To sum up, therefore, in regard to Egypt and Assyria, we must say that they were civilisations in which no one can with propriety talk of the "subordination of women"; yet they were two of the most powerful, and certainly two of the most enduring, empires the world has ever seen. We may take Maspéro's statement that in Assyria "woman was equal, or nearly equal, to man"; in Egypt she was even nearer to perfect equality. There was no struggle of the sexes in Assyria; and the remarkably good legal position, commercial activity, and general independence of the women "in no way affected the womanly character of their duties," as Dr. Reich is forced to admit. Assyria did not mount to greatness by the subordination of woman, nor did it lose its greatness by, or during, any revolt of its women. Egypt, also, grew to greatness without any shade of subordination of woman; and, although in this case the curtain falls on a discontented and embittered womankind, it was because the men positively robbed them of their 5,000-year-old rights. If there were any logic in the fallacy of the anti-feminist historians, we should have to say in this case that the equality of woman was the price of Egypt's empire, and the destruction of that equality the cause of its downfall; but we may leave fallacies to those with a poorer case. Egypt and Assyria were exceptional in that they did not live long enough to hear and consider the cry of democracy. The power remained to the end in the hands of a heaven-sent king. They fall into line with my general statement that in all early civilisations the power is in the hands of men. But as they never passed the stage of absolute monarchy, and no struggle in the least resembling the modern contest ever set in, we must go on to later empires for the second phase of woman's political evolution. CHAPTER IV. WOMAN IN ANCIENT GREECE IT is not necessary, and it would be much more difficult, to make a minute inquiry into the other civilisations that sprang up, before the Christian era, in that remarkable tract of Asia that lies between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Their lesser power and shorter life have left them in the shade of the greatness of Egypt and Assyria. One only of them was destined, in an indirect way, to have a momentous influence on woman's position in civilisation; but it will be convenient to notice the Jews when their ideas are embodied in Christianity and begin to mould Europe. There was a striking lack of uniformity in the various tribes that were struggling upward in that western offshoot of Asia. The Phenicians are (somewhat precariously) linked with the Egyptians, but do not seem to have granted their women anything like the same independence. The Sumerians (or oldest Babylonians) are connected with the Mongols, yet gave woman an excellent position. The Jews were Semites, like the later Babylonians, yet began an ominous tradition of contempt for woman.