Part 29 (1/2)

RACE MOVEMENTS THAT SHATTERED EMPIRES

The Third Semitic Migration--Achaean Conquest of Greece--Fall of Crete--Tribes of Raiders--European Settlers in Asia Minor--The Muski overthrow the Hitt.i.tes--Sea Raids on Egypt--The Homeric Age--Israelites and Philistines in Palestine--Culture of Philistines--Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylonia--Wars against Elamites and Hitt.i.tes--Conquests in Mesopotamia and Syria--a.s.syrians and Babylonians at War--Tiglath-pileser I of a.s.syria--His Sweeping Conquests--Muski Power broken--Big-game Hunting in Mesopotamia--Slaying of a Sea Monster--Decline of a.s.syria and Babylonia--Revival of Hitt.i.te Civilization--An Important Period in History--Philistines as Overlords of Hebrews--Kingdom of David and Saul--Solomon's Relations with Egypt and Phoenicia--Sea Trade with India--Aramaean Conquests--The Chaldaeans--Egyptian King plunders Judah and Israel--Historical Importance of Race Movements.

Great changes were taking place in the ancient world during the period in which a.s.syria rose into prominence and suddenly suffered decline. These were primarily due to widespread migrations of pastoral peoples from the steppe lands of Asia and Europe, and the resulting displacement of settled tribes. The military operations of the great Powers were also a disturbing factor, for they not only propelled fresh movements beyond their spheres of influence, but caused the petty States to combine against a common enemy and foster ambitions to achieve conquests on a large scale.

Towards the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, of which Amenhotep III and Akhenaton were the last great kings, two well-defined migrations were in progress. The Aramaean folk-waves had already begun to pour in increasing volume into Syria from Arabia, and in Europe the pastoral fighting folk from the mountains were establis.h.i.+ng themselves along the south-eastern coast and crossing the h.e.l.lespont to overrun the land of the Hitt.i.tes. These race movements were destined to exercise considerable influence in shaping the history of the ancient world.

The Aramaean, or Third Semitic migration, in time swamped various decaying States. Despite the successive efforts of the great Powers to hold it in check, it ultimately submerged the whole of Syria and part of Mesopotamia. Aramaean speech then came into common use among the mingled peoples over a wide area, and was not displaced until the time of the Fourth Semitic or Moslem migration from Arabia, which began in the seventh century of the Christian era, and swept northward through Syria to Asia Minor, eastward across Mesopotamia into Persia and India, and westward through Egypt along the north African coast to Morocco, and then into Spain.

When Syria was sustaining the first shocks of Aramaean invasion, the last wave of Achaeans, ”the tamers of horses” and ”shepherds of the people”, had achieved the conquest of Greece, and contributed to the overthrow of the dynasty of King Minos of Crete. Professor Ridgeway identifies this stock, which had been filtering southward for several centuries, with the tall, fair-haired, and grey-eyed ”Keltoi”

(Celts),[413] who, Dr. Haddon believes, were representatives of ”the mixed peoples of northern and Alpine descent”.[414] Mr. Hawes, following Professor Sergi, holds, on the other hand, that the Achaeans were ”fair in comparison with the native (Pelasgian-Mediterranean) stock, but not necessarily blonde”.[415] The earliest Achaeans were rude, uncultured barbarians, but the last wave came from some unknown centre of civilization, and probably used iron as well as bronze weapons.

The old Cretans were known to the Egyptians as the ”Keftiu”, and traded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It is significant to find, however, that no mention is made of them in the inscriptions of the Pharaohs after the reign of Amenhotep III. In their place appear the Shardana, the Mykenaean people who gave their name to Sardinia, the Danauna, believed to be identical with the Danaoi of Homer, the Akhaivasha, perhaps the Achaeans, and the Tursha and Shakalsha, who may have been of the same stock as the piratical Lycians.

When Rameses II fought his famous battle at Kadesh the Hitt.i.te king included among his allies the Aramaeans from Arabia, and other mercenaries like the Dardanui and Masa, who represented the Thraco-Phrygian peoples who had overrun the Balkans, occupied Thrace and Macedonia, and crossed into Asia Minor. In time the Hitt.i.te confederacy was broken up by the migrating Europeans, and their dominant tribe, the Muski[416]--the Moschoi of the Greeks and the Meshech of the Old Testament--came into conflict with the a.s.syrians.

