New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-03-30
THE EARLIEST CULTURE.
PROFESSOR MAspERo SHOWS HOW ITS
VARIOUS NATIONAL FORMS Ar
PREACHED EACH OTHER.


THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONS EgypS'
Syria and Assyra BY G MnsperSS xfo Sa Mem
Der a N the sslI Ds oa snd College
Fanse Edited BY saSGf BY NJ Is Me-
ESporason 'g FuHd Map Thru GSSrsd
P plases and pp KY EyG "a ff D. Appleton Co
HISTORY OF ANCIENT PEOPLES s, 1 bE Wrs
Maps Octave, PIP. xxxiv, oil. c. 4. fu'hai"
Sons os
The second voium. Of Professor Masperos mas
sve history Of the most ancient nations opens upon
a SCENE unlike that shown In It's predecessor NN.
,za,ion at frs, was confined TO points apparently
isolated from each other. little spo' he'' va
head Of the Persian Gulf another lttl, spo' soI
where In the valley Of the Nile. perhaps aho'He' "
Northern SYRIA and fourth near the mouth o. lne
Red Sea were in the whole world the ON! P"
,vhere men had BEGUN 10 raise themselves ABOVE 'no
uniform level OF savagery On map Oh NV
ern Con.iren. they were mere COTS Oh wv "a
mote from each other that no comn1un'o"''o'i
be imagined between them Whelhei 49,.
o,,pinalIv any connection OF ono with af1o'hef va
y ,,a,,er of theory and it is STILL though nov"
ga Professor Sayce points out the vie" i''o ,
mast has been vastly enlarged oy recent " 800
in Chaldaea. Tho limit beyond whlch 'heie ''. r.
beer no Eryp, has been approximately hxed' hu.
tho vista in the Euphrates Valley mas pee' '''.
until II is no longer startling 10 sa! INN CIV 90 ~,
,ion real Of it's kind must have existed ,here i-'
or Is 900 years ago. Perhaps IN the reeo'uS " ~
distant ages that have been discovered tneie ma! 10
found evidence Of the spread OF enlightenment i
q single centre. and of a fellowship among '"e w.
y, s.nora,ed area. OF culture that was ALREADY lor
gotten by tho time which has hitherto peeh "NeN
for tho dawn Of civilization.
p,, IN TIM times 10 which the present volume re-
,ers tho isolated spots have grown larger u",'
they ell up the Valley OF the Mic rom E'i'oi'"
70 the sea- and all of Syria and much OF the reeon
~ the Euphrates With IL e deserts of ARABIA as Il
HANK in the centre the field OF civizeo hun'aii's
,.o,rs 20 taxa the form of inverted letter l.
i which one arm is the narrower elongated
Fevpt,an Kingdom. the other the Euphra'es '"''!'
io,ned nv a chain Of Hitute cities uaN- io"O'
across from the Euphrates TO the a.
Tho Latter is not very shapely, and me area a.
a., hae, "a not very large, but II is there ana 1t "
d..t,ned never TO grow less. Roughly stated ""'
somewha. less than four thousand years ago VIZ" VIZ,
the nations began TO reach out so tha' 'nes
,oucb each other. Hitherto each had peen ue
,,aon,nr us own resources. Each had Its own KIM
If writing its own way of making war upo" -.
Ia. civilized tribes around 1t. its own social s"uo
IRE and its own methods OF government Al ST.
respects Egyp, more advanced 'n"' ~
proaching rivals in others they were AT 'i'e -
For oxample Egypt seems hardly TO nave N'io"i.
how 70 make war effectively until she was 'due"
nv m. Asiatics while the Hittites never iearheu
how 10 establish national government VI my
thing stronger than a momentarE coii :,
cities But they cultivated town life 10 hsr w
cree Of perfection. and enabled crowoeo popu'a
-,on 10 live in a region where there are 10" o',,'
.oa,+ered villages What record they left IS haru!
Lnoun for with rare exceptions. 1t still lies nureo
IN mounds and rubbish awaiting the "eaI.'' ~
,bus,ast whose intervention PROFESSOR hoSi''O
on,ic,nates The wonderful revelations OF recent
wears are in fact only the beginning OF "hat may
so evnac+ed as interest wdens In the effort "a re-
sore the whole Oriental world to history. coming
ages will look back 10 the present as d ulno vi
romance when the lucky turn OF space auueu n
thousand years 10 the annals OF the world anu
restored 10 fame and sometimes 10 intimate Kho"l-
.dga races and individual men who had vanished
from memory before the Pyramids were built
tn ~ the present time the Tittites have only es
caped oblivion by their contact with other ha'ohS
II they had not been troublesome TO the lsraeh'es
their very name would have been n novelty "heh
q, uas identified on Egyptian monuments AS II
IS they and their numerous fellow oyilaHS' WIN
oil their attachments in the arts or me- seem W
have achieved nothing better than sort OF quieS-
cant ANARCHY in politics. 1t never occurred TO them
that ANYTHING like a central government was pos
.,hle or necessary And they might have continued
-or additional milennums TO exemplify the Dless-
tnrs of what would In these days be calico scle"-
ti6c- anarchy-every man doing what seemed eooa
in his own eyes-had not been for an unfortunate
stroke of business delivered by men 10 the south OF
them 1t is necessary TO fix In nina the thoush'
that this ancient civilization winding like clumsy
scroll from the border of Abyssnia to the PERSIAN
Gulf was above all a civilization OF traders ana
artisans farmers and herdsmen. Such people did
not desire TO he hampered by any kind OF author
rv They only yielded 10 it when they found 1t
tho less OF two evils In Chadea, in Egypt. in
Syria there were nnumerable towns and groups
~ nonulation for ages before anybody thought of
combining them under the rule of king When
the king came his control usually lax. He
was a man of business, like his subjects, and II he
cot n good income on: of them. by fair means or
foul he did not give himself any additional
trouble. II he could exc out his income by ralds
on tribes outside of his own domain, he was glad
10 do H. In this he only applied on somewhat
larger scale the private ethics o. the period. The
wandering traders did not deem II an unnatural
proceeding 10 increase their wealth by robbery;
the nomadic herdsmen never let a body or traders
escape without levyine tribute. Every town was
not only market-pace. but a stronghold for THEY
cry more or less disguised. The decalogue was
undoubtedly pretty much Of novelty TO the He
brews when Moses published 1t. and that was
long time after the date TO which this mercantile
civilization goes back 1t took long time 10 prove
that robbery and piracy were not profitable because
the general account ot profit made n good showing
as long as traders and robbers alike kept secret
the sources Of their wealth. This secrecy was tho
main protection of wealth. aside from the brother
hood OF men belonging TO the tribe The
Phpncians chung to the policy of secrecy through
out their whole career ana they became the worlds
commercial carriers through their thrifty silence
Asiatic communities. having grown up In contact
with each other. wero trained In the way
from the outset. Egypt. more honest than her
rivals was more unsophisticated Her people had
spread down the Nile Valley without interference
from without hardly aware Of the effect which
their garnered riches and the comforts OF their
life would have upon the hungry hordes beyond
the Isthmus OF Suez. Apparently her official
system resembled in its corruption the more open
robbery practised by the Asiatcs. But then 1t was
only the natural resul, OF the relation between
classes and Sos and OF the fact that paymen,
from the Go.e rnment in the way of
gifts than of salaries
IT,