Chapter 4

ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION [1]

13. SOCIAL CLASSES

REDISCOVERY OF THE ORIENT

Our present knowledge of the Orient has been gained within recent times. Less than a century ago no one could read the written records of the Egyptians and Babylonians. The decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, which contained an inscription in both Greek and hieroglyphics, led to the understanding of Egyptian writing. Scholars later succeeded in interpreting the Babylonian cuneiform script. Modern excavations in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates have now provided them with abundant material for study in the shape of books and inscriptions. As these are gradually deciphered, new light is being thrown on all features of ancient Oriental civilization.

THE KING AS AUTOCRAT

The Oriental peoples, when their history opens, were living under the monarchical form of government. The king, to his subjects, was the earthly representative of the god. Often, indeed, he was himself regarded as divine. The belief in the king's divine origin made obedience to him a religious obligation for his subjects. Every Oriental monarch was an autocrat. Every Oriental monarchy was a despotism.

THE KING'S DUTIES

The king had many duties. He was judge, commander, and high priest, all in one. In time of war, he led his troops and faced the dangers of the battle field. During intervals of peace, he was occupied with a constant round of sacrifices, prayers, and processions, which could not be neglected without exciting the anger of the gods. To his courtiers he gave frequent audience, hearing complaints, settling disputes, and issuing commands. A conscientious monarch, such as Hammurabi, who describes himself as "a real father to his people," must have been a very busy man.

NOBLES AND PRIESTS

Besides the monarch and the royal family there was generally in Oriental countries an upper class of landowners. In Egypt the Pharaoh was regarded as sole owner of the land. Some of it he worked through his slaves, but the larger part he granted to his favorites, as hereditary estates. Such persons may be called the nobles. The different priesthoods also had much land, the revenues from which kept up the temples where they ministered. In Babylonia, likewise, we find a priesthood and nobility supported by the income from landed property.

THE MIDDLE CLASS

The middle class included professional men, shopkeepers independent farmers, and skilled craftsmen. Though regarded as inferiors, still they had a chance to rise in the world. If they became rich, they might hope to enter the upper class as priests or government officials.

WORKMEN AND PEASANTS

No such hopes encouraged the day laborer in the fields or shops. His lot was bitter poverty and a life of unending toil. If he was an unskilled workman, his wages were only enough to keep him and his family. He toiled under overseers who carried sticks and used them freely. "Man has a back," says an Egyptian proverb, "and only obeys when it is beaten." If the laborer was a peasant, he could be sure that the nobles from whom he rented the land and the tax collectors of the king would leave him scarcely more than a bare living.

SLAVES

At the very bottom of the social ladder were the slaves. Every ancient people possessed them. At first they were prisoners of war, who, instead of being slaughtered, were made to labor for their masters. At a later period people unable to pay their debts often became slaves. The treatment of slaves depended on the character of the master. A cruel and overbearing owner might make life a burden for his bondmen. Escape was rarely possible. Slaves were branded like cattle to prevent their running away. Hammurabi's code [2] imposed the death penalty on anybody who aided or concealed the fugitives. There was plenty of work for the slaves to perform--repairing dikes, digging irrigation canals, and erecting vast palaces and temples. The servile class in Egypt was not as numerous as in Babylonia, and slavery itself seems to have assumed there a somewhat milder form.

14. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

FARMING

Such fruitful, well-watered valleys as those of the Nile and the Euphrates encouraged agricultural life. Farming was the chief occupation. Working people, whether slaves or freemen, were generally cultivators of the soil. All the methods of agriculture are pictured for us on the monuments. We mark the peasant as he breaks up the earth with a hoe or plows a shallow furrow with a sharp-pointed stick. We see the sheep being driven across sown fields to trample the seed into the moist soil. We watch the patient laborers as with hand sickles they gather in the harvest and then with heavy flails separate the chaff from the grain. Although their methods were very clumsy, ancient farmers raised immense crops of wheat and barley. The soil of Egypt and Babylonia not only supported a dense population, but also supplied food for neighboring peoples. These two lands were the granaries of the East.

