CHAPTER III.

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline.—Natural History.

BABYLONIA, or Chaldæ'a, was situated between two great rivers, the Euphrátes on the west, and the Tígris on the east. The bed of the Tígris is much lower than that of the Euphrátes, its channel much deeper, and the banks so precipitous, that it very rarely overflows them.

Babylónia was properly the country on the lower Euphrátes: north of it were the extensive plains of Mesopotámia, and beyond these, the mountainous districts of Arménia, supposed by many writers to have been the first habitation of the posterity of Noah, after the Flood.

Beyond the Tígris was the region properly called Assyria, a tableland, bounded on the north and east by chains of mountains, which have afforded shelter to plundering nomad tribes from the remotest antiquity. The soil, though not so rich as that of Babylónia, was generally fruitful. But almost ever since the fall of the Assyrian empire, the country has been devastated by wars between powerful monarchies and nations; and it is now little better than a wilderness, save that some patches of land are cultivated in the neighborhood of the few inconsiderable towns within its precincts.

Babylónia, in the neighborhood of the Euphrátes, rivalled the fertility of the valley of the Nile: the soil was so peculiarly suited for corn, that the husbandman's returns were sometimes three hundred fold, and rarely less than two hundred fold. The rich oily grains of the panicum and ses mum were produced in luxuriant abundance; the fig-tree, the olive, and the vine, were wholly wanting; but there were large groves of palm-trees on the banks of the river. From the palms they obtained not only fruit, but wine, sugar, and molasses, as the Arabs do at the present time. Dwarf cypress-trees were scattered over the plains; but these were a poor substitute for other species of wood. To this deficiency of timber must be attributed the neglect of the river navigation, and the abandonment of the commerce of the Indian seas, by the Babylonians.

Stone and marble were even more rare in this country than wood, but the clay was well adapted for the manufacture of bricks. These, whether dried in the sun, or burnt in kilns, became so hard and durable, that now, after the lapse of so many centuries, the remains of ancient walls preserve the bricks uninjured by their long exposure to the atmosphere, and retaining the impression of the inscriptions in the arrow-headed character as perfectly as if they had only just been

manufactured. Naphtha and bitumen, or earthy oil and pitch, were produced in great abundance above Bab'ylon, near the modern town of Hit: these served as substitutes for mortar or cement; and so lasting were they, that the layers of rushes and palm-leaves laid between the courses of bricks as a binding material, are found at this day in the ruins of Babylon, as perfect as if a year had not elapsed since they were put together.

SECTION II.-Political and Social Condition of the Assyrians and

Babylonians.

DESPOTISM, in its most severe form, was established in the Assyrian monarchy, and in those by which it was succeeded. The king's will was the law; no code existed to restrict his judgments; and even ancient customs were set aside at his pleasure. He was the head of the church as well as the state, and claimed divine worship. His palace was crowded with as many wives and concubines as he chose to collect, and these were placed under the guardianship of eunuchs, an unfortunate race, first brought into use in Assyria.

It is impossible to determine whether the priests, usually called Chaldeans, were a caste or an order; but it is most probable that, like the Egyptians, the Jews, and the Persians, the Babylonians had an hereditary priesthood. Their religion was the kind of idolatry usually called Sabian; that is, they worshipped the sun, the moon, and the starry host. In a later age, they added to this the worship of deified mortals, whom they supposed to be in some way connected with the celestial luminaries, just as Eastern monarchs of the present day call themselves "brothers of the sun and moon." Their supreme deity was named Báal, or Bell, which signifies Lord: the mixture of the astronomical with the historical character of the idol has rendered the Assyrian mythology complicated and obscure; and the double character of their deities generally, has brought confusion not only into mythology, but history; for many of the fabulous legends respecting Nínus and Semiramis are manifestly imperfect astronomical theories. Cruelty and obscenity were the most marked attributes of the Babylonian and Assyrian idolatry; human victims were sacrificed, and prostitution was enjoined as a religious duty. It had also much of the absurdity that belongs to the Brahminism of the present day; monstrous combinations of forms were attributed to the gods; their idols had many heads, and jumbled the limbs of men and the members of animals together; these had probably at first a symbolic meaning, which the priests preserved by tradition, but which was carefully concealed from the vulgar herd.

