The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldæa, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and PersiaGeorge Rawlinson PRINCETON UNIVERSITY \ LIBRARY A THE FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD; 01:, \ THK HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDjEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLON, MEDIA, AND PERSIA, COl.I.F.CTKO AXI) IM.USTRATKn FROM ANCIENT AND MOllERN' HOURCF.S. By CxEORGE KAWLINSON, M.A., CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; I.ATE KKI.IyOW ANH TI'TOR OK EXETER COLLEGE. SECOND EDITION. IN THREE VOLUMES.—Vot.. II. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: SCBIBNER, WELFORD, AND CO. MDOCOLXXI. I CONTENTS OF VOL. IL THE SECOND MONARCHY (concluded). ASSYRIA. CHAPTEK VIII. Uklioion 1 CHAPTEE IX. Chbonoix>qy and Hibtoby 43 AlTENDIX -45 THE THIRD MONARCHY. MEDIA. CHAPTER L Dkscrution ok this Country 251 CHAPTER II. Climate and Productions 284 CHAPTER m. Character, Manners and Customs, Art, etc. ok the People .. 30f! » ^ i <><><> iv CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER IV. Page Religion 322 CHAPTER V. Language and Whiting 356 CHAPTER VI. Chronology and History 371 Appendix 432 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. BABYLONIA. CHAPTER L Extent ok the Empire 435 CHAPTER II. Climate and Productions 479 CHAPTER m. The People 497 CHAPTER IV. The Capital 510 CHAPTER V. Arts and Sciences .. 541 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page 1. Emblems of Asshur (after Lojard) 4 2. Emblems of the principal gods (from an obelisk in the British Museum) .. 3 3. Curious emblem of Asshur, from the signet-cylinder of Sennacherib (after Lai/ord). 5 4. Simplest forms of the Sacred Tree, Nimrud (from the originals in the British Museum) , 7 3. Sacred Tree—final and most elaborate type, Nimrud (from the original in the British Museum) 8 G. The Moon-god, from a cylinder (after Lojard) lb" 7. Emblems of the sun and moon, from the cylinders 18 K The god of the atmosphere, from a cylinder (after Lajard) 19 9. Winged figure in horned cap, Nimrud (from the original in the British Museum) 29 10. The sacred basket, Khorsabad (after I'otta) 29 11. The hawk-headed genius, Khorsabad (ditto) 30 12. Evil genii contending, Koyunjik (after Boutchcr) 31 13. Sacrificial scene, from an obelisk found at Nimrud (ditto) 35 14. Triangular altar, Khorsabad (after Boita) 37 15. Portable altar in an Assyrian camp, with priests offering, Khorsabad (ditto) 37 16. Worshipper bringing an offering, from a cylinder (after Lajard) 38 17. Figure of Tiglath-Pileser 1. (from an original drawing by Mr. John Taylor) 79 18. Plan of the palace of Asshur-izir-pal (after Fenjusson) 92 19. Stele of Asshur-izir-pal with an altar in front, Nimrud (from the original in the British Museum) 1)7 20. Israelites bringing tribute to Shalmaneser II., Nimrud (ditto) 10.rj 21. Assyrian sphinx, time of Asshur-bani-pal (after Laijard) 199 22. Scythian soldiers, from a vase found in a Scythian tomb 224 23. Stone base of a pillar at Hamadan (after Morier) 266 24. Plan of the country about Hamadan (after Flandin) 267 25. Plan of Takht-i-Suleiman, perhaps the Northern Ecbatana (Sir H. Rawliiison) 271 26. View of the great Rock of Behistun (after Ker Porter) 274 27. View in Mazanderan—the Caspian Sea in the distance (after Fmser) .. 278 28. Pigeon-towers near Isfahan (after Morier) 297 29. The destructive locust (Acridium peregrinum) 299 30. The scorpion (Scorpio crasMctxuda) 300 31. Persepolitan horse, perhaps Nisxan (after Ker Porter) 302 32. Arian physiognomy, from Persepolis (after Prichard) 308 33. Mede or Persian carrying a bow in its case, from Persepolis (after Ker Porter) 313 T(4. Bow and quiver, from Persepolis (after Flandin) 314 vi LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS. rape 35. Persian or Median spear, from Persepolis (after Ker Purler) ."14 36. Shield of a warrior, from Persepolis (after Flundin) 315 37. Median robe, from Persepolis (after Ker Porter) 315 38. Median shoe, from Persepolis (after Flandin) 316 39. Median head-dress, from Persepolis (ditto) 316 40. A Mede or Persian wearing a collar and ear-rings, from Persepolis (after Ker Porter) 317 41. Colossal lion, from Ecbatana (after Flandin) 321 42. Fire-temples near Xakhsh-i-Rustam (ditto) 345 43. Lydian coins (after Humphreys) 407 44. View of the Lebanon range 442 45. The Sea of Antioch, from the east (after Aintieorth) 471 46. Hares, from Babylonian cylinders (after Lajard) 490 47. Babylonian fish, from the sculptures 492 48. Locusts, from a cylinder 493 49. Susianian mule, Koynnjik (drawn by the author from a slab in the British Museum) 493 50. Susianian horses, Koynnjik (after Tjayard) 494 51. Babylonian dog, from a gem (after Lajard) 495 52. Oxen, from Babylonian cylinders (ditto) 495 53. Heads of Babylonian men (drawn by the author from t he Assyrian sculpt ure;* in the British Museum) 499 54. Head of a Babylonian woman (ditto) 500 55. Heads of Susianians, Koyunjik (ditto) 500 56. Heads of Babylonians, from the cylinders (after Lajard) 501 57. Head of an Elamitic chief, Koyunjik (drawn by the author from a relief in the British Museum) .. 501 58. Chart of the country round Babylon, with the limits of the ancient citv (reduced from the map of M. Oppert) 512 59. View of the Babil mound from the Kasr (after Oppert) 522 GO. Ground-plan of the Babil mound, with its rampart, and traces of an old canal (after Oppert and Selby) 523 61. Ground-plan of the Kasr mound (after Oppert) .. 524 62. Ground-plan of the Amran mound (ditto) 526 63. General chart of the ruins of Babylon (reduced from the map of Capt. Selby) 527 64. Chart of ancient Babylon 539 65. Birs-i-Nimrud, near Babylon 545 66. Elevation of the Birs, restored 547 67. Part of a stone frieze, from the Kasr mound, Babylon (after Layard) .. 552 68. Pier of bridge at Babylon, restored 554 69. Babylonian brick (after Bird,) 555 70. Lion standing over a prostrate man, Babylon (from a sketch drawn on the spot by Claude Clerk, Esq.) 558 71. Statuette of a mother and child, found at Babylon (after Ker Porter) .. 559 72. Figure of a Babylonian king, probably Merodach-iddin-akhi (drawn for the present work from an engraved figure in the British Museum) .. .. 560 73. Figure of a dog, from a black stone of the time of Merodach-iddin-akhi, found at Babylon (drawn by the author from the original in the British Museum) 561 ?4. Figure of a bird, from the same stone (ditto) 561 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii Page 75. Animal forms, from the cylinders (after Lnjard) 562 76. Grotesque figures of men and animals, from a cylinder (ditto) 562 77. Men and monsters, from a cylinder (ditto) 563 78. Serio-comic drawing, from a cylinder (ditto) 563 79. Gate and gateway, from a cylinder (ditto) 567 80. Bronze ornament, found at Babylon (after Ker Porter) 568 81. Vases and jug, from the cylinders (after LajartJ) 569 82. Vases in a stand, from a cylinder (ditto) 569 83. Vase with handles, found in Babylonia (after Birch) 569 84. Babylonian glass bottles (after Layard) 570 85. Conical top of an engraved black stone, bearing figures of constellations (drawn for the present work from the original in the British Museum).. 573 8fi. Babylonian zodiac (ditto) 574 THE SECOND MONAECHY. ASSYRIA. CHAPTER VIII. EELIGION. "The graven image, and the molten image."—Nahuk i. 14. The religion of the Assyrians so nearly resembled, at least in its external aspect, in which alone we can contemplate it—the religion of the primitive Chaldseans, that it will be unnecessary, after the full treatment which that subject received in an earlier portion of this work,1 to do much more than notice in the pre- sent place certain peculiarities by which it would appear that the cult of Assyria was distinguished from that of the neigh- bouring and closely connected country. With the exception that the first god in the Babylonian Pantheon was replaced by a distinct and thoroughly national deity in the Pantheon of Assyria, and that certain deities whose position was prominent in the one occupied a subordinate position in the other, the two religious systems may be pronounced, not similar merely, but identical. Each of them, without any real monotheism,2 com- mences with the same pre-eminence of a single deity, which is followed by the same groupings of identically the same divini- ties ;3 and, after that, by a multitudinous polytheism, which is chiefly of a local character. Each country, so far as we can see, 'See vol. i. ch. vii. pp. 110-148. viewed as really distinct beings, but 2 Though or Ra in Chaldaea, and they are in many cases self originated, Assbur in Assyria, were respectively and always supreme in their several chief gods, they were in no sense sole spheres. gods. Not only are the other deities 3 Sec vol. i. p. 112. VOL. II. B 2 CTiap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. has nearly the same worship—temples, altars, and ceremonies of the same type—the same religious emblems—the same ideas. The only difference here is, that in Assyria ampler evidence exists of what was material in the religious system, more abundant representations of the objects and modes of worship; so that it will be possible to give, by means of illustrations, a more graphic portraiture of the externals of the religion of the Assyrians than the scantiness of the remains permitted in the case of the primitive Chaldaeans. At the head of the Assyrian Pantheon stood the "great god," Asshur. His usual titles are "the great Lord," "the King of all the Gods," "he who rules supreme over the Gods."4 Some- times he is called " the Father of the Gods," though that is a title which is more properly assigned to Belus.s His place is always first in invocations. He is regarded throughout all the Assyrian inscriptions as the special tutelary deity both of the kings and of the country. He places the monarchs upon their throne, firmly establishes them in the government, lengthens the years of their reigns, preserves their power, protects their forts and armies, makes their name celebrated, and the like. To him they look to give them victory over their enemies, to grant them all the wishes of their heart, and to allow them to be suc- ceeded on their thrones by their sons, and their sons' sons, to a remote posterity. Their usual phrase when speaking of him is "Asshur, my lord." They represent themselves as passing their lives in his service. It is to spread his worship that they carry on their wars. They fight, ravage, destroy in his name. Finally, when they subdue a country, they are careful to "set up the emblems of Asshur," and teach the people his laws and his worship. The tutelage of Asshur over Assyria is strongly marked by the identity of his name with that of the country, which in the original is complete.6 It is also indicated by the curious fact 'See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay in the I represented by the same term, which author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 482, 2nd is written both A-shur and As-shur. Thi' edition. 3 Ibid. pp. 491, 492. [ "determinative" prefixed to the term * The god, the country, the town I (see vol. i. p. 271) tells us which mean- Asshur, and "an Assyrian," arc all [ ing is intended. Chap. VIII. ASSYRIAN GODS—ASSHUR. i J that, unlike the other gods, Asshur had no notorious temple or shrine in any particular city of Assyria, a sign that his worship was spread equally throughout the whole land, and not to any extent localised. As the national deity, hjs had indeed given name to the original capital;1 but even at Asshur (KUeh-Sher- ghat) it may be doubted whether there was any building which was specially his.8 Under these circumstances it is a reasonable conjecture9 that all the shrines throughout Assyria were open to his worship, to whatever minor god they might happen to be dedicated. In the inscriptions the Assyrians are constantly described as "the servants of Asshur," and their enemies as "the enemies of Asshur." The Assyrian religion is "the worship of Asshur." No similar phrases are used with respect to any of the other gods of the Pantheon. We can scarcely doubt that originally the god Asshur was the great progenitor of the race, Asshur, the son of Shem,10 deified. It was not long, however, before this notion was lost, and Asshur came to be viewed simply as a celestial being—the first and highest of all the divine agents who ruled over heaven and earth. It is indicative of the (comparatively speaking) elevated character of Assyrian polytheism that this exalted and awful deity continued from first to last the main object of worship, and was not superseded in the thoughts of men by the lower and more intelligible divinities, such as Shamas and Sin, the Hun and Moon, Nergal the God of War, Nin the God of Hunt- ing, or Vul the wielder of the thunderbolt.1 The favourite emblem under which the* Assyrians appear to have represented Asshur in their works of art was the winged circle or globe, from which a figure in a horned cap is frequently seen to issue, sometimes simply holding a bow (Fig. I.), some- : See vol. i. p. 203. * Sir H. Rawlinson, in the author's Jferodotua (vol. i. p. 483), inclines to allow that the great fane at Kilch- Sherghat was a temple of Asshur; but the deity whose name appears upon the bricks is entitled Aslut. 'Sir H. Rawlinson, 1. s. c. Gen. x. 22. 1 In the worship of Egypt we may trace such a gradual descent and de- terioration, from Amun, the hidden god, to Phtha, the demiurgus, thence to Ra, the Shh-God, from him to Isis and Osiris, deities of the tliird order, and finally to Apis and Serapis, mere daemons. 4 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. VIII. Fig. I. Fig. II. times shooting his arrows against the Assyrians' enemies (Fig. II.). This emblem has been variously explained ;2 but the most probable conjecture would seem to be that the circle typifies eternity, wljile the wings express omnipresence, and the human figure symbolises wisdom or intelligence. The emblem appears under many varieties. Sometimes the figure which issues from it has no bow, and is represented as simply extending the right hand (Fig. III.); occasionally both hands are extended, and the left holds a ring or chaplet (Fig. IV.). In one instance we see a very re- markable variation: for the complete hu- man figure is substi- tuted a mere pair of hands, which seem to come from behind the winged disk, the right open and exhibiting the palm, the left closed and holding a bow.3 In a large num- ber of cases all sign of a person is dispensed with,4 the winged cir- cle appearing alone, with the disk eithef plain or ornamented. On the other hand, there are one or two instances where the emblem exhibits Fig. III. Fig. IV. F.mblems of Asshur (after Lajard). 2 M. Lajard is of opinion that the foundation of the winged circle is a bird, which he pronounces to be a dove, and to typify the Assyrian Venus. To this he supposes were afterwards added the circle as an em- blem of eternity, and the human figure, which he regardsasan image of Baal or Bel. In confirmation of his view that the symbol mainly grew out of a bird, he adduces the above form which appears upon a cylinder. 3 See the woodcut on the next page. This emblem is taken from a mutilated obelisk found at Koyunjik. 'See Layard's Monuments of Ninereii, 1st Series, Pis. 6, 39, and 53; 2nd Series, Pis. 4 and 69; and compare above, vol. i. p. 399. « Chap. VIII. EMBLEMS OF ASSHUIt. 5 three human heads instead of one—the central figure having on either side of it a head, which seems to rest upon the fea- thers of the wing.5 It is the opi- nion of Some Emblems of the principal gods. (From an obelisk in the British Museum.) critics, based upon this form of the emblem, that the supreme deity of the Assyrians, whom the winged circle seems always to represent, was in reality a triune god.6 Now certainly the triple human form is very remarkable, and lends a colour to this conjecture; but, as there is absolutely nothing, either in the statements of ancient writers, or in the Assvrian insorip- Curious emblem of • , Asshur. (From the tions, so far as they have been deciphered, to signet cylinder of confirm the supposition, it can hardly be ac- Sennacherib) cepted as the true explanation of the phenomenon. The doc- trine of the Trinity, scarcely apprehended with any distinctness even by the ancient Jews, does not appear to have been one of those which primeval revelation made known throughout the heathen world. It is a fanciful mysticism which finds a Trinity in the Eicton, Cneph, and Plitha of the Egyptians, the Oromasdes, Mithras, and Arimanius of the Persians, and the Monas, Logos, and Psyche of Pythagoras and Plato.7 There are abundant Triads in ancient mythology, but no real Trinity. The case of Asshur is, however, one of simple unity. He is not even regularly in- cluded iu any Triad. It is possible, however, that the triple figure shows him to us in temporary combination with two other gods, who may be exceptionally represented in this way rather s See the cylinder of Sennacherib (supra, vol. i. p. 383); and compare a cylinder engraved in M. Lajard's Culte de Mithra, PI. xxxii. No. 3. * Layard, Ninerehand /Jab'/lon,-p. 160; Lajard, Culte de Mithra, Explication des planches, p. 2. 7 So Cudworth (Intellectual System of the Universe, ch. iv. § 16, et seq.) and others. Mosheim, in his Latin trans- lation of Cudworth's great work, ably combats his views on this subject. THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. VIII. than by their usual emblems. Or the three heads may be merely an exaggeration of that principle of repetition which gives rise so often to a double representation of a king or a god,8 and which is seen at Bavian in the threefold repetition of another sacred emblem, the horned cap. It is observable that in the sculptures the winged circle is seldom found except in immediate connection with the monarch.' The Great King wears it embroidered upon his robes,10 carries it engraved upon his cylinder," represents it above his head in the rock-tablets on which he carves his image,18 stands or kneels in adoration before it,'3 fights under its shadow,14 under its pro- tection returns victorious,15 places it conspicuously in the scenes where he himself is represented on his obelisks.16 And in these various representations he makes the emblem in a great measure conform to the circumstances in which he himself is engaged at the time. Where he is fighting, Asshur too has his arrow on the string, and points it against the king's adversaries. Where he is returning from victory, with the disused bow in the left hand and the right hand outstretched and elevated, Asshur takes the same attitude. In peaceful scenes the bow disappears altogether. If the king worships, the god holds out his hand to aid; if he is engaged in secular acts, the divine presence is thought to be sufficiently marked by the circle and the wings without the human figure. An emblem found in such frequent connection with the sym- bol of Asshur as to warrant the belief that it was attached in a special way to his worship, is the sacred or symbolical tree. "Layard, Monument?, Pis. C, 25, 39, I 6; supra, vol. i. p. 399. &c. "Layard, Nineceh and Babylon, p. B The occurrence of the emblem of 160; supra, vol. i. p. 383, Asshur without the king in the ivory I ,! As at the Nahr-el-Kelb (Lajard, representing women gathering grapes I Culte de Mithni, PI. i. No. 39); at Ba- (supra, vol.i.p. 573) is remarkable. Pro- | vian (Layard, Sinccch and Babylon, p. bably the ivory formed part of the orna- 211), &c. mentation of a royal throne or cabinet, i '* Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, Pis. There are cylinders, however, apparently ! 6, 25, and 39. not royal, on which the emblem occurs. . 14 Ibid. PI. 13. (Cullimore, Nos. 145, 154, 155, 158, 160, j 15 Ibid. PI. 21. 162; Lajard, Pis. xiii. 2; xvi. 2; xvii. | 16 Ibid. PI. 53. Compare the repre- 5, 8, &c.) sentation (supra, p. 5) which heads 10 Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, PI. another royal obelis/c. Chap. VIII THE SACRED TREE. 7 Like the winged circle, this emblem has various forms. The simplest consists of a short pillar springing from a single pair of rams' horns, and surmounted by a capital composed of two Simplest forms of the Sacred Tree (Nimrud). pairs of rams' horns separated by one, two, or three horizontal bands; above which there is, first, a scroll resembling that which commonly surmounts the winged circle, and then a flower, very much like the "honeysuckle ornament" of the Greeks.1 More advanced specimens show the pillar elongated, with a capital in the middle in addition to the capital at the top, while the blossom above the upper capital, and generally the stem likewise, throw out a number of similar smaller blos- soms, which are sometimes replaced by fir-cones or pomegranates. Where the tree is most elaborately portrayed, we see, besides the stem and the blossoms, a complicated network of branches, which after interlacing with one another form a sort of arch surrounding the tree itself as with a frame. (See next page.) It is a subject of curious speculation, whether this sacred tree 'This resemblance, which Mr. Layard notes (Xineveh and its Jtemains, vol. ii. p. 294) is certainly very curious; but it does not tell us anything of the origin or meaning of the symbol. The Greeks probably adopted the ornament as ele- gant, without caring to understand it. I suspect that the so-called "flower" was in reality a representation of the head of a palm-tree, with the form of which, as portrayed on the earliest sculp- tures (Layard, Monuments, PI. 53), it nearly agrees. 8 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. does not stand connected with the Asherah of the Phoenicians, which was certainly not a " grove," in the sense in which we commonly understand that word. The Asherah, which the Jews adopted from the idolatrous nations with whom they came in contact, was an artificial struc- ture, originally of wood,2 but in the later times probably of metal,3 capable of being " set" in the temple at Jerusalem by one king,4 and "brought out" by another.5 It was a structure for which "hangings" could be made,6 to cover and protect it, while at the same time it was so far like a tree that it could be properly said to be " cut down," rather than "broken" or otherwise demo- lished.7 The name itself seems to imply something which stood straight up;8 and the conjecture is reasonable that its essential element was " the straight stem of a tree,"9 though whether the idea con- nected with the emblem was of the same nature with that which underlay the phallic rites of the Greeks10 is (to say the least) ex- tremely uncertain. We have no distinct evidence that the Assyrian sacred tree was a real tangible object: it may have been, as Mr. Layard supposes," a mere type. But it is perhaps on the whole more likely to have been an actual object;12 in which Sacred Tree—final and most elaborate type. (Nimrud.) * Judges vi. 20. "Take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the icood of the grove {Asherah) which thou shalt cut down." 3 According to the account in the Second Book of Kings, Josiah "burnt the grove at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people" (xxiii. 6). Un- less the Asherah had been of metal there would have been no need of stamping it to powder after burning it. 4 2 Kings, xxi. 7. 5 Ibid, xxiii. G. * Ibid, verse 7. 'Judges vi. 25,28; 2 Kings xviii. 4; xxiii. 14; 2 Chron. xiv. 3; xxxi. 1, Sec. ■ Asherah (HIWI) is from "IC'N, the true root of which is TC", "to be straight" or "upright.'' * So Dr. Gotch in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 120. "Ibid. loc. cit. 11 Ninereh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 447. "The sacred tree is before him, but only, it may be presumed, as a type." '* It is found with objects which are all certainly material, as on Lord Aber- Chap. VIII. THE SACRED TREE. 9 case we cannot but suspect that it stood in the Assyrian system in much the same position as the Asherah in the Phoenician, being closely connected with the worship of the supreme god,13 and having certainly a symbolic character, though of what exact kind it may not be easy to determine. An analogy has been suggested between this Assyrian em- blem and the Scriptural " tree of life," which is thought to be variously reflected in the multiform mythology of the East.14 Are not such speculations somewhat over-fanciful? There is perhaps, in the emblem itself, which combines the horns of the ram—an auimal noted for procreative power—with the image of a fruit- or flower-producing tree, ground for supposing that some allusion is intended to the prolific or generative energy in nature; but more than this can scarcely be said without ven- turing upon mere speculation. The time will perhaps ere long arrive when, by the interpretation of the mythological tablets of the Assyrians, their real notions on this and other kindred subjects may become known to us. Till then, it is best to remain content with such facts as are ascertainable, without seeking to penetrate mysteries at which we can but guess, and where, even if we guess aright, we cannot know that we do so. The gods worshipped in Assyria in the next degree to Asshur appear to have been, in the early times, Anu and Vul; in the later, Bel, Sin, Sliamas, Vul, Nin or Ninip, and Nergal. Gula, Ishtar, and Beltis were favourite goddesses. Hoa, Nebo, and Merodach, though occasional objects of worship, more especially under the later empire, were in far less repute in Assyria than in Babylonia; and the two last-named may almost be said to have been introduced into the former country from the latter (luring the historical period.1 deen's Black Stone, where a real sacri- ficial scene appears to be represented. "The groves in Scripture ore closely connected with the worship of Baal, supreme God of the Phoenicians. (See Judges iii. 7; 1 Kings xviii. 19; 2 Kings xvii. 16, Sec.) "Layard. Xincveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 472. 1 Merodach and Nebo are not abso- lutely unknown to the earlier kings; since they are invoked upon the Black Obelisk as the eighth and the eleventh gods. But it is only with Vul-lush III. (ab. B.c. 800) that they become promi- nent. This king takes special credit to himself for having first prominently placed Merodach in the Pantheon of IO Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. For the special characteristics of these various gods—common objects of worship to the Assyrians and the Babylonians from a very remote epoch—the reader is referred to the first volume of this work, where their several attributes and their position in the Chaldsean Pantheon have been noted. The general resemblance of the two religious systems is such, that almost everything which has been stated with respect to the gods of the First Empire may be taken as applying equally to those of the Second; and the reader is requested to make this application in all cases, except where some shade of difference, more or less strongly marked, shall be pointed out. In the following pages, without repeating what has been said in the former volume, some account will be given of the worship of the principal gods in Assyria, and of the chief temples dedicated to their service. ANU. The worship of Anu seems to have been introduced into Assyria from Babylonia during the times of Chaldaean supremacy which preceded the establishment of the independent Assyrian kingdom. Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, king of Chaldsea, built a temple to Anu and Vul at Asshur, which was then the Assyrian capital, about B.C. 1820. An inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I. states that this temple lasted for 621 years, when, having fallen into decay, it was taken down by Asshur- dayan, his own great-grandfather.3 Its site remained vacant for sixty years. Then Tiglath-Pileser I., in the beginning of his reign, rebuilt the temple more magnificently than before ;* and from that time it seems to have remained among the principal shrines in Assyria. It was from a tradition connected with this ancient temple of Shamas-Vul, that Asshur in later times acquired the name of Telane or "the Mound of Anu" which it bears in Stephen." Anu's place among the "Great Gods" of Assyria is not so Assyria. (See Sir H. Bawlinson's Essay' 3 Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser /., § 45, in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 516, | p. 62. 4 Ibid. pp. 64-66. 2ni edition.) s Steph. Byz. ad voc. TtKdrn. Vide * Vol. i. ch. vii. pp. 110-148. I supra, vol. i. p. 116, note '. Chap. VIII. ANU. I I well marked as that of many other divinities. His name does not occur as an element in the names of kings or of other im- portant personages. He is omitted altogether from many solemn invocations.6 It is doubtful whether he is one of the gods whose emblems were worn by the king and inscribed upon the rock-tablets.7 But, on the other hand, where he occurs in lists, he is invariably placed directly after Asshur;8 and he is often coupled with that deity in a way which is strongly indica- tive of his exalted character. Tiglath-Pileser I., though omitting him from his opening invocation, speaks of him in the latter part of his great Inscription, as his lord and protector in the next place to Asshur. Asshur-izir-pal uses expressions as if lie were Anu's special votary, calling himself "him who honours Ami," or "him who honours Anu and Dagan."9 His son, the Black Obelisk king, assigns him the second place in the invo- cation of thirteen gods with which he begins his record.10 The kings of the Lower Dynasty do not generally hold him in much repute; Sargon, however, is an exception, perhaps because his ow n name closely resembled that of a god mentioned as one of Ann's sous.11 Sargon not unfrequently glorifies Ami, coupling him with Bel or Bil, the second god of the first Triad. He even made Ami the tutelary god of one of the gates of his new city, Bit-Sargina (Khorsabad), joining him in this capacity with the goddess Ishtar. Anu had but few temples in Assyria. He seems to have had none at either Nineveh or Calah, and none of any importance in all Assyria, except that at Asshur. There is, however, reason to believe that he was occasionally honoured with a shrine in a temple dedicated to another deity.'8 6 As from that of Tiglath-Pileser I. at the commencement of his great In- scription (p. 18). 7 Esarhaddon omits him from the list of gods whose emblems he places over his image (Assyrian Terts, p. 12). If the horned cap is rightly ascribed to Bel (see below, p. 13), there will be no emblem for Ann, since the others may be assigned with certainty to Asshur, Sin, Shamas, Vul, and Gula. s As in the Black Obelisk Inscript on, where he precedes Bel. Compare Inscrip- tion of Tiglath-Pileser I, pp. 40, 68, &c. B See Sir H. liawlinson's Essay in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 487, 2nd edition. 10 See the Dublin University Magazine for October, 1853, p. 420. 11 Sir H. Rnwlinson reads the name of one of Anu's sons as Sargana. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 488.) 11 Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., p. 40. 12 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONAECHY. BIL or BEL. The classical writers represent Bel as especially a Babylonian god, and scarcely mention his worship by the Assyrians;13 but the monuments show that the true Bel (called in the former volume Bel-Nimrod) was worshipped at least as much in the northern as in the southern country. Indeed, as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I., the Assyrians, as a nation, were especially entitled by their monarchs "the people of Belus;" 1 and the same periphrasis was in use during the period of the Lower Empire.2 According to some authorities, a particular quarter of the city of Nineveh was denominated "the city of Belus ;"3 which would imply that it was in a peculiar way under his protection. The word Bel does not occur very frequently as an element in royal names; it was borne, however, by at least three early Assyrian kings;4 and there is evidence that in later times it entered as an element into the names of leading personages, with almost as much frequency as Asshur.* The high rank of Bel in Assyria is very strongly marked. In the invocations his place is either the third or the second. The former is his proper position, but occasionally Anu is omitted, and the name of Bel follows immediately on that of Asshur.* In one or two places he is made third, notwithstand- 11 Herodotus seems to regard Belus, as an exclusively Babylonian god (i. 181). So Diodorus (ii. 8), Berosus (Frs. 1 and 2), Abydenus (Frs. 8 and 9), Dionysius Periegetes (1.1007), Claudian {Lie laude Stilich. i. 62), and others. Ac- cording to many he was the founder and first king of Babylon (Q. Curt. v. 1, tj 24; Eustath. ad. Dion. Per. 1. s. c, &c), which some regarded as built by his son (Steph. Byz. ad voc. BnfluA.wi'). Some considered that the great temple of Belus at Babylon was his tomb (Strab. xvi. p. 1049; compare vElian. Hist. Var. xiii. 3). His worship by the Assyrians is, however, admitted by Pliny (N. xxxvii. 53 and 58), Nonnus (Dionys. xviii. 14), and a few others. The ground of the difference thus made by the classical writers is probably the con- fusion between the first Bel and the second Bel—Bel-Merodach—the great Beat of whose worship was Babylon. 1 Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I. pp. 20 and 62. 2 See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 491. "Sargon speaks of the 350 kings who from remote antiquity ruled over Assyria and pursued after" (i.e. governed) " the people of Bilu-Nipru (Bel)." * Fox Talbot, Assyrian Texts, p. 6, note s. 1 See below, ch. ix. p. 49. s In the list of Eponyms contained in the famous Assyrian Canon I find, during 250 years, twenty-six in whose names Bel is an element, to thirty-two who have names compounded with Asshur. * As in the invocation of Tiglath- Pileser I. (Inscription, &c. p. 18). Chap. VIII. BIL OB BEL. 13 ing that Anu is omitted, Shamas, the Sun-god, being advanced over his head;7 but this is very unusual. The worship of Bel in the earliest Assyrian times is marked by the royal names of Bel-sumili-kapi and Bel-lush borne by two of the most ancient kings.8 He had a temple at Asshur in conjunction with II or Ra, which must have been of great antiquity, for by the time of Tiglath-Pileser L (b.c. 1130) it had fallen to decay and required a complete restoration, which it received from that monarch.9 He had another temple at Calah; besides which he had four "arks" or "tabernacles," the emplacement of which is uncertain.10 Among the later kings, Sargon especially paid him honour. Besides coupling him with Anu in his royal titles, he dedicated to him—in con- junction with Beltis, his wife—one of the gates of his city, and in many passages he ascribes his royal authority to the favour of Bel and Merodach.11 He also calls Bel, in the dedication of the eastern gate at Khorsabad, "the establisher of the founda- tions of his city." 12 It may be suspected that the horned cap, which was no doubt a general emblem of divinity, was also in an especial way the symbol of this god. Esarhaddon states that he set up over "the image of his majesty the emblems of Asshur, the Sun, Bel, Nin, and Ishtar."13 The other kings always include Bel among the chief objects of their worship. We should thus expect to find his emblem among those which the kings specially affected; and as all the other common emblems are assigned to distinct gods with tolerable certainty, the horned cap alone remaining doubtful, the most reasonable conjecture seems to be that it was Bel's symbol.14 It has been assumed in some quarters that the Bel of the 'As by Sennacherib (Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. xix. p. 163) and Esarhaddon (Assyrian Texts, p. 16). * See below, ch. ix. p. 49. • Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., pp. 56 58. "See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 492. 11 Oppert, Expedition scientifiqve en Mesopotamie, vol. ii. p. 337. 12 Sir H. Rawlinson, 1. s. c. '* Assyrian Texts, p. 16. 14 It is possible that the horned cap symbolised Anu, Bel, and Hoa equally; and the three caps at Bavian (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 211) may repre- sent the entire Triad. '4 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. Assyrians was identical with the Phoenician Dagon.15 A word which reads Da-gan is found in the native lists of divinities, and in one place the explanation attached seems to shew that the term was among the titles of Bel.'6 But this verbal resem- blance between the name Dagon and one of Bel's titles is pro- bably a mere accident, and affords no ground for assuming any connection between the two gods, who have nothing in common one with the other. The Bel of the Assyrians was certainly not their Fish-god; nor had his epithet Da-gan any real connection with the word dag, n, "a fish." To speak of " Bel-Dagon " is thus to mislead the ordinary reader, who naturally supposes from the term that he is to identify the great god Belus, the second deity of the first Triad, with the fish forms upon the sculptures. HEA or HOA. Hea or Hoa, the third god of the first Triad, was not a pro- minent object of worship in Assyria. Asshur-izir-pal mentions him as having allotted to the four thousand deities of heaven and earth the senses of hearing, seeing, and understanding; and then, stating that the four thousand deities had transferred all these senses to himself, proceeds to take Hoa's titles, and, as it were, to identify himself with the god." His son, Shalmaneser II., the Black-Obelisk king, gives Hoa his proper place in his opening invocation, mentioning him between Bel and Sin. Sargon puts one of the gates of his new city under Hoa's care, joining him with Bilat Hi—" the mistress of the gods"—who is, perhaps, the Sun-goddess, Gula. Sennacherib, after a success- ful expedition across a portion of the Persian Gulf, offers sacri- fice to Hoa on the seashore, presenting him with a golden boat, a golden fish, and a golden coffer. But these are exceptional instances; and on the whole it is evident that in Assyria Hoa was not a favourite god. The serpent, which is his emblem, though found on the black stones recording benefactions and 15 Oppert, Expedition scientifquc, vol. ii. pp. 88, 263, 264, See. "Sir H. Rawlinson, Essay, p. 487. "Sir H. Rawlinson, Essa;/, pp. 494. 495. Compare above, vol. i. p. 123. note Chap. VIII. MYLITTA OB BELTIS. frequent on the Babylonian cylinder-seals, is not adopted by the Assyrian kings among the divine symbols which they wear or among those which they inscribe above their effigies. The word Hoa does not enter as an element into Assyrian names. The kings rarely invoke him. So far as we can tell, he had but two temples in Assyria, one at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat), and the other at Calah (Nimrud). Perhaps the devotion of the Assyrians to Nin—the tutelary god of their kings and of their capital—who in so many respects resembled Hoa,1 caused the worship of Hoa to decline and that of Nin gradually to super- sede it. MYLITTA or BELTIS. Beltis, the " Great Mother," the feminine counterpart of Bel, ranked in Assyria next to the Triad consisting of Anu, Bel, and Hoa. She is generally mentioned in close connection with Bel, her husband, in the Assyrian records. She appears to have been regarded in Assyria as especially " the queen of fertility," or "fecundity," and so as "the queen of the lands,"2 thus resembling the Greek Demeter, who, like Beltis, was known as "the Great Mother." Sargon placed one of his gates under the protection of Beltis in conjunction with her husband, Bel; and Assliur-bani-pal, his great-grandson, repaired and rededicated to her a temple at Nineveh, which stood on the great mound of Koyunjik.3 She had another temple at Asshur, and probably a third at Calah.4 She seems to have been really known as Beltis in Assyria, and as Mylitta (Mulita) in Babylonia, though we should naturally have gathered the reverse from the extant classical notices.5 'See vol. i. p. 132. 3 Herodotus, in two places (i. 131 and * See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 199), gives Mylitta as the Assyrian name of the goddess, while Hesychius 3 Ibid. p. 497. A vast number of in- calls Belthes (BiiAfliji) the Bahylonim scriled slabs have been hmught from Juno or Venus, and Abydenus makes this edifice. It was originally erected Nebuchadnezzar speak of "Queen Bel- by Asshur-izir-pal. 'tla " (17 fWiAtia B^Atis, Fr. 9). Nicolas 1 It is doubtful whether the Calah of Damascus, however, gives Molis as temple was dedicated to Beltis or to the Babylonian term {Fr. Hist. Gr. vol. Ishtar, as the epithets used would apply iii. p. 361, note 16). The fact seems to to either goddess. , be that Mulita was Hamitic-Chaldwan, i6 THE SECOND MONARCHY. CHAr. VIH SIN or THE MOON. Sin, the Moon-god, ranked next to Beltis in Assyrian mytho- logy, and his place is thus either fifth or sixth in the full lists according as Beltis is, or is not, inserted. His worship in the time of the early empire appears from the invocation of Tiglath- Pileser L, where he occurs in the third place, between Bel and Shamas.6 His emblem, the crescent, was worn by Asshur-izir- pal,7 and is found wherever divine symbols are inscribed over their effigies by the Assyrian kings. There is no sign which is more frequent on the cylinder-seals, whether Babylonian or Assyrian,8 and it would thus seem that Sin was among the most popular of Assyria's deities. The Moon-god (from His name occurs sometimes, though not so fre- a cylinder). quently as some others, in the appellations of important personages, as e. g. in that of Sennacherib, which is explained to mean "Sin multiplies brethren." Sargon, who thus named one of his sons, appears to have been specially attached to the worship of Sin, to whom, in conjunction with Shamas, he built a temple at Khorsabad,9 and to whom he assigned the second place among the tutelary deities of his city.10 The Assyrian monarchs appear to have had a curious belief in the special antiquity of the Moon-god. When they wished to mark a very remote period, they used the expression "from the origin of the god Sin."11 This is perhaps a trace of the ancient connection of Assyria with Babylonia, where the earliest capital, Ur, was under the Moon-god's protection, and the most primeval temple was dedicated to his honour.'2 Bilta Semitic-Assyrian. Mulita was, however, known to the Assyrians, who derived their religion from the southern country, and Bilta was adopted by the (later) Babylonians, who were Semitized from Assyria. 'Inscription, &c, p. 18. 7 Lay arid, Monuments, 1st Series, PI. 25. 1 The form is always a crescent, with the varieties represented in vol. i. p. 125: sometimes, however, the god himself is represented as issuing from the crescent, as in the above woodcut. 0 Oppert, ICxjye'dition scientifiquc, voL ii. p. 330. 10 Ibid. p. 343. "Sargon speaks of the Cyprians as "a nation of whom from the remotest times, from the origin of the God Sin, the kings my fathers, who ruled over As- syria and Babylonia, had never heard mention.'' (See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 507.) 12 See vol. i. pp. 125, 126. Chap. VIII. SHAMAS. 17 Only two temples are known to have been erected to Sin in Assyria. One is that already mentioned as dedicated by Sargon at Bit-Sargina (Khorsabad) to the Sun and Moon in conjunction. The other was at Calah, and in that Sin had no associate. SHAM AS. Shamas, the Sun-god, though in rank inferior to Sin, seems to have been a still more favourite and more universal object of worship. From many passages we should have gathered that he was second only to Asshur in the estimation of the Assyrian nionarchs, who sometimes actually place him above Bel in their lists.13 His emblem, the four-rayed orb, is worn by the king upon his neck,14 and seen more commonly than almost any other upon the cylinder-seals. It is even in some instances united with that of Asshur, the central circle of Asshur's emblem being marked by the fourfold rays of Shamas.'* The worship of Shamas was ancient in Assyria. Tiglath- Pileser I. not only names him in his invocation, but represents himself as ruling especially under his auspices.16 Asshur- izir-pal mentions Asshur and Shamas as the tutelary deities under whose influence he carried on his various wars.17 His sou, the Black-Obelisk king, assigns to Shamas his proper place among the gods whose favour he invokes at the commencemeut of his long Inscription.18 The kings of the Lower Empire were even more devoted to him than their predecessors. Sargon dedicated to him the north gate of his city, in conjunction with Vul, the god of the air, built a temple to him at Khorsabad in conjunction with Sin, and assigned him the third place among the tutelary deities of his new town.19 Sennacherib and Esar- '* As. Soc. Journal, vol. xix. p. 163; Assyrian Texts, p. 16. "Layard, Monuments, 1st Scries, PI. 82; 2nd Series, PI. 4. 15 See vol. i. p. 399, and compare Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, PI. 6, where the representation is more ac- curately given. VOL. II. "Inscription, &c, p. 20. "See Sir H. Kawlinson's Essay, p. 501. 18 Dublin Univ. Mag. for Oct. 1853, p. 420. "Oppert, Expedition, &c., pp. 330, 344. C IS Chap. VHf. THE SECOND MONARCHY. haddon mention his name next to Asshur's in passages where they enumerate the gods whom they regard as their chief protectors. Excepting at Kborsabad, where he had a temple (as above mentioned) in conjunction with Sin, Shamas does not appear to have had any special buildings dedicated to his honour.1 His images are, however, often noticed in the lists of idols, and it is Emblems of the sun and probable therefore that he received worship moon (from cylinders). ^emp^es dedicated to other deities. His emblem is generally found conjoined with that of the moon, the two being placed side by side or the one directly under the other. VUL or 1VA. This god, whose name is still so uncertuin,2 was known in Assyria from times anterior to the independence, a temple having been raised in his sole honour at Asshur,3 the original Assyrian capital, by Shamas-Vul, the son of the Chaldaean king Ismi-Dagon, besides the temple (already mentioned)4 which the same monarch dedicated to him in conjunction with Ann. These buildings having fallen to ruin by the time of Tiglath- Pileser I., were by him rebuilt from their base; and Vul, who was worshipped in both, appears to have been regarded by that monarch as one of his special "guardian deities."6 In the Black-Obelisk invocation Vul holds the place intermediate between Sin and Shamas, and on the same monument is recorded the fact that the king who erected it held, on one occasion, a festival to Vul in conjunction with Asshur.6 Sargon names Vul in the fourth place among the tutelary deities-of his 1 Sec Sir II. Rawlinson's Essay, p. in that character. (See below, p. 21.) 802. "Dublin I'nic. Magazine for Oct. 18">3. - See vol. i. p. 112, note '. p. 42fi. Vul is often joined with Asshur * Inscription of Tiylith-Filett'r /., p. in invocations, more especially where 66. I a curse is Invoked on those who injure * Supra, p. 10. the royal inscriptions. (See the Tixjltith- s See Inscription, 8tc, p. 30, where I'ileser Inscription, p. 72, and compare Vul is called "my guardian God." | the still earlier inscription on Tiglathi- ISinip, however, occurs more frequently Nin's signet-scnl, infra, ch. ix ) Chap. VIII. VUL OR IVA. >9 city,7 and dedicates to him the north gate in conjunction with the Sun-god, Shamas.8 Sennacherib speaks of hurling thunder on his enemies like Vul,9 and other kings use similar expres- sions.10 The term Vul was frequently employed as an element in royal and other names;11 and the emblem which seems to have symbolized him—the double or triple bolt12—appears con- stantly among those worn by the kings13 and engraved above their heads on the rock-tablets.14 Vul had a temple at Calah15 besides the two temples in which he received worship at Asshur. It was dedicated to him in conjunction with the goddess Shala, who appears to have been regarded as his wife. It is not quite certain whether we can recognise any repre- sentations of Vul in the Assyrian remains. Perhaps the figure with four wings and a horned cap,16 who wields a thunderbolt in either hand, and attacks there- with the monster, half lion, half eagle, which is known to us from the Nimrud sculptures, may be intended for this deity. If so, it will be rea- sonable also to recognise him in the figure with uplifted foot, sometimes perched upon an ox, and bearing, like the other, one or two thunder- bolts, which occasionally occurs upon the cylin- ders.17 It is uncertain, however, whether the former of these figures is not one of the many different representations of Nin, the Assyrian The god of the at- Hercules: and, should that prove the true ex- n>osph*rc (from '* r a cylinder). planation in the one case, no very great confi- dence could be felt in the suggested identification in the other, : Oppert, Exjitfditiun scitntifir/iu:, vol. 1 In the Assyrian Canon ten of the Epo- ii. p. 3+4. N nj ms have names in which Vul is an "Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 499. element. • Journal of As. Society, voL xix. p. 11 Supra, vol. i. p. 130. 163. i 1J Supra, vol. i. p. 489. "They "rush on the enemy like the 14 As at Bavian (Layard, Ainereh and whirlwind of Vul." or " sweep a country I Bibylon, p. 211). as with the whirlwind of Vul." Vul is I ls Sir H. Rawlinson, Essay, p. 50u. '"he who causes the tempest to rage j "Layard, Monument*, 2nd Series, over hostile lands," in the Tiglath-Pi- j VI 5. Inter inscription. "Layard, PI. xxvii. No. 5; Culli- "As in Vul-lush, Shamas-Vul, &c. more, PI. 21, No. 107. 20 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. GULA. Gula, the Sun-goddess, does not occupy a very high position among the deities of Assyria. Her emblem, indeed, the eight- rayed disk, is borne, together with her husband's, by the Assyrian monarchs,18 and is inscribed on the rock-tablets, on the stones recording benefactions, and on the cylinder-seals, with remarkable frequency. But her name occurs rarely in the inscriptions, and, where it is found, appears low down in the lists. In the Black-Obelisk invocation, out of thirteen deities named, she is the twelfth.19 Elsewhere she scarcely appears, unless in inscriptions of a purely religious character. Perhaps she was commonly regarded as so much one with her husband that a separate and distinct mention of her seemed not to be requisite. Gula is known to have had at least two temples in Assyria. One of these was at" Asshur, where she was worshipped in combination with ten other deities, of whom one only, Ishtar. was of high rank.*0 The other was at Cnlah, where her husband had also a temple.21 She is perhaps to be identified with Bilal- Ili, "the mistress of the gods," to whom Sargon dedicated one of his gates in conjunction with Hoa.22 NINIP or NIX. Among the gods of the second order, there is none whom the Assyrians worshipped with more devotion than Nin or Ninip. In traditions which are probably ancient, the race of their kings was derived from him,1 and after him was called the mighty city which ultimately became their capital. As early as the thirteenth century B.C. the name of Nin was used as an element in royal appellations;2 and the first king who has left '* Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, PI. see pp. 503, 504. 82; 2nd Series, PI. 4. 1 The Ninus of the Greeks can be no "Dublin Uni<-. Mag. p. 420. I other than the Kin or Ninjp of the 20 Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 504, Inscriptions. Herodotus probably (i. 7), note". I Ctesias certainly (Diod. Sic. ii. 1-21), "Ibid. I. s. c. I derived the kings of the Upper Dynasty ** Ibid. p. 494; and on the presumed from Ninus. identification of Gula with Bilat-fli, , * See below, ch. ix. p. 58. Chap. VIII. NINTF OE NIN. 21 us an historical inscription regarded himsolf as being in an especial way under Nin's guardianship. Tiglath-Pileser I. is "the illustrious prince whom Asshur and Nin have exalted to the utmost wishes of his heart."3 He speaks of Nin sometimes singly, sometimes in conjunction with Asshur, as his "guardian deity."4 Nin and Nergal make his weapons sharp for him, and under Nin's auspices the fiercest beasts of the field fall beneath them.* Asshur-izir-pal built him a magnificent temple at Nimrud (Calah).6 Shamas-Vul, the grandson of this king, dedicated to him the obelisk which he set up at that place in commemoration of his victories.7 Sargon placed his newly- built city in part under his protection,8 and specially invoked him to guard his magnificent palace.9 The ornamentation of that edifice indicated in a very striking way the reverence of the builder for this god, whose symbol, the winged bull,10 guarded all its main gateways, and who seems to have been actually represented by the figure strangling a lion, so con- spicuous on the Hareem portal facing the great court.11 Nor did Sargon regard Nin as his protector only in peace. He ascribed to his influence the successful issue of his wars; and it is probably to indicate the belief which he entertained on this point that he occasionally placed Nin's emblems on the sculp- tures representing his expeditions.18 Sennacherib, the son and successor of Sargon, appears to have had much the same feelings towards Nin as his father, since in his buildings he gave the same prominence to the winged bull and to the figure strangling the lion; placing the former at almost all his door- ways, and giving the latter a conspicuous position on the grand * Inscription, p. 60. 4 Ibid. pp. 54-56. 'Ibid. Uc * This is the edifice described by Mr. Layard (Nineteh and Babylon, pp. 123- 129 and 348-357 ). 'Sir H. Rawlinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 512, 513, 2nd edition. * Oppert. Exp^lition scientifique, vol. ii. p. 344. * Ibid. pp. 333, 334. '• Supra, vol. i. p. 133. "See the woodcut, vol. i. p. 288. For representations of the many modifica- tions which this figure underwent, see Mons. F. Lajard's work, Culte de liithra, Pis. lxxiv. to cii.; and on the general subject of the Assyrian Hercules, see M. Raoul Rochette's memoir in the Me"moires de tlmtitnt, vol. xvii. "Botta, Monument, Pis. 32 to 34. The emblems given are 1. the winged bull (PI. 33), 2. the winged bull with a human head (PI. 32), and 3. the human- headed fish (Pis. 32 and 34). 22 Chap. VIH. THE SECOND MONARCHY. facade of his chief palace.13 Esarhaddon relates that he con- tinued in the worship of Nin, setting up his emblem over his own royal effigy, together with those of Asshur, Shamas, Bel, and Ishtar.14 It appears at first sight as if, notwithstanding the general prominency of Nin in the Assyrian religious system, there was one respect in which he stood below a considerable number of the gods. We seldom find his name used openly as an element in the royal appellations. In the list of kings three only will be found with names into which the term Nin enters.15 But there is reason to believe that, in the case of this god, it was usual to speak of him under a periphrasis;1B and this peri- phrasis entered into names in lieu of the god's proper designa- tion. Five kings (if this be admitted) may be regarded as named after him; which is as large a number as we find named after any god but Vul and Assliur. The principal temples known to have been dedicated to Nin in Assyria were at Calah, the modern Nimrud. There the vast structure at the north-western angle of the great mound, in- cluding the pyramidical eminence which is the most striking feature of the ruins, was a temple dedicated to the honour of Nin by Asshur-izir-pal, the builder of the North-West Palace. We can have little doubt that this building represents the "busta Nini" of the classical writers, the place where Ninus (Nin or Nin-ip), who was regarded by the Greeks as the hero- founder of the nation, was interred and specially worshipped. Nin had also a second temple in this town, which bore the name of Bit-Jcura (or Beth-kura), as the other one did of Bit-zira (or Beth-zira).17 It seems to have been from the fane of Beth-zira that Nin had the title Pal-zira, which forms a substitute for Nin, as already noticed,18 in one of the royal names. "Layard, Xineceh ami Babylon, p. | "the son of Zira." The latter title is 137. i that which the Jews have represented 14 Assyrian Texts, p. 16. by the second clement in Tiglath-ZVeser. 11 Nin-pnla-zira and the twoTiglathi- 17 Sir II. Rawlinson in the author's Nin?. (See below, ch. ix.) Hermhtus, vol. i. pp. 512, 513, 2nd 18 Nin was called "Pal-kura" and edition. "Pal-zira," "the son of Kura," and | ,s See above, note " Chap. VIII. MERODACH AND NERGAL. 23 MERODACII. Most of the early kings of Assyria mention Merodach in their opening invocations, and we sometimes find an allusion in their inscriptions, which seems to imply that he was viewed as a god of great power.19 But he is decidedly not a favourite object of worship in Assyria until a comparatively recent period. Vul- lush III. indeed claims to have been the first to give him a prominent place in the Assyrian Pantheon ;so and it may bo conjectured that the Babylonian expeditions of this monarch furnished the impulse which led to a modification in this respect of the Assyrian religious system. The later kings, Sargon and his successors, maintain the worship introduced by Vul-lush. Sargon habitually regards his power as conferred upon him by the combined favour of Merodach and Asshur,21 while Esarhaddon sculptures Merodach's emblem, together with that of Asshur, over the images of foreign gods brought to him by a suppliant prince.™ No temple to Merodach is, however, known to have existed in Assyria, even under the later kings. His name, however, was not infrequently used as an element in the appel- lations of Assyrians.23 NERGAL. Among the minor gods, Nergal is one whom the Assyrians seem to have regarded with extraordinary reverence. He was the divine ancestor from whom the monarchs loved to boast that they derived their descent — the line being traceable, according to Sargon, through three hundred and fifty genera- tions.1 They symbolized him by the winged lion with a human "The Black-Obelisk king says in one place that "the fear of Asshur and Merodach" fell upon his enemies. (0u'Jin Cnic. M"J. f>r Oct. 1853, p. 426.) 20 See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 516, note "Oppert, Expedition scientifique, vol. ii. p. 337. "Assyrvm Texts, p. 13. Merodach, though an clement in so many names of Babylonian kings, is no part of the name of any Assyrian monarch. In M. Oppert's list of Epo- nyms, however, out of about 240 names, twelve arc compounded with Merodach. 1 Sec Sir II. Kawlinson's Essay in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 519, V'nd edition. 24 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. YIIT. head,2 or possibly sometimes by the mere natural lion ;3 and it was to mark their confident dependence on his protection that they made his emblems so conspicuous in their palaces. Nin and Nergal—the gods of war and hunting, the occupations in which the Assyrian monarchs passed their lives—were tutelary divinities of the race, the life, and the homes of the kings, who associate the two equally in their inscriptions and their sculptures. Nergal, though thus honoured by the frequent mention of his name and erection of his emblem, did not (so far as appears) often receive the tribute of a temple. Sennacherib dedicated one to him at Tarbisi (now Sherif-khan), near Khorsabad;* and he may have had another at Calah (Nimrud), of which he is said to have been one of the " resident gods."5 But generally it would seem that the Assyrians were content to pay him honour in other ways6 without constructing special buildings devoted exclusively to his worship. 1SHTAR. Ishtar was very generally worshipped by the Assyrian monarchs, who called her "their lady," and sometimes in their invocations coupled her with the supreme god Asshur.7 She had a very ancient temple at Asshur, the primeval capital, which Tiglath-Pileser I. repaired and beautified.8 Asshur-izir- pal built her a second temple at Nineveh,9 and she had a third at Arbela, which Asshur-bani-pal states that he restored.10 2 Supra, vol. i. pp. 136-138. * The natural lion is more extensively used as an architectural form by the Assyrians than the winged lion. It occurs not only in central Assyria, as at Nimrud (Layard's Nin. and Bab. p. 359), but also in the remoter provinces, as at Arban (Layard, p. 278) and Seruj (Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 114; supra, vol. i. p. 197). 4 See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 520. 1 Ibid. p. 519, note *. Is not the smaller temple, with the Lion entrance, at the north-western corner of the I Nimrud mound, a temple of Nergal, as the larger one is of Ninip? * Nergal was not, however, often chosen to furnish an element of a name. By no Assyrian sovereign was he thus honoured. In the case of the Eponyms, only about one out of thirty has a name compounded with Nergal. : See the Inscription- of Sennacherib in the Asiatic Society's Journal, vol. xix. p. 170. 'Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., pp. 40, 41. • Sir H. Rawlinson. Estay, p. 522. ■• Ibid. 1. s. c. Chap. VIII. NEBO. 25 Sargon placed under her protection, conjointly with Anu, the western gate of his city; and his son, Sennacherib, seems to have viewed Asshur and Ishtar as the special guardians of his progeny." Asshur-bani-pal, the great hunting king, was a devotee of thfe goddess, whom he regarded as presiding over his special diversion—the chase. What is most remarkable in the Assyrian worship of Ishtar is the local character assigned to her. The Ishtar of Nineveh is distinguished from the Ishtar of Arbela, and both from the Ishtar of Babylon, separate addresses being made to them in one and the same invocation.1* It would appear that in this case there was, more decidedly than in any other, an identifica- tion of the divinity with her idols, from which resulted the mul- tiplication of one goddess into many. The name of Ishtar appears to have been rarely used in Assyria in royal or other appellations. It is difficult to account for this fact, which is the more remarkable, since in Phcenioia Astarte, which corresponds closely to Ishtar, is found repeatedly as an element in the royal titles.13 NERO. Nebo must have been acknowledged as a god by the Assyrians from very ancient times, for his name occurs as an element in a royal appellation as early as the twelfth century B.C.H He seems, however, to have been very little worshipped till the time of Vul-lush III., who first brought him prominently forward in the Pantheon of Assyria after an expedition which he conducted into Babylonia, where Nebo had always been in high favour. Vul-lush set up two statues to Nebo at Calah,11 11 Sennacherib speaks of Asshur and Ishtar as about tu "call the kings his sons to their sovereignty over Assyria," and begs Asshur and Ishtar to "hear their prayers " {Journal of Asiatic Society, 1. B. C). '* As in that of Esarhaddon (Assyrian Texts, p. 10) and in that of Sennacherib (As. Soc. Journal, vol. xix. p. 163). Compare the inscription on the slab brought from the Negub tunnel. "As in the names Astartus, Abdas- tartus, Dcln?astartus, and Gerastartus. (Menand. Ephes. Frs. 1 and 2.) In M. Oppert's list of Eponyms, only five out of more than 240 have names in which Ishtar is an element, 14 See below, ch. ix. p. 61. 1J One of these is represented in the woodcut, vol. i. p. 141. The two are, ns nearly as possible, facsimiles. 