ppiiiipi!iiiliiiliii!ii ■•'.',<; llli :lji i i iiiiiil m r KiiAZ[SW.£x^^'i^^J\-6}i,^ '. HC'^:.' HISTOEY OF THE WORLD, FEOM THE EARLIEST RECOEDS TO TPIE PRESENT TIME. HISTORY OF THE WORLD, EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE PRESENT TIME. PHILIP SMITH, B.A., ONE OF THE PKINCIPAL CONTEIBXTTOES TO THE DICTIONAEIES OF GEEEK AND EOMAN ANTIQUITIES BIOQEAFHT, AND GEOQBAFHT. VOL. L a:n'oiee^t histoey. FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP OF MACEDON. 3IIustrattII ig Iblaps, pans, an& sEnarabin^s. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1865. V, \ HEKEY MALDE^, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBBIDOE, PEOFE890K OF GREEK IN TINIVERSITy COUiEGE, LONDON, Wais Sfilork is i3tl)itattt), IN ADMIRATION OF HIS PROFOUND AND ELEGANT SCHOLARSHIP, AND AS A TRIBUTE OF GRATIS.. JDE FOR THE LASTING BENEFITS OF HIS TEACHING. PKEFACE. Since Sir Walter Ealeigli solaced his imprisonment in the Tower by the composition of his " History of the World," the Literature of England has never achieved the work which he left unfinished. There have been " Universal Histories," from the bulk of an encyclopaedia to the most meagre outKne, in which the annals of each nation are separately recorded ; but the attempt has not yet been made to trace the story of Divine Providence and human progress in one connected narrative, preserving that organic unity which is the chief aim of this " History of the World." The story of our whole race, like that of each sej)arate nation, has " a beginning, a middle, and an end." That story we pro- pose to follow, from its beginning in the Sacred Records, and from the dawn of civilization in the East, — through the successive Oriental Empires, — the rise of liberty, and the perfection of heathen polity, arts, and literature in Greece and Rome, — the change which passed over the face of the world when tlie light of Christianity sprung up, — the origin and first appearance of those barbarian races, which overthrew both divisions of the Roman Empire, — the annals of the States which rose on the Empii-e's viii PREFACE. niins, including the picturesque details of medieval history and the steady progress of modern liberty and civilization, — and the extension of these influences, by discover}'', conquest, colonization, and Christian missions, to the remotest regions of the earth. In a word, as separate histories reflect the detached scenes of liunian action and sufiering, our aim is to bring into one view the several parts which assuredly form one great whole, moving onwards, under the guidance of Divine Providence, to the unknown end ordained in the Divine purposes. Such a work, to be really useful, must be condensed into a moderate compass ; else the powers of the writer would be frit- tered away, and the attention of the reader wearied out, by an overwhelming bulk, filled up with microscopic details. The more striking facts of history, — the rise and fall of empires, — the achievements of warriors and heroes, — the struggles of peoples for their rights and freedom, — the conflict between priestcraft and religious liberty, — must needs stand out on the canvas of such a picture with the prominence they claim in the world itself. But they will not divert our attention from the more quiet and influ- ential working of science and art, social progress and individual thought, — the living seed sown, and the fruit borne, in the field broken up by those outward changes. "While special care is bestowed on those periods and nations, the history of which is scarcely to be found in any works accessible to the general reader, the more familiar parts of history are treated in their due proportion to the whole work. It is, we trust, by no means the least valuable part of the design, that the portions of history which are generally looked at by themselves, — those, for example, of Greece and Kome, and of our own country, — are regarded from a common point of view with all the rest ; a view PREFACE. ix which may, in some cases, modify the conclusions di*awn by classical partiality and national pride. The spirit of the work, — at least if the execution is true to the conception, — will be found equally removed from narrow partisan- ship and affected indifference. The historian, as well as the poet, must be in earnest, " Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scom, The love of love ; " but he must also be able to look beyond the errors, and even the virtues, of his fellow-men, to the great ends which the Supreme Kuler of events works out by their agency : — " Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns." The vast progress recently made in historical and critical in- vestiorations, the results obtained from the modern science of com- parative philology, and the discoveries which have laid open new sources of information concerning the East, afford such facilities as to make the present a fit epoch for our undertaking. April, 1864. DIYISIOI^ OF THE WORK. I.— ANCIENT HISTORY, SACRED AXD SECULAR; FROM THE CREATION TO THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE, in a.d. 476. Two Vols. IL— MEDIEVAL HISTORY, CIVIL AXD ECCLESLiSTICAL ; FROM THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE TO THE TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS, in a.d, 1453. Two Volumes. III.— MODERN HISTORY; FROM THE FALL OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE TO OUR OWN TIMES. ForR Volumes. conte:n^ts. INTRODUCTION. PAGB The subject proposed — Its unity — Province of history — Distinguished from philo- sophy and science, in its nature and its evidence — Illustration from the origin of the world, as regarded in the lights of history and science respectively — Relations of primeval history to astronomy, geology, physical geography, chro- nology, and theology — Methods of historical inquiry — Epochs and periods of history — Moments of origination and of development — Epochs of revolution and periods of repose — Example of a successful method in Gibbon's great work — Note on Scripture Chronology 3 — 12 BOOK I. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS. From the Creation to the Exodus. — b.c. 4004 to b.c. 1491. CHAPTER I. The Creation of the World, and the First State of Man. The earliest historical records are in the books of Moses — Their original purpose and historical value — Mosaic account of the creation — Its mode of revelation — Its successive stages — Primeval state of man — Institution of marriage — Origin of language — Adam's study of God's works — The garden of Eden — Its probable locality — Condition and occupations of the first man — His creation in the image of God 13—18 CHAPTER II. From the Fall to the Deluge; or, the Catastrophe of Sin. First revolutionary epoch in history — Sin and grace — The fall of man — The curse and promise — Conflict of good and evil — Cain and Abel — The Cainite and Sethite races — Energy and lawlessness of the Cainites — Lamech's polygamy and murder — Religion of the Sethites — Intermarriage of the races, and consequent corruption of man — Moral and material condition of the Antediluvians — The deluge — Difficulties in the narrative — Destruction and restoration of the world — God's covenant of forbearance made with Noah — Traditions of the flood — Antediluvian longevity 19 — 26 CHAPTER III. The Post-Diluvian World, from the Deluge to the Dispersion ; or, Man's Second Probation and Fall. The Noachic precepts — Abstinence from blood — Sentence against murder — The principle of law and the authority of the magistrate — Origin of civil society — The patriarchal constitution — Authority of the patriarch both civil and religious — Remnants of the patriarchal form of government — Incidents of the post-dilu- vian history — Noah's fall, and Ham's insult — The prophetic curse and blessings on Ham, Shem, and Japheth — Division of the Earth in the time of Peleg — Mon- archy of Nimrod — City and tower of Babel — Confusion of tongues . . 27 — 32 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The Division of the Nations. I'AGB The common orif^in of mankind attested by the positive statement of Scripture — Collateral evidence of science, especially from language — Tripartite origin of the nations — (Jcograpliieal survey of the lands first peopled — Central point in the highlands of j^rmenia — The triple continent of Europe, Asia, and Africa, viewed in its physical forniatioii — The northern plain, the great desert zone, the mountain chains, and the suhjincnt cduutries — Basin of the Mediterranean — Outlying parts of the world — Distribution of the several races from the original centre in Armenia — The Mosaic history gives only the commencement of the process — Form of the record ethnic rather than personal — The Aryan and Semitic languages and races — Connexion of Shemite and Ilamite races — Geo- graphical distribution of the three families — Japheth — Ham — Shem — Languages of the resi)ective races — Modem classification by races or varieties of mankind — The Caucasian— The Turanian— The Kigritian— The Malay — The American — Meaning of " Aboriginal " tribes — Coneludmg remarks . . . 33 — 57 CHAPTER V. Early History of the Hebrew Race. From the call of Abraham to the Exodus.— B.C. 1921 to b.c. 1491. The Hebrews not the most ancient nation — Reason for their precedence — The line of Shem to Aljraham — Ur of the Chaldees, its probable site — Call of Abram and migration of Terah's family — First settlement at Charran — Abram's journey into Canaan to the valley of Shechem — Removal to Egypt and return to Bethel — Separation from Lot — The cities of the Plain — Expedition of Chedorlaomer — The tribes of the Canaanites — Abram at Hebron — His subsccjuent history — Birth and marriage of Isaac — Death of Sarah — Birth of Esau and Jacob — De- struction of Sodom and Gomorrha — Origin of the nations of Moab and Ammon, the Ishmaelite and Keturaitc Arabs— Life of Isaac — Esau and Jacob — The Edomites — Jacob in Padan-aram — His return to Canaan — Aflfliirs at Shechem — Journey to the south — Removal into Egypt — The captivity — Close of the patri- archal age — The Exodus — An epoch in the world's history . . . 58 — 66 BOOK II. THE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE EAST. From the Earliest Egyptian Traditions to the Reign of Darius Htstaspis. CHAPTER VI. The History of Egypt to the Shepherd Invasion. — b.c. 2717? to b.c. 2080? Antiquity of Egypt — Names of the country — Geography of Egypt — The Nile — Its inundation — Limits and area of Egypt — Ancient condition and productions — Advantages of its position — Relation to its neighbours — Original population — A mixed race, chiefly llamitic — Authorities — Scripture — Greek writers — Monu- ments and Pajiyri — Egyjitian writing — Manetho — Astronomical records — Date of the Pyramids — Egyptian technical chronology — Historical chronology — Tra- ditional history — Rule of the Gods — First djTiasty : Mencs — Second dj-nasty : Queen Nitocris — Memiihite dynasties : third, fourth, and sixth — High state of civilization — Ileradeopolite dj-nastics : ninth and tenth — Theban kingdom : eleventh and tweltlh dynasties — Invasion of the shepherds — Monuments of the early Pharaohs — Pyramids and tombs — Egj-ptian belief concerning the dead — Description of the pyramids 67 — 107 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER yil. History of Egypt from the Shepherd Invasion to the Final Coxqcest by Persia. B.C. 2080? TO B.C. 353. PJGE The shepherd kings, or Hyksos, the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynasties of Manetho — Their connexion with the Scripture history — Question of the Exo- dus — Connexion of Egypt with Greece — Expulsion of the shepherds — Union of Egjpt — The city of Thebes — Twelfth and thirteenth dynasties — Eighteenth and nineteenth, the climax of Egyptian power and art — Eighteenth dynasty : the Thothmes — Amenoph III. — The vocal Memnon — The sun-worshippers — Xine- teenth dynasty: Scthee I. — Rameses II. — "Sesostris" — Asiatic conquests — Stelae — Temples at Thebes and Memphis, and in Ethiopia — Colossal statues — Men-ptah — Twentieth dynasty : Rameses III. — Decline of the kingdom — Twenty- first dynasty at Tanis — Semitic influence in Egypt — Twenty-second dynasty at Bubastis — Assyrians — Shishak and Rehoboam — Zerah the Cushite — Twenty- third dynasty at Tanis — Obscurity and decUne — Twenty-fourth d\-nasty — Boc- choris the wise — Twenty-fifth dynasty, of Ethiopians — The Sabacos and Tirhakah — Hoshea, king of Israel — Sennacherib and Hezekiah — Legend of the priest Sethos — The dodecarchy — Twenty-sixth dynasty at Sais — Psammetichus I. — Greek mercenaries — Siege of Ashdod — Secession of the soldiers — Xeko or Pharaoh-Necho — War with Nebuchadnezzar — Death of Josiah — Circumnaviga- tion of Africa — Xeko's canal — Psammetichus II. — Apries or Pharaoh-IIophra — Nebuchadnezzar in Egypt — War with Cyrene — Revolt of the army — Death of Apries — Reign of Aahmes II. or Amasis — His monuments — His character and habits — Internal prosperit}- — Intercourse with Greece — Psammenitus — Conquest of Egypt by Camljyses — The twenty-seventh, or Persian dynasty — Revolt of Inarus and Amyrtajus — Egypt again independent — Twenty-ninth and thirtieth dynasties — The Xectanebos, &c. — I 'inal I'ersiau conquest — Alexander and the Ptolemies 108—142 CHAPTER VIII. The Hebrew Theocracy and Monarchy. — b.c. 1491 to b.c. 508. Destiny of the Hebrew nation — Review of their history in Egvpt — Joseph — The Israelites in Goshen — The oppression — Moses: as an Eg}"ptian prince — His flight — His divine legation — The plagues, the passover, and the exodus — Heathen traditions of the exodus — March to Sinai — The Mosaic law — The wil- derness — Conquest of Penea — Death of Moses — Campaigns of Joshua — Division and settlement of Canaan — Times of the Judges — Servitude to the Philistines — Samuel, prophet and judge — The kingdom — Saul — David — Full conquest of the land — Jerusalem, the capital and sanctuary — Solomon — Israel a great monarchy — Building of the temple — Solomon's idolatries — Foreign enemies and internal factions — Division of the two kingdoms — Their separate history — Steady declen- sion of Israel — Foreign alliances and idolatries — The prophets — Elijah and Elisha — Relations to Syria, Judah, Assyria, and Egypt — Captivity of the ten tribes — Their subsequent fate — Kingdom of Judah — Idolatries and reforms — Asa — Jehosliaphat — The high priest Jehoiada — Uzziah — Idolatries of Ahaz — The prophets, especially Isaiah — Wars with Israel and Syria — Hezekiah — Destruction of Sennacherib — Josiah — Invasion of Pharaoh-Xecho — Nebuchad- nezzar — The captivity — Condition of the Jews during the captivity . 143 — 187 CHAPTER IX. The Chaldean, Assyrian, and Babylonian Empires. Empires on the Euphrates and Tigris — Description of Jlesopotamia — The great plain of Chaldaea — Its boundaries and extent — Its physical character — Inundations and canals — Climate — Xatural products — Animals — Minerals — Brick-making — Biblical history of Chalda;a — Babel — Ximrod — The Chaldfean race — Their Cushite origin and language— Meanings of the Chaldaean name for a tribe, a xlv CONTENTS. nation, and a caste — Traces of a still earlier Turanian population — The dynasties of Berosus — Astronomical records contemporary with the beginning of the mon- archy — Its epoch — Dynasty of Nimrod — Two divisions of Chaldsea, each with its tetrapolis — Cities sacred to the lieavcnly bodies — The Chaldacan temple- towers — Their design, form, materials, and mins — Cuneiform inscriptions — Stages in the invention of writing — Interpretation of the inscriptions — History of the earlier Chalda-an dynasty— Nimrod, the founder — Urukh, the builder, the first king named on the inscriptions — Later Chaldean dynasty — Chedorlaomer, the comiueror — Semitic migrations, Abraham and the Pha-nicians — The "Four Nations " of Chaldica — Check to Clialdaean conquests — Overthrow of the mon- archy by the Aralis — Growth of Semitic influence — The Chaldajan caste and learning survive — Chaldacan art and science — Architecture, temples, houses, and tombs — Pottery — Implements — Metal-work — Textile fabrics — Arithmetic and astronomy — Weights and measures — The Assyrian empire — Greek traditions — The upper dynasty — Tiglath-Pileser I. — Sardanapalus — Shahnaneser I. — The black obelisk — Pul — Scmiramis — The lower dynasty — Tiglath-Pileser II. — Shal- maneser II. — Sargon — Contjuest of Media — Sennacherib — Esarhaddon — Baby- lon subject to Assyria — The Sardanapalus of the Greeks — Fall of Nineveh — Later Babylonian empire — Nabonassar and Scmiramis — Merodach-Baladan — Esarhaddon — Nabopolassar — Wars with Lydia and Egj-pt — Nebuchadnezzar — Evil-Merodach and his successors — Nabonadius — League against Persia — Bel- shazzar — Fall of Babylon — Its later history 188 — 243 CHAPTER X. The Medo-Persian Empire, from its Origin to its Settlement under Daritts Hystaspis. — B.C. 633? to b.c. 531. Description of Media — Its earliest inhabitants — The Medes an Aryan race and kin- dred to the Persians — Their relations to Assyria — Rise of the Median kingdom — Doubtful legends — Deioces and Phraortes — Cyaxares the true founder — His contest with the Scythians — Military organization of the Medes — Conquests of Cyaxares — Destruction of Nineveh — Rise of the Lydian empire — The nations of Asia Minor — The Halys an ethnic boundary — Affinities of the western nations — Early kingdoms in Asia Minor — Gordius — Midas — Troy — Lydia — Natural re- sources of the country — Mythical period of Lydian story — Dynasty of the Hera- clids — Candaules and Gyges — Dynasty of the Mermnads — Conquests in Asia Minor — Attacks on the Greek colonies — Invasion of the Cimmerians under Ardys — Alyattes — Their expulsion by Alyattes — War between Lydia and Media — The " eclipse of Thales" — Deaths of Cyaxares and Alyattes — The tomb of Alyattes — Croesus as viewed by Herodotus — His real history — Astyages the last king of Media — Reign of Astyages — Peaceful state of Western Asia — Origin of the Persian race — Description of the country — The Persian language — ReHgion of the Medes and Persians — Magian elemental worship, originally Turanian — Dualism the old Persian faith — Auramazda and Ahriman — Mixture and conflict of the two systems — Zoroaster — His doctrines and legendary history — The ten tribes of the Persians — Their military organization and general discipline — DjTiasty of the Achacmenidaj — Their relation to Media — Legendary story of Cyrus — Transfer of the Median empire to Persia — Cyrus in the Cyropasdia and in Scripture — The conquest of Lydia, the Greek colonies, and Babylon — Resto- ration of the Jews — Designs on Egypt — Wars in Central Asia — Death of Cjtus — Cambysesr-Conquest of Egypt — ^His madness and death — The Magian Pseudo- Smerdis — Accession of Darius the son of Hystaspis — Survey of the Persian Em- pire — Note on the Behistun Inscription 244 — 298 CONTENTS. BOOK ni. fflSTORY OF GREECE. From the Earliest Legends to the Accession of Philip of Macedon. CHAPTER XI. The Mythical Age op Greece. PAGB Contrast of Asiatic despotism and Grecian liberty — Survey of the western world — Greece and Rome — Their part in the world's history — Earliest population of Greece and Italy — The Pelasgian race— Description of Greece — The Hellenic race and its four divisictos — Earhest traditions— Stories of Egyptian and Phoe- nician settlements — The alphabet — How history deals with the mythical legends — Their character and construction — Legends of the gods — Jove and the Olym- pic deities — Apollo and the oracle at Delphi — Legends of the heroes — Hercules — Theseus — Minos — The Argonauts — Story of Thebes — The Trojan war — The Homeric poems 299 — 318 CHAPTER Xn. The Hellenic States and Colonies. From the Earliest Historic Records TO B.C. 500. Condition of Greece in the heroic age— Political and social changes after the Trojan war — Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus — Achasans and lonians displaced — Colonies in Asia Minor, Ionian, Jiolian, and Dorian — Crete — Extension of the Dorian and Ionian races — ^Historical epoch of the first Olympiad, B.C. 776 — The Greek nation as a whole — The Amphictyonies and Amphictyonic council — The great festivals — Olympic games — ^Absence of political unity — The separate states of Greece — Argos, imder Pheidon — Sparta and the institutions of Lycurgus — Conquest of Laconia and Messenia — Lacedajmonian supremacy in Peloponnesus — The tyrants in Greece and the Colonies — Early history of Attica — Theseus — Codrus — Abolition of royalt}^^ — Government by archons — The senate of Areopa- gus — Legislation of Draco — Cylon and the Alcmaeonids — Legislation of Solon — Usurpation of Pisistratus — Expulsion of the family — Reforms of Clcisthenes — Wars with Sparta, Thebes, and Chalcis — The Athenian democracy firmly estab- lished — Other states of Greece — Colonies — In the countries north of Greece — In Asia — In Sicily and Italy — In Gaul and Spain — In Africa — Survey of Hellas at the epoch of the Persian wars — Progress of literature, philosophy, and art 319—379 CHAPTER XIII. The Persian Wars. From the Ionian Revolt to the Battles of the EtJRYMEDON. — B.C. 500 tO B.C. 466. Causes of the Ionian Revolt — Miltiades and Histiaeus — ^Affair of Naxos — Revolt of Aristagoras — Aid sought from Sparta and Athens — Sardis burnt by the lonians and Athenians — Defeat of the lonians and capture of Miletus — Hippias at the Persian court — Failure of the expedition under Mardonius — His conquest of Macedonia — Preparations of Darius — ^Athens and Sparta alone refuse earth and water — Expedition under Datis and Artaphemes — Conquest of the islands — Preparations at Athens — Battle of Marathon — Fate of Miltiades — The iEginetan war — Foundation of the maritime power of Athens — Themistocles and Aristides — Xerxes prepares a third invasion — Progress of the expedition — Thermopylae — Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans — Events preceding the battle of Salamis — Defeat of the Persian fleet — Retreat of Xerxes — Battle of Himera in xvi CONTENTS. PAGE Sicily on the same day — Mardonius in Boootia — Battles of Plataea and Mycale — Affairs of Thebes — Liberation of the islands, Thrace, and Macedonia — The war transferred to Asia — Capture of Sestos — The leadership transferred from Sparta to Athens — Treason and death of Pausanias — Ostracism of Themistocles — Cimon and Pericles — Campaigns of Cimon on the Asiatic coast — Double victory of the Eurymedou — Unsuccessful campaign of the Athenians in Egypt . 380—453 CHAPTER XIV. Rivalry op the Greek Republics. From the Confederacy of Delos to the ekd OF the Theban Supremacy. — b.c. 477 to b.c. 360. State of Greece after the Persian wars — Rise of the maritime empire of Athens — Revolts of Naxos and Thasos — ^Vffairs of the continent — Decline of Spartan as- cendancy — Revolt of the Helots: third Messenian war — Athenian politics — Ostracism of Cimon — Advance of democracy — Wars with the Dorian States — The five years' truce — New wars — Battle of Coronea — Megara and Euboea — Lacedaemonian invasion of Attica — Thirty years' truce — Ascendancy of Pericles — ^Brilliant epoch of Athens — Splendour of art and literature — Causes and out- break of the Peloponnesian war — Its first period, to the fifty years' truce of Nicias — Invasions of Attica — Plague at Athens — Xaval successes — Revolts of allies — Athenian statesmen and demagogues — Nicias, Demosthenes, and Cleon — Aristophanes — War of Amphipolis — Brasidas and Thucydides — Second period of the war, to the failure of the Sicilian expedition — Alcibiades — Third period of the war — Fortification of Decelea — Decline of Athens — Naval campaigns on the shores of Asia — Battles of Arginusas and ^gospotami — Capture of Athens — The thirty tyrants — Counter revolution — Peace with Sparta — Death of Socrates — Spartan supremacy — Expedition of the younger Cyrus and the ten thousand Greeks — Lacedfemonian war in Asia — Agesilaiis — ^League against Sparta — Co- rinthian war — Battles of Coronea and Cnidus — Peace of Antalcidas — OljTithian war — War between Thebes and Sparta — Epaminondas and Pelopidas — Peace of CaUias — Battle of Leuctra — Supremacy of Thebes — Invasion of Peloponnesus — League against Sparta — Battle of Mantmea and death of Epaminondas — General pacification — Agesilaiis in Egypt: his death — Decline of Thebes — State of Greece at this epoch — Orators at Athens — Affairs of Sicily — The Dionysii, Dion, and Timoleon — Art, literature, and philosophy 454 — 562 MAPS AND PLANS. The Known World at the Deluge, . , . . . To face Page 19 " " at the Exodus of the Israelites, . . " « 66 Egypt and Palestine, a u j^3 The Time of Cyrus, «i k 244 Marathon, « 338 Thermopylae, "411 Salamis, ••••........" 425 Plat^a, "438 Entirons of Athens, » 468 ANCIENT HISTOKY, SACRED AND SECULAR. FROM THE CREATION TO THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROIVIAN E]\n»niE. B.C. 4004— A.D. 476. N. B. — In the period previous to the settlement of Chronology, we give the dates of Archbishop Ussher, as convenient, not adopting them as true. The chief systems of Scriptural Chronology are explained in a note appended to the Introduction. VOL. I.— 1 INTKODUCTION. " Tet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are wideu'd with the process of the suns." Tenntbon. THE SUBJECT PROPOSED — ITS UNITY — PROVINCE OF HISTORY — DISTINGUISHED FROM PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE, IN ITS NATURE AND ITS EVIDENCE — ILLUSTRATION FROM THE ORIGIN OP THE WORLD, AS REGARDED IN THE LIGHTS OF HISTORY AND SCIENCE RESPECTIVELY — RELATIONS OF PRIMEVAL HISTORY TO ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, CHRONOLOGY, AND THEOLOGY — METHODS OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY — EPOCHS AND PERIODS OF HISTORY — MO- MENTS OF ORIGINATION AND OF DEVELOPMENT — EPOCHS OF REVOLUTION AND PERIODS OP EEPOSE — EXAMPLE OF A SUCCESSFUL METHOD IN GIBBON's GREAT WORK— NOTE OX SCRIP- TURE CHRONOLOGY. "We prppose to relate the History of the World, irom its earliest records to our own times. So arduous an enterprise needs the friendly consideration of the reader, and still more the aid of Him whose providence Js the living spirit of our theme. The work is undertaken under the conviction that the whole world has c history, as much as each separate nation. Amidst all the severmg forces of climate, colour, language, interest, and animos- ity, our race fonns a complete whole. One in its origin, one even in its true interests, it is destined to be one in its final con- summation. And it is this that gives a unity to its history. In so wide a subject, the province of the historian should be carefully distinguished from those of the man of science and the philosopher ; for all knowledge of facts does not belong to his- tory. Philosophy aspires to know the absolute truth of all things, both visible and invisible, that can be known by man. Science confines itself to those objective facts which are the results of the fixed natural laws which it seeks to discover. But history, while also dealing only with objective facts, views them in ever-chang- ing action and in a connected series ; not as a completed whole, the product of fixed laws. Tlie subject-matter of science was determined when the Creator made the world ; but history is ever in the making. In the former, if we know a law, we can with certainty trace its operation in a particular case ; but this is 4 INTRODUCTION. no longer possible when the Inimaii ^vill and passions come into play. For tlieii the most varied residts are produced, according to the cliaracters and cijcunistanccs of tlie agents ; and it is these surprising changes that give life to history. It is not denied that all the fiicts ^vhich have occun-cd in the world are bound together by tliose hidden laws, physical, moral, and spiritual, which constitute the whole moral government of God. Xor is the historian unconcerned with the working of those laws. The actions he has to relate are so connected with the motives of the actors, the external facts with their causes in human nature, that his subject must often be regarded in the light of science and philosophy. ]3ut these occasional excursions into another province should only furnish him with materials to illustrate his own. If, indeed, it were possible, as some think, to determine a law to which even man's free agency is subject, such as that of fataKsm, or if we could be content with the statistics of observed facts, as a substitute for any higher law, then the whole course of human actions throughout all ages would no longer constitute a history, but a science. What are now the facts of history, wrought out by voluntary agents, would then become a system of fixed phenomena, the necessary effects of a fixed law. We are not now called upon to discuss the truth of any such doc- trines. Believing firmly in the Divine ordering of the course of human affairs, we believe as firmly that it is not given to man, in his present state, to trace the secret harmony of the Divine gov- ernment with the liberty of man ; and we are content to record the facts as they have occurred. History is further distinguished from science by the evidence on which its conclusions rest. That evidence is the testimony of credible witnesses concerning past events ; while science deter- mines its truths by observation and experiment upon phenomena as they present themselves to its view. Science docs indeed make a secondary use of testimony to discover the facts from which it reasons, while existing things often confirm historic testimony. Thus the line of demarcation is shaded oft* at its extreme edges, but it is not the less real. The importance of these distinctions appears at the very threshold ot our work. The whole fabric of human society is, to our minds, inseparably connected with the earth on which man dwells, and which has evidently been fitted specially for his use. The origin of this world, and of man himself, invites the enquiry THE PROPER PROVINCE OF HISTORY. 5 of all tlionglitful persons ; and as the opinions lield npon these points involve belief or disbelief in God and His creative works, they affect the very foundations of religion and so of all social life. These questions can only be decided, in part by the light of science, in part by the authority of revelation. The latter, as the highest of all testimony, is the historian's only safe guide over the ground which lies beyond the unaided knowledge of man ; but he will thankfully accept every illustration contributed by the former. It is not for him to reconcile the difficulties between science and revealed religion. He accepts the testimony of the sacred writers as he does that of any other credible witnesses, though with a more reverential faith. He uses the light of all the truth which science has certainly established for the inter- pretation of that testimony. All that is still to be settled he leaves to the ]3hilosopher and the theologian. In attempting, therefore, to pursue our enquiries down from the very origin of our world, we must start from the testimony of revelation, that it was created by God, in a certain order, specially for the abode of man. Such was its " beginning," and the true beginning of human history, to the exclusion of all the mythical accounts given by poetry or false religion, and of all philosophic theories that are inconsistent with this plain state- ment. But, as to how many ages we should, date back to that " beginning," — how the revealed order of the creation, which is only stated in the most general terms, is to be reconciled with the indications furnished by geology, — what precise ])eriods of time are meant by the "days" of the Scripture record, — with these and similar disputed questions, on which certainty seems at present unattainable, the historian is only concerned in so far as their enth-e neglect might lead him into positive error. History gains much and loses nothing by being thus confined within its own limits. The hi'storian accepts contributions from the various sciences, without assuming to review their founda- tions. The earth is presented to him as a member of the great " Cosmos," to which its relations are such as to sustain the being and to promote the order and happiness of the human race ; but whether it was at first projected from the sun round which it moves, — how it was made to receive the life-giving light and warmth which form the spring of action and energy uj^on its sur- face, — and how those movements are regulated which preserve to man the sure changes of the seasons, and the signs which mark out his time, — all this he leaves to the Astronomer. So, too, he 6 INTllODUCTION. listens \vith deep interest to the Geologist, explaining liow the fused matter of our globe cooled down till it formed a solid crust, surrounded by a dense niixture of air and watery vapour ; how a further cooling caused the Avater partly to settle on the surface and partly to float upon the air ; how the disturbed forces of the central fire broke nj^ the crust into hill and dale, and formed basins for the seas ; how the rocks were deposited in successive layers from the waters, and were again and again heaved up into Al])s, Andes, and Himalayas ; how the surface thus prepared was clothed witli the vast primeval forests, whicli purified the air while they grew, and then, once more submerged, became re- serves of fuel for all future ages ; and how the races of animals apj)eared in those successive series, which are attested by their remains still embedded in the rocks, till we reach Man, the last and crowning work of God. In all these revelations of science the historian sees many of the influences wdiich help to explain the course of man's social and political life ; but his business begins where that of the geologist ends. The same is true of Physical Geography, a science which is the ofiTspring of geology, and which comes into the closest contact with history. It is impossible for the historian to relate the movements of men upon the earth, without some description of the countries which have been their scene ; but he leaves it to science to account for the conformation of these countries. Tliere is one science, however, which can scarcely be separated from history — the science of Chronology. The dates of events are but a means of giving a more accurate expression to their moving series, which it is the province of history to describe. To this the fixed epochs and methods of technical chronology are merely subsidiary ; and the primary modes of reckoning time may be considered as a branch of astronomy.* This discussion must not be closed without a few words on the relation of history to Theology, the science of sciences, the highest branch of human learning. Tlie world is God's Avorld ; and its true history must begin and end with God. The division of history into sacred and secular, civil and ecclesiastical, how- ever convenient, is arbitrary and unreal. Could we see each event in its true light, we should sec all bearing some relation to the Divine purposes and plans. But as those purposes are only revealed in their broad outline and great end, as the details of * See the Note at the end of the Introduction. PEmcrPLES OF HISTOEICAL ENQUIRY. 7 that plan are unfolded but slowly and obscurely, any attempt to regard all events from a theological point of view nmst defeat itself. So long as the historian writes in a S23irit sincerely but not obtrusively devout, he may safely leave the religious lessons of the story to the devout reader. N'or will a wise historian abstain from any com-se more carefully than from gratifying his own zeal for the truth by offending the opinions of candid and temperate readers. But the external facts that have sprung from the profession of religions, whether the true or the false, belong essentially to the province of the historian. No source has been so fruitful of events that have changed the fate of countries and the destiny of nations. In what spirit, then, should these incidents be related ? Tlie profession of calm indifference has proved but a veil for sar- castic incredulity. No man with a sound head and a warm heart can relate the call of Abraham, the legislation of Moses, the con- quest of Canaan, the story of Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus, and the exploits of the Maccabees, and yet reserve the question whether the Jews were in truth God's chosen people. A Christian historian cannot but write of Christ as the Divine Ee- deemer, and of Mahomet as the false prophet. Nor can a Protes- tant conceal his opinion of the apostasy of the Poman Church arid the blessings of the Peformation. But the historical and the con- troversial treatment of such matters must be kept altogether dis- tinct. The controversialist has to make out his case by all fair means ; but the Mstorian is bound to render im23artial justice to the motives and characters of the actors on both sides. Never must he depart from this course on any ground of supposed pol- icy, or even of zeal for what he deems religious truth. What concerns him is the truth of the facts, not their consequences to any system of opinions. Candour and toleration are the vital breath of historic truth, and are never violated with impunity. Such are the chief principles of historical enquiry. The meth' ods of pursuing it are various. The great philosopher, Schleier- macher, has drawn a distinction between the longitudinal and transverse views of any series of historic facts. He means that we may either follow any one of the great trains of events which his- tory presents, from its beginning to its end ; or we may choose Bome epoch * at which to take a view of the then existing state * We use this word in its proper sense of a point of stoppage. A period is the space between two epochs. The terms are often confounded. 8 INTRODUCTION. of each separate nation. But it should be remembered, that the chain of liistory is not, so to speak, a bundle of parallel wires, each of which can be traced from its beginning to its end. Its strands are constantly intertwined in the most unexpected manner. To pursue UTiy one alone, it must be artfully disentangled from the rest ; and where this is impossible, others must also be described, to account for their interlacing with this one. Thus, for example, the history of Greece connects itself, at certain points, with those of Persia and of Rome ; and these with a whole network of fibres that lead over Asia, Africa, and Europe. The only strictly " lon- gitudinal " treatment of history is that which embraces the whole annals of the human race ; and sucli a treatment becomes possible, when aided by the " transverse " method at well-chosen epochs. Sucli epochs arc not difficult to discover. The whole course of history is made up, as the same philosopher has observed, of distinct moments, or moves, like those of a game'of chess, or of a military campaign. It is the observation of these moments, as distinguished from mere facts, that makes the diff'erence between a history and a chronicle. They are of two kinds — moments of origination, and moments of progress or development. It is true that the philosopher, according as he believes rather in tlie direct government of God, or in the operation of fixed laws, might raise all events to moments of origination, or reduce them to moments of development. But the historian, taking a common-sense view of objective facts, recognizes the broad distinction between gradual development and sudden origination. His attention is arrested by those revolutionary changes whicli involve the destruction of what has been long developing, in order to a reconstruction by the force of some new element. He sees that all history is divided into epochs of revolution and periods of comparative repose. Tlius he obtains a natural division of his subject into parts, all of which may be harmonized by the principle, that one supreme government regulates the whole. And, under each of these periods, he groups the external and internal facts of history, the striking events of politics and war, and the quieter but more important movements of civilization, morals, and religion. The chief source of diflicul- ty seems to be in the want of coincidence between the epochs of the several parallel series which run through history. But the wider our field, and the broader our survey of it, the less will this difficulty be felt. The great landmarks in the history of the world can hardly be mistaken. That a great and perplexed period of history, and therefore the lilETHOD OF HISTORICAL ENQUIRY. 9 whole, may be treated with a clue regard to its entire harmony, has been practically proved by the immortal work of Gibbon. What great historical mass was ever made np of more distinct elements — each with its own epochs more strongly marked, and with fewer epochs common to the whole series — than the story of the breaking up of the Western Empire into the medieval states ? Who has not looked forward — with a despair as to the method almost equalled by his interest in the subject — upon the long story of the splendours of the Antonines and the vices and follies of their successors, — the bewildering revolutions, the wars upon the frontier, the torrent of barbarian invasion, — and the still greater changes which gave the world a new religion ? Who can have hoped to grasp the progress of all these varied in- cidents in the East and in the West, and to retain a view of the scenes on which they were enacted, from the Tigris to the Heb- rides, and from the Wall of China to the Libyan Desert ? And who that has opened the first volume with such misgivings, has not closed the last of the first part with a satisfaction akin to that derived from some great mosaic picture, whose perfect unity makes him almost forget how many myriads of fragments have gone to make it up ? Imperial Eome has almost insensibly van- ished from the scene, and Italy has become a Gothic kingdom, surrounded by the monarchies of Europe in the first stage of their formation. The Queen of the East has arisen, as if by enchant- ment, from the waters of the Bosporus, and her splendour has again been overcast. Christianity has triumphed, but the tri- umph has been abused by her ministers. The West is ripe for Feudalism ; and the East seems to await the doom of her idola- tries from the sword of Mahomet. The work of art is perfect ; the life of a generous enthusiasm is alone wanting : — " Yir claiis- simus, sed quoad res divinas utinam felicior ! " 10 NOTE ON SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. NOTE ON SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. Independently of scientific evidence, and of the traditions and monu- ments of Egypt, Chaktea, and otlier nations, the following are our data for determining the clironological relations of primeval history to the Christian era. 1. From the Creation to the Deluge, the generations of the patriarchs form our only guide. These, however, are given dilTerently in different copies of the Scriptures; the sum being, in the LXX. 606 years longer, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch 349 years shorter, than in the received Hebrew text. The ancient chronologers give further variations. 2. Fro7n the Deluge to the death of Josejyh, and thence to the Exodus, the patriarchal years are again our chief guide ; but other data are ob« tained from various statements respecting the interval from the call of Abraham to tlie giving of tlie Law and the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt.* The main point in dispute here is, whether 430 years was the whole period from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, or only the time of the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt, 3. From the Exodus to the building of Solomon^ s Temple, the interval is positively stated in the received Hebrew text, as 480 years.f But the reading is disputed ; it is alleged to be inconsistent witli the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges ; | and the longer period is made out by adding together the numbers given in the Book of Judges. Some chron,ologers, on the other hand, compute from the many genealogies which we have for this period. 4. From the Building of the Temple to its Destruction and the Captivity of ZedeJciah, we have the annals of the kings of Israel and Judah. Here the difficulties are so slight, that the principal chronologers only differ by 15 years in nearly 500. 5. The Epocu of the Destruction of the Temple is fixed by a concurrence of proofs, from sacred and profane history, with only a variation of one, or at the most two years, between B.C. 588 and 586. Clinton's date is June, B.C. 587. From this epoch we obtain for the building of Solomon's Temple the date of about b,c. 1012.§ From this point the reckoning backwards is of course affected by the differences already noticed. Out of these have arisen three leading sys- tems of clironology. I. The Rahhinical, a system handed down traditionally by the Jewish doctors, places the Creation 244 years later than our received clironology, in B.C. 3750, and the Exodus in B.C. 1314. Tliis leaves from the Exodus to tlie building of the Temple an interval of only 300 years, a term calculated chiefly from the genealogies, and only reconciled with the num- bers given in the Book of Judges by the most arbitrary alterations. Genealogies, however, are no safe basis for chronology, especially when, as can be proved in many cases, links are omitted in their statement. " When we come to examine them closely, we find that many are broken without being in consequence technically defective as Hebrew genealogies. * Genesis xv. 13; Exodus xii. 41 ; Acts vii. G; Galatians iii. 17. + 1 Kings vi. 1. % Acts xiii. 20. § The bigbest computation, that of Hales, makes tbe date b.c. 1027. NOTE ON SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. 11 A modern pedigree thus broken wonld be defective, but the principle of these genealogies must have been different. A notable instance is that of the genealogy of our Saviour given by St. Matthew. In this gene- alogy Joram is immediately followed by Ozias, as if his son — Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah being omitted.* In Ezra's genealogy f there is a similar omission, which in so famous a line can scarcely be attributed to the carelessness of the copyist. There arc also examples of a man being called the son of a remote ancestor in a statement of a genealogical form. J We cannot therefore venture to use the Hebrew genealogical lists to compute intervals of time, except where we can prove each descent to be immediate. But even if we can do this, we have still to be sure that we can determine the average length of each generation." § The violent efforts of the Rabbis to bring their shorter period into harmony with the Book of Judges have indeed been ingeniously converted from an objection into an argument by the recent German school, who follow their scheme, because it seems to them the most consistent with Egyptian chronology. These efforts to overcome difficulties of detail prove, it is said, that they had good reasons for clinging to the total. But surely their traditional total cannot be allowed to stand in opposition both to the 480 years of the Book of Kings and the 450 years named by St. Paul. Whatever may be the difficulty of reconciling these two numbers, they clearly point to a l^eriod much longer than that allowed by the Rabbis. The confirmation of the Rabbinical system by the Egyptian chronology involves somewhat of an argument in a circle. It rests mainly on the identification of the Pharaoh of the Exodus with Menephtha, the son of Rameses the Great, of the Nineteenth Dynasfy, whose reign is computed from B.C. 1328 to B.C. 1309. But the only independent authority for this identification is an account of the Exodus, repeated from Manetho by Josephus, who justly regards it as of httle authority. 1" 2. The Short or Received Chronology is that which has been generally followed in the West since the time of Jerome, and has been adopted, in the margin of the authorized English version, according to the system of its ablest advocate. Archbishop Ussher. Its leading data are, first, the adoption of the numbers of the Hebrew text for the patriarchal geneal- ogies ; secondly, the reckoning of the 430 years from the call of Abra- ham to the Exodus ; and, lastly, the adhering to the 480 years for the period from the Exodus to the building of the Temple. As we are only giving a general account of these different systems, and not attempt- ing their full discussion, we cannot now explain how the last datum is reconciled with the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges, or with the numbers obtained from their annals. It is enough to say that the * Matthew i. 8. " That this is not an accidental omission of a copyist is evident from the specification of the number of generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonish Captivity, and thence to Christ, in each case fourteen gene- rations. Probably these missing names were purposely left out to make the number for the interval equal to that of the other intervals, such an omission being obvious, and not liable to cause error." f Ezra vii. 1 — 5. i Genesis xxix. 5, compared with xxviii. 2, 5 ; 1 Chronicles xxvi, 24 ; 1 Kinga xix. 1 6, compared with 2 Kings ix. 2, 14. § Poole, art. Chronology, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. ^ We shall have occasion to return to this point under the history of the Jews in Egypt, Book II. chap. viii. 13 NOTE ON SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. difficulties are not insuperable, and that the system of Ussher may fairly hold the place assigned to it, till some other be established on stronger evidence than has yet been made out. The great chronologer Petaviua is in substantial agreement with Ussher ; but, for reasons Avhich cannot now be stated, he places the Exodus and the call of Abraham each 40 3^ear3 earlier, the Deluge and the Creation each 20 years later, than Ussher. 3. The Long Chronology has been, in recent times, the most formidable competitor of the short system. Its leading advocates are Hales, Jackson, and Des VignoUes. With some minor differences, they agree in adopting the Septuagint numbers for the ages of the patriarchs, and the long in- terval from the Exodus to the building of the Temple. Their arguments for the former view are very ably answered by Clinton, who adopts the short period from the Creation to the call of Abraham, and the 430 years on to the Exodus, but reckons 612 years from thence to the foun- dation of the Temple. Since he wrote, however, the state of the question has been materially affected by the study of Egyptian and Chaldsean history. In both cases, and on independent grounds, an antiquity is now claimed for the commencement of the annals of these nations inconsistent with the received date of the Deluge in B.C. 2348. The era of Menes, the first king of Egypt, is placed about B.C. 2717, and that of the third Chaldtean dynasty of Berosus (the first which has any claim to be his- torical) about B.C. 2234. The weight of this argument of course depends on the value we may assign to the numbers of Manetho and Berosus, and to the astronomical calculations which are supposed to confirm them ; questions to be considered as we proceed. It is on such gromids, as well as from the numbers in the Book of Judges, that Mr. Poole adheres to the long system of chronology. THE FOLLOWING TABLE EXHIBITS THE PRINCIPAL DATES AS GIVEN BY THE LEADING MODERN CURONOLOGERS. Short System. Long System. TJssher. Petavius. Clinton. ILiles. Jackson. Poole. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. •Creation . 4004 3983 4138 5411 5426 5421* .Flood 2349 2327 2482 3155 3170 3159* Call of Abraham 1921 1961 20.55 2078 2023 2082 Exodus U91 1531 1G2.1 1648 1593 1652 Foundation of Temple . 1012 1012 1013 1027 1014 1010 Destruction of Temple. 5S8 589 587 586 586 586 *0r each of thes e two dates may be 60 3 rears lower. BOOK I. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE, AND THE ORIGIN OP THE NATIONS. FROM THE CREATION TO THE EXODUS. B.C. 4004—1491. CONTENTS OF BOOK I. CHAP. L— THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, AND THE FIRST STATE OF MAN. II.— FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE ; OR, THE CATASTROPHE OF SIN. III.— THE POST-DILUVIAN WORLD, FROM THE DELUGE TO THE DISPER SION; OR, MAN'S SECOND PROBATION AND FALL. IV.— THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. v.— EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE:— FROM THE CALL OP ABRAHAM TO THE EXODUS. CHAPTER I. THE CREATIOIT OF THE IVORLD, AND THE FIRST STATE OF MAN. Glory to Him, whose wisdom hath ordained Good out of evil to create— instead Of spirits malign, a better race to bring Into their vacant room, and thence difi'use His good to worlds and ages infinite ! " — Milton. THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL RECORDS ARE IN THE BOOKS OF MOSES — THEIR ORIGINAL PUHP08B AND HISTORICAL VALUE — MOSAIC ACCOUNT OP THE CREATION — ITS MODE OP REVELATION — ITS SUCCESSIVE STAGES — PRIMEVAL STATE OF MAN— INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE — ORIGIN OP LANGUAGE — ADAm's STUDY OP GOd's WORKS — THE GARDEN OP EDEN — ITS PROBABLE LOCAL- jXT — CONDITION AND OCCUPATIONS OP THE FIRST MAN — HIS CREATION IN THE IMAGE OP GOD. The first nation of which we have a distinct history is the race of Israel ; and the earliest existing records are their sacred writ- ings. To estimate the historic value of the Books of Moses, and the illustrations which they need fi'om other sources, we must bear in mind their immediate object. The people of Israel had been called out of Egypt, corrupted by her false religion as well as degraded by her tyranny, to receive the Divine law, which was to distinguish them from all other nations. That law, entrusted to their keeping, and illustrated by their history, was destined, in its perfect spiritual development, to regenerate the whole woi-W. Its foundation was laid in their relation to the true God, as His children and chosen people ; and that God must needs therefore be made known to them, as the Creator of the world, and as the friend and guide of their forefathers. "With this view Moses wrote for them, in the Book of Genesis, not a complete history of the primeval ages, but so much of that history as bore upon their religious and national life. And this record remains our sole direct authority for the earliest history of the world. It can be illustrated by the traditions of various nations, and by the re- searches of science, especially Ethnography and Comparative Philology ; but the full exposition of such matters belongs rather to the antiquarian. It is only their established results that fall within the province of the historian. Kor is this the place to discuss the genuineness and historic credibility of the writings ascribed to Moses. This we assume as proved. 16 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. [Chap. I. In relating the creation of tlie world, as the scene of the events of human history, Moses had the one object of ascribing it to God, in opposition to all the figments of false religion and phi- losoijhy. It was quite unnecessary for him to give a scientific view of its origin. His account is purely historical in its form. It is such an account as might have been given by a spectator ; and the writer seems to have been placed, by a Divine revela- tion, in tlie position of a spectator. Just as the scenes of future history passed in vision before the eyes of prophets, leaving their interpretation to the events themselves, so the scenes of creation were probably exhibited to Moses in vision, simply as phenomena, leaving their interpretation to the discoveries of science. Only these leading points were clearly revealed : — that the matter of the world — the visible eartli and sky, with all in them — instead of being eternal or fortuitous, was called into being by God. Upon a state of unproductive confusion, to which we commonly apply the name borrowed from Greek tradition, chaos {{i.e. emptiness) — whether the first condition of the world or the result of some catastroj)he — Light was called forth by His word. Then followed, in successive stages, the duration of which is left undetermined by the words " evening " and " morning," which seem to describe the alternations of darkness and light in the Mosaic vision, — the spreading abroad of the visible heaven, and the separation of the waters on the surface of the earth from the aqueous vapours above, — next, the severance of the great masses of land and water, and the clothing of the former with vegeta- tion, — next, the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens, not only to enlighten the earth, but to mark out times and seasons, — then, the creatures of the water, and the fowls of the air, — and lastly, the terrestrial animals, and man. All the living beings were created of fixed species, each with the power within itself of reproducing its own kind ; all received the bless- ing of fertility ; and to man was given dominion over the rest. The whole was crowned with the Divine approval as " very good ; " and the cessation of God's creative work, to be suc- ceeded by the maintenance of all things according to His laws, was marked by the institution of the Sabbath. Man's Sabbath, in which he rests from working for subsistence, and engages in the godlike work of " doing good on the Sabbath-day," is the sign and reflex of God's Sabbath of providence and grace. A more particular account is then given of the primeval state of the human race. To the general statement that, in common THE PRBIEVAL STATE OF ItlAN. 1/ with the other animals, man was created male and female, is now added an account of the creation of the woman out of the man, which gives sanctity to the marriage-bond by the community of substance as well as nature. But this crowning gift was not bestowed on Adam, for so was the first man named, till his study of all other living creatures had proved their unfitness to furnish the companion of his life. The process by which this conclusion was reached shows us man already endowed from the very first with the faculties of observation and reasoning, and with the power of Language : for the names that he gave the animals expressed his views of their nature ; and in this process he found an occupation akin to that study of God's works which is still a source of the purest pleasure. The labours of the naturalist are, in fact, a continuation of the process which began with Adam ; — God presents every living creature to the view of man, and it is man's prerogative to give them names suited to their natures. That this process was completed by Adam for all the denizens of all the climates, is one of those narrow literal views which justly incur the contempt of science. But yet it seems equally absurd to suppose that his sphere of observation was confined within such narrow limits as are suggested by the word " garden." The sacred writer's description of his " paradise," or " pleasure ground," implies an extent sufiicierit to give scope to the activi- ties of a nature physically, as well as intellectually and morally, perfect. The locality of his abode is one of the vext questions of scriptural interpretation. Its description by names known in historical geography must have been intended to give intelli- gible, though very general, information. Thus much seems clear, that Eden lay about the head-waters of four great rivers, two of which were the Euphrates and the Tigris (Hiddekel). This con- dition seems to fix its site among the mountains of Armenia, south of the Caucasus, the very region which science and tradition concur to mark as the cradle of the noblest variety of the race subsequent to the Deluge. In this beautiful and well-watered garden, planted by God himself, and kept ever fresh by a mist from the river — for as yet there was no rain, at least in that region — Adam enjoyed no fool's-paradise of dreamy indolence. His occupation of keeping and dressing the garden implies intelligent and steady industry. It was the easily productive nature of this work that distinguished it from the hard and scantily-repaid toil which is the curse of sin. His food was supplied by the fruits of the garden; for the anin7als VOL. I. — 2 18 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. [Chap. L were not yet given liim to eat. Of his intellectual culture we can form but faint conjectures, since nearly all our knowledge comes from the past, which did not exist for him. But we may be sure that his perfect nature had capal>ilities of knowledge surpassing any since possessed by his descendants ; and that his direct com- munion with God, and converse with His new creation, laid broad and deep foundations for that wisdom, which he lived to transmit to seven generations of his children. But the direct process of his learning and the absence of those wants which are the spur of invention, forbid our regarding him as versed in art and science. The highest distinction of our first parents was, that they were made in the image of God. It is not the province of history to enquire what relation of the human nature to the divine may be implied in this statement, or in the communication of life to man by the breath of God ; but the purest consciousness of mankind testifies to his essential immortality. Ilis processes of thought, especially as applied to the adaptation of nature to his wants, need only be compared with the design exhibited in the works of God, to prove that his intellect is like in kind, however infinitely inferior in degree, to that of his Creator. Tlie converse of this argument, indeed, forms the foundation of l!^atural Theology. But it was chiefly the moral and spiritual image of God that was stamped on man at his creation, " the image of Him who created him in righteousness and true holiness." And so, when the Fall had marred this moral likeness to his Creator and Father, we are told, that " Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image." This likeness of man to God is the great central fact of Vuman history. Its first bestowal reveals the destiny wliich God marked out for the race. Its loss was the first great catastrophe, and its recovery will be the final consummation, of the world's history. God, creating man in His own likeness, foreshadowed the coming of the Redeemer in tlie likeness of man, to reunite him to his God. Meanwhile all the scenes of selfish and mur- derous passion, which fill so large a space in the page of history, are examples of man's departure from the image of his God : all the acts of self-denying virtue and devoted love, which shed light upon the page, are but reflections of that Divine likeness which God did not permit even sin entirely to obliterate. .J > >1 iP'fii!! uiiuiiiouiiiiiiMjm THE FALL OP MAN. 19 CHAPTER 11. FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE; OR, THE CATASTROPHE OF SIN. " It repented the Lohd that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." — Genesis, vi. 6. FIRST REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH IN HISTORY — SIN AND GRACE — THE FALL OP MAN — THE CURSE AND PROMISE— CONFLICT OP GOOD AND EVIL— CAIN AND ABEL — THE CAINITE AND SETHITE RACES — ENERGY AND LAWLESSNESS OP THE CAINITES — LAMECH's POLYGAMY AND MURDER — RELIGION OF THE SETHITES — INTERMARRIAGE OF THE RACES, AND CONSEQUENT CORRUPTION OP MAN — MORAL AND MATERIAL CONDITION OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS — THE DELUGE — DIFFICULTIES IN THE NARRATIVE — DESTRUCTION AND RESTORATION OF THE WORLD — GOd's COVENANT OF FOR- BEARANCE MADE WITH NOAH — TRADITIONS OF THE FLOOD — ANTEDILUVIAN LONGEVITY. HisTOKY, we have said, is divided by revolutionary epochs. Tlie first of these was the entrance of sin, as St. Paul emphatically calls it, thereby marking it as an intrusive element ; while, in the same breath, he explains the mystery of its permission, to make way for the principle of grace. A recent historian of the French Kevolution has not shrunk from proclaiming the antagonism between the " rights of man " and the doctrine that we receive all good from the grace of God. But the Scripture teaches that God will permit no such antagonism, and that the fall of man has left with God alone all the glory of his restoration. Hold- ing out to man every inducement to obedience, and warning him of the fatal results of disobedience, God left him free to choose between them, and even provided a test by which he was to stand or fall. That test was suited to the possibilities of evil, which all subsequent experience has proved to exist in the human breast. The form which the trial assumed need not surprise us, if we only bear in mind how large a part of the Divine teaching is by actions. The presence in Eden of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the appearance and address of the serpent to the woman's senses, and the eating of the forbidden fruit, instead of needing any mythical or allegorical interpretation, show us the reality of the whole transaction. Then, as now, the impulse of sin was perfected in an overt act. But the scene, though real, was symbolical. The neglect of the tree of life, and the wilful plucking of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, is the same choice which man is ever making between the true source of 20 FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE. [Chap. H. happiness — spiritual life — and the pride of doubting God, the lust of knowing and enjoying evil as well as good. The fasci- nations of the forLiddcn tree, which tempted tlie woman, arc the same three sources of evil which liave misled all her children — " tlie lust of the flesh, tlie lust of the eye, and the pride of life." The readiness of Adam to share his wife's transgression is the tj^e of that companionship in evil which gives sin its chief hold upon our race. Another power was concerned in the catastrophe ; forming, indeed, its immediate cause. Ah'cady placed in direct communion witli God, man was now solicited, on the other hand, by a spirit- ual being, who liad fallen from happiness by that sin to which it became his malignant pleasure to tempt man. To omit the distinct recognition of Satanic agency from our narrative would be to deny one of the mainsprings of the world's history. This is not the place to dwell on the theological aspect of the ques- tion ; but the teaching of Scripture is too well confirmed by our own experience of the malignant envy against goodness, the mis- chievous ingenuity in destroying it, and the eagerness to taunt and torment their fallen victims, which mark those whom the Divine word therefore calls the children of the devil. Whatever licence Milton may have given his imagination, his general con- ception of Satan's relations to our first parents is true ; and the traditions of many nations, identifying the serpent with the prin- ciple of evil, bear witness to the form of the temptation. The first human pair had thus chosen, and all their progeny have by their own personal fall confirmed the choice, between life in the light of God's favour, and independence of Him at the price of death. But the sentence was mitigated in itself, and a glorious promise was given of its ultimate revei*sal. While the fallen beings were already cowering beneath that sense of shame which is the first symptom and penalty of conscious sin, and afraid to meet the God whom they had till now loved. He called them, with the serpent, to receive their sentence. Tlie grovelling form and habits assigned to the serpent were the type of the ultimate conquest of the evil spirit by the very off*spring of the woman, who should not, however, achieve the victory without a deadly wound from his antagonist ; — a clear promise of the Re- deemer's destniction of sin by His own death. As for the human pair, the chief objects of their present life were still to be accom- plished before they returned to the earth from which they had been taken, but to be accomplished amidst sharp suficring and IRIAN'S EXPULSION FROM PARADISE. 21 •wearing toil. Still, in this curse there were the seeds of a bless- ing. The woman's pangs were to be consoled by the hope of the great Deliverer who was to be her seed : the man's toils were to be rewarded by the fruits which the earth would henceforth yield, though only to hard labour. The joys of Paradise must be renounced ; but the whole earth was to be replenished and sub- dued. Access to the tree of life was cut off ; but immortality in the fallen state would have been misery, and a far better immor- tality remained to be revealed. The best evidence that Adam understood the promise is seen in the new name he gave his wife, Eve (the Iwing), as the mother of a truly living race, and chiefly of Him who was to be their life. Tliat the rite of sacrifice was now instituted by God himself, in confirmation of His promise, and as a type of the satisfaction for sin by the death of a substitute for the sinner, is inferred with the highest probability from the narrative. In no other way can we reasonably explain the death of the animals with whose skins God clothed Adam and Eve ; and the story of Cain and Abel shows us the institution already established. Adam and Eve went forth into the wide world, carrying with them the fallen nature and corrupt tendencies which were the present fruit of their sin, but with faith in the promise of redemp- tion. Of this faith as well as of their shortsighted expectation of its fulfilment, Eve gave a proof at the birth of her eldest son, by exclaiming, " I have gotten a man, Jehovah." The whole sub- sequent history of their race exhibits the conflict of these two principles ; and its first period, down to the Deluge, was a scene of steady decline, till redemption seemed hardly possible. The conflict appeared in the first generation of their children. Cain, the husbandman, and Abel, the shepherd, are representatives of the two great divisions of the human race, not so much in their occupations as in their characters. The command of God to ofifer sacrifice, not only in acknowledgment of His goodness, but as a confession of sin, formed a new test of obedience. We are assured by Paul that Abel brought his ofiering in faith ; while the selfish pride of Cain's is proved by his resentment, his murderous re- venge, and his sullen despair. While he went forth from his father's home and his father's God into the land of Nod (that is, eaeih), to seek a new abode on the earth, which had been cursed anew for him, and with his life only protected by the mark of God's displeasure, another son — Seth — was given to Eve in place of Abel ; and these two became the heads of races morally and 23 FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE. [Chap. IL spiritually distinct. Cain and his descendants bnilt the first citieS; and invented tlie arts of music and metal-work, which are asso- ciated respectively with the names of Jubal and Tubal-cain, whose brother Jabal took up the life of the nomad herdsman. But the restless energy that led them to these inventions was associated with the lawless ferocity that we see in their father Lamech's address to his two wives, the earliest piece of poetry on record, in which he avows the guilt of murder, and anticipates a vengeance many times as great as that of Cain.* But in the fam- ily of Seth the true worship of God was preserved. In the time of his son Enos, we are told, men began to call themselves by the name of Jehovah, avowing themselves His servants, as a protest against the increasing ungodliness. Enoch, the seventh patriarch of the line, is celebrated in antediluvian history for his close walk with God, his denunciations of the wickedness of his times, his prophecy of the coming of God to judge the world, and his "translation" from the earth without dying, — a sign that the promise of eternal life was already reversing the curse of death. Meanwhile the distinction between the Cainite and Sethite races was gradually broken down by intermarriages, in which desire overcame the fear of God ; for this is the only sober inter- pretation of the union between " the sons of God *' and '' the daughters of men." From these intermarriages sprang a race not of " giants," but of lawless men, by whom the earth was filled with violence. The ntter dissolution of all moral bonds, and the recklessness of the Divine judgment, are referred to by our Lord, and more fully described by St. Peter and St. Jude; in each ease as the type of a like state of unbridled licence which will precede the end of the world. Thus at each stage of human history it is demonstrated that the present order of things is doomed to pass away, not so much because the physical world is perishable, but still more because the degeneracy of man has reached, and will again reach, a depth incurable but by entire destruction and renovation. No progress in the material arts of life can ensure us against such moral declension. When we read of the inventions of the Cainite race, and reflect upon the ojiportunities famished by antediluvian longevity for retaining that knowledge which the short-lived races of later men are ever losing and regaining, we may well believe that they had reached a material civilization still unknown to us. But later ages are not without the warning, that this is the very source of moral degeneracy. Wlien the con- * We have here also the earliest example of polygamy. STATE OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 23 quest of matter is so far achieved as to enable man not only to use but abuse, that is, to use up the world for his own selfish pleasure, every moral restraint is removed, except the fear of God and the faith of unseen things; and this motive is felt but by very few. Those few were represented, in the world before the Flood, by one man only, UToah, who was just and upright in his family, and, like Enoch, walked with God. So he was chosen to renew the race after its removal by a flood of waters. For there was this distinction between the treatment of the first and final apostacy of mankind : — In the latter, all that is mortal and material will be utterly destroyed by fire, as too coiTupt for any milder remedy, to make way for a new heaven and earth, the abode of that spiritual excellence which alone is indestructible. But the Flood, so to speak, only cleansed the surface of the earth ; and the rescued family, instead of receiving a new nature, did but make a fresh start, with all the evil tendencies of the old race, as their his- tory soon proved. "Wearied out with man's wickedness, and re- penting of having made him (we do but adopt His own figurative language), God would not make the race extinct before His prom- ise of redemption was fulfilled. That promise was the most pre- cious of the deposits which Noah carried with him into the Ark. For the rest, we are not called upon either to invent, or to explain away, difiiculties which are not found in the sacred narra- tive. Once for all, let us speak out upon the subject. We accept the Bible as a record of the highest credibility, as truly the inspired "Word of God, without encumbering our faith with theories of inspiration. We test and intei'pret its statements by the same rules of common sense which we apply to other historic records. In relating external events, we do not expect the historian to be precise about their hidden and intrinsic nature ; just as we do not expect even the astronomer, in using the language of common life, to carry back the heavenly bodies beyond the visible sky. In a word, the language of historic description is, in the vast majority of cases, 2>henomenaI, not absohite. It is a true account, if it truly describes the appearances of things to a spectator. But for a man to insist on understanding those appearances as abso- lute realities, and that according to the narrowest literal sense of the words used, is to impose fetters upon the sacred text, beneath which no secular historian could move a single step. Tlie attempt thus to compel our faith is most unwise ; but when the like method is insisted on to drive us to unbelief, we can scarcely speak of it with moderation. 34 FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE. [Chap. H. It matters notliing to our understanding of the simple narrative of Scri2:>ture, whether the waters of the Deluge covered the whole globe, provided that they covered the small portion known to Noah, and peopled by the two existing races of men. We are left free to accept the plain proofs furnished by astronomy and mechanics, by geology and physical geography, that the Deluge could not have been universal unless the laws of all nature had been puspended. With this error vanishes that of requiring room in the Ark for all the species of animals, or indeed for any beyond those which the family of Noah would care to preserve, chiefly for domestic use and sacrifice. Reduced to this form, the problem of the Ark's adaptation to its use is narrowed within a compass that need not create alarm ; and, feeling no necessity to work out its details, we trust more to the definite dimensions given in an authentic history than to the corrections of the acutcst arith- metician. And in all similar cases, when the historical credibility of a record is once established on the broad gromids of evidence, we can afibrd to await the explanation of minute difficulties, without permitting them to unsettle our belief.* A respite of 120 years, during which Noah, as a preacher of righteousness, reproved the world both by word and example, produced no amendment ; and, even during the building of the Ark, they went on " eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and regarded it not, till the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and the flood came and took them all away." The date of this memorable epoch was handed down by Noah to the very day. It was m the 600th year of Noah's life, on the 10th day of the 2nd month (b.c. 2349, Ussher), that he entered into the Ark with his wife, his three sons and their wives, with the clean animals by sevens, and the unclean animals by pairs, and God shut them all in. After a solemn pause of seven days, the sources of the earth's waters and the clouds of the sky were broken up at onee, and poured forth their floods for 40 days and nights, covering the whole surface of the earth. The surprise and terror of this sudden judgment form a theme for the poet and the painter. It is enough for us to see in that unbroken sheet of water the first end of a world ruined by sin, and in the Ark, which floats alone upon its surface, not only the promise of a new history for our race, but the far higlier type suggested by the Apostle Peter, of the salvation which God ever grants to those * It may be observed, that the definite measures of the Ark prove that a metrical eystem was ah-eady invented. B.C. 2348.] THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. 26 who remain faithful amidst an ungodly world. The waters of the flood were at their height for 150 days ; and as they began to abate, the Ark rested on some point of Mount Ararat, on the 17th day of the Yth month. It was not till the first day of the 10th month that the summits of the hills began to appear ; and l!^oah waited 40 days more before he made those well-known experiments with the raven and dove, which, besides furnishing a fruitful theme for poetry, seem to indicate his observance of the Sabbath. At length, on the first day of the 601st year of his life (b.c. 2348, Ussher), Noah removed the covering of the Ark, and looked out upon the earth now cleared of the flood ; and on the 27th day of the 2nd month, at God's command, he left tlie Ark, with all that were in it. He celebrated his deliverance by a great bumt- oftering of all kinds of clean animals ; and God's acceptance of this sacrifice marks a new epoch in the history of our race. Stand- ing by his own altar with his sons, about to go forth on to the renewed face of the earth, Noah's prophetic spirit might have anticipated the coiTuption which would soon call for the waters of another flood. But God assured him that the judgment was not to be repeated. The order of the seasons, and the produce of the earth, were secm-ed by a Divine promise to the very end of time. Till that end, man was to live under the dispensation of God's forbearance, and so to work out his full destiny. This promise was confirmed by the first of those covenants, or solemn agreements, by which it has pleased God to give a double security to our faith ; and the remembrance of the covenant was perpetuated by the bright and beautiful token of the rainbow. It has been conjectured, that till the time of the Flood, the earth was still watered by the abundant mists that prevailed before any extensive cultivation of its surface.* If so, the rainbow would be as new a source of joy, as the deluge itself had been of terror. But even if this hypothesis be rejected, and it be granted that the rainbow had often appeared before, it now received a new significance, which it has ever since borne, for the devout beholder. The memory of the Noachic Deluge is preserved in the tradi- tions of nearly every people of the earth ; and most of the hea- then mythologies have some kind of sacred ark. These traditions, * This applies, of course, only to the countries known to the antediluvians. Geological evidence of rain elsewhere, and at another stage of the world's history, has no connexion with this statement. 26 FROM THE FALL TO THE DELUGE. [Chap. IL which arc, in most cases, far too minute to be explained by any mere local inundations, attest a common origin from Xoah. It is remarkable, too, that they are simpler and. more distinct in pro- portion as we approach the original seat of mankind. Thus, the Chaldeans, the people who formed the most ancient perhaps of all nations, placed a general deluge in the reign of Xisuthrus, whose alleged place in the succession of their kings (the tenth) corre- sponds to that of Noah among the generations of mankind. This tradition corresponds to the scriptural account, in the divine warning (by the god Kronos or Saturn), — the preservation of Xisuthrus and his family, with all kinds of animals, in a great ark, — the destruction of all the rest of mankind, — the thrice- repeated experiment with the birds, and the final resting of the ark on a mountain in Armenia. The Persian tradition is less clear than that which is found at the extremities of the world, among the Chinese in the East, and the Mexicans in the West. All are acquainted with the Greek legend of Deucalion and Pyrrha. We do not consider it necessary to discuss the question of antediluvian longevity. There is nothing improbable in the enjoyment of great length of days in the first vigour of our race ; and the Scripture certainly marks the shortening of human life as at once the fruit and the penalty of sin. We can see one great use of such longevity in the more rapid peopling of the earth, and another in the transmission of knowledge by a very few steps over a very long period. Thus, according to the numbers of our received text of the Bible, Adam was more than 60 years the contemporary of l^oah's father, Lamech ; and Shem, the son of Noah, died only 24 years before the death of Abraham. Shem may therefore have related to Abraham what Lamech had heard from Adam. But, in accepting these genealogies as possessing historic credibility, we are not bound down to any definite chronological results obtained by adding together their numbei*s, which differ, as we have already seen, in the difierent chief copies of the Scripture. The same remark applies to the Post- diluvian patriarchs. THE NOACHIC PRECEPTS; 37 CHAPTER III. THE post-diltjyia:n' world, from the deluge to the DISPERSION; OR, MAN'S SECOND PROBATION AND FAJX. " Heroes and Kings, obey the charm, Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm, — There is an oath on high. That ne'er on brow of mortal birth Shall blend again the crowns of earth, Nor, in according cry, " Her many voices mingling, own One tyrant Lord, one idol throne : But to His triumph soon He shall descend, who rules above, And the pure language of His love All tongues of men shall tune." — Keble. IHB NOACHIC PEECEPTS — ABSTINENCE FROM BLOOD — SENTENCE AGAINST MPEDEE — THE PRIir- CIPLE OF LAW AND THE ACTHORITT OF THE MAGISTRATE — ORIGIN OF CIVIL SOCIETY — THE PATRIARCHAL CONSTITOTION — AUTHORITY OF THE PATRIARCH BOTH CIVIL AND EELIGIOCS — REMNANTS OF THE PATRIARCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT — INCIDENTS OF THE POST-DILUVIAN HISTORY — NOAH's FALL, AND HAm's INSULT — THE PROPHETIC CURSE AND BLESSINGS ON HAM, SHEM, AND JAPHETH — DIVISION OF THE EARTH IN THE TIME OF PELEG — MONARCHY OF KIUEOD — CITY AND TOWER OF BABEL — CONFUSION OF TONGUES. When JSToah. and his family left tlie Ark, to people the world anew, God repeated to tliem the blessing He had pronounced on Adam ; they were to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and to subdue all living creatures beneath their govern- ment. But their new state was marked by new laws. All the animals were granted to them for food, as the herbs and fruits had been granted to Adam ; nor were they restricted to those afterwards defined by the Mosaic law as clean. !N"o reason is given for this change ; but, coupling the principle, that laws are made for existing practices, with what we know of the ante- diluvian age, we may view it as an example of God's conde- scension in permitting practices which it would have been hard for human nature to give up. This opinion seems confirmed by the emphatic prohibition against the use of blood for food. We may well believe that, in those antediluvian feasts to which our Lord ■ refers, not only was animal food indulged in, but even blood was not refrained from, especially by a people who set at naught other first laws of nature. And, as the use of bloody banquets marks a 28 THE POST-DILUVIAN WORLD. [Chap. HL 8an<,'uinary disposition, tliis proliibition of Wood is naturally asso- ciated witli the second of tlie new laws, that against murder, the crime which liad stained the antediluvian age, from Cain to his descendiiJit Lainecli. Murder was not now first made a crime. Tlie blood of the murdered lunl from the first cried to God from the very earth that had drunk it up. The new point in the law seems to liave been this : under the previous dispensation the mur« derer was left in the hands of God, a devoted being, whom man must not touch, even in the way of vengeance ; but now lie was handed over to human law. " "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, ly man shall his blood be shed.'' Tlie reason is given for the mur- derer's death, that he had defaced God's image in his victim ; and to enforce the sanctity of that image, even the beast who should kill a man must be put to death. Such are the first exftm]>les of positive law committed to the administration of man ; for the law of the forbidden fruit was in the hands of God alone, who could alone enforce its penalty ; and His law of labour carried with it its o^vn penalty of want. Tlie former, indeed, was not a law to regulate life, but a special trial to test the spirit of obedience. Henceforth, therefore, man lived under LAW, a dispensation which antediluvian lawlessness had proved necessarv. The laws against murder and the eating of blood, and the authority of the civil magistrate to punish the criminal, mav be regarded as the new code of the human race, under the name of the Noaciiic Precepts. We are not to suppose that they include all the positive law of that early age. Marriage had been instituted from the first ; and the recognition of civil authority, as a principle, would naturally include all that the common-sense of mankind regarded as needful for protecting life, property, and good order, and enforcing subjection to and reverence for God. Hence the Jews extended the Noachic precepts which were bind- ing on Gentile proselytes to seven — the other four being the laws against idolatry, blasphemy, incest, and theft. Thus the elements of civil society were established before the Family had grown into the State, forming what is called the Patkiarciial CoNSTrruTiON, And in this earliest form of social order Ave may observe the truth of Aristotle's great saying, that the State exists not merely that man may live^ but that he may live icelL By the first principles of nature and common-sense, the government was placed in the hands of the Patriarch {the faiher- ruUi'). It was ensured to Noah by his peculiar position and character, AVhcn it was called in question by his son's contempt, B.C. 2348.] THE PATRIARCHAL CONSTITUTION. 29 lie did not shrink from using his authority, even to the extent of a terrible prophetic curse. The same example shows that the patriarch's authority did not cease even when his sons had house- holds of their own ; for Ham was abeady the father of Canaan when lie incurred his father's censure. And this rule continued throughout the patriarchal age. The first living ancestor had supreme jurisdiction over all the families descended from him; while each family respected also the government of its own im- mediate head. Thus it was with Abraham, as he dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the promise given to him ; but we also see Judah claiming the power of life and death over his daughter-in-law, while Jacob is still alive. This patriarchal government was religious as well as civil. The patriarch was the priest. In this character Noah offered sacrifice ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built altars, and called on the name of the Lord ; and both heads of houses and civil rulers are found sacrificing even after the institution of a priesthood. It included also the right of dividing the inheritance, which we find exer- cised by Noah, in his prophetic blessing and curse on his three sons, by Abraham, by Isaac, and by Jacob, the last going so far as to choose the heir of his own heir in Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph. But in the exercise of this power, there was a cus- tomary mle : the inheritance was divided into equal parts, of which the heir received two and the other sons one. In the Book of Job, which, whatever be its date, preserves the record of primitive patriarchal institutions, we see the system still in action after the establishment of cities. ■ In his own family Job rules over his sons, though they had their own se]3arate house- holds ; while, in the city, he sits in the gateway with the other elders, receiving the honour due to his station, and administering justice in his turn. Thus did the pure patriarchal government gradually merge into that of patriarchal elders, the primitive type of aristocracy. But neither this, nor the more artificial forms of civil government, have entirely superseded the patri- archal : it still exists where it is suited to the state of society. The Arab descendants of Abraham still live in tents, with the government of the oldest living ancestor scarcely changed ; and savage tribes scattered over the earth, especially those in the no- mad state, have preserved this relic of their primitive condition. The incidents of post-diluvian history are few ; and these few bear witness to the renewed corruption of mankind. We are not told how long the rescued family lingered among the highlands 30 THE POST-DILUVIAN WORLD. [Chap. HI. of Armenia, before they dispersed tliemselves over the primeval forests and the alhivial pLains, whieh tliey had to subdue before they could rcplenisli. Noah began the life of a husbandman, and planted a vineyard ; and the righteous man, who had escaped the lusts of the oid world, was overcome by shameful intoxication. Then it was proved that in his family, as in that of Adam, there was the distinction between the evil and the good : the wanton insolence of Ham, and the filial piety of Shem and Japheth, received the curse and the blessings which described the destiny of the peoples that have sprung from them. Ham is cursed in the person of his son Canaan,* as the ancestor of the race most hostile to the chosen family, with the doon! of servitude to his brethren, and especially to Shem. The inheritance of religious blessing is assigned to Shem ; and to Japheth is promised, besides great temporal prosperity, an ultimate share in the privileges of Shem. In this blessing we can clearly see the general outline of the later history of the Hebrew family and the European nations. Ten generations are enumerated from l^oali to Abraham, in the fifth of wliich (the time oi Peleg^ about e.g. 2247, Ussher), the eartli was divided among its several nations. This division was the result, not of quiet diffusion, but of a violent catastrophe, brought on by the increase of corniption, which took the form of political ambition. A difficulty always exists in the arrangement of events where genealogies are our only guide ; but remember- ing that steps are often omitted in these genealogies, which now become more ethnical than personal, we may not improbably connect the monarchy established at Babel by Nimrod, the son of Cush, the son of Ham, with the attempt to build the city and tower of the same name in the Plain of Shinar. There is at all events an obvious moral connexion in these enterprises. As Ham's outrage upon his father was the first great personal offence against patriarchal authority, so Nimrod's kingdom was the first open revolt from the patriarchal government ; and the enterprise of the Babel builders was an organized revolt in the same spirit, def^ying even the power of God himself. There can be little doubt that these builders were of the Cushite branch of the family of Ham, and that the Plain of Shinar was the great level of Lower Mesopotamia, or Chaklsea, and the site of the city that spot on the banks of the Euphrates, wliich has ever since borne the name of Babel or Babylon. Their * This special mention of Canaan is a decisive proof that the prophecy has nothing to do with the slavery of the negro races. B.C. 2247?] THE CITY AND TOWER OF BABEL. 31 veiy manner of building, with brick and bitumen,- is still seen in the ruins of edifices on the same spot. Dismissing the childish idea that they meant to build a brick tower as a refuge from an inundation, which they must have known would wash it away, we see in their city, with its lofty citadel, the first attempt to establish a great universal empire, in the might of which their impiety aspired to resist God himself, and to prevent the weak- ness which their dispersion would cause.f Of the religious aspect of the movement we are told no more than what is implied in the impiety of the design ; but there is ground for tracing in it a positive form of idolatry. The towers of Chaldaea, of the same type as that of Babel, seem always to have been temples ; and their peculiar construction was adapted to that early forai of idolatry called Sabseism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies. The earliest traditions represent Nimrod as an idolater, and the same is positively afiirmed in Scripture of the forefathers of the Israelites, when they dwelt in Chaldsea. Perhaps the temple was the first part of the design, and the city grew up around it. In the fate of this project we see the sentence which God has declared in every age against every attempt at universal monarchy by those acts of providence which form the most conspicuous events in history. The design was frustrated by a confusion of speech among the builders, produced by Divine intervention, which caused them no longer to understand each other, and so forced them to abandon the work ; and hence the name of the city, Babel {confusion). The Chaldasans themselves appear to have found the etymology of the name in their own language, as Bah^l^ tJie gate of the god II (Kronos or Saturn), and some regard the Hebrew etymology as only a coincidence ; but it is unsafe to use etymological arguments concerning a period before languages were cast into their later types. "We are not informed what be- came of the tower. Jewish tradition has tried to make up for the silence of Scripture by relating its miraculous destruction ; whiie antiquarians have sought for its remains in the rained towers of Chaldsea, both near to and far from its proper site. The Birs Nimroud^ which stands at some distance from the right bank of the Euj)hrates, is now certainly identified with the Temple of Nebo * This is the most probable interpretation of the word translated slime in our ver- sion : but the mud of the alluvial plain was also used for cement. \ The motive thus assigned, and their movement from their original seats, prove that the necessity for a dispersion was already obvious even to themselves. 82 THE POST-DILUVIAN "WORLD. [Chap. IIL at Borsippa (proba1>ly the Chaldcean Barsi]), or Tower of Tongues), which the Tahnudists identified with the Tower of Babeh This temple of the " Seven Lights of the Earth " was rebuilt by Nebu- chadnezzar, who included it within the circuit of Babylon. Tho dedicatory inscription of that king, lately discovered among the ruins, contains the following passage, as deciphered by Oppei-t : *— " A former king built it (they reckon forty-two ages), but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had aban- doned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay, the bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the in- terior had been scattered in heaps." This is a proof that the story is no mere Hebrew tradition. The simple statement of the Bible, that they left off huilding the city, would naturally suggest a break between the original and the later Babylon, during which the brick buildings would have fallen into ruin through neglect. At all events, such a break exists between the earlier and later history of Babylon in our own knowledge. That there was some connexion between this event and the diversities of human language and the dispersion of the nations, is clearly stated in the sacred narrative ; but this is not assigned as their only cause. It is sufficient confirmation of the account, that the languages of the earth do bear traces of a violent disloca- tion, as well as of a progressive development ; and what remains may be left to the inquiries of Comparative Philology and Eth- nography. * See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. iii. pp. 1564-5. COMMON ORIGIN OF MANKIND. 33 CHAPTER IV. THE DIVISION OF NATIONS. " God, that made the world and all things therein, hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before ap- pointed, and the bounds of their habitation." — St. Paul, in Acts, xvii. 24 — 26. " We know what modifies form. Change of latitude, climate, sea-level, conditions of subsistence, conditions of clothing, and so forth, do this; all, or nearly all, such changes being physical. We know too, though in a less degree, what modifies language. Isew wants gratified by objects with new names, new ideas requiring new terms, increased in- tercourse between man and man, tribe and tribe, nation and nation, island and island, oasis and oasis, country and country, do this. It is our business to learn from history what does all this." — Latham, Comparative Philology, p. 70S. THE COMMON ORIGIX OF MANKIND ATTESTED BY THE POSITIVE STATEMENT OF SCEIPTCRE — COL- LATERAL EVIDENCE OF SCIENCE, ESPECIALLY FROM LANGUAGE — TRIPARTITE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS — GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE LANDS FIRST PEOPLED — CENTRAL POINT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF ARMENIA — THE TRIPLE CONTINENT OF EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA, VIEWED IN ITS PHYSICAL FORMATION — THE NORTHERN PLAIN, THE GREAT DESERT ZONE, THE MOUN- TAIN CHAINS, AND THE SUBJACENT COUNTRIES — BASIN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN — OUTLYING PARTS OF THE WORLD — DISTRIBUTION OF THE SEVERAL RACES FROM THE ORIGINAL CENTRE IN ARMENIA — THE MOSAIC HISTORY GIVES ONLY THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PROCESS — FORM OF THE RECORD ETHNIC RATHER THAN PERSONAL — THE ARYAN AND SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND RACES— CONNECTION OF SHEMITE AND HAMITE RACES — GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE THREE FAMILIES — JAPHETH — HAM — SHEM — LANGUAGES OF THE RESPECTIVE RACES — MODERN CLASSIFICATION BY RACES OR VARIETIES OF MANKIND — THE CAUCASIAN — THE TURANIAN — THE NIGRITIAN — THE MALAY — THE AMERICAN — MEANING OF "ABORIGINAL" TRIBES — CONCLUDING REMARKS. In the age before the Flood, the human race had completed its first great experiment. It had failed in the attempt to achieve the end of its creation as a single united people. The time was now come for that further step which had been contemplated from the first in the Divine command — to replenish the earth and subdue it. The process by which this was effected is an ob- ject of enquiry only second in interest to the origin of the race ; and the enquiry must be pursued in accordance with the principles we have laid down. The Scriptural account must be regarded not as an expression of the crude opinions of an age, though early, yet long subsequent to the division of mankind into races, but as an historical record, derived from the testimony of those who witnessed the process. This testimony is independent of any question about inspiration ; but when an inspired teacher like St. Paul makes the same statements with a directly religious object, we have the highest authority for accepting the unity of the species as an U THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. undoubted fact in tlie liistory of man. That the magnificent Caucasian and the debased Hottentot, the noble Red Indian and the woolly Negro, should have sprang from the same stock, may Beem incredible to that mere external view whicli is no safe test of trath. Science may discuss the problem unfettered by the autliority, which she will in the end assuredly confirm. Histori- cal criticism will first follow direct testimony, but not without in- terpreting that testimony by the light of science. The only direct testimony that we possess is the record in the tenth chax-)ter of the Book of Genesis, to which the early traditions of the several na- tions scarcely add anything possessing the value of an independ- ent authority. The further aid rendered by science consists in the investigation of national affinities and differences, partly by pl]ysical characteristics, but chiefly by the test of language. The latter field of enquiry has been cultivated in our own day with the greatest diligence and success ; and, after making allowance for certain artificial changes, of which the record has been gener- ally jireserved, Comparative Grammar has been established as the surest guide to Comparative Ethnology. Two facts stand out in the very forefront of the Scriptural ac- count of the division of the nations — that all were derived from the common stock of ISToah in three great divisions, having his three sons for their several ancestors ; and that, for a long time after the Flood, " the whole earth was of one language and of one speech."* That great dislocation of this one speech, of which the memory was preserved in the name of Babel, gave a decisive impulse to the separation, which may, nevertheless, have begun before ; and its time is fixed to the age of Peleg, in the fifth gen- eration from Noah (b.c. 2247), whose very name (Peleg = divi- sion) commemorated the division.f The tripartite descent of all the nations from Sliem, Ham, and Japheth, is twice plainly stated : " These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread, ":j: " These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations : and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood."§ Before comparing the list of the nations de- scended from them with our later knowledge of the peoples of the earth, it is necessary to take a general survey of the lands over which the posterity of Noah's sons began to spread. The highlands of Armenia — for these, in the geography of • Genesis, xi. 1. f lb. x. 25. :j: lb. ix. 19. § lb. x. 32. THE GREAT TRIPARTITE CONTINENT. 