Sidene which he had destroyed; and the Romans also upon him who should rebuild the city of Carthage.1

Various indignities and cruelties were inflicted on those who had the misfortune to be taken captive. On some occasions particular districts were marked out for destruction. (2 Sam. viii. 2.) Of those whose lives were spared, the victors set their feet upon the necks (Josh. x. 24.), or mutilated their persons (Judg. i. 7. 2 Sam. iv. 12. Ezek. xxiii. 25.), or imposed upon them the severest and most laborious occupations. (2 Sam. xii. 31.) Women and children were exposed to treatment at which humanity shudders. (Zech. xiv. 2. Esth. ii. 13. 2 Kings viii. 12. Psal. cxxxvii. 9. Isa. xiii. 16. 18. 2 Kings xv. 16. Hos. xiii. 16. Amos i. 13.) And whole nations were carried into captivity, and transplanted to distant countries: this was the case with the Jews, and instances of similar conduct are not wanting in the modern history of the East. In some cases, indeed, the conquered nations were merely made tributaries, as the Moabites and Syrians were by David (2 Sam. viii. 4. 6.): but this was considered a great ignominy, and was a source of reproach to the idoldeities of the countries which were thus subjected. (2 Kings xix. 12, 13.) Still further to show their absolute superiority, the victorious sovereigns used to change the names of the monarchs whom they subdued. Thus we find the king of Babylon changing the name of Mattaniah into Zedekiah, when he constituted him king of Judah. (2 Kings xxiv.) Archbishop Usher remarks, that the king of Egypt gave Eliakim the name of Jehoiakim, thereby to testify that he ascribed his victory over the Babylonians to Jehovah the God of Israel, by whose excitation, as he pretended (2 Chron. xxxv. 21, 22.), he undertook the expedition. Nebuchadnezzar also ordered his eunuch to change the name of Daniel, who afterwards was called Belteshazzar; and the three companions of Daniel, whose names formerly were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, he called Shadrach, Mesech, and Abednego. (Dan. i. 7.) It was likewise a custom among the heathens to carry in triumph the images of the gods of such nations as they had vanquished: Isaiah prophesies of Cyrus, that in this manner he would treat the gods of Babylon, when

1 Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. i. p. 301.

2 That the cutting off the thumbs and toes of captured enemies was an antient mode of treating them, we learn from Ælian (Var. Hist. lib. ii. c. 9.), who tells us, that the "Athenians, at the instigation of Cleon, son of Cleaenetus, made a decree that all the inhabitants of the island of Ægina should have the thumb cut off from the right hand, so that they might ever after be disabled from holding a spear, yet might handle an oar." It was a custom among those Romans who disliked a military life, to cut off their own thumbs, that they might not be capable of serving in the army. Sometimes the parents cut off the thumbs of their children, that they might not be called into the army. According to Suetonius, a Roman knight, who had cut off the thumbs of his two sons, to prevent them from being called to a military life, was, by the order of Augustus, publicly sold, both he and his property. Equitem Romanum, quod duobus filiis adolescentibus, causa detractandi sacramenti, pollices amputasset, ipsum bonaque subjecit hasta. Vit. August. c. 24. Calmet remarks, that the Italian language has preserved a term, poltrone, which signifies one whose thumb is cut off, to designate a soldier destitute of courage. Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. i. p. 310.

he says, Bel boweth, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle, and themselves have gone into captivity. (Isa. xlvi. 1, 2.) Daniel foretells that the gods of the Syrians, with their princes, should be carried captive into Egypt (Dan. xi. 8.): and similar predictions are to be met with in Jeremiah (xlviii. 7.) and in Amos. (i. 15.)

