The ocean lay to the right of the
Babylonians, and the country north and south was not inviting.
The calmer Mediterranean with its fertile shores was the
appointed field of expansion. The land route from Egypt lay, not
to the dreary west in Africa, but along the eastern shore of the
Mediterranean, through Syria and Asia Minor. The land route from
Babylon lay across northern Syria and Asia Minor. The sea route
had Crete for its first and most conspicuous station. Hence the
gradual appearance of civilisation in Phoenicia, Cappadocia,
Lydia, and the Greek islands is a normal and natural outcome of
the geographical conditions.
But we must dismiss the later Asiatic civilisations, whose
remains are fast coming to light, very briefly. Phoenicia
probably had less part in the general advance than was formerly
supposed. Now that we have discovered a powerful civilisation in
the Greek islands themselves, we see that it would keep Tyre and
Sidon in check until it fell into decay about 1000 B.C. After
that date, for a few centuries, Phoenicia had a great influence
on the development of Europe. The Hittites, on the other hand,
are as yet imperfectly known.
Pages:
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513