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+Project Gutenberg's The History of Antiquity, Vol. II (of VI), by Max Duncker
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The History of Antiquity, Vol. II (of VI)
+
+Author: Max Duncker
+
+Translator: Evelyn Abbott
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2012 [EBook #39006]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY.
+
+
+
+  THE
+  HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY.
+
+  FROM THE GERMAN
+  OF
+  PROFESSOR MAX DUNCKER,
+
+
+  BY
+  EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A.,
+  _FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD._
+
+
+  VOL. II.
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
+  Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
+  1879.
+
+
+
+  Bungay:
+  CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
+
+
+
+  The present volume has been translated from the fifth
+  edition of the original, and has had, throughout, the
+  benefit of Professor Duncker's revision.
+
+                                                  E. A.
+  _Oxford, Jan. 14, 1879._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+_ASSYRIA. PHOENICIA. ISRAEL._
+
+  CHAPTER I.                                                      PAGE
+  THE STORY OF NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS                                   1
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ASSYRIAN KINGDOM                            26
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  THE NAVIGATION AND COLONIES OF THE PHENICIANS                     49
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL                                              89
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL                      109
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  DAVID'S STRUGGLE AGAINST SAUL AND ISHBOSHETH                     128
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  THE RULE OF DAVID                                                150
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  KING SOLOMON                                                     179
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  THE LAW OF THE PRIESTS                                           201
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  JUDAH AND ISRAEL                                                 227
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  THE CITIES OF THE PHENICIANS                                     262
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  THE TRADE OF THE PHENICIANS                                      294
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  THE RISE OF ASSYRIA                                              308
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+ASSYRIA. PHOENICIA. ISRAEL.
+
+
+
+
+ASSYRIA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE STORY OF NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS.
+
+
+About the middle course of the Tigris, where the mountain wall of the
+Armenian plateau steeply descends to the south, there is a broad stretch
+of hilly country. To the west it is traversed by a few water-courses
+only, which spring out of the mountains of Sindyar, and unite with the
+Tigris; from the east the affluents are far more abundant. On the
+southern shore of the lake of Urumiah the edge of the plateau of Iran
+abuts on the Armenian table-land, and then, stretching to the
+south-east, it bounds the river valley of the Tigris toward the east.
+From its vast, successive ranges, the Zagrus of the Greeks, flow the
+Lycus and Caprus (the Greater and the Lesser Zab), the Adhim and the
+Diala. The water, which these rivers convey to the land between the
+Zagrus and the Tigris, together with the elevation of the soil, softens
+the heat and allows olive trees and vines to flourish in the cool air on
+the hills, sesame and corn in the valleys between groups of palms and
+fruit-trees. The backs of the heights which rise to the east are covered
+by forests of oaks and nut trees. Toward the south the ground gradually
+sinks--on the west immediately under the mountains of Sindyar, on the
+east below the Lesser Zab--toward the course of the Adhim into level
+plains, where the soil is little inferior in fertility to the land of
+Babylonia. The land between the Tigris and the Greater Zab is known to
+Strabo and Arrian as Aturia.[1] The districts between the Greater and
+Lesser Zab are called Arbelitis and Adiabene by western writers.[2] The
+region bounded by the Lesser Zab and the Adhim or the Diala is called
+Sittacene, and the land lying on the mountains rising further toward the
+east is Chalonitis. The latter we shall without doubt have to regard as
+the Holwan[3] of later times.
+
+According to the accounts of the Greeks, it was in these districts that
+the first kingdom rose which made conquests and extended its power
+beyond the borders of its native country. In the old time--such is the
+story--kings ruled in Asia, whose names were not mentioned, as they had
+not performed any striking exploits. The first of whom any memorial is
+retained, and who performed great deeds, was Ninus, the king of the
+Assyrians. Warlike and ambitious by nature, he armed the most vigorous
+of his young men, and accustomed them by long and various exercises to
+all the toils and dangers of war. After collecting a splendid army, he
+combined with Ariaeus, the prince of the Arabs, and marched with numerous
+troops against the neighbouring Babylonians. The city of Babylon was not
+built at that time, but there were other magnificent cities in the land.
+The Babylonians were an unwarlike people, and he subdued them with
+little trouble, took their king prisoner, slew him with his children,
+and imposed a yearly tribute on the Babylonians. Then with a still
+greater force he invaded Armenia and destroyed several cities. Barzanes,
+the king of Armenia, perceived that he was not in a position to resist.
+He repaired with costly presents to Ninus and undertook to be his
+vassal. With great magnanimity Ninus permitted him to retain the throne
+of Armenia; but he was to provide a contingent in war and contribute to
+the support of the army. Strengthened by these means, Ninus turned his
+course to Media. Pharnus, king of Media, came out to meet him with a
+strong force, but he was nevertheless defeated, and crucified with his
+wife and seven children, and Ninus placed one of his own trusty men as
+viceroy over Media. These successes raised in Ninus the desire to
+subjugate all Asia as far as the Nile and the Tanais. He conquered, as
+Ctesias narrates, Egypt, Phoenicia, Coele Syria, Cilicia, Lycia and
+Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Phrygia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and reduced the
+nations on the Pontus as far as the Tanais. Then he made himself master
+of the land of the Cadusians and Tapyrians, of the Hyrcanians,
+Drangians, Derbiccians, Carmanians, Chorasmians, Barcians, and
+Parthians. Beside these, he overcame Persia, and Susiana, and Caspiana,
+and many other small nations. But in spite of many efforts he failed to
+obtain any success against the Bactrians, because the entrance to their
+land was difficult and the number of their men of war was great. So he
+deferred the war against the Bactrians to another opportunity, and led
+his army back, after subjugating in 17 years all the nations of Asia,
+with the exception of the Indians and Bactrians. The king of the
+Arabians he dismissed to his home with costly presents and splendid
+booty; he began himself to build a city which should not only be greater
+than any other then in existence, but should be such that no city in the
+future could ever surpass it. This city he founded on the bank of the
+Tigris,[4] in the form of an oblong, and surrounded it with strong
+fortifications. The two longer sides measured 150 stades each, the two
+shorter sides 90 stades each, so that the whole circuit was 480 stades.
+The walls reached a height of 100 feet, and were so thick that there was
+room in the gangway for three chariots to pass each other. These walls
+were surmounted by 1500 towers, each of the height of 200 feet. As to
+the inhabitants of the city, the greater number and those of the most
+importance were Assyrians, but from the other nations also any who chose
+could fix his dwelling here, and Ninus allotted to the settlers large
+portions of the surrounding territory, and called the city Ninus, after
+his own name.
+
+When the city was built Ninus resolved to march against the Bactrians.
+He knew the number and bravery of the Bactrians, and how difficult
+their land was to approach, and therefore he collected the armies of all
+the subject nations, to the number of 1,700,000 foot soldiers, 210,000
+cavalry, and towards 10,600 chariots of war. The narrowness of the
+passes which protect the entrance to Bactria compelled Ninus to divide
+his army. Oxyartes, who at that time was king of the Bactrians, had
+collected the whole male population of his country, about 400,000 men,
+and met the enemy at the passes. One part of the Assyrian army he
+allowed to enter unmolested; when a sufficient number seemed to have
+reached the plains he attacked them and drove them back to the nearest
+mountains; about 100,000 Assyrians were slain. But when the whole force
+had penetrated into the land, the Bactrians were overcome by superior
+numbers and scattered each to his own city. The rest of the cities were
+captured by Ninus with little trouble, but Bactra, the chief city, where
+the palace of the king lay, he could not reduce, for it was large and
+well-provisioned, and the fortress was very strong.
+
+When the siege became protracted, Onnes, the first among the counsellors
+of the king and viceroy of Syria, who accompanied the king on this
+campaign, sent for his wife Semiramis to the camp. Once when he was
+inspecting the flocks of the king in Syria, he had seen at the dwelling
+of Simmas, the keeper of these flocks, a beautiful maiden, and he was so
+overcome with love for her that he sought and obtained her as a wife
+from Simmas. She was the foster-child of Simmas. In a rocky place in the
+desert his shepherds had found the maiden about a year old, fed by doves
+with milk and cheese; as Simmas was childless he had taken the foundling
+as his child, and given her the name of Semiramis Onnes took her to the
+city of Ninus. She bore him two sons, Hyapates and Hydaspes, and as she
+had everything which beauty requires, she made her husband her slave; he
+did nothing without her advice, and everything succeeded admirably. She
+also possessed intelligence and daring, and every other gift likely to
+advance her. When requested by Onnes to come to the camp, she seized the
+opportunity to display her power. She put on such clothing that it could
+not be ascertained whether she was a man or a woman, and this succeeded
+so well that at a later time the Medes, and after them the Persians
+also, wore the robe of Semiramis. When she arrived in the camp she
+perceived that the attack was directed only against the parts of the
+city lying in the plain, not against the high part and the strong
+fortifications of the citadel, and she also perceived that this
+direction of the attack induced the Bactrians to be careless in watching
+the citadel. She collected all those in the army who were accustomed to
+climbing, and with this troop she ascended the citadel from a deep
+ravine, captured a part of it, and gave the signal to the army which was
+assaulting the walls in the plain. The Bactrians lost their courage when
+they saw their citadel occupied, and the city was taken. Ninus admired
+the courage of the woman, honoured her with costly presents, and was
+soon enchained by her beauty; but his attempts to persuade Onnes to give
+up Semiramis to him were in vain; in vain he offered to recompense him
+by the gift of his own daughter Sosana in marriage. At length Ninus
+threatened to put out his eyes if he did not obey his commands. The
+terror of this threat and the violence of his own love drove Onnes out
+of his mind. He hung himself. Thus Semiramis came to the throne of
+Assyria. When Ninus had taken possession of the great treasures of gold
+and silver which were in Bactra, and had arranged everything there, he
+led his army back. At Ninus Semiramis bore him a son, Ninyas, and at his
+death, when he had reigned 52 years, Ninus bequeathed to her the
+sovereign power. She buried his corpse in the royal palace, and caused a
+huge mound to be raised over the grave, 6000 feet in the circuit and
+5400 feet high, which towered over the city of Ninus like a lofty
+citadel, and could be seen far through the plain in which Ninus lay.
+
+As Semiramis was ambitious, and desired to surpass the fame of Ninus,
+she built the great city of Babylon, with mighty walls and towers, the
+two royal citadels, the bridge over the Euphrates, and the temple of
+Belus, and caused a great lake to be excavated to draw off the water of
+the Euphrates. Other cities also she founded on the Euphrates and the
+Tigris, and caused depots to be made for those who brought merchandise
+from Media, Paraetacene, and the bordering countries. After completing
+these works she marched with a great army to Media and planted the
+garden near Mount Bagistanon. The steep and lofty face of this mountain,
+more than 10,000 feet in height, she caused to be smoothed, and on it
+was cut her picture surrounded by 100 guards; and an inscription was
+engraved in Syrian letters, saying that Semiramis had caused the
+pack-saddles of her beasts of burden to be piled on each other, and on
+these had ascended to the summit of the mountain. Afterwards she made
+another large garden near the city of Chauon, in Media,[5] and on a rock
+in the middle of it she erected rich and costly buildings, from which
+she surveyed the blooming garden and the army encamped in the plain.
+Here she remained for a long time, and gave herself up to every kind of
+pleasure. She was unwilling to contract another marriage from fear of
+losing the sovereign power, but she lived with any of her warriors who
+were distinguished for their beauty. All who had enjoyed her favours she
+secretly put to death. After this retirement she turned her course to
+Egbatana, caused a path to be cut through the rocks of Mount Zagrus, and
+a short and convenient road to be made across them, in order to leave
+behind an imperishable memorial of her reign. In Egbatana she erected a
+splendid palace, and in order to provide the city with water she caused
+a tunnel to be made through the lofty mountain Orontes at its base,
+which conveyed the water of a lake lying on the other side of the
+heights into the city. After this she marched through Persia and all the
+countries of Asia which were subject to her, and caused the mountains to
+be cut through and straight and level roads to be built everywhere,
+while in the plains she at one place raised great mounds over her dead
+generals, and in another built cities on hills; and wherever the army
+was encamped eminences were raised for her tent so that she might
+overlook the whole. Of these works many are still remaining in Asia and
+bear the name of Semiramis. Then she subjugated Egypt,[6] a great part
+of Libya, and nearly the whole of Ethiopia, and finally returned to
+Bactra.
+
+A long period of peace ensued, till she resolved to subjugate the
+Indians on hearing that they were the most numerous of all nations, and
+possessed the largest and most beautiful country in the world. For two
+years preparations were made throughout her whole kingdom; in the third
+year she collected in Bactria 3,000,000 foot soldiers, 500,000 horsemen,
+and 100,000 chariots. Beside these, 100,000 camels were covered with the
+sewn skins of black oxen, and each was mounted by one warrior; these
+animals were intended to pass for elephants with the Indians. For
+crossing the Indus 2000 ships were built, then taken to pieces again,
+and the various parts packed on camels. Stabrobates, the king of the
+Indians, awaited the Assyrians on the bank of the Indus. He also had
+prepared for the war with all his power, and gathered together even a
+larger force from the whole of India. When Semiramis approached he sent
+messengers to meet her with the complaint that she was making war upon
+him though he had done her no wrong; and in his letter he reproached her
+licentious life, and calling the gods to witness, threatened to crucify
+her if victorious. Semiramis read the letter, laughed, and said that the
+Indians would find out her virtue by her actions. The fleet of the
+Indians lay ready for battle on the Indus. Semiramis caused her ships to
+be put together, manned them with her bravest warriors, and, after a
+long and stubborn contest, the victory fell to her share. A thousand
+ships of the Indians were sunk and many prisoners taken. Then she also
+took the islands and cities on the river, and out of these she collected
+more than 100,000 prisoners. But the king of the Indians, pretending
+flight, led his army back from the Indus; in reality he wished to induce
+the enemy to cross the Indus. As matters succeeded according to her
+wishes, Semiramis caused a large and broad bridge to be thrown skilfully
+over the Indus, and on this her whole army passed over. Leaving 60,000
+men to protect the bridge, she pursued the Indians with the rest of her
+army, and sent on in front the camels clothed as elephants. At first
+the Indians did not understand whence Semiramis could have procured so
+many elephants and were alarmed. But the deception could not last.
+Soldiers of Semiramis, who were found careless on the watch, deserted to
+the enemy to escape punishment, and betrayed the secret. Stabrobates
+proclaimed it at once to his whole army, caused a halt to be made, and
+offered battle to the Assyrians. When the armies approached each other
+the king of the Indians ordered his horsemen and chariots to make the
+attack. Semiramis sent against them her pretended elephants. When the
+cavalry of the Indians came up their horses started back at the strange
+smell, part of them dislodged their riders, others refused to obey the
+rein. Taking advantage of this moment, Semiramis, herself on horseback,
+pressed forward with a chosen band of men upon the Indians, and turned
+them to flight. Stabrobates was still unshaken; he led out his
+elephants, and behind them his infantry. Himself on the right wing,
+mounted on the best elephant, he chanced to come opposite Semiramis. He
+made a resolute attack upon the queen, and was followed by the rest of
+the elephants. The soldiers of Semiramis resisted only a short time. The
+elephants caused an immense slaughter; the Assyrians left their ranks,
+they fled, and the king pressed forward against Semiramis; his arrow
+wounded her arm, and as she turned away his javelin struck her on the
+back. She hastened away, while her people were crushed and trodden down
+by their own numbers; and at last, as the Indians pressed upon them,
+were forced from the bridge into the river. As soon as Semiramis saw the
+greater part of her army on the nearer bank, she caused the cables to be
+cut which held the bridge; the force of the stream tore the beams
+asunder, and many Assyrians who were on the bridge were plunged in the
+river. The other Assyrians were now in safety, the wounds of Semiramis
+were not dangerous, and the king of the Indians was warned by signs from
+heaven and their interpretation by the seers not to cross the river.
+After exchanging prisoners Semiramis returned to Bactra. She had lost
+two-thirds of her army.
+
+Some time afterwards she was attacked by a conspiracy, which her own son
+Ninyas set on foot against her by means of an eunuch. Then she
+remembered a prophecy given to her in the temple of Zeus Ammon during
+the campaign in Libya; that when her son Ninyas conspired against her
+she would disappear from the sight of men, and the honours of an
+immortal would be paid to her by some nations of Asia. Hence she
+cherished no resentment against Ninyas, but, on the contrary,
+transferred to him the kingdom, ordered her viceroys to obey him, and
+soon after put herself to death, as though, according to the oracle, she
+had raised herself to the gods. Some relate that she was changed into a
+dove, and flew out of the palace with a flock of doves. Hence it is that
+the Assyrians regard Semiramis as an immortal, and the dove as divine.
+She was 62 years old, and had reigned 42 years.
+
+The preceding narrative, which is from Diodorus, is borrowed in
+essentials from the Persian history of Ctesias, who lived for some time
+at the Persian Court in the first two decades of the reign of Artaxerxes
+Mnemon (405-361 B.C.). On the end of Semiramis the account of Ctesias
+contained more details than the account of Diodorus. This is made clear
+by some fragments from Ctesias preserved by other writers. In Nicolaus
+of Damascus we are told that after the Indian war Semiramis marched
+through the land of the Medes. Here she visited a very lofty and
+precipitous mountain, which could only be ascended on one side. On this
+she at once caused an abode to be built from which to survey her army.
+
+While encamped here, Satibaras the eunuch told the sons of Onnes,
+Hyapates and Hydaspes, that Ninyas would put them to death if he
+ascended the throne; they must anticipate him by removing their mother
+and Ninyas out of the way, and possessing themselves of the sovereign
+power. Moreover, it was to their great dishonour to be spectators of the
+licentiousness of their mother, who, even at her years, daily desired
+every youth that came in her way. The matter, he said, was easy of
+accomplishment; when he summoned them to the queen (he was entrusted
+with this business) they could come to the summit of the mountain and
+throw their mother down from it. But it happened that behind the altar,
+near which they held this conversation, a Mede was lying, who
+overheard them. He wrote down everything on a skin and sent it to
+Semiramis. When she had read it she caused the sons of Onnes to be
+summoned, and gave strict orders that they should come in arms.
+Delighted that the deity favoured the undertaking, Satibaras fetched the
+young men. When they appeared Semiramis bade the eunuch step aside, and
+then she spoke to them: "You worthless sons of an honest and brave
+father have allowed yourselves to be persuaded by a worthless slave to
+throw down from this height your mother, who holds her empire from the
+gods, in order to obtain glory among men, and to rule after the murder
+of your mother and your brother Ninyas. Then she spoke to the
+Assyrians."[7] Here the fragment of Nicolaus breaks off. From the
+fragments of Cephalion we may gather that the sons of Onnes were put to
+death by Semiramis. Yet Cephalion gave a different account of the death
+of Semiramis from Ctesias; according to him Ninyas slew her.[8] In
+Ctesias, as is clear from the account of Diodorus and other remains of
+Ctesias, nothing was spoken of beyond the conspiracy which Ninyas
+prepared against her.[9]
+
+After the death of Semiramis, so Diodorus continues his narrative,
+Ninyas ruled in peace, for he by no means emulated his mother's military
+ambition and delight in danger. He remained always in the palace, was
+seen by no one but his concubines and eunuchs, took upon himself no care
+or trouble, thought only of pleasure and pastime, considered it the
+object of sovereign power to give himself up undisturbed to all sorts of
+enjoyment. His seclusion served to hide his excesses in obscurity; he
+seemed like an invisible God, whom no one ventured to offend even in
+word. In order to preserve his kingdom he put leaders over the army,
+viceroys, judges, and magistrates over every nation, and arranged
+everything as seemed most useful to himself. To keep his subjects in
+fear he caused each nation to provide a certain number of soldiers every
+year, and these were quartered together in a camp outside the city, and
+placed under the command of men most devoted to himself. At the end of
+the year they were dismissed and replaced by others to the same number.
+Hence his subjects always saw a great force in the camp ready to punish
+disobedience or defection. In the same way his descendants also reigned
+for 30 generations, till the empire passed to the Medes.[10] Slightly
+differing from this account, Nicolaus tells us that Sardanapalus--to
+whom in the order of succession the kingdom of Ninus and Semiramis
+finally descended--neither carried arms nor went out to the
+hunting-field, like the kings in old times, but always remained in his
+palace. Yet even in his time the old arrangements were kept and the
+satraps of the subject nations gathered with the fixed contingent at the
+gate of the king.[11]
+
+From what source is the narrative of Ninus and Semiramis derived? what
+title to credibility can be allowed it? Herodotus states that the
+dominion of the Assyrians in Asia was the oldest; their supremacy was
+followed by that of the Medes, and the supremacy of the Medes was
+followed by the kingdom of the Achaemenids. Herodotus too is acquainted
+with the name of Semiramis; he represents her as ruling over Babylon,
+and building wonderful dykes in the level land, which the river had
+previously turned into a lake.[12] Strabo tells of the citadels, cities,
+mountain-roads, aqueducts, bridges, and canals which Semiramis
+constructed through all Asia, and to Semiramis Lucian traces back the
+old temples of Syria.[13] We may assume in explanation that the
+tradition of Hither Asia has ascribed to the first king and queen of
+Assyria the construction of the ancient road over the Zagrus, of old
+dykes and aqueducts in the land of the Euphrates and Tigris, the
+building, not of Nineveh only, but also of Babylon, the erection of the
+great monuments of forgotten kings of Babylon,--as a fact, Assyrian
+kings built in Babylon also in the seventh century. We may find it
+conceivable that this tradition has gathered together and carried back
+to the time of the foundation all that memory retained of the acts of
+Assyrian rulers, the campaigns of conquest of a long series of warlike
+and mighty sovereigns, the sum total of the exploits to which Assyria
+owed her supremacy. Yet against such an origin of this narrative doubts
+arise not easy to be removed. It is true that when this tradition
+explains the mode of life and the clothing of the kings of Asia, and the
+clothing of the Medes and Persians, from the example of Semiramis, who
+wore in the camp a robe, half male and half female (p. 6); when this
+tradition derives the inaccessibility of the kings of Asia and their
+seclusion in the palace from the fact that Ninyas wished to hide his
+excesses, and appear to his subjects as a higher being,--traits of this
+kind can be set aside as additions of the Greeks. To the Babylonians and
+Assyrians, the Medes and Persians, the life and clothing of their rulers
+could not appear contemptible or remarkable, nor their own clothing half
+effeminate, though the Greeks might very well search for an explanation
+of customs so different from their own, and find them in the example and
+command of Semiramis, and the example of Ninyas. And if in Herodotus the
+empire of the Assyrians over Asia appears as a hegemony of
+confederates,[14] this idea is obviously borrowed from Greek models. The
+opposite statement of the division of the Assyrian kingdom into
+satrapies, the yearly change of the contingents of troops, comes from
+Ctesias, who transferred the arrangements of the Persian kingdom, with
+which he was acquainted, to their predecessors, the kingdom of the
+Assyrians, or found this transference made in his authorities, Persian
+or Mede, and copied it.
+
+Yet, after making as much allowance as we can for the amalgamating
+influence of native tradition, after going as far as we can in setting
+apart what may be due to the Greeks, how could such an accurate
+narrative, so well acquainted with every detail of the siege of Bactra,
+and the battle on the Indus, have been preserved for many centuries in
+the tradition of Hither Asia, retained even after the overthrow of
+Assyria, and down to the date when curious Greeks, 200 years after the
+fall of Nineveh, reached the Euphrates and Tigris? We possess a positive
+proof that about this time, in the very place to which this tradition
+must have clung most tenaciously, within the circuit of the old Assyrian
+country, no remembrance of that mighty past was in existence. When, in
+the year 401 B.C., Xenophon with his 10,000 marched past the ruins of
+the ancient cities of the Assyrian kingdom, the ruins of Asshur, Chalah,
+and Nineveh, before Ctesias wrote, he was merely told that these were
+cities of the Medes which could not be taken; into one of them the queen
+of the Medes had fled before the Persian king, and the Persians, with
+the help of heaven, took and destroyed it when they gained the dominion
+over Media.[15] From the Assyrians, therefore, Herodotus and Ctesias
+could not have obtained the information given in their statements about
+Ninus and Semiramis, nor could their knowledge have come from the
+Babylonians. The tradition of Babylonia would never have attributed the
+mighty buildings of that city and land to the queen of another nation,
+to which Babylon had succumbed. Hence the account of the Greeks about
+Assyria and her rulers could only come from the Medes and Persians. But
+our narrative ascribes to Semiramis even the great buildings of the
+Median rulers, the erection of the royal citadel of Egbatana, the
+residence of the Median kings; the parks and rock sculptures of Media,
+even the rock figure on Mount Bagistanon (p. 7). This sculpture in the
+valley of the Choaspes on the rock-wall of Bagistan (Behistun) is in
+existence. The wall is not 10,000 but only 1500 feet high. It is not
+Semiramis who is pourtrayed in those sculptures, but Darius, the king of
+Persia, and before him are the leaders of the rebellious provinces. It
+was the proudest monument of victory in all the history of Persia. Would
+a Persian have shown this to a Greek as a monument of Semiramis? It
+would rather be a Mede, who would wish to hide from the Greeks that
+Media was among the provinces a second time conquered and brought to
+subjection.
+
+The difficulty of ascertaining the sources of our narrative is still
+further increased in no inconsiderable degree by the fact that the books
+of Ctesias are lost, and that Diodorus has not drawn immediately from
+them, but from a reproduction of Ctesias' account of Assyria. Yet the
+express references to the statements of Ctesias which Diodorus found in
+his authority, as well as fragments relating to the subject which have
+been elsewhere preserved, allow us to fix with tolerable accuracy what
+belongs to Ctesias in this narrative, and what Clitarchus, the renewer
+of his work, whom Diodorus had before him, has added.[16] It is Ctesias
+who enumerates the nations which Ninus subdued (p. 3). With him
+Semiramis was the daughter of a Syrian and Derceto, who throws herself
+into the lake of Ascalon, and is then worshipped as a goddess there.[17]
+To Ctesias belongs the nourishment of the child Semiramis by the doves
+of the goddess, her rise from the shepherd's hut to the throne of
+Assyria. He represents her as raising the mountain or the tomb of Ninus;
+he ascribes to her the building of Babylon, its mighty walls and royal
+citadels, the aqueducts, and the great temple of Bel. He represented her
+as marching to the Indus[18] and afterwards towards Media; as making
+gardens there and building the road over the Zagrus. He represented her
+as raising the mounds over the graves of her lovers;[19] he told of her
+sensuality, of the designs of her sons by the first marriage, and the
+plot of Ninyas; he recounted her end, which was as marvellous as her
+birth and her youth: she flew out of the palace up to heaven with a
+flock of doves. If the conquest of Egypt by Semiramis also belongs to
+Ctesias,[20] the march through Libya, and the oracle given to her in the
+oasis of Ammon, together with the version of her death, which rests on
+this oracle (she caused herself to disappear, _i.e._ put herself to
+death, in order to share in divine honours), belong to Clitarchus.
+
+If, therefore, we may regard it as an established fact that our
+narrative has not arisen out of Assyrian or Babylonian tradition, that
+the views and additions of Greek origin introduced into it leave the
+centre untouched; if we have succeeded in discovering, to a tolerably
+satisfactory degree, the outlines of the narrative of Ctesias, the main
+question still remains to be answered: from what sources is this
+narrative to be derived? In the first attempt to criticise this account
+we find ourselves astonished by the certainty of the statements, the
+minute and, in part, extremely vivid descriptions of persons and
+incidents. Not only the great prince who founded the power of Assyria,
+and the queen whose beauty and courage enchanted him, are known to
+Ctesias in their words and actions. He can mention by name the man who
+nurtured Semiramis as a girl, and her first husband. He knows the names
+of the princes of the Arabs, Medes, Bactrians, and Indians with whom
+Ninus and Semiramis had to do. The number of the forces set in motion
+against Bactria and India are given accurately according to the weapon
+used. The arrangements of the battle beyond the Indus, the progress of
+the fight, the wounds carried away by Semiramis, the exchange of
+prisoners, are related with the fidelity of an eye-witness. Weight is
+obviously laid on the fact that after Semiramis had conquered and
+traversed Egypt and Ethiopia, after her unbroken success, the last great
+campaign against the Indians fails because she attacked them without
+receiving any previous injury. The message which Stabrobates sends to
+her, the letter which he writes, the reproaches he makes upon her life,
+the minute details which Ctesias gives of the relation of Onnes to
+Semiramis, of the conspiracy of the sons by this marriage, who felt
+themselves dishonoured by the conduct of their now aged mother, of the
+letter of the Mede, whose fidelity discovered the plot to her, of the
+speeches which Semiramis made on this occasion, carry us back to a
+description at once vivid and picturesque. If we take these pictures
+together with the account of Ctesias about the decline of the Assyrian
+kingdom, in which also very characteristic details appear, if we
+consider the style and the whole tone of these accounts of the beginning
+and the end of the Assyrian kingdom, we cannot avoid the conclusion that
+Ctesias has either invented the whole narrative or followed a poetic
+source.
+
+The first inference is untenable, because the whole narrative bears the
+colour and stamp of the East in such distinctness that Ctesias cannot
+have invented it, and, on the other hand, it contains so much poetry
+that if Ctesias were the author of these descriptions we should have to
+credit him with high poetic gifts. We are, therefore, driven to adopt
+the second inference--that a poetic source lies at the base of his
+account. If, as was proved above, neither Assyrian nor Babylonian
+traditions can be taken into consideration, Assyrian and Babylonian
+poems are by the same reasoning put out of the question. On the other
+hand, we find in Ctesias' history of the Medes episodes of at least
+equal poetic power with his narrative of Ninus and Semiramis. Plutarch
+tells us that the great deeds of Semiramis were praised in songs.[21] It
+is certain that they could not be the songs of Assyria, which had long
+since passed away, but we find, on the other hand, that there were
+minstrels at the court of the Medes, who sang to the kings at the
+banquet; it is, moreover, a Mede who warns Semiramis against Hyapates
+and Hydaspes; and the other names in the narrative of Ctesias bear the
+stamp of the Iranian language. Further, we find, not only in the
+fragments of Ctesias which have come down to us, but also in the
+narratives of Herodotus and other Greeks concerning the fortunes of the
+Medes and Persians down to the great war of Xerxes against the Hellenes,
+remains and traces of poems which can only have been sung amongst the
+Medes and Persians. We have, therefore, good grounds for assuming that
+it was Medo-Persian poems which could tell the story of Ninus and
+Semiramis, and that this part of the Medo-Persian poems was the source
+from which Ctesias drew. It was the contents of these poems recounted to
+him by Persians or Medes which he no doubt followed in this case, as in
+his further narratives of Parsondes and Sparethra, of the rebellion and
+struggle of Cyrus against Astyages, just as Herodotus before him drew
+from such poems his account of the rebellion of the Magi, the death of
+Cambyses, and the conspiracy of the seven Persians.
+
+After severe struggles the princes and people of the Medes succeeded in
+casting down the Assyrian empire from the supremacy it had long
+maintained; they conquered and destroyed their old and supposed
+impregnable metropolis. If the tribes of the Medes had previously been
+forced to bow before the Assyrians, they took ample vengeance for the
+degradation. Hence the Median minstrels had a most excellent reason to
+celebrate this crowning achievement of their nation; it afforded them a
+most agreeable subject. If, in the earlier and later struggles of the
+Medes against Assyria, the bravery of individual heroes was often
+celebrated in song, these songs might by degrees coalesce into a
+connected whole, the close of which was the overthrow of the Assyrian
+empire. The Median poems which dealt with this most attractive material
+must have commenced with the rise of the Assyrian kingdom; they had the
+more reason for explaining and suggesting motives for this mighty
+movement, as it was incumbent on them to make intelligible the wreck of
+the resistance of their own nation to the onset of the Assyrians, and
+the previous subjection of Media. In these poems no doubt they described
+the cruelty of the conqueror, who crucified their king, with his wife
+and seven children (p. 3). The more brilliant, the more overpowering the
+might of Assyria, as they described it, owing to eminent sovereigns in
+the earliest times, the wider the extent of the empire, the more easily
+explained and tolerable became the subjection of the Medes, the greater
+the glory to have finally conquered. This final retribution formed the
+close; the striking contrast of the former exaltation and subsequent
+utter overthrow, brought about by Median power and bravery, formed the
+centre of these poems.
+
+The prince of the Assyrians whose success is unfailing till he finds
+himself checked in Bactria, the woman of unknown origin found in the
+desert, fostered by herdsmen, and raised from the lowest to the most
+elevated position,[22] who in bravery surpasses the bravest, who outdoes
+the deeds of Ninus, whose charms allure to destruction every one who
+approaches her, who makes all whom she favours her slaves in order to
+slay them, who without regard to her years makes every youth her lover,
+and is, nevertheless, finally exalted to the gods--are these forms due
+to the mere imagination of Medo-Persian minstrels, or what material lay
+at the base of these lively pictures?
+
+The metropolis of the Assyrians was known to the Greeks as Ninus; in the
+inscriptions of the Assyrian kings it is called Ninua. From this the
+name of Ninus, the founder of the empire, as well as Ninyas, is
+obviously taken. In Herodotus[23] and the chronographers Ninus is the
+son of Belus, _i.e._ of Bel, the sky-god already known to us (I. 265).
+The monuments of Assyria show us that the Assyrians worshipped a female
+deity, which was at once the war-goddess and goddess of sexual
+love--Istar-Bilit. Istar was not merely the goddess of battles--bringing
+death and destruction, though also conferring victory; she was at the
+same time the goddess of sensual love. We have already learned to know
+her double nature. In turn she sends life, pleasure, and death. If Istar
+of Arbela was the goddess of battle, Istar of Nineveh was the goddess of
+love (I. 270). As the goddess of love, doves were sacred to her. In the
+temples of Syria there were statues of this goddess with a golden dove
+on the head; she was even invoked there under the name of Semiramis, a
+word which may mean High name, Name of the Height.[24]
+
+Thus the Medo-Persian minstrels have changed the form and legend of a
+goddess who was worshipped in Assyria, whose rites were vigorously
+cultivated in Syria, into a heroine, the founder of the Assyrian empire;
+just as in the Greek and German epos divine beings have undergone a
+similar change. This heroine is the daughter of a maiden who slays the
+youth whom she has made happy with her love, who gave her her daughter,
+_i.e._ she is the daughter of the goddess herself. Like her mother, the
+goddess, the daughter, Semiramis, inspires men with irresistible love,
+and thus makes them her slaves. At the same time, as a war-goddess, she
+surpasses all men in martial courage, and brings death to all who have
+surrendered to her. The origin of the goddess thus transformed into a
+heroine is unknown and supernatural; her characteristics are marvellous
+powers of victory and charms of love. The neighbourhood of Ascalon,
+where we found the oldest and most famous temples of the Syrian goddess
+of love (I. 360), was the scene of the origin of the miraculous child.
+The doves of the Syrian goddess nourish and protect her in the desert.
+She grows up in Syria, where the worship of the goddess of sexual love
+was widely spread. Whether Simmas, her foster-father, has arisen out of
+Samas, the sun-god of the Semites, and Onnes, the first husband of
+Semiramis, out of Anu, the god of Babel and Asshur, cannot indeed be
+decided. But in her relation to Onnes, whom her charm makes her slave,
+to whom she brings uninterrupted success, till in despair at her loss he
+takes his life, the Medo-Persian minstrels describe the glamour of love
+and the sensual pleasure, as well as the destruction which proceeds from
+her, in the liveliest and most forcible manner. Even after the Indian
+campaign she indulges her passions, and then puts those to death to whom
+she grants her favours. In this life the poems found a motive for the
+plots of her sons, from which she was at first rescued by the fidelity
+of a Mede,--a trait which again reveals the origin of the poem. As
+Semiramis was a heroine merely, and not a goddess, to the minstrels,
+they could represent her overthrow, her defeat and wounds, on the Indus,
+which afterwards was the limit of the conquests of the Medians and
+Persians. At the end of her life the higher style reappears, the
+supernatural origin comes in once more. She flies out of the palace with
+the doves of Bilit, which protected her childhood. In Ctesias the
+goddess of Ascalon is Derceto,[25] and therefore later writers could
+maintain that the kings of Assyria, the descendants or successors of
+Semiramis, were named Dercetadae.[26]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Strabo, pp. 736, 737. Arrian, "Anab." 3, 7, 7. The same form of the
+name, Athura, is given in the inscriptions of Darius.
+
+[2] Plin. "Hist. Nat." 6, 27; 5, 12: Adiabene Assyria ante dicta.
+Ptolemaeus (6, 1) puts Adiabene and Arbelitis side by side. Diodorus, 18,
+39. Arrian, Epit. 35: [Greek: ten men mesen ton potamon gen sai ten
+Arbelitin eneime Amphimacho.]
+
+[3] Polyb. 5, 54. The border line between the original country of
+Assyria and Elam cannot be ascertained with certainty. According to
+Herodotus (5, 52) Susa lay 42 parasangs, _i.e._ about 150 miles, to the
+south of the northern border of Susiana. Hence we may perhaps take the
+Diala as the border between the later Assyria and Elam. The use of the
+name Assyria for Mesopotamia and Babylonia, as well as Assyria proper,
+in Herodotus (_e.g._ 1, 178) and other Greeks,--the name Syria, which
+is only an abbreviation of Assyria (Herod. 7, 63),--arises from the
+period of the supremacy of Assyria in the epoch 750-650 B.C. Cf. Strabo,
+pp. 736, 737, and Noeldeke, [Greek: ASSYRIOS], Hermes, 1871 (5), 443 ff.
+
+[4] The Euphrates, which Diodorus mentions 2, 3 and also 2, 27, is not
+to be put down to a mistake of Ctesias, since Nicolaus (Frag. 9, ed.
+Mueller) describes Nineveh as situated on the Tigris in a passage
+undoubtedly borrowed from Ctesias. The error belongs, as Carl Jacoby
+("Rhein. Museum," 30, 575 ff.) has proved, to the historians of the time
+of Alexander and the earliest Diadochi, who had in their thoughts the
+city of Mabog (Hierapolis), on the Euphrates, which was also called
+Nineveh. The mistake has passed from Clitarchus to the narrative of
+Diodorus.
+
+[5] Steph. Byzant. [Greek: Chauon, chora tes Medias, Ktesias en proto
+Pertikon. E de Semiramis enteuthen exelaunei, k. t. l.]
+
+[6] Diod. 1, 56.
+
+[7] Frag. 7, ed. Mueller.
+
+[8] Frag. 1, 2, ed. Mueller; cf. Justin. 1, 1.
+
+[9] Anonym. tract. "De Mulier." c. 1.
+
+[10] Diod. 2, 21.
+
+[11] Nicol. Frag. 8, ed. Mueller.
+
+[12] 1, 184.
+
+[13] Strabo, pp. 80, 529, 737; Lucian, "de Syria dea," c. 14.
+
+[14] Herod. 1, 102.
+
+[15] Xenoph. "Anab." 3, 4, 6-10.
+
+[16] Diodorus tells us himself (2, 7) that in writing the first 30
+chapters of his second book he had before him the book of Clitarchus on
+Alexander. Carl Jacoby (_loc. cit._)--by a comparison with the
+statements in point in Curtius, who transcribed Clitarchus, and by the
+proof that certain passages in the narrative of Diodorus which relate to
+Bactria and India are in agreement with passages in the seventeenth
+book, in which Diodorus undoubtedly follows Clitarchus; that certain
+observations in the description of Babylon in Diodorus can only belong
+to Alexander and his nearest successors; that certain preparations of
+Semiramis for the Indian campaign agree with certain preparations of
+Alexander for his Indian campaign, and certain incidents in Alexander's
+battle against Porus with certain incidents in the battle of Semiramis
+against Stabrobates; and finally by showing that the situation of the
+ancient Nineveh was unknown to the historians of the time of Alexander,
+who were on the other hand acquainted with a Nineveh on the Euphrates
+(Hierapolis, Mabog; Plin. "Hist. Nat." 5, 23; Ammian. Marcell. 14, 8,
+7)--has made it at least very probable that Diodorus had Ctesias before
+him in the revision of Clitarchus. We may allow that Clitarchus brought
+the Bactrian Oxyartes into the narrative, unless we ought to read
+Exaortes in Diodorus; but that the name of the king in Ctesias was
+Zoroaster is in my opinion very doubtful. The sources of Ctesias were
+stories related by Persians or Medes from the epic of West Iran. That
+this should put Zoroaster at the time of Ninus, and make him king of the
+Bactrians, in order to allow him to be overthrown by the Assyrians, is
+very improbable. Whether Ctesias ascribed to Semiramis the building of
+Egbatana is also very doubtful; that he mentioned her stay in Media, and
+ascribed to her the building of the road over the Zagrus and the
+planting of gardens, follows from the quotation of Stephanus given
+above. Ctesias has not ascribed to her the hanging gardens at Babylon.
+Diodorus makes them the work of a later Syrian king, whom Ctesias would
+certainly have called king of Assyria. Ctesias too can hardly have
+ascribed to her the obelisk at Babylon (Diod. 2, 11); so at least the
+addition of Diodorus, "that it belonged to the seven wonders," seems to
+me to prove.
+
+[17] "Catasterism." c. 38; Hygin. "Astronom." 2, 41. In Diodorus
+Aphrodite, enraged by a maiden, Derceto, imbues her with a fierce
+passion for a youth. In shame she slays the youth, exposes the child,
+throws herself into the lake of Ascalon, and is changed into a fish. For
+this reason the image of the goddess Derceto at Ascalon has the face of
+a woman and the body of a fish (2, 4).
+
+[18] Diod. 2, 17, _init._
+
+[19] Georg. Syncell. p. 119, ed. Bonn.
+
+[20] Diod. 1, 56.
+
+[21] "De Iside," c. 24.
+
+[22] Diod. 2, 4, _init._
+
+[23] Herod. 1, 7.
+
+[24] Lucian, "De Syria dea," c. 33, 14, 38. The name Semiramoth is found
+1 Chronicles xv. 18, 20; xvi. 5; 2, xvii. 8.
+
+[25] Ctesias in Strabo, p. 785.
+
+[26] Agathias, 2, 24.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ASSYRIAN KINGDOM.
+
+
+To relegate Ninus and Semiramis with all their works and deeds to the
+realm of fiction may appear to be a startling step, going beyond the
+limits of a prudent criticism. Does not Ctesias state accurately the
+years of the reigns: Ninus reigned, according to his statement, 52
+years; Semiramis was 62 years old, and reigned 42 years? Do not the
+chronographers assure us that in Ctesias the successors of Ninus and
+Semiramis, from Ninyas to Sardanapalus, the last ruler over Assyria, 34
+kings, were enumerated, and the length of their reigns accurately given,
+and has not Eusebius actually preserved this list? Since, at the same
+time, we find out, through Diodorus and the chronographers, as well as
+through this list, that Ctesias fixed the continuance of the Assyrian
+kingdom at more than 1300 years, or more exactly at 1306, and the fall
+of the kingdom took place according to his reckoning in the year 883
+B.C., Ninus must on these dates have ascended the throne in the year
+2189 B.C. (883 + 1306), and the reign of Semiramis commenced in 2137
+B.C. (883 + 1254). Eusebius himself puts the accession of Ninus at 2057
+B.C.[27]
+
+If in spite of these accurate statements we persist in refusing to give
+credit to Ctesias, Berosus remains, who, according to the evidence of
+the chronographers, dealt with the rule of Semiramis over Assyria. After
+mentioning the dynasty of the Medes which reigned over Babylon from
+2458-2224 B.C., the dynasty of the Elamites (2224-1976 B.C.), of the
+Chaldaeans (1976-1518 B.C.), and of the Arabs, who are said to have
+reigned over Babylon from the year 1518 to the year 1273 B.C., Berosus
+mentioned the rule of Semiramis over the Assyrians. "After this," so we
+find it in Polyhistor, "Berosus enumerates the names of 45 kings
+separately, and allotted to them 526 years. After them there was a king
+of the Chaldaeans named Phul, and after him Sennacherib, the king of the
+Assyrians, whose son, Esarhaddon, then reigned in his place."[28] If we
+take these 45 kings for kings of Assyria, who ruled over this kingdom
+after Semiramis, then, by allowing the supplements of these series of
+kings previously mentioned (I. 247), the era of these 45 kings will
+begin in the year 1273 B.C. and end in 747 B.C., and the date of
+Semiramis will fall immediately before the year 1273 B.C. In the view of
+Herodotus, Ninus was at the head of the Assyrian empire, but not
+Semiramis. As already observed (p. 14), he mentions Semiramis as a queen
+of Babylon, and does not place her higher than the middle of the seventh
+century B.C.;[29] but he regards the dominion of Assyria over Upper Asia
+as commencing far earlier. Before the Persians the Medes ruled over Asia
+for 156 years; before them the Assyrians ruled for 520 years; the Medes
+were the first of the subject nations who rebelled against the
+Assyrians; the rest of the nations followed their example. As the Median
+empire fell before the attack of the Persians in 558 B.C., the
+beginning of the Median empire would fall in the year 714 B.C. (558 +
+156), and consequently the beginning of the Assyrian kingdom in the year
+1234 B.C. (714 + 520), _i.e._ four or five decades later than Berosus
+puts the death of Semiramis. For the date of the beginning of the
+Assyrian dominion Herodotus and Berosus would thus be nearly in
+agreement. It has been assumed that the 45 kings whom the latter
+represents as following Semiramis were kings of Assyria, who ruled at
+the same time over Babylon, and were thus regarded as a Babylonian
+dynasty. This agreement would be the more definite if it could be
+supposed that, according to the view of Herodotus, the beginning of the
+156 years which he gives to the Median empire was separated by an
+interval of some decades from the date of their liberation from the
+power of the Assyrians. In this case the empire of the Assyrians over
+Asia would not have commenced very long before the year 1273 B.C., and
+would have extended from that date over Babylonia. In complete
+contradiction to this are the statements of Ctesias, which carry us back
+beyond 2000 B.C. for the commencement of the Assyrian empire. They
+cannot be brought into harmony with the statements of Herodotus, even if
+the time allotted by Ctesias to the Assyrian empire (1306 years) is
+reckoned from the established date of the conquest of Nineveh by the
+Medes and Babylonians (607 B.C.). The result of such a calculation (607
++ 1306) carries us back to 1913 B.C., a date far higher than Herodotus
+and Berosus give.
+
+Is it possible in any other way to approach more closely to the
+beginning of the Assyrian kingdom, the date of its foundation, or the
+commencement of its conquests? We have already seen how the Pharaohs of
+Egypt, after driving out the shepherds in the sixteenth and fifteenth
+centuries B.C., reduced Syria to subjection; how the first and third
+Tuthmosis, the second and third Amenophis, forced their way beyond Syria
+to Naharina. The land of Naharina, in the inscriptions of these kings,
+was certainly not the Aram Naharaim, the high land between the Euphrates
+and Tigris, in the sense of the books of the Hebrews. It was not
+Mesopotamia, but simply "the land of the stream (Nahar)." For the
+Hebrews also Nahar, _i.e._ river, means simply the Euphrates. It has
+been already shown that the arms of the Egyptians hardly went beyond the
+Chaboras to the east; and if the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III.
+represent him as receiving on his sixth campaign against the Syrians,
+_i.e._ about the year 1584 B.C., the tribute of Urn Assuru, _i.e._ of
+the chieftain of Asshur, consisting of 50 minae of lapis-lazuli; if these
+inscriptions in the year 1579 once more mention among the tribute of the
+Syrians the tribute of this prince in lapis-lazuli, cedar-trunks, and
+other wood, it is still uncertain whether the chief of the Assyrians is
+to be understood by this prince. Had Tuthmosis III. really reached and
+crossed the Tigris, were Assuru Assyria, then from the description of
+this prince, and the payment of tribute in lapis-lazuli and
+cedar-trunks, we could draw the conclusion that Assyria in the first
+half of the sixteenth century B.C. was still in the commencement of its
+civilisation, whereas we found above that as early as the beginning of
+the twentieth century B.C. Babylonia was united into a mighty kingdom,
+and had made considerable advance in the development of her
+civilisation.
+
+Our hypothesis was that the Semites, who took possession of the valley
+of the Euphrates, were immigrants from the south, from Arabia, and that
+this new population forced its way by successive steps up the
+river-valley. We were able to establish the fact that the earliest
+governments among the immigrants were formed on the lower course of the
+Euphrates, and that the centre of the state in these regions slowly
+moved upwards towards Babel. We found, further, that Semitic tribes went
+in this direction as far as the southern slope of the Armenian
+table-land.[30] In this way the region on the Tigris, afterwards called
+Assyria, was reached and peopled by the Semites. With the Hebrews
+Asshur, beside Arphaxad and Aram, beside Elam and Lud, is the seed of
+Shem. "From Shinar" (_i.e._ from Babylonia), we are told in Genesis,
+"Asshur went forth and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Chalah, and
+Resen between Nineveh and Chalah, which is the great city." There is no
+reason to call in question this statement that Assyria was peopled and
+civilised from Babylonia. Language, writing, and religion exhibit the
+closest relationship and agreement between Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+On the west bank of the Tigris, some miles above the confluence of the
+Lesser Zab, at the foot of a ridge of hills, lie the remains of an
+ancient city. The stamps on the tiles of these ruins tell us that the
+name of the city was Asshur. Tiglath Pilesar, a king of Assyria, the
+first of the name, whose reign, though we cannot fix the date precisely,
+may certainly be put about the year 1110 B.C., narrates in his
+inscriptions: The temple of the gods Anu and Bin, which Samsi-Bin, the
+son of Ismidagon, built at Asshur 641 years previously, had fallen down;
+King Assur-dayan had caused the ruins to be removed without rebuilding
+it. For 60 years the foundations remained untouched; he, Tiglath
+Pilesar, restored this ancient sanctuary. Tiles from this ruin on the
+Tigris, from this city of Asshur, establish also the fact that a prince
+named Samsi-Bin, son of Ismidagon, once ruled and built in this city of
+Asshur. They have the inscription: "Samsi-Bin, the son of Ismidagon,
+built the temple of the god Asshur."[31] Hence Samsi-Bin built temples
+in the city of Asshur to the god Asshur as well as to the gods Anu and
+Bin. His date falls, according as the 60 years of the inscription of
+Tiglath Pilesar, during which the temple of Anu and Bin was not in
+existence, are added to the space of 641 years or included in them,
+either about the year 1800 or 1740 B.C.; the date of his father
+Ismidagon about the year 1830 or 1770 B.C.
+
+In any case it is clear that a place of the name of Asshur, the site of
+which is marked by the ruins of Kileh-Shergat, was inhabited about the
+year 1800 B.C., and that about this time sanctuaries were raised in it.
+The name of the place was taken from the god specially worshipped there.
+As Babel (Gate of El) was named after the god El, Asshur was named after
+the god of that name. The city was Asshur's city, the land Asshur's
+land. Beside the city of Asshur, about 75 miles up the Tigris, there
+must have been at the time indicated a second place of the name of Ninua
+(Nineveh), the site of which is marked by the ruins of Kuyundshik and
+Nebbi Yunus (opposite Mosul), since, according to the statement of
+Shalmanesar I., king of Assyria, Samsi-Bin built another temple here to
+the goddess Istar.[32] Ismidagon, as well as Samsi-Bin, is called in the
+inscription of Tiglath Pilesar I. "Patis of Asshur." The meaning of this
+title is not quite clear; the word is said to mean viceroy. If by this
+title a vice-royalty over the land of Asshur is meant, we may assume
+that Assyria was a colony of Babylonia--that it was under the supremacy
+of the kings of Babylon, and ruled by their viceroys. But since at a
+later period princes of Assyria called themselves "Patis of Asshur," as
+well as "kings of Asshur," the title may be explained as meaning that
+the old princes of Assyria called themselves viceroys of the god of the
+land, of the god Asshur. Moreover, it would be strange that a colony of
+Babylonia, which was under the supremacy of that country, should make
+its protecting god a deity different from that worshipped in Babylonia.
+
+From this evidence we may assume that about the year 1800 B.C. a state
+named Asshur grew up between the Tigris and the Lesser Zab. This state
+must have passed beyond the lower stages of civilisation at the time
+when the princes erected temples to their gods at more than one chief
+place in their dominions, when they could busy themselves with buildings
+in honour of the gods after the example of the ancient princes of Erech
+and Nipur, of Hammurabi, and his successors at Babylon. With this result
+the statements in the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III do not entirely
+agree. Two hundred years after the time of Ismidagon and Samsi-Bin they
+speak only of the chief of Asshur, and of tribute in lapis-lazuli and
+tree-trunks; but this divergence is not sufficient to make us affirm
+with certainty that the "Assuru" of Tuthmosis has no reference whatever
+to Assyria. If we were able to place the earliest formation of a state
+on the Lower Euphrates about the year 2500 B.C., the beginnings of
+Assyria, according to the inferences to be drawn from the evidence of
+the first Tiglath Pilesar and the tiles of Kileh-Shergat, could not be
+placed later than the year 2000 B.C.
+
+Beside Ismidagon and Samsi-Bin, the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesar and
+the tiles of the ruins of Kileh-Shergat mention four or five other names
+of princes who belong to the early centuries of the Assyrian empire, but
+for whom we cannot fix any precise place. The date of the two kings, who
+on Assyrian tablets are the contemporaries of Binsumnasir of Babylon,
+Assur-nirar, and Nabudan, could not have been fixed with certainty if
+other inscriptions had not made us acquainted with the princes who ruled
+over Assyria in succession from 1460--1280 B.C.[33] From these we may
+assume that Assur-nirar and Nabudan must have reigned before this series
+of princes, _i.e._ before 1460 B.C., from which it further follows that
+from about the year 1500 B.C. onwards Assyria was in any case an
+independent state beside Babylon. We found above that the treaty which
+Assur-bil-nisi, king of Assyria, concluded about the year 1450 B.C. with
+Karaindas, king of Babylon, for fixing the boundaries, must have been
+preceded by hostile movements on the part of both kingdoms. We saw that
+Assur-bil-nisi's successor, Busur-Assur, concluded a treaty with the
+same object with Purnapuryas of Babylon, and that Assur-u-ballit, who
+succeeded Busur-Assur on the throne of Assyria, gave his daughter in
+marriage to Purnapuryas. In order to avenge the murder of Karachardas,
+the son of Purnapuryas by this marriage, who succeeded his father on the
+throne of Babylon, Assur-u-ballit invaded Babylonia and placed
+Kurigalzu, another son of Purnapuryas, on the throne. We might assume
+that about this time, _i.e._ about 1400 B.C., the borders of Assyria
+and Babylonia touched each other in the neighbourhood of the modern
+Aker-Kuf, the ancient Dur-Kurigalzu.[34] Assur-u-ballit, who restored
+the temple of Istar at Nineveh which Samsi-Bin had built, was followed
+by Pudiel, Bel-nirar, and Bin-nirar.[35] The last tells us, on a stone
+of Kileh-Shergat, that Assur-u-ballit conquered the land of Subari,
+Bel-nirar the army of Kassi, that Pudiel subjugated all the land as far
+as the distant border of Guti; he himself overcame the armies of Kassi,
+Guti, Lulumi and Subari; the road to the temple of the god Asshur, his
+lord, which had fallen down, he restored with earth and tiles, and set
+up his tablet with his name, "on the twentieth day of the month
+Muhurili, in the year of Salmanurris."[36]
+
+Bin-nirar's son and successor was Shalmanesar I., who ascended the
+throne of Assyria about 1340 B.C. We learnt above from Genesis, that
+"Asshur built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Resen and Chalah."
+Assur-nasirpal, who ruled over Assyria more than 400 years after
+Shalmanesar I., tells us that "Shalmanesar the mighty, who lived before
+him, founded the ancient city of Chalah."[37] It is thus clear that
+Assyria before the year 1300 B.C. obtained a third residence in addition
+to the cities of Asshur and Nineveh. Like Asshur and Nineveh, it lay on
+the banks of the Tigris, about 50 miles to the north of Asshur, and 25
+to the south of Nineveh. It was not, however, like Asshur, situated on
+the western bank of the river, but on the eastern, like Nineveh, a
+little above the junction of the Upper Zab, in a position protected by
+both rivers, and thus far more secure than Asshur. Shalmanesar also
+built in both the old residences of Asshur and Nineveh. Tiles of
+Kileh-Shergat bear the stamp, "Palace of Shalmanesar, son of king
+Bin-nirar."[38] His buildings in Nineveh are certified by an
+inscription, in which Shalmanesar says: "The temple of Istar, which
+Samsi-Bin, the prince who was before me, built, and which my predecessor
+Assur-u-ballit restored, had fallen into decay in the course of time. I
+built it up again from the ground to the roof. The prince who comes
+after me and sees my cylinder (p. 37), and sets it again in its place,
+as I have set the cylinder of Assur-u-ballit in its place, him may Istar
+bless; but him who destroys my monument may Istar curse and root his
+name and race out of the land."[39] In the same inscription Shalmanesar
+calls himself conqueror of Niri, Lulumi and Musri, districts for
+which--at any rate for the two last--we shall have to look in the
+neighbourhood of Nineveh, in the chain of the Zagrus. The son of
+Shalmanesar I. was Tiglath Adar; he completed the restoration of the
+temple of Istar at Nineveh, and fought with such success against
+Nazimurdas of Babylon that he placed on his seal this inscription:
+"Tiglath Adar, king of the nations, son of Shalmanesar, king of Asshur,
+has conquered the land of Kardunias." But he afterwards lost this very
+seal to the Babylonians, who placed it as a trophy in the treasure-house
+of Babylon (about 1300 B.C.).[40]
+
+These are the beginnings of the Assyrian kingdom according to the
+indications of the monuments. After the series of kings from
+Assur-bil-nisi to Tiglath Adar, whose dates come down from about the
+year 1460 to about 1280 B.C., there is a gap in our knowledge of some
+decades. After this we hear at first of new struggles with Babylon. In
+these Belkudurussur of Assyria (about 1220 B.C.) lost his life. The
+Babylonians, led by their king, Binpaliddin, invaded Assyria with a
+numerous army in order to take the city of Asshur. But Adarpalbitkur,
+the successor of Belkudurussur, succeeded in forcing them to retire to
+Babylon.[41] Of Adarpalbitkur his fourth successor proudly declares that
+"he was the protector of the might of Asshur, that he put an end to his
+weakness in his land, that he arranged well the army of the land of
+Assyria."[42] His son, Assur-dayan (about 1180 B.C.) was able to remove
+the war again into the land of Babylonia; he claims to have carried the
+booty from three places in Babylonia--Zab, Irriya and Agarsalu--to
+Assyria.[43] It was he who had carried away the ruins of the fallen
+temple which Samsi-Bin had built at Asshur to Anu and Bin, but had not
+erected it again. According to the words of his great-grandson, "he
+carried the exalted sceptre, and prospered the nation of Bel; the work
+of his hands and the gifts of his fingers pleased the great gods; he
+attained great age and long life."[44] Of Assur-dayan's son and
+successor, Mutakkil-Nebu (about 1160 B.C.), we only find that "Asshur,
+the great lord, raised him to the throne, and upheld him in the
+constancy of his heart."[45] Mutakkil-Nebu's son, Assur-ris-ilim
+(between 1150 and 1130 B.C.) had to undergo severe struggles against the
+Babylonians, who repeatedly invaded Assyria under Nebuchadnezzar I. At
+length Assur-ris-ilim succeeded in repulsing Nebuchadnezzar, and took
+from him 40 (50) chariots of war with a banner. Tiglath Pilesar, the son
+of Assur-ris-ilim, says of the deeds of his father, doubtless with
+extreme exaggeration, "he conquered the lands of the enemy, and
+subjugated all the hostile lands."[46]
+
+The tiles of a heap of ruins at Asshur bear the inscription, "Tiglath
+Pilesar, the favoured of Asshur, has built and set up the temple of his
+lord the god Bin." At the four corners of the foundation walls of this
+building were discovered four octagonal cylinders of clay, about a foot
+and a half in height, on the inscriptions of which this king repeats the
+narrative of the deeds of the first five years of his life. He restored
+the royal dwelling-places and the fortresses of the land which were in a
+bad condition, and planted again the forests of the land of Asshur; he
+renovated the habitation of the gods, the temples of Istar and Bilit in
+the city of Asshur. At the beginning of his reign Anu and Bin, his
+lords, had bidden him set up again the temple which Samsi-Bin had once
+built for them. This he accomplished; he caused the two great deities to
+enter into their high dwelling-places and rejoiced the heart of their
+great divinity. "May Anu and Bin grant me prosperity for ever, may they
+bless the work of my hands, may they hear my prayer and lead me to
+victory in war and in fight, may they subdue to my dominion all the
+lands which rise up against me, the rebellious nations and the princes,
+my rivals, may they accept my sacrificial offerings for the continuance
+and increase of my race; may it be the will of Asshur and the great gods
+to establish my race as firm as the mountains to the remotest days."[47]
+
+These cylinders tell us of the campaign of Tiglath Pilesar. First he
+defeated 20,000 Moschi (Muskai) and their five kings. He marched against
+the land of Kummukh, which rebelled against him; even that part of the
+inhabitants which fled into a city beyond the Tigris which they had
+garrisoned he overcame after crossing the Tigris. He also conquered the
+people of Kurkhie (Kirkhie) who came to their help; he drove them into
+the Tigris and the river Nami, and took prisoner in the battle
+Kiliantaru, whom they had made their king; he conquered the land of
+Kummukh throughout its whole extent and incorporated it with
+Assyria.[48] After this he marched against the land of Kurkhie; next he
+crossed the Lower Zab and overcame two districts there. Then he turned
+against the princes of the land of Nairi (he puts the number of these at
+23); these, and the princes who came from the upper sea to aid them, he
+conquered, carried off their flocks, destroyed their cities, and imposed
+on them a tribute of 1200 horses and 2000 oxen. These battles in the
+north were followed by a campaign in the west. He invaded the land of
+Aram, which knew not the god Asshur, his lord;[49] he marched against
+the city of Karkamis, in the land of the Chatti; he defeated their
+warriors on the east of the Euphrates; he crossed the Euphrates in
+pursuit of the fugitives and there destroyed six cities. Immediately
+after this the king marched again to the East, against the lands of
+Khumani and Musri and imposed tribute upon them.
+
+"Two-and-forty lands and their princes," so the cylinders inform us,
+"from the banks of the Lower Zab as far as the bank of the Euphrates,
+the land of the Chatti, and the upper sea of the setting sun, all these
+my hand has reached since my accession; one after the other I have
+subjugated them; I have received hostages from them and laid tribute
+upon them."[50] "This temple of Anu and Bin and these towers," so the
+inscription of the cylinders concludes, "will grow old; he who in the
+succession of the days shall be king in my place at a remote time, may
+he restore them and place his name beside mine, then will Anu and Bin
+grant to him prosperity, joy and success in his undertakings. But he who
+hides my tablets, and erases or destroys them, or puts his name in the
+place of mine, him will Anu and Bin curse, his throne will they bring
+down, and break the power of his dominion, and cause his army to flee;
+Bin will devote his land to destruction, and will spread over it
+poverty, hunger, sickness, and death, and destroy his name and his race
+from the earth. On the twenty-ninth day of Kisallu, in the year of
+In-iliya-allik."[51]
+
+In memory of his achievements against the land of Nairi, Tiglath Pilesar
+also set up a special monument. On a rock at one of the sources of the
+Eastern Tigris near Karkar we see his image hewn in relief. He wears the
+tall cap or _kidaris_; the hair and beard are long and curled; the robe
+falls in deep folds to the ancles. The inscription runs: "By the grace
+of Asshur, Samas and Bin, the great gods, my lords, I, Tiglath Pilesar,
+am ruler from the great sea of the west land (_mat acharri_) to the lake
+of the land of Nairi. Three times I have marched to the land of
+Nairi."[52] The first subjugation of this district could not, therefore,
+have been complete.
+
+As this monument proves, Tiglath Pilesar's campaigns could not have
+ended with the fifth year of his reign. From the synchronistic tablets
+we can ascertain that he had to undergo severe struggles with the
+Babylonians. Marduk-nadin-akh of Babylon invaded Assyria, crossed the
+Tigris, and the battle took place on the Lower Zab. In the next year,
+according to the same tablets, Tiglath Pilesar is said to have taken the
+border-fortresses of Babylon, Dur-Kurigalzu, Sippara, Babili and Upi
+(Opis ?).[53] However this may be, Tiglath Pilesar in the end was at a
+disadvantage in his contest with the Babylonians. Sennacherib, king of
+Assyria, tells us, "The gods of the city Hekali, which Marduk-nadin-akh,
+king of the land of Accad, had taken in the time of Tiglath Pilesar,
+king of Asshur, and carried to Babylon 418 years previously, I have
+caused to be brought back again from Babylon and put up again in their
+place." A Babylonian tablet from the tenth year of Marduk-nadin-akh of
+Babylon appears to deal with loans on conquered Assyrian territory.[54]
+
+When Tiglath Pilesar ascended the throne about the year 1130 B.C. the
+empire of Assyria, as his inscriptions show, had not as yet made any
+extensive conquests beyond the circle of the native country. The Muskai,
+_i.e._ the Moschi, whom we have found on the north-western slopes of
+the Armenian mountains, against whom Tiglath Pilesar first fought, had
+forced their way, as the cylinders tell us, into the land of
+Kummukh.[55] As the inhabitants of the land of Kummukh are conquered on
+the Tigris and forced into it, while others escape over the Tigris and
+defend a fortified city on the further side of the river, as the land
+itself is then incorporated with Assyria, we must obviously look for it
+at no great distance to the north on both shores of the Upper Tigris. We
+shall hardly be in error, therefore, if we take this land to be the
+district afterwards called Gumathene, on the Tigris, which Ammianus
+describes as a fruitful and productive land, _i.e._ as the canton of
+Amida.[56] The next conflicts of Tiglath Pilesar took place on the Lower
+Zab, _i.e._ at the south-eastern border of the Assyrian country.
+Further to the south, on the Zagrus, perhaps in the district of
+Chalonitis, or between the Lower Zab and the Adhim, or at any rate to
+the east, we must look for the land of Khumani and the land of Musri.
+The image at Karkar, Tiglath Pilesar's monument of victory, gives us
+information about the position of the land of Nairi. It comprises the
+mountain cantons between the Eastern Tigris and the upper course of the
+Great Zab, where that river traverses the land of Arrapachitis (Albak).
+The lake of the land of Nairi, to which the inscription of Karkar
+extends the rule of Tiglath Pilesar, and the upper sea from which
+auxiliaries come to the princes of the land of Nairi, are both, no
+doubt, Lake Van. The inhabitants of Nairi are not like those of the land
+of Kummukh, incorporated with Assyria, they have merely to pay a
+moderate tribute in horses and oxen. The campaign of Tiglath Pilesar
+against Karkamis (Karchemish) proves that the dominion of Assyria before
+his reign did not reach the Euphrates. He marches against the land of
+Aram and has then to fight with the army of Karchemish on this side,
+_i.e._ on the east side of the Euphrates; the results which he obtained
+on this campaign to the west of the Euphrates he does not himself rate
+very highly. We saw that in the end he remained at a disadvantage in his
+contest with Babylon. On the other hand, in campaigns which took place
+in years subsequent to the attempt against Karchemish, he must have
+forced his way to the west far beyond the Euphrates, in order to be able
+to boast on the monument at Karkar "that he ruled from the sea of Nairi
+as far as the great sea of the west land," _i.e._ to the Mediterranean.
+Hence we have to assume that he went forth from Karchemish westwards
+almost as far as the mouth of the Orontes. We should be more accurately
+informed on this matter if the fragment of an inscription on an obelisk
+beside an inscription of Assurnasirpal, who reigned more than 200 years
+after Tiglath Pilesar, could be referred to Tiglath Pilesar. The
+fragment speaks in the third person of the booty gained in hunting by a
+king, which is given in nearly the same totals as the results of Tiglath
+Pilesar's hunts on his cylinders. These represent him as slaying 120
+lions and capturing 800. The fragment speaks of 120 and 800 lions, of
+Amsi killed in Charran on the Chabor, of Rim whom the king slew before
+the land of Chatti at the foot of Mount Labnani (Lebanon), of a
+crocodile (_nasukh_) which the king of Musri sent as a present. The
+hunter, it is said, ruled from the city of Babylon, in the land of
+Accad, as far as the land of the west (_mat acharri_).[57]
+
+According to the inscriptions on the cylinders the land of Aram lies to
+the east of the Euphrates; the city of Karchemish lies on the west bank
+in the land of the Chatti. The Chatti are the Hittites of the Hebrews,
+the Cheta of the Egyptians. We found that the inscriptions of Sethos and
+Ramses II. extended the name of the Cheta as far as the Euphrates (I.
+151, 152). But although the kingdom of the Hittites had fallen two
+centuries before Tiglath Pilesar crossed the Euphrates, the name still
+clung to this region, as the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesar and his
+successors prove, more especially to the region from Hamath and Damascus
+as far as Lebanon. The land of the west (_mat acharri_) in the strict
+sense is, of course, to the Assyrians, from their point of view, the
+coast of Syria. Whatever successes Tiglath Pilesar may have gained in
+this direction, they were of a transitory nature.
