Henry van Dyke - "The Unruly Sprite"

Theodor Mommsen - "Römische Geschichte Book 3"

G. A. Henty - "At the Point of the Bayonet"

Washington Irving - "Old Christmas From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




But wise as was Solomon in his words, his life was far from being either
admirable or prudent. In conformity with Asiatic custom, he had many
wives--seven hundred, we are told--of different nationalities and
religions. Through their persuasion the old monarch himself fell into
idolatry, which turned from him the affections of his best subjects, and
prepared the way for the dissensions and wars that followed his death.

THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM (about 975 B.C.).--The reign of Solomon was
brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew monarchy. In order to
carry on his vast undertakings, he had laid most oppressive taxes upon his
people. When Rehoboam, his son, succeeded to his father's place, the
people entreated him to lighten the taxes that were making their very
lives a burden. Influenced by young and unwise counsellors, he replied to
the petition with haste and insolence: "My father," said he, "chastised
you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." Immediately all
the tribes, save Judah and Benjamin, rose in revolt, and succeeded in
setting up, to the north of Jerusalem, a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as
its first king. This northern state, with Samaria as its capital, became
known as the Kingdom of Israel; the southern, of which Jerusalem remained
the capital, was called the Kingdom of Judah.

Thus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon. United, the tribes
might have maintained an empire capable of offering successful resistance
to the encroachments of the powerful and ambitious monarchs about them.
But now the land becomes an easy prey to the spoiler. It is henceforth the
pathway of the conquering armies of the Nile and the Euphrates. Between
the powerful monarchies of these regions, as between an upper and nether
millstone, the little kingdoms are destined, one after the other, to be
ground to pieces.

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL (975?-722 B.C.).--The kingdom of the Ten Tribes
maintained an existence for about two hundred and fifty years. Its story
is instructive and sad. Many passages of its history are recitals of the
struggles between the pure worship of Jehovah and the idolatrous service
of the deities introduced from the surrounding nations. The cause of the
religion of Jehovah, as the tribes of Israel had received it from the
patriarch Abraham and the lawgiver Moses, was boldly espoused and upheld
by a line of the most remarkable teachers and prophets produced by the
Hebrew race, among whom Elijah and Elisha stand preeminent.

The little kingdom was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian power. This
happened 722 B.C., when Samaria, as we have already narrated in the
history of Assyria, was captured by Sargon, king of Nineveh, and the Ten
Tribes were carried away into captivity beyond the Euphrates (see p. 48).
From this time they are quite lost to history.

The country, left nearly vacant by this wholesale deportation of its
inhabitants, was filled with other subjects or captives of the Assyrian
king. The descendants of these, mingled with the few Jews of the poorer
class that were still left in the country, formed the Samaritans of the
time of Christ.

THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH (975?-586 B.C.).--This little kingdom, torn by
internal religious dissensions, as was its rival kingdom of the north, and
often on the very verge of ruin from Egyptian or Assyrian armies,
maintained an independent existence for about four centuries. During this
period, a line of eighteen kings, of most diverse character, sat upon the
throne. Upon the extension of the power of Babylon to the west, Jerusalem
was forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Babylonian kings.

The kingdom at last shared the fate of its northern rival. Nebuchadnezzar,
in revenge for an uprising of the Jews, besieged and captured Jerusalem,
and carried away a large part of the people, and their king Zedekiah, into
captivity at Babylon (see p. 58). This event virtually ended the separate
and political life of the Hebrew race (586 B.C.). Henceforth Judah
constituted simply a province of the empires--Babylonian, Persian,
Macedonian, and Roman--which successively held sway over the regions of
Western Asia, with, however, just one flicker of national life under the
Maccabees, during a part of the two centuries preceding the birth of
Christ.

It only remains to mention those succeeding events which belong rather to
the story of the Jews as a people than as a nation. Upon the capture of
Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus (see p. 60), that monarch, who was
kindly disposed towards the Jews that he there found captives, permitted
them to return to Jerusalem and restore the temple. Jerusalem thus became
again the centre of the old Hebrew worship, and, although shorn of
national glory, continued to be the sacred centre of the ancient faith
till the second generation after Christ. Then, in chastisement for
repeated revolts, the city was laid in ruins by the Romans; while vast
numbers of the inhabitants--some authorities say over one million--were
slain, or perished by famine, and the remnant were driven into exile to
different lands.

