The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 20

[470] Krehl, "Religion der Araber," 8, 24; Osiander, "Zeitschr. d. d. M.

G." 7, 473 ff.

[471] Osiander, _loc. cit._ 7, 487. On a stone image we find a cow and a calf with the inscription "Uzza."

[472] Krehl, "Religion der Araber," s. 73, 78. On the seven black stones of the planets at Erech.--"W. A. J." 2, 50. On the stones of the Kaabah, Lenormant, "Lettres a.s.syr." 2, 120 ff.; Caussin, "Hist. des Arabes," 1, 165, 176 ff.

[473] Strabo, p. 784; Suid. [Greek: Theos Ares]; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Dousare].

[474] Krehl, _loc. cit._ s. 49. See _ibid._ on the worship of Alful, Sahd, and Sahid.

[475] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 330 ff.

[476] Noldeke, "Inschrift. des Mesa," s. 6. The amalgamation of Astarte with Camus, like the amalgamation with Melkarth among the Phenicians presupposes the separate worship of the G.o.ddess.--G. Smith, "a.s.surbanipal," p. 283.

CHAPTER V.

THE CANAANITES.

Between the basin of the Euphrates and Tigris and the Mediterranean rise the mountains of Syria, an elevated plateau which ascends gradually from the right bank of the Euphrates and descends steeply on the sea-coast. A peculiar depression, known as Hollow Syria,[477] divides this region in its entire length from north to south--from the Taurus to the N.E. point of the Red Sea, and separates the plateau into an eastern and a western half. The bed of the narrow valley reaches its greatest elevation in the neighbourhood of the city of Baalbec (Heliopolis). From this point the Orontes flows towards the north and irrigates the green gardens of Emesa and Hamath, till it turns westward and finds a way toward the sea at Antioch; the Leontes and the Jordan flow towards the south. Between steep walls of rock the Jordan hurries down the gorge, and pa.s.ses in a rapid course through the lakes of Merom and Kinneroth (Gennesareth), which are formed by the streams from the mountains on either side. The deeper the bed of the valley the more valuable are the fruits growing in the tropic atmosphere. The country round Jericho, the city of palms, sheltered from the winds of the table-land and heated by the rays refracted from the walls of rock, produces grapes and figs for ten months in the year; its wealth in dates and balsam was rated high in antiquity.[478] The course of the Jordan ends in the Dead Sea, the surface of which is about 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.

Out of Hollow Syria rises on the east like a wall of rock the plateau of Aram,[479] in naked, wild, and broken ridges, which, in Antiliba.n.u.s, the highest point, reaches 9,000 feet. On the back of the mountains we find at first green pastures overshadowed by forests of oak, but further towards the east the heights become bald and desolate, until the land, as it sinks towards the Euphrates, gradually a.s.sumes the character of the deserts, which are broken only by the fruitful depressions of Damascus, Hieropolis (Membidsh), and Tadmor (Palmyra).

On the west of the fissure the land is differently shaped. The coast is a narrow strip of land, which only extends into small plains at the mouths of the mountain streams; it is hot, moist, and unhealthy, but of great fertility. Soon the white and yellow limestone rocks of the mountains begin to rise. On these heights the air is purer and cooler, and terraces planted with myrtles and oleanders, with pines, fig-trees, and mulberries, alternate with vineyards. On the broad slopes of the loftier mountain ridges rise splendid forests of tamarisks, planes, cypresses and nut-trees, and above all magnificent cedars. Even now some trees are found here forty feet in girth and ninety feet in height.[480]

Just in front of the highest ridges of rock lie green slopes, on which feed numerous flocks of black goats, disturbed by jackals, bears, and lions, dwelling in the desolate gorges. Between the mouth of the Orontes and the promontory of Carmel, which runs out far into the sea, this mountain wall, which stretches out to the sea, reaches its greatest height in the peaks of Liba.n.u.s (over 10,000 feet) of which Tacitus remarks with astonishment that they retained the snow even in that hot climate.[481] Rising above the green pastures and forests, the cultivated and watered fields, this ridge with its white mantle of snow gives the appearance of a winter landscape above perpetual spring.

