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CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.

ISRAEL, continued to reside in Egypt, where they in-
creased both in number and in wealth. Their rapid
increase and prosperity soon excited the jealousy of
the masters of the country; and from being in high
favour, the different tribes gradually fell under the
lash of power, and came to be treated as public slaves.
The entire body of Israelites, guided by Moses, fled
from Egypt in the year 1490 before Christ, at a time
when Thebes, Memphis, and the other magnificent
cities of that country, were in all their glory. Pro-
ceeding in a north-easterly direction from Rameses
(near the site of modern Cairo), they went through the
level region of the land of Goshen (now a barren sandy
plain) to the head of the Gulf of Suez, the western
branch of the Red Sea. Here they crossed in a mira-
culous manner to the opposite shore, to a spot now
called the Wells of Moses, where, according to the
Scripture narrative, they sang their song of thanks-
The country in which
giving for their deliverance.
they had now arrived was a portion of Arabia Petræa,
consisting of a dismal barren wilderness, now called
the Desert of Sinai, from the principal mountain which
rises within it. From the point at which the Israelites
had crossed the Red Sea from Egypt, they were con-
ducted by a most circuitous and tedious route towards
the Promised Land of Canaan. Their tiresome journey
extended over a period of forty years, and was not
completed till all the Hebrews who were above twenty
years of age when they left the land of Egypt (except-
ing Caleb and Joshua) had died, and a new genera-
tion, possessing greater courage and confidence in the
Almighty, had succeeded them. In the trackless wilder-
ness through which they were led, their multitudes, as
we learn from Scripture, could neither have traced
their way nor procured subsistence without a con-
tinued miracle. The hand of God brought for them
streams of water out of the flinty rock; rained manna
or bread from heaven; and gave a pillar of cloud to
direct their journeys through the day, and a pillar of
fire by night. He delivered the tables of a moral law,
comprehending the ten commandments, to Moses their
leader; and promulgated a set of regulations for the
ceremonies of worship, the establishment of a separate
order devoted to religion and learning, and for the
The Hebrews had
civil government of the nation.
thus a regular polity and written laws when most other
nations knew only the law of the sword, or of savage
animal superiority.

The country on the shore of the Mediterranean
which was allotted as a settlement to this people, was
at that time occupied by many warlike tribes, who had
grown strong in its fertile plains and valleys; and the
generation of the Hebrews who were conducted into it
were compelled to fight for its possession. The struggle
was not of long continuance. The whole land was con-
quered in the year B.C. 1450.

According to the account given in the 26th chapter
of the book of Numbers, the Hebrew nation thus brought
out of the land of Egypt and settled in Canaan amounted
to 601,730 souls, unto whom the land was divided for
an inheritance, according to the number of individuals
in the respective tribes. The tribes, and their fighting
men above twenty years of age, were reckoned as fol-
low:-Tribe of Reuben (the eldest son of Jacob) 43,730;
Simeon 22,200; Gad 40,500; Judah 76,500; Issachar
64,300; Zebulun 60,500; Manasseh 52,700; Ephraim
32,500 (the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim were both
from Joseph); Benjamin 45,600; Dan 64,400; Asher
53,400; and Naphtali 45,400. Among these twelve
tribes the land was divided. The tribe of Levi (to
which belonged Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar the high
priest), amounting to 23,000 males from a month old
and upwards, received no share of the land: being set
apart for the priesthood, the tenth or tithe of the general
produce was assigned them as their perpetual inherit-
ance. By making a special agreement with the other
tribes that they should assist them against the common
enemy, the two tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half
tribe of Manasseh, were permitted to appropriate land

for their inheritance in Gilead and Bashan, on the
Arabian side of the Jordan.

