A Manual of Ancient History / Particularly with Regard to the Constitutions, the Commerce, and the Colonies, of the States of Antiquity

by A. H. L. Heeren

Northern Asia.

4. Northern Asia, between the 76th and 50th parallels of north latitude, (Asiatic Russia and Siberia,) was almost, though not entirely, unknown in antiquity.—Some obscure hints, though partly true, respecting it, are found in Herodotus, the father of history.

Central Asia.

5. Central Asia, the regions extending between the 50th and 40th degrees of north latitude, Scythia and Sarmatia Asiatica, (Great Tartary and Mongol;) for the most part a boundless, barren table land, devoid of arable fields or forests; and consequently a mere country of pasture.—The inhabitants pastors, (nomads,) without cities or fixed abodes; recognizing no other political association than patriarchal government.

Peculiar mode of life and character of nomad nations; powerful influence which they have exercised, as conquerors, on political history.—Whether we have a right to expect that the civilization of the human race will for ever continue to advance, when we consider that perhaps one half of it has from time immemorial remained, and from its physical situation must for ever remain, in a nomad state.

Southern Asia.

6. Southern Asia, or the regions from the 40th degree of N. lat. to about the equator.—Its natural features altogether different from those of central Asia. The great advantages of these regions compared with all other parts of the earth, in possessing a soil and climate highly favourable for agriculture; and an abundance of various costly productions. To these circumstances may be attributed, 1st. The adoption of fixed habitations and political associations in these countries, from the earliest times. 2ndly. Their becoming the principal seat of trade, from the infancy of civilization to the discovery of America.

Reflections upon the rise of political associations.—Whether, according to the general opinion, they were produced solely by agriculture and the possession of land; or, whether religion, by which I mean the common worship of one divinity as the national god, (communia sacra,) was not the main bond which united the earliest states of antiquity?—How shall we account for the very remarkable fact, that in the earliest civil societies in the world, the priesthood is generally found to be a ruling caste.—Reflections on early trade, particularly that of the east, before it was changed, by the discovery of America and the new passage to India, from a land trade to a sea trade.—Observations upon ancient commercial routes across Asia.—The banks of the large rivers destined by nature to become the seats of commerce for the interior; on the Oxus, Bactra and Maracanda, (Samarcand;) on the Euphrates and Tigris, Babylon.—The sea shores on the western coast of Asia Minor and Phœnicia, pointed out also by nature as places of commerce;—line of Grecian and Phœnician factories.

7. Division of southern Asia. 1st. South-western Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indus; 2nd. South-eastern Asia, from the Indus to the eastern ocean.

A. South-western Asia is again subdivided into the countries—1st. on this side the Euphrates—2ndly. between the Euphrates and Tigris—3rdly. between the Tigris and the Indus.