35 Scripture, are meant by the mountains of Ararat, on which the Ark rested — form at once the most natui-al centre for the distri- bution of the human race, and the most convenient station from which to view the tripartite continent of Europe, Africa, and Asia. And at once, in thus naming it, we must insist on a more natural division than that into three continents, which, besides, was by no means uniformly accepted by the ancients. The highland region of Armenia is the central knot of the mountain system which forms the skeleton of Western Asia, and whose chains are connected with the great ranges that stretch through the whole length of Asia and of Europe. North of these ranges a vast expanse of land ex- tends with a genera] slope down to the Arctic Ocean, intersected by great rivers and covered with forests, swamps, and lakes. It is broken, near the centre, by the transverse chain of the Oural Mountains, and terminates on the north-west in the highlands of Scandinavia. With this portion of the earth's surface history has for a long time little or no concern, though destined to be vastly influenced by causes there at work. It lies apart, the rough cra- dle of those hardy races which were prepared, through a course of ages, to pour down like another deluge on the effete civilization of the Old World, The centre and southern portions of the triple continent are again subdivided by marked physical characters. A broad belt of sandy desert, on the greater part of which rain never falls, begins on the western shore of Afiica, below the parallel of 30° N. latitude, and sweeps across North Africa, Arabia, and Pei-sia, gradually rising up to the table-land of Iran, beyond which it again spreads out into tlie vast steppes of Tar- tary, and reaches nearly to the shores of the Yellow Sea. Tlie val- ley of the Nile, the basin of the Red Sea, and that of the Tigris and Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, are depressions in the surface of this great desert belt, which is also broken by several oases, where springs of water, and sometimes a considerable stream, nourish valleys, whose scanty verdure seems luxuriant by contrast with the wastes around. The part of this great tract which lies east of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, forming the table-land of Iran, is bordered on the north and south by mountain-chains, which run out from the central highlands of Armenia. The northern range, skirting the southern shore of the Caspian, is prolonged eastward to the Indian Caucasus (or Hindoo Koosh\ where another great knot is formed. The southern range, skirting the eastern margin of the Tigris valley and the Persian Gulf, ceases on the west side of the Delta of the Indus, whence the transverse chain of tho 86 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. Soliman Mountains runs up northwards to the Hindoo Koosh. >'roiii this new central knot the first chain is continued in the Himalaya and its branches, at the feet of which lie the two great Indian peninsulas and the vast land of China ; while another great range, which may be included under the general name of Altai, stretches north-east to the very extremity of the continent, along the margin of the steppes of Western Tartary and of the great northern Siberian plain. These two ranges support between them the great plateau of Mongolia, which forms the north-east- ern part of the great desert zone. The course of the mountain chains west of the Armenian high- lands affords a striking example of the influence of physical geog- raphy on national character. Two ranges, corresponding to the two already described as running to the east, extend westward along the northern and southern shores of Asia Minor, ending abruptly in the western headlands of that peninsula. Their pro- longations are lost amidst the European ranges which, sweeping to the north-west, make room for the basin of the Mediterranean, which is bounded on the east by the chains of Am anus, Lebanon, and the hills that prolong them to the south. The southern shore of the MediteiTanean is enclosed along half its extent by the slopes of the giant Atlas, which forms the northern boundary of the Great Desert (the Sahara) ; and along the eastern half the Desert itself reaches to the sea-shore, except where it is backed up by hills whose terraces slope down to the Mediterranean as in the fair peninsula of Cyrene. Thus the shores of this beautiful inland sea are formed by mountain slopes and deeply-indented penin- sulas, enjoying the most delicious climate, and affording the greatest facilities for navigation. It is a remarkable feature of the northern shores of the MediteiTanean, that the southern faces of the great mountain chains generally fall abruptly to the sea or the intervening plains, while on the north they descend with a long and gradual slope. Hence the lands on their southern side lie within a small compass, open to the great highway of com- merce, and sheltered by the steep mountain walls behind them : while on the other side a vast unmanageable mass of land, ex- posed to a northern climate, presents far greater obstacles to the progress of civilization. The same is true, though on a larger scale, of the Himalayas as well as of the Alps. In fine, the gi-eat chain of Caucasus, backing up the Armenian highlands on the north, and extending westward to the Crimea, encloses, with the opposite mountains of Asia Minor and Thrace, the basin of the DIFFUSION OF THE RACE FROM ARilENIA. 37 Euxine, from whose north-western shores the steppes of Southern Russia slope up to the great Sarmatian plain. The islands which fringe the coast of this great tripartite continent need not be de- scribed. The part of Africa south of the Great Desert has only the remotest connexion with ancient history ; and the New "Worlds of America and Oceanica may be left for the present out of view. Our plan is, first to obtain a general idea of the earliest distribu- tion of the human race according to the list given in the tenth chapter of Genesis, aided by the researches of Ethnology, and then to suffer the several nations, except those with which the thread of the history remains, to sink out of our view, till they re- appear on the stage of history in their connexion Avith the others. This general view of the physical geography of the ancient world may prepare us to see the fitness of the Armenian high- lands to be the central cradle of the human race. Forminof the highest land of Western Asia, the region lies between the Caspian, the Euxine, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf, which afi'ord access to all quarters of the ancient world. In its heart are the sources of the Euphrates, whose course forms the track, fii-st to Syria and the Mediten-anean, and then to the plains of Babylonia and the Persian Gulf; while the Tigris, rising on the southern slopes of its mountains, takes a more direct course to the same point- One of these two paths may have been followed by the first great raigi-ation on record, that of the Babel builders, when they journeyed eastward, to the plain of Shinar or Babylonia. Tlie valleys of the chain which skirts the basin of the Tigris on the east formed a path by which a hardy mountain race might spread over the table-land of Iran, and thence descend into the plains of Northern India ; and in these regions we find a race which assumed not imworthily, the name of nolle (the Aryans). From the Persian Gulf the way lies open, east and south, to all the coasts and islands of the great Indian Ocean ; while the coast of Syria, besides giving immediate access to Egypt, the shores of the Red Sea, and the southern margin of the Mediterranean, looked over the waters of that easily navigable sea to all the lands of Southern Europe. To these countries there was another access by the valleys which descend from Armenia to Asia Minor, along both shores of that peninsula, and by the islands which form stepping-stones across the JEgean into Greece, as well as over the narrow streams of the Bosporus and Hellespont into Thrace. The shores of the Euxine might be reached by the valleys of the Cyrus and the Phasis, whence the way lay open round the foot of the 88 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. Caucasian chain into tlio Crimea and the vast plain of Northern Europe ; while the Cyrus and the Araxes also led to the Caspian across and around which was the route to Central and ISJ'orthern Asia. Without entering, at present, into the question of the peopling of America, w^e need only notice the clear physical possi- Lilitv of a passage from the one continent to the other, both across 13ehring's Strait and along the chain of the Aleutian Isles. Thus the way lay open on every side ; and on nearly every side fertile plains, watered by abounding rivers, invited men down from the mountain valleys into a milder and more productive climate. Though the descendants of Noah's three sons spread ultimately over the wide regions thus described, we must not expect to find, in the Mosaic account, more than the commencement of the pro- cess. Its true historic character necessarily confines it to the then known parts of the world ; though inferences may be fairly drawn respecting the progress of population over regions still unknown. The attempt to find all countries of the ancient world in the list has raised needless difficulties. A very unfounded suspicion has also been thrown upon the whole account on tbe ground of its fonn. By those who started from the assumption that it was intended for a genealogy of personal names, the discovery that many of these names are strictly national was supposed to reduce it to a mere ethnical speculation. But the only wonder is that the ethnic character of many of these names (such as those ending in im^ the Hebrew plural, and particularly the dual Miz7'aim, for the two Egypts, Upper and Lower) should ever have been overlooked.* Though the writer starts with a genealogy, in the case of the three sons of Noah, the wl;ole scope of his account is manifestly ethnic, and it is fruitless to enquire where the one form ends and the other begins. In determining the localities to w^hich the names should be referred, we have in some cases the guidance of histori- cal geography, and in others a very striking similarity of names ; aided by a general notion, derived from the account itself and from the science of Ethnology, as to what parts of the ancient world were peopled by the three races. The most certain result of Comparative Philology is, that tke languages — and therefore the nationsf — of Europe and South- * A striking case occurs in verses 15 — 18, where the one form passes into the other: — "And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jcbusite, and the Amorite, &c." In the next verse, the boundary of the Canaanites is given, from Sidon, which now stands for the city. t It may be necessary here to guard against an objection. " Blood and language, upon a whole," says Dr. Latham, " coincide but slightly. The Arab blood of the AFFINITIES OF THE THREE FAMILIES. 39 western Asia form two great families, of whicli the one is named Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, Aryan or Japhetic, and the other Semitic* The range of the former may be described by a zone, extending S.E. and K.W, from the plain of Northern India across the table-land of Iran, the highlands of Armenia, and at least a part of Asia Minor, into Europe, of whicl; it covers nearly the whole surface. There is little difficulty in referring to parts of this region the races named in Genesis as the posterity of Japheth. This zone leaves on its western margin, for the most part well- defined by dividing mountains, the countries which form the south- western corner of Asia — namely, the Tigris and Euphrates val- ley, Syria with the adjacent part of Asia Minor, and the peninsula of Arabia. This region, which is the seat of the Semitic languages, as determined by Comparative Grammar, contains the countries which we know, from the whole tenor of Scripture history, to have been peopled chiefly by the race of Shem. The third race offers more difficulty. Comparative Grammar has not yet established a distinct Hamitic family of languages ; but it has proved the difficulty of referring the dialects of Egypt and some neighbouring countries to either of the other families. But the history most indubitably connects Ham with Egypt, his son Canaan with the adjacent district of Palestine, and others of his descendants with Africa on the west, and Arabia, on the east, of Egypt. One main source of difficulty, perhaps, arises from a sacri' fice of truth to symmetry, in the too eager search for a definite tri- partite division of the nations. There seems to have been a much closer connexion (we do not say, affinity) between the races of Shem and Ham, than between them and the race of Japheth. This is already intimated in IS'oah's prophetic blessing. While Japheth, who seems to have been the elder son, stands apart, " enlarged " with his vast temporal inheritance, Shem, the heir of the sj)iritual promise, is placed in direct antagonism with Ham, whom he is to reduce to subjection. Accordingly we find a perpetual conflict between the two races, and a perpetual intnision of the one into millions who speak Arabic [in Africa] is at a minimum ; " and he mentions slavery aa a great cause of the intermixture of languages. This must be carefully borne in mind in all speculations on ethnic affinities based on the existing forms of language. But when we are able to ascend to the original speech of a people, we may safely infer their race from their language. In our own islands, for example, the use of English by the Cornish, Welsh, Scotch Highlanders, and Irish, does not tempt us to refer them to the Teutonic race; but our knowledge that their native dialects are Cambrian and Gaelic leads us rightly to class them with the Celtic race. * This form of the word, though originating in a difficulty with the sh, has been so naturalized by use, that the more proper Shemitic seems uncouth. 40 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. the seats of the other. The very Land of Promise, divinely given to tlie chosen descendants of Shem, was first possessed by the race of Canaan, the son of Ilain. The two races came into conflict on the Arabian shore of tlie Persian Gulf, and in the plains of Baby- lonia, where Nimrod, the son of the Ilamite Cush, set up his throne in a country which afterwards belonged to the Semitic race ; and hence arose the double applicatioli of the name Cnsh to Baby- lonia, as well as to Ethiopia above Egypt, to which it properly refers. More than this : according to the Hebrew method of stating geographical facts in a genealogical form, names that are purely local are inserted as if they had an ethnical meaning. Thus in Arabia, where certain districts were occupied at one time by a Semitic race, at another by an Ilamitic, the very same names ap- pear in both genealogies, indicating the intrusion of the one family into the possessions of the other ; the Cushite races of Sheba and Ilavilah appear as descendants of the Shemite Joktan in Arabia. The general conclusion is, that we must not expect to find the same- marked distinction between the races and languages of Shem and Ham, as between them and the race of Japheth. We may probably view the ancient Egyptians as nearest to the pure type of a Hamite race. That this type is to be found in the negro is a prejudice as unfounded as the attempt to wrest Noah's prophe- cy of the subjection of the Canaanites to Israel into an argument for negro slavery. Confining our attention within the probable limits of the knowledge of the time when the list was composed, the settle- ments of the three sons of Noah may be roughly described as forming three parallel zones ; — Japheth, stretching from the high- lands of Armenia, to the south-east, into the table-land of Iran, and to the west into Thrace and the Grecian peninsula and islands ; Shem, occupying the middle belt, from the south-eastern part of Asia Minor* to the Persian Gulf, and most, if not all, of the pen- insula of Arabia ; and Ham, Egypt and Ethiopia, with the adja- cent parts of Africa, as well as Palestine and the country round the head of the Red Sea. The names of the tribes belonging to each of the three races are the following : — I. The sons of Japheth. 1. GoMER ; and his sons Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. These are supposed to belong to the primeval seats of the race, in * The Semitic Jind Aryan races were much mingled in this peninsula. In a very general sense, the River Ilalys may be named as a boundary between them. THE JAPHETIC RACES. 41 the highlands of Armenia, and the centre of Asia Minor. To- garmah appears to be identified in Scripture with Armenia. As these are probably the races which ultimately spread north-west- ward over Europe, we cannot tell how far we have to look for them among existing nations ; and a wide range is left open to speculation. The name of Gorticr resembles that of the great Cim- merian or Cimric race, which is found both on the shores of the Euxine, where the Crimea still preserves its name, and in the ex- treme west of Europe. In Ash-kenaz some of the best authorities find the name of Asia, which was at first localized on the shores of the Euxine and in Asia Minor.* The extension of the name to the whole continent has no ethnical meaning ; but the race, spreading to the north-west, is regarded by the authorities just referred to as the original of the Teutonic nations. Hiphath has not been satisfactorily explained ; Josephus says that the Paphla- gonians were called of old Rhiphseans. Magog is a name which occurs again in Scripture, with that of Gog, from some great and wild tribe, who fought on horseback with the bow, and came from a country adjacent to Togarmah, that is, Armenia (Ezekiel xxxviii. xxxix.). Ezekiel's description, as well as some ancient traditions preserved by the Arabians, point to the tribes north of the Caucasus, who were included by the Greeks under the general name of Scythians. But here great diffi- culties arise, partly from the very wide and indefinite range given by the classical writers to this name of Scythians, and partly from the movements of the tribes which have at various times displaced one another over the northern parts of Europe and Asia. Thus the name has come to denote two very distinct races ; the one Japhetic, the other belonging to that great Turanian family of which we have still to speak. The former seem to be the Magog of Scripture, as they certainly are the Scythians of Herodotus and the other ear- lier Greek writers. They are the family whose chief branch, set- tled in the east and south-east of Europe, along the northern sides of the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and the Caspian, obtained the name oi Sarmatians from one of their lesser tribes, when that oi Scythians was transferred to> the Turanian races of Northern and North-east- ern Asia. Upon the whole, however, where ethnical afllnities are so obscure, it may be safer to regard the name as merely geographical, which is certainly the case with some others in the list. According to a probable etymology, Ma-gog signifies the People of Gog^ Gog being the prophetic name of a supposed prince of these tribes. * See the article Asia in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 42 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. 3. Madai almost certainly represents the Medes, whom ethni- cal science has proved to be a branch of the Indo-European race. 4. Javan, with his sons Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Doda- nim, peo])led tlie " Isles of the Gentiles," a term which always seems to signify, in Scriptural geography, the western shores of Asia Minor and the countries on the European coasts of the Medi- terranean. The name of Javan, stripped of the vowel points, is the same as the Greek ION, and Milton adopts the identificatioD wlien he speaks of " The Ionian gods of JavarCs issue." Nay, the very name of Japheth himself appears in the Titan deity lapetus, whose son Prometheus, ^' Japheth'' s wiser son," is, in the oldest Greek mythology, the benefactor and preserver, nay, even the creator of the human race. Tlie identification of £Jli- shah with the JEolians, and of Dodanim with the Dardanians of Asia Minor (a people undoubtedly akin to the Greeks), and the placing of the Kittim in the island of Cyprus, are questions too minute to be more than barely mentioned. But the name of Tar- shish is of wider interest. It often occurs in Scripture as that of a distant land, the commerce with w^hich gave a name to the largest class of merchant vessels, like our " Indiamen ; " and it is gener- ally believed to denote either the lands in the western part of the Mediterranean in general, or in particular Spain, where the great maritime city of Tartessus was famous in the earliest times. It may, however, be doubted whether so distant a region would be within the writer's knowledge. 5. Tubal has been placed in Pontus, on account of the resem- blance of the name to the Tibareni. 6. Meshech has been identified, for a similar reason, with the Moschi in Pontus. 7. TiRAs seems to represent the great nation of the Thracians. In looking at the subject from the historical point of view, in the light of the earliest authentic documents, we cannot enter on the wider field of scientific enquiry into the origin and affinities of the ancient and existing nations of the world. But it may be well to indicate the results obtained by the modern science of Compara- tive Philology. The nations, ancient and modern, comprised in the great zone which has already been mentioned as extending from Northern India on the south-east to the western shores of Europe, are classified, according to their languages, in the following order : — THE ARYAN LANGUAGES. 43 GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE ARYAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES.* Classes. Branches. Dead Languages. Living Languages. T „ \ Prakrit and Pali, Modern ) Dialects of India I and Vedic Sanskrit J " the G fParsi, Pehlevi, Zend " Ibanic Old Armenian. Celtic , Cymric . Cornish . Gadhelic Italic . Oscan. . Umbrian . • V Langue d'oc . Latin ) Langue d'oil . Illyric . Hellenic Dialects of Greek. "WlNDIC. Lettic < Old Prussian South-east Slavonic. Ecclesiastical Slavonic Teutonic. West Slavonic. High German. Low German . . . ^ Old Bohemian Polabian j Old High German and ( Middle High German .... fGothic Anglo-Saxon Old Dutch Old Friesian Old Saxon Old Norse. ^ Scandinavian * From Max Midler : Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 380 the Gipsies. Persia. Afghanistan, Kurdistan. Bokhara. Armenia. Ossethi. Wales. Brittany. + Scotland. Ireland. Isle of Man Portugal. Spain. Provence. France. Italy. Wallachia. the Grisons. Albania. Greece. Lithuania. + Friesland anJ Livonia (Lettish). Bulgaria. Russia. lUyria. Poland. Bohemia. Lusatia. German V. England. Holland. Friesland. North Ger- many (Piatt Deutsch). Denmark. Sweden. Norway. Iceland. 44 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. That this table should include the dialects of races whose names are not seen in the Mosaic list, is quite consistent with the limits within which tlie list is confined. Representing the original diffusion of the families of mankind, it does not follow them into their later ramifications. One case demands more special notice, that of the language which stands first, both in the table and in the name Indo-European, and to which precedence has been generally given by modern scholars — the Indie. Neither this nor the chief dialects of the Iranic appear in the Mosaic list, just be- cause they lay beyond its range ; and perhaps, too, because of the well-known fact that the Aryan race in Northern India displaced an earlier Hamite or Turanian population. But there has been too great a tendency to regard the Indie as the prototype, and even the parent of the whole family ; and hence some have even supposed that we must look for the cradle of the human race, not in the liighlands of Armenia, but in those of the Hindoo Koosh. This precedence in antiquity, however, is more than can be justly claimed for the Indie dialects ; and, in fact, the original centre of the race cannot be determined by such reasoning. " There is," says Dr. Latham, " a tacit assumption that, as the East is the probable quarter in which either the human species or the greatci part of our civilization originated, everything came from it. But surely in this tJiere is a confusion between the primary diffusion of mankind over the world at large, and those secondary movements by which, according even to the ordinary hypothesis, the Lithuan- ic came from Asia into Europe ? A mile is a mile, and a league a league, from whichever end it is measured, and it is no further from the Danube to the Indus, than from the Indus to the Danube : " * and we may add, it is only half as far from Armenia to either. IL TuK Race of Ham formed four great families, which can be identified pretty certainly with known races, though the minutes subdivisions involve considerable difficulties. They all belong to the dark-coloured variety of mankind ; and the very name of Ham has such a signification, being akin to the word by which the Egyptians described the black soil of their own country.f 1. Cusn seems to be a generic term for the dark tribes of Africa, like the Greek name Ethiopian ; but his numerous progeny extend also into Asia. The name of his eldest son, Seba, is identical with * Lttham, Comparative Philology, p. 612. The passage is part of an argument which we cannot, of course, discuss here — that Sanskrit, which is closely allied to the Slavonian dialects, is rather of European than of Asiatic origin. f See Book ii., chapter vL THE CUSHITE RACE. 45 the most ancient name of the great island (as it was called) formed between the two branches of the Nile, the Astaboras and Astapiis, and famous as the seat of the Ethiopian kingdom of Meroe. The following names of Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah (with his sons She- ba and Dedan), and Sabtechah, certainly belong in part to the peninsula of Arabia. Then follows one of the most interesting records of primeval history ; how Nimrod, a descendant of Cush, began to be a mighty one in the earth, and was distinguished in early traditions as " the mighty hunter " (the phrase " before Jehovah " is a Hebrew pleonasm of intensity). There is little doubt that this epithet describes the forays which the first great conqueror named in history made upon the surrounding nations. He is expressly declared to have founded a kingdom, the seat of which is accurately defined. Its beginning was at Babel and the neighbouring cities of Erech, Accad, and Calneli, in the land of Shinar ; that is, the great plain of Babylonia, or, to speak more widely, Southern Mesopotamia. Thence he is supposed by some to have extended his empire northward along the valley of the Tigris into the land of Asshur (Assyriia), where he built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen.* It is, of course, quite indiflerent whether these were the exploits of an individual, or, as seems more probable, of the dynasty he founded. The great fact established is this, that the earliest empire in the world was set up by a Cushite dynasty in the great plain of Babylonia. Traditions of the most ancient times, and the recently discovered records of the oldest Babylonian language, point to an original Cushite pop- ulation in those regions, where the appellation of the race was long preserved in such names as Chuthah, Cossaii, Chuzistan or Susi- ana. For the Cushites peopled not only the plains of Mesopota- mia, but the highlands of Susiana and Persia Proper ; and we may follow the footsteps of the race still further to the east, across the deserts of Beloochistan and the Mekran, at the head of the Indian Ocean, to the peninsula of India ; where, besides the evidence of language, their presence is shown by their characteristic temijle- towers or pagodas. In these countries they were mingled with the Aryan race. Thus we see the Cushite race extending from * That is, according to the reading of Genesis x. 11, now generally preferred; " out of that land he went into Assyria" — but it is not certain that the authorized translation is not right; — "out of that land went forth Asshur" (driven out by a Cushite invader), " and built Nineveh, Rohoboth, Calah, and Resen," a Semitic tetra- polis in Northern Mesopotamia, in contrast to the Cushite tetrapolis in the South, This Cushite kingdom is mixed up by historians with the early history of Assyria." See Book ii., chapter ix. 46 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. above Egypt, across the south and east of Arabia, the plain of Babylonia or Chaldiea, and as far as India, in a sort of crescent : but the question still remains, what was the course of their mi- gration ? Did they ascend the Nile to their primitive seats in Nubia and Abyssinia, and then spread to the north-east, displa- cing an earlier Shcmitc population in Arabia and on the Tigris ? Or did they first descend the valley of the Euphrates, and spread thence to the south-west ? Or did they follow both courses ? This question is one of the most difficult in the whole science of Eth- nology. The results of modern research point, as we shall see hereafter, to the entrance of the Cushites into Chaldsea by way of the Persian Gulf; and this is supposed to be in accordance with the order in the Book of Genesis, which derives Nimrod from Gush, and not Gush from Nimrod. But, on the other hand, the narrative of the building of Babel appears rather to suggest that the Cushite peopling of Babylonia was effected by the more direct route, and that it was connected with the migration of the Babel builders. It would seem that the race of Ham, like the Gainites before the Flood, having cast off the patriarchal law, were the first to indulge their restless desire of wide dominion. 2. MizRAiM, the name of Ham's second son, has a uniform geographical significance in Scripture. Even its dual form has its proper force, denoting Upper and Lower Egypt. The singular, Mazor, seems to have the same significance as Ham, and Egypt is expressly called in Scripture " the land of Ham " (Psalm Ixxviii. 51 ; cv. 23 ; cvi. 22) ; — strong arguments for the opinion that Egypt, though named second in geographical order, was the chief seat of the Hamite race. Its extent along the valley of the Nile is defined by the unchanged physical limit of the first cataract ; and the distinct characteristics of the ancient Egyptians are inscribed indelibly on their monuments. But they w^ere surrounded by kin- dred tribes — Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Gasluhim (the progenitors of the Philistim), and Gaphtorim. It seems that all these, as we know for certain of the Philistines, were colonies sent forth by the primitive race of Mizraim ; and that they are enumerated in a geographical order, from west to east. The Ludim (or Lud) are mentioned in several passages of Scripture as serving in the armies of Egypt : but a difficulty arises from the twofold use of the name ; for besides the Mizraite Lud or Ludim, there was a Shemite Lud, probably the Lydians. Of the Anamim we have no certain knowledge ; but the Lehabim (else- where called Lubim) seem to be without doubt the Rebu of the THE HAMITIC NATIONS. 47 Egyptian monuments, and the Libyans of the Greeks, in the nar- rower sense. Their ancient dependence on the Egyptians is stated by Manetho as an historical fact. The Xaphtuhim dwelt close to Egypt en the west. The Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim were probably settled in the Delta itself. The paren- thesis, which describes the origin of the Philistines, seems to be misplaced, for this people are elsewhere uniformly described as an offshoot of the Caphtorim. They were the only one of the Miz- raite colonies which extended into Asia, and their affinity with the Egyptians should be remembered in studying Jewish history. The Caphtorim were not improbably an old race, closely akin to the Cushites, who dwelt in Egypt before its final settlement by its historical inhabitants. Their name seems to be connected with that of Coptos, and to contain the old root which is preserved in the modern name of the Egyptian people and language, and in the Greek appellation of the country (Ae-gyptus = the land of Copt). Retiring to the Delta, the Caphtorim seem to have sent forth colonies, not only to the adjacent maritime plain of Philis- tia, but across the Mediterranean to the south-west shores of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands. The old Leleges and Carians, as well as the Cretans, had a close affinity with the Philistines, es- pecially if tlie last two of these three peoples be rightly identified with the Tok-Karu and the Khairetana (the Hebrew Cherethim), who appear on the Egyptian monuments as allies of the Philis- tines. They are evidently a race cognate to the Egyptians, but distinguished from them by some marked peculiarities. 3. Phut, the third son of Ham, is also often mentioned in the prophetic Scriptures as allied with the Egyptians. The name corresponds with that of a nomad people, Petu (bowmen)^ which occurs on the monuments. It seems probable that they were the Nubians, and this would account for their being mentioned next after Misraim, as Nubia was always a dependency of Egypt. 4. Canaan is the last-named of the sons of Ham, but the best known to the Hebrew author, who not only gives a full list of the Canaanite tribes, but an exact description of their territories, from the borders of Egypt and the plain of Sodom and Gomorrah on the south, to the city of Sidon and the land of Hamatli (the valley of the Orontes) on the north ; thus including the whole of the Holy Land and some of the adjacent parts of Phoenicia and Syria, which were afterwards peopled by the race of Shem. The illustration of this family by Comparative Philology is an enquiry as yet in its infancy ; all that can at present be said with 48 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV safety is that some progress lias been made towards the recognition of a distinct class of Ilamitic languages. The tendency of modern research is to show tliat, as on the one hand the race of Ham led the way in material civilization, and consquently in the changes of language which it calls for, and as on the other hand their civ- ilization took more and more a Semitic form of development, so their languaires will be found to constitute an intermediate link between the primitive undeveloped Turanian and the Semitic. Some philologcrs even go so far as to doubt whether the Semitic family of languages should not rather be called Ilamitic. But, in truth, little success can be expected in the attempt to classify lan- guages according to the three races, since the chief modifying causes, which have moulded languages into their existing forms, are long subsecpent to the original partition of mankind. The ancient language of Egypt, and the Coptic derived from it, have perhaps the best claim to represent the Hamitic family ; but it is now clear that both the people of Egypt, and their language, con- tained a large infusion of the Nigritian element. The characteristics of the race may perhaps be best seen in the traditions and monuments of their civilization. Their great work was to make material nature subserve their power and pomp, to found great empires, and to resist the inroads of nomad races. They reared those massive works of grand and sombre architec- ture, which still excite our admiration in Egypt, Babylonia, and Southern Arabia, as well as in the little we know of the earliest monuments of Phoenicia. Indeed, the principle recently pro- pounded by Mr. Fergusson, though often partially recognized before,* of using prevailing styles of architecture as a test of race, may be safely applied, if in any case, to the family of Ham. Yiewed in this light, the wondrous legends of the old Arabian kings who, in their marvelloTis palaces, dared to defy the Divine power, till sudden destruction fell upon them from heaven, may be traditions not entirely imaginary. In every land this material grandeur yielded partially, and in most altogether, before the spi- ritual power and the active energy of the sons of Shem and Ja- pheth. The material civilization of the world was hegun by the race of Ham, ennobled and put to the highest uses by the race of Shem, and, if the phrase may be aWowedi, poj)ulai'ized and made the hand- maid of energetic progress by the race of Japheth, to whom Noah's prophecy gave the highest development of worldly greatness. * Aa in the comparisons frequently made between the temples of India and Egypt. THE SEJ^nTIC NATIONS. 49 III. The Sons of Shem are named last in the list, probably as being the chosen race, with whom the main stream of the sacred history abides. They occupied a comparative small territory, shut in between the wide possessions of Japhetti on the north, and those of Ham on the south. This fact seems to suggest, from the very- first, that their destiny was not so much to overspread the earth, as to exhibit, on their allotted portion of it, the dealings of divine Providence with one part of mankind as a pattern of the rest. Two stages are clearly marked, in the ethnic genealogy, by the description of Shem as " the father of all the children of Eber : " the latter, as the head of the most important subdivision of the race, is thus only second in importance to Shem, the ancestor of the whole. As in the Hamite races, so here there seems to be a geo- graphical order in the enumeration, which proceeds from south- east to north-west along the highlands which extend from the head of the Persian Gulf through Armenia into Asia Minor. xVram is mentioned last, as lying south of the curved line thus formed. 1. Elam, a name preserved in that of the Elymsei, belongs to the mountains which separate the table-land of Iran from the Per- sian Gulf and the lower part of the Tigris valley, including also a portion of these lowlands. It corresponds in general to the Susiana of later geographers. This people, at the extremity of the Semitic chain, came into contact on the east with the Japhet- ic Persians, with whom they are sometimes confounded, while on the other side they were pressed upon by the Cushite invaders. The result was their ultimate reduction to a mountain tribe, com- paratively insignificant in numbers, but famed as archers both in secular and sacred history . The early importance of their coun- try is attested by the title of " Iving of Elam " given to the great Cushite sovereign, Chedorlaomer. 2. AssHUR, the great Assyrian nation, had its abode in the upper valleys of the Tigris ; where having been for a time sub- dued by the Chaldtean monarchy of Nimrod, it became the seat of the first great Semitic monarchy after that of Solomon. 3. Arpuaxad is the name both of a person and of a race. As the eldest son of Shem (born two years after the flood), we should naturally expect to find his progeny near the primeval home of the race ; and there are good reasons for placing them in the southern part of the Armenian highlands, about the sources of the Tigris. One intervening step of the genealogy, Salah, leads from Arphaxad to Eber, the common ancestor of the Hebrews and the Semitic Arabs, who were descended respectively from his two Vol. I.— 4 60 THE DIVISION OP THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. sons, Peleg and Joktan. The significance of tlie name Eber seems to point to a home " on the other side " of the Euphrates ; and this agrees both with the position of Chaldaea, the native country of Abraham, and the statement of Joshua to the Israelites, that their fathers liad dwelt in the days of their idolatry, " beyond the flood," that is, the waters of the Euphrates. While the personal genealogy of the chosen race is traced down from Peleg, through Keu, Serug, and Kahor, to Terah the father of Abram, Joktan is described as the father of the numerous Arabian tribes, whose dwellings are defined as extending " from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east." The latter is almost certainly the modern Zafari, a port in the east of Yemen, and formerly a great seat of the Indian and African trade. Hence their settlements were in the south of the peninsula, where the traces of their power are found in history. Their chief tribe was that of Sheba (the Sabae- ans of classical geography), who very early established a great monarchy in the south-west corner of the peninsula. The domin- ion passed from them to the Ilimyarites (the Homeritse of the Greeks), who are not mentioned in the Mosaic list. They seem to have been, in fact, the chief subdivision of the Sabsean tribe. Their still extant inscriptions attest the close connection between the Semitic population and that Cushite element which spread, as we have already seen, over these regions, and which has left here, as in the valleys of the Tigris and the Nile, the traces of its pres- ence and power in its giant monuments. But the limitation of the Joktanite Arabs to the south of the peninsula seems to describe only their later possessions. At a very early period they extend- ed into the great Syrian Desert, as far north as Damascus. Here they afterwards encountered two other great waves of Semitic population, which passed over the north and centre of the land ; the descendants of Abraham, through his son Ishmael, and by his wife Keturah. This most interesting mixture of populations which still requires and will reward investigation, is attested by the occurrence of the same names in the Biblical genealogies of Cush, Joktan, Ishmael, and Keturah. 4. LrD is most probably identified with the great Lydian na- tion of Asia Minor. The intermixture of peoples in that penin- sula presents one of the most curious and intricate problems of ancient ethnology. It seems to have been occupied by the three races, in three nearly parallel belts ; the Japhethites along the north, the Shemites in the south-east, centre, and west, and the Hamites in the south-west. AKAM^ANS, HEBREWS, AND PHCENICIANS. 51 5. Akam, from a root signifying high^ was the general name of the people of the highlands that enclosed on the north the plains and lower hills of Canaan, and the table-land of the Syrian Desert. It corresponds roughly to the northern parts of Syria, Mesopotamia,* and Assyria. The language of this wide-spread people has always been divided into two distinctly marked dia- lects, the Eastern and Western Aramaean. The former, improp- erly called Chaldee, was in use at Babylon at the time of the Jewish captivity ; the latter is represented by the Syriac, which was the vernacular language of Syria till the Arab conquest. The latter is near akin to the Hebrew, which contains also a large admixture of pure Aramaic forms. The children assigned to Aram are, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. The first name, as well as Aram itself, recurs among the descendants of Xahor, the brother of Abraham, whose home was at Padan-Aram. Hence we can have little hesitation in placing Uz, the land of Job, in the country of Mesopotamia. The most important branch of the Semitic race, the people of Israel, does not appear in this list, as they had not at first a dis- tinct national existence. The land destined to become the scene of the wonders of their history was peopled by the race of Ham, while their ancestor Abram did not separate from the posterity of Eber till after five generations. There is another important branch of the Semitic race, which does not appear in the Mosaic list. These are the Phoenicians, who inhabited the narrow slip of the eastern coast of the Mediter- ranean, between Syria and Palestine, at the foot of the chain of the Lebanon. They seem to have migrated from Chaldaea about the time of the call of Abraham ; and both these movements of the Semitic race up the valley of the Euphrates to the shores of the Mediterranean may have been influenced by a common im- pulse.-j- That the settlers found a Hamite population already in the country, may be inferred from the statement that Sidon was tbe first-bom of Canaan,:}: as well as from the Hamitic character of the earliest Phoenician monuments. From Piioenicia, the Se- mitic race was spread by colonization to Carthage and other places on the Mediterranean shores of North Africa and Spain. When these settlements in the land of Canaan had been efiect- * This was the Aram-Naharaim, that is, Aravi between the rivers, of Scripture. Padan-Aram, the cultivated Aram, was another name of the same district, f See RaAvlinson's Herodotus, vol. iv., Essay 11. X Genesis x. 15. 68 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. FV. ed, the Semitic race acquired that form, which its peculiar fixity of cliaracter and habits preserved for long ages ; which was only altered, indeed, by the force of foreign conquest. Tliis character offers peculiar facilities to the researches of the ethnologist, the results of which are embodied by Professor Max Miiller in the following GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE SEMITIC FAIIILY OF LANGUAGES.* Classes. Dead Languages. Living Languages. Dialects of Arabic. Etbiopic Amharic. Himyaritic Inscriptions + ! Biblical Hebrew \ Dialects of the Jews. Samaritan Pentateuch, 3rd century a. d > + Carthaginian, Phoenician Inscriptions /^ + ( Chaldee, Masora, Talmud, Targum, Biblical Chaldee \ 4- Northern "i ^3'"''*'^> Peshito, 2nd century a. d J- Neo-Syriac. ( Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Nineveh. . . ) + The Scriptural account is naturally silent about the colonies which were established on the shores of the Mediterranean by the maritime energy of the Phoenicians, and by means of which the Semitic and Japhetic races were brought into conflict for the empire of the world, in the Punic Wars. ISTor should we omit to notice that, anterior to these colonies, there are traces of a Se- mitic population along the northern coast of Africa, which is still probably represented by the Berbers, a people quite distinct from the later Arab conquerors. Such are, in brief outline, the general results of an examination of the " Book of the Generations of the Sons of Noah " in the light of ethnical science. But when that science extends its enquiries to the whole surface of the globe, it gives us other results, which are certainly not directly deducible from the historical account, though there is no reason to regard them as inconsistent with it. The double test of physical and linguistic distinctions divides the human race into five varieties. 1. The Caucasian is so called because its finest physical type is still found in the region of Mount Caucasus, near the original seat of the human race. It includes all the nations that speak the Indo-Germanic languages, as well as most of the tribes of the great Indian peninsula, the Semitic peoples of Western Asia, and the inhabitants of Northern Africa. Its physical charactei-s are * Lectures on the Scic7ice of Language, p. S81. CAUCASIAN AND NON-CAUCASIAN RACES. 53 a tall stature, symmetry and strength of body, a free and noble bearing, and especially the erect countenance and fully developed brain and forehead, which are the marks of high intellect. Its history has always fulfilled the destiny which nature has mani- festly stamped upon it, as the ruling family of mankind, supreme in power, and foremost in civilization. It embraces, with a few very doubtful exceptions, all the nations that are described in the above list as the earliest progeny of the three sons of Noah. But the inference by no means follows, that no room is left for other races, consistently with a common descent from Noah. The remoter parts of the earth, not comprised in the Mosaic list, may have been peopled by races sprung from the same original stock, but yet so modified by climate and other influences, as to bear strong marks of difierence. Naturalists, for the most part, admit that such modifications are agreeable to the laws of physi- cal science. That they have actually taken place is the more probable from the fact, that all the departures from the Caucasian type show signs of degeneracy. In other classes of organic life, each species is more or less perfect in its kind ; but all the other varieties of mankind are less perfect than the Caucasian. Nor is it hopeless to expect that more accurate observation, especially in the field of language, may enable us to detect, in the peculiar characteristics of the non-Caucasian races, the exaggeration of those of the three great families. Thus, for example, the researches which have made us better acquainted with the Hamite nations, have also detected among them a strong Turanian element, which may have arisen from a common primeval origin, as well as from a later intermixture. We are, in fact, little beyond the threshold of such investigations. Meanwhile, the Mosaic account of the origin of the nations, instead of being contradicted by varieties of race, is much more confinned by the fact, that these varieties are found in regions remote from those in which the first families of mankind are placed by the historian, while these latter bear undoubted marks of a common origin. It remains to mention the non-Caucasian varieties, though it is long before history has much to do with them. Two of these varieties are'found in the ancient world, lying beyond the range of the great zone which contains the civilized and historic races, the Nigritian on the one side, and the Turanian on the other. 2. We name the Nigritian or Negro race first, because we have least to say of it. Its physical characters are very distinctly marked ; the small stature united with great strength, but alto- 64 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS, [Chap. IV. gether wanting in symmetry, the black colour, woolly hair, long receding forehead, and prominent jaws. It includes, in general, the tribes of Central and Southern Africa.* They bear every mark of a race greatly modified by the influence of climate, and degraded by the oppressions of the more civilized races from time immemorial. In their turn they have had an influence on these powerful neighbours, and thus a decided I^igritian element has been traced in ancient Egypt. The affinities of their dialects form too large and difficult a question to be discussed here. 3. Tlie Turanian \ (called by earlier writers the Mongolian) is tlic race most closely connected with the Caucasian in ancient history. Its extreme physical type is strongly marked by flat broad features, a low forehead, and generally a small stature ; but its higher forms approach more nearly to the Caucasian. It is found spread over the vast tracts of Central and Eastern Asia, as well as the great northern plain which slopes down to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, not only in Asia and Europe, but also in America. It includes the ancient Huns and Scythians, the Mongolian, Cal- muck, or Tatar tribes, the Samoyedes of Siberia, the Ugrians, Fins, and Laps of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America. Be- sides these peoples, who, shut in between mountains, steppes, and an Arctic sea, lead the life of nomad herdsmen and hunters, other branches of the same race, placed under more favorable conditions on the vast fertile plains and extensive sea-board of China and Farther India, reached a much more advanced stage of civilization. The languages of these tribes are considered as forming the third great family, the Turanian^ which comprises all the languages spoken in Asia or Europe, not included under the Aryan and Se- mitic families, with the exception of Chinese and its cognate dia- lects.:}: These last are assigned to a still earlier stage, the first in the formation of language, in which roots form independent words, and grammatical inflections are unknown. The Turanian dialects belong to that second stage, in which, two roots being joined to- gether to form words, one of them loses its independence and be- comes subsidiary to the other. This first step towards the use of merely grammatical inflexions, such as are seen in the Aryan and Semitic families, has been well described by the name " agglutina- * In the extreme south, the Caffres are evidently a Caucasian race, who have over- powered the Nigritian tribes. f The name is derived from the great table laud of Turan in Central Asia, which ia divided from that of Iran by the Hindoo Koosh and its western extension. \ Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 275. TURANIAN RACES AND LANGUAGES. 55 tion," or gluing together. This term signifies that form or stage of language, in which the additions that make declensions and conju- gations are tacked on to the words they modify, so as to be still separable, instead of being incorporated with them as inflections. "We happen to have an English example of agglutination in the comparatively modern barbarism " John his book." This structure characterizes an early stage in the development of language ; a stage through which each family of languages has passed, but which has become stereotyped among the races now called Tura- nian. It is thus that, as in the physical world, where processes have been arrested at a certain stage, as if to preserve them for our study, so the progress of civilization has halted among nations the less favoured in the means of progress ; and in them we may see former conditions of races now far more advanced. Thus the Turanian is distinctively the class of languages spoken by the no- mad tribes of Asia and Northern Europe, as distinguished from the more settled Aryan and Semitic populations. But we must be very careful to infer no more than the premisses will warrant. We must not, for example, conclude from the early prevalence of Turanian forms of speech a state of civilization exactly parallel to that of the existing Turanian races. Especially is this caution needed when we find the traces of a Turanian population in those parts of Western Asia — Chaldaea for example — which were the earliest seats of civilization. In short, this Turanian occupation seems to mark a period when the great demarcations between lan- guages and races were not yet established. Whether the Turanian race was nearer to the Hamitic or to the Semitic family, is one of the most difficult problems of Ethnology. The most probable opinion seems to be that the Turanian was the stage of speech which the difi'erent races carried with them when they first left their primeval seats ; that it was developed by the race of Ham, who, as the earliest cultivators of science and art, would be the first to require new forms of language, into the stage seen in the Hamitic dialects of Africa and Southern Asia ; and that these were again modified, by contact with Semitic races, into the forms of speech called Semitic. The Aryan languages seem to have passed out of the Turanian stage by a still more direct process. Professor Max Midler gives a genealogical table of the Turanian languages, too detailed to be transferred to our pages. He divides the Turanian family into two great classes, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern, which is sometimes called the Ural- Altaic or Ugro-Tatarie, is divided into five sections, the Tungusic, 56 THE DIVISION OF THE NATIONS. [Chap. IV. Mongolic, TurUc, Flmiie, and Samoyedic. The Southern, which occupies tlie south of Asia, is divided into four sections : tlie TamuliG, or hmguages of the Delchan ; tlie BJwtiya, or dialects of Tibet and the Bhotan ; the Taic, or dialects of Siani ; and the Mala'ic, or Malay and Polynesian dialects. 4. From this classification it would follow — at least so far as race may he inferred from language— that the fourth variety of mankind, usually called the Malay, or Polynesian, was a branch of the Turanian, which passed over from the two great Indian pen- insulas. Its other name, Australasian, may be taken not only in a local, but also in an etymological sense, denoting the origin of the race from Southern Asia. In confirmation of this view, we know that the primitive Hamite race extended as far as India, where it was overpowered by the irruption of the Aryans ; and the pressure of nation upon nation, which always results from such movements, would naturally find an outlet by the Malay peninsula and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, whence the race might spread, by means of their light canoes, over the calm waters of the Pacific, Moreover, the physical characters of the Malay race are very similar to those of the Hamite populations of Southern Asia, as they are seen on the monuments of Chaldsea, and described by Herodotus under the name of the " Asiatic Ethiopians." They have the complexion of various shades of darkness, — black hair, generally straight, but inclining in some tribes to the crisp curl which distinguished the Cushites of Africa, — with regular fea- tures, resembling the Caucasian type. There is, on the other hand, a striking contrast between the energy and invention of the Hamite race in Asia and the sensual life of the Polynesian savages, in which indolence and cruelty are strangely mingled. Their soft liquid dialects, scarcely possessing the more vigorous ele- ments of speech, afibrd no bad t}"pe of their prevailing character, as a race which has degenerated, from causes not far to seek. Shut out from the great movements of their fellow men, in beau- tiful islands, where a tropical climate and spontaneous Vegetation leave no care for food and clothing, they show what man becomes when really placed in the " Islands of the Blessed." But one type is not suflicient to describe the Malay tribes. They vary from the highest standard of the manly savage in i!^ew Zealand to the lowest degradation in Australia, Papua, and else- where ; and in most of the islands the distinction between the chieftains and the common people is as marked as that imagined by Homer between the " Jove-born kings " and the vulgar herd. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 57 These circumstances seem to point to a mixed descent, partly from the Caucasian, and partly from the Negro race. 5. The American race is a name given in common to the war like hunting tribes who peopled the forests and prairies of North America, the more civilized people who founded cities and king- doms in the Centre, and the savages of the South ; though the unity of all these requires iurther proof. The chief existing type is to be seen in the so-called Indians of North America. Their main distinction is a copper-coloured complexion, with thin lank liair. Their physical perfection, noble carriage, and manly cour- age, point to a Caucasian origin, while in language and manners they have many points of resemblance to the Turanians ; so that a mixture of these two races appears to supply the most probable account of their origin. The ancient Greeks held that the first inhabitants of every land were sprung from the soil ; and the nobles of Athens wore golden grasshoppers in token that they boasted to be Autoch- thons. The Latin races expressed the same belief by the word Aborigines, which modern usage has adopted. But it is scarcely necessary to say, that by an aboriginal people we now mean sim- ply the earliest known inhabitants of their country. In concluding this chapter, we must emphatically repeat, that the enquiry of which it treats is as yet only in its infancy ; but we seem at length to have reached a stage in which the in- trinsic difficulties of the subject need no longer be enhanced by a wilful conflict between science and authority. In what remains to be done, no caution perhaps is more necessary than to bear in mind that the diffusion of our race cannot be accounted for by any single movement from its common centre. We must take into account, not only the successive impulses which have fol- lowed one another at long intervals, but the flux and reflux of the great tides of population. Every such wave has left behind it traces as marked as those of the waters which have covered the lands during the great geological periods. But their traces are the nations, languages, monuments, and customs of living men, whose vital action has worked changes much more difficult to classify than the strata of dead matter. All that has been done, however, has tended to confirm that great primeval document, " Tlie Book of the Generations of the Sons of Noah." 08 HISTORY OF THE WORLD. CHAPTER V. EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE— FROM THE CALL OF ABRAHAM TO THE EXODUS, B.C. 1921-1491. ' Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend fiom bad to worse ; till God at last, Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes ; resolving from henceforth To leave them to their own polluted ways ; And one peculiar nation to select From all the rest, of whom to be invoked— A nation from one faithful man to spring." — Milton. THE HEBREWS NOT THE MOST ANCIENT NATION — REASON FOR THEIR PRECEDENCE — THE LINE OP SHEM TO ABRAHAM — tTR OF THE CHALDEES, ITS PROBABLE SITE — CALL OF ABRAHAM AND MIGRATION OF TERAh's FAMILY — FIRST SETTLEMENT AT CHARRAN — ABRAm's JOURNEY INTO canaan to the valley of shechem — removal to egypt and return to bethel — sepa- ration from lot — the cities op the plain — expedition of chedorlaomer — the tribes of the canaanites — abram at hebron — his subsequent history — birth and marriage op isaac — death of sarah — birth of esau and jacob — destruction of sodom and gomorrha — origin of the nations of moab and ammon, the ishmaelite and ketu- ea'ite arabs — life of isaac — esau and jacob — the edomites jacob in padan-aham his return to canaan — affairs at shechem — journey to the south — removal into egypt — the captivity — close of the patriarchal age — the exodus — an epoch in the world's history. Out of all the nations that sprang from the three sons of Koah, the sacred history, which is still our only positive authority, begins with the story of the Hebrew race. Not that this was the first of the nations in chronological order. It did not even become a nation till four hundred and thirty years after the call of Abraham ; and his history furnishes abundant proofs that great cities had already been built, and mighty kingdoms established. The very name of his native place, TJr of the Chaldees, attests that it belonged to the dominions of the great Cushite empire which has already been mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and with which Abraham comes into conflict at a later period. Damascus is already an important city ; and, as Abraham journeys to the south, he finds Egypt at a high pitch of wealth and power, to say nothing of the nations of the Canaanites and Philistines. The precedence given to Abraham's call has that moral signifi- cance, which forms the true life of history. It is the next event after the confusion of the Babel builders, in which the direct action of God's providence is seen, and the first step in that course of B.C. 1996.] BIRTH OF ABRAHAM AT UR OF THE CHALDEES. 50 moral government, to wliicli all the afiairs of tlie surrounding nations are secondary. Following the same order, we shall take up the history of those nations, as they come in contact with the main current of the story of the chosen race. The Scriptural genealogy follows the line of Shem to Abram, through ten generations and four hundred and fifty years ; the birth of Shem being in B.C. 2446, and .that of Abram in b.c. 1996, according to the received chronology. In the fifth generation, the line of Shem is divided into two by the two sons of Eber, Peleg and Joktan ; of whom the latter became the ancestor of the older Arabs, while the descendants of the former were named, from the common ancestor, Hebrews. Thus Abraham is called the Hebrew (Gen. xiv. 13).* Four generations from Peleg bring us to Terah, the father of Abram, Nahor, and Ilaran, the land of whose nativity was " Ur of the Chaldees." But this very statement of the locality raises a difficulty at the threshold. The prevailing opinion respecting the site of Ur identifies it with the Edessa of the Greeks, and the modern Orfah, in the extreme north of Mesopotamia, beyond the Euphrates, within the great bend which the river makes in descending from Armenia to Syria. Tliis view is supported by the resemblance of name (which is perhaps more apparent than real), the local traditions about Abraham, and the fact that Char- ran, the first stage in the migration, the site of which is cer- tainly known, lies on the high road to Palestine. The appella- tion " Chaldaean " is explained on the assumption, either that the great Chaldsean emj^ire had spread thus far to the north, or that these regions formed one at least of the early seats of the Chal- dsean people. On the other hand, some of the most recent en- quirers in this field place Ur at the very lowest part of the course of the Euphrates, on the right bank of the river, opposite to the confluence of the Shat-el-Hie, wdiicli unites it with the Tigris ; once probably a maritime position, though now 120 miles inland. The site is marked by the ruins of Mugheir, a city dedicated to the Moon, and a sacred burial-place, as is proved by its innu- merable tombs. This spot also possesses its traditions about Abraham. It seems to have been the great maritime city of the Chaldsean empire, and only second in importance to Babylon, if it did not even form a still earlier capital. * It is, however, only fair to mentioi; the preference of some of the best Hebrew scholars for the purely geographical origin of the appellation, as signifying one /ram the other side of the Euphrates, = the Greek irepa.r-qs. But this sense does not exclude the other. 60 EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE. [Ceap. V. But how can we account for Abraham's journey thence to the land of Canaan by way of Charran, near the upper course of the Euphrates ? It is answered, first, that this was Jio mere journey, but the migration of a wliole patriarclial family, with their flocks and herds, which could make no safe passage across the desert. But, besides, it does not appear that Canaan was the first goal of the migration. Abram " was called to go into a land that God should show him, and he went forth, not knowing whither he went.''"' Tlie other branch of Terah's family, that of Nahor, clearly had another end for their journey, for they settled in the pasturages about Charran ; and it would seem to have been here that Abram first learnt his final destination. According to this view, the movement was a great migration of the leading branch of the Semitic family, who had preserved the worship of the true God, retiring before the oppression and religious corruption of the Cushite sovereigns, and retracing their steps towards the highlands from which their fathers had descended.* Our knowledge is hardly ripe for a decision between these two views, but the latter is far too important not to be fully stated. The former has still powerful advocates, and must not be hastily rejected. From this ancient city of Ur, whatever may have been its true position, the family of Terah Avas called forth by a divine command addressed to Abram, who seems to have been the youngest of his three sons. "We are expressly told that idolatry already prevailed in the land ; and that it infected the family of Terah, as it did afterwards the Israelites in Egypt.f Oriental tradition has ascribed to Abram the most courageous attacks upon the idols, and miraculous deliverances from the rage of the idolaters ; but the sacred history is content with the record of his faithful obedi- ence to the divine command, which called him to found a great nation, who should preserve the worship and covenant of God, in some land as yet unknown to him, and which promised blessing and security to his descendants — nay more, a blessing through him to all the families of the earth. The whole family joined in the migration — the patriarch Terah, Abram's brother Kahor, and Lot the son of his other brother Haran, who had already died at Ur. The two daughters of Haran, Milcah and Sarai or Iscah, were married to their uncles, Nahor and Abram. Kemote as is this event, such are the unchanged manners of those countries, that * Respecting the kingdom then established in Chaldcea, see Book ii. chapter is. f Joshua xxiv. 2, 14. B.C. 1921.] THE CALL OF ABRAM. 61 tlie spectator of a caravan of Bedouins, with their flocks and herds, may at this day witness its outward appearance. The first permanent resting-place of the wanderers was Haran, or rather Charran, in Padan-Aram, or Upper Mesopotomia. The name describes the region ; a place where the highlands sink down into fertile foot-hills, rich in pasturage. Sucli is the country that lies at the foot of Mount Masius, between the great bend of the Euphrates and the river Khabour, watered by the Belilk, which flows southwards into the Euphrates. !N'ear its source is Orfah, the Ur of the popular belief, and about half-way down its course the unchanged name of Harran still marks the ancient site. Here Terali died ; and here Nahor settled with his family, whom we find, in the next generation, preserving the selfish character displayed in such a choice ; while Abram, with his nephew Lot, pressed onward, moved, as it would seem, by a renewal of the divine call. His stay at ChaiTan was evidently long, and his wealth in cattle and slaves was greatly increased. He was seventy-five years old when he left Charran, in b.c. 1921, It was now revealed to him that his destination was the land of Canaan ; and it would doubtless be a new trial of his faith, that he was called to live among that very Hamite race before whose power and wickedness he had fled from his first home. Two cara- van routes lead from the Euphrates across the great Syi'ian Desert to the countries on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. The shorter and more northerly tends westward to the upper course of the Orontes, which the traveller follows upward into the deep val- ley of Coelesyria, between the two great chains of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus. Emerging thence he finds himself at the sources of the Jordan, with the whole land of Palestine spread before him ; a land formed by the hills which extend southward from the ranges of Lebanon to the peninsula of Arabia Petrsea, breaking ofi" on the east into the Desert, and sloping down on the west to the Mediter- ranean ; divided from north to south by the great depression of the Jordan valley, and intersected from east to west by lateral valleys and plains. The other route strikes to the south-west ; and, after a long journey across the Desert, divided by the oasis of Tadmor or Palmyra, reaches Damascus, one of the oldest and fairest cities of the world. It is built in an oasis, formed by the rivers Abana and Phai-par, with innumerable other streamlets, which descend from the eastern slope of Anti-Libanus, and are not lost in the Desert till they have clothed with verdure and beauty the plain over which the houses of the city lie scattered, embosomed 6S EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE. [Chap. V. in groves and gardens. By whatever route Abraham crossed the Desert, it seems clear that he rested at Damascus, as the servant who became the head of his household w^as a native of that city. From Damascus his course would lie over the hills on the eastern side of the valley of the Jordan. Having passed the rivers Ilieromax and Jabbok, which flow into the Jordan from the east, he turned westward across the river and entered the promised land by the pass which leads down into the central valley of Shechem. " The Canaanite was then in the land ; " a statement which some suppose to imply the displacement of an earlier population. The city of Shechem seems to have been already built ; and near it Abram chose a grove of oaks for the site of his encampment and of the altar which he built to God, who again appeared to him here. Thus was the worship of the true God re-established amidst the idolatrous children of Ham, in the very spot which became its first centre when the people of Abraham came forth, as a nation, from Egypt. Whether from the failure of pasturage, or to avoid collision with the people of the land, Abram travelled southwards along the cen- tral highlands, and stayed for a time on the hills between Bethel and Ai, west of the fertile plain of the lower Jordan, where he built another altar to Jehovah. Before long he was driven by a famine to take refuge in Egypt, where his dealings with Pharaoh are familiar to every reader of Scripture. The great monarchy, with which he was thus brought into contact, will claim our attention in the next book. Abram returned from Egypt, enriched by Pharaoh's liberality, to his old encampment between Bethel and Ai ; but the very increase of his wealth proved an embarrassment. The mountain pasturages become too scanty for his own flocks and those of his nephew Lot. They agreed to part ; and Lot, accepting the choice offered him by Abram, descended into the plains they had hitherto avoided, while Abram was consoled for his worscr share by a new promise of the inheritance of the whole land to a progeny countless as its dust. The region of Lot's choice was the lower valley of the Jordan, then a wide plain, fertile and well watered " as the garden of Jehovah." Here the Canaanites (the dwellers in the lowlands) had established the jpentapoUs of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, each city under its own king. Built in a most fertile country, these cities lay in the track of the commerce between Arabia and Syria, Egypt and the East ; and their ;vealth had given full scope to the lawlessness which from the first had marked their race. The very worst vices of the most cornipted B.C. 1917 ? ] EXPEDITION OF CHEDORLAOMER. 63 luxury were openly practised among them, and things of which even to speak is shameful derive their only name from Sodom, where Lot already began to be punished for his selfishness by grief at the wickedness he saw. The great Chaldtean empire already mentioned, and from which Abrani had removed, had lately reduced these cities to a tributary condition. After twelve years' subjection, the five kings revolted, and the Chaldaean monarch, Chedorloamer, marched against them, with his three allied kings. The first battle recorded in the world's history was fought in the plain of Siddim, now, in part at least, the basin of the Dead Sea. The forces of the five kings were entangled amidst the bitumen pits, of which the plain was full ; and the victors retired up the valley of the Jordan, carrying ofi" Lot and his pro- perty amongst the spoil of Sodom. The rapid pursuit of Abram, with his small band of household servants and the followers of his Amorite confederates, his surprise and defeat of the retreating hosts, whom he pursued beyond Damascus, and his recovery of Lot with all the spoil, taught the great Eastern monarch the same lesson which had already been impressed on Pharaoh, that a power more truly great than all their kingdoms had arisen in their midst. The episode of Melchizedek's welcome to Abram on his return is too closely connected with theological questions to be dwelt on here ; but it seems to show that one at least of the cities of Canaan was held by a patriarch of the Shemite race, who was at once a king and a priest of the true God. In this adventure we see the patriarch for the first time in league with the Canaanitish tribes of the Amorites, the people of the mountains, as the Canaanites (in the narrower sense) were of the plains. The former seem to have been a far less corrupted race, for we are told that " the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full." There are ten tribes enumerated of the inhabitants of the land, between Egypt and the Euphrates. The Kenites, Keniz- zites, and Kadmonites dwelt on the east of the Jordan. . The Hittites (or children of Heth), Perrizzites, and Kephairas were smaller tribes connected with the great nation of the Amorites, who occupied the central highlands from the valley of Shechem south- wards. The Canaanites possessed the low country, both along the course of the Jordan and in the great maritime plain, for the latter does not seem to have been yet invaded by the Philistines. The Girgashites appear to have been a mountain tribe, like the Jebu- sites, whose city was the later Jerusalem. It was with the Hittites that Abram had tlie first commercial transaction of which we 64 EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE. [Chap. V. read in history, the purchase of the " double cave " of Machpelah as a burying-place. The mention in this affair of a definite weight of silver, as " current money with the merchant," proves that com- merce was carried on among these tribes, and that standards of weight and value had been already settled. Of the origin of such measures we shall have to speak presently. Abrani's permanent abode had been fixed, after his separa- tion from Lot, among the Amorites of the southern hills, under the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, one of the oldest cities of the world. " Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." * The part of Abram's life subsequent to the rescue of Lot is chiefly important in the religious history of the world. It embraces the great covenant which God made with him, in addition to the promise already given, and the institution of circumcision as its seal ; f the supernatural birth of Isaac, the heir of the promise, both of a mighty nation and of the great descendant in whom all families of the earth should be blessed ; the trial of the patriarch's faith, and the redemption of Isaac from sacrifice ; the death of Sarah, and her burial at Machpelah. It was shortly after her death that Abraham married Isaac to Kebekah, the grand-daughter of his brother Nahor, whose family was still settled at Charran, " the city of Nahor." The birth of Isaac's twin sons, Esau and Jacob, took place according to the received chronology in b.c. 1837, fifteen years before the death of Abraham, who thus literally " dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise." During this period, also, we have some important notices of the surrounding nations. First comes the catastrophe of the cities of the plain, which changed the fertile valley of the lower Jordan into a spot which no traveller sees without acknowledging the marks of the Divine judgment. At the depth of 1317 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, the Dead, or, as the Jews always called it, the Salt Sea, receives the waters of the Jordan within its shores blasted by volcanic action. There can be no doubt that its intensely bitter waters cover most of the once fair vale of Siddim, though aU attempts have proved vain to discover traces of the devoted cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. Bela, or Zoar, alone was spared, as a refuge for Lot, from whose incest with his two daughters sprang the peoples of Moab and Benammi (or Ammon), who settled among the hills to the east of the Jordan * Numbers xiii. 22. f It wa3 on this occasion that his name was changed from Ab-ram, exalted father^ to Ab-raham, father of a multitude. B.C. 1760.] FLIGHT OF JACOB TO PADAN-AEAM. 6a and tlie Dead Sea. About the same time, the relations of Abraham with Abimelech, king of Gerar, afterwards renewed by Isaac, show lis the Philistines occupying the border land between Canaan and Egypt. The exile of Ishmael, the son of Abraham by his servant Hagar, led to the establishment of his descendants, the twelve tribes of the Bedouin Arabs, " to the east of all their brethren," Jews, Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, in the northern deserts of Arabia ; while the Keturai'te Arabs, children of Abraham and Keturah, were intermixed with the older Jpktanite and Cushite tribes of the peninsula. These branches of his family were sent away by Abraham with gifts, during his lifetime, that they might not dispute the inheritance with Isaac. Through all the history of the Arab race, they have never forgotten the tie to their progeni- tor. It will be long before they reappear as bearing any distin- guished part in history. Abraham died at the age of 175, in the year b.c. 1822 of received chronology, and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael at Machpelah. The quiet life of Isaac offers no materials for a gen eral history. His two sons, Esau and Jacob, the huntsman and the shepherd, were marked from the very womb as the progeni- tors of hostile though kindred races, and this prophecy tinges the whole current of Jewish history. We need not dwell on the fami- liar story of their early lives, the importance of which is moral and religious, rather than historical ; but still the historian must not overlook the lesson to be learnt from the faults of Jacob and his sons, that divine providence measures out privileges to nations by another standard than that of the merit of their ancestors. When Jacob, after fraudulently obtaining the patriarchal bless- ing, which his brother would have as fraudulently received after he had foolishly sold it, fled to his mother's relatives at Padan-Aram (b.c. 1760), Esau, who was seventy-seven years old, had already married two Hittite women, and now, to please his father, he mar- ried Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. These intermarriages seem to mark the Edomites as from the first a very mixed race. But another element went to make up that nation. Esau fixed his abode ultimately in the chain of mountains which runs south- wards from the valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea to the head of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, under the name of Mount Seir, and formed matrimonial alliances with the old inhabitants, the Horites. The latter people were ultimately absorbed in the Edom- ites, who grew into a great nation, with the cities of Selali (Petra) and Bozrali for their capitals, and Elath (JElana) and Ezion-Geber VOL. I. 5 66 EARLY HISTORY OF THE HEBREW RACE. [Chap. V. for tlieir i)orts on the Red Sea. Tliey will reappear again and again in the conrse of Jewish history. Meanwhile, Jacob had fulfilled his twenty years' servitude to his cousin and father-in-law, Laban, in Mesopotamia, and returned, with his two wives and their two handmaids, his eleven sons, and immense wealth in fiocks and herds and slaves, over the river Jabbok, which he had crossed as a lonely fugitive, with no posses- sion but his shepherd's staff (b.c. 1739). Like Abraham, 180 years before, he passed over the Jordan into the vale of Shechem. But the land was now more densely peopled ; the Amorites had built new cities, such as Shalem ; and Jacob had to buy of their princes the land on which he pitched his camp and built an altar to " God, the God of Israel," the new name which the patriarch had earned by his wrestling with Jehovah. He was soon brought into collision with the people of Shechem, by their insolence, which was treacherously and cruelly avenged by his sons, Simeon and Levi. Shechem was spoiled ; but a retreat seems to have been necessary for fear of the vengeance of the other Amorites. They, on their part, had not the courage to pursue Jacob as he went on southwards to Bethel, close to the second encampment of Abra- ham, and the scene of the vision granted to him on his flight, in memory of which the city, formerly called Luz, was now named Bethel (the House of God), On the further jonrney from Bethel to Isaac's encampment at Hebron, Jacob's family was completed by the birth of Benjamin, but at the price of the life of his beloved Rachel, near Ephrath, the later Bethlehem. Sixteen years later, lie again met Esau at the burial of Isaac at Machpelah (b.c. 1716). Jacob continued to live at Hebron as a patriarchal prince, like some modern Arab sheikh, respected and feared by the people of the land. He ai:)pears to have given a second blow to the Shechemites by wresting from them in war the possession which they had probably resumed after his departure to the south. His sons fed his flocks at their well near Shechem, and still further to the north. It seemed as if this foreign tribe were to overspread the land. But it was otherwise appointed ; and no lesson of history is of deeper moral significance than the process by which the Israelites were hardened by suff'ering and compacted into a nation, during their residence in Egyj^t. Their condition throughout the interval from their descent into Egypt to the great epoch of the Exodus (e.g. 1491), will be better understood after we have taken a survey of Egyptian history. 'ii iiiiii fg,«j I p^ 'V*^. m iiilliiiliillilliiilliililil lillliliMllukiiiiiiliiiUii^ M ' Mm ;iiii ; i ii «' i i iii i iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii u» i u» .iiiiii u i m i. BOOK II. THE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE EAST. FROM THE EARLIEST EGYPTIAN TRADITIONS TO THE REIGN OF DARIUS HYSTASPIS. N. B. — The Xote respecting the early Chrouology, on page 1 , needs repetition here, especially as the computed Egyptian chronology goes back beyond the date assigned by Ussher to the Flood. The dates given in the two Chapters, VI. and VII., are merely intended to represent the opinions of Egyptologers. A similar remark applies to the early Babylonian chronology in Chapter IX. CONTENTS OF BOOK II. CHAP. VI.— THE HISTORY OF EGYPT TO THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. VII.— THE HISTORY OF EGYPT FROM THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY VIII.— HISTORY OF THE HEBREW THEOCRACY AND MONARCHY. IX.— THE CHALDiEAN, ASSYRIAN, AND BABYLONIAN EMPIRES. X.— THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE TO DARIUS HYSTASPIS. ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. 69 CHAPTER VI. THE HISTOKY OF EYGPT TO THE SHEPHERD INVASION. B.C. 2717? TO B.C. 2080? "Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall." — Young. kNTIQCITY OF EGYPT— NAMES OF THE COUNTET — GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT — THE NILE — ITS INDN- DATION — LIMITS AND AREA OF EGYPT — ANCIENT CONDITION AND PRODUCTIONS — ADVAN- TAGE OF ITS POSITION — RELATION TO ITS NEIGHBOURS — ORIGINAL POPULATION — A MIXED RACE, CHIEFLY HAMITIC — AUTHORITIES — SCRIPTURE — GREEK WRITERS — MONUMENTS AND PAPYRI — EGYPTIAN WRITING — MANETHO — ASTRONOMICAL RECORDS — DATE OF THE PYRAMIDS — EGYPTIAN TECHNICAL CHRONOLOGY — HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY — TRADITIONAL HISTORY — RULE OF THE GODS — FIRST DYNASTY: MENES — SECOND DYNASTY." QUEEN NITOCRIS — MEM- PHITE DYNASTIES: THIRD, FOURTH, AND SIXTH — HIGH STATE OF CIVILIZATION — HERACLEO- POLITE DYNASTIES : NINTH AND TENTH — THEBAN KINGDOM : ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DY- NASTIES — INVASION OF THE SHEPHERDS — MONUMENTS OF THE EARLY PHARAOHS — PYRAMIDS AND TOMBS — EGYPTIAN BELIEF CONCERNING THE DEAD — DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS. Of the two regions in which the race of Ham founded the earliest known kingdoms and made the first advances in learning and civilization, namely, the valley of the Nile and that of the Tigris and the Euphrates, we must allow Egypt the precedence in antiquity. The mere claim of the people to be the oldest among mankind is, indeed, of little more value than the strange experi- ment of Psammetichus to test its truth. Tliat king of Egypt, Herodotus tells us, caused two new-born children to be brought up in a hut, upon the milk of goats, w^ith no other attendant than the goatherd, who was forbidden to utter a word in their presence. "When they had passed the age of inarticulate mutterings, the herdsman was one day astonished to see the children toddle up to him crying 1)61:08. But when this had happened often, and the king had found upon inquiry that heJcos was the Phrygian for l)read, the experiment seemed decisive. Tliat the Egyptians, upon such evidence as this, yielded the honour of antiquity to the Phrygians, would have been altogether incredible, had not the histoi'ian related the test as if he himself believed in its value. And yet we can hardly tell, in this and other instances, how much sly humour is hidden under the quiet gravity of Herodotus. Yery different is the real evidence for the antiquity of the nation, its government, and its civilization. While the sacred 70 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. record of tlic primeval peopling of the eai-th represents the names of all other countries as derived from the descendants of Noah's sous, Egypt Lore the name of one of those sons themselves. It is true that Mizraim, the Scriptural name of the country, is that only of a son of Ham, and not the eldest, and that the description of Kgypt as " the land of Ilam," does not necessarily imply more than a remote derivation of its people. But the case is much stronger when we find that the native name of the country was tliat of the patriarch himself. The name Khem by which Egypt is denoted on its monuments, is the same as the Hebrew Ham (or rather Cham), and has a kindred signification. The Egyj^tian word gives the phonetic value of the hieroglyphic sign for the country, the crocodile's tail, which varies in colour from slate to reddish brown. The Hebrew, derived from a root signifying " heat," fitly describes the ancestors of the dark races, like the Greek Ethiopian ; while the same word in the cognate Arabic, denotes "fetid black mud," such as that of the valley of the Nile. In Arabic, too, we see the link between the two names, Khem and Mizraim, for misr also signifies " red mud," and hence the colour of red and reddish brown. To this day Misr is used as a name of Egypt by the Arabs, and it has been found on an ancient Assyrian inscription. It appears, in fact, to be the Semitic equiv- alent to the Hamitic Chem, a name of prophetic signification, like those of Noah, Japheth, and probably Sliem. The Hebrew sin- gular Mazor, which is sometimes found, may perhaps even be regarded as the personal name of Ham in the Semitic dialects. The dual form, Mizraim, which is much more common, points to the twufold division of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt. Another biblical name is Rahab {the proud). The conclusion, that Egypt was the chief primeval seat of the race of Ham, seems somewhat at variance with the biblical genealogy, which makes Mizraim only the second son of Ham, and Cush the eldest. Accordingly some ethnologists seek for the primitive seats of the Ilamite race, not in the valley of the Nile itself, but in the hills about its upper course, the Cush of Scrip- ture, and the Ethiopia above Egypt of the Greeks, whence they suppose that one stream of population descended the Nile to Egypt, while another moved eastward across Arabia into Chal- dsea. But it is pretty evident that the original settlers, who descended from the common centre in Armenia, must have ascended the Nile to reach Ethiopia, unless they came by the opposite route from Chakla?a, which is most improbable. Nor GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF EGYPT. 71 does it seem unlikely that migrations may liave taken place both up and down the valley of the Nile, as we know to have been the case with the tide of conquest in historic times. It would appear that in the time of Moses the existing Egyptians were fitly repre- sented as standing in a secondary relation to the founder of their race, while the older Cushite population of the country had re- ceded further to the south. The peculiar geographical position of Egypt adds probability to these claims of high antiquity. Consisting really of the valley of the Mle, and shut in by the deserts of Arabia and Libya on the east and west, it lay open on the north alone to the great stream of immigration from the Armenian highlands through Syria and Palestine. "When the valley of the 'NHq and the highlands about its upper course were once peopled with kindred races, the in- trusion of foreign elements became very difficult. The country was subjugated by Ethiopian conquerors ; but these were allied to the Egyptians in race, manners, and religion. A Semitic race, the Shepherd Kings, at one time oveiTan Egypt ; but they were expelled. The Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs never suc- ceeded in permanently subduing their rivals on the Nile. Even when the people yielded to a Persian conqueror, their ancient character remained almost unchanged. Commercial intercourse with the Greeks was as slow in its influence as European dealings with China in our own time. No permanent change was effected till the conquests of Alexander led to a Greek colonization of the country ; and even then the Ptolemies confonned in many re- spects to the peculiar institutions of their subjects, to which Christianity alone had power to give the final death-blow. The language of ancient Egypt also bears marks of the highest antiquity. It has the agglutinative and monosyllabic structure of the Turanian dialects. It exhibits points of affinity with the Chinese as well as the Nigritian dialects, and it partakes of a Semitic character, especially in its pronouns and its grammatical constructions. Tliis evidence agrees with the physical qualities, the habits, and the religion of the ancient Egyptians, to place them as a link between the Semitic and Nigritian races. Their reddish colour distinguished them both from the white Caucasian and black Negro races, while the thick lips and elongated eye connect them with the Nubians of Ethiopia. To the contem- plative and religious nature of the Asiatic, they added the de- graded fetishism of the African race, in their elaborate system of animal worship. Their frugal habits were marred by occasional 72 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. jixury and the grossest sensuality. Their patriotism was mingled with the greatest prejudice against foreigners, though they treated them witli liospitality. One of the most striking characteristics is the division of the peoj^le into castes, that is, classes devoted to particular occuj)ations, and kept distinct from each other in blood.* This institution is an infallible sign of a mixed popula- tion, in wiiich one people has been overpowered by another, the conquerors forming the higher castes. These are always, as in ancient Egypt, the priests and warriors, the former generally preserving the ascendency over the latter which intellect gives. The king belonged to both castes, being the chief priest as well as the civil ruler of the nation. His authority was limited, not only by the laws, but by the minute regulations for his life im- posed upon him by the priests. His power in war depended on his gratifying the soldiers. These relations provoked, of course, jealousies and collisions, which may often be traced in the history of Egypt. The whole land was in the possession of the king and these two castes, the priests having the sacred domains, and the soldiers certain estates free from taxes. The agriculturists, who formed the next class, seem to have held their land chiefly under the king, to whom they paid a tithe, which Avas doubled by the policy of Joseph during the great famine.f The artizans came next ; and last the shepherds, who were an " abomination," like the pariahs of India. The minute details given by Herodotus are very uncertain. The higher castes were undoubtedly of the Caucasian race ; the lower were a mixed population chiefly of the Nigritian type. The mixed character of the people joined with the peculiar position of their country to make the ancients doubt whether Egypt belonged to Africa or Asia. It was, in fact, locally Afri- can, but Asiatic in its social affinities and its political relations. Far more important than such technical divisions is its physical connexion with the surrounding region. We have already spoken of the Nile valley, as a depression in the great desert zone which stretches from the Atlantic coast of Africa nearly to the shores of the Yellow Sea, a depression much shallower than the Red Sea, and narrower than Mesopotamia. This valley is divided * This, of course, only applies to the pure castes. f Genesis xlvii. The lands of the priests were exempt from this charge and aclcnowledgmeut of royal ownership ; but nothing is said of those of the soldiers. At a much later period, Herodotus tells us of an attempt to confiscate them by the sup- posed priest-king Sethos. THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 73 from the surrounding deserts by ranges of hills on the east and the west ; but these alone would be a feeble barrier against the sands. It is the fertilizing flood of the Nile that makes the distinction between Egypt and the deserts on either side. The "Abyss of Waters" (for so the Egyptians called it), whose source was one of the great problems of the ancient world, — a problem which Pharaohs, Ptolemies, and Csesars sought in vain to solve, — has at last been seen by our coun- trymen Speke and Grant, issuing from the great lake, called Victoria ifyanza, just under the equator, and on the eastern margin of the table-land of Central Africa. Its course of al- most 3000 miles to the Mediterranean is so nearly due north, that the meridian of 30 degrees E. longitude, which cuts across its western mouth, is very near its chief bend above the 20th parallel of latitude, grazes its first bend below the lOtli parallel, and passes but little to the west of the Lake Yictoria IsTyanza itself. This main stream, fed from other great lakes in the same swampy table-land, and enlarged by numerous tributaries, of which the chief is the Bahr-el-Gkazal from the west, flows in its northern course over about 16 degrees of latitude (more than 1000 miles, including windings), to the modern city of Khartoum. Here it receives the first of the two great rivers which\drain the high- lands of Abyssinia, the Astapus and Astaboras of the ancients, the latter, which is still called Atbara, joining it about 170 miles lower. While all three branches contributed to the inundation of the lower Nile, under the joint operation of the equatorial summer rains and the melting of the mountain snows, it is to the Abyssi- nian confluents that the flood owes its fertilizing power. The Astapus especially brings down such a vast amount of soil and decayed vegetable matter, that it has received the name of the Blue Kiver {Bahr-el-AzreTc, in Arabic) ; and the contrast it presents at Khartoum to the clear water of the main stream has given to the latter the title of White Eiver {Bahr-el-Abiad).* There is, however, no proper ground for the question which of these rivers is the true Nile. Though, in the season of flood, the Blue Eiver pours down the larger volume of water, in the dry season it often dwindles to an insignificant and fordable Btream; and the Astaboras is very much smaller. The great plain * The turbidness which affects the whole river below the confluence, is the origin of its chief name in Hebrew {Shihor, i. e. the black river). 74 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VL enclosed between these two rivers and the Nile forms tlie " island of Meroo " of the ancients, the seat of a great Cushite kingdom, which rivalled that of Egypt. Below the Atbara the Nile com- pletes the second half of its course without receiving a single tributary. In Nubia, where it makes its greatest bend, it falls over a series of rocky shelves, forming rapids, which were called by the Greeks Cataracts. The most considerable of these are five in number, and the lowest, which is called the First, reckoning up the stream, has always been considered as the southern boundary of Egypt. It lies so little north of the tropic of Cancer, that at Syene (Assouan) just below it, Herodotus was told that the sun was reflected vertically in a well at the summer solstice ; but this is not literally true. From Syene the Nile flows between high banks of nnid, in the valley bounded by the hills already mentioned, the plain between them having an average width of about seven miles, till it passes Cairo and the Pyramids, in about 30° N. latitude. Here it divides into two branches, which enclose the great alluvial plain called the Delta, from its resem- blance to that letter (A), a term which geographers have extended to similar formations at the mouths of rivers in general. In ancient times the river flowed through the Delta in seven channels, five of which, Herodotus tells us, were natural, while two were artificial. These two, which formed the extreme branches to the east and west, are now the only mouths. The valley of the river may be compared to a flower with a branching head on a single long stem, or to a serpent with several heads, a likeness which seems to be intended in several passages of Scripture.* This form has given rise, from time immemorial, to that subdivision of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt, which is implied in the dual name of Mizraitn. The exact point of division was above Memphis, which was not so far south of the apex of the Delta as at present. The subdivision of Upper Egypt into the Ileptanomis (or middle Egypt), and the Thebaid (or Upper Eg}^t), dates from the early Csesars. Thus far we have spoken of the valley of the Nile, and this is, in fact, physically the land of Egypt. Herodotus records an oracle of Ammon, defining Egypt as the country overflowed by the Nile, as far south as the first cataract. The deserts of Libya and Arabia, and even the hills which bound the valley of the river on either Bide, are most properly excluded by this definition ; for their * Fsalm Ixxiv. 13, 14 ; Isaiah xxviL 1, li. 9 ; Ezekiel xxix, 3, xxxii. 2. INUNDATION OF THE NILE. 75 nomad population lias always been quite distinct from the inliabi- tants of Egypt. It is solely to the inundation, and to the soil de- posited by the river, that Egypt owes its existence as a habitable land, for rain scarcely ever falls. Beginning to rise about the summer solstice, and overflowing about two months later, the river pours its turbid red waters over the fields through innumer- able canals and cnttings in the banks. About the autumnal equinox the inundation has reached its height. It subsides much more slowly than it rose, leaving a deposit of rich black mud, upon which the seed is sown without ploughing or any other tillage.'^ The crops thus sown about a month after the autumnal equinox are reaped after the vernal equinox : flax and barley being the earliest, wheat and rye later.f When the inun- dation falls short of the average height by only a few inches, large portions of the country are consigned to sterility and famine ; while an unusual rise may devastate w^hole districts.;}: Parallel to the river, on its west side, at a distance of from three to six miles, the canal called in its lower part Josefhus River {Bahr- You8souf)% runs from a point above Abydos to the Canopic (the western) branch of the river, with which it has several other points of connexion. Kear the ancient Heracleopolis a branch goes off to the great lake of Moeris {BirJcet-et-Keroum), a natural lake, though the works of the Egyptian kings upon it for the regu- lation of the inundation, gained them the credit of its formation. With good reason, therefore, the Egyptians called their land the gift of the river. The average rate of the addition' made to the soil is about 4|^ inches in a century. Assuming that the val- ley of the Nile was once a rocky chasm, like the bed of the Eed Sea, and that the space now occupied by the Delta was an estu- ary, many writers, from Herodotus downwards, have tried to cal- culate the long ages during which the WAe has been filling up the bottom of the valley and projecting the Delta into the sea. But they overlooked the fact, that the alluvium is only a super- ficial deposit, under which we soon come to the rocks, which are limestone as far as the upper part of the Thebaid, where the sub- jacent sandstone appears above the surface, followed by breccia * The plough was, however, used where the soil required it, and all the processes of agriculture are seen on the monuments. \ Exodus ix. X An example occurs at the very moment of writing this passage, in the autumn of 1863, when an excessive inundation has done great damage. § The name is derived, not from the patriarch, but from an Arab ruler who Improved the canal. Its origin is unknown. 76 * THE HISTORY OP EGYPT. [Chap. VL and various primitive rocks, till at Syene we reach the granite which was used for the chief colossal statues. The actual rise of the soil, as measured by its accumulation around ancient monu- ments, lias been estimated, near the first cataract, at about nine feet in lYOO years, at Thebes about seven, and less still in Lower Egypt ; while at the mouths of the river, where, according to the theories above noticed, the land should be constantly ad- vancing into the sea, no increase is perceptible. It would seem, indeed, that the underlying rocks are gradually subsiding, while those above the head of the Red Sea are rising. The country thus defined as watered by the Nile, lies between 24° r and 31° 37' of N. latitude, and between 27° 13' and 34° 12' of E. longitude. Its length, along the valley of the Nile, up to the first cataract, is about 500 miles, its breadth in the valley averages about seven ; but the coast-line of the Delta, though its boundaries are somewhat indefinite, extends over about 250 miles.* The whole area is about 115,000 geographical square miles, of which about 9600 are within reach of the fertilizing in- undation, and 5600 are under cultivation. But in ancient times this area was greatly extended by a complete system of irriga- tion. Only second in importance to the fertilizing power of the river was the abundance of its fish, which were carefully pre- served in great ponds, connected with the river by conduits ; but these works have also fallen into decay, and the fisheries have dwindled away as was predicted by Isaiah (xix. 8, 10). Nor has his prophecy been less literally fulfilled in the comparative dis- appearance, except in the marshes of the Delta, of the abundant vegetation of the river, the reeds that fringed its banks, and the lotus and other beautiful water-plants that floated on its surface. The famous papyrus, especially, after serving the old inhabitants for innumerable uses, including boat-building, and having fur- nished both to them and the Ptolemies that great material of lit- erature, which still gives its name to a dilferent substance, is now almost extinct, llie land abounded with gardens, or orchards, and vineyards ; and we still see on the monuments all the processes of gathering the fruit and making the wine. The " cucumbers, mel- ons, leeks, onions, and garlic," for which the Israelites longed in * lu political geograph)', Egypt had a far wider extent, including the Arabian Desert to the lied Sea, and much of the liibyan Desert to the West. The three chief oases of the later were occupied by the Egyptians ; and that of Ammon in particular (now the Oasis of Smah), was the chief seat of the worship of the great national deity .from whom it takes its name. RELATIONS OF EGYPT TO HER NEIGHBOURS. 