XI. On their return home, the victors were received with every demonstration of joy. The women preceded them with instruments of music, singing and dancing. In this manner Mariam and the women of Israel joined in chorus with the men, in the song of victory which Moses composed on occasion of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his Egyptian host in the Red Sea, and which they acccompanied with timbrels and dances. (Exod. xv. 1-21.) Thus, also, Jepththah was hailed by his daughter, on his return from discomfiting the children of Ammon (Judg. xi. 34.); and Saul and David were greeted in like manner, on their return from the defeat of the Philistines. The women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands! (1 Sam. xviii. 7, 8.) The victorious army of Jehoshaphat, the pious king of Judah, long afterwards, returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem with the king at their head, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps, and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. (2 Chron. xx. 27, 28.) In further commemoration of signal victories, it was a common practice, both among the antient heathen nations and the Jews, to hang up the arms that were taken from the enemies in their temples. Thus we find that the sword with which David cut off Goliath's head, being dedicated to the Lord, was kept as a memorial of his victory, and of the Israelites' deliverance, and was deposited in the tabernacle; for we find that when David came to Abimelech at Nob, where the tabernacle was, Abimelech acknowledged it was there, and delivered it to David. (1 Sam. xxi. 8, 9.) For when occasions of state required it, it was no unusual thing to take such trophies down, and employ them in the public service. Thus when Joash was crowned king of Judah, Jehoiada, the high priest, (who had religiously educated him,) delivered to the captains of hundreds spears, and bucklers and shields, that had been king David's, which were in the house of God. (2 Chron. xxiii. 9.)

XII. By the law of Moses (Levit. xi. 32, 33.) the whole army that went out to war were to stay without, seven days before they were admitted into the camp, and such as had had their hands in blood, or had touched a dead body, though killed by another, were to be purified on the third and on the seventh day by the water of separation. All spoil of garments, or other things that they had taken, were to be purified in the same manner, or to be washed in running water, as the method was in other cases. All sorts of metals

had, besides sprinkling with the water of separation, a purification by fire, and what would not bear the fire passed through the water before it could be applied to use.

In the distribution of the spoil, the king antiently had the tenth part of what was taken. Thus Abraham gave a tenth to Melchisedec king of Salem. (Gen. xiv. 20.) And if any article of peculiar beauty or value were found among the spoil, it seems to have been reserved for the commander-in-chief. To this Deborah alludes in her triumphal ode. (Judg. v. 30.) After the establishment of the monarchy, the rabbinical writers say (but upon what authority it is impossible now to ascertain) that the king had all the gold, silver, and other precious articles, besides one half of the rest of the spoil, which was divided between him and the people. In the case of the Midianitish war (Numb. xxxi. 27.), the whole of the spoil was, by divine appointment, divided into two parts: the army that won the victory had one, and those that staid at home had the other, because it was a common cause in which they engaged, and the rest were as ready to fight as those that went out to battle. This division was by a special direction, but was not the rule in after ages; for, after the general had taken what he pleased for himself, the rest was divided among the soldiers, as well those who kept the baggage, or were disabled by wounds or weariness, as those who were engaged in the fight, but the people had no share; and this was ordained, as a statute to be observed throughout their generations (1 Sam. xxx. 24.) : but in the time of the Maccabees the Jewish army thought fit to recede from the strictness of this military law, for when they had obtained a victory over Nicanor, under the conduct of Judas, they divided among themselves many spoils, and made the maimed, orphans, widows, yea, and the aged also, equal in spoils with themselves. (2 Macc. viii. 28. 30.) In the Midianitish war, after the distribution of the spoils among the army and the people, there was another division made for the service of the priesthood, and the Levitical ministry. (Numb. xxxi. 28-30.) The priests, out of the share that fell to the army, were allotted one out of five hundred of all women and children, and cattle that were taken; and the Levites, from the part that fell to the people, received one out of fifty, so that the priests had just a tenth part of what was allowed to the Levites, as they had a tenth part of the Levitical tithes, which was paid them for their constant support; but whether this was the practice in future wars is uncertain. Sometimes all the spoils were, by divine appointment, ordered to be destroyed; and there is an instance in the siege of Jericho, when all the silver and the gold (except the gold and the silver of their images, which were to be consumed utterly,) and vessels of brass and iron, were devoted to God, and appropriated to his service. They were to be brought into the treasury which was in the tabernacle, after they were purified by making them pass through the fire according to the law; the Jews conceive that these spoils (called in the Scripture the accursed thing on the account of their being devoted with a curse upon him who should take them for his own use) were given

to God, because the city was taken upon the sabbath day. But in succeeding ages, it appears to be an established rule that the spoil was to be divided among the army actually engaged in battle; those who had the charge of the baggage (as already noticed) being considered entitled to an equal share with the rest. (1 Sam. xxx. 24.)

