Part 29 (2/2)
Subsequent operations towards the north restored the pre-eminence of a.s.syria in the Nairi country, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Van, in Armenia, where Tiglath-pileser captured no fewer than twenty-three petty kings.
These he liberated after they had taken the oath of allegiance and consented to pay annual tribute.
In his fourth year the conqueror learned that the Aramaeans were crossing the Euphrates and possessing themselves of Mitanni, which he had cleared of the Hitt.i.tes. By a series of forced marches he caught them unawares, scattered them in confusion, and entered Carchemish, which he pillaged. Thereafter his army crossed the Euphrates in boats of skin, and plundered and destroyed six cities round the base of the mountain of Bishru.
While operating in this district, Tiglath-pileser engaged in big-game hunting. He recorded: ”Ten powerful bull elephants in the land of Haran and on the banks of the Khabour I killed; four elephants alive I took. Their skins, their teeth, with the living elephants, I brought to my city of a.s.shur.”[419] He also claimed to have slain 920 lions, as well as a number of wild oxen, apparently including in his record the ”bags” of his officers and men. A later king credited him with having penetrated to the Phoenician coast, where he put to sea and slew a sea monster called the ”nakhiru”. While at Arvad, the narrative continues, the King of Egypt, who is not named, sent him a hippopotamus (pagutu). This story, however, is of doubtful authenticity. About this time the prestige of Egypt was at so low an ebb that its messengers were subjected to indignities by the Phoenician kings.
The conquests of Tiglath-pileser once more raised the Mesopotamian question in Babylonia, whose sphere of influence in that region had been invaded. Marduk-nadin-akhe, the grandson of Nebuchadrezzar I, ”arrayed his chariots” against Tiglath-pileser, and in the first conflict achieved some success, but subsequently he was defeated in the land of Akkad. The a.s.syrian army afterwards captured several cities, including Babylon and Sippar.
Thus once again the a.s.syrian Empire came into being as the predominant world Power, extending from the land of the Hitt.i.tes into the heart of Babylonia. Its cities were enriched by the immense quant.i.ties of booty captured by its warrior king, while the coffers of state were glutted with the tribute of subject States. Fortifications were renewed, temples were built, and great gifts were lavished on the priesthood.
Artists and artisans were kept fully employed restoring the faded splendours of the Old Empire, and everywhere thousands of slaves laboured to make the neglected land prosperous as of old. Ca.n.a.ls were repaired and reopened; the earthworks and quay wall of Ashur were strengthened, and its great wall was entirely rebuilt, faced with a rampart of earth, and protected once again by a deep moat. The royal palace was enlarged and redecorated.
Meanwhile Babylonia was wasted by civil war and invasions. It was entered more than once by the Aramaeans, who pillaged several cities in the north and the south. Then the throne was seized by Adad-aplu-iddina, the grandson of ”a n.o.body”, who reigned for about ten years. He was given recognition, however, by the a.s.syrian king, Ashur-bel-kala, son of Tiglath-pileser I, who married his daughter, and apparently restored to him Sippar and Babylon after receiving a handsome dowry. Ashur-bel-kala died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Shams.h.i.+-Adad.
An obscure period followed. In Babylonia there were two weak dynasties in less than half a century, and thereafter an Elamite Dynasty which lasted about six years. An Eighth Dynasty ensued, and lasted between fifty and sixty years. The records of its early kings are exceedingly meagre and their order uncertain. During the reign of Nabu-mukin-apli, who was perhaps the fourth monarch, the Aramaeans constantly raided the land and hovered about Babylon. The names of two or three kings who succeeded Nabu-mukin-apli are unknown.
A century and a half after Tiglath-pileser I conquered the north Syrian possessions of the Hitt.i.tes, the Old a.s.syrian Empire reached the close of its second and last period. It had suffered gradual decline, under a series of inert and luxury-loving kings, until it was unable to withstand the gradual encroachment on every side of the restless hill tribes, who were ever ready to revolt when the authority of Ashur was not a.s.serted at the point of the sword.
After 950 B.C. the Hitt.i.tes of North Syria, having shaken off the last semblance of a.s.syrian authority, revived their power, and enjoyed a full century of independence and prosperity. In Cappadocia their kinsmen had freed themselves at an earlier period from the yoke of the Muski, who had suffered so severely at the hands of Tiglath-pileser I.
The Hitt.i.te buildings and rock sculptures of this period testify to the enduring character of the ancient civilization of the ”Hatti”.
Until the hieroglyphics can be read, however, we must wait patiently for the detailed story of the pre-Phrygian period, which was of great historical importance, because the tide of cultural influence was then flowing at its greatest volume from the old to the new world, where Greece was emerging in virgin splendour out of the ruins of the ancient Mykenaean and Cretan civilizations.
It is possible that the conquest of a considerable part of Palestine by the Philistines was not unconnected with the revival of Hitt.i.te power in the north. They may have moved southward as the allies of the Cilician State which was rising into prominence. For a period they were the overlords of the Hebrews, who had been displacing the older inhabitants of the ”Promised Land”, and appear to have been armed with weapons of iron. In fact, as is indicated by a pa.s.sage in the Book of Samuel, they had made a ”corner” in that metal and restricted its use among their va.s.sals. ”Now”, the Biblical narrative sets forth, ”there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears; but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock”.[420] ”We are inclined”, says Professor Macalister, ”to picture the West as a thing of yesterday, new fangled with its inventions and its progressive civilization, and the East as an embodiment of h.o.a.ry and unchanging traditions. But when West first met East on the sh.o.r.es of the Holy Land, it was the former which represented the magnificent traditions of the past, and the latter which looked forward to the future. The Philistines were of the remnant of the dying glories of Crete; the Hebrews had no past to speak of, but were entering on the heritage they regarded as theirs, by right of a recently ratified divine covenant.”[421]
Saul was the leader of a revolt against the Philistines in northern Palestine, and became the ruler of the kingdom of Israel. Then David, having liberated Judah from the yoke of the Philistines, succeeded Saul as ruler of Israel, and selected Jerusalem as his capital. He also conquered Edom and Moab, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to subjugate Ammon. The Philistines were then confined to a restricted area on the seacoast, where they fused with the Semites and ultimately suffered loss of ident.i.ty. Under the famous Solomon the united kingdom of the Hebrews reached its highest splendour and importance among the nations.