77 the wilderness, were but a few of the esculent vegetables and herbs of Egypt. Its cereal products have made it a chief granary of the world, ever since the days w^hen Abraham took refuge in it from famine, and Jacob heard that there was com in Egypt. To this exuberant fertility Egypt added the advantage of a position at the very confluence of the great lines of traflic between the east and the west, by the isthmus of Suez on the land, and by the Mediterranean and Red Seas on the water. Long after the glories of its old monarchy had decayed under the domination of Persia, Alexander saw this vast advantage, and fixed the commer- cial capital of his empire at Alexandria. And, in our own times, though the stream of oriental commerce has long been diverted into the route round the Cape, the command of the shorter tran- sit through Egypt has risen to a political question of the first magnitude. We have already spoken of the defensible position of Egypt. On the side where it lay most open to the upper val- ley of the Nile, security was obtained by conquest, and the part of Ethiopia immediately to the south was almost always a de- pendency of Egypt, governed by a viceroy with the title of the " Prince of Kesh (Cush)," There were, however, times when the rival kings of Meroo, still further to the south, obtained the mastery of Upper Egypt ; but their rule was rather a change of dynasty, than a foreign conquest. The wild tribes of the deserts which isolated Egypt on the west are constantly seen on the monuments either as captives, tributaries, or mercenaries. From the like evidence we learn that the power of the Pharaohs reached as far as the negro tribes, but probably only in the form of preda- tory incursions to obtain slaves. The Arabian tribes of the eastern deserts appear to have generally maintained their inde- pendence ; but the peninsula of Mount Sinai belonged to the kings of the Fourth, Sixth, and later Dynasties, who engraved records of their Asiatic conquests on its rocks. Foreigners not within the reach of conquest were treated upon a jealous system of exclusion, and it was not till a late period that they were al- lowed a single port on the Mediterranean. Even when hospitably received, as in the case of the Israelites, they were only permitted to settle in a border district. This exclusiveness arose partly from a repugnance towards other races, and partly from the resolution to preserve the national character and habits uncontaminated. Egypt already possessed a powerful and wealthy court when Abram was driven into the land by a famine in Canaan. But the origin of that monarchy, and of the elaborate system of civiliza- 78 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. tion, religion, and government, that flonrished under it, is lost in the furthest remoteness of antiquity. We have already had occa- sion to notice the Scriptural evidence, from which we learn little more than that the original Egyptians, the people of Mizraim, were one of the oldest Ilamitic races, and closely kindred to the Cushites of Ethiopia. The theory, started by Diodorus Siculus, and recently maintained by H^eren, that the course of civiliza- tion was do\\Ti the Nile, from Ethiopia to Egypt, is now de- servedly rejected. The monuments of Nubia, instead of being the first rude efforts of the art afterwards developed in Egypt, are the debased products of that art in its decline. The thorough domination of the priestly caste in the kingdom of Meroe, which is cited as the original type of Egyptian institutions, admits of another explanation. The materials for the most ancient history of Egypt are : first, the narratives in the books of Genesis and Exodus ; next, the in- formation obtained in the country by the Greek travellers and historians, — Herodotus in the fifth century b.c, and Diodorus Siculus in the first, with many notices in the other classical writers. But in addition to these foreign testimonies, we have a large body of native sources of information. These are of two kinds, — written documents and inscribed monuments. Of the for- mer, we have now chiefly secondary, but still invaluable records ; the latter stand where they were first engraved, the materials for a harvest of which we have only reaped the first-fruits. Wliile the invention of the title " Egyptologers " proves the importance of this field of study, it is somewhat discouraging to observe how few positive results have been gained by their labours since the great discovery by which ChampoUion and Young made hiero- glyphics legible ; but it is no small gain to have obtained the key. And even if further researches should disappoint our hopes, there remains a mass of records which it needs no learning to decipher ; the pictures of wars, conquests, and public ceremonials, of agri- culture, industry and domestic life, which are of far greater value than the names and dates of kings and dynasties. Our space will not permit more than the briefest description of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and other forms of writing, in which, as also in the cuneiform inscriptions, we clearly trace the successive stages in the invention of the art of writing. Three forms of writing are found on the Egyptian monuments and pa- pyri. The first are the Hieroglyphics (i.e. sacred engravings), so called from an idea, not strictly correct, that the knowledge EGYPTIAN FORMS OF WRITINa. 79 of them was confined to the priests. The hieroglyx^hic characters are pictures of objects separately and distinctly defined ; and representing, in their various uses, the earliest stages in the in- vention of writing. As symbols^ they are used in three ways : first, in direct imitation, as when a circle is put for the sun, a crescent for the moon, a male figure for man, a female figure for woman, and the two together for manMnd ', these figures are called " iconographic " or " ideographic." Their second use is " anaglyphic" or "tropical," in which the meaning is conveyed figuratively, as a leg in a trap for deceit, a youth with a finger to his mouth for an infant. Thirdly, there is the allegorical or enigmatic form, in which the object intended to be expressed is represented by another which is used as its conventional emblem ; as two water-plants of slightly difierent forms for Upper and Lower Egypt. But the hieroglyphics are also used as " Kyrio- logic," or phonetic signs, the initial letters of theii* primitive meanings standing for those of other words, and for the words themselves, having the same initials. This is the second stage in the invention of vrriting ; but the signs do not seem to have reached the last, or alphabetic stage. The second form of writing was the " Hieratic," in which the hieroglyphic symbols become characters in a sort of ranning hand, with only a distant resemblance to their original form. This form of writing was really, as its name implies, confined to the priests, in whose hands it became so conventional, that the characters often bear less resemblance to the original objects than in the third form. Most of the existing papyri are written in this character. The third form is the " Demotic " {pojpular) or " Enchorial " {of the country), in which the language of the common people was written. It was, excei')t in the few cases just noticed, a still more cursive modification of the hieroglyphics than in the hieratic writing. It was used for records of civil transactions during the Ptolemaic period, and continued in use to the third or fourth century of our era. The existence of a trilingual inscription in hieroglyphical, enchorial, and Greek characters — being a decree of the priests of Memphis in honor of Ptolemy Y., Epiphanes (about b.c. 196) — on the celebrated " Rosetta Stone," now in the British Museum, gave the clue by which Young and Champollion were guided in- dependently to the principles of hieroglyphic interpretation ; a discovery which has opened up to us the contemporary records of every period of Egypt's history. 80 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. Vt Among the liieroglypliic signs on momiments of a date sup- posed to exceed 200 years before tlie Christian era, are those for the papyrus and the pen and ink, proving that writing, already employed in the form of engraving upon stone, had now reached a foi-m fit for the multii:)lication of books. We are assured by Diodorus Siculus that the Egyptian priests had preserved the records of all their kings from the earliest ages, not merely in the form of dry annals, but with descriptions of their personal charac- ters and exploits ; and Herodotus says that the priests showed him a papyrus with the names of 330 kings from Menes to Moeris ; we know too that their great temples had libraries of sacred books. Of such records we have still a specimen in the form of a hieratic papyrus, of the Egyptian kings, now in the Museum of Turin.* Many portions of the " Ritual of the Dead " and other sacred books on papyrus are in the British Museum. When the mass of these records themselves was lost we cannot tell, but they were doubtless in existence at the time of Alexan- der's conquest, and furnished materials for the works which were written to gratify the curiosity of the new Greek sovereigns and the pride of the Egyptian priests. The first and most important of these works was the " History of Egypt," by Manetho, a priest of Sebennytus, under Ptolemy I., at the beginning of the third century before Christ. Though Manetho's history has perished, like the sacred books from which he compiled it, the chronologers Eusebius and Julius Africanus have preserved his list of the thirty dynasties who reigned in Egypt. Tliis list has been con- firmed to a great extent by the hieroglyphic inscriptions, but it has been greatly interpolated, and even if these corruptions could be removed, great difficulties would remain. We do not feel it necessary to enter into the controversy between the Egyptologers and their opponents, respecting the historical value of Manetho's list. Feeling unable to reject them altogether, without leaving a blank in the place of that very ancient history which is attested both by Scripture and the monu- ments, we cannot accept the dictum of the one party, that " Egyp- tian history begins with Psammetichus," however Ave may be staggered by the assertion, on the other side, that : " Wliereas, in the annals of other ancient nations a time of tradition inter- venes between that of myths and that of facts, no such period of transition is found in the Egyptian records, where we find * Edited in facsimile by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, London, 1851. THE DYNASTIES OF MAKETHO. 81 pure fiction immediately followed by accurate history." We prefer to give tlie history as told by the ancient authors and by the most diligent modem students of the monuments, leaving its value to be settled by criticism, based on more extensive knowledge than we have yet acr,^ aired. The statements we pro- ceed to make must therefore be understood, not only as the mere results of enquiries too elaborate for us to trouble the reader with, but as results that only express a certain state of opinion, which cannot be regarded as placed beyond dispute.* A minor difficul- ty is one of form. We scarcely tread on safe ground, either his- torical or chronological, till the accession of the Eighteenth Dy- nasty, under whose rule Egypt was finally united, and began the most brilliant period of her history. It is here that the dynasties first become continuous. To suppose them so from the begin- ning, would place their commencement as early asB.c. 5000. Not only is this at variance with the monuments, but there is internal evidence that some of the dynasties were contemporaneous ; nay more, it has been recently discovered that successive kings of the same dynasty reigned in part together. Upper and Lower Egypt were for a long period distinct kingdoms ; and smaller kingdoms existed in different parts of the country, with capitals at This, Memphis, Elephantine, Heracleopolis, Thebes, and Xois. Of the seventeen dynasties that occupied this interval from the era of Menes, the following table exhibits an arrangement, proposed by Mr. Lane in 1830, approved by the most eminent Egypto- logers, and since confirmed in many points by the monuments. However interesting as a field for speculative research, tlie space occupied by these seventeen dynasties would scarcely claim the notice of the historian, but for its connexion with the sacred history, and for those wondrous monuments of the early Pharaohs, the Pyramids at Gliizeh near the ancient Memphis. The traditional history of Egypt, which we read in Herodotus and Diodorus, may be accepted as a fair report, by trutliful en- quirers, of what it was the pleasure of the priests to tell them, al- lowance being made for misunderstandings. But it is clear that the priests were far more ready to amuse the eager enquirer with marvellous tales, than to communicate the contents of their sacred books. These were first unfolded by Manetho, with whose records the stories of Herodotus and Diodorus can seldom be brought into agreement ; and the evidence of the monuments is almost always in confirmation of Manetho. * See further the note on Egyptian Chronology at the end of the chapter. VOL, I. — 6 Si THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chai-. VL MR. LANE'S TABLE OF THE FIRST SEVENTEEN DYNASTIES. B. 0. 2700 2C00 2500 2400 2300 2200 aioo 2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 1800 TQINITBS. I. '2717 (IMR of Mc-ces). MEM- PUITE8. III. Cir. 2650. ELEPHAN- TINITES. II. cir. 2470. IV. Cir. 24-H). V. cir. 2«0. 2352. Date in reign of Surplilscs. HERACLEO- P0LITE8. DI03- P0LITE8. VI. cir. 2200. ir. cir. AOO. XI. cir. 2200. X0ITE8. 8HEPHEED8. cir. S081. Abraham visits Egypt. XII.cir.2080. 2005. Date in reign of Amenemba II. 1986. Date in reign of Sesertesea III.? XIV. c. 2080. XV. cir.2080. XVI. cir. 2080. XIII. cir. 1920. . 1876. Joseph goTcrnor. 1867. Jacob goes into EgJPt- Vir.cir.lSOO. VIII. 0.1800. (215 years.) X. cir. 1750. 1652.EzodU9. XVII. cir. 1680. XVIII. cir. 1525. 1 1 THE DIVINE RULERS OF EGYPT. 83 All agreed in representing the gods, demigods, heroes, and manes (or sonls of the departed) as having reigned in Egypt for many ages before any dynasty of mortals ; Manetho says for 25,900 years. This legend seems not to have been the fruit merely of national pride, but it embodied the first principles of their religious faith. They referred the creation and government of the world to the will of the one supreme God, of whom they permitted themselves no visible representation, symbol, or form of worship, but adored Him " in silence." But the infinitely varied manifestations of this one divine essence, when put forth in action, moral and intellectual as well as material, came to be regarded as distinct deities. Hence the Egyptian Pantheon em- braced names and forms, in which nearly every other people recognized the objects of their own religion, from the Sabaeism of the Chaldees and the elemental worship of the Magians, to the degraded Fetishism of the Nigritian races. The adoration of the heavenly bodies, the deification of elemental powers, and the elaborate system of animal worship, seem to have sprung alike from the common source of Pantheism. How far these and other developments of that first principle were aided by the influence of other nations, we need not stay to enquire ; nor can we attempt a complete account of the Egyptian re- ligion.* First of the divine rulers of Egypt was placed Ptah, the Cre- ator, the personification of the all-working powers of fire, and hence identified by the Greeks with their Ilephcestus, the Latin Yulcan. But the metaphysical element, which accompanied and perhaps preceded the physical, is seen in the constant Association of the symbol of Truth with this deity. The next who reigned was the Sun (Helios), the Egyptian Ra, whose worship was maintained from the earliest times at On (Heliopolis) in Lower Egypt. The wife of Joseph was the daughter of a priest of On. The name of the third in Manetho, Agathodoemon, points to an abstract principle, and is identified by Egyptologers either with Har-Hat or with Num, Nu, or Nef, a deity whose emblems are the boat and asp, and who is said to represent the vital principle generated from the waters. The fourth is Chronos or Saturn, See, the personification of Time, who, as in the classical mytho- * For this, and all other matters falling within the province of the national anti- quities, the reader is referred to the various modern works on Egypt, especially those of Sir J. G. Wilkinson, and Mr. Poole's article " Egypt" in the Encyclopaedia Britan- niea, last edition. 84 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. logies, stands between the elemental and creative powers and those by whom the world is governed. These latter were the children of Seb and Netpe (Rhea) ; their names were Osiris, Seth, Aroeris, Isis, and Nepthys. The conflict of good and evil, in the persons of Osiris and Setli (Typhon), fills -a large space in the later Egyptian mythology ; but it should be carefully ob- Berved, that Sin was not necessarily included in the Evil origin- ally typified by Typhon. Thus, in the list of the divine kings, Seb is succeeded by Osiris, the god who appeared on earth in human form, to manifest and work all good for men, and, hav- ing been put to death by the malice of the evil being, was raised again to life, and became the judge of souls in the world beyond the grave. Osiris and his wife Isis are said by Herodotus to have been the only gods worshipped throughout all Egypt. He was succeeded by the usurper Typhon, who was in his turn slain by Isis, with the assistance of her son Horus, the seventh of these divine rulers. Horus, whom the Greeks identified with Apollo, is the manifestation of his father's virtues in youthful energy and beauty, who restores order upon the earth, and begins a new era of truth and justice. After him the different lists derived from Manetho give different names, which cannot here be pursued in detail ; and the whole series of divine dynasties ends with a secjond Horus. In some forms of the mythology the first Horus is the brother, the second the son of Osiris. This outline will sufficiently show that in the succession of divine rulers we have an embodiment of the Egyptian belief concerning the primeval order of creation and providence. All the authorities are agreed in placing at the head of the First Dynasty of mortals, Menes, or Men, as his name is read in the Turin papyrus, which contains a list of the Egyptian kings in the hieratic character. His name is also found in hiero- glyphics, in the form Menee, in the Rameseum at El-Kurnch. Herodotus aftects to give particulars of his works : the dyke that protected Memphis from the inundation, and the change of the course of the Nile from the edge of the Libyan hills to the mid- dle of the valley. But how much of the mythical element Avas mingled with the traditions of that remote period is shown by the historian's assertion, that all Egypt, except the Thebaic nome, was then a marsh, from Avhich he proceeds to calculate the my- riads of yeai-s required for the deposit of the Delta. The very name of Mencs suggests a mythical impersonation of the human race, like the Indian Menu, the Greek Minvas and Minos, the B.C. 2717?] FIRST AND SECOND DYNASTIES. 85 Etruscan Menerfa, and the German Mannus. Other traditions state that Menes built the great temple of Ptah at Memphis, that he extended his conquests into Ethiopia, and was killed by a hippopotamus, and that his memory was devoted to a curse be- cause he induced the Egyptians to change their earlier and simjDler mode of life. Amidst these legends we can trace as a clear fact the great antiquity of Memphis as the seat of the earliest Egyp- tian monarchy ; while the derivation of Menes from This (the later Abydos) in the Thebaid, accounts for the precedence always given to Upper Egypt on the monuments.* It would seem, then, that an older monarchy even than that of Memphis flourished in Upper Egypt, with its capital at This. But no monuments re- main at This ; and those of Memphis are older than any at Thebes. Neither Menes, nor his successors of the First Dynasty, have left any monuments, but his name appears on those of a much later date. Of his successors of the First Dynasty, who were seven in number, the monuments bear no record. One of them, Athothis, will claim notice again presently. The Second Dynasty consisted of nine Thinite kings, according to Manetho, who assigns it a duration of 300 years. The Inonu- ments appear to show that it lasted nearly four centuries, and was finally overthrown, with the Memphite Dynasty, by the invasion of the Shepherd Kings, about b. c. 2080. The Thinite kingdom had probably been long before eclipsed by the superior power of the Memphian kings. Under the second king, Manetho places the deiiication of the bulls, Apis at Memphis, and Mnevis at Heliopolis, and of the goat Mendes at the city of the same name. The succession of women to the throne is said to have been made legal under his successor. This usage seems to show the in- fluence of the INigritian races. Among the early sovereigns was the celebrated queen Nitocris (Neitakri), whose cruel re- venge of her brother's murder is related by Herodotus. She is the last of Manetho's Sixth Dynasty. Another Nitocris, of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, was about contemporary with the Baby- lonian queen of the same name. The Thirds Fourth, and Sixth Dynasties of Memphite kings seem to have been contemporary with the First and Second of Thinites, as represented above in Mr. Lane's table. Egyptolo- gers hold the third to have been a dynasty established by the Tlii- nite kings at their newly founded city of Memphis, the first king, Nekherophis, being contemporary with Menes. His successor, * Some make Menes a Theban. 86 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VL Tosortlms, is actually identified with Atbothis, the son of Menes, by the common character of great medical knowledge, and being the first who built with hewn stone, in erecting the palace at Memphis. A revolt of the Libyans, and their submission through terror at a sudden increase of the moon, is placed by Manetho in the reign of Nekherophis. Tlie eight Memphite kings of the Fourth Dynasty have left tlieir own wonderful monuments in the pyramids of Ghizeh. Nor are these their only records. " Not only does the construction of the pyramids, but the scenes depicted in the sculptured tombs of this epoch, show that the Egyptians had the same habits and arts as in after times ; and the hieroglyphics in the Great Pyramid, written in the cursive character on the stones before they were taken from the quarry, prove that writing had been long in use." " In the tombs of the Pyramid-period are represented the same fowling and fishing scenes ; the rearing of cattle and wild animals of the deserts ; the scribes using the same kind of reed for wri- ting on the papyrus an inventory of the estate, which was to be presented to the owner ; the same boats, though rigged with a double mast, instead of the single one of later times ; the same mode of preparing for the entertainment of guests ; the same introduction of music and dancing ; the same trades — as glass- hlowers^ cabinet-makers, and others — as well as similar agricul- tural scenes, implements, and granaries. "W"e also see the same costume of the priests ; and the prophet, or Sam, with his leo- pard's-skin dress ; and the painted sculptures are both in relief and intaglio. And if some changes took place, they were only such as necessarily happen in all ages, and were fer less marked than in other countries." * In one respect, the art of this age is superior to that of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties ; there is less of that stiflf conventional form which sacred rules im- posed in the treatment of the human figure, while the drawing of other forms is quite equal to that of the best ages. Thus the monu- mental history of Egypt presents the phenomenon of a total ab- sence of the period which is elsewhere marked by the first rude stages of art and civilization. Pesides this evidence of the poli- tical power of these Memphite kings, we have records of their dominion in the peninsula of Mount Sinai, where they worked copper mines. Sculptures at AVady-el-Magharah represent Shura (Soris), the first king of the Fourth Dynasty, slaying enemies of • Sir J. G. Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's Herodotus, Book II. App. chap. viii. vol. ii op. 844, 845. B.C. 3352?] THE MEMPHIAN KINGDOM. 87 an Asiatic race. His name lias also been found in the tombs near Ghizeh, and in the quarry marks of the northern pyramid of Abou-Seir. This pyramid, thus proved to be the tomb of Shura, is the earliest Egyptian monument which bears certain evidence of its builder. His two successors bore the same name, Suphi? (the Cheops of Herodotus) ; the third king being distinguished from the second by the exacter appellation of Sensuphis (a broth- er of Sufis) ; their names on the monuments are Shufu and Num- Shufu. That they reigned in great part together, and were the joint builders of the Great Pyramid, is proved — says Sir Gardner Wilkinson — " by the number of years ascribed to their reigns ; * by their names being found among the quarry marks on the blocks used in that monument ; by their being on the sculptured walls of the same tomb behind the great P^Tamids ; and by this pyra- mid having two funereal chambers, one for each king, rather than as generally supposed, for the king and queen." What is known further of their reigns may be best described in the words of Mr. Poole : — " The names of both the Suphises occur among the rock inscriptions of Wady-el-Magharah in the peninsula of Sinai, where the second of them, or Num-Shufu, is represented slaying a for- eigner. The military expeditions of the Egyptians, however, at this period, were probably of little importance, and designed to repress the nomad tribes, which have at all times infested the eastern and other borders of Egypt, and to maintain the posses- sions beyond these borders. The Mempliite Pharaohs were rather celebrated for the arts of peace, and for the care with which they promoted the interests of literature and science. Of Suphis I. Manetho writes that he was arrogant towards the gods, but, re- penting, wrote the Sacred Book. This seems to agree well with what Herodotus and Diodorus relate of the impiety and cru- elty of the king who built the Great Pyramid ; but if we suppose that he was arrogant towards the priests, we find a sufficient cause for the ascription to him of this character so ill according with the prosperity and peacefiilness of his time, as shown by the monu- ments. The power of the king or kings is evidenced by the magnitude of the Great Pyramid, and the costly manner of its construction ; the safety of the kingdom, by no soldiers being represented in the sculptures, and the general custom of going unarmed, common to the great and small ; the wealth of the subjects, by the scenes pourtrayed uj)on the walls of their tombs ; * For two brothers could not have reigned succesaively sixty-three and sixty-six years. The latter number implies that Suphis II. survived his brother. 88 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. and the state of science and art, by the construction of monuments, gigantic in size, of materials many of which were transported from a great distance, and fitted together witli an accuracy tliat has never been excelled ; as well as by the astronomical and other knowledge of which evidence is found in the contemporary in- scriptions." The fame of the two Suphises as pyramid builders, is shared by their successor, Men-ka-re, the Mencheres of Manetho, and Mycerinus of Herodotus, whose name is painted on the roof of the chamber of one of the smaller pp-amids near the Great Pyra- mid ; but part of his mummy case now in the British Museimi, and bearing his name, was found in the " Third Pyramid," of which he was the builder. Manetho assigns this pyramid to Queen Nitocris, the last of the Sixth Dynasty, who probably enlarged it, and made it her own sepulchre, as it contains two passages and chambers, the older i:>assage being built over in extending the structure. The " Second Pyramid," is ascribed by Herodotus to Cephren, the brother and successor of Cheops, and uncle to Mycerinus. By these tokens, Cephren should corresj^ond to the second Suphis of Manetho ; but besides the improbability of two brothers achieving two such enormous works, there is no likeness in the names. There is however, in the Fifth Dynasty, a Shaf-ra (Sephres), who may perhaps answer to Cephren, and may have completed the work of which the foundation had been laid by the second Suphis in emulation of his brother. Nothing is known of the remaining four kings of this mighty dynasty. Their whole rule seems to have somewhat exceeded two hundred years. We shall have presently to speak further of their works. The Sixth Dynasty succeeded the Fourth at Memphis, about B.C. 2200, and lasted about a century and a half. Only two of its six sovereigns require mention. Papa, or Phiops, is said by Ma- netho to have become king at six years of age, and to have com- pleted his hundredth year. Some confirmation of the length of his reign is found on his monuments, the number of which through all Egypt attests his great power. The Queen Nitocris of whom we have already had occasion to speak, appears in the Turin pa- pyrus as Ncet-akar-tee, which is said to signify Neith (Minerva) the Yictorious. With her the dynasty closed, being overthrown by Shepherd Kings, who fixed their capital at Memphis. The Fifth Dynasty, of nine (or as Eusebius has it, thirty-one) Elephantine kings, began about the same time as the Fourth, and appears to have lasted little less than 600 years. At first sight it B.C. 2200 ? ] OTHER EARLY DYNASTIES. 89 appears improbable that this dynasty ruled at Elephantine, on the extreme south border of Upper Egypt ; and the association of their names in the Memphian tombs with those of the Fourth Dynasty seems to imply that their capital was some place of the same name in Lower Egypt. Bat if they were a branch of the other reigning family, we can easily understand their using the same sepulchres, however distant ; and the length of time that their rule survived the invasion of the Shepherds, is in accordance with the more ob- vious view. Their last king, Unas (Ormos, in Manetho) is knov-m by an inscription to have been contemporary with Assa, the iifth king of the Fifteenth Dynasty (of Shepherds) at Memphis. The only memorable sovereign of this dynasty is Shaf-ra or Khaf-ra, the Sephres of Manetho, and probably, as wc have seen, the Cephren or Kephren to whom Herodotus and Diodorus assign the Second Pyramid. The tombs around the Pyramids bear the names of great numbers of persons of rank belonging to his reign. The Ninth Dynasty was founded at Heracleopolis, about the same time that the Sixth ruled at Memphis, soon after b.c. 2200. Of its nineteen kings, to whom he assigns 409 years, Manetho only mentions the first as the most cruel of all before him. Six of their names are found in hieroglyphic inscriptions, which make it probable that they became vassals to the pow^erful Diospolites of the Tw^elfth Dynasty. The Tenth (Heracleopolite) Dynasty^ as well as a large portion of the Ninth, falls in the time of the Shepherds. The Eleventh Dynasty founded the great kingdom of Diospolis, or Thebes, which was destined to unite all Egypt under its sway, about the same year, e.g. 2200. Of its sixteen kings, however, only the last, Amenemha L, possessed any great power. It was the Ttvelfth Dynasty that really established the great Diospolite kingdom, at a time most critical for Egypt. Under the preceding dynasties, which appear to have been for the most part offshoots of one reigning family, the land had enjoyed a long season of repose. But just about the time of the accession of the Twelfth Dynasty, it was overrun by that great assault of a foreign race, which, under the name of the invasion of the Ilyksos, or Shepherd Kings, forms the great catastrophe of the early Egyi3tian history. These foreigners established their power for about 500 years, first at Memphis, and afterwards over all Egypt, except perhaps the Thebaid, by whose kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty they were ultimately expelled. The period of their rule is especially inter- esting on the supposition that it includes all the relations of the Hebrew patriarchs with Egypt, from the journey of Abraham 90 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. to escape the famine, down to the great deliverance of the Exodus. Before we pass on to these events, or to the exploits of the Diospolite kings of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties, we must look hack upon the state of Egypt before the first revolution, at least in its known history. We have seen, as we have proceeded, the evidence borne by its monuments to the high state of civili- zation which was attained at least as early as the Fourth Dynas- ty. In those monuments, in the relics which have been trans- ported to Europe, and in which our own Museum is peculiarly rich, and in the faithful transcripts of Eosellini, Wilkinson, Lep- sius, and other labourers in this field, the life of this great people is set before our eyes, beginning with a period 4000 years ago ; and we wonder to see how much it is like our own. It is not the province of the historian to describe the minute details of a nation's manners, and no written description would convey any idea of those of the Egyptians, compared to what may be gained by a few hours' inspection of the objects and scenes preserved in the British Museum, and depicted in the great works we have just named. With the exception of the pyramids and tombs, the monu- ments of the first eleven dynasties are few\ The British Museum possesses several sepulchral tablets, and a coloured wooden statue found in a tomb at Ghizeh, certainly one of the oldest effigies in the world. The use of wood for statues in tombs is common in every period of Egyptian art ; and such figures seem always to have been painted, like the efiigies on the mummy cases. They are generally in a fi'eer attitude than the stone sta- tues. Herodotus mentions the wooden statues he saw at Thebes, of all the priests from the earliest ages down to his own time. But as few can behold, and fewer still inspect the secrets of those great monuments of the early Pharaohs which have always been the wonder of the world, it becomes necessary to give some account of the Pj'ramids. These, with the tombs surrounding them, are the great monuments of the periods of those " Mem- phian kings," whose works Milton describes as outdone only by the structures reared by the fallen angels. Their names very rarely occur in the Tliebaid, and then not on monuments of their own, but in the tombs of private persons who lived during their reigns. This should be carefully borne in mind, to correct the vague im- pression created by viewing Egypt as a whole, through the mist of remote antiquity, and even fancying that most of its monuments APPROACH TO THE PTRAMroS. 91 were of an age not very different from the Israelite captivity and Exodus. The great temples, tombs, and statues of Upper Egypt (from which we gain our chief knowledge of the people), were erected under the Theban kings, who probably reached the acme of their power after the Exodus. But the Pyramids of Lower Egypt were seen by Abraham far across the valley of the Nile, as he approached the royal city of Memphis, with the same general outline for the first sight of which the traveller still strains his gaze. The impression which the view of them produces is thus described by one of these recent eye-witnesses : — " The approach to the Pyramids (by one travelling westward fom Cairo and the banks of the Nile) is first a rich green plain, and then the Desert ; that is, they are just at the beginning of the Desert, on a ridge which of itself gives them a lift above the valley of the Nile. It is impossible not to feel a thrill as one finds one- self drawing nearer to the greatest and most ancient monuments in the world, to see them coming out stone by stone into view, and the dark head of the Sphinx peering over the lower sandhills. Yet the usual accounts are correct, w^hich represent this nearer sight as not impressive ; their size diminishes, and the clearness with which you see their several stones strips them of their awful and mys- terious character. It is not till you are close under the Great Pyramid, and look up at the huge blocks rising above you into the sky, that the consciousness is forced upon you that this is the near- est approach to a mountain that the art of man has produced." * These successive emotions are not unfit emblems of the stages of our interest in the problem of the pyramids and in Egyptian history itself. An object of vague but universal curiosity, the first approach to its study involves us in no little doubt and dis- appointment, which it requires a closer knowledge to dispel. The traveller at once discovers, what the historian too often for- gets, that the pyramids are not to be viewed or studied by them- selves. " The strangest feature in the view is the platform on which the pyramids stand. It completely dispels the involuntary notion that one has formed of the solitary abruptness of the three pyramids. Not to speak of the groups, in the distance, of Abou- Seir, Sakkara, and Dashour, the whole platfoi-m of this greatest of them all is a maze of pyramids and tombs. Three little ones stand beside the First, three also beside the Third. The Second and Third are each surrounded by traces of square enclosures, and their eastern faces are approached through enormous masses of * Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Introduction, p. Ivi. 92 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI ruins as if of some great temple ; wliilst the First is enclosed on three sides by long rows of massive tombs, on which you look down from the top as on tlie plats of a stone-garden. You see, in short, that it is the most sacred and frequented part of that vast cemetery which extends all along the western ridge for twenty miles behind Memphis." ^ The situation of these tombs, on the western border of the Nile valley, arose from the belief that the abodes of the dead were in the West, the land of sunset and of darkness. The very few tombs on the east side of the Nile have evidently been placed there for reasons of convenience. No pyramids are found on the cast till we come to UjDper Ethiopia, which lay beyond the sacred land, whither men conveyed the bodies of their relations. The region of the West, and the abode of departed spirits (the Hades of the Greeks), were expressed by the cognate words Ement and Amenti. Like the kindred race in Chaldsea, the Egyptians re- garded certain cities as sacred burial-places. Such, besides the vast cemetery common to Memphis and Heliopolis, was the great Necropolis of Thebes, with its royal tombs, and that of Abydos, both of which have yielded a vast harvest of antiquities. The immense pains bestowed by the Egyptians upon the remains and resting-places of the dead bear witness to one of the most im- portant points in their religious philosophy. The paintings of their tombs continually confirm the statement of Herodotus, that they believed in the immortality of the human soul, and in its reunion to the body which it had quitted at death, after a long cycle (Herodotus says 3000 years) of transmigration through the forms of all the animals of air, earth, and water.f Together with this belief, they held the doctrine of a future judgment. The soul was regarded as an emanation from the Divine Essence, to which it returned at death, either to be re-united to the Deity in a state of blessedness, or to be banished into the bodies of unclean animals till its sins were purged away. Each man's rank after his death was determined by the judgment supposed to have been passed upon his life. The elaborate embalmment of the dead, the cere- monies performed before the mummy, and the care taken of it in the sepulchre, were honours paid to the form in which a part of the Divine Essence had resided and would reside again. In this belief * Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Introduction, p. Ivii. f The Greek writers, who unanimously attest that the Egyptians held the doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, say that Pythagoras borrowed it from them. EGYPTIAN DOCTRINK OF A FUTURK flTATE. 03 we cannot l>ul. trnc*; ;i, rcniiiiinl, ol' llic |tiiiiiitiv(j rcli/^ion [Juntod in K;^yi>t ut, tJic lirst, Kcl.llcriicnl, of tli<; j)iim(;viil niCAi of Ifiun, ;in(j ]>rescnvc'(l hy IIk; iiiichiui^in^ liuhitH of tlic jx-uplc!. That it luul jiot iiiorf; pcnvcrfiil inlliiciK^c on tlicir livcH, will rujt Huri>riHC tiiOHO who know the natiin; <)\' mun. WIkmi the roHtruintH of a piiro crood on evil li!il>itH have, on(;(! hocn h)'<>k(;n lhi'oii<.r]i, ar;^iini(;ntH ai'o oven IoiuhI in the lornicr I'oi- fJi(! iiiivin(! KhKenrtc. In t'iiet, tin; nio.st poweiful motiv<;H to juntiec; and temixtranr^f! Hcetn to have been dcri\(;d )-;i.tliei- from the hhanus of laced in a Hort of moveahio cloH(;t, with folding doorn, in which, having (A'U:]i remai)ir;d lor Ko/nc tim(! in tlie liouw;, they wei-e ftonve,yef| (*n a nledge to the place olhuriul. 'J'Imh wan, for the poor, eithci- ;i |)it dug id the enrlh to hold many mummlcH, or nichcrf in the hides of a rock-hewn cave, which wan closed up with maHf)nry when full. 'I'he tomhs of the rich had. likewise their j)if>: or caves lor 1 he, rlcposit of the mummies, over which was another chamhf;r, or even mor(i, hewn in the solid rock, when the situation allowed, or else sumptuously huilt of ma- sonry. 'J'lie, inner walls wci'e adorned with j^uintings, HculpturcH, and inscriptions in hiero4.dyphic,H, and here the r(Jativ(;s of the de- ceased no <>\)- j(;ct clierished by all classcH. Herodotus tells us that one of the Kgyptian kings jjcrtnitted family tombs to ]j(; j>ledged for njoJM;y lent, as the debtor would make livary effort to avoid the disgrace of Buch a loss. 'J'lie kings and ]»riests, and the wealthy of the other liigh castes, were conveyed to th(; tomb in a [>om[)ous procession, g4 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. lChap. VI. the mummy being borne in a hearse, with ornamental panels, one of wliich was removed to display its head. In the route of the funeral there always lay a lake, the emblem of the gulf between the two worlds, over which the hearse was conveyed in the haris^ or sacred boat ; tlie boatman bearing, as the Greek writers tell us, the name of Charon, whence they traced their own fable of his ferrying the dead over the infernal river Styx. This Charon appears to have been the god Horus. But tlie deceased was not suffered to embark till he had stood a trial before forty-two judges, who sat in a semicircle on the margin of the lake. Any person might come forward to accuse him of having led an evil life, on pain of the heaviest penalties if he failed. If the charges were proved, the priests denied the rites of sepulture — the worst disgrace that could befall a man. It was, as Wilkinson observes, like being left on the wrong side of the Styx. Not even the kings were exempt from this ordeal ; and cases are recorded of their being refused sepulture, like some of the Jewish kings. But no further indignities were per- petrated, and even the worst of men were suffered to be privately buried by their friends ; a lot shared by those whose poverty did not allow them a public funeral. Formidable as this funereal j udgment was, it only typified that which was believed to be held in the other world by Osiris, before whom the souls were brought by Anubis, at the gate of Amenti, and there weighed in the scales of Truth by Justice, whom the Egyptians figure not only as blind, but without a head. The gate is guarded by a monster more hideous than the Cerberus of the Greeks, called the Devourer of the Wicked. Such are the scenes that we may still behold vividly pourtrayed on the walls of those tombs to which the corpse was at length conveyed, to rest until the sepulchre should be ransacked by the curiosity of succeeding ages. The position of the pyramids, grouped with and towering above these abodes of the dead, whose sculptures bear evidence of a con- temporary age, and the actual discovery in the Third Pyramid of the body of its founder, can leave little doubt that the ancient wri- ters are correct in representing them as (Resigned by kings, whose arrogance could be satisfied with no meaner edifices for their own sepulchres. Herodotus relates, on the authority of the priests, the full story of the forced labour by means of which Cheops (Shufu) erected the First Pyramid, as well as the gigantic causeway to convey the stones across the valley of the Nile from the eastern hills, a work not inferior to the pyramid itself.* He tells us * Here is a striking proof of the importance attached to the position on the west BUILDING OF THE PYRAMIDS. 95 that this causeway was ten years in building, and the pyramid itself twenty. He describes the mode of erecting it by successive stages, and the means of raising the huge stones by machines placed on these stages. He even repeats the reading given by an interpreter of an inscription which he saw upon the pyramid, recording the quantities of radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the builders — (the savoury pot-herbs of Egyptian labourers, which the liberated Israelites so sorely missed) — and the sum spent in its erection namely, 1600 talents of silver.''^ After making every allowance for mistakes, and even for deception, by the interpreters — who cer- tainly sometimes amused themselves at the traveller's expense — these details seem to prove that the time, and manner, and pui-pose of the erection were known to the priests in the time of Herodotus. The recent discovery of the founder's name completes the evidence. A bare mention will therefore suffice for the ingenious theories which assign to the pyramids other builders and a widely different purpose. In regarding them, however, primarily as regal sepul- chres, we do not exclude the supposition that they may have been BO planned as to give their construction other uses and meanings. Their position, exactly facing the four cardinal points, and the inclination of their main passages, which we have already noticed, seems to show a connexion with the science of astronomy. Their dimensions would naturally be exact multiples of the standards of length used by the Egyptians. But the discovery of all manner of ratios in the sides, sloping edges, height, and angles, of the Great Pyramid, and in the length, breadth, thickness, and solid content of the sarcophagus or coffer in its central chamber, besides being suspicious from the very number of the supposed coincidences requires a previous assumption as to the scientific knowledge of the builders. Let it be proved, from other evidence, that they had obtained, by their astronomical science, a tolerably correct measure of the earth, and that they had deduced an exact metrical system from that measurement ; and then we might accept the probability that the dimensions of the pyramids pei-petuate their measures. But to prove all this we want more than coincidences, and even if proved, it would not exclude the belief in the primary purpose of the buildings as sepulchral monuments. We can far more side of the Nile. Traces of causeways are seen in front of the First and Third Pyramids. * This would amount, on the largest estimate of the talent, to about £400,000, an enormous sum in those days, and yet one which might appear inadequate, were it not for the fact that the labour was forced. 96 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. readily believe that such edifices, erected for their own uses, should be so constructed as also to preserve standards of measure in their several parts, than that they were designed solely to perpetuate those standards. How strongly the ordinary view is contirnied by what we know of the manner of their construction, will appear as we proceed. Tile pyramids of Lower Egypt, then, are the chief sepulchral monuments in that vast necropolis of ancient Memphis, the general plan of which can still be clearly traced. They were the tombs of the hings, towering in the midst of the lesser sepulchres of their subjects. The form of monument seems to have been coeval with the Egyptian monarchy, for Manetho tells us that Yenephcs, the fourth king of the First Dynasty, built a pyramid at Kochomo, the site of which is uncertain. The capital of Lower Egypt stood on the west side of the Nile, about ten miles above Cairo ; and its people chose for their cemetery the lowest platform of the western hills, where they could not only rest far above the reach of the inundation, but hew their sepulchral chambers in the solid rock. The existing pyramids — for many have bepn destroyed — stand together in groups, of which a good general view is obtained from the citadel of Cairo. Looking a little to the south of west, we see the three largest pyramids, which are distinguished by the name of the neighbouring village of El-Gliizeh. Further south are those of Ahou-Seir, also three in number, but much smaller, A little bej^ond them is the very curious pyramid of /Sal'l'ara, called the " Pyramid of Degrees," from the steps on its surface, surrounded by a large number of smaller pyramids. The two pyramids of Dashour, the next largest to those of Ghizeh, are the last that can be referred to the necroj)olis of Memphis, though there are several others further to the south. The whole necro- polis, which appears to have been common to Heliopolis and Mem- phis, extends over a space of about twenty miles, from the ruined pyramid of Abou-Ruweysh, a little to the north of those of El-Gliizeh, to the southernmost pyramid of Dashour.* But the whole district over which the pyramids are spread extends from 29° to 30° N. latitude, or almost TO miles, corresponding very nearly with Middle Egypt. Their number is estimated at about 69, or one to a mile on the average. Of all these, the northern pyramid of Abou-Seir is probably the most ancient ; being, as we have seen, the tomb of Shura, the lirst king of the Fourth Dynasty ; * A map and panorama of the whole district is given by General Howard Vyse, Operations carried on at (he Pyramids of Ghizeh in 1837, vol. iii. DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS. 97 unless, as some suppose, the ruined pyramid of Abou-Euweysh, the northernmost of the whole, be the pyramid of Yenephes, of the First Dynasty. The next is the " Great Pyramid " of Ghizeh, which has always been the chief object of curiosity, and affords the best type of this sort of edifice. It is the largest and northermnost of the three, which are placed, so to speak, en echelon from N.E. to S.W. The other two are the " Second Pyramid," which Herodotus ascribes to Cephren, and the " Third," or Pyramid of Mycerinus. The name Pyramid is not Egyptian, but Greek, nor did it originally denote the peculiar geometrical form to which we now apply it, but a common object, to which the pyramids of Egypt bore some resemblance.* In the same way the Egyptian obelisk was so named by the Greeks from its resemblance to a spit or ingot. Kay, we might even venture on the paradoxical statement, that these edifices were not originally pyramids at all in the modern sense of the word. Like those other great types of Hamite architecture, the temple-towers of Chaldsea, and the pagodas of India, they were at first built in successive stages, each smaller than the one below.f The distinct statement of Herodotus and other ancient writers to this effect is now abundantly con- firmed by the form of the " Pyramid of Degrees " and of several of the smaller pyratoids, and by a minute examination of the construction of the others. This fact seems to prove that the Chaldsean towers are of the more ancient type, and it raises a presumption that, like them, the Egyptian pyramids were originally temples, connected with a Sabsean form of idolatry. It may be too fanciful to suppose that the appropriation to his own sepulchre of a form sacred to the gods was the impiety which the priests charged on the greatest king of the Fourth Dynasty, but we may be allowed to conjecture that those mighty Pharaohs, who assumed the names and' attributes of their chief gods, aspired after death to the divine honour of a temple tomb. It is interest- ing to observe how the mode of construction admitted of the lateral enlargement of the pjTamid ; and the Third Pyramid bears evidence of having been enlarged in this manner. In some cases, at * Tne exact etymology is uncertain. f The faces of these steps, or, as Herodotus calls them, battlements, were some- times not perpendicular. In the " Pyramid of Degrees " they are inclined about 70° to the horizon. The pyramid of Meydoon is an admirable case of construction in three stages with oblique sides, giving a form intermediate between the Chaldsean tower and the regular pyramid. The resemblance to the old form of Chaldaean temple is very striking in the three-staged brick pyramid of Illahoon. VOL. I. — 7 98 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. least, a piece of the solid rock which was levelled to form the base of the pyramid, was left standing as a central core of the whole edifice. In the Great Pyramid it reaches about 80 feet above the base. It has been supposed that the lateral extension of the larger pyramids, and the number of their stages, bore a definite relation to the length of their intended occupant's reign ; that the chamber designed for this sarcophagus was first excavated in the solid rock, with a passage down to it just large enough to admit the sarcophagus, and inclined at a convenient angle to aid its descent ; * that a cubical block of masonry was then built over the chamber, forming the first stage of the pyramid; — that fresh stages were added for each year of the king's reign, and those below extended proportionally; — and that the final process of finishing off the surface was performed after his death. In that final process, the angles of the stages were built up with masonry, the outer courses of which formed steps more numerous and smaller than the original stages ; and the surface was then finished with blocks of stone, the outer faces of which had already been quarried to the required slope, and these were finally brought to a fine polish. It is no doubt to this last process that Herodotus refers, when he says that the pyraixdd was finished irbva. the top downwards. In the upper part of the Second Pyramid these casing-stones are still perfect. In the Great Pyramid their loss has converted each face into a series of 203 rough steps, ■v^hose height varies from 4 feet 10 inches at the bottom to 2 feet 2 inches at the top, their breadth being 6 feet 6 inches. Some of the lowest casing-stones were discovered in their places by General Howard Yyse.f They were 4 feet 11 inches high, and 6 feet 3 inches on the sloping face, 4 feet 3 inches wade at the top, and 8 feet 3 inches at the base. They were united by the hardest cement, with joints no thicker than silver paper ; and their angles were so accurately formed, that a calculation based on them gave the actual height of the pyramid. Like the bulk of the masonry, they are of the calcareous stone from the quarries of Tourah in the eastern hills.:}: As thus finished, the whole edifice formed a " right * This passage almost always faces the north. When the entrance is higher up the side of the building than the ground line, it seems to prove a lateral extension beyond that originally allowed for. W'e shall presently sec how curious a case of this sort is presented by the Great Pyramid. The southern pyramid of Dashour has, besides the original chamber and passage, another much higher up, with an entrance in the west front. \ Some pieces of them are in the British Museum. :j: The Second Pyramid is cased with granite from Upper Egypt. EXTERIOR OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 99 pyramid " on a square base, herein differing from the Chaldaean towers, in which the stages are not pLaced concentrically over each other. The faces are a little less in altitude than equilateral triangles ; in other words, the edges are somewhat shorter than the base.* These proportions, however, are not the same in all the other pyramids.f The dimensions of the Great Pyramid have been accurately taken by General Howard Yyse, whose observations were com- pletely reconciled with some former measurements by the dis- covery of the casing-stones. The base was originally a square of 756 feet, the height was 480 feet 9 inches, the angles made by the triangular sides with the plane of the base 51° 50', :{: and the angle between two opposite faces at the vertex 76" 20'. By the loss of the casing and other stones, carried off to Cairo to be used for building, and the accumulation of rubbish and sand round the base, it is reduced to Y32 feet square, and the height to 460 feet 9 inches. The area of the base, now 535,824 square feet, was originally 571,536 square feet, covering more than thirteen acres. The whole mass contained 90,000,000 cubic feet of masonry, weighing about 6,316,000 tons. Tliese last are numbers scarcely intelligible to any but a railway engineer, but the reader may form some conception of the edifice by imagining a pyramid nearly one-third higher than St. Paul's standing on a base some- what larger than Lincoln's-inn-fields. What might be the chambers and passages constructed, and what the objects deposited, within this enormous mass of mason- ry, were questions perhaps forbidden to the Egyptians by religious reverence, but which foreign travellers and rulers have always tried to solve. It has been observed that Homer makes no men- tion of the pyramids, as they did not come under his notice, though a modern poet has fancied that the same mummy might " Have hob-a-nobbed with Pharaoh glass to glass, Or dropped a half-penny in Homer's hat ! " Herodotus tells us, on the information of the priests, that below the Great Pyramid were chambers hewn out of solid rock, and designed by Cheops for use as vaults ; and that these formed a * The angle between the edge and base in each triangle is 57° 59' 40". f The sauthern pyramid of Dashour has two different slopes, the upper half forming the acuter angle with the horizon. But the supposition that this was a mere accident, arising from a wish to complete the building more speedily, is confirmed by the rough workmanship of the upper part. ^ This is also the angle at the base of the casing-stones. 100 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. sort of island, surrounded by water introduced from the Nile by a canal. How far tliis agrees with modern discoveries will ap- pear presently. The respect paid to the royal sepulchres by Per- sian and Grecian rulers was no barrier to the Romans, under whose government the descriptions of Strabo, Pliny, and others, prove that the Great Pyramid had been rifled. In modem times it has been repeatedly examined. One entrance to it is a forced pas- sage made by the caliphs. The second pyramid was entered, with vast labour, by Belzoni, who found that the Caliph Othman had been there before him, and had recorded his entrance in a Cufic in- scription (a. d. 1196-7). The numerous investigations since made, leave little doubt of the general internal plan and purpose of the pyramids. A single narrow passage, entered from the northern face, at or near the ground-line, leads down to the sepulchral chamber, hewn out of the solid rock beneath the centre of the pyramid. Above this is usually another chamber, corresponding to the upper cham- ber of an ordinary tomb, but by no means for the same uses. For nothing is more remarkable in these buildings than the jealous care with which the entrance and passage were closed, by blocks of stone so massive that explorers have had to force a way round them through the masonry. The tombs of ordinary persons were left open, to admit future burials, and to allow of the performance of funeral rites ; while the Memphian Pharaohs slept in solitary state beneath a huge funeral mole of masonry. But not even its solid mass could secure their repose. The sarcophagus of Cheops had been empty from its first discovery. Belzoni found the tomb of Cephrenes rifled by his Arab predecessors. The remains of these kings are consigned to oblivion ; but the fate of Mycerinus has been even worse. Standing to-day in our museum beside curious spectators, in front of the glass case which contains the shattered remnants of his cofiin, and the mouldering fragments of his bones, the mockery even of a skele- ton, we knew not which to admire most, the vanity of human greatness, or the recklessness of human curiosity. jSTeither the Roman satirist in his Exjpende Ilannihalem^ nor Shakspere when he uttered the like moral — " Imperial C^sar, dead and turned to clay, May stop a hole, to keep the wind away," contemplated the case of the royal dust which still retains, in its degradation, some vestiges of the human form ! It still remains to notice some very peculiar and interesting INTERIOR OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 101 points in the internal structure of the Great Pyramid. The en- trance lies in its northern face, 24 ft. 6 in. east of the central axis, 49 feet above the base, and is easily reached by a mound of the fallen stones. It is about 3 ft. 6^' in. broad by 3 ft. 11 in. high, the sarcophagus in the central chamber being 3 ft. 3 in. broad by 3 ft, 5| in. high, so closely was the passage fitted to it. Above this small opening is a gigantic architrave, formed by huge stones inclined to one another, the arch being as yet unknown. The passage, inclined downwards at an angle of 26° 41', and 320 ft. 10. long, leads for some distance through the masonry, and then much further through the solid rock, to what was doubtless the original sepulchral chamber, 100 feet be- low the base of the pyramid itself; it is 46 ft. by 27 ft., and 11 ft. 6 in. high. A passage which runs from it horizontally to the south for about 55 feet, appears to have been abandoned. It would seem as if the length of the king's reign had caused the masonrjr of the pyramid to cover the original mouth of the first passage, and instead of leaving it open, a new one was formed in another direction. At a distance of 63 ft. 2 in. from the en- trance, and about where the masonry covers the rock, this new passage branches oS upwards at an angle of 26° 18' to the length of 124 ft. 4 in. From this point it is continued horizon- tally for 109 ft. 10 in. to a chamber which lies nearly in the centre of the pyramid, 67 ft. 4 in. above its base. This, which is com- monly called the " Queen's Chamber," is 18 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft., and 20 ft. 3 in. high, with a roof of flat stones placed so as to form an angle. But neither was the sarcophagus deposited here. These passages ai-e all lined with calcareous stone finely polished. But the upward inclined passage is continued from the point where the horizontal passage branches ofiP, in the form of a grand gallery 150 feet 10 in. long and 28 feet high, lined with blocks of granite, in courses projecting each over the one below. From the end of this gallery another short passage, or vestibule, leads horizontally to a chamber 34 ft. 3 in. by 17 ft. 1 in., and 19 ft. 1 in. h^gh, roofed with nine flat slabs of granite ; the whole chamber and vestibule being lined with blocks of the same material. This is known as the " King's Chamber." Near its western end, placed due north and south, is a red granite sarcophagus, of so fine a crystalline substance that it rings like a bell when struck. It is 7 ft. 6^ in. long, 3 ft. 3 in. wide, 3 ft. 5^ in. high,, and 7i in. thick at the base. The sarcophagus has neither hieroglyphics nor sculptures of any sort. Its occupant, if one ever rested there, is 102 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VL gone, and even the lid is missing. It is one of tiie proLlems of tlie Great Pyramid, -whether this sarcophagus was introduced after its completion. We have seen that the first passage was only just large enough to let it pass, and the same is true of the first part of the upward passage and its horizontal prolongation ; and it is not easy to see how it could Lc got past the first bend and up the slope. The last is the only difficulty ofi'ered by the great gallery ; but the entrance to the vestibule is so small that if the sarco- phagus ever passed through it, it must liave been contracted since. The absence of any sarcophagus from the subterranean and " Queen's " chambers favours the opinion that each w^as in turn destined for the royal tomb, and afterwards abandoned. "When the position of the King's Chamber was finally settled, what is now nearly the centre of the pyramid may have been its summit. The sarcophagus may have been raised along the upward passage before it was covered in, and the pyramid afterwards finished, leav- ing the mummy to be brought in in its wooden coffin. That the chamber was not finally closed when first constructed, is clear from the elaborate provision for its ventilation. Two air channels, about 9 inches square, are carried from it to the north and south faces of the pyramid, perpendicular to the outer surface ; they were evidently constructed as the building proceeded. When these channels were opened by Mr. Perring, in 1837, the ventilation of the chamber was completely restored. The jealous care Avith which the pyramid was finally closed is proved by a huge block of granite, which so elFectually shuts the mouth of the upward passage, that explorers have had to force their way round it through the solid masonry, as well as by the granite portcullis which as effectually blocks the horizontal vestibule to the King's Chamber. This closing of the passages is an argument against the truth of the tradition, that by the judgment after his death, Cheops was refused burial in his intended sepulchre. Two very interesting points still require notice. Above the King's Chamber is a series of five low chambers, of somewhat larger area, and from 6 ft. 4 in. to 8 ft. T in. in height. Their floors and roof are of the red granite of Syene, the former being rough hewn, the latter flat, except the uppermost, the slabs of which form an angle to support the superincumbent weight. This roof is 69 ft. 3 in. above that of the King's Chamber. They were evidently designed to lighten the pressure on the flat roof of that chamber. The lowest of the five was discovered by Davison in 1764, the rest in 1837, by General Howard Yyse, who INTERIOR OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 103 named them after Wellington, Nelson, Sir Robert Arbntlmot, and Colonel Campbell. It was on the blocks of these chambers that General Howard Yyse made his grand discovery of the names of Khufu and Num-Klmfu, scrawled in large linear hieroglyphics, which are evidently quarry marks, for some of them have been cut through in sawing the blocks.* Thus the tradition was con- firmed, and Cheops proved to be the builder of the pyramid. The remaining point relates to the so-called " Well." This is a shaft, 2 ft. 4 in. square, cut down through the solid masonry, from the point where the horizontal passage to the " Queen's Chamber" branches off from the upward inclined passage. It descends perpendicularly 26 ft. 1 in., then more irregularly for 32 ft. 5 in. to a recess called the " Grotto," not far from the base of the pyramid, and thence into the lower inclined passage, a little above the subterranean chamber. Its total length is about 155 feet. It is supposed to have been made as an exit for the work- men after they had closed the two ends of the great passage. Some explorers have sought in it the explanation of what Hero- dotus and Pliny say about a subterraneous communication with the Nile ; but no such communication has been found, and the story seems most improbable. The base of the Great Pyramid is about 137 feet above the level of the inundation of the Nile ; the floor of the subterranean chamber is about 100 feet below the base, and consequently about 37 feet above high Nile ; the floor of the " Queen's Chamber " is about 60 feet, and that of the King's Chamber 125 feet, above the base ; from the roof of the latter to the original apex of the pyra- mid is about 300 feet. The Second, or Pyramid of Cephren, is of somewhat smaller dimensions. It has, so far as is known, only one sepulchral chamber, cut into the surface of the rock, with a groined roof in the base of the pyramid. There are two entrances ; one 37 ft. 8 in. above the base, descending at an angle of 25° 55' to the sur- face of the rock, along which it nins horizontally to the sepulchral chamber ; the other entrance is on the base line, from which the passage descends some distance into the solid rock, and then re- ascends to join the horizontal passage. The granite sarcophagus was found empty by Belzoni, * This discovery disposes of the error, that hieroglyphics were not used thus early. The names of Cheops and Cephren have also been found on the stone scarabaei, which the Egyptians used as emblems of Cheper, the Creator, a gigantic specimen of which may be seen in the British Museum. 104 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VI. Of tlie Third Pyramid we have ah-eady had occasion to speak ; of the rest we can only stay to mention that several are of brick, cased with stone.* One of the two brick pyramids of Dashour is snpposed by some to be that ascri])ed by Herodotus to Asychis, whom he makes the successor of Mycerinus, but whose name does not appear in the lists of Manetho.f It bore, as the historian tells us, an inscription, cut in stone, to the following effect : " De- spise nie not in comparison with the stone pyramids ; for I surpass them all, as much as Jove surpasses the other gods. A pole was plunged into a lake, and the mud which clave thereto was gath- ered ; and bricks were made of the mud, and so I was formed." The quality of the alluvial soil of Egypt naturally suggested the mak- ing of bricks from the earliest ages ; but the Egyptian bricks (at least under the early Pharaphs) were never buj-nt, but only sun- dried. They were used for houses, city walls, fortresses, the enclo- sures of temples, in short, for all buildings not of a monumental character. It was only as art declined that they were put to the latter use, and then, as we have just seen, with an apology dis- guised under a boast. They are found stamped with the names of Thothmes III., Amenoph III., and other Diospolite kings, and the whole process of their manufacture is represented on the The- ban sculptures. Tliese, though most probably of an age subsequent to the servitude of Israel, set most vividly before us scenes exactly- parallel to those described in the book of Exodus. The brick- makers are evidently captives, working at heavy burthens, under taskmasters wdio are plying the stick and whip without mercy. To complete the illustration, the bricks of several buildings are found mixed with chopped straw ; for without some such sub- stance the line alluvial mud was too friable to bind well. Seve- ral specimens of Egyptian bricks may be seen in the British Mu- seum. The building of pyramids seems to have been disused in Egypt after the Twelfth Dynasty, but it was continued in Ethiopia. The Nubian pyramids are very inferior in care of construction, and they furnish one of the many* proofs that Ethiopian art was not the parent, but the debased offspring, of the Egyptian. The en- trance to the Nubian pyramids is generally covered by a temple and propylasa. Several of the Egyptian i:>yramids also are con- nected with temples, and all doubtless stood within sacred enclo- * There are also several small brick pyramids in the Thebaid. f Sir G. Wilkinson conjectures that the name may be meant for Shishak, of the Twenty-second Dynasty, perhaps confounded with some other king. NOTE ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 105 sures, like those which surround the Second and Third Pyramids. In fact, the tomb of an Egyptian was essentially a temple, conse- crated to the deities of Amenti. The limits of our work will not admit, in general, of antiquarian discussions on the scale we have allotted to the Pyramids ; but their vast antiquity, their existing state, and the deeply interest- ing problems they suggest, seemed to demand that the reader should be put in possession of all that is known concerning them. They stand out as conspicuously on the comparatively blank page of early Egyptian history, as their forms rise above the valley of the Nile, the monuments of an almost unknown chapter in the history of the world. NOTE ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. The various systems of chronology adopted by the Egyptologers are based on astronomical calculations, on the traditions of Manetho and others, and in some degree on the chronology of Scripture. Enjoying, like the kindred Chaldeans, the greatest advantages of climate and horizon, the Egyptians divide with that people the honour of being the first cultivators of astronomy. Like the Chaldtean temple-towers, the pyramids had prob* ably a connexion with astronomical observation. In addition to other proofs, it has been discovered that the passages which slope inwards from the northern face of these structures are inclined at the very angle which would make them point to what was the pole-star at the epoch of their erection. We have seen the reasons for ascribing these edifices to the Fourth Dynasty, probably about the middle of the twenty-fourth century B.C., or about 4000 years ago. At that time, on account of the precession of the equinoxes, the north pole of the heavens was about 3° 44' from the star a Draconis. The latitude of Ghizeh, where the pyramids stand, being just 30° N., this would be, at all times, the inchnation of a tube pointing to the true pole. But tlie altitude of the then polar star, at its two meri- dian passages, would differ from this elevation by the amount just stated, and, at its lower culmination, would be about 26° 16' ; and so shghtly do the passages of the three principal pyramids differ from this inclination, that the mean is 26° 13'. " At the bottom of every one of these passages, therefore, the then pole-star must have been visible at its lower culmina- tion, a circumstance which can hardly be supposed to have been uninten- tional, and was doubtless connected with the astronomical observation of that star, of whose proximity to the pole, at the epoch of the erection of these wonderful structures, we are thus furnished with a monumental record of the most imperishable nature." * It is obvious how complete a criterion this discovery would afford for the date of the erection of the pyramids, if we could be quite sure that it is not an accidental coincidence. * Sir J. Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy, §§ 319, 320, ed. 1849. 106 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Cjtap. YL. Ollior Egyptian monuinents, such as the famous zodiac in the temple at Deiuli'rah,'.«ho\v the care of the priests in taking and recording astro- noniical observations, upon which they based an elaborate system of cliro- nology. They claimed the discovery of the true length of the solar year, by means of llie stars, but the priests kept this reckoning to themselves. Tiie year em])loycd in ordinary computations, both civil and religious, was the " Vague Year" of 3G5 days, divided into twelve months of 30 days each, with five days added after the twelfth. It was in use from a time at least as early as the second king of the Eighteenth Dynasty (about B.C. 1500), till it was merged in the Julian year by Augustus (b.c. 24). The neglect of the quarter of a day would of course, as in the Roman cal- endar before the Julian reform, have caused the year to retire through the seasons. But its division into three seasons of four months each seems to prove that they also used a " Tropical Year," that is, one whose length was regulated by the recurrence of the seasons. The three seasons were called by names which the best authorities interpret as signifying those of "Vegetation," "Manifestation," and the "Waters" or "Inundation." The months were named after the different deities. The year of 365^ days, Avhich seems to have been the nearest approximation they made to the true length of the year, was determined by the heliacal rising of Thoth or Soth (the Dog Star), and hence w^as called the "Sothic Year." The interval between two coincidences of the Vague and Sothic years was 1461 of the former and 14G0 of the latter. This was called the "Sothic, or Dog Star C\'cle," and is a period of the greatest importance in Egyptian chronology. The ancient writers mention two Sothic epochs, tlie one called the era of Menophres (the Men-ptah of the monuments), on July 20th, u.c. 1322, probably near the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and the other on July 20th, a.d. 139, in the reign of Antoninus Pius. There seems to have been also a "Tropical Cycle," at the end of which the Vague and Tropical years coincided, consisting of about 1500 Vague years ; but our information on this point is scanty and uncertain. Suppos- ing that the Tropical cycle began with the Vague year in which the new moon fell at or near the vernal equinox, w'e obtain two such epochs, namely, Jan. 7, B.C. 2005, in the reign of Amenemha II., of the Twelfth Dynasty ; and Dec. 28, n.c. 507, under Darius Hystaspis. Equallv im- portant and difficult is the "Phoenix Cycle," to which Herodotus alludes in his celebrated fable of the phcenix. From the astronomical ceiling of the Kameseum (formerly called the Memnonium) at El-Kurneh, we learn that this fabled bird was a constellation, "the Phcenix of Osiris," corre- sponding probably to the constellation now called Cygnus. Its heliacal rising on tlie first day of the Vague year seems to have marked the com- mencement of a Phcenix cycle, which would therefore be of the same length as the Sothic cycle, namely, 1400 Julian, or 1461 Vague years, the very interval which Tacitus assigns to the successive returns of the pha'uix. Tacitus also places the recurrences of the cycle in the reigns of Sesostris (probably Sescrtesen III.), Anuisis, and Ptolemy III. ; and Mr. Poole has shown that the two latter known dates agree fairly well with those calcu- lated approxinuitely from the Kameseum. These epochs may be 7uore accurately deduced from the " Great Panegyrical Year," an Egvptian cycle, four of whith made up 1461 Julian years, having a mean length of 365 i Juliau years, and made up of 364^ and 366 such years alternately. If the Phoenix cycle corresponded exactly with the Panegyrical, it must NOTE ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 107 have consisted of 1461 Julian (instead of Vague) years. The Great Panegyrical Month contained 30 Julian years, and the Year was made up by intercalating 4^ or 6 years alternately. From these data Mr. Poole has calculated the following chronological epochs : B.C. 2717. Era of Menes, the first king of Egypt. First Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 364^ years. 2352. Time of Suphis I. and II., kings of the Fourth Dynasty. Second Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 366 years. 1986. Time of Sesertesen IIL, fourth king of the Twelftli Dynasty. Third Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 364^ years. First Phoenix Cycle. 1622. Fourth Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 366 years. 1256. Fifth Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 364| years. 891. Sixth Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 366 years. 525. In the reign of Amasis, of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Seventh Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 364^ years. Second Phoenix Cycle. 161. In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor. Eighth Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 366 years. A.D. 205. In the reign of Septimius Severua. Ninth Great Panegyrical Year. Length, 364^ years. Mr. Poole also gives the following table of epochs mentioned on the monuments, with their probable dates : B.C. 2352. Second Panegyrical Year. Time of Suphis I. and II., kings of the Fourth Dynasty, and builders of the Great Pyramid. 2005. First Tropical Cycle. Time of Amenemha II. Twelfth Dynasty. 1472-1. Date in the fourth year of Sethee. Eighteenth Dynasty. 1442. Date in the sixteenth year of Queen Amen-nunt. Eighteenth Dynasty. 1412. Date in the thirty-third year of Thothmes III. Eighteenth Dynasty. 591. Date in the reign of Psammetichus II. Twenty-sixth Dynasty. 561. Date in the reign of Amasis. Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The accession of the Eighteenth Dynasty is fixed, with a high degree of probability, about B.C. 1525. Different opinions are held as to the cor- respondence of this epoch with the Exodus ; some chronologers placing it about the same time, others (as Mr. Poole) as much as 125 years earlier, and others (as the Rabbis and Lepsius) 200 years later. Unfortunately it is impossible to settle this epoch independently, as a point in Scripture chronology. The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that there had been 341 genera tions, both of kings and of high-priests, from Menes to Sethos (the succes- sor of the Ethiopian Tirhaka). This he calculates as 11,340 years. He adds that, during this period, the sun had " twice risen where he now sets, and twice set where he now rises." This apparently absurd statement is explained by Mr. Poole as referring to " the solar risings of stars having fallen on those days of the Vague year on which the settings fell in the time of Sethos " {Horce. ^gyptiacoe, p. 94). 108 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF EGYPT FROM THE SHEPHERD INVASION TO THE FINAL CONQUEST BY PERSIA. B.C. 2080? TO B.C. 353. " High on his car Sesostris struck my view, Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew : His hands *a bow and pointed javelin hold; His giant limbs arc arm'd in scales of gold. JJetween the statues Obelisks were placed, And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics graced."— Pope. , THE SHEPHEKD KINGS, OR HTKSOS, THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH DYNASTIES OF MANETHO— THEIR CONNEXION WITH THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY — QUESTION OF THE EXODUS CONNEXION OF EGYPT WITH GREECE — EXPULSION OP THE SHEPHERDS — UNION OF EGYPT — THE CITY OF THEBES— TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH DYNASTIES— EIGHTEENTH AND NINE- TEENTH, THE CLIMAX or EGYPTIAN POWER AND ART — EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY : THE THOTH- MES — AMENOPH III. — THE VOCAL MEMMON — THE SUN-WORSHIPPERS — NINETEENTH DYNASTY : SETHEE I. — RAMESES II. — " SESOSTRIS " — ASIATIC CONQUESTS— STEL^ — TEMPLES AT THEBES AND MEMPHIS, AND IN ETHIOPIA— COLOSSAL STATUES — MEN-PTAH — TWENTIETH DYNASTY: EAMESES III. — DECLINE OP THE KINGDOM— TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY AT TANIS — SEMITIC IN- FLUENCE IN EGYPT — TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY AT BUBASTIS— ASSYRIANS — SHISHAK AND REHOBOAM — ZERAH THE CUSUITE — TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY AT TANIS — OBSCURITY AND DE- CLINE—TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY — BOCCHORIS THE WISE — TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY, OF ETHIOPIANS — THE SABACOS AND TIRHAKAH — HOSHEA, KING OF ISRAEL — SENNACHERIB AND HEZEKIAH — LEGEND OF THE PRIEST SETHOS- THE DODECARCHY — TWENTY-SIXTH DY- NASTY AT SAJiS — rSAMMETICHUS I. — GREEK MERCENARIES — SIEGE OF ASHDOD — SECESSION OP THE SOLDIERS— NEKO OR PHARAOH-NECHO— WAR WITH NEBUCHADNEZZAR — DEATH OP JOSIAH — CIRCUMNAVIGATION OP AFRICA — NEKO's CANAL — PSAMMETICHUS 11.- — APRIES OB PHARAOU-HOPHRA — NEBUCHADNEZZAR IN EGYPT — WAR WITH CYRENE — REVOLT OF THE ARMY — DEATH OF APRIES — REIGN OP AAHMES II. OR AMASIS — HIS MONUMENTS — HIS CHARAC- TER AND HABITS — INTERNAL PROSPERITY — INTERCOURSE WITH GREECE — PSAMMENITUS — CONQUEST OF EGYPT BY CAMBYSES — THE TWENTY-SEVENTH, OR PERSIAN DYNASTY — REVOLT OF INARUS AND AMYRT/EUS — EGYPT AGAIN INDEPENDENT — TWENTY-NINTH AND THIRTIETH DYNASTIES— THE NECTANEBOS, ETC. — FINAL PEKSIAN CONQUEST — ALEX.VNDER AND THB PLOLEHIES. The rule of the Shepherd Kings, by whom the Memphian and other kingdoms were overthrown, is donbly interesting from its probable connexion with sacred history. Unfortunately, however, its annals are as obscure as the Scripture history itself is rendered by chronological difficulties, and by the constant use of the title Pharaoli, without the proper names of the respective kings. The dynasties of the Ilyksos,* or Shepherd Kings, are the Fifteenth^ * This, their Egyptian name, is derived by Manetho from //i/A-, a king, and Sos, a fthephcrd. The latter word exists in Coptic. In the hieroglyphics Hah is Mng^ and //«A-, captive, a sense which Manetho also mentions. This ctj-mology has helped to favour the now exploded opinion that these "captive-shepherds" were the Israelites. Bat the Egyptians used captive as a term of contempt for foreigners ; so that the word may mean " foreign shepherds." B.C. 2080?] THE SHEPHERD KINGS. 109 Sixteenth, and Seventeenth. Manetho says that they were Arabs ; but he calls the six kings of the Fifteenth, or First Shepherd Dynasty, Phoenicians. This statement is adopted by Mr. Poole, who connects the invasion of the Shepherds with the great move- ment of the Phoenicians from the shores of the Erythraean Sea, and with the expedition of Chedorlaomer. Manetho says that they took Memphis, and founded a city in the Sethroite nome (probably the fortified camp of Avaris, the later Pelusium, on the eastern frontier), whence they conquered all Egypt. The primary object of this camp, was to resist the Assyrians, from whom, Manetho tells us, they expected an invasion. He adds that they easily gained possession of the country without a battle, which has been explained by the hypothesis that they were brought in as auxiliaries or mercenaries, in contests between the native dynasties; perhaps to aid the Memphians against the Thebans. Mr. Poole supposes them to have been at first in a subordinate position, and on friendly terms with some of the Egyptian kings, so that their rule in Lower and part of Upper Egypt was not inconsistent with that of the Twelfth and Thir- teenth Dynasties at Thebes. It was not, he thinks, till the close of the latter dynasty, that the Shepherds began that oppressive rule which made them hateful to the Eg}^3tians, and so provoked their expulsion. ' The first king of the Fifteenth Dynasty was Salatis or Saites (about B. c. 2080 ?), who ruled at Memphis, and made both Upper and Lower Egypt tributary ; Mr. Poole assigns Abraham's visit to Egypt to about the beginning of his reign. The name of his fourth successor is found on the hieroglyphics as Assa ; and this is the king to whom Joseph was prime minister, according to Mr. Poole's computations. It is impossible to discuss here the various opinions held upon this most difficult and as yet undecided question. Its settlement on purely chronological grounds is forbidden by the difficulties in which both Egyptian and Scriptural chronology are involved ; and it is necessary to draw other arguments from the state of Egyptian aftairs as described in the book of Genesis. The chronology of Egypt is now so far settled, that the accession of the Eighteenth (Theban) Dynasty may be regarded as fixed to within a few years of b. c. 1525. The era of the Exodus, on the system of Ussher (that given in the margin of our English Bibles), is b. c. 1491. The obvious conclusion agrees with the statement of Manetho, according to Julius Africanus, that Moses 110 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. left Egypt under tlie first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, whose name was Amos or Amosis.* The same king, according to Josephus (who calls him Tethmosis), expelled the Shepherd Kings; and there is, in fact, no doubt that the great power of the Eigliteenth Dynasty was connected with their expulsion. In this change of dynasty many writers see a natural explanation of the " new king who knew not Joseph." Sir Gardner Wilkinson, for instance, supposes that the Israelites held their possessions in Goshen under the Memphian kings on the condition of certain service, but that the conquering Theban dynasty paid no respect to the agreement, and converted the fixed service into a cruel bondage. The same distinguished writer, following the received Scriptural chronology, assigned the exodus to the fourth year of Thothmcs III., the fifth and greatest king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, arguing that there is no explicit statement of the death of Pharaoh himself in the Eed Sea.f So far from finding any difiiculty in the blow which must have been inflicted on Egypt, first by the plagues, and then by the loss of its army, he A^iewed the departure of the Israelites as leaving the king free to make new conquests ! It is hard to believe that, in such a sense as this, "Egypt was glad when they departed." Lepsius places the arrival of the Israelites under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the exodus under the Nineteenth. Passing over as hardly worthy of notice the opposite extreme, of placing the exodus before the Shepherd invasion, we must give a brief account of Mr. Poole's theory. For reasons which we cannot stay to mention, he rejects the very corner-stone of the received chronology, namely, the period of 480 years from the exodus to the building of Solomon's temple, and places the exodus in the year b. c. 1652. This date is founded chiefly on the numbers given in the Book of Judges, combined with the state- ment of St. Paul, that the rule of the Judges lasted about 450 years, and confirmed by an ingenious argument from technical chronology and some minor proofs. Then, assigning 215 years to the sojourn in Egypt, he brings the migration of Israel to B. c. 1867, and the government of Joseph to b. c. 1876. All these * According to the Armenian version of the Chronicon of Euscbius, Moses led the Jews out of Eji.vpt under Achencheres, the ninth king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The former statement may rather refer to tlie flight of Moses than to the Exodus. f In his Essay on Egyptian History, however, in Rawlinson's Herodotus (book ii. app. ii. ch. viii. ; vol. ii. p. 308), Wilkinson says : " It is probable that the exodus took place in the reign of rtathmen," the son of Rameses II., a king of the Nineteenth Dy- nasty, which is the date of the Rabbins and Lepsius. B.C. 1652?] DATE OF THE EXODUS. Ill dates fall within the dynasties of the Shepherds, whom we may easily believe to have been Egyptianized enough to account for the indications given in Scripture of Egyptian customs and religious usages. On the other hand, Mr. Poole argues that many points of thenarrative are quite irreconcilable with the idea that the Pharaohs of this period were native Egyptians. Such are their cordial recep- tion of foreigners, whom the Egyptians despised and hated ; and the pure despotism of Joseph's Pharaoh, whose will is law, and who reduces the Egyptians to serfdom, while the native monarchs were restrained by law, and set a high value on the attachment of their subjects. In the fear lest the Israelites should join their enemies in some expected war, Mr.. Poole finds an allusion to the rival Assyrian dynasty or to the growing power of the native Theban kings. The rise of the new king who knew not Joseph he explains by the fact that there were different dynasties of Shepherds. Besides the Fifteenth, under whom Joseph is supposed to have lived, and who were probably Phoenicians, the Sixteenth seem to have established themselves on the eastern frontier about the same time; and it is agreed that they were an Assyrian race. Assyi'ian names occur in the Turin list of kings, and the prophet Isaiah uses this remarkable expression, "My people went down aforetime into Egypt, to sojourn there, and the Assyrian opj)ressed them without cause."* Now we are distinctly told that the first king of the Fifteenth Dynasty fortified his frontier against the Assyrians, who would seem at length to have taken Memphis, and founded there the Sixteenth Dynasty. Such, omitting minor and more doubtful points, is the present state of this great question, so interesting to every student of the Bible. The internal evidence seems very evenly balanced. The former view has ancient tradition on its side, and the highly ingenious arguments on which the latter rests would tidl at once to the ground if the key-stone of the received chronology could be maintained, a conclusion for which there is much to be said. The uncertainty in which we are obliged fo leave the subject gives one of those striking lessons of which ancient, and especially sacred, history is full, — that we may well be content to have the great events of history preserved for us in that broad * Isaiah Hi. 4. This is quoted as a part of Mr. Poole's argument ; but certainly it seems more natural to understand the prophet as speaking of two parallel events in the history of Israel, the Egyptian bondage, and the captivity of the Ten Tribes by the Assyrians, the latter a contemporary event. 113 rUE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VII. outline wliich compels us to regard them in their great moral significance, Avithout being Buffered to fritter away our atten- tion on unprofitable details. The Pharaohs of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, are simply "Pharaohs" after all, unnamed rulers of the land of bondage, and our chief concern is with the race to whom they were made the instruments of God's designs.* "We need not be surprised at the absence from the monuments of any record of the sojourn or departure of the Israelites, for the scenes of brick-making at Thebes, already noticed, can hardly refer to them, as their residence was in Lower Egypt. In any case, we ^ should not expect such events as the elevation of a foreign viceroy, or the calamities of the exodus, to be depicted on the national monuments. But besides, the whole period of the Shepherd Kings is singularly barren of monumental records, an argument, 80 for as it goes, in favor of Mr. Poole's view. Of the Shepherd Kings themselves, we have only further to say, that at the close of the Fifteenth Dynasty the native Memphian kings seem to have recovered their power for a time, forming the S¢h and Eighth Dynasties of Manetho, whose accession Mr. Poole places about the time of Joseph's death. They were succeeded about b. c. 1680, by the Shepherd Kings of the Seven- teenth Dynasty, whom the copyists of Manetho confuse with the Fifteenth, and erroneously represent as consisting partly of Shep- herds and partly of Thebans. The whole relations of these Shepherd Kings to Egypt concur with the monuments of preceding and later rulers to show how closely the Egyptian monarchy was concerned with the Semitic races of Western Asia. But other most interesting relations, namely with Europe, now come into view. The land of Geeece, whose brilliant his- tory seems to wait till we can emerge from the obscurer annals of the East, now begins to loom across the waters of the Mediterranean. Her earliest traditions point to Egj-pt and Phoenicia as the sources of her civilization. "We are not about to recall Cecrops and Cadmus, Danaus and ^gyptus, from the limbo of mythology, to which recent scholarship has consigned them; and yet it is worth while to remember the distinction between what is mythical and what is traditional in the uncertain ages of a nation's history. The poetical tempera- * The whole subject will demand some further notice in the next chapter, in connex- ion with the Egyptian and other traditions about the Exodus. TRADITIONS RESPECTING GREECE. 113 ment of the Greeks so inextricably mingled these two elements, that we have no choice bnt to refer both back to a period before the commencement of trustworthy history. But to affirm as certain the falsehood of these legends, is to convert our want of knowledge into an ignorance more positive than that which was wont to accept them as historic facts. The influence of Egyptian civilization on Gi'eece is shown in her extant works of art, almost as certainly as Phoenician influence is traced in the enduring forms of the alphabet she has transmitted to all Europe. The traditions of Egypt as well as Greece point to the times of the Shepherd Kings and the Eighteenth Dynasty as the period when this influence began ; and it is reasonable to sup- pose that the expulsion of the Shepherds may have driven a wave of mingled Egyptian and Phoenician population to the shores of Greece. It is, to say the least, curious to find " Cecrops the Saite " as the traditional founder of the city of Athena, the god- dess identified by the Greeks with the Egyptian Neith, who was worshipped at Sais, a city which belonged to the Shepherds of the Fifteenth Dynasty. Cadmns, again, the traditional founder of Thebes, is sometimes called an Egyptain, sometimes a Phoenician, and both he and Danaus are represented as leaders of the Shep- herds when they left Egypt, in the curious account of the exodus preserved by Diodorus.* That Egypt had begun to concern her- self in the affairs of the Mediterranean long before the real history of Greece begins, is proved by the representation of a sea-fight with the Cretans and Carians about the end of the thirteenth century b.c. 'Not can we believe that the notices in Herodotus of the intercourse of both Greeks and Trojans with Egypt at the time of the Trojan war are wholly fictitious, though they cannot be accepted as affording the slightest materials for history. On the other hand, when the Greek copyists of Manetho undertake to tell us that the deluge of Deucalion was in the time of Mis- phramuthosis (Thothmes IL), the fourth or fifth king of the Eigh- teenth Dynasty, and that Armais was the Danaus who fled from his brother JEgyptus (Sethosis) and founded Argos, we can only suppose that they are inserting the legends of Hellas at those points in the Egyptian annals most consonant with their own theories of chronology. The Shepherds were at last expelled by the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who had succeeded to the power established * See the following chapter ; and for a full account of these traditions, see Poole, Rorce JEgyptiacm, pp. 185 — 187. VOL. I. S 114 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. at ThcLes Ly those of tlie Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth. Were we writing the history of Egypt for its own sake, rather than in relation to tlie whole world, we should hut have reached the threshold of the subject, for it was under this great line of Thehan kings that the land reached that climax of civilization, art, and conquest, which is recorded on its monuments. Except the pyramids and the tombs around them, those monuments — the vast temples, with their obelisks and sphinxes, the huge colossal statues, and the paintings of life on the tombs of Tliebes— belong almost entirely to the period we arc approaching. From this period, too, the Greeks derived those traditions of Egyptian prowess which they personified in the conqueror Sesostris. To preserve the continuity of the Egyptian history, and to prepare for its connexion with that of the Hebrew and Assyrian monarch- ies, we must follow its annals considerably below the epoch of the exodus. The city of No, Na- Amun, or Amun-hi (the abode of Ammon), a title which the Greeks translated Diospolis (the City of Jove), had the same precedence in Upper, that Memphis had in Lower Egypt. Hence it was called Ap or Ape (the head or capital) ; which became, with the feminine article. Tape, in the Memphian dialect Thape ; whence the Greek TlieboB, and our Tuebes. The accidental coincidence was naturally improved by an assimilation of the legends of the Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes. The Egyp- tian city was fabled to have a hundred gates, eacli capable of send- ing forth an army complete with its chariots. Thebes stood about 420 miles above Ileliopolis, and 125 below Ele])liantine, by the river. Its original site appears to have been on the right or east- ern bank ; but great buildings, including the necropolis, were erected in what was called the " Libyan suburb," on the western side ; extending up to, and he^\^l into, the Libyan mountain. The ruins of the city and suburb cover a space of about two miles from north to south and four from east to west, in which the villages of Karnak and El-Uksor (Luqsor), on the east side, and El-lvurneh and Medinet~Abou on the west, seem lost. Tlie names of these villages serve to describe the positions of the ruins, which for extent and grandeur are the most wonderful in the world. The great traveller, Belzoni, thus records his first impressions on find- ing himself amidst them : — " It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leav- ing the ruins of their tem])les as the only proof of their former existence." In antiquity, Thebes must yield to Abydos, Her- B.C. 2080.] THE TWELFTH DYNASTY AT THEBES. 115 monthis, and other cities of Upper Egypt, wliicli are mentioned on the altar of King Papi, in the Tnrin Museum, on which Thebes itself is not named. The First and Second Dynasties ruled, as we have seen, at This, the later Abydos, about 500 years before Thebes became the capital. Its rise to be the seat of the Eleventh Dynasty was about contemporary with the establishment of the ninth at Heracleopolis ; and its earliest monuments are the tombs of the Enentefs of the Ninth Dynasty, and the vestiges of tem- ples built by Sesertesen and Amenemha I., the first two Kings of the Twelfth Dynasty. Thebes seems to have succeeded to the smaller city of Hermonthis, as Abydos did to This. Of the Eleventh Dynasty ( e.g. 2200 — 2080) we have already spoken. It ends with Amenemha I., and the Twelfth begins with his son and co-regent, Sesertesen (or Osirtasen) I., the first great Egyptian conqueror. In his name we trace the Sesostris of the Greeks. But the identification goes little beyond the name ; for we should seek in vain for any Egyptian king whose personal his- tory answers to tlie exploits related of Sesostris. Under such names as Sesostris and Serairamis the Greeks were accustomed to gather into one the stories told them of several kings and queens ; just as the romance and ballad writers of the middle ages dealt with the names of Arthur and Charlemagne, Coeur-de-Lion and Robin Hood. Passing over Amenemha II., in whose reign we have seen that a tropical cycle began (b.c. 2005), and Sesertesen II., we come to Sesertesen III., who has perhaps the best claim to be the personal type of Sesostris, as Sethos and Rameses II., of the Nine- teenth fabled Dynasty, most nearly answer to the greatest exploits of that monarch. The only example of the deification of a de- ceased Egyptian king in early times is in the worship which we see on the monuments paid to Sesertesen HI. by his successors of the Eighteenth Dynasty ; and this may explain Manetho's state- ment, that Sesostris was placed by the Egyptians, next after Osiris, the youngest of the gods. The first Phoenix cycle commenced during his reign, b.c. 1986. In his successor, Amenemha III., we may probably trace the Mceris of the Greeks, as his praenomen bears some resemblance to that name, and he is said by Manetho to have built the labyrinth in the Arsinoite nome (the Faioum) for his tomb, and his name has been discovered on its ruins.* Another great work which bears his name is the lake Mceris, in the same nome, the improvement of which, for the purpose of regu- * Herodotus erroneously a.ssigns it to the twelve kings who reigned before Psam- metichus. 