THE CANAANITES.
Between the basin of the Euphrates and Tigris and the Mediterranean rise the mountains of Syria, an elevated plateau which ascends gradually from the right bank of the Euphrates and descends steeply on the sea-coast. A peculiar depression, known as Hollow Syria,[477] divides this region in its entire length from north to south—from the Taurus to the N.E. point of the Red Sea, and separates the plateau into an eastern and a western half. The bed of the narrow valley reaches its greatest elevation in the neighbourhood of the city of Baalbec (Heliopolis). From this point the Orontes flows towards the north and irrigates the green gardens of Emesa and Hamath, till it turns westward and finds a way toward the sea at Antioch; the Leontes and the Jordan flow towards the south. Between steep walls of rock the Jordan hurries down the gorge, and passes in a rapid course through the lakes of Merom and Kinneroth (Gennesareth), which are formed by the streams from the mountains on either side. The deeper the bed of the valley the more valuable are the fruits growing in the tropic atmosphere. The country round Jericho, the city of palms, sheltered from the winds of the table-land and heated by the rays refracted from the walls of rock, produces grapes and figs for ten months in the year; its wealth in dates and balsam was rated high in antiquity.[478] The course of the Jordan ends in the Dead Sea, the surface of which is about 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.
Out of Hollow Syria rises on the east like a wall of rock the plateau of Aram,[479] in naked, wild, and broken ridges, which, in Antilibanus, the highest point, reaches 9,000 feet. On the back of the mountains we find at first green pastures overshadowed by forests of oak, but further towards the east the heights become bald and desolate, until the land, as it sinks towards the Euphrates, gradually assumes the character of the deserts, which are broken only by the fruitful depressions of Damascus, Hieropolis (Membidsh), and Tadmor (Palmyra).
On the west of the fissure the land is differently shaped. The coast is a narrow strip of land, which only extends into small plains at the mouths of the mountain streams; it is hot, moist, and unhealthy, but of great fertility. Soon the white and yellow limestone rocks of the mountains begin to rise. On these heights the air is purer and cooler, and terraces planted with myrtles and oleanders, with pines, fig-trees, and mulberries, alternate with vineyards. On the broad slopes of the loftier mountain ridges rise splendid forests of tamarisks, planes, cypresses and nut-trees, and above all magnificent cedars. Even now some trees are found here forty feet in girth and ninety feet in height.[480] Just in front of the highest ridges of rock lie green slopes, on which feed numerous flocks of black goats, disturbed by jackals, bears, and lions, dwelling in the desolate gorges. Between the mouth of the Orontes and the promontory of Carmel, which runs out far into the sea, this mountain wall, which stretches out to the sea, reaches its greatest height in the peaks of Libanus (over 10,000 feet) of which Tacitus remarks with astonishment that they retained the snow even in that hot climate.[481] Rising above the green pastures and forests, the cultivated and watered fields, this ridge with its white mantle of snow gives the appearance of a winter landscape above perpetual spring. Southward of Carmel the mountains become lower, and at the same time less precipitous and picturesque. The coast is broader and more sandy, flatter, and with fewer harbours. In the place of the steep ridges is a grassy depression (Esdraelon, Galilee), overtopped by one or two peaks only, like Tabor (1,700 feet). Then parallel ridges again form valleys, broad and fruitful and overshadowed by forests (Samaria), until the land between the Dead Sea and the coast assumes a severer and wilder character. There the table-land is rough and bare, the valleys are narrow and deep clefts, the soil is stony. From Libanus the eye looks out on the most various groups of wooded promontories and a smiling coast, but in Judæa the landscape exhibits none but severe and simple outlines. On the wide expanses only a few bushes of pale olives arise, or transparent groups of a few palm-trees. The grassy plains have made way for steppes or downs, and even the bed of the valleys is covered with fresh green only in the brief rainy season. The region round the Dead Sea is wholly desolate. Springs of sulphur and beds of bitumen point to a volcanic origin; the large proportion of salt contained in the water makes it impossible for fish to live in the lake, and the deposits of salt which cover the country round restrict the vegetation.
In contrast to the vast and uniform regions of the Tigris and Euphrates and Arabia, the western mountains of Syria exhibit change and variety. The narrowness of the coast forces the inhabitants upon the sea, the luxuriant fertility of the deeper valleys invites to cultivation of the land and the planting of vines and orchards, while the upland valleys and mountain slopes permit nothing but pastoral life, combined with a little agriculture. There is no central district from which these numerous and for the most part secluded mountain cantons can be brought into unity and governed. In the place of the uniform development of large masses of people we have here to expect a variety of modes of culture; in the place of one huge despotic kingdom, and the uniform movement of wandering tribes a more independent and unfettered development of small communities; sharp contrasts appear in the place of a general civilisation. At the same time these Syrian coasts by the sea and mountain air, by life on the ocean and among the hills, compensate to a great degree the enervating influences of the Eastern sun, and thus the elements are combined which are wont to keep fresh and vigorous the life and power of the inhabitants. As the sea attracted the inhabitants to distant regions, and trained upon its waves a mobile, enterprising, active population, so on the other hand did the severe formation of the hills and the seclusion of the valleys lead to a uniform unchanging mode of life and a desire to retain what was customary and traditional. The nearer these opposites approached each other the more energetic must have been their mutual operation, the more lively the process of intellectual life, and the more productive its results.