If the Philistines received the support of the Hitt.i.tes, the Hebrews were strengthened by an alliance with Egypt. For a period of two and a half centuries no Egyptian army had crossed the Delta frontier into Syria. The ancient land of the Pharaohs had been overshadowed meantime by a cloud of anarchy, and piratical and robber bands settled freely on its coast line. At length a Libyan general named Sheshonk (s.h.i.+shak) seized the throne from the Tanite Dynasty. He was the Pharaoh with whom Solomon ”made affinity”,[422] and from whom he received the city of Gezer, which an Egyptian army had captured.[423] Solomon had previously married a daughter of Sheshonk's.
Phoenicia was also flouris.h.i.+ng. Freed from Egyptian, Hitt.i.te, and a.s.syrian interference, Tyre and Sidon attained to a high degree of power as independent city States. During the reigns of David and Solomon, Tyre was the predominant Phoenician power. Its kings, Abibaal and his son Hiram, had become ”Kings of the Sidonians”, and are believed to have extended their sway over part of Cyprus. The relations between the Hebrews and the Phoenicians were of a cordial character, indeed the two powers became allies.
And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the Lord His G.o.d for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my G.o.d hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent. And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my G.o.d, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians. And it came to pa.s.s, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.[424]
Hiram also sent skilled workers to Jerusalem to a.s.sist in the work of building the temple and Solomon's palace, including his famous namesake, ”a widow's son of the (Hebrew) tribe of Naphtali”, who, like his father, ”a man of Tyre”, had ”understanding and cunning to work all works in bra.s.s”.[425]
Solomon must have cultivated good relations with the Chaldaeans, for he had a fleet of trading s.h.i.+ps on the Persian Gulf which was manned by Phoenician sailors. ”Once in three years”, the narrative runs, ”came the navy of Thars.h.i.+sh, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peac.o.c.ks.”[426] Apparently he traded with India, the land of peac.o.c.ks, during the Brahmanical period, when the Sanskrit name ”Samudra”, which formerly signified the ”collected waters” of the broadening Indus, was applied to the Indian Ocean.[427]
The Aramaeans of the Third Semitic migration were not slow to take advantage of the weakness of a.s.syria and Babylon. They overran the whole of Syria, and entered into the possession of Mesopotamia, thus acquiring full control of the trade routes towards the west. From time to time they ravaged Babylonia from the north to the south. Large numbers of them acquired permanent settlement in that country, like the Amorites of the Second Semitic migration in the pre-Hammurabi Age.
In Syria the Aramaeans established several petty States, and were beginning to grow powerful at Damascus, an important trading centre, which a.s.sumed considerable political importance after the collapse of a.s.syria's Old Empire.
At this period, too, the Chaldaeans came into prominence in Babylonia.
Their kingdom of Chaldaea (Kaldu, which signifies Sealand) embraces a wide stretch of the coast land at the head of the Persian Gulf between Arabia and Elam. As we have seen, an important dynasty flourished in this region in the time of Hammurabi. Although more than one king of Babylon recorded that he had extinguished the Sealand Power, it continued to exist all through the Ka.s.site period. It is possible that this obscure kingdom embraced diverse ethnic elements, and that it was controlled in turn by military aristocracies of Sumerians, Elamites, Ka.s.sites, and Arabians. After the downfall of the Ka.s.sites it had become thoroughly Semitized, perhaps as a result of the Aramaean migration, which may have found one of its outlets around the head of the Persian Gulf. The ancient Sumerian city of Ur, which dominated a considerable area of steppe land to the west of the Euphrates, was included in the Sealand kingdom, and was consequently referred to in after-time as ”Ur of the Chaldees”.
When Solomon reigned over Judah and Israel, Babylonia was broken up into a number of petty States, as in early Sumerian times. The feudal revival of Nebuchadrezzar I had weakened the central power, with the result that the nominal high kings were less able to resist the inroads of invaders. Military aristocracies of Aramaeans, Elamites, and Chaldaeans held sway in various parts of the valley, and struggled for supremacy.
When a.s.syria began to a.s.sert itself again, it laid claim on Babylonia, ostensibly as the protector of its independence, and the Chaldaeans for a time made common cause with the Elamites against it. The future, however, lay with the Chaldaeans, who, like the Ka.s.sites, became the liberators of the ancient inhabitants. When a.s.syria was finally extinguished as a world power they revived the ancient glory of Babylonia, and supplanted the Sumerians as the scholars and teachers of Western Asia. The Chaldaeans became famous in Syria, and even in Greece, as ”the wise men from the east”, and were renowned as astrologers.
The prestige of the Hebrew kingdom suffered sharp and serious decline after Solomon's death. Pharaoh Sheshonk fostered the elements of revolt which ultimately separated Israel from Judah, and, when a favourable opportunity arose, invaded Palestine and Syria and reestablished Egypt's suzerainty over part of the area which had been swayed by Rameses II, replenis.h.i.+ng his exhausted treasury with rich booty and the tribute he imposed. Phoenicia was able, however, to maintain its independence, but before the a.s.syrians moved westward again, Sidon had shaken off the yoke of Tyre and become an independent State.
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