The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)

The ancient kings of Babylon, Hammurabi and his successors, not only built temples and palaces, but also fortresses. Hammurabi has himself already told us, that he built the fortress of Ummubanit, "the towers of which were as high as mountains." Kurigalzu built the fortress of this name (Akerkuf, p. 262). Of the extensive walls of Ur and Erech we have already spoken, and Sennacherib could boast of having taken eighty-nine fortresses in Babylonia (p. 258).

Herodotus observes that in Babylonia the river (Euphrates) does not overflow into the fields spontaneously, as in Egypt. It is not so active as the Nile, and the water has to be raised artificially by hand, and by wheels.418 The provision of a sufficient supply of water for the land was not neglected by the kings. We have already seen (p. 261) that king Hammurabi boasted to have supplied Sumir and Accad with water for ever. The canal system of Babylonia began about 150 miles above the metropolis.419 The main object was to protect the plain from the rapid floods of the Euphrates by dams, and to moderate the flow of the inundation. Reservoirs were required to receive the water of the overflow, and preserve it against the time of drought. It was also necessary to carry the water as far as the middle of the plain, which in ordinary years it failed to reach, to form a network of canals to convey water from the Euphrates even when there was no inundation, and finally to dig trenches to remove the water from districts where it lay too long, and to drain the broad marshes on the lower river near the mouth of the Euphrates. From the inscription of Hammurabi, and the numerous remains of dams and canals, we may conclude that the kings of Babylon constructed large and comprehensive works of this kind, which were of use not in agriculture only, but for commerce also. The brief duration of the later restoration of the kingdom could not allow time to complete the greater part of the vast structures and conduits, of which traces and ruins are still in existence. The canal Naarsares, which was carried from the Euphrates above Babylon toward the west, and ran parallel to the stream till within a short distance of the mouth; the canal Pallakopas, which was derived from the main stream 100 miles below Babylon, and emptied into the Chaldæan lakes, in order to convey to them the excess of water from the Euphrates; and three junction canals above Babylon between the Euphrates and Tigris, from which trenches branched off for irrigation, appear to belong to the time of the ancient kingdom (see below). These labours of the princes, the numerous dams and "waters of Babylon," attained their object. Babylonia was a garden where the land brought forth more abundant fruits than in Egypt.

Very few relics are left of the sculpture of the Babylonians. If we set aside a few sketches on cylinders and seals, we have no means of knowing at first hand the images of their gods. The form of the god Nebo on the cylinder of Urukh has been already mentioned (p. 260). The finished statues cannot have been very different from the images of the Assyrian gods and the statues of Nebo (p. 267). The remains of the ornaments of the friezes in the palaces of Babylon are scarcely to be distinguished from Assyrian sculptures. They are bearded, long-haired heads of serious expression, with tall, upright headdresses. Beyond these only a few figures in clay have been preserved, which are not without a certain truth of nature, though exaggerated, and a rude though powerful lion of stone standing over a prostrate man, from the ruins of Babylon. Whether we regard it as unfinished, or as belonging to the infancy of art, this work is all that we possess of full figures in stone, except a duck, intended for use as a weight (p. 282). The human forms on the numerous seal cylinders are often sketched in rude, childish outlines. On the other hand, the single relief of a king of Babylon hitherto discovered, though massive, is of artistic and neat workmanship. The king wears a long and very richly-adorned robe with close sleeves, which are fastened by bracelets round the knuckles. The robe reaches to the ankles, over which come the richly embroidered shoes. The head is covered by a tall, upright tiara, on which are horses with wings and horns. The king has a bow in his left hand, and two arrows in his right; in his girdle is a dagger. It appears to be an image of Mardukidinakh, the opponent of Tiglath Pilesar I. of Assyria (p. 262). The forms of the animals in the reliefs, and the cylinders, are lively in conception and vigorous in workmanship; they consist of dogs, birds, apes, deer, and antelopes. Humorous sketches of animals in caricature are also found on cylinders, and the earrings and ornaments, found in the ruins, are, in part, of delicate workmanship.