The condition of women was more degraded in Bab'ylon than in any other Eastern country. No man had a right to dispose of his daughters in marriage; when girls attained mature age, they were exposed for sale in the public markets, and delivered to the highest bidder. The money thus obtained for beauty was applied to portioning ugliness. Debauchery and gross sensuality were the natural results of such a system, and these evils were aggravated by the habitual intoxication of every class of society. This dissolute people were as superstitious as

they were depraved, and were the slaves of the Chaldean priests and jugglers.

The Babylonians had made considerable progress in the mechanical arts, and in mathematical science: their astronomical knowledge was very extensive, but it was so disfigured by astrological absurdities as to be nearly useless. The arts of weaving and working in metal were practised in Babylon; the naphtha and petroleum furnished excellent fuel for furnaces; and the accounts given of their skill in metalfounding show that they had made many ingenious contrivances, which supplied their natural wants of stone and wood.

The Babylonian language belongs to that class called Semitic, of which the Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, are branches. They possessed an alphabetic character, and wrote on bricks and earthen cylinders. It is not certain that they possessed books, their country producing no materials from which paper could be manufactured.

SECTION III.-History of the Assyrians and Babylonians.

FROM B. C. 2204 TO B. c. 538.

ASSYRIAN history, according to Grecian authorities, particularly Ctésias and Diodorus, is nothing more than traditions of the heroes and heroines, who, at some early period, founded a kingdom in the countries bordering on the Euphrátes-traditions without any chronological lata, and in the ordinary style of Eastern exaggeration. The Assyrian history contained in the Holy Scriptnres is that of a distinct nation of conquerors that founded an empire. This history is however confined to incidental notices of the wars between the Assyrians and the Israelites and Jews. Herod'otus briefly touches on the Assyrian empire; but his narrative, so far as it goes, confirms the narrative given in the Old Testament. We shall endeavor to deduce from all these sources the most authentic account of the Assyrian monarchy.

The miraculous interruption of the building of Bábel led to the abandonment of that spot by the followers of Nim'rod, who appears to have been the first nomad chief that founded a permanent monarchy. He was the Ninus of profane history-a warrior, a conqueror, the builder of cities, and the founder of an empire. Tradition has based a long romance on these few facts, which it is not necessary to detail. The Assyrian empire appears to have been founded B. c. 1237, and Nineveh was its metropolis. Nínus chose for his principal queen Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers, to whose prudent counsels he is said to have been indebted for many of his victories.

On the death of Nínus, Semir'amis assumed the administration of the empire as regent. She is said to have founded the city of Bab'ylon; but this is clearly erroneous. The additions, however, that she made to the city, and the stupendous edifices with which she adorned it, in some degree justified the tradition. Her wars were waged in the most remote countries; she is said to have conquered Egypt, and invaded Ethiopia, on one side, and to have attacked India, on the other. Semiramis was succeeded by her son Nin'yas, who gave himself up to indolence and debauchery, keeping himself secluded in his palace, and intrusting the entire care of the administration to his ministers.

His successors for several generations followed his base example; an the Assyrian monarchy gradually decayed.

Leaving the traditions respecting Nínus and Semiramis, in which a few historical facts are quite obscured under a cloud of fables and astronomical allegories, we come to the portion of Assyrian history founded on the authentic records of the Old Testament. The Assyrians began to extend their empire westward beyond the Euphrátes in the reign of Pul (B. c. 771). He approached the confines of the kingdom of Israel, then ruled by the usurper Men'ahem, and inspired so much terror, that his forbearance was purchased by a thousand talents of silver.*

Tiglath-pul-as'sur succeeded to the throne (B. c. 747), and prepared to pursue the plans of conquest that Pul had sketched. He conquered the kingdom of Israel, and transplanted a great number of the inhabitants to the remote parts of his empire.† Invited by A'haz, king of Judah, he made war against the ancient kingdom of Syria, stormed its celebrated metropolis, Damas'cus, and removed the vanquished people beyond the Euphrates.

Shalman-as'sur was the next monarch (B. c. 728). He invaded the kingdom of Israel, took Samária after a siege of three years, and led the greater part of the ten tribes into captivity, supplying their place with colonies from other states. After the conquest of Israel, Shalman-as'sur invaded Phoenicia, and subdued all the principal cities except Tyre.