The Muski were forerunners of the Phrygians, and were probably of allied stock.

Pharaoh Meneptah, the son of Rameses II, did not benefit much by the alliance with the Hitt.i.tes, to whom he had to send a supply of grain during a time of famine. He found it necessary, indeed, to invade Syria, where their influence had declined, and had to beat back from the Delta region the piratical invaders of the same tribes as were securing a footing in Asia Minor. In Syria, Meneptah fought with the Israelites, who apparently had begun their conquest of Canaan during his reign.

Before the Ka.s.site Dynasty had come to an end, Rameses III of Egypt (1198-1167 B.C.) freed his country from the perils of a great invasion of Europeans by land and sea. He scattered a fleet on the Delta coast, and then arrested the progress of a strong force which was pressing southward through Phoenicia towards the Egyptian frontier. These events occurred at the beginning of the Homeric Age, and were followed by the siege of Troy, which, according to the Greeks, began about 1194 B.C.

The land raiders who were thwarted by Rameses III were the Philistines, a people from Crete.[417] When the prestige of Egypt suffered decline they overran the coastline of Canaan, and that country was then called Palestine, ”the land of the Philistines”, while the Egyptian overland trade route to Phoenicia became known as ”the way of the Philistines”. Their conflicts with the Hebrews are familiar to readers of the Old Testament. ”The only contributions the Hebrews made to the culture of the country”, writes Professor Macalister, ”were their simple desert customs and their religious organization. On the other hand, the Philistines, sprung from one of the great homes of art of the ancient world, had brought with them the artistic instincts of their race: decayed no doubt, but still superior to anything they met with in the land itself. Tombs to be ascribed to them, found in Gezer, contained beautiful jewellery and ornaments. The Philistines, in fact, were the only cultured or artistic race who ever occupied the soil of Palestine, at least until the time when the influence of cla.s.sical Greece a.s.serted itself too strongly to be withstood. Whatsoever things raised life in the country above the dull animal existence of fellahin were due to this people.... The peasantry of the modern villages ... still tell of the great days of old when it (Palestine) was inhabited by the mighty race of the 'Fenish'.”[418]

When the Ka.s.site Dynasty of Babylonia was extinguished, about 1140 B.C., the Amorites were being displaced in Palestine by the Philistines and the Israelitish tribes; the Aramaeans were extending their conquests in Syria and Mesopotamia; the Muski were the overlords of the Hitt.i.tes; a.s.syrian power was being revived at the beginning of the second period of the Old Empire; and Egypt was governed by a weakly king, Rameses VIII, a puppet in the hands of the priesthood, who was unable to protect the rich tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs against the bands of professional robbers who were plundering them.

A new dynasty--the Dynasty of Pashe--had arisen at the ancient Sumerian city of Isin. Its early kings were contemporary with some of the last Ka.s.site monarchs, and they engaged in conflicts with the Elamites, who were encroaching steadily upon Babylonian territory, and were ultimately able to seize the province of Namar, famous for its horses, which was situated to the east of Akkad. The a.s.syrians, under Ashur-dan I, were not only reconquering lost territory, but invading Babylonia and carrying off rich plunder. Ashur-dan inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat upon the second-last Ka.s.site ruler.

There years later Nebuchadrezzar I, of the Dynasty of Pashe, seized the Babylonian throne. He was the most powerful and distinguished monarch of his line--an accomplished general and a wise statesman. His name signifies: ”May the G.o.d Nebo protect my boundary”. His first duty was to drive the Elamites from the land, and win back from them the statue of Merodach which they had carried off from E-sagila. At first he suffered a reverse, but although the season was midsummer, and the heat overpowering, he persisted in his campaign. The Elamites were forced to retreat, and following up their main force he inflicted upon them a shattering defeat on the banks of the Ula, a tributary of the Tigris. He then invaded Elam and returned with rich booty. The province of Namar was recovered, and its governor, Ritti Merodach, who was Nebuchadrezzar's battle companion, was restored to his family possessions and exempted from taxation. A second raid to Elam resulted in the recovery of the statue of Merodach. The Ka.s.site and Lullume mountaineers also received attention, and were taught to respect the power of the new monarch.

