LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. ANCIENT HISTORY: FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE MAHOMETAN CONQUEST. BY THE AUTHOR OF "KINGS OP ENGLAND," &C TWELFTH EDITION. LONDON: J. AND C. MOZLEY, 6, PATERNOSTER ROW , MASTERS AND SON, 78, NEW BOND STREET. 1866= 58621 ' 29 FEB 34 PREFACE The design of the following sketches is to bring into connection the events most neces- sary to be remembered in Ancient History, and to convey a general idea of the characteristics and course of the " changing empires " of classical times, with an especial view to the better under- standing of Scripture History and the growth of the Church. In so small a space it has been impossible to give much detail ; and where anecdotes have been introduced, they are either such as must necessarily be known, or sucl} as may lead to the better comprehension of the characters and ways of thinking of the great men of old. There are many more complete histories of Greece and Rome written for children, but it is hoped that these Landmarks may be found to supply the connection between the different branches of Ancient History, including that of the Jews ; as well as to furnish a class-book for parochial schools where no more than a general idea of universal historv is wanted. IV PREFACE. If the present volume be found to answer its purpose, it is intended to follow it up with Landmarks of Mediaeval History, beginning from the reign of Charlemagne, and reaching to the Reformation ; and Landmarks of Modern History, extending from the Reformation to the present time. July Uth, 1852. P.S. TO THE SIXTH EDITION. The introduction to the present edition was added at the request of the Calcutta University, by whose kind permission it has been republished here, for the use of the more advanced readers. Young children would probably find it too difficult August 5th, 1862. INTRODUCTION. PART I. THE ANTEDILUVIANS. The universe was made by Almighty God, who placed the sun amid the stars, with the planets circling round him in their courses. Our earth is the third planet in distance from the sun, and though small among the other spheres, and as nothing amid the multitudes in infinite space, yet the great Creator has watched over it, and directed all its changes. By these changes, it was gradually fitted to be the abode of the present race of animals, and of man, the master of them all, like them in having a body of flesh, but made in the image of God, since he possesses an immortal soul. One man and one woman were first created to be the parents of the human kind ; and as long as they were obedient, they lived in a state of perfect happiness, of which the world has never lost the memory, but has kept up a dim recollection of glad times of perfect peace and favour with God. An evil spirit, taking the form of a serpent, led first the woman, and she led her husband, to disobedience, and thus they forfeited the peculiar favour and pro- tection they had hitherto enjoyed. Food no longer INTRODUCTION. grew for them without toil; their bodies required garments ; the woman became inferior to the man ; and they were no longer guarded from the tempter, who would lead them into Crimes, then wreak upon them the punishment they justly deserved, in death, pain, and sorrow ; and to all these troubles, not only themselves, but all their offspring, became liable. Even then the promise was held out, that one sprung of woman should yet, at His own cost, free mankind from the serpent deceiver ; and this trust lived on for ages in the world, and was shown in many a story, and many a representation of a mighty One struggling with and trampling down a serpent foe. They were also still allowed to approach their Maker in prayer; although, to show them that it was only through death that sin could be atoned for, they were required to bring an offering of an animal, innocent in itself, though of course not sufficient in worth to be taken instead of a man, and thus only capable of show- ing their faith in a coming Deliverer, whose death should bring them near to God. " In faith," Abel, the second son of our first parents, offered his lamb, and was accepted ; but Cain, his elder brother, angered that his less faithful sacrifice was rejected, committed the first act of murder on the earth, and was therefore cast out of his father's home, where the thoughts and ways of the times of innocence were still remembered, and partly practised, by Seth, the third son, and his descendants. Life was more than ten times longer than at present ; and Cain's children multiplying round him in his exile, he built them a city, or collection of solid buildings, instead of merely hiding in caves, or living under trees. INTRODUCTION. Hi There the days of purity were quickly forgotten : Lamech, fourth in descent from Cain, broke the law pronounced over the first marriage, and took two wives ; and he was likewise a murderer, like his great grandfather. The words in which he uttered the bitterness of his heart after the crime, are the first poetical composition known to exist. Some think that the "young man," whom he slew, might have been a human sacrifice, and his song the beginning of a wild ceremony of worship. At any rate, song was soon followed up by music ; for his son Jubal invented the harp, made of the tendons of animals strained over a frame, or over a tortoise shell ; and the organ, a row of hollow reeds, blown into in succession ; and these would have been used both at feasts, and at the dances and other observances of their new rites of worship. Another son, called Jabal, first invented the tent, that wandering home made of woven goat's hair, so needful to the roving herdsman, who, going from pas- ture to pasture, leads a fierce and lawless life ; and the third brother, Tubal Cain, discovered the use of the harder metals, and first welded brass, and whetted the sharp iron.* * " He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon Were tents of various hue; by some were herds Of cattle grazing ; others, whence the sound Of instruments, that made melodious chime, Was heard of harp or organ ; and who moved Their stops and chords, was seen his volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue. In other parts stood one, who, at the forge Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass Had melted ; whether found where casual fire Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale Down to the veins of earth, thence gliding hot - 1Y INTRODUCTION. Wherever very old remains of the human race are found, stone arrow heads and knives mark their first stage, then come remains of brass implements, and lastly of iron ones. And the people armed with iron weapons, soon gain an easy victory over those who can merely defend themselves with clumsy stone and feeble brass, so that violence quickly prevails ; and thus old tradition has painted to us the changes of the earlier world, as the age of gold, when all was blessed ; the age of silver, fallen, yet