Hawes, C. H., and Hawes, HARRIET B.Crete, the Forerunner of Greece(N.Y., 1909, Harper, 75 cents).
How, W. W.Hannibal and the Great War between Rome and Carthage(London, 1899, Seeley, 2_s_.).
Jones, H. S.The Roman Empire, B.C. 29-A.D. 476(N. Y., 1908, Putnam, $1.50). "Story of the Nations."
* Lanciani, Rudolfo.The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome(Boston, 1898, Houghton Mifflin Co., $4.00).
Mahaffy, J. P.Old Greek Life(N. Y., 1876, American Book Co., 35 cents).
———What have the Greeks done for Modern Civilization?(N. Y., 1909, Putnam, $1.50).
Mahaffy, J. P., and Gilman, Arthur.The Story of Alexander's Empire(N. Y., 1887, Putnam, $1.50). The only concise narrative of the Hellenistic period.
* Mau, August.Pompeii: its Life and Art, translated by F. W. Kelsey (N.Y., 1899, Macmillan, $2.50).
Morris, W. O'C.Hannibal and the Crisis of the Struggle between Carthage and Rome(N. Y., 1897, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Oman, Charles.Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic(N. Y., 1902, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.60). A biographical presentation of Roman history.
Pellison, Maurice.Roman Life in Pliny's Time, translated by MaudWilkinson (Philadelphia, 1897, Jacobs, $1.00).
Pickard-Cambridge, A. W.Demosthenes and the Last Days of Greek Freedom(N. Y., 1914, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Powers, H. H.The Message of Greek Art(N. Y., 1913, Macmillan, 50 cents).
Preston, Harriet W., and Dodge, Louise.The Private Life of the Romans(N. Y., 1893, Sanborn, $1.05).
Robinson, C. E.The Days of Alcibiades(N. Y., 1916, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.50), A picture of Greek life and culture in the Age of Pericles.
* Seymour, T. D.Life in the Homeric Age(N. Y., 1907, Macmillan, $4.00).
* Stobart, J. C.The Glory that was Greece: a Survey of Hellenic Culture and Civilization(Philadelphia, 1911, Lippincott, $7.50).
———The Grandeur that was Rome: a Survey of Roman Culture and Civilization(Philadelphia, 1912, Lippincott, $7.50).
Strachan-Davidson, J. S.Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic(N.Y., 1894, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Tarbell, F. B.A History of Greek Art(2d ed., N. Y., 1905, Macmillan, $1.00).
Tozer, H. F.Classical Geography(N. Y., 1883, American Book Co., 35 cents). A standard manual.
Tucker, T. G.Life in Ancient Athens(N. Y., 1906, Macmillan, $1.25).The most attractive treatment of the subject.
———Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul(N. Y., 1910, Macmillan, $2.50).
* Walters, H. B.The Art of the Greeks(N. Y., 1900, Macmillan, $6.00).
* ———The Art of the Romans(N. Y., 1911, Macmillan, $5.00).
* Weller, C. H.Athens and its Monuments(N. Y., 1913, Macmillan, $4.00).
Wheeler, B.I.Alexander the Great and the Merging of East and West intoUniversal History(N. Y., 1900, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Wilkins, A. S.Roman Antiquities(N. Y., 1884, American Book Co., 35 cents).
Adams, G. B.The Growth of the French Nation(N. Y., 1896, Macmillan, $1.25). The best short history of France.
Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L.The Crusades(N. Y., 1894, Putnam, $1.50).
Baring-Gould, Sabine.Curious Myths of the Middle Ages(N. Y., 1869,Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.25).
Bateson, Mary.Medieval England(N. Y., 1903, Putnam, $1.50). Deals with social and economic life. "Story of the Nations."
Cheyney, E. P.An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England(N. Y., 1901, Macmillan, $1.40). The best brief work on the subject.
Church, R. W.The Beginning of the Middle Ages(N. Y., 1877, Scribner, $1.00).
Cutts, E. L.Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages(London, 1872, DeLa More Press, 7s. 6d.). An almost indispensable book; illustrated.
Davis, H. W. C. Medieval Europe (N. Y., 1911, Holt, 50 cents).
———Charlemagne, the Hero of Two Nations(N. Y., 1899, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Emerton, Ephraim.An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages(Boston, 1888, Ginn, $1.10). The most satisfactory short account, and of special value to beginners.
Foord, Edward.The Byzantine Empire(N. Y., 1911, Macmillan, $2.00). The most convenient short treatment; lavishly illustrated.
* Gibbon, Edward.The History of the Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire, edited by J. B. Bury (N. Y., 1914, Macmillan, 7 vols., $25.00).The best edition, illustrated and provided with maps, of this standardwork.
* Green, J. R.Short History of the English People, edited by Mrs. J. R. Green and Miss Kate Norgate (N. Y., 1893-1895, Harper, 4 vols., $20.00). A beautifully illustrated edition of this standard work.
Guerber, H. A.Legends of the Middle Ages(N. Y., 1896, American BookCo., $1.50).
Haskins, C. H.The Normans in European History(Boston, 1915, HoughtonMifflin Co., $2.00).
Hodgkin, Thomas.The Dynasty of Theodosius(N. Y., 1899, Oxford University Press, American Branch, $1.50). Popular lectures summarizing the author's extensive studies.
Jessopp, Augustus.The Coming of the Friars, and Other Historic Essays(N. Y., 1888, Putnam, $1.25). A book of great interest.
* Lacroix, Paul.Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and at thePeriod of the Renaissance(London, 1880, Bickers and Son, out of print).
Lawrence, W. W.Medieval Story(N. Y., 1911, Columbia University Press, $i.50). Discusses the great literary productions of the Middle Ages.
Mawer, Allen.The Vikings(N. Y, 1913, Putnam, 35 cents).
Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. CMedieval Civilization(2d ed., N. Y., 1907, Century Co., $2.00). Translated selections from standard works by French and German scholars.
Rait, R. S.Life in the Medieval University(N. Y., 1912, Putnam, 35 cents). "Cambridge Manuals."
Synge, M. B.A Short History of Social Life in England(N. Y., 1906,Barnes, $1.50).
Tappan, Eva M.When Knights were Bold(Boston, 1912, Houghton Mifflin Co., $2.00). An economic and social study of the Feudal Age; charmingly written.
Tickner, F. W.A Social and Industrial History of England(N. Y., 1915, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.00). Very simply written and well illustrated.