26 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. and probably built bim the temple there which was known as Bit-Suggil, or Beth-Saggil, from whence the god derived one of his appellations.16 He did not receive much honour from Sargon; but both Sennacherib and Esarhaddon held him in considerable reverence, the latter even placing* him above Merodach in an important invocation.17 Asshur-bani-pal also paid him considerable respect, mentioning him and his wife Warmita, as the deities under whose auspices he undertook certain literary, labours.18 It is curious that Nebo, though he may thus almost be called a late importation into Assyria, became under the Later Dynasty (apparently) one of the most popular of the gods. In the latter portion of the list of eponyms obtained from the celebrated "Canon," we find Nebo an element in the names as frequently as any other god excepting Asshur. Regarding this as a test of popularity we should say that Asshur held the first place; but that his supremacy was closely contested by Bel and Nebo, who were held in nearly equal repute, both being far in advance of any other deity. Besides these principal gods, the Assyrians acknowledged and worshipped a vast number of minor divinities, of whom, how- ever, some few only appear to deserve special mention. It may be noticed in the first place, as a remarkable feature of this people's mythological system, that each important god was closely associated with a goddess, who is commonly called his wife, but who yet does not take rank in the Pantheon at all in accordance with the dignity of her husband.1 Some of these goddesses have been already mentioned, as Beltk, the feminine counterpart of Bel; Gula, the Sun-goddess, the wife of Shamas; and Ishtar, who is sometimes represented as the wife of Nebo.' To the same class belong Sheruha, the wife of Asshur; Anata, "Nebo was called Pal-Bit-Sagijil, as Ninip was called J'at-zira (supra, p. 22; compare Sir H. Rawlinson's Essay, p. 524). 17 Assyrian Trxts, p. 10. "Sir H. Rawlinson, Fssa'/, I. s. c. 1 Sec Sir H. Rawlinson s k'mty in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 484, note !. While Beltis, the wife of Bel, and Gula, the wife of Shamas, are deities of high rank and importance, Sheruha, the wife of Asshur, and Anuta, the wife of Ann, occupy a very insignificant position. * Supra, pp. 15, 20, and 24. Chap. VIII. TABLE OF ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 27 or Anuta, the wife of Anu; Dav-Kina, the wife of Hea or Hoa; Shala, the wife of Vul or Iva; Zir-banit, the wife of Merodach; and Laz, the wife of NergaL Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, and iSin, the Moon-god, have also wives, whoso proper names are unknown, but who are entitled respectively "the Queen of the Land " and " the Great Lady."3 Nebo's wife, according to most of the Inscriptions, is Warmita; but occasionally, as above remarked,4 this name is replaced by that of Ishtar. A tabular view of the gods and goddesses, thus far, will probably be found of use by the reader towards obtaining a clear conception of the Assyrian Pantheon:— Table of the Chief Assyrian Deities, arranged iu their proper order. Godi. Correspondent Goddesses. Chief Seat of Worship (If any). Asshur Sberuha. Ana Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat). Asshur, Calah (Nimrud). Asshur, Calah. Bel .. .. Hoa .. .. Belli* Sin .. .. "The Groat Lady" .. .. Cal.ih, Bit-Sargina (Klior- 8hninas Vul .. .. Gula sabad). Bit-Sargina. Asshur, Calah. SLala Nin .. .. Merodach .. Nergal.. .. Nebo .. "The Queen of the Land" Zir-Banit. Calah, Nineveh. Laz Tarhisi (Shcrif-Klian). Calah. Warmita (Ishtar?) .. .. It appears to have been the general Assyrian practice to unite together in the same worship, under the same roof, the female and the male principle.5 The female deities had in fact, for the most part, an unsubstantial character; they were ordinarily the mere reflex image of tho male, and consecpiently could not /tand alone, but required tjie support of the stronger sex to give them something of substance and reality. This was the general rule; but at the same time it was not without certain ex- ceptions. Ishtar appears almost always as an independent and 3 Sir H. Kawlinson's I.'ssay, pp. 500 and 513. 4 Supra, p. 20. 1 See Sir IK Ran linson s Esstiu, § 9, note 6, p. 514. 28 Chap. VIII. THE SECOND MONARCHY. unattached divinity;6 while Beltis and Gula are presented to us in colours as strong and a form as distinct as their husbands, Bel and Shamas. Again, there are minor goddesses, such as Telita, the goddess of the great marshes near Babylon,7 who stand alone, unaccompanied by any male. The minor male divinities are also, it would seem, very generally without female counterparts.8 Of these minor male divinities the most noticeable are Martu, a son of Anu, who is called "the minister of the deep," and seems to correspond to the Greek Erebus;9 Sargana, another son of Anu, from whom Sargon is thought by some to have derived his name;1 Idak, god of the Tigris; Supulat, lord of the Euphrates;2 aud II or Ba, who seems to be the Babylonian chief god transferred to Assyria, and there placed in a humble position.3 Besides these, cuneiform scholars recognise in the Inscriptions some scores of divine names, of more or less doubtful etymology, some of which are thought to designate distinct gods, while others may be names of deities known familiarly to us under a different appellation.4 Into this branch of the subject it is not proposed to enter in the present work, which addresses itself to the general reader. It is probable that, besides gods, the Assyrians acknowledged the existence of a number of genii, some of whom they regarded as powers of good, others as powers of evil. The winged figure wearing the horned cap, which is so constantly represented as • It is only in Babylonia, and even there during but one reign (that of Nebuchadnezzar), that Ishtar appears as the wife of Nebo. (See above, vol. i. p. 139.) Elsewhere she is separate and independent, attached as wife to no male deity, though not unfrequently conjoined with Asshur. 'Telita is, apparently, the goddess 1 488. k" mentioned by Berosus as the original of * Ibid. p. 526. the Greek BdKaatra. (Fr. 1.) The in- * Tiglath-Pileser I. repairs a temple scriptions of Sargon mention a city of II or Ra at Asshur about B.c. 1150. 8 Martu, however, has a wife, who is called "the lady of Tigganna" (Sir H. Kawlinson's Essay, § 3, ii., note '), and Idak, the god of the Tigris (men- tioned below), has a wife, Belat Muk (ibid. § 4, p. 526). * See vol. i. p. 115. Sir H. Rawlinson's £>say, p. named after her, which was situated on the lower Tigris. This is probably the 0aAa8a of Ptolemy (Geograph. v. 20), which he places near the mouth of the river. (Inscription, pp. 56-58.) Otherwise we scarcely hear of the worship of Ra out of Babylonia. 4 See Sir H. Rawlinson's Essiy, p. 527. Cuap. VIII. GOOD GENII. 29 attending upon the monarch when he is employed in any sacred function,5 would seem to be his tutelary genius—a benignant spirit who watches over him, and protects him from the spirits of darkness. This figure commonly bears in the right hand either a pomegranate or a pine-cone, while the left is either tree or else supports a sort of plaited bag or basket. Where the pine-cone is carried, it is invariably pointed towards the monarch, as if it were the means of communication between the protector and the protected, the instrument by which grace and (Nimrud). The sacred basket (Khorsabnd). power passed from the genius to the mortal whom he had under- taken to guard. Why the pine-cone was chosen for this pur- pose it is difficult to form a conjecture. Perhaps it had originally become a sacred emblem merely as a symbol of productiveness,6 after which it was made to subserve a further purpose, without much regard to its old symbolical meaning. The' sacred basket, held in the left hand, is of still more 4 Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, Pis. 6, 25, 36; Botta, Monument, Pis. 27 and 28. 6 Supra, page 9. 30 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chai\ VIII. dubious interpretation. It is an object of great elegance, always elaborately and sometimes very tastefully ornamented.7 Pos- sibly it may represent the receptacle in which the divine gifts are stored, and from which they can be taken by the genius at his discretion, to be bestowed upon the mortal under his care. Another good genius would seem to be represented by the hawk-headed figure, which is likewise found in attendance upon the monarch, attentively watching his proceedings. This figure has been called that of a god, and has been supposed to represent the Nisroch of Holy Scripture; * but the only ground for such an identification is the con- jectural derivation of Nisroch from a root nisr, which in some Semitic lan- guages signifies a " hawk " or " falcon." As nisr, however, has not been found with any such meaning in Assyrian, and as the word " Nisroch" nowhere appears in the Inscriptions,9 it must be regarded as in the highest degree doubtful whether there is any real connection between the hawk-headed figure and the god in whose temple Sennacherib was assassinated. The various readings of the Septuagint version10 make it extremely uncertain what was the name actually written in the original Hebrew test. Nisroch, which is utterly unlike any divine name hitherto found in the Assyrian records, is most probably a corruption. At any rate there are no sufficient grounds for identifying the god mentioned, whatever the true reading of his name may be, with the hawk- The hawk-hcaded genius (Khorsabad). 7 The basket is often ornamented with winged figures in adoration before the sacred tree, and themselves holding baskets. (See I iturrtvtrai.— TpuciD. i. 20. The chronology of the Assyrian kingdom has long exercised, and divided, the judgments of the learned. On the one hand, Ctesias and his numerous followers—including, among the ancients, Cephalion, Castor, Diodorus Siculus, Nicolas of Damascus, Trogus Pompeius, Velleius Patercnlus, Josephus, Eusebius, and Moses of Chorene; among the moderns, Freret, Rollin, and Clinton—have given the kingdom a duration of between thirteen and fourteen hundred years, and carried back its antiquity to a time almost coeval with the founding of Babylon; on the other, Herodotus, Volney, Heeren, B. G. Niebuhr, Brandis, and many others, have preferred a chronology which limits the duration of the kingdom to about six centuries and a half, and places the commencement in the thirteenth century B.C., when a flourishing Empire had already existed in Chaldaea, or Babylonia, for a thousand years, or more. The questions thus mooted remain still, despite of the volumes which have been written upon them,1 so far undecided, that it will be necessary to entertain and discuss them at some length in this place, before entering on the historical sketch which is needed to complete our account of the Second Monarchy. The duration of a single unbroken empire continuously for 1300 (or 1360) years,2 which is the time assigned to the Assyrian 1 See particularly the long Essays of the Abbe Sevin and of Freret in the M&moire* de CAcademic des hiscriptitms, vols. iv. and vii. (12th edition). Com- pare Volney, Recherches stir CHiatoire andenne, vol. i. pp. 381-511, and Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. Ap. ch. iv. 2 The latter is the number in the present text of Diodorus (ii. 21). But Agathias and Syncellus seem to have had 1306 in their copies. (See Agath. ii. 25, p. 120; Syncell. p. 359, C. Com- pare Augustin. Civ. D. xviii. 21.) 44 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. Monarchy by Ctesias, must be admitted to be a tbing hard of belief, if not actually incredible. The Roman State, with all its elements of strength, had (we are told), as kingdom, common- wealth, and empire, a duration of no more than twelve centu- ries.3 The Chaldaean Monarchy lasted, as we have seen,4 about a thousand years, from the time of the Elamite conquest. The duration of the Parthian was about five centuries;s of the first Persian, less than two and a half;6 of the Median, at the utmost, one and a half;7 of the later Babylonian, less than one.8 The only monarchy existing under conditions at all similar to Assyria, whereto an equally long—or rather a still longer— duration has been assigned with some show of reason, is Egypt.9 But there, it is admitted that the continuity was in- terrupted by the long foreign domination of the Hyksos, and by at least one other foreign conquest—that of the Ethiopian Sabacos or Shebeks. According to Ctesias, one and the same dynasty occupied the Assyrian throne during the whole period of thirteen hundred years, Sardanapalus, the last king in his list, being the descendant and legitimate successor of Ninus.10 There can be no doubt that a monarchy lasting about six centuries and a half, and ruled by at least two or three different dynasties, is per se a thing far more probable than one ruled by one and the same dynasty for more than thirteen centuries. And, therefore, if the historical evidence in the two cases is at all equal—or rather, if that which supports the more improbable account does not greatly preponderate—we ought to give * See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xxv. (vol. iv. pp. 251, 252, Smith's edition). * Supra, vol. i. p. 171. 4 From b.c. 256 to a.d. 226. (See Hceren's Manual of Ancient History, pp. 2l'9-304, E. T.) "From B.C. 559 to b.c. 331, the date of the battle of Arbela. 'Herod, i. 130. * From b.c. 625 to b.c. 538. (See the Historical Chapter of the "Fourth Monarchy.") "Moderate Egyptologers refer the commencement of a settled monarchy in Egypt to about B.C. 2600 or 2500 (Wilkinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 288-290; Stuart Poole in Smith's Bihlicai JJ&tiotiary ad voc. chronology). Mr. Palmer (Egyptian Chronicles, vol. ii. p. 896) brings the date down to b.c. 2224, and Mr. Nash (Pharaoh of the Exodus, p. 305) to B.C. 1785. The lowest of these dates would make the whole duration, from Menes to Nectanebus, fourteen and a half cen- turies. 10 Ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 21, § 8. Cbap. IX. SCHEMES OF OTESIAS AND HERODOTUS. 45 credence to the more moderate and probable of the two statements. Now, putting aside authors who merely re-echo the statements of others, there seem to be, in the present case, two and two only distinct original authorities—Herodotus and Ctesias. Of these two Herodotus is the earlier. He writes within two centuries of the termination of the Assyrian rule,1 whereas Ctesias writes at least thirty years later.8 He is of unimpeach- able honesty, and may be thoroughly trusted to have reported only what he had heard.3 He had travelled in the East, and had done his best to obtain accurate information upon Oriental matters, consulting on the subject, among others, the Chaldseans of Babylon.4 He had, moreover, taken special pains to inform himself upon all that related to Assyria, which he designed to make the subject of an elaborate work distinct from his general history.* Ctesias, like Herodotus, had had the advantage of visiting the East. It may be argued that he possessed even better opportunities than the earlier writer for becoming acquainted with the views which the Orientals entertained of their own past Herodotus probably devoted but a few months, or at most a year or two, to his Oriental travels; Ctesias passed seventeen years at the Court of Persia.6 Herodotus was merely an ordinary traveller, and had no peculiar facilities for acquiring information in the East; Ctesias was court-physician to Arta- xerxes Mnemon,1 and was thus likely to gain access to any archives which the Persian kings might have in their keeping.8 1 The Assyrian rule terminated b.c. 625 (or, according to some, b.c. HOC). Herodotus seems to have died about b.c. 425. (See the author's Herodotus. Intro- duction, ch. i. p. 27, 2nd edition.) * Ctesias returned from Persia to Greece in the year b.c. 3H8. (See Mure's Literature of Greece, vol. v. p. 483.) He may have published his Persica about b.c. 395. Xenophon quotes it about b.c 380. * See the author's Herodotus, Intro-f duction, ch. iii. (vol. i. pp. 61-64, 2nd ed.) Compare Mure's Literature of Greece, vol. iv. p. 351. 4 Herod, i. 183. 5 Ibid. i. 10G and 184. Whether this intention was ever executed or no, is still a moot point among scholars. (See the author's Herotiis, vol. i. pp. 198, I 199, note ', 2nd edit.) 6 Died. Sic. ii. 32, § 4. 'Xen. Anab. i. 8, § 26. * Ctesias appears to have stated that he drew his history from documents written upon parchment belonging to the Persian kings (iie t&v fiao-'MK&v Sut&tpav, Diod. Sic. 1. s. c). 46 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. But these advantages seem to have been more than neutralised by the temper and spirit of the man. He commenced his work with the broad assertion that Herodotus was "a liar," * and was therefore bound to differ from him when he treated of the same periods or nations. He does differ from him, and also from Thucydides,10 whenever they handle the same transactions; but in scarcely a single instance where he differs from either writer does his narrative seem to be worthy of credit. The cuneiform monuments, while they generally confirm Herodotus, contradict Ctesias perpetually." He is at variance with Manetho on Egyptian, with Ptolemy on Babylonian, chronology.1* No in- dependent writer confirms him on any important point. His Oriental history is quite incompatible with the narrative of Scripture.13 On every ground, the judgment of Aristotle, of Plutarch, of Arrian, of Scaliger,14 and of almost all the best critics of modern times,15 with respect to the credibility of Ctesias, is to be maintained, and his authority is to be regarded as of the very slightest value in determining any controverted matter. The chronology of Herodotus, which is on all accounts to be preferred, assigns the commencement of the Assyrian Empire to about B.C. 1250, or a little earlier,16 and gives the monarchy a duration of nearly 650 years from that time. The Assyrians, • Phot. Biblhlhec. Cod. LXXII., p. 107. "Compare Ctes. Pers. Exc. § 32 ct Boq. with Thucyd i. 104, 109, and 110. 11 For proofs see the author's Hero- dotus, Introduction, ch. iii. (vol. i. p. 63, note»). 12 In the number of years which he assigns to the reigns of Cambyses and Darius Hystaspis. '* E.g. he places the destruction of Nineveh about B.C. 875, long before the time of Jonah! » See Arist. Hist. An. ii. 3, § 10; iii. sub fin.; viii. 26, § 3; Qen. An. ii. 2; Pol. v. 8; Plut. Vit. ArUxerx. 13; Ar- rian. Exp. Alex. v. 4; Scaliger, fie emend, temp. Not. ad Fragm. subj. pp. 39-43. '* As Niebuhr (Lectures on An ient History, vol. i. pp. 21, 22, 28, 30); BunBen (EqypCs Place in Universal his- tory, vol. iii. p. 432); Mure (History of Greek Literature, vol. v. pp. 487-497), &c. 18 The Assj'rian 11 Empire," according to Herodotus (i. 95), lasted 520 years. The Medes then revolted, and remained for some time without a king. After a while the regal power was conferred on Dei'oces, who reigned 53 years. He was succeeded by his son Phraortes, who reigned 22 years. Cyaxares then as- cended the Median throne, and after reigning at least 30 years, took Nineveh and destroyed the Assyrian kingdom. This was (according to Herodotus) about •B.C. 603. The commencement of the empire was (520+x + 53-|-22-(-30 = ) 6'25-f ,i' years earlier, or b.c. 1229-rc Chap. IX. SCHEME OF BEROSUS. 47 according to him, held the undisputed supremacy of Western Asia for 520 years, or from about B.C. 1250 to about B.C. 730— after which they maintained themselves in an independent but less exalted position for about 130 years longer, till nearly the close of the seventh century before our era. These dates are not indeed to be accepted without reserve; but they approxi- mate to the truth, and are, at any rate, greatly preferable to those of Ctesias. The chronology of Berosus was, apparently, not very different from that of Herodotus. There can be no reasonable doubt that his sixth Babylonian dynasty represents the line of kings which ruled in Babylon during the period known as that of the Old Empire in Assyria. Now this line, which was Semitic, appears to have been placed upon the throne by the Assyrians, and to have been among the first results of that conquering energy which the Assyrians at this time began to develop. Its commencement should therefore synchronise with the foundation of an Assyrian Empire. The views of Berosus on this latter subject may be gathered from what he says of the former. Now the scheme of Berosus gave as the date of the establishment of this dynasty about ihe year B.C. 1300; and as Berosus undoubtedly placed the fall of the Assyrian Empire in B.C. 625, it may be concluded, and with a near approach to certainty, that he would have assigned the empire a duration of about 675 years, making it commence with the beginning of the thirteenth century before our era, and terminate midway in the latter half of the seventh. If this be a true account of the ideas of Berosus, his scheme of Assyrian chronology would have differed only slightly from that of Herodotus; as will be seen if we place the two schemes side by side. ASSYRIAN CHRONOLOGY. Aocokuikg to Hecodotdb. ab. B.C. ab. B.C. Croat Empire, lasting 620 years . 1250 to 730 Revolt of Medea .... 130 Curtailed Kingdom, laating 130 yra. 730 to 600 Destruction of Nineveh . . 600 ACCOKDING TO BkBOSCS. ab. b.c. ab. B.C Assyrian Dynasty of 45 kings in Babylon (526 years) . . . . 1301 to 775 Reign of Pul (about 28 years). . 775 to 747 Assyrian kings from Pul to Saracus (122 years) 747 to 625 Destruction of Nineveh . . 6i5 48 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. In the case of a history so ancient as that of Assyria, we might well be content if our chronology were vague merely to the extent of the variations here indicated. The parade of exact dates with reference to very early times is generally fallacious, unless it be understood as adopted simply for the sake of convenience. In the history of Assyria, however, we may make a nearer approach to exactness than in most others of the same antiquity, owing to the existence of two chronological documents of first-rate importance. One of these is the famous Canon of Ptolemy, which, though it is directly a Babylonian record, has important bearings on the chronology of Assyria. The other is an Assyrian Canon, discovered and edited by Sir H. Rawlinson in 1862,17 winch gives the succession of the kings for 251 years, commencing (as in thought) B.C. 911 and termi- nating B.C. 660, eight years after the accession of the son and successor of Esarhaddon. These two documents, which har- monise admirably, carry up an exact Assyrian chronology almost from the close of the empire to the tenth century before our era. For the period anterior to this we have, in the Assyrian records, one or two isolated dates, dates fixed in later times with more or less of exactness; and of these we might have been inclined to think little, but that they harmonise remarkably with the state- ments of Berosus and Herodotus, which place the commence- ment of the Empire about B.C. 1300, or a little later. We have, further, certain lists of kings, forming continuous lines of descent from father to son, by means of which we may fill up the blanks that would otherwise remain in our chronological scheme with approximate dates calculated from an estimate of generations. From these various sources the subjoined scheme has been composed, the sources being indicated at the side, and the fixed dates being carefully distinguished from those which are uncertain or approximate. "See Athenaeum, No. 1812. M. Op- pert's claim to the first publication of this document (Inscriptions dcs Sar- gonidcs, p. 15) is simply (and literally) preposterous. ClIAP. IX. PKOBABLE ACTUAL CHRONOLOGY. KINGS OF ASSYRIA. 49 Ah. 1440 to 1430 — 1420 to 1400 — 1400 to 1380 Bel-sumlli-kapl * • m Irba-vul • • • Asshur-lddin-akbl Assh ur-btl-ntsi -su Buxur-Asshur (successor) At.hhur-upaU.it (successor) — 138fl to 1360 Bel-lush (hfs Ron) — 1360 to 1340 Pud-il (his son) — 1340 to 1320 — 1320 to 1300 1300 to 1280 — 1230 to 1210 — 1210 to 1190 — im to ii7o — 1170 to 1150 — 1150 to 1130 — 1130 to 1110 — 1110 to 1090 — 1060 to 1070 930 to 911 911 to est 8S9 lo 883 683 to 858 858 to 823 *23 to 610 to 761 to 771 to 753 753 to 745 MO >1 771 745 to 727 727 to 722 722 to 706 705 to 681 681 to 668 6S8 to626(?)( 626 (?) to 6251 Assbur-dayan II. VnMush IL (Ma son) Ttglatbi-Nin IL (his son) Asshur-lzir-pal (his son) Sbalmaneser IL (hts son) Sbamas-Vul IL (his sou) Vul-Iush III. (his sod) Sbalmaneser III. Asuhur-dayan HL Asshui'tush Tlglath-pileser IL Shalnianeser IV. Sargon Sennacherib (his son) Ksar-haddon (his son) Asshur-hani-pal (his son) Aashur-emid-ilm Vul-lush 1. (his son) L(bissc Tiglathi-Nhj (bis son) Bel-kndur-uzur Nin-pala-zira (successor) As.->hur-dayan L (ois son) Mutaggll-Nebu (his son) Asshur-ris-illm (his son) Tiglath-pilrser 1. (bis son) Aasbur-bil-kala (his son) Shamas-Vul L (bis brother) ) Called the founder of the kingdom on a genealogical tablet. Mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I. as a former king. A. very archaic tablet in the British Museum is dated in his reign. Mentioned by Tiglath-pileserasa former king. Mentioned on a synchronistic tablet, which connects them with the time I* of 1'unia-puriyas, the ChuldiKLii king. Aa^hur-upallit mentioned on Kiteh- Sherghat bricks. Names and succession found on Kileh- Sherghat brickB, vases, kc. Shalnia- neser mentioned also on a genealogical slab and in the standard inscription of Nimrud. Mentioned on a genealogical tablet. Called "the conqueror of Babylon," and placed by Sennacherib 600 years befure his own capture uf Babylon in B.C. 703. Mentioned on the synchronistic tablet as the predecessor uf N'ln-pala-zira. Names and relationship given In cylinder of Tlglath-pileser L Mentioned on the synchronistic tablet above spoken of. Dutp of Tiglath* pileser 1. fixed by the Havian Inccrip- tbm. Dates of the other kings calcu- lated from his at 20 years to a genera- tion. Mentioned In an Inscription of Shalma- nestr IL ; The kings from As-hur-dayan II. to Vul-lush IIL are proved to have been in direct succession by the KHch- Sherghat and Nimrud monuments. The last nine reigns are given in the Assyrian Canon The Canon is the sole authority for the last three. The dates of the whole series are deter- mined from the Canon ot Ptolemy by calculating bick from B.C. 680, his date for the accession of Ksar-lmddon (Asaridanus). They might also be fixed from the year of the great eclipse. The years of these kings, from Esar- *\ i 3 a haddon upwards, are taken from the ^ « A>*yrlan Canon. The dates accord .£ 3 § strictly with the Canon of Pioleiny. ?^ The last year of As*hur-bani-pal is to fc^l? some extent conjectural. q o 3 I3 It will be observed that in this list the chronology of Assyria is carried back to a period nearly a century and a half anterior to B.c. 1300, the approximate date, according to Herodotus and VOL. IL B 5o Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. Berosus, of the establishment of the "Empire." It might have been concluded, from the mere statement of Herodotus, that Assyria existed before the time of which he spoke, since an Empire can only be formed by a people already flourishing. Assyria as an independent kingdom is the natural antecedent of Assyria as an Imperial power; and this earlier phase of her existence might reasonably have been presumed from the later.1 The monuments furnish distinct evidence of the time in question in the fourth, fifth, and sixth kings of tlie above list, who reigned while the Chaldaean Empire was still flourishing in Lower Meso- potamia.' Chronological and other considerations induce a belief that the four kings who follow likewise' belonged to it; and that tlie "Empire" commenced with Tiglathi-Nin I., who is the first great conqueror. The date assigned to the accession of this king, B.C. 1300, which accords so nearly with Berosus' date for the commence- ment of his 526 years, is obtained from ihe monuments in the following manner. First, Sennacherib, in an inscription set up in or about his 10th year (which was B.C. u'94), states that he recovered from Babylon certain images of gods, which had been carried thither by Merodach-iddiu-akhi, King of Babylon, who had obtained them in his war with Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, 418 years previously.3 This gives for the date of the war with Tiglath-Pileser the year B.C. 1112. As that monarch does not mention the Babylonian war in the annals which relate 'tlie events of his early years/ we must suppose his defeat to have taken place towards tlie close of his reign, and assign him the space from B.C. 1130 to BC. 1110, as, approximately, that during 1 Some writers have endeavoured to I 3 This important statement is con- reconcile Ctesias with Herodotus by ( turned in a rock-inscription at Bavian. supposing the former to speak of the It is evident from the employment of beginning of the kiwjihm of Assyria, an exact number (418), that Scnna- the latter of the commencement of the cherib believed himself to be in posscs- cmpire. (See Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, j sion of a perfectly accurate chronology vol. i. Appendix, ch. iv.) But this is a I for a period exceeding four centuries mere forced and artificial mode of pro- from his own time. The discovery of ducing nn apparent reconciliation, since the Assyrian Canon shows ub the mode it was really the Emi'ire which Ctesias in which such an exact chronology would mnde to begin with Ninua and Semi- have been kept, raniis (Diod. Sic. ii. 1-1'J). * Infra, pp. 65-68, and p. 77. * Infra, p. 55. Chap. IX. GROUNDS OF THE CHRONOLOGY. which he is likely to have held the throne. Allowing then (o the six monumental kings, who preceded Tiglath-Pileser, aver- age reigns of twenty years each, which is the actual average furnished by the lines of direct descent in Assyria, where the length of each reign is known,5 and, allowing fifty years for the break between Tiglathi-Nin and Bel-kudur-uzur, we are brought to (1130+120+50) B.C. 1300 for the accession of the first Tiglathi-Nin, who took Babylon, and is the first king of whom extensive conquests are recorded.8 Secondly, Sennacherib in another inscription reckons 600 years from his first conquest of Babylon (b.c. 703) to a year in the reign of this monarch. This "six hundred " may be used as a round number; but as Senna- cherib considered that he had the means of calculating exactly, he would probably not have used a round number, unless it was tolerably near to the truth. Six hundred years before B.C. 703 brings us to B.C. 1303. The chief uncertainty which attaches to the numbers in this part of the list arises from the fact that the nine kings from Tiglathi-Nin downwards do not form a single direct line. The inscriptions fail to connect Bel-kudur-uzur with Tiglathi-Nin, and there is thus a probable interval between the two reigns, the length of which can only be conjectured. The dates assigned to the later kings, from Yul-lush II. to Esar- haddon inclusive, are derived from the Assyrian Canon taken in combination with the famous Canon of Ptolemy. The agree- ment between these documents, and between the latter and the Assyrian records generally, is exact;7 and a confirmation is thus 5 Two such lines only arc obtainable j to Snrgon and 24 to Sennacherib, or 41 from the Assyrian lists. The first ex- i to the two together. Sargon's first year, tends fiom Yul-lush II. to VuF-lush III. . according to an Inscription of his own, inclusive : this contains six kings, whose I synchronised w-ith the first of Merodach- united reigns amount to 130 years, fur- Baludan, in Babylon. >iow from this nishingtliusanaveragcof 21!^ years. The I to the first of Ksarhaddon, Sennacherib's other begins with Sargon and terminates I son and successor, is exactly 41 years in with Saiil-mugina (haosduchinus), his i the Canon of Ptolemy. Again, Sargon great-grandson, containing lour reigns, ascribes to Merodach-Baladan, just as w hich cover a space of 74 years. The Ptolemy does, a reign of 12 years. Sen- average length of a reign is here 18^ , nachcrib assigns 3 years to Belib or veurs. The wcni average is thcreiorc, ! Bclijmu as Ptolemy does to Bclibus. and as nearly as possible, 20 years. I mentions that he was superseded in his • See below, pp. 58, 59. office by Asshur-inadi-su—Ptolemy's 1 The Assyrian Canon assigns 17 years Aparanadius or Assaranadius. Add to E 2 52 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. afforded to Ptolemy which is of no small importance. The date3 from the accession of Vul-lush II. (b.c. 911) to the death of Esarhaddon (b.c. 668) would seem to have the same degree of accuracy and certainty which has been generally admitted to attach to the numbers of Ptolemy. They have been confirmed by the notice of a great eclipse in the eighth year of Asshur- dayan III., which is undoubtedly that of June 15, B.C. 763.8 The reign of Asshur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus), the son and successor of Esarhaddon, which commenced B.C. 668, is carried down to B.C. 626 on the combined authority of Perosus, Ptolemy, and the monuments. The monuments show that Asshur-bani- pal proclaimed himself King of Pabylon after the death of Saul-mugina, whose last year was (according to Ptolemy) B.C. 6t7; and that from the date of this proclamation he reigned over Pabylon at least twenty years. Polyhistor, who reports Perosus, has left us statements which are in close accordance, and from which we gather that the exact length of the reign of Asshur-bani-pal over Pabylon was twenty-one years.* Hence, B.C. 626 is obtained as the year of his death. As Nineveh appears to have been destroyed B.C. 625 or 624, two years only are left for Asshur-bani-pal's son and successor, Asshur-emid- ilin, the Saracus of Abydenus. The framework of Assyrian chronology being thus approxi- mately, and, to some extent, provisionally settled, we may proceed to arrange upon it the facts, so far as they have come down to us, of Assyrian history. In the first place, then, if we ask ourselves where the Assy- rians came from, and at what time they settled in the country which thenceforth bore their name, we seem to have an answer, at any rate, to the former of these two questions, in Scripture. "Out of that land "—the land of Shinar—" went forth Asshur, this that in no case has the date of a king's reign on any tablet been found to exceed the number of years which Ptolemy allows him. ■ See Appendix A. "On the record of an eclipse in the Assyrian Canon." 9 Polyhistor gave the succession of the later Babylonian kings as follows:— Sennacherib, his son (i.e. Esarhaddon), Sammughcs (Saiil-mugina), Sardana- palus, his biother (Asshur-bani-pal), Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. The reign of Sardanapalus lasted (he said) 21 years. (Ap. Euseb. C/ir. Can. Pars v. §§ 2, 3.) Chap. IX. ORIGIN OF THE ASSYRIANS. 53 and builded Nineveh."1 The Assyrians, previously to their settlement opf the middle Tigris, had dwelt in the lower part of the great valley—the flat alluvial plain towards the mouths ot the two streams. It was here, in this productive region, where nature does so much for man, and so little needs to be sup- plied by himself, that they had grown from a family into a people; that they had learnt or developed a religion, and that they had acquired a knowledge of the most useful and necessary of the arts. It has been observed in a former chapter2 that the whole character of the Assyrian architecture is such as to indi- cate that their style was formed in the low flat alluvium, where there were no natural elevations, and stone was not to be had. It has also been remarked that their writing is manifestly derived from the Chaldsean;3 and that their religion is almost identical with that which prevailed in the lower country from a very early time.4 The evidence of the monuments accords thus, in the most striking way, with the statement of the Bible, exhibiting to us the Assyrians as a people who had once dwelt to the south, in close contact with the Chalda?aiis, and had removed after a while to a more northern position. With regard to the date of their removal, we can only say that it was certainly anterior to the time of the Chaldaean kings, Purna-puriyas and Kurri-galzu, who seem to have reigned in the fifteenth century before our era. If we could be sure that the city called in later times Asshur bore that name when Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, erected a temple there to Ami and Vul,5 we might assign to the movement a still higher antiquity; for Shamas-Vul belongs to the nineteenth century B.C.8 As, however, we have no direct evidence that either the 1 Gen. x. 10 and 11. The true meaning versions agree. (Compare Rosenmiiller, of the Hebrew has been doubted, and our I Schol. in (lines, p. 215.) translators have placed in the margin 2 See vol. i. ch. vi. p. 338, as an alternative version, "He | * Ibid. ch. v. p. 268 Nimrod) went out into Assyria, and builded Nineveh, &c." But the real meaning of "UPK K¥» Ninn yiHTj IJO would seem to be almost certainly that given in the text. So the Septuagint renders 'Ek t^s yrjs itttivTis i^rj\8ev 'Atraol/p, and the Syriac and Vulgate Supra, ch. viii. p. 1. 5 Tiglath-Pileser calls Shamas-Vul and his father " high-priests of the god Asshur" (Inscriptivn, p. 62), but says nothing of the name of the city at the time when the temple was erected. 'See vol. i. p. 164. 54 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. city or the country was known as Asshur until four centuries later, we must be content to lay it down that the Assyrians had moved to the north certainly as early as B.C. 1440, and that their removal may not improbably have taken place several centuries earlier.7 The motive of the removal is shrouded in complete obscurity. It may have been a forced colonization, commanded and carried out by the Chaldnean kings, who may have originated the system of transplanting to distant regions subject tribes of doubtful fidelity;8 or it may have have been the voluntary self- expatriation of an increasing race, pressed for room and dis- contented with its condition. Again, it may have taken place by a single great movement, like that of the Tartar tribes, who transferred their allegiance from Russia to China in the reign of the Empress Catherine, and emigrated in a body from the banks of the Don to the eastern limits of Mongolia;8 or it may have been a gradual and protracted change, covering a long term of years, like most of the migrations whereof we read in history. On the whole, there is perhaps some reason to believe that a spirit of enterprise about this time possessed the Semitic inhabi- tants of lower Mesopotamia, who voluntarily proceeded north- wards in the hope of bettering their condition. Terah conducted one body from Ur to Harran ;10 another removed itself from the shores of the Persian Gulf to those of the Mediterranean;11 while probably a third, larger than either of these two, ascended the course of the Tigris, occupied Adialene with the adjacent regions, and, giving its own tribal name of Asshur to its chief city and territory, became known to its neighbours first as a distinct, and then as an independent and powerful, people. The Assyrians for some time after their change of abode were 'It is important to bear in mind that : iii. p. 149; 2nd edition, on the mutilated Synchronistic tablet the I 3 Sec the account of this emigration names of Asshur-bel-nisi-su, &c, occur half way down the first column; which makes it probable that ten or a dozen names of Assyrian kings preceded them. 8 On the prevalence of this system in the Kast. see the author's /feroditrts. vol. i. p. 405; vol ii. p. 467; and vol. in SI. Homraaire de Hell's Travels m the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, pp. 227-235. Gen. \i. 31. "On the Phoenician emigration see Kcnrick's Plwmkia, pp. 46-48; and compare the author's Herodotus, vol. iv. pp. 196-202, 2nd edition. Cha?. IX. FIRST EVIDENCE OF INDEPENDENCE. 55 probably governed by Babylonian rulers, who held their office under the Chaldamn Emperor. Bricks of a Babylonian character have been found at Kileh-Sherghat, the original Assyrian capital, which are thought to be of greater antiquity than any of the purely Assyrian remains, and which may have been stamped by these provincial governors.12 Ere long, however, the yoke was thrown off, and the Assyrians established a separate monarchy of their own in the upper country, while the Clialdnean Empire was still flourishing under native monarehs of the old ethnic type in the regions nearer to the sea. The special evidence which we possess of the co-existence side by side of these two kingdoms is furnished by a broken tablet of a considerably later date,13 which seems to have contained, when complete, a brief but continuous sketch of the synchronous history of Babylonia and Assyria, and of the various transactions in which the monarehs of the two couutries had been engaged one with another, from the most ancient times. This tablet has pre- served to us the names of three very early Assyrian kings, Asshur-bil-nisi-su, Buzur-Asshur, and Asshur-upallit, of whom the two former are recorded to have made treaties of peace with the contemporary kings of Babylon;1 while the last-named iutervened in the domestic affairs of the country, depriving an usurping monarch of the throne, and restoring it to the legitimate claimant, who was his own relation. Intermarriages, it appears, took place at this early date between the royal families of Assyria and Chaldaja; and Asshur-upallit, the third of the three kings, had united one of his daughters to Purna- puriyas, a Chaldaean monarch who has received notice in the preceding volume.2 On the death of Purna-puriyas, Kara- khar-das, the issue of this marriage, ascended the throne; but he had not reigned long before his subjects rebelled '* See the Essay of Sir H. Rawlinson | time of Esarhaddon or Asshur-bani-pal. in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 3C6, I 1 Asshur-bcl-nisi-su is said to have note '. , made a treaty with a Babylonian king la As the tablet is mutilated at both ' otherwise unknown, whose name is extremities, its date is uncertain ; but it | read doubtfully as Kara-in-dat. Buzur- cannot anyhow be earlier than the time i Asshur, his successor, made a treaty of Shf maneser II., to whose wars it j with Purna-puriyas. allud 4. Most probably it belongs to the I 2 See vol. i. p. lG'J. 56 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. against his authority. A struggle ensued, in which he was slain, whereupon a certain Nazi-bugas, an usurper, became king, the line of Puraa-puriyas being set aside. Asshur-upallit, upon this, interposed. Marching an army into Babylonia, he defeated and slew the usurper, after which he placed on the throne another son of Purna-puriyas, the Kurri-galzu3 already men- tioned in the account of the kings of Chaldsea. What is most remarkable in the glimpse of history which this tablet opens to us is the power of Assyria, and the apparent terms of equality on which she stands with her neighbour. Not only does she treat as an equal with the great Southern Empire —not only is her royal house deemed worthy of furnishing wives to its princes—but when dynastic troubles arise there, she exer- cises a predominant influence over the fortunes of the contend- ing parties, and secures victory to the side whose cause she espouses. Jealous as all nations are of foreign interposition in their affairs, we may be sure that Babylonia would not have succumbed on this occasion to Assyria's influence, had not her weight been such that, added to one side in a civil struggle, it produced a preponderance which defied resistance. After this one short lift,4 the curtain again drops over the history of Assyria for a space of about sixty years, during which our records tell us nothing but the mere names of the kings. It appears from the bricks of Kileh-Sherghat that Asshur-upallit was suceeded upon the throne by his son,5 Bel-lush, or Bel- likhus (Belochus?), who was in his turn followed by his son, Pudil, his grandson, Vul-lush, and his great-grandson, Shalma- neser, the first of the name. Of Bel-lush, Pudil, and Vul-lush L, we know only that they raised or repaired important buildings in their city of Asshur (now Kileh-Sherghat), whicli in their time, and for some centuries later, was the capital of the monarchy. * See vol. j. p. 170. 4 Asshur-upallit is also mentioned on a tablet of Tiglath-Pileser I. as having repaired a temple built by Shamas-Vul, which waB again repaired at a later date by Shalmaneser I. 4 The regular succession of these earl y Assyrian monarchs has been discovered since the first edition of this work was published. A brick of Pudil's, on which he speaks of his father, Bel-lush, and his grandfather, Asshur-ipaliit, has enabled us definitely to connect the first group of three Assyrian monarchs with the ■eooud group of five. Chap. IX. SHALMANESER I. 57 This place was not very favourably situated, being on the right bank of the Tigris, which is a far less fertile region than the left, and not being naturally a place of any great strength. The Assyrian territory did not at this time, it is probable, extend very far to the north: at any rate, no need was as yet felt for a second city higher up the Tigris valley, ranch less for a transfer of the seat of government in that direction. Calah was certainly, and Nineveh, probably, not yet built;1 but still the kingdom had obtained a name among the nations; the term Assyria was applied geographically to the whole valley of the middle Tigris;2 and a prophetic eye could see in the hitherto quiescent power the nation fatod to send expeditions into Palestine and to bear off its inhabitants into captivity.3 Shalmaneser L (ab. B.C. 1320) is chiefly known in Assyrian his- tory as the founder of Calah (Nimrud),1 the second, apparently, of those great cities which the Assyrian monarchs delighted to build and embellish. This foundation would of itself be sufti- cient to imply the growth of Assyria in his time towards the north, and would also mark its full establishment as the domi- nant power on the left as well as the right bank of the Tigris. Calah was very advantageously situated in a region of great fertility and of much natural strength, being protected on one side by the Tigris, and on the other by the Shor-Derreh torrent, while the Greater Zab further defended it at the dis- tance of a few miles on the south and south-east, and the Khazr or Ghazr-Su on the north-east.0 Its settlement must have secured to the Assyrians the undisturbed possession of the fruitful and important district between the Tigris and the mountains, the Aturia or Assyria Proper of later times,6 which 1 It may be objected that these cities are mentioned as already built in the time of Moses (Gen. x. 11), who pro- bably lived in the 15th century B.C. To this it may be replied, in the first place, 1 Sec Gen. ii. 14, and compare above, vol. i. p. 6. 3 Numbers, xxiv. 22. 4 Shalmaneser is nlso called the founder (or enlarger) of the Temple of that the date of Moses is very uncertain, Kharris-matira, which was probably at ind, secondly, that the eleventh and twelfth verses of the tenth chapter of Genesis arc very possibly an addition made by Ezra on the return from the Captivity. Calah. 5 See the Chart, supra, vol. i. p. 5G5. 6 Strabo, xvi. 1, § 1 j Arrian. Exp. Alex. iii. 7. 58 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. ultimately became the great metropolitan region, in which almost all the chief towns were situated. It is quite in accordance with this erection of a sort of second capital, further to the north than the old one, to find, as we do, by the inscriptions of Asshur-izir-pal, that Shal- maneser undertook expeditions against the tribes on the upper Tigris, and even founded cities in those parts, which he colo- nized with settlers brought from a distance. We do not know what the exact bounds of Assyria towards the north were before his time, but there can be no doubt that he advanced them; and he is thus entitled to the distinction of being the first known Assyrian conqueror. With Tiglathi-Nin, the son and successor of Shalmaneser I., the spirit of conquest displayed itself in a more signal and striking manner. The probable date of this monarch has already been shown to synchronise closely with the time assigned by Berosus to the commencement of his sixth Baby- lonian dynasty, and by Herodotus to the beginning of his "Assyrian Empire."7 Now Tiglathi-Nin appears in the In- scriptions as the prince who first aspired to transfer to Assyria the supremacy hitherto exercised, or at any rate claimed by Babylon. He made war upon the Southern kingdom, and, with such success, that he felt himself entitled to claim its conquest, and to inscribe upon his signet-seal the proud title of "Conqueror of Babylonia."8 This signet-seal, left by him (as is probable) at Babylon, and recovered about six hundred years later by Sennacherib, shows to us that he reigned for some time in person at the southern capital,9 where it Would seem that he afterwards established an Assyrian dynasty— a branch perhaps of his own family. This is probably the exact event of which Berosus spoke as occurring 526 years before Phul or Pul, and which Herodotus regarded as marking 'Supra, pp. 50, 51. * The full inscription was as follows, according to Sennacherib:— "Tiglathi-Nin, king of Assyria, son of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and conqueror of Kar~Dun>[as (or Babylonia). Whoever injures my device (?) or name, may Asshur and Vul destroy his name and country." s Hence, on the genealogical tablet he is called " king of Sumir and Akkad" {i.e. of Babylonia), a title not given to any of the other kings. Obap. IX. TIGLATHI-NIN I. 59 the commencement of the Assyrian "Empire." We must not, however, suppose that Babylonia was from this time really subject continuously to the Court of Nineveh.. The subjection may have been maintained for a little less than a century; but about that time we find evidence that the yoke of Assyria bad been shaken off, and that the Babylonian monarchs, who have Semitic names, and are probably Assyrians by descent, had become hostile to the Ninevite kings, and were engaged in frequent wars with them.10 No real permanent subjection of the Lower country to the Upper was effected till the time of Sargon; and even under the Sargonid dynasty revolts were frequent; nor were the Babylonians reconciled to the Assyrian sway till Esarhaddon united the two crowns in his own person, and reigned alternately at the two capitals. Still, it is pro- bable that, from the time of Tiglathi-Nin, the Upper country was recognised as the superior of the two: it had shown its might by a conquest and the imposition of a dynasty—proofs of pawer which were far from counterbalanced by a few retaliatory raids adventured upon under favourable circumstances by the Babylonian princes. Its influence was therefore felt, even while its yoke was refused; and the Semitising of the Chal- dseans, commenced under Tiglathi-Nin, continued during the whole time of Assyrian preponderance; no effectual Turanian reaction ever set in; the Babylonian rulers, whether submissive to Assyria or engaged in hostilities against her, have equally Semitic names; and it does not appear that any effort was at any time made to recover to the Turanian element of the popu- lation its early supremacy. The line of direct descent, which has been traced in unin- terrupted succession through eight monarchs, beginning with Asshur-bel-nisi-su, here terminates; and an interval occurs which can only be roughly estimated as probably not exceeding fifty years. Another consecutive series of eight kings follows, known to us chiefly through the famous Tiglath-Pileser cylinder (which gives the succession of five of them), but completed 10 Infra, pp. 61, G2, 77, 78, &c. 60 -THE SECOND MONARCHY. Ciur. K. from the combined evidence of several other documents.1 These monarchs, it is probable, reigned from about B.C. 1230 to B.C. 1070. Bel-kudur-uzur, the first monarch of this second series, is known to us wholly through his unfortunate war with the con- temporary king of Babylon. It seems that the Semitic line of kings, which the Assyrians had established in Babylon, was not content to remain very long in a subject position. In the time of Bel-kudur-uzur, Vul-baladan, the Babylonian vassal monarch, revolted; and a war followed between him and his Assyrian suzerain, which terminated in the defeat and death of the latter, who fell in a great battle, about B.C. 1210. Km-pala-zira succeeded. It is uncertain whether he was any relation to his predecessor, but clear that he avenged him. He is called "the king who organized the country of Assyria, and established the troops of Assyria in authority."* It appears that shortly after his accession, Vul-baladan of Babylon, elated by his previous successes, made an expedition against the Assyrian capital, and a battle was fought under the walls of Asshur, in which Nin-pala-zira was completely successful. The Babylonians fled, and left Assyria in peace during the remainder of the reign of this monarch. Asshur-dayan, the third king of the series, had a long and prosperous reign.3 He made a successful inroad into Babylonia, and returned into his own land with a rich and valuable booty. He likewise took down the temple which Shamas-Vul, the sou of Ismi-Dagon, had erected to the gods Asshur and Vul at 1 The chief of these are, 1. the Baby-' * Ibid. 1. c. We may gather, how- Ionian and Assyrian synchronistic tablet, I ever, indirectly from the Tiglath-Pilescr which gives the names of Bel-kudur- j Inscription that at least one considerable uzur and Nin-pala-zira, and again those calamity took place in his reign. The of Asshur-ris-ilim, Tiglath Pileser, and i Muskai (Moschi) are said to have occu- Asshur-bil-kala, in apparent succession; pied the countries of Alzi and Purukhuz, and, 2. an inscription on a mutilated , and stopped their payment of tribute tn statue of the goddess Ishtar, now in the Assyria Jifttf years before the commence- liritish Museum, which contains these ment of Tiglath-Pileser's reign (ibid, last three royal names, and determi- I p. 22). This event must ceriutnly have nately proves the direct genealogical I fallen into the time either of Asshur- succession of the three monarchs. 1 dayan or of his son, Mutnggil-Nebo. 1 Inscription of Tijlath-Pilcser I. p. | Most probably it belonged to the rvign 62. . I of the former. Chap. IX. MUTAGGIL-NEBO AND ASSHUE-RIS-II.IM. Gi Asshur, the Assyrian capital, because it was in a ruinous con- dition and required to be destroyed or rebuilt. Asshur-dayan seems to have shrunk from the task of restoring so great a work, and therefore demolished the structure, which was not rebuilt for the space of sixty years from its demolition.* He was succeeded upon the throne by his son, Mutaggil-Nebo. Mutaggil-Nebo reigned probably from about B.C. 1170 to B.C. 1150. We are informed that "Asshnr, the great Lord, aided him according to the wishes of his heart, and established him in strength in the government of Assyria."5 Perhaps these expressions allude to internal troubles at the commence- ment of his reign, over which he was so fortunate as to triumph. We have no further particulars of this monarch. Asshur-ris-ilim, the fourth king of the series, the son and successor of Mutaggil-Nebo, whose reign may be placed between B.c« 1150 and B.C. 1130, is a monarch of greater pretensions than most of his predecessors. In his son's Inscription he is called "the powerful king, the subduer of rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the accursed."6 These expressions are so broad, that we must conclude from them, not merely that Asshur-ris-ilim, unlike the previous kings of the line, engaged in foreign wars, but that his expeditions had a great success, and paved the way for the extensive conquests of his son and successor, Tiglath-Pileser. Probably he turned his arms in various directions, like that monarch. Certainly he carried them southwards into Babylonia, where, as we learn from the synchronistic tablet of Babylonian and Assyrian history, he was engaged for some time in a war with a Nebuchadnezzar (Ndbu- liudur-uzur), the first known king of that name. It has been conjectured that he likewise carried them into Southern Syria and Palestine;7 and that, in fact, he is the monarch designated in the Book of Judges by the name of Chushan-ris-athaim,8 who is called "the king of Mesopotamia (Aram-Naharaim)," and is said to have exercised dominion over the Israelites for eight 4 Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser, p. 62. .for Aug. 22, 1863 (No. 1869, p. 244, 1 Ibid. p. 60. 'Ibid. note ')■ 7 Sir H. fiawlinson in the At/wnamrn 8 J udges iv. 4, 62 Ci;Ar. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. years. Tin's identification, however, is too uncertain to be assumed without further proof. The probable date of Chushan- ris-athaim is some two (or three) centuries earlier; and his title, "king of Mesopotamia," is one which is not elsewhere applied to Assyrian monarchs. A few details have come down to us with respect to the Babylonian war of Asshur-ris-ilim. It appears that Nebuchad- nezzar was the assailant. He begau the war by a march up the Diyaleh and an advance on Assyria along the outlying Zagros hills, the route afterwards taken by the great Persian road described by Herodotus. Asshur-ris-ilim went out to meet him in person, engaged him in the mountain region, and repulsed his attack. Upon this the Babylonian monarch re- tired, and after an interval, the duration of which is unknown, advanced a second time against .Assyria, but took now the direct line across the plain. Asshur-ris-ilim on this occasion was content to employ a general against the invader. He "sent" his chariots and his soldiers towards his southern border, and was again successful, gaining a second victory over his antagonist, who fled away, leaving in his hands forty chariots and a banner. Tiglath-Pileser I., who succeeded Asshur-ris-ilim about B.C. 1130, is the first Assyrian monarch of whose history we possess copious details which can be set forth at some length. This is owing to the preservation and recovery of a lengthy document belonging to his reign—in which are recorded the events of his first five years.9 As this document is the chief 0 This document exists on two dupli- cate cylinders in the British Museum, which are both nearly complete. The Museum also contains fragments of several other cylinders which bore the same inscription. The translation from which the fol- lowing quotations are made was exe- cuted in the year 1857, under peculiar circumstances. Four gentlemen, Sir II. Kuwlinson. Mr. Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Oppert, were furnished simul- taneously with a lithographed copy of 1 the inscription, which was then un- published; and these gentlemen, w orking independently, produced translations, more or less complete, of the document. The translations were published in pa- rallel columns by Mr. Parker, of the Strand, under the title of "inscription of Tiglnth-Pileser I., King of Assyria, B.C. 1150. London, .1. W. Parker, 1857." A perusal of this w ork would probably remove any incredulity which may s'tiil exist in any quarter on the subject of Assyrian decipherment. Chap. IX. TIGLATH-PILESER I. 63 evidence we possess of the condition of Assyria,1 the character and tone of thought of the kings, and indeed of the general state of the Eastern world, at the period in question—which synchronises certainly with some portion of the dominion of the Judges over Israel, and probably with the early conquests of the Dorians in Greece8—it is thought advisable to give in this place such an account of it, and such a number of extracts, as shall enable the reader to form his own judgment on these several points. The document opens with an enumeration and glorification of the "great gods," who "rule over heaven and earth," and are "the guardians of the kingdom of Tiglath-Pileser." These are "Asshur, the great Lord, ruling supreme over the gods; Bel, the lord, father of the gods, lord of the world; Sin, the leader (?), the lord of empire (?); Shamas, the establisher of heaven and earth; Vul, he who causes the tempest to rage over hostile lands; Nin, the champion who subdues evil spirits and enemies; and Ishtar, the source of the gods, the queen of victory, she who arranges battles." These deities, who (it is declared) have placed Tiglath-Pileser upon the throne, have "made him firm, have confided to him the supreme crown, have appointed him in might to the sovereignty of the people of Bel, and have granted him pre-eminence, exaltation, and warlike power," are invoked to make the "duration of his empire continue for ever to his royal posterity, lasting as the great temple of Kharris-Matira."3 In the next section the king glorifies himself, enumerating his royal titles as follows:—•" Tiglath-Pileser, the powerful king, king of the people of various tongues; king of the four regions; king of all kings; lord of lords; the supreme (?); monarch of monarchs; the illustrious chief, who, under the auspices of the 1 The British Museum contains ! ceded him, and whose buildings he re- anothcr inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., pairs, Irba-Vul, Asshur-iddin-akhi, Vul- but it is in an exceedingly had con- i lush, Tiglathi-Nin, Asshur-dayan, and dition, and has not l>een published. It Asshur-ris-ilim. i* written on three sides of the broken' '' The date of Eratosthenes for the top of an obelisk, and seems to have ! Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese contained an account of the monarch's 1 was B.C. 1104. Thucydides. apparently, buildings, his hunting exploits, and would have placed it seventy or eighty some of his campaigns, month by month. years earlier. (Time. v. 112.) He mentions as monarchs who have pre- i 1 Inscription, &c., pp. 18-20. 64 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. Sun-god, being armed with the sceptre and girt with the girdle of power over mankind, rules over all the people of Bel; the mighty prince, whose praise is blazoned forth among the kings; the exalted sovereign, whose servants Asshur has appointed to the government of the four regions, and whose name he has made celebrated to posterity; the conqueror of many plains and mountains of the Upper and Lower country; the victorious hero, the terror of whose name has overwhelmed all regions; the bright constellation who, as he wished, has warred against foreign countries, and under the auspices of Bel—there being no equal to him—has subdued the enemies of Asshur."' The royal historian, after this introduction, proceeds to narrate his actions—first in general terms declaring that he has subdued all the lands and the peoples round about, and then proceeding to particularise the various campaigns which he had conducted during the first five years of his reign. The earliest of these was against the Muskai, or Moschians, who are probably identical with the Meshech of Holy Script ure*—a people governed (it is said) by five kings, and inhabiting the countries of Alzi ami Purukhuz, parts (apparently) of Taurus or Niphates." These Moschians are said to have neglected for fifty years to pav the tribute due from them to the Assyrians, from which it would appear that they had revolted during the reign of Asshur-dayan, having previously been subject to Assyria.7 At this time, with a force amounting to 20,000 men, they had invaded the neigh- bouring district of Qummukh (Commag&ne),8 an Assyrian * rnsmptim, pp. 20-22. soph. Ant. Jud. i. 6; Mos. Chor. His. » Fa. cxx. !>; Ezek. xxvii. 13; xxxii. Armen. i. 13), the CsesaraM* Mazaca of 21); xxxviii. 2; xxxix. 