Modern Discoveries

Miscellaneous additions to the sum of human knowledge reported last week by members of the American Oriental Society, meeting at University of Chicago:

> Italian armies were no good without the support of German troops as long ago as 272 A.D. Evidence: an inscription on a Persian monument, in which Shahpur I, a Persian king, related how the Romans, too weak to win themselves, assembled an army of Germans from many parts of the Empire to make war upon "the Aryans" (i.e., the Persians). > Oldest known democracy was in prehistoric Mesopotamia. Evidence: ancient manuscripts and Mesopotamian mythology, which indicate that Mesopotamia before 3,000 B.C. was ruled by an assembly of free citizens, later became a despotism.

> The saying "meek as Moses" rests almost entirely on one bad slip in the King James Bible, Numbers 12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek. . . ." The correct translation of the original Hebrew is "vexed," which confirms the Old Testament's report that Moses killed an Egyptian for smiting a Hebrew, that after the incident of the golden calf he ordered Hebrews to slay "every man his brother."

> In ancient China, books were written on vertical bamboo slats. Significance of this finding: it probably explains why Chinese write up & down instead of across the page.

> The view that Hell was a place of extreme cold was held, as was only natural, by the fire-worshiping Zoroastrians. Evidence: recent investigations of Zoroastrian sacred literature.

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