116 THE HISTORY OF EG^TT. [Chap. VH. lating the inuiidatioE, was proLably u work of the Twelfth Dynas- ty. The Greeks seem, liowever, to liavc used the name of Mceris ahnost as vaguely as Sesostris. Herodotus assigns a date to Mceris, nine hundred years before his own time, that is, about 1355 u.c. This is quite inconsistent with the time of Amenemha III., but it agrees very nearly with the era of Menophres (b.c. 1322), which is one of the fixed points of Egyptian chronology ; so that Menophres would be a Moiris. There remain three kings and a queen of no imi)ortance. The dynasty lasted about 160 years. Tlie conquest of Ethiopia is assigned to the kings of this dynasty, who built a fortress in that country at Samneh, as well as the city of Abydos, in place of Tliis, in Upper Egypt. Among the fragments of their monuments in the Uritish Museum, is a mutilated wooden statue of King An. The Thirteenth, which began about b.c. 1920, fills uj) the interval of 400 years to the accession of the Eighteenth. They were probably tributary to the Shepherd Kings, but extended their power into Ethiopia.* The Thirteenth Dynasty was succeeded at Thebes by the Eighteenth (about e.g. 1525), and this by the Nineteenth (about B.C. 1340). Under these two dynasties Egypt reached her climax of power and splendour. The Tiventieih Dynasty (about b.c. 1 220) witnessed the decline of the Tlieban kingdom, though with a tem- porary revival under Rameses III. Tlie names and nimibers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties are evidently confused by the copyists of Manetho ; but the splendid monuments of these kings supply more accurate information. It is, in fact, on the temples and other great edifices that the political history of Egypt is inscribed, M'hile the pictures in the tombs exhibit the common life of the Egyptians. They are arranged by Mr. Poole in three divisions : — first nine sovereigns of the Eighteenth Dynasty ; then five of an intrusive race, probably contemporary with some of the former ; and finally, eight more, including the last of the Eigh- teenth Dynasty and the seven of the Kineteenth. We give the names of these kings as they are read on the monuments. Aah-mes (Amos or Amosis), the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, seems to have expelled the Shepherds from the greater part of Egyi)t, and to have imposed tribute on Ethiopia. The quaiTies contain records of temples built by him both at Thebes * The Fourteenth Dynasty, of 76 kings, is said by Manetho to have reigned at Xois, in the north of the Delta, for 184 or 484 years. This seems to have been a petty local kingdom, tributary first to the Memphites, and afterwards to the Shepherds, and ultimate- ly swallowed up in the rule of the Eighteenth Dvnastv. B.C. 1525— 1340 ? ] THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. 117 and Memj^his ; and an inscription in the tomb of a chief manner who served him proves that Egypt was now becoming a maritime power. In his reign, too, we first see on the monuments those chariots and horses which are so conspicuous in the military history of Egypt. They were doubtless introduced from Asia.* His successors extended the rule of Egypt over Ethiopia to the south, and as far as Mesopotamia to the north-east, and built the temple of Amen-ra (now known by the name of Karnak) and other great edifices at Thebes. Egypt now obtained the empire of TVestern Asia, formerly held by the Chaklgeans. It has caused surprise that we have no record of the collisions into which these conquests would naturally have brought the Pharaohs with the Israelites, either in the Scripture history or on the monuments of Egypt, and this has been used as an argument for the later date of the exodus. But as the march of armies between Egypt and Assyria doubtless lay, as we know it to have lain later, along the maritime plain of Philistia and the valley of Coele-Syria, we may well believe that the Egyptian conquerors left the hills and valleys of Palestine to be fought for by the Israelites and the old inhabi- tants. That, in fact, they made no conquests in the country, ex- cept in the maritime plain, is proved by the occurrence of Philis- tine names, and such names only, on their monuments. But the absence of any record does not exclude the possibility of their having passed through the country and exacted tribute. Of the four kings bearing the name of Thothmes, the third seems to have been the greatest monarch of the dynasty. He began his reign by shaking off the control of the queen Amen-nunt, whose power is attested by the obelisks she set up in front of the temple of Amen-ra, and who appears to have been a foreigner, perhaps one of the queens to whom the Greeks gave the name Semiramis. Manetho ascribes to Thothmes III. (Mephramuthosis) the expul- sion of the Shepherd Kjngs from all Egypt except Avaris, and he seems to have carried his conquests as far as Nineveh. He erected many great works of art at Thebes, and his time is peculiarly rich in those tomb-paintings which reveal to us the private life of the Egyptians. Our Museum possesses the head and arm of his colossal statue in red granite, found at Karnak by Belzoni. In the reign of his grandson, Thothmes IV., the Shepherd Kings are said by Manetho to have finally left Egypt under a capitulation. Three others of these kings bore the name Amenoph, from which the Memnon of the Greeks is undoubtedly derived, though, * This is an incidental argumeut for the later date of the exodus. 118 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. as in the case of Sesostris, we sliould in vain attempt to trace in the legends of Menmon the liistory of either of the Egyptian Amcnophs. The Greeks themselves recognized their Menmon more particuhirly in Amenoph III. (the Amenoijhis of Manetho), one of the latest kings of the dynasty. One of the two colossal statues of Ameno])!! III., seated in front of the great temple whicli he Luilt in the western suburb of Tliebes, was the celebrated " vucal Menmon." These statues are of breccia, 47 feet high, and 53 above tlie plain, with the pedestals. The one in question was broken in half in ancient times (perhaps by Cambyses), and repaired with several layers of sandstone. The British Museum possesses a very perfect and beautiful copy of the vocal Memuon, which was found near it, a colossal statue in black breccia, 9 ft. 6 in. high, besides also another smaller copy. In the Greek my- thology, Memnon was the son of tlie Morning ; and it was said that his statue, on the Libyan plains of Thebes, greeted the first beams of the rising sun by uttering a musical note as from a harp-string. The statue itself, which still occupies its throne, bearing on its back the name of Amenoph, with the title of " Pkra (the Sun, equivalent to Pharaoh), lord of Truth," is inscribed with the attes- tations of persons who had heard the sound. The explanation of the mystery was reserved for this age of hard science. Sir Gard- ner "Wilkinson found in the lap of the colossus a stone whicli, on being struck with a hammer, emitted a metallic sound, such that tlie peasants, whom he had placed to listen below, said, " You are striking brass ; " a fact the more remarkable, as Strabo, who heard the sound, says it seemed to him like the effect of a slight blow. A priest might easily have been concealed in the position occupied by "Wilkinson ; and thus we find the same spirit of priestcraft 3000 years ago pi-ompting to devices, which have their parallel in the blood of St. Januarius and the winking Madonnas of our own age.* The temple, in front of which these two colossi stood with other statues and obelisks leading up to it, is now a heap * It is but fair to mention that so high an authority as Mr. Poole still prefers to seek an explanation in natural causes. Humboldt tells us of rocks from the creyices of which the heated air rushes with a sort of musical sound ; and the author has observed the same thing in slightly porous earthenware. But even if this explanation were true of the stone of the statue, when really heated by the sun, it would not explain the sound at the moment ofsu7irise, before the stone had time to become hot. Mr. Poole's objection, that " such a deception could hardly have been carried on so long without detection," is answered by the whole history of similar impostures, especially when we remember — what is the juggler's stronghold — the willingness of an admiring observer to be deceived. B.C. 1340 ? ] THE SUN WORSHIPPERS IN EGYPT. ^19 of ruins, having probably been destroyed by Cambyses ; and the two colossi alone remain standing. Behind them were found two other colossal heads of Amenoph III., now in the British Museum, which also possesses a third, more mutilated. In these the face is remarkable for lips much thicker than the ordinary Egyptian type, an indication which one is tempted to connect with the Ethiopian origin ascribed to Memnon by Homer ; but the early Greeks seem to have applied the name of Ethiopia to Upper Egypt.* The temple of El Uksor (Luqsor), on the east of the Nile, was begun by Amenoph III. and enlarged by Rameses XL, who shares with Amenoph the fame of the traditional Memnon. A tablet found at Samneh, recording the conquests of Amenoph in Ethiopia, is now in the British Museum. Amenoph III. was succeeded by his son, Hor-em-heb, (the Orus or Horus of Manetho), of wdiom we know little beyond the record, at Silsilis {Jebel-es-Selseleh)^ of a successful expedition against some negro tribes. Among his works of art was an ave- nue of colossal crio-sphinxesf in front of the great temple at Karnak. One of the rams' heads may be seen in the British Museum, which also possesses two granite statues of King Horus. His reign marks the epoch of a curious episode in Egyptian history. Between him and Rameses I., who was undoubtedly his son and successor, the lists of Manetho give the names of five kings, who appear to be foreign intruders ; and Eusebius says that, " in the reign of Amenophis, the Ethiopians, migrating from the river In- dus, came and dwelt near to Egypt." The monuments of these rulers still exist, though greatly defaced, doubtless by the political and religious zeal of their successors, and show them to have been worshippers of the sun, and of no other symbol of the Deity. They were probably of the great eastern Cushite race, who were settled from a very early age in the country betwen Persia and India. They seem to have been allied to the royal family of Egypt, perhaps owing to the conquests of Amenoph III., whom Sir Gard- ner Wilkinson supposes to have been, in part at least, of their race, and to have introduced their form of worship. They seem to have been expelled by Horus after a rule of about 30 years. We now approach the grandest period of Egyptian history, the rule of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and the reign of the great Rameses. The first king of that name was the last of the Eigh- * There is also still the question whether, in the original legend, Memnon, the son of the 7norning, may not have been one of the eastern or Asiatic Cushites. \ Figures with the body of a lion and the head of a ram. 120 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VIL teeiith Dynasty, and lii.s reign was short and insignificant ; but he is tlie ].ropcr head of the Nindeenth iJynastij, wliic-h begins (about B.C. 1340, Poole ; 1324, Wilkinson), with his son Sethee I. (or Osiri), the Sethos of Manetho, and, in part, the Sesostris of the Greeks. His reign is marked by one of the finest monuments of Egyptian art, the grand " Hall of Columns " in the temple of Karnak, and by the most splendid tomb among those of the The- ban kino-s. On the outside of the north wall of the former are de- pictcd his exploits in war, the chief of them being the conquest of the Kheeta, or Hittites of the valley of the Orontes. Casts of coloured bas-reliefs of similar subjects, from the tombs of Sethos and other kings of this dynasty, arc in the British Museum, whicb contains also a wooden statue of Sethos, found in his tomb. The Sethenm, a small temple of this king to Amen-Ea, with a chapel to the founder's father, Rameses I., is the northernmost of the ruins at El-Kurneli^ the western suburb of Thebes. The glories of the monarchy culminated in his son, Rameses II. the Great, the chief prototypeof the Greek Sesostris, though it does not appear that his conquests extended so far as those of the Thothmeses and the Ame- nophs. He reigned sixty-six (or sixty-one) years, partly, it Avould seem, in conjunction with his father : his sixty-first year is men- tioned on the monuments. The chief of his wars, depicted on his monuments, and related in a hieratic papyrus, was one against the Hittites.* AVe cannot stay to discuss the far wider conquests as- cribed by Herodotus, Strabo, and others to Sesostris, as far as Scy- thia and Thrace to the north, and by naval expeditions on the Ery- thrsean Sea to the south. The former exploits may refer to tribes near the Caucasus or in Asia Minor, and both seem to describe the widest range attained at any time by the Egyptian arms. A very interesting point in the story of Sesostris in Herodotus relates to the monumental tablets {stelae) he set up among the nations which he conquered. Such a monument is still seen in the face of the rock, on the old road from Sardis to Smyrna, the place named by Herodotus, and very nearly resembling his description. It is a fig- ure wearing a tiara, or high cap, and carrying a bow and spear, with a few rude hieroglyphic marks in one corner of the slab, in which some have found the name of Rameses 11. This reading, however, is by no means certain, the figure is far below the standard of art of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and there are even doubts as to its be- ing Egyptian at all. In Syria, however, on the rocks above the * The batteriug-ram and testudo appear in sieges on the monuments of Rameses II. B.C. 1327—1366 ? ] WORKS OF RAMESES II. 121 mouth of the Lyciis, memorials of this sort are found bearing the name of Rameses II. ; and Strabo mentions a tablet on the shore of the Red Sea recording the conquests of Sesostris over the Troglo- dytie. Rameses showed both magnanimity and humour in his treat- ment of the conquered nations, if we may believe the story of Herod- otus, that the tablets bore male or female emblems according to the resistance he had met with. The latter were set up in the part of Syria, called Palestine, that is, among the Philistines, not the Jews, who are never mentioned on the king's monuments. Herodotus ex- pressly states that Sesostris was king both of Egypt and Etliiopia, and we have abundant proof that the latter country was subject to the kings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. The histo- rian's mention of numerous captives brought home by the conquer- or, to be employed on public works, agrees exactly with the monu- ments of all the great kings of Egypt- The works performed by these captives for Sesostris, he says, were the canals which intersected the whole face of Egypt, and the transport of stones to build the temple of Hephaestus (the Egyptian Ptah). It is likely enough that Rame- ses II. improved the canals, which were for the most part the work of earlier kings, and it is now proved, by inscriptions beside the banks, that he was the original maker of the canal to unite the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The work was resumed by ISTeko, whose names it bears, but it appears never to have been finished. Great remains of his vast buildings still exist, both in Upper and Lower Egypt. He adorned and enlarged the temj^le of Ptah at Memphis, the site of wdiich is marked by a beautiful colossal statue of him in granite, but mutilated and fallen on its fabe."^ Beyond the limits of Upper Egypt he left imperishable memorials in the rock-hewn temples of Abou-Simbel, above the second cata- ract, faced with his colossal statues, the largest in the world ; be- sides other monuments in Nubia. But his greatest works were at Thebes itself. Besides adding to the temples of El-Karnak and El-Uksor, he erected a magnificent temjjle on the western side of the Nile, at the very edge of the desert. This is doubtless the edi- fice described by Diodorus Siculus as the tomb of Osymandyas. It has been called by modern writers the Memnonium, but now more properly the Rameseum. Its ruins, near the village of El- Kurneh, though much defaced, still bear the marks of that real beauty, as well as magnificence, which belongs to the best period * Some idea may be formed of this colossus from the fist, now in the British Museum. Its length, from the wrist to the knuckle of the middle finger, is 32 inches, and its width, across the knuckles, ZOi inches. 123 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. of Egyptian art. For those who have only seen a few fragments exhibited in half-lighted rooms under a cloudy sky, or the well- meant imitation of a temple in a reduced plaster model, can form no idea of the im])ression made even by the ruins of tliesc edifices, wlicn seen in tlie midst of a vast plain, and with the deep shad- ows cast by a southern sun. Only in their proper place can be seen how gracefully the papyrus-stemmed shafts and lotus-leaved or Isis-headed capitals of the pillars blend with the masses they support, or how the whole style harmonizes with the genius of the people and their religion. Our space does not permit a description of an Egyptian temple, with its towering propylaea, its sijacious colonnaded court, its first and second sanctuary supported by many pillars, and its various chambers, the whole approached by ah avenue of obelisks and sphinxes ; and the details would be scarcely intelligible without a plan,* But we must mention the sculptures ojj the walls, from which we learn the stoiy of the family and reign of Rameses, and the astronomical ceiling in one of the chamljers, which forms the most precious monument of Egyptian science. We learn too from Diodorus, that the temple contained a sacred library. In the centre of the great hall are the shattered remains of a colossal statue of Rameses himself, which, when complete, must have been no less than 60 feet high. It was a monolith, carved out of the red granite of Sycne, and M'e might well wonder how it could have been shaped in the quarry, brought more than a hun- dred miles down the river, and drawn from the bank to its place, did we not see the whole process depicted on the monuments, and colossal statues lying still unfinished in the quarries. Nor should we withhold the tribute of just admiration from the skill and per- severance which enabled Belzoni, by his own resoiirces, to trans- port from the Ilameseum to England the colossal bust of Rameses II., which forms the choicest piece of Egyptian sculpture in our Museum. t The expression of the face differs from that of any others we have seen. The expression of calm dignity, with tlie lips curved into a quiet smile, well suits the greatest of the Egyptian kings. And yet it is far from impossible that this " mild-visaged * For this, and for a popular but accurate account of Egyptian anticjuitics in general, Mr. Long's little work remains unrivalled, after all the Egyptian researches of the last thirty years. It formed originally two volumes of the Libnirtj of Entertain- ing KiiowlcJf/c, under the title of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Jfuseu7n. Loud. 1832. 2 vols. 12mo. f The Ercnch expedition under Napoleon had abandoned the attempt after prepar- ing to mutilate the bust for easier transport, as is shown by the hole bored in the shoulder for a charge of gunpowder. B.C. 1320 ? ] THE TWENTIETH DYNASTY. 123 despot " and mighty conqueror may have been the chief oppressor of the Israelites, and the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled into the wilderness, that is, if we were to adopt, after all, the later date of the Exodus. By the side of this bust may be seen the cast of another still larger, but less effective as a portrait, from the colos- sus at Memphis. Among several other statues of Rameses in the Museum is one in wood from his tomb. His most interestiner memorial, however, in an historical point of view, is the " Tablet of Abydos," dedicated by him to the memory of his predecessors, whose names are inscribed upon it in order. This is also in the Britisli Museum. We learn from the wall of the Kameseum, that Rameses II. had twenty-three sons and three daughters. He was succeeded by his thirteenth son, Men-ptah or Ptah-men (the Amenophis or Ameno- phath of Manetho), in whose reign the Exodus is placed according to the Rabbinical date. We shall return to this point in the next chapter. The monuments prove that this was a time of intestine trouble. Siptah, one of the successors of Men-ptah, seems to have been a usurper, and the records of the remaining kings of the Nineteenth Dynasty are in a state of confusion which corresponds to the condition of the country in their time. The Twentieth Dynasty was founded by Sethee II. (the Se- tliosis or Rameses of Manetho), son or grandson of Men-ptah, about B.C. 1220 or B.C. 1232 (Wilkinson). Its third king, Rameses III.,* revived the glory of the Theban kingdom, by victories abroad and sumptuous edifices at home, scarcely inferior to those of Rameses II. Besides a magnificent tomb and a royal residence, he built the splendid temple of Medinet-Habou, in the western suburb of Thebes, on the walls of which are depicted his vic- tories over the Philistines, and over the " Rebu " (or Libyans) and other nations. But far more interesting than all the rest is the picture of a great sea-fight against the " Khairetana of the Sea " and the " Tokkaree," whom Egyptologers identify with the Cre- tans and the Carians. Thus, about the beginning of the twelfth century b.c, the monuments of Egypt have another point of con- tact with the traditions of the Greeks, which make Crete a great maritime power under the rule of Minos. Rameses III. was suc- ceeded by nine kings bearing the same name, the first four of whom were his sons. They have left no monuments but their tombs. The Theban kingdom seems now to have been broken * He appears to be the Rhampsinitus, of whom Herodotus tells the curious storj about a thief. 124 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH to pieces hy family dissensions, of which tlie priests availed themselves to re-estahlish their power on the ruins of the moimrc'liy. Eameses YIIL, however, made conquests abroad, and added to the temple of Karnak, where his effigy appears with features so marked as to leave no doubt of its being a portrait. llic kings of the Tiventy-Jirst Dynasty (about e.g. 1085) seem to have taken advantage of the decline of the Theban power to revive the ancient kingdom of Lower Egypt, with a new capital, Tanis (Zoan), in the Delta, other cities of which afterwards be- came seats of empire. They ultimately extended their power over Upper Eg}7^t, for three of their names are found at Thebes. These are Amun-sc-pehor, Pionkh, and Pisham, apparently the same as Osochor, Psinaches, and Psucnnes, whom Manetho names as the fifth, sixth, and seventh and last, kings of the dynasty. They bear the double title of " priests" and " commanders of the soldiers," proving that the priestly caste, which was always strongest at the old seats of the national worship in Lower Egypt, had at length wrested the sceptre from their Theban rivals. With all the proofs we possess that, at least from the time of tlie Shepherds, there was a strong Semitic element in the population of Lower Egypt, we are not surprised to find indications of these priest-kings strengthening themselves by matrimonial alliances with Assyrians, to whom the throne was consequently transferred ; for Sheshonkh I., of tlie Twenty-second Dynasty, seems to have married a daughter of Pisham. The same leaning to Semitic alliances may be traced in the marriage of the daughter of one of the later kings of this dynasty to Solomon. A like connexion had been formed with the royal family of Edom, when Hadad, escaping from the slaughter of his house by David, fled to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who gave him the sister of Tahpenes, the queen, in marriage.* How far successful war aided in the establishment of the Assyrian power in the Delta may perhaps be determined when we know more of the cuneiform inscriptions. Tiglath-pileser I. is said to have claimed tlie conquest of Egypt, about 1120 B.C. At all events, it is interesting to observe that we have now reached a point — the epoch of about a thousand years before the Christian era — at which the three great lines of Egyptian, Jewish, and Assyrian history, converge to a common focus. But instead of stopping here, to trace down the two other lines to the same point, it is better to cast a rapid glance at the remaining five centuries of * 2 Samuel viii. 14 ; 1 Kings xi. 15 — 19 ; 1 Chronicles xviii. 11 — 13. B.C. 971.] SHISHAK AND REHOBOAM. 135 tlie history of the Pharaohs, till their overthrow by the Per- sians. The Tvjenty-second Dynasty is placed by Manetho at Bubastis, which seems to show that their power arose at first independently of the Tanite kings ; and Manetho's numbers require the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Dynasties to overlap one another to some extent. Their accession is placed about 1009 or 1008 b.c. That they were of Assyrian or Babylonian race is considered to be proved by their names; and their hostile policy towards the Israelites is in accordance with that of the Assyrian kings. Their names have been discovered by M. Mariette on tablets (stelae) in the temple of Apis at Bubastis. The first king was Sheshonk I. He is the Shishak who sheltered Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon, and who made war upon Rehoboam, took Jerusalem, and pillaged the temple and the king's palace (b.c. 9Y1). The extent of his power in Africa is shown by the mention of the " Lubims, Sukkiims, and Ethiopians " among his forces.* _ As this is the first case in which the Bible mentions a king of Egypt by his proper name f, so it is , also the first in which undoubted mention is made of the Israelites on the Egyptian monuments. The record of the campaign is inscribed on the wall of the temple of Karnak, where, in the long list of Sheshonk's conquests, Champollion first read the name of " Yuda Melchi," that is, the " Kingdom of Judah." If Jeroboam had any share in instigating the expedition, he was fitly rewarded by the treachery of his ally, who appears to have taken several cities from the kingdom of Israel. The invasion of Judaea was a real conquest ; Judah was placed under tribute, and the Jews re- mained the "servants" of Shishak.:}: Sir Gardner Wilkinson observes, that " though the conquests of Sheshonk are paraded in a longer list than those of the older Pharaohs, they were far less extensive, and we look in vain for the remoter names of Carchemish, Naharayn, or the Eot-n-o." The great interest of the record is as the first example of synchronous history. Did we but know what year of Sheshonk's reign corresponds to the fifth of Rehoboam, the synchronism would be complete. Manetho assigns him twenty-one years, and his twenty-first is mentioned on the monuments. N^o events of importance mark the reigns of the later kings of this dynasty, who bore the Assyrian names, several times recurring, of * 2 Chronicles xii. 3—9. f Can it be that the Egyptian names and titles were too uncouth for the Hebrew ear, as Napoleon could never manage the name of Tchichakoff, but called him the Admiral ? J 2 Chronicles xii. 8. 126 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VII. Osorkon, Slieslionk*, and Tiklat, Tiglath, or Takeloth. The last is the okl name of the Tigris, the Iliddekel or DigLa of Scripture f, and the Diglit of Pliny ; and one of the kings who bore it is called on the monuments chief of the Mashoash, an Asiatic people named as enemies of the Egyptians under the Theban Pharaohs. " Zerah the Cushite," who was defeated by Asa, king of Judah, about 941 B.C., may be one of the later Osorkons. He cannot well have been a king of Ethiopia above Egypt, as we have not yet come to the Ethiopian rule in Egypt. Some suppose him to have been an Asiatic Ethiopian. May it be that these Assyrian kings were really, like the later kings of Babylon, of the old Chaldtean race? The Tiocn ty-th ird Dynasty, of Tanite kings, appears tohave been a brancli of the Twenty-second, for their names are equally Assyrian or Chaldiran, Nlmrod occurring more than once. Their accession is placed by Wilkinson about b.c. 818, by Mr. Poole about B.C. 889. The history of Egypt now becomes obscure, and her power appears to wane before the growth of the Assyrian empire. The very mildness of her rule over the Asiatic provinces conquered by the Tlieban kings was unfavourable to their permanent subjuga- ^ tion. Unlike the Assyrian kings, who transplanted the nations they subdued, the Pharaohs seem hardly to have interfered with their internal constitution, content with the fame and spoil of victory, and the payment of tribute. Their yoke was therefore more easily shaken off. The fruits of Sheshonk's victory over the weakened kingdom of Judah were lost by his successors ; and the empire may be considered to have departed from Egypt, though the Ethiopians of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and the Egyptians of the Twenty-sixth made a noble stand against the Assyrians and Babylonians, only, however, to succumb before the power of Persia. To his Ttoenty-fourth Dynasty Manetho assigns only a single king, Bocchoris, sumamed the Wise, a title which he secured by his legislation. His accession is placed by Mr. Poole in b.c. 793, by Sir G. Wilkinson in b.c. Y34. He fixed his capital at Sais. After a reign of six, or forty-four years, more probably the latter, he was dethroned by Sabaco, the Ethiopian, who is said to have burnt him alive, but this seems inconsistent with what we know of the conqueror's character. The Tioenty-fiftli Dynasty is composed of three Ethiopian kings, * The Britisli Museum possesses a statue of Hapi, the Nile-god, dedicated by Sheshouk II. f Genesis ii. 14 ; Daniel x. 4. B.C. 749—705 ? ] THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY. 127 from Kapata {Moimt BarhaT)] Sliebek I. (Sabaco), Sliebek II. (Sebiclius), and Telirak or Tirliakah (Taracus), who reigned forty- four years, about b.c. 749 — 705 (Poole).* This was the second time that Egypt had yielded to a foreign invader, not reckoning the doubtful case of the eighteen Ethiopian kings who, Herodotus was told, were among the predecessors of Sesosti'is. We should under- stand the nature of the conquest more clearly were we better inform- ed of the relations already existing between Egypt and Ethiopia. We have said that the latter country was generally a dependency of the former; and the monuments of the Egyptian kings attest their power over the country south of the first cataract, which was ruled by a viceroy, the Prince of Kesh, or Cush. It is not probable, however, that the dominion of Egypt reached further south than the junction of the Blue River (Astapus) with the Nile. Beyond that point lay the " island " and capital of Meroe, the seat of another great Cushite kingdom, with institutions very like those of Egypt. The worship of Amun was here maintained in all its purity ; and the power of the priests was so supreme that they might at their pleasure bid the king cease to live, and he must obey. The complete social organization of the Ethiopians, whom the Greeks believed to be the justest of mankind, and their remote position, placed them beyond the reach of conquest, except from Egypt ; nor is there any evidence that their own powerful kingdom was ever subjugated to the latter. The furthest point at which we find distinct evidence of Egyptian rule is at Mount Barlml (18° 25' N. lat.), where the monmnents bear the name of Amenoph Ill.f The frontier doubtless varied with the power of the two monarchies, but the region between the first and second cataract, called Dodekaschoenus, or ^Ethiopia ^gypti, now Lower I^Tubia, was always subject to Egypt. But, after the decline of the Theban kings, and during the weakness of their successors in the Delta, we can easily understand that the Ethiopians first absorbed this frontier province, and then entered Egypt, conquering first the Thebaid and then the rest of the land. We might, indeed, imagine that the " prince of Kesh " took advantage of the weakness of the kings of Tanis, to set up a power of his own in Etliiopia and Upper Egypt, but the ancient writers clearly regard the conquerors as really Ethiopians ; and this is * Their accession coincides very nearly with the traditional epoch of the foundation of Rome, B.C. 753. f His name is inscribed on the two colossal lions of red granite from Mount Barkal, brought to England by Lord Prudhoe in 1832, and now in the British Museum. 128 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. confirmed by tlieir names and by the statement tbat they came from Napata. Kindred however in race, customs, and worship, they respected the institutions of the Egj^^tians ; and the chief effect of the conquest was to revive the national energy for a stand against the groAving power of Assyria. There can be little doubt that Shebek II. is tlie So or Sewa, whose alliance with Iloshea, the last king of Israel (about B.C. 725), led to the destruction of that kingdom and the captivity of the Ten Tribes. Pursuing the same policy, with better fortune, his successor Tehrak (Tirhakah) marched to the support of Hezekiah, king of Judah, against Sennacherib, b.c. 710. The brief narrative of Scripture leaves us in doubt whether tlie armies of Egypt and Assyria met in a battle which would have been decisive of the empire of Western Asia. It seems that the encounter was prevented by the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army, which took place in the camp on the frontiers of Egypt, and not — as the hasty reader is apt to think — before Jerusalem. For Sennacharib had contented himself with sending a letter to Hezekiah, from his camp before Libnah, while he marched in person against Tirhakah.* We learn from Herodotus, that the annals of the priests contained a record of the miracle, transposed in time and altered in form, for the sake of glorifying their god Ptah and his priest Sethos.f This priest, said the legend, — became king shortly after the retirement of the Ethiopian dynasty, and alienated the warrior caste by neglect and injury. His sol- diers, therefore, deserted him when " Sanacharib king of the Arabians :j: and Assyi-ians " marched his vast army into Egypt. Assured in a dream of aid from his god, Sethos collected a mob of artisans in place of an army, and marched to meet the invader at Pelusium. During the night, a multitude of field-mice devoured all the quivers and bow-strings of the Assyrians, and the thongs by which they held their shields. Xext morning, the disarmed host fell an easy prey to the Egyptians. In the temple of Ptali at Memphis, Herodotus was shown a statue of Sethos holding a mouse. Doubtless, according to the general order of such legends, the story of the field-mice arose out of the emblem in the statue's hand, the signification of which was then, as now, unkno^^^l. § * 2 Kings xL\, 8—35 ; Isaiah xxxvii. 8—38. f Herodotus, ii. 141. ^ Mr. Rawliiison explains the prominence given to the Arabians by the large Arab clement in the population of Mesopotamia. See Chapter ix. § Wilkinson says it may have been an emblem of fertility. It was used also by the Greeks, who worshipped Apollo Smintheus (from 6o!, a mouse). B.C. 704.] RETIRE^IENT OF THE ETHIOPIANS. 129 Herodotus may very probably have mistaken the priest for a king ; for this Sethos is not mentioned by Manetho, nor is there any room left for him in the consistent chronology which we obtain both from Scriptnre and the Egyptian monuinents. There may be a confusion with Sethos, the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, The names of many priests, which have come down to us on monuments and mummy cases, are the same as those of kings. The silence of the Egj^tian priests to Herodotus about Tirhakah is easily explained by their jealousy of the Ethiopian conquerors ; and their story that Sabaco, after reigning fifty years (the whole duration of the Dynasty), withdrew of his own accord rather than commit an act of cruel sacrilege against the Egyptian priests, to which he had been prompted in a dream, is an inven- tion to glorify their order. Such instances are important tests of the value of the information supplied to Herodotus by the priests. Tirhakah's own monmnents, in Egypt and Ethiopia, especially at Jebel-Bar'Jcal, the ancient Napata, attest his piety and his warlike prowess ; and upon them we see Assyrian captives in their national dress. He would naturally avail himself of the catastrophe of Sennacherib to extend his dominion over Western Asia, and some Greek writers even carry him into Europe like Sesostris, and with equal improbability. Tirhakah reigned about twenty years (b.c. 723 — 704). The recent discovery, that Psammetichus married the daughter of an Ethiopian king, named Pionkhi, who reigned at ISTapata, helps to account for the retirement of the Ethiopians, by confirming the supposition that princes of the former dynasties, and other petty chieftains, exercised some power in the Delta dm-ing the foreign wars of Tirhakah. Thus we may account for Herodotus's story of the blind king Anysis* (not named by Manetho), who fled into the marshes from before Sabaco, but was * The confusion in the order of the Egyptian kings named by Herodotus is easily accounted for. He had two distinct lists shown him, of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt ; and from these he selected what seemed to him the most interesting events, which he describes under the respective kings, without regard to the distinction bet^veen the two lines, or to the exact order of succession in each. The kings of each line named by him (besides the queen Nitocris), are Thinites and Thehans. 1. Menes. (Dyn. I.) •2. Moeris. (Dyn. XII. ?) 3. Sesostris. (Dyn. XII.— XIX.) 4. Pheron. 5. Rhampsinitus. (Dyn. XX.) Memphites, Ta7iiles, d'c. 1. Cheops. (Dyn. IV.) 2. Cephren. (Dto. Y.) 3. Mycerinus. (Djti. IV.) 4. Asychis. (Uncertain.) 5. Anysis. (Dyn. XXIV. ?) In the Memphian list he passes at once from the pjTamid builders to those who were comparatively near his own time. VOL. I. — 9 180 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. Vn. restored after liis departure ; as well as for his mention of the Dodecarchy, or rule of twelve kings in the Delta, before the accession of Psammetichus. Tlie obscure names at the beginning of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty in Manetho may belong to some of these petty princes ; he calls the first of them an Ethiopian. " It may be generally observed," says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, " that whenever the Egyptians represented a blank, or the rule of ignoble kings, we are at liberty to conclude that a foreign dynasty was established in the country ; and if any Egyptian prince exercised authority during the reign of Tirhaka, it must have been in a very secluded part of the marsh lands of the Delta, as the monuments show his rule to have extended over all the principal places in Eg;yi3t. Moreover, the Apis-stelae prove that Psammetichus I. was the sole and independent ruler of Egypt immediately after Tirhaka, without any intermediate king ; and an Apis, bom in the twenty-sixth year of Tirhaka, died in the twenty-first year of Psammetichus ; the reign of Tirhaka having continued only ten months and four days after the birth of that biill." * He adds, however, the most important note: — "This does not positively prove that no kings intervened between Tirhaka and Psammetichus I., as the latter may have included their short reigns in their own : and Sir Henry Kawlinson has discovered the names of the twenty native rulers who were appointed by the Assyrian king, Esar- haddon, to govern Egypt at this time." f All this agrees with the rapidity with which the Assyrian monarchy under Esarhad- don retrieved the disaster of Sennacherib." :}: The Twenty-sixth Dynasty^ of Saite kings, begins "virtually with PsA]MATiK or Psammetichus I., whose accession is fixed by the stelae in the Museum at Florence, to b.c. 664, a date at which Eo-vptian chronology becomes at length certain and straight- forward. This, too, is the epoch of Egyptian histoiy from which Herodotus assures us that he begins to speak, no longer from the authority of the Egyptians only, but of others who agreed with them, and in part from what he had himself seen. § Nevertheless his story of the accession of Psammetichus has quite a legendary character. This prince was the son of Neko (the Nechao I. of Manetho's Twenty-sixth D}Tiasty), who was put to death by * Essay on Egyptian History, in Rawlinson's Iferoefoitw, Appendix to Book II. chap- ter viii. § 3'2 ; vol. ii. p. 319, '2nd edition, f See Atlvcnceum, August 18, 1860, p. 228. X See below, chapter ix. § Herodotus, ii. 147. B.C. 664.] ACCESSION OF PSAMMETICHUS I. 131 Sabaco the Ethiopian, Psammetichus himself escaping to Syria. Returning to Sa'is, after the withdrawal of the Ethiopians, he became one of the Twelve Kings,* who divided Eg}^t among them, and strengthened their confederacy by intermaniages and by meeting to sacrifice in the temple of Ptah at Memphis. An oracle had declared, that whichsoever of them should pour his libation to the god from a bronze cup would be the sole ruler of all Egypt. Now, on the last day of a great festival, when the high priest had brought out the golden goblets for the princes, there were found to be only eleven. Psammetichus, who happened to stand last, poured out his libation from his helmet, and so fulfilled the oracle.f By the jealousy of his colleagues, he was driven from his government into the marshes, and forbidden to hold inter- course with his countrymen. Enquiring again of the oracle of the goddess Buto (Latona), he was told, that "Vengeance should come from the sea, when hrascn men should appear." The strange prediction was soon fulfilled by the landing of certain Carians and lonians, pirates, driven to the shores of Egypt by stress of weather. News was brought to Psammetichus that hrazen men, had come from, the sea^ and were plundering the land. He at once engaged them in his service, and conquered his eleven competitors by their aid. The important fact embodied in this legend is the engagement of Greek mercenaries by Psammetichus to secure his title to the crown. Foreign auxiliaries had long been employed in the armies of Egypt, and Cretans (probably) appear among the forces of the Theban kings. We cannot believe that those engaged by Psammetichus were a wandering band, thrown by accident on the coast. The states of Greece, especially on the shores and islands of Asia Minor, were now at that period of transition when the tyrants were setting up their power on the weakness of con- tending factions. Numerous exiles were driven forth to seek subsistence on the sea, and were ready to accept foreign service. In such auxiliaries Psammetichus probably saw the means at once of securing the throne and of forming an army to protect the country against her rival of Assyria. Besides the lonians and Carians mentioned by Herodotus, he engaged Phcenician sailors. His policy was at first successful, and his foreign mercenaries * Probably governors of the twelve nomes of the Delta. The historian's incidental memorial of the Labyrinth, near lake Moeris, as their common monument, is a mistake. The ruins, which scarcely justify his excessive admiration, bear the names of Amenemha III., of the Twelfth Dynasty, and of Rameses II. f If the story represents an actual occurrence, it was probably a trick concerted between Psammetichus and the priests, though Herodotus affirms the contrary. 183 THE HISTOKY OF EGYPT. [Chap. Vn. enabled him to recover the glory of Egypt in war and to enter on the last brilliant period of her history. Ilis chief enterprise was the recovery of the Philistine city of Ashdod (Azotus), the key to the whole frontier, which had been taken by the Assyrians under Sargon, the father of Sen- nacherib, with its garrison of Egyptians and Ethiopians (Isaiah xx). If we are to believe Herodotus, the siege of Ashdod lasted for twenty-nine years, so much had the power of Egypt declined, while the Assyrians had acquired that skill in the attack and defence of fortresses, to which their monuments bear witness. At home the king cultivated the arts of peace, and the monu- ments of his reign show a revival of the skill and beauty displayed under tlie Nineteenth Dynasty. For the first time in Egyptian history foreigners were encouraged to trade with the country, and Psammetichus even caused his subjects to learn Greek. But his dependence on foreign mercenaries brought on the usual punish- ment of such a policy. lie gave his Greek soldiers settlements apart from the Egyptians, which obtained the name of the Ionian and Carian " Camps," on the two banks of the Nile. Mention is also made of the " Camp of the Tyrians," but this may have been an older settlement. Thus the foreigners obtained, to a great extent, the command of the Nile. The favour shown to them alienated the native Egyptian soldiers, already disgusted by4;heir detention in the frontier garrisons. They deserted in a body, marched up the valley to Elephantine, and, being joined by the garrison of that fi'ontier city, crossed over into Ethiopia, to the number, probably exaggerated in Herodotus, of 240,000. Psam- metichus went as far as Elephantine, in the vain hope of inducing them to return ; and the memorial of his journey is still to be seen at Abou-Simbel. They were settled by the Ethiopian king to the south of MeroL', where they long formed a distinct community under the name of the " Deserters." Their departure left the independence of Egypt at the mercy of the foreign troops. Towards the close of this reign occurred the great invasion of Western Asia by the Scythians, of which we shall have to speak hereafter. They had advanced into Palestine on their way to Egypt, when Psammetichus prevailed on them to turn back. After a reign of fifty-four years,* Psammetichus was succeeded by his son Neko, the Nekao II. of Manetho and the Pharaoh- Necho of Scripture (b.c. Gil), The recovery of Ashdod had opened the way to Asiatic conquests, to which the declining power of * Thi3 number is given by Herodotus, and confirmed by the Apis-stelse. B.C. 610.] NEKO, JOSIAH, AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 133 Assyria invited him. Neko's first object was the strengtlieiiing of his frontier by securing the city of Carcheraish on the Euphrates, After an involuntary conflict with the Jews under Josiah, who was killed in battle at Megiddo,* he succeeded in his object, and left a powerful army at Carchemish. On his return he strength- ened his party in Judfea by deposing Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and setting up his brother Jehoiakim, on whom he imposed a large tribute. But this was Egypt's last successful expedition. The new Babylonian kingdom rose on the ruins of the Assyrian, and Nebuchadnezzar at once turned his attention to the western provinces. The Egyptian army at Carchemish was overpowered,t Jerusalem was taken, the king whom Neko had set up became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar, and revolting three years afterwards, was taken prisoner during the siege, and put to death (b.c. 599). The entire prostration of Egypt is shown by Neko's inability to help Jehoiakim, and we are expressly told that " 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 Eu- phrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt,":}: Neko had, however, made good use of the period of his pros- perity. He carried on his father's schemes of foreign commerce, and maintained fleets both in the Mediterranean and the Bed Sea. Herodotus was informed that a fleet sent out by Neko from the Bed Sea came home by the Mediterranean, having accom- plished the circumnavigation of Africa. The voyage occupied three years, the sailors wintering on shore, and staying to sow and reap the harvest. Men of science and critics are never likely to agree as to the truth of this story in the absence of further con- firmatory evidence. The historian's own reason for rejecting it, — that the sailors said they had had the sun on their right hand, at noon, which it would be to persons sailing westward south of the tropics, — is a strong confirmatory argument. Major Bennell has shown how the set of the cuiTents round the African coast would favour the voyage, while they opposed it when attempted by the Carthaginians in the opposite direction. These arguments must not be oveiTated ; but, when they are resisted on the vague ground of general improbability, the question arises, whether the story is likely to have been invented if the enterprise had never * For further particulars of this battle, and of the relations of Jewish politics to Egypt, see chapter viii, \ This was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, B.C. 607 or 606 ; Jeremiah xlvi. 2. X 2 Kings xxiv. 7. 184 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. been achieved. Keko renewed the attempt of Rameses II. to effect a direct communication hutween the two seas bj means of a canal. The work was left uniinished, and its track has remained for nearly twenty -five centuries to tempt the repetition of the effort, till at last the experiment is fairly nnder trial, whether modern en- gineering skill and commercial co-ojjeration can achieve and main- tain a work which was too great for the resources of the Pharaohs. Xeko reigned sixteen years, and was succeeded (b.c. 595) by Psammetichus II., the Psammis of Ilerodotus, who reigned six. Keeping within his own frontier, he was left unmolested by Nebu- chadnezzar, and Egypt seems to have prospered nnder him. He enlarged the temples both at Thebes and in Lower Eg}'pt, and erected a small temple on the frontier, opposite to Philae, prob- ably on the occasion of his expedition into Ethiopia. The con- tinued intercourse of Egypt with Greece is attested by Herod otus's curious story of an embassy from the Eleans, to consult the Egyp- tians on the wisdom of their rules for the Olympic Games.* This king died, immediately after his return fron:i Ethiopia, before he had time to prosecute the war with Babylon, which was renewed by his successor Uaphra, the Yaphres or Apries of Manetho and Herodotus, and the Pharaoh-Hophra of Scripture (b.c. 589). After a brilliant opening, his reign of twenty-five years proved one series of disasters. He made a successful cam- paign into Palestine and Phoenicia, took Sidon, and gained naval victories over the Tyrians and the Cyprians. These successes elated both the Egyptian king and his partisans at Jerusalem ; and in spite of the prophecies of Jeremiah against both, Zedekiah re- belled against Nebuchadnezzar. The advance of Pharaoh-Hophra forced the Chaldaeans to raise the siege of Jerusalem. But the clouds were only lifted for a moment. The city fell, and the temple was razed to the ground. The asylum which Egypt offered to the fugitives was violated by the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, and there seems every reason to believe that he overran Egypt and even took Thebes itself. His victory might not have been so easy, but for new disasters which befell the king of Egypt fi-om the opposite side. Greek colonies, of which we shall have again to speak, had been planted on the beautiful terraces of the penin- sula that sweeps forwards into the Mediterranean, between the Great Syrtis and the Libyan Desert west of Egypt. The entire defeat of an army sent against C\Tene, the chief of these colonies, and consisting apparently of native Egyptian troops, caused the * Herodotus, ii. 160. B.C. 570.] REIGN OP A^IASIS. 135 cry of treachery to be I'aised against the king himself. Then -vras seen the fruit of the policy of the first Psammetichns. The Egyp- tian army mutinied. Amasis, sent to appease the revolt, was crowned king by the rebels. Another courtier, returning unsuc- cessful, was so cruelly outraged by Apries, that all the old Egyptian party abandoned him. His mercenaries failed him in the hour of need ; he was defeated at Momemphis, brought back as a pris- oner to Sais, and put to death at the demand of the people.* Such is the story of Herodotus ; but it is suspected by modern critics to have been an invention of the priests, to conceal the fact that Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, and Amasis set upon the throne as his vassal. The weakness of Xebuchadnezzar's successors permitted Egypt to enjoy nearly half a century of prosperity under her new king, Amasis, or Aah-mes II. (b.c. 5T0 — 525).f He husbanded the in- ternal resources of Egypt, encouraged commerce, and was so suc- cessful at sea as to add Cyprus to his dominions. Nabonidus was glad to accept his alliance against the growing power of Cyrus. If we may believe a story in the Cyropsedia of Xenophon, which — romance as it is — may contain fragments of history among its incidents, Amasis performed his part in the league against Cyrus, by sending to the aid of Croesus 120,000 Egyptians, who, after the bravest resistance, were received to an honourable capitu- lation, and settled in Larissa and Cyllene. The loss of this army would go far to accoimt for the ease with which Egypt was over- run by Cambyses. The monuments contain but slight records of Amasis. His chief works were doubtless in Lower Egypt, wliere the edifices even of later kings have perished more rapidly than the oldest temples of the Tliebaid. Herodotus assigns to him the splendid propylsea of the temple of Neith at Sais, as well as the colossal statues and immense andro-sphinxes of its avenue. He mentions, too, a shrine out of a single block of granite, of enormous size, from the quarries of Elephantine.:}: It took two thousand boat- men three years to transport the block to Sais, and, after all this labour, an evil omen prevented its being set up. It is more likely * His death literally fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, xliv. 30. f The name is identical with that of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Amosis of Manetho. Hence the king named in the text is often called Amasis II. X Taking the cubit at 20 inches, it was 35 feet long, 23 feet 4 inches broad, and 13 feet 4 inches high, on the outside ; and the excavated interior was 31 feet 3 inches by 20 feet by 8 feet 4 inches. A similar monolith of the same king has been found erect at Tel-et-mai, the ancient Thmuis or Leontopolis, the dimensions of which are 188 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. that the internal troublen, which the priests desired to conceal from Herodotus, prevented the erection of this monolith, as well as of the recumbent colossi which he saw at Memphis and Sais. The great temple of Isis at Memphis was also the work of Amasis. His reign, or rather the whole time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, has l)cen called the renaissance of Egyptian art. "We have now, however, reached a point at which the story of Egyi)t has no longer to be painfully deciphered from the monu- ments, ])ut is recorded from sources comparatively trustworthy, in the lively pages of the Greek historian, who even gives lis details of the private life of Amasis. He divided his time between serious business in the morning, which he never neglected, and revelry and witty conversation with his guests in the evening ; and when his friends told him he was risking the dignity of the crown, he answered with the old proverb of the bow always bent. Much as he honoured his country's gods in public, his personal relations to them resembled the alternate fear and contempt Avith which Louis XI. treated his saints. For having, in his disorderly youth, often been brought before the oracles that his thefts might be detected, he now honoured or despised the gods according to the knowledge they had shown in condemning or acquitting him. A like indication of scepticism is seen in his contemporary, Croesus of Lydia, who tried the knowledge of the Greek oracles about trifles before he would risk his own fortune on their advice. Tlie internal prosperity of his reign is attested by the evidences of wealth and luxury in the monuments of private persons. The exaggeration of Herodotus in calling it the most prosperous reign that Egypt had ever known, may be accounted for by his fuller knowledge of this period. Kever had the river been more bounti- ful, or the land more 'productive. The inhabited cities were not less than twenty thousand. The law against idleness, however, requiring every man to present himself once a year before the governor of his norae and show his means of livelihood, failing which he was to suffer death as a useless member, may have been 21 feet 9 inches by 13 feet by 11 feet externally, and 19 feet S inches by 8 feet by 8 feet 3 inches internally. IleroiJotus mentions one still larger at the temple of Buto, each wall of which was 40 cubits ((>6 feet 8 inches) square, besides its cornice, which pro- jected 4 cubits (6 feet 8 inches), and was another single block. Supposing the thick- ness of the sides to be 6 feet, the weight of this block would be above 6738 tons, and its solid content 76,032 cubic feet. Models of such monolith shrines may be seen in the British Museum, supported by a kneeling figure, and containing the statue of the god. B.C. 530.] AM ARTS AWD POLYCRATES. 137 much older, for we see sucli registration scenes on the monuments of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The similar law of Solon is said by Herodotus to have been borrowed from the Egyptians. The growing intercourse between Egypt and Greece was one of the most important features of this reign. Though raised to the throne by the old Egyptian party, Amasis saw that it was too late to return to the rigid system of exclusion. He granted the Greeks the city of Naucratis, on the Canobic mouth of the Nile, as a' residence, and this, like Canton to the Europeans in China, was long the only place where they were allowed to trade. He gave them land for temples, and, besides the " Hellenium," built con- jointly by the Ionian, Dorian, and -^olian cities of Asia Minor, other states erected separate temples. Amasis even contributed largely to the rebuilding of the temple at Delphi, and enriched many of the Greek shrines with costly offerings. He made an alliance with Cyrene, and married Ladice, the daughter either of the king or of one of the chief nobles. His closest league, how- ever, was with Samos ; and, after all his splendours, his most en- during memorial is the beautiful story, told with all the sim- plicity of Herodotus, and adorned by the genius of Schiller. Polycrates, having made himself the tyrant of Samos, had achieved the most brilliant successes both by sea and land. His unbounded good fortune roused the fear of his friend Amasis, who wrote to remind him of the jealousy of the gods, and advised him to east away the most valued of his treasures : — " So, would'st thou scape the coming ill — Implore the dread Invisible Thy sweets themselves to sour ! Well ends his life, believe me, never, On whom, with hands thus full for ever, The Gods their bounty shower. " And if thy prayer the Gods can gain not, This counsel of thy friend disdain not — Invoke Adversity ! And what of all thy worldly gear Thy deepest heart esteems most dear Cast into yonder sea ! " For this offering Polycrates chose a gold and emerald signet- ring, the work of the greatest artist of Samos, and, having cast it into the sea, far from land, returned to indulge his sorrow. But within a week a fisherman brought to the palace a fish so large and beautiful, that he had kept it as a present for the king. When it was cut open, the signet-ring was found in its belly, and brought 188 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VIL to Polycrates by liis servants with great joy. Accepting this token of tlie pleasure of the gods, Polycrates wrote to Amasis ; but the Egyptian only saw in the return of the ring the refusal of the sacrilice to fortune. Perceiving that " it does not belong to man to save his fellow-man from the fate which is in store for him," he sent a herald to renounce the friendship of Polycrates, that, when the certain misfortune came, he might escape the pain of grieving for a friend. " In horror turns the khigly guest — ' Then longer here I may not rest, I'll have no friend in thee ! The Gods have marked thee for their prey, To share thy doom I dare not stay ! ' He spoke and put to sea." * Polycrates was at last put to a cruel death by the treachery of the Persian satrap Orojtes. The legend is more than an ornament to relieve the gravity of history. By its mention of the correspondence between the princes, the naval successes of the Samian ruler, and the progress of the fine arts among the Asiatic Greeks, it forms a link in the chain of evidence that a new spirit had arisen to bring Egypt with- in the sphere of that energetic intercourse which now bound to- gether all the shores of the Levant, and that she was contributing from the stores of her ancient civilization to that new outburst of intellectual and artistic activity which followed the Persian "Wars. Meanwhile her own course of empire and independence had been run, and the predicted time had come when " there should be no more a king over the land of Egypt." The Persian Cam- byses had succeeded to the empire which his father Cyinis had extended from the table-land of Iran to the shores of the JEgean, his frontier towards Egypt being secured by the restoration of the Jews. Tlie new king at once collected all the resources of his empire for the invasion of Egypt. Though Amasis had been on friendly terms with Cyi'us, to whose aid he had once sent the best of the Egyptian eye-doctors, a ground of quarrel was soon found. Cambyses seems to have asked the daughter of Amasis, nominally in marriage, but really as a concubine, with the certainty of a refusal ; and other pretexts were given by Egyptian traitors. Amasis died just at the commencement of the invasion (b.c. 525) ; his son Psammcnitus was defeated at Pelusium, the eastern * Schiller's ballad, The Ring of Polycrates, translated by Sir Bulwer Lytton. To suit the requirements of his art, the poet has turned the correspondence into a personal visit. B.a 525.] FIRST PERSIAN CONQUEST: REVOLT OF INARUS. 139 key of Egypt, and put to death with, every insult, after a reign of only six months. With him ended the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Besides the above kings, the monuments at Thebes give us the name of a Psammetichus III., who cannot be the Psammenitus of Herodotus, for his daughter was the queen of Amasis.* The Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Manetho is composed of the Persian kings, from Cambyses to Darius II. Nothus (b.c. 625 — 414). The history of Egypt under their rule belongs to that of the Persian emj)ire. It need only be said here that, after the first outrages perpetrated by Cambyses, in that madness which is often engendered by despotic power, the Persian kings pursued in Egypt their usual conciliatory policy. The personal visit of Darius Hystaspis, the great organizer of the empire, is commemorated in hieroglyphics on several monuments, and his name is found on Apis-stelge, in the sepulchres of the sacred bulls ; it appears too with the honorary titles of the old Egyptian kings. Nevertheless, a revolt broke out in "the last year of his reign, but was suppressed in the second year of Xerxes, b.c. 484. It was in the reign of this king, and under the satrapy of his brother Achaemenes, about B.C. 460, that Egypt was visited by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who collected from the priests and from other sources that infor- mation which, embodied in the second book of his " Histories," has long combined with the allusions in the Pentateuch to keep alive that interest in Egypt, which we now possess more abundant means of gratifying. Had Herodotus been able himself to read the inscriptions on the monuments which he beheld in all their glory, his records would have possessed a tenfold value. About the fifth year of Artaxerxes I. (b.c. 458) a more formid- able revolt broke out under Inarus, the son of Psammetichus,f who was assisted by the Athenians. The defeat of an immense Pei*sian army and fleet and the death of AcluBmenes were avenged by a still greater armament, and Inarus fled with a body of Greeks to Byblus, in the marshes of the Delta. He was enticed from this stronghold by a promise of pardon, and crucified. The embers of the revolt were still, however, kept alive by Amyrtteus, who had escaped to the isle of Elbo. An Athenian fleet sent to his aid returned without attempting a landing (b.c. 449-448), and the Persian king en- deavoured to conciliate the Egyptians by appointing as satraps Pausiris, the son of Amyrtaeus, and Thannyris, the son of Inarus. * This we learn from her fine sarcophagus, now in the British Museum. \ His name is neither found in Manetho nor on the monuments. 140 THE III8T011Y OP EGYPT. [Chap. VH The rcvoll bntlxc out nuvw under DuiiuK Notlius, in llie tenth year of wliOHc reign (u.c. 1 14) Aniyrtaeus became the in(Ie])endent kiu'^ (trKirvpt. Ilis rei"!!! at Su'is histeil nix yeurs, and lu; forniB, ]»y hiniscdf, th(^ Tirtnfy-citj/ith {Saifc) Dynasty of Maiietho. Thv history of the Twenty-ninth {Menilesian) and the ThirtietK {Schnniijtt) Di/iKtstlcs is beset ^\'ith dillicnlties, wliieli wo must h'n\e lo the l']<;y|)toioj];-ers. Th(>y ruh'd with great i)rosperity, and h'ft nionuiuents whieh may vie in beauty and iinish Avitli those of tiie earber dynasties. Their alHances with the Greeks, the internal disorders of Persia, and the dissensions among tlu^ salraj)H, h'ft then\ for the most part unmolested. A(dioris (the Ilakori of the monuments, about wx. 40^) rej)ulscd a Persian attack ])y the aid of (J reek mercenaries iiiuh'r the Athenian (/habrias. Nee- tani'bo 1. (the Nekht-ncbf or Nekt-har-liebi of the monuments, about n.e. 3S7--^01)), whose name is preserved on some fine >vorks of art, del\'n(h'd th(^ hind Buccessfidly against a still more formid- abU' attack, though the Athenian auxiliaries went over to the Ti'rsians (u.e. 37H). His successor, Taclios or Teos (about b.c. 8(51), dared to concert with the Atiienians and ]jacedivmonians an invasion of Asia. But the scheme was ruined by the dissatis- faction of Agesihius at the subordinate command assigned to hi\n ; the needful taxes roused the discontent of the Egyptians ; and when Tachos had marched as far as Pluenicia, liis son Nec- tanebo was placed on the throne, and Tachos tied to Artaxerxcs ]\rni'mon. A civil war followed, in whieh Nectanebo II. succeed- ed, with the aid of Agesilaus, in defeating the partisans of the late king. The power of Nectanebo was so tinnly established, that he not only held out against the Persians, but aided the Phceni- eians to revolt, sending them a force of 4000 Greeks under Mentor the Rhodian. Put when Artaxerxcs Ochus advaiu'cJ at the head of an inmiense army, McntA>r deserted to him, Pluvnicia and (Vprus were subdued, and Nectanebo jn'cjnired to resist a new invasion. Pelusium, garrisoned by 5000 Greeks, rejielled the first assault, but Mectanebo lost heart and fled to ]\[emphis. Pelusium then surrendered, and M'hile Mentor was subduing the other fortresses, Nectanebo cscajied by the river into Ethiopia (about ii.e. 353). Thus ended the Tliirtieth and last native Dynasty of the kings who had governed Egypt for ]>erhaps twenty-four centuries ; and for twenty-two centuries nu)re she has been ruled by foreigner. Egyptian art scarcely shows a symj^tom of decline under these latest independent dynasties, but rather an increase of grace and delicacy, due probably to Greek influence. Examples may bo B.C. 35ri-30.] FliO.M TilE PERSIAN TO THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 141 hcjsn in the intorcolurnnar Blab of green Lasalt, Bf;iilptured in in- taglio, of ]S'ectanebo II., and the obelifekH erected by Xeetanebo I., in front of the temple of Tlioth, now in the British MuBeurn. The Museum is rich in antiquities of this period, btougljt cliiefly from Cairo and Alexandria, but many of them had been prf> viously transferred to those cities from places now unknown. Among them is the splen^lid sarcophagus of Nectanebo I., former- ly called the sarcophagus of Alexander, The restored Persian dominion, forming the T/iiri^-fird JJy- ri/iHty (Oclius, Arses, and Darius Codomannusj, lasted less than twenty years. Ochus emulated the cruelties of Cambyses in his treatment of the conquered province ; but he only survived his vic- tory a few years. In n.c. 882 Egypt joyfully submitted to Alex- ander, who justly regarded it as the gem of his new diadem, and prepared to make Alexandria the commercial capital of the world. Tlic story of his visit to Egypt we res^^rve for his own history. On his death Egypt fell to his general Ptolemy, the son of Lagus (b.c. 323), whose dynasty lasted for three centuries. Tlie earlier Ptolemies ruled Egypt witlj equal sagacity and moderation, carry- ing out those schemes of Alexander which enriched their country with the commerce of the world, distributing impartial justice, and extending religious toleration to Greeks and p]gy j^tians alike. While, under their munificent patronage, learning and science found a new seat at Alexandria, the temples of Egypt were re- stored and eidarged in the style and spirit of the Pharaohs. TIjb wars, which were for the most part forced upon them by the am- bition of the Seleucid kings of Syria, had little effect on Egypt itself, and the toleration of the Ptolemies, when they were masters of Judiea, fonns a bright contrast to the fanatical violence of An- tiochus Epiphanes and his successors. At length the nobler char- acter of the race died out. Family dissensions tenjj>ted a recourse to the arbitration of Itome (b.c. 1C4). From that moment the end was certain, and it came after a long period of decline. But, before she yielded to her fate, Egypt had almost revenged herself on the masters of the world, the empire of which was well-nigh bartered by Julius, and was resigned by Antonius, for the charms of Cleopatra. The battle of Actium, and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, left Egypt as the final prize of Octavian ; and it ber^ame a Roman province in b.c. 30. But its ]>olitical absorption left its commercial and intellec- tual ]>re-eminence undiminished. Under the rule of Rome it en- joyed the commerce between the provinces of the "West and the 142 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. [Chap. VH. rich laiidri of the furthest East. Its schools of pliilosophy and tlie- ology have left their impress on tlic tliought and belief of Christen- dom. When coiiquorcd hy the Anihs (a.d. G39), Egypt soon be- came the chief peat of their learning, and to this day it is the coun- try where the character and manners of the race can be best seen. Ecduced for a time to com])arativc insignificance by the Turkish conquest and the change of the route to India, it seems to have begun a new history with the present century. As the supposed key to the empire of the East, it roused the ambition of Napoleon and called forth the might of England. A more peaceful rivalry began when science once more made it the highway to India, with results to the country yet to be seen, but certain to be vast. In the above outline of the history of Egypt, the interest of the subject, and the light thrown upon it by recent discoveries, have led us to treat it more exhaustively than would be generally consistent with the limits of our work. In the case of countries better known, and whose annals abound in a multitude of de- tails, such a method would be impossible. But, where the facts arc com})arativcly few, and the information only to be found in large, elaborate, and expensive works, we attempt to put before the reader, as nearly as possible, the compendious sum of existing knowledge. And even, as we have said before, where our knowl- edge is still imperfect or very doubtful, we prefer to state, with the necessary reserve, the opinions of the best authorities, if only as a convenient starting-point for further investigation, rather than to draw the erasing stile of ruthless scepticism over records which certainly contain much knowledge worth preserving, though clouded with much ignorance worth dispelling. Labour in this field may be often spent in vain, though only for a time ; but we had rather lose a large part of our labour than be content to leave this chapter of our history " In cloud instead, and cver-during dark," and the reader, from such information as can be given, " Cut off ; and, for the book of knowledge fair. Presented with a universal blank Of [Egypt's] works, to him expunged and razed, And wisdom at one entrance (luitc shut out." Note. — Special acknowledgment is due of the use made, in the two preceding chapters, of Sir J. G. Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient J-Jgt/ptians, of liis Essays on Egyptian History and Antiquities, in the AjypcmUx to Book II. of Rawlinson's Herodotus, and of Mr. Poole's HoT(n yEgyptiac(z and article Eyypt in the Encyclojxxdia Britajinica, 9th edition. •,i'/ :/p^ DESTINY OF THE HEBREW NATION. 143 CHAPTER VIII. THE HEBREW THEOCRACY AND MONARCHY. B.C. 1491 TO B.C. 508. " Behold the measure of the promise fiU'd ; See Salem built, the labour of a God ! Bright as the sun, the sacred city shines ; All kingdoms and all princes of the earth Flock to that light ; the glory of all lands Flows into her ; unbounded is her joy, And endless her increase." — Cowpkr. destiny of the hebrew nation — review of their history in egypt— joseph — the israe- lites in goshen — the oppression— moses : as an egyptian prince — his flight — hi9 divine legation — the plagues, the passover, and the exodus — heathen traditi0n8 of the exodus — march to sinai — the mosaic law — the tvilderness — conquest of periea — death of moses— campaigns op joshua — division and settlement of canaan — times op the judges — servitude to the philistines — samuel, prophet and judge the kingdom — saul — david— full conquest to the land— jeru salem, the capital and sanctuary — solomon — israel a great monarchy — building of the temple — Solomon's idolatries — foreign enemies and internal factions — division of the two kingdoms — their separate history — steady declension of israel — foreign alliances and idolatries— the prophets — elijah and elisha — relations to syria, judah, as- syria, and egypt — captivity of the ten tribes — their subsequent fate — kingdom op judah — idolatries and reforms — asa — jehoshaphat — the high priest jehoiada — dzziah — idolatries of ahaz — the prophets, especially isaiah — wars with israel and syria — hezekiah — destruction of sennacherib — josiah — invasion of pharaoh- necho — nebuchadnezzar — the captivity — condition of the jews during the cap- TIVITY. The picture, wliicli we have endeavoured to fill up in tlie pre- ceding chapter, of the primeval monarchy of Egypt, forms as yet only the background of the World's History. The chief interest of the story of our race remains with the people of Israel. The other nations have lapsed into idolatry, and have sunk beneath the power of oppressive rulers. They have failed, in the second probation of the world, to reach the highest standard of social life, — liberty regulated by laws in harmony with the will of God. So one family has been chosen out of all the rest, to form a nation which should reach that standard, or else prove by its failure the need of some more powerful principle than the purest laws. The moral aspect of this great experiment, in bringing man to the consciousness of his own weakness, and so reducing him to submission to divine grace, belongs to the province of religion. But it has a political aspect too ; and the story of the chosen 144 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. people, as a nation, forms at this point tlie main stream of the history of the world. We see them assembled, apart from all the other nations, in the recesses of Mount Sinai, to receive a law through the hands of a divinely-appointed legislator. And yet their separation is not a perfect isolation from the other peoples. In the presence of that " mixed multitude " who went with them out of Egypt, and in the extension of the chief provisions of the law to " the stranger within their gates," we see the general adaptation of the Law to the whole race of man. Meanwhile, however, it is fenced about with signs and sanctions, to bind it with peculiar force, in the first instance, on the people chosen to receive it. The perversion of what was peculiar to them into a selfish claim of exclusive privileges was one of the proofs of their unworthiness to fill their true position. Israel, called forth in the character of the Son of God, was only the eldest of many brethren. The present favour and pure law of God were given to him in trust for all the rest, and his true mission was to diffuse knowledge and life over all the world. For this the previous stages of the people's history were a pre- paration. Called out from the idolatry and tyranny of Chaldffia, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, so to speak, just shown the future inheritance of Canaan, which their sons had just time to prove their unfitness to enjoy as yet, when they were subjected to a new course of discipline in Egypt, A period of prosperity, during which they enjoyed the favour of the king, and occupied the richest district of the land, encouraged their rapid increase ; nor did their numbers decline under hard bondage and cruelty. "Tlie more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." * While their sufterings trained them to endurance and steadfastness, they learnt from their oppressors the arts of civiliza- tion, — a possession more precious than the jewels of gold and silver they carried with them out of Egypt. Having gone down into that land a family, they came out of it a nation. We have now to trace briefly the stages of this progress. While in Canaan, the patriarchs led a nomad life. They dwelt in tents, and their wealth consisted iu flocks and herds. They were dependent for corn upon the desultory agriculture of the Canaan- ites ; and when that failed, their resource was in the abundance of Egypt. Twice in three generations were they driven to that resource ; and, on the second occasion. Divine Providence had * Exodu3 i. 12. B.C. 1706.] THE ELEVATION OF JOSEPH. 145 prepared the way, by Joseph's elevation, for their settlement in the laud (b.c. 1706).* The attempt to represent these events as a doubtful Hebrew tradition is refuted by internal evidence. Oriental history is famil- iar with the elevation of foreign slaves to the post of prime min- ister, and even to the throne itself; and all the attendant circum- stances are thoroughly Egyptian. The names of Joseph's master and his father-in-law, Potiphar, and Potipherah {Pet-Phra^ dedi- cated to the Sun) ; his own, Zaphnath-Paaneah {defender of life) ; f and that of his wife, Asenath {As-NeitJi^ daughter or servant of Neith), would never have been invented by a Jew. The office held by Potiphar, and the shamelessness of his wife, — the functions of Pharaoh's servants, and his mode of treating them, — the belief in dreams, and resort to professional magicians for their interpreta- tion, — the importance assigned to the Nile, the many-eared corn, the cattle, and the reeds, in Pharaoh's dream, — the notice of the tenure of the land, and the exemption of the priests from taxation, — ^these and several other features of the narrative correspond altogether to what we know of Egypt. The image of Joseph, clothed in fine linen, decorated with a necklace of gold and the royal signet-ring, and mounted on a chariot of state, might be accurately depicted from existing monuments which represent the processions of kings and priests ; while the shaving of his whole body before he went into Pharaoh's presence, is a custom of cere- monial cleanliness attested by Herodotus. JS'or must we in vindicating the historic reality of Joseph's position in Egypt, forget his higher place in the history of the world. His elevation was earned by the noblest moral qualities, — steadfastness to principle, fidelity to duty, patience in adversity, filial affection, and brotherly foi'giveness of the greatest wrongs. E'^n if we admit that his father's partiality and his prophetic dreams elated him too much, the youthful error was dearly paid for. If he learned in Egypt to profess the power of divination, and to swear by the life of Pharaoh, we must remember (what is too often forgotten in studying Scripture characters), that the best of men are not entirely free from the moral weaknesses of humanity. We need not discuss, in this case, the fairness of judging a man's character by his political conduct; for the charge brought against Joseph, of oppressive policy towards the Egyptian agriculturists, is * This is Ussher's date. Mr. Poole places the eveut in b.c. 1867, under the Shep- herd Kings, and Lepsius as late as b.c. 1500, under Amenoph III. \ We give the most probable interpretation, but the sense is not quite determined. VOL. I. — 10 146 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. liardly borne out by a more accurate knowledge of the transaction. The question is complicated by the doubt respecting the dynasty then reigning ; if the Sliepherd Kings, tliis policy may have been a final stc}) in the s\ibjugation of the country. In any case, we have not sufficient information about the tenure of the land in Egypt, to judge of the chaiiges effected by Joseph. It would seem that the fifth of the whole })roduce, which Pharaoh took up by his advice in the seven years of plenty, was simply the double of the usual tithe or quitrent ; and when, during the famine, he had purchased from the people their rights in the land, he restored to them their pos- sessions under the king, in consideration of their paying the same rent of one-fifth as a permanent impost, in acknowledgment of Pharaoh's ownership. At all events, his policy had saved the nation from destruction; while it answered that higher end in the preservation of the chosen family, which makes Joseph so signal an example of an overruling Providence, and which he himself described in those memorable words to his brethren : — " As for you, ye thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." ^ The land of Goshen, which was assigned by Pharaoh to the Israelites, lay on the eastern frontier of the Delta, along the easternmost or Pelusiac branch of the Nile. It forms the northern slope of the " Arabian mountain-chain," which borders the Nile- valley on the east, but turns off eastward, at the apex of the Delta, towards the Gulf of Suez. This position, between the alluvial flat of the Delta and the sands of the Desert, made it peculiarly fit for pasturing the flocks of the new settlers. Those who place the entrance of the Israelites under the Eighteenth Dynasty, regard the district as having been left vacant by the expulsion of the Shep- herds, whose great fortress was at Avaris, the later Pelusium. If, however, this event took place under the Shepherd Kings them- selves, we can understand their policy in placing a kindred pastoral race on the eastern frontier, where they were threatened by the power of the Assyrians or Chaldseans. The capital of the district was On (afterwards Heliopolis), the sacred city of the Sun, a place with which Joseph was specially connected by his marriage with ■the daughter of Potipherah, the priest of On.f It is an interesting * Genesis 1. 20. f It was in the land of Goshen that Joseph met his father (Genesis xlvi. 28, 29). The LXX. places the meeting at "-iteroonpolis, in the land of Ramesses," the place which seeras to have been the starting-point of the Israelites at the exodus. The Coptic version puts, in place of Ileroonpolis, the Pithom mentioned on the next page. B.C. 1706.] TPIE ISRAELITES IN GOSHEN. 147 coincidence, that in the fabulous story of the exodus preserved by Josephus from Manetho, Moses is said to liave been originally an Egyptian priest at Heliopolis. A further indication of the locality of Goshen is found in the Psalm which speaks of God as having done wonders — the miracles which preceded the exodus — " in the field of Zoan," the very ancient city otherwise called Tanis, on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile.* In this land, too, the Israelites, during their servitude, built the cities of Pithom, (the City of Turn, or Atum, a name for the sun), and Raamses, or Eameses, as store-cities for their oppressor.f Both these places appear to have been within the canton (nome) of Heliopolis, on the line of the canal of Pameses the Great. The name of the latter city has been adduced as a decisive proof that Rameses II. was the oppressor of the Israelites ; Pameses I. being out of the question, owing to the shortness of his reign.:}: But it is unsafe to build such an argument on a name which, from its significance (the Son of Rd), may have been the title of many kings, and was in fact borne by the son of Amosis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. N^either would the occurrence of the name of Pameses II. on the ruins at Abo^l Kesheyd be decisive, even if Lepsius were certainly right in identifying those ruins with the city of Pameses. But this can hardl}'- be the true site, both for other reasons, and because it is only eight miles from the ancient head of the Gulf of Suez, a distance inconsistent with the three days' march and the two halting-placies of the Israelites at the exodus. Tlie site of Pameses seems to have been much nearer to Heliopolis, and rather at the western than the eastern end of the valley called the Wadi-t-Tumey- lat, through which the route of the Israelites probably lay. It may perhaps correspond to the mound called El-Ahhaseeych, about thirty miles from the ancient shore of the Gulf, and about the same from Heliopolis. If we could fix the exact site, we should know the starting-point of the Israelites on their exodus. Meanwhile we must return to their condition in the land of Goshen. Separated from the Egyptians by their position and by their occupation as shepherds, they retained their own patriarchal constitution under the princes of their twelve tribes. The Scrip- * Psalm Ixxviii. 43. The advocates of the later date of the exodus appeal to the monuments of Rameses the Great at Tanis, in proof of its being a favourite royal resi- dence under the Nineteenth Dynasty. f Exodus i. 11 ; the LXX. adds, "and On, which is Heliopolis." They may have been employed in fortifying the city. X Rameses I., tlTe last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and grandfather of Ramesea II., reigned only one year, b.c. 1446 (Poole), or b.c. 1324 (Wilkinson). 148 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap, VHI. ture liistory gives us incidental proofs of the influence retained by- Joseph during his life, which must have helped to preserve the unity and harmony of the people.* From a family of seventy persons, they grew in 215 years f into a nation so numerous, that they were " more and mightier than the Egyptians," who hecame alarmed lest they should use their position on the fron- tier to unite with the enemies of Egypt.:}: The flight of Moses to the priest-prince of Midian seems to imply friendly relations between the Israelites and their Arab neighbours on the eastern frontier of the Delta. The cruel servitude and oppression which followed under the " new king which knew not Joseph," seems to have lasted somewhat more than the period of eighty years from the birth to the call of Moses.§ We have an interesting parallel to the Scriptural account of its severity, in the statement of Dio- dorus, that the Babylonian captives of Eameses II. rebelled in consequence of the like intolerable burthens. An inscription of the same king states that no native Egyptian was permitted to work on his buildings, «Rid the monuments show us foreign cap- tives thus employed. Tlie law of conquest, especially as inter- preted in the East, condemned that unhappy class to oppressive labour. But the position of the Israelites was very difi:erent. Their long and peaceful abode in the land assigned to them implies the possession of definite privileges, which were now violently with- drawn under the impulse of fear, that great incentive to tyranny. But when to this was added the attempt to stop their increase by the murder of their infants, the atrocious crime was justly punished by the miraculous death of the firstborn of the Egyptians. * Genesis 1. 15—26. \ See Genesis 1. 23. It is no part of our plan to discuss questions of Biblical criticism and interpretation, such as whether these numbers are to be taken literally, and how the slightly different statements respecting them are to be reconciled. It is enough for our purpose that the increase was not impossible, especially taking poly- gamy into the account. It has been suggested that their numbers were swelled by other Semitic peoples, who were brought as captives into Egypt, and by many of the Egyptians themselves. That they intermarried with the Egyptians is seen by Joseph's own example, and mention is made of the mixed multitude who went up with them out of Egypt ; but that multitude is evidently not included in the enumeration of the people (Exodus xii. 37, 38). X Exodus i. 8, 9 ; Psalm cv. 24. § According to Ussher's system, Joseph was sold into Egypt B.C. 1T29 ; he was thirty years old (Genesis xli. 46) when he stood before Pharaoh, B.C. 1715 ; his death at 110 years old was in B.C. 1635. The birth of Moses was in B.C. 1571. The interval is sixty- four years ; but, as the oppression did not begin till after the death of the whole gene- ration who had lived with Joseph (Exodus i. 6), and perhaps not till after a further period of prosperity (v. 7), its beginning may be fixed near the end of that interval. It is rea- sonable also to allow as much time as possible for the previous increase of the people. B.C. 1571.] BIKTH OP MOSES. . 149 In the meantime, the king's sanguinary edict proved the first step in the series of providential events which prepared a deliverer for Israel in the person of the greatest man, next to the Divine Exemplar of humanity, that the world has ever seen. Moses, the son of Amram, of the tribe of Levi, hidden from his birth by the faith of his parents, was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter from the fate to which they were obliged at last to expose him, and was brought up at the Egyptian court as her adopted son. The state- ment of Stephen, that " he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," * — learning of which the priests held the key — is so far confirmed by the tradition handed down by Manetho, and copied by several ancient writers, that he was an Egyptian priest of Helio- polis. The same high authority adds, that " he was mighty in words and deeds," evidently while still at Pharaoh's court. We cannot, however, accept without confirmation the tradition pre- served by Josephus of the victories of Moses over the Ethiopians who had invaded Egypt, — his pursuit of them to their own land, with circumstances too marvellous for sober history, — his capture of their capital, Saba, and his marriage to the daughter of the Ethiopian king.f According to this legend, it was the ungrateful jealousy of the Egyptians that caused his flight to Midian, a step which the authentic narrative of Scripture ascribes to his deliberate choice of the cause of his suffering brethren. :{: This choice, which the Apostle places among the brightest ex- amples of faith in unseen realities, was, even from the mere worldly point of view, an act of the noblest self-renunciation. In the prime of life, and in the fall flush of success, enjoying princely rank, and on a level with the priests in the knowledge that gave them power and wealth, Moses descended from his lofty position, and probably renounced the hope of one yet higher, to share the sufierings and degradation of a nation of oppressed slaves. That he had a prophetic knowledge of his mission to deliver the people, is clearly intimated by Stephen. § When " it came into his heart to visit the children of Israel," we may suppose that he had little knowledge and no experience of their actual condition. His first bm'st of indignation at seeing the cruel beating of a Hebrew by an Egyptian taskmaster broke through all restraint. But while by slaying the oppressor he cast off for ever his connexion with the * Acts vii. 22. \ An Ethiopian wife of Moses is mentioned in Numbers xii. 1. ■\. Exodus ii. 11, compared with Acts vii. 23, 24, and Hebrews xi. 24 — 26. 8 Acts vii. 25. 150 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. court, he found that the people were too dispirited by slavery to accept his aid and leadership ; and, rejected by them and pro- scribed by Pharaoh, he fled to the land of Midian. The ilidianites were a tribe of Keturaite Arabs, having their chief seats along the eastern side of the eastern or JElanitic gulf of tlie Eed Sea, and sometimes pasturing their flocks in the penin- sula of Sinai. It seems to have been in the latter region that Moses found refuge with Jethro, or Kaguel, a patriarchal prince and priest, whose daughter he married. To the forty years of learning and activity which he had spent in Egj^t, were now added forty more of lonely meditation, as he fed his father-in-law's flocks amidst the grandest solitudes of nature. The idea naturally suggests itself that, with the maturity of thought acquired by such a mode of life, he received also the revelations which he recorded in the Book of Genesis. At length, in the most secret recess of the desert of Mount Sinai, at " Horeb, the mount of God " (doubtless an ancient sanctuary of the Arabian tribes), he was brought face to face with Jehovah, and received his commission to lead forth the Israelites to worship God on that very spot. We need not here enlarge on the strictly religious aspects of this great epoch in the history of the world. Returning to Egypt, where a new king now reigned,* and joining himself with his brother Aaron, who was associated with him as the speaker and mediator, Moses first presented himself before the elders of the Israelites. Forty years of continued afflic- tion had at last made them cry to God, whom they had almost forgotten amidst the idolatries of Egypt, and prepared them to welcome the deliverer they had before rejected. They believed the signs which proved that " Jehovah had visited His people," and bowed their heads and worshipped.f The details of the contest that ensued with Pharaoh belong to Scripture history ; nor can we properly discuss here the theological question it involves. :j: The first demand was moderate — that the people might go forth to keep a feast to Jehovah their God in the wilderness. On arriving there, it was clearly implied that they were to be at God's disposal ; and Moses steadily rejected every ofler short of their departure with their entire families and flocks. The claim of God was founded on that relation which is the key to the whole history of the Hebrew nation, " Israel is my son, even my firstborn ; " and Pharaoh's obstinate resolution to keep in slavery the people who thus belonged to God, was met from the * Exodus iv. 19, f Exodus iv. 29—31. | Romans ix. 17, 18. B.C. 1491.] THE PLAGUES, PASSOVER, AND EXODUS. 151 ILrst by the threat, " I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn." * To this infliction the other plagues were but preparatory, giving the king and people — for they sided with him — the opportunity of yielding to milder chastisements. The nature of these were wonder- fully adapted to the country, the habits, and the superstitions of the Egyptians, who saw not only the common plagues of their country miraculously aggravated, but its best blessings made the sources of disease and death ; their property destroyed, their persons, their gods, and their sacred river polluted. The truly miraculous nature of the plagues was proved by the vain attempts of the magicians to imitate them beyond the point which mere trickery could reach, and the shepherd's staff of Moses became the wonder- working rod which was to govern and guide the people of Israel. At length came that blow which was the first threatened and the last struck ; and while, amidst the darkness that might be felt, every Egyptian house resounded with the wail for the firstborn, from the palace of Pharaoh to the captive's dungeon, — while the priests howled for their sacred animals, as Jehovah " equalled with one stroke Botk their firstborn and all their bleating gods," — , ihe emancipated Israelites, fully equipped for their departure, and enriched by the fears of their neighbours, ate for the first time that great feast which took its name from the destroyer " passing over " their houses, marked by the .blood of the sacrificial lamb, and which became the perpetual type of a still higher deliverance fi-om death and bondage. " It is a night to be much observed " in the history of the world, as well as in the annals of the chosen race.f The exodus took place in the night of (or, according to our reckoning, before) the fourteenth day of the lunar month nearest to the vernal equinox ; and this month, Abib or Nisan, became thenceforth the first of the Hebrew ecclesiastical year. The civil year began about the autumnal equinox, with the month Tisri. The period of 430 years fixed in God's first announcement of the captivity to Abraham was now completed ; and this period must be dated from the call of Abraham: the actual time of the * Exodus iv. 22, 23. It was probably a very old principle of religion, that the first-, bom and all firstfruits belonged especially to God, and must either be sacrificed or redeemed. The Passover gave a new sanction to this doctrine ; and in it the Jews offer- ed the lamb of redemption, before bringing to God the firstfruits of the year. f Exodus xii. 42. 152 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. soj<3urn in Egy^t, from tlie descent of Jacob to the Exodus, was 215 years.* The Jewish Rabbinical tradition places the exodus in the year of the world 2447, that is, in B.C. 1314; but the rabbinical chro- nology is of little authority by itself, f This date, however, falls within tlie reign of Men-ptah or Ptah-men, the son of Rameses the Great (b.c. 1328 — 1309), according to the chronology of Bunsen, Lepsius, and their followers, who regard this king as the Pliaraoh of the Exodus. :[: They rely mainly on the strange account about the exodus which Josephus gives from Manetho, with the strongest protest against its authenticity. § The story is that King Menophis or Amenophis resolved to pro- pitiate the gods by purging the land of all lepers and unclean persons. These, to the number of 80,000, among whom were some leprous priests, were banished to the quarries in the eastern hills ; but the king afterwards gave them the city of Avaris (Pelu- sium), from which the Shepherds had been expelled. Here they chose for their leader an apostate priest of Heliopolis, whose name Osarseph was changed to Moses, and swore obedience to him. lie gave them new laws, bidding them disregard the gods and sacrifice the sacred animals, and forbidding all intercourse with the other Eg}^tians. He fortified the city, and called in the aid of the ex- pelled Shepherds, who had settled at Jerusalem, and who 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 thirteen years, drove the rebels out of Egypt, and pursued them to the frontier of Syria. The story is equally irreconcileable with the Scripture, and with the monuments of the nineteen years' reign of Men-ptah, which leaves no space for his absence for thirteen years in Ethiopia. | * Genesis xv. 13 ; Exodus xii. 41 ; Acts vi. 7 ; Galatians iii. 17. For the proof of this position, af^ainst those who date the 430 years from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, see Clinton's Essay on Scripture Chronology, Fasti Helleniei, Yol. I., p. 283 ; and Mr. Poole's art. Chronology, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. The Captivity itself had lasted 215 years (b.c. 1706—1491, Ussher). \ See note on Scripture Chronology, p. 10. X A slight alteration is evidently required to bring the exodus to the last year of hig reign. Sir J. G. Wilkinson, while adopting the opinion of Lepsius, places Ptah-men aa late as B.C. 1245, which is far too low for the date of the exodus. Rawlinson's Herodo- tus, Appendix to Book II. c. viii., Vol. II. p. 372. § Joseph, contra Apionem, I. 26. H It is even at variance with other notices of the exodus in the lists of Manetho, to which, however, we must not attach too great importance, as they may only express the B.C. 1491.] HEATHEN TRADITIONS OF THE EXODUS. 153 On the whole, then, it seems hopeless to fix the date of the exodus bj Manetho's testimony, and least of all can we depend upon the story related by Josephus. It evidently confuses remi- niscences of the expulsion of the Hyksos with the exodus of the Israelites ; nor is it credible that the latter should have exercised the power ascribed to them in Egypt, without some record thereof in their own history. Weighing the story critically against the Mosaic record, apart from all higher authority, it is a manifest invention of the priests to conceal a great national disgrace, and to heap odium on a people whom they hated. The fable by which the Eg}^tian priests chose to hand down the story of their great national disaster is related not only by Josephus, but by several Greek writers, in forms varied chiefly by the greater or lesser degree in which they were infected by the animosity of the Egyptians against the Jews. But, perverted as it is, the legend indicates some interesting points. That religious hatred was deeply concerned in the persecution, may be inferred from the uniform representation of the people as a mixed collection of polluted outcasts ; and the special mention of lepers among them cannot but recall the sign of the leprous hand, one of the first by which the mission of Moses was attested. The employ- ment of the leprous persons in the quarries, their choice of Moses for their leader and acceptance of new laws at his hands, and the failure of the Egyptians to prevent their departure, are so many dim reflections of the truth ; and the great pestilence, which is said to have warned the Egyptians to expel them, may be connected with the plagues of Egypt, and especially with the slaughter of the firstborn. The mention of Jerusalem, though an anachronism which betrays the utter absence of historical accuracy, clearly shows to what nation the story was meant to apply. But the most curious points in the various forms of the legend are those which relate to Moses and his legislation. The character ascribed to him, of an apostate Egyptian priest, confirms the fact that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and various opiuions of the chronologers in whose copies alone the lists have come down to us. Thus Africanus names Amosis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty (about B.C. 1525), as the Pharaoh under whom Moses left Egypt, which would agree with the date assigned to the exodus by Petavius, and come very near to that of Ussher. This may, however, refer to the flight into Midian, rather than to the exodus. Both the Greek and Armenian copies of Eusebius place the exodus under the ninth king of the Eigh- teenth Dynasty, namely Achencheres, who is either the son of, or the same as, Horus, the son of Amenophis III. Nay, in the very legend on which the German writers rely, the, name given is Menophis, or Amenophis, though the context leaves little doubt that Men-ptah the son of Rameses II., is the king intended. 154 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHL forms of the tradition attest that he was " mighty in word and deed." Thus Ilecatseus of Abdera, who visited Egypt under Ptolemy I. and wrote an Egyptian history, mentions Moses as the most dis- tinguished of the Jews, both in knowledge and bravery. The story of this writer, as preserved by Diodorus, is, that the woi^sliip of the gods having been neglected on account of the number of foreigners in Egypt, the Egyptians were warned by a pestilence to drive away the pollution. The most distinguished of the expelled foreigners followed Daaaus and Cadmus into Greece; but the greater number were led by Moses into Judaea, which was then uninhabited. There he built Jerusalem and many other cities, divided the people into twelve tribes, appointed judges and priests, and erected a sanctuary, which contained no images of the gods ; for Moses held that the Deity could not be fitly represented by any human form, being in truth nothing else than the heaven which surrounds and embraces the world. Having trained the people by warlike institutions, Moses conquered the surrounding nations and divided their lands among the Jews. He forbad foreign commerce, made education obligatory, and enacted laws for marriage and burial.