+
+The first of his sons to succeed him was Assur-bel-kala, whose reign we
+may fix in the years 1100-1080 B.C. With three successive kings of
+Babylon, Marduk-sapik-kullat, Saduni (?), and Nebu-zikir-iskun, he came
+into contact, peaceful or hostile. With the first he made a treaty of
+peace, with Saduni he carried on war, with Nebu-zikir-iskun he again
+concluded a peace, which fixed the borders. This was confirmed by
+intermarriage;[58] Assur-bel-kala married his daughter to
+Nebu-zikir-iskun, while the latter gave his daughter to Assur-bel-kala.
+Of the exploits of his successor, Samsi-Bin II. (1080-1060 B.C.), a
+second son of Tiglath Pilesar, we have no account.[59] We cannot
+maintain with certainty whether Assur-rab-amar, of whom Shalmanesar II.
+tells us that he lost two cities on the Euphrates which Tiglath Pilesar
+had taken,[60] was the direct successor of Samsi-Bin.
+
+After this, for the space of more than 100 years (1040-930), there is
+again a gap in our knowledge. Not till we reach Assur-dayan II., who
+ascended the throne of Assyria about the year 930 B.C., can we again
+follow the series of the Assyrian kings downwards without interruption.
+This Assur-dayan II. is followed by Bin-nirar II., about 900; Bin-nirar,
+by Tiglath Adar II., who reigned from 889-883 B.C. He had to contend
+once more against the land of Nairi, _i.e._ against the region between
+the Eastern Tigris and the upper course of the Upper Zab. As a memorial
+of the successes which he gained here he caused his image to be carved
+beside that of Tiglath Pilesar in the rocks at Karkar (see below).
+Besides this, there is in existence from his time a pass, _i.e._ a
+small tablet, with the inscription, "Permission to enter into the palace
+of Tiglath Adar, king of the land of Asshur, son of Bin-nirar, king of
+the land of Asshur."[61]
+
+Neither at the commencement nor in the course of the history of Assyria
+do the monuments know of a king Ninus, a queen Semiramis, or of any
+warlike queen of this kingdom; they do not even mention any woman as
+standing independently at the head of Assyria. Once, it is true, we find
+the name Semiramis in the inscriptions in the form Sammuramat.
+Sammuramat was the wife of king Bin-nirar III., who ruled over Assyria
+from the year 810-781 B.C. On the pedestal of two statues, which an
+officer of this king, the prefect of Chalah, dedicated to the god Nebo,
+the inscription is: "To Nebo, the highest lord of his lords, the
+protector of Bin-nirar, king of Asshur, and protector of Sammuramat, the
+wife of the palace, his lady." The name of Ninyas is quite unknown to
+the monuments, and of the names of the 33 kings which Ctesias gives,
+with their names and reigns as successors of Ninyas down to the
+overthrow of the kingdom and Sardanapalus (p. 26),--unless we identify
+the last name in the list, that of Sardanapalus, with the Assurbanipal
+of the inscriptions, _i.e._ with the ruler last but one or two
+according to the records,--no single one agrees with the names of the
+monuments, which, moreover, give a higher total than six-and-thirty for
+the reigns of the Assyrian kings. The list of Ctesias appears to have
+been put together capriciously or merely invented; the lengths of the
+reigns are pure imagination, and arranged according to certain
+synchronisms.
+
+Not less definite is the evidence of the monuments that the pre-eminence
+of Assyria over Upper Asia cannot have commenced in the year 2189 or
+1913 B.C., as Ctesias asserts, or as may be assumed from his data, nor
+in 1273, as has been deduced from the statements of Berosus, nor finally
+in the year 1234, according to Herodotus' statements (p. 27). Though we
+are able to find only approximately the dates of the kings of Assyria,
+whose names and deeds we have passed in review, the result is,
+nevertheless, that the power of Assyria in the fifteenth and fourteenth
+centuries did not go far beyond the native country--that her forces by
+no means surpassed those of Babylon--that precisely in the thirteenth
+and twelfth centuries B.C. the kingdom of Babylon was at least as strong
+as that of Assyria--that even towards the close of the twelfth century
+Tiglath Pilesar I. could gain no success against Babylon--that his
+successors sought to establish peaceful relations with Babylonia. There
+is just as little reason to maintain the period of 520 years which
+Herodotus allows for the Assyrian empire over Asia. This cannot in any
+case be assumed earlier than the date of Tiglath Pilesar I., who did at
+least cross the Euphrates and enter Northern Syria. The beginning of
+this empire would, therefore, be about 1130 B.C., not 1234 B.C. The date
+also which Herodotus gives for the close of this empire (before 700
+B.C.) cannot, as will be shown, be maintained. According to this datum
+the decline and fall of Assyria must have began with the period in
+which, as a fact, she rose to the proudest height and extended her power
+to the widest extent. The period of 520 years can only be kept
+artificially by reckoning it upwards from the year 607 B.C., the year of
+the overthrow of the Assyrian empire; then it brings us from this date
+to 1127 B.C., _i.e._ to the time of Tiglath Pilesar I. But we saw that
+the conquests of Tiglath Pilesar did not extend very far, that his
+successes west of the Euphrates were of a transitory nature; in no case
+could a dominion of Assyria over Babylon be dated from his reign.
+
+The complete agreement of the Assyrian and Babylonian style and
+civilisation is proved most clearly by the monuments. The names of the
+princes of Assyria are formed analogously to those of the Babylonians;
+the names and the nature of the deities which the Assyrians and
+Babylonians worship are the same. In Assyria we meet again with Anu the
+god of the high heaven, Samas the sun-god, Sin the moon-god, Bin
+(Ramman) the god of the thunder; of the spirits of the planets Adar, the
+lord of Saturn, Nebo, the god of Mercury, and Istar, the lady of Venus,
+in her double nature of destroyer and giver of fruit, reappear. There is
+only one striking difference: the special protector of Assyria, Asshur,
+the god of the land, stands at the head of the gods in the place of El
+of the Babylonians. He it is after whom the land and the oldest
+metropolis is named, whose representatives the oldest princes of Assyria
+appear to have called themselves. The name of Asshur is said to mean the
+good or the kind;[62] which may even on the Euphrates have been an
+epithet of El, which on the Tigris became the chief name of the deity.
+As the ancient princes of Ur and Erech, of Nipur and Senkereh, as the
+kings of Babel--so also the kings of Assyria, as far back as our
+monuments allow us to go--built temples to their gods; like them they
+mark the tiles of their buildings with their names; like the kings of
+Babel, they cause inscriptions to be written on cylinders, intended to
+preserve the memory of their buildings and achievements, and then placed
+in the masonry of their temples. The language of the inscriptions of
+Assyria differs from those of the Babylonian inscriptions, as one
+dialect from another; the system of writing is the same. The population
+of Assyria transferred their language and writing, their religious
+conceptions and modes of worship, from the Lower Euphrates to the Upper
+Tigris. If the princes of Erech, Nipur and Babylon had to repel the
+attacks of Elam, the Assyrian land, a region of moderate extent, lay
+under the spurs of the Armenian table-land, under the ranges of the
+Zagrus. The struggle against the tribes of these mountains, in the
+Zagrus and in the region of the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
+and the stubborn resistance of these tribes appears to have strengthened
+the warlike powers of the Assyrians, and these ceaseless campaigns
+trained them to that military excellence which finally, after a period
+of exercise which lasted for centuries, won for them the preponderance
+over Mesopotamia and Syria, over Babylonia and Elam, no less than over
+Egypt.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[27] Diod. 2, 21; Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 56; 2, p. 11, ed. Schoene;
+Syncellus, "Chron." 1, 313, 314, ed. Bonn; Brandis, "Rer. Assyr. tempor.
+emend." p. 13 _seq._
+
+[28] Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 26, ed. Schoene.
+
+[29] 1, 184, 187.
+
+[30] Vol. i. 512.
+
+[31] Menant, "Annal." p. 18.
+
+[32] G. Smith, "Discov." p. 249.
+
+[33] The date of Tiglath Adar is fixed by the statement of Sennacherib
+that he lost his seal to the Babylonians 600 years before Sennacherib
+took Babylon, _i.e._ about the year 1300 B.C. As the series of seven
+kings who reigned before Tiglath Adar is fixed, Assur-bil-nisi, the
+first of these, can be placed about 1460 B.C. if we allow 20 years to
+each.
+
+[34] Vol. i. p. 262.
+
+[35] This series, Pudiel, Bel-nirar and Bin-nirar, is established by
+tiles of Kileh-Shergat, and the fact that it joins on to Assur-u-ballit,
+by the tablet of Bin-nirar discovered by G. Smith, in which he calls
+himself great grandson of Assur-u-ballit, grandson of Bel-nirar, and son
+of Pudiel; G. Smith, "Discov." p. 244.
+
+[36] G. Smith, "Discov." pp. 244, 245.
+
+[37] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 20; "Records of the
+Past," 7, 17.
+
+[38] Menant, "Annal." p. 73.
+
+[39] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 249.
+
+[40] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 250; E. Schrader, "A. B. Keilinschriften,"
+s. 294. As Sennacherib states that he brought back this seal from
+Babylon after 600 years, and as Sennacherib took Babylon twice in 704
+and 694 B.C., the loss of it falls either in the year 1304 or 1294 B.C.
+As he brings back the Assyrian images of the gods at the second capture
+(694 B.C.), the seal of Tiglath Adar may have been brought back on this
+occasion.
+
+[41] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 250.
+
+[42] So the passage runs according to a communication from E. Schrader.
+On the reading Adarpalbitkur as against the readings Ninpalazira and
+Adarpalassar, see E. Schrader, "A. B. Keilinschriften," s. 152. On what
+Menant ("Annal." p. 29) grounds the assumption that Belkudurussur was
+the immediate successor of Tiglath Adar I cannot say; it would not be
+chronologically impossible, but the synchronistic tablet merely informs
+us that Adarpalbitkur was the successor of Belkudurussur; G. Rawlinson,
+"Mon." 2, 49. Still less am I able to find any foundation for the
+statement that Binpaliddin of Babylon, the opponent of Belkudurussur and
+Adarpalbitkur, was a vassal-king set up by Assyria. The date of Tiglath
+Pilesar I. is fixed by the Bavian inscription, which tells us that
+Sennacherib at his second capture of Babylon brought back out of that
+city the images of the gods lost by Tiglath Pilesar 418 years previously
+(Bav. 43-50), at the period between 1130 and 1100 B.C. If he began to
+reign 1130, then the five kings before him (the series from
+Adarpalbitkur to Tiglath Pilesar is fixed by the cylinder of the
+latter), allowing 20 years to each reign, bring us to 1230 B.C. for the
+beginning of Belkudurussur. To go back further seems the more doubtful,
+as Tiglath Pilesar put Assur-dayan, the third prince of this series,
+only 60 years before his own time.
+
+[43] Sayce, "Records of the Past," 3, 31; Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 31.
+
+[44] Communication from E. Schrader.
+
+[45] Cf. G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 251.
+
+[46] Vol. i. p. 263; Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 32.
+
+[47] Menant, "Annal." pp. 47, 48.
+
+[48] Column, 1, 62, _seqq._, 1, 89.
+
+[49] Column, 5, 44.
+
+[50] Column, 6, 39.
+
+[51] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 48.
+
+[52] Vol. i. p. 519; E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 16.
+
+[53] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 51.
+
+[54] Vol. i. p. 263; Bavian Inscrip. 48-50; Menant, "Annal." pp. 52,
+236. Inscription on the black basalt-stone in Oppert et Menant,
+"Documents juridiques," p. 98. Is the name of the witness (col. 2, 27),
+Sar-babil-assur-issu (p. 115), correctly explained by "The king of Babel
+has conquered Asshur"?
+
+[55] Col. 1, 62.
+
+[56] Ammian. Marcell. 18, 9.
+
+[57] Araziki cannot be taken for Aradus, the name of which city on the
+obelisk and in the inscriptions of Assurnasirpal, Shalmanesar, and
+elsewhere is Arvadu.
+
+[58] Sayce, "Records," 3, 33; Menant, "Annal." p. 53; "Babylone," pp.
+129, 130.
+
+[59] According to G. Smith ("Discov." p. 91, 252) this Samsi-Bin II.
+restored the temple of Istar at Nineveh which Samsi-Bin I. had built
+(above, p. 3).
+
+[60] Inscription of Kurkh, "Records of the Past," 3, 93; Menant,
+"Annal." p. 55.
+
+[61] Menant, "Annal." p. 63.
+
+[62] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 7.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE NAVIGATION AND COLONIES OF THE PHENICIANS.
+
+
+At the time when Babylonia, on the banks of the Euphrates, flourished
+under the successors of Hammurabi in an ancient and peculiar
+civilisation, and Assyria was struggling upwards beside Babylonia on the
+banks of the Tigris, strengthening her military power in the Armenian
+mountains and the ranges of the Zagrus, and already beginning to try her
+strength in more distant campaigns, a Semitic tribe succeeded in rising
+into eminence in the West also, in winning and exerting a deep-reaching
+influence on distant and extensive lands. It was a district of the most
+moderate extent from which this influence proceeded, its dominion was of
+a different kind from that of the Babylonians and Assyrians; it grew up
+on an element which elsewhere appeared not a favourite with the Semites,
+and sought its points of support in settlements on distant islands and
+coasts. By this tribe the sea was actively traversed and with
+ever-increasing boldness; by circumspection, by skill, by tough
+endurance and brave ventures it succeeded in extending its dominion in
+ever-widening circles, and making the sea the instrument of its wealth
+and the bearer of its power.
+
+On the coasts of Syria were settled the tribes of the Arvadites,
+Giblites and Sidonians (I. 344). Their land extended from the mouth of
+the Eleutherus (Nahr el Kebir) in the north to the promontory of Carmel
+in the south. A narrow strip of coast under Mount Lebanon, from 10 to 15
+miles in breadth and some 150 miles in length, was all that they
+possessed. Richly watered by the streams sent down from Lebanon to the
+sea, the small plains formed round their mouths and separated by the
+spurs of the mountain ranges are of the most abundant fertility. The
+Eleutherus is followed to the south by the Adonis (Nahr el Ibrahim), and
+this by the Lycus (Nahr el Kelb); then follow the Tamyras (Nahr Damur),
+the Bostrenus (Nahr el Auli[63]), the Belus (the Sihor Libnath of the
+Hebrews, now Nahr Naman), and lastly the Kishon. Above the shore rise
+hills clothed with date-palms, vines and olives; higher up on Lebanon
+splendid mountain pastures spread out, and above these we come to the
+vast forests (I. 338) which provide shade in the glowing heat, as
+Tacitus says,[64] and to the bright snow-fields which crown the summit
+of Lebanon. Ammianus speaks of the region under Lebanon as full of
+pleasantness and beauty. The upper slopes of the mountain furnish
+pasture and forests; in the rocks are copper and iron. The high
+mountain-range, which sharply divided the inhabitants of the coast from
+the interior (at a much later time, even after the improvements of the
+Roman Caesars, there were, as there are now, nothing but mule-tracks
+across Lebanon[65]), lay behind the inhabitants of the coast, and before
+them lay the sea. At an early period they must have become familiar with
+that element. The name of the tribe which the Hebrew Scriptures call the
+"first-born of Canaan" means "fishermen." The places on the coast found
+the sea the easiest means of communication. Thus the sea, so rich in
+islands, the long but proportionately narrow basin which lay before the
+Sidonians, Giblites and Arvadites, would soon attract to longer voyages
+the fishermen and navigators of the coast.
+
+We found that the beginning of civilisation in Canaan could not be
+placed later than about the year 2500 B.C., and we must therefore allow
+a considerable antiquity to the cities of the Sidonians, Giblites,
+Arvadites, Zemarites and Arkites. The settlement on the site of Sidon
+was founded, no doubt, before the year 2000 B.C., and that on the site
+of Byblus cannot certainly be placed later than this period.[66] The
+campaigns which the Pharaohs undertook against Syria and the land of the
+Euphrates after the expulsion of the Shepherds could not leave these
+cities unmoved. If the Zemar of the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III. is
+Zemar (Simyra) near Aradus, and Arathutu is Aradus itself, the
+territories of these cities were laid waste by this king in his sixth
+campaign (about the year 1580 B.C.); if Arkatu is Arka, south of Aradus,
+this place must have been destroyed in his fifteenth campaign (about the
+year 1570 B.C.). Sethos I. (1440-1400 B.C.) subdued the land of Limanon
+(_i.e._ the region of Lebanon), and caused cedars to be felled there.
+One of his inscriptions mentions Zor, _i.e._ Tyre, among the cities
+conquered by him. The son and successor of Sethos I., Ramses II., also
+forced his way in the first decades of the fourteenth century as far as
+the coasts of the Phenicians. At the mouth of the Nahr el Kelb, between
+Sidon and Berytus, the rocks on the coast display the memorial which he
+caused to be set up in the second and third year of his reign in honour
+of the successes obtained in this region.[67] In the fifth year of his
+reign Ramses, with the king of the Cheta' defeats the king of Arathu in
+the neighbourhood of Kadeshu on the Orontes, and Ramses III. about the
+year 1310 B.C., mentions beside the Cheta who attack Egypt the people of
+Arathu, by which name, in the one case as in the other, may be meant the
+warriors of Aradus.[68] If Arathu, like Arathutu, is Aradus, it follows,
+from the position which Ramses II. and III. give to the princes of
+Arathu, that beside the power to which the kingdom of the Hittites had
+risen about the middle of the fifteenth century B.C., and which it
+maintained to the end of the fourteenth,[69] the Phenician cities had
+assumed an independent position. The successes of the Pharaohs in Syria
+come to an end in the first decades of the fourteenth century. Egypt
+makes peace and enters into a contract of marriage with the royal house
+of the Cheta; the Syrians obtain even the preponderance against Egypt
+(I. 152), to which Ramses III. towards the end of the fourteenth century
+was first able to oppose a successful defence.
+
+The overthrow of the kingdom of the Hittites, which succumbed to the
+attack of the Amorites (I. 348) soon after the year 1300 B.C., must have
+had a reaction on the cities of the Phenicians. Expelled Hittites must
+have been driven to the coast-land, or have fled thither, and in the
+middle of the thirteenth century the successes gained by the Hebrews who
+broke in from the East, over the Amorites, the settlement of the Hebrews
+on the mountains of the Amorites, must again have thrown the vanquished,
+_i.e._ the fugitives of this nation, towards the coast.
+
+With this retirement of the older strata of the population of Canaan to
+the coast is connected the movement which from this period emanates
+from the coasts of the Phenicians, and is directed towards the islands
+of the Mediterranean and the AEgean. It is true that on this subject only
+the most scanty statements and traces, only the most legendary
+traditions have come down to us, so that we can ascertain these advances
+only in the most wavering outlines. One hundred miles to the west off
+the coast of Phoenicia lies the island of Cyprus. On the southern coast
+of this island, which looked towards Phoenicia, stood the city of
+Citium, Kith and Chith in the inscriptions of the Phenicians, and
+apparently Kittii in those of the Assyrians. Sidonian coins describe
+Citium as a daughter of Sidon.[70] After this city the whole island is
+known among the Semites as Kittim and Chittim; this name is even used in
+a wider sense for all the islands of the Mediterranean.[71] The western
+writers state that before the time of the Trojan war Belus had conquered
+and subjugated the island of Cyprus, and that Citium belonged to
+Belus.[72] The victorious Belus is the Baal of the Phenicians. The date
+of the Trojan war is of no importance for the settlement of the
+Phenicians in Cyprus, for this statement is found in Virgil only. More
+important is the fact that the settlers brought the Babylonian cuneiform
+writing to Cyprus. This became so firmly rooted in use that even the
+Greeks, who set foot on the island at a far later time, scarcely before
+the end of the ninth century, adopted this writing, which here meanwhile
+had gone through a peculiar development, and had become a kind of
+syllabic-writing, and used it on coins and in inscriptions even in the
+fifth century B.C.[73] The settlement of the Sidonians in Cyprus must
+therefore have taken place before the time in which the alphabetic
+writing, _i.e._ the writing specially known as Phenician, was in use in
+Syria, and hence at the latest before 1100 B.C. How long before this
+time the settlement of the Phenicians in Cyprus took place can, perhaps,
+be measured by the fact that the Cyprian alphabet is a simplification of
+the old Babylonian cuneiform writing. The simplified form would
+undoubtedly have been driven out by the far more convenient alphabetic
+writing of the Phenicians if the Cyprian writing had not become fixed in
+use in this island before the rise of the alphabetic writing. Further,
+since the Phenicians, as we shall see, set foot on the coast of Hellas
+from about the year 1200 B.C. onwards, we must place the foundation of
+the colonies on the coasts nearest them, the settlement in Cyprus,
+before this date, about the middle of the thirteenth century B.C.
+
+What population the Phenicians found on Cyprus it is not possible to
+discover. Herodotus tells us that the first inhabitants of the island
+were Ethiopians, according to the statements of the Cyprians. It is
+beyond a doubt that not Citium only, but the greater part of the cities
+of the island were founded by the Phenicians, and that the Phenician
+element became the ruling element of the whole island.[74] It is Belus
+who is said to have conquered Cyprus, and to whom the city of Citium is
+said to belong; _i.e._ Citium worshipped the god Baal. At Amathus, to
+the west of Citium, on the south coast of the island, which was called
+the oldest city on Cyprus, and which nevertheless bears a distinctly
+Semitic name (Hamath), Adonis and Ashera-Astarte were worshipped,[75]
+and these deities had also one of their oldest and most honoured seats
+of worship at Paphos (Pappa in the inscriptions), on the west coast. The
+Homeric poems represent Aphrodite as hastening to her altar at Paphos in
+Cyprus. Pausanias observes that the Aphrodite of Cyprus was a warlike
+Aphrodite,[76] and as the daughters of the Cyprians surrendered
+themselves to the foreign seamen in honour of this goddess,[77] it was
+the Astarte-Ashera of the Phenicians who was worshipped at Amathus and
+Paphos. The Zeus of the Cyprian city Salamis (Sillumi in the
+inscriptions of the Assyrians), to whom, according to the evidence of
+western writers, human sacrifices were offered, can only be Baal Moloch,
+the evil sun-god of the Phenicians. In the beginning of the tenth
+century B.C. the cities of Cyprus stood under the supremacy of the king
+of Tyre.[78] The island was of extraordinary fertility. The forests
+furnished wood for ship-building; the mountains concealed rich veins of
+the metal which has obtained the name of copper from this island.[79]
+Hence it was a very valuable acquisition, an essential strengthening of
+the power of Sidon in the older, and Tyre in the later, period.
+
+Following Zeno of Rhodes, who wrote the history of his home in the first
+half of the second century B.C.,[80] Diodorus tells us: The king of the
+Phenicians, Agenor, bade his son Cadmus seek his sister Europa,[81] who
+had disappeared, and bring back the maiden, or not return himself to
+Phoenicia. Overtaken by a violent storm, Cadmus vowed a shrine to
+Poseidon. He was saved, and landed on the island of Rhodes, where the
+inhabitants worshipped before all other gods the sun, who had here
+begotten seven sons and among them Makar. Cadmus set up a temple in
+Rhodes to Poseidon, as he had vowed to do, and left behind Phenicians to
+keep up the service; but in the temple which belonged to Athena at
+Cnidus in Rhodes he dedicated a work of art, an iron bowl, which bore an
+inscription in Phenician letters, the oldest inscription which came from
+Phoenicia to the Hellenes. From Rhodes Cadmus came to Samothrace, and
+there married Harmonia. The gods celebrated this first marriage by
+bringing gifts, and blessing the married pair to the tones of heavenly
+music.[82]
+
+Ephorus says that Cadmus carried off Harmonia while sailing past
+Samothrace, and hence in that island search was still made for Harmonia
+at the festivals.[83] Herodotus informs us that Cadmus of Tyre, the son
+of Agenor, in his search for Europa, landed on the island of Thera,
+which was then called Callisto, and there left behind some Phenicians,
+either because the land pleased him or for some other reason. These
+Phenicians inhabited the island for eight generations before Theras
+landed there from Lacedaemon. The rest went to the island of Thasos and
+there built a temple to Heracles, which he had himself seen, and the
+city of Thasos. This took place five generations before Heracles the son
+of Amphitryon was born. After that Cadmus came to the land now called
+Boeotia, and the Phenicians who were with him inhabited the land and
+taught the Hellenes many things, among others the use of writing,
+"which as it seems to me the Hellenes did not possess before. They
+learnt this writing, as it was used by the Phenicians; in the course of
+time the form of the letters changed with the language. From these
+Phenicians the Ionians, among whom they dwelt, learnt the letters,
+altered their form a little, and extended their use. As was right, they
+called them Phenician letters, since the Phenicians had brought them
+into Greece. I have myself seen inscriptions in Cadmeian letters (_i.e._
+from the time of Cadmus) in the temple of Ismenian Apollo at
+Thebes."[84] According to the narrative of Hellanicus, Cadmus received
+an oracle, bidding him follow the cow which bore on her back the sign of
+the full moon, and found a city where she lay down. Cadmus carried out
+the command, and when the cow lay down wearied, where Thebes now stands,
+Cadmus built there the Cadmeia (the citadel of Thebes).[85] According to
+the statement of Pherecydes Cadmus also built the city of Thebes.[86]
+With Hecataeus of Miletus Cadmus passes as the discoverer of letters;
+according to others he also discovered the making of iron armour and the
+art of mining.[87]
+
+The direction of the Phenician settlements, which proceeds in the AEgean
+sea from S.E. to N.W., cannot be mistaken in these legends. First
+Rhodes, then the Cyclades, then the islands on the Thracian coast,
+Samothrace and Thasos, were colonised; and at length, on the strait of
+Euboea, the mainland of Hellas was trodden by the Phenicians, who are
+said to have gained precisely from this point a deep-reaching influence
+over the Hellenes. The legend of Cadmus goes far back among the Greeks.
+In the Homeric poems the inhabitants of Thebes are "Cadmeians." The
+Thebaid praised "the divine wisdom of Cadmus;" in the poems of Hesiod he
+leads home Harmonia, "the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite," and Pindar
+describes how the Muses sang for "the divine Cadmus, the wealthiest of
+mortals, when in seven-gated Thebes he led the ox-eyed Harmonia to the
+bridal-bed."[88] Agenor, the father of Cadmus, is a name which the
+Greeks have given to the Baal of the Phenicians.[89] Cadmus himself, the
+wealthiest of mortals, who leads home the daughter of a god and a
+goddess,--who celebrates the first marriage at which the gods assemble,
+bring gifts and sing,--whose wife was worshipped as the protecting
+goddess of Thebes,[90]--whose daughters, Ino, Leucothea and Semele, are
+divine creatures, whom Zeus leads to the Elysian fields,[91]--can only
+be a god. He seeks the lost Europa, and is to follow the cow which bears
+the sign of the full moon. We know the moon-goddess of the Phenicians,
+who bears the crescent moon and cow's horns, the horned Astarte, who
+wears a cow's head, the goddess of battle and sensual desire, and thus
+the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. "The great temple of Astarte at
+Sidon," so we find in the book of the Syrian goddess, "belongs, as the
+Sidonians say, to Astarte; but a priest told me that it was a temple of
+Europa, the sister of Cadmus." The meaning of the word Europa has been
+discussed previously (I. 371). Cadmus, who seeks the lost moon-goddess,
+who at length finds and overcomes her, and celebrates with her the holy
+marriage, is the Baal Melkarth of the Phenicians. The death-bringing
+Istar-Astarte is changed into Bilit-Ashera, into the fruit-giving
+goddess;[92] the gloomy Europa changes into Harmonia, the goddess of
+union, birth and increase, yet not without leaving to her descendants
+deadly gifts. It is the myth of Melkarth and Astarte which the Greeks
+present to us in the story of Cadmus; with this myth they have connected
+the foundation of the Phenician settlements in Rhodes, Thera,
+Samothrace, Thasos and Boeotia; they have changed it into the foundation
+of these colonies. The name Cadmus means the man of the East; to the
+Hebrews the Arabs who dwelt to the east of them were known as Beni
+Kedem, _i.e._ sons of the East.[93] To the Greeks the Phenicians were
+men of the East, just as to the English of the thirteenth century the
+merchants of Lubeck were Easterlings. The citadel of Thebes, which the
+men of the East built, preserved the name of Cadmus the son of the East,
+and kept it alive among the Greeks.
+
+What we can gather from Grecian legend is confirmed by some statements
+of historians and by traces which tell of settlements of the Phenicians.
+Thucydides informs us that the Phenicians colonised most of the islands
+of the AEgean.[94] Diodorus has already told us with regard to Rhodes
+that in the temples of this island were Phenician works of art and
+inscriptions, and that in Rhodes the sun-god and the seven children
+which he begot there were worshipped. In the number eight made by these
+deities we can hardly fail to recognise the eight great deities of the
+Phenicians; the sun-god at their head is the Baal of the Phenicians (I.
+357). And if Diodorus mentions Makar among the seven sons of the sun-god
+of Rhodes,--if according to others Rhodes, like Cyprus, was called
+Macaria,--Makar is a Greek form of the name Melkarth. We further learn
+that on the highest mountain summit in Rhodes, on Atabyris, Zeus was
+worshipped under the form of a bull, and that a human sacrifice was
+offered yearly to Cronos. In Atabyris we cannot fail to recognise the
+Semitic Tabor, _i.e._ the height. We found above that the Phenicians
+worshipped Baal under the form of a bull, and the Greeks are wont to
+denote Baal Moloch by the name of Cronos.[95] These forms of worship
+continued to exist even when at a later time Hellenic immigrants had got
+the upper hand in Rhodes. It was the Dorians who here met with
+resistance from the Phenicians at Camirus and Ialysus; they got the
+upper hand, but admitted Phenician families into their midst,[96] and
+continued their sacred rites. Diodorus informs us that the Phenicians
+whom Cadmus had left behind on Rhodes had formed a mixed community with
+the Ialysians, and that it was said that priests of their families had
+performed the sacred duties.[97] Even at a later time Rhodes stood in
+close relation with Phoenicia, especially with the city of Aradus.[98]
+Thus it happened that the colonies which the Rhodians planted in the
+seventh and sixth centuries in Sicily, Gela and Acragas, carried thither
+the worship of Zeus Atarbyrius. Zeus Atarbyrius was the protecting deity
+of Acragas, and human sacrifices were offered to his iron bull-image on
+the citadel of that city as late as the middle of the sixth century. The
+coins of Gela also exhibit a bull.[99] Of the island of Thera, Herodotus
+told us that the Phenicians colonised it and inhabited it for eight
+generations, _i.e._ for more than 250 years according to his
+computation. Herodotus names the chief of the Phenicians whom Cadmus
+left behind on Thera; others speak of the two altars which he erected
+there.[100] The descendants of these Phenicians were found here by the
+Greek settlers from Laconia. It is certain that even in the third
+century B.C. the island worshipped the hero Phoenix.[101] Of the island
+of Melos we learn that it was occupied by Phenicians of Byblus, and
+named by them after their mother city;[102] the island of Oliaros near
+Paros was, on the other hand, according to Heracleides Ponticus,
+occupied by the Sidonians.[103] Strabo informs us that Samothrace was
+previously called Melite (Malta); from its height (the island is a
+mountain rising high in the sea and covered with oak forests; the summit
+reaches 5000 feet) it obtained the name of Samos, "for high places are
+called Sami;"[104] as a matter of fact the stem of the word of this
+meaning, like the name Melite, belongs to the Phenician language.
+Ephorus has already told us (p. 56) that the Samothracians sought for
+Harmonia at their festivals; Diodorus represents Cadmus as celebrating
+the marriage with Harmonia on Samothrace as well as at Thebes, and we
+learn from Herodotus that the Cabiri, _i.e._ the great gods of the
+Phenicians, were worshipped on Samothrace; votive tablets of the island
+dating from Roman times still bear the inscription, "to the great gods,"
+_i.e._ to the Cabiri.[105] The islands of Imbros and Lemnos also
+worshipped the Cabiri; Lemnos especially worshipped Hephaestus, who had a
+leading place in this circle.[106] The island of Thasos is said,
+according to the statement of the Greeks, to have been called after a
+son of Phoenix, or Agenor, of the name of Thasos, who was consequently a
+brother of Cadmus. Herodotus saw on the island a temple which the
+Phenicians had built to Heracles, _i.e._ to Baal-Melkarth, and the mines
+which they had made on the coast opposite Samothrace; "they had
+overturned a great mountain in order to get gold from it."[107]
+Herodotus also tells us that the temple of Aphrodite Urania on the
+island of Cythera off the coast of Laconia was founded by the
+Phenicians, and Pausanias calls this temple the oldest and most sacred
+temple of Urania among the Hellenes; the wooden image in this temple
+exhibited the goddess in armour. Aphrodite Urania is with the Greeks the
+Syrian Aphrodite; if she was represented on Cythera in armour it is
+clear that she was worshipped there by the Phenicians as Astarte-Ashera,
+_i.e._ as the goddess of war and love.[108]
+
+Not in the islands only, but on the coasts of Hellas also, the
+Phenicians have left traces of their ancient occupation, especially in
+the form of worship belonging to them. On the isthmus of Corinth
+Melicertes, _i.e._ Melkarth, was worshipped as a deity protecting
+navigation; Corinthian coins exhibit him on a dolphin.[109] Aphrodite,
+whose shrine stood on the summit of Acrocorinthus, was worshipped by
+prostitution like the Ashera-Bilit of the Phenicians. In Attica also, in
+the deme of Athmonon, there was a shrine of the goddess of Cythera,
+which king Porphyrion, _i.e._ the purple man, the Phenician, is said to
+have founded there at a very ancient time "before king Actaeus."[110]
+At Marathon, where Heracles was worshipped, and of whom the name
+represents the Phenician city Marathus, rose a fountain which had the
+name Makaria, _i.e._ Makar,[111] the name of Melkarth, which we have
+already met with in Cyprus and Rhodes, and shall meet with again. More
+plainly still do the tombs lately discovered in Hymettus at the village
+of Spata attest the ancient settlement of the Phenicians on the Attic
+coast. These are chambers dug deeply into the rock after the Phenician
+manner, with horizontal roofs after the oldest fashion of Phenician
+graves; and shafts lead down to them from the surface. The ornaments and
+works in glass, ivory, gold and brass discovered here, which are made
+after Babylonian and Egyptian models, can only have been brought by the
+Phenicians.[112] The citadel of Thebes, as has been said, retains the
+name of Cadmus; the poetry of the Greeks praised the mighty walls, the
+seven gates of Thebes. We know the number seven of the great Phenician
+gods; we can prove that the seven gates were dedicated to the gods of
+the sun, the moon and the five planets;[113] and the Greeks have already
+admitted to us that they received the wearing of armour, the art of
+mining and masonry and finally their alphabet from Cadmus, _i.e._ from
+the Phenicians, the Cadmeans of Thebes.
+
+In the Homeric poems Europa, the daughter of Phoenix, bears Minos to
+Zeus. The abode of Minos is the "great city" of Cnossus in Crete; he
+receives each nine years the revelations of his father Zeus; for his
+daughter Ariadne Daedalus adorns a dancing place at Cnossus. After his
+death Minos carries in the under world the golden sceptre, and by his
+decisions puts an end to the contentions of the shades.[114] His
+descendants rule in Crete.[115] Later accounts tell us that Zeus in the
+form of a bull carried off Europa from Phoenicia, and bore her over the
+sea to Crete. The wife of her son Minos, Pasiphae, then united with a
+bull which rose out of the sea, and brought forth the Minotaur, _i.e._
+the Minos-bull, a man with a bull's head.[116] The son of Minos,
+Androgeos (earth-man) or Eurygyes (Broadland), was destroyed in Attica
+by the bull of Marathon, who consumed him in his flames.[117] To avenge
+the death of Androgeos Minos seized Megara, and blight and famine
+compelled the Athenians to send, in obedience to the command of Minos,
+seven boys and seven girls every ninth year to Crete, who were then
+sacrificed to the Minotaur.[118] Others narrate that Hephaestus had given
+Minos a man of brass, who wandered round the island and kept off foreign
+vessels, and clasped to his glowing breast all who were disobedient to
+Minos.[119] When Daedalus retired before the wrath of Minos from Crete to
+Sicily, Minos equipped his ships to bring him back; but he there found,
+according to Herodotus, a violent death.[120] The king of the Sicanians,
+so Diodorus tells us, gave him a friendly welcome, and caused a warm
+bath to be prepared, and then craftily suffocated him in it. The Cretans
+buried their king in a double grave; they laid the bones in a secret
+place, and built upon them a temple to Aphrodite, and as they could not
+return to Crete because the Cretans had burned their ships, they
+founded the city Minoa in Sicily; but the tomb of Minos was shown in
+Crete also.[121]
+
+A bull-god carries the daughter of Phoenix over the sea to Crete and
+begets Minos; a bull who rises out of the sea begets with Pasiphae,
+_i.e._ the all-shining, the Minos-bull, to which in case of blight and
+famine boys and girls are sacrificed in the number sacred among the
+Semites; Androgeos succumbs to the heat of the bull of Marathon, an iron
+man slays his victims by pressing them to his glowing breast. These
+legends of the Greeks are unmistakable evidence of the origin of the
+rites observed in Crete from the coast of Syria, of the settlement of
+Phenicians in Crete. The bull-god may be the Baal Samim or the Baal
+Moloch of the Phenicians; Europa has already revealed herself to us as
+the moon-goddess of the Phenicians (p. 58); Pasiphae is only another
+name for the same goddess, the lady of the nightly sky, the starry
+heaven. We know that on occasions of blight human sacrifices were
+offered to Baal Moloch, the fiery, consuming, angry sun-god, and that
+these sacrifices were burnt. Ister, a writer of the third century B.C.,
+tells us quite simply; In ancient times children were sacrificed to
+Cronos in Crete.[122] Before the harbour of Megara lay an island of the
+name of Minoa; at the time of the summer heat before the corn was ripe,
+the Athenians offered peace-offerings at the Thargelia, "in the place of
+human sacrifices,"[123] that the consuming sun might not kill the
+harvest. The name of the island and this custom, as well as the flames
+of the bull of Marathon, prove that beside the worship of the Syrian
+goddess at Athmonon, and the worship of Melkarth at Marathon, the
+worship of Baal Moloch had penetrated as far as Megara and Attica.
+Minos, the son of the sky-god, the husband of the moon-goddess, who from
+time to time receives revelations from heaven, and even after his death
+is judge of the dead, is himself a god; his proper name is Minotaur, a
+name taken from the form of the bull's image and the bull's head. When
+Baal Melkarth had found and overcome Astarte, after he had celebrated
+with her the holy marriage, he went to rest according to the Phenician
+myth in the waters of the western sea which he had warmed. The
+Phenicians were of opinion that the beams of the sun when sinking there
+in the far west had the most vigorous operation because of their greater
+proximity.[124] Minos goes to Sicily; there in a hot bath he ends his
+life, and over his resting-place rises the temple of Astarte-Ashera,
+with whom he celebrated his marriage in the west, and who by this
+marriage is changed from the goddess of war into the goddess of love.
+The tombs of Minos in Crete, Sicily, and finally at Gades, of which the
+Greeks speak, are in the meaning of the Phenician myth merely
+resting-places of the god, who in the spring wakes from his slumber into
+new power. The Greeks made Minos, who continued to live in the
+under-world, a judge in the causes of the shades, and finally a judge of
+the souls themselves. On the southern coast of Sicily, at the mouth of
+the Halycus, lay the city which the Greeks called Minoa or
+Heraclea-Minoa after Minos. To the Phenicians it was known as Rus
+Melkarth (p. 78), a title which proves beyond doubt that Minos was one
+of the names given by the Greeks to this god of the Phenicians.
+
+The worship of Baal Moloch, which the Phenicians brought to Crete and
+the shores of Megara and Attica, was not all that the Greeks personified
+in the form of Minos; they did not confine themselves to one side of
+the myth of Baal Melkarth. When Grecian colonists settled subsequently
+in Crete they found the cities of the Phenicians full of artistic
+capacity, and their life regulated by legal ordinances. Thus their
+legend could place the artist Daedalus, the discoverer and pattern of all
+art-industry, beside Minos, and refer to Minos the ordinances of the
+cities. Zeus himself had revealed these arrangements to him. At a later
+time the Greek cities of Crete traced their own institutions back to
+Minos; here and there they may perhaps have followed a Phenician model,
+or they may have given out that such a model had been followed. Plato
+represents Minos as receiving the wise laws which he introduced into
+Crete from Zeus. With Aristotle also Minos is the founder of the Cretan
+laws.[125] In the circle of the Cabiri the sky-god Baal Samim was the
+protector and defender of law (I. 377).
+
+Lastly, Minos is with the Greeks at once the representation and
+expression of the dominion which the Phenicians exercised in ancient
+times over the islands of the AEgean sea, before the settlements of the
+Greeks obtained the supremacy over the islands and the ships of the
+Greeks took the lead in these waters. In the age of the Heroes, so
+Herodotus tells us, Minos established the first naval empire; the
+Carians, who inhabited the islands, he made his subjects; they did not
+indeed pay tribute, but they had to man his ships whenever
+necessary.[126] "The oldest king," says Thucydides, "of whom tradition
+tells us that he possessed a fleet was Minos. He ruled over the greatest
+part of the Greek sea and the Cyclades, which he colonised, driving out
+the Carians and making his sons lords of the islands."[127] Minos, as a
+king ruling by law, is then said to have put an end to piracy.
+
+The Phenicians could not certainly have left out of sight the largest of
+the islands, which forms the boundary of the AEgean sea; and the
+traditions of the Greeks can hardly go wrong if they make this island
+the centre of the naval supremacy of Minos, _i.e._ of the supremacy of
+the Phenicians over the Cyclades. Crete must have been the mainstay of
+their activity in the AEgean, just as Thebes was the point on the
+mainland where they planted the firmest foot. The title Minoa seems to
+lie at the base of the name of Minos, a title borne not only by the
+island off Megara and the city in Sicily, but also by two cities in
+Crete (one on the promontory of Drepanum, the other in the region of
+Lyctus), by some islands near Crete, a city in Amorgus, and a city in
+Siphnus. The name Minoa (from _navah_) could mean dwelling; it is
+certain evidence of a Phenician settlement. But the Phenicians have left
+traces of their existence in Crete beside the names Minos and Minoa and
+the forms of worship denoted by them. Coins of the Cretan cities Gortys
+and Phaestus exhibit a bull or a bull-headed man as a stamp. Near the
+Cretan city of Cydonia the Jardanus, _i.e._ the Jordan, falls into the
+sea; the name of the city Labana goes back to the Phenician word
+_libanon_, i.e. "white." Cnossus, the abode of Minos in Homer and
+Herodotus,[128] was previously named Kairatus; _Karath_ in Phenician
+means city. Itanus, in Crete (_Ethanath_ in the Semitic form), is
+expressly stated to be a foundation of the Phenicians.[129]
+
+With regard to the state of civilisation reached by Syria before the
+year 1500 B.C., we may draw some conclusions from the fact that not
+merely did the civilisation of Egypt influence the shepherds of Semitic
+race who ruled over Egypt at that period, but that Semitic manners and
+customs left behind traces in Egypt (I. 128). Hence we may assume that
+the Syrians carried their wine and their oil to the Nile at the time
+when their kinsmen ruled there (1950-1650 B.C.). The civilisation of
+Syria appears more clearly from the tributes imposed by Tuthmosis III.
+on Syria, which are here and there illustrated by the pictures
+accompanying the inscriptions of this Pharaoh. The burdens imposed on
+the Syrians consist not only of corn, wine, oil and horses; not only of
+gold, silver and iron, but also of arms and works of art, among which
+the pictures allow us to recognise carefully-decorated vessels. On the
+other hand, it is clear from the fact that the Babylonian weights and
+measures were in use in Syria at this time (I. 304) that the Syrians
+before this period were in lively intercourse with the land of the
+Euphrates, that even before the sixteenth century B.C. caravans must
+have traversed the Syrian deserts in every direction, and even then the
+Syrians must have exchanged the products of their land for Babylonian
+stuffs and the frankincense which the Arabians on their part carried to
+Babylon. The dependence of Syria on Egypt under the Tuthmosis and
+Amenophis can only have augmented the intercourse of the Syrians with
+the land of the Nile. Afterwards Sethos I. (1440-1400) caused wood to be
+felled on Lebanon; it must have been the places on the coast under
+Lebanon which carried to Egypt in their ships, along with the wine and
+oil of the coast and the interior, the wood so necessary there for
+building and exchanged it for the fabrics of Egypt. Wood for building
+could not be conveyed on the backs of camels, and the way by sea from
+the Phenician towns to the mouths of the Nile was far easier and less
+dangerous than the road by land over rocky heights and through sandy
+deserts. Hence, as early as the fifteenth century B.C., we may regard
+the Phenician cities as the central points of a trade branching east and
+west, which must have been augmented by the fact that they conveyed not
+only products of the Syrian land to the Euphrates and the Nile, but
+could also carry the goods which they obtained in exchange in Egypt to
+Babylonia, and what they obtained beyond the Euphrates to Egypt. At the
+same time the fabrics of Babylon and Egypt roused them to emulation, and
+called forth an industry among the Phenicians which we see producing
+woven stuffs, vessels of clay and metal, ornaments and weapons, and
+becoming pre-eminent in the colouring of stuffs with the liquor of the
+purple-fish, which are found on the Phenician coasts. This industry
+required above all things metals, of which Babylonia and Egypt were no
+less in need, and when the purple-fish of their own coasts were no
+longer sufficient for their extensive dyeing, colouring-matter had to be
+obtained. Large quantities of these fish produced a proportionately
+small amount of the dye. Copper-ore was found in Cyprus, gold in the
+island of Thasos, and purple-fish on the coasts of Hellas. When the fall
+of the kingdom of the Hittites and the overthrow of the Amorite princes
+in the south of Canaan augmented the numbers of the population on the
+coast, these cities were no longer content to obtain those possessions
+of the islands by merely landing and making exchanges with the
+inhabitants. Intercourse with semi-barbarous tribes must be protected by
+the sword. Good harbours were needed where the ships could be sheltered
+from storm and bad weather, where the crews could find safety from the
+natives, rest and fresh stores of water and provisions. Thus arose
+protecting forts on the distant islands and coasts, which received the
+ships of the native land. Under the protection of these intercourse
+could be carried on with the natives, and they were points of support
+for the collection of the fish and the sinking of mines.
+
+In order to obtain the raw material necessary for their industry no less
+than to carry off the surplus of population, the Phenicians were brought
+to colonise Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Thera, Melos, Oliarus, Samothrace,
+Imbros, Lemnos and Thasos. In the bays of Laconia and Argos, in the
+straits of Euboea,[130] purple-fish were found in extraordinary
+quantities. The Phenicians settled in the island of Cythera in the bay
+of Laconia, which, as Aristotle says, was once called Porphyrussa from
+its purple-fish,[131] and there erected that ancient temple to the
+oriental Aphrodite, Aphrodite in armour, just as in Attica in the deme
+of Athmonon they founded the temple of the Syrian Aphrodite and
+excavated the tombs on Hymettus.[132] Midway between the straits of
+Euboea and the bay of Corinth, which abounded with purple-fish, rose the
+strong fortress of the Cadmeia, and on Acrocorinthus the shrine of
+Ashera.
+
+Herodotus and Thucydides told us above (p. 67) that the Carians
+inhabited the islands of the AEgean sea. These were they whom Minos had
+made subject to his dominion. Beside this, we are informed more
+particularly that the Carians had possessed the island of Rhodes, which
+lay off their coast, and had dwelt on Chios and Samos (I. 571). What
+degree of civilisation was reached by the population of the islands of
+the AEgean sea before the Phenicians came into relations with them may be
+inferred to some extent from the discoveries made in the island of
+Thera. In and beneath three layers of ashes and tufa caused by vast
+eruptions of the volcanos of this island have been discovered stone
+instruments, pottery of the most rudimentary kind, in part with the
+rudest indications of the human face and figure, and beside these
+weapons of copper and brass. In the upper layers of the tufa we find far
+better pottery decorated in the Phenician style. On Melos also, and in
+the tombs at Camirus in Rhodes, vessels of the same kind have been
+discovered; and, finally, in the highest of the layers at Thera are gold
+ornaments of the most various kinds, and ornaments of electron, _i.e._
+of mixed gold and silver, all of a workmanship essentially non-Hellenic.
+From these facts we may draw the conclusion that the ships of the
+Phenicians brought to these inhabitants their earliest weapons in brass
+and copper, their pottery and ornaments; that the Carians of the
+islands, following these patterns, raised their own efforts to a higher
+stage, and that afterwards the Phenicians themselves settled in the
+islands and made themselves masters of them. Perhaps we may even go a
+step further. In the lower strata of the excavations at Hissarlik, on
+the Trojan coast, we find exactly the same primitive pottery, with the
+same indications of human forms, as in Thera, while in the refuse lying
+above this are idols and pottery adorned after Phenician patterns, which
+correspond exactly to the idols of Cyprus, as well as ornaments like
+those of Thera. Hence in this region also we may assume that the
+Phenicians gave the impulse and the example to the development of
+civilisation, and the more so as the name of the city of Adramyttion on
+the Trojan coast repeats the name of a Phenician foundation on the coast
+of North Africa (Adrames, Hadrumetum), and even Strabo ascribes the
+worship of the Cabiri to some places on the Trojan coast.[133] Far more
+definite traces of the Phenician style and skill are in existence on the
+shore of the bay of Argos. The ancient tombs which have been recently
+discovered behind the lions' gate at Mycenae are hewn in the rocks after
+the manner of the Phenicians. As in the ancient burying-places of the
+Phenicians, a perpendicular shaft forms the entrance to the sepulchral
+chambers; the corpses are laid in them without coffins, as was the most
+ancient custom in Phoenicia. The masks of beaten gold-leaf which were
+found on the faces of five or six of the corpses buried here are
+evidence of a custom which the Phenicians borrowed from the gilded faces
+of Egyptian coffins.[134] The corpses are covered with gold ornaments
+and other decorations. There is a large number of weapons and ornaments
+of gold, silver, copper, brass and glass in the tombs; the execution
+exhibits a technical skill sometimes more, sometimes less practised. The
+ornaments remind us of Babylonian and Assyrian patterns; the idols in
+burnt clay are in the Phenician style; the palm-leaves and palms,
+antelopes and leopards which frequently occur, point to regions of the
+East; the articles of amber and the ostrich egg can only have reached
+the bay of Argos in Phenician ships. Still there are grave reasons for
+refusing to believe that the persons buried in this tomb are princes of
+the Phenicians. The numerous pieces of armour show that the dead who
+rest here were buried with their armour, which is not the traditional
+custom either with regard to the Phenicians or the Hellenes, but which
+Thucydides quotes as a mark of the tombs of the Carians.[135] We learn,
+moreover, even from the Homeric poems, that the Carians loved gold
+ornaments, and further, that the Greeks improved their armour after the
+pattern of the Carians (I. 572). As we also find the double axe of the
+Carian god, the "Zeus Stratius" as the Greeks called him, the "axe-god,"
+the Chars-El in the Carian language (I. 573), on some ornaments of the
+tombs of Mycenae, the supposition forces itself upon us that Carians from
+the western islands must have occupied the shore of the bay of Argos. In
+any case, the tombs of Mycenae, both from their position and their
+contents, announce to us that the people who excavated them and placed
+their dead in them were dependent on the style and skill of the
+Phenicians.
+
+Can we fix the time at which the Phenicians first set foot on the
+islands of Hellas? Herodotus tells us that Troy was taken in the third
+generation after the death of Minos.[136] If we put three full
+generations, according to the calculation of Herodotus, between the
+death of Minos and the conquest of Ilium, the first event took place 100
+years before the second. Since, according to the data of Herodotus, the
+capture of Ilium falls in the year 1280 or 1260 B.C., Minos would have
+died in the year 1380 or 1360 B.C. The landing of the Phenicians on
+Thasos and the expedition of Cadmus from Phoenicia beyond the islands to
+Boeotia are placed by Herodotus five generations before Heracles, and
+Heracles is placed 900 years before his own time. If we reckon upwards
+from the year 450 or 430 B.C., Heracles lived about the year 1350 or
+1330 B.C., and Cadmus five generations, _i.e._ 166-2/3 years, before
+this date, or about the year 1516 or 1496 B.C.[137] On the island of
+Thera, Herodotus further remarks, the Phenicians whom Cadmus left
+behind him there had dwelt for eight generations, _i.e._ 266-2/3 years,
+before the Dorians came to the island.[138] Melos was also occupied by
+Dorians, who asserted in 416 B.C. that their community had been in
+existence 700 years,[139] according to which statement the Dorians came
+to Melos in the year 1116 B.C. With this event the Phenician rule over
+the island came to an end. If we assume that Thera, which is close by
+Melos, was taken from the Phenicians by the Dorians at the same time as
+the latter island, the eight generations given by Herodotus for the
+settlements of the Phenicians on Thera would carry us back to the year
+1382 B.C. (1116 + 266-2/3), a date which is certainly in agreement with
+his statement about the death of Minos, but contradicts the date given
+for Cadmus, who yet, according to the narrative of Herodotus, left
+behind the settlers on Thera and Thasos when he first sailed to Boeotia.
+Herodotus fixes dates according to generations and the genealogies of
+legend. The five generations which separated Cadmus from Heracles were
+for him, no doubt, Polydorus, Labdacus, Laius, Oedipus and Polynices;
+for the three generations between the death of Minos and the capture of
+Troy we find in Homer only two, Deucalion and Idomeneus.[140] But we can
+still find from Herodotus' calculations how far back the Greeks placed
+the beginning and the end of the empire of the Phenicians over their
+islands and coasts. Beyond this the chronographers do not give us any
+help. Eusebius and Hieronymus (Jerome) place the rape of Europa in the
+year 1429 or 1426 B.C.; the rule of Cadmus at Thebes in the year 1427
+B.C. or 1319 (1316) B.C.; the settlement of the Phenicians on Thera,
+Melos, and Thasos in the year 1415 B.C.; the beginning of the rule of
+Minos in the year 1410 B.C., or, according to another computation, in
+the year 1251 B.C.[141]
+
+We can hardly obtain fixed points for determining the time of the
+settlements of the Phenicians in the AEgean sea. In the lower strata of
+the excavations at Hissarlik, on the coast of Troas, clay lentils have
+been found with Cyprian letters upon them.[142] Since the Greeks
+declared that they learnt their alphabet from the Phenicians and Cadmus,
+and since as a fact it is the alphabet of the Phenicians which lies at
+the root of the Greek, the Cyprian letters can only have been brought
+thither by Phenician ships from Cyprus before the discovery of the
+Phenician letters, or from the islands off the Trojan coast occupied by
+the Phenicians, from Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrace; otherwise they must
+have come to the Troad at a later time by Cyprian ships or settlers, a
+supposition which is forbidden by the antiquity of the other remains
+discovered with or near the lentils. Among the sons of Japheth, the
+representative of the northern nations, Genesis mentions Javan, _i.e._
+the Ionian, the Greek; and enumerates the sons of Javan: Elisha,
+Tarshish, Chittim, and Dodanim or Rodanim--the reading is
+uncertain.[143] It is a question whether the genealogical table in
+Genesis belongs to the first or second text of the Pentateuch, _i.e._
+whether it was written down in the middle of the eleventh or of the
+tenth century B.C. In any case it follows that in the beginning of the
+eleventh or tenth century B.C. the name and nation of the Ionians was
+known not only in the harbour-cities of Phoenicia, but in the interior
+of Syria, and the inhabitants of the islands and of the northern coasts
+of the Mediterranean were reckoned in the stock of these Ionians.
+Chittim is, as was remarked above, primarily the island of Cyprus; the
+Rodanim are the inhabitants of Rhodes (Dodanim would have to be referred
+to Dodona); Elisha is Elis in the Peloponnese, or the island of Sicily,
+if the name is not one given generally to western coasts and
+islands;[144] Tarshish is Tartessus, _i.e._ the region at the mouth of
+the Guadalquivir. If Ezekiel mentions the purple which the Phenicians
+bring from "the isles of Elishah,"[145] the islands and coasts of the
+AEgean sea are plainly meant, on which the Phenicians collected the fish
+for their purple dye. This much is clear, that at least about the year
+1000 B.C. not only the islands and coasts of the AEgean were known in
+Syria, but even then the name of the distant land of Tarshish was
+current in Syria. We shall further see that as early as 1100 B.C.
+Phenician ships had passed the straits of Gibraltar. Hence we may
+conclude that the Phenicians must have set foot on Cyprus about the year
+1250 B.C., and on the islands and coasts of Hellas about the year 1200
+B.C.
+
+Thucydides observes that in ancient times the Phenicians had occupied
+the promontories of Sicily and the small islands lying around Sicily, in
+order to carry on trade with the Sicels.[146] Diodorus Siculus tells us
+that when the Phenicians extended their trade to the western ocean they
+settled in the island of Melite (Malta), owing to its situation in the
+middle of the sea and excellent harbours, in order to have a refuge for
+their ships. The island of Gaulus also, which lies close to Melite, is
+said to have been a colony of the Phenicians.[147] On the south-eastern
+promontory of Malta there was a temple of Heracles-Melkarth,[148] the
+foundation walls of which appear to be still in existence, and still
+more definite evidence of the former population of this island is given
+by the Phenician inscriptions found there. The island, like the
+mother-country, carried on weaving, and the products were much sought
+after in antiquity. On Gaulus also, a name mentioned on Phenician coins,
+are the remains of a Phenician temple. Between Sicily and the coast of
+Africa, where it approaches Sicily most nearly, lay the island of
+Cossyra, coins of which bear Phenician legends. Along with a dwarfish
+figure they present the name "island of the sons,"[149] _i.e._ no doubt,
+the children of the sun-god whom we met with in Rhodes. On the east
+coast of Sicily there lay, on a small promontory scarcely connected with
+the mainland (now Isola degli Magnisi), the city of Thapsos, the name of
+which reveals its founders; _Tiphsach_ means coming over, here coming
+over to the mainland. In the same way the promontory of Pachynus
+(_pachun_ means wart), further to the south, and the harbour of
+Phoenicus are evidence of Phenician colonisation. On the south coast of
+Sicily, not far from the mouth of the Halycus, the Phenicians built that
+city which is known to the Greeks as Makara and Minoa, or Heracleaminoa;
+the coins of the city present in Phenician characters the name
+Rus-Melkart, _i.e._ "head (promontory) of Melkarth."[150] Off the west
+coast of Sicily the Phenicians occupied the small island of Motye.[151]
+On this coast of the larger island, on Mount Eryx, which rises steeply
+out of a bald table land (2000 feet above the sea), they founded the
+city of Eryx, and on the summit of the mount, 5000 feet high, they
+built a temple to the Syrian Aphrodite. In Diodorus it is Eryx the son
+of Aphrodite who builds this temple; AEneas then adorns it with many
+votive offerings, "since it was dedicated to his mother."[152] Virgil
+represents the temple as being founded on the summit of Eryx, near to
+the stars, in honour of Venus Idalia, _i.e._ the goddess worshipped at
+Idalion (Idial) on Cyprus by the immigrants from the East, who, with
+him, are the companions of AEneas.[153] The courtezans at this temple,
+the sensual character of the worship, and the sacred doves kept here (in
+a red one the goddess herself was supposed to be seen[154]), even
+without the Phenician inscriptions found there, would leave no doubt of
+its Syrian origin. The mighty substructure of the building is still in
+existence. Daedalus is said to have built it for the king of the
+Sicanians (p. 64). Beside the Syrian goddess, the Phenicians also
+worshipped here the Syrian god Baal Melkarth. According to the account
+of Diodorus, Heracles overcame Eryx in wrestling, and so took his land
+from him, though he left the usufruct of it to the inhabitants.[155] The
+kings of Sparta traced their origin to Heracles. When Dorieus, the son
+of Anaxandridas, king of Sparta, desired to emigrate in his anger that
+the crown had fallen to his brother Cleomenes, the oracle bade him
+retire to Eryx; the land of Eryx belonged to the Heraclids because their
+ancestor won it. The Carthaginians, it is true, did not acknowledge this
+right; Dorieus was slain, and most of those who followed him.[156] On
+the north coast of Sicily, Panormus (Palermo) and Soloeis were the most
+important colonies of the Phenicians. Panormus, on coins of the
+Phenicians Machanath, _i.e._ the camp, worshipped the goddess of the
+sexual passion; Soloeis (_sela_, rock) worshipped Melkarth. In a hymn to
+Aphrodite, Sappho inquires whether she lingers in Cyprus or at
+Panormus.[157] Motye, Soloeis and Panormus were in the fifth century the
+strongest outposts of the Carthaginians in Sicily.[158]
+
+On Sardinia also, as Diodorus tells us, the Phenicians planted many
+colonies.[159] The mountains of Sardinia contained iron, silver, and
+lead. According to the legend of the Greeks, Sardus, the son of Makeris,
+as the Libyans called Heracles, first came with Libyans to the island.
+Then Heracles sent his brother's son Iolaus, together with his own sons,
+whom he had begotten in Attica, to Sardinia. As Heracles had been lord
+of the whole West, these regions belonged of right to Iolaus and his
+companions. Iolaus conquered the native inhabitants, took possession of
+and divided the best and most level portion of the land which was
+afterwards known by the name of Iolaus; then he sent for Daedalus out of
+Sicily and erected large buildings, which, Diodorus adds, are still in
+existence; but in Sicily temples were erected to himself, and honour
+paid as to a hero, and a famous shrine was erected in Agyrion, "where,"
+as Diodorus remarks of this his native city, "even to this day yearly
+sacrifices are offered."[160] Makeris, the supposed father of Sardus,
+is, like Makar, a form of the name Melkarth. If Sardinia and the whole
+West as well as Eryx is said to have belonged to Heracles, if Heracles
+sends out his nearest relations to Sardinia, if the artist Daedalus is
+his companion here as he was the companion of Minos in Crete and Sicily,
+it becomes obvious that the temples of Baal Melkarth on the coasts of
+Sardinia and Sicily lie at the base of these legends of the Greeks, that
+it was the Phenicians who brought the worship of their god along with
+their colonies to these coasts, to which they were led by the wealth of
+the Sardinian mountains in copper. As we already ventured to suppose (I.
+368), Iolaus may be an epithet or a special form of Baal.[161]
+
+The legend of the Greeks makes Heracles, _i.e._ Baal Melkarth, lord of
+the whole West. As a fact, the colonies of the Phenicians went beyond
+Sardinia in this direction. Their first colonies on the north coast of
+Africa appear to have been planted where the shore runs out nearest
+Sicily; Hippo was apparently regarded as the oldest colony.[162] In the
+legends of the coins mentioned above (p. 53) Hippo is named beside Tyre
+and Citium as a daughter of Sidon. When a second Hippo was afterwards
+founded further to the west, opposite the south coast of Sardinia, at
+the mouth of the Ubus, the old Hippo got the name of "Ippoacheret," and
+among the Greeks "Hippon Zarytos," _i.e._ "the other Hippo."[163] Ityke
+(_atak_, settlement, Utica), on the mouth of the Bagradas (Medsherda),
+takes the next place after this Hippo, if indeed it was not founded
+before it. Aristotle tells us that the Phenicians stated that Ityke was
+built 287 years before Carthage,[164] and Pliny maintains that Ityke was
+founded 1178 years before his time.[165] As Carthage was founded in the
+year 846 B.C. (below, chap. 11), Ityke, according to Aristotle's
+statement, was built in the year 1133 B.C. With this the statement of
+Pliny agrees. He wrote in the years 52-77 A.D., and therefore he places
+the foundation of Ityke in the year 1126 or 1100 B.C.
+
+About the same time, _i.e._ about the year 1100 B.C., the Phenicians had
+already reached much further to the west. In his Phenician history,
+Claudius Iolaus tells us that Archaleus (Arkal, Heracles[166]), the son
+of Phoenix, built Gadeira (Gades).[167] "From ancient times," such is
+the account of Diodorus, "the Phenicians carried on an uninterrupted
+navigation for the sake of trade, and planted many colonies in Africa,
+and not a few in Europe, in the regions lying to the west. And when
+their undertakings succeeded according to their desire and they had
+collected great treasures, they resolved to traverse the sea beyond the
+pillars of Heracles, which is called Oceanus. First of all, on their
+passage through these pillars, they founded upon a peninsula of Europe a
+city which they called Gadeira, and erected works suitable to the place,
+chiefly a beautiful temple to Heracles, with splendid offerings
+according to the custom of the Phenicians. And as this temple was
+honoured at that time, so also in later times down to our own days it
+was held in great reverence. When the Phenicians, in order to explore
+the coasts beyond the pillars, took their course along the shore of
+Libya, they were carried away far into the Oceanus by a strong wind, and
+after being driven many days by the storm they came to a large island
+opposite Libya, where the fertility was so great and the climate so
+beautiful that it seemed by the abundance of blessings found there to be
+intended for the dwelling of the gods rather than men."[168] Strabo
+says, the Gaditani narrated that an oracle bade the Tyrians send a
+colony to the pillars of Heracles. When those who had been sent reached
+the straits of Mount Calpe they were of opinion that the promontories
+which enclosed the passage, Calpe and the opposite headland of Abilyx in
+Libya,[169] were the pillars which bounded the earth, and the limit of
+the travels of Heracles, which the oracle mentioned. So they landed on
+this side of the straits, at the spot where the city of the Axitani
+(Sexi) now stands; but since the sacrifices were not favourable there
+they turned back. Those sent out after them sailed through the straits,
+and cast anchor at an island sacred to Heracles, 1500 stades beyond the
+pillars, opposite the city of Onoba in Iberia; but as the sacrifices
+were again unfavourable they also again turned home. Finally, a third
+fleet landed on a little island 750 stades beyond Mount Calpe, close to
+the mainland, and not far from the mouth of the Baetis. Here, on the east
+side of the island, they built a temple to Heracles; on the opposite
+side of the island they built the city of Gadeira, and on the extreme
+western point the temple of Cronos. In the temple of Heracles there were
+two fountains and "two pillars of brass, eight cubits in height, on
+which is recorded the cost of the building of this temple."[170] This
+foundation of Gades, which on the coins is called Gadir and Agadir,
+_i.e._ wall, fortification, the modern Cadiz, and without doubt the most
+ancient city in Europe which has preserved its name, is said to have
+taken place in the year 1100 B.C.[171] If Ityke was founded before 1100
+B.C. or about that time, we have no reason to doubt the founding of
+Gades soon after that date. Hence the ships of the Phenicians would have
+reached the ocean about the time when Tiglath Pilesar I. left the Tigris
+with his army, trod the north of Syria, and looked on the Mediterranean.
+
+The marvellous and impressive aspect of the rocky gate which opens a
+path for the waves of the Mediterranean to the boundless waters of the
+Atlantic Ocean might implant in the Phenician mariners who first passed
+beyond it the belief that they had found in these two mountains the
+pillars which the god set up to mark the end of the earth; in the
+endless ocean beyond them they could easily recognise the western sea in
+which their sun-god went to his rest. That Gades, on the shore of the
+sea into which the sun went down, was especially zealous in the worship
+of Melkarth, that the descent of the god into the western ocean (the
+supposed death of Heracles[172]) and the awakening of the god with the
+sun of the spring were here celebrated with especial emphasis, is a fact
+which requires no explanation. The legends of the Hesperides, the
+daughters of the West, in whose garden Melkarth celebrates the holy
+marriage with Astarte (I. 371), of the islands of the blest in the
+western sea, appear to have a local background in the luxuriant
+fertility and favoured climate of Madeira and the Canary islands.
