the "houses on wagons " spoken of by Herodotus (iv. 4G). Hesiod also describes his milk-eaters as "having their honses upou carts." It may be observed, in passing, that this milk-diet, however innocent au naturel, or in the form of cheese (Hippocrates, vol. i. p. 556, ed. Ktthn), probably served also the purpose of procuring an intoxicating drink, like that called Kumiss at the present day among the Bashkirs and the Kalmucks. (See Grote, "Hist, of Greece," vol. iii. p. .323.)

⁸⁴ Herod, iv. 6. The Greek word ikvO^ is probably the same as the Asiatic Saca, with Or]? as an ethnic termination, equivalent to the more usual rrj?. Some have imagined a connection with the old Norse skyta, German sclmtzen, English shoot; and it is remarkable that the Scythians within the Persian empire were known specifically as "archers;" but resemblances of this sort must not be much relied on.

THE ASIATIC SCYTHIANS.

521

§ 12. In the Persian inscriptions the name appears as Saka; and the Sacce of Greek writers on Persian affairs are simply Asiatic Scyths. Herodotus says that Sacce is the name which the Persians give to all Scythians.⁶⁵ Xow it is remarkable that, in the Babylonian transcript of the Achse-menid inscriptions, the word answering to the Saka of the Persian and Scytho-Median columns is Gimiri, a term which elsewhere, in Babylonian, always means the tribes.⁶⁶ If this word had originally an ethnic sense, its form would point to the Cimmerians as the first nomad race known to (at least) the Semitic inhabitants of Western Asia. The Persian inscriptions distinguish between the Saka Tigrakhuda and the Saka Hwnawarga. The former—whose name appears, from the Babylonian transcript, to mean Scythian boivmen— were doubtless the remains of the old nomad population (generally called Turanian), which maintained itself within the bounds of the Persian empire,⁶⁷

The Saka Humawarga are at once identified with the Amyrgian Scythians of Herodotus⁶⁸ and of Hellanicus, who states that their name was geographical,⁶⁹ Herodotus describes them in the army of Xerxes: " The Sacse, or Scyths, were clad in trowsers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps, rising to a point.⁷⁰ They bore the bow of their country, and the dagger: besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris." Their position in the army, in the same corps with the Bactrians, agrees with their geographical locality. They were neighbors of the Bactrians, and both nations were subdued by Cyrus in the same war. The Sacaa were, in fact, the nomad race whom the Persians found on their northern frontier, along which they'extended from Asterabadto JBalkh in the area, and probably as the ancestors, of the present Turcomans and Uzbeks. The Sacse appear to have belonged to the Turkish stock, perhaps with a Mongolian intermixture. It has been thought that the Amyrgian Sacae may have been Ugrians, their name being derived from the Ugrian

The same caution applies to Dr. Donaldson's explanation of Scoloti as = Asa-Galatce, i. e., Celts of Asia, a name which the people are very unlikely to have used for themselves. After all, the forms Xnvt) and Scolot are not so very unlike, and Herodotus may have meant that the former was a Greek modification of the latter.

⁶⁵ Herod, iv. G4.

⁶⁶ Sir H. Rawlinson, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. iv. p. 210. Gimiri is equivalent to the term u\\6<}>v\oi, which Greek writers apply to the Scythic element in the population of Western Asia. Its resemblance to the Scriptural Gomer, and to Cimmerii and Cymry, has been already noticed.

⁶⁷ They appear occasionally as attendants on the Persian kings.

⁶⁸ Herod, iv. 04.

⁶⁹ He derives it from an Amyrgian plain: 'Auvpytov^edlov ZaKwv' 'EWdwfco? 2xu(W (Hellan. Fr. 171; op. Steph. Byz. s. v. 'A/ju'ipycov).

⁷⁰ See two representations of such caps from the Behistun sculpture, and from a very anient tablet in Cappadocia, iu Rawlinson's Herod, ad. loc

522

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

root, m-r-d = man. The researches of Mr. Norris on the Scytho-Median column of the cuneiform inscriptions have led him to the opinion that there was at least one invasion of Media effected by members of the Ugrian stock—probably from Orenburg or Kazan. History gives us no time when the Turks of the Persian frontier, the Sacaa, were not pressing southward.⁷¹

§ 13. From all this it will be seen that very different meanings may be found in the story of a Scythian domination in Western Asia. It might be a temporary recovery of ascendency by the conquered Turanian population—an hypothesis beset with improbabilities too many to be fully stated here ; and those who resort to it feel bound to suppose a reinforcement by a new invasion from the north. Or it might be a real inroad from the country of the Asiatic Scyths, or Sacaa, whom Herodotus might easily confound with those European Scyths, to whom his attention was more particularly directed ; especially as he would be led by the common name to try to reconcile the accounts which he picked up in Media, and in Lydia, and from the Pontic Greeks. Or, if we suppose him to have been well informed in his very definite statements about their entrance into Asia by the pass of Derbend, and their falling upon Media from that side, it may still be doubted from what part of the region north of Caucasus they came, and to which of the northern (or eastern) nomad races they belonged.⁷² The near coincidence of their inroad, both as to time and probable duration, is very remarkable; and we can not but suppose that Herodotus followed some definite authority in naming the exact period of 28 years.

It is not impossible, after all, that both the Cimmerian invasion of Asia Minor and the Scythian invasion of Media may have been but parts of that great irruption of which the memory is preserved by Herodotus, by the lyric poets of Ionia, and, as some suppose, even by Hebrew prophecy.⁷³ Such are the repeated allusions in the earlier chapters of Jeremiah—which fall within Josiah's reign—to an invasion symbolized by a seething caldron with its face towards t/ic north, and explained by the words: " Oat of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land

⁷¹ Their name appears in Sacastene (= Segestan): the Parthians were of the Scythian stock, as the resemblance of the name suggests that the original occupants of Persia were also; those of Carmania, too, seem to have been Saca;.

⁷² Of course no authority can be attached to the story of their pursuing the Cimmerians and missing their way; which is a manifest device to bring them from the region on the north of the Euxine, which was known to Herodotus as Scythia.

⁷³ See Mure's " Hist, of Greek Lit." vol. iii. p. 133, foil.

MEDIAN AND LYDIAN WAR.

(or the earth). For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord."⁷⁴ .... "I will bring

evil from the north, and a great destruction, etc..... The

whole city shall flee/br the noise of the horsemen and boio-men," etc.⁷⁵ .... " Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far .... it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not. . . . Their quiver is as an open sepulclxre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword."⁷⁶ .... "Tliey shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array," etc.⁷⁷ In every point these poetic descriptions agree with the Asiatic nomads described by Herodotus, and with the Calmucks in our own times.

§ 14. The war between Media and Lydia is connected by Herodotus with the prese nce of the Scythians in Asia, in a way which seems to show that he followed different accounts in different parts of his history. "A band of Scythian nomads, who had left their own land on occasion of some disturbance, heal taken refuge in Media" They were received as suppliants by Cyaxares, who employed them as archers and huntsmen. At length their native ferocity broke out in resentment of the king's anger at their ill-success one day in hunting. So, in place of game, they served up to him the flesh of one of the Median boys who had been intrusted to them to learn their language and the use of the bow, and fled with all speed to the court of Alyattes at Sardis. The refusal of the Lydian king to give them up caused a war between the Lydians and Medes, which lasted for five years, with various success. The Medes gained many victories over the Lydians, and the Lydians also gained many victories over the Medes. Among other battles there was one night engagement. As, however, the balance had not inclined in favor of either nation, another combat took place in the sixth year, in the course of which, just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very

⁷⁴ Jerem. i. 13-1G: see Ewald, "Propheten," ad loc. ⁷⁵ Jerem. iv. 6-31.

⁷⁶ Jerem. v. 15-17. The ensuing words, "In those days I will not make a full end with you," prove that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians is not meant. <⁷ Jerem. vi. 22-25; see also x. 22.

524

LYDIA AND MEDIA.

year in which it actually took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on. But those who brought them to an agreement were Syennesis the Cilician and Labynetus the Babylonian.⁷⁸ In their eagerness to bind the rival kings, the mediators regarded oaths as insufficient—(political human nature never changes)—so they arranged the marriage of Aryenis, the daughter of Alyattes, to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares.⁷⁹ It seems to be implied that this treaty fixed the Halys as the boundary between the Median and Lydian empires.⁸⁰

The trivial occasion alleged for the war does not need much discussion ; but it serves to suggest the probability that the Median and Lydian kings, each pressing forward in the like enterprise of driving out the nomad invaders, might come into collision on the frontiers of Armenia and Cappadocia. Far more important is the date of the war, and its relation to the fall of Nineveh. The " Eclipse of Thales," as it is called, is, unfortunately, far from decisive of the question ; and it is only till we obtain the further light which may be expected from the Assyrian records, that we can accept provisionally the date, towards which the best modern authorities preponderate, of b.c 610 for the peace of Cyaxares with Alyattes.⁸¹

§ 15. Cyaxares died in b.c 594; but the reign of Alyattes was prolonged nearly to the fall of the Median empire under Astyages.⁸² The history of the last kings of Media and Lydia is inseparable from that of Cyrus and the rise of Persia. Meanwhile, it only remains to be recorded of Alyattes that, after spending his remaining years, most probably, in his Ionian wars, he was buried in a tomb which Herodotus de-

⁷⁸ The terras 6 Kt'Xif,, and 6 p,a/3u\wvio? would mean, according to the usual analog, though not necessarily, the Kings of Cilicia and Babylonia. We have already noticed the difficulty involved in the name of Labynetus, when the King of Babylon was Nabopolassar—that is, accepting is.o. G10 for the date of the battle (see chap. xv. § 6). The difficulty is not lessened by the later date (u.o. 597), when Nebnchadnezzar was king. In either case there is the hypothetical explanation, that this Labynetus (a name probably representing the Babylonian Nabunit) was some prince of the royal blood; but this is hardly satisfactory. (Comp. above, chap. xv. § 5.)

⁷⁹ Herod, i. 73,74; cf. chap. 103. ⁸⁰ Herod, i. 72, cf. 103.

⁸¹ Those who are in favor of b.o. 606 for the fall of Nineveh give n.c. 597 for the peace; and the combination of is c. 610 for the peace, and b.c. GOO for the capture of Nineveh, is worth considering. We had much to say upon the probabilities of the whole series of events, in reiaflon to the statements of Herodotus; but there is not space for an argument, which would still be inconclusive in the absence of further data. The date of s.c. 5S5 for the eclipse, adopted by Mr. Bosanquet ("Fall of Nineveh," p. 14), though based on such astronomical authorities as the Astronomer Royal and Mr. Hind, would alter the whole story of Herodotus by bringing the eclipse into the reigns of Astyages and Croesus.

⁸² This happening n.c. 559. The death of Alyattes is placed by Clinton in u.o. 5G0, by Rawlinson in n.c. 56S, by Lenormant in u.o. 558.

DEATHS OE CYAXARES AND ALYATTES.

525

scribes as the one noticeable structure in all Lydia, and only inferior to the monuments of Egypt and Babylon.⁸³

Alyattes was twice married, to a Carian woman, who was the mother of Croesus, and to an Ionian, the daughter of Pan-taleon—another sign of Greek influence in Lydia.⁸⁴

⁸³ Herod, i. 93. For a full description of the monument iu its present state, see .Rawlinson's uote, ad loc.

⁸⁴ Herod, i. 9'2.

Tomb of Alyattes, Sepulchral Chamber.

Tomb of Cyrus at Murghdb, the ancient Pasargada?.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.-B.C. 594-558-

§ 1. Period of repose and alliance between Babylon, Media, and Lydia. § 2. Astyages, last kin<; of Media. His court and character. 5 3. His relations with Armenia. Early history of the country. § 4. Under the early Babylonian monarchy, the Egyptians, and the Assyrians. § 5. The native kingdom of Van. § 6. Armenia under the Lower Assyrian Dynasty. § 7. Relations to Media. Tigbanes I. § S. Story of his war with, and conquest of, Astyages. 5 9. Armenia under the Persians. §10. Position of Persia under the Median supremacy. §11. The Ten Tribes of the Persians. § 12. Family of the AoilemekidjE. The royal house of Persia. Camhyses, the father of Cyrus, a real king of Persia. § 13. Legend of the birth and early life of Cyrus. His true place in history. § 14. His motives for overthrowing the Median supremacy. § 35. Different accounts of the Revolution—by Herodotus—by Xenophon—by Nicolas of Damascus. § 16. Nature of the Medo-Persian Empire. § 17. Treatment of Astyages by Cyrus.

§ 1. The peace made between Cyaxares and Alyattes lasted for fifty years, according to the commonly-received chronology (b.c. 610-560). This period was ended by one of the most marked revolutionary epochs in all history. At the very time when the Median empire was transferred to the Persians under Cyrus, the throne of Lydia was ascended by Croesus, who precipitated the conflict which brought the power of Persia to the shores of the ^Egean.¹ It was, moreover, in the year n.c. 560 that the usurpation of Pisistratus

¹ The accession of Croesus is placed by Clinton in r..c. 500, by Lenormant in u.c 55S ; the overthrow of Astyages by Cyrns belongs to i!.c. 559 or 55S.

ASTYAGES, LAST KING OF MEDIA.

527

set in motion a chain of causes which prepared Athens for the noble and decisive part that she had to play in the ensuing conflict.

During this half-century, as Professor Rawlinson observes, "the nations of the Asiatic continent, about to suffer cruelly from one of those fearful convulsions which periodically shake the East, seem to have been allowed an interval of profound repose. The three great monarchies of the East— the Lydian, the Median, and the Babylonian—connected together by treaties and royal intermarriages, respected each other's independence, and levied war only against the lesser powers in their neighborhood, which were absorbed without much difficulty."² Nor was there any tendency in these minor wars to bring the three great powers into collision. While the Lydian king found probably full occupation in organizing his power within the Halys, and repairing the effects of the Cimmerian inroad, the enterprises of the kings of Babylon and Media led them to the very opposite extremities of their dominions. The wars of Nebuchadnezzar with Judaea, Egypt, and Tyre, were succeeded by the peaceful splendor of his later years; and the only foreign relations of the last unwarlike King of Media recall our attention to a most interesting country, of which frequent but only incidental mention has occurred in the histories of Assyria and Media. One sign of the intimate relations between Babylon and Media is furnished by the statement of Polyhistor, that Cyaxares sent a Median contingent to aid Nebuchadnezzar in the war against Jehoiakim (b.c. 597).³

§ 2. Astyages, or Asdaiiages,⁴ or (as Ctesias calls him) As-padas,⁵ succeeded his father Cyaxares about b.c 594-3, and had reigned 35 years when he was deposed by Cyrus, in b.o. 559-8. The empire won by the father was lost by the son in the short space of 70 years. Nor is this surprising. The conquest of Cyaxares was purely military; and the inheritor of his power sat down quietly to enjoy the pomp and luxury of an Eastern throne. Scanty as is our information about the events of his reign, the character of Astyages and the ceremonial of his court at Ecbatana have been depicted for us with a minuteness which we could fain wish were most trustworthy. But it is impossible to doubt that many of the details given by Herodotus, Xenophon, and Nicolas of Damascus, are drawn from the court of the Persian kings;

² " Essay iii. to Herod." i. § 10.

³ Polyhistor, aj>. Enseb. "Praep. Ev.;" Muller, "Frag. Hist. Gifec."vol. iii. p. 229. Cyaxares is here called Astibaras, as he is by Ctesias. ⁴ Enseb. " Chron."

⁶ These are Greek forms of the Median name Ajdahak, or Ajtahaga, "the biting snake," which was perhaps an old Scythic royal title. (Comp. chap. xix. 5 9.)

528 THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

though the full descriptions of Xenophon, in his romance of the Cyropcedia, are the more suspicious, from his avowed purpose of contrasting the luxury of Astyages with the hardy discipline in which Cyrus had been trained. Still the generic likeness among all these Oriental courts, and the especial resemblance to that of Assyria, are reasons for accepting the broad outline which Rawlinson has combined from these writers.

"The monarch lived secluded, and could only be seen by those who asked and obtained an audience. He was surrounded by guards and eunuchs, the latter of whom held most of the offices near the royal person. The court was magnificent in its apparel, in its banquets, and in the number and organization of its attendants. The courtiers wore long, flowing robes of many different colors, among which red and purple predominated; and adorned their necks with chains or collars of gold, and their wrists with bracelets of the same precious metal. Even the horses on which they rode had sometimes golden bits to their bridles. One officer of the court was especially called ' the King's Eye;' another had the privilege of introducing strangers to him ; a third was his cup-bearer; a fourth his messenger. Guards, torch-bearers, serving-men, ushers, and sweepers, were among the orders into which the lower sort of attendants were divided ; while among the courtiers of the highest rank was a privileged class, known as 'the king's table companions.' The chief pastime in which the court indulged was hunting. Generally this took place in a park, or ' paradise,' near the capital; but sometimes the king and court went out on a grand hunt into the open country, where lions, leopards, bears, wild boars, wild asses, antelopes, stags, and wild sheep abounded; and, when the beasts had been driven by beaters into a confined space, dispatched them with arrows and javelins. Prominent at the court, according to Herodotus, was the priestly caste of the Magi. Held in the highest honor by both king and people, they were in constant attendance, ready to expound omens or dreams, and to give their advice on all matters of state policy. The religious ceremonial was, as a matter of course, under their charge; and it is probable that high state offices were often conferred upon them. Of all classes of the people, they were the only one that could feel they had a real influence over the monarch, and might claim to share in his sovereignty.'¹⁶

Astyages himself is described us remarkably handsome/

^e Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 217, IS. ⁷ Xen. "Cyrop."i.3,5 2.

RELATIONS OF ASTYAGES WITH ARMENIA.

52U

cautious in policy,⁸ and of a noble spirit.⁹ His keen and dignified rebuke of the insults of Harpagus upon his'fall would be a good illustration of both the latter qualities, did not the speech look rather like the reflections of a Greek on a betrayer of his own country.¹⁰ An example of his policy is given in the story told by Nicolas of Damascus of his peaceful subjection of the wild and powerful Cadusii, on the shores of the Caspian (in Talish and Ghikni).¹¹ The legend of his fall, as related by Herodotus, conveys the impression of a self-indulgent king, secure in his despotic power, but wantonly cruel when his suspicion was aroused, and in avenging disobedience. Herodotus distinctly specifies his cruelty as the cause of the subjection of the Medes to the Persians ;¹² and Aristotle says that Cyrus was encouraged to attack him through contempt of his luxurious life and the weakness of his rule.

§ 3. The whole history of the reign of Astyages would be included in the story of his fall, were it not for the curious account of his relations with Armenia, preserved by Moses of Chorene, the historian of that country. Though confirmed by no other testimony, aud directly at variance with Herodotus, this account is too plainly a native tradition to be altogether rejected. At all events, it throws some light on the condition of Armenia at the time of the establishment of the Persian empire.

The great table-land which rises abruptly from the Mesopotamian valley, and descends by a more gradual slope on the north-western side to the plains which sever it from the chain of Caucasus, has borne the name of Armenia from the time when the Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty made war with the Remenen to the present day ; but there are traces of older names and populations in the land. The native traditions give Haiasdan as the first name of the country, and make its earliest inhabitants a race (apparently Hamite) who migrated under IRug from the Plain of Babel immediately after the confusion of tongues. The superposition of a Japhetic race is indicated by the Togarmah of Scripture,¹³ a name which is clearly identified with Armenia. " The house of Togarmah of the north quarters¹' is connected by Ezekiel with Gomer, Meschech, and Tubal; and its '"horses, with horsemen and mules,"¹⁴ correspond to the tribute of 20.000

⁸ ^Esch. "Pers." 703.

⁸ Nicol. Damasc. Fr. 06, p. 39S. ¹⁰ Herod, i. 129.

¹¹ Nicol. Damasc. pp. 399, 400. ¹² Ilerod. i. 130.

¹³ Geo. x. 3; 1 Chron. i. 6. Togarmah is the son of Gomer, ton of Japbsth, an:. the brother of Ashkenaz aud Riphath.

¹⁴ Ezek. xxxviii. 0, xxvii. 14.

23

530 THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

young horses of a fine breed, which the Persian king received from the satrap of Armenia at the yearly feast of Mithra.¹⁵ The national traditions speak of Togarmah as the common progenitor of the whole nation ; and they connect Armenag —the hero-eponymus of the Japhetic Armenians, and the second colonizer of the land—with Ilaig, the first colonizer, by a fictitious genealogy. The predominance of a Turanian population in Armenia, during the period of the Assyrian empire, is attested by the dialect of the cuneiform inscriptions in the region of Lake Van, as well as by the names of the native rulers whom they commemorate. The Aryan race, whose supremacy is attested by the language of the country down to the present day, appears to have gained the preponderance during the seventh century b.c.—perhaps in consequence of the same great westward movement of the Iranians in which the Medes took part.

The political relations of Armenia are intimately connected with its physical character. The table-land is intersected by parallel ranges of lofty mountains, with gently-sloping lower hills. The intervening valleys are in part narrow and isolated glens, in part broad and fertile plains, like that of the Araxes. Such a formation almost necessarily forbids the establishment of a strong central government of the whole country, and makes its severed valleys the homes of independent tribes, strong against each other, but exposed to be attacked in detail by a powerful neighbor. The masters of Mesopotamia had a special reason for making such attacks, as the upper courses both of the Tigris and the Euphrates lay within the mountains of Armenia. But these ranges, running east and west, present their steepest side to the south, unlike the chains of Zagrus, which, with an axis almost at right angles to the other, slope gently to the basin of the Tigris. " It follows from this contrast that, while Zagrus invites the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian plain to penetrate its recesses—which are at first readily accessible, and only groAV wild and savage towards the interior—the Armenian mountains repel by presenting their greatest difficulties and most barren aspect at once, seeming, with their, rocky sides and snow-clad summits, to form an almost insurmountable obstacle to an invading host. Assyrian history bears traces of this difference ; for while the mountain region to the east is gradually subdued and occupied by the people of the plain, that on the north continues to the last in a state of hostility and semi-independence."¹⁶

§ 4. In this respect, however, a difference is to be re*

¹⁵ Strabo, p. 529. ¹⁶ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. i. p. 261.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF VAX.

marked between two sections of the land. The western valleys were more approachable by an enemy ascending the Tigris, and especially the Euphrates; and inroads into these" regions gave the earliest rulers of Mesopotamia a sort of claim to the conquest of Armenia. If faith were given to the lists of kings preserved by Moses of Chorene, we should not only reckon Armenia among the dominions of the old Babylonian monarchy under Ismidagon and Khammarubi, but carry back its conquest to the defeat of an Armenian king, Anushavan, in the eighteenth century b.c More substantial is the testimony of the Egyptian records, which represent Thothmes III. as following np his conquest of the Mesopotamian JRutert by pursuing the Lemenen or Armenen into their mountains. When the Egyptian supremacy in Mesopotamia yielded to that of Assyria, the conquest of Armenia appears to have been effected by Ninip-pal-zira; and the Assyrian religion obtained a footing which it held to historic times. The worship of the goddess Anahid, or Ana-itis, was a conspicuous feature of the Armenian religion.

§ 5. In the south-eastern part of Armenia, however, was a district specially defended by nature. The triangular basin of Lake Van (the ancient Arsissa Pains) lies at the intersection of the Armenian ranges with those of Zagrus, which forms the nucleus of both mountain systems. Protected on the south by the chain of Niphates, and by high ranges on every other side, it is " an isolated region, a sort of natural citadel, where a strong military power would be likely to establish itself. Accordingly, it is here, and here alone in all Armenia, that we find signs of the existence of a great organized monarchy during the Assyrian and Median periods. The Van inscriptions indicate to us a line of kings who bore sway in the eastern Armenia—the true Ararat—and who were, both in civilization and military strength, far in advance of any of the other princes who divided among them the Armenian territory. The Van monarchs may have been at times formidable enemies of the Medes. They have left traces of their dominion, not only on the tops of the mountain-passes which lead into the basin of Lake Urumiyeh, but even in the comparatively low plain of Miyandab, on the southern shore of that inland sea. It is probable from this that they were at one time masters of a large portion of Media Atropatene."¹⁷

§ 6. In Ctesias's legend of the first capture of Nineveh under Sardanapalus, Arbaces and Belesys are aided by one of these kings of Ararat, named Barouir, who became sovereign

¹⁷ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 39.

532 THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN By CYRUS.

of all Armenia. The Assyrian kings of the lower dynasty constantly record their Armenian campaigns, and claim the subjection of the southern part of the country at least; but it may be doubted whether they effected any permanent conquest. Sargon has recorded in the inscriptions at Khorsabad the internecine war which he waged with Ursa (the JIartchea of Moses of Chorene), king of all Armenia, and his vassals, among whom was Ullusun of Van. It was about the same time that Argistis (the Gornhag of Moses) executed those great works in the rocks of the acropolis of Van (where his name is still to be read) which popular tradition ascribed to Semiramis.

§ 7. The conquest of Armenia is claimed for the Median Phraortes ; but it seems more probable that the Armenian kings made an alliance with the kindred Medes against their common Assyrian and Scythian enemies, in which a nominal supremacy was accorded to the stronger power. Such seems to be the relation borne to Astyages by the Armenian king who figures in the story told by Moses of Chorene. Ti-granes (Dikranu), the first of that name, which became famous five hundred years later in the Avars with Lucullus and Pompey, is one of the great popular heroes of Armenia. His portrait is drawn by Moses of Chorene, evidently from the native poets : "A hero with fair hair, tipped with silver, with a ruddy face,and a look sweet as honey: his limbs robust, his shoulders broad, his legs nimble, his foot well moulded : always sober in repast, and regulated in his pleasures. Our ancestors celebrated to the sound of the pampirn (a sort of lute with metal chords) his moderation in the pleasures of the senses, his magnanimity, his eloquence, his beneficent qualities in all that affected his fellow-men. Always just in his judgments, and the friend of equity, he held the balance in his hand, and weighed each one's actions, lie neither envied those greater than himself, nor despised his inferiors : his only ambition was to cover all with the mantle of his* care."

§ 8. The sister of this king was the second wife of Astyages.¹⁸ Moses of Chorene—whose whole narrative is colored by the manifest purpose of transferring the fame of the conquest of Media from the Persians to the Armenians—represents this marriage as the first step in a plot devised by the jealous fears excited in Astyages by an alliance formed be-

¹⁸ Rawlinson says the third wife, making Anusia the second; but it is more probable that the Anusia of Moses is no other than the Aryenis of Herodotus—the daughter of Alyattes, whom Astyages married at the end of the war between Lydia and Media.

ARMENIA UNDER THE PERSIANS. 533

tween Cyrus and Tigranes, both of whom the story makes independent kings, able to bring large forces into the held. "His fears were increased by a dream, in which he thought he saw the Armenian monarch riding upon a dragon, and coming* through the air to attack him in his own palace, where ne was quietly worshipping his gods. Regarding this vision as certainly portending an invasion of his empire by the Armenian prince, he resolved to anticipate his designs by subtlety, aud, as the first step, demanded in marriage the sister of Tigranes, who bore the name of Tigrania (in Armenian, Dikranuhr). Tigranes consented, and the wedding was celebrated, Tigrania becoming the chief or favorite wife of the Median king, in lieu of a certain Anusia, who had previously held that honorable position. At first, attempts were made to induce Tigrania to lend herself to a conspiracy by which her brother was to be entrapped and his person secured ; but, this plan failing through her sagacity, the mask was thrown off, and preparations made for war. The Armenian prince, anticipating his enemy, collected a vast army aud invaded Media, where he was met by Astyages in person. For some months the war languished, since Tigranes feared that his pressing it would endanger the life of his sister ; but at Inst she succeeded in effecting her escape, and he found himself free to act. Hereupon he brought about a decisive engagement, and, after a conflict which for a long time was doubtful, the Median army was completely defeated, and Astyages fell by the hand of his brother-in-law. Cyrus is not represented as taking any part in this war, though afterwards he is mentioned as aiding Tigranes in the^ conquest of Media and Persia, which are regarded as forming a part of the dominions of the Armenian king."¹⁹

§ 9. It is impossible to accept this story, in so far as it contradicts the otherwise universal testimony which ascribes the overthrow of the Median empire to the Persians under Cyrus. But the exaggerations of national vanity are rather the parasites of historic truth than the self-sown growth of sheer falsehood ; and the Persians may, on their part, have concealed some substantial aid derived from an Armenian revolt against Astyages. It may have been as his share of the com mon booty that Tigranes'carried back, as Moses tells us, the first wife "of Astyages, with 10,000 Medes, whom he settled in the plain of the^Araxes, where their descendants, as late

¹⁹ "Mos. Chor. i. 23-30. The story rests on Lhe authority of a certain Marinas (Mar-Ibas or Mar-Abas) of Catina, a Syrian writer of the second century before our era, who professed to have found it iu the royal library of Nineveh, where it was contained in a Greek book purporting to be a translation made by order of Alexander from a Chaldee original. (Ibid. c. S.)"—Rawlinson, Essay iii. to Herod, i. Note A.

:,?A THE MEDIAN EMIT RE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

as the second century of our era, formed the separate government of Muraziau. A whole cycle of traditions and legends gathered about this Median colony. We are further told by Moses of Chorene that Tigranes became the vassal of Cyrus, and not only embraced the Zoroastrian faith, but zealously propagated it in his kingdom. Thus much is certain, that from the very beginning of the Persian empire we find Armenia one of its most faithful provinces, and Zoroastrianism the prevalent religion, though corrupted by remnants of Assyrian polytheism. To this day the Armenian words for god, holiness, fire, funeraljiile, worship, and similar ideas, are pure Iranian. But all this may have resulted rather from a distinct Iranian migration than direct Persian influence ; and the alliance of the two nations against Media may have been the effect, rather than the cause, of their common faith. The descendants of Tigranes continued to govern Armenia under the Persians without a single revolt; and the last of the dynasty, Vahe, the son of Van, fell in defending the cause of Darius Codomannus against Alexander.

§ 10. The true nature of the revolution which transferred the supremacy from the Medes to the Persians, and placed the Achsemenid dynasty on the throne of Cyaxares and Astyages, is obscured by the legends which glorified the person of its leader—Cyrus. Nor, indeed, have we any very clear account of the relation of the Persians to the Medes before the revolution ; but it seems to have been a close alliance, based on blood, language, and religion, in which the precedence belonged to Media. Had Persia been a conquered nation, which in its turn conquered its oppressor, we should not have heard of " the law of the Medes and Persians, which changeth not," nor would the two names have been used almost indifferently from the beginning of the "Medo-Persian empire " to the latest times. It would seem that while, in the common brotherhood, precedence naturally, belonged to the more powerful people, the hardy Persians preserved, with their simplicity of life, a virtual independence among their highlands; growing in vigor as the Medes yielded to luxury, and equally disposed and prepared to resist the outrages of despotic power. The precise nature of the provocation is inextricably mixed up with fable in the legend which Herodotus repeats as the most sober and probable of the stories related about Cyrus.

§ 11. The Persians of this age were still, partially at least, in the nomad state. They were divided into ten tribes,²¹

²⁰ Herod, i. 125. Xenophnn is probably less accurate in making the number of tribes twelve (Cyrop. i. 2, § 5).

THE ACItiEMENID LINE.

535

forming three social classes. The aristocracy of warriors was formed by the three tribes of the Pasargadre, the Mara-phians, aud the Alaspians—on whom, says Herodotus, all the others were dependent, Three mere, the Panthialteans, the Derusiseans, and the Germanians (whose name has an evident connection with Carmania), were engaged in agriculture. The remaining four—the Daans, the Mardians, the Dropicans, and the Sagartians—were nomads.²¹ The Pasar gadse were the noblest of all, and formed not improbably the nucleus of the original Iranian migration* which gave name to the country. Their name, which seems to be a Greek corruption of Parsagadre²² (in old Persian, Par$auvddd), is really that of the old Persian capital, and is rightly explained by a Greek geographer as "the encampment of the Per-

5123 ^v"

sians.

§ 12. "Among the Pasargada?," adds Herodotus, "the Ach^emenid.e are a clan²⁴ from which the Persian kings have sprung." In numerous extant inscriptions those kings boast the title (Ilakhdmcmishiya), and their descent from Acu.e-.u*Erj"ES (Ilcikhcimctnish), whom Herodotus also names as the founder of the royal line. He makes Xerxes boast his descent, on the mother's side, from "Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, the son of Teispes, the son of Achamienes," and, on the father's side, from "Darius, the son of Ilystasjws, the son of Arsames,the son of Ariaramnes, the son of Teispes."™ Elsewhere he names another Cyrus as the grandfather of the great Cyrus ;²⁶ and to that older Cyrus other writers give a father, Cambyses, whose sister Atossa married Pharnaces,

²¹ Respecting the meaning of these names, and other points, see Sir Henry Rawlinson's " On the Ten Tribes of the Persians " (Essay IV. to Herodotus, i.). He regards the Maraphii and Maspii as races cognate with the Pasargada?, whom they accompanied iu their original migration. Respecting the nomad tribes, Professor Rawlinson observes that "nomadic hordes must always be an important element in the population of Persia. Large portions of the country are only habitable at certain seasons of the year. Recently the wandering tribes (Ilyats) have been calculated at one-half, or at the least one-fonrth, of the entire population." (Note to Herod. I. c.)

²² It is so written by Q. Curtius (v. 6, § 10; x. 1, § 2).

²³ Steph. Byz. s. v. riaffvapyddat. "According to Anaximenes (ap. Steph. Byz. I. c), Cyrus founded Pasargada?; but Ctesias appears to have represented it as already a place of importance at the time when Cyrus revolted. (See the newly-discovered fragment ofNic. Damasc. in the "Frag. Hist. Gr." vol. iii. pp. 405, 6, ed. Didot.) There seems to be no doubt that it was the Persian capital of both Cyrus and Cambyses, Persepolis being founded by Darius. Cyrus was himself buried there (Ctesias, Pers. Exc. § 9; Arrian, vi. 29; Strabo xv. p. 1035). Murghaub (the site of its ruins) is the only place in Persia at which inscriptions of the age of Cyrus have been discovered. The mined buildings bear the following legeud: 'Adam Kurush, Khshayathiya, Hakhamanishiya,'—'I [am] Cyrus the King, the Achasmenian.'" (Rawlinson, note to Herod. I. c). ²⁴ ^p'r,rp<h Herod, i. 125.

²⁵ Herod, vii. 11. The most satisfactory way of accounting for the apparent gap in this genealogy (see what follows in the text above) is the supposition that some transcriber omitted the double mention of the names Cyrus and Cambyses, because he did not understand it. ²⁶ Herod, i. 111.

530 THE MEDIAN EMPIKE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

king of Cappadocia."⁷ The full genealogy of Xerxes, therefore, would stand thus:²⁶

Achsemenes. I

Te'ispes.

Cambyses I.

Cyrus I. Cambyses II. CyrtjsII. (tug Great).

Ariaramnes. I

Arsames. I

Hys tapes, -m. Darius I. m.

Cambyses III.

Smerdii

Atossa.

•1

Xerxes

I

Atossa, m.

Pharnaces.

(whence) 1

Otanes. —daughter.

All that formerly puzzled the critics in these^ statements has now been made clear by the Behistun inscription. To use the words of its decipherer:²⁹ "Darius, in the first paragraph, styles himself an Aehamenian; in the second, he shows his right to this title by tracing his paternal ^ancestry to Achaunenes ;³⁰ in the third, he goes on to glorify the Achamienian family, by describing the antiquity of their descent and the fact" of their having for a long time past furnished kings to the Persian nation ;³¹ and in the fourth paragraph he further explains that eight of the Achamienian family have thus already filled the throne of Persia, and that he is the ninth of the line who is called to rule over his countrymen."³²

The distinctness with which Darius qualifies the whole line in general, and his eight predecessors in particular, as kings, derives double force from his withholding that title from his own paternal ancestors,³³ and leaves no doubt that they were

27 Diod. Sic. ap. Phot. "Bibl." p. 115$.

⁵⁸ We take the table from Rawlinson's note, but distinguishing the well-known historic names by capitals. For a full genealogical table of the whole house, and what is known of each member, see Rawlinson's Appendix to Herod, vii. note B.

²⁹ Sir II. Rawlinson's note to Herod, i. 125.

so The names here are the same^ as in Herodotus: Ilakhdmanish (Achsemenes); Chishpalsh (Te'ispes) ; Ariyaramana (Ariaramnes); Arshdma (Arsames); Vishtimpa (Hystaspes).

a¹ Par. 3. "Says Darius the king: ' On that account we have been called Achseme-nians; from antiquity we have descended: from antiquity our family have been kings.'"

³² Par. 4. "Says Darius the king: ' (There are) eight of my race who have been kings before (me); I (am) the ninth ; nine of us have been kings in a double line.' " The one wanting in the genealogy to make up this number may .per/tops be Smcrdis, or possibly some original divine or heroic reputed ancestor, prior to Achremenes.

33 On this point Sir Henry Rawlinson observes: "Darius seems to put forward no claim whatever to include his immediate ancestry among the Persian kings; they are merely enumerated in order to establish his claim to Achsemenian descent, and are in no case distinguished by the title of Khshayathiya, 'King.' So clear, indeed, and fixed was the tradition of the royal family in this respect, that both Artaxerxcs Mnemon and Artaxerxes Ochus may be observed, in tracing their pedigree, to qual'

THE ROYAL HOUSE OE PERSIA.

537

a native dynasty who ruled in Persia during the Aledian supremacy. Nor can we, in a genealogy so minutely stated, make Achsemenes a mere hero-eponymus.** Whether (as has been supposed of Cyaxares among the Medes) he was the leader of a new Iranian migration, which reinforced the vigor of the Persians; or whether he first gathered their separate tribes into a compact state ; or whether he united both these characters—are matters of conjecture.

Thus much is clear, that he was the real founder of the long line of Persian kings, who gloried in his name as long as the dynasty lasted.³⁵ When, therefore, Herodotus speaks of Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, as " a Persian of good family, indeed, but of a quiet temper, whom Astyages looked on as much inferior to a Mede of even middle condition,"³⁶ he is led into error by consistency with the story he had to tell —unless, indeed, he meant to show the overweening arrogance of the Median's estimate even of a Persian king. Xenophon—whose romance often preserves genuine fragments of tradition which Herodotus has missed, and who would naturally hear the royal traditions in the camp of the younger Cyrus—expressly calls Cambyses "King of the Persians;"³⁷ and the question has been set at rest by an inscription on a brick at Senkereh, in Chaldrea, in which Cyrus styles himself " the son of Cambyses, the powerful king."

§ 13. The marriage of Cambyses to Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, and the consequent position of Cyrus as heir to his grandfather—for it seems that Astyages had no son³⁸—

ify each ancestor by the title of ' King' up to Darius, bnt from that time to drop the royal title, and to speak of Hystaspes and Arsames as mere private individuals.'" (Note to Herod. I. c.)

³⁴ The idea of heroex-rponymi belongs not to the Orientals, but to the Greeks, who, quite consistently, made Parses or Perseus, not Achjemenes, the hero-eponymus of the Persians (Herod, vii. 01; Xen. "Cyrop."i. 2, § 1; Plato, " Alcib." i. p. 120, E.; Apol-lod. ii.4, § 5).

³⁵ The name Achwmems, though occupying so prominent a position in authentic Persian history, is unknown either in the antique traditions of the Vendidad, or in the romantic legends of the so-called Kayanian dynasty—probably because Achaune-nes lived after the compilation of the Vendidad, but so long before the invention of the romances that his name was forgotten. The name signifies " friendly," or "possessing friends," being formed of a Persian word, hakhd, corresponding to the Sanscrit sakhd and an attributive affix equivalent to the Sanscrit mat, which forms the nominative in man. (Sir H. Rawlinson's note to Ilerod. I. c.)

³e Herod, i. 107. 37 e_Vrop. i. 2, § 1.

³⁸ The distinct statement of Herodotus (i. 109) and Justin (i. 4) to this effect is cou-Irmed indirectly by the Behistun inscription, where a Median pretender traces his descent not from Astyages, but from Cyaxares. It has long been decided that the Cyaxares II.—whom Xenophon makes the son of Astyages, and the last king of Media, and to whom Cyrus quietly succeeds by right of birth—is an imaginary'person, introduced into the " Cyropaedia " as a foil to Cyrus, and not (as used to be supposed) the "Darius the Mede" of the Book of Daniel (see the "Student's O. T. History," chap. xxvi.). Ctesias, however, names Parmises as a son of Astyages (Pers. Exc § 3); and Moses of Chorene gives him several sons by Anusia, who Vue among the raptives settled in Armenia by Tigranes (Hist. Arm. i. 29).

23*

r»88 THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

look like points invented to suit the spirit of the popular le* gend. Nothing is more common than for a dynasty established by conquest or revolution to trace a descent from the displaced family. On the other hand, there is nothing improbable in the marriage of the King of Persia to the daughter of his Median suzerain.³⁹ The marvellous legend, preserved by Herodotus, of the superstitious motive for that marriage; the exposure and preservation of the young Cyrus; his recognition by his grandfather; the cruel vengeance which Astyages takes upon Harpagus for preserving the boy, whom nevertheless, lulled into security by the Magi, he brings up at his own court; and the plot by which Harpagus at once gluts his own revenge, and leads Cyrus to seize the crown—all this, which is too well known to need repeating, and is spoilt by telling in any other than the words of Herodotus, must be dismissed to the realm of poetry, with the legend of Romulus and Remus.⁴⁰

But we may the more readily enter into the spirit of poetic patriotism, which invented such marvels to mark the destiny of the founder of the Persian empire, when we remember that his name.shines conspicuous in the higher poetry, which reveals his true calling in the scheme of Divine Providences on His authority "that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid:"⁴¹—"Thus saith. Jehovah to his anointed, Xo Cyrus, whose right hand I have strengthened, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron : and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, Jehovah, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name : I have sur-named thee, though thou heist not known me. I am Jehovah,

⁸⁹ Ctesias and Nicolas of Damascus say that Cyrus was in no way related to Astyages.

¹⁰ Read Herod, i. 107-130, with the notes of Prof. Rawlinson and the comments of Mr. Grote. The attempt at rationalizing a poetical legend (thus, to use Professor Maiden's happy phrase, "spoiling a good poem without making a good history") peeps out in the explanation given of the name of Cyrus's foster-mother. Spaco (or, in Greek, Cyno), which really meant that the child was suckled by a bitch (Herod, i. 110, 122), exactly as Livy (i. 4) attempts to explain- the "she-wolf" of Romulus and Remus. The "other name" under which Cyrus was brought up is said by Strabo to have been Agradates, which seems to be a mere corruption of Atradates, the name of his. reputed father. In the story preserved by Nicolas of Damascus*, this name is given, instead of Cambyses, to the father of Cyrus. ⁴¹ Isa'ah xliv. 2S.

LEGENDARY STORY" OF CYRUS.

539

ttnd tnere is none else, there is no God beside me : J girded thee, though thou hast not kxowx me."⁴²

The last phrase, so emphatically repeated, should serve to correct what we may call the religious fondness, which, in sympathy with the philosophic fiction of Xenophon, has thrown a halo of sanctity about the king who, with all his real greatness, was but the best type of the true Asiatic conqueror, and the leader of a rude military people ; to whom it was given, in the happy words of ^Eschylus, to fulfill the destiny that "one man should rule over all Asia nourisher of flocks, holding the sceptre of government ;"⁴³ or, as a modern ethnologist would say, to bring the Semitic nations under the new and invigorating influence of Aryan rule.

§ 14. Of the true history of the revolution little certain can be told. Herodotus and Xenophon both agree (though assigning different causes) that Cyrus was brought up as a youth at the court of Astyages. It was a frequent custom, both in Egypt and in Asiatic monarchies, for the sovereign to keep the sons of vassal kings about him—partly as hostages, and partly to be trained to govern in his interests. The general testimony to the weakness of Astyages, and the story of an Armenian revolt, supply those probable motives for rebellion which may perhaps have been superfluous to the energy and ambition so conspicuous in the character of Cyrus; and Harpagus may very likely represent a malcontent party among the Aledes. But the "sufficient reason" is perhaps best sought in the religious zeal inspired by the purer Mazdeism which had been preserved in Persia, and which was afterwards the animating spirit of the revolution effected by Darius.⁴⁴ "To earnest Zoroastrians, such as the Achannenians are. shown to have been by their inscriptions, the yoke of a power which had so greatly corrupted, if it had not wholly laid aside, the worship of Ormazd, must have been extremely distasteful ; and Cyrus may have wished, by his rebellion, as much to vindicate the honor of his religion as to obtain a loftier position for his nation. If the Magi really occupied the position at the Median court which Herodotus assigns to them—if they ' were held in high honor by the king, and shared in his sovereignty'⁴⁵—if the priest-ridden monarch was perpetually dreaming, and perpetually referring his dreams to the Magian seers for exposition, and then guiding his actions by the advice they tendered him^4fi—the religious zeal of the young Zoroastrian may very naturally

⁴² Isaiah xiv. 1-5. « yEsch. " Pers." 75S. »

⁴⁴ This is conspicuous Ihroughou: Uie Behistnu Inscription.