* Such is the interesting though confused account given by an intelligent and apparently impartial Greek, who had access in Egypt to Jewish as well as Egyptian sources of information. Diodorus, who has preserved this story, gives another version of it, according to which, when the temple was profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, the picture of Moses was found in the Holy of Holies, as a man with a long beard, and with a book in his hand, mounted on an ass ; and the legend stated that the Israelites in the wilder- ness were guided by an ass to a spring of water. The ass was the Eg}^tiau symbol for the evil principle, Typhon, who was regarded as the god of the Hyksos, and of the kindred Syrian and Arabian tribes. The great geographer Strabo, in the time of Julius Csesar and Augustus, relates the story in a much more impartial spirit, recog- nizing in Moses a great reformer of religion, and in his followers those who honoured the unity of the Godliead. He falls, however, into the common error of regarding the Jews as a colony of the Eg3^tians, mingled with Syrians and Phoenicians, a tradition which of itself bears witness to the exodus. Tacitus has collected the accounts of various authors into a strange medley of the traditions respecting the Shepherd Kings, the * Diod. i. 27, 46, 55. B.C. 1491.] THE MARCH TO SINAI. 155 exodus itself, and the story of Manetho ; and, like most of tlie preceding writers, lie views the Mosaic legislation as conceived in a spirit of hostility to mankind;* This misrepresentation, spring- ing at first from envy at the privileges of the chosen people and dislike to their purer morality, was partly justified by their own arrogant exclusiverifess. It was long, however, before they thus abused their sense of privilege. The night of the exodus saw them " Red from the scourge, and recent from the chain ; " though, in the first ardour of their new-found liberty, " there was not one feeble person among their tribes." We must leave to the special department of Scriptural History the very interesting ques- tions of the route they followed in their three days' march to the Ked Sea, the point at which they crossed the Gulf of Suez, and the vindication of the miracle of their passage and the destruction of the Egyptians. On the whole, it seems most probable that, starting from Rameses, not far north-east of Heliopolis, they marched along the line of the ancient canal, through the Wady- Tumeilat^ and not through the more southern Wady-et-Teeh ( Valley of the Pilgrimage)^ which leads almost due east from the neigh- bourhood of Cairo to the Gulf of Suez. Their march was at first so directed that it might have brought them to the southern fi'ontier of Palestine ; but Moses was commanded not to lead them at once to a conflict with its warlike inhabitants ; and a sudden turn to the south brought them into that trap, as it seemed to the pur- suing Egyptians, whence they were delivered by the miracle to which they always looked back as the great epoch of their history ; — the great proof that theirs was the true God.f Neither does it fall within our plan to trace the details of their march to Mount Sinai, or to discuss the topography of that sacred spot. Their three months' progress through the wilderness showed how entirely God had taken them into his own hands, and how perversely they opposed their will to His from the very moment of their rescue ; — a type of our race in its pilgrimage through the world, — a proof of the need for that law which they were called to receive, first from God himself, and then through Moses as the mediator. The spot chosen for the revelation, besides being one of the most remarkable in the world for its awful solitary grandeur, * Tacit. Hut. V. 2—5. \ The route through the "Wady-et-Teeh, besides exaggerating the difficulty of the passage of the Red Sea, altogether fails to account for the movement of turning to en- camp beside the sea. Exodus xiv. 2. 156 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VIH seems to have been an ancient sanctuary of the Arab tribes, wlio liad still worshipped there the God of their father Abraham, "We leave to the words of Scripture itself the relation of God's descent upon the mount, a scene which struck Moses himself with terror. The full exposition of the law does not of course belong to general history; but yet it forms, in its leading principles, a standard by which to estimate the character and the true progress of the whole race. It was given to one nation, not as adapted to them alone, but because mankind at large had become unworthy to receive it ; and it was given to them in trust for all the rest. Its foundation was in the truth of God's self-existence as the One God, in His almighty power as the creator of the world, in His supreme authority over His creatures, and His paternal relation to mankind. In applying these general principles to the chosen people, Jehovah revealed himself as their only king, and raised them to the privileges of " a holy nation, a royal priesthood." While therefore it was treason in them to serve other gods, it was no less than usurpation against God for other nations and kings to claim authority over them. The leading commands and prohibi- tions reduced to a definite system of law those moral principles by which the lives of the patriarchs had been already governed, their great rule of life being found in the will of God. Those minuter regulations which were clearly not intended to be universal,* were designed in part to secure the purity of the people, in part to pre- serve and set forth, in the lasting and vivid form of institutions and symbols, those great religious truths which were at last to regenerate the world : — these were " the end of the law." The same symbolism ran through the divine worship, which was estab- lished in a form that appealed to the senses, and which was connected with the whole social organization. The Sanctuary, at first a moveable tent or " Tabernacle," the model of the later Temple, was the visible abode of the invisible God, who indicated his presence by the Shechinah, or cloud of glory ; and, in place of the image of the deity, which was enshrined in heathen temples, the Book of the Law itself was deposited in the sacred ark, under the custody of the Priests, the descendants of Aaron, under whom the Levites acted as sacrificing priests, teachers, lawyers, and physicians. The holy festivals were to the people a constant bond of union with one another and with God ; while the sacred and merciful institution of the Sabbath was extended, in the Sabbatic * Of course we cannot attempt here to draw the line, the existence of which we recognise. B.C. 1491.] THE MOSAIC INSTITUTIONS. 157 Year and Jubilee, in sucli a manner as to correct the inequalities of society, and to check the selfishness which makes such inequali- ties excessive. Every Israelite was holy to God, and equal in civil rights, and therefore none might be reduced to slavery : * the land was God's own possession, the use of which only was granted to the several tribes and families by lot, and it could not be perma- nently alienated. Hence the institution of the Jubilee in every fiftieth year, when bondsmen were set free, debts remitted, and property that had been sold restored to its former possessors. In the Sabbatic year, the spontaneous produce of the land, abundant in Palestine, was freely enjoyed by the poor. The civil govern- ment was administered by the Elders of the tribes, and by a new class of judges, in the name of Jehovah, who was himself the sole King, ever present in the camp, and deciding all doubtful cases by oracles given through the High Priest. The principles of the patriarchal constitution were still preserved in the power of the princes and elders of the tribes, who, besides having the inter- nal government of their own tribes, seem to have formed the Coun- cil of Seventy to consult with Moses and Aaron. As at the head of the state the will of God was supreme, so at the other extremi- ty the consent of the people was signified by the voice of the assembled congregation. The bonds of national life were the descent from a common ancestor and the covenant with God. Provision was made for the reception of strangers into the com- monwealth, under certain restrictions ; but all must observe the most essential laws. The people dwelt around the tabernacle, as a military liost, arrayed under the banners of the several tribes, and ready to march in a prescribed order, to take possession of the land that had been promised to their fathers. The promise of long life in that land, and the threat of expatriation and cap- tivity, were the great sanctions of the law : the chief summary penalty for disobedience was the being " cut off" from the congre- gation " as a corrupted member.f It was on the 20th day of the second month of the second year from the epoch of the exodus (early in May b.c. 1490),:}: when, all these institutions having been arranged, and the Tabernacle hav- * Only foreigners, purchased or taken in war, could be made slaves, and laws were enacted for their merciful treatment. f In this brief summary, all minute points and doubtful discussions are avoided ; for instance, the question how far the external forms of the Mosaic institutions were imitated from Egyptian models. X That is, from the first day of the month Abib, on the fifteenth day of which the exodus took place. 158 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. iiig been erected on the first day of the same year, the encamp- ment before Sinai was broken up. The interval of a year had l)een enough to show how deeply the people were corrupted by the idolatry of Egyj)t ; and now their conduct proved that those who had a perfect law were still the true types of an imperfect humanity. Their exact route through the peninsula of Sinai is undeter- mined ; nor can we be sure of the position of Kadesh, the place near the southern frontier of Palestine, at Avhich they rebelled on hearing the report of the spies, and from whence they were turned back to complete the full term of forty years' wandering in the wilderness. The Forty Years' Wandering was no mere term of penal suffering, but a period of most needful discipline, religious and moral, military and political, interposed between the slavery of Egypt and the free national life of Palestine. Nor can we suffi- ciently admire the providence which furnished such a scene for this stage in their training as the secluded peninsula of Sinai, where the Israelites met with none but a few wandering Arab tribes — such as the hostile Amalekites and the friendly Midianites, — of their relations to whom the narrative is almost silent.* We should miss one of the most salient features in the history of the world, did we not recognise, in this stage of the annals of the chosen people, a type of the progress both of the individual man and of the whole race, from the bondage and impotence of our fallen state, through the discipline of suflfering and by the " law of liberty," to the inheritance of our final rest. Towards the expiration of the forty years, we find them in the Arahah^ the broad valley which runs northward from the eastern gulf of the Eed Sea, along the foot of Mount Seir, and gives entrance to Palestine by the valley of the Dead Sea. Turned back thence by the jealousy of the kindred race of Edom, they marched round Mount Seir into the hilly country east of Jordan, afterwards called Per?ea. This country was then occupied, after various changes of inhabitants, by two branches of the great tribe of the Amorites, whose chief seats, as we have already seen, at the time of Abra- ham and Jacob, were in the central highlands of Palestine. The southern part formed the kingdom of Sihon, and the northern, under the name of Bashan, the still more powerful kingdom of the giant Og. Both made war against the Israelites, to whom their overthrow gave possession of the whole land from the foot of Mount Hermon and the chain of Anti-libanus to the river Arnon, * See Exodus xvii. ; Deuteronomy xxv. 17 ; Exodus xviii. ; Numbers x. B.C. 1451.] ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 159 wliicli runs into the Dead Sea. The hills south of this stream were held by the pastoral race of Moab, one of the two sons of Lot, round whose land the Israelites had marched in peace ; and beyond them, towards the Great Desert, were the Beni-Amnii, the children of Lot's other son, Amnion. Both nations had been lately driven out by the Amorites from the land now conquered by Israel. They formed a confederacy with the Midianites against the invaders ; and Balak, king of Moab, sought for a Divine sanc- tion to the enterprise. Far to the East, at Pethor, in Mesopo- tamia, dwelt a famous prophet, Balaam the son of Beor, who had preserved the knowledge of the true God, and received oracles from Him, though practising at the same time the arts of magic, and " loving the wages of iniquity ; " a type chosen by two sacred writers to describe the apostates of the last days. Few episodes of Scripture history are more picturesque, and none more morally significant, than that of the apostate prophet struggling with God and his own conscience to earn the gifts of Balak, and thrice compelled to bless the people whom he had come to curse. He revenged his disappointment by seducing them to practise the licentious rites of Baal-peor, but perished in the vengeance which Moses was commanded to take upon the Moabites. During these events, Israel was encamped in the " plains of Moab,". — the terraces which descend from the hills to the deep valley of the Jordan, opposite to Jericho. Here Moses delivered to them those parting discourses which occupy the Book of Deute- ronomy ; and, having appointed Joshua as his successor, yielded up his life on the top of Mount Pisgah, after beholding the pros- pect of the land which he was not suffered to enter (b.c. 1451). With him ended the generation who had come up out of Egypt. The only survivors of that generation, preserved as a special reward of their fidelity in bringing a good report of the land, were Caleb and Joshua. Under the command of the latter, a new and vigorous race trained by the long experience of the Desert, advanced to the conquest of their promised inheritance. "We need but glance at the miraculous passage of the Jordan and fall of Jericho, the repulse from Ai for Achan's sin, and the subsequent capture of that city, followed by the great defeat of the confederated kings of Southern Palestine in the pass of Beth-horon, when the sun and moon stood still at the command of Joshua, that the slaughter of the enemy might be complete. The campaign was finished by the capture and destruction of all the chief cities of the soutli, except Jerusalem. In the following year (b.c. 1450), a league of the IGO THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VIH. nortliern kings, wlio brought into the field a great force of war chariots, was as signally overthrown at the " Waters of Merom," the small lake formed by the Upper Jordan. These two great victories decided the fate of the country ; but its entire conquest occupied seven years ; and even then there remained great cities and whole districts unsubdued (b.c. 1445).* This was natural in so rapid a conquest ; and the resulting state of things was a divinely appointed trial of the people's steadfastness to their faith. And the very reason why some of the conquered tribes were per- mitted to remain suggests one answer to the moral difficulty raised by their general extermination. Races so depraved, that their very neighbourhood was a constant source of corruption, were clearly past any milder treatment. Nor can the historian, unless he be an unbeliever, record their destruction without a distinct recoornition of the fact, that it was done at the command of God. The razed cities and slaughtered inhabitants were not the victims of military licence, but were solemnly devoted to Jehovah. The full rigour of the sentence seems to have been executed only in a few conspicuous examples, as those of Jericho and Ai. The cities were generally left in a habitable state when their defences were razed, and many of their inhabitants may have been spared. One people only, through a curious stratagem, obtained a treaty of peace ; and these Gibeonites were reduced to perpetual servitude in the menial oflices of the sanctuary. f Meanwhile Israel had kept up the military organization of invaders in an enemy's country, their head-quarters being their original camp at Gilgal near Jericho. But now the Tabernacle was removed to Shiloh, in the central hill-country between Jordan and the Mediterranean, which was assigned to Ephraim, the tribe of Joshua himself. Seated in front of the sanctuary, with the High Priest Eleazar and the seventy elders, Joshua divided the land among the twelve tribes by lot, a foim of decision which the Jews regarded as expressing the Divine Mnll. The two tribes of Ileubcu and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, had already received their inheritance from Moses in the conquered land on the east of the Jordan, which was specially adapted for their numerous flocks ; and their armed men, having fulfilled the condition of marching before their brethren till the conquest was achieved, were now dismissed in peace. A misunderstanding with reference to an altar erected by them on the banks of Jordan, as a memorial of their claim to a common share in the privileges of Israel, called * For a list of these, see Joshua xiii. •{• Joshua ix. B.C. 1445.] DIVISION OF THE LAND. 161 forth a display of zeal wliicli proved how steadfast all the people were as yet to their faith ; and the affair bound more closely to- gether the tribes divided by the stream of Jordan. It was from that eastern division, and especially from the rough highlands of Gilead, that some of Israel's greatest heroes sprang. Such were the judge Jephthah and the proj^het Elijah. There remained nine tribes and a half on the west of the Jordan, Levi, being devoted to the priesthood, received no separate in- heritance, and was not reckoned among the twelve ; * but the number was made up by the division of Joseph into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, These two obtained the central dis- trict, composed of fertile hills and rich valleys ; and far exceeding the lot of any other tribe, except Judah, which received the rough hill-country of the south. The future capital, Jerusalem, as yet in the hands of the Jebusites, lay on the northern border of Judah, but strictly within the territory of Benjamin, The latter tribe held a narrow strip of land between the hills of Ephraim and those of Judah, containing the most important passes from the val- ley of the Jordan to the great Philistine plain. It is unnecessary to describe the lots of the other tribes, which corresponded very strikingly to the prophetic blessing of Jacob ; f and the geography of Palestine may be assumed to be familiar to our readers. The division included the land that still remained to be conquered ; and some of the tribes in fact never obtained all their allotted possessions, such as Dan and Simeon in the maritime plain of Philistia, and Asher in the borders of Sidon. The old inhabit- ants held most tenaciously to the lowlands, where their military force, and particularly in the north their war-chariots, could act best ; and there were times in the dark period following the death of Joshua when the Israelites were almost entirely driven back into the hills. But the declension which brought upon them such weakness had not yet begun. In the pregnant simplicity of the sacred nar- rative we are told that " Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers ; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And Jehovah gave them rest round about, according to all that He sware unto their fathers : and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them ; Jehovah delivered all * The Lcvites possessed forty-eight cities with their suburbs, six of which were made " cities of refuge " for involuntary homicides. For their maintenance they had the tithes of all produce, and portions of the sacrifices. f Genesis xlix. VOL. I. — 11 162 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. Vm. their enemies into their hand. There failed not aught of any- good thing which Jehovah liad spoken unto tlie house of Israel ; all came to pass." * If this language seem too strong for the real facts, it should be remembered that it describes privileges put within their power, and only not actually enjoyed by their own fault ; and that the possessions of the nation did reach, under David and Solomon, to the full bounds of the promised land, from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates. Unlike other nations, who have had to build up the edifice of material prosperity by slow and painful eiforts, the Israelites entered into the fniits of a civilization long established, in a country highly favoured by climate, products, and position. An- cient Palestine f is not fairly described by the sarcasms of Gib- bon. The rugged portions of its surface, like the more rugged banks of the Rhine, were converted, by a system of terrace culti- vation, into luxuriant vineyards. Olives and other fruit-trees abounded ; the valleys produced rich crops of corn ; the hills furnished ample pasturage, and the woods harboured such swarms of wild bees that the honey was often dropping from the trees.:}: The " land flowing with milk and honey " is no poetic fiction, but an accurate description of a country abounding in the first neces- saries of life — for such is honey in the absence of the sugarcane. The finest timber was obtained from the forests of Gilead and Bashan, and from the cedar groves of Lebanon, whose two giant chains crowned the whole land upon the north. The happy po- sition of Palestine has often been noticed, in the very centre of the ancient world, and at the confluence of the great routes of traflfic, both by land and sea ; and at the height of her prosperity, under Solomon, she had ports both on the Red Sea and tlie Medi- terranean. At the time of the conquest Canaan teemed with a population who had made full use of these natural advantages. The whole face of the country was covered with strong cities, each under its king ; the fruits brought in by the spies bear witness to * Joshua xxi. 43 — 45. f Wc use the name which has been adopted in geography from the Greek writers ; though none could well be less appropriate. Describing properly the country of the Philistines, the most constant enemies of the Hebrews, it was extended to the land of the latter in the full form of Syria- Palffistina, or more briefly Paltestina. In our version the word is twice used, in the narrower sense only : Exodus xv. 15 ; Isaiah xiv. 29, 31. The Biblical name of the country is Canaan, in the early period ; and afterwards the separate parts arc described by the names of the tribes, and by local designations, .such as Gilead, Bashan, &c. When the land was divided into the two kingdoms, they were called by the names of Judah and Israel. ^ 1 Samuel xiv. 26. B.C. 1420.] DEATHS OF JOSHUA AND ELEAZAR. 163 the richness even of its least fertile parts ; and tlie goodly Baby- lonish garment, and other treasures found among the spoils of Jericho, indicate an active commerce with the East. Thus did the Israelites find themselves the masters of " great and goodly cities, which they builded not, and houses full of all good things, which they filled not, and wells digged, which they digged not, vineyards and olive-trees, which they planted not : " — * " It was a fearful joy, I ween, To trace the Heathens' toil, The limpid wells, the orchards green, Left ready for the spoil. The household stores untouch'd, the roses bright Wreath'd o'er the cottage walls in garlands of delight."f Before the first tide of gratitude had had time to ebb, their aged leader twice convened the people to receive a final charge and warning. The second of these assemblies was held at She- chem, the old abode of Abraham and Jacob, and henceforth the chief city, till it was eclipsed by Jerusalem. Here the bones of Joseph, which had been brought out of Egypt at the Exodus, were committed to his fathers' burial-place. The covenant was solemnly renewed, and a stone of memorial was set up under an oak, perhaps in the very grove where Abraham had pitched his tent five hundred years before. One passage in Joshua's last ad- dress would seem to show that the idols of the Canaanites had already found worshippers among the people ; j(. and his parting warnings are uttered in the same sadly prophetic spirit as those of Moses. Joshua died about b.c. 1426. The people remained faithful to Jehovah during the days of the elders who outlived him. He was not long survived by the high priest Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the epoch of whose death closes the first period of Israel's history as a nation (about b.c. 1420). The time of the Judges, from the death of Joshua to the elec- tion of Saul, — a period of about 330 years, — fitly represents, by the intricacy of its history, the confusion of the commonwealtli.§ It is not, however, difficult to apprehend those leading points which alone belong to general history. Much light is thrown on the be- ginning of the period by the later chapters of the Book of Judges, which are properly supplemental to the general mention of the * Deuteronomy vi. 10, 11. f Keble : Christian Year. \ Joshua xxiv. 23. § B.C. 1427 — 1095. This is according to Ussher; but most modern chronologera adopt a much longer period. See the Ifote on Scripture Chronology, at the end of the Introduction. 164 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. VHI. people's declension at tlie beginning of the book.* Here we see great questions of public policy decided by the whole people as- sembled at the Sanctuary, and learning the will of God from the hio-h priest. The Theocracy was in full force, administered by the hi"-h priest and the council of elders, in the spirit of such uncom- promising zeal against a gross outrage, that the tribe of Benjamin was almost exterminated by the rest. \Vc see too, in the companion story of Micah and the Danites, the beginnings of idolatry and brigandage. Meanwhile, noble deeds of daring were performed in driving out the heathen from various parts of the land, and in these the family of Caleb were conspicuous. But religious zeal soon faded before the seductions of idolatry, and the people, having lost tlic true source of their power, easily succumbed to the tyrants whose oppression was the punishment of their sin. Among the numerous gods of the heathen whom they served, the chief were Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Baal and Ashtaroth, the deities of Phcenicia : " For those the race of Israel oft forsook Their living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods ; for which their heads as low Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes." — This declension was aided by natural causes, so powerful that nothing short of the firmest adherence to the idea of religious unity could have arrested their working ; and that bond failed. From the moment that the tribes took possession of their several lots, diiferent in their physical characters and in their relations to the old inhabitants, they began to have separate interests and dangers. It became more and more difficult to assemble the whole congrega- tion before the Tabernacle under their elders ; in fact, the only such meeting of which we read was that in which the eleven tribes leagued together for the punishment of Benjamin. From this meeting at Shiloh under Phinehas, to the time when Samuel called the people together at Ramah and at Mizpeh, the national life seems to have fidlen apart into that of the separate tribes. The only personal centre of the state, the high priest, was so insignificant that none is mentioned by name from Phinehas to Eli except in the genealogies. Disorders arose within the tribes themselves ; and * Compare Judges ii. with chapters xvii — xxi. Besides the indication of time given by the mention of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, as high priest (xx. 28), the great crime of Gibeah is mentioned by Hosea (x. 9) as the beginning of Israel's wickedness. B.C. 1430.] ISRAEL UNDER THE JUDGES. 165 the chiefs of volunteer bands (often composed of outlaws and sub- sisting as ffeebooters), lilve Jephthah, usurped the authority of the elders, and succeeded in founding new houses of their own. These internal dissensions invited attacks from the prefatory tribes on the southern and eastern borders, which were also peculiarly exposed through the want of any natural frontiers, while the warlike popula- tions of the great maritime plain and of the inland valleys formed an ever-present danger in the heart of the state. The compara- tive exemption of Judah from these troubles is a fact that deserves notice. Strong in its numbers * and in the natural defences of its hilbcountry, the tribe appears to have preserved that fidelity to religious patriotism, of wliich so bright an example had been set by Caleb ; and it is to the fields of Bethlehem that we must look for that beautiful picture of peaceful patriarchal life, which occu- pies the second supplement to the Book of Judges.f Kot but that this tribe had its conflicts. The presence of the Arab hordes on the south, and of the warlike Philistines on the west, formed a continual danger, and may account for the unblamed absence of Judah from the great struggles under Deborah and Gideon. To correct these internal evils, and to oppose these invasions from without, the people had the mercy of Jehovah, renewed as often as they repented, and the noble daring of heroes raised up for their deliverance, to whom impartial history will not assign a lower rank than it gives to Leonidas and Tell. Amidst the dis- union of the nation, these men, and sometimes women, led one or two tribes to the victory which was granted to their faith ; :j: and their deeds form the only history of Israel for about three cen- turies. The great oppressors of Israel were the kings of Mesopotamia, of Moab, and of Hazor, a great city on their northern frontier ; the Midianites, Amalekites, Ammonites, and Philistines.§ Their * After the Exodus, Judah was by far the most numerous tribe (Numbers i.). At the second numbering they had increased, while most of the tribes had diminished, (Numbers xxvi.) ; and the disproportion seems to have gone on increasing. f The Book of Ruth. The first supplement, as we have already pointed out, con- sists of Judges xvii. — xxi. The date of Ruth is uncertain, as its calculation depends upon the genealogies, in which some steps may perhaps be wanting. The most probable time seems to be about the beginning of the thirteenth century B.C., contemporary with the judgeship of Deborah and Barak in the north. X See Hebrews xi. 32—34. § We hear of no hostilities with the Phoenicians, with whom the neighbouring tribes of Israel seem thus early to have formed the peaceful relations which were continued under David and Solomon, 166 THE HEBREW THEOCRACY. [Chap. YIH. great heroes were Otlniiel, tlie son of Caleb, Ehud, Dehorah and Barak, Gideon, Je}>hthah, and Samson. These, besides deliver- ing them in war, administered justice with a special authority, which was greatly needed amidst the confusion of ordinary govern- ment ; and hence they received the name of Judges. Their office formed a sort of transition from the pure theocracy, on which the people had lost their hold, tu a regular monarchy : it was designed to correct that state of things, in which " there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." * It is a great en-or to suppose that their authority was universal, any more than the oi»pressions wliich they overthrew. Thus the servitude of the Moabites and the deliverance by Ehud affected only the south. Sisera overran the nortli, and was defeated by the tribes of Zebulon, Issachar, and Xaphthali. The hordes of the Midianites and Amalekites broke into the centre, and Gideon led against them the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Zebulon and Xaphthali. The scene of Jephthah's resistance to the Am- monites was the country east of the Jordan ; while, on the south- west border, the people were perpetually harassed by the Philis- tines, from the days of Shamgar to those of Samson. It is to this local character of the scenes of the history of the Judges, and to the probability that some of them were contemporaneous, that we must look for the solution of the chronological difliculties of the period. Above all the other Judges, before the holy Samuel, towers the princely figure of Gideon, who refused the offered crown of Israel, and whose son Abimelech for a short time set up at Shechem a kingdom which bears a curious resemblance to the Greek tyrannies. After the temble blows inflicted on the Midianites by Gideon and on the Ammonites by Jephthah, the northern and eastern tribes enjoyed comparative repose ; and we read of several judges who were remarkable only for the dignities they confen-ed on their numerous offspring.f With the restoration of tranquillity, the high-priesthood emerges from its obscurity in the person of Eli, but only to reveal that worst corruption of the theocratic commonwealth, — " When the priest Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled With lust and violence the house of God." • Judges xvii. 6, \ Such were Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon ; the rule of each being •limited to portions of the land. Judges x. 1 — 5 ; xii. S — 15. B.C. 1131.] PHILISTENE OPPRESSION. SA^IUEL. 167 The indulgent weakness of Eli and the profligacy of his sons were avenged by the Philistines, who, having long threatened the southern tribes, now reduced them and, as it would seem, the whole country to subjection (b.c. 1131). For forty years they were complete masters over Israel ; and they were only finally subdued by David. The warlike Danites failed to support their champion Samson, whose ill-regulated strength forms a striking contrast to the moral power of Samuel. Even, the men of Judah submitted. An attempt to cast off the yoke was crushed in two decisive bat- tles at Eben-ezer, in the second of which the ark of God, rashly brought into the field as a charm for victory, was captured, Eli's two sons were slain, and the news was fatal to the old man him- self. But the disasters and disgrace which the captive ark brought upon the Philistines, as well as on their national god, Dagon, forced them to confess themselves conquered by the God of Israel, and they restored the ark with every mark of honour, " Meanwhile a new deliverer was preparing, in the person of the godly Samuel, to show that the victory was only to be gained by devotion, and to restore the glories of the Theocracy in its last days. Tlie story of his birth and consecration, his training in the Sanctuary, his inspired warning to Eli, and his call to the pro- phetic office, is too well known to require repetition. The order of Prophet had been instituted in the person of Moses, who promised that a succession of prophets should be raised up ; and Deborah is a memorable example of the exercise of the ofiice.f With Samuel begins the unbroken succession which was maintained by the " schools of the prophets," where men marked for the oflice by Divine inspiration were trained in sacred learning and in the accomplishment of song. Over such a school Samuel himself presided at his native city of Pamah, and there the people used to resort to him to seek for Divine direction in common affairs as well as great emergencies. Even during the life of Eli it was known that the prophetic words of Samuel were all fulfilled ; and on Eli's death, Samuel succeeded him, not indeed as priest, but in the office of judge. The days of Mo- ses and Joshua seemed to have dawned again on Israel. Having put away their idols, they were gathered at Mizpeh (the Watch- Tower)^ one of the heights of Benjamin to the north of Jerusalem, to keep a fast and renew the covenant. Samuel was in the act of * To state the grounds for placing the capture of the ark and the death of Eli about B.C. 1111 would involve an elaborate chronological discussion. f Compare Judges ii. 1. 168 THE HEBREW MONARCHY. [Cnxp.YlU. sacrificing, wlicn the Pliilistines marclied out of their camp on the opposite liill, secure of an easy victory. But they were encoun- tered by the prayer of Samuel and the tliunders of God, and it only remained for Israel to pursue and smite their routed hosts. The place of this decisive T)attle, the very scene of the former dis- aster, received that expressive name, which neither cant nor scorn can rob of the sacred principle it suggests, that every monument of true success is a " Stone of Help " received from Gorl. Tliis vic- tory broke the power of the Pliilistines ; and the cities lost upon their borders, such as Ekron and Gath, were recovered, while tiie Amor- ites were awed into peace. Samuel administered justice in a regu- lar circuit through the soutli and centre, his home being at Ilamali, It seemed as if the Theocracy was revived in at least a bright reflection of its glory ; but that glory scarcely spread beyond the devotion of Samuel himself. His sons, appointed judges in liis old age, proved venal and corrupt ; and as discontent ate away the new spirit of religious patriotism, the Philistines became once more formidable. The intermittent anarchy of the last 300 years threatened to return. The people were too dispirited to seek the remedy in the renewal of their covenant with Jehovah, their true King. As their forefathers had asked for a visible God, so they demanded a visible governor. They saw the surrounding nations living in order and marching forth to victory under their kings ; and, while sighing for order, they envied the means of conquest. They asked Samuel for a King, to judge them like the other nations.* The case had been foreseen from the first ; and the Law of Moses, even while condemning the desire of a king as treason to Jehovah, had laid down laws for the kingdom. f It was not till after a passionate expostulation, and a plain Avarning of their certain loss of liberty, that Samuel granted their request at the Divine command ; and the self-willed character of the whole proceeding was illustrated in the man provided for their choice. Fair and noble in person above all his countrymen ; brave in bat- tle, and a zealous patriot ; generous in his impulses, and of warm affections, but wanting in principle and vacillating in resolution ; of a character so doubtful that his appearance among the prophets provoked a proverb of scorn ; subject to a moody jealousy and to fits of rage, which the possession of power ripened into madness, — Saul, the son of Kish, was the fit type of a choice " according to the will of man." The nature of his election was also marked by * I Samuel viii. 6. f Deut. xvii. 14 — 20. B.C. 1096.] REIGN OF SAUL. 169 his not even belonging to the tribe on which Jacob's prophetic blessing had bestowed the sceptre. His elevation was a first ex- periment in royalty, doomed to failnre from the beginning ; and it was only when the people had been trampled down by his tyranny, and involved in his fatal defeat, that a lasting monarchy was set np according to the Divine will, in the person and family of David, who was in this sense " the man after God's own heart." These transactions belong to the political, and not merely to the religions history of the world. Not that the example of Israel prescribes a certain form of government as of Divine anthority, or even as in itself the best for any other nation. As no jjeople can show a visible theocracy, so no monarchy can be accused, simply as such, of usurping the Divine prerogative. But still, the transaction does involve a moral lesson, which lies at the founda- tion of all sound policy, condemning the abandonment of prin- ciple on the plea of expediency, and pointing, by the example of Israel, the doom of every nation that seeks safety and power in a course known to be wrong. In the Divine sanction of Saul's election, and the covenant which Samuel made between the king and people, on the basis of the Mosaic Law, we see God giving to both the opportunity to make the best of their new relation ; and, for a time, all appeared to go well. While Saul's prompt energy delivered the men of Gilead from the king of Ammon, and silenced all cavils against himself, the revived tyranny of the Philistines was held in check by his vigilance. With a small select band, he encamped at Gibeah, in the hills of Benjamin, opposite to their fortified posi- tion, which was surprised by the daring of his son Jonathan ; and in the panic that ensued, the Israelites gained a decisive victory. All the border tribes on the north, east, and south were defeated in succession, — the Syrians of Zobah, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Amalek. The sparing of the last-named people and their king, with their flocks and herds, though not the first instance of Saul's arrogant self-will, was a decisive act of disobedience. In the very moment of his triumph, Samuel was sent to pronounce his deposition, and to anoint David as his successor. The jirophet had already taken his farewell of the people, jjrotesting the integrity of his government, upbraiding them for their rebellion, but prom- ising blessings on them and their king if they remained faithful. He now retired home to indulge his sorrow over Saul's rejection. The remainder of Saul's reign was embittered by his jealousy and disgraced by his persecution of David, the details of whose life 170 THE HEBREW MONARCHY. [Chap. VIU. — at his native Betlilehem, at the court of Saul, and in exile — we must leave to Scripture history. Meanwhile the miraculous victory of David over Goliath had been followed up by him with repeated blows on the Philistines ; but, when he was driven into exile, the enemy renewed their in- vasions, till at last the reign of Saul was ended by the terrible catastrophe of Gilboa, in which he and his noble son Jonathan perished together, lamented by David in one of the most beautiful of elegies (b.c. 1056). The tribe of Judah at once declared for David, who was made king at Hebron ; but the other tribes ad- hered to the house of Saul, showing how early was the division which proved afterwards so fatal to the monarchy, A civil war ensued, disgraced by the treacherous murders of the noble Abner, and of Ishbosheth, Saul's feeble son ; and seven-and-a-half years elapsed before David was made king by the consent of all the tribes, at the age of thirty years (b.c. 1048). He fixed his resi- dence at Jerusalem, which he wrested from the Jebusites. The character of David forms one of the most interesting studies in sacred history. Its religious features are perfectly re- flected in the Psalms, which breathe a sincerity as deep as their devotion is exalted. Its moral aspect is faithfully recorded, with its deep blemishes, in the historical books founded on the writings of the prophets who exercised their ministry at his court. The plain exposure of his great fall, and of its fatal consequence, with his own outpourings of profound repentance, might have disarmed the scorn of any but those in whose eyes his piety is his greatest crime, and will ever be studied with trembling sympathy by men who know the treachery of their own nature. His lesser faults, Buch as his weakness as a parent — itself to a great extent the con- sequence of his polygamy — we see severely punished, as well as unsparingly exposed, in the history of his life. "What remains is. the character of the greatest hero of human history. Endowed with the highest natural gifts, the purest tastes, and the noblest courage, he received in the successive stages of his life the best training for his exalted destiny. The calm meditative life of a shepherd youth, varied by brave exploits against wild beasts and Arab robbers, — the humble position of the youngest son, slightly regarded by his goodly brothers, but preferred to them by Him who " seeth not as man seeth," — the courtly experience, adorned with mutual affection, which he gained in soothing the malady of Saul, and the tender bond of love between him and Jonathan, — the triumph of his faith in the victory over the Philistine, — B.C. 1056—1015.] REIGN OF DAVID. 171 his fidelity to liis jealous master, Lis favour witli tlie people, and his daring exploits in war, — the long and hard trial of adversity and exile, in contact with the wildest of his countrymen and the enemies of his country, without the loss of his piety and his mag- nanimity ; — these are but some traits of the character which he brought with him to the throne. We need not trace the details of the campaigns in which David at length subdued all the enemies who had troubled Israel for 400 years, and extended the boundaries of his kingdom to the limits named in the promise to Abraham — from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates, and from the valley of Coele-Syria to the eastern gulf of the Ked Sea ; severely chastising the Amalekites, and re- ducing to tribute the Philistines, the Moabites, the Edomites, and the Syrians of Zobtih. The Syrian kingdom of Hamatli (in the valley of the Orontes) was admitted to an alliance, and Hiram, king of Tyre, formed a close league with David. The commercial resources of this ally, and his command of the cedar forests of Lebanon, aided David in preparing to execute his cherished purpose of establishing the sanctuary at his new capital of Jerusalem, Early in his reign, he removed the ark from Kirjath-jearim, where it had remained since its restoration by the Philistines, to his new city on Mount Zion (b.c. 1042) ; * but the provision for its permanent abode was long hindered, first by his wars, and then by his reverses. It was during his last war with the Ammonites (in b.c. 1035), that David, remaining at home to enjoy his regal state in his new-built palace, was enticed by the sight of Bathsheba into the adultery and murder, which have ever since, as the prophet Nathan warned him, " given great occasion to the enemy to blaspheme." Twelve years later (b.c. 1023), a series of discords and crimes in his own family found their climax in the revolt of Absalom and David's expulsion from Jerusalem ; and his restoration was embittered by the death of his favourite son ; nor were his last years ever free from troubles. The great plague, which followed on his numbering the people, was ended by the Divine indication of the site for the Temple, on the summit of Mount Moriah (b.c. 1017) ; and Solomon, David's youngest son (by Bathsheba), was proclaimed as his successor, and entrusted with the work of building the Temple, and with all the treasures collected for it by his father — the spoils of war and the ofierings of the people. David's zeal had been animated by the prophet * "We agaia refer to the special works illustrative of Scripture and the Holy Land for an account of the topography of Jerusalem. 173 THE HEBREW MONARCHY. [Chap. VIH. Nathan's declaration, that God would establish a perpetual king- dom in his house ; and now he celebrated, in the last and noblest of his inspired poems, the full scope of that prophecy, as pointing through the peaceful reign of Solomon to the kingdom of the Messiah.* And this is the true key to the place of David and his kingdom in the liistory of the world. As his troubled but suc- cessful reign, his faulty but noble life, closed with the settlement of a peaceful empire and the erection of God's temple in its chosen abode upon the earth, so shall all the wars, the calamities, the crimes and errors of mankind, end in the reign of the Prince of Peace and the gathering of all nations into Ilis Church. The revolt of Adonijah, his eldest surviving son, induced David, now on his deathbed, to cause Solomon to be proclaimed king ; and all Israel repeated the oath of allegiance to him after his father's death (b.c. 1015). David had reigned forty years in all. Solomon now ruled over the most powerful empire of Western Asia. The crown of Egypt was disputed by rival dynasties, and Assyria was only growing into importance. The tributary state of Edom gave him the ports of Elath and Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea, and by his alliance witli Hiram, king of Tyre, he had the command of those of Phoenicia. The combined navies of the two kings carried on regular commercial enterprises in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean (extending not imjjrobably into the Atlantic), which brought to Solomon the treasures and luxuries both of the East and "West. Holding in subjection the petty Syrian kingdoms on the north-eastern frontier, he maintained a caravan route to the Euphrates across the desert, where he built the city of Tadmor, famed in later ages under the name of Palmyra.f But the young king was still more distinguished by his simple-hearted devotion, his even-handed justice, his practical sagacity, and his unbounded love of learning. Ascending the throne at the age of eighteen, he made the deliberate choice of wisdom — the practical wisdom need- ed for his duties — rather than riches, victory, and length of days ; and he was rewarded by the gift of all these. His celebrated judgment between the two mothers presents a vivid picture of that quick discernment which the Orientals hold in the highest value. His administration of justice in person, and his conversations with his courtiers and with foreign visitors, gave him daily opportuni- ties to utter those wise sayings, the fame of which spread to all the * Psalm Ixxii. f The two names have the same meaning, the City of Palms. The existing ruins are of the Roman period. B.C. 1015— 975.] REIGN OF SOLOMOK" 173 surrounding nations ; while lie embodied tlie choicest of them, for the use of all subsequent ages, in the Book of Proverbs. Solomon's chief public care, from the moment of his accession, was to erect the Temple according to the designs furnished by his father. The friendship of Hiram supplied, in addition to the materials provided by David, cedars and other timber, which was cut in Lebanon by gangs of labourers whom Solomon furnished with food, and was brought round in floats by the Phoenician sailors. Tjre also supplied skilful artificers and the chief designer, a namesake of king Hiram. The building occupied seven years ; and such was the respect paid to the sanctity of the spot, that during the whole time no sound of axe or hammer was heard, every block and beam being previously fitted for the place it was to occupy in the structure. This is not the place to describe the details of the wondrous edifice, in which all the external glories of the Jewish dispensation culminated; — "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth ! " In the total absence of plans, pic- tures, and even ruins, the minute description in the First Book of Kings is insufficient to throw much light on the state of archi- tecture among the Jews. There seems to have been a general resemblance to the Egyptian temple ; but even this is a matter of dispute. Its essential part was modelled upon the plan of the Tabernacle, having the outer court for the worshippers and their sacrifices ; the first sanctuary, or Holy Place, for the priests in their daily ministrations ; and the inmost chamber, or Holy of Holies, for the place of the Ark and the throne of Jehovah, into which the high priest alone might enter, and only once in the year : all typical of the spiritual worship of the true sanctuary. Its early profanation and ultimate destruction teach that there is a nobler and more lasting worship than that which the senses can ofier, however external splendours may aid the imperfect efforts of a sensuous state. Meanwhile the magnificent offering of the piety of king and people was consecrated by the cloud of glory in which Jehovah took possession of His house ; and the ceremony of its consecration was the grandest religious service probably that ever has been or will be performed upon the earth.* But the same hands that reared this " holy and beautiful house ^f God " confronted it ere long with heathen sanctuaries, insult- * Respecting the epoch which the building of the Temple forms in chronology, see the note on Scripture Chronology, p. 10. Ussher places its commencement in b.c 1012, and its completion in b.c. 1005. The palace and other edifices of Solomon occu- pied thirteen years in building (b.c. 1005 — 992). 174 THE HEBREW MONARCHY. [Chap. VHI. ing to Jehovah, and the disgrace both of king and people. Early in his reign, Solomon had married the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt ; * and in his later days he fonned a harem of princesses of the heathen nations that were his allies and tributaries. The result was the religious apostasy " Of that uxorious king, whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul." It was the custom of the Eastern nations to choose the summits of hills as sanctuaries. Of such "high places" we have seen examples in Horeb, " the Mount ,of God," and in Nebo, on which Balaam tried his divination against Israel. Opposite to the eastern front of Mount Zion and Moriah rose a still loftier hill,f whose natural name now suggests far other associations than tRose which gained for it the title of the Mount of Offence. Solomon chose this eminence for the shrines of the false gods of his wives, and even worshipped them himself. For this apostasy his house was doomed to lose the fairest portion of the kingdom, and the sentence began to work in his later years. Hadad,. a prince of Edom, who had been saved from the slaughter of the nation by David, and had married the new king of Egypt's daughter, returned to rouse his people to a rebellion. On the north-eastern frontier there appeared another enemy, Rezon, who, after the overthrow of the kingdom of Zobah by David, had collected a band and maintained himself at Damascus. This was the origin of the Syrian kingdom of Damascus, which became very powerful after the disruption of the Hebrew monarchy ; and after being mixed up with the history of both kingdoms, sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as an ally, was at last extinguished by Tiglath- pileser, king of Assyria, shortly before the captivity of the Ten Tribes (b.c. 740). But a more pressing danger arose within the kingdom itself. It had been declared to Solomon that, for his idolatries, God would rend the kingdom from his son, leaving him, however, one tribe for the sake of His covenant with David. The instru- ment of fulfilling this prophecy was Jeroboaji, the son of Nebat, whose services in the public works had been rewarded by Solomon * This Pharaoh seems to have been the last king of the Twenty-first Dynasty. The change of djmasty will help to account for the alliance of his successor with Jeroboam, and his attack on Rehoboam. See chapter vii. pp. 125, 126. f Jerusalem is 2200 feet above the sea-level, the Mount of Olives 2398 feet. Some topographers distinguish the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offence, but both belong to the same range. B.C. 975.] DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 175 with an office that gave him great influence in the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. To this man the prophet Ahijah fore- told his elevation by a significant act ; and Solomon, hearing of the prediction, sought his life. Jeroboam, however, escaped to Egypt, and, like Hadad, obtained the protection of Shishak, till the death of Solomon. That event happened in e.g. 9Y5, after a reign of forty years. Having tasted all the sweets of power, wealth, and knowledge, and having abused them by luxury and insatiable curiosity, Solomon has left us, in the Book of Ecele- siastes, his experience of a life thus drained to the dregs — that the world is " vanity of vanities," and that the fear of God is the whole life of man. His government had been arbitrary, and his public works oppres- sive ; and the old jealousy of the other tribes, headed by Ephraim, against Judah and the house of David, was ever ready to break out afresh. The petulant refusal of Solomon's son, Rehoboam, against the advice of his father's old counsellors, to mitigate the people's burthens, was seized as the opportunity for revolt. Jeroboam was proclaimed King of Israel, the tribe of Judah alone remaining faithful to Rehoboam. The subsequent accession of Benjamin to the southern kingdom, and the anti-religious policy which drove the Levites out of Israel, added to the strength of Judah, which had already a population much exceeding the proportion of its territory.* The two kingdoms, henceforth known as those of Israel and Judah, were divided by a geo- graphical boundary passing along the southern border of Ephraim ; but it was not long before the increased power of Judah enabled it to embrace a great portion of that tribe. The whole territory of Simeon, and of the Danites who had remained when the rest of the tribe migrated to the north, was included in Judah, which retained the dependencies of Philistia, Moab, and Edom, and with the latter the ports on the Red Sea. On the other hand, it was cut off from the far more important commerce of Phoenicia. But the great strength of Judah lay in the possession of the sanctuary at Jerusalem, and in the knowledge that God's covenant of the kingdom was made with the house of David. The seces- sion of the northern tribes was a clear rebellion, w^liich the policy of Jeroboam at once converted into a religious apostasy. To guard against the dangers that would follow from the annual resort of his subjects to Jerusalem at the great feasts, he imitated * At the census of David, Judah numbered 500,000 fighting men, and the other tribes 800,000. The area of Israel was nearly four times that of Judah. 176 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. [Chap. VIIL the device of Aaron in setting up tlie golden calf as a symbol of Jeliovali's presence ; with this difference that — " The rebel king Doubled that sin, in Bethel and in Dan," the northern and southern extremities of his dominions. For this new worship he made priests of the lowest of the people, while he robbed the old priests and Levites of their possessions, and so drove them into Judah. The succeeding kings of Israel all maintained the worship of the calves ; they continually added fresh idolatries, till the marriage of Ahab with Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, led to the public establish- ment of the worship of Baal and the suppression of the worship of Jehovah. This twofold curse of rebellion and apostasy clung to the kingdom of Israel, the history of which is marked by a succession of bloody revolutions and shortlived dynasties, whose kings vied witli each other in profanity and t^Tanny. The d^masty of Jeroboam ended with the murder of his son ISTadab in a military revolution (b.c. 953). That of the usurper Baasha expired in like manner with the murder of his son Elah by Zimri, who was himself killed after a seven days' reign (b.c. 929), Omri, the avenger of his master, and the father of Ahab (the Kero of Hebrew history), established a dynasty which num- bered four kings, and lasted forty years. Its extinction forms an epoch of synchronism in the annals of the two kingdoms. One result of the fatal alliance of Jehoshaphat, the fourth king of Judah, with Ahab, was the marriage of Jiis son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and the introduction of the worship of Baal into Judah ; and the furious zeal of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, involved Ahaziah, the king of Judah (Jehoram's son), in the same fate with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, and his mother Jezebel (b.c. 88i). The time of Ahab's dynasty is marked by the missions of Elijah and Elisha, the greatest of that series of prophets, who never ceased to testify against the idolatries of Israel, and to warn king and people of the fate that Moses had predicted. We must, however, leave the story of their ministry to the separate province of Scripture History. During the first period of ninety years, the kingdom of Israel was greatly weakened by continual war with Judah, and its borders were contracted by the growing power of Syeia. That kino-dom, which we have seen founded at Damascus by Rezon (before b.c. 975), was ruled by three more kings of his d^niasty — Tabrimons (about b.c. 960), Benhadad I. (b.c. 941), and Benha- B.C. 975—721.] FOREIGN RELATIONS AND WARS. 177 dad II. (b.c, 910). The first Benhadad was bribed to attack Israel by Asa, the third king of Judah, when the latter was hard pressed by Baasha, and the Syrian king took sev^eral cities in the north. Benhadad II. attempted to conquer Israel, but was utter- ly defeated by Ahab in two campaigns (b.c. 901, 900), taken prisoner, and admitted to an alliance on terms dictated by the king of Israel. He still, however, held Eamoth in Gilead, and it M'as in the attempt to recover this city that Ahab and Jelio- shaphat were defeated, and the former lost his life. To his reign belongs the beautiful episode of the cure of Naaman by Elisha. Renewing the war with Jehoram, he subjected Samaria to that terrible blockade and famine which was miraculously relieved according to the prophecy of Elisha (b.c. 892). He was at length murdered by his general Hazael (who had been anointed, with Jehu and Elisha, as one of the destined avengers of the idolatries of Israel), just before the deaths of Jehoram and Ahaziah (b.c. 885). Hazael ravaged the country east of Jordan with the ut- most cruelty, while Jehu was engaged in destroying the house of Ahab ; he became almost complete master of Israel during the reign of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, and then invaded Judah and laid siege to Jemsalem, which the king Joash only induced him to spare by a large bribe (b.c. 840). Meanwlnle, though Jehu, after massacring all the house of Ahab and the worshippers of Baal, had so far declined from his first zeal as to worship the golden calves, the state of Israel was greatly improved. His son Jehoahaz (b.c 856) followed in the same idolatry, but repented ; and his son Joash (b.c. 839), listen- ing to the reproofs of Elisha, was permitted to gain three great victories over the Syrians, and to recover the cities they had taken on the west of Jordan. The next king, Jeroboam II., the sou of Joash (b.c. 825), recovered all the territory which the Syrians had taken, east of Jordan, from Hamath to the Dead Sea, and even took Damascus. These victories were gained over Benhadad III., who had succeeded Hazael about b.c. 839, after wliom we have little certain knowledge of the history of Syria. The kingdom of Israel had now recovered, under Jeroboam II., a power greater than it had ever before j)ossessed. But the idolatry of the calves was still maintained, and the warnings of its doom came nearer and louder in the prophecies of Amos and Hosea. The dynasty of Jehu ended amidst political confusion, with the murder of his son Zechariah by Shallum, who was him- self killed six months later by Menahem (b.c. 772). VOL. I. — 12 178 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. [Chap. VIII. TJie great Assyrian empire now appears in the sacred annals. Its history will be traced in the next chapter. The king Pul, liaving overrun Syria, invaded Israel, and received an enonnous tribute from Menaheni ; hut the conquest was not yet completed. Both Syria and Israel revived for a short time, the former under Rezin, and the latter under Pekah, who had murdered Pekahiah, the son of Menah(3m (b.c. 759). The combined attacks of these two kings on Judah (u.c. 742 — 741) reduced Ahaz to such ex- tremities, that he applied for aid to the Assyrian king Tiglath- pileser, wdio first put an end to the kingdom of Syria, and then carried captive into Media the tribes of Israel east of the Jor- dan, and a large part of the inhabitants of Galilee. Pekah was put to death by a conspiracy headed by Iloshea (b.c. 739), who became, after a period of anarchy, the nineteenth and last king of Israel, now contracted to the district round Samaria. His eiforts at reform, in concert with Hezekiah, king of Judah, proved too late. For the third time, the Assyrians invaded Israel under Shalmaneser, and Hoshea submitted to become a tributary (b.c. 728) ; but three years later he rebelled, relying on the aid of So, king of Egypt (probably Sabaco II.). But his ally failed him ; he was sent for by Shalmaneser and imprisoned ; Samaria was taken after a three years' siege ; the remnant of the Ten Tribes were carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates, and settled in the eastern provinces of the Assyrian empire (b.c. 721). The greater number of them probably lapsed into idolatry, and became con- founded Avith the surrounding nations ; but it is clear that many obeyed the invitation addressed by Cyrus to all his Hebrew sub- jects, and returned to Palestine with the restored people of Ju- dah. Tlie land, depoj)ulated by their removal, was repeopled by settlers whom Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, transported from Babylon and the neighbouring cities (about b.c. G78). These strangers, plagued by the wild beasts that had nniltiplied while the country lay waste, conceived a superstitious fear of '' the god of the land," and applied for instruction in his worship. Esar- haddon sent them a priest to teach them ; and the result was a strange confusion of the worship of Jehovah with that of their own idols. These people, with some intermixture of Hebrews, partly left in the lantl and partly joining them afterwards, became the ancestors of the later Samaritans. Nineteen kings had reigned over Israel for a period of 254 years, an average of almost thirteen years and a half. In Judah B.C. 975.] THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. 179 the same number of kings occupied a space of 3S9 years, or 135 years longer, giving an average of more than twenty years.* The vahie of the computation may be better seen by a comparison with our own country, over which thirty-five kings have reigned from the Conquest to the accession of Victoria, an average of just twenty-two years. These numbers at once show the superior sta- bility of the kingdom of Judah, which remained all this time in the house of David, and was transmitted in the direct line from father to son with only two exceptions in the concluding years of confusion.f Ten of the nineteen kings died violent deaths or were deposed. Many of them w^ere idolaters and corrupt in other re- spects ; but their evil influence was for a long time counteracted by great reformers, who held fast to the first duty of a Hebrew monarch, allegiance to Jehovah as the supreme king ; such as Asa, Jehoshajihat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, with whom must be n Limbered the high priest Jehoiada. The faith of these reformers rested on God's covenant ; their zeal was animated by the pos- session of the sanctuary of Jehovah ; but the steady growth of corruption among the people proved too strong for all their efforts ; nor had the best of them faith enough in " their Living Strength " to avoid the entanglement of foreign alliances. The first king, Eehoboam (b.c. 975), after a vain attempt to reduce the Ten Tribes by force of arms, was himself subjected by Shishak, king of Egypt, who invaded Judah and plundered the temple and palaces of the riches gathered by Solomon (b.c. 972). This was not a mere incursion, but a real though temporary con- quest.:}: It is ascribed by the sacred historian to the idolatry into which king and people had fallen, and of which they repented at the rebuke of the prophet Shemaiah. The distinct recognition of this alternation of Divine chastisements for sin, and Divine favours restored through the repentance of the people at the preaching of the prophets, is the only point of view from which the Jewish history can be properly understood. Nor was their position in this respect entirely unique. All nations are subject to the like discipline in the course of Divine Providence ; and, though not * In this computation, the usurpation of Athaliah is included ni the reign of Joash, just as we include the Commonwealth in the reign of Charles II. The want of perfect agreement between the separate years and the total is explained on the supposition of sons having been associated with their fathers in the kingdom. •j- The following list of the last five kings shows these exceptions. (15) Josiah ; (16) Jehoahaz, son of Josiah ; (17) Jehoiakim, son of Josiah ; (18) Jehoiachin, son of Jehoi- akim ; (19) Zedekiah, son of Josiah. J See chapter vii. p. 125. 180 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. [Chap. VIII. explained in each case by the voice of a prophet, tlie great prin- ciples of God's moral government are revealed with equal clear- ness. It is not that the hand of God is absent from the affairs of the world, but that its working is far too much left out of the account by worldly statesmen and historians. In this, too, the history of the chosen people is an epitome of the history of the world. The short and wicked reign of Abijah (b.c. 958) is only re- markable for a great victory gained over Jeroboam. His son, Asa (b.c. 955), after a vigorous reformation of the kingdom, shook off the yoke of Egypt and gained a gTcat victory over " Zerah the Cushite." * Being hard pressed by Baasha, king of Israel, he formed an alliance with Benhadad I., whose invasion of the nortli not only relieved Judah, but enabled Asa to add permanently to the kingdom several cities of Ephraim.f Eeproved by the prophet Ilananiah for the Syrian alliance, he set the lirst example of the attempt to silence the prophets by persecution, and died under the displeasure of Jehovah. His son Jehoshaphat (b.c. 914) is one of the heroes of the Jewish monarchy, which now reached its acme of political and moral greatness. He reformed the whole civil and religious order of the realm, kept the subject states to their allegi- ance, and attempted, though without success, to revive the mari- time enterprises of Solomon in the Bed Sea and Indian Ocean. But all was perilled by his alliance with Ahab, which involved him in the defeat at Ramoth-Gilead, and brought on the far great- er evils that resulted from the marriage of his son Jehoram to Atha- liah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram (b.c. 892) paid the penalty of his idolatries in the final revolt of Edom, which hence- forth had its own king, and at last imposed one upon the Jews ; :}: and after other disasters, he perished by a loathsome disease. His son Ahaziah (b.c. 885 — 884) was slain by Jehu, with Jehoram and Jezebel ; and of his numerous sons, the infant Joasli alone escaped the massacre by Athaliah. The usui-pation of that true daughter of Jezebel and her overthrow by the high priest Jehoiada has sup- plied a noble theme to the tragic poet.§ Tlie early years of Joash (b.c. 878) were made illustrious by the reforms of Jehoiada, who restored the temple worship ; but his death left the king under the * It is uncertain what king is represented by this name, sec chapter vii. p. 126. -f- See p. IIT. ■\. Herod the Great was an Idumajan by origin. The whole relations between Israel and Edom form a striking fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaac ; Genesis xxvii. 40. § Racine's ^het»distrib- utes the " burthens " of future woe impartially among all the states that had been or were to be the enemies of Israel. I^or does he spare the princes of Judali, who seem generally to have leant to Egypt, and whose anti-religious policy was matched by their oppression of their poorer brethren. His writings lay bare the utter corruption and selfishness which had set at nought both the letter and spirit of the law, and which were too far gone for all the reforms of a Hezekiah or a Josiah. Supported by such a teacher, Hezekiah sought to recover the independence of Judah, as the land of Jehovah. He made successful war against the Phil- istines ; but the great external events of his reign sprang from his relations with Assyria and Egypt. He began by refusing to pay to Shalmaneser the tribute which Tiglatli-pileser had received from Ahaz. The events that followed are obscure, from a diffi- culty in reconciling the Hebrew, Egyptian, and Assyrian chronol- ogies.f Sennacherib prepared to punish the revolt, while the * It does not come within the scope of oiu- work to give an account of the prophets vnd their writings. f See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. i., p. 326. B.C. 639. REIGN OF JOSIAH. 183 princes of Jiidah, against tlie warnings of Isaiah, sought aid from Egypt. The disunion implied in this policy may have been the cause of Hezekiah's purchasing the forbearance of Sennacherib witli all the sacred treasures, after he had made preparations for resistance ; and the Assyrian would be the more compliant as he was now engaged in a great war with Egypt. But, when he had taken Ashdod, the key of the military route to Egypt, he turned his arms against Judah, and it was from before Lachish that he sent the blasphemous summons by Rabshakeh, to which Isaiah replied by the prophecy of his destruction. At this crisis he was called away by the advance of Tirhakah, the great king of the Ethiopian dynasty, and it seems to have been in his camp near Pelusium that his army was swejjt down by the very miracle that Isaiah had predicted. The subsequent ftite of Sennacherib belongs to the history of Assyria.* It is still a disputed point whether it was before or after this event that Ilezekiah received the embassy from Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon, to congratulate him on his miraculous recovery from sickness ; when the pride with which he displayed his treasures provoked Isaiah's prophecy of the Ba- bylonian captivity. The peaceful remainder of Hezekiah's reign was occupied in works of improvement at Jerusalem and the other chief cities of Judah. The gross apostasy and bloody persecution of his son Manas- seh (b.c. 697) were punished by his imprisonment at Babylon by Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib ; and Manasseh's repentance was as signal as his guilt. His son Amon (b.c. G42), an idolater, was slain by liis servants after a reign of only two years. The last independent king of Judah, Josiah (b.c. 639), was the worthiest successor of his father David. Every reader of the Scriptures is familiar with his youthful piety, his hearty devotion to the Avork of religious reformation, in the course of which he fuliilled the old prophecy against the idolatrous altar of Jerobo- am, his discovery of the book of the law, and the solemn fast and Passover which followed. These were but the last expiring glo- ries of the kingdom, showing what it might have been if all its kings had been such as Josiah. One point in the position of Josiah deserves special notice. He was, in some sense, a king of Israel as well as Judah. The first deportation of the northern * Compare chap. vii. p. 128 ; and chap. ix. The Assyrian chronology forbids our placing this event earlier than B.C. 700. To remove the apparent inconsistency with the date of Tirhakah, it has been suggested that he was still only " King of Ethiopia " (Isaiah xxxvii. 9), in alliance with the petty kings of Lower Egypt. 184 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. [Chap. VHI. tribes liad not been so complete as tlie final captivity of the peo- ple around Samaria ; and the remnant had come to look to the king of Judah for encouragement and protection. We find them responding to the invitation which Ilczekiah sent through all the tribes, with the consent of Hoshea, to keep the Passover at Jerusalem. After the extinction of the kingdom of Israel, and when Samaria was occupied only by a few scattered settlers, terrified, as we have seen, by the desolation of the country, the northern tribes naturally drew closer to Josiah, and may have hoped to see him revive the nnited monarchy. Tliese circum- stances hel}) US to understand the ver}'- different relations of the Jews to the Galila3ans and Samaritans after the return from the captivity. Meanwhile, great revolutions were taking place in the king- doms of Assyria and Egypt. After a temporary recovery, under Esarhaddon, the great Assyrian empire was fast falling before the revolt of the Medes and the Babylonians ; while in Egypt the new dynasty, founded by Psammetichus, aimed at reviving the empire of the old Pharaohs, The expedition of Pharaoh jS^echo to the Euphrates has already been I'elated.* The motive usually assigned for Josiah's opposition to Necho's march is fidelity to his relation as a tributary of Assyria ; but we would rather ascribe it to the ardent patriotism which could not endure any invader in the Holy Land, and to a desire to protect the northern tribes. But it was too late : the doom of the monarchy was sealed. The march of Necho lay through the gi-eat plain of Es- draelon ; and Josiah, heedless of his warnings to let him pass through peaceably, led forth all his force to meet him, ventured his person in the battle under a disguise, and was slain by the Egyptian archers in the valley of Megiddo. The prophet Jere- miah led the lamentations of the people over a fall which in- volved that of the kingdom (e.g. 608). The people proclaimed Shallum, one of Josiah's sons (not the eldest), as king, under the name of Jehoahaz ; but the Egyptian conqueror, on his return from Carchemish, deposed him, and set up his brother Jehoia- kim as a tributary vassal (b. c. 608). "While the new king began to play the tyrant under the protec- tion of Egypt, the voice of Jeremiah was lifted up to predict the desolation of Judah and the Seventy Years' Captivity at Baby- lon ; and the fulfilment of his word was rapidly accomplished. Nineveh was taken, and the Assyrian monarchy overthi'own, by * Chapter vii. p. 133. B.C. 605—586.] THE SUCCESSIVE CAPTIVITIES. 185 the united forces of the Medes and Babylonians.* The empire of Babylon was founded by ]S"abopolassar ; and his son Nebuchad- nezzar turned back the tide of Egyptian invasion by a great vic- toiy over Xecho at Carchemish. Then, having succeeded his father on tlie throne, he drove the Egj^tians out of Palestine, and advanced upon Jerusalem. The city was taken and the tem- ple plundered ; the king was taken away as a prisoner, but re- stored to his throne on the condition of paying a large tribute. The choicest youths of the princely houses of Judah were carried off to Babylon as hostages, among whom were Daniel and his three companions (b.c. 605). From this epoch of the First Cap- tivity OF Judah we must reckon the Seventy Years of the Cap- tivity, to the first year of Cyrus, in b.c. 536. Judah was now nothing more than a dependency of Babylon, and Jehoiakim was the creature of Kebuchadnezzar. But the king and the princes of Judah still dreamed of independence by the help of Egypt, in spite of the warnings of Jeremiah. His revolt (in b.c. 603) subjected Judaea to the ravages of predatory bands from the surrounding nations, who carried off thousands of captives. A Chaldsean army laid siege to Jerusalem, and Jehoia- kim was killed in a sally (b.c. 597). His son Jehoiachin f had only reigned for three months in the beleaguered city, when Xebuchad- nezzar came to conduct the siege in person. Jerusalem soon sur- rendered ; Jehoiachin was carried away to Babylon, with 10,000 captives, among whom were Ezekiel and Mordecai, and few but the jjoorer sort of people were left behind. Over this remnant Nebuchadnezzar set up as king, Zedekiah, the youngest son of Josiah (b.c. 597). But not even in this abject state could the Jews submit to the fate which their long course of apostasy had brought upon them. Jeremiah, who still remained at Jerusalem, became engaged in a constant conflict with the false ]:)rophets, who predicted a speedy return from the captivity, and his warn- ings were echoed back by Ezekiel from the banks of the river Chebar. The latter prophet gives a description of the idolatry and profligacy of the princes and priests of Judah, who remained at Jerusalem, which is confirmed by their savage persecution of the former. At length the first successes of Pharaoh-Hophra (Apries) encouraged Zedekiah to renew the Egyptian alliance and revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. The King of Babylon now re- solved to crush these repeated rebellions in the ruins of Jerusa- * The history of these kingdoms is pursued in chapters ix. and x. ■j- Also called Jeconlah and Coniah. 186 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. [Chap. VHI. lem. On liis forming the siege of the city, Jeremiah advised an immediate surrender ; but the king and princes trusted to relief from Egypt. Pharaoh-IIoplira did indeed advance ; and when Nebuchadnezzar drew off liis forces to meet him, the city exulted as if the war were ended. But the Egyptian king dared not meet the Chaldsean army ; the siege was again formed ; and soon Je- rusalem was taken by storm, and the city, with its temple, were razed to the ground by !Nebuzaradan, the general of Nebuchad- nezzar.* Zedekiah, siezed in the attempt to escape before the final capture, was brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Eiblah in Hamath. His eyes were put out, after he had seen his sons killed, and he died in close captivity at Babylon. His nephew Jehoia- chin was more fortunate. After a captivity of thirty-seven years he was released from prison by Evil-Merodach, the son of Nebuchad- nezzar (e.g. 501), and treated with royal honours till his death. The whole Jewish nation were now carried away as captives to Babylon, except a miserable remnant of the very poorest peo- ple, M'ho were left to cultivate the land. Gedaliah was appointed as their governor ; and the prophet Jeremiah remained with him ; the seat of government being the fortress of Mizpeh. But even this wretched fragment of the once favoured nation fell a prey to faction. Shemaiah, a member of the royal house, killed Gedaliah treacherously at a feast, and tried to carry off the renmant of the peoj)le into slavery to the Ammonites. His scheme was frustrated by Johanan, an officer of Gedaliah, who fled to Egypt with the greater number of the people, including Jeremiah and Baruch. The few who remained, numbering only 74:5, were carried away to Babylon by Nebuzaradan four years later ; and the land was left to entire desolation, except for a few scattered settlers from the nomad tribes of the desert. This very desolation, however, formed in one respect a favour- able contrast to the condition of the former land of the Ten Tribes. Judaea was not re-peopled by heathen settlers, who might have disputed its possession with the people on their own return, or have corrupted both their race and their religion by their intermixture. The land of Judah, marked out to the eye of man as the special object of Divine judgment, was in tnith preserved by the care of God, with all the monuments of former idolatries swept from its surface, to be again the country of His * Eespecting the slightly different dates of this event, see the note on Scripture Chro- nology, p. 10. Ussher assigns it to B.C. 588 ; but the true date is now pretty well fixed at B.C. 586. From the dates of months and days given in the Scripture narrative, and Btill observed as fasts by the Jews, we know that it took place about July or August. B.C. 586—536.] CONDITION OF THE CAPTIVE JEWS. 187 people, when tliey were purified by the discipline of captivity from their proneness to those idolatries. " The land kept her sabbaths," in compensation for the sabbatic years of which it had been deprived by the cupidity of its ownei's ; and it was restored to them, renovated by its rest, as they were renovated by the ordeal of their captivity. For all we know of the history of the captives proves that the interval was such an ordeal. Like the forty years' wandering in the wilderness, it effectually separated the old generation, who had shared ir the corruptions of the dying monarchy, fi'oni the new one which began a fresh life with their return. The restorrd nation had many faults, so many and great as again to involve their rejection ; but they never relapsed into idolatry. Of their condition during the Captivity we have little information ; but the elevation of Daniel and his comrades at the court of Babylon, and the impression made upon I^ebuchadnezzar by the decisive proofs of Jehovah's power, must have secured for the Jews a high degree of consideration. Jeremiah's command for them to build houses and buy lands implies their possession, not only of personal liberty, but also of civil rights. Their later history proves that they preserved the records of their genealogies ; and there are clear indications of some kind of internal government under their patriarchal princes. Some mention is made of a sort of head, called the Prince of the Captivity, but the existence of such an officer is by no means certain. At all events, an organization was maintained, which made it not difficult to gather together such of them as were willing to obey the edict of Cyrus for their return to their own country (b.c. 536). The fact, that their obedience to that edict was voluntary, was of itself a means of separation between the pious Jews, who had preserved their faith in the promises of their restoration, from those who had_ lapsed into the idolatries of the provinces in which they were settled ; and it seems probable that nearly all the remnant of the Ten Tribes who had not thus apostatized, joined with the people of Judah in their return to Palestine. As to the rest, their fate, as well as the ultimate destiny of their brethren, scattered abroad after the last destruction of Jerusalem, does not belong to the historian to discuss. We have now to look back upon the history of those great monarchies which succeeded each other on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, from before the n>igration- of Abraham to the full establishment of the Persian Empire. CHAPTEH IX. THE CHALDEAN, ASSYRIAN, AND BABYLONIAN EMPIRES. " The Eastern front was fjlorious to be behold, With diamond Hamint; and barbaric gold ; There Ninus shone, wVio spread the Assyrian fame, And the great founder of the Persian name. The sage Chaldivans robed in white appeared And Brachmans deep in desert woods revered." Pope — Temple of Fame. KUrinKS ON THE EUPHRATES AXD TIGRIS — DESCRIPTION OF MESOPOTAMIA — THE GREAT PLAIN Ot CHALD^A — ITS BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT — ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTER— INUNDATIONS AND CANALS — CLIMATE — NATURAL PRODUCTS — ANIMALS — MINERALS — BRICK-MAKING — BIBLICAL HISTORY OF CHALD.EA — BABEL — NIMROD — THE CHALDEAN RACE — THEIR CUSHITE ORIGIN AND LANGUAGE — MEANINGS OF THE CHALD.-EAN NAME — FOR A TRIBE, A NATION, AND A CASTE —TRACES OF A STILL EARLIER TURANIAN POPULATION — THE DYNASTIES OF BEROSUS — ASTRO- NOMICAL RECORDS CONTEMPORARY WITH THE BEGINNING OF THE MONARCHY — ITS EPOCH DYNASTY OF NIMROD— TWO DIVISIONS OF CHALDJEA, EACH WITH ITS TETRAPOLIS — CITIES SACRED TO THE HEAVENLY' BODIES— THE CHALDJEAN TEMPLE-TOWERS — THEIR DESIGN, FORM, MATERIALS, AND RUINS — CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS— STAGES IN THE INVENTION OP WRITING INTERPRETATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS — HISTORY' OF THE EARLIER CHALD.SIAN DY'NASTY NIMROD, THE FOUNDER — URCKH, THE BUILDER, THE FIRST KING NAMED ON THE INSCRIPTIONS LATER CHALD.EAN DYNASTY^CHEDORLAOMER, THE CONQUEROR — SEMITIC MIGRATIONS, ABRAHAM AND THE PHCENICIANS — THE " FOUR NATIONS" OF CHALD^EA— CHECK TO CHAL- DEAN CONQUESTS — OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY BY THE ARABS — GROWTH OF SEMITIC INFLUENCE — THE CHALD.EAN CASTE AND LEARNING SURVIVE — CHALDEAN ART AND SCIENCE ■ — ARCHITECTURE, TEMPLES, HOUSES, AND TOMBS — POTTERY — IMPLEMENTS — METAL-WORK TEXTILE FABRICS — ARITHMETIC AND ASTRONOMY — WEIGHTS AND MEASURES — THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE GREEK TRADITIONS THE UPPER DYNASTY — TIGLATH-PILESER I. — SARDANAPALUS SHALMANESER I. — THE BLACK OBELISK — PUL — SEMIRAMIS — THE LOWER DYNASTY — TIGLATH- PILESER II. — SHALMANESER II. — SARGON — CONQUEST OP MEDIA — SENNACHERIB — ESARHAD- DO.V — BABYLON SUBJECT TO ASSYRIA — THE SARDANAPALUS OF THE GREEKS — FALL OP KINEVEH — LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE — NABONASSAR AND SEMIRAMIS — MERODACH-BALADAN — ESARHADDON — NABOPOLASSAR — WARS WITH LYDIA AND EGYPT — NEBUCHADNEZZAR — EVIL- MERODACH AND HIS SUCCESSORS — NABONADIUS — LEAGUE AGAINST PERSIA — BELSHAZZAR — FALL OF BABYLON — ITS LATER HISTORY. Almost at every step in the preceding narrative, we liave liad to refer to the great empires established from the earliest times in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Of the six great eastern monarchies — for that of David and Solomon mnst not be excluded from the reckoning — four ruled successively in this valley, — the Chaldean, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Medo-Persian. In the absence of a trustworthy chronology, it cannot be posi- tively decided whether the Euphrates or the Nile was the earlier seat of civilization and royal power. "We have given the pre- cedence to Egypt, as having the earliest historic records. The order of the Scriptm-e narrative, and proximity to the primitive THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES. 189 abode of our race, concur in claiming an antiquity little, if any, lower for tlie most ancient Babylonian, otherwise called the Chal- dsean monarchy. Two mountain ranges, diyerging ft'om the Armenian highlands, shut in the region of which we haye now to speak. One chain, or rather system of parallel chains, runs south and south-east past the head of the Pei*sian Gulf, forming the mountains of Ktir- dintan and Lvristan, while the ridges of Amanus and Lebanon extend like another wall on the west. A less marked boundary is formed on the south by the table-land of the Ai'abian peninsiila. The region enclosed within these limits lies just in the centre of that great desert zone which we have described as extending from the western coast of Africa almost to the north-eastern shores of Asia, and at the yery point where that zone passes from a general elevation little above that of the ocean, into a high table- land. The highlands on the north and east, watered by many streams, afford abundant pastures, but the sandy wastes of Arabia are prolonged upwards from the south, over the great Syrian Desert, which would extend to the very foot of the highlands, but for the fertilizing streams of the Euphrates and the Tigris. These two great rivers take their rise in-- Armenia, on opposite sides of Mount Kiphates, and unite near the head of the Persian Gulf, which receives their waters, after the Euphrates has flowed about 1,780 miles, and the Tigris, 1,146. But their earlier courses are quite divergent. The Tigris, having its sources on the south of Niphates, flows at first towards the east,* parallel to that chain, in the valley between it and Mount Masius, whence emerging it pursues its course to the south-east, with but few bendings, along the feet of the mountains of Kurdistan. The Euphrates, rising on the north side of Niphates, also flows parallel to its chain, but westward, as if seeking an outlet in the MediteiTanean ; but, after a circuitous sweep through the mountains, it finally enters, at the parallel of 36° N. lat., on the south-eastern course which brings it to a confluence with the Tigris. This part of its stream lies for a long distance through the Arabian Desert, and for 800 miles below the confluence of the Khabour it does not receive a single tributary. Its w^aters dwindle, passing off either to be lost in the desert, or to swell the volume of the Tigris, already enriched by numerous great tributaries from the eastern mountains. Much of this borrowed water afterwards flows back into the Euphrates by * It is undoubtedly the Hiddekel of Paradise, " which goeth eastwards towards Assyria." Genesis ii. 14. 190 CHALDiEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. JX. the Shut-el-IIie, and at Kornali tlie two rivers unite in tlie Shat- el-Arab. These two great rivers have always given a name to the country through whicli they flow — the Aram-Naharaim (Highland of the two rivers) of the Semitic tongues, the Mesopotamia of the Greeks, and the Al-Jezireh (the Island) of the modern Arabs. But these names require a more exact definition, especially in their relation to those of Cliakhea, Babylonia, and Assyria. There is a clearly- marked physical division of the district watered by the rivers into two regions. The northern part, descending from the moun- tains, in a steppe or undulating plain, of the secondary geological formation, bounded by a line drawn diagonally across the 34th parallel of latitude, nearly through Hit on the Euphrates and Tekrit on the Tigris. The subsidence to the dead level of the ter- tiary alluvium is here as distinct and sudden as that from the slightly elevated chalk district of Cambridgeshire to the level of the fens. And this is the historical as well as the natm*al division between Uj)per and Lower Mesopotamia. The former country cor- responds very nearly to Assyria in the wider sense ; but the original land of Asshur lay along the upper course of the Tigris, while the western part, encircled by the great bend of the Euplirates, was the land of Padan-Aram, that is, the High Plain. The whole forms a slightly elevated plain, about 300 miles in breadth, sub- divided by the limestone range of the Sinjar hills, above 36° 'N. latitude, between which and Mount Masius it is well watered ; but below this range it is nearly desert, except in winter. In ancient times, however, a system of artificial irrigation enabled it to sup- port its numerous inhabitants. This country w^as the seat of the great Assyrian Empire. But another monarchy, the old Babylonian, or Chaldsean,* was esta- blished mucli earlier in the southern alluvial plain. It was bounded on tlie north by the natural division, already described, between the alluvial and upper plains ; on the west and south by the Arabian Desert, whose tertiary sands and gravel reach generally within twenty or thirty miles of the Euplirates, but sometimes cross it, and by the head of the Persian Gulf; and on the east by the Tigris, which divides it from the rich plain and foot-hills of Elim or Susiana. On this side, and on the north, it had powerful and formidable neighbours ; on the west the desert was only peopled by a few scattered tribes of Bedouins, who might, however, as we shall see, prove no less * The reason for this appellation will be given presently. THE GREAT PLAIN OF CHALD^A. 191 dangerous. The waters of tlie Persian Gulf, slieltered by land on eacli side, opened up the commerce of the whole Indian Ocean, which the navigable courses of the great rivers carried up to the very feet of the northern mountains. It must be remembered that the sea anciently penetrated much deeper than its present limits. Chaldsea, like Egypt, lying in the rainless part of the great desert zone, is "the gift of its rivers," whose alluvial deposits are said to advance the coast line one mile in from thirty to seventy years. It is subject to inundations, though less regular and important than that of the Nile, and the waters require more careful distribution. The neglect of the proper works at the present day allows the flood of the Euphrates, which is the greater of the two, to escape for the most part westward into the desert, where it only forms pestilential swamps. The sands of the desert are constantly gaining on the cultivable land between the rivers. In ancient times a great canal was cut from Hit to the Persian Gulf along the edge of the desert, regulating the inundation, and fitting a wide tract on the right bank of the river for cultivation. A smaller canal (the Palla- copas of Arrian) branched ofi* south of Sepharvaim, to supply the great artificial lake near Borsippa, from which the gardens of Babylon were irrigated. The whole district between the two rivers was intersected by canals, the chief of which were three that drew off the water of the Euphrates into the Tigris, above Babylon, The inundation of the Tigris is briefer and more regular. At present the plain extends about 400 miles along the rivers, and about 100 miles in width. In the earliest age of history the Persian Gulf probably reached 120 or 130 miles further inland ; and a corresponding deduction must be made from the size of the country, the ancient area of which is calculated at about 23,000 square miles — about equal to ancient Greece with its islands, to Denmark, or to the similarly formed country of Holland. This vast level plain was destitute of all striking natural fea- tures, except that unbroken horizon which is the one charm of flat countries. Such a surface is well fitted for the display of those gigantic piles of architecture by which the race of Ham delighted to supply the lack of nature's works, and which still diversify the plain with the mounds that hide their ruins. The only other interruptions to the view are a few sand-hills, and the embank- ments along the rivers and canals ; and the surface of the ground is merely varied by the different colours of the cultivated fields near the rivers and canals, and i»f the arid tracts beyond their reach. 193 CHALDiEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. The summer, wliicli sets in about May, is intensely liot; and tlie moisture of the climate makes the heat most oppressive. The winter is mild, witli rarely a touch of frost. All ancient writers celebrate the unsuq^assed fertility of Chaldaea ; and modern tra- vellers still attest the natural capacities of the region. This is tlie only country in wliich wheat is known to be indigenous. Other cereals are plentiful, and groves of the magnificent date- palm rise like islands amidst the seas of com, and fringe the banks of the rivers. The vine and other fruits abound. The enormous reeds of the rivers and marshes were used, as the monuments show, for houses and for boats. The animals of Mesopotamia are made familiar to us by the Hebrew prophets, and by the hunting scenes in wliich the monuments exhibit the kings as constantly engaged. The desolation of the country has of course greatly multiplied tlie noble lion, with the lesser wild beasts and birds of prey. Nearly every mound that marks the site of a ruined city verities the prophetic descriptions of the desolation of Babylon. Domestic animals abound ; and, in the decline of agriculture, the flocks and herds are the chief wealth of the people, who have lallen back into the nomad state. The rivers teem with fish, and the monu- ments constantly represent great gardens with fish-ponds. Under the Persian Empire one-third of the whole royal revenue was drawn from Babylonia. As the tertiary country, Lower Mesopotamia is almost destitute of rocks and minerals ; and yet no people built on a vaster scale. Choice stones, as marbles, agate, and alabaster, were obtained in small pieces to ornament the temples. Limestone was brought down the rivers from Upper Mesopotamia, but in no great quantities. Its want was supplied by bricks, for which the alluvial soil fur- nished the best materials. The fierce sun hardened them enough for ordinary use, and the kiln made them as durable as granite. Various kinds of cement were furnished by the calcareous stones of the Arabian Desert, by the slimy mud of the soil, and especially by the bitumen which is the chief mineral product of the land. The neighbourhood of Hit has always been famed for its springs of bitumen, naphtha, and petroleum. These were probably the materials with which the Babel builders wrought. Such was the country of which we have the earliest records in the Book of Genesis. The two leading facts are the erection of the city and citadel of Babel, as a great centre of union, by a people who journeyed eastward, apparently from the primeval seats of the human race ; and the establishment, in the same regions, by the THE CHALDEAN RACE. 193 Cushite conqueror Nimrod, of a kingdom, whose first seat was tlie tetrapolis of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneli. Tlie Biblical account, M'hicli makes Nimrod a son of Cush, and consequently the ruling race, at least in his kingdom, a Cushite and therefore Hamite people, is confirmed by the best records of history and by modern discovery. This is the race to which the most recent historians apply the name of Chaldgean. Till lately, indeed, the general opinion has identified the Chal- d^ean with the Semitic race.* The aflinity between the later Babylonian and the Hebrew tongues is often cimsidered as decisive of the question ; but there is ample evidence that the Babylonian language had passed through a great change since the time of the early Chaldsean monarcliy. The same evidence disposes of the opinion, handed down from Herodotus, that the Babylonians were, from the first, of the same stock as the Assyrians, who were Semitic. The native historian, Berosus, in whose fragments we have rem- nants of records of unknown antiquity, clearly distinguishes the Babylonians from the Assyrians ; and in this he is followed by several classical writers. The traditions preserved by the Greek poets, from Homer downwards, concerning an eastern as well as a western nation of Ethiopians, and particularly those regarding Meranon, can only be explained by the difiTusion of the Cushite race over the South of Asia as well as Africa. There are Arme- nian traditions to the same effect ; and the memory of the Cushite occupation seems to be preserved by certain geographical names. But the question may now be viewed as decided by cuneiform in- scrij)tions lately discovered in Lower Mesopotamia, the language of which is clearly Hamitic, akin to that of the Gallas of Ethiopia. The name ChaldjBan, applied to this Cushite race, is itself of obscure origin. The Hebrew name, so translated in our version of the Bible (following the LXX), is a different word of doubtful etymology — Chasdim ; but it seems clearly equivalent to the na- tive Kaldi. The name is used in three different senses. First, as a tribe, we read of the Chaldsean robbers, who, like the Sabseans, fell upon Job's cattle. As a nation, they are the people who had their capital at Babylon, in the land of Shinar.f But, besides these two ethnic senses, the Chaldseans at the court of Nebuchadnezzar were a priestly caste, who are classed with the astrologers and * The language called Chaldee is undoubtedly Semitic ; but its appellation seems to be a misnomer. It belongs rather to the Western than the Eastern Aramsean dialect, and is, in fact, less nearly related to the Hebrew than is the Babylonian of the time of the Captivity. \ This, the original Scripture name of Babylonia, is also the only one used for the country in the Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions. VOL. I. — 13 194 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. magicians, liad a learning and language of their own, and formed a sort of colleges. Iliose who acquired their learning, and were admitted into their body, were called Chaldseans, quite irrespec- tive of their race ; and thus Daniel hecame the master of the Chal- dseans. That such a body would retain the ancient language, as a sacred tongue, after it had been supplanted in common use by the later Semitic dialect, is in accordance w^ith probability and ana- logy ; and this view seems to explain the various uses of the name. Originally one of the Cushite tribes who settled in Lower Mesopotamia, the Kaldi, Kaldai, or Chaldseans, gave their name to the Cushite monarchy, whose people made great advances in art and science. Then, as the nation became Semitized, chiefly by Assyrian influence, their old learning, w^rapped up in the old lan- guage, became the proijerty of a class, who enjoyed high influence with the people, and favour at the court — the more so as the Baby- lonian kings, from Nabopolassar, seem to have been of the Chal- da^an race. Lastly, nothing could be more natural than that the Jewish writers should apply the name of this high class, which was also the name of the old monarchy, to the existing people, though the "Chaldsean " subjects of Nebuchadnezzar were of a different race from the ancient people. Under the later Babylonian tings, and probably under their Assyrian predecessors, the language of learning and religion seems to have been the old Chaldsean, while that of civil proceedings was Semitic. The question still remains — whence the Chaldseans of Babylonia originally came. There is a native historian, Berosus, who occupies a place similar to that of Manetho in Egyptian history. He was a priest of Belus at Babylon in the reign of Antiochus IL (b.c. 261-246). From the archives in the temple of the god, he compiled in Greek a " History of Babylon or Chaldsea," of whicli, like the work of Manetho, only some fragments are preserved by Josephus, Euse- bius, and other clironographcrs and fathers. The authenticity of his statements is open to objections similar to those urged against Manetho. His early history is entirely mythical ; but, as we come down to periods for which other evidence exists, we find it to a great extent confirmator}^ of Berosus. This is especially the case with the cuneiform inscriptions. In his mythical history, Berosus goes back to the Creation, peopling the slime of Chaos Avith creatures whose monstrous forms were borrowed from the pictures on the wall of the Babylonian temples. The Chaos is destroyed by Bel, the great deity who occupies the same place as Jove in the Greek mythology, the god of light and air. He created the sun, the moon, and the five THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 195 planets, and ordered the gods to people the earth. To these suc- ceeded a savage race, till Oannes, a being with the upper part of a man and the lower part of a fish, coming up out of the Indian Sea, revealed to them the principles of law and science, and taught them to build cities and temples." The state thus established w^as governed by seven rulers for twelve sars (43,200 years), dur- ing which period six more " Fish-Men " came up from the sea, and taught the learning which was embodied in the Seven Sacred Books. Three more rulers fill up the antediluvian cycle of 432,000 years.f The god Bel, who was himself the last of these ten antediluvian rulers, warned Xisuthrus of the destruction of all living beings by a deluge, the story of which most strikingly resembles that of the Noachic Flood. On coming out of the ark, Xisuthrus dug up the Seven Sacred Books which he had buried at Sepharvaim (Sippara, the City of the Sun), repeopled the land, and fixed the capital again at Babylon, where eighty-six demigods reigned for 34,080 years, a period intended, as we shall see presently, to make up with the following dynasties, a complete cycle of ten sai'S or 36,000 years. Tliese eighty-six demigods form the First Dynasty of Berosus, who expressly calls them Chaldoeans. Thus far the account is unmistakeably mythical ; but, as we had occasion to observe in the case of Egypt, a mythical period does not necessarily exclude the element of true tradition ; only it is impossible to separate the two. After this first mythical dynasty of eighty-six kings, Berosus assigns 224 years to a dynasty of eight Median kings, who con- quered Babylon, and expelled the earlier Chaldaean dynasty. Granting that this tradition represents some historical fact, it by no means follows that these Medians were of the Aryan race familiar to us by that name, but only that they were the earliest known inhabitants of the country afterwards called Media. ISTow, there is a vast mass of evidence pointing to an early population of Western Asia by a race kindred, in many respects, to that Avhich we no\v' call Turanian. Such a race certainly possessed the high- * This Fish-Man appears again in the Dagon of the Philistines, with whom is associated a goddess, Derceto. Besides the constant appearance of the image in the Babylonian sculptures, the name of Dagon has been discovered on the monuments; and tradition made Scmiramis the daughter of Derceto. f In the Babylonian system of notation the numbers 6 and 10 were employed alter nately. Time was measured ordinarily by the soss, the ner, and the sar — the soss being (10 X 6 =) 60 years, the ner (60 x 10=) 600 years, and the sar (600 x 6 =) 3600 years. The next term in this series would evidently be (3600 x 10 =) 36,000 years, and the term following (36,000 x 6 =) 216,000. Berosus' antediluvian cycle consists of 432,000, or two such neriods. 