+
+The land off the coast of which Gades lay, the valley of the
+Guadalquivir, was named by the Phenicians Tarsis (Tarshish), and by the
+Greeks Tartessus. The genealogical table in Genesis places Tarsis among
+the sons of Javan. The prophet Ezekiel represents the ships of Tarshish
+as bringing silver, iron, tin and lead to Tyre. "The ships of Tarshish,"
+so he says to the city of Tyre, "were thy caravans; so wert thou
+replenished and very glorious in the midst of the sea."[173] The
+Sicilian Stesichorus of Himera expresses himself in more extravagant
+terms. He sang of the "fountains of Tartessus (the Guadalquivir) rooted
+in silver." The Greeks represent the Tartessus, the river which brought
+down gold, tin, iron in its waters, as springing from the silver
+mountain,[174] and according to Herodotus the first Greek ship, a
+merchantman of Samos, which was driven about the year 630 B.C. by a
+storm from the east to Tartessus, made a profit of 60 talents.[175]
+Aristotle tells us that the first Phenicians who sailed to Tartessus
+obtained so much silver in exchange for things of no value that the
+ships could not carry the burden, so that the Phenicians left behind the
+tackle and even the anchor they had brought with them and made new
+tackle of silver.[176] Poseidonius says that among that people it was
+not Hades, but Plutus, who dwelt in the under-world. Once the forests
+had been burned, and the silver and gold, melted by an enormous fire,
+flowed out on the surface; every hill and mountain became a heap of gold
+and silver. On the north-west of this land the ground shone with silver,
+tin and white gold mixed with silver. This soil the rivers washed down
+with them. The women drew water from the river and poured it through
+sieves, so that nothing but gold, silver and tin remained in the
+sieve.[177] Diodorus tells the same story of the ancient burning of the
+forests on the Pyrenees (from which fire they got their name), by which
+the silver ore was rendered fluid and oozed from the mountains, so that
+many streams were formed of pure silver. To the native inhabitants the
+value of silver was so little known that the Phenicians obtained it in
+exchange for small presents, and gained great treasures by carrying the
+silver to Asia and all other nations. The greed of the merchants went so
+far that when the ships were laden, and there was still a large quantity
+of silver remaining, they took off the lead from the anchors and
+replaced it with silver. Strabo assures us that the land through which
+the Baetis flows was not surpassed in fertility and all the blessings of
+earth and sea by any region in the world; neither gold nor silver,
+copper nor iron, was found anywhere else in such abundance and
+excellence. The gold was not only dug up, but also obtained by washing,
+as the rivers and streams brought down sands of gold. In the sands of
+gold pieces were occasionally found half-a-pound in weight, and
+requiring very little purification. Stone salt was also found there, and
+there was abundance of house cattle and sheep, which produced excellent
+wool, of corn and wine. The coast of the shore beyond the pillars was
+covered with shell-fish and large purple-fish, and the sea was rich in
+fish (the tunnies and the Tartessian murena so much sought after in
+antiquity),[178] which the ebb and flow of the tide brought up to the
+beach. Corn, wine, the best oil, wax, honey, pitch and cinnabar were
+exported from this fortunate land.[179]
+
+If the Phenicians were able in the thirteenth century to settle upon
+Cyprus and Rhodes, the islands of the AEgean and the coasts of Hellas,
+their population must have been numerous, their industry active, their
+trade lucrative. That subsequently in the twelfth century they also took
+into possession the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa by means
+of their colonies is a proof that the request for the raw products and
+metals of the West was very lively and increasing in Syria and in Egypt,
+in Assyria and Babylonia. The market of these lands must have been very
+remunerative to the Phenicians in order to induce them to make their
+discoveries, their distant voyages and remote settlements. If the
+Phenicians about the year 1100 B.C. were in a position to discover the
+straits of Gibraltar, the fact shows us that they must have practised
+navigation for a long time. The horizon of the Greek mariner ended even
+in the ninth century in the waters of Sicily, and in the fifth century
+B.C. the voyage of a Greek ship from the Syrian coast to the pillars of
+Heracles occupied 80 days.[180] After the founding of Gades the
+Phenicians ruled over the whole length of the Mediterranean by their
+harbour fortresses and factories. Their ships crossed the long basin in
+every direction, and everywhere they found harbours of safety. They
+showed themselves no less apt and inventive in the arts of navigation
+than the Babylonians had shown themselves in technical inventions and
+astronomy; they were bolder and more enterprising than the Assyrians in
+the campaigns which the latter attempted at the time when the
+Phenicians were building Gades; they were more venturesome and enduring
+on the water than their tribesmen the Arabians on the sandy sea of the
+desert. In the possession of the ancient civilisation of the East their
+mariners and merchants presented the same contrast to the Thracians and
+Hellenes, the Sicels, the Libyans and Iberians which the Portuguese and
+the Spaniards presented 2500 years later to the tribes of America.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[63] Robinson, "Palestine," 3, 710.
+
+[64] Tac. "Hist." 5, 6.
+
+[65] Renan, "Mission de Phenicie," p. 836.
+
+[66] Vol. i. pp. 344, 345.
+
+[67] Vol. i. p. 151.
+
+[68] Vol. i. p. 153.
+
+[69] Vol. i. p. 344.
+
+[70] The legend runs, "From the Sidonians, Mother of Kamb, Ippo,
+Kith(?), Sor," Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 134.
+
+[71] Isaiah xxiii. 1, 19; Jeremiah ii. 10; Ezekiel xxvii. 6; Joseph.
+"Antiq." 1, 6, 1.
+
+[72] Virgil, "AEn." 1, 619, 620.
+
+[73] Brandis, "Monatsberichte Berl. Akad." 1873, s. 645 ff.
+
+[74] Herod. 7, 90.
+
+[75] Stephan. Byz. [Greek: Amathous].
+
+[76] "Odyss." 8, 362; Tac. "Annal." 2, 3; Pausan. 1, 14, 6; Pompon.
+Mela, 2, 7.
+
+[77] Vol. i. p. 359.
+
+[78] Joseph. "in Apion." 1, 18; "Antiq." 8, 5, 3, 9, 14, 2.
+
+[79] Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 239, 240.
+
+[80] Diod. 5, 56.
+
+[81] In Homer Europa is not the daughter of Agenor but of Phoenix ("Il."
+14, 321), just as Cadmus, Thasos, and Europa are sometimes children of
+Agenor and sometimes of Phoenix. In Hdt. 1, 2 it is Cretans who carry
+off Europa, the daughter of the king of Tyre.
+
+[82] Diod. 4, 2, 60; 5, 56, 57, 58, 48, 49.
+
+[83] Ephor. Frag. 12, ed. Mueller.
+
+[84] Herod. 4, 147; 2, 45, 49; 5, 58, 59.
+
+[85] Frag. 8, 9, ed. Mueller.
+
+[86] Frag. 40-42, 43-45, ed. Mueller.
+
+[87] Frag. 163, ed. Mueller.
+
+[88] "Theog." 937, 975; Pind. "Pyth." 3, 88 _seqq._
+
+[89] Movers, "Phoeniz." 1, 129, 131.
+
+[90] Plut. "Pelop." c. 19.
+
+[91] Pind. "Olymp." 2, 141.
+
+[92] Vol. i. 271.
+
+[93] Movers, "Phoeniz." 1, 517.
+
+[94] Thac. 1, 8.
+
+[95] Vol. i. 363, 364.
+
+[96] Athenaeus, p. 360.
+
+[97] Diod. 5, 58.
+
+[98] Boeckh. C. I. G. 2526.
+
+[99] Hefter, "Goetterdienste auf Rhodos," 3, 18; Welcker, "Mythologie,"
+1, 145; Brandis, "Munzwesen," s. 587.
+
+[100] Schol. Pind. "Pyth." 4, 88; Pausan. 3, 1, 7, 8; Steph. Byz.
+[Greek: Membliaros].
+
+[101] Boeckh. C. I. G. 2448.
+
+[102] Herod. 4, 147; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Melos].
+
+[103] Steph. Byz. [Greek: Oliaros].
+
+[104] Strabo, pp. 346, 457, 472; Diod. 5, 47.
+
+[105] Vol. i. 378; Herod. 2, 51; Conze, "Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres,"
+_e.g._ s. 91.
+
+[106] Strabo, p. 473; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Imbros]; vol. i. 378.
+
+[107] Herod. 2, 44; 6, 47.
+
+[108] Herod. 1, 105; Pausan. 1, 14, 7; 3, 23, 1.
+
+[109] Pausan. 10, 11, 5; Boeckh, "Metrologie," s. 45.
+
+[110] Pausan. 1, 2, 5; 1, 14, 6, 7.
+
+[111] Strabo, p. 377; Pausan. 1, 32, 5.
+
+[112] [Greek: ATHENAION s' g'], 1877, and below, chap. xi.
+
+[113] Brandis, "Hermes," 2, 275 ff. I cannot agree in all points with
+the deductions of this extremely acute inquiry.
+
+[114] "Il." 14, 321; 18, 593; "Odyss." 19, 178; 11, 568.
+
+[115] "Odyss." 11, 523.
+
+[116] Diod. 4, 60.
+
+[117] Serv. ad "AEneid." 6, 30.
+
+[118] Hesych. [Greek: ep' Eurugun agon]; Plut. "Thes." c. 15; Diod. 4,
+65.
+
+[119] Apollodor. 1, 9, 26; Suidas, [Greek: Sardonios gelos].
+
+[120] Herod. 7, 110.
+
+[121] Diod. 4, 76-78; Schol. Callim. "Hymn. in Jovem," 8.
+
+[122] Istri frag. 47, ed. Mueller.
+
+[123] Istri frag. 33, ed. Mueller.
+
+[124] Muellenhoff, "Deutsche Alterthumskunde," i. 222.
+
+[125] Plato, "Minos," pp. 262, 266, 319, 321; "De. Legg," _init._;
+Aristot. "Pol." 2, 8, 1, 2; 7, 9, 2.
+
+[126] Herod. 1, 171; 3, 122; 7, 169-171.
+
+[127] Herod. 1, 4.
+
+[128] Herod. 3, 122.
+
+[129] Strabo, p. 476; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Itanos].
+
+[130] Pausan. 3, 21, 6.
+
+[131] Aristotle, in Steph. Byz. [Greek: Kythera].
+
+[132] Above, p. 63.
+
+[133] Strabo, p. 479.
+
+[134] Below, chap. 11.
+
+[135] Thuc. 1, 8.
+
+[136] Herod. 7, 171.
+
+[137] Herod. 2, 44, 145.
+
+[138] Herod. 4, 147.
+
+[139] Thuc. 5, 112.
+
+[140] Herod. 5, 89; "Il." 13, 451; "Odyss." 19, 178.
+
+[141] Euseb. "Chron." 2, p. 34 _seqq._ ed. Schoene. Even in Diodorus, 4,
+60, we find two Minoses, an older and a younger.
+
+[142] Lenormant, "Antiq. de la Troade," p. 32.
+
+[143] Genesis x. 2-4: 1 Chron. i. 5-7.
+
+[144] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte Berl. Akad." 1859.
+
+[145] Ezek. xxvii. 7.
+
+[146] Thuc. vi. 2.
+
+[147] Diod. v. 12.
+
+[148] Ptolem. 4, 3, 47.
+
+[149] _Ai benim_; Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 355, 359, 362.
+
+[150] Heracl. Pont. frag. 29, ed. Mueller; Gesen. "Monum." p. 293;
+Olshausen, "Rh. Mus." 1852, S. 328.
+
+[151] Thuc. 6, 2.
+
+[152] Diod. 4, 83.
+
+[153] "AEn." 5, 760.
+
+[154] Diod. 4, 83; Strabo, p. 272; Athenaeus, p. 374; Aelian, "Hist. An."
+4, 2; 10, 50.
+
+[155] Diod. 4, 23.
+
+[156] Herod. 5, 43.
+
+[157] Steph. Byz. [Greek: Solous]. Sapphon. frag. 6, ed. Bergk; it is
+possible that Panormus on Crete may be meant.
+
+[158] Thuc. 6, 2.
+
+[159] Diod. 5, 35.
+
+[160] Diod. 4, 24, 29, 30; 5, 15; Arist. "De mirab. ausc." c. 104;
+Pausan. 10, 17, 2.
+
+[161] Movers ("Phoeniz." 1, 536) assumes that Iolaus may be identical
+with Esmun (I. 377).
+
+[162] Sallust, "Jugurtha," 19, 1.
+
+[163] Movers, _loc. cit._ s. 144.
+
+[164] "De mirab. ausc." c. 146.
+
+[165] "Hist. nat." 16, 79.
+
+[166] Arkal or Archal may mean "fire of the All," "light of the All."
+
+[167] Etym. Magn. [Greek: Gadeira].
+
+[168] Diod. 5, 19, 20.
+
+[169] On the meaning given in Avienus ("Ora marit") of Abila as "high
+mountain," and Calpa as "big-bellied jar," cf. Muellenhoff, "Deutsche
+Alterthumsk," 1, 83.
+
+[170] Strabo, pp. 169-172. Justin (44, 5) represents the Tyrians as
+founding Gades in consequence of a dream. In regard to the name cf.
+Avien. "Ora marit," 267-270.
+
+[171] Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 622. Strabo (p. 48) puts the first
+settlements of the Phenicians in the midst of the Libyan coast and at
+Gades just after the Trojan war, Velleius (1, 2, 6, in combination with
+1, 8, 4), in the year 1100 B.C. Cf. Movers, _loc. cit._ S. 148, note 90.
+The Greeks called both land and river Tartessus. The pillars of the
+Tyrian god "Archaleus," are with them the pillars of their "Heracles,"
+which he sets up as marks of his campaigns. Here, opposite the mouth of
+the Tartessus, they place the island Erythea, _i.e._ the red island on
+which the giant Geryon, _i.e._ "the roarer," guards the red oxen of the
+sun: Erythea is one of the islands near Cadiz; Muellenhoff, Deutsche
+"Alterthumsk:" 1, 134 ff.
+
+[172] Sall. "Jugurtha," c. 19.
+
+[173] Ezek. xxvii. 12, 25.
+
+[174] In Strabo, p. 148; Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ 1, 81.
+
+[175] Herod. 4, 152.
+
+[176] "De mirab. ausc." c. 147.
+
+[177] In Strabo, p. 148.
+
+[178] Aristoph. "Ranae," 475.
+
+[179] Diod. 5, 35; Strabo, p. 144 _seqq._
+
+[180] Scylax, "Peripl." c. 111.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL.
+
+
+Not far removed from the harbour-cities, whose ships discovered the land
+of silver, which carried the natural wealth of the West to the lands of
+the Euphrates and Tigris, and the Nile, in order to exchange them for
+the productions of those countries, in part immediately upon the borders
+of the marts which united the East and the West, and side by side with
+them, dwelt the Israelites on the heights and in the valleys which they
+had conquered, in very simple and original modes of life.
+
+Even during the war against the ancient population of Canaan,
+immediately after the first successes against the Amorites, they had, as
+we have seen, dropped any common participation in the struggle, any
+unity under one leader. According to their numbers and bravery, and the
+resistance encountered, the various tribes had won larger or smaller
+territories, better or inferior districts. Immigration and conquest did
+not lead among the Israelites to a combination of their powers under the
+supremacy of one leader, but rather to separation into clans and
+cantons, which was also favoured by the nature of the country conquered,
+a district lying in unconnected parts, and possessing no central region
+adapted for governing the whole. Thus, after the settlement, the life of
+the nation became divided into separate circles according to the
+position and character of the mountain canton which the particular tribe
+had obtained, and the fortune which it had experienced. Even if there
+was an invasion of the enemy, the tribe attacked was left to defend
+itself as well as it could. It was only very rarely, and in times of
+great danger, that the nobles and elders of the whole land, and a great
+number of the men of war from all the tribes, were collected round the
+sacred ark at Shiloh, at Bethel, at Mizpeh, or at Gilgal for common
+counsel or common defence. But even when a resolution was passed by the
+nobles and elders and the people, individual tribes sometimes resisted,
+even by force of arms, the expressed will of the nation, or at least of
+a great part of the nobles and people, and the division of the tribes
+sometimes led even to open war.
+
+Within the tribes also there was no fixed arrangement, no fixed means
+for preserving peace. The clans and families for the most part possessed
+separate valleys, glens, or heights. The heads of the oldest families
+were also the governors of these cantons, and composed the differences
+between the members of the clan, canton, or city by their decisions;
+while in other places bold and successful warriors at the head of
+voluntary bands made acquisitions, in which the descendants of the
+leader took the rank of elder and judge. Eminent houses of this kind,
+together with the heads of families of ancient descent, formed the order
+of nobles and elders; "who hold the judge's staff in their hands, and
+ride on spotted asses with beautiful saddles, while the common people go
+afoot."[181] If a tribe fell into distress and danger, the nobles and
+elders assembled and took counsel, while the people stood round, unless
+some man of distinction had already risen and summoned the tribe to
+follow him. For the people did not adhere exclusively to the chief of
+the oldest family in the canton; nobles and others within, and in
+special cases without, the tribe, who had obtained a prominent position
+by warlike actions, or by the wisdom of their decisions, whose position
+and power promised help, protection and the accomplishment of the
+sentence, were invited to remove strife and differences, unless the
+contending persons preferred to help themselves. Only the man who could
+not help himself sought, as a rule, the decision of the elder or judge.
+
+The names of some of the men whose decision was sought in that time have
+been preserved in the tradition of the Israelites. Tholah of the tribe
+of Issachar, Jair of the land of Gilead, Ebzan of Bethlehem in the tribe
+of Judah, Elon of the tribe of Zebulun, and Abdon of Ephraim, are all
+mentioned as judges of note. Of Jair we are told that he had 30 sons,
+who rode on 30 asses, and possessed 30 villages. Ebzan is also said to
+have had 30 sons and to have married 30 daughters; while Abdon had 40
+sons and 30 grandsons, who rode on 70 asses.[182]
+
+On the heights and table-lands of the districts east of the Jordan, in
+the land of Gilead, were settled the tribes of Reuben and Gad and a part
+of the tribe of Manasseh. At an early period they grew together, so that
+the name of the region sometimes represents the names of these tribes.
+Here the pastoral life and breeding of cattle remained predominant, as
+in the less productive districts on the west of the Jordan. But on the
+plains and in the valleys of the west the greater part of the settlers
+devoted themselves to the culture of the vine and agriculture. The walls
+of the ancient cities were at first used as a protection against the
+attacks of robbers, or raids of enemies; the inhabitants, afterwards as
+before, planted their fields and vineyards outside the gates.[183] But
+the custom of dwelling together led to the beginnings of civic life,
+industrial skill, and common order. The trade of the Phenicians, which
+touched the land of the Hebrews here and there, and the more advanced
+culture of the cities of the coast, could not remain without influence
+on the Hebrews.
+
+The religious feeling which separated the Israelites from the Canaanites
+was not more thoroughly effective than the community of blood and the
+contrast to the ancient population of the land in bringing about the
+combination and union of the Israelites. The religious life was as much
+without organisation as the civic; on the contrary, as the Israelites
+spread as settlers over a larger district, the unity and connection of
+religious worship which Moses previously established again fell to the
+ground. It is true, the sacred ark remained at Shiloh, five leagues to
+the north of Bethel, under the sacred tent in the land of the tribe of
+Ephraim. At this place a festival was held yearly in honour of Jehovah,
+to which the Israelites assembled to offer prayer and sacrifice. On
+other occasions also people went to Shiloh to offer sacrifice.[184] The
+priestly office in the sacred tent at the sacred ark remained with the
+descendants of Aaron, in the family of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the
+eldest son of Aaron (I. 497). But with the settlement a number of other
+places of sacrifice had risen up beside the sanctuary at Shiloh. On the
+heights and under the oaks at Ramah in the land of Benjamin, at Mizpeh
+in the same district, as well as at Mizpeh beyond Jordan, where Jacob
+and Laban had parted in peace,[185] at Bethel on the borders of the
+land of Ephraim and Benjamin, where Abraham sacrificed (between Bethel
+and Ai) and Jacob received the name of Israel;[186] finally at Gilgal on
+the east of Jordan, where Joshua lay encamped, and kept the passover,
+before he attacked Jericho, Jehovah was invoked. At these places also
+the firstlings of the fruits were offered; goats, rams, and bulls were
+offered, with or without the intervention of the priest, and inquiry
+made for the will of Jehovah without priestly help or intervention. Any
+one who set up an altar established a priest there, or hired a priest.
+For this purpose men were chosen who claimed to be of the race of Moses
+and Aaron, just as the service of the sacred ark at Shiloh was in the
+hands of this family; but men of other origin and tribes were not
+excluded even from the priesthood at the ark.[187]
+
+In such a want of any defined and influential position of the
+priesthood, in the want of any church organisation, it was only the
+superior personal power of the priests at Shiloh which could protect the
+religious feeling and traditional custom against the influences of the
+new surroundings, and Canaanitish rites. Tradition, at any rate from the
+first third of the eleventh century B.C., had no good to tell of the
+morals of the priests at Shiloh. To those who came to bring an offering
+the servant of the priest said, "Give flesh to roast for the priest; he
+will not have it sodden but raw." If the person sacrificing replied, "We
+will burn only the fat, then take what you desire," the servant
+answered, "You must give it me now, and if you will not I shall take it
+by force." If the priest desired cooked flesh from the sacrifice, he
+sent his servant, who struck with his three-pronged fork into the
+cauldron, and what he brought out was the priest's.
+
+The religious views of the Israelites, not sufficiently represented
+among themselves, were the more exposed to the influence of the rites of
+the Canaanites, as these rites belonged to tribes of kindred nature and
+character. In this way it came about that the Canaanitish gods Baal and
+Astarte were worshipped beside Jehovah, the god of Israel, and that in
+one or two places the old worship was perhaps entirely driven out by
+these new gods. But even where this did not take place, it was owing to
+the example and impulse of the Syrian modes of worship that images were
+here and there set up on the altars of Jehovah. When the conception of
+the divine nature in the spirit of a nation passes beyond the first
+undefined feeling and intimation,--when it receives a plainer and more
+expressive shape in the minds of men, and the first steps of artistic
+and technical skill, or the example of neighbours, are coincident with
+this advance,--the general result is that men desire to see the ruling
+powers fixed in distinct forms, then the gods are presented in a
+realistic manner in visible forms and images. And thus it was among the
+Israelites. The command of Moses given in opposition to the images of
+Egypt (I. 354) was long since forgotten. Michah, a man of the tribe of
+Ephraim, caused a goldsmith to make a carved and molten image of Jehovah
+of 200 shekels of silver; and set it up in a temple on Mount Ephraim,
+establishing as a priest a Levite, the "descendant of Moses." When a
+part of Dan marched northwards in order to win for themselves abodes
+there, which they could not conquer from the Philistines, the men of Dan
+carried off this image along with the Levite and set it up in the city
+of Laish (Dan), which they took from the Sidonians (I. 371), and the
+"grandson of Moses" and his descendants continued to be priests before
+this image.[188] At Nob also there was a gilded image of Jehovah, and
+many had Teraphim, or images of gods in the form of men, in their
+houses.[189]
+
+Nothing important was undertaken before inquiry was made of the will of
+Jehovah. The inquiry was made as a rule by casting lots before the
+sacred tabernacle at Shiloh, before the altars and images of
+Jehovah,[190] or by questioning the priests and soothsayers. Counsel was
+also taken of these if a cow had gone astray, and they received in
+return bread or a piece of money.
+
+Of the feuds which the tribes of Israel carried on at this time, some
+have remained in remembrance.[191] The concubine of a Levite, so we are
+told in the book of Judges, who dwelt on Mount Ephraim, ran away from
+her husband; she went back to her father, to Bethlehem in Judah. Her
+husband rose and followed her, pacified her, and then set out on his
+return. The first evening they reached the city of the Jebusites, but
+the Levite would not pass the night among the Canaanites (I. 500), and
+turned aside to Gibeah, a place in the tribe of Benjamin. Here no one
+received the travellers; they were compelled to remain in the street
+till an old man came home late in the evening from his work in the
+field. When he heard that the traveller was from Ephraim he received him
+into his house, for he was himself an Ephraimite, gave fodder to the
+asses of the Levite and his concubine, and placed his attendant with
+his own servants. Then they washed their feet, and drank, and their
+hearts were merry. But the men of Gibeah collected round the house in
+the evening, pressed on the door, and demanded that the stranger from
+Ephraim should be given up to them; they wished to destroy him. In order
+to save himself the priest gave up to them his concubine, that they
+might satisfy their passions on her. The men of Gibeah abused her the
+whole night through, so that next morning she lay dead upon the
+threshold. The Levite went with the corpse to his home at Ephraim, cut
+it into twelve pieces with a knife, and sent a piece to each tribe.
+Every one who saw it said, "The like was never heard since Israel came
+out of Egypt." And the chiefs of the nation assembled and pronounced a
+curse upon him who did not come to Mizpah (in the land of Benjamin) that
+he should be put to death. Then all the tribes assembled at Mizpah, it
+is said about 400,000 men;[192] only from Jabesh in Gilead and the tribe
+of Benjamin no one came. The Levite told what had happened to him, and
+the tribes sent messengers to Benjamin, to bring the men of Gibeah. But
+the children of Benjamin refused, and assembled their men of war, more
+than 26,000 in number, and took up arms. Then the people rose up and
+said, "Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin."[193] Every tenth man
+was sent back for supplies; the rest marched out against Benjamin. But
+"Benjamin was a ravening wolf, who ate up the spoil at morning and
+divided the booty in the evening;" they were mighty archers, and could
+throw with the left hand as well as the right.[194] They fought twice
+at Gibeah with success against their countrymen. Not till the third
+contest did the Israelites gain the victory, and then only by an
+ambuscade and counterfeit flight. After this overthrow the whole tribe
+is said to have been massacred, the flocks and herds destroyed, and the
+cities burnt. Only 600 men, as we are told, escaped to the rock Rimmon
+on the Dead Sea. When the community again assembled at Bethel the people
+were troubled that a tribe should be extirpated and wanting in Israel;
+so they caused peace and a safe return to be proclaimed to the remainder
+of Benjamin. And when 12,000 men were sent out against Jabesh to punish
+the city because none of their inhabitants came to the gathering at
+Mizpeh, they were ordered to spare the maidens of Jabesh. In obedience
+to this command they brought 400 maidens back from Jabesh, and these
+were given to the Benjamites. But as this number was insufficient the
+Benjamites were allowed, when the yearly festival was held at Shiloh (p.
+92), and the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance before the city, to
+rush out from the vineyards and carry off wives for themselves. Thus
+does tradition explain the non-execution of the decree that no Israelite
+should give his daughter to wife to a man of Benjamin, and the rescue of
+the tribe of Benjamin from destruction.[195]
+
+Without unity and connection in their political and religious life, amid
+the quarrels and feuds of the tribes, families and individuals, when
+every one helped and avenged himself, and violence and cruelty
+abounded,--in the lawless condition when "every one in Israel did what
+was right in his own eyes,"--the Israelites were in danger of becoming
+the prey of every external foe, and it was a question whether they could
+long maintain the land they had won. It was fortunate that there was no
+united monarchy at the head either of the Philistines or the Phenicians,
+that the latter were intent on other matters, as their colonies in the
+Mediterranean, while the cities of the Philistines, though they acquired
+a closer combination as early as the eleventh century B.C., or even
+earlier (I. 348), did not, at least at first, go out to make foreign
+conquests. But it was unavoidable that the old population, especially in
+the north, where they remained in the greatest numbers amongst the
+Israelites, should again rise and find strong points of support in the
+Canaanite princes of Hazor and Damascus; that the Moabites who lay to
+the east of the Dead Sea, the Ammonites, the neighbours of the land of
+Gilead, that the wandering tribes of the Syrian desert should feel
+themselves tempted to invade Israel, to carry off the flocks and plunder
+the harvests and, if they found no vigorous resistance, to take up a
+permanent settlement in the country. Without the protection of natural
+borders, without combination and guidance, as they were, the Israelites
+could only succeed in resisting such attacks when in the time of danger
+a skilful and brave warrior was found, who was able to rouse his own
+tribe, and perhaps one or two of the neighbouring tribes, to a vigorous
+resistance, or to liberation if the enemy was already in the land. It is
+the deeds of such heroes, and almost these alone, which remained in the
+memory of the Israelites from the first two centuries following their
+settlement; and these narratives, in part fabulous, must represent the
+history of Israel for this period.
+
+Eglon, king of Moab, defeated the Israelites, passed over the Jordan,
+took Jericho, and here established himself. With Gilead the tribe of
+Benjamin, which dwelt nearest to Jericho, at first must have felt with
+especial weight the oppression of Moab. For 18 years the Israelites are
+said to have served Eglon. Then Ehud, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
+reputed great grandson of the youngest son of Jacob, the father of the
+Benjamites, came with others to Jericho to bring tribute. When the tax
+had been delivered Ehud desired to speak privately with the king.
+Permission was given, and Ehud went with a two-edged sword in his hand,
+under his garment, to the king, who sat alone in the cool upper chamber.
+Ehud spoke: "I have a message from God to thee;" and when Eglon rose to
+receive the message Ehud smote him with the sword in the belly, "so that
+even the haft went in, and the fat closed over the blade, for the king
+of Moab was a very fat man. But Ehud went down to the court, and closed
+the door behind him." When the servants found the door closed they
+thought that the king had covered his feet for sleep. At last they took
+the key and found the king dead on the floor. But Ehud blew the trumpet
+on Mount Ephraim, assembled a host, seized the fords of Jordan, and slew
+about 10,000 Moabites, and the Moabites retired into their old
+possessions.[196]
+
+Another narrative tells of the fortunes of the tribes of Naphtali,
+Zebulun, and Issachar, which were settled in the north, under Mount
+Hermon. Jabin, king of Hazor, had chariots of iron, and Sisera his
+captain was a mighty warrior, and for 20 years they oppressed the
+Israelites.[197] Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, of the tribe of
+Issachar, dwelt in the land of Benjamin, between Bethel and Ramah, under
+the palm-tree; she could announce the will of Jehovah, and the people
+came to her to obtain counsel and judgment. At her command Barak, the
+son of Abinoam, assembled the men of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali;
+assistance also came from Issachar, Manasseh, Ephraim and Benjamin.
+Sisera went forth with 900 chariots and a great host and the Israelites
+retired before him to the south of the brook Kishon. Sisera crossed the
+brook and came upon the Israelites in the valley of Megiddo; he was
+defeated, leapt from his chariot, and fled on foot and came unto the
+tent of Heber the Kenite. Jael, Heber's wife, met him and said, "Turn
+in, my lord, to me; fear not." When in his thirst he asked for water,
+she opened the bottle of milk and allowed him to drink, and when he lay
+down to rest she covered him with the carpet. Being wearied, he sank
+into a deep sleep. Then Jael softly took the nail of the tent and a
+hammer in her hand, and smote the nail through his temples so that it
+passed into the earth. When Barak, who pursued the fugitive, came, Jael
+said, "I will show thee the man whom thou seekest," and led him into the
+tent where Sisera lay dead on the ground.
+
+Israel's song of victory is as follows: "Listen, ye kings; give ear, ye
+princes; I will sing to Jehovah, I will play on the harp of Jehovah, the
+king of Israel. There were no princes in Israel till I, Deborah, arose a
+mother in Israel. Arise, Barak; bring forth thy captives, thou son of
+Abinoam. Shout, ye that ride on she-asses, and ye that sit upon carpets,
+and ye that go on foot, and let the people come down into the plain, to
+the gates of the cities. Then I said, Go down, O people of Jehovah,
+against the strong; a small people against the mighty. From Ephraim they
+came and from Benjamin, from Machir (_i.e._ from the Manassites on the
+east of the lake of Gennesareth) the rulers came, and the chiefs of
+Issachar were with Deborah, and Zebulun is a people which perilled his
+life to the death, and Naphtali on the heights of the field. On the
+streams of Reuben there was taking of counsel, but why didst thou sit
+still among the herds to hear the pipe of the herdsmen? Gilead also
+remained beyond Jordan, and Asher abode on the shore of the sea in his
+valleys, and Dan on his heights. The kings came, they fought at the
+water of Megiddo; they gained no booty of silver. Issachar, the support
+of Barak, threw himself in the valley at his heels. The brook Kishon
+washed away the enemy: a brook of battles is the brook Kishon. Go forth,
+my soul, upon the strong. Blessed above women shall Jael be, above women
+in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; she brought him
+cream in a lordly dish. She put forth her hand to the nail, and her
+right hand to the workman's hammer, and she smote Sisera, she shattered
+and pierced his temples. Between her feet he lay shattered. The mother
+of Sisera looked from her window; she called through the lattice: 'Why
+linger his chariots in returning? why delay the wheels of his chariot?'
+Her wise maidens answered her; nay, she answered herself: 'Will they not
+find spoil and divide it; one or two maidens to each, spoil of broidered
+robes for Sisera?' So must all thine enemies perish, O Jehovah, but may
+those who love him be as the sun going forth in his strength." Whether
+this song was composed by Deborah, or by some other person in her name,
+it is certainly an ancient song of victory and contemporary with the
+events it celebrates.
+
+The tribes of Israel also which were settled in the land of Gilead
+remembered with gratitude a mighty warrior who had once delivered them
+from grievous oppression. The Ammonites, the eastern neighbours of the
+land of Gilead, oppressed "the sons of Israel who dwelt beyond Jordan"
+for 18 years, and marched over Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and the
+house of Ephraim. Then the elders of the land of Gilead bethought them
+of Jephthah (Jephthah means "freed from the yoke"), to whom they had
+formerly refused the inheritance of his father because he was not the
+son of the lawful wife, but of a courtezan. He had retired into the
+gorges of the mountain and collected round him a band of robbers, and
+done deeds of bravery. To him the elders went; he was to be their leader
+in fighting against the sons of Ammon. Jephthah said, "Have ye not
+driven me out of the house of my father? now that ye are in distress ye
+come to me." Still he followed their invitation, and the people of
+Gilead gathered round him at Mizpeh and made him their chief and leader.
+"If I return in triumph from the sons of Ammon," such was Jephthah's
+vow, "the first that meets me at the door of my house shall be dedicated
+to Jehovah, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt-offering." When he had
+asked the tribe of Ephraim for assistance in vain he set out against the
+Ammonites with the warriors of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh,
+and overcame them in a great battle on the river Arnon. The Ephraimites
+made it a reproach against Jephthah that he had fought against the
+Ammonites without them; they crossed the Jordan in arms. But Jephthah
+said, "I was in straits, and my people with me; I called to you, but ye
+aided me not." He assembled the men of Gilead, defeated the Ephraimites,
+and came to the fords of the Jordan before the fugitives, so that more
+than 42,000 men of Ephraim are said to have been slain.
+
+When he returned to his home at Mizpeh his only daughter came to meet
+him joyfully, with her maidens and timbrels and dancing. Jephthah tore
+his garments and cried, "My daughter, thou hast brought me very low; I
+have opened my mouth to Jehovah and cannot take it back." "My father,"
+she answered, "if thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, do to me as
+thou hast spoken, for Jehovah has given thee vengeance on thine enemies,
+the Ammonites. But first let me go with my companions to the mountains,
+and there for two months bewail my virginity." This was done, and on her
+return Jephthah did to her according to his vow. And it was a custom in
+Israel for the maidens to lament the daughter of Jephthah for four days
+in the year. After this Jephthah is said to have been judge for six
+years longer beyond Jordan, _i.e._ to have maintained the peace in these
+districts.
+
+Grievous calamity came upon Israel in this period from a migratory
+people of the Syrian desert, from the incursions of the Midians, who,
+like the Moabites and Ammonites, are designated in Genesis as a nation
+kindred to the Israelites, with whom Moses was said to have entered into
+close relations (I. 449, 468). Now the Midianites with other tribes of
+the desert attacked Israel in constant predatory incursions. "Like
+locusts in multitude," we are told, "the enemy came with their flocks
+and tents; there was no end of them and their camels. When Israel had
+sowed the sons of the East came up and destroyed the increase of the
+land as far as Gaza, and left no sustenance remaining, no sheep, oxen
+and asses. And the sons of Israel were compelled to hide themselves in
+ravines, and caves, and mountain fortresses."[198] For seven years
+Israel is said to have been desolated in this manner. Beside the tribes
+of Issachar and Zebulun, between Mount Tabor and the Kishon, dwelt a
+part of the tribe of Manasseh. The family of Abiezer, belonging to this
+tribe, possessed Ophra. In an incursion of the Midianites the sons of
+Joash, a man of this family, were slain;[199] only Gideon, the youngest,
+remained. When the Midianites came again, after their wont, at the time
+of harvest, and encamped on the plain of Jezreel, and Gideon was beating
+wheat in the vat of the wine-press in order to save the corn from the
+Midianites, Jehovah aroused him. He gathered the men of his family
+around him, 300 in number.[200] When Jehovah had given him a favourable
+sign, and he had reconnoitred the camp of the Midianites, together with
+his armour-bearer Phurah, he determined to attack them in the night. He
+divided his troop into companies containing a hundred men; each took a
+trumpet and a lighted torch, which was concealed in an earthen pitcher.
+These companies were to approach the camp of the Midianites from three
+sides, and when Gideon blew the trumpet and disclosed his torch they
+were all to do the same. Immediately after the second night-watch, when
+the Midianites had just changed the guards, Gideon gave the signal. All
+broke their pitchers, blew their trumpets, and cried, "The sword for
+Jehovah and Gideon!" Startled, terrified, and imagining that they were
+attacked by mighty hosts, the Midianites fled. Then the men of Manasseh,
+Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali arose, and Gideon hastily sent messengers
+to the Ephraimites that they should seize the fords of Jordan before
+the Midianites. The Ephraimites assembled and took two princes of the
+Midianites, Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). The Ephraimites strove with
+Gideon that he had not summoned them sooner. Gideon replied modestly,
+"Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
+Abiezer? Did not Jehovah give the princes of Midian into your hand?
+Could I do what ye have done?" He pursued the Midianites over the Jordan
+in order to get into his power their princes Zebah and Zalmunna, who had
+previously slain his brothers. When he passed the river at Succoth he
+asked the men of Succoth to give bread to his wearied soldiers. But the
+elders feared the vengeance of the Midianites, and said, "Are Zebah and
+Zalmunna already in thine hand, that we should give bread to thy men?"
+Gideon replied in anger, "If Jehovah gives them into my hand I will tear
+your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers." The
+inhabitants of Penuel on the Jabbok also, to which Gideon marched,
+refused to feed their countrymen; like those of Succoth, they feared the
+Midianites. Gideon led his army by the way of the dwellers in tents far
+away to Karkor. Here he defeated and scattered the 15,000 Midianites who
+had escaped, and captured the two princes. Then he turned back to
+Succoth and said to the elders, "See, here are Zebah and Zalmunna, for
+whom ye mocked me." He caused them to be seized, seventy-seven in
+number, and tore them to death with thorns and briers. The tower of
+Penuel he destroyed, and caused the inhabitants of the place to be
+slain. To the captured princes he said, "What manner of men were they
+whom ye once slew at Tabor?" And they answered, "As thou art, they
+looked like the sons of a king." "They were my brethren, the sons of my
+mother," Gideon answered. "As Jehovah liveth, if ye had saved them alive
+I would not slay you. Stand up," he called to his first-born son Jether,
+"and slay them." But the youth feared and drew not his sword, for he was
+yet young. "Slay us thyself," said the prisoners, "for as the man is, so
+is his strength." This was done. When the booty was divided Gideon
+claimed as his share the golden ear-rings of the slain Midianites. They
+were collected in Gideon's mantle, and the weight reached 1700 shekels
+of gold, beside the purple raiment of the dead kings, and the moons and
+chains on the necks of the camels.
+
+Gideon had gained a brilliant victory; no more is heard of the raids of
+the Midianites. Out of the booty he set up a gilded image (ephod) at
+Ophra.[201] He overthrew the altar of Baal and the image of Astarte in
+his city; and this, as is expressly stated, in the night (from which we
+must conclude that the inhabitants of Ophra were attached to this
+worship); and in the place of it he set up an altar to Jehovah on the
+height, and in the city another altar, which he called "Jehovah, peace."
+"Unto this day it is still in Ophra."
+
+After the liberation of the land, which was owing to him, Gideon held
+the first place in Israel. We are told that the crown had been offered
+to him and that he refused it.[202] But if Gideon left 70 sons of his
+body by many wives, if we find that his influence descended to his sons,
+he must have held an almost royal position, in which a harem was not
+wanting. He died, as it seems, in a good old age, and was buried in the
+grave of his fathers (after 1150 B.C.[203]).
+
+The same need of protection which preserved Gideon in power till his
+death had induced some cities to form a league, after the pattern of the
+cities of the Philistines, for mutual support and security. Shechem, the
+old metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim, was the chief city of this
+league. Here on the citadel at Shechem the united cities had built a
+temple to Baal Berith, _i.e._ to Baal of the league, and established a
+fund for the league in the treasury of this temple. One of the 70 sons
+of Gideon, the child of a woman of Shechem, by name Abimelech, conceived
+the plan of establishing a monarchy in Israel by availing himself of
+Gideon's name and memory, the desire for order and protection from which
+the league had arisen, and the resources of the cities. At first he
+sought to induce the cities to make him their chief. Supported by them,
+he sought to remove his brothers and to take the monarchy into his own
+hands as the only heir of Gideon. A skilful warrior like Abimelech, who
+carried with him the fame and influence of a great father, must have
+been welcome to the cities as a leader and chief in such wild times.
+Abimelech spoke to the men of Shechem: "Consider that I am your bone and
+your flesh; which is better, that 70 men rule over you or I only?" Then
+the citizens of Shechem and the inhabitants of the citadel assembled
+under the oak of Shechem and made Abimelech their king, and gave him 70
+shekels of silver from the temple of Baal Berith, "that he might be able
+to pay people to serve him." With these and the men of Shechem who
+followed him he marched and slew all his brethren at Ophra in his
+father's house (one only, Jotham, escaped him), and Israel obeyed him.
+Abimelech seemed to have reached his object. Perhaps he might have
+maintained the throne thus won by blood had he not, three years
+afterwards, quarrelled with the cities which helped him to power. The
+cities rose against him. Abimelech with his forces went against the
+chief city, Shechem. The city was taken and destroyed, the inhabitants
+massacred. About 1000 men and women fled for refuge into the temple of
+Baal Berith in the citadel; Abimelech caused them to be burned along
+with the temple. Then he turned from Shechem to Thebez, some miles to
+the north. When he stormed the city the inhabitants fled into the strong
+tower, closed it, and went up on the roof of the tower. Abimelech
+pressed on to the door of the tower to set it on fire, when a woman
+threw a stone down from above which fell on Abimelech and broke his
+skull. Then the king called to his armour-bearer, "Draw thy sword and
+slay me, that it may not be said, A woman slew him." The youthful
+monarchy was wrecked on this quarrel of the citizens with the new king.
+
+After this time Eli the priest at the sacred tabernacle, a descendant of
+Ithamar, the youngest son of Aaron,[204] is said to have been in honour
+among the Israelites. Not only was he the priest of the national shrine,
+but counsel and judgment were also sought from him. But Eli's sons,
+Hophni and Phinehas; did evil, and lay with the women who came to the
+sacred tabernacle to offer prayer and sacrifice.[205]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[181] Judges v. 10, 14; x. 4.
+
+[182] Judges x. 1-5; xii. 8-15.
+
+[183] _e.g._ Judges ix. 27.
+
+[184] Judges xxi. 19; 1 Sam. i. 3; ii. 13.
+
+[185] Judges xx. 1; vol. i. 410.
+
+[186] 1 Sam. x. 3; vol. i. 390, 411.
+
+[187] Judges xvii. 5, 10; xviii. 30; 1 Sam. vii. 1; 2, vi. 3.
+
+[188] Judges xvii. ff.
+
+[189] 1 Sam. xix. 13-16; xxi. 9; Gen. xxxi. 34; Judges xvii. 5; xviii.
+14, 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 24.
+
+[190] _e.g._ Judges vi. 36-40; xviii. 5; xx. 18 ff. The priests wore a
+pocket with lots (apparently small stones) on the breast. The Urim and
+Thummim of the High Priest was originally nothing but these lots.
+
+[191] On the composition of the Book of Judges, cf. De Wette-Schrader,
+"Einleitung," 325 ff.
+
+[192] In David's time only 270,000 are given: below, chap. 7.
+
+[193] Judges xx. 8; xxi. 7-18.
+
+[194] Gen. xlix. 27; Judges xx. 16; 1 Chron. viii. 39; xii. 2; 2 Chron.
+xiv. 7.
+
+[195] These events belong, according to Judges xx. 27 ff., to the period
+immediately after the conquest: as a fact, the war against Benjamin is
+not to be placed long after this, _i.e._ about 1200 B.C. Cf. De
+Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 326.
+
+[196] Judges iii. 12 ff.
+
+[197] Judges iv., v.
+
+[198] Judges vi. 2-5.
+
+[199] Judges viii. 19.
+
+[200] The observation that Gideon was the least in the house of his
+father, and his family the weakest in Manasseh (Judges vi. 15), is due
+no doubt to the tendency of the Ephraimitic text to show how strong
+Jehovah is even in the weak. From similar motives it is said that Gideon
+himself reduced his army to 300 men (Judges vii. 2-6). In the presence
+of the Ephraimites Gideon speaks only of the family of Abiezer.
+
+[201] What is meant in Judges viii. 27 by an ephod is not clear. The
+words which follow in the verse--that all Israel went whoring after
+Gideon--are obviously an addition of the prophetic revision.
+
+[202] Judges viii. 22.
+
+[203] Gideon's date can only be fixed very indefinitely. He and the
+generations after him must have belonged to the second half of the
+twelfth century B.C.
+
+[204] Joseph. "Antiq." 5, 11, 5.
+
+[205] 1 Sam. ii. 22-25.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL.
+
+
+More than a century and a half had passed since the Israelites had won
+their land in Canaan. The greater part of the tribes, beside the
+breeding of cattle, were occupied with the cultivation of vines and
+figs, and regular agriculture; the minority had become accustomed to
+life in settled cities, and the earliest stages of industry; but the
+unity of the nation was lost, and in the place of the religious fervour
+which once accompanied the exodus from Egypt, the rites of the Syrian
+deities had forced their way in alongside of the worship of Jehovah. The
+division and disorganisation of the nation had exposed the Israelites to
+the attacks of their neighbours; the attempt of Abimelech to establish a
+monarchy in connection with the cities had failed; the anarchy still
+continued. Worse dangers still might be expected in the future. The
+forces of the Moabites, Midianites, and Ammonites were not superior to
+that of the Israelites, the attacks of the tribes of the desert were of
+a transitory nature; but what if the cities of the coast, superior in
+civilisation, art, and combined power, should find it convenient when
+the affairs of Israel were in this position to extend their borders to
+the interior, and Israel should be gradually subjugated from the coast?
+From the Phenicians there was nothing to fear: navigation and trade
+entirely occupied them; from the beginning of the eleventh century
+their ships devoted their attention to discoveries in the Atlantic
+Ocean, beyond the straits of Gibraltar (p. 83). The case was different
+with the warlike cities of the Philistines. If the Philistines were
+behind the Israelites in the extent of their territory and dominion,
+their forces were held together and well organised by means of the
+confederation of the cities. Bounded to the west by the sea, and to the
+south by the desert, the only path open to them for extending their
+power was in the direction of the Hebrews. For a long time they had been
+content to put a limit upon the extension of the tribes of Judah and
+Dan, but in the first half of the eleventh century B.C. the condition of
+Israel appeared to the federation of the Philistines sufficiently
+inviting to induce them to pass from defence to attack. Their blows fell
+first on Judah, Simeon, and the part of Dan which had remained in the
+south on the borders of the Philistines; tribes which had hitherto been
+exempted from attack, whose territory had been protected by the deserts
+on the south, and the Dead Sea on the east. But now they were attacked
+from the direction of the sea. The struggle with the Philistines was not
+a matter of rapine and plunder, but of freedom and independence. The aim
+of the five princes of the Philistines (I. 348) was directed towards the
+extension of their own borders and their own dominion, and the war
+against the Israelites was soon carried on with vigour. The tribes of
+Judah and Dan were reduced to submission.[206] If the Israelites did not
+succeed in uniting their forces, if they could not repair what was
+neglected at the conquest, and had since been attempted in vain, the
+suppression of their independence, their religious and national life,
+appeared certain. The question was whether the nation of Israel,
+accustomed to an independent and defiant life in small communities, and
+corrupted by it, possessed sufficient wisdom and devotion to solve the
+difficult task now laid upon it.
+
+It was a melancholy time for Israel when the Philistines ruled over the
+south of the land. Later generations found some comfort for this
+national disgrace in the narratives of the strong and courageous Samson,
+the son of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, whose deeds were placed by
+tradition in this period. He had done the Philistines much mischief, and
+slain many of them; even when his foolish love for a Philistine maiden
+finally brought him to ruin, he slew more Philistines at his death than
+in his life--"about 3000 men and women."[207] Whatever be the truth
+about these deeds, no individual effort could avail to save Israel when
+the Philistines seriously set themselves to conquer the northern tribes,
+unless the nation roused itself and combined all its forces under one
+definite head.
+
+The Philistines invaded the land of Ephraim with a mighty army, and
+forced their way beyond it northwards as far as Aphek, two leagues to
+the south of Tabor. At Tabor the Israelites assembled and attempted to
+check the Philistines, but they failed; 4000 Israelites were slain. Then
+the elders of Israel, in order to encourage the people, caused the ark
+of Jehovah to be brought from Shiloh into the camp. Eli, the priest at
+the sacred tabernacle, was of the age of 98 years. Hophni and Phinehas,
+his sons, accompanied the sacred ark, which was welcomed by the army
+with shouts of joy. In painful expectation Eli sat at the gate of Shiloh
+and awaited the result. Then a man of the tribe of Benjamin came in
+haste, with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head, and said, "Israel
+is fled before the Philistines, thy sons are dead, and the ark of God is
+lost." Eli fell backwards from his seat, broke his neck, and died. About
+30,000 men are said to have fallen in the battle (about 1070
+B.C.).[208]
+
+At the sacred tabernacle at Shiloh Samuel the son of Elkanah had served
+under Eli. Elkanah was an Ephraimite; he dwelt at Ramah (Ramathaim,
+and hence among the Greeks Arimathia[209]). Samuel was born to him late
+in life, and, in gratitude that at last a son was given to her, his
+mother had dedicated him to Jehovah, and given him to Eli to serve in
+the sanctuary. Thus even as a boy Samuel waited at the sacrifices in a
+linen tunic, and performed the sacred rites. He grew up in the fear of
+Jehovah and became a seer, who saw what was hidden, a soothsayer, whom
+the people consulted in distress of any kind, and at the same time he
+announced the will of Jehovah, for Jehovah had called him, and permitted
+him to see visions, "so that he knew how to speak the word of God, which
+was rare in those days," and "Jehovah was with him and let none of
+Samuel's words fall to the ground."[210] After the crushing defeat at
+Aphek it devolved on Samuel to perform the duties of high priest. He
+summoned the people to Mizpeh in the tribe of Benjamin and prayed for
+Israel. Large libations of water were poured to Jehovah. When the
+Philistines advanced Samuel sacrificed a sucking lamb (no doubt as a
+sin-offering), and burned it. "Then on that day Jehovah thundered
+mightily out of heaven over the Philistines, and confounded them so that
+they were defeated."
+
+This victory remained without lasting results. On the contrary, the
+slavery of the Israelites to the Philistines became more extensive and
+more severe. In order to bring the northern tribes into the same
+subjection as the tribes of Dan, Judah, and Simeon, the Philistines
+established fortified camps at Michmash and Geba (Gibeah) in the tribe
+of Benjamin, as a centre from which to hold this and the northern tribes
+in check. The men of the tribes of Judah and Simeon had to take the
+field against their own countrymen. These arrangements soon obtained
+their object. All Israel on this side of the Jordan was reduced to
+subjection. In order to make a rebellion impossible, the Israelites were
+deprived of their arms; indeed, the Philistines were not content that
+they should give up the arms in their possession, they even removed the
+smiths from the land, that no one might provide a sword or javelin for
+the Hebrews. The oppression of this dominion pressed so heavily and with
+such shame on the Israelites that the books of Samuel themselves tell
+us, if the plough-shares, bills, and mattocks became dull, or the forks
+were bent, the children of Israel had to go down into the cities of the
+Philistines in order to have their implements mended and sharpened.[211]
+
+At this period Samuel's activity must have been limited to leading back
+the hearts of the Israelites to the God who brought them out of Egypt;
+he must have striven to fill them with the faith with which he was
+himself penetrated, and the distress of the time would contribute to
+gain acceptance for his teaching and his prescripts. The people sought
+his word and decision; he is said to have given judgment at Bethel,
+Gilgal, and Mizpeh. He gathered scholars and disciples round him, who
+praised Jehovah to the sound of harp and lute, flute and drum, who in
+violent agitation and divine excitement awaited his visions, and "were
+changed into other men."[212] From the position which tradition allots
+to Samuel, there can be no doubt that he brought the belief in and
+worship of the old god into renewed life, and caused them to sink deeper
+into the hearts of the Israelites. The oppression of his people by the
+Philistines he could not turn away, though he cherished a lively hope in
+the help of Jehovah.
+
+The tribes on the east of the Jordan remained free from the dominion of
+the Philistines; yet for them also servitude and destruction was near at
+hand. The Ammonites were not inclined to let slip so favourable an
+opportunity. As the land on the west of the Jordan was subject to the
+Philistines, the tribes on the east would prove an easy prey. The
+Ammonites encamped before Jabesh in Gilead, and the inhabitants were
+ready to submit. But Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, as we are told,
+would only accept their submission on condition that every man in Jabesh
+put out his right eye. Then the elders of Jabesh sent messengers across
+the Jordan and earnestly besought their countrymen for help.
+
+The tribe of Benjamin had to feel most heavily, no doubt, the oppression
+of the Philistines. In their territory lay the fortified camps of the
+enemy. Here, at Gibeah, dwelt a man of the race of Matri, Saul the son
+of Kish, the grandson of Abiel. Kish was a man of substance and
+influence; his son Saul was a courageous man, of remarkable stature,
+"higher by a head than the rest of the nation." He was in the full
+strength of his years, and surrounded by valiant sons: Jonathan,
+Melchishua, Abinadab, and Ishbosheth. One day, "just as he was returning
+home from the field behind his oxen," he heard the announcement which
+the messengers of Jabesh brought. Himself under the enemy's yoke, he
+felt the more deeply what threatened them. His heart was fired at the
+shame and ruin of his people. Regardless of the Philistines, he formed a
+bold resolution; assistance must be given to those most in need. He cut
+two oxen in pieces, sent the pieces round the tribes,[213] and raised
+the cry, "Whoso comes not after Saul, so shall it be done to his oxen."
+The troop which gathered round him out of compassion for the besieged in
+Jabesh, and in obedience to his summons, Saul divided into three
+companies. With these he succeeded in surprising the camp of the
+Ammonites about the morning watch; he dispersed the hostile army and set
+Jabesh free.
+
+Whatever violence and cruelty had been exercised since the settlement of
+the Israelites in Canaan, however many the feuds and severe the
+vengeance taken, however great the distress and the oppression, the
+nation, amid all the anarchy and freedom so helpless against an enemy,
+still preserved a healthy and simple feeling and vigorous power. And at
+this crisis the Israelites were not found wanting; Saul's bold
+resolution, the success in setting free the city in her sore distress,
+the victory thus won, the first joy and hope after so long a period of
+shame, gave the people the expectation of having found in him the man
+who was able to set them free from the dominion of the Philistines also,
+and restore independence, and law, and peace. When the thank-offering
+for the unexpected victory, for the liberation of the land of Gilgal,
+was offered at Gilgal on the Jordan, as far as possible from the camp of
+the Philistines, "all the people went to Gilgal, and there made Saul
+king before Jehovah, and Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced
+greatly" (1055 B.C.).
+
+The heavy misfortunes which the land had experienced for a long time,
+the severe oppression of the dominion of the Philistines, had at length
+taught the majority that rescue could only come by a close connection
+and union of the powers of the tribes, and an established authority
+supreme over all. To check anarchy from within and oppression from
+without required a vigorous hand, a ruling will, and a recognised power.
+What the people could do to put an end to the disorganisation was now
+done, they had placed a man at the head whom they might expect to be a
+brave leader and resolute guide. The Israelites had used their
+sovereignty to give themselves a master, and might hope with confidence
+that by this step they had laid the foundations of a happier future
+which they might certainly greet with joy.[214]
+
+Immediately after his election on the Jordan, Saul was firmly resolved
+to take up arms against the Philistines for the liberation of the land.
+He turned upon their camp in the district of his own tribe. While he lay
+opposite the fortifications at Michmash, and thus held the garrison
+fast, his son Jonathan succeeded in conquering the detachment of the
+Philistines stationed at Geba. But the princes of the Philistines had no
+mind to look on at the union of Israel. They assembled, as we are told,
+an army of 3000 chariots, 6000 cavalry, and foot soldiers beyond number;
+with these the tribes of Judah and Simeon were compelled to take the
+field against their brethren.[215] Whether the numbers are correct or
+incorrect, the armament of the Philistines was sufficient to cause the
+courage of the Israelites to sink. Saul summoned the Israelites to the
+Jordan, to Gilgal, where he had been raised to be their chief. But in
+vain he caused the trumpets to be blown and the people to be summoned.
+The Israelites crept into the caves and clefts of the rock, and
+thorn-bushes, into the towers and the cisterns, and fled beyond Jordan
+to find refuge in the land of Gilead. Only the king and his brave son
+Jonathan did not quail before the numbers or gallantry of the enemies,
+though only a small troop--it is said about 600 men--gathered round
+Saul. The great army of the Philistines had first marched to the
+fortified camp at Michmash, and from this point, after leaving a
+garrison behind, in which were the Israelites of Judah and Simeon, it
+separated into three divisions, in order to march through Israel in all
+directions and hold the country in subjection. One column marched to the
+west in the direction of Beth-horon, the second to the north towards
+Ophra, the third to the east towards the valley of Zeboim.[216] This
+division made it possible for Saul to attack. He turned upon that part
+of the army which was weakest and most insecure, the garrison at
+Michmash, and made an unexpected attack on the fortification. Jonathan
+ascended an eminence in the rear, while Saul attacked in the van. In the
+tumult of the attack the Hebrews in the camp of the Philistines joined
+the side of their countrymen, and Saul gained the fortification. The
+Philistines fled. The king knew what was at stake and strove to push the
+victory thus gained to the utmost.[217] Without resting, he urged his
+men to the pursuit of the fugitives. That none of his troop might halt
+or stray in order to take food, he said, "Cursed is the man who eats
+bread till the evening, till I have taken vengeance on mine enemies."
+Jonathan had not heard the command of his father, and as the pursuers
+passed through a wood in which wild honey lay scattered he ate a little
+of the honeycomb. For this he should have been put to death, because he
+was dedicated to Jehovah (I. 499). But the warriors were milder than
+their customs. "Shall Jonathan die," cried the soldiers, "who has won
+this great victory in Israel? that be far from us: as Jehovah liveth,
+not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has wrought with
+God this day;" "and the people rescued Jonathan that he died not."[218]
+
+This success encouraged the Israelites to come forth from their
+hiding-places and gather round their king. But only a part of the
+hostile army was defeated, and the Philistines were not so easily to be
+deprived of the sovereignty over Israel. "And the strife was hot against
+the Philistines so long as Saul lived," and "king Saul was brave and
+delivered Israel from the hand of the robbers," is the older of the two
+statements preserved in the Books of Samuel.
+
+Saul had rendered the service which was expected by the Israelites when
+they elevated him: he had saved his nation from the deepest distress,
+from the brink of the most certain destruction. Without him the tribes
+beyond the Jordan would have succumbed to the Ammonites and Moabites,
+and those on this side of the river would at length have become obedient
+subjects of the Philistines. He found on his accession a disarmed,
+discouraged nation. By his own example he knew how to restore to them
+courage and self-confidence, and educate them into a nation familiar
+with war and skilled in it. The old military virtues of the tribe of
+Benjamin (p. 96) found in Saul their full expression and had a most
+beneficial result for Israel. The close community in which from old time
+the small tribe of Benjamin had been with the large tribe of Ephraim, by
+the side of which it had settled, was an advantage to Saul.[219] The
+strong position which he gained by the recognition of these two tribes
+could not but have an effect on the others, and contribute with the
+importance of his achievements and the splendour of their results to
+gain firmness and respect for the young monarchy, and win obedience for
+his commands. In the ceaseless battles which he had to carry on he was
+mainly supported by his eldest son Jonathan, who stood beside him as a
+faithful brother in arms, and his cousin Abner, the son of Ner his
+father's brother, whom he made his chief captain. "And wherever Saul saw
+a mighty man and a brave he took him to himself."[220] Thus he formed
+around him a school of brave warriors. He appears to have kept 3000
+warriors under arms in the district of Benjamin, and this formed the
+centre for the levy of the people.[221]
+
+But the Israelites had not merely to thank the king they had set up for
+the recovery and vigorous defence of their independence and their
+territory; he was also a zealous servant of Jehovah. He offered
+sacrifice to Him, built altars, and inquired of Him by His priests, who
+accompanied him even on his campaigns.[222] He observed strictly the
+sacred customs; even after the battle the exhausted soldiers were not
+allowed to eat meat with blood in it. He was prepared to allow even his
+dearest son, whose life he had unconsciously devoted, to be put to
+death. He removed all magicians and wizards out of the land with great
+severity.[223] How earnestly he took up the national and religious
+opposition to the Canaanites is clear from his conduct to the Hivites of
+Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, who had once made a
+league with Joshua, and in consequence had been allowed to remain among
+the Israelites (I. 494). "Saul sought to slay them in his zeal for
+Israel," and the Gibeonites afterwards maintained that Saul had sought
+to annihilate them, and his purpose was that they should be destroyed
+and exist no more in all the land of Israel.[224] The ark of the
+covenant, which had fallen into the hands of the Philistines at the
+battle of Aphek, was brought back to Israel in his reign. The possession
+of it, so the Hebrews said, had brought no good to the Philistines. They
+had set it up as a trophy of victory in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod.
+But the image of the god had fallen to pieces, and only the fish-tail
+was left standing (I. 272); the people of Ashdod had been attacked with
+boils, and their crops destroyed by mice. The same occurred at Gath,
+when the ark was brought there, and, in consequence, the city of Ekron
+had refused to accept it. Then the Philistines had placed the ark upon a
+wagon, and allowed the cows before it to draw it whither they would.
+They drew it to Beth-shemesh in the tribe of Judah. But when the people
+of Beth-shemesh looked on the ark a grievous mortality began among them,
+till the men of Kirjath-jearim (not far from Beth-shemesh) took away the
+ark, and Abinadab set it up in a house on a hill in his field, and
+established his own son Eleazar as guardian and priest (about 1045
+B.C.[225]). The Books of the Chronicles mention the gifts which Saul
+dedicated to the national sanctuary.[226]
+
+As king of Israel, Saul remained true to the simplicity of his earlier
+life. Of splendour, courts, ceremonial, dignitaries, and harem we hear
+nothing. If not in the field he remained on his farm at Gibeah, with his
+wife Ahinoam,[227] his four sons, and his two daughters. Abner and other
+approved comrades in arms ate at his table. His elder daughter Merab he
+married to Adriel the son of Barzillai. Michal, the younger, he gave to
+a youthful warrior, David the son of Jesse, who had distinguished
+himself in the war against the Philistines, whom he had made his
+armour-bearer and companion of his table, entrusting him at the same
+time with the command of 1000 men of the standing army.[228] "What am I,
+what is the life and the house of my father in Israel, that I should
+become the son-in-law of the king? I am but a poor and lowly man." So
+David said, but Saul remained firm in his purpose.
+
+Of Saul's later battles against the Philistines tradition has preserved
+only a few fragments, from which it is clear that the war was carried on
+upon the borders by plundering incursions, which were interrupted from
+time to time by greater campaigns.[229] But the preponderance of the
+Philistine power was broken. And Saul had not only to fight against
+these. "He fought on all sides," we are told, "against all the enemies
+of Israel, against Moab, and against the sons of Ammon, and against
+Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and whithersoever he turned he
+was victorious."[230] When the Amalekites from their deserts on the
+peninsula of Sinai invaded the south of Israel, and forced their way as
+far as Hebron, he defeated them there at Maon-Carmel,[231] and pursued
+them over the borders of Israel into their own land as far as the desert
+of Sur, "which lies before Egypt," and took Agag their king prisoner. It
+was a severe defeat which he inflicted on them.[232] "Saul's sword came
+not back empty," and "the daughters of Israel clothed themselves in
+purple," and "adorned their garments with gold" from the spoil of his
+victories.[233] The Israelites felt what they owed to the monarchy and
+to Saul.[234]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[206] Judges xiii. 1; xiv. 4; xv. 11; 1 Sam. iv. 9.
+
+[207] In Samson, who overcomes the lion, and sends out the foxes with
+firebrands, who overthrows the pillars of the temple, and buries himself
+under it, Steinthal ("Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie," 2, 21)
+recognises the sun-god of the Syrians. The name Samson means as a fact
+"the sunny one." The long hair in which Samson's strength lay may
+symbolise the growth of nature in the summer, and the cutting off of it
+the decay of creative power in the winter: so too the binding of Samson
+may signify the imprisoned power of the sun in winter. As Melkarth in
+the winter went to rest at his pillars in the far west, at the end of
+his wanderings, so Samson goes to his rest between the two pillars in
+the city on the shore of the western sea. If, finally, Samson becomes
+the servant of a mistress Dalilah--_i.e._ "the tender"--this also is a
+trait which belongs to the myth of Melkarth; cf. I. 371. It is not to be
+denied that traits of this myth have forced their way into the form and
+legend of Samson, although the long hair belongs not to Samson only, but
+to Samuel and all the Nazarites; yet we must not from these traits draw
+the conclusion that the son of Manoah is no more than a mythical figure,
+and even those traits must have gone through many stages among the
+Israelites before they could assume a form of such vigorous liveliness,
+such broad reality, as we find pourtrayed in the narrative of Samson.
+
+[208] The simplest method of obtaining a fixed starting-point for the
+date of the foundation of the monarchy in Israel is to reckon backwards
+from the capture of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple by
+Nebuchadnezzar. According to the canon of Ptolemy, Nebuchadnezzar's
+reign began in the year 604 B.C., the temple and Jerusalem were burned
+down in the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv. 8; Jer.
+lii. 12), _i.e._ in the year 586 B.C. From this year the Hebrews
+reckoned 430 years to the commencement of the building of the temple
+(430 = 37 years of Solomon since the beginning of the building + 261
+years from the death of Solomon to the taking of Samaria + 132 years
+from the taking of Samaria to the destruction of the temple). Hence the
+building of the temple was commenced in the year 1015 B.C. Since the
+commencement of the building is placed in the fourth year of Solomon,
+his accession would fall in the year 1018 B.C.; and as 40 years are
+allotted to David, his accession at Hebron falls in 1058 B.C., and
+Saul's election about 1080 B.C. In the present text only the number two
+is left of the amount of the years of his reign (1 Sam. xiii. 1), the
+years of his life also are lost; we may perhaps assume 22 years for his
+reign, since Eupolemus gives him 21 years (Alex. Polyh. Frag. 18, ed.
+Mueller), and Josephus 20 ("Antiq." 6, 14, 9, 10, 8, 4). His
+contemporary, Nahash of Ammon, is on the throne before the election of
+Saul, and continues beyond the death of Saul and Ishbosheth, and even 10
+years into the reign of David. Nahash must have had an uncommonly long
+reign if Saul reigned more than 22 years. It makes against the dates
+1080 B.C. for Saul, 1058 B.C. for David, 1018 B.C. for Solomon, that
+they rest upon the succession of kings of Judah, from the division of
+the kingdom down to the fall of Samaria, which is reckoned at 261 years,
+while the succession of kings of Israel during the same period only
+fills 241 years. Movers ("Phoeniz." 2, 1, 140 ff.) has attempted to
+remove this difficulty by assuming as a starting-point the statements of
+Menander of Ephesus, on the succession of kings in Tyre, preserved in
+Josephus ("c. Apion," 1, 18). Josephus says that from the building of
+the temple, which took place in the twelfth year of Hiram king of Tyre,
+down to the founding of Carthage, which took place in the seventh year
+of Pygmalion king of Tyre, 143 years 8 months elapsed. From the date
+given by Justin (18, 7) for the founding of Carthage (72 years before
+the founding of Rome; 72 + 754), _i.e._ from 826 B.C., Movers reckons
+back 143 years, and so fixes the building of the temple at the year 969
+B.C., on which reckoning Solomon's accession would fall in the year 972
+B.C., David's in the year 1012 B.C., and Saul's election in 1034 B.C.
+But since the more trustworthy dates for the year of the founding of
+Carthage, 846, 826, and 816, have an equal claim to acceptance, we are
+equally justified in reckoning back from 846 and 816 to Saul's
+accession.
+
+According to the canon of the Assyrians, the epochs in which were fixed
+by the observation of the solar eclipse of July 15 in the year 763 B.C.,
+Samaria was taken in the year 722 B.C. If from this we reckon backwards
+261 years for Judah, Solomon's death would fall in the year 983 B.C.,
+his accession in 1023 B.C., David's accession in 1063 B.C., Saul's
+election in 1085 B.C. If we keep to the amount given for Israel (241
+years + 722), Solomon's death falls in 963, his accession in 1003, the
+building of the temple in 1000 B.C., David's accession in 1043 B.C.,
+Saul's accession in 1065 B.C. But neither by retaining the whole sum of
+430 years, according to which the building of the temple begins 1015
+B.C. (430 + 586), and Solomon dies in 978 B.C., nor by putting the death
+of Solomon in the year 983 or 963 B.C., do we bring the Assyrian
+monuments into agreement with the chronological statements of the
+Hebrews. If we place the date of the division of the kingdom at the year
+978 B.C., Ahab's reign, according to the numbers given by the Hebrews
+for the kingdom of Israel, extends from 916 to 894 B.C.; if we place the
+division at 963 B.C., it extends, according to the same calculation,
+from 901 to 879 B.C. On the other hand, the Assyrian monuments prove
+that Ahab fought at Karkar against Shalmanesar II. in the year 854 B.C.
