CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Rameses II. was a great conqueror, and ex- 

 tended the Egyptian dominion far into Asia. 

 The twenty-sixth dynasty was from Sais. The 

 first of its kings was Psammetichus I. whose reign 

 (650 B.C.) constitutes an epoch in Egyptian his- 

 tory. Having attained to the throne by the aid of 

 Greek mercenaries, he broke down the barriers 

 which Egyptian exclusiveness had hitherto kept 

 up against foreigners, greatly to the disgust of 

 many of his subjects, especially of the priestly 

 caste, whose trammels in other respects he threw 

 off, and of the military caste, who found their 

 places occupied by Ionian and Carian colonists. 

 The successors of Psammetichus involved them- 

 selves in war with the Chaldaeans or Assyrians of 

 Babylon. The fourth of them, named Amasis 

 (570-526 B.C.), rivalled Psammetichus in liberality 

 of policy. He allowed the Greek merchants who 

 visited the port of Naucratis to establish a privi- 

 leged emporium, called the Hellcnion. Under 

 Amasis, Egypt attained to a great degree of pros- 

 perity, which was remembered the more that 

 immediately after his death the country was sub- 

 jugated by Cambyses, and annexed to the Persian 

 empire (525 B.C.). 



Arabia. 



The great peninsula of Arabia was in the 

 earliest times inhabited by a population of the 

 Semitic stock, in all essential respects similar to 

 that which inhabits it now, partly concentrated in 

 cities, partly wandering in tribes through the 

 extensive deserts which mark the surface of the 

 country. The inhabitants of the towns subsist by 

 agriculture and commerce ; the wandering tribes 

 by cattle- rearing and pillage. In ancient times, 

 as now, the Arabs were celebrated for their expert 

 horsemanship, their hospitality, their eloquence, 

 and their free, indomitable spirit. In religion, 

 however, the modern Arabs, who are Moham- 

 medans, differ from the ancient Arabs, who were 

 idolaters, chiefly worshippers of the celestial lumi- 

 naries, nowhere so beautiful as in the sky of an 

 Arabian desert. The Arabs themselves trace 

 their history back, the older tribes to Kahtan 

 (the Joktan of the tenth chapter of Genesis) ; the 

 later, to Adnan, a descendant of Ishmael, the 

 offspring of Abraham. It is unnecessary, how- 

 ever, to enter into this history, as Arabia was not 

 incorporated with the Persian empire, and only 

 assumed historical importance in later times, 

 when it sent forth the religion of Mohammed over 

 the East See HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Syria. 



The Semitic or Aramaic population overspread- 

 ing Syria which name is generally applied to the 

 country lying between the Euphrates and Arabian 

 desert on the east, and the Mediterranean on the 

 west had early divided itself into various inde- 

 pendent states or kingdoms, which ultimately 

 resolved themselves, it would appear, into three. 

 These were Plicenicia, a narrow strip of coast-land, 

 extending from Mount Carmel to the river Eleu- 

 therus ; Palestine, or the Holy Land, including the 

 country south of Phoenicia, between the Arabian 

 desert and the Mediterranean, as well as the in- 

 land district lying between Mount Carmel and 

 Mount Hermon ; and Syria Proper, whose capital 

 was Damascus, and which, when the power of 

 the Damascan kings was at its highest, included 

 72 



all the country except Palestine and Phoenicia. 

 Syrian history possesses no independent import- 

 ance ; we pass, therefore, to the history of the 

 Phoenician and Jewish nations. 



The Phoenicians. 



Phoenicia was an exceedingly small country, its 

 length being only about 120 miles, and its breadth 

 nowhere greater than 20 miles. Indeed, it may 

 be described as a mere slip of coast-land suffi- 

 ciently large to accommodate a range of port-towns, 

 such as a merchant-people required. The most 

 northern of these Phoenician cities was Aradus, 

 situated on a small island ; the most southern was 

 the famous Tyre ; and between the two were 

 situated many others, of which the chief were 

 Sidon, Berytus, Tripolis, and Byblus. The greater 

 part of the population was contained in these 

 cities, the rural population being small in propor- 

 tion. 



Originally, Phoenicia was divided into a number 

 of little states or communities, each having a town 

 for its metropolis, with an hereditary king of its 

 own ; and ere the country was restricted by the 

 formation of the Jewish nation, the number of 

 these Phoenician or Canaanitish principalities 

 must have been considerable. The Phoenicians 

 were a fragment of the Canaanites of Scripture ; 

 and doubtless in the annals of the separate Phoe- 

 nician towns, such as Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, 

 were preserved records, from the Phoenician point 

 of view, of many of those ancient transactions 

 which are related in the Scriptural account of the 

 settlement of the Jews in Canaan. 



The Phoenicians were the great trading nation 

 of antiquity. Situated at so convenient a point on 

 the Mediterranean, it devolved on them to trans- 

 port to the sea-shore the commodities of the East, 

 in which they employed Arabian caravans, and 

 from the sea-shore to distribute them among the 

 expecting nations of the West Nor were they 

 without valuable products of their own. The 

 sand of their coasts was particularly suitable for 

 the manufacture of glass ; their bays abounded in 

 a species of fish which produced a fine purple dye 

 the celebrated Tyrian purple of antiquity ; and 

 in various parts of the country there were excel- 

 lent mines of iron and copper. It was, in fact, 

 essential for the general interests of the race that 

 the people inhabiting that portion of the Mediter- 

 ranean coasts should devote themselves to com- 

 merce. In anticipation of this, as it might seem, 

 the mountains of Libanus, which separated the 

 narrow Phoenician territory from Syria, were 

 stocked with the best timber, which, transported 

 over the short distance which intervened between 

 these mountains and the sea, abundantly supplied 

 the demands of the Phoenician dockyards. There 

 was something in the Phoenician character, also, 

 which suited the requirements of their geographical 

 position. Skilful, enterprising, griping in their 

 desire for wealth, and in other respects resembling 

 much their neighbours the Jews, to whom they 

 were allied in race, and whose language was radi- 

 cally identical with their own theirs was essen- 

 tially the merchant type of character. 



Standing, as the Phoenicians did, as the people 

 by whom the exchange between the East and the 

 West was managed, a complete view of their life 

 and manner of activity should embrace first, their 

 relations with the East that is, their overland 