MANUFACTURING

Many industries of to-day were known in ancient Egypt and Babylonia. There were blacksmiths, carpenters, stonecutters, workers in ivory, silver, and gold, weavers, potters, and glass blowers. The creations of these ancient craftsmen often exhibit remarkable skill. Egyptian linens were so wonderfully fine and transparent as to merit the name of "woven air." Babylonian tapestries, carpets, and rugs enjoyed a high reputation for beauty of design and color. Egyptian glass with its waving lines of different hues was much prized. Precious stones were made into beads, necklaces, charms, and seals. The precious metals were employed for a great variety of ornaments. Egyptian paintings show the goldsmiths at work with blowpipe and forceps, fashioning bracelets, rings, and diadems, inlaying objects of stone and wood, or covering their surfaces with fine gold leaf. The manufacture of tiles and glazed pottery was everywhere carried on. Babylonia is believed to be the original home of porcelain. Enameled bricks found there are unsurpassed by the best products of the present day.

TRADE

The development of the arts and crafts brought a new industrial class into existence. There was now need of merchants and shopkeepers to collect manufactured products where they could be readily bought and sold. The cities of Babylonia, in particular, became thriving markets. Partnerships between tradesmen were numerous. We even hear of commercial companies. Business life in ancient Babylonia wore, indeed, quite a modern look.

MONEY

Metallic money first circulated in the form of rings and bars. The Egyptians had small pieces of gold--"cow gold"--each of which was simply the value of a full-grown cow. [3] It was necessary to weigh the metal whenever a purchase took place. A common picture on the Egyptian monuments is that of the weigher with his balance and scales. Then the practice arose of stamping each piece of money with its true value and weight. The next step was coinage proper, where the government guarantees, not only the weight, but also the genuineness of the metal.

COINAGE

The honor of the invention of coinage is generally given to the Lydians, whose country was well supplied with the precious metals. As early as the eighth century B.C. the Lydian monarchs began to strike coins of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. The famous Croesus,[4] whose name is still a synonym for riches, was the first to issue coins of pure gold and silver. The Greek neighbors of Lydia quickly adopted the art of coinage and so introduced it into Europe. [5]

BANKING

The use of money as a medium of exchange led naturally to a system of banking. In Babylonia, for instance, the bankers formed an important and influential class. One great banking house, established at Babylon before the age of Sennacherib, carried on operations for several centuries. Hundreds of legal documents belonging to this firm have been discovered in the huge earthenware jars which served as safes. The Babylonian temples also received money on deposit and loaned it out again, as do our modern banks. Knowledge of the principles of banking passed from Babylonia to Greece and thence to ancient Italy and Rome.

15. COMMERCE AND TRADE ROUTES

ASIATIC COMMERCE

The use of the precious metals as money greatly aided the exchange of commodities between different countries. The cities of the Tigris- Euphrates valley were admirably situated for commerce, both by sea and land. They enjoyed a central position between eastern and western Asia. The shortest way by water from India skirted the southern coast of Iran and, passing up the Persian Gulf, gained the valley of the two great rivers. Even more important were the overland roads from China and India which met at Babylon and Nineveh. Along these routes traveled long lines of caravans laden with the products of the distant East--gold and ivory, jewels and silks, tapestries, spices, and fine woods. Still other avenues of commerce radiated to the west and entered Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Many of these trade routes are in use even to-day.

COMMERCE WITH EUROPE

While the inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria were able to control the caravan routes of Asia, it was reserved for a Syrian people, the Phoenicians, to become the pioneers of commerce with Europe. As early as 1500 B.C. the rich copper mines of Cyprus attracted Phoenician colonists to this island. [6] From Cyprus these bold mariners and keen business men passed to Crete, thence along the shores of Asia Minor to the Greek mainland, and possibly to the Black Sea. Some centuries later the Phoenicians were driven from these regions by the rising power of the Greek states. Then they sailed farther westward and established their trading posts in Sicily, Africa, and Spain. At length they passed through the strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and visited the shores of western Europe and Africa.

