THE CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY. Edited by J. B. Bury, S.
A. Cook and F. E. Adcock. Vol. HI. The Asayriaa Empire. (Cambridge University Press. 35s. net.) THE new volume of the great Cambridge undertaking may be summed up as-giving what modern research has to say about the five centuries, 1000-500 n.c., for which the Old Testament and Herodotus are the chief literary sources. Assyria rose, conquered and fell, to rise no more. Egypt decayed, under a priesthood which Dr. Hall aptly compares to that of Tibet. Babylon, rebelling and overcoming Assyria, was in turn crushed by Cyrus, founder of the new Persian Empire. The mysterious Hittites and Scythian flit across the pages.
The Greeks were organizing their city-states and colonizing
the Mediterranean and Euxine coasts. Such, in brief, are the topics discussed with much learning and ability by well- known English scholars in this section of an invaluable work. But ma ny readers will turn, first to Dr. S. A. Cook's four chap- ters on Israel and Judah and the Prophets. It may seem
that he has beengiven overmuch space, for the little Hebrew
States were as dust in the balance compared with the mighty empires between which they were crushed. 'But the empires disappeared and the Jews remain—a living tribute to the value of spiritual ideals in world-history. The -volume is well
provided with maps, tables : bibliographies and indexes.
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