Thus, by a series of unparalleled calamities and persecutions, the
descendants of Abraham were "sifted among all nations"; but to this day
they cling with a strange devotion and loyalty to the simple faith of
their fathers.


HEBREW RELIGION AND LITERATURE.

The ancient Hebrews made little or no contribution to science. They
produced no new order of architecture. In sculpture they did nothing:
their religion forbade their making "graven images." Their mission was to
teach religion. Here they have been the instructors of the world. Their
literature is a religious one; for literature with them was simply a
medium for the conveyance of religious instruction and the awakening of
devotional feeling.

The Hebrew religion, a pure monotheism, the teachings of a long line of
holy men--patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, and priests--stretching from
Abraham down to the fifth century B.C., is contained in the sacred books
of the Old Testament Scriptures. In these ancient writings, patriarchal
traditions, histories, dramas, poems, prophecies, and personal narratives
blend in a wonderful mosaic, which pictures with vivid and grand effect
the various migrations, the deliverances, the calamities--all the events
and religious experiences in the checkered life of the Chosen People.

Out of this old exclusive, formal Hebrew religion, transformed and
spiritualized by the Great Teacher, grew the Christian faith. Out of the
Old Testament arose the New, which we should think of as a part of Hebrew
literature: for although written in the Greek language, and long after the
close of the political life of the Jewish nation, still it is essentially
Hebrew in thought and doctrine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew
Scriptures.

Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of pre-
eminence, the Bible (The Book), it remains to mention especially the
Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were composed after the
decline of the prophetic spirit, and which show traces, as indeed do
several of the later books of the Bible, of the influence of Persian and
Greek thought. These books are generally regarded by the Jews and
Protestants as uncanonical, but in the main are considered by the Roman
Catholics as possessing equal authority with the other books of the Bible.

Neither should we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of Hebrew
customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon of the rabbis, a work
held by most Jews next in sacredness to the Holy Book; the writings of
Philo, an illustrious rabbi who lived at Alexandria just before the birth
of Christ; and the _Antiquities of the Jews_ and the _Jewish Wars_ by the
historian Josephus, who lived and wrote about the time of the taking of
Jerusalem by Titus; that is, during the latter part of the first century
after Christ.




CHAPTER VII.

THE PHOENICIANS.


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.--Ancient Phoenicia embraced a little strip of
broken sea-coast lying between the Mediterranean and the ranges of Mount
Lebanon. One of the most noted productions of the country was the fine
fir-timber cut from the forests that crowned the lofty ranges of the
Lebanon Mountains. The "cedar of Lebanon" holds a prominent place both in
the history and the poetry of the East.

Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian purple, which was
obtained from several varieties of the murex, a species of shell-fish,
secured at first along the Phoenician coast, but later sought in distant
waters, especially in the Grecian seas.

The Phoenicians were of Semitic race, and of close kin to most of the so-
called Canaanitish tribes. They were a maritime and trading people.

TYRE AND SIDON.--The various Phoenician cities never coalesced to form a
true nation. They simply constituted a sort of league, or confederacy, the
petty states of which generally acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of
Sidon, the two chief cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation
was at first held by Sidon, but later by Tyre.

From the 11th to the 4th century B.C., Tyre controlled, almost without
dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoenicia. During this time
the maritime enterprise and energy of her merchants spread the fame of the
little island-capital throughout the world. She was queen and mistress of
the Mediterranean.

During all the last centuries of her existence, Phoenicia was, for the
most part, tributary to one or another of the great monarchies about her.
She acknowledged in turn the suzerainty of the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the
Babylonian, the Persian, and the Macedonian kings. Alexander the Great,
after a most memorable siege, captured the city of Tyre--which alone of
all the Phoenician cities closed her gates against the conqueror--and
reduced it to ruins (332 B.C.). The city never recovered from this blow.
The larger part of the site of the once brilliant maritime capital is now
"bare as the top of a rock,"--a place where the fishermen that still
frequent the spot spread their nets to dry.

PHOENICIAN COMMERCE.--When we catch our first glimpse of the
Mediterranean, about 1500 B.C., it is dotted with the sails of Phoenician
navigators. It was natural that the people of the Phoenician coast should
have been led to a seafaring life. The lofty mountains that back the
little strip of shore seemed to shut them out from a career of conquest
and to prohibit an extension of their land domains. At the same time, the
Mediterranean in front invited them to maritime enterprise; while the
forests of Lebanon in the rear offered timber in abundance for their
ships. The Phoenicians, indeed, were the first navigators who pushed out
boldly from the shore and made real sea voyages.