⁴⁵ Herod, i. 120. « Herod, i. 107, LOS, 121

oIO THE MEDIAN EMPIRE OVERTHROWN BY CYRUS.

have been aroused ; and the contest into which he plunged may have been, in his eyes, not so much a national struggle as a crusade against the infidels."⁴⁷

§ 15. As to the manner in which the revolution was accomplished, the ancient writers are quite at variance. Herodotus represents the injured Median noble, Harpagus, as secretly inviting Cyrus from Persia, to head the plot which he had prepared ; and Astyages as deserted in the first battle by the greater part of his army, and utterly defeated and made prisoner in a second battle.⁴⁸ Xenophon, when writing as an historian, and not as a novelist, gives testimony to a prolonged resistance, the more valuable from its being incidental. On the occasion of the Ten Thousand passing the ruined cities of Larissa and Mespila on the Tigris (at or near the site of Nineveh), he observes that both resisted the attempts of the Persian king to take them by storm, and that the latter afforded a refuge to the Median queen, when the Medes were deprived of their supremacy hy the Persians.** But this may refer to a last stand made in Assyria after the defeat and capture of Astyages in Media or Persia.

Another story, preserved by Nicolas of Damascus (either from Ctesias or Dino, or both), relates, with circumstantial fullness, how Cyrus escaped from the court of Ecbatana, to raise the standard of revolt in concert with his father: how Astyages marched against the rebels with a vast host, and defeated them after two days' battle, in which the father of Cyrus was killed, and the routed Persians were forced back to a position in front of Pasargada¹, where another furious fight of two days ended in favor of the Persians, who slew 00,000 Medes; and how Astyages, utterly routed in. a final attack, was taken prisoner in the pursuit, and the insignia of royalty fell into the hands of Cyrus, who was saluted by his army as " King of Media and Persia."⁵⁰

§ 16. That title describes the true nature of the empire which — in whatever manner—was certainly transferred from Astyages to Cyrus. It was not a conquest by a foreign power/but the transfer of supremacy from one to the other of two nations already closely united—a transfer which has been well described as*" but slightly galling to the sub-

⁴⁷ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 225. Nicolas of Damascus seems to hint at this religious motive for the insurrection (pp. 402, 404). ⁴3 Herod, i. 127-S.

⁴⁹ Xen. Anab. iii. 4, §§ 7-12. This entirely disposes of the quiet succession as represented in the " Cyropaidia-" On 'the identity of Larissa with Nimrud see chap, xi. § 9.

i 50 rp_{he (}i_et_aj]_s of this story are given fully hy Professor Rawlinson ("Five Monarchies," vol. iii. pp. 225-230), who forms a higher estimate of its authority thau we are disposed to admit.

NATURE OF THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE.

jected power, and a matter of complete indifference to the dependent countries. Except in so far as religion was concerned, the change from one Iranic race to the other would make scarcely a perceptible difference to the subjects of either kingdom. The law of the state would still be 'the law of the Medes and Persians.'" Official employments would still be open to the people of both countries.⁵² Even the fame and glory of empire would attach, in the minds of men, almost as much to the one nation as the other. If Media descended from her pre-eminent rank, it was to occupy a station only a little below the highest, and one which left her a very distinct superiority over all the subject races."⁵³

§ 17. An earnest of this united government was at once given by the generosity with which, as all the authorities agree, Astyages was treated by his conqueror. Herodotus says that Cyrus kept Astyages at his court, during the remainder of his life, without doing him any further injury.⁵⁴ According to Ctesias, Astyages was made satrap of the Bar-canii, a Parthian people on the borders of Hyrcania, and, having perished in a desert region through the treachery of a courtier, he was honorably buried by Cyrus. It has been inferred, from the supposed date of the great battle between Cyaxares and Alyattes, that Astyages was seventy years old at his deposition ; but this is very uncertain.⁵⁵

⁰¹ Dan. vi. S; Esther i. 19.

⁵² Herod, i. 15G, 102 ; vi. 94; vii. SS; .Behistun Inscr. col. ii. par. 14, 5 6; col. iv. par. 14, § 0.

⁵3 Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iii. p. 231. This relation between the two component branches of the Medo-Persian empire explains how the kingdom of Babylon was said to be "given to the Medes and Persians" (Dan. v. 28)—a phrase sometimes mistaken for an alliance of the two powers ; aud the employment of Median officials in the highest places is illustrated by the viceregal government of Babylon by "Darius the Mede," whoever he may have been. The constant use by the Greeks of such phrases as 6 m»/<5o9, t« 5Ih3<k«, m'i5<o-p69, etc., with reference to the Persian power, has been already noticed.

⁵⁴ Herod, i. 130 ; comp. c. 75.

⁵⁵ The peace made on this occasion was cemented by the marriage of Astyages to Aryenis, daughter of Alyattes. Assuming Astyages to have been at least 15 or 16 in n.c. 010, he would be nearly 70 iu u.o. 555. But the date of the battle can not be considered certain, and the marriage may have been merely a contract. The calculation, therefore, is by no means conclusive against the identification of Astyages with "Darius the Mede," who was 02 years old at the capture of Babylon, in b.c 53S ; but it would resnlt from the identification that Astyages, who reigned 35 years, was only 7 years old at his accession, and 42 at his deposition. (The arguments on both side* are fairly stated by Rawlinson, Essay iii. to Herod, i. § 11.)

Ruins of Sardis.

CHAPTER XXV.

CYRUS THE GREAT and CRCESUS.-OVERTHROW OF LYDIA ANL

BABYLON.-B.C. 560-529.

§ 1. Cyrl"3 titk Gkeat. Accession of Crcesus in Lydia. His conquest of Asia Mino'J within the Halys. Poetic view of his career in Herodotus. § 2. Crcesus resolves to oppose Cyrus. § 3. His consultations of the Grecian oracles. § 4. His alliances with Sparta, Egypt, and Babylon, precipitate commencement of the war. § 5. Preparations of Cyrus. Overtures to the Asiatic Greeks. He marches into Cappadocia. § 6. Passage of the Halys by Croesus. Battle of Pteria. § 7. Re. treat of Croesus, and advance of Cyrus. Battle iu front of Sardis. § 8. Siege and capture of the city. Legends in Herodotus. Treatment of Croesns. His later his. tory. § 9. Conquest of the Greek colonies'. Departure of Cyrus. His schemes of conquest. Reduction of the Iranian countries. Capture of Babylon. § 10. Legends of the death of Cyrus. His tomb at Pasargadse. § 11. Character of Cyrus.

§ 1. Cyrus the Great (in Old Persian, Ivunish)¹ is said by Dino² to have been exactly forty years old when he succeeded to the dominion of Astyages over all the tribes from

¹ "This word was generally supposed by the Greeks to mean 'the Sun' (see Ctes. 'Pers.' Exc. § 49 ; Plut. 'Artax.'; Etym. Mag. s. v. K6por, etc.)—that is, it was identified with the Sanscrit Surya, Zend hvare, modern Persian Khur. It is now suspected that this identification was a mistake, as the Old Persian K never replaces the Sanscrit s. The name is more properly compared with the Sanscrit Kuril, which was a popular title among the Aryan race before the separation of the Median and Persian branches, but of which the etymology is unknown." (Rawlinson, App. to Herod, vi. Note A. " On the Proper Names of Medes and Pe'-«ians.")

² Ap. Cic. "DeDiv." i. 23.

ACCESSION OF CRCESUS.

513

the Halys to the desert of Khorassan (b.o. 558). Li the same year, or just before,³ Crcesus succeeded his father Alyattes on the throne of Lydia, in the thirty-fifth year of his age,⁴ and at once began the career of conquest which brought under his sway all the nations of Asia Minor within the Halys, except the Lycians and Cilicians. Herodotus, treating the partial attacks of previous kings on the Ionian colonies as of little permanent consequence, says of Crcesus: " So far as our knowledge goes, he was the first of the barbarians who held relations with the Greeks ; forcing some of them to become his tributaries, and entering into alliance with others. He conquered the ^Eolians, Ionians, and Dorians of Asia, and made a treaty with the Lacedemonians. Up to that time all the Greeks had been free."⁵

He first attacked Ephesus, and afterwards found some substantial complaint—or, failing that, any poor excuse— for making war successively on all the states of Ionia and ^Eolis.⁶ The ingenious apologue, by which Bias of Priene, one of the Seven Sages, diverted him from the scheme of attacking the islanders, is evidently introduced by Herodotus to illustrate the growing influence of Greek ideas on Lydia;⁷ but a palpable anachronism is involved in the exquisitely beautiful episode of Solon's preaching to the king, who had shown him all his wealth, the lesson which is the "key-note to the story of Croesirs as related by Herodotus: "He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and, retaining them to the day of his death, then dies peaceably—that man alone is entitled to the name of happy. But in every matter it behooves us to mark well the end; for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin."⁸

§ 2. To this fate, incurred in the eyes of the Greek by the king's aggression upon his countrymen,⁹ Crcesus was hurried on by his ambition to measure his strength with Cyrus, and to check the growing power of the Persians before it came to a head.¹⁰ His first object was to add Cappadocia to his dominions; and he claimed to be the avenger of the wrong done to his brother-in-law, Astyages.¹¹ The immense resources obtained from his command of the fertile regions of

³ u.o. 500, Clinton; n.c. 55S, Lenormant.

⁴ Herod, j. 26. ⁵ Herod, i. 6. « Herod, i. 20. ⁷ Herod, i. 27. ⁸ Herod, i. 32. » Herod, i. 5.

¹⁰ Herod, i. 46. The statement that Croesus "learnt that Cyrus had destroyed the empire of Astyages, and that the Persians were becoming daily more powerful," may give a hint of the occupations of Cyrus during the first ten years or so of his reign, according to the usual chronology. The dates of Prof. Rawlinson, however, place the accession of Croesus ten years before that of Cyrus, aud leave only four vears to the fall of the Lydian kiug. u Herod, i. 73.

CYRUS THE GREAT AND CRCESUS.

Asia Minor, the gold-yielding streams of Lydia,¹² and the commerce of the Ionian states—which made the riches of Crcesus a proverb in all antiquity¹³—might well seem adequate to the enterprise, to which the Delphic oracle had given, though with characteristic ambiguity, the divine sanction.¹⁴ He\also made an alliance with the Lacedemonians.¹⁶ § b\ The curious chapter in the history of superstition, which tells how Crcesus first shrewdly tested, and then blindly trusted, the oracle which finally lured him to his fate, should be read at length in the charming story of Herodotus.¹" It is a sign of the intercourse that was now carried on among the states of the Levant, that the Lydian messengers were sent, not only to the Milesian Branchide, to the Boeotian oracles of Amphiaraus and Trophonius, to that of the Delphians at Pytho, and the only less famous oracle of Abe in Phocis, to Dodona in Epirns, the most ancient of all the oracles of Greece ; but even to the oracle of Amnion, in the Libyan desert.¹⁷ The Pythian oracle alone—mindful, doubtless, of former gifts from Lydia, and not grudging to scatter among the envoys the seed of future golden harvests —was able to tell the' grotesque and improbable occupation which was the test fixed by Crcesus, who declared, with an amusing mixture of credulity and skepticism, " that the Delphic was the only real oracular shrine."¹⁸ The offerings which attested his faith make the page'of Herodotus glitter with gold ;¹⁰ and seem to deserve a better reward than the twofofd assurance that, " if Crcesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire,"²⁰ and that "when a mule should be king of Media" he need not be ashamed to fly, like a coward, to the pebbles of Hermus.²¹

¹² Besides the well-known golden sands of Pactolus, and the "golden legend" of Midas, Herodotus tells us that, wheu the Lacedaemonians wanted gold for a statue they sent to purchase it in Lydia, and Croesns gave it them as a present (Ilerod. 1. 69).

¹³ The splendid offerings at Delphi, which Herodotus saw with his own eyes, prove that the wealth of Crcesus was no mere fable. Western Asia Minor also yielded unbounded riches to its masters, down to the time of "Dives Attalus" aud the proconsular plunderers of the province of Asia. .

" Herod, i. 73. ¹⁵ Herod, i. 69, 70. ^lfl Herod, i. 46 seq. ¹⁷ Herod, i. 46.

¹⁸ Herod, i. 48. Dismissing all the grave nonsense with which this story has been discussed, it is enough to state the alternative: either, as Cicero thought ("De Div." ii.), the story is a pure fabrication ; or Crcesus intrusted his secret to some of the envoys, who betrayed it for a consideration. It is urged that common sense would forbid the latter course; but Crcesus must have arranged with the envoys the time of the experiment, and the snperstitions curiosity which devised the test was just the state of mind to drop a hint of its natnre. Bnt Cicero's opinion is just as likely to have been right. Herodotus states afterwards that the oracle of Amphiaraus also earned the faith and offerings of Crcesus (i. 52). ¹⁹ Herod, i. 50, 51.

²⁰ Herod, i. 53.

²¹ Herod, i. 55. This sort of irony, which tempts the doomed man to believe himself safe till an impossible event should come to pass, might occupy a commentator in illustrating it, " till Birnam wood shall come to Duusinane."

CROESUS CONSULTS THE ORACLES.

§ 4. Confident in the promise of the first response and the impossibility of the second, the fated Lydian resolved to be the first to cross the Halys—thus measuring himself against the "mule" of mixed Persian and Median birth, and bringing destruction on his own mighty empire. Before the Lacedemonian alliance, which he formed at the advice of the Pythian oracle, Crcesus had made a league with Amasis, king of Egypt; which was now strengthened by the accession of " Labynetus," king of Babylon ;²² but he was too eager to give these powerful allies time to send their contingents to his aid. It was in vain that Sandanis, a Lydian .of high repute for wisdom, gave such counsel as the following : " Thou art about, O king, to make war against men who wear leathern trowsers, and have all their other garments of leather; who feed not on what they like, but on what they can get from a soil that is sterile and unkindly ; who do not indulge in wine, but drink water; who possess no figs, nor any thing else that is good to eat. If, then, thou conquerest them, what canst thou get from them, seeing that they have nothing at all? But if they conquer thee, consider how much that is precious thou wilt lose : if they once get a taste of our pleasant things, they will keep such hold of them that we shall never be able to make them loose their grasp. For my part, I am thankful to the gods that they have not put it into the hearts of the Persians to invade Lydia."²³

§ 5. Cyrus, in fact, was by no means indisposed to take this course. It appears, from his character and his whole career, that he had from the first led forth his hardy horsemen from their native hills in the spirit which was afterwards avowed as a fixed maxim of Persian policy: "For Asia, with all the various tribes of barbarians that inhabit it, is regarded by the Persians as their own ; but Europe and the Greek race they look on as distinct and separate."²⁴

²² Herod, i. T7. Assuming, what seems almost certain, that the Labynetus of this passage is Nabonadius, we have here a definite limit of time; for the accession of this Babylonian king is fixed by the astronomical canon at n.c. 555.

²³ Herod, i. Tl. The passage is quoted for the sake of its testimony to the manners of the Persians of that day, and their subsequent change of character. Herodotus adds that the speech, though it failed to persuade Croesus, "was quite true ; for before the conquest of Lydia, the Peisians possessed noue of the luxuries or delights of life."

²⁴ Herod, i. 4. Rawlinson well observes (ad loc.) that, "The claim made by the Persians to ihe natural lordship of Asia was convenient as furnishing them with pretexts for such wars as it snitcd their policy to engage in with non-Asiatic nations. The most remarkable occasion on which they availed themselves of euch a plea was when Darius invaded Scythia. According to Herodotus, he asserted, and the Scythians believed, that his invasion was designed to punish them for having attacked the Medes and held possession of Upper Asia for a number of years, at a time wheu Persia was a tributary nation to Media. (See Herod, iv. 1, and 11S, 110.)"

540

CYRUS THE GREAT AND CRCESUS.

But the ambition of the conqueror was tempered by the pnn deuce of the consummate general and statesman. He did not rush to the conflict without first sounding what would naturally seem his enemy's most vulnerable point. "Before beginning his march, he sent heralds to the loninns, with an invitation to them to revolt from the Lydian kiug : they, however, refused compliance.'¹²⁵ Those rich commercial cities, fostered by Croesus as inlets of wealth, doubtless feared the ruder and unknown conqueror. Meanwhile Cyrus had collected his army and begun his march, increasing his numbers at every step by the forces of the nations that lay in his way.²⁶ For this purpose he appears to have taken the more circuitous route through the friendly country of Armenia (along the valley where is now Urzerum), which brought him, not into the Cappadocian table-land, bnt into the maritime region called Pontus in the Roman times.

§ 6. Croesus directed his march to the same quarter—having crossed the Halys, either, as Herodotus thought, by the bridges which still existed in his ..time ; or, as the Greeks generally believed, by the aid of Thales the Milesian, who diverted a part of the stream into a new channel behind the camp, thus making the natural bed easier to ford.²⁷ He entered the district of Pteria, near Sinope, and began to ravage the country of the unoffending "Syrians," taking their chief city, and reducing the inhabitants to slavery. While thus occupied, he seems to have been surprised by the approach of Cyrus, who encamped opposite to him in Pteria. A long and bloody battle, in which both armies fought valiantly, with great slaughter on both sides, was ended by the fall of night—the Lydians, though overmatched in numbers, sustaining the reputation that " in all Asia there was not at that time a braver or more warlike people."²⁸

§ 7. Crcesus now saw his mistake in precipitating the war with his inferior force; and, as Cyrus did not renew the attack next day, he retreated to Sardis, disbanded his army, and sent messengers to summon the promised succors from Egypt, Babylon, and Sparta, against the fifth month, intending to resume the offensive in the spring. But Cyrus, conceiving his adversary's purpose, broke up his camp, and pursued with such speed, that he was himself the first to an-

²⁵ Herod, i. 76. ²⁰ Ilerod. i. 76.

²⁷ Ilerod. i. 75. Both the story about Thales and the plural "bridges" seem to point to a place where the river is parted naturally into two channels, as at Bafra, between Samsun and Sinope. The Halys is fordable not far above its month, bnt it is also crossed by rude plank bridges. There are remains of bridges with stone piers, probably of the. Roman age. (See Rawlinson's note ad lor. and Hamilton's " Asia Minor," vol. i. p. 327.) ^2H Herod, i. 79.

BATTLE OF SARDIS.

517

nounce his coming to the Lydian king. In this emergency Crcesus led out from Sardis his native^Lydian lancers—then the best cavalry of Asia—to meet the enemy in the valley of the Hermus. By the advice of Harpagus, Cyrus placed his baggage-camels, with riders accoutred as horsemen, in front of his line," because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and can not abide either the sight or the smell of that animal."²⁹ And so it proved : but the rout of the horses was partly repaired by the courage of the riders, who leaped out of their saddles and engaged the Persians on foot. The combat was long, but numbers prevailed ; and, after great slaughter on both sides, the Lydians fled back behind the walls of Sardis.

§ 8. The siege of the capital was now formed ; and Crcesus, trusting to its strength, sent to hasten his allies. Herodotus accounts for the delay of the Lacedemonians, and we hear nothing of the Babylonian succors; but we have already seen that a large Egyptian contingent probably invaded the Persian dominions.³⁰ But, in any case, there was no time for the arrival of help ; for, to the surprise of both parties, the siege was ended in a fortnight. The citadel of Sardis was built upon a precipitous rock in the broad valley of the Hermus, at a point where the hills approach each other closely ; and here its name is still preserved by the village of Sart Its natural strength was said to have been converted into absolute impregnability by a charm—when the old King Meles carried round the walls the lion that his le-man bore to him—except at one part, where the cliff seemed quite inaccessible. On the fourteenth day of the siege Cyrus proclaimed a reward to the man who should first mount the wall, and then delivered an assault. The troops were beaten back; but a certain Mardian, named Hyrceades, remembered having seen a Lydian soldier descend the precipitous and comparatively unguarded part of the rock to fetch his helmet, which had rolled down, and which he picked up and carried back. Climbing the rock at the same place, Hyrceades was followed by other Persians, and Sardis was thus taken, and given up to pillage.³¹

We need not repeat the romantic tales, of the escape of

⁵⁹ Herod, i. SO; Xen. "Cyrop." vii. 1, § 47. See Rawlinson's note for a modern instance in which the same stratagem is said to have been contemplated.

³⁰ See chap. viii. § 19.

³¹ Herod, i. 84. Polyoenus (Strateg. vii. 6, § 10) gives a different version of the surprise, besides repeating another and very absurd account from Ctesias. Rawlinson (note, ad loc.) points out that Sardis was taken a second time in almost exactly the same way by Lagoras, one of the generals of Antiochns the Great (Polyb. vii. 4-7). Perhaps some readers may call to mind how the castle of Tillietndlein would ham been surprised, if Cuddie Her.drigg had not fonud "his brosc too hot."

548

CYRUS THE GREAT AND CRCESUS.

Crcesus from slaughter by his dumb son's recovery of his speech ;³² or of his being saved from sacrifice by fire by invoking the name of the sage whose warning had now come true ;³³ or of his winning the regard of Cyrus by his sage advice ;³⁴ or of the Pythoness's vindication of her oracles.³⁵ It is sufficient to know, both from Herodotus and Ctesias, that, after some severe treatment, Crcesus was received, like Astyages, into the favor of Cyrus, who assigned him a territory for his maintenance, and gave him an honorable position at court, where we find the Lydian, more than twenty years later, giving his prudent but ineffectual counsel to Cambyses.³⁶

§ 9. The fall of Sardis involved the submission of the whole Lydian empire, with the exception of the Greek colonics. They hastened, indeed, to send ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, praying to become his lieges on the footing which they had occupied under Crcesus; but the conqueror expressed, by the fable of the piper and the fish, his resentment at their refusal of his former offers.³⁷ Miletus alone was admitted to an alliance on the terms proposed: the rest were devoted to complete conquest. The story of how that conquest was afterwards effected by Harpagus, and the scenes of heroic self-sacrifice enacted, especially by the Phocasans, belong to the history of Greece.

Deeming it sufficient to depute this enterprise to one of his generals, Cyrus himself, after a residence of a few weeks at Sardis, returned to Ecbatana, bent on larger schemes, which are clearly defined by Herodotus: "He wished to make war in person against Babylon, the Bactrians, the Sacre, and Egypt."³⁸ The last of these designs was bequeathed to his son Cambyses; and the interval before he executed the first was no doubt occupied by the conquest of the still independent nations of the table-land of Iran, and in the region of the Caspian and Oxus. Herodotus, hastening to the story of the fall of Babylon, dismisses these campaigns in a single sentence: "While the lower parts of Asia were in this way brought under by Harpagus, Cyrus in person subjected the upper regions, conquering every nation,

³² Herod, i. 85.

³³ Herod, i. 85. Nicolas of Damascus (Fr. SO) amplifies the story, and tries to answer what seems the insnperable objection, that the burning of human beings was forbidden by the law of Zoroaster. Ctesias ascribes the kind treatment of Crcesns by Cyrus to quite a different miracle (Excerpt § 4).

³⁴ Ibid. SS-90. ^s* Ibid. 90, 01. ³⁶ Herod, iii. 36. This was during the Egyptian expedition, n.c. 523. The capture

of Sardis is placed by Clinton in b.c. 540, by Lenormant in b.c. 544, and by Rawlinson as high as h.o. 554. " ³⁷ Ilerod. i. 141.

³⁸ Herod, i. 153. The suppression of the revolt of Sardis under Pactyas, and the conquest of the Carians and Lycians by Harpagus, may be read in Herodotus.

DEATH OE CYRUS.

and not suffering one to escape."³⁹ These conquests appear to have embraced Hyreania, Parthia, Chorasmia, Bactriana, Sogdiana, Aria (Herat), Drangiana, Arachosia, Sattagydia, and Gandaria.⁴⁰ At length, in b.c 539, Cyrus found himself free to effect the conquest of Babylon; and the fall of that city, in the following year, extended his dominion to the frontier of Egypt.⁴¹ From this epoch (Jan. 5, b.c 538) may be dated the full establishment of the Persian empire. It was not till two years later that Cyrus fixed his usual residence at Babylon; and hence the Hebrews date his reign from b.c 536, which was also the end of their captivity.⁴²

§ 10. The last seven years of the reign of Cyrus, and the manner of his death—except the simple met that he fell in battle with a Scythian tribe of Central Asia—are lost in the obscurity of legends. The romantic story of his attack on the Massageta?, beyond the Araxes (meaning probably the Jax-artes), his first successful stratagem, and the full vengeance wreaked on him by the Queen Tomyris, are avowedly selected by Herodotus—like the legend of his early years— from among different accounts; and the historian seems almost to have wished to complete the historic irony, taught by the fall of Crcesus, in his conqueror's fate.⁴³ Ctesias refers the catastrophe to a campaign against the Derbices, a people of the Indian frontier. The germ of historic truth enveloped in these legends is probably to be sought in the necessity of protecting the north-eastern frontier of the empire against the assaults of Turanian tribes.

All accounts agree that the body of Cyrus was recovered, and buried at Pasargada?, where the building, which exactly corresponds to Arrian's description of the tomb of Cyrus in the time of Alexander, has now been certainly identified by its inscriptions: "On a square base, composed of immense blocks of beautiful white marble, stands a quadrangular house, or rather chamber, built of huge blocks of marble five feet thick, which are shaped at the top into a sloping roof. Internally the chamber is ten feet long, seven wide, and eight high. There are holes in the marble floor, which seem to have admitted the fastenings of a sarcophagus. The tomb

³⁹ Herod, i. 177. Some details are supplied by the few extant fragments of this part of the history of Ctesias. One of the most interesting is the contest with the Sacje, of whose army of half a million two-thirds were women, and the defeat of Cyrus by their queen, Sparethra. (Ctesias, " Pers. Exc." §§ 2, 3.)

⁴⁰ Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 371. ⁴¹ See chap. xv. §§ 19, 20.

⁴² For the edict of Cyrus and the return of the Jews, see the "Student's Old Testament History," chap, xxvii. § 1.

⁴³ Ilerod. i. 201 seq. See the closing words of c. 214. The poetical spirit of the story is further seen in Cyrus's dream of the future greatness of Darius, the eon of Hystaspes (c. 209).

550

CYRUS THE GREAT AND CRCESUS.

stands in an area marked out by pillars, whereon occurs repeatedly the inscription (written both in Persian and in the so-called Median), ' I am Cyrus the King, the Ach^eme-

§ 11. Cyrus has always been a favorite hero, both of historians and romance-writers; and the spirit of the latter has too often tinged the portrait drawn of him by the former. But, after rejecting the false estimate founded on the ideal picture of the Cyrqpcedia, or on the misunderstanding of his place in the prophecies of Isaiah, his character displays very noble qualities. So calm and sound a judge as Mr. Grote observes: " In what we read respecting him there seems, amidst constant fighting, very little cruelty. His extraordinary activity and conquests admit of no doubt. He left the Persian empire extending from Sogdiana and the rivers Jax-artes and Indus, eastward, to the Hellespont and the Syrian coast, westward; and his successors made no permanent addition to it, except that of Egypt."⁴⁵ The fuller sketch of Professor Rawlinson may be adopted as a fair estimate :^4B " The character of Cyrus, as represented to us by the Greeks, is the most favorable that Ave possess of any early Oriental monarch. Active, energetic, brave, fertile in stratagems,⁴⁷ he has all the qualities required to form a successful military chief. He conciliates his people by friendly and familiar treatment,⁴⁸ but declines to spoil them by yielding to their inclinations when they are adverse to their true interests.⁴⁹ He has a ready humor, which shows itself in smart sayings or repartees, that take occasionally the favorite Oriental turn of parable or apologue.⁵⁰ He is mild in his treatment of the prisoners that fall into his hands,⁵¹ and ready to forgive even the heinous crime of rebellion.⁵² He has none jof the pride of the ordinary Eastern despot, but converses on terms of equality with those about him.⁵³ We can not be surprised

⁴⁴ Rawlinson, note to Herod, i. 214.

⁴⁵ "Hist, of Greece," vol. iv. p. 2SS. Special attention should be given to Mr. Grote's ensuing remarks on the way in which Cyrus fixed the habits of the succeeding kings of Persia, and on the vast change which his conquests effected on the Persian nation —holdiug out to their nobles satrapies as lucrative and powerful as kiugdoms, and to the soldiers plunder and license without limit; and, while tempting them with all the luxuries of the conquered countries, for which they soon abandoned their old simplicity, opening the prospect of a career of unbounded conquest, into which the successors of Cyrus at once plunged. The result was to roll back the tide of con. quest upon an empire enfeebled by luxury, divided by the jealousies and contests of provincial rulers, and with a central power too weak to prevent its falling to pieces.

46 "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 3S0.

⁴⁷ Herod, i. SO, 186, 211 • Nic. Damasc. Fr. 66. ⁴⁸ Herod, i. 126; iii. 89. ⁴⁹ Herod, ix. 122.

⁶⁰ Herod, i. 126,127,141,153, etc.: Pint. "Apophth." p. 172, e. F.

⁵¹ Reros. Fr. 14, fin.; Herod, i. 130, 20S, 213; Ctes. " Pers. Exc." § 2.

⁶² Herod, i. 155,156. Herod, i. 87-90, 155,209.

CHARACTER OF CYRUS.

that the Persians, contrasting him with their later monarchs, held his memory in the highest veneration,⁵⁴ and were even led by their affection for his person to make his type of countenance their standard of physical beauty.⁵⁵

3* Herod, iii. S9; Xen. " Cyrop." i. 2, 5 1; Arrian. " Exp. Alex." vi. 29, etc. " Plut. "Apophth." p. 172 E., " Polit."p. S21, E.

Double Griffin Capital. (Persepolis.)

*

Brouze Figure of Apis.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CAMBYSES.—THE MAGIAN USURPATION.—RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY BY DARIUS.-B.C. 529-522.

5 1. The family of Cyrus. Cambyses and Smerdis (Bardes). His daughters. 5 2. Reign of Cambyses (u.o. 529-522). Murder of Smerdis. § 3. Subjection of the Phoenicians. Their fleet, becomes the chief naval force of Persia. § 4. Expedition against Egypt. Plumes. The " King of Arabia." § 5. Defeat and treatment of Psammenitus. Capture of Memphis. Submission of Libya, Barca, and Cyrene. § 6. Cambyses at Sais. His Lehavior as king of Egypt. He plans three great expeditions. The Phoenicians refuse to serve against Carthage. Embassy to the Ethiopian king: his defiance. Destruction of the force sent against theAmmo-nians. March of Cambyses into Ethiopia. Failure of the expedition. § 7. Cambyses slays the Apis. § S. His alleged madness. His various outrages. His addiction to drunkenness. § 9. He leaves Egypt completely subdued. Apostasy of the Persians and Medes to Magism. Revolution under the Magian Gomaxes,called the Pseudo-Smkbois. Account given in the Behistun Inscription. Death of Cambyses in Syria, probably by suicide. § 10. Popular measures of the usurper. His policy towards the Jews. "§ 11. His detection as related by Herodotus. § 12. Story of the Seven Conspirators. Remarkable agreement of Herodotus and the Behistun Inscription. § 13. The clear claim of Darius to the crown in right of his Achamienid descent. Privileges secured by the conspirators. § 14. Their debate, in Herodotus, a fiction expressive of Greek ideas. § 15. Darius, with " his faithful men," slays the Magian, and takes the kingdom.

§ 1. Cyrus left two sons and three daughters, by his sole wife,¹ Cassandane, the daughter of Pharnaspes, an Acha3-menian, who had died before her husband, and had been greatly lamented by him.² The sons were Jutbitjiya and Bardiya* names which were transformed by Greek organs

¹ This seems implied by Herodotus, in his contradiction of the Egyptian story, tha„ Cambyses was the son (and not the husband) of Nitetis, the daughter of Apries (iii. 2). Both the historian (iii. 30) and the Behistun Inscription (col. i. par. 10) speak of Cambyses and Smerdis as " both of the same father and mother." Ctesias, in making Cvrns the son-in-law of Astyages (" Pers. Exc." § 10), is probably repeating one of the s'jories so often invented to add legitimacy to a new dynasty ; and the name of this princess, Amytis, resembles that of the Median wife of Nebuchadnezzar. (See Rawlinson, note to Herod, iii. 2.)

² Herod, ii. 1; iii. 2. ⁸ Behistun Inscription.

REIGN OF CAMBYSES. 553

into Cambyses and Smerdis.* Of the daughters, Atossa is well known in history⁶ as the wife, first of Cambyses, next of the Magian who personated Smerdis, and last of Darius; and as the mother of Xerxes, who is said by one writer to have killed her in a tit of passion.⁰ Another, whose name is not mentioned, was also married by Cambyses, the royal judges giving the opinion, which Herodotus humorously calls " at once true and safe—' they did not find any law allowing a brother to take his sister to wife, but they found a law that the King of the Persians might do whatever he pleased.' And so they neither warped the law through fear of Cambyses, nor ruined themselves by over-stiffly maintaining the law; but they brought another quite distinct law to the king's help, which allowed him to have his wish."⁷ This sister-wife was put to death by Cambyses in Egypt, in resentment of her suggested reproaches for his murder of Smerdis.⁸ The remaining and, as it seems, the youngest daughter of Cyrus, Artystone, became the favorite wife of Darius, the son of Hystaspes.⁹ It appears to be from the reign of Cambyses that the polygamy and incestuous marriages of the Persian kings began,

§ 2. Cambyses (b.c 529-522), having been appointed by Cyrus as his successor, was sent back by him with Crcesus into Persia from the country of the Massagetre, before the final catastrophe. Such is the simple statement of Herodotus;¹⁰ but the less trustworthy writers say that, while Cyrus left the empire to Cambyses, he declared it to be his will that Smerdis should have the government of several important provinces;¹¹ and so he prepared the catastrophe that ensued.

⁴ Kabujiya is thought to he from the Sanscrit Kab, " to praise," and vji, " a speaker;" its signification, according to this view, is "a bard." (Sir H. Rawlinson's "Ancient Persian Vocabulary," quoted in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. iii. p. 554. But may not the name rather signify "praised by those who speak of him ?") "Bardiya is probably the Zend berezya (comp. Vedic barhya), 'elevated,' 'glorious'" (Oppert. ap. Rawlinson, I. c. p. 5G1). The Greek forms of both names arise from the common insertion (or substitution) of m before (or for) b, as in such pairs of words as /3A«? and ua\anci, /9por6r, 'd[if3poTo? (and mors) rinfipoTov, 2 Aor. Of ufxapr-dvoi. Thus we have Megabyzus (the conspirator with Darius) for Bagabukhsha, aud several other cases of Mega (Grk.) for Baga (Pers.). Cambyses for A'u&ujiya is exactly paralleled by the modern Greek <pdnnpiKa for fabrica. So Bardiya, which should have been Bardis or Bardes, becomes Mardns (^Esch. " Pers." 7S0) or Merdis (Nic. Damasc. and Justin), and then Smerdis, by the well-known interchange of m and sm as in uinpov and a/xiKpor, etc. Ctesias calls Smerdis Tanyoxarces, which m. Oppert (ap. Rawlinson, I. c. p. 562) interprets " strong of body" (fr. tame, " body," and vazarka, "great," "mighty"). This looks like an epithet derived from the physical strength which excited his brother's envy (Herod, iii. 30).

⁵ Herod, iii. 31, GS, SS, 133-4, vii. 4: ^Esch. "Pers." 157 seq.; she is not mentioned oy Ctesias, nor in any inscription. ⁶ Aepas. ad "Aristot. Eth." p. 171.

⁷ Herod, iii. 31. ⁸ Herod. I. c. ⁹ Herod, iii. SS- vii. 69. ¹⁸ Ilerod. i. 20s. " Ctesias, "Pers. Exc." § S; Xen. "Cyrop." viii. 7, § 11: but they differ entirely c* to the provinces committed to Smerdis.

24

554 CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

The murder of Smerdis is related in the Behistun Inscription as the only important event in the reign of Cambyses before his invasion of Egypt, and as performed with the secrecy of which advantage was afterwards taken by the impostor Gomates. "Afterwards Cambyses slew that Bardes (Bardiya). When Cambyses had slain Bardes, it was not known to the people that Bardes had been slain. Afterwards Cambyses proceeded to Egypt."¹² Herodotus transposes the crime to the period of the Egyptian campaign, so as to make it the first of the outrages that indicated the madness which his Egyptian informants regarded as the penalty of the king's sacrilege.¹³

§ 3. Another interesting question arises out of the interval of four years which elapsed before Cambyses invaded Egypt.¹⁴ During this time it is not improbable that he received the submission of the Phoenicians, who now for the first time appear as forming the great maritime force of the Persian empire. Herodotus relates that the courtiers of Cambyses extolled him above bis father, inasmuch as "he was lord of all that Cyrus ever ruled, and, further, had made himself master of Egypt and the sea."^lb Even as flattery, this must have had a foundation; and we find Herodotus distinctly asserting that, in the time of Cyrus, " Phoenicia was still independent of Persia, and the Persians themselves were not a sea-faring people."¹⁶ But, under Cambyses, we are told that " the Phoenicians had yielded themselves to the Persians, and upon them all his sea-service depended."¹⁷ Phoenicia would probably be regarded as won to the empire of Cyrus by the conquest of Babylon ; but its actual submission was another matter, and this appears to have taken place under Cambyses. Henceforth the Phoenician navy became the great maritime force of Persia. For want of it Cyrus had been unable to follow up his conquest of ^Eolis and Ionia into the islands ;¹⁸ its possession gave Cambyses

¹² Behistnn Inscr. col. i. par. 10.

¹³ Ilerod. iii. 30. It is, therefore, needless to discuss the circumstances uuder which Ilerodotus alleges the murder to have beeu committed, or the motive of jealousy which is said to have arisen while Smerdis was in Egypt with Cambyses.

¹⁴ That is, according to the date of the fifth year of Cambyses, n.c. 525. which rests on the authority of Manetho, as quoted in the Armenian "Chronicon" of Eusebius, aud which Diodorus also gives (i. GS). Syucellus, however, gives Manetho's date as two years earlier, in the third year of Cambyses, is.o. 527, and this date is adopted very decidedly by M. de Rouge. ¹⁵ Herod, iii. 34.

¹⁶ Herod, i. 143. Xenophon is the sole authority for the conquest of Phoenicia by Cyrus, to whom he also ascribes that of Egypt! (" Cyrop." i. 1, § 4.)

¹⁷ Herod, iii. 19. Herodotus adds that " the Cyprians had also joined the Persians of their own accord" probably in connection with the volnntary submission of the Phoenicians, inasmuch a* the Cyprians, their old dependents, had lately been conquered by Amasis. ¹⁸ Herod, i. 143.

EXPEDITION AGAINST EGYPT.

555

the command of the coast and Egypt, and of the Nile,¹³ without which Memphis could hardly have been taken, and afterwards made the conquest of Greece itself seem practicable to Darius and Xerxes.

§ 4. Meanwhile the subjugated Ionians and iEolians²⁰ swelled the forces which Cambyses collected for the conquest of Egypt—an enterprise bequeathed to him by his father.²¹ While the opportunity for the attack was delayed, the prudent Amasis seems to have conciliated Cyrus by some acknowledgment of his suzerainty; and he sent the best Egyptian eye-doctor to the Persian'court at the request of Cyrus. In resentment at being torn from his wife and children, this physician is said to have stirred up Cambyses to demand in marriage the daughter of Amasis, whose substitution of a daughter of the dethroned Apries gave mortal otfense to the deceived Persian.²²

While Cambyses Avas meditating the attack, there arrived a certain Phanes of Haliearnassus, a deserter from among the Carian mercenaries of Amasis, whose secrets he revealed to the Persian king. By his advice, also, Cambyses obtained the safe-conduct of the most powerful Bedouin sheikh of those parts²³ for his passage through the desert of Gaza. The Arab kept his oath with the wonted fidelity of his race, and sent supplies of water on camels to three different stages.²⁴

§ 5. When the march was made, Amasis had just died, and Cambyses found his son Psammenitus encamped at the Pelusiac mouth of the Xile. In presence of both armies, the Greek and Carian mercenaries of Psammenitus led out the sons of Phanes before their father's eyes, and slew them over a bowl, in which their blood was mixed with water and wine. In this horrid draught each soldier pledged himself to the fight that followed ;^ but the Egyptians turned, and fled in complete disorder to Memphis.²⁵ Thither Cambyses sent a

¹⁹ Herod, iii. 13, 25. Cambyses received also the aid of 40 Samian triremes from Polycrates (ibid. c. 44).

²⁰ Herodotus twice lays stress on this (ii. 1, iii. 1). The latter passage, in fact, resumes the former after the long digression upon Egypt. ²¹ Herod, i. 153.

²² Ilerod. iii. 1. Dahlmann has observed that while a sufficient ground of quarrel was given by the part taken by Amasis in the great league with Lydia aud Babylon against the growing power of Persia, "the spirit of the time, framing its policy upon the influence of persons rather than of things, required a more individual motive." ("Life of Herod." chap. vii. §3.) Herodotus's account of the conquest is colored throughout by his Egyptian sources of information.

²³ Herodotus (iii. 4) calls this person "the king of the Arabs."

²⁴ Herod, iii. 7-9. Mr. Kinglake says of the Arabs of the same desert at this day: "It is not of the Bedouins that travellers are afraid, for the safe-conduct granted by the chief of the ruling tribe is never, I believe, violated." (" Eothen," p. 191.)

²⁵ Herod, iii. 11,13. See the curious observation of the historian, who himself visited the battle-field, on the thinness of the Persian and the thickness of the Egyptian skulls (chap. xiii.). " The thickness of the Egyptian skull" (says Sir Gardner Wilkinson) " is observable iu the mummies : and those of the modern Egyptians fortunately

556 CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

Persian herald on board a MytilenaBan ship; bnt crew and envoy were torn limb from limb by the Egyptians. Memphis surrendered after a siege; and here Cambyses received embassies from the Libyans who bordered upon Egypt, and from the Greek colonists of Cyrene aud Barca. The Libyans were received as tributaries, but the presents of the Cyre-nseans and Barcaeans were contemptuously rejected as inadequate.²⁶

The romantic story of the behavior by which Psammenitus roused the compassion of Cambyses, and stayed the course of his ignominious vengeance, is in spirit a repetition of the tale of Crcesus and Cyrus.²⁷ The remark of Herodotus seems here more trustworthy than his facts : " Could Psammenitus have kept from intermeddling with affairs, he might have recovered Egypt, and ruled it as governor. For it is the Persian custom to treat the sons of kings with honor, and even to give their fathers' kingdoms to the children of such as revolt from them."²⁸ But/being detected in stirring up revolt, he was compelled to drink bull's blood, and so he died.

§ 6. From Memphis Cambyses went to Sais, which was then the capital of Egypt;²⁹ here it appears, from a monument in the Vatican,' that he assumed the full style of an Egyptian king, as " Kambath-Kemesot, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt;" that he confirmed the Egyptian dignitaries in their offices; and, " like the kings who ruled before him," made offerings "to the divine mother of the gods (i. e., Neith) at Sais, and performed the usual libations in her temple to the Lord of Ages." Thus far there is no sign of the mad fanaticism which stamps his character in history.³⁰ He now planned three expeditions—one by sea against Carthage, the name of which now first appears in the stream of general history ; on the second, against the Ammonians, he resolved to send a detachment of his army ; while he prepared for the third, which he designed to conduct in person, by sending spies into the country of the "Macrobian" (or long-lived)

possess the same property of hardness, to judge from the blows they bear from^the Turks, aud in their combats among themselves." (Note in Rawlinson's " Herod." aa loc.) Ctesias makes the loss of the Egyptians in this battle §0,000, that of the Persians only 7000. ("Pers. Esc." § 9.)

²⁰ Herod, iii. 13; but from iv. 165 we learn that the submission was completed by Arcesilaus, and the rate of tribute agreed upon. Diodorus (x. 14) says that both the Libyans and Cyrenseans had fought on the Egyptian side against Cambyses.

²⁷ Herod, iii. 14. .

²³ Herod, iii. 15. To the examples which he adduces others are added in the notes of Rawlinson and Wilkinson, ad loc. ²⁹ Herod, iii. 16.

³⁰ The story of his outrage on the corpse of Amasis, which Herodotus—who represents it as the motive of his going to Sais—himself considers as mixed with fable, de serves little -'-edit. CSee Herod, iii. 16.)

FAILURE Ol THREE EXPEDITIONS. 557

Ethiopians, who were reputed the tallest and handsomest men in the whole world, and who lived "in the uttermost parts of the earth."³¹

The Carthaginian project miscarried through the refusal of the Phoenicians to sail on such a service, " since they were bound to the Carthaginians by solemn oaths, and, besides, it would be wicked in them to make war on their own children."³² The envoys sent to the Ethiopian king brought back an unstrung bow, with the advice not to attempt the invasion till the Persians could bend it easily.³³ On receiving this defiance, Cambyses began his march. At Thebes he detached 50,000 men, with orders to burn the oracle of Amnion, and to carry captive the Ammonians.³⁴ Their march was traced as far as "the city Oasis,"³⁵ seven days' journey across the sand, after which they were never heard of more. The Ammonians, however, related that the army, while at their midday meal, were suddenly and entirely covered by columns of sand raised by a south wind, strong and deadly.³⁶

The main army under Cambyses narrowly escaped an equal destruction. The provisions were exhausted before one-fifth of the march was accomplished : the sumpter-beasts were next eaten, and then the army was reduced to sustain life on the grass and herbs; but still Cambyses pushed obstinately forward. At last they came to the bare sand ;³⁷ and here the soldiers began to cast lots for every tenth man to be eaten by the rest. On hearing of this horrid decimation, Cambyses at length relinquished the attempt, and returned

³¹ Ilerod. iii. 17, IS, 19, 20, 25. It is the less needful to inquire what race, or what part of Africa, may be here intended, as the acconut of the people is evidently in great part, if not wholly, fabulous. But we must suppose that the kingdom really meant is that of MeroG, the only great power which divided with Egypt the possession of the valley of the Nile. The story is, however, well worth perusing in Herodotus. There is something in the rude frankness of the Ethiopian king which recalls to mind the too-famous Theodore; and if the country is to be identified at all, there is much to be said for its being Abyssinia. Among the points mentioned incidentally, we are told that the oldest of the Persians reached SO years of age, the Macro-bians 120.