196 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Cn.vp. IX. liiiids of Elam, between Lower Mesopotamia and the tableland of Iran, the ancient Media; and its traces have been found in Chal- dsea itself, on the monuments whose records have been recently deciphered. There was, too, an universal tradition of an occupa- tion of Western Asia by the Scythians, that is, the Turanian race.* This tradition, as we have argued in a former chapter, seems to point to a period when the demarcations between races and languages were hardly yet established. The same consideration may help to explain the tact that we find Aryan as well as Tura- nian forms in the earliest ChakLiean inscriptions. We do not, however, exclude the prol)ability that there was also a positive intermixture of the Turanian and Aryan races as foreign elements in the population of Chaldaia. The general conclusion from the whole evidence seems to be, that the Median dynasty of Berosus were a Turanian or mixed Scytho-Aryan race, whose religion was an elemental worship, and that these were succeeded by a native Chaldsean or Cushite race, who practised the worship of the heavenly bodies. Their religion, combined with the facilities afforded by their climate and their level horizon, led them from the earliest times to the study of as- tronomy, in which they made great progress. When Alexander the Great took possession of Babylon, Callisthenes was able to send to Aristotle a series of astronomical observations taken by the Chal- daeans for an unbroken period of 1903 years. These observations would therefore date from b.c. 2234 (331 + 1903), as the epoch of the Third (or Chaldsfian) Dynasty of Berosus. Other indications point to the same date, the adoption of which gives a remarkable consistency to the whole chronological scheme of Berosus. That scheme has been lately examined by Dr. Gutschmidt, whose con- clusions, adopted by Professor Rawlinson, are as follows : — Babylonian Chronology, according to Gutschmidt.-)- en .5^' ) 1 ^ I. Bi ^) n ■' II. b III. o IV. m u V. H m ■|, YI. VII. >* VIII. o 86 Chaldaeans . . 8 Modes [Mafjians] 1 1 [Chaldipans] . . 49 Chaldipans . . 9 Arabians . . . 45 [Assyrians] . . [8 Assyrians] . . 6 Chaldajans . . Total . . 34,080 224 [258] 458 245 526 [122] 87 2458 2234 1976 1518 1273 747 625 36,000 2234 1976 1518 1273 747 625 538 * Respecting the character of the Turanian race and language, sec Chapter iv., p. 55. \ The names and numbers in brackets are conjectural. The arguments for the THE MONARCHY OF NIMROD. 197 " If the numbers," sajs Professor Rawlinson, " are taken in the way assigned, and then added to the years of the first or pure- ly mythical dynasty, the sum produced is exactly 36,000 years — the next term to the sar in the Babylonian system of cycles. It is impossible that this should be the result of chance. The later Babylonians clearly contrived their mythical number so that, M'hen added to those which they viewed as historical, the sum-total should be a perfect cyclical period. The date, b.c. 2234, for tlie accession of the third dynasty, may thus be regarded as certainly that which Berosus intended to assign, and as most probably cor- rect." Now it is very remarkable that this date of b.c. 2234 falls, according to the received chronology, within the lifetime of Peleg (b.c. 2247-2008), " in whose days the earth was divided," and to whose age M^e may refer the building of Babel, and very probably, therefore, the establishment of Nimrod's kingdom, which would thus correspond with the third dynasty of Berosus. It hardly needs to be explained, that these views are offered as a fair statement of the results made probable by recent investiga- tions, not as positively ascertained facts. With this Third Dynasty, then, the annals of Berosus seem first to assume somewhat of the complexion of history ; and the appellation " Chaldaean " brings us back to the question of whence they came, and how they acquired rule over the country. Thus much seems clear, that they were an intrusive race, whose power, like all the great empires of the East, was acquired by conquest. But did they enter the land of Shinar from the North or from the South ? In favour of the former view we have their own tradi- tion, that they were of old a mountain race, and the existence of Chaldaeans among the mountains north of Armenia in historic times. On the other hand, while the classical writers regard those monntains as the original seat of the race, they restrict the name of Chaldaea to a region on the lower course of the Euphrates : — we have just seen that, in the oldest Babylonian legends, civiliza- tion is made to enter by way of the sea : — and we shall find pre- sently that the cities near the Persian Gulf bear marks of anti- quity higher than Babylon itself. This view agrees with the Scriptural derivation of Nimrod, the founder of the empire, from the race of Cusli ; while the classical historians followed a tradi- tion which made Babylon from the first a dependency of As- syria. It seems almost equally difficult to deny that the original seats of the Chaldaean race were in the southern highlands of Bcheme will be found iu Gutschmidt's paper in the Bheinisches Museum, vol. viii., pp. ' 252, foil., and Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. chap. 8. 198 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. Armenia, and that the earliest source of Chaldfean empire and civilization in Babylonia was from the South. May not a solu- tion be found in the hypothesis that a branch of the Chaldaeans took part in the original southward migration of the Ilamitic race and settled iu the south of Babylonia, whence they afterwards made that reflex movement which led to the establishment of Nim- rod's empire at Babylon ? Little is known of the history of Kimrod' smonarchy, beyond the fact that its cities formed a tetrapolis — an arrangement which recurs both in the next dynasty, and in the early Assyrian king- dom.* The four cities mentioned in the Scripture nan-ative, as founded by the dynasty of Nimrod, are Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh.f But the information derived from the monuments points to a subdivision of the country into Upper and Lower Clial- dffia ; the former extending from Hit on the Euphrates to below Bab\-lon, and the latter from Kifter to tlie Persian Gulf. Each of these divisions had a tetrapolis ; the southern consisting of JJr, Huruk, Nipur, and Larsa or Larancha — the Ur, Erech, Calueh, and Ellasar of Scripture ; and the northern of Babel, Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippara (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, tlie dual form indicating its position on the two sides of the river). Borsippa is the only one of these capitals not named in Scripture, which gives us several names of less important towns. As they are all mentioned, however, chiefly in connexion with the later Assyrian and Babylonian empires, we cannot be sure that they are all as early as the Chaldgean age. With the exception of Babylon, the capital of the whole land, the precedence in point of antiquity must be given to the south- ern tetrapolis, to which indeed belong two out of the four cities built by Nimrod. These two, Erech and Calneh, the Huruk and l^ipur of the cuneiform inscriptions, have been identified almost certainly with the ruins at Warka and Xiffer.;}; The site of Ac- cad has not been identified; but the inscriptions give reason to believe that we have in this word the name of the primeval peo- ple who first occupied the country, " Akkadian colonies " — says Sir H. Rawlinson, on the authority of inscriptions of Sargon — " were transported into the wilds of Armenia by the Assyrian Kings of the Lower Empire, and strengthened the Hamitic ele- ment in that quarter." § * Genesis x. 11, 12. f Genesis x. 10. :); These, and the other ruins referred to, are described by Professor Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. c. 1. § Rawlinson's Herodotus, Essay vl., vol. i. pp. 655, 656. THE MONARCHY OF NIMROD. 199 Of tlie two remaining cities of the southern tetrapolis, Ellasai — tlie Larsa or Larancha of the inscriptions, and the Larissa or Larachon of the Greeks — is probably represented by the ruins at Senkereh, on the left bank of the Euphrates, between Mugheir and Warka, It appears in the earliest history as the capital of Arioch, the ally of Chedorlaomer. Ur or Hnr was the chief of the four, besides its interest as the birthplace of Abraham. Its remains are seen at Mugheir {Mother of Bitumen, a name derived from the vast quantity of bituminous cement found in its ruins), a little below' 31° jST. lat. It was the lowest of all the great cities near the Euphrates, and appears to have been originally a seaport, for its ships are mentioned in the inscriptions with those of Ethiopia. Like its three sisters, it was a great seat of that form of idolatry which marks the Chaldsean period ; the moon being specially worshipped atUr, the sun at Ellasar, and Jupiter and Yenus (Bel and Beltis) at Calneh and Erech — as we learn from the ruined temples at Mugheir, Senkereh, Niffer, and Warka.* Under the later empires, Ur remained in the south, like Borsippa in the north, the great seat of the learning of the Chaldaeans. Of the northern tetrapolis, passing over Babylon for the pre- sent, the ruins of Borsippa, or rather of the great temple of Bel- Merodach — all that is left of the city, — have been discovered in the mound of Birs-Nimrud, a little south of Babylon ; those of Cntha at Ibrahim, north-east of Babylon, and between the two rivers ; and those of Sippara or Sejdiarvaini at Sura on the Eu- phrates, about twenty miles above Babylon. The sites of several lesser cities have been identified with much probability. The chief edifices, v/hose ruins are buried in the mounds that mark the sites of these cities, appear to have been temples ; for in Chaldaia, as elsewhere, whatever rude provision was made for ordinar}' dwellings, architecture, as an art, was created by re- ligion. The great Chaldgean towel's, of which that of Babel was the type, were temples. Though it seems certain that the Tower of Babel itself was destroyed, and that the great Temple of Belus at Babylon was a later erection, the latter was no doubt modelled * Bel was also symbolised both by the Sun and Saturn, the planet throned in the seventh heaven, and whose orbit comprehended all the rest ; Beltis (or Mylitta) both by the Moon and Venus. Mars represented Nergal, the God of War ; and Mercury, Nebo, the interpreter of the divine will. The goddess Beltis or Mylitta was also re- garded as the material principle embodied in the earth, water, and darkness, as Bel was in the heaven, air, and light. In this character, her grove at Babylon became the scene of rites as licentious as those of the Phoenician Astarte. Such is the degradation to which the sublime conceptions of Sabaiism have always tended. 200 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAK MONARCHY. [Chap. IX, on the former. The type of such structures can still he partly traced in the remains of Birs-Nimrnd at Borsippa, and, in a less developed form, in those at Mugheir and Warka. The former, which was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, shows the completest plan of these edifices ; the others, which are referred to the very be- ginning of the Chahhx3an monarchy (about u.c. 2234), giving only the first germ. Tlic ground-plan is an exact square, with the angles (not the faces) to the four cardinal points, an arrange- ment at once raising the presumption of an astronomical purpose ; nor can there be any doubt that the buildings were used as obser- vatories. From this base the building rises in successive stages, each smaller than the one below, thus presenting an analogy to the pyramidal form used by the Egyptians, the more interesting from the discovery that the Pyramids themselves Avere built in stages.* At Birs-Nimi-ud, however, the pyramid is oblique ; in other Avords, the centres of the stages are not exactly over one another, but removed towards the south-west, so that the south-west face had the steepest and the north-east, or back of the tower, the gentlest ascent. The complete number of stories at Bor- sippa was seven, corresponding to the sun and moon, and the five planets, their faces being distinguished by colours, as follows : the basement, black; the next stage, orange; the third, red; the fourth, golden (?) ; the fifth, yellow ; the sixth, blue ; the seventh, silver (?).f The highest st^ge supported the shrine or chapel containing the sacred ark. These stages are of burnt brick, the basement resting on a platform of crude brick raised a few feet above the alluvial soil. Tlieir areas diminish from a square of 272 feet at the base, to one of 20 feet at the summit. The heiglits are unequal, the three lower stories rising 26 feet each, and the four upper 15 feet, which seems also to have been the height of the chapel on the summit. The total height of the Birs- Nimrud is about 153 feet, and this is the loftiest knoMu ; the Babil, or Temple of Belus at Babylon, being about 140 feet high, that at Warka 100, and that at Mugheir only 50. They were thus much lower than the Great Pyramid, which was originally 480 feet high. These nunibers will serve to correct both our childish errors respecting the Tower of Babel, and the exaggera- tions of ancient writers about the Temple of Belus at Babylon. * See chap. vii. p. 97. f The colours marked as doubtful can scarcely be made out in the ruins. The whole series seems well' chosen to represent the planets in their supposed order, namely, beginning from the summit, — the moon (silver), Mercury (blue), Venus (yellow), the Sun (gold), Mars (red), Jupiter (orange), Saturn, the malignant, (black). THE CHALDiEAN TEMPLE-TOWERS. 201 It is supposed that the upper stories contained sleeping chambers for the priests in summer ; the air at that elevation being cooler and freer from the insects that infest the plain. The earlier tem- ples had a smaller number of stages. At Mugheir and Warka only two are now visible, and there seem never to have been more than three or four. The Babil shows no more than one ; but it is stated b}^ ancient writers to have had the form of a pyramid. The earliest form seems to have had three stories, the topmost being formed by the shrine ; but in some cases, as the Babil, tliis may have been placed only on a trnncated pyramid. The material of these stones is invariably brick, or a brick casing about an earthen mound, the alluvial plain being quite destitute of stone. In the temple at Warka the bricks are merely sun-dried : in that at Mugheir the walls of sun-dided bricks are faced by burnt bricks of a small size and inferior quality. The cement used in the former is mud, with reeds for binding — in the latter bitumen, without reeds. These edifices are thus of ruder and apparently more pri- mitive construction than that adopted by the Babel builders, who burnt their bricks thoroughly. Xor need this excite surprise, since such an edifice as Babel would scarcely be attempted till some skill had been acquired by earlier experiments. The fact that the most ancient of these buildings are found nearest the Persian Gulf, coupled with the precedence of the maritime city of Ur, strongly favours the view, that the first Cushite settlers occupied the district near the sea. The materials and foiTti of these temple-towers have determined the peculiar shape assumed by their ruins. The upper and outer portions, falling over the rest, and becoming disintegrated by the atmosphere, have formed a rude mound of earth, under which a large part of the original structure has lain hidden and protected, awaiting the researches which, in our own day, have opened a new page of the oldest period of history. These ruins have a jiart of their own story inscribed upon them in characters which prove the vast antiquity of the art of w riting among the Chaldseans. In this case, as in others, the race of Ham led the way in the arts most needful for common life. We can hardly hoj)e to decide the question, whether writing was invented in Egypt and Chaldaea independently, or whether, as seems more likely, it was already common to the different Hamitic races before their separation. At all events, the earliest forms found in Chaldsea point unquestionably, like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, to a pictorial origin. The first rude attempts to commu- 202 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. iiicate the idea of an object by its likeness were made more definite by giving that likeness a conventional form, — sucli as a square for the ground-plan of a house, live lines joined perpendicularly to another for the liand, and many similar examples. If tliese forms were only meant to convey the idea of the thing itself, they would form a symbolical representation of objects ; but by conveying also the idea of the names of those objects, they come to represent words, and thus the first step is taken in the art of writing. When the same object has dififerent names, its pictorial sign acquires the phonetic value of each of those names ; and as the words, for which signs are thus provided, may enter as syllables into the formation of other words, their signs receive a syllabic, and no longer only a separate value. For example, if our own written language were in the hieroglyphic state, the pictorial signs for a hce and a hind might form that for the word hehind y a moon and a Jcty that for monkey : and the same signs would enter into the representation of all other words containing any of the same syllables. But even where the characters stand for less simple words, they may become syllabic by a process of abbreviation, the sign being taken for only the initial syllable or portion of the word. Thus the sign for lion might stand for the syllable ??', as in fact that for Asslmr represents, in cuneiform writing, the syllable as, with many other such examples. The final step to alphabet- ical writing is then taken almost imperceptibly ; for nothing is more certain than that alphabetic characters were once syllabic, as their very names still indicate. The first stage in this process is seen in the Egyptian hierogly- phics ; the second in the hieratic characters derived from them, and often placed beside them in the same inscriptions. What the hieratic writing is to the hieroglyphic, the like is the cunei- form to a system of pictorial representation which seems to have become almost obsolete at the time of the earliest Chaldaian inscriptions. But some traces of it still remain in very early writings, and in those fixed determinative signs which give a particular significance to the word that follows them, as an eight- rayed star for the name of a god. In this second stage the Chaldaean characters are remarkable for consisting entirely of straight lines, without curves. Tliese lines are, in the earliest inscriptions, of uniform thickness, being in fact scratches made by the point of a graving tool ; and this form is preserved in the numerous engraved gems that have been discovered. The plastic nature of their building materials, however, suggested the mode THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 203 of forming each line by the pressure of the lower part of the graving-tool, or style, leaving the peculiar wedge-shaped mark (V) which has given to the character the name of cuneiform.. Such are the simple lines, like the " straight-strokes " and " pot- hooks " of our school-days (only that the Chaldsean writing knows no pothooks), which, combined in various positions, perpendicu- lar, horizontal, and oblique, were used at first in rude imitation of the pictorial symbols, and afterwards modified and simplified into syllabic and alphabetic characters. The relation of these forms to the Egyptian, and to those old Semitic or "Phoinician" characters from which all the European alphabets are derived, is too wide a question to be discussed here. Thus much we may afiirm, — that alphabetic writing had at least one of its original sources among the Chaldseans. Nor can we enter upon the history and principles of the re-^ cent discoveries in deciphering these records. The objection, that we have no instance of the recovery of a lost language in an nnknown character, fortified by the case of the undecij)hered Etruscan incriptions, seems not unanswerable. For while, on the one hand, we know enough of the principles of pictorial writing to have some clue to the tilings for which the characters are meant, some at least of the names of those things are furnished us by langTiages akin t6 those of the countries where we find these inscriptions ; and thus we can approach the problem from two different sides. But this would avail little without some more definite key, such as the Rosetta stone supplies for the Egyptian hieroglyphics; and this is partly furnished by the bilingual and trilingual inscriptions, especially that of Darius Hystaspis at Be- histun, in spite of the drawback that each of the versions is in the cuneiform character. This field of research is encumbered with difficulties far greater than in the parallel case of the hiero- glyphics. The distinct preservation of the pictorial stage in Egypt gives a far plainer clue to the meaning of the characters ; and in the second stage, as the Egyptians were one race, with a common language, each of the hieratic characters has but one phonetic value, while the cuneiform signs represent the many different names which the same object bore among the mixed population of Chaldsea. Still, it may be fairly said that the two cases are so far alike in principle, that the critic who regards cuneiform inter- pretation as delusive, should consistently deny the power of de- ciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. In both cases a special aid is 204 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. afforded by the oecuiTence of proper names ; and in botli the re« suits obtained go far to vindicate the method. The facility with which the cuneiform characters were im- pressed on the plastic clay, as compared with the process of en- graving on the granite and sandstone of Egypt, on the one hand, and the nature of the material (so much more durable than the perishable papyri) on the other, has preserved for us a vast body of Chaldffian, Assyrian, and Babylonian literature. The cunei- form inscriptions are partly on bricks and partly on tablets. Tlie bricks seem to bear none but royal inscriptions, commemorating the kings who built the edifices to which they belonged. The tablets are real lool:s^ and the whole body of them forms a vast library. The mass of writing on some of them is immense, the characters being as fine and tlie lines as close as those of an ordi- nary octavo page. The means taken to secure the writing from injury are equally curious and effectual. After the inscribed clay had been burnt to a terra-cotta far more durable than most sorts of stone, it was coated with another layer, on which the inscrip- tion was repeated, and the whole was again fired, so that the in- terior writing might be brought to light long after the exterior was effaced. Besides the inscriptions, many of these tablets bear the impression of seals, stamped by a cylindrical roller run across or round them, so that the device is repeated several times. The writing of the inscriptions is from right to left. This brief and general account of the cuneiform inscriptions, which applies alike to the old Chaldaean, the Assyrian, and the later Babylonian, will prepare us to appreciate the light they throw on the history of these kingdoms. These records are, however, silent respecting the first period of the Chaldaean monarchy, that identified with the name of ISTim- rod. To the statements of Scripture concerning him, we can only add the fact of his deification by the name of Bel-Nipru, or Bel- Nimrod, which is interpreted " the god of the chase," an exact equivalent to the " mighty hunter before Jehovah." - His tradi- tional fame in those regions is only ecjualled by that of Solomon and Alexander ; and these old traditions are still cherished by the Arabs, who attach his name to the chief heaps of ruins that stand on the Chaldaean plain. Nor is his renown confined to the earth, if at least it was in his honour, as tradition says, that the constella- * Rawlinson derives Nipru from the root napar — to pursue, or cause to fee. The name is also seen in that of the city of Nipur (now Niffer\ the Biblical Calneh, which .vas probably the chief seat of the worship of Nimrod. B.C. 2234 ?] THE FIRST CHALDEAN MONARCHY. 205 tion of Orion received from the Ciialdees the name handed down by the Arab astronomers, of " the giant." The first Chaldsean monarchy lasted, according to the scheme set forth above, a little more tlian two centuries and a half (b.c. 2234 — 1976). Berosus does not name any of the eleven kings whom he assio^ns to this dynasty, but Ovid * alludes to a certain Orchamus as the seventh in succession from Belus. A point of mythical genealogy in a poet of the Augustan age could have no historical value, unless we could trace it to some historical source. But recent researches have brought to light a name which bears a curious resemblance to this Orchamus. TjErKH, or Urkham, has inscribed his name, with the title of " King of TJr and Kingi-Accad," on the basement story of all those Chaldaean buildings whose rnde workmanship and sun-dried bricks, with the absence of lime-mortar, prove them to be the most ancient of all; for instance, at Mugheir (Ur), Warka (Erech), Niflfer (Xipur or Calneh), and Senkereh (Ellasar). He may, therefore, be safely regarded as the earliest of the kings whose names occur on the monuments. '' It is evident," says Professor ]Aawlinson,f " from the size and number of these works, that their erecter had the com- mand of a vast amount of naked human strength, and did not scruple to employ that strength in constructions .... designed to extend his o^vn fame and to perpetuate his own glory. We may gather from this that he was either an oppressor of his people, like some of the Pyramid Kings in Egypt, or else a conqueror, who thus employed the numerous captives carried off in his expedi- tions." His buildings appear to have been temples to all the chief Chalda?an deities. Their construction, though rude, exhibits considerable mechanical skill ; and a careful system of drainage is employed. The inscriptions of tliis king are all of the second stage, in which the lines bear some rough likeness to the older pictorial symbols. The engraving of his signet cylinder is much less nide than the inscriptions. :{: Urukh must almost certainly be ascribed to the third dynasty of Berosus, which we have seen reason to identify with the Cush- ite monarchy of Nimrod. § The close of this dynasty, according * Metam. iv. 212, 213. f Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. pp. 199, 200. I This point is rather doubtful, from the fact that the cvlindcr itself is lost, and we have only the engraving of it in the Travels of Sir R. K. Porter, who once possessed it. It is copied in Rawlinson's Five Ch'eat Monarchies, vol. 1. p. 118. § Later inscriptions bear another name, which it is proposed to read as Ilgi, the son of Urukh, who finished some of his father's buildings at Ur, and, in particular, the tem- ple of the moon-goddess. 206 CHALDEAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX to the above sclieme (b.c. 197C), synchronises witli the early h'fe of Abraham, whose birth falls, according to the common chronol- ogy, in B.C. 1996. About fifty years later, we read of the great expedition against the land of Canaan, 1200 miles distant, by Chedodaomer^ wliose name seems to be Ilamitie, while his title, " King of Elain," points to a conquest of the Chaldsean plain by the Elymasan mountaineers. The monuments are said to bear traces of some such revolution ; and this must therefore be the fourth or Chalda3an dynasty of Berosus, who assigns to it forty- nine kings in a period exceeding 450 years (b.c. 1976 — 1518), a period very nearly contemporary with the 430 years from the call of Abraham to the Exodus in b.c. 1491. In fact, this period was marked near the beginning, as well as at its end, by what may be truly called an exodus of the chosen race. The Scripture narrative, regarding this movement in its relation to the Divine purposes and promise, ascribes it to God's call of Abraham ; but that call may have been given by events connected with the political movements of the country. The Elamitic conquerors, like the new king in Eg}q)t who knew not Joseph, may have begun to oppress the race of Shem, who pre- served the worship of the true God. At all events, the migration of the family of Terah was not the onl}^ great movement of the Semitic race up the valley of the Euphrates. The Phoenicians pursued the same course about the same period ; and while the family of Terah remained at Charran, they pressed on past the ranges of Lebanon to the strip of coast in the Mediterranean, which became so famous under their name. Their great city of Sidon was already built when Abraham lived in Canaan. Chedorlaomer's movement in the same direction, when he reduced the five cities of the plain to tributaries, may have origi- nated in the desire to reconcjuer the fugitive Semites. Tliis monarch is the greatest of the Elamitic dynasty, and perhaps its founder. His name, which the LXX give in the form Chodol- logomor, is now explained as Kudur-lagamer, the Servant of Lagamer^ a Susianian deity.* The most interesting point in his * Sir II. Rawlinson formerly identified him with Kudur-mabuk, whose name appears on inscriptions at Ur, with the title Apda Martu, which was interpreted Ravacjer of the Went. Sir Henry now doubts this interpretation, and places Kudur-mabuk considerably later than Chedorlaomer. Some Egyptologers have supposed a connection between the expedition of Chedorlaomer and the invasion of the Shepherd Kings, the latter being driven out by the former. If the comparative chronology can be depended on, the so-called " Assyrian " dynasty of the Shepherds (the Sixteenth) would be Chaldasans, probably the branch that reigned at Nineveh. B.C. 1936?] EXPEDITIONS OF CHEDORLAOMEK. 207 second expedition, the stoiy of which we have ah-eady told, is his alliance with the three kings — Tidal, king of nations ; Amraphel, king of Shinar ; and Arioch, king of Ellasar. In this quadruple alliance recent inquirers find a record of the four races which, from the earliest known period, composed the mixed population of Chaldtea. The " nations " led by Tidal were the Turanian or Scythian nomad tribes, by whom the country was first peopled : the Semites who remained in the country seem to have already established themselves under Amraphel at Babylon, afterwards the capital of their race, though in subjection to Chedorlaomer : the name of Arioch seems to mark him as the head of the Aryan population : while the Ilamite race is represented by Chedorlao- mer himself. All this agrees with the name of Kiprath-arhat (four nations or tongues) which is given, in the cuneiform inscrip- tions, to the subjects of this dynasty. And this mixture lasted under the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Medo-Persian empires, only that the Hamite race are merged in the later Semitic develop- ment. The Medo-Persian kings found it necessary to publish^ their edicts in the three chief forms of language, — their own, which is Aryan, the Assyrian, which is Semitic, and the Scythic or Turanian.* The repulse of the confederate kings by Abraham seems to have put an end to Chaldsean conquests beyond the Euphrates. The notices of the family of Nahor, in the history of Isaac and Jacob, show Upper Mesopotamia apparently in a state of patriarch- al independence. But the eastern part of that region, along the valley of tlie Tigris, or Assyria Proper, was evidently subject to the Chaldaean monarchy ; for an inscription records the building of a temple at Kileh-Shergat by Shamas-Yul, the son of Ismi-Da- gon, about b.o. 1850 ; and this Shamas-Yul appears to have been a viceroy of Assyria, since another son of Ismi-Dagon reigned in Chaldsea Proper. The names of fifteen or sixteen kings have been discovered on the monuments ; and this is supposed to be nearer to the true number of the dynasty than the forty-nine ascribed to Berosus, whose immbers may easily have been cor- rupted. The records indicate a gradual removal of the seat of government up the valley from the original capital at Ur, till it becomes fixed at Babylon — a movement which would extend the arts and civilization of the Chaldseans to the northern parts of * By a curious coincidence, the valley having fallen again under the dominion of a Turanian race, public documents are issued in Turkish, which is Turanian ; Persian, which is Aryan ; and Arabic, which is Semitic. 208 CHALD^EAN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. Mesopotamia. The Avliole region of Upper and Lower Mesopo- tamia seems to liave been ultimately included in the empire. The final overthrow of this great Cushite kingdom appears to liave been effected by the Arabs of the desert. The western fron- tier miglit have seemed sufficiently protected from invasion by the vast waste ocean of sand. But it has always been the charac- teristic of the Arab triljes to multiply and flourisli in those abodes so congenial to their wild nature, almost unseen by their civilized neighbours, on whom they have poured down their collected force when the torrent of invasion was least looked for. In the plain of Mesopotamia they have always been intruding, like the sands of their own deserts. It is not unlikely that they formed a con- siderable element of the population from very early times. Under the Assyrian Empire there were at least thirty of their tribes between the two great rivers, and they even extended into Media. At the present day they have overrun the whole country ; but, like their own sands again, these early Arabs left no other monu- ments of their power than the destruction of the civilization that flourished before. It was not till long afterwards that they learned, from the nations they conquered, the arts and science for which they were famous in the middle ages. No records are preserved of their conquest of Chald?ea, beyond the mention by Berosus of an Ara- bian dynasty (his fifth) of nine kings, for a period of 245 years (e.g. 1518 — 1273). They interpose as a great historic blank between the fall of the Chaldean Empire and the rise of the Assyrian. Such a wave of Semite population could not pass over the land without giving a vast impulse to that tendency which the Hamite race has always shown to develope itself into the Semitic type, a development which must have been greatly aided by the influence of Assyria, now released from the Chaldsean yoke. When, there- fore, this latter power grew into an empire, we are not surprised to find it bearing a Semitic character. But the old Chaldsean stock survived ; and even retained the best pait of its ancient power, the supremacy in letters, art, and science. Their archi- tecture and writing were adopted by the Assyrians. Their men of learning retained the power of the priesthood, and formed an honoured and powerful caste, which may be traced even down to the time of the Parthian dominion. Tlie common people, how- ever, seem to have been merged in the Semitic population, as they certainly adopted a Semitic form of language. We shall soon have to relate the revolution by which the Chaldasan dynasty of Nabopolassar founded a new empire at Babylon after the lapse CHALDiEAN TEMPLES AND TOMBS. 209 of nearly nine centuries (b.c. 625), and the prowess of ISTebiicliacl- nezzar achieved the conqnests vainly attempted by Chedorlaomer. It remains to notice those arts of civilization which found one of their two earliest homes on the plains of Chalda?a. Professor Rawlinson has well observed, that "for the last three thousand years the world has been mainly indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-European races ; but it was otherwise in the first ages. Egypt and Babylon — Mizraim and Kimrod, both descendants of Ham — led the way, and acted as the pioneers of mankind in the various untrodden fields of art, literature, and science. Alphabetic writing, astronomy, history, chronology, architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile industry, seem all of them to have had their origin in one or other of these two countries." * Of the architecture and writing of the Chaldaeans we have already spoken. Further details respect- ing the manufacture of their bricks and the constrnction of their edifices will be found in the works descriptive of the recent dis- coveries. Their massive temples seem to have been almost desti- tute of external ornament ; the interiors were decorated with small pieces of choice stones, as agate, alabaster, and marble, and with plates of gold, fixed to the walls by metal nails. Of their domestic architecture we have but scanty remains. The struc- tures on which, next to their temples, they bestowed most pains, were their tombs, which are collected in great numbers about the principal cities. This fact, coupled with the paucity of tombs found in Assyria and Upper Babylonia, suggests the belief that, down to the latest age of those empires, the dead were brought irom all parts of Mesopotamia for interment in the sacred soil of Chaldaea. Some of the cemeteries, however, as at Mugheir (Ur), bear the marks of one age, and that probably the most ancient. These old tombs are of three kinds. The first is a vault of sun- dried bricks laid in mud, constructed in the form of a false arch, like some of the Egyptian buildings and the Scythian tombs. From the tops of the side Avails, which slope a little outwards, courses of brick are laid so as to project inwards till they almost meet at the summit, which is closed by a single brick. These seem to have been family tombs ; for they generally contain three or four skeletons, with drinking vessels and articles of orna- ment. The next form is a clay coffin, in the shape of a dish- cover, at the bottom of which the skeleton is seen, lying on a mat. Never more than two skeletons are found together, and these * Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 75. VOL. I. — 1-4 210 CHALDJ2AN OR OLD BABYLONIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. are male and female, doubtless husband and "wife. The third sort of coffin is composed of two bell-shaped jars, placed mouth to mouth with holes at the smaller ends. The coffins are laid in rows, and often in several layers, not beneath the surface of the oozy plain, but under artificial mounds, which are provided with an elaborate system of drainage. The drinking vessels, ornamental vases, and lamps found in the tombs give us numerous examples of the skill to which the Chaldteans attained in pottery. Tools and weapons are also found, which mark, here as elsewhere, the distinction between a " stone " and a " bronze or iron " age. Almost from the earliest times Ave find traces of the art of working metal into small articles for use and ornament, as nails, bolts, rings, chains, bracelets, earrings, and fishhooks. The only metals so employed are gold, copj^er, tin, lead, and iron : the absence of silver deserves notice : a bronze of copper and tin is also used. Of textile fabrics we must not expect to find many remains ; but the delicately strijjcd and fringed dresses seen on the most ancient signet cylinders confirm the fame of those " goodly Babylonish garments," Avhich had been imported into Palestine, and which Achan coveted, in the time of Joshua. Linen is said to have been found adhering to some of the skeletons ; and their heads rest on a sort of tasseled cushion.* There is reason to believe that an extensive commerce was carried on from the ports of the Persian Gulf, along the course of the Euphrates, and by caravans across the Syrian Desert, and that the Phoenicians obtained ivory and other Indian products by way of Babylon. It is, however, by their cultivation of arithmetic and astrono- my, and the application of these sciences to the uses of common life, that the Chaldseans have left the most permanent impress upon all succeeding ages. To say nothing of the probability that they devised the system of mapping out and naming the stars, which was already known to Job, it is to their astronomical records that we owe the existence of any approach to a trust- worthy chronology of those remote ages ; while all the systems of weights and measures used throughout the civilized world, down to the present time, are based more or less upon that which they invented. f Their inscriptions, which contain some very curious * For further details on all these points, see Rawlinson, I'ivc Great Monarchies, vol. i. ch. v., from which the above account is abridged. ■)• For a full account of this system, and its relations to those of other nations, the reader is referred to BocklCs Metrologische Untersuchmicfcn, to the review of that work ARTS AND SCIENCES OF THE CHALDEANS. 211 arithmetical tables, perpetuate tlieir simple and natural form of decimal notation, in which, as in the Roman, new signs are used for 10, 50, 100, and 1000. But they also used the sexagesimal scale, which unites the advantages of the decimal and duodeci- mal ; and, as we have already had occasion to mention, their denominations of numerical quantity" advance by multiples of 10 and 6 alternately. Astronomical science seems to have been the cliief portion of the learning which was handed down by the Chaldsean priests as an hereditary possession. Like the Egyptians, they enjoyed a clear sky and an unbounded horizon ; and they seem to have cul- tivated astronomy independently, and even more successfully than the kindred race. Tliere is reason to believe that they mapped out the Zodiac, invented the nomenclature which we still use for the seven days of the week,* divided the days into equinoctial hours, as distinguished from the hours of variable length which depend on sunrise and sunset, and measured time by the water- clock. Ptolemy has preserved notices of the great accuracy of their observations, especially in the calculation of a lunar eclipse in B.C. 721. Connected with their astronomy and star-worship, they had an elaborate system of judicial astrology. But all these matters, however interesting, belong rather to a scientific discussion of their antiquities than to a strictly histori- cal work. The reader who desires to master the whole subject must perase those recent works to which we have throughout ac- knowledged our obligations, and which have lifted the corner of that veil which we may hope to see more completely withdrawn from this most ancient scene in the history of the world, when the vast mass of existing inscriptions shall have been deciphered. by Mr. Grote, in the Classical Museum, vol. i., and to the articles on Weights and Measures, in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, 2nd edition. * This nomenclature was based on the idea that each hour of the day was governed by a planet, and each day by the governor of its first hour ; and from this one the day received its name. In the Solar System, commonly called the "Ptolemaic," the planets are placed round the earth (as a centre), in the following order, reckoning inwards: — (1) Saturn, (2) Jupiter, (3) Mars, (4) The Sun, (5) Venus, (6) Mercury, (7) The Moon. The Chaldacan week seems to have begun with Saturday, its first hour and first day being sacred to Saturn, the star whose sphere embraced all the rest, the symbol of the god Bel ; but it makes no difference where we begin. Then, reckoning in the above order, the 25th hour falls to the Sun, and this is the first hour of Sunday ; the first of the next day, Monday, falls to the Moon ; of Tuesday ' to Mars; of Wednesday to Mercury ; of Thursday to Jupiter ; and of Friday to Venus. The matter is fully discussed by Archdeacon Hare, in the Philological Museum, vol. i. 212 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. "We have now to turn our eyes to the great Assyrian Mon- AKCiiY, whicli we find estaljlislied on tlie ruins of the Ohl Baby- lonian Empire, at the close of the period of 245 years (u.c. 1518 — 1273), which Berosus assigns to his Fifth Dynasty of Arabians. Its original seat was on the upper course of the Tigris, where the district about Nineveh, in the angle between the Tigris and its confluent, the Great Zab, preserved the ancient name in the dialectic form, Aturia. With the growing power of the kingdom, the name of Assyria was extended to the whole of Uj)per Meso- potamia, between Mounts Masius and Zagros, on the north and east, the Euphrates on the west, and the natural line which di- vides it from the alluvial level on the south. This region has a much more varied surface and a cooler climate than the Chalda^an plain. The greater part of it consists of undulating pastures, diversified by woodlands, and watered by the numerous confluents of the Tigris ; but the valleys furnish artvble soil almost as rich as the Chaldsean plain itself; and the natural products of the two regions are not very difierent. On the north and east, the coun- try assumes an Alpine character. The Book of Genesis contains the record of the primeval foun- dation of this kingdom at Nineveh.* Though the text is obscure on one point, it clearly derives the kingdom of Asshur from that of Nimrod ; and all our information tends to the same result, namely that, though the Assyrian people were Semitic, the dy- nasty was Chaldsean. The traditions preserved by tlie Greeks make Ninus the son of Belus, and Semiramis the daughter of Derceto, and represent the Babylonian religion as established in Assyria ; while the local tradition of the present day, with its usual strange fidelity to hidden facts, connects the name of Nim- rod with the ancient remains of Assyria as well as of Babylonia. We have seen that the newly discovered records rei^resent Assyria as a vice-royalty under the Chaldccan empire ; and the subjuga- tion of the latter by the Arabs (about B.C. 1273) would give the former the fairest op])ortunity of rising to an independent state.' It is not till much later still that we have trustworthy accounts of Assyrian history, and we need only glance at the mythical legends with which the Greek writers fill up the interval. These legends represent 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 * Gen. ix. 1 1 : corap. p. 45. LEGENDS PRESERVED BY THE GREEKS. 213 feebler and feebler till the last of them perishes by a fate worthy of the catastrophe of a Greek tragedy. Ninus, son of Beliis, is the " hero eponymus " of the Empire.* The warrior queen, Semieamis, daughter of the goddess Derceto, is one of those imper- sonations of masculine energy in a female form, in which the Ori- ental imagination delighted ;f while the last of her descendants, Sakdanapalus, is a man whose efl'cminate character completes the contrast between the close of the dynasty and its commence- ment, but who yet knows hoAV to die with courage worthy of a king- The acts ascribed to these sovereigns may be related in a few words. Ninns, having revolted from the King of Babylon, whom he takes prisoner and puts to death, overruns Armenia, Asia Minor, and the shores of the Euxine as far as the Tanais, subdues the Medes and Persians, and makes war upon the Bactrians. Semiramis, the wife of one of the chief nobles, coming to the camp before Bactra, takes the city by a bold stroke. Her courage wins the love of Ninus, and she becomes his queen. On his death (according to one account, by her own hand) she succeeds to the throne, and undertakes the conquest of India with one of those armies which Oriental imagination numbered by millions ; but she is utterly defeated by the Indian king, Stabobrates.ij: To these two sovereigns the Greek tradition ascribed nearly all the great works on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Niniis built Nineveh, on a scale so vast that it might sur})ass any city that should ever be erected ; and the great pyramid outside its walls formed his tomb. To Semiramis were ascribed the edifices of Babylon, the canals, the dykes along the rivers, and most of the other great works in Babylonia as well as Assyria. Her personal character seems to be the ideal of a female demigod according to the Orien- tal standard, to which liistor}'^ exhibits an occasional approach. Founded on the cliaracteristics which we see in Derceto, Astarte, and Dido, she exhibits also some of the qualities of Catherine of Russia. The stories of her amours are doubtless connected with a well known aspect of Oriental mythology ; and, in later times, many of the mounds which covered rained cities were called the graves of the lovers of Semiramis. Ninyas, § the feeble son of Ninus and Semiramis, is the head of * His name is evidently doiived from that of Nineveh. It does not occur in Scrip- ture or in the native records ; for it lias no connection with Nirarod. \ Semiramis (from S/icm and Ham) signifies the exalted name. \ This name is said to be the Sanskrit Stavarapatis, that is, Lord of the Terra Firma. § This name is simply a patronymic from Niuus. 214 THE ASSYRLVN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. a degenerate race, of wliom notliing Avortli notice is recorded till "we come to the end of the monarchy and the death of Sardanapahis. This last king of Assyria, says the legend, abandoned all care for his falling em])ire, and, shntting himself np in his ])alace ^vith his women, passed his time in effeminate Inxnry. But Avhen Arbaces, the satrap of Mediti, and Belesis, the chief of the Chaldiean priests of Babylon, marched against him in leagued rebellion, he suddenly took the held, and, after performing prodigies of valour, was defeated, and besieged in [Nineveh for two years. When fur- tlier resistance became impossible, Sardanapalus collected all his treasures, with his wives and concubines, on a vast funeral pile, and then ascending it and setting it on fire with his own hand, he perished in the conflagration of his palace. The date assigned to this catastrojdie (about b.c. 876) is full two centuries and a half before the fall of Nineveh, nor did the latter event take place under a Sardanapalus. If the story has any historical foundation, it represents a confusion of two A'ery different and distant revolu- tions. But in truth its complexion is wholly mythical, the character and fate of Sardanapalus representing those of the andro- gynous deity Sandon, as plainly as Semiramis corresponds to the goddess Derceto. The kernel of historic fact enveloped in this legend is the early foundation of an independent Assyrian kingdom, at or near Nineveh, during the period of the Arab domination in Babylonia, and the spread of its rule, first over the latter country, and after- wards over the adjacent regions; the subsequent decline of the empire, though by no means with so rapid and steady a degene- racy, and its final overthrow by the Medes and Babylonians. Light has been thrown upon the chaos of these traditions, and the hope of historic certainty held forth, as in the case of the early Babylonian empire, by recent discoveries in cuneiform literature. From these, compared with the fragments of Berosus, the notices in Scripture history, and the scattered indications of the classical writers, we learn to distinguish two great periods in the history of Assyria, divided by the first temporary establishment of Baby- lonian independence. This epoch is that known in chronology as the Era of Ndbonassar^ b.c. 747. It separates the Assyrian kingdom into the Upper and Lower Dynasties, corresponding respectively to the Sixth and Seventh Dynasties of Berosus.* The former, reckoning from the establishment of their power over * See the Table at p. 196. B.C. 1373—625.] THE UPPER AND LOWER DYNASTIES. 2l3 all Mesopotamia by the overthrow of the Arab dynasty in Chal dsea, ruled for more than 500 years* (b.c. 1273-747) ; the latter for about 120 years only (b.c. 747-025). f The annals of the Upper Dynasty, however curious as an anti- quarian problem awaiting- a fuller solution, have little to do with the general course of history. It was, as we have already seen, at Kileh-Shergat (the ancient Asshur), about GO miles south of Nineveh, that Shamas-iva, the son of the Babylonian hini;- Isnii- Dagon, erected a temple. Hence it has been inferred that this city was the capital under the Chaldsean viceroy's; and that it re- mained so under the earliest independent kings of Assyria seems probable from the appearance of their names on bricks and frag- ments of pottery found among the ruins. These mere names, Bel- lush, Pudil, Iva-lush, and Shalma-bar or Shalina-rish, represent all our knowledge of the Assyrian kingdom during the thirteenth century b.c. ; and it is admitted that even the names are rendered very doubtful by certain peculiarities of the cuneiform writing. A second series of six kings are supposed to belong to the succeeding century and a half (about b.c. 1200 — 1050). Five of their names are found on the famous Ivileh-Shergat cylinder, " the earliest document of a purely historical character which has as yet been recovered by the researches pursued in Mesopotamia." % Here we meet, for the first time, with the afterwards famous name of TiGLATK-PiLESEK (the Tiger Lord of Asshur), § who celebrates the deeds of his four predecessors. The first of these, to whom he ascribes the earliest organization of the empire, seems to have Nin for the essential part of his name, so that in him we may probably trace the historic prototype of JSTinus. The two succeeding kings are named as prosperous rulers over Assyria ; but there is no men- tion of any foreign conquests till the reign of Tiglath-Pileser's father, " the powerful king, the subduer of foreign countries, he who reduced all the lands of the Magian world." A more definite account is given of the conquests of Tiglath-Pileser I. himself, during his first five j^ears. On the north and east he extended his power over the highlands of Armenia and Media; on the * Herodotus (i. 95) gives the period as 520 years ; Berosus, more exactly, as 526. The longer chronology of Ctesias is quite untrustworthy. f This date seems now to be established for the destruction of Nineveh, instead of the formerly received epoch of B.C. 606. \ Kawlinson, Essay vii. to Book i. of Herodotus, § 7. § Tiglath or Diglath, the Assyrian for tiger, is used both as a royal title, and as the name of the river Tigris. The letters I and r are the most easily interchangeable of all. 216 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHr. [Chap. IX. north-west he pushed his conquests as far as Cappadocia ; and on the west and south-west he appears to have subdued the Ara- maean tribes of Upper Mesopotamia, and those along the course of the Euphrates down to the confines of Babylonia.* But the latter statu, under its king Merodach-adan-akhi, was still so power- ful as not only to resist the arms of Tiglath-Pileser, but even to make a successful invasion of Assyria. We learn this interesting fact from a monument set up by Sennacherib, which also seems to fix the reign of Tiglath-Pileser L to the end of the twelfth cen- tury, B.c.f His son, Asshur-bani-pal I.,' whose name occurs in an inscription in the British Museum, closes the series of the six kings under whom Assyria seems to have become an empire. After a brief gap, the monuments supply us with continuous information to the end of the dynasty, a period of just three hun- dred years, during which eight kings handed down the sceptre from father to son in an unbroken line (b.c. 1050).:]; They appear to have reigned still at Kileh-Shergat, till the fifth of them trans- ferred the capital to Calah, another city of the original Assyrian tetrapolis.§ In the name of this king, Asshur-dani-pal, we recog- nise the Sardanapalus of the Greeks ; but, as we have seen in the case of Sesostris, the historic prototype has no necessary iden- tity w^ith the traditional personage to whom he has furnished a name. The true Sardanapalus was the mightiest conqueror of the Upper Dynasty ; and, instead of falling a victim to the power of the King of Babylon, it was he who first added Babylonia to the Assyrian Empire. || On the opposite side, his conquests were pushed — to use the words of his own monuments — " to Lebanon and the Great Sea," and the kings of all the chief Phoenician cities paid him tribute. Among these, as Professor Rawlinson thinks, was Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel. Sardanapalus is the first known of the Assyrian kings who left behind them those great works of architecture which, lately dis- interred from their mounds of shapeless ruin, have restored the monarchy to its true place in the history of the world. For while these palaces confirm by their magnitude the traditional splendour * Respecting the claim of conquests in Egypt by Tiglath-Pileser, and the still earlier establishment there of Assyrian dynasties (the Twenty-second and Twenty-third), see chap. vii. pp. 125, 128. f Professor Rawlinson assigns his accession to B.C. 1113. X Such is the apparent testimony of the monuments ; but the average length of the reigns is too great to be accepted without confirmation. g Its ruins arc at Khnrml, forty miles to the north of Kileh-Shergat. I We shall sooa sec, however, that the conquest was not yet permanently effected. THE ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES. 217 of the Assyrian kings, tlie scenes pourtrajed in sculpture on the walls exhibit a vivid picture of their life in war and peace. Tlie life, we mean, of the kings, not that of the people, who only appear as fighting the battles of the nionarchs, swelling tlie pomp of their processions, or serving as beasts of burthen in the trans- port of their colossal monuments. TJiose invaluable records of private life, which are preserved for us in the wall-paintings of the Egyptian tombs, are wanting here ; for, as we might have expect- ed, the scenes pourtrayed on these palace walls are all for the glori- fication of the king. AVe see him clothed with the symbolic attributes and wielding the tlumderl jolts of the gods whose names he bore ; leading forth his armies to war, crossing great rivers, storming cities by the aid of the embankment, the testudo, the boring spear, and the battering ram ; returning in triumph with hosts of captives, some of whom are dragged along by rings which pierce the lip, others are impaled in long rows, and others flayed ali\^. Elsewhere he appears in the chase, piercing the lion in a close encounter, or pursuing the swift wild-ass ; and again we behold him superintending the transport, by multitudes of cap- tives, of those colossal statues, half man and half bull or lion, which have now been placed in our own museums by the energy and tact with which modern travellers have used free labour. In the Assyrian, as in the Egyptian sculptures, the king is distinguished from the common herd by his colossal stature, the fit emblem of his place in those Asiatic despotisms, to which popular rights and liberties were unknown. As in the case of the Egyptian monuments, we must be content to refer the reader for details to the works of Assyrian antiquaries, especially of Mr. Layard, and to the rich collection of Assyrian sculptures which the British Museum owes chiefly to him.* A great number of these sculptures were found in the north-west palace of Nimrud, which was erected by Sardanapalus, and is only sui-passed by the palace of Sennacherib at Koyunjik.f This king was also the builder of temples both at Calah and Kineveh." The interest of these works of architecture is surpassed, at least for the student of history, by a monument of Shalmanubar * This is written for English readers ; but an equally emphatic mention is due to the labours of M. Botta and the collection of Assyrian antiquities in the Louvre. •f- For a full description of these palaces, with restorations, the reader is referred to the works of Mr. Layard and Professor Rawlinson. The plan, stated generally, com- prised a vast central unroofed hall (suited to the public open-air life of the Orientals) surrounded by many chambers, some magnificent, others very small and dark. 21S THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. * [Chap. IX. (or Slialmancscr), tlic son of Sardaiiapaliis, wliicli was brought Lj Mr. Layard from Nimrud, and deposited in the British Museum. It is an obelisk in black basalt, about seven feet higli and two feet wide at the base, sculptured with a few bas-reliefs, and an inscription containing 210 lines of fine clear Avriting.* It records a long series of victories achieved during thirty-one years of this king's reign, and presents us incidentally with a picture of the political state of Western Asia at the beginning of the ninth cen- tury B.C., the period marked in Israel by the reign and fall of Ahab and his dynasty. On the coast of the Mediterranean, tlie Phoenicians pay tribute to Assyria. The power of Syria is at its height, upheld by a great league between the kings of Ilamath (in Coele-Syria) and Damascus,f and the confederacy of the Khatti or Ilittites, who are so often seen at war with the kings of Egypt ; and the monu- ment confirms all that we read in Scripture about the war-chariots of these nations, l^orthern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia are occupied by various tribes, all subject to the Assyrians, whose power extends to the Tuplai (Tibareni) in Cappadocia. On the south, the " Accad " and " Kaldai " of Babylonia, and the Tsukhi (Shuhites ?) higher up the Euphrates, own the same subjection. Beyond the mountain tribes of Zagros, a large part of Media has been subdued ; :}: and the appearance of the two-humped Bactrian camel on the bas-reliefs has been thought to confirm the legend of the conquest of Bactria by Ninus and Semiramis. It may be, however, that the animal then ranged further west- ward. The chief interest of the record, however, consists in its mention of the earliest relations between Assyria and the Holy Land. The Black Obelisk King made several campaigns against the Syrian confederacy already mentioned. In his four- teenth year he defeated Benhadad II. in three great battles ; and in his eighteenth year he followed Hazael into Antilibanus and routed him with great slaughter, and soon afterwards the Syrian king appears as his tributary. But the inscription, moreover, mentions the tribute of gold and silver brought to the conqueror by " Yahua, the son of Khumri," a name in which no one can fail * A translation has been published by Dr. Hincks in the Dublin University Maga- zhie for October, 1853. f The name of Ben-hadad has been distinctly made out, but in the form Ben-idri, which corresponds to the Tlhs "Adep of the LXX. The same interchange of (/ and r is seen in the name Iladadezer or Hadarezer (2 Sam. viii. 3 — 12, compared with 1 Chron. xviii. 3—10). X Whether the Persians are mcntioued is doubtful. The numerous tribes of the B.C. 850—747.] PUL, :MENAHEM, AND SEMIRAMIS. 219 to recognise " Jeliii, the son of Orari."' * The subsequent devas- tation of Israel by Hazael may have been an act of revenge for this submission. It was under Shabnanubar that Nineveh reco- vered the position of a royal city, though the king resided chiefly at Calah, where he built that wliich is known as the central pal- ace of Nimrud. The end of Shalmanubar's reign is calculated as having occurred about B.C. 850. In the interval of more than a century to the supposed date of the end of the dynasty (b.c. Y47), we have the names of only two kings, Shamas-iva, the second son of Shalma- nubar, earned the succession by putting down a great rebellion of his elder brother Sardanapalus. He recorded on an obelisk the campaigns of his first four years, the most important of which was against the king of Babylon, whose mixed army of Chalda^ans, Elamites, and Syrians, was utterly defeated by Sliamas-iva. The obscure annals of Iva-lush III. derive a peculiar interest from their supposed connexion with the Jewish history, on the one hand, and on the other, with the legends of Semiramis. He continued that course of conquest to the west, which had now become the chief enterprise of the Assyrian kings. The mention, on one of his monuments, of the Khumri^\ in connexion with the people of Phoenicia, Damascus, and Idumcea, as his tributaries, suggests his identification with Pcl, X who received tribute from Menahem, king of Israel, about b.c. Y70. Another inscription gives us the name of Semiramis, who thus emerges from the region of mythology as the wife of Iva-lush, and apparently his associate in the government. This discovery confirms the date assigned by Herodotus to Semiramis, and it is not inconsistent with his making Semiramis a Babylonian princess. For we have now reached a point at which the history of Babylonia becomes closely connected with that of Assyria, as will be seen presently, when we come to speak of the later Babylonian kingdom. It will sufiice for tlie present to say that the probable connexion between the end of the Upper Assyrian Dynasty and the rise of a new power at Babylon Bartsu or Partsu, in the mountains soutli-east of Armenia, might perhaps be the Par- thians, but they are clearly the Persians in the inscriptions of Sennacherib. * Tlie erroneous patronymic is explained by Dr. Hincks as referring to Jehu'a being king of Samaria, the city of Omri. Professor Rawlinson supposes that Jehu represented himself as belonging to Omri's dynasty, a sort of claim very common with usurpers. f This is interpreted, as before, to mean the people of Samaria. :}: The form in the LXX is Phaloch or Phalos ; and the Belochus of Eusebius seems to be the same. 220 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX nnder Xabonassar has caused the former event to be placed at the "Era of Nabonassar" (b.c. Y47).* The Lower Assyrian Dynasty begins with Tiglatii-Pileser II. Of the manner of his accession we liave no trustworthy accounts ; but the absence of all reference to his ancestors in his inscriptions is thought to imply that he was an usurper, and not of royal birth. We possess tablets inscribed with his annals for seventeen years, in a very fragmentary state. Besides campaigns in Upper Meso- potamia, Armenia, and Media, he carried on two wars of much historical importance. The first of these, to which we shall recur ])resently, was against Babylon ; the other against Syria and Israel. In the preceding chapter we saw how Aliaz, king of Judah, pressed by the confederacy of Rezin and Pekah, obtained the aid of Tiglath-Pileser, who slew Rezin and destroyed the Sj-rian kingdom of Damascus, and afterwards carried the eastern and some of the northern Israelites into captivity. The Assyrian king's monuments record the expedition as made in the eighth year of his reign (b.c. T^O). This first captivity of Israel was soon followed by their last war with Shalmanesee, whose name has not been found on the monuments. The capture of Samaria, which the Scripture narra- tive appears to ascribe (though not positively) to Shalmaneser, is claimed by his successor Saegon, or Sargina, the father of Senna- cherib, as an exploit of the first year of his reign. It seems probable that Sargon was an usurper, who took advantage of Shalmaneser's absence at the siege of Samaria to seize the throne. As he appears systematically to have erased Shalmaneser's name from the monuments, he is not unlikely to have claimed a con- quest which the latter may have been efiecting at the very mo- ment of his own usurpation. At all events, the inscription serves to fix the accession of Sargon to b.c. 721. He reigned nineteen years ; and his extant annals extend over fifteen. They are de- rived chiefly from the splendid palace which he built, as he him- self tells us, near Nineveh, and the ruins of which at Khorsabad have supplied the museum of the Louvre with its choicest remains of Assyrian antiquity.f These monuments show Sargon to have been one of the greatest * The difficulties as to the chronology are discussed by Professor Kawlinson {Herod. Essay vii. to Book i.). The date is at all events correct within twenty years. f Khorsabad is 15 miles N. by E. of Koyunjik^ the site of the true Xinevch. Sargon gave the place his o.vn name, which it retained down to the Arab conquest, in the form of Dur S rgina. B.C. 703.] REIGN OF SENNACHERIB. 331 of Assyrian conquerors. Immediately after the capture of Samaria, he marched in person against Babylon, and perhaps set Merodach- Ba'ladan on the throne. At a later period we find him making war with the Chaldseans, and driving Merodach-Baladan into banish- ment. On the south-west, his defeat of the Philistines in a great battle at Eaphia, and his capture of their five cities, laid open the frontier of Egypt, wdiose king paid tribute to Sargon * (b.c. 715). Later in his reign he took Ashdod f and Tyre, and received tribute from tlie Greeks of Cyprus, where a statue of Sargon, set up at Idalium, proves that he made an expedition into the island, either in person or by his generals. He continued the wars of his pre- decessors in the mountainous regions of the north-west and north ; while, on the east, the conquest of Media, so often attempted be- fore, supplied him with a territory in which to plant the captives from Samaria. The closer intercourse of Assyria with Egypt at this period is marked by a decidedly Egyptian influence on the architecture, pottery, glass-making, and other arts of Assyria.:}; The reign of Sennachekib, the son of Sargon (b.c. 702 — 680), is at once the most interesting, in an historical point of view, of all in the Assyrian annals, and that at which the empire reached the highest pitch of prosperity. Besides all that we read of him in Scripture, and the brief notices of the ancient historians, we possess his own annals for the first eight years of his reign. § He restored Nineveh to its position as the royal residence ; rebuilt the city and its palaces by the labour of hosts of captives, and with materials contributed by all the subject kings and states ; and added a palace exceeding in size and magnificence all that had been erected by former kings. It was amidst the ruins of this edifice at Koyunjik that Mr. Layard made the most important of his discoveries ; and in the sculptures that lined its walls we see the life of Assyria when it was most flourishing. A second palace built by Sennacherib is buried beneath the mound, by the name of which tradition bears her witness to * This king, who is simply called Pharaoh in the inscription, was either Sabaco I. or Sabaco II. of the twenty-fifth or Etliiopian dynasty. The cartouche of one of the Sabacos, evidently the impression of a ring, has been found at Koyunjik, side by side with the seal of an Assyrian king, probably in ratification of a treaty. f Compare Isaiah xx. \ The earliest known specimen of transparent glass in Assyria is a small bottle found at Nimrud, bearing the name of Sargon. — Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 197. § A separate tablet mentions his twenty-second year ; and various proofs concur to show that this was the true length of his reign. 222 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. Jonah's mission to the Ninevites.* Like his predecessors, Senna- cherib was engaged in constant wars with the tribes round the northern and eastern frontiers of Assyria ; but by far the most interesting events in his annals are the campaigns against Babylon and the countries of the west. Of the former we shall speak pres- ently : the latter are recorded with a minuteness which affords the most interesting parallel between sacred and secular history. It was in the third year of his reign (b.c. 700) that, having pre- viously subdued Babylonia and Upper Mesopotamia, the king crossed the Euphrates, and received the submission of the cities of Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia, and Idumsea, in most cases without a struiTirle : Judaea seems to have been regarded as already in com- plete subjection. His successes in Philistia provoked the resist- ance of the kings of Egypt, who were the dependent allies of the King of Meroe ; f and Ilezekiah seems to have availed himself of their advance to show symptoms of revolt, by encouraging a rising among the Philistines. Having utterly defeated the Egyptians near Lachish, and taken that city and Libnah, Sennacherib pro- ceeded to chastise Jud?ea, taking forty-six fenced cities, and carry- ing off 200,000 captives. On his laying siege to Jerusalem, Hezekiah agreed to pay a tribute of 300 talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, besides rich presents. His submission was accepted ; but he was deprived of a part of his land, which was given to the princes of Ashdod, Ekron, and Gaza. Whether after all these successes the army of the Assyrian came to the disastrous end recorded in Scripture, or wdiether, as seems more probable, that catastrophe closed a second expedition against Egypt and Judeea, is still a question. In any case we should not expect so calamitous an event to be mentioned in the royal annals. ]^or is there any ground for supposing that the death of Sennacherib followed immediately on his flight home. The Scripture narrative says expressly that " he returned and dwelt at Nineveh," and his monuments attest that he continued to decorate his palaces and to make war upon the tribes of Armenia and Media. It was among the former that his two sons found a refuge, after they had murdered their fsither in the temple of Nisroch, a deed respecting which the monuments are again naturally silent. Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esak-haddon (b.c. GSO), * Kebh'-Yunus, that is, the ProjJiet Jonah. This is not the place to enter into the question of Jonah's date. f This statement throws light on the probable condition of Egypt under the Ethiopian Dynasty. See chap. vii. p. 127. B.C. 680—625.] RAPID DECLINE OF ASSYRIA. 223 the Assliur-akii-iddina of the inscriptions, who reigned in person at Babylon as well as Nineveh.'^ His inscriptions claim victories over tlie Egyptians, and over the old enemies on the confines of Assyria. He was probably, as we have seen, the king who colo- nized the waste lands of Samaria with settlers from Babylonian cities, a proceeding which implies the treatment of Babylonia, to some extent, as a conquered province. This agrees with the men- tion of a war in Susiana against a son of Merodach-Baladan. Like his two predecessors, Esar-haddon was a magnificent builder. Besides extensive repairs of former edifices, he erected the south- west palace of Nimrud, and one of those at Nebbi-Yunus, which he styles " the palace of the pleasures of all the year," His in- scriptions record the aid he received in these works from the kings of Syria, Judah, and Phoenicia, and even from the princes of the Greek cities of Cyprus, not only in materials but in the services of skilled artists. The bas-reliefs of his palaces show that freer and more graceful style which had already begun to modify the old archaic stiffness of Greek art. We have already seen the same influences at work in Egypt under Psammetichus, who was contemporary with the later years of Esar-haddon. But in As- syria, as in many other countries, the fine arts culminated just as the power of the empire was dying out, under Sardanapalus (Asshurbani-pal II.), the son of Esar-haddon. The causes of the rapid decline of the Assyrian power maj' be traced in the nature of the empire, as it is exliibited to us in the records of the Lower Dynasty, and especially when at its height, under Sai'gon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon. Xominally includ- ing the whole of Western Asia from the river Halys and the Me- diterranean to the Desert of Iran, and from the Caspian and the mountains of Armenia to Arabia and the Persian Gulf, it was utterly wanting in unity, even of administration. It embraced a number of small kingdoms, and of cities and tribes under many petty chieftains who were bound to pay tribute and render personal homage to the sovereign, and to give a free passage to his troops.f But this duty was limited by the king's power to enforce it ; nor would the yoke be made more welcome by the severe measures used to suppress revolt, — the destruction of cities and the cruel execution of their defenders, — forays in which men and cattle Avere carried ofl'by tens and hundreds of thousands, — the deportation of whole nations, to labour as captives on the king's buildings, or to * This accounts for Manasseh's being carried captive to Babylon, 2 Ghron. xxxiii. 11. \ Military service iu the armies of Assyria does not seem to have been required. 224 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX. mourn as exiles beside the waters of a strange land. Tlie Ass_yrian armies marched back when they had inflicted these chastisements, and there was no military occupation of the conquered countries.* The fabric of the empire was a web of Penelope, ever undoing and beginning again. We have seen even the most powerful kings constantly renewing the same wars with the same frontier tribes ; and the accession of a weak ruler was the signal for the resolu- tion of the empire into its independent elements. The want of cohesion, however, among these scattered elements, secured the central government from a speedy overthrow ; to eifect this needed some concentrated power from without. Egypt threatened more than once to do the work ; but the distance was too great, and her strength was unequal to the task. Babylon, the nearest neighbour of Assyria, was in a state of chronic disaffection, but her attempts at open revolt were speedily put down. At length a new power comes upon the stage, alien from Assyria in race and religion, and recently consolidated into a great nation. We have seen, from the very first, that the range of Mount Zagros, bordering the Tigris and Euphrates valley on the east, divided its Semitic and Ilamite nations from the Aryan tribes of the tableland of Iran. The Medes, who occupied the latter region, have often been mentioned among the peoples conquered by successive Assyrian kings ; but these appear to have been only partial conquests made from time to time over separate tribes. We have yet to trace the history of the great Median nation, which, consolidated by Cyaxares, be- came the instrument for overthrowing the power of Assyria, and even blotting out her existence.f The interval from the death of Esar-haddon to this catastrophe is exceedingly obscure. The Assyrian monuments have as yet sup]^iied the names of only two kings. Asshur-bani-pal is sup- posed to have reigned from about B.C. 6G0 to about e.g. 6-iO. The narrow limits of liis recorded wars, in Susiana against the grand- son of Merodach-Baladan, and in Armenia, indicate those within which the empire was contracted. His successor, Asshur-emit-ili is only known as tlie builder of a palace at Nimrud, the compara- tive meanness of which gives a sign of the degradation of the monarchy. One cause of its rapid decline may be found in that great irruption of the Scythians into Western Asia, of which we shall have to speak further in the next chapter. * How such countries were left to themselves, may be seen from the proceedings of Hezekiah and Josiah in Northern Palestine. f See Chapter x. B.C. 625.] THE FALL OF NINEVEH. 225 From the former of these two kings the Greek writers, by a very natural confusion, obtained the name of that Sardanapahis, wliose fate they have told so romantically. Berosus is said to have named Saraciis as the king under whom Nineveh was destroyed ; but it remains doubtful whether he is identical with Assliur-emit- ili, and indeed whether the latter was the last king of Assyria. Of tlie events attending the fall of Nineveh and the empire the monuments contain no record, beyond tlie incontestable evidence of their own condition. " Calcined alabaster, masses of charred wood and charcoal, colossal statues split through with the heat, are met with in all parts of the Ninevite mounds, and attest the veracity of prophecy." * All bears witness to a conflagration of the palaces which could only have attended on an utter destruc- tion of the monarchy, and tends so far to confirm the details which we only possess on the doubtful authority of Ctesias, and the more trustworthy narrative which Abydenus professes to have boiTOwed from Berosus.f lie tells us that Saracus, being alarmed by the news of forces advancing against him from the sea,:{: sent Nabo- polassar to take the command at Babylon. The latter seized the opportunity to rebel, and formed an alliance with the Median king.§ The united armies of the Medes, Chaldseans, and Baby- lonians marched against Nineveh ; and Saracus, after a brief defence, retired to his palace, to which he set fire with his own hand, and perished, like Zirari,|| in the conflagration, Ctesias assigns a duration of two years to the siege, and ascribes its suc- cess to an inundation of the Tigris, which swept away a part of the city wall. The prophet Nahum seems to indicate an entrance by the river gates, such as led to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. A simihar false security may easily have led to a similar catastrophe. The destruction of the empire and its capital were alike complete. Nineveh was not even permitted to become, like Babylon in later times, a capital of the conquering monarchy. Her ruin appears to have been hastened by the nature of the city, which seems only to have deserved tlie name in virtue of her palaces and temples. The * Rawlinson, Herod, vol. i. p. 488; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 71, 103, 121, &c. ; Nahum ii. 13, iii. 13, 15. The predictions of the fall of Nineveh and Assyria by Nahum and Zephaniah are so exact as to have a real historic value. f See the fragment in Eusebius, Chron. part. i. c. 9. \ Rawlinson takes these for the Chaldaeans and Susianians, who are known to have been in revolt during the preceding reign. § Both Abydenus and Polyhistor call this king Astyages ; but the order of the Median history proves that it was Cyaxares. II 1 Kings xvi. 18. VOL. I. — 15 ^36 THE ASSYRIAN MONARCHY. [Chap. IX great mounds Avhicli are scattered over a space of about sixty miles from north to south along the course of the Tigris, above the con- fluence of the Great Zab, are found to contain the remains of palaces and temples, within enclosures as lai'ge as some cities. The spaces within these enclosures are strewn with fragments of pottery and other objects, undoubted signs of human habitation, but all traces of private houses have vanished. As the kings glorified only themselves in their sculptures, so tliey built for themselves alone ; and the liouses of unburnt brick which were scattered probably far and wide about their palaces, would soon return to dust. This circumstance has made it almost impossible to identify the true site of Nineveh, the knowledge of which had been lost as early as the time of Herodotus. ISTo traces remain (as at Babylon) of the vast enclosures of the immense city which the ancient writers ascribed to Ninus. It seems most probable that the people dwelt in scattered villages among the several groups of palaces built by successive kings on elevated platfonns, and that these latter alone were fortified. Of these edifices four chief groups are marked by as many mounds, on or near the left bank of the Tigris, not including Kileh-Shergat (the supposed ancient Asshur), which lies on the right bank, much farther to the south. These are Niinrud (Calah) above the confluence of the Great Zab, with the smaller mound of Selamiyeh a little further to the north ; Koyunj'tJc and Nebhj- T'unus, opposite Mosul ; Shereef-K/ian, about five and a half miles further north ; and Khorsabad,, about ten miles N^. by E. of Shereef-Khan. Considering the scattered mode of building Oriental cities, it is by no means improbable that all this area may have been included in the widest extent of the name of Nineveh, and such a supposition would explain the description of the prophet Jonah : " Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey ^ * But the name must have had originally a more definite meaning ; and in this sense it probably belonged to the group of mounds opposite Mosul^ which was at all events the Nineveh of Sennacherib's great palace. Here the mounds of Koyunjik and Nebhy- Yunus are enclosed within a well-marked line of once strong fortifications, the circuit of which is about seven and a half miles, quite large enough for a primitive city, though far smaller than the Nineveh of tradition. We must leave to the writers on Assyrian antiquities the de- * Jonah iii. 3. That this is no mere hyperbole is evident from the specific state- ment that " Jonah began to enter into the city, a day's journci/y^ in his fii'st preaching. ASSYEIAN CIYILIZATIOK 227 scription of the state of art and civilization attested by the As* Syrian remains. The whole is summed up by Professor Rawlin- son in the following terms : " With much that was barbaric still attaching to them, with a rude and inartificial government, savage passions, a debasing religion, and a general tendency to materialism, they were, towards the close of the empire, in all the arts and appliances of life, very nearly on a par with our- selves ; and thus their history furnishes a warning, which the records of nations constantly repeat, that the greatest material prosperity may coexist with the decline — and herald the downfall — of a kingdom." * It is now time to look back to the former seat of empire on the lower course of the Euphrates, and to trace the steps by which old Babylon regained the imperial state, which she was destined to enjoy but for a comparatively short time. Her eclipse, over- shadowed even when not entirely subdued by Assyria, lasted for about 650 years (b.c. 1273 — 625) ; her recovered greatness, sur- passing all her predecessors, under the dynasty of Nabopolassar, j)erished before the power of Persia after only 87 years (b.c. 625 — 538). But before the beginning of this last period, she had risen into importance under the Lower Assyrian Dynasty, the accession of which we have seen to coincide with the new state of things at Babylon marked by the era of Nabonassar (b.c. 747). A few words will suffice to describe what is known of Babylon under the two Assyrian dynasties, as a preface to the brief and brilliant period of her true historical importance. The confusion between the earliest history of Ass^^ria and Babylonia, in the Greek traditions, is but very partially unravelled by the Assyrian records. We only leam from them, that when the Assyrians obtained that suj^remacy which the Arabs had wrested from Babylon, the latter did not sink into a mere subject condition. Unfortunately the native records of the period ai-e lost, having been destroyed, Berosus tells us, by Nabonassar, and thus the Assyrian history absorbs that of both states. But even the * Rawlinson's Herodotus, Appendix to Book i., Essay vii., vol. i. p. 499. In the great uncertainty which still besets the science of cuneiform interpretation, we have closely followed the system developed in the above Essay, as upon the whole the most probable and consistent. Essays and discussions upon new discoveries made from time to time are contained in several recent numbers of the Athenwum. Among the writers whose views are either wholly or chiefly independent of the science of cuneiform inter- pretation, the most important are Niebuhr, in his Lectures on Ancient History, and Mr. Grote, in his History of Greece, £28 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. LX. Assyrian records of tlie Upper Dynasty represent Babylon as a very powerful and troublesome neighbour under lier native kings, "who are even seen as successful invaders of the northern empire. Her position is, in one word, truly described by Professor Rawlin- son : — " During the whole time of the Upper Dynasty in As- s^'ria, she was clearly the most powerful of all those kingdoms by which the Assyrian empire was surrounded." * The Era of Nabonassak (b.c. 74Y) seems to mark a political change at Babylon, but of what nature is quite uncertain. Its coincidence with the beginning of the Lower Dyuasty in Assyria, and the mention of Seniiramis as connected with both dynasties at this epoch, according to the computations of Herodotus, have sug- gested the theory that the old line, expelled by Tiglath-Pileser, established itself anew at Babylon ; but this is no more than a conjecture. The successors, whom Ptolemy's Canon assigns to Nabonassar are of no importance till we reach the fifth king, Mardocempalus, the Mekodach-Baladan of Scripture, who sent an embassy of congratulation to Hezekiah on his recovery from sickness. This step implies designs on behalf of the independ- ence of Babylon, for which the Assyrian inscriptions prove that Merodach-Baladan maintained a struggle against the mightiest kings of Assyria, Sargon and Sennacherib. Diiven from Baby- lon by the former (b.c. 721), he appears to have recovered his throne only to be finally expelled by Sennacherib (b.c. 702), who inflicted on Babylonia all the cruelties that marked an Assyrian conquest, and set over the kingdom a viceroy named Belibus. The party of Merodach-Baladan, however, found supi)ort from the King of Susiania, till Sennacherib defeated, him and overran Babylonia a second time, in his fourth year (b.c. 699). An ensuing period of confusion is ended by Esar-haddon's assumption in his own person of the government of Babylonia (b.c. 680 — 667). He had still to maintain war against the sons of Merodach-Baladan and the Susianians. The final suppression of resistance furnishes a probable reason for his reverting to the plan of governing by viceroys, which seems to have continued till the last days of the Assyrian kingdom, though we are quite igno- rant of the precise relation in which the rulers of Babylon stood to the latest kings of Assyria. During all this period of subjection, the old Chaldseans never lost the spirit of independence ; and the decline of Assyria, threat- * Appendix to Book i. of Herodotus, Essay viii. B.C. 625.] ACCESSION OF NABOPOLASSAR. 229 ened. by the growth of the Median empire, at last gave tliem tlie opportunity of emancipation. The circumstances under which Babylon co-operated with the Medes in the last attack on Nine- veh are only known by a doubtful tradition preserved by the Greek historian Abydeuus, the outline of which has already been related. But, whatever may have been the mode by which Nabopo- lassar obtained his power, there is no doubt that he joined with the Medes in the capture of Nineveh, and received as his share of the spoil the undisputed possession of Babylonia, where he founded his short but brilliant dynasty (e.g. 625). The purely Babylonian names of Nabopolassar (Xabu-pal-uzur), Nebuchadnezzar,* and other kings of the line, and several circumstances of their history, coniirm the accuracy of Berosus in calling them C^ialdseans.f Their accession was therefore a restoration, though to a much wider dominion, of the old Hamite race, after its long ecHpse by the Semitic Assyrians — a revolution not altogether unlike that by which Ardshir long afterwards wrested the Persian empire from the dominion of the Parthians. This later Babylonian dynasty at no time held the undivided supremacy of Western Asia. The wider empire of the Medes enclosed it on the north and east like a great belt, reaching from the Persian Gulf to the river Halys in Asia Minor, to the west of which the Lydian kingdom was approaching the climax of its power.:}: Nineveh itself, with the upper course of the Tigris, fell to the share of the Mede ; but, while he pushed forward his arms in Asia Minor, the whole region west of the Euphrates, as far as Egypt, lay open to Babylonian ambition. The fall of Nineveh seems at once to have transferred to Baby- lon at least a nominal supremacy as far as the frontier of Egypt. But the latter power had been restored to new strength by the dynasty founded by Psammetichus ; and she soon came forward to dispute with Babylon the possession of Syria and Palestine. Meanwhile Nabopolassar consolidated his new kingdom during a reign of one-and-twenty years (b.c. 625 — 604). It is a reasonable supposition that his share of the captives carried away from Nineveh would at once increase the population of his kingdom * These names, like Xabonassar, are derived from the god Nebo. \ They form his Eighth Dynasty of six Chaldsan kings; see p. 196. Among the circumstances referred to in the text is the complete ascendancy of the Chaldaean caste at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, as seen in the book of Daniel. X Respecting the rise, growth, and relations to each other of the Median and Lydian empires, see chapter x. 230 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX. and supply tlie labour to conitnenee those great works at Baby- lon which were completed by Nebuchadnezzar. Nabopolassar took part, as the ally of Media, in the war between Cyaxares and tlie Lydian King Alyattos, and peace is said to have been re- stored by the mediation of a prince of Babylon (b.c. 610). About the same t.me (b.c. 611), Neko ascended the throne of Egypt, a king eager to restore both the prosperity of the Pharaohs at home and their dominion abroad. His plan was to secure the frontier of the Euphrates by a rapid advance. We have seen how Josiah fell at Megiddo in attempting to oppose his march (b.c. 608) ; and he advanced, apparently without further resistance to Carchemish on the Euphrates. Having garrisoned that place, Neko returned in triumph, and set up a new king at Jerusalem, as a tributary to himself. But in three years, these conquests were surrendered to the military prowess of Kebuchad- nezzar, whom his father Nabopolassar sent against the Egyptians. Having defeated Neko in a great battle at Carchemish, he pressed forward to Jerusalem, received the submission of Jehoiakim, and reconquered all the lands to the borders of Egypt (b.c. 605 — 4). The death of iN^abopolassar, during this campaign, recalled K^ebu- chadnezzar in haste to Babylon. His triumphant return was followed more slowly by hosts of captives, who were, as usual, settled throughout Babylonia. With his " unbounded command of naked human strength,""^ Nebuchadnezzar f (b.c. 604) applied himself to those works which afterwards called forth his celebrated boast : — " Is not this Great Babylon, that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? " :}: The ancient Greek writers, who have handed down to us a description of the city, tells us indeed that Nineveh was still vaster. But the splendour of Nineveh was to them a mere tradition ; Babylon itself was seen, before it had lost nearly all its greatness, by Herodotus and Ctesias, from whom the later writers borrow their descriptions. Tlie city of Babel, which the Greeks called Babylon, was built in the great alluvial plain of Shinar, on the lower Euphrates, in about 32f degrees of north latitude. It formed a regular square, * Grote, Hhtory of Greece^ vol. iii. p. 401. f The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel use the form Nebuchadrezzar, which is nearer to the original Nahu-Kuduri-utzur, that is, we are told, Nebo is the protector against misfortune. X Daniel, iv. 30. DESCRIPTION OF BABYLON. 231 facing nearly, but not exactly, the four cardinal points,* tlie river flowing through it diagonally from ISr.W. to S.E., and so dividing it into two nearly equal parts. Herodotus assigns to the circuit of the outer wall a length of 480 stadia, or 48 geographical miles, while Ctesias gives only 360 stadia, or 36 geographical miles. The former estimate would make the area of the city about 200 square miles ; the latter about 130 ; the smaller number amount- ing to about five times the area of London. All the other esti- mates come so near the one or other of these two, as to show that each M'as supported by high authority, and almost to exclude the suspicion of mere guess-work. It has been suggested, tliat the statement of Herodotus refers to the outer wall, which may have still existed w^hen he saw the city, but have disappeared by the time of Ctesias, whose dimensions w^ould thus relate to the inner of the two walls mentioned by Herodotus. The existing ruins, near the Arab village of Ilillah, furnish no sufiicient means of testing the truth of this opinion. They consist of a number of mounds, some of enormous size, scattered over a vast surface on both sides of the river. The most remarkable of these, with one exception, lie w^ithin a comparatively small compass, on the left bank of the river, about five miles above Hillah.f Here, within a clearly marked enclosure, forming two sides of a square, with the river (roughly speaking) for a diagonal, are three great mounds, the Babil^ the Kasr (or Castle), and that marked by the tomb of Amram-ibn- Alb, which Oppert attempts to identify respectively with the great temple of Bel, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and his famous Hanging Gardens.X On the opposite side of the river, the striking conical mound of the Birs-Nimrud has been held traditionally to mark the Tower of Babel. Inscriptions found there are now supposed to identify it with the Temple of Belus, built or rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar at Borsippa ; but without necessarily contradicting the old tradition. One important differ- ence between Nineveh and Babylon is, that while the former was built almost entirely of crude brick, the latter exhibits vast masses of burnt brick, cemented by mineral bitumen. The most astound- * The northern face inclined a little to the east. f Hillah itself is on the right bank. X The last is not at all probable. For the full description of the ruins, and the whole discussion of the topography of Babylon, the reader is referred to Layard's Nineveh and Babylon ; Loftus's Chaldcea ; Oppert's Maps and Plans ; Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii., Essay iv. ; ajid the article Babel in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 233 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX. ing part of the ancient descriptions is the magnitude assigned to tlie outer walls, which Herodotus nialces 200 royal cuhits (ahout 338 feet) high and Hfty royal cubits (about 85 feet) tliick. The accounts of later writers are evidently designed extenuations of these numbers, which are not altogether incredible from what we know of the Oriental system of fortification, and the rude vast- ness aimed at by the early despotic kings.* These walls are de- scribed as strengthened by 250 towers, and pierced with 100 gates of brass, with brass posts and lintels. The main streets passed between the opposite gates, crossing one another at right angles. The river was lined by quays, and the streets which abutted upon them were closed with brazen gates, which were shut at night. They played an important part in the ca]>ture of the city by Cyrns. Among the prophetic allusions to these fortifications, the most striking is that of Jeremiah : — " The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her higli gates shall be burnt with fire." f The two parts of the city were connected by a stone bridge, 1000 yards long and 30 feet wide, at each end of which was a fortified royal palace. Most of these great works were ascribed by tradition to Belus and Semiramis, to whom Herodotus adds a queen Nitocris, appar- ently about the time of Nebuchadnezzar ; but the authority of Berosus and the chroniclers, with newly discovered inscriptions, prove them to have been for the most part executed or renewed by I^ebuchadnezzar. Tlie outer wall of the city was of unknown antiquity ; l)ut he repaired it, with most of the ancient monu- ments ; and he added the interior line of defence. Of liis rebuild- ing of the Temple of Belus we have the extremely interesting me- morial in the inscription quoted in a former chapter. The most important of his new buildings at Babylon were the great palace, the ruins of which form the mound of the Kasr, and the Hanging Gardens, which seem to have been formed by terraces rising one above another, with the surface broken into the likeness of nat- ural hills. They are said to have been raised to gratify his Median queen with an imitation of the scenery of her native mountains ! His almost complete rebuilding of the city itself is proved by the constant occurrence of his name, and of none other, on its bricks ; and the same is true of most of the cities of Upper Babylonia. * Taking the dimensions of Herodotus, tlie outer wall would contain nearly 300,000,000 cubic yards of brickwork, or nearly double the solid content of the great wall of China ! f Jerem. li. 58. B.C. 585.] CAPTURE OF TYRE. 233 He constructed hydraulic works of the greatest magnificence and utility ; but some of these were doubtless restorations of the works of the old Chaldsean kings. Such were the great canal from Hit to the sea, the reserv^oir for irrigation near Sippara, and the em- bankments and breakwaters along both the great rivers and the shores of the Persian Gulf. Whatever there was, in these great works, of mere vastness and barbaric pomp, must not make us insensible to their real grandeur and utility. " These are imperial works, and worthy kings." And the pride of their author in reviewing them, as he walked in his palace, was not chastised because they were a waste of re- sources, but that he might learn to give the glory to the Most High, from whom came the power to create them. It was not amidst the peace assured by wide-spread conquests that Nebuchadnezzar accomplished these magnificent undertak- ings. We have seen indeed that he began his reign by inflicting such a repulse upon his chief rival, that " the king of Egypt came no more out of his own land ; " * but the Jews were slow to re- nounce the hope of fresh aid from Egypt ; and about the same time that Jehoiakim again rebelled, the Phoenicians renounced the allegiance which they had doubtfully yielded to Assyria (b.c. 598 — 7). Aided by his old ally, Cyaxares, Nebuchadnezzar marched first against Tyre, and formed the siege which lasted thirteen years, and which gave occasion to one of the most striking prophe- cies of Ezekiel.f Meanwhile, the siege of Jerusalem by another Chaldsean army was attended by the death of Jehoiakim and the elevation of his son Jehoiachin to the throne. But he had only reigned three months, Avhen Nebuchadnezzar, leaving Tyre in- vested, appeared in person before Jerusalem, carried off the king and 10,000 captives to Babylon, and placed Zedekiah on the throne (b.c. 597). We have already related the revolt of this king and the final destruction of Jerusalem (b.c. 586),:}: a victory soon fol- lowed by the capitulation of Tyre (b.c. 585). We read of no new wars for a period of five years. This inter- val may well have been employed by Nebuchadnezzar in organ- izing his new conquests, disposing of his immense hosts of captives, and carrying on his great works at home. But about b.c, 581 he * 2 Kings xxvi. 7. f Ezek. xxiv. — xxviii. The date of the prophecy itself (xxvi. 1) must not be eon- founded with that of the beginning of the siege, which was in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar. Joseph, c, Apion. i. 21. X Chap. viii. p. 185. 