The Historians' History of the World 01

George Smith was born in London, England, 26th March, 1840. He is said to have first become interested in Assyriology from having to engrave some cuneiform plates for publication. He at once took up the study, and a little later was appointed to a position in the Assyrian department of the British Museum. He very soon became one of the great promoters of Assyriology. With Sir Henry Rawlinson he edited vols. III-IV of The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia. In 1872 he discovered among the clay books of the British Museum fragments of a story of the Deluge, similar to the biblical version. Soon after this he visited Nineveh to make further search for clay books in Asshurbanapal’s palace, and his expedition was very successful. The Deluge story proved to be part of a great poem written on twelve tablets. He made two other expeditions for the Museum, but on the last one was stricken with fever and died at Aleppo, 19th August, 1876. George Smith was known among orientalists as a man who had a peculiar instinct for the translation of obscure texts. He devoted his entire life to oriental studies, and came to be recognised as one of the foremost of orientalists.

Spiegel, F., Die altpersischen Keilinschriften 2nd ed. Leipsic, 1881.—Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. London, 1854, 3 vols.—Strassmaier, J. N., Babylonische Texte. Leipsic, 1889; Inschriften von Nabuchodonosor, König von Babylon (609-561). Leipsic, 1889.—Streck, M., Die alte Landschaft Babylonien nach den arabischen Geographen. Leyden, 1900, 2 vols.

Talbot, W. H. Fox (in Records of the Past). London, 1856, 18 vols.; Inscription of Tiglath Pileser I, King of Assyria, B.C. 1150 (in Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc.). London, 1857.

William Henry Fox Talbot was born 11th February, 1800, at Laycock Abbey, near Chippenham, England. He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining the Porson prize there in 1820. Contributed papers to the Royal Society in 1822, and in the same year began a series of optical researches and experiments which afterward played an important part in photography. In connection with his scientific studies he devoted much of his time to the study of archeology, and in later life gave his entire time to it. He shares the honour with Sir Henry Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks of being one of the first to decipher the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh. He died at Laycock Abbey, 17th September, 1877. Talbot was a master in the field of Assyriology. He was, indeed, one of the first to gain distinction in this line, and in a peculiar sense one of the founders of the science.

Taylor, W. C., Students’ Manual of Ancient History. London, 1882.—Tiele, C. P., History of Assyria. London, 1886; Eastern Asia according to the most recent Discoveries. London, 1894; Comparative History of Egyptian and Mesopotamian Religion; Babyl.-assyr. Geschichte. Gotha, 1886-1888, 2 vols. (in Records of the Past). London, 1873, 18 vols.

Cornelis Petrus Tiele was born at Leyden, Holland, 16th December, 1830. He was educated in the university of that city, giving especial attention to the study of philosophy and history. In 1877 he was appointed to the chair of History and Religion in the University of Leyden. His numerous publications on history and philosophy have been widely translated. Professor Tiele enjoys the distinction somewhat rare among his countrymen of a quite cosmopolitan reputation. As an authority on ancient religions he has no superior, and his writings are almost as well known in Germany, France, England, and America as in his native Holland.

Valbuena, R. F., Egipto y Asiria resucitados la parte. Madrid, 1895.—Van den Berg, E., Petite histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient. Paris, 1883.—Vaux, W. G. W., Nineveh and Persepolis. London, 1880.—Vigoroux, F., La Bible et les découvertes en Assyrie. Paris, 1887.