Part 82

THE VIA DOLOROSA, or Way of the Cross, possesses a number of places of much interest, even if partly legendary. Among them the place where Christ is said to have pronounced the words “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me.” Where the Virgin is said to have fainted on meeting her Son. At a truncated column where Jesus fainted under the Cross, and they called on Simon of Cyrene to help him. The house of Dives, and the stone on which Lazarus sat. The Gate of Judgment, formerly marking the limits of the town, and the Calvary itself, now inclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

MOUNT ZION (though used in the Scriptures as identical with Jerusalem) is just outside the southwest corner of the city wall. There were Christian churches erected here at very early dates over the spot where the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles, but there followed so many destructions, mutilations, and confusions, that little certainty attaches to the cluster of buildings now standing. Here is reputed to be the tomb of David, and the Room of the Last Supper, once part of a Christian Church.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES is a range of eminences and slight depressions on the east side of Jerusalem, parallel with the hill of the Temple, but on higher ground. Here is the Tomb of the Virgin within a subterranean church, where she lay until her “assumption.” A few yards from the Tomb, off the south side of the road, is the Garden of Gethsemane. The Chapel of the Ascension marks the tradition of the Ascension of Christ from this spot.

=Bethlehem= (_beth´lē-em_), (Heb., “house of bread”), is six miles south of Jerusalem. It was the birthplace of David, the scene of Ruth’s story, and, most important of all (according to Matthew, Luke and John), the birthplace of Christ. The Church of St. Mary, at Bethlehem, is built over the birthplace of Christ. The Chapel of the Nativity is in the crypt of the church, under the great choir; here in the pavement is a star and the words “Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est” (Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary); opposite the Chapel of the Nativity is the Chapel of the Manger.

=Hebron= (_hē´bron_) is situated on a hill among the mountains of Judah, about seven hours south of Jerusalem. It is one of the oldest existing biblical towns and was the home and burial-place of the patriarchs. Afterward it became an important city in the territory of Judah. David resided here the first seven years of his reign. Later it was taken possession of by the Idumeans, from whom Judas Maccabeus recaptured it. Upon the traditional site of the burial-place of the patriarchs, Machpelah, a magnificent mosque is erected.

=Cana of Galilee=, a decayed town near Nazareth, is celebrated in Scripture as the scene of our Saviour’s first miracle, where He turned water into wine. Near it is the Mount of Beatitudes, the supposed scene of the Sermon on the Mount.

=Damascus= (_da-mas´kus_) formerly the capital and most important city of Syria, is situated in a fertile valley east of the Anti-Lebanon, on the edge of the desert. On account of its beautiful fertile surroundings, its lofty position, and its richness in fresh water, Damascus had been praised in antiquity and in modern times as the “paradise of the earth,” “the eye of the desert,” and “the pearl of the Orient.” Originally a Hittite city, it became the capital of Syria, and a great part of the country was called by its name.

In the Old Testament the name of Damascus occurs as early as the history of Abraham. After the time of David, Damascus often came into sharp collision with Israel. In the New Testament Damascus is known especially from the history of Paul.

Its chief modern glory is the Omayyad Mosque, and the ever changing color and variety of the street traffic, the costumes and the animation of the bazaars. The mosque was the subject of extravagant description by Arabian writers. In 1069 fire destroyed part of the building, and again in 1893 immense injury was done by fire; it has been restored, though it has not its ancient magnificence.

=Jericho= (_jer´i-kō_), situated west of the Jordan and fourteen miles east-northeast of Jerusalem, was destroyed by Joshua and rebuilt by Ahab. It was the residence of Herod the Great; was destroyed by Vespasian, rebuilt by Hadrian, and again destroyed by the Crusaders.

=Nazareth= (_naz´a-reth_) is celebrated as the dwelling-place of Jesus during his childhood and early manhood. The Church of the Annunciation here was founded by the empress Helena, but ruined in the middle ages, and rebuilt later. It is well proportioned, and, while much of the architecture is new, it preserves interesting memorials of the past. In the crypt is the traditional place of the Annunciation.

