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 Western Asia : The Hebrezvs lOI finally a sun god, who gradually outshines Ahuramazda himself. From Asia Minor Mithras passed into Europe, and, as we shall see, the faith in the mighty Persian god spread far and wide through the Roman Empire, to become a dangerous competitor of Christianity (p. 298). In matters of religion the Persian Empire marked the break- Far-reaching down of national boundaries and the beginning of a long period among orien- when the leading religions of the East were called upon to com- ^^^ religions pete in a great contest for the mastery among all the nations. The most important of the religions which thus found themselves thrown into a world struggle for chief place under the dominion of Persia was the religion of the Hebrews. While we leave the imperial family of Persia to suffer that slow decline which always besets a long royal line in the Orient, we may glance briefly at the little Hebrew kingdom among the Persian vassals in the West, which was destined to influence the history of the v/orld more profoundly than any of the great imperial powers of the early world. Section 19. The Hebrews The Hebrews were all originally men of the Arabian desert,^ The Hebrew wandering with their flocks and herds and slowly drifting over Paiesdne° into their final home in Palestine, at the west end of the fertile (^^out 1400 ' ^ to 1200 B.C.) crescent (p. 56). For two centuries their movement into Pales- tine continued (about 1400 to 1200 B.C.). When they entered it as nomad shepherds (see p. 59), the Hebrews possessed very little civilization. A southern group of their tribes had been slaves in Egy^pt,^ but had been induced to flee by their 1 The student should here carefully reread the account of the Arabian desert and the Semitic nomads, their life, customs, and religion, on pages 57-60. It was from this desert and its life that the Hebrews all originally came. 2 The familiar Bible stories of the oppression of the Hebrews in Egypt and the making of brick, which they did there, are interestingly illustrated by the brick storehouse rooms still standing in the eastern Nile Delta in the city of Pithom, which the Hebrews are said to have built (Exod. i, 12). They are shown at the end of Chapter IV (p. no).