The most remarkable remains in the ruins of Ur and Erech are the tombs. At Ur, outside the wall already mentioned, there is a broad band of sepulchres encircling the ruins of the wall. The tombs are chambers of seven feet in length, three to four feet in breadth, and five feet in height. The roofs are formed by tiles projecting in successive layers over the walls, and thus gradually approaching each other. The floors are also covered with tiles. On the tiles lay a mat of reeds, and on this the corpse was placed, generally turned to the left side, with the head on a brick; the right arm, laid towards the left over the breast, rests the fingers on the edge of a copper saucer. Clay vessels for food and drink are found on the walls. In the ruins of Erech the whole space between the three prominent heaps of ruins and the external walls is filled with tombs, bones, and relics of the dead. The coffins here are receptacles partly oval, made of burnt clay in a single piece, about seven feet long, two and a half broad, and two to three feet high, contracting towards the top; and partly narrow funnel-shaped vessels of clay rounded off at both ends and united in the middle, in which the body was closely fitted. The position of the skeletons and objects round them are the same in the oval coffins as in the brick vaults. As a rule these coffins are not found under the surface, but in raised brick buildings. They lie thickly together, and often in several rows, one upon the other. Relics of weapons, necklaces, and bracelets, gold and silver rings for the fingers and toes, and other ornaments, are found in these sepulchres.420

The industry of the Babylonians quickly attained great skill and wide development. They were famous for their weaving in wool and linen. The nations of the West agree in acknowledging the excellence of the cloths and coloured stuffs of Babylonia. Their pottery was excellent and the manufacture active; the preparation of glass was not unknown; the ointments prepared in Babylon were famous and much sought after, and the stones cut there were highly valued. The products of Babylonian skill and industry were first brought to their kinsmen in Syria, who could offer oil and wine in exchange. In the Hebrew scriptures we find Babylonian cloaks in use in Syria before the immigration of the Hebrews into Canaan.421 How active the commerce between Babylonia and Syria was even before that date is proved by the circumstance that the tribute which in the sixteenth century B.C. was received by Tuthmosis III. from Syria is put down on the inscriptions at Karnak (p. 135) in part in weight by the mina, and in part, when reduced from the Egyptian to the Babylonian weight, gives round sums corresponding to the Babylonian weight, from which the conclusion can be drawn that the imperial Babylonian weight and the Babylonian money weight were already in use in Syria about this time. That the trade mina of the Syrians was the sixtieth part of the heavy (weight) talent of the Babylonians is ascertained; but the heavy and light gold talent, as well as the silver talent of 67⅓ pounds, must, according to these deductions, have been known to the Syrians about this date.422 Afterwards the Hebrews put their gold shekel, on the basis of the heavy gold talent of Babylon, at the fiftieth part of the mina of this talent. Besides the silver talent of Babylonia, there was also a heavy silver talent of about ninety pounds (44,760 kil.) in use in Syria. This came into existence because in Syria fifteen, and not ten, silver pieces (fiftieths of the mina) were equal to the fiftieth of the heavy gold mina (1⅗ pounds), (p. 285).423 Along with their weights the Syrians also adopted the cubic measures of the Babylonians.

The rough material required by Babylonian industry was supplied in the first place by the Arabs, who exchanged their animals, skins, and wool for corn and weapons. Wine, and more especially wood, of which there was none in Babylonia, were brought by the Armenians from their valleys in the north down the Euphrates to Babylon.424 Before 1500 B.C. the commerce of the Arabs brought the products of South Arabia, the spices of Yemen, and even the products and manufactures of India, especially their silks, which reached the coasts of Southern Arabia (see below), to Babylon. The Babylonians required the perfumes of Arabia and India to prepare their ointments. In order to prepare the best or royal ointment, twenty-five of the most precious perfumes were mixed together.425 When the cities of Phenicia became great centres of trade which carried the wares of Babylonia by sea to the West in order to obtain copper in exchange, the trade between Babylonia and Syria must have become more lively still. It was the ships of the Phenicians which brought the cubic measure, and the weights, and the cubit of Babylonia to the shores of Greece, and caused them to be adopted there. In the ninth or eighth century B.C. the Greeks completely dropped their old measures of length and superficies, and fixed their stadium at 360 Babylonian cubits, their plethrum at the length and the square of sixty Babylonian cubits, and regulated the Greek foot by the Babylonian at a measure from 308 to 315 millimeters, and made their cubit equal to one and a half of these feet.426 The light Babylonian talent became known in Greece under the name of the Eubœic talent, while the Greek city Phocæa, on the shores of Asia Minor, struck the oldest Greek coin, the Phocæan stater, at the value of a fiftieth of the heavy gold mina of Babylon (1⅗ pounds). Chios, Clazomenæ, and Lampsacus followed the heavy Syrian silver talent in their coinage; and lastly, Crœsus made his gold stater equal to the fiftieth part of the mina of the light Babylonian gold talent (50½ pounds), and his silver stater equal to the fiftieth part of the mina of the Babylonian silver talent of 67⅓ pounds.427

CHAPTER IV.

