Chapter I: Front Matter

HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume II., Part A.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

_THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT_

_THE KING, QUEEN, AND ROYAL PRINCES--PHARAONIC ADMINISTRATION_

_FEUDALISM AND THE EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD, THE MILITARY--THE CITIZENS AND THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE._

_The cemeteries of Gizeh and Saqqâra: the Great Sphinx; the mastabas, their chapel and its decoration, the statues of the double, the sepulchral vault--Importance of the wall-paintings and texts of the mastabas in determining the history of the Memphite dynasties._

_The king and the royal family--Double nature and titles of the sovereign: his Horus-names, and the progressive formation of the Pharaonic Protocol--Royal etiquette an actual divine worship; the insignia and prophetic statues of Pharaoh, Pharaoh the mediator between the gods and his subjects--Pharaoh in family life; his amusements, his occupations, his cares--His harem: the women, the queen, her origin, her duties to the king--His children: their position in the State; rivalry among them during the old age and at the death of their father; succession to the throne, consequent revolutions._

_The royal city: the palace and its occupants--The royal household and its officers: Pharaoh’s jesters, dwarfs, and magicians--The royal domain and the slaves, the treasury and the establishments which provided for its service: the buildings and places for the receipt of taxes--The scribe, his education, his chances of promotion: the career of Amten, his successive offices, the value of his personal property at his death._

_Egyptian feudalism: the status of the lords, their rights, their amusements, their obligations to the sovereign--The influence of the gods: gifts to the temples, and possessions in mortmain; the priesthood, its hierarchy, and the method of recruiting its ranks--The military: foreign mercenaries; native militia, their privileges, their training._

_The people of the towns--The slaves, men without a master--Workmen and artisans; corporations: misery of handicraftsmen--Aspect of the towns: houses, furniture, women in family life--Festivals; periodic markets, bazaars: commerce by barter, the weighing of precious metals._

_The country people--The villages; serfs, free peasantry--Rural domains; the survey, taxes; the bastinado, the corvée--Administration of justice, the relations between peasants and their lords; misery of the peasantry; their resignation and natural cheerfulness; their improvidence; their indifference to political revolutions._