* Wright, Thomas.The Homes of Other Days(London, 1871, Trübner, out of print). Valuable for both text and illustrations.
Cheyney, E. P.European Background of American History, 1300-1600(N.Y., 1904, Harper, $2.00).
Creighton, Mandell.The Age of Elizabeth(13th ed., N. Y., 1897,Scribner, $ 1.00). "Epochs of Modern History."
Fiske, John.The Discovery and Colonization of North America(Boston, 1905, Ginn, 90 cents).
Gardiner, S. R.The Thirty Years' War(N. Y., 1874, Scribner, $1.00).
Goodyear, W. H.Renaissance and Modern Art(N. Y., 1894, Macmillan, $1.00).
Hudson, W. H.The Story of the Renaissance(N. Y., 1912, Cassell, $1.50). A well-written volume.
Hulme, E. M.The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution, and the Catholic Reformation in Continental Europe(rev. ed., N. Y., 1915, Century Co., $2.50). The best work on the subject by an American scholar.
* Joyce, T. A.Mexican Archaeology(N. Y., 1914, Putnam, $4.00).
———South American Archaeology(N. Y., 1912, Putnam, $3.50).
Kerr, P. H., and Kerr, A. C.The Growth of the British Empire(N. Y., 1911, Longmans, Green, and Co., 50 cents).
Oldham, J. B.The Renaissance(N. Y., 1912, Dutton, 35 cents).
Seebohm, Frederic.The Era of the Protestant Revolution(N. Y., 1875,Scribner, $1.00). "Epochs of Modern History."
History is the narrative of what civilized man has done. It deals with those social groups called states and nations. Just as biography describes the life of individuals, so history relates the rise, progress, and decline of human societies.
History cannot go back of written records. These alone will preserve a full and accurate account of man's achievements. Manuscripts and books form one class of written records. The old Babylonians used tablets of soft clay, on which signs were impressed with a metal instrument. The tablets were then baked hard in an oven. The Egyptians made a kind of paper out of the papyrus, a plant native to the Nile valley. The Greeks and Romans at first used papyrus, but later they employed the more lasting parchment prepared from sheepskin. Paper seems to have been a Chinese invention. It was introduced into Europe by the Arabs during the twelfth century of our era.
[Illustration: THE DISK OF PHAESTUS Found in 1908 A.D. in the palace at Phaestus, Crete. The disk is of refined clay on which the figures were stamped in relief with punches. Both sides of the disk are covered with characters. The side seen in the illustration contains 31 sign groups (123 signs) separated from one another by incised lines. The other side contains 30 sign groups (118 signs). The inscription dates from about 1800 B.C.]
[Illustration: A PAPYRUS MANUSCRIPT The pith of the papyrus, a plant native to the Nile valley, was cut into slices, which were then pressed together and dried in the sun. Several of the paper sheets thus formed were glued together at their edges to form a roll. Frompapyrosandbyblos, the two Greek names of this plant, have come our own words, "paper" and "Bible." The illustration shows a manuscript discovered in Egypt in 1890 A.D. It is supposed to be a treatise, hitherto lost, on the Athenian constitution by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.]
A second class of written records consists of inscriptions. These are usually cut in stone, but sometimes we find them painted over the surface of a wall, stamped on coins, or impressed upon metal tablets. The historian also makes use of remains, such as statues, ornaments, weapons, tools, and utensils. Monuments of various sorts, including palaces, tombs, fortresses, bridges, temples, and churches, form a very important class of remains.
History, based on written records, begins in different countries at varying dates. A few manuscripts and inscriptions found in Egypt date back three or four thousand years before Christ. The annals of Babylonia are scarcely less ancient. Trustworthy records in China and India do not extend beyond 1000 B.C. For the Greeks and Romans the commencement of the historic period must be placed about 750 B.C. The inhabitants of northern Europe did not come into the light of history until about the opening of the Christian era.
In studying the historic period our chief concern is with those peoples whose ideas or whose deeds have aided human progress and the spread of civilization. Six-sevenths of the earth's inhabitants now belong to civilized countries, and these countries include the best and largest regions of the globe. At the beginning of historic times, however, civilization was confined within a narrow area—the river valleys of western Asia and Egypt. The uncounted centuries before the dawn of history make up the prehistoric period, when savagery and barbarism prevailed throughout the world. Our knowledge of it is derived from the examination of the objects found in caves, refuse mounds, graves, and other sites. Various European countries, including England, France, Denmark, Switzerland, and Italy, are particularly rich in prehistoric remains.
[Illustration: A PREHISTORIC EGYPTIAN GRAVE The skeleton lay on the left side, with knees drawn up and hands raised to the head. About it were various articles of food and vessels of pottery.]
The prehistoric period is commonly divided, according to the character of the materials used for tools and weapons, into the Age of Stone and the Age of Metals. The one is the age of savagery; the other is the age of barbarism or semicivilization.
Man's earliest implements were those that lay ready to his hand. A branch from a tree served as a spear; a thick stick in his strong arms became a powerful club. Later, perhaps, came the use of a hard stone such as flint, which could be chipped into the forms of arrowheads, axes, and spear tips. The first stone implements were so rude in shape that it is difficult to believe them of human workmanship. They may have been made several hundred thousand years ago. After countless centuries of slow advance, savages learned to fasten wooden handles to their stone tools and weapons and also to use such materials as jade and granite, which could be ground and polished into a variety of forms. Stone implements continued to be made during the greater part of the prehistoric period. Every region of the world has had a Stone Age. [1] Its length is reckoned, not by centuries, but by milleniums.
[Illustration: A HATCHET OF THE EARLY STONE AGEA hatchet of flint, probably used without a helve and intended to fit thehand. Similar implements have been found all over the world, except inAustralia.]
[Illustration: ARROWHEADS OF THE LATER STONE AGEDifferent forms from Europe, Africa, and North America.]
The Age of Metals, compared with its predecessor, covers a brief expanse of time. The use of metals came in not much before the dawn of history. The earliest civilized peoples, the Babylonians and Egyptians, when we first become acquainted with them, appear to be passing from the use of stone implements to those of metal.
Copper was the first metal in common use. The credit for the invention of copper tools seems to belong to the Egyptians. At a very early date they were working the copper mines on the peninsula of Sinai. The Babylonians probably obtained their copper from the same region. Another source of this metal was the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The Greek name of the island means "copper."
