96 INTRODUCTION. 



venturous warriors who came from the north and 

 offered their services to the nearest sovereign. From 



o 



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- 

 herhs of kindred origin w^itli 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 w^as 

 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 amiies or extensive territories, evi- 

 dently bought horses for luxury, and still more fur 

 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 1 50 shekels of silver, or about 

 £17 sterling ; a chariot, most Ukely in part of east metal, was 

 worth GOO shekels, or £ G8 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 in Egypt they required particular care and were expen- 

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

 mferior value. Sec 1 Kings, x, 29. 