still peaceful ; the age of brass, a time of deceit and wrong ; and the age of iron, the time of war and violence. The sons of Seth, who had long held aloof from the crimes of the other race, began to be infected, and frightful corruptions prevailed everywhere. Beings of huge size and monstrous wickedness walked the earth ; and feasting, rioting, and excess of all kinds, continued unchecked, and fostered by all the arts of life, to which the long term of years and the early vigour of the world gave ample scope. No heed was paid to the warning voice of a solitary son of Seth, who declared that these crimes were bringing down vengeance on them, and proclaimed that a flood of water would sweep away the wicked. He himself constructed an ark, or huge vessel, capable of containing not only himself and his family, but pairs of all the animals, and sevens of the domestic ones used for food and sacrifice. The ark was built To some cave's mouth ; or whether washed by stream From under ground ; the liquid ore he drained Into fit moulds prepared, from which he wrought First his own tools, then what might else be wrought, Fusil, or graven, in metal.*' — Milton. INTRODUCTION. V and provisioned, and Noah himself, his wife, with his three sons and their wives, were safely within it, when the rain descended, sea and rivers rose above their bounds, and the whole inhabited world was submerged for the space of an entire year. It is thought possible that the ground may have been made to sink ; so that between the swelling rivers, the rushing storms, and the overflowing sea, the land was for that time entirely covered. All that it contained perished, except what was secured in the ark; and the earth was purified from the dark crimes of its earlier ages. Of this deluge, likewise, every nation has preserved a recollec- tion ; and under different forms, the dwellers in the most distant countries tell of the universal destruction, and of the few saved in a floating vessel. At the year's end, the ark rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia; and Noah and his family came forth, And received a promise that water should never again destroy the world. The rainbow in the cloud was appointed as the pledge of this promise, and has ever since been regarded as the messenger of mercy. The Flood is computed to have taken place 1540 years from the time whence the age of the first man is reckoned ; but how long ago this may have been, is not known with any certainty. PART II. THE DISPERSION OF THE NATIONS. On leaving the Ark, mankind found themselves in Western Asia, the region where the legends of all nations centre as their origin. Noah, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, here at first abode ; but Ham, for irreverence to his father, was laid under a VI INTRODUCTION. prophetic curse, which bore that his children should be servants to their brethren, while though Shem was blessed, yet Japhet should be enlarged, and dwell in the tents of Shem. At first, however, Ham's family seem to have taken the lead, and leaving their first settlements for the fertile valley of the Euphrates, resolved to build a city and a tower of the bricks of the soft clay, in remem- brance perhaps of the cities of the Cainites, and in the hope of defying another flood. This faithless outrage was put a stop to by a sudden confusion of their speech. The one language they had hitherto spoken became changed in their mouths, and they could no longer under- stand one another. The builders went their several ways, the place was called Babel, or Confusion ; and thenceforth began the division of the human race into nations, distinct from one another by character and speech. The law of division has continued ever since, causing people of the same stock to diverge more and more from one another, and acquire a character of their own. Yet on examination the relationship can be traced; and it is proved both by features and language, that all nations are of one blood, but with three chief divisions ; and in accordance with this, the last early legend, common to most countries, is of a defiance of Heaven, a fall ; or a tower-building, and a dispersion. If mankind are classified by their physical conforma- tion, they fall into three chief outlines, the Negro, the Semitic, and the Caucasian. The Negro races have skulls with receding foreheads, flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair ; their skins are dark, and their frames strong, capable of enduring the INTRODUCTION. Vll great heat of the climates to which they are native. Their character is such that, though able to exert great strength, and subject to bursts of fierce passion, they are easily subdued, and when enslaved remain patiently in bondage, and become faithfully attached to their master. Left to themselves, they make no advances in arts or ideas, and if they devise any form of worship, it is unmeaning and unconnected with memories of the past. They fall a ready prey to more able and skilful nations, and fulfil the fate foretold to their forefather, that they should become servants to their brethren. Yet under cultivation from other nations, they return to higher powers ; in the course of generations, their brows rise, and they show themselves capable of im- provement. The Semitic races have high brows, rounded skulls, and fine features, straight dark hair, and beautifully moulded limbs, slender, active, and delicate. They have more activity and endurance than force, and are generally more patient than strong, yet though very brave, not always firm. Their religion is usually a strong belief in the One God, and a horror and dread of image worship ; their life is that of shepherd wan- derers, free as air ; and though, under cultivation, they have very high powers of poetry and imagination, yet in general they remain in the same state of civilization and knowledge from which their forefathers started, without making any advance; and some have even dropped below this point, and become as degraded and more helpless than the negroes. The Caucasians are the most capable of improve- ment and of victory. Their forms are less refined, but stronger, than those of the Semitic races ; and their Vlll INTRODUCTION. minds, though very dull in their rudest state, receive fresh ideas, improve upon them, and constantly make progress, never content with the last step, and always seeking onward. With the attainment of fresh powers, their heads and countenances alter, and tribes whose looks were anciently no more intelligent than those of the negro, and more hideous, have since advanced beyond the prime races of the Semitic family, not so aiuch in beauty as in expression. Left to themselves, Jiey have been prone to find out many inventions in religion, but not unmeaning like those of the negroes, and usually rising out of dimly romembered truth, or allegory made substantial. Their courage and spirit are great, and the conquering nations have always belonged to this stock. In like