Moses dying before the inheritance was entered upon,
was succeeded by Joshua as a leader, and by him the
tical government of the various tribes, after their con-
Israelites were conducted across the Jordan. The poli-
quest and settlement of Canaan, appears to have been
republican, with military leaders called Judges; but
these acted by the direction of the priesthood, who
were immediately counselled by the Deity within the
sanctuary. This period of separate government in
The
tribes, called the Period of the Judges, lasted 300
years (B. c. 1427-1112), and was one of daring actions
The epoch of kings succeeded that of judges.
and great deliverances-the heroic age of the Jews.
reign of Saul, their first monarch, though the people
were stronger by being united, was gloomy and troubled.
David, who succeeded, was a soldier and a conqueror.
He rendered the Hebrews formidable to the whole of
their enemies, and gave them a regular and defensible
position, expelling their old antagonists from every part
of the country. He left an empire peaceful, respected,
and strong; and, what was of as much importance, he
selected from among his sons a successor who was
able to improve all these advantages, and to add to the
progress which his countrymen had already made in
prosperity. Under Solomon, the name of the Hebrew
Their trade was at first en-
government being able to protect its subjects in other
countries, the people and their king began to employ
themselves in commerce.
grafted on that of the Phoenicians of Tyre. A greater
contrast cannot be imagined than between the troubles
of the time of the Judges (only 100 years before),
And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as
and the peace, security, and enjoyment of this reign.
stones, and cedars made he to be as sycamore trees
that are in the vale for abundance; and Judah and
Israel were many; as the sand which is by the sea-
shore for multitude, eating, and drinking, and making
merry.' (1 Kings, x. 27.)

After the death of Solomon, the country fell into the same divisions which had weakened it in the time of the Judges. Each of the districts of North and South Israel was under a separate king, and the people were exposed both to the attacks of their enemies and to quarrels with each other. Their history is a succession pected and remarkable deliverances, of a similar nature of agitating conflicts for independence, and of unexto those of the earlier period, and they continued for about the same length of time (380 years); but they are marked by fewer of those traits of heroic devotion which distinguished the epoch of the Judges. The backslidings, errors, and misgovernment of their kings, is the chief and painful subject which is presented to pearance of such monarchs as Josiah, Jehoshaphat, and us; and though these are relieved at times by the apHezekiah, yet the whole history of this period is overcast with the gloominess of progressive decline. By far the most delightful parts of it are those which relate to the lives of the prophets, who were raised up at intervals to warn the nation and its rulers of the fate which they incurred by forsaking the religion of their fathers. These inspired men sometimes sprang up from among the humblest classes of the community: one from the herdsmen of Tekoa,' another from ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen;' several were of the priestly order, and one (Isaiah) is said to have been of royal lineage; but the works of all are marked with the same sacredness, force, and authority. They reprehend their countrymen, in the most eloquent strains, at one time for idolatry, and at another for hypocrisy; and their indignation is expressed with the same freedom and digOf the two kingdoms into which Palestine had dinity against the vices of the highest and the lowest. vided itself after the death of Solomon (B. c. 975), the northern, called the Kingdom of Israel, was conquered by the Assyrians of Nineveh (B. C. 722), who carried off many thousands of the people into captivity. Little is known of their fate. By some they are supposed to

have been carried to India, by others to Tartary: what | far and wide, from Egypt to the border of India. This became of all the Israelites of the ten tribes,' is still a question with historians. The southern kingdom, called the Kingdom of Judah, retained its independence till B. C. 588, when it was invaded and subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who destroyed Jerusalem, and carried away a great number of the principal Jews into captivity at Babylon. On the subversion of the Babylonian dominion by Cyrus, seventy years afterwards, the captives, to the number of 42,360, were permitted to return to their own land, and rebuild Jerusalem. At this period, the whole of Palestine merged in the growing Persian empire.

The Assyrians and Babylonians.

