Early European History Part 13

Babylonian tapestries, carpets, and rugs enjoyed a high reputation for beauty of design and color. Egyptian gla.s.s with its waving lines of different hues was much prized. Precious stones were made into beads, necklaces, charms, and seals. The precious metals were employed for a great variety of ornaments. Egyptian paintings show the goldsmiths at work with blowpipe and forceps, fashioning bracelets, rings, and diadems, inlaying objects of stone and wood, or covering their surfaces with fine gold leaf. The manufacture of tiles and glazed pottery was everywhere carried on. Babylonia is believed to be the original home of porcelain.

Enameled bricks found there are unsurpa.s.sed by the best products of the present day.

TRADE

The development of the arts and crafts brought a new industrial cla.s.s into existence. There was now need of merchants and shopkeepers to collect manufactured products where they could be readily bought and sold. The cities of Babylonia, in particular, became thriving markets. Partnerships between tradesmen were numerous. We even hear of commercial companies.

Business life in ancient Babylonia wore, indeed, quite a modern look.

MONEY

Metallic money first circulated in the form of rings and bars. The Egyptians had small pieces of gold--"cow gold"--each of which was simply the value of a full-grown cow. [3] It was necessary to weigh the metal whenever a purchase took place. A common picture on the Egyptian monuments is that of the weigher with his balance and scales. Then the practice arose of stamping each piece of money with its true value and weight. The next step was coinage proper, where the government guarantees, not only the weight, but also the genuineness of the metal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EGYPTIAN WEIGHING "COW GOLD"]

COINAGE

The honor of the invention of coinage is generally given to the Lydians, whose country was well supplied with the precious metals. As early as the eighth century B.C. the Lydian monarchs began to strike coins of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. The famous Croesus,[4] whose name is still a synonym for riches, was the first to issue coins of pure gold and silver. The Greek neighbors of Lydia quickly adopted the art of coinage and so introduced it into Europe. [5]

BANKING

The use of money as a medium of exchange led naturally to a system of banking. In Babylonia, for instance, the bankers formed an important and influential cla.s.s. One great banking house, established at Babylon before the age of Sennacherib, carried on operations for several centuries.

Hundreds of legal doc.u.ments belonging to this firm have been discovered in the huge earthenware jars which served as safes. The Babylonian temples also received money on deposit and loaned it out again, as do our modern banks. Knowledge of the principles of banking pa.s.sed from Babylonia to Greece and thence to ancient Italy and Rome.

15. COMMERCE AND TRADE ROUTES

ASIATIC COMMERCE

The use of the precious metals as money greatly aided the exchange of commodities between different countries. The cities of the Tigris- Euphrates valley were admirably situated for commerce, both by sea and land. They enjoyed a central position between eastern and western Asia.

The shortest way by water from India skirted the southern coast of Iran and, pa.s.sing up the Persian Gulf, gained the valley of the two great rivers. Even more important were the overland roads from China and India which met at Babylon and Nineveh. Along these routes traveled long lines of caravans laden with the products of the distant East--gold and ivory, jewels and silks, tapestries, spices, and fine woods. Still other avenues of commerce radiated to the west and entered Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

Many of these trade routes are in use even to-day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES]

COMMERCE WITH EUROPE

While the inhabitants of Babylonia and a.s.syria were able to control the caravan routes of Asia, it was reserved for a Syrian people, the Phoenicians, to become the pioneers of commerce with Europe. As early as 1500 B.C. the rich copper mines of Cyprus attracted Phoenician colonists to this island. [6] From Cyprus these bold mariners and keen business men pa.s.sed to Crete, thence along the sh.o.r.es of Asia Minor to the Greek mainland, and possibly to the Black Sea. Some centuries later the Phoenicians were driven from these regions by the rising power of the Greek states. Then they sailed farther westward and established their trading posts in Sicily, Africa, and Spain. At length they pa.s.sed through the strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and visited the sh.o.r.es of western Europe and Africa.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, PHOENICIAN AND GREEK COLONIES]

PHOENICIAN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS

The Phoenicians obtained a great variety of products from their widely scattered settlements. The mines of Spain yielded tin, lead, and silver.

The tin was especially valuable because of its use in the manufacture of bronze. [7] From Africa came ivory, ostrich feathers, and gold; from Arabia, incense, perfumes, and costly spices. The Phoenicians found a ready sale for these commodities throughout the East. Still other products were brought directly to Phoenicia to provide the raw materials for her flourishing manufactures. The fine carpets and gla.s.sware, the artistic works in silver and bronze, and the beautiful purple cloths [8] produced by Phoenician factories were exported to every region of the known world.

PHOENICIAN VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION

The Phoenicians were the boldest sailors of antiquity. Some of their long voyages are still on record. We learn from the Bible that they made cruises on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and brought the gold of Ophir-- "four hundred and twenty talents"--to Solomon. [9] There is even a story of certain Phoenicians who, by direction of an Egyptian king, explored the eastern coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and after three years' absence returned to Egypt through the strait of Gibraltar. A much more probable narrative is that of the voyage of Hanno, a Carthaginian admiral. We still possess a Greek translation of his interesting log book.

It describes an expedition made about 500 B.C. along the western coast of Africa. The explorers seem to have sailed as far as the country now called Sierra Leone. Nearly two thousand years elapsed before a similar voyage along the African coast was undertaken.

PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS

Wherever the Phoenicians journeyed, they established settlements. Most of these were merely trading posts which contained the warehouses for the storage of their goods. Here the shy natives came to barter their raw materials for the finished products--cloths, tools, weapons, wine, and oil--which the strangers from the East had brought with them. Phoenician settlements sometimes grew to be large and flourishing cities. The colony of Gades in southern Spain, mentioned in the Old Testament as Tarshish, [10] survives to this day as Cadiz. The city of Carthage, founded in North Africa by colonists from Tyre, became the commercial mistress of the Mediterranean. Carthaginian history has many points of contact with that of the Greeks and Romans.

16. LAW AND MORALITY

BABYLONIAN CONTRACTS

It is clear that societies so highly organized as Phoenicia, Egypt, and Babylonia must have been held together by the firm bonds of law. The ancient Babylonians, especially, were a legal-minded people. When a man sold his wheat, bought a slave, married a wife, or made a will, the transaction was duly noted on a contract tablet, which was then filed away in the public archives. Instead of writing his name, a Babylonian stamped his seal on the wet clay of the tablet. Every man who owned property had to have a seal.

CODE OF HAMMURABI

The earliest laws were, of course, unwritten. They were no more than the long-established customs of the community. As civilization advanced, the usages that generally prevailed were written out and made into legal codes. A recent discovery has given to us the almost complete text of the laws which Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, ordered to be engraved on stone monuments and set up in all the chief cities of his realm. [11]

SUBJECT MATTER OF HAMMURABI'S CODE

The code of Hammurabi shows, in general, a high sense of justice. A man who tries to bribe a witness or a judge is to be severely punished. A farmer who is careless with his dikes and allows the water to run through flood his neighbor's land must restore the value of the grain he has damaged. The owner of a vicious ox which has gored a man must pay a heavy fine, provided he knew the disposition of the animal and had not blunted its horns. A builder who puts up a shaky house which afterwards collapses and kills the tenant is himself to be put to death. On the other hand, the code has some rude features. Punishments were severe. For injuries to the body there was the simple rule of retaliation: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb. A son who had struck his father was to have his hands cut off. The nature of the punishment depended, moreover, on the rank of the aggrieved party. A person who had caused the loss of a "gentleman's" eye was to have his own plucked out; but if the injury was done to a poor man, the culprit had only to pay a fine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BABYLONIAN CONTRACT TABLET The actual tablet is on the right, on the left is a hollow clay case or envelope.]

IMPORTANCE OF HAMMURABI'S CODE

Hammurabi's laws thus present a vivid picture of Oriental society two thousand years before Christ. They always remained the basis of the Babylonian and a.s.syrian legal system. They were destined, also, to exert considerable influence upon Hebrew legislation. Centuries after Hammurabi the enactments of the old Babylonian king were reproduced in some of the familiar regulations of the laws of Moses. In this way they became the heritage of the Hebrews and, through them, of our modern world.

THE MOSAIC CODE

The laws which we find in the earlier books of the Bible were ascribed by the Hebrews to Moses. These laws covered a wide range of topics. They fixed all religious ceremonies, required the observance every seventh day of the Sabbath, dealt with marriage and the family, stated the penalties for wrongdoing, gave elaborate rules for sacrifices, and even indicated what foods must be avoided as "unclean." No other ancient people possessed so elaborate a code. The Jews throughout the world obey, to this day, its precepts. And modern Christendom still recites the Ten Commandments, the n.o.blest summary of the rules of right living that has come down to us from the ancient world.

17. RELIGION

NATURE WORSHIP

Oriental ideas of religion, even more than of law and morality, were the gradual outgrowth of beliefs held by the Asiatic peoples in prehistoric times. Everywhere nature worship prevailed. The vault of heaven, earth and ocean, sun, moon, and stars were all regarded either as themselves divine or as the abode of divinities. The sun was an object of especial adoration. We find a sun G.o.d, under different names, in every Oriental country.

BABYLONIAN BELIEF IN EVIL SPIRITS

Another inheritance from prehistoric times was the belief in evil spirits.

In Babylonia and a.s.syria this superst.i.tion became a prominent feature of the popular religion. Men supposed themselves to be constantly surrounded by a host of demons which caused insanity, sickness, disease, and death-- all the ills of life. People lived in constant fear of offending these malignant beings.

MAGIC

To cope with evil spirits the Babylonian used magic. He put up a small image of a protecting G.o.d at the entrance to his house and wore charms upon his person. If he felt ill, he went to a priest, who recited a long incantation supposed to drive out the "devil" afflicting the patient. The reputation of the Babylonian priests was so widespread that in time the name "Chaldean" [12] came to mean one who is a magician. Some of their magical rites were borrowed by the Jews, and later by the Romans, from whom they entered Christian Europe. Another Babylonian practice which spread westward was that of divination, particularly by inspecting the entrails of animals slain in sacrifice. This was a very common method of divination among the Greeks and Romans. [13]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EGYPTIAN SCARAB The beetle, as a symbol of birth and resurrection, and hence of immortality, enjoyed much reverence in ancient Egypt. A scarab, or image of the beetle, was often worn as a charm and was placed in the mummy as an artificial heart.]

ASTROLOGY

Astrology received much attention. It was believed that the five planets, comets, and eclipses of the sun and moon exerted an influence for good or evil on the life of man. Babylonian astrology likewise extended to western lands and became popular among the Greeks and Romans. Some of it survives to the present time. When we name the days Sat.u.r.day, Sunday, and Monday, we are unconscious astrologers, for in old belief the first day belonged to the planet Saturn, the second to the sun, and the third to the moon.