Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

threatened him, by his prophet Ezekiel, with great calamities, as a punishment for his pride.

Some years after, the Cyrenians, a Greek colony which had settled in Africa, between Egypt and Lybia, fell upon the inhabitants of the latter country, and dispossessed them. The Lybians implored the protection of Apries, who sent an army into Lybia to oppose the Cyrenians; but they being defeated and almost cut to pieces, the Egyptians imagined that Apries had sent this army into Lybia only to get it destroyed, that he might attain the means of governing his subjects without control. This reflection prompted the Egyptians to shake off the yoke of a prince, whom they now considered as their enemy: Apries, hearing of their rebellion, dispatched Amasis, one of his officers, to suppress it, and force the rebels to return to their allegiance: but the moment Amasis began to address them, they placed a helmet upon his head, in token of the exalted dignity to which they intended to raise him, and proclaimed him king. Amasis accepted the crown, remained with the army, and confirmed them in their rebellion. Apries, exasperated at this news, sent Paterbemis, another great officer, to arrest Amasis and bring him before him; but Paterbemis was unable to seize the person of Amasis, who was defended by the rebel army; and on returning to Apries, was treated in the most inhuman manner :—that prince ordered him to be mutilated, without reflecting that it was want of power, not deficiency of zeal in his service, that had prevented his executing his command. So barbarous an outrage upon a person of rank exasperated the Egyptians; the greater part joined the rebels, and the insurrection became general. Apries was now obliged to retire into Upper Egypt, and remained there for some years. These intestine commotions afforded Nebuchadnezzar an opportunity to invade Egypt, and he marched thither at the head of his army: he subdued the kingdom from the frontiers to Syene where Egypt borders on Ethiopia. He made dreadful devastation wherever he came; killed numbers of the inhabitants, and caused such havoc in the country that forty years could not repair it. Nebuchadnezzar, after loading his army with spoils, and making Amasis his viceroy in Egypt, returned to Babylon. Apries now left his concealment, and hiring an army of foreigners,

marched against Amasis, but was overcome, carried to Sais, and there strangled in his own palace.

A. C. 569.

birth heigned

AMASIS. After the death of Apries, Amasis A. M. 3435. became the peaceable possessor of Egypt, and over it forty years. Being of mean subjects despised him, and he had recourse to the following stratagem to overcome their contempt. He had a golden cistern, in which himself and those persons admitted to his table, used to wash their feet; he melted it down, had it cast into a statue, and then exposed it for public worship. The people hastened in crowds to pay their devotions to the new god, when the king informed them of the vile uses to which this statue (now the object of their worship) had formerly been applied. The application was easy, and effected the desired end: the people henceforward rendered him all the respect due to majesty. King Amasis devoted the whole of the morning to business, and the rest of the day to pleasure. In his hours of relaxation, he was extremely gay, and sometimes carried his mirth beyond due bounds, which caused his courtiers to represent to him the unsuitableness of such behaviour; when he answered, that it was as impossible for the mind to be always serious and intent upon business as for a bow to continue bent. It was this king who obliged the inhabitants of every town to enter their names in a book, kept by the magistrate for that purpose, with their profession and manner of living. Solon inserted this law in his code.

King Amasis built many magnificent temples, several of which were at Sais, the place of his birth. Herodotus mentions a chapel in particular, formed out of a single stone, brought from the island of Elephanta; and he adds, it occupied a multitude of men three years to convey this huge block up the Nile.

Amasis greatly esteemed the Greeks. He granted them many privileges, and permitted such as were desirous to settle in Egypt, to live in the city of Naucratis, so famed for its harbour. He gave a considerable sum of money to the Delphians, to assist in rebuilding the Temple of Delphi which had been burnt. He made an alliance with the Cyrenians, and married a native of that country. He conquered the island of Cyprus, and made it tributary. During his reign, Pythagoras visited Egypt, being recom

mended by Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, for whom Amasis had a particular friendship. Pythagoras, during his residence in Egypt, was initiated in all the religious mysteries, and instructed by the priests in whatever was abstruse and important. It was here that he imbibed the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. Amasis was succeeded by Psammenitus, and in his reign Cambyses invaded A. M. 3479. the kingdom and conquered all Egypt. From this time the history of this nation is blended with that of the Persians and Grecians until the death of Alexander, when another monarchy arose in Egypt, founded by Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, which lasted about three hundred years.

A. C. 525.

EXERCISES.

Into how many periods may the history of Egypt be divided?
Who founded the Egyptian monarchy?