PHOENICIAN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS

The Phoenicians obtained a great variety of products from their widely scattered settlements. The mines of Spain yielded tin, lead, and silver. The tin was especially valuable because of its use in the manufacture of bronze. [7] From Africa came ivory, ostrich feathers, and gold; from Arabia, incense, perfumes, and costly spices. The Phoenicians found a ready sale for these commodities throughout the East. Still other products were brought directly to Phoenicia to provide the raw materials for her flourishing manufactures. The fine carpets and glassware, the artistic works in silver and bronze, and the beautiful purple cloths [8] produced by Phoenician factories were exported to every region of the known world.

PHOENICIAN VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION

The Phoenicians were the boldest sailors of antiquity. Some of their long voyages are still on record. We learn from the Bible that they made cruises on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and brought the gold of Ophir-- "four hundred and twenty talents"--to Solomon. [9] There is even a story of certain Phoenicians who, by direction of an Egyptian king, explored the eastern coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and after three years' absence returned to Egypt through the strait of Gibraltar. A much more probable narrative is that of the voyage of Hanno, a Carthaginian admiral. We still possess a Greek translation of his interesting log book. It describes an expedition made about 500 B.C. along the western coast of Africa. The explorers seem to have sailed as far as the country now called Sierra Leone. Nearly two thousand years elapsed before a similar voyage along the African coast was undertaken.

PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS

Wherever the Phoenicians journeyed, they established settlements. Most of these were merely trading posts which contained the warehouses for the storage of their goods. Here the shy natives came to barter their raw materials for the finished products--cloths, tools, weapons, wine, and oil--which the strangers from the East had brought with them. Phoenician settlements sometimes grew to be large and flourishing cities. The colony of Gades in southern Spain, mentioned in the Old Testament as Tarshish, [10] survives to this day as Cadiz. The city of Carthage, founded in North Africa by colonists from Tyre, became the commercial mistress of the Mediterranean. Carthaginian history has many points of contact with that of the Greeks and Romans.

16. LAW AND MORALITY

BABYLONIAN CONTRACTS

It is clear that societies so highly organized as Phoenicia, Egypt, and Babylonia must have been held together by the firm bonds of law. The ancient Babylonians, especially, were a legal-minded people. When a man sold his wheat, bought a slave, married a wife, or made a will, the transaction was duly noted on a contract tablet, which was then filed away in the public archives. Instead of writing his name, a Babylonian stamped his seal on the wet clay of the tablet. Every man who owned property had to have a seal.

CODE OF HAMMURABI

The earliest laws were, of course, unwritten. They were no more than the long-established customs of the community. As civilization advanced, the usages that generally prevailed were written out and made into legal codes. A recent discovery has given to us the almost complete text of the laws which Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, ordered to be engraved on stone monuments and set up in all the chief cities of his realm. [11]

SUBJECT MATTER OF HAMMURABI'S CODE

The code of Hammurabi shows, in general, a high sense of justice. A man who tries to bribe a witness or a judge is to be severely punished. A farmer who is careless with his dikes and allows the water to run through flood his neighbor's land must restore the value of the grain he has damaged. The owner of a vicious ox which has gored a man must pay a heavy fine, provided he knew the disposition of the animal and had not blunted its horns. A builder who puts up a shaky house which afterwards collapses and kills the tenant is himself to be put to death. On the other hand, the code has some rude features. Punishments were severe. For injuries to the body there was the simple rule of retaliation: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb. A son who had struck his father was to have his hands cut off. The nature of the punishment depended, moreover, on the rank of the aggrieved party. A person who had caused the loss of a "gentleman's" eye was to have his own plucked out; but if the injury was done to a poor man, the culprit had only to pay a fine.

IMPORTANCE OF HAMMURABI'S CODE

Hammurabi's laws thus present a vivid picture of Oriental society two thousand years before Christ. They always remained the basis of the Babylonian and Assyrian legal system. They were destined, also, to exert considerable influence upon Hebrew legislation. Centuries after Hammurabi the enactments of the old Babylonian king were reproduced in some of the familiar regulations of the laws of Moses. In this way they became the heritage of the Hebrews and, through them, of our modern world.