³² Herod, iii. 19. Here is a sign of the terras of semi-independence on which the Phoenicians submitted to Persia.

³³ Herod, iii. 21. The unstrung bow is a hieroglyphic symbol of Ethiopia. It was by bending this bow that Smerdis, according to Herodotus, ronsed his brother's jealousy.

³⁴ Herod, iii. 25. This attack may be ascribed to the religious fanaticism of the Zoroastrian.

³⁵ Herod, iii. 26. In all probability, the modern El Khargeh, the chief city of the so-called "Great Oasis," where are the remains of a temple bearing the names of Darius and of some later kings. The Oasis of Ammon is the modern Siwah.

³⁶ Herod. I c.; Diod. x. 13, § 3. The more probable cause of the catastrophe was this "wind itself," the Simoom, for the sand-storms of the desert do not cover up objects of any size. (See Wilkinson's note in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," ad loc.)

³⁷ Cambyses seems to have followed the ordinary caravan route, and to have reached as far as Wadij Omgat, in 22° N. lat, where the sands become quite barren. (Burckhnrdt, as quoted in Rawlinson's note, ad loc.)

558

CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

to Thebes, " after he had lost vast numbers of his soldiers." Thence he marched to Memphis, ready to wreak his double disappointment on the Egyptians.³⁸ The expedition, however, had one permanent result, in the annexation of the old Egyptian province of " Ethiopia above Egypt" to the Persian empire.

§ 7. It happened just at this time that a new Apis had been discovered; and the rejoicings common on the occasion were, not unnaturally, taken by Cambyses as a triumph over his defeat.³⁹ When the native officers of Memphis told him the real cause, he put them to death for liars. Next he summoned the priests; and, on receiving the same answer, he told them " he would soon find out whether a tame god had come to dwell in Egypt," and sent them to fetch Apis. No sooner was the sacred ox brought in than the king drew his short Persian sword, and struck in such haste that, missing his aim at the vitals, he wounded it in the thigh. Then, upbraiding the priests for believing that gods became flesh and blood, and sensible to steel, he ordered them to be bastinadoed, and any of the Egyptians found keeping the festival to be put to death. The Apis languished for some time in the temple, and then died, and was buried secretly by the priest's.⁴⁰ According to Plutarch, Cambyses slew the Apis outright, and gave his flesh to the dogs.⁴¹

§ 8. To this act of sacrilege the Egyptians ascribed the judicial madness which Cambyses now began to display without control.⁴² The murder of Smerdis, alleged by He-

³⁸ Herod, iii. 25. It seems not an improbable conjecture that this was the occasion seized by Psammenitus for the intrigues which caused his death, and which may have been in part the cause of the change in the conduct of Cambyses towards the Egyptians. Rawlinson justly observes that the losses of the army could not have been ruinous, as it was still strong enough to subdue the disaffection of the Egyptians.

³⁹ This may have been really the beginning of an attempt to revolt, as the priests could declare an incarnation of Apis when they pleased. The execution of the Memphian officers is thus more reasonably explained. ⁴⁰ Herod, iii. 27, 29.

⁴¹ As Sir Gardner Wilkinson observes, this story is the more probable, and the Egyptian priests would be likely to conceal so great a calamity from Herodotus. The truest story by no means always comes out nearest the time of the eveut.

⁴² Herod, iii. 30. The apparent inconsistency of Herodotus, who has already said of the march against Ethiopia, "senseless madman that he was," is rather a proof that his belief in the madness of Cambyses does not depend wholly on the Egyptian view. The remark of Bishop Thirlwall—"the actions ascribed to him are not more extravagant than those recorded of other despots "—bears a twofold interpretation to those well versed in the style of a writer whose irony is sometimes almost too refined to be detected; nor are the graver arguments of Heeren and Rawlinson of much weight. If Egyptian horror exaggerated his outrages, there must have been peculiar outrages to provoke it. The silence of the Behistun Inscription is accounted for by its brief notice of Cambyses, and Achsemenid records do not befoul the "memory of an Achannenid. The same remark (considering his sources) will apply to the silence of Ctesias, which is curiously adduced by one who usually disowns his authority. If "the Persians knew nothing of the pretended madness of this king," at least they entirely distrusted him (Herod, iii. GO), and willingly went over to hia

ALLEGED MADNESS OF CAMBYSES.

559

rodotus as the first " overt act," has been supposed to have been perpetrated long before; and the murder of his sister, which was the next, has been related above.⁴³ The well-told stories of his convincing Prexaspes of his sobriety by shooting through the heart the son of that courtier, who was fain to compliment the king on his aim, and the narrow escape of Crcesus from the same fate, at which the king rejoiced, but put to death the men who had saved the Lydian—are among those to be read only in the words of Herodotus.⁴⁴ They illustrate the addiction of Cambyses to drunkenness, a common vice of the Persian kings ; and if, as Herodotus says, he was also subject to epilepsy from his birth,⁴⁵ we scarcely need any judicial explanation of his madness, except the Nemesis which visits that greatest of all political wrongs, the possession of despotic power.⁴⁶ For, after all the fallacious arguments urged in defense of a " beneficent despotism "—a thing so rare that the epithet sounds like irony—and after all the just horror excited by the rare excesses of revolution-any frenzy, a horror due equally to the tyranny which provoked them—uo lesson should be more strenuously impressed by the historian than this: that despotic power is the greatest misfortune for all who inherit, the greatest crime in all who seize it.

§ 9. Whether inspired by madness, or by calculating severity, the harsh measures of Cambyses effectually secured the submission of Egypt, and he heads the 27th Dynasty (of Persian kings). In b.c. 522 he left the country, and was returning home through Syria, when news reached him that his nduve dominions were lost to him. The story of this revolt, as told by Herodotus,⁴⁷ and obscured by unauthorized conjectures, is now made clear from the Behistun Inscription, which distinguishes two stages in the revolution—the religious defection to Magism, and the usurpation of the Magian impostor. " When Cambyses had proceeded to Egypt, then the state became wicked. Then the lie became abounding in the land, both in Persia and in Media, and in the other provinces."⁴⁸ Darius proceeds in a separate paragraph :

"Aftericards there arose a certain man, a Magian (Ma-

supposed brother, and they branded his memory as that of a tyrant: for, says Herodotus, " the Persians say that Darius was a huckster, Cambyses a master (6e<rx6-Trit)i and Cyrus a father: for Darius looked to make a gain in every thing; Cambyses was harsh and reckless; while Cyrns was gentle, and procured them all manner of good " (Herod, iii. 89). ⁴³ Ilerod. iii. 30, 31.

⁴⁴ Herod, iii. 34-36. For other cases of religious outrage see c. 37, and the admirable reflections on national usages in c. 3S. ⁴⁵ Herod, iii. 33.

⁴⁶ See the illustration of this by the comparison drawn between Cambyses, Calig-nla, and the Czar Paul, in Mr. Malkin's admirable " Historical Parallels."

⁴⁷ Herod, iii. 61 seq. ^4S Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 10

560 CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

gush), named Gomates (Gaumata),™ from Pissiachada, the mountain called Aracadres. He thus lied to the state: ' I am Bardes (Bardiya), the son of Cyrus, the brother of Cambyses.'⁵⁰ Then the whole stctte became rebellious. From Cambyses it went over to him—both Persia, and Media, and the other 2^rovinces. He seized the empire. Afterwards Cambyses, tumble to endure (or self wishing to die), died."⁵¹

It is at once clear that this was no mere Median revolt— a conjecture unsupported even by Herodotus ;⁵² though the chief strength of the usurper would naturally be in the more Mao-ianized province of Media, and there was the fortress in which he was slain.⁵³ The whole tenor of the inscription shows that the " lie" of the first paragraph is not the false pretense of the usurper (as in paragraph 11), but the religious corruption which prevailed[first, and which he established fully after his accession. For Darius, relating his restoration of the empire " as it was before," says: " The temples which Gomates the Magian heal destroyed, I rebuilt. The sacred offices of the state, both the religious chants and the worship (I restored to the people), of which Gomates the Magian had deprived them. ... As (it was) before, so I restored what (had been) taken away."⁵⁴

But how came "the lie" to prevail "both in Persia and Media, and all the provinces," so soon after Cambyses set out for Egypt? A very probable answer is that Cambyses had already favored the Magian corruption, which had long been complete in Media, and which afterwards prevailed in Persia, notwithstanding the zealous reformation of Darius. For Herodotus tells us that Cambyses left in Persia, as Comptroller of his household, a Magian named Patizeithes,⁵⁵ who, struck with the likeness of his brother to the murdered Smerdis, set him on the throne, and began the revolt.⁵⁶ The

⁴⁹ The name signifies "possessing herds," from goo (=Germ. Kuh, Eng. cow), and mat, " with " or " possessing." (Sir H. Rawlinson's " Old Pers. Vocab.") The only ancient writer who preserves the Magian's tine name is Trogus Pompeins (ap. Justin, i. 9), in the form Cometes, which, however, he assigns to the wrong brother. It is important to observe that the Magian was a Persian, not a Mede. His birthplace, Pissiachada, was near Parga (Fahraj), in the country between Shiraz and Kerman. The Magi were spread over the whole proper territory of Media and Persia, from Cappadocia (Strabo, xv. 3) to the borders of Kerman. (Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 399, n.)

50 This is as open a proclamation of revolt as that of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes.

⁵¹ Ibid. par. 11, with unimportant abbreviations.

⁶² Herodotus knows of only one Median revolt, that under Darius (i. 130).

⁶³ Ibid. par. 14.

⁶⁴ Ibid. par. 14. The matter is placed beyond all donbt by the general slaughtet of the Magi, which ensued on the death of the usurper.

⁶⁶ That is, " powerful lord," frompati, " lord ;" aud the Zend zijat, "powerful." ⁶⁸ Herodotus streugthens the coincidence by making the Magian's true name Smerdis. a very natural mistake, or assumption, if he did not know of the name of Goma-

USURPATION OF GOMATES.

561

likeness is represented by Herodotus as not close enough to dispense with the necessity of concealment ;⁵⁷ and this is exactly confirmed by the inscription: " He slew many people who had known the old Bardes: for that reason he slew them, lest they should recognize me, that I am not Bardes, the son of Cyrus."⁶⁸ The usurpation seems to have been unopposed : " Says Darius the king—There was not a man, neither Persian nor Median, nor any one of our family, who would dispossess that Gomates the Magian of the crown. The state feared him exceedingly."⁶⁹ " He did according to his desire."⁶⁰ He had effectually "dispossessed Cambyses both of Persia and Media ;"⁶¹ and the king seems, in despair, to have committed suicide in Syria.⁶² The place where he died, Ecbatana (Agbatana), has not been satisfactorily identified ; and perhaps the name was invented to suit the prophecy to which Shakspeare gives us an exact parallel in the death of Henry IV. " in Jerusalem."⁶³ His reign had lasted seven years and five months (b.c. 529-522), During his whole reign, as well as that of Cyrus, the nations brought their several gifts to the king; and fixed tributes were first imposed by Darius.⁶⁴

§ 10. The Magian usurper, Gomates, or (as he is usually called) the Pseudo-Smerdis, kept possession of the throne during the seven months wanting to make up the reign of Cambyses to eight years (b.c. 5 2 2).⁶⁵ " The state feared him exceedingly," says Darius.⁶⁶ So Herodotus: " The Magian now reigned in security. . . His subjects, while his reign lasted, received great benefits from him, insomuch that, when he died, all the dwellers in Asia mourned his loss exceedingly, except only the Persians. For no sooner did he come to the throne, than forthwith he sent round to every nation under his rule, and .granted them freedom from war-service and

tes. The silence of the Behistnu Inscription is no decisive evidence against them being t wo Magian brothers. ⁵⁷ See Herod, iii. 6S.

⁵⁸ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 13.

⁵⁹ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 13. ⁶⁰ Ibid. par. 12. ⁶¹ Ibid.

⁶² This seems the only reasonable interpretation of the concluding words of par. 11 of the inscription, quoted above. The story of Herodotus—that the button slipped off the kiug's sword-sheath as he vaulted <>u his horse to march against the usurper, and the sword pierced his thigh just where he had smitten Apis—is precisely the compromise we should expect between the Egyptian view of a divine judgment and the Persian desire to soften away a suicide, which is carried a step farther in the ac-connt of Ctesias—that Cambyses wonnded himself mortally with a knife, with which he was carving wood for his amusement (" Pers. Exc." § 10). For the other embellishments of the story, see Herodotus, iii. 61-66.

⁶³ Heury IV. Pt. ii. Act. iv. Sc. 4. Stephanus Byzantinus identifies Ecbatana with the region of Batanea (Bashan); Pliny makes it a town on Mount Carmel ("H. N." v. 19). This would lie in the route of Cambyses, bnt we have no other mention of such a place.

«⁴ Herod, iii. S9. ⁶³ Herod, iii. 67. ⁶⁸ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 13.

24*

502

CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

from taxes for the space of. three years."⁶⁷ The Persian* were already exempt from taxation; and though they at first adhered to the usurper, supposing him to be the more worthy son of Cyrus, for this very reason their indignation would be the greater when the imposture was discovered. We have already referred to his establishment of the Magian system and priesthood, and his overthrow of the Zoroastrian temples and worship. Another interesting example of his reversal of the religious policy of his two predecessors is furnished by his edict to stop the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem.⁶⁵

§ 11. The silence of the Behistun Inscription as to the detection of the false Smerdis is no reason for rejecting the main outlines of the story as told by Herodotus. Cambyses, who had at first believed himself tricked by the agent to whom he had committed the murder of Smerdis, was soon convinced of the truth ; but his dying warning to the Persians, and especially to the Achremenids, was set down to hatred of his brother.⁶⁹ But the religious measures of the Magian must have excited disaffection among the Zoroas-trians; and his continued seclusion must have roused suspicion. According to Oriental custom, he had taken the harem of his predecessor ;⁷⁰ but one of his precautions was to keep his wives from associating with each other.⁷¹ This confirmed the doubts of one of the noblest Persians, named Otanes, who had been the first to suspect the cheat ;⁷² and the final discovery was made by his daughter Phredima, one of the king's wives. She detected the false Smerdis by his want of ears, for the Magian had suffered that mutilation for some great crime in the reign of Cyrus.⁷³

§ 12. The steps taken upon the discovery are differently related. The Behistun record is as follows: "Says Darius the king—There was not a man, neither Persian nor Median, nor any one of our family (i.e., the Acha3inenids), who would dispossess that Gomates the Magian of the crown.... No

⁶⁷ Herod, iii. 07.

^es Ezra, iv. 7-24. The order of the narrative in Ezra seems to require the identify cation of Gomates with "Artaxerxes," a title which he may very probably have assumed, as it simply means "king" with the intensive prefix "Arta." The "Ahasue-rns" of Ezra iv. 6 is evidently Cambyses, who seems to have inclined to a policy of aispicion towards Ihe Jews, perhaps under Magian influence. ⁶⁹ Herod, i. 06.

⁷⁰ As Absalom did : 2 Sam. xvi. 20-22. ⁷¹ Herod, i. 6S.

⁷² In chap. 70, Darius is made to say that he thought he alone knew of the impos tnro, which agrees better with the inscription.

⁷³ See Herod. I. c. and chap. 6t). The cutting off the ears and nose was no nr.nsual punishment in Persia. The story of Zopyrns (iii. 154 seq.), whether credible or not in itself, is founded on the custom ; and Darius records bis infliction of this punishment on the rebels Phraortes and Sitrantachmes (Behistun Inscription, col. ii. pars. 13, 14). In modern times it has been practised by the Sepoys in the mutiny of 1S57, as well as by Land and the Star Chamber.

STORY OF THE SEVEN CONSPIRATORS.

5G3

one dared to say any thing concerning Gomates the Magian until I arrived. Then I prayed to Ormazd : Ormazd brought help to me. On the tenth day of the month Bagayadfsh, then it was,ivith my faith fid men, I slew that Gomates the Magian, and those who were his chief followers. The fort named Sictachotes, in the district of Media called Nistea, there I slew him.⁷⁴ I dispossessed him of the empire. By the grace of Ormazd I became king: Ormazd granted me the sceptre."⁷⁵

The important part taken by these "faithful men" is recognized by a special paragraph in the concluding part of the inscription : " Says Darius the king—These are the men who alone were there, when I slew Gomates the Magian, who was called Bardes;" and he adds the names of six, all Persians — Vidafrana, Utana, Gaubaruva, Vidarna, Bagabukh-sha, Ardumanishy⁷⁶ corresponding precisely, with one exception, to the names of the six conspirators as given by Herodotus (Darius himself being the seventh)— Intaphernes, Otanes, Gobryas, Hydames, Meyabyzus and (not Ardomanes but) Aspathi?ies.'ⁿ The slight discrepancy, however, is one of those which rather confirm than invalidate testimony, by showing its independence; and the mistake is easily accounted for, sinee Aspathines actually appears as the quiver-bearer of Darius in the inscription "on that king's tomb at Kaksh-i-Biistam.⁷⁸

§ 13. In the face of so striking an agreement, there is little need to discuss the minor question, whether the conspiracy was set on foot by Darius, and whether his claim to the crown was at once admitted. Herodotus describes the plot as concocted by Otanes; but he agrees with the inscription, that nothing was actually done till Darius arrived at Susa,⁷⁹ whither he is made to say that he had hastened, with the intent of killing the Magian; and even then Darius forces the other conspirators into action against their will.⁸⁰ Heeren

⁷⁴ Herodotus places this event at Susa.

⁷⁵ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 13.

⁷⁶ Behistun Inscription, col. iv. par. IS.

⁷⁷ The identity of Otanes and Gobryas with Utana and Gaubaruva is obvious: that ot Meyabyzus with Bagabukhsha has been explained already (chap. xxv. § 1 note) • and on the same principle of nasalization, Vidafrana becomes Intaphernes (just as Kabu-jiya becomes Cambyses); but Hydames is formed from Vidarna, like Hystaspes f«om Vishtasp. W e have omitted the fathers* names for brevity, but one requires notice: Gobryas was the son of Mardouius (Marduniya), aud the father of the celebrated Mar-domus. It is remarkable that Intaphernes, who stands first in the inscription, an pears m ^Eschylns (who calls him Artaphrenes) as the actual slayer of the Mf«nim and he seems even to be regarded as king before Darius (^Esch. "Pers " 7S1-3)' ^Th^ story of his execution by Darius looks very much like the removal of a dan-erous Tival, who had presumed upon his indispensable services. (Herod iii 113 ) °

⁷⁸ Ctesias has only one name right—Hydames—besides Darius himself. "Herod, iii. 70. «o_Ibidc._n>

564

CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

and Niebuhr suppose, on good grounds, that the conspirators ^% were the heads of the seven Persian clans, or families, and that they met in secret conclave to take measures for the deliverance of Persia. In such a body there could be no question of the right of Darius, now that the male line of Cyrus was extinct;⁶² and the other six would naturally rank as "his faithful men,'' or dutiful confederates. The sign which, according to Herodotus, determined the choice, may easily have been contrived so as to give the sanction of an omen to an existing right.⁸²

There is no improbability in the statement that the six, while they had yet the power to do so, exacted a price for the recognition of their leader's claim. Whether as a new grant, or as a confirmation of old rights, they obtained the following privileges: It was to be free to each, whenever he pleased, to enter the palace unannounced, unless the king were in the company of one of his wives ; and the king was to be bound to marry into no family excepting those of the conspirators. The still higher privileges said to have been obtained by Otanes, as the price of abstaining from the competition—the freedom of his race forever, and the annual present of a Median robe and other gifts of honor (the Kaftan)—may have been granted to him as an Achaemenid."³

§ 14. It must be assumed that all this was settled before the attack was made, and not, as Herodotus represents, after the five days of confusion which followed its success. "It would have been madness to allow an interval of anarchy ;"⁶⁴ and such an interval seems to be imagined by Herodotus only to introduce that set debate among the chieftains, which has long been recognized as a purely Greek conception—one of those essays in which the ancient historians are wont to express their own ideas, or rather, perhaps, those agitated among their countrymen, through the persons of the narrative. We are much mistaken if there be not a dash of sly humor in the sentence — "At this meeting speeches were made, to which many of the Greeks give no credence, but

⁸¹ Hystaspes (Vtehtaspa, i. c., "the possessor of horses") was grandson, in the male line, of Ariaramnes, who was the second son of Te'ispes, and younger brother of Cambyses, the great-grandfather of Cyrus. Otaues was also an Achaemenid, throngh Atossa, the daughter of Teispes, a descent which could not of course be brought into competition with that of Darius. The story of Cyrus's dream seems to recognize the position of Darius as next heir to the crown after the reigning family (Herod, i. 209). We may suppose that Hystaspes, like Cambyses in the revolt from Astyages, devolved his claim upon his son. At all events, he was still alive dnring the reign of Darius, and commanded in the war with the rebel Phraortes (Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 10 ; col. iii. par. 1). Ctesias has a curious story about the manner of hia death. ("Pers. Exc." § 15.)

⁶² Ilerod. i'.i. S4, foi. 87. *=» Ilerod. iii. S3, S4. ⁸⁴ Ra'vliur?on.

HALL OF A HUNDRED COLUMNS.

5G5

they were made nevertheless"**—that is, they ought to have been made. We know not what credit to attach to the story that Prexaspes now atoned for the crime of having been the agent in the murder of Smerdis, by sacrificing his life in proclaiming the truth to the people, and so preparing thern for what followed.⁸⁶

§ 15. In the execution of the plot, at all events, Darius took the lead. He gained access to the palace (or rather, as appears from the inscription, to the fort in Media, where the

Gateway to Hall of a Hundred Columns. (Perbepolis.)

Magian had shut himself up) as the bearer of a dispatch from his father Hystaspes, who was the governor of Persia. The six " faithful men " rushed in with him, and two of them were wounded in the desperate conflict which ensued. The

Herod, iii. SO (comp. vi. 43, where we seem to detect the like humor). Let any one read the speeches in Herodotus—(and, once for all, it is the object of our manual to encourage, not to supersede, such reading)—and judge for himself. Ouly imagine a Persian noble gravely arguing—and Herodotns gravely writing down his argument—for the Greek \aovoula (c. S9)! Surely the sonl of Otanes must, in that case, have passed by metempsychosis into the person of the great living historian of Greece !

** Herod, iii. 7f». Ctesias tells the story, with different details, of a certain Ixabates, a eunuch who had been in the confidence of Cambyses, bnt had not been the actual 6layer of Smerdis.

5GG

CAMBYSES AND THE MAGIAN USURPATION.

Magian usurper was slain by the hand of Darius, his brother having been killed before him ; and the victors rushed out to show the heads of the two impostors to the people. The deception was forthwith avenged by a general massacre of the Magians, which only ended with the fall of night; and the event was commemorated by the great festival called 3Iago-phonia, which the Persians kept as the strictest in all the year, when no Magian might stir abroad, during the whole day of the feast, on pain of death."

"Here for once" (observes Rawlinson) "Ctesias and our author are of accord. Both speak of the festival as continuing in their own day. It is certainly strange that, after the Magian religion was combined with the Persian, and while the Magi constituted the priest-caste of the Persian nation, this custom should have been maintained. If, however, we remember that the reign of the Pseudo-Smerdis was not only the triumph of a religion, but also the domination for a time of the priests over the warriors, we may conceive the possibility of such a custom being still retained. It would be a perpetual warning to the priests against going beyond the line of their own functions, and trenching on the civil power." The massacre of the Magians both illustrates and is illustrated by that of the Jews planned by Haman, and that executed by the Jews upon their assailants (Esther, ec. iii, viii., ix.).

⁶⁷ Herod, iii. 79; Ctes. " Pers. Exc." § 15.

Tomb of Darius.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.—DARIUS, THE SON OF HYStaspes.-B.C. 521-48G.

§ 1. Reigu of Darius I., son of Hystaspes. His titles ou his tomb. His Achaemenid desceut. His marriages. He is the champion of the legitimate house, and of the Zoroastrian religion. § 2. Annals of the first period of his reign, in the Behistnu Inscription. § 3. Summary of the rebellions during his first five years. Proviuces of the empire at his accession. § 4. Probable religious element in the rebellions. § 5. Revolts of Susiana and Babylonia. Siege and capture of Babylon. Its second revolt and severe punishment. § C. General rebellion of the central and eastern provinces. Second revolt of Susiana. Combined revolt of Media, Armenia, and Assyria. The pretender Phraortes in Media. Campaigns in Armenia. § 7. Darius defeats Phraortes and recovers Media. Revolt of Sagartia put down. Hystaspes recovers Parthia and Hyrcania. Margiana and Bactria quieted. § 8. Revolt of Persia under a second psendo-Smerdis—involving that of Arachotia—put down and punished. § 9. New revolts quelled in Babylouia, Susiana, and Sacia. § 10. Punishment of the satraps of Lydia and Egypt. § 11. New conquests contemplated. Atossa and Democedes. Spies sent to Greece. § 12. Conquest of the Punjab. Voyage of Scylax down the Indus. Resources of India. § 13. The Scythian expedition of Darius. § 14. Thrace aud Macedouia conquered by Mega-bazus. § 15. The Ionian revolt and the invasion of Greece. Battle of Marathon. Epoch in history formed by the Greek wars. § 10. Revolt of Egypt. Death of Darius.

§ 1. Darius I.,¹ the son of Hystaspes, is rightly regarded

¹ The name, in old Persian Daryavuxh (closely represented in the Old Testament by Daryavesh), comes probably from the root dar, " to hold," which may answer to

508

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

as the second founder of the Persian empire. His reign is dated from the first day of the year answering to b.c. 521 ; and it lasted thirty-six years, to Dec. 23, b.c 486. He was scarcely twenty years of age when Cyrus, in a dream, is said to have seen him, with wings upon his shoulders, overshadowing Asia with the one wing, and Europe with the other (b.c 530).² He would, therefore, be in his twenty-eighth year at his accession, and in his sixty-fourth when he died. His descent has already been described. In the only example of an epitaph inscribed by a Persian king upon his own tomb, he calls himself: "Darius, the Great King, the King of kings; the King of all inhabited countries; the King of this great earth, far and near; the son of Hystaspes, an Achae-menian ; a Persian, the son of a Persian ; an Aryan, of Aryan descent.³

Upon his accession, he connected himself with the elder branch of the AchaBinenids by marrying Atossa and Artys-tone, the two surviving daughters of Cyrus: the former came to him with the harem of Gomates; the latter was still a virgin. He also married Parmys, the daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and connected himself with the third Achaemenid branch by marrying the daughter of Otanes.⁴

Throughout the Behistun Inscription Darius represents himself as the hereditary champion of the Achfemenids, against Gomates and all other rebels : "The empire, of which Gomates the Magian dispossessed Cambyses—that empire, from the olden time, had been in our family.™ "As it was before, so I arranged it, by the grace of Ormazd, so that Gomates the Magian should not supersede our family"* It is " by the grace of Ormazd " that he does every thing. His epitaph begins with this sentence: " The great god Ormazd, he gave this earth, he gave that heaven, he gave life to mankind ; he made Darius king, as well the king of the people

Herodotus's interpretation (vi. 9S, epfe<V, " the restrainer," fr. eVp7w, rather than " the doer," fr. rt. epf). Other Greek writers interpret it (ppdvifxoi and 7roXe/x<K6y.

² Herod, i. 209. Ctesias makes Darius live seventy-two years and reign thirty-one ("Pers. Exc."§19).

³ Naksh-i-FiUstam Inscription, par. 2. The translation of this inscription, by Sir Henry Rawlinson, will be found in Rawlinson's Herodotus, Appendix to book vii., note A. For a fall description of the tomb of Darius, and of the others at Xaksh-i-Rustam, between Persepolis and Pasargada?, as well as of the Persian royal tombs in general, see Rawlinson's " Five Monarchies," vol. i v. pp. 1SS, 29G, etc. We are told by Ctesias that Darius constructed his own sepulchre while his father and mother were still living (Ctes. "Pers. Exc." § 15).

⁴ He had previously married a daughter of Gobryas (vii. 2); and he also married Phratagune, the daughter of his brother Artames.

^b Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 12.

⁶ Ibid. col. i. par. 14. We hardly need contrast this with the Herodotean picture of the conspirators first deciding on a monarchy, and then competing for the crown by an appeal to an omen.

DARIUS AND THE BEHISTUN INSCRIPTION.

5G9

as the lawgiver of the people:"⁷ and in the same spirit it closes: "That which has been done, all of it I have accomplished by the grace of Ormazd. Ormazd brought help to me, so that I accomplished the work. May Ormazd protect from injury me and my house, and this province! That I commit to Ormazd—that may Ormazd accomplish for me! O people ! the law of Ormazd — that having returned to you, let it not perish. Beware lest ye abandon the true doctrine !"⁸

§ 2. This restoration of the Zoroastrian worship, and the •putting down of several rebellions, are the matters recorded in the great trilingual inscription at Behistun, which Sir Henry Rawlinson dates, from internal evidence, in the sixth year of Darius (b.c. 516). The king expressly says that much had been done by him besides that was not recorded in this tablet ;⁹ and what he has recorded he himself sums up,in the conquest and capture of nine "kings," leaders of rebellions, and the winning of nineteen battles.¹⁰ His treatment of the defeated kings sternly illustrates the profession —"He who has labored for my family, him well cherished I have cherished; he who has been hostile to me, him well destroyed I have destroyed."¹¹ All the rebel kings, except one who was killed by his own followers, were put to death when captured, three at least by crucifixion ; and two of these were first exposed at the gates of the king's palace, after their ears and noses had been cut off.

§ 3. A comparison of the summary of these revolts with the list of provinces over which Darius became king shows the formidable extent of the spirit of disaffection. Such a result always followed a change of government in the loosely-organized Oriental empires, especially in the form of attempts to revive the native dynasties, as was now the case in Babylonia, Media, Armenia, and other provinces; and even

⁷ Naksh-i-Knstam Inscription, par. 1. s ibid. par. 5, G.

⁹ Ibid. col. iv. par. S. Probably the most important of the acts omitted is the edict issued in his second year (n.c. 520) for the resumption of the building of the temple at Jerusalem (Ezra iv. 5, 24; v.; vi.), which the Magian had interrupted. Besides its sound policy, this act may be viewed as a part of the restoration of the religious institutions annulled by the usurper; aud the condnct both of Cyrus aud Darius seems to show the sympathy of those zealous Zoroastrians for the pnre monotheism of the Jews.

¹⁰ Ibid. par. 2. All the battles recorded are, of course, victories, as iu some national monuments of later days. All the rebel leaders are "kings," a dignity Avhich enhances the glory of their defeat and capture : so that we mnst be cautious of infer, ring the complete establishment of their royal authority in the rebellions provinces. The record carefully distinguishes between the campaigns conducted by Darius in person and those committed to his generals, who receive due houor by the mention of their names. But, at the same time, all their acts are ascribed to Darius. As one example out of many: when the satrap Vibanus defeats the Arachosian rebel, we read, "There he took him, etc. Then the province submitted to me. This is what was done by me in Arachotia."

¹¹ Ibid. par. 3. Observe the intensive repetition, as in Hebrew.

570

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

Persia was ready to rise again at the name of a son of Cyrus. The empire of which Darius became king embraced, as he says, the following provinces: "Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia,¹² Egypt; those which are of the sea (the islands), Saparda,¹³ Ionia, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia.. Parthia, Zarangia, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Gan-daria, the Sacaa, Sattagydia, Arachotia, and Mecia: in all twenty-three provinces."¹⁴

§ 4. Of these, he had to quell revolts, during his first six years, in Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, Armenia, Parthia, Sagartia, Arachotia, and Sacia (besides Margi-ana, which seems to be reckoned as belonging to Bactria). All the central provinces constituting the original empire, from the mountains of Armenia to the head of the Persian Gulf, as well as several of those of the Iranian table-land, had to be reconquered. The only important provinces wanting to complete the list are Lydia and Egypt; and even in them, as we learn from Herodotus, the satraps seized the opportunity of these troubles to assume an insolent air of independence, which only stopped short of rebellion through the swift vengeance taken on them by Darius.¹⁵ The king's constant reiteration of what he had done to suppress " lying," and his adjuration of his successors to destroy it everywhere, indicate that most of these rebellions were connected with religion. There can, especially, be little doubt that Magism was at the bottom of the great Median revolt.

§ 5. The first of the insurrections, however, in Susiana and Babylonia, were simply movements for national independence, taking advantage of the dynastic troubles in Persia, "During ail the time that the Magus was king, and while the seven were conspiring, the Babylonians had profited by the troubles,and had made themselves ready against a siege."¹⁶

¹² Herodotus expressly excepts Arabia, which he says had a friendly league with Persia (iii. 8S).

¹³ Lydia seems to be included under this name.

¹⁴ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. G. It is worth while to compare this with the final list, in the Kaksh-i-Rtistam epitaph, of the countries "which I have acquired besides Persia: Media, Susiana, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Zarangia, Arachotia, Sattagydia, Gandaria, India, the Sacae Ainyrgii, the Sacan bowmen, Baby* Ionia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Saparda, Ionia, the Sacm beyond the sea (?'. e., Scythians north of the Euxine), the Ionians who xcear lielmets (European Greeks), the Budians, the Cossceans, the Masians, and the Characeni (?)." The additions to the former list are denoted by italics.

1⁵ Herod, iii. 126; iv. 1GG. Herodotus seems too much occupied with his main subject (the Persian invasion of Greece) to notice the rebellions recorded in the inscription, except the great Median revolt, and (apparently the two confused together) of Babylonia, which belong natnrally to his account of those countries. From the accession of Darins he passes on at once to the constitution of the satrapies (iii. 85)); and he only glances incidentally at "the troubles of the season " (iii. 126).

¹⁶ Herod, iii. 150. Besides its romantic details (such as the self-mutilation of Zo-pyrus, iu order to execute his plot for betraying the city), there are difliculties in

REVOLTS OF SUSIANA AND BABYLONIA.

571

In Susiana Atrines declared himself king, calling himself Imants, that is, the old royal name, Umman ; while in Babylonia a certain Nidintabelus assumed the crown, as being Nebuchadnezzar (JVabukudrachara), son of Nabonidus; and the whole state went over to him. Atrines was taken prisoner by a force sent against him, and was put to death by Darius. The king marched in person against the Babylonians, who held the Tigris with an army and vessels. Darius forced the passage,¹⁷ and gained a second battle, on his march towards Babylon, at Zazaua, on the Euphrates.¹⁸

In his brief official style, Darius adds that he pursued the

f>retender, who had fled with his faithful horsemen to Baby-on, took the city, and slew Nidintabelus there.¹⁹ But it appears from Herodotus that the Babylonians made a long and desperate resistance. They had reduced the mouths to be fed by strangling all the females, except their mothers, and one other woman for each household; and these were employed in making bread. Contemptuously confident, as in the time of Cyrus, in the strength of their defenses, they were also watchful enough to baffle the means by which the city had then been taken; and for twenty months²⁰ they held out against the whole power of the empire, which Darius had drawn together for the siege.²¹ Under the story of the stratagem of Zopyrus there may perhaps lurk the fact of a treacherous admission of the Persian army. The capture of the city was followed by that of the Temple of Belus, where some of the insurgents had found refuge for a time.²² The story of the vengeance taken by Darius seems better

identifying the story of Herodotus with either of the two revolts of the inscription. Ctesias ascribes the siege to Xerxes, and tells the story of Zopyrus differently ("Pers. Exc." § 22). Herodotus also seems to allude to a capture of Babylon (or at all events a hostile visit) by Xerxes (i. 1S3).

¹⁷ Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 1G-19.

¹⁸ December, probably, of b.o. 520. The events are dated by the Persian months, but the years are not given. Those conversant with the Persian calendar, however, have been able, by following the order of the months, to make out the years with fair probability. This is, in fact, the internal evidence which determines the period embraced by the inscription. ^lv Ibid. col. ii. par. 1.

²⁰ Probably Jan. b.o. 519, to Sept, «.c. 51S.

²¹ Herod, iii. 151,15S. This siege appears to be that mentioned first in the inscrip tion, from the circumstance that it was conducted by Darius iu person. Read chap ters 151-1G0 for the romautic but very improbable story of the stratagem by which Zopyrus gaiued the confidence of the Babylonians in order to betray the city, of which we have the counterpart in Roman history (Liv. i. 54 ; Ovid. Fast. ii. 091, etc.), aud the origin of which is traced by Sir Henry Rawlinson to a certain standard Oriental tale, applied, in different ages, by the Persian bards and traditiouists to Firuz and the Hiyathelah, by Abu Rihan to Kanishka and the Indians, and by the historians of Cashmere to their famous king, Lalitaditya (note to Behistun Inscription, p. xvi.; Rawlinson's Herod., note ad loc.). Zopyrus was for many years satrap of Babylouia, as the reward (according to Herodotus) of his self-devotion, which Ctesias ascribes to his son Megabyzns, who was one of Xerxes's six great generals (Herod, vii. 82), and afterwards commanded the Persians in Egypt (iii. 1G0).

⁸² Comp. Herod, iii. 15S with i. 1S3.

r,72 CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

suited to the repression of the second revolt of Babylon, some three years later, when a certain Aracus, an Armenian resident of Babylonia, again personated Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabonidus, and was defeated and taken by the general Intaphres. Darius would naturally be the more incensed at the opportunity taken for this second revolt, when he was occupied with the formidable rebellions of Media and Persia.²³ On the first occasion he only mentions the execution of the rebel king Nidintabelus ;²⁴ but on the second the record —"I gave orders that they should crucify both Aracus and the chief men who were with him"²⁵— agrees with the account of Herodotus, that nearly 3000 of the leading citizens were selected for crucifixion.²⁸ The statement that Darius destroyed the wall and tore down the gates, which had not been done by Cyrus, is probably to be accepted in a modified sense; for parts of the enormous walls were standing long after.²⁷

§ C. The occupation of Darius in Babylonia with this long and critical war was seized as the opportunity for a general revolt of the central, northern, and eastern provinces. " While I was at Babylon, these are the countries which revolted against me: Persia, Susiana, Media, Assyria, Armenia, Parthia,^Margiana, Sattagydia, Sacia."²⁸ Susiana, whose indomitable spirit of independence we have seen under the Assyrian empire, rose under a Persian named Martes (Mar-tiya), who gave himself out aslmanes (Imanisti)*⁹ of the old royal line of Susiana. But Darius no sooner turned towards Susiana than the people themselves put the pretender to death.

The most serious of all these troubles was the revolt—apparently in concert—of Media, Assyria, and Armenia, drawing after them some of the eastern Iranian provinces. The insurrection of the Medes was a movement to recover their independence and supremacy under Phraortes (Fravartish), who^assumed the name of "Xathrites (Khshathrita) ,³⁰ of the race of Cyaxares:" and Armenia, with Assyria as a helper,

23 Behistun Inscription, col. iii. par. 13. ²⁴ Ibid. col. ii. par. 1.

25 ibid. col. iii. par. 14, iu the Scythic version. ²⁸ Herod, iii. 159.

²⁷ Herod, iii. 159. SeevRawlinson's note.

2⁸ Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 2. This is a summary, not necessarily implying that all these provinces rose at once, nor that they are named iu the order of their rising. It should be observed, too, in reading the inscription, that it is by no means in exact chronological order. Consecutive paragraphs often refer to simultaneous events; and a later paragraph sometimes takes up eveuts antecedent to those iu former paragraphs.

²⁹ Evidently the old royal name Umman,-which often occurs in the Assyrian records. ,

³⁰ Probably meaning "emperor, from Klushtram, "empire." Sir H. Rawlinions

*' Vocab."

DARIUS DEFEATS PHRAORTES.

seems to have struck for its old independent alliance with Media. Before Darius was ready to leave Babylon, the pretender was recognized as king throughout all Media; and Darius thinks it worthy of special record, that " the army of Persians and Medes that was with me, that remained faithful to me." Darius sent Hydames, one of his six "faithful men," with the truly imperial order—"Go forth and smite that Median state, which does not call itself mine."³¹ Of course Hydarnes did so—according to the inscription; but the sequel shows that "he waited for (Darius's) arrival in Media," by no means as a complete victor.

Another army, dispatched against Armenia, under an Armenian named Dadarses, gained in like manner three victories,³² and he also waited for Darius, but in such a position that the'Armenians were able to make a descent upon Assyria. Here they were encountered by a second army, which Darius had detached for the Armenian war, under Vomises, a Persian; who defeated them, first in Assyria and afterwards in Armenia. Vomises also waited in Armenia till Darius arrived in Media.³³

§ 7. At length, apparently in the summer of b.c 518, the king marched from Babylon into Media. Phraortes marched to meet him, and gave battle at a place called Kudrus, where the rebel's utter defeat made Darius master of Ecbatana. Phraortes fled, with his horsemen, as far as Rhages, probably hoping to make head in Parthia and Hyrcania, which had risen in his cause ; but a force sent by Darius took him prisoner, and brought him back to Ecbatana. Here, mutilated of his nose, ears, and tongue, he was kept chained at the palace-door long enough for " all the kingdom to know to him"—a precaution against future personation— and finally crucified. His chief followers were put to death in the citadel of Ecbatana.³⁴

The same punishment of mutilation, exposure at the palace-gates, and crucifixion, was inflicted on a Sagartian named Sitrantachmes,³⁵ who, after the example of Phraortes, had

³¹ Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. C.

³² May to October, probably b.c. 519. ³³ January and May, b.o. 51S.

³⁴ Behistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 13. Professor Rawlinson observes that, " So far as any substratnm of historical truth is to be discerned in the Book of Judith, the allusion would be to this rebellion, its suppression, and its further consequences. Ar-phaxad, who dwelt »at Ecbatana, aud was taken at Rhages, represents Xathrites, whose real name was Phraortes ; Nabuchodonosor is Darius. The notes -of time (iv. 3 aud 5) suit this period." (" Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 410, note.) It seems perfectly, clear that Herodotus alludes to this Median revolt in the passage (i. 130): "Afterwards the Medes repented of their submission, and revolted from Darins, but. were defeated in battle, and a^ain reduced to subjection." (See Rawlinson's note ad lot., and Grote's "Greece," vol. iv. p. 304, note.)

35 "The strong leopard," evidently a Turanian name.

574

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

claimed to be " the king of Sagartia, of the race of Cyaxares."³⁶ He was executed at Arbela, whither we may suppose that Darius had advanced on his way to Parthia and Hyrcania, which had embraced the cause of Phraortes.

" Hystaspes, my father "—says the inscription³⁷—" was in Parthia (as governor): the people revolted and forsook him ;" and they seem to have invaded Media in support of Phraortes, for it is there that Hystaspes is said to have defeated them.³⁸ Reinforced by Darius, who had now advanced as far as Rhages, Hystaspes gained a second and decisive battle in Parthia, and the province was recovered.³⁹ The revolt of Margiana, under a native leader, Phraates—a name long afterwards famous in the line of Parthian kings—was subdued by Dadarses, the satrap of Bactria.⁴⁰

§ 8. While Darius was thus engaged in the north-eastern provinces, another Pseudo-Smerdis, named Veisdates, arose in Persia itself, and the fondness of the Persians for the house of Cyrus, or jealousy towards Darius, gained the pretender the crown: "Then the Persian people who were at home, being at a distance (from me), revolted from me : they went over to that Ve'isdates : he became king of Persia"*¹ But again the Persian and Median army remained faithful to Darius ; and he seems to have sent forward the main body of them, under Artabardes,⁴² a Persian, while he followed with his own select force of Persians. After an obstinate conflict, in which Artabardes gained two victories,⁴³ Veisdates was taken, with his chief adherents, and Darius crucified them in Persia.⁴⁴

The province of Arachotia, into which the pretender had sent an army, was successfully defended, or perhaps rather regained, by its satrap Vibanus (Vivana),\xho took the insurgent leader prisoner and slew him, with his chief adherents.⁴⁵

§ 9. This Persian insurrection created an opportunity for

³⁶ Behistun Inscr., col. ii. par. 14. ³⁷ Ibid. par. 16, Scythic version.

^3S April, i;.c. 517. ³⁹ July, b.c. 517; ibid. col. iii. pars. 1, 2.

⁴⁰ October, b.o. 517 ibid. pars. 3, 4. Whether Darius himself proceeded from Rhages into Parthia and Bactria can not be determined from the customary phrase: "This is what was done by me iu Bactria;" but the phrase in the next paragraph— "the other Persian forces accompanied me to Media"—implies that he had advanced beyond that province.

⁴¹ Beh. Inscr. par. 5. The phrase—"he rose up a second time"— probably refers back to the first personation of Smerdis by Gomates; and it may allude to a simiiar religions element in the insurrection. "It is possible that the second Pseudo-Smerdis, like the first, favored Magism. There was undoubtedly a party among the Persians themselves to whom the Zoroastrian zeal of Darius was distasteful." (Rawlinson, " Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 412, note.)

⁴² Iu Persian Artavardiya, "very celebrated."

⁴³ May and July, b.c. 517. ⁴⁴ Beh. Inscr. pars. 5-S.

⁴⁵ April, b.o. 516; ibid. pars. 9-12. Though all the three battles are claimed as victories, it looks very much as if a first success of the insurgent leader in Arachotia were veiled under the commission of the Pseudo-Smerdis—" Go forth and smite Vibanus, and the state which acknowledges kiug Darius" (par. 9).

QUELLING OE NEW REVOLTS.

the second revolt of Babylon, Tinder the Armenian Aracus, the suppression and punishment of which has been related above : the officer who put it down was a Mede, named In-taphres. This is the last of the revolts recorded in the first three columns of the Behistun Inscription : the fourth is a summary, the tone of its final words marking the conclusion of the record. A fifth column, added as a kind of supplement, mentions a third revolt of Susiana, which was put down by Gobryas; and one of Sacia, which was suppressed by Darius himself.

