96 INTRODUCTION. 



venturous warriors who came from the north and 

 offered their services to the nearest sovereign. From 

 that time, however, a mounted cavalry became con- 

 spicuous in all the Aramean regions, and they are 

 often represented in sculpture of a later period, in 

 various parts of Persia. 



The people of Israel, we have seen, though shep- 

 herbs of kindred origin with the Edomite Arabs, 

 had no horses in Goshen, and continued without 

 studs till the Mosaic prohibition was disregarded by 

 Solomon, who established a force of chariots of war, 

 and, it is supposed, of mounted cavalry. It was 

 then the kingdom extended in glory and in surface 

 far beyond its ancient boundary. With the mer- 

 cantile spirit of eastern princes, he monopolized a 

 trade in horses, importing them in strings from 

 Egypt, and out of all lands ; * he sold teams and 

 chariots to the Phoenicians, who, as they did not 

 possess land armies or extensive territories, evi- 

 dently bought horses for luxury, and still more for 

 exportation, t The Tyrians, at another time, ob- 

 tained theirs from Armenia, and, no doubt, both 



* 2 Chronicles, ix. 28, and 2 Kings, x. 28. 



+ The sacred historian gives the prices both of horse and 

 chariot : a horse from Egypt cost 150 shekels of silver, or about 

 17 sterling ; a chariot, most likely in part of cast metal, was 

 worth 600 shekels, or 68 8s. sterling. This trade was evi- 

 dently carried on by the gross or string, as the price was not 

 for different values of single horses ; and it proves that even 

 then hi Egypt they required particular care and were expen- 

 sive in rearing, and that in Syria they were either scarce or of 

 inferior value. See 1 Kings, x. 29. 