THE ARABS

The Arabian peninsula is a repetition of Africa on a smaller scale and in more moderate proportions, without a river-valley like that of the Nile. The centre is occupied by a table-land, which presents a few well-watered depressions lying under a burning sky between naked deserts, plains of sand, cliffs, and bald peaks. Thus, in spite of the great extent of the country (more than 1,000,000 square miles), there are few districts in the interior of Arabia suitable for agriculture. But towards the south, on the Indian Ocean, the plateau sinks down to the sea in broad mountain terraces. Here are extremely fertile valleys, and the most valuable fruits grow on the terraces in the tropic atmosphere, which is cooled by the elevation of the mountains and the winds blowing from the ocean. This is the land of frankincense, of the sugarcane and coffee-tree, of pomegranates, figs, and dates, of wheat and maize.

Herodotus, who follows all antiquity in extending the name Arabia to the deserts of Syria and Sinai, gives us but few notices of the inhabitants of this wide district. "The Arabs," he tells us, "wear long garments, and on the right side carry large bows, which can be strung on either side, and travel on swift camels. They have only two gods – Dionysus, whom they call Urotal; and Urania, whom they call Alilat. Urania is known to the Babylonians as Mylitta, to the Arabs as Alilat. Bargains are struck in the following manner. A third person makes an incision in the hand near the thumb of each of the two persons who wish to enter into the compact, and with the blood he smears seven stones lying between them; calling at the same time on Urotal and Alilat. These compacts are observed with a sanctity unknown to any other nation."428 Eratosthenes tells us that the Arab tribes lying next to the Syrians and Jews were agricultural, but beyond them lay a sandy and poor soil, with nothing but a few palms, acacias, tamarisks, and wells of water. This district, as far as the Euphrates, was inhabited by the Nabatæans, Agræans, and Chaulotæans, tribes who kept camels and lived in tents.429 Artemidorus of Ephesus calls Arabia rich in cattle, lions, panthers, wolves, wild asses, and camels; the inhabitants were wandering herdmen, who gained a subsistence from their camels; on them they rode, from them they fought, and on their milk and flesh they lived. The names of the Arabian tribes he is unwilling to mention, because of their insignificance and harsh sound.430 Diodorus also tells us that the inhabitants of the part of Arabia towards Syria lived by agriculture and trade, but with the Nabatæans the land began to be arid and barren; and they led the life of robbers, plundering their neighbours far and wide; no one had succeeded in conquering them.431 The interior of Arabia, and the western side, were occupied by plains of sand of enormous extent. On these it was only possible to travel as on the sea, by taking the Great Bear as a guide. In the whole of the interior there were no cities, but only dwellers in tents, and the most part of the Arabian tribes led a nomadic life, for Arabia was very rich in animals of various kinds, so that the Arabs could easily live on them without cultivating corn. They had large herds of cattle, and with these they wandered over immeasurable plains. In conclusion, Diodorus praises the fertility and beauty of a well-watered palm-grove in the peninsula between the northern bays of the Arabian Sea, which the barbarians had very justly consecrated to the gods, as it lay in the midst of a very hot and desert land, surrounded by a wilderness. There was an old altar there of hard stone inscribed with very ancient letters, which no one could read. A man and woman presided for life as priests over this holy palm-grove, and every four years the neighbouring Arab tribes sacrificed hecatombs of goodly camels there.432 Pliny observes: "Strange to say, the Arabs live about equally on plunder and on trade; what they get from their forests (by which is meant the products of the date-palms and the fruit-trees of South Arabia) and from the sea they sell; but they purchase nothing in return."433 "The Arabs," says Ammianus Marcellinus, "extend from the Euphrates to Egypt. They are half-naked, with only a coloured apron round the body reaching to the middle. Every man is a warrior. On their swift fine-limbed horses and their camels they ride in every direction. They do not continue long in any one place: without settled abodes they wander to and fro, and their whole life is nothing but a flight. Of bread and wine the most part of them know nothing whatever."434