1, &c. They are the Koman Empire. Hence they seem constantly coupled in the Inscriptions to have been driven northwards by the with the Tuplai, just as Meshech is C'appadocians, and in the time of Hero- coupled with Tubal in Scripture, and dotus they occupy a small tract upon the Moschi with the Tibareu: in Hero- I the Euxine. (See the author's Herodotus, dotus (iii. 94; vii. 78). j vol. iv. pp. 179-181.) 8 From the Inscription of Tiglath- 7 Supra, p. 60, note *. Filescr we can only say that these regions ■ This is one of the very few geo- lormed a portion of the mountain country | graphic names in the early Assyrian in the vicinity of the Upper Tigris. In records which seems to have a classical later times the main seat of the Mos- equivalent. It must not, however, be chian power was the Taurus range im- j supposed that the locality of the tribe mediately to the west of the Euphrates. was the same in Tiglath-Fileser's time Here was their great city, Mazaca (Jo- as in the days of Strabo and Pliny. Chap. IX. WARS OF TIGLATH-PILESER I. 65 dependency, and had made themselves masters of it. Tiglath- Pileser attacked them in this newly-conquered country, and completely defeated their army. He then reduced Coinmagene, despite the assistance which the inhabitants received from some of their neighbours. He burnt the cities, plundered the temples, ravaged the open country, and carried off, either in the shape of plunder or of tribute, vast quantities of cattle and treasure.9 The character of the warfare is indicated by such a passage as the following:— "The country of Kasiyara, a difficult region, I passed through. With their 20,000 men and their five kings, in the country of Qummukh I engaged. I defeated them. The ranks of their warriors in fighting the battle were beaten down as if by the tempest. Their carcasses covered the valleys and the tops of the mountains. I cut off their heads. Of the battlements of their cities I made heaps, like mounds of earth (?). Their moveables, their wealth, and their valuables I plundered to a conntless amount Six thousand of their common soldiers, who fled before my servants, and accepted my yoke, I took and gave over to the men of my own territory as slaves." 1 The second campaign was partly in the same region and with the same people. The Moschians, who were still loth to pay tribute, were again attacked and reduced.2 Commagene was completely overrun, and the territory was attached to the Assy- rian empire.3 The neighbouring tribes were assailed in their fastnesses, their cities burnt, and their territories ravaged.4 At the same time war was made upon several other peoples or nations. Among these the most remarkable are the Khatti (Hittites), two of whose tribes, the Kaskians and Urumians,5 had committed an aggression on the Assyrian territory: for this they Tiglath-Pileser's Qummukh or Com-! 4 Ibid. pp. 34-36. mukha appear to occupy the mountain 3 These Urumians (Hurumnya) were region extending from the Euphrates at i perhaps of the same race with a tribe Sume'isat to beyond the Tigris at Diar- | of the same name, who dwelt near and bekr. i probably gave name to Lake Ufumiyeh. * Inscriptirm, 8cc, pp. 22-30. j The name of the Kaskians recalls that 1 Ibid. p. 24. j of a primitive Italic people, the Casci. 5 Ibid. pp. 30-32. j (See Niebuhr, liomun History, vol. i. p. 5 Ibid. pp. 32-34. | 78, £. T.) VOL, II. F 66 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. were chastised by an invasion which they did not venture to resist, by the plundering of their valuables, and the carrying off of 120 of their chariots.6 In another direction the Lower Zab was crossed and the Assyrian arms were carried into the moun- tain region of Zagros, where certain strongholds were reduced and a good deal of treasure taken.7 The third campaign was against the numerous tribes of the Na'iri,8 who seem to have dwelt at this time partly to the east of the Euphrates, but partly also in the mountain country west of the stream from Sume'isat to the Gulf of Iskenderun.9 These tribes, it is said, had never previously made their submission to the Ass)Tians.10 They were governed by a number of petty chiefs or "kings," of whom no fewer than twenty-three are particularised. The tribes east of the Euphrates seem to have been reduced with little resistance, while those who dwelt west of the river, on the contrary, collected their troops together, gave battle to the invaders, and made a prolonged and desperate defence. All, however, was in vain. The Assyrian monarch gained a great victory, taking 120 chariots, and then pursuing the vanquished Na'iri and their allies as far as "the Upper Sen," i.e., the Mediterranean. The usual ravage and destruction fol- lowed, with the peculiarity that the lives of the "kings" were spared, and that the country was put to a moderate tribute, viz., 1200 horses and 200 head of cattle.11 In the fourth campaign the Arama;ans or Syrians were attacked by the ambitious monarch. They occupied at this time the valley of the Euphrates, from the borders of the Tsukhi, or Shuhites12 (who held the river from about Anah to 8 The chariots of the Ilittitcs are more than once mentioned in Scripture. (See 1 K. x. 2'J and 2 K. vii. 6.) 'Inscription, p. 38. 8 The fact that the country occupied by the Nairi is, in part, that which the Jews knew as Aram-Naharaim, would seem to be a mere accidental coincidence. Na'iri is a purely ethnic title; Naharaim is from "11"!], "a river," and Aram-Na- haraim is "Syria of the two rivers," 1. e. Mesopotamia. (See auove, vol. i. p. 2. ) The Saharayn of the Egyptian monuments may, however, be "the Na'iri country." 8 This is the district which after- wards became Commagene". It is a laby- rinth of mountains, twisted spurs from Amanus. 10 Inscription, p. 42. 11 Ibid. p. 44. 12 This identification is made pnrtly on etymological and partly on geo- graphical grounds. (See the author's article on Shlhite in Dr. Smith's Bibli- cal Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 1298.) Chap. IX. "WAKS OF TIGLATH-PILESEK I. 67 Hit), as high up as Carchemish, the frontier town and chief stronghold of the Khatti o'r Hittites. Carchemish was not, as has commonly been supposed, Circesium, at the junction of the Khabour with the Euphrates,13 but was considerably higher up the stream, certainly near to, perhaps on the very site of, the later city of Mabog or Hierapolis.14 Thus the Aramaeans had a territory of no great width, but 250 miles long between its north- western and its south-eastern extremities. Tiglath-Pileser smote this region, as he tells us, "at one blow."15 First attacking and plundering the eastern or left bank of the river, he then crossed the stream in boats covered with skins, took and burned six cities on the right bank, and returned in safety with an immense plunder. The fifth and last campaign was against the country of Musr or Muzr, by which some Orientalists have understood Lower Egypt.16 This, however, appears to be a mistake. The Assyrian Inscriptions designate two countries by the name of Musr or Muzr, one of them being Egypt, and the other a portion of Upper Kurdistan. The expedition of Tiglath-Pileser I. was against the eastern Musr, a highly mountainous country, con- sisting (apparently) of the outlying ranges of Zagros between the Greater Zab and the Eastern Khabour. Notwithstanding its natural strength and the resistance of the inhabitants, this country was completely over-run in an incredibly short space. The armies which defended it were defeated, the cities burnt, the strongholds taken. Arin, the capital, submitted, and was spared, after which a set tribute was imposed on the entire region, the amount of which is not mentioned. The Assyrian arms were then turned against a neighbouring district, the country of the Comani. The Coraani, though Assyrian subjects, bad lent assistance to the people of Musr, and it was to punish this insolence that Tiglath-Pileser resolved to invade their terri- 13 Circesium is identified by Mr. Fox ! ment Carchemish is translated, or rather Talbot with the Assyrian Sir/u, which replaced, by Mabog. was apparently in this position. (.4s- 15 Inscription, p. 40. Syrian Texts, p. 31.) 18 So Mr. fox Talbot (Inscription, p. "See Biblical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 278. 48). In the Syrioc version of the Old Testa- | f2 68 Chap. IX- THE SECOND MONARCHY. tory. Having defeated their main army, consisting of 20,000 men, he proceeded to the attack 'of the various castles and towns, some of which were stormed, while others surrendered at discretion. In both cases alike the fortifications were broken down and destroyed, the cities which surrendered being spared, while those taken by storm were burnt with fire. Ere long the whole of the "far-spreading country of the Comani" was reduced to subjection, and a tribute was imposed exceeding that which had previously been required from the people.1 After this account of the fifth campaign, the whole result of the wars is thus briefly summed up:—" There fell into my hands altogether, between the commencement of my reign and my fifth year, forty-two countries with their kings, from the banks of the liiver Zab to the banks of the liiver Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I took hostages from them; and I imposed on them tribute and offerings."8 From describing his military achievements, the monarch turns to an account of his exploits in the chase. In the country of the Hittites he boasts that he had slain "four wild bulls, strong and fierce," with his arrows; while in the neighbourhood of Harran, on the banks of the River Khabour, he had killed ten large wild buffaloes (?), and taken four alive.3 These cap- tured animals he had carried with him on his return to Asshur, his capital city, together with the horns and skins of the slain beasts. The lions which he had destroyed in his various jour- neys he estimates at 920. All these successes he ascribes to the powerful protection of Nin and NergaL* The royal historiographer proceeds, after this, to give an account of his domestic administration, of the buildings which he had erected, and the various improvements which he had introduced. Among the former he mentions temples to Ishtar, Martu, Bel, II or Ra, and the presiding deities of the city of Asshur, palaces for his own use, and castles for the protection of his territory. Among the latter he enumerates the construction 1 Inscription, tee., pp. 48-52. 3 Ibid. pp. 52-54 * See above, vol. i. p. 514, note * Inscription, pp. 1-56. ClIAP. IX. HIS RESTORATIONS OF TEMPLES. 69 of works of irrigation, the introduction into Assyria of foreign cattle and of numerous beasts of chase, the naturalization of foreign vegetable products, the multiplication of chariots, the extension of the territory, and the augmentation of the popula- tion of the country.5 A more particular account is then given of the restoration by the monarch of two very ancient and venerable temples in the great city of Asshur. This account is preceded by a formal statement of the particulars of the monarch's descent from Nin- pala-zira,6 the king who seems to be regarded as the founder of the dynasty—which breaks the thread of the narrative somewhat strangely and awkwardly. Perhaps the occasiou of its introduc- tion was, in the mind of the writer, the necessary mention, in connection with one of the two temples, of Asshur-dayan, the great-grandfather of the monarch. It appears that in the reign of Asshur-dayan, this temple, which, having stood for 641 years, was in a very ruinous condition, had been taken down, while no fresh building had been raised in its room. The site remained vacant for sixty years, till Tiglath-Pileser, having lately ascended the throne, determined to erect on the spot a new temple to the old gods, who were Anu and Vul, probably the tutelary deities of the city. His own account of the circumstances of the build- in!! and dedication is as follows:— "In the beginning of my reign, Anu and Vul, the great gods, my lorJs, guardians of my steps, gave me a command to repair 5 Inscription, pp. 5G-G0. I whom Asshur, the Great Lord, aided f The most important points of the according to the wishes of his heart, statement have been quoted in the earlier I and established in strength in tne portion of this chapter, but as the reader may wish to sec the entire passage as it stands in the original document, it is government of Assyria — "The glorious offspring of Asshur- dayan, who held the sceptre of do- here appended:— minion, and ruled over the people of "Tiglath-Pileser, the illustrious Bel; who in all the works of his hands prince, whom Asshur and Nin have and the deeds of his life placed his exalted to the utmost wishes of his heart; who has pursued after the ene- mies of Asshur, and has subjugated all the earth— reliance on the great gods, and thus obtained a long and prosperous life — "The beloved child of Nin-pala-zira, the king who organised the country of 'The son of Asshur-ris-ilim, the Assyria, who purged his territories of powerful king, the subduer of rebellious I the wicked, and established the troops countries, he who has reduced all the accursed (?)— "The grandson of Mutaggil-Nebo, of Assyria in authority." {Inscription, pp. 60-62.) 70 CHAr. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. this their shrine. So I made bricks; I levelled the earth; I took its dimensions (?); I laid down its foundations upon a mass of strong rock. This place, throughout its whole extent, I paved with bricks in set order (?); fifty feet deep I prepared the ground; and upon this substructure I laid the lower foundations of the temple of Ann and Vul. From its foundations to its roof I built it up better than it was before. I also built two lofty towers (?) in honour of their noble godships, and the holy place, a, spacious hall, I consecrated for the convenience of their wor- shippers, and to accommodate their votaries, who were numerous as the stars of heaven. I repaired, and built, and completed my work. Outside the temple I fashioned everything with the same care as inside. The mound of earth on which it was built I enlarged like the firmament of the rising stars (?), and I beau- tified the entire building. Its towers I raised up to heaven, and its roofs I built entirely of brick. An inviolable shrine (?) for their noble godships I laid down near at hand. Anu and Vul, the great gods, I glorified inside the shrine. I set them up in their honoured purity, and the hearts of their noble godships I delighted."7 The other restoration mentioned is that of a temple to Vul only, which, like that to Aim and Vul conjointly, had been originally built by Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon. This building had likewise fallen into decay, but had not been taken down like the other. Tiglath-Pileser states that he "levelled its site," and then rebuilt it "from its foundations to its roofs," enlarging it beyond its former limits, and adorning it. Inside of it he "sacrificed precious victims to his lord, Vul." He also deposited in the temple a number of rare stones or marbles, which he had obtained in the country of the Nairi in the course of his expeditions.6 The inscription then terminates with the following long in- vocation :— "Since a holy place, a noble hall, I have thus consecrated for the use of the Great Gods, my lords Anu and Vul, and have laid down an adytum for their special worship, and have finished it 7 Inscription, pp. 64-6C. 6 Ibid. p. 66. Chai\ IX. HIS INVOCATION. 71 successfully, and have delighted the hearts of their noble god- ships, may Anu and Vul preserve me in power! May they support the men of my government! May they establish the authority of my officers! May they bring the rain, the joy of the year, on the cultivated land and the desert, during my time! In war and in battle may they preserve me victorious! Many foreign countries, turbulent nations, and hostile kings I have reduced under my yoke: to my children and my descendants, may they keep them in firm allegiance! I will lead my steps" (or, " may they establish my feet"), " firm as the mountains, to the last days, before Asshur and their noble godships! "The list of my victories and the catalogue of my triumphs over foreigners hostile to Asshur, which Anu and Vul have granted to my arms, I have inscribed on my tablets and cylin- ders, and I have placed, [to remain] to the last days, in the temple of my lords, Anu and Vul. And I have made clean (?) the tablets of Shamas-Vul,my ancestor; I have made sacrifices, and sacrificed victims before them, and have set them up in their places. In after times, and in the latter days .... if the temple of the Great Gods, my lords Anu and Vul, and these shrines should become old and fall into decay, may the Prince who comes after me repair the ruins! May he raise altars and sacrifice victims before my tablets and cylinders, and may he set them up again in their places, and may he inscribe his name oh them together with my name! As Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, have ordained, may he worship honestly with a good heart and full trust! "Whoever shall abrade or injure my tablets and cylinders, or shall moisten them with water, or scorch them with fire, or ex- pose them to the air, or in the holy place of God shall assign them a place where they cannot be seen or understood, or shall erase the writing and inscribe his own name, or shall divide the sculptures (?) and break them off from my tablets, may Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, my lords, consign his name to perdition! May they curse him with an irrevocable curse! May they cause his sovereignty to perish! May they pluck out the stability of the throne of his empire! Let not his offspring survive him in 72 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MOXABCHY. the kingdom! Let his servants be broken! Let his troops be defeated! Let him fly vanquished before his enemies! May Vul in his fury tear up the produce of his land 1 May a scarcity of food and of the necessaries of life afflict his country! For one day may lie not be called happy! May his name and his race perish!"1 The document is then dated—" In the month Kuzalla (Chisleu), on the 29th day, in the year presided over by Ina- iliya-pallik, the Eabbi-Turi."2 Perhaps the most striking feature of this inscription, when it is compared with other historical documents of the same kind belonging to other ages and nations, is its* intensely religious character. The long and solemn invocation of the Great Gods with which it opens, the distinct ascription to their assistance and guardianship of the whole series of royal successes, whether in war or in the chase; the pervading idea that the wars were undertaken for the chastisement of the enemies of Asshur, and that their result was the establishment in an ever-widening circle of the worship of Asshur; the careful account which is given of the erection and renovation of temples, and the dedica- tion of offerings; and the striking final prayer—all these are so many proofs of the prominent place which religion held in the thoughts of the king who set up the inscription, and may fairly be accepted as indications of the general tone and temper of his people.3 It is evident that we have here displayed to us, not a decent lip-service, not a conventional piety, but a real, hearty, earnest religious faith—a faith bordering on fanaticism—a spirit akin to that with which the Jews were possessed in their warfare with the nations of Canaan, or which the soldiers of Mahomet breathed forth when they fleshed their maiden swords upon the infidels. The king glorifies himself much; but he glorifies the gods more. He fights, in part, for his own credit, and for the extension of his territory; but he fights also for the honour of the gods, whom the surrounding nations reject, and for the diffusion of their worship far and wide throughout all known 1 Inscription, pp. 64-72. * Ibid. p. 72. * Sec above, vol. i. pp. 239-211. Chap. IX RELIGIOUS TONE OF HIS INSCRIPTION. 73 regions. His wars are religious wars, at least as much as wars of conquest; his buildings, or, at any rate, those on whose con- struction he dwells with most complacency, are religious build- ings; the whole tone of his mind is deeply and sincerely re- ligious; besides formal acknowledgments, he is continually letting drop little expressions which show that his gods are "in all his thoughts,"4 and represent to him real powers governing and directing all the various circumstances of human life. The religious spirit displayed is, as might have been expected, in the highest degree exclusive and intolerant; but it is earnest, con- stant, and all-pervading. In the next place, we cannot fail to be struck with the ener- getic character of the monarch, so different from the temper which Ctesias ascribes, in the broadest and most sweeping terms, to all the successors of Ninua.* Within the first five years of his reign the indefatigable prince conducts in person expeditions into almost every country upon his borders; attacks and reduces six important nations/1 besides numerous petty tribes ;7 receiving the submission of forty-two kings;8 traversing the most difficult * E. <]. even when bent on glorifying himself, the monarch is still " the illus- trious chief, who, under the auspices of the Sun G'xi, rules over the people of Bel" (Inscription, p. 20), and " whose servants Asshur has appointed to the government of the four regions" (ibid.); if his enemies fly, "the fear of Asshur has overwhelmed them" (pp. 28, 36, &c.); if they refuse tribute, they "withhold the offerings due to Asshvr" (p. 24); if the king himself feels inclined to make an expedition against a country, ''his lord, Asx/i'tr, invites him" to proceed thither (pp. 34, 42, 48); if he collects an army, "Asshur h>ts committed the troops to his hand" (p. 32). When a country not previously subject to As- syria is attacked, it is because the people "do not acknowledge Asshur" (p. 38); when its plunder is carried off, it is to adorn and enrich the temples of Asshur and the other gods (p. 40); when it yields, the first thing is to '• attach it to the worship of Asshur" (pp. 38, 40, &c). The king hunts "under the auspices of Nin and ter- gal" (p. 54), or of "Nin and Asshur" (p. 58); he puts his tablets under the protection of Anu and Vul (p. 68); he ascribes the long life of one ancestor to his eminent piety (p. 62), and the prosperity of another to the protection which Asshur vouchsafed him (p. 60). The name of Asshur occurs in the in- scription nearly forty times, or almost once in each paragraph. The sun-god, Shamas, the deities Anu, Vul, and Bel, are mentioned repeatedly. Acknow- ledgment is also made of Sin, the moon- god, of Nin, Nergal, Ishtnr, Beltis, Martu, and II or Ku. And all this is in an inscription which is not dedicatory but historical! 5 Ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 19. 'The Moschi, the people of C«m- magene', the Nairi, the Aramaeans, the people of Muzr, and the Comani. 'As the Kaski and I'rumi, tribes of the Hittites, the people of Adavos, Tsaravas, Itsua, Daria, Muraddan, Khanni-rabbi, Miltis, or Melitene', Dayan, &c * Inscription of Tiylath-fticscr I,, p. 52. 74 Chai\ IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. mountain regions; defeating armies, besieging towns, destroying forts and strongholds, ravaging territories; never allowing him- self a moment of repose; when he is not engaged in military operations, devoting himself to the chase, contending with the wild bull and the lion, proving himself (like the first Mesopo tamian king) in very deed "a mighty hunter,"9 since he counts his victims by hundreds ;10 and all the while having regard also to the material welfare of his country, adorning it with buildings, enriching it with the products of other lands, both animal and vegetable, fertilizing it by means of works of irrigation, and in every way "improving the condition of the people, and obtaining for them abundance and security." 11 With respect to the general condition of Assyria, it may be noted, in the first place, that the capital is still Asshur, and that no mention is made of any other native city.1 The king calls himself " King of the four regions,"2 which would seem to imply a division of the territory into districts, like that which certainly obtained in later times.3 The mention of "four" districts is curious, since the same number was from the first affected by the Chaldteans,4 while we have also evidence that, at least after the time of Sargon, there was a pre-eminence of four great cities in Assyria* The limits of the territory at the time of the In- scription are not very clearly marked; but they do not seem to extend beyond the outer ranges6 of Zagros on the east, Niphates on the north, and the Euphrates upon the west. The southern boundary at the time was probably the commencement of the alluvium; but this cannot be gathered from the Inscription, which contains no notice of any expedition in the direction 9 Gen. x. 9. they were, 1, the country cast of the 10 Sec above, p. G8. Tigris; 2, that between the Tigris and 11 Inscription, p. CO. the Khabour; 3, that between the Kha- 1 The existence of "great fortified bour and the Euphrates; and, 4, the cities throughout the dominions of the mountain region upon the upper Tigris king" is mentioned (p. 5b). but none is north of the Mesopotamian plain, named except Asshur. 'See above, vol. i. p. 193. 1 Inscription, p. 20. And a little j 4 Ibid. p. 14. further on he is "the exalted sovereign! 3 Ibid. p. 198. whose servants Asshur has appointed , 'I. e. the more westerly ranges, to the government of the country of the When the monarch crosses the Lower four regions." What the four regions Zab, he is immediately in a hostile were w-e can only conjecture. Perhaps , country. (Inscription, p. 38.) Chap. IX. GENERAL CONDITION OF ASSYRIA. 75 of Babylonia. The internal condition of Assyria is evidently flourishing. Wealth flows in from the plunder of the neigh- bouring countries; labour is cheapened by the introduction of enslaved captives;7 irrigation is cared for; new fruits and animals are introduced; fortifications are repaired, palaces reno- vated, and temples beautified or rebuilt. The countries adjoining upon Assyria on the west, the north, and the east, in which are carried on the wars of the period, present indications of great political weakness. They are divided up among a vast number of peoples, nations, and tribes, whereof the most powerful is only able to bring into the field a force of 20,000 men.8 The peoples and nations possess but little unity. Each consists of various separate communities, ruled by their own kings, who in war unite their troops against the common enemy; but are so jealous of each other, that they do not seem even to appoint a generalissimo. On the Euphrates, between Hit and Carchemish, are, first, the Tsukhi or Shuhites, of whom no particulars are given; and, next, the Aramaeans or Syrians, who occupy both banks of the river, and possess a number of cities, no one of which is of much strength. Above the Ara- masans are the Khatti or Hittites, whose chief city, Carchemish, is an important place; they are divided into tribes, and, like the Aramaeans, occupy both banks of the great stream. North and north-west of their country, probably beyond the mountain- range of Amanus, are the Muskai (Moschi), an aggressive people, who were seeking to extend their territory eastward into the land of the Qummukh or people of Commagene. These Qum- mukh hold the mountain country on both sides of the Upper Tigris, and have a number of strongholds, chiefly on the right bank. To the east they adjoin on the Kirkhi, who must have inhabited the skirts of Niphates, while to the south they touch the Nai'ri, who stretch from Lake Van, along the line of the Tigris, to the tract known as Commagene to the Komans. The * Six thousand are enslaved on one the people of Assyria." occasion {Inscription, p. 24); four thou- I 8 Only two nations, the Moschi and sand on another (p. 32). They are not theComnni, have armies of such strength reserved by the monarch for his own j as this. (Inscriptivn, pp. 22 and -iS.) use, but are ;t given over for a spoil to | 76 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. Nairi have, at the least, twenty-three kings,9 each of whom governs his own tribe or city. South of the more eastern Nairi is the country of Muzr—a mountain tract well-peopled and full of castles, probably the region about Amadiyeh and Kowandiz. Adjoining Muzr to the east or north-east, are the Quwanu or Comani,10 who are among the most powerful of Assyria's neigh- bours, being able, like the Moschi, to bring into tlie field an army of 20,000 men. At this time they are close allies of the people of Muzr. Finally, across the Lower Zab, on the skirts of Zagros, are various petty tribes of small account, who offer but little resistance to the arms of the invader. Such was the position of Assyria among her neighbours in the latter part of the twelfth century before Christ. She was a compact and powerful kingdom, centralised under a single monarch, and with a single great capital, in the midst of wild tribes which clung to a separate independence, each in its own valley or village. At the approach of a great danger, these triues might consent to coalesce and to form alliances, or even confederations; but the federal tie, never one of much tenacity, and rarely capable of holding its ground in the presence of monarchic vigour, was here especially weak. After one defeat of their joint forces by the Assyrian troops, the confederates commonly dispersed, each flying to the defence of his own city or territory, with a short-sighted selfishness which deserved and ensured defeat. In one direction only was Assyria confronted by a rival state possessing a power and organization in character not unlike her own, though scarcely of equal strength. On her southern frontier, in the broad flat plain intervening between the Mesopotamian upland and the sea—the kingdom of Babylon was still existing; its Semitic kings, though originally established upon the throne by Assyrian influence,11 had dissolved all con- nection with their old protectors, and asserted their thorough • Twenty-three are particularised times reckoned to Cappadocia. Each of (Inscription, pp. 42-44). But it is not these districts had a town called Comana, said that there were no others. I the inhabitants of which were Comani lu The Comani in later times disnp- or Comancis. (See Strab. xii. pp. 77* peared from these parts; but there are ! and 793; Ptol. v. C and 7; Plin. H. -V. traces of them both in Pontus and in i vi. 3; Greg. Nyss. Vit. Thaumat. p. the Lesser Armenia, which was some- 5til.) 11 Supra, p. 59. Chap. IX. TIGLATH-PILESER'S WAR WITH BABYLON. 77 independence. Here, then, was a considerable state, as much centralised as Assyria herself, and not greatly inferior either in extent of territory or in population,1 existing side by side with her, and constituting a species of check, whereby something like a balance of power was still maintained in Western Asia, and Assyria was prevented from feeling herself the absolute mis- tress of the East, and the uncontrolled arbitress of the world's destinies. Besides the great cylinder inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., there exist five more years of his annals in fragments, from which we learn that he continued his aggressive expeditions during this space, chiefly towards the north-west, subduing the Lulumi in Northern Syria, attacking and taking Carchemish, and pursuing the inhabitants across the Euphrates in boats. No mention is made during this time of any collision between Assyria and her great rival, Babylon. The result of the wars waged by Asshur-ris-ilim against Nebuchadnezzar I.2 had, apparently, been to produce in the belligerents a feeling of mutual respect; and Tiglath-Pileser, in his earlier years, neither trespassed on the Babylonian territory in his aggressive raids, nor found himself called upon to meet and repel any invasion of his own dominions by his southern neighbours. Before the close of his reign, however, active hostilities broke out between the two powers. Either provoked by some border ravage or actuated simply by lust of conquest, Tiglath-Pileser marched his troops into Babylonia. For two consecutive years he wasted with fire and sword the "upper" or northern provinces, taking the cities of Kurri-Galzu—now Akkerkuf—Sippara of the Sun, and Sippara of Amiuit (the Sepharvaim or " two Sipparas" of the Hebrews), and Hupa or Opis, on the Tigris; and finally capturing Babylon itself, which, strong as it wras, proved unable to resist the invader. On his return he passed up the valley of the Euphrates, and 1 Assyria, within the limits above assigned to it (p. 75), must have con- tained an area of from 50,000 to 60,000 Kjuarcmilen. Babylonia contained about 25,000. The proportion is nearly that between England and Scotland, the actual size not being very different. Babylonia, however, was probably more thickly peopled than Assyria; so that the disproportion of the two populations would not be so great. 2 See above, p. 62. 78 Our. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. took several cities from the Tsukhi. But here, it would seem that he suffered a reverse. Merodach-iddin-akhi, his opponent, if he did not actually defeat his army, must, at any rate, have greatly harassed it on its retreat; for he captured an important part of its baggage. Indulging a superstition common in ancient times,3 Tiglath-Pileser had carried with him in his expedition certain images of gods, whose presence would, it was thought, secure victory to his arms. Merodach-iddin-akhi obtained possession of these idols, and succeeded in carrying them off to Babylon, where they were preserved for more than 400 years, and considered as mementoes of victory.4 The latter days of this great Assyrian prince were thus, unhappily, clouded by disaster. Neither he, nor his descendants, nor any Assyrian monarch for four centuries succeeded in recovering the lost idols, and replacing them in the shrines from which they were taken. A hostile and jealous spirit appears henceforth in the relations between Assyria and Babylon; we find no more intermarriages of the one royal house with the other; wars are frequent—almost constant— nearly every Assyrian monarch, whose history is known to us in any detail, conducting at least one expedition into Babylonia. A work still remains, belonging to the reign of this king, from which it appears that the peculiar character of Assyrian mimetic art was already fixed in his time, the style of representation being exactly such as prevailed at the most flourishing period, and the workmanship, apparently, not very inferior. In a cavern from which the Tsupnat river or eastern branch of the Tigris It was a feeling of this kind which I images that they sent expressly to fetch induced the Israelites to send and fetch ( them when they were about to engage the ark of the covenant to their camp the Persian fleet at Salamis (Herod, viii. when they were contending with the Philistines (1 Sam. iv. 4), and which made the Spartans always take with 64 and 83). Compare Strab. viii. p. 558, and Macrob. Sat. i. 23. 4 The chief authority for this wnr is' them to battle one or both of two images the "Synchronistic Tablet" already (or rather symbols) of the Tyndarids, I frequently quoted. The capture of the Castor and Pollux (Herod. V. 75). So | images is not mentioned on that tablet. when the Bwotians asked aid from the Eginetans, these last sent them certain images of the yEacida? (Herod, v. SO); and the United Greeks set so high a value on the presence of these same but is taken from a rock-inscription of Sennacherib's at Bavian near KhorsabaJ The idols are said to have been cap- tured at the city of Hekalin, which is thought to have l>cen near Tekrit. Chap. IX. ROCK TABLET OF TIGLATH-PILESER I. 79 rises, close to a village called Korkhar, and about fifty or sixty miles north of Diarbekr, is a bas-relief sculptured on the natural rock, which has been smoothed for the purpose, consisting of a figure of the king in his sacerdotal dress with the right arm extended and the left hand grasping the sacrificial mace,5 accom- panied by an inscription which is read as follows:—" By the grace of Asshur, Shamas, and Vul, the Great Gods, I, Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, son of Asshur-ris-ilim, king of Assyria, who was the son of Mutaggil-Nebo, king of Assyria, marching from the great sea of Akbiri" (the Mediterranean) "to the sea of Na'iri" (Lake of Van), "for the third time have invaded the country ofNairi."4 The fact of his having warred in Lower Mesopotamia is almost the whole that is known of Tiglath-Pileser's son and successor, Asshur- bil-kala. A contest in which he was engaged with the Baby- lonian prince, Merodach-shapik-ziri (who seems to have been the successor of Merodach-iddin-akhi), is recorded on the famous synchronistic tablet, in conjunction with the Babylonian wars of his father and grandfather; but the tablet is so injured in this place that no particulars can be gathered from it. From a monument of Asshur-bel-kala's own time—one of the earliest Assyrian sculptures that has come down to us—we may perhaps further conclude that he inherited something of the religious Figure of Tiglath-Pileser I. (From a rock tablet near Korkhar.) s The above woodcut is made from a very rough drawing sent to Eng- land by the explorer, who is not a skilled draughtsman; and it must there- fore be regarded as giving a mere general notion of the bas-relief. * This monument, the earliest As- syrian sculpture which is known to exist, is mentioned by Asshur-izir-pal, tiie father of the Black Obelisk king, in his great Inscription; and it was mainly in consequence of this mention that Mr. John Taylor, being requested by Sir H. Rawlinson to explore the sources of the Tigris, discovered, in 1862, the actual tablet, a circumstance which may serve to clear away any lingering doubts that still exist in any quarters as to the actual decipherment of the Assyrian inscriptions. 8o Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONAECHY. spirit of his father, and gave a portion of his attention to the adornment of temples, and the setting up of images.7 The probable date of the reign of Asshur-bil-kala is about B.C. 1110-1090. He appears to have been succeeded on the throne by his younger brother, Shamas-Vul, of whom nothing is known, but that he built, or repaired, a temple at Nineveh. His reign probably occupied the interval between B.C. 1090 and 1070. He would thus seem to have been contemporary with Smendes in Egypt and with Samuel or Saul in Israel.' So apparently insignificant an event as the establishment of a kingdom in Palestine was not likely to disturb the thoughts, even if it came to the knowledge, of an Assyrian monarch. Shamas-Vul would no doubt have regarded with utter contempt the petty sovereign of so small a territory as Palestine, and would have looked upon the new kingdom as scarcely more worthy of his notice than any other of the ten thousand little principalities which lay on or near his borders. Could he, however, have possessed for a few moments the prophetic foresight vouchsafed some centuries earlier to one who may almost be called his countryman,9 he would have been astonished to recognise in the humble kingdom just lifting its head in the far West, and strug^line: to hold its own aeneh—a slight corruption of the original appellation. It is pro- oltcd city (Tela), he tells us, ''their j bably the native term from which the men, young and old, I took prisoners. I Greeks and Romans formed the name Of some I cutoff the feet and hands; Sophene, whereby they designated the of others I cut off the noses, ears, and entire region between the Mons Masius lips; of the young men's ears I made a and the Upper Euphrates. (See Strab. heap; of the old men's heads I built a 1 xi. p. 7C6; Plin. //. N, vi. 27; D. Cass, minaret. I exposed their heads as a ! xxxvi. 30; Plut. Vit. Lvcu'.l. c. 24; Pro- trophy in front of their city. The male | cop. De JEd. iii. 2, &c.) Mr. John Taylor children and the female children I h'S recently explored this region, and burnt in the flames. The city I de- | finds that the Tsupnat has an under- 86 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. memorial side by side with monuments previously erected on the same site by Tiglath-Pileser and by the first or second Tiglathi-Nin.5 Asshur-izir-pal's fourth campaign was towards the south-east. He crossed the lesser Zab, and, entering the Zagros range, carried fire and sword through its fruitful valleys—pushing his arms further than any of his ancestors, capturing some scores of towns, and accepting or extorting tribute from a dozen petty kings. The furthest extent of his march was probably the district of Zohab across the Shirwan branch of the Diyaleh, to which he give3 the name of Edisa.1 On his return he built, or rather rebuilt, a city, which a Babylonian king called Tsibir had destroyed at a remote period, and gave to his new founda- tion the name of Dur-Asshur, in grateful acknowledgment of the protection vouchsafed him by "the chief of the gods." In his fifth campaign the warlike monarch once more directed his steps towards the north. Passing through the country of the Qummukh, and receiving their tribute, he proceeded to war in the eastern portion of the Mons Masius, where he took the cities of Matyat (now Mediyat) and Kapranisa. He then appears to have crossed the Tigris and warred on the flanks of Niphates, where his chief enemy was the people of Kasiyara. Returning thence, he entered the territory of the Nairi, where he declares that he overthrew and destroyed 250 strong walled cities, and put to death a considerable number of the princes. The sixth campaign of Asshur-izir-pal was in a westerly direction. Starting from Calah or Niinrud, he crossed the ground course of a considerable length through a cavern, which seems to be the fact exaggerated by Pliny (I. s. c.) into a passage of the Tigris underneath Mount Taurus. The Arab geographer, Yacut, gives an account far nearer the truth, making the Tigris flow from a dark cave near Hilluras ("lAXupis of Procopius). It thus appears that both the Arabians and the Romans regarded the Tsupnat as the true Tigris, which is incorrect, as the stream that flows down from Lake Goljik is decidedly the main river. In the cave above men- tioned Mr. Taylor found two of the three memorials mentioned by Asshur- izir-pal. These were his own and Ti- glath-Pileser's. The third had probably been destroyed by the falling in of a part of the cave. « Supra, pp. 79, 83. 1 Ptolemy calls the Diyaleh the Gor- gus, TSpyos (vi. I.), which is an Arian equivalent of the Semitic Edisa; for edus in Arabic is the same as gvrg in Persian, meaning "a wolf or hyaena." Compare the name kos given to the Zab, which had almost the same mean- ing. (Heb. 3XT.) Chap. IX. WARS OF ASSHUB-IZIR-PAt* 87 Tigris, and, marching through the middle of Mesopotamia a little to the north of the Sinjar range, took tribute from a number of subject towns along the courses of the rivers Jerujer,2 Khabour, and Euphrates, among which the most important were Sidikan (now Arban), Sirki, and Anat (now Anah). From Anat, apparently his frontier-town in this direc- tion, he invaded the country of the Tsukhi (Shuhites), captured their city Tsur,3 and forced them, notwithstanding the assistance which they received from their neighbours, the Babylonians,4 to surrender themselves. He then entered Chaldsea, and chas- tised the Chaldamns, after which he returned in triumph to his own country. His seventh campaign was also against the Shuhites. Be- leased from the immediate pressure of his arms, they had rebelled, and had even ventured to invade the Assyrian Empire. The Laki, whose territory adjoined that of the Shuhites towards the north and east, assisted them. The combined army, which the allies were able to bring into the field, amounted probably to 20,000 men,1 including a large number of warriors who fought in chariots. Asshur-izir-pal first attacked the cities on the left bank of the Euphrates, which had felt his might on the former occasion; and, having reduced these and punished their rebellion with great severity,6 he crossed the river on rafts, and fought a battle with the main army of the enemy. In this engagement he was completely victorious, defeating the Tsukhi and their allies with great slaughter, and driving their routed forces headlong into the Euphrates, where great numbers perished by drowning. Six thousand five hundred of the rebels fell in the battle; and the entire country on the right bank of 2 This river, the Hernias of the Arabians, appears in Asshur-izir-pal's inscriptions under the name of Khar- mesh. 1 Tsur, Tyre, may perhaps be cognate to the Hebrew -fl^' the original mean- ing of which is 11 a rock.'* The initial sibilant is however rather D than X. * The Babylonian monarch of the time was Nebo-bal-adan. He was not directly attacked by Asshur-izir-pal; and hence there is no mention of the war on the synchronistic tablet. 4 The scribe has accidentally written the number as "6000," instead of •' 10,000 or 20,000." Immediately after- wards he states that 6500 of these 6000 were slain in the battle! 8 Asshur-izir-pal says that he " made a desert " of the banks of the Khabour. Thirty of the chief prisoners were im- paled on slakes. 88 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. the river, which had escaped invasion in the former campaign, was ravaged furiously with fire and sword by the incensed monarch. The cities and castles were burnt, the males put to the sword, the women, children, and cattle carried off. Two kings of the Laki are mentioned, of whom one escaped, while the other was made prisoner, and conveyed to Assyria by the conqueror. A rate of tribute was then imposed on the land considerably in advance of that to which it had previously been liable. Besides this, to strengthen his hold on the country, the conqueror built two new cities, one on either bank of the Euphrates, naming the city on the left bank after himself, and that on the right bank after the god Asshur. Both of these places were no doubt left well garrisoned with Assyrian soldiers, on whom the conqueror could place entire reliance. Asshur-izir-pal's eighth campaign was nearly in the same quarter; but its exact scene lay, apparently, somewhat higher up the Euphrates. Hazilu, the king of the Laki, who escaped capture in the preceding expedition, had owed his safety to the refuge given him by the people of Beth-Adina. Asshur-izir- pal, who seems to have regarded their conduct on this occasion as an insult to himself, and was resolved to punish their pre- sumption, made his eighth expedition solely against this bold but weak people. Unable to meet his forces in the field, they shut themselves up in their chief city, Kabrabi (?), which was immediately besieged, and soon taken and burnt by the Assy- rians. The country of Beth-Adina, which lay on the left or east bank of the Euphrates, in the vicinity of the modern Balis, was overrun and added to the empire.7 Two thousand five hundred prisoners were carried off and settled at Calah. The most interesting of Asshur-izir-pal's campaigns is the ninth, which was against Syria. Having marched across Upper Mesopotamia and received various tributes upon his way, the 'It may be conjectured that the people of Beth-Adina are " the children of Eden," of whom we have mention in Kings (2 K. xix. 12) and Isaiah (xxxvii. 12), and who in Sennacherib's time in- habited a city called Tel-.Vsshur. The indications of locality mentioned in these passages, and also those furnished by Ezek. xxvii. 25, suit well with the vicinity of Balis. Tel-Asshur may pos- sibly bo the city built by Asshur-i«ir- pal, and named after the god Asshur at the close of his seventh campaign. Chap. IX. WARS OF ASSHUR-IZIR-PAL. 89 Assyrian monarch passed the Euphrates on rafts, and, entering the city of Carcheinish, received the submission of Sangara, the Hittite prince, who ruled in that town, and of various other chiefs, "who came reverently and kissed his sceptre." He then "gave command to advance towards Lebauon." Entering the territory of the Patena,8 who adjoined upon the northern Hittites, and held the country about Antioch and Aleppo, he occupied the capital, Kinalua, which was between the Abri (or Afrin) and the Orontes; alarmed the rebel king, Lubarna, so that he submitted, and consented to pay a tribute; and, then, crossing the Orontes and destroying certain cities of the Patena, passed along the northern flank of Lebanon, and reached the Mediterranean. Here he erected altars and offered sacrifices to the gods, after which he received the submission of the prin- cipal Phoenician states, among which Tyre, Sidou, Byblus, and Aradus may be distinctly recognised. He then proceeded inland, and visited the mountain range of Amanus, where he cut timber, set up a sculptured memorial, and offered sacrifice. After this he returned to Assyria, carrying with him, besides other plunder, a quantity of wooden beams, probably cedar, which he carefully conveyed to Nineveh, to be used in his public buildings. The tenth campaign of Asshur-izir-pal, and the last which is recorded, was in the region of the Upper Tigris. The geographical details here are difficult to follow. We can only say that, as usual, the Assyrian monarch claims to have over- powered all resistance, to have defeated armies, burnt cities, and carried off vast numbers of prisoners. The "royal city " of the monarch chiefly attacked was Amidi, now Diarbekr, which sufficiently marks the main locality of the expedition.' 9 Mr. Fox Talbot compares this name with that of the city Batnm visited by Julian. (Assyrian Texts, p. 32.) Sir H. Rawlinson has suggested a com- parison with the Batancea of the Greeks and Romans. The position of the Patena at this time was, however, much further north than Batana», which rather cor- responds with Bashan. 1 Amidi continued to be known as Amida through the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods, and is mentioned under that name by Zosimus (iii. 34), Proeopius (Bell. Pers. i. 17), Eustathius of Epiphania, and others. The Arabic name of Diarbekr (" the country of Bekr ") superseded that of Amida in the seventh century. Diarbekr is, however, still known as Amid or Kara Amid to the Turks and Armenians. go Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. While engaged in these important wars, which were all included within his first six years, Asshur-izir-pal, like his great predecessor, Tiglath-Pileser, occasionally so far unbent as to indulge in the recreation of hunting. He interrupts the account of his military achievements to record, for the benefit of posterity, that on one occasion he slew fifty large wild bulls * on the left bank of the Euphrates, and captured eight of the same animals; while, on another, he killed twenty ostriches (?), and took captive the same number. We may conclude, from the example of Tiglath-Pileser,8 and from other inscriptions of Asshur-izir-pal himself, that the captured animals were con- veyed to Assyria either as curiosities, or, more probably, as objects of chase. Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures show that the pursuit of the wild bull was one of his favourite occupations;3 and, as the animals were scarce in Assyria, he may have found it expedient to import them. Asshur-izir-pal appears, however, to have possessed a mena- gerie park in the neighbourhood of Nineveh, in which were maintained a variety of strange and curious animals. Animals called pagitts or pagdts—perhaps elephants—were received as tribute from the Phoenicians during his reign, on at least one occasion, and placed in this enclosure, where (he tells us) they throve and bred. So well was his taste for such curiosities known, that even neighbouring sovereigns sought to gratify it, and the king of Egypt, a Pharaoh probably of the twenty- second dynasty, sent him a present of strange animals when he was in Southern Syria, as a compliment likely to be appre- ciated. His love of the chase, which he no doubt indulged to some extent at home, found in Syria, and in the country on the Upper Tigris, its amplest and most varied exercise. In an obelisk inscription, designed especially to commemorate a great hunting expedition into these regions, he tells us that, besides autelopes of all sorts, which he took and sent to Asshur, he captured and destroyed the following animals:—lions, wild sheep, red deer, fallow-deer, wild goats or ibexes, leopards large and small, bears, wolves, jackals, wild boars, ostriches, : Supra, p. 64. * See vol. i. pp. 512, et seqj. Chap. IX. ASSHUR-IZIR-PAL'S BUILDINGS. foxes, hyaenas, wild asses, and a few kinds which have not been identified.4 From another inscription we learn that, in the course of another expedition, which seems to have been in the Mesopotamian desert, he destroyed 360 large lions, 257 large wild cattle, and thirty buffaloes, while he took and sent to Calah fifteen full-grown lions, fifty young lions, some leo- pards, several pairs of wild buffaloes and wild cattle, together with ostriches, wolves, red deer, bears, cheetas, and hyaenas.1 Thus in his peaceful hours he was still actively employed, and, in the chase of many dangerous beasts, was able to exercise the same qualities of courage, coolness, and skill in the use of weapons, which procured hini in his wars such frequent and such great successes. Thus distinguished, both as a hunter and as a warrior, Asshur-izir-pal, nevertheless, excelled his predecessors most remarkably in the grandeur of his public buildings and the free use which he made of the mimetic and other arts in their ornamentation. The constructions of the earlier kings at Asshur (or Kileh-Sherghat), whatever merit they may have had, were beyond a doubt far inferior to those which, from the time of Asshur-izir-pal, were raised in rapid succession at Calah, Nineveh, and Beth-Sargina by that monarch and his successors upon the throne. The mounds of Kileh-Sherghat have yielded no bas-reliefs, nor do they show any traces of buildings on the scale of those which, at Nimrud, Koyunjik, and Khorsabad, provoke the admiration of the traveller. The great palace of Asshur-izir-pal was at Calah, which he first raised from a provincial town to be the metropolis of the empire. It was a building 360 feet long by 300 broad, consisting of seven or eight large halls, and a far greater number of small chambers, grouped round a central court 130 feet long and nearly 100 wide. The longest of the halls, which faced towards the north, and was the first room entered by one who approached from the 4 Sec a paper published by Sir H. in the text. They have the sanction of Rawlinson in the Transactions of the the writer. Royal Society of Literature, vol. vii. New I s This inscription is on the altar found Series, p. 9. A few variations from the | at Nimrud in front of this king's sculp- passage in the Transactions will be found j tured effigy. (Infra, p. 97.) 92 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. town, was in length 154 and in breadth thirty-three feet The others varied between a size little short of this, and a leDgth of sixty-five with a breadth of less than twenty feet. The chambers were generally square, or nearly so, and in their greatest dimensions rarely exceeded ten yards. The whole palace was raised upon a lofty platform, made of sun-burnt brick, hut externally cased on every side with hewn stone. There were two grand facades, one facing the north, on which side there Plan of Palace of Asshur-izir-pal. was an ascent to the platform from the town; and the other facing the Tigris,6 which anciently flowed at the foot of the platform towards the west. On the northern front two or three great gateways,7 flanked with andro-sphinxes,8 gave direct • This, at least, is the opinion of Mr. Layard (Kinecch and Babylon, p. 654), who has even ventured, with the help of Mr. Fergusson, to reconstruct the river facade. (Monuments, 2nd Series, PI. 1.) 7 Only two were uncovered by Mr. Layard; but he believes that there was a third between them, as at Koyunjik and Khorsabad. (A'lR. and Bab. 1. s. c Compare above, vol. i. p. S91, et seq.) 8 This term is intended to express Chap. IX. GREAT PALACE OF ASSHURIZIR-PAL. 93 access to the principal hall or audience chamber, a noble apartment, but too narrow for its length, lined throughout with sculptured slabs representing the various actions of the king, and containing at the upper or eastern end a raised stone platform cut into steps, which, it is probable, was intended to support at a proper elevation the carved throne of the monarch.9 A grand portal in the southern wall of the chamber, guarded on either side by winged human-headed bulls in yellow lime- stone, conducted into a second hall considerably smaller than the first, and having less variety of ornament,10 which commu- nicated with the central court by a handsome gateway towards the south; and, towards the east, was connected with a third hall, one of the most remarkable in the palace. This chamber was a better-proportioned room than most, being about ninety feet long by twenty-six wide; it ran along the eastern side of the great court, with which it communicated by two gateways; and, internally, it was adorned with sculptures of a more finished and elaborate character than any other room in the building.11 Behind this eastern hall was another opening into it, of somewhat greater length, but only twenty feet wide; and this led to five small chambers, which here bounded the palace. South of the Great Court were, again, two halls communicating with each other; but they were of inferior size to those on the north and west, and were far less richly ornamented. It is conjectured that there were also two or three halls on the west side of the Court between it and the river;1 but of this there was no very clear evidence, and it may be doubted whether the court towards the west was not, at least partially, open to the winged lions which have the form of a man inert to the tcaist. (Layard, Monument*, 1st Series, PL 42.) • Layard, Ninereh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 383; Monuments, 1st Scries, p. 6. "This hall was about 100 feet long by 25 broad. All the slabs except one were ornamented with colossal eagle- headed figures in pairs, facing one another, and separated by the sacred tree. "From the upper or northern end of this hall was obtained the magni- ficently dressed group, figured by Mr. Layard in the 1st Series of his Monu- ments, PI. 5, and now in the British Museum. "All the figures in the chamber," say9 Mr. Layard, ''are co- lossal, and are remarkable for the careful finish of the sculptures and elaborate nature of the ornaments." (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 305.) 1 See the plan of the Nimrud ruins in Mr. Layard's Nineieh and Babylon, opp. p. G55. 94 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. the river. Almost every hall had one or two small chambers attached to it, which were most usually at the ends of the halls and connected with them by large doorways. Such was the general plan of the palace of Asshur-izir-pal. Its great halls, so narrow for their length, were probably roofed with beams stretching across them from side to side, and lighted by small louvres in their roofs after the manner described in the former volume.2 Its square chambers may have been domed,3 and perhaps were not lighted at all, or only by lamps and torches. They were generally without ornamenta- tion.4 The grand halls, on the contrary, and some of the narrower chambers, were decorated on every side, first with sculptures to the height of nine or ten feet, and then with enamelled bricks, or patterns painted in fresco, to the height, probably, of seven or eight feet more. The entire height of the rooms was thus from sixteen to seventeen or eighteen feet. The character of Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures has been suffi- ciently described in an earlier chapter.5 They have great spirit, boldness, and force; occasionally they shew real merit in the design; but they are clumsy in the drawing and somewhat coarse in the execution. What chiefly surprises us in regard to them is the suddenness with which the art they manifest appears to have sprung up, without going through the usual stages of rudeness and imperfection. Setting aside one muti- lated statue of very poor execution6 and a single rock tablet,7 we have no specimens remaining of Assyrian mimetic art more 2 Sec vol. i. p. 304. ■ the two arms from the elbows, and the 5 Like the rooms in ordinary Assyrian I front part of the feet. It is in a coarse houses. (Sec (he representation, vol. i. | stone, and appears to have been very p. 322.) rudely carved. The size is a little belo* 4 Their walls had the usual covering ! that of life. The proportions are bail, of alabaster slabs, but these slabs were j the length of the body between the inscribed only, and not sculptured. | arms and the legs being much too short. 5 Vol. i. ch. vi. pp. 344 et seq. There are appearances from which it is "A mutilated female statue, brought concluded that the statue had been from Koyunjik, and now in the cellars made to subserve the purposes of a of the British Museum, is inscribed with fountain. the name of Asshur-bil-kala, son of I 'The tablet of Tiglath-Pileser I., ef Tiglath-Pileser, and is the earliest As- I which a representation has been already Syrian sculpture which has been brought given (supra, p. 79). to Europe. The figure wants the head, , Chap. IX. ASSHUK-IZIR-PAI/S SCULPTUEES. 95 ancient than this monarch.8 That art almost seems to start in Assyria, like Minerva from the head of Jove, full grown. Asshur-izir-pal had undoubtedly some constructions of former monarchs to copy from, both in his palatial and in his sacrerl edifices; the old palaces and temples at Kileh-Sherghat must have had a certain grandeur; and in his architecture this monarch may have merely amplified and improved upon the models left him by his predecessors; but his ornamentation, so far as appears, was his own. The mounds of Kileh-Sherghat have yielded bricks in abundance, but not a single fragment of a sculptured slab.9 We cannot prove that ornamental bas- reliefs did not exist before the time of Asshur-izir-pal; indeed the rock tablets, which earlier monarchs set up, were sculptures of this character; but to Asshur-izir-pal seems at any rate to belong the merit of having first adopted bas-reliefs on an extensive scale as an architectural ornament, and of having employed them so as to represent by their means all the public life of the monarch. The other arts employed by this king in the adornment of his buildings were those of enamelling bricks and painting in fresco upon a plaster. Both involve considerable skill in the preparation of colours, and the former especially implies much dexterity in the management of several very delicate pro- cesses.10 The sculptures of Asshur-izir-pal, besides proving directly the high condition of mimetic art in Assyria at this time, furnish indirect evidence of the wonderful progress which had been made in various important manufactures. The metallurgy which produced the swords, sword-sheaths, daggers, ear-rings, necklaces, armlets, and bracelets of this period,11 must have been of a very advanced description. The coach-building, which • Some signet-cylinders of Assyrian workmanship may be earlier. But their date is uncertain. 'Layard, JUmeveli and its Remains, vol. ii. pp. 58-CO; Nineteh and Babylon, p. 5S1. Small bits of basalt, fragments probably of an obelisk, a rude statue (see vol. i. p. 339), and some portions of a winged bull, are all the works of art which Kileh-Sherghat has yielded. The statue is later than the time of Asshur- izir-pal. 10 See vol. i. pp. 3S0 et seq. 11 For representations, see vol. i. pp. 368, 3ti9, 371, and 455. 