But copper tools were soft and would not keep an edge. Some ancient smith, more ingenious than his fellows, discovered that the addition of a small part of tin to the copper produced a new metal—bronze—harder than the old, yet capable of being molded into a variety of forms. At least as early as 3000 B.C. we find bronze taking the place of copper in both Egypt and Babylonia. Somewhat later bronze was introduced into the island of Crete, then along the eastern coast of Greece, and afterwards into other European countries.
The introduction of iron occurred in comparatively recent times. At first it was a scarce, and therefore a very precious, metal. The Egyptians seem to have made little use of iron before 1500 B.C. They called it "the metal of heaven," as if they obtained it from meteorites. In the Greek Homeric poems, composed about 900 B.C. or later, we find iron considered so valuable that a lump of it is one of the chief prizes at athletic games. In the first five books of the Bible iron is mentioned only thirteen times, though copper and bronze are referred to forty-four times. Iron is more difficult to work than either copper or bronze, but it is vastly superior to those metals in hardness and durability. Hence it gradually displaced them throughout the greater part of the Old World. [2]
During the prehistoric period early man came to be widely scattered throughout the world. Here and there, slowly, and with utmost difficulty, he began to take the first steps toward civilization. The tools and weapons which he left behind him afford some evidence of his advance. We may now single out some of his other great achievements and follow their development to the dawn of history.
Prehistoric man lived at first chiefly on wild berries, nuts, roots, and herbs. As his implements improved and his skill increased, he became hunter, trapper, and fisher. A tribe of hunters, however, requires an extensive territory and a constant supply of game. When the wild animals are all killed or seriously reduced in number, privation and hardship result. It was a forward step, therefore, when man began to tame animals as well as to kill them.
The dog was man's first conquest over the animal kingdom. As early as the Age of Metals various breeds appear, such as deerhounds, sheep dogs, and mastiffs. The dog soon showed how useful he could be. He tracked game, guarded the camp, and later, in the pastoral stage, protected flocks and herds against their enemies.
The cow also was domesticated at a remote period. No other animal has been more useful to mankind. The cow's flesh and milk supply food: the skin provides clothing; the sinews, bones, and horns yield materials for implements. The ox was early trained to bear the yoke and draw the plow, as we may learn from ancient Egyptian paintings. [3] Cattle have also been commonly used as a kind of money. The early Greeks, whose wealth consisted chiefly of their herds, priced a slave at twenty oxen, a suit of armor at one hundred oxen, and so on. The early Romans reckoned values in cattle (one ox being equivalent to ten sheep). Our English word "pecuniary" goes back to the Latinpecus, or "herd" of cattle.
[Illustration: EARLY ROMAN BAR MONEY A bar of copper marked with the figure of a bull. Dates from the fourth century B.C.]
The domestication of the horse came much later than that of the cow. In the early Stone Age the horse ran wild over western Europe and formed an important source of food for primitive men. This prehistoric horse, as some ancient drawings show, [4] was a small animal with a shaggy mane and tail. It resembled the wild pony still found on the steppes of Mongolia. The domesticated horse does not appear in Egypt and western Asia much before 1500 B.C. For a long time after the horse was tamed, the more manageable ox continued to be used as the beast of burden. The horse was kept for chariots of war, as among the Egyptians, or ridden bareback in races, as by the early Greeks.
At the close of prehistoric times in the Old World nearly all the domestic animals of to-day were known. Besides those just mentioned, the goat, sheep, ass, and hog had become man's useful servants. [5]
The domestication of animals made possible an advance from the hunting and fishing stage to the pastoral stage. Herds of cattle and sheep would now furnish more certain and abundant supplies of food than the chase could ever yield. We find in some parts of the world, as on the great Asiatic plains, the herdsman succeeding the hunter and fisher. But even in this stage much land for grazing is required. With the exhaustion of the pasturage the sheep or cattle must be driven to new fields. Hence pastoral peoples, as well as hunting and fishing folk, remained nomads without fixed homes. Before permanent settlements were possible, another onward step became necessary. This was the domestication of plants.
The domestication of plants marked almost as wonderful an advance as the domestication of animals. When wild seedgrasses and plants had been transformed into the great cereals—wheat, oats, barley, and rice—people could raise them for food, and so could pass from the life of wandering hunters or shepherds to the life of settled farmers. There is evidence that during the Stone Age some of the inhabitants of Europe were familiar with various cultivated plants, but agriculture on a large scale seems to have begun in the fertile regions of Egypt and western Asia. [6] Here first arose populous communities with leisure to develop the arts of life. Here, as has been already seen, [7] we must look for the beginnings of history.
Though history is always based on written records, the first steps toward writing are prehistoric. We start with the pictures or rough drawings which have been found among the remains of the early Stone Age. [8] Primitive man, however, could not rest satisfied with portraying objects.
[Illustration: VARIOUS SIGNS OF SYMBOLIC PICTURE WRITING 1, "war" (Dakota Indian); 2, "morning" (Ojibwa Indian); 3, "nothing" (Ojibwa Indian); 4 and 5, "to eat" (Indian, Mexican, Egyptian, etc.).]
He wanted to record thoughts and actions, and so his pictures tended to become symbols of ideas. The figure of an arrow might be made to represent, not a real object, but the idea of an "enemy." A "fight" could then be shown simply by drawing two arrows directed against each other. Many uncivilized tribes still employ picture writing of this sort. The American Indians developed it in most elaborate fashion. On rolls of birch bark or the skins of animals they wrote messages, hunting stories, and songs, and even preserved tribal annals extending over a century.
A new stage in the development of writing was reached when the picture represented, not an actual object or an idea, but a sound of the human voice. This difficult but all-important step appears to have been taken through the use of the rebus, that is, writing words by pictures of objects which stand for sounds. Such rebuses are found in prehistoric Egyptian writing; for example, the Egyptian words for "sun" and "goose" were so nearly alike that the royal title, "Son of the Sun," could be suggested by grouping the pictures of the sun and a goose. Rebus making is still a common game among children, but to primitive men it must have been a serious occupation.
[Illustration: MEXICAN REBUS The LatinPater Noster,"Our Father," is written by a flag(pan), a stone(te), a prickly pear(noch), and another stone(te).]