Of the southern coasts of Arabia the accounts are different. It is a remark of Herodotus that the fairest blessings are allotted to the extreme limits of the earth; and among other places to Arabia, the southern extremity of the inhabited world. Here only, in all the earth, grow frankincense, myrrh, cassia, and ladanum; here are sheep with such thick tails, that carriages have to be fastened behind them. But the frankincense trees are watched by winged serpents, and the cassia by bats. Cinnamon does not grow in Arabia, but large carnivorous birds of prey brought branches of cinnamon for their nests, – from which direction the Arabs could not tell.435 Heraclides of Cyme gave an account of the wealth of the king of the land of frankincense. He pretended to know that the expenses for the king, his wife, and friends, amounted each day to the sum of fifteen Babylonian talents. Living an effeminate and luxurious life, he always remained in the palace; he did nothing, and was never seen by the people; but if anyone went into the palace to complain of a decision at law, the king himself passed sentence.436 Through the trade connection of Alexandria Eratosthenes obtained better information on these districts, and was enabled to mention the tribes who possessed the south. "In the extreme end of Arabia next the sea dwell the Minæans, whose metropolis is Karna; after these come the Sabæans, whose metropolis is Mariaba; further to the west, as far as the corner of the Arabian Gulf, are the Cattabani, whose kings dwell at Thamna; finally, the Chatramites are furthest to the east, and their city is Sabbatha. Each of these four districts is larger than the Delta of Egypt; they have rain in the summer, and rivers which lose themselves in the plains and lakes. Hence the land is so fruitful that seed is sown twice in the year. The land of the Cattabani supplies incense, the Chatramites produce myrrh; but elsewhere also fruits of every kind are plentiful and cattle abundant. From the Chatramites it is a journey of forty days to the Sabæans; from the Minæans the merchants go in seventy days to Aela (Elath). The cities of the Chatramites, Cattabani, Sabæans, and Minæans are rich, and adorned with temples and royal palaces."437 The Sabæans, the most numerous tribe of Arabia, according to Agatharchides, who wrote in the second half of the second century B.C., inhabited the so-called Arabia Felix. Here grew the most beautiful fruits without number; here was an inexhaustible abundance of animals of every kind. In the strips of land by the sea grew balsam and cassia, and another plant most beautiful to the eye. In the interior were thick forests of tall frankincense and myrrh-trees, and also cinnamon-trees, palm and calmus, and trees of a similar kind, which, like the others, send forth the sweetest odour. Owing to the innumerable multitude, it is not possible to name and describe every species. The perfume is divine and beyond all words. Even those who go past on the coast, at a distance from the land, enjoy this perfume, if the wind is blowing off shore. For there the spices are not cut and old and stored up, but in fresh vigour and bloom, so that those who sail along the coast believe that they are enjoying ambrosia, since no other word can express the extraordinary power and strength of the odour. The monarchy among the Sabæans is hereditary. Their chief city, Mariaba, lies on a mountain; here lives the king, who pronounces justice for the people, but he is never allowed to leave his palace. If he acts otherwise, he is stoned by the people, in obedience to an ancient oracle. The Sabæans are the richest people in the world. For a few goods silver and gold are brought in quantities, and flow in from every side; while, owing to their remote situation, they have never been conquered by any one. Hence, especially in the metropolis, they have a number of vessels of silver and gold and couches, and porticoes, the pillars of which are gilded in the shaft, and the capitals are adorned with silver ornaments, while the architraves and doors are finished with gold and precious stones. On these structures they bestow great care and industry.438 Artemidorus of Ephesus, who wrote somewhat later than Agatharchides of Cnidus, represents the king of the Sabæans and his court as living at Mariaba, which lay on a wooded mountain, in effeminate luxury. Owing to the abundance of fruit the people were lazy and inactive, and reclined on the roots of the spice-trees. For fire-wood they used cinnamon and cassia. The occupation of the people was partly agriculture, and partly trade in spices, both native and imported from the opposite coast of Æthiopia (Africa), whither the Sabæans passed over the inlet of the sea in boats of skins. The neighbouring tribes received the wares from the Sabæans, and then passed them on to their neighbours, till they reached Syria and Mesopotamia.439 Pliny tells us that the Sabæans were the most famous of the Arabians, owing to their frankincense, and their land reached from sea to sea. Their cities lay on the sea and in the interior, the chief city being Mariaba. One portion of the Sabæans were called the Chatramites, and their chief city, Sabbatha, had sixty temples within its walls; further to the east were the Cattabani, whose city, Thamna, could enumerate sixty-five temples. The Minæans lay in the interior beyond the Chatramites. The frankincense was collected and brought to Sabbatha, and could not be purchased and taken away by strangers till the priests had set apart a tenth for the god of Sabbatha. The only passage for exportation was through the land of the Cattabani, to the king of which imposts had to be paid. The priests also and the scribes of the king received presents, and the doorkeepers, bodyguard, and escort. Thamna, the chief city of the Cattabani, was distant seventy-five days' journey from Gaza. And as payments had to be made, at one place for pasturage, at another for water, at a third for the stage, and again for the convoy, the cost for each camel as far as the Syrian desert amounted to 688 denarii.440