Besides a share of the spoil and the honours of a triumph, various military rewards were bestowed on those warriors who had pre-eminently distinguished themselves. Thus Saul promised to confer great riches on the man who should conquer Goliath, and further to give his daughter in marriage to him, and to exempt his father's house from all taxes in Israel. (1 Sam. xvii. 25.) How reluctantly the jealous monarch fulfilled his promise is well known. David promised the command in chief of all his forces to him who should first mount. the walls of Jerusalem, and expel the Jebusites out of the city (2 Kings v. 8. 1 Chron. xi. 6.); which honour was acquired by Joab. In the rebellion of Absalom against David, Joab replied to a man who told him that the prince was suspended in an oak,—Why didst thou not smite him to the ground, and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle? (2 Sam. xviii. 11.) Jephthah was constituted head and captain over the Israelites beyond Jordan, for delivering them from the oppression of the Ammonites. (Judg. xi. 11. compared with xii. 7.)

After the return of the Jewish armies to their several homes, their military was laid aside. The militia, which had been raised for the occasion. was disbanded; their warlike instruments, with the exception of such as were private property, were delivered up as the property of the state, until some future war should call them forth (2 Chron. xi. 12.); and the soldiers themselves returned (like Cincinnatus) to the plough, and the other avocations of private life. To this suspension of their arms, the prophet Ezekiel alludes (xxvii. 10, 11.) when he says that they of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut, and of Arvad, were in the Tyrian army as men of war, and hanged their shields upon the walls of Tyre. To the same custom also the bridegroom refers in the sacred idyls of Solomon (Song iv. 4.), when he compares the neck of his bride to the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

SECTION II.

ALLUSIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT TO THE MILITARY DISCIPLINE AND TRIUMPHS OF THE ROMANS.

I. Roman Military Officers mentioned in the New Testament.—II. Allusions to the Armour of the Romans.-III. To their Military Discipline.-Strict Subordination.-Rewards to soldiers who had distinguished themselves.—IV, Allusions to the Roman Triumphs. I. At the time the evangelists and apostles wrote, the Romans had extended their empire almost to the utmost boundaries of the then known world, principally by their unparalleled military discipline and heroic valour. Judæa was at this time subject to their sway, and their troops were stationed in different parts of that country.

We learn from Josephus, that the tower of Antonia, which overlooked the temple, was always garrisoned by a legion of soldiers; and that, on the side where it joined to the porticoes of the temple, there were stairs reaching to each portico, by which a company, band, or detachment descended, and kept guard (xoudrwdav), in those porticoes, to prevent any tumult at the great festivals. The commanding officer of this force is in the New Testament termed the captain, the chief captain of the band, and the captain of the temple. (John xviii. 3. 12. Mark xv. 6. Matt. xxvii. 27. 64, 65. Acts x. 1. xxi. 31, 32. 37-40. Acts iv. 1. and v. 24.) It was the Roman captain of this fort, whose name was Claudius Lysias, that rescued Paul when the Jews were beating him and intended to kill him. (Acts xxi. 31. xxii. 4. xxiii. 26.)

The allusions, in the New Testament, to the military discipline, armour, battles, sieges, and military honours of the Greeks, and especially of the Romans, are very numerous; and the sacred writers have derived from them metaphors and expressions of singular propriety, elegance, and energy, for animating Christians to fortitude against temptations, and to constancy in the profession of their holy faith under all persecutions, and also for stimulating them to persevere unto the end, that they may receive those final honours and that immortal crown which await victorious piety.

II. In the following very striking and beautiful passage of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (vi. 11-17.), the various parts of the panoply armour of the heavy troops among the Greeks and Romans (those who had to sustain the rudest assaults) are distinctly enumerated, and beautifully applied to those moral and spiritual weapons with which the believer ought to be fortified. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore

1 De Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 5. § 8. Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 4. §3.