The longest voyages were made to procure tin, which was in great demand
for the manufacture of articles in bronze. The nearest region where this
metal was found was the Caucasus, on the eastern shore of the Euxine. The
Phoenician sailors boldly threaded the Aegean Archipelago, passed through
the Hellespont, braved the unknown terrors of the Black Sea, and from the
land of Colchis brought back to the manufacturers of Asia the coveted
article.

Towards the close of the 11th century B.C., the jealousy of the Pelasgic
states of Greece and of the Archipelago, that were now growing into
maritime power, closed the Aegean Sea against the Phoenician navigators.
They then pushed out into the Western Mediterranean, and opened the tin-
mines of the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula. When these began to fail, these
bold sailors passed the Pillars of Hercules, faced the dangers of the
Atlantic, and brought back from those distant seas the tin gathered in the
mines of Britain.

PHOENICIAN COLONIES.--Along the different routes pursued by their ships,
and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians established naval
stations and trading-posts. Settlements were made in Cyprus, in Rhodes,
and on other islands of the Aegean Sea, as well as in Greece itself. The
shores of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were fringed with colonies; while
the coast of North Africa was dotted with such great cities as Utica,
Hippo, and Carthage. Colonies were even planted beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, upon the Atlantic seaboard. The Phoenician settlement of Gades,
upon the western coast of Spain, is still preserved in the modern Cadiz.

ARTS DISSEMINATED BY THE PHOENICIANS.--We can scarcely overrate the
influence of Phoenician maritime enterprise upon the distribution of the
arts and the spread of culture among the early peoples of the
Mediterranean area. "Egypt and Assyria," says Lenormant, "were the
birthplace of material civilization; the Canaanites [Phoenicians] were its
missionaries." Most prominent of the arts which they introduced among all
the nations with whom they traded was that of alphabetical writing.

Before or during the rule of the Hyksos in Egypt, the Phoenician settlers
in the Delta borrowed from the Egyptians twenty-two hieratic characters,
which they passed on to their Asiatic kinsmen. These characters received
new names, and became the Phoenician alphabet. Now, wherever the
Phoenicians went, they carried this alphabet as "one of their exports." It
was through them, probably, that the Greeks received it; the Greeks passed
it on to the Romans, and the Romans gave it to the German peoples. In this
way did our alphabet come to us from Old Egypt.

The introduction of letters among the different nations, vast as was the
benefit which the gift conferred upon peoples just beginning to make
advances in civilization, was only one of the many advantages which
resulted to the early civilization of Europe from the commercial
enterprise of the Phoenicians. It is probable that they first introduced
among the semi-civilized tribes of that continent the use of bronze, which
marks an epoch in their growing culture. Articles of Phoenician
workmanship are found in the earliest tombs of the Greeks, the Etruscans,
and the Romans; and in very many of the manufactures of these peoples may
be traced the influence of Phoenician art.

GREAT ENTERPRISES AIDED BY THE PHOENICIANS.--While scattering the germs of
civilization and culture broadcast over the entire Mediterranean area, the
enterprising Phoenicians were also lending aid to almost every great
undertaking of antiquity.

King Hiram of Tyre furnished Solomon with artisans and skilled workmen,
and with great rafts of timber from Lebanon, for building the splendid
temple at Jerusalem. The Phoenicians also provided timber from their fine
forests for the construction of the great palaces and temples of the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians. They built for the Persian
king Xerxes the Hellespontine bridges over which he marched his immense
army into Greece (see p. 81). They furnished contingents of ships to the
kings of Nineveh and Babylon for naval operations both upon the
Mediterranean and the Persian and Arabian gulfs. Their fleets served as
transports and convoys to the expeditions of the Persian monarchs aiming
at conquest in Asia Minor or in Europe. They formed, too, the naval branch
of the armaments of the Pharaohs; for the Egyptians hated the sea, and
never had a native fleet. And it was Phoenician sailors that, under the
orders of Pharaoh-Necho, circumnavigated Africa (see p. 26)--an
undertaking which, although attended perhaps with less advantage to the
world, still is reckoned quite as remarkable, considering the remote age
in which it was accomplished, as the circumnavigation of the globe by the
Portuguese navigator Magellan, more than two thousand years later.




CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE


1. POLITICAL HISTORY.

KINSHIP OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS.--It was in very remote times, that some
Aryan tribes, separating themselves from the other members of the Aryan
family, sought new abodes on the plateau of Iran. The tribes that settled
in the south became known as the Persians; while those that took
possession of the mountain regions of the northwest were called Medes. The
Medes, through mingling with native non-Aryan tribes, became quite
different from the Persians; but notwithstanding this, the names of the
two peoples were always very closely associated, as in the familiar
legend, "The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."

THE MEDES AT FIRST THE LEADING RACE.--Although the Persians were destined
to become the dominant tribe of all the Iranian Aryans, still the Medes
were at first the leading people. Cyaxares (625-585 B.C.) was their first
prominent leader and king. We have already seen how, aided by the
Babylonians, he overthrew the last king of Nineveh, and burned that
capital (see p. 51).

Cyaxares was followed by his son Astyages (585-558 B.C.), during whose
reign the Persians, whom Cyaxares had brought into at least partial
subjection to the Median crown, revolted, overthrew the Median power, and
thenceforth held the place of leadership and authority.

REIGN OF CYRUS THE GREAT (558-529 B.C.).--The leader of the revolt against
the Medes was Cyrus, the tributary king of the Persians. Through his
energy and soldierly genius, he soon built up an empire more extended than
any over which the sceptre had yet been swayed by an Oriental monarch, or
indeed, so far as we know, by any ruler before his time. It stretched from
the Indus to the farthest limits of Asia Minor, and from the Caspian Sea
to the Persian Gulf, thus embracing not only the territories of the Median
kingdom, but also those of the allied kingdoms of Lydia and Babylonia. The
subjugation of Babylonia to the Persian authority has already been
narrated (see p. 60). We will now tell how Cyrus gained the kingdom of
Lydia.

[Illustration: KINGDOMS OF LYDIA, MEDIA, AND BABYLONIA. C. B.C. 550]

Lydia was a country in the western part of Asia Minor. It was a land
highly favored by nature. It embraced two rich river valleys,--the plains
of the Hermus and the Cayster,--which, from the mountains inland, slope
gently to the island-dotted Aegean. The Pactolus, and other tributaries of
the streams we have named, rolled down "golden sands," while the mountains
were rich in the precious metals. The coast region did not at first belong
to Lydia; it was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it with cities. The
capital of the country was Sardis, whose citadel was set on a lofty and
precipitous rock.

The Lydians were a mixed people, formed, it is thought, by the mingling,
in prehistoric times, of Aryan tribes that crossed the Aegean from Europe,
with the original non-Aryan population of the country.

The last and most renowned of the Lydian kings was Croesus. Under him the
Lydian empire attained its greatest extension, embracing all the states of
Asia Minor west of the Halys, save Lycia. The tribute Croesus collected
from the Greek cities, which he subjugated, and the revenues he derived
from his gold mines, rendered him the richest monarch of his times, so
that his name has passed into the proverb "Rich as Croesus."

Now Astyages, whom Cyrus had just overthrown, was the brother-in-law of
this Croesus. When Croesus heard of his relative's misfortune, he resolved
to avenge his wrongs. The Delphian oracle (see p. 104), to which he sent
to learn the issue of a war upon Cyrus, told him that he "would destroy a
great kingdom." Interpreting this favorably, he sent again to inquire
whether the empire he should establish would prove permanent, and received
this oracle: "Flee and tarry not when a mule [Footnote: The allusion is to
the (traditional) mixed Persian and Median descent of Cyrus.] shall be
king of the Medes." Deeming the accession of a mule to the Persian throne
altogether impossible, he inferred the oracle to mean that his empire
should last forever.

Thus encouraged in his purpose, Croesus prepared to make war upon Persia.
But he had miscalculated the strength and activity of his enemy. Cyrus
marched across the Halys, defeated the Lydian army in the field, and after
a short siege captured Sardis; and Lydia became a province of the new
Persian empire.

[Illustration: TOMB OF CYRUS THE GREAT. (Present Condition.)]

There is a story which tells how Cyrus had caused a pyre to be erected on
which to burn Croesus, but at the last moment was struck by hearing the
unfortunate monarch repeatedly call the name of Solon. Seeking the meaning
of this, he was told that Croesus in his prosperous years was visited by
the Greek sage Solon, who, in answer to the inquiry of Croesus as to
whether he did not deem him a happy man, replied, "Count no man happy
until he is dead." Cyrus was so impressed with the story, so the legend
tells, that he released the captive king, and treated him with the
greatest kindness.