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empire, known in the common chronologies by the name of The Assyrian Empire,' lasted, according to the usual accounts, five or six centuries, during which it was governed, in the absolute Oriental manner, by the successors of Ninus and Semiramis. Of these several are mentioned in Scripture-Phul, the contemporary of Menahem, king of Israel (B.c. 761), and Tiglath Pileser (B. c. 730), both of whom were mixed up with the affairs of Israel and Judah; Salmanassar, contemporary with Hezekiah, king of Judah, and Hosea, king of Israel, by whom it was that Samaria was taken (B. c. 722), and the Israelites led into captivity (B.C. 722); and Sennacherib, or Sanherib (B. c. 714), who attacked Egypt, and whose fruitless invasion of That large extent of level country situated between Judah forms the subject of the striking narrative in and on the banks of the two great rivers, the Euphrates the 18th and 19th chapters of the second book of Kings. and the Tigris, was, in the earliest antiquity, the seat The last of the great line of the Assyrian kings of of a Semitic population living under an organised Nineveh was the luxurious Sardanapalus, in whose government. The origin of the Assyrian state is thus reign the empire was dissolved, through the instrurelated in Scripture (Genesis, x.)—' And Cush (the son mentality of its revolted subjects the Medes (B. c. 626). of Ham, the son of Noah) begat Nimrod: he began to After Nineveh, the greatest city in the Assyrian be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter dominion was Babylon. Even while under the domibefore the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod nion of the kings of Nineveh, Babylon appears to have the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the be- possessed a special organisation under its own chiefs, ginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and several of whose names-such as Belesis (B. C. 888), Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of and Nabonassar (B. C. 747)-have been preserved; and, that land went forth Asshur (translated in the margin, together with the whole province of which it was the "Out of that land he-Nimrod-went forth into Assy-capital, to have pursued a special career. The peculiar ria"), and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, element in the Babylonian society which distinguished and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: it from that of Assyria proper, was its Chaldæan the same is a great city.' There are two interpreta-priesthood. The Chaldæan order of priests,' says Mr tions of this passage, according as the text or the Grote, appear to have been peculiar to Babylon and marginal reading is adopted. The one is, that a other towns in its territory, especially between that mighty conqueror of the race of Hain (primitive city and the Persian Gulf; the vast, rich, and lofty Ethiopic influence ?) made an irruption into Mesopo- temple of Belus in that city served them at once as a tamia, which belonged to the children of Shem, and place of worship and an astronomical observatory; and built there Babylon on the Euphrates, and other cities; it was the paramount ascendancy of this order which becoming, as the Eastern authors say, the first king in seems to have caused the Babylonian people generally the world, and the first man who wore a crown; and to be spoken of as Chaldæans, though some writers that, driven out of their possessions by this conqueror, have supposed, without any good proof, a conquest of a part of the children of Shem proceeded farther east, Assyrian Babylon by barbarians called Chaldæans from and built Nineveh on the Tigris. The other is, that the mountains near the Euxine. There were exaggeNimrod himself, going from Babylon, built Nineveh. rated statements respecting the antiquity of their astroIn either sense, the passage represents distinctly the nomical observations, which cannot be traced, as of early condition of this part of the world-an extensive definite and recorded date, higher than the era of plain fertilised by the two rivers, the Tigris and the Nabonassar (B. C. 747), as well as respecting the exEuphrates; and with great cities scattered over it, tent of their acquired knowledge, so largely blended gathering the population together at points, if we may with astrological fancies and occult influences of the so speak, into large solid masses. Of these cities, the heavenly bodies on human affairs. But however incommost important ultimately were Babylon, built, ac-plete their knowledge may appear when judged by the cording to the above account, by Nimrod, B.C. 2217; and Nineveh (called Ninos by the Greeks), built, according to the same authority, either by Asshur or Nimrod about the same time, but afterwards rebuilt and enlarged, according to ancient tradition, by a great king, Ninus, B. C. 1230, down to which period it had been inferior in size to the Resen mentioned in the Scriptural text. With these two cities as capitals, the country divided itself into two corresponding parts or kingdoms-the kingdom of Assyria proper, including, besides part of Mesopotamia, the country to the right of the Tigris as far as Mount Zagros; and the kingdom of Babylonia, including the western part of Mesopotamia, together with the country to the left of the Euphrates as far as Syria proper. The two kingdoms, however, are often included under the joint name of Assyria; a word which, as well as the shorter form Syria, was often employed by the ancient Greek writers to designate the whole region lying along the courses of the two great rivers from the Black Sea to the northern angle of the Persian Gulf.

Although Babylon was, according to Scripture, the earlier of the two powers, yet the Assyrians of Nineveh attained such strength under their hero Ninus, as to reduce the Babylonians to a species of dependence. Under Ninus, and his wife and successor the great conqueress Semiramis, says ancient mythical history, the city of the Tigris extended its dominions

standard of after-times, there can be no doubt that, compared with any of their contemporaries of the sixth century B.C.-either Egyptians, Greeks, or Asiaticsthey stood pre-eminent, and had much to teach, not only to Thales and Pythagoras, but even to later inquirers, such as Eudoxus and Aristotle. The conception of the revolving celestial sphere, the gnomon, and the division of the day into twelve parts, are affirmed by Herodotus to have been first taught to the Greeks by the Babylonians.' This learned Chaldæan class seems to have pervaded the general mass of Babylonian society, as the corresponding priest-caste in Egypt pervaded Egyptian society, with this difference, that Babylonian society does not appear to have been parcelled out like the Egyptian into a rigorous system of castes.