Having freed his country from the yoke of the Elamites, and driven the a.s.syrians over the frontier, Nebuchadrezzar came into conflict with the Hitt.i.tes, who appear to have overrun Mesopotamia. Probably the invaders were operating in conjunction with the Muski, who were extending their sway over part of northern a.s.syria. They were not content with securing control of the trade route, but endeavoured also to establish themselves permanently in Babylon, the commercial metropolis, which they besieged and captured. This happened in the third year of Nebuchadrezzar, when he was still reigning at Isin.

a.s.sembling a strong force, he hastened northward and defeated the Hitt.i.tes, and apparently followed up his victory. Probably it was at this time that he conquered the ”West Land” (the land of the Amorites) and penetrated to the Mediterranean coast. Egyptian power had been long extinguished in that region.

The possession of Mesopotamia was a signal triumph for Babylonia. As was inevitable, however, it brought Nebuchadrezzar into conflict some years later with the a.s.syrian king, Ashur-resh-is.h.i.+ I, grandson of Ashur-dan, and father of the famous Tiglath-pileser I. The northern monarch had engaged himself in subduing the Lullume and Akhlami hill tribes in the south-east, whose territory had been conquered by Nebuchadrezzar. Thereafter he crossed the Babylonian frontier.

Nebuchadrezzar drove him back and then laid siege to the border fortress of Zanki, but the a.s.syrian king conducted a sudden and successful reconnaissance in force which rendered perilous the position of the attacking force. By setting fire to his siege train the Babylonian war lord was able, however, to retreat in good order.

Some time later Nebuchadrezzar dispatched another army northward, but it suffered a serious defeat, and its general, Karashtu, fell into the hands of the enemy.

Nebuchadrezzar reigned less than twenty years, and appears to have secured the allegiance of the n.o.bility by restoring the feudal system which had been abolished by the Ka.s.sites. He boasted that he was ”the sun of his country, who restored ancient landmarks and boundaries”, and promoted the wors.h.i.+p of Ishtar, the ancient G.o.ddess of the people.

By restoring the image of Merodach he secured the support of Babylon, to which city he transferred his Court.

Nebuchadrezzar was succeeded by his son Ellil-nadin-apil, who reigned a few years; but little or nothing is known regarding him. His grandson, Marduk-nadin-akhe, came into conflict with Tiglath-pileser I of a.s.syria, and suffered serious reverses, from the effects of which his country did not recover for over a century.

Tiglath-pileser I, in one of his inscriptions, recorded significantly: ”The feet of the enemy I kept from my country”. When he came to the throne, northern a.s.syria was menaced by the Muski and their allies, the Hitt.i.tes and the Shubari of old Mitanni. The Kas.h.i.+ari hill tribes to the north of Nineveh, whom Shalmaneser I subdued, had half a century before thrown off the yoke of a.s.syria, and their kings were apparently va.s.sals of the Muski.

Tiglath-pileser first invaded Mitanni, where he routed a combined force of Shubari hillmen and Hitt.i.tes. Thereafter a great army of the Muski and their allies pressed southward with purpose to deal a shattering blow against the a.s.syrian power. The very existence of a.s.syria as a separate power was threatened by this movement.

Tiglath-pileser, however, was equal to the occasion. He surprised the invaders among the Kas.h.i.+ari mountains and inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat, slaying about 14,000 and capturing 6000 prisoners, who were transported to a.s.shur. In fact, he wiped the invading army out of existence and possessed himself of all its baggage. Thereafter he captured several cities, and extended his empire beyond the Kas.h.i.+ari hills and into the heart of Mitanni.

His second campaign was also directed towards the Mitanni district, which had been invaded during his absence by a force of Hitt.i.tes, about 4000 strong. The invaders submitted to him as soon as he drew near, and he added them to his standing army.