AND ARMENIA

THE ARAMEANS

NEXT to the Hittites the Aramæans were the people who held the most important towns of Syria, gradually advancing until at last they occupied the whole country. Of the Aramaan stocks named in Genesis x. 23; xxii. 21 sq. very little is known, but it is certain that Aramæans at an early period had their abode close to the northern border of Palestine (in Maachah). A great part was played in the history of Israel by the state of Aram Dammesek, i.e., the territory of the ancient city of Damascus; it was brought into subjection for a short time under David. The main object of the century-long dispute between the two kingdoms was the possession of the land to the east of the Jordan (Hauran, and especially Gilead). Another Aramæan state often mentioned in the Bible is that of Aram Zobah. That Zobah was situated within Syria is certain, though how far to the west or north of Damascus is not known; in any case it was not far from Hamath. Hamath in the valley of the Orontes, at the mouth of the Beka valley, was from an early period one of the most important places in Syria; according to the Bible, its original inhabitants were Canaanites. The district belonging to it, including amongst other places Riblah (of importance on account of its situation), was not very extensive. In 733 B.C. Tiglathpileser III compassed the overthrow of the kingdom of Damascus; he also took Arpad (Tel-Arfad), an important place three hours to the north of Aleppo. Hamath was taken by Sargon in 720. Henceforth the petty states of Syria were at all times subject to one or other of the great world empires, even if in some cases a certain degree of independence was preserved.c

Definite knowledge concerning the smaller peoples of Asia Minor is so limited and vague, the intermixture of small tribes and ruling houses so chaotic, and the literature remaining so meagre and uncertain, that we can do little better than make a brief summary of the fortunes of each of these lesser communities.

PHRYGIA

Phrygia is a country of many mountains and numerous river valleys. The fertility of the latter was always remarkable, and on the northern

boundary, at the sources of the river Sangarius, wide stretches of pasture land afforded nourishment for sheep. Grapes were also extensively cultivated.

The ancient Phrygians were an agricultural people, and the strange rites of their religious worship all had reference to the renewal and decay of nature. The "Phrygian mother," who was called by the Greeks Rhea, or Cybele, and whose name in the Phrygian language is said to have been Amma, had her temple at the foot of Mount Agdus, near Pessinus, where she was served by hosts of priests. She was worshipped in the temple under the guise of a formless stone, said to have fallen from heaven, and was conceived of as driving over the mountains in a chariot, and wearing a crown of towers upon her head. The beloved of Cybele was Attys, and the festivals of his birth and death were celebrated with wild grief and frantic joy and accompanied by barbarous and unlovely rites, much like those of the worship of Adonis at Byblus. Cybele represents nature, or nature as the producer of life, and the birth and death of Attys typify the spring and autumn of the year.

The sovereigns of Phrygia are said to have come from the agricultural class. Gordius, the first king, was called from following his wagon to rule over Phrygia. His son Midas was the hero of many Greek legends. The story of his receiving the gift of turning everything he touched into gold indicates the possession of enormous wealth. This name occurs in various connections, and it appears that the kings of the ancient Phrygian dynasty bore alternately the names of Gordius and Midas. Their tombs are still visible in the Doghanlu valley and exhibit inscriptions in Greek writing, but in the Phrygian language. The dynasty came to an end in face of an invasion of the Cimmerians, about 675 B.C., and on the expulsion of the latter about a century later the kingdom was annexed by Lydia.

A story told by Herodotus shows that the Egyptians regarded the Phrygians as the oldest people of the world. The Greeks thought that they came from Thrace and were originally called Brigians, but the Phrygians, while owning the relationship to the Brigians of Thrace, declared themselves to be the older people. Modern writers are disposed to attribute an Armenian origin to both races. There are indications which serve to show that the Phrygians once extended their rule over a much wider area than that assigned to their country in our maps of the ancient world; that they held command of the seaboard and were even found beyond the Ægean. But these indications do not amount to proof.

The people of Phrygia once inhabited rock-dwellings which still exist, ranged in rows and one above another. They subsequently built towns, several were ascribed to the first Gordius and Midas,and developed an advanced type of civilisation. They are credited with the invention of embroidery, and from the wool of their numerous flocks of sheep they manufactured fine cloths. Cotiæum in Phrygia is one of the towns which claims to be the birthplace of Esop, and though the Greeks affected to despise the Phrygian music, as is shown by the story of Apollo and Marsyas, it is nevertheless a fact that the Hellenes borrowed the Phrygian flute and shepherd's pipe as well as a Phrygian form of poetry. In the art of sculpture, though they did not invent a school of their own, the Phrygians must have brought considerable originality into play, for they have impressed a distinctly national stamp on their monuments, though the general style was borrowed from abroad.