On the dissolution of the Assyrian empire of Nineveh by the Medes (B.c. 626), the Chaldæan fragment of it rose to eminence on its ruins, chiefly by the efforts of Nabopolassar, a viceroy of the last Assyrian king. Establishing Babylonia as an independent power in the east, Nabopolassar came into collision with Nekos, king of Egypt, who was at that time extending his empire into Asia. It was in opposing Nekos (PharaohNecho) on his march to Babylon that Josiah, king of

* When Alexander the Great was in Babylon, the Chaldæans told him their order had begun their astronomical observations 400,000 years before he was born.

The Medes and Persians.

Judah, was slain. At length (B. C. 608) Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuchodonosor, the son of Nabopolassar, Extending, as we have said, from the Mediterranean defeated Nekos, and annexed all his conquests in to the Indus, the Assyrian empire had included not Asia to his father's kingdom. Two years afterwards only the chief Semitic nations of western Asia, but also the same prince took Jerusalem, and carried away a that portion of the Indo-Germanic family which was number of captives to Babylon, among whom were contained between Mount Zagros and the river Indus. Daniel and his companions. Succeeding his father, Essentially a prolongation of the great race which inB. C. 605, Nebuchadnezzar reigned over Babylon forty-habited Hindoostan, the nature of their country-a vast three years (B. C. 605-561); and during his reign ex- table-land, here and there rising into hills, or presenttended the empire to the Mediterranean and the bor- ing spots of great fertility—had made them quite diffeders of Egypt, adding to it Palestine, Phoenicia, &c. rent in character and habits from the settled and With his countenance the Medes and Lydians destroyed stereotyped Hindoos. All parts of this plateau of Iran, Nineveh (B. C. 601). The great abduction of Jewish as it was called, including the present countries of captives by his orders took place B. c. 588. He was Persia, Cabool, and Beloochistan, were not alike; in succeeded (B. C. 561) by his son, Evil-Merodach, who some portions, where the soil was fertile, there existed was dethroned (B. c. 559) by his brother-in-law Nerig- a dense agricultural population; in others, the inhabilissar, whose son and successor, Laboroso-archod, was tants were nomadic horse-breeders, cattle-rearers, and dethroned, after a brief reign, by Nabonnedus, the shepherds. All the tribes, however, were bound toBelshazzar of Scripture (B. c. 555); in the eighteenth gether by the ties of a common Indo-Persic language, year of whose reign (B. c. 538) Babylon was taken by quite distinct from that spoken by their Semitic neighCyrus, and passed into the hands of the Persians. bours and masters, and by a common religion. This religion, called the Religion of Zend, a modification probably of some more ancient form, from which Hindooism may also have sprung, was taught by Zerdusht or Zoroaster, a great native reformer and spiritual teacher, who lived six or seven centuries before Christ. The principal doctrine of his religion was that of the existence of two great emanations from the Supreme and perfect Deity-the one a good spirit (Ormuzd), who created man, and fitted him for happiness; the other an evil spirit, named Ahriman, who has marred the beauty of creation by introducing evil into it. Between these two spirits and their adherents there is an incessant struggle for the mastery; but ultimately Ormuzd will conquer, and Ahriman and evil will be banished from the bosom of creation into eternal darkness. The worship annexed to this doctrine was very simple, dispensing with temples or images, and consisting merely of certain solemn rites performed on mountain tops, &c. Fire, and light, and the sun, were worshipped either as symbols or as inferior deities. A caste of priests, called the Magi, answering in some respects to the Brahmins of India or the Chaldæans of Babylon, superintended these ceremonies, and commented on the religion of Zoroaster.