The mountain district extending on the west of the fissure from Mount Hermon and the sources of the Orontes southward as far as the desert which divides Syria from Egypt was by its inhabitants called Canaan. We met with this name already in the inscriptions of Sethos I. It means lower land, and has obviously been transferred from the coast to the interior. Among the Greeks the southern strip of coast was named Palæstina, after the Philistines (the Pelishtim) who possessed it; the northern part, from Carmel to the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) was Phenicia; among the Egyptians the coast was known as Kaft; the tribes of the interior, and more especially those of Northern Syria, were known as Retennu.[482]
The oldest information about these districts which has come down to us is contained in the statements about the campaigns which Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk of Elam are said to have undertaken against Syria ([p. 251]). If we might regard the kings of Elam, who extended their power over Babylonia, and then forced their way to Syria, as belonging to the fourth dynasty of Berosus, the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk could be placed about the year 2000 B.C. When Babylonia under Sarrukin and Hammurabi shook off the supremacy of Elam, Sarrukin is said to have advanced towards Syria as far as the "Western Sea" ([p. 260]). Three centuries later Syria was attacked from the western or opposite side. As soon as the kings of Upper Egypt had succeeded in expelling the Hyksos from the land, they carried their arms towards Syria, and in these campaigns repeatedly touched the Euphrates. In the times of Tuthmosis I. (1646-1625 B.C.) we are told that he traversed Syria towards the north, advanced as far as the Euphrates, and set up a column there. Tuthmosis III. (1591-1565 B.C.) marched seven times against Syria; in the fourth campaign (1580 B.C.) he reached and crossed the Euphrates; then he appears to have advanced through Mesopotamia as far as the Tigris, and to have collected tribute there.[483] More than one hundred and fifty years later Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.) fought against the Schasu, i. e. the Shepherds, "who extend as far as Canana," the Cheta (Hittites), and the Retennu, i. e. the Syrians. Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.) invaded the land of Kaft, and caused memorials of his victories to be engraved upon the rocks at Nahr-el-Kelb, in the neighbourhood of Berytus, fought against the Hittites and their allies from the Euphrates, the prince of Karchemish, and then concluded peace and entered into friendship with the prince of the Cheta ([p. 150 ff]). The campaigns of Ramses III. (1269-1244 B.C.) were also directed against the Schasu, the Cheta, whose prince he took alive, the Amari (the Amorites) and the Pulista (the Philistines, [p. 164]).
The inscriptions of these Pharaohs prove that the tribes of Syria, even as early as the sixteenth century B.C., had arrived not only at a settled mode of life, but at a vigorous trade and a civilisation far from contemptible. The princes of Syria met Tuthmosis III. with numerous war-chariots, of which in the battle of Megiddo they lost 924 ([p. 132]). If Tuthmosis can mention 107 cities from Hamath in the north to Gaza in the south which he had subjugated, the population must have been already more numerous and the land more thickly inhabited. The names quoted prove that Gaza (Kazatu), Damascus (Tamesku), Hamath (Hamtu), Joppa (Japu), Berothai (Berytus), Kades (Kadeshu), Ashtaroth Karnaim (Astartu), and many cities frequently mentioned at a later date, were already in existence: several of them are represented to us on the monuments of the Pharaohs, as situated on heights and surrounded by strong walls.
The tribute received by Tuthmosis III. from Syria is sufficient evidence that the valleys of Canaan were well cultivated, that extensive trade relations had already been formed, and that metals were in use to a considerable amount. Syria contributed to Tuthmosis not wine only, honey and dates, but also considerable quantities of spices. The Retennu contributed at one time 1,718 minæ of sweet wine. The Hittites contributed 8 silver rings, weighing in all 301 Egyptian pounds, and 93 Egyptian pounds of gold; the Retennu paid 40 bars, and afterwards 80 bars (bricks) of iron; on one occasion they contributed 761 Egyptian pounds, and in another year 1,495 pounds of silver and 55 pounds of gold.[484] It was remarked above ([p. 304]) that these tributes also prove that the measures and weights of Babylon were already in use in Syria at that time.
The monuments of the Pharaohs also prove that the land was divided into independent districts, governed by hereditary princes. The leading and most powerful tribe at the time of the Ramessids was that of the Hittites in the south of Canaan. In the fourteenth century B.C. this tribe, with its confederates, could place 2,500 war chariots in the field. We have already seen ([p. 152]) that the king of the Hittites, the son of Maursar and grandson of Sepalulu, entered into an alliance and compact with Rameses II., as one power with another. In the records of the Egyptians the court and army of the Hittites are found well arranged. Generals of the cavalry, masters of the horse, and scribes are mentioned, and the sculptures of the Pharaohs exhibit the Hittites in their chariots in magnificent clothing and armour. The inscriptions of Rameses II. mention Baal and Astarte as gods of the Hittites—deities which we have already found at Babylon under the names of Bel and Istar. We have less information of the land of Kaft, of the Amari, and finally of the Pulista, who are first mentioned under Rameses III., and of the tribes of the Retennu to the north of the Cheta. As was remarked above, the Pharaohs did not succeed in establishing a lasting supremacy over Syria. Even Tuthmosis III., who achieved the greatest successes, did no more than force the Syrian princes to pay him tribute for a short series of years.