EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES. 41 



their neighbors south of them, they were mounted only on 

 camels. 



When the dominions of Solomon had become vastly extended, 

 embracing numbers of tributary kingdoms, as well as nomadic 

 tribes, and when his ships had gathered in untold riches from all 

 parts of the world, he found it prudent to reorganize his army 

 for the defense of his kingdom and his wealth, and on a scale 

 commensurate with the dangers that might arise from a combina- 

 tion of the jealous and envious neighbors with whom he was sur- 

 rounded. Among the northern kingdoms of that day it had been 

 often demonstrated in battle that the effective force of an army 

 must be estimated by its strength in horsemen and chariots of 

 war. Solomon, therefore, bought horses and chariots from Egypt, 

 and horses from all lands that had them for sale. It is probable 

 that the superiority of the Egyptian chariots was the special 

 reason for buying them in that country, as he paid six hundred 

 shekels of silver for the chariots and one hundred and fifty for 

 the horses to bring them home. The reorganized army consisted 

 of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horse- 

 men, and they were quartered in the different large cities in his 

 dominions. In the interval of seven hundred and twenty-eight 

 years that had elapsed since Joseph was Prime Minister, and 

 horses introduced in Egypt, they had greatly multiplied. When 

 Solomon died and his kingdom was divided into two hostile 

 camps, Hiram, King of Tyre, his lifelong friend and associate, 

 became virtually his successor to the trade of the world. 



The great Greek geographer, Strabo, traveled and wrote in 

 the reign of Augustus, and died A.D. 24. For descriptions of all 

 countries of that period and their industries and productions, he 

 has been quoted for eighteen hundred years as the best if not the 

 only authority. Writing as he did, at the very initial point of 

 the Christian era, he gives us a landmark that fixes itself in the 

 mind. He gives a brief, but quite satisfactory, description of 

 Arabia, in which he notes the general topography and boundaries 

 as they are understood to-day; and then he enters, somewhat, 

 into the climate, productions of the soil, character and industries 

 of the people, etc. Of one part of the country he speaks of the 

 inhabitants as breeders of camels, and of another, that is more 

 productive, he remarks: ''The general fertility of the country is 

 very great; among other products there is in particular an 

 abundant supply of honey. Except horses, there are numerous 



