Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/43

 THE INDO-SYBIAN EOUTE LOST TO SOLOMON 9 aspects, the national hatred against the cities which regained the Eastern trade after Jerusalem lost it, stands clearly out. Tyre is to be engulfed, or made, in the words of Ezekiel, " a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." " The riches of Damascus " " shall be taken away " ; "it shall be a ruinous heap." Rabbah, the ancient halting-place half- way down the southern caravan route, shall be "a stable for camels," " a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire." " Bozrah shall become a desolation," a fire shall devour her palaces, and the heart of her mighty men shall be "as the heart of a woman in her pangs." The old rival Edom, toward the Egyptian terminus, forms the subject of a whole literature of denunciation. Solomon 's command of the Indo-Syrian route proved as evanescent as it had been brilliant. After his death (976 B. c.) his monarchy broke up. But the Twelve Tribes, even if they had held together, were a nation on too small a scale to maintain their independence against the mighty Powers which, during the next nine centuries, made Syria and Asia Minor their battle- field. Egypt from the south; Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia from the east; Macedonia from the north; Rome from the west each sought to secure the countries that formed the outlets of the caravan routes. Whichever in turn was successful, the intermediate nationalities were crushed: the Jews among them. The reign of Solomon formed the climax alike of the territorial and of the mercantile ascendency of his race. I have dwelt