I. places most conspicuous for civilization and commerce: and SECT. in several cities of Lesser Asia, we shall see this sacerdotal government, subsisting in full force from the darkest antiquity down to the bright reign of Augustus, amidst innumerable convulsions and revolutions of all the states around them 104. Of these hierarchical establishments, however various the forms or rites, the principle or sanction had every where much sameness. This sanction depended chiefly on benefits derived from heaven through the supposed intervention of earthly vicegerents 105: and in the countries where idolatry is said to have begun, and where it certainly flourished most vigorously, I mean Babylonia and Egypt, priestly domination was essentially connected with the kindly influences of the celestial revolutions on the regular returns of the seasons, and the indispensable operations of agriculture106. Originating in an art essential to human subsistence, it extended with another preeminently conducive to actual wellbeing and future improvement. By commerce only, the scattered rays of knowledge and civility could be collected and concentrated, in cities guarded by the sanctity of temples more surely than they could be defended by the strength of walls. In those marts of superstition and traffic, fierce Nomades intermixed with peaceful artisans 107; through the revered authority of priests, the one class was restrained from fraud, and the other from violence; and the economy and tendency of such asyla, or privileged resorts in simpler ages, we may in some measure learn by their description in later and more corrupt times, when they still presented objects imperiously demanded by the multitude; airy ceremonies and fables to amuse the dangerous idleness of their minds, together with tempting allurements and luxuries to soothe their senses, and soften their ferocity 108. In Alexander's punctilious attention to local su 104 Diodorus, 1. iii. c. 59. Conf. Strabo, 1. xii. p. 558 & 672. 105 Strabo, I. i. p. 24, & l. xvi. p. 762. VOL. I. 108 Isocrat. Areopagit. 107 Stephanus de Urb. Voc. Acia. G I. SECT. perstitions we may discern therefore a perfect harmony with all the great views by which he was actuated. His veneration for imaginary gods, so universally attested, and so unanimously approved 109, discovers a respect still more commendable for productive and commercial industry, for safe communication and confidential intercourse, for all the arts, either of elegance or utility; in a word, for whatever in that age had a tendency to restrain the brutal passions of men, and to engage them in laudable exertions. His revcnues. 111 History is full of Alexander's endeavours, even during the progress of his conquests, to wean wandering and warlike shepherds from their predatory habits, and to convert them into industrious husbandmen 110. Of his exertions to make the empire flourish in resources, there is every where abundant attestation; but none of his biographers or historians have furnished us with any notices concerning the imposition or collection of his revenues. On this subject, the only details are given as exceptions to his general system, and must be sought in the writings of his preceptor, to which no one has hitherto, for this purpose, had recourse. With regard to the imposition of taxes, a saying of Alexander's is handed down, reproaching "the wasteful gardener, who, instead of picking the fruit, plucked up the plants themselves 112." Yet his fleets and armies, his new cities, fortifications, and arsenals, not to mention lesser objects connected either with the defence or with the improvement of his dominions, must have required prodigious efforts of labour, and enormous disbursements of money. His revenues are vaguely estimated at three hundred thousand talents 113, above fifty millions sterling; and his diligence in augmenting them was zealously seconded by his financial administrators, some of whom hop 109 Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus, Strabo, and all the authors whom they cite. 110 Strabo, L. xi. p. 517. Pliny, l. vi. and Plutarch in Alexand. 111 Aristot. de cura Reifami liaris, Opera, vol. ii. p. 509. edit. Du Val. 112 Olitorem se odisse, Alexan. der dixit, qui radicibus exscinderet olera quæ carpere debuisset. 