manner, the languages of the world are in three chief divisions — Agglutinate, Semitic, Aryan. The Agglutinate is so called because two words are glued together to express the number, case, or person, of the first, a word being repeated twice for the plural, another added to form a case, and the like. All the words are of one syllable, and there is no grammar ; the construction is rude and awkward, and scanty in expression, and those of different nations are so different and various as to show the curse of con- fusion still on them, though on close examination, similarities are detected, enabling them to be ranged in groups, and shown to be fragments of what was once more complete. The other two classes of language have apparently originally been Agglutinate, but the words once added to express the relations of the original noun or verb have been as it were welded into them, so that they undergo INTRODUCTION. IX changes expressing number or case, person or tense, without losing their primary form. These changes are called inflections — they have formed grammar, and give great force and beauty to their speech, enabling it to express the ideas of cultivated people. So far the two are alike ; but whereas the words of the various languages of each branch, and their rules of construction, resemble one another somewhat as the dialects of the provinces of the same country are alike, the two chief branches are entirely distinct. Each is a family of languages, bearing a visible relation to a common stock, but these two parent stocks are so unlike, that only minute analysis has detected traces that they may have had a common parent. The prevalence of these three classes of language coincides in the main with the three families of the human kind, but not with absolute exactness, for the sons of Ham did not at once lapse into the Agglutinate speech, which the mere savage, of whatever birth, always uses, though with civilization he adopts forms akin to those of the other nations. Thus after the Dispersion, the descendants of Cush, son of Ham, appear to have remained near Babel, forming in time the great nation called Assyrian, dwell- ing on the banks of the Euphrates, and speaking a Semitic language, which they retained even after they had been subdued by the Chaldeans, who were of the victorious blood of Japhet, and made the Assyrians a conquering people. Another family of Hamites, named after Misraim, became dwellers in the valley of the Nile, in the fer- tile soil of Egypt. Their language was Semitic, but their features in the portraits they have left of them- X INTRODUCTION. selves, as well as the form of their heads, are of the negro type, though with some Semitic characteristics. Both these nations seem to have preserved some re- collection of the tradition of the cherub who had guarded the entrance of Paradise after the Fall of Man, for the remains they have left, of sculptured sphynxes, and winged lions and bulls with human faces, are thought to be in both countries attempts at represent- ing the same symbolic manifestation of Divine Power. They are thought likewise to have preserved the re- membrance of the arts practised before the Flood, for they were builders of cities, tillers of the land, and had early become highly civilized. The same arts were used, and the same class of language spoken, by the sons of Canaan, who spread themselves over the mountain land between the Medi- terranean and the Euphrates, and quickly became rich and prosperous, buying and selling between the other two great nations, and rendering themselves the mer- chants of the old world. They advanced beyond the Egyptians, who only recorded words by symbols, for they invented letters to express sounds ; and this inven- tion has under varied forms been adopted by the whole civilized world. But either they had brought with them traditions of the foul worship of the Cainites, or they invented new gods for themselves ; for theirs was from the first time we hear of it a cruel and licentious worship, contributing not to raise man by the thought of anything higher and purer than himself, but to degrade him by teaching him to practise vice in honour of his gods. And thus the Canaanite worship became too alluring to their neighbours, and gradually infected other nations. INTRODUCTION. X 1 From other sons of Ham, or Canaan, descend those races that migrated to the southward, and filled Africa, darkening under the tropical sun, and falling into savage life ; as the Negro, the Kafir, the Hottentot, and the Bushman, all using Agglutinate dialects, and with either no religion at all, or the basest superstitions. It is possible, a! o, that of the Hamitic race may have been the earliest inhabitants of the great peninsulas to the south of Asia, and from thence proceeded to the Asiatic and Polynesian archipelagos, where the islanders have many of the Negro characteristics. The chief of the Semitic races continued in Western Asia, around the sources of the great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, and became in time the race known as Syrians, living to the north-west of Assyria. From the Syrians were chosen out the Hebrews, in whom the blessing spoken by Noah was realized. Their language is the most perfect of the Semitic tongues, and their forms and features of so superior an order, that they are physically reckoned among the Caucasians. They had a divine revelation, and except when infected by the Canaanites, preserved their allegiance to it. From them branched out the Arabs, who have ever since inhabited the great peninsula between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, leading the life of roving shep- herds, using a Semitic tongue, adoring one unseen God, and preserving their freedom. Only once in the history of the world, have any section of their race been known to lead a settled life in cities, or to study arts and sciences; but during that time their advances were rapid, and their successes brilliant. The Idurneans, who dwelt in the rocks north of the Red Sea, were another branch of the same family ; and Xll INTRODUCTION. so are the various tribes, who have strayed over the north of Africa, and mixing with the negroes, produced the Berbers, Numidians, and Moors. It is likely, too, that other Shemites spread over the greater part of Asia; although these have been suc- ceeded by other nations, and have deteriorated so much, that they are difficult to trace to their origin. It is probable, however, that these are the Malays of the eastern peninsula of India, and the islands adjoining, since we find in them the slight lithe frames, and wan- dering untameable nature, of the Semitic races ; and still further degraded are the Australian natives, like them, unreclaimed rovers, and besides, feeble and help- less. The Malayan stock has likewise filled most of the islands of the South Seas. And that the great con- tinent of America has likewise been peopled with sons of Shem, is almost certain. The inhabitants have the