234 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Cii.vr. IX. ai^ain took the lield uo-aiiist Eirypt. A])iios, tlio riiaraoh-lIoi)lii'a of Scripture, had already given him provocation by attacks on the PhaMiieian cities and by the j^roniise of aid to Zedekiah, though he had retreated when iS'ebuehadnezzar turned agaiust liim from besieging Jerusalem.* The reception of the Jewisli fugitives into Egypt after the murder of (Tcdaliah may have been the crowning oti'ence ; but, be this as it may, Egypt api)ears to have been invaded and overrun by Nebuchadnezzar, and Amasis to have been set upon the thnme as the vassal of Babylon.f This career of uninterrupted prosperity, supported by magua- uimity and clemency, combines with the peculiar relation oi' Xebu- chadnezzar to God's chosen people, to invest him with an historic interest surpassed by none of his i)redecessors, and by few of his followers, who have wielded despotic power. The personal ele- ment, which gives so much of its life to history, iirst comes out distinctly in him among all the rulers of the world. Nor need the historian hesitate how to read such characters ; for the secret of their strength and weakness, and the place they were designed to lill in the world's history, have been recorded in the case of Nebuchadnezzar by the same hand that raised him up. The vic- tory which placed Judah at his feet, at the beginning of his reign, involved his subjection to that divine discipline of which he is one of the most conspicuous examples. Among the captives carried to Babylon, atlter his first invasion of Judah (b.c. OOS), were Daniel and his three companions, whose selection to be trained among the Chalda?ans, their fidelity to the sacred law, and their advancement to the royal favour, we need not stay to relate in detail.:}: It was as early as the second year of Nebuchadnezzar (b.c. C03\ that his dream of the colossal image, engendered pro- bably by the schemes of conquest he was revolving, gave Daniel the opportunity to teach him the supremacy of God, while ]iro- phesying, for all future ages, the establishment of His kiugdom on the ruins of the successive empires of the world.§ But the lesson might easily be forgotten in the full tide of conquest, though Me are disposed to trace something of its eftect in the king's forbearance and moderation towards the rebellious Jews. Upon the full establishment of his empire and the completion of * Cbap. viii. p. ISO, f Chap. vii. p. 125; comp. Jor. xliv. SO; Ezok. x\x. 21 — 24, xxxii. 31 — 32. i Piiuiol i. ^ Paniel ii. B.C. 561.] DEATH OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 235 his conquests,* it scem.s iiaturul to supi)Osc that he set up on tlic plaui of Dura that golden image, probably Bel or Nebo, to which lie required the reprcscmtatives of all the nations he carried cap- tive to Babylon to ofl'er public adoration. The despot's rage at the recusancy of his Jewish officers was turned into awed sub- mission at their safety in the fiery furnace, and the still more wondrous vision of Ilim who walked with them there ; and the royal servant of Nebo proclaimed the supreme power of Jehovah to all his subjects. It is an incidental testimony to the book of Daniel, that the story does not end here, with the establishment of the true religion throughout the empire. A despot's nature is not so quickly changed, and it needed a severer lesson to extort his final homage to the " King of Heaven." f We need not repeat the story of the sudden stroke which, in the very hour when he was exulting over his own s])lendi(l works and the majesty of his kingdom, levelled the king with the beasts of the field, by the form of madness which is known by the name of Lycanthrojyy.X The malady seems to have lasted for seven years ; and some allusions in the " Standard Inscription " of Nebu- chadnezzar to the suspension of his great works are supposed to refer to it ; but this is very doubtful. The period of his reign when it occurred cannot have been earlier than b.c. 5S0, and it may have been considerably later; but, at all events, we learn from the book of Daniel that Kebuchadnezzar enjoyed a season of restored prosperity and power. He died, after a reign of forty- three years, leaving the kingdom to his son, Evil-Merodach, the Illoarudamus of the Greek writers, n.c. 561. The history of Babylon now falls into an obscurity which of itself testifies to the insignificance of the successors of Nebuchad- nezzar. Two years are assigned by the chroniclers to Evil- Merodach, who was then put to death for his lawlessness and intemperance. The only fact recorded of him in Scripture is his restoration of the captive Jewish King Jehoiachin to an honour- able place at his court.§ His murderer and successor was his brother-in-law, XEiiioLissAii (b.c. 559), who is called in his inscrip- * On this ground the date of B.C. 680, which TJssher assigns to the third chapter of Daniel, seems very near the truth. t Daniel iv. 36. X That is, when a man fancies himself a wolf or some other beast. Professor Welcker, of Bonn, has collected all that is known of this affection in a paper printed in his Kleine Schriften, vol. iii. p. 157. § 2 Kings XXV. 27; chap. viii. p. 186. 236 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX. tioris " Eab-Mag," probably a Chaldaean title, signifying Chief Priest. The remains of a palace built by him still exist at Baby- lon. Ilis youthful son, Laborosoarcliod (b.c. 556), "vvas cut off by a conspiracy, after a reign of only nine months, and the throne was seized by one of the conspirators, Nabonidus or Nabonadius (l^abunahit *), the Labynetus II. of Herodotus, and the last king of Babylon (b.c. 555). Meanwhile the growth of the new Persian power, in whi(!li Cyrus had just absorbed the empire of the Medes, threatened to cover the whole of Western Asia. Cyrus was now advancing against Croesus ; and, whether through fear, or because the old Median alliance seemed less binding with the new dynasty, Xabo- nadius listened in an evil hour to the proposals of the Lydian king for an alliance of Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt, against Persia. The plan was disconcerted by the rash advance of Croesus across the Halys, and the energy of Cyrus. Croesus was defeated and shut up in Sardis, the city was taken, and the whole Lydian em- pire, as far as the shores of the ^gean Sea, added to the dominions of the Persian (b.c. 554 — 3). Cyrus suffered fifteen years to elapse before attacking Babylon ; and the interval was spent by jS'abo- nadius in strengthening his defences.f These defences seem to have been confined to the capital itself, the open country being abandoned to the invaders. One battle only was risked under the walls of Babylon ; and the defeated Chald[eans retii'ed within their enormous walls, the strength of wliich bade defiance to the enemy, while the ample spaces within sufiiced for abundant sup- plies. In the language of Jeremiah, whose prophecy of the taking of Babylon has all the vivid picturesqueness of contem- porary history, — " The mighty men of Babylon forbore to fight : they remained in their holds." :{: We are quite without details of the duration and the incidents of the siege, until its very end. Whoever wishes to appreciate the vast difference between the briefest narrative of a great event by an eye-witness, and the meagre annals of later chroniclers, has only to compare the won- derful picture of Belshazzar's Feast, in the Book of Daniel,§ with the confused statements of the Greek writers. At first sight, in- * According to Sir Henry Rawlinson, this is the Semitic form, the Chaldaean being Nahu-induk, and both meaning "Nebo blesses" or "makes prosperous." f The river walls are ascribed by Berosus to this king, and their bricks bear his name. The "Median Wall" of Xenophon seems to be incorrectly referred to this period. \ Jer. li. § Daniel v. B.C. 538.] TAKING OF BABYLON BY CYRUS. 237 deed, these "vrriters seem to leave no place for Belsliazzar. Thej tell us that Xabonadius, when defeated in the one battle that he risked, fled to Borsippa, where he was still shut up when Babylon was taken ; after which he submitted to Cyrus, and was treated with the honour whicli the Persians used to pay to conquered kings. All this is quite consistent witli the narrative in the Book of Daniel. For we now learn from an inscription of Xabonadius deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson, that that king associated with himself his son Bil-shar-utzue, who is evidently the Bel- shazzar of Daniel, and whose first and third years are mentioned by the prophet.^ It would seem then that Belsliazzar took the command of the Chaldaeans, who were beleaguered in Babylon, while his father was shut up in Borsippa. There he behaved with the arrogance of a youth inexperienced in government, revelling with his courtiers in fancied security, and insulting the God of Heaven. The fearful handwriting on the palace wall, and the terrible denunciation of the prophet, form a scene too deeply impressed on our earliest recollections to need repe- tition. The leading incident is confirmed by Herodotus in two words, when he tells us that Babylon was taken " amidst revelries." All the historians are agreed as to the manner in which the city was entered. By diverting the course of the Euphrates, Cyras laid open a way for his army tlirongh the bed of the river into the very heart of Babylon. His stratagem was aided by the careless security of the Chaldteans themselves, who had left the gates open- ing on to the river unclosed. Yast as was the space within the walls, large portions of the city might be in the possession of the enemy, before its capture was known at the palace ; and the entrance of the Persians may already have been effected when Belshazzar's revelry was at its height. Xo words could more vividly describe the scene that followed, than those in which the prophet Jeremiah had foretold it in a distant land : — " One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the King of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are aftnghted." f Belsliazzzar was killed in the confusion of the sack, the only record of his fate * Daniel vii. 1, viii. 1. Respecting the probable relationship of Belshazzar to the f\\mily of Nebuchadnezzar, and the place to be assigned to the queen Nitocris of Herodo- tus, see Rawlinson's Herodotus^ App. to Book i. Essay riii. f Jerem. li. 31, 32. 238 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX, being in the brief words of Daniel : — " In that niglit was Bel- shazzar, the King of the Chahlceans, slain." * His fatlier, as we. have said, submitted to Cj^riis, who gave him a sort of princi- pality in Carmania, where he seems to have ended his days in peace. Thus fell the empire of Babylon in b.c. 538. Having adliered to the Book of Daniel as the highest author- ity for these events, we may at this point meet the difficulty which has arisen respecting liis " Darius the Median, the son of Ahasuerus," who " took the kingdom," at the age of seventy-two, immediately on the death of Belshazzar,f and who is seen exer- cising the royal authority, not only at Babylon, but thence over the 120 provinces of the Medo-Persian Empire ; :}: while, in another passage, he is said to have been " made king over the realm of the Chaldceans,''^ a phrase which might be taken to im- ply a more limited authority.§ All scholars are now agreed in rejecting the attempt to identify Darius with a supposed Cyaxares II., who appears in the Ci/ropcedia of Xenophon as the son of Astyages, — Astyages himself being, by all trustworthy accounts, tlie last king of Media, by whose dethronement the empire passed to Cyrus and the Persians. The Cyaxares of Xenophon is not an historical personage at all, but a character introduced into the ro- mance — for such the Cyropsedia really is — as a foil to the virtues attributed to Cyrus. All our knowledge of the revolution effected in the Medo-Persian empire concurs to make it a violent transfer of the supremacy from the Medes under Astyages to the Persians under Cyrus. Cyrus alone effects the capture of Babylon, at the head of the Medo-Persian forces ; and no place is left for the im- mediate rule of Cyaxares, as a king of the Medes. But for " Darius, the son of Ahasuerus," a royal prince " of the seed of the Medes," an appropriate place may be found, as a viceroy, who " was made king over the realm of the Chaldseans " by Cyrus after the capture of Babylon. How far he may have exercised a viceregal authority over the whole empire, while Cyrus was en- gaged in distant wars, is perhaps hardly worth discussing on the scanty information we possess. Nothing could be more natural than for the 'Jewish captives at Babylon to regard such a viceroy as a king ; and hence they date the years of Cyrus from the time * Daniel v. 30. f Daniel v. 31. X Daniel vi. It scarcely follows, however, as a matter of absolute certainty, that the 120 princes imply 120 provinces ; but such is the most natural sense. S Daniel ix. 1. B.C. 538.] DAKIUS THE MEDIAN. 239 when this state of the government appears to have come to an end by the death of Darius, in b.c. 536.* The further question, whether any light can be thrown on the identity of Darius, though not essential for the solution of the difB- culty, is one of no small interest. He is in fact identified, by the chronographer Syncellus, and in the apocryphal supplement to the Book of Daniel,t with the dethroned king Astyages himself. The Darius of Daniel is evidently a Median of the highest rank, and probably of royal birth.:}: The name of his father, Ahasue- rus (Achashverosh) is certainly identical with tlie Median name Cyaxares, which was borne by the father of Astyages. The position to which Cyrus raised him at Babylon accords with the respect which Herodotus tells us that Cyrus paid to Astyages, and with the customs of the Persians. But more than this : we can easily understand, that Herodotus was not sufficiently acquainted with Oriental usage to perceive, that Cyrus, as the grandson of Astyages, and imbued by the Persian discipline with reverence for all forms of duty and authority, may have professed, during the life of Astyages, to yield the royal state to him, though him- self really governing. If so, the j^osition of Darius w^as above that of a mere viceroy ; and no occasion is left for wonder that the Jews viewed him as the king, and Cyrus as his successor. The ChaldoBans, perhaps understanding better the real relation of Darius to Cyrus, omit him from their list of kings. The iden- tification is not free from further difficulties, too minute to be discussed here ; but it is now very generally accepted.§ After the Persian conquest. Babylonia became a province of the empire, and the city was one of the royal residences, ranking as the second in the kingdom. It was from Babylon that Cyrus issued his decree for the return of the captive Jews ; and his suc- cessors resided there for a great portion of the year. It was long, however, before the Chaldaeans submitted finally to the new dynasty. Darius Hystaspis had twice to suppress a revolt of Babylon, under a leader who claimed to be a son of Is abonadius. * This 13 reckoned as the first year of Cyrus, in which he issued his edich for the return of the Jews. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22; Ezra i. 1 ; comp. Daniel i. 21. f In the part entitled " Bel and the Dragon," :j: This seems implied in the phrase " of the seed of the Medes." § This view was put forth by the present writer in the Biblical Review, for 1845, No. 1. It is maintained by Profes.sor Rawlinson and other recent historians. Marcus Niebuhr, in his Gcschichte Assurs und Babels, while identifying Astyages with Darius, makes two conquests of Babylon — a Median and a Persian ; the former by Astyages, and the latter by Cyrus ; but this is altogether improbable. 240 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX. On the first of these occasions, two great battles were fouglit ; and on both the city was besieged and taken.* Another revolt, under Xerxes, involved another siege and capture. The whole interest of Persian history, from Darius to Alexan- der, being centred in its external relations to the West, we hear nothing more of Babylon till it fell, as Daniel had predicted, under the power of the Macedonian. It was at Babylon that Alexander held his court after his return from India (b.c. 324) ; and tlie im- portance still maintained there by the priestly caste of the Chal- doeans is indicated by those unheeded warnings which his own imprudence so soon verified. His death was hastened by his schemes for making Babylon the capital of his empire, and restor- ing to the country its natural advantages. Intending to repair the system of canals, he visited i^e lower course of the Eujihrates, and in its marshes he caught the fever which his excess rendered fatal (b.c. 323). His plans perished with him. The Seleucidge, who succeeded to the eastern part of his empire, fixed their capi- tal at Antioch in Syria ; while the population of Babylon re- moved, in great part, to the new city of Seleucia on the Tigris. The great river, once the pride and ornament of the city, no longer restrained and regulated by embankments and canals, wandered over the plain, from which the houses fast disappeared, and created pestiferous marshes. The brick palaces and temples, crumbling into decay, literally " became heaps, a dwelling-place for drag- ons," t and the haunt of wild beasts. The desolation has been ever increasing down to our own age, under the conjoint influence of misgovernment and neglect. By a strange recurrence in the cycle of history, the land in which the Chaldseans first planted civilization amidst rude Turanian races, and defended it against the Arabs of the desert, has long since fallen under the nominal government of the Turanian Turks, and become the real posses- sion of the wandering Arabs. All the primeval cities, of which we have spoken, shared the fate of Babylon ; but her site is marked by a pre-eminence of desolation. When the traveller has exhausted his powers of language in expressing the sadness of gloom inspired by the scene, he has but re-echoed the exact de- scriptions of the Hebrew prophets. Let but the following exam- ples be placed side by side : — " And Babylon, the glory of king- doms, the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, * "We learn this from the statement of Darius himself, in the inscription of Behistun. \ Jer. li. 37. THE DESOLATION OP BABYLON. 341 neitlier sliall it be dwelt in from generation to generation ; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces : and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." * Thus far the Hebrew prophet ; now let us hear the modern traveller : " Besides the great mound, other shape- less heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the land. The lofty banks of ancient canals fret the country like natural ridges of hills. Some have been long choked with sand ; others still carry the waters of the river to distant villages and palm-groves. On all sides fragments of glass, marble, pottery, and inscribed brick, are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and hideous waste. Owls start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal skulks through the furrows." f " Various ranges of smaller mounds fill up the intervening space to the eastern angle of the walls. The pyramidal mass of El-Heimar, far distant in the same direction, and the still more extraordinary pile of the Birs-Nimrud in the south-west, across the Euphrates, rise from the surrounding plain like two mighty tumuli, designed to mark the end of departed greatness. Midway between them the river Euphrates, wending her silent course towards the sea, is lost amid the extensive date- groves which conceal from sight the little Arab town of Hillah. All else around is a blank waste, recalling the words of Jeremiah : ' Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.' " :|: To these descriptions we may well add the poetic view of the same scene, not merely for its vivid beauty, but for its insight into one of the most striking lessons of Divine Providence : — *' Slumber is there, but not of rest ; There her forlorn and weary nest The famish'd hawk has found ; The wild dog howls at fall of night, The serpent's rustling coils affright The traveller on his round. * Isaiah xiii. 19 — 22 : comp. Jer. 1. and li. f Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 484. X Loftus, Chaldoea and Susiana, p. 20. VOL. I. — 16 243 THE LATER B^\:BYL0NIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. IX. " What shapeless form, half lost on high,* Half seen against the evening sky. Seems like a ghost to glide, And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap Where in her shadow, fast asleep, Lies fall'n imperial Pride ? " With half-closed eye a lion there Is basking in his noontide lair, Or prowls in twilight gloom. The golden city's king he seems. Such as in old prophetic dreams Sprang from rough ocean's womb.f "But where are now hisieagle wings, That shelter'd erst a thousand kings, Hiding the glorious sky From half the nations, till they own * • No holier name, no mightier throne?— That vision is gone by. " Quench'd is the golden statue's ray ; X The breath of heaven has blown away What toiling earth had piled. Scattering wise heart and crafty hand, As breezes strew on ocean's strand The fabrics of a child. "Divided thence, through every age. Thy rebels. Lord, their warfare wage, And hoarse and jarring all Mount up their heaven-assailing cries To Thy bright watchmen in the skies From Babel's shatter'd wall." § In the frustration of tlie plans of the Babel builders, in tbe fall of Nineveh, in the desolation of Babylon, we may see more even than the fulfilment of prophecy. Tliey are lasting witnesses to the great plans of Divine Providence in reference to the empires of the world. Raised up by the desires of men who aimed at god- like power upon earth, and permitted to tyrannize over the nations which had forsaken the King of Heaven, — chastizing by self-will and brute force the self-willed weakness of a race that had forgot- ten God, — they fell successively under the sentence, which the handwriting on the wall passed upon Belshazzar, and which his- tory repeats against every despotism to the end of time : " Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting : " — wanting in * The allusion is to a group of lions seen by Sir R. K. Porter on the summit of the Birs-Nimrud. f Daniel vii. 4. X Da^el ii., iii. § Keble, Christian Year. THE TRUE UNIVERSAL EMPIRE. 243 fulfilling the true ends of states and governments, tlie welfare of mankind, and their union in the bonds of social life. And this is the key to the symbolic use of the name of Babylon, revived in the last ages of the world's history to designate that " mystery of iniquity," in which spiritual is superadded to worldly despotism, till both shall share the fate of Babylon of old.* Nor does the prophecy which sets past and future history in this light close till it has unfolded the bright vision of the only true universal em- pire, when " the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, but shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and stand for ever and ever." f * Revelation xvii,, xviii, I Daniel ii. 44. 244 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER X, THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE, FROM ITS ORIGIN TO ITS SETTLEMENT UNDER DARIUS HYSTASPIS. B.C. 633? TO B.C. 531. " Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold there stood before the river a 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 south- ward ; 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." — Daniel riii. 3, 4. DESCRIPTION OP MEDIA — ITS EARLIEST INHABITANTS — THE MEDES AN ARYAN RACE AND KINDRED TO THE PERSIANS — THEIR RELATIONS TO ASSYRIA — RISE OF THE MEDIAN KINGDOM — DOUBT- FUL LEGENDS — DEIOCES AND PHRAORTES — CYAXARES THE TRUE FOUNDER— HIS CONT£ST WITH THE SCYTHIANS — MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF THE MEDES— CONQUESTS OF CYAXARES — DESTRUCTION OF NINEVEH — RISE OF THE LYDIAN EMPIRE — THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR — • THE HALYS AN ETHNIC BOUNDARY — AFFINITIES OF THE WESTERN NATIONS — EARLY KING- DOMS IN ASIA MINOR — GORDIUS — MIDAS — TROY — LYDIA — NATURAL RESOURCES OP THE COUN- TRY — MYTHICAL PERIOD OF LYDIAN STORY — DYNASTY OP THE HERACLIDS — CANDAULES AND GYGES — DYNASTY OF THE MERMNADS — CONQUESTS IN ASIA MINOR — ATTACKS ON THE GREEK COLONIES — INVASION OF THE CIMMERIANS UNDER ARDYS — ALYATTES — THEIR EXPULSION BY ALYATTES — WAR BETWEEN LYDIA AND MEDIA — THE "ECLIPSE OF THALES "^DEATHS OF CYAXARES AND ALYATTES — THE TOMB OP ALYATTES — CROESUS AS VIEWED BY HERODOTUS — HIS REAL HISTORY — ASTYAGES THE LAST KING OF MEDIA — REIGN OF ASTYAGES — PEACEFUL STATE OF WESTERN ASIA — ORIGIN OF THE PERSIAN RACE — DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY — THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE — RELIGION OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS— MAGIAN ELEMENTAL WORSHIP, ORIGINALLY TURANIAN — DUALISM THE OLD PERSIAN FAITH — AURAMAZDA AND AHRIMAN — MIXTURE AND CONFLICT OP THE TWO SYSTEMS ZOROASTER — HIS DOCTRINES AND LEGENDARY HISTORY — THE TEN TRIBES OF THE PERSIANS — THEIR MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL DISCIPLINE — DYNASTY OF THE ACH.i:MENID,E — THEIR RELATION TO MEDIA — LEGENDARY STORY OF CYRUS — TRANSFER OF THE MEDIAN EMPIRE TO PERSIA — CYRUS IN THE CTROP^DIA AND IN SCRIPTURE— THE CONQUEST OP LYDIA, THE GREEK COLONIES, AND BABYLON — RESTORATION OF THE JEWS— DESIGNS ON EGYPT — WARS IN CENTRAL ASIA — DEATH OF CYRUS — CAMBYSES— CONQUEST OP EGYPT— HIS MADNESS AND DEATH— THE MAGIAN PSEUDO-SMERDIS — ACCESSION OF DARIUS THE SON OF HYSTASPIS — SURVEY OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. The nations that have thus far occupied our attention -were of the Hamitic and Semitic races. We have seen them founding kingdoms on a vast scale of despotic power and rude magnifi- cence, and cultivating those arts and sciences which minister to the material wants of man. We have seen one family called out from the rest, to preserve the knowledge of the true God, amidst the idolatry which had become universal at a very early age, and to exhibit, in contrast to those despotisms, the pattern of a free religious commonwealth, governed by a present God. We have seen how, through their own moral weakness, the race of Israel lost this great distinction, and became captives to Assyria and RISE OF THE [MEDIAN POWER. 245 Babylon, till the time came to avenge lliem in the overthrow of their tyrants. We have now to trace the history of the power by which that revolution was effected ; a power sprung from the race of Japheth, to which the prophetic blessing of Noah had promised the most enduring possession of empire. We have had frequent occasion to allude to that marked division which is foraied by the chain of Zagros (the mountains of Kurdis- tan and Luristan) between the great valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and the table-land of Iran to the east. While the former region was the seat of that power and civilization which, at least in the earliest ages, require the nurture of a fertile soil and favourable climate, the latter was the cradle of those hardier races whose destiny it is to found a more lasting power. The greater part of this table-land was known in the earliest ages by the name of Media, a country which may be described generally as extending from the Caspian Sea on the north to the mountains of Persia Proper on the south, and from the highlands of Armenia and the chain of Zagros on the west to the great rain- less desert of Iran on the east. It corresponds to the modern provinces of Irak-Ajemi, parts of Kurdistan and Luristan, Azer- bijan, and perhaps Talish and Ghilan. Between these limits it comprises a grest variety of country and climate, being inter- sected tliroughout by mountain ranges, which enclose valleys rich in corn and summer fruits. The finest part of the country is the modern province of Azerbijan, an elevated region enclosed by the offshoots of the Armenian mountains, and surrounding the basin of the great Lake LTrumiyeh (4200 feet above the sea), and the valleys of the Sefid Rud (the ancient Mardus) and the Aras (Araxes), the northern boundary of the whole land. In this mountain region stands Tabriz, the delightful summer retreat of the modern Persian Shahs. The mountains which extend to the south, forming the western part of Media, partake generally of the like character. The slopes of Zagros afforded excellent pas- ture ; and here were reared that valuable breed of horses, which the ancients called the Nisaean. The eastern districts are less favoured by nature, being flat and pestilential where they sink down to the shores of the Caspian ; rugged and sterile where they adjoin the desert of Iran. An ofishoot of this desert, to the south-west, formed a natural division between Media and Persia Proper, a region of which we have presently to speak. Even when the ancient writers refer back to a period at which this country was probably occupied, like Western Asia in general, 246 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. by a primitive Turanian race, they know its inhabitants by the name of Medes.* But the race to whom the name properly be- longed (the Mada, Madai, or Ifedi) were undoubtedly Japhetic, or, as we now say, borrowing the designation from themselves, Aryan. In the great ethnic table in the Book of Genesis, Madai is the third son of Japheth, standing next after Gomer and Magog, the races who occupied Central Asia north of Media. • Herodotus expressly informs us that the Medes were universally called Aryans ; f the Armenian writers invariably apply to them this appellation ; and, in common with the kindred Persians, they always claim it for themselves. They aj^pear to have had essen- tially the same language % and religion, dress and customs, as the Persians, who were the very cream of the Aryan race. The close connexion between the races, constantly implied in the language of the ancient writers, who use the words Median and Persian almost indifferently, is especially remarkable in the formula used by themselves, as if to imply the identity of their most ancient institutions — " the law of the Medes and Persians, which alteretli not," § Indications are not wanting that the Median race was very widely spread over the highland regions of Western Asia, in the primeval ages of the world ; but this is a discussion into which we cannot stay to enter. The tribes which occupied the country in the earliest historic times are traced back, both by Indian and Persian traditions, to the country beyond the Indus ; and the in- scription on the celebrated black obelisk of Nimrud || is thought by some to refer to the migration as still in progress (about B.C. 880). "We have seen that the Greek traditions of the Assyrian Empire make Ninus the conqueror of Media. The records of the Assyrian kings make frequent mention of Median wars and conquests, beginning from the ninth century ; but these conquests * We have seen that this may explain the statement of Berosus respecting a primi- tive Median dynasty in Chaldcea; chap. viii. p. 195. f Herod, vii. 62. We adhere, with Max Miiller, to the native orthography, as more distinctive than Arian. X The so-called Median inscriptions of the Persian kings, in the cuneiform character, are held by Sir Henry Rawlinson to be Scythic {Commentary on the Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia^ p. 75). § Daniel vi. 8, 12, 15. The usage of such writers as Herodotus, who no doubt learned the common use of the names from the people themselves, is perfectly distinct from the confusion by which the writers of the Augustan age applied the terms Median and Persian indifferently to the Parthians and even to northern India, as in the " Medu3 Hydaspes" of Virgil. II See chap. ix. p. 218. RELATION OF THE MEDES TO ASSYRIA. 247 were usually only of that intermittent kind whicli we have ah-eady described.* The most successful of the invaders was Sargon, who twice overran some part of the country, and founded in it cities, which he peopled with the Israelitisli captives from Samaria (e.g. 710). An inscription in his great palace at Ivhorsa- bad claims Media as the easternmost province of his empire. But how far the conquest was from being permanent is proved by tlie distinct mention of Media, both by Sennacherib and Esar-haddon, as " a country which had never been brought into subjection by the kings their fathers." f The tribes of Media, united by no common government, were defeated or victorious, paid tribute or withheld it, according to the varying strength and energy of their powerful neighbour. This state of things was ended by the consolidation of Media into a powerful kingdom under a dynasty of native princes. For the history and date of this great change we obtain no information from the Assyrian records, and we are dependent upon the doubt- ful and inconsistent statements of the Greek writers, and espe- cially of Herodotus and Ctesias. The account of the latter author is now generally rejected as a mere fabrication. That of Herod- otus is on many grounds suspicious ; and he is supposed to have been misled by the wilful misstatements of his Median authorities. He places the revolt of Media from Assyria a little higher tlian 179 years before the death of Cyrus (e.g. 708), at the very time when the Assyrian monuments begin to claim the subjugation of Media ! Having recovered their independence after a tierce strug- gle, they chose a native king named Deioces, who reigned tifty-three years, and whose three successors, Phraortes (twenty-two years), Cyaxares (forty years), and Astyages (thirty-five years), continued the Median dynasty down to its overthrow by Cyrus, whose twenty-nine years (ending in e.g. 529) make up the above sum of 179 years. The story of Deioces bears a marked impress of Gre- cian rather tlian Oriental ideas. The seven tribes of the Medes, scattered over separate villages, suffered from all the ills of an- archy, till the reputation for justice whicli Deioces had acquired in his own village induced them to make him the arbiter of their disputes. Having restored order, Deioces withdrew into private life, knowing that he should soon be missed. Anarchy revived ; a king was called for as the only remedy, and Deioces was elected. He at once began to organize a despotic power, which he admin- * See chap. ix. pp. 223 — i. f Rawlinson's Herodotus, Essay iii. on Book i. 248 TETE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. istered from his new capital of Ecbatana, whither he compelled the Medians to remove their habitations. The city was built upon a hill, enclosed by seven concentric walls, the central summit being occupied by the palace, within which Deioces lived in se- clusion, transacting all public business through spies, informers, petitions, and written decrees. In this picture, as in the Cyrus of Xenophon, criticism has detected one of those ideal embodi- ments of forms of government by which the Greeks were wont to illustrate their political discussions.* Phraortes, the reputed conqueror of Persia, is almost equally suspicious. Tlie name {Frawartish), though genuine, may not improbably have been transferred back from its historical owner, a Mede who rebelled against Darius Hystaspis, and set up for a time an independent throne in Media. While tradition represents Phraortes as making extensive conquests, and at last falling in battle against the As- syrianSjt the contemporary monuments of Assyria show us the king Asshur-bani-pal as chiefly engaged in hunting in Susiana. Cyaxaees appears to have been the true founder of the Median kingdom, about e.g. 633. As such he was regarded by an earlier Greek tradition than that followed by Herodotus ; X ^^^ the great inscription of Darius alludes more than once to rebels who traced their lineage from Cyaxares. " The conclusion thus established," says Professor Rawlinson, " brings the Median kingdom into much closer analogy with other oriental empires than is presented by the ordinary story. Instead of the gradual growth and in- crease, which Herodotus describes, the Median power springs forth suddenly in its full strength, and the empire speedily attains its culminating point, from which it almost as speedily declines. Cyaxares, like Cyrus, Attila, Genghis Khan, Timour and other eastern conquerors, emerges from obscurity at the head of his ir- resistible hordes, and sweeping all before him, rapidly builds up an enormous power, which, resting on no stable foundation, im- mediately falls away." § The origin and growth of this power * Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii. pp. 307 — 309. Sir Henry Eawlinson sees in the name of Deioces (i. e., Dahak, the biting) a mere equivalent of Astyages (i. e., Aj- dahak, the biting snake). He regards both names as Scythian titles, borrowed by the Medes from their enemies. \ The real Frawartish fell in battle against the Persians. :|: In a celebrated passage of the Persce of JEschylus (vv. I&l — 764), a 3Iede is named as the first leader of the Medo-Persian host, his son as the completer of his work, and Cyrus as the third from him; that is, clearly, from the_^rs<. The three are, therefore, Cyaxares, Astyages, and Cyrus. § Rawlinson's Herodotus, App. to Book i. Essay iii. B.C. 633.] INVASION OF THE SCYTHIANS. 249 can only be conjectured from the scanty materials we possess. It is even doubtful whether it first arose in Media itself, or whether Cyaxares was not rather the leader of an Aryan host from some region furtlier to the East,"^ who for the first time established an Aryan nation in the country of Media, which had hitherto been chiefly occupied by scattered Turanian tribes. It is certain that the time of Cyaxares was distinguished by a great movement among the Turanian races which on the north overhung the more civilized countries, both in Europe and in Asia. According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians, who lived to the north of the Ister and the Euxine,f pressed upon by the Scythians from Central Asia, made a great irruption into Asia Minor, where some of their tribes efi'ected permanent settlements ; while the Scythians, entering Upper Asia by way of Media, overran that country, crossed the range of Zagros into Mesopotamia, passed through Syria to the frontier of Egypt, which Psammetichus only redeemed from invasion by costly presents, and held the dominion of Western Asia for twenty-eight years, till they were expelled by Cyaxares. It is needless to enter into the elaborate discussion by which these statements have been shown to be greatly exagge- rated as a whole, and very doubtful in their leading details. For our present purpose, the chief point remains pretty certain that Cyaxares only established his new kingdom in Media after a severe conflict between the Scythian and Aryan races. We have abun- dant evidence that these races had hitherto shared the possession of the tableland of Media. While the former still preponderated, the latter seem to have been steadily growing in numbers and in power, reinforced by fresh migrations from the East. At length, we may suppose, there occurred one of those great movements in Central Asia by which, from age to age, the wave of Turanian invasion has been driven forward to break upon the south ; and in a fresh eff'ort to repel this fresh invasion, the Aryan race ob- tained the mastery and founded the kingdom of Media. One consequence of their victory may have been to drive a body of the expelled Scythians across Mount Zagros, whose irruption gave a nejv blow to the already declining power of Assyria, Wliat truth there may be in the account of their further progress west- ward, we have no sufficient means to decide. " Little as we know," says Mr. Grote, " about the particulars of these Cimmerian and Scythian inroads, they deserve notice as * Professor Rawlinson, in advancing this theory, suggests Khorassan. ■j- The Danube and Black Sea ; see further, p. 255. 350 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. the first (at least the first historically known) among the numer- ous invasions of cultivated Asia and Europe by the Noraades of Tartary. Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Magyars, Turks, Mongols, Tartars, &c., are found in subsequent centuries repeating the same infliction, and establishing a dominion both more durable, and not less destructive, than the transient scourge of the Scythians during the reign of Cyaxares." * Dividing with these Scythian tribes the possession of the regions beyond the Tigris, and long engaged in war against them, it is not surprising to find the Aryan Medes resembling them in military organization. Strong in cavalry and archery, the hardy followers of Cyaxares were well prepared to play the part of con- querors. Cyaxares is said to have divided their undisciplined forces into the several arms of cavalry, archers, and spearmen. The two great achievements of his reign were the extension of his empire to the west, over the highlands of southern Armenia and of Asia Minor, as far as the river Halys, and the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire. The order of these events is left doubtful by Herodotus, nor can we determine it certainly by other evidence. It seems more probable that Cyaxares would first avenge on the weakened king- dom of Assyria her many attacks on Media, and make good the claim of the latter to independence by a decisive victory. The most recent researches appear to have succeeded in fixing the cap- ture of Nineveh to the year b.c. 625. Of the manner in which it was efl'ected by Cyaxares in alliance with the Babylonians, enough ■ has been already said.f The result was to re-erect Babylonia into an independent kingdom under the dynasty of Nabopolassar, with free scope for extending their conquests to the west, while the whole of Upper Mesopotamia was added to the Median kingdom. Two new empires were thus founded in Western Asia, of which the Median was the more powerful, the Babylonian more civilized and splendid. Each had scope enough for its own ambition to X30Stpone the final contest for supremacy to a much later period. Meanwhile a third empire had arisen far to the west, in Asia Minor, which was approaching the height of its power at the epoch of the fall of Nineveh. This was the great kingdom of Lydia, with which Cyaxares was brought into conflict by the west- v/ard progress of his conquests. A review of the previous history * Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii. p. 339. f See chap. ix. p. 225. THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR. 251 of this kingdom carries us to the shores of the .^gean Sea, and brings the famous nations of Europe within our view. The peninsula of Asia Minor is equally remarkable in a phys- ical and ethnic point of view. Like Asia it is formed by a great central table-land, supported by two chief mountain-ranges, which extend from east to west, and form, in fact, the prolongations of the central and southern chains of the whole continent. Like Europe, it is surrounded by the sea on every side except the east, and its deeply indented shores, especially on the west, are marked out by nature for maritime and commercial enterprise. Placed between these two continents, and divided from Africa only by the Mediterranean, with Cyprus as a stepping-stone between, while it adjoins on the land-side the primeval seat of the human family, it lies, so to speak, in the very focus of the chief races that have overspread the earth. The result of this position is a mixture of populations, more intricate and more difficult to dis- tinguish, than^in any other region of the ancient world. The very enumeration by Herodotus of the nations west of the river Halys is enough to alarm the student of ethnology, nor can we obtain much light from the great divisions into which the peninsula was afterwards mapped out. There is, however, one broad general distinction of the highest value. The river Halys, which divides the whole country irregularly into an eastern and western half, was also a line of demarcation between the Semitic and Japhetic races ; the former embracing the Cappadocians or Syrians, and the latter a vast number of difl'erent tribes ; while on the southern coast, the Pamphylians and Cilicians, cut off from the rest by the chain of Taurus, seem to have been Semitic races not unmixed with Hamite blood. We cannot pursue in detail the traditions, languages, common rites, and other marks of affinity, which con- nected the tribes west of the Halys with each other and with those of Europe. Suffice it to say, that the nations along the north coast, and in the north-west as far south as the river Hermus, the Paphlagonians, Bithynians, Mysians, Teucrians, Phrygians, and other lesser tribes, were near akin to the Thracians of Europe, the connexion having been made more intimate by migrations in both directions. The south-west corner, south of the Mseander, was the seat of the Carians and Leleges, who were spread also over the islands of the ^gean. Between the Hermus and the Mseander dwelt the Lydians, apparently one of the most ancient nations of the peninsula, closely connected with the Pelasgians, who formed the oldest population both of Greece and Italy. Traditions of 252 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. very remote antiquity went so far as to make the Etruscans (the conquering race who, in Italy, subdued the Pelasgians) a colony from Lydia.* The Carians, Lydians, and Mysians preserved the memory of their common origin by common sacrifices to the Carian Jove at Mylasa. Of the Lycians we shall speak later. The earliest legends of these nations tell of the existence of local kingdoms, such as those in Phrygia, of Gordius, whose fated knot involved the power to bind and loose all Asia, and of Midas, whom there is some reason to believe an historical personage.f Amidst the halo of glory which the poetry of Homer has shed round the name of Troy, magnifying a local war into the most famous contest in the annals of the world, we discern traces of an empire, limited indeed as compared with those which have occu- pied our attention, but comprising most of the Thracian peoples on both sides of the Hellespont. Passing from poetry to history, we find the first great kingdom established in Asia Minor by a people whose historic name and capital city are alike unknown to Homer. He never mentions Sardis, though he speaks of the neighbouring localities of Mount Tmolus and the Gygaean lake ; while he alludes to the people of Lydia by the name of Mseonians.ij: The country of Lydia possesses great elements of wealth in the fertile valleys of the Hermus, the Cayster, and the Mseander, and the mineral treasures of its soil. Pecent experience in other parts of the world enables us to understand those stories of the golden sands of the Pactolus, which have sometimes been regarded as fables even by those who possessed money coined from them. The Lydians had also mines near Pergamus ; and the Greeks believed them to be the first people who coined gold and silver money, or carried on retail trade. The origin of the Lydian kingdom is lost amidst mythical stories, stamped with a Greek character, as was natural from their passing through the mouths of the Greek colonists, who borrowed, with the Lydian and Phrygian modes of music, the legends of their adopted country. In the first king, Manes^ the son of Jove, * Horace employs this tradition as a delicate flattery of his patron : — " Non quia, Mascenas, Lydorum quidquid Etruscos Incoluit fines, nemo generosior est te, — ." — Sat. vi. 1, 2. This tradition, however, was not held by the Lydians themselves, and appears to be certainly unfounded. (See Niebuhr, History of Rome^ vol. i. pp. 38, foil.) \ Herodotus (i. 14) makes him the first who sent presents to Delphi. X Niebuhr considers the Ma^oniaus to have been the original inhabitants of Lydia and a Pelasgian people, and the Lydians a later and conquering race. MYTHICAL HISTORY OF LYDIA. 253 we see the step from the rule of the gods to that of a man, which is often met with in mythical history. In his descendants, Asies, Atys, Lydus, and Tyrseniis, we have simply the heroes eponymi of Asia,* of the royal race of the Atyadse, of Lydia itself, and of its supposed colony, Etruria. In tlie name of Torrhebus, whom the native historian Xanthus mentions as a brother of Lydus, it is supposed that we may trace that remnant of the old Pelasgian inhabitants, who occupied the separate district of Lydia Torrhebia — including the valley of the Cayster, south of Tmolus — and who spoke a distinct dialect. Xext comes the dynasty of the Heraclids, whose twenty-two kings till up a period of 505 years. The names of the first five kings — Agron, Hercules, Alcaeus, Belus, and Ninus — suffice to be- tray not only a purely mythical character, but the most hetero- geneous mixture of Greek and Oriental legends. This is regard- ed by Professor Rawlinson as " the clumsy invention of a Lydian, bent on glorifying the ancient kings of his country by claiming for them a connexion with the mightiest of the heroes both of Asia and of Greece." f At the end of this dynasty we still find ourselves within the sphere of poetical romance, though the per- sonages are possibly historical. Most readers know the story, told by Herodotus with his admirable simplicity, of the fate of Candaules, the last king. % With the infatuation of a man doomed to destruction by the gods, he insisted on showing the naked person of his wife to his follower Gyges. The queen dis- covered the insult, and gave Gyges the choice between suffering death himself, or inflicting it on Candaules, and succeeding to his bed and throne. By the choice of the latter course, Gyges put an end to the dynasty of the Heraclids, and founded that of the Mermnads.§ The change was not eflected without opposition, but actual war is said to have been averted by the sentence of the Delphic oracle, the fame of which had already been extended * It should be remembered that this name belonged first to a part of Asia Minor, about the same region as Lydia, and was afterwards extended to the whole continent. \ Rawlinson's Herodotus^, App. to Book i. Essay i. The extension of the Assyrian empire to Lydia is affirmed by Ctesias and accepted by Niebuhr ; but the story is not confirmed by the monuments. X Called also Myrsilus, i. ». the son of Myrsus, a form of patronymic, which is also found in Latin. § The story is avowedly borrowed by Herodotus from the poet Archilochus, of Paros, who lived about the time of Gyges. Plato has preserved another form of the legend, in which Gyges, a herdsman of the King of Lydia, obtains in a marvellous man- ner a ring which makes its wearer invisible ; by this means he obtains access to the queen, conspires with her to assassinate the king, and seizes the throne. 254 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. through the Greek colonists to the Asiatics. The main event is probably historical, the revolution being one of those which fe- male desire has often brought about in Asiatic kingdoms. The oracle was rewarded, or rather, we may safely say, its re- sponse was purchased, by the first of those presents with which the Mermnad kings continually enriched the shrine of the Pythian god. But it was afterwards believed to have foretold the punish- ment of the crime of Gyges by the extinction of his dynasty with his fifth successor. The five kings thus indicated are — Gyges, Ardys, Sadyattes, Alyattes, and Croesus. Herodotus assigns to the whole dynasty a duration of lYO years, and (though there are some minor discrepancies between him and the chroniclers) we may divide this period pretty accurately among the several kings. But there is a doubt about the epoch of the end of the dynasty, on which all the other dates depend. In an elaborate argument, which we have no space to follow, Professor Rawlinson proposes to place this epoch eight years higher than the usual datc^ The new dj-nasty pursued, from the first, an aggressive policy towards their neighbours, both on the west and east, and the Lydian kingdom gradually became an empire, comprising nearly all Asia Minor, west of the Halys. Gyges began that series of aggressions on the Greek colonists, who seem hitherto to havo dwelt peacefully on the western coasts, which Croesus consum- mated by their complete reduction to a tributary state, thus pre- paring the way for the extension of the Persian Empire to the shores of the ^gean. Within the peninsula, a series of conquests was also completed by Croesus, whose empire included all the tribes west of the Halys, except the Lycians and the Cilicians, for whom the Taurus doubtless proved a barrier against invasion. But these conquests were interrupted by two events of moment in the general history of the world. In the reign of Ardys, Asia Minor was devastated by the in- vasion of the Cimmerians, a people who came unquestionably from the region now called the Ukraine, north of the Black Sea, be- * The following are the two schemes : — Clinton, &c. EAWLIN80N. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5, Gyges Ardys Sadyattes .... Alyattes Croesus B.C. 716—678 678—629 629—617 617—560 560—546 B.C. 724—686 686—637 637—625 625—568 568—554 B.C. 680 ?] INVASION OF THE CIM3IERIANS. 255 tween. the Danube and the Sea of Azov, where, as Herodotus re- marks, their traces were found in Cimmerian castles and a Cim- merian ferry, in a tract called Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian Bos- porus ; * and where their name is still borne by the ruins of Eski- Crim (Old Krim, the ancient Cimmerium), and by the peninsula of Crimea, or Crim-Tartary. From that region they were prob- ably expelled by some great movement of the Scythians of Central Asia, like that which shortly afterwards precipitated hordes of the latter people upon Media.f Smaller bodies of the Cimmerians seem to have entered Asia Minor on former occasions, in conjunc- tion with Thracian tribes, by way of the Hellespont and Bosporus ; but now a vast horde marched round the shores of the Black Sea along the foot of the Caucasus, poured into the country from the north-east, and deluged its whole surface. They even entered the range of the Taurus, but were repelled with great slaughter by the Cilician mountaineers. Their ravages were most severely felt in the rich valleys of Ionia and Lydia, where they burnt the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the capital city of Sardis, all but the citadel. It is the nature of such barbarian invasions to exhaust their first force by subsequent inaction and excess. That the power of the Cimmerians thus declined in the reign of Sady- attes, the son of Ardys, is proved by his resuming the siege of Miletus, about b.c. 631. They were at length expelled by Aly- attes ; but even then they retained certain positions in the coun- try, the most important of which was Sinope on the Black Sea. The exact dates of their entrance and expulsion are both uncertain. The one seems to have been early in the reign of Ardys, and the other late in that of Alyattes. The similar invasion of. Media by the Scythians is said to have occasioned the first collision between the Lydian and Median empires. A horde of the defeated nomads fled from the severities inflicted on them by Cyaxares, and sought refuge with the Lydian king, ^ His refusal to give them up was followed by a war, which lasted six years with equal advantages on both sides, and * Now the Straits of Kaffa. — Herod, iv. 12. The far wider question of their iden- tity with the Cimbri and other great Celtic races of Western Europe, including the Cymry of Wales and Cumberland, and of their movements westward under the pressure of the Scythians of Asia, has long been under discussion. (See Kawlinson's Essay i. to Herodotus, Book iv.) f For the traditional story of both events, see Herod, iv. 11, 12. But we cannot accept his account of their connexion. X "The passage of such nomadic hordes from one government in the East to another, has been always, and is even down to the present day, a frequent cause of 256 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap, X. was only ended by a celestial portent. An eclipse of the sun, which occuiTed in the midst of a great battle, struck such terror into both armies that tlie conflict was suspended ; and peace was shortly afterwards concluded by the mediation of the Babylonian prince, Labynetus, who seems to have been present as an ally in the army of Cyaxares,* and- of the Cilician prince, Syennesis, the ally of Alyattes. The marriage of Aryenis, the daughter of Aly- attes, to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, formed a tie between the royal houses of Lydia and Media, which helped to involve them in a common fall. The inadequate cause assigned for the war permits us rather to regard it as arising from a great scheme of conquest on the part of Cyaxares, who had now pushed on his frontier to the Halys ; and the successful resistance of Alyattes may be explained by a general league of the nations within the Halys, in which even the Cilicians took part. The date of the battle is one of those tantalizing problems in which a promise of certainty eludes our grasp. We might have supposed that it would be easily calculated from the " Eclipse of Thales " — so called because the Milesian philosopher is said to have predicted its occurrence. Whether the astronomical science of the Greeks was then sufficient for such a prediction has been doubted ; but our own difficulty arises from the very opposite cause. Astronomers have proposed dates varying between the limits of B.C. 625 and e.g. 583. As the result of calculations, based on the newest tables, Ideler maintains that the only eclipse answering all the conditions of time, place, and total — or all but total — obscuratioUjf is that which occurred on the 30th Septem- ber, B.C. 610, of our present calendar.;]: This war was succeeded by a long interval of peace, during dispute between the different governments. They are valuable both as tributaries and as soldiers." — Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii. p. 310. * Herod, i. 74. This Labynetus would naturally be the commander of a con- tingent sent by Nabopolassar to the aid of his ally. He bears the same name (Laby- netus = Nabu-nit) as the last king of Babylon, and may very likely have been of the same family. •j- This is manifestly required, to explain the awe inspired by the eclipse ; and it may be added that the striking accounts given by recent observers of their own emotions on viewing such a scene, with all the calmness of science and preparation, forbid our ascribing the impression made on contending armies as the fruit of ignorant superstition. X See Ideler, Handbuch der Chronologic, vol. i. p. 209 ; — Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii. p. 311. The balance of evidence seems in favour of this date, though, still more recently, such authorities as Airy and Hind lean to the date of B.C. 585.^ Bosanquet, Fall of Nineveh, p. 14. B.C. 568.] DEATHS OF CYAXARES AJ^D ALYATTES. 257 wliieli the conquests of Nebucliadnezzar and the fall of Judah form the only stirring events in Western Asia. Of Cyaxares we hear nothing farther, except that he sent aid to ]S"ebnchadnezzar in the wars against Egypt and Judah. In a word, the alliance of the two empires seems to have been firmly maintained till the overthrow of the Median dynasty by Cyrus. The reign of Cyaxares lasted just forty year«, the probable date of his death being b.c. 593. Alyattes, King of Lydia, survived him a quarter of a century, dying, after a reign of fifty-seven years, in B.C. 568, just seven years before the death of Xebuchadnezzar. The interval of forty years thus left between the war with Media and his death may be partly filled up by the expulsion of the Cimmerians and attacks upon the Grecian colonies. His later yeai-s seem to have been occupied with the erection of his tomb, an edifice which Herodotus pronounces the sole remarkable struc- ture raised by the Lydian kings, and Inferior only to those of Egypt and Babylon.* Its remains still stand on the north bank of the river Hermus, near the ruins of Sardis. In the general idea of a sepulchral chamber surmounted by a lofty pile, it resem- bled the pyramids of Egypt, but its structure bears a much closer resemblance to the tumuli or Jjarrov^s of western nations ; and it is surrounded by many smaller mounds of the same form, mark- ing the burying-place of Sardis. It was formed by a basement of immense blocks of stone, above which was heaped a mound of earth, surmounted by five stone pillars, carved with inscriptions, which were standing at the time of Herodotus.f The ground- plan is a circle (perhaps originally an ellipse), to which Herodotus gives a circumference of nearly three-quarters of a mile, so that the area was even larger than that of the Great Pyramid ; but the height was probably much less. At present the circumference is just half a mile. Tlie basement is jDartly of hewn stone, as de- scribed by Herodotus, and partly cut out of the limestone rock, whose horizontal strata resemble courses of masonry. The mound is composed of sand and gravel, apparently from the bed of the Hermus ; its greatest slope is about 22°. The sepulchral cham- ber, recently discovered by M. Spiegenthal, the Prussian consul at Smyrna, is almost exactly in the centre of the tumulus : it is a * mrod. i. 93. f Sir Gardner Wilkinson notices the resemblance of the structure to tombs in Etniria and Greece, like that of Menecrates at Corfu, and probably that of Agamem- non at Mycenas (the so-called " Treasury of Atreus") when it was complete. Note in Rawlinson's Herodotus. VOL. I. — 17 258 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. little more than 11 feet long, near 8 feet broad, and 1 feet high. Its walls are composed of large blocks of white marble, highly- polished and without inscriptions. It contains no sarcoj^hagus ; and the mound bears traces of having been excavated and rifled in every . direction. Its internal construction is quite different from that of another celebrated sepulchral mound in the same region, the so-called " Tomb of Tantalus," near Smyrna,* Ckcesus, the son of Alyattes, was the last and greatest king of Lydia ; but his conspicuous place in history is due not so much to his wide conquests, his proverbial wealth, or his vast reverse of fortune, as to the halo of romance which Herodotus has thrown around his story. Singling him out as the first who, within his own knowledge, commenced aggressions on the Greeks, he regards him throughout as the fated victim of that retribution which the Greeks ever saw pursuing the offender with steps slow but sure ; and the one great lesson of his life is that which Solon teaches the king amidst all his pride of wealth, and which the helpless cap- tive's confession re-echoed as the flames began to rise around his living funeral pyre : that no man, however fortunate, can be called happy till he dies — that " in all things it behoves us to mark well the end ; for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin." f The same idea runs through all the poetical embellishments of the story ; — the visit of Adrastus, whose very name (the Inevitable) indicates the minister of fate, and by whose hand the son of Croesus falls ; — the dumbness of his other son, miraculously broken to save his father's life ; — the practical irony which makes Croesus the victim of am- biguous responses from the oracles whose shrine he had en- riched, and whose truth he fancied he had tested ; — the blindness with which he crosses the Halys, trusting to the promise that he should overturn a mighty empire, and then finds that the empire subverted is his own ; — his doom as a sacrifice by fire, and his rescue by the power of the Greek god, to give full effect to the lesson of the Greek sage. These fascinating legends must not be wrenched from their place in the page of Herodotus, nor related * Note to Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 93, founded on the descriptions of Hamilton and Spiegenthal. \ Herod, i. 42. The disputed question, whether Solon ever visited Croesus, matters little or nothing to the historian's purpose. The lesson itself is one on which the Greek tragedians delight to dwell, but perhaps some readers may be less familiar with the more homely Swedish proverb: "Praise not the sun before the day is out ; praise counsel when you have followed it, and ale when you have drunk it." B.C. 593.] REIGN OF ASTYAGES. 259 as if they were real history ; nor must we forget, on the other hand, that this view may unfold some portion of the inner trutli of such a career. What remains for the historian to record is that Croesus, ascending the Lydian throne at the age of thirty-five, in a reign of fourteen years (b.c. 568 — 554), became master of all the Greek states of Asia Minor, and was only deterred from attacking the islands by the want of a navy ; — that by consulting the Greek oracles, and holding frequent intercourse with Greek citizens, lie made the Greeks more familiar with their destined enemies in Asia ; — and that, after conquering all Asia Minor west of the Halys, he ddred to match himself with the new power of Cyrus and to avenge the fall of his father-in-law Astyages. With this view he formed a great league with Egypt and Babylon against Persia ; but the result was only to bring his empire? to a sudden and disastrous end. But, to understand this catastrophe, we must resume tlie thread of Median history from the death of Cyaxares. Astyages, or Asj)ades, the last king of Media, succeeded liis father Cyaxares in b.c, 593, and reigned for thirty-five years, till he was dethroned by Cyrus, e.g. 558. Excepting a single account of a war with Armenia,* which has every mark of being fabulous, his history presents a total blank, till towards its close. This silence seems to confirm the traditional view of his character, as a peaceful despot, indulging himself with the quiet enjoyment of the fruits of previous conquests. It would seem that " the three great monarchies of the East, the Lydian, the Median, and the Babylonian, connected together by treaties and royal intermar- riages, respected each other's independence, and levied war only against the lesser powers in their neighbourhood, which were ab- sorbed without much difficulty," f But a new power now arose, from within the Median Empire, to make an entire change in the political state of Asia. The Persians have already been mentioned as a nation closely connected with the Medes, in race, language, and religion. Of the fiimily of mankind which claimed, not unjustly, the distinc- tive name of " Noble " (Arya), the Persians formed one of tlie noblest types. When we first meet them in history, they are a race of hardy mountaineers, brave in war, rude in manners, sim- ple in their habits, abstaining from wine, and despising all the luxuries of food and dress. Though uncultivated in art and sci- * See the story, as given by the Armenian historian, Moses of Chorene, in Rawhn- son's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 422. \ Rawlinson's Herodotus. 260 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. enee, they were distinguished for an intellectual ability, a lively wit, a generous, passionate, and poetical temperament ; quali- ties, however, wliieh easily degenerated into vanity and want of perseverance. As known to us in a state of subjection to despotic power, they were tainted with Asiatic servility to their rulers ; but even then tliey were distinguished by that rare virtue among the Orientals, a love of truth. Amidst the unexampled mutations of the Persian Empire, the ancient name adheres to the country where wc iirst find the Per- sians and to tlie race who claim to be their purest modern repre- sentatives. The name of the latter {Parsee) is in fact identical with the form by which tlie Hebrew represents the native name Parsa, which is supposed to signify " Tigers." The country, which still bears the name of Fars, or Farsistan{^^ the Land of Fars ")* — the Persis or Persia Proper of the ancient geographers — is a mountainous region in the south-west of Iran where the great plateau descends to the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf. The margin on the sea-coast is a hot and arid waste, like the sandy deserts of Arabia ; and the same character is borne by the eastern region, where the mountains pass into the table-land of Iran. Between these desert tracts lie the central highlands, which are a prolongation of the mountain-chain of Zagros. This rugged range contains some well-watered plains and valleys, rich in corn, wine, and fruits, and reaches of excellent pasture-land. This is especially the case towards the north, where the plain of Shiraz, besides producing a renowned wine, forms a favourite residence of the modern Shahs. On a site of equal beauty, in the valley of the Bend-amiir^ stands Persepolis, the capital of Darius, the ruins of which, near Istakher, bear the name of CheJil-Minar^ or the Forty Pillars.^ The older capital, Pasargadjie, lay about forty-two miles further to the north-west, in a wilder position among the hills at Murgaiib^ where the tomb of Cyrus is still seen. The fer- tile tracts, however, are exceptions to the prevailing character of the country ; the hill-sides are generally bare, and the valleys * The letters / and j>^ always interchangeable, arc particularly so in Persian. Niebuhr supposes that the original Mngdom of Persia comprised not only Persis, but Carmania on the east, and part at least of Susiana on the west. He holds Herodotus to be in error, when he represents the Persians under Cyrus as the inhabitants of a small canton, who could easily be assembled in one place. f These magnificent ruins, consisting of two great palaces, built by Darius and Xerxes, besides temples and other edifices, cover many acres of ground. They are de- scribed in several well-known works. See especially Fcrgusson's Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored. THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE. 261 little more than narrow ravines. The extent of Persia Proper does not exceed 300 miles from north to south, and 230 from east to west. Such were the narrow limits and the scanty re- sources of the cradle of the Persian Empire. The evidence of language and tradition, with other grounds of probability, connect the Persians — most closely of all the peoples of Iran — with the Aryan race beyond the Indus ; but as to tlie time and course of their migrations we can only form very uncertain conjectures. Entering Iran, most probably, with the Medes, their passage into the isolated mountain region we have described seems to have kept them freer from a Turanian admix- ture, as it certainly preserved them, in later ages, from the de- clension which the possession of empire brought upon the Medes. and to which they themselves afterwards succumbed. Tlie Persians appear to have brought with them into these abodes their distinctive language, religion, and political and mili- tary institutions. Their language formed one of the most inter- esting tj'pes of the Indo-European family of speech, being closely connected with the Aryan dialects of India on the one hand, and the tongues of Modern Europe on the other. In the course of time it has passed through no less than five different stages ; — first, the Zend.) or most ancient dialect, — long since dead, but pre- served in the sacred books of the Zendavesta,— the nearest to Sanskrit of all other Indo-European tongues ; — next the Acha'nie- nian Persian, the dialect spoken under the old empire, and pre- served in the cuneiform inscriptions from Cyrus to Artaxerxes Ochus (b.c. 558 — 33S) ; — then, the Pehlevi, or various dialects of the revived empire under the Sassanidai (a.d. 226 — 651) ; — still later, the Pazend or Parsi ; — and lastly, the mixed Perfdan of the present day, which is largely corrupted with Arabic. The relio-iou of the Persians is one of the most interestins: forms of belief devised by the search of a keen intellect after the truth, when the light of revelation has been obscured. Erroneous views have long prevailed respecting it, through the confusion of two systems, originally distinct, which existed among the Medo- Persians. Herodotus and the Greek writers in general represent the religion of the Persians as an elemental worship. Ascending the highest mountains, they sacrificed to the firmament, the sun and moon, the earth, fire, water, and the winds.* They had no im- * Herod, i. 131. lu conformity with Greek ideas, Herodotus says that they called the firmament Jove. 262 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EIVIPIRE. [Chap. X. ages of the gods, thougli we find both Assyrian and Egyptian emblems on their sculptures ; and at a later period they Avor- shipped Beltis or Mylitta.* Herodotus is mistaken in adding that they had neitlier temples nor altars. Their ministering priests and teachers were the Magi, a learned caste like the Chaldaeans of Babylonia, and addicted to those arts which have received from them the name of magic. But Herodotus knows nothing of that other aspect of the Per- , sian religion, in which it appears as a philosophical attempt to explain the mystery of creation, and the conflict between good and evil, by what is called the principle of " Dualism." According to this doctrine, there were two great First Principles, that of good and that of evil, each the author of a distinct creation, and each engaged in perpetual conflict with the other. These two principles were personified by the Persians under the names of Auramazda (Oromasdes, Ormazd, or Ormuzd), which is said to signify " the Great Giver of Life," Rnd Ahriman (Arimanius) " the Death- dealing." The one was the lord of Life and Light, the other of Death and Darkness. Auramazda created the earth and heaven, the race of men, and all that ministers to their well-being ; Ahri- man was the author of sin, death, disease, war, poverty, tempest, cold, and, in short, of all agencies adverse to human life and hap- piness, and tending to subvert the order of nature established by Auramazda.f So too in the political order of the state : it is Auramazda that settles the king firmly on his throne and gives him victory over his enemies, while Ahriman is ever planning se- dition, rebellion, and defeat. Each was the creator of a band of spirits inferior to himself, the ministers of his will and the agents of his works. As to the issue of the conflict, the doctrine seems to have been silent, at least in its earliest and simplest form. Xor could it consistently be otherwise ; for, as the belief sprung out of an insoluble mystery in the past, it could offer no solution of the same mystery in the future. The very need of supposing the two conflicting principles to exist at all would involve the need of supposing their conflict to last for ever. And here we see how utterly unlike (except perhaps in the distorted reflection of some * Herodotus confounds this deity with Mithra, the Persian emblem of the sun. •f- It is, in general at least, beyond the province of the historian to discuss the merits of the systems in philosophy and theology which he has occasion to describe. But we may observe, especially in the case of the physical order of things, how completely every system of dualism breaks down at the first step, that of discriminating what is really beneficial, and what hurtful, to the world and the human race. THE PERSIAN RELIGION. 263 rays of truth) is the Persian dualism to the Scripture doctrine concerning Satan and his angels. These, so far from being essen- tial members of the order of the universe — essential to account for the existing state of things — owe their condition entirely to their having rebelled against that order. Instead of befcg a self-existent and independent power, the dragon is bound with a great chain, doomed to defeat and perdition, and meanwhile deprived of all liberty to work out his malice one hair's-breadth beyond the limits of Divine permission. Nor is he permitted even to go thus far, excej)t to prove in the end — " How all his malice served but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown To man by him seduced, but on himself Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured." The devil of devil- worshippers is no more the Satan of the Bible than the idols of the heathen are the living God. The popular idea of the Persian religion, from a very early period to the present day, is a compound of the two systems of Magianism or elemental worship (especially that of fire and the sun) and Dualism. There was no doubt a time when some such confusion prevailed among the Persians themselves. But there are good reasons for concluding that these two systems were originally quite distinct, the latter only existing among the Per- sians, and the former among the old Turanian tribes of Iran. Just as Herodotus, in describing the religion of the Persians, knows nothing of Dualism,* so, on the other hand, neither do the Achsemenian inscriptions, by which a flood of new light has been thrown on Medo-Persian history, nor the most ancient religious writings, bear any trace of the Magian elemental worship. Nay more, while mentioning Auramazda as the supreme god, they only contain slight allusions to the Principle of Evil.f Now, if we look across the Indus, to the country from whicli the Persians are thought to have migrated, we find in the Yedas, or sacred books of the ancient Indians, a religion based on Monotheism, in its spiritual and personal foi*m, which might be easily corrapted into * His whole description refers evidently to the Magianism, which had been partially adopted by the Persians, and extensively by the Medes. f " In the great inscription of Darius at Behistun, the false religion which that king displaced is said to have been established by the ' god of lies.' It need surprise no one that notices are not more frequent, or that the name Ahriman does not occur. The public documents of modern countries make no mention of Satan." — Rawlinson, Herudo' {us, App. to Book i. Essay v.. On the Helipion of the Ancient Persians. 264 THE :MED0-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. Dualism. Sir Henry Rawlinson lias indeed put forth a conjee ture, far too ingenious not to be mentioned, that " it was in fact the Dualistic heresy which separated the Zend or Persian branch of the Aryans from their Vedic brethren, and compelled them to migrate to the westward." At all events, the notices of their migration, in their own most ancient religious books, refer all the successes and disasters of the Aryan race to the conflict between Aiiramazda and Ahriman. Tlie only remaining source, from which we can trace the Magian elemental worship, is from the Turanian tribes Avith which the Aryans came into contact when they entered Iran. How far this theory is confirmed by the religions of the Turanian tribes through- out the world is a question both in itself too large to be entered upon here, and complicated by the prevailing degeneracy of the whole race. But in the neighbouring regions of Mesopotamia, which we have seen reason to believe were very early occupied by a Turanian population, the prevailing Sabseism was tinctured with, and may even have sprung from, an elemental worship, and Magianism itself seems to have gained a footing among the Chal- dsean priests. This view explains the fact that, while the Persians, long isolated in the southern highlands, preserved their Dualistic faith, the Medes, who were brought into closer contact with the old Turanian population, completely adopted the elemental wor- ship. This was especially the case in the northern province, which to the present day retains the memory of its fame as tliechief seat of the Magian i-eligion, in its name Azerhijan (" the Land of Fire "). Tlie contest for supremacy between the Medes and Persians in the time of Cyrus was probably religious as well as political ; and this was certainly the case when the Medes recovered their supre- macy'- for a short time, under the Magian Pseudo Smerdis. The triumph of the Persians under Darius Hystaspis was at once over the Median race and the Magian religion ; and the fear so nearly re- alized found vent in proscriptions and cruel massacres of the Magi. At length, however, the religious ascendancy, which a power- ful priesthood had failed to hold, was recovered by the enthusiasm of a devotee, who established a form of religion compounded of the two systems — in one word, a reformed Magian worship combined with the Dualistic creed of the Persians. Of the personal history of Zoroaster * or Zerdusht, we know next to nothing, for the * Sir Henry Rawlinson regards the name Zara-thushtra as the Aryan form of Zira- shtar, that is, the seed of Venus. LEGENDARY HISTORY OF ZOROASTER. 265 Oriental stories are for the most part pure invention, and the frag^ mentary notices of the classical writers teach us little but their ignorance of the subject. The very time at which he is said to have lived — under Gushtasp or Yishtaspa (Hystaspes, the father of Darius) — is thought to have been purposely fixed, so as to connect his reform of religion with the final establishment of the empire ; and here the story is self convicted of fiction, by making not only Gushtasj), but also his father Lohrasp, rulers of the Medo-Persian empire. His origin from Azerbijan, a province with a large ad- mixture of Scythian population, and the chief seat of Magianism, is a sign of his connexion with this form of worship. The favourite stories of miracles heralding the birth of great men are not wanting in his case ; and he is said to have been only ten years old, when he withdrew to a cave in the mountains of Elburz. He remained in this solitude for twenty years, favoured with divine revelations from Auramazda and his attendant spirits, which he recorded in the book called Zend-avesta (" the Living Word ").* At the same time he received the sacred fire which was to be kept perpetually alive upon the earth. The key to his whole teaching is contained in the words addressed to him by Auramazda : — " Teach the na- tions that my Light is hidden under all that shines. Whenever you turn your face towards the Light, Ahriman will be seen to fly. In this world there is nothing superior to Light." It is for this reason that the disciple of Zoroaster turns his face in prayer to the sun, as the purest of all created lights, or else to the sacred fire that burns on the altar. The doctrine of Dualism, as taught by Zoroaster, was in substance what has been already stated ; but he gave the preponderance of power to Auramazda, Avho alone of the two principles was eternal, and would ultimately conquer Ahriman. Zoroaster was sent back with the commission to de- clare to Gushtasp the doctrines of the Zend-avesta. Zoroaster was thirty years old when he appeared before Gush- tasp at Bactra (Balkh). His first convert is said to have been As- fandiyar, the son of Gushtasj), who gained over his father to the new religion, which soon spread throughout Azerbijan.f Zoroaster then travelled, propagating his faith, not only through all the kingdom of Iran, but to Chaldaea on the one side and India on * This account of the origin of the Zend-avesta is altogether fabulous. f The story that Gushtasp had 12,000 skins of cows prepared, for writing on them the new doctrines, curiously antedates the invention of parchment. These sacred writings were deposited in a cave at Persepolis, under a guard of Magians. 266 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. the other. One view of his mission represents him as purifying the old religion from corruptions imported from these two coun- tries. On Zoroaster's return to Iran, temples for the worship) of the sacred lire were erected everywhere by Gushtasp, wliose zeal in the cause involved him in a war with Arjasp, the king of Turan. which was triumphantly ended by his son Asfandiyar. Zoroaster died not long before this victory, at the age of seventy-six, about B.C. 513. We relate the legend as one of those embellishments which religious zeal has added to the history of the world. Wliat- ever may be the real history of the movement, the general result seems to have been this : that, in the old Persian empire, from the reign of Darius Hystaspis downward, the popular religion was the modified Magianism, which is ascribed to Zoroaster, while that which prevailed at court, and among the highest Per- sian nobility, was nearer to the ancient faith. But at the time when Cyrus first founded the empire, the latter may be regarded as the true Persian religion, and in direct antagonism to the Magiac worship which had already become prevalent in Media. The Persian natioii was composed of ten tribes ; of which^ Herodotus tells us, three were noble, three agricultural, and four nomadic. At the head of all stood the royal tribe of the Pasar- gadee, to which the kings belonged, and from whom the ancient capital took its name. They are supposed to represent the horde which first migrated from beyond the Indus. They kept them- selves distinct from the other tribes, over whom they enjoyed pe- culiar privileges. Among the three agricultural tribes, the Ger- manians * (or Carmanians) demand mention as having given their name to the country east of Persis, Carmania, the modern Kerman. The nomad tribes seem to have been partly the remains of the old Turanian inhabitants, who maintained themselves as robbers in the mountain fastnesses, and partly kindred hordes, who had immigrated from the regions east of the Caspian. Both appear to have been moulded, to a great degree, into the Aryan type. The Persians were pre-eminently a military race. Mounted on the famous breed of horses, which it was their pride to cherish, their nobles formed the finest cavalry in the world. They had a strong infantry ; and not only the nomad tribes, but the whole na- tion, were expert archers. On the sculptures at Persepolis, we see their warriors armed with long lances, oval shields, bows with * This is a curious case of purely accidental resemblance between the names of distant and distinct nations. We have another example in the Iberians of Spain and of Georgia. B.C. 700. ?] BEGINNING OF THE PERSIAN KINGDOM. 267 the ends curved backward, and quivers. Some are clothed with tunics and trousers, and wear a cap of the Phrygian shape ; others wear long robes and upright head-dresses. In the field their onset was impetuous, and their courage great ; but they wanted the steadiness of forces trained to act well together. Their military spirit was kept in full vigour by their hardy mountain life, their simple and temperate habits, and the strict discipline in which they were trained from their youth up. Xeno- phon may have borrowed many details given in the Gyrqpoedia from his favourite Spartan institutions ; but there is no reason to doubt the existence of a discipline which taught self-command and self-denial, respect to elders, and obedience to authority. The close political connexion between the Modes and Persians, from a very remote antiquity, is proved, as we have already observed, by the very formulge of the empire. Had the latter been merely conquered by the former, from a previous state of indepen- dence, like other surrounding tribes, we should never have heard of " the law of the Medes and Persians^ which altereth not." Whatever the nature of their connexion with Media may have been, the Persians had a separate government under their own kings. These first appear in history under the title of the Ach^menid^, derived, it is said, from Achsemenes, who founded the dynasty about B.C. TOO. Herodotus gives us the names of four predecessors of the great Cyrus, in a direct line from father to son, — Teispes,* Cambyses I., Cyrus I., and Cambyses II. He makes the last prince only a Persian noble, whereas the monuments call the father of Cyrus a king ; but the use of the title proves nothing as to the condition of the state. There seems no doubt that Persia lost at least the full exercise of her independence as the Median power grew. From the analogy of other tribes, strongly placed on the confines of a great empire — as in the relations of Media herself to Assyria — it seems most probable that Cyaxares was able to enforce an acknowledgment of his supremacy, and the payment of a tribute from the Persian king. The question is, indeed, of comparatively little moment, for the revolution effected by Cyrus was not so much the liberation of a subject race, as the conquest of an emj^ire by a sudden invasion. And this one fact is nearly all that we can detect with certainty amidst the halo of romantic legend, with * We learn from another source that Teispes married his daughter, Atossa, to the king of Cappadocia. Such an alliance with so distant a state indicates the possession of considerable power. Observe, in the above list, that alternation of names which was so common likewise in Greek families. 368 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. which the Persian poets invested the rising of their imperial Sun.* From the vast and inconsistent mass of such legends, Herodotus professes to have selected the account which seemed the least improbable — a confession which at once warns us against mistaking his narrative for a real history. The story is too well known to need telling more tlian very briefly ; but too famous to be omitted altogether. Astyages, wliom we have seen succeeding to the empire of Cyaxares his father (b.c. 593), gave his daughter Mandane in marriage to Cambyses, a Persian noble of a quiet temper, lest a higher alliance among the Median nobles should fulfil a dream, which had threatened the conquest of all Asia by her offspring. The dream returned, and the king sent for Mandane, intending to destroy the child she was about to bear. Harpagus, a Median courtier, to whom the commission was entrusted, gave the child to MitradateSjf the king's herdsman, to expose in the mountains north of Ecbatana. The herdsman's wife, who had just brought forth a still-born child, persuaded him to expose the body, and to bring up as their own the child, who was afterwards called Cyrus.:]: On a time, when the boy was ten years old, he was chosen by his playfellows to be their king ; and he took instinc- tively to the part, not only duly ordering his guards, and courtiers, messengers, and chief minister (the King's Eye ), and his public works, but severely scourging a disobedient officer. The latter boy happened to be the son of a Median of distinction, who at once carried his complaint before Astyages. A recognition follows, the herdsman and Harpagus confess the truth : Astyages professes pleasure that the design, of which he had long since repented, had miscarried ; and invites Harpagus to a banquet ; the flesh of his own son is sei'ved up to the unsuspecting father, who is then shown the head in a basket, and asked by the king if he knew what animal's flesh he had been eating. He replied that he knew well, and that the king's pleasure was his own ; and then retired, to bury what remained of his son, and to meditate revenge. The king next consulted the Magians what he should do with * Such is the meaning of the name Cyrus (Koresh), from kokr, the srin. f This name, afterwards so famous, signifies "given to the sun" (Mitra or Mithra.) ■\. The name of the herdsman's wife, Cyno (the Greek word for bitch), betrays a rationalistic attempt to explain what was doubtless the original story, that Cyrus waa Buckled by a bitch. There was a similar perversion of the legend of the she-wolf of Romulus and Kemus. See Grote, History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 246. LEGENDARY STORY OF CYRUS. 369 Cyrus ; and persuaded by them that his dream had been fulfilled by the boy's exercise of royalty in play, he sent him back to his father and mother in Persia. Cyrus arrived with a mind full of ambitious hopes, for on the road he had learnt the whole story from his escort. He grew up to be the bravest and most popular of the youths of his own age. Harpagus had meanwhile solicited the Median nobles, who were malcontent with the king's harsh rule, to conspire for the deposition of Astyages and the elevation of Cyrus to the throne. When the plot was ripe, he despatched a letter by a stratagem across the guarded frontier, inviting Cyras to revolt. The prince assembled the three noble tribes, and by a sort of acted apologue in a truly Oriental spirit, showed them the blessings of liberty and empire. He then led them against Asty- ages, who was so infatuated as to place Harpagus in command of his troops. A few only fought, who were privy to the conspiracy ; some deserted to the Persians ; and most tied. Astyages received the news with threats of vengeance upon Cyrus, and impaled the Magians who had advised to spare his life. He then marched out at the head of all who were left in the city, young and old, lost his last battle, and fell into the hands of Cyrus. It is common in these Oriental fables to allow the dethroned captive the consolation of keen wit ; and thus Astyages replies to the insults of Harpa- gus by taunting him with the folly of enslaving his country to the Persians for the sake of a revenge which he might have enjoyed by seizing the throne for himself. Another account, which seems to come from Ctesias, represents the contest as much longer and more doubtful. Astyages was victorious in two battles, and marched upon the Persian capital, Pasargadse, his attack on which was repulsed, and the same day the Persians defeated him in a fourth battle, killing 60,000 of the Medes. Persisting, however, in his attempt to conquer the rebels, Astyages risked a fifth battle, also near Pasargad^, in which he was again defeated, and fled from the field. The prov- inces submitted in turn to Cyrus, who pursued Astyages and took him prisoner. There are several indications confirmatory of the length and obstinacy of the conflict.* At all events, the one * Among these is the well-known passage of the Anabasis (iii. 4, sec. 8.), in which Xenophon names the ruined cities of Larissa and Mespila on the Tigris (on or near the site of Nineveh), as the scenes of an obstinate resistance by the Medes, when the Persians took from them the supremacy. In this passage, Xenophon, as the historian, expressly contradicts the story of Xenophon, the romance writer, in the Cyropadia. concerning the quiet succession of Cyrus to the empire after Cyaxares, the son of Astyages. 270 THE ]\IEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. great historic fact remains, and indeed sums up nearly all we know of tlie reign of Astyages, that the conquest by Cyrus and the Persians transferred to the latter the supremacy of the Medo- Persian Empire. Herodotus adds that Cyrus kept Astyages at his court, and treated him well for the rest of his life : Ctesias says that he set him over a satrapy : and we have seen reason to think it not improbable that he may be that " Darius the Median," who exercised the royal authority at Babylon after its capture by Cyrus.* The reign of Astyages lasted live-and-thirty years, an^ ended probably in b.c. 558. The totally different account of these events in Xenophon's Cyropcedia deserves a passing notice, not certainly because his philosophic romance has any more historic value than the poetic legends related by Herodotus ; — for, while the latter have some sanction from national traditions, the former is the writer's own invention ; — but because of some collateral issues dependent on our estimate of the work. We have had occasion to speak, in the case of the Median king Deioces, of the tendency of the Greek writers to turn the history of other countries into an illustration of their own views of philosophy and politics. The Cyropcedia is such a work, by an author honestly desirous of recommending the practical side of the Socratic philosophy, but distrustful of the liberty which he thought his own citizens had abused. He had been, in his early manhood, a disciple of Socrates, whose conver- sations on self-command and on the affairs of life made a deeper impression on his mind than the speculations which fascinated his fellow-disciple Plato. He treasured up his master's precepts for the care of the body and the regulation of the desires, for the economy of resources and the preservation of friends. In the Memorah'dia he recorded such discourses to defend Socrates against the charge of corrupting the youth : in the Cyropcedia he set himself to show how the same lessons, learnt in youth and practised throughout life, would fit a man to secure the respect and obedience of his subjects, and so prove that the government of men is not so difficult a task as is commonly supposed. The great monarchies of the East have always had a fascination for writers on such a theme ; and Xenophon was perhaps not unwilling to draw an invidious contrast between the Greek republics and the absolute monarchy of Persia. The traditional greatness of its founder was bright enough, and at the same time sufiiciently remote to protect the writer from the charge of absurdity, in * See chap. ix. p. 239. THE TRUE CHARACTER OP CYRUS. 371 choosing Cyras for the pattern of the virtues he desired to illus- trate, — an obedient child, a courageous and modest youth, a virtuous and generous man, a successful conqueror, a wise and prosperous and paternal ruler. The same consistent ideal runs through all the life of Cyrus. Whether his childish simplicity puts to shame the excesses of his grandfather, or his manly frank- ness disarms the jealousy of his uncle ; — whether he discourses to his comrades in the tent, or to his children on his death-bed, he is still the great exemplar of the Socratic philosophy according to Xenophon's conception, acted out on the loftiest stage and on the grandest scale. To detect the element of fiction in such a picture — which Xenophon never meant to be taken for a portrait — it is enough to remember the simple fact, that Cyrus was an Asiatic conqueror in a rude age, and the leader of a fierce band of warriors. The conquests he effected and the empire he organ- ized, his generous policy towards the Jews, and his clemency in some striking cases, though contrasted with arrogance and cruelty in others, prove his possession of noble as well as brilliant quali- ties. But if we would seek further for his likeness, we must assuredly look rather to Genghis Khan or Timour than to the Cyrus of Xenophon's romance; We have dwelt upon this view, because a certain class of writers have done all they could to make the Cyrus of Xenophon a hero of popular history, from motives deserving of respect, but in a spirit subversive of historic truth. In Xenophon's picture they seem to themselves to recognise the Cyrus of the Bible, both as to the incidents of the story, and especially as to the character of the man. Almost the sole argument for the former view is derived from Daniel's allusions to the capture of Babylon, and the reign of the Mede Darius. We have already shown that there is no need to seek for Darius in the Cyaxares of Xenophon ; and on the other hand, the unambiguous prophecy of Isaiah makes Cyrus alone the conqueror of Babylon, The temptation to recognise in the virtuous prince of Xeno- phon the chosen servant of God, as predicted by Isaiah, will ]iot mislead the thoughtful student of Divine Providence. That Cyrus was " the anointed of Jehovah, whose right hand lie strengthened, to subdue nations before him" — " His Shepherd, to perform all His pleasure," in leading back His people to Jerusalem,* implies no more of true piety in him than in the chosen instruments of God's WTath, such as Nebuchadnezzar. His own professions to the same * Isaiah xlv. 1 ; xliv. 28. 273 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. eJBfect* are no stronger tlian those uttered by tlie Babylonian tyrant when convinced of Jehovali's power. In one word, tlie error in question is rebuked by the very terms in wliich the prophet con- cludes his address to Cyrus as the Lord's anointed : " I have surnamed thee, though tluju hast not known nieP f Cyrus was the unconscious instrument in God's hand to perform a certain work, and we need not falsify history to maintain the spotless purity of his character. The dethronement of Astyages by Cyrus is alleged by Herodo- tus as the immediate cause of the war between Lydia and Persia. Besides the motive of avenging his father-in-law, Crresus hastened to attack Cyrus before he should become too powerful. He forth- with began those consultations of the Greek oracles, of which Herodotus relates such curious stories, — stories furnishing abun- dant proof of the system of trickery and corruption which main- tained the reputation of those oracles. These frequent missions to Greece led to his forming an alliance with Sparta, the earliest of those Oriental alliances by which the Greeks impaired their power to resist the common enemy. Meanwhile, Croesus organ- ized a vast confederacy of the three great monarchies of Lydia, Babylonia, and Egypt, against Cyrus ; but he gave neither Nabo- nadius nor Amasis time to bring him any effectual aid. Trusting to a studiously ambiguous oracle, he led his army across the Halys into Cappadocia, the westernmost province of the Medo- Persian empire, and took the chief city of Pteria, a district near Sinope, reducing its Syrian inhabitants to slavery. Cyrus, on his part, was equally prepared to meet him. He had subdued all the northern and western provinces of the old Median Empire, and had solicited the lonians to revolt from Croesus, but in vain. His rapid marches brought him into the district of Pteria, which the Lydians were ravaging, unsus})icious of his near approach, and unsupported by their allies. Croesus was compelled to risk a battle with numbers inferior to the enemy ; and an indecisive conflict was closed by the fall of night. Seeing that a defeat would now be utter ruin, Croesus at once began his retreat to Sardis, and there disbanded his mercenary troops, intending to renew the war with the ensuing spring. Meanwhile he summoned his allies, Egypt, Babylon, and the Lacedaemonians, to send their succours to Sardis by the fifth month. He counted on the long delays by which Oriental campaigns are usually divided ; but Cyrus and his Persians made war on a different system. He pur- * Ezra i. 1, 2. \ Isaiah xlv. 4. B.C. 554.] CONQUEST OF LYDIA. 278 sued Crcesiis with such speed as to be his own herald before the walls of Sardis. This celebrated city, the ruins of which still bear the name of SarU stood on the southern side of the broad valley of Hermus, at a point where it is contracted by the northern spurs of Tmolus. A precipitous ro(;k formed its citadel, and a level plain spread out in front of the city. Into this plain Croesus led out his native Lydian forces, a splendid cavalry armed with long lances ; for the Lydians had not yet degenerated into a byword for effeminate luxury. Cyrus placed his camels in the front, then his infantry, and his cavalry in the rear, relying on the aversion which the horse is said to have for the camel. The stratagem was successful : the horses of the Lydians turned away in fright, but their riders dismounted to engage the Persian infantry, and even at this disadvantage they fought long before they were driven back within the walls. Tlie siege of Sardis was now fonned, and Croesus sent messengers to hasten the succours of his allies, but the city was taken before they could arrive. There are different versions of its capture ; but we have no reason to doubt the story of Herodotus, that a Mede, who had observed a Lydian soldier descend the rock to fetch his fallen helmet, mounted by the same path to the seemingly impregnable citadel ; his comrades followed till a large number gained the rock, and so the city was taken. Sufficient allusion has already been made to Herodotus's romantic story of the manner in which the life of Croesus was saved.