Southward of Carmel the mountains become lower, and at the same time less precipitous and picturesque. The coast is broader and more sandy, flatter, and with fewer harbours. In the place of the steep ridges is a gra.s.sy depression (Esdraelon, Galilee), overtopped by one or two peaks only, like Tabor (1,700 feet). Then parallel ridges again form valleys, broad and fruitful and overshadowed by forests (Samaria), until the land between the Dead Sea and the coast a.s.sumes a severer and wilder character. There the table-land is rough and bare, the valleys are narrow and deep clefts, the soil is stony. From Liba.n.u.s the eye looks out on the most various groups of wooded promontories and a smiling coast, but in Judaea the landscape exhibits none but severe and simple outlines. On the wide expanses only a few bushes of pale olives arise, or transparent groups of a few palm-trees. The gra.s.sy plains have made way for steppes or downs, and even the bed of the valleys is covered with fresh green only in the brief rainy season. The region round the Dead Sea is wholly desolate. Springs of sulphur and beds of bitumen point to a volcanic origin; the large proportion of salt contained in the water makes it impossible for fish to live in the lake, and the deposits of salt which cover the country round restrict the vegetation.

In contrast to the vast and uniform regions of the Tigris and Euphrates and Arabia, the western mountains of Syria exhibit change and variety.

The narrowness of the coast forces the inhabitants upon the sea, the luxuriant fertility of the deeper valleys invites to cultivation of the land and the planting of vines and orchards, while the upland valleys and mountain slopes permit nothing but pastoral life, combined with a little agriculture. There is no central district from which these numerous and for the most part secluded mountain cantons can be brought into unity and governed. In the place of the uniform development of large ma.s.ses of people we have here to expect a variety of modes of culture; in the place of one huge despotic kingdom, and the uniform movement of wandering tribes a more independent and unfettered development of small communities; sharp contrasts appear in the place of a general civilisation. At the same time these Syrian coasts by the sea and mountain air, by life on the ocean and among the hills, compensate to a great degree the enervating influences of the Eastern sun, and thus the elements are combined which are wont to keep fresh and vigorous the life and power of the inhabitants. As the sea attracted the inhabitants to distant regions, and trained upon its waves a mobile, enterprising, active population, so on the other hand did the severe formation of the hills and the seclusion of the valleys lead to a uniform unchanging mode of life and a desire to retain what was customary and traditional. The nearer these opposites approached each other the more energetic must have been their mutual operation, the more lively the process of intellectual life, and the more productive its results.

The mountain district extending on the west of the fissure from Mount Hermon and the sources of the Orontes southward as far as the desert which divides Syria from Egypt was by its inhabitants called Canaan. We met with this name already in the inscriptions of Sethos I. It means lower land, and has obviously been transferred from the coast to the interior. Among the Greeks the southern strip of coast was named Palaestina, after the Philistines (the Pelishtim) who possessed it; the northern part, from Carmel to the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) was Phenicia; among the Egyptians the coast was known as Kaft; the tribes of the interior, and more especially those of Northern Syria, were known as Retennu.[482]

The oldest information about these districts which has come down to us is contained in the statements about the campaigns which Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk of Elam are said to have undertaken against Syria (p.

251). If we might regard the kings of Elam, who extended their power over Babylonia, and then forced their way to Syria, as belonging to the fourth dynasty of Berosus, the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk could be placed about the year 2000 B.C. When Babylonia under Sarrukin and Hammurabi shook off the supremacy of Elam, Sarrukin is said to have advanced towards Syria as far as the "Western Sea" (p. 260). Three centuries later Syria was attacked from the western or opposite side. As soon as the kings of Upper Egypt had succeeded in expelling the Hyksos from the land, they carried their arms towards Syria, and in these campaigns repeatedly touched the Euphrates. In the times of Tuthmosis I.

(1646-1625 B.C.) we are told that he traversed Syria towards the north, advanced as far as the Euphrates, and set up a column there. Tuthmosis III. (1591-1565 B.C.) marched seven times against Syria; in the fourth campaign (1580 B.C.) he reached and crossed the Euphrates; then he appears to have advanced through Mesopotamia as far as the Tigris, and to have collected tribute there.[483] More than one hundred and fifty years later Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.) fought against the Schasu, _i.e._ the Shepherds, "who extend as far as Canana," the Cheta (Hitt.i.tes), and the Retennu, _i.e._ the Syrians. Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.) invaded the land of Kaft, and caused memorials of his victories to be engraved upon the rocks at Nahr-el-Kelb, in the neighbourhood of Berytus, fought against the Hitt.i.tes and their allies from the Euphrates, the prince of Karchemish, and then concluded peace and entered into friendship with the prince of the Cheta (p. 150 ff). The campaigns of Ramses III.