slender forms, straight features, and straight hair, agreeing with such a descent ; and the great body of them are inveterate wanderers, incapable of being civilized, and perishing under the attempt. They are too, in general, adorers of one great Spirit, without images or temples ; and some of their tribes, in North America, had traditions of having been driven to cross the sea to their present abode, after having once lived in a warmer country, where dwelt a creature, evidently a monkey. Traditions of the Fall and the Flood are also found there. Two of their nations alone ever lived a settled life, or advanced in civilization, and these were in the mountains of Mexico and Peru, and, according to their own account, were guided by a teacher from the west, probably one of the third race, of which we are next to speak. All these have, INTRODUCTION. Xlll of course, the degenerate monosyllabic varieties of speech. Both the families mentioned above, seem to have fallen from a higher point; the third has been con- stantly rising from a lower one. Of one race of the progeny of the third son, which once seems, in a very degraded condition, to have overspread Europe, nothing is left but their flint arrow heads and stone hatchets, buried in the ground ; and half burnt wooden houses, sunk in some of the Alpine lakes ; except the stunted dwellers in the extreme north, the Samoieds of Asia, Lapps of Europe, and Esquimaux of America, living that kind of savage life which is the effect of intense cold, and speaking a monosyllabic tongue. South of them, from the Caspian to the Pacific, roamed fierce hordes of horsemen and herdsmen, living on milk and flesh, and speaking a rude monosyllabic tongue. From time to time, they have been seized with a passion for conquest, and have then invaded the lands adjoining. When settled there, they have become mixed into the original nation, giving it life and spirit, and losing the ill formed physiognomy called Mongolian, have advanced to the Caucasian type, so called because its perfection is to be seen in the inhabitants of the Caucasus Mountains. One nation alone of this stock is an exception to this rule. Though early fixed in the great peninsula of China, and civilized to a certain point unknown ages ago, this people has remained at the same point — industrious, but not advancing, and still retaining the same Mongolian features, and Agglu- tinate speech, expressed by written symbols instead of letters. The original Mongol or Tartar stock, still remains in 2 a XIV INTRODUCTION. its old quarters; but the chief business of history 13 with the various swarms that have proceeded from it- on their mission to be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem. At some unknown period, the more advanced of this race must once have spoken the parent tongue of that class of language called the Aryan, because all sprung from it contain the root Ar, used in some con- nection with husbandry. All the nations (except the Jews) of Caucasian conformation, speak languages evi- dently taken from one used before their forefathers parted, and only altered by pronunciation, change of sense, or coining of new words to express new objects, but by the same rules. The simplest words, such as the ten first numbers, the terms for the nearest family rela- tionships, the names of domestic animals, and the more homely verbs, are almost always the same in them, and confirm what the bodily conformation of those who use them had shown, that all are sprung from one source. Of the races thus derived, the Chaldeans early be- came the ruling people in Assyria, and adopted the language there, and the worship of the winged bulls. Thenceforth the Assyrian Empire conquered. The Mcdes and Persians took possession of the hills of Iran, and in their turn became conquerors. They learnt a Semitic religion, adoring the sun and fire as divine symbols ; but the book in which their religion is taught, the Zend, is in a language which plainly connects the present Persian with the ancient Aryan. The Hindoos occupied the great peninsula of Hindo- stan, and there produced their sacred books, the Vedas, in the old Sanscrit, of which all their modern dialects svre corruptions ; and there grew up their religion, at INTRODUCTION. XV first allegorical, but in process of time the symbols becoming mistaken for realities. Further north, the Ionian or Javanite (the same word differently pronounced) made his home in the isles and rocks of the Eastern Mediterranean, and was called in after time the Greek. He brought a language nearly related to the Sanscrit, which he learnt to write in Canaanite letters ; and a worship of the powers of nature by symbolic rites, which were speedily corrupted by his intercourse with Egypt and Canaan ; and in due time he became a great and victorious people. Westward again, in the long Italian peninsula, another Aryan tongue was used, which was called the Latin : and by-and-by the leading city, Rome, became the ruler of the West. Its religion was of the same type as that of the Greeks. Meantime, the northern branch had spread; and, probably by the use of brazen weapons, had overthrown the Lapp race, and settled in the midst of Europe, under the title of Kelts ; but behind them came an iron weaponed race, of more firm and resolute mould, known as Teutons, or Germans ; and in process of time, forced the Kelts into the granite hills, that fence the west coast of Europe from the Atlantic waves; and there they still remain, and still speak their variety of the Aryan tongue. The Teuton, or German family, (to which the English belong,) Aryan too in speech, were the victors over the great Latin conquerors, and have since peopled Europe, and influenced almost all its languages. Their worship was, likewise, chiefly of the powers of nature, and with allegoric tales attached to it. Behind them are the Slavonic nations, living in eastern Europe, and Xvi INTRODUCTION. less removed from the Mongol in face, though in language thorough Aryans. And lastly the Turk, Mongol in face and in speech, has obtained a footing between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. Turkey is the only country in Europe that does not use one form or another of the great Indo- European, or Aryan language, that is, as it were, the mark of the race of Japhet. It is also the only Euro- pean country that has not adopted the true religion, revealed first to the Hebrews, but when perfected by the Divine Deliverer of the earth, destined to spread among ail nations. PART III. SOURCES OF HISTORY. It is only from the time of the Dispersion at Babel, that history can be said to begin ; and it is but a small portion of the world that has in truth a history, for many nations have been so ignorant, and so indifferent to the adventures of their forefathers, as to have pre- served no record of them. And even of those who have kept the names of their rulers in remembrance, it is only those who have mingled in the great course of events that