Such are the contents of this invaluable official document.

§ 10. The cessation of these pressing dangers at the heart of the empire left Darius at liberty to deal with the insolent assumptions of the satraps of Lydia and Egypt. Oroetes, the governor of Sardis, who, during the last illness of Cambyses, had dared to put to death his master's ally, Polycrates of Samos,⁴⁶ not only abstained from aiding Darius against the Magian,⁴⁷ but took advantage of" the troubles of the season " to slay his private enemy, Mitrobates, the satrap of Dascy-lium, and his son, and to add his satrapy of Phrygia to those of Lydia and Ionia. He kept a thousand Persians as his body-guard, and when Darius sent him a mandate of recall, he caused the courier to be waylaid on his return, and neither man nor horse was heard of again.⁴⁸ Not wishing, in the unsettled state of the empire, to make war on so strong a vassal, Darius appealed to the chief of the Persians to accomplish the affair by skill without force or tumult. One, chosen by lot from among thirty who offered themselves, set out for Sardis with a budget of dispatches sealed with the king's signet. Delivering them one by one to the royal secretary in the satrap's full court, he tested the temper of the guards by the reverence they showed for the king's letters; and then he handed the two decisive mandates to the secretary, who read—" Persians, king Darius forbids you to guard

⁴⁶ Herod, iii. 120-125; comp. c. 44. The romantic and tragic story of Polycrates belongs to the history of Gieece. The legend of his friendship with Amasis, and his vain sacrifice to avert the fate threatened by his uninterrupted good-fortune (Herod, iii. 40-43), forms the theme of one of Schiller's finest ballads—"The Ring of Polycrates."

⁴⁷ The words of Herodotus (iii. 120)—"During all the time that the Magian sat upon the throne Oroetes remained at Sardis, and brought no help to the Persians; whom the Medes had robbed of the sovereignty"—form the sole authority for making the Magian usurpation a Median revolt. After the clear account given in the Behistun Inscription, it is enough to say that, if Herodotus meant this, he made a mistake.

⁴⁸ Herod, iii. 12G. The "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" fnrnishes a parallel in the fate of the messenger sent by the king to warn Lord Soulis:

"By treacherous sleight they seized the knight Before he rode or ran ; And through the keystone of the arch They pluuged him, horse and man."

57G

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

Oroetes;" and the soldiers laid down their spears. "King Darius commands the Persians who are in Sardis to kill Oroetes;" and the guards drew their swords and slew him on the spot.⁴³ Thus early was the principle established, which in later times has been embodied in the fatal missive of the bowstring. The punishment of Aryandes, the governor of Egypt, with death, for daring to issue a silver coinage of his own in imitation of the king's gold, is referred by jierodotus to a later period.⁵⁰

§11. Having thus restored the empire, Darius pursued new military expeditions and conquests in the true spirit of its founder.⁵¹ To the energy of youth was added the fear that quiet might breed new revolts; and by such motives, if we may believe Herodotus, he was urged by Queen Atossa —at the instigation of the Greek physician, Democedes—to the conquest of Greece ; while he himself was minded to construct a bridge which should join Asia to Europe, and so to carry war into Scythia.⁵² It seems to have been according to an Oriental idea of right, and not as a mere pretext, that he claimed to punish the Scythians for their invasion of Media in the time of Cyaxares.⁵³ So he contented himself, for the present, with sending spies to Greece under the guidance of Democedes,⁵⁴ and with the reduction of Samos.⁵⁵

§ 12. The Scythian expedition, however, appears to have been preceded by the extension of the empire eastward from the mountains of Afghanistan—the limit reached by Cyrus —over the valley of the Indus.⁵⁰ The process of this con-

« Herod, iii. 127,12S.

⁵⁰ Herod, iv. 16G. Some extant medals are supposed to belong to this "Aryandic" silver coinage. (See -Sir Gardner Wilkinson's note to Herod, ad loc, aud Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 414, note.) In connection with this story Herodotus mentions the extreme purity of the gold coinage of Darius, which Aryandes imitated in equally pure silver. The gold "stater of Darins" or "Daric" was a celebrated coin; and there were also silver Darics. (See "Diet, of Antiq."s. v.; and Rawlinson's note to Herod, vii. 2S.) ⁰¹ See chap. xxv. 5 5.

⁸² Herod, iii. 134. ⁰³ Ilerod. iv. 1.

⁵⁴ Herod, iii. 135-13S. On the amount of credit due to this story, which Herodotus doubtlessly derived from the descendants of Democedes, compare Rawlinson, note, ad loc. and "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. 435; Grote, "Hist, of Greece," vol. iv. pp. 347 -351; and Dahlmann, " Life of Herod.'" vii. § 4.

⁶⁵ Herod, iii. 139-149. The statement that this was "the first city-, Greek or bar. barian, that Darius conquered," if of any weight, must refer to new conquests. He. rodotus places the reduction of Samos before the siege of Babylon, referring probably to the second Babylonian insurrection.

66 "The approximate date of the Indian expedition is gathered from a comparison of the three lists of Persian provinces contained in the inscriptions of Darius. Iu the earliest, that of Behistun, India does not appear at all. It was not, therefore, conquered by iJ.o. 516. In the second, that of Persepolis, India appears a solitary addition to the earlier list. Iu the third, that of Naksh-i-Rnstam, India is mentioned, together with a number of new provinces, among which is Scythia beyond the sea. We see by this that the Indian preceded the Scythian expedition. If that took place u.o. 50s, the Indian must have fallen between b.o. 515 and b.c. 509." (Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iv., note on pp. 433, 434.)

CONQUEST OF THE PUNJAB.

577

quest is only mentioned by Herodotus incidentally, and, as if its motive were geographical curiosity respecting the course of the Indus and the crocodiles, which were found in no other river, save the Nile.⁵⁷ His account would seem, indeed, to imply that the Persians had already sufficient power on the banks of the Indus to effect a voyage down it in safety. The voyage was conducted by a Greek navigator, Scy-lax of Caryanda, on the Carian coast, who, starting from a city called Caspatyrus, sailed down the Indus to its mouth, crossed the Indian Ocean, and reached the head of the Red Sea after a voyage of thirty months. "After this voyage i^ras completed, Darius conquered the Indians, and made use of the sea in those parts."⁵⁸ The part of India thus added to the empire, including the Punjab and apparently Scinde, yielded a tribute exceeding that of any other province, namely, 360 talents of gold-dust,⁵⁰ and added a body of brave soldiers to the army. These troops from the farthest East— beyond which all was believed to be an uninhabited desert of sand^G0—appeared in the army of Xerxes in their cotton dresses, with their bows of cane and arrows of cane tipped with iron, and so met the Greeks on the field of Plata\a.⁶¹

§ 13. The Scythian Expedition of Darius occupies the greater part of the Fourth Book of Herodotus, whose curious accounts of the people furnish matter rather for the disquisitions of the ethnologist than for the narrative of the historian. The great result of the expedition, in which the king and his army narrowly escaped destruction, was the gaining of a permanent footing in Europe by the conquest of Thrace and the submission of Macedonia. Enough has been said above of the ethnic character of the Scythic tribes, who led

⁵⁷ Herod, iv. 44.

^s9 Herod, iv. 44. The last phrase is connected with the argument of the whole passage—that Asia, like Africa, was surrounded hy the sea. The position of Caspatyrus (comp. Herod, iii. 102) is much disputed: but it seems to have been quite on the northern part of the course of the Indus through the Pnnjab, or perhaps on one of its tributaries. Respecting the spurious Periplus of Scylax, and the fragments of the genuine work, see the "Diet, of Greek and Rom. Biog." s. v. The voyage of Scylax was repeated by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, except that he returned home up the Persian, instead of the Arabian, Gulf. ^6:1 Herod, iii. 04.

⁶⁰ Herod, iii. 9S; iv. 40. This seems to refer to the great sandy tract which extends north of the Himalaya for 2000 miles. "The India of Herodotus is the true ancient India (the Hapta Rendu of the Vendidad), the region about the Upper Indus, best known to us at present under the name of the Punjab. Herodotus knows nothing of the great southern peninsula." (Rawlinson's note, ad loe.)

⁶¹ Herod, vii. 65; viii. 113; ix. 31. The student shonld read the curious account of the Indians in Herodotus (iii. 9T-10G). He marks the limited extent of the conquests of Darius by speaking of certain tribes of Indians whose "ccuuiry is a long way from Persia"towards the south; nor had king Darius ever any authority over them'''' (c. 101). The notion of some writers, that the conquests of Darius extended to the valley of the Ganges, arises from a confnsiou of the Gandarians of Herodotus and the inscriptions with the Gangaridce of later writers. The former, as well as the Sattagydians, belong to Afghanistan.

578

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

a life partly agricultural, but chiefly nomacl, in the great steppes of Southern Russia, beyond the Euxine and thePalus Abeotis (Sea of Azov). We have stated the alleged motive of Darius for attempting their subjugation. The idea that, while contemplating the invasion of Greece, he felt the importance of securing his communications through Thrace against inroads from beyond the Danube, seems rather farfetched.

It was probably in b.c. 508^fi2 that Darius, having collected a fleet of 600 ships from the Greeks of Asia, and an army of 700,000 or 800,000 men from all the nations of his empire, crossed the Hellespont by a bridge of boats, and marched to the Danube, conquering on his way the Thracians within, and the Geta3 beyond, the Great Balkan. The Danube was crossed by a bridge formed of the vessels of the Ionians, just above the apex of its Delta. The confusion in the geography of Herodotus makes it as difficult as it is unprofitable to trace the direction and extent of the march, which Herodotus carries beyond the Tanais (Don), and probably as far north as 50° lat. The Scythians retreated before Darius, avoiding a pitched battle, and using every stratagem to do. tain the Persians in the country till they should perish from famine. When Darius seemed inextricably involved, a herald arrived in his camp with a strange present from the Scythian princes—a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The king saw in this a surrender, signified by the symbols of earth, water," the means of motion, and the weapons of war: but Gobryas, the former conspirator, gave a truer interpretation—"Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up into the sky, or make yourselves frogs and take refuge in the fens, ye will never make escape from this land, but die pierced by our arrows."⁶³ Darius saw that it was full time to use the surer means of escape supplied by his own military genius. Leaving his sick behind, with the camp-fires-lighted and the asses tethered, to make the enemy believe that he was still in their front, he retreated in the night.

The pursuing Scythians missed his line of march, and came first to the place where the Ionian ships bridged the Danube. Failing to persuade the Greek generals to break by the same act both the bridge and the yoke of Darius,⁶¹ they inarched back to encounter the Persian army. But their own previ-

⁶² Cliutou. ⁶³ Herod, iv. 131,132.

⁶⁴ The interesting account of the debate among the chiefs of Ionia and the Hellespont—in which Mit.tiaof.s, the tyrant of the Chersonesns, supported the Scythian proposal, and Histiams of Miletus procured its rejection—belongs to the history of Greece (Herod, iv. 136-139). For the discussion of its genuineness see Thirlwall (vol ii. p. 4S6) and Grote (vol. iv. p. 3CS).

SCYTHIAN EXPEDITION OF JJAK1US.

579

ous destruction of the wells led them into a different route; and Darius got safe, but with difficulty, to the Danube. In the darkness of night, the army was struck with terror at the supposed desertion of the Ionians, who had withdrawn the nearest ships, at once to prevent an attack from the Scythians and make them believe that the bridge was broken. But a certain Egyptian, who had a louder voice than any man in the world, shouted across the gap to Histireus, the Milesian general: the bridge was restored, and the army passed to the southern bank.⁶⁵ The contrast between the adventures of Darius and Napoleon in Russia is one of the most striking parallels in history.

§ 1 k The Hellespont was crossed by means of the fleet with which the strait had been guarded by Megabazus, or, more probably, Megabyzus; and the second opportunity was barred against a rising of the Greek colonies. Darius knew how to discern between the policy of Histiams and the loyalty of Megabazus; for, being asked, as he broke a pomegranate, "what he would like to have in as great plenty as the seeds of the pomegranate?" he answered, "Had I as many men like Megabazus as there are seeds here, it would please me better than to be lord of Greece." On this enterprise his mind was now set, and to prepare the way, he left Megabazus in Europe with 80,000 troops to complete the reduction of all Thrace.⁶⁶

After effecting, beyond this commission, the reduction of Macedonia to a vassal kingdom, Megabazus rejoined Darius at Sardis (b.c. 506); and the king returned to his capital to gloss over his failure by adding to the list of his subjects, on his tomb, " the Scythians beyond the Sea."⁰⁷ It is very unlikely that he renounced his designs on Greece; but he seems to have enjoyed some years of repose at Susa, which was henceforth the chief capital of the Persian Empire.

§ 15. How that repose was broken by the Ionian Revolt, in the first year of the fifth century b.c.—the epoch of the great struggle which transferred the dominion of the world from the despotism of the East to the free spirit of the West —is written in the pages of Greek history. From the repulse of the army of the first Darius at Marathon,⁶⁸ to the day when the victor of Issus and Arbela threw his cloak in pity over the corpse of Darius Codomannus,⁶⁹ the chief interest of

⁶⁵ Herod, iv. 140,141.

⁶⁶ Herod, iv. 143. The account (which occupies the remainder of the Fourth Book of Herodotus) of the temporary reduction of Cyreuaica, which Darius annexed to the satrapy of Egypt, belongs to the history of the Greek colonies. The Persian yoke was thrown off at the time of the great Egyptian revolt.

⁸⁷ Inscription at Naksh-i-Rustam. ~"^6t< September, is.c. 400. ⁶⁹ r.o. 330.

580

CLIMAX OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

Persian history centres in her relations towards Greece. The "Persian Wars" mark the epoch when Oriental civilization had prepared the harvest which European liberty was to reap; and the great events of general history, even when acted in the East, are henceforth to be looked at from the West.

§ 16. In fact, though the Persian Empire survived the battle of Marathon for 160 years, and even dictated terms of peace to the rival Hellenic republics,⁷⁰ the collision with Greece gave it its death-blow from the very hand which had founded and organized it anew. After devoting three years to collecting all the resources of his empire, in order to avenge in person the disaster of his generals at Marathon, Darius found his enterprise interrupted by the revolt of Egypt (r».c. 487), and he died at the end of the following year (Dec. 23, n.c. 486), having, as required by the Persian law, appointed his son Xerxes as his successor.⁷¹

⁷⁰ By the peace of Antalcidas, under Artaxerxes Mnemon, u.c. 3S7.

⁷¹ For the grounds on which Xerxes, the eldest son of Atossa, was preferred to his older half-brother Artabazanes, the eldest son of the daughter of Gobryas, see Herod, vii. 2, 3. His real claim seems to have consisted in his being the grandson of Cyrus. As it was a Persian law that the king mnst not go out of the country on a military expedition without designating a successor (comp. Herod, i. SOS), and as Xerxes was a mere boy at the time of the Scythian expedition, Artabazanes would naturally be appointed then; but, when the contemplated invasion of Greece rendered a new designation necessary, the all-powerful influence of Atossa (Herod. I.e. 3, fin.) seems to have procured it for her son Xerxes. As Darius did not marry Atossa till after his accession in is.o. 521 (Herod. I. c and iii. SS), Xerxes could not be more than 35 at his father's death.

Mound, of Snsa.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.-XERXES \„

TO DARIUS III., B.C. 486-330.

5 1. Reign of Xerxes L The Greek wars. Revolt of Babylon. Assassination of Xerxes. Continued disorders in the royal house. § 2. Usurpation of Artabanus. Accession of Artaxerxes I. Loxgimanus. § 3. Rebellion of Egypt nnder Inarus and Amyrtaeas. Secoud Athenian expedition to Egypt and Cyprus. Peace between Persia and Greece. § 4. Revolts of Megabyzus and Zopyrns. Death of Artaxerxes. Commissions of Ezra and Nehemiah. § 5. Short Reigns of Xerxes II. and Sogdianus. 5 6. Darius II. Xotiius. His wife Parysatis, and his sons, Arsaces (Artaxerxes) and Cyrus. Claim of Cyrus. 5 7. Cruelties of Parysatis. Satrapial rebellions. Tissaphernes aud the Greeks. Egypt recovers her independence. §3. Accession of Artaxerxes II. Mne.mok. Expedition and Death of " Cyrns the Younger." Death of Tissaphernes. Agesilaus. Peace of Antalcidas. § 9. Revolt of Evagoras in Cyprus. War with the Cadusii. Failure of the attempt to recover Egypt. § 10. Horrible scenes iu the royal house. Death and character of Artaxerxes. § 11. Oenus, or Artaxerxes III. His cruel nature. Murder of the royal princes. His ministers, Bagoas and Mentor. 5 12. Rebellion of Artabazns. § 13. Failure of the first attack on Egypt. Revolts of Cyprus and Phoenicia snb-dued. Fate of Sidon. § 14. Final conqnest of Egypt. § 15. Threats of invasion from Greece. Battle of Chaeronea. Murders of Ochns and of Philip. § 16. Darius III. ConoMANxcs. His character. § 17. Punishment of Bagoas. Alexander's conquest of the Persian Empire. § IS. Reasons for its rapidity in the constitution of the Persian Empire. § 19. Satraps. Checks on them. Judges. § 20. Absolute power of the kiug.

§ 1. Xerxes I.¹ (b.c. 4S6-46o) is said to have been averse to renewing- the Greek war; but the reconquest of Egypt,

¹ In Old Persian Khshaydrshd, and in Hebrew AchasJiverofth or Ahasuervs (in the Book of Esther; see " Diet, of the Bible," s. v.). The etymology is disputed. Sir II. Rawlinson derives it from Khshaya, "king" (a supposed shorter form of Khshayathiya, whence shah in modern Persian), and arsha (Sanscrit, arsliya), "venerable;" but Benfrey and Oppert make arxha = " eye," and render the name " King Seer," or "Ruling Eye." Rawlinson, Appendix to Herod, vi. note A. The epoch of the accession of Xerxes is Dec. 23, u.o. 4S0; but his reign is sometimes reckoned from th» first day ol'«.c. 4S5.

5S2 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

which lie effected in person in his second year, and the persuasions of Mardonius and of the exiled Pisistratidae of Athens, led him on to the enterprise which ended at Salamis, Plataaa, and Alycale.² The Greek historians differ as to whether it was before or after his return from Greece, that Xerxes provoked by his acts of impiety a new revolt of Babylon, which was put down by Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus, when the Temple of Belus and other shrines were plundered of their most sacred objects.³

While the disastrous issue of the attempt against Greece stripped Persia of her European provinces, and of the strength of all the rest, and rolled back the tide of war to the shores of Asia Minor, Xerxes retired to his seraglio; and the Book of Esther furnishes an interesting picture of the domestic and political intrigues of his court at Susa. The Jewish queen must not be confounded with Amestris, the chief wife of Xerxes, whose savage and jealous temper caused horrible scenes of license and barbarity; till the king was murdered in his bed-chamber by Artabanus, the chief of his guard, and the eunuch Aspamitres, his chamberlain⁴ (b.c 465). He left the empire exhausted and depopulated; and Ironi his reign began " those internal disorders of the seraglio which made the court during more than a hundred and forty years the perpetual scene of intrigues, assassinations, executions, and conspiracies."⁵

§ 2. The conspirator Artabanus is represented by some writers as having seized the throne and reigned for seven months;⁶ but his rule rather seems to have been exercised in the name of Artaxerxes (the youngest of the three sons of Xerxes), whom he induced to murder his eldest brother Darius; the second brother, Hystaspes, being absent in his satrapy of Bactria.⁷

At the end of the seven months, Artabanus and Aspamitres were both put to death by the young prince, who reigned for 40 years as Artaxerxes I., and is surnamed by the Greeks

² Herod, vii. 1-7. The account of the army and navy of Xerxes in Herodotus (vii. 61-99) gives a very instructive view of the several nations which composed the Persian empire at this time. For the whole series of Persian wars, see the histories of Greece.

³ Herod, i. 1S3; Ctes. "Pers. Exc." §§ 21, 22; Arrian, "Exp. Alex." vii. 17; Strabo, xvi. 1, § 5 ; ^Elian, " Var. Hist." xiii. 3.

⁴ Herod, ix. 109-113; Diod. Sic. xi. 69 ; Pint. " Themist." C. 27. ³ Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 4S3.

⁶ Euseb. " Chron." pt. ii. p. 33S; Synced, p. 1G2, c

⁷ The authorities for the ensuing period are chiefly Ctesias, whose value increas-es as we approach his own time, Diodorns Siculus, Plutarch, and Justin, with some passages in Herodotus and Thucydides. It does not seem necessary (except on important points) to give the special references, which will be found for the most part in Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. chap. vii.

ARTAXERXES I. LOXGIMANUS.

583

*'the Long-handed " (Macpoxctp), Longimanus (Dec. 7, b.c. 465, to Dec. 17, b.c. 425).⁸ Hystaspes, meanwhile, set up his claim to the crown, but was defeated by Artaxerxes, and Bactria submitted.

§ 3. Five years later a formidable rebellion broke out in Egypt, under Inarus, a Libyan, and Amyrtaeus, an Egyptian. The satrap, Aehaamenes, was killed in battle, and his army shut up in Memphis, which the Egyptians captured with the aid of an Athenian fleet, except the old citadel, called "White Wall."⁹ The whole levy of the empire was now called out and sent to Egypt under Megabyzus, who gained a great battle, retook Memphis, destroyed the Athenian force, and crushed the revolt, except in the marshes of the Delta, where Amyrta3us found refuge, while Inarus was carried prisoner to Persia, and there crucified (b.c 455).

Six years later a second attempt of the Athenians, under Cimon,to succor Egypt and take Cyprus, led to the twofold victory of Anaxierates, by sea and land, at Salamis, in Cyprus ; and Artaxerxes is said to have been glad to accept a peace which, while leaving him in undisturbed possession of Cyprus and Egypt, secured the independence of the Greek colonies of Asia Minor (b.c 449).¹⁰ Whether or not this treaty was actually concluded, such was practically the state of things at the end of the first series of wars between Persia and Greece, after a duration of just half a century from the Ionian revolt in b.c 500.

§ 4. This event was soon followed by the revolt of Megabyzus in Syria, on the ground that his promise of life to Inarus had'been violated by the king. His successful resistance, and his final reconciliation to Artaxerxes on easy terms, furnished other satraps with a dangerous precedent, which his son Zopyrus attempted to follow in Lycia and Caria towards the close of this reign ; but the rebellion was frustrated by the firm loyalty of the Caunians. Artaxerxes is memorable in Jewish history as the king who gave Ezra and Xehemiah their commissions.¹¹

§ 5. The intrigues of the harem, which were ever tending

s The reason alleged for the nickname is that his right hand was longer than his left (Plut. "Artax."). Herodotus (vi. 9S), taking the name as Xerxes with the intensive prefix Arta, explains Xerxes as "warrior" (upi/i'oc), and Artaxerxes "great warrior" {fxiyav upi'/io?). But the second element is not the same. Artaxerxes is in Old Persian Artakhshatra, where the second element is the Zend Khshatra and Sanscrit Kshatra, "king" or "warrior." Khshatram occurs frequently in the Behistun Inscription for " crown " or " empire." (Sir H. Rawlinson's "Vocab.")

⁹ Thucyd. i. 108 ; comp. Ilerod. iii. 13,91.

i° Ou the disputed question of the genuineness of this treaty, see Thirlwall (vol. hi. pp. 37, 38) and Grote (vol. iv. pp. 85-90). ¹¹ u.o. 45S and 444. See " Student's Old Testament Histoiy," chap, xxvii.

584 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

to the destruction of the royal house, broke out in full force on the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus. The only legitimate heir among his eighteen sons, Xerxes II., was mur> dered in his drunkenness, after a reign of only forty-five days, by his half-brother Sogdianus, or Secydianus. Another half-brother, Ochus,¹² the satrap of Hyrcania, whose claim to the crown was strengthened by his marriage with his aunt. Parysatis. the daughter of Xerxes I., declared war against the usurper, and was joined by the satraps of Egypt and Ar> menia, and by the commander of the royal cavalry. Seeing the contest hopeless, Sogdianus surrendered, and was put to death, after a reign of six months and a half. Ochus assumed with the crown the name of Darius, to which the Greeks added the appellation of Xothus (bastard).

§ 6. Darius II. Xotiius (b.c 424-405), his wife Parysatis, and their two sons, Artaxerxes and Cyrus, are names familiar to our earliest Greek studies, in the first words of Xenophon's "Anabasis."¹³ Artaxerxes, whose proper name, before he succeeded to the crown, was Arsaces,¹* was born before, but Cyrus after, his father's accession to the throne. The name of the younger prince seems to show the desire, which we have seen several times before in cases of irregular succession, to strengthen the reigning house by reviving the memory of the founder of the dynasty; and the claim of " royal birth" had already been urged in the case of Xerxes I.¹⁵ The childhood of Cyrus, however, postponed all question of the succession till the last illness of Darius.

§ 7. Meanwhile the king abandoned himself to the influence of three favorite eunuchs, and of his wife, who surpassed her mother Amestris in wickedness and cruelty. The reign was marked by one series of rebellions, which pushed on the empire towards its fate. The king's full brother, Arsites, whose revolt, at first successful, was frustrated by the corruption of his Greek mercenaries, capitulated, and was perfidiously put to death at the instigation of Parysatis; and Pissuthnes, the satrap of Lydia, was betrayed by the like bribery, and executed in violation of the promise of Tissa-

¹² This rjame, which was also borne by the next king bnt one, is interpreted by Bopp "good-tempered;" bnt Oppert sees in it the Zend vohu, "rich." In the " Chronieon " of Eusebins, Darius II. is called Darius Ochus.

¹³ There were two other sons of Darius and Parysatis, Ostanes and Oxendras far Oxathres), and two daughters, Amestris and Artossa.

1⁴ This name, afterwards made famous by the Parthian dynasty of the Arsacidcc^ appears before as that of a Persian killed in the expedition of Xerxes (^Esch. "Pers." 957). It is derived from arsa or arsha (Sanscr. arshya), "venerable," with the suffix ac, which is probably Scythic, having the force of the definite article. (Rawlinson, Appendix to Ilerod. vi. note A: see also above, p. 128. note.)

¹⁸ Herod, vii. 2, 3.

ARTAXERXES II. MNEMON.

58")

phernes, who was rewarded with the satrapy (b.c. 414).¹⁹ The policy of this crafty satrap in playing off the Greek states against each other gave the empire a new lease of life ; and the revolt which broke out at its heart, in Media, was suppressed.¹⁷ The rebellion of Teritu climes, the king's son-in-law, illustrates the horrible state of the court and the unbounded appetite of Parysatis for cruelty.¹⁸ But the greatest blow that befell Darius was the complete loss of Egypt, which regained its independence, and maintained it for another half-century.¹⁹

§ 8. Amidst these troubles Darius died, having for once resisted the desire of Parysatis, that he would confer the succession on his younger son, whom he had made satrap of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, and commander of the western coast of Asia Minor. The elder son succeeded to the throne by the name of Artaxerxes II., surnamed in Greek Mnemon, from his retentive memory, and held it for the long period of forty-six years (b.c 405-359). How his reign was almost cut short at its beginning by the rebellion, to which Cyrus was urged by his own ambition and the enmity of Tissaphernes, is fully related in Greek history, of which the part played by Xenophon and the " Ten Thousand" makes the campaign an essential chapter.²⁰

The tall of Cyrus at Cunaxa gave his coveted satrapy to Tissaphernes (b.c 401); but the crafty satrap was at last sacrificed to the revenge of Parysatis for the death of Cyrus, just as Agesilatis seemed about to rescue the Asiatic Greeks from bondage (b.c 396).²¹ The jealousy of the other Greek states towards Sparta delivered Persia from this pressing-danger ; but Sparta took revenge for the recall of Agesilatis and the alliance of Athens with the common enemy, by enabling Persia to dictate the disgraceful peace of Antalcidas, which restored the Greek colonies to the empire (b.c 387).²²

§ 9. The proud position "in which Artaxerxes thus appeared, as the arbiter of Greece, threw a false lustre over his utter weakness wherever his authority was withstood. Evag-

¹⁶ On the important relations of Tisraphernes, Pharnabazus, and Cyrus to the Greeks, and how the aid given by the latter to Sparta decided the event of the Pelo-ponnesian War, tee the histories of Greece.

" b.c. 409, 405 ; Xen. " Hellen." i. 2, § 19. ¹⁸ Ctes. "Pers. Exc." 55 52-57.

¹⁹ b.c. 411-301, under the 28th, 29th, and 30th dynasties. This is according to Eusebius, who places the revolt in b.o. 411, under Amyrtsens, to whom Manetho assigns a reign of six years, forming the 2Sth dynasty. But it seems more probable that the revolt was begun in the last year of Darius (u.o. 405) by Xepherites (Xcfaorot), the head of Manetho's 29th dynasty, of Mendesians (Rawlinson's "Herodotus," vol. ii. p. 342, note (0), 2d edition). The cartoon at Sals, which was at first thought to contain the name of Amyrtceus, is now read Bocchoris.

²⁰ "Student's History of Greece," chap, xxxvi.

²¹ Ibid. chap, xxxvii. ²² Ibid. chap, xxxviii.

95*

580 DECLINE AND FALL OE THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

eras, the Greek tyrant of Snfamis in Cyprus, in alliance with the kings of Egypt and Caria, maintained a powerful fleet, took Tyre, and when at last defeated and shut up in Salamis by the naval power of Persia, and compelled to surrender after a six years' siege, he obtained a confirmation in his government as a tributary king (b.c. 380 or 379). Tiri-bazus, the same general who defeated Evagoras, extricated the king from a threatened disaster in a campaign which Artaxerxes made in person against the Cadusii, on the south shore of the Caspian.

A mighty effort to recover Egypt, with the aid of an Athenian fleet under Iphicrates, miscarried through the delays of the Persian general Pharnabazus (b.c 375); and some years later, Tachos, king of Egypt, assumed the offensive in Syria and Phoenicia, with the aid of Agesilatis and a fleet under Chabrias; but the rise of two pretenders called him back to defend his throne. This attempt had been encouraged by a general rising, after various separate revolts of the satraps and native princes of Asia Minor and Phoenicia, which Persia, unable to subdue, frustrated by bribing Orontes, the satrap of Phrygia, to desert the common cause.

§ 10. To this confusion in his empire were added domestic horrors, which brought the long reign of Artaxerxes to a most tragic end. His mother Parysatis, who might well have been called " she-wolf of Persia," and whose evil influence long survived her, had poisoned his first wife, Statira, whom he fondly loved. After a short banishment to Babylon, Parysatis was recalled to Susa by the weak good-natured king; and she used her restored influence to promote his marriage with his daughter Atossa. Such incestuous connections are usually attended by fatal family intrigues. The new queen leagued with Ochus, the youngest son of Artaxerxes and Statira, to get rid of the two brothers who stood between him and.the succession. Darius, the eldest, Avas persuaded to conspire against his father, and was executed for his treason. Ariaspes, the second, was induced to commit suicide by the suggestion that he had offended his father A dreaded rival still remained in Arsames, the king's favorite bastard; and he was removed by assassination. His death plunged Artaxerxes into an illness of which he died, at the age of ninety-four.²³ His character is drawn as mild, affable, and kind; bnt his weakness hastened the dissolution of the empire: its aggrandizement by his policy towards the Greeks was only permitted by their disunion.

§11. Ocuus, who is less known by his assumed name of

²³ Plut. "Artax." 30.

OCHUS OR ARTAXERXES III.

Artaxerxes III., presents the greatest contrast to his father, by the "cruelty and blood-thirstiness" in which "he surpassed all the other Persian kings."²⁴ Having added the last climax to the domestic horrors of the court by murdering all the royal princes within his reach²⁵—a precedent so often followed by modern kings of Persia—he made a vigorous use of the power thus secured, during his reign of twenty-one years (b.c. 359-338). Much of his success must doubtless be ascribed to his able and unscrupulous minister, the eunuch Bagoas, and to the Rhodian general Mentor; but that Ochus was a puppet in their hands is disproved by the incidental statements of the very writers who make that representation.²⁶ Thus Bagoas is subjected to the censure of Ochus, and finds it necessary at last to remove him by assassination.

§ 12. The first important event in the reign of Ochus was the rebellion of Artabazus, the satrap of Western Asia Minor, supported first by the Athenians, and afterwards by the Thebans. The wife of Artabazus was the sister of two Rhodian brothers, Mentor and Memnon, who play a conspicuous part in the closing drama of the Persian Empire. After a long resistance to the neighboring satraps, Artabazus and Memnon fled for refuge to Philip, king of Macedonia, who received them in his character of the destined avenger of the invasions of Darius and Xerxes.²⁷ Mentor found a new field for his hostility to Persia in the service of Nectanebo II., the last king of Egypt, who by the aid of Agesilatis had wrested the throne from his uncle Tachos.

§ 13. Ochus had set his heart upon recovering that country to the crown of Persia. Perhaps while Asia Minor was still in revolt, he marched in person against Egypt, but was repulsed by the Greek mercenaries of Nectanebo.²⁸ Upon this Phoenicia and Cyprus rebelled, and formed a league with Egypt; and Nectanebo sent Mentor with 4000 Greek mercenaries to the aid of Sidon, which led the Phoenician revolt. Cyprus was reduced by Idrieus, the prince of Caria, under whom Phocion, the Athenian, served with a mercenary force.²⁵*

²⁴ Plut. "Artax." ad fin.

²⁵ Justin (x. C), though iu a somewhat rhetorical way, represents the massacre as including eveu the princesses of the royal house. ²⁶ Chiefly Diodorus.

²⁷ This was about b.c 353, or perhaps a little later.

²⁸ The chronology here is obscure, and Diodorus evidently misplaces the events. It seems that the first attack and repulse of Ochus occurred in u.o. 351, the revolts of Phoenicia and Cyprus in b.c. 350, and the second and successful invasion of Egypt in is.o. 34G. (See Grote, " Hist, of Greece," vol. viii. p. 173, ed. of 1SG2; aud Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," vol. iv. p. 535.)

²⁹ The very interesting questions respecting the policy of the different parties at Athens, and throughout Greece, between their old Asiatic enemy and the new tyrant, who was preparing to a venire them upon Persia at the price of first extinguishing Greek liberty, belong to the history of Greece.

588 DECLINE AND EALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

Tennes, king of Sidon, with the aid of Mentor, defeated the satraps of Syria and Cilicia; but when Ochus advanced against him with an army of 300,000 foot and 30,000 horse, the king turned traitor to his people without saving his own life; and the Sidonians, after a foretaste of the cruelty of Ochus in his butchery of some hundreds of the citizens, whom Tennes had betrayed into the Persians' hands, chose a voluntary death in the conflagration of their own city.

The ruins of Sidon were sold to a company of adventurers, who hoped to find quantities of gold and silver in the ashes; but Ochus gained a greater treasure in the transfer of Mentor's services to Persia. To Mentor's 4000 Greeks were added 6000 from the Ionian cities, 3000 from Argos, and 1000 from Thebes. These 14,000 auxiliaries were placed under three Greek generals, and the 330,000 Asiatics under three Persians, for the conquest of Egypt. The chief command was shared between Bagoas and Mentor.

§ 14. Nectanebo's army numbered scarcely a third of this immense force, but his Greek auxiliaries were one-third more than those of Ochus — 20,000 out of his whole 100,000: 20,000 were Libyans, and 60,000 were native Egyptians fighting for their country. His powerful navy occupied the Nile and the canals ; and these waters formed, with the vast number of fortified towns, a strong system of internal defense. But Nectanebo was no match for a general like Mentor. At once rash and timid, he lost his outer line of defense, and then fell back on Memphis. The jealousies between Egyptians and Greeks paralyzed the defense of the fortified towns, which fell one after another. When the invaders approached Memphis, Nectanebo fled to Ethiopia ; and thus disgracefully ended the last native dynasty of Egypt. In his triumphal progress through the country, Ochus imitated the outrages of Cambyses against the national religion ; destroying the temples, carrying off the sacred books, and, according to one doubtful statement, stabbing the Apis. "The re-conquest of Egypt"—Mr. Grote observes—"must have been one of the most impressive events of the age."³⁰

§ 15. But far more impressive events were in preparation from the growing power of Philip of Macedon ; nor was Persia insensible to the danger. Ochus, or the able ministers, Bagoas and Mentor, who governed in his name, sent letters of warning to the satraps of Western Asia Minor; and it appears, from a subsequent allusion,³¹ that a force was even •

³⁰ "Hist, of Greece," vol. viii. p. 173.

³¹ Iu the letter of Alexander to Darius Codomaunns (Arrian, "Exp. Alex." ii. 14).

DARIUS ID. CODOMANNUS.

589

dispatched into Thrace to aid Cersobleptes against Philip. All speculation on the change which might have been made in the course of history, if Greece and Persia had combined against the common enemy, was set at rest by the Battle of Chcvronea, which was fought just after Ochus had been poisoned by Bagoas (b.c 338).

The minister, who had been urged to this crime by the king's unbridled cruelty, and doubtless by fear for his own safety, murdered also the other sons of Ochus except the youngest, Arses,³² whom he set upon the throne.³³ But, as the young king began to feel his power, he was heard to utter threats against the exterminator of his father's house ; and Bagoas murdered him, with his infant children, in the third year of his reign (b.c 336). The vengeance due to so many crimes was already on the way, and was hastened by another murder, which seemed likely to postpone it. Philip, appointed after the battle of Clneronea general of all the Greeks for the war with Persia, had completed his preparations, and had sent over a body of troops under Parmenio to rouse the Asiatic Greeks, when he was assassinated at his daughter's wedding festival at -^Ega?, shortly after the death of Arses (July, b.c. 336).

§ 16. Mean while Bagoas had raised to the doubly dangerous eminence of the Persian throne his friend Codomannus, who assumed the name of Darius, and is known in history tis Darius III. Codomanxus, the last king of Persia (b.c 336-330). There seems no sufficient reason for the doubts thrown upon his princely birth ;³⁴ and his bravery in the war against the Cadusii, when he killed a gigantic warrior in single combat, had been rewarded by Ochus with the satrapy of Armenia. But his flight from Issus and Arbela proved the lack of that higher courage which can uphold, or perish beneath, a falling cause; and his few acts of good generalship are insufflcient to reverse the censure passed by Arrian on his whole military career.³⁵ His tall and singularly beautiful person, and his amiable disposition, befitted the hero of one of the most tragic catastrophes in the drama of man's history.

§ 17. Scarcely had his reign begun, when Bagoas was de-

³² The Persian, name is arsha, "venerable," which appears as the first syllable in Arsaces. Other forms of the name are Narses and o arses.

³³ One brother appears to have escaped; for Arrian calls Bisthanes, who informed Alexander of the flight of Darius Codomannus from Ecbatana, a son of Ochus ("Exp. Alex." iii. 19).

³⁴ Strabo says that Darius was not of the royal honse, and one story made him a mere courier (Plut. " Vit. Alex." c. 18); but Diodorus states that he was the son of Arsames, and grandson of Ostancs, the brother of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and that his mothev Sisygambis was that king's daughter (Diod. xvii. 5). ³⁵ Arrian, iii. 22.

590 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

tected in another plot to remove the king he had set up; but this time the king-maker and king-slayer was compelled to drink the poison he had mixed for Codomannus. While thus ridding himself of the nearer danger, Darius trusted that fate had averted the greater by the death of Philip and the difficulties which seemed to rise up round Alexander. How soon he was undeceived, and how " the great Emathian conqueror "—like his prophetic symbol³⁰—overran the Persian Empire from the Hellespont to the Indus, and from the Oasis of Amnion to the deserts beyond the Jaxartes; and how, in the midst of these conquests, Darius, overthrown in the two great battles of Issus and Arbela, was murdered by the treacherous satraps who had carried him away, a prisoner bound with golden chains, into Hyrcania—all this is related in Greek history. The story of the Persian Empire, virtually ended at Arbela in the autumn of n.c. 331, closes with the pathetic scene in which Alexander threw his own cloak over the body of Darius (n.c. 330).

§ 18. The marvellous rapidity with which the conqueror led his small band of warriors through the almost unresisting body of the Persian Empire—"led them as a boat cuts through the waves, or an eagle cleaves the air"—demands another explanation over and above the genius of Alexander, the disciplined valor of his phalanx, and the resistless shock of his "Companions," or the decrepitude of Persia. The or ganization of the empire under the first Darius—though probably the best that could have been devised for such a conglomerate of Asiatic nations—prepared for its collapse under Codomannus.

§ 19. The Persi vx Empire presents the chief type of that form of government which we still see in Turkey—a power whose dominions are not far from corresponding to those of the Great King west of the table-land of Iran—and in modern Persia, which answers very nearly to ancient Media and Persia Proper, with part of Iran. The many nations which dwelt from the Indus to the Ister, and from the Sea of Aral to the shores of the Greater Syrtis, retained their own languages, laws, manners, and religion. In some lands the native princes held the honor, and part of the power, of royalty. The cities of Asia Minor administered their own internal

³⁶ Daniel viii. 5-7. "And as I was considering, behold a h°-goat came from the ivest on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground"—a striking image of the rapidity of Alexander's conquest— "and he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, aud ran unto him in the fury of his power. And 1 saw him come close unto the ram, aud he was moved with choler against him, aud smote the ram, and tfrake his two horns: and there ivas no power in tlie ram to staml before him, but he cast him doion to the ground, and stamped, npon him: and there was none tha" could deliver the ram out of his hand."

CONSTITUTION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

government; but the tyrants who rose to power in them were generally favorable to Persia. The old boundaries of the nations marked out for the most part the new provinces, or /Satrapies*¹ as they were called from the officer who ruled each as the royal lieutenant. When the levy of the empire was called out, the soldiers of each satrapy appeared in their own national equipment. But this was only when a great effort was required: the ordinary defense and restraint of the provinces were committed to garrisons of Persian and Median soldiers.

That sentiment of common nationality and religion, which makes the great majority of the subjects of "Holy Russia" look to the Czar as a father, was unknown in such an empire as Persia. The sovereign was equally supreme and irresponsible; but it was as the owner of the whole territory, and the absolute master of its inhabitants. In theory, the king delegated as much of his authority as he pleased to the satrap, whom he appointed from any nation or rank, and degraded or put to death at his will. A check was provided on the power of the satrap by placing the command of the forces in separate hands; while, sometimes at least, the commandants of garrisons were independent of both. The satrap, however, was often the military commander, especially in the frontier provinces.

The administration of justice, too, was committed to officers independent of the satraps—the Royed Judges. They were appointed by the king, who called them most rigorously to account for any corruption in their office. Cambyses had one such offender put to death and flayed, and his skin made a covering for the judgment-seat.³⁸ The proverbial unchangeableness of the Medo-Persian laws must have added no small security against judicial oppression; but ingenuity could reconcile the literal adherence to this rule with its practical evasion. We have seen how the royal judges (like those of other countries in more recent times) discovered a sort of" dispensing power" to gratify the illegal desires of Cambyses; and under Xerxes, the decree for the massacre of the Jews, which could not be recalled, was

³⁷ "The word Satrap—in Persian Khshatrapd or Khshatrapdta (Spiegel)—is older than the satrapial organization of Darius; for it is used twice in the Behistun Inscription to denote the governor of a province. Indeed the fair inference seems to he that this sort of vice-regal government was introduced from the beginning of the empire, and perfected by Darius. The derivation of the word is much disputed ; but Sir H. Rawlinson argues that, as Khshatram is used throughout the inscriptions for ' crown ' or ' empire,' we can scarcely be mistaken in regarding Khshatrapd as formed of the two roots Khshatram and pa. The latter signifies in Sanscrit' to preserve, uphold,' whence it appears that a Satrap is 'one who upholds the crown.'" (Rawlinson's "Herodotus," note to i. 192.) ³⁸ Herod, v. 25.

592 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

nullified bv another authorizing them to slay their assailants.³⁹

In reference to one of the most important of the satrap's functions, and the one most tempting to provincial tyranny, it was some safeguard to the people that each province was assessed to a regular amount of tribute, and not expected, as in the modern Persian and Turkish kingdoms, to furnish whatever the governor can extort. The satrap might indeed levy for his own use as much as his power or prudence permitted ; but there was a check upon his extortion in the interest which the king had iu preventing the impoverishment of the provinces.

All these checks, however, could not prevent gross abuse of the enormous power intrusted to the satraps ; and there are glaring cases, not only of extortion, but even of personal outrage upon Persians of the highest rank. So long, in fact, as the province was orderly and flourishing, the tribute regularly remitted, and no suspicion of the satrap's fidelity excited by his own conduct or by the machinations of his rivals, he enjoyed the state and much of the power of an independent sovereign. This seems to have been especially the case in the satrapies of Asia Minor, which, besides being remote from the capital, were involved in the restless activities of Greek politics. Here we find embassies received and sent, and alliances and wars made, not only without reference to the king, but by the different satraps taking different sides. Each enlisted his own body of Greek mercenaries, with whose aid they made war upon one another.

Such a system involved the constant danger of rebellion; and various means were taken to guard against the risk. The satrapies were assigned, as far as possible, to members of the royal family, and to nobles connected with it by marriage. Watch was kept upon the satrap by a " Koyal Secretary," who reported all his proceedings to the king, and received dispatches and edicts from the capital, by means of " posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries.⁴⁰ Sometimes, as we have seen in the case of Oroetes, the Secretary was the organ of a royal decree for the satrap's deposition, or even his death. Xenophon tells us that special commissioners, also, were sent every year to make inquiries into the condition of each satrapy.

Upon the whole, these precautions seem not to have been

³⁹ Esther viii. On the identity of Xerxes with the A hasuerus of this book, and the clear distinction between Esther and Amestris, see the "Student's Old Testament Hist." chap, xxvii. § 4. ⁴⁰ Esther viii. 10.

ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE KING.

rm

ineffective. Excluding the rebellions against the new power of Darius, and the revolts which were purely national_

such as those of Babylonia and Egypt—the attempt of the younger Cyrus is almost the only case of dangerous rebellion; and this was a question of succession to the throne, not of provincial revolt. In process of time, however, some of the more distant or less accessible provinces seem to have fallen off quietly from the empire, which was certainly of less extent under the last Darius than under the first.

^ § 20. The position of the Great King, as the Greeks called him, differed in no material respect from that of an Asiatic despot at the present day, such as the Shah of modern Persia. We have already had occasion to describe the state in which he held his court, in the spring at Susa, in the summer at Ecbatana, and in the winter at Babylon; as well as at Persepolis, which several kings adorned with splendid palaces. He appears to have governed without a council, except when of his mere motion he summoned the nobles to aid him with their advice, which even then he was under no obligation to follow. If his courtiers ventured to appeal to the unchanging laws of the Medes and Persians, the royal judges were ready to declare that the first of those laws, and one which overrode all others, was that the king might do whatever he pleased. The only effective check on "his despotism was assassination, the fates of Xerxes I., Xerxes IL and Ochus.

Grand Range of Lebanon.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE HISTORY OF PIICEXICIA.

PART I.—TO THE TIME OF TYRE'S SUPREMACY.

§ 1. Importance of Phoenicia in history. § 2. Due to its geographical position. Extent of Phoenicia at various times. § 3. Resources of the country. Its rivers. Great coast road and passes. Security of the position. § 4. Climate of Phoenicia. § 5. Its vegetable products. § G. Lebanon and its forests. The Cedars. Wild beasts. Minerals. Fisheries. The "Tyrian purple." § 7. Piuenioia not a native name. Origin of the people. Want of a native history. § S. Phoenician states iueluded in the Biblical genealogy of Canaan, son of Ham. Boundaries of the Canaanites. §9. Geographical sense of Canaan — the later Palestine. More specific sense of Canaanites, the lowland tribes. Reason for the distinction. The Phoenicians the chief remnant of the Canaanites. They called their land Canaan and themselves Canaanites. § 10. The Canaanites were immigrants, not long before the time of Abraham. Earlier populations—the Rephaim, etc. § 11. Remarkable Egyptian testimony of the time of the Xllth Dynasty. Palestine then peopled by the Semite Aamu. § 12. Phoenician traditions of their migration from the Persian Gulf. Testimony of ancient writers. Confirmatory evidence. Legend of their expulsion by the Cushite kings of Nimrod's race. § 13. Branches of the Migration. The Hyksos in Egypt. Their return supposed to have brought Egyptian civilization and alphabetic writing into Palestine and Phoenicia, and so to Europe. § 14. The Canaanites a dark race. Language of the Phoenicians Semitic. Affinity with Hebrew, the "language of Canaan." § 15. Claim of Tyrb to a remote antiquity: nnsnstained by proof. Higher antiquity of Sipon. Phos

DESCRIPTION OF PHOENICIA.

595

nicia originally the territory of Sidon. Its maritime importance in the patriarchal age. Probable origin from a fishery. Meaning of the name. Sidonian art and Phoenician commerce in Homer. Situation of Sidon. § 10. The other Canaanite settlements on the Phoenician coast. The Arkite. Area. Simron or Orthosia. The Sinite. Sinna. Gebal or Bybi.us. Beeytits. The Arvadite and Zamarite. Akadus: Autaradus and Marathus. Simyra. Hamath or Epiphania. Kingdom of Hamath. Its relations to Syria, Israel, and Assyria. Tyre. Its relations to Sidon. The island city and Palaetyrus on the main-land. The threefold colony of Tripolis. Recapitulation of the Phoenician cities. § IT. Sidonian and Tyrian periods of Phoenician History. Relations to Egj'pt: under the Hyksos, and the Thebans. Stelai of Rameses II. Egyptian narrative of a journey in Phoenicia. The Sidonians and Sinites enjoying prosperity as subject-allies of Egypt. § IS. Supremacy of Sidon in Phoenicia —except over Gebal (Byblns). Height of her commercial prosperity. Her colonies. Extent of her commerce. Colonies of Byblns. § 19. Decline of Sidon's maritime power. Growth of Greek maritime adventure. Stories of Phoenician settlements in Greece and Africa. Letters carried to Greece. Cadmus. Phoenicia not conquered by the Israelites. Sidou taken by the Philistines under the lead of Ascalon. Supremacy of Tyre. The people still called Sidonians. § 20. The Phoenician League under the supremacy of Tyre. Constitution of the cities. Isolation of Aradns. Naval aud military forces of Tyre. Her distant voyages to the West. Settlements iu Africa, Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily.

§ 1. One of the smallest provinces of the Persian Empire demands our special notice, from its very ancient civilization, its extensive colonizing energy, and the vast development of its commerce, which on the one side enriched the great empires of Asia, and, on the other, carried the civilization of Asia to the shores of Europe; and, lastly, from the part played in history by its great colony of Carthage. In the oldest Biblical records, and in the earliest monuments of Assyria, Phoenicia appears as the seat of trade; the mythical history of Greece looks to that shore for her earliest civilization ; and, whatever may be the value of those legends, whether Cadmus ever lived or not, the very forms of the letters in which we now write attest the truth of the tradition that they were brought from Phoenicia.

^ § 2. The very position of the region determined its rela* tions to the continent of which it formed a part, and to the shores to which it looked out westward across the Mediterranean. Phoenicia is nothing more than a narrow strip of coast, partly level and partly hilly, a sort of shelf or "riviera," among the foot-hills of the great chain of Lebanon, the projecting headlands of which/with the detached islands, form some excellent harbors. The narrowness of the slip of coast, and the height of the continuous chain by which it is pent in, distinguish the coast of Phoenicia from that of Syria to the north and that of Palestine to the south.

The average width of the undulating plain between the sea and the mountains is only about a mile, increasing at Sidon to two miles, and near Tyre to five; the whole breadth of the land, inclusive of the slopes of Lebanon, nowhere exceeds twenty miles, the average being about twelve. Its

59G

THE HISTORY OF FHCEN1CIA.

natural length, as determined by the chain of Lebanon, would be from the break between that chain and Mount Bargylus, below 35° N. lat.—where the valley of Hamath (or of Eme-sa) forms an opening to the Syrian Desert and Ccele-Syria— as far south as the mouth of the Leontes and Tyre. The northern limit is usually fixed at the island of Aradus and the city of Antaradus, nearly opposite on the main-land; the southern at the " White Cape " (Prom. Album, Bas el Abidd), about six miles south of Tyre. This coast line is about 120 miles in length. Originally, however, the name of Phoenicia denoted a much snicaller portion of the coast, the territory of Sidon and Tyre, from the river Bostrenus (JVahr-el-Auly), two miles north of Sidon, to the Bas el Ab'md, a length of only twenty-eight miles. It is in this sense that Josephus describes Phoenicia as "the great plain of Sidon."¹ On the other hand, the southern limit is often carried as far as Mount Carmel; for Acco (afterwards Ptolemais, and the modern St. Jean (VAcre) was an old Phoenician settlement. Nay, the name is sometimes applied, as by Herodotus,² to the whole, or nearly the whole, of the eastern sea-board of the Mediterranean, from the bay of Myriandrus down to Carmel at least, and perhaps to Gaza.

§ 3. This narrow region had abundant resources within itself, besides its advantageous position for commerce. Its varied surface is watered by the numerous streams, short but copious, which run down across it from Lebanon to the sea, and some of these have interesting associations. The largest of them is the river now called ^Nahr-el-Kasimieh or Xahr-el-IAtany, and supposed to be the ancient Leontes, which drains the great valley of Ccele-Syria (" Hollow Syria ") between the two ranges of Lebanon, and falls into the sea north of Tyre. At the northern part of the country in like manner, though on a much smaller scale, the valley between Mounts Bargylus and Lebanon is drained by the "Great River" (Kcdir-el-Kebir), the ancient Eleutherus, which falls into the large bay between Aradus and Tripolis. Of the rivers having their sources on the western slope of Lebanon, the most important is the Bostrenus (JVedir-el-Aidy), which watered the plain of Sidon. Proceeding to the north, across the Tamyras (Nahr-el-Deimur) and the^Magoras Xedir-Bey-rui) just beyond Berytus, we come to the Lycus (JYedir-el-Kelb), famous for the stelee, or sculptured tablets, of Rameses II. (or, as the Greeks said, Sesostris), and of several Assyrian kings, on the face of the rocks which overhang its stream. A more poetical celebrity belongs to the stream just south

» Joseph. " Ant." v. 3, § 1. ² vii. SD; iv. 3S : iii. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF PHOENICIA.

597

of Byblns, from the legend (derived perhaps from the blood-red color of the water in flood-time) which gave the river its name of Adonis (Nahr-Ibrahim), and as the seat of the elemental worship of Thammuz—

"Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day; While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded."

The last river deserving to be mentioned (for the lesser streams and mountain torrents are innumerable) is that of Tripolis (the Nalir-Kadisha, or "Holy River"), which has its chief source just opposite that of the Orontes on the other slope of Lebanon.

A coast road was carried across these rivers by many bridges, and over the intervening promontories by means of zigzags or, as the Greeks called them, dimaces (stairs or ladders), the most remarkable of which was the Climax Tyrio-rum, across the White Cape, which rises to the height of three hundred feet. But in earlier times the valleys must have been severed in a way which goes far to account for the independence of the original states among themselves. Their general freedom from war, though too weak to resist subjection, and the efforts which they repeatedly made to throw off a foreign yoke, were due in a great measure to the fact that their land lay out of the great highways trodden by the Oriental armies. The military road from Egypt to the Euphrates struck inland from the maritime planTof Palestine south of Damascus; while that which led to Hamath and the valley of the Orontes—the land of the martial Hittites—and in later ages to Antioch, passed through Cade-Syria behind Lebanon, the great rampart which severed the Phoenician coast from that constantly disputed region of Syria.

§ 4. Lying in the fairest part of the temperate zone, between the breezes of the Mediterranean and the heights of Lebanon, which are snow-clad for the greater part of the year, and with a surface varying from level plains, through undulating hills, to high and rugged mountains, Phoenicia possesses a climate and productions equally remarkable for excellence and diversity. Its exposure to the west gives it a high temperature, especially on the sea-level. At Berytus (Beyrut), which lies just in the middle of the coast and at the foot of the highest peak of Lebanon, the usual summer heat is 90° of Fahrenheit, the winter rarely below 50°.³

³ Russeggcr, quoted by Kenrick, "Phoenicia," p. 32.

598

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

The prevailing winds are from the west, north-west, and south-west, bringing rain in the winter, and violent storms in October and November, from the very quarter (northwest) to which the harbors are most exposed. The winter rains fall in November and December. In January and February, if the winter be at all severe, these rains become snow, and there is frost enough to cover the standing waters with a thin coat of ice, but not to harden the ground. The winter rains are preceded and followed by lighter showers, the " early and latter rain " of Scripture. The former, about the end of October, prepare the soil for autumn sowing; the latter, in March, bring forward the crops, which ripen in the delightful months of April and May.

The four summer months are rainless and almost cloudless; with winds which follow the daily course of the sun, and a land breeze in the evening on the coast and about three miles out to sea. The violent and parching east wind from the desert is felt, even across the barrier of Lebanon, from March to June, and the south wind, which blows in March, has the enervating effect of a sirocco. When the heat is excessive, a few hours' journey affords a delightful retreat in the coolness and verdure of Lebanon, with its grand and beautiful scenery. In these mountains the winter is severe from November to March ; the snow usually falling heavily and lying deep. The summit of Lebanon retains the snow during the summer only in its ravines, giving the effect (as Phocas long ago observed) of white wreaths amidst the less brilliant white of the jagged points of limestone which mask its naked ridge.⁴ Both these circumstances may have contributed to give the range its name of Lebanon, that is, "White," the Mount -Blanc of Palestine. In the higher chain of Antilibanus (which, however, is quite separate from Phoenicia), the culminating summit of Hermon, 10,000 feet high, is clad with perpetual snow. The climate is usually healthy, and the fevers which prevail on the coast in the heat of summer might probably be prevented. The whole region is subject to earthquakes.

§ 5. The country thus described must needs have a great abundance and variety of vegetable products. The soil is fertile, although now generally ill-cultivated. In the rich gardens and orchards about Sidon may be seen oranges, lemons, figs, almonds, plums, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, pears, and bananas, all growing luxuriantly, and forming a forest of finely-tinted foliage. The fertile lowlands bore abundant crops of corn ; and the olive, vine, and fig-tree were

⁴ Jeremiah (xviii. 14) speaks of "the snow of Lebanon."

THE FORESTS OF LEBANON.

proverbial products of Phoenicia as well as of Palestine, where the inhabitant could " dip his feet in oil," and " sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree." The former abundance of the date-palm is attested, as some think, by the very name of Phcexicia, which is the Latin form of the Greek Phcenice (<Pom'o7, from tyoh>i£)\ just as Brazil is named from its famous wood.⁵ (Comp. § Q,ftn.)

§ 6. All readers are familiar with the proverbial fame of the forests which clothe the jagged sides of Lebanon and of the spurs which it throws out to form the bold headlands of the coast. "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof for a burnt-offering."⁶ The average height of the chain of Lebanon is from 6000 to S000 feet, and the upper line of vegetation runs along at about 6000 feet. The forests which furnished timber not only for the Phoenician navy, but for the Assyrian palaces, as well as for the temple and palaces of Solomon, consist of pine, fir, cypress, and evergreen oak, as well as the famous "cedar of Lebanon." As far as is at present known, the cedar of Lebanon is confined to one valley of the range, that of the Kadisha, or river of Tripoli. The grove stands quite alone in a depression, at the upper part of the valley, about 15 miles from the sea, and 6172 feet above its level, beyond the elevation reached by all the other trees of this mountain range. There are about ^OO trees, of which eleven or twelve are very large and old, fifty of middle size, and the rest younger and smaller. The older trees have each several trunks and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are cone-like in form, and do not send out wide lateral branches. They are still regarded with as great reverence as in ancient times, when one of them was affirmed to be as old as the creation,⁷ or at least as the time of Abraham.⁸

The ravines and caverns in the rugged sides of the limestone range give shelter to many wild beasts—jackals, hyenas, wolves, bears, and panthers. " The beasts thereof," mentioned by Isaiah, must have been cattle fed upon the lower hills. Antilibanus, which is now more thinly peopled, is more abundantly stocked with wild beasts; and it was the

⁶ This etymology is confirmed by the appearance of the palm-tree as an emblem on the coins of Aradus, Tyre, and Sidon. The palm may well have been more abundant in Phoenicia in ancient times than now. It is still found at various places along the coast, and especially in the neighborhood of Tyre. The name also of the Malum Pu-nicum (Punic or Phoenician apple) points to this as an ancient home of the pomegranate, the native name of which, Rimmon, is frequent in the geography of Palestine. The pistachio nut is another characteristic, fruit of both countries, as in the days of Jacob (Gen. xliii. 11) and of Pliny (" h. n." xiii. 10).

⁸ Isaiah xl. 16; lx. 13: comp. Ps. lxxii. 1c ; IIos. xiv. 5; Zech. xi. 1.

⁷ Joseph. " Bell. Jud." iv. 9, 7. e Euseb. " Prcep. Ev." v. 9.

THE HISTORY OE PHOENICIA.

scene of many of the hunting exploits commemorated in the Assyrian annals and sculptures.

The lower formation of sandstone contains iron ore in sufficient abundance to have been worked in some parts, when wood was more plentiful than now; but Phoenicia appears to have obtained her metals chiefly from abroad. Such a coast, of course, supplied important fisheries; and a very probable etymology derives the name of its oldest city, Sidon, from its being a fishing-station, like Beth-seiida (the "house of fish") on the Lake of Galilee. Most famous of all was the fishery for the murex, the mollusk which supplied the famous " Tyrian purple," from which, indeed, some derive the very name of Phoenicia. The writings of the Assyrian kings often mention the skins of sea-calves which they obtained from the Phoenician coast, to use as hangings and coverings in their palaces. Nor, in this connection, ought we to over' look the worship of the Fish-god, which prevailed along this whole coast.

§ 7. Whether as "the land of the date-palm" or as "the land of purple," Phoenicia is known, like so many other countries of the ancient and modern world, by a foreign appellation—an appellation which recalls its primeval connection with Greece. The question of its ancient name is mixed up with another, of very great interest, concerning the origin of its population. It must be observed that there is no trustworthy native history of Phoenicia; and, in place of such monuments as those of Egypt and Assyria, we have only a few lately discovered inscriptions. We are dependent, therefore, on the traditions preserved.by the ancient writers, compared and tested by the light of comparative philology and similar methods of research.⁹

§ 8. The Phoenicians, though regarded by the ancients as one nation, never formed a complete political union. From the earliest known times, each city was a separate state : though Sidon at one period, and Tyre at another, obtained supremacy over the rest. In the ethnic table of Genesis x., Ave are told that " Canaan begat Sidon, his first-born," the oldest and long the most important of the Phoenician states; and among the other Canaanites, the Arkite, the Sinite, the

⁹ The "Phoenician History" of Sancuoniatiion of Berytus—once regarded as an authority even higher than that of Manetho for Egypt or Berosus for Babylon—is now generally acknowledged to be the forgery of its professed Greek translator, Philo Byblius, a grammarian of the 2rl century after Christ. It is even probable that "Sanchoniathon" was not the name of a person, but the title of the sacred books of the Phoenicians, San Choniuth, "the entire law of Chon," that is, the god Bel, whom the Greeks called the Tyrian Hercnles. The existing fragments, therefore, are only of value as they may preserve Phoenician traditions, the worth of which must be tested by other sources of information.

BIBLICAL GENEALOGY OF CANAAN.

GOl

Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Heimathite, clearly represent the cities of Area, Sinna, Aradus, Simyra, and Hamath (the later Epiphania) ; the last being beyond the north limit of Phoenicia. The border of the Canaanites is further defined as from Sidon (along the maritime plain) to Gerar and Gaza, and thence to the lowlands of the Jordan, at Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, as far as Lasha¹⁰ (probably Cal-lirroe, on the river Zerka). Since Canaan is made a son of Ham¹¹—and that so emphatically as to be the special inheritor of the curse which marked him as the servant of Shem¹² —it follows that the peoples here named were regarded as belonging to the Hamitic race, in strong contrast with the Semitic Israelites, to whom their land was given as a possession. Thus far there is evidence of a Canaanite and Hanv ite population in some of the chief cities of Phoenicia ; among which, observe, Tyre is not yet mentioned, nor does its name occur in Scripture till a much later age.

§ 9. As a geographical term, Canaan denotes the whole land promised to Abraham. It is the only name used for that land in the book of Genesis ; and " the land of Canaan " occurs in an inscription of Menephtha, the Pharaoh of the Exodus. In the ethnic sense, however, the peoples of the land are sometimes included under the general name of Canaanites; but that term sometimes denotes "a special portion of the population, joined with Hittites or Hethites, Am-orites, Girgasites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but distinguished from them."¹³ It is so used in the Books of Numbers and Joshua; and it seems to be in this sense that the borders of the Canaanites are drawn (in the passage quoted above) along the lowleinds, corresponding with the most probable etymology of the name Ceineain. Thus there were eastern and western Canaanites; the former in the low valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, the latter in the maritime plain, which a prophet expressly names as " Canaan, the land of the Philistines. "¹⁴

The tribes thus distinguished are all alike included, in Genesis x., among the sons of Canaan and the race of Ham. The special application of the name of Canaanites may be explained as a case of the very frequent retention of an old ethnic name in those parts of a country where a primitive population has held its ground. After the Eastern Canaanites of the Dead Sea valley were partly destroyed in the catastrophe of the " cities of the plain," and partly displaced by successive conquests; and after those of the lower mari-

¹⁰ Gen. x. 15-19. ¹ > Gen. x. 6. ¹² Gen. ix. 25, 26.

ⁱ³ Kenrick, " Phoenicia," p. 40. '* Zephauiah ii. 5.

26

602

THE HISTORY OF lTICENICiA.

time plain were overpowered by the Philistines; those of the upper maritime plain, from Carmel along the foot of Lebanon, were left as the representatives of the Canaanitish race. Their land was, indeed, partly included within the bounds assigned to Israel—another confirmation of their being regarded as Canaanites ; but the tribe of Asher, to whom Acco and the territory as far as Sidon were allotted, preferred the " royal dainties" furnished by their commerce, a,nd failed to drive them out; and so "the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land."¹'³ We can now understand the consent of all ancient testimonies to the fact that the Phoenicians called themselves, in their own tongue, by the name of Canaanites ;^,c and we see that their primeval history is involved in that of the whole race of Canaan.

§ 10. In the earliest history of the chosen race, we have distinct evidence, first, of the fact that the Canaanites were immigrants into the land of Canaan, and further, of the very time when they made their entrance. When Abraham returned from his sojourn in Egypt, " the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land,"¹⁷ a statement which hardly need have been made had they been long settled as its permanent inhabitants. There are allusions, both at this and later times, to the old races they had displaced, under the very names by which tradition invests primeval and extinct races with vague attributes of stature, strength, and violence.

Such were the Itephaiin, a name which the Phoenicians applied to the "Manes" of the dead,¹⁸ who were overpowered in Bashan by the Amorites; the .Emim, or " terrible ones," in the land afterwards possessed by Moab;¹⁹ the Zuzim, in the unknown region called Ham;²⁰ the Zamzummim, who were supplantedby the children of Ammon.²¹ West of the Jordan, the Anakhn, of whom the Kephilbn were a branch, held their ground against the Hittites in the southern hills, about the city of Kirjath-Arba (Hebron), till the Israelites entered the land;²² the Avim occupied the maritime plain as low as Gaza;²³ and farther to the south, towards Arabia Pe-tnea, were the Kenites, Kenizzites, and I\xalmo?iites.²ⁱ All these, with others, doubtless, whom the history had no occasion to mentiors, seem to have been included under the general name of Hephaim; whose character as a nearly extinct aboriginal race is marked by the twofold application of the

¹⁵ Judges i. 31, 32 ; Joshua xix. 24-30; Gen. xlix. 20 ; Dent, xxxiii. 24.

¹⁸ For the proofs of this, see Kenrick, "Phoenicia," pp. 42. 43.

» Gen. xiii. 7. ¹⁸ Gen. xiv. 5. ^1U Ibid. ²⁰ Ibid. ²¹ Dent ii. 20.

³² Numb. xiii. 22, 33 ; Deut. i. 2S; xv. 13,11; Josh. xi. 21, xv. 13, 54.

^a» Dent. ii. 23. ²ⁱ Gen. xv. 19; Numb. xxiv. 21; 1 Sam. xv. G ; xxvii. 13

IMMIGRATION OF CANAANITES.

name, on the one hand, to sucn remnants of them as survived in the south-west of Palestine ;²⁵ on the other to the spirits of the departed, who peopled Sheol, the Hebrew Hades.²⁰ As to their race, the opinion which seems most probable is that they were a branch of the Aramaean Semites, who were spread over the highlands on both sides or the Euphrates. They were still powerful enough in the time of Abraham to be attacked by Chedorlaomer ;²⁷ and that this was about the time of the entrance of the Canaanites, is indicated by the mention of the foundation of Hebron (the great city of the southern Hittites), as a recent event, the date of which could be precisely assigned.²⁸

§11. The indications thus gleaned from Scripture have received a curious confirmation from Egyptian literature. "We now possess a document of undisputed authority, giving a date below which we must necessarily place the'establishment of the Canaanites in Palestine. This document is an hieratic papyrus, now in the Berlin Museum, translated in great part by M. Chabas,²⁹ containing the report of an Egyptian officer, sent during the reign of Amenembe I., of the Xllth dynasty, into the countries of Edom and Tennu, situated to the north, towards the basin of the Dead Sea, both countries being then vassal principalities of Egypt, like the kingdom of Gerar, where Abraham and Isaac resided. His mission was to examine into the state of these two countries, and also to report the situation of the neighboring nations, with whom Egypt and her vassals were often at war. In his report there is no trace of the existence of Canaan-itish tribes in Palestine. The only inhabitants of the whole country are the Sedi, some remnants of whom we find mentioned during the XVIIIth dynasty, as also are the remnants of the Rephaim in the Book of Joshua. Now the Sati, on all the Egyptian monuments where they are represented, have a perfectly characterized Semitic type. Other texts, also dated under the old empire and the twelfth dynasty, expressly state that the only neighbors the Egyptians had at this time, on the Syrian side, were the nation's of the race of the Aamu—that is, Semites, whom the sons of Mizraim generally designated by this name, derived from the Semitic

§ 12. The immigration of the Canaanites being thus estab-

²⁵ 2 Sam. v. 18; xxi. IS, 19; 1 Chron. xi. 15; xx. 4; Isa. xvii. 5.

²⁶ Ps. lxxxviii. 10 ; Prov. ii. IS, ix. IS. xxi. 1G; Is. xxvii. 14,19. ²⁷ Gen. xiv. 5.

²⁸ Comp. Gen. xiii. IS, with Numb. xiii. 22. On the connection of the foundation of Hebron with that of Zoan, see above, ch. vii. 5 2.

²⁹ " Les Papyrus hieratiques de Berlin." Chalons, 1SG3.

³⁰ Lenormant, "Histoire Ancienne," vol. ii. pp. 247, 24S.

word am—that is,people™

601

THE HISTORY OE PHOENICIA.

lished, we can scarcely withhold our belief from the Phoenician traditions of the quarter whence they came—traditions uniformly reported by the classical writers from the time of Herodotus downward. The father of history gives both the native tradition and the Persian repetition of it. " These Phoenicians, as they themselves say, anciently dwelt npon the Erythrcmn Sea; and crossing over thence they inhabit the sea-coast of Syria; and this region of Syria, and the whole as far as Egypt, is called Palestine."³¹ " The Persiein account was that the Phoenicians, coming from the sea called Erythra to this sea"—that is, the Mediterranean, " and having settled in the country which they now occupy, immediately undertook distant voyages; and, carrying cargoes, both of Egyptian and Assyrian goods, visited, among other places, Argos."³²

The "Erythraean Sea" of Herodotus is not the Red Sea, which he calls the "Arabian Gulf," but the sea (into which he supposed that gulf to open much sooner than it does) which washed the shores of Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia, and of which the Persian Gulf was a part. The latter—the same quarter from which the Babylonian legends traced their earliest civilization—is more distinctly marked as the source of the migration by Strabo. He speaks of the islands of Tyre and Aradus (the Bedirein Islenals), as well as of Bora —all three localities in the Persian Gulf, with names found also on the Phoenician coast—as having temples similar to the Phoenician ; and he adds, " if we may believe the inhabitants, the islands and the town of the same name in Phoenicia are their own colonies."³³ Pliny and Ptolemy mention the island of Tylus (= Tyrus); and the former speaks of a Ceuuiein in the same quarter.³⁴ Justin, following Trogus Pompeius, attempts to assign both the cause and the course of the migration: "The Tyrian nation was founded by the Phoenicians, who, being disturbed by an earthquake, and leaving their native land, settled first of all on the Assyrian Beike"— which can hardly mean any but the Dead Sea or the Lake of Gennesareth—" and subsequently on the shore near the sea, founding there a city which they called Sidon, from the abundance offish; for the Phoenicians call a fish Sielon"³*

31 Herod, vii. S9. ...

³² Herod, i. 2. The monuments and writings of Egypt and Assyria give ample evidence of the commerce of the Phoenicians with both.

³³ Strabo xvi. p. 770: comp. i. p. 42 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ptol. vi. 7.

³⁴ P'dn. " H. N." vi. 2S.

35 Justin xviii. 3, § 2. The common worship of the fish-god, Dagon, on the shores of the Persian Gulf and in the valleys of its great rivers, as well as on the coast or Syria, is a strong confirmatory argnment. The maritime habits of the earliest Phoenicians tend in the same direction; but these may have been acquired in their new abode.

MIGRATION OF THE PHOENICIANS.

The Arabian historians, and the book of " Nabathaean Agriculture," which belongs in its present form to the early part of our era, preserves a Babylonian tradition that the Phoenicians were expelled in consequence of a quarrel with the Cushite monarchs of Babylon of the dynasty of Nimrod. This tradition falls in with the legends of the Talmudists about Abraham's encounters with Nimrod. We have seen more trustworthy evidence that the migration fell about the time of Abraham ; and the concurrence points to some common cause, which set in motion a migration from Mesopotamia to the shores of the Mediterranean. We can not stay to trace the probable route by which the movement might have been effected, which is marked by a series of oases from the Lower Euphrates to Damascus, whence the road lay open to every part of Palestine.

§ 13. There is another coincidence, too interesting to be passed over. The migration of a race, which the Book of Genesis represents as comprising nO less than eleven tribes,³⁶ must have had various ramifications, as the sacred text in fact affirms—"and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad." So, while " Sidon, the first-born of Canaan," with the other tribes that colonized Phoenicia, passed on to their secure stations on the coast at the foot of Lebanon, and other tribes settled in the hills and valleys of Palestine, it is very natural that others, mingled with the displaced inhabitants, should pass still farther onward and overflow the rich land of Egypt. Arabian traditions confirm the view stated in the proper place,³⁷ that such was the nature of the invasions of the Hyksos or Shepherds, whom Manetho expressly calls Phoenicians, that is, Canaanites. It now* appears to be highly probable that, on their expulsion from Egypt, they brought with them, besides other elements of Egyptian civilization, a mode of writing, in which certain hieratic characters, adapted to their own language, formed the alphabetic system, which was soon adopted throughout Palestine, and was thence carried by Phoenician commerce to the shores of Europe.

§ 14. It appears to be very much, if not chiefly, by the test of color, that the ethnic table of Genesis x. groups the children of Ham (i. e., Cheim, " the swarthy "). By this test, the Canaanites of Palestine and Phoenicia, with the Syro-Phoeni-cians and other dark Syrians farther north, would be distinguished, on the one hand, from the lighter immigrants of the Hebrew race from Upper Mesopotamia, and, on the other, from the "White Syrians" of Cappadocia. And this dis«

³⁸ Gen. x. 15-1S. 37 g_{ee cnap-} i_V>

000

THE HISTORY OF PIICENICIA.

tinction confirms their migration from the native land of a dark race, such as Lower Mesopotamia.³⁸ This helps to explain, what seems at first sight an anomaly, that the Phoenicians, whose language was indubitably Semitic, are classed as a Hamite race. We have seen, from the first, how difficult it is to draw any perfectly clear distinction between the Hamites .and the Shemites; and the position of Canaan, as Ham's youngest son, in the ethnic table, seems to imply that the Canaanites were on the border-line of affinity between the races.

That the Phoenician language was distinctly Semitic is abundantly proved by its remaining fragments and proper names, both in Phoenicia and the colonies, especially Carthage. To say that it had a near affinity with the Hebrew, is understating the case; for the two differed merely as dialects. In fact, the Hebrew immigrants from Mesopotamia, being at first but a wandering family among the surrounding Canaanites, adopted the language of their new country in place of their own Syriac tongue ; and their speech is called the " language of Canaan."³⁹ The most recent discoveries have clearly shown that the language of the Cushite (i. e., Hamite) races of Babylonia and southern Arabia was also Semitic. Indeed, the tendency of inquiry is to replace the linguistic name Semitic by Hamitic, in very many cases.

The story of Sanehoniathon, that the Phoenicians were autochthons, whose race was deduced from Chaos, through a ' succession of gods, to Chna, the first Phoenician, is of course a baseless assumption of national pride. "As the entire progress of society is, according to this account, included in the history of a single country, it is evident that the whole is fictitious, like the fables of the Greeks, who refer all art and science to their own progenitors."⁴⁰

§ 15. Equally fictitious is the claim of Tyre to a very high antiquity, and to the title of " Mother of the Phoenicians."⁴¹ The Tyrian priests of Hercules (Melceirth) told Herodotus

³⁸ On the allnsions to the dark races of the Syrian coast in Homer and other classic authors, who find Ethiojnans on the Syrian coast, see Kenrick, " Phoenicia," p. 51.

³⁹ Isaiah xix. 18. The use of Phoenician (i. e., Canaanite) letters in the oldest Hebrew writing is, pro tanto, an argumeut for the adoption of the language, though not decisive in itself. The case i9 very different from the importation of the letters by Phoenician commerce to the comparatively uncivilized races of Europe, whose language was already fixed. Of the latter process we have examples in the adaptation of the Greek alphabet to the Mseso-Gothic aud Russian langnages, of the Roman to the languages of their barbarian subjects, and iu the moulding of Polynesian languages into a written form by modern missionaries.

⁴⁰ Kenrick, " Phoenicia," p. 53. See Ibid. p. 56, on the distinction between the Phoe* nicians and Philistines. The former practised circumcision (Herod, ii. 104).

⁴¹ Meleager of Tyre, iu the " Antho¹ Grsec." vii. 428,13.

PRECEDENCE OF SIDON.

007

that the temple and city had then existed 2300 years, which would carry back their building to about 2750 b.c. Some modern writers see in the close approximation to the time of the Third (Chaldaean) Dynasty of Berosus another mark of the traditional date of the great Phoenician migration, with which the city that was ultimately supreme would naturally claim to be coeval. To such a claim the want of any monumental or other historical evidence is fatal. There is no sign that it was sustained by the Phoenician annals, which are quoted by Josephus, Eusebius, and others. Tyre is not mentioned in Scripture till the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan ;⁴² nor does the name occur in Homer, though he speaks of the Phoenicians in general, and the Sidonians in particular, and calls Phoenicia Sidonia /^4S and the older and higher authority of Scripture uses " Sidonians " and " all the Sidonians" for the Phoenicians in general.⁴⁴

There can, in fact, be little doubt that this name truly represents the original Phoenicia as the territory of Sidox, its most ancient city. As such we have seen Sidon named in the ethnic table, as the first-born of Canaan, and it appears again in Genesis in the dying blessing of Jacob, as already famous for its maritime enterprise: "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the seei; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon."⁴⁵ The maritime importance here promised depends wholly on the proximity of Sidon ; for the Jews were never great sailors, nor did Asher, to whom this coast was assigned, ever conquer his inheritance in Phoenicia. On the contrary, the Phoenicians planted their colony of Dora above 10 miles south of Carmel; and the account which an old historian gives of its growth may stand for the supposed origin of the Phoenician cities in general. " The rocky nature of the coast, which abounded with the purple-fish, brought the Phoenicians together here. They built themselves huts, which they surrounded with a fosse, and, as their industry prospered, they hewed stones • from the rock, surrounded themselves with a wall, and made their harbor safe and commodious."⁴⁶ Doubtless this description is more from imagination than from knowledge;

⁴³ Josh. xix. 29 : " the strong city Tyre."

⁴³ Horn. " II." 290, 743 ; "Od." 6', G15, v\ 2S5, o', 117 ; Strab. xvi. p. 766.

⁴⁴ Josh. xiii. 4, G; Judges xviii. 7: the latter passage clearly testifies to the supremacy of the Zidonians at this time, as well as to their prosperity; "they dwelt careless, quiet, and secnre."

⁴⁸ Gen. xlix. 13. The form Zidon, usual in our version of the Old Testament (except in Gen. x. 15,19), represents the Phoenician Tsidon, which becomes in Greek Si' don, the usual form in the Apocrypha and New Testament, as well as in the Greek fciAfi Latin authors.

*" Claudius Julius, " Phcen. Hist." ap. Steph. Byz. .s. v. ASpo?.

u'08

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

but the very name of Sidon makes it probable that fishing industry preceded the commerce which is the first phase of her known history.⁴⁷ It is, however, worthy of notice that in Homer there is a constant distinction between the beautiful works in metal and embroidery from Sidon and the Phoenician commerce which brought them to Greece and Troy, as if that commerce had then its seat at other cities. In the books of Joshua, and Judges, Sidon has the epithet of" Great," or "The Capital" (Tsidon-Reibbah). It stood in 33° 34' N. lat., two miles south of the Bostrenus, in the most fertile plain of Phoenicia, which is .prolonged eight miles southward to Sarepta (O. T. Zarephath). The city was built on the north-west slope of a small promontory, and had a harbor formed by three low ridges of rock on which massive substructions are still seen.

§ 16. The settlements of "the sons of Canaan," mentioned in the ethnic table of Genesis, in connection with Sidon, lie at and near the northern part of the Phoenician coast, and some of them beyond the proper limits of Phoenicia. They are the Arkite, Sinite, Arvealite, Zemeirite, and IIamathite.^iS

Arca (now Tel-Arkei), also called "Area in Lebanon,"⁴⁹ stood about 12 miles north of Tripoli and 2 or 2^-hours from the shore, on the summit of a northern spur of Lebanon, which here sinks abruptly to the valley of the Eleutherus. As the birthplace of Alexander Severus, it obtained the name of Caiseireei Libeini; and it was famous in the crusading wars. Its inland sites seem to have caused the Arkite capital to be transferred to Ortiiosia, as the Greeks called the port, which appears in Assyrian documents by the name of Simron.

The Smites, also, had their original cities in the mountain, namely Sinna, and Aphek (Afkei),⁵⁰ the chief sanctuary of Ashtoreth. Their capital, however, was the great sea-port of Gebal, the Byblus of the Greek writers (now Jebe'd), north of the river Adonis.⁵¹ This was one of the most ancient religious cities of Phoenicia; the burial-place of Adonis, and the seat of his mysteries. The Giblites™ or Byblians,⁵³ were famous artificers, and aided in preparing the trees and stonework for the Temple of Solomon. They founded the great city of Berytus, i. e., " wells," or " cisterns" (now Beyrilt), south of the Lycus, on the border of the Sidonians.

The other three peoples of this group had their abodes north of the Eleutherus; and they seem in the oldest times

⁴⁷ Comp. Herod, i. 3, as quoted above.

⁴⁸ Genesis x. 17, IS: comp. 1 Chron. i. 15. ⁴⁹ Joseph. " Ant." i. C, § 2. ⁶⁰ Josh. xiii. 4, xix. 5; Judges i. 31. It is the Aphaca of the classical geographers,

who mention its temple of Venus. ⁶¹ Psalm lxxxiii. 7 : Ezek. xxvii. 9.

⁵² Josh. xiii. 5. ⁵³1 Kings v. 18, in the Alex. Codex of the LXX.

KINGDOM OF HAMATH.

COO

to have been connected, politically, rather with Syria than with Phoenicia. Accordingly, the Arvadite and Zemarite appear with the Hittites of the Orontes (on which Hamath stood), in the great wars of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties, whose monuments make no mention of Sidon among the confederates. Aradus was in later times a member of the Phoenician league, its king being a vassal of the king of Sidon. The town occupied the whole island of Aradus (Ruad), lying in the same latitude as Citi-um, the southern point of Cyprus. It was surrounded by a wall, serving also as a dike, in the remains of which are stones of five and six yards in length. It possessed on the mainland the two towns of Antaradus (Tartus), with the necropolis of the island city, and Marathus (A?7irit), the site of some important monuments of Phoenician architecture. Very near to them, and farther inland, was Simyra (Shumra), the chief city of the Zemarites, who appear never to have joined the Phoenician league.

Last named, because at the extreme north of the Canaanite settlements, was Hamath, the Epiphania of the Greeks, which still retains the name of Hamah, and has a population of between forty and fifty thousand. Lying in the valley of the Orontes, at the junction of all the routes from Antioch, Phoenicia, and Ccele-Syria, on the one side, and to Damascus, Palmyra, Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, on the other, Hamath was a great centre of the commerce of Phoenicia with Syria, Assyria, and Babylonia. Its situation gave it the command of the valley of the Orontes, from the defile of Daphne below Antioch to the water-shed between it and the Leontes. This valley, which includes the northern half of Ccele-Syria, appears to have formed the region and (usually) the kingdom of Hamath; and the water-shed formed " the entrance of Hamath,"⁵⁴ which w^ras the northern limit of the promised land.

The political connections of Hamath appear always to have been with Syria rather than with Phoenicia; and the Hamathites formed a part of the Hittite confederacy, with which the great Theban Pharaohs made war. In the time of David it was the seat of an independent kingdom,⁵⁵ which sought David's protection against the King of Zobah. It was included in the kingdom of Solomon, and its commercial importance, especially for the traffic by way of Palmyra, is attested by his foundation of "Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store-cities which he built in Hamath."⁵⁶ On the

⁵⁴ Numbers xxxiv. S; Josh. xiii. 5, etc.

⁵⁶ 2 Chron. viii. 4: comp. 1 Kings ix. 17, is.

26*

⁶⁵ 2 Sam. viii. 9.

610

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

disruption of Israel, Hamath seems to have retained its inde* pendence. In the Assyrian inscriptions of the time of Ahab (b.c. 900), it appears as a separate power in alliance with the Syrians of Damascus, the Hittites, and the Phoenicians. About three-quarters of a century later, Jeroboam II. re* covered Hamath;⁵⁷ he seems to have dismantled the place, whence the prophet Amos couples " Hamath the Great" with Gath, as an instance of desolation.⁵⁸ Its importance ceased with its conquest by Sargon, who transplanted its inhabitants to Samaria.⁵⁹ The city received the Greek name of Epiphcmia from Antiochus Epiphanes. These notices of the Syrian states bordering Phoenicia on the north are important in themselves, and serve to define the limits of Phoenicia.

It remains to speak of the city which ultimately acquired the supremacy. Tyrus is the Greek and Latin form of the Phoenician and Hebrew Tsur, or Tzor (that is, " a rock"), now softened into JStir.⁶⁰ The general opinion of the ancients made Tyre a colony of Sidon ;⁶¹ and it certainly lies within the original territory of Sidon. It is worthy of notice that, in Scripture, the Tyrians are sometimes called Zidoni-ans, but the Zidonians are never called Tyrians. The usual mention of " Tyre and Sidon," in that order, belongs to a time when the greater importance of the former was established ; and it is'reversed at the period of Sidon's supremacy under the Persians."²

Tyre is first mentioned in Scripture as "the strong city Tyre ;"⁶³ and its position made it one of the strongest in the world. The " rock," from which it had its name, was an island about half a mile from the shore and nearly a mile in length, in lat, 33° 17' K, just twenty miles south of Sidon. On the shore of the main-land, about 30 stadia (three geographical miles) to the south, there stood in Greek times a city called "Old Tyre" (Pala3tyrus); and this name has caused a profitless dispute about the relative antiquity of the two cities. As early as the time of Rameses II., we find a clear notice both of the island city of Tyre and of Sarra, on the main-land, a little farther to the south.⁶⁴

⁶⁷ 2 Kings xiv. 2S. ⁵⁸ Amos vi. 2. ⁵⁹ 2 Kings xvii. 24; xviii. 34; xix. 13.

^co The s°is also seen in one of the forms adopted hy Latin writers, Sara or Sarra (Plant. " True." ii. c, 5S; Vlrg. " Georg." ii. 50G); and probably in the name Syria, the 2and being named from its commercial capital. The form with the T comes from, or at least agrees with, the Aramaic Turn. The form Sarra is also found in an Egyptian document of the age of Rameses II., as the name of the city ou the main-land, the Palcetyrus of the Greeks. (See below, § 17.)

⁶¹ Strabo, pp. 40, 75G; Justin xviii. 3: Virgil more than once calls the Tyrian colony of Carthage "Sidonian." The counter claim is made on a coin of the time of An-tiochns Epiphanes, on which Tyre calls herself "Mother of the Sidonians." (Geseu. " Mon. Phcen." i. 2G2: Kenrick, " Phoenicia," p. 5S.) ⁶² Ezra iii. 7.

⁶³ Josh. xix. 29. ⁶⁴ See the Egyptian document quoted below, § 17.

EARLIEST HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

on

It is impossible to decide whether the island was first occupied as the citadel and docks of an carrier settlement on the coast; but it is quite clear, from the Scriptural allusions and from other evidence, that the island city was the Tyre of the flourishing period down to xUexander—the " rock," to which we find none to answer on the main-land site. Its narrow space would, of course, be insufficient when its population was greatest, and "Old Tyre," whether existing previously or not, would be occupied as a suburb, like Antara-dus and Marathus in relation to Aradus. What more has to be said of Tyre will appear in the course of its history.

The last founded of the great Phoenician cities was Tripoli [Tripoli or Tciralndus), the name of which points to its origin. It was not only a common foundation of the three cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus; but the respective colonies formed three distinct quarters (which the old geographer calls cities), at distances of a stadium (600 Greek^-feet), each having its own wall, though united in a common government. The city occupied a splendid site, on a promontory about half a mile broad, jutting out about a mile into the sea, in 34° 26' "N". latitude. The harbor is sheltered from the violent north-west winds by a chain of seven small islands, extending ten miles out to sea. The city stood on what is now called the " Holy Ptiver " (El Keidisha), in one of whose upper valleys are the famous cedars. Among its remains is an aqueduct, which brings down the water from Lebanon.

To sum up. The chief cities of Phoenicia, in their order from north to south, were these ten : Aradus, Simyra, Ortho-sia, Tripolis, Gebal or Byblns, Berytus, Sidon, Sarepta, Tyre, and Acco (afterwards Ptolemais). Their varying relations to each other, as members of the Phoenician confederacy, will appear from the ensuing history.

§ 17. The whole history of the Phoenicians may be divided, speaking generally, into the periods of Sidoniein and Tyrian supremacy. The traditions already noticed seem to place their first settlements on the Syrian coast about the ao-_e of * Abrah am and the Shepherd Kings of Egypt.⁶⁵ Their condition under the domination of the great Theban kino;s confirms the statement of Herodotus^ that they soon began to apply themselves to distant voyages. The*conquests⁼of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties in Syria and northern Phoenicia are attested both by their inscriptions and by the stelee set up by Piameses II. at the JVahr-el-Eelb, and at Adlun, near Tyre. In these records the Sidonians never appear as

⁶⁵ On the relations between Egypt and Phoenicia in the age of the Hyksos, sec chap. iv. § 22.

