The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History

John Alexander Hammerton, Arthur Mee

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• Publié par: fiwyung
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
Author: Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12745]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREATEST BOOKS, VOL. XI. ***
Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
THE WORLD'S
GREATEST
BOOKS
JOINT EDITORS
ARTHUR MEE
Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge
J.A. HAMMERTON
Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopædia
VOL. XI
ANCIENT HISTORY
MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
Table of Contents
ANCIENT HISTORY
EGYPT
MASPERO, GASTON Dawn of Civilization
Struggle of the Nations
Passing of the Empires
JEWS
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS
Antiquities of the Jews
Wars of the Jews
MILMAN, HENRY
History of the Jews
GREECE
HERODOTUS
History
THUCYDIDES
Peloponnesian War
XENOPHON
Anabasis
GROTE, GEORGE
History of Greece
SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH
Troy and Its Remains
ROME
CÆSAR, JULIUS
Commentaries on the Gallic War
TACITUS, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS
Annals
SALLUST, CATOS CRISPUS
Conspiracy of Catiline
GIBBON, EDWARD
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
MOMMSEN, THEODOR
History of Rome
MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
GIBBON, EDWARD
The Holy Roman Empire
EUROPE GUIZOT, F.P.G.
History of Civilization in Europe
HALLAM, HENRY
View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
EGYPT
LANE-POOLE, STANLEY
Egypt in the Middle Ages
ENGLAND
HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
FREEMAN, E.A.
Norman Conquest of England
FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY
History of England
A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the
end of Volume XX.
Acknowledgment
Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the following
selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The Struggle of the
Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by Gaston Maspero--
which appear in this volume, are hereby tendered to the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, of London, England.
Ancient History
GASTON MASPERO
The Dawn of Civilisation
Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in Paris,
is one of the most renowned of European experts in philology and
Egyptology, having in great part studied his special subjects on
Oriental ground. After occupying for several years the Chair of
Egyptology in the École des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne in
Paris, he became, in 1874, Professor of Egyptian Philology and
Archæology at the Collège de France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted
in Egypt as director of the Boulak Museum. It was under his
superintendence that this museum became enriched with its
choicest antique treasures. Dr. Maspero retired in 1886, but in 1899
again went to Egypt as Director of Excavations. His works are of the
utmost value, his skill in marshalling facts and deducting legitimateinferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense work,
with the general title of "History of the Ancient Peoples of the
Classic East," divided into three parts, each complete in itself: (1)
"The Dawn of Civilisation"; (2) "The Struggle of the Nations"; (3)
"The Passing of the Empires."
I.--The Nile and Egypt
A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of vaguely
defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular plain beyond,
whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this, the Delta of Egypt, has
gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as it were, the gift of the Nile.
Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper begins. It is only a strip of vegetable mould
stretching north and south between regions of drought and desolation, a
prolonged oasis on the banks of the river, made by the Nile, and sustained by
the Nile. The whole length of the land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly
parallel at a mean distance of about twelve miles.
During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space; and the sides
of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very summits, still bear
unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and shrunken within the deeps of its
own ancient bed, the stream now makes a way through its own thick deposits of
mud. The bulk of its waters keep to the east, and constitutes the true Nile, the
"Great River" of the hieroglyphic inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in
which the river flowed divides, and two other streams are opened up in a
southerly direction, each of them apparently equal in volume to the main
stream.
Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down from the
distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed the immense
plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew. The river kept the
secret of its source from them as obstinately as it withheld it from us until a few
years ago. Vainly did their victorious armies follow the Nile for months together,
as they pursued the tribes who dwelt upon its banks, only to find it as wide, as
full, as irresistible in its progress as ever. It was a fresh-water sea--iauma, ioma
was the name by which they called it. The Egyptians, therefore, never sought
its source. It was said to be of supernatural origin, to rise in Paradise, to
traverse burning regions inaccessible to man, and afterwards to fall into a sea
whence it made its way to Egypt.
The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant invention
than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as large as the Victoria
Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the Bahr-el-Abiad unites with
the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Alluvial deposits have filled up all but
its deepest depression, which is known as Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our
era it must still have been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and
boatmen the idea of an actual sea opening into the Indian Ocean.
Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the soil, the
species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and hence it was the
Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They personified it as a man with
regular features, and a vigorous but portly body, such as befits the rich of high
lineage. Sometimes water springs from his breast; sometimes he presents a
frog, or libation of vases, or bears a tray full of offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or
geese. The inscriptions call him "Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance,
who maketh food to be, and covereth the two lands of Egypt with his products;who giveth life, banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."
He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his head,
presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for his
headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses, corresponding to the
two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and Mirit-Mihit for the Lower Egypt--
personified the banks of the river. They are represented with outstretched arms,
as though begging for the water that should make them fertile.
II.--The Gods of Egypt
The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly every
illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of some deity. One
would think the country had been inhabited for the most part by gods, with just
enough men and animals to satisfy the requirements of their worship. Each of
these deities represented a function, a moment in the life of man or of the
universe. Thus, Naprit was identified with the ripe ear of wheat; Maskhonit
appeared by the child's cradle at the very moment of its birth; and Raninit
presided over the naming and nurture of the newly born.
In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual jumble of
gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the indigenous deities,
made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its grades of noble princes
and kings, each of its members representing one of the forces constituting the
world. Some appeared in human form; others as animals; others as
combinations of human and animal forms.
The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
composed of women: Hathor of D