armies besieged Nineveh, and completely destroyed it, upon which Babylon became the sole capital of the Assyrian empire, 625 â. c.

SECOND EMPIRE OF BABYLON.-On the death of Mesessi Mordacus, the last of the five obscure successors of Merodach Baladan, the metropolis was, for eight years, a prey to all the evils of anarchy. This opportunity was not neglected by the victorious Esarhaddon, and in 680 he reunited the Babylonian monarchy to that of Nineveh, which had now become the most formidable in all Asia. But this preponderance, founded on the humiliation of Babylon, was not of long duration; for thirty-three years after, Nabopolassar the Chaldean, aided by Cyaxares the Mede, vindicated the honour of his country on the smoking ruins of Nineveh, and his empire became in its turn the queen of the east. The conqueror (625), after the death of Saracus, reunited under his government all the provinces with most of the satrapies that had been dependent on Nineveh. Such prosperity excited the jealousy of Necho, who marched toward the Euphrates with the design of wresting from the Assyrian monarch all the country situated on the western bank of that river. He was particularly successful, and took the important city of Carchemish, with several other strong places. This encouraged the Syrians and the Jews in their attempts to throw off the Babylonian yoke; when Nabopolassar, too far advanced in years to take the field in person against the rebels, committed the important charge to his son Nebuchadnezzar the Great, whom he had already associated with him in the government. This young prince, who had received from nature all the qualities of a conqueror, justified the confidence of his father. Proceeding against the Egyptian king, he gained a complete victory, and recovered all that the other had reduced in the preceding years. While laying siege to Jerusalem, which he was destined to capture thrice in the course of his reign, he was informed of his parent's death. He returned to Babylon to assume the crown, carrying with him a numerous train of Jewish captives.

MEDIA.

DELOCES, 733 B. C.- Media is a fertile though mountainous country, lying between Persia, the Caspian Sea, Assyria, Parthia, and Armenia. Its capital was Ecbatana (now Hamadan). Powerful monarchies appear to have existed in those parts, but, owing to an inconsistent and arbitrary chronology, they can scarcely enter into general history. Bactria, by its geographical position, appears marked out for the great emporium of south-eastern Asia, and in proportion as we penetrate into ancient times, we become convinced that, like Babylon, it was one of the earliest seats of international commerce, and one of the cradles of civilisation. The term Media comprehended this country as it was applied generally to the nations between the Tigris and the Indus.

From the earliest period the Medes had been subject to Assyria, when, in 759, under the command of Arbaces, they revolted against Sardanapalus, and recovered their independence. But their liberty degenerated into anarchy, until a sense of the necessity of public order induced them, in the year 733, to place Deioces on the throne. During his glorious reign of fifty-three years, he united the six tribes, of which the Magi were the chief, and founded an independent sovereignty. Phraortes

(probably the Arphaxad of the book of Judith), who succeeded him in 680, reduced Persia, and conquered all the country north of the Taurus as far as the river Halys. He was defeated and killed by Nebuchadnezzar I. (Saosduchin) in his war against Assyria, 655. Cyaxares I. undertook to avenge his father's death, and was on the point of capturing Nineveh, when he was obliged to turn his arms against a more terrible enemy, the Scythians, who, having overrun Asia, had reached the borders of Egypt, 648. It took twenty-eight years to expel them, after which he declared war against the Lydian Alyattes, for having received and protected some of the chiefs who had escaped from the general massacre of their comrades. A battle fought on the banks of the Halys, was terminated by an eclipse of the sun, 601 B. c.* Medes had now regained their importance, for, united with the Babylonian Nabopolassar, they had destroyed Nineveh, 625, and reduced the Persians to subjection. Cyaxares I. died in 595, in the sixty-first year of his reign, leaving to his son Astyages the greatest and most powerful monarchy in Asia. In his time the history of Media becomes confused with that of Persia and of Cyrus.

The

We may here observe that the frequent revolutions in Asia, both of ancient and modern times, were never beneficial to the people. Governments often changed hands, but the form was always the same; and all except that effected by Alexander were the work of powerful nomad tribes. Impelled by fortuitous circumstances or by necessity, they quitted their wild abodes to subjugate the fertile plains of Southern Asia, until, enervated by the luxury and effeminacy of their new subjects, they were themselves conquered in the same manner. This consideration on the common origin of the great empires of the East, accounts for their vast extent, their rapid increase, and brief duration. The internal constitution of these states was everywhere the same: unlimited despotism which, springing from the rights of conquest, was perpetuated, because the very extent of the empire required, for the interests of the prince at least, a similar government to preserve the unity of the state.