G12

TFIE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

enemies, but they seem to have purchased peace by placing their maritime enterprise and manufacturing industry at the service of the Pharaohs. The tributes, the arts, and the riches of Phoenicia are often mentioned in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of this age.

We possess a more particular account of Phoenicia under the great Rameses, and consequently in {he age before the Exodus. A papyrus in the British Museum contains the description of an imaginary journey made into Syria by an Egyptian functionary, at the end of the reign of Rameses II., after the conclusion of the final peace with the Hittites.⁶⁶ Though only a work of fiction, it gives us an idea of the state of the country at the period when it was written, and on this account is of great historical interest. The hero is supposed to have been in the country of the Hittites, and to have travelled as far as Helbon, the present Aleppo. On his return, before entering Palestine, which he does by way of Hazor, and where he describes the Canaanitish cities, he is supposed to pass through Phoenicia. The narrative describes, him as first stopping at Gebal: he records the religious mi-portance of the city, and the mysteries celebrated there-^ he then visits Berytus, Sidon, Sarepta, and Avatha (Adlun). He is then supposed to arrive at "Tyke the maritime," and describes it as a little town situated on a rock in the midst of the leaves. " They carry water there in boats," says he, " and it is very rich in fish." Close to Tyre, a little farther south on the main-land, the Egyptian traveller arrives at Se~ rem, the Seirrei of classical geographers, and his account contains a pun on the name of Seraa (in the Phoenician language," the wasp"): he speaks of the bad lodgings found there, and adds "the sting is very sharp." After traversing this part of the country, he visits Catena (now Um-el-Ateei-mid), then Achzib,where he quits the sea-coast, and enters the mountain region to reach Hazor. The traveller has been on Egyptian ground all this time, travelling with as much free-*dom and security as if he had been in the Nile valley, and even, by virtue of his functions, exercising some authority.

" From these statements," observes M. Lenormant, " it seems to us clearly proved that, from the date of the establishment of Egyptian dominion in Syria, the Sidonians and the Sinites of Gebal had completely separated their interests from those of the other Canaanite nations, and pursued quite a different line of action. Instead of seeking to recover a full independence, they became perfectly submissive to the Pha-

⁶⁸ Chabas, "Voyage d'nn Egyptieu." Chalons, 1SCG. The account in the text is from Lenormant, " Histoire Ancienne," vol. ii. p. 2(56.

SIDON AT HER ACME.

013

raonic supremacy, and remained faithful to Egypt under all circumstances. Doubtless the kings of Egypt, whose people were neither merchants nor seamen, needed and used the services of the Phoenicians, and therefore treated them with more favor than other nations of the same race, and granted them great privileges in order to secure their fidelity. They themselves, with true mercantile spirit, preferred to reap the material advantages arising from the protection of a great empire, rather than to indulge their pride by an empty assertion of independence, with its contingent disadvantages and dangers from foreign invasion. . . . Trade flourished and was profitable; and, contented with this result, the Phoenicians submitted to a state of vassalage with scarcely any opposition, provided always that the foreign suzerain did not interfere with their local self-government, and permitted them to preserve their own laws, and their own traditional worship, manners, and customs." It is just at this period of the subjection of Phoenicia to Egypt that we find the latter powerful at sea, under Thothmes III. and other Pharaohs; and the inference is highly probable that this maritime power rested, as in later times, on the command of the Phoenician fleet.⁶⁷

- § 18. The policy of Egypt towards her subject-states made her suzerainty quite compatible with the existence of a native dynasty of Sidonian kings, who themselves exercised sovereignty over the other Phoenician cities, except Gebal, which had its own kings. The highest commercial prosperity of Sidon belongs to this very period of the supremacy of the Pharaohs. She carried on trade in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, the Archipelago, and the Black Sea, where no rival navy as yet existed.

During this period the Sidonians seem to have planted colonies at Citium in Cyprus, at Itatum in Crete, and along the southern shores of Asia Minor, where we have seen that a large part of the Semitic population claimed a Phoenician origin.⁶⁸ In the south of the iEgean, they formed naval stations at Rhodes, Thera, and Cythera; and the famous worship of Aphrodite in the latter island, as in Crete, was at first that of the Phoenician Ashtoreth. In the Cyclades, they may be traced at Antiparus, Ins, and Syrus; and to them is ascribed the first working of the silver mines of Siphnns and Cimolus, and of the gold mines of Thasos, where Herodotus saw the remains of their immense works.⁶³ They also visited the neighboring shores of Thrace, and bartered with the natives for the gold of Mount Pangreus. Entering the Euxine,

« See chap. v. § 13. ⁸« Comp. chap. xxi. §5 2, 3, 8. "9 n_erod. vi. 47.

614

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

they obtained the gold washed down by the rivers of Colchis ; the tin of the Caucasus, which all the nations of that age required for their bronze implements, weapons, and armor;⁷⁰ iron from the mines worked by the Chalybes, and, it seems, steel also; besides lead and silver. For these and other products of their voyages, which extended as far west along the shores of Europe as Epirus, southern Italy, and Sicily, they found markets on their own coast—whence cara* vans traded with Syria and the region beyond the Euphrates -—and also in Egypt.

Along the northern coast of Libya, they pursued their voyages as far as the shore about Gape Bon (the Africa Proper of later times); and there they founded the famous colony of Hippo (that is, "a walled city"), and Cambe, on the site afterwards occupied by Carthage. Berytus shared with Sidon in this colonizing work; but Gebal founded its own settlements, some of which were perhaps earlier than those of Sidon, as Paphos in Cyprus, and Melos in the yEgean.

§ 19. The attacks from the sea, which we have seen made from the north and west upon Egypt and the Syrian coast, under Rameses II. and his successors, seem to imply a decline of the maritime power of Sidon about the 14th century b.c. It appears to have been about this time that the Pe-lasgo-Tyrrhenians began to acquire their naval supremacy in the Mediterranean, while commerce was assailed by that piracy which is one of the earliest Greek traditions.⁷¹ The same revolution may be implied iu the two fables of the Ai^ gonautic expedition to Colchis, and of Greek voyages to the lake Triton, at the bottom of the Great Syrtis —the very shores which formed the north-eastern and south-western limits of Phoenician commerce.

To the same region of fable—at least so far as our present knowledge extends—we must leave the settlements said to have been formed on the shores of Greece and Africa by the redundant population of Canaan, which, displaced by the Israelitish conquest, found a temporary and insufficient refuge on the Phoenician coast, and thence overflowed in a new wave of colonization.⁷² But, obscure as are the causes, we

⁷⁰ Some writers make this demand for tin, in order to make bronze, the great motive of the earliest Phoenician commerce.

⁷¹ If we may believe the Greek traditions, the Phoenicians themselves were among the earliest pirates in the iEgean, as well as the Carians. (Thnc. i. 4.) It must not be forgotten that the Greek word pirate, signifies an adventurer; and, in their traditions of these early ages, the Greeks scarcely distinguish the two classes of seamen. We need go back no farther than to our own glorious Elizabethan age to see how closely they have been connected in modem histor}'.

⁷² Some traditions made this the source of the Phoenician colonization of Greece.

SUPREMACY OF TYRE.

G15

know, as certain facts, that letters were carried from Phoenicia into Greece, and that Phoenician colonies were thickly planted on the shores of Zeugitana and Byzacium, long before the foundation of Carthage.

For the rest, it is quite clear that the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites stopped at the Phoenician border, and that its only direct effect was the more complete isolation of Phoenicia from the country beyond Lebanon. So far from being subdued by the Israelites, the ^idonians are named among their oppressors ;⁷³ but their generally peaceful policy, the fruit of commercial prosperity, is indicated by the mention of the men of Laish," how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure."⁷⁴ About the same time, the southern part of the maritime region was occupied by a new and large settlement of the Philistines, who in about a century grew strong enough to impose their yoke upon the Israelites, and not only to deprive the Phoenicians of much of the land traffic with Egypt, Assyria, and Arabia, of which Azotus and Gaza became great emporia, but even to vie with them at sea. According to a tradition preserved by Justin, the Philistines, under the leadership of Ascalon, sent a fleet against Sidon, which was taken by storm and razed to the ground, about the end of the 13th century b.c.⁷⁵ It is added that the inhabitants of Sidon withdrew to Tyre, to which city the supremacy was now transferred. The Philistines did not pursue their success, and the Sidonians recovered from the blow; and henceforth the names of Tyre and Sidon constantly appear together in the history of Phoenicia. Under the supremacy of Tyre, the people were still called Sidonian; and on inscriptions, referred to this early period, the King of Tyre styles himself " King of the Sidonians," while " the King of Sidon" is his vassal.⁷⁶

which is represented by the arrival of Cadmus iu Bceotia, bringing with him the Phoenician letters, as well as of the foundation of a great number of settlements on the coasts of Zeugitana and Byzacena (now the territory of Tunis), in Africa. In treatiug such traditions as 'mythical, it is not meant that they are mere poetical inventions, but that the elements of fact which they may possibly contain are too much mixed up with their poetic form for them to be used as historical evidence try tliemselves. For example, the slaying of the dragon, and the springing up of armed men from his sown teeth, give a mythical character to a legend which contains also the certain fact that the Greek alphabetic characters came from Phoenicia; and we can not get at the true story of the latter by stripping away what seems impossible or improbable in its mythical form. ^7a Jndges x. 12.

⁷⁴ Judges xviii. 7. This was in the early times of the Judges, about the fourteenth century. The ensuing statement, "that they were far from the Zidonians, aud had no business with any man," confirms the position of Sidon as the chief state of Phoenicia.

⁷⁵ The date is differently calculated at about b.c. 1252 or 1209.

⁷⁶ In 1 Kings v. 6, Solomon requests Hiram, king of Tyre, to command his servants to hew cedar-trees out of Lebanon, because " there is not among us any that can skiU to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.ⁿ

610

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

§ 20. For the century and a half down to the distinct appearance of Tyre in history as a powerful kingdom, in alliance with David and Solomon, we have only fragmentary traditions of the state of Phoenicia. The isolation in which the people were left by the conquests of the Israelites and the Philistines on the south, and of the Aramaean Syrians on the north and east, appears to have caused them to unite in a league of common defense, which embraced the cities from Simyra to Aeco. Each town preserved its ancient form of government, which was a monarchy controlled by general assemblies of the wealthiest and most influential citizens, and by councils of priests and magistrates, who were on an equality with the king in all public ceremonies. The institutions of Gebal (Byblus) were considered the most perfect type of these governments—partly monarchical, but pre-eminently aristocratic. The kings of the various cities were all subject to the King of Tyre as their suzerain. He decided all business respecting the general interests of Phoenicia, its commerce, and its colonies. He concluded treaties with foreign states, and disposed of the military and naval forces of the confederation. He was assisted by deputies from the other towns; and the annual embassies to the Temple of Melcarth henceforth assumed a political character.

The Arvadites alone remained isolated. Doubtless they were in close alliance with the other Phoenicians, and shared in their commerce and their maritime expeditions; but there are reasons to believe that they were not subject to the authority of the kings of Tyre. They served as sailors on board the ships of Tyre, whose population was inadequate to man her fleets, and as soldiers in her armies, which were composed entirely of mercenaries. A body of Arvadites formed the garrison of Tyre itself. The other recruits were drawn chiefly from the Liby-Phoenicians and other Africans. There were also in her service hardy mountaineers from Persia ; Lydians, whether from Asia Minor, or a branch of the people from the Armenian highlands; and Ethiopians, obtained probably through her commerce with Egypt."

This was also the period in which Tyre began her more distant voyages to the West, for the Carians and Tyrrhenians held the supremacy in the seas of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. From Utica, the chief of their new settlements on the African coast,⁷⁸ they proceeded westward along the coasts of Numidia and Mauretania (Algeria and Morocco); till, as their traditions say, after twice failing in the attempt

⁷⁷ Ezek. xxvii. S, in, 11; xxxviii. 5.

⁷⁸ Tbe traditional date of its foundation is ii.c. 115S.

PHOENICIAN COLONIES.

G17

to pass beyond the Straits, they founded the famous colony of Gades ( Cadiz—in Phoenician, Gadir—" a fortified inclos-nre "), a few years after Utica. This was the great emporium for their commerce with the south of Spain, the Tarshish of Scripture, where they obtained the gold, silver, iron, lead., copper, tin, and cinnabar of the Andalusian mines, besides honey, wax, and pitch. " Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the. multitude of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded in thy fairs."⁷⁹ Besides Gades, they founded Calpe and Carteia (Gibraltar and Algesiras) on the Straits, and numerous settlements on the southern coast of Spain, of which Malaca (3Ialaga) and Abdera were the chief. These remote colonies were connected with the mother-country by the midway station of Melita (3Ialta) _y with Gaulos (Gozo\ where are found the only remains of Phoenician temples. In Sardinia a splendid harbor invited them to found Caralis (Cagliari); and at Xora (near Pida), which bore the name of an old city in Phoenicia,⁸⁰ Phoenician inscriptions have been found. They established commercial factories on the coast of Sicily, which were connected with Africa by a station on the little island of Cossyra (Pantellaria). It will be seen that these settlements commanded the whole shores of the Wostein Mediterranean, except the great bay between Spain and Italy, of which the Tyrrhenians were masters. The naval power of the latter was not broken till both Carthage and the Sicilian Greeks were strong enough to encounter them with success.'

⁷⁹ Ezek. xxvii. 12.

¹⁰ The Xaarath or Naarm of JoBh. xvi. T and 1 Chron. vii. 28.

Damascus.^[1]

CHAPTER XXX.

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA. *

PART II. —FROM THE AGE OF DAVID AND HIRAM TO THE TAKING OF TYKE BY ALEXANDER.

about b.C. 1050 to b.C. 332.

§ 1. Tyre as a powerful kingdom. Meuander's list of kings. § 2. Alliance of Hiram with David and Solomon, based on common interests. Palestine the granary of Phoenicia. Their friendship permanent. Hiram not a vassal. § 3. Tyriau manufactures. Great works of Hiram at Tyre. His correspondence with Solomon. Their joint maritime adventures. § 4. Period of internal troubles in Phoenicia and Israel, ending with Etubaat. aud Omri. Jezebel married to Ahab. § 5. New dynastic troubles. Pygmalion and Elisa (Dido). Democratic revolution and aristocratic secession. Foundation of C\etiiage. § 6. Supremacy of the Old. Assyrian Monarchy in Phoenicia. Tiglath-pileser I. Asshur-nasir-pal. Phoenician weights, etc., found at Ximrud. Shalmaneser II. Iva-lush IV. Phoenician supremacy of the seas. § 7. New Assyrian Monarchy. Phoenicia submits to Tiglath-pileser II. Loss of Sicily, except three stations. Elulams, king of Tyre, recovers Citium, in Cyprus. Sargon's fruitless siege of Tyre. Naval victory of Elulseus. § 8. End of the Tyrian supremacy. Loss of Thasos and its ^.^ld-mines. Sargon conquers Cyprus. § 9. Revolt of Phoenicia, and reeonquest by Sennacherib. His

MENANDER'S LIST OF KINGS.

Gil)

stela at the Nahr-el-Kelb. Revolt of Sidon: its capture by Esar-haddon. § 10. Revolt in concert with Tirhakah ; suppressed by Asshur-bani-pal. Resistance and capture of Aradus. Recovery of the Egyptian supremacy by Neco. Service of the Phoenicians in his fleet. § 11. Victory of Nebuchadnezzar. Tyre and her resources as described by Ezekiel. § 12. Enmity of Tyre to Jerusalem. Siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. Its result doubtful. A vassal king set up. Attack of Pharaoh Hophra on Phoenicia. His naval victory and plunder of the cities; but no conquest. § 13. Inscription of Esmunazar, king of Sidon. Supremacy of Sidon from this time. §14. Political troubles at Tyre. Government of Judges and Priests. Royalty restored. § 15. The Phoenicians submit to Persia. Their fleet serves under Cambyses. Recovery of prosperity. Favor shown to Sidou. The Sidonians in the fleet of Xerxes. § 1G. Tyre taken by Evagoras. Revolt of Cy* prns and Phoenicia. Destruction of Sidon by Ochus. § 17. Alexander the Great iu Phoenicia. His capture of Tyre. § IS. State of Phoenicia under the Seleucidaj and Romans. Final capture of Tyre by the Saracens. § 19. Her subsequent flesolatiou and present state. Present state of Sidon. Its sepulchral remains. Other cities of Phoenicia: Tripoli, Beyrut, and Acre. § 20. The history of Carthage belongs to that of Rome. Her fall decides the conflict between Eastern and Western civilization.

§ 1. Tyre first appears distinctly on the page of recorded hsstory, as a powerful kingdom, at the epoch of the great Jewish monarchy under David, in the middle of the eleventh century b.c. ; and, from the same period, Menander. of Ephesus, in a fragment preserved by Josephus, traces the succession of the kings of Tyre for about 200 years as follows:²

1. Abibaal: from about b.c. 1050.

2. Hiram, his son : from about b.c. 1025; reigned 31 years.

3. Baleazar, his son: " 991 " 7 "

4. Abdastartus, his son: " 984 to 975; murdered by a con-

spiracy.

5. One of the Conspirators reigned about b.c. 975-963.

6. Astartds : reigned about b.c. 963 to 951.

7. Aserymus (his brother): about b.c. 951 to 912; murdered by his

brother,

8. Phales, who reigned only eight months, and was murdered by the

priest of Astarte.

9. Ethbaal or Ithobalus : b.c. 911-909, whose daughter Jezebel was

the wife of Ahab; and in whose reign there was a great drought.

10. Badezor, his son : about b.c. 909 to 903.

11. Matgen, his son: " 903 to 871.

12. Pygmalion, his son : " 871 to 821; was the brother of Elisa

or Dido. Carthage founded.

This list, compiled from unknown sources, is of course only to be trusted when its statements are confirmed by other authorities ; but its agreement with these, as in the cases of Hiram and Ethbaal, gives a certain degree of probability to the whole. The legendary use made of Pygmalion and Dido no more makes them mere mythical personages than it makes Carthage a merely mythical place; nor must it be

² Most of the names are formed of similar religious elements, and in the same Semitic language, as those of the Assyrian kings. The prevalence of Baal and Astarte (Ashtoreth), the chief god and goddess of the Phoenicians, is obvious. Thus Abibaal means "My father is Baal;" Ethbaal, "with Baal," or "Baal is with him;" Abdas-tartus, " the servant of Astarte."

G20

THE HISTORY OF PHCENICIA.

forgotten that Virgil was a learned antiquary. Meanwhile it remains to gather up what is known to be historical.

§ 2. In the first historical mention of Tyre as a kingdom, we find Hiram in close alliance with David, to whom the King of Tyre sent cedar-trees and carpenters and masons to build his palace.³ It is emphatically stated that "Hiram was ever a lover of David."⁴ This alliance, the perpetuation of which under Solomon is familiar to us from the Scripture history, was based on the natural principle of common interests and common dangers.

The Philistines on the south and the Syrians on the east were the enemies alike of Israel and Phoenicia, and both countries were protected by the conquests of David. While the Jewish kings enjoyed the fruits of Phoenician commerce, the ventures of which were shared by Solomon from his ports on the Red Sea, Phoenicia depended on the agricultural wealth of Palestine, alike in the time when Solomon fed the servants of Hiram at their work in Lebanon,⁵ and when Herod Agrippa could bring " them of Tyre and Sidon " to their senses " because their country was nourished by the king's country."⁶ In the prophet's invaluable picture of the sources of Tyrian wealth we read, "Judah and the land of Israel . . . they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith and pannag (either some cereal or some aromatic product), and honey, and oil, and balm."⁷ The value of Palestine to Tyre as a wheat country was greatly enhanced by its proximity, as there was scarcely a part of the kingdom of Israel west of Jordan which was distant more than a hundred miles from that great commercial city. The fact that Palestine was the granary of Phoenicia helps to account for the peace between the two countries, of which there is no recorded inter? ruption, notwithstanding Hiram's anger at Solomon's ingratitude,⁶ and the provocation given to Ethbaal by the slaughter of his daughter's Phoenician priests at Carmel, almost on his own frontier.⁹ It was, indeed, affirmed, in the "Jewish history " of Eupolemus, that David defeated Hiram in war, and reduced him to a tributary condition ;¹⁰ and this might seem confirmed by the statement that the officers who numbered the people came " about to Zidon and to the stronghold of Tyre."¹¹ But it is quite clear that Sidon and Tyre, though

³ 2 Sam. xxiv. 7. If this statement be taken strictly where it stands, at the beginning of David's reign, it would seem to refer to a Hiram who may have been the father of Abibaal, and grandfather of Solomon's Hiram ; and some writers accordingly distinguish them as Hiram i. and Hiram ii. ⁴ 1 Kings v. 11.

⁵ 1 Kings v. 11; 2 Chron. ii. 10. ⁶ Acts xii. 20. ⁷ Ezek. xxvii. 17.

⁸ 1 Kiugs ix. 13. ⁹ 1 Kings xviii. ¹⁰ Enseb. " Pram. Ev." ix. 30.

¹¹ 2 Sam. xxiv. 7. This seems rather to mark the northern limit of the territory of

GREAT WORKS OF HIRAM AT TYRE.

G21

included in the promised and allotted hind of Israel, were never subdued; nor are the relations of Hiram to Solomon those of a vassal. Their alliance is made as between equals, and Hiram does not hesitate to stigmatize the cities given him by Solomon as Cabul ("dirt").¹²

§ 3. In the aid rendered by Hiram to Solomon, Tyre appears as the seat, not only of commerce, but of manufacturing art, especially for works in metal, for which the Sidonians are equally conspicuous in the Homeric poems.¹³ In the fragments of the Phoenician historians, the reign of Hiram is represented as the great epoch when Tyre reached the climax of her power, and was strengthened and adorned anew. He is said to have quelled in person a revolt of Citium, in Cyprus. He undertook great works at Tyre in the beginning of his reign, and entirely altered the appearance of the city.¹⁴ He rebuilt, with unexampled splendor, the great Temple of Melcarth and the adjacent Temple of Ashtoreth. The little arm of the sea, which had hitherto separated the sacred islet of Melcarth from insular Tyre itself, was filled up, so as to form one island ; the extent of which was more thau doubled southward by the formation of an artificial embankment, on which was built a new quarter of the city, called by the Greeks Eurychoron, "the spacious." Insular Tyre, thus transformed, was protected on all sides by dikes, and surrounded by a strongly fortified inclosure. Quays bordered the whole of the ancient harbor, and a second port was formed on the south side of the island, and thus shelter was obtained for more than double the number of ships that could have been accommodated before. Hiram also built a royal palace in the insular city, which henceforth became the true Tyre, while Palsetyrus, on the main-land, gradually declined.

The completion of these works, about the time of David's death, set Hiram and his trained artificers at liberty to aid Solomon in those great works at Jerusalem, of which the account belongs to Scripture History.¹⁵ Copies of the Utters which passed between the two kings on this occasion¹⁶ were

Israel, at the Sidouian country, with its capital Tyre. Or, if the enumerators actually visited those cities, it might be to number the Hebrew residents, of whom there were always many iu Phoenicia. ¹² 1 Kings ix. 13.

¹³ The Tyrian annals place the taking of Troy just at the beginning of Hiram's reign, b.o. 1023.

¹⁴ Dius, ap. Joseph, "c. Apion," i. 17. The erection of the temple at Jerusalem, with the aid of Tyrian artists, just after the rebuilding of the Temple of Melcarth, gives a clear presumption of the Phoenician architecture of the former.

¹⁵ Sec the "Student's Old Testament History," chap. xxii.

¹⁶ 2 Chron. ii. See v. 11, " Then Hurani the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon."

622

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

shown in the Tyrian archives, as being authentic, in the time of Josephus, who gives translations.¹⁷ Solomon married a " Zidonian " princess,¹⁸ a daughter of Hiram, by whom the worship of Ashtoreth was set up at Jerusalem.¹⁹ His joint maritime adventures with the fleet of Hiram, described in Scripture History,²⁰ attest both the distant voyages of the Tynans from the Red Sea ports belonging to Israel, and the policy of Solomon in having his own sailors trained by the Phoenician mariners. When, however, on the partition of Solomon's kingdom, Phoenicia, maintaining her alliance with the northern kingdom, was shut out from those ports, the attempt of Jehoshaphat to re-open the Red Sea navigation proved too much for the skill of the Jewish mariners,²¹ and the ships were wrecked.

§ 4. The -death of Hiram was soon followed by dynastic troubles at Tyre: and his grandson was murdered through a conspiracy formed by the lour sons of his nurse in the very ver.r of the death of Solomon and the partition of his kingdom (n.c. 975). It is thought that Phoenicia, as well as Judah, may have felt the hostility of the Egyptian king Shishak; and the foundation of the kingdom of Damascus can not but have affected the power of Tyre. The 30 or 40 succeeding years of disturbance and revolution coincide remarkably with the like troubles in Israel; and both kingdoms, obtaining settled governments about the same time, formed a new alliance. Ethbaal, the priest of Ashtoreth, established a new dynasty at Tyre, and married his daughter, Jezebel, to Ahab, son of Omri, with disastrous results to both the Hebrew kingdoms.²²

§ 5. It was under EthbaaPs fourth successor that new dynastic troubles are said to have produced that great event which determined a large part of the course of ancient history, but which has come down to us in the garb of the most favorite poetical legend of antiquity. The following is the historical version (real or supposed) which the classical writ, ers gathered from the fragments of native tradition. The Tyrian king, Matgen, died, leaving two children—a son, aged eleven years, named Piimeliun (Pygmalion), and a daughter, some years older, named Elissar (Elisa). His last wish was that the two should reign conjointly. But the populace, desirous of changing the aristocratic form of government, pro-

>⁷ Joseph. " Ant." viii. 2, §§ 6, 7. ^,8 1 Kings xi. 1. ¹⁹ Ibid, verse 5.

²⁰ 1 Kings x. 11, 22; 2 Chron. xx. 3G. The phrase "ships of Tarshish" describes the large vessels employed for these voyages as of the same class as those used for the Western Mediterranean, just as onr ship-owners send " East-Indiamen" to Australia. ²¹ 1 Kings xxii. 48 ; 2 Chron. xx. 35-37.

²² See the " Student's Old Testament History," chap, xxiii.

PYGMALION AND ELISA.

G23

claimed Pygmalion sole monarch, and surrounded him with councillors of the democratic party.²³ Elisa, excluded from the throne, married Zicharbacd** the high-priest of Melcarth, whose position placed him at the head of the aristocratic party.

Some years later, Pygmalion caused his rival, Zicharhaal, to be assassinated ; and Elisa formed a conspiracy with 300 Senators, the heads of the patrician families, to avenge her husband and restore the aristocratic government. The democracy was too vigilant to give the conspirators any hope of success in Tyre, so they resolved upon a great secession. Seizing by surprise some ships, which lay in the port ready for sea, they embarked to the number of several thousands, and departed to found a new Tyre beneath other skies, under the guidance of Elisa, who, from this emigration, received the name of Dido, " the fugitive." Disembarking among the settlements of their countrymen at the north-eastern point of Zeugitana, they bought from the Libyan king the site of the old Sidonian colony of Cambe, which had long since fallen into ruins; and, whether iu contrast with this older town or with the mother city, their settlement was called Kiryath-Hadeshath (that is, the " Xew City "), which became in Greek Garehedon, and in Latin Carthago. The migration of Dido is placed in the seventh year of Pygmalion's reign, or b.c. 872 or 865.

§ 6. From the time of Ethbaal, the great kings of the Old Assyrian Monarchy, whose monuments are found at Nimrud, began to extend their power as far as Phoenicia. About two centuries earlier, indeed, Tiglath-pileser I.²⁵ had reached as far as the northern end of Lebanon and Aradus, where his Annals state that he went on board a ship and killed a dolphin with his own hand ! But it is not till now that we find conquests claimed in Phoenicia.

The great Nimrud king, Asshur-nasir-pal, records on his obelisk: "At this time I took possession of all around Mount Lebanon. I proceeded towards the great sea of Phoenicia. On the summits of the mountains I sang the praises of the great gods, and I offered sacrifices. I received tribute from the kings of the countries around the mountains, from Tyre, Sidon, Gebal (jByblus).....from Phoenicia,

and from Aradus in the sea ; theso tributes consisted of silver, gold, tin, bronze, instruments of iron, stuffs dyed purple and saffron, sandal-wood, ebony, and seal-skins. They huub

²⁸ Justin, xviii. 4, § 3.

²⁴ Servius, ad Virg. " Mn" i. 343. He is the Sichcews of Virgil, and the Arcrbas oi Acerbal of other traditions. ²⁵ See chap. xi. § 15 seq.

624

THE HISTORY OE PHOENICIA.

bled themselves before me." In our Museum we still behold the cedar-wood, which this king himself tells us that he cut in Lebanon and carried to Nineveh, as well as the weights inscribed with their values in Phoenician terms (manah and shekel), both in Phoenician and cuneiform letters (see engraving below).²⁶

Bronze lion, from Nimrud.

This king's son, Shalmaneser II., the "Black Obelisk king," after his great campaign against Hazael, king of Syria (his 21st campaign), advanced into Phoenicia, and received the tribute of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblns ;²⁷ and his grandson, Iva-lush (or Houli-Khus) IV. enumerates, among the countries paying him regular tributes, "the whole of Phoenicia, the lands of Tyre and of Sidon."²⁸ Even taking these claims at their fullest meaning, the loose hold of Assyria on her tributary provinces, especially at so great a distance, would not interfere with their maritime power; and it is precisely at this period that a Greek tradition ascribes to them a Thalas-socracy, or dominion of the seas, from b.c 824 to 786.

§ 7. The founder of the New Assyrian Monarchy began, as we have seen, from his very accession, to reconquer the western provinces, which the fall of the Old Monarchy had restored to independence. Now also we find the relations of Phoenicia to Assyria continually referred to in Scripture and in the fragments of the old historians. The prophet Amos denounces Tyre among the nations which were to feel the weight of Assyrian conquest ;²⁹ and Tiglath-pileser II. mentions Hiram, king of Tyre, and Sibitbaal, king of Gebal, in the list of kings who submitted to him in the campaign of b.c. 742.³⁰ The destruction of the kingdom of Damascus, the captivity of northern Israel, and the conquest of Hamath

²⁶ See chap. xii. §§ 5,7. ^2/ Ibid. xii. § 11, p. 292.

²⁹ Amos i. 9,10. ³⁰ See chap. xiii. § 4.

²« Ibid. § U.

LOSS OF SICILY.

and the Philistines, must have left Phoenicia completely exposed ;³¹ and Sibitbaal of Gebal again appears among the twenty-three vassal kings, who brought their tribute and homage to the conqueror at Damascus (b.c. 731). In the following year, Muthon or MWenna, king of Tyre, leagued with Pekah, king of Israel, in refusing to pay tribute. The approach of an army, sent by Tiglath-pileser, appears to have been the occasion of the murder of Pekah by Hoshea, who made his submission, and Muthon followed the example.

About the same time, the Greek colonization of Sicily displaced the Phoenicians from their settlements on the island, with three important exceptions. Their retention of Motya, " the muddy," Kepher, " the town " (Soluntum), and Macha-nath," the camp" (Panormus), at the western end of the island, nearest to Carthage, secured them the powerful support of their great colony in maintaining their trade with the interior; .and these same cities afterwards gave the Carthaginians a footing in Sicily. This loss in Sicily was partly compensated by'the reduction of a rebellion of Citium, in Cyprus, by J^luli (Elulams), who became king of Tyre about b.c. 726, at the time of the final effort of Hoshea to throw off the Assyrian yoke. We have seen the issue in the destruction of Samaria, and the decisive campaign of Sargon against the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia on the southern frontier of Palestine.³²

From the victory of Raphia, Sargon returned to exact the tribute of Phoenicia, and received the submission of Sidon, Acco, and the other cities, including Pala3tyrus, on the main-land. The island city of Tyre alone, confident in its strength, defied a power which had no navy, and stood the first of its three memorable sieges.³³ The Assyrian pressed into his service the fleets of his Phoenician vassals ; and the Tyrians were attacked by 60 ships, manned by 800 rowers, of their late confederates, Sidon, Acco, and Old Tyre. Putting to sea with only twelve vessels, they gained a complete victory, sunk many ships, and took 500 prisoners. Sargon left his generals to reduce Tyre by blockade. They cut the aqueduct built by Hiram to bring water from the main-land; but the Tyrians sunk wells in the rock till they reached springs. After five years the siege was abandoned (b.c. 7 1 5³⁴).

§ 8. Tyre emerged from this contest with safety and glory; but that was all, for her supremacy was gone. The deser-

³¹ See ch;ip. xiii. § 5. " Ibid. 5§ 6. 7.

³³ The otfier two were those by Nebnchaduezzar and Alexander the Great.

³⁴ Menander, ap. Joseph. "Ant." ix. 14, § 2, with the correction of Sargon" for Shalmaneser."

27

626

THE HISTORY OF PIKEXTClA.

tion of her confederates—nay, their appearance in the field against her—are facts of terrible import. She had, doubtless, reached that inevitable stage in the supremacy of a great city over others with common interests, when the power yielded for the good of all was abused for the aggrandizement of the one, which reserved for herself the chief profits of the commerce in which her confederates had the share rather of servants than of partners. Sidon, in particular, had the memory of old supremacy to inflame her jealousy; and we shall soon see her appearing as a separate centre of the resistance of Phoenicia to her foreign masters.

While thus deprived of her hegemony at home, Tyre was stripped of her last and most valuable possession in the iEgean—Thasos, with its gold mines—which was seized by the people of Paros during the siege of Tyre. The famous iambic poet, Archilochus of Paros, served in this expedition.³⁵ Some years later, Sargon used the Phoenician and Philistine fleets for an expedition against Cyprus, which was thus lost to Tyre (n.c. 708). The conquest was commemorated by a stela which Sargon set up in Citium ;^s6 and it was probably with reference to this exploit that he boasts, "Arbiter of combats, T traversed the sea of Jamnia like a fish. I annexed Koui and Tyre."

§ 9. The loose yoke of Assyria was again cast off during the troubles of Sargon's later years, and Sennacherib had to reconquer Phoenicia with the other western provinces. We have already seen his own account of the conquest,³⁷ which this time included Tyre, whence Elulreus fled, and was replaced by Ethbaal, or Toubaal, as a vassal of the Assyrian. We may assume that this result was brought about by internal dissension. Sennacherib commemorated his conquest of Phoenicia by the stela which he set up at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, beside those of Rameses II.

So complete for the time was the subjection of Tyre, that it is Sidon, under her king, Abdi-Milkut, that heads the next rebellion on the opportunity of the murder of Sennacherib (n.c. 6S0). We have seen how Esar-haddon, in his first campaign, quelled the revolt, sacked the city, and transported many of his Phoenician captives to Babylonia.³⁸ Some years later, he enumerates, among the kings who were his vassals,

^ss Clem. Alex. " Strom." i. 21, p. 3f>0. ³⁰ Now in the Berlin Museum.

^!7 Chap. xiv. § 2. Here again we have the generic use of the name Sidonians. The king of Tj're is " king of the Sidonians."

^ss Chap. xiv. § 7. Besides what is there quoted from his annals, Esar-haddon say*?, in an inscription, "I put all its grandees to death. I destroyed its walls and houses: I threw them into the sea. I destroyed the site of its temples."

VICTORY OF CARCHEMISH.

627

Baal, king of Tyre; Idiosahat, king of Gebal (Byblns); Kidubaal, king of Aradus; and Abibaal, king of Siniron.

§ 10. The next transfer of the Assyrian crown presented a special opportunity for revolt, in concert with Tirhakah's recovery of supremacy in Egypt; and the Phoenician cities, always ready to return to their ancient alliance, rose in rebellion (b.c. 667). But Asshur-bani-pal's complete victory in Egypt left him free to reduce Phoenicia in the following year. He lirst took Acco ; then Baal, king of Tyre, earned his pardon by submission; and this time it was the island city of Aradus that made a desperate resistance. When it could hold out no longer, the king, Yaklndu, son of Kulubaal, put himself to death; seven of his sons were killed by Asshur-bani-pal, who set the eighth, Azbaal, upon the throne.

His conquest of Phoenicia seems to have been as thorough as that of Egypt; but the decline and fall of the Assyrian empire restored the country to a virtual independence, which was rather confirmed than annulled by Egypt's temporary recovery of her dominion in Western Asia under Neco (b.c 610). The Phoenician cities welcomed this vigorous Pharaoh as a deliverer from the Assyrian yoke; and their fleet, placed as of old at the service of Egypt, was employed in the maritime adventures which have been related in the reign of Neco.

§ 11. But the decisive victory of Carchemish restored the lands west of the Euphrates to a harder yoke than that of Assyria; and, in the emphatic description several times referred to already, "the king of Egypt came not any more out of his land" to help his allies. It was only, however, after some delay and a terrible struggle, that Nebuchadnezzar gained possession of Tyre, if, indeed, he really took the island city. Meanwhile the impending fate of the proud city gave occasion to those wonderful prophecies, which paint to the life the prosperity which her loss of political power had not interrupted, and which forms the mystic type of some future state, that should attain the like height only to have as terrible a fall.³⁹

In this historical picture of Tyre's resources (for such the

³⁹ Ezek. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.: comp. Rev. xviii. It was au obiter dictum of the great Dr. Chalmers, that many points in the description of this mystic Babylon seem more like London than Rome. Perhaps the prophecy refers rather to a condition of society than to any specific and local state. The prophecy iu Isaiah xxiii. furnishes other touches to add to the fuller picture of Ezekiel; and it may be used to illustrate the state in which Tyre doubtless existed for many centuries, whether it is rightly placed or not among the writings of Isaiah. If it be his—as there seems no sufficient reason to deny—its occasion would naturally be the siege by Sargon in n.c. 720. If it be later, it would refer to the siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and so be a precise parallel to Ezekiel's prophecy. Probably the social and commercial state of Tyre was much the same during aud before the whole interval of nearly a century and a hall from Isaiah to Ezekiel.

628

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

passage really is), the prophet Ezekiel gives some most interesting details of the trade of "Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth"—"the isle whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, had replenished."⁴⁰ Her gold came from Arabia by the Persian Gulf, just as in the time of Solomon it came from Arabia (Ophir), by the Red Sea. Whether the Arabian merchants obtained their gold by traffic with Africa or India, or whether it was the product of their own country, is uncertain. The silver, iron, lead, and tin of Tyre came from a very different quarter of the world, namely from their settlement of Tarshish, in the south of Spain.⁴¹ Her copper is mentioned, not as coming from Cyprus (as we should have expected), but in connection with Javan, Tubal, and Meschech, in the neighborhood of Armenia and the southern line of the Caucasus ; and from this quarter slaves were procured, as from Circassia and Georgia in later times. From Palestine, as we have seen, Tyre obtained oil, honey, and balm, but apparently not wine, which was imported from Damascus, as was also white wool. This city was the emporium for "a multitude of wares of Tyre's making, and for the multitude of all riches." The Bedouin Arabs supplied Tyre with lambs, and rams, and goats. Egypt furnished linen for sails, and doubtless for other purposes; and the dyes from shell-tish, which afterwards became such a source of profit to the Tyrians, were imported from the Peloponnesus. Lastly, from Dedan, in the Persian Gulf, an island occupied possibly by a Phoenician colony, horns of ivory and ebony were imported, which must originally have been obtained" from India.⁴² Let the reader turn to the prophecy itself for the rest of the picture of " the renowned city, inhabited of sea-taring men, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which caused their terror to be on all that haunted it ;"⁴³ that said, " I am of perfect beauty," whose " borders were in the midst of the seas, her builders had perfected her beauty ;"⁴⁴ whose prince said, in the pride of his uplifted heart, " Behold, I am God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas," who claimed to be " wiser than Daniel," and boasted as much of the " great wisdom and

⁴⁰ Isaiah xxiii.2,8. The phrase "daughter of Zion" (ver. 12) has been quoted as :in argument for the colonization of Tyre from Sidon. But it seems rather to be a Hebrew idiom for the fair city of the Zidonians (/. e., Phoenicians). At verse 10, Tyre is called the "daughter of Tarshish," as being nourished from that region.

⁴¹ There seems reason to believe that this was the period when the diminishing prodnce of the Spanish tin-mines caused the Phoenicians to ventnre on the distant voyage to the Cassiterides (" tin-islands"), the Sc-illy Isles and the adjacent coasts of Cornwall. Bnt this question can not be discussed here.

⁴² Ezek. xxvii. 7,10-13, 15, 17, IS, 21, 22. « Ezek. xxvi. 17. ⁴⁴ Ibid, xxvii. 3,4

SIEGE OF TYRE.

629

traffic by which his riches were increased " as of that wealth itself;⁴⁵ though the vices of a commercial people,⁴⁶ and their unbounded indulgence in luxury and sensual pleasure, cried to Heaven for the coming vengeance which the prophet denounces in the most vivid poetic language.

§ 12. The first of these three prophecies (which are clearly continuous) is dated on the first day of the month in the 11th year of the Great Captivity;⁴⁷ its occasion is specified, as arising out of the exultation of Tyre over the fall of Jerusalem, "I shall be replenished now she is laid waste;" and Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, is named as about to besiege and destroy the city.⁴⁶ The exultation and malevolence of the Tyrians, apparently inconsistent with interest and traditional policy, are to be explained by Josiah's religious reformation, when he uprooted the Phoenician worship in Judaea, slew its priests upon their altars,⁴⁹ burnt the images of their gods, and destroyed their high places—not excepting that near Jerusalem, which Solomon, the friend of Hiram, had built to Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven. We can scarcely doubt that the death in battle of Josiah at Megid-do, and the subsequent destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, were hailed by them with triumphant joy as instances of divine retribution in human affairs.

The prophet warned them that this catastrophe was the prelude to their own ; and it seems, indeed, to have been brought on by the same causes. It is still a disputed question whether the thirteen years' siege of Tyre, of which Jo_: sephus speaks,⁵⁰ began when Nebuchadnezzar marched to chastise the rebellion of Jerusalem (b.c. 598), or, as seems more consistent with the date-of the above prophecy, about the time of the final capture of Jerusalem. Nothing is more likely than that Tyre, the ancient ally of Egypt, would join in the league formed by Pharaoh-Hophra, which brought down this final ruin upon Juda\a ; and the siege of Tyre would probably be formed at the same time as that of Jerusalem (b.c. 588).⁵¹ And this agrees with the date of that remarkable prophecy of Ezekiel, which leaves it doubt-,fuL whether Tyre was actually taken by Nebuchadnezzar:⁵²

⁴⁵ Chap, xxviii. 1-5. ⁴⁶ Ibid. vv. 1C-1S. ⁴⁷ n.c. 5S8.

⁴8 Ezek. xxvi. 1-14. ⁴⁹ 2 Kiugs xxiii. 20. &° Joseph. ^£: c. Apion.'- i. 21.

⁶¹ The Ianguage of Ezekiel about Jernsalem (xxvi. 2) need not imply that her final destruction was accomplished; for she had been utterly ruined by the Great Captivity in b.o. 597.

⁵² Ezek. xxix. 17-20. The date is the 1st day of the 1st month of the 27th year of the Great Captivity, is.c. 571. Now n.c. 5SS —13 years = u.o. 575. The interval between this date and the expedition of Nebuchadnezzar against Egypt, which is the subject of the prophecy, may be accounted for by Pharaoh-Hophra's attack npon Phoenicia, which supplies the provocation for the invasion.

630

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

" Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a greed service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled" (doubtless in " casting the mount against the city "⁵³) ; " yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he served against it;" and therefore the land and spoil of Egypt are assigned as his reward. The natural inference—that Nebuchadnezzar, like Sargon, foiled to take the island city, though he took and destroyed Old Tyre, on the main-land—is confirmed by the silence of Josephus, who relates the siege from the Tyrian annals, and of all other Greek and Roman writers, as to the capture of Tyre.⁵⁴ It seems most probable that the firm resistance of the city secured a capitulation on moderate terms. This view is not inconsistent with the account that a part of the population sailed away at the last moment to Carthage, and that the king, Mhbued, was led captive to Babylon, with all the most noted families, and that Nebuchadnezzar installed a new king, Baal, as his vassal.

The king is presently found, with the King of Sidon, fighting for his new sovereign against the attempts of Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra) to recover Phoenicia to Egypt. The power which had once relied wholly on Phoenicia for its marine service now gathered a great fleet by the aid of its Ionian and Carian mercenaries. They defeated the united Phoenician and Cyprian fleets, which perhaps fought with little zeal for Nebuchadnezzar, in a great battle off Cyprus. The fleet of Pharaoh levied contributions along the Phoenician coast, and took Sidon by storm, but retired with their plunder. Aradus alone was held for a time by an Egyptian garrison, as we learn from an inscription of Apries lately discovered there; but, as M. Lenormant observes, "this expedition to Phoenicia was rather a maritime raid on a large scale, without political results, than a serious attempt to recover the country from Nebuchadnezzar."

§ 13. The same writer places immediately after this war of Apries the inscription of Esmuneizeir, king of Sidon, the longest yet discovered, on his sarcophagus in the Museum of the Louvre. It is as follows: "I am Esmunazar, king of Sidon, son of Tabnith, king of Sidon, grandson of Esmunazar, king of Sidon; and my mother was Amashtoreth, priestess of our Lady Ashtoreth, the queen, daughter of the king Esmunazar

5³ Ezek. xxvi. 8.