96 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. constructed the chariots, the saddlery which made the harness of the horses, the embroidery which ornamented the robes," must, 'similarly, have been of a superior character. The evidence of the sculptures alone is quite sufficient to show that, in the time of Asshur-izir-pal, the Assyrians were already a great and luxurious people, that most of the useful arts not only existed among them but were cultivated to a high pitch, and that in dress, furniture, jewellery, &c, they were not very much behind the moderns. Besides the magnificent palace which he built at Calah, Asshur-izir-pal is known also to have erected a certain number of temples. The most important of these have been already described.13 They stood at the north-western corner of the Nimrud platform and consisted of two edifices, one exactly at the angle, comprising the higher tower or ziggurai,n which stood out as a sort of corner buttress from the great mound, and a shrine with chambers at the tower's base; the other, a little further to the east, consisting of a shrine and chambers without a tower. These temples were richly ornamented both within and without; and in front of the larger one was an erection which seems to show that the Assyrian monarchs, either during their lifetime, or at any rate after their decease, received divine honours from their subjects. On a plain square pedestal about two feet in height was raised a solid block of limestone cut into the shape of an arched frame, and within this frame was carved the monarch in his sacerdotal dress, and with the sacred collar round his neck, while the five principal divine emblems were represented above his head.15 In front of this figure, marking (apparently) the object of its erection,16 was a triangular altar 15 See vol. i. pp. 398, 399; and com- pare Layanl, btnevch and its Remains, vol. ii. pp. 321 and 412-414. "Supra, vol. i. pp. 315, ct seq. 14 This tower, however, was partly the work of Asshur-izir-pal's sou and successor, Shalmanescr II. A stele of the same king, closely resembling this, but of a ruder character, has been recently brought to England from Kurkh, near Diarbckr, and added to tho National Collection. lfi The custom of placing an altar directly in front of a sculptured repre- sentation of the king appears also in one of the bas-reliefs of Asshur-bani- pal, where there is an arched frame very like this of Asshur-izir-pal, apparently set up against a temple, with an altar at a little distance, placed in a pathway leading directly to the royal image. (See vol. i. p. 310, No. V.) Chap. IX. HIS STEL.E AND OBELISKS. 97 with a circular top, very nwh resembling the tripod of the Greeks.1 Here we may presume were laid the offerings with which the credulous and the servile propitiated the new god, who may not improba- bly have intercepted many a gift on its way to the deity of the temple. Another temple built by this monarch was one de- dicated to Beltis at Nine- veh. It was perhaps for the ornamentation of this edi- fice that he cut "great trees" in Amanus and else- where during his Syrian ex- pedition, and had them con- veyed across Mesopotamia to Assyria. It is expressly stated that these heains were carried, not to Calah, where Stele of Asshur-izir-pal with altar in front (Nimrud). Asshur-izir-pal usually resided, but to Nineveh. A remarkahle work, probably erected by this monarch, and pet up as a memorial of his reign at the same city, is an obelisk in white stone, now in the British Museum. On this monu- ment, which was covered on all its four sides with sculptures and inscriptions, now nearly obliterated, Asshur-izir-pal comme- morated his wars and hunting exploits in various countries. The obelisk is a monolith, about twelve or thirteen feet hijrh, and two feet broad at the base.2 It tapers slightly, and. like the Bluek Obelisk erected by this monarch's son,3 is crowned at the summit by three steps or gradines. This thoroughly Assyrian ornamentation * seems to show that the idea of the 1 Layard, AVnercA and Babylon, p. 851. 5 Two feet, that is, on the broader face; on the narrower one the width is less than 14 inches. VOL. II. 1 See vol. i. p. 2R6, where this monu- ment is represented. 4 For its constant use in Assyria, see vol. i. pp. 237, 279, 30S, 30n, 310, 312, 98 Chai'. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. obelisk was not derived from Egypt, where the pyramidical apex was universally used, being regarded as essential to this class of ornaments.5 If we must seek a foreign origin for the invention, we may perhaps find it in the pillars (. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. p. 228), Mcuander (Fr. 1), and Herodotus (ii. 44). 'receiving tribute-bearers. It must have 'Fragments of two other obelisks, been larger than any other work of this one certainly, the other probably, erected kind which has been found in Assyria; by this monarch, were discovered at for its width at top was two feet eight Koyunjik by Mr. Loftus, and are also I inches on the broader, and nearly two in the British Museum. One was in | feet on the narrower face, which would white stone, and had sculptures on one i imply a height of from fifteen to twenty side only, being chiefly covered with I feiit. It is uncertain whether this obelisk an inscription commemorating, in two terminated in gradines. columns, first, certain hunting exploits • Supra, vol. i. pp. 564 et seq. in Syria, and secondly, the repairs of Chap. IX. SHALMANESER II. 9) river. At the same time it was tranferred from the west bank to the east, and placed in the fertile region of Adiabene,9 near the junction of the Greater Zab with the Tigris. Here, iu a strong and healthy position, on a low spur from the Jebel Maklub, protected on either side by a deep river, the new capital grew to greatness. Palace after palace rose on its lofty platform, rich with carved woodwork, gilding, painting, sculp- ture, and enamel, each aiming to outshine its predecessors; while stone lions, sphinxes, obulisks, shrines, and temple-towers embellished the scene, breaking its monotonous sameness by variety. The lofty ziggurat attached to the temple of Nin or Hercules, dominating over the whole, gave unity to the vast mass of palatial and sacred edifices. The Tigris, skirting the entire western base of the mound, glassed the whole in its waves, and, doubling the apparent height, rendered less observable the chief weakness of the architecture. When the setting sun lighted up the view with the gorgeous hues seen only under an Eastern sky, Calah must have seemed to the traveller who beheld it for the first time like a vision from fairy-land. After reigning gloriously for twenty-five years, from B.C. 883 to B.C. 858, this great prince—" the conqueror" (as he styles him- self), "from the upper passage of the Tigris to Lebanon and the Great Sea, who has reduced under his authority all countries from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same "10— died, probably at no very advanced age," and left his tfirone to his son, who bore the name of Shalmaneser. Shalmaneser II., the son of Asshur-izir-pal, who may pro- bably have been trained to arms under his father, seems to have inherited to the full his military spirit, and to have warred with at least as much success against his neighbours. His reign was extended to the unusual length of thirty-five years,18 during 'Adiabene is properly the country shur-izir-pal i« not likely to have been '•etrecen the Upper and Lower Zab, but much more than twenty or twenty-five it is not unusual to extend the term years old when he came to the throne, to the whole Zab region. , 12 No other Assyrian king except As- "See Mr. Layard's Nineveh and shur-bani-pal is known to have reigned Bnbylon, p. 361. so long. The nearest approach to a 11 As his father reigned only six, and reign of this length among the earlier his grandfather only twenty years, As- monarchs is made by Vul-lush III., Shal- H 2 ICO Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. which time ho conducted in person no fewer than twenty-three military expeditions, besides entrusting three or four others to a favourite general. It would be a wearisome task to follow out in detail these numerous and generally uninteresting campaigns, where invasion, battle, flight, siege, submission, and triumphant return succeeded one another with monotonous uniformity. The style of the court historians of Assyria does not improve as time goes on. Nothing can well be more dry and common- place than the historical literature of this period,13 which recalls the early efforts of the Greeks in this department,14 and exhibits a decided inferiority to the compositions of Stowe and Holin- shed. The historiographer of Tiglath-Pileser L,' between two and three centuries earlier, is much superior, as a writer, to those of the period to which we are come, who eschew all graces of style, contenting themselves with the curtest and driest of phrases, and with sentences modelled on a single unvarying type. Instead, therefore, of following in the direct track of the annalist whom Shalmaneser employed to record his exploits, and proceeding to analyse his account of the twenty-seven campaigns belonging to this r>.-ign, I shall simply present the reader with the general result in a few words, and then draw his special attention to a few of the expeditions which are of more than common importance. maneser's grandson, who reigns 29 years. At Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar reigns 43 years; but no other monarch in Pto- lemy's list much exceeds 20 years. 13 Take, for instance, the following passage from the Annals of Asshur- izii -pal:— "On the sixth day of the month Su from the city Tahiti I departed. By the Or the following from the Annals of Shalmaneser II., which is a very ordi- nary specimen:— "In my 25th year I crossed the Eu- phrates through deep water. I received the tribute of all the kings of the Khatti. I passed over Mount Khamana, and went down to the towns of Kati of Cawin. I attacked ami captured Timur, side of the river Kharmesh I marched. his stronghold. I slew his fighting men In the city Magarisi I halted. From the and carried away his spoil. I overthrew, city Magarisi I departed. At the banks beat to pieces, and consumed with fire of the river Khabour I arrived. In the towns without number. On mv return city Shadikanni I halted. The tribute of the city Shadikanni I received— silver, gold, iron, bars of copper, sheep, and goats. From the city Shadikanni 1 departed. In the city Katni I halted,' I chose Muru, a stronghold of Arami, the son of Ashaltsi, to be one of my frontier cities." "See the author's Ifcrodotvs, vol. i. p. 117, note 4, 2nd edition. &C. &c. 1 See above, pp. t>3-72. Chap. IX. . WARS OP SHALMANESER II. 101 It appears, then, that Shalmaneser, during the first twenty- seven years of his reign, led in person twenty-three expeditions into the territories of bis neighbours, attacking in the course of these inroads besides petty tribes—the following nations and countries:—Babylonia, Chaldaea, Media, the Zimri, Armenia, Upper Mesopotamia, the country about the head-streams of the Tigris, the Hittites, the Patena, the Tibareni, the Hamathites, and the Syrians of Damascus. He took tribute during the same time from the Phoenician cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus, from the Tsukhi or Shuhites, from the people of Muzr, from the Bartsu or Partsu, who are almost certainly the Persians, and from the Israelites. He thus traversed in person the entire country between the Persian Gulf on the south and Mount Niphates upon the north, and between the Zagros range (or perhaps the Persian desert) eastward, and, westward, the shores of the Mediterranean. Over the whole of this region he made his power felt, and even beyond it the nations feared him and gladly placed themselves under his protection. During the later years of his reign, when he was becoming less fit for warlike toils, he seems in general to have deputed the command of his armies to a subject in whom he had great confidence, a noble named Dayan-Asshur. This chief, who held an important office as early as Shalinaneser's fifth year* was in his twenty- seventh, twenty-eighth, thirtieth, and thirty-first, employed as commander-in-chief, and sent out, at the head of the main army of Assyria, to conduct campaigns against the Armenians, against the revolted Patena, and against the inhabitants of the modern Kurdistan. It is uncertain whether the king himself took any part in the campaigns of these years. In the native record the first and third persons are continually interchanged,3 some of 3 In the fifth year of Shalmaneser, Dayan-Asshur was Eponym, as appears both from the Assyrian Canon and the Inscription on the Black Obelisk. The fourth place after the king was at this time ordinarily held by an officer called the Tukul, probably the Vizier, or Prime Minister. 3 The subjoined passage will show the curious intermixture of persons:— "In my 30th year, while I was waiting in Calah, I sent out in haste Dayan- ABshur, the general-in-chief of my whole army, at the head of my army. He crossed the Zab, and arrived among the towns of Hupuska. / received the tribute of Datan, the Hupuskan. /de- parted from the towns of the Hupus- kans. //(.- arrived at the towns of Mag. dubi, the Madakhirian. / received 102 Chap. IX, THE SECOND MONARCHY. the actions related being ascribed to the monarch, and others to the general; but on the whole the impression left by the narrative is that the king, in the spirit of a well-known legal maxim,4 assumes as his own the acts which he has accomplished through his representative. In his twenty-ninth year, however, Shalmaneser seems to have led an expedition in person into Khirki (the Niphates country), where he "overturned, beat to pieces, and consumed with fire the towns, swept the country with his troops, and impressed on the inhabitants the fear of his presence." The campaigns of Shalmaneser which have the greatest in- terest are those of his sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-first years. Two of these were directed against Babylonia, three against Ben-hadad of Damascus, and two against Khazail (Hiizael) of Damascus. In liis eighth year Shalmaneser took advantage of a civil war in Babylonia between King Merodaeh-^um-adiu, and a younger brother, Merodach-bel-usati (?), whose power was about evenly balanced, to interfere in the affairs of that country, and under pretence of helping the legitimate monarch, to make himself master of several towns. In the following year he was still more fortunate. Having engaged, defeated, and slain the pre- tender to the Babylonian crown, he marched on to Babylon itself, where he was probably welcomed as a deliverer, and from thence proceeded into Chaldaea, or the tract upon the coast, which was at this- time independent of Babylon, and forced its kings to become his tributaries. "The power of his army," he tells us, "struck terror as far as the sea." The wars of Shalmaneser in Southern Syria commenced as early as his ninth year. He had succeeded to a dominion in Northern Syria, which extended over the Patena, and probably over most of the northern Hittites;5 and this made his territo- ries conterminous with those of the Phoenicians, the Hamathites, tribute. //<• departed from the towns of I '"Quod facit per alium, facit per se." the Madakhirians. and arrived among • Sangara, king of Carchemish, and the towns of lldaki the Mannian. Udaki ! Lubarna, king of the Patena, had sob- fled to save his life. / pursued him." mitted to Asshur-izir-pal. (Supra, p. tu-,. | 89.) » Chap. IX. WARS OF SHALMANESER II. I03 the southern Hittites, and perhaps the Syrians of Damascus.4 At any rate the last-named people felt themselves threatened by the growing power on or near their borders, and, convinced that they would soon be attacked, prepared for resistance by entering into a close league with their neighbours. The king of Damascus, who was the great Ben-hadad, Tsakhulena, king of Hamath, Ahab, king of Israel, the kings of the southern Hittites, those of the Phoenician cities on the coast, and others, formed an alliance, and, uniting their forces,7 went out boldly to meet Shalmaneser, offering him battle. Despite, however, of this confidence, or perhaps in consequence of it, the allies suffered a defeat. Twenty thousand men fell in the battle. Many chariots and much of the material of war were captured by the Assyrians. But still no conquest was effected. Shalma- neser does not assert that he either received submission or imposed a tribute; and the fact that he did not venture to renew the war for five years seems to show that the resistance which he had encountered made him hesitate about continuing the struggle. Five years, however, having elapsed, and the power of Assyria being increased by her successes in Lower Mesopotamia,* Shalmaneser, in the eleventh year of his reign, advanced a second time against Hamath and the southern Hittite3. Enter- ing their territories unexpectedly, he was at first unopposed, and succeeded in taking a large number of their towns. But the troops of Ben-hadad soon appeared in the field. Phoenicia, apparently, stood aloof, and Hamath was occupied with her own difficulties; but Ben-hadad, having joined the Hittites, again gave Shalmaneser battle; and, though that monarch, as usual, claims the victory, it is evident that he gained no important advantage by his success. He had once more to return to his • This is doubtful. The southern Hittites may have entirely separated the Damascus territory from that now possessed by Assyria. 'The allied force is estimated by the Assyrian monarch at 3940 chariots, 1000 camels, and 77,900 men. Of these Ben-hadad furnished 20,000 men and I 1200 chariots, Adoni-baal of Sizana 20,000 men and 30 chariots, Ahab of Jezreel 10,000 men and 2000 chariots, Tsakhulena of Hamath 10,000 men and 700 chariots, and the king of Egypt 1000 men. The camels were furnished by Gindibua (Djendib) the Arabian. ■ See above, p. 102. ]04 Ciiai-. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. own land without having extended his sway, and this time (as it would seem) without even any trophies of conquest. Three years later, he made another desperate effort 'Collect- ing his people "in multitudes that were not to be counted," he crossed the Euphrates with above a hundred thousand men.1 Marching southwards he soon encountered a large army of the allies, Damascenes, Hamathites, Hittites, and perhaps Phoeni- cians;2 the first-named still commanded by the undaunted Ben-hadad. This time the success of the Assyrians is beyond dispute. Not only were the allies put to flight, not only did they lose most of their chariots and implements of war, but they appear to have lost hope, and, formally or tacitly, to have forthwith dissolved their confederacy. The Hittites and Hama- thites probably submitted to the conqueror; the Phoenicians withdrew to their own towns, and Damascus was left without allies, to defend herself as she best might, when the tide of conquest should once more flow in this direction.* In the fourth year the flow of the tide came. Shalmaneser, once more advancing southward, found the Syrians of Damascus strongly posted in the fastnesses of the Anti-Lebanon. Since his last invasion they had changed their ruler. The brave and experienced Ben-hadad had perished by the treachery of an ambitious subject,3 and his assassin, the infamous Hazael, held the throne. Left to his own resources by the dissolution of the old league, this monarch had exerted himself to the utmost in order to repel the attack which he knew was impending. He had collected a very large army, including above eleven hundred chariots, and, determined to leave nothing to chance, had care- fully taken up a very strong position in the mountain range 1 He estimates his troops at 102,000. I p. 884; Cotton, in Smith's Biblical Dic- (Black Obelisk Inscription, p. 423.) tionary, ad voc. Benhadad), because it 1 The Hittites and the Phoenicians is thought that otherwise Eiisha would are probably both included in the | be involved in his crime. But Eiisha "twelve kings from the shores of the Upper and Lower Sens," who are said to have joined Ben-hadad on this occasion. (Inscription. 1. s. c.) * Sec 2 Kings viii. 15. Attempts have l>een made to clear Hazael of this murder have acted as David did. (Calmet, Cmnmentaire litte'riil, vol. ii. \ no more suggested murder to Hazael by telling him that he would be king than Samuel suggested a similar crime to David by actually anointing him as king (1 Sam. xvi. 1-13). Hazael might Chap. IX. TRIBUTE TAKEN FROM JEHU. 105 which separated his territory from the neighbouring kingdom of Hamath, or valley of Ccele-Syria. Here lie was attacked by Shalmaneser, and completely defeated, with the loss of 16,000 of his troops, 1121 of his chariots, a quantity of his war material, and his camp. This blow apparently prostrated him; and when, three years later, Shalmaneser invaded his territory, Hazael brought no army into the field, but let his towns, one after another, be taken and plundered by the Assyrian.4 It was probably upon this last occasion, when the spirit of Damascus was cowed, and the Phoenician cities, trembling at the thought of their own rashness in having assisted Hazael and Israelites bringing tribute to Shalmaneser II. (Nimrud). Ben-hadad, hastened to make their submission and to resume the rank of Assyrian tributaries, that the sovereign of another Syrian country, taking warning from the fate of his neighbours, determined to anticipate the subjection which he could not avoid, and, making a virtue of necessity, to place himself under the Assyrian yoke. Jehu, "son of Omri," as he is termed in the Inscription—i.e. successor and supposed descendant of the great Omri who built Samaria5—sent as tribute to Shalmaneser 1 Inscription, p. 424. The expression , raonarchs of this period as Beth-Khumri H9ed is, "I went to the towns of Hazael —" the house or city of Omri "—a form of Damascus, and took part of his pro- , of name with which they were familiar, visions" Immediately afterwards we and one which implied the existence at read, "I received the tributes of Tyre, i some previous time of a great king, Sidon, and Byblus." | Omri, the founder. Jehu, in his dealings 'Samaria was known to the Assyrian ( with the Assyrians, seems to hove io6 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. a quantity of gold and silver in bullion, together with a number of manufactured articles in the more precious of the two metals. In the sculptures which represent the Israelitish ambassadors presenting this tribute to the Great King,6 these articles appear carried in the hands, or on the shoulders, of the envoys, but they are in general too indistinctly traced for us to pronounce with any confidence upon their character. Shalmaneser liad the same taste as his father for architecture and the other arts. He completed the ziggurat of the Great Temple of Nin at Calah, which his father had left unfinished, and not content with the palace of that monarch, built for him- self a new and (probably) more magnificent residence on the same lofty platform, at the distance of about 150 yards.7 This edifice was found by Mr. Layard in so ruined a condition, through the violence which it had suffered, apparently at the hands of Esarhaddon,8 that it was impossible either to trace its plan or to form a very clear notion of its ornamentation.9 Two gigantic winged bulls, partly destroyed, served to show that the grand portals of the chambers were similar in character and design to those of the earlier monarch, while from a number of sculptured fragments it was sufficiently plain that the walls had been adorned with bas-reliefs of the style used in Asshur-izir- pal's edifice. The only difference observable was in the size and subjects of the sculptures, which seemed to have been on a grander scale and more generally mythological than those of the North-West palace.10 The monument of Shalmaneser which has attracted most attention in this country is an obelisk in black marble, similar in shape and general arrangement to that of Asshur-izir-pal, represented himself to them as this man's "son" or "descendant." It is possible that his representation may have been true, and that he was de- scended from Omri, at least on the mother's side. 0 Besides the representation given above, the woodcut on page 502 of vol. i. belongs to this series. It represents the chief ambassador of the Israelites pros- trating himself'before the Assyrian king. 7 This is commonly known as the "Central Palace" of the Nimrud plat- form. It was discovered by Mr. Layard on his first expedition (See Ninereh and its Remains, vol. i. pp. 344-347.) * It will be hereafter seen that Esar- haddon's palace at Nimrud—called by Mr. Layard the South-West edifice—was almost entirely composed of materials taken from the earlier buildings in its neighbourhood. • Layard, Nineveh and Babyltit, p. G5G. 11 Ibid. 1. s. c. and note. Ciur. IX. THE BLACK OBELISK. 107 already described, but of a handsomer and better material. This work of art was discovered in a prostrate position under the debris which covered up Shalmaneser's palace. It contained bas-reliefs in twenty compartments, five on each of its four sides; the space above, between, and below them being covered with cuneiform writing, sharply inscribed in a minute character. The whole was in most excellent preservation.1 The bas-reliefs represent the monarch, accompanied by his vizier and other chief officers, receiving the tribute of five nations, whose envoys are ushered into the royal presence by officers of the court, and prostrate themselves at the Great King's feet ere they present their offerings. The gifts brought are, in part, objects carried in the hand—gold silver, copper in bars and cubes, goblets, elephants' tusks, tissues, and the like—in part, animals, such as horses, camels, monkeys and baboons of different kinds, stags, lion.*, wild bulls, antelopes, and—strangest of all—the rhinoceros and the elephant. One of the nations, as already mentioned.2 is that of the Israelites. The others are, first, the people of Kir- zan, a country bordering on Armenia,3 who present gold, silver, copper, horses, and camels, and fill the four highest compart- ments' with a train of nine envoys; secondly, the Muzri, or {•eople of Muzr, a country nearly in the same quarter,5 who are 1 For a representation of this obelisk | their occurrence. We mu9t then dc- see vol. i. p. 206. It is on a somewhat j scend to the second line of com part- smaller scale than that of Asshur-izir- merits, then to the third, and so on, pal. being only about seven feet high, reading them in the some way. In the whereas that is more than twelve, and 1 black Obelisk the five lines of compart- twenty-two inches wide on the broad face, whereas that is two feet. Its pro- portions make it more solid-looking and less taper than the earlier monu- ment. 'See above, p. 105. mcnts correspond exactly to the five nations, except in a single instance. The figures in the bottom compartment of the first side seem not to belong to the fifth nation, nor (apparently) to the fourth, but either to the first or second. Kirzan seems to be the country on The envoys of the fifth nation are intro- the southern slopes of Mount Niphates, ' duced by Assyrian officers in the bottom between the Bitlis and Myafarekin rivers. It retains its name almost un- chauged to the present day. (See Layard, -Nuk-ceA and Babijon, p. 37, where it is called •' the district of Kherzan.") compartment of the second side. * Muzr is north-western Kurdistan, especially the district about ltowandiz and Amadiych. Bit-Sargina (Khorsa- bad) is always said to be "at the foot 'To read the sculptures of an As- 1 of the mountains of Muzr." The Muzri Syrian obelisk we must begin at the top must have traded with India, probably with the four topmost compartments, by the line of the Caspian and the Uxus which we must take in the order of river. io8 Chai>. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. represented in tlie four central compartments, with six envoys conducting various wild animals; thirdly, the Tsukhi, or Shu- liites, from the Euphrates, to whom belong the four compart- ments below the Muzri, which are filled by a train of thirteen envoys, bringing two lions, a stag, and various precious articles, among which bars of metal, elephants' tusks, and shawls or tissues, are conspicuous; and lastly, the Patena, from the Oron- tes, who fill three of the lowest compartments with a train of twelve envoys bearing gifts like those of the Israelites. Besides this interesting monument, there are very few remains of art which can be ascribed to Shalmaneser's time with any confidence.6 The sculptures found on the site of his palace belonged to a luter monarch,7 who restored and embellished it. His own bas-reliefs were torn from their places by Esarhaddon, and by him defaced and used as materials in the construction of a new palace. We are thus left almost without materials for judging of the progress made by art during Shalmaneser's reign. Architecture, it may be conjectured, was modified to a certain extent, precious woods being employed more frequently and more largely than before; a fact of which we seem to have an indication in the frequent expeditious made by Shalmaneser into Syria, for the single purpose of cutting timber in its forests.* Sculpture, to judge from the obelisk, made no advance. The same formality, the same heaviness of outline, the same rigid adherence to the profile in all representations both of man and beast, characterise the reliefs of both reigns equally, so far as we have any means of judging. Shalmaneser seems to have held his court ordinarily at Calah, where he built his palace and set up his obelisk; but sometimes he would reside for a time at Nineveh or at Asshur.9 He does B A stele of this monarch, closely re- i Scripture. (See below, p. iri5.) scmbling those of his father already I * Shalmaneser made expeditions for mentioned (supra, p. 9G), was brought | this sole purpose in his first, his seven- from Kurkh in 1863, and is now in the teenth, and his nineteenth years. (See British Museum. It is not inferior to I Inscri/itivn, pp. 422-424.) the similar works of Asshur-izir-pal; i * Sec Shalmaneser's account of his but it shows no advance upon them. I proceedings during his fifth and twenty- 7 This was Tiglath-Pileser II., the sixth years. (Lis.ription, pp. 422, 425.) monarch of that name mentioned in Chap. IX. REBELLION OF ASSHUR-DANIX-PAL. 109 not appear to have built any important edifice at either of these two cities, but at the latter he left a monument which possesses some interest. This is the stone statue, now in a mutilated condition, representing a king seated, which was found by Mr. Layard at Kileh-Sherghat, and of which some notice was taken in the former volume.10 Its proportions are better than those of the small statue of the monarch's father, standing in bis sacrificial dress, which was found at Niinrud;" and it is superior to that work of art, in being of the size of life; but either its execution was originally very rude, or it must have suffered grievously by exposure, for it is now wholly rough and unpolished. The later years of Shalmaneser appear to have been troubled by a dangerous rebellion.12 The infirmities of age were pro- bably creeping upon him. He had ceased to go out with his amies; and had handed over a portion of his authority to the favourite general who was entrusted with the command of his furces year after year.1 The favour thus shown may have pro- voked jealousy and even alarm. It may have been thought that the legitimate successor was imperilled by the exaltation of a subject, whose position would enable him to ingratiate him- self with the troops, and who might be expected, on the death of his patron, to make an effort to place the crown on his own head. Fears of this kind may very probably have so worked on the mind of the heir-appurent as to determine him not to await his father's demise, but rather to raise the standard of revolt during his lifetime, and to endeavour, by an unexpected coup- de-main, to anticipate and ruin his rival. Or, possibly, Asshur- danin-pal, the eldest son of Shalmaneser, like too many royal youths, may have been impatient of the long life of his father, and have conceived the guilty desire, with which our fourth Henry is said to have taxed his first-born, a "hunger for the See vol. i. p. 339. "Representations of these two statues are given on pages 339 and 340 of the tint volume. 12 The main features of this rebellion set up by Shamas-Vul II., Shalmaneser's son and successor. This inscription has been translated by Sir II. Kawlinson. and will be found in the Journal of the Asiatic Stx'icty, vol. xvi., Annual Report, are given in an inscription on a stele p. xii et sej. 1 Supra, p. 101. > 1IO Ca.tr. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. empty chair," of which the aged monarch2 still held possession. At any rate, whatever may have been the motive that urged him on, it is certain that Asshur-danin-pal rebelled against his sire's authority, and, raising the standard of revolt, succeeded in carrying with him a great part of the kingdom. At Asshur, the old metropolis, which may have hoped to lure back the Court by its subservience, at Arbela in the Zab region, at Amidi on the Upper Tigris, at Tel-Apni near the site of Orfa, and at more than twenty other fortified places, Asshur-danin-pal was proclaimed king, and accepted by the inhabitants for their sovereign. Shalmaneser must have felt himself in imminent peril of losing his crown. Under these circumstances he called to his assistance his second son Shamas-Vul, and placing him at the head of such of his troops as remained firm to their allegiance, invested him with full power to act as he thought best in the existing emergency. Shamas-Vul at once took the field, attacked and reduced the rebellious cities one after an- other, and in a little time completely crushed the revolt, and re- established peace throughout the empire. Asshur-danin-pal, the arch conspirator, was probably put to death; his life was justly forfeit; and neither Shamas-Vul nor his father is likely to have been withheld by any inconvenient tenderness from punishing treason in a near relative, as they would have punished it in any other person. The suppressor of the revolt became the heir of the kingdom; and when, shortly afterwards,3 Shalmaneser died, the piety or prudence of his faithful son was rewarded by the rich inheritance of the Assyrian Empire. Shalmaneser reigned, in all, thirty-five years, from B.C. 858 to B.C. 823. His successor, Shamas-Vul, held the throne for thirteen years, from B.C. 823 to B.C. 810. Before entering upon the consideration of this latter monarch's reign, it will be well J Shalmaneser may not have been year, b.c. 828. As they make no men- more than about sixty at his death. But tion of Asshur-danin-pal's revolt, we this is an age which Eastern monarchs, may conclude that it broke out and was with their habits of life, rarely exceed. suppressed in the course of the monarch's Only two kings of Judah after David last five years. He could not, therefore. exceeded sixty years of age. 8 Shalmaneser reigned 35 years. His annals terminate with his thirty-first have survived its suppression more than four years. Chap. IX. EXTENT OF ASSYRIAN DOMINION. I11 to cast our eyes once more over the Assyrian Empire, such as it had now become, and over the nations with which its growtli had brought it into contact. Considerable changes had occurred since the time of Tiglath-Pileser L, the Assyrian boundaries having been advanced in several directions, while either this progress, or the movements of races beyond the frontier, had brought into view many new and some very important nations. The chief advance which the "Terminus" of the Assyrians had made was towards the west and the north-west. Instead ot their dominion in this quarter being bounded by the Euphrates, they had established their authority over the whole of Upper Syria, over Phoenicia, Hamath, and Samaria, or the Kingdom of the Israelites. These countries were not indeed reduced to the form of provinces; on the contrary, they still retained their own laws, administration, and native princes; but they were hence- forth really subject to Assyria, acknowledging her suzerainty, paying her an annual tribute, and giving a free passage to her armies through their territories. The limit of the Assyrian Empire towards the west was consequently at this time the Mediterranean, from the Gulf of Iskanderun to Cape Carniel, or perhaps we should say to Joppa.4 Their north-western boundary was the range of Taurus next beyond Amanus, the tract between the two belonging to the Tibareni (Tubal), who had submitted to become tributaries.5 Northwards little if any progress had been made. The chain of Niphates—" the high grounds over the affluents of the Tigris and Euphrates "—where Shalmaneser set up "an image of his majesty,"6 seems still to be the furthest limit. In other words, Armenia is unconquered;7 the strength of the region and the valour of its inhabitants still protecting it from the Assyrian arms. Towards the east .some territory seems to have been gained, more especially in the central Zagros 4 That is, if we view the subjection of the kingdom of Israel as complete. Perhaps it was scarcely received as yet fully into the empire. 'See the Black Obelisk Inscription, p. 424. "Ibid. y.Vli. 1 This must be understood especially of Northern and Western Armenia. Shalmaneser, as we learn from the Kurkh stele, reduced all the Van region, and set up his image on the shores of the lake. I 12 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONAKCHY. region, the district between the Lower Zab and Holwan, which ut this period bore tlie name of Hupuska;8 but the tribes north and south of this tract were still for the most part unsubdued.' The southern frontier may be regarded as wholly unchanged; for, although Shalmaneser warred in Babylonia, and even took tribute on one occasion from the petty kings of the Chalda?an towns, he seems to have made no permanent impression in this quarter. The Tsukhi or Shuhites are still the most southern of his subjects.10 The principal changes which time and conquest had made among the neighbours of Assyria were the following. Towards the west she was brought into contact with the kingdom of Damascus, and, through her tributary Samaria, with Judea. On the north-west she had new enemies in the Quin,u (Coans?), who dwelt on the further side of Amanus, near the Tibareni, in a part of the country afterwards called Cilicia, and the Gilicians themselves, who are now first mentioned. The Moschi seem to have withdrawn a little from this neighbourhood, since they no longer appear either among Assyria's enemies or her tribu- taries. On the north all minor powers had disappeared; and the Armenians (Urarda) were now Assyria's sole neighbours. Towards the east she had come into contact with the Mannai, or Minni, about Lake Urumiyeh, with the Kharkhar in the Van region and in north-western Kurdistan, with the Bartsu or Persians1 and the Mada or Medes in the country east of Zagros, * From ITnpuska may have been formed the Greek name of Physcus, which was assigned to the Diyaleh by Sophajnetus and Xenophon. (See Xen. Antxb. ii. 25; Steph. Byz. ad voc. +uij. Got, 1 The Bartsu at this time inhabit south-eastern Armenia. By Sennacherib's time they had descended to a much more southerly position. In fact they are then in. or very near, Persia Proper. Our. IX. SHAMAS-VUL. II. 113 the modern province of Ardelan, and with the Tsimri, or Zimri.2 in Upper Luristan. Among all her fresh enemies she had not, however, as yet found one calculated to inspire any serious fear. No new organized monarchy presented itself. The tribes and nations upon her borders were still either weak in numbers or powerless from their intestine divisions; and there was thus even' reason to expect a long continuance of the success which had naturally attended a large centralized state in her contests with small kingdoms or loosely-united confederacies. Names celebrated in the after history of the world, as those of the Medes and Persians, are now indeed for the first time emerging into light i'rom the complete obscurity which has shrouded them hitherto; and, tinged as they are with the radiance of their later glories, they show brightly among the many insignificant tribes and nations with which Assyria has been warring for centuries; but it would be a mistake to suppose that these names have any present importance in the narrative, or repre- sent powers capable as yet of contending on equal terms with the Assyrian Empire, or even of seriously checking the pro- gress of her successes. The Medes and Persians are at this period no more powerful than the Zimri, tiie Minni, the Urarda,3 or than half-a-dozen others of the border nations, whose appel- lations sound strange in the ears even of the advanced student. Neither of the two great Arian peoples had as yet a capital city, neither was united under a king; separated into numerous tribes, each under its chief, dispersed in scattered towns and villages, poorly fortified or not fortified at all, they were in the same condition as the Nairi, the Quinmukh, the Patena, the Hittites, and the other border races whose relative weakness Assyria had abundantly proved in a long course of wars wherein she had uniformly been the victor. The short reign of Shamas-Vul II. presents but little that calls for remark. Like Shalmaneser II. he resided chiefly at Calah, where, following the example of his father and grandfather, he ! See Jercm. xxv. 25. 'This term is the Assyrian represen- tation of the Biblical Ararat ^DTJts'j, VOL. II. and is probably the original of the 'Ap6Stoi of Herodotus (iii. 94; vii. 79). I 114 CflAr. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. set up an obelisk (or rather a stele) in commemoration of his various exploits. This monument, which is covered on three sides with an inscription in the hieratic or cursive character/ contains an opening invocation to Nin or Hercules, conceived in the ordinary terms, the genealogy and titles of the king, an account of the rebellion of Asshur-danin-pal, together with its sup- pression,5 and Shamas-Yul's own annals for the first four years of his reign. From these we learn that he displayed the same active spirit as his two predecessors, carrying his arms against the Nai'ri on the north, against Media and Arazias on the east and against Babylonia on the south. The people of Hupuska, the Minni, and the Persians (Bartsu), paid him tribute. His principal success was that of his fourth campaign, which was against Babylon. He entered the country by a route often used,6 which skirted the Zagros mountain range for some dis- tance, and then crossed the flat, probably along the course of the Diyaleh, to the southern capital. The Babylonians, alarmed at his advance, occupied a strongly fortified place on his line of route, which he besieged and took after a vigorous resistance, wherein the blood of the garrison was shed like water. Eighteen thousand were slain; three thousand were made prisoners; the city itself was plundered and burnt, and Shamas-Vul pressed forward against the flying enemy. Hereupon the Babylonian monarch, Merodach-belatzu-ikbi, collecting his own troops and those of his allies, the Chaklamns, the Aramaeans or Syrians, and the Zimri—a vast host—met the invader on the river Daban'— perhaps a branch of the Euphrates—and fought a great battle in defence of his city. He was, however, defeated by the Assyrians, with the loss of 5000 killed, 2000 prisoners, 100 chariots, 4 This inscription haB been engraved in the British Museum Serifs, vol. i. Pis. 29 to 31; in which a transcript of the inscription in the ordinary character has been also published (ibid. Fls. 32 to wars. In the time of Herodotus it seems to have been the ordinary line by which travellers reached Babylon. (See Herod, v. 52. and compare the author's "Outline of the Life of Herodotus" in 34). his Herodotus, vol. i. p. 9, note '.) * See above, pp. 109 et seq. 'Sirll. Rawlinson regards the Daban 6 The first Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Assyria by this route in his first expedition. (Supra, p. 62.) It was also followed by Asshur-izir-pal and Shalmaneser II. in their Babylonian as probably the Babylonian Upper Zab (or Nil), which left the Euphrates st Babylon and joined the Tigris at the site of Apamea, near the commencement of the Shat-el-Hie. Our. IX. SHAMAS-VUL II. 115 200 tents and the royal standard and pavilion. What further military or political results the victory may have had is un- certain. Shamas-Vul's annals terminate abruptly at this point,8 and we are left to conjecture the consequences of the campaign and battle. It is possible that they were in the highest degree important; for we find, in the next reign, that Babylonia, which has so long been a separate and independent kingdom, is reduced to the condition of a tributary, while we have no account of its reduction by the succeeding monarch, whose relations with the Babylonians, so far as we know, were of a purely peaceful character. The stele of Shamas-Vul contains one allusion to a hunting exploit, by which we learn that this monarch inherited his grandfather's partiality for the chase. He found wild-bulls at the foot of Zagros when he was marching to invade Babylonia, and delaying his advance to hunt them, was so fortunate as to kill several. We know nothing of Shamas-Vul as a builder, and but little of him as a patron of art. He seems to have been content with the palaces of his father and grandfather, and to have been devoid of any wish to outshine them by raising edifices which should throw theirs into the shade. In his stele he shows no originality; for it is the mere reproduction of a monument well known to his predecessors, and of which we have several specimens from the time of Asshur-izir-pal down- wards. It consists of a single figure in relief—a figure repre- senting the king, dressed in his priestly robes and wearing the sacred, emblems round his neck, standing with the right arm upraised, and enclosed in the customary arched frame. This figure, which is somewhat larger than life, is cut on a single solid block of stone, and then placed on another broader block, which serves as a pedestal. It closely resembles the 'One copy of the Assyrian Canon | after year until B.C. 810, when he died, contains brief notices of Shamas-Vul's j The most important of those were against pipeditions during his last six years. Chaldxa and Babylonia in his 11th and from this document {Brit. M'is. Utriet, \ 12th years. The reduction of Babylonia »oL ii. pL 52) it appears that he was I was probably effected by these campaigns engaged in military expeditions year J (B.C. 813 and 812), i 2 116 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chai\ IX. figure of Asshur-izir-pal, whereof a representation has been already given.9 The successor of Shamas-Vul was his son Vul-lush, the third monarch of that name, who ascended the throne B.C. 810, and held it for twenty-nine years, from B.C. 810 to B.C. 781. The memorials which we possess of this king's reign are but scanty. They consist of one or two slabs found at Nimrud, of a short dedicatory inscription 011 duplicate statues of the God Nebo brought from the same place, of some brick inscriptions from the mound of Nebbi Yunus, and of the briefest possible notices of the quarters in which he carried on war, contained in one copy of the Canon. As none of these records are in the shape of annals except the last, and as only these and the slab notices are historical, it is impossible to give any detailed account of this long and apparently important reign. We can only say that Vul-lush III. was as warlike a monarch as any of his pre- decessors, and that his efforts seem to have extended the Assyrian dominion in almost every quarter. He made seven expeditions across the Zagros range into Media, two into the Van country, and three into Syria. He tells us that in one of these expedi- tions he succeeded in makiug himself master of the great city of Damascus, whose kings had defied (as we have seen) the repeated attacks of Shalmaneser. He reckons as his tributa- ries in these parts, besides Damascus, the cities of Tyre and Sidon, and the countries of Khuniri or Samaria, of Palestine or Philistia, and of Hudum (Iduinaea or Edom). On the north and east he received tokens of submission from the Na'fri, the Minni, the Medes, and the Partsu, or Persians. On the south, he exercised a power, which seems like that of a sovereign, in Babylonia; where homage was paid him by the Chakteans, and where, in the great cities of Babylon, Borsippa, and Cut ha (or Tiggaba), he was allowed to offer sacrifice to the gods, Bel, Nebo, and Nergal.1 There is, further, some reason to suspect • See above, p. 97. 1 An abstract of this Inscription of Vul-lush III. was published by Sir H. Itiiwlmson in the year 1856, and will be found in the Athejurnm, No. 1476. More recently Mr. Fox Talbot has translated the Inscription word for word. (See the Juumal of the Asiatic Socktj, vol. xix. Chap. IX. . VXJL-LUSH III. 117 that, before quitting Babylonia, he established one of his sons as viceroy over the country; since he seems to style himself in one place "the king to whose son Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon." It thus appears that by the time of Vul-lush III., or early in the eighth century B.C., Assyria had with one hand grasped Babylonia, while with the other she had laid hold of Philistia and Edom. She thus touched the Persian Gulf on the one side, while on the other she was brought into contact with Egypt. At the same time she had received the submission of at least some portion of the great nation of the Medes, who were now probably moving southwards from Azerbijan and gradually occupying the territory which was regarded as Media Proper by the Greeks and Romans. She held Southern Arme- nia, from Lake Van to the sources of the Tigris; she possessed all Upper Syria, including Commag6ne and Amanus; she had tributaries even on the further side of that mountain-range; she bore sway over the whole Syrian coast from Issus to Gaza; her authority was acknowledged, probably by all the tribes and kingdoms between the coast and the desert,* certainly by the Phoenicians, the Hamathites, the Patena, the Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, the people of Israel, and the Idumaeans, or people of Edom. On the east she had reduced almost all the valleys of Zagros, and had tributaries in the great upland on the eastern side of the range. On the south, if she had not absorbed Babylonia, she had at least made her influence para- pp. 182-186.) The original has been I who had slain the king his father." published in the British Museum Series, , Now this is the very expression used of vol. i. PI. 35, No. I. j Mcnahem, King of Israel, in eh. xv. 19, 1 It is an interesting question at what j where the "confirmation" intended time exactly Judiea first acknowledged the suzerainty of the Assyrians. The general supposition has been that the submission of Ahaz toTiglath-Pileser II. (about b.c. 730) was the beginning of evidently that of the Assyrian monarch. We may suspect, therefore, that Judrca had admitted the suzerainty of a foreign power before the accession of Amaziah; and, if so, it must be regarded as almost the subjection (sec 2 K. xvi. 7); but a certain that the power which exercised notice in the 14th chapter of the Second the suzerainty was Assyria. Amaziah's Book of Kings appears to imply a much earlier acknowledgment of Assyrian sovereignty. It is said there that "as sum as Vie kingdom teas confo m d in accession fell probably towards the close of the reign of Shalmaneser II., and the submission of Judrea may therefore be assigned with much probability to the AmaziaJ's hiirnl, he slew the servants ( time of that monarch (ab. b.c. 840 or 850). 118 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. mount there. The full height of her greatness was not indeed attained till a century later; but already the "tall cedar" was "exalted above all the trees of the field; his boughs were mul- tiplied; his branches had become long; and under his shadow dwelt great nations."3 Not much is known of Vul-lush III. as a builder, or as a patron of art. He calls himself the "restorer of noble buildings which had gone to decay," an expression which would seem to imply that he aimed rather at maintaining former edifices in repair than at constructing new ones. He seems however to have built some chambers on the mound of Nimrud, between the north-western and the south-western palaces, and also to have had a palace at Nineveh on the mound now called Nebbi Yunus. The Nimrud chambers were of small size and poorly ornamented; they contained no sculptures; the walls were plastered and then painted in fresco with a variety of patterns.4 They may have been merely guard-rooms, since they appear to have formed a portion of a high tower.* The palace at Nebbi-Yunus was probably a more important work; but the superstitious regard of the natives for the supposed tomb of Jonah has hitherto frustrated all attempts made by Europeans to explore that mass of ruins.6 Among all the monuments recovered by recent researches, the only works of art assignable to the reign of Vul-lush are two rude statues of the god Nebo, almost exactly resembling one another.7 From the representation of one of them, contained in the first volume of this work,8 the reader will see that the figures in question have scarcely any artistic merit. The head is dis- proportionately large, the features, so far as they can be traced, 9 Ezek. xxxi. 5, 6. * The patterns were in fair taste. They consisted chiefly of winged bulls, zigzags, arrangements of squares and circles, and the like. Mr. Layard calls them "elaborate and graceful in de- sign." (Xinevck cmd its Remains, vol. ii. p. 15.) 5 Ibid. p. 16. • The Turks themselves at one time excavated to some extent in the Nebbi Yunus mound, and discovered buildings and relics of Vul-lush HI., of Sennacherib, and of Ksar-haddon. 'Sir H. Bawlinson, who discovered these statues in a temple dedicated to Nebo by Vul-lush III., which adjoined the S.E. palace at Nimrud, found with them six others. Of these four were colossal, while two resembled those in the Museum. The colossal statues were desti- tute of any inscription. 8 Page 141. ClIAP. IX. SCULPTURES OF VUL-LVSH III. "l 19 are coarse and heavy, the arms and hands are poorly modelled, and the lower part is more like a pilla^ than the figure of a man. We cannot suppose that Assyrian art was incapable, under the third Vul-lush. of a higher flight than these statues indicate; we must therefore regard them as conventional forms, reproduced from old models, which the artist was bound to follow. It would seem, indeed, that while in the representation of animals and of men of inferior rank, Assyrian artists were untrammelled by precedent, and might aim at the highest possible perfection, in religious subjects, and in the representation of kings and nobles, they were limited, by law or custom, to certain ancient forms and modes of expression, which we find repeated from the earliest to the latest times, with monotonous uniformity. If these statues, however, are valueless as works of art, they have yet a peculiar interest for the historian, as containing the only mention which the disentombed remains have furnished, of one of the most celebrated names of antiquity—a name which for many ages vindicated to itself a leading place, not only in the history of Assyria, but in that of the world.9 To the Greeks and Komans Semiramis was the foremost of women, the greatest queen who had ever held a sceptre, the most extraordinary con- queror that the East had ever produced. Beautiful as Helen or Cleopatra, brave as Tomyris, lustful as Messalina, she had the virtues and vices of a man rather than a woman, and performed • deeds scarcely inferior to those of Cyrus or Alexander the Great. It is an ungrateful task to dispel illusions, more especially such as are at once harmless and venerable for their antiquity; but truth requires the historian to obliterate- from the pages of the past this well-known image,and to substitute in its place a very dull and prosaic figure—a Semiramis no longer decked with the pris- matic hues of fancy, but clothed instead in the sober garments of fact. The Nebo idols are dedicated, by the Assyrian officer who had them executed, "to his lord Vul-lush and his lady Sammura- 'The inscription on the statues shows j his wife Sammuramit, that the god that they were offered to Nebo by an 1 might lengthen the king's life, prolong officer, who was governor of Calah, I his days, increase his years, and give Khamida (Amadiyeh), and three other peace to his house and people, and places, for the life of Vul-lush and of victory to his armies. 120 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. mit ;"10 from whence it would appear to be certain, in the first place, that that monarch, was married to a princess who bore this world-renowned name, and, secondly, that she held a position superior to that which is usually allowed iu the East to a Queen consort. An inveterate Oriental prejudice requires the rigid seclusion of women; and the Assyrian monuments, thoroughly in accord with the predominant tone of Eastern manners, throw a veil in general over all that concerns the weaker sex, neither representing to us the forms of the Assyrian women in the sculptures, nor so much as mentioning their existence in the inscriptions.11 Very rarely is there an exception to this all but universal reticence. In the present instance, and in about two others, the silence usually kept is broken; and a native woman comes upon the scene to tantalize us by her momentary appa- rition. The glimpse that we here obtain does not reveal much. Beyond the fac t that the principal queen of Vul-lush III. was named Semiramis, and the further fact, implied in her being mentioned at all, that she had a recognised position of authority in the country, we can only conclude, conjecturally, from the exact parallelism of the phrases used; that she bore sway con- jointly with her husband, either over the whole or over a part of his dominions. Such a view explains, to some extent, the wonderful tale of the Ninian Semiramis, which was foisted into history by Ctesias; for it shows that he had a slight basis of fact to go ujon. It also harmonizes, or may be made to • harmonize, with the story of Semiramis as told by Herodotus, who says that she was a Babylonian queen, and reigned five generations before Nitocris,12 or about B.C. 755.13 For it is quite possible that the Sammuramit married to Vul-lush III. was a Babylonian princess, the last descendant of a long line 10 See the Inscription in the British Museum Scries, vol. i. PI. 35, No. II. "See vol. i. p. 492. » Herod, i. 184. 13 This ilate is obtained by adopting the estimate of three generations to a century which was familiar to Hero- dotus (ii. 142), and counting six genera- tions between Semiramis and Labynetus j (the supposed son of Nitocris), whose reign commenced B.C. 555, according to the Canon of Ptolemy. The date thus produced is not quite high enough for the reign of Vul-lush III., but it approaches sufficiently near to make it probable that the Semiramis of Herodotus and the Sammuramit of the Nebo statues | are one and the same person. Chap. IX. SEMIBAMIS, THE WIFE OF VTJL-LUSH III. 121 of kings, whom the Assyrian monnrch wedded, to confirm through her his title to the southern provinces; in which case a portion of his subjects would regard her as their legiti- mate sovereign, and only recognise his authority as secondary and dependent upon hers. The exaggeration in which Orientals indulge, with a freedom that astonishes the sober nations of the West, would seize upon the unusual circumstance of a female having possessed a conjoint sovereignty, and would gradually group round the name a host of mythic details,14 which at last accumulated to such an extent that, to prevent the fiction from becoming glaring, the queen had to be thrown back into mythic times, with which such details were in harmonv. The Babylonian wife of Vul-lush III., who gave him his title to the regions of the south, and reigned conjointly with him both in Babylonia and Assyria, became first a queen of Babylon ruling independently and alone;1 and then an Assyrian empress, the conqueror of Egypt and Ethiopia,2 the invader of the distant India,3 the builder of Babylon,4 and the constructor of all the great works which were anywhere to be found in Western Asia.5 The grand figure thus produced imposed upon the uncritical ancients, and was accepted even by the moderns for many centuries. At length the school of Heeren6 and Niebuhr,7 calling common sense to their aid, pronounced the figure a myth. It remained for the patient explorers of the field of Assyrian antiquity in our own day to discover the slight basis of fact on which the myth was founded, and to substitute for the shadowy marvel of Ctesias a very prosaic and common-place princess, who, like Atossa or Elizabeth of York, strengthened her hus- band's title to his crown, but who never really made herself conspicuous by either great works or by exploits. 14 Soe Diod. Sic. ii. 4, where Semiramis is made the daughter of the Syrian goddess Derccto, and ii. 20, where she is said to have been turned into a dove and to have flown away from earth to heaven. Compare Mos. Chor. Hist. Armen. i. 14 et seq., and the whole narrative in DiodoruB (ii. 4-20), which is full of extravagancies. 1 Herod. 1. s. c. 'Diod. Sic. ii. 14. » Ibid. ii. 18. 4 Ibid. ii. 7-10. • Ibid. ii. 11, 13. 14, &c.; Mos. Choren. Hist. Arm. i. 15; Strab. xi. p. 529, xii. p. 559. 1 MnnnnJ of Ancient History, Book i. p. 26, E. T. 'Vortrage ii'ier alte GesMchte, vol. i. p. 27. 122 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. With Vul-lush III. the glories of the Nimrud line of monarchs come to a close, and Assyrian history is once more shrouded in a partial darkness for a space of nearly forty years, from B.C. 781 to B.C. 745. The Assyrian Canon shows us that three monarchs bore sway during this interval—Shalmaneser III., who reigne 1 from B.C. 781 to B.C. 771, Asshur-dayan III., who reigned from B.C. 771 to B.C. 753, and Asshur-lush, who held the throne from the last-mentioned date to B.C. 745, when he was succeeded by the second Tiglath-Pileser. The brevity of these reigns, which average only twelve years apiece, is indicative of troublous times, and of a disputed, or, at any rate, a disturbed, succession. The fact that none of the three monarchs left buildings of any im- portance, or, so far as appears, memorials of any kind, marks a period of comparative decline, during which there was a pause in the magnificent course of Assyrian conquests, which had scarcely known a check for above a century.8 The causes of the temporary inaction and apparent decline of a power which had so long been steadily advancing, would form an interesting subject of speculation to the political philosopher; but they are too obscure to be investigated here, where our space only allows us to touch rapidly on the chief known facts of the Assyrian history. • One important difficulty presents itself, at this point of the narrative, in an apparent contradiction between the native records of the Assyrians and the casual notices of their history contained in the Second Book of Kings. The Biblical Pul— the " king of Assyria," who came up against the land of Israel, and received from Menahem a thousand talents of silver, "that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand,"9 is unnoticed in the native inscriptions, and even seems to be excluded from the royal lists by the absence of any name at all resembling his in the proper place in the famous Canon.10 * From the accession of Asshur-izir- pal to the dcatli of Vul-lush III. is above a century (10.1 years). » 2 Kings xv. 19. 