PERSIA.

an

PERSIA, called Elam in the Scriptures, received its name from the eldest son of Shem. Its history is a blank down to the reign of Chedorlaomer, who, about a century before the presumed time in which Ninus laid the foundations of Assyrian greatness, had already carried his victorious arms towards the Mediterranean, in the western provinces of Asia. The power of the Elamites yielded to that of Ninus and Semiramis, and the country became a province of the vast empire of Assyria. They aided the Medians and Babylonians in their attempts to overthrow the government of Sardanapalus, but were still dependent on the two newly-formed monarchies. The ten tribes of Israel were distributed among the Persians and Medes; and although the extensive dominion of Nebuchadnezzar II. embraced the former people within its limits, the bonds of subjection do not appear to have been very oppressive. Under the rule of the Medes the condition of Persia was very little changed. Eastern writers have endeavoured to fill up the void in

* The period of this eclipse is by no means a settled point, and the compiler had to select from six different dates: 607; 603; 601, the date assigned by Usher; 597, very often given; 585, total over the whole Hellespont, and not improbably that mentioned by Herodotus and 581 B. C.

its early history; but their works, composed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A. D., are little more than a web of fabulous traditions. Their testimony can have no weight in the balance of historical criticism, and in all their annals the only personage who appears to be really historical is Jemsheed or Giamschid, probably the Achæmenes whom the Greeks counted among the ancestors of Cyrus.

At the epoch of their subjection to the Medes, the Persians were a mountain race, divided into ten castes or tribes. The most considerable were the Pasargadæ, the Maraphians, and Maspians, all composed of nobles and warriors; and the first, of whom the Achæmenida were a branch, were always in possession of the government. Of the other tribes, three were composed of labourers and four of shepherds.

Being descended from Shem, the Elamites preserved longer their ancient religion. They built no temples, but worshipped, in the open air and on the tops of mountains, the sun (Mithras) or fire, as an emblem of the Supreme Being. They also venerated the stars and planets. The adoration of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism) is supposed to have been a corruption of the Magian doctrines: both however appear to have been known to Job. The former is perpetuated in Asia by the Parsees and Ghebers.

The Magian doctrine endeavoured to account for the existence of evil, by the notion (afterwards adopted by the Manichees) of two first causes, principles or gods, of Good and Evil. The name is derived from the Magi, a sacerdotal caste of the Medes, who introduced their peculiar opinions into Persia. This doctrine was reformed by Zoroaster. or Zerdusht. Four persons of this name are mentioned in ancient authors; but the best known, and perhaps the only one who ever existed, was born in Media about the same time as Cyrus. Sent in early life to Judæa, he studied the books of Moses and Solomon, and became acquainted with the prophecies concerning Cyrus. Returning to his own country, he retired to a lonely cavern, in which he wrote the Avesta, or as it is generally called, the Zendavesta, from being written in the Zend language, the sacred dialect of the Parsees. In this work, which contains tenets of the highest wisdom and the purest morals, the Two Principles are reduced to the rank of subordinate angels, and the existence of ONE independent and self-existing deity is acknowledged, as also the salvation of man by faith from the power of Arimanes or Satan. These doctrines appear to have been adopted in Persia by the nobler tribes alone. The magi preserved the sacred fire which Zoroaster brought to Media, and which he is said to have received from heaven. His favourite maxim was, that evil followed good, as the shadow the substance.

EGYPT.

PSAMMETICHUS. The period between the sixteenth and tenth centuries, although disturbed by anarchy, was the most prosperous in the history of this kingdom. In the Holy Scriptures we find a few scattered notices of Egyptian affairs, such as the marriage of Solomon with the king's daughter, and the invasion of Judæa by Shishak in 971, B. C. The tide of conquest now rolled down the Nile, the Ethiopians under Sabacus rose to great power, 770, and a dynasty of three kings reigned ir succession on the united throne of Egypt and Ethiopia. Various

revolutions followed, until Psammetichus of Sais obtained the supreme power, about 656 B. C. He had been a member of the dodecarchy, or government of twelve sovereign princes, among whom the country had been divided, 671. Quarrels springing up among them, they expelled him, but he soon after returned, and, aided by Greek mercenaries, put his rivals to flight. In consideration of the fidelity and military services of the strangers who had helped him to his throne, he kept many of them about him as a standing army, and honoured them with his confidence. At this the warrior-caste took umbrage, and, to the number of 200,000, retired into Ethiopia. In his reign commerce flourished, and strangers were allowed freely to visit the Egyptian ports.

The accession of Psammetichus to the sole sovereignty of Egypt is an important epoch, and the termination of historical uncertainty. Greek writers now furnish us with a detailed history of the country, no longer founded on figurative inscriptions or allegorical traditions; and henceforward the Scriptures also give us the names and characters of the Egyptian princes, whom we easily recognise in the Greek narratives. In this reign the interpreters became a distinct class, alphabetical writing came into general use, and the science of hieroglyphics was gradually forgotten. Egypt now became and continued a single empire, with its seat of government at Memphis. Down to this time, no Egyptian king, with the exception of Sesostris, had appeared animated with a military spirit; but after Psammetichus, the various princes felt the necessity of becoming warriors and creating a_maritime power. The enlightened administration of Psammetichus made Egypt flourish without overloading the people with taxes. He was partial to the Greeks, and formed an alliance with the Athenians. Although his subjects, blinded by prejudice, did not second his extended views, he is not the less one of the most estimable sovereigns that ever governed the nation.

