The World's Greatest Books - Volume 11 Part 2

_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_

The Egyptians had no need to antic.i.p.ate Chaldaean interference when, forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.

When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossaean race gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi by Chaldaeans of the ancient stock.

The Cossaean king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of Media. The Cossaean rule over the countries of the Euphrates was doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossaean kings did not merely bring with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew their allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer supreme when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis entered the region the native levies which he encountered were by no means formidable.

The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to distinguish at the present time several of these groups, all belonging to the same family, but possessing different characteristics--the kinsfolk of the Hebrews, the children of Ishmael and Edom, the Moabites and Ammonites, the Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The Canaanites were the most numerous, and had they been able to confederate under a single king, it would have been impossible for the Egyptians to have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of Asia.

_III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty_

The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia, a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching on his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to surpa.s.s. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the secure door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this quarter, Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power in Ethiopia, where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern region and thus extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the upper Nile, Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of profound peace. Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife, Queen Hatshopsitu, reigned for many years with great ability while the new Pharaoh, Thutmosis III., was still a youth.

After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.

It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and won a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the t.i.tles of the king's Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his arms, and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king.

When the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its results by means of a series of international decrees, which established the const.i.tution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action with the Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position among them when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his reign.

Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III., who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.

_IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire_

When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III., was raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty.

He displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting mighty building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against recalcitrant tribes along the Upper Nile.

Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and a.s.sociated his son, Seti I., with himself in the government from his second year of power.

No sooner had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for war against Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron, marched to Gaza, and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the homage of the Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing troops of captives.

By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and Luxor, which render his name for ever ill.u.s.trious. He a.s.sociated with him his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of the greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of the world. He married a Hitt.i.te princess when he was more than sixty.

This alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once more breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection of the two Powers who shared her territory.

Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to disfigure it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who was thus the glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and lived to the age of 100, when he pa.s.sed away peacefully at Thebes. Under his successors, Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation became decadent, though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as when Minephtah won a great victory over the Libyans. But after the death of Siphtah, there were many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy prevailed from one end of the Nile valley to the other.

_V.--The Rise of the a.s.syrian Empire_

Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived.

In the fifth year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated Libyans with complete success. Victories over other enemies followed, and also peace and prosperity.

The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it had made on their const.i.tution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had become, as it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and language being affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians became absorbed in commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the inheritance which the Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the decline of the power of the latter was that of the Hitt.i.tes.

The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Cossaean kings, and gave way to the ascendancy of a.s.syria, which came to regard Babylon with deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more than 185 miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many ca.n.a.ls between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper Zab, the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every means in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and the narrow area was the scene of continual war.

a.s.syria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of lat.i.tude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a network of ca.n.a.ls and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The provinces thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which pa.s.sed into a proverb. Thus a.s.syria was favoured by nature, but she was not well wooded. The most important of the cities were a.s.sur, Arbeles, Kalakh and Nineveh.

a.s.sur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was, during the struggle with the Chaldaean power, exposed to the attacks of the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and the Zab, was secure from any sudden a.s.sault. Thus it became the custom for the kings to pa.s.s at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though a.s.sur remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire, which began its aggrandis.e.m.e.nt under a.s.surballit, by his victory over the Cossaean kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years doubled the extent of his dominions. He beautified a.s.sur, but removed his court to Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of Babylon, and was the first of his race who was able to a.s.sume the t.i.tle of King of Sumir and Akkad.

This first conquest of Chaldaea did not produce lasting results, for the sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and a.s.syria became the scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the depression of a.s.syria did not last long. Nineveh had become the metropolis. Confusion was increased in the whole of this vast region of Asia by the invasion and partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon.

But these were driven back when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To Merodach he prayed, and "his prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam, taking its king by surprise and defeating him.

Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of a.s.syria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for though his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent flying across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of a.s.surishishi, who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son, Tiglath-pileser, is the first of the great warrior kings of a.s.syria to stand out before us with any definite individuality. He immediately, on his accession, began to employ in aggressive wars the well-equipped army left by his father, and in three campaigns he regained all the territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and also conquered various regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the Chaldaeans he met with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive, dying about the year 1100 B.C.