10 Until the discovery of the Assyrian Canon had furnished us with three kings between Vul-lush III. nnd Tiglalh- Pilesor II., thus separating their reigns by a space of 3G years, it was thought that Vul-lush III. miirht possibly repre- sent the Biblical Pul, the two names not being so very different. (See the author's Hcrodo'.us, vol. i. p. 382.) The identification was never very satis- Chap. IX. PUL. 123 Pul appears in Scripture to be the immediate predecessor of Tiglath-Pileser. At any rate, as his expedition against Menahem is followed within "(at the utmost) tliirty-two years11 by an expe- dition of Tiglath-Pileser against Pekah, liis last year (if he was indeed a king of Assyria) cannot have fallen earlier than thirty- two years before Tiglath-Pileser's first. In other words, if the Hebrew numbers are historical, some portion of Pul's reign must necessarily fall into the interval assigned by the Canon to the kings for which it is the sole authority—Shalmaneser III., Asshur-dayan III., and Asshur-lush. But these names are so wholly unlike the name of Pul that no one of them can possibly be regarded as its equivalent, or even as the original from which it was corrupted. Thus the Assyrian records do not merely omit Pul, but exclude him; and we have to enquire how this can be accounted for, and who the Biblical Pul is, if he is not a regular and recognised Assyrian monarch. Various explanations of the difficulty have been suggested. Some would regard Pul as a general of Tiglath-Pileser (or of some earlier Assyrian king), mistaken by the Jews for the actual monarch. Others would identify him with Tiglath- Pileser himself.12 But perhaps the most probable supposi- tion is, that he was a pretender to the Assyrian crown, never factory, for the phonetic value of all the three elements which make up the name read as Vul-lush, is very uncertain. Chronological considerations have now induced the advocates of the identity to give it up. 11 The argument is here based upon the Scriptural numbers only. As Mena- hem reigned 10 years, Pekahiah 2 years, and Pekah 20, if Pul's expedition had fallen in Mcnahem's first year, and Tiglath-Pileser's in Pekah's last, they w ould have been separated at the utmost by a space of 32 years. We shall hereafter shew reasons for thinking that iu fact they were separated by no longer an interval than 18 or 20 years. 11 See the Atlu ruewn for Aug. 22, 1863 (No. 1869, p. 245). The chief argu- ments for the identity arc, 1. The fact that Scripture mentions Pul's taking tri- bute from Menahem, but says nothing of 1 tribute being taken from him by Ti- glath-Pileser, while the Assyrian monu- ments mention that Tiglath-Pileser too'i tribute from him, but say nothing of Pul. 2. The improbability (?) that two consecutive kings of Assyria could have pushed their conquests to the distant land of Judaea during the short reign of Menahem. 3. The way in which Pul and Tiglath-Pileser are coupled together in 2 Chron. v. 26, as if they were one and the same individual (?) or at any rate were acting together; and 4. The fact that in the Syriac and Arabic ver- sions of this passage one name only is given instead of the two. To me these arguments do not appear to be of much weight. I think that neither the writer of Chronicles nor the writer of Kings could possibly have expressed themselves as they have if they regarded Pul and Tiglath-Pileser as the same person. 124 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. acknowledged at Nineveh, but established in the western (and southern,3) provinces so firmly, that he could venture to conduct an expedition into Lower Syria, and to claim there the fealty of Assyria's vassals. Or possibly he may have been a Babylonian monarch, who in the troublous times that had now evidently come upon the northern empire, possessed himself of the Euphrates valley, and thence descended upon Syria and Pales- tine. Berosus, it must be remembered, represented Pul as a Chaldxan king;14 and the name itself, which is wholly alien to the ordinary Assyrian type,15 has at least one counterpart among known Babylonian names.16 The time of Pul's invasion may be fixed, by combining the Assyrian and the Hebrew chronologies, within very narrow limits. Tiglath-Pileser relates that he took tribute from Menahem in a war which lasted from his fourth to his eighth year, or from B.c'742 to B.C. 738. As Menahem only reigned ten years, the earliest date that can be assigned to Pul's expedition will be B.C. 752,17 while the latest possible date will be B.C. 746, the year before the accession of Tiglath-Pileser. In any case the expedition falls within the eight years assigned by the Assyrian Canon to the reign of Asshur-lush, Tiglath-Pileser's immediate predecessor. It is remarkable that into this interval falls also the famous era "See the next note. M See Euscb. Chron. Can. Pars I"*, c. iv. "Post hos ait extitisse Chnl- (tteonun regem, cui nomen Phulus erat." Eu9ebius makes the quotation from forms me that he has found Pulu as the name of an ordinary Assyrian on a tablet. io xhe "Porus " of Ptolemy's Canon is a name closely resembling the "Phu- Polyhistor; but Polyhistor's authority i lus" of Polyhistor. The one would beyond a doubt.was Berosus. Pul there- fore must have figured in the Babylonian annals, either as a native king, or as an Assyrian who had borne sway over Chaldsea. Assyrian names arc almost always be in Hebrew -fig, the other is ^tj. 1! According to Ussher (see the m ginal dates in our Bibles) Menahem reigned from b.c. 771 to b.c. 761, or twenty years earlier than this. Clinton lowers the dates by two years H. compounds, consisting of two, three, or voi_ p. 32.")). Nine more may be de- more elements. It is difficult to make ducted by omitting the imaginary "in- two elements out of Pul. There is, how- terregnum " between Pekah and Hoshea, ever, it must be granted, an Assyrian which is contradicted by 2 K. xv. 30. Eponym in the Canon, whose name is The discrepancy, therefore, between the not very far from Pul, being Palaya, or 1 Assyrian Canon and the Hebrew num- Palluya ( = "my son"). The same name , bcrs at this point docs not exceed ten was borne by a grandson of Merodach- years. Baladan. Mr. G. Smith, moreover, in- Chap. IX. NABONASSAR AT BABYLON. 125 of Nabonassar,1 which must have marked some important change, dynastic or other, at Babylon. The nature of this change will be considered more at length in the Babylonian section. At present it is sufficient to observe, that, in the declining condition of Assyria under the kings who followed Vul-lush III., there was naturally a growth of power and independence among the border countries. Babylon, repenting of the submission which she had made either to Vul-lush III., or to his father, Shamas-Vul II., once more vindicated her right to freedom, and resumed the position of a separate and hostile monarchy. Samaria, Damascus, Judaea, ceased to pay tribute. Enterprising kings, like Jero- boam II. and Menahem, taking advantage of Assyria's weak- ness, did not content themselves with merely throwing off her yoke, but proceeded to enlarge their dominions at the expense of her feudatories.2 Judging of the unknown from the known, we may assume that on the north and east there were similar defections to those on the west and south—that the tribes of Armenia and of the Zagros range rose in revolt, and that the Assyrian boundaries were thus contracted in every quarter.3 At the same time, within the limits of what was regarded as the settled Empire, revolts began to occur. In the reign of Asshur-Dayan III. (b.c. 771-753), no fewer than three important insurrections are recorded—one at a city called Libzu, another at Arapkha, the chief town of Arrapachitis, and a third at Gozan, the chief city of Gauzonitis or Mygdonia. Attempts were made to suppress these revolts; but it may be doubted whether they were successful. The military spirit had declined; the monarchs had ceased to lead out their armies regularly year by year; preferring to pass their time in inglorious ease at their rich and luxurious capitals. Asshur-Dayan III., during nine years of his eighteen, remained at home, undertaking no warlike enter- prise. Asshur-lush, his successor, displayed even less of military vigour. During the eight years of his reign he took the field 'b.c. 747. The near synchronism of I fice or manipulation whatsoever. Tiglnth-Pilescr's accession (b.c 745) j * See 2 Kings xiv. 25-28; xv. 16. with this date is remarkable, resulting * This general defection and depres- as it does simply from the numbers in | sion is stated somewhat over strongly the Assyrian Cuuon, without any arti- | by Herodotus (i. 95, 9b). 126 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Cdap. IX. tw ice only, passing six years in complete inaction. At the end of this time, Calah, the second city in the kingdom, revolted; and the revolution was brought about, which ushered in the splendid period of the Lower Empire. It was probably during the continuance of the time of depres- sion,4 when an unwarlike monarch was living in inglorious ease amid the luxuries and refinements of Nineveh, and the people, sunk in repose, gave themselves up to vicious indulgences more hateful in the eye of God than even the pride and cruelty which they were wont to exhibit in war, that the great capital was suddenly startled by a voice of warning in her streets—a voice which sounded everywhere through corridor, and Line, and square, bazaar and caravanserai, one shrill monotonous cry— "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."s A strange wild man, clothed in a rough garment of skin,6 moving from place to place, announced to the inhabitants their doom. None knew who he was or whence he had come; none had ever beheld him before; pale, haggard, travel-stained, he moved before them like a visitant from another sphere; and his lips still framed the fearful words—" Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Had the cry fallen on them in the prosperous time, when each year brought its tale of victories, and every nation upon their borders trembled at the approach of their arms, it would probably have been heard with apathy or ridi- cule, and would have failed to move the heart of the nation. But coming, as it did, when their glory had declined; when their enemies, having been allowed a breathing space, had taken courage and were acting on the offensive in many quarters; when it was thus perhaps quite within the range of probability that some one of their numerous foes might shortly appear in arms before the place, it struck them with fear and consterna- • The date of Jonah's preaching to the latter part of the reign of Jero- the Ninevitcs has been much disputed. boam It. (Bailey), which would be about It has been placed as early as 860 (see B.C. 780, according to the ordinary our Bibles), or from that to B.C. 840 chronology, or about B.C. 760-750, ar- (Drake), which would throw it into a cording to the views of the present most flourishing Assyrian period, the writer. s Jouah iii. 4. reign of Shalmajieser II. Others have "This was the prophetic dress. (See observed that it may as well belong to i 2 Kings i. 8 and Zech. xiii. 4.) Chat. IX. THE PROPHET JONAH AT NINEVEH. 127 tion. The alarm communicated itself from the city to the palace; and his trembling attendants "came and told the king of Nineveh," who was seated on his royal throne in the great audience-chamber, surrounded by all the pomp and magnificence of his court. No sooner did he hear, than the heart of the king was touched, like that of his people; and he " arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes."7 Hastily summoning his nobles, he had a decree framed, and "caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast8 be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands."9 Then the fast was pro- claimed, and the people of Nineveh, fearful of God's wrath, put on sackcloth " from the greatest of them even to the least of them."10 The joy and merriment, the revelry and feasting of that great city were changed into mourning and lamentation; the sins that had provoked the anger of the Most High ceased; the people humbled themselves; they "turned from their evil way,"" and by a repentance, which, if not deep and enduring, was still real and unfeigned, they appeased for the present the I>ivine wrath. Vainly the prophet sate without the city, on its eastern side, under his booth woven of boughs,12 watching, wait- ing, hoping (apparently) that the doom which he had announced would come, in spite of the people's repentance. God was more merciful than man. He had pity on the " great city," with its "six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and tlieir left,"13 and, sparing the penitents, left their town to stand unharmed for more than another century. The circumstances under which Tiglath-Pileser II. ascended the throne in the year B.C. 745 are unknown to us. No con- 'Jonah iii. 6. 10 Ibid, verse 5. * On the custom of putting beasts in "Ibid, verse 10. 18 Ibid. iv. 5. mourning, sec above, p. 39, note '. "Ibid, verse II. On the meaning 'Jonah iii. verses 7 and 8. of the phrase see vol. i. pp. 251, 252, 128 Chip. IX. THE SECOND MONABCHY. fidence can be placed in the statement of Bion1 and Folyhistor," which seeins to have been intended to refer to this monarch, whom they called Beletaras—a corruption perhaps of the latter half of the name3—that he was, previously to his elevation to the royal dignity, a mere vine-dresser, whose occupation was to keep in order the gardens of the king. Similar tales of the low origin of self-raised and usurping monarchs are too common in the East, and are too often contradicted by the facts, when they become known to us,4 for much credit to attach to the story told by these late writers, the earlier of whom must have written five or six hundred years after Tiglath-Pileser's time.5 We might, however, conclude, without much chance of mistake, from such a story being told, that the king intended acquired the throne irregularly; that either he was not of the blood royal, or that, being so, he was at any rate not the legi- timate heir. And the conclusion at which we should thus arrive is confirmed by the monarch's inscriptions; for, though he speaks repeatedly of "the kings his fathers," and even calls the royal buildings at Calah "the palaces of his fathers," yet he never mentions his actual father's name in any record that has come down to us. Such a silence is so contrary to the ordinary practice of Assyrian monarchs, who glory in their descent and parade it on every possible occasion, that, where it occurs, we are justified in concluding the monarch to have been an usurper, deriving his title to the crown not from his ancestry, or from any law of succession, but from a successful revolution, in which he played the principal part. It matters little that such 1 Fr. Hist. Or. vol. iv. p. 351. !the kingdom next to that of the monarch 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 210. (Nic. Dam. Fr. 49). Cyrus, son (ac- 'The native form is Pal-tsira, or ] cording to Herodotus, i. 107) of an Pulli-tsir (Oppert), whence Beletar, by | ordinary Persian noble, declares himself a change of the initial tenuis into the I to have been the son of a "powerful media, and a hardening of the dental king." (See the author's Herodotus, sibilant. vol. i. p. 200, note ', 2nd edit) There * Compare the stories of Gyges, Cyrus, are good grounds for believing that the Amasis, &c. Gyges, the herdsman of | low birth of Amasis is likewise a fiction. Plato (Rep. ii. 3), and the guardsman of Ibid. vol. ii. p. 222, note '.) Herodotus (i. 8), appears in the narrative I 1 Bion's date is uncertain, but it pro- of Nicolaus Dumasconus, who probably bably was not much before B.C. 200. (See follows the native historian Xanthus, | the remarks of C. Mtiller in the Fr. Hist. as a member of the noblest house in Or. vol. iv. p. 347.) Chap. IX. REIGX OF TIGLATH-PILESEE II. 129 a monarch, when he is settled upon the throne, claims, in a vague and general way, connection with the kings of former times. The claim mav often have a basis of truth: for in monarchies where polygamy prevails, and the kings have numerous daughters to dispose of, almost all the nobility can boast that they are of the blood royal. Where the claim is in no sense true, it will still be made; for it flatters the vanity of the monarch, and there is no one to gainsay it. Only in such cases we are sure to find a prudent vagueness—an assertion of the fact of the connection, expressed in general terms, without any specification of the particulars on which the supposed fact rests. . . . , On obtaining the crown—whatever the circumstances under which ha obtained it—Tiglath-Pileser immediately proceeded to attempt the restoration of the Empire by engaging in a series of wars, now upon one, now upon another frontier, seeking by his unwearied activity and energy to recover the losses suffered through the weakness of his predecessors, and to compensate for their laches by a vigorous discharge of all the duties of the kingly office. The order of these wars, which formerly it was impossible to determine, is now fixed by means of the Assyrian Canon, and we may follow the course of the expeditions con- ducted by Tiglath-Pileser II. with as much confidence and certainty as those of Tiglath-Pileser I., Asshur-izir-pal, or the second Shalmaneser. It is scarcely necessary, however, to detain tiie reader by going through the entire series. The interest of Tiglath-Pileser's military operations attaches espe- cially to his campaigns in Babylonia and in Syria, where he is brought into contact with persons otherwise known to us. His other wars are comparatively unimportant. Under these circum- stances it is proposed to consider in detail only the Babylonian and Syrian expeditions, and to dismiss the others with a few general remarks on the results which were accomplished by them. Tiglath-Pileser's expeditions against Babylon were in his first and in his fifteenth years, B.C. 745 and 731. No sooner did he find himself settled upon the throne, than he levied an VOL. II. K THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. army, and marched against Southern Mesopotamia,' which appears to have been in a divided and unsettled condition. According to the Canon of Ptolemy, Nabonassar then ruled in Babylon. Tiglath-Pileser's annals confuse the accounts of his two campaigns; but the general impression which we gather from them is that, even in B.C. 745, the country was divided up into a number of small principalities, the sea-coast being under the dominion of Merodach-Baladan, who held his court in his father's city of Bit-Yakin ;7 while in the upper region there were a number of petty princes, apparently independent, among whom may be recognised names which seem to occur later in Ptolemy's list,8 among the kings of Babylon to whom he assigns short reigns in the interval between Nabonassar and Mardoc- empalus (Merodach-Baladan). Tiglath-Pileser attauked and defeated several of these princes, taking the towns of Kur-GaLzu (now Akkerkuf), and Sippara or Sepharvaim, together with many other places of less consequence in the lower portion of the country, after which he received the submission of Merodach- Baladan, who acknowledged him for suzerain, and consented to pay an annual tribute. Tiglath-Pileser upon this assumed the title of "King of Babylon " (b.c. 729), and offered sacrifice to the Babylonian gods in all the principal cities.9 The first Syrian war of Tiglath-Pileser was undertaken in his third year (b.c. 743), and lasted from that year to his eighth. Iu the course of it he reduced to subjection Damascus, which had regained ite independence,10 and was under the government of Rezin; Samaria, where Menahem, the adversary of Pul, was still reigning; Tyre, which was under a monarch bearing the * This fact is stated on a mutilated tablet belonging to Tiglath-Pileser's reign. 7 Merodach-Baladan is called "the Bon of Yakin" in the Assyrian Inscrip- tions. His capital, Bit-Yakin, had ap- parently been built by, and named after, his father. Compare Bit-Ornri (>. c. Sa- maria), Bit-Sargina, &c. It has been suggested that Yakin may be intended by Juga?us, if that be the true reading, in I'tolemy's Canon. When Merodach-Baladan is called "the son of Baladan" in 2 Kings xx. 12, and Is. xxxix. 1, the reference is probably to a grandfather or other ancestor. 'As Xaditui, who would seem to be Nadius; and Zal.irtj, who may possibly be Chinzirus. 9 Babylon, Borsippa, Nipur, Cutha. Erech, Kis, and Dilmun. Compare the conduct of Vul-lush III. (supra, p. 116). "See above, p. 116. Chap. IX. TIGLATH-riLESEIl'S WARS. 131 familiar name of Hiram;11 Hamath, Gebal, and the Arals bordering upon Egypt, who were ruled by a queen12 called Khabiba. He likewise met and defeated a vast army under Azariah (or Uzziah). king of Judah, but did not succeed in inducing him to make his submission. It would appear by this that Tiglath-Pileser at this time penetrated deep into Palestine, probably to a point which no Assyrian king but Vul-lush III. bad reached previously. But it would seem, at the same time, that his conquests were very incomplete; they did not include Judaea or Philistia, Idumaea, or the tribes of the Hauran; and they left untouched the greater number of the Phoenician cities. It causes us, therefore, no surprise to find that in a short time, B.c. 734, he renewed his efforts in this quarter, commencing by an attack on Samaria, where Pekah was now king, and taking "Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and carrying them captive to Assyria,"13 thus "lightly afflicting the land of Zebulun and the land of Naph- tali," 1 or the more northern portion of the Holy Land, about Lake Merom, and from that to the Sea of Genuesareth. This attack was followed shortly (b.c. 733) by the most important of Tiglath-Pileser's Syrian wars. It appears that the common danger, which had formerly united the Hittites, Hamathites, and Damascenes in a close alliance,2 now caused a league to be formed between Damascus and Samaria, the sovereigns of which—Pekah and Rezin—made an attempt to add Judaea to their confederation, by declaring war against Ahaz, attacking his territory, and threatening to substitute in his place as king of Jerusalem a creature of their own, " the son 11 Besides the great Hiram, the friend of Solomon, there is a Tyrian king of the name mentioned by Menander as contemporary with Cyrus (Fr. 2); and another occurs in Herodotus (vii. 98), »ho must have been contemporary with Darius Hystaspis. 11 The Arabs of the tract bordering "n Egypt seem to have been regularly Eoverncd by queens. Three such are mentioned in the Inscriptions. As these Arabs were near neighbours of the Sa- bieans, it is suggested that the queen of Sheba came from their country, which was in the neighbourhood of Sinai. (See Tr •nsactivwt of the Jtotial Socu'tn of Literature, vol. vii. New Series, p. 14.) "2 Kings xv. 2ft. 1 Isaiah ix. 1. This war is slightly alluded to in the inscriptions of Tiglath- Pileser; but no details are given. * See above, p. 103. K 2 132 Chap. IX. THE SECOKD MONARCHY.; of Tabeal."3 Hard pressed by his enemies, Ahaz applied to Assyria, offering to become Tiglath-Pileser's "servant"—i.e. his vassal and tributary—if he would send troops to his assistance, and save him from the impending danger.4 Tiglath-Pileser was not slow to obey this call. Entering Syria at the head of an army, he fell first upon Rezin, who was defeated and fled to Damascus, where Tiglath-Pileser besieged him for two years, at the end of whicli time he was taken and slain.5 Next be attacked Pekah, entering his country on the north-east, where it bordered upon the Damascene territory, and, overrunning the whole of the Trans-Jordanic provinces, together (apparently) with some portion of the Cis-Jordanic region. The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who had pos- sessed the country between the Jordan and the desert from the time of Moses, were seized and carried away captive by the con- queror, who placed them in Upper Mesopotamia, on the affluents of the Bilikh and the Kbabour,6 from about Harran to Nisibis/ Some cities situated on the right bank of the Jordan, in the territory of Issachar, but belonging to Manasseh, were at the same time seized and occupied. Among these Megiddo in the great plain of Esdraelon, and Dur or Dor upon the coast,8 some way below Tyre, were the most important. Dur was even thought of sufficient consequence to receive an Assyrian governor at the same time with the other principal cities of Southern Syria.9 After thus chastising Samaria, Tiglath-Pileser appears to ■ Isaiah vii. 1-6. Comp. 2 Kings xvi. 5. 4 2 Kings xvi. 7. 5 2 Kings xvi. 9. There is an im- perfect notice of the defeat and death of Rezin in a mutilated inscription now in Carriue), Rezeph, and Eden (Beth- Adini). It is confirmed by the Assyrian inscriptions, which connect Guzan w ith Nisibis. 8 Megiddo and Dora are mentioned the British Museum. I under the forms of Mar/iiJu and Oum '2 Chron. v. 26. That Tiglath-Pileser I among the Syrian cities tributary to attacked Pekah twice seems to follow from the complete difference between the localities mentioned in 2 Kings xv. 29, ami 2 Chron. v. 26. In Isaiah ix. 1, both expeditions seem to be glanced at. 'That the Go?.an of Scripture was Tiglath-Pileser. They are joined to a place called Uanats-tali, which now for the first time appears in the lists, and which probably represents the land of Manasseh. • The south-western limit of Assyria this country is apparent enough from j was now advanced to about lat. 32° 30'. Scripture itself, which joins it with Dur and Megiddo seem to have been Hnlah ("Chalcitis of Ptolemy), llabor I her frontier towns, (the Khabour), Haran (Harran or | Chap. IX. TIGLATH-PILESER'S WAES. 133 have passed on to the south, where he reduced the Philistines and the Arab tribes, who inhabited the Sinaitic desert as far as the borders of Egypt. Over these last he set, in lieu of their native queen, an Assyrian governor. He then returned towards Damascus, where he held a court, and invited the neighbouring states and tribes to send in their submission. The states and tribes responded to his invitation. Tiglath-Pileser, before quitting Syria, received submission and tribute not only from Ahaz, king of Judah,10 but also from Mit'enna,11 king of Tyre; Pekah, king of Samaria; Khanun, king of Gaza; and Mitinti, king of Ascalon; from the Moabites, the Ammonites, the people of Arvad or Aradus, and the Idumaeans. He thus completely re-established the power of Assyria in this quarter,12 once more recovering to the Empire the entire tract between the coast and the desert from Mount Amanus on the north to the Ked Sea and the confines of Egypt. One further expedition was led or sent by Tiglath-Pileser into Syria, probably in his last year. Disturbances having occurred from the revolt of Mit'enna of Tyre, and the murder of Pekah of Israel by JJoshea, an Assyrian army marched west- ward, in B.C. 728, to put them down. The Tyrian monarch at once submitted; and Hoshea, having entered into negotiations, agreed to receive investiture into his kingdom at the hands of the Assyrians, and to hold it as an Assyrian territory. On these terms peace was re-established, and the army of Tiglath-Pileser retired and recrossed the Euphrates. 10 2 Kings xvi. 10. Tiglath-Pileser records his reception of tribute from a king of Judah, whom he calls Yohu- khazi, or Jehoahaz. It was at one time suggested that the monarch intended might be Uzziah, whose name would become Jehoahaz by a metathesis of the two elements; but the late date of the tribute-giving, which was certainly towards the close of Tiglath-Pileaer's reign, renders this impossible. Yahu- khaxi must represent Ahaz. It has been suggested that Jehoahaz was the monarch's real appellation, and that the Jews dropped the initial element because they were unwilling to profane the sacred name of Jehovah by connecting it with so wicked a monarch; but per- haps it is more probable that the name was changed by Tiglath-Pileser, when Ahaz became his tributary, just as the name of Eliakim was turned by Nccho to Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiii. 84), and that of Mattaniah to Zedekiah by Nebu- chadnezzar (ibid. xxiv. 17). His im- pieties may have prevented the Jews from recognising the change of name as legitimate, and made them still call him simply Ahaz. 11 Compare the Matgenus (M^T'yijvos) of Menander, the father of Pygmalion and Dido (Fr. 1). 12 See above, p. 117. 134 • THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. Besides conducting these various campaigns, Tiglath-Pileser employed himself in the construction of some important works at Calah, which was his usual and favourite residence. He repaired and adorned the palace of Slialmaneser II., in the centre of the Nimrud mound; and he built a new edifice at the south-eastern Corner of the platform, which seems to have been the most magnificent of his erections. Unfortunately, in neither case were his works allowed to remain as he left them. The sculptures with which he adorned Shalmaneser's palace were violently torn from their places by Esar-haddou, and, after barbarous ill-usage,13 were applied to the embellishment of his own residence by that monarch. The palace, which he built at the south-eastern corner of the Nimrud mound, was first ruined by some invader, and then built upon by the last Assyrian king. Thus the monuments of Tiglath-Pileser II. come to us in a defaced and unsatisfactory condition, rendering it difficult for us to do full justice either to his architectural conceptions or to his taste in ornamentation. We can see, however, by the ground plah of the building which Mr. Loftus uncovered beneath the ruins of Mr. Layard's south-east palace,14 that the great edifice of Tiglath-Pileser was on a scale of grandeur little inferior to that of the ancient palaces, and on a plan very nearly similar. The same arrangement of courts and halls and chambers, the same absence of curved lines or angles other than light angles, the same narrowness of rooms in comparison with their length, which have been noted in the earlier buildings,15 prevailed also in those of this king. With regard to the sculp- tures with which, after the example of the former monarchs, he ornamented their walls, we can only say they seem to have been characterised by simplicity of treatment—the absence of all ornamentation, except fringes, from the dresses, the total omission of backgrounds, and (with few exceptions) the limita- tion of the markings to the mere outlines of forms. The u They were often partially destroyed, I Monuments, 1st Series, p. 14.) in order to reduce the size of the stone | M This plan is exhibited in the base- and make it fit into a given place ment story of the British Museum, in Ksar-haddon's wall. (See Lnyard, | 15 Supra, vol. i. pp. 281-285. Chap. IX. REIGN OF SHALMANESER IV. drawing is rather freer and more spirited than that of the sculptures of Asshur-izir-pal; animal forms, as camels, oxen, sheep, and goats, are more largely introduced, and there is somewhat less formalitv in the handling.1 But the change is in no respect very decided, or such as to indicate an era in the progress of art. Tiglath-Pileser appears, by the Assyrian Canon, to have had a reign of eighteen years. He ascended the throne in b.c. 745, and was succeeded in B.C. 727 by Shalmaneser, the fourth monarch who had borne that appellation. It is uncertain whether Shalmaneser IV. was related to Tiglath-Pileser or not. As, however, there is no trace of the succession having been irregular or disputed, it is most probable that he was his son. He ascended the throne in B.C. 727, and ceased to reign in B.C. 722, thus holding the royal power for less than six years. It was probably very soon after his acces- sion, that, suspecting the fidelity of Samaria, he "came up" against Hoshea, king of Israel, and, threatening him with con- dign punishment, so terrified him that he made immediate submission*.2 The arrears of tribute were rendered, and the homage due from a vassal to his lord was paid; and Shalmaneser either returned into his own country or turned his attention to other enterprises.3 But shortly afterwards he learnt that Hoshea, in spite of his submission and engagements, was again contem- plating defection; and, conscious of his own weakness, was endeavouring to obtain a promise of support from an enter- prising monarch who ruled in the neighbouring country of Egypt.4 The Assyrian conquests in this quarter had long been tending to bring them into collision with the great power of 1 For representations of Tiglath-Pi- leser's sculptures, see Mr. Layard's Monu- ments, 1st Series, Plates 57 to 67; and compare, in vol. i. of this work, the woodcut on p. 242, the second woodcut on p. 243, and the woodcuts on pp. 376 and 404. '2 Kings xvii. 3. "Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presents," or "rendered him tribute" (marginal rendering). * It was probably now that Shal- maneser made his general attack upon Pha-nicia. (Infra, p. 137.) 1 2 Kings xvii. 4. "And the king of Assyria lound conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year." I36 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. Eastern Africa, which had once held,5 and always coveted,6 the dominion of Syria. Hitherto such relations as they had had with the Egyptians appear to have been friendly. The weak and nnwarlike Pharaohs who about this time bore sway in Egypt had sought the favour of the neighbouring Asiatic power by demanding Assyrian princesses in marriage and affecting Assyrian names for their offspring.7 But recently an important change had occurred.8 A brave Ethiopian prince had descended the valley of the Nile at the head of a swarthy host, had defeated the Egyptian levies, had driven the reigning monarch into the marshes of the Delta, or put him to a cruel death,' and had established his own dominion firmly, at any rate, over the upper country. Shebek the First bore sway in Memphis in lieu of the blind Bocchoris;10 and Hoshea, seeing in this bold and enterprising king the natural foe of the Assyrians,11 and therefore his own natural ally and friend, "sent messengers" with proposals, which appear to have been accepted; for on their return Hoshea revolted openly, withheld his tribute, and declared himself independent. Shalmaneser, upon this, came up against Samaria for the second time, determined now to punish his vassal's perfidy with due severity. Apparently, he was unresisted; at any rate, Hoshea fell into his power, and * Several kings of the I8th and 19th dynasties seem to have ruled over Syria, and even to have made war across the Euphrates in Western Mesopotamia. (See Wilkinson in the author's Hero- (lotut, vol. ii. pp. 302-305 and p. 311; and compare Sir H. Rawlinson'9 Illustra- tions of hyyptian History, published in the Transactions of the Hoyal Society of Literature, vol. vii. New Series.) 1 The invasions of Shishak (Shcshonk) and Zerah (Osorkon) show that the idea of annexing Syria continued even during a period of comparative depression. 'Vide supra, p. 82. "If we were obliged to follow Mane- tho's dates, as reported to us through Eusebius and Africanus, we should have to place the accession of the first Sabaco 22 or 24 years only before Tirhakah, Be. 712 or 714. But the Apis stela have shown that Manctho's numbers are not to be trusted; and it is allowable therefore to assign to the two Ethiopian kings who preceded Tirhakah ordinary reigns of (say) 20 years each, which would bring the Ethiopian conquest to B.c 730. 9 Manctho stated that Bocchoris the Saitc was burnt alive by Sabaco L (Eu- seb. Chr. Can. i. p. 104.) Herodotus gave a different account (ii. 137-140). 10 According to Herodotus, the native king whom Sabaco superseded (called by him Anysis) was blind. Diodorus calls Bocchoris t$ awfiart tovt*A(5s €ukotb- n. 95). convinces me that 1 have beeu which none of the kings of Assyria or is nowhere else replaced by a mere breathing. But the discovery that Sargon took the title of " king of Babil" in the very year w hich Ptolemy makes wrong. 1 Iii»;ripliona des Sargonidet, p. 30. 1 This expression, and the subsequent Babylonia had ever hi'nrd the name." (Inscriptions, &c, p. 31.) THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. island in the Persian Gulf, Khareg perhaps or Bahrein, sent messengers, who bore to the Great King the tribute of the far East. Seven Cyprian monarchs, chief's of a country which lay "at the distance of seven days from the coast, in the sea of the setting sun," offered him by their envoys the treasures of the West.4 The very act of bringing presents implied sub- mission; and the Cypriots not only thus admitted his suze- rainty, but consented to receive at his hands and to bear buck to their country a more evident token of subjection. This was an effigy of the Great King carved in the usual form, and accompanied with an inscription recording his name and titles, which was set up at Idalium, nearly in the centre of the island, and made known to the Cypriots the form and appearance of the sovereign whom it was not likely that they would ever see.5 The expeditions of Sargon to the north and north-east had results less splendid than those which he undertook to the south-west and the south; but it may be doubted whether they did not more severely try his military skill and the valour of his soldiers. The mountain tribes of Zagros, Taurus, and Niphates, Medes, Armenians, Tibareni, Moschi, &c, were probably far braver men and far better soldiers than the levies of Egypt, Susiana, and Babylon. Experience, moreover, had by this time taught the tribes the wisdom of uniting against the common foe, and we find Ambris the Tibarenian in alliance with Mita the Moschian, and Urza the Armenian, when he ventures to revolt against Saigon. The submission of the northern tribes was with difficulty obtained by a long and fierce struggle, which—so far as one belligerent was concerned— terminated in a compromise. Ambris was deposed,6 and his 4 The tribute of Upir is not stated. That of the Cyprians consisted of gold, silver, vases, logs of ebony, and the manufactures of their own land. s This effigy of Sargon, found on the site of Idalium, is now in the Berlin Museum. In the Inscriptions, "setting up the image of his majesty" is always a sign that a monarch has conquered a country. Such images are sometimes represented in the bas-reliefs. (See Botta, Monument de Xinive, PI. 64.) 6 There was peculiar ingratitude in the conduct of Ambris. Sargon had se- lected him from among the neighbouring kings for the honour of a matrimonial alliance; and had given him the pro- vince of Cilicia as the dowry of the daughter whom he sent to Ambris to be his wife. Chap. IX. SARGON'S ELAMITIC "WAR. country placed under an Assyrian governor; Mita7 consented, after many years of resistance, to pay a tribute; Urza was defeated, and committed suicide; but the general pacification of the north was not effected until a treaty was made with the king of Van, and his good will purchased by the cession to him of a considerable tract of country which the Assyrians had previously taken from Urza.8 On the side of Media the resistance offered to the arms of Sargon seems to have been slighter, and he was consequently able to obtain a far more complete success. Having rapidly overrun the country, he seized a number of the towns and "annexed them to Assyria,"9 or, in other words, reduced a great portion of Media into the form of a province. He also built in one part of tlie country a number of fortified posts. He then imposed a tribute on the natives, consisting entirely of horses, which were perhaps required to be of the famous Nisrean breed.10 After his fourteenth year, B.C. 708, Sargon ceased to lead out liis troops in person, employing instead the services of his generals. In the year B.C. 707 a disputed succession gave him an opportunity of interference in Illib, a small country bordering on Susiana. Nibi, one of the two pretenders to the throne, had applied for aid to Sutruk-Nakhunta, king of Elam, who held his court at Susa,11 and had received the promise of his favour and protection. Upon this, the other claimant, who was named Ispabara, made application to Sargon, and was readily received into alliance. Sargon sent to his assistance "seven captains 'This name has been compared with the Phrygian Midas. (Sir II. Rawlin- *»i in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 131,2ad ed.) The name of another chief engaged in this war— Daiukka the Man- nian-has been compared with that of 'he supposed Median monarch Dcioces. Srane go so fer as to identify the per- sonages. 'Inscriptions des Sartjonides p. 24. Sargon represents this as a pure act of favour on his part: but we cannot be mistaken in considering it as an act of prudence. I rza's signet-cylinder has been dis- covered and brought to Europe. It bears a four-winged genius, grasping with either hand an ostrich by the neck. (Sec Cullimore, Cylinders, pi. 8, rig. 40.) It is now in the Museum of the Hague. • Inscriptions des Sarijonidcs, p. 25. Compare p. 37. On the Nissan horses see the author's Herodotus, vol. iv. p. 33, note 2nd cd. "Sutruk-Nakhunta's inscriptions have been found on the great mound of Susa. (Sir II. Kawlinson, in the author's I/cro- dolus, vol. i. p. 363, note 4, 2nd cd.) 152 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. with seven armies," who engaged the troops of Sutruk-Nakhunta, defeated them, and established Ispabara on the throne.12 In the following year, however, Sutruk-Nakhunta recovered his laurels, invading Assyria in his turn and capturing cities which he added to the kingdom of Susiana. In all his wars Sargon largely employed the system of whole- sale deportation. The Israelites were removed from Samaria, and planted partly in Gozan or Mygdonia, and partly in the cities recently token from the Medes.13 Hamath and Damascus were peopled with captives from Armenia and other regions of the north. A portion of the Tibareni were carried captive to Assyria, and Assyrians were established in the Tibarenian country. Vast numbers of the inhabitants of the Zagros range were also transported to Assyria; Babylonians, Cuthaeans, Sepharvites, Arabians, and others, were placed in Samaria; men from the extreme east (perhaps Media) in Aslidod. The Commukha were removed from the extreme north to Susiana; and Chalda;ans were brought from the extreme south to supply their place. Every where Sargon "changed the abodes" of his subjects,14 his aim being, as it would seem, to weaken the stronger races by dispersion, and to destroy the spirit of the weaker ones by severing at a blow all the links which attach a patriotic people to the country it has long inhabited. The practice had not been unknown to previous monarchs,1 but it had never been employed by any so generally or on so grand a scale as it was by this king. From this sketch of Sargon's wars, we may now proceed to a brief consideration of his great works. The magnificent palace which he erected at Khorsabad was by far the most important of his constructions. Compared with the later, and even with the earlier buildings of a similar kind erected by other kings, it was not remarkable for its size. But its ornamentation was unsurpassed by that of any Assyrian edifice, with the single "Inscriptions des Sargonidcs, pp. 26, Habor by the river of Gozan, and in Me 27. cities of the Medes." "2 Kings xviii. 11. "And the king "Inscriptions des Sargonides, p. 37. of Assyria did carry away Israel unto 1 See above, pp. 75, 88, 131, und Assyria, and put them in lialah and in j 132. Chap. IX. SARGON'S TOWN AN'D PALACE. 153 exception of the great palace of Asshur-bani-pal at Koyunjik. Covered with sculptures, botli internally and externally, gene- rally in two lines, one over the other, and, above this, adorned with enamelled bricks, arranged in elegant and tasteful patterns; approached by noble flights of steps and through splendid propylaea; having the advantage, moreover, of standing by itself, and of not being interfered with by any other edifice, it had peculiar beauties of its own, and may be pronounced in many respects the most interesting of the Assyrian buildings. United to this palace was a town enclosed by strong walls, which formed a square two thousand yards each way. Allowing fifty square yards to each individual, this space would have been capable of accommodating 80,OUO persons. The town, like the palace, seems to have been entirely built by Sargon, who imposed on it his own name, an appellation which it retained beyond the time of the Arab conquest.2 It is not easy to understand the exact object of Sargon in building himself this new residence. Dur-Sargina was not the Windsor or Versailles of Assyria—a place to which the sovereign could retire for country air and amusements from the bustle and beat of the metropolis. It was, as we have said, a town, and a town of considerable size, being very little less than half as large as Nineveh itself. It is true that it possessed the advantage of a nearer vicinity to the mountains than Nineveh; and had Sargon been, like several of his predecessors, " a mighty hunter," we might have supposed that the greater facility of obtaining sport in the woods and valleys of the Zagros chain formed the attraction which led him to prefer the region where he built his town to the banks of the Tigris. But all the evidence that we possess seems to show that this monarch was destitute of any love for the chase ;3 and seemingly we must attribute his change 'The Arab geographer Yacut speaks | hunting in any of his inscriptions, nor of Khurstabadh (Khorsabad) as a ; represents himself as engaged in it in village east of the Tigris, opposite to his sculptures. The only representation Mosul, and adjoinin;/ (he old mined city I of sport which his bas reliefs furnish of Sargkvn. (See As. Soc. Journ. vol. xii. ! consists of one series of slabs, where p. 419, note *.) I partridges, hares, and gazelles are the 1 It is true the evidence is only nega- objects of pursuit. The king is present, tive, but is as strong as negative evi- 1 driving in his chariot, but seems to take deuce can be. Sargon neither mentions no part in the sport. (Sec vol. i. p. 524.) 154 Chai\ IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. of abode either to mere caprico, or to a desire to be near the mountains for the sake of cooler water, purer air, and more varied scenery. It is no doubt true, as M. Oppert observes,* that the royal palace at Nineveh was at this time in a ruinous state; but it could not have been more difficult or more expensive to repair it than to construct a new palace, a new mound, and a new town, on a fresh site. Previously to the construction of the Khorsabad palace, Sargon resided at Calah.5 He there repaired and renovated the great palace of Asshur-izir-pal, which had been allowed to fall to decay.6 At Nineveh he repaired the walls of the town, which were ruined in many places, and built a temple to Nebo and Merodach; while in Babylonia he improved the condition of the embankments, by which the distribution of the waters was directed and controlled.7 He appears to have been to a certain extent a patron of science, since a large number of the Assyrian scientific tablets are proved by the dates upon them to have been written in his day.8 The progress of mimetic art under Sargon is not striking; but there are indications of an advance in several branches of industry, and of an improved taste in design and in ornamenta- tion. Transparent glass seems now to have been first brought into use,9 and intaglios to have been first cut upon hard stones.10 The furniture of the period is greatly superior in design to any previously represented,11 and the modelling of sword-hilts, mac&s, armlets, and other ornaments is peculiarly good 1! The enamel- ling of bricks was carried under Sargon to its greatest perfection; and the shape of vases, goblets, and boats shows a marked im- provement upon the works of former times.13 The advance in animal forms, traceable in the sculptures of Tiglath-Pileser II., 4 Inscriptions des Sargonidesy p. 31, DOtC*. 1 This must have been his principal residence, as the Khorsabad palace was not finished till his fifteenth year. • Inscriptions des Sargmidcs, p. 35. 'Ibid. • Ziitic/trift fiir Acgypt. Sprache for 1869, p. 110. • At any rate the earliest knoicn specimens belong to this reign. (See vol. i. p. 391.) "King, Antique Grms, p. 127. "See the following representations in vol. i. of this work: 1. the table. No. IV., p. 393; 2. the throne, p. 394; 3. the scat without a back on the same page. "See vol. i. pp. 457, 458 and 490. "See vol. i. pp. 309, 388, 549, 580. ClUU\ IX. ACCESSION OF SENNACHERIB. 155 continues; and the drawing of horses' heads, in particular, leaves little to desire.14 / After reigniug gloriously over Assyria for seventeen years, and for the last five of them over Babylonia also, Sargon died, leaving his crown to the most celebrated of all the Assyrian monarchs, his son Sennacherib, who began to reign B.C. 705. The long notices which we possess of this monarch in the Books of the Old Testament, his intimate connection with the Jews, the fact that he was the object of a preternatural exhibition of the Divine displeasure, and the remarkable circumstance that this miraculous interposition appears under a thin disguise in the records of the Greeks, have always attached an interest to his name, which the kings of this remote period and distant region very rarely awaken. It has also happened, curiously enough, that the recent Mesopotamian researches have tended to give to Sennacherib a special prominence over other Assyrian monarchs, more particularly in this country, our great excavator having devoted his chief efforts to the disinterment of a palace of this king's construction, which has supplied to our National Collection almost one-half of its treasures. The result is, that while the other sovereigns who bore sway in Assyria are gene- rally either wholly unknown, or float before the mind's eye as dim and shadowy forms, Sennacherib stands out to our ap- prehension as a living and breathing man, the impersonation of all that pride and greatness which we assign to the Ninevite kings, the living embodiment of Assyrian haughtiness, Assyrian violence, and Assyrian power. The task of setting forth the life and actions of this prince, which the course of the history now imposes on its compiler, if increased in interest, is augmented also in difficulty, by the grandeur of the ideal figure which has possession of men's minds. The reign of Sennacherib lasted twenty-four years, from B.C. 705 to B.C. 681. The materials which we possess for his history consist of a record written in his fifteenth1 year, describ- 14 See vol. I. p. 350. I in the Assyrian Canon as the Eponym 1 This document is known as "the of Sennacherib's fifteenth year, n.c. 691, Taylor Cylinder." It is dated in the and again of his twentieth year, B.C. Eponymy of Bel-emur-ani, who appears | 686. An abstract of the most important THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. ing his military expeditions and his buildings up to that time;8 of the Scriptural notices to which reference has already been made;3 of some fragments of Polyhistor preserved by Eusebius:1 and of the well-known passage of Herodotus which contains a mention of his name.1 From these documents we shall be able to make out in some detail the chief actions of the earlier portion of his reign; but they fail to supply any account of his later years, unless we may assign to that portion of his life some facts mentioned by Polyhistor, to which there is no allusion iu the native records. It seems probable that troubles both abroad and at home greeted the new reign. The Canon of Ptolemy shows a two years' interregnum at Babylon (from B.C. 704 to B.C. 702) exactly coinciding6 with the first two years of Sennacherib. This would imply a revolt of Babylon from Assyria soon after his accession, and either a period of anarchy or a rapid succes- sion of pretenders, none of whom held the throne for so long a time as a twelvemonth.7 Polyhistor gives us certain details, from which we gather that there were at least three monarchs in the interval left blank by the Canon6—first, a brother of Sennacherib, whose name is not given; secondly, a certain Hagisa, who wore the crown only a month; and, thirdly, portion of this inscription was given by Sir H. Kawlinson so long ago as 1852, in his Outlines of Assyrian History, while de- tailed translations have been since pub- lished by Mr. Fox Talbot (Journ.As. >oc, vol. xix. pp. 135-181), and M. Oppert (Inscriptions ties Sargonuies, pp. 41-53). 2 There is a second document called "the Bellino Cylinder," which was written in Sennacherib's fourth year, and contains his first two campaigns, together with an account of his early buildings at Nineveh. In general it agrees closely with the Taylor Cylinder; but it adds some few facts, as the ap- pointment of Bclipni. Mr. Fox Talbot trunslatcd it in his Assyrian Texts, pp.l-i). 3 2 Kings xviii. 13-37; Isa. xxxvi. and xxxvii. * Euscb. Chron. Can. Pars 1"", c. iv.-v. F.usebius has also preserved a passage of Abydenus in which Sennacherib is men- tioned (ib. c. ix. § 1); but it contains little of any value that is not also men- tioned by Polyhistor. 5 Herod, ii. HI. 6 The Assyrians and Babylonians counted as their "first year" not the actual year of their accession, but the year following. Thus if Sennacherib ascended the throne b.c. 705, his "first year" would be b.c. 704. 7 It is an admitted feature of Ptolemy's Canon that it takes no notice of kings who reigne 1 less than a year. * The following is Polyhistor's state- ment, as reported by Eusebius: "Post- quam regno defunctus est Senecheribi frater, et post Hagisse in Babylonios domiuationem, qui quidem nondum ex- pleto trigesimo imperii die a Marudaciio BnManc interemptus est, Marudachus ipse Baldunes tyrannidem invasit mcn- sibus sex; donee cum sustulit vir qui- dam nomine Elibus, qui et in regnuin successit." {Chron. Can. Pars 1"*, v. J 1.) Chap. IX. WARS OF SENNACHERIB. Merodach-Baladan, who had escaped from captivity, and, having murdered Hagisa, resumed the throne of which Sargon had deprived him six or seven years before.9 Sennacherib must apparently have been so much engaged with his domestic affairs that he could not devote his attention to these Baby- lonian matters till the second year after his accession.10 In B.C. 703 he descended on the lower country and engaged the troops of Merodach-Baladan, which consisted in part of native Babylonians, in part of Susianians, sent to his assistance by the king of Elam.11 Over this army Sennacherib gained a complete victory near the city of Kis, after which he took Babylon, and overran the whole of Chaldaea, plundering (according to his own aocuunt) seventy-six large towns and 420 villages.12 Merodach- Baladan once more made his escape, flying probably to Susiana, where we afterwards find his sons living as refugees.13 Senna- cherib, before quitting Babylon, appointed as tributary king an Assyrian named Belipni, who seems to be the Belibus of Ptolemy's Canon, and the Elibus of Polyhistor.14 On his return from Babylonia he invaded and ravaged the territory of the Aramfean tribes on the middle Euphrates—the Tumuna, Buhua, Gambulu, Khindaru, and Pukudu15 (Pekod?), the Nabatu or Nabathseans, the Hagaranu or Hagarenes,'6 aud others, carrying into captivity more than 200,000 of the inhabitants, besides great numbers of horses, camels, asses, oxen, and sheep.17 'Supra, p. 149. "It was formerly concluded from Sennacherib's cylinders that his first Babylonian expedition was in his first and his Syrian expedition in his third year. But neither the Bcltino nor the Taylor Cylinder is, strictly speaking, in the form of aniwiis. The Babylonian was his first campaign, the Syrian his third. But two years seem to have passed before he engaged in foreign expeditions. It is confirmatory of this view, which follows from the chronology of the As- syrian Canon compared with the Canon of Ptolemy, to find that the Bellino Cylinder, written in Sennacherib's fourth year, gives, not four campaigns, but two only— those of B.C. 703 and b.c. 702. "This king was probably the Sutruk- Nakhunta who had warred with Sargon. (Supra, p. 151.) "As. Soc. Juurn. vol. xix. p. 137. 1S Vide infra, p. 188. , "In Elibus the El is perhaps "god," used for Bel, the particular god. or possibly Elibus is a mere corruption due to the double translation of I'oly- histor's Greek into Armenian, and of the Armenian Eusebius into Latin. 15 These tribes had all assisted Me- rodach-Baladan against Sargon. (Sec almve, p. 148. note ">.) 18 Compare 1 Chr. v. 10, 18-22; Ps. 'lxxxiii. 6. The Hagarenes are perhaps I the Agraei of Strabo (xvi. p. 10U1), Pliny (//. A*, vi. 32), and others. "As. Soc. Juurn. vol. xix. p. 138. i58 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. In the following year, B.C. 702, "Sennacherib made war on the tribes in Zagros, forcing lspabara, whom Sargon had established in power,18 to fly from his country, and conquering many cities and districts, which he attached to Assyria, and placed under the government of Assyrian officers.1* The most important of all the expeditions contained in Sennacherib's records is that of his fourth year, B.C. 701, in which he attacked Luliya king of Sidon, and made his first expedition against Hezekiah king of Judah. Invading Syria with a great host, he made Phoenicia the first object of his attack. There Luliya—who seems to be the Elulaeus of Menander,20 though certainly not the Elulaeus of Ptolemy's Canon21—had evidently raised the standard of revolt, probably during the early years of Sennacherib, when domestic troubles seem to have occupied his attention. Luliya had, apparently, established his dominion over the greater part of Phoenicia, being lord not only of Sidon, or, as it is expressed in the inscription, of Sidon the greater and Sidon the less, but also of Tyre, Ecdippa, Akko, Sarepta, and other cities. However, he did not venture to await Sennacherib's attack, but, as soon as he found the expedition was directed against himself, he took to flight, quitting the continent and retiring to an island in the middle of the sea—perhaps the island Tyre, or more probably Cyprus. Sennacherib did not attempt any pursuit, but was content to receive the submission of the various cities over which Luliya had ruled, and to establish in his place, as tributary monarch, a prince named Tubal. He then received the tributes of the other petty monarchs of these paits, among whom are mentioned Abdilihat king of Arvad, Hurus-milki king of Byblus, Mitinti king of Ashdod,1 Puduel king of Beth-Ammon, a king of Moab, a king of Edom, and (according to some writers2) a "Menahem king of Samaria." After this Senna- "Supra, p. 152. J Messiah the Prince, p. 385.) "As. Soc. Jouiti. vol. xix. pp. 139-' 1 This name appears as that of » Philistine king in the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser II. (See above, p. 133.) 2 M. Oppert is, I believe, of this opinion. Mr. Fox Talbot so trans- lates {Asiatic Soc. Journ. vol. xix. !'• 143; Inscriptions lies SanjoniJ.es, pp. 42, 43. ■' Ap. Joseph. Ant. Jud. ix. 14. 21 This identity is maintained by .Mr. Uosanquct. (Fall of flinereh, p. 40; Cuap. IX. WARS OF SENNACHERIB. 159 cherib marched south-wards to Ascalon, where the king, Sidka, resisted him, but was captured, together with his city, his wife, his children, his brothers, and the other members of his family. Here again a fresh prince was established in power, while the rebel monarch was kept a prisoner and transported into Assyria. Four towns dependent upon Ascalon, viz., Hazor, Joppa, Bene- berak, and Beth-Dagon,J were soon afterwards taken and plundered. Sennacherib now pressed on against Egypt. The Philistine city of Ekron had not only revolted from Assyria, expelling its king, Padi, who was opposed to the rebellion, but had entered into negotiations with Ethiopia and Egypt, and had obtained a promise of support from them. The king of Ethiopia was pro- bably the second Shebek (or Sabaco) who is called Sevechus by Manetho, and is said to have reigned either twelve or fourteen years.4 The condition of Egypt at the time was peculiar. The Ethiopian monarch seems to have exercised the real sovereign power; but native princes were established under him who were allowed the title of king, and exercised a real though delegated authority over their several cities and districts.5 On the call of Ekron both princes and sovereign had hastened to its assistance, bringing with them an army consisting of chariots, horsemen, aud archers, so numerous that Sennacherib calls it "a host that could not be numbered." The second great battle6 between the Assyrians and the Egyptians took place near a place called Altaku, whicli is no doubt the Eltekeh of the Jews,7 a small 144). Sir H. Rawlinson denies the identity of the town mentioned with Samaria, which is ordinarily represented in the Inscriptions by an entirely dif- ferent set of characters. 1 Joppa and Bene-Berak are con- nected with Ekron in Josh. xix. 43—tG. There was a Hazor among the extreme southern cities of Judah (ib. xv. 23). And there was a Beth-Dagon in the low country or const tract of Judah, which is probably the modern Beit-Dujan be- tween Lydda and Joppa. These scorn to be the four cities now taken by Sen- nacherib. 4 Euseb. .Citron. Can. Pars lm\ c. xx.; African, ap. Syncell. Chi onograpK p. 184, C. 1 We shall have fuller evidence of the continuation of this practice under the Assyrian kings when they became masters of Egypt. (Infra, pp. 193 and 20.) It is slightly indicated by the Dodecarchy of Herodotus (ii. 147). 6 The first great battle was that of Raphia. (Supra, p. 144.) : See Josh. xix. 44, where Eltekeh (npnStf) is mentioned next to Ekron. It was a city of the Levites (Josh. xix. 23.) i6o Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. town in the vicinity of Ekron. Again the might of Africa yielded to that of Asia. The Egyptians and Ethiopians were defeated with great slaughter. Many chariots, with their drivers, both Egyptian and Ethiopian, fell into the hands of the con- queror, who also took alive several "sons" of the principal Egyptian monarch.8 The immediate fruit of the victory was the fall of Altaku, which was followed by the capture of Tainna, a neighbouring town.9 Sennacherib then "went on" to Ekron, which made no resistance, but opened its gates to the victor. The princes and chiefs who had been concerned in the revolt he took alive and slew, exposing their bodies on stakes round the whole circuit of the city walls. Great numbers of inferior persons, who were regarded as guilty of rebellion, were sold as slaves. Padi, the expelled king, the friend to Assyria, was brought back, reinstated in his sovereignty, and required to pay a small tribute as a token of dependance.'0 The restoration of Padi involved a war with Hezekiah, king of Judah. When the Ekronites determined to get rid of a king, whose Assyrian proclivities were distasteful to them, instead of putting him to death they arrested him, loaded him with chains, and sent him to Hezekiah for safe keeping.11 By accepting this charge the Jewish monarch made himself a partner in their revolt; and it was in part to punish this complicity, in part to compel him to give up Padi, that Sennacherib, when he had sufficiently chastised the Ekronite rebels, proceeded to invade Judaea. Then it was—in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, according to the present Hebrew text18—that "Sennacherib, 8 Perhaps not real "pons," but rather Hezekiah to be destroyed; but he prayce bitter to them that drink It. The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may i in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened; and the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction." (Is. xxiv. 1-12.) 