THE MOSAIC CODE

The laws which we find in the earlier books of the Bible were ascribed by the Hebrews to Moses. These laws covered a wide range of topics. They fixed all religious ceremonies, required the observance every seventh day of the Sabbath, dealt with marriage and the family, stated the penalties for wrongdoing, gave elaborate rules for sacrifices, and even indicated what foods must be avoided as "unclean." No other ancient people possessed so elaborate a code. The Jews throughout the world obey, to this day, its precepts. And modern Christendom still recites the Ten Commandments, the noblest summary of the rules of right living that has come down to us from the ancient world.

17. RELIGION

NATURE WORSHIP

Oriental ideas of religion, even more than of law and morality, were the gradual outgrowth of beliefs held by the Asiatic peoples in prehistoric times. Everywhere nature worship prevailed. The vault of heaven, earth and ocean, sun, moon, and stars were all regarded either as themselves divine or as the abode of divinities. The sun was an object of especial adoration. We find a sun god, under different names, in every Oriental country.

BABYLONIAN BELIEF IN EVIL SPIRITS

Another inheritance from prehistoric times was the belief in evil spirits. In Babylonia and Assyria this superstition became a prominent feature of the popular religion. Men supposed themselves to be constantly surrounded by a host of demons which caused insanity, sickness, disease, and death-- all the ills of life. People lived in constant fear of offending these malignant beings.

MAGIC

To cope with evil spirits the Babylonian used magic. He put up a small image of a protecting god at the entrance to his house and wore charms upon his person. If he felt ill, he went to a priest, who recited a long incantation supposed to drive out the "devil" afflicting the patient. The reputation of the Babylonian priests was so widespread that in time the name "Chaldean" [12] came to mean one who is a magician. Some of their magical rites were borrowed by the Jews, and later by the Romans, from whom they entered Christian Europe. Another Babylonian practice which spread westward was that of divination, particularly by inspecting the entrails of animals slain in sacrifice. This was a very common method of divination among the Greeks and Romans. [13]

ASTROLOGY

Astrology received much attention. It was believed that the five planets, comets, and eclipses of the sun and moon exerted an influence for good or evil on the life of man. Babylonian astrology likewise extended to western lands and became popular among the Greeks and Romans. Some of it survives to the present time. When we name the days Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we are unconscious astrologers, for in old belief the first day belonged to the planet Saturn, the second to the sun, and the third to the moon. [14] Superstitious people who try to read their fate in the stars are really practicing an art of Babylonian origin.

EGYPTIAN ANIMAL WORSHIP

Less influential in later times was the animal worship of the Egyptians. This, too, formed a heritage from the prehistoric past. Many common animals of Egypt--the cat, hawk, the jackal, the bull, the ram, the crocodile--were highly reverenced. Some received worship because deities were supposed to dwell in them. The larger number, however, were not worshiped for themselves, but as symbols of different gods.

MONOTHEISM IN PERSIA

In the midst of such an assemblage of nature deities, spirits, and sacred animals, it was remarkable that the belief in one god should ever have arisen. The Medes and Persians accepted the teachings of Zoroaster, a great prophet who lived perhaps as early as 1000 B.C. According to Zoroaster, Ahuramazda, the heaven-deity, is the maker and upholder of the universe. He is a god of light and order, of truth and purity. Against him stands Ahriman, the personification of darkness and evil. Ahuramazda in the end will overcome Ahriman and will reign supreme in a righteous world. Zoroastrianism was the only monotheistic religion developed by an Indo- European people. [15]

HEBREW MONOTHEISM

The Hebrews, alone among the Semitic peoples of antiquity, were to develop the worship of their god, Jehovah, into a lasting monotheism. This was a long and gradual process Jehovah was at first regarded as the peculiar divinity of the Hebrews. His worshipers did not deny the existence of the gods of other nations. From the eighth century onward this narrow conception of Jehovah was transformed by the labors of the Hebrew prophets. They taught that Jehovah was the creator and ruler of the world and the loving father of all mankind. On Hebrew monotheism two world religions have been founded--Mohammedanism and Christianity.

