ples to the gods, and improving the revenues cf his kingdom. After his time we know little of the history of Egypt until the reign of Pharaoh-Necho, in the beginning of the seventh century, who is remarkable for his successes against Jerusalem.

5. At the period which we have assigned, somewhat arbitrarily, for the commencement of Grecian history, 1856 years before the Christian era, Joseph, the son of the patriarch Jacob, was governor over Egypt; and his father's family, by invitation of Pharaoh, had settled in Goshen, on the eastern borders of the valley of the Nile. This is supposed to have been about three centuries before the time of Sesos' tris. On the death of Joseph, the circumstances of the descendants of Jacob, who were now called Israelites, were greatly changed. "A king arose who knew not Joseph;"a and the children of Israel became servants and bondsmen in the land of Egypt. Two hundred years they were held in bondage, when the Lord, by his servant Moses, brought them forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, after inflicting the most grievous plagues upon their oppressors, and destroying the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. (1648 B. C.)

6. Forty years the Israelites, numbering probably two millions of souls,c wandered in the wilderness on the north-western confines of Arabia,' supported by miraculous interposition; for the country was then, as now, แ a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drouth and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt ;' ;"d and after they had completed their wanderings, and another generation had grown up since they had left Egypt, they came to the river Jordan,' and passing through the bed of the

1. Arabia is an extensive peninsula at the south-western extremity of Asia, lying immediately east of the Red Sea. It is mostly a rocky and desert country, inhabited by wandering tribes of Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael. They still retain the character given to their ancestor. The desert has continued to be the home of the Arab; he has been a man of war from his youth; "his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him." (Gen. xvi. 12.)

2. The river Jordan (See Map, No. VI.) rises towards the northern part of Palestine, on the western slope of Mount Hermon, and after a south course of about forty miles, opens into the sea of Galilee near the ancient town of Bethsaida. After passing through this lake or sea, which is about fifteen miles long and seven broad, and on and near which occurred so many striking scenes in the history of Christ, it pursues a winding southerly course of about ninety miles through a narrow valley, and then empties its waters into the Dead Sea. In this rivervalley was the dwelling of Lot, "who pitched his tents toward Sodom" (Gen. xiii. 11, 12); and "in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea," occurred the battle of the "four kings with five." (Gen. xv.) The Israelites passed the Jordan near Jericho (Josh. iii. 14-17); the prophets Elijah

a. Paraphrased by Josephus as meaning that the kingdom had passed to another dynasty. b. 1648, B.C.

c. They had 603,550 men, above 20 years of age, not reckoning Levites. Exodus, xxxviii. 26. d. Jeremiah, ii. 6,

stream, which rolled back its waters on their approach, entered the promised land of Palestine. The death of Moses had left the gov ernment in the hands of Joshua. And "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for his chosen people."a

7. From the time of the death of Joshua to the election of Saul as first king of Israel, which latter event occurred about seventy years after the supposed siege of Troy, Israel was ruled by judges, who were appointed through the agency of the priests and of the divine oracle, in accordance with the theocratic form of government established by Moses. After the death of Joshua, however, the Israelites often apostatized to idolatry, for which they were punished by being successively delivered into the hands of the surrounding nations. First they were subdued by the king of Mesopotámia,b after which the Lord raised up Oth' niel to be their deliverer (1564 B. C.). a second defection was punished by eighteen years of servitude to the king of the Moabites," from whom they were delivered by the enterand Elisha afterwards divided the waters to prove their divine mission (2 Kings, xi. 8); the leper Naaman was commanded to wash in Jordan and be clean (2 Kings, iv. 10); and it is this stream in which Jesus was baptized before he entered on his divine mission. (Matt. iii. 16, &c.) The Dead Sea, into which the Jordan empties, is so called from the heaviness and consequent stillness of its waters, which contain one-fourth part of their weight of salts. The country around this lake is exceedingly dreary, and the soil is destitute of vegetation. Sodom and Gomorrah are supposed to have stood in the plain now occupied by the lake, and ruins of the overthrown cities are said to have been seen on its western borders. (Map No. VI.)

1. Palestine, a part of modern Syria, now embraced in Turkey in Asia, lies at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea; extending north and south along the coast about 200 miles, and having an extreme breadth of about 80 miles. Though in antiquity the northern part of Palestine was the seat of the Phoenicians, a great commercial people, yet there are now few good harbors on the coast, those of Tyre and Sidon, once so famous, being now for the most part blocked up with sand. The country of Palestine consists principally of rugged hills and narrow valleys, although it has a few plains of considerable extent. There are many streams falling into the Mediterranean, the largest of which is the Orontes, at the north, but none of them are navigable. The river Jordan, on the east, empties its waters into the Aephaltic Lake, or Dead Sea, which latter, about 55 miles in length, and 20 in extreme width, now fills the plain where once stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. North of the Dead Sea is the Lake of Gennesareth, or Sea of Galilee, the theatre of some most remarkable miracles. (Matthew viii.; Luke vili.; and Matthew xix. 25.) The principal mountains of Pales tine are those of Lebanon, running in ranges nearly parallel to the Mediterranean, and finally connecting with mounts Horeb and Sinai, near the Gulf of Suez. JERUSALEM, the capital city of Palestine or the Holy Land, will be described in a subsequent article. (See p. 164, Mc Cul loch; articles Syria, Said, or Sidon, Dead Sea, Lebanon, &c.) (Map No. VI.)