San-her'ib, or Sennach'erib, was the next monarch. He led an army against Hezekiah, king of Judah (B. c. 724), and also attacked Egypt. His impious blasphemies against the God of the Jews were punished by the miraculous destruction of his army; and he returned home mortified and disgraced. A conspiracy was formed against him, and he was slain by his own sons.

Assar-had'don-pul, the Esarhad'don of Scripture, and Sardanapálus of profane history, was the third son of San-her'ib, and was chosen his successor, in preference to the parricides, Adram-mel'ek and Sharez'er. The accounts given of this prince are so very inconsistent, that many have supposed that there were two of the name; but it is more probable that he was in the early part of his reign an active conqueror, and that he subsequently sunk into sensuality and sloth. He conquered the kingdom of Judah, and made some impression on Egypt; but, returning to Nin'eveh, he became the slave of intemperance, and thus disgusted the hardy warriors whom he had so often led to victory. The satraps of Média and Babylónia revolting, besieged Sardanapálus in his capital; and he, finding himself deserted by his subjects, and unable to protract his defence, made a huge pile, on which he placed his wives and his treasures; then setting it on fire, he threw himself into the midst of the flames (B. c. 717). Thus ended the Assyrian monarchy; and the supremacy of central ard western Asia was transferred to the Babylonians.

The KASDIM, or CHALDEANS, a northern nomad tribe from the mountain-chains of Tau'rus and the Cau'casus, appear to have been em

• 2 Kings XV.

19.

† 2 Kings xv. 29,

ployed as mercenaries by the Assyrian monarchs, and to have been stationed in Babylónia. As is not unusual in the East, these soldiers revolted against their masters, and prepared to carve out an empire for themselves. That they were a conquering horde which settled in the country, is proved by the express testimony of Isaiah. "Behold the land of the Chaldeans [Kasdím]; this people was not, until the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof." The chronology of the Babylonian Chaldeans commences with the reign of Nabonas'sar (B. c. 747), a remarkable era in history, because the introduction of the Egyptian solar year, during the reign of that prince, first supplied the Chaldeans with an accurate mode of measuring time. There is nothing worthy of note in the history of Nabonas'sar, and his twelve immediate successors. During their reigns, indeed, Babylónia appears again to have become dependant upon Assyr'ia, and not to have recovered its freedom until the general insurrection against Sardanapálus.

Nabopolas'sar, or Nebo-pul-as'sar, became king of Bab'ylon soon after the overthrow of the Assyrian empire (B. c. 627). PharaohNécho took advantage of the distracted state of central Asia to extend his dominions to the Euphrátes. He gained possession of Car'chemish (Circésium), and induced the governors of Calé-Syria and Phoenicia to revolt against Nabopolas'sar. In the reduction of these provinces, the Babylonian monarch was greatly assisted by his son, Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebo-kal-as'sar, who subsequently raised the empire to the summit of its greatness. Nebuchadnez'zar obtained a brilliant victory over Pharaoh-Nécho, at Car'chemish (B. c. 604); and was about to follow up his success by invading Egypt, when he was recalled to Bab'ylon in consequence of his father's death.

Nitoc'ris was probably the queen of Nebuchadnez'zar. She seems to have acted as regent while the king was employed in foreign wars, and her name is associated with the splendid buildings erected in Babylon in this reign.

Before invading Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar had conquered the kingdom of Judah, and brought several of its princes to Bab'ylon as captives or hostages. Among these was the prophet Daniel. Soon afterward the Scythians, probably some Tartar horde, invaded the Assyrian provinces, and the Jews embraced this opportunity of asserting their independence. Nebuchadnezzar was then besieging in conjunction with Cyax'ares the Mede; but having taken and destroyed this ancient rival of Bab'ylon, he marched against Jerusalem with a resistless force. The holy city was taken and plundered, its monarch slain, his son sent prisoner to Bab'ylon, and a new king appointed as deputy to the conqueror. The Jews again revolted, relying on the promised aid of the Egyptians, but were once more subdued, and treated with barbarous cruelty. Their city was laid desolate, their lands wasted, and the bulk of the nation led into captivity. The conqueror them proceeded into Phoenicia, which he completely subdued; whence he advanced to Egypt, and plundered the lower valley of the Nile. It was after his return from this expedi tion, that Nebuchadnezzar erected the golden image in the plains of † Daniel ii. 1, &c.

• Isaiah xxiii. 13.