[Illustration: CHINESE PICTURE WRITING AND LATER CONVENTIONAL CHARACTERS]
In the simplest form of sound writing each separate picture or symbol stands for the sound of an entire word. This method was employed by the Chinese, who have never given it up. A more developed form of sound writing occurs when signs are used for the sounds, not of entire words, but of separate syllables. Since the number of different syllables which the voice can utter is limited, it now becomes possible to write all the words of a language with a few hundred signs. The Japanese, who borrowed some of the Chinese symbols, used them to denote syllables, instead of entire words. The Babylonians possessed, in their cuneiform [9] characters, signs for about five hundred syllables. The prehistoric inhabitants of Crete appear to have been acquainted with a somewhat similar system. [10]
The final step in the development of writing is taken when the separate sounds of the voice are analyzed and each is represented by a single sign or letter. With alphabets of a few score letters every word in a language may easily be written.
[Illustration: CRETAN WRITINGA large tablet with linear script found in the palace at Gnossus, CreteThere are eight lines of writing, with a total of about twenty wordsNotice the upright lines, which appear to mark the termination of eachgroup of signs.]
The Egyptians early developed such an alphabet. Unfortunately they never gave up their older methods of writing and learned to rely upon alphabetic signs alone. Egyptian hieroglyphics [11] are a curious jumble of object- pictures, symbols of ideas, and signs for entire words, separate syllables, and letters. The writing is a museum of all the steps in the development from the picture to the letter.
As early, apparently, as the tenth century B.C. we find the Phoenicians of western Asia in possession of an alphabet. It consisted of twenty-two letters, each representing a consonant. The Phoenicians do not seem to have invented their alphabetic signs. It is generally believed that they borrowed them from the Egyptians, but recent discoveries in Crete perhaps point to that island as the source of the Phoenician alphabet.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN WRITING Below the pictured hieroglyphics in the first line is the same text in a simpler writing known as hieratic. The two systems, however, were not distinct; they were as identical as our own printed and written characters. The third line illustrates old Babylonian cuneiform, in which the characters, like the hieroglyphics, are rude and broken-down pictures of objects. Derived from them is the later cuneiform shown in lines four and five.]
If they did not originate the alphabet now in use, the Phoenicians did most to spread a knowledge of it in other lands. They were bold sailors and traders who bought and sold throughout the Mediterranean. Wherever they went, they took their alphabet. From the Phoenicians the Greeks learned their letters. Then the Greeks taught them to the Romans, from whom other European peoples borrowed them. [12]
[Illustration: THE MOABITE STONE, (Louvre, Paris) Found in 1868 A.D. at Diban east of the Dead Sea. The monument records the victory of Mesha king of Moab, over the united armies of Israel and Judah about 850 B.C. The inscription, consisting of 34 lines is one of the most ancient examples of Phoenician writing.]
We have already seen that prehistoric men in their struggle for existence had gathered an extensive fund of information. They could make useful and artistic implements of stone. They could work many metals into a variety of tools and weapons. They were practical botanists, able to distinguish different plants and to cultivate them for food. They were close students of animal life and expert hunters and fishers. They knew how to produce fire and preserve it, how to cook, how to fashion pottery and baskets, how to spin and weave, how to build boats and houses. After writing came into general use, all this knowledge served as the foundation of science.
We can still distinguish some of the first steps in scientific knowledge. Thus, counting began with calculations on one's fingers, a method still familiar to children. Finger counting explains the origin of the decimal system. The simplest, and probably the earliest, measures of length are those based on various parts of the body. Some of our Indian tribes, for instance, employed the double arm's length, the single arm's length, the hand width, and the finger width. Old English standards, such as the span, the ell, and the hand, go back to this very obvious method of measuring on the body.
It is interesting to trace the beginnings of time reckoning and of that most important institution, the calendar. Most primitive tribes reckon time by the lunar month, the interval between two new moons (about twenty- nine days, twelve hours). Twelve lunar months give us the lunar year of about three hundred and fifty-four days. In order to adapt such a year to the different seasons, the practice arose of inserting a thirteenth month from time to time. Such awkward calendars were used in antiquity by the Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks; in modern times by the Arabs and Chinese. The Egyptians were the only people in the Old World to frame a solar year. From the Egyptians it has come down, through the Romans, to us. [13]
[Illustration: STONEHENGE On Salisbury Plain in the south of England: appears to date from the close of the New Stone Age or the beginning of the Bronze Age. The outer circle measures 300 feet in circumference; the inner circle, 106 feet. The tallest stones reach 25 feet in height. This monument was probably a tomb, or group of tombs, of prehistoric chieftains.]
The study of prehistoric art takes us back to the early Stone Age. The men of that age in western Europe lived among animals such as the mammoth, cave bear, and woolly-haired rhinoceros, which have since disappeared, and among many others, such as the lion and hippopotamus, which now exist only in warmer climates. Armed with clubs, flint axes, and horn daggers, primitive hunters killed these fierce beasts and on fragments of their bones, or on cavern walls, drew pictures of them. Some of these earliest works of art are remarkably lifelike.
[Illustration: HEAD OF A GIRL (Musée S. Germain, Paris)A small head of a young girl carved from mammoth ivory. Found atBrassempouy, France, in cave deposits belonging to the early Stone Age.The hair is arranged somewhat after the early Egyptian fashion. Of thefeatures the mouth alone is wanting.]
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC ARTSKETCH OF MAMMOTH ON A TUSK FOUND IN A CAVE IN FRANCECAVE BEAR DRAWN ON A PEBBLEBISON PAINTED ON THE WALL OF A CAVEWILD HORSE ON THE WALL OF A CAVE IN SPAIN.
Later he pictured an aurochs—later he pictured a bear—Pictured the sabre toothed tiger dragging a man to his lair—Pictured the mountainous mammoth hairy abhorrent alone—Out of the love that he bore them scribing them clearly on bone—KIPLING.]
A still later period of the Stone Age witnessed the beginnings of architecture. Men had begun to raise huge dolmens which are found in various parts of the Old World from England to India. They also erected enormous stone pillars, known as menhirs. Carved in the semblance of a human face and figure, the menhir became a statue, perhaps the first ever made.
As we approach historic times, we note a steady improvement in the various forms of art. Recent discoveries in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other lands indicate that their early inhabitants were able architects, often building on a colossal scale.
[Illustration: A DOLMEN Department of Morbihan, Brittany. A dolmen was a single chambered tomb formed by laying one long stone over several other stones set upright in the ground. Most if not all dolmens were originally covered with earth.]
[Illustration: CARVED MENHIRFrom Saint Sernin in Aveyron, a department of southern France.]