=Petra= (_pē´trä_).--On the northwest edge of the Arabian desert, about midway between the Gulf of Okabah and the Dead Sea, among desolate mountains, stand the remains of the rock-hewn city of Petra, best reached from Jerusalem. These ruins probably date from the time of Roman rule in 105 A. D., though some of the magnificent monuments were built by the Edomites who dwelt here before the Greeks and Romans.

This wonderful city is approached through a narrow gorge called the Sik, a kind of gateway in the rocks, like the entrance to a Roman amphitheatre.

Here one is confronted by a temple cut in the rock, with the most exquisite Corinthian columns, and entering the doorway he finds himself in the heart of the hill, surrounded by subterranean architecture of the most elaborate beauty of form and workmanship. This is called the Khaznet or Treasury of Pharaoh, which is rightly regarded as one of the wonders of the East. It is attributed to the Emperor Hadrian, who visited the place in A. D. 131, and erected here a temple to Isis. The rock wall from which it is hewn is an exquisite rose-pink. It is in a state of remarkable preservation. The imposing facade shows two rows each of six majestic columns, one row above the other, with niches in which are rock-hewn equestrian and other statues, the whole terminating above in a miniature temple crowned by a huge urn, the entire height being one hundred and two feet. Within is a bare lofty room and some chambers. The urn is said to contain treasures of Pharaoh. Neither the Coliseum at Rome, grand and interesting as it is, nor the ruins of the Acropolis at Athens, nor the Pyramids, nor the mighty temples of the Nile, present a more marvelous spectacle.

But this is only an introduction to the marvels behind. The gorge opens out into a narrow valley, some three miles in circumference, everywhere sunk deep beneath the enclosing mountains, and the walls of this valley are filled with the remains of other rock-cut temples, tombs and dwelling places. In one place are the remains of an open air theatre, the workmanship of which is Greek. Some of the structures, cut in the face of the rock, are several stories in height, while their architectural details excite the wondering admiration of the beholder. A stairway of many hundreds of steps leads to the largest of the ruins, El Deir, or Convent. In design it somewhat resembles the Treasury of Pharaoh.

The cliffs that enclose the valley are simply dotted all over with the handiwork of artists of a bygone age. Here is a portion of a heathen temple, there the remains of a palace, yonder a column, and beyond, again, a stately portico or pediment. They stand at varying elevations. Most of them are conspicuous, while others are hidden in the mountain recesses. There are tombs by the hundred, and on the mountain tops many places of sacrifice, where strange religious ceremonies were enacted. They challenge admiration by the variety of styles they embody, and by the exquisite hues of the sandstone from which they are hewn, varying from the prevailing purplish-red of the mountains and cliffs to a delicate pink and rose.

Until quite recently, this ancient city built out of rocks was seldom visited and almost unknown. Now, however, by means of the new Damascus to Mecca Railway, they are within easy reach. The journey from Jerusalem to Maan may be made in less than a day. From the latter place the ruins can be reached in six to eight hours by horseback.

=Palmyra= (_pal-mī´ra_), or =Tadmor= (_tad´môr_), a famous ancient city situated on an oasis in the desert east of Syria, is said to have been built by Solomon. After the decline of Petra in 105 A. D., Palmyra took its place as the chief commercial center in northern Arabia. Its merchant aristocracy reaped great advantage from the long-protracted wars between Rome and Parthia by acknowledging the supremacy of Rome. One of its chiefs, Odænathus, husband of the more famous Zenobia, extended his power over most of the adjoining countries, from Egypt to Asia Minor. Aurelian at length crushed in 272 the attempt of the Palmyrenes to found an independent empire. After the Roman empire became Christian, Palmyra was made a bishopric. When the Moslems conquered Syria, Palmyra also submitted to them. From the fifteenth century it began to sink into decay, along with the rest of the Orient. Magnificent remains of the ancient city still exist, chief among them being the great temple of the Sun (or Baal); the great colonnade, nearly one mile long, and consisting originally of some fifteen hundred Corinthian columns; and sepulchral towers, overlooking the city.