+(below, chap. 10). Since Ahab after this carried on a war against
+Damascus, in which war he died, he must in any case have been alive in
+853 B.C. Hence even the lower date taken for Ahab's reign from the
+Hebrew statements (901-879 B.C.) would have to be brought down 26 years,
+and as a necessary consequence the death of Solomon would fall, not in
+the year 963 B.C., but in the year 937 B.C.
+
+If we could conclude from this statement in the Assyrian monuments that
+the reigns of the kings of Israel were extended by the Hebrews beyond
+the truth, it follows from another monument, the inscription of Mesha,
+that abbreviations also took place. According to the Second Book of
+Kings (iii. 5), Mesha of Moab revolted from Israel when Ahab died. The
+stone of Mesha says: "Omri took Medaba, and Israel dwelt therein in his
+and his son's days for 40 years; in my days Camus restored it;" Noeldeke,
+"Inschrift des Mesa." Hence Omri, the father of Ahab, took Medaba 40
+years before the death of Ahab. Ahab, according to the Hebrews, reigned
+22 years, Omri 12. According to the stone of Mesha the two reigns must
+have together amounted to more than 40 years. Since Omri obtained the
+throne by force, and had at first to carry on a long civil war, and
+establish himself on the throne (1 Kings xvi. 21, 22), he could not make
+war upon the Moabites at the very beginning of his reign. Here,
+therefore, there is an abbreviation of the reign of Omri and Ahab by at
+least 10 years.
+
+Hence the contradiction between the monuments of the Assyrians and the
+numbers of the Hebrews is not to be removed by merely bringing down the
+division of the kingdom to the year 937 B.C. In order to obtain a
+chronological arrangement at all, we are placed in the awkward necessity
+of making an attempt to bring the canon of the Assyrians into agreement
+with the statements of the Hebrews by assumptions more or less
+arbitrary. Jehu slew Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah at the
+same time. From this date upwards to the death of Solomon the Hebrew
+Scriptures reckon 98 years for Israel, and 95 for Judah. Jehu ascended
+the throne of Israel in the year 843 B.C. at the latest, since,
+according to the Assyrian monuments, he paid tribute to Shalmanesar II.
+in the year 842 B.C. If we reckon the 98 years for Israel upwards from
+843 B.C., we arrive at 941 B.C. for the division of the kingdom; and if
+to this we add, as the time which has doubtlessly fallen out in the
+reigns of Omri and Ahab, 12 years, 953 B.C. would be the year of the
+death of Solomon, the year in which the ten tribes separated from the
+house of David. If we keep the year 953 for the division, the year 993
+comes out for the accession of Solomon, the year 990 for the beginning
+of the building of the temple, the year 1033 for the accession of David
+at Hebron, and the year 1055 for the election of Saul. Fifteen years may
+be taken for the continuance of the heavy oppression before Saul. For
+the changes which we must in consequence of this assumption establish in
+the data of the reigns from Jeroboam and Rehoboam down to Athaliah and
+Jehu, _i.e._ in the period from 953 B.C. to 843 B.C., see below. Omri's
+reign occupies the period from 899-875 B.C. (24 years instead of 12),
+_i.e._ a period which agrees with the importance of this reign among
+the Moabites and the Assyrians; Ahab reigned from 875-853 B.C. According
+to 1 Kings xvi. 31, Ahab took Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king
+of the Sidonians to wife. If this Ethbaal of Sidon is identical with the
+Ithobal of Tyre in Josephus, the chronology deduced from our assumptions
+would not be impossible. Granted the assertion of Josephus that the
+twelfth year of Hiram king of Tyre is the fourth year of Solomon (990
+B.C.), Hiram's accession would fall in the year 1001 B.C.; according to
+Josephus, Ithobal ascended the throne of Tyre 85 years after Hiram's
+accession, when he had slain Pheles. He lived according to the same
+authority 68 years and reigned 32 years, _i.e._ from 916-884 B.C. Ahab,
+either before or after the year of his accession (875), might very well
+have taken the daughter of this prince to wife. And if we assume that
+the statement of Appian, that Carthage was in existence 700 years before
+her destruction by the Romans, _i.e._ was founded in the year 846 B.C.,
+the 143-2/3 or 144 years of Josephus between the building of the temple
+and the foundation of Carthage, reckoned backwards from 846 B.C., lead
+us to the year 990 B.C. for the building of the temple.
+
+[209] Now Beit-Rima, north-east of the later Lydda.
+
+[210] 1 Sam. iii. 1, 19.
+
+[211] 1 Sam. xiii. 19-23, from the older account.
+
+[212] 1 Sam. x. 5, 6; xix. 20-24.
+
+[213] Compare the division of the corpse by the Levite, above, p. 96.
+
+[214] Owing to the later conceptions that the king needed to be
+consecrated by the prophets, that Jehovah is himself the King of Israel,
+an almost inexplicable confusion has come into the narrative of Saul's
+elevation. Not only have we an older and later account existing side by
+side in the books of Samuel, not only has there been even a third hand
+at work, but the attempts to bring the contradictory accounts into
+harmony have increased the evil. In 1 Sam. viii. we are told: The elders
+of Israel and the people required from Samuel a king at Ramah, because
+he was old and his sons walked not in his ways. Jehovah says to Samuel:
+They have not rejected thee, but me; yet Samuel accedes to the request
+of the Israelites. Samuel gives the elders a terrifying description of
+the oppression which the monarchy would exercise upon them, a
+description which evidently predates the experiences made under David,
+Solomon, and later kings, whereas at the time spoken of the nation had
+suffered only too long from wild anarchy. The reasons, moreover, given
+by the elders, why they desired a king, do not agree with the situation,
+but rather with the time of Eli, who also had foolish sons. In spite of
+Samuel's warning the people persist in their wish to have a king.
+Further we are told in chap. ix. 1-x. 16, how Saul at his father's
+bidding sets out in quest of lost she-asses, and goes to inquire of
+Samuel, for the fourth part of a silver shekel, whither they had
+strayed. At Jehovah's command Samuel anoints the son of Kish to be king,
+when he comes to him; he tells him where he will find his asses, and
+imparts to him two other prophecies on the way. Then we are told in
+chap. x. 17-27 that Samuel summons an assembly of the people to Mizpeh,
+repeats his warning against the monarchy, but then causes lots to be
+cast who shall be king over the tribes, and families, and individuals.
+The lot falls upon Saul, who makes no mention to any one of the
+anointing, but has hidden himself among the stuff. Finally, in chap. xi.
+we find the account given in the text, to which, in order to bring it
+into harmony with what has been already related, these words are
+prefixed in ver. 14: "And Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to
+Gilgal to renew the kingdom;" but in xi. 15 we find: "Then went all the
+people to Gilgal, and made Saul king before Jehovah in Gilgal." The
+contradictions are striking. The elders require a king from Samuel, whom
+they could choose themselves (2 Sam. ii. 4; v. 3; 1 Kings xii. 1, 20; 2
+Kings xiv. 21), and whom, according to 1 Sam. xi. 15, the people
+actually choose. Jehovah will not have a king, but then permits it. Nor
+is this permission all; he himself points out to Samuel the man whom he
+is to anoint. Anointed to be king, Saul goes, as if nothing had taken
+place, to his home. He comes to the assembly at Mizpeh, and again says
+nothing to any one of his new dignity. Already king by anointment, he is
+now again made king by the casting of lots. He returns home to till his
+field, when the messengers from Jabesh were sent not to the king of
+Israel, but to the people of Israel, to ask for help. In Gibeah also
+they do not apply to the king; not till he sees the people weeping in
+Gibeah, does Saul learn the message. Yet he does not summon the people
+to follow him as king; he requests the following just as in earlier
+times individuals in extraordinary cases sought to rouse the people to
+take up arms. It is impossible that a king should be chosen by lot at a
+time when the bravest warrior was needed at the head, and simple boys,
+who hid themselves among the stuff, were not suited to lead the army at
+such a dangerous time. At the time of Saul's very first achievements his
+son Jonathan stands at his side as a warrior; at his death his youngest
+son Ishbosheth was 40 years of age (2 Sam. ii. 10). Saul must therefore
+have been between 40 and 50 years old when he became king. The request
+of the elders for a king, and Samuel's resistance, belong on the other
+hand to the prophetic narrator of the books of Samuel, in whose account
+it was followed by the assembly at Mizpeh and the casting of lots. The
+same narrator attempts to bring the achievement at Jabesh, and the
+recognition of Saul as ruler and king which followed it, into harmony
+with his narrative by the addition of the restoration of the kingdom and
+some other interpolations. The Philistines would hardly have permitted
+minute preparations and prescribed assemblies for the election of king.
+The simple elevation and recognition of Saul as king after his first
+successful exploit in war corresponds to the situation of affairs (cf. I
+xii. 12). And I am the more decided in holding this account to be
+historically correct, because it does not presuppose the other accounts,
+and because the men of Jabesh, according to the older account, fetched
+the bodies of Saul and his sons to Jabesh from Beth-shan and burned them
+there, 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, 13. The older account in the books of Samuel
+knows nothing of the request of the elders for a king. After the defeat
+which caused Eli's death, it narrates the carrying back of the ark by
+the Philistines, and the setting up of it at Beth-shemesh and
+Kirjath-jearim. Then follows Saul's anointing by Samuel (ix. 1-10, 16);
+then the lost statement about the age of Saul when he became king, and
+the length of the reign; then the great exploits of Saul against the
+Philistines (xiii. 1-14, 46); xiii. 8-13 stands in precise relation to
+x. 8. That the achievement of Jabesh cannot have been wanting in the
+older account follows from the express reference to it at the death of
+Saul.
+
+[215] 1 Sam. xiii. 3-7; xiv. 22.
+
+[216] 1 Sam. xiii. 16-18.
+
+[217] 1 Sam. xiv. 1-23.
+
+[218] So the older account, 1 Sam. xiv. 24-45.
+
+[219] Numbers ii. 18-24; Joshua xviii. 12-20; Judges v. 14. That Ephraim
+remained true to Saul follows from the recognition of Ishbosheth after
+Saul's death, 2 Sam. ii. 9, 10.
+
+[220] 1 Sam. xiv. 52.
+
+[221] 1 Sam. xiii. 2.
+
+[222] 1 Sam. xiv. 3, 18, 37; xxviii. 6.
+
+[223] 1 Sam. xxviii. 3, 9.
+
+[224] 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 5.
+
+[225] The ark was brought by David from Kirjath-jearim to Zion. That
+could not take place before the year 1025 B.C. Saul's death falls, as
+was assumed above, in the year 1033 B.C. But the ark is said to have
+been at Kirjath-jearim 20 years (1 Sam. vii. 2; vi. 21), it must
+therefore have been carried thither 1045 B.C., or a few years later. The
+stay among the Philistines must have been more than seven months, as
+stated in 1 Sam. vi. 61; the stay at Beth-shemesh was apparently only a
+short one. The battle at Tabor and Eli's death cannot, as shown above,
+be placed much later than 1070 B.C. According to 1 Sam. xiv. 3; xviii.
+19, the ark was in Saul's army at the battle of Michmash, and Ahijah
+(Ahimelech), the great-grandson of Eli, was its keeper.
+
+[226] 1 Chron. xxvi. 28.
+
+[227] Only one concubine is mentioned, by whom Saul had two sons.
+
+[228] 1 Sam. xviii. 3, 17-20, 28; xxii. 4.
+
+[229] 1 Sam. xvii., xviii., xxiii. 28.
+
+[230] 1 Sam. xiv. 47, 48.
+
+[231] 1 Sam. xv. 12. The place near Hebron still bears the name Carmel.
+
+[232] Noeldeke, "Die Amalekiter," s. 14, 15.
+
+[233] 2 Sam. i. 21-24.
+
+[234] This follows from the fact that the monarchy remains even after
+Saul's death, from the lamentation of the Israelites for Saul, and their
+allegiance to his son Ishbosheth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DAVID'S STRUGGLE AGAINST SAUL AND ISHBOSHETH.
+
+
+The position which Samuel gained as a priest, seer, and judge after the
+death of Eli and his sons, and continued to hold under the sway of the
+Philistines must have undergone a marked change, owing to the
+establishment of the monarchy in Israel, though in the later text of the
+Books of Samuel it is maintained that "Samuel judged Israel till his
+death."[235] We know that Samuel had set up an altar to Jehovah at
+Ramathaim, his home and dwelling-place (p. 115), but it is not handed
+down that he had again set up there the sacred tabernacle and the
+worship at the sacred ark, though this may very well have been the case
+after the Philistines sent back the ark. Both the older and the later
+text of the two Books of Samuel represent him as in opposition to the
+monarchy. According to the later text, written from a prophetic point of
+view, Samuel had from the first opposed the establishment of the
+monarchy; and both the older and the more recent account know of a
+contention between Saul and Samuel. The former tells us: When Saul
+immediately after his election took up arms against the Philistines, and
+these marched out with their whole fighting power, and Saul gathered the
+Israelites at Gilgal, Samuel bade the king wait seven days till he came
+down to offer burnt-offering and thank-offering. "And Saul waited seven
+days, but Samuel came not; the people were scattered. Then Saul said:
+Bring me the burnt-offering and the thank-offering. He offered the
+burnt-sacrifice, and when he had made an end Samuel came, and Saul went
+to greet him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? Saul answered, When
+I saw that the people were scattered from me, and thou didst not come at
+the time appointed, and the Philistines were encamped at Michmash, I
+said, The Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal, and I have not
+made supplication to Jehovah, so I forced myself and offered the
+burnt-sacrifice. Then Samuel said, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast
+not observed the command of thy God which he commanded thee. Jehovah
+would have established thy kingdom over Israel for ever, but now thy
+kingdom shall not endure."[236] The more recent account puts the
+contention at a far later date. When Saul marched against the Amalekites
+Samuel bade him "curse" everything that belonged to Amalek, man and
+woman, child and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. After the return
+of the victorious army Samuel came to Gilgal, and said, What meaneth
+this bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen in my ears? Saul answered, I
+have obeyed the voice of Jehovah and have gone the way which Jehovah
+sent me, and I have brought with me Agag the king of Amalek, and have
+"cursed" Amalek. But from the spoil the people have taken the best of
+what was "cursed," in order to sacrifice to Jehovah, thy God, at Gilgal.
+Samuel answered in the tone of Isaiah, Hath Jehovah delight in
+burnt-offerings and sacrifice? To obey is better than sacrifice. Saul
+confesses that he has sinned and transgressed the command of Jehovah and
+the word of Samuel, "for I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
+And now forgive me my sin, and turn with me, that I may entreat Jehovah.
+But Samuel said, I will not turn back with thee; because thou hast
+rejected the word of Jehovah he will reject thee from being king over
+Israel. Samuel turned to go, but Saul caught the hem of his garment and
+said, I have sinned, yet honour me before the elders of my people, and
+before Israel, and return with me, that I may offer prayer before
+Jehovah. Then Samuel turned behind Saul, and Saul offered prayer before
+Jehovah. And Samuel bade them bring Agag the king of Amalek before him,
+and said, As thy sword has made women childless, so shall thy mother be
+childless among women; and he hewed Agag in pieces before Jehovah at
+Gilgal. And Samuel went up to Ramathaim and saw Saul no more."[237] In
+the narrative of the first text Saul appears to be thoroughly justified
+by the most urgent necessity; in the narrative of the second text he
+acknowledges openly and completely that he has sinned. It may have been
+the case that Saul did not appear to Samuel sufficiently submissive to
+his utterances, which for him were the utterances of God; that he wished
+to see the rights and power of a king exercised in a different manner
+and in a different feeling from that in which Saul discharged his
+office.
+
+More dangerous for Saul than any reproach or coldness on the part of
+Samuel was the contention which he had in the latter years of his reign
+with another man, whom he had himself raised to eminence--a strife which
+cost Saul the reward of his laborious and brave reign, and his house the
+throne; while Israel lost the fruits of great efforts, and the fortunes
+of the people were again put to the hazard.
+
+Of the family of Perez[238] of the tribe of Judah, David was the
+youngest (eighth) son of a man of some possessions, Jesse of Bethlehem.
+He was entrusted with the care and keeping of the sheep and goats of his
+father in the desert pastures on the Dead Sea, and his shepherd life had
+caused him to grow up in a rough school. It had made him hardy, it had
+given strength and suppleness to his body; he had gained a delight in
+adventure and unshaken courage in danger. In defence of the flocks he
+had withstood bears and ventured into conflict even with a lion. In the
+loneliness and silence which surrounded him he practised singing and
+playing; the severe and solemn nature of that region was adapted to
+impress great thoughts on his mind, to give force and elevation to his
+spirit. From such a school he came into the ranks of the warriors of
+Saul; the bold deeds which even in his youth he had performed against
+the Philistines induced Saul to make David one of "the brave," whom he
+took into his house (about 1040 B.C.).[239] He also made him one of his
+captains,[240] and frequently sent him out against the Philistines; in
+these inroads he fought with more success than other chieftains.[241]
+Thus David was a favourite in the eyes of the people and the servants
+of the king, and Jonathan, Saul's eldest son, made a covenant with
+David, because "he loved him as his own soul."[242] In the house of Saul
+David was trusted and honoured before the other warriors; he was his
+armour-bearer and the chief of a troop of 1000 men. After Jonathan and
+Abner, David was nearest the king; he had the complete confidence of
+Saul, and at length became his son-in-law.[243]
+
+Some years afterwards (about 1036 B.C.[244]), Saul conceived a suspicion
+of the man whom he had elevated to such a height. He imagined that his
+son-in-law intended to seize the throne from himself, or contest the
+succession with his son Jonathan. According to the older account it was
+jealousy of the military renown of David, which threatened to obscure
+his own, that roused Saul against David;[245] according to the later,
+Saul feared the partiality which the people displayed towards David. He
+says to Jonathan, "So long as the son of Jesse lives, thou and thy
+kingdom will not continue."[246] According to the same account an evil
+spirit came over Saul, he was beside himself in the house and threw a
+spear at David, who played the harp.[247] David avoided the cast: he
+fled to Samuel at Ramathaim into the dwellings of the seers,[248] and
+from thence escaped to Achish, the prince of the Philistines of
+Gath.[249] In the older account also it is an evil spirit of Jehovah
+which comes over Saul, and causes him to thrust with his spear at David
+while he is playing the harp. David escapes into his house. At Saul's
+command the house is surrounded; and David is to be slain the next
+morning. But Michal, the daughter of Saul, David's wife, let him down
+from a window, and in his place she put the teraphim, _i.e._ the image
+of the deity, into the bed, covered it with a coverlet, laid the net of
+goat's hair on the face, and gave out that David was sick. David
+meanwhile flies to Nob (in the land of Benjamin), where was set up a
+gilded image of Jehovah, before which a company of priests served, and
+at their head Ahimelech, a great-grandson of Eli,[250] who had
+previously inquired of Jehovah for David.[251] Ahimelech gave David the
+sacred loaves, and a sword which was consecrated there, and from hence,
+according to this account, David escaped to Achish. Saul reproached his
+daughter for aiding David, and said, "Why hast thou allowed my enemy to
+escape?" Then he gave her to wife to Phalti of Gallim.
+
+We are not in a position to decide whether David really pursued
+ambitious designs; whether, as a matter of fact, he conspired with the
+priests against Saul and his house, as Saul assumed; whether Saul saw
+through his designs and plots, or suspected him without reason.[252]
+David was not content with escaping the anger and pursuit of Saul, with
+placing himself and his family in security. He repaired to the enemies
+of his land, the Philistines, who would not have accepted at once an
+opponent who had done them grievous injury, if he had not openly broken
+with Saul and given them to suppose that henceforth he would support
+their struggle against Saul and Israel. Yet David did not bring his
+father and mother, on whom Saul could have taken vengeance, out of the
+land to Gath, where they might have been a pledge of his fidelity to the
+Philistines; he put them in the hands of the king of Moab, and also
+entered into relations with the king of the Ammonites.[253] It was
+probably with the consent of the Philistines that David returned from
+Gath into the land of Judah, and there threw himself into the wild
+regions by the Dead Sea, where he had previously pastured his father's
+sheep and goats, in order to bring his own tribe of Judah into arms
+against the king sprung from the small tribe of Benjamin.[254] The cave
+of Adullam was the place of gathering. His brothers, the whole house of
+his father, came, and a prophet of the name of Gad, "and all oppressed
+persons, and any one who had a creditor and was of a discontented
+spirit," and "David was their chief, and had under him 400 men."[255]
+
+"Saul heard that all men knew about David and the men who were with him,
+and sent out to bring before him Ahimelech and the house of his father
+and all the priests of Nob." The king sat on the height near Gibeah
+under the tamarisk, with his spear in his hand and his servants round
+him. "Why hast thou conspired against me," he said to Ahimelech, "thou
+and the son of Jesse, that he has rebelled against me. Thou shalt die,
+and the house of thy father." And he commanded his body-guard who stood
+near him: "Come up and slay the priests of Jehovah, their hand is with
+David." Then 85 men were slain who wore the linen tunic; and Nob, the
+city of the priests, Saul smote with the edge of the sword; one only,
+Abiathar, a son of Ahimelech, escaped with the image of Jehovah to
+David.[256]
+
+David had no doubt calculated on greater success in the tribe of Judah.
+So long as his following was confined to four or six hundred men, he
+could only live a robber life with this troop. But by this course he
+would have roused against himself those whom he robbed, and strengthened
+the attachment to Saul. So he attempted to keep a middle path. He sent
+to Nabal, a rich man at Carmel near Hebron (p. 127), who possessed 3000
+sheep and 1000 goats, a descendant of that Caleb who had once founded
+himself a kingdom here with his sword (I. 505), and bade his messengers
+say: David has taken nothing of thy flocks, send him therefore food for
+him and his people. But Nabal answered: "Who is David, and who is the
+son of Jesse? There are now many servants who run away from their
+masters." Then David set out in the night to fall upon Nabal's house and
+flocks. On the way Abigail, Nabal's wife, met him. In fear of the
+freebooters she had caused some slaughtered sheep, loaves, and pitchers
+of wine, some figs and cakes of raisins, to be laid on asses in order
+to bring them secretly into David's camp. Praised be thy wisdom, woman,
+said David: by the life of Jehovah, if thou hadst not met me there would
+not have been alive at break of day a single male of Nabal and his
+house. Nabal died ten days after this incident. David saw that such a
+wealthy possession in this region could not but be advantageous. Saul's
+daughter was lost to him; he sent, therefore, some servants to Abigail
+to Carmel. They said, David has sent us to thee to take thee to him to
+wife. Abigail stood up, bowed herself with her face to earth, and said:
+Behold, thy handmaid is ready to wash the feet of the servants of thy
+master. Then she set out with five of her maids, and followed the
+servants of David and became his wife.[257] As a fact this marriage
+appears to have furthered the undertaking of David; the places in the
+south of Judah, Aroer, Hormah, Ramoth, Jattir, Eshtemod, and even
+Hebron, declared for him.[258] From this point David sought to force his
+way farther to the north, and possessed himself of the fortified town of
+Kegilah (Keilah).[259]
+
+When Saul was told that David was in Kegilah, he said: God has delivered
+him into my hand in that he has shut himself up in a city with gates and
+bars. He set out against Kegilah. David commanded Abiathar the priest,
+who had fled to him from Nob with the image of Jehovah, to bring the
+image, and David inquired of the image: Will the men of Kegilah deliver
+me and my followers into the hand of Saul? Jehovah, God of Israel,
+announce this to me. And Jehovah said, They will deliver thee.[260] Then
+David despaired of remaining in the city and fled; he retired again into
+the desert by the Dead Sea near Ziph and Maon. But Saul pursued and
+overtook him; nothing but a mountain separated David's troop from the
+king; David was already surrounded and lost, when the news was brought
+to Saul, "Hasten and come, for the Philistines are in the land." This
+was no doubt an incursion made by the Philistines in aid of the
+hardly-pressed rebels. Saul abandoned the pursuit and went against the
+Philistines: David called the mountain the rock of escape.[261] When the
+king had driven back the Philistines he took 3000 men out of the army to
+crush the rebellion utterly. David had retired farther to the east, on
+the shore of the Dead Sea, in the neighbourhood of Engedi, to the "rock
+of the goat," and there he was so closely shut in by Saul that he had to
+despair of remaining in Judah. He escaped with his troop to the
+Philistines: the rebellion was at an end.[262]
+
+David's attempt to induce the tribe of Judah to fall away from Saul was
+entirely wrecked. Driven from the ground on which he had raised the
+standard of revolt, he no longer scrupled to enter formally into the
+service of the Philistines, and these must have welcomed the aid of a
+brave and skilful leader, who, though once their enemy, had already in
+Judah engaged the arms of Saul, the weight of which they had so often
+felt, and which had taken from them their dominion over Israel. Achish,
+king of Gath, to whom David again fled, was of opinion "that David had
+made himself to stink among his people, Israel, and would be his servant
+for ever;" and gave the border city Ziklag to be a dwelling for him and
+his band of freebooters.[263] David now settled as a vassal of Achish at
+Ziklag. At his command he was compelled to take the field, and also to
+deliver up a part of the spoil which he obtained.[264] Thus from the
+land of the Philistines, with his band, which here became strengthened
+by the discontented in Israel[265] who fled to him over the border,
+David carried on a petty war against Saul and his country. In these
+campaigns David was wise enough to spare his former adherents in Judah,
+the cities which had once declared for him, and his attacks were only
+directed against the adherents of Saul; in secret he even maintained his
+connection with his party in Judah, and to the elders of the cities
+which clung to him he sent presents out of the booty won in his raids
+and plundering excursions.[266]
+
+David had already lived more than a year in Ziklag,[267] when the
+Philistines assembled all their forces against Saul. When the princes of
+the Philistines marshalled their army, and caused it to march past in
+troops, David and his men also came among the soldiers of Achish. Then
+the other princes said to Achish: What need of these Hebrews? Let not
+David go to the battle; he may become a traitor, and go over to his
+master, in order to win favour with Saul at the price of our heads.
+Achish trusted David, and said: He has already dwelt with me for a time,
+for years; to this day I have found nothing in him. But the other
+princes insisted on their demand; perhaps they remembered the day of
+Michmash, when Saul had obtained his first victory over the Philistines
+with the aid of the Hebrews in their camp. When Achish announced to
+David that he could not accompany the army, he answered: What have I
+done, and what hast thou found in thy servant since I came to thee to
+this day, that I should not fight against the enemies of my king? In
+spite of his earnest desire, David was sent back.[268]
+
+The army of the Philistines passed to the north, through the land of
+Ephraim, into the land of Issachar, and encamped at Shunem in the plain
+of Jezreel. On Mount Gilboa, over against them, Saul was encamped with
+the army of the Israelites.[269] The battle broke out, and the contest
+was severe. Saul saw his sons Abinadab and Melchishua, and finally
+Jonathan himself, fall; the Israelites retired, and the archers of the
+enemy pressed on the king. Saul refused to fly, and survive the death of
+his sons and his first defeat. He called to his armour-bearer: Draw thy
+sword and slay me, that these uncircumcised may not come upon me and
+maltreat me. But the faithful comrade would not lift his hand against
+his master. Then Saul threw himself upon his sword, and the
+armour-bearer followed the example of the king. The army of the
+Israelites was scattered in every direction. The Philistines rejoiced
+when they found the corpse of Saul on Mount Gilboa. They took the armour
+from the dead king, and sent it round their whole land, that every one
+might be convinced that the dreaded leader of Israel was no longer
+living. Then the armour was laid up in the temple of Astarte. The
+Philistines cut off the head of the corpse and hung it up as a trophy in
+the temple of Dagon; the trunk and the corpses of the three sons of Saul
+were set up in the market-place of Beth-shan, not far from the field of
+battle, in order to show the Israelites that they had nothing more to
+hope from Saul and his race (1033 B.C.).[270]
+
+Israel was benumbed with terror. The nurse let the young son of
+Jonathan, Mephibosheth, fall to the ground when she heard the news of
+Gilboa. Many retired beyond the Jordan before the Philistines; others
+hastened to Ziklag, to place themselves under David's protection. But
+from Jabesh in Gilead, which Saul had once rescued from the most
+grievous distress, valiant men set out over the Jordan to Beth-shan.
+Here, at night, they took the corpses of Saul and his three sons from
+the market-place, brought them to Jabesh, and buried them under the
+tamarisk, and the inhabitants of Jabesh fasted and lamented seven days
+for Saul's death.[271] The Israelites had reason enough to sorrow and
+lament for Saul. From one of the songs of lamentation sung in these days
+it is convincingly clear what this man had done for them. "The gazelle,
+O Israel," so it was sung at that time, "is stricken on thy heights!
+Fallen are thy heroes! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the
+streets of Ascalon, lest the daughter of the Philistine rejoice, lest
+the daughter of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let
+there be no dew nor rain upon you, nor offerings of first-fruits! For
+there the shield of the mighty was cast away, the shield of Saul. From
+the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan
+turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and
+Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death
+they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, stronger than
+lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you delicately
+in purple, and put ornaments of gold on your garments. How are the
+mighty fallen in battle."[272]
+
+A single stroke had annihilated all that had been obtained in long and
+toilsome struggles. The Philistines were again masters on this side of
+Jordan as in the unhappy times before Saul. But in spite of the fall of
+the hero who had been the defence of Israel and the terror of the
+enemies, the monarchy remained, so firmly had Saul established it.
+Ishbosheth, the youngest son of Saul, had escaped the battle; with
+Abner, the general, he had found safety beyond the Jordan. Here he took
+up his abode at Machanaim, and the tribes on the other side of the
+Jordan recognised him as their king. Abner's sword was a strong support
+for Ishbosheth, and the adherence of the Israelites to Saul's family
+soon permitted him to force his way from Machanaim over the Jordan.
+Here, also, amid the arms of the Philistines, Ishbosheth was recognised
+as king. Thus Abner's courage and bravery succeeded in wresting the
+fruits of the victory at Gilboa from the Philistines, and liberating
+from their yoke first Ephraim and Benjamin, and then the whole region of
+the northern tribes.[273]
+
+While Abner was engaged in preserving the remnants of Saul's dominion
+for his son, and in driving the Philistines out of the land, David
+looked after his own interests. The fresh terror of the overthrow at
+Gilboa had driven many Israelites to Ziklag. David's name stood high
+among the warriors of Israel, and protection against the Philistines was
+certain to be found with their vassal. The places in the tribe of Judah
+which had formerly joined David now again resorted to him, and the
+tribe of Judah had previously been subject to the Philistines longer
+than any other, and was more accustomed to their dominion. As the
+tradition tells us, David inquired of Jehovah whether he should go from
+Ziklag into one of the cities of Judah, and Jehovah answered: Go to
+Hebron. This was done. "And the men of Judah there anointed David king
+of the house of Judah, for only the house of Judah adhered to
+David."[274] Thus David, after Saul's death, succeeded in the attempt
+which had failed in Saul's lifetime; he established an independent
+monarchy in the tribe of Judah. Here he ruled at Hebron at first
+quietly, under the protection of the Philistines.[275] But when Abner
+had again wrested the north and centre of the land from the hands of the
+Philistines, when Ishbosheth's rule again united the whole land as far
+as the tribe of Judah, he turned his arms not more against the
+Philistines than against their vassal at Hebron in order to complete the
+liberation of Israel.
+
+"The strife was long between the house of Saul and the house of
+David,"--so runs the older account.[276] Of the events of this war
+between Judah and the rest of the tribes, we only know that on a
+certain day Joab at the head of David's men, and Abner at the head of
+the men of Ishbosheth, strove fiercely at the pool of Gibeon, and Joab's
+brother Asahel was slain by Abner. For several years the war continued
+without any decisive result, till a division arose between Ishbosheth
+and Abner which gave David the advantage, and finally placed him on the
+throne of Saul. Ishbosheth appears to have become distrustful of Abner,
+to whom he owed everything. When Abner took Rizpah, the concubine of
+Saul, to himself, Ishbosheth thought that he intended in this way to
+establish a right to the throne, in order to wrest the dominion from
+himself, and did not conceal his anger.[277] Then Abner turned from the
+man he had exalted and entered into a secret negotiation with David.
+This was received with joy by David. Crafty as he was, he first demanded
+that his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom Saul after David's
+rebellion had married to Phalti, should be sent back to him. David had
+found out the attachment of the Israelites to the house of Saul, and was
+no doubt of opinion that nothing would sooner help him to the throne
+than the renewed connection with Saul's family; if none of the
+descendants of Saul survived but this daughter he would be his
+legitimate heir. Abner sent Michal, and went himself to Hebron in order
+to arrange about the transfer of the kingdom. They were agreed; Abner
+had done his service. He was already on his way home to Machanaim, when
+Joab, the captain of David, called him back. He came, and Joab took him
+aside under the gate of Hebron, as though he had something to tell him
+in secret; instead, he thrust his sword through his body. David asserted
+his innocence and lamented Abner's death. Abner's body was buried
+solemnly at Hebron. David followed the bier in sackcloth, but Joab
+remained unpunished.[278] He slew Abner because the latter had
+previously slain his brother Asahel at Gibeon; but this was done in
+honourable fight, not by assassination.
+
+When the announcement of Abner's death came to Machanaim "Ishbosheth's
+hands were numbed, and all Israel was troubled." The Israelites lamented
+Abner's death. "Must Abner die as a godless man dieth?" they sang. "Thy
+hands were never bound, thy feet never fettered; thou hast fallen as a
+man falls before the children of iniquity."[279] The pillar of the
+kingdom was broken. Then two captains of the army of Ishbosheth,
+brothers of the tribe of Benjamin, hoped to gain favour with David.
+While Ishbosheth was resting at midday in his chamber on his bed, they
+entered unobserved into his house, cut off his head, and brought it
+hastily to Hebron to David. This murder carried David quickly to his
+goal, but he would not praise those who committed it; he caused them
+both to be executed.
+
+The throne of Saul was empty. David, the husband of his daughter, was at
+the head of a not inconsiderable power; whom could the tribes who had
+obeyed Ishbosheth raise to the throne except him, if an end was to be
+put to the pernicious division, and the people were again to be united
+under one government? The elders of the tribes were intelligent enough
+to value rightly this position of affairs. Hence the people met together
+at Hebron; in full assembly David was raised to be king of Israel, and
+anointed by the elders.[280] Eight years had passed since Saul and his
+three elder sons fell on Gilboa. All was full of joy, union, and hope
+that better times would come again after the end of the long strife
+(1025 B.C.).[281]
+
+At length David stood at the goal which he had pursued steadfastly under
+many changes of fortune. But there were still some male descendants of
+Saul in existence. The Hivites of Gibeon cherished a deadly hatred to
+the race of Saul, because Saul's hand had been heavy upon them "in his
+zeal for the sons of Israel." David offered to "avenge the wrong which
+Saul had done to them."[282] They demanded, that as their land had borne
+no fruit for three years, seven men of the race of Saul should be given
+to them, that they might "hang them up before Jehovah at Gibeah," the
+dwelling-place of Saul. There were just seven male descendants of Saul
+remaining: two sons by Rizpah, his concubine, and five grandchildren,
+whom Merab, the eldest daughter of Saul, had borne to Adriel. These
+David took and "gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they
+hanged them up on the hill before Jehovah." There was still another
+descendant of Saul's remaining, Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan; but
+he was only 10 or 12 years of age, and was, moreover, lame of both feet,
+from the fall which he had suffered in the hands of his nurse. David
+also thought of the close friendship which he had contracted in earlier
+days with Jonathan; he gave to Mephibosheth Saul's land at Gibeah, and
+arranged that Saul and Jonathan's bones should be brought from Jabesh to
+Zelah, near Gibeah, and buried where Kish, Saul's father, lay. In the
+tribe of Benjamin, to which Saul belonged, and among those connected
+with his house, the acts of David to the house of Saul were not
+forgotten; they hated David, the "man of blood."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[235] 1 Sam. vii. 15.
+
+[236] 1 Sam. x. 8; xiii. 8-15.
+
+[237] 1 Sam. xv.
+
+[238] Ruth iv. 18-22.
+
+[239] In 2 Sam. v. 4, 5 it is stated that David when he was raised at
+Hebron to be king of Judah was 30 years old. This took place 1033 B.C.
+(p. 113, note); David must therefore have been born 1063 B.C., and could
+not have marched out to battle before 1043 B.C.
+
+[240] 1 Sam. xviii. 5.
+
+[241] The tale of the battle of David with the giant Goliath appears to
+have arisen out of a later conflict of David when king with a mighty
+Philistine. In 2 Sam. xxi. 18-22 we are told, "And there was again a
+battle of Philistines at Gob. Then Elhanan, the son of Jair Orgim, a
+Bethlehemite, slew Goliath of Gath; the shaft of whose spear was as a
+weaver's beam." Shortly before it is stated: "David and his servants
+strove with the Philistines, and David was weary, and Ishbi thought to
+slay David--the weight of his spear was 300 shekels; then Abishai (the
+brother of Joab) aided the king, and slew the Philistine," 2 Sam. xxi.
+15-17. From the conflict with a giant which David had to undergo when
+king, and the slaughter of Goliath of Gath by Elhanan, a fellow-townsman
+of David's from Bethlehem, the legend may have arisen that David himself
+slew a great giant. This legend was then transferred by the theocratic
+narrative into David's boyhood; in this way he was marked from the
+beginning as the chosen instrument of Jehovah. The statement in 1 Chron.
+xxi. 5 cannot be made to tell against this view, which in order to
+explain the contradiction between the First and Second Books of Samuel
+explains the giant whom Elhanan slew, the shaft of whose spear was like
+a weaver's beam, to be a brother of Goliath; the less so inasmuch as the
+passage from the Book of Samuel is repeated word for word with this
+addition, while the battle of David with Ishbi is omitted. If David
+really slew a distinguished warrior of Gath in Saul's time, it is the
+more difficult to explain how he could afterwards fly to the prince of
+Gath of all others, and enter into such close relations with him. The
+often-mentioned national song, "Saul has slain his thousands and David
+his tens of thousands," is scarcely applicable to the slaying of a
+giant, however great he might be, and probably comes from the time of
+David's reign when he had really gained more brilliant victories than
+Saul.
+
+[242] 1 Sam. xviii. 3.
+
+[243] 1 Sam. xvi. 22; xviii. 5; xxii. 14.
+
+[244] This date may be assumed, if we put the death of Saul in the year
+1033 B.C. (p. 113), since David's rebellion in Judah lasted a
+considerable time, and he afterwards remained at Ziklag at least 16
+months, 1 Sam. xxvii. 7; xxix. 3.
+
+[245] 1 Sam. xviii. 9.
+
+[246] 1 Sam. xviii. 16; xx. 31.
+
+[247] 1 Sam. xviii. 11.
+
+[248] As Najoth, or rather Newajoth, means dwellings, the habitations of
+the prophet's disciples must be meant.
+
+[249] 1 Sam. xix. 18-24; xxi. 11-15.
+
+[250] 1 Sam. xxii. 9.
+
+[251] 1 Sam. xiv. 3.
+
+[252] The older text, 1, xxvi. 19, represents David as saying to Saul:
+"If Jehovah hath stirred thee against me, let him accept an offering,
+but if men, cursed be they before Jehovah." In the Books of Samuel the
+relations of Saul and David are strangely confused, for reasons which
+are not far to seek. The older account of the priests and the later one
+of the prophets, which are mixed together in these books, had equally
+reason to place in as favourable a light as possible the founder of the
+power of Israel, of the united worship, the minstrel of the psalms, the
+progenitor of the kings of Judah, and to put him in the right as against
+Saul and the house of Saul. To the older narrative belongs the
+description of David's shepherd life, his battle with the giant, his
+rise as a warrior,--the intention is to show that Jehovah is strong in
+the weak. The shepherd-boy comes into the camp in order to bring bread
+to his brethren and cheese to the captain. His brethren are angry that
+he has left the sheep, and wish to send him back, but he will fight with
+the giant who has defied the army of the living God. Saul dissuades him
+from the contest, but David persists, refuses armour, and goes forth in
+trust on Jehovah, who gives not the victory by spear and shield. By this
+victory he is marked as the chosen instrument of Jehovah. In both
+accounts Saul loses the favour of Jehovah by disobedience to Samuel.
+According to the later text, Samuel, when he had broken with Saul owing
+to the incomplete "cursing" of Amalek, took the horn of oil and anointed
+the youngest son of Jesse, who was fetched from the sheep, king over
+Israel amid his brethren. When this had been done Saul's servants bring
+David as a brave hero and warrior, "prudent in speech, a comely person,
+cunning in playing," 1 Sam. xvi. Yet Samuel had no right to place kings
+over the Israelites, and if he went so far in his opposition to Saul, he
+made himself responsible for the rebellion; if he really intended this,
+he would have set up some other than a shepherd-boy against Saul. If, on
+the other hand, David was really anointed, Saul was quite justified in
+pursuing him. Yet it was with this anointment, as with that of Saul; no
+one knew anything of it, and David himself makes no use of this divine
+election, not even when he organises the rebellion in Judah, nor after
+Saul's death at Hebron, nor in the struggle against Ishbosheth, who was
+not in any case anointed, nor even after the death of Ishbosheth: he is
+after this chosen by the people in Hebron and anointed king over Israel.
+It is only the Philistines in Gath who know anything of David's royal
+dignity, when he comes to them for the first time, 1 Sam. xxi. 11. We
+see plainly that this anointment is a careless interpolation of the
+prophetic revision, to which the verses 11-15 of the chapter quoted
+undoubtedly belong, just as chap. xvi. is intended to legitimise David.
+The same account represents Saul as thrusting twice with his javelin at
+David, xviii. 10, 11, on the very day after he has slain the giant. As
+though nothing had happened, David continues in the house of Saul, and
+Saul confers on him still greater honours and dignities. In the older as
+well as in the later account this is turned round so as to seem that
+Saul gave these to David as a "snare," that David might fall by the
+hands of the Philistines, xviii. 17, 25; and with this view Saul
+requires 100 foreskins of the Philistines as the price of Michal. It is
+obvious that Saul had other means, more certain to accomplish his
+object, at his command to destroy David, if he really intended it;
+according to the older account Saul requests Jonathan and his men,
+though in vain, to slay David, xix. 1. When the attempt at assassination
+and the open breach has taken place in both narratives, Saul, according
+to the prophetic account, marvels nevertheless that David does not come
+to table, xx. 26, 27. To this text also belongs the further statement
+that when Jonathan excused David, Saul thrust at him also with his
+spear, xx. 33. In the older account Ahimelech, who had aided David in
+his flight, makes the excuse that he knew not that David fled before the
+king. "David was the most honoured among the friends of Saul:" no one
+therefore knew anything of these plots and attempts of Saul upon David.
+Every one sees that this is impossible. Jonathan knows David better than
+Saul, and always defends him against his father; then David himself
+calls on Jonathan to kill him if there is any wickedness in him, 1, xx.
+8. The story of the arrows is very poetical, but the sign is quite
+unnecessary, since they afterwards converse with each other, 1, xx.
+18-43. In the older account also of the occurrence in the desert by the
+Dead Sea, the prophetic account has inserted a visit of Jonathan to
+David. Jonathan strengthens David's courage although he is in rebellion
+against his father. "Fear not," Jonathan says to him, "the hand of my
+father will not reach thee, thou shalt be king over Israel," xxiii.
+15-18. Saul was something different from the madman who betwixt sane
+intervals and reconciliations is constantly making fresh attacks on
+David's life, whether innocent or guilty. Even the most complete
+recognition of all that David established at a later time for Israel,
+and with an influence extending far beyond Israel, does not make it a
+duty to overlook the way in which he rose to his eminence.
+
+[253] 1 Sam. xxii. 3; 2, x. 1.
+
+[254] In 1 Sam. xxix. 3, Achish says of David, "He has now been with me
+for years."
+
+[255] So the older account, 1 Sam. xxii. 1-5.
+
+[256] So the older story, 1 Sam. xxii. The priestly point of view from
+which it is written causes it, in order to prove the innocence of the
+priests, to represent David as saying on his flight to Ahimelech that he
+had a hasty mission from the king, so that Ahimelech can explain to Saul
+that he knew nothing about the flight. From the same point of view we
+must derive the statement that the body-guard hesitated to lay hands on
+the holy men, and that an Edomite slew them. That the punishment of Nob
+took place long after David's flight and rebellion, is clear from the
+fact that the fugitive Abiathar finds David already in possession of
+Kegilah, 1 Sam. xxii. 20; xxiii. 6, 7.
+
+[257] 1 Sam. xxv. 2-12, 18-42.
+
+[258] 1 Sam. xxx. 26-31.
+
+[259] That David saved and won Kegilah from the Philistines, and
+obtained a great victory over them, as we find it in the older account
+(1 Sam. xxiii. 1-5), is more than improbable. David certainly could not
+undertake to fight with Saul and the Philistines at one time with 600
+men. How could he meet an army of the Philistines in the field, when he
+does not trust himself to maintain the walls of Kegilah against Saul
+with his troop. The citizens of Kegilah would hardly have been prepared
+to give him up, if just before he had done them such a kindness.
+Finally, this battle contradicts the position in which we find David
+before and afterwards with regard to the Philistines. Achish at any rate
+has unbounded confidence in David since his desertion, and will even
+make him "keeper of his head," 1 Sam. xxviii. 2.
+
+[260] 1 Sam. xxiii. 9-13.
+
+[261] 1 Sam. xxiii. 25-28.
+
+[262] So the older account, 1 Sam. xxvi. 1, 2; xxvii. 1-3. While Saul
+has cast his spear at David, and pursues him everywhere with unwearying
+energy in order to slay him, David gives him his life. According to the
+older account, Saul sleeps in his encampment in the wilderness of Ziph.
+David with Abishai secretly enters this, and he distinctly refuses, when
+urged by Abishai to slay Saul, to listen to him, because Saul is an
+"anointed of Jehovah," takes the spear and the water-bowl of the king,
+plants himself on a mountain in the distance, and from this reproaches
+Abner that he has been so careless in providing for the safety of the
+king. Saul is again touched, acknowledges his sins and follies, begs
+David to return, and finally gives him his blessing on his undertaking.
+David upon this declares that his life will be regarded before Jehovah
+as he has regarded Saul's life, and escapes to the Philistines.
+According to the prophetic account, Saul "covers his feet" in a cave in
+the desert of Engedi, in which are concealed David and his men. These
+urge David to slay Saul, but he replies, "Far be it from me to lay my
+hand on the Lord's anointed," and merely cuts off the corner of Saul's
+upper garment. When Saul awakes and goes out of the cave, David hurries
+after him, prostrates himself, and proves by the piece in his hand that
+those did him wrong who said that he sought to do Saul mischief, "but
+thou art seeking to take my life." Saul weeps, acknowledges that David
+is more just than he is; may Jehovah reward him (David) for this day. "I
+know," Saul continues, "that thou wilt be king, and the kingdom of
+Israel will continue in thy hand." Let David only swear to him not to
+destroy his seed. This David does, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4-23. If this event, in
+itself all but impossible, ever took place, it must have had some
+consequences; yet there is no change in the relations of Saul and David,
+Saul continues to pursue David. If David took the oath not to destroy
+the descendants of Saul, he broke it.
+
+[263] So the older account, 1 Sam. xxvii. 12.
+
+[264] 1 Sam. xxvii. 6, 12.
+
+[265] Chron. xiii. 1-7, 20.
+
+[266] 1 Sam. xxx. 26-30; _supra_, p. 137. In order to wash David clean
+from the reproach of fighting with the Philistines against his people,
+it is observed (xxvii. 8-11) that David always marched against the
+tribes of the desert, that he cut down the prisoners, and then reported
+to Achish that he "had invaded the south of Judah." The position of
+Ziklag was ill-suited for attacks on the desert, and Achish had not
+given him any commands to fight against the children of the desert. At a
+later time Achish says of David: "Since his desertion I have found
+nothing in him," xxix. 3, 6; he will make him even the protector of his
+own life (1, xxviii. 2), and such deceit as is here attributed to David
+presupposes that Achish and all the rest of the Philistines were blind.
+
+[267] 1 Sam. xxvii. 7, "one year and four months:" xxix. 3, Achish says,
+"He has been with me--for years."
+
+[268] According to the older account, 1 Sam. xxviii. 2, when Achish
+requires him to march with him against Saul, David replies, "So shalt
+thou behold what thy servant will do." The narrative of the sending back
+of David at the wish of the remaining princes, and David's protest
+against it, belong also to the older narrative. This is repeated in
+Chronicles (1, xiii. 19) very emphatically, and without any motive in
+the context, so that it might be possible to accept the same view which
+represents David as constantly marching against the desert from Ziklag.
+For the moral estimate of David it is sufficient that it did not rest
+with him to join in the battle.
+
+[269] The story of the witch of Endor (xxviii. 3 ff.) belongs to the
+later account. To begin with, this account contradicts itself; we are
+told in the introduction (verse 3) that Saul had removed the
+necromancers and "wise men" out of Israel, a statement which is repeated
+in the course of the story (verse 9). Nevertheless Saul causes a witch
+to be sought out, because when already encamped before the Philistines
+"he is in great fear of the enemy." Saul was a brave warrior, who even
+in a worse position had never trembled. He sends for this woman in order
+to speak with Samuel's ghost. If Saul had any desire to see ghosts, he
+would desire to see the ghost of Samuel least of all, for he, according
+to the same prophetic account, had anointed David to be king against
+Saul (verse 11). Samuel as a ghost has thus a third opportunity for
+reproaching Saul, and telling him "that Jehovah had given the kingdom to
+David, because he had not satisfied his wrath on Amalek" (p. 129).
+
+[270] 1 Sam. xxxi. 1-11; 1 Chron. x. 10. According to a second account
+of the death of Saul in 2 Sam. i. ff., an Amalekite came unexpectedly to
+Mount Gilboa. He finds Saul in flight leaning on his spear, and Saul
+says to him, "Slay me." The Amalekite does so; takes the crown from the
+head of the king, and his bracelets, and then flies to Ziklag in the
+territory of the Philistines in order to bring the crown to David. David
+causes him to be slain, because "he had lifted up his hand against the
+anointed of the Lord." The object of this story is too plain--to bring
+the crown of Saul into the hands of David in order to make him the
+legitimate king, and at the same time to exhibit David as loyal to Saul
+even after his death, and avenging his murder--and the impossibilities
+in it are too great. David afterwards permitted the execution of the
+remaining descendants of Saul.
+
+[271] 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, 13; 2, xxi. 12.
+
+[272] This lament, which was in the book of Jasher (2 Sam. i. 18), is
+ascribed to David. His moral participation in the issue of the battle
+must have been most clear to himself; his rebellion and desertion to the
+Philistines had weakened Saul's powers of fighting and deprived him of
+brave warriors; he had been ready to fight in the army of the
+Philistines against Saul and Jonathan. Least of all could David sing,
+"Tell it not in Gath," since he himself was in the land of Gath. The
+last verse, "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan," etc., may
+certainly have come from David, and may have been added to the lament at
+a later time. Thus the whole might appear to be the work of David.
+
+[273] 2 Sam. ii. 8-10.
+
+[274] 2 Sam. ii. 1, 3, 4-10.
+
+[275] This conclusion must be drawn both from the earlier relation to
+the Philistines, and from the fact that David during this whole time has
+not to fight with the Philistines, whereas afterwards, as soon as he has
+united the tribes under his rule, he has to wage the fiercest war with
+them; apparently he was supported against Ishbosheth and Abner by the
+Philistines in order to put a stop to Abner's advances. Cf. Ewald,
+"Geschichte des Volks Israel," 2, 572.
+
+[276] David reigned seven years and six months at Hebron, 2 Sam. iii. 1,
+10, 11; 2, v. 4, 5; 1 Kings ii. 11. Ishbosheth's reign is given at two
+years only. These two statements can only be brought into harmony by
+supposing that Ishbosheth was not acknowledged king of the northern
+tribes till five and a half years after Saul's death, _i.e._ Abner
+required this time to drive the Philistines out of these regions, or
+that David was not acknowledged king of Israel till five and a half
+years after the death of Ishbosheth.
+
+[277] 2 Sam. iii. 7.
+
+[278] 2 Sam. iii. 31-39.
+
+[279] This beautiful lament is also ascribed to David: David was the
+singer, and, like the Psalms, other songs also come from him. But David
+could not speak of Joab and indirectly of himself as a "child of
+iniquity."
+
+[280] 2 Sam. v. 1-3.
+
+[281] 1 Chron. xii. 23 ff.
+
+[282] 2 Sam. xxi. 3.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE RULE OF DAVID.
+
+
+At the cost of his nation, in collusion with the enemies of his land,
+and under the protection of the Philistines, David had paved the way to
+dominion over Israel. He had much to make good. He had to cause the way
+which led him to the throne to be forgotten, to heal the wounds which
+the long contention must have inflicted on his land, to surpass the
+great services which Saul had rendered to the Israelites by yet greater
+services, by more brilliant exploits, by more firmly-rooted
+institutions.
+
+A brave warrior even in early years, David had been afterwards tested
+and strengthened by adventures and dangers of every kind; he had
+understood how to meet or escape even the most difficult situations. He
+had the inclination and power for great things, and was little
+scrupulous in the choice of the means which brought him most swiftly and
+completely to his object. His vision was clear and wide; clever, crafty,
+and quickly decided, he nevertheless knew how to wait when the object
+could not be obtained at the moment. It was his in an extraordinary
+measure to retain old comrades, to win new ones and attach them to
+himself. It was not his intention to be at the beck of the Philistines
+longer than he had need of them; with his elevation at Hebron came the
+moment for breaking with them. He saw that they would not lose without
+a heavy price the preponderance in which his rebellion against Saul, his
+leadership in Judah, his struggle against Ishbosheth had again placed
+them; that their exasperation would be the deeper and more lasting
+because he had deceived the hopes which they had placed in him.
+
+He began his reign with an undertaking which shows the certainty and
+width of his views. His dominion over the tribes of Simeon and Judah had
+been established for almost eight years, but over the northern tribes it
+was recent, and had to be confirmed. The remembrance of Saul was
+cherished most warmly in the tribe of Benjamin, which lay next to Judah
+on the north. In this land, not far from the northern border of Judah,
+was a city of the name of Jebus, inhabited by the Jebusites, a relic of
+the old population which at the time of the settlement the Benjaminites
+had not been able to overcome.[283] The city stood on steep heights,
+surrounded by deep gorges, which formed natural trenches; the walls of
+the eastern height on which the citadel stood, Mount Zion, were so
+strong that the Jebusites are said to have boasted that the blind and
+lame were sufficient to defend them. This city appeared to David
+excellently situated for protection against the Philistines and for his
+own royal abode; it had the faithful tribes of Judah and Simeon to the
+south, and was pushed forward like a fortification into the territory of
+Benjamin and the northern tribes. Nor was it useful only in establishing
+his dominion over Israel. Even in Saul's reign it had been difficult
+when an enemy invaded the open cantons of Israel to find time for
+assembling the fighting powers, the levy of the people; there had been
+no fortified point on which the first shock of the enemy's onset broke,
+no city strongly fortified and of considerable size in which large
+numbers could find protection.
+
+Soon after the assembly at Hebron, which had transferred to him the
+royal authority over all the tribes of Israel, David set himself to win
+this place. First he cut off the water from the city of the Jebusites,
+and then Joab with the veteran band of David succeeded in climbing the
+wall in a sudden attack. The inhabitants were spared; at any rate a part
+of them must have remained, for we afterwards find Jebusites in and
+about Jerusalem.[284]
+
+The princes of the Philistines had begun to arm immediately upon the
+announcement of David's election to be king of all Israel.[285] David
+awaited their approach in the citadel of Zion which he had just
+conquered. The Philistines encamped before the city. When they were
+scattered in search of plunder in the valley of Rephaim David inquired
+of Jehovah whether he should go down against them. The answer was
+favourable. The Philistines were surprised and defeated. But they soon
+appeared a second time under the walls of Zion, and the oracle of
+Jehovah bade David not to go directly against them, but to turn aside
+under the balsam trees. If he heard the tops of the trees rustle he was
+to hasten on; that was the sign from God that he would go before him to
+smite the camp of the Philistines. So it befel. David gained a great
+victory and was enabled to pursue the Philistines as far as Gezer.[286]
+Yet the war was not decided, but still continued for a long time. Four
+battles took place on the borders near Gob and Gath, and many severe
+combats had to be fought with the Philistines. From all the traces of
+tradition it is clear that this war was the most stubborn and dangerous
+of all that David had to wage. In Israel there were stories of the brave
+deeds of individual heroes which were accomplished in these battles: of
+Abishai, the brother of Joab, who saved the king in battle, when the
+mighty Philistine Ishbi thought to overcome him; of Elhanan, who slew
+Goliath of Gath; and of the deeds of Jonathan, the nephew of David, and
+Sibbechai against the Philistines.[287] At length David succeeded in
+"wresting the bridle out of the hand of the Philistines," and "breaking
+their horn in pieces;"[288] he drove them back to their old borders.
+They had suffered such serious blows that for a long time they abstained
+from all further attacks, after they had carried on warfare against the
+Hebrews for about 70 years. Yet even David, in spite of this success,
+made no serious attempt to advance the borders of Israel towards the
+sea, or to subjugate the cities of the Philistines.
+
+When the most pressing danger from the Philistines was over, David
+turned his arms to the south and east, against the Amalekites, the
+Moabites, and Ammonites, who had once caused so much misery and disaster
+to Israel. Against the Amalekites Saul had already accomplished the main
+task (p. 127). David smote them with such effect that the name of the
+Amalekites is hardly once mentioned afterwards; the remainder of the
+race seem to have been amalgamated with the Edomites.[289] David had at
+a former time entered into connection with the king of Moab; when he
+fled from Saul he placed his parents under his protection. The cause of
+the rupture is unknown; we only know that David utterly overthrew the
+Moabites and caused two-thirds of the prisoners to be put to death. It
+is said that they were compelled to lie down; they were then divided by
+a measuring cord into three parts, of which two were slain by iron
+threshing-carts being drawn over them, and only a third part were
+spared.[290] Nahash, the king of Ammon, with whom David had also
+previously been in relations (p. 136), was succeeded by his son Hanon.
+This prince insulted David's envoys, he caused their beards to be shaved
+off, and their garments to be cut away as high as the middle.
+
+David sent Joab with the levy of the people against the Ammonites to
+avenge the insult. Hanon called on the king of Zobah--Saul had already
+had to fight against Zobah--and the rulers of Beth-Rehob, Maacah, and
+Tob in Syria for assistance. Hadad-Ezer of Zobah sent 20,000 men; from
+Tob came 12,000; from Maacah 1000. Joab divided his army, left his
+brother Abishai to oppose the Ammonites, and turned himself with picked
+men against the Syrians and defeated them before they could join the
+Ammonites.[291] After this defeat the Ammonites also retired before
+Abishai into their fortified city of Rabbath-Ammon on the Nahr-Ammon.
+But in the next spring Hadad-Ezer collected his whole force. David
+marched across the Jordan to meet the Syrians, and defeated Hadad-Ezer
+in a decisive battle at Helam; the Israelites carried off the chariots
+of the enemy for spoil; 1700 horsemen and 20,000 foot-soldiers were
+captured.[292] David followed up this victory and overran the cities of
+the king of Zobah, when the king of Damascus took the field in aid of
+Hadad-Ezer, and the Edomites invaded Judah from the south. David
+remained in the field against the Syrians, and sent Joab with only a
+part of the army against the Edomites. In the salt valley, at the
+southern end of the Dead Sea, Joab and Abishai defeated the Edomites;
+12,000 out of 18,000 are said to have fallen on this day.[293] In spite
+of this severe defeat the Edomites made a stubborn resistance. Joab, in
+continuous struggles which went on for six months, destroyed a great
+part of the male population (the son of the king of Edom was carried by
+the servants of his father to Egypt), and subjugated the rest of the
+inhabitants to the dominion of David. While Joab was fighting in Edom,
+David had defeated the men of Damascus and brought the war in the north
+to an end. Thoi, the king of Hamath, whom Hadad-Ezer had previously
+oppressed, entered into a league with David. Only the Ammonites still
+continued to resist. Joab was sent against them in the next year; he
+laid their land waste, and took one city after another. The captives
+were placed under saws and axes, and burnt in kilns, or slain like the
+Moabites under iron threshing-wagons. At length Joab could announce to
+David that Rabbath-Ammon, the chief city of the Ammonites, was reduced
+to extremities; the king must come to enter into the city. Rabbath was
+destroyed (about 1015 B.C.[294]); the inhabitants shared the fate of the
+other Ammonite cities. From the Syrian campaign David had brought back a
+trophy of 100 war-horses, copper vessels from the cities of Hadad-Ezer
+of Zobah which were captured, and finally the golden shields which the
+commanders of this king had carried. From Rabbath he brought home the
+golden crown of the king of the Ammonites,--it is said to have been a
+Kikkar (I. 285) in weight and set with precious stones,--together with
+other utensils of silver and gold. The Moabites, the Ammonites, and
+Edomites were compelled to pay tribute. Garrisons were put in the strong
+places; even Damascus is said to have received a garrison of
+Israelites.[295]
+
+After Saul had first saved Israel out of the hand of their oppressors,
+after these advantages were lost by the domestic strife, David had now
+formed the Israelites into a ruling nation from isolated tribes who had
+been so often and so long plundered by their enemies. He had come
+victorious out of the most severe struggles. With reason could Israel
+now sing: "Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands."
+
+It was a rapid and brilliant transformation. David was master from the
+borders of Egypt, the north-east point of the Red Sea, to Damascus. He
+was not content with successfully establishing his rule for the moment
+by these great and brilliant deeds of arms; he intended to give it a
+solid support for the future. He employed the spoils of his victories in
+order to fortify more strongly and extend the city which he had chosen
+for his metropolis; it was now called the city of David, and afterwards
+Jerusalem.[296] On Zion, the citadel of Jerusalem, David caused a royal
+palace to be built. In the city the remnant of the Jebusites had been
+joined by inhabitants from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. If David
+hoped to lessen the disaffection of the tribe of Benjamin by
+establishing a royal citadel in their land he had not calculated
+wrongly. The sequel shows that Benjamin, which previously held to
+Ephraim, now stood fast by Judah.
+
+In possession of a considerable and well-fortified metropolis, and a
+strong royal citadel, David was able to rule over Israel with greater
+safety and severity than Saul from his rural court at Gibeah. Moreover,
+David intended to create independent means and property for the crown,
+and kept together what he had won. From the tribute of the subjugated
+nations he formed a treasury, which was placed under the care of
+Asmaveth. In addition we hear of overseers of the royal gardens,
+oliveyards, vineyards, and sycamore plantations, and we learn that David
+kept flocks of small cattle, herds of oxen, and camels.[297]
+
+The strongest support of the throne were his selected and thoroughly
+devoted troops of warriors. David was accompanied by a body-guard which
+was always with him (Saul had had round him some "runners"). It appears
+from the name, Pelethites and Cherethites, to have been entirely
+composed of foreigners; their leader was Benaiah.[298] The core of the
+army was formed not by this body-guard, but by the freebooters who once
+gathered round him in the cave of Adullam and at Ziklag, warriors tried
+often and in numerous battles. They remained in one body in Jerusalem,
+and were maintained by the king. This band--it was apparently about 600
+men in number,[299] and in the ranks were also foreigners, Hittites,
+Ammonites, Moabites, and others, who formerly associated with David, or
+were attracted by the fame of his deeds--was called the troop of the
+mighty, "Gibborim;" accompanied by armour-bearers and servants, they
+took the field. They were divided into three portions, under three
+leaders; at their head fought 30 selected heroes: Abishai, Joab's
+brother, was the captain.[300] As simple peasants, the Israelites had
+always fought on foot, without horses and horsemen; David, after the
+pattern of the Syrians, introduced chariots. Josheb Bassebet was the
+captain of the war-chariots.[301] Along with the Gibborim, the chariots
+were intended to give, as trained divisions, firmness and support to the
+levy of the whole people.
+
+In order to regulate the levy, Joab, the chief captain, with some of his
+subordinates, was commanded to enumerate and write down all the fighting
+men from the Jabbok to Mount Hermon, and from Dan to Beersheba. Nine
+months and twenty days were required by the captains for this task. When
+the muster was completed, captains were appointed for hundreds and
+thousands; but in order that the whole mass of the people need not be
+called out on every campaign and every attack of the enemy,--in which
+hitherto, for the most part, only those who were eager for battle had
+engaged, while those who preferred peace and rest remained at home,--the
+whole number of the fighting men was divided into twelve portions, of
+which each, in number 24,000 men, was pledged to service for one month
+in the year. Each of these divisions had a separate captain. As occasion
+required, several of the divisions, or all, might be called out. If we
+may trust these accounts, Israel had at that time 300,000 fighting men,
+and consequently a population of about two millions.[302]
+
+Hitherto the descendants of the oldest families, the heads of the
+tribes, the successors of those who in the conquest of the land had won
+for themselves separate localities and valleys, had enjoyed a
+pre-eminent position within the circle of the various tribes (p. 91). To
+them, or to brave warriors, the Israelites had gone,--to men who had
+become of importance owing to their possessions, and who had the
+reputation of passing sound judgments,--or to priests and soothsayers,
+when they sought for advice, protection, and justice. Since the
+establishment of the monarchy the king was the supreme judge. David
+exercised this office as Saul had done.[303] But though he retained the
+right of deciding in the last instance, David seems to have appointed
+the princes and judges of the tribes; he charged certain of his
+adherents with the duty of giving justice to the tribes and communities,
+although, of course, every man had the right of appeal from his decision
+to the decision of the king. Jurisdiction and administration not yet
+being separated, we may suppose that a regular government, which secured
+to the throne the execution of its will and of the orders given, was
+established by this means already in David's reign. We find that, beside
+the captains of the army, the officers of the house and treasury, the
+king had a chancellor, a scribe, and overseer of the taxes. Ahithophel
+was the man on whose advice David mainly depended; his most trusted
+friend was Hushai; and in the last twenty years of his life the prophet
+Nathan enjoyed a high place in his favour.[304]
+
+It was a marvellous career that lay behind David. He had grown up in a
+hardy youth; early approved as a brave warrior and skilful leader, he
+was then raised to the side of Saul and Jonathan; after this he
+experienced the most sudden reverse of fortune, and at length by very
+perplexed paths he reached the highest stage. On this he had been able
+to retrieve many mistakes; he came victorious out of every conflict.
+Saul's deeds were surpassed, and Israel was proud of the successes of
+David and the respect which he won for her. He had securely established
+his authority; it was founded so firmly that the crown must pass to his
+descendants. The religious feeling which impelled him to inquire of
+Jehovah before every undertaking, which brought him at an early period
+into connection with the seers and priests, could not but increase as he
+looked back upon the course of his life. Who had greater reason than he
+to be thankful to the God who protected him and guided him so
+marvellously, who saved him out of every danger and had raised him to
+such power and splendour? In early days singing and harp-playing had
+occupied the leisure of his shepherd life; gifted with poetic powers, he
+understood how to give a powerful expression to his gratitude towards
+Jehovah. After these great wars he is said to have sung: "Jehovah, my
+rock, my fortress, my shield; the horn of my salvation, my defence. I
+called on him who is worthy of praise, and was delivered from my
+enemies. Out of his palace he heard my voice, and my cry came into his
+ears. Then the earth moved and quaked, and the foundations of the earth
+trembled, for he was wroth. Smoke rose out of his nostrils, and a
+consuming fire went from his mouth; coals burned forth from him. He
+bowed the heavens, and came down on the cherubim, and hovered on the
+wings of the wind. He made darkness his veil, the tempest and dark cloud
+his tabernacle. Jehovah thundered, and the Highest gave forth his voice,
+hail-stones and coals of fire. He shot forth his arrows and destroyed
+the enemy, the lightning fell and dispersed them. With thee, Jehovah, I
+went against hosts, and with my God I climbed over walls. Jehovah girded
+me with power; he gave me feet like harts' feet; he taught my hand the
+battle, so that my arm strung the iron bow. I pursued my enemies and
+overtook them, and turned not back till I had destroyed them; I
+shattered them in pieces that they could not rise up; I scattered them
+like dust before the wind; I cast them forth like dung. Thou, Jehovah,
+didst save me from the battles of the nations, and didst place me at
+their head; nations which I knew not serve me. At a rumour they obey me,
+and the sons of strangers flatter me; they sink away and tremble out of
+their castles. Praised be my protector, exalted be the God of my
+salvation."[305]
+
+It was not in praise and thanksgiving only that David gave expression to
+the grateful feeling which filled him towards God; he had it much at
+heart to create a lasting abode and visible centre for the worship of
+Jehovah. For 20 years the sacred ark of Israel had remained at
+Kirjath-jearim, in the house of Abinadab, who had made one of his sons
+the custodian of it. David determined to convey it into his metropolis,
+that it might there be in secure keeping, and receive proper reverence.
