Rise, progress, and fall of nomad empires.
6. General features in the gradual internal development of all empires formed by nomad conquerors. (a) At first the mere occupation of rich territories, and levying of tribute. (b) Hence the constitutions already established among the conquered or tributary nations generally suffered to remain. (c) Gradual progress towards the adoption of a fixed abode and the building of cities, together with the assumption of the customs and civilization of the conquered. (d) Division into provinces, and, as a necessary consequence, the establishment of satrap-government. (e) Insurrections of the satraps, and the internal ruin of the state prepared thereby. (f) The influence of the seraglio on the government has the same effect, for its unavoidable consequences are—effeminacy and indolence in the rulers. (g) Hence the dissolution of the empire, or its total annihilation by some violent attack from without.
Fragments of the History of the ancient Asiatic Kingdoms previous to Cyrus.
Sources, and their critical examination: 1. Jewish writings, particularly the books of Kings, Chroniclers, and the Prophets; together with the Mosaic records. 2. Greek writers, Herodotus, Ctesias, and Diodorus: later chroniclers, Syncellus, Eusebius, Ptolemy. 3. Native writer, Berosus. Futility of all endeavours to arrange into one work the accounts of authors so entirely different by birth and the times in which they flourished: a task attempted by the French writers, Sevin, Freret, and Debrosse, in their papers contained in the Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript.
Volney, Recherches nouvelles sur l'Histoire ancienne. 1808—1814: very important and authentic, so far as regards the system of Herodotus's chronology.
I. Assyrian monarchy.
Assyrians of the Greeks different from those of the Hebrews.
1. With the Greeks, Assyrian is generally a common name applied to the ruling nations about the Euphrates and Tigris before the time of Cyrus. With the Jews, on the contrary, it signifies a distinct nation of conquerors, and the founders of an empire. Hence a necessary discrepancy between the Grecian and Hebrew statements.
Grecian account.