3 Demetrius regarded this as one of the great captivities, paralleling it with the previous captivity of Samaria and with the final captivity of Jerusalem in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. (Demetr. ap. Clem. Alex. Strom, i. p. 403.) * Compare Is. xxix. 1-4, which seems to be a prophecy of this siege, the only one (so far as we know) that Jerusalem underwent at the hands of the Assyrians. "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. For I will dis- tress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto me as Ariel. And I will camp ogaiiutt round atottt, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one Chap. IX. SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. very imperfectly fortified. The "breaches of the city of David" had recently been "many;" and the inhabitants had hastily pulled down the houses in the vicinity of the wall to fortify it.5 It was felt that the holy place was in the greatest danger. We may learn from the conduct of the people, as described by one of themselves, what were the feelings generally of the cities threatened with destruction by the Assyrian armies. Jerusalem was at first "full of stirs and tumult;" the people rushed to the housetops to see if they were indeed invested, and beheld "the choicest valleys full of chariots, and the horsemen set in array at the gates."6 Then came " a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity "—a day of "breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains."7 Amidst this general alarm and mourning there were, however, found some whom a wild despair made reckless, and drove to a ghastly and ill-timed merriment. When God by his judgments gave an evident "call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth—behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine—' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.'"8 Hezekiah after a time came to the conclusion that resistance would be vain, and offered to surrender upon terms, an offer which Sennacherib, seeing the great strength of the place, and perhaps distressed for water,9 readily granted. It was agreed that Hezekiah should undertake the payment of an annual tribute, to consist of thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of silver, and that he should further yield up the chief treasures of the place as a " present" to the Great King. Hezekiah, in order to obtain at once a suf- ficient supply of gold, was forced to strip the walls and pillars that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." s Is. xxii. 9, 10. • lb. verses 1,2. 7 lb. verse 5. 'lb. verses 12, 13. 'It appears that Hezekiah either now. or on the second occasion, when Jerusalem was threatened by Senna- cherib, "stopped all the fountains which were without the city, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land," because the people said. "Why should the Assyrian come and find much water?" (2 Chron. xxii. 3. 4; compare Is. xxii. 9, 11.) From both passages I should infer that the blocking of the fountains took place on this, the Jirtt. occasion. On the general subject of the changes made at this time in the water supply, see Williams's llohj City, vol. ii. pp. 472-482. M 2 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chat-. IX. of the Temple, which were overlaid in parts with this precious metal.10 He yielded up all the silver from the royal treasury and from the treasury of the Temple; and this amounted to five hundred talents more than the fixed rate of tribute. In addition to these sacrifices the Jewish monarch was required to surrender Padi, his Ekronite prisoner, and was mulcted in certain portions of his dominions, which were attached by the conqueror to the territories of neighbouring kings.11 Sennacherib, after this triumph, returned to Nineveh, but did not remain long in repose. The course of events summoned him in the ensuing year—B.C. 700—to Babylonia, where Merodaeh- Baladan, assisted by a certain Susub, a Chaldsean prince, was again in arms against his authority. Sennacherib first defeated Susub, and then, directing his march upon Beth-Yakin, forced Merodach-Baladan once more to quit the country and betake himself to one of the islands of the Persian Gulf, abandoning to Sennacherib's mercy his brothers and his other partisans.1 It would appear that the Babylonian viceroy Belibus, who three years previously had been set over the country by Sennacherib was either actively implicated in this revolt, or was regarded as having contributed towards it by a neglect of proper precautions. Sennacherib, on his return from the sea-coa^t, superseded bim, placing upon the throne his own eldest son Asshur-inadi-su, who appears to be the Asordanes of Polyhistor,* and the Aparanadius or A8saranadius3 of Ptolemy's Canon. The remaining events of Sennacherib's reign may be arranged in chronological order without much difficulty, but few of them can be dated with exactness. We lose at this point the invaluable aid of Ptolemy's Canon, which contains no notice of any event 10 2 Chron. iii. 4-8. 11 These were Mitinti king of Ash- dod, Padi king of Ekron, and Tsilli- Bel king of Gaza. (Inscriptions des Sargonides, p. 45; As. Soc. Journ. vol. xix. p. 148.) 1 As. Soc. Journ. vol. xix. pp. 149-150; Inscriptions' des Sargonides, p. 46. * Ap. Euseb. Chi on. Can. Pars l1"", c. v. "Hoc (i.e. ElibOj tertium jam an- num regnante, Scnechcribus rex Assy- riorum copias adversum Babykraios contrahebat, prtelioque cum iis conserto. superior cvadebat; captumque Elibiun cum familiaribus ejus in Assyriam trans- fer™ jubebat. Is igitur Babyloniorum potitus, filium suum A9ordanem eis regem imponebat; ipse autem in Assy- riam reditum maturabat." * This change would easily take place by the two siginas (ffsion of Libnah, had advanced upon Egypt. It was important to crush an Egyptian army which had been collected against him by a certain Sethos, one of the many native princes who at this time rule 1 in the Lower country,1 before the great Ethiopian monarch Tehrak or Tirhakah, who was known to be on his march,2 should effect a junction with the troops of this minor potentate. Sethos, with his army, was at Pelusium;3 and Sennacherib, advancing to attack him, had arrived within sight of the Egyptian host, and pitched his camp over against the camp of the enemy, just at the time* when Hezekiali received his letter and made the prayer to which Isaiah was instructed to respond. The two hosts lay down at night in their respective stations, the Egyptians and their king full of anxious alarm, Sennacherib and his Assyrians proudly con- fident, intending on the morrow to advance to the combat and "2 Kings xix. 20-34. On the re- ceipt of the message sent by Kabshakeh, Isaiah had declared—" Thus saith the Lord God, 'Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land . and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'" (Ibid. 6, 7.) 1 Herod, ii. 141. According to some writers, the Sethos of Herodotus is the Zet of Manetho, the last king of the twenty-third dynasty, who reigned at Tanis (Zoan), while Bocchoris was reigning at Sais, and the Ethiopians in I'pper Egypt, (llincks in Atnenttum, Ko. 1878, p. 534: Stuart Poole in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 1856, ad voc. zoan.) The fact of a number of princes at this time dividing Egypt is apparent both in Scripture (Is. xix. 2), and in tile Assyrian inscrip- tions. (Inscriptions des tSargonidcs, p. 44.) * 2 Kings xix. 9. The Apis stelae show that Tirhakah did not ascend the throne of Egypt till B.C. 690. eiijht years after this; but he may have been already —as he is called in Scripture—" king of Ethiopia." J Herod, ii. 141. It is thought that the main outline of the narrative in this writer is compatible with the account in the Book of Kings, and may be used to fill up its chasms. * And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out," &c. (2 Kings xix. 35.) 168 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. repeat the lesson taught at Kapbia and Altaku.5 But no morrow was to break on the great mass of those who took their rest in the tents of the Assyrians. The divine fiat had gone forth. In the night, as they slept, destruction fell upon them. "The angel of the Lord went out,and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." A miracle, like the destruction of the first-born,6 had been wrought, but this time on the enemies of the Egyptians, who naturally ascribed their deliverance to the interposition of their own gods ;7 and seeing the enemy in confusion and retreat, pressed hastily after him, distressed his flying columns, and cut off Ids stragglers.8 The Assyrian king returned home to Nineveh, shorn of his glory, with the shattered remains of his great host, and cast that proud capital into a state of despair and grief, which the genius of an iEschylus might have rejoiced to depict,9 but which no less powerful pen could adequately portray. It is difficult to say how soon Assyria recovered from this terrible blow. The annals of Sennacherib, as might have been expected, omit it altogether, and represent the Assyrian monarcli as engaged in a continuous series of successful cam- paigns, which seem to extend uninterruptedly from his third to his tenth year.10 It is possible, that while the Syrian expedi- tion was in progress under the eye of Sennacherib himself, a successful war was being conducted by one of his generals in the mountains of Armenia, and that Sennacherib was thus enabled, without absolutely falsifying history, to parade as his own certain victories gained by this leader in the very year • Supra, pp. 144 and 159. • I cannot accept the view that the Assyrian army was destroyed by the Simoom, owing to the foreign forces of Sennacherib being 1 ittle acquainted with the means of avoiding this unusual enemy. (Milman, History of the Jews, vol. i. p. 307.) The Simoom would not have destroyed one army and left the other unhurt. Nor would it have re- mained for the survivors to find when they atcolie in the morniwj that the camp contained 185,000 dead men. The nar- rative implies a secret, sudden taking away of life during sleep, by direct Divine interposition. 'Herod, ii. 141, ad fin. » Ibid. • See the Versa, 893-1055. 10 Sennacherib, however, does not speak of years, but of campaigns. (" In my first campaign," "In my second campaign," and the like.) M. Oppert translates more correctly than Mr. Fox Talbot. Chap. IX. EFFECTS OF THE DESTRUCTION. 169 of his own reverse. It. is even conceivable that the power of Assyria was not so injured by the loss of a single great army, as to make it necessary for her to stop even for one year in the course of her aggressive warfare; and thus the expeditions of Sennacherib may form an uninterrupted series, the eight cam- paigns which are assigned to him occupying eight consecutive years. But on the other hand it is quite as probable that there are gaps in the history, some years having been omitted altogether. The Taylor Cylinder records but eight campaigns, yet it was certainly written as late as Sennacherib's fifteenth year." It contains no notice of any events in Sennacherib's first or second year; and it may consequently make other omissions covering equal or larger intervals. Thus the de- struction of the Assyrian army at Pelusium may have been followed by a pause of some years' duration in the usual aggres- sive expeditions; and it may very probably have encouraged the Babylonians in the attempt to shake off the Assyrian yoke, which they certainly made towards the middle of Sennacherib's reign. But while it appears to be probable that consequences of some importance followed on the Pelusiac calamity, it is tolerably certain that no such tremendous results flowed from it as some writers have imagined. The murder of the disgraced Sennacherib "within fifty-five days" of his return to Nineveh,18 seems to be an invention of the Alexandrian Jew who wrote the Book of Tobit. The total destruction of the empire in conse- quence of the blow, is an exaggeration of Josephus," rashly credited by some moderns.14 Sennacherib did not die till B.C. 681, seventeen years after his misfortune;15 and the empire suffered so little that we find Esar-haddon, a few years later, in full possession of all the territory that any king before him had "This is proved by the name of the Eponym. The date may be later, for •he same person, or a person of the some name, was Eponym five years •fterwardi, in Sennacherib's twentieth 12 Tobit i. 21. 11 Ant. J«d. x. 2. 'Ev rolrtf rf XpsVqi o«$7j T^y rwi> 'trvpiuv bpxhv fork MjjJoiv KaraAvBrjvai. 14 As Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. pp. 279, 280. 1J The expression in 2 Kings xix. 36, that "Sennacherib departed, and went, and returned, and d'rclt at Nineveh," implies some considerable length of time, and shows the unhistorical character of Tobit. 170 Chap. IX. THE SECOXD MONAECHY. ever held, ruling from Babylonia to Egypt, or (as he himself expresses it) "from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same."16 Even Sennacherib himself was not prevented by his calamity from undertaking important wars during the latter part of his reign. We shall see shortly that he recovered Babylon, chastised Susiana, and invaded Cilicia, in the course of the seventeen years which intervened between his flight from Pelusium and his decease. Moreover, there is evidence that he employed himself during this part of his reign in the consolida- tion of the Western provinces, which first appear about his twelfth year as integral portions of the empire, furnishing Eponyms in their turn,1 and thus taking equal rank with the ancient provinces of Assyria Proper, Adiabene, and Mesopotamia. The fifth campaign of Sennacherib, according to his own annals, was partly in a mountainous country which he calls Nipur or Nibur—probably the most northern portion of the Zagros range2 where it abuts on Ararat. He there took a number of small towns, after which he proceeded westward and contended with a certain Maniya, king of Dayan, which was a part of Taurus bordering on Cilicia.3 He boasts that he pene- trated further into this region than any king before him; and the boast is confirmed by the fact that the geographical names which appear are almost entirely new to us.4 The expedition was a plundering raid, not an attempt at conquest. Sennacherib ravaged the country, burnt the towns, and carried away with him all the valuables, the flocks and herds, and the inhabitants. "Assyrian Texts, p. 10. j Pilescr cylinder among the countries of 1 In d.c. 694, Sennacherib's 12th year, the Nam. (/ascription, p. 46.) A bull- the Prefect of Damascus is Eponym; in inscription of Sennacherib shows that B.c. 692 the Prefect of Arpnd; and in it lay to the extreme west of their B.C. 691 the Prefect of Carchemish. None country, where it abutted on Cilicia of these places had furnished eponyms and the country of the Tibareni (Tubal), previously. I * Dayan is not new; but Uzza, its 1 This emplacement depends almost capital, and its strongholds, Anara and entirely on the name Nibur, which seems U/ipa, arc new names. Mr. Fox Talbot to be represented by the Mt. Nibarus conjectures that Anara is "the cele- (Ni'0apot) of Strabo. This range lay brated Aornus, besieged many ages east of Niphates, stretching as far as | afterwards by Alexander the Great" Media (irapaTf Ivti fitxp< t^s MtjS/os, xi. (As. Soc. Journ. vol. xix. p. 153.) But p. 766). It seems rightly regarded as 1 Aornus was in Bactria, far beyond the the Ala Dayh, a range due north of I.ake Van. * Dayan is mentioned on the Tiglath- utmost limit to which the Assyrian arms ever penetrated eastward. Chap. IX. SEXNACHERIB S WAR WITH SUSIANA. 171 After this it appears that for at least three years he was engaged in a fierce struggle with the combined Babylonians and Sosianians. The troubles recommenced by an attempt of the Chaldaeans of Beth-Yakin to withdraw themselves from the Assyrian territory and to transfer their allegiance to the Elymaean king. Carrying with them their gods and their treasures, they embarked in their ships, and crossing "the Great Sea of tlie Rising Sun "—i. e. the Persian Gulf—landed on the Elamitio coast, where they were kindly received and allowed to take up their abode. Such voluntary removals are not uncommon in the East;5 and they constantly give rise to complaints and reclamations, which not unfrequently terminate in an appeal to the arbitrament of the sword. Sennacherib does not inform us whether he made any attempt to recover his lost subjects by diplomatic representations at the court of Susa. If he did, they were unsuccessful; and in order to obtain redress, he was com- pelled to resort to force, and to undertake an expedition into the Elamitic territory. It is remarkable that he determined to make his invasion by sea Their frequent wars on the Syrian coasts had by this time familiarised the Assyrians with the idea, if not with the practice, of navigation; and as their suzerainty over Phoenicia placed at their disposal a large body of skilled shipwrights, and a number of the best sailors in the world, it wag natural that they should resolve to employ naval as well as military force to advance their dominion. We have seen that, as early as the time of Shalmaneser, the Assyrians ventured themselves in ships, and, in conjunction with the Phoenicians of the mainland, engaged the vessels of the Island Tyre.6 It is probable that the precedent thus set was followed by later kings, and that both Sargon and Sennacherib had had the permanent, or occasional, services of a fleet on the Mediterranean. But there was a wide difference between such an employment of the navies belonging to their subjects on the sea to which tbey were accustomed, and the transfer to the opposite extremity of 1 Compare the removal of the Scyths I (Herod, i. 73, 74), and the instances from Media to Lydia in the reign of j collected by Mr. Grote (History of Greece, Cjawres, which is said to havo pro- | vol. ii. p. 417, note ', 2nd edition), duced the Lydian war of that king j • Supra, p. 137. 172 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. the empire of the naval strength hitherto confined to the Medi- terranean. This thought—certainly not an obvious one—seems to have first occurred to Sennacherib. He conceived the idea of having a navy on both the seas that washed his dominions; and, possessing on his western coast only an adequate supply of skilled shipwrights and sailors,7 he resolved on transporting from his western to his eastern shores such a body of Phcenicians as would enable him to accomplish his purpose. The shipwrights of Tyre and Sidon were carried across Mesopotamia to the Tigris, where they constructed for the Assyrian monarch a fleet of ships like their own galleys,8 which descended the river to its mouth, and astonished the populations bordering on the Persian Gulf with a spectacle never before seen in those waters. Though the Chaldseans had for centuries navigated this inland sea, and may have occasionally ventured beyond its limits, yet neither as sailors nor as ship-builders was their skill to compare with that of the Phcenicians. The masts and sails, the double tiers of oars, the sharp beaks of the Phoenician ships were (it is probable) novelties to the nations of these parts, who saw now, for the first time, a fleet debouche from the Tigris, with which their own vessels were quite incapable of contending. When his fleet was ready Sennacherib put to sea, and crossed in his Phoenician ships from the mouth of the Tigris to the tract occupied by the emigrant Chaldfeans, where he landed and destroyed the newly-built city, captured the inhabitants, ravaged the neighbourhood, and burnt a number of Susianiar towns, finally re-embarking with his captives—Chaldaaan and Susianian—whom he transported across the Gulf to the Chal- drean coast, and then took with him into Assyria. This whole expedition seems to have taken the Susianians by surprise. They had probably expected an invasion by land, and had collected their forces towards the north-western frontier, so 'The Chaldseans, whose "cry was in 1 fell very far short of the Phoenicians the ships" (Is. xliii. 14), no doubt pos- both as respected their vessels and their sessed a mercantile marine which had nautical skill. long been accustomed to the navigation 'Sennacherib calls them "Syrisn of the Persian Gulf. (See above, vol. i. vessels." Most probably they were bi- pp. 20 and 101.) Hut they probably rcmes. THE SECOND MONAECHY. Chap. IX. of the kingdom, where Kudur-Nakhunta had for the time fixed his residence. The Elamitic king, hearing of his rapid approach, took fright, and hastily quitting Badaca, fled away to a city called Khidala, at the foot of the mountains, where alone he could feel himself in safety. Sennacherib then advanced to Badaca, besieged it, and took it by assault; after which affairs seem to have required his presence at Nineveh, and, leaving his conquest incomplete, he returned home with a large booty. A third campaign in these parts, the most important of all, followed. Susub, the Chaldaean prince whom Sennacherib had carried off to Assyria in the year of his naval expedition/ escaped from his confinement, and, returning to Babylon, was once more hailed as king by the inhabitants. Aware of his inability to maintain himself on the throne against the will of the Assyrians, unless he were assisted by the arms of a powerful ally, he resolved to obtain, if possible, the immediate aid of the neighbouring Elamitic monarch. Kudur-Nakhunta, the late antagonist of Sennacherib, was dead, having survived his dis- graceful flight from Badaca only three months;5 and Umman- minan, his younger brother, held the throne. Susub, bent on contracting an alliance with this prince, did not scruple at an act of sacrilege to obtain his end. He broke open the treasury of the great temple of Bel at Babylon, and seizing the gold and silver belonging to the god, sent it as a .present to Umman- minan, with an urgent entreaty that he would instantly collect, his troops and march to his aid.6 The Elamitic monarch, yielding to a request thus powerfully backed, and perhaps suf- ficiently wise to see that the interests of Susiana required an independent Babylon, set his troops in motion without any delay, and advanced to the banks of the Tigris. At the same time a number of the Aramaean tribes on the middle Euphrates, which Sennacherib had reduced in his third year,7 revolted, and the Eulreus, between Susa and Ecbatana (xix. 19). It seems to have been situated at the point where the Kerkhah ori- ginally bifurcated, sending down an eastern arm which feil into the Kuran passage (As. Soc. Journ. vol. xix. p. 159). It is thought, however, by some to mean that the whole reign of Kudur-Na- khunta lasted only three months. Compare the conduct of Ahaz (2 at Ahwaz. (Sec Loftus, Chaldaa and \ Kings xvi. 8). Suriima, p. 424.) * See above, p. 173. 'Supra, p. 157. The principal of s So Mr. Fox Talbot understands the j these tribes were the Pukudu (Pekod), Chap. IX. DEFEAT OF SUSUB. sent their forces to swell the army of Susub. A great battle was fought at Khaluli, a town on the lower Tigris, between the troops of Sennacherib and this allied host; the combat was long and bloody; but at last the Assyrians conquered. Susub and his Elamitic ally took to flight and made their escape. Nebo- sum-iskun, a son of Merodach-Baladan, and many other chiefs of high rank, were captured. The army was completely routed and broken up.8 Babylon submitted, and was severely punished; the fortifications were destroyed; the temples plundered and burnt; and the images of the gods broken to pieces. Perhaps the rebel city now received for viceroy Regibelus or Mesesi- mordachus, whom the Canon of Ptolemy, which is silent about Snsub, makes contemporary with the middle portion of Senna- cherib's reign.9 The only other expedition which can be assigned, on important evidence, to the reign of Sennacherib, is one against Cilicia, in which he is said to have been opposed by Greeks.10 According to Abydenus, a Greek fleet guarded the Cilician shore, which the vessels of Sennacherib engaged and defeated. Polyhistor seems to say that the Greeks also suffered a defeat by land in Cilicia itself, after which Sennacherib took possession of the country, and built Tarsus there on the model of Babylon.1 The theGambulu, the Khindaru, the Ruhua, and the Damunu. * Inscriptions des Sirgonides, pp. 49- 51; Jtflimal of t/te Asiatic Society, vol. m. pp. 159-165. 1 Regibelus ascends the throne in b.c. 693, and Mesesimordaehus in the fol- lowing year. These are the 13th and 14th ycarsof Sennacherib. The omission of Susub from the Canon may be ac- counted for by the probable fact that neither of his two reigns lasted for a full year. That he was actual king is proved by a "contract" tablet in the British Museum dated in his reign. "Polyhist. ap. Euseb. Chron. Can. Pars 1"", c. v.:—" Is igitur (»'. e. Sena- cheribus) Babyloniorum potltus, hlium suum Asordanem eia rcgem imponcbat, ipseautem in Assyriam reditum matu- rabat. Mox quum ad ejus aures rumor esset perlatus. Grawos inCiliciam coactis copiis bellum transtulisse, eos protinus aggressus est, prcelioquc inito, multis suorum amissis, hostes nihilominus pro- fligavit: suamque imaginem, ut esset victoria? mouumentum, eo loco erectam reliquit; cui Chaldaicis litteris res a se gestas insculpi mandavit ad memoriom temporum sempiternani. Tarsum quoque urbein ab eo structam ait ad Babylonia exemplar, eidemque noinen inditum Tharsin." Abydcn. ap. cund. c. ix.:— 11 His temporibus quintus deniqite et vigesimus rex fuit Senacheribus, qui Babylonem sibi subdidit, et in Cilicii maris litore classom Groecorum prorli- gaturn disjecit. Hie etiam templum Atheniensium (!) struxit. yl^rea quoque signa facienda curavit, in quibus sua facinora traditur inscripsisse. Tnrsuin denique ea forma, qua Babylon utitur, condidit, ita ut media Tarso Cydnus amnis transiret, prorsus ut Babylonem dividit Arnzanes." 1 It is not certain that this means THE SECOND MONABCHY. Chap. IX. prominence here given to Greeks by Greek writers is undoubtedly remarkable, and it throws a certain amount of suspicion over the whole story. Still, as the Greek element in Cyprus was certainly important at this time,2 and as the occupation of Cilicia by the Assyrians may have appeared to the Cyprian Greeks to endanger their independence, it is conceivable that they lent some assistance to the natives of the country, who were a hardy race, fond of freedom, and never very easily brought iuto subjection.3 The admission of a double defeat makes it evident that the tale is not the invention of Greek national vanity. Abydenus and Polyhistor probably derive it from Berosus, who must also have made the statement that Tarsus was now founded by Sennacherib, and constructed after the pattern of Babylon. The occupation of newly conquered countries, by the establishment in them of large cities in w hich foreign colonists were placed by the conquerors, was a practice commenced by Sargon,4 which his son is not unlikely to have followed. Tarsus was always regarded by the Greeks as an Assyrian town;5 and although they gave different accounts of the time of its foundation, their disagreement iii this respect does not invalidate their evidence as to the main fact itself, which is intrinsically probable. The evidence of Polyhistor and Abydenus as to the date of the foundation, representing, as it must, the testimony of Berosus upon the point, is to be pre- ferred; and we may accept it as a fact, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the native city of St. Paul derived, if not its oiigiu, yet, at any rate, its later splendour and magnificence, from the antagonist of Hezekiah." more than the emplacement of the tovrn foundation of Tarsus to Sardanapalus, on both sides of the Cydnus, so that the the best known of the Assy rian monarchs. stream ran through it. (See the parallel (See Hellan. Fr. 158; Apollodor. Fr. 69; passage in Abydenus.) Strab. xiv. p. 968; Arrian. Exp. AUi. * See below, p. '200, note '. 'ii. 5; Athcnoms. fleipn. xii. 7; Eustath. • Cilicia remained independent at the ad Dionys. Per. 873.) time of the formation of the Lydian! • If the Tarshish of Gen. x. 4, which Empire (Herod, i. 28). It had its own I is joined with Kittim (Cyprus), Ro- kings, and enjoyed a certain amount of 1 danim (Rhodes), and Elishah (.Kolis, independence under the Persians (ibid. F.lis) is allowed to be Tarsus (Joseph, vii. 98; iEschyl. Pert. 328-330; Xen. Ant. Jnd. i. 6), the orijin7) makes the width of the court eighty-four feet, hut it may easily have been ninety feet or even more. * It ii not quite certain that this passage led to the apartments in ques- tion, as it wqs not explored to the end; but its apparent object was to conduct to the north-west group of chambers. 3 Lnyard, flineieh end Babylon, p. 103. * This halt was traced to a distance of 160 feet. Assuming that it had the same sort of correspondence and regu- larity as the halls at Khorsabad, its entire length must have been ISO feet. 5 Mr. Layard counts seventy-one N 2 i8o Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. of the building is still incomplete, we may fairly conjecture that the entire number was not les9 than seventy or eighty. The palace of Sennacherib preserved all the main features of Assyrian architecture. It was elevated on a platform, eighty or ninety feet above the plain, artificially constructed and covered with a pavement of bricks. It had probably three graud facades—one on the north-east, where jt was ordinarily ap- proached from the town,' and the two others on the south-east aud the south-west, where it was carried nearly to the edge of the platform, and overhung the two streams of the Khosr-su and the Tigris. Its principal apartment was that which was first entered by the visitor. All the walls ran in straight lines, and all the angles of the rooms and passages were right angles. There were more passages in the building than usual;7 but still the apartments very frequently opened into one another; and almost one half of the rooms were passage-rooms. The doorways were mostly placed without any regard to regularity, seldom opposite to one another, and generally towards the corners of the apartments. There was the curious feature, so common in Assyrian edifices, of a room being entered from a court, or from another room, by two or three doorways;8 which is best explained by supposing that the rank of the person determined the door by which he might enter. Squared recesses in the sides of the rooms were common. The thickness of the walls was great. The apartments, though wider than in other palaces, were still narrow lor their length, never much exceeding forty feet; while the courts were much better proportioned. It was in the size and the number of his rooms, in his use of passages, and in certain features of his ornamentation, that Sen- nacherib chiefly differed from former builders. He increased the width of the principal state apartments by one-third, which seems to imply the employment of some new mode or material chambers; but he includes in this esti- mate the three courts, the long gallery, tour passages, and four rooms which were imagined rather than proved to exis'. "Two great ravines on this side probably mark the position of flights of steps, or inclined ways, which led up to the platform from the lower level of the city. 7 On the rare use of passages by the Assyrians, see above, vol. i. p. 285. "So at Khorsabad (vol. i. p. 281} and at Nimrud (supra, p. !)2). Chap. IX. SEXNACHEHIBS PALACE AT NINEVEH. l8l for roofing.9 In their length he made less alteration, only advancing from 150 to 180 feet, evidently because he aimed, not merely at increasing the size of his rooms, but at improving their proportions. In one instance alone—that of a gallery or passage-room, leading (apparently) from the more public part of the palace to the hareem or private apartments—did he exceed this length, uniting the two portions of the palace by a noble corridor, 218 feet long by twenty-five wide. Into this corridor he brought passages from the two public courts, which he also united together by a third passage, thus greatly facili- tating communication between the various blocks of building which composed his vast palatial edifice. The most striking characteristic of Sennacherib's ornamenta- tion is its strong and marked realism. It was under Senna- cherib that the practice first obtained of completing each scene by a background,10 such as actually existed at the time and place of its occurrence. Mountains, rocks, trees, roads, rivers, Likes, were regularly portrayed, an attempt being made to represent the locality, whatever it might be, as truthfully as the artist's skill and the character of his material rendered possible. Xor was this endeavour limited to the broad and general features of the scene only. The wish evidently was to include all the little accessories which the observant eye of an artist might have noted if he had made his drawing with the scene before him. The speciesof trees is distinguished in Sennacherib's bas-reliefs; gar- dens, fields, ponds, reeds, are carefully represented; wild animals are introduced, as stags, boars, and antelopes; birds fly from tree to tree, or stand over their nests feeding the young who stretch up to them; fish disport themselves in the waters; fishermen ply their craft; boatmen and agricultural labourers pursue their avccations; the scene is, as it were, photographed, with all its 'Sennacherib used foreign timber in his palace to a large extent, cutting it in Lebanon and A manna. Perhaps, by choosing the tallest trees, he was able to span with single beams the wide fpace of forty-one or forty-two feet. (See vol. i. p. 307.) "Backgrounds occur, but very rarely, in the reliefs of Asshur-izir-pal (Layard, Monuments, 1st Series, Pis. 15, 16, and 33). They arc employed more largely by Sargon (Botta, Monument, Pis. 31 to 35, and 108'to 114); but even then they continue the exception. With Senna- cherib they become the rule, and at the same time they increase greatly in elaboration. 182 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. features—the least and the most important—equally marked, and without any attempt at selection, or any effort after artistic- unity. In the same spirit of realism Sennacherib chooses for artistic representation scenes of a common-place and every-day cha- racter. The trains of attendants who daily enter his palace with game and locusts for his dinner, aud cakes and fruit for his dessert, appear on the walls of his passages,1 exactly as they walked through his courts, bearing the delicacies in which he delighted. Elsewhere he puts before us the entire process of carving and transporting a colossal bull, from the first removal of the huge stone in its rough state from the quarry, to its final elevation on a palace mound as part of the great gateway of a royal residence. We see the trackers dragging the rough hlock, supported on a low flat-bottomed boat, along the course of a river, disposed in gangs, and working under taskmasters who use their rods upon the slightest provocation. The whole scene mu--t be represented, and so the trackers are all there, to the numlx-r of three hundred, costumed according to their nations, and each delineated with as much care as if he were not the exact image of ninety-nine others. We then observe the block transferred to land, and carved into the rough semblance of a bull, in which form it is placed on a rude sledge and conveyed along level ground by gangs of labourers, arranged nearly as before, to the foot of the mound at whose top it has to be placed. The con- struction of the mound is most elaborately represented. Brick- makers are seen moulding the bricks at its base, w hile workmen, with baskets at their backs, full of earth, bricks, stones, or rub- bish, toil up the ascent—for the mound is already half raised— and empty their burdens out upon the summit. The bull, still lying on its sledge, is then drawn up an inclined plane, to the top by four gangs of labourers, in the presence of the monarch and his attendants. After this the carving is completed, and the colossus, having been raised into an upright position, is conveyed along the surface of the platform to the exact site which it is to 1 For a representation see Layard, Monuments, 2nd Series, Pis. 8 and 9; compare Kinevch and Babylon, pp. 338-340. Chap. IX. HIS EMPLOYMENT OF FORCED LABOUR. 183 occupy.2 This portion of the operation has been represented in one of the woodcuts contained in the first volume.3 From the representation there given the reader may form a notion of the minuteness and elaboration of this entire series of bas-reliefs. Besides constructing this new palace at Nineveh, Sennacherib seems also to have restored the ancient residence of the kings at the same place,4 a building which will probably be found when- ever the mound of Nebbi-Yunus is submitted to careful exami- nation. He confined the Tigris to its channel by an embankment of bricks.5 He constructed a number of canals or aqueducts for the purpose of bringing good water to the capital.6 He improved the defences of Nineveh, erecting towers of a vast size at some of the gates.7 And, finally, he built a temple to the god Nergal at Tarbisi (now Sherif Khan), about three miles from Nineveh, up the Tigris. In the construction of these great works he made use, chiefly, of the forced labour with which his triumphant expeditions into foreign countries had so abundantly supplied him. Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Armenians, Cilicians,8 and probubly also Egyptians, Ethiopians, Elamites, and Jews, were employed by thousands in the formation of the vast mounds, in the transport and elevation of the colossal bulls, in the moulding of the bricks, and the erec- tion of the walls of the various edifices, in the excavation of the canals, and the construction of the embankments. They wrought in gangs, each gang having a costume peculiar to it,9 which probably marked its nation. Over each was placed a number of task-masters, armed with staves, who urged on the work with blows,10 and severely punished any neglect or remissness. 1 Lavard, Monuments, 2nd Series, Pis. 10 to 17. 1 Supra, vol. i. p. 402. 1 Attgrian Texts, p. 7; As. Soc. Journ. vol. xix. p. 166. 'Assyrian Texts, 1. 8. c. 'Ibiii. p. 8. 1 The great gate of Nineveh, de- scribed in the first volume of this work (p. 258), was composed of bricks marked with Seunacherib'B name (Layard, Nine- Wi and Babylon, p. 123). Another similar gateway in the eastern well (ibid.) was probably his; and his bricks have also been found along the curtain of the east side of the city. 8 On the Bellino Cylinder Sennacherib tells us that he employed these lour races, together with the Qu/iu (Coans), on his great works. (Assyri.m Texts, pp. 6, 7.) From a bull-inscription we learn that the number of Arama'ans carried otF as slaves in one raid was 208,000. (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. HI.) • Layard, Monuments, 2nd Series, Pis, 10, 11, 13, 15, and 16. 10 The sume practice prevailed in THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. Assyrian foremen had the general direction of the works, and were entrusted with all such portions as required skill or judg- ment.11 The forced labourers often worked in fetters, which were sometimes supported by a bar fastened to the waist, while sometimes they consisted merely of shackles round the ankles. The king himself often witnessed the labours, standing in his chariot, which, on these occasions, was drawn by some of his attendants.13 The Assyrian monuments throw but little light on the circum- stances which led to the assassination of Sennacherib; and we are reduced to conjecture the causes of so strange an event. Our various sources of information make it clear that he had a large family of sons. The eldest of them, Asshur-inadi-su, had been entrusted by Sennacherib with the government of Babylon,13 and might reasonably have expected to succeed him on the throne of Assyria; but it is probable that he died before his father, either by a natural death, or by violence, during one of the many Babylonian revolts. It may be suspected that Senna- cherib had a second son, of whose name Nergal was the first element;1 and it is certain that he had three others, Adram- melech (or Ardumuzanes),8 Sharezer, and Esar-haddon. Perhaps, upon the death of Asshur-inadi-su, disputes arose about the succession. Adrammelech and Sharezer, anxious to obtain the throne for themselves, plotted against the life of their father, and having slain him in a temple as he was worshipping,3 pro- ceeded further to remove their brother Nergilus, who claimed tlie crown and wore it for a brief space after Sennacherib's death.4 Having murdered him, they expected to obtain the Persia (Herod, vii. 22); and there must be something akin to it wherever forced labour is used. "See vol. i. p. 587. "Layard, Monuments, 2nd Series, Pis. 12 and 15. 13 Supra, p. 164. 1 Abydenus, who alone mentions this Nergilus, omits to state his relationship to Sennacherib. He makes him the father of Adrammelech and Esnr-haddon (Axerdis), which is certainly incorrect. In the text I have followed probability. * The Adrammelech of Scripture (2 Kings xix. 37; Is. xxxvii. 38) is men- tioned as Adrameles by Abydenus (Euseb. Chron. Can. Pars 1™, c. ix.), and as Adramelus by Moses of Chorene* [ffist. Armcn. i. 22.) Thib latter writer calls him also Argamozanus (ibid.), while Polyhistor gives his name as Ar- dumuzanes (ap. Euseb. Chron. Cm. Pars 1™", c. v. § 1). 3 2 Kings, I. s. c 4 See Abydenus. 1. s. c. "Proximus huic (i.e. Seiiacheribo) regnavit Ner- gilus, u,uein Adrameles filius (i) occidit." Chap. IX. SEJfNACHERIB MURDERED. 185 throne without further difficulty; but Esar-haddon, who at the time commanded the army which watched the Armenian fron- tier, now came forward, assumed the title of King, and prepared to march upon Nineveh. It was winter, and the inclemency of the weather precluded immediate movement. For some months probably the two assassins were recognised as monarchs at the capital, while the northern army regarded Esar-haddon as the rightful successor of his father. Thus died the great Senna- cherib, a victim to the ambition of his sons. It was a sad end to a reign which, on the whole, had been so ploriou3; and it was a sign that the empire was now verging on that decline which sooner or later overtakes all kingdoms, and indeed all things sublunary. Against plots from without, arising from the ambition of subjects who see, or think they see, at any particular juncture, an opportunity of seizing the great prize of supreme dominion, it is impossible, even in the most vigorous empire, to provide any complete security. But during the period of vigour, harmony exists within the palace, and con- fidence in each other inspires and unites all the members of the royal house. When discord has once entered inside the gates, when the family no longer holds together, when suspicion and jealousy have replaced the trust and affection of a happier time, the empire has passed into the declining stage, and has already begun the descent which conducts, by quick or slow degrees, to destruction. The murder of Sennacherib, if it was, as perhaps it was, a judgment on the individual,5 was, at least equally, a judgment on the nation. When, in an absolute monarchy, the palace becomes the scene of the worst crimes, the doom of the kingdom is sealed—it totters to its fall—and requires but a touch from without to collapse into a heap of ruins. Esar-haddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib, is proved by the Assyrian Canon to have ascended the throne of Assyria in B.c. 681—the year immediately previous to that which the Canon of Ptolemy makes his first year in Babylon,8 viz., B.C. 680. 5 See 2 Kings xix. 7 and 37. 9 A king was not entered on the Babylonian list until the Thoth, which followed his accession. Thoth fell at this time in February. Hence the Baby- lonian dates are in almost every case one year later than the Assyrian. THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX. He was succeeded by his son, Asslmr-bani-pal or Sardanapalus, in B.C. 608, and thus held the crown no more than thirteen years. Esar-haddon's inscriptions show that he was engaged for some time after his accession in a war with his halt-brothers, who, at the head of a large body of troops, disputed his right to the crown.7 Esar-haddou marched from the Armenian frontier, where (as already observed) he was stationed at the time of his father's death, against this army, defeated it in the country of Khanirabbat (north-west of Nineveh), and proceeding to the capital, was universally acknowledged king. According to Abydenus, Adrammelech fell in the battle;8 but better autho- rities state thiit both he and his brother, Sharezer, escaped into Armenia,9 where they were kindly treated by the reigning monarch, who gave them lands, which long continued in the possession of their posterity,10 The chief record which we possess of Esar-haddon is a cylinder inscription, existing in duplicate,11 which describes about nine campaigns, and may probably have been composed in or about his tenth year. A memorial which he set up at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, and a cylinder of his son's add some important information with respect to the latter part of his reign.12 One or two notices in the Old Testament connect hiui with the history of the Jews.13 And Abydenus, besides the passage already quoted, has an allusion to some of his foreign conquests.14 Such are the chief materials from which the modern inquirer has to reconstruct the history of this great king.15 'See Mr. G. Smith's article in the 11 British Museum Series, Pis. 45 to Xorth British Heciea for July, 1870, pp. 1 47. Both copies of the cylinder are im- 324, 325. The war in question is also perfect; but together they supply a very mentioned by Abydenus, 1. 8. c. "Hunc I tolerable text. M. Oppert has translate! (i.e. Adramclem) frater suus Axcrdis j the second in his Inscriptions dee £tir- interfecit, patre eodem alia tamen matre tjonidrs, pp. 53-tiO. genitus, atque Byzantium (?) usque ejus 12 See Sir H. Rawlinson's Illustration* exercitum persecutus est quern an tea of Egyptian History and C'A. ouo/oyi(frv.it mercedc conduxerat auxiliarem." the Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 23. 8 Sec the preceding note. 13 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11; Kzra iv. 2. • 2 Kings, xix. 37. Mos. Chor. 1. s. c. ** Abyden. ap. Euscb. l.s.c. •' -Igyp- "Eum vero (i.e. Senecharimum) filii turn pr»terea partesque interior?* Syria; ejus Adrammelus et Sanasarus ubi inter- acquirebat Axerdis.'' fecerunt, ad nos confugere," 1A There is a second cylinder inscrip- "Mos. Chor. 1. s. c. tion belonging to the reign of Esar- Chap. IX. EEIGN OF ESAR-HADDON. I87 It appears that the first expedition of Esar-haddon was into Phoenicia.16 Abdi-Milkut king of Sklon, and Sandu-arra king of the adjoining part of Lebanon, had formed an alliance and revolted from the Assyrians, probably during the troubles which ensued on Sennacherib's death. Esar-haddon attacked Sidon first, and soon took the city; but Abdi-Milkut made his escape to an island—Aradus or Cyprus—where, perhaps, he thought himself secure. Esar-haddon, however, determined on pursuit. He traversed the sea "like a fish," 17 and made Abdi-Milkut18 prisoner; after which he turned his arms against Sandu-arra, attacked him in the fastnesses of his mountains, defeated his troops, ami possessed himself of his person. The rebellion of the two captive kings was punished by their execution; the walls of Sidon were destroyed; its inhabitants, and those of the whole tract of coast in the neighbourhood, were carried off into Assyria, and thence scattered among the provinces; a new town was built, which was named alter Esar-haddon, and was intended to take the place of Sidon as the chief city of these parts; and colonists were brought from Chaldaja and Susiana to occupy the new capital and the adjoining region. An Assyrian governor was appointed to administer the conquered province.19 Esar-haddon's next campaign seems to have been in Arme nia. He took a city called Arza * *, which, he says, was in the neighbourhood of Muzr,20 and carried off the inhabitants, toge- ther with a number of mountain animals, placing the former in haddon, which would be of great im- portance if it were complete. It is pub- lished in Mr. Layard's Inscriptions of Assyria, pp. 54-58. It contains the account ot Esar-haddon's wars with his brothers, and some particulars of his expedition (infra, p. 188) before the Syrian. 17 Inscriptions des Sarijonidcs, p. 54. 11 The name Abdistartus occurs among the kings of Tyre mentioned by Me- nander (Fr. 1). Abdi-Milkut, or Abed- Arabian and Syrian expeditions not Mclkarth, is formed on the same model, risewhere mentioned. (See Aorth British and would mean "Servant of Mclkarth" Amur, p. 340.) I (Hercules), just as Abdistartus is "Ser- "As the records of Esar-haddon's vant of Ishtar" (Venus). Compare Ab- rcign arc not written in the form of dicl, Abdullah, Olmdiuh, &c. •mials, it is very difficult to determine' '* It was probably with special rc- the order of his campaigns. The order ference to this campaign and conquest given in the text will be found to diner that Abydenus spoke of Esar-liaddon as somewhat from that preferred by Mr. having added to the empire "the more 0. Smith (A". B. Jieeiew, pp. 325-3:13), inland parts of Syria." (See supra, p. the niost important difference being 186, note u.) that Mr. Smith places the Babylonian j M M. Oppcrt understands Egypt here THE SECOXD MONARCHY. Chap. IX. a position "beyond the eastern gate of Nineveh." At the same time he received the submission of Tiuspa the Cimmerian.21 His third campaign was in Cilicia and the adjoining regions. The Cilicians, whom Sennacherib had so recently subdued,1 re-asserted their independence at his death, and allied them- selves with the Tibareni, or people of Tubal, who possessed the high mountain tract about the junction of Amanus and Taurus. Esar-haddon inflicted a defeat on the Cilicians, and then invaded the mountain region, where he took twenty-one towns and a larger number of villages, all of which he plundered and burnt The inhabitants he carried away captive, as usual; but he made no attempt to hold the ravaged districts by means of new cities or fresh colonists.2 This expedition was followed by one or two petty wars in the north-west and the north-east;3 after which Esar-haddon. pro- bably about his sixth year, B.C. 675, made an expedition into Chaldiea. It appears that a son of Merodach-Baladan, Nebo- zirzi-sidi by name, had re-established himself on the Chaldsean coas#t, by the help of the Susianians; while his brother, Xahid- Marduk, had thought it more prudent to court the favour of the great Assyrian monarch, and had quitted his refuge in Susiana to present himself before Esar-haddou's footstool at Nineveh. This judicious step had all the success that he could have ex- pected or desired. Esar-haddon, having conquered the ill-judging Nebo-zirzi-sidi, made over to the more clear-sighted Nahid- Marduk the whole of the maritime region that had been ruled by his brother. At the same time the Assyrian monarch deposed a Chaldsean prince who had established his authority over a small town in the neighbourhood of Babylon, and set up another (Inscriptions des Sarqonitles, p. 54), as also docs Mr. G. Smith (N. Brit. Review, p. 329); but Sir H. Rawlinson has shown that the Eastern Muzr must be meant. (filustrativns, kc. p. 21.) ,! This is the first mention of Cim- merians in the Assyrian Inscriptions. Herodotus places the great Cimmerian invasion of Asia in the reign of Ardys who must have been king of Persia about this time. 1 Supra, p. 175. * Inscriptions des Sargonides, pp. 54, 55; Assyrian Texts, pp. 11, 12. * The scene of the first of these wars was Northern Syria; the second w«s in South-Eastern Armenia — against the Mannai or Minni. the Lydian, which, according to him, | 'Mr. G. Smith reads this name as was from n.c. C86 to n c. G37. The name I Nabu-zira-napisti-esir (S. Brit. Heiiec, of Tiuspa is curiously near to Teispes, p. 326). Chap. IX. WARS OF ESAR-HADDON. in his place,5 thus pursuing the same system of division in Baby- lonia which we shall hereafter find that he pursued in Egypt.6 Esar-haddon after this was engaged in a war with Edom. He there took a city which bore the same name as the country —a city previously, he tells us, taken by his father7—and trans- ported the inhabitants into Assyria, at the same time carrying off certain images of the Edomite gods. Hereupon the king, who was named Hazael, sent an embassy to Nineveh, to make submission and offer presents, while at the same time he sup- plicated Esar-haddon to restore his gods and allow them to be conveyed back to their own proper country.8 Esar-haddon granted the request, and restored the images to the envoy; but as a compensation for this boon, he demanded an increase of the annual tribute, which was augmented in consequence by sixty-five camels. He also nominated to the Edomite throne, either in succession or in joint sovereignty, a female named Tabua, who had been born and brought up in his own palace.9 The expedition next mentioned on Esar-haddon's principal cylinder is one presenting some difficulty. The scene of it is a country called Bazu, which is said to be " remote, on the ex- treme confines of the earth, on the other side of the desert.",0 It was reached by traversing a hundred and forty farsakhs (490 miles) of sandy desert, then twenty farsakJts (70 miles) of fertile land, and beyond that a stony region." None of the kings of Assyria, down to the time of Esar-haddon, had ever l>enetrated so far. Bazu lay beyond Ehazu, whicli was the name of the stony tract, and Bazu had for its chief town a city called Yedih, which was under the rule of a king named Lail6. It is thought, from the combination of these names,12 and from 'The name of the Chaldoean prince deposed is read as Shamaa-ipni; his suc- cessor was Nebo-saliim, the son of Ba- laiu (Belesys). 1 infra, p. 193. 'Supra, p. 177. 1 This appeal recalls Lallan's address to Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 30), when Kachel bid "stolen his gods." 'Is this a trace of a system like that »hich the Romans adopted in the case of the Parthians and Armenians during the early part of the empire? (See Tacit. Ann. ii. 2.) Was Tabua an Ara- bian princess, taken as an hostage, and so bred up in the palace of the Assyrian king? It is highly improbable that she was a native Assyrian. Inscriptions ties Sanjonides, p. 56. 11 Mr. G. Smith reads these numbers somewhat differently; but comes to the same conclusion as the present w riter, viz., that Esar-haddon "penetrated into the mi Idle of Arabia" (A*. B. Rei ic; p. 332 i. The combination of Bazu and 190 Chap. IX THE SECOND MONARCHY. the general description of the region—of its remoteness and of the way in which it was reached—that it was probably the district of Arabia beyond Nedjif which lies along the Jebel Shammer and corresponds closely with the modern Arab kingdom of Hira. Esar-haddon boasts that he marched into the middle of the territory, that he slew eight of its sovc reigns, and carried into Assyria their gods, their treasures, and their subjects; and that, though Laile escaped him, he too lost his gods, which were seized and conveyed to Nineveh. Then I.aile, like the Idumajan monarch above mentioned, felt it necessary to humble himself. He went in person to the Assyrian capital, prostrated himself before the royal footstool, and entreated for the restoration of his gods; which Esar-haddon consented to give back, but solely on the condition that Laile became thence- forth one of his tributaries.'3 If this expedition was really carried into the quarter here supposed, Esar-haddon performed a feat never paralleled in history, excepting by Augustus 14 and Nushirvan.14 He led an army across the deserts which everywhere guard Arabia on the hind side, and penetrated to the more fertile tracts beyond them, a region pf settled inhabitants and of cities. He there took and spoiled several towns; and he returned to his own country without suffering disaster. Considering the physical perils of the desert itself, and the warlike character of its in- habitants, whom no conqueror has ever really subdued, this was Khazu closely resembles that of Huz and Buz (Gen. xxii. 21). That Huz and Buz both gave names to countries is ap- parent from the Book of Job (i. 1. and xxxi. 2); and both countries seem to have been in Arabia. (See Jer. xxv. 25, and cf. Smith's Biblical Dictionary, ad voc.) Bazu, it may be noted, is the nearest possible Assyrian representation of the Hebrew 113. The names of the king, Laile, and of the other potentates mentioned, are thoroughly Arabic, as are also the places, some of which are well known. The entire list is as fol- lows:—Kitsu (Keis), king of Kluiltil; Akbaru (Acbar), king of Dupiynt; K/ia- bini, king of Qadatsia (Qadessiych); Yelua, queen of Dihyan; MannuH, king of Maraban (?); Tabkharu, king of Oah- van; Lei'n, queen of Yakhilu; and Kha- baziru. king of Sidah. IS Inscriptions, &c, 1. s. c. M It has been disputed how far the expedition of -l-'.lius Gallus in the reign of Augustus (Strab. xvi. pp. 1107-1110) penetrated. According to some it reached Yemen; according to others, it proceeded no further than the eastern foot of the great Nejd chain. (See a note by Dr. \V". Smith in his edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. i. pp. 138, 139.) 14 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. v. p. 364, Smith's edition. Chap. IX. ESAB-HADDON'S INVASION OP ARABIA. 191 a most remarkable success. The dangers of the simoom may hare been exaggerated, and the total aridity of the northern region may have been over-stated by many writers;16 but the difficulty of carrying water and provisions for a large army, and the peril of a plunge into the wilderness with a small one, can scarcely be stated in too strong terms, and have proved sufficient to deter most Eastern conquerors from even the thoughts of an Arabian expedition. Alexander would, perhaps, had he lived, have attempted an invasion from the side of the Persian Gulf;17 and Trajan actually succeeded in bringing under the Roman yoke an outlying portion of the country—the district between Damascus and the Red Sea; but Arabia has been deeply pene- trated thrice only in the history of the world; and Esar-haddon is the sole monarch who ever ventured to conduct in person such an attack. From the arid regions of the great peninsula Esar-haddon proceeded, probably in another year, to the invasion of the marsh-country on the Euphrates, where the Aramaean tribe of the Gambulu1 had their habitations, dwelling (he tells us) "like fish, in the midst of the waters "2—doubtless much after the fashion of the modern Khuzeyl and Affej Arabs,3 the latter of whom inhabit nearly the same tract. The sheikh of this tribe had revolted; but on the approach of the Assyrians he submitted himself, bringing in person the arrears of his tribute and a present of buffaloes (?),4 whereby he sought to propitiate the wrath of his suzerain. Esar-haddon states that he forgave him; that he strengthened his capital with fresh works, placed a garrison in it, and made it a stronghold to protect the terri- tory against the attacks of the Susianians. "Stuart Poole in Smith's Blblinal JHctitmary, vol. i. p. 92. Much of Nejd is no doubt a good grazing country, and the best horses in the world are bred in it. But still large portions are desert, and the outskirts of Arabia on the north and cast are still more arid and desolate. "Arrian, Kxped. si'.ex. vii. 19, sub fin. 1 See above, p. 148, note and com- pare pp. 157 and 175. 2 Inscriptions de$ Saiyrmides, p. 5(i. 3 On the Khuzeyl, see Loftus, Otaldim and Susiana. pp. 38-40; on the Affej. see the same work, pp. 91-93, and Lay ard, Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 551-555. Com- pare also the present work, vol. i. pp. 37, 38. 4 Cattle of some kind or other are I certainly mentioned, The marsh region is the special resort of the buffalo. (Layard, p. 553.) 192 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. The last expedition mentioned on the cylinder, which seems not to have been conducted by the king in person, was against the country of Bikni or Bikan, one of the more remote regions of Media—perhaps Azerbijan.5 No Assyrian monarch before Esar-haddon had ever invaded.this region. It was under the government of a number of chiefs—the Arian character of whose names is unmistakeable6—each of whom ruled over his own town aud the adjacent district. Esar-haddon seized two of the chiefs and carried them off to Assyria, whereupon several others made their submission, consenting to pay a tribute aud to divide their authority with Assyrian officers.7 It is probable that these various expeditions occupied Esar- haddon from B.C. 681, the year of his accession, to B.C. 671, when it is likely that they were recorded on the existing cylinder. The expeditions are ten in number, directed against countries remote from one another; and each may well have occupied an entire year. There would thus remain only three more years of the king's reign, after the termination of the chief native record, during which his history has to be learnt from other sources. Into this space falls, almost certainly, the greatest of Esar-haddon's exploits—the conquest of Egypt; and, probably, one of the most interesting episodes of his reign—the punishment and pardon of Manasseh. With the consideration of these two events the military history of his reign will terminate. The conquest of Egypt by Esar-haddon, though concealed from Herodotus, and not known even to Diodorus, was no secret to the more learned Greeks, who probably found an account of the expedition in the great work of Berosus.8 All that we know of its circumstances is derived from an imperfect tran- script of the Nahr-el-Kelb tablet, and a short notice in the annals of Esar-haddon's son and successor, Asshur-bani-pal, who 5 The -bijan or -byan of Azerbijan Eparna or Opherncs, Bamatiya or Ra- may possibly represent the Bikan of the mates, and Zanasana or Zanasancs. inscriptions. Azerbijan can scarcely be. J 1 Inscriptions des Sargonides, p. 57. as commonly supposed, a corruption of 1 See tile passage of Abydcnus above Atropatcne. I quoted, p. 186, note I4. Abydcnus. it 6 E. ij. Sitirparna or Sitraphernis, 1 is almost certain, drew from Berosus. Gn »p. IX. ESAR-HADDON'S CONQUEST OF EGYPT. 193 finds it necessary to make an allusion to the former doings of his father in Egypt, in order to render intelligible the state of affairs when he himself invades the country. According to these notices, it would appear that Esar-haddon, having entered Egypt with a large army, probably in B.C. ti70, gained a great battle over the forces of Tirhakah in the lower country, and took Memphis, the city where the Ethiopian held his court, after which he proceeded southwards, and conquered the whole of the Nile valley as far as the southern boundary of the Theban district. Thebes itself was taken;' and Tirhakah retreated into Ethiopia. Esar-haddon thus became master of all Egypt, at least as far as Thebes or Diospolis, the No or No-Amon of Scripture.10 He then broke up the country into twenty govern- ments, appointing in each town a ruler who bore the title of king, but placing all the others to a certain extent under the authority of the prince who reigned at Memphis. This was Neco, the father of Psammetichus (Psamatik I.)