+It was placed on a new wagon; Abinadab's sons, Ahio and Uzzah, led it
+forth. On the way an evil omen occurred: the oxen which drew the wagon
+broke loose, the ark tottered, and Uzzah put out his hand to stay it.
+"Then the anger of Jehovah broke forth against Uzzah, and he smote him,
+and he died there before God." After this incident David feared to carry
+the ark further; it remained on the road, at the house of Obed-edom; and
+not until it was seen that it brought prosperity to the house of
+Obed-edom did David, three months after, again take it up and carry it
+to Jerusalem. In festal train the people accompanied it with "shouting
+and trumpets;" and David, clad in the linen tunic of the priests,
+"danced before Jehovah." "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King
+of glory may come in," he is said to have sung. The tabernacle was
+already erected on Zion, and in it the ark of Jehovah was then placed;
+and "David sacrificed burnt offerings and thank offerings, and gave to
+all the people, to each man a measure of wine, a loaf of bread and a
+cake of raisins" (about 1020 B.C.[306]). Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech,
+of the house of Eli, of the race of Ithamar, of the tribe of Aaron, who
+had formerly fled to him with the image of Jehovah from Nob and
+remained by his side, and beside him Zadok, of the house of Eleazar, of
+the tribe of Aaron, who had hitherto been high priest at the place of
+sacrifice at Gibeon,[307] were made by David the custodians of the new
+tabernacle, which he then adorned with the costly spoil of his
+victories. By bringing the ark of the covenant into his city he gave it
+a sacred pledge, the assurance of the protection and the grace of
+Jehovah. His city was the dwelling of Jehovah, the citadel of Zion the
+mount of God. David's new metropolis was thus at the same time raised to
+be the central point of the national worship, and in the fullest sense
+the metropolis of the land. Service before the ark of the covenant on
+Zion could not but throw into the shade the old places of sacrifice at
+Shiloh, Bethel, Gibeon, Gilgal, and Nob.
+
+The erection of the sacred ark on Zion, the foundation of a central
+point for the worship, certainly met the wishes of the priests. Only by
+a strictly-regulated and dominant mode of worship, by centralising the
+service, could the priests hope to bring into vogue the arrangement of
+ritual which they regarded as the true method appointed by God. Relying
+on the importance of such a central point, on the authority of the
+crown, they could expect obedience to their regulations. David on his
+part would hardly fail to see what weight the influence of an allied
+priesthood could add to the strength of the throne.
+
+What David did for Israel by the cultivation of religious song, by
+setting up the old national shrine in the new metropolis, by the
+dedication of it to be the abode of Jehovah has been of deep-reaching
+and even decisive influence for the fortunes of Israel and the course of
+her religious development. It is, of course, beyond doubt that only a
+few of the Psalms which David is said to have sung can with certainty be
+traced back to him; but from the fact that the greater part of these
+poems could be ascribed to him, it follows with the greater certainty
+that he must have given a powerful impulse to the religious poetry of
+Israel, that the words of thankfulness and trust in God from the lips of
+the victorious royal minstrel had the greatest influence on the
+Israelites. This influence connected with the exaltation and worship of
+the national sacred relic at Zion gave a new life and firmer root to the
+belief of the Israelites, both in the direction of religious feeling and
+religious prescriptions. When the chief place of sacrifice was marked
+out indubitably by the sacred ark on Zion, and members of the oldest
+priestly family officiated there, it was natural that by degrees a
+considerable number of priests should collect there, in order to share
+and co-operate in the worship in the sacred tent, in the tabernacle.
+These priests were arranged according to their families or "houses;" the
+greater number claimed Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, as their
+progenitor, while the less claimed to be descended from Ithamar, the
+fourth son of Aaron.[308] The eyes of the priesthood were already turned
+from Hebron to the early history of the nation, to the correct mode of
+worship, as Aaron and Moses had formerly proclaimed and practised it,
+which since the settlement in Canaan had become almost forgotten and
+obsolete with priests and laymen, since different customs had come into
+use at different places of sacrifice. The service at the new and yet
+ancient shrine at Jerusalem must support the impulse to practise, here
+at any rate, the old correct customs in perfect purity as a pattern and
+example, to insist on the custom of Zion as pleasing to God, and
+established by Moses, and to bring once more into authority and practice
+the true regulations of the sacrificial rites for the whole land.
+Agreement and union in the mode of worship would be most quickly and
+most thoroughly obtained if the place of the tabernacle could be shown
+to be the only correct place of sacrifice.
+
+Though the Philistines had opposed the growth of the strength of Israel,
+the combination and arrangement of her powers, with perseverance and
+stubbornness, the cities of the Phenicians seem rather to have welcomed
+the establishment of a strict ruling authority in Israel, which
+preserved peace in the land and so made trade easier. Perhaps too they
+looked with pleasure on the formation of a power which could balance
+that of the Philistines, and prevent them from advancing as far as the
+gates of Tyre. At any rate Hiram, king of Tyre, who began to rule in
+that city in the year 1001 B.C.,[309] entered into friendly relations
+with David. He sent him Tyrian artisans, who adorned David's palace on
+Zion. The Israelites were not skilled in fine building. After this
+palace was completed we must look on David's house and court as splendid
+and numerous. There was the chancellor, the keeper of the treasury, the
+chief tax-gatherer, the scribe with his subordinates; there were
+singers, male and female, the body-guard, and the servants.[310] David
+had brought seven wives from Hebron to his new metropolis. Michal, the
+daughter of Saul, had borne no children to David; his eldest son, Amnon,
+was by Ahinoam of Jezreel; the second, Chileab, by Abigail, the widow of
+Nabal. When he ruled the tribe of Judah from Hebron he married a fourth
+wife, Maacah, the daughter of Thalmai, prince of Geshur, in order, no
+doubt, to strengthen by this connection his power, then so weak. Maacah
+bore him a third son, Absalom, and a daughter, Tamar; his fifth wife,
+Haggith, bore a fourth son, Adonijah. In Jerusalem he took yet more
+wives and concubines into his house, who, besides these sons, bore
+seventeen sons and several daughters, beside Tamar. When his sons became
+men, the unavoidable consequences of the harem came to light: the mutual
+jealousy of the sons of the various wives, and the ambition of some of
+the wives to obtain the succession for their sons.
+
+The establishment of the monarchy had brought a rich return to the
+Israelites. Under its guidance, not only had the enemies of the land
+been beaten back, but Israel had gained a leading place in Syria.
+Moreover, David had transformed the somewhat insecure leadership
+conferred on Saul by his election into a firm and deep-reaching
+supremacy; a mere name, a wavering authority, he had raised after the
+pattern of his neighbours into a strict rule, which could lead the
+people at will, and dispose of them at pleasure. This transformation had
+taken place so quickly, the enrolment of Israel in the forms of Syrian
+monarchy was carried out so thoroughly, that there could not fail to be
+a strong reaction. The new officers were oppressive; task-work for the
+king, levies of the army for muster and for service beyond the land,
+were to the Israelites new and very unwonted burdens. When external
+dangers had passed away with the humiliation of the neighbours, and the
+days of the old incursions, distresses, and oppressions were forgotten,
+it might very well happen that the Israelites felt the new arrangement
+of the community, the mode in which they were governed, to be a burden
+rather than a benefit. In the later years of the reign of David a
+lively aversion to his rule was spread through all the tribes; and it is
+remarkable that it was most deeply felt in his own tribe of Judah, which
+had formerly exalted him in Hebron. On this feeling of the people,
+David's third son, Absalom, founded the plan of depriving his father of
+the sovereignty, in order to ascend the throne before it came to him by
+inheritance.[311]
+
+Absalom, David's son by Maacah of Geshur, was a handsome man, without
+blemish from head to foot, adorned with a heavy growth of hair, and a
+favourite of the people, though the guilt of a foul deed lay upon him.
+The beauty of Tamar, the full sister of Absalom, had roused the passions
+of Amnon, the eldest son of David. He enticed her into his house by
+deceit, dishonoured her and thrust her in scorn into the street. As the
+king did not punish the crime, Absalom invited Amnon to his plot of Baal
+Hazor, to the sheep-shearing, and there caused him to be stabbed by his
+servants in order to avenge his sister's shame. After this he fled to
+his grandfather, the prince of Geshur. After three years' banishment he
+was allowed to return, but might not see his father's face; this was not
+permitted till two years after his return. Amnon was dead; Chileab,
+David's second son, died, as it seems, in this period. Absalom was now
+again received into favour, and became the legitimate heir to the
+throne.
+
+As a token of his claims, Absalom procured horses, and chariots and a
+retinue of 50 men. Early in the morning he was at the gates of
+Jerusalem; he inquired of every one whence he came, allowed no one to
+prostrate himself before him, but shook all by the hand and kissed them.
+If he heard that any one came for justice, he caused the matter to be
+told to him, and then said: Your cause is good, but you will not be
+heard; if I were judge in Israel you would certainly gain your rights.
+Four years after his return from Geshur, when Ahithophel, the most
+distinguished of David's counsellors, and Amasa, the son of a sister of
+David, had gone over to his side,[312] Absalom considered his prospects
+favourable. He sent trusty men to all the tribes with instructions to
+proclaim him king as soon as they understood that he was in Hebron.
+Under pretence of offering sacrifice at Hebron, which city perhaps
+looked with jealousy on the new metropolis, Absalom went from Jerusalem
+to Hebron. The tribes obeyed this signal for revolt; everywhere the
+people on this side Jordan declared for Absalom, and great numbers
+gathered round him. At their head he set out against Jerusalem, against
+his father.
+
+David was completely taken by surprise. His own son now brought on him
+retribution for all that he had previously done to Saul. Clever and
+circumspect as the old king was, he seems to have found his master in
+his son. Not secure of the people even at Jerusalem, he could not
+venture to defend himself in his fortified metropolis; nothing remained
+but to retire in all haste. Yet even in this desperate position the
+cunning which had so often come to his aid in his varied life did not
+desert him. Absalom he feared little; his greatest terror was the
+counsels of Ahithophel. Hence he commanded Hushai (p. 160) to remain
+behind, and in appearance to take Absalom's part, in order to counteract
+Ahithophel. If Absalom could be induced not to pursue his advantage
+immediately, and David could gain time to collect his adherents, much
+would be won. Abiathar and Zadok also, the high priests of the sacred
+tabernacle, who wished to share his flight, were bidden to remain in
+Jerusalem. Their position as priests was a sufficient protection for
+them; by means of their sons they were to furnish information of what
+took place in the city.[313] Accompanied by some of his wives and their
+children, by his most faithful adherents, the Gibborim, and the
+body-guard, David left the city in the early morning. Over the Kidron,
+along the Mount of Olives, he hastened eastwards to find protection
+beyond the Jordan. At Bahurim Shimei, a man of Benjamin, of the race of
+Matri, to which Saul belonged, saw from an eminence the flight of the
+king. He threw stones down upon him and said: May Jehovah bring upon
+thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place thou hast become
+king; see, thou art now in calamity; away, thou man of blood. The
+body-guard wished to take the man and slay him, but David restrained
+them, and said: My son, who has come forth from my loins, is seeking my
+life; how much more a man of Benjamin; let him curse. Perhaps at this
+moment David's spirit was really broken; perhaps he did not wish that
+the people should be further roused by new acts of violence; in the
+sequel he showed that he had neither forgotten nor forgiven the words of
+Shimei.
+
+On the same day Absalom marched into Jerusalem, and among those who
+greeted him he saw with astonishment Hushai, the ancient friend of his
+father. He believed Hushai's assurance that he wished to "serve him
+whom Jehovah and all the men of Israel had chosen." Ahithophel
+considered the success which had been obtained, the rebellion which
+spread through the whole country on this side of the Jordan, and the
+possession of the strong metropolis and the palace without a blow,
+insufficient and indecisive. He saw the situation clearly, and was
+convinced that all would be lost if the king had time to collect round
+him his old adherents, his companions in victory. Filled with the
+conviction that the only way to obtain the end in view was to make an
+immediate use of the great advantages won by the surprise, he insisted
+that Absalom should at once set out in pursuit of David. The people
+which Absalom had led from Hebron were numerous, of these he wished to
+leave behind the burdensome multitude and select 12,000 for this
+expedition. Hushai opposed this proposal with great skill. Thou knowest
+thy father, he said to Absalom, he is a mighty warrior, like a bear
+deprived of her whelps in the forest, and his men are mighty and of
+fierce courage. He will not be encamped on the field, but will have
+concealed himself in one of the hiding-places. If any of our men fall it
+will be said, Absalom's men have been defeated, and all thy adherents
+will lose courage. Rather rouse all Israel, and march out at their head,
+that we may encamp against David like the sand of the sea, and none of
+his men may escape. Absalom followed this advice to his ruin. Yet Hushai
+was not certain that Ahithophel would not win over Absalom to his
+opinion, or go of his own will against David; so he sent his maid before
+the gate to the fuller's well (to the south of the city, where the
+valleys of Hinnom and Kidron join), where Jonathan, the son of Abiathar,
+and Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, lay concealed (Absalom's men had not
+allowed them to leave the gate), with instructions to them to hasten to
+the king and warn him not to encamp on this side of Jordan. Though
+watched by Absalom's guards and pursued, the two men came without
+disaster to David, who again set out in the night. When Ahithophel heard
+that the king was beyond Jordan he despaired of the undertaking; he
+saddled his ass, went to his own city, set his house in order and hung
+himself.
+
+Absalom took formal possession of the sovereignty, and as a sign that he
+had broken for ever with his father and assumed the government, he took
+the royal harem into his possession. A tent was set up on the roof of
+the palace of Zion, under which Absalom lived with the ten concubines
+whom David had left behind in Jerusalem before the eyes of Israel. When
+this was done he raised the whole people to march against his father,
+and went with numerous troops to the Jordan. David was at Mahanaim, like
+Ishbosheth before him, eagerly busied with his army. It was due to the
+cunning arrangements made in the flight from Jerusalem that he had
+escaped without danger beyond Jordan, and was enabled to assemble his
+own adherents there while Absalom was calling out and collecting the
+whole army. From the Ammonites, whom he had treated so harshly, he seems
+nevertheless to have received support.[314]
+
+While Absalom crossed the Jordan, David divided the forces he had at his
+disposal into three corps, the command of which he entrusted to Joab,
+his brother Abishai, and Ithai, a Philistine of Gath. He remained behind
+in Mahanaim, and bade the captains deal gently with Absalom in the event
+of victory. The armies met in the forest of Ephraim, not far from the
+Jordan. In spite of the superiority of the numbers opposed to them, the
+tried and veteran soldiers of David had the advantage over the
+ill-armed and ill-organised masses of peasants. Absalom started back on
+his mule, fell into a thicket, and became entangled by his long hair in
+the branches of a large terebinth. He remained hanging while his mule
+ran away from under him. Joab found him in this position, and thrust his
+spear thrice through his heart. Either the fall of the hostile leader,
+the author of the rebellion, appeared a sufficient success to David's
+men, or the advantage gained over Absalom's army was not very great, or
+they found themselves too weak to follow it up. Joab led the army back
+to Mahanaim.
+
+Though the rebellion had lost its leader by the fall of Absalom, it was
+far from being crushed. Absalom's captain, Amasa, the nephew of David,
+collected the masses of the rebellious army; the elders of the tribes,
+as well as the people, were ready to continue the struggle against
+David, though some were again inclined to accept their old king. If the
+tribes could be divided, and Amasa separated from the elders of Judah,
+the victory was almost certain. On this David built his plan. By means
+of the priests Abiathar and Zadok he caused it to be made known to the
+elders of Judah that the rest of the tribes had made overtures to him,
+to recognise him again as king, which was not the case;--would they be
+the last to lead back their own flesh and blood, their tribesman David?
+At the same time the priests were bidden to offer to Amasa the post of
+captain-general as the reward of his return, and this offer David
+confirmed with an oath: So might God do to him if Amasa were not captain
+all his days in the place of Joab.[315] The elders of Judah allowed
+themselves to be entrapped no less than Amasa, who little knew with whom
+he had to do. They sent a message to the king that he might return over
+the Jordan, and went to meet him at Gilgal. David showed himself
+placable, and prepared to pardon the adherents of Absalom. Shimei, who
+had cursed him on his retirement from Jerusalem, went to meet him at the
+Jordan; and when the boat which carried David over reached the hither
+bank he fell at his feet. David promised not to slay him with the
+sword.[316] From Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who had declared for
+Absalom, he only took the half of Saul's inheritance.[317]
+
+The remaining tribes were enraged at the tribe of Judah, partly because
+they had abandoned the common cause, partly because Judah had entirely
+appropriated the merit of bringing back the king. Their feelings were
+wavering: half were for submission, the others for continuing the
+resistance.[318] Then rose up a man of Benjamin, Sheba, the son of
+Bichri. "What part have we in David, what portion in the son of Jesse?"
+he cried to the waverers, caused the trumpets to be blown, and gave a
+new centre to rebellion and resistance. David commissioned Amasa to call
+out the warriors of Judah within three days and lead them to Jerusalem.
+While Amasa was occupied with carrying out this command, David sent Joab
+with the Gibborim and the body-guard against Sheba. At Gibeon Joab met
+Amasa. Is all well with thee, my brother? he said, and took him by the
+beard with his right hand to greet him, while with the left he thrust
+his sword through his body.[319] Thus, after he had been gained by
+deceptive promises, the dangerous man was removed as Abner had been
+before him. Sheba could not withstand the impetuous advance of Joab; the
+tribes submitted. Sheba's first resistance was made far in the north at
+Dan, in the city of Abel-beth-maachah, and there he defended himself so
+stubbornly that a rampart was thrown up against the city and besieging
+engines brought up against the walls. When the walls were near upon
+falling, and the citizens saw destruction before them, they saved
+themselves by cutting off Sheba's head and sending it to Joab.[320] The
+reaction of the people against the new government, at the head of which
+Absalom, Amasa, and Sheba had successively placed themselves, was
+overcome.
+
+Many years before, at the time when Joab was besieging Rabbath, the
+metropolis of the Ammonites, David had gone out on the roof of his house
+in Zion in the cool of the evening. This position overlooked the houses
+in the ravine which separated the citadel from the city. In one of these
+David saw a beautiful woman in her bath. This was Bathsheba, the wife of
+Uriah, a Hittite, who served in the troop of the "mighty." The king sent
+for her to his palace, and she soon announced to David that she was with
+child. David gave orders to Joab to send Uriah from the camp to
+Jerusalem. He asked him of the state of the war and the army, and then
+bade him go home to his wife, but Uriah lay before the gate of the
+palace. When David asked him on the next morning why he had not gone
+home to his house, he answered: Israel is in the field, and my fellows
+lie in the camp before Rabbath, and shall I go to my house to eat and
+drink and lie with my wife? Remain here, replied David; to-morrow
+morning I will let thee go. David invited him into the palace and made
+him drunken, but, as before, Uriah passed the night before the gate of
+the palace. Then, on the following day, David sent Uriah to the camp
+with a letter to Joab: Place Uriah in the thickest of the battle, and
+turn away from him, that he may be smitten, and die. Soon after a
+messenger came from the camp and announced to the king: The men of
+Rabbath made a sally; we repulsed them, and drove them to the gate; then
+the bowmen shot at thy servants from the walls, and some of our men were
+slain, among them Uriah. David caused Bathsheba, when the time for
+mourning was over, to come into his harem, and after the death of her
+first child, she bore a second child, whom David called Solomon, _i.e._
+the peaceful,[321] as the times of war were over with the capture of
+Rabbath and the subjugation of the Ammonites.
+
+After Absalom's death the heir to the crown was Adonijah, the fourth son
+of David, whom Haggith had borne to him while at Hebron. Solomon was the
+seventh in the series of the surviving sons of David, and as yet quite
+young; yet Bathsheba attempted to place her son on the throne. One of
+the two high priests, Zadok, supported Bathsheba's views, as also Nathan
+the prophet, who acquired great influence with David in the last years
+of his reign. Both might expect a greater deference to priestly
+influence from the youthful Solomon than from the older and more
+independent Adonijah, and the more so if they assisted the young man to
+gain the throne against the legitimate successor. So Bathsheba prevailed
+upon David to swear an oath by Jehovah that Solomon should be his
+successor in the place of Adonijah.[322] But Adonijah did not doubt that
+the throne belonged to him, that all Israel was of the same conviction,
+and their eyes turned upon him.[323] If Zadok was in favour of Solomon's
+succession, Abiathar, the old and influential adherent of David, was for
+Adonijah, and what was more important, the captain of the army, Joab,
+who had won David's best victories, also declared for him. On the other
+hand, Bathsheba's party won Benaiah, the captain of the body-guard, so
+that the power and prospects of both party were about equal.
+
+When David, 70 years old, lay on his death-bed, Adonijah felt that he
+must anticipate his opponents. He summoned his adherents to meet outside
+the walls at the fuller's well (p. 170). Joab appeared with the leaders
+of the army, Abiathar came to offer sacrifice, and all the sons of David
+except Solomon. The sacrifice was already being offered, the sheep, oxen
+and calves were killed, the proclamation of Adonijah was to follow
+immediately after the sacrifice, when the intelligence was carried to
+the opposite party. Bathsheba and Nathan hastened to the dying king to
+remind him of his oath in favour of Solomon. He gave orders that Solomon
+should be placed on the mule which he always rode himself and that Zadok
+should anoint the youth under the wall of Zion eastwards of the city at
+the fount of Gihon. Then Benaiah with the body-guard was to bring him
+back into the city at once with the sound of trumpets, and lead him into
+the palace, in order to set him upon the throne there. This was done.
+Zadok took the horn of oil from the sacred tabernacle, and when the new
+ruler returned in solemn procession to the palace all the people cried
+with joy: Long live king Solomon. When Adonijah and his adherents heard
+the shouting from the city, and understood what had taken place, they
+gave up their cause for lost, and dispersed in dread in every direction.
+David rejoiced over this last success;[324] he called Solomon to his
+bedside, and said to him: "Do good to the sons of Barzillai the
+Gileadite; he received me well when I fled over Jordan before thy
+brother Absalom. Shimei, who cursed me when I fled to Mahanaim, I have
+sworn not to slay; let him not go unpunished, and bring his grey hairs
+to the grave with blood. What Joab did to Abner and Amasa thou knowest;
+let not his grey hairs go down to the grave in peace."[325] David was
+buried in the grave which he had caused to be made on Zion, where the
+heights of the citadel meet the western height, on which the city lay.
+
+Thus David had succeeded in healing the wounds which his ambition had
+inflicted in past days on Israel; he understood how to establish firmly
+the monarchy, and along with it the power and security of the state. He
+had given such an important impulse to the worship, to the religious
+poetry, and consequently to the religious life, of the Hebrews, that his
+reign has remained of decisive importance for the entire development of
+Israel. But beside these great successes and high merits lie very dark
+shadows. If we cannot but admire the activity and bravery, the wisdom
+and circumspection, which distinguish his reign, there stands beside
+these qualities not only the weakness of his later years, which caused
+him to make a capricious alteration in the succession, thereby
+endangering the work of his life; other actions, both of his earlier and
+later years, show plainly that in spite of religious feeling and
+sentiment he did not hesitate to set aside very fundamental rules of
+morality when it came to winning the object he had in view.
+
+If even in his last moments he causes Joab to be put to death by the
+hand of his son, it may be that this old servant, when he had taken the
+side of the other son in the succession, appeared very dangerous for the
+rule of the younger son. But Joab had rendered the greatest services to
+David, he had won for him the most brilliant victories; and if our
+account makes David give the murder of Abner and Amasa as the reason for
+that command, David had made no attempt to punish one deed or the other;
+on the contrary, he had gladly availed himself of at least the results
+and fruits of them. We must not indeed measure those days of
+unrestrained force and violent passion in hatred and love, in devotion
+and ambition, by the standard of our own tamer impulses; the manner of
+the ancient East, above all of the Semites, was too much inclined to the
+most bloody revenge. Yet David's instructions to destroy a man of no
+importance, whom he had once in a difficult position sworn to spare, out
+of the grave, by the hand of his son, goes beyond the limit of all that
+we can elsewhere find in those times and feelings.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[283] Joshua xv. 63; Judges i. 21.
+
+[284] 2 Sam. v. 5-8; xxiv. 18; 1 Kings ix. 20.
+
+[285] 2 Sam. v. 17.
+
+[286] 2 Sam. v. 22-25.
+
+[287] Above, p. 131, note 4; 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22; 1 Chron. xxi. 4-8; xix.
+1.
+
+[288] 2 Sam. viii. 1. Jesus, son of Sirach, xlvii. 8.
+
+[289] Noeldeke, "Amalekiter," s. 17-25.
+
+[290] 2 Sam. viii. 2.
+
+[291] 2 Sam. x. 6-14.
+
+[292] 2 Sam. viii. 3, 4; x. 15-19.
+
+[293] Psalms lx. 2; 2 Sam. viii. 13.
+
+[294] The date rests on the fact that Solomon was born soon after, and
+was more than 20 years old when he came to the throne; see below. The
+war against Hadad-Ezer cannot be placed before 1020, since Rezon, who
+escaped, remained Solomon's opponent as long as Solomon lived. 1 Kings
+xi. 25.
+
+[295] 2 Sam. viii. 6, 7, 14; x. 19.
+
+[296] 1 Kings xi. 27.
+
+[297] 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31.
+
+[298] 2 Sam. xx. 23; 1 Chron. xviii. 17.
+
+[299] 2 Sam. xv. 18.
+
+[300] 2 Sam. xxiii. 18; 1 Chron. xi. 15, 26-45.
+
+[301] 2 Sam. xxiii. 8.
+
+[302] 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. The number of the levy here, as in almost all
+accounts of the assembling of the people, must be grossly exaggerated:
+800,000 are given in Israel, 500,000 in Judah only. Chronicles raises
+the first number to 1,100,000, and reduces the second to 30,000, 1 xxii.
+5. The statement given in Chronicles about the division of the levy into
+12 troops, and the strength of these troops (1 xxviii. 1-15),
+contradicts these numbers. As this arrangement of the army is mentioned
+in Chronicles only, which books show a great tendency to systematise,
+the division into 12 remains uncertain. That there was a numbering of
+the people is not to be doubted. It is counted as one of David's errors,
+and Jehovah strikes the people with pestilence. This narrative is
+connected with the command to redeem the firstborn, the boys (vol. i.
+499), the ordinance given in Exod. xxx. 12, which is connected with the
+same conception: "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
+after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul
+to Jehovah that there be no plague among them."
+
+[303] 2 Sam. viii. 15.
+
+[304] 2 Sam. xx. 23-26; 1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22.
+
+[305] Psalm xviii.; cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 345.
+
+[306] 2 Sam. vi. 1-8, 12-15; Psalm xxiv. On the date see above, p, 125,
+n. 2. M. Niebuhr ("Assur und Babel," s. 350) explains the number of
+466-1/2 years given by Josephus ("Ant." 20, 10) by assuming that it
+contains the interval of 430-1/2 years which the Hebrews give for the
+interval between the building of the temple and its destruction. To this
+amount is added eight years for the captive high priest Jozadak, down to
+the time when his son Joshua became high priest, and 28 years for
+Zadok's priesthood before the commencement of the building of the
+temple. If we reckon the 28 years of Zadok backwards for the time that
+we have assumed for the beginning of the temple, 990 B.C., we arrive at
+the year 1018 B.C. for the erection of the new tabernacle.
+
+[307] 1 Chron. xvi. 39.
+
+[308] 2 Sam. xv. 24, 27; 1 Chron. vii. 4-15, 50-53; xxiii.-xxvi.
+
+[309] If Josephus is right, that the fourth year of Solomon was the
+twelfth year of Hiram of Tyre.
+
+[310] 2 Sam. xix. 35.
+
+[311] Absalom's rebellion cannot have taken place till the latter years
+of David. Absalom was born in Hebron, and therefore, at the least, after
+David's thirtieth year, 2 Sam. v. 4. He must at the least have been
+towards 20 years old when he caused Amnon to be murdered. Five years
+passed before David would allow him to enter his presence, 2 Sam. xiii.
+38, and xiv. 28. Lastly, his efforts to gain popularity, and the
+preparations for rebellion, must have occupied two years. If it is
+stated in 2 Sam. xv. 7 that after Absalom's return from Geshur 40 years
+elapsed till his rebellion, Absalom must have been 63 years old at the
+time of his rebellion, and David at the least 93 years old. Hence in the
+passage quoted four years must be read instead of 40.
+
+[312] 2 Sam. xv. 1-6; xvii. 25; 1 Chron. ii. 17.
+
+[313] 2 Sam. xv. 5-14.
+
+[314] 2 Sam. xvii. 27.
+
+[315] 2 Sam. xix. 11-13.
+
+[316] 2 Sam. xix. 18-33; 1 Kings ii. 8.
+
+[317] 2 Sam. xvi. 3-5; xix. 24-30.
+
+[318] 2 Sam. xix. 40.
+
+[319] 2 Sam. xx. 8-13; 1 Kings ii. 5.
+
+[320] 2 Sam. xx. 15-22.
+
+[321] 2 Sam. xii. 15-24; 1 Chron. xxii. 9.
+
+[322] 1 Kings i. 17, 20.
+
+[323] 1 Kings ii. 15, 22.
+
+[324] 1 Kings ii. 5-9.
+
+[325] 1 Kings ii. 5-9. The verses 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7 may have been a
+speech of David's at some former time, if they are not an addition of
+the prophet's. Contrasted with the very definite and realistic colouring
+of the passage quoted from the Book of Kings, they can hardly be
+considered the last words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+KING SOLOMON.
+
+
+In the last hour of his life David had raised his favourite son to the
+throne. The young king was not much more than 20 years of age,[326] and
+the news of the death of the dreaded ruler of Israel could not but
+awaken among all who had felt the weight of his arm the hope of
+withdrawing themselves from the burden laid upon them. The son of the
+king of Edom, whom his father's servants had carried away in safety into
+Egypt, had grown up there under the protection of the Pharaoh; at the
+news of David's death he hastened to Edom to summon his people to
+freedom and the struggle against Israel. A captain of Hadad-Ezer of
+Zobah, whom David overthrew, Rezon by name, fled at that time into the
+desert, where he collected a troop round him and lived by plundering.
+Now he threw himself on Damascus, gained the city, and made himself
+prince. Moreover, the power of Solomon was not firmly established even
+in Israel; the people had expected the accession of Adonijah,[327] and
+though he and his confederates retired at the first alarm, there was no
+lack of adherents. Serious dangers and commotions appeared to threaten
+the new reign. Adonijah had fled for refuge to the altar; he besought
+Solomon for a pledge not to slay him. Solomon promised to spare him if
+he remained quietly at home. Joab did not know what commands David had
+given Solomon in his dying hour, but he did know that Solomon would not
+forgive him for supporting Adonijah. He sought refuge in the tabernacle
+of Jehovah, and took hold of the horns of the altar in the tent. Solomon
+bade Benaiah cut him down. Benaiah hesitated to pollute the altar with
+blood; he reported that Joab could not be induced to leave the altar.
+The young king repeated his command, "Cut him down, and take from me and
+from the house of my father the blood of Abner and the blood of Amasa."
+So Joab was slain by Benaiah at the altar of the sacred tent, and buried
+"in his house in the desert." The high priest Abiathar escaped with his
+life. "I will not slay thee," so Solomon said to him, "because thou
+didst once suffer with my father." He banished him as a "man of death"
+to his inheritance at Anathoth. Zadok was henceforth sole high priest at
+the sacred tent. When Adonijah afterwards besought Solomon to give him
+one of the concubines of David, Abishag the Shunamite, to wife, Solomon
+thought that he sought to obtain the throne by this means. He commanded
+Benaiah to slay him on the spot. With the death of Adonijah his party
+lost their head and centre: it ceased to exist.
+
+Solomon broke the rebellion of the Edomites not by his arms only, but
+also by withdrawing from them the support of Egypt. He sought the hand
+of the daughter of the king of Egypt and obtained it.[328] Thus he not
+only withdrew from Edom their reliance on Egypt, he also obtained the
+active support of his father-in-law. The Edomites were defeated in
+battle by Solomon; Egyptian soldiers reduced Gezer for him.[329] On the
+other hand, Solomon could not defeat the new king of Damascus. Rezon
+maintained his place, and was an "adversary to Israel as long as Solomon
+lived."[330] Hence it is hardly possible that Solomon reduced the
+kingdom of Hamath, north of Damascus, to subjection, as the Chronicles
+assert;[331] on the other hand, it appears that the oasis of Tadmor, in
+the Syrian desert, north of Damascus, was gained, and the city of that
+name was founded and established there. Hence, even after the loss of
+Damascus, he had command of one of the roads to the Euphrates.[332] We
+may assume that Solomon retained the kingdom of David without any
+essential alteration in extent; that he, like his predecessor, held sway
+as far as the north-east point of the Red Sea; and that even if his rule
+did not extend, like David's, to the Euphrates, yet he possessed a
+predominant position in this direction. The connection in which Hiram
+king of Tyre stood with his father he not only maintained, but made it
+more close and more extensive.
+
+With the close of the third year of the reign of Solomon the wars which
+the change on the throne kindled came to an end. It is said to have been
+David's intention in the last years of his reign to build a temple in
+the place of the sacred tent on Zion. As soon as times of peace came
+Solomon set himself to carry out this purpose. Hiram of Tyre promised to
+deliver wood from the forests of Lebanon at a price, and to put at his
+disposal architects and moulders of brass. To the north of the palace
+which David had built on Zion the mountain, on which the citadel was,
+rose higher. Here the new temple was to be erected. The first task was
+to level the height; a terrace was raised upon it by removing some parts
+and filling up others, and building substructures; this terrace was
+intended to form the precincts and support the temple itself. The
+surrounding hills and the neighbourhood provided an ample supply of
+stones for building; stone of a better quality was quarried in Lebanon
+and carried down. The trees felled in Lebanon were carried to the coast,
+floated round the promontory of Carmel as far as Japho (Joppa), and
+again dragged up from this point to Jerusalem.[333] The vessels and the
+ornaments of brass intended for the temple were cast "in clay ground"
+beyond the Jordan, between Succoth and Zarthan, by the Tyrian
+Hiram.[334] A wall of huge stones, on which were built the dwellings of
+the priests, surrounded the temple precincts. The temple itself was a
+building of moderate dimensions, but richly adorned. A portico of 20
+cubits in breadth and 10 cubits in depth, opening to the east, formed
+the entrance into the temple. Before this portico, after the Syrian
+manner, stood two pillars of brass, one called Jachin, the other Boaz.
+The temple, exclusive of the portico, was 60 cubits in length, 20 cubits
+in breadth, and 30 cubits in height. The breadth was limited by the
+unsupported span of the beams of the roof. On both sides of the temple
+itself leaned side-buildings, which rose to the height of half the main
+structure. The front space of the temple was lighted by trellised
+openings over these side-buildings. This front space, which was the
+largest, and entered from the portico by a door of cypress wood, adorned
+with carved work overlaid with gold, was richly ornamented. The floor
+was laid with cypress wood overlaid with gold; the walls and the roof
+were covered with panels of cedar wood, which in richly-carved work
+displayed cherubs and palm-branches, so that not a stone could be seen
+in the interior. In this space of the temple--the "holy"--was an altar
+overlaid with gold for offering frankincense (for the smoke-offering),
+and a sacred table for the sacrificial bread. Nearer to the inner space
+of the temple--the "holy of holies"--were ten candlesticks, and further
+in a candlestick with seven branches. The holy of holies, _i.e._ the
+smaller inner space of the temple, which was intended to receive the
+sacred ark, was divided from the holy by a wall of cedar wood, in which
+was a double door of olive wood, hanging on golden hinges. Only the high
+priest could enter the holy of holies, the walls of which were covered
+with gold-leaf, and even from him the sight of the ark was hidden by a
+curtain of blue and red purple, and approach was barred by a golden
+chain. Immediately before the ark were two cherubs of carved olive wood
+overlaid with gold, 10 cubits high, with outspread wings, so that from
+the point of one wing to the point of the other was also a distance of
+10 cubits.[335]
+
+The sacrifices of animals were offered in the open air of the court in
+front of the temple. For this object a great altar of brass was erected
+in the middle of the court, 10 cubits in height and 20 in the square.
+Southward of this altar was placed a great basin, in which the priests
+had to perform their ablutions and purifications; this was a
+much-admired work of the artisan Hiram, and called the sea of brass.
+Supported by twelve brazen oxen, arranged in four sets of three, and
+turned to the four quarters of the sky, the round bowl, which was of the
+shape of a lily broken open, measured five cubits in depth and 30 in
+circumference.[336] Beside this great basin five smaller iron bowls were
+set up on either side of the altar. These rested on wheels, and were
+adorned with cherubs and lions, palms and flowers, with the greatest
+skill. They were intended to serve for washing and purifying the animals
+and implements of sacrifice.
+
+Solomon commenced the building of the temple in the second month of the
+fourth year of his reign (990 B.C.). After seven years and six months it
+was finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign
+(983 B.C.). The elders of all Israel, the priests and Levites, and all
+the people "from Hamath to the brook of Egypt," flocked to Jerusalem. In
+solemn pomp the sacred ark was drawn up to the temple height; oxen and
+sheep without number were sacrificed for seven days, and from that time
+forward the king offered a solemn sacrifice each year at the three great
+festivals in the new temple.[337]
+
+The house which David had built for himself on Zion no longer satisfied
+the requirements of Solomon and his larger court. When the temple was
+finished he undertook the building of a new palace, which was carried
+out on such a scale that the completion occupied thirteen years.[338]
+The new palace was not built on Zion, but on the western ridge, which
+supported the city to the west of Zion and David's palace. It consisted
+of several buildings, surrounded by courts and houses for the servants,
+and enclosed by a separate wall. The largest building was a house of
+stone three stories high, the stories and roof of which were supported
+by cedar pillars and beams of cedar; the length was 100, the breadth 50,
+and the height 30 cubits (about 50 feet). A balustrade or staircase in
+this house was made of sandal wood, which the ships of Ezion-geber had
+brought from Ophir.[339] On this building abutted three colonnades, the
+largest 50 cubits long and 30 broad; the third was the hall of the
+throne and of justice.[340] Here stood the magnificent throne of
+Solomon, "of which the like was never made in any kingdom," of ivory
+overlaid with gold. Six steps, on which were twelve lions, led up to it;
+beside the arms of the seat were also two lions.[341] Then followed the
+dwelling of Solomon, from which a separate stair-way was made leading up
+to the temple, together with the chambers for the wives of the
+king,--their number is given at 700, the number of the concubines at
+300,[342]--and lastly a separate house for his Egyptian consort, who
+passed as the first wife, and was honoured and distinguished above the
+rest. In the four-and-twentieth year of Solomon's reign (970 B.C.) this
+building was brought to an end, "and the daughter of Pharaoh went up
+from the city of David into the house which Solomon had built for
+her."[343]
+
+Solomon felt it incumbent on him to secure his land, and not merely to
+adorn the metropolis by splendid buildings, but to make it inaccessible
+to attack. To protect northern Israel against Rezon and Damascus he
+fortified Hazor, whose king had once so grievously oppressed Israel, and
+Baalath; to protect the western border he fortified Megiddo, Gezer, and
+Beth-horon.[344] The defensive works which David had added to the old
+fortifications of the metropolis he enlarged and extended. The gorge
+which, running from north to south, divided the city of Jerusalem on the
+western height from the citadel of Zion on the east he closed towards
+the north by a separate fortification, the tower of Millo. By another
+fortification, Ophel, he protected a depression of Mount Zion between
+David's palace and the new temple, which allowed the citadel to be
+ascended from the east. The space over which the city had extended on
+the western height opposite the temple, in consequence of the growth of
+a suburb there towards the north, the lower city, he surrounded with a
+wall.[345] He raised the number of the chariots of war, which David had
+introduced, to 1400, for which 4000 horses were kept. He formed a
+cavalry force of 12,000 horses, he built stables and sheds for the
+horsemen and chariots. If we include the body-guard, the standing army
+which Solomon maintained may very well have reached 20,000 men.[346]
+
+The excellent arrangement of his military means and forces must have
+contributed to make Israel respected and to preserve peace in the land.
+In Solomon's reign, so we are told in the Books of Kings, every one
+could dwell in peace under his own vine and his own fig tree.[347] This
+peace from without, united with the peace which the power and authority
+of the throne secured in the country, must have invigorated trade,
+favoured industry, and considerably increased the welfare of Israel. The
+example of the court, the splendour and magnificence of which was not
+increased by buildings only, made the wealthy Israelites acquainted with
+needs and enjoyments hitherto unknown to their simple modes of life. If
+hitherto the Israelites had sold to the Phenicians wine and oil, the
+wool of their flocks, and the surplus products of their lands for
+utensils and stuffs, the finer manufactures of the Phenicians now found
+a demand in Israel. If the king of Israel was friendly to the
+Phenicians, he allowed them a road by land through his territories to
+Egypt; now that the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites had been subjugated
+he could close or open the caravan road past Rabbath-Ammon, Kir Moab,
+and Elath to South Arabia (I. 320), and when Tadmor was in his hands he
+could permit or prohibit a road to the Euphrates beside that past
+Damascus. Solomon prohibited none of these; on the contrary, he promoted
+the intercourse of the merchants by erecting resting-places and
+warehouses on all the lines of traffic which crossed his dominions.[348]
+The exportation of chariots and war-horses from Egypt to Syria, which
+the Pharaoh no doubt permitted in an especial degree to his son-in-law,
+Solomon carried on by means of merchants commissioned by him.[349]
+Another trade undertaking, at once much more far-seeing, and promising
+far greater gains, he commenced in union with the king of Tyre. It was
+of great importance to the Phenicians to obtain an easier connection
+with South Arabia in the place of, or at least in addition to, the
+dangerous and very uncertain caravan routes past Damascus and Dumah (I.
+320), or past Elath along the coast of the Red Sea, to South Arabia.
+The circuit by Babylon was very distant, and not much more secure. The
+rule of Solomon over Edom pointed out the way, and secured the
+possibility of reaching South Arabia by the Red Sea. At Eziongeber, near
+Elath, Tyrian shipbuilders built the vessels which were to explore the
+coasts of South Arabia, the coasts of the land of gold. Guided by
+Phenician pilots, Phenicians and Israelites sailed into the unknown sea,
+and to unknown and remote corners of the earth. They succeeded not only
+in reaching the South Arabian coasts and the coasts of East Africa, but
+in passing beyond to Ophir, _i.e._, as it seems, to the mouths of the
+Indus. After an absence of three years the first expedition brought back
+gold in quantities, silver, ivory, sandal wood, precious stones, apes
+and peacocks. The profits of this expedition are said to have
+contributed as Solomon's share 420 Kikkars of gold, _i.e._ towards
+20,000,000 thalers (about L3,000,000).[350]
+
+With the increased sale of the products of the country, the improvement
+and security of the great routes of traffic, the entrance of Israel into
+the trade of the Phenicians, and the influx of a considerable amount of
+capital, money seems to have become very rapidly and seriously
+depreciated in price in Israel. Before the establishment of the monarchy
+a priest is said to have received 10 silver shekels, with food and
+clothing, for his yearly service at a sacred place.[351] The amount from
+which Abimelech is said to have maintained his retinue (p. 107) is
+placed at only 70 shekels of silver. Before the epoch of the monarchy
+the prophet received a quarter of a shekel as a return for his services.
+David purchased the threshing-floor of Araunah at Zion with two oxen
+for 50 shekels of silver.[352] On the other hand, Solomon appears to
+have paid the keepers of his vineyards a yearly salary of 200 silver
+shekels, and in his time 150 shekels were paid for an Egyptian horse,
+and 600 shekels (500 thalers = L80) for a war-chariot.[353]
+
+The prosperity of the land allowed Solomon to increase the income of the
+throne by taxation of the people. His income from the navigation to
+Ophir, from trade, from the royal demesnes, and the taxes of Israel is
+said to have brought in a yearly sum of 666 Kikkars of gold, _i.e._
+about 30,000,000 of thalers (about L5,000,000).[354] He applied these
+revenues to the support of his army, to his fortifications, sheds, and
+splendid buildings, to the erection of the stations on the trade roads,
+and finally to the adornment of the court. "He built in Jerusalem, on
+Lebanon, and in the whole land of his dominion," say the Books of
+Kings.[355] We hear of conduits, pools and country houses of the king on
+Antilibanus; of vineyards and gardens at Baal-Hammon. The splendour of
+his court is described in extravagant terms. All the drinking-vessels
+and many other utensils in the palace at Jerusalem, and in the
+forest-house in Antilibanus, are said to have been of pure gold, and the
+servants were richly clad.[356] In a costly litter of cedar wood, of
+which the posts were of silver, the arms of gold, and the seat of
+purple, Solomon was conveyed to his vineyards and pleasure-houses in
+Antilibanus, surrounded by a retinue of 60 men chosen from the
+body-guard.[357] At solemn processions the body-guard carried 500
+ornamented shields: 200 were of pure gold,--for each 600 shekels were
+used,--300 of alloyed gold.[358] The number of male and female singers,
+of the servants for the king and crowded harem, and the kitchen, must
+have been very great, as may be inferred from the very considerable
+consumption of food and drink in the palace. From the court and from
+trade such an amount of gold flowed to Jerusalem that silver was in
+consequence depreciated.[359]
+
+The new arrangement of state life, which was partly established, partly
+introduced, by Solomon, the leisure of peace, the close contact with
+Phoenicia and Egypt, the entrance of Israel into extensive trade, the
+increase of prosperity, the richer, more various, and more complicated
+conditions of life, the wider range of vision, could not be without
+their influence on the intellectual life of the Israelites. From this
+time an increased activity is displayed. They were impelled and forced
+to observation, comparison and consideration in quite another manner
+than before. The results of these new reflections grew into fixed rules,
+into proverbs and apophthegms. In this intellectual movement Solomon
+took a leading part. A man of poetical gifts like his father, he
+composed religious and other poems (1005 in number, according to the
+tradition). The impulse to knowledge and the sense of art which he
+excites must first have found room within himself; his vision, like his
+means, reached the furthest. Hence we have no reason to doubt that he
+was one of the wisest in his nation. "God," says the Book of Kings,
+"gave Solomon a spirit beyond measure, as the sand of the sea. And the
+wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the
+East, and the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than all men, and he spoke
+of the trees, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop which grows on the
+wall, and of the cattle and the birds, and the worms and the
+fishes."[360] Beside poetry and extensive knowledge of nature, in which
+he surpassed his wisest countrymen, Ethal and Heman, Chalcol and Darda,
+it was his keen observation, his penetrating knowledge of mankind, his
+experience of life which made the greatest impression. His proverbs and
+rules of life seemed to the Israelites so pointed and exhaustive that
+they attributed to Solomon the entire treasure of their gnomic wisdom,
+which was afterwards collected into one body. Among these proverbs
+scarcely any can with complete certainty be ascribed to Solomon, but the
+fact that all are attributed to him is a sufficient proof that Solomon
+possessed a very striking power in keen observation of human nature and
+human affairs, in the pregnant expression of practical experience, in
+combining its lessons into pointed and vigorous sentences.
+
+As a proof of his acuteness and the calm penetration of his judicial
+decisions, the people used to narrate the story of the two women who
+once came before Solomon into the hall of justice. One said: I and that
+woman lived in one house, and each of us bore a male child. In the night
+the son of this woman died. She rose, laid her dead son at my breast,
+and took my living child to her bosom. When I woke I had a dead child in
+my arms; but in the morning I perceived that this child was not the son
+which I had borne. The other woman answered: No; the living boy is my
+son, and thine is the dead child. The king turned to his retinue and
+said: Cut the living child into two parts, and give half to one and half
+to the other. Then tenderness for her child arose in the mother of the
+living child. I pray you, my lord, she said, give her the living child,
+but slay it not. And the king gave sentence: This is the mother, give
+her the child. It is further narrated that the fame of Solomon's wisdom
+reached even to distant lands, and kings set forth to hear it. From
+Arabia the queen of the Sabaeans (Sheba, I. 315) is said to have come
+with a long train of camels, carrying spices, gold, and precious stones,
+in order to try Solomon with enigmas. And Solomon told her all that she
+asked, and solved all the enigmas, and nothing was hidden from him. When
+the queen perceived such wisdom, and saw the house which he had built,
+and the food on his table, and his counsellors, and his cup-bearers, and
+servants, and the burnt sacrifice which he offered in the house of
+Jehovah, she sent him 120 Kikkars of gold, and such an amount of spices
+as never afterwards came to Jerusalem. This narrative may not be without
+some foundation, in fact we saw above how old was the trade of Egypt and
+Syria with the land of frankincense. We shall afterwards find queens
+among the Arabians in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.: Zabibieh,
+Samsieh, and Adijah, and even at the head of the tribes of the desert.
+To this day the East preserves the memory of the wise king Solomon, who,
+in their legends and stories, has at the same time become a great
+magician and exorcist.
+
+However great the splendour of Israel in Solomon's reign, this advance
+was not without a darker side. The new paths in which Solomon led his
+people brought the Israelites comfort and opulence, the advantages and
+impulses of a higher civilisation and more active intellectual life. But
+with the splendour and luxury of the court, and the increasing wealth,
+the old simplicity of manners disappeared. The land had to bear the
+burden of a rule which was completely assimilated to the forms of court
+life, and the mode of government established in Egypt and Syria, in
+Babylon and Assyria. The court, the army and the buildings required
+heavy sums and services, and these for the most part had to be paid and
+undertaken by the people. Solomon not only imposed on the tribes the
+maintenance of his standing troops, the cavalry and the chariots, he
+also demanded that they should support the court by contributions in
+kind. This service was not inconsiderable. Each day 30 Kor of fine and
+60 Kor of ordinary meal were required, 10 stalled oxen, and 20 oxen from
+the pasture, and 100 head of small cattle. Besides this, deer and
+fallow-deer, gazelles and fed geese were supplied. The assistance which
+Hiram king of Tyre gave to Solomon's buildings, the wood from Lebanon,
+had to be paid for; each year 20,000 Kor of wheat and 20,000 Bath of oil
+and wine were sent to Tyre, and this the Israelites had to provide.
+Further, the people had to pay a regular yearly tax in money to the
+king.[361] Still more oppressive was the task-work for the buildings of
+the king. It is true that the remnant of the tribes subject to the
+Israelites, the Amorites, Hittites, Hivites and Jebusites, were taken
+chiefly for these tasks, for Solomon had compelled them to do constant
+task-work,[362] but the Israelites themselves were also employed in
+great numbers in the building. Over each tribe of Israel Solomon placed
+an overseer of the task-work, and these overseers were all subordinate
+to Adoniram, the chief task-master. The Israelites summoned for these
+services are said to have had two months' rest after one month of work,
+and there was a regular system of release. In the years when the
+buildings were carried on with the greatest vigour, 80,000 workmen are
+said to have been engaged in felling wood in Lebanon, in quarrying and
+hewing stones under Tyrian artisans, while 70,000 others carried out the
+transport of this material. Though the workmen were constantly changed
+and the extension of the task was not unendurable, these burdens were
+unusual and certainly undesirable. In order to introduce regularity into
+the payments in kind and the taxes of the land, the country was divided
+into twelve districts,--no doubt on the basis of the territorial
+possessions of the tribes,--and over these royal officers were placed.
+Each district had to provide the requirements of the royal house for one
+month in the year. These overseers of the districts were subordinate to
+a head overseer, Azariah, the son of that Nathan to whom, next to his
+mother, Solomon owed the throne.[363] Yet in spite of all the services
+of subjects, in spite of all means of receipts, Solomon's expenditure
+was in excess of his income. When the settlement with Hiram followed the
+completion of the building of the temple and palace, it was found that
+Hiram had still 120 Kikkars of gold to receive. As Solomon could not pay
+the sum, he ceded to Tyre twenty Israelite places on the border. No
+doubt the king of Tyre was well pleased to complete and round off his
+territory on the mainland.[364]
+
+The example of a lavish and luxurious court, the spectacle of a crowded
+harem, the influence and demeanour of these females, was not only
+injurious to the morals of the people, but to their religious conduct.
+If the national elevation of the Israelites under Saul and David had
+forced back the foreign rites which had taken a place after the
+settlement beside the worship of Jehovah, it is now the court which
+adopts the culture and manners of the Phenicians and Syrians, and by
+which the worship of strange gods in Israel again becomes prominent.
+Among the wives of the king many were from Sidon, Ammon, Moab and Edom.
+Solomon may have considered it wise to display tolerance towards the
+worship of the tributary nations, but it was going far beyond tolerance
+when the king, who had built such a richly-adorned and costly temple to
+the national god of Israel, erected, in order to please these women,
+altars and shrines to Astarte of Sidon, to Camus of the Moabites, and
+Milcom of the Ammonites.[365]
+
+Yet the impulse which Solomon's reign gave to the worship of Jehovah was
+far the most predominant. It is true that the idea of raising a splendid
+temple to Jehovah in Jerusalem arose out of the model of the
+temple-service of the Phenicians and Philistines and their magnificent
+rites (I. 367), whereas the Israelites hitherto had known nothing but
+places for sacrifice on altars on the heights and under the
+oaks,--nothing but a sacred tent. The temple itself was an approximation
+to the worship of the Syrians; but it was at the same time the
+completion of the work begun by David. This building of the temple was
+the most important of the acts of Solomon during his reign, and an
+undertaking, which in its origin was to some degree at variance with
+national feeling, not only contributed to the maintenance of the
+national religion, but also had very considerable influence upon its
+development. Solomon, after his manner, may have had the splendour and
+glory of the structure chiefly in view,--yet just as the monarchy
+comprised the political life of the nation, so did the specious,
+magnificent temple centralise the religious life of the nation, even
+more than David's sacred tent. By this the old places of sacrifice were
+forced into the shade, and even more rarely visited. The building of the
+temple increased the preponderance of the sacrifice offered in the
+metropolis. The priests of the altars in the country, who mostly lived
+upon their share in the sacrifices, turned to Jerusalem, and took up
+their dwelling in the city. Here they already found the priesthood,
+which had gathered round Abiathar and Zadok (p. 164). The union of a
+large number of priestly families at Jerusalem, under the guidance of
+the high priest appointed already by David, caused the feeling and the
+consciousness of the solid community and corporate nature of their order
+to rise in these men, while the priests had previously lived an isolated
+life, at the places of sacrifice among the people, and hardly
+distinguished from them, and thus they were led to a far more earnest
+and systematic performance of the sacred worship. It was easy to make
+use of the number of priests already in existence in order to give to
+the rites the richer and more brilliant forms which the splendour and
+dignity of the temple required. For this object the arrangements of the
+sacred service must be divided, and the sacred acts allotted to special
+sections of the priests at hand.
+
+The organisation of the priesthood needed for these divisions was
+naturally brought about by the fact that those entrusted with the office
+of high priest supposed themselves to be descendants of Aaron, and that
+even in David's reign these had been joined by the priests who claimed
+to be of the same origin. These families, the descendants of Eleazar and
+Ithamar, retained the essential arrangements of the sacrifice and the
+expiation, the priesthood in the stricter sense. Even the families, who
+side by side with these are said to have belonged to the race of Aaron,
+which, like Aaron, are said to have sprung from the branch of Kohath,
+were not any longer admitted to this service. The priestly families of
+this and other origin, which are first found at a later date in
+Jerusalem, who retained their dwelling outside Jerusalem, were united
+with the races of Gershom and Merari, and to them, as to the families of
+the race of Kohath which did not come through Aaron, were transferred
+the lesser services in the worship and in the very complicated ritual.
+Those men of these races who were acquainted with music and singing,
+together with such musicians as were not of priestly blood, were also
+divided into sections. They had to accompany the sacrifice and acts of
+religious worship with sacred songs and the harp. Others were made
+overseers of the sacred vessels and the dedicatory offerings, others set
+apart for the purification of the sanctuary and for door-keepers. All
+these services were hereditary in the combinations of families allotted
+to them. This organisation of the priesthood cannot have come into
+existence, as the tradition tells us, immediately after the completion
+of the temple; it can only have taken place as the effects of a splendid
+centre of worship in the metropolis of the kingdom became more widely
+felt, and was finally brought to completion under the guidance of the
+priests attending on the sacred ark.[366]
+
+Thus there was connected with the building of the temple by Solomon, not
+only the reunion of the families of the tribe of Levi--if these even
+previously had formed a separate tribe;--by means of adoption from all
+the families which for generations had been dedicated to the sacred
+rites, the formation and separation of the priestly order became
+perfect.[367] At first, without any independent position, this order was
+dependent on the protection of the monarchy, which built the temple for
+it, and the importance of the priests was increased with the splendour
+of the worship. At the head of the new order stood the priests of the
+ark of Jehovah, who had already, in earlier times, maintained a
+pre-eminent position, which was now increased considerably by the reform
+in the worship. But they also were dependent on the court, though they
+soon came to exercise a certain influence upon it. As David had made
+Zadok and Abiathar high priests, so Solomon removed Abiathar and
+transferred the highest priestly office to Zadok, of the branch of
+Eleazar. Far more important than the position of the priesthood at the
+court was the feeling and consciousness of the mission given to them,
+of the duties and rights, to which the priesthood attained when combined
+in the new society. As they were at pains to practise a worship pleasing
+to Jehovah, they succeeded even before Solomon in discovering an
+established connection between the past and the present of the nation,
+in recognising the covenant which Jehovah had made with his people. From
+isolated records, traditions, and old customs they collected the law of
+ritual in the manner which they considered as established from
+antiquity, the observation of which was, from their point of view, the
+maintenance of the covenant into which Israel had entered with his God.
+This was the light in which, even in David's time, the fortunes of
+Israel appeared to the priests, and from this point of view they were
+recorded in the first decade of David's reign. The order which the
+priests required for the worship, its unity, centralisation and
+adornment, the exact obedience to the ritual which was considered by
+them true and pleasing to God, the position which the priesthood had now
+obtained, or claimed, appeared to them as already ordained and current
+in the time when Jehovah saved his people with a mighty arm, and led
+them from Egypt to Canaan. They had been thrust into the background and
+forgotten, owing to the guilt and backsliding of later times. Now the
+time was come to establish in power the true and ancient ordinances of
+Moses in real earnest, and to restore them. It was of striking ethical
+importance, that by these views the present was placed in near relation
+and the closest combination with a sublime antiquity, with the
+foundation of the religious ordinances. The impulse to religious feeling
+which arose out of these views and efforts found expression in a lyrical
+poetry of penetrating force. David had not only attempted simple songs,
+but also, as we have seen, more extended invocations of Jehovah; and
+the skilled musical accompaniment which now came to the aid of religious
+song in the families of the musicians, must have contributed to still
+greater elevation and choice of expression. The intensity of religious
+feeling and its expression in sacred songs must also have come into
+contact more especially with that impulse which had hitherto been
+represented in the seers and prophets, who believed that they
+apprehended the will of Jehovah in their own breasts, and, in
+consequence of their favoured relation to him, understood his commands
+by virtue of internal illumination. All these impulses operated beyond
+the priestly order. In union with the lofty spiritual activity of the
+people, they led, in the first instance, to the result that in the last
+years of Solomon the annalistic account of the fortunes of the people
+and the record of the law was accompanied by a narrative of greater
+liveliness, of a deeper and clearer view of the divine and human nature
+(I. 386), which at the same time, in the fate of Joseph, gave especial
+prominence to the newly-obtained knowledge of Egyptian life, the service
+rendered by the daughter of the king of Egypt to the great leader of
+Israel in the ancient times, the blessing derived from the friendly
+relations of Israel and Egypt, and the distress brought upon Egypt by
+the breach with Israel.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[326] Bathsheba became David's wife not long before the capture of
+Rabbath-Ammon. Her first child died. According to 1 Kings iii. 7,
+Solomon, at the time of his accession, is still a boy. But since,
+according to 1 Kings xiv. 21, his son Rehoboam is 42 years old at
+Solomon's death, and Solomon had reigned 40 years, Solomon must have
+been more than 20 at the death of David. Hence, on p. 155 above, the
+date of the capture of Rabbath-Ammon is fixed at 1015 B.C.
+
+[327] 1 Kings ii. 15.
+
+[328] 1 Kings iii. 1. From the statement in 1 Kings xi. 14-21, this must
+have been the daughter of Amenophtis, the Pharaoh who succeeded the king
+mentioned here, the fourth Tanite in Manetho's list. Below, Book IV.
+chap. 3.
+
+[329] 1 Kings ix. 16.
+
+[330] 1 Kings xi. 23-25.
+
+[331] 2 Chron. viii. 3.
+
+[332] 2 Chron. vii. 8; viii. 4; 1 Kings ix. 18; Joseph. "Antiq." 8, 6,
+1. The passage in the Book of Kings appears, it is true, to indicate
+Thamar in Southern Judaea.
+
+[333] 1 Kings v. 7-10, 15-17.
+
+[334] 1 Kings vii. 46.
+
+[335] 1 Kings vi., vii. 13-51; 2 Chron. iii. 4, 10.
+
+[336] A similar vessel of stone, 30 feet in circumference, adorned with
+the image of a bull, lies among the fragments of Amathus in Cyprus: O.
+Mueller, "Archaeologie," Sec. 240, Anm. 4.
+
+[337] 1 Kings ix. 25.
+
+[338] 1 Kings vii. 1-12.
+
+[339] 1 Kings x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 11.
+
+[340] 1 Kings vii. 7.
+
+[341] 1 Kings x. 18-20.
+
+[342] The Song of Solomon says, "There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and
+maids without number."
+
+[343] 1 Kings ix. 10, 24.
+
+[344] 1 Kings ix. 15-19.
+
+[345] 1 Kings xi. 27; ix. 15-24.
+
+[346] 1 Kings iv. 26; x. 26.
+
+[347] 1 Kings iv. 20, 25; v. 4.
+
+[348] 1 Kings ix. 19.
+
+[349] 1 Kings x. 29.
+
+[350] 1 Kings ix. 26-28; x. 22.
+
+[351] Judges xvii. 10. The Hebrew silver shekel is to be reckoned at
+more than 2_s._ 6_d._; the gold shekel from 36 to 45_s._ Cf. Vol. i.
+304.
+
+[352] 2 Sam. xxiv. 24.
+
+[353] Song of Solomon viii. 11; cf. Mover's "Phoenizier," 3, 48 ff, 81
+ff.
+
+[354] 1 Kings x. 14.
+
+[355] 1 Kings ix. 19.
+
+[356] 1 Kings x. 21; 2 Chron. ix. 20.
+
+[357] Song of Solomon iii. 7-10.
+
+[358] 1 Kings x. 27.
+
+[359] 1 Kings x. 27.
+
+[360] 1 Kings iv. 29-34.
+
+[361] 1 Kings iv. 22, 23, 26-28.
+
+[362] 1 Kings ix. 20, 21. In order to prove that Solomon used these and
+no others for his workmen, the Chronicles (2, ii. 16, 17) reckon this
+remnant at 153,000 men, _i.e._ exactly at the number of task workmen
+with their overseers given in the Book of Kings. According to this the
+incredible number of half a million of Canaanites must have settled
+among the Israelites. The general assertion of the Books of Kings (1,
+ix. 22) is supported by the detailed evidence in the same books, 1, v.
+13; xi. 28; xii. 4 ff.
+
+[363] 1 Kings iv. 11-15; v. 13-18.
+
+[364] 1 Kings ix. 10-14. The contradictory statement in Chronicles (2,
+viii. 2) cannot be taken into consideration.
+
+[365] 1 Kings xi. 4-9, 33. Though this account belongs to times no
+earlier than the author of Deuteronomy, yet since the destruction of
+these places of worship "set up by Solomon" is expressly mentioned under
+Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13), it cannot be doubted.
+
+[366] 1 Chron. xxiv.-xxvii. Here, as is usual in the Chronicles, the
+division of the priests is given systematically, and the idea of such a
+division is ascribed to the last years of David. "The Levites were
+numbered according to David's last commands," 1 Chron. xxiv.; cf. cap.
+xxvii. Throughout the Chronicles make a point of exhibiting David as the
+originator, and Solomon as the executive instrument. We must content
+ourselves with the result that the temple is of decisive importance in
+separating the priests from the people, and for gathering together and
+organising the order.
+
+[367] It appears that the lists of the priestly families were taken down
+in writing when the organisation of the order was concluded: Nehem. vii.
+64.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE LAW OF THE PRIESTS.
+
+
+Out of the peculiar relation in which Israel stood from all antiquity to
+his God, out of the protection and prosperity which he had granted to
+the patriarchs and their seed, out of the liberation from the oppression
+of the Egyptians, which Jehovah had prepared for the Israelites with a
+strong arm, out of the bestowal of Canaan, _i.e._ the promise of Jehovah
+to conquer the land, which the Israelites had now possessed for
+centuries, there grew up in the circles of the priests, from about the
+time of Samuel, the idea of the covenant which Jehovah had made with the
+patriarchs, and through them with Israel. Jehovah had assured Israel of
+his protection and blessing; on the other hand, Israel had undertaken to
+serve him, to obey his commands, and do his will. If Israel lives
+according to the command of Jehovah, the blessing of his God will
+certainly be his in the future also; the reward of true service will not
+and cannot be withheld from him. The will of Jehovah which Israel has to
+obey, the law of Jehovah which he has to fulfil, was contained in the
+moral precepts, the rules of law, and rubrics for purification and
+sacrifice, the writing down of which in the frame-work of a brief
+account of the fortunes of the fathers, the slavery in Egypt, the
+liberation and the conquest of Canaan, on the basis of older sketches
+of separate parts, was brought to a conclusion at Hebron, in the
+priestly families of the tribe of Aaron, about the first decade of
+David's reign (I. 385). In this writing were laid down the views held by
+the priesthood on the life pleasing to God, on the past of the nation
+and the priests, and of the correct mode of worship. It was the ideal
+picture of conduct in morals, law and worship which the priests strove
+after, which must in any case have existed in that great period when
+Jehovah spoke to the Israelites by the mouth of Moses. And, as a fact,
+the foundations of the moral law, the fundamental rules of law and
+customs of sacrifice, as we found above (I. 484), do go back to that
+time of powerful movement of the national feeling, of lofty exaltation
+of religious emotion against the dreary polytheism of Egypt.
+
+It is doubtful, whether the families of the priests and sacrificial
+servants who traced back their lineage to Levi, the son of Jacob (p.
+197), and were now united by David and Solomon for service at the sacred
+tabernacle, for sacrifice and attendance at the temple, had of antiquity
+formed a separate tribe, which afterwards became dispersed (I. 488),--or
+if this tribe first was united under the impression made by the idea of
+true priesthood, which those writings denoted as an example and pattern,
+and under the influence of the change introduced by the foundation of a
+central-point for the worship of Israel in the tabernacle of David, and
+then in the temple of Solomon, for the priestly families scattered
+through the land, by means of a gradual union of the priestly families;
+at all events, a position at least equal in dignity to the rest of the
+tribes ought to be found for the tribe of Levi, which knew the will and
+law of Jehovah, and the correct mode of sacrifice. It was not indeed
+possible in Israel to give the first and most ancient place to the
+tribe of the priests, as has been done in other nations where a division
+of orders has crystallised into hereditary tribes. In the memory of the
+nation Reuben was the first-born tribe, _i.e._ the complex of the oldest
+families, the oldest element of the nation, and the importance of the
+tribes derived from Joseph and the tribe of Judah in and after the
+conquest of Canaan was so firmly fixed that the tribe of Levi could not
+hope to contend with them successfully in the question of antiquity. But
+what was wanting in rank of derivation could be made up by special
+blessings given by Jehovah, and by peculiar sanctity. According to an
+old conception the first-born male belonged to Jehovah. In the sketch of
+the fortunes of Israel and of the law, Jehovah says to Moses, he will
+accept the tribe of Levi in place of the first-born males of the people.
+The number of the first-born males of one month old of all the other
+tribes was taken--they reached 22,373; the number of all the men and
+boys down to the age of one month in the tribe of Levi was 22,000. These
+22,000 Levites Jehovah took in the place of the first-born of the
+people, and the remaining 373 were ransomed from Jehovah at the price of
+five shekels of silver for each person.[368] Thus the Levites were
+raised by Jehovah to be the first-born tribe of Israel. Levi was the
+tribe which Jehovah had selected for his service, the chosen tribe of a
+chosen nation. Moses and Aaron were of this tribe, and if, instead of a
+few families who stood beside Moses when he led Israel out of Egypt, and
+restored the worship of the tribal deity, the whole tribe of Levi was
+represented as active in his behalf, and as a supporter of Moses, the
+consecration of age was not wanting to this tribe, and reverence was
+naturally paid to it in return for such ancient services.