PHARAOH-NECHO, 617-601.-The son and successor of Psammetichus would have been an extraordinary ruler in any age. He formed extensive plans of conquest; subdued all Asia, as far as the Euphrates; took Catchemish (Circesium,) the key of Syria and Palestine, and placed in it a strong garrison (610.) His march through Judah was opposed by Josiah, who was slain in battle, and his kingdom treated as a subject country. He attempted to join the Nile to the Red Sea by a canal, ninety-six miles in length; in which unsuccessful labour 120,000 workmen are said to have perished.* At his command a Phoenician fleet sailed from the Arabian Gulf, circumnavigated Africa, and returned in three years by the Straits of Gibraltar, twenty-one centuries before Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope (1497 A.D.) In 606 Nebuchadnezzar II. defeated and pursued the Egyptian monarch, when all his conquests beyond the frontiers were lost. Necho died after a reign of sixteen years, leaving the throne to his son Psammis, 601 B.C

GREECE.

DRACO. The example of Sparta, and their own internal dissensions inspired the Athenians with a desire for a regular constitution, the framing of which was committed to the hands of Draco, chief archon

*This work was completed by the Persians, but turned out to be of little practical benefit. Many learned men have doubted the existence of a communication by water between the two seas; but the testimony of ancient writers is too positive against them. Attempts have been made, at various times, down to the present day, to clear out the bed of the canal, which is still visible.

that year (624,) a man as rigidly severe as he was inflexibly just. The code he drew up was said to be written in blood, death being the penalty of the lowest as well as of the highest crimes. It naturally fell into contempt and desuetude, when at length the contests of the aristocratic parties, and the better regulation of the religious worship by the Cretan Epimenides, prepared the way for Solon. From the three classes, which existed in the time of Theseus, the nobles, labourers, and artizans, appear to have been derived the same number of political factions which now divided Athens. The mountaineers or Diacrians advocated an absolute democracy; the rich inhabitants of the plains, or Pedians, desired an aristocracy; while the Paralians, who dwelt along the shores, favoured a mixed government, in which the people had the right of suffrage, and the executive power was placed in the hands of a few individuals. The intolerable abuses of the magistracy, and the rapacity of their own creditors, drove the people at last into insurrection. They elected a chief, threw open the prisons, and with arms in their hands demanded a partition of the land, the abolition of all debts, and a new order of government. Civil war was on the point of breaking out, when Solon was chosen archon, and appointed supreme arbiter and legislator of the republic, 594 B. C.

MESSENIAN WARS.- A trifling quarrel between the Spartans and Messenians, who had been long at variance with each other, gave rise in 743 to the First War of twenty years, which ended to the disadvantage of the latter. Messenia, lying in the south-west of the Peloponnesus, was a fertile country with great maritime advantages. The wise Nestor is supposed to have ruled in one of its cities; and his descendants were driven from the throne by the Dorian followers of the Heraclidæ. The people were a simple, agricultural race, but not deficient in warlike virtues. In the year 773, an insult offered to a band of Spartan virgins by some Messenian youths, led to the first serious misunderstanding between the respective states. Hostilities did not break out until thirty years after, when Polychares, indignant that punishment had not been inflicted on the murderer of his son, in a wild spirit of retaliation killed several Lacedæmonians, 743. In the early part of the war, fortune was on the side of Messenia, Aristodemus having restored the fainting spirits of his countrymen by the sacrifice of his daughter. Shortly after the battle of Ithomé, 730, he was elected to the vacant throne, and made frequent and destructive incursions into the Laconian territory. In 725, the Spartans prepared for a decisive struggle, but it was prolonged until 723, when Aristodemus had fallen by his own hand on the tomb of his immolated child. Ithomé was taken and rased to the ground; the Messenians were condemned to a yearly tribute of half their crops, and to be present in deep mourning at the interment of the Spartan kings. For thirty-nine years they remained in subjection, when the Second War broke out, 685, under the conduct of the famous Aristomenes, whose adventures are so romantic as to throw doubt upon the whole history of his campaigns. The Spartans, headed by the lame Athenian schoolmaster Tyrtæus, and cheered by his songs, were eventually successful, after besieging the stronghold of Ira during eleven years; and the Messenians who did not abandon their country, made a numerous addition to the Helots or Laconian slaves. Aristomenes escaped, and died at Rhodes. He was the worthy precursor of