66 supporting walls, ruined buildings, and well-preserved | and Babylonia on the other, were in all their glory [stone] benches of a theatre, attracted our attention. The ruins of Wady Sabra, as well as those of Wady Pabouchabe, indicate these places to have served as suburbs to the capital-the young swarms sent forth from the parent hive. Had we been enabled to explore the whole of the valleys in the neighbourhood of Wady Moussa, we should, doubtless, have found on all sides similar establishments, which the enormous population of Petra sustained." The prophecies respecting the cities of Mount Seir (Ezekiel, xxxv. 6), are here amply fulfilled. M. Laborde, in his journey along a rocky ridge towards the Red Sea, occasionally met with cultivated spots in this lone wilderness. The wonderful fertility," he observes, " of these rare patches of earth, in the midst of a sterile country, seemed intended to remind us that one day that region had been happy, before a powerful hand had weighed so heavily upon it. There is to be found at Karek a species of bearded wheat, that justifies the text of the Bible against the charges of exaggeration of which it has been the object; and the vines also of this country, of the fruit of which we saw some specimens, account for the enormous grapes which the spies sent out by Moses brought back from the places they had visited." As the traveller approached the town of Ameimé, about half way between Petra and Akaba, he fell in with another object of art: "We observed with astonishment, as we pursued our way down the mountain, the ancient aqueduct which conveyed the water from the wells of Gana and Gaman to the town of Ameimé, which was built in the plain on the road from Petra or Aila. This aqueduct, extending beyond three leagues [nine miles], follows the level of the surface of the country, above which it never rises. It could only have been by attending most carefully to the undulations of the soil, and by a remarkable proficiency in the scientific operations for taking levels, that the projectors were enabled to succeed in preserving a regular descent for the waters over so great a distance. The greater part of the remarkable objects of architecture seen at Petra and in this quarter, are obviously of an origin no earlier than the period of the Roman sway over the country, which was at the commencement of the Christian era. These, therefore, are not, in the main, the chief curiosities of the district. The most surprising objects are those remains of art which may have been produced several thousands of years before Christ, when the adjacent land of Egypt on the one side, These remains are excavations in the rocks, of a style much more rude than the sculpturings of the Roman and Greek artists, some used for dwellings, and others simply inscriptions. One of the vales proceeding towards Petra, in a direction from the Red Sea, is called Wady Mokatteb, or Valley of the Written Mountains, being inscribed with writing in an unknown tongue, in the form of carving, on the face of the precipitous rocks. An account of this remarkable curiosity of art and antiquity, is given by a Franciscan prior, who visited the spot in the course of a journey through the land in 1722. "These mountains," he says, "are called Gebel el Mokatteb, that is to say, the Written Mountains; for as soon as we quitted the mountains of Faran, we passed along others, during a whole hour [a length probably of three miles], which were covered with inscriptions in an unknown character, and carved in these hard rocks of marble, to a height which, in some places, was from ten to twelve feet above the surface of the ground; and although we had amongst us men who understood the Arabian, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Arme nian, Turkish, English, Illyrian, German, and Bohemian languages, there was not one of us who had the slightest knowledge of the characters engraved in these hard rocks with great labour, in a country where there is nothing to be had either to eat or drink. Hence, it is probable that these characters contain some profound secrets, which, long before the birth of Christ, were sculptured in these rocks by the Chaldeans or some other persons." The publication of this account, upwards of a century ago, excited considerable interest in Europe; and Porocke and Wortley Montague went to Arabia for the purpose of bringing home copies of the inscriptions, and this they accomplished to a certain extent. In 1762, the king of Denmark employed Niebuhr to explore Arabia, but espe cially to copy the inscriptions on Wady Mokatteb; subsequently other travellers brought copies to Europe, and some were published in the Transactions of the Royal Society in London; but till this day the inscriptions have baffled every attempt to decipher them. The figures composing the inscriptions are partly hierogly phic, or representations of men and animals with letters, or what appear to be words interspersed. There can be little doubt that they are the oldest writings in the world: their antiquity and signification must be left entre to the imagination of the reader. ANCIENT HISTORY OF GREECE AND ROME. HISTORY OF GREECE. Ruins of a Grecian Temple. GREECE is a peninsula situated on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, between