In what city did the kings reside?

In what year did strangers invade Egypt?

In what year did Jacob and his family take up their abode in Egypt?
How long did the shepherd kings govern Egypt?

What befell Amenophis?

In what year did Sesostris succeed to the throne?

Relate some of his exploits.

How did he die?

Who succeeded Sesostris; and what was his character?

In what year did Proteus ascend the throne?

Give some account of the Trojan war alluded to.

What king of Israel was contemporary with Shishack, king of Egypt?

In what year did Sethon die; and what ensued upon his death?

What building did the twelve kings erect?

What occurrence interrupted the harmony which subsisted among the twelve kings?

How did Psammetichus revenge himself?

What people now first settled in Egypt?

Who succeeded Psammetichus?

What extraordinary voyage was effected in his reign?

Against what king did Nechao make war?

Who opposed him on his march?

What befell Josiah?

Who succeeded Nechao?

What embassy was sent to Egypt in his reign and for what purpose?

Name some events in the reign of Apries.

Who succeeded Apries; and what was his origin?

How did he obtain the respect due to him as king?

For what did his courtiers reprove him?

What celebrated philosopher visited Egypt in his reign?

In whose reign was the first Egyptian monarchy overthrown?

In what year of the world did it take place?

Give some account of the condition of the several countries of Europe and Asia at this period.

THE

HISTORY OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.

PART II.

OF THE FOUNDATION OF CARTHAGE.

CARTHAGE, in Africa, is said to have been founded by Dido, a Tyrian princess, in the year of the world 3158, when Joash was king of Judah; ninety-eight years before the building of Rome, and eight hundred and sixty-six years before the coming of the Saviour. It stood near the site of the present Tunis. Its chief cities were Carthage and Utica; the former, so renowned in history, was long the rival of Rome. Ithobal, king of Tyre, and father of the wicked Jezebel, was the great grandfather of Dido. Pygmalion, brother to Dido, having murdered her husband Sichæus, to obtain possession of his immense wealth, she eluded his cruel avarice by escaping from Tyre with all the treasures of her deceased husband; and after long wandering landed on the coast of Africa, where she purchased some lands from the inhabitants, and settled there with a few followers, the companions of her flight from Tyre. The neighbouring people, allured by the prospect of gain, repaired thither to sell to the new comers the necessaries of life, and shortly afterwards incorporated themselves with them. Thus the inhabitants soon became numerous, and the natives of the surrounding country sent envoys to Dido with magnificent presents, and entreated her to build a city where she first settled. Dido accordingly built a city, which she called Carthage (the new city), and became tributary to the Africans for the ground upon which it stood. Jarbus, king of Getulia, demanded this princess in marriage, and threatened her with a war if she refused. Dido,

who had bound herself by an oath to widowhood, being incapable of violating the faith she had sworn to Sichæus, desired time for deliberation, and to appease the manes of her first husband by sacrifice; then ordering a pile to be raised, she ascended it, and drawing out a dagger, which she had concealed beneath her robe, she stabbed herself. Carthage, whose beginnings were very weak, insensibly grew larger, and its dominion was not long confined to Africa. The interval of time between the foundation of Carthage and its ruin, included seven hundred years, and may be divided into two parts. The first, which is much the longest and the least known, (as is ordinary with the beginnings of all states), extends to the first Punic war, and occupies five hundred and eighty-two years. The second, which ends with the destruction of Carthage, contains but a hundred and eighteen years.

CHAPTER I.

OF THEIR MANNERS, RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, &c.

The Carthaginians derived their origin, language, laws, religion, and love of commerce, from the Tyrians, and the union that subsisted between these people is very remarkable. When Cambyses wished to make war upon the Carthaginians, the Phoenicians plainly told him they could not fight against their countrymen, and thus obliged him to abandon his design. And the Carthaginians, in acknowledgment of their descent, freighted a vessel to Tyre every year with presents, and offered sacrifices to the tutelar gods of that country.

An excessive thirst after wealth, and indifference as to the means of acquiring it, caused the Carthaginians to be guilty of many base and unjust actions. Indeed so notorious was their dishonesty, that no expression was considered more emphatical, to signify breach of faith, than this, "A Carthaginian disposition." And it is related that a mountebank having assembled the citizens of Carthage, upon a promise to discover to them their most secret thoughts, told them, "They were desirous to buy cheap and sell dear." Every man's conscience pleaded guilty to the charge, and the mountebank was dismissed with applause and laughter.

« AnteriorContinuar »