Chronology and ancient history of the Hindus,
493
. The authority of the Vedas,
496
. Monumental records,
496
. Legends of the early heroes,
498
. An inscription of Asoka,
499
. Traditional kings,
500
. Brahmanic learning,
501
. The epochs of Indian history,
502
. Vedic period,
503
. The Buddhist period,
503
. Chandra Gupta,
504
. Twelve centuries of obscurity,
505
.
CHAPTER III
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Hindus
508
Division and employment of classes,
508
. The property of the Brahman,
510
. The despised Sudra,
511
. Mixture of classes,
513
. The administration of justice,
515
. Criminal law,
516
. Civil law,
517
. Hindu commerce,
519
. Precious metals,
520
. Coinage; precious stones; weaving,
520
. Intoxicants; spices; perfumery,
521
. Commercial routes,
523
.
CHAPTER IV
Brahmanism and Buddhism
525
The origin and development of Brahmanism,
525
. The Vedas,
529
. Soul transmigration,
533
. Buddhism,
535
. Disappearance of Buddhism in India,
538
. New light on Buddhism,
542
. The actual piety of the Hindus and the Hindu separation of religion from fine morals,
545
.
Brief Reference-List of Authorities by Chapters
549
A General Bibliography of Indian History
550
PART VIII. ANCIENT PERSIA
Persian History in Outline
(700-330
B.C.
)
559
CHAPTER I
Land and People
565
Racial and dynastic origins,
567
. The land,
568
. The people,
569
. Character of the empire of the Achæmenides,
570
.
CHAPTER II
The Median or Scythian Empire
(700-550
B.C.
)
573
The rise and fall of the Median Empire according to Herodotus,
573
. The
Median Empire: a modern interpretation,
580
. New light on the Medes,
583
.
CHAPTER III
The Early Achæmenians and the Elamites, Cyrus and Cambyses
(836-522
B.C.
)
587
The death of Cyrus,
593
. Character and influence of Cyrus,
596
. Xenophon’s estimate of Cyrus,
596
. A modern estimate of the character and importance of Cyrus,
597
. Cambyses,
600
.
CHAPTER IV
The Persian Dynasty: Darius I to Darius III
(521-330
B.C.
)
605
Darius I,
605
. Organisation of Darius’ empire,
607
. Later conquests of Darius,
609
. Affairs in Egypt since the Persian conquest,
611
. Xerxes I,
614
. The successors of Xerxes,
615
. Darius II,
618
. Artaxerxes II,
619
. Artaxerxes III,
626
. The fall of the empire,
630
. The old Orient at the end of the Persian Empire,
631
.
CHAPTER V
Persian Civilisation
634
Religion and social orders,
635
. Organisation of the Persian court,
641
. Administration of the provinces; financial system; satraps,
645
. Military methods,
652
. The fine arts,
657
.
Brief Reference-List of Authorities by Chapters
662
A General Bibliography of Persian History
663
PART IV
THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES
ERNEST BABELON, THE HOLY BIBLE, T. K. CHEYNE, MAX DUNCKER,
G. H. A. EWALD, EDWARD GIBBON, F. HITZIG, J. JAHN,
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, RUDOLF KITTEL, E. LEDRAIN,
MAX LÖHR, L. MÉNARD, H. H. MILMAN, D. H.
MÜLLER, SALOMON MUNK, F. W. NEWMAN,
E. RENAN, A. H. SAYCE, GEORGE
SMITH, BERNHARD STADE
TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON
ISRAEL AS A WORLD INFLUENCE
BY
BERNHARD STADE
A CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE SCOPE AND SOURCES OF
ISRAELITIC HISTORY
BY
THOMAS KELLY CHEYNE
AND A STUDY OF
THE PROPHETS AND THE HISTORY OF SEMITIC STYLE
BY
DAVID HEINRICH MÜLLER
AND WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM
THE APOCRYPHA, DAVID CASSEL, DION CASSIUS, J. G. EICHHORN, G. W. F.
HEGEL, JUSTIN, F. R. LAMENNAIS, GASTON C. C. MASPERO, FELIX
PERLES, T. G. PINCHES, POLYBIUS, EDUARD REUSS, CLEMENS
ROMANUS, ASARJA DE ROSSI, BARUCH SPINOZA,
STRABO, SUETONIUS, CORNELIUS TACITUS,
COMTE DE VOLNEY, GEORG WEBER,
R. T. M. WEHOFER,
J. ZENNER
Copyright, 1904,
By HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.
All rights reserved.
PART IV.—ISRAEL
ISRAEL AS A WORLD INFLUENCE
By BERNHARD STADE
Translated for the present work from Geschichte des Volks Israel.
Many a nation has walked God’s earth, has long enjoyed its good things, has come into being and passed away, without our knowing anything of its history, or even whether it had a history at all. For no nation has a history except one that makes history, that is to say, that influences the course of human development. It is with races as with individuals; none is kept in mind by posterity save those who have distinguished themselves by ideas that have modified the life of mankind, or (which comes to the same thing) have been pioneers in fresh fields of action. The greater the spiritual gain a nation has brought to the rest of the world, the longer and more steadily its life has flowed in the channels it was the first to make, the longer is its history told among them. The nations of history are those which have put forward, in one fashion or another, their claim to the dominion of the world.
Thus we may fitly ask what claim it is that is made upon our interest by the history of the Jewish nation. And the answer will be, that nothing which excites our attention, or stirs us to admiration or imitation in the history of other nations, is here present in any large measure. Israel was always a small, nay, a petty nation, settled in a narrow space, never of any considerable importance in the political history of the East; it never brought forth a Ramses II, a Sargon, an Esarhaddon, an Asshurbanapal, a Nebuchadrezzar, or a Cyrus to bear its banner into distant lands. Yet, for all this, the history of Israel has, for us, an interest quite different from that of those other nations of antiquity.
And if, as we see, Israel is far surpassed in martial glory by the peoples of the great empires, and by the Romans in their influence on the development of law, there are yet other points in which it must yield unquestioned precedence to other nations of antiquity. We do not find in Israel the same feeling for beauty as among the Greeks, who, like no nation before them or after, showed forth the laws of beauty in every sphere of intellectual life, and to this day, in such matters, stand forth in a perfection which has never again been attained, far less excelled. Among the Hebrews there is nothing analogous, nothing comparable to what we admire in the Hellenic people. It has no epic, nothing that can be compared with the Iliad and the Odyssey, against which the Germans set the Nibelungen Lied, and the Finns the Kalewala; it has not the slightest rudiments of a drama—the Song of Songs and Job are not dramas. There is a school of lyrical poetry unsurpassed for all time, and the music that corresponds to it. But the bent towards science, which actuates the Greeks, is wholly lacking—wholly lacking the bent towards philosophy. Nor was it ever eminent in ancient days, in the walks of commerce, enterprise and invention, by which, also, a nation may conquer the world; its intellectual life is absolutely one-sided, a one-sidedness that produces on us the effect of extreme singularity.