The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 13

[283] Lepsius, "Gotterkreis," s. 30; Bunsen, "aegypten," 5, 1, 189 ff.

[284] Papyrus, Sallier III.

[285] De Rouge, "Recueil de Travaux," 1, 3 ff.; Chabas, "Revue Archeol."

1875.

[286] On the papyrus Sallier I.; "Revue Archeol." 1860, 2, 241.

[287] Goodwin-Chabas, _loc. cit._ 1861, 4, 118 ff.

[288] _Loc. cit._ 1860, 1, 357.

[289] De Rouge, _loc. cit._ 1852. On another very marvellous narrative on a papyrus in the demotic character, see Brugsch, _loc. cit._ 1867, 16, 161 ff. This papyrus Brugsch, on paleographical grounds, places in the third or second centuries B.C.

[290] Lauth, "Sitzungsberichte der Akademie, zu Munchen," 1872, 347 ff, and his "Abhandlung uber den papyrus Sallier II. und Anastasi III.;"

_ibid._ p. 29 ff.; cf. Chabas, "Voyage d'un Egyptien," and Goodwin, "Saneha."

[291] Boeckh, "Manetho und die Hundsternperiode;" Lepsius, "Chronologie," s. 470 ff. and _supra_, p. 40.

[292] Diod. 1. 81.

[293] Brugsch, "Zeitschrift d. d. M. S." 10, 662 ff.

[294] The Egyptians then compared certain constellations in their spheres with the signs of the zodiac. The Crab they denoted by the scarabaeus, the Lion by the knife, the Scales became the "sun-mountain,"

the Scorpion became the snake. The Kid was with them "the life," the Ram "the slain" &c.--Brugsch, _loc. cit._

[295] Champollion, "Lettres," p. 239; Lepsius, "Chronologie," s. 109, 110; cf. _supra_, p. 58.

[296] Champollion, "Lettres," p. 196.

[297] Diod. 1, 74.

[298] Wilkinson, "Manners and Customs," 3, 4.

[299] Strabo, p. 758; cf. p. 147.

[300] _Supra_, p. 94; Ebers, "Durch Gosen," s. 135 ff.

[301] Herod. 2, 78.

[302] Wilkinson, "Manners and Customs," 2, 132.

[303] Cf. _infra_, Book II. cap. 3.

[304] 1 Kings x. 28, 29; 2 Chronicles i. 16, 17; ix. 28.

[305] "Od." 14, 288; 4, 225, 355; 17, 448; Movers, "Phoenizier," 2, 70.

BOOK II.

THE SEMITIC NATIONS.

THE SEMITIC NATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF BABYLON.

The neighbours of Egypt on the east were the Syrians and Arabians.

Herodotus gives the name of Syrians to the inhabitants of the Syrian coasts and Mount Lebanon, the settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris, and the population of the eastern districts of Asia Minor. In Xenophon the Babylonians speak Syriac. Strabo remarks that the Syrians and Arabians are closely related in language, mode of life, and physique--that Syrians dwelt on both sides of the Taurus--that the same language was spoken on both sides of the Euphrates--that Babylon and Nineveh were cities of the Syrians--that the a.s.syrian kingdom was a kingdom of Syrians, and that the inhabitants of the kingdom of Babylon and Nineveh were called Syrians by their own historians.[306] As a fact tribes closely related in language and nature--which we denote by the general term Semitic--invaded with their armies the broad steppes of Arabia, and the Syrian desert, occupied the coasts of Syria and a part of Asia Minor, and inhabited the district of the Euphrates and Tigris, from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf on the south, and the tableland of Iran on the east. The languages of the Arabians, the Semitic tribes of the south, the Aramaeans and Canaanites in the west, and the Babylonians and a.s.syrians in the east, are three ramifications springing from one and the same stem of language, which spreads from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to the Arabian and Persian Gulfs. Living under different conditions, the Semitic nations attained to different degrees of civilization. The tribes of the desert did not go beyond the simplest and most primitive forms, at which point a considerable portion of them still remain; but the inhabitants of more favoured districts developed independently, and in the course of time these developments operated on each other, and thus led to a far more varied, and, in certain directions, far more vigorous culture, than the isolated, exclusive, and self-concentrated civilization of Egypt.