Their paintings and sculptures prepared the way for the work of later artists. Our survey of the origins of art shows us that in this field, as elsewhere, we must start with the things accomplished by prehistoric men.
At the dawn of history the various regions of the world were already in the possession of many different peoples. Such physical characteristics as the shape of the skull, the features, stature, or complexion may serve to distinguish one people from another. Other grounds for distinction are found in language, customs beliefs, and general intelligence.
If we take complexion or color as the basis of classification, it is possible to distinguish a few large racial groups. Each of these groups occupies, roughly speaking, its separate area of the globe. The most familiar classification is that which recognizes the Black or Negro race dwelling in Africa, the Yellow or Mongolian race whose home is in central and eastern Asia, and the White or Caucasian race of western Asia and Europe. Sometimes two additional divisions are made by including, as the Red race, the American Indians, and as the Brown race, the natives of the Pacific islands.
These separate racial groups have made very unequal progress in culture. The peoples belonging to the Black, Red, and Brown races are still either savages or barbarians, as were the men of prehistoric times. The Chinese and Japanese are the only representatives of the Yellow race that have been able to form civilized states. In the present, as in the past, it is chiefly the members of the White race who are developing civilization and making history.
Because of differences in language, scholars have divided the White or Caucasian race into two main groups, called Indo-Europeans and Semites. [14] This classification is often helpful, but the student should remember that Indo-European and Semitic peoples are not always to be sharply distinguished because they have different types of language. There is no very clear distinction in physical characteristics between the two groups. A clear skin, an oval face, wavy or curly hair, and regular features separate them from both the Negro and the Mongolian.
The Indo-Europeans in antiquity included the Hindus of India, the Medes and Persians dwelling on the plateau of Iran, the Greeks and Italians, and most of the inhabitants of central and western Europe. All these peoples spoke related languages which are believed to be offshoots from one common tongue. Likeness in language does not imply that all Indo-Europeans were closely related in blood. Men often adopt a foreign tongue and pass it on to their children.
The various Semitic nations dwelling in western Asia and Arabia were more closely connected with one another. They spoke much the same type of language, and in physical traits and habits of life they appear to have been akin. The Semites in antiquity included the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Arabs.
[Illustration: RACE PORTRAITURE OF THE EGYPTIANS Paintings on the walls of royal tombs. The Egyptians were painted red, the Semites yellow, the Negroes black, and the Libyans white, with blue eyes and fair beards. Each racial type is distinguished by peculiar dress and characteristic features.]
[Illustration: Map. Distribution of SEMITIC and INDO-EUROPEAN PEOPLES]PEOPLES OF UNCERTAIN RELATIONSHIP
At the opening of the historic period still other parts of the World were the homes of various peoples who cannot be classed with certainty as either Indo-Europeans or Semites. Among these were the Egyptians and some of the inhabitants of Asia Minor. We must remember that, during the long prehistoric ages, repeated conquests and migrations mingled the blood of many different communities. History, in fact, deals with no unmixed peoples.
1. On an outline map indicate the areas occupied in antiquity by Semites and Indo-Europeans.
2. Find definitions for the following terms: society, nation, state, government, institution, culture, and civilization.
3. Explain the abbreviations B.C. and A.D. In what century was the year 1917 B.C.? the year 1917 A.D.?
4. Look up the derivation of the words "paper" and "Bible."
5. Distinguish between the three stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization, and give examples of existing peoples in each stage.
6. Can you name any savages still living in the Stone Age?
7. What stone implements have you ever seen? Who made them? Where were they?
8. Why should the discovery of fire be regarded as of more significance than the discovery of steam?
9. Why has the invention of the bow-and-arrow been of greater importance than the invention of gunpowder?
10. How does the presence of few tameable animals in the New World help to account for its tardier development as compared with the Old World?
11. What examples of pastoral and agricultural life among the North American Indians are familiar to you?
12. Give examples of peoples widely different in blood who nevertheless speak the same language.
13. In the classification of mankind, where do the Arabs belong? the Persians? the Germans? the inhabitants of the United States?
14. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in prehistoric times.
[1] There are still some savage peoples, for instance, the Australians, who continue to make stone implements very similar to those of prehistoric men. Other primitive peoples, such as the natives of the Pacific islands, passed directly from the use of stone to that of iron, after this part of the world was opened up to European trade in the nineteenth century.
[2] Iron was unknown to the inhabitants of North America and South America before the coming of the Europeans. The natives used many stone implements, besides those of copper and bronze. The Indians got most of their copper from the mines in the Lake Superior region, whence it was carried far and wide.
[3] See the illustration, page 45.
[4] See the illustration, page 14.
[5] In the New World, the only important domestic animal was the llama of the Andes. The natives used it as a beast of burden, ate its flesh, and clothed themselves with its wool.
[6] The plants domesticated in the New World were not numerous. The most important were the potato of Peru and Ecuador, Indian corn or maize, tobacco, the tomato, and manioc. From the roots of the latter, the starch called tapioca is derived.
[7] See page 2.
[8] See the illustration, page 14.
[9] Latin cuneus, "a wedge".
[10] See page 71.
[11] From the Greek words hieros, "holy," and glyphein, "to carve" The Egyptians regarded their signs as sacred.
[12] Our word "alphabet" comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet,alpha(a) andbeta(b).
[13] See page 186 and note 2.
[14] The Old Testament (Genesis, x 21-22) represents Shem (or Sem), son of Noah, as the ancestor of the Semitic peoples. The title "Indo- Europeans" tells us that the members of that group now dwell in India and in Europe. Indo-European peoples are popularly called "Aryans," from a word in Sanskrit (the old Hindu language) meaning "noble."
Ancient history begins in the East—in Asia and in that part of Africa called Egypt, which the peoples of antiquity always regarded as belonging to Asia. If we look at a physical map of Asia, we see at once that it consists of two very unequal divisions separated by an almost continuous mass of mountains and deserts. These two divisions are Farther and Nearer, or Eastern and Western, Asia.
[Illustration: Map, PHYSICAL MAP OF ASIA.]
Farther Asia begins at the center of the continent with a series of elevated table-lands which rise into the lofty plateaus, known as the "Roof of the World." Here two tremendous mountain chains diverge. The Altai range runs out to the northeast and reaches the shores of the Pacific near Bering Strait. The Himalaya range extends southeast to the Malay peninsula. In the angle formed by their intersection lies the cold and barren region of East Turkestan and Tibet, the height of which, in some places, is ten thousand feet above the sea. From these mountains and plateaus the ground sinks gradually toward the north into the lowlands of West Turkestan and Siberia, toward the east and south into the plains of China and India.