⁶¹ The only exception is St. Jerome, who may have assumed the result from the prophecy on which he was commenting (Hieron. " Com. in Ezech." xxvi.). Ezekiel's prophecy looks forward to the final destruction of the city by Alexander, audits subsequent desolation. (See the whole question discussed in the "Diet.of the Bible," art. Tyrk.)

SUPREMACY OF SIDON.

G31

of Sidon. We have built the Temple of the Aloriim (the great gods) at Sidon, on the sea-shore, and all-powerful Heaven hasinade Ashtoreth favorable to us. We also have built on the mountain a temple to Esmun, whose hand rests on a serpent. Lastly, we also built the temples of the Alonim of Sidon at Sidon, of the Baal of Sidon, and of Ashtoreth, the glory of Baal. May the master of the kings always grant ks])osses-slon of Dor, Jeiplia, and the magnificent corn-leinds in the valley of Sharon, as a recompense for the greed things I have done."

The last sentence seems to imply that Sidon had been specially favored by Nebuchadnezzar, " the master of kings," probably as the reward of her ready submission, and that her territory was enlarged by the rich lands named in Palestine. From this time to her destruction by Artaxerxes Ochus, it is Sidon, not Tyre, that is found at the head of Phoenicia:⁵⁵ and this appears to have been the time of Si-don's greatest prosperity.

§ 14. Tyre, however, has still a separate history. In a fragment preserved from Menander,⁵⁰ she appears divided by factions, and restlessly snatching at opportunities for change. Such an opportunity would be presented by the madness of Nebuchadnezzar; and in b.c. 563 we find his vassal, Baal, deposed in a popular tumult, monarchy abolished, and the king replaced by a republican magistrate, afterwards increased to two, with the title of Sufetes (Shofetim, "Judges"), as at Carthage. After a period of anarchy, a king, Baalaton, was set up again, but dethroned in one year, and Nabonadius, among his measures for reorganizing the empire, sent Meherbaal, a member of the old royal house, to Tyre as vassal king (b.c. 555). After four years, he was succeeded by his son Hiram (b.c. 551), whose reign extended into the period of the Persian Empire, and who died in b.c. 531, leaving the crown to his son Muthon, who was king of Tyre when Xerxes gathered his forces against Greece.⁵⁷

§ 15. We have had occasion already to notice the voluntary submission of the Phoenicians to Persia, probably under Cambyses, and that rather as allies than subjects ; and we have seen that the Phoenician fleet rendered powerful aid in the conquest of Egypt, but refused to serve against their Carthaginian kinsmen,⁵⁸ to whom it is stated that they were bound by oaths. Henceforth the sea-service of Persia mainly depended on the Phoenicians ;^M but a glance over the list of

⁵⁵ Besides abundant other evidence, it is at this period that we Undone usual Scriptural order of naming " Tyre aud Sidon" together inverted. Ezra. iii. 7.

⁵⁶ Joseph. " c. A p." i. 21. ⁵⁷ Herod, vii. 93. ⁵⁸ Chap. xxvi. §§ 3, <*■ ⁵⁰ Herod, iii. 10.

G32

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

the navy of Xerxes will suffice to correct the error that they formed the only fleet of Persia. The restoration of friendly relations with the restored Jews is indicated by the service rendered again by " them of Sidon and Tyre," in bringing cedar-trees from Lebanon (and, it is implied, hewn stones) for the rebuilding of the temple. As in the time of Solomon, the Jews paid the wages of the masons and carpenters, and supplied their provisions, "meat, drink, and oil," and the materials were brought round by sea to Joppa.⁶⁰

The policy of Persia towards her provinces was eminently suited to foster the prosperity of Phoenicia, whose commerce still connected the whole empire with the Mediterranean. Tyre regained the prosperity which it possessed when visited by Herodotus ;^fil but Sidon enjoyed the special favor of the Persian kings as the chief seat of their naval power. This comes out dearly in the expedition against Greece. When, from a hill near Abydos, Xerxes witnessed a boat-race in his fleet, the prize was gained by the Sidonians.⁶² When he reviewed his fleet, he^sat on the deck of a Sidonian ship, beneath a golden canopy.⁶³ When he wished to examine the mouths of the river Peneus, he intrusted himself to a Sidonian galley, as was his wont on similar occasions;"⁴ and the king of the Sidonians sat first among the vassal sovereigns, tyrants, and officers.⁶⁵ Herodotus states that the Phoenicians supplied the best vessels of the whole fleet, and of the Phoenicians, the Sidonians ;⁶⁶ and the highest commendation he can give to the vessels of Artemisia is by saying that they were the most renowned in the whole fleet after the Sidonians.⁶⁷

§ 16. The breaking up of the Persian Empire was felt in Phoenicia all the more, as her cities were drawn into the revolts of Asia Minor and Syria, on the one side, and of Egypt on the other. We have already noticed the capture of Tyre by Evagoras of Cyprus, the share of Phoenicia in the general revolt of the western satraps against Artaxerxes Mnemon,⁶⁸ and the great rebellion of Cyprus and Phoenicia, in conjunc-

⁶⁰ Ezra iii. 7. The grant of Cyrus, mentioned here, is evidence of at least the nominal assertion of his sovereignty in Phoenicia; hut this is quite consistent with its first actual exercise by Cambyses, when he summoned the Phoenician fleet to sail against Egypt. .

⁶¹ Herod, ii. 44. The historian's notice of Tyre is, however, only incidental to a question, on which he wished information, respecting the worship of Hercules {Melcarth) ; and is confined to the ancient temple of that deity, and its rich offerings, among which were two pillars, one of gold and one of emerald, which Sir Gardner Wilkinson conjectures to have been of glass. ⁶² Herod, vii. 44.

⁶³ Herod, vii. 100. ⁶⁴ Ibid. 128. ⁶⁵ Ibid. viii. 07. ⁶⁶ Ibid. vii. 96.

⁶⁷ Herod, vii. 9. In some of the instances quoted, however, the name " Sidonian' nviy probably be taken in the generic sense for "Phoenician." ^6S Chap, xxviii. § 9.

CAPTURE OF TYRE.

G33

tion with Nectanebo,, the last independent king of Egypt, which led to the utter destruction of Sidon by Artaxerxes Ochus (about b.c. 350).⁶⁹

§ 17. The cruel revenge taken for this revolt had a disastrous effect upon the Persian cause in the ensuing conflict w^Tith Alexander. Sidon, recovering with that marvellous rapidity which we see in these commercial cities, opened her gates to the conqueror after the battle of Issus, from the avowed motive of hatred to the Persians (b.c. 333) ;⁷⁰ and her fleet, thus placed at the dispo&il of Alexander, was a main element of his success in the siege of Tyre. The possession of Phoenicia was doubly essential to the invader's plans; since the naval force, which it was most important for him to acquire for his own use, might have been the means, in the hands of Persia, of cutting off his communications with Macedonia and Greece. After rejecting the overtures of Darius, which reached him at Maratlms (opposite to Aradus), Alexander advanced southward through Phoenicia, receiving the submission of Aradus, Byblus, and the other cities; Sidon, as we have just seen, hailed him as a deliverer; and the seamen of these cities, serving in the Persian fleet, obeyed the summons to bring away their ships to join him. But Tyre, which had now regained the supremacy since the fall of Sidon, seems to have hoped to rally those ships to her defense. While offering a nominal submission, and sending him a crown of gold and provisions for his army, they resolved not to admit him into the island city. Alexander, on his part, accepted their surrender as unconditional, and informed them of his intention to sacrifice to Hercules (Melcarth) in his ancient temple. The Tyrians pleaded their law forbidding the admission of strangers within their walls, and invited him to sacrifice in a still more ancient shrine of the god upon the main-land. Upon this he dismissed their ambassadors and prepared for the siege, which is one of the most famous in history.⁷¹

By constructing a mole, which to this day forms an isthmus, he joined the island to the main; and using the Cyprian navy on the north side, and the Sidonian on the south, to blockade the harbors and protect his works from the incessant attacks of the Tyrian fleet, he at length succeeded in bringing up his newly invented engines and effecting a breach. The city was taken in July, n.c. 332, after the siege had lasted seven months; and the Macedonians, exasperated by their long and immense labors, put 8000 of the people to

⁶⁹ Cliap. xxviii. § 13. ^:* Arrian, " Anab." ii. 15.

⁷¹ See the details iu the "Student's Greece," chap. xliv. p. 53C.

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

the sword. The remainder, with the exception of the king and some of the chief citizens, who had taken refuge in the Temple of Melcarth, were sold into slavery to the number of 30,000, including women, children, and slaves.

§ 18. It lies beyond our subject to trace the later history of the Phoenician cities. It is enough to say that they flourished again, and enjoyed their municipal privileges, under the Seleucidae, the Romans, and the Mohammedans; and both Tyre and Sidon were flourishing seats of learning, as well as of commerce and manufacture. And it is worthy of note that Tyre was still famous in the 12th century for the (/lass which the Greeks believed to have been a Phoenician invention.⁷³ Their final decline dates from the time of the Crusades, in which Sidon suffered from several sieges; while Tyre, after being held by the Christians for more than a century and a half, was utterly ruined by the secession of its inhabitants, to avoid the fate inflicted upon Acre by the sultan of Egypt and Damascus (March, 1291). The story is thus told by a contemporary: "On the same day on which Ptolemai's (Acre) was taken, the Tyrians, at vespers, leaving the city empty, without the stroke of a sword, without the tumult of war, embarked on board their vessels, and abandoned the city to be occupied freely by their concpierors. On the morrow the Saracens entered, no one attempted to prevent them, and they did what they pleased."⁷³

§ 19. From that time every traveller might well ask, "Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?"⁷⁴ Here is one of many answers (in 1751): "None of these cities, which formerly were famous, are so totally ruined as this, except Troy. Zar now scarcely can be called a miserable village, though it was formerly Tyre, the queen of the sea. Here are about ten inhabitants, Turks and Christians, ic-ho live by fishing"™ Compare this with the prophecy uttered just 2340 years before: " I will make thee like the top of a rock"—as bare as the sea-girt rock from which the proud name M as first taken—" thou shedt be a place to sprecal nets upon; thou shalt be built no more."⁷⁶ In spite of some revival since, the site wears an aspect of desolation. " On approaching it we come first to a low sandy isthmus, the remains of Alexander's causeway, which converts what was once an island into a peninsula. The ruins of old walls and towers, formed of still older materials, are here seen . . .

⁷² See the account of Tyre by Benjamin of Tudela, in Purchas's "Pilgrims" (ii. 1443), quoted in the " Diet, of the Bible," s. v. Tyke.

⁷³ Marin us Sanutns, "Liber Secretornm fidelium Crncis," Lib. iii. cap. 22; quoted in the " Diet, of the Bible," art. Tyre. ⁷⁴ Isaiah xxiii. 7.

⁷⁵ Hasselquist, " Voyages and Travels in the Levant." ⁷⁶ Ezek. xxvi. 14,

PRESENT STATE OF TYRE.

635

The island (that was) on which the city stood is a ledge of rock parallel to the shore, three quarters of a mile longf half a mile broad, and about half a mile distant from the°coast line. It was low and flat, not more than from 10 to 15 feet above the sea; but the accumulation of rubbish has rendered it uneven, and has given it in places a greater elevation. The isthmus, when first formed, was probably narrow ; the united action of the winds and waves, dashing up the loose sands, has gradually increased it to the breadth of nearly half a mile. . * . The harbor, now nearly filled up with sand and rubbish, is on the north side of the* isthmus, where the ruins of old moles are yet visible. The present town is beside the harbor, occupying a small section of the north-western part of the peninsula. Along its western side is a broad strip of land cut up into little gardens; and the whole southern section of the peninsula is without a habitation. Here are modern burying-grounds, there patches of gardens; but the greater part is covered with rubbish-heaps, intersected by deep pits and gullies, from which building-stones have been carried otf to Beyrout and 'Akka. The modern town, or rather village, contains from 3000 to 4000 inhabitants, about one-half being Metawileh, and the other Christians. Most of the houses are mere hovels; the streets are unusually narrow, crooked, and filthy ; and the walls, and a few houses of a superior class, are so shattered by repeated shocks of earthquakes, that they look as if about to fall to pieces. The palm and Pride of India trees, scattered among; the houses and gardens, relieve in some degree the aspect ot* desolation, and contribute to hide Tyre's fallen glory. The ancient Mistress of the Seas can at the present day only boast the possession of a few crazy fishing-boats; and her whole trade consists in the yearly export of a few bales of cotton and tobacco, and a few boat-loads of mill-stones and charcoal. There is but one gate, and the numerous breaches in the old wall render others unnecessary. One is reminded at every footstep, and by every glance, of the prophecies uttered against this city: 'And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise; and thev shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses. . . . They shall lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed hi the midst of the sea?' (Ezek. xxvi 12 xxvii. 32)."⁷⁷

Sidon (Sa.yda) never sank so low. It is still a place of considerable traffic, and important enough to have been bombarded in the Syrian war of 1840. Its architectural remains

⁷⁷ Porter, " Hand-book of Syria," pp. 391, 392.

THE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA.

are few and insignificant—some marble and granite columns, with here and there a sculptured frieze, and some fragments of Mosaic pavement—bnt even these are more than exist at Tyre. In the neighboring hill-side, however, and scattered over the plain, are tombs, with many sarcophagi, which are among the nfost interesting monuments of old Phoenicia. Among these the sarcophagus of king Esmunazar (already mentioned) was discovered, in January, 1855, by the accidental opening of one of the sepulchral caves, and is now in the Louvre at Paris. The sarcophagus is of black syenite, and the lid is hewn in the form of a mummy with the face bare. The material, the form, and the decidedly Egyptian cast of the features, make it probable that it was executed in Egypt for the Sidonian king. The inscription of twenty-two lines is on the upper part of the lid.

Of the present state of the other Phoenician cities, a bare reference must suffice to the commercial importance still enjoyed by some, as Tripoli, and especially Bet/rut, and to the historic fame which has clung to Acco (now 'Akka, or in the Frank tongue, St. Jean cVAcre) from the days of Richard Coeur de Lion to those of Napoleon and Sir Sidney Smith.

§ 20. Eighty years after the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, her chief daughter, Carthage, appears in history as a great maritime power, making a treaty of commerce with the infant republic of Rome (b.c 509). Her destiny, as the rival of her old ally, attracts her history to that of Rome, rather than of the East. That rivalry made the West the new scene of the great struggle between the Semitic and Aryan races, in which the interest of Oriental history culminates. The contest was finally decided by the fall of Carthage in b.c 146 ; when the saddened victor repeated over the burning city the prophecy which had foretold the issue of the first mythic act in the same long drama, and which may still be applied to every work of human policy and human power:

"The day shall surely come, when sacred Troy will fall, And Priam, and the people of the warrior Priam ait"

INDEX.

A.

.\, hieroglyphical origin of the letter aleph, 214.

Aahmes, conqueror of the Shepherd kings and founder of the Theban monarchy, 10b. His marriage with an Ethiopian princess, the ground of chums made by his successors to Ethiopia, 10S. His Asiatic wars„ 10S.

Aamu, the race which preceded the Canaanites in Phoenicia, 603.

Abonsimbel, rock - hewn temples of, 121.

Accadian language, 396.

Achpemenes, meaning of the name, 53T.

Achpemenida?, the, 535.

Adulterer aud adulteress, Egyptian puuishmeut of, 191.

Afrasiab, Turanian cult of the serpent, 220, 43S.

Africa, circumnavigation of, under Neco, 172. The most signal achievement of ancient maritime discovery, 172.

Agglutinative dialects, 24.

Ahab marries Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, 622.

Ahaz, kiug of Judah, made tributary, 307.

Ahrimau, the evil principle, the serpent the emblem of, 420. Angro-mainyns, the author of evil, 428. His six Darvands, 430. His antagonists to Or-mazd's angelic hierarchy, ■ 431. The'author of the temptation aud fall of man, 432.

Ahuramazda or Ormazd, the good spirit aud supreme God, titles of, 425. His six Councillors, 430.

Ahuras and Daevas, 425.

Akkad (the), and their literature, 244.

Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian empire, 590. Its rapidity accounted for, 590. His siege of Tyre, 033.

Alexandria, site of, 36. Founded, ISO.

Almanacs, prophetic Chal-

dasau, 404. Alphabet,its probable Egyptian origin, 605. Brought to Phoenicia by the return of the Hyksos, 605. Alphabets, source of all, 595. Alyattes, his long reign, 515. ₍ War with the Milesians, 515. Drives the Cimmerians out of Asia Minor, 517. Tomb of, 525. lAmasis, 167. Ends the roy-I al line of Egypt, 176. Anecdote .illustrating his change of condition, 176. Prosperity of Egypt un; der him, 177. His law \ for suppressing idleness, 177. Architectural works, 17S. The ally of Croesus against Cyrus, 179. Deceives Cambyses, 554. Amemeues II., killed by his

eunuchs, 84. -III., builder of the Labyrinth, 86. Amenhotep III., conquests and monuments of, 115. His titles, 115. Identified with the Memnon of Homer, 116. His statue, the vocal Memnon, described, 116.

Ameni, pictures and epitaph on the tomb of, 91.

Amestris, the chief wife of Xerxes, 5S2.

Ammeris's invasion of Egypt, 162.

Amun, the supreme god of Egypt, 19S.

Anaitis, her worship confounded by Herodotus with that of Mithra, 435.

Anarian cuneiform writiug, 390. Difficulties of the Anarian texts, 393.

Anatolia, now Anadoli,461.

Angro-mainyus, or Ahriman, the author of moral and material evil, and of death, 42S.

Animal worship, Egyptian, 200.

Antalcidas, peace of, 5S5.

Antediluvians, their possession of all the essential germs of material civilization, IS.

Anthropomorphism of the Egyptian deities, 196.

Anti - Taurus mountains, 466.

Ann, the supreme god of the Babylonians aud Assyrians, 237.

Anysis, the blind king, 162.

Apis, Egyptian worship of the bull, 202. The incarnation of Phtha, 202. Wounded by Cambyses, 55S.

Apollinopolis and Latopo-lis, the Nile at, 35.

Apries, king of Egypt, 173. His expedition "against Cyreue, 173. The Pharaoh-Hophra of Scripture, 175.

Arabs, governed by queens, 303.

Aradus, island and city of, 609.

Ararat, Mount, the cradle of the post-diluvian race, 19.

Arbela, city of, 259. The Persian empire ends at the battle of, 590.

Area or Csesarea Libani, 60S.

Arch, its use in Assyrian architecture, 383.

Archers, Egyptian infantry chiefly, 1S6.

Archilochus of Paros, the Iambic poet, 626.

Architecture of Ancient Egypt, 205. Four great classes of buildings: pyramids, tombs, palaces, and temples, 205. Description of an Egyptian temple, 207. The relation of architecture to religion, 378. Distinctive features of Babylonian, 378.

Ardys, son of Gyges, reign of, 511.

-Ve<o< (the) of Herodotus, 440.

Argaeus (Mons), now Argish

Dagh, 400. Ariaua = the later Persian

Iran, 440. Arioch, king of Ellasar, 23S. "Aptoi of Herodotus, why

called An/ans instead of

Arians, 414. Arithmetical notation, Chal*

dsean system of, 405. Armenia, description of, 529,

038 ARMKNIA MINOR.

INDEX.

BABYLONIA.

Armenia Minor, 4G0.

Armenian campaigns of the Assyrian kings, 532. Alliance with Persia against Media, 534.

Arrow-headed characters, a combination of two cuneiform elements, 38*.

Arses, king of Persia, 5S9. Murdered by Bagoas, 5S9.

ArsinoG, now called the Fyum, 35.

Art, contrast between Assyrian and Egyptian, 3S4. Periods aud styles of Assyrian, 3S4.

Artabanus, usurpation of, 582.

Artabazus's rebellion in the

reign of Ochus, 5S7. Artaxerxes I. (or Arsaces),

582. Longimauus, 582. Reason of the nickname.

583, n. His commissions to Ezra and Nehemiah, 5S3. Explanation of the name Artaxerxes, 583, n.

-II., Muemon, 5S5. Marries his daughter Atossa, 5S6.

Artemisia builds the mausoleum, 493.

Aryan language, 25. Aryan type of cuneiform writing, 390. Bactria the ancient home of the race, 415. Divided into the elder branch the Aryas, and the younger the Ya-vanas, 415. The primitive Aryans a pastoral people, 410. Their social life, morals, and religion, 410. Primitive religion, 417. Its monotheistic basis, 417. Corruption into dualism and pantheistic nature-worship, 41S. Conflict of Aryans and Turanians, 420. Iranian and Indian branches of the race, 436. Their religion developed into Brahmin-ism, 436.

Aryandes banished by Darius, 576.

Ascalon takes and destroys Sidon, 615.

Ashdod, war of, 153, 16S. S°e Azotns.

Asia, Upper and Lower, 253.

Asia Minor, its importance in ancient history, 45S. Geographical structure, 45S. Climate and productions, 461. Dimensions of the peninsula, 463. Remarkable mixture of populations, 463. Nations of it holding successively the supremacy of the sea, 502.

Aspadana = Isfahan, 447. .

Asshur, the hero-eponymus and supreme deity of As

syria, 249. Inquiry respecting the name, 408. The supreme god, 408. Explanation of a curious emblem of, 410. Assh ur - ban i - pal's capt u re and sack of Egyptian Thebes, 160. His name suggestive of Sardanapalus, 329. A great couquer-or and magnificent monarch, 329. His systematic care for literature, 329, Homage to him by Gyges,

between Assyrian and Babyloniau sculptures, 376. External features of Assyrian palaces, 3S0. Plan of the true Assyrian temple, 380. Grammatical literature, 395. Great cuneiform work on grammar, 397. Twelve great gods, 412. Genii and inferior deities, 412. Astarte or Ashtoreth the chief goddess of the Phce-, nicians, 619. kiug of Lydia, 330. Wars 'A<rTpo\o7i'a, primarily as-in Susiana and Babylon, tronomy, 399. 330. Horrible cruelty,330. Astrology, Egyptian, 217. Palace at Koyunjik, 331. Chaldaean, 404. Domestic scene in his has-1 Astronomy, knowledge of, reliefs, 331. Corresponds Egyptian, exaggerated, to the "warlike Sardana-I palus " of the Greeks, 331.

His library, 395. Mr. Layard's account of its discovery and value, 395.

Asshur-nasir-pal, kiug of Assyria, 276. Plan of his palace, 2S2. Conquests of, 284. Ilis great inscription, 3sl. Receives tribute from Phoenicia, 623.

Assyria, like Egypt, yield. iug up long-hidden history, 221. Its population Semitic, 231. The Assyria of the Greek historians,

247. The Semitic Asshur,

248. The four heroes of the Greek legend of, 249. The true heart of Assyria, 250. Ruins of its four cap-

216. Chaldeean or Babylonian, 401. Astyages, a title rather than the proper name of the last king of Media, 451. His reign, 527. Description of his court, 528. Asychis, law of, 145 Athor or Atur, the Egvptian

Aphrodite, 197. Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, 553. Urges Darius to undertake "the conquest of Greece, 576. Aturia, its physical features, 255. Name — Assyria, ib. Atys and his sons'Lydus and Torrhebus, 494. He-rodotus's poetical treatment of the story of Atys and Adrastns, 502.

itals, 257. List of kings, IAvaris of the Shepherd 262. Its oldest contem- kings, the Zoan of Scrip-porary records, 263. Old ture, 98. Usually identi-aud new empire, 276. Ex- fled with Pelusium, but tent of the empire, 294. | proved to be Tanis, 98. Assyrian conquest of Egvpt,j Azotns (Ashdod) taken af-159. Of Ethiopia, 161. Upper and Lower Dvnas-ties, 253. Elements of royal names, 253. Their Semitic character, 255. Cruelties of the kings, 285. A luxurious people who cultivated the useful arts to the highest pitch, 2S7. In dress, furniture, and jewe'.ry not much behind the moderns, 2S7. New discoveries in its antiquities more and more confirmative of Scripture

ter a siege of 29 years, the longest on record, 16S.

B.

Baal, the chief god of Phoenicia, 619.

Babel, city and tower of, 22S. Origin of the word, 22S. Babel and Babylon, local and not ethnic names, 22S. Tower of Babel at Borsippa, and the ruins of Birs-Nimrud on its original foundation, 230.

history, 291. Seven kings Bab-il, the gate or house of

of the New or Lower empire. 301. Canon, lately discovered, 317. The empire reached as far west as the Halys, 330. Its character, 335. Sacerdotal character of Assyrian and Babvloniau kings, 341, 398. What remains to be done in Assyrian exploration, 305. Difference

God, 408.

Babylon, earliest use of the title of king of, 240. Its rivalry to the empire of Assvria, 209. Fall of, 361. Its 'buildings, 365. Extremities resorted to during Darins's siege of, 571.

Babylonia, cont rast between its ancient aud present s ate, 227. Southern te

BABYLONIAN RUINS.

INDEX.

CHALDEAN. (530

trapolis of, 234. Indica- two schools of the Chal-tions of the existence of daeans, 400. two tetrapoleis, 235. Its Bosporns (corrupted into four great races,23S. Three¹ Bosphorns), the etymo-classes of inscriptions in, logical equivalent of Ox-253. | ford, 45S.

Babylonian rnius, objects Botta's (M.), discoveries at found in. 234. Note on Khorsabad, 277. the early chronology of Bricks, the pyramid of Da-the Babylonians, 243. In- shoor the first example of ternal ornament of tem- a building constructed of,

pies, 372.

Bagistan, city of, stood at the foot of the rock of Behistun, 445.

Bagoas, the eunuch, minister of Ochus, 5S7. Poisons Ochus, 5S9. Murders Arses, 589. Compelled to drink the poison he had mixed for Codomannus, 590.

Bahr-Yussuf, the canal of Joseph, 35.

Bardes or Smerdis, son of Cyrus, 553.

Bao-tXeur, mode of installation of an ancient, 417.

Behistuu, transcription of Cadnsii, war of Artaxerxe thetrilingnalrock-inscrip- against the, 5SG. tion of, 392. The famous Calah (Nimrud), rnius of, record of Darius, 447. Its 257.

acconut of the revolution Calendar, the Egyptian, 110. of the psendo- Smerdis, Callinus of Ephesus, the 559. Its contents relating Ionian poet, 514. to Darius, 575. Cnmbe, the site afterwards

Bellerophon, legend of, 477. | occupied by Carthage, 014. Belshazzar's defense of Bab- Cambyses, father of Cyrus, ylon, 361. His festival, 361. i and king of the Persians, Slain, 362. | 537.

Belus, the hero-eponymus Cambyses, son of Cyrus, 553.

SC. Brick pyramids, S6. Brick-making by Egyptian captives, 114. Description of Babylonian bricks, 366.

Bubastis, capital of Egypt, 139. The sacred city of the goddess Pasht, 141. Described by Herodotus, 141. Temple of the goddess Bubastis, 141. Her festival, 142.

Byblns or Gebal, an ancient religions city of Phoenicia, 60S.

C.

of Babylon, 23

Beui-hassam, tombs of, S9.

Berosus, his history of Babylon or Chaldaea, 232. Dynasties of, 232.

Berytns, city of, 60S.

Bias of Priene, apologue of to Croesus, 543.

Bible, Egyptian origin of the word, 210.

Birs, the prefix, 22S.

Birs-Nimrud, mound of, 22S. Identified with the temple of Bel-Merodach or Nebo at Borsippa, 228,355. j Inscription found among! its ruins, 22S.

Bitumen, a characteristic¹ production of Babylonia,' 36S.

Black obelisk king, the, 2S3.;

Bocchoris transfers the Egyptian capital to Sa'is, 147. Burnt alive by Sabaco, 14S.

Borsippa, the northern seat| of the sacred learning of i

Puts to death his sister wife, 553. Formation of his name from the Persian original, 553. His attack on Egypt, 179. Obtains the safe-conduct of the " King of the Arabs," 555. Takes Memphis, 556^ Defeats Psammenitus, 556. His sacrilege in killing the Apis, 203. Assumes the full style of an Egyptian king, 556. Defiance by the Ethiopian king in reply to his embassy, 557. He marches into Ethiopia, 557. Destruction in the desert of a detachment of his army sent against the Ammonians, 557. Returns to Thebes, 557. His madness ascribed to his sacrilege, 558. Opinions on his alleged madness, 559. Addiction to drunkenness, 559. Secures the submission of Egypt, 559. His suicide, 561

the Chaldaeans, 237. Great¹

Temple of Nebo at, 355. Canaanites, their bonnda Description of the temple| ries, 601. Hieratic Egyp-at, 369. Curious propor- tian Papyrns fixing the rions of the bnildinsr, 370. date of their establish-Borsippeni and Orclueni, ment in Palestine, 603.

Their settlements in Phoenicia, 608.

Caudace, queen of the Ethiopians, 150.

Candaules and Gyges, three forms of the legend of, 509.

Cappadocians, why called Syrians, 464. Their Aryan origin, 465.

Carchemish, city of, 110. Victory of Nebuchadnezzar over Neco at, 343.

Cariaus, the 4S7. Two accounts of their origiu, 4S8. Their connection with the Leleges, 490. Their trade of mercenary soldiers, 492. The kingdom of Caria, 492. Carian used synonymously with slave, 492. Among the most ancient inhabitants of Asia Minor and the Grecian peninsula, 490.

Carthage, its first appearance in general history, 556. Foundation of, 623. Its treaty of commerce with the" infant repnblic of Rome, 636. Its fall decides the conflict between Easteru and Western civilization, 636.

Cassiterides (the Scilly Islands), Phoenician voyages to the, 628.

Caste, three conditions of, 1S2.

Caucasian race, limits of their primary settlements, 22. How the term Caucasian is to be understood, 22.

Caunians, account of them by Herodotus, 4S6.

Caveh, Aryan legend of, 419.

Centenarian reign of Phi-ops, 76.

Chaeronea, battle of, 589.

Chaldaea, the land of Shinar, 224. Restriction in using the name, 242.

Chaldaean marshes (the), 226. Astronomical science of the priests, 234. Northern and southern seats of their sacred learning, 237. Note on the Chaldaeans and the Akkad, 244. The Chaldaeans a branch of the great Hamite race of Akkad, 244. The kings of Babylon Chaldaeans, 341. Ascendency of the Chaldaean caste, 341. Oldest towns, 373. Domestic architecture, 373. Three kinds of tombs and modes of burial, 373. The Chaldaeans a priestly caste, 39S. The Rab Mag (Archimagus) of the order, 39S. Imtia-

G40 CIIALYBES.

INDEX.

DARIUS.

tion into it of the Assyri- Cosmogony of Moses, its Cyhele, the mother of the ¹ parallel in the Egyptian gods, names of, 469.

religion, 197. Of Hesiod Cyclopean or Pelasgian and Ovid derived from the structures, 469. pantheistic religion of the Cyprus, its dimensions aud Aryans, 41S. Misuse of I productions, 463. the word, 432. Cosmogou- Cyrus the Great, legend of ¹ his birth and early life, 538. His rebellion vindicates the religion of Zoro-

an kings, 39S. The caste in the book of Daniel, 399. The most ancient of the Babylonians, 399. Their name a by-word for pro-ptfetic aud magical imposture, 400. Astronomy, ic deities, 411 400. Influence of their Crassus and " Cave ne eas," predictions in pnblic and 487. Relation of the sto-private life, 405. Triads ry to the pronunciation of their theology, 411. of Latin, 437.

Chalybes, the, 465. The first Crests, earliest nse of, 1S7. iron-workers, 513. Criminal code, Egyptian,

Champollion-FigeacandDr. 191. Young, their respective Crocodile, symbolism of the, claims as discoverers of 201.

the lost key to hieroglyph-Crcesus sncceeds Alyattes, 543. Ambiguous reply of

ics, 212. Chedorlaomer, conqueror of

Babylonia, 238. His kingdom Elam, 238. Cheops and Cephren, their

names detested by the

Egyptians, 73. Chev, priest-kings of, 133 Chimsera, signification

the legend of the, 477. Chinese, the great type of

an isolating language, 25. Christ, genealogy of, 347. Cilicia, Greek colonies

543. Ambiguous reply the Delphic Oracle to him, I

544. A cnrious chapter in the history of superstition, 544. His retreat to SardisI after defeat, 540. Cyrus's

I treatment of the conquered king, 548. of Ctesias's history of Persia,] | 232. Mythical legend of, 248. An untrustworthy witness ou Oriental history, 248.

Cuneiform and hieratic sys-

475. The nest of all the pirates in the Levant, 477. Cilicians of the Semitic race, 474. Their Phoenician origin, 474. Cimmerian invasion of Asia, the great, 328. The Cimmerians invade Asia Minor, 511. Their native land in Europe afterwards called Scythia, 511. Cimmeria, Scythia, and Sar-matia applied to the same region, 511. The name survives iu the Crimea or Crhn-Tartary, 512. Conquest of the country by the Scythians, 512. The Cimmerians probably progenitors of the Cymry of Wales and even of all the Celtic races, 513. First named as the Gomer of Genesis, 513. Hebrew prophecy relating to Cimmerian aud Scythian invasions, 522.

terns of Avriting, resemblance between, 232. Turanian origin of cuneiform writing, 236. Arrow-headed character, 245. Nature of cuneiform writing, ^c"

aster against that of the Magi, 539. Different accounts of his displacement of Astyages, 540. His generosity to the conquered Astyages, 541. Accession, 542. Of mixed Persian and Median birth, 545. Hence the "mule" of an oracle, 545. Invites the Ionians to revolt from Crcesns, 540. Conquers Lydia, 548. Asia Minor and Upper Asia, 548, 549. Besieges Babylon, 360. Diverts the course of the Euphrates, 361. Conqnest of Babylon, 519. Falls in battle with theMassagetie,

549. His tomb at Pasar-gadse identified, 549. Ideal picture of the Cyropsedia,

550. His noble qualities, 550. Vast change effected in the Persian nation by his conquests, 550. His two sons and three daughters, 552.

to the throne from " royal birth,^v 584. Falls at Cn-naxa, 585.

D.

Experimentum crncis of Gyrus the younger, his claim cuneiform science, 269.' Cuneiform writing formed from the hieratic by pressnre of the style, 3SS. Origin of the term cuneiform, 3S8. Essential iden- Dagon, the fish-god, 604. tity of the hieratic and Damascus, destruction of cuneiform characters, 3S9. the kingdom of, 305. Cuneiform writing always Daniel the prophet's impersonation of the Medo-Persian kingdom. 450.

tablished, 393. The chaic, modern, and cursive stages of enneiform writing, 389. The Persian cuneiform alphabet, 393. Immense mass of nndeci-phered literatnre, 412. Circumcision, Egyptian rite Cyaxares takes Nineveh

from left to right, 390 Discovery of a key to its

interpretation, 391. Sys- Dardanians of Troy, 499. tern of interpretation es-'Darius, the head of seven

of, 203.

Climax Tyriorum, 597.

Commerce between Europe aud India, highway of, 21.

Coptic language, 44. Ety-J mologies of the word, 44.1 Probably the ancient form j of the word Egypt, 45.] Complete disappearance of the language, 45. J

Coronation stone, Scottish, 417. I

Cosmical year of the Chal-! dseans, 401. I

}34. Great battle between him and the Lydians, 337. Overthrows the Assyrian empire, 342. His great war against Alyattes, king of Lydia, 343. The first who gave organization to an "Asiatic army, 455. The true founder 6f the Medo-Persian kingdom, 455. Testimony of^Eschy-lns, 455. His reign, 517. Massacre of the Scythians, 519.

conspirators, puts to death the pseudo-Sraerdis, 563. Names of his associates in the enterprise, 503. Remarkable agreement of Herodotus and the Behistun Inscription, 563. His right to the crown by descent, 564. Privileges granted to his confederates, 564. Debate among the chieftains, 564. Massacre of the Magians, 566. The second founder of the Persian empire, 56S. His marriages, 568. In the Behistnn Iuscription represents himself as the he^. reditary champion of the Achaemenids, 56S. Restores the Zoroastriau worship, 569. Extent of

DARIUS II.

INDEX.

ETHBAAL.

Gil

his kingdom, 570. Revolts during his first six years, 570. List of the countries conquered by him, 570. Takes Babylon after a siege of twenty months, 571. Defeats, mutilates, and crucifies Phraortes, 573. His Zoroastrian zeal, 574. Conquest of the Indians, 577. Approximate date of his, Indian expedition, 576. His Scythian expedition, 577. Crosses the Hellespont by a bridge of boats, I 573. Present from the Scythian princes to the invader, 573. His escape from the Scythians, 579. Contrast between the adventures of Darius and Napoleon in Russia, one of the most striking parallels in history-, 579. Death of Darius, 5S0.

Darius II., Nothus, 5s4.

-III., Codomannus, the

last king of Persia, 5S9. His flight from Issus and Arbela, 5S9. Alexauder throws his cloak over the corpse of, 579, 590.

Date-palm, its uses, 227.

Days of the week, origin of the names of, 401.

Dead (the), Egvptian judgment of, 204.

Deioces, king of Media, 450. The hero-eponymus of the Medes, 451. The despot's m. de of life and government, according to He-rodotns's ideal picture, 453.

Deities, three orders of, Egyptian, 199. Fable accounting for their animal shapes, 200. Theory that the animals were consecrated for benefits derived from them, 200. Supposed analogies between the attributes of the gods and the specific qualities of the animals, 201.

Delta of the Nile, 35. Its dimensions, 36.

Deluge, among the oldest traditions of the Aryan race, 418.

Democedes, sent by Darius to Greece as a spy, 576.

Derceto, the great eoddess of Ascalou, 250.

Desert zone (the great) and its interruptions, 21.

Dopotic power, a misfortune for all who inherit, a crime in all who seize it, 559.

Dew;i — #eof, the Aryan name of the Supreme Being, 417.

:Dido = the fugitive, 623. |Diodorus on Egyptian his-| tory, 49.

Dodecarchy of Egypt, 164. Dominion of the world transferred from the despotism of the East to the free spirit of the West, 579. Dualism, the religion of the

Iranians, 427. Duplication of events or per-, sons to get over a difficulty, 318.

E.

Ecbatana, building of the! capital city, 451. The) modern Hamadan, 453. ! Eclipse of Thales, 524. I Egypt, Upper and Lower, I 35. The granary of the ancient world, 3S. Causes of its early prosperity, 3S. Difficulty of invasion, 38. Abundant supply of food,

39. Facility of communication, 39. Etymology of the word, 45. History begins with Egypt, 47. The real records of Egyptian history her own monuments and books, 50. j Classification of Egyp-| tian monuments, 52. Two| classes of records of espe-| cial historical value, 53. [ The seven divine rulers j of Egypt, 55. Division| between Upper and Middle Egypt, 194. Difficul-j ties of the Egyptian language, 26.

Egyptians civilized before Elephantine, island of, 34 any other people, 31. Elcntheria, Smyrnaaan festi-Their astronomical and) val of the, 511. geometrical discoveries,.Embalmment from belief

40. Symbols of life and in the resurrection of the death the Nile or Osiris, I body, 203. and the evil power or Ty- Enentefs and Mnntotps, phon, 41. Speculations! monuments of the, S3, on the origin of the Egyp-Era of Nabonassar nearly tiaus, 42. Belonged ' to coincident with the foun-the Caucasian, not the dation of Rome, and the African, race, 44. Their first recorded Olympian names Chem and Mizra- victory, 301. im, 45. Succession of Eratosthenes on Egypt, 49. kings according to Herod- Erythraean sea of Herodo otns, 57. Lists of Mane- tns, 604. tho, 5S. Question of Esar-Haddon, king of Assyria and Babylonia, 825. Cylinders in the British

mids, 67. Mechanical arts and moral views of the oldest Egyptians, 69. Policy towards subject states, 109. Wretched condition of the native peasantry, 125. Razzias to kidnap negroes, 126. Decline of power, 127. Political division of Egypt, 152. Submits to Alexander the Great, ISO. Becomes a Roman province, ISO. Permanence of the Egyptian character, 1S2. Seven classes enumerated by Herodotus, five by Diodorus, 1S3. Vast variety of classes of artisans seen on the monuments, 1S4. Priests the highest class, 1S5, The military class, 186. The government an absolute monarchy qualified by laws, 187. Theory of the king's royalty, 1SS. His divinity and rules of daily life, 1SS. Duties, 138. His insignia, 1S9. Mistake abont his posthumous judgment, 189. The succession hereditary,189. Judicial administration, 192. Government in the hands of the two privileged orders, priests and soldiers, 194. Egypt revolts from Darins, 580. Regains its independence, 535. See Architecture, Sculptnre, Painting, Hie-oglyphics

whether his dynasties were successive or contemporaneous, 58. Table of contemporaneousness of dynasties, 59. Ei<rht broad divisions of the

whole history of Egypt, 58. Introduction of ani

Museum, containing records of his nine campaigns, 326. Destroys Sidon, 326. Invades Egypt, 328. His palaces, 329. Esmunazar, king of Sidon, mal worship, 61. First, inscription of, 630. three dynasties, 61. The Esther, the Jewish queen real history begins with of Xerxes, 5S2. the fourth dynasty, 62. Etesian winds of Egypt,39. The life of the Egyptians "Exn u/WiAein-a, 324." represented on the tombs Ethbaal forms anew dynas-surrounding the pyra-l ty at Tyre, 622.

842 ETHIOPIA.

INDEX.

IONIAN'S.

Ethiopia, the great sacerdo- The name in the sacred tal kingdom of, 33. The books of Egypt, "I am priests send a sentence of that I am," 190. death to the king when Gomates, the true name of I they think he has lived the Pseudo-Smerdis, 500. | long enough, 151. "The) Usurps the crowu of Per-vile race of Cush," 14S.I sia, 500. Name, description, and Gordian knot, the, 499. limits of Ethiopia, 14S. Grotefend's decipherment Egyptian derivation of! of the cuneiform charac-the word, 148. The un-! ter, 391. strung bow a symbol of, Gyges, kiug of Lydia, 330.

557. "Ethiopia above Egypt" annexed to the Persian empire, 55S. Ethnology aud comparison of languages, light thrown by them on ancient history, 22.

Euphrates, course of the, 222. Derivation of the Hadad

His ring, 509. Oracle that vengeance for the Hera-clidae would fall ou his fifth descendant, 509. Dates of the five generations, 510.

H.

(Edomite prince)! protected by Pharaoh,¹ 13G. Returns to reclaim, his birthright, 143. Haliearnassus, kingdom of, 492.

Halys (the), the boundary of the Median and Lydi-i an empires, 343, 517. A great ethnic and historical boundary, 4G1. Ham, fulfillment of Noah's

prophetic curse on, 23. Hamath or Epiphania, city

and kingdom of, 609. Hamite race, itsfourbranch-es, 23.

Hanging gardens of Babylon, 355, 377.

Pervers and Yazatas, 430, iHarpagus's conquest of the

431. Asiatic Greeks, 543.

Fire-worship, 437. Harpy tomb, the, 484.

Fish-god, names of the, 411.1 Hatasou (queen), monument Fyum (the) or nome of Ar-j of her splendor in the pal-sin oe, 88. I ace of Karnak, 111.

Hebrews, end of their captivity, 549

word, 222. Ancient canals connecting it with the Tigris, 226.

Evagora's rebellion in Cyprus, 5S6.

Evil-Merodach, reign of, 359.

Exodus from Egypt, calamities atteudiug it, 12j.

Eye-doctors, Egyptian, 179.

F.

Fairy-tale, the oldest in the

world, 216. Feridun, king of Persia, 419. Ferouher, the symbol of deity, 410, 435. Engraving of the emblem, 438.

G.

Gades founded by the Phoe- Hebron, building of, 138. i nicians, 617. |Hellenicon, a temple for the

the I

Gathas of the Zendavesta, | Greeks in Egypt, 1(7.

424. I Hermetic books of

Genesis, its four principles Egyptians, 215.

of classification of races, Hermotybians and Calasiri-

22. Agreement of its rec- ans, 186.

ords with the results of Herodotus's account of

comparativephilologj',26. j Egyptian life and man-Geographical mile, the only ' ners, 43.

natural measure of the Heroes-eponymi of nations,

earth's surface, 463. Its artificial arrangements of,

commensnrability with 503.

the stadium, 463. Kiddekel of Eden, the Ti-

Geometry, origin of, 40. gris, 223.

Egyptian practical, 216. Hieratic writing, examples

Chaldaean geometry and of, 388.

arithmetic, 405. Hieroglyphics, their inter-

Gimiri (= Cimmerians), pretation discovered

meaning of the term, 521. Glass, Assyrian, 314. Tyrian, 634. Glaucus, a Chian artist, his

silver bowl at Delphi,

517.

Ood, Egyptian doctrine of one "self-existing, 195.

pendently by Dr. Young and Champollion, 55. Three forms of Egyptian writing, hieroglyphic, hieratic, aud demotic or enchorial, 211. Discovery of the key to hieroglyphic*, 211. Particulars of

the discovery, 212. The characters partly phonetic aud partly ideographic, 213. Illustrations of the system, 213.

Hiram, kiug of Tyre, his alliance with Solomon, G20. His great works at Tyre, 621. Letters between him and Solomon, 621.

Histiaeus, the Milesian general, 579.

History, when secular, begins, 17. Sacred, 18. The field of ancient history divided by mountain-chains and table-lands into three portions, 19.

- (ancient), its two different streams and two antagonist principles, 27. New materials for the authentic history of the East, 28. Important synchronisms between sacred and secular, 143. Coincidence of sacred, secular, and monumental, 317.

Homa, ceremony of offering the juice of the plant, 434.

Hophra (Pharaoh) of Scrip-tnre, the Apries of Herodotus, 173.