The two rivers which determine the character and nature of the depression between the Syrian plateau and the tableland of Iran rise at no great distance from each other on the mountains of Armenia. The Euphrates rises to the north, the Tigris to the south. After leaving the mountains of Armenia--the Euphrates, by a broad circuit to the west, the Tigris by a direct course to the south--both rivers enter a tolerably lofty steppe, where the uniform surface is broken by ridges of rock, by ranges of hills, pastures, and fruitful strips of land, while the banks of the rivers are overgrown with forests of plane-trees, tamarisks, and cypresses, and shut in by meadows. As the soil becomes more level, these fruitful depressions by the rivers become somewhat broader, but the land between the streams becomes more sterile and treeless, and supports only nomad tribes and herds of wild a.s.ses, ostriches, and bustards.[307]

When the Euphrates has left behind the last spurs of this desolate hill country, at the place where the two rivers approach each other most nearly--about 400 miles from their mouths--there commences a plain of brown rich soil. Through this the Euphrates pa.s.ses with a quiet stream, but the Tigris hurries to the sea down a bed which is both narrower, and often inclosed by rocks, while at the same time the river is increased by copious additions from the western edge of the tableland of Iran. In spite of the excellent soil this flat would remain unfruitful unless the two rivers, year by year, when the snow melted on the Armenian mountains, overflowed their banks, and thus irrigated the land for the summer. In the Tigris the inundation commences about the beginning of June, in the Euphrates, whose sources lie far higher, about the beginning of July. But this inundation does not take place nearly so calmly and regularly as that in the Nile. Instead of fertilising water, the Tigris often sends down destructive floods over the plain, and changes it, down to the marshy Delta at the mouth, into a broad and rolling sea.

By its simple structure and the absence of any internal limitations, this low-lying land on the Euphrates and Tigris was favourable to the development of great kingdoms, and was hardly behind the Nile in incentives and instigations to a civilised life. The writers of antiquity celebrate the fruitfulness and natural wealth of these flats.

While on the other side of the Euphrates, so writes a Babylonian historian of his own home, the land as far as Arabia is without water and fruits, and on the other side of the Tigris the land is indeed fruitful but rocky; in the land between the streams wheat and barley, linseed beans and sesame grow wild; both in the marshes and the reeds of the river nourishing roots are found in abundance, as valuable for food as barley. Besides these there are dates, and apples, and other different fruits, and abundance of fish and birds in the marsh and on the land. Herodotus commends the wealth of the land in wheat and palms in the strongest terms; Xenophon speaks in admiration of the size and beauty of the dates.[308] Even now the palm-forests which run without interruption along the lower course of both rivers produce dates in abundance, and with their slender forms and lofty tops give a picturesqueness to the otherwise uniform landscape. This vigorous vegetation, together with the peculiar character of the land, must have early incited a capable population to a regular cultivation and a higher civilization. The protection of the land against the rapid overflow, the conducting of the water to the higher districts, and the removal of water from the marshes, must have led to measures calculated to produce and develop a fertility of technical resources. Basins were required of more considerable extent, longer ca.n.a.ls, and stronger dams against the violent inundations, and more extensive conduits, in order to convey the water into the middle of the land, than were necessary in Egypt. Long before Egypt had reached the height of her power and prosperity under the Tuthmosis and Amenophis and the early Ramessids, the inhabitants of this plain had attained to a peculiar culture and civilisation.