took place in the north-east of the great continent, that are concerned in general history. In truth, those nations alone, in ancient times, who came in contact with the Jews, the chosen race, have any clear light thrown upon their doings. The first history in existence, the only one indeed of the earlier events of the world's history, was revealed to Moses by divine inspiration, about 3,300 years ago ; and thenceforward a minute record was kept of the government, the wars, and disasters, of the Hebrews, INTRODUCTION. XVil who have thus the earliest and most certain history in the world. China and Ceylon both have long chronicles from a very early period, but totally unconnected with those o* the rest of the world, and therefore taking no place in the universal history. Egyptian records go back almost as far as those of the Jews ; but they are in a forgotten tongue, and ex- pressed in the hieroglyphics, or symbol writing, either on sheets of the pressed rind of the paper rush, or engraved on the walls of their huge sepulchres and temples. Only recently has a clue to their meaning been discovered, in a stone which bears the same in- scription, in Greek letters and in ancient hieroglyphics ; but previously all knowledge of Egyptian events was derived from the mention of them by writers of other nations. So, too, Assyria has been lately found to have a full chronicle traced out in cuneiform or wedge-shaped letters moulded on clay tablets and cylinders, ranged around the chambers of the ruined palaces, that lie buried deep beneath the desert sand, that has drifted over the deserted cities on the banks of the Euphrates, which hitherto had been only known through the writings of the Jews and Greeks. Except for these remains, it would seem to be only the Caucasian races that have developed the power of recording their history, so as to become a lesson in God's providential dealings with mankind. All their memorials, however, begin in clouds of mist, reaching back to the time when writing was unknown, and the traditions of the Patriarchs had begun to be obscured. The Creation, Fall, Promise, Flood, and XV111 INTRODUCTION. Dispersion, were dimly remembered, and commemo- rated in songs and poems, that were handed down from father to son, from priest to priest, and gradually inter- woven with each nation's own peculiar dreams, tra- ditions, and speculations, thus forming what are called myths, from a word meaning a story; and when the knowledge of writing was attained, were collected, and regarded as the foundation of the religion, and account of the origin, of the nation. Thus the Hindu has the Vedas, so called from vid, to know. In times of exceeding antiquity, these were written down in Sanscrit. The earlier ones are hymns in honour of the Supreme Light, gradually passing into symbolic descriptions of the apparent strife between light and darkness, and in the course of a few centuries followed by other poems developing the Brahminical doctrines and legends of the origin of man and animals, and their versions of the primeval traditions. So again Persia's earlier records are disguised in poetical narratives, excepting for the inscriptions which were made in the rocks in the Assyrian fashion during her time of greatness. Greece had a mass of poetic myth — some, high legend of almost forgotten revelation ; some, personification and deification of the powers of nature ; some, philo- sophical speculation; and some, the praise of great ancestors, from some one of whom every Greek claimed to be sprung. Less imaginative, the ancient Italians likewise had their hymns, their poems, and their misty accounts of their own origin ; but none of these are now extant. The Kelts had their myths of the Creation and the Flood, and their songs of their brave ancestors ; and INTRODUCTION. XIX the Teutonic races sung of great struggles between Summer and Winter, the Frost and the Thunder, and of the great leaders who brought their race from the East, the Land of Summer. After these myths follows a period when the names of real characters are preserved ; but incredible adven- tures are attributed to them, and nothing becomes clear till the nation is sufficiently advanced to keep its own chronicles, and even then it is only a man's account of his own time, and the transactions in which he has borne a part, that can be fully accepted, since hearsay evidence, however sincerely repeated, needs corroboration. The earliest of these writers whose works have been preserved is Herodotus, a Greek, who, 2,300 years ago, travelled through the adjacent countries to obtain infor- mation, and who related the great struggle that took place in his own time between Persia and Greece. He is called the Father of History, not only from the priority of his work, but from the qualities which have made it not a mere chronicle of facts, but a composition full of power, thought, and spirited simplicity, describing men as well as events. From his time, the stream of contemporary history has been unbroken, being written by the most civilized nation of the time, or sometimes by two or more, so thaf truth can be established by united testimony. Before him, where the Scriptures are silent, we have only such intelligence as can be gleaned from fragments of lost books quoted by other authors, and more recently from the already mentioned inscriptions. Evidence to confirm the assertions of writers is to be sought in such remains as have been left by the persons of whom they speak,, and memorials of the events, such INTRODUCTION. as portions of buildings, sculptures, and inscriptions in temples or on monuments, such as are to be found wherever a nation has attained to any degree of art. In many countries, ancient graves contain a whole treasury of weapons, ornaments, and utensils, showing what were the implements of daily life; and others, as in ancient Italy, contain vases painted with scenes representing the subjects of their devotion, or their occupations. Old battle fields are marked by mounds containing bones, and often fragments of armour ; and frequently coins are discovered, bearing the stamp either of the effigy of some deity, of the emblem of the city, or of the figure of the sovereign who issued them, with names or other inscriptions that help to confirm the reality of the narratives of historians. The length of time over which history extends is about 3,800 years. Before that we only know a few scattered facts, but not how long an interval elapsed between them, and though it has been usual to reckon up the ages of the persons in the early genealo gies in the Bible, and thus conclude that from the Flood to the beginning of Hebrew history is about five hundred years, yet it is not certain that all the genera- tions may have been given, or that the numbers are perfectly clear, and this chronology is therefore unfixed. As therefore there is no point to start from at the beginning, it is usual to count the dates in Ancient History backwards from the year of