Horses, Nisaeanbreed of, 445.

Hur, the supposed capital of Chaldaea, 237.

Hyksos or Shepherd kings invade Egypt, 82,93. False identification with the Hebrews, 95. Their race Semitic, 96. Conquer Egypt, 96. Their expulsion, 100.

Hyroeades discovers the means of taking Sardis, 547.

Hystaspes (= Victaspa and Gushtasp) father of Darius, 422, 535, 563, 574.

I.

II or Hon, the supreme god of the Assyrio-Babylonian pantheon, 408.

Inarus and Amyrtaeus, rebellion iu Egypt under, 5S3.

Incarnation of the Egyptian gods in the bull Apis, the bull Muevis, and the goat at Mendes, 202.

Iudo-Europeau orludo-Ger-mauic languages, 25. Table of the Indo-European family of languages, 28.

Inflectional languages, two families of, the Indo-European and the Semitic, 25.

Inscriptions, Persian trilingual and bilingual, 391.

Insignia of the king of Egvpt, is:).

Iouians, the Egyptian name

IONIC.

INDEX.

MEDIA. GL3

for the Greeks in general,! ICS. Ionian colonies in I Asia Minor, 510. Revolt against Darius, 579.

Ionic capital, type of, in an Assyrian temple, 3S1.

Iran, the table-land of, 415.

Irony of history, example of the, 325.

Isaurians, their long independence, 47S.

Israel under Solomon, empire of, 272. Captivity of the Israelites east of Jordan, 304. The whole population removed to Mesopotamia, 306. The remainder carried away captive, 30S.

Issus, passes or gates of, 459.

Iva-Lush or Vul-lush, reign of, 295.

J.

Jacob, group of Jebnsites

formerly taken for the

family of, 92. Japhetic race, 414. Jehoiakim put to death by

Nebuchadnezzar, 340. Jehu, kiug of Israel, 290. Jemshid, mythical reign of,

419.

Jeroboam's rebellion, 143.

Jerusalem, according to Manetho quoted by Josephus, built bv the Shepherd kiugs of Egypt, 101. The date of its investment by Nebnchadnezzar a Jewish fast, 350. Epoch of the destruction of, 351. Besieged by Sennacherib and defended by Hezekiah, 320.

Jewish kingdom named on the monuments of She-shouk, 143. Likeness between the Jewish and Egyptian codes, 191.

Jews, sympathy of Cyrus and Darius for their pure monotheism, 509.

Josephus's account of the invasion of Egypt by the Shepherd kings, 95.

Joseph's Pharaoh, 99. Joseph brought into Egypt under the Shepherd-king Aphophis, 100.

Josiah, death of, 170.

Judaea, promise of its complete liberation from Assyria fulfilled, 322.

Judah, the great captivity of, 347.

Judith (book of) one of the earliest examples of historical fiction, 451. Its substratum of historical truth, 522.

Jnpiter Belus, temple of, 229. I

K.

Kanats or underground canals for irrigation, 444.

Karnak and "Luxor, monuments of, 106. The numerical wall of Karnak, 111. Description of the Hall of Columns, the triumph of Egyptian architecture, 119.

Khorsabad, M. Botta's discovery of inscriptions at, 313. Mounds and platforms, 379. Palace of Sargon, 3S0.

Kileh - Sherghat (Asshur), rnius of, 25S.

Knuphis or Noum = the Creator, 197.

L.

Labynetus, king of Babylon, 545.

Labyrinth, the Egyptian, SO. Lachish, site of, 322. Lamps, feast of, in honor of the goddess Neith, 167. Language, comparative, the best test of national affinity, 24. Three classes of the form of languages, 24. Layard's (Rt. Hon. A. H.) discoveries at Nimrud, 277.

Leather Standard, the sacred, 419. Lebanon, cedars of, 599. Leleges and Pelasgians sister races, 490. The earliest known inhabitants of Samos, 491. Sprung from the stones of Dencalion, 491.

Lelex the first native king

of Laconia, 491. Letters of the alphabet brought from Phoenicia into Greece by Cadmus, 615.

AeuKotrvpot, 464. Libyans and the militia of

Egypt, 147. Lnnareclipses a'lone predicted by the Chaldaeans, 403. Luxor aud Karnak, monuments of, 106. Lycian arts, remains of, discovered by Sir C. Fellows, 4S1. Greek legends of the origin of the Lycians, 4S!. Language and inscr.p-tions, 482. Three tribes, 4S3. Tfemilao the name of their principal tribe, 433. Sculpture and architecture, 484. Tomb of Paiafa in the British Museum, 484. " Inscribed Monument," 485. Federal government, 4*0. Lydia, gold of, M4. L.vdirt I Properand ToirheJv.a. 41)5.

Lydians, the, 493. Their cob ouizatiou of Etruria, 495. Origin and antiquities of the race, 490. Mythical genealogy of the brothers Lydus, Mysus, and Car, 490. Kingdom of Lydia, 502. Its three dynasties, 502. Genealogy of the kings of the first dynasty, the' Atyadae, 502. The second dynasty, the Hera clidae, 503. Theory of the Assyrian origin of the dynasty, 504. Semitic origin of the Lydiaus, 504. The third dynasty, the Merm-nadae, 506. War between Lydia and Media, 523.

Lygdamis, leader of the Cimmerians, killed, 515.

M.

Maeonia, poetical use of tha

word, 495. Maeonians, the, 493. Expel

led by the Lydians, 494. Magian religion mistaken

for Zoroastrianism, 437. Magophonia, festival of, 566. Malkin's Historical Parallels, 559. Man-bull a symbol of the

divine power, 381. Manasseh's captivity, 327.

Restoration, 327. Manetho's history of Egypt,

49. List of Dynasties,

49.

Manichaeism a perversion of Zoroastrian doctrine, 429.

Mann, Indian laws of, 417.

Marathon, battle of, 579.

Marsyas, mythical conflict of Apollo with, 470.

Mathematical and astronomical discoveries due to Babylonia rather than to Egypt, 39S.

Matieni, the, 465.

Maut, the universal mother, representing inert matter, 197.

Mazaca or Caesarea, capital of Cappadocia, 460.

Mazdeism the religion of Zoroaster, 424.

Medes, their three distinct attacks on Assyria, 333. And Persiansboth branches of the Aryan race, 414. Their affinity with races of northern India and with European races, 415. Origin of the Modes, 447. Foundation of the Median monarchy, 449. Their six tribes, 451. War with the Lydians, 523, 524.

Media, signification of the name, 236. Limits of, 441. Media Atropatene, and Media Magna, 443. Its

044 MEDICINE.

INDEX.

NICOLAS.

Imperfect subjection to Assyria, 448.

Medicine (Egyptian) empirical and often absurd, 210.

Medo-Persian empire, its nature, 540.

Megabazus's conquest of Thrace and Macedonia, 579.

Megabvzus retakes Mem-phis,*5S3. Revolts, 583.

Melcarth, the Phoenician | Hercules, 632.

Meles. charm of king, 547.

Memnon, the vocal, 106. Description of the statue, 116. J Explanation of the soundi emitted from it, 116.

Memphis, the earliest seat of the Egyptian kingdom, 61. The 'Memphian monarchy a period of civilization which had no known infancy, 70. The site identified, 71. The Memphite necropolis, 72. The Memphian dynasties, 72. Fall of the monarchy, 77.

Menephtha, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, 127.

Menes, first (human) king of Egypt, 56. Affinities of the word, 56. His engineering works, 70. Turns the course of the Nile, 7-0. Builds Memphis, 70. Founder of the empire of I Egvpt, 74. Era of Menes, 78."

Mentor transfers his services from Sidon to Persia, 588. Defeats Nectanebo, king of Egypt, 58S.

Menzaleh, the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, 36. The great lake, 138.

Mermnad kings of Lydia, 510.

Merodach and Bel, the tutelary deities of Babylon and Borsippa, 242.

Merodach-Baladan conquered by Sargon, 311.

Merou, island of, 33. Capital of Upper Ethiopia, 149. Different opinions on its origin, 149. Honors to Amun and Osiris at, 150.

Mesopotamia compared with Egypt, 220. The empire, 'first of Assyria and afterwards of Babylon, 221. Mesopotamia Proper, 225. Early ethnology of, 230.

Metonic or golden cycle known to the Chaldaeans, 403. Its exact period, 403.

Metric system (French) at variance with history, nature, and science, 400.

Midas, king of Phrygia, 499. A type of the wealth and fall of the kingdom of

Phrygia, 499. Legends of,

500. As son of Orpheus a type of the cultivation of music among the Phrygians, 500. Historical elements in the legends, 501. Inscription on "his tomb,

501. His suicide, 471, 515. Milk, intoxicating drink

from, 520. Mina, values of the Attic

and Egiuetau, 137. Mithra (the Sun) and his antagonist, Mithra the Bad, 431.

Mithraic worship, 431. Mizraim the Semitic name

of the Egyptians, 23. Moabite inscription, newly

discovered, 313. Mceris, lake, described, S7.

Its use, SS. Mohammed's way extended over the middle of Hell, 433.

Monarchies, connection between Lydian, Median, and Babylonian, 527. Monogamy of Egyptian

priests, 1SG. Monolith chamber, transportation of an Egyptian, 178.

Month, the Sun-god, 199. Moon, temple of the, at

Mugheir, 371. Moschici Montes, 460. Moses, his name Egyptian 124. Initiation into the wisdom of the Egyptian priests, 190. Mouse (the), a sacred emblem, 156. Mycenae, lion gate of, 469. Mycerinus, piety and deification of, 73. Myiitta, Alitta, or Mitra, mode of sacrificing to, 435.

Mysian language a mixture of Phrygian and Lydian 4G7.

N.

"Nabathaean Architecture,' a book written at Babylon, 241. Nabonadins or Nabonidus, last king of Babylon, 230. 360. His alliance with Croesus, 360. Defeated by Cyrus, 360. His flight to Borsippa, 300. Motive for associating Belshazzar in the sovereiguty7*361. Snr renders to and is favored by Cyrus, 362. Nabonassar, era of, 252. Its exact epoch, 298. Destroys the acts of the kings before him, 340. List of kings of Babylon from the era of, 340. Nabopolassar causes himself to be proclaimed king of Babylon and overthrows the Assyrian empire, 342. His great engineering works at Babylon, 343. End of the dynasty of, 359. Nahum, striking prophecy of, 161.

Nairi, country of the, 269. Their tribes, 261.

Napata, sacerdotal kingdom of, 146. City of, 149. Its commerce, 150.

Nations oftheancientworld, two great groups of, 27. Eastern and Western distinguished by immobility and energy, 27.

Nebo, chief of the gods, 254. His statue, 296.

Nebuchaduezzar, king of Babylon, 171. The one great monarch of the Babyldnian empire, 341. Without him the Babylonians would have had no place in history, 344. Created the empire of Babylon by the victory of Carchemish, 345. Signification of his name, 344. Campaign against Tyre, 345. Takes Jerusalem, 345. Destroys the temple, 136. His vision of the colossal image of the empires of the world, 349. Destroys Jerusalem, 351. Contrasted with Titus, 352. Invades Egypt twice, 353. Conquers Egypt, 353. His great works at Babylon, 354. Built the great wall, 354. His madness, 357. Marvellous, activity and energy, 355. The greatest type of the Oriental despot, 355. His lycanthropy, 357. Recovery and death, 357, 358. Decline of the Babylonian empire after his death, 35S. Translation of his inscription, 229. "Standard Inscription," 362. His account of his works at Babylon, 362. Description of his edifices, 377.

Neco, the Pharaoh-Necho of the Bible, 170. His attempt to complete the canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, 172. His fleets in the two seas, 172.

Nectanebo, the last king of independent Egypt, 179.

Nedjef, iuland sea'of, 226.

Neith identified with Athena or Minerva, 167.

Nicolas of Damascus, the historian, 292.

NILE.

INDEX.

PHOENICIAN. G4.5

Nile. "Egypt the gift of the Nile," 31. Cataracts, 32, 33. Physical phenomena, 32, 33. Formed by the junction of the White aud Blue rivers, 32. Junction with the Black River, 33. Paludes Nili, 33. Branches of, at the Delta, 35. Periodical iunudation, 3T. Its cause, 37.

Nilometers, 3S.

Nimrod, Cushite kingdom of, 23. Kingdoms of Nimrod and Asshur, 231. Etymological connectiou of Nimrod and Nipru, 23G.

Nimrud, mounds" of, 27S. Plan of the mouud, 279. Mr. Layard's description of the north-west palace at, 27S. Standard inscription of, 2S2. Pyramid of, 2S7. Nimrud identified with Calah, 2S7.

Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, after whom Nineveh was named, 219. Ninus and Ninyas, impersonations of, 249.

Nineveh or Niniveh, site of, 257. Note on the site and extent of, 273. Its fall and evidence of its destruction, 297, 331, 332. Its destruction described by the Jewish prophets, 336 The epoch of its fall, 170, 252. Still unsettled, 337. Contents of the Royal Library of, 390. Nineveh taken by Cyaxares, 524

Ninip, the Assyrian Hercules, 411.

Niniva Clandiopolis, 275.

Ninus, the hero-eponymus of Niueveh, 249.

Ninyas, son of Semiramis, 251. A politic and self-indulgent ruler, 251. His profound policy, 251.

Nitocris, queen of Babylon, 176, 360. Regarded as a queen regnaut by Herodotus, 344." Her vengeance and suicide, 76.

Nomes, division of Egypt into, 194. Their numbers increased under Romau emperors, 194. Their no-marchs and toparchs, 194. Delegates of the nomes lodged in the labyriuth, 194.

Nubian eye, elongated, 149. Numerals. Egyptian, 21S. Nyanza, Albert and Victoria, 33.

Oannes and other fish-men, 232, 233. The fish-god, worshipped in Philistia, 250.

Oasis of Amnion, 194. And the Great, Oasis, 557.

Obelisk (the Black) of Shalmaneser II., 2S9.

Obelisks, dimensions of

] Egyptian and Assyrian, 2S9.

j Ochus or Artaxerxes HI., 5S6. His cruelty and blood - thirstiness, 5S7. His ministers Bagoas and Mentor, S87. Poisoned by Bagoas, 5S9.

Ophthalmia always one of the plagues of Egypt, 179.

Oppert's (M.) Cuneiform grammar, 393.

Ormazd or Ahuramazda, the Greek Oromasdes, titles of, 425. His creation of man and the corruption of the work by Ahriman little different from the similar account in Genesis, 432.

Oroetes, treason and punishment of, 575, 576.

Osiris and Typhon, the good and evil principles, 50. Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus. 198. Boat of Osiris, 198.'

Pacification, Roman idea of, 230.

Padan - Aram or Osroi'me. 225.

Painting, Egyptian, chiefly a decorative art, 209. Illustrations of the Ritual of the Dead, 210. Assyrian painting, 3S5.

Pamphylians, their name indicative of their mixed race, 479. Origin o_t cheir Hellenic element, 430.

Pantheistic Sabaaism of Babylonia, 407.

Paphlagonians, their ethnic affinity to the Cappadocians, 471.

Papyrus reed, description of writing on it, 211.

Parysatis, wife of Darius II., 5S4. Her wickedness, 584. Unbounded appetite for cruelty, 5S5. The she-wolf of Persia, 5S6.

Pasargadae, the Persian capital of both Cyrus and Camb3^rses, 535.

Pasht, the goddess of fire, identified with Artemis, 141.

Pelasgians, the earliest known inhabitants of Greece and Southern Italy, 46S. Connection of the Pelasgians in Asia Minor with those of Europe, 468. Their peaceful agricultural character, 46S. "

Periods of time personified by ancient writers, 401.

Persia Proper or Persis, 441.

Persians divided into three classes, 420. The national heroes, Rnstem, Ka'i Khosrn, and Farrukhzad, 437. Position of Persia under the Median supremacy, 534. Their ten tribes and three social classes, 534. Conquest of Egypt. 5SS. Constitution of the empire, 591. Royal judges of Persia, 591. Despotism of the Great Kiug, 593.

Pluedima discovers the imposture of the pseudo-Smerdis, 563.

Phanes of Haliearnassus, his advice to Cambyses, 555. His sons killed before their father's eyes, 555.

Pharaoh of the Exodus (see

Menephtha), 127. Philoe, the burial-place of

the god Osiris, 34. Philip of Macedon, death of,

589.

Phoenicia, description of, 595, 596. Climate, 597. Etymology of the word,

599. No native history of,

600. Its population before the migration of the Canaanites, 002. Chief cities, 611. Its history divided into periods of Sidonian and Tyrian su-premac}', 611. Phoenicia before the Exodus described in an Egyptian papyrus, 612.

Phoenician civilization con nected with Egyptian, 102. The connecting link between Greece and Egypt, 102. The great maritime force of the Persian empire, 554. The Phoenicians refuse to serve against Carthage, 557. The chief remnant of the Canaanites, 602. Phoenician league under the supremacy of Tyre, 595. The seat of trade in the oldest Biblical records, 595. The Hyksos or Shepherds called Phoenicians, 605. The Phoenicians Semitic, 606. Their language aud the Hebrew differed only as dialects, 606. Settlements on the southern coast of Spain, 617. In Africa, Sardinia, aud Sicily, 617. Relations to Assyria, 624. Conquered bj A\sshnr-bani-pal, 627.

646 phraortes.

INDEX.

SAGARTIA.

Phraortes attacks Assyria, 333. Succeeds Deioces, 454. A Mede of the same name heads a rebellion against Darius, 454. A pretender to the crown of Darins, 572. His punishment, 454.

Phryges, etymology of the name, 471.

Phrygia, Greek legends traced to, 469.

Phrygians of Aryan or Japhetic origin, 466. Their language "represents the older stock from which both Greek and Latin sprang, 466. Their relationship to the early population of Greece, 46S. Remains of architecture, 469. Reduced to narrow limits, 471. Supremacy at sea, 471.

Phtha, the Egyptian deity, the worker by the energy of fire, 55. His temple, 70. The patron deity of Memphis, 71. The all-working power of fire, 179. Identified with Hephaestus, 199.

Piankh, the Ethiopian king, invades Egypt, 147.

Place (M.), his discoveries at Koyunjik, 3S9.

Polycrates of Samos, historical episode of, 179. Legend of his friendship with Amasis, 575. Put to death, 575. Schiller's ballad, "the Ring of Polycrates," 575.

Polygamy, forbidden to Egyptian priests, ISO. And incestuous marriage' of the Persian kings, 553.

Polyhistor (Alexander), the works of, 346.

Polytheism, origin ofEgyp-, tian, 196.

Priestesses i u Egypt, 1S6.

Priests of Egyptian temples, I 207.

Propylaea of Egyptian temples, 206.

Psammenitus defeated and pnt to death by Cambyses, 179.

Psammetichus, his fnlfill-meut of an oracle, 164. Makes himself king of Egypt, 165. His Hellen-iziug policy, 167. Favors heaped on his mercenaries, 168. Deserted by the Egyptian class of warriors, in number 200,000, 168.

Psendo - Smerdis, the, 561. \ Establishes the Magian system, overthrowing the Zoroastrian worship, 562. H s imposture discover-!

ed, 562. Slain by Darius, 563 (see Gomates). Psendo-Smerdis, a second, 574.

Psychostasy of the Egyptian

dead, 204. Pteria, battle of, 546.

ter, 123. The great op. pressor of the Israelites, 124. His great buildings, 126. His colossal statnes, portraits of himself, 127. Bust of one of them iu the British Museum, 127.

Ptolemies, Egypt under the, Rameses III., restores the

180.

Ptolemy, canon of, 262. ,Pul of Scripture (the), ques I tion concerning, 29S. ]Punjab conquered by Dari

us, 577. Pygmalion and ' (Dido), 622,

Egyptian empire, 130. His campaigns, 130. Victory of his fleet, 131. — XII., collecting tribute in Mesopotamia, marries a chiefs daughter, 133. Elisa Rawlinson's (Sir H.) tran-| scription of the trilingual

Pyraethra or fire-towers, 43S. rock-inscription of: Pyramid, the Great, the tun, 372. highest bnildiug in the Rehoboam's submission to world, 205. ! Egyptian sovereignty tin-

Pyramids of Jizeh, 62. Dis- der Sheshonk, 144. covery of workmen's hi-Religion (Egyptian), next to the divine unity, th(

eroglyphics in the centre of the mass of the great pyramid, 62. The pyramid of Cheops the first monumental link in not only Egyptian but universal history, 63. Plan of the pyramids, 63. Pyramids of Cephren and Mycerinus, 63, 64. Series of pyramids from Jizeh to Dashour, 64. Artistic

immortality of the soul the dogma most characteristic of, 97. Three orders of deities, 199. The eight great gods, 199. Twelve of the second order, 199. Two svstems of religion, 195. S^recrets of Egyptian theology, 195. — of Assyria and Babylon, 407.

motives for their size and Resen, site of, 255. form, 65. The temple- Rhaga, or Rhages, the chief tombs of deified kings,¹ city of Rhngiaua, 445. 66. Skill and art in build- Rhagiana, district of, 446. ing the pyramids evidence Rig-Veda, hymns of the, 417, of'high civilization, 65. 41S.

The great plain of the Ritual of the dead, Egyptian, pyramids, 72. Astrouom-j 169, 204. The Egvptian Bible, 215. Contains a complete account of the Egyptian doctrine of the future life, 215. Rock-city, a town cut out of the natural rock near the Halys, 469. Rock-hewn temples of Egypt, 206.

logically distinguished, 22. 'Rosetta stone, the, 55, 212. Ram, the Egyptian symbol Rotennon in Mesopotamia,

of the Creator, 197. the general name of, 241.

Ramayana, the most ancient

Sauscrit epic, 417. Rameses, the city of, papyri recording the Hebrews by j Sabaco II., identified with name as its builders, 125. the priest-king Sethos of

-1., or Rhamses, 119. Herodotus, 153.

II., son of Seti I., 119. Sabacos, the Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt, 152. Sabjeau worship of the heav«

ical calculations to determine the date of the great pyramid, 79. The Pyramid of Degrees at Sakka-ra, 370.

R.

Ra, the meridian sun, 197. Races of men, four physio-

His exploits recorded m the Greek legend of Sesostris, 120. Conquests, 121. The Louis XIV. of the Egyptian monarchy, 121. The Rameseid, an epic by Pentaour, 122. Personal exploit of Rameses, told)

in a true Homeric spirit,! ka Tfgrakhuda and Saka 122. Treaty with the Hit- Humawarga, 521. tite king, 123. His enor- Sadyattes, reign of, 515. mons harem, 123. One of Sagartia revolts against Da* his wives his own daugh-i rius, 574.

enly bodies, 234. Sabaeism explained, 407. Sabazins, the Phrygian

name of Dionysus, 469. Sacae, the Persian name for all Scythians, 54. TheSa-

SAIS.

INDEX.

SMERDIS. 617

Sais, the last capital of the Pharaohs, 140, 100. Its remains, 140, 1G0. Connection with Athens, 107. Greek population, 167. Solon's visit to, 161.

Sai'te kings of Egypt, 165. The monarchy reached its acme under Pharaoh-ne-cho, 170.

Sai'tes, the first of the shepherd kings, 98.

Samaria, the kingdom of, destroyed, 307.

San, plain and rnius of, 140. The site of the ancient Tanis, 140.

Sanchoniathon's Phoenician history a forgery, 600.

Sandanis's expostulation to Crcesns, 545.

Sangarius and Halys, the rivers, 459.

Sanscrit, the sacred language of India, 25.

Saracus burns himself with his palace, 335.

Sardanapalus collects his treasures, constructs a funeral pile, and perishes with his wives aud concubines, 252.

Sardis, capital of Syria, 493. Pronunciation "of the word, 493. Siege of, 547. Captured by Cyrus, 360.

Sargon, founder'of the dynasty of Bubastis, 141.

-, or Sarkin, a military adventurer, 309. His campaigns, 309. One of the most splendid kings and successful warriors of Assyria, 309. His annals exist in two forms, 309. Victory over the Egyptians at Raphia, 310. Expeditions against the Medes, Parthian s, aud other nations, 310. Capture of Ashdod, 311. Embassies to him from Cyprus andAsmun, 312. Assassinated, 313. His description of his palace at Khorsabad, 313. Fruitless siege of Tyre, 625. Expedition against Cyprus, 626.

Sassanids, their sacred leather standard, 419.

Satellite of Jupiter seen with the naked eye, 403.

Satrapies, Persian, 591. Explanation of the word satrap, 591.

Scribes, Egyptian corporation of, 193.

Scnlptnre, Egyptian style of, 90. The product of religion, 207. Its spirit symbolism and repose, 208. Harmonious rhythm of like postures of several figures, 209. Five different periods of the art, 209. Scylax's voyage down the

Indus, 577. Scythian domination over Asia, 334. Their dominion lasted for twenty-eight years, 51S. Three significations of the name, 520. How it is applied by Hesiod and ^Eschylus, 520. Derivation of the word, 520. Asiatic and Europe-

an Scyths, 511, 521 Seal-cylinders, 375. .Seals, ancient Assyrian. 394. Semiramis, legend of, 249,

Her divine birth, 249

and in Rameses the Great, 120. Various accounts of him, 85. A personage made up of several kings of different epochs, 85. Greek legend of, 120. His

law [n'tdcva. KaTanXiTretv rijv jraTpwav Tc'xnii', 1S3.

Set or Soutekh (the Egyptian name of Baal), the God of the Hittites, 99. Sethos, the priest-king of Herodotus, 15G.

Seti I., king of Egypt, 119. His magnificent buildings, 119. Reliefs and inscriptions in the Hall of Columns, iu the palace of Exploit for which Ninus Karnak, a Sethe'id of his married her,250. Becomes exploits, 119, 120. Began sole queen, 250. Her pro- the canal uniting the Nile digious edifices, 250. Re- to the Red Sea, 120.

proached for her debauch--II. (son of Menephtha),

eries and threatened with' regains the throne from crncifixion by the Indian] the kings of Chev, 129. king, 250. Her own rec- Shalmaneser I., the first

ord of her deeds, 250. Stories of her amours, 251. Apotheosis of, 251. An historical Semiramis, 290.

Semitic languages, 25. Divided into Semitic proper and Sub-Semitic, 26. Table of the Semitic family of languages, 29.

Sennacherib, reign of, 310. His recovery of a signet-ring of an ancient predecessor, 263. Reconquers Babylon, 31S. And Phce-

knowu Assyrian conqueror, 263.

— II., statue of, 288. The Black Obelisk king, 2SS. His campaigns, 292. Rebellion of his eldest son subdued by a younger, 294.

— III., expeditions of, 2DS.

— IV. destroys the kingdom of Samaria, 307. His maritime campaign against Tyre, 30S.

nicia, 154, 31S, 626. Victo- Shekel, its value, 137. ry at Altaku over Egypt Shemite race, 24, and Ethiopia, 154, "321. Besieges Jerusalem, 320. And Lachish, 321. His army destroved bv a miracle, 156, 322. His fleet built on Phoenician models, 323. Murdered bv his two sons, 255, 324. A type Shishak or Sheshonk, 143. of Oriental despotism in Sicily, Greek colonization its unmitigated ferocity, I of, 625. 255,324. His faith in as-Sidereal and Cosmic deities, trology, 405. His royal! 411.

Sidon, the most ancient city of Phoenicia, GOL Its col-

Sheshonk I., the first Pharaoh mentioned in Scripture by his personal name (Shishak), 143.

Shinar, land of, 242. The kingdom of Amraphel,

cylinder, 410. Rock-inscription at Baviau, 269. Lesson of his reign, 325. His palace at Koyunjik (Nineveh), 325.

Seraglio, disorders of the Persian, 5S2.

Serapeum (the temple of Apis), a misnomer, 202.

Serapis. worship of, 202.

Serbonis, morass of the Ser-bonian bog, 36.

Se«ortasen I., founder of Egyptian Thebes, S4,

onies and commerce, 613. Destroyed by Esarhad-don, 326. Bv Artaxerxes Ochus, 633. "Still a place of considerable traffic, 635.

Sidonian, generic use of the name for Phoenician, 626. Superiority of the fleet, 632. The Sidonians burn their own city, 583.

Silsilis, breaking of the

II., prototype of the rocky bar of the Nile at,88. Greek Sesostris, his deifi-'Sippara,hugereservoirnear, cation, 85. His brick pyr- 355.

amid of Dashoor, 36. * .Skulls, Persian and Egyp" Sesostris of the Greeks' tian compared, 555. traced in Sesortasen, St; Smerdis, formation of Ids

048 SOGDIANUS.

INDEX.

TYRE.

name from the Persian original, 553. Murdered by "Cambyses, 55-4.

Sogdianus, reign of, 5S4.

Soli in Cilicia, 476.

Solomon's affinity with Pharaoh, 136. His great commercial empire, 137.

Solon's visit to Sais, 161. His preaching to Crcesus an anachronism, 543.

Solymi (the) in Lycia of Semitic race, 474. Conflicts of Bellerophon and other mythical heroes with them, 477. Origin of the name, 477. Then-descendants akin to the Karamanians, 47S.

Soss, ner, and sar of Chal-daeau astronomy, 401.

Sothic and vulgar (Egyptian) years, 40.

Sparethra's (Qneeu) army of women, 549.

Sphiux, the colossal, 66. Symbolical of power united with intelligence, 67.

Stranger kings of Egypt, 117.

Stratford de Redclyffe (Lord), the collection of Assyrian mounmeuts in the British Museum mainly due to, 278.

Suez Canal, inscription stating that it was completed by Darius, 172. Route of the canal of M. de Les-seps, 172.

Suffetes at Carthage and Tyre, 631.

Sultan denotes a rank below that of a king, 310.

Sun (the), Egyptian personifications of, 197.

Sun-dial and its gnomon, 402.

Supreme Being, various names of the, 417.

Susa, chief capital of the Persian empire, 579.

Syene, the sun vertical at the summer solstice at, 34.

Symbolism iu the whole religion of Egypt, 200. Three stages of, 201.

Symbols, Egyptian, suggested by the solar conrse, 197. Degenerating into the actual worship of liv ing animals, 202.

Syria, derivation of, 248.

T.

Tatta Palus, the 461. Taurus, chain of, 459. Taxation of land, three categories of Egyptian, 193. Taylor cyliuder iu the British Museum, 317. Tel-Basta (the hill of Pasht),

t r jat mounds of, 142. Temple (Egyptian), complete form of an, 207. Exterior appendages of sphiuxes, obelisks, and colossi, 207. Temple of Jerusalem burnt, 351. Dates of its build-iug and destruction, 136. Temple-towers (Babylonian), their astronomical character, 369. The Birs-i-Nimrnd the most perfect example, 369. Termilse, a name of the Lycians, 4S3. Teuthrania and Tenthras, 472.

Thasos, gold mines of, 626. Thebes (Egyptian), 35. Infancy of the monarchy of, S3. Its epithet hecatom-pylos, 104. Gates and war-chariots, 104. Vari ous names, 104. Site marked by the villages of Karnak, Luxor, etc..

105. Priucipal edifices!

106. Vast necropolis, 106. Trade, manufactures, and religion, 107. Linen fabric, 107. The sacerdotal capital of all who worship Ammon, 107. Its fall, 107, Succession of its kings 108.

Theft, curious Egvptiau law of, 192.

Thirty, Egyptian supreme

court of, 192. Thothmes I. begins the tern pie of Karnak, 110.

- III., his reign the cli

max of the power of Egypt, 111. Extent of her empire under him 111. The Numerical wall of Karnak the record of his exploits, 111. His vie tory over the Assyriaus at Megiddo, 112. Conquest of Coele- Syria ir his sixth expedition, 112. Conquest of Nineveh aud Babylon, 112. Maritime power, 113. Record of his conquest of one hnn-dred and fifteen African tribes, 113. General view of the nations subdued by him, 113. Head and arm of his colossal statue in the British Museum, 114.

Thrasybulus, tyraut of Mile

tus, 516. Thyni and Bithyni, 470.

lyin and dal, kin

g of nations, 238.

Tanis, the Greek form of Zoan, the Avaris of the Shepherd kings, 137. Its

ruins, 13S. Becomes the Thrace, much of Greek po-capital of Egypt, 139. De- etic culture traced to, 44. scription of its site, 140. iThracians akin to the Tea Tarsus, foundation of, 475. j tonic family, 470.

Tiglath-pileser, meaning of the name, 254.

— I., his cylinders inscribed with cuneiform characters, 265. Annals of, 265. Five campaigns, 266. First organized Assyria as an empire, 267.

— II. an obscure adventurer, 301. Records of his wars, 303. Reduction of Syria and Palestine, 303.

Tigranes of Armenia, 532. Story of his conquest of Astyages, 533. Tigris, course of the, 223. Etymology identifying it with the Hiddekel of Edeu, 223. Its junction with the Euphrates, 223. Tirhakah, kiug of Ethiopia, regains his power over all Egypt, 159. Tissaphernes's policy of creating division among the Greek states, 585. Sacrificed to the revenge of Parysatis, 5S5. Tnephachthus, curse on Menes pronounced by, 147. Tomyris's (Queen) vengeance on Cyrus, 549. Transplantation of populations, Assyrian policy of, 312.

Triads of Egyptian deities, 199. The universal triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horns, 199. Each triad consisting iu the worship of father, mother, and son, 197. The triad of Thebes, 19S. Of Memphis, 199. Of Hermonthis, 199. Tripolis, the threefold Phoenician colony of, 611. Turanian family of languages, 25. Tnryas, or Tnranians, represented by the Tatar and Finnish tribes, 419. A Japhetic race, 420. The Moschi and Tibareni, 463. Turin papyrus, the chief extant specimen of Egyptian historical literature, 216.

Tyre, its antiquity inferior to that of Sidou, 606. Old Tyre, 610 Connection of its form Sarra with Syria, G10. Distant voyages to the West, G10. Succession of kings, 019. Three sieges by Sargon, Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexander, 625. Ezekiel's historical picture of its resources, 627. Its exnlta' tion over the fall of Jern-

urukh.

INDEX.

zur. G4⁽j

salem, 629. Wealth aud power before its fall, 352. Thirteen years' siege of, 352, 029. Captured by the Saraceus, 634. Its present state, 634. Tyrian purple, 600.

TJ.

Urukh and Ilgi, inscriptions of, 237.

-, seal of king, 376.

Ururaiyeh, Lake, 444.

Van, lake and kingdom of, 532.

Veisdates, the secoud Pseudo-Smerdis, 574.

W.

Walls of Babylonian forts and cities, 3S2.

Weights and measures handed down through Phoenicia and Greece, 400.

West (the), the laud of darkness aud death, 72.

Wheat indigenous iu Mesopotamia, 226.

White Syrians, 464.

—wall of Memphis, 5S3. ¹

Word (the Creative), dialogue of Zoroaster with Ahuramazda respecting, 426.

Writing of immemorial antiquity iu Egypt and Mesopotamia, 338. Babylonian, originally hieroglyphic, 388. First departure from strict picture writing, 3SS.

Xauthns, defense and capture of, 434.

Xerxes, derivation of the nam&, 5S1. Genealogy of, 536. Preferred to his elder half-brother by the influence of his mother, Atossa, 5S0. Murdered by Artabanus, 5S2.

-II. murdered, 5S4.

Xisuthrus, deluge of, 233.

Xoi'te kings, dynasty of, 93.

Y.

the branch

elements of the Medo-Persian religion in the, 421. Its conteuts, 422. The revocation of Mazde-ism nu.&e to Zoroaster, 424. Its doctrine of rewards ££d punishments, 433.

Zeno the Isaurian, 479. Zicharbaal, the Sichseus of

Virgil, 623. Ziggurats or temple-towers, Assyriaa, 2S7, 369. Relation between the Babylonian temple-towers and the Egyptian pyramids, 370. The ziggurats quasi-religious, 380.

elf-mutilation of,

Yavauas, the branch of the Aryan family which¹ spread over Europe, 415.; Their L ame preserved in Zopyrus, the Javan of Genesis, and 570.

in the Greek Ionians, 415. -, rebellion of, agaiust

Their immigrations west- Artaxerxes, 5S3. ward, 419. Zoroaster, meaning of the

Yazatas and Fervers, 430,¹ traditioa that he reigned

X.

Xanthian trophy, 4S5.

431.

Yezidis or devil - worshippers, 43S.

Young's (Dr.) discovery of the phonetic nature of hieroglyphics, 212. The key to hieroglyphics found by him applied by Champ^i-lion, 212.

Zarvanians, the (represented by the Guebres and Parsees), their tenets, 429.

Zedekiah's rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, 350. His league with Pharaoh-Hophra, 350.

Zend language, one of the oldest forms of Aryan speech, 423. Its remains, 423.

as conqueror at Babylon, 235. His duf.J^stic doctrine of opposite divine principles, 427. Great religious reform, 421. Remote date, 421. Legends of his personal history, 422. The scene «f his mission Bactriana, 422. Marvels recorded as attendant on his birth and career, 422. His doctrine a reaction from polytheism and pantheistic naturalism, 424. Dialogue with Ormazd, 426. Zoroastrianism a pure monotheistic religion, 426. Its perversion into dualism, 427. Morality of the Zoroastrian faith simple and pure, 433. Its abhorrence of all idolatry, 435. Zur (the aucient Tyre), now

Zendavesta, the essential! a miserable village, 634

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THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. Summer and Winter Journeys in Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Northern Finland. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $7 50; Half Calf, $12 00.

CYCLOPAEDIA OF UNITED STATES HISTORY. From the Aboriginal Period to 1876. By Benson J. Lossing. Illustrated by 2 Steel Portraits and over 1000 Engravings. 2 vols., Royal 8vo. Cloth, $10 00; Sheep, $12 00; Half Morocco, $15 00.

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ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. Edited by John Morley. The following volumes are now ready:

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HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By Henry Charles Lea. 3 vols., Svo, Cloth. Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $3 00 per vol.

THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. Book I. History of Japan, from 060 b.c to 1872 a.d. Book II. Personal Experiences, Observations, and Studies in Japan, from 1870 to 1874. With Two Supplementary Chapters: Japan in 1883, 1886, and 1890. Bv W. E. Giuffis. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00; Half Calf, $6 25.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA. By Henry Cabot Lodge. With Colored Map. 8vo, Half Leather, $8 00.

6

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THE LAND AND THE BOOK. Biblical Illustrations drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the Holy Land. By William M. Thomson, D.D., Forty-five Years a Missionary in Syria and Palestine. In Three Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. Square 8vo, Ornamental Cloth, per volume, $6 00; Sheep, $7 00; Half Morocco, $8 50; Full Morocco, Gilt Edges, $10 00. (Volumes sold separately.)

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HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ART. By Dr. Franz von Reber. Translated and Augmented by Joseph Thacher Clarke. With 422 Illustrations, and a Glossary of Technical Terms. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART. By Dr. Franz von Reijer. Revised by the Author. Translated and Augmented by Joseph Thacher Clarke. With 310 Illustrations and a Glossary of Technical Terms. Svo, Cloth, $3 50.

THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA: its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan. By Alexander William Kinglake. With Maps and Plans. Six volumes, 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. ; Half Calf, $22 50 per set.

THE TSAR AND HIS PEOPLE; or, Social Life in Russia. Papers by Theodore Child, Eugene Melchior de Vogue, Clarence Cook, and Vassili Verestchagin. Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $3 00.

LIFE OF BISHOP MATTHEW SIMPSON, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By George R. Crooks, D.D. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3 75; Gilt Edges, $4 25; Half Morocco, $5 25. (Sold by Subscription.)

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CYPRUS: its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples. A Narrative of Researches and Excavations during Ten Years' Residence in that Island. By L. P. di Cesnola. With Portrait, Maps, and 400 Illustrations. Svo, Cloth, Extra, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $7 50.

THE ANCIENT CITIES OF THE NEW WORLD : Being Voyages and Explorations in Mexico and Central America, from 1857 to 1882. By Desire Ciiarnay. Translated by J. Gonino and Helen S. Conant. Illustrations and Map. Roval 8vo, Ornamental Cloth, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top, $G 00.

A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES, from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of 1880. Bv Justin M'Cartiiy, M.P. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $2 50; Half Cnlf,"$6 00.

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A HISTORY OF THE FOUR GEORGES. By Justin M'Cartiiy, M.P. In Four Volumes. Vols. I. and II,*12mo, Cloth, $1 25 each.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By Justin H. M'Carthy. In Two Volumes. Volume I. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50.

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NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA; or, Anecdotes and Conversations of the Emperor during the Years of his Captivity. Collected from the Memorials of Las Casus, O'Meara, Monthoion, Antommarchi, .and others. By John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3 50 ; Sheep, $4 00 ; Half Calf, $5 75.

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THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. By J. W. Dawson, . LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University, Montreal. With Twenty Illustrations. New and Revised Edition. " 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.

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MODERN ITALIAN POETS. (1770-1870.) Essays and Versions. By William Dean Howells. With Portraits. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.

SYDNEY" SMITH. A Sketch of the Life and Times of the Rev. Sydney Smith. By Stuart J. Reid. With Steel-plate Portrait and / Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00.

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Being the Story of the Fourth Crusade. By Edwin Pears, LL.B. Svo, Cloth, $2 50.

CARICATURE AND OTHER COMIC ART, in All Times and Many Lands. By James Parton. 203 Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top, $5 00; Half Calf, $7 25.

GEORGE ELIOT'S LIFE. Related in her Letters and Journals. Arranged and Edited bv her Husband, J. W. Cross. Portraits and Illustrations. 3 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 75; Half Calf, $9 00. Popular Edition : Cloth, $2 25 ; Half Binding, $2 00.

COLERIDGE'S WORKS. The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. With an Introductory Essay upon his Philosophical and Theological Opinions. Edited by Prof. W. G. T. Shedd. With Ste rtrait, and an Index. 7 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol-„' 00 per set; Half Calf, $21 25.

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THE "FRIENDLY EDITION" of Shakespeare's Works. Edited bv W. J. Roi.fe. In Twenty Volumes. Illustrated. IGmo, Gilt fops and Uncut Edges. Cloth, $25 00; Half Leather, $35 00; Half Calf, $50 00 per Set.

LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, Fifteenth President of the United States. By George Ticknor Curtis. With Two Steel-Plate Portraits. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $6 00.

CYCLOPAEDIA OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN POETRY. Ed ited by Epes Sargent. Royal Svo, Illuminated Cloth, Colored Edges,"$-t 50; Half Leather, $5 00.

ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT FOREST of Equatorial Africa and the Country of the Dwarfs. Bv Paul Du Chaillu. Abridged and Popular Edition. With Map and Illustrations. Post Svo, Cloth, $1 75.

LIVINGSTONE'S ZAMBESI. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858 to 1S6I. By David and Charles Livingstone. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $5 00 ; Sheep, $5 50.

THE LAST JOURNALS OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE in Central Africa, from 18G5 to his Death. Continued by a Narrative of his Last Moments, obtained from his Faithful Servants Cliuma and Susi. By Horace Waller. With Portrait, Maps, and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $G 00.

HISTORY OF FRIEDRICII II., called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle. Portraits. Maps, Plans, etc. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $7 00; Sheep, $0 90; Half Calf, $18 00.

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PAST AND PRESENT, CHARTISM, AND SARTOR RESARTUS. By Thomas Carlyle. 12mo, Cloth, §1 25.

EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY, AND THE PORTRAITS OP JOHN KNOX. By Thomas Carlyle. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25.

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BROUGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Life and Times of Henry, Lord Brougham. Written by Himself. 3 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 00.

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. By Paul Barron Watson Crown 8vo_; Cloth, $2 50.

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LIFE OF CICERO. By Anthony Trollope. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, %'d 00.

FROM EGYPT TO PALESTINE. Through Sinai, the Wilderness, and the South Country. Observations of a Journey made with Special Reference to the History of the Israelites. By S. C. Bartlett, D.D. Maps and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 50.

THE LIFE OF JOHN LOCKE. By H. R. Fox Bourne. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $5 00.

THE ATMOSPHERE. Translated from the French of Camille Flammarion. With 10 Chromo - Lithographs and 86 Wood-cuts. Svo, Cloth, $6 00: Half Calf, $8 25.

A TEXT-BOOK OF CHURCH HISTORY. By Dr. John C. L. Gieseler. Re\i.-ed and Edited by Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D. Vols. I., II., III., and IV., 8vo, Cloth, $2 25 each: Vol. V., 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. Complete Sets, 5 vols., Sheep, $14 50; Half Calf, $23 25.

THE HUGUENOTS: their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland. By Samuel Smiles. With an Appendix relating to the Huguenots in America. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00.

THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; with a Visit to the Country of the Vandois. By Samuel Smiles. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 00.

THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON, and of his Son, Robert Stephenson; comprising, also, a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. By Samuel Smiles. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00.

THE VOYAGE OF THE CHALLENGER. The Atlantic: an Account of the General Results of the Voyage during 1873 and the "Zarly Part of 1876. By Sir Wyvillk Thomson, K.C.B., F.R.S. Illus'trated. 2-vols., Svo, Cloth, $12 00.

THE POETS AND POETRY OF SCOTLAND : From the Earliest to the Present Time. Comprising Characteristic Selections from the Works of the more Noteworthy Scottish Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices. Bv James Grant Wilson. With Portraits on Steel. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00 ; Gilt Edges, $11 00.

THE HEART OF AFRICA. Three Years'Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of the Centre of Africa—from 1868 tr. 1871. By Georg Schweinfurth. Translated by Ellen E. Frf.v f,r. Illustrated. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $8 00.

This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped below, and if not returned at or before that time a fine of five cents a day will be incurred.

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^[1] This Vignette, though not a Phoenician subject, is introduced here to exhibit a city of the greatest, importance ir the ancient history of the East, and often mentioned in the preceding pages.