Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/347

 MERGE. loftiest of these pyramids is about 160 feet in height. Some of these have evidently been royal tombs. None of the buildings of Jleroe, indeed, can claim a remote antiquity. The sculptures as well as the pyramids bear the impress of the decline of Aegyptian a]-t, and even traces of Greek archi- tecture; and this circumstance is one of many in- dications that Meroe derived its civilisation from Aegypt, and did not, as has been supposed, transmit an earlier civilisation to the Nile valley. And yet it is not probable that Meroe received cither its arts or its peculiar forms of civil polity from Aegypt, either entirely, or at any very remote epoch of time. Their points of resemblance, as well as of difference, forbid the supposition of direct transmission: for, on the one hand, the architecture and sculptures of Meroe betray the inferiority of a later age, and its civil government is not modelled upon that of the Pharaohs. One remarkable feature in the latter is that the sceptre was so often held by female sove- reigns; whereas in Aegypt we find a queen reg- nant only once mentioned — Nitocris, in the 3rd dynasty. Again, the polity of Jleroe appears to Bave been in great measm-e sacerdotal long after Aegypt had ceased to be governed by a pure theo- cracy. Yet, that the civilisation of Meroe was in- digenous, the general barbarism of the native tribes of this portion of Libya in all ages renders highly improbable. From whatever quarter the ruhng caste of this ancient kingdom may have come, it bears all the tokens, both in what we know of its laws, and in what is visible of its arts, of the pre- sence of a conquering race presiding over a subject people. The most probable theory appears to be the fol- lowing, since it will account for the inferiority of the arts and for the resemblance of the polity of Meroe to that of Aegypt : — Strabo, quoting Eratosthenes (xvii. p. 786), says that the Sembritae were subject to Meroe; and again he relates, from Artemidorus, that the Sem- britae ruled Meroe. The name of Sembritae, he adds, signifies immigrants, and they are governed by a queen. Pliny (vi. 30. s. 31) mentions four islands of the Sembritae, each containing one or more towns, and which, from that cu-cumstance, are evidently not mere river-islands, but tracts between the streams which intersect that part of Libya — the modern kingdom of Scnnaar. Herodotus, in whom is the earhest allusion to these Sembritae (ii. 30), calls them Automoli, that is voluntary exiles or immigrants, and adds that they dwelt as far above Meroe, as the latter is from Syene, i. e., a two mouths' voyage up the river. Now, we know that, in the reign of Psammetichus (b. c. 658—614), the miUtary caste withdrew from Aegypt in anger, because their privileges had been invaded by that monarch ; and tradition uniformly assigns Aethiopia, a Vague name, as their place of refuge. The num- ber of these exiles was very considerable, enough — even if we reduce the numbers of Herodotus (ii. 31), 240,000, to a tenth — to enable warriors, well armed and disciplined, to bring under subjection the scat- tered and barbarous tribes of Semiaar. The islands of the Sembritae, surrounded by rivers, were easy of defence: the soil and productions of Meroe proper would attract exiles acccustomed to the rich Nile valley ; while, at the distance of two month's journey, they were secure against invasion from Aegypt. Having revolted from a king rendered powerful by his army, they would naturally establish a form of MERUS. S31 govemment in which the royal authority was limited ; and, recurring to the era when the monarch was elected by or from the sacerdotal caste, they ap- parently reorganised a theocracy, in which the royal power was so restricted as to admit of its being held by male or female sovereigns indifferently, — for there were kings as well as queens of Meroe. Again, the condition of the arts in this southern kingdom points to a similar conclusion. The pyra- mids scattered over the plains of Meroe, though copied from the monuments of the Nile valley, and bori-owing names from early Egyptian dynasties, are all of a comparatively recent date; long, indeed, pos- terior to the age when the arts of Aegypt were likely either to be derived from the south, or to be conveyed up the river by conquest or commercial intercourse. The structures of Meroe, indeed, so far as they have been explored hitherto, indicate less a regular than an interrupted intercourse between the kingdoms above and below Syene. And when it is remembered that these monuments bear also many vestiges even of later Greek and Roman times, we may infer that the original Sembritae Were, during many generations, recruited by exiles from Aegypt, to whom the government of their Macedonian or Roman conquerors may have been irksome or oppres- sive. Finally, the native tribes of Sennaar live principally on the produce of the chase ; whereas the population of Meroe was agricultural. New emi- grants from Aegypt would naturally revert to tillage, and avail themselves of the natural productiveness of its alluvial plains. The whole subject, indeed, is in- volved in much obscurity, since the ancient Meroe is in many parts inaccessible ; partly from, its immense tracts of jungle, tenanted by wild beasts, and partly from the fevers which prevail in a climate where a brief season of tropical rain is succeeded by many months of drought. From the little that has been discovered, however, we seem warranted in at least surmising that Meroe was indirectly a colony of Aegypt, and repeated in a rude form its peculiar civilisation. (See Heeren, African Natioiis, vol. i. Meroe ; Cooley's Ptolemy and the Nile; Cailliaud, Usle de Meroe, &c.) [W. B. D." MEROM. [Palaestina.] MEROZ (MepccQ, a town of Palestine, mentioned only in Judges (v. 23), apparently situated in the vicinity of the battle-field, and in the tribe of Asher. The tradition of its site was lost as early as the time of Procopius of Gaza, who had attempted in vain to recover it. (Reland, Palaestina, s.v. p. 896.) [G. W.] MERVA. [Gallaecia, p. 934, a.] MERULA (Merula), a river of Liguria, men- tioned only by Pliny (iii. 5. s. 7), who places it between Albium Intemelium (Viiitimif/lia') and Albium Ingaunum (Albenga). The name is still retained (according to the best maps) by a stream which flows into the Mediterranean near the Cajio delle Mele, about 10 miles W. oi Albenga, but more commonly known as the Fiume d^Afidora, from the village of that name near its mouth. [E. H. B.] MERUS (Mrjpos), a town of Phrygia, which is mentioned only in the ecclesiastical writers as situ- ated in Phrygia Salutaris, on the south-east of Cotyaeum. (Hierocl. p. 677; Socrsit. Hist. Jicch's. iii. 15; Sozomen, v. 11 ; Constant. Porphyr. c?e Tke7n. i. 4.) Some believe that the ruins near Dovasldn (commonly called Doganlu'), of which Fellows heard (^Discov. in Lycia, p. 134, &c.), belong to Merus. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 24, &c.) [L. S.]