The accounts which the Greeks have handed down to us of the fortunes of these districts in ancient times are meagre and defective. The power of the Semitic empires on the Euphrates and Tigris had fallen long before inquisitive Greeks penetrated the East, and the Persians, who were the rulers at that time, had little interest in instructing the Greeks in the former splendour of their opponents and ancient masters. Herodotus intended to write the history of the a.s.syrians; if ever composed, it has not come down to our times. On the other hand, he has described the land, manners, and customs of the Babylonians; of their history, however, he only tells us that many kings and two queens ruled over Babylon.[309] Aristotle remarks that in Babylon astronomical observations were said to exist extending back 31,000 years from the time of Alexander the Great.[310] Diodorus tells us that the priests of Babylon declared that they had observed the heavens for 473,000 years.

Cicero speaks of the shamelessness of the Chaldaeans in boasting that they possessed records for more than 470,000 years. Julius Africa.n.u.s gives 480,000 years, and Pliny even 720,000 years as the period for which observations of the heavens burnt upon tiles were in existence.[311]

About the time when Manetho compiled his list of Egyptian sovereigns, under the rule of Antiochus Soter (281-262 B.C.) Berosus, a priest of the temple of Bel at Babylon, composed a history of his country in Greek in three books.[312] Only a few fragments of this work have come down to us. Berosus commenced with the creation of the world. "Once all was darkness and water. In this chaos lived horrid animals, and men with two wings, and others with four wings and two faces, and others again with double organs male and female. Others had the thighs of goats, and horns on their heads; others had horses' feet, or were formed behind like a horse and in front like a man. There were bulls with human heads, and horses and men with the heads of dogs, and other animals of human shape with fins like fishes, and fishes like sirens, and dragons, and creeping things, and serpents and wild creatures, the images of which are to be found in the temple of Bel. Over all these ruled a woman of the name of Omorka. But Bel divided the darkness and clove the woman asunder, and of one part he made the earth, and of the other the sun and moon and planets, and he drew off the water,[313] and apportioned it to the land, and prepared and arranged the world. But those creatures could not endure the light of the sun, and became extinct. When Bel saw the land uninhabited and fruitful, he smote off his head and bade one of the G.o.ds mingle the blood which flowed from his head with earth, and form therewith men and animals and wild creatures, who could support the atmosphere. A great mult.i.tude of men of various tribes inhabited Chaldaea, but they lived without any order, like the animals. Then there appeared to them from the sea, on the sh.o.r.e of Babylonia, a fearful animal of the name of Oan. Its body was that of a fish, but under the fish's head another head was attached, and on the fins were feet like those of a man, and it had a man's voice. Its image is still preserved.

The animal came at morning and pa.s.sed the day with men. But it took no nourishment, and at sunset went again into the sea, and there remained for the night. This animal taught men language and science, the harvesting of seeds and fruits, the rules for the boundaries of land, the mode of building cities and temples, arts and writing, and all that pertains to the civilisation of human life."[314]

The first sovereign of Babylon was Alorus, a Chaldaean of the city of Babylon, whom the G.o.d had himself pointed out to the nation as a shepherd. His reign continued for 36,000 years. After the death of Alorus, his son Alaparus ruled for 10,800 years. He was succeeded by Almelon from the Chaldaeans, of the city of Sippara, for 46,800 years, and Almelon by Ammenon, a Chaldaean of the same city for 43,200 years.

Under his rule there came out of the sea an animal, combining, like Oan, the shape of a fish and a man, and called Idotion.[315] After Ammenon came Amegalarus, of the city of Sippara, for 64,800 years, and after him Daonus, also from Sippara, for 36,000 years. In his reign there again appeared from the Red Sea four animals in the shape of men and fish.

These were Euedokus, Eneugamus, Eneubulus, and Anementus. Daonus was followed by Edorankhus, from Sippara, who ruled for 64,800 years, and in his time appeared another monster of the same kind, named Odakon. These explained in detail what Oan had given in the sum. After Edorankhus came Amempsinus, a Chaldaean of Larancha for 36,000 years,[316] and after him Otiartes (Ubaratulu),[317] a Chaldaean of the same city for 28,000 years.