the birth of the Deliverer, for whom the old world was under prepara- tion; and the years are therefore numbered as so inanv B. c. — before Christ LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. CHAPTER I. PARTI. THE PATRIARCHS. B.C. 1921-1707. The Ark_rested on Mount Ararat after the Flood ; and the children of men'spread themselves along the banks of the two great rivers, that rise in the neighbouring hills. There, on the plain beside the Euphrates, they tried to raise a tower whose top should reach to heaven ; and there GodV confounded their speech, and made them speak different languages. After this we know little of them, until, about two thousand years before our Lordly was to come into the world, God. began to mark out the family from whom He should spring. Some of the sons of Shem were living far north on the course of the Euphrates, preserving some part of the true faith, that had come down to them from Noah. To one of these men called Hebrews, named Abram, there came, about B.C. 1921, a call from God^to leave his own country and his father's house, and go to a land that should be shown to him. Abram obeyed the call, and was led to the strip of land that lies between the desert and the Mediterranean Sea. There a long line of hills, sloping sharply off on either side, received the clouds from heaven, and shed them down in plentiful streams, of which the Jordan is the largest. This rich and lovely country, Abram was told should belong to his heirs, when as yet no child had been born to him. More- over, the descendants of Ham's son, Canaan, had filled the country, and called it after his name ; setting up little 2 LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAI\ I. kingdoms in the valleys, and guarding them by cities or forts, built with huge stones upon the tops of the hills. Abram's nephew, Lot, went to live in the rich but wicked city of Sodom ; and there, together with the other inhabitants, was seized, and carried captive by the kings of Shinar and Elam, who came from the east, and conquered the cities of the plain of Jordan. Abram armed his servants, pursued the kings, defeated them, and brought home the captives and their spoil in safety ; yet he would receive nothing for himself, and only asked a blessing from Melchizedec, a mysterious priest and king, who dwelt upon the Hill of Salem, After this, his name was altered to Abraham, mean- ing the father of a multitude ; and he was told that his son should at length be born. This assurance was given the day before Sodom and the other guilty cities of the Plain perished in one terrible ruin, which has made the place where they stood into a dismal volcanic lake, which is still called the Dead Sea. Lot alone was saved, and was the father of the Moabites and Am- monites, who lived around the Dead Sea. The child of promise was born, and named Isaac ; but Abraham's faith had another sore trial in being commanded to offer him up in sacrifice ; but this was meant to prove how far his obedience would go — his hand was stayed, and Isaac was given back to him At last, after a long life of patient faith, Abraham died, and was laid to rest in the Cave of Machpelah, his only possession in the Promised Land. Other sons besides Isaac had been born to him in his old age, but as they were not heirs of the promise, he sent them away; and Ishmael, the eldest, and son of his Egyptian slave, Hagar, is reckoned as the father of the warlike wandering tribes of Arabs,_who have ever since EGYPT. 6 roved about in the wild open countries to the east; living by their families in tents, and pasturing their flocks wherever they find a spring, or a patch of green. Isaac spent the same patient life of faith as his father, still living in tents, and wandering about the south part of the Promised Land. Of his twin sons, EsaUj the elder, heeded not a promise that seemed likely to bring him no profit in his life-time, and went southwards to the hills, called after him Edom or the red, where his descendants, the Idumeans7~(of whom Job was probably one,) hewed out for themselves wonderfully sculptured caves in the rocks. The younger son, Jacob, also called Israel,, at first visited Abraham's original home, there married, and then returned with his large family to the land of promise. There the favourite son, Joseph, was treach- erously sold by his envious brothers to the Ishmaelites, who carried him into Egypt. Rising from his mis- fortunes to be the chief counsellor of the king, he sent for his father, and established him, his brethren, and their families, in the richest part of the country. PART II. EGYPT. B. C. 1707-1491. Egypt lies on the banks of the Nile^ The inhabitants, sons of Misraim, Ham's son, were able and industrious ; they cultivated the soil, which was yearly watered and enriched by the swellings of the stream, and raised those wondrous buildings which have been a mystery to all succeeding ages. The Pyramids, mountains of solid masonry, square, and tapering-to a point, still remain, rising from the sandy plain where they were erected as tombs for the kings ; and even to the present day, the corpses of their dead are found undecayed, preserved in their embalmed 4 LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAP. I. cases, swathed in the fine linen of Egypt, and laid in chambers, which are painted in colours still fresh and clear, with the history of their lives ,• and wdiere the hieroglyphics — writing, that is to say, in pictures and symbols — engraved on stones and rocks, remain in all their perfection. The idols of Egypt were of enormous size, with gigantic features, composed to an expression of calm solemnity. A long range of carved figures of stone once sat in array, in chairs, on the Plain of Thebes; and the head of a gigantic statue, which is now in the British Museum, and is called the Young Memnon, may give us an idea how strange and impressive the scene must have been when all were perfect. Near the Great Pyramid there is also a wonderful figure of immense size, now termed the Sphynx, a monster with a human head and the body of alfon, so large, that between his paws there is a temple, where is sculptured a figure of the Sphynx itself receiving the offerings of a King of Egypt. The Egyptians seem to have believed in two chief powers — Osiris, whom they deemed the source of all srood, and the malignant Typhon, the cause of evil ; and they imagined that these two, who were equal in strength, were continually at war with each other. All cattle were sacred to Osiris, and in especial a black bull, with certain peculiar marks, called Apis, which was kept at Memphis, the capital city, and worshipped as a repre- sentative of the god. Dogs, cats, crocodiles, and the bird called ibis, were likewise worshipped, and are found em- balmed in great numbers ; and the beetle was held in high honour, being considered as an emblem of immortality. It was part of the Egyptian religion, like that of the Hindus, that the people were divided into castes — that is to say, each man was obliged to follow his father's pro- THE PHOENICIANS. 