This war between Croesus and Cyrus derives a special importance from the
fact that it brought the Persian empire into contact with the Greek cities
of Asia, and thus led on directly to that memorable struggle between
Greece and Persia known as the Graeco-Persian War.

Tradition says that Cyrus lost his life while leading an expedition
against some Scythian tribes in the north. He was buried at Pasargadae, the
old Persian capital, and there his tomb stands to-day, surrounded by the
ruins of the magnificent buildings with which he adorned that city. The
following cuneiform inscription may still be read upon a pillar near the
sepulchre: "I am Cyrus, the king, the Akhaemenian."

Cyrus, notwithstanding his seeming love for war and conquest, possessed a
kindly and generous disposition. Almost universal testimony has ascribed
to him the purest and most beneficent character of any Eastern monarch.

REIGN OF CAMBYSES (529-522 B.C.).--Cyrus the Great left two sons, Cambyses
and Smerdis: the former, as the oldest, inherited the sceptre, and the
title of king. He began a despotic and unfortunate reign by causing his
brother, whose influence he feared, to be secretly put to death.

With far less ability than his father for their execution, Cambyses
conceived even vaster projects of conquest and dominion. Asia had hitherto
usually afforded a sufficient field for the ambition of Oriental despots.
Cambyses determined to add the country of Africa to the vast inheritance
received from his father. Upon some slight pretext, he invaded Egypt,
captured Memphis, and ascended the Nile to Thebes. From here he sent an
army of fifty thousand men to subdue the oasis of Ammon, in the Libyan
desert. Of the vast host not a man returned from the expedition. It is
thought that the army was overwhelmed and buried by one of those fatal
storms, called simooms, that so frequently sweep over those dreary wastes
of sand.

After a short, unsatisfactory stay in Egypt, Cambyses set out on his
return to Persia. While on his way home, news was brought to him that his
brother Smerdis had usurped the throne. A Magian [Footnote: There were at
this time two opposing religions in Persia: Zoroastrianism, which taught
the simple worship of God under the name of Ormazd; and Magianism, a less
pure faith, whose professors were fire-worshippers. The former was the
religion of the Aryans; the latter, that of the non-Aryan portion of the
population. The usurpation which placed Smerdis on the throne was planned
by the Magi, Smerdis himself being a fire-priest.] impostor, Gomates by
name, who resembled the murdered Smerdis, had personated him, and actually
grasped the sceptre. Entirely disheartened by this startling
intelligence, Cambyses in despair took his own life.

REIGN OF DARIUS I. (521-486 B.C.).--The Persian nobles soon rescued the
sceptre from the grasp of the false Smerdis, and their leader, Darius,
took the throne. The first act of Darius was to punish, by a general
massacre, the Magian priests for the part they had taken in the usurpation
of Smerdis.

[Illustration: CAPTIVE INSURGENTS BROUGHT BEFORE DARIUS. Beneath his foot
is the Magus Gomates, the false Smerdis. (From the great Behistun Rock.)]

With quiet and submission secured throughout the empire, Darius gave
himself, for a time, to the arts of peace. He built a palace at Susa, and
erected magnificent structures at Persepolis; reformed the administration
of the government (see p. 82), making such wise and lasting changes that
he has been called "the second founder of the Persian empire"; established
post-roads, instituted a coinage for the realm, and upon the great rock of
Behistun, a lofty smooth-faced cliff on the western frontier of Persia,
caused to be inscribed a record of all his achievements. [Footnote: This
important inscription is written in the cuneiform characters, and in three
languages, Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic. It is the Rosetta Stone of the
cuneiform writings, the key to their treasures having been obtained from
its parallel columns.]

And now the Great King, Lord of Western Asia and of Egypt, conceived and
entered upon the execution of vast designs of conquest, the far-reaching
effects of which were destined to live long after he had passed away.
Inhospitable steppes on the north, and burning deserts on the south, whose
shifting sands within a period yet fresh in memory had been the grave of a
Persian army, seemed to be the barriers which Nature herself had set for
the limits of empire in these directions. But on the eastern flank of the
kingdom the rich and crowded plains of India invited the conqueror with
promises of endless spoils and revenues; while on the west a new
continent, full of unknown mysteries, presented virgin fields never yet
traversed by the army of an Eastern despot. Darius determined to extend
the frontiers of his empire in both these directions.

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