Otiartes was followed by his son Xisuthrus who reigned 64,800 years.

From the first year of Alorus to the last year of Xisuthrus 432,000 years had elapsed. "In this year the G.o.d Bel revealed to Xisuthrus in a dream that in the fifteenth year of the month Daesius there would be a great storm of rain, and men would be destroyed by the flood of waters.

He bade him bury all written records, the ancient, mediaeval, and modern, in Sippara, the city of the sun, and build a ship and embark in it with his kindred and nearest friends. He was also to take food and drink into the ship, and carry into it all creatures winged and four-footed.

Xisuthrus did as he was bidden, and built a boat fifteen stadia long,[318] and two stadia in breadth, and placed in it his wife and child, his relations and friends. Then the inundation came. When the rain ceased, Xisuthrus sent out some birds, but they returned back to the ship, as they could find nothing to eat and no place of rest. After a few days he sent out other birds. These also returned, but with mud on their feet. Then Xisuthrus sent yet others, and they never returned.

Xisuthrus knew that the earth had appeared. He took out a part of the roof of his boat, and perceived that it had settled down on a mountain.

Then he went out with his wife and daughter and the architect of the boat. He worshipped the earth, and built an altar, offered sacrifice to the G.o.ds, and then disappeared together with those whom he had brought out of the boat. When his companions, whom he had left in the boat, had gone out, and were in search of Xisuthrus, his voice called to them out of the air, saying that the G.o.ds had carried him away in reward for his piety; that he with his daughter and the architect were dwelling among the G.o.ds. But the others were to return from Armenia, where they then were, to Babylon, and, in obedience to the command of the G.o.ds, dig up the books buried at Sippara, and give them to mankind. They obeyed these instructions. They sacrificed to the G.o.ds, and returned by land to Babylon. They dug up the sacred books, erected many cities and temples, and rebuilt Babylon. On the Gordyaean mountains, where it settled, remains of the boat of Xisuthrus were in existence for a long time afterwards.[319] In Lucian Xisuthrus is called Sisythes; and he with wives and children is said to have escaped, in the great ark, the flood which destroyed everything else.

After the flood Euexius reigned over the land of the Chaldaeans for 2,400 years. He was followed by his son Chomasbelus, who reigned 2,700 years; and after him came eighty-four kings, who, if we reckon in the reigns of Euexius and Chomasbelus, ruled for 34,080 years.[320] Then the Medes gathered together an army against Babylon, and took the land, and set up tyrants from among their own people. These, eight in number, reigned over Babylon for 234 years. After that eleven kings reigned for 248 years; then followed the Chaldaeans, with forty-nine kings, who ruled over Babylon for 458 years. These were followed by nine Arabian kings for 245 years, and then came forty-five a.s.syrian kings for 526 years.

These were followed by Sennacherib, Asordan, Samuges, and his brother, and afterwards by Nabopola.s.sar. After Nabopola.s.sar, Nabukudurussar (Nebuchadnezzar) and his successor reigned for sixty-seven years.[321]

Such is the essential information contained in the fragments of Berosus which have come down to us. They give us a tolerably clear view of the system of cosmogony set up by the priests of Babylon, of the way in which order and civilisation arose among men by successive revelations from divine creatures coming out of the sea, and a sketch, though a very meagre one, of the dynasties which reigned over Babylon down to the time of Cyrus. The enormous number of 432,000 years, which the fragments allot to the ten rulers of the first dynasty, and the 34,080 years of the second dynasty, which came immediately after the flood, show that the statements of Diodorus, Cicero, and Pliny are not mere imagination, though these totals are perhaps scarcely intended to give the period during which observations were made by the Chaldaeans, but the antiquity ascribed by the Babylonian priests to the existence of the world before and after the flood.