5 fession. The sons of a priest were priests, those of a soldier were soldiers, those of a husbandman were hus- bandmen ; and it was impossible to quit the hereditary calling, be it what it might. The priests possessed much knowledge unknown to the other Egyptians ; they prac- tised mysterious arts of enchantment ; and their authority was so great, that the kings themselves could do nothing without their consent. At one time the Egyptians suf- fered much from an invasion of a nation called Hyksos, or Shepherd-kings, but at what period, or who they were, TsHmlrn'OWn". There is a long list of kings of Egypt, but no more than their names can be clearly dis- covered, excepting that Cheops built the Great Pyramid, and that Moeris caused the lake to be made which bears his name, To drain off the water when the overflowings of the Kile were so great as to occasion a flood. The families of Jacob's twelve sons grew and mult> plied in spite of the" oppressions of Pharaoh,, until the time before appointed by God, when in the year 1491 Moses led them out of Egypt. The same year, on TSxmnt Sinai, were given those Commandments, which the chosen people bound them- selves to keep ; they were guarded by every regulation of the Divine Wisdom from mingling with the heathen,- and they pledged themselves to keep, from generation to generation, the covenant with their Maker^_which marked them as His peculiar people. 'Then, too, in case they would not keep the covenant, were denounced those curses which the whole course of the world has since been fulfilling. PART HI. THE PHOENICIANS. B.C. 1451-1096. Scarcely was the covenant made before it was broken, and the forty years' wandering in the desert was the C LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAP. I. first punishment of rebellious Israel. After this, Joshua led them into the Promised Land, where they were enabled to conquer and utterly destroy the Canaanite inhabitants of the cities where they fixed themselves. Others of these Canaanites were permitted to remain in those parts of the country which the Israelites were not yet numerous enough to occupy, though all inter- course with them was strictly forbidden. The most noted of these tribes were the Philistines in the south, the portion of Judah, and the Zidonians in the north, between the sea and the mountains of Lebanon. The gidonians, more usually called Phoenicians, were a very rich and powerful race, and their two great cities, Tyre and Zidon, were the first sea-ports where commerce was practised. The deep purple or scarlet dye obtained from a shell-fish of the Mediterranean, was in high request for colouring royal garments ; the wood of the cedars of Lebanon was no less prized for buildings; and the spices and balm of the land ot Canaan, were also exchanged with the Egyptians for corn and fine linen, The Phoenicians built ships, which brought gold and silver from Chittim, or Asia Minor, and from Tarshish, believed to be Spain ; and the wandering Arabs escorted the caravans of their merchants, who travelled, even to the opposite borders of the desert, in search of the ivory, jewels, and gold of India. Tyre and Zidon were the first and wealthiest of merchant cities. In these rich cities, a very corrupt and abominable religion was practised, even in these early times, so quickly had the sons of Ham lost all trace of the true faith. The Phoenicians were among the grossest of all idolators, adoring Baal__as their chief god, and among others, Moloch, or the planet Saturn, to whom they THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. i offered their children, by placing the poor babes between the hands of a brazen statue, over a furnace, into which they were dropped. They also adored Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the moon, or qeeen of heaven, to whom the women offered cakes, together with Tammuz, her lover, whose death they bewailed in the autumn, with their heads shaven, and every token of grief ; while in the spring they rejoiced with music and dancing, believing chat he had revived and was restored to her. The memory of the superstitions of Egypt long remained among the Israelites, and was shown in their proneness to worship the golden calf, which reminded them of Apis ; and on the other hand the Phosnicians, speaking a language much resembling their own, and possessed of such tempting wealth, continually led them into alliances, which occasioned them to fall into idolatry. During the first four centuries after their entrance into Palestine, the tribes were under the immediate rule of tlievr""own elders or magistrates, and no king or chief was owned save the Lord their God, Whose govern- ment was constantly made known to tHem by messages through the priest, by the instant punishment that fell on them when they went after other gods, as well as by the miraculous deliverances effected in His name by His messengers, the Judges. PART IV. THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. B. C. 1096-823. In 1096 the Israelites demanded a king, like the nations around them ; and Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, was anointed by Samuel. He disobeyed the voice of the Lord, was therefore rejected from being king, and was slain, with his brave and faithful son, in battle with the Philistines upon Mount Gilboa, in 1056. 8 LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAP. I. David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, was raised to the throne, where, as it was "revealed "to him, his seed was to endure for ever; though if his children should break the law, their offence should be visited with the rod, and their sin with scourges. Solomon succeeded him in 1016, and in 1000 com- pleted the glorious Temple of Jerusalem. In this reign were fulfilled the promises of temporal prosperity given to Moses; Solomon held Phoenicia under his power, forced the Syrians of Damascus to pay him tribute, and extended his dominion from the fiver Euphrates to the torrent of Egypt. His riches exceeded those of any prince who ever existed ; his magnificence dazzled all who approached him ; and his wisdom, his chosen gift, has ever since been a proverb from east to west ; but he allowed himself to be perverted by his numerous wives, erected idol temples at Jerusalem, and at length received the sentence that his kingdom should be divided. After his death, in 975, Jeroboam and the ten tribes revolted, and founded the idolatrous kingdom of Israel^ or Samaria. The weakened kingdom of Judah was invaded by Shishak, King of Egypt, supposed by some to be the great conqueror called Sesostris, whose chariot is said to have been drawn by captive kings in golden chains. A chamber in one of the tombs in Egypt has lately been discovered, adorned with paintings represent- ing an Egyptian conqueror triumphing over a nation whose countenances are said to be evidently intended to represent the Jewish features. The history of Sesostris, and the peridd~at which he lived, are, how- ever, too uncertain for this Shishak to be identified with him. ■ Samaria seems in general to have possessed more temporal power than Judea. Ahab allied himself with NINEVEH. 