the Ionian and Egean seas. It is a beautiful country of hills and valleys, like Wales or the Highlands of Scotland. Some of the hills are so high as to be constantly covered with snow. The vales or low districts enjoy a mild climate, and are of extreme fertility. Some of them, as Tempe and Arcadia, are spoken of with rapture by the poets of ancient times. As the country is much divided by hills and indentations of the sea, it was parted, from an early period, into several states, which were under separate governments, and often made war upon each other. The southern part of the peninsula, anciently styled the Peloponnesus, and now the Morea, was divided into Laconia (containing Sparta), Argolis, Achaia, Arcadia, Elis, and Messenia, each of which was only about the size of a moderate English county. Middle Greece (now Levadia), to the north of the Peloponnesus, and connected with it by the Isthmus of Corinth, on which lay the city of that name, contained Attica (in which was the city of Athens), Megaris, Boeotia (in which was the city of Thebes), Phocis, Locris, Doris, Ætolia, and Acarnania. Northern Greece contained Thessaly (now the district of Jannina), Epirus (now Albania), and Macedonia (now Filiba Vilajeti), the last of which did not, however, belong to Greece till a comparatively late period. To the east of Greece-proper lay the numerous islands of the Egean Sea, otherwise denominated the Archipelago; with which may be included certain islands lying in the Mediterranean Sea in the same direction, the principal of which were Rhodes, Cyprus, and the Cyclades. To the south lay Cythera (now Cerigo) and Crete (now Candia). To the west, in the Ionian Sea, lay Corcyra (now Corfu), Cephalonia, Ithaca, and others, now constituting the distinct confederacy of the Ionian Islands, under protection of Great Britain. Besides having possession of these various districts on the mainland and islands on both sides of the peninsula, the Greeks, in the course of time, acquired colonies on the coast of Asia Minor, adjacent to the islands in the Agean Sea. The principal of these foreign possessions was Ionia, a beautiful and fertile country, the chief city of which was Ephesus. In consequence of Greece having been divided into a number of petty states, each of which maintained its own political independence, the history of the country necessarily assumes the character of a number of separate narratives. The Greeks, in the different states, did not consider themselves as constituting a single nation or people, although they were in some measure united by similarity of origin, dialect, religion, and manners. It was not, indeed, till a comparatively late period, that they had any name for the entire country; the name then assumed was Hellas. The term Grecia (Greece) was conferred by the Romans, and has since been generally used. EARLY HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY. The history of the Grecian states commences above 1800 years before Christ, when the Egyptians on the opposite side of the Mediterranean were in a high state of civilization; but the portion of history which precedes 884 B. c. is understood to be fabulous, and entitled to little credit. From their situation in a region whose bays, headlands, and islands, present a great extent of sea-coast, habits of adventure and mutual intercourse were produced among the Greeks in the earliest times these had great influence in cherishing a national activity of character, and making each community eager to riva the prosperity of the others. The people were early ac customed to make voyages, sometimes for traffic, some times for war, between the opposite coasts of their gulfs, guiding themselves by the stars from island to island. and a curious proof both of their adventurous spirit, and of the difficulties they encountered in their attempts at navigation, is afforded by the tradition which exists in some old poems concerning one of these isles, called Delos, a huge pile of limestone rock, which was frequently used as a sea-mark in the Egean: this island is said once to have floated about on the waves, and only to have been fixed in its place at last by Jupiter driving a stake through its centre. In the present age, we can understand by this poetical flight that the Greek canoemen sometimes lost their reckoning, and fel! in with the island where they did not expect it. The accounts given by the poets of this early period of Grecian history, abound in the most ridiculous legends, and these, notwithstanding their absurdity, formed the basis of the mythology or religious belief of the people. A set of imaginary beings, or, perhaps, in some instances, individuals remarkable for warlike ge in his right hand, and an eagle by his side. The wife of | Jupiter was Juno, who is described as a beautiful goddess, and is usually depicted as seated in a chariot drawn by two peacocks. Next in dignity to Jupiter was Neptune, the god of Neptune. the ocean, who is painted as a half-naked man, of ma- | jestic figure, with a crown on his head, and a trident, or three-pronged fork in his hand. A third principal deity was Pluto, the god of the infernal regions; he was repre Pluto. celebrated of the Grecian oracles was that of Apollo at Delphi, a