2. The Moabites, so called from Moab, the son of Lot (Gen. xix. 37), dwelt in the country on the east of the Dead Sea. (Map No. VI.)

a. Joshua, xxiv. 31.

b. Numbers, iii. 8. Some think that the country here referred to was in the vicinity of Damascus, and not "beyond the Euphrates," as Mesopotamia would imply. See Cockayne's Civil Hist. of the Jews, 29-33.)

prising valor of Ehud.a After his death the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and "the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan," under whose cruel yoke they groaned twenty years, when the prophetess Deborah, and Barak her general, were made the instruments of their liberation. The Canaanites were routed with great slaughter, and their leader Sisera slain by Jael, in whose tent he had sought refuge.b

8. Afterwards, the children of Israel were delivered over a prey to the Midianites and Amalekites, wild tribes of the desert, who came up with their cattle and their tents, as grasshoppers for multitude." But the prophet Gideon, chosen by the Lord to be the liberator of his people, taking with him only three hundred men, made a night attack on the camp of the enemy, upon whom such fear fell that they slew each other; so that a hundred and twenty thou sand men were left dead on the field, and only fifteen thousand escaped by flight. In the height of their joy and gratitude, the people would have made Gideon king, but he said to them, "Not I, nor my son, but JEHOVAH shall reign over you."e

9. Again the idolatry of the Israelites became so gross, that the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites,* from whom they were finally delivered by the valor of Jephthah.d At a later period the Philistines oppressed Israel forty years, but the people found an avenger in the prowess of Samson. After the death of Samson the aged Eli judged Israel, but the crimes of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, whom he had chosen to aid him in the government, brought down the vengeance of the Lord, and thirty thousand of the warriors of Israel were slain in battle by the Philis

1. The Canaanites, so called from Canaan, one of the sons of Ham (Gen. x. 6-19), then dwelt In the lowlands of the Galilee of the Gentiles, between the sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean. Barak, descending from Mount Tabor (see Map), attacked Sisera on the banks of the river Kishon. (Map No. VI.)

2. The Midianites, so called from one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, dwelt in western Arabia, near the head of the Red Sea. The Amalekites dwelt in the wilderness between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. (Map No. VI.)

3. The Philistines (see Map) dwelt on the south-western borders of Palestine, along the coast of the Mediterranean, as far north as Mount Carmel, the commencement of the Phoenician territories. Their principal towns were Gaza, Gath, Ascalon, and Megiddo, for which see Map. The Israelite tribes of Simeon, Dan, Ephraim, and Manasseh, bordered on their territories. "The whole of the towns of the coast continued in the hands of the Philistines and Phoenicians, and never permanently fell under the dominion of Israel.”—Cockayne's Hist. of the Jews, p. 44. 4. The Ammonites (see Map) dwelt on the borders of the desert eastward of the Israelite tribes that settled east of the Jordan.

a. Judges, iii. 15-30.
d. Judges, x. 7; xi. 33.

b. Judges, iv.

c. Judges, vi.; vii.; viii. e. Judges, xiii. 1; xiv.; xv.; xvi.

tines. The prophet Samuel was divinely chosen as the successor of Eli. (1152 B. C.) His administration was wise and prudent, but in his old age the tyranny of his sons, whom he was obliged to employ as his deputies, induced the people to demand a king who should rule over them like the kings of other nations. With reluct ance Samuel yielded to the popular request, and by divine guidance, anointed Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, king over Israel.b (1110 B. C.)

10. We have thus briefly traced the civil history of the Israelites down to the period of the establishment of a monarchy over them, in the person of Saul, at a date, according to the chronology which we have adopted, seventy-three years later than the supposed destruction of Troy. It is, however, the religious history, rather than the civil annals, of the children of Abraham, that possesses the greatest value and the deepest interest; but as our limits forbid our entering upon a subject so comprehensive as the former, and the one cannot be wholly separated from the other without the greatest violence, we refer the reader to the Bible for full and satisfactory details of the civil and religious polity of the Jews, contenting ourselves with having given merely such a skeleton of Jewish annals, in connection with profane history, as may serve to render the comparative chronology of the whole easy of comprehension.