EGYPTIAN IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE

We do not find among the early Hebrews or any other Oriental people very clear ideas about the life after death. The Egyptians long believed that the soul of the dead man resided in or near the tomb, closely associated with the body. This notion seems to have first led to the practice of embalming the corpse, so that it might never suffer decay. If the body was not preserved, the soul might die, or it might become a wandering ghost, restless and dangerous to the living. Later Egyptian thought regarded the future state as a place of rewards and punishments. One of the chapters of the work called the _Book of the Dead_ describes the judgment of the soul in the spirit world. If a man in the earthly life had not murdered, stolen, coveted the property of others, blasphemed the gods, borne false witness, ill treated his parents, or committed certain other wrongs, his soul would enjoy a blissful immortality.

BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE

Some Oriental peoples kept the primitive belief that after death all men, good and bad alike, suffered the same fate. The Babylonians supposed that the souls of the departed passed a cheerless existence in a gloomy and Hebrew underworld. The early Hebrew idea of Sheol, "the land of darkness and the shadow of death," [16] was very similar. Such thoughts of the future life left nothing for either fear or hope. In later times, however, the Hebrews came to believe in the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment, conceptions afterwards adopted by Christianity.

18. LITERATURE AND ART

THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

Religion inspired the largest part of ancient literature. Each Oriental people possessed sacred writings. The Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ was already venerable in 3000 B.C. It was a collection of hymns, prayers, and magical phrases to be recited by the soul on its journey beyond the grave and in the spirit world. A chapter from this work usually covered the inner side of the mummy case.

THE BABYLONIAN EPICS

Much more interesting are the two Babylonian epics, fragments of which were found on clay tablets in a royal library at Nineveh. The epic of the Creation tells how the god Marduk overcame a terrible dragon, the symbol of primeval chaos, and thus established order in the universe. Then with half the body of the dead dragon he made a covering for the heavens and set therein the stars. Next he caused the new moon to shine and made it the ruler of the night. His last work was the creation of man, in order that the service and worship of the gods might be established forever. The second epic contains an account of a flood, sent by the gods to punish sinful men. The rain fell for six days and nights and covered the entire earth. All men were drowned except the Babylonian Noah, his family, and his relatives, who safely rode the waters in an ark. This ancient narrative so closely resembles the Bible story in _Genesis_ that we must trace them both to a common source.

THE HEBREW BIBLE

All these writings are so ancient that their very authors are forgotten. The interest they excite is historical rather than literary. From Oriental antiquity only one great work has reached us that still has power to move the hearts of men--the Hebrew Bible.

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

Architecture, in Egypt, was the leading art. The Egyptians were the first people who learned to raise buildings with vast halls supported by ponderous columns. Their wealth and skill, however, were not lavished in the erection of fine private mansions or splendid public buildings. The characteristic works of Egyptian architecture are the tombs of the kings and the temples of the gods. The picture of the great structure at Thebes, which Rameses II completed, [17] will give some idea of an Egyptian temple with its gateways, open courts, obelisks, and statues.

ARCHITECTURE IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

The architecture of Babylonia and Assyria was totally unlike that of Egypt, because brick, and not stone, formed the chief building and Assyria material. In Babylonia the temple was a solid, square tower, built on a broad platform. It consisted usually of seven stages, which arose one above the other to the top, where the shrine of the deity was placed. The different stages were connected by an inclined ascent. The four sides of the temple faced the cardinal points, and the several stages were dedicated to the sun, moon, and five planets. In Assyria the characteristic building was the palace. But the sun-dried bricks, of which both temples and palaces were composed, lacked the durability of stone and have long since dissolved into shapeless mounds.