city built on the slope of Mount Parnassus. At a very remote period it had been discovered that from a deep cavern in the side of that mountain an intoxicating vapour issued, the effect of which was so powerful as to throw into convulsions both men and cattle who inhaled it. Of this natural wonder the priesthood readily availed themselves. A temple was reared over the spot, and a priestess, named the Pythoness, was appointed, whose office it was to inhale, at stated intervals, the holy vapour. In performing this dangerous office, the Pythoness. was thrown into convulsions, during which she uttered frantic cries, and these being arranged by the attendant priests into sentences, were delivered to the people as the prophecies of the oracle, or god. Lest the oracle should be brought into discredit, care was in general taken by the priest to couch the response to any question put to the Pythoness, in language so obscure and enigmatical, that, whatever course the events should take, the prediction might not be falsified. The Greeks were so superstitious as to put implicit faith in this pretended system of prophecy, and the fame of the oracle of Delphi became so great that no enterprise was undertaken in any part of Greece without a consultation of the Pythoness. There is probably some shadow of truth in a few of the alleged events of early Grecian history. Theseus, who lived in the thirteenth century before Christ, was said to have laid the foundation of the greatness of the state of Attica, by uniting its twelve cities, and giving them a common constitution. About his time occurred the celebrated Argonautic Expedition. This was undertaken by Jason, a prince of Thessaly, in a vessel named Argo (hence the name of the expedition); he sailed to Colchis, a place on the east coast of the Euxine or Black Sea, probably with the design of obtaining gold and sil ver, for which that country was remarkable. Among his companions was a chief named Hercules, a person of uncommon strength, and who afterwards was hall deified by the Greeks. The poets say that Phryxus and Helle, the son and daughter of Athamas, king of Thebes, being compelled to quit their native country to avoid the cruelty of their stepmother, mounted on the back of a winged ram with a fleece of gold, and were sented by the Greeks as seated on a throne, with his wife Proserpine by his side, and the three-headed dog Cerberus before him. Apollo was the god of music, poetry and painting; Bacchus the god of wine; Mars the god of war; Mercury was the messenger of Jupiter, and the god of merchandise and thieving; Cupid the god of love; Minerva the goddess of wisdom; Diana the god-carried by this wonderful animal through the air towards dess of hunting; Ceres the goddess of grain or of agri- Colchis, where their uncle, named Etes, was king culture; Hebe the goddess of youth; Vulcan the fabri- Unfortunately, as they were passing over the strait now cator of Jupiter's thunderbolts, and the husband of Venus, called the Dardanelles, which connects the Ægean Se the goddess of beauty. There were many other gods and with the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora, Helle became goddesses, held more or less in reverence by the Greeks, giddy, and, falling into the water, was drowned. From and to whom worship was given at altars in the temples. her, says the fable, the strait was in future named the There was also a belief in three vengeful females termed Hellespont, or sea of Helle. When Phryxus arrived in Furies, who were impersonations of Grief, Terror, and Colchis, he sacrificed his winged ram to Jupiter, in ac Madness; also three females of exceedingly elegant knowledgment of divine protection, and deposited its figure, termed the Graces, and whose names were golden fleece in the same deity's temple. He then mar Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne. The nine Muses, orried the daughter of Etes, but was afterwards murdered patronesses of the fine arts, were Thalia, Melpomene, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, and Urania. They were supposed to reside upon Parnassus, a lofty mountain in the district of Phocis. Thatia presided over comedy; Melpomene over tragedy; Erato over amatory poetry; Polyhymnia over lyrical poetry; Calliope over heroic or epic poetry and eloquence; Clio over history; Euterpe over music; Terpsichore over dancing, and Urania over the study of astronomy. Besides all these imaginary beings, the mythology comprehended a class of demigods, as Dryads, or wood-nymphs; Satyrs, or rural deities; and Naiads, or water-nymphs. The gods were supposed to communicate with men, and to reveal the secrets of futurity by means of oracles, several of which existed in various parts of Greece. The most by that king, who wished to obtain possession of the golden fleece. To avenge Phryxus's death, Jason, who was his relation, undertook the expedition to Colchis, where, after performing several marvellous exploits, he not only obtained the golden fleece, but persuaded Medea, another daughter of King Etes, to become his wife, and to accompany him back to Greece. Seventy years after the Argonautic expedition, namely, about the year 1194 before Christ, the celebrated Trojan war was commenced. We learn the events connected with