+
+The Levites were not to busy themselves with care for their maintenance,
+they were not to work for hire, or possess any property; they were to
+occupy themselves exclusively with their sacred duties. Instead of
+inheritance Jehovah was to be their heritage.[369] It is true that the
+plan for the maintenance of the tribe of Levi, sketched in the first
+text on the occasion of the division of Canaan, the 48 cities allotted
+to them in the lands of the other twelve tribes (13 for the priests and
+35 for the assistant Levites[370]), could never be carried out; yet
+claims might be founded on it. Moreover, the necessary means for support
+were supplied in other ways. The firstlings of corn, fruits, the
+vintage, the olive tree, were offered by being laid on the altar. No
+inconsiderable portion of other offerings was presented in the same
+manner. All these gifts could be applied by the priests to their own
+purposes.[371] But by far the most fruitful source of income for the
+priesthood was the tithe of the produce of the fields, which was offered
+according to an ancient custom to Jehovah as his share of the harvest.
+The law required that a tenth of corn, and wine, and oils, and of all
+other fruits, and the tenth head of all new-born domestic animals,
+should be given to the priests.[372] The statements of the prophets and
+the evidence of the historical books prove that the tithes were offered
+as a rule, though not invariably. As the Levites who were not priests
+had no share in the sacrifices, the law provided that the tithe should
+go to them, but the Levites were in turn to restore a tenth part of
+these tithes to the priests. Finally, the law required that a portion
+of the booty taken in war should go to the Levites; that in all
+numberings of the people and levies each person should pay a sum to the
+temple for the ransom of his life.[373]
+
+Only the descendants of Aaron could take part in the most important
+parts of the ceremonial of sacrifice. From his twenty-fifth or thirtieth
+year to his fiftieth every Levite was subject to the temple
+service.[374] The law prescribed a formal dedication, with
+purifications, expiations, sacrifices, and symbolical actions for the
+exercise of the lower as well as the higher priesthood, for the offering
+of sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood as well as for the due
+performance of the door-keeping. At the dedication of a priest these
+ceremonies lasted for seven days, but the chief import of the ritual was
+to denote the future priest himself as a sacrifice offered to Jehovah.
+Only those might be dedicated who were free from any bodily blemish. "A
+blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything
+superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or
+crook-backt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be
+scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken shall not come nigh to
+offer the offering of the Lord made by fire."[375]
+
+No priest was to make baldness on his head or shave off the corners of
+his beard, or make any cuttings in his flesh;[376] before the sacrifice
+he might not take wine or any intoxicating drink; he was required to
+devote himself to especial purity and cleanliness, and observe in a
+stricter degree the laws concerning food; he might not marry a widow or
+a woman divorced from her husband, still less a harlot; he was to avoid
+most carefully any contact with a corpse: only in the case of his
+nearest relatives was this defilement allowed. The clothing of the
+priests was definitely prescribed. He must wear a robe of white linen
+(byssus), woven in one piece; and this robe was held together by a
+girdle of three colours, red, blue and white. The priest also wore a
+band of white linen round his head, and trousers of white linen in order
+that he might not discover his nakedness when he ascended the steps of
+the altar.[377]
+
+The foremost place among the consecrated priests was occupied by the
+high priest. He alone had the right to enter the inner space of the
+sanctuary, the cell in which stood the ark of the covenant--the other
+priests could enter the outer space only; he alone could offer sacrifice
+in the name of the whole people, he alone could announce the will and
+oracle of Jehovah, and consecrate the priests. The ritual for the high
+priest was most strict. In the belief of the Hebrews the most accurate
+knowledge and the most careful circumspection was needed in order to
+offer an effective sacrifice and avoid arousing the anger of Jehovah by
+some omission in the rite, and if the law required of all priests that
+they should devote themselves to especial purity and holiness, this
+demand was made with peculiar severity upon the high priest. He might
+marry only with a pure virgin of the stock of his kindred; he must keep
+himself so far from all defilement that he might not touch the corpse
+even of his father and his mother; he might not, on any occasion, rend
+his garments in sorrow. The distinguishing garb of the high priest was a
+robe of blue linen, which on the edge was adorned with pomegranates and
+bells; the bells were intended, as the law says, to announce the coming
+of the priest to the God who dwelt in the shrine of the temple, that
+the priest might not die.[378] Over this robe the high priest wore a
+short wrapper, the so-called ephod or shoulder-garment, and on his
+breast in front the tablet with the holy Urim and Thummim, by means of
+which he inquired of Jehovah, if the king or any one from the people
+asked for an oracle. The other priests also, at least in more ancient
+times, wore the ephod with the Urim and Thummim; but the ephod of the
+high priest was fastened on the shoulders by two precious stones, and
+the front side of his breastplate was made of twelve precious stones set
+in gold, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes. The
+head-band of the high priest was distinguished from that of the other
+priests by a plate of gold bearing the inscription, "Holy is Jehovah;"
+he might not even uncover his head.[379]
+
+The mode of worship was regulated by the law in a systematic manner.
+Beside the Sabbath, on keeping which the law laid special stress, and
+regarded it as a symbol of the relation of Israel to Jehovah, the
+Israelites celebrated feasts at the new moon and the full moon,[380] and
+held three great national festivals in the year. These festivals marked
+in the first instance certain divisions of the natural year. Yet the
+first, the festival of spring, had from ancient times a peculiar
+religious significance. It has been remarked above that at the spring
+festival not only were the firstlings of the harvest, the first ears of
+corn, offered to the tribal God, but that also, as at the beginning of a
+new season of fertility, a sin offering, the vicarious sacrifice of a
+lamb, was made for the first-born which were not offered. The spring
+festival was also the festival of the sparing of the first-born, the
+Passah or passover of Jehovah (I. 414). The priestly ordinance, which
+sought to give a definite historical cause for the customs of the
+festival, and to mark the favours which Jehovah had granted to his
+people, connects the old usages of this festival with the exodus from
+Egypt, and we have already seen how from this point of view old
+ceremonies of this festival were transformed, and new ones were added
+(I. 445). As the spring festival was kept in the first month of the
+Hebrew year, Nisan (March-April) (it began on the evening of the day
+after the new moon, at the rise of the full moon, when the sun is in the
+Ram), the exodus from Egypt was supposed to have taken place on the
+morning which followed this night. The Passah continued for seven days,
+in which, from the morning of the second day to the evening of the
+seventh, only unleavened bread could be eaten, i.e. the firstlings of
+the corn in their original form, and no business could be carried on. On
+each of the seven days of the feast, according to the law, two young
+bulls, a ram and seven yearling lambs were offered as a burnt offering
+for Israel in the temple, and besides these a goat, as a sin offering.
+The neglect of the festival, the eating of leavened bread on any of the
+days, was threatened by the law with extirpation from the
+community.[381] As the greater number of the tribes attained to a
+settled life and agriculture, the feast of the ripe fruits or harvest
+naturally rose to importance beside this festival of the earliest
+fruits. Seven full weeks after the commencement of the Passah, or six
+weeks after the end of it, the feast of new bread was celebrated. The
+sheaves were brought, the corn trodden out, the first new meal
+prepared. According to the law, each house in Israel, _i.e._, no doubt,
+each which possessed land and flocks, had to bring two leavened
+firstling loaves of new wheaten meal and two yearling lambs as a thank
+offering. Before these were offered no one could eat bread made from the
+new corn.[382] The festival of autumn, which took place in the seventh
+month of the Hebrew year (September--October), from the fourteenth to
+the twenty-first day of the month, was merrier and of longer duration.
+It was the festival of the completion of the in-gathering, and of the
+vintage, and consequently can hardly go back beyond the time of the
+settlement in Canaan.[383] It was customary to erect arbours of palm
+leaves, willows, and oak branches, as was indeed necessary at a time
+when men were occupied in remote orchards and vineyards, and in these
+the feast was kept, unless it was preferred to keep it at some important
+place of sacrifice, in order to offer the thank offering there,[384] and
+in this case those who came to the feast also passed the day in tents or
+arbours. Like the feast of spring, the feast of tabernacles continued
+for seven days. According to the law, Israel was to offer 70 bulls, 14
+rams, and seven times 14 lambs at this festival as a burnt offering. To
+this feast also a historical meaning was given; the tabernacles were
+erected to remind Israel of the fact that he had once dwelt in tents in
+the wilderness.
+
+At these three festivals, "thrice in the year, all the males of Israel
+must appear before Jehovah."[385] Such was the law of the priests. It
+was the intention of the priests that the three great festivals should
+be celebrated at the dwelling of Jehovah, _i.e._ at the tabernacle, and
+afterwards at the temple; hence at the great festivals the Israelites
+were to go to Jerusalem. But the strict carrying out of such a common
+celebration was opposed to the character of the festivals themselves. We
+saw that even when the sacred ark still stood at Shiloh, pilgrimages
+were made thither once a year at the festival of Jehovah. After the
+erection of the tabernacle and the temple this, no doubt, took place
+more frequently, and the numbers were greater. Yet the object of the
+priests could not be completely realised. The paschal festival was the
+redemption of the separate house, of each individual family. This
+meaning and object was very definitely stamped on the ritual. In a
+similar manner, the feast of the beginning of harvest and of the first
+fruits required celebration at home, on the plot of land, and this was
+still more the case with the festival of thanksgiving for the completed
+harvest.
+
+Before the people rejoiced in the blessing of the completed harvest at
+the feast of tabernacles, all misdeeds which might have defiled the year
+to that time must be cancelled and removed by a special sacrifice. For
+this object the law on this occasion made a requirement never demanded
+at any other time. From the evening of the ninth to the evening of the
+tenth day there was not only a cessation of business, but a strict fast
+was kept. Every man among the people must subject himself to this
+regulation, and he who transgressed it was threatened with the loss of
+his life.[386] The high priest had first to cleanse himself and the
+other priests, and then the dwelling of Jehovah; for even the sanctuary
+might be defiled by the inadvertence of the priests. When the high
+priest had bathed he must clothe himself in a coat and trousers of white
+linen, with a girdle and head-band of the same material, and offer a
+young bull as a sin offering. Bearing a vessel filled with the blood of
+this victim, and with the censer from the altar of incense in the
+interior of the sanctuary, which contained burning coals and
+frankincense, the high priest went alone into the holy of holies, behind
+the curtain before the ark of the covenant. Immediately on his entrance
+the clouds arising from the censer must fill the chamber, that the
+priest might not see the face of Jehovah over the cherubs and die. Then
+the high priest sprinkled the blood from the vessel seven times towards
+the ark, and when thus cleansed he turned back to the court of the
+sanctuary, in which two goats stood ready for sacrifice. He cast lots
+which of the two should be sacrificed to Jehovah and which to Azazel,
+the evil spirit of the desert. When the lot was cast, the high priest
+laid his hand on the head of the goat assigned to Azazel, confessed all
+the sins and transgressions of Israel on this goat, and laid them on his
+head, in order that he might carry them into the desert-land into which
+the goat was driven from the sanctuary. Then the high priest slew the
+other goat assigned to Jehovah, and, returning into the holy of holies,
+sprinkled with his blood the ark of the covenant for the second time, in
+order to purify the people. When the altar of incense, in the outer part
+of the sanctuary, had been sprinkled in a similar manner, the high
+priest declared that Jehovah was appeased. After a second bath he put on
+his usual robes, and offered three rams as burnt offerings for himself,
+the priesthood, and the nation.[387]
+
+All sacrifices were to be offered at the tabernacle, "before the
+dwelling of Jehovah;" and afterwards in like manner in the temple. The
+law of the priests threatened any one with death who sacrificed
+elsewhere.[388] The most essential regulations for the offering of
+sacrifice are perhaps the following:--Any one who intended to bring an
+offering must purify himself for several days. Wild animals could not be
+offered. In the Hebrew conception the sacrifice is the surrender of a
+part of a man's possessions and enjoyments. Hence only domestic
+offerings could be offered, because only these are really property.
+Cattle, sheep, and goats were the animals appointed for sacrifice. The
+poorer people were also allowed to offer doves. Each victim must be
+without blemish and healthy, and it must not be weakened and desecrated
+by labour. Before the animal was killed the sacrificer laid his hand on
+its head for a time; then he who offered the sacrifice, whether priest
+or layman, slew the victim, but only the priest could receive the warm
+blood in the sacrificial vessel. With this vessel in his hand the priest
+went round the altar and sprinkled the feet, the corners, and the sides
+of it with the blood of the victim. In the Hebrew conception the life of
+the victim was in its blood, and thus the sprinklings which were to be
+made with it form the most important part of the holy ceremony. From
+ancient times the burnt offering was the most solemn kind of sacrifice.
+Only male animals, and, as a rule, bulls and rams, could be offered as
+burnt offerings. When they had been slain and skinned these offerings
+were entirely burnt in the fire on the altar, without any part being
+enjoyed by the sacrificer or the priest, as was the case in other kinds
+of offerings; only the skin fell to the share of the priests. As the
+burnt offering was intended to gain the favour of Jehovah, so were the
+sin offerings intended to appease his anger and blot out transgressions.
+For sin offerings female animals were used as a rule, as male animals
+for the burnt offerings,[389] but young bulls and he-goats were also
+offered as expiatory offerings for the whole people, and for oversights
+or transgressions of the priests in the ritual, and for sin offerings
+for princes. In sin offerings only certain parts of the entrails were
+burnt, the kidneys, the liver, and other parts; and in this sacrifice
+the priests sprinkled the blood on the horns of the altar; the flesh
+which was not burned belonged to the priests. In thank offerings and
+offerings of slaughter (so called because in these the slaying and
+eating of the victim was the principal matter) only the fat was burnt,
+the priests kept the breast and the right thigh,[390] the rest was eaten
+by the sacrificer at a banquet with the guests whom he had invited; but
+this banquet must be held at the place of sacrifice, on the same or at
+any rate on the following day. Drink offerings consisted of libations of
+wine, which were poured on and round the altar (libations of water are
+also mentioned, though not in the law, p. 115); the food offerings in
+fruits, corn, and white meal, which the priests threw into the fire of
+the altar; in bread and cookery, which, drenched with oil and sprinkled
+with salt and incense, was partly burned, and partly fell to the lot of
+the priests. Lastly, the incense offerings consisted in the burning of
+incense, which did not take place, like the other sacrifices, on the
+larger altar in the court of the sanctuary, but on the small altar,
+which stood in the space before the holy of holies of the tabernacle,
+and afterwards of the temple.[391]
+
+According to the law, a service was to be continually going on in the
+dwelling of Jehovah. The sacred fire on the altar in the interior of the
+tabernacle was never to be quenched; before the holy of holies on the
+sacred table twelve unleavened loaves always lay sprinkled with salt and
+incense, as a symbolical and continual offering of the twelve tribes.
+Each Sabbath this bread was renewed, and the loaves when removed fell to
+the priests. Before the curtain of the holy of holies the candlestick
+with seven lamps was always burning, and every morning and evening the
+priests of the temple were to offer a male sheep as a burnt offering at
+the dwelling of Jehovah, and two sheep on the morning and evening of the
+Sabbath. The high priest had also to make an offering of corn every
+morning and evening.[392]
+
+Beside the sacrifice, the law of the priests required the observance of
+a whole series of regulations for purity. It is not merely bodily
+cleanliness which these laws required of the Israelites, nor is it
+merely a natural abhorrence of certain disgusting objects which lies at
+the base of these prescriptions; it is not merely that to the simple
+mind physical and moral purity appear identical, that moral evil is
+conceived as a defilement of the body; nor are these regulations merely
+intended to place a certain restriction on natural states and impulses.
+These factors had their weight, but beside them all a certain side of
+nature and of the natural life was set apart as impure and unholy. The
+laws of purity among the Israelites are far less strict and
+comprehensive than those of the Egyptians and the Indians; but if we
+unite them with the ritual by which transgressions of these rules were
+done away and made good, they form a system entering somewhat deeply
+into the life of the nation.
+
+For the laity also the law required and prescribed cleanliness of
+clothing. Stuffs of two kinds might not be worn; pomegranates must be
+fixed on the corners of the robe. The field and vineyard might not be
+sown with two kinds of seed; nor could ox and ass be yoked together
+before the plough.[393] Certain animals were unclean, and these might
+not be eaten. The clean and permitted food was obtained from oxen,
+sheep, goats, and in wild animals from deer, wild-goats, and gazelles,
+and in fact from all animals which ruminate and have cloven feet.
+Unclean are all flesh-eating animals with paws, and more especially the
+camel, the swine, the hare, and the coney. Of fish, those only might be
+eaten which have fins and scales; all fish resembling snakes, like eels,
+might not be eaten. Most water-fowl are unclean; pigeons and quails, on
+the other hand, were permitted food. All creeping things, winged or not,
+with the exception of locusts, are forbidden.[394] Moreover, if the
+permitted animals were not slain in the proper manner their flesh was
+unclean; if it had "died of itself," or was strangled, or torn by wild
+beasts,[395] the use of the blood of the animal was most strictly
+forbidden, "for the life of all flesh is the blood;" even of the animals
+which might be eaten the blood must be poured on the earth and covered
+with earth.[396] As the eating of forbidden food made a man unclean, so
+also did all sexual functions of man or woman, and all diseases
+connected with these functions, including lying in child-bed. Every one
+was also unclean on whose body was "a rising scab or bright spot," but
+above all the white leprosy rendered the sufferer unclean.[397] Finally,
+any contact with the corpse of man or beast, whether intentional or
+accidental, rendered a man unclean. The house in which a man died, with
+all the utensils, was unclean; any one who touched a grave or a human
+bone was tainted.[398]
+
+The priestly regulations set forth in great detail the ceremonies, the
+washings and sacrifices, by which defilements were to be removed. The
+unclean person must avoid the sanctuary, and even society and contact
+with others, till the time of his purification, which in serious
+defilements can only begin after the lapse of a certain time. In the
+more grievous cases ordinary water did not suffice for the cleansing,
+but from the ashes of a red cow without blemish, which was slain as a
+sin offering and entirely burnt, the priest prepared a special water of
+purification with cedar wood and bunches of hyssop. The reception of
+healed lepers required the most careful preparations and most scrupulous
+manipulations.
+
+Among the regulations of purity is reckoned the custom of circumcision,
+which was practised among the Israelites, and retained by the law. Yet
+the reason for this peculiar custom, which according to the regulations
+of the priests was performed on the eighth day after birth, the first
+day of the second week of life,[399] seems to lie in other motives
+rather than in the desire to remove a certain part of the male body
+which was regarded as unclean. We saw above that according to the old
+conception of the Israelites the firstborn must be ransomed from
+Jehovah, that the life of all boys, if it was to be secured, must be
+purchased from Jehovah (I. 414, 448). Hence, if we may follow the hint
+of an obscure narrative, it is not improbable that circumcision of the
+reproductive member was a vicarious blood-sacrifice for the life of the
+boy. When Moses returned from the land of Midian to Egypt--so we learn
+from the Ephraimitic text--"Jehovah met him in the inn, and sought to
+kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of
+her son, and cast it at his feet, and he departed from him."[400] To the
+Israelites circumcision was a symbol of their connection with the
+nation, of their covenant with Jehovah and selection by him.
+
+The most important part of the purity of the people of Jehovah was their
+maintenance of his worship, the strict severance of Israel from the
+religion of their neighbours and community with them. It was now seen
+what influence living and mingling with the Canaanites had exercised in
+the national worship, and it was perceived what an attraction the Syrian
+rites had presented for centuries to the nation, and what a power they
+still had upon them. Hence even Moses was said to have given the command
+to destroy the altars and images of the Canaanites, to drive out all the
+Canaanites, and make neither covenant nor marriage with them.[401] The
+law forbade sacrifices to Moloch under penalty of death; any one who did
+so was to be stoned. Those who made offerings to other gods than Jehovah
+were to be "accursed" (I. 499). Wizards were also to be stoned.[402] "Ye
+shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the
+corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for
+the dead, nor print any mark upon you. Do not prostitute thy daughter to
+cause her to play the harlot."[403] All these are commands directed
+against the manners, funeral customs, and religious worship of the
+Canaanites. Strangers were not to be received into the community and
+people of Israel; nor could Israelites contract marriage with women who
+were not Israelites; it is only the later law which allows women
+captured in war to be taken into the marriage bed.[404] These are the
+"misanthropical" laws of the Jews of which Tacitus speaks with such deep
+aversion.
+
+The law assigned a far-reaching religious influence to the priests. They
+alone could turn the favour of Jehovah towards his people by correct and
+effective sacrifices, and appease his wrath; they announced the will of
+Jehovah by his oracle; in regard to diseases and leprosy, they exercised
+police functions over the whole nation by means of the regulations for
+cleanliness and food; they could exclude any one at their discretion
+from the sacrifices and, consequently, from the community; and, in fine,
+they were in possession of the skill and knowledge with which the people
+were unacquainted. The priesthood arranged the chronology and the
+festivals, they supervised weights and measures,[405] they knew the
+history of the people in past ages, and their ancient covenant with the
+God of the ancestors. From their knowledge of the ordinances of Jehovah
+followed the claim which the priests made to watch over the application
+of these ordinances in life, the administration of law and justice. But
+at first this claim was put forward modestly. The old regulations about
+the right of blood in the time-honoured observances of justice were
+added to the law of ritual when this was written down (I. 385, 484);
+they were modified here and there by the views of the priesthood, and in
+some points essentially extended; and now, like the ordinances for the
+places of sacrifice, mode of worship, and purification, they stood
+opposed in many regulations to real life as ideal but hardly practicable
+standards.
+
+According to the view of the priests Jehovah was the true possessor of
+the land of Israel. He had given it to his people for tenure and use.
+From this conception the law derived very peculiar conclusions, which
+might be of essential advantage for retaining the property of the
+families in their hands, for keeping up the family and their
+possessions, on which the Hebrews laid weight, and for proprietors when
+in debt. To aid the debtor against the creditor, the poor against the
+rich, the labourer against him who gave the work, the slave against his
+master, is in other ways also the obvious object of the law.
+
+As all work must cease on the seventh day, the day of Jehovah, so must
+there be a similar cessation in the seventh year, which is therefore
+called the Sabbath year. In every seventh year the Israelites were to
+allow the land which Jehovah had let to them to lie fallow, in honour of
+the real owner. In this year the land was not sowed, nor the vine-trees
+cut, nor the wild beast driven from the field, every one must seek on
+the fallow what had grown there without culture. If this Sabbath of the
+seventh year was kept Jehovah would send such increase on the preceding
+sixth year that there should be no want.[406] When this period of seven
+fallow years had occurred seven times the circle appeared to be
+complete, and from this point of view the law ordained that at such a
+time everything should return to the original position. Hence, when the
+seventh Sabbath year was seven times repeated (in the year of Jubilee)
+not only was agriculture stopped, but all alienated property, with the
+buildings and belongings, went back to the original owner or his
+heirs.[407] The consequence was that properties were never really sold,
+but the use of them was assigned to others, and hence, even before the
+year of Jubilee, the owner could redeem his land by paying the value of
+the produce which would be yielded before the year of Jubilee.
+
+But the priests were far from being able to carry out these extended
+requirements which proceeded from the sanctity of the Sabbath, and from
+the conception that the land of Israel belonged to Jehovah, and every
+family held their property from Jehovah himself, and which were intended
+to make plain the true nature of the property of the Israelites. It was
+an ideal picture which they set up, and hardly so much as an attempt was
+made to carry it out. They could reckon with more certainty on obedience
+to a law which ordained that no interest was to be taken from the poor,
+and no poor man's mantle was to be taken in pledge.[408] Nevertheless,
+the law of debt was severe. If the debtor could not pay his debt before
+a fixed time the creditor was allowed to pay himself with the moveable
+and fixed property of the debtor; he could sell his wife and children,
+and even the debtor himself, as slaves, or use him as a slave in his own
+service.
+
+For the legal process we find in the law no more than the regulation
+"that one witness shall not bear evidence against a man for his death,"
+_i.e._ that one witness was not sufficient to establish a serious
+charge, that "injustice shall not be done in judgment, that the person
+of the small shall not be disregarded, nor the person of the great
+honoured;" "according to law thou shalt judge thy neighbour."[409] For
+every injury done to the person or property of another, the guilty shall
+make reparation. We know already the old ordinances which require life
+for life, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth (I. 485). Injury to property
+and possession was to be fully compensated; even the injury done by his
+beast was to be compensated by the master. Theft was merely punished by
+restoring four or five times the value of the stolen goods. If the thief
+could not pay this compensation he was handed over to the injured man as
+a slave. But any one who steals a man in order to keep him as a slave,
+or to sell him, was to be punished with death.[410] If a murder was
+committed, the avenger of blood, _i.e._ the nearest relative and heir of
+the murdered man, was to pursue the murderer and slay him, wherever he
+met him, as soon as it was established by two persons that he was really
+guilty. The law even forbade the avenger of blood to accept a ransom
+instead of taking the life of the guilty, because the land was
+desecrated by the blood of the murdered man, "and the land is not
+cleansed from the blood spilt, save by the blood of the murderer." An
+exception was allowed only when one man slew another by accident, and
+without any fault of his own, and not out of hostility or hatred. In
+this case the slayer was to fly into one of the six cities which were
+marked out as cities of refuge.[411] From the elders of the city the
+pursuing avenger of blood was to demand the delivery of the slayer, and
+they were to decide whether the act was done from hatred and hostility,
+or was merely an accident. If the elders decided in favour of the first
+alternative, they were to give up the guilty into the hands of the
+avenger of blood, that he might die. In the other case, the slayer must
+remain in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest, and the
+avenger was free from the guilt of bloodshed if before that time he met
+him beyond the confines of the city of refuge and slew him.[412] The
+regulations of the priests even went so far as to lay down a rule that
+if a savage bull slew a man the bull was not only to be stoned, and not
+eaten as an unclean animal, but his master also must die, or at any rate
+pay a ransom, if he knew that the animal was savage, and yet did not
+control him.[413]
+
+Among the people of the East the wealthier men did not content
+themselves with one wife. This custom prevailed in Israel also. The law
+of the priests did not oppose a custom which had an example and
+justification in the narratives of the patriarchs. The Israelites also
+followed the general custom of the East, in purchasing the wife from her
+father, and recompensing the father for the loss of a useful piece of
+property--for the two working hands which he lost when he gave away his
+daughter from his house. Thus Jacob obtained the daughters of Laban by a
+service of 14 years. The price of a wife purchased for marriage from the
+father seems to have been from 15 to 50 shekels of silver (36_s._ to
+125_s._).[414] The conclusion of the marriage was marked by a special
+festivity, after which the bride was carried by her parents into the
+nuptial chamber. The prostitution of maidens in honour of the goddess of
+birth, so common among the neighbouring nations, was strictly forbidden
+by the book of the law. The daughter of a priest who began to prostitute
+herself was to be burnt with fire, because she thus "defiled not herself
+only, but also her father."[415] The man who seduced a virgin was
+compelled to purchase her for his wife, and even if her father would not
+give her to wife he was to pay him the usual purchase-money. Adultery
+was punished by the law with even greater severity than violations of
+chastity before marriage. The adulteress, together with the man who had
+seduced her into a violation of the marriage bond, were to be put to
+death.[416] If a man suspected his wife of unfaithfulness without being
+able to prove it against her a divine judgment was to decide the matter.
+The priest was to lead man and wife before Jehovah. Then he was to draw
+holy water in an earthen pitcher, and throw dust swept from the floor of
+the dwelling of Jehovah into this, and say to the woman, "If thou hast
+not offended in secret against thy husband, remain unpunished by this
+water of sorrow, that bringeth the curse; but if thou hast sinned, may
+this water go into thy body and cause thy thighs to rot, and may
+Jehovah make thee a curse and an oath among thy people." The woman
+answered, "So be it;" and when the priest had dipped in the water a
+sheet written with the words of this curse, she was compelled to drink
+it.[417] Thus the woman was brought to confession, or was freed from the
+suspicion of her husband.
+
+Marriages were forbidden not only with strange women, but also within
+certain degrees of relationship; in which were included not only those
+close degrees, to which there is a natural abhorrence, but also such as
+did not exclude marriage in other nations. In this matter the law of the
+priests proceeded from the sound view that marriage did not belong to a
+natural connection already in existence, but was intended to found a new
+relationship. Not only was marriage forbidden with a mother, with any
+wife or concubine of the father, with a sister, a daughter, or
+granddaughter, a widowed daughter-in-law; but also with an aunt on the
+father's or mother's side, with a stepsister, or sister by marriage,
+with a sister-in-law, or wife's sister so long as the wife lived.[418]
+
+The husband purchased his wife as a chattel; hence in marriage she
+continued to live in entire dependence beside her husband. The husband
+could not commit adultery as against his wife; it was the right of
+another husband which was injured by the seduction of the wife. It
+rested with the husband to take as many wives as he chose beside his
+first wife, and as many concubines from his handmaids and female slaves
+as seemed good to him. The husband could put away his wife if she "found
+no favour in his eyes," while the wife, on her part, could not dissolve
+the marriage, or demand a separation; she possessed no legal will. Like
+the wife, the children stood to the father in a relation of the most
+complete dependence. Nor only did he sell his daughters for marriage, he
+could give them as pledges, or even sell them as slaves, but not out of
+the land;[419] and though the father was not allowed to sell the son as
+a slave, he could turn him out of his house. Obedience and reverence
+towards parents were impressed strongly on children, even in the
+earliest regulations derived from the time of Moses. The son who curses
+his father or mother, or strikes them, must be put to death.[420] The
+first-born son is the heir of the house; after the death of the father
+he is the head of the family, and succeeds to his rights over the
+younger sons and the females. It is not clear whether the law allows any
+claims to the moveable inheritance to any of the sons besides the
+eldest, to whom the immoveable property passed absolutely; the sons of
+concubines and slaves had no right of inheritance if there were sons in
+existence by legitimate marriage. Daughters could only inherit if there
+were no sons. The heiress could not marry beyond the tribe, in order
+that the inheritance might at least fall to the lot of a tribesman. If
+there were neither sons nor daughters, the brother of the father was the
+heir, and then the uncles of the father.[421]
+
+The law attempts to fix and ameliorate the position of day-labourers and
+slaves. "The hire of the labourer shall not remain with thee till the
+morrow."[422] The number of slaves appears to have been considerable.
+They were partly captives taken in war, and partly strangers purchased
+in the way of trade; partly Hebrews who, when detected in thieving,
+could not pay the compensation, or who could not pay their debts, or
+Hebrew daughters sold by their parents. The marriages of slaves
+increased their number. The law required that slaves should rest on the
+Sabbath day;[423] and even the oldest regulations restrict the right of
+the master over the life of his slave by laying down the rule that the
+slave shall be free if his master has inflicted a severe wound upon him,
+and that the master must be punished if he has slain his slave.[424] The
+slave who was a born Israelite might be ransomed by his kindred, if they
+could pay the sum required.[425] The Hebrew slave was treated by his
+master as a hired labourer, and hind.[426] When the Hebrew slave had
+served six years his master was compelled to set him free without ransom
+in the seventh year. A Hebrew could only remain in slavery for ever
+when, after six years of service, he voluntarily declared that he wished
+to remain with his master; then, as a sign that he permanently belonged
+to the house of his master, his ear was pierced on the door-post with an
+awl.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[368] Exod. xiii. 2; Numbers iii. 5-51; viii. 16.
+
+[369] Numbers xviii. 20-26.
+
+[370] Vol. i. 488, 502.
+
+[371] Numbers xviii. 8-20.
+
+[372] Levit. xxvii. 29-33.
+
+[373] Genesis xiv. 20; xxviii. 22.
+
+[374] Exod. xxx. 11-16; xxxviii. 25-28.
+
+[375] Levit. xxi. 16-21.
+
+[376] Levit. xxi. 5.
+
+[377] Exod. xx. 26.
+
+[378] Exod. xxviii. 31-35; xxxix. 22-27.
+
+[379] Exod. xxviii. 4-30, 36-43.
+
+[380] 1 Sam. xx. 5, 24, 27, and many passages in the prophets; Numbers
+xxviii. 11; xxix. 6; Ewald, "Alterthuemer," s. 360.
+
+[381] Exod. xii. 15-19; Numbers ix. 13; xxviii. 16-24.
+
+[382] Levit. xxii. 9-21.
+
+[383] At the division of the kingdom Jeroboam is said to have changed
+this festival to the fifteenth day of the eighth month; 1 Kings xii. 33.
+
+[384] _E. g._ 1 Sam. i. 3; 1 Kings xii. 27-32.
+
+[385] Exod. xxiii. 13; xxxiv. 23.
+
+[386] Levit. xxiii. 29.
+
+[387] Levit. xvi., xxiii. 26-32.
+
+[388] Levit. xvii. 3-5.
+
+[389] Levit. i-vi.
+
+[390] Levit. vii. 23-34, and in other passages.
+
+[391] _Supr._ p. 183. Exod. xxx. 1-9.
+
+[392] Levit. vi. 12, 13; ix. 17.
+
+[393] Numbers xv. 38; Levit. xix. 19.
+
+[394] Levit. xi. 1-44.
+
+[395] Levit. xvii. 15.
+
+[396] Levit. xvii. 14.
+
+[397] Levit. xiii., xiv.
+
+[398] The spoils taken in war are also to be purified; Numbers xxxi.
+20-24.
+
+[399] Levit. xii. 3. The Arabian tribes in the north of the peninsula,
+who were nearly related to the Hebrews, observed this custom, and the
+Phenicians also, while the Philistines did not observe it; Herod. 2,
+104. In Genesis (xxi. 4; xvii. 12-14, 25) it is expressly mentioned that
+Ishmael was not circumcised till his thirteenth year, but Isaac was
+circumcised at the proper time, on the eighth day. This shows that
+circumcision was a very ancient custom among the Israelites, and at the
+same time indicates that among the Arabs the boys were not circumcised
+till later years, which may have been the case in the older times among
+the Hebrews also. Cf. Joshua v. 1-9; Joseph. "Antiq." 1, 12, 3.
+
+[400] Exod. iv. 24; cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 282.
+
+[401] Numbers xxxiii. 50-56; Exod. xxiii. 29 ff; xxxiv. 12-16; Vol. i.
+500.
+
+[402] Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 2, 27; Exod. xxii. 18.
+
+[403] Levit. xix. 27-29.
+
+[404] Deut. xxi. 11-14; cf. Numbers xii. 1.
+
+[405] Levit. xix. 35, 36.
+
+[406] Exod. xxiii. 10, 11; Levit. xxv. 20.
+
+[407] Levit. xxv. 24-31.
+
+[408] Exod. xxii. 25-27; Levit. xxv. 35-38.
+
+[409] Numbers xxxv. 30; Levit. xix. 15.
+
+[410] Exod. xxi. 16.
+
+[411] Exod. xxi. 12-14; Numbers xxxv. 31; Joshua xx. 7-9.
+
+[412] Numbers xxxv. 25-28.
+
+[413] Exod. xxi. 28-36.
+
+[414] Exod. xxi. 32; Hosea iii. 2; cf. Deuteron. xxii. 19, 29.
+
+[415] Levit. xix. 29; xxi. 9.
+
+[416] Levit. xviii. 20; xx. 10.
+
+[417] Numbers v. 5-31.
+
+[418] Levit. xviii.
+
+[419] Exod. xxi. 7, 8.
+
+[420] Exod. xxi. 17; Levit. xx. 9.
+
+[421] Numbers xxxvi. 1-11; Tobit vii. 10; Numbers xxvii. 9.
+
+[422] Levit. xix. 13.
+
+[423] Exod. xx. 10.
+
+[424] Exod. xxi. 20, 21, 26; Vol. i. 483.
+
+[425] Levit. xxv. 47 ff.
+
+[426] Levit. xxv. 39-41.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
+
+
+The monarchy in Israel was established by the people to check the
+destruction and ruin with which the land and population were threatened
+by the incursions of the neighbours on the east, by the dangerous arms
+of the Philistines. The first attempt to set up a monarchy in connection
+with the cities of the land was soon wrecked and swept away, without
+leaving a trace behind. In spite of his support in the wishes of the
+great majority of the Israelites, the monarchy of Saul had not succeeded
+in establishing itself securely by its simple and popular conduct. It
+was not till the monarchy had fortified the royal city and palace,
+established a body-guard and standing troops, magistrates and
+tax-gatherers, and had entered into close relation with the priests,
+that it obtained security and permanence. It had indeed fulfilled its
+mission and saved Israel; it had won power, glory, and respect for the
+nation, and imparted to it lofty impulses of the most important kind. It
+had at the same time gone far beyond the intention of its foundation. It
+was now a Sultanate, which, by filling the land with Syrian trade and
+customs, and allowing the growth of Syrian modes of worship, threatened
+in one direction the nationality with the same dangers which it had
+removed in another.
+
+The transformation which the manner of life in Israel underwent during
+the reigns of David and Solomon was so thorough that even under David a
+reaction set in. If in the time before David and Solomon the Israelites
+had led an unrestrained life, they were now ruled by a severe monarchy.
+In the place of the patriarchal authority of the elders and heads of
+tribes, whose decisions they had formerly sought, came the rule of royal
+officers, who could exercise their power capriciously enough. If
+hitherto they had lived unmolested, every man on his own plot, beneath
+his vine and fig tree, they were now compelled to pay taxes and do
+task-work. After the burdens Solomon had laid upon the people, this
+reaction must have been stronger than at the time when Absalom's
+rebellion shattered the throne of his father. Moreover, Solomon's reign,
+though it lasted full 40 years, did not give the same impression of
+vigorous power as David's strong arm had done before him, and the
+monarchy was not so old, nor so firmly established as an institution,
+that the Israelites could not remember the times which preceded it.
+
+No doubt the tribe of Judah could bear the new burdens, because it
+enjoyed the advantages of the new polity. The king belonged to this
+tribe; the temple and metropolis were in its territory. But the
+interests of the other tribes were the more deeply injured. Above all,
+the tribe of Ephraim must have felt itself degraded. In this tribe the
+memory of Joshua still lived, the remembrance of the conquest of the
+land; once it had held the foremost place, and on its soil the ark of
+Jehovah had stood. Now the pre-eminence was with Judah, the tribe which
+had long been subject to the Philistines; the sacred ark stood at
+Jerusalem, and the ancient places of sacrifice were neglected. Of the
+feeling of the tribe of Ephraim we have indubitable evidence in an
+attempt at rebellion at the beginning of the last decade of the reign of
+Solomon; an attempt, it is true, which was quickly suppressed.[427]
+
+When Solomon died, in the year 953 B.C., it was not the contests between
+his sons or the intrigues of the harem which now threatened the
+succession. Rehoboam, Solomon's eldest son, who was born to him by
+Naamah the Ammonite, was now in his forty-second year, and thus in the
+vigour of age. This vigour he needed. At the news of Solomon's death the
+people gathered to their old place of assembly at Shechem. This
+self-collected assembly showed that the majority of Israel were mindful
+of their right to elect the king. The greatest circumspection and tact
+were needed to avert the approaching storm. Rehoboam saw that he must
+not look idly on. He must either attempt to disperse the assembled
+multitude by force and maintain the crown by arms, or he must treat with
+it. Hence he set forth to Shechem, accompanied by the counsellors of his
+father. A deputation of the people met him, and said, "Thy father made
+our yoke grievous; now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy
+father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will
+serve thee." Rehoboam promised to make an answer on the third day. He
+assembled his counsellors. The old men among them--so all the older
+text of the Books of Kings tells us--advised compliance, and recommended
+him to speak kindly to the people; the younger, who had grown up with
+the new king, and were accustomed to flatter him, and desired
+unrestricted power over the people, urged him to reject strongly such
+claims and such rebellion. Rehoboam was foolish enough to follow advice
+which could not but be ruinous. Although he can hardly have said to the
+people the words which the Books of Kings put in his mouth--"My father
+chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions,"--he
+rejected the demand of the Israelites. Then a cry arose in the assembly
+of the people, "We have no part in David, nor any inheritance in the son
+of Jesse; to your tents, O Israel!" When it was too late Rehoboam
+attempted to soothe the enraged multitude. He sent his task-master,
+Adoniram, to them, but the people slew the ill-chosen messenger by
+stoning him to death. Nothing remained for Rehoboam but to mount his
+chariot in haste and fly to Jerusalem.
+
+The grievous distress which 100 years before had caused the nation at
+Gilgal to proclaim Saul king with one consent, and which after the death
+of Ishbosheth had united the tribes round David at Hebron, had long
+passed away. The danger which division had once brought upon Israel had
+faded into the distance, and was forgotten in the security which had
+prevailed in the last generations against the neighbours on every side.
+Nothing was thought of but the immediate evil and the coming oppression,
+if the monarchy went further on the lines on which it was treading. At
+the time of Solomon an Ephraimite named Jeroboam, the son of Nabath
+(Nebat) of Zereda, who is spoken of as "a brave man," was a second
+overseer among the task-labourers. As he was skilful in the discharge
+of his duties, Solomon raised him to be the overseer of the task-work of
+his tribe. This office, which made him known to all his tribe, Jeroboam
+must have discharged in such a way as to gain the favour rather than the
+aversion of the tribesmen. We are told in a few words that "Jeroboam
+raised his hand against Solomon," and that "Solomon sought to slay him."
+Jeroboam escaped to Egypt, and found refuge with the Pharaoh Shishak
+(about 960 B.C.). Immediately after Solomon's death Jeroboam received a
+message from his tribesmen to return. Rehoboam's refusal to carry on a
+milder form of government decided the choice of Jeroboam as king. That
+choice declared sufficiently the degree of aversion which the multitude
+bore to the house of David and the monarchy at Jerusalem.
+
+The chief city, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Simeon, so long united
+in close connection with Judah, and a part of the tribe of Benjamin,
+whose land lay immediately at the gates of Jerusalem, remained true to
+the son of Solomon. From the tribe of Judah the rise and dominion of
+David had its commencement; to them that dominion was now returned, and
+was again confined within its early limits. The question was whether
+Rehoboam could achieve what his grandfather David had succeeded in
+doing--could regain the dominion over the whole land from Judah.
+Rehoboam thought, no doubt, that he could reduce by the power of his
+arms the tribes which had withdrawn themselves from his dominion. He
+armed and assembled the warriors of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. If
+he soon abandoned this intention, the reason hardly lies in the warning
+of the prophet Semaiah, as the prophetic revision maintains in a passage
+interpolated into the annals,--we are told at the same time that there
+had been "a contention between Rehoboam and Jeroboam from the
+first,"[428]--but in the fact that a mightier enemy came upon Rehoboam.
+
+From the time when the Hebrews won their abode in Canaan, they had not
+been molested in any way from Egypt, where the rulers since the reign of
+Ramses III. rested quietly by the Nile. Solomon, as we saw (p. 180),
+entered into friendly relations with Egypt, and even into affinity. But
+in the later years of his reign a new dynasty ascended the throne of
+Egypt in the person of Shishak, which took up a different attitude. With
+him Jeroboam had found refuge from the pursuit of Solomon. It was to
+Jeroboam's interest, no less than Shishak's, that this connection should
+continue after Jeroboam became king of Israel. It is not improbable that
+Shishak made war upon Rehoboam in order to secure Jeroboam in his new
+dominion. Whether Jeroboam sought the help of Egypt or not, why should
+not Egypt have availed herself of the breach in the Israelitish kingdom
+which had reached such a height in Syria under David and Solomon, and
+forced her way even to the borders of Egypt? Why should she not
+establish the division and the weakness of Israel? At the same time, in
+all probability, a cheap reputation for military valour might be
+obtained, and the treasures of Solomon seized. In the year 949 B.C., the
+fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, the Pharaoh invaded Judah. He is said to
+"have come with 1200 chariots, and 60,000 horsemen; and the people who
+accompanied him from Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia were beyond number."
+Rehoboam could not withstand the power of Shishak; one city after
+another, including Jerusalem, opened her gates to the Pharaoh. The glory
+of Solomon was past and gone. Shishak took away the treasures of the
+temple and the royal palace, and the gold shields which Solomon had
+caused to be made for the body-guard. There was no thought of a lasting
+conquest and the subjugation of Syria; the object was merely to weaken,
+plunder, and reduce Judah. When this object was obtained the Pharaoh
+turned back to Egypt. On the outer walls of the temple of Karnak we may
+see the gigantic form of Shishak, who brandishes the weapon of victory
+over a crowd of conquered enemies; 133 bearded figures are to be seen,
+with their hands tied behind them, whom Ammon and Mut are leading before
+Shishak. The lower part of these figures is covered by the name-shields.
+They represent the places in the kingdom of Judah, which in equal number
+were taken or were taxed by the Pharaoh. Of these 133 name-shields about
+100 are still legible, but few names are found among these which
+correspond to known places in Judaea. We may perhaps recognise Jehud,
+Ajalon, Beth-Horon, Gibeon, Beeroth, Rimmon in the north of Judah or in
+Benjamin; Engedi and Adullam in the east; Lachish, Adoraim, Mareshah,
+Kegilah (Keilah), and some other places in the centre of Judah. As there
+is scarcely one among these names which can with certainty be
+apportioned to the kingdom of Israel, the conclusion may naturally be
+drawn that the campaign was made with a favourable regard to Jeroboam,
+and was confined to Judah.[429]
+
+It was a heavy blow which had befallen the little kingdom, and, what was
+still worse, Jeroboam could avail himself of it, and the Pharaoh could
+repeat his raid. Rehoboam saw that the only way to increase the power of
+resistance in his kingdom and prevent its overthrow was to strengthen
+the fortifications of the metropolis, and change all the larger towns in
+the land into fortresses. He carried this plan out, we are told, so far
+as he could, and provided them with garrisons, arms, supplies, and
+governors. Fifteen of these are mentioned in the Chronicles. The
+dominion over the Edomites, whom Saul fought with and David overcame,
+and who attempted in vain to break loose under Solomon, was maintained
+by Rehoboam.
+
+After the brief reign of Abiam, the son of Rehoboam (932-929 B.C.), Asa,
+the brother of Abiam, ascended the throne of Judah. In his time,
+according to the Chronicles, Serah, the Cushite, invaded Judah with a
+great army, and forced his way as far as Maresa; but in the fifteenth
+year of his reign Asa defeated the Cushites, and sacrificed 700 oxen and
+7000 sheep out of the booty to Jehovah at Jerusalem. The Books of the
+Kings know nothing but the fact that Asa was engaged in constant warfare
+with Baasha, the second successor of Jeroboam, king of Israel (925-901
+B.C.).[430] Baasha forced his way as far as Ramah, _i.e._ within two
+leagues of Jerusalem. This place he took and fortified, and was now
+enabled to press heavily on the metropolis of Judah, by checking their
+trade and cutting off their supplies. Asa's military power does not seem
+to have been sufficient to relieve him from this intolerable position.
+He "took all the silver and gold that remained in the treasures of the
+house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house," and sent it
+to Benhadad, who was now king of Damascus in the room of Rezon the
+opponent of Solomon, and urged him to break his covenant with Baasha,
+and make war upon him that he might leave Judah at peace. Benhadad
+agreed to his request. He invaded Israel. As Jeroboam had summoned Egypt
+against Judah, Judah was now joined by Damascus against Israel. Baasha
+abandoned his war against Israel, and Asa caused the wood and the stones
+of the fortifications to be hastily carried away from Ramah, and with
+this material he entrenched Gebah and Mizpeh against Israel.[431]
+
+An addition in the first Book of Kings remarks that Asa removed the
+harlots and the idols out of the land, that he threw down the image of
+Astarte, which his mother had set up, and burnt it in the valley of the
+Kidron.[432] This was a healthy reaction against the foreign rites which
+had crept in in the last years of Solomon's reign. Asa's son Jehoshaphat
+(873-848 B.C.) went further in this direction. The remainder of the
+harlots were removed from the land; he entered into peaceful relations
+with Israel. The supremacy over the Edomites was maintained, and they
+were governed by viceroys of the king of Judah.[433] We find that the
+Edomites sent contingents to him; and his sway extended as far as the
+north-east point of the Red Sea. Here, at Elath, as in Solomon's time,
+great ships were built for the voyage to Ophir.[434]
+
+The ten tribes who had set Jeroboam at their head were the mass of the
+people both in numbers and extent of territory. They might hope to carry
+on the kingdom, they preserved the name of Israel; while in the south
+there was little more than one powerful tribe separated from the rest.
+Shechem, the ancient metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim, the place at
+which the crown was transferred to Jeroboam, was the residence of the
+new king. When Jerusalem was no longer the chief metropolis of the
+kingdom, the temple there could not any longer be the place of worship
+for all the tribes. It would be nothing less then recognising the
+supremacy of Rehoboam if the tribes continued to go up to Jerusalem to
+the great sacrifices and festivals. The places of worship for the new
+kingdom must be within its own borders. Jeroboam consecrated afresh the
+old place of sacrifice, Bethel, on the southern border of the territory
+of Ephraim, the place where Abraham had offered sacrifice, and Jacob had
+rested (I. 390, 408); and on the northern boundaries of his kingdom he
+consecrated the place of sacrifice at Dan, which the Danites had once
+founded on taking Laish from the Sidonians (p. 94). At both places he
+set up a golden calf to Jehovah, and instituted priests; and, as we are
+told, the Israelites came like one man to the feasts of Dan, and
+sacrificed at Bethel, where the sanctuary also contained a treasury. Of
+other actions of Jeroboam, we only know that he built, _i.e._ fortified,
+Peniel in the land beyond Jordan; no doubt in order to be able to
+maintain his supremacy over the Ammonites. The severe blow which had
+fallen on the kingdom of Judah by the incursion of Shishak secured him
+from any serious attack on the part of Rehoboam. The petty warfare on
+the borders of Judah and Israel naturally did not cease during his reign
+(p. 231).
+
+Nadab, the son of Jeroboam (927-925 B.C.), marched against the
+Philistines in order to recover from them Gibbethon in the land of the
+southern Danites. Here in the camp at Gibbethon he was slain by Baasha,
+one of the captains of his army, and the whole race of Jeroboam was
+destroyed. Baasha ascended the throne, which Nadab had held for two
+years only. He took up his abode at Tirzah, a pleasantly-situated place
+north of Shechem.[435] The division of the kingdom of Israel and its
+consequent debility could not but appear a desirable event to the
+kingdom of Damascus, which, though overthrown by David, was restored by
+Rezon in Solomon's time (p. 179.) Attacks of Judah on Israel could not
+be supported by Damascus, because they might lead to a reunion, and for
+the same reason Israel could not be allowed to subjugate Judah. This
+seems to have been the reason which induced Benhadad of Damascus to
+accede to the request of Asa, king of Judah, when Baasha had entrenched
+Ramah against Jerusalem. Benhadad's invasion of the north of Israel, the
+desolation of the district on the Upper Jordan and the lake of
+Genesareth,[436] gave relief to the oppressed kingdom of Judah (p. 235).
+Baasha's son Elah was slain at a banquet at Tirzah, after a short reign
+(901-899 B.C.), by Zimri, one of the captains of his army, who seized
+the crown. But the army of Israel, which was again encamped at
+Gibbethon, on hearing of what had taken place at Tirzah, elected Omri,
+their leader, king. Omri broke up the siege of Gibbethon, marched to
+Tirzah, and took the city. Zimri despaired of maintaining himself in the
+royal castle, and burnt himself in it. Yet Omri was not master of
+Israel. Half of the people joined Tibni, the son of Ginath. Omri
+gradually gained the upper hand, till Tibni's death decided the matter
+in his favour.
+
+With the elevation of Omri (899-875 B.C.) a third dynasty ascended the
+throne of Israel, while in Judah the crown continued peacefully in the
+family of David. Like Baasha, Omri founded a new residence; he removed
+his seat from Tirzah to Mount Shomron, and here built the new city of
+that name (Samaria). Nothing is said of the wars of Omri against Judah.
+To Benhadad of Damascus he seems to have lost some towns in the land of
+Gilead.[437] That he ruled with address, vigour, and a strong hand is
+clear from the inscription on a monument which Mesha, king of Moab,
+caused to be erected in his city of Dibon (east of the Dead Sea). This
+tells us that Omri and his son after him held Moab in subjection for 40
+years; that not only was the city of Nebo garrisoned by the Israelites,
+but Omri even took Medabah, _i.e._ the region south of Nebo towards
+Dibon, and occupied it, and "oppressed Moab for a long time," because
+"Camos, the god of the Moabites, was angry at his land."[438] As Mesha
+regained his independence after the death of Ahab, the son of Omri, the
+more severe subjection of the Moabites by Omri must have begun in the
+year 893 B.C. Omri seems to have entered into friendly relations with
+Ethbaal, king of Tyre (917-885 B.C.), or his successor Balezor (885-877
+B.C.).[439] Omri's authority and reputation must have been considerable,
+since even after the overthrow of his house, in the second half of the
+ninth century B.C., the kings of Assyria speak of the king of Israel as
+"the son of Omri," and the kingdom of Israel as the "house of Omri."
+
+Ahab, Omri's son (875-853 B.C.), maintained the power which his father
+had won. The Books of Kings tell us that Mesha, king of Moab, sent him
+yearly the wool of 100,000 sheep and lambs,[440] and Mesha himself tells
+us that Omri was followed by his son, who also said, "I will oppress
+Moab;" and Israel "dwelt at Medabah for 40 years in the days of Omri and
+Ahab." That the Ammonites also were subject to Ahab seems a just
+conclusion from the inscriptions of Shalmanesar, king of Assyria.[441]
+With Tyre Ahab was in close connection. His wife Jezebel was the
+daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, the aunt of Mutton, the contemporary
+king of Tyre (p. 268). He was on friendly terms with Judah, which began
+to rise again (as we saw) under the rule of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, the
+son of Jehoshaphat, was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and
+Jezebel.[442] On the vine-clad hills of Jezreel Ahab built himself a
+palace adorned with ivory, after the pattern of the Phenician
+princes.[443]
+
+The rites of the neighbouring tribes, the worship of Astarte, Camos, and
+Milcom, which found their way into the Hebrew tribes, and even to
+Jerusalem in the last years of Solomon's reign, were again removed in
+Judah, as we have seen (p. 235), under the reigns of Asa and
+Jehoshaphat. For Israel the dedication of the places of worship at
+Bethel and Dan to Jehovah, which Jeroboam instituted, in spite of the
+erection of the image of Jehovah, marked a reaction against the rites of
+the Canaanites. But the connection into which Ahab entered with Tyre
+brought it about that the gods of the Phenicians were again looked on
+with reverence in Israel. Induced by Jezebel, his Tyrian wife, so we are
+told, Ahab caused a temple to be erected in Samaria, which his father
+had built, to Baal of Tyre, at which 450 priests maintained the worship;
+and a temple was also dedicated to Astarte, which gave occupation to 400
+priests.[444]
+
+It was an ancient custom among the Hebrews, as we have already found
+more than once, to inquire of Jehovah what should be done. In Israel the
+custom of thus making inquiry was more widely spread than in other
+nations. Before any undertaking inquiry was made of his will. Jehovah's
+voice decided the sentence in the judgment court. It was usual in all
+cases and times to appeal to the decision of Jehovah. Question and
+answer were made, as has been remarked, by the priests casting lots
+before the sacred ark, the altars, and the images of Jehovah. If a
+criminal had to be discovered, the tribes and races came forward, and he
+was marked out by the lot cast before Jehovah. We saw that Saul inquired
+of Jehovah on his campaign (p. 124). David undertook nothing without
+inquiring of the image of Jehovah which he carried about with him (p.
+139). If any one wished to mark out the wisdom of any advice, it was
+said, "It is as if Jehovah had answered." But beside the priests who
+cast the lots, there were men who saw into what was hidden, and knew the
+future. To these soothsayers men went as well as to the lot before
+Jehovah; they desired to know whether there would be rain or drought,
+where a lost beast was to be found; they inquired for remedies for
+disease. The soothsayers even pronounced sentences at law, and their
+sentence was then as the sentence of Jehovah. It was Jehovah who
+illuminated such men, and imparted to them a keener vision, a higher
+knowledge. They believed, as the people believed of them--and the belief
+was stronger as the religious feeling was more intense--that they stood
+in a nearer and closer relation to Jehovah. If they also foretold events
+for reward, yet they lived in the belief that they knew the will and the
+counsels of Jehovah, and in this conviction they gave advice and
+judgment; they were not only soothsayers, but seers. In such a
+conviction mere prediction passed into prophecy, _i.e._ into the
+revelation of the will of Jehovah by the mental certainty of the seer.
+In this position we found Samuel, who, from being a priest, had attained
+to a knowledge of the will of Jehovah; he was at once priest, soothsayer
+for hire, and prophet; _i.e._ he not only announced external matters
+still in the future, but also announced the just decision, the resolve
+pleasing to God. He gathered disciples round him, who praised Jehovah
+with harp and lute, and waited to see his face, and became changed into
+other men (p. 117). Gad and Nathan, with whom David and Solomon took
+counsel, were men of this style and tone. With the loftier impulses
+which the religious life received both on the ritual and legal side, as
+well as on the side of religious feeling under David and Solomon, with
+the survey of the fortunes which Jehovah had prepared for his people,
+with the expression of intense devotion in that poetry to which David
+opened the way, the elevation of mind in the prophets must have been
+increased and extended; their views must have become deeper. In the
+kingdom of Israel, so far as our knowledge goes, the seers and prophets
+had made no protest against the worship of Jehovah under an image. But
+they came forward with decisive opposition to the worship of Baal and
+Astarte, the strange gods which Ahab and Jezebel had introduced into
+Samaria and Israel. Ahab decreed persecution against them, which
+strengthened instead of breaking the intensity of their faith, their
+adhesion and devotion to the God of the ancestors. They were driven to
+live in solitudes, deserts, ravines, and caves. On their privations,
+fasts, and lonely contemplations in the silence of the desert followed
+dreams and ecstatic visions. By these the close and favoured relation of
+the persecuted to the God of Israel became an established certainty. The
+power of prediction passed into the background as compared with this
+awakening by Jehovah, and the duty to strive, contend, and suffer for
+the worship of the God of the nation against strange gods. If a prophet
+who had lifted up his voice against the sacrifice to Baal was compelled
+to fly before the king into the desert, he was followed thither by eager
+associates, who had at heart the worship and service of Jehovah. These
+listened to his words and promptings; these were his disciples. The
+numbers of the awakened and illuminated increased; amid danger and in
+privation their religious life became more earnest; their zeal for
+Jehovah and their hatred of the strange gods and their worshippers
+became deeper as the persecution fell heavier upon them. They became men
+of word and action.
+
+Strengthened in this conflict for zealous struggles in behalf of the
+ancient Lord, oppressed and persecuted for their faithfulness to the God
+of Israel, their relation to him took the shape of an inward conviction
+of great force and intensity. Filled with their belief and the
+revelations which Jehovah had imparted to them, they came forward in the
+boldest manner to oppose the apostate kings; their zeal for Jehovah rose
+to the wildest fanaticism, which shrunk from no means of destroying the
+servants of the strange gods. To bring into light the force of their
+opposition to the wicked kings, and the power which Jehovah gives to his
+faithful servants, tradition has adorned with many miracles the lives of
+Elijah and Elisha, the men who in Ahab's time transformed the
+prognostications of the seers into a prophetic censure. Elijah is said
+to have ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, and even the corpse of
+Elisha worked miracles.
+
+At the urgent request of Jezebel, so we are told, Ahab gave orders that
+the prophets of Jehovah, who roused the people against him, should be
+driven out of the land or put to death.[445] Elijah retired from Thisbe
+in Gilead, first to the region of Jordan, and then to Zarephath
+(Sarepta) in the land of the Sidonians;[446] and finally he found a
+place of refuge in the ravines of Carmel, on the sea-shore. A girdle of
+skins surrounded his loins, and a mantle of hair covered his shoulders;
+ravens were said to have brought bread and flesh to the hungry prophet
+in the desert.[447] It came to pass that there was a long drought in
+Israel. In this time of distress Elijah came forth from his hiding-place
+to point out the anger of Jehovah on the king and the people for their
+worship of Baal, and to proclaim relief if they returned to the God of
+Israel. He requested Ahab to gather the people and all the priests of
+Baal and Astarte to Carmel, and there Jehovah would send rain. To this
+request Ahab agreed. "How long will ye halt on both knees, and go after
+Jehovah as well as Baal," cried Elijah to the assembled multitude. "I
+alone am left of the prophets of Jehovah, and the prophets of Baal are
+450 men. Give us then two bulls: one to me, and one to the priests of
+Baal. We will cut them in pieces and lay them on the wood, and the God
+who answers with fire shall be our God." The priests of Baal slew their
+bull, laid him on the wood, and called on Baal from morning to mid-day,
+and said, O Baal, hear us! But in vain. Meanwhile Elijah, so the
+narrative continues, built an altar of 12 stones, for the 12 tribes, and
+made a trench round it; cut the bull in pieces, and laid him on the wood
+of the altar, and thrice poured water over all. When he called on
+Jehovah--to make it known on that day that he was God in Israel, and
+Elijah was his servant--fire fell from heaven and consumed the burnt
+offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the altar. All the people
+fell on their faces, and Elijah said, Seize the prophets of Baal; let
+none of them escape. The people fell upon them; they were brought down
+from the mountain, and Elijah slew them at the brook Kishon. Then a
+little cloud was seen from Carmel rising out of the sea, of the size of
+a man's hand, and Elijah said to the king, "Harness thy chariot and
+haste away, that the rain overtake thee not." The sky was quickly
+covered with black clouds, and heavy rain followed upon storms of wind.
+But Elijah ran before Ahab to his palace in Jezreel.[448] Of this
+narrative, which belongs to the prophetic revision of the annals, we may
+perhaps retain with certainty the facts that Elijah declared a severe
+famine and drought in the land to be the punishment of Jehovah for the
+worship of Baal; that the excited people slew the priests of Baal; that
+Ahab accorded to the prophets of Jehovah permission to return to their
+homes and liberty; and that the worship of Jehovah in Israel, which had
+been seriously threatened by those rites, regained the upper hand and
+decided victory, though it could not entirely drive out the worship of
+Baal.
+
+The increase in the strength of Israel under Omri and Ahab, the
+connection into which Ahab entered with Jehoshaphat of Judah, the
+alliance between the two houses, must have appeared to Benhadad II., the
+king of Damascus, a serious matter for his own position. For this or for
+other reasons he broke with Ahab, and renewed the struggle which had
+gone on in Omri's time between Israel and Damascus. He invaded Israel
+with all his power: 32 kings were with him--such is the no doubt greatly
+exaggerated account. Ahab fell upon the Aramaeans while Benhadad was at
+a banquet, and though his army was only 7000 strong, he obtained a great
+victory. Then, as we are told in the prophetic revision of the Books of
+Kings, Benhadad's servants advised him to contend with the Israelites on
+the plain; their gods were gods of the hills, and therefore they had
+gained the victory. Benhadad came in the next year with an army of
+Aramaeans, which filled the land. Nevertheless Ahab again defeated them
+at Aphek (eastward of Lake Merom), and so utterly overthrew them that
+Benhadad sent his servants with sackcloth about their loins, and halters
+round their heads, to Ahab to pray for mercy. This Ahab granted, and
+Benhadad in turn undertook to restore the cities which his father had
+taken from the father of Ahab, _i.e._ from Omri.
+
+The princes of Syria had every reason to forget their hatred and make up
+their quarrels. Assurbanipal and Shalmanesar II., kings of Assyria, had
+attacked and subjugated the districts on the Euphrates, and established
+fortresses there. The former forced his way as far as the Orontes and
+the Amanus; the latter had already subjugated Cilicia. In the year 854
+B.C. Shalmanesar II. left Nineveh in the spring, crossed the Euphrates,
+demanded tribute there, and then turned towards Damascus. He came upon
+Benhadad (Bin-hidri) of Damascus, to whom Ahab (Achabbu), king of
+Israel, as well as the king of Hamath, and the king of Aradus, together
+with some other Syrian kings, had brought up their forces. To the army
+of the Syrians Shalmanesar allowed more than 60,000 men--he enumerates
+12 princes who combined to oppose him. Damascus furnished the strongest
+contingent, viz., 20,000 men and 1200 chariots; then came Israel, with
+10,000 men and 200 chariots; and Hamath, with 10,000 men and 700
+chariots. The armies met at Karkar. The king of Assyria claims the
+victory; he professes to have captured the chariots and horsemen of the
+Syrians, and to have cut down their leaders. According to one
+inscription 14,000 Syrians, according to two others 20,500, were left on
+the field. But Shalmanesar says nothing of the subjection of the
+princes who fought against him, or of the payment of tribute by those
+who are said to be vanquished, or of conquered cities. Hence the truth
+is that the combined forces of the Syrians succeeded in repulsing the
+attack of the Assyrians. This was their victory, though they may not
+have obtained the victory on the field.[449]
+
+When the danger threatened by the attack of Assyria passed away, the
+contention between Damascus and Israel broke out again. The Hebrew
+Scriptures tell us that Benhadad did not keep his promise, and did not
+restore the city of Ramoth in Gilead to Ahab. Ahab may have thought that
+he had the greater ground for complaint against Damascus, as he took
+upon himself the severe battle against Assyria, though it was Damascus,
+and not Israel, which stood in the direct line of danger. He united with
+Judah against Damascus, and sent a request to Jehoshaphat, king of
+Judah, to march out with him. Jehoshaphat answered, "I will go forth as
+thou goest; my people as thy people; my horses as thy horses;" and he
+came with his warriors to Samaria. Both kings sat on their seats at the
+gate, in order to review the army as it passed out; and the prophets of
+Jehovah, 400 in number, prophesied good things to them, and said, "Go
+forth against Ramoth in Gilead; Jehovah will give it into your hands."
+One only of these prophets, Michaiah, the son of Imlah, prophesied evil;
+Ahab, we are told, caused him to be thrown into prison till he should
+return in prosperity.[450] A battle took place in the neighbourhood of
+Ramoth in Gilead; Ahab was severely wounded by an arrow which passed
+between the joints of his mail; he caused the wound to be bound up, and
+returned to the fight, in order not to discourage his warriors, and
+continued to stand upright in his chariot, though his blood flowed to
+the bottom of it, till the evening, when he died. When the soldiers
+heard of the death of the king the army dispersed in every direction.
+Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, escaped (853 B.C.).
+
+The death of such a brave warrior as Ahab was a heavy blow to the
+kingdom of Israel. We are not told by what sacrifices Ahaziah, the son
+of Ahab and Jezebel, had to purchase peace; we only know that the
+Moabites revolted from Israel on the news of the death of Ahab, and that
+Mesha no longer paid the tribute which he and his father had paid to
+Omri and Ahab. In any case it was a great relief for Israel when
+Shalmanesar, king of Assyria, in the years 851 and 850 B.C., turned his
+arms against Hamath and Damascus.[451] In this way Ahaziah's younger
+brother, Joram, who succeeded him after a short reign (851-843 B.C.),
+was able to attempt to subjugate the Moabites anew. He called on
+Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to go out with him, and Jehoshaphat said, "I
+am as thou art; my horses as thy horses," and raised not only the
+warriors of Judah, but those of Edom also. The attack was made from the
+land of the kingdom of Judah and Edom on the southern border of the
+Moabites. The Moabites were defeated, their cities destroyed, their
+fields laid waste, their wells filled up. Mesha threw himself into the
+fortress of Kir Harosheth, which is probably the later Kerak, to the
+south of the Arnon, not far from the east shore of the Dead Sea. The
+slingers of both kings surrounded the fortress, and cast stones against
+the walls. "And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too
+strong for him," and he had attempted in vain to break out, "he took his
+firstborn son, who would be king in his place, and sacrificed him as a
+burnt offering on the wall. And there was a great anger against Israel,
+and they returned from him, and went back into their own land" (849
+B.C.).
+
+Notwithstanding this fortunate beginning, the campaign against Moab, as
+is allowed even by the Books of Kings, was finally wrecked. This
+termination agrees with the statements of Mesha on the monument of
+Dibon. "Forty years," it says, "Israel dwelt in Medabah; Camos gave it
+back in my days. And the king of Israel built Ataroth, and I fought
+against the stronghold and took it, and took all the men captive, and
+brought them as a pleasing spectacle to Camos and Moab. And Camos said
+to me, Go and take Nebo from Israel; and I went in the night and fought
+against it from daybreak to mid-day; and I took it. It was devoted to
+destruction to Ashtor-Camos (I. 373); and I took from thence the
+furniture of Jehovah, and dragged them before Camos. And the king of
+Israel built Jahaz, and placed himself therein, in his contest against
+me, and Camos drove him out before me. I took from Moab 200 men, all the
+chiefs, and led them out to Jahaz, and took it, in order to unite it to
+Dibon. I built Karho,[452] the gates, the towers, and the royal palace.
+I built Aroer, and made the road over the Arnon. I built Beth Bamoth,
+which was destroyed. I built Bazor, and Beth Diblathaim, and Beth
+Baal-Meon. And Camos said to me, Go down to fight against Horonaim."
+Here our fragments of the inscription break off. We see that Ahab's
+successors, Ahaziah and Joram, attempted to force Moab to submission by
+planting fortresses in the land; that they attempted to subjugate the
+Moabites from Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz. When this mode of warfare did
+not succeed, and the fortresses were destroyed, the great campaign was
+undertaken which in the end came to disaster, unless we were to place
+this campaign before the time when Joram built those fortresses.