There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain a.s.surirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Ama.n.u.s, facing the sea, he left a triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested from him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks of the Euphrates near Carchemish.

What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?

The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldaea was neither extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms was enrolled in the army, the Chaldaean kings had no difficulty in raising, at a moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel an invasion, or to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it was in schemes that required prolonged and sustained effort that they felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age of hand-to-hand combats, the mortality in battle was very high; forced marches through forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or four campaigns against a stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a condition of weakness.

When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on a.s.surishishi, he was still weak from the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could not conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on the banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few indecisive advantages; in the second he succ.u.mbed.

The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by a.s.syria after each outburst of her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories of a.s.surishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious state of languor and depression. And ere long newer races a.s.serted themselves which had gradually come to displace the nations over which the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to them. The Hebrews on the east, and the Philistines on the southwest, were about to undertake the conquest of Kharu, as the land which is known to us as Canaan was styled by the Egyptians.

The Pa.s.sing of the Empires

Maspero, in the third volume of his great archaeological trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the Cla.s.sic East," deals with the pa.s.sing in succession of the supremacies of the Babylonian, a.s.syrian, Chaldaean, Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The period dealt with in this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries, from 850 B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style pa.s.ses before us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic dramas. One excellent feature of his method is his balancing of evidences. Where Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ he tells what each a.s.serts. With consummate skill also he arranges his recital like a series of dissolving views, showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading a.s.syria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another, culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture and civilisation of the Orient.

_I.--The a.s.syrian Revival_

Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held authority for seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030 B.C., a Babylonian of n.o.ble extraction expelled the Elamites and succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.

Five or six of his descendants pa.s.sed away and another was feebly reigning when war broke out afresh with a.s.syria, and the two armies encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat. The a.s.syrians were victorious under their king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not live long to enjoy his triumph. His son, a.s.sur-n.a.z.ir-pal, inherited a kingdom which embraced scarcely any of the countries that had paid tribute to former sovereign, for most of these had gradually regained their liberty.

Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same conditions as in the first instance, but a.s.syria had recovered the vitality and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a new element. This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to the chariotry. But it must be remembered that the strength and discipline which the a.s.syrian troops possessed in such high degree were common to the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hitt.i.tes and Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states being, as a rule, both in strength and numbers much on a par, no single power was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would be its destruction. Twice at least in three centuries a king of a.s.syria had entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had forced the intruder back.

Profiting by the past, a.s.sur-n.a.z.ir-pal resolutely avoided those conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives.

He was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than the people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief cities, then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and pillaged many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was flayed alive. After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.

A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of Nimroud, discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He conquered the whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An attack on Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad, King of Syria, proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war with Babylon, lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for a.s.syria, and Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple of E-s.h.a.ggil, where he offered worship to the local G.o.ds.

Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King of Israel, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been faithful to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the city of Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his pledge. He and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance against Benhadad, who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had organised an expedition, which led to the death of Ahab in battle.

Israel lapsed once more into the position of a va.s.sal to Benhadad, and long remained in that subjection.

The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son, a.s.sur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was shaken by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV., the brother of a.s.surdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son, Ramman-nirari III., had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and so had secured peace. He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at length Damascus made submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and able King of Urartu, proved himself a thorn in the side of the a.s.syrian king, for he delivered from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the borders of Lake Urmiah and all the adjacent regions.

Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the Euphrates, the a.s.syrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also overcame the Hitt.i.tes and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van, or Armenia, which was quite equal in size to a.s.syria. He died shortly before the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent the first few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the country north of the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of Ramman-nirari, but defeated the a.s.syrians.

Misfortunes acc.u.mulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so wide a sway, and the end of the Second a.s.syrian Empire was not far off.

Syria was lost under a.s.sur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah by sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came to an end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah, proclaimed himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The Second Empire had lasted rather less than a century and a half.