this war only through the two heroic poems of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are supposed to have been composed about the year 900 before Christ, by Homer, a blind man who wandered about the country singing his poems for a livelihood. The story is shortly as follows:Tyndarus, a king of Lacedæmon, had a daughter Helen, of great beauty, whom Theseus, king of Athens, attempted, but without success, to steal from her father. The intelligence of this event rendered Helen famous, and many of the princes of Greece asked her in marriage. Tyndarus, however, allowed his daughter to make choice of a husband, and she pitched upon Menelaus; the successful suitor, on the death of Tyndarus, was raised to the Spartan throne. Shortly after this apparently happy union, Paris, a son of Priam, king of Troy, a small state in Asia Minor, came to reside at the court of Menelaus, and there perfidiously induced Helen to elope with him. Wroth at this baseness, Menelaus summoned various forces to his aid, and set out on a warlike expedition to Troy. Of the chiefs assembled on this occasion, the most celebrated were-Agamemnon, king of Mycene; Menelaus, king of Sparta; Ulysses, king of Ithaca, Nestor, king of Pylos; Achilles, son of the king of Thessaly; Ajax, of Salamis; Diomedes, of Ætolia; and Idomeneus, of Crete. The combined forces, on landing in the Trojan territory, commenced a regular siege of the city of Troy. Many skirmishes took place, and there was great slaughter on both sides: the Trojans were led generally in their attacks by the valiant Hector, the eldest son of Priam. At length, after a siege of ten years, Troy was taken, its innabitants slaughtered, and its edifices burnt to the ground. The Greek princes, however, paid dearly for their triumph by subsequent sufferings, and the disorganization of their kingdoms at home. Ulysses, if we may believe Homer, spent ten years in wandering over seas and lands before arriving in his island of Ithaca; and others of the leaders died, or were shipwrecked, on their way home. In the course of the eleventh century before Christ, the Greeks began to plant colonies in neighbouring countries. The first colonists, as usually happens in the present day, were dissatisfied citizens, who thought they could form happier communities elsewhere. The Eolians founded twelve cities in Asia Minor, the chief of which was Smyrna. The Dorians sent off colonies to Italy and Sicily, founding, in the former, Tarentum and Locri, and in the latter Agrigetum and Syracuse. In the new setlements, the political system was eminently democratic; and for a long time they enjoyed great prosperity. This prosperity being ascribed at home to their popular institutions, had afterwards the effect of inciting many of the parent states to change their monarchical for a democratic form of government. SECOND OR AUTHENTIC PERIOD OF HISTORY. The second and authentic period of Greek history commences in the year 884 B. c., at the institution of the Olympic festival, when the people had begun to emerge from their primitive barbarism. The Olympic festival was instituted by direction of the Delphic oracle, by Iphitus, prince of Eleia or Elis, for the patriotic purpose of assembling together, in a peaceful manner, persons from all parts of Greece. The festival was ordained to take place once every four years, in the month corresponding to our July, and to last five days, during which there was to be complete truce, or cessation from war, throughout the Grecian states. Agreeably to the ancient practice at public solemnities, the festival was celebrated by games and various feats of personal skill, and the whole order of procedure was regulated with extraordinary care. All freemen of Grecian extraction were invited to contend, provided they had been born in lawful wedlock and had lived untainted by any infamous moral stain. No women (the priestesses of Ceres excepted) were permitted to be present. Females who violated this law were thrown from a rock. The competitors prepared themselves during ten months previous at the gymnasium at Elis. During the last thirty days, the exercises were performed with as much regularity as at the games themselves. The festival began in the evening with solemn sacrifices, and the games were commenced, the next day at day. break. These consisted in races on horseback and on foot, in leaping, throwing the discus or quoit, wrestling, and boxing;' musical and poetical contests concluded the whole. The honour of having gained a victory in the Olympic games was very great; it extended from the victor to his country, which was proud of owning him. However rude and boisterous were some of the sports of the Olympic festival, it is acknowledged by the best authorities that they were attended with manifold advantages to society. It is sufficient barely to mention the suspension of hostilities, which took place not only during the festival, but a considerable time both before and after it. Considered as a kind of religious ceremony, at which the whole Grecian citizens were invited, and even enjoined, to assist, it was well adapted to facilitate intercourse, to promote knowledge, to soften prejudice, and to hasten the progress of civilization and humanity. The date of the establishment of