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

The surviving examples of Egyptian sculpture consist of bas-reliefs and figures in the round, carved from limestone and granite or cast in bronze. Many of the statues appear to our eyes very stiff and ungraceful. The sculptor never learned how to pose his figures easily or how to arrange them in an artistic group. In spite of these defects some Egyptian statues are wonderfully lifelike. [18]

SCULPTURE IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

Few examples have reached us of Babylonian and Assyrian sculpture in the round. As in Egypt, the figures seem rigid and out of proportion. The Assyrian bas-reliefs show a higher development of the artistic sense, especially in the rendering of animals. The sculptures that deal with the exploits of the kings in war and hunting often tell their story in so graphic a way as to make up for the absence of written records.

ORIENTAL PAINTING

Painting in the ancient East did not reach the dignity of an independent art. It was employed solely for decorative purposes. Bas-reliefs and wall surfaces were often brightly colored, The artist had no knowledge of perspective and drew all his figures in profile, without any distinction of light and shade. Indeed, Oriental painting, as well as Oriental sculpture, made small pretense to the beautiful. Beauty was born into the world with the art of the Greeks.

19. SCIENCE AND EDUCATION

ARITHMETIC AND GEOMETRY

Conspicuous advance took place in the exact sciences. The leading operations of arithmetic were known. A Babylonian tablet gives a table of squares and cubes correctly calculated from 1 to 60. The number 12 was the basis of all reckonings. The division of the circle into degrees, minutes, and seconds (360°, 60', 60") was an invention of the Babylonians which illustrates this duodecimal system A start was made in geometry. One of the oldest of Egyptian books contains a dozen geometrical problems. This knowledge was afterwards developed into a true science by the Greeks.

ASTRONOMY

In both Egypt and Babylonia the cloudless skies and still, warm nights early led to astronomical research. At a remote period, perhaps before 4000 B.C., the Egyptians framed a solar calendar, [19] consisting of twelve months, each thirty days in length, with five extra days at the end of the year. This calendar was taken over by the Romans, [20] who added the system of leap years. The Babylonians made noteworthy progress in some branches of astronomy. They were able to trace the course of the sun through the twelve constellations of the zodiac and to distinguish five of the planets from the fixed stars. The successful prediction of eclipses formed another Babylonian achievement. Such astronomical discoveries must have required much patient and accurate observation.

GEOGRAPHY

Geographical ideas for a long time were very crude. An ancient map, scratched on clay, indicates that about eight centuries before Christ the Babylonians had gained some knowledge, not only of their own land, but even of regions beyond the Mediterranean. The chief increase in man's knowledge of the world in ancient times was due to the Phoenicians. [21]

PRACTICAL SCIENCES

The skill of Oriental peoples as mechanics and engineers is proved by their success as builders. The great pyramids exactly face the points of the compass. The principle of the round arch was known in Babylonia at a remote period The transportation of colossal stone monuments exhibits a knowledge of the lever, pulley, and inclined plane. [22] Babylonian inventions were the sundial and the water clock, the one to register the passage of the hours by day, the other by night. The Egyptians and Babylonians also made some progress in the practice of medicine.

THE TEMPLE SCHOOL

The schools, in both Egypt and Babylonia, were attached to the temples and were conducted by the priests. Writing was the chief subject of instruction. It took many years of patient study to master the cuneiform symbols or the even more difficult hieroglyphics. "He who would excel in the school of the scribes," ran an ancient maxim, "must rise with the dawn." Writing was learned by imitating the examples supplied in copy- books. Some of the model letters studied by Egyptian boys of the twentieth century B.C. have come down to us. Reading, too, was an art not easy to learn. Dictionaries and grammars were written to aid the beginner. A little instruction was also provided in counting and calculating.

THE SCRIBES

Having learned to read and write, the pupil was ready to enter on the coveted career of a scribe. In a community where nearly every one was illiterate, the scribes naturally held an honorable place. They conducted the correspondence of the time. When a man wished to send a letter, he had a scribe write it, signing it himself by affixing his seal. When he received a letter, he usually employed a scribe to read it to him. The scribes were also kept busy copying books on the papyrus paper or clay tablets which served as writing materials.