The fertile territory of central China, watered by the two streams, Yangtse and Hoangho, was settled at a remote period by barbarous tribes. The civilization which they slowly developed in antiquity has endured with little change until the present day. The inhabitants of neighboring countries, Korea, Japan, and Indo-China, owe much to this civilization. It has exerted slight influence on the other peoples of Asia because the Chinese have always occupied a distant corner of the continent, cut off by deserts and mountains from the lands on the west. As if these barriers were not enough, they raised the Great Wall to protect their country from invasion.
[Illustration: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA The wall extends for about fifteen hundred miles along the northern frontier of China. In 1908 AD it was traversed for its entire length by an American Mr. W. E. Geil. He found many parts of the fortification still in good repair, though built twenty one centuries ago.]
Behind this mighty rampart the Chinese have lived secluded and aloof from the progress of our western world. In ancient times China was a land of mystery.
India was better known than China, especially its two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges, which flow to the southwest and southeast, respectively, and make this part of the peninsula one of the most fertile territories on the globe. Such a land attracted immigrants. The region now known as the Punjab, where the Indus receives the waters of five great streams, was settled by light-skinned Indo-Europeans [2] perhaps as early as 2000 B.C. Then they occupied the valley of the Ganges and so brought all northern India under their control.
India did not remain entirely isolated from the rest of Asia, The Punjab was twice conquered by invaders from the West; by the Persians in the sixth century B.C., [3] and about two hundred years later by the Greeks. [4] After the end of foreign rule India continued to be of importance through its commerce, which introduced such luxuries as precious stones, spices, and ivory among the western peoples.
Nearer, or Western Asia, the smaller of the two grand divisions of the Asiatic continent, is bounded by the Black and Caspian seas on the north, by the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean on the south, eastward by the Indus River, and westward by the Mediterranean and the Nile. Almost all the countries within this area played a part in the ancient history of the Orient.
The lofty plateaus of central Asia decline on the west into the lower but still elevated region of Iran. The western part of Iran was occupied in antiquity by the kindred people known as Medes and Persians. Armenia, a wild and mountainous region, is an extension to the northwest of the Iranian table-land. Beyond Armenia we cross into the peninsula of Asia Minor, a natural link between Asia and Europe. Southward from Asia Minor we pass along the Mediterranean coast through Syria to Arabia. The Arabian peninsula may be regarded as the link between Asia and Africa.
These five countries of Nearer Asia were not well fitted to become centers of early civilization. They possessed no great rivers which help to bring people together, and no broad, fertile plains which support a large population. Armenia, Asia Minor, and Syria were broken up into small districts by chains of mountains. Iran and Arabia were chiefly barren deserts. But two other divisions of Nearer Asia resembled distant India and China in the possession of a warm climate, a fruitful soil, and an extensive river system. These lands were Babylonia and Egypt, the first homes of civilized man.
Two famous rivers rise in the remote fastnesses of Armenia—the Tigris and the Euphrates. As they flow southward, the twin streams approach each other to form a common valley, and then proceed in parallel channels for the greater part of their course. In antiquity each river emptied into the Persian Gulf by a separate mouth. This Tigris-Euphrates valley was called by the Greeks Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers."
Babylonia is a remarkably productive country. The annual inundation of the rivers has covered its once rocky bottom with deposits of rich silt. Crops planted in such a soil, under the influence of a blazing sun, ripen with great rapidity and yield abundant harvests. "Of all the countries that we know," says an old Greek traveler, "there is no other so fruitful in grain." [5] Wheat and barley were perhaps first domesticated in this part of the world. [6] Wheat still grows wild there. Though Babylonia possessed no forests, it had the date palm, which needed scarcely any cultivation. If the alluvial soil yielded little stone, clay, on the other hand, was everywhere. Molded into brick and afterwards dried in the sun, the clay becameadobe, the cheapest building material imaginable.
In Babylonia Nature seems to have done her utmost to make it easy for People to gain a living. We can understand, therefore, why from prehistoric times men have been attracted to this region, and why it is here that we must look for one of the earliest seats of civilization. [7]
Egypt may be described as the valley of the Nile. Rising in the Nyanza lakes of central Africa, that mighty stream, before entering Egypt, receives the waters of the Blue Nile near the modern town of Khartum. From this point the course of the river is broken by a series of five rocky rapids, misnamed cataracts, which can be shot by boats. The cataracts cease near the island of Philae, and Upper Egypt begins. This is a strip of fertile territory, about five hundred miles in length but averaging only eight miles in width. Not far from modern Cairo the hills inclosing the valley fall away, the Nile divides into numerous branches, and Lower Egypt, or the Delta, begins. The sluggish stream passes through a region of mingled swamp and plain, and at length by three principal mouths empties its waters into the Mediterranean.
[Illustration: PHILAE The island was originally only a heap of granite bowlders. Retaining walls were built around it, and the space within when filled with rich Nile mud, became beautiful with groves of palms and mimosas. As the result of the construction of the Assuan dam, Philae and its exquisite temples are now submerged during the winter months, when the reservoir is full.]
Egypt owes her existence to the Nile. All Lower Egypt is a creation of the river by the gradual accumulation of sediment at its mouths. Upper Egypt has been dug out of the desert sand and underlying rock by a process of erosion centuries long. Once the Nile filled all the space between the hills that line its sides. Now it flows through a thick layer of alluvial mud deposited by the yearly inundation.
The Nile begins to rise in June, when the snow melts on the Abyssinian mountains. High-water mark, some thirty feet above the ordinary level, is reached in September. The inhabitants then make haste to cut the confining dikes and to spread the fertilizing water over their fields. Egypt takes on the appearance of a turbid lake, dotted here and there with island villages and crossed in every direction by highways elevated above the flood. Late in October the river begins to subside and by December has returned to its normal level. As the water recedes, it deposits that dressing of fertile vegetable mold which makes the soil of Egypt perhaps the richest in the world. [8]
It was by no accident that Egypt, like Babylonia, became one of the first homes of civilized men. Here, as there, every condition made it easy for people to live and thrive. Food was cheap, for it was easily produced. The peasant needed only to spread his seed broadcast over the muddy fields to be sure of an abundant return. The warm, dry climate enabled him to get along with little shelter and clothing. Hence the inhabitants of this favored region rapidly increased in number and gathered in populous towns and cities. At a time when most of their neighbors were still in the darkness of the prehistoric age, the Egyptians had entered the light of history.