9 the Phoenicians, married Jezebel, a princess of the Zidonians, and practised the same arts of commerce as that nation ; but the crimes of his family brought upon them the destruction announced by Elijah the prophet, and all were cut off by Jehu. His daughter, Athaliah, had married Jehoram, King of Judah, and when her son, Ahaziah, fell with the other descendants of Ahab, she cut off the rest of the seed royal, excepting Joash, in whom the line of David was preserved. In the meantime, the Syrians of the beautiful well-watered city of Damascus, were rising into power, and became dangerous enemies to Judah and Israel, until they fell under the dominion of the first of the four great powers appointed " to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps." CHAPTER II. THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, b.c. 2300-561. PART I. NINEVEH. B. C. 2300-606. The two great rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, both rising in the mountains of Armenia, at first take a different course, and then gradually approach, and joining their streams, flow together to the Persian Gulf. The tongue of land between them, flat and well-watered, was the seat of the first of the four great empires. It was at first called the plain of Shinar ; and here it was that the Tower of Babel, or Confusion, was raised by the presumptuouslbhs of men. At Babel, Nimrod, son of Cush and grandson of Ham, commenced his kingdom ; and Ashur, his officer, from whom the name 3 a * ~ 10 LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAP. II. of Assyria is derived, founded Nineveh on the banks of the Tigris. It became a city of great size, covering an enormous space, which was inclosed by walls of almost incredible thickness, formed of bricks cemented with the bitumen which abounded in the plain of Shinar, and containing magnificent palaces, the walls covered with paintings and sculptures, and their courts guarded by gigantic figures of majestic winged lions and bulls. It is remarkable that no less than two whole books of the Old Testament relate to the history of Nineveh. ; and it would seem that the prophets of the true God were there regarded with respect, at least in the time of Jonah. Babylon, and the province of Media, further to the east, were subject to Nineveh ; and in the year 723, the ten tribes of Israel, having filled up the measure of their crimes, were besieged by King Shalmaneser, and carried away captive by his successor, Sargon,_who planted them partly at Nineveh, partly in the cities of the Medes The next king, Sennacherib, subdued all the neighbouring cities, conquered the lesser towns of the Phasnicians, and set out on his way to conquer Egypt. On the road he sent his messenger, Rabshakeh, to summon Jerusalem to surrender, and boast that the God in whom Hezekiah trusted should not be able to deliver him. Never was Jerusalem more safe than at that moment; Sennacherib, the instrument of God's wrath, had done His work for the present, and was now to be turned back again. Hearing that the King of Ethiopia in- tended to come and defend Egypt against him, Senna- cherib put off his attack upon Hezekiah, and hurried on to be beforehand with the Ethiopians, but he never came to a battle. His whole host were in one night NINEVEH. 1 1 cut off by a miracle. " Early in the morning, they were all dead corpses." At Nineveh, Sennacherib was murdered by two of his sons ; a third, Esarhaddon, was his successor, in whose reign it was that Tobit lived. At the death of Tobit, he charged his son to remove to Media, since he believed that the prophecies of vengeance against Nineveh would soon be accomplished ; and so accordingly they were. The last king of Nineveh, whom Herodotus calls Sardanapalus, but whose real name seems to have been Saracus, was one of the most luxurious princes in the east, so given up to ease and amusement, that all ordi- nary diversions had lost their zest, and he offered large rewards to any man who could devise some new plea- sure. Instead of attending to the affairs of his empire, he shut himself up in his palace with his numerous wives and female slaves, wore their garments, and like them, spun, wove, and embroidered. The subject princes of Media and Babylon revolted, and uniting their forces, laid'siege to the city of Nineveh in 606 ; but even their approach failed to rouse him, for he put his faith in what the heathen histories call an ancient oracle, which declared that Nineveh should be safe until the river became its enemy. Very probably this was the prophecy of Nahum, which said, "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." Secure in this belief, Sardanapalus continued his feasts and revellings until intelligence was brought him that the Tigris had actually overflowed its banks, and broken down" aT portion of the wall. Then, convinced that his time was come, he resolved that his death should be more noted than his life had been, and setting fire to his palace, he there burnt himself, with all his wives, slaves, and treasures, in one lofty funeral pile 12 LANDMARKS OF HISTORY. [CHAP. IL From that time forward we have no mention of this mighty city. Its existence had almost been forgotten, and doubts were entertained whether the mounds of earth which still remain on the banks of the Tigris^did actually mark its site. Of late, however, these hills have been opened, and, buried deep beneath the sands, which the desert winds have for thousands of years been gathering over them, have been found the mag- nificent remains of Nineveh, the fire-scathed palaces, " the courts of the young and old Lion/' the pictured walls, all laid up there for centuries upon centuries, to show us in these latter days how God's words of old have been fulfilled. PART II. BABYLON. B. C. 747-561. After the fall of Nineveh, Babylon became the chief city of the Assyrian Empire. The Euphx'ates flowed through the midst of it; and it seems to have been more like a district inclosed within fortifications, than a single town, for more than half of the space was taken up with fields and gardens, shut in by a wall of such thickness, that three chariots could drive abreast upon the top. It had a hundred brazen doors in the wall, and great folding-gates opening upon the river, which were closed by night and opened by day. Among the most noted of its wonders were the reservoirs and canals, provided for carrying off the floods when the river was swelled by the melting snows on the mountains where it rose. In the middle of the city stood the Temple of Bel, said to be the Tower of Babel, and the magnificent royal palace, with the gardens, where one of the kings, to please his wife, a Median princess, who pined for the mountains of her natfv