=Jaffa=, is a maritime city in Palestine, Syria, fifty-four miles by rail northwest of Jerusalem, of which it was the port in King David’s time. Extensive fruit and orange orchards surround the city. Its fortifications were destroyed by Saladin in 1188, and, during the Crusades, Richard the Lion-Hearted was confined here by sickness. In 1722 it was attacked by the Arabs, and in 1799 by Napoleon. The principal exports are oranges, wheat, soap, hides, olive oil, wool, and barley.

THE PHŒNICIANS

Phœnicia was a narrow strip of country on the southeastern coast of the great inland sea of antiquity, lying chiefly between Mount Libanus (Lebanon) and the Mediterranean shore, and extending for about one hundred and twenty miles north of Mount Carmel. Here lay the cities Tyre and Sidon, Byblus and Berytus, Tripolis and Ptolemais. The land was fertile, and rich in timber trees and fruits, such as the pine, fir, cypress, sycamore, and cedar; figs, olives, dates, pomegranates, citrons, almonds. Here was material for trade abroad, and comfort and prosperity at home, and the coast was so thickly studded with towns as almost to make one continuous populated line.

HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF PHOENICIA

The history of Phœnicia is peculiarly a history of separate cities and colonies, never united into one great independent state, though now and then alliances existed between several cities in order to repel a common danger. Each city of Phœnicia was governed by a king or petty chief, under or with whom an aristocracy, and at times elective magistrates, appear to have held sway. But the genius of the race cared little for political development; they devoted themselves almost exclusively to commercial pursuits.

THE GREAT CITIES OF SIDON AND TYRE

Sidon was probably the more ancient of the Phœnician cities. Its richly embroidered robes are mentioned in the Homeric poems. It was the greatest maritime city of the ancient world until its colony, Tyre, surpassed it, and it seems to have been subject to Tyre in the time of David and Solomon. About 700 B. C., it became independent again, but was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, about 600 B. C., and became subject to Persia about 500 B. C. Under the Persian rule, it was a great and populous city, and, coming into the hands of Alexander the Great in 333 B. C., helped him with a fleet in his siege of Tyre. Its history ends with submission to Roman power, 63 B. C.

Tyre was a powerful city as early as 1200 B. C. The friendship of its king, Hiram, with Solomon is well known from the Hebrew Scriptures; and at this time the commerce of Tyre was foremost in the Mediterranean, and its ships sailed into the Indian Ocean from the port of Elath on the Red Sea. Tyre is celebrated for its obstinate resistance to enemies. Sargon, king of Assyria, besieged the city in vain for five years (721-717 B. C). Nebuchadnezzar took thirteen years (598-585 B. C.) to capture it only partially, and it was taken by Alexander the Great after a seven months’ siege, in 332 B. C. The old glory of Tyre departed with the transfer of its chief trade to the newly created city of Alexandria, though the indomitable energy of the Phœnicians again, in Roman times, made it a great seat of trade.

PHOENICIAN MARINERS FOUND CARTHAGE

Phœnicia was at the height of prosperity from the eleventh to the sixth centuries B. C. As a colonizing country it preceded the Greeks on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, and sent ships to regions that the Greeks knew nothing of, save by report of the bold mariners of Tyre. Until the rise of Alexandria about 300 B. C., the sea trade of Phœnicia was rivaled only by that of Carthage, its own colony; and Phœnician merchants still kept up their great land trade by caravans with Arabia, central Asia and northern India, Scythia and the Caucasian countries.

By far the most renowned of all Phœnician colonies--famous in history for Hannibal’s heroic hate of Rome and warlike skill--was Carthage, in the center of the northern coast of Africa. The date of its foundation is put about 850 B. C. At Utica and Tunis, to the north and south, Phœnician settlements were already existing.