(1269-1244 B.C.) were also directed against the Schasu, the Cheta, whose prince he took alive, the Amari (the Amorites) and the Pulista (the Philistines, p. 164).

The inscriptions of these Pharaohs prove that the tribes of Syria, even as early as the sixteenth century B.C., had arrived not only at a settled mode of life, but at a vigorous trade and a civilisation far from contemptible. The princes of Syria met Tuthmosis III. with numerous war-chariots, of which in the battle of Megiddo they lost 924 (p. 132).

If Tuthmosis can mention 107 cities from Hamath in the north to Gaza in the south which he had subjugated, the population must have been already more numerous and the land more thickly inhabited. The names quoted prove that Gaza (Kazatu), Damascus (Tamesku), Hamath (Hamtu), Joppa (j.a.pu), Berothai (Berytus), Kades (Kadeshu), Ashtaroth Karnaim (Astartu), and many cities frequently mentioned at a later date, were already in existence: several of them are represented to us on the monuments of the Pharaohs, as situated on heights and surrounded by strong walls.

The tribute received by Tuthmosis III. from Syria is sufficient evidence that the valleys of Canaan were well cultivated, that extensive trade relations had already been formed, and that metals were in use to a considerable amount. Syria contributed to Tuthmosis not wine only, honey and dates, but also considerable quant.i.ties of spices. The Retennu contributed at one time 1,718 minae of sweet wine. The Hitt.i.tes contributed 8 silver rings, weighing in all 301 Egyptian pounds, and 93 Egyptian pounds of gold; the Retennu paid 40 bars, and afterwards 80 bars (bricks) of iron; on one occasion they contributed 761 Egyptian pounds, and in another year 1,495 pounds of silver and 55 pounds of gold.[484] It was remarked above (p. 304) that these tributes also prove that the measures and weights of Babylon were already in use in Syria at that time.

The monuments of the Pharaohs also prove that the land was divided into independent districts, governed by hereditary princes. The leading and most powerful tribe at the time of the Ramessids was that of the Hitt.i.tes in the south of Canaan. In the fourteenth century B.C. this tribe, with its confederates, could place 2,500 war chariots in the field. We have already seen (p. 152) that the king of the Hitt.i.tes, the son of Maursar and grandson of Sepalulu, entered into an alliance and compact with Rameses II., as one power with another. In the records of the Egyptians the court and army of the Hitt.i.tes are found well arranged. Generals of the cavalry, masters of the horse, and scribes are mentioned, and the sculptures of the Pharaohs exhibit the Hitt.i.tes in their chariots in magnificent clothing and armour. The inscriptions of Rameses II. mention Baal and Astarte as G.o.ds of the Hitt.i.tes--deities which we have already found at Babylon under the names of Bel and Istar.

We have less information of the land of Kaft, of the Amari, and finally of the Pulista, who are first mentioned under Rameses III., and of the tribes of the Retennu to the north of the Cheta. As was remarked above, the Pharaohs did not succeed in establishing a lasting supremacy over Syria. Even Tuthmosis III., who achieved the greatest successes, did no more than force the Syrian princes to pay him tribute for a short series of years.

Thus the beginnings of settled life, of agriculture, of cities and trade in Canaan cannot be placed later than the year 2,000 B.C., and this result is confirmed by the tradition of the Hebrews. According to Genesis, Ham, the second son of Noah, begat Canaan, and Canaan begat Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, and Amori, and Hivi, and Arvadi, and Hamathi, and afterwards the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.[485] Hence, with the Hebrews, the Sidonians pa.s.sed for the oldest Canaanites. The name means Fishcatcher, and a tribe limited to a narrow strip of coast may soon have betaken themselves to the sea. The primogeniture of the Sidonians was afterwards explained to mean that the origin of their city, Sidon, belonged to the oldest period. That the second city of this tribe, Sor (Tyre), "the daughter of Sidon,"[486] was proud of her great antiquity, we learn from other sources. When Herodotus was there, and inquired about the erection of the most sacred temple in the city, the temple of Melkarth, he received the answer that this shrine had been built, together with the city, about 2,300 years before his time, i.e. about the year 2,750 B.C. Lucian also a.s.sures us that the temples of Phenicia and the temple of Melkarth at Tyre were founded not much later than the oldest Egyptian temples.[487]