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It was during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that the city of Babylon attained that glory which has rendered it a known word to all who are at all acquainted with history. Herodotus, who saw the city in its decline, gives a description of it which has seemed incredible to many, although now fully verified, The city, divided in the middle by the Euphrates, was surrounded with walls in thickness 75 feet, in height 300 feet, and in compass 480 stadia, or about 60 of our miles.' Within this circuit there was included, besides the houses, a space of vacant ground, gardens, pasture, &c. sufficient to accommodate the country population in case of invasion: the height and strength of the walls rendered the city itself to all appearance impregnable. These walls formed an exact square, each side of which was 120 stadia, or 15 miles in length; and were built of large bricks cemented together with bitumen, a glutinous slime which issues out of the earth in that country, and in a short time becomes harder than the very brick or stone which it cements. The city was encompassed without the walls by a vast ditch filled with water, and lined with bricks on both sides; and as the earth that was dug out of it served to make the bricks, we may judge of the depth and largeness of the ditch from the height and thickness of the walls. Various of the tribes of Iran, associating themselves In the whole compass of the walls there were a hun- together, constituted little nations. Thus adjacent to dred gates-that is, twenty-five on each side, all made Assyria, and separated from it by Mount Zagros, was of solid brass. At intervals round the walls were 250 an agglomeration of seven tribes or villages, under the towers. From each of the twenty-five gates there was special name of the Medes, the country which they ina straight street extending to the corresponding gate habited being thence called Media. South from Media, in the opposite wall; the whole number of streets was and nearer the sea, was another district of Iran, called therefore fifty, crossing each other at right angles, and Persis or Persia, inhabited also by an association of each fifteen miles long. The breadth of the streets tribes calling themselves the Persians. Other nations was about 150 feet. By their intersection the city was of Iran were the Parthians, the Bactrians, &c.—all divided into 676 squares, each about two miles and a-originally subject to the Assyrian empire. quarter in compass, round which were the houses, three or four storeys in height; the vacant spaces within being laid out in gardens,' &c. Within the city the two greatest edifices were the royal palace with its hanging gardens, and the temple of Belus, composed of eight towers built one above another, to the enormous height, it is said, of a furlong.

Without the city were numerous canals, embankments, &c. for the purpose of irrigating the country, which, as little or no rain fell, depended on the river for moisture. The execution of such colossal works as those of Babylon and Egypt,' it has been remarked, demonstrates habits of regular industry, a concentrated population under one government, and above all, an implicit submission to the regal and kingly sway-contrasted forcibly with the small self-governing communities of Greece and western Europe, where the will of the individual citizen was so much more energetic.' In the latter countries only such public works were attempted as were within the limits of moderate taste. Nineveh is said to have been larger even than Babylon, and is described as an oblong, three days' journey round-that is, upwards of 60 miles.

Median history begins with a hero king called Deiokes (B. c. 710-657), who effected some important changes in the constitution of the nation, and founded the Median capital Ekbatana in one of the most pleasant sites in the world. His son, Phraortes (B. c. 657635), pursued a career of conquest, subjugated Persia and other districts of Iran, and perished in an invasion of Assyria. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares, who continued his designs of conquest, and extended the Median dominion as far westward into Asia Minor as the river Halys. He was engaged in a repetition of his father's attempt against Nineveh, when he was called away to defend his kingdom against a great roving population, belonging, as is most likely, to the Scythian branch of the Caucasian race (although some reckon them Mongols), who, bursting with their herds of horses and mares from their native seat in Central Asia, had driven the Cimmerians, a kindred race, before them into Asia Minor, and then had poured themselves over the plateau of Iran. Defeating Cyaxares, they kept him from his throne for a period of twenty-eight years, during which they ruled in savage fashion over Media, Persia, &c. At length, having assassinated their chiefs

by a stratagem, Cyaxares regained his dominions, and drove the invaders back into the north. He then renewed his attempt against Nineveh; took it; and reduced the Assyrian empire, with the exception of Babylonia, under his dominion. The Median empire, thus formed, he bequeathed (B. c. 595) to his son Astyages. Astyages having given his daughter Mandané in marriage to a Persian chieftain named Cambyses, the issue of this marriage was the famous Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy. The circumstances which led to the revolt of the Persians under Cyrus against the Medes, and the dethronement by him of his grandfather Astyages (B. C. 560), had been woven into a romance resembling the story of Romulus, even so early as the age of Herodotus (B. C. 408), so that that accurate historian could not ascertain the particulars. The native Persians,' says Mr Grote, whom Cyrus conducted were an aggregate of seven agricultural and four nomadic tribes, all of them rude, hardy, and brave, dwelling in a mountainous region, clothed in skins, ignorant of wine or fruit, of any of the commonest luxuries of life, and despising the very idea of purchase or sale. Their tribes were very unequal in point of dignity; first in estimation among them stood the Pasargada; and the first clan among the Pasargadae were the Achaemenidæ, to whom Cyrus belonged. Whether his relationship to the Median king whom he dethroned was a fact or a politic fiction we cannot well determine, but Xenophon gives us to understand that the conquest of Media by the Persians was reported to him as having been an obstinate and protracted struggle.'