The earliest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we know anything were a people called Sumerians. They entered the Babylonian plain through the passes of the eastern mountains, three or four thousand years before the Christian era. Here they formed a number of independent states, each with its capital city, its patron god, and its king. After them came Semitic tribes from the deserts of northern Arabia. The Semites mingled with the Sumerians and adopted Sumerian civilization.
Of all the early Babylonian kings the most famous was Hammurabi. Some inscriptions still remain to tell how he freed his country from foreign invaders and made his native Babylon the capital of the entire land. This city became henceforth the real center of the Euphrates valley, to which, indeed, it gave its name. Hammurabi was also an able statesman, who sought to develop the territories his sword had won. He dug great canals to distribute the waters of the Euphrates and built huge granaries to store the wheat against a time of famine. In Babylon he raised splendid temples and palaces. For all his kingdom he published a code of laws, the oldest in the world. [9] Thus Hammurabi, by making Babylonia so strong and flourishing, was able to extend her influence in every direction. Her only important rival was Egypt.
[Illustration: TOP OF MONUMENT CONTAINING THE CODE OF HAMMURABI (British Museum, London) A block of black diorite nearly 8 feet high, on which the code is chiseled in 44 columns and over 3600 lines. The relief at the top of the monument shows the Babylonian king receiving the laws from the sun god who is seated at the right.]
The origin of the Egyptians is not known with certainty. In physical characteristics they resembled the native tribes of northern and inhabitants eastern Africa. Their language, however, shows of Egypt close kinship to the Semitic tongues of western Asia and Arabia. It is probable that the Egyptians, like the Babylonians, arose from the mingling of several peoples.
The history of Egypt commences with the union of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes. An ancient tradition made him the builder of Memphis, near the head of the Delta, and the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. Scholars once doubted these exploits and even regarded Menes himself as mythical. Recently, however, his tomb has been discovered. In the gray dawn of history Menes appears as a real personage, the first of that line of kings, or "Pharaohs," who for nearly three thousand years ruled over Egypt.
[Illustration: Map, EGYPTIAN EMPIRE About 1450 B.C.]
Several centuries after Menes we reach the age of the kings who raised the pyramids. Probably no other rulers have ever stamped their memory so indelibly on the pages of history as the builders of these mighty structures. The most celebrated monarch of this line was the Pharaoh whom the Greeks called Cheops. The Great Pyramid near Memphis, erected for his tomb, remains a lasting witness to his power.
[Illustration: TWO FAMOUS PHARAOHSKhufu (Cheops) builder of the Great PyramidMenephtah the supposed Pharaoh of the Exodus]
[Illustration: THE GREAT PYRAMID The pyramid when completed had a height of 481 feet. It is now 451 feet high. Its base covers about thirteen acres. Some of the blocks of white limestone used in construction weigh fifty tons. The facing of polished stone was gradually removed for building purposes by the Arabs. On the northern side of the pyramid a narrow entrance once carefully concealed, opens into tortuous passages which lead to the central vault. Here the sarcophagus of the king was placed. This chamber was long since entered and its contents rifled.]
[Illustration: THE GREAT SPHINX This colossal figure, human headed and lion bodied, is hewn from the natural rock. The body is about 150 feet long, the paws 50 feet, the head 30 feet. The height from the base to the top of the head is 70 feet. Except for its head and shoulders the figure has been buried for centuries in the desert sand. The eyes, nose and beard have been mutilated by the Arabs. The face is probably that of one of the pyramid kings.]
For a long time after the epoch of the pyramid kings the annals of Egypt furnish a record of quiet and peaceful progress. The old city of Memphis gradually declined in importance and Thebes in Upper Egypt became the capital. The vigorous civilization growing up in Egypt was destined, however, to suffer a sudden eclipse. About 1800 B.C. barbarous tribes from western Asia burst into the country, through the isthmus of Suez, and settled in the Delta. The Hyksos, as they are usually called, extended their sway over all Egypt. At first they ruled harshly, plundering the cities and enslaving the inhabitants, but in course of time the invaders adopted Egyptian culture and their kings reigned like native Pharaohs. The Hyksos are said to have introduced the horse and military chariot into Egypt. A successful revolt at length expelled the intruders and set a new line of Theban monarchs on the throne.
The overthrow of the Hyksos marked a new era in the history of Egypt. From a home-loving and peaceful people the Egyptians became a warlike race, ambitious for glory. The Pharaohs raised powerful armies and by extensive conquests created an Egyptian Empire, reaching from the Nile to the Euphrates.
This period of the imperial greatness of Egypt is the most splendid in its history. An extensive trade with Cyprus, Crete, and other Mediterranean Islands introduced many foreign luxuries. The conquered territories in Syria paid a heavy tribute of the precious metals, merchandise, and slaves. The forced labor of thousands of war captives enabled the Pharaohs to build public works in every part on their realm. Even the ruins of these stupendous structures are enough to indicate the majesty and power of ancient Egypt.
Of all the conquering Pharaohs none won more fame than Rameses II, who ruled for nearly seventy years. His campaigns in Syria were mainly against the Hittites, a warlike people who had moved southward from their home in Asia Minor and sought to establish themselves in the Syrian lands. Rameses does not appear to have been entirely successful against his foes. We find him at length entering into an alliance with "the great king of the Hittites," by which their dominion over northern Syria was recognized. In the arts of peace Rameses achieved a more enduring renown. He erected many statues and temples in various parts of Egypt and made Thebes, his capital, the most magnificent city of the age.
[Illustration: HEAD OF MUMMY OF RAMESES II (Museum of Gizeh) The mummy was discovered in 1881 AD in an underground chamber near the site of Thebes. With it were the coffins and bodies of more than a score of royal personages. Rameses II was over ninety years of age at the time of his death. In spite of the somewhat grotesque disguise of mummification, the face of this famous Pharaoh still wears an aspect of majesty and pride.]
Rameses II was the last of the great Pharaohs. After his death the empire steadily declined in strength. The Asiatic possessions fell away, never to be recovered. By 1100 B.C. Egypt had been restricted to her former boundaries in the Nile valley. The Persians, in the sixth century, brought the country within their own vast empire.