the Olympic games (884 B. c.) was afterwards assumed by the Greeks as the epoch from which they reckoned the progress of time, the four years intervening between each recurrence of the festival being styled an Olympiad. At the first institution of the Olympic festival, and for one or two centuries afterwards, the condition of Grecian society was primitive and almost patriarchal, but marked by strong features of heroic dignity, and a certain depth and refinement of thought. The attire of the men was very simple, consisting only of a shirt or close jacket to the body, with a loose robe hanging down over the naked limbs, while performers in the public games were almost naked. The arts, including agriculture, were also little advanced; few persons seemed to have thought of toiling to accumulate wealth; and each community presented, in time of peace, the picture of a large family. That portion of the people constituting the freemen lived much in public, or in the society of their equals, enjoyed common pleasures and amusements, and had daily opportunities of displaying their useful talents in the sight of their fellow-citizens. The frequent disputes between individuals occasioned litigations and trials, which furnished employment for the eloquence and ability of men, in the necessary defence of their friends. The numerous games and public solemnities opened a continual source of entertainment, and habituated every man to active physical exercise and the performance of his duties as a soldier. These were agreeable features in the condition of Grecian society; but there were also some of a contrary kind. The people were of an unsettled disposition, never satisfied long with any kind of government which existed among them, and very much disposed to war against neighbouring states on the most trifling pretences. The population of the various states was divided into three classes, namely, the citizens, the enfranchised populace, and the slaves. All political power, even in the most democratical of the Grecian communities, was possessed by the first of these classes, while in the oligarchical states only that small portion of the citizens which constituted the nobility or aristocracy, possessed any influence in the management of public affairs. The mechanical and agricultural labours necessary for the support and comfort of the whole, were chiefly performed by the inferior class of free inhabitants, who did not enjoy the privilege of citizenship, and by the slaves, who formed a considerable portion of the population of every state. These slaves were sprung from the same general or parent stock, spoke the same language, and professed the same religion, as their masters. They were, in most cases, the descendants of persons who had been conquered in war, but were in some instances acquired by purchase. Society being thus based on vicious principles, it is not wonderfu that the Grecian states were the scene of constant civil the senate enacted the farce of declaring war against broils. Sparta-Lycurgus. At the beginning of this period of Grecian history, our attention is powerfully attracted by a very remarkable series of proceedings which took place in Lacedæmon, or Laconia, a country in Southern Greece, of which the chief city was Sparta. This city being in a state of intestine disorder, it was agreed by many of the inhabitants to invite Lycurgus, the son of one of their late kings, to undertake the important task of preparing a new constitution for this country. Fortified with the sanction of the Delphic oracle, he commenced this difficult duty, not only settling the form of government but reforming the social institutions and manners of the people. The government he established consisted of two joint kings, with a limited prerogative, and who acted as presidents of a senate of twenty-eight aged men. The functions of the senate were deliberative as well as executive, but no law could be passed without receiving the consent of the assemblea citizens. The most remarkable of the arrangements of Lycurgus, was his attempt to abolish difference of rank, and even difference of circumstances, among the people. He resolved on the hold measure of an equal division of lands, and actually parcelled out the Laconian territory into thirty-nine thousand lots, one of which was given to each citizen of Sparta, or free in habitant of Laconia. Each of these lots was of such a size as barely sufficed to supply the wants of a single family, for Lycurgus was determined that no person should be placed in such circumstances as would permit of luxurious living. Lycurgus carried into effect a number of other visionary projects: he abolished the use of money, with the hope of preventing undue accumulation of wealth; prohibited foreigners from entering the country, and the natives from going abroad, in order to preserve simplicity of manners among the people; directed that all men, without distinction of rank or age, should eat daily together at public tables, which were furnished with the plainest food; and, finally, ordained that all the children who were born, and seemed likely to be strong, should be reared by public nurses, under a rigid system of privation and personal activity, while the weak infants should be thrown out to the fields