Northward of Sidon, at the mouths of the Nahr Ibrahim and the Nahr-el-Kelb (Adonis and Lycus), was settled the tribe of the Giblites, _i.e._ the mountaineers, whose cities were Gebal (Byblus) and Berothai (Berytus). Byblus claimed to be the oldest city in the land--older than Sidon--and to have been built by El, the supreme deity. At any rate, as we have already seen, it was in existence at the time of Tuthmosis III., whose inscriptions also mention the city of a third tribe, that of Arvadi, _i.e._ the Arvadites, whom the Hebrews mention among the sons of Canaan. This tribe was in possession of a considerable district to the north of Byblus, on the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kebir (Eleutherus), and of a rocky island off the coast, on which lay their city Arvad, the Aratu of the Egyptians, the Aradus of the Greeks.

The tradition of the Hebrews derived the Hitt.i.tes from Heth, the second son of Canaan. The centre of their land, which stretched from the coast to the Jordan, was formed by the bare and stony mountains round Hebron.

Here, according to Hebrew story, giants once dwelt--the Anakim--whose father and chief was Arba; after this prince, Hebron was formerly called Kirjath-Arba. To this city also the Hebrews ascribe a great antiquity; it was built seven years earlier than Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt.[488] We do not know the date of the building of Zoan, but the name occurs as early as the inscriptions of Sesurtesen I., whose reign we must place about the year 2,350 B.C.[489] With the Hitt.i.tes of Hebron the Hebrew Scriptures represent their own forefathers as living in peaceful and friendly intercourse in the century 2100-2000 _B.C._ We have already seen what a sustained resistance the disciplined forces of the princes of the Hitt.i.tes were able to make against the attacks of Egypt for two centuries--from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the thirteenth century B.C. War against the Cheta is a standing item in the inscriptions of the Ramessids.

Northward of the Hitt.i.tes lay the tribes which the tradition of the Hebrews derives from Hivi and Amori, the younger sons of Canaan, the Hivites and Amorites--the former in the beautiful mountain valleys round Gibeon and Sichem, northwards as far as Mount Hermon; the latter, a numerous and powerful tribe, outside the land of Canaan, north-east of Jordan, from the Jabbok in the south to Hermon in the north.[490] The Amorites, as we may venture to a.s.sume, were the Amari of Egyptian inscriptions. Furthest to the north, in the valley of the Orontes, were the Hamathites, whom the Hebrews also reckon among the sons of Canaan.

On the other hand, the Damascenes, the northern neighbours of the Amorites, whose city is mentioned by the Egyptians with Hamath as early as the sixteenth century, and who in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.

were the centre of the most powerful community in the Syrian interior, were not reckoned by the Hebrews among the sons of Canaan; and the inscriptions of the a.s.syrians also place the Damascenes among the Arimi, _i.e._ Aramaeens. Nor are the old inhabitants of the valley of the Jordan included by Hebrew tradition among the Canaanites, which is here a.s.sociated with the princ.i.p.alities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Adamah, Zeboim, and Zoar, and the names of the princes who once fought against Kedor Laomer in the valley of Siddim. But Jehovah caused fire and brimstone to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah owing to the sins of the inhabitants, and destroyed these cities and the whole region. The Philistines also, whom we find in possession of the coast from Gaza in the south to Carmel in the north, were not counted by the Hebrews among the sons of Canaan. It has been remarked that the name occurs for the first time in Egyptian inscriptions in the first half of the thirteenth century B.C. The Hebrews tell us that the Philistines marched from Caphtor and overcame the Avites, who dwell "in villages as far as Gaza."