CHAPTER III.

THE UNCERTAIN PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY:

EXTENDING FROM THE CLOSE OF THE TROJAN WAR TO THE FIRST WAR WITH PERSIA: 1183 TO 490 B. C. 693 YEARS.

ANALYSIS. 1. Introductory.-2. Consequences of the Trojan war.-3. THESSA'LIAN CONQUEST.-[Epirus. Pin'dus. Penéus.]—4. BœO'TIAN CONQUEST.-EO' LIAN MIGRATION. [Les'bos. 5 Doris.] RETURN OF THE Heracli' dæ.-6. Numbers and military character of the Dórians,-Passage of the Corinthian Gulf.-[Corinthian Isthmus.-Corinthian Gulf.-Naupac'tus.]-7. Dórian conquest of the Peloponnésus. [Arcádia. Achaia.] Ionian and Dorian mi grations.-8. Dórian invasion of At' tica.-[Athens. Delphos.] Self-sacrifice of Códrus. Government of At' tica.-9. [Lacónia.] Its government. Lycurgus.-10. Travels of Lycur' gus. [The Brahmins.] INSTITUTIONS OF LYCUR' GUS.-11. Plutarch's account-senateassemblies-division of lands.-12. Movable property. The currency.-13. Public tables. Object of Spartan education, and aim of Lycur' gus.-14. Disputes about Lycurgus. His supposed fate, [Delphos, Créte. and E'lis.]-15. The three classes of the Ionian population. Treatment of the Hélots.-16. The provincials. Their condition.-17. [Messénia. Ithome.] FIRST MESSE' NIAN WAR. Results of the war to the Messenians.-18. Its influence on the Spartans. SECOND MESSE' NIAN WAR. Aristom' enes.-19., The Poet Tyrtæ' us. [Corinth. Sic'yon.] Battle of the Parisus. The Arcadians. 20. Results of the war.-21. Government of Athens. DRA' co.-22. Severity of his laws.-23. Anarchy. LEGISLATION OF SOLON. Solon's integrity.-24. Distresses of the people. The needy and the rich-25. The policy of Solon. Debtors-lands of the poor-imprisonment. Classification of the citizens.-26. Disabilities and privileges of the fourth class. General policy of Solon's system.-27. The nine archons. The Senate of Four Hundred.-28. Court of the Areop' agus. Its powers. Institutions of Solon compared with the Spartan code.-29. Party feuds. Pisis' tratus.-30. His usurpation of power. Opposition to, and character of, his government.-31. The sons of Pisis' tratus. Conspiracy of Harmódius and Aristogiton.-32. EXPULSION OF THE PISISTRATIDs. Intrigues of Hip' pias. [Lyd' ia. Per' sia.]-33. The Grecian colonies conquered by Cro' sus-by the Persians. Application for aid.—34. ION' IC REVOLT. Athens and Eubœ'a aid the Ionians. [Euboea. Sar' dis. Ephesus.] Results of the Ionian war. [Milétus.] Designs of Darius.

COTEMPORARY HISTORY.-I. PHŒNI CIAN HISTORY. 1. Geography of Phoenicia.-2. Early history of Phoenicia. Political condition. Colonies.-3. Supposed circumnavigation of Africa.— 4. Commercial relations. II. JEWISH HISTORY-continuation of.-6. Accession of Saul to the throne. Slaughter of the Am' monites. [Jábesh Gil' ead. Gil' gal.] War with the Philistines.-7. Wars with the surrounding nations. Saul's disobedience.-8. David-his prowess. [Gath.] Saul's jealousy of David. David's integrity.-9. Death of Saul. [Mount Gil' boa.] Division of the kingdom between David and Ish' bosheth. [Hébron.] Union of the tribes.-10. Limited possessions of the Israelites. [Tyre. Sidon. Joppa. Jerusalem.] David takes Jerusalem.-11. His other conquests. [Syria. Damascus. Rabbah.] Siege of Rabbah. Close of David's reign.-12. Solomon. His wisdom-fame-commercial relations.-13. His impiety. Close of his reign.14. Revolt of the ten tribes. Their subsequent history.-15. Rehoboam's reign over Judah. Reign of Ahaz. Hezekiah. Signal overthrow of the Assyrians.-17. Corroborated by profane history.-18. Account given by Herod' otus.-19. Reigns of Manas' seh, A'mon, Josiah, and Jehóahaz.-20. Reign of Jehoiakim-of Jechoniah.-21. Reign of Hezekiah. Destruction of Jerusalem.-22. Captivity of the Jews.-23. Rebuilding of Jerusalem. III. RoMAN HISTORY.-24. Founding of Rome.-IV. PERSIAN HISTORY.-25. Dissolution of the Assyrian empire.-26. Establishment of the empire of the Medes and Babylonians. First and