The Phoenicians were the first Syrian people to assume importance. Their country was a narrow stretch of coast, about one hundred and twenty miles in length, seldom more than twelve miles in width, between the Lebanon Mountains and the sea. This tiny land could not support a large population. As the Phoenicians increased in numbers, they were obliged to betake themselves to the sea. The Lebanon cedars furnished soft, white wood for shipbuilding, and the deeply indented coast offered excellent harbors. Thus the Phoenicians became preeminently a race of sailors. Their great cities, Sidon and Tyre, established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and had an extensive commerce with every region of the known world.
The Hebrews lived south of Phoenicia in the land of Canaan, west of the Jordan River Their history begins with the emigration of twelve Hebrew tribes (called Israelites) from northern Arabia to Canaan. In their new home the Israelites gave up the life of wandering shepherds and became farmers. They learned from the Canaanites to till the soil and to dwell in towns and cities.
The thorough conquest of Canaan proved to be no easy task. At first the twelve Israelitish tribes formed only a loose and weak confederacy without a common head. "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes." [10] The sole authority was that held by valiant chieftains and law-givers, such as Samson, Gideon, and Samuel, who served as judges between the tribes and often led them in successful attacks upon their foes. Among these were the warlike Philistines, who occupied the southwestern coast of Canaan. To resist the Philistines with success it was necessary to have a king who could bring all the scattered tribes under his firm, well-ordered rule.
In Saul, "a young man and a goodly," the warriors of Israel found a leader to unite them against their enemies. His reign was passed in constant struggles with the Philistines. David, who followed him, utterly destroyed the Philistine power and by further conquests extended the boundaries of the new state. For a capital city he selected the ancient fortress of Jerusalem. Here David built himself a royal palace and here he fixed the Ark, the sanctuary of Jehovah. Jerusalem became to the Israelites their dearest possession and the center of their national life.
[Illustration: Map, CANAAN as Divided among THE TRIBES]
The reign of Solomon, the son and successor of David, was the most splendid period in Hebrew history. His kingdom stretched from the Red Sea and the peninsula of Sinai northward to the Lebanon Mountains and the Euphrates. With the surrounding peoples Solomon was on terms of friendship and alliance. He married an Egyptian princess, a daughter of the reigning Pharaoh. He joined with Hiram, king of Tyre, in trading expeditions on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The same Phoenician monarch supplied him with the "cedars of Lebanon," with which he erected at Jerusalem a famous temple for the worship of Jehovah. A great builder, a wise administrator and governor, Solomon takes his place as a typical Oriental despot, the most powerful monarch of the age.
[Illustration: A PHOENICIAN WAR GALLEY From a slab found at Nineveh in the palace of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib. The vessel shown is a bireme with two decks. On the upper deck are soldiers with their shields hanging over the side. The oarsmen sit on the lower deck, eight at each side. The crab catching the fish is a humorous touch.]
But the political greatness of the Hebrews was not destined to endure. The people were not ready to bear the burdens of empire. They objected to the standing army, to the forced labor on public buildings, and especially to the heavy taxes. The ten northern tribes seceded shortly after Solomon's death and established the independent kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria. The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, formed the kingdom of Judea, and remained loyal to the successors of Solomon.
[Illustration: Map, SOLOMON'S KINGDOM]
The two small Hebrew kingdoms could not resist their powerful neighbors. About two centuries after the secession of the Ten Tribes, the Assyrians overran Israel. Judea was subsequently conquered by the Babylonians. Both countries in the end became a part of the Persian Empire.
Assyria, lying east of the Tigris River, was colonized at an early date by emigrants from Babylonia. After the Assyrians freed themselves from Babylonian control, they entered upon a series of sweeping conquests. Every Asiatic state felt their heavy hand. The Assyrian kings created a huge empire stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, and the Nile. For the first time in Oriental history Mesopotamia and Egypt, with the intervening territory, were brought under one government.
This unification of the Orient was accomplished only at a fearful cost. The records of Assyria are full of terrible deeds—of towns and cities without number given to the flames, of the devastation of fertile fields and orchards, of the slaughter of men, women, and children, of the enslavement of entire nations. Assyrian monarchs, in numerous inscriptions, boast of the wreck and ruin they brought to many flourishing lands.
[Illustration: AN ASSYRIANFrom a Nineveh bas-relief. The original is colored.]
The treatment of conquered peoples by the Assyrian rulers is well illustrated by their dealings with the Hebrews. One of the mightiest monarchs was an usurper, who ascended the throne as Sargon II. Shortly after his succession he turned his attention to the kingdom of Israel, which had revolted. Sargon in punishment took its capital city of Samaria (722 B.C.) and led away many thousands of the leading citizens into a lifelong captivity in distant Assyria. The Ten Tribes mingled with the population of that region and henceforth disappeared from history.
[Illustration: ANCIENT ORIENTAL EMPIRESMap, THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE about 660 B.C.Map, LYDIA, MEDIA, BABYLONIA and EGYPT about 550 B.C.]
Sargon's son, Sennacherib, though not the greatest, is the best known of Assyrian kings. His name is familiar from the many references to him in Old Testament writings. An inscription by Sennacherib describes an expedition against Hezekiah, king of Judea, who was shut up "like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem." Sennacherib, however, did not capture the place. His troops were swept away by a pestilence. The ancient Hebrew writer conceives it as the visitation of a destroying angel: "It came to pass that night that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies." [11] So Sennacherib departed, and returned with a shattered army to Nineveh, his capital.
[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN RELIEF (British Museum, London)The relief represents the siege and capture of Lachish, a city of theCanaanites, by Sennacherib's troops. Notice the total absence ofperspective in this work.]
Although Assyria recovered from this disaster, its empire rested on unstable foundations. The subject races were attached to their oppressive masters by no ties save those of force. When Assyria grew exhausted by its career of conquest, they were quick to strike a blow for freedom. By the middle of the seventh century Egypt had secured her independence, and many other provinces were ready to revolt. Meanwhile, beyond the eastern mountains, the Medes were gathering ominously on the Assyrian frontier. The storm broke when the Median monarch, in alliance with the king of Babylon, moved upon Nineveh and captured it. The city was utterly destroyed.
[Illustration: THE ISHTAR GATE, BABYLON Explorations on the site of Babylon have been conducted since 1899 A.D. by the German Oriental Society. Large parts of the temple area, as well as sections of the royal palaces, have been uncovered. The most important structure found is the Ishtar Gate. The towers which flank it are adorned with figures of dragons and bulls in brilliantly colored glazed tile.]