VAST EXTENT OF PHOENICIAN COMMERCE

The trade of Tyre and her sister cities reached almost throughout the world as then known. They imported the spices--notably the myrrh and frankincense--of Arabia; the ivory, ebony, and cotton goods of India; linen yarn and corn from Egypt; wool and wine from Damascus; embroideries from Babylon and Nineveh; pottery, in the days of Grecian art, from Attica; horses and chariots from Armenia; copper from the shores of the Euxine Sea; lead from Spain; tin from Cornwall. Phœnicia exported not only these articles of food and use and luxury, but the rich purple dyes made from the murex (a kind of shell-fish) of its own coast, the famous hue of Tyre, with which were tinged the silken costly robes of the despots. From Sidon went the famous glass produced in part from fine white sand, found plenteously near Mount Carmel. There was gold from Ophir, and interchange of cedar, sent by Hiram, king of Tyre, for building Solomon’s Temple, in barter for the wheat and balm and oil of Israel’s fertile land.

So important was the trade by caravans through Babylon with the interior of Asia that the great town Palmyra (or “Tadmor in the desert”) was founded or enlarged by Solomon to serve the traffic on its route through Syria to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.

THEIR ARTS OF CIVILIZATION INCLUDED OUR ALPHABET

As a money-making race the Phœnicians were skilled in arts by which the grand aim of its life could be attained. Great as they were at the dyeing vat and loom, adepts in working brass and other metals, and in fabricating glass, they were also the best ship builders and the most famous miners of their time. Their greatest service to civilization seems rather to have been in appropriating, developing, and spreading the ideas of others, especially in forming an alphabet for the Western world.

While the mythical story about Cadmus, taking his sixteen letters from Phœnicia into Greece, must be rejected, the European world owes to this race of traders the alphabetic symbols now in use. The gradual change of shape is easily traced in most of the signs as here given. The simple and ingenious device by which each sign stands for one elementary sound of human speech is largely due to the Phœnician people, as an improvement on the cumbrous hieroglyphics of Egypt. Of literature they have left nothing whatever recognized as really theirs.

THEIR CHARACTER AND RELIGION

They had a name for craftiness in trade, and wealth led to worse than luxury,--to flagrant vice. Their religion was a kind of nature worship closely related to that of the Babylonians. They adored the sun and moon and five planets, the chief deities being the male Baal, and the female Ashtoreth or Astarte. At Tyre a deity was worshiped with the attributes of the Greek god Hercules. There was also the worship of Adonis, under the name of Thammuz, in the coast towns; and this included a commemoration of his death, a funeral festival, at which the women gave way to extravagant lamentations. It was Phœnician women that allured Solomon to their form of religion; it was a princess of Phœnicia, Jezebel, that brought Ahab, her husband, king of Israel, to ruin; that slew the prophets of God, and left a name proverbial of infamy in life, and for ignominious horror in her death. The work done by Phœnicia in the cause of human progress was chiefly important and interesting in material or practical things.

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE

With the Persian Empire we first enter on continuous history. A multiplicity of histories first met and commingled in that of Persia. The Persian Empire extended itself over the whole of western Asia, and into Europe and Africa; it drew together Bactria, Parthia, Media, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, Phœnicia, Asia Minor, Armenia, Thrace, Egypt, and the Cyrenaica. The voice of the Great King was law from the Indus on the east to the Ægean Sea and Syrian Gulf on the west, from the Danube and the Caucasus on the north to the Indian Ocean and the deserts of Arabia and Nubia on the south.

The empire of the Medes and Persians, commonly known as “the Persian Empire,” absorbed all the territories of Western and Southwestern Asia (except Arabia), as well as Egypt and a small portion of Europe. The Medes and the Persians are treated of together, because of their intimate connection in race and the fact that Media was conquered by and included in Persia, as the latter empire rose into power and importance in the western Asiatic world.

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION OF MEDIA AND PERSIA

The map shows the position of Media on the tableland south of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and the Zagros Mountains, and north and west of the mountains of Persia proper and the great rainless Persian desert, or desert of Iran. The mountain ranges enclosed fertile valleys, rich in corn and fruits; and the Zagros Mountains had on their pastures splendid horses, which supplied the chargers of the king and nobles of Persia.