Master of Media, the Persian chief in his turn became a great Oriental conqueror; indeed all the Oriental conquests bear the same character. A nomadic race, led by a chief of great abilities, invades the more organised states, and conquers them; the chief assumes the government, and founds a dynasty, which, after a rule of several generations, becomes enervated, and gives way before some new nomadic incursion. The first power against which Cyrus turned his arms, after having subdued the Medes, was the famous Lydian kingdom, which then subsisted in Asia Minor under the great Croesus. And here, therefore, we must give some account of the ancient condition of Asia Minor and its principalities.

States of Asia Minor-The Lydians.

The river Halys divided Asia Minor into two parts. East of the Halys, or near its source, were various nations of the Semitic stock-Cappadocians, Cilicians, Pamphylians, &c.-each organised apart, but all included under the Assyrian, and latterly, as we have seen, under the Median empire. West of the Halys, the inhabitants were apparently of the Indo-Germanic race, although separated by many removes from the Indo-Germans of Persia. Overspreading this part of Asia Minor, as well as Thrace and other parts of south-eastern Europe, this great race had been broken up into fragments distinguished by characteristic differences. To enumerate these various nations, assigning to each its exact geographical limits, is impossible: the chief, however, were the Bithynians, a sort of Asiatic Thracians on the southern coast of the Euxine; the Lydians and Carians in the south-west; and, intermediate between the two, geographically as well as in respect of race and language, the Mysians and Phrygians. These were the native states; but along the whole Egean shore was diffused a large Greek population, emigrants, it is believed, from European Greece, chiefly gathered into cities. These Greeks of Asia Minor were of three races-the Holic Greeks in the north, and the Ionian and Dorian Greeks in the south; and perhaps the earliest manifestations of Greek genius, political or literary, were among these Greeks of Asia. The intercourse of these Greeks with the native Lydians, Phrygians, &c. gave rise to mixture of population as well as to interchange of habits; the native music especially of the Lydians and Phrygians became incorporated with that of the Greeks.

When Lydia, with its capital Sardis, first began to be a powerful state, is not known; it is remarkable, however, that the Lydians are not mentioned in Homer. According to Herodotus, the Lydians traced their history back through three dynasties. 1st, The Atyadæ, from the earliest times to B. C. 1221; 2d, The Heracleida, from B. C. 1221 to B.C. 716; and 3d, The Mermnadae. Only the last dynasty is historic; the manner in which it succeeded to that of the Heracleida forms the subject of a curious Lydian legend.

The first king of the Mermnad dynasty was Gyges (B. C. 716-678), the second Ardys (B. C. 678-629), in whose reign the Commerians invaded Asia Minor, the third Sadyattes (B. c. 629-617), the fourth Alyattes (B. c. 617-560). Each of these Lydian kings was engaged in wars both with the Asiatic Greeks of the coast and the native states of the interior. The growth of the Lydian power was impeded by the Commerian invasion; but those savage nomades were at length expelled by Alyattes; and Croesus, the son of Alyattes by an Ionian wife, having succeeded his father B.C. 560, soon raised himself to the position of a great potentate, ruling over nearly the whole country westward of the Halys, comprehending Eolian, Ionian, and Dorian Greeks; Phrygians; Mysians, Paphlagonians, Bithynians, Carians, Pamphylians, &c. At Sardis, the capital of this extensive dominion, was accumulated an immense treasure, composed of the tribute which the Lydian monarch derived from the subject states; hence the proverb as rich as Croesus.'