THE CAPPADOCIANS

The chief point of interest furnished by this people is to be found in their religious worship. Its principal centres were the two cities of Comana, the one situated on the river Iris, which flows north into the Euxine, and the other in the southern part of the country on the slopes of Anti-Taurus, near the river Sarus. The high priests were generally of royal blood and enjoyed great consideration, even wearing a royal diadem at the great religious festival, and their importance does not seem to have been diminished by the Persian conquest.

The Cappadocians had the reputation of being brave but untrustworthy, characteristics appropriate to a people who worshipped a warrior moon-goddess. For besides the moon-god Men, they adored Ma, or Mene, identified with Enio, or Bellona, as well as with Artemis. Ma was waited on by numerous priests and temple servants, who constituted the main population of the southern Comana, while hosts of maidens, clad in warlike dress and wearing the same weapons as their divine mistress, participated in her wild rites. It is thought that it was the existence of these women which gave rise to the legend of the Amazons, or nation of female warriors, whom the Greeks supposed to have had their home in the mythical town of Themiscyra on the banks of the Thermodon in Pontus.

The chief festival was that known as the "Exodus" of the goddess, and was attended by many pilgrims from far and near. The worshippers gashed their own bodies and took part in the wildest sensual excesses. These, and the personal sacrifices required from the votaries of Ma, reveal the Semitic origin of the race which practised them, and resemble those belonging to the service of the "Phrygian mother."

The Greek name for the Cappadocians was "Leuco-Syrians," i.e., white Syrians, and the myth traced their descent from Syros, son of Apollo. The original Semitic population received a foreign admixture in the eighth century B.C., when some of the Cimmerians, who invaded Asia Minor, settled amongst them and became entirely absorbed in the population. The Cataonians, who inhabited a district in the southeast of the country, were said to be a distinct race, but the personal observations of Strabo in the century before Christ could detect no differences between the two peoples. A further evidence of Semitic origin is found in coins of northern Cappadocia, which date from the fourth century B.C. and bear the image of the Syrian god Baal, with legends inscribed in Aramaan.

The southern part of Cappadocia covers the highest plateau of Asia Minor, and its cold climate is a reason why it can never have been very productive, though wine and oil were grown in certain districts. It furnished, however, ample pasturage for sheep and horses, but the chief wealth of the people seems to have consisted in slaves. Silver, iron, and steel were to be obtained in ancient times from the northeastern districts bordering on Armenia, where dwelt the Tibareni, the Chalybes, and other wild tribes of unknown origin. The mineral products of their territory were turned to account by the Greeks, who had established colonies all along the Cappadocian

coast.

Our real knowledge of Cappadocian history goes no farther back than the Persian conquest, and the name of Cappadocians is a Persian appellation— Katapatuka. The Persians divided the country into the two provinces of Cappadocia on the Pontus (afterwards called simply Pontus) and Great Cappadocia, stretching from the Taurus range on the south and including the

country on the upper reaches of the Halys. Each constituted a separate satrapy whose governors enjoyed practical independence and royal titles.

THE CILICIANS

Between the Taurus Mountains and that ridge which the ancients called Amanus, lies a fertile and isolated plain which formed the principal part of the ancient kingdom of Cilicia. Xenophon describes it as "a large and beautiful plain, well watered, and full of all sorts of trees and vines, abounding in sesame, panic, millet, wheat, and barley," and "surrounded with a strong and high ridge of hills from sea to sea. This plain was by no means the whole of the territory occupied by the Cilicians, which stretched far west among the wild Taurus Mountains as far as Coracesium on the borders of Pamphylia, and appears, from the statements of Herodotus, to have reached to the Euphrates and to have also included a large part of Cappadocia.

The Cilicians were a Semitic race and, like the Cappadocians, nearly related to the Syrians. They evidently worshipped the Syrian gods, for the latter are represented on Cilician coins belonging to the Persian epoch, especially the sun-god Baal, seated on a throne and holding grapes and ears of corn in his hand. But we also find representations of Hercules on these coins, and Greek as well as Aramæan inscriptions, showing that this Semitic race passed under the influence of the Hellenes, who had indeed many settlements in the west of Cilicia.

