The English Historical Review, 1892, Vol. 7 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The English Historical Review, 1892, Vol. 7 In Assyria, under the dynasty of Sargon (b.c. 7 21 Aramaic, the language of northern Syria, was so extensively used for commercial purposes that it was found expedient to place dockets written in it on contract tablets of which the body was in Assyrian. That it was generally understood by the higher classes is evident from 2 Kings xviii. 26 indeed, it appears to have occu pied a position like French in modern Europe, as a sort of inter national language. Its introduction into Babylonia as a commercial language was probably somewhat later, but its use must have been greatly stimulated by the forced immigration of Aramaic-speaking races. Under the Achaemenidae, though it was not allowed a place in the royal inscriptions, its practical importance was such that it was the language employed in Official correspondence in the western half of the empire,39 and was used for the inscriptions on the standard weights and the coins struck by the satraps even in Greek-speaking districts. In Babylonia it had already acquired so firm a footing before the time of Kyros that the Jewish exiles there adopted it as their vernacular instead of either their own Hebrew or the local Babylonian. This curious circumstance may perhaps be explained by the fact that they had already some knowledge of it In their own country,40 and that for purposes of commercial intercourse it was as serviceable as Babylonian, while it was free from the cum brous writing of the latter. To the Jews of the Achaemenid period are due the earliest literary specimens of Aramaic (ezra, Daniel, Tobit). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.