Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/166

162, architecture and various practical arts and manufactures. The Assyrian temples were adjuncts of the palaces, and were also used as observatories where the priestly astrologers consulted the stars and cast horoscopes. Even before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, that city possessed a royal observatory and a calendar. In short, action was based upon nature, although interpreted by each race in accordance with its racial characteristics. Thus, with a more esthetic people, out of door life under the clear skies of Judea found expression in the poetic description of the heavens embodied in the Hebrew Psalms, instead of in the practical astronomy which the Egyptians and Assyrians associated with their religion.

"Egypt and Assyria," said Lenormant, "were the birthplaces of material civilization; the Phœnicians were its missionaries." This describes in brief the part taken by the Semitic race occupying the little strip of seacoast, 180 miles long by 12 broad, on the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean in transmitting ancient civilization to Europe. Here again the geographical element was strongly apparent, both subjectively in their national culture and objectively in their relation to history. While the effect of mountain ranges was to shut off such regions as central Africa, eastern Asia and northern Europe from the general course of historical development, and that of the great valley plains was to intensify human activity, the sea formed a bond of union and at the same time stimulated bravery, independence and breadth of vision. To this characteristic difference between coastal and interior regions is due their frequent separation, as, for example, Holland has separated itself from Germany and Portugal from Spain. The influence of the sea was especially apparent in the development of the nations surrounding the Mediterranean. Here were three continents surrounding a sea of such shape as to afford a long coast line and of such width as to stimulate adventure. The effect was to make the Mediterranean the center of world history. On its shores arose the great centers of civilization, Athens, Rome, Carthage and Alexandria, as well as of religious faith, Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina.

The geographical location of Phœnicia, midway between Egypt, Assyria and Arabia, naturally made it first to develop commercial activity. From their rich commercial cities of Tyre and Sidon the Phoenicians pushed out in all directions, settling Cyprus, Sicily and Sardinia, founding Cadiz in Spain, and Utica and Carthage in Africa. As early as 1500 B.C. the Mediterranean was already the great highway of Phœnician commerce, their vessels penetrating the eastern archipelago, the Hellespont and the Black Sea. When these avenues were closed to them by the Greeks in the eleventh century the Phoenician commerce turned westward, bringing silver from Tarshish in southern Spain, and even passing the Pillars of Hercules and braving the perils of the Atlantic to bring tin from Britain and amber from the Baltic.