The Cilician cities of Tarsus and Anchiale were said to have been built in a single day by Sardanapalus, king of Assyria. The Assyrian monuments know of no sovereign of that name, but they make mention of several invasions by Assyria, apparently of the destructive nature common to such expeditions. Sargon conferred the sovereignty of Cilicia on Ambris, king of Tubal, whom he afterwards deposed. Cilicia continued, however, to have her own kings, and they rebelled against Assyria on several occasions, finally recovering their complete independence on the fall of the empire. We hear of more than one king of Cilicia in Persian times, all styled Syennesis, which, therefore, seems to have been rather a title than a name. Xenophon describes the passage of Cyrus the Younger through Cilicia, whose king did homage to him, and was subsequently punished for his disloyalty by being deprived of his power, after which the country was ruled by Persian governors.

Alexander passed through Cilicia on his way to his great battle of Issus just beyond the Amanus range, and the country then passed under Macedonian rule; but in the confused years which followed the death of the great conqueror we find the wild country of Cilicia Trachæ, successfully maintained in independence by hordes of Cilician pirates.

PAMPHYLIA AND PISIDIA

Cilicia Tracha was the western section of the country; it bordered on Pamphylia and Pisidia, and the Cilician pirates were joined in their predatory expeditions by the two neighbouring peoples, of whom the Pamphylians possessed a convenient harbour, that of Side, which seems to have been their great centre. The Pisidians inhabited a country to the north of Pamphylia, and had no coast line of their own. They were a brave and hardy nation, who dwelt in towns built for the most part on high ridges, and who had

opposed an obstinate resistance to Alexander. We know nothing of their origin or language, but from the imposing ruins of their cities it is evident that, in spite of being notorious robbers, they had arrived at an advanced stage of civilisation.

THE CARIANS

When the Dorian Greeks settled on the coast of Caria about the year 1000 B.C., they displaced an ancient people who considered themselves to have been settled in the country from the beginning of time. The Greeks, however, believed that these Carians had originally been called Leleges, and had been the subjects of Minos of Crete, whom they served as sailors. Whether they originally came from the Egean Islands or no, it seems that they had sent out colonies to the Cyclades, Samos, etc., but had been expelled from them by the Phoenicians some centuries before the Dorians invaded their own continental home.

Though they were now forced to abandon the coast and take refuge in the mountains of the interior, the Carians were nevertheless a peculiarly warlike people. The Greeks imitated their fashion of wearing crested helmets and devices on their shields, as well as their method of carrying the shield itself, and they were much employed as mercenaries. From the middle of the eighth well on into the seventh century B.C., the Carian pirates were the terror of the seas, and their god was a warrior god, the Zeus with a battle-axe, whose image is represented on their coins. In harmony with their connection with the sea, we also find that they regarded Zeus as lord of both the ocean and the heavens, and in this character he was honoured at Mylasa in a temple where Lydians and Mysians had the right to worship with the Carians, a fact which the latter cited as a proof of the affinity of the three peoples.

The Carian nation in its mountain home was not ruled by a single king; the different towns under their aristocratic rulers were united in a kind of federative union, a form of government which was continued even after their conquest by the Persians. The common council met under the protection of the Zeus of Chrysaoris at "the white pillars" on the river Marsyas. Sometimes one town and sometimes another would assume a position of pre-eminence. The most famous of the towns of Caria is Halicarnassus, the city of Herodotus, originally a Greek town, and belonging to a Dorian hexapolis of which Cos, Cnidus, Lindus, Camirus, and Ialysus were the other members. After she had become alienated from the league, Halicarnassus incorporated the Carian city Salmacis. Several of her sovereigns are notable figures in history. Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, was with Xerxes at Salamis, and Herodotus represents her in the character of a valued counsellor to the Persian sovereign. Another Artemisia was the wife of Mausolus, who lived in the fourth century B.C. Though a Persian satrap, his power was practically that of an independent monarch and was inherited by his widow. The tomb which she erected to his memory is still regarded as one of the most wonderful monuments of the world.

THE LYCIANS

Southeast of Caria is a mountainous peninsula which was occupied by a nation whom the Greeks named Lycians, but who called themselves Tramilians, or according to Herodotus, Termilians. In the northeast of the

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