According to the Hebrew Scriptures the Sheba, i. e. the Sabæans, "a distant people, rich in frankincense, spices, gold, and precious stones," were to be sought in the south of Arabia.441 The tribe or locality of Uzal, which Genesis and Ezekiel mention beside the Sabæans, is the older name of the later Sanaa. The chief city of the Sabæans, which Western writers call Mariaba, is the Maryab of the inscriptions. To the east of the Sabæans, on the south coast, were situated the Hazarmaweth of the Hebrews, the Chatramites of the Western nations, in the district of Hadramaut, which still preserves the name. The Rhegmæans of the Western nations, the sons of Rama among the Hebrews, are to be sought in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, in Oman, the south-east of Arabia. Further to the north-east, on the shore of this Gulf, were the Dedanites; and yet further to the north-east the Havila appear to have dwelt, who are perhaps the Chaulotæans, whom Eratosthenes places towards the Lower Euphrates. The Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly mention the Hagarites, the Nebajoth (the Agræans and Nabatæans of Eratosthenes), and further towards the interior of Arabia the Kedarites and Temanites; and lastly, on the peninsula of Sinai, and on the borders of Canaan, the Amalekites, Edomites, and Midianites. The Hebrews mention two chiefs of the Midianites, whose names were "Wolf" and "Raven," the leather tents of this people, the number of their dromedaries, and the moons which their camels carried as ornaments. Next are mentioned the flocks of the Nebajoth, the black tents of the Kedarites, their wealth in cattle (large and small), and their brave bowmen.442

The inscriptions of Egypt from the time of the Tuthmosis and the first Ramses celebrate achievements performed, as it is said, by these Pharaohs against the Punt, i. e. against the Arabs; but with one exception, they do not supply any information of the land and the tribes of this people. A daughter of Tuthmosis I., queen Misphra (Hatasu, Ramake), who was regent first for her brother Tuthmosis II., and during a considerable time for Tuthmosis III. (1625-1591 B.C.), wished to become acquainted with "the land of Punt, as far as the uttermost end of To-Neter." She equipped a fleet on the Red Sea, and led it in person to the coast of Arabia. The inhabitants of the coast on which she landed submitted, and she returned to Egypt with rich spoil, in which were thirty-two spice-trees.443 The inscriptions of the kings of Asshur supply further information: among the tribes of the Arabians they mention in the first place the Pekod, the Hagarites, whom they place in the neighbourhood of the lands of Hauran, Moab and Zoba, the Kedarites, Thamudenes, Nabatæans, and finally the Sabæans. The Hebrew Scriptures bring the queen of Sheba to Solomon at Jerusalem, and represent her as offering rich presents in gold and frankincense, and similarly Tiglath-Pilesar II., king of Assyria, tells us that in the year 738 B.C. he had received tribute from Zabibieh, the queen of Arabia (Aribi), and in the year 734 B.C. he had taken from Samsieh, queen of the Arabs, 30,000 camels and 20,000 oxen, and further, that he had subjugated the people of Saba, the city of the Sabæans. Sargon boasts that he had subdued the people of Thammud (the Thamudenes), Tasid, Ibadid, Marsiman, Chayapa, the distant Arbæans, and the inhabitants of the land of Bari, "which was unknown to the learned and to the scribes," and that he received the tribute of Samsieh, queen of the Arabs, and of Yathamir, the Sabæan (Sabahi) in gold, spices, and camels (in the year 715 B.C.). He mentions the land of Agag, "on the borders of the Arabs toward the rising sun," i. e. the Eastern Arabs.444 King Sennacherib took from the Pekod, the Hagarites, Nabatæans, and some other tribes, 5,330 camels and 800,600 head of small cattle (703 B.C.), and in the time of Assurbanipal (about 645 B.C.) Adiya, the queen of the Arabs, and Ammuladin, the king of the Kedarites, were brought in chains to Nineveh; the "innumerable troops" of another prince, Uaiti, were defeated and his tents burnt. Abiyateh also, who was leagued against Assyria, first with Uaiti, and then with Nadnu (Nathan), the king of the Nabatæans, was conquered, together with these allies, and the worshippers of Atar Samain (Istar). Assurbanipal tells us that out of the booty of this campaign he distributed camels like sheep, and that at the gate of Nineveh camels had been sold for half a silver shekel (from 1s. 6d. to 2s.).445