to perish. The citizens, when they had attained the age of manhood, were engaged in martial exercises, all labour being left to the slaves, or helots, as they were termed; and, in short, the whole nation was but a camp of soldiers, and war was reckoned the only legitimate profession. These laws were in some measure suited to the rude condition of the Spartans, but, as being opposed to some of the best and strongest principles in human nature, they could not possibly endure, and there is reason to believe that some of them were not strictly enforced. It is not unusual to see historians use the term Spartan virtue with a certain degree of admiration of its quality, but the Spartans had in reality no moral dignity, certainly no benevolence, in their virtue, either public or private. They were a small confederacy of well-trained soldiers, and, merely as such, deserve no mark of our respect or esteem. The manner in which they used their helots was at once barbarous and cruel. The murder of a serf by a free citizen was not punishable by law; nay it was even allowable for the young Spartans to lie in wait, as a kind of sport, for any good-looking or saucy-looking slave, and stab him to the heart on the highway. It is certain, that at one time, when the helots had stood their masters in good stead in battle, they were desired, by way of reward, to choose out 2000 of their best men, that they might receive their freedom, and be enrolled as Spartans, and that these 2000 men were all silently murdered soon after. At another time, when danger was apprehended from the growing numbers and petty wealth of the boors, them, and coolly murdered many thousands, in order to thin their numbers and break their spirit. Had there been any redeeming trait in the Spartan character to compensate for such barbarity, one would have wondered less at the respect which is sometimes paid them; but their military fame only adds another instance to the many already on record, that the most ignorant and savage tribes make the most dogged soldiers. Athens. We now turn to Athens, the capital of Attica, and long the principal seat of Grecian learning and refinement. Athens is said to have been founded by Cecrops, 1550 B. c., and in the most ancient times was called from the goddess Minerva, who was called also Athena Cecropia. It probably received the name of Athens by the Greeks, and to whom an elegant temple had been erected in the city. The old city spread from the mount of the Acropolis over a wide and pleasant vale or low peninsula, formed by the junction of the Cephesus and Ilissus. Its distance from the sea-coast was about five and surpassingly elegant in its architecture, while its citi miles. In the course of time, Athens became populous zens contrived to take a lead in the affairs of the commu nities around. At first they were governed by kings, but, as in the case of the Spartan citizens, they became dissatisfied with their existing constitution, and about the year 600 B. c. invited Solon, one of the wisest men in obeyed the summons, and constituted the government on Greece, to reorganize their political constitution. Solon a broad republican basis, with a council of state forming the Areopagus. This court of Areopagus, besides its a judicial court, consisting of 400 members, and called other duties, exercised a censorship over public morals, and was empowered to punish impiety, profligacy, and even idleness. To this court every citizen was bound to make which it was derived. The court was long regarded with very great respect, and the right was accorded to it of not only revising the sentences pronounced by the other criminal tribunals, but even of annulling the judicial detions of Solon were not maintained for any great length crees of the general assembly of the people. The regula of time, although the republican form of government in one shape or other, continued as long as the country maintained its independence. Clesthenes, the leader of a party, enlarged the democratic principle in the state; he introduced the practice of ostracism, by which any per cused of any crime, if the Athenians apprehended that son might be banished for ten years without being ac he had acquired too much influence, or harboured de called ostracism, because the citizens, in voting for its signs against the public liberty. infliction, wrote the name of the obnoxious individual upon a shell. It is said that Clesthenes was the first victim of his own law, as has chanced in several other an annual statement of his income, and the sources from remarkable cases. This sentence was For a period of about two centuries after the settle. ment of a republican constitution, there is little of importance to relate in Athenian history. Athens was gradually enlarged, the taste for refinement increased, and various men of sagacious understanding, entitled philosophers, began to devote themselves to inquiries into the nature of the human mind and the character of rished in this era (550 B. c.) was Pythagoras, a man of the Deity. The principal Grecian philosopher who flou pure and exalted ideas, and an able expounder of the science of mind. THIRD PERIOD OF HISTORY. The year 490 B. c. closes the gradually improving period in Grecian history, or second period, as it has |