113 Justin, l. xiii. c. 1. ing to obtain impunity for their malversations while they gratified their master in an object so important to him, had recourse to very unwarrantable means for diving into the purses of his subjects: abuses, which doubtless affix a stain on the government under which they happened, but which, being oblique and artful, serve notwithstanding to distinguish the extortions under Alexander from the direct and frontless depredations of other Asiatic conquerors. SECT. I. tendants, and Philox enus, their cruel arti ney. Among these disgraceful expedients for raising money we The inshall select those employed by Cleomenes, a Greek, formerly Cleomenes mentioned as intendant general in Egypt, one of the countries most abounding in wealth, and the most reluctant in pay-Geor ing contributions. Corn being the principal export of that raising mofertile kingdom, Cleomenes obtained large sums by alternately imposing and threatening corn laws. On an occasion of pecuniary exigency, he made a progress to the nome of Thebes, whose inhabitants, he understood, worshipped the crocodile: and one of his incautious attendants being snatched away by a hungry monster of this species, Cleomenes pretended that he would ask Alexander's permission to employ his generals commanding in Egypt in a war against crocodiles, and thus make reprisals on an enemy who had visibly been the aggressor. The rich inhabitants of the Thebaid thought no price too dear to purchase impunity for their gods. At another time Cleomenes complained, that the ecclesiastical establishment of the Egyptians was too burdensome to the state, and said that he should be under the necessity of advising his master to make considerable reductions in it. The priests flocked to him with full purses to save their temples, their tithes, and great pecuniary revenues. By letters from Alexander, the same Cleomenes was desired to transfer the festivals and fairs immemorially held at the inland city Canopus, to the maritime capital Alexandria, then rising in its neighbourhood. Persons interested in the prosperity of Canopus, offered him large bribes to suspend the alteration. He accepted the money, but found pretences soon after for carrying his I. SECT. masters's orders into execution 113. Such disgraceful proceedings were not peculiar to Cleomenes. Philoxenus intendant general in Caria was equally culpable. Having proclaimed a festival to Bacchus, Philoxenus appointed the richest citizens to bear their several parts in the solemnity. To avoid the irksomeness of this tedious ceremony, the Carians purchased exemptions at a high rate. Others next to them in opulence, were then substituted to their functions: these also desired to commute their personal attendance for money; Philoxenus still persevered in appointing a new set of performers, until he thus received money from all the principal Carians, then and long afterwards a very wealthy people 114. Fair financial opera tendant of Babylonia. The vile expedients of Cleomenes and Philoxenus differed tions of An- Widely from the fair financial operations of their fellowtigenes, in-labourer Antigenes, intendant general in Babylonia. Antigenes imposed a tax on masters for every slave or servant employed by them, but stipulated to pay to these masters in return, the full value of every fugitive that escaped from their families or manufactories; a condition, which, in most countries of antiquity, would have proved very burdensome, (slaves, almost the only labourers, being extremely addicted to desertion,) but which was fulfilled at little cost by Antigenes, such an excellent police had he established along the highways in his province. This respectable minister also revived several of the duties or customs which anciently 115 prevailed in the Assyrian empire, when Babylon was the seat of arts and of luxury; and, as will be explained hereafter, at once the source and the center of an extensive and multifari ous commerce. 113 Aristot. ibid. 114 Id. ibid. 115 Id. ibid. p. 510. PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS. SECTION II. Two Classes of Asiatic Conquerors. Assyrians and Egyptians, their Characteristics. Scythians, their Characteristics. Medes and Persians to be classed with barbarous Conquerors. The Babylonian Plain. Its Revolutions and successive Capitals. Authentic History of Assyria, confirmed by local Circumstances. State of Asia antecedently to the first great Monarchy. Inland communication from the Mediterranean to India. Emporia in Assyria, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Similarity of their Institutions and Government. Pursuits and Attainments of the Egyptian Priests. Their Brethren in Ethiopia. Meroe, its History and singular Theocracy. The Sabeans and Phoenicians. Three main Staples. Babylon in Assyria. Bactra in Ariana. Pessinus in Lesser Asia. the Mace AGREEABLY to the method above prescribed, I should SECT. II. now proceed to examine how far, in the concerns of domestic Dynasties industry, or foreign commerce, Alexander's plans were preceding original; and how far, in such pursuits, he was guided by donian. the examples of his precursors in empire. But to treat this subject in a manner the most satisfactory, it will be necessary, in connexion' with a more circumstantial survey of favoured imperial districts, and the magnificent cities which adorned them, to review the various dynasties which had successively governed Asia, and whose transactions in peace and war, whose manners and institutions, left indelible impressions. on the great ancient continent. From the concurring testimony of sacred and profane Assyrians and Egyphistory, it appears, that before the Macedonian invasion, two tians, their classes of conquerors had alternately held sway in the East. istics. character |