Separated from the Median kingdom only by the river Halys, the Lydian dominion naturally became an object of desire to Cyrus after he had acquired the sovereignty of Media. Accordingly (B. c. 546), provoked by an invasion of Croesus, who had received from the Delphic oracle the equivocal assurance, that if he attacked the Persians he would subvert a mighty monarchy,' Cyrus crossed the Halys, advanced into Lydia, took Sardis, and made Croesus prisoner. It was intended by the conqueror that the Lydian king should be burnt alive-it is even said that the fire was kindled for the purpose; Cyrus, however, spared his life, and Croesus became his friend and confidential adviser. On the subversion of the Lydian monarchy, its subjects, the Greeks of Asia Minor, were obliged to submit to the conqueror, after having in vain solicited the aid of their brethren the European Greeks. The Lacedæmonians indeed sent an embassy into Asia Minor; and one of their ambassadors had a conference with Cyrus at Sardis, where he warned him not to lay hands on any of the Greek towns, for the Lacedæmonians would not permit it.' Who are the Lacedæmonians?' said the astonished warrior. Having been informed that the Lacedæmonians were a Greek people, who had a capital called Sparta, where there was a regular market, I have never yet,' said he, 'been afraid of this kind, of men, who have a set place in the middle of their city where they meet to cheat one another and tell lies. If I live, they shall have troubles of their own to talk about.' To save themselves from the Persians, the Ionian portion of the Asiatic Greeks proposed a universal emigration to the island of Sardinia-a striking design, which, however, was not carried into execution. All Asia Minor ultimately yielded to Cyrus.

The Persian Empire.

Having subdued Asia Minor, Cyrus next turned his arms against the Assyrians of Babylon. His siege and capture of Babylon (B. c. 538), when he effected his entrance by diverting the course of the Euphrates, form one of the most romantic incidents in history; an incident connected with Scriptural narrative through its result-the emancipation of the Jews from their captivity. Along with Babylon, its dependencies, Phoenicia and Palestine, came under the Persians.

Cyrus, one of the most remarkable men of the ancient world, having perished in an invasion of Scythia (B. c. 529), was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who annexed Egypt to the Persian empire (B. c. 525), hav

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in the reign of Darius Codomannus (B. C. 334), Alexander the Great retaliated on the Persians the wrongs they had done the Greeks by invading and destroying their decrepit empire, and organising all the countries between the Adriatic and the Indus under, not a Semitic, as in the case of the Assyrian empire, nor an Indo-Germanic, as in the case of the Persic empire, but a Greek or Pelasgic system; how, on Alexander's death (B. C. 323), this vast agglomeration of the human species fell asunder into three Greek monarchies — the Macedonian monarchy, including the states of European Greece; the Egyptian monarchy of the Ptolemies, including, besides Egypt, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Arabia; and the Syrian monarchy of the Seleucidæ, comprehending, although with a weak grasp, Asia Minor (or at least parts of it which had belonged to the Lydian and Assyrian empires), Syria, Assyria, and Babylonia; with the loss, however, of the countries between the Tigris and the Indus, where a germ of independence arose (B. c. 236) in a native nomad dynasty, which ultimately united all the tribes of Iran in one empire, called the Parthian Empire; and how these three fragments dragged on a separate existence, full of wars and revolts: all this belongs to Grecian history-that is, to the history of the Hellenic portion of the Pelasgians, whose career is fully detailed in the following number.