Persis, or Persia proper, was a mountainous district between the desert of Iran and the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf. The country contained, among its hills, fertile plains and valleys abounding in corn, pasture and fruits.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE MEDES

The close connection of the Medes, in origin and institutions, with the Persians, is shown in the famous expression, “The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.” The people migrated into Media at an early period, from the original abode of the Aryan race. By degrees they overcame the Scythian races whom they found in possession of the land. The Medes were a warlike race, strong in cavalry and archers. Their language was a dialect of the Zend, the ancient tongue of Persia, and their religion was the Magian.

Probably about 800 B. C. the Medes had established themselves in their new home. About 710 B. C., Sargon, king of Assyria, conquered some part of Media, and made settlements of Israelites taken captive by him from the cities of Samaria; but the Assyrians could never conquer the Medes, who at last grew into a powerful kingdom under native princes.

MEDIAN POWER FIRST ESTABLISHED BY CAYAXARES

The monarchy was founded by Cyaxares about 633 B. C. He extended the Median Empire westward, by conquest, through Armenia to the river Halys in Asia Minor. His great achievement was the capture of Nineveh, about 620 B. C., in alliance with the revolted Babylonians, and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian Empire. Cyaxares reigned forty years, and died about 593 B. C.

He was succeeded by his son Astyages (_as-ty´a-jēz_), who reigned for over thirty years,--a despot of quiet life and peaceful disposition. The end of the Median monarchy came in 558 B. C., with his dethronement by Cyrus of Persia.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE PERSIANS

The Persians, in race, language, and religion, were closely connected with the Medes. They appear first in human records as hardy and warlike mountaineers, noble specimens of the great Aryan race,--simple in their ways of life, noted for truthfulness, keen-witted, generous, and quick-tempered. The language which they brought with them when they migrated is known as the Zend, closely allied to the Sanscrit, and now only existing in the sacred books of the Zendavesta, containing the doctrine of Zoroaster (Persian name, Zarathustra), the founder of the Magian religion.

The Persians were, in their early history, subject to the Medes, but governed by their native princes. The Median supremacy passed to the Persians with the dethronement of Astyages, king of Media, by Cyrus.

FOUNDING OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE BY CYRUS

Master of Media, Cyrus came next into collision with the great kingdom of Lydia,[2] in Asia Minor. Crœsus was king of Lydia when Cyrus met his attack and conquered him, in 546 B. C. The rising empire of Persia was thus extended to the western seaboard of Asia Minor. The Greek colonies on the coast next fell a prey to the arms of Cyrus, and in 538 B. C. he captured Babylon, as we have seen, and added the provinces of the later Babylonian Empire to the Persian. Before this he had conquered the territory eastwards between Media and the Indus, and restored the Jews from captivity. His power and life ended in his expedition against the Scythian people, by whom he was defeated and killed, in 529 B. C. Cyrus, the greatest as a king and the best as a man among all the Persian monarchs, had spread the Persian sway from the Hellespont on the west to the Indus on the east.

[2] Lydia, with its capital at Sardis, and extending from the coast of the Ægean Sea eastward to the river Halys, was easily one of the most powerful monarchies of the second class in Asiatic history. The Lydians were a highly civilized, wealthy, and energetic people, great in agriculture, manufactures, commerce and the arts. In music and metallurgy their names are famous as inventors or improvers; they were proverbial in the ancient world for luxury and the softer vices that attend it.

He was succeeded by his son Cambyses who is distinguished by his conquest of Egypt in 525. He died in 522, on his march from Egypt against a Magian pretender to the throne. The usurper reigned for a few months, and was then dethroned and slain in an insurrection headed by Darius, son of Hystaspes, a noble, who succeeded to the throne.

THE GREAT REIGN OF DARIUS

Darius Hystaspis, or Darius I, reigned from 521 to 485 B. C., and was a great and able monarch. He finished the work which Cyrus had begun, by setting in order the affairs of the vast empire which Cyrus and Cambyses had conquered.