[Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: THE GREAT PYRAMID FROM THE AIR (PRESENT DAY).] THE GREATEST STORY IN THE WORLD BY HORACE G. HUTCHINSON LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 210 VICTORIA STREET, TORONTO 1923 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. {v} PREFACE There is much truth in the old saying about the difficulty of seeing the wood for the trees. It is the aim of this short book to keep the number of the trees as few as possible so that the wood, as a whole, may be clearly visible. It is designed to provide scholars and their teachers with an outline of the most important facts in the history of mankind up to the date of the firm establishment of the Roman Empire and the final destruction of Jerusalem--a date at which the various threads of the story come together to a point. In order to avoid confusing the learner, and to enable him to get a clear view of the most important facts, all less important facts and names and dates have been omitted. With such an outline in his mind, the scholar, coming to the study of a particular nation or period, should be able to fit that nation or period into its proper place. In the absence of any such outline, he must necessarily be at a loss to know the bearing of this or that episode on the whole great story. {vi} I have to record, very gratefully, my deep obligation to Mr. R. B. Lattimer for reading this book in MS., and for many valuable suggestions and emendations. H. G. H. {vii} CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Before History was Written II. Egypt down to 1500 B.C. III. Egyptian Religions, Sacred Writings, Etc. IV. Babylonia V. The Minoans in Crete VI. The Meeting of the Empires VII. The Jews and Israelites VIII. The Persians and the Greeks IX. The Glorious Days of Greece X. The Meeting of the Nations round Sicily XI. Macedon XII. Rome and Carthage XIII. Rome at Home and in the East XIV. Rome Mistress of the World XV. Troubles in the East XVI. The Dispersal of the Jews XVII. How the Threads draw together Index {ix} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Great Pyramids, taken from an Aeroplane ... _Frontispiece_ A Baked Clay Tablet, inscribed with Babylonian Account of the Deluge _British Museum._ Cyperus Papyrus Isis (with Horus) and Horus (with Symbols) Bandaging a Mummy _Wilkinson._ Ancient Egyptian Machine for raising Water, identical with the "Shadoof" of the Present Day _Wilkinson._ Assyrian King in his Robes Coin of Knossos Battering-Ram Sennacherib in his Chariot returning from Battle _Kouyurijik._ Greek Warrior, 7th-6th Century _Gerhard_, 207. Corinthian Architecture _From Monument of Lysicrates._ Alexander the Great _From a Bust in the British Museum._ Gallic Warriors _From Bronzes in the British Museum._ Hannibal Roman Legionaries Slab from the Arch of Titus, representing the Spoils of Jerusalem borne in Triumph {1} THE GREATEST STORY IN THE WORLD