ing defeated Psammanitus, the son of the Pharaoh | whom the empire had began to crumble; how at length, Amasis. Foiled in his intention of penetrating Libya and Ethiopia, Cambyses was dethroned by a Magian impostor, who called himself Smerdis, pretending that he was the younger brother of Cambyses, although this brother had been put to death by the order of Cambyses during a fit of madness. A conspiracy of seven great nobles having been formed against the false Smerdis, he was put to death. He was succeeded by one of the conspiring chiefs called Darius Hystaspes, who reigned-over the immense Persian empire, extending from the Nile to the Indus, and beyond itfrom B.C. 521 to B. C. 485. The reign of Darius,' says Mr Grote, was one of organisation, different from that of his predecessor-a difference which the Persians well understood and noted, calling Cyrus "the father," Cambyses "the master," and Darius "the retail trader or huckster." In the mouth of the Persians this last epithet must be construed as no insignificant compliment, since it intimates that he was the first to introduce some methodical order into the imperial administration and finances. Under the two former kings there was no definite amount of tribute levied upon the subject provinces. But Darius probably felt it expedient to relieve the provinces from the burden of undefined exactions. He distributed the whole empire into twenty departments (called Satrapies), imposing upon each a fixed annual tax. This, however, did not prevent each satrap (the Persian governor appointed by the king) in his own province from indefinite requisitions. The satrap was a little king, who acted nearly as he pleased in the internal administration of his province, subject only to the necessity of sending up the imperial tribute to the king at Susa, the capital of the Persian empire; of keeping off foreign enemies; and of furnishing an adequate military contingent for the foreign enterprises of the great king. To every satrap was attached a royal secretary or comptroller of the revenue, who probably managed the imperial finances in the province, and to whom the court of Susa might perhaps look as a watch upon the satrap himself. The satrap or the secretary apportioned the sum payable by the satrapy in the aggregate among the various component districts, towns, or provinces, leav-how, advancing into the new regions of northern and ing to the local authorities in each of these latter the task of assessing it upon individual inhabitants. From necessity, therefore, as well as from indolence of temper and political incompetence, the Persians were compelled to respect the authorities which they found standing both in town and country, and to leave in their hands a large measure of genuine influence. Often even the petty kings who had governed separate districts during their state of independence, prior to the Persian conquest, retained their title and dignity as tributaries to the court of Susa. The empire of the great king was thus an aggregate of heterogeneous elements, connected together by no tie except that of common fear and subjection-noway coherent nor selfsupporting, nor pervaded by any common system or spirit of nationality.'

Continuation through Greek and Roman History. How Darius, in consequence of the assistance rendered by the Athenians to the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, who had revolted against him (B. C. 502), sent a vast Persian army into European Greece; how this army was defeated by the Athenian general, Miltiades, with only 11,000 men, in the glorious battle of Marathon (B. C. 490); how, ten years later, Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, undertook an expedition against Greece with a host of several millions, and was defeated by Themistocles in a naval battle at Salamis (B. c. 480), which was followed by two contemporaneous defeats of his lieutenants at Platea and Mycale (B.C. 479); how the Persians were thus finally driven back into Asia; how for a century and a-half relations, sometimes hostile and sometimes friendly, were maintained between the Greek states and the Persian monarchs, the degenerate successors of Darius and Xerxes, under

How, about two centuries and a-half before Christ, another, but more mixed portion of this Pelasgie family, which had arisen in Italy, and in the course of several centuries rendered itself co-extensive with that peninsula-began to assume consequence in the wider area of the Mediterranean world: how it first grappled with the power of the Carthaginians (B. C. 264-201), who for several centuries had been pursuing the career of world-merchants, formerly pursued by their fathers the Phoenicians; how it then assailed and subdued the crumbling Macedonian monarchy, incorporating all Greece with itself (B. c. 134); how, retrograding, so to speak, into Asia, it gradually ate up the Syrian and Egyptian monarchies, till it came into collision with the Parthian empire at the Euphrates (B. C. 134-B. c. 60);

western Europe, it compelled the yet uncultured races there the Celts or Gauls, the Iberians, &c.-to enter the pale of civilisation (B. c. 80-50); how thus, from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, was founded a new empire, called The Roman,' retaining, with vast additions, all that portion of humanity which the former empires had embraced, with the exception of what had lapsed back to the Parthians; how this empire subsisted for several centuries, a great mass of matured humanity girt by comparative barbarism- that is, surrounded on the east by the Parthians, on the south by the Ethiopians, on the north by the Germans and Scythians, and on the west by the roar of the Atlantic; and how at last (A. D. 400-475) this great mass, having lost its vitality, fell asunder before the irruption of the barbaric element that is, the Germans, the Scythians, and the Arabs-giving rise to the infant condition of the modern world: all this belongs to Roman history, which forms the subject of a separate treatise.

With one general remark we shall conclude; namely, that the progress of history-that is, of the Caucasian development has evidently been, upon the whole, from the east westward. First, as we have seen, the Assyrian or Semitic fermentation affected western Asia as far as the Mediterranean; then the Persian movement extended the historic stage to the gean; after that the Macedonian conquest extended it to the Adriatic; and finally, the Romans extended it to the Atlantic. For fifteen centuries humanity kept dashing itself against this barrier; till at length, like a great missionary sent in search, the spirit of Columbus shot across the Atlantic. And now, in the form of a dominant Anglic race, though with large intermixture, Caucasian vitality is working in its newest method, with Ethiopian help, on the broad and fertile field of America.

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