the highest persons in the state, sometimes even by the sons of the kings or judges. In every new settlement a sanctuary was erected, that the religion of the mother country might grow together with her government and commerce. Every year a fleet left Carthage, laden with rich offerings and bearing a solemn embassy to the shrine of the Tyrian Hercules. The human sacrifices and other hideous rites of Phoenician worship prevailed at Carthage; and though these features were somewhat softened by advancing civilization, we shall find traces enough, in future pages of her history, of that cruelty which makes so dark a blemish in the character of the whole race.

201. The trade of Carthage was carried on both by land and sea. Her caravans crossed the Great Desert by routes still traveled, and exchanged the products of northern countries for those of Upper Egypt, Ethiopia, Fezzan, and, perhaps, the far interior regions of Nigri'tia. The manufactures of Carthage included fine cloths, hardware, pottery, and harness of leather; but beside the exchange of her own products, she possessed almost exclusively the carrying-trade between the nations of Africa and western Europe.

202. The ships of Carthage penetrated all the then known seas; and though confined to coast navigation, they explored the Atlantic from Norway to the Cape of Good Hope. Hanno, the son of Hamil'car, conducted sixty ships bearing 30,000 colonists to the western shores of Africa, where he planted a chain of six colonies between the Straits and the island of Cer'ne. He then went southward with some of his ships as far as the River Gambia, and visited the Gold Coast, with which his countrymen thenceforth carried on a regular traffic. On his return he placed an inscription, commemorative of this voyage, on a brazen tablet in the temple of Kro ́nos, at Carthage. Himilco, his brother, led another expedition the same year to the western coast of Europe, but of this the history is lost.

203. These extensive voyages in the interest of trade brought the products of the world into the Carthaginian markets. There might be seen muslins from Malta; oil and wine from Italy; wax and honey from Corsica; iron from Elba; gold, silver, and iron from Spain; tin from Cornwall and the Scilly Isles; amber from the Baltic; gold, ivory, and slaves from Senegambia.

204. While commerce was so abundant a source of wealth, agriculture was the favorite pursuit of nobles and people. The fertile soil of Libya yielded a hundred-fold to the farmer. So fond were wealthy Carthaginians of the healthful toils of the field, that one of their great men wrote a work, in twenty-eight volumes, on methods of husbandry; and this alone, of all the treasures of their literature, was thought by their Roman conquerors worthy of preservation.

205. We have slightly anticipated the course of events, in order to

present a connected account of the government, religion, and trade of Carthage. Of her wars with the Sicilian Greeks, from the disastrous defeat of Hamilcar at Him'era, B. C. 480, to the peace of B. C. 304, we have no space for the details. The final period of Carthaginian history, comprising the Roman wars and the destruction of the city, will be found in Book V.

RECAPITULATION.

Carthage, a colony of Tyre, became sovereign of the shores and islands of the western Mediterranean, a rival of Greece, and an ally of Rome. Her army and navy were largely composed of European and African mercenaries. Her government was republican, with two judges at its head, foreign affairs being transacted by a council of citizens. Religious ceremonies claimed a large share of attention, both in war and peace. Commerce extended by land to the interior of Africa; by sea, from the Baltic to the Indian Ocean; and products of all the world filled the Carthaginian markets. Agriculture was a favorite employment with nobles and common people.

7. What dynasties were subject to the fourth?

8. Describe the divisions of Egypt and their consequences. The monuments of the Twelfth Dynasty.

9.

10.

11.

12.

The dominion and character of the Hyksos,
The rise of the New Empire.

The family of Thothmes I.

13. Name the remaining kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

14. Who founded the Nineteenth Dynasty?

17.

Egypt under the Twentieth Dynasty.

18. What connections of Egyptian and Hebrew history under the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties?

19. Who constituted the Twenty-fourth Dynasty?

155, 156.

157, 158.

160.

20. Tell the history of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.

161.

21. What was the condition of Egypt after the fall of Tirhakeh ? 22. What led to the rise of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty?

162.

163.

31.

Their medical practice.

The tombs, and honors paid to the dead.

35. Give the traditional account of the founding of Carthage.

36. Describe the causes of its prosperity.

39. What war and what alliance in the sixth century?

40. Describe the government of Carthage.

41.

42.

22 171, 172, 175.

177, 178.

180.

181.

182, 183.

181.

185.

187.

188, 189. 191.

192, 193. 194, 195.

196.

197-199. 200.

201-203.

43. What was the favorite pursuit of the Carthaginians?

204.

BOOK II.

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE FROM THE RISE OF CYRUS TO THE

FALL OF DARIUS.

B. C. 558-330.

1. ABOUT 650 B. C., a warlike people, from the highlands east of the Caspian, took possession of the hilly country north of the Persian Gulf. They belonged, like the Medes, to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic family, and were distinguished by a more hardy, simple, and virtuous character, and a purer faith, from the luxurious inhabitants of the Babylonian plains. The nation, as it soon became constituted, consisted of ten tribes, of whom four continued nomadic, three settled to the cultivation of the soil, and three bore arms for the general defense. Of these the Pasargadae were preeminent, and formed the nobility of Persia, holding all high offices in the army and about the court.

2. The first king, Achae'menes, was a Pasargadian, and from him all subsequent Persian kings were descended. For the first hundred years of its history, Persia was dependent upon the neighboring kingdom of Media. But a little after the middle of the sixth century before Christ, a revolution under Cy'rus reversed the relations of the Medo-Persian monarchy, and prepared the foundations of a great empire which was to reach beyond the Nile and the Hellespont on the west, and the Indus on the east.

3. Cyrus spent many of his early years at the court of Asty'ages, his maternal grandfather, in the seven-walled city of Ecbat'ana.* The brave, athletic youth, accustomed to hardy sports and simple fare, despised the wine and dainty food, the painted faces and silken garments of the Median nobles. He saw that their strength was wasted by luxury, and that in case of a collision they would be no match for his warlike countrymen. At the same time, a party of the younger Medes gathered around Cyrus, preferring his manly virtues to the effeminate pomp and cruel tyranny of their king, and impatient for the time when he should be their ruler.

* See Book I, 22 38, 41.

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