* He was treated with respect by Cyrus ; and the wisdom he had learnt by adversity enabled him to give good counsel to that king and his successor.f His reign lasted fourteen years ; his fall is placed by most chronologers at e.g. 546, but by Rawlinson at b.c. 554. Cyrus left a Persian garrison in the citadel of Sardis ; but entrusted the government of the country to a Lydian, named Pac- tyas, who revolted soon after the conqueror's departure homeward. This revolt hastened that collision between Persia and the Greek colonies, which was an inevital)le result of the conquest of Lydia. While the contest was impending, as we have seen, Cyrub had incited the lonians to revolt from Croesus ; but after the victoiy, he had rejected their petition that they might remain tributaries as before : Miletus was the only city to which these terms were granted. In conjunction with the ^olians, who resolved to follow the course * There is no satisfactory evidence that the old Persian religion required, or even permitted, human sacrifices in honour of fire. f See the story of his having nearly fallen a victim to the mad fury of Cambyses, in Herodotus, ii. 36. VOL. I. — 18 274 THE JIEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. they might decide on, tliey prepared to defend themselves, and asked aid from Sparta. The Lacedaemonians would do no more than send commissioners to Phocsea — the city which had led the embassy, and which soon after gained by her devotion a lasting fame — to investigate the state of affairs. One of the commis- sioners proceeded to the court of Cyrus at Sardis, and forbade him in the name of the Lacedaemonians to molest any of tlie Greek cities, for they would not suft'er it. Turning to some Greeks who were standing by, Cyrus asked who and how many were these Lacedaemonians, that they dared to send him such a warning ; and having received the reply, he said to the Spartan herald : " I have never yet been afraid of any men, who have a set place in the middle of their city, where they come together to cheat each other and forsweaj* themselves. If I live, the Spartans shall have troubles enough of their own to talk of, without concerning them- selves with the lonians." * When Pactyas revolted, his first step was to enrol Greek mercenaries from the -coast, with whom he marched against Sardis, and besieged tlie Persians in the citadel. But on the approach of the army sent against him by Cyrus, under Mazares, he fled to the Greek city of Cyme. The Cymasans refused to give him up, though warned to consent by the oracle of Branchidae near Miletus, which repaid the favour of Cyrus by abandoning the lonians as a doomed nation. Too weak, however, to protect the refugee, the Cymaeans conveyed him to Mytilene and thence to Chios ; and the Chians earned lasting shame by giving him up for the bribe of a certain district on the mainland. Armed with this new cause of quarrel, Mazares proceeded to attack the Grecian cities ; and the conquest was completed by his successor Hai'pagus with unrelenting rigour. In this war we find the Persians using the mojde of attack, which we have noticed as represented on the Assyrian sculptures, by means of a mound of earth piled up against the wall of the besieged city. Resistance, however brave, was ov^powered by the numbers of the Persians. To strike terror, probably, by a severe example, the inhabitants of Priene, the first city attacked, were sold as slaves. The rest seem to have been reduced from their position of tributaries, and in some cases only allies, which they had held under Croesus, to an * " lonians" seems to have been the general name used by the Asiatics for the Greek colonists, .and originally, indeed, for the Greek nation, aa we see in the Javan of Genesis x. B.C. 553.] KEDUCTION OF IONIA. 275 entire subjection to the " Great King" — for the enslaved Greeks soon learnt to call their master by his high-sounding Oriental titles. All the Greek cities on the coast were thus subdued, except Miletus, which had purchased safety by submission, and two others whose nobler choice it remains to mention. As to the adjacent islands of the lonians, Herodotus makes the sweeping statement that they submitted through dread of the same fate. Samos cer- tainly remained independent till the reign of Darius, and in this interval she reached the height of her power under Polycrates. Chios and Lesbos seem to have preferred the advantages of their connexion with the mainland to the doubtful issue of a continual state of war ; and the Persians, being as yet without a navy, would naturally grant them favourable terms.* Thus did Cyrus plant his foot on the first step of the chain of islands that bridge over the sea dividing Asia from the free republics which he had threatened should feel his power. We spoke just now of two cities which escaped subjection by a nobler choice. The two cities were Teos and Phocsea, whose inhabitants abandoned their homes to seek others beyond the sea. A voice was indeed raised to urge the like sacrifice upon the whole nation. Already, when they were first threatened by the power of Croesus, Thales of Miletus had advised the formation of a single seat of government at Teos, as the central city of Ionia, all the cities still retaining their own laws ; and now Bias, of Priene, another of the " Seven Sages " of that time, came forward at the united festival which was celebrated at the Panionium, to urge the whole nation to set sail in a body for Sardinia, and there to found a Pan-Ionic city. Masters of the largest island in the world,f they might enjoy not only freedom, but a wide maritime empire, instead of remaining to be slaves in Asia. The sacrifice demanded was too great for any but the two cities we have named, and even in them a portion of the inhabitants remained behind. Two bodies of emigrants from Teos founded Abdera in Thrace and Phanagoria on the Cimmerian Bosporus. The self-imposed exile of the Pho- c£eans is far more interesting. They had long been conspicuous as the most adventurous Greek sailors who had issued from the ports of Asia Minor. They had explored the recesses of the Adriatic, and traced the northern coasts of the Mediterranean as * The submission of Chios, and its terms, are implied in the surrender of Pactyas. Lesbos also had territory on the mainland worth preserving. \ This is a curious error for Herodotus, who, as we should think, had lived long enough in Italy to have learnt the relative sizes of Sicily and Sardinia. 276 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. far as the Pillars of Hercules, and Tartessus."^ In that distant region the aged king had offered them a refuge from the power of Croesus ; and when they declined his generous offer, he gave them money to repair their fortifications, which Herodotus describes as built with great blocks of stone accurately fitted to each other. This show of strength induced Ilarpagus to offer them terms, in which however they saw no security from enslavement. They asked a single day for deliberation ; which Ilarpagus granted, if we may believe Herodotus, with the generous intention that they might execute their plan. As soon as his forces were withdra^^^l, they launched their galleys, put on board their wives and children, their household goods, the images of their gods, and the votive offerings from the temples, leaving behind only their paintings and works in stone and bronze. Then they set sail for Chios. The Persian army, returning the next day, found themselves masters of a deserted city. The jealousy of a rival maritime state prevented their settling at the islets near Chios, called (Enussse ; and no choice was left but to turn their prows to the far west. The death of Arganthonius had deprived them of the asylum he had offered in Tartessus ; but a nearer end was promised to the voyage by the colony of Alalia, which they had founded twenty years before in the island of Cyrnus (Corsica). Further preparation was needed for such a distant voyage ; and it would be sweet to give their enemy a parting blow. Sailing back to Phocaea, they surprised the Persian garrison, and put them to the sword. Then, imprecating curses on the man who should draw back, they dropped a great mass of iron into the sea, and swore never to return till it appeared floating on the surface. But they had scarcely put to sea, when that long- ing for home which the Greeks called nostalgia (liome-sickness) subdued more than half their number, who sailed back to Phocaea, and submitted to the Phocsean yoke. The remaining half reached the haven of Alalia, and, joining the older colonists, subsisted for five years by piracy, which in that age was no disgrace. Tlie two great maritime powers, the Carthaginians and T^Trhenians, combined to put them down. In the engagement which ensued, the Phocieans gained a victory over the 120 ships of the enemy ; but of their own sixty, only twenty came out of the fight, and those in a state disabled for war. So they returned to Alalia, re-embarked their * The most Important of their colonies was Massilia (Marseilles) ; the inhabitants of which still boast of being " compatriots of the Phocreans." B.C. 552.] SUBJECTION OF THE CARIANS AND DORIANS. 277 wives and children, and set sail for Rhegium, on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina. Their last removal was to the western coast of Italy, between the Gulfs of Salerno and Policastro, where, on a beautiful bay, at the mouth of a little river, they founded the city of Elea or Velia. To this new colony other Ionian exiles found their way, and among them the poet and philosopher Xenophanes, of Colophon, w^ho founded the school of philosophy which was called, from its birthplace, the Eleatic. This episode was worth relating fully, for the light it throws on the process of maritime adventure and colonization on the shores of the Mediterranean, and for the glimpse it gives us of the great powers which had grown up in the West during the revolutions of empire in the East. Having completed the subjugation of Ionia and ^olia, Har- pagus compelled the conquered Greeks to serve in his campaigns against the Lycians, the Caunians, the Carians, and the Dorian colonies in the south-west of the peninsula. The easy submission of the latter proves, as Mr. Grote observes, that " the want of steadfast courage, often imputed to Ionic Greeks as compared to Dorian, ought properly to be charged on Asiatic Greeks as com- pared with European — or rather upon that mixture of indigenous with Hellenic population, which all the Asiatic colonies, in com- mon with most of the other colonies, presented, and which in Haliearnassus was particularly remarkable : for it seems to have been half Carian, half Dorian, and was even governed by a line of Carian despots." * These despots probably purchased the se- curity of their rule by acknowledging the supremacy of Persia ; and we shall see the Carian queen Artemisia acting a conspicuous part in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece. Cnidus, the other chief Dorian city of Caria, made a faint show of resistance by cutting through the neck of its peninsula ; but the attempt was abandoned at the bidding of one of those oracles which came 60 conveniently to the aid of the Persians.f Far different was the conduct of the Lycians. This people — * Grote, History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 279. It is remarkable that Herodotus gives us no details of the subjugation of this his native city. \ The wise desire to save their countrymen from hopeless resistance may, in some cases, have been the motive of a course which in others can only be explained by bribery. It is amusing to find that an oracle, when it condescends to reason, adopts the anile argument, common in every age, against enterprise and invention — " Fence not the isthmus off, nor dig it through — Jove would have made an island, had he wished. 278 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. one of the most interesting of tlie ancient world — inhabited a wide projection of the southern coast of Asia Minor, which is formed by a series of terraces descending from Mount Massicytus, a great southern spur of Taurus. Lycia occupies a conspicuous place in the earliest Greek literature. Homer makes the Lycians fight on the side of Troy, under Glaucus and Sarpedon, heroes only second to Hector and ^neas ; and among the finest passages of the Iliad are the colloquy of Glaucus with Diomed and the death of Sar- pedon. Bellerophon is represented as fighting against the war- like Solymi, whom other traditions represent as being the oldest inhabitants of the land. The Solymi were probably a Semitic race, closely connected with the Phoenicians ; their Lycian con- querors a people of the Indo-Germanic stock. The Greek tradition brought them from Crete, when the people of that island were still barbarians, of a race kindred to the Carians ; the further specula- tions which connected them with the Greeks cannot be accepted. Their ancient monuments show the influence of the neighbouring Greek colonies in Caria ; but those, in which the Grecian tyi)e is so decided, belong to a n)uch later period.* From their first ap- pearance in history, the Lycians furnish an example of a firmly united and well balanced federal constitution, which embraced their twenty-three cities ; and perhaps they owed it to this cause, as much as to the protection of Mount Taurus, that they and the Cilicians, alone of all the people west of the Halys, held out against the power of Crossus. The Persians only subdued them after a resistance which was made for ever memorable by the fate of Xanthus.f In a battle fought on the plain south of the city, the fierce courage of the Xanthians was overpowered by numbers, and they were shut up within their walls. Having collected into the citadel their wives, children, slaves, and treasures, they set fire to the building. Then, binding themselves w^ith dreadful oaths, they sallied forth again, and fell fighting to the last man. In the time of Herodotus only eighty families in Xanthus were allowed to be of Lycian descent, their ancestors having been absent from the country at the time. Enough was left, however, of the old spirit, to offer the most desperate resistance to Alexander ; and long ages afterwards they repeated the self-immolation of their * The Lycian monuments, which the British Museum owes to the labours of Sir Charles Fellowes, deserve special study. The language of their ancient inscriptions is still a matter of dispute. f The native name of the city was Arina. Xanthus (yellow) is a Greek translation of the name of the turbid mountain-stream on which it stood. B.C. 538.] CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 279 forefathers rather than surrender to the Homans under Brutus.* It has been thought, on the evidence of the Xanthian obelisk in the British Museum, erected probably about b.c. 465, that the gov- ernment of Lycia became hereditary in the family of Harpagus. As for the rest of Asia Minor, the tribes which had owned allegiance to Croesus submitted, or were subjected by Harpagus but various wild races, such as the Pisidians, were never thor- oughly subdued. The Cilicians seem to have preserved a real inde- pendence under their native princes, who were afterwards reduced to acknowledge the supremacy of Persia, probably by Cambyses. The conquest of lesser Asia required several years ; and though not conducted by Cyrus in person, it must have claimed much of his attention. Meanwhile he had to consolidate his power in Media and its northern and eastern frontiers. He overran the great plain east of the Caspian {Khiva and Bokhara), and founded on the river Jaxartes {Sihoun), the city which marked the northern frontier of his empire.f To the east of Media, his conquests are said to have extended over Herat, Cabul, Candaliar, Seistan, and Beloochistan, in short, the whole plateau of Iran, to the mountains dividing it from the valley of the Indus. Thus we may well ac- count for the fifteen or sixteen years which he sufi'ered to elapse before attacking Babylon. Herodotus, indeed, expressly says that Cyrus reduced the rest of Upper Asia before he made war upon the Assyrians.:}: He alludes elsewhere to the conquest of the Bactrians and the Sacje ; but he avoids encumbering his pages with details of any but the two great events of the capture of Babylon, and the expedition against the Massagetae, in which Cyrus lost his life. The former exploit has been related in the preceding chapter. It was probably in b.c. 539 that Cyrus began his march from Ecbatana. The whole of that summer was occupied in diverting the water of the Gyndes, an eastern tributary of the Tigris, — a rehearsal of the stratagem by which Babylon was taken in the following year, b.c. 538. The first act of imperial power performed by Cyrus, when he took up his own residence at Babylon, was to issue liis decree for the return of the Jews to the ancient territory of Judah, and for the rebuilding of the Temple of Jehovah (b.c. 536). While * The story is told by Plutarch, in his Life of Binitus. f Cyreschata, th&t 19, Cyruses furthest. Just so Alexander built an ^/carantfrescAaia in the same region. X Herod, i. 177. The context shows that he means the Babylonians, whom he always regards as Assyrians. 380 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [CnAr. X. combating the extreme views of certain writers as to liis motives, we cannot believe that the recent events at Babylon, recorded in the Book of Daniel, made a less impression on his mind, than the earliest displays of Divine power had made on Nebuchadnezzar. The statement that " Daniel continued even until the Urst year of king Cyrus " * seems to mark the continuance of the honour in which the prophet had been held by Darius, and justifies the inference that he advised and aided in directing the restoration. The emphatic acknowledgement, in the decree issued by Cyrus, of his appointment by " Jehovah, the God of Heaven " to perform this work, is what we might expect from a prince who had seen, in the sacred books of the Jews, his very name thus distinguished, in connexion with the prophecy which his capture of Babylon had so literally fulfilled. f But it does not follow that, in thus honouring Jehovah, he forswore the religion of his fathers, or that he for- sook his own line of policy. As Egypt had joined with Babylon and Lydia in the league against him, we are quite ])repared to be- lieve the statement of Herodotus, that Egypt, as well as Babylon, was comprehended in the conquests he was meditating when he returned from Sardis.:}: In all previous wars between Egypt and the great empires of Western Asia, — as afterwards in the contests between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids — Palestine was a frontier post of extreme importance to either party. It was sound policy to maintain there a nation, who would cling to it as their own sacred land, — a policy always followed by Egypt, and only aban- doned by Nebuchadnezzar under the provocation of reiterated rebellion. Let his policy, however, have been what it might, Cyrus carried it out with noble generosity. He invited the wor- shippers of Jehovah from the most distant provinces of the empire, charging their neighbours to provide them with money, goods, and beasts for the journey, besides free-will offerings for the House of God ; and collected from the Babylonian temples all the sacred vessels which had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, and gave them to the care of the prince of Judah. AVhile thus honoured to fulfil the Divine decrees, Cyrus strengthened his empire by a policy which proved perfectly successful. For the space of more than two centuries, to the overthrow of the empire by Alexander, Persia had no more obedient province than Jud£ea, and her kings no more loyal subjects than the Jews, both those * Daniel i. 21. f Ezra i. 1 — i ; Isaiah xliv. 28 ; xlv. 1 — 13. X Herod, i. 153. B.C. 536.] HISTORY OF THE RESTORED JEWS. 281 who remained in the East and those who returned to their own land. In both scenes their loyalty was preserved nnder considerable provocation, and their political conduct may be adduced as one sign of the better spirit which the Jews showed after the return from the captivity. For there is no more conspicuous proof, in the providential government of the world, that men may be taught to fear God by finding Him faithful to His threats and yet merciful in their infliction, than in the altered temper of the re- stored people. If they brought back with them the germs of faults which were afterwards to require a more terrible chastisement, they were at least cured of the idolatry and obstinate rebellion which had called down the first. Guided by Zerubbabel, and encouraged by the prophets Ilaggai and Zechariah, they bore the opposition which sj^rung from the jealousy of the half-heathen Samaritans and the calumnious accusations transmitted to court by the Persian satraps, till they gained the favour of the king, and were permitted to complete their works in peace. The details are so exclusively concerned with the religious history of the people, and so mixed up with such intricate questions respecting the kings named in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, that their discussion must be left to the separate province of Scripture History. It is enough here to give the general results. The Temple was finished and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius Hystaspis (b.c. 515). His successor Xerxes (b.c. 485 — 465), there can now be little doubt, is the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther, a document which gives us a most interesting view, both of the interior of the Persian court, and of the condition of the Jews throughout the empire. The influence of the Jewish queen, the proved loyalty of their most distinguished men, such as Mordecai, and the display of strength, when, in defending themselves against a general massacre, they slew 75,000 of their enemies, must have greatly improved their general position. Under Artaxerxes I. Longi- manus, they were vastly strengthened by the mission of Ezra and the new body of returned exiles who accompanied him (b.c. 458), and again by the commission granted to Nehemiah (b.c. 445). In spite of renewed opposition from the Samaritans, and cor- ruptions which had grown up within the new state, the work of restoration was completed, the walls were rebuilt, the law was once more taught by the Levites, the ordinances of religion estab- lished anew, and an orderly division was made of the people between Jerusalem and the country districts. In a second visit 283 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE: [Chap. X. (about B.C. 433) Neliemiah reformed the internal abuses which had grown up, chiefly from the spirit of selfish gain, and the nation prospered under the rule of their High Priests till the end of the Persian empire (e.g. 323). The end of Cjrus, as related by Herodotus, fonns a mournful contrast to the greatness of his reign. He fell in an expedition against the Massagetse, a Scythian people in the great plain east of the Caspian. The story is again embellished by romantic details — the over-weening confidence of Cyrus in his good fortune — the challenge of the warrior queen Tomyris to choose his own ground to fight on — the dream of Cyrus, foreshowing the elevation of Darius the son of Hystaspis — the details of the two battles — and the savage insults of Queen Tomyris upon the corpse of Cyras, whose head she dipped into a skinful of human gore, to " give him his fill of blood." Another story, preserved by Ctesias, made him fall in an expedition against the Derbices, a Caucasian people. There is no reason to doubt that he really fell in battle against some tribe of central Asia ; but it seems also certain that he was buried at Pasargadse, his Persian capital. There the followers of Alexander (as Arrian relates) not only saw the tomb, bearing the inscription, " I am Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, who founded the empire of the Persians and ruled over Asia : grudge me not then this monument ; " but Aristobulus gathered together, and interred again, the scattered bones. A tomb is still to be seen at Mxirghaub answering to Arrian's description. A square base, composed of immense blocks of a beautiful white marble, rises by seven steps, and supports a quadrangular cell, surmounted by a roof with gables, like the pediments of a Greek temple. This is also built of huge blocks of marble, those of the roof being cut to the re- quired slope. Tlic walls are five feet thick, and the interior is ten feet long, seven feet wide, and eight feet high. The marble floor is pierced with holes, which are supposed to have held the fastenings of the golden sarcophagus. The tomb stands in an area surrounded by pillars, which are inscribed both in the Persian and the so-called Median (or Scythian) dialects, " I am Cyrus the king, the Achsemenian." * The reign of Cyrus lasted nine-and- twenty years : his death forms one of the best ascertained epochs in chronology, e.g. 529. Mr. Grote gives the following admirable summary of the reign and conquests of the Great Cyrus : — " In what we read respecting * An engraving of the tomb is given with the description in Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. i. pp. 498 — 506, and in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 351. B.C. 529.] SUMMARY OF THE KEIGN OF CYRUS. 283 liim, there seems, though 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 Jaxartes and Indus eastward, and to the Hellespont and the Syrian coast westward ; and his successors made no permanent addition to it, except that of Egypt. ... It was from Cyras, that the habits of the Persian kings took commencement, to dwell at Susa in the winter and Ecbatana during the summer ; the primitive territory of Persis, with its two towns of Persepolis and Pasargadae, being reserved for the burial-place of the kings and the religious sanctuary of the empire. How or when the conquest of Susiana was made, we are not informed The river Choaspes, near Susa, was supposed to furnish the only water fit for the palate of the Great King, and it is said to have been carried about with him wherever he went." * This great historian then proceeds to show the vast change which these conquests effected on the Persian nation itself, holding out to their nobles satrapies as lucrative and powerful as kingdoms, and to the soldiers plunder and licence 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 conquest 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. In tracing the progress of this declension, let it be remem- bered that we are dealing with the case, not simply of a wide- spread empire, but of an empire in which the central power was despotic. How far an almost unbounded dominion may be ren- dered safe by free institutions is a great question of our own days. The " Nemesis" of unbridled power — to borrow the impressive view of the Greeks — already begins to work in the personal cha- racter of Camijyses, the son and successor of Cyrus. His wanton cruelties and insane rashness have often been compared with those of Antiochus Epiphanes, Caligula, and Paul of Russia, aa proofs that if " oppression drives wise men mad," it makes the tyrant himself madder. The great event of his reign was the expedition against Egypt, which is usually placed in his fifth year (b.c. 525).f Herodotus passes over the interval ; but elsewhere he * Grote, History of Greece, vol. iv. pp. 288, 289. f This is on the authority of Manetho, in the Armenian version of the Chronicon 384 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X gives us reason to believe that Plicenicia was conquered by Cam- byses. He puts into the inoutli of the Persian courtier the flattery, — which could hardly have been ventured on without some foundation of truth, — that Cambj^ses surpassed his father, for he was lord of all that his father ever ruled, and further had made himself master of Egypt, and the sea.^ Accordingly Cambyses is the first Persian king whom we find in possession of the great instrument of maritime power, the navy of the Phoenicians ; but their connexion with Persia was little more than a voluntary alliance ; and Cam- byses was obliged to humour them because " upon the Phoenicians ail his sea-sei*vice depended."f The affairs involved in the transfer of so vast and recent an empire, even from father to son, with the collection of all its forces for the meditated expedition, may easily have required five years. Herodotus expressly tells us, twice over, that the forces led by Cambyses against Egypt comprised the recently subjugated Ionian and ^olian Greeks, as well as the hereditary vassals of the Medo-Persian Empire.:}: The expedition was undertaken, as we have already seen, at the close of the long reign of Amasis, who, however, died before the actual commence- ment of the war.§ N^otwithstanding the provocation he had given by joining the league of Croesus, Amasis seems to have been on friendly terms with Cyrus ; but Cambyses easily found a new ground of quarrel. It is not worth while to repeat the doubtful stories which Hero- dotus tells upon this point. Phanes, a mercenary from Halicar- nassus, undertook to guide the Persian army across the desert which divides Philistia from the Lake Serbonis and Mount Casius on the Egyptian frontier ; and, by the same man's advice, a safe- conduct was obtained from the Arabian chief of that region. || of Eusebius, and of Diodorus (i. 68). Syncellus, however, reports Manetho as placing the invasion two years earlier, B.C. 527. * Herod, iii. 34. \ Herod, iii. 19. Herodotus tells us, that it was only the refusal of the Phoenicians to sail against their own children and allies under a treaty, that hindered the conquest of Carthage by Cambyses ; and that the king accepted their excuse because they had yielded themselves to the Persians. He then speaks of the similar submission of the Cyprians in a way which implies its having been voluntary in both cases. X Herod, ii. 1 ; iii. 1. § See chapter vii. p. 138. I Modern travellers confirm the statement of Herodotus as to the good faith of the Arabs to such engagements. Speaking of the region crossed by Cambyses, Mr. Kinglake says, "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. B.C. 525.] CONQUEST OF EGYPT. 285 Cambyses found the new king of Egypt, Psammenitus, the sou of Amasis, encamped near the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. A horrid pledge was given of the fierceness of the coming conflict, especially between the mercenaries in either army. The Greek and Carian soldiers of Psammenitus, enraged at the treachery of Phanes, took his sons, whom he had left in Egypt, brought them forth in sight of both armies, and slaying them in their father's sight, caught their life-blood in a bowl, and drank it mingled with wine and water. Then, pledging themselves to one another with an oath, they rushed into the battle. After a stubborn fight and great slaughter on both sides, the Egyptians fled.* The defeated army sought for shelter within the walls of Memphis. Cambyses sent a herald up the Xile to summon them to surrender, but they destroyed the ship and tore the crew limb from limb. The siege was formed, and the city only ofl'ered a brief resistance. Upon its capture, the Libyans submitted to Cambyses ; and the Greek cities of Barca and Cyrene sent him presents, which he con- temptuously rejected for their meanness. The outrage on the herald might have excused retaliation in the first flush of victory ; but, instead of this, Cambyses amused himself by wanton cold-blooded cruelty to Psammenitus ten days after the city had surrendered. Setting him in a suburb of the city, with a mockery of royal state, he caused a procession of prisoners to pass before him. First came his daughter, in the garb of a slave, with the daughters of the chief Egyptian nobles ; next his son, and two thousand of the noble youths with ropes round their necks and bridles in their months, doomed to death for the murder of the herald's crew. Psammenitus sat un- moved, while the Egyptians about him cried aloud at the fate of their sons and daughters ; but when one of his former boon companions, who had been plundered of his all, came up and begged alms of the soldiers, the king burst into tears. Being required by Cambyses to explain conduct so strange, Psammenitus answered, that his own misfortunes were too great for tears, but he could weep over a friend fallen into beggary on * Herodotus, who visited the field of battle, makes a curious observation on the Persian and Egyptian skulls, which he saw piled in two separate heaps. The former were so thin that a slight blow with a pebble would break a hole in them, the latter 80 strong that you could hardly crack them with a stone. — Herod, iii. 12. Sir J. G. Wilkinson adds: "The thickness of the Egyptian skull is observable in the mummies; and those of the modern Egyptians fortunately possess the same property of hardness, to judge from the blows they bear from the Turks, and in their combats among them- selves." 386 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X tlie tlireshold of old age. The answer moved to tears not only the Persian nobles and Croesus, but even Cambyses himself, who issued orders to spare the son of Psammenitns ; but it was too late. Psammenitus himself was treated by Cambyses with the honour which, as we have seen in more than one example, the Persians were wont to show to dethroned kings ;* but being detected in new conspiracies, he was compelled to drink poison. Cambyses now gave full vent to the wanton spirit, indicated by the public insults to the fallen king. Entering the palace of Amasis, he had his corpse brought forth from the chamber where it lay awaiting final interment, and began to scourge it and insult it in every way. Finding that the attendants were wasting their blows on the wrappings of the mummy, he ordered them to burn it ; — a command, observes Herodotus, as insulting to the Persians, who regarded fire as a god, as it was to the Egyjjtians. Cambyses now planned three great expeditions for the conquest of all Africa ; — the first against the Carthaginians ; the second against the inhabitants of the Oasis of Amnion {Siwah) ; and the third against some tribe whom Herodotus calls " the long-lived Ethiopians," and whom he believed to live upon the southern ocean. How the first expedition was frustrated by the refusal of the Phoenicians, has been already stated ; the last was prepared for by sending spies, whose reports (real or feigned) furnished curious details, which may be read in Herodotus, and who brought back a challenge which so excited the fury of Cambyses, that he undertook the expedition in person. He was compelled, however, to relinquish it, after the entire failure of provisions had driven his soldiers to the extremity of casting lots for every tenth man to be eaten by his comrades. Meanwhile an army of 50,000 men was despatched to the Oasis of Ammon, with instructions to enslave the inhabitants, and to burn the temple of the god. They set out from Thebes, and were known to have reached the " Great Oasis" about seven days' journey to the west, and to have started thence on their forward march across the Libyan Desert ; but they were never heard of more. They met a fate, as was believed, worthy of their sacrilegious mission. It was afterwards said by the Ammonians, that the Persians had advanced half-way across the desert, when, as they were seated at their noon-day meal, a violent south-wind bore down upon them vast columns of whirling sand, under which they were completely * Herodotus gives his express testimony to this usage (iii. 15). B.C. 524.] SLAUGHTER OF THE APIS. . 287 buried. It is more probable that tliey were suffocated by the Simoom, or lost their way and perished by thirst ; for the sand- storms of the desert, however annoying, are seldom dangerous. Cambyses had returned to Memphis, stung by these twofold disappointments, when he found the whole city rejoicing at the discovery of a calf marked with the signs which declared it to be the divine bull Apis. Conceiving the public joy to be over his own defeat, he demanded an explanation of the magistrates ; and, on their relating to him the discovery of Apis, he condemned them to death as liars. Next he summoned the priests, and commanded them to bring Apis before him, for " he would soon know whether a tame god had really come to dwell in Egypt." Then, drawing his dagger, he stabbed the calf in the thigh, and, as the blood'^.flowed, he mocked this god of flesh and blood and sensible to steel, ordered the priests to be scourged, and denounced the penalty of death on any Egyptian who should observe the festival. The Apis died of his wound, and was secretly buried by the priests. The Egyptians regarded all the subsequent excesses of Cambyses as proofs of a judicial visitation of madness for this act of sacrilege. After making all allowance for the source from which Herodotus received his information, we can hardly doubt that he performed many deeds of wild caprice, inconsistent with the exercise of rational self-control. The most cruel of these was his shooting an arrow into the heart of the son of a favourite courtier, Prexaspes, who had ventured to tell him, at his own request, that his subjects said he was addicted to wine ; and, when he had given this proof of sobriety, requiring the father to compliment him on the steadi- ness of his aim. The most fatal was the murder of his brother Smerdis,* at Susa, by the ministry of the same Prexaspes, in consequence of a dream, which appeared to threaten his accession to the throne. This crime soon brought its own punishment. There was a certain Magian, who bore a resemblance to the murdered prince. Herodotus adds that he was also called Smerdis, but we learn from the Behistun inscription that his true name was Gomates {Gaumata). With the help, according to Herodotus, of his brother,f whom Cambyses had left in Persia as governor of his household, the Magian assumed the throne, and proclaimed liim- * The true name was Bardis (Bardiya), the S being a prefix . — Behistun Inscription, col. i. par. 10. The inscription seems to place the murder before the departure of Cam- byses for Egypt. If so, it was probably a precaution against revolt. f The inscription does not mention this brother. 888 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. self througliout the empire as Smerdis the son of Cyrus, tlieir king in pLace of Cambyses. Tlie death of the trae Smerdis had been carefully concealed, and the people seem almost universally to have transferred tlieir allegiance to the usurper, who took precau- tions to avoid discovery.* Historians generally ascribe this to the long absence of Cambyses in Egypt, combined with disgust at his tyranny ; but the language of Darius, confirmed by all Ave know of the attendant circumstances, points to a religious revolution, in which the supreme power was seized by the Magians :— " When Cambyses had proceeded to Egypt, then the state became wicked ; then the lie became abounding in the land, both in Persia, and iu Media, and in the other provinces." These words dispose of the speculation of some modern historians, that the revolt was one chiefly of the Med es against the Persians. There can be little doubt, as we have said above, that the Median element would pre- dominate, because Magianism w^as chiefly prevalent among the Medes ; but the rebellion was essentially Magian, and we have the distinct testimony of the inscription, both that Gomates was him- self a Persian, and that the whole empire went over to him from Cambyses, " both Persia and Media, and the other provinces." In describing his restoration of the order of the state, after he had put down Gomates, Darius tells us that he rebuilt the temples which Gomates the Magian had destroyed, and that he restored to the people the sacred oflices of the state, the religious chaunts and worship of which Gomates the Magian had deprived them. So much for the character and success of the revolution. Of the heralds sent through all the empire to proclaim the usurper, one dared, according to Herodotus, to discharge his office in the camp of Cambyses, at Ecbatana in Syria.f The king at first vented his anger on Prexaspes, as if he had only pretended to kill Smerdis ; but assured that Prexaspes had slain and buried the prince with his own hand, and learning from the herald that he had even seen him, Cambyses perceived the truth. He was mounting his horse in haste, to lead his army to Susa against the usurper, when the button of his scabbard fell off", and the point of his sword pierced his thigh at the very spot, as the Egyptians observed, where he * Herodotus says that he shut himself up in a castle ; the inscription declares that he put to death many who had known Bardis, lest they should recognize him. \ If there be any truth in the story, Cambyses was probably already on his march homewards. No satisfactory explanation has been given of this Syrian Ecbatana ; the name was perhaps invented to suit the story. B.C. 522.] DEATH OF CAMBYSES. 289 had stabbed the Apis. FeeUng himself mortally wounded, Cam- byses asked the name of the place where he was, and being answered " Ecbatana," he remembered an oracle, which he had understood to mean that he should die at his full time in his palace at Ecbatana, and he exclaimed, " Here then Cambyses, son of Cyrus, is doomed to die." "'^ Calling the chiefs of the Persians round him, he confessed the murder of his brother, and exposed the imposture of the usurper; he exhorted them all, and especially the Achse- menids, to meet force by force, and fraud by fraud, so as to prevent the return of the kingdom to the Medes, f invoking every blessing on the loyal, and praying that those who failed in this duty might perish by such a fate as his. He died childless, after a reign of seven years and five months, b.c. 522. Such is the account which Herodotus probably learned from Egyptian sources. The inscription simply says that, upon the seizure of the empire by Gomates, Cambyses died " unable to endure ; " but another version of these words, if correct — " self- wishing to die " — would seem to imply suicide. Herodotus adds that the Persian chiefs imputed the dying words of Cambyses to hatred of his brother, and were only the more convinced of the claims of the so-called Smerdis ; and thus the Magian reigned secure. So far he is confirmed by the inscription, in which Darius boasts that no one, either Persian or Median, dared to say a word against the usurper till he arrived : the description which follows of the tyranny of the Magian agrees with the hatred which Herodotus says that the Persians bore to his memory ; and the statement of the historian, that he won the affections of the other Asiatics by exempting them from military service and taxes for three years, is quite consistent with his harshness to the Persians. Long before that term expired, his reign and life came to an end, by a conspiracy of the chiefs of the Achsemenids. Whether the curious stories of Herodotus respecting the detection of the false Smerdis and the stratagem by which the crown was obtained * Most commentators have noticed the parallel in Shakspere's scene of the death of Henry IV. in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster : — "It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die, but in Jerusalem, Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land : — But bear me to that chamber : there I'll lie : In that Jerusalem shall Harry die." f This is the phrase of Herodotus, giving certainly some support to the national view of the rebellion, though proving that he had an imperfect idea of its character. At all events, it was a rebellion against the Achaemenids, if not against the Persians in general : and as such the Achsemenids revenged it. VOL. I. — 19 290 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. [Chap. X. by Darius, the son of Iljstaspes, be true or not (and tliere is no sufficient reason to reject tliem altogether), his narrative is in sub- stantial agreement with the inscription of Darius himself. The six conspirators in Herodotus, besides Darius, who makes the seventh, correspond, with only one exception, to the men whom Darius names as with him when he slew the Magian, and who "alone laboured in his service." Otanes is the Uiana of the inscription; Intaphernes, YidajpJirana ; Gobryas, Gauharuva^ Hydarnes, Yidarna ; 'M.eg2i\)jz\\?>,Bagdbiil'S(la* Herodotus repre- sents Otanes as the deviser of the conspiracy, and Darius as only arriving at the last moment at Susa, from Persia, of which his father Hystaspes was the governor, whilst Darius takes the main credit of the exploit to himself. But if we look a little closer, we find Darius saying, "JsTo one dared to say anything concerning Gomates the Magian, iintil I arrived. . . . Then it was, with my faithful men, I slew that Gomates the Magian." And, in Hero- dotus, it is Darius who, from the moment of his arrival, urges immediate action, while Otanes counsels delay, l^ay more : as Darius was closely related to the royal family, perhaps the next heir to the throne, it is not improbable that Otanes may have begun the conspiracy in his interest, which it required his presence to bring to a head. It is also worthy of notice, that Herodotus represents Darius as aware of the imposture of the false Smerdis, and as supposing that the knowledge was confined to himself. A further indication of his importance is given by his confidence that the guards would at once allow him to pass, with his comrades, as the bearer of a message from his father, the satrap of Persia. And when, by this stratagem, the cons^Dirators had obtained admission to the palace, it was the dagger of Darius that gave the Magian his death-stroke. It is implied throughout that the whole aff'air was begun and ended at Susa ; but the inscription tells us that the Magian was slain at a fort called Sictachotes, in the district of Nisaea, in Media. His reign had lasted seven * In the last name we have the same interchange of h and m. as in Bardes and (S) Merdis. Fidarna becomes Hydarnes, just as Fishtasp becomes ^^staspes. As for /nages with ethnic questions, which it would be impossible to discuss fully, and which are still involved in great obscurity : enough has been said to show the close connexion of the two countries ; and we have now to speak of Greece, as the one of which we have the earlier historic noticc-s, which first came after the deluge of Deucalion, and of Bceotia bv the armed men who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmos. * Hesiod. f Thia form is adopted not only as the most English, but the most accurate repr^ sentation of the root common to the Greek Zeus and the Latin Ja-piter, i. e. Father Jove. Here we may remark, once for all, that when we reluctantly follow the unscholarlike custom of calling the Greek deities by Latin names, it is because the true names might hardly be intelligible to English readere. VOL. I. — 20 306 THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. into contact with the monarchies of Asia, wliich colonized the shores of the Mediterranean and of Italy itself, before Rome was built, and which exercised a wide influence on the civilization of the world while Rome was only as yet maturing her constitu- tion. It is necessary to take a brief survey of the land itself; for its position, formation, and climate have much to do with the jiistory of the people ; but without entering into those minor details which belong exclusively to geography. Greece forms the southern portion of a much larger peninsula, the base of which extends nearly along the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, from the northern recess of the Adriatic to the mouths of the Danube, About three degrees further to the south, the upper and wide portion of this peninsula is traversed by a great chain of mountains, which bore various names in its western part, its eastern half forming the range celebrated in ancient and modem times under the names of H^mus and the Balkan. South of this chain Thrace, Macedonia, and the southern portion of Illyria, stretched across from the Black Sea and the Bosporus to the Adriatic ; countries inhabited by non-Hellenic races, but closely connected with the history of Greece. Further still to the south, another range extends nearly along the fortieth parallel of north latitude, from the mouth of the Adriatic to the north-western gulf of the ^gsean. This chain, called Lingon and the Cambuuian Mountains, runs far out to sea at its western extremity in the " ill-famed rocks " of the Acroceraunian* headland, while on the east it terminates in Mount Olympus, at the foot of which the narrow and beautiful pass of Tempe forms at once the entrance to the plain of Thessaly and the first portal to Greece itself. The range forms, in fact, the base of the true peninsula of Greece. Below it the comparatively large divisions of Thessaly and Epims, — the former on the east, and the latter on the west of the moun- tain-chain which runs down from Balkan, across the Cambunian range, and forms the backbone of the whole peninsula, — were the earliest seats of the Greek nation and religion, though in later times they lie chiefly beyond the range of the most important parts of Grecian history.f One degree still further to the south (in 39° N. latitude) the peninsula is divided by a true isthmus between the Pagasaean and Ambracian Gulfs ; and across this isthmus runs • The name signifies the Cape of Thunderbolts. f At the erection of the modern Greek, or, aa it is now called under its new king, the Hellenic, kingdom, these two districts were left to Turkey. DESCRIPTION OF THE LAXD. 307 Mount Othrys. Finally, the thirty-eigbtli parallel of north latitude passes through the narrow isthmus of Corinth, barely separating the two gulfs which would otherwise make Peloponnesus (the island of Pelops) a true island. The mountain-chains, which we have seen arranged so regularly in Northern Greece, stretch diagonally across the central portion of the land, terminating in Cape Sunium, the apex of the triangle of Attica ; while a parallel chain supports the island of Euboea ; and both are prolonged into the JEgagan, forming the islands called the Cyclades. In Pelopon- nesus, the mountains form a sort of central wall around Arcadia, whence chains diverge in all directions, jutting out into long prom- ontories, and enclosing deep gulfs, which give the peninsula a rough general resemblance to the leaf of a plane-tree. Tlie chief backbone of the whole country is prolonged in the island of Cythera, and again in Crete, which lies like a huge breakwater off the mouth of the ^gsean, and from which again the islands of Carpathos and Rliodes complete the chain to the south-western headland of Asia Minor. Thus intersected throughout with mountains, and deeply in- dented by the sea, from which the small size of the whole country prevented any part from being very distant, Greece possessed the two physical features which have always tended most to rear a free and enterprising race. The Greeks were at once mountaineers and mariners ; and all experience proves the ennobling effects produced upon the imagination of those who live among highlands and beside the sea. But, more than this, the mountains at once formed a barrier against invasion from without, and broke up the land into separate portions, like the valleys of Switzerland, holding little intercourse with each other, and each forming a free political state, with its city for a centre ; while the sea offered the means of com- munication which were wanting upon the land, and invited the people to maritime adventures. Such adventures naturally as- sumed the shape of piratical incursions, among men ignorant of the arts of civilization and pressed by the common wants of life. For the small plains and valleys, though fertile, were few in com- parison with the rugged mountain tracts, and patient labour is distasteful to a rude and hardy race. *' For why ? — the rule suffices them, The old and simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can." * * In this universal piracy Thucydides found an explanation of the fact, that the old Greek cities were built far inland. 308 THE [MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. By thus constantly attacking one another, the several states kept up a keen rivalry of independence, and were exercised in war ; while they found a wider scope for their energy in those distant expeditions the fame of which survives in the Argonautic and Trojan legends, and in those others by which they planted col- onies far and wide over the shores of the Mediterranean. Conditions somewhat similar, in a northern clime, produced the fierce sea-kings of our own early history ; but there were other influences at work, upon the Greeks. Susceptible to exter- nal impressions, and alive to every form of harmony and beauty, above all other nations, they enjoyed a climate which might have breathed life into the dullest race, and which clothed their moun- tains, bays, and islands with a beauty ever varying between the saffron hues of dawn, the fixed brilliancy of noon, the violet light in which the setting sun bathes the hills, " Where tenderest tints along their summits driv'n, Mark his gay course and own the hues of heav'n " — and the clear transparent shades or bright moonlight of the night. "Well did one of their poets describe the Athenians as " ever deli- cately marching through most pellucid air." Such influences raised the spirit of the people to that keen and just sense of beauty which is embodied in the perfection of their arts. We have seen that the earliest inhabitants of this fair land were the Pelasgians, a people whose history is enveloped in ob- scurity. In some parts of the country, and especially in the islands, there dwelt other races, such as the Leleges and Carians. At a period long before the beginning of recorded history, a more vigorous and wai'like race, akin to the Pelasgians, drove them out from their possessions, except some portions in which they held their ground, and especially the central highlands of Arcadia. These conquerors were the Hellenes, who were believed to have issued from the district of Thessaly immediately north of Mount Othrys. Their name was given to the ^yhole country, and ulti- mately to all their settlements, however distant. For, divided as they were politically into small states, they cherished the idea of national unity ; and their distant colonies on the Cimmerian Bosporus, the mouth of the Rhone, and the coast of Africa, were as much a part of Hellas as xVthens and Sparta themselves. In their earliest records, however, and particularly in the Homeric poems, the Hellenic people are known by the names of their several tribes ; and these were distinguished by marked THE HELLENIC RACE. 309 differences of language and character, and ultimately of political institutions. There were four chief divisions of the nation, the Dorians, Cohans, Achaeans, and lonians. The afhnities of these races were represented by an imaginary genealogy, descending from the gods. The Titanic deity* Prometheus, the creator of mankind, and their preserver from the jealousy of Jove, was the father of Deucalion, in whose days all the human race perished by a flood, except himself and his wife Pyrrha. Deucalion was the father of Hellen, the " hero eponymus " of the Hellenic race. Hellen had three sons, Dorus, ^olus, and Xuthus ; and the last was the father of Achaeus and Ion. Xuthus is a mere connecting link in the pedigree, to indicate the close relation between the Achaeans and the lonians, who are represented as dwelling to- gether in the Peloponnesus and Attica, while the Dorians and Cohans occupied chiefly Northern Greece. This view is con- firmed by the dialects of which we still possess the literary re- mains.f To speak more particularly, the earliest known distri- bution of the four races is as follows : — The JEolians were spread over Northern Greece, and occupied also the western coast of Peloponnesus and the islands now called Ionian. The Achaeans were the dominant people of Peloponnesus, of which they held the south and east, the Arcadians retaining the centre. The lonians, who are as yet of little consequence, had a narrow slip of country along the northern coast of Peloponnesus, and extended eastward into Attica. The Dorians have scarcely yet shown themselves beyond the small patch of territory on the southern slopes of Mount CEta, and north of Delphi, which preserved their name in the historic age. Such appears to have been the distri- bution of the races in the age represented by the Homeric poems, and before the great Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus. The Greeks of this age have no history, in the proper sense of the word. The materials of history are altogether wanting ; and * The Titans— sons of Ouranus (Heaven) and Ga;a (Earth) — were the deities of the older mythology antecedent to Jove and the Olympic gods. f The discussion of philological problems is not within the scope of our work ; but we may say in passing, that we regard the language of Homer as essentially Acheean, a dialect little different from the old Ionian, as distinguished from the later literary Ionic. As Homer's Greeks are Achteans, it would be wonderful if his own Greek were any- thing but Achaean. The ^Eolian forms (and the Dorian, if any) in his poems are accounted for by the want of that decisive separation between the dialects which after- wards became fixed in the literature of the different races. The theory of a mixed dialect, framed by the poet, and therefore called epic, is altogether inadmissible ; but it is not denied that some peculiar forma may have been invented to suit the genius or exigencies of the poetry. 310 THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. their place is supplied bj a mass of religious, genealogical, ethni- cal, and poetical legends, or, as the Greeks called them, myths. If among these there are many fragments of true tradition (and we cannot doubt it), these are so conformed to the mythical spirit of the rest, as to make their separation utterly impossible. The imaginative Greek temperament has at least saved ns from the controversy still open as to the primeval history of the East, by confounding truth and fable in one haze of poetic fiction. Not painfully to unravel the doubtful traditions of the past, but to weave around them the web of poetry, so as to glorify their ancestors, and to illustrate their doctrines of supreme fate and human arrogance and impotence in the fortunes of their heroes, was the worthier task to which they applied their brilliant intellect. To such sources only can we trace the stories of the foundation of the most ancient cities and kingdoms of Greece. Argos and Sicyon are said to have been cities of the Pelasgians. Inachns, the son of Oceanus and Tethys, founded a kingdom at Argos in the 20th generation* before the Trojan "War; and ^gialeus, king of Sicyon, was even more ancient. The epoch of Ogyges, king of Boeotia and Attica, is remarkable for a great deluge. The Pelas- gian kingdom in Thessaly is said to have lasted 150 years, and the name of its founder, Acha^ns, which we have already seen among the sons of Hellen, indicates the tendency to repeat the same names in the mythical genealogies of difterent races in the same regions. About the same time that Hellen and his sons, coming from Phocis, drove the Pelasgians first out of Thessaly and then from the rest of Greece, except Arcadia, those foreign colonists began to arrive, of whom we have presently to speak. Long afterwards Erechtheus, a native chief, established the Ionian kingdom of Attica and restored the worship of Athena. Among the traditions which are perhaps not altogether mythi- cal, are those relating to an early infusion of Oriental elements into the population of Greece ; but even these are too doubtful to warrant historical conclusions. They point to Egypt, Phoenicia, and Phrygia, as sources of colonization and civilization. Tims Ceckops, an Egyptian from Sai's, is said to have imported into * This would be, according to the usual computation, about B.C. 1856. Ogyges is placed about B.C. 1749; the first appearance of Hellen and his sons in Phocis, about B.C. 1560 ; Cecrops and Cadmus about the same time, but by others much later, B.C. 1313; Danaus about B.C. 1500; Erectheus, about B.C. 1383; and Pelops, about B.C. 1283. But the dates assigned vary greatly, and are destitute of all chronological authority. TRADITIONS OP FOREIGN COLONIES. 311 Attica the germs of civilization and religion.* Danaiis, the brother of King ^gyptus, is represented as leading the flight of his flftj daughters from the persecution of his brother's fifty sons, and landing on the shores of Peloponnesus, where he founded Argos, and gave the people the name of Danai, under which they appear in Homer. We have already seen that these stories arc mentioned in the Egyptian annals, which the chronographers profess to de- rive from Manetho ; but we can have no assurance that they were not inventions partly of Greeks who wished to find points of contact with Egypt, and partly of Egyptian priests willing to humour them and to glorify their own nation. Still, our want of the means to test these traditions will hardly justify their absolute rejection. We can only say that there is no sufficient reason for accepting them.f Tlie same may be said of the story that Pelops, the son of Tantalus, a wealthy king of Phrygia, led a colony from that country to the peninsula which henceforth received his name, and there founded Mycense, the old capital of Argolis, where his descendant Agamemnon held a sort of supre- macy over the Achseans of the Peloponnesus. The legend of Cadmus, the Phoenician, who colonized Bccotia, and founded Thebes, although even more imaginative than the rest in its de- tails, :}: has a relation to well-known facts. The maritime people of Phoenicia founded colonies in the islands of the J^goean, and may have done the same upon the mainland. The Greek alphabet was unquestionably borrowed from the Phoenician, though the languages themselves were of difierent families, the Greek being Aryan, and the Phoenician Semitic.§ It was probably by way of Phoenicia that the Greeks received the Babylonian system of weights and measures, and perhaps the elements of other sciences. * A probable origin of thia story ia found in the identification which tlie Greclsa made of the Egyptian goddess Neith with their own Athena. f Compare chap. vii. pp. 112, 113. jj. Such as the slaying of the dragon and the sowing of bis teeth, from which armed men sprung up. It may be suggested in passing, whether the pecuhar cha- racter of the Boeotians for stolid obstinacy was at all due to an infusion of Semitic blood. § The tradition to this effect is fully confirmed by the close resemblance of the old Phoenician letters (as seen on coins) to the Greek, and still more by the identity of the names and the order of the letters in the Greek alphabet and in the Hebrew, which is but a modification of the Phoenician : — Alpha, Aleph ; Beta, Beth ; Gamma, Gimel ; Delta, Daleth ; E-psilon (i. e., thin E), He (unaspirated) ; Vau (sometimes called Di- gamma), Vau ; &c. Even the apparent differences, instead of being real discrepancies, assist us in tracing the history of both alphabets. All the alphabets of modern Europe have come from the Phoenician through the Greek. 312 THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XL These facts suggest caution as to a sweeping rejection of traditions about Oriental influence. These mytliical stories reflect, in their whole conception, so much of the inner life of the Greek nation, and the hearty faith with which they were repeated by the poets and accepted by the people had so vast an influence on Grecian history, that to pass over them in silence would be to quench the spirit of that history at the threshold : for Greek mythology is the light by which the student must view the monuments of the Grecian heroes, of the historic as well as the mythic age. The Athenians of the Pelo- ponnesian war learnt their first lessons from Homer ; and their minds were moulded by the poets who presented before their eyes the god-like endurance of Prometheus, the fate of the house of Pclops, the woes and expiation of CEdipus. Achilles was the model proposed to himself by Alexander. But it is not in the province of the historian to relate these legends at length, unless he can affbrd the space to arrange and analyse them, — a work which has been done by the master hand of Mr. Grote.* Least of all is it allowable to put the poet's crea- tions on the Procrustean bed of rationalistic criticism, lopping ofl;' what seems improbable, and stretching out the fancied frag- ments of true tradition, and all for the sake of " spoiling a good poem, without making a good history." All that we can or ought to attempt is a brief outline of those principal legends which most show the thought and spirit of the Hellenic nation, and give some hints of the actual state of society, before the age of certain history. There are various ways in which these legends may be viewed. They were framed to minister to the religious, the heroic, the national, and the historic spirit in a people whose sense of beauty also demanded that all should be offered them in the guise of poetry. How heaven and earth sprung from chaos, — how succes- sive dynasties of gods supplanted one another, crushed the powers of confusion and destruction, and ruled over their favourite cities, — how from them sprung a race of demigods, who cleared the earth of savage monsters and savage men, founded the great families and kingdoms of Greece, and carried their arms to distant shores, — were the first subjects of mythic poetry. The earliest bards began by reciting the race and deeds of the heroic founders of the chief * History of Greece, part i., Legendary Greece. Charming versions of many of the legends, fit for elder as well as young readers, have been published by Niebuhr, Professor Kingslev, and Mr. Cox. LEGENDS OP THE GODS. 313 houses, for the honour and pleasure of the kings and nobles who claimed them as ancestors, only incidentally touching on religious and national traditions. This is the stage we see in the Homeric poems, which it must never be forgotten belong essentially to the species of ballad poetry."^ "Writers addressing themselves to a more general feeling of curiosity, and with a more didactic pur- pose, like Hesiod, attempted a consecutive account of the origin of gods and men. Lastly, the love of order and completeness tempted poets of a far inferior order to fill up the gaps and string the whole together into that series of legends, extending from the beginning of the heaven and earth to the end of the mythic period, which is called the Epic Cycle. The last class of compo- sitions have deservedly perished, all except a few fragments ; f but much of their substance is to be found in the prose mythol- ogies. Their one great use was to supply the Attic tragedians with the materials for those unrivalled dramas which rekindled the spirit of Greek mythology, much as the old chroniclers and early dramatists provided Shakspeare with. the fragments which he built up into such works as Lear and Macbeth. The series of legends begins with the Theogony, or origin of the gods. The main elements of the Greek religious system have already been mentioned. The whole Hellenic race recognised the twelve great gods, of whom the chief was Jove, " the father of gods and men." Li the earliest times he was worshipped and his oracle consulted at Dodona in Epirus, which seems to have been the sanctuary of the Pelasgians. The Hellenes enthroned him on Mount Olympus, and their leading race, the ^olians, established near Elis that sanctuary of the Olympian Jove which became the centre of unity for the whole nation. Other seats of his worship are found in Crete, at Mount Ida ; and among the Thracian tribes of Mysia, where there was also an Ida overlooking Troy, and where the great range which skirts the northern shores of Asia Minor was called Olympus. The Cretan form of religion influenced that of Greece at a very early period. The other deities were specially honoured by particular races : Apollo by the Dorians ; Poseidon, Hera, and Athena, by the lonians. In his prophetic capacity, * Homer'8 Hexameter is essentially a ballad metre. Each line forms a ballad couplet, as would be at once seen if the sharp bold ring of the verse were not stifled in our common reading, and that by a double process — an Anglicized perversion of Virgil's cold and solemn imitation. f Attempts were made long after to replace them by the Alexandrian imitator under the Ptolemies. 314 THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XL Apollo was sought not only by all the Greeks, but by foreign nationa too, as we have seen in the example of the Lydian kings. His fabled birthplace was at Delos, the central island of the JEgsean and the navel of the world ; but his great oracle was at Pytho, at the foot of Mount Parnassus, better known by the later name of Delphi, which it derived from the people who held it. Much discussion might have been spared concerning the presence of a supernatural power in the Greek oracles, if writers had investigated the alleged facts, instead of assuming their truth. There is no proof of anything more than an ingenious system of priestcraft, founded on the trust of the people in their god, making use of the frenzied utterances of female excitation, and carefully keeping on the safe side by the studied ambiguity of the verses into which they threw the responses. In Apollo's character as the sun-god, in that of his sister Artemis as the moon, and still more in the worship of Aphrodite (Venus), we see points of possible connection with the reliffion of the East. But there were other and later elements undoubtedly imported from that quarter, which added to the ideal impersonations of the pure Greek religion secret rites and enthu- siastic orgies. Such were the Eleusinian and Dionysiac mysteries, of which the Orphic were a modification. What peculiar doctrines were taught to the initiated in the secret celebration of these mysteries, is too wide and doubtful a question for our present purpose ; but the open celebration of the Dionysiac worship had the most powerful influence on the Greek mind. In his joyous and enthusiastic festivals, the god, not only of mirth and wine, but of the productive powers of nature, was celebrated in lolly hymns, which gave birth to Tragedy ; while the unrestrained jovi- ality of his worshippers, at the vintage in the villages, supplied the germ of Comedy. As in every system of ancient mythology, the first benefactors and rulers of men were the offspring of the gods. Their exploits and suflerings occupy the Heroic Age of Greece. First come those who performed great works for the benefit of their country : the Ar- give Hercules, the national hero of Greece, who, while submitting ,to serve a jealous tyrant, subdued physical and moral evil, brought the choicest gifts from the furthest quarters of the world, and, having expiated by suffering the weakness which marred his strength,* was received among the gods above : Theseus, the national hero of Attica, who cleared the roads of savage robbers, • Here the moral significance of the legend reminds us irresistibly of Samson. THE CHIEF HEROIC LEGENDS. 315 redeemed his country by self-devotion from foreign bondage, and organized her into a powerful state : Minos, the Cretan legislator, who founded a maritime empire, and cleared the sea of pirates. It is vain, at least with our present knowledge, to attempt to discover the historical traditions which seem to be bound up in the legends of the two latter. In the age of these heroes tradition placed the first united enter- prize of the Greeks, the Argonautic expedition to the distant land of Ma. (believed by the later Greeks to be Colchis, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea) in search of the golden fleece, the price of Jason's restoration to his throne in Thessaly.* Both Hercules and Theseus took part in the voyage, which gave rise to several collateral legends, and among them to the grand story of Medea. It is interesting to observe that Jason, the leader of the Argo- nautic expedition, is an ^olid of Thessaly ; but a generation or two later the supremacy of the Greeks is with the Achaean house of Atreus in the Peloponnesus. In the same and the following generation is placed the legend of the royal house of Tliebes, one of the finest in itself, and the inspiring source of the very noblest works of Greek dramatic art, the " King Q^ldipus " and " (Edipus at Colonus " of Sophocles, and the " Seven against Thebes " of -^schylus. We will take it as a specimen of the spirit which pervades these heroic legends. Laius, king of Thebes, having been warned by an oracle that he should be killed by his son, caused him to be exposed on Mount Cithaeron as soon as he was bom. The infant was saved by a herdsman of Polybus, king of Corinth, and brought up as the king's son. When he was grown up, the taunts of his comrades respecting his birth drove him to consult the Delphic oracle. Horrorstiiick at hearing that he should kill his father and marry his mother, he resolved never to return to Corinth, and chose Thebes for his new abode. On the road he met Laius in a narrow pass, and, provoked by the insolence of the king's attendants, he slew both them and him with his ox-goad, unknowing that he thus fulfilled the first part of the oracle. Arriving at Thebes, he * The chronographers place the Argonautic expedition about b.c. 1225. How little these legends will bear historic criticism, is seen by comparing the story, that the Argo was the first ship that ever attempted the sea, with the contemporary establishment of a great naval power by Minos. We have already seen the Egyptians engaged in sea-fights with the Khairetana (Cretans), at what, if the comparative chronology could be trusted, would be just the same time (chap. vii. p. 123). It may be well to observe that the mythical genealogies give no basis whatever for chronological computation. 316 THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. found the city in the extremity of despair. A monster, called the Sphinx, had propounded a riddle to the Thebans, and devoured a man each day till it should be answered.* Creon, the brother of the queen Jocasta, ruling in place of the murdered king, had promised the crown and the queen's hand to the deliverer of the city. (Edipus won the prize, and thus completed the crime fore- told by the oracle. His two sons and daughters by Jocasta were grown up, when a pestilence devastated the city, and an oracle demanded the banishment of the murderer of Laius. The eager inquiries of OEdipus, in spite of the warnings of the blind seer Teiresias, unveil the truth : Jocasta hangs herself in her nuj^tial chamber : (Edipus puts out his eyes, that he may never again see the light polluted by his crimes ; his two sons drive him into exile, and he imprecates a curse on them as he departs. Guided by his dutiful daughter Antigone, he finds a resting-place at the village of Colonus, near Athens, in a grove sacred to the Eume- nides, the goddesses who avenged such crimes as his. Here he received the rites of expiation at the hands of Theseus ; and, sum- moned thrice by a voice from the recesses of the grove, he departed by a calm and painless death in extreme old age — the " eutha- nasia" which the Greeks regard as the happiest end of life. The like end was granted to the poet Sophocles, himself a native of Colonus, who celebrated the fate of (Edipus in his two immortal tragedies. In this story we see the tragic spirit of the Greek heroic legends. A man's arrogance brings down the " Ate " — a compound of in- fatuation, guilt, and punishment, which haunts his house from generation to generation. Crime is heaped on crime, horror on horror, woe on woe, without entirely quenching the noble spirit which the heroes derived from their divine progenitors. At length the curse is fulfilled, the expiation is accomplished, and the tragedy of fear and pity ends with what Aristotle describes as the chief purpose of the poet — " \h.e purification of such passions." But the curse removed from (Edipus remained upon his sons. Their agreement to share the royal authority ends in the usur- pation of Eteocles, who expels his brother PoljTiices. The return of the latter, supported by Adrastus, king of Argos, and five other chieftains, fonns the expedition of the " Seven against Thebes." Their attack on the city is made in a spirit of impious arrogance * How far this is a point of contact with Egypt, is a riddle much harder than that of the Sphinx herself. The Theban sphinx was female ; the Egyptian sphinx is always male. THE TROJAN WAR. 317 which is punished by their defeat and death. Eteocles and Polynices fall by each other's hands ; and Adrastus (the Inevi- table)* alone escapes, to show that the curse is not yet accom- plished. The courageous disobedience of Antigone to the edict of Creon forbidding the burial of Polynices involves her and her lover Haemon, the son of Creon, in the general destruction. At length, in the following generation, the " Epigoni " {Descendants) repeat tlie expedition of their fathers against Thebes ; and tlie doomed city is taken, and razed to the ground. These Epigoni appear again, with the chieftains of every other part of Greece, as far west as the island of Ithaca,f in the War of Troy, the crowning legend of the heroic age. The well-known story, and the ten years' wanderings of the hero of many devices, who saw the cities and learnt the ways of many men, and suffered much by land and sea, need not be repeated. The questions, historical, topographical, and literary, arising out of it, are too wide to be discussed here. We believe that there was a Troy, and that there was a Homer ; but how much of the legend applies to the former, and how much of the Homeric poems belongs to the latter, are questions to be studied afresh by every scholar, and not to be expounded to any but real students of classical antiquity. It is enough to say, as to the event, that some great collision must have taken place between the Greeks and the kindred race who had founded a great kingdom on the opposite coast, which com- bined the Greek nation in a common effort, and involved a reac- tion that unsettled most of the Achaean and ^^olian states.:}: And as to the poet — the reader need not fear a repetition of the long controversy, from the first assault of Wolf, to Mr. Grote's most ingenious discovery of the germ of the Iliad in an original " Achilleid." Rather let us be content to know that such legends as those at which we have now glanced were sung at the courts of the Achaean and ^olian princes, whose subjects, assembled in the colonnade before the palace, might hear them too, by bards, of whom the Homeric poems themselves give us a picture in Demod- ocus at the Court of Alcinous. We cannot doubt that such a bard, whose perfect art (combined with some internal proofs) * Comp. chap. x. p. 258. f The smallest of the seven " Ionian Islands." % We cannot stay to relate the long story of the house of Pelops, its ancient crimes, ihe murders of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the expiation of Orestes — a legend as striking in itself, and as grandly treated by the tragedians, as the story of Thebes. ai8. THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. confirms the story of liis origin from Asiatic Greece, the earliest Hellenic seat of letters, wandered, like the minstrels of every age and country that has had bold exploits to tell of and men worthy to hear them, from court to court of the descendants of the heroes who fought at Troy, receiving special honour at those which he has repaid with special fame, Ithaca, Sparta, Pylos. Whether but one such, or whether more, composed the poems we possess, matters but little, so long as we pay to the name of Homer the tribute due to that which, with one sacred exception, is the choicest, as well as the earliest fruit of the human intellect- handed down to us, however imperfectly, first by the memory of reciters, and then by the enduring medium of letters, llius does the mythical age of Greece bring us down at last to an liistoric fact the most real, the most abiding, the most fruitful, in the secular history of the world — the existence of such works as the Iliad and Odyssey, for our use in training our minds to the rich- est graces of imagination. Those other facts which a4*e clearly deducible from these poems concerning the political and social state of the Greeks of the heroic age, we reserve for the next chapter, as they belong to history.* * The traditional dates for the fall of Troy are various. The two most commonly accepted are b.c. 1184 and B.C. 1127; but they depend on backward computationa resting on uncertain data. TRANSITION FROM LEGEND TO HISTORY. 319 CHAPTER XII. THE HELLENIC STATES AND COLONIES, FROM THE EARLIEST HISTORIC RECORDS TO B.C. 500. Clime of the unforgotten brave ! Whose land, from plain to mountain cave, Was Freedom's home, or Glory's grave ! Shrine of the mighty ! — Btron. tONDITION OF GREECE IS THE HEROIC AGE — POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGES AFTER THE TROJAN WAR — DORIAK INVASION OF PELOPONNESCS — ACH^ANS AND lONIANS DISPLACED — COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR, IONIAN, ^OLIAN, AND DORIAN — CRETE — EXTENSION OF THE DORIAN AND IONIAN RACES— HISTORICAL EPOCH OF THE FIRST OLYMPIAD, B.C. 776 — THE GREEK NATION AS A WHOLE — THE AMPHICTTONIES AND AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL — THE GREAT FESTIVALS — OLYMPIC GAMES— ABSENCE OF POLITICAL UNITY — THE SEPARATE STATES OF GREECE — ARGOS, UNDER PHEIDON — SPARTA AND THE INSTITUTIONS OF LYCURGUS— CONQUEST OF LACOMA AND MESSENIA — LACEDEMONIAN SUPREMACY IN PELOPONNESUS — THE TYRANTS IN GREECE AND THE COLONIES — EARLY HISTORY OF ATTICA — THESEUS — CODRUS — ABOLITION OP ROYALTY — GOVERNMENT BY ARCHONS — THE SENATE OF AREOPAGUS — LEGISLATION OP DrAcO— CYLON AND THE ALCMEONIDS — LEGISLATION OF SOLON— USURPATION OF PISISTRATUS — EXPULSION OF THE FAMILY — REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES — WARS WITH SPARTA, THEBES, AND CHALCIS — THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY FIRLMY ESTABLISHED OTHER STATES OF GREECE — COLONIES — IN THE COUNTRIES NORTH OP GREECE— IN ASIA — IN SICILY AND ITALY — IN GAUL AND SPAIN — IN AFRICA— SURVEY OF HELLAS AT THK EPOCH OF THE PERSIAN WARS — PROGRESS OF LITERA- TURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART. At the close of the mythical age, Mr. Grote recognises a period of intermediate darkness before the dawn of historical Greece : but even before we reach the border land between legend and true history, we find some things in the former that belong to the province of the latter. The external events, though related as facts, are for us mere legends ; but they enclose a kernel of real facts relating to the political and social state of the heroic age. The free states of Greece form a spectacle altogether different from the great monarchies of the East. Partly from essential differences of character, but chiefly, it would seem, from the physical causes which divided them into small territories, each lying compactly about its own city, the Greeks resisted the com- pressing force of empire. Hence, while in Asia the usurping power of some great conqueror crushed the primitive patriarchal constitution of society, in Greece that constitution passed, by a not unnatural transition, into the royalty of the heads of certain families, who are but the first among the whole body of nobles and chieftains. These, as well as the supreme ruler of the state, are called by Homer kings ; and, like him, they trace their lineage to the gods, and are literally " Kings born of Jove, who them this honour gave." 320 THE HELLENIC STATES AND COLONIES. [Chap. XH. They form the council of the king, but witli no power to con- trol his acts, except by their advice. In this council, however, we see the germ of an oligarchic constitution, for the king could only retain his ascendancy by qualities of body and mind answer- ing to his divine lineage. Nor was the popular element alto- gether absent. The king not only administered justice in public, with or without his nobles for assessors, but he presided among them in full council in the market-place or public square,* wdiere measures were debated before the whole body of the citizens. But tliese had neither voice nor vote. In such an assembly, in the camp before Troy, Ulysses puts down every attempt at pop- ular oratory with the words so often repeated since : — "Bad is the rule of many ; let there be One lord, one king, to whom Jove gave the sway ; " and when Thersites persists in speaking, he sends him out writh- ing beneath the blows of his sceptre. But the very delineation of such a scene, and the emphasis with which Homer lays down his monarchical doctrine, are proofs that something of the spirit which produced the democracies of later times was already at work among the free citizens. They were for the most part an independent body of proprietors, cultivating their own land ; but there was an exceptional class, who were reduced by the loss of their property to work for hire on the farms of others.f The existence of slavery prevented the poorest class of freemen from sinking lower still. Slaves were, however, found only in the palaces of the kings and nobles ; — " captives taken by the spear," themselves often of royal or noble birth, wives and childi'en of slain heroes. Their hapless lot, so pathetically described by Homer, consisted in their reverse of fortune, rather than in those peculiar hardships which were the curse of slavery in the East, and which have been so cruelly inflicted, in all ages, upon races supposed to be inferior to their masters. It is needful to bear in mind the difference between the Grecian states and those of modem times. While the latter generally embrace extensive countries, the former were usually composed of single cities, each with the land surrounding it to a very moderate distance. Thus in the small districts afterwards called Argolis, we find Diomed king of Argos, while Agamemnon rules at MycenoB.:|: * The Greek word Agora, which denotes a place of assembly, describes the open place in the midst of the city, which was used for all public purposes, f This lowest class of freemen were called Tlietes. X Hence the twofold sense of the Greek word polia (city), from which we borrow SOCIAL STATE OF THE HEROIC AGE. 321 Hence the possibility of assembling all the citizens in the agora "witli the king and nobles, and of working the republics of later times without the device of representation. This limited extent of the state too, combined with the open-air life of the Greeks in their delicious climate, had the greatest influence on their social life. Meeting daily in the agora, the citizens .were personally known to one another, and their thoughts and views were ex- changed as freely as the current coin of the market. Their life at home preserved a high degree of the patriarchal order and sim- plicity. The father's authority was the real and supreme law ; his blessing was sought like that of Jacob by his children ; and the curse of (Edipus was the direst of the woes that befell his sons. The wife held her due place of honour, though she was pur- chased from her parents with costly gifts, as was the custom also among the Hebrews. The seclusion of the women in their separate apartments* was a later usage, borrowed from the Asiatic Greeks. They were equally in their own sphere, when directing their maidens in private at the spinning-wheel and loom, or coming forth to exercise that hospitality which was a chief grace of the heroic age. The stranger guest was freely welcomed, and if he came as a suppliant, it was a sacred duty to receive him. ISTot till he was refreshed with the bath and banquet, was any inquiry made about his name or object. Ample room was found for lodging guests under the colonnade surrounding the front court of the palace, which was the most agreeable sleeping-place in a Grecian night, though it bore from its use during the day the epithet of " very noisy." The banquet was plentiful, but simple, free from all intemperance, and enlivened by the strains of the bard, reciting the loves of the gods, or the martial deeds of heroes. It is only by reading Homer that we can form to ourselves a picture of the simple life led even by the kings, or, on the other hand, of the ferocity in war, the frequent homicides, and the unrestrained plun- dering by land and sea, which allowed no security but to the strong. Great progress had been made in the arts and appliances of Kfe. The heroic age was one of " well-built cities," palaces, and temples. Of its massive architecture some idea may be obtained from the ruins of Tiryns and Mycense.f The " Lion Gate " of the our leading political terms. It is only iu a figurative sense that we speak of a citizen of America, but the Greek was literally a citizen of his state. * The Gynceceum, or tcome7i's house. \ The so-called " Treasury of Atreus" 5s now conjectured to be the tomb of Aga- memnon. VOL. I. — 21 , 323 THE HELLENIC STATES AND COLONTES. [Chap, XH. latter shows one of the earliest specimens of Greek sculpture : and in the former there is a long gallery, exhibiting the first approach to the arch, its form being cut in the face of the huge «tones wliich overliang and meet one another at the summit.* At the site of Orchomenus, in Boeotia, may be seen the immense tunnels _ constructed to carry off the superfluous waters of the lake Copais. A passing allusion may suffice for the war-chariots and ships, the arms of bronze and sometimes of iron (though the latter metal was still rare), wrought with that knowledge of art which is dis- played in Homer's description of the shield of Achilles. That commerce was not unknown to the Greeks, is shown by the abundance of gold and silver which adorned the palaces of the kings ; while the mention of Sidonian garments and of tin proves that their chief traffic was with Phoenicia. This commerce was, indeed, conducted by the Phoenicians, not by the Greeks, who were as yet ignorant of the use of coined money. It was from the stories of their voyages — the dangers of whicli we have reason to believe they purposely exaggerated, to deter rival adventurers — that Homer obtained the fables of tlie Cyclops, the Sirens, and the Lotus-eaters, of Circe, of Scylla and Charybdis, and of the far-distant island of Calypso, the plains of Elysium and the abodes of the dead, by the stream of the earth-encircling river Ocean. The legends respecting the return of the heroes from the Trojan War — the murder of some by usurpers — the long wanderings of others — and the exile of not a few, to found new cities in Italy,f Crete, and other shores of the Mediterranean — point to a period of general disturbance and movement among the old Acha?an and -<^olian states. A complete alteration was made in the distribu- tion of the four Greek races over the peninsula ; and great changes were effected in the constitution of the several states. Meanwhile the islands of the ^gsean Sea were occupied, and colonies were sent out far and wide over the shores of the Mediterranean. In the west of Asia Minor especially, the Greek colonies settled in such force as to occupy the whole coast of Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, which received new names from the races that formed the * This is called the false arch. The true arch was not yet known to the Greeks, who, indeed, never used it in their architecture ; but it is found in the earliest Roman remains, as in the Cloaca Maxima; and it was perfectly familiar to the Assyrians. Splendid examples are found at Ximrud (Layard's A^ineveh and Babylon, pp. 162-165). •j- We say nothing of the migrations of the Trojans under Evander and ^neas, as they are purely Italian legends. DORIAN INVASION OF PELOPONNESUS. 323 settlements, — ^olis on the north, Ionia in tlie centre, and Doris in the south. These results are well ascertained from the state in which we find Greece and her colonies at the beginning of the historic period. But of tlie process itself, we have only doubtful tradi- tions, in which the mythical element still predominates. The first great fact to be accounted for is the Dorian conqnest of the greater part of Peloponnesns. That peninsula was then held, in the manner already described, by the Achaeans in the east and south, the ^olians in the west, the lonians on the north coast, and the Arcadian Pelasgians in the centre.* The two latter races are as yet of no political im2)ortance. The ^^olians had the powerful kingdom of Pylos ; while those of Argos, Sparta, and Corinth held the precedence over the other Achfiean kingdoms. In the legend of Hercules, the hero is de- prived of his inheritance of the Argive kingdom by Eurystheus. The Heracleidfe, his descendants, made several efforts to recover their birthright, till their leader, Hyllus, the son of Hercules, fell in single combat with the chieftain of Tegea.f They then bound themselves not to renew the attempt for a hundred years. At the end of that period, the great grand-sons of Hyllus, Temenus, Cres- phontes, and Aristodemus, obtained the aid of the Dorians, who were bound by an old obligation for services rendered by Hercules. They crossed the narrow mouth of the Corinthian Gulf from the port of Kaupactus,:j: guided by Oxylus, king of the J^tolians. One decisive victory over Tisamenus, the grandson of Agamemnon, made them masters of the Achaean kingdoms of Peloponnesus. Their conquests were divided into three lots ; the kingdoms of Argos and Sparta, and the territory of Messenia, which seems to have been a dependency of the ^olian kingdom of Pylos. Argos fell by lot to Temenus, Messenia to Cresphontes, and Spai-ta to the twin sons of Aristodemus, who had himself been killed by lightning at Naupactas. It was not till the following generation that Corinth was conquered by the Dorians under an Heraclid prince, who had not taken ])art in the first invasion. The con- querors gradually subdued most of the surrounding states, and so laid a foundation for the later territorial division of Peloponnesus, which our ordinary maps exhibit ; but it would be a gross error * The Pelasgians seem also to have possessed a considerable portion of the eastern coast. f From what follows, it is clear that this event was conceived of as anterior to the Trojan War. I So called from their building their ships there. 324 THE HELLEXIC STATES AND COLONIES. [Chap. XII to conceive of their kingdoms as corresponding to Argolis, Laeonia, and Messenia. The JKolian kingdom of Pjlos was absorbed in the Dorian state of Mcssenia ; but the northern part of the west- em coast remained ^Eolian. This district was given to tlie vEolian Oxylns, as the reward of liis services ; and his followers, wlio ex- pelled or absorbed the old Epeans, became known by the name of Eleans. This conquest, which is known in history as the Rpturn of the Ileraclids, or the Dorian Migration, is placed by Thucydides eighty years after the Trojan "War.* Tlie epocli prob- ably depends entirely on the calculation of generations, and it cannot be regarded as of any authority. Tlie legendary talc is the dress which national pride gave to a real conquest effected by the Dorian race, probably in the course of several generations ; and the part taken in it by the Heraclids is a device to connect the new possessors with the ancient glories of the Achoean kings and heroes. The legend represents the Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus as the cause of the other great changes in the Hellenic world. The Ach[ieans, expelled from the south and east of Peloponnesus, fell back upon the northern coast, driving out the lonians, and formed a confederacy of twelve cities, which only emerged into i)olitical importance in a later age.f The dispossessed lonians found refuge with their brethren of the same race in Attica, a country which also gave asylum to other peoples driven out from their homes by the Dorian conquests in northern Greece. The rugged peninsula of Attica was unequal to support its increased numbers, and a great migration was organized under the sons of Codrus, the last king of Athens.:}: The emigrants planted colonies upon most of the Cyclades, and filially settled on the shores of Lydia, fi'om iiie Hermus to tlie Mseander. In this fertile region, upon a coast abounding with fine harbours, they established a confederacy of twelve cities, witli a common centre of union at the Panionium, or Temple of Poseidon, on Mount Mycale. Their settlements * B.C. 1104, according to the common reckoning. j- It is obvious that the small territory on the coast could scarcely receive all the expelled Achoeans ; and, accordingly, the legends carried some of them to the coast of Asia Minor. From the correspondence between the twelve Ionian cities on this coast and the twelve Achaean cities that succeeded them, as well as from other indieatrons, it is still a question whether we may not regard the Achseans as representing the old inhabitants of the country, before the distinction into the Acha;au and Ionian races had been established. X The change by which the monarchy expired with Codrus will be related presently. GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA. 325 included the large islands of Chios and Samos. The complete establishment of these colonies is placed by the chronologers sixty- years after the Dorian migration, and liO after the Trojan War ;* but we have no means of calculating the period it really occupied. The lonians had been preceded by another body of coloidsts, who had settled further to the north, along the coast of Mysia. These are called ^olians ; but the tradition represents them as, to a great extent, Achreans, driven out of Peloponnesus by the Dorian invasion, under princes of the house of Agamemnon. They betook themselves first to Boeotia, where a great revolution had taken place twenty years earlier ; the Boeotians, who were a Thessalian people, of the -^Eolian race, having expelled tlie older ^olian. inhabitants, and given their own name to the country. Many both of the old and new inhabitants joined in the expedi- tion, which sailed from Aulis in Euboea, first to the island of Lesbos, where they founded six cities, and then to the opposite mainland. In the district from the foot of Ida to the mouth of the Hermus, the ^olians formed a " dodecapolis," like that of the lonians ; but always vastly inferior in political power, and ultimately subordinate to the latter. f The ^olians of Lesbos, however, achieved the supreme distinction of founding the school of lyric poetry, which boasts the names of Sappho and Alcceus. In harmony with the preceding legends, the Dorian colonies in the south-western corner of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands are said to have been founded by Dorian chieftains, who, in the general unsettlement naturally connected with the conquest of Peloponnesus, either obtained no sufficient share of the spoil, or were led onward by the spirit of adventure. Althsemenes, a prince of Argos, led a body of colonists comiDosed both of Dorians and of the conquered Achasans, first to Crete, and then to the island of Rhodes, where they built Lindus, lalysus, and Camirus. These three cities, with that of Cos, on the island of the same name, and Cnidus and Ilalicarnassus on the mainland, formed the Dorian Hexapolis of Caria. These Dorian colonies were of little import- ance in comparison with the Ionian and ^olian ; and we have already seen that Ilalicarnassus and Cnidus became in a great degree Carian. Crete is said to have been colonized from Sparta, as well as from Argos, by a mixture of Dorian and Achaean set- tlers ; and to this is attributed the likeness of the Cretan institu- * B.C. 1044 of the common computation. f Smyrna, the greatest of the twelve ^Eoliau cities, was early transferred from tha ifiolian to the Ionian Confederacy, leaving only eleven cities to the former. 326 THE HELLENIC STATES AND COLONIES. [Chap. XII. tions to those established at Sparta by Lycurgiis. Of tlie other colonies planted on the shores of the Mediterranean, it will be more satisfactory to speak when we come to take a survey of the Hellenic world in the historic times. These legends, however imaginary in their details, exhibit an actual result which may be described as follows. At the beginning of tlie mytliical age, the two dominant races of the Hellenic world were the Achseans and ^olians, the Dorians being but a small tribe in Northern Greece, and the lonians being politically eclipsed, or nearly so, by the Achseans. At its close these relations are reversed. The Dorians, repeating the part of their Hellenic ances- tors, conquered the greater part both of Korthern Greece and the Peloponnesus. The -^olians, who remained in both divisions of the country, were either so hemmed in or so far distant (as in Thessaly) from the chief centres of activity, as to have little weight in the politics of Greece. The Achseans, excepting the twelve cities along the coast of the Corinthian Gulf, had been so completely absorbed into other races, as almost to lose their very name. The lonians had extended their name in a manner which augured their future greatness. Laying hold of the continent by the laud of Attica, which projects into the sea, their maritime possessions extended in a sort of belt encircling the ^gsean, across to their Asiatic colonies ; and how completely these gradually came to take the lead also of the Asiatic ^olians we have seen in relating the conquest by the Persians.* The energetic and mobile temperament of the lonians disposed them to use these advantages, by pursuing commerce and maritime adventure, and learning the arts and refinements of life from the more cultivated Asiatics. Here were the materials of that great maritime empire, which was afterwards founded under the supremacy of Athens. Thus, even at this early age, the state of the Hellenic world seemed to portend the time when it would bedividecl and convulsed by a great contest for supremacy between the Dorian and Ionian races. How this inevitable struggle was brought on by the peculiar institutions and tempers of the two peoples, will soon become apparent ; and we shall see how the catastrophe was postponed by the glorious and successful union of nearly all Greece in defence of the common liberty against the ambition of Persia. Meanwhile we have to pass from the darkness of the mythical, and the twilight of the traditional age, to the full light of that real history which is recorded by credible witnesses. * * See chap, x., pp. 273 — 4. B.C. 776.] EPOCH OF TRUSTWORTHY HISTORY. 327 For reasons wliicli we cannot stay to discuss, the beginning of the historical age of Greece is now placed at the First Olymjpiad^ or the niidsummer of b.c. 776. Tliis epoch is the beginning of that consecutive chronology, which the Greeks reckoned by the series of victors in the foot-race at the quadrennial festival of Olympian Jove near Elis.* The very fact of this record being regularly kept would suggest, as in the case of other annals, a further record of the most memorable events of each successive year; and the knowledge that exact chronological computation was now established among the Greeks gives us a new ground of con- fidence in their statements of historic facts. Of course it is not meant that all alleged events preceding the precise date of e.g. 776 are to be discredited as being mythical, or that the mythical element disappears suddenly from history at this date ; but simply that this is the epoch at which we begin to have a new security for historical accuracy. And it may be well, in passing, to remind the reader how entirely the point of division between tlie mythical and historical periods differs in different countries. Our own coun- try has a mythical period between the departure of the Romans in A.D. 446 and the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ; and, so far as this one consideration goes, a sceptical historian has no more right to discredit all primeval history before the first Olympiad, than an Englishman would have to reject all ancient history before the time when that of his country becomes trust- worthy. It remains for us to collect into one condensed view what is known of the Grecian states and colonies down to the period of that collision with Persia, which was begun by the revolt of the Ionian colonies from Darius in b.c. 500. And first, to speak of the nation as a whole, it must not be supposed, from the stress we have laid on the independence of the several states, that they were so many disconnected units scat- tered over the surface of Greece. It is true that they had not * In the language of the Greeks themselves, the Olympic games were said to recur every ^/