+
+It was impossible for Joram to entertain any further hopes of the
+subjugation of Moab when Benhadad, after escaping from the attack of
+Shalmanesar, turned upon him. The Israelites were unable to keep the
+field, and Joram was shut up in Samaria. The supplies failed, and the
+famine is said to have been so grievous in the city that an ass's head
+sold for 80 shekels, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for
+five shekels, and mothers even laid their hands upon their own children.
+But Elisha, the favourite disciple of Elijah, is said to have urged them
+to hold out, and promised present help from Jehovah. Suddenly, in a
+single night, the army of the Aramaeans disappeared. They feared, so the
+prophetic revision of the annals relates, that the kings of the Hethites
+and the kings of Egypt had set out to the aid of Joram. As Shalmanesar
+of Assyria tells us that he marched in the year 846 B.C. with 120,000
+men against Benhadad of Damascus and Irchulina of Hamath, we may assume
+that it was the approach of the Assyrians which induced Benhadad to
+raise the siege of Samaria, in order to meet the Assyrians with all his
+own forces and those of Hamath. Here again Shalmanesar announces a
+victory obtained over Benhadad and Irchulina of Hamath, and twelve
+princes, and again the victory is without results.
+
+It was not to the power of Shalmanesar, but to Elisha, the prophet of
+Israel, that Benhadad of Damascus succumbed. For what reason we know
+not, Elisha left Israel and went to Damascus. Benhadad lay sick. He sent
+his chosen servant Hazael with costly presents to Elisha to inquire if
+he would recover. Elisha answered, Say to him, thou shalt recover; but
+Jehovah has shown me that he will die. Hazael announced the message, and
+on the next day smothered the king, and placed himself on the throne of
+Damascus (844 B.C.). The new king at once resumed the war with Israel,
+and, as it would appear, not without the instigation of Elisha.[453]
+
+Jehoshaphat of Judah had died a few years previously (848 B.C.). The
+crown passed to his son Jehoram, the brother-in-law of Joram. The
+Edomites, who had continued to follow Jehoshaphat into the field against
+Moab, revolted from him, and slew the Judaeans who had settled in
+Edom,--these settlers may have been most numerous in the harbour city of
+Elath,--and placed themselves under a king.[454] Jehoram attempted to
+reduce them in vain; the fortune of war was against him; he was
+surrounded by the Edomites, and was compelled to force his way with his
+chariots of war by night through the army of the Edomites. The
+Philistines also pressed upon Jehoram, and carried away, even from
+Jerusalem, captives and precious things.[455] Jehoram's reign continued
+for four years. Yet the misfortunes of Judah do not seem to have been
+very heavy. Jehoram's son Ahaziah, the nephew of Joram of Israel, who
+came to the throne in the year 844 B.C., was soon after his accession in
+a position to aid his uncle against the men of Damascus. Both kings
+encamped at Ramoth Gilead, in order to maintain the city against
+Hazael.[456] In the conflict Joram was wounded; he returned to Jezreel
+to be healed, and soon after Ahaziah left the camp at Ramoth in order to
+visit his uncle in his sickness.
+
+To Elisha this seemed the most favourable moment for overthrowing the
+king of Israel, and he urged Jehu, the foremost captain in the Israelite
+army, to revolt against the wounded king. He sent one of his disciples
+to Ramoth with instructions to pour oil upon Jehu, with the words,
+"Jehovah says, I anoint thee to be king over Israel." The chiefs were
+sitting together at Ramoth when the messenger of Elisha entered. "I have
+a message for Jehu," he said; and poured the oil upon him with the
+words, "Jehovah, the God of Israel, anoints thee to be king over his
+people, and says, thou shalt destroy the house of thy master. I will
+avenge the blood of my prophets on Jezebel. The house of Ahab shall be
+destroyed, and I will cut off from Ahab what pisseth against the wall,
+and dogs shall eat Jezebel in Jezreel, and none shall bury her." The
+youth had scarcely uttered these words when he returned in haste. The
+chiefs and the servants asked in wonder, "Wherefore came this madman?"
+But when Jehu declared to them what had taken place, they hastily took
+off their mantles, and spread them before Jehu's feet; they blew
+trumpets and cried, "Jehu is king."
+
+Jehu at once set out with a host to Jezreel, that no tidings might
+precede him. The watchmen of the tower told the king that a troop was
+coming in great haste, and apparently led by Jehu. Thinking that Jehu
+was bringing news of the army, the wounded Joram went to meet him with
+his guest, Ahaziah, king of Judah. "Is it peace?" cried Joram to Jehu.
+"What peace," he replied, "while the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and
+her witchcrafts are so many?" In terror Joram cried out, "There is
+treachery, O Ahaziah," and turned his horses to escape by flight. But
+Jehu smote him with an arrow in the back through the shoulders, so that
+the point reached the heart. Joram fell dead from the chariot. Ahaziah
+escaped. From the window of her palace at Jezreel Jezebel saw the death
+of the king, her second son. By this her own fate was decided. But her
+courage failed not. As Jehu approached she called to him from the
+window, "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?" Jehu made no answer, but
+called out, "Who is on my side?" Two or three eunuchs answered, "We
+are." Then Jehu commanded, "Throw the queen down." They threw the widow
+of Ahab out of the window, so that her blood was sprinkled on the wall
+and on Jehu's horses, and the ruthless murderer drove over the corpse.
+She had survived Ahab ten years. Jehu went into the palace, ate and
+drank, and sent a message to the elders of the tribes and the captains
+of the fortresses: "If ye are on my side and obey my voice, slay the
+sons of Ahab who are with you, and send their heads to Jezreel." The
+elders feared the murderer to whom Joram and Jezebel had succumbed, and
+did as he bade them. Seventy sons and grandsons of Ahab were
+slaughtered; their heads were thrown in two heaps before the palace at
+Jezreel by Jehu's orders. Then he spoke in scorn to the people, "I have
+slain one; but who slew all these?" Still unsatisfied with blood, he
+caused all the kindred of the royal house, all the councillors, friends,
+and priests of Joram to be slain (843 B.C.).
+
+Jehu had caused the king of Judah to be closely pursued on that day. At
+Jibleam the arrows of the pursuers reached Ahaziah; wounded to the
+death, he came to Megiddo, and there he died. Thus the prospect was
+opened to Jehu of becoming master of the kingdom of Judah also. With
+this object in view, he caused the brothers and relatives of the
+murdered Ahaziah to be massacred, so far as he could take them; in all
+they were 42 men.[457] But meanwhile the mother of the murdered Ahaziah,
+Athaliah, heard in Judah of the death of her son in Israel, and seized
+the reins of government there. She determined to retain them against
+every one; and on her side also destroyed all who stood in her way. She
+did not spare even her own grandsons, the sons of Ahaziah; it was with
+difficulty that the king's sister succeeded in saving Joash, the infant
+son of her brother.[458]
+
+The prophets of Israel took no offence at the cruelties of Jehu, to
+which they had given the first impulse; according to the revision of the
+annals, they even proclaimed to him the word of Jehovah. "Because thou
+hast done what is right and good in my eyes, and hast executed upon the
+house of Ahab all that was in my heart, thy descendants shall sit upon
+the throne of Israel."[459] Jehu on his part was no less anxious to show
+his gratitude to the men to whom he owed his exaltation. He summoned the
+priests of Baal, and announced to them in craft, "Ahab served Baal a
+little, but Jehu shall serve him much;" and caused a great sacrifice to
+be made to Baal; all who remained absent should not live. Thus he
+collected all the servants and priests of Baal in the temple of the god
+at Samaria. The sacrifice began; Jehu came in person to take part in
+the solemnity; when on a sudden 80 soldiers entered the temple and
+massacred them all. The two pillars before the temple were burnt, the
+image of Baal was thrown down, the temple was destroyed, and the place
+purified.[460]
+
+A hundred and ten years had elapsed since the revolt of the ten tribes
+from the house of David and the division of Israel. During this time the
+two kingdoms had been at war, and had summoned strangers into the land
+against each other; even the connection into which they had entered in
+the last thirty years, and the close relations existing between Ahab and
+Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah of Judah had not
+been able to give more than a transitory firmness and solidity to the
+two kingdoms. In the kingdom of Judah the crown continued in the house
+of David; in Israel neither Jeroboam's nor Baasha's race had taken root.
+And now the house of Omri also was overthrown and destroyed by a
+ruthless murderer. With Jehu a third warrior had gained the crown of
+Israel by a violent hand, and a fourth dynasty sat upon the throne of
+Jeroboam.
+
+It was a favourable circumstance for the new king of Israel that
+Shalmanesar II. of Assyria again made war upon Damascus. On the
+mountains opposite to the range of Lebanon, so Shalmanesar tells us, he
+defeated Hazael of the land of Aram, _i.e._ of Damascus, in the year 842
+B.C.; he slew 16,000 of his warriors, and took 1121 war-chariots. After
+this he besieged him in Damascus, and destroyed his fortifications. Jehu
+could hardly think, as Ahab had done before him, of joining Damascus in
+resisting Assyria; his object was rather to establish the throne he had
+usurped by submission to and support from Assyria. In this year, as
+Shalmanesar tells us, he sent tribute like Sidon and Tyre. On an obelisk
+in his palace at Chalah, on which Shalmanesar caused the annals of his
+victories to be written and a picture to be made of the offering of the
+tribute from five nations, we see him standing with two eunuchs behind
+him, one of whom holds an umbrella, while two others lead before him the
+deputies of Jehu. The first Israelite prostrates himself and kisses the
+ground before the feet of Shalmanesar; seven other Israelites bring jars
+with handles, cups, sacks, goblets, and staves. They are bearded, with
+long hair, with shoes on their feet, and round caps on their heads, the
+points of which fall slightly backwards. The under garment reaches
+almost to the ancles; the upper garment falls in two parts evenly before
+and behind from the shoulders to the hem of the under garment. The
+inscription underneath runs: "The tribute of Jehu (Jahua), the son of
+Omri (Chumri): bars of gold, bars of silver, cups of gold, ladles and
+goblets of gold, golden pitchers, lead, and spears: this I
+received."[461]
+
+Though Jehu submitted to the Assyrians, the power and spirit of Hazael
+was not broken by his defeat or by the siege of Damascus. Shalmanesar
+speaks of a new campaign against the cities of Hazael in the year 839
+B.C. He does not tell us that he has reduced Damascus, he merely remarks
+that Sidon, Tyre, and Byblus have paid tribute; and again, under the
+year 835 B.C. he merely notes in general terms that he has received the
+tribute of all the princes of the land of Chatti (Syria). Hazael
+remained powerful enough to take from Jehu, who, though a bloody and
+resolute murderer, was a bad ruler, all the territory on the east of the
+Jordan which Ahab and Joram had defended with such vigour.[462] Under
+Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu (815-798 B.C.), the power of Israel sank lower
+and lower. Hazael, and after him his son, Benhadad III., pressed heavily
+upon him. Jehoahaz was compelled to purchase peace by further
+concessions;[463] his whole fighting force was reduced to 10 chariots of
+war, 50 horsemen, and 10,000 foot-soldiers, while Ahab had led 200
+chariots into the field.
+
+The devastation caused by Damascus in Israel was terrible. The Books of
+Kings represent Elisha as saying to Hazael, "The fortresses of Israel
+thou shalt set on fire, their young men thou shalt slay with the sword,
+their children thou shalt cut in pieces, and rip up their women with
+child;"[464] and in the prophet Amos we are told that the Damascenes had
+thrashed Israel with sledges of iron. In the prophecies of Amos, Jehovah
+says: "Therefore I will send fire into the house of Hazael, to consume
+the palaces of Benhadad, and break the bars of Damascus, and destroy the
+inhabitants of the valley of idols."[465]
+
+The Assyrians brought relief to the kingdom of Israel. In the Books of
+the Kings we are told, "Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went
+out from under the hand of the Aramaeans (Syrians), and they dwelt in
+their tents as yesterday and the day before."[466] It was Bin-nirar
+III., king of Asshur, who threatened Damascus and Syria. In the year 803
+B.C. the canon of the Assyrians notices a campaign of this king against
+Syria, and in his inscriptions he mentions that he had conquered Mariah,
+king of Damascus (who must have been the successor of Benhadad III.),
+and laid heavy tribute upon him.[467] Though Israel (the house of Omri),
+as well as Sidon, the Philistines, and Edomites, had now to pay tribute
+to the conqueror of Damascus, yet in the last years of the reign of
+Jehoahaz the land was able to breathe again, and Joash, the grandson of
+Jehu (798-790 B.C.[468]), was able to retake from the enfeebled Damascus
+the cities which his father had lost,[469] and make the weight of his
+arms felt by the kingdom of Judah.
+
+In Judah, as has been mentioned, Jehoram's widow, Athaliah, the mother
+of the murdered Ahaziah, had seized the throne (843 B.C.). She is the
+only female sovereign in the history of Israel. Athaliah was the
+daughter of Ahab of Israel and Jezebel of Tyre; like her mother, she is
+said to have favoured the worship of Baal. As the prophets of Israel had
+prepared the ruin of the house of Omri in Israel, the high priest of the
+temple at Jerusalem, Jehoiadah, now undertook to overthrow the daughter
+of this house in Judah. Ahaziah's sister had saved a son of Ahaziah,
+Joash, while still an infant, from his grandmother (p. 255). He grew up
+in concealment in the temple at Jerusalem, and was now seven years old.
+This boy the priest determined to place upon the throne. He won the
+captains of the body-guard, showed them the young Joash in the temple,
+and imparted his plan for a revolt. On a Sabbath the body-guard and the
+Levites formed a circle in the court of the temple. Jehoiadah brought
+the boy out of the temple and placed the crown upon his head; he was
+anointed, and the soldiers proclaimed him king to the sound of trumpets.
+The people agreed. Athaliah hastened with the cry of treason into the
+temple. But at Jehoiadah's command she was seized by the body-guard,
+taken from the temple precincts, and slain in the royal palace. Then
+the boy was brought thither by the Levites and solemnly placed upon the
+throne. "And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was at
+rest," say the Books of Kings (837 B.C.).
+
+The victory of the priesthood had the same result for Judah as the
+resistance of Elijah and the prophets against Ahab, and the overthrow of
+his house, had introduced in Israel, _i.e._ the suppression of the
+worship of Baal. The temple of Baal at Jerusalem was destroyed; the high
+priest of it, Mathan by name, was slain. Yet the number of the
+worshippers in Jerusalem must have been so considerable, and their
+courage so little broken, that it was thought necessary to protect the
+temple of Jehovah by setting a guard to prevent their attacks.[470]
+Jehoiadah continued to act as regent for the young king, and the
+prophecies of Joel, which have come down to us from this period,[471]
+prove that under this regency the worship of Jehovah became dominant,
+that the festivals and sacrifices were held regularly in the temple at
+Jerusalem, and that the ordinances of the priests were in full force.
+When Joash became ruler he carried on the restoration of the temple,
+which had fallen into decay, even more eagerly than the priesthood. His
+labours were interrupted. It was the time when Israel could not defend
+themselves against Damascus. Marching through Israel, Hazael invaded
+Judah, and besieged Jerusalem. Joash was compelled to ransom himself
+with all that his fathers, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, had
+consecrated to Jehovah, and what he himself had dedicated in the
+temple, and with the treasures of the royal palace.[472]
+
+Like his father and his grandmother, Joash died by a violent death. Two
+of his servants murdered him (797 B.C.); but his son Amaziah kept the
+throne, and caused the murderers of his father to be executed. He
+commenced a war, for what reason we know not, with Israel, who was now
+fighting with success against Damascus. Joash of Israel defeated him at
+Bethshemesh; Amaziah was taken prisoner and his army dispersed. The king
+of Israel occupied Jerusalem, plundered the temple and the palace, and
+did not set the king of Judah free till the walls of Jerusalem were
+thrown down for a space of 400 cubits from the gate of Ephraim, _i.e._
+the western gate of the outer city to the corner gate, at the north-west
+corner of Jerusalem, and the Judaeans had given hostages to keep the
+peace for the future. Against the Edomites Amaziah contended with more
+success. He defeated them in the Valley of Salt; 10,000 Edomites are
+said to have been left on the field on that day. The result of the
+victory was the renewal of the dependence of Edom on Judah, though not
+as yet throughout the whole extent of the land. Amaziah also fell before
+a conspiracy. It was in vain that he escaped from the conspirators from
+Jerusalem to Lachish; they followed him and slew him there. But the
+people placed his son Uzziah (Azariah), though only 16 years old, on the
+throne of Judah (792 B.C.).[473]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[427] 1 Kings xi. 26 ff place the rebellion of Jeroboam in the time when
+Solomon built Millo (p. 186), and give him asylum with Shishak, king of
+Egypt. Solomon built Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and the
+fortifications (p. 186) when the building of the palace was finished (1
+Kings ix. 10, 15, 24). The building of the palace was completed in 970
+B.C. (p. 186); hence the building of Millo must have begun about this
+time. It can hardly have lasted more than 10 years. Jeroboam's
+rebellion, therefore, and Shishak's accession are not to be placed
+after, but a little before, 960 B.C. Lepsius puts Shishak's accession at
+961 B.C.
+
+[428] 1 Kings xii. 22; xiv. 30.
+
+[429] O. Blau in "Zeitschr. D. M. G." 10, 233 ff, and below. The shield
+which Champollion read Judaha Malek is read Jehud by Blau, who refers it
+to Jehud, a place of the Southern Danites. Even the occurrence of names
+of towns belonging to the kingdom of Ephraim would not exclude the
+possibility that Shishak's campaign was undertaken in favour of
+Jeroboam. Jeroboam acknowledged the supremacy of Egypt in the meaning of
+the Pharaoh when he called on Egypt for help, and therefore, after the
+manner of Egyptian monuments of victory and inscriptions, his cities
+could be denoted as subject to Egypt. Hence Makethu, as Brugsch reads
+(Gesch. AEgyptens, s. 661), may be Megiddo or Makedu in the north of
+Judah; in the first case the explanation given holds good. Jerusalem is
+not found among the names which can be read and interpreted.
+
+[430] _Supra_, p. 112, _note_. I have remarked that assumptions there
+noticed are necessary to bring the Hebrew chronology into harmony with
+the Assyrian monuments and the stone of Mesha. That Ahaziah of Judah and
+Joram of Israel must have been slain, at the latest, in the year 843
+B.C. is a necessary consequence of the fact that Jehu paid tribute to
+the Assyrians as early as the year 842 B.C. In the same way the Assyrian
+monuments prove that Ahab of Israel cannot have died before the year 853
+B.C. As the Hebrew Scriptures, in the chronology of Israel, put Ahaziah
+with two years, and Joram with twelve years, between Ahab's death and
+Jehu's accession, four years must be struck out and deducted from the
+reign of Joram. To maintain the parallelism, the same operation must be
+performed with the contemporary kings of Judah, and the reign of Jehoram
+of Judah (for which, even if we retain the data of the Books of Kings,
+six years remain at the most) must be reduced from eight years to four.
+These four years in each kingdom will be best added to the first reigns
+after the division, to Jeroboam (22 + 4 = 26) and Rehoboam (17 + 4 =
+21). Twelve years must be added to the reign of Omri (p. 114, _n._). The
+same augmentation must be made in the corresponding reign of Asa of
+Judah, or, rather, as the chronology of Judah from Rehoboam to Athaliah
+gives three years less than that from Jeroboam to Jehu, 15 years must be
+added to Asa instead of 12, so that his reign reaches 41 + 15 = 56, and
+Omri's reign 12 + 12 = 24 years. Hence Rehoboam was succeeded by Abiam
+not in the eighteenth, but in the twenty-second year of Jeroboam; Ahab
+ascended the throne not in the thirty-sixth, but in the fifty-fourth
+year of Asa. From these assumptions are deduced the numbers given in the
+text. I consider it hopeless to attempt to reconcile the divergencies in
+the comparisons of the two series of kings in the Books of Kings; _e.
+g._ that Omri should ascend the throne in the thirty-first year of Asa,
+and reign 12 years, while Ahab nevertheless ascends the throne in the
+thirty-eighth year of Asa.
+
+[431] 1 Kings xv. 16-24; 2 Chron. xvi. 1-10.
+
+[432] 1 Kings xv. 11-14; 2 Chron. xiv. 2-5.
+
+[433] 1 Kings xxii. 48; 2, viii. 20.
+
+[434] 1 Kings xxii. 49.
+
+[435] Song of Solomon vi. 4.
+
+[436] 1 Kings xv. 20.
+
+[437] 1 Kings xx. 34.
+
+[438] Noeldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa."
+
+[439] _Infra_, chap. xi.
+
+[440] 2 Kings iii. 4.
+
+[441] The inscription of Kurkh enumerates in the army of the Syrians at
+Karkar men from Ammon under Bahsa, the son of Ruchub (Rehob); Schrader,
+"Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 95.
+
+[442] 2 Kings viii. 18.
+
+[443] 1 Kings xxi. 1; xxii. 39; 2, ix. 15 ff.
+
+[444] 1 Kings xvi. 31-33; xviii. 19; 2, iii. 2.
+
+[445] 1 Kings xviii. 4-13, 17; xix. 10-14.
+
+[446] 1 Kings xvii. 9, 10.
+
+[447] 2 Kings i. 8; 1, xvii. 4-6.
+
+[448] 1 Kings xviii. 17-46.
+
+[449] The objections which have been made against the assumption that
+the king of Damascus and Achabbu, against whom and their confederates
+Shalmanesar fought at Karkar, according to the monument of Kurkh (col.
+2), were Benhadad II. of Damascus of the Books of Kings and Ahab of
+Israel are untenable. Shalmanesar II. marches four times against a king
+of Damascus; subsequently, four years after his last war with this king,
+he marches against a second king of Damascus, whose name in the
+inscriptions is indubitably Chazailu. In the Books of Kings Benhadad,
+Ahab's contemporary and opponent, is overthrown by Hazael, who becomes
+king of Damascus in Benhadad's place. Thus we obtain a certain basis for
+identifying the Benhadad overthrown by Hazael with the prince of
+Damascus against whom Shalmanesar fought four times. Hence on the
+reading of the name of this opponent of Shalmanesar in the inscriptions
+I cannot place special weight, especially as the Assyrian symbol for the
+deity in the name in question is well known to have more than one
+signification. If a further objection is made, that Ahab cannot have
+combined with Damascus against Assyria, but rather with Assyria against
+Damascus, in order to get rid of that opponent, the answer is that Ahab
+had reduced Damascus before Shalmanesar's first march against the city.
+Ahab had released Benhadad under a treaty (1 Kings xx. 34), and they
+"were at peace three years" (1 Kings xxii. 3). Hence at this moment Ahab
+was not in need of the assistance of Assyria. That free leagues are
+altogether inconceivable among the Syrian princes of that time is an
+assumption contradicted by numerous statements in the Egyptian monuments
+of Tuthmosis III., of Ramses II. and III., and yet more numerous
+statements in the Assyrian inscriptions. Not much weight can be allowed
+to the late and very general statements of Nicolaus in Josephus. If
+Nicolaus (Joseph. "Antiq." 7, 5, 2) calls the opponent of David Hadad,
+the Books of Kings do not mention the name of the king of Damascus
+against whom David contends. If he maintains that the grandson of
+Benhadad I., the third of the name, desolated Samaria, it is rather
+Benhadad I. of the Books of Kings, who was not the son and grandson of a
+Benhadad, but the son of Tabrimmon, and grandson of Hesjon, who first
+laid Samaria waste (1 Kings xv. 18-20). A second Benhadad contends with
+Ahab, who certainly may have been a grandson of the first, but certainly
+cannot have been the grandson of the opponent of David. If Nicolaus
+further tells us, that after Benhadad I. his descendants ruled for 10
+generations, and each of them along with the throne received the name of
+Benhadad, this is contradicted by the Books of Kings, not merely in the
+genealogy of the first Benhadad of those books, but also in the fact
+that in them Benhadad II., the contemporary of Ahab and Jehoram, is
+overthrown by Hazael, who then in a long reign over Damascus inflicts
+severe injury on Israel and Judah. Hazael is followed in the Books of
+Kings by Benhadad III. That "Achabbu from the land of Sir'lai" is
+correctly read in the inscription of Kurkh is an ascertained fact.
+
+[450] The prophetic revision explains the overthrow of Ahab by the fact
+that he had spared Benhadad in the previous war, when Jehovah had
+delivered him into his hand.
+
+[451] Ninth and tenth year of Shalmanesar II.
+
+[452] According to Noeldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa," the upper city of
+Dibon.
+
+[453] 1 Kings xix. 15; 2, viii. 7-15.
+
+[454] Joel iv. 19; Amos i. 11, 12.
+
+[455] 2 Chron. xxi. 16-18; Amos i. 6; cf. _infra_, p. 260. n. 2.
+
+[456] 2 Kings ix. 14.
+
+[457] 2 Kings x. 12-14.
+
+[458] 2 Kings xi. 1-3.
+
+[459] 2 Kings x. 30. "To the fourth generation" may have been added by
+the revision _post eventum_.
+
+[460] 2 Kings x. 18-27.
+
+[461] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 105.
+
+[462] 2 Kings x. 32.
+
+[463] 2 Kings xiii. 25.
+
+[464] 2 Kings viii. 12.
+
+[465] Amos i. 3.
+
+[466] 2 Kings xiii. 5.
+
+[467] See below, p. 326.
+
+[468] Of this date and the time of Amaziah I shall treat in the first
+chapter of Book IV.
+
+[469] 2 Kings xiii. 25.
+
+[470] 2 Kings xi. 3-20.
+
+[471] They fall about 830 B.C. The minority of the king is clear, and
+the verses iv. 4 ff. points to the incursion of the Philistines into
+Judah, mentioned p. 252.
+
+[472] 2 Kings xii. 17, 18. The occurrence is recorded after the
+twenty-third year of Joash, and the twenty-third year was 815 B.C.
+
+[473] The subjugation of Edom can only have taken place after the year
+803 B.C., _i.e._ after the march of Bin-nirar II. to the sea-coast.
+Bin-nirar enumerates Edom among the tribute-paying tribes of Syria. On
+this and on the date of Uzziah's accession, cf. Book IV. chap. 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CITIES OF THE PHENICIANS.
+
+
+The voyages of the Phenicians on the Mediterranean; their colonies on
+the coasts and islands of that sea; their settlements in Cyprus, Rhodes,
+Crete, the islands of the AEgean, Samothrace, and Thasos, on the coasts
+of Hellas, on Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia; their establishments on the
+northern edge of Africa in the course of the thirteenth and twelfth
+centuries B.C.; their discovery of the Atlantic about the year 1100
+B.C., have been traced by us already. Of the internal conditions and the
+constitution of the cities whose ships traversed the Mediterranean in
+every direction, and now found so many native harbours on the coasts and
+islands, we have hardly any information. We only know that monarchy
+existed from an ancient period in Sidon and Tyre, in Byblus, Berytus,
+and Aradus; and we are restricted to the assumption that this monarchy
+arose out of the patriarchal headship of the elders of the tribes. These
+tribes had long ago changed into civic communities, and their members
+must have consisted of merchant-lords, ship-owners, and warehousemen, of
+numerous labourers, artisans, sailors, and slaves. The accounts of the
+Hebrews exhibit the cities of the Philistines, the southern neighbours
+of the Phenicians on the Syrian coast, united by a league in the
+eleventh century B.C. The kings of the five cities of the Philistines
+combine for consultation, form binding resolutions, and take the field
+in common. We find nothing like this in the cities of the Phenicians.
+Not till a far later date, when the Phenicians had lost their
+independence, were federal forms of government prevalent among them.
+
+The campaigns of the Pharaohs, Tuthmosis III., Sethos, and Ramses II.,
+did not leave the cities of the Phenicians untouched (I. 342). After the
+reign of Ramses III., _i.e._ after the year 1300 B.C., Syria was not
+attacked from the Nile; but the overthrow of the kingdom of the Hittites
+about this period, and the subjugation of the Amorites by the
+Israelites, forced the old population to the coast (about 1250 B.C.).
+One hundred and fifty years later a new opponent of Syria showed
+himself, not from the south, but from the east. Tiglath Pilesar I., king
+of Assyria (1130-1100 B.C.), forced his way over the Euphrates, and
+reached the great sea of the western land (p. 42). His successes in
+these regions, even if he set foot on Lebanon, could at most have
+reached only the northern towns of the Phenicians; in any case they were
+of a merely transitory nature.
+
+The oldest city of the Phenicians was Sidon; her daughter-city, Tyre,
+was also founded at a very ancient period. We found that the
+inscriptions of Sethos I. mentioned it among the cities reduced by him.
+The power and importance of Tyre must have gradually increased with the
+beginning of a more lively navigation between the cities and the
+colonies; about the year 1100 B.C. her navigation and influence appears
+to have surpassed those of the mother-city. If Old Hippo in Africa was
+founded from Sidon, Tyrian ships sailed through the Straits of
+Gibraltar, discovered the land of silver, and founded Gades beyond the
+pillars. Accordingly we also find that Tyre, and not Sidon, was
+mistress of the island of Cyprus.
+
+According to the statements of the Greeks, a king of the name of Sobaal
+or Sethlon ruled in Sidon at the time of the Trojan war, _i.e._ before
+the year 1100 B.C.;[474] about the same time a king of the name of
+Abelbaal reigned in Berytus.[475] From a fragment of Menander of
+Ephesus, preserved to us by Josephus, it follows that after the middle
+of the eleventh century B.C. Abibaal was reigning in Tyre. A sardonyx,
+now at Florence, exhibits a man with a high crown on his head and a
+staff in his hand; in front of him is a star with four rays; the
+inscription in old Phenician letters runs, "Of Abibaal." Did this stone
+belong to king Abibaal?[476]
+
+Hiram, the son of this king, ascended the throne of Tyre while yet a
+youth, in 1001 B.C. He is said to have again subjugated to his dominion
+the Kittians, _i.e._ the inhabitants of Citium, or the cities of Cyprus
+generally, who refused to pay tribute. What reasons and what views of
+advantage in trade induced Hiram to enter into relations with David in
+the last years of his reign, and unite these relations even more closely
+with Solomon, the successor of David, has been recounted above. It was
+this understanding which not only opened Israel completely to the trade
+of the Phenicians, but also procured to the latter secure and new roads
+through Israel to the Euphrates and Egypt, and made it possible for them
+to discover and use the road by sea to South Arabia. Thus, a good
+century after the founding of Gades, the commerce of the Phenicians
+reached the widest extension which it ever obtained. We saw that the
+Phenicians about the year 990 B.C. went by ship from Elath past South
+Arabia to the Somali coast, and reached Ophir, _i.e._ apparently the
+land of the Abhira (_i.e._ herdsmen) on the mouths of the Indus.[477]
+The other advantages which accrued to Hiram from his connection with
+Israel were not slight. Solomon paid him, as has been said, 20,000 Kor
+of wheat and 20,000 Bath of oil yearly for 20 years in return for wood
+and choice quarry stones, and finally, in order to discharge his debt,
+had to give up 20 Israelitish towns on his borders.
+
+Hiram had to dispose of very considerable resources; his receipts must
+have been far in excess of Solomon's. Of the silver of Tarshish which
+the ships brought from Gades to Tyre, of the gold imported by the trade
+to Ophir, of the profits of the maritime trade with the land of incense,
+a considerable percentage must have come into the treasury of the king,
+and he enjoyed in addition the payments of Solomon. In any case he had
+at his command means sufficient to enlarge, adorn, and fortify his city.
+Ancient Tyre lay on the seashore; with the growth of navigation and
+trade, the population passed over from the actual city to an island off
+the coast, which offered excellent harbours. On a rock near this island
+lay that temple of Baal Melkarth, the god of Tyre, to which the priests
+ascribed a high antiquity; they told Herodotus that it was built in the
+year 2750 B.C. (I. 345). Hiram caused this island to be enlarged by
+moles to the north and west towards the mainland, and protected these
+extensions by bulwarks. The circuit of the island was now 22 stades,
+_i.e._ more than two and a half miles; the arm of the sea, which
+separates the island from the mainland, now measured only 2400 feet
+(three stades).[478] The whole island was surrounded with strong walls
+of masonry, which ran out sharply into the sea, and were washed by its
+waves, so that no room remained for the besieger to set foot and plant
+his scaling-ladders there. On the side of the island towards the
+mainland, where the docks were, these walls were the highest. Alexander
+of Macedon found them 150 feet high. The two harbours lay on the eastern
+side of the island--on the north-east and the south-east; on the
+north-east was the Sidonian harbour (which even now is the harbour of
+Sur); and on the south-east the Egyptian harbour. If the former was
+secured and closed by huge dams, the latter also was not without its
+protecting works, as huge blocks in the sea appear to show, though the
+dams here were no longer in perfect preservation even in Strabo's time.
+On the south shore of the island, eastward of the Egyptian harbour, lay
+the royal citadel; on the north-west side a temple of Baal Samim, the
+Agenorion of the Greeks. The rock which supported the temple of Melkarth
+appears to have been situated close to the city on the west.[479] This,
+like the temple of Astarte, was adorned and enlarged or restored by
+Hiram. For the roof he caused cedars of Lebanon to be felled. In the
+ancient shrine of the protecting deity of the city, the temple of
+Melkarth, he dedicated a great pillar of gold, which Herodotus saw there
+500 years later beside an erect smaragdus, which was so large that it
+gave light by night. This was perhaps a symbol of the light not overcome
+by the darkness.[480]
+
+Hiram died after a reign of 34 years, in the fifty-third year of his
+life. His son Baleazar, who sat on the throne for seven years (967-960
+B.C.), was succeeded by his son Abdastartus (_i.e._ servant of Astarte),
+who, after a reign of nine years (960-951 B.C.), fell before a
+conspiracy headed by the sons of his nurse. Abdastartus was murdered,
+and the eldest of the sons of his nurse maintained his dominion over
+Tyre for 12 years (951-939 B.C.). Then the legitimate dynasty returned
+to the throne. Of the brothers of the murdered Abdastartus, Astartus was
+the first to reign (939-927 B.C.), and after him Astarymus (927-918
+B.C.), who was murdered by a fourth brother, Pheles. But Pheles could
+not long enjoy the fruits of his crime. He had only been eight months on
+the throne when he was slain by the priest of Astarte, Ethbaal
+(Ithobaal). With Pheles the race of Abibaal comes to an end (917 B.C.).
+
+Ethbaal ascended the throne of Tyre, and was able to establish himself
+upon it. He is said to have built or fortified Bothrys in Lebanon,
+perhaps as a protection against the growing forces of Damascus.[481] In
+Israel, during Ethbaal's reign, as we have seen, Omri at the head of the
+army made himself master of the throne in 899 B.C., just as Ethbaal had
+usurped the throne of Tyre. Both were in a similar position. Both had to
+establish their authority and found their dynasty. Ethbaal's daughter
+was married to Ahab, the son of Omri. What were the results of this
+connection for Israel and Judah we have seen already. To what a
+distance the power of Tyre extended in another direction is clear from
+the fact that Ethbaal founded Auza in the interior of Africa, to the
+south of the already ancient colony of Ityke (p. 82).[482] After a reign
+of 32 years Ethbaal was succeeded by his son Balezor (885-877
+B.C.).[483] After eight years Balezor left two sons, Mutton and
+Sicharbaal, both under age. Yet the throne remained in the house of
+Ethbaal, and continued to do so even when Mutton died in the year 853
+B.C., and again left a son nine years old, Pygmalion, and a daughter
+Elissa, a few years older, whom he had married to his brother
+Sicharbaal, the priest of the temple of Melkarth.[484] Mutton had
+intended that Elissa and Pygmalion should reign together, and thus the
+power really passed into the hands of Sicharbaal, the husband of Elissa.
+When Pygmalion reached his sixteenth year the people transferred to him
+the sovereignty of Tyre, and he put Sicharbaal, his uncle, to death,
+either because he feared his influence as the chief priest of the
+tutelary god of the city, or because, as we are told, he coveted his
+treasures (846 B.C.).[485]
+
+Elissa fled from Tyre before her brother, as we are told, with others
+who would not submit to the tyranny of Pygmalion.[486] The exiles (we
+may perhaps suppose that they were members of old families, as it was
+apparently the people who had transferred the throne to Pygmalion) are
+said to have first landed at Cyprus, then to have sailed to the
+westward, and to have landed on the coast of Africa, in the
+neighbourhood of Ityke, the old colony of the Phenicians, and there to
+have bought as much land of the Libyans as could be covered by the skin
+of an ox. By dividing this into very thin strips they obtained a piece
+of land sufficient to enable them to build a fortress. This new
+dwelling-place, or the city which grew up round this fortress, the
+wanderers called, in reference to their old home, Karthada (_Karta
+hadasha_), _i.e._ "the new city," the Karchedon of the Greeks, the
+Carthage of the Romans. The legend of the purchase of the soil may have
+arisen from the fact that the settlers for a long time paid tribute to
+the ancient population, the Maxyans, for their soil. The ox-hide and all
+that is further told us of the fortunes of Elissa, her resistance to the
+suit of the Libyan prince Iarbas,[487] her self-immolation in order to
+escape from this suit (Virgil made despised love the motive for this
+immolation), is due to the transference of certain traits from the myths
+of the horned moon-goddess, to whom the cow is sacred, the wandering
+Astarte, who also bore the name of Dido, and of certain customs in the
+worship of the goddess to Carthage; these also have had influence on the
+narrative of the flight of Elissa.[488]
+
+The new settlement was intended to become an important centre for the
+colonies of the Phenicians in the West. The situation was peculiarly
+fortunate. Where the north coast of Africa approaches Sicily most
+nearly, the mountain range which runs along this coast, and forms the
+edge of the table-land in the interior, sinks down in gentle
+declivities, which thus form water-courses of considerable length, to a
+fertile hill country still covered with olive-gardens and
+orange-forests. From the north the sea penetrates deeply into the land
+between the "beautiful promontory" (Ras Sidi Ali) and the promontory of
+Hermes (Ras Addar). On the western side of this bay a ridge of land runs
+out, which possesses excellent springs of water. Not far from the shore
+a rock rises steeply to the height of about 200 feet. On this was
+planted the new citadel, Byrsa, on which the wanderers erected a temple
+to their god Esmun (I. 377). This citadel, which is said to have been
+about 2000 paces (double paces) in the circuit,[489] was also the city
+round which at a later time grew up the lower city, at first on the
+south-east toward the shore, and then on the north-west toward the sea.
+The harbour lay to the south-east, under the citadel. Some miles to the
+north of the new settlement, on the mouth of the Bagradas (Medsherda),
+at the north-west corner of the bay, was Ityke, the ancient colony of
+the Phenicians, which had been in existence for more than two centuries
+when the new settlers landed on the shore of the bay; and not far to the
+south on the shore was Adrymes (Hadrumetum), another city of their
+countrymen, which Sallust mentions among the oldest colonies of the
+Phenicians.[490] The Carthaginians never forgot their affection for the
+ancient Ityke, by whose assistance, no doubt, their own settlement had
+been supported.[491]
+
+The fragment which Josephus has preserved from the annals of the kings
+of Tyre ends with the accession of Pygmalion and the flight of Elissa.
+More than two centuries had passed since the campaign of Tiglath Pilesar
+I. to the Mediterranean, during which the cities of the Phenicians had
+suffered nothing from the arms and expeditions of the Assyrians. But
+when Balezor and Mutton, the son and grandson of Ethbaal, ruled over
+Tyre (885-853 B.C.), Assurbanipal of Assyria (883-859 B.C.) began to
+force his way to the west over the Euphrates. When he had reduced the
+sovereign of Karchemish to obedience by repeated campaigns, and had
+built fortresses on both banks of the Euphrates, he advanced in the year
+876 B.C. to the Orontes, captured the marches of Lebanus (Labnana), and
+received tribute from the king of Tyre, _i.e._ from Mutton, from the
+kings of Sidon, of Byblus, and Aradus. According to the inscriptions,
+the tribute consisted of bars of silver, gold, and lead. Assurbanipal's
+successor, Shalmanesar II. of Assyria (859-823 B.C.), pushed on even
+more energetically to the west. After forcing Cilicia to submit, he
+attacked Hamath, and in the year 854, as we have seen, he defeated at
+Karkar the united kings of Hamath, Damascus, and Israel, who were also
+joined by Matinbaal, the king of Aradus. But Shalmanesar was compelled
+to undertake three other campaigns to Damascus (850, 849, and 846 B.C.)
+before he succeeded, in the year 842 B.C., in making Damascus tributary.
+As has been remarked, Israel did not any longer attempt the decision of
+arms, and sought to gain the favour of Assyria; like Tyre and Sidon,
+Jehu sent tribute to Shalmanesar. This payment of tribute was repeated
+perforce by Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus, in the years 839 and 835 B.C., in
+which Shalmanesar's armies again appeared in Syria. Moreover, the
+inscriptions of Bin-nirar, king of Assyria (810-781 B.C.), tell us that
+Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Israel, Edom, and the land of the Philistines had
+paid him tribute. It is obvious that the cities of the Phenicians would
+have been as a rule most willing to pay it. When Assyria had definitely
+extended her dominion as far as the Euphrates, it was in the power of
+the Assyrian king to stop the way for the merchants of those cities to
+Mesopotamia and Babylon, and thus to inflict very considerable damage on
+the trade of the Phenicians, which was for the most part a carrying
+trade between the East and West. What were the sums paid in tribute,
+even if considerable, when compared with such serious disadvantages?
+
+Hitherto we have been able to observe monarchy in the patriarchal form
+of the head of the tribe, in the god-like position of the Pharaohs of
+Egypt, in the forms of a military principate, who ruled with despotic
+power over wide kingdoms, or in diminished copies of this original. It
+would be interesting to trace out and ascertain the changes which it had
+now to undergo at the head of powerful trading and commercial cities
+such as the Phenicians were. We have already seen that the principate of
+these cities was of great antiquity, that it remained in existence
+through all the periods of Phenician history, that it was rooted deeply
+enough to outlive even the independence of the cities. All more detailed
+accounts are wanting, and even inductions or comparisons with the
+constitution of Carthage in later times carry us little further. Not to
+mention the very insufficient accounts which we possess of this
+constitution, it was only to the oldest settlements of the Phenicians in
+Cyprus that the monarchy passed, at least it was only in these that it
+was able to maintain itself. The examination of these institutions of
+Carthage is adapted to show us in contrast on the one hand to the
+tribal princes of the Arabians, and on the other to the monarchy of
+Elam, Babel, and Asshur--what forms the feeling and character of a
+Semitic community, in which the burghers had reached the full
+development of their powers, were able to give to their state, which at
+the same time was supreme over a wide region; but for the constitution
+of the Phenician cities scarcely any conclusions can be drawn from it.
+
+Of the internal condition of the Phenician cities, the fragment of the
+history of Tyre in Josephus only enables us to ascertain that there was
+no lack of strife and bloodshed in the palaces of the kings, and that
+the priests of the tutelary deity must have been of importance and
+influence beside the king. But it follows from the nature of things that
+these city-kings could not have held sway with the same complete power
+as the military princes of the great kingdoms of the East. The
+development of independence among the burghers must have placed far
+closer limitations upon the will of the kings in these cities than was
+the case elsewhere in the East. The more lively the trade and industry
+of the cities, the more strongly must the great merchants and
+manufacturers have maintained against the kings the consideration and
+advancement of their own interests. For the maintenance of order and
+peace, of law and property in the cities they looked to the king, but
+they had also to make important demands before the throne, and were
+combined against it by community of interests. They were compelled to
+advance these independently if the king refused his consent. Isaiah
+tells us that the merchants of Tyre were princes. Ezekiel speaks of the
+grey-haired men, the "elders" of the city of Byblus.[492] Of the later
+period we know with greater certainty that there was a council beside
+the kings, the membership in which may have belonged primarily to the
+chiefs of the old families, but also in part to the hereditary priests.
+Inscriptions of the cities belonging to Grecian times present the title
+"elders."[493] The families in the Phenician cities which could carry
+back their genealogy to the forefathers of the tribes which possessed
+land and influence before the fall of the Hittites, the incursions of
+the Hebrews, and the spread of trade had brought a mass of strangers
+into the city walls, would appear to have had the first claim to a share
+in the government; the heads of these families may at first have formed
+the council which stood beside the king. Yet it lies in the nature of
+great manufacturing and trading cities that the management of interests
+of this kind cannot be confined to the elders of the family or remain
+among the privileges of birth. Hence we may assume that the great
+trading firms and merchants could not long be excluded from these
+councils. In the fourth century B.C. the council of Sidon seems to have
+consisted of 500 or 600 elders.[494] Owing to the treasures of East and
+West which poured together into the cities of the Phenicians, life
+became luxurious within their walls. Men's efforts were directed to gain
+and acquisition; the merchants would naturally desire to enjoy their
+wealth. The lower classes of the closely-compressed population no doubt
+followed the example set them by the higher. From the multitude of
+retail dealers and artizans, the number of pilots and mariners who
+returned home eager for enjoyment after long voyages, men whose passions
+would be unbridled, a turbulent population must have grown up, in spite
+of the numerous colonies into which the ambitious as well as the poor
+might emigrate or be sent with the certain prospect of a better
+position. We saw above that the people of Tyre are said to have
+transferred the rule to Pygmalion. For the later period it is certain
+that even the people had a share in the government.[495]
+
+The hereditary monarchy passed, so far as we can see, from the
+mother-cities to the oldest colonies only, _i.e._ the cities in Cyprus.
+In the other colonies the chief officers were magistrates, usually two
+in number.[496] They were called _Sufetes_, _i.e._ judges. In Carthage
+these two yearly officers, in whose hands lay the supreme administration
+of justice, and the executive, formed with 30 elders the governing body
+of the city. It seems that these 30 men were the representatives of as
+many original combinations of families into which the old houses of the
+city were incorporated. The connection of the colonies and
+mother-cities, both in general and more especially where the colony
+could dispense with the protection of the mother-city, were far more
+mercantile and religious than political. The colonies worshipped the
+deities of the mother-cities, and gave them a share in their booty. We
+also find that descendants of priests who had emigrated from the
+mother-city stood at the head of the temples of the colonies. In
+Carthage, where the priests of Melkarth wore the purple robe, the office
+was hereditary in the family of Bithyas, who is said to have left Tyre
+with Elissa.[497]
+
+We are acquainted with the gods of the Phenician cities, and the mode in
+which they worshipped them; with El and Baal-Samim, Baal-Melkarth and
+Baal-Moloch, Adonis, Astarte and Ashera, with the rites of continence
+and mutilation, of sensual excess and prostitution, of sacrifice and
+fire-festival, which were intended to win their favour and grace. We
+observed that the protecting deities of the separate states had even
+before the days of Hiram been united in the system of the seven great
+gods, the Cabiri, at whose head was placed an eighth, Esmun, the supreme
+deity. We saw that in this system special meanings were ascribed to them
+in reference to the protection of peace and law, of industry and
+navigation; and we cannot doubt that with the riches which accumulated
+in the walls of the cities, with the luxury of life which these riches
+permitted, the lascivious and sensual side of the worship must have
+increased and extended.
+
+The life led by the kings of the old Phenician cities is described as
+rich and splendid. We have already assumed that the princes of the
+Phenician cities had a rich share in the returns of trade, and indeed
+the fact can be proved from the Hebrew Scriptures for Hiram, king of
+Tyre. Ezekiel tells us, "The king of Tyre sits like a god in the seat of
+God, in the midst of the seas; he dwells as in Eden, in the garden of
+God. Precious stones are the covering of his palaces: the ruby, the
+topaz, the diamond, the chrysolite, the onyx, and the jasper, the
+sapphire, the carbuncle, the emerald, and gold; the workmanship of his
+ring-cases he bears upon him."[498] "His garments," we are told in a
+song of the Hebrews, "smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia; in ivory
+palaces the sound of harps gladdens him. At his right hand stands the
+queen in gold of Ophir, in a garment of wrought gold: on broidered
+carpets she shall be brought to him; the young maidens, her companions,
+follow her."[499]
+
+Hosea calls Tyre "a plantation in a pleasant meadow."[500] Of the city
+itself Ezekiel says, "The architects have made her beauty perfect. All
+her planks (wainscot) were of cypress, and her masts of cedar of
+Lebanon; the rudders are of oaks of Bashan, the benches of ivory, set in
+costly wood from the island of Cyprus. For sails Tyre spreads out byssus
+and gay woofs; blue and red purple from the islands of Elisa formed
+their coverlets."[501] In the description of Strabo, more than 500 years
+later, Tyre appears less magnificent. The houses of the city were very
+high, higher than at Rome; the city still wealthy, owing to the trade in
+her two harbours and her purple factories, but the number of these made
+the city unpleasant. Strabo does not mention any considerable building
+in the city. Of Aradus he says, "The smallness of the rock on which the
+city lies, seven stades only in circuit, and the number of inhabitants
+caused every house to have many stories. Drinking-water had to be
+obtained from the mainland; on the island there were only wells and
+cisterns."[502]
+
+Scarcely any striking remains of the ancient buildings of Phoenicia have
+come down to our time. The ancient temples enumerated in the treatise on
+the Syrian goddess have perished without a trace; the temple of Melkarth
+of Tyre, the great temple of Astarte at Sidon, the temple of Bilit
+(Ashera) at Byblus,[503] although they were certainly not of a character
+easy to destroy. That the Phenicians were acquainted from very ancient
+periods with the erection of strong masonry was proved above. Not only
+have we the legend of the Greeks, that Cadmus taught them the art of
+masonry and built the famous walls of Thebes; we saw how Israel, about
+the year 1000 B.C., provided herself with masons, stone-cutters, and
+materials from Tyre. Hence we may also assume that the architecture of
+the temple and the royal palaces of Solomon described in the Books of
+Kings corresponded to the architecture of the Phenicians. The temples
+and palaces of the Phenicians consisted, therefore, of walls of large
+materials, roofed with beams of cedar; in the interior the materials
+were no doubt covered, as at Jerusalem, with planks of wood and
+ornaments of brass, "so that the stone was nowhere seen" (p. 183).
+Ezekiel has already told us that the planks of the roofs of the royal
+palace at Tyre were overlaid with gold and precious stones; and the
+Books of Kings showed us that even the floors were adorned with gold.
+All the remains of walls in Phoenicia that can be referred to an ancient
+period exhibit a style of building confined to the stone of the mountain
+range which hems the coast, and desirous of imitating the nature of the
+rocks. Blocks of large dimensions were used by preference; at first they
+were worked as little as possible, and fitted to each other, and the
+interstices between the great blocks were filled with smaller stones. Of
+this kind are the fragments of the walls which surround the rock on
+which the city of Aradus stood. Gigantic blocks, visible even now here
+and there, formed the dams of the harbours of Aradus, Sidon, Tyre, and
+Japho.[504] It was a step in advance that the blocks, while retaining
+the form in which they were quarried, were smoothed at the joints in
+order to be fitted together more firmly, and a further step still that
+the blocks were hewn into squares, though at first the outer surfaces of
+the squares were not smoothed. So far as remains allow us to see, the
+detached structures were of a simple and massive character, in shape
+like cubes of vast dimensions; the walls, as is shown by the city wall
+of Aradus, were joined without mortar, and in the oldest times the
+buildings appear to have been roofed with monoliths. Cedar beams were
+not sought after till larger spaces had to be covered. Beside old
+water-basins hewn in the rock, and oil or wine presses of the same
+character, we have no remains of ancient Phenician temples but those on
+the site of Marathus (now Amrit), a city of the tribe of the Arvadites,
+to the south of Aradus, and in the neighbourhood of Byblus.[505] The
+bases of the walls which enclose the courts and water-basins of the
+temple of Marathus can still be traced, as well as the huge stones which
+formed the three cellae, the innermost shrines of this temple. On either
+side of a back wall formed of similar materials heavy blocks protrude,
+and are roofed over, together with this wall, by a great monolith, which
+protected the sacred stone or the image of the deity.[506] This heavy
+style of the city walls, dams, temples, and royal castles did not
+prevent the Phenicians, any more than the Egyptians, from building the
+upper stories of the dwelling-houses of their cities in light wood-work.
+
+By far the most important remains of ancient Phoenicia are the
+rock-tombs, which are found in great numbers and extent opposite to the
+islands of Tyre and Aradus, as well as at Sidon, Byblus, and among the
+ruins of the other cities on the spurs of Lebanon; and which at Tyre
+especially spread out into wide burial-places, and several stories of
+tombs, one upon the other. In the same style we find to the west of the
+ruins of Carthage long walls of rocks hollowed out into thousands of
+tombs, and furnished with arched niches for the reception of the
+dead.[507] In the oldest period the Phenicians must have placed their
+dead in natural cavities of rock, and perhaps they erected a stone
+before them as a memorial. In Genesis Abraham buries Sarah in the cave
+of Machpelah, and Jacob sets up a stone on the grave of Rachel.[508]
+Afterwards the natural hollows were extended, and whole cavities dug out
+artificially for tombs. The tomb of David and the tombs of his
+successors were hewn in the rocks of the gorge which separated the city
+from the height of Zion (p. 177). The oldest of the artificial tombs in
+Phoenicia are doubtless those which consist of cubical chambers with
+horizontal hewn roofs. Round one or two large chambers lower oblong
+depressions are driven further in the rocks to receive the corpses. The
+entrance into these ancient chambers are formed by downward
+perpendicular shafts, at the bottom of which on two sides are openings
+into the chambers secured by slabs of stone laid before them. Shafts of
+this kind must be meant when the Hebrews say in a figure of the dead,
+"The mouth of the well has eaten him up." Later than the tombs of this
+description are those the entrance to which is on the level ground
+(which was then closed by a stone), which have roofs hewn in low arches,
+and side niches for the corpses. The arched chambers approached by steps
+leading downward, the walls of which are decorated after Grecian
+patterns on the stone, or on stucco, must originate from the time of
+the predominance of Greek art, _i.e._ of the days of Hellenism. The
+oldest style of burial was the placing of the corpse in the cavity, the
+grave-chamber, and afterwards in the depression at the side of this. At
+a later time apparently the enclosure of the corpse in a narrow coffin
+of clay became common here, as in Babylonia. Coffins of lead have also
+been found in the rock-tombs of Phoenicia. But beside these, heavy
+oblong stone-coffins with a simple slab of stone as a lid were in use in
+ancient times; along with flat lids, lids raised in a low triangle are
+also found; later still, and latest of all, are coffins and sarcophagi
+adorned with acroteria and other ornaments of the Greek style.[509]
+
+In the flat limestone rocks which run at a moderate elevation in the
+neighbourhood of Sidon, and contain the vast necropolis of that city,
+there is a cavern, now called Mogharet Ablun, _i.e._ the cave of Apollo.
+Beside the entrance, in a depression covered by a structure attached to
+the rock-wall (the rock-tombs were supplemented and extended by
+structures attached to the wall), was found a coffin of blackish blue
+stone, the form of which indicates the shape of the buried person after
+the manner of the mummy-coffins of Egypt, and displays in colossal
+relief the mask of the dead in Egyptian style, with an Egyptian covering
+for the head and beard on the chin; the band round the neck ends behind
+in two hawk's heads. The inscription in Phenician letters teaches us
+that this coffin contained Esmunazar, king of Sidon. Similar sarcophagi
+in stone, in part expressing the form even more accurately, seven or
+eight in number, have been discovered in other chambers of the
+burial-place of Sidon, and in the burial-places of Byblus and
+Antaradus, but only in cubical, _i.e._ in more ancient chambers. Marble
+coffins of this kind have also been found in the Phenician colonies of
+Soloeis and Panormus in Sicily, and of the same shape in burnt earth in
+Malta and Gozzo. The Phenicians, therefore, came to imitate the coffins
+of the Egyptians. Similar imitation of Egyptian burial is proved by the
+gold plates found in Phenician chambers, which are like those with which
+we find the mouth closed in Egyptian mummies, and the discovery of
+golden masks in Phenician chambers,[510] which correspond to the gilding
+of the masks of the face of the innermost Egyptian coffins which
+immediately surround the linen covering. As the face-mask of the
+external coffin imitated the face of the dead in stone or in coloured
+wood, so also ought the inner gilded face to preserve the features of
+the dead. This imitation of the Egyptian style of burial among the
+Phenicians must go back to a great antiquity. It is true that Esmunazar
+of Sidon did not rule till the second half of the fifth or the beginning
+of the fourth century B.C.[511] Yet the shape and style of his coffin
+reminds us of older Egyptian patterns; it is most like the stone coffins
+of Egypt which have come down from the beginning of the sixth century.
+And if the ancient tombs opened at Mycenae behind the lion's gate belong
+to Carians influenced by Phenician civilisation (p. 74), if golden masks
+are here found on the face of the dead, the Phenicians must have
+borrowed this custom from the Egyptians as early as the thirteenth
+century, if not even earlier.
+
+The remains which have come down to us of the sculpture, jars, and
+utensils of Phoenicia exhibit the double influence which the art and
+industry of the Phenicians underwent even at an early period. Agreeably
+to the close relations into which the Phenicians entered, on the one
+hand with Babel and Asshur, and on the other with Egypt, the effects of
+these two ancient civilisations meet each other on the coast of Syria.
+The arts of the kindred land of the Euphrates, the relations of which to
+Phoenicia were at the same time the older, naturally made themselves
+felt first. When Tuthmosis III. collected tribute in Syria at the
+beginning of the sixteenth century, the Babylonian weight was already in
+use there; the jars which were brought to this king as the tribute of
+Syria are carefully worked, but as yet adorned with very simple and
+recurring patterns of lines. On the other hand, the ornaments found in
+the tombs of Mycenae, gold-plates, frontlets, and armlets, exhibit
+ornaments like those figured on the monuments of Assyria; and the
+objects found in the rock-tombs on Hymettus, at Spata, point even more
+definitely to Babylonian patterns: winged fabulous animals and battles
+of beasts (a lion attacking a bull or an antelope[512]) are formed in
+the manner of the Eastern Semites, which brings the form of the muscles
+into prominence. We may assume that the influence of Egypt began with
+the times of the Tuthmosis and Amenophis, and their supremacy in Syria,
+and slowly gathered strength. The heavy style of Phenician buildings
+would not be made lighter or more free by the architecture of Egypt,
+which also arose out of building in rock. The temples of Phoenicia
+adopted Egyptian symbols for their ornaments; the monoliths of the roofs
+of those three cellae at Marathus exhibit the winged sun's-disk, the
+emblem at the entrance of Egyptian temples; the chests for the dead and
+masks for the mummies of the Egyptians were imitated in the rock-tombs
+of Phoenicia. If the weaving of the Phenicians at first copied the
+ancient Babylonian patterns, they began under the stronger influence of
+Egypt to adorn their pottery and metal-work after Egyptian patterns. But
+they also combined the Babylonian and Egyptian elements in their
+art.[513] The oldest memorial of this combination is perhaps retained in
+that winged sphinx, which belongs to the time of the dominion of the
+shepherds in Egypt. In the graves on Hymettus pictures in relief of
+female winged sphinxes are found with clothed breasts and peculiar
+wings, in a treatment obviously already conventional. In Phoenicia
+itself are found reliefs of similar sphinxes, old men with a human face
+on either side of the tree of life, which meet us oftentimes in the
+monuments of Assyria. This combination, this use of Babylonian and
+Egyptian types and forms side by side, is seen most clearly on a large
+bowl found at Curium near Amathus, in Cyprus, and wrought with great
+care and skill.[514] It follows that the art of the Phenicians was
+essentially imitative and intended to furnish objects for trade. Of
+round works of sculpture we have only dwarfish deities (I. 378), the
+typical form of which was naturally retained, and a few lions coarsely
+wrought in the style of the plastic art of Babylon and Assyria.[515] The
+relation in which the lion stood to the god Melkarth naturally made the
+delineation of the lion a favourite object of Phenician art.
+
+Phoenicia, though the home of alphabetical writing, has left us no more
+than two or three inscriptions, and Carthage has not left us a great
+number. Not that there was any lack of inscriptions in Phoenicia in
+ancient days. We have heard already of ancient inscriptions at Rhodes,
+Thebes, and Gades. Job wishes that "his words might be graven on rocks
+for ever with an iron chisel and lead."[516] The inscriptions of
+Phoenicia have perished because they were engraved like those
+inscriptions of Gades, on plates of brass. Beside the inscription on the
+coffin of Esmunazar, king of Sidon, already mentioned, of a date about
+400 B.C., only two or three smaller inscriptions have been preserved,
+which do not go beyond the second century B.C. In this inscription
+Esmunazar speaks in person; he calls himself the son of Tabnit, king of
+the Sidonians, son of Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians. With his mother,
+Amastarte, the priestess of Astarte, he had erected temples to Baal,
+Astarte, and Esmun. He beseeches the favour of the gods for himself and
+his land; he prays that Dor and Japho may always remain under Sidon; he
+declares that he wishes to rest in the grave which he has built and in
+this coffin. No one is to open the tomb or plunder it, or remove or
+damage this stone coffin. If any man attempts it the gods will destroy
+him with his seed; he is not to be buried, and after death will find no
+rest among the shades.[517]
+
+There is scarcely any side of civilisation, any forms of technical art,
+the invention of which was not ascribed by the Greeks to the Phenicians.
+They were nearly all made known to the Greeks through the Phenicians;
+more especially the building of walls and fortresses, mining, the
+alphabet, astronomy, numbers, mathematics, navigation, together with a
+great variety of applications of technical skill. If the discovery of
+alphabetic writing belongs to the Phenicians, the Babylonians were the
+instructors of the Phenicians in astronomy as well as in fixing measures
+and weights (I. 305). Yet this is no reason for contesting the statement
+of Strabo that the Sidonians were "eager inquirers into the knowledge of
+the stars and of numbers, to which they were led by navigation by night
+and the art of calculation."[518] In the same way the technical
+discoveries ascribed by the Greeks to the Phenicians were not all made
+in their cities; they carried on with vigour and skill what grew up
+independently among them as well as what they learnt from others. The
+making of glass was undoubtedly older in Egypt than in Phoenicia (I.
+224). Egypt also practised work in metals before Phoenicia. Snefru and
+Chufu made themselves masters of the copper mines of the peninsula of
+Sinai before the year 3000 B.C. (I. 95), while the Phenicians can hardly
+have occupied the copper island off their coast (Cyprus) before the
+middle of the thirteenth century B.C. Artistic weaving and embroidery
+were certainly practised at a more ancient date in Babylonia than in the
+cities of the Phenicians. But all these branches of industry were
+carried on with success by the Phenicians. Sidon furnished excellent
+works in glass, which were accounted the best even down to a late period
+of antiquity. The dunes on the coast between Acco and Tyre, where is the
+mouth of the glass-river (Sihor Libnath),[519] provided the Phenician
+manufacturers with the earth necessary for the manufacture of glass. It
+was maintained that the most beautiful glass was cast in Sarepta
+(Zarpath, _i.e._ melting), a city on the coast between Sidon and
+Tyre.[520]
+
+The purple dyeing, _i.e._ the colouring of woofs by the liquor from
+fish, was discovered by the Phenicians. They were unsurpassed in this
+art; it outlived by many centuries the power and splendour of their
+cities. Trumpet and purple fish were found in great numbers on their
+coasts, and the liquor from these provided excellent dye. The liquor of
+the purple-fish, which comes from a vessel in the throat, is dark-red in
+the small fish, and black in the larger fish; the liquor of the
+trumpet-fish is scarlet. The fish were pounded and the dye extracted by
+decoction. By mixing, weakening, or thickening this material, and by
+adding this or that ingredient, various colours were obtained, through
+all the shades of crimson and violet down to the darkest black, in which
+fine woollen stuffs and linen from Egypt were dipped. The stuffs soaked
+in these colours are the purple cloths of antiquity, and were
+distinguished by the bright sheen of the colours. The Tyrian double-dyed
+cloth, which had the colour of curdled blood, and the violet amethyst
+purple were considered the most beautiful.[521] Three hundred pounds of
+the raw material were usually required to dye 50 pounds of wool.[522]
+When the purple stuffs began to be sought after, the fish collected on
+the coasts of Tyre, Sidon, and Sarepta were no longer sufficient. We saw
+how the ships of the Phenicians went from coast to coast in order to get
+fresh materials for the dye, and found them in great numbers on the
+shores of Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Cythera, and Thera; in the bays of
+Laconia and Argos, and in the straits of Euboea. Purple-fish were also
+collected on the greater Syrtis, in Sicily, the Balearic Isles, and
+coasts of Tarshish.[523] Even at a later period, when the art of dyeing
+with the purple-fish was understood and practised at many places in the
+Mediterranean Sea, the Tyrian purple still maintained its pre-eminence
+and fame. "Tyre," says Strabo, "overcame her misfortunes, and always
+recovered herself by means of her navigation, in which the Phenicians
+were superior to all others, and her purples. The Tyrian purple is the
+most beautiful; the fish are caught close at hand, and every other
+requirement for the dyeing is there in abundance."[524] A hundred years
+later Pliny adds "that the ancient glory of Tyre survived now only in
+her fish and her purples."[525] The consumption and expense of purple in
+antiquity was very great, especially in Hither Asia. At first the
+Phenician kings wore the purple robe as the sign of their rank; then it
+became the adornment of the princes of the East, the priests, the women
+of high rank, and upper classes. In the temples and palaces the purple
+served for curtains and cloths, robes and veils for the images and
+shrines. The kings of Babylon and Assyria, and after them the kings of
+Persia, collected stores of purple stuffs in their palaces. Plutarch
+puts the value of the amount of purple found by Alexander at Susa at
+5000 talents.[526] In the West also the purple robe soon became the
+distinguishing garb of royalty and rank. Yet the Greeks and Romans of
+the better times, owing to the costliness of the material, contented
+themselves with the possession of borders or stripes of purple.
+
+The weaving and embroidery of the Phenicians apparently followed
+Assyrian and Babylonian patterns. They must also have made and exported
+ceramic ware and earthen vessels in large numbers at an ancient period,
+as is proved by the tributes brought to Tuthmosis III., the discoveries
+in Cyprus, Rhodes, Thera, and at Hissarlik. In the preparation of
+perfumes Sidon and Tyre were not equal to the Babylonians. It is true
+that their manufacturers supplied susinum and cyprinum of excellent
+quality, but they could not attain to the cinnamon or the nard ointment,
+nor to the royal ointment of the Babylonians.[527]
+
+In mining the Phenicians were masters. In regard to the Phenician skill
+in this art, the Book of Job says, "The earth, from which comes
+nourishment, is turned up; he lays his hand upon the flint; far from the
+dealings of men he makes his descending shaft. No bird of prey knows the
+path; the eye of the vulture discovers it not; the wild beasts do not
+tread it. Through the rocks paths are made; he searches out the darkness
+and the night. Then his eye beholds all precious things. The stone of
+the rocks is the place of the sapphire and gold-dust. Iron is taken out
+of the mountains; stones are melted into brass, the drop of water is
+stopped, and the hidden is brought to light."[528] The Phenicians dug
+mines for copper, first on Lebanon and then in Cyprus. We saw that they
+afterwards, in the second half of the thirteenth century, opened out the
+gold treasures of Thasos in the Thracian Sea. Herodotus, who had seen
+their abandoned mines there (they lay on the south coast of Thasos),
+informed us that the Phenicians had entirely "turned over a whole
+mountain." Yet even in the fifth century B.C. the mines of Thasos
+produced a yearly income of from two to three hundred talents. In Spain
+the Phenicians opened their mines in the silver mountain, _i.e._ in the
+Sierra Morena, above the lower course of the Baetis (the
+Guadalquivir);[529] their ships went up the stream as far as Sephela
+(perhaps Hispalis, Seville). The richest silver-mines lay above Sephela
+at Ilipa (Niebla); the best gold and copper mines were at Cotini, in the
+region of Gades.[530] Diodorus assures us that all the mines in Iberia
+had been opened by Phenicians and Carthaginians, and not one by the
+Romans. In the more ancient times the workmen here brought up in three
+days an Euboic talent of silver, and their wages were fixed at a fourth
+part of the returns. The mines in Iberia were carried down many stades
+in depth and length, with pits, shafts, and sloping paths crossing each
+other; for the veins of gold and silver were more productive at a
+greater depth. The water in the mines was taken out by Egyptian spiral
+pumps. Strabo observes that the gold ore when brought up was melted over
+a slow fire, and purified by vitriolated earth. The smelting-ovens for
+the silver were built high, in order that the vapour from the ore, which
+was injurious and even deadly, might pass into the air.[531]
+
+The Phenicians also understood how to work skilfully the metals supplied
+by their mines. At the founding of Gades, which we had to place about
+the year 1100 B.C., iron pillars with inscriptions are mentioned which
+the settlers put up in the temple of Melkarth (p. 82). The brass work
+which the melter, Hiram of Tyre, executed for Solomon (p. 182) is
+evidence of long practice in melting brass, and of skill in bringing
+into shape large masses of melted metal. The Homeric poems speak of
+Sidon as "rich in brass," and "skilful;" they tell us of large beaten
+bowls of brass and silver of Sidonian workmanship, "rich in invention."