By Caphtor we should probably understand the eastern sea coast of Egypt, the north-east of the Delta, where a Semitic population may have established itself firmly from the time of the Hyksos, and may have been able to maintain themselves after their expulsion. Yet there is nothing to contradict the a.s.sumption that, at the time of their expulsion by Amosis and the Tuthmosis, a part of the Hyksos turned towards Syria, and that the Philistines were sprung from these. We may remember that Manetho terms the Hyksos Phenicians, or kinsmen of the Phenicians, and tells us that they retired in the direction of Syria, and Herodotus represents the shepherd Philitis as pasturing his flocks at Memphis.[491] In the eleventh century B.C. we find the Philistines under the dominion of the princes of the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. The princes had their palaces; the cities were protected by walls and towers, and possessed extensive temples, in which were images of wood and iron, and rich offerings. The five cities formed a federation, their princes (Seranim) sat in a common council, led out their armies in common, and in common offered thankofferings for the victories won. They could bring into the field a splendid army of chariots, hors.e.m.e.n, heavy-armed soldiers, and bowmen; the soldiers were divided into troops of hundreds and thousands.[492]

Towards the middle of the thirteenth century a considerable alteration took place in the interior of Canaan, between the coast of the Philistines and the valley of the Jordan. The Amorites advanced towards the south over the Jabbok, and subjugated the Moabites, who dwelt in this district to the east of the Dead Sea, as far as the Arnon. They spread westwards over the Jordan, and overthrew the ancient federation of the Hitt.i.tes. These were either subjugated or driven out; only in some mountain cantons did the Hitt.i.tes maintain themselves. In their place the Amorites ruled between the coast and the Dead Sea, and this district was now known as the "Mountain of the Amorites."[493]

Northwards also the Amorites pressed forward against the Hitt.i.tes, and took possession of their land as far as Lake Merom.[494] It was only in Gibeon and the surrounding districts that the Hivites held their own;[495] and all the Hitt.i.tes and Hivites who refused subjugation and slavery were compelled to retire to the coast. It must have been a heavy blow that could shatter the power of the Hitt.i.tes; while the collection of a numerous population on the coast, which was caused by the new supremacy of the Amorites, was in its turn of important consequence for the cities of Phenicia. But the new masters of the southern land did not form a consolidated power, like the Hitt.i.tes before them; they were broken up into separate tribes, so that among them, and the remnants of the Hitt.i.tes and Hivites, there were about thirty small princ.i.p.alities.

The ancient power of the Hitt.i.tes must have been important enough to leave behind a very lasting impression. The Book of Joshua uses the expression "land of the Hitt.i.tes," for the whole region from the sea to the Euphrates, and the a.s.syrian inscriptions of the ninth, eighth, and seventh centuries include beside the land of Arimi, _i.e._ of the Aramaeans the whole of Canaan from Hamath to the sea and southwards as far as Egypt, under the name of the "land of Chatti."[496]

FOOTNOTES:

[477] Strabo, p. 756. "It is true that the whole land from Seleucis to Egypt and Arabia is also called Hollow Syria, but strictly speaking the name is given only to the land between Liba.n.u.s and Antiliba.n.u.s."

[478] Strabo, p. 763.

[479] Genesis x.x.xi. 20-24; Strabo, pp. 627, 784.

[480] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 396.

[481] Tacit. "Histor." 5, 6.

[482] Ebers, "aegypten und die Bucher Mose's," s. 131 ff.

[483] De Rouge, "Annales de Toutmes;" cf. _supra_ p. 136.

[484] Brandis, "Munzwesen," s. 80, 92.

[485] Genesis x. 15-19.

[486] Isaiah xxiii. 3; Justin, 18, 3.

[487] Herod. 2, 34; Lucian, "De dea Syria," 2, 3.

[488] Judges i. 10; Joshua xiv. 12, 15; xv. 13, 14; Numbers xiii. 23.

[489] Ebers, "aegypten," s. 188.

[490] Genesis xv. 16; x.x.xiv. 2; Joshua iii. 10; xi. 3; Jud. iii. 3.

[491] Above, p. 127; Gen. x. 13, 14; Amos ix. 7; Deut. ii. 23; Jeremiah xlvii. 4; Stark, "Gaza," s. 104 ff. Ebers explains Kaphtor by _Kaft-ur_, _i.e._ Great Kaft, Great Phenicia. To Ai-Kaphtor the Egyptian Aa-Kaft, _i.e._ island and coast land, curved coast land would correspond.--"aegypten," s. 131 ff.

[492] Stark, "Gaza," s. 132-136, 318 ff.