Foreword

When this story begins the world has still to wait fifteen hundred years for the coming of Christ. Europe, Greece, and Rome are not yet names. The War of Troy has not been fought, and as yet there are no Ten Commandments, for Moses has not been born and the writing in which they will be written has not been invented.

But in Babylonia, Egypt, and on the island of Crete people lead lives of civilized luxury. They have highly organized governments and disciplined fighting forces. Each of these nations has its own religion, and also its own system of writing which only a few educated men ever learn.

In the middle of the triangle formed by these three Great Powers stands a small City-State. It is called Gebal—in modern Arabic speech it is still Djebeil. Its people are Giblites. It is to become known to the Greeks as Byblos, “the place of the book.”

When Resh, the master builder, lived there with his daughter Beth and his three sons, Zayin, Nun, and Aleph, it was already an ancient city where people had been living for four thousand years. The legend is that Time himself built its walls.

 

CLIVE KING