+Even at a later period the goblets of Sidon were in request. Not only
+metal implements and vessels of brass and copper, molten and beaten,
+were furnished by the Phenicians; they must also have manufactured
+armour in large quantities, if we may draw any conclusion about armour
+from the tribute imposed on the Syrians by Tuthmosis III. It is easily
+intelligible of what value it must have been for the nations of the West
+to come into the possession of splendid armour and good weapons. Besides
+these are the ornaments found in great numbers, and of high antiquity,
+in the tombs of Spata and Mycenae, and in the excavations at Hissarlik.
+In Homer, Phenician ships bring necklaces of gold and amber to the
+Greeks. At a later time the ornaments of the Phenicians and their
+alabaster boxes were sought after; the carved work in ivory and wood,
+with which they also adorned the prows and banks of oars of their ships,
+is praised by Ezekiel. They also knew how to set and cut precious
+stones; some seals have come down to us in part from an ancient
+date.[532]
+
+In ship-building the Phenicians were confessedly superior; they are said
+to have discovered navigation.[533] The ancient forests of cedar and
+cypress which rose immediately above their shores supplied the best
+wood, which resisted decay for an extraordinary length of time even in
+salt water. Much as the Phenicians used these forests in the course of a
+thousand years for building their ships, their palaces, and temples, as
+well as for exportation, they provided even in the third century B.C. a
+material which for extent, size, and beauty won the admiration of the
+Greeks.[534] The oldest ship of the Phenicians which continued through
+all time in use as a trading-vessel was the _gaulos_, a vessel with high
+prow and stern, both of which were similarly rounded. It was propelled
+by a large sail and by rowers, from 20 to 30 in number. Besides the
+gaulos, there was the long and narrow fifty-oar, which served for a
+merchantman and pirate-ship as well as for a ship of war, and after the
+discovery of the silver land the large and armed merchantman, the ship
+of Tarshish. Isaiah enumerates the ship of Tarshish among the costly
+structures of men.[535] Ezekiel compares Tyre to a proud ship of the
+sea. We know that the great transport-ships and merchantmen of the
+Phenicians and Carthaginians could take about 500 men on board. The
+Byblians were considered the best ship-builders. The keels of the ships,
+like the masts, were made of cedar; the oars were of oak, supplied by
+the oak forests of the table-land of Bashan. The mariners of Sidon and
+Aradus were considered the best rowers. The Greeks praise the strict and
+careful order on board a Phenician ship, the happy use of the smallest
+spaces, the accuracy in distributing and placing the lading, the
+experience, wisdom, activity, and safety of the Phenician pilots and
+officers.[536] Others commend the great sail and oar power of the
+Phenician ships. They could sail even against the wind, and make
+fortunate voyages in the stormy season of the year. While the Greeks
+steered by the Great Bear, which, if a more visible, was a far more
+uncertain guide, the Phenicians had at an early time discovered a less
+conspicuous but more trustworthy guide in the polar star, which the
+Greeks call the "Phenician star." The Greeks themselves allow that this
+circumstance rendered the voyages of the Phenicians more accurate and
+secure. On an average the Phenician ships, which as a rule did not set
+out before the end of February, and returned at the end of October,
+accomplished 120 miles in 24 hours; but ships that were excellently
+built and equipped, and sufficiently manned, ran about 150 miles.[537]
+In the fifteenth century the galleys of Venice could run from 50 to 100
+miles in the Mediterranean in the 24 hours. The excellence of the
+Phenician navy survived the independence of the cities. Inclination
+towards, and pleasure in navigation, as well as skill in it, were always
+to be found among the populations of those cities. The Phenician ships
+were by far the best in the fleets of the Persian kings.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[474] Eustath. ad "Odysseam," 4, 617.
+
+[475] Vol. i. p. 352.
+
+[476] De Luynes, "Essai sur la numismatique des satrapies," p. 69.
+
+[477] Above, p. 188.
+
+[478] Curt. 4, 8. Pliny ("Hist. Nat." 5, 17) puts the distance from the
+mainland at 700 paces (double paces).
+
+[479] On coins of Tyre of a later time we find two rocks, which indicate
+the position of the city. Ezekiel (xxvi. 4, 5) threatens that she shall
+be a naked rock in the sea for the spreading of nets. Joseph. "c.
+Apion," 8, 5, 3; Diod. 17, 46; Arrian, 2, 21, 23. Renan's view ("Mission
+de Phenicie," p. 546 ff.) on the Agenorion has been adopted; some others
+of his results appear to be uncertain.
+
+[480] Vol. i. 367; Menander in Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 17, 18.
+
+[481] Joseph. "Antiq." 8, 13, 2.
+
+[482] Joseph. _loc. cit._
+
+[483] In order to bring the reigns of Josephus into harmony with his
+total, the total, which is given twice, must be retained. Hence nothing
+remains but to replace, as Movers has already done, the three and six
+years given by Josephus for Balezor and Mutton by the eight and 25 years
+given by Syncellus.
+
+[484] On the identity of the names Acerbas, Sichaeus, Sicharbas,
+Sicharbaal, Serv. "ad AEneid," 1, 343; Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 1, 355.
+
+[485] Justin, 18, 4.
+
+[486] Timaeus, fragm. 23, ed. Mueller; Appian, "Rom. Hist." 8, 1.
+
+[487] Timaeus, fragm. 23, ed. Mueller.
+
+[488] Vol. i. 371; Movers, "Phoeniz." 1, 609 ff.
+
+[489] Oros. 4, 22; Strabo, p. 832.
+
+[490] Sall. "Jug." 19.
+
+[491] The various statements about the year of the foundation of
+Carthage are collected in Mueller, "Geograph. Graeci min." 1, xix. It is
+impossible to fix the foundation more accurately than about the middle
+of the ninth century B.C. We may place it in the year 846 B.C. if we
+rest on the 143-2/3 years of Josephus from the building of the temple
+(according to our own date 990 B.C.), and the round sum given by
+Appian--that 700 years elapsed from the founding by Dido to the
+destruction of the city; "Rom. Hist." 8, 132.
+
+[492] Ezekiel xxvii. 9.
+
+[493] Renan, "Mission de Phenicie," p. 199.
+
+[494] Diod. 16, 41, 45; fragm. 23, ed. Bipont; cf. Justin. 18, 6.
+
+[495] Joseph. "Antiq." 14, 12, 4, 5; Curt. 4, 15.
+
+[496] Liv. 28, 37; Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 1, 490 ff, 529 ff.
+
+[497] Servius, "ad AEneid." 1, 738.
+
+[498] Ezekiel xxviii. 2-17.
+
+[499] Psalm xlv. 9-15. Though it is doubtful whether there is any
+reference here to Tyre, the court-life of the Israelites was imitated
+from the Phenicians.
+
+[500] Hosea ix. 13.
+
+[501] Ezekiel xxvii. 4-7.
+
+[502] Strabo, pp. 754, 756.
+
+[503] Lucian, "De Syria dea," 3-5.
+
+[504] Renan, "Mission de Phenicie," p. 39 ff, 362.
+
+[505] Ceccaldi, "Le Monument de Sarba," Revue Archeolog. 1878.
+
+[506] Renan, "Mission de Phenicie," p. 60 ff.
+
+[507] Beule, "Nachgrabungen zu Karthago," s. 98 ff (translation).
+
+[508] Gen. xxxv. 20.
+
+[509] Renan, _loc. cit._ 412 ff.
+
+[510] In Cyprus also a mask of this kind has been found.
+
+[511] Von Gutschmid, in "Fleckeisens Jahrbuecher," 1875, s. 579.
+
+[512] [Greek: ATHENAION s' g' pinax]; A. 7, B. 8.
+
+[513] Helbig, "Cenni sopra l'arte fenicia," p. 17 ff.
+
+[514] Ceccaldi, "Les fouilles de Curium," Revue Archeolog. 1877.
+
+[515] Renan, _loc. cit._ pp. 175, 181, 397.
+
+[516] Job xix. 23.
+
+[517] Roediger, "Z. D. M. G." 9, 647; Schlottmann, "Inschrift
+Esmunazars;" Halevy, "Melanges," pp. 9, 34; Oppert, "Records of the
+Past," 9, 109.
+
+[518] Strabo, p. 757.
+
+[519] Joshua xix. 26. Strabo, p. 758. Tacitus says, "On the shore of
+Judaea the Belus falls into the sea: the sand collected at the mouth of
+this river, when mixed with saltpetre, is melted into glass. The strip
+of shore is of moderate extent, but inexhaustible;" "Hist." 5, 7
+
+[520] Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 5, 17.
+
+[521] Adolph Schmidt, "Forschungen auf dem Gebiete des Alterthums," s.
+69.
+
+[522] Schmidt, _loc. cit._ 129 ff.
+
+[523] Herod. 4, 151; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 9, 60; Strabo, pp. 145, 835.
+
+[524] Strabo, p. 757.
+
+[525] Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 5, 17.
+
+[526] Plut. "Alex." c. 36.
+
+[527] Movers, "Phoeniz." 3, 103.
+
+[528] Job xxviii. 1-11. In this description the author could only have
+Phenician mines in his eye.
+
+[529] Muellenhoff, "Deutsche Altertumskunde," 1, 120 ff.
+
+[530] Strabo, p. 142. Kotini = the Oleastrum of the Romans; Pliny,
+"Hist. Nat." 3, 3. Ptolem. 2, 4, 14.
+
+[531] Strabo, pp. 175, 176, 120; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 7, 57.
+
+[532] Ezekiel xxvii. 5, 6; Levy, "Siegel und Gemmen." If the first text
+of the Pentateuch represents the names of the tribes of the people as
+engraved upon the precious stones in the shield on the breast of the
+high priest (Exod. xxv. 7; xxviii. 9 ff, _supra_, 207), the author had,
+no doubt, the work of Phenician artists in his eye.
+
+[533] Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 5, 13.
+
+[534] Diodor. 19, 58.
+
+[535] Isaiah ii. 16.
+
+[536] Xen. "Oecon." 8, 12.
+
+[537] Movers, "Phoeniz." 3, 182 ff, 191 ff.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE TRADE OF THE PHENICIANS.
+
+
+We found above at what an early period the migratory tribes of Arabia
+came into intercourse with the region of the Euphrates, and the valley
+of the Nile, how in both these places they purchased corn, implements,
+and weapons in return for their horses and camels, their skins and their
+wool, and the prisoners taken in their feuds. It was this exchange trade
+of the Arabian tribes which in the first instance brought about the
+intercourse of Syria with Babylonia and Egypt. Egypt like Babylonia
+required oil and wine for their population; metals, skins, and wool for
+their manufactures; wood for the building of houses and ships. For the
+Syrians and cities of the Phenicians the intercourse with the Arabians,
+and the lands of the Euphrates and Tigris, was facilitated by the fact
+that nations related to them in race and language dwelt as far as the
+border-mountains of Armenia and Iran and the southern coast of Arabia,
+and their trade with Egypt was facilitated in the same manner when
+Semitic tribes between 2000 and 1500 B.C. obtained the supremacy in
+Egypt and maintained it for more than three centuries. From the fact
+that Babylonian weights and measures were in use in Syria in the
+sixteenth century B.C., we may conclude that there must have been close
+trade relations between Syria and Babylonia from the year 2000 B.C.; and
+in the same manner in consequence of the conquest of Egypt by the
+shepherds more active relations must have commenced between Syria and
+the land of the Nile, at a period not much later. The supremacy which
+Egypt afterwards obtained over Syria under the Tuthmosis and Amenophis
+must have rather advanced than destroyed this; thus Sethos, towards the
+year 1400, used his successes against the Cheta, _i.e._ the Hittites, to
+have cedars felled on Lebanon. We may assume that even before this time,
+after the rise of the kingdom of the Hittites, _i.e._ after the middle
+of the fifteenth century, the cities of the Phenicians were no longer
+content to exchange the products of Syria, wine, oil, and brass, the
+manufactures of their own growing industry, purple stuffs and weapons,
+with the manufactures of Egypt, linen cloths, and papyrus tissues, glass
+and engraved stones, ornaments and drugs, on the one hand, and on the
+other hand with the manufactures of Babylon, cloths, ointments, and
+embroidered stuffs: they also carried Egyptian fabrics to Babylon, and
+Babylonian fabrics to Egypt. The trade of Phoenicia with Egypt and
+Babylonia was no longer restricted to the exchange of Phenician-Syrian
+products and fabrics with those of Egypt and Babylon: it was at the same
+time a middle trade between those two most ancient seats of cultivation,
+between Egypt and Babylonia. It cannot have been any detriment to this
+trade of the Phenicians that a second centre of civic life sprang up
+subsequently on the central Tigris in the growing power of Assyria. In
+the ruins of Chalah (p. 34) Egyptian works of art have been dug up in no
+inconsiderable numbers. Herodotus begins his work with the observation
+that the Phenicians at an early period endeavoured to export and
+exchange Egyptian and Assyrian (_i.e._ Babylonian and Assyrian) wares.
+
+The sea lay open to the cities of the Phenicians for their intercourse
+with Egypt; for this route they were independent of the good will or
+aversion of the tribes and princes, who ruled in the south of Canaan;
+moreover the wood of Lebanon could not be carried by land to Egypt. We
+may certainly assume that the navigation of the Phenicians was enabled
+to obtain its earliest practice for further journeys by these voyages to
+that mouth of the Nile, which the Egyptians opened to foreign ships (I.
+227). The free and secure use of the routes of the caravans to the
+Euphrates, and from this river to the Syrian coast, must have been
+obtained from the rulers of Syria, the princes of Hamath and Damascus,
+the migratory tribes of the Syrian desert, the princes whose dominions
+lay on the Euphrates; and would hardly be obtained without heavy
+payments. So much the more desirable was it, if the cities could enter
+into special relations with one or other of these princes, such as David
+and Solomon, who not only opened Israel to them, but also provided the
+routes with caravanserais and warehouses (p. 187). The trade-road to the
+Euphrates led from Sidon past Dan (Laish) in Israel to Damascus, hence
+northwards past Riblah and Emesa (Hems) to Hamath, from Hamath to
+Bambyke (Hierapolis) in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and then
+crossed over the river to Harran (I. 320). From Harran the caravans went
+down along the Belik to the Euphrates, then in the valley of the
+Euphrates to Babylon, or went eastwards past Nisibis (Nisib) to the
+Tigris. A shorter road to the Euphrates ran past Damascus and the oasis
+of Tadmor, and reached the river at Thipsach (Thapsacus) at the farthest
+bend to the west.[538]
+
+We have already seen at what an early period the trade with the land of
+frankincense, _i.e._ with South Arabia, grew up for Egypt, owing to the
+mutual intercourse of the Arabian tribes (I. 226). The first attempt of
+Egypt to open a communication by sea with South Arabia falls about the
+year 2300 B.C. At a period not later, other Arabian tribes must have
+carried the incense and spices of South Arabia to Elam, Ur and Nipur,
+and Babylon. Syria must have received the products of South Arabia first
+through Babylon, then by means of direct communication with the Arabs,
+and lastly by the special caravans of the Phenicians. We hear of two
+trade-roads to that land. One led past Damascus to the oasis of Duma
+(Dumat el Dshandal), and from thence through the interior of Arabia to
+the south; the other ran through Israel past Ashtaroth Karnaim, through
+the territories of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, to Elath, and
+thence led along the coast of the Arabian Gulf to the Sabaeans (I. 320).
+From the Sabaeans and the Chatramites even before the year 1500 B.C. the
+caravans brought not spices only and incense, but also the products of
+the Somali coast. The Sabaeans traversed the Arabian Gulf and carried
+home the products of the coast of East Africa; the southwest coast of
+Arabia was no longer a place for producing and exporting frankincense
+and spices; it became the trading-place of the Somali coast, and before
+the year 1000 B.C. was also the trading-place for the products of India,
+which ships of the Indians carried to the shore of the Sabaeans and
+Chatramites (I. 322). It must have been a considerable increase in the
+extent of the Phenician trade and the gains obtained from it, when the
+Phenicians were able to make such a fruitful use of their connection
+with South Arabia that it fell into their hands to provide Egypt, with
+her products, and perhaps even Babylonia also. Their caravan trade with
+South Arabia must have been lively, and the impulse to extend it strong,
+as they induced king Solomon to allow them to attempt a connection by
+sea from Elath with South Arabia. By the foundation and success of the
+trade to Ophir, and the most remote places of the East which they
+reached, their commerce obtained its widest extent, and brought in the
+richest returns. With incense and balsam, there came to Tyre cinnamon
+and cassia, sandal-wood and ivory, gold and pearls from India, and the
+silk tissues of the distant East.[539]
+
+The commerce of the Phenician cities comprised Egypt, Babylonia, and
+Assyria, it touched Mesopotamia and Armenia, the lands of the Moschi and
+Tibarenes, the silver and copper mines of the Chalybes on the Black
+Sea.[540] When on the opening of the communication by the Red Sea with
+South Arabia and the countries beyond, it gained the widest extent to
+the south and east, it had for a whole century past traversed the entire
+length of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar. We saw above
+how the Phenicians steered to Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, to the AEgean Sea,
+to the coasts of Hellas, in order to barter or dig up minerals, to
+collect purple-fish for their coloured stuffs, and how after the middle
+of the thirteenth century they began to plant settlements on these
+coasts. The request for minerals must have been so strongly felt in
+their own cities, in Egypt and the lands of the Euphrates, in the course
+of the twelfth century, that the ships of the Phenicians went farther
+and farther to the west in search of them, that Sicily, Sardinia, and
+Corsica were reached and then colonised by them. At the same time Ityke
+and Old Hippo were built on the coast of Africa. These supplied
+saltpetre, alum, and salt, skins of lions and panthers, horns of
+buffalos, ostrich eggs and feathers, slaves and ivory to the
+mother-cities. After this, about the year 1100 B.C., Gades was built on
+the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The trade of the Phenicians now brought
+not only the products of Syria and the manufactures of their cities to
+Egypt and Babylonia; it was not merely a middle trade between those two
+lands, nor merely an independent trade and middle trade between South
+Arabia and the civilised countries; it mediated now between the East and
+the West, the products and manufactures of the near and distant East,
+and the natural products of the near and distant West, between the
+ancient civilisation of the East and the young life of the nations of
+the West. It was above all the metals of the West, the gold of the
+Thracian, the copper of the Italian islands, the silver of Tartessus,
+which the ships of the Phenicians carried into the harbours of the
+mother-cities: the nations of the West received in return weapons, and
+metal vases, ornaments, variegated cloths, and purple garments. The
+works of Babylonian and Egyptian style, the works which are found in the
+tombs of Caere, Clusium, Alsium, at Corneto and Praeneste, adorned in
+types at once Egyptian and Babylonian-Assyrian, like the implements and
+ornaments found in the tombs of Spata and Mycenae, can only have come
+into the possession of the Etruscans, Latins, and Lucanians from
+intercourse with the Phenicians, the Phenician colonies of Sicily, or
+from the trade with Carthage.[541]
+
+From Gades the Phenicians succeeded in forcing their way farther to the
+Atlantic Ocean. Phenician colonies were founded on the west coast of
+Africa. Lixus, the oldest and most important of these (Lachash, now El
+Araish), at the mouth of the river of the same name (now Wadi el Ghos),
+is said to have been the seat of a famous sanctuary of Melkarth.[542]
+Strabo is of opinion that these colonies of the Phenicians beyond the
+pillars of Hercules were built soon after the Trojan war, _i.e._ about
+the year 1100 B.C.[543] Diodorus told us already how Phenician ships,
+steering to the coast of Libya in order to explore the sea beyond the
+pillars were carried away by a storm far into the ocean, and discovered
+a large island opposite Libya, which, from the pleasantness of the air
+and the abundance of blessings, seemed fitted to be the dwelling of the
+gods rather than men (p. 82). We can hardly doubt, therefore, that the
+Phenicians visited Madeira and the Canary Islands.
+
+Tin was early known to the ancient world, and was indispensable for the
+alloy of copper, but it could only be found mixed with copper in the
+mines of the Chalybes and Tibarenes (the Tabal of the Assyrians, the
+Tubal of the Hebrews), whose name is found in Genesis in Tubal-cain, the
+first smith, the father of them that work in brass and iron (I. 539).
+Besides these, there were tin mines only in the lofty Hindukush, in the
+north-west of Iberia, and in the south-west of England.[544] Herodotus
+observes: Tin and amber come from the extreme western ends of Europe. He
+could not learn from any eye-witness whether there was a sea there,
+though he had taken much trouble in the matter. Pliny tells us:
+Midacritus first brought tin from the island Kassiteris, _i.e._ the
+tin-island.[545] It was the Phenicians who obtained tin, and they did
+not obtain it from Iberia only: their ships sailed through the Bay of
+Biscay, they became acquainted with the shore of Brittany, which appears
+to have been known to them as Oestrymnis; they discovered the tin
+islands, _i.e._ the Channel Islands, the coast of Cornwall, and even the
+island of Albion.[546] The tin-islands or Kassiterides of the Greeks are
+the islands of the north-west ocean, known to the Phenicians, who
+procured tin from them.
+
+The Homeric poems often mention amber, which, worked into ornaments,
+Phenician ships brought to the Greeks. Ornaments of amber are met with
+in the oldest tombs of Cumae, in the tombs at the Lion's Gate at
+Mycenae.[547] Hence the Phenicians must have been in possession of amber
+as early as the eleventh century B.C. Amber was found not only on the
+shores of the Baltic, but also on the coast of the North Sea, between
+the mouth of the Rhine and the Elbe. We may therefore draw the
+conclusion that in the eleventh and tenth centuries B.C. they must have
+advanced far enough in the Channel towards the mouth of the Rhine, or
+beyond it, to obtain amber by exchange or collect it themselves, unless
+we assume an extensive intercourse between the Celts and Germans.[548]
+
+The starting-point, harbour, and emporium for the trade in the West and
+the voyages beyond the pillars of Melkarth in the Atlantic Ocean was
+Gades. Long after the naval power of the Phenicians and Carthage had
+perished, Gades remained a great, rich, and flourishing city of trade.
+Strabo describes it thus: "Situated on a small island not much more than
+a hundred stades in length, and scarce a stade in breadth, without any
+possessions on the mainland or the islands, this city sends out the most
+and largest ships, and seems to yield to no other city, except Rome, in
+the number of the inhabitants. But the greater part do not live in the
+city, but on ships."[549]
+
+In the tenth century B.C. the navigation and trade of the Phenicians
+extended from the coasts of the Arabian Sea, from the Somali coast, and
+perhaps from the mouths of the Indus as far as the coast of Britain;
+from the coasts of Mauritania on the Atlantic to the Tigris, from
+Armenia to the Sabaeans. Stretching out far in every direction, they had
+as yet suffered reverses in one region only, in the basin of the AEgean
+Sea. Their trade and intercourse was not indeed destroyed, but their
+mines, their colonies on the islands of this sea and the coasts of
+Hellas, were lost. Before Hiram ascended the throne of Tyre, the
+Phenicians, after teaching Babylonian weights and measures, the building
+of fortresses and walls, and mining to the Greeks, and bringing them
+their alphabet (p. 57), were compelled to retire before the increasing
+strength of the Greek cantons, not only from the coasts of Hellas, but
+also from the islands of the AEgean. The trade, however, with the
+Hellenes continued as before, in lively vigour, so far as the Homeric
+descriptions can be accepted as evidence. The most valuable possessions
+in the treasuries of the Greek princes are Sidonian works of art.
+Phenician ships often show themselves in Greek waters. When one of these
+merchantmen is anchored, the wares are set out in the ship, or under
+tents on the shore, or the Phenicians offer them for sale in the nearest
+place. A Phenician vessel laden with all kinds of ornaments lands on an
+island; after the Phenicians have sold many wares they offer to the
+queen a necklace of gold and amber, and at the same time they carry off
+her son, and sell him on another island. A Phenician freights a ship to
+Libya, and persuades a Greek to go with him as overseer of the lading:
+he intended to sell him there as a slave. Along with these notices in
+the Homeric poems on the trade of the Phenicians, an account has also
+come down to us from an Eastern source. The prophet Joel, who prophesied
+about the year 830 B.C., says, in regard to the invasion of the
+Philistines in Judah, which took place about the year 845 B.C., and
+brought them to the walls of Jerusalem (p. 252); Tyre and Sidon, and all
+the regions of the land of the Philistines, have stolen the silver and
+gold of Jehovah, and carried the costly things into their temples; the
+sons of Judah and Jerusalem they sold to the sons of Javan (the Greeks),
+in order to remove them far from their land.[550]
+
+For the colonies which the Phenicians had to give up on the Greek coasts
+and islands, they found a rich compensation in the strengthening and
+increase of their colonies on the west of the Mediterranean, on
+Sardinia, where they built Caralis (Cagliari) on the southern shore, on
+Corsica, on the north coast of Africa, where Carthage arose about the
+middle of the ninth century (p. 269), and on the shores of Iberia. But
+another loss which befell them in the East could not be made good so
+easily. After king Jehoshaphat's death (848 B.C.), even before the
+invasion of the Philistines, the kingdom of Judah, as we saw (p. 252),
+lost the sovereignty over the Edomites. Hence the harbour-city of Elath
+was lost to the Phenicians also, and the Ophir trade at an end, a
+century and a half after it began. Though 50 years later, when Judah
+under Amaziah and Uzziah had reconquered the Edomites, and Elath was
+rebuilt, this navigation, as it seems, was again set in motion, this
+restoration was of no long continuance. After the middle of the eighth
+century the Phenicians were finally limited for their trade with the
+Sabaeans to the caravan routes through Arabia.
+
+A still more serious source of danger was the approach of the Assyrian
+power to the Syrian coast. In the course of the ninth century (from 876
+B.C.), as has been remarked above, Assyrian armies repeatedly showed
+themselves in Syria, and their departure had repeatedly to be purchased
+by tribute. As this pressure increased, and the Assyrian rulers insisted
+on pushing forward the borders of their kingdom towards Syria as far as
+the shores of the Mediterranean, as the cities of the Phenicians became
+subject to a power the centre of which lay in the distant interior, the
+trade not to the East but to the West came into question, and it was
+doubtful whether the cities, when embodied in a great land-power, could
+retain Cyprus in subjection, and keep up the trade with Egypt, and the
+connection with their colonies in the West. The doubt became greater
+when, after the beginning of the eighth century B.C., a dangerous
+opposition rose in the Mediterranean, and a still more serious
+competition against the Phenicians. Not content with driving the
+Phenicians out of the AEgean Sea, with obtaining possession of the
+islands and the west coast of Asia Minor, the Hellenes spread farther
+and farther to the west. Already they had got Rhodes into their hands;
+they were already settled off the coast of Syria, on the island of
+Cyprus, among the ancient cities of the Phenicians. Still more vigorous
+was the growth of their settlements to the west of the Mediterranean.
+After founding Cyme (Cumae) on the coast of Lower Italy, they built in
+Sicily, after the middle of the eighth century, in quick succession,
+Naxus (738 B.C.), Syracuse (735 B.C.), Catana (730 B.C.), and Megara
+(728 B.C.), to which were quickly added Rhegium, Sybaris, Croton, and
+Tarentum in Lower Italy (720-708 B.C.). Were the cities of the
+Phenicians in Sicily, Rus Melkarth, Motye, Panormus, Soloeis, and Eryx
+(p. 79), in a position to hold the balance against these rivals and
+their navigation? The injurious effects of the competition of a rival
+power by sea for the trade of the Phenicians must have increased when,
+in the seventh century, the cities of the Greeks in Sicily increased in
+number, and Egypt was opened to them about the middle of this century;
+when, in the year 630 B.C., the first Greek city, Cyrene, rose on the
+shore of Africa, and about the same time the Greeks entered into direct
+trade connections with Tartessus; when at the close of this century a
+Greek city was built on the shore of the Ligystian Sea, at the mouth of
+the Rhone, and soon after the settlements of the Greeks in Sicily and in
+the west of the Mediterranean began to multiply. While in this manner
+the field of Phenician trade was limited by the constant advance of the
+Greeks, the mother-cities, from the same period, the middle of the
+eighth century, had to feel the whole weight of the development of
+Assyrian power. And when this pressure ceased, in the second half of the
+seventh century, it was followed by the still more burdensome oppression
+of the Babylonian empire.
+
+Yet in spite of all hindrances and losses, a prophet of the Hebrews
+after the middle of the eighth century could say of Tyre, that "she
+built herself strongholds, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine
+gold as the mire of the streets."[551] And Ezekiel at the beginning of
+the sixth century describes the trade of Tyre in the following manner:
+"Thou who dwellest at the entrance of the sea, who art the trader of the
+nations to many islands! On mighty waters thy rowers carry thee; thy
+trade goes out over all seas; thou satisfiest many nations; thou hast
+enriched the kings of the earth by the multitude of thy goods and wares.
+Thou art become mighty in the midst of the sea. All ships of the sea and
+their sailors were in thee to purchase thy wares. Persians and Libyans
+and Lydians serve in thee; they are thy warriors; they hang shield and
+helmet on thy walls: thy own warriors stand round on the walls, and
+brave men are on all thy towers. Syria is thy merchant, because of the
+number of the wares of thy skill; they make thy fairs with emeralds,
+purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
+Damascus is thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, in
+the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Judah and the land of Israel were
+thy merchants; they traded in thy market wheat and pastry and honey.
+They of the house of Togarmah (Armenia) traded in thy fairs with horses
+and mules. Haran, Canneh, and Asshur, and Childmad were thy merchants in
+costly robes, in blue cloths and embroidered work, and chests of
+cedar-wood full of damasks bound with cords, in thy place of
+merchandise. Dedan (the Dedanites[552]) is thy merchant in horse-cloths
+for riding. Wedan brings tissues to thy markets: forged iron, cassia,
+and calamus were brought to thy markets. Arabia and all the princes of
+Kedar are ready for thee with lambs, rams, and goats. The merchants of
+Sabaea and Ramah[553] traffic with thee; they occupied in thy fairs with
+the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold. Javan
+(the Greeks), Tubal, and Mesech (the Tibarenes and Moschi) are thy
+merchants; they trade with silver, iron, tin, and lead. Many islands are
+at hand to thee for trade; they brought thee for payment horns of ivory
+and ebony. The ships of Tarshish are thy caravans in thy trade: so art
+thou replenished and mighty in the midst of the sea."[554]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[538] _Supra_, p. 187. Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 3, 244 ff.
+
+[539] Movers, _loc. cit._ 2, 3, 265 ff.
+
+[540] Vol. i. p. 538. Ezekiel xxvii. 14; xxxviii. 6.
+
+[541] Helbig, "Annali del Inst. Arch." 1876, pp. 57, 117, 247 ff.
+
+[542] Pliny, "Hist. Nat." s. 1; 19, 22. Cf. Movers, _loc. cit._ 2, 2,
+537 ff.
+
+[543] Strabo, p. 48; cf. p. 150.
+
+[544] The German tin-mines were not opened till the middle ages; those
+of farther India in the last century; Muellenhoff, "Deutsche
+Altertumskunde," s. 24.
+
+[545] Herod. 3, 115; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 7, 57.
+
+[546] At a later time we meet with the name Prettanian islands. Ynis
+Prydein, _i.e._ island of Prydein, was the name given by the Welsh to
+their land; Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ s. 88 ff, 93 ff.
+
+[547] Helbig, "Commercio dell ambra," p. 10, _n._ 4. On the amber in the
+tombs east of the Apennines, pp. 15, 16.
+
+[548] Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ s. 223.
+
+[549] Strabo, p. 168.
+
+[550] Joel iii. 4 ff. On the date of Joel, _supra_, p. 260, _n._ 2. De
+Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 454. According to the data established
+above, the minority of Joash falls between 837 and 825 B.C.
+
+[551] The older Zechariah ix. 3, and De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s.
+480.
+
+[552] Vol. i. p. 314.
+
+[553] Vol. i. p. 314.
+
+[554] Ezekiel xxvii.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE RISE OF ASSYRIA.
+
+
+The campaigns which Tiglath Pilesar, king of Asshur, undertook towards
+the West about the end of the twelfth century, and which carried him to
+the Upper Euphrates and into Northern Syria, remained without lasting
+result. The position which Tiglath Pilesar then had won on the Euphrates
+was not maintained by his successors in any one instance. More than 200
+years after Tiglath Pilesar we find Tiglath Adar II. (889-883 B.C.)
+again in conflict with the same opponents who had given his forefather
+such trouble--with the mountaineers of the land of Nairi, the district
+between the highland valley of Albak on the Greater Zab and the
+Zibene-Su, the eastern source of the Tigris. The son and successor of
+this Tiglath Adar, Assurnasirpal, was the first whom we see again
+undertaking more distant campaigns; the successful results of which are
+the basis of a considerable extension of the Assyrian power.
+
+Assurnasirpal also chiefly directed his arms against the mountain-land
+in the north. On his first campaign he fought on the borders of Urarti,
+_i.e._ of the land of Ararat, the region of the Upper Araxes. In the
+second year of his reign (881 B.C.) he marched out of the city of
+Nineveh, crossed the Tigris, and imposed tribute on the land of Kummukh
+(Gumathene, p. 41), and the Moschi, in asses, oxen, sheep, and goats. In
+the third year he caused his image to be hewn in the place where
+Tiglath Pilesar and Tiglath Adar his fathers had chosen to set up their
+images; he tells us that his own was engraved beside the others.[555]
+Only the image of Tiglath Pilesar I. is preserved at Karkar.
+Assurnasirpal received tribute from the princes of the land of
+Nairi--bars of gold and silver, iron, oxen and sheep; and placed a
+viceroy over the land of Nairi. But the subjugation was not yet
+complete; Assurnasirpal related that on a later campaign he destroyed
+250 places in the land of Nairi.[556] He tells us further, that on his
+tenth campaign he reduced the land of Kirchi, took the city of Amida
+(now Diarbekr), and plundered it.[557] Below this city, on the bank of
+the Tigris at Kurkh (Karch), there is a stone tablet which represents
+him after the pattern of Tiglath Pilesar at Karkar (p. 40.)
+
+Between these conflicts in the north lie campaigns to the south and
+west. In the year 879 B.C. he marched out, as he tells us, from Chalah.
+On the other bank of the Tigris he collected a heavy tribute, then he
+marched to the Euphrates, took the city of Suri in the land of Sukhi,
+and caused his image to be set up in this city. Fifty horsemen and the
+warriors of Nebu-Baladan, king of Babylon (Kardunias), had fallen into
+his hand, and the land of the Chaldaeans had been seized with fear of his
+weapons.[558] We must conclude therefore that the king of Babylon had
+sent auxiliary troops to the prince of the land of Sukhi (whom the
+inscriptions call Sadudu). In the following year he occupied the region
+at the confluence of the Chaboras with the Euphrates, crossed the
+Euphrates on rafts, and conquered the inhabitants of the lands of Sukhi,
+Laki, and Khindani, which had marched out with 6000 men to meet him. On
+the banks of the Euphrates he then founded two cities; that on the
+further bank bore the name of "Dur-Assurnasirpal," and that on the
+nearer bank the name of "Nibarti-Assur." During this time he pretends to
+have slain 50 Amsi (p. 43) on the Euphrates, and captured 20; to have
+slain 20 eagles and captured 20.[559] Then he turned against Karchemish,
+in the land of the Chatti (p. 43). In the year 876 B.C. he collected
+tribute in the regions of Bit Bakhian and Bit Adin in the neighbourhood
+of Karchemish, and afterwards laid upon Sangar, king of Karchemish, a
+tribute of 20 talents of silver, and 100 talents of iron. From
+Karchemish Assurnasirpal marched against the land of Labnana, _i.e._ the
+land of Lebanon. King Lubarna in the land of the Chatti submitted, and
+had to pay even heavier tribute than the king of Karchemish.
+Assurnasirpal reached the Orontes (Arantu), took the marches of Lebanon,
+marched to the great sea of the western land, offered sacrifice to the
+gods, and received the tribute of the princes of the sea-coasts, the
+prince of Tyre (Ssurru), of Sidon (Ssidunu), of Byblus (Gubli), and the
+city of Arvada (Aradus), "which is in the sea" (p. 277)--bars of silver,
+gold, and lead;--"they embraced his feet." Then the king marched against
+the mountains of Chamani (Amanus); here he causes cedars and pines to be
+felled for the temples of his gods, and the narrative of his exploits to
+be written on the rocks, and worshipped at Nineveh before the goddess
+Istar.[560]
+
+According to the evidence of these inscriptions, Assurnasirpal
+established the supremacy of Assyria in the region of the sources of the
+Tigris. But even he does not appear to have gone much further than
+Tiglath Pilesar before him, for he also fought once on the borders of
+Armenia, _i.e._ of the land of Ararat, and on the other hand forced his
+way as far as the upper course of the Eastern Euphrates. Against Babylon
+he undertook, so far as we can see, no offensive war; he was content to
+drive out of the field the auxiliaries which Nebu-Baladan of Babylon
+sent to a prince on the middle Euphrates without pursuing the advantage
+further. The most important results which he obtained were in the west.
+He gained the land of the Chaboras, and fixed himself firmly on the
+Euphrates above the mouth of that river. To secure the crossing he built
+a fortress on either side, and then forced his way from here to the
+mountain land of the Amanus, to the Orontes and Lebanon. For the first
+time the cities of the Phenicians paid tribute to the king on the banks
+of the Tigris; Arvad (Aradus), Gebal (Byblus), Sidon, and Tyre, where at
+this time, as we saw (p. 267), Mutton, the son of Ethbaal, was king.
+
+Shalmanesar I., who reigned over Assyria about the year 1300 B.C.,
+built, as we have remarked above, the city of Chalah (Nimrud), on the
+eastern bank of the Tigris above the confluence of the Greater Zab. The
+remains of the outer walls show that this city formed a tolerably
+regular square, and that the western wall ran down to the ancient course
+of the Tigris, which can still be traced. In the south-western corner of
+the city, on a terrace of unburnt bricks, rose the palaces of the kings
+and the chief temples. They were shut off towards the city by a separate
+wall. Nearly in the middle of this terrace on the river-side we may
+trace the foundation-works of a great building, called by our explorers
+the north-west palace. In the remains of this structure, on two surfaces
+on the upper and lower sides of a large stone, which forms the floor of
+a niche in a large room, is engraved an inscription of Assurnasirpal,
+and a second on a memorial stone of 12 to 13 feet high. Inscriptions on
+the slabs of the reliefs with which the halls of the building were
+adorned repeat the text of these inscriptions in an abbreviated manner.
+They tell us that the ancient city of Chalah, which Shalmanesar the
+Great founded, was desolate and in ruins; Assurnasirpal built it up
+afresh from the ground;[561] he led a canal from the Greater Zab, and
+gave it the name of Patikanik;[562] traces and remains are left, which
+show us that the course of the canal from the Greater Zab led directly
+north to the city. Cedars, pines, and cypresses of Mount Chamani
+(Amanus) had he caused to be felled for the temples of Adar, Sin, and
+Samas, his lords.[563] He built temples at Chalah for Adar, Bilit, Sin,
+and Bin. He made the image of the god Adar, and set it up to his great
+divinity in the city of Chalah, and in the piety of his heart dedicated
+the sacred bull to this great divinity. For the habitation of his
+kingdom, and the seat of his monarchy, he founded and completed a
+palace. Whosoever reigns after him in the succession of days may he
+preserve this palace in Chalah, the witness of his glory, from ruin; may
+he not surrender it to rebels, may he not overthrow his pillars, his
+roof, his beams, or change it for another structure, or alter his
+inscriptions, the narrative of his glory. "Then will Asshur the lord and
+the great god exalt him, and give him all lands of the earth, extend his
+dominion over the four quarters of the world, and pour abundance,
+purity, and peace over his kingdom."[564]
+
+The palace of Assurnasirpal at Chalah was a building about 360 feet in
+length and 300 feet in breadth. Two great portals guarded by winged
+lions with bearded human heads, the images or symbols of the god Nergal,
+led from the north to a long and proportionately narrow portico of 154
+feet in length and 35 feet in breadth. In the south wall of this portico
+a broad door, by which stand two winged human-headed bulls, images of
+the god Adar, and hewn out of yellow limestone, opens into a hall 100
+feet long and 25 broad. On the east and south sides also of the central
+court (the west side is entirely destroyed) lie two longer halls, and a
+considerable number of larger and smaller chambers. The height of the
+rooms appears to have been from 16 to 18 feet.[565] The walls of the
+northern portico were covered with slabs of alabaster to a height of 10
+or 12 feet, on which were reliefs of the martial exploits of the king,
+his battles, his sieges, his hunting--he claims to have killed no fewer
+than 370 mighty lions, and to have taken 75 alive. The reliefs on the
+slabs of the second hall, which abuts on this, exhibit colossal forms
+with eagle heads. Above the slabs the masonry of the walls was concealed
+by tiles coloured and glazed, or by painted arabesques. Beside the
+fragments of this building a statue of the builder, Assurnasirpal, was
+discovered. On a simple base of square stone stands a figure in an
+attitude of serious repose, in a long robe, without any covering to the
+head, with long hair and strong beard, holding a sort of sickle in the
+right hand, and a short staff in the left.[566] On the breast we read,
+"Assurnasirpal, the great king, the mighty king, the king of the
+nations, the king of Asshur, the son of Tiglath Adar, king of Asshur,
+the son of Bin-nirar, king of Asshur. Victorious from the Tigris to the
+land of Labnana (Lebanon), to the great sea, he subjugated all lands
+from the rising to the setting of the sun."[567] An image in relief at
+the entrance of the west of the two temples which this king built, to
+the north of his palace, on the terrace of Chalah (at the entrance to
+the first are two colossal winged lions with the throats open, and at
+the entrance of the second two wingless lions), exhibits the king with
+the Kidaris on his head, and his hand upraised; before the base of the
+relief stands a small sacrificial altar.[568] We have already mentioned
+the image of Assurnasirpal which he had engraved near Kurkh, and which
+is preserved there. According to inscriptions lately discovered, and not
+yet published, Assurnasirpal built a palace at Niniveh also, and
+restored the ancient temple of Istar, which Samsi-Bin formerly erected
+there (p. 31).[569]
+
+The reign of Assurnasirpal gave the impulse to a warlike movement which
+continued in force long after his time, and extended the power of
+Assyria in every direction. His son, Shalmanesar II., who ascended the
+throne in 859 B.C., followed in the path of his father. In the first
+years of his reign he fought against Khubuskia, which, as we find from
+the inscriptions, was a district lying on the Greater Zab, against a
+prince of the land of Nairi (p. 41), against the prince of Ararat
+(Urarti), Arami, and received the tribute of the land of Kummukh (p.
+41). He crosses the river Arzania--either the Arsanias (Murad-Su), the
+Eastern Euphrates, or the Arzen-Su (Nicephorius), which falls into the
+Tigris before it bends to the south--and takes the city of Arzaska in
+Urarti, _i.e._ perhaps Arsissa, on Lake Van.[570] These wars in the
+north were followed by battles on the Euphrates. He conquers the city of
+Pethor on this side of the Euphrates, and the city of Mutunu on the
+farther side, which Tiglath Pilesar had won, but Assur-rab-amar had
+restored by a treaty to the king of Aram, and settled Assyrians in both
+places. Then he fought against a prince of the name of Akhuni, who
+resided at Tul Barsip on the Euphrates. Shalmanesar takes this city,
+transplants the inhabitants to Assyria, and calls it Kar-Salmanassar. He
+receives the tribute of Sangar, prince of Karchemish, against whom his
+father had fought, and finally took Akhuni himself prisoner.[571] Then
+he advances towards Chamani (to the Amanus), crosses the Arantu
+(Orontes); Pikhirim of the land of Chilaku (_i.e._ of Cilicia) is
+conquered by him.[572]
+
+The next object of the arms of Shalmanesar was Syria, which he had
+merely touched on the north in passing by on the campaign against
+Cilicia. On a memorial stone which he set up at Kurkh, on the Upper
+Tigris, where we already found the image of Assurnasirpal,--the stone is
+now in the British Museum,--Shalmanesar tells us that in the year 854
+B.C. he left Nineveh, marched to Kar-Salmanassar, and there received the
+tribute of Sangar of Karchemish, Kutaspi of Kummukh, and others. "From
+the Euphrates I marched forth, and advanced against the city of Halwan.
+They avoided a battle and embraced my feet. I received gold and silver
+from them as their tribute. I made rich offerings to Bin, the god of
+Halwan. From Halwan I set forth and marched against two cities of
+Irchulina of Hamath. Argana, his royal city, I took; his prisoners, the
+goods and treasures of his palace, I carried away; I threw fire upon his
+palaces. From Argana I marched forth to Karkar. I destroyed Karkar and
+laid it waste and burnt it with fire. Twelve hundred chariots, 1200
+horsemen, 20,000 men of Benhadad of Damascus;[573] 700 chariots, 700
+horsemen, 10,000 men of Irchulina of Hamath; 200 (?2000) chariots,
+10,000 men of Ahab of Israel; 500 men of the Guaeer; 1000 men of the
+land of Musri; 10 chariots, 10,000 men of the land of Irkanat; 200 men
+of Matinbaal of Aradus (Arvada); 200 men of the land of Usanat; 30
+chariots and 10,000 men of Adonibal of Sizan; 1000 camels of Gindibuh of
+Arba;--hundred men of Bahsa of Ammon; these twelve princes rendered aid
+to each other, and marched out against me to contend with me in battle.
+Aided by the sublime assistance which Asshur my lord gave to me, I
+fought with them. From the city of Karkar as far as the city of
+Gilzana[574] (?) I made havoc of them. Fourteen thousand of their troops
+I slew; like the god Bin I caused the storm to descend upon them; during
+the battle I took their chariots, their horses, their horsemen, and
+their yoke-horses from them."[575] On the obelisk of black basalt found
+in the ruins of Chalah, Shalmanesar says quite briefly, "In my sixth
+campaign I went against the cities on the banks of Balikh (Belik) and
+crossed the Euphrates. Benhadad of Damascus, and Irchulina of Hamath,
+and the kings of the land of Chatti and the sea came down to battle with
+me. I conquered them; I overcame 20,500 of their warriors with my arms."
+The same statement is repeated in a third inscription, that of the
+bulls.[576]
+
+The kings of Syria were defeated, but by no means subdued. Shalmanesar
+says nothing of their subjugation and tribute (p. 246). The arms of
+Assyria were next turned in another direction. An illegitimate brother,
+Marduk-Belusati, had rebelled against Marduk-zikir-iskun, the son and
+successor of Nebu-Baladan of Babylon. Shalmanesar supported the first.
+During the second campaign against Marduk-Belusati the united troops of
+Marduk-zikir-iskun and Shalmanesar, or the latter alone, succeeded in
+defeating the rebels; Marduk-Belusati was captured and put to death with
+his adherents. Shalmanesar sacrificed at Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha.
+He claims to have imposed tribute on the chiefs of the land of Kaldi
+(Chaldaea), and to have spread his fame to the sea.[577]
+
+After this decisive success in Babylonia, Shalmanesar resumed the war
+against Damascus. For two years in succession he marched out against
+Benhadad of Damascus. In the year 851 he defeats Benhadad of Damascus,
+the king of Hamath, together with 12 kings from the shores of the
+sea.[578] Then the king tells us further: "For the ninth time (850 B.C.)
+I crossed the Euphrates. I conquered cities without number; I marched
+against the cities of the land of Chatti and of Hamath; I conquered 89
+(79) cities. Benhadad of Damascus, 12 kings of the Chatti (Syrians),
+mutually confided in their power. I put them to flight." And further:
+"In the fourteenth year of my reign (846 B.C.) I counted my distant and
+innumerable lands. With 120,000 men of my soldiers I crossed the
+Euphrates. Meanwhile Benhadad of Damascus, and Irchulina of Hamath, with
+the 12 kings of the upper and lower sea, armed their numerous troops to
+march against me. I offered them battle, put them to flight, seized
+their chariots and their horsemen, and and marched against the cities
+of Hazael of Damascus, took from them their baggage. In order to save
+their lives, they rose up and fled."[579] This victory also was without
+result. In vain Shalmanesar had marched four times against Damascus; in
+vain he led out on the last campaign 120,000 men against Syria. Not till
+some years afterwards, when Hazael, as we saw above (p. 252), killed
+Benhadad and acquired the throne of Damascus in his place, can
+Shalmanesar speak of a decisive campaign in Syria. "In the eighteenth
+year of my reign (842 B.C.) I crossed the Euphrates for the sixteenth
+time. Hazael (Chazailu) from the land of Aram trusted in the might of
+his troops, collected his numerous armies, and made the mountains of
+Sanir,[580] the summits of the mountains facing the range of Lebanon,
+his fortress. I fought with him and overthrew him; 16,000 of his
+warriors I conquered with my weapons; 1121 of his chariots, 410 of his
+horsemen, together with his treasures, I took from him. To save his life
+he fled away. I pursued him. I besieged him in Damascus, his royal city;
+I destroyed his fortifications. I marched to the mountains of Hauran; I
+destroyed cities without number, laid them waste, and burned them with
+fire: I led forth their prisoners without number. I marched to the
+mountains of the land of Bahliras, which lies hard by the sea: I set up
+my royal image there. At that time I received the tribute of the Tyrian
+and Sidonian land, of Jehu (Jahua), the son of Omri (Chumri), _i.e._ of
+Jehu, king of Israel."[581] Though Sidon, Tyre, and Israel paid tribute,
+the resistance of the Damascenes was still unbroken. Shalmanesar further
+informs us that (in the year 839 B.C.) he crossed the Euphrates for the
+twenty-first time, But he does not say that he reduced them; he only
+asserts that he received the tribute of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus, and
+then assures us, quite briefly, in the account, of his twenty-fifth
+campaign (835 B.C.), that he received "the tribute of all the princes of
+Syria" (of the land of Chatti).[582]
+
+In the very first years of his reign Shalmanesar had contended against
+the prince Arami of Ararat, and against the land of Nairi, between the
+Eastern Tigris and the Greater Zab. The obedience of these regions was
+not gained. In the year 853 Shalmanesar again marched to the sources of
+the Tigris, erected his statue there, and laid tribute on the land of
+Nairi.[583] Twenty years later he sent the commander-in-chief of his
+army, Dayan-Assur, against the land of Ararat, at the head of which
+Siduri now stood, and not Arami. Dayan-Assur crossed the river Arzania
+(p. 314) and defeated Siduri (833 B.C.). On a farther campaign (in 830
+B.C.) Dayan-Assur crosses the Greater Zab, invades the territory of
+Khubuskia (p. 314), fights against prince Udaki of Van, _i.e._ of the
+Armenian land round Lake Van, and from this descends into the land of
+the Parsua, which Shalmanesar himself had trodden seven years before.
+Here Dayan-Assur collected fresh tribute. On a third campaign (829 B.C.)
+Dayan-Assur received tribute from the land of Khubuskia, then invaded
+Ararat, and there plundered and burned 50 places.
+
+Meanwhile Shalmanesar himself marched in the years 838 and 837 B.C.
+against the land of Tabal, _i.e._ against the Tibarenes, on the
+north-west offshoot of the Armenian mountains, advanced as far as the
+mines of the Tibarenes, and laid tribute on their 24 princes.[584] In
+the next year he turns to the south-east, marches over the Lesser Zab,
+against the lands of Namri and Karkhar, which we must therefore suppose
+to have been between the Lesser Zab and the Adhim and Diala, on the
+spurs of the Zagrus. Yanzu, king of Namri, was taken captive, and
+carried to Assyria. Shalmanesar left the land of Namri, imposed tribute
+on the 27 princes of the land of Parsua, and turned to the plains of the
+land of Amadai, _i.e._ against Media (835 B.C.).[585] Two years
+afterwards. Shalmanesar climbed, for the ninth time, the heights of
+Amanus (Chamani), then he laid waste the land of Kirchi (831 B.C.), then
+marched once more against the land of Namri, there laid waste 250
+places, and advanced beyond Chalvan (Chalonitis, Holwan).[586]
+
+On the obelisk of black basalt, dug up at Chalah in the remains of the
+palace of Shalmanesar II. (the central palace of the explorers), we find
+beside the account of the deeds of the king five sculptures in relief,
+which exhibit payments of tribute. Of the picture which represents the
+payment of Jehu, of the kingdom of Israel, we have spoken at length
+above (p. 257). Above this, which is the second picture, on the highest
+or first, is delineated the payment from the land of Kirzan. The title
+tells us: "Tribute imposed on Sua of the land of Kirzan:[587] gold,
+silver, copper, lead, staves, horses, camels with two humps." As on the
+second strip the king is represented receiving the tribute of Israel; so
+on this strip also we see the leader of those who pay tribute prostrate
+on the ground before him; behind the leader are led a horse and two
+camels with double humps; then follow people carrying staves and
+kettles. The superscription of the third relief says: "Tribute imposed
+on the land of Mushri: camels with two humps, the ox of the river
+Sakeya." On the picture we see two camels with double humps, a
+hump-backed buffalo, a rhinoceros, an antelope, an elephant, four large
+apes, which are led, and one little one, which is carried. The
+superscription of the fourth relief says: "Tribute imposed upon
+Marduk-palassar of the land of Sukhi:[588] silver, gold, golden buckets,
+Amsi-horns, staves, Birmi-robes, stuffs." The relief itself depicts a
+lion, a deer, which is clutched by a second lion, two men with kettles
+on their heads, two men who carry a pole, on which are suspended
+materials for robes, four men with hooked buckets or hooked scrips, two
+men with large horns on their shoulders, two men with staves, and lastly
+a man carrying a bag. The superscription of the fifth relief says,
+"Tribute imposed on Garparunda of the land of Patinai: silver, gold,
+lead, copper, objects made of copper, Amsi-horns, hard wood."[589] Under
+this we see a man raising his hands in entreaty, a man with a bowl with
+high cups on his head, two men with hooked buckets, carrying horns on
+their shoulders, one man with staves; after these two Assyrian officers,
+a man in a position of entreaty, two men with hooked buckets and horns,
+a man with two goblets, two men with hooked buckets and sacks on their
+shoulders, two men, of whom one holds a kettle, and the other carries a
+kettle on his head.
+
+Assurnasirpal had already fought against the land of Sukhi. As he
+marches to the Euphrates in order to attack Sadudu, prince of Sukhi, as
+the king of Babylon sends auxiliaries to Sadudu at that time, and the
+land of Chaldaea is seized with terror after the conquest of the land of
+Sukhi, we must look for Sukhi on the Middle Euphrates, below the mouth
+of the Chaboras. The tribute which, according to that inscription,
+Shalmanesar imposed on the prince of Sukhi, who has a name which may be
+compared with the names of the kings of Babylon,--gold, silver, robes,
+and stuffs,--does not contradict this assumption. Shalmanesar fought
+against the Patinai in the first year of his reign, according to the
+inscription of Kurkh. Shapalulme, the prince of the Patinai at that
+time, combined with Sangar of Karchemish and Akhuni of Tul-Barsip. Like
+these, the Patinai were vanquished, their cities were taken, 14,600
+prisoners were carried away, and they were compelled to pay tribute. As
+Shalmanesar in order to reach the Patinai marches against them from
+Mount Amanus,[590] we must look for their abode on the Upper Euphrates,
+to the north of Karchemish, between the Euphrates and the Orontes. The
+tribute imposed on Garparunda of Patinai--gold, silver, copper,
+Amsihorns, hard wood--is not against this supposition. The land of
+Kirzan or Guzan we can only attempt to fix by the tribute paid--camels
+with double humps. This kind of camel is found on the southern shore of
+the Caspian Sea and Tartary, and we are therefore led to place Kirzan on
+the southern shore of the Caspian. The land of Mushri, the tribute of
+which consists of hump-backed buffaloes, _i.e._ Yaks (an animal
+belonging to the same district, Bactria and Tibet), camels with double
+humps, elephants, and rhinoceroses, and apes, must therefore be sought
+in eastern Iran, on the borders of the district of the Indus, whether it
+be that Shalmanesar really penetrated so far, or that the terror of his
+name moved East Iranian countries to send tribute to the warrior prince
+of Nineveh and Chalah.
+
+Like his father, Shalmanesar resided at Chalah. On the terrace of this
+city, to the south-east of the palace of his father, he built a
+dwelling-place for himself, and in this set up the obelisk, the
+inscriptions on which give a brief account of each year of his reign. In
+the ruins of this house two bulls also have been discovered, which are
+covered with inscriptions, which, together with the inscription of Kurkh
+on the Tigris, supplement or extend the statements of the obelisk. More
+considerable remains have come down to us of another building of
+Shalmanesar. Assurnasirpal had erected at Chalah two temples to the
+north of his palace. To the larger (western) of these two temples on the
+north-west corner of the terrace Shalmanesar added a tower, the ruins of
+which in the form of a pyramidal hill still overtop the uniform heap of
+the ruined palaces. On the foundation of the natural rock of the bank of
+the Tigris lies a square substructure (each of the sides measures over
+150 feet) of 20 feet in height, built of brick and cased with stone. On
+this base rises a tower of several diminishing stories. In the first of
+these stories, immediately upon the platform, is a passage 100 feet
+long, 12 feet high, and 6 feet in breadth, which divides the storey
+exactly in the middle from east to west.
+
+Two centuries after the fall of the Assyrian kingdom, Xenophon, marching
+up the Tigris with the 10,000, reached the ruins of Chalah. After
+crossing the Zapatus, _i.e._ the Greater Zab, he came to a large
+deserted city on the Tigris, the name of which sounded to him like
+Larissa (Chalah); it was surrounded by a wall about seven and a-half
+miles long. This wall had a substructure of stone masonry about 20 feet
+high; on this it rose, 25 feet in thickness, and built of bricks, to the
+height of 100 feet. Beside the city was a pyramid of stone, a plethron
+(100 feet) broad and two plethra high; to these many of the
+neighbouring hamlets fled for refuge.[591] Shalmanesar's tower was
+broken, and by the fall of the upper parts had become changed into a
+pyramid. The sides of the tower Xenophon put at almost half their real
+size; the height of the ruins is still about 140 feet. That Shalmanesar
+also stayed at Nineveh is proved by the inscriptions; that he possessed
+a palace in the ancient city of Asshur is proved by the stamp of the
+tiles at Kileh Shergat.[592]
+
+In a reign of 36 years Shalmanesar II. had gained important successes.
+In the north he had advanced as far as Lake Van, and the valley of the
+Araxes, the Tibarenes in the north-west, and the Cilicians in the west
+had felt the weight of his arms. He had directed his most stubborn
+efforts against the princes on the crossings over the Euphrates towards
+Syria, and towards the region of Mount Amanus and Syria itself. Damascus
+and Hamath were forced to pay tribute after a series of campaigns;
+Byblus, Sidon, and Tyre repeatedly paid tribute, and Israel after it had
+received a new master in Jehu. By Shalmanesar's successful interference
+in the contest for the crown in the civil war in Babylon, the supremacy
+of Asshur over Babel was at length obtained. The regions of the Zagrus
+had to pay tribute to Shalmanesar. He first trod the land of Media, and
+his successes were felt beyond Media as far as the southern shore of the
+Caspian Sea and East Iran.
+
+In spite of the unwearied activity of Shalmanesar, in spite of his
+ceaseless campaigns and the important results gained by his weapons, his
+reign ended amid domestic troubles, caused by a rebellion of the native
+land. Shalmanesar's son and successor, Samsi-Bin III. (823-810 B.C.),
+tells us in an inscription found in the remains of his palace, which he
+built in the south-east corner of the terrace of Chalah, that his
+brother Assurdaninpal set on foot a conspiracy against his father
+Shalmanesar, and that the land of Asshur, both the Upper and Lower,
+joined the rebellion. He enumerates 27 cities, among them Asshur itself,
+the ancient metropolis, and Arbela, which joined Assurdaninpal; but
+"with the help of the great gods" Samsi-Bin reduced them again to his
+power. Then he tells us of his campaigns in the north and east. In his
+first campaign the whole land of Nairi was subjugated--all the princes,
+24 in number, are mentioned; the land of Van also paid tribute. The
+Assyrian dominion, asserts the king, stretched from the land of Nairi to
+the city of Kar-Salmanassar, opposite Karchemish (p. 315). Then he
+fought against the land of Giratbunda (apparently a region on the
+Caspian Sea, perhaps Gerabawend), took the king prisoner, and set up his
+own image in Sibar, the capital of Giratbunda,[593] and afterwards
+directed his arms against the land of Accad (Babylonia). When he had
+slain 13,000 men and taken 3000 prisoners, king Marduk-Balatirib marched
+out against him with the warriors of Chaldaea and Elam, of the lands of
+Namri (p. 320) and Aram. He defeated them near Dur-Kurzu, their capital:
+5000 were left on the field, 2000 taken prisoners; 200 chariots of war
+and ensigns of the king remained in the hands of the Assyrians (819
+B.C.). At this point the inscription breaks off; elsewhere we hear
+nothing of further successes against Babylonia, we only learn that
+Samsi-Bin in the eleventh and twelfth years of his reign (812 and 811
+B.C.) again marched to Chaldaea and Babylon,[594] and we can only
+conclude from the fact that the king of Babylon received help not only
+from Namri and Aram, but also from Elam, that the Assyrians under
+Samsi-Bin continued to advance, and that their power must by this time
+have appeared alarming to the Elamites also.
+
+Bin-nirar III. (810-781 B.C.), the son and successor of Samsi-Bin,
+raised the Assyrian power still higher. Twice he marched out against the
+Armenian land on the shore of Lake Van; eight times he made campaigns in
+the land of the rivers, _i.e._ Mesopotamia. In the fifth year of his
+reign he went out against the city of Arpad in Syria; in the eighth
+against the "sea-coast," _i.e._ no doubt against the coast of Syria. The
+beginning of an inscription remains from which we can see the extent of
+the lands over which he ruled, or which he had compelled to pay tribute.
+"I took into my possession," so this fragment tells us, "from the land
+of Siluna, which lies at the rising of the sun, onwards; viz., the land
+of Kib, of Ellip, Karkas, Arazias, Misu, Madai (Media), Giratbunda
+throughout its whole extent, Munna, Parsua, Allabria, Abdadana, the land
+of Nairi throughout its whole extent, the land of Andiu, which is
+remote, the mountain range of Bilchu throughout its whole extent to the
+great sea which lies in the east, _i.e._ as far as the Caspian Sea. I
+made subject to myself from the Euphrates onwards: the land of Chatti
+(Aram), the western land (_mat acharri_) throughout its whole extent,
+Tyre, Sidon, the land of Omri (Israel) and Edom, the land of Palashtav
+(Philistaea) as far as the great sea to the setting of the sun. I imposed
+upon them payment of tribute. I also marched against the land of Imirisu
+(the kingdom of Damascus), against Mariah, the king of the land of
+Imirisu. I actually shut him up in Damascus, the city of his kingdom;
+great terror of Asshur came upon him; he embraced my feet, he became a
+subject; 2300 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 talents of
+copper, 5000 talents of iron, robes, carven images, his wealth and his
+treasures without number, I received in his palace at Damascus where he
+dwelt.[595] I subjugated all the kings of the land of Chaldaea, and laid
+tribute upon them; I offered sacrifice at Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha,
+the dwellings of the gods Bel, Nebo, and Nergal."[596]
+
+According to this king Bin-nirar not only maintained the predominance
+over Babylon which his grandfather had gained, but extended it: his
+authority reached from Media, perhaps from the shores of the Caspian
+Sea, to the shore of the Mediterranean as far as Damascus and Israel and
+Edom, as far as Sidon and Tyre and the cities of the Philistines. The
+Cilicians and Tibarenes who paid tribute to Shalmanesar are not
+mentioned by Bin-nirar in his description of his empire. So far as we
+can see, the centre of the kingdom was meanwhile extended and more
+firmly organised. Among the magistrates with whose names the Assyrians
+denote the years, at the time of Shalmanesar and his immediate
+successors the names of the commander-in-chief and three court officers
+are regularly followed by the names of the overseers of the districts of
+Rezeph (Resapha on the Euphrates), of Nisib (Nisibis on the Mygdonius,
+the eastern affluent of the Chaboras), of Arapha, _i.e._ the
+mountain-land of Arrapachitis (Albak); hence we may conclude that these
+districts were more closely connected or incorporated with the native
+land, and governed immediately by viceroys of the king. How uncertain
+the power and supremacy of Assyria was at a greater distance is on the
+other hand equally clear from the fact that Bin-nirar had to make no
+fewer than eight campaigns in the land of the streams, _i.e._ between
+the Tigris and the Euphrates; that he marched four times against the
+land of Khubuskia in the neighbourhood of Armenia, and twice against the
+district of Lake Van, against which his father and grandfather had so
+often contended.
+
+Bin-nirar III. also built himself a separate palace at Chalah, on the
+western edge of the terrace of the royal dwellings, to the south of the
+palace of his great grandfather Assurnasirpal. In the ruins of the
+temple which he dedicated to Nebo have been found six standing images of
+this deity, two of which bear upon the pedestal those inscriptions which
+informed us that the wife of Bin-nirar III. was named Sammuramat (p.
+45). On a written tablet dated from the year of Musallim-Adar (_i.e._
+from the year 793 B.C.), the eighteenth year of Bin-nirar, on which is
+still legible the fragment of a royal decree, we also find the double
+impress of his seal--a royal figure which holds a lion. A second
+document from the time of the reign of this prince, from the
+twenty-sixth year of his reign (782 B.C.), registers the sale of a
+female slave at the price of ten and a half minae, and gives the name of
+the ten witnesses to the transaction.[597] The preservation of this
+document is the more important inasmuch as a notice in Phenician letters
+is written beside it. Hence we may conclude that even in the days of
+Bin-nirar III. the alphabetic writing was known as far as this point in
+the East, though the cuneiform alphabet was retained beside it, not only
+at that time, but down to 100 B.C., and indeed, to all appearance, down
+to the first century of our reckoning.[598]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[555] Menant, "Ann." pp. 71, 72, 73.
+
+[556] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 82.
+
+[557] Menant, _loc. cit._ pp. 90, 91.
+
+[558] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 84.
+
+[559] Menant, p. 86.
+
+[560] E. Schrader. "K. A. T." s. 66, 67.
+
+[561] Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 20, 21.
+
+[562] "Records of the Past," 3, 79.
+
+[563] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 89.
+
+[564] Menant, p. 93.
+
+[565] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 2^2, 94.
+
+[566] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 1^2, 340.
+
+[567] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 67.
+
+[568] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 1^2, 319; 2^2, 97.
+
+[569] G. Smith, "Discov." pp. 91, 141, 252.
+
+[570] Sayce, "Records of the Past," pp. 94, 95.
+
+[571] According to the inscription of Kurkh in the year 856; according
+to the obelisk 854 B.C.
+
+[572] Menant, "Ann." p. 107.
+
+[573] Bin-hidri is read by E. Schrader and others. Rimmon-hidri by
+Sayce. As the god Bin was also called Rimmon, the ideogram of the name
+may be read one way or the other. The Books of the Kings call the
+contemporary of Ahab, Benhadad. For farther information, see p. 247,
+note.
+
+[574] Sayce, "Records," 3, 100.
+
+[575] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 94 ff., 101, 102;
+Menant, _loc. cit._ pp. 99, 113.
+
+[576] Menant, "Ann." p. 115.
+
+[577] Vol. i. 257. Menant, "Babyl." p. 135.
+
+[578] Inscriptions on the bulls in Menant, "Ann." p. 114.
+
+[579] E. Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 103; above, p. 251.
+
+[580] Communication from E. Schrader; cf. Deuteron. iii. 9.
+
+[581] E. Schrader, "K. A. T." s. 106, 107.
+
+[582] Cf. above, p. 257.
+
+[583] Inscription of the obelisk and the bulls in Menant, "Ann." 99,
+114.
+
+[584] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 101.
+
+[585] Menant, p. 101.
+
+[586] Menant, p. 104.
+
+[587] Sayce reads Guzan.
+
+[588] According to a communication from E. Schrader, Marduk-habal-assur
+ought to be read, not Marduk-habal-iddin.
+
+[589] Oppert, "Memoires de l'Acad. d. inscript." 1869, 1, 513; Sayce,
+"Records of the Past," 5, 42.
+
+[590] Sayce, "Records of the Past," 3, 88, 89, 90, 91, 99.
+
+[591] "Anab." 3, 4, 7-9.
+
+[592] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 96.
+
+[593] The reading is uncertain.
+
+[594] Oppert, "Empires," pp. 127, 128; G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 2^2, p.
+115, _n._ 8; Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 124.
+
+[595] E. Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 111, 112.
+
+[596] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 127; cf. G. Rawlinson, 2^2, 117.
+
+[597] Oppert et Menant, "Documents juridiques," pp. 146-148.
+
+[598] G. Smith, "Discov." p. 389; Oppert et Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 342.
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+
+1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
+
+2. Carat character is used to indicate subscript in this text version.
+
+3. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the chapters
+in this text version.
+
+4. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version
+these letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+5. Certain words use oe ligature in the original.
+
+6. Obvious errors in punctuation have been silently corrected.
+
+7. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in
+spelling, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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