THE TEMPLE LIBRARY

Every large city of Babylonia possessed a collection of books. Several of the larger libraries have been discovered. At Nippur, in Babylonia, thirty thousand clay tablets were found. Another great collection of books was unearthed in a royal palace at Nineveh. This Assyrian library seems to have been open for the general use of the king's subjects. The Egyptians also had their libraries, usually as adjuncts to the temples, and hence under priestly control.

WIDESPREAD POPULAR IGNORANCE

Learning and education were so closely limited to a few individuals that the mass of the people were sunk in deepest ignorance. Men could not pursue knowledge for themselves, but had to accept every thing on authority. Hence the inhabitants of Oriental lands remained a conservative folk, slow to abandon their time-honored beliefs and very unwilling to adopt a new custom even when clearly better than the old. This absence of popular education, more than anything else, made Oriental civilization unprogressive.

STUDIES

1. What was the origin of the "divine right" of kings?

2. Explain what is meant by _despotism_; by _autocracy_.

3. What European state comes nearest to being a pure despotism? What European monarch styles himself as an autocrat?

4. What do the illustrations on pages 38, 43 tell about the pomp of Oriental kings?

5. Why did the existence of numerous slaves in Egypt and Babylonia tend to keep low the wages of free workmen? Why is it true that civilization may be said to have begun "with the cracking of the slave whip"?

6. What light is thrown on the beginnings of money in ancient Egypt by the illustration on page 47?

7. Name some objects which, in place of the metals, are used by primitive peoples as money.

8. Interest in Babylonia was usually at the rate of 20% a year. Why is it so much lower in modern countries?

9. On the map, page 48, indicate the trade routes between eastern and western Asia which met in Mesopotamia.

10. The Phoenicians have been called "the English of antiquity." Can you give any reason for this characterization?

11. Why should the Phoenicians have been called the "colossal peddlers" of the ancient world?

12. What books of the Bible contain the laws of Israel?

13. What reasons can you suggest for the universal worship of the sun?

14. Define _polytheism_ and _monotheism_, giving examples of each.

15. Describe the Egyptian conception of the judgment of the dead (illustration, page 56).

16. How many "books" are there in the Old Testament?

17. What is the Apocrypha?

18. How are the pyramids proof of an advanced civilization among the Egyptians?

19. What is a bas-relief? Select some examples from the illustrations.

20. From what Oriental peoples do we get the oldest true arch? the first coined money? the earliest legal code? the most ancient book?

21. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in Oriental antiquity.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter 1, "Three Oriental Peoples as Described by Herodotus."

[2] See page 25.

[3] See page 6.

[4] See page 37.

[5] For illustrations of Oriental coins see the plate facing page 134.

[6] See page 4.

[7] See page 5.

[8] "Tyrian purple" was a dye secured from a species of shellfish found along the Phoenician coast and in Greek waters.

[9] See I _Kings_, ix, 26-28. The site of Ophir is not known, though probably it was in southern Arabia.

[10] See _Ezekiel_, xxvii, 12, 25.

[11] A monument containing the code of Hammurabi was found on the site of Susa in 1901-1902 A.D. See the illustration, page 25.

[12] Chaldea was another name for Babylonia.

[13] See page 148.

[14] The names of four other week days come from the names of old Teutonic deities. Tuesday is the day of Tyr, Wednesday of Woden (Odin), Thursday of Thunor (Thor), and Friday of the goddess Frigga. See page 304.

[15] Zoroastrians are still to be found in the East In Persia, now a Mohammedan country, there is a little band of devoted followers of Zoroaster, who keep up to this day the tenets of their ancient faith. In India the Parsees of Bombay are the descendants of those Persians who fled from Persia at the time of the Mohammedan conquest (page 376), rather than surrender their cherished beliefs and embrace a new religion.

[16] _Job_, X, 21.

[17] See page 28.

[18] See the illustrations, pages 27, 54, 58, 63.

[19] See page 13.

[20] See page 186, note 2.

[21] See page 48.

[22] See the illustration, page 46.