13. SOCIAL CLASSES
REDISCOVERY OF THE ORIENT
Our present knowledge of the Orient has been gained within recent times. Less than a century ago no one could read the written records of the Egyptians and Babylonians. The decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, which contained an inscription in both Greek and hieroglyphics, led to the understanding of Egyptian writing. Scholars later succeeded in interpreting the Babylonian cuneiform script. Modern excavations in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates have now provided them with abundant material for study in the shape of books and inscriptions. As these are gradually deciphered, new light is being thrown on all features of ancient Oriental civilization.
[Illustration: A ROYAL NAME IN HIEROGLYPHICS (ROSETTA STONE) The cut shows the symbols contained in one of the oval rings, or cartouches, for Ptolemaios, the Greek name of King Ptolemy. Each symbol represents the initial letter of the Egyptian name for the object pictured. The objects in order are: a mat, a half-circle, a noose, a lion, a hole, two reeds, and a chair-back. The entire hieroglyph is read from left to right, as we read words in English.]
[Illustration: THE ROSETTA STONE. British Museum, London. A block of black basalt, three feet seven inches in height, found in 1799 A.D., near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile.]
THE KING AS AUTOCRAT
The Oriental peoples, when their history opens, were living under the monarchical form of government. The king, to his subjects, was the earthly representative of the god. Often, indeed, he was himself regarded as divine. The belief in the king's divine origin made obedience to him a religious obligation for his subjects. Every Oriental monarch was an autocrat. Every Oriental monarchy was a despotism.
THE KING'S DUTIES
The king had many duties. He was judge, commander, and high priest, all in one. In time of war, he led his troops and faced the dangers of the battle field. During intervals of peace, he was occupied with a constant round of sacrifices, prayers, and processions, which could not be neglected without exciting the anger of the gods. To his courtiers he gave frequent audience, hearing complaints, settling disputes, and issuing commands. A conscientious monarch, such as Hammurabi, who describes himself as "a real father to his people," must have been a very busy man.
[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN COURT SCENE Wall painting from a tomb at Thebes. Shows a Pharaoh receiving Asiatic envoys bearing tribute. They are introduced by white robed Egyptian officials. The Asiatics may be distinguished by their gay clothes and black, sharp pointed beards.]
NOBLES AND PRIESTS
Besides the monarch and the royal family there was generally in Oriental countries an upper class of landowners. In Egypt the Pharaoh was regarded as sole owner of the land. Some of it he worked through his slaves, but the larger part he granted to his favorites, as hereditary estates. Such persons may be called the nobles. The different priesthoods also had much land, the revenues from which kept up the temples where they ministered. In Babylonia, likewise, we find a priesthood and nobility supported by the income from landed property.
THE MIDDLE CLASS
The middle class included professional men, shopkeepers independent farmers, and skilled craftsmen. Though regarded as inferiors, still they had a chance to rise in the world. If they became rich, they might hope to enter the upper class as priests or government officials.
WORKMEN AND PEASANTS
No such hopes encouraged the day laborer in the fields or shops. His lot was bitter poverty and a life of unending toil. If he was an unskilled workman, his wages were only enough to keep him and his family. He toiled under overseers who carried sticks and used them freely. "Man has a back," says an Egyptian proverb, "and only obeys when it is beaten." If the laborer was a peasant, he could be sure that the nobles from whom he rented the land and the tax collectors of the king would leave him scarcely more than a bare living.
SLAVES
At the very bottom of the social ladder were the slaves. Every ancient people possessed them. At first they were prisoners of war, who, instead of being slaughtered, were made to labor for their masters. At a later period people unable to pay their debts often became slaves. The treatment of slaves depended on the character of the master. A cruel and overbearing owner might make life a burden for his bondmen. Escape was rarely possible. Slaves were branded like cattle to prevent their running away. Hammurabi's code [2] imposed the death penalty on anybody who aided or concealed the fugitives. There was plenty of work for the slaves to perform—repairing dikes, digging irrigation canals, and erecting vast palaces and temples. The servile class in Egypt was not as numerous as in Babylonia, and slavery itself seems to have assumed there a somewhat milder form.
[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF AN ASSYRIAN COLOSSUS A slab from a gallery of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. The immense block is being pulled forward by slaves, who work under the lash.]