—a native Egyptian of whom we have some mention both in Herodotus" and in the fragments of Manetho.1* The remaining rulers were likewise, for the most part, native Egyptians; though in two or three instances the governments appear to have been committed to Assyrian officers.13 Esar-haddon, having made these arrangements, and having set up his tablet at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb side by side with that of Kameses II., returned to his own country, and proceeded to introduce sphinxes into the ornamentation of his palaces,14 while, at the * It is either to this capture or to a 10 On the question of identity see subsequent one under Esar-haddon's Mr. Stuart Poole's article in Smith's son that the prophet Nahum alludes Miblical Dictionary, vol. ii. p.' 576. In when threatening Nineveh—" Art thou the Assyrian inscription Thebes is better than populous No, that was \ called " Nia." situate among the rivers, that had the I 11 Herod, ii. 152. water* round about it; whose rampart 11 Manetho ap. Euseb. Chron. Can, was the flood (n'), and her wall from Pars 1"*: 0. xx. p. 10. the flood? Ethiopia and Egypt were "^ sir H- Kawlinson's paper in her strength, and it was infinite. Put the Transactions of the Ko/al Society of sai Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was , Literature, New Series, vol. vii. p. 136 »he carried away, she went into cap- tivity; her young children also were da«htd in pieces at the top of all the stivets: and they cast lots for her honourable men; and nil her great men •ere bound in chains." (Ch. iii. 8-10.) «** aw< iU Jiemjin^ vol. i. p. .148. VOL. LL O et scq. Compare G. Smith in the Xeit- schiift fur Aeyyptische Sprache for 1868, p. 94, nnd the A'. Brit. Review 1or July, 1870, pp. 334, 335. 14 Infra, pp. 198, 199; Layard, Sine- 194 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. same time, he attached to his former titles an additional clause, in which he declared himself to be "kingof the kings of Egypt, and conqueror of Ethiopia."16 f The revolt of Manasseh king of Judah may have happened shortly before or shortly after the conquest of Egypt. It was not regarded as of sufficient importance to call for the personal intervention of the Assyrian monarch. The "captains of the host of the king of Assyria" were entrusted with the task of Manasseh's subjection; and, proceeding into Judsea, they "took him, and bound him with chains, and carried him to Babylon,"" where Esar-haddon had built himself a palace, and often held his court.17 The Great King at first treated his prisoner severely; and the "affliction" which he thus suffered is said to have broken his pride and caused him to humble himself before God,'8 and to repent of all the cruelties and idolatries which had brought this judgment upon him. Then God "was en treated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him back again to Jerusalem into his kingdom."19 The crime of defection was overlooked by the Assyrian monarch 5*° Manasseh was pardoned, and sent back to Jerusalem; where he was allowed to resume the reins of government, but on the con- dition, if we may judge by the usual practice of the Assyrians in "such cases, of paying an increased tribute.21 It may have been in connection with this restoration of Manasseh to his throne—an act of doubtful policy from an Assyrian point of view—that Esar-haddon determined on a project by which the hold of Assyria upon Palestine was con- siderably strengthened. Sargon, as has been already observed,1 when he removed the Israelites from Samaria, supplied their 15 This title, which docs not appear on the cylinders, is found on the back of the slabs at the entrance of the S.W. palace at Nimrud, where the sphinxes occur; on a bronze lion dug up at Nebbi Yunus; and on the slabs of the palace which Esar-haddon built at Sherif Khan. "2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. "It is this circumstance that serves to fix the Captivity of Manasseh to the reign of Esar-haddon. Otherwise it might as well have fallen into the reign of his son. "2 Chron. xxxiii- 12. "Ibid, verse 13. *• It has been supposed that Manasseh may have been released by Esar-had- don's successor, as Jehoiachin was by Nebuchadnezzar's. (Ewald, (Jeschichte d. Voltes Israel, vol. iii. p. 678.) And this is certainly possible. But it is s mere conjecture. "Sec above, pp. 85, 88, &c. 1 Supra, p. 152. Chap. IX. COLONISATION OF PALESTINE. 195 place by colonists from Babylon, Cutha, Sippara, Ava, Hatnath,2 and Arabia;3 thus planting a foreign garrison in the region, which would be likely to preserve its fidelity. Esar-haddon resolved to strengthen the foreign element. He gathered men4 from Babylon, Orchoe, Susa, Elymais, Persia, and other neigh- bouring regions, and entrusting them to an officer of high rank —"the great and noble Asnapper"—had them conveyed to Palestine and settled over the whole country, which until this time must have been somewhat thinly peopled.5 The restora- tion of Manasseh, and the augmentation of the foreign element in Palestine, are thus portions, but counter-balancing portions, of one scheme—a scheme, the sole object of which was the paci- fication of the empire by whatever means, gentle or severe, seemed best calculated to effect the purpose. The last years of Esar-haddon were, to some extent, clouded with disaster. He appears to have fallen ill in B.C. 669; and the knowledge of this fact at once produced revolution in Egypt. Tirhakah issued from his Ethiopian fastnesses, descended the valley of the Nile, expelled the kings set up by Esar-haddon, and re-established his authority over the whole country. Esar- haddon, unable to take the field, resolved to resign the cares of the empire to his eldest son, Asshur-bani-pal, and to retire into a secondary position. Relinquishing the crown of Assyria, and retaining that of Babylon only, he had Asshur-bani-pal proclaimed king of Assyria, and retired to the southern capital. * See 2 Kings xvii. 24. * Supra, p. 146. * It has been usually supposed that the colonisation to which reference is made in Ezra iv. 2, 9, is the same as that whereof an account is given in 2 Kings xvii. 24. But a comparison of the places named will show that the two colonisations are quite distinct. Sargon brought his colonists from Ha- math in Co?le-Syria, and from four cities in Babylonia — Babylon itself, Cutha, Sippara, and Ava or Ivah. Esar- haddon brought his mainly from Su- siana and the countries still further to the east. They were Susianians, Elymasans, Persians (N'D'TDK), Dai (Kl.rFI), &c. Those of Esar-haddon's colonists who were furnished by Baby- lonia came from Babylon and Erech, or Orchoe. The Dinaites (K'J'I) were probably from Dayan, a country often mentioned in the Inscriptions, which must have adjoined on Cilicia. The Tar- pelites and the Apharsathchites are still unrecognised. 5 When wild beasts multiply in a country, we may be sure that its human occupants are diminishing. The danger from lions, of which the first colonists complained to Sargon, is indicative of the depopulation produced by his con- quests. (See 2 Kings xvii. 25, 26.) o 2 196 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. There he appears to have died in B.C. 668, or early in B.C. 667, leaving Asshur-bani-pal sole sovereign of the entire empire. Of the architecture of Esar-haddon, and of the state of the arts generally in his time, it is difficult to speak positively. Though he appears to have been one of the most indefatigable constructors of great works that Assyria produced, having erected during the short period over which bis reign extended, no fewer than four palaces and above thirty temples ;6 yet it happens un- fortunately that we are not as yet in a condition to pronounce a decisive judgment, either on the plan of his buildings or on the merits of their ornamentation. Of his three great palaces, which were situated at Babylon, Calah, and Nineveh, one only—that at Calah or Nimrud—has been to any large extent explored. Even in this case the exploration was far from complete, and the ground-plan of his palace is still very defective. But this is not the worst. The palace itself had never been finished;7 its ornamentation had scarcely been begun; and the little of this that was original had been so damaged by a furious con- flagration, that it perished almost at the moment of discovery.6 We are thus reduced to judge of the sculptures of Esar-haddon by the reports of those who saw them ere they fell to pieces, and by one or two drawings, while we have to form our con- ception of his buildings from a half-explored fragment of a half-finished palace, which was moreover destroyed by fire before completion. The palace of Esar-haddon at Calah was built at the south- western corner of the Ximrud mound, abutting towards the west on the Tigris, and towards the south on the valley formed by the Shor-Derreh torrent. It faced northwards, and was entered on this side from the open space of the platform, through a portal guarded by two winged bulls of the ordinary character. The visitor on entering found himself in a large court, 280 feet by 100,' bounded on the north side by a mere wall, but on the "Inscriptions dea Saigonides, p. 57; Assyrian Texts, p. 16. Sir H. Rftwlin- son rends this passage differently. He understands Esar-haddon to say that he "repaired ten of the high-places or strongholds of Assyria and Babylonia." 7 Layard, Nineveh ciui its fiaiitins. vol. ii. p. 30. 8 Ibid. vol. i. p. 349. • Layard, Xincvvh and Babylon, p. 654. Chap. IX. ESAR-HADDON S PALACE AT CALAH. 197 other three sides surrounded by buildings. The main building was opposite to him, and was entered from the court by two portals, one directly facing the great northern gate of the court, and the other a little to the left hand, the former guarded by colossal bulls, the latter merely revetted with slabs. These portals both led into the same room—the room already described in the first volume of this work10—which was designed on the most magnificent scale of all the Assyrian apartments, but was so broken up through the inability of the architect to roof in a »ide space without abundant supports, that, practically, it formed rather a suite of four moderate-sized chambers than a single graud hall. The plan of this apartment will be seen by reference to the former volume (p. 283). Viewed as a single apartment, the room was 165 feet in length by sixty-two feet in width, and thus contained an area of 10,280 square feet, a space nearly half as large again as that covered by the greatest of the halls of Sennacherib, which was ^7200 feet. Viewed as a suite of chambers, the rooms may be described as two long and narrow halls running parallel to one another, and communi- cating by a grand doorway in the middle, with two smaller chambers placed at the two ends, running at right angles to the principal ones. The smaller chambers were sixty-two feet long, and respectively nineteen and twenty-three feet wide; the larger ones were 110 feet long, with a width respectively of twenty and twenty-eight feet." The inner of the two long parallel chambers communicated by a grand doorway, guarded hy sphinxes and colossal lions, either with a small court or with a large chamber extending to the southern edge of the See above, vol. i. p. 282. 11 Mr. Fergusson seems to be of opinion that the divisions which broke up this grand room into four parts would not iiave greatly interfered with the general "•fleet. His account of the apartment U as follows •— "Its general dimensions are 165 feet in length, by 62 feet in width; and it consequently is the largest hall yet found in Assyria. The architects, how- ever, do not seem to have been quite equal to roofing so large a space, even ( with the number of pillars with which they seem usually to have crowded their floors (?); and it is consequently divided down the centre by a wall sup- porting dwarf columns (?), forming a centre gallery (?), to which access was had (?) by bridge galleries at both ends, a mode of arrangement capable of great variety and picturosijueness of effect, and of which I have little doubt that the builders availed themselves to the fullest extent." (UaniVfOok of Ardiitcc- lure, vol. i. pp. 176, 177.) 198 Ciur. K. THE SECOND MONARCHY. mound;12 and the two end rooms communicated with smaller apartments in the same direction. The buildings to the right and left of the great court seem to have been entirely separate from those at its southern end: to the left they were wholly unexamined; on the right some explorations were conducted, which gave the usual result of several long narrow apartments, with perhaps one or two passages. The extent of the palace westward, southward, and eastward is uncertain: eastward it was unexplored; southward and westward the mound had been eaten into by the Tigris and the Shor-Derreh torrent.13 The walls of Esar-haddon's palace were composed, in the usual way, of sun-dried bricks, revetted with slabs of alabaster. Instead, however, of quarrying fresh alabaster slabs for the purpose, the king preferred to make use of those which were already on the summit of the mound, covering the walls of the north-western and central palaces, which, no doubt, had fallen into decay. His workmen tore down these sculptured monu- ments from their original position, and transferring them to the site of the new palace, arranged them so as to cover the freshly-raised walls, generally placing the carved side against the crude brick, and leaving the back exposed to receive fresh sculptures, but sometimes exposing the old-sculpture, which, however, in such cases, it was probably intended to remove by the chisel.1 This process was still going on, when either Esar- haddon died and the works were stopped, or the palace was destroyed by fire. Scarcely any of the new sculptures had been executed. The only exceptions were the bulls and hons at the various portals,2 a few reliefs in close proximity to them,8 and some complete figures of crouching sphinxes,4 which had been 12 The excavations here were incom- plete. Mr. Layard speaks in one place as if he had uncovered the southern facade of the building (Ninmeh and Babylon, p. 655); but his plan (Nineveh and its Jlemains, vol. i. opp. p. 34) rather indicates the existence of further rooms in this direction. 13 Supra, vol.it p. 201. Compare As. Soc. Journal, vol. xv. p. 347. 1 The sculptures had been removed by the chisel in some cases. (Layard, Nineveh and its Jtcmains, vol. ii. p. 29.) I conceive that the intention »as to remove them in all. 2 Layard, vol. i. pp. 347, 376; vol. ii. pp. 25, 26. • Ibid. vol. i. p. 348; vol. ii. p. 26. 4 The sphinxes were sometimes double: i.e. two were placed side by side. (Ibid, vol. i. p. 349.) Ciap. IX. ESAK-HADDON'S PALACE AT CALAH. 199 placed as ornaments, and possibly also as the bases of supports, within the span of the two widest doorways. There was nothing Tery remarkable about the bulls; the lions were spirited, and more true to nature than usual; the sphinxes were curious, being Egyptian in idea, but thoroughly Assyrianized, having the horned cap common on bulls, the Assyrian arrangement of hair, Assyrian ear-rings, and wings nearly like those of the ordinary winged bull or lion. The figures near the lions were mythic, and exhibited somewhat more than the usual grotesque- ness, as we learn from the representations of them given by Mr. Layard.5 Assyrian sphinx. (Time of Asshur-bani-pal.) While the evidence of the actual monuments as to the character of Esar-haddon's buildings and their ornamentation is thus scanty, it happens, curiously, that the Inscriptions furnish a particularly elaborate and detailed account of them. It appears, from the principal record of the time, that the temples which Esar-haddon built in Assyria and Babylonia— thirty-six in number—were richly adorned with plates of silver and gold, which made them (in the words of the Inscription) "as splendid as the day."8 His palace at Nineveh, a building * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. pp. 462, 463. * Inscriptions des Sargonides, p. 57; Assyrian Texts, p. 16. Compare above, p. 196, note 200 Chat. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. situated on the mound called Nebbi Tunus, was, we are told, erected upon the site of a former palace of the kings of Assyria. Preparations for its construction were made, as for the grait buildings of Solomon,7 by the collection of materials, in wood, stone, and metal, beforehand: these were furnished by the Phoenician, Syrian, and Cyprian monarchs,8 who sent to Nineveh for the purpose great beams of cedar, cypress, and ebony (?), stone statues, and various works in metals of different kinds. The palace itself is said to have exceeded in size all buil lings of former kings. It was roofed with carved beams of cedar- wood; it was in part supported by columns of cypress wood, ornamented and strengthened with rings of silver and of iron; the portals were guarded by stone bulls and lions; and the gates were made of ebony and cypress, ornamented with iron, silver, and ivory. There was, of course, the usual adornment of the walls by means of sculptured slabs and enamelled bricks. If the prejudices of the Mahometans against the possible dis- turbance of their dead, and against the violation by infidel hands of the supposed tomb of Jonah, should hereafter be dis- pelled, and excavations be freely allowed in the Xebbi Yunus mound, we may look to obtain very precious relics of Assyrian art from the palace of Esar-haddon, now lying.buried beneath the village or the tombs, which share between them this most important site.* Of Esar-haddon's Babylonian palace nothing is at present '1 Kings v. 6-18; 2 Chr. ii. 3-18. ■ Esar-haddon gives a list of twenty- two kings, who supplied him with ma- terials for his palaee at Nineveh. Among them are Manasseh, king of Judah; Baal, king of Tyre; Mitinti, king of Ascalon: Pudtiel, king of Beth-Ammon; jEgisthus, king of Idalium; Pytha- goras, king of Citium; Ithodagon, king of Papho9: Euryalus, king of Soli; Damastes, king of Curium: and kings of Edom, Gaza, Ekron. Byblus, Aradus, Ashdod, Salamis, Tamissus, Ammo- chosta, Limenium, and Aphrodisia. (See the author's fferodotu$t vol. i. p. 3H7, note 2nd edition; and compare Opport, Inscriptvms deit Sargonides, p. 58.) • Mr. Layanl made stealthily a single slight excavation in the Nebbi Tunus mound (.YiWr-eA and Babylon, p. 59S). which produced a few fragments bear- ing the name of Esar-haddon. The Turks afterwards excavated for nearly a year, but without much skill or judg- ment. They uncovered a long line of wall belonging to a palace of Senna- cherib, and also a portion of the palace of Esar-haddon. On the outer surface of the former were winged bulls in high relief, sculptured apparently after the wall was built, each bull covering some ten or twelve disiinct blocks of stone. The slab-inscription published in the British Museum Series, Pis. 43 and +4, was obtained from this palace. A bronre lion with legend was obtained from the Esar-haddon palace. Chap. IX. ACCESSION OF ASSHl'R-BANI-PAL. 201 known, beyond the mere fact of its existence; but if the mounds at flillah should ever be thoroughly explored, we may expect to recover at least its ground-plan, if not its sculptures and other ornaments. The Sherif Khan palace has been exa- mined pretty completely.10 It was very much inferior to the ordinary palatial edifices of the Assyrians, being in fact only a house which Esar-haddon built as a dwelling for his eldest son during his own lifetime. Like the more imposing buildings of this king, it was probably unfinished at his decease. At any rate its remains add nothing to our knowledge of the state of art in Esar-baddon's time, or to our estimate of that monarch's genius as a builder. After a reign of thirteen years, Esar-haddon, "king of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Meroe, and Ethiopia," as he styles himself in his later inscriptions, died, leaving his crown to his eldest son, Asshur-bani-pal, whom he bad already associated in the government." Asshur-bani-pal ascended the throne in B.C. •568, or very early in B.C. u'67; and his first act seems to have been to appoint as viceroy of Babylon his younger brother Saiil-Mugina,18 who appears as Sam-mughes in Polyhistor,13 and as Siiosduchinus in the Canon of Ptolemy. The first war in which Asshur-bani-pal engaged was most probably with Egypt, Late in the reign of Esar-haddon, Tir- hakah (as already stated") had descended from the upper country, had recovered Thebes, Memphis, and most of the other Egyptian cities, and expelled from them the princes aud governors appointed by Esar-haddon upon his conquest,15 Asshur-bani-pal, shortly after his accession, collected his forces, and marched through Syria into Egypt, where he defeated the army sent against him by Tirhakah in a great battle near the city of Kar-banit. Tirhakah, who was at Memphis, hearing of 19 By Mr. Layard (Nineveh and Baby- I cherimus regnavit, uti Polyhistor in- I. s. c), and afterwards by Sir H. nuit, annis octcxlccim; post qucm ejus- R&wlineon, I dem filius, annis octo: turn annis vi- 11 See above, p. 195. | ginti et uno Sammughes." The octo 12 See British Museum Series, PI. 8, j here is probably nn error of Kusebius So. II., 1. 11. I or Polyhistor, IT having been mistaken "Ap. Euseb, Chron- Can. Pars l™, for H. c v. §2. "Sub Ezechia enim Senec- I 14 Supra, p. 195. 15 Supra, p. 193. 202 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. the disaster that had befallen his army, abandoned Lower Egypt, and sailed up the Nile to Thebes, whither the forces of Asshur-bani-pal followed him; but the nimble Ethiopian re- treated still further up the Nile valley, leaving all Egypt from Thebes downwards to his adversary. Asshur-bani-pal, upon this, re-instated in their former governments the various princes and rulers, whom his father had originally appointed, and whom Tirhakah had expelled; and then, having rested and refreshed his army by a short stay in Thebes, returned victo- riously by way of Syria to Nineveh. Scarcely was he departed when intrigues began for the restoration of the Ethiopian power. Neco and some of the other Egyptian governors, whom Asshur-bani-pal had just re-instated in their posts, deserted the Assyrian side and went over to the Ethiopians. Attempts were made to suppress the incipient revolt by the governors who continued faithful; Neco and one or two of his co-partners in guilt were seized and sent in chains to Assyria; and some of the cities chiefly implicated, as Sais, Mendes, and Tanis (Zoan), were punished. But the efforts at suppression failed. Tirhakah entered Upper Egypt, and having established himself at Thebes, threatened to extend his authority once more over the whole of the Nilotic valley. Thereupon Asshur-bani-pal, having forgiven Neco, sent him, accompanied by a strong force, into Egypt; and Tirhakah was again compelled to quit the lower country and retire to Upper Egypt, where he soon after died. His crown fell to his stepson,1 Urdamane, who is perhaps the Eud-Amun of the Hieroglyphics.8 This prince was at first very successful. He descended the Nile valley in force, defeated the Assyrians near Memphis, drove them to take refuge within its walls, besieged and took the city, and recovered Lower Egypt. Upon this Asshur-bani-pal, who was 1 Urdamane is called "son of the wife of Tarqu." It is conjectured that Tirhakah had married the widow of Sabaco II. * Lcpsius, KSnigsbtich, Taf. jclix, No. 661. A stele, however, of another king, whose name is read as Xut-amun-mi or Iiut~amun-tni, is in such close agreement with the record of Asshur-bani-pal as to raise a strong suspicion that he. rstber than Rud-Amun, is the monarch with whom Asshur-baui-pal contended (See the parallel drawn out by Dr. Haigh in the Zeihchrijt fur Aegyptische3'frack, January, 1869, pp. 3-4.) Chap. IX. WARS OF ASSHUR-BANI-PAL. 203 in the city of Asshur when he heard the news, went in person against his new adversary, who retreated as he advanced, flying from Memphis to Thebes, and from Thebes to a city called Kipkip, far up the coarse of the Nile. Asshur-bani-pal and his army now entered Thebes, and sacked it. The plunder which was taken, consisting of gold, silver, precious stones, dyed gar- ments, captives male and female, ivory, ebony, tame animals (such as monkeys and elephants) brought up in the palace, obelisks, &c, was carried off and conveyed to Nineveh. Governors were once more set up in the several cities, Psammetichus being pro- bably among them;3 and, hostages having been taken to secure their fidelity, the Assyrian monarch returned home with his booty. Between his first and second expedition into Egypt, Asshur- bani-pal was engaged in warlike operations on the Syrian coast, and in transactions of a different character with Cilicia. Ke- tuming from Egypt he made an attack on Tyre, whose king, Baal, had offended him, and having compelled him to submit, exacted from him a large tribute, which he sent away to Nineveh. About the same time Asshur-bani-pal entered into communication with the Cilician monarch, whose name is not given, and took to wife a daughter of that princely house, which was already connected with the royal race of the Sargonids.4 Shortly after his second Egyptian expedition, Asshur-bani-pal seems to have invaded Asia Minor. Crossing the Taurus range, he penetrated to a region never before visited by any Assyrian monarch ;s and, having reduced various towns in these parts and returned to Nineveh, he received an embassy of a very unusual character. "Gyges, king of Lydia,"6 he tells us, "a 1 The Egyptians regarded the reign of Psammetichus as commencing im- mediately upon the termination of the reign of Tirhakah. (Sir G. Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, voL ii. p. 320, 2nd edition.) The Apis stela; give for the year of Psammetichus's accession B.C. 664. Asshur-bani-pal's second Egyp- tian expedition was probably in b.c 666 or 665. 4 Sargon gave one of his daughters in marriage to the King of Cilicia, con- temporary with him. (Sec above, p. 150, note4.) * This is his own statement. It is confirmed by the fact that the geo- graphical names are entirely new to us. * We learn from this that Gyges was still living in b.c. 667. Herodotus placed his death about nine or ten years earlier. (Sec the author's Hendotus, vol. i. p. 287, 2nd edition.) But in this he differed from other writers. (Sec Dionys. Hal. Ep. ad Cn. Pump. c. 3; Euscb. CAron. Can. Pars 2nd», p. 325; Hicronym. p. 107.) The reigns of the Lydian kings in Herodotus are im- probably long. 204 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. country on the sea-coast, a remote place, of which the kings his ancestors had never even heard the name, had formerly learnt in a dream the fame of his Empire, and had sent officers to his presence to perform homage on his behalf." He now sent a second time to Asshur-bani-pal, and told him that since his sub- mission he had been able to defeat the Cimmerians, who had formerly ravaged his hind witli impunity; and he begged his acceptance of two Cimmerian chiefs,7 whom he had taken in battle, together with other presents, which Asshur-bani-pal regarded as a "tribute." About the same time the Assyrian monarch repulsed the attack of the " king of Kharbat," on a district of Babylonia, and, having taken Kharbat, transported its inhabitants to Egypt. Aiter thus displaying his power and extending his dominions towards the south-west, the north-west, and the south-east, Asshur-bani-pal turned his arms towards the north-east, and invaded Minni, or Persarmenia—the mountain-country about Lakes Van and Urumiyeh. Akhsheri, the king, having lost his capital, Izirtu, and several other cities, was murdered by his subjects; and his son, Vahalli, found himself compelled to make submission, and sent an embassy to Nineveh to do homage, with tribute, presents, and hostages. Asshur-bani-pal received the envoys graciously, pardoned Vahalli and maintained him upon the throne, but forced him to pay a heavy tribute. He also in this expedition conquered a tract called Paddiri, which former kings of Assyria had severed from Minni and made independent, but which Asshur-bani-pal now attached to his own empire and placed under an Assyrian governor. A war of some duration followed with Elam, or Susiana, the flames of which at one time extended over almost the whole empire. This war was caused by a transfer of allegiance.8 Certain tribes, pressed by a famine, had passed from Susiana into the territories of Asshur-bani-pal, and were allowed to settle there; but when, the famine being over, they wished 'The invasion of Lydia by the Cim- dece9Sor. meriaus which Herodotus assigns to the 1 See above, p. 171, and compare the reign of Ardys, is thus proved to have . narrative of Herodotus, i. 73. really occurred in the time of his pre- | Chap. IX. ELAMITIC WAR OF ASSHUK-BANI-PAL. 20S to return to their former country, Asshur-bani-pal would not consent to their withdrawal. Urtaki, the Susianiun king, took umbrage at this refusal, and, determining to revenge himself, commenced hostilities by an invasion of Babylonia. Belu-bagar, king of the important Aramaean tribe of the Gambmlu,9 assisted him; and Saiil-Mugina, in alarm, sent to his brother for protec- tion. An Assyrian army was dispatched to his aid, before which Urtaki fled. He was, however, pursued, caught, and defeated. With some difficulty he escaped and returned to Susa, where within a year he died, without having made any fresh effort to injure or annoy his antagonist. His death was the signal for a domestic revolution, which proved very advantageous to the Assyrians. Urtaki had driven his elder brother, Umman-aldas, from the throne,1 and, passing over the rights of his sons, had assumed the supreme authority. At his death, his younger brother, Temin-Umman, seized the crown, disregarding not only the rights of the sons of Umman- aldas, but likewise those of the sons of Urtaki.2 As the pre- tensions of those princes were dangerous, Temin-Umman endeavoured to seize their persons with the intention of putting them to death; but they, having timely warning of their danger, fled; and, escaping to Nineveh with their relations and adherents, put themselves under the protection of Asshur-bani- paL It thus happened that in the expedition which now fol- lowed, Asshur-bani-pal had a party which favoured him in Elam itself. Temin-Umman, however, aware of this internal weak- ness, made great efforts to compensate for it by the number of • St* above, pp. 148, 157,174, 191, &c. 'Umman-aldas was subsequently put to death by command of Urtaki, and with the consent of Temin-Umman. 2 It may assist the reader towards a clearer comprehension of the narra- tive in the text to exhibit the genea- logical tree of the Susianian royal family at this time, so far as it is known to us. A king, perhaps UmmaD-minon (supra, p. 174). Umman-aldas. Pura. Urt.iki. __l I Umman-Ibi. Umman-appa. Tamnwrit. „ i i Tamnian t. I Umman-aldaB. Temin-Umman. L Unuasi. Pale. &c. Parltu. 206 CuAr. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. his foreign allies. Two descendants of Merodach-Baladan, who had principalities upon the coast of the Persian Gulf, two mountain-chiefs, one of them a blood-connection of the Assyrian crown, two sons of Belu-bagar, sheikh of the Gambulu, and several other inferior chieftains, are mentioned as bringing their troops to his assistance and fighting in his cause against the Assyrians. All, however, was in vain. Asshur-bani-pal defeated the allies in several engagements, and finally took Temin-Umman prisoner, executed him, and exposed his head over one of the gates of Nineveh. He then divided Elam between two of the sons of Urtaki, Umman-ibi and Tammarit, establishing the former in Susa, and the latter at a town called Khidal in Eastern Susiana.3 Great severities were exercised upon the various princes and nobles who had been captured. A son of Temin-Umman was executed with his father. Several grandsons of Merodach-Baladan suffered mutilation. A Chal- daean prince and one of the chieftains of the Gambulu had their tongues torn out by the roots. Another of the Gambulu chiefs was decapitated. Two of the Temin-Umman's principal officers were chained and flayed. Palaya, a grandson of Merodach- Baladan, was mutilated. Asshur-bani-pal evidently hoped to strike terror into his enemies by these cruel, and now unusual, punishments, which, being inflicted for the most part upon royal personages, must have made a profound impression on the king-reverencing Asiatics. The impression made was, however, one of horror, rather than of alarm. Scarcely had the Assyrians returned to Nineveh, when fresh troubles broke out. Saiil-Mugina, discontented witli his position, which was one of complete dependence upon his brother, rebelled, and, declaring himself king of Babylon in his own right, sought and obtained a number of important allies among his neighbours. Umman-ibi, though he had received his crown from Asshur-bani-pal, joined him, seduced by a gift of treasure from the various Babylonian temples. Vaiteha, a * Khidal or Khaidala (Oppcrt, Fox Talbot) is mentioned.also in the annals of Sennacherib. It was the place to which Kudur-Nakhunta fled from Ba- daca. (Supra, p. 174.) Chap. IX ELAMITIC WAB OF ASSHUR-BANI-PAL. 207 powerful Arabian prince, and Nebo-bel-sumi, a surviving grand- son of Merodach-Baladan, came into the confederacy; and Saiil- Mugina bad fair grounds for expecting that he would be able to maintain his independence. But civil discord—the curse of Elam at this period—once more showed itself, and blighted all these fair prospects. Tammarit, the brother of Umman-ibi, finding that the latter had sent the flower of his army into Babylonia, marched against him, defeated and slew him, and became king of all Elam. Maintaining, however, the policy of his brother, he entered into alliance with Saiil-Mugina, and proceeded to put himself at the head of the Elamitic contin- gent, which was serving in Babylonia. Here a just Nemesis overtook him. Taking advantage of his absence, a certain Jnda- bibi* (or Inda-bigas), a mountain-chief from the fastnesses of Luristan, raised a revolt in Elam, and succeeded in seating himself upon the throne. The army in Babylonia declining to maintain the cause of Tammarit, he was forced to fly and con- ceal himself, while the Elamitic troops returned home. Saiil- Mugina thus lost the most important of his allies at the moment of his greatest danger; for his brother had at length marched against him at the head of an immense army, and was over- running his northern provinces. Without the Elamites it was impossible for Babylon to contend with Assyria in the open field. All that Saiil-Mugina could do was to defend his towns, which Asshur-bani-pal besieged and took, one after another. The rebel fell into his brother's hands, and suffered a punish- ment more terrible than any that the relentless conqueror had as yet inflicted on his captured enemies. Others had been mutilated, dr beheaded; Saiil-Mugina was burnt. The tie of blood, which was held to have aggravated the guilt of his re- bellion, was not allowed to be pleaded in mitigation of his sentence. A pause of some years' duration now occurred. The relations between Assyria and Susiana were unfriendly, but not actually hostile. Inda-bibi had given refuge to Nebo-bel-sumi at the 'Inda-bibi appear* to have belonged to the Susianian royal family, and to have held his crown as a sort of appanage or fief. 208 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. time of Saul-Mugina's discomfiture, and Asshur-bani-pal re- peatedly but vainly demanded the surrender of the refugee. He did not, however, attempt to enforce his demand by an appeal to arms ; and Inda-bibi might have retained his king- dom in peace, had not domestic troubles arisen to disturb him. He was conspired against by the commander of his archers, a second Umman-aldas, who killed him and occupied his throne. Many pretenders, at the same time, arose in different parts of the country; and Asshur-bani-pal, learning how Elam was distracted, determined on a fresh effort to conquer it. He renewed his demand for the surrender of Nebo-bel-sumi, who would have been given up, had he not committed suicide. Not content with this success, he (ab. B.C. 645) invaded Elam, be- sieged and took Bit-Imbi, which had been strongly fortified, and drove Umman-aldas out of the plain country into the moun- tains. Susa and Badaca, together with twenty-four other cities, fell into his power; and Western Elam being thus at his dis- posal, he placed it under the government of Tammarit, who, after his flight from Babylonia, had become a refugee at the Assyrian court. Umman-aldas retained the sovereignty of Eastern Elam. But it was not long before fresh changes occurred. Tammarit, finding himself little more than a puppet-king in the hands of the Assyrians, formed a plot to massacre all the foreign troops left to garrison his country, and so to make himself an indepen- dent monarch. His intentions, however, were discovered, and the plot failed. The Assyrians seized him, put him in boud?, and sent him to Nineveh. Western Elam passed under purely military rule, and suffered, it is probable, extreme severities. Under these circumstances, Umman-aldas took heart, and made ready in the fastnesses to wlych he had fled, for another and a final effort. Having levied a vast army, he, in the spring of the next year, made himself once more master of Bit-Imbi, and, establishing himself there, prepared to resist the Assyrians. Their forces shortly appeared; and, unable to hold the place against their assaults, Umman-aldas evacuated it with his troops, and fought a retreating fight all the way back to Susa, Cair. IX. ASSHUR-BANI-PAL'S RELATIONS WITH LYDIA. 20g holding the various strong towns and rivers1 in succession. Gallant, however, as was his resistance, it proved ineffectual. The lines of defence which he chose were forced, one after another; and finally both Susa and Badaca were taken, and the country once more lay at Asshur-bani-pal's mercy. All the towns made their submission. Asshur-bani-pal, burning with anger at their revolt, plundered the capital of its treasures,3 and gave the other cities up to be spoiled by his soldiers for the space of a month and twenty-three days. He then formally abolished Susianian independence, and attached the country as a province to the Assyrian empire. Thus enled the Susianian war,3 after it had lasted, with brief interruptions, for the space of fprobably) twelve years. The full occupation given to the Assyrian arms by this long struggle encouraged revolt in other quarters. It was probably about the time when Asshur-bani-pal was engaged in the thick of the contest with Umman-ibi and Saiil-Mugiua that Psamme- tichus declared himself independent in Egypt, and commenced a war against the princes who remained faithful to their Assyrian suzerain. Gyges, too, in the far north-west, took the opportunity to break with the formidable power with which he had recently thought it prudent to curry favour, and sent aid to the Egyptian rebel, which rendered him effective service.4 Egypt freed her- self from the Assyrian yoke, and entered on the prosperous period, which is known as that of the twenty-sixth (Saite) dynasty. Gyges was less fortunate. Assailed shortly by a terrible enemy,5 which swept with resistless force over his whole land, he lost his life in the struggle. Assyria was well and 1 Among the rivers the Eulaeus (Hu- lai) is distinctly mentioned as that on which Susa was situatod. 1 Among these are particularised eighteen images of gods and goddesses, thirty-two statues of former Susianian lings, statues of Kudur-Nakhunta, Tammarit, &c. 'In a later passage of the annals there is a further mention of Umman- alilas. who appears to have been cap- tured and sent as a prisoner to Nineveh. 'There can be little doubt that the VOL. II. "Ionians and Carians" who gave the victory to Psammetichus (fiend, ii. 152) represent the aid which Gyges sent from Asia Minor. s It is a reasonable conjecture that this enemy was the Cimmerians (Le- normant, Manutt, torn. ii. p. 117): and that the invasion which Herodotus places in the reign of Ardys (i. 15) fell really in that of his father. But it is highly improbable that the invasion took place (as M. Lonormant thinks) at the call of the Assyrians. P 2IO Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. quickly avenged; and Ardys, the new monarch, hastened to resume the deferential attitude towards Asshur-baui-pal, which his father bad unwisely relinquished. Asshur-bani-pal's next important war was against the Arabs. Some of the desert tribes had, as already mentioned, lent assist- ance to Saiil-Mugina during his revolt against his suzerain, and it was to punish this audacity that Asshur-bani-pal undertook his expedition. His principal enemy was a certain Vaiteha, who had lor allies Natun, or Nathan, king of the Nabathseans, and Ammu-ladin, king of Kedar. The fighting seems to have extended along the whole country bordering the Euphrates valley from the Persian Gulf to Syria,6 and thence southwards by Damascus to Petra. Petra itself, Muhab (or Moab), Hudumi- mukrab (Edom), Zaharri (perhaps Zoar), and several other cities were taken by the Assyrians. The final battle was fought at a place called Khukhuruna, in the mountains near Damascus, where the Arabians were defeated with great slaughter, and the two chiefs who had led the Arab contingent to the assist- ance of Saiil-Mugina were made prisoners by the Assyrians. Asshur-bani-pal had them conducted to Nineveh, and there publicly executed. The annals of Asshur-bani-pal here terminate.7 They exhibit him to us as a warrior more enterprising and more powerful than any of his predecessors, and as one who enlarged in almost every direction the previous limits of the empire. In Egypt he completed the work which his father Esar-haddon had begun, and established the Assyrian dominion for some years, not only at Sais and at Memphis, but at Thebes. In Asia Minor he carried the Assyrian arms far beyond any former king, con- quering large tracts which had never before been invaded, and extending the reputation of his greatness to the extreme western limits of the continent. Against his northern neigh- bours he contended with unusual success, and towards the close "A lake is mentioned, which, ap- parently, wa9 the Sea of Nedjif. (Supra, vol. i. p. 14.) 7 The only additional facts mentioned are the reception of tribute from llu- suva, a city on the Syrian coast, the capture of Umman-aldas, and the sub- mission of Belat-Duri, king of the Ar- menians (Urarda). Our. IX. ASSHl'R-BANI-PAL S LOVE OF HUNTING. 211 of bis reign he reckoned, not only the Minni, but the Urania, or true Armenians, among his tributaries." Towards the south, he added to the empire the great country of Susiana, never subdued until his reign; and on the west, he signally chastised, if he did not actually conquer, the Arabs. To his military ardour Aashur-bani-pal added a passionate addiction to the pleasures of the chase. Lion-hunting was his especial delight. Sometimes along the banks of reedy streams, sometimes borne mid-channel in his pleasure galley, lie sought the king of beasts in his native haunts, roused him by means of hounds and beaters from his lair, and despatched him with his unerring arrows.' Sometimes he enjoyed the sport in his own park or paradise. Large and fierce beasts, brought from a distance, were placed in traps about the grounds,1 and on his approach were set free from their confinement, while he drove among them in his chariot, letting fly his shafts at each with a strong and steady hand, which rarely failed to attain the mark it aimed at. Aided only by two or three attendants armed with spears, he would encounter the terrific spring of the bolder beasts, who rushed frantically at the royal marksman, and en- deavoured to tear him from the chariot-board. Sometimes he would even voluntarily quit this vantage-ground, and, engaging with the brutes on the same level, without the protection of armour, in his everyday dress, with a mere fillet upon his head, lie would dare a close combat, and smite them with sword or spear through the heart.2 When the supply of lions fell short, or when he was satiated with this kind of sport, Asshur-bani-pal would vary his occupa- tion and content himself with game of an inferior description. Wild bulls were probably no longer found in Assyria or the adjacent countries,3 so that he was precluded from the sport which, next to the chase of the lion, occupied and delighted the 1 See the preceding note. 'Sec vol. i. p. 308 ; and compare vol. i. p. 361. Asshur-bani-pal's love of sport appears further by the figures of his favourite hounds, which he had made in clay, painted, and inscribed with their respective names. (See vol. i. pp. 234 and 342.) 1 See vol. i. p. 509. 2 It is Asshur-bani-pal who is repre- sented, vol. i. pp. 506, .r>07. 5 See vol. i. p. 513. p 2 212 Chat. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. earlier monarchs. He could indulge, however, freely in the chase of the wild ass—still to this day a habitant of the Mesopotarnian regions;4 and he could hunt the stag, the hind, and the ibex or wild goat. In these tamer kinds of sport he seems, however to have indulged only occasionally — as a light relaxation scarcely worthy of a great king. Asshur-bani-pal is the only one of the Assyrian monarchs to whom we can ascribe a real taste for learning and literature. The other kings were content to leave behind them some records of the events of their reigns, inscribed on cylinders, slabs, bulls, or lions, and a few dedicatory inscriptions, addresses to the gods whom they specially worshipped. Asshur-bani-pal's literary tastes were far more varied—indeed they were all-embracing. It seems to have been under his direction that the vast collec- tion of clay tablets—a sort of Royal Library—was made at Nineveh, from which the British Museum has derived perhaps the most valuable of its treasures. Comparative vocabularies, lists of deities and their epithets, chronological lists of kings and Eponyms, records of astronomical observations, grammars, histories, scientific works of various kinds, seem to have been composed in the reign,5 and probably at the bidding, of this prince, who devoted to their preservation certain chambers iu the palace of his grandfather, where they were found by Mr. Layard. The clay tablets, on whicli they were inscribed, lay here in such multitudes—in some instances entire, but more commonly broken into fragments—that they filled the chanihers to the height of a foot or more from the floor.6 Mr. Layard observes with justice, that "the documents thus discovered at Nineveh probable exceed [in amount of writing] all that has yet 4 Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 270; Ain9worth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand, p. 77. s The greater part of the tablets, and more especially those of a literary cha- racter—are evidently copies of more ancient documents, since a blank is constantly left where the original was treatises (the fines, e. g. to be levied for certain social offences j; and finally, there are the entire contents of a Registry office—deeds of sale and barter referring to land, houses, and every species of property, contracts, bonds fir loans, benefactions, and various other kinds of legal instruments. A selection defective, and a gloss entered, ''want- from the tablets has been published,»nd iug." There are a large number of re- a further selection is now being prepared lie aere, aqua, &c., §44; .Sochyl. P:V. 734-736; &c.) 1 Herodotus describes these tents (i. 1 Stejipcs, p. 244, E. T.) < 3) as composed of woollen felts arranged | 11 llerod. iv. 64, 65 xiii. 6, 7; Hes. Fr. 122; Herod, iv. 2; Caltimach. Hymn. iul Dim. 1. 252; Nic. Damasc. Fr. i23; &c.) 10 llerod. iv. 61. So too the modern Calmucks. (See De Hell's Travels in the 224 Cbap. IX. THE SECOXD MOXABCHY. arrows with great precision.18 He generally carried, besides his bow and arrows, a short spear or javelin, and sometimes bore also a short sword or a battle-axe.13 Scythian soldiers, from a vase found in a Scythian tomb. The nation of the Scythians comprised within it a number of distinct tribes.14 At the head of all was a Royal tribe, corre- sponding to the "Golden Horde" of the Mongols, which was braver and more numerous than any other, and regarded all the remaining tribes in the light of slaves. To this belonged the families of the kings, who ruled by hereditary rights and seem to have exercised a very considerable authority.15 We often hear of several kings as bearing rule at the same time; but there is generally some indication of disparity, from which we gather that—in times of danger at any rate—the supreme power was really always lodged in the hands of a single man. The religion of the Scythians was remarkable, and partook of the barbarity which characterised most of their customs. They worshipped the Sun and Moon, Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and a god whom Herodotus calls Hercules.16 But their principal religious observance was the worship of the naked sword. The country was parcelled out into districts, and in every district was a huge pile of brushwood, serving as a temple to the neigh- bourhood, at the top of which was planted an antique sword or scimitar.17 On a stated day in each year solemn sacrifices, human and animal, were offered at these shrines; and the warm '* Ilerod. iv. 46. Compare ^Escliyl. P. V. L 736. l» Herod, iv. 70. 14 Ibid. chs. 17-20. 15 Ibid. ch. 81. •« Ibid. ch. 59. 17 Ibid. ch. 62. Chap. EX. THE SCYTHIANS INVADE MEDIA. 22$ blood of the victims was carried up from below and poured upon the weapon. The human victims—prisoners taken in war —were hewn to pieces at the foot of the mound, and their limbs wildly tossed on high by the votaries, who then retired, leaving the bloody fragments where they chanced to fall. The Scythians seem to have had no priest caste; but they believed in divination; and the diviners formed a distinct class which possessed important powers. They were sent for whenever the king was ill, to declare the cause of his illness, which they usually attributed to the fact that an individual, whom they named, had sworn falsely by the Royal Hearth. Those accused in this way, if found guilty by several bodies of diviners, were beheaded for the offence, and their original accusers received their property.1 It must have been important to keep on good terms with persons who wielded such a power as this. Such were the most striking customs of the Scythian people, or at any rate of the Scythians of Herodotus, who were the dominant race over a large portion of the Steppe country.2 Coarse and repulsive in their appearance, fierce in their tempers, savage in their habits; not individually very brave, but power- ful by their numbers, and by a mode of warfare which was difficult to meet, and in which long use had given them great expertness, they w,ere an enemy who might well strike alarm even into a nation so strong and warlike as theMedes. Pouring through the passes of the Caucasus—whence coming or what intending none knew3—horde after horde of Scythians blackened the rich plains of the South. On they came, as before observed, like a flight of locusts, countless, irresistible—swarming into 1 Herod, iv. 68, 69. I were the Asiatic Scyth9orSacte,whoscom * The Scythians Proper of Herodotus to have bordered upon the Bactrians. and Hippocrates extended from the Da- 'The opinion of Herodotus that they nube and the Carpathians on the one entered Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians side, to the Tanais or Don upon the is childish, and may safely be set aside, other. The Sauromatoe, a race at least (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 301, half-Scythic (Herod, iv. 110-117), then i '2nd edition; compare Mr. Grote's His- succeeded, and held the country from [ tory of Greece, vol. ii. p. 431, 2nd edi- the Tanais to the Wolga Beyond this | tion.) The two movements may, how- w*re the Massageta3, Scythian in dress ' ever, have been in some degree con- and customs (ib. i. 215), reaching down i nected, both resulting from some great lo the Jaxartes on the cast side of the | disturbance among the races peopling Caspian. In the same neighbourhood the Steppe region. VOL. II. Q 226 Chap. IX THE SECOND MONARCHY. Iberia and Upper Media—finding the land before them a garden, and leaving it behind them a howling wilderness. Neither age nor sex would be spared. The inhabitants of the open country and of the villages, if they did not make their escape to high mountain tops or other strongholds, would be ruthlessly massacred by the invaders, or, at best, forced to become their slaves.* The crops would be consumed, the herds swept off or destroyed, the villages and homesteads burnt, the whole country made a scene of desolation. Their ravages would resemble those of the Huns when they poured into Italy,4 or of the Bulgarians when they overran the fairest provinces of the Byzantine Empire.' In most instances the strongly fortified towns would resist them, unless they had patience to sit down before their walls and by a prolonged blockade to starve them into submission. Sometimes, before things reached this point, they might consent to receive a tribute and to retire. At other times, convinced that by per- severance they would reap a rich reward, they may have remained till the besieged city fell, when there must have ensued an indescribable scene of havoc, rapine, and bloodshed. According to the broad expression of Herodotus, the Scythians were masters of the whole of Western Asia from the Caucasus to the borders of Egypt for the space of twenty-eight years.' This statement is doubtless an exaggeration; but still it would seem to be certain that the great invasion of which he speaks was not confined to Media, but extended to the adjacent countries of Armenia and Assyria, whence it spread to Syria and Palestine. The hordes probably swarmed down from Media through the Zagros passes into the richest portion of Assyria, the flat country between the mountains and the Tigris. Many of the old cities, rich with the accumulated stores of ages, were besieged, and perhaps taken, and their palaces wantonly burnt, by the barbarous invaders. The tide then swept on. Wandering from district to district, plundering everywhere, settling no- * On the employment of slaves by the Scythians, see Herod, iv. 1-4. • Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. iv. pp. 239-245, Smith's edition. ° Ibid. vol. v. pp. 170-172. 7 Herod, i. 106; iv. 1, &c. Chap. IX. EXTENT OF THEIR RAVAGES. 227 where, the clouds of horse passed over Mesopotamia, the force of the invasion becoming weaker as it spread itself, until in Syria it reached its term through the policy of the Egyptian king, Psammetichus. This monarch, who was# engaged in the siege of Ashdod,8 no sooner heard of the approach of a great Scythian host, which threatened to overrun Egypt, and had advanced as far as Ascalon, than he sent ambassadors to their leader and prevailed on him by rich gifts to abstain from his enterprise.9 From this time the power of the invaders seems to have declined. Their strength could not but suffer by the long series of battles, sieges, and skirmishes in which they were engaged year after year against enemies in no wise con- temptible; it would likewise deteriorate through their ex- cesses;10 and it may even have received some injury from intestine quarrels. After a while, the nations whom they had overrun, whose armies they had defeated, and whose cities they had given to the flames, began to recover themselves. Cyax- ares, it is probable, commenced an aggressive war against such of the invaders as had remained within the limits of his domi- nions, and soon drove them beyond his borders.11 Other kings may have followed his example. In a little while—long, probably, before the twenty-eight years of Herodotus had expired—the Scythian power was completely broken. Many bands may have returned across the Caucasus into the Steppe country. Others submitted and took service under the native rulers of Asia.13 Great numbers were slain; and except in a province of Armenia, which henceforward became known as Saeasene,1 and perhaps in one Syrian town, which we find called Scythopolis,2 the invaders left no trace of their brief but terrible inroad. 'Herod, ii. 157. * Ibid. i. 105. SacasGne,is regarded as a part of Armenia by Strabo (xi. p. 767), Eustathius (ad Dionys. Per. 1. 750), and others. It lay towards the north-east, near Albania and Iberia. (Plin. //. Sf.vi. 10; Arrian, I s. c.) 1 The earliest mention of Scythopolis is probably that in the LXX. version of '* The tale connecting the Enarees with the Syrian Venus and the sack of Ascalon (ibid.) seems to glance at this source of weakness. "Herod, i. 106; iv. 4. "Ibid. i. 73. 1 The Sacassani or Sacesinae were first mentioned by the historians of Alexander Judges (i. 27), where it is identified (Arrian, Exp. Al. iii. 8). Their country, with Beth-shean or Beth-shan. The Q 2 228 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. If we have been right in supposing that the Scythian attack fell with as much severity on the Assyrians as on any other Asiatic people, we can scarcely be tn error if we ascribe to this cause the rapid and sudden decline of the Empire at this period. The country had been ravaged and depopulated, the provinces had been plundered, many of the great towns had been taken and sacked, the palaces of the old kings had been burnt,3 and all the gold and silver that was not hid away hart been carried off. Assyria, when the Scythians quitted her, was but the shadow of her former self. Weak and exhausted, she seemed to invite a permanent conqueror. If her limits had not much shrunk, if the provinces still acknowledged her authority, it was from habit rather than from fear, or because they too had suffered greatly from the Northern barbarians. We find Babylon subject to Assyria to the very last ;* and we seem to see that Judaea passed from the rule of the Assyrians under that of the Babylonians, without any interval of independence or any need of re-conquest. But if these two powers at the south-eastern and the south-western extremities of the empire continued faithful, the less distant nations could scarcely have thrown off the yoke. Asshur-bani-pal, then, on the withdrawal of the barbarians, had still an empire to rule, and he may be supposed to have commenced some attempts at re-organizing and re-invigorating the governmental system to which the domination of the Scyths must have given a rude shock. But he had not time to effect much. In B.C. 626, he died after a reign of forty-two years, and was succeeded by his son, Asshur-emid-ilin, whom the Greeks called Saracus. Of this prince we possess but few native records; and, unless it should be thought that the picture which Ctesias gave of the character and conduct of his last Assyrian king deserves to be regarded as authentic history, and to be attached to this monarch, we must confess to an first profane writer who mentions it is Polybius (v. 70, § 4). No writer states how it obtained the name, until we come down to Synccllus (ab. a.d. 800), who connects the change with this invasion. 3 The palaces at Calah (Nimrud) must, I think, have been burnt before the last king commenced the S.E. edifice. Those of Nineveh may have escaped till the capture by the Medes. 'Abyden. ap. Euseb. Chun. Can. i. 9. Chap. IX. EFFECTS OF THE INVASION ON ASSYRIA. 22g almost equal dearth of classical notices of his life and actions. Scarcely anything has come down to us from his time but a few legends on bricks,5 from which it appears that he was the builder of the south-east edifice at Nimrud, a' construction presenting some remarkable but no very interesting features. The classical notices, apart from the tales which Ctesias origi- nated, are limited to a few sentences in Abydenus,6 and a word or two in Polyhistor.7 Thus nearly the same obscurity which enfolds the earlier portion of the history gathers about the monarch in whose person the empire terminated; and instead of the ample details which have crowded upon us now for many consecutive reigns, we shall be reduced to a meagre outline, partly resting upon conjecture, in our portraiture of this last king. Saracus, as the monarch may be termed after Abydenus, ascended the throne at a most difficult and dangerous crisis in his country's history. Assyria was exhausted; and perhaps half depopulated by the Scythic ravages. The bands which united the provinces to the sovereign state, though not broken, Lad been weakened, and rebellion threatened to break out in various quarters.8 Ruin had overtaken many of the provincial towns; and it would require a vast outlay to restore their public buildings. But the treasury was well-nigh empty, and did not allow the new monarch to adopt in his buildings the See British Museum Series, PI. viii. | Ae'ws trraKtis, Kara tov a'vrov Sapixou No. 3. * Abyden. ap. Euseb. Chron. Can. Pars 1 c. ix.: "Post quern (i. e. Sardana- pallum) Saracus imperitabat Assyriis: els Nicov 4-jntrT par ever oT> r^ ttyoZov TTTQTj6e\s b 2apctKos, eaurbv o~vv rots /JcKTiAcfoit iy4itprir ten years intervened between the "The "turma; vulgi collccticioe quae a mari adversus Saracum adventabant" (Abyd. 1. s. c.) can only, I think, be Su- sianians, or Susianians assisted by Chal- 232 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONABCHY. sea, he himself with the remainder made ready to receive the Medes. In idea this was probably a judicious disposition of the troops at his disposal; it was politic to prevent a junction of the two assailing powers; and, as the greater danger was that which threatened from the Medes, it was well for the king to reserve himself with the bulk of his forces to meet this enemy. But the most prudent arrangements may be disconcerted by the treachery of those who are entrusted with their execution; and so it was in the present instance. The faithless Nabopolassar saw in his sovereign's difficulty his own opportunity; and, instead of marching against Assyria's enemies, as his duty required him, he secretly negotiated an arrangement with Cyaxares, agreed to become his ally against the Assyrians, and obtained the Median king's daughter as a bride for Nebuchad- nezzar, his eldest son.1 Cyaxares and Nabopolassar then joined their efforts against Nineveh;2 and Saracus, unable to resist them, took counsel of his despair, and, after all means of resistance were exhausted, burned himself in his palace.3 It is uncertain whether we possess any further historical details of the siege. The narrative of Ctesias may embody a certain number of the facts, as it certainly represented with truth the strange yet not incredible termination.4 But on the other hand, we cannot feel sure, with regard to any statement made solely by that writer, that it has any other source than his imagination. Hence the description of the last siege of Nineveh, as given by Diodorus on the authority of Ctesias, seems undeserving of a 1 See above, p. 229, note *; and com- ' however, are wrongly named), and pare Polyhistor (ap. Synccll. Chronograph. I Joseph. Ant, Jvd. x. 5, § 1. p. 210, A.), Tovroy [rbv Nafio-xokiaapoy] | * Abyden. ap. Euscb. Chron. Can. Pars 6 XloKvimwp 'hki^ovipos iapbavdirak- | 1™*, c. ix. p. 25; Synccll. Chronograph, koy Ka i ntfi^arTa irpbs 'Atrrvdyny p. 210, B. irarpdirny M7)5ei'as xal tV Suyartpa * The self-immolation of Saracus has avrov 'A^utr-ny B6vra yifKpvy «/j ric . a parallel in the conduct of the Israelitish vlby auro'. Na0ovxotoy6o-ap. Or, as Eu- sebius reports him (CA/wi. Can. Pars lm%, c. iv.), "Sardanapallus ad Asdahagem, qui erat Medico; gentis prawes ct sa- trapa, copias auxiliares misit, videlicet ut filio suo Nabucodrossoro desponderct Amuhiam e filiabus Asdahagis unam." * See besides Abydenus and Poly- histor, Tobit xiv. 15 (where both kings, king, Zimri, who, "when he saw that the city was taken, went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the iing'i house over him, and died" (1 Kings xvi. 18); and again in that of the Persian governor, Boges, who burnt himself with his wives and children at Eton (Herod, vii. 107). Chap. IX. FALL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 233 place in history, though the attention of the curious may pro- perly be directed to it.5 The empire of the Assyrians thus fell, not so much from any inherent weakness, or from the effect of gradual decay, as by an unfortunate combination of circumstances—the occurrence of a terrible inroad of Northern barbarians just at the time when a warlike nation, long settled on the borders of Assyria, and within a short distance of her capital, was increasing, partly by natural and regular causes, partly by accidental and abnormal ones, in greatness and strength. It will be proper, in treating of the history of Media, to trace out, as far as our materials allow, these various causes, and to examine the mode and extent of their operation. But such an inquiry is not suited for this place, since, if fully made, it would lead us too far away from our present subject, which is the history of Assyria; while, if made partially, it would be unsatisfactory. It is therefore deferred to another place. The sketch here attempted of Assyrian history will now be brought to a close by a few observations on the general nature of the monarchy, or its extent in the most nourishing period, and on the character of its civilisation." s See Diod. Sic. ii. 24-27. According to Ctesias, the Medes were accompanied by the Persians, and the Babylonians by some Arabian allies. The assailing army numbered 400,000. In the first engage- ment the Assyrians were victorious, and the attacking army had to fly to the mountains (Zagros). A second and a third attempt met with no better suc- cess. The fortune of war first changed on the arrival of a contingent from Bactria, who joined the assailants in a night attack on the Assyrian camp, which was completely successful. The Assyrian monarch sought the shelter of his capital, leaving his army under the command of his brother-in-law Salse- menes. Salsemenes was soon defeated and slain; and the siege of the city then commence*!. It continued for more than two years without result. In the third year an unusually wet season caused the river to rise extraordinarily, and destroy above two miles (?) of the city wall; upon which the king, whom an oracle had told to fear nothing till the river became his enemy,despaired, and making a funeral pile of all his richest furniture, burnt himself with his concubines and his eunuchs in his palace. The Medes and their allies then entered the town on the side which the flood had laid open, and after plundering it, destroyed it. * The author has transferred these observations, with such alterations as the progress of discovery has rendered necessary, from an Essay " On the Chro- nology and History of the great Assyrian Empire," which he published in 1838, in his Herodotus. He found that eight years of additional study of the subject had changed none of his views, and thot if he wrote a new "Summary," he would merely repeat in other words what he had already written with a good deal of care. Under these circumstances, and having reason to believe that the present work is read in quarters to which his 234 Chav. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. The independent kingdom of Assyria covered a space of at least a thousand years; but the empire can, at the utmost, be considered to have lasted a period short of seven centuries, from B.C. 1300 to b.c. 625 or 624—the date of the conquest of Cyaxares. In reality, the period of extensive domination seems to have commenced with Assur-ris-ilim,7 about B.C. 1150, so that the duration of the true empire did not much exceed five centuries. The limits of the dominion varied considerably within this period, the empire expanding or contracting accord- ing to the circumstances of the time and the personal character of the prince by whom the throne was occupied. The extreme extent appears not to have been reached until almost imme- diately before the last rapid decline set in, the widest dominion belonging to the time of Asshur-bani-pal, the conqueror of Egypt, of Susiana, and of the Armenians.8 In the middle part of this prince's reign Assyria was paramount over the portion of Western Asia included between the Mediterranean and the Halys on the one hand, the Caspian Sea and the great Persian desert on the other. Southwards the boundary was formed by Arabia and the Persian Gulf; northwards it seems at no time to have advanced to the Euxine or to the Caucasus, but to have been formed by a fluctuating line, which did not in the most flourishing period extend so far as the northern frontier of Armenia. Besides her Asiatic dominions Assyria possessed also at this time a portion of Africa, her authority being acknow- ledged by Egypt as far as the latitude of Thebes. The coun- tries included within the limits thus indicated, and subject during the period in question to Assyrian influence, were chiefly the following:—Susiana, Chaldsea, Babylonia, Media, Matiene or the Zagros range, Mesopotamia; parts of Armenia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia; Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Idumsea, a portion of Arabia, and almost the whole of Egypt. The island of Cyprus was also, it is probable, a dependency. On the other hand, Persia Proper, Bactria, and Sogdiana, even version of Herodotus never penetrated, valid objection. he has thought that a republication of 7 Supra, pp. 61, 62. his former remarks would be open to no 'Supra, pp. 210, 211. Chip. IX. REVIEW OF ASSYRIAN HISTORY. 235 Hyrcania, were beyond the eastern limit of the Assyrian sway, which towards the north did not on this side reach further than about the neighbourhood of Kasvin, and towards the south was confined within the mountain barrier of Zagros. Similarly on the west, Phrygia, Lydia,9 Lycia, even Pamphylia, were inde- pendent, the Assyrian arms having never, so far as appears, penetrated westward beyond Cilioia or crossed the river Halys. The nature of the dominion established by the great Mesopo- tamian monarchy over the countries included within the limits above indicated, will perhaps be best understood if we compare it with the empire of Solomon. Solomon "reigned over all the kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life."1 The first and most striking feature of the earliest empires is, that they are a mere congeries of kingdoms: the countries over which the dominant state acquires an influence, not only retain their distinct individuality, as is the case in some modern empires,2 but remain in all respects such as they were before, with the simple addition of certain obligations contracted towards the paramount authority. They keep their old laws, their old religion, their line of kings, their law of succession, their whole internal organization and machinery; they only acknow- ledge an external suzerainty, which binds them to the per- formance of certain duties towards the Head of the Empire. These duties, as understood in the earliest times, may be summed up in the two words " homage" and "tribute; " the subject kings "serve" and "bring presents;" they are bound to acts of submission, must attend the court of their suzerain when summoned,3 unless they have a reasonable excuse, must 'The homage of the Lydian kings, Gyges and Ardys, to Asshur-bani-pal scarcely constitutes a real subjection of Lydia to Assyria. 1 1 Kings iv. 21. Compare ver. 24; and for the complete organization of the empire, see ch. x., where it appears that the kings "brought every man his present, a rate year by year" (ver. 25); and that the amount of the annual revenue from all sources was 666 talents of gold (ver. 14). See also 2 Chron. ix. 13-28, and Ps. lxxii. 8-11. 3 Our own, for instance, and the Austrian. * There arc several cases of this kind in the Inscriptions. (Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xix. p. 145; Inscrip- 236 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONAKCHY. there salute him as a superior, and otherwise acknowledge his rank;4 above all, they must pay him regularly the fixed tribute which has been imposed upon them at the time of their sub- mission or subjection, the unauthorised withholding of whioh is open and avowed rebellion.5 Finally, they must allow his troops free passage through their dominions, and must oppose any attempt at invasion by way of their country on the part of his enemies.6 Such are the earliest and most essential obliga- tions on the part of the subject states in an empire of the primitive type, like that of Assyria; and these obligations, with the corresponding one on the part of the dominant power of the protection of its dependants against foreign foes, appear to have constituted the sole links 7 which joined together in one the heterogeneous materials of which that empire consisted. It is evident that a government of the character here described contains within it elements of constant disunion and disorder. Under favourable circumstances, with an active and energetic prince upon the throne, there is an appearance of strength, and a realisation of much magnificence and grandeur. The subject monarchs pay annually their due share of " the regulated tribute turns des Sargonides, p. 56, &c.) Perhaps the visit of Ahaz to Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings xvi. 10) was of this character. * Cf. Ps. lxxii. 11: "All kings shall fall down before him." This is said primarily of Solomon. The usual ex- pression in the Inscriptions is that the subject kings "kissed the sceptre" of the Assyrian monarchs. 3 See 2 Kings xvii. 4, and the Inscrip- tions passim. "Josiah perhaps perished in the per- formance of this, duty (2 Kings xxiii. 29; 2 Chron. xxv. 20-23). 'In some empires of this type, the subject states have an additional obliga- tion—that of furnishing contingents to swell the armies of the dominant power. But there is no clear evidence of the Assyrians having raised troops in this way. The testimony of the book of Judith is worthless; and perhaps the circumstance that Ncbuchodonosor is made to collect his army from all quarters (as the Persians were wont to do) may I be added to the proofs elsewhere adduced (see the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 195, 2nd ed.) of the lateness of its composi- tion. We do not find, either in Scrip- ture or in the Inscriptions, any proof of the Assyrian armies being composed of others than the dominant race. Mr. Vance Smith assumes the contrary (Pro- phecies, 4c, pp. 92, 183, 201); but the only passage which is important among ! all those explained by him in this sense I (Isa. xxii. 6) is somewhat doubtfully re- ferred to an attack on Jerusalem by the j Assyrians. Perhaps it is the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar which forms the subject of the prophetic vision, as Babylon has been the main figure in the preceding chapter. The negative of course cannot be proved; but there seem to be no grounds for concluding that '• the various subject races were in- corporated into the Assyrian army." An Assyrian army, it should be remem- bered, does not ordinarily exceed one, or at most two, hundred thousand men. Chap. IX. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE EMPIRE. 237 of the empire;"8 and the better to secure the favour of their common sovereign, add to it presents, consisting of the choicest productions of their respective kingdoms.9 The material re- sources of the different countries are placed at the disposal of the dominant power;10 and skilled workmen11 are readily lent for the service of the court, who adorn or build the temples and the royal residences, and transplant the luxuries and refine- ments of their several states to the imperial capital. But no sooner does any untoward event occur, as a disastrous expedition, a foreign attack, a domestic conspiracy, or even an untimely and unexpected death of the reigning prince, than the inherent weakness of this sort of government at once displays itself— the whole fabrff of the empire falls asunder—each kingdom re-asserts its independence—tribute ceases to be paid—and the mistress of a hundred states suddenly finds herself thrust back into her primitive condition, stripped of the dominion which has been her strength, and thrown entirely upon her own resources. Then the whole task of reconstruction has to be commenced anew—one by one the rebel countries are overrun, and the rebel monarchs chastised—tribute is re-im- posed, submission enforced, and in fifteen or twenty years the empire has perhaps recovered itself. Progress is of course slow and uncertain, where the empire has continually to be built up again from its foundations, and where at any time 1 This is an expression not uncommon in the Inscriptions. We may gather from a passage in Sennacherib's annals, where it occurs, that the Assyrian tri- bute was of the nature either of a poll- tax or of a land-tax. For when portions of Hezekiah's dominions were taken from him and bestowed on neighbouring princes, the Assyrian king tells us that u according as he increased the do- minions of the other chiefs, so he aug- mented the amount of tribute which they were to pay to the imperial treasury." 'It is not always easy to separate the tribute from the presents, as the tribute itself is sometimes paid partly in kind (supra, p. 66); but in the case of Heze- kiah we may clearly draw the distinc- tion, by comparing Scripture with the account given by Sennacherib. The tribute in this instance was "300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold" (2 Kings xviii. 14); the additional presents were, 500 talents of silver, various mineral products, thrones and beds and ; rich furniture, the skins and horns of ■ beasts, coral, ivory, and amber. 10 The Assyrian kings arc in the habit of cutting cedar and other timber in Lebanon and Amanus. Tiglath-Pileser I. derived marbles from the country of the Nairi (supra, p. 70). 11 Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xix. pp. 137, 148, &c. Sennacherib uses Phoenicians to construct his vessels on the Tigris and to navigate them. (See above, p. 172.) 238 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chap. IX a day may undo the work which it has taken centuries to accomplish. To discourage and check the chronic disease of rebellion, recourse is had to severe remedies, which diminish the danger to the central power, at the cost of extreme misery and often almost entire ruin to the subject kingdoms. Not only are the lands wasted, the flocks and herds carried ofl*,' the towns pil- laged and burnt, or in some cases razed to the ground, the rebel king deposed and his crown transferred to another, the people punished by the execution of hundreds or thousands,8 as well as by an augmentation of the tribute money;3 but sometimes wholesale deportation of the inhabitants is practised, tens or hundreds of thousands being carried away* captive by the conquerors,4 and either employed in servile labour at the capi- tal,5 or settled as colonists in a distant province. With this practice the history of the Jews, in which it forms so prominent a feature, has made us familiar. It seems to have been known to the Assyrians from very early times,6 and to have become bv degrees a sort of settled principle in their government. In the most flourishing period of their dominion—the reigns of Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esar-haddon—it prevailed most widely, and was carried to the greatest extent. Chaldaeans were trans- 1 The numbers are often marvellous. Sennacherib in one foray drives off 7200 horses, 11,000 mules, 5230 camels, 120.000 oxen, and 800,000 sheep! Sometimes the sheep and oxen are said to be " count- less as the stars of heaven." 2 The usual modes of punishment are beheading and impaling. Asshur-izir- pal impales on one occasion "thirty chiefs;" on another he beheads 250 warriors; on a third he impales captives on every side of the rebellious city. Compare the conduct of Darius (Herod, iii. 159). 'This frequently takes place. (See above, pp. 85, 88, &c.) Hezekiah evi- dently expects an augmentation when he says, "That which thou puttest upon me I will bear " (2 Kings xviii. 14). * It has been noticed (supra, pp. 158 and 161) that Sennacherib carried into captivity from Judtea more than 200,000 persons, and an equal or greater number from the tribes along the Euphrates. The practice is constant, but the numbers are not commonly given. 5 As the Arama-ans, Chnldseans, Ar- menians, and Cilicians, by Sennacherib (supra, p. 183), and the numerous cap- tives who built his temples and palaces, by Sargon (Ttiscriptioiis des Satyimila, p. 31). The captives may be seen en- gaged in their labours, under task- masters, upon the monuments. (Supra, vol. i. p. 402.) * See the annals of Asshur-iiir-pal. where, however, the numbers carried off are small—in one case 2600, in another j 2500, in others 1200, 500, and 301). Women at this period are carried off in rast numbers, and become the wives of I the soldiery. Tiglath-Pileser II. is the first king who practises deportation on a large scale. Chap. IX. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE EMPIRE. 239 ported into Armenia,7 Jews and Israelites into Assyria and Media,8 Arabians, Babylonians, Susianians, and Persians into Palestine8—the most distant portions of the empire changed inhabitants, and no sooner did a people become troublesome from its patriotism and love of independence, than it was weak- ened by dispersion, and its spirit subdued by a severance of all its local associations. Thus rebellion was in some measure kept down, and the position of the central or sovereign state was ren- dered so far more secure; but this comparative security was gained by a great sacrifice of strength, and when foreign inva- sion came, the subject kingdoms, weakened at once and alienated by the treatment which they had received, were found to have neither the will nor the power to give any effectual aid to their enslaver.1 Such, in its broad and general outlines, was the empire of the Assyrians. It embodied the earliest, simplest, and most crude conception which the human mind forms of a widely extended dominion. It was a "kingdom-empire," like the empires of Solomon, of Nebuchadnezzar, of Chedor-laomer,8 and probably of Cyaxares, and is the best specimen of its class, being the largest, the longest in duration, and the best known of all such governments that has existed. It exhibits in a marked way both the strength and weakness of this class of monarchies— their strength in the extraordinary magnificence, grandeur, wealth, and refinement of the capital; their weakness in the impoverishment, the exhaustion, and the consequent disaffection of the subject states. Ever falling to pieces, it was perpetually reconstructed by the genius and prowess of a long succession of warrior princes, seconded by the skill and bravery of the people. Fortunate in possessing for a long time no very powerful neigh- bour,3 it found little difficulty in extending itself throughout 1 By Sargon (supra, p. 152). '2 Kings xvii. 6; and supra, p. 162 and L s. c. '2 Kings xvii. 24; and Ezra iv. 9. 1 The case of Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 29), which may appear an exception, does not belong to Assyrian, but rather to Babylonian, history. * Gen. xiv. 1-12. See above, vol. i. pp. 161-162. 3 Babylonia and Susiana are the only- large countries bordering upon Assyria which appear to have been in any degree centralised. But even in Babylonia there are constantly found cities which have independent kings, and Chaldfea was always under a number of chief- tains. 240 THE SECOND MONARCHY. Chip. IX. regions divided and subdivided among hundreds of petty chiefs,' incapable of union, and singly quite unable to contend with the forces of a large and populous country. Frequently endangered by revolts, yet always triumphing over them, it maintained itself for five centuri.es, gradually advancing its influence, and was only overthrown after a fierce struggle by a new kingdom1 formed upon its borders, which, taking advantage of a time of exhaustion, and leagued with the most powerful of the subject states, was enabled to accomplish the destruction of the long- dominant people. In the curt and dry records of the Assyrian monarchs, while the broad outlines of the government are well marked, it is difficult to distinguish those nicer shades of system and treat- ment which no doubt existed, and in which the empire of the Assyrians differed probably from others of the same type. One or two such points, however, may perhaps be made out. In the first place, though religious uniformity is certainly not the law of the empire, yet a religious character appears in many of the wars,6 and attempts at any rate seem to be made to diffuse everywhere a knowledge and recognition of the gods of Assyria. Nothing is more universal than the practice of setting up in the subject countries "the laws of Asshur " or "altars to the Great Gods." In some instances not only altars but temples are erected, and priests are left to superintend the worship and secure its being properly conducted. The history of Judrea is, however, enough to show that the continuance of the national worship was at least tolerated, though some formal acknowledge- ment of the presiding deities of Assyria on the part of the subject nations may not improbably have been required in most cases.7 4 In the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pi- I it is not permanently under a single Icser I. and Asshur-izir-pal, each city of ki: Mesopotamia and Syria seems to have its king. Twelve kings of the Hittites, twenty-four kings of the Tibareni (Tu- bal), and twenty-seven kings of the Partsu, arc mentioned by Shalmaneser II. The Phoenician and Philistine cities are always separate and independent. In Media and Bikan during the reign of Ksar-haddon, every town has its chief. Armenia is perhaps less divided: still Although Assyria came into contact with Median tribes as early as the reign of Shalmaneser H. (b.c 850), yet the Median kingdom which conquered As- syria must be regarded as a new forma- tion—the consequence of a great immi- gration from the East, perhaps led br Cyaxares. "See above, p. 73. 'It is probable that the altar which Chap. IX. CIVILISATION OF THE ASSYRIANS. 241 Secondly, there is an indication that in certain countries im- mediately bordering on Assyria endeavours were made from time to time to centralise and consolidate the empire, by sub- stituting, on fit occasions, for the native chiefs, Assyrian officers 11s governors. The persons appointed are of two classes— "collectors" and "treasurers." Their special business is, of course, as their names imply, to gather in the tribute due to the Great King, and secure its safe transmission to the capital; but they seem to have been, at least in some instances, entrusted with the civil government of their respective districts.8 It does not appear that this system was ever extended very far. Lebanon on the west, and Mount Zagros on the east, may be regarded as the extreme limits of the centralised Assyria. Armenia, Media, Babylonia, Susiana, most of Phoenicia,9 Pales- tine, Philistia, retained to the last their native monarchs; and thus Assyria, despite the feature here noticed, kept upon the whole her character of a "kingdom-empire." The civilisation of the Assyrians is a large subject, on which former chapters of this work have, it is hoped, thrown some light, and upon which only a very few remarks will be here offered byr way of recapitulation. Deriving originallyr letters and the elements of learning from Babylonia, the Assyrians appear to have been content with the knowledge thus obtained, and neither in literature nor in science to have progressed much beyond their instructors. The heavy incubus of a dead language1 lay upon all those who desired to devote themselves to scientific pursuits; and, owing to this, knowledge tended to become the exclusive possession of a learned, or perhaps a priest class, which did not aim at progress, but was satisfied to hand Ahaz saw at Damascus, and of which 1 The general continuance, however, of he sent a pattern to Jerusalem (2 Kings native kings in these parts is strongly xvi. 10), was Assyrian rather than I marked by the list of 22 subject monarchs Syrian, and that he adopted the worship I in an inscription of Esar-haddon (supra, A* neetcd with it in deference to his I p. 200, note *). vrian suzerain. *See above, pp. 147, 149, 158, &c. For one exception in this district, W above, p. 187. Another is furnished VMM Assyrian Canon, which gives a Prefect of Arpad as Eponym in B.c. 692. II. 1 The old scientific treatises appear to have been in the Hamitic dialect of the Proto-Chaldoeans. It was not till the time of Asshur-bani-pal that translations were made to any great extent. 242 Chap. IX. THE SECOND MONARCHY. on the traditions of former ages. To understand the genius of the Assyrian people we must look to their art and their manu- factures. These are in the main probably of native growth; and from them we may best gather an impressiou of the national character. They show us a patient, laborious, pains- taking people, with more appreciation of the useful than the ornamental, and of the actual than the ideal. Architecture, the only one of the fine arts which is essentially useful, forms their chief glory; sculpture, and still more painting, are sub- sidiary to it. Again, it is the most useful edifice—the palace or house—whereon attention is concentrated—the temple and the tomb, the interest attaching to which is ideal and spiritual, are secondary, and appear (so far as they appear at all) simply as appendages of the palace. In the sculpture it is the actual— the historically true—which the artist strives to represent. Unless in the case of a few mythic figures connected with the religion of the country, there is nothing in the Assyrian bas- reliefs which is not imitated from nature. The imitation is always laborious, aud often most .accurate and exact. The laws of representation, as we understand them, are sometimes departed from, but it is always to impress the spectator with ideas in accordance with truth. Thus the colossal bulls and lions have five legs, but in order that they may be seen from every point of view with four—the ladders are placed edgeways against the walls of besieged towns, but it is to show that they are ladders, and not mere poles—walls of cities are made dis- proportionately small, but it is done, like Raphael's boat, to bring them within the picture, which would otherwise be a less complete representation of the actual fact. The careful finish, the minute detail, the elaboration of every hair in a beard, and every stitch in the embroidery of a dress, reminds us of the Dutch school of painting, and illustrates strongly the spirit of faithfulness and honesty which pervades the sculptures, and gives them so great a portion of their value. In conception, in grace, in freedom and correctness of outline, they fall un- doubtedly far behind the inimitable productions of the Greeks; but they have a grandeur and a dignity, a boldness, a strength, Chap. IX. ASSYRIAN ART AND MANUFACTURES. 243 and an appearance of life, which render them even intrinsically valuable as works of art, and, considering the time at which they were produced, must excite our surprise and admiration. Art, so far as we know, had existed previously, only in the stiff and lifeless conventionalism of the Egyptians. It belonged to Assyria to confine the conventional to religion, and to apply art to the vivid representation of the highest scenes of human life. War in all its forms—the march, the battle, the pursuit, the siege of towns, the passage of rivers and marshes, the sub- mission and treatment of captives—and the "mimic war" of huuting, the chase of the lion, the stag, the antelope, the wild bull, and the wild ass—are the chief subjects treated by the Assyrian sculptors; and in these the conventional is discarded; fresh scenes, new groupings, bold and strange attitudes per- petually appear, and in the animal representations especially there is a continual advance, the latest being the most spirited, the most varied, and the most true to nature, though perhaps lacking somewhat of the majesty and grandeur of the earlier. With no attempt to idealise or go beyond nature, there is a growing power of depicting things as they are—an increased grace and delicacy of execution; showing that Assyrian art was progressive, not stationary, and giving a promise of still higher excellence, had circumstances permitted its development. The art of Assyria has every appearance of thorough and entire nationality; but it is impossible to feel sure that her manufactures were in the same sense absolutely her own. The practice of borrowing skilled workmen from the conquered Ktates would introduce into Nineveh and the other royul cities the fabrics of every region which acknowledged the Assyrian sway; and plunder, tribute, and commerce would unite to enrich them with the choicest products of all civilised countries. Still, judging by the analogy of modern times, it seems most reason- able to suppose that the bulk of the manufactured goods con- sumed in the country would be of home growth. Hence we may fairly assume that the vases, jars, bronzes, glass bottles, carved ornaments in ivory and mother-of-pearl, engraved gems, belb, dishes, ear-rings, arms, working implements, &c, which 11 2 244 Chap. IS. THE SECOND MONARCHY. have been found at Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Koyunjik, are mainly the handiwork of the Assyrians. It has been conjectured that the rich garments represented as worn by the kings and others were the product of Babylon,8 always famous for its tissues; but even this is uncertain; and they are perhaps as likely to have been of home manufacture. At any rate the bulk of the ornaments, utensils, &c, may be regarded as native products. These are almost invariably of elegant form, and indicate a considerable knowledge of metallurgy and other arts,3 as well as a refined taste. Among them are some which anticipate inventions believed till lately to have been modern. Transparent glass (which, however, was known also in ancient Egypt) is one of these;4 but the most remarkable of all is the lens5 discovered at Nimrud, of the use of which as'a magnifying agent there is abundant proof.6 If it be borne in mind, in addition to all this, that the buildings of the Assyrians show them to have been well acquainted with the principle of the arch, that they constructed tunnels, aqueducts, and drains, that they knew the use of the pulley, the lever, and the roller, that they understood the arts of inlaying, enamelling, and over- laying with metals, and that they cut gems with the greatest skill and finish, it will be apparent that their civilisation equalled that of almost any ancient country, and that it did not fall im- measurably behind the boasted achievements of the moderns. With much that was barbaric still attaching to them, with a rude and inartificial government, savage passions, a debasing religion, and a general tendency to materialism, they were towards the close of their empire, in all the ordinary arts and appliances of life, very nearly on a par with ourselves; and thus their history furnishes a warning—which the records of nations constantly repeat—that the greatest material prosperity may co- exist with the decline—and herald the downfall—of a kingdom. 1 Quarterly Review, No. clxvii. pp. 150, 151. * See above, vol. i. pp. 365-372. * See vol. i. p. 389. 5 Layard, Xineveh and Babylon, p. 197. * Long before the discovery of the Nimrud lens it had been concluded that the Assyrians used magnifying glasses, from the fact that the inscriptions were often so minute that they could not pos- sibly be read, and therefore could not have been formed, without them. (See vol. i. pp. 263 and 391.) ( 245 ) APPENDIX. A. ON THE MEANINGS OF THE, ASSYRIAN ROYAL NAMES. The names of the Assyrians, like those of the Hebrews, seem to have been invariably significant. Each name is a sentence, fully or elliptically expressed, and consists consequently of at least two elements. This number is frequently—indeed, commonly— increased to three; which are usually a noun in the nominative case, a verb active agreeing with it, and a noun in the objective or accusative case governed by the verb. The genius of the language requires that in names of this kind the nominative case should invariably be placed first; but there is no fixed rule as to the order of the two other words; the verb may be either preceded or followed by the accusative. The number of elements in an Assyrian name amounts in rare cases to four, a maximum reached by some Hebrew names, as Maher-shalal-hash-baz.1 Only one or two of the royal names comes under this category. No Assyrian name exceeds the number of four elements.* An example of the simplest form of name is Sar-gon, or Sar-gina, "the established king," t. e. " (I am) the established king." The roots are Sar, or in the full nominative, sarru, the common word for "king" (compare Heb. "W, ■TIB', &c), and kin (or gin),' "to esta- blish," a root akin to the Hebrew jia. A name equally simple is Buzur-Asshur, which means either "Asshur is a stronghold," or "Asshur ia a treasure;" buzur being the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew -)¥3, which has this double signification. (See Gesen. Lex. p. 155.) A third name of the same simple form is Saiil-mugina (Sammughes), which probably means 1 Isaiah viii. 3. s The list of Eponyms in the famous Canon, which contains nearly 250 names, furnishes (according to the reading of M. Oppert) one exception to this rule— the Eponym of the 18th year of Asshur- izir-pal. Mr. G. Smith finds in the name, however, only four elements. 3 Gin or ijina is the Turanian equiva- lent of the Assyrian kin or iim. 246 THE SECOND MONARCHY. AiresraxA- "Saiil (is) the establisher," mwjina being the participial form of the same verb which occurs in Sar-grina or Sargon.1 There is another common form of Assyrian name consisting of two elements, the latter of which is the name of a god, while the foimer is either shamas or shamsi (Heb. COC'), the common word for "servant," or else a term significative of worship, adoration, reverence, or the like. Of the former kind, there is but one royal name, viz., Shamas-Vul, "the servant of Vul," a name exactly resembling in its formation the Phoenician Abdistartus, the Hebrew Obadiah, Abdiel, r?K). Asshur-izir-pal is "Asshur protects (my) son," izir (for inzir) being derived from a root corresponding to the Hebrew "to protect," and pal being (us already ex- plained ") the Assyrian equivalent for the Hebrew J3 and the Syriac bar, "a son." The meaning of Sin-akhi-irib (Sennacherib) is "Sin (the Moon) has multiplied brethren," irib being from raba (Heb. '1XV), " to augment, multiply." Asshur-akh-iddina is " Asshur- has given a brother," from roots already explained; and Asshur- hani-pal is "Asshur has formed a son," from Asshur, bani, and pal; bani being the participle of tana, "to form, make" (comp. Heb. PI33). Other tri-elemental names are Asshur-ris-ilim, Be]-kiidur-uzur, Asshur-bil-kala, Nin-pala-zira, and Bel-sumili-kapi. Asshur-ris-ilim either signifies "Asshur (is) the head of the gods," from Asshur, rig, which is equivalent to Heb. B>sri, "head," and Mm, the plural of il or el, "god;" or perhaps it may mean "Asshur (is) high- headed," from Asshur, ris, and elam, "high," ris-elim being equiva- lent to the sir-buland of the modern Persians.1 Bel-kudur-uzur means "Bel protects my seed," or " Bel protects the youth," as will be explained in the next volume under Nebuchadnezzar. Asshur- bil-kala means probably " Asshur (is) lord altogether," from Asshur, bil, "a lord" (Heb. 7P3), and kola, "wholly;" a form connected with, the Hebrew ^3 or ^3, all." Nin-pala-zira is of course "Nin (Hercules) is the son of Zira," as already explained under Tiglath- pileser.' Bel-sumili-kapi is conjectured to be "Bel of the It ft hand,"3 or " Bel (is) left-handed," from Bel, sumUu, an equivalent of ^NDt^, '• the left," and kapu (= *)?), "a hand." Only two Assyrian royal names appear to be compounded of four elements.4 These are the first and last of our list, Asshur-bil-nisi-su, and the king commonly called Asshur-emid- ilin, whose complete name was (it is thought) Asshur-emid-ili- kin, or possibly Asshur-kinat-ili-kain. The last king's name is thought to mean "Asshur is the establisher of the power "Sec vol. i. p. 272. In Semitic Baby- to be connected with bv and rbyo. Ionian pal becomes 6a/, as in Merodach- I » Supra, p. 246. (*j/-adan. "Merodach has given a son;" > Sjr H. Rawlinson, in Atlientrum, No. whence the transition to the Syriac bar I p. 243, note '. (as in Bar-Jesus, Bar-Jonas, &c.) was | * l„ the list of Eponyms, six names easy. | 0ut of nearly 250 are composed of four 1 Sir II. Rawlinson, in Athenimm. No. , elements. 1809, p. 244, note '. Elam, "high," is | 248 ArrESDn A. THE SECOND MONARCHY. of the gods"—the second element, which is sometimes'written as emid (comp. noy), sometimes as nirik, being translated in a vocabulary by hinal, "power," while the last element (which is omitted on the monarch's bricks) is of course from kin (the equivalent of J13), which has been explained under Sargon. The name of the other monarch presents no difficulty. Asshur-bil-nisi-su means " Asshur (is) the lord of his people," from &t7 or bUu, "lord," nis, "a man" (comp. Heb. BOJK), and «u, " his" ( = Heb. H). To these names of monarchs may be added one or two names of princes, which are mentioned in the records of the Assyrians, or elsewhere; as Asshur-danin-pal, the eldest son of the great Shalmaneser, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, sons of Sennacherib. Asshur-danin-pal seems to be "Asshur strengthens a son," from Asahur, pal, and damn, which has the force of "strengthening" in Assyrian.5 Adrammelech has been explained as decus regis, "the king's glory ;"6 but it would be more consonant with the preposi- tional character of the names generally to translate it "the king (is) glorious," from adir (TIN or TIN), " great, glorious," and melek Or!1?), " oUmie, vol. U. p. 355, j p. 353); but none is satisfactory. 'Sir H. Kawlinson, in the author's j 1 Sargon. Adrammelech, and Sharezer. Appendix A. MEANINGS OF ROYAL NAMES. 249 which was borne by two kings, contain the element Asshur; three, two of which occur twice, contain the element Nin;s two, one of which was in such favour as to occur four times,4 contain the element Vnl; three contain the element Bel; one the element Nebo; and one the element Sin.5 The names occasionally express mere facts of the mythology, as Nin-pala-zira, " Nin (is) the son of Zira," Bel-sumili-kapi, "Bel (is) left-handed," and the like. More often the fact enunciated is one in which the glorification of the deity is involved; as, Asshur-bil-nisi-su, " Asshur (is) the lord of his people;" Buzur-Asshur, "a stronghold (is) Asshur;" Asshur- bil-kala, " Asshur (is) lord altogether." Frequently the namo seems to imply some special thankfulness to a particular god for the par- ticular child in question, who is viewed as having been his gift, in answer to a vow or to prayer. Of this kind are A.sshur-akh-iddina (Esar-haddon), Sin-akhi-irib (Sennacherib), Asshur-bani-pal, &c.; where the god named seems to be thanked for the child wliom he has caused to be born. Such names as Tiglathi-Nin, Tiglath- Pileser, express this feeling even more strongly, being actual ascrip- tions of praise by the grateful parent to the deity whom he regards as his benefactor. In a few of the names, as Mutaggil-Nebo and Shamas-Iva, the religious sentiment takes a different turn. Instead of the parent merely expressing his own feelings of gratitude towards this or that god, he dedicates in a way his son to him, assigning to him an appellation which he is to verify in his after- life by a special devotion to the deity of whom in his very name he professes himself the " servant" or the " worshipper." Even here some doubt attaches to one name. If we read Sanasar for Sharezcr, the name will be a religious one. 'I.e. they cither contain the name Sin, or the common designation of the god, Pal-Zira. 'This is the name which has been given as Vul-lush, a name composed of three elements, each one of which is of uncertain sound, while the second and third are also of uncertain meaning. s Sir II. Ilawlinson has collected a list of nearly a thousand Assyrian names. About two-thirds of them have the name of a god for their dominant ele- ment. Asshur and Nebo hold the fore- most place, and are of about equal fre- quency. The other divine names occur much less often than these, and no one of them has any particular prominence. 250 Afpemhx B. THE SECOND MONAECHY. B. TABULAR VIEW OF THE NAMES ASSIGNED TO THE ASSYRIAN KINGS AT DIFFERENT TIMES AND BY DIFFERENT WRITERS. Sir H. Rawlinaou in i«60. G. Smith in 1870. Dr. Hindu. M. Oppert in 18».> Bel-sumili-kapi (?) * Bel-kat-irassu. Atshur bilu-nUi-au Asur l.--l-n:-i->iL Buzur-Asshur Bnsur-Asur. A^hur-upaltit Asur-uballat. BeUuah Bilu-nirarl (?) Bel-likh-khli. Pud-il Pudi-el I'udi -el. Vul-lush l.» Vul-nirari I. (?) Bin-likh-khis I. Sbalma-Bar * Salltm-manu uzur I. Tukulti-Ninipl. Vul-nlrari Ij. (?) Divanu-ri&h Saiman-asir II. Tuklai-Nluip 1. Bm-ltkh-khU 11. Nin-pala-kura4 Nin-pala-zara Nlnip-pal-isrl N in i p- babal-asar. As>hur-daha-il Asshur-dayan I. Assur-dayan Asur-davan. Mutdggil-Nebo Mutaggil-.Sabu Mutakkil-Nabu. A-shurris-ilim Af*hui-ris-elim Tikiat-pal'isri L * Asur-ria-isi. Tiglatb-Pileser I. Tukulti-pal-zara 1. TuklaWiabal-awT I. As-Jjur bani-pal I. Asjdiur-bil-kala Asur-iddaiin:i-habal. Samsi-Vul 1. Assbur-rabu-amar Asshur-muzur Asshur-adan-akhl Asshur-lddin-akhi Asur-iddiii-akbe. Assbur-dan-il Asshur-dayan 11. Asur-edil-el I. Vul-lush II. Vul-nirarl UL 1 ?) Bln likh-ktiis III. Tiglathi-Ninip Tnkulii-Ninlp 11. ShimUsb-Bar Tuklat-Ninip 11 Asshur-idanm-pal Asshur-nazir-pal3 A sshur-yuzhur-bal8 Asu r-nazi r-babul. Slialmanu-sar i. Sailim-manu-uzur 11, hivann-Btra Salman-astr III Shamash-Vul Samsl-Vul II. Shamsi-Yuv Sxmas-Bin. VnUiwh HI. Vul-nlrari IV. (?) Sallim-manu-uzur III. Asshur-dayan III. Asshur-nirari (?) Bm-likb-khis IV. Salinan-asir IV. Asur-edil-el 11. Asur-likb-khis. Tlglath-PileRer II .7 Tukulti-pal-z*ra If. Tikiat-'pal-isiilL Tukiat-habal-asar 11. Shdinanu-sar 11. Sallim-iuanu-uzur IV. Salmtn-astr V. Sargina Sar-gina8 Sar-gina Saryu-kitt. Sennacherib Sennacherib9 'IVln-akhi-irib Sin-akhe-irib. Esar-haddon Esar-haddon 9 Asshur-akh-idin A>ur-jtkb-idUin. Asshur-bani-pal Assur-emif-ili Asslmr-bam-pal Asshur-emit-Uln Asshur-idanna-bal A>ur-bnlii-hiihd. Asur-edil-el III. 1 In this list I have taken the forms of the names either from M. Oppert's own article in the Revue archcologiqw. for 1869, or from the Manuel, d'Uistoire ancienne de I'Orient of his disciple, M. Francois I^norniant (5th ed. 1*69). 2 This name is composed of three elements, all of which are doubtful. The first is the god of the atmosphere, who has been railed Vul, Iva, Yav, Yam, Yem, Ao, Bin, and U «t Hu. The second element has been read as likii, zala, and trim; the third as gab, kfius, and }>atkir. Both of them are most uncertain. 3 Or Sbalma-ris. This name was originally thought to be different from that of the Black-Obelisk king, but is now regarded as a mere variant, and as equivalent to the Scriptural Shaimaneser. The la*t element is the same word as the name of the Assyrian Hercules, who baa been called Bar, Jwn or Ninip, and Ussur, and who possibly bore all these appellations. Sir 11. Rawlinsou originally allied this king Temenbar. (Commentary p. 22.) * Or Nln-pnla-«tra. (Rawlinson's Herodotus, 1st edition.) 4 The middle element of this name was thought to represent the root "to give," and to have the power of iddin or idanni; but n variant reading in the recently discovered Canon employs the phonetic complement of tr, thus shewing that the root must be the one ordinarily represented by the character, namely "to protect," which will form nazir in the Benoni, and izir (fortwtr) in the third person of the aorist. * Originally Dr. Hincks called this monarch Asshur-akA-bal. (Ln yard's Nin. and Bab. p. 615.) Mr. Fox Talbot still prefers this reading. (Atfiantrum, No. 1839, p. l*Ju.) 7 This, of course, is following the Hebrew literal ion. The Assyrian is read as TukuUi-pal-zara. * Or, more fully, Satru-gina. 0 The Assyrian names oi Sennacherib and Esar-haddm, according to Mr. ). According to the most extensive on the north by Matiane' and the moun- view, Media begins at the Araxes, in* tain region of the Cadusians (Elburz); j eludes the whole low region between the on the east by Parthia and the Cos- mountains and the Caspian as far as sa?ans; on the south by Sittacene', Hyrcania, extends southwards to a little Zagros, and Klymais; on the west by below Isfahan, and westward includes Matiane and Armenia (xi. 13). Pliny the greater part of Zagros. More mo- says that it has on the east the Parthians i derate dimensions are assumed in the and Caspians; on the south Sittacene, j text. Susiana, and Persia; on the west Adia- 3 The salt desert projects somewhat bene ; and on the north Armenia (//. N. further to the west, a portion being vi. 26). The Armenian Geography crossed on the route from Teheran to makes the northern boundary Armenia Isfahan. (See Fraser's Khorasan. p. 142: and the Caspian, the eastern Aria or Ouseley, Traeeh, vol. iii. p. 103; Ker Khorasan, the southern Persia, and the | Porter, Travels, vol. i. p. 372.) western Armenia and Assyria (pp. 3">7- j 'Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. "Medi— Chap. I. GEXEBAL STERILITY OF THE TERRITORY. 255 rather a long parallelogram, whose two principal sides face respectively the north-east and the south-west, while the ends or shorter sides front to the south-east and to the north-west. Its length in its greater direction is about GOO miles, and its width about 2G0 miles. 'It must thus contain nearly 150,000 square miles, an area considerably larger than that of Assyria and Chaldaea put together,5 and quite sufficient to constitute a state of the first class,6 even according to the ideas of modern Europe. It is nearly one-fifth more than the area of the British Islands, and half as much again as that of Prussia, or of penin- sular Italy. It equals three-fourths of France, or three-fifths of Germany. It has, moreover, the great advantage of compact- ness, forming a single solid mass, with no straggling or outlying portions; and it is strongly defended on almost every side by natural barriers offering great difficulties to an invader. In comparison with the countries which formed the seats of the two monarchies already described, the general character of the Median territory is undoubtedly one of sterility.7 The high table-land is everywhere intersected by rocky ranges, spurs from Zagros, which have a general direction from west to east,8 and separate the country into a number of parallel broad valleys, or long plains, opening out into the desert. The appearance of these ranges is almost everywhere bare, arid, and forbidding. Above, they present to the eye huge masses of grey rock piled one upon another; below, a slope of detritus, destitute of trees or shrubs, and only occasionally nourishing a dry and scanty herbage. The appearance of the plains is little superior; they are flat and without undulations, composed in general of gravel or hard clay, and rarely enlivened by any show of water; except for two months in the spring, they exhibit to the eye a uniform brown expanse, almost treeless, which impresses the pugnatrix natio, regioncs inhabitans ad 7 So Strabo: 'H ttoAvJj v olv vipr]\4f speriera quadrate figune formatas." tirri (cal tyvxt>& (xi. 13, §7). Compare Comp. Strab. xi. 13. § 8. i Kinneir, Persian Em/iire, pp. 108, 144, 1 See vol. i. pp. 5 and 182. 149, with Fraser, Khoraaan, pp. 162- 'Compare Polybius, x. 27, § 1:— 165. 'El SctfSfKa (TToSi'ouf axtxov ltrr lipof fc KaXuraL 'Oporr-ns. (Died. Sic. ii. 13, § 7.) "Died. Sic. xvii. 110, § 7. "See above, vol. i. p. 256. 264 Chap. I. THE THIRD MONARCHY. The character of the city and of its chief edifices has, unfor- tunately, to be gathered almost entirely from unsatisfactory authorities. Hitherto it has been found possible in these volumes to check and correct the statements of ancient writers, ■which are almost always exaggerated, by an appeal to the incontrovertible evidence of modern surveys and explorations. But the Median capital has never yet attracted a scientific expedition. The travellers by whom it has been visited have reported so unfavourably of its character as a field of anti- quarian research, that scarcely a spadeful of soil has been dug, either in the city or in its vicinity, with a view to recover traces of the ancient buildings. Scarcely any remains of antiquity are apparent. As the site has never been deserted, and the town has thus been subjected for nearly twenty-two centuries to the destructive ravages of foreign conquerors, and the still more injurious plunderings of native builders, anxious to obtain materials for new edifices at the least possible cost and trouble, the ancient structures have everywhere disappeared from sight, and are not even indicated by mounds of a sufficient size to attract the attention of common observers. Scientific explorers have consequently been deterred from turning their energies in this direction; more promising sites have offered and still offer themselves; and it is as yet uncertain whether the plan of the old town might not be traced and the position of its chief edifices fixed by the means of careful researches conducted by fully competent persons. In this dearth of modern materials we have to depend entirely upon the classical writers, who are rarely trustworthy in their descriptions or measurements, and who, in this instance, labour under the peculiar disadvantage of being mere reporters of the accounts given by others. Ecbatana was chiefly celebrated for the magnificence of its palace, a structure ascribed by Diodorus to Semiramis," but most probably constructed originally by Cyaxares, and improved, enlarged, and embellished by the Achsemenian monarchs. According to the judicious and moderate Polybius, who pre- faces his account by a protest against exaggeration and over- "Diod. Sic. ii. 13, § 6. Chap. I. ECBATANA—ITS PALACE. 265 colouring, the circumference of the building was seven stades,15 or 1420 yards, somewhat more than four-fifths of an English mile. This size, which a little exceeds that of the palace mound at Susa, while it is in its turn a little exceeded by the palatial platform at Persepolis,16 may well be accepted as probably close to the truth. Judging, however, from the analogy of the above- mentioned palaces, we must conclude that the area thus assigned to the royal residence was far from being entirely covered with buildings. One-half of the space, perhaps more, would be occu- pied by large open courts, paved probably with marble, sur- rounding the various blocks of building and separating them from one another. The buildings themselves may be conjec- tured to have resembled those of the Achaemenian monarchs at Susa and Persepolis, with the exception, apparently, that the pillars, which formed their most striking characteristic, were for the most part of wood rather than of stone. Polybius distin- guishes the pillars into two classes,1 those of the main buildings («' ev Tat? GToals), and those which skirted the courts (ol b> roZs nepunvkois:), from which it would appear that at Ecbatana the courts were surrounded by colonnades, as they were commonly hi Greek and Roman houses.2 These wooden pillars, all either of cedar or of cypress,3 supported beams of a similar material, which crossed each other at right angles, leaving square spaces (ar- va>fiaTo) between, which were then. filled in with wood-work- Above the whole a roof was placed, sloping at an angle,4 and composed (as we are told) of silver plates in the shape of tiles. The pillars, beams, and the rest of the wood-work, were likewise coated with thin laminae of the precious metals, even gold being used for this purpose to a certain extent.5 15 Polyb. x. 27, §9. 14 The circumference of the palace mound at Susa is about 4000 feet, or 1333yards. (Loftus, ClialdtmandSusiana, plan, opp. p. 340.) That of the Perse- politan platform is 4578 feet, or 1526 yards. (Ker Porter, vol. i. p. 582.) The Assyrian palace mounds are in some instances still larger. The circuit of the Nimrud mound is nearly 1900, and that of the Koyunjik platform exceeds 2000 yards. 1 Polyb. x. 27, § 10. 2 The Assyrian courts seem, on the contrary, to have been quite open. 'Polyb. 1. s. c. 06ot)s yip tt)j (vktas cnrdarjs Kftplvrjs KcO KvTtapnTitrris, k.t.\. 4 That the Persians in some cases used sloping roofs, rather than flat ones, we may gather from the "Tomb of Cyrus." 4 Polyb. 1. s. c. rovt kIovus, rovs fiiy 266 Chip. L THE THIRD MONARCHY. Such seems to have been the character of the true ancient Median palace, which served probably as a model to Darius and Xerxes, when they designed their great palatial edifices at the more southern capitals. In the additions which the palace received under the Achajmenian kings, stone pillars may have been introduced; and hence probably the broken shafts and bases, so nearly resembling the Persepolitan, one of which Sir R. Ker Porter6 saw in the immediate neighbourhood of Hamadan on his visit to that place in 1818. But, to judge from the de- scription of Polybius, an older and ruder style of architecture pre- vailed in the main building, which depended for its effect not on the beauty of architectural forms, but on the richness and costliness of the material. A pillar architec- ture, so far as appears, began in this part of Asia with the Medes,7 who, however, were content to use the more readily obtained and more easily worked material of wood; while the Persians after- wards conceived the idea of substituting for these inartificial props the slender and elegant stone shafts which formed the glory of their grand edifices. At a short distance from the palace was the "Acra," or cita- Stone base of a pillar. (Ilomodan.) apyvpaus roiis 8c XPy(ra'J A«w/{Tt irc- ptftKfjtpQcu, ray 5t Ktpafiiias apyvpas tivat Trarrus. • Sec his Travels, vol. ii. p. 115. The shaft and base were also seen by Mr. Morier in 1813, and are figured by him in his work entitled a Seiond Journey through Persia. (Sec p. 268.) It is from this work that the above illustration is taken. Sir H. Rawlinson, who visited llama- dan frequently between 1835 and 1839, saw five or six other pillar bases of the same type. 7 The rare use of pillars by the As- syrians has been noticed in the first volume (vol. i. p. 303, note"). If, as seems probable, they were more largely employed by the later Babylonians, we may ascribe their introduction to Me- dian influence. (See the chapter on the "Arts and Sciences of the Babylonians.') A pillar architecture naturally began in a country where there was abundant wood. The first pillars were mere rough posts, like those which support the houses of the Kurds and Yezidis. (See Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 252.) These were after a time shnped regu- larly, then carved and ornamented; while finally they were replaced by stone shafts, which may have been first used where wood was scarce, but were soon perceived to be of superior beauty. Cb.u>. L ECBATANA—ITS CITADEL. 267 del, an artificial structure, if we may believe Polybius, and a place of very remarkable strength.8 Here probably was the treasury, from which Darius Codomannus carried off 7000 talents of silver, when he fled towards Bactria for fear of Alexander.* And here, too, may have been the Kecord Office, in which were deposited the royal decrees and other public documents under the earlier Persian kings.10 Some travellers11 A. Ancient citadel. Plan of the country about Hamadan. B. Figure of lion. C Remains of buildings. D. Cuneiform Inscriptions. are of opinion that a portion of the ancient structure still exists; and there is certainly a ruin on the outskirts of the modern town towards the south, which is .known to the natives as "the inner fortress," and which may not improbahly occupy pome portion of the site whereon the original citadel stood. But the remains of building which now exist are certainly not of an 1 Polyb. x. 27, § 6. "AKftav iv airrji X^poTroiTrro* £xfl> ^«uM*o*'ws irpby ox"- 'Arrian. Exp. Alex. iii. 19. "Ezra vi. 2. 11 As Ker Porter {Travels, vol. ii. p. 101). 268 Chap. I. THE THIRD MONARCHY. earlier date than the era of Parthian supremacy,1* and they can therefore throw no light on the character of the old Median stronghold. It may be thought perhaps that the description which Herodotus gives of the building called by him "the palace of Deioces" should be here applied, and that by its means we might obtain an exact notion of the original structure. But the account of this author is wholly at variance with the natural features of the neighbourhood, where there is no such conical hill as he describes, but only a plain surrounded by mountains. It seems, therefore, to be certain that either his description is a pure myth, or that it applies to another city, the Ecbatana of the northern province. It is doubtful whether the Median capital was at any time surrounded with walls. Polybius expressly declares that it was an unwiilled place in his day;13 and there is some reason to suspect that it had always been in this condition. The Medes and Persians appear to have been in general content to esta- blish in each town a fortified citadel or stronghold, round which the houses were clustered, without superadding the further defence of a town wall.14 Ecbatana accordingly seems never to have stood a siege.15 When the nation which held it was de- feated in the open field, the city (unlike Babylon and Nineveh) submitted to the conqueror without a struggle. Thus the mar- vellous description in the Book of Judith,16 which is internally very improbable, would appear to be entirely destitute of any, even the slightest, foundation in fact. The chief city of northern Media, which bore in later times' the names of Gaza, Gazaca, or Canzaca,1' is thought to have "Judith i. 2-4. According to this account the walls were built of hewn stones nine feet long, and four and i half broad. The height of the walls was 105 feet, the width 75 feet. The gates were of the same altitude as the walls; and the towers over the gates were carried to the height of 150 feet. "See Strab. xi. 13, § 3; Plin. ff. A", vi. 13; Ptol. Getyraph. vi. 2; Am. Marc, xxiii. 6; Amicn. Geoyr. § 87, p. 364, fcc. Another name of the city was Vera. (Strobo, 1. s. c.) 12 This is the decided opinion of Sir H. Rawlinson, who carefully examined the ruins in 1836. "Polyb. L s. c. "llerodotus expressly states that the northern Ecbatana was a city of this character (i. 98, 99). Modern researches have discovered no signs of town walls at any of the old Persian or Median site». 13 Ecbatana yielded at once to Cyrus, to Alexander (Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 19), and to Antiochua the Great (Polyb. Chap. I. GAZA, THE NORTHERN ECBATANA. 269 been also called Ecbatana, and to have been occasionally mis- taken by the Greeks for the southern or real capital.18 The description of Herodotus which is irreconcileably at variance with the local features of the Hamadan site, accords sufficiently with the existing remains of a considerable city in the province of Azerbijan; and it seems certainly to have been a city in these parts which was called by Moses of Ghorene, "the second Ec- batana, the seven-walled town."1 The peculiarity of this place was its situation on and about a conical hill, which sloped gently down from its summit to its base, and allowed of the interpo- sition of seven circuits of wall between the plain and the hill's crest. At the top of the hill, within the innermost circle of the defences, were the Royal Palace and the treasuries; the sides of the hill were occupied solely by the fortifications; and at the base, outside the circuit of the outermost wall, were the domestic and other buildings which constituted the town. According to the information received by Herodotus, the battlements which crowned the walls were variously coloured. Those of the outer circle were white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth blue, of the fifth orange, of the sixth silver, and of the seventh gold.2 A pleasing, or at any rate a striking effect was thus produced—the citadel, which towered above the town, presenting to the eye seven distinct rows of colours.3 If there was really a northern as well as a southern Ecba- tana,4 and if the account of Herodotus, which cannot possibly 11 See the paper of Sir H. Rawlinson, "On the Site of the Atropatenian Ec- batana," in the tenth volume of the Journal of the Geographical Society, pp. 65-158. 1 Mos. Chor. But. Armen. ii. 84. 1 Herod, i. 98. 1 This whole descript ion has no doubt a somewhat mythical air; and the plating of the battlements with the precious metals seems to the modern reader peculiarly improbable. But the people who roofed their palaces with silver tiles, and coated all the internal wood-work either with plates of silver or of gold, may have been wealthy enough and lavish enough to make even •uch a display as Herodotus describes. There is reason to believe that in Baby- lonia at least one temple was orna- mented almost exactly as the citadel of Ecbatana is declared to have been by Herodotus. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 484, 2nd edition, and. compare ch. vi. of the 11 Fourth Monarchy.'*) 4 The view maintained by Sir H. Rawlinson in the paper already referred to (supra, note 18), while in England it has been very generally accepted, has been combated on the Continent, more especially in France, where an elaborate reply to his article was pub- lished by M. Quatremere in the Ale- moires de VAcademic des Inscriptions ct BcUes-Lettrcs, torn. xix. part i. p. 419 et seq. It must be admitted that the 270 Chap. I. THE THIRD MONARCHY. apply to the southern capital, may be regarded as truly de- scribing the great city of the north, we may with much proba- bility fix the site of the northern town at the modern Takht- i-Sule'iman, in the upper valley of the Saruk, a tributary of the Jaghetu. Here alone in northern Media are there im- portant ruins occupying such a position as that which Herodotus describes.4 Near the head of a valley in which runs the main branch of the Saruk, at the edge of the hills which skirt it to the north, there stands a conical mound projecting into the vale and rising above its surface to the height of 150 feet. The geological formation of the mound is curious in the extreme.6 It seems to owe its origin entirely to a small lake, the waters of which are so strongly impregnated with calcareous matter, that wherever they overflow they rapidly form a deposit, which is as hard and firm as natural rock. If the lake was originally on a level with the valley, it would soon have formed incrustations round its edge, which every casual or permanent overflow would have tended to raise; and thus, in the course of ages, the entire hill may have been formed by a mere accumu- lation of petrefactions.7 The formation would progress more or less rapidly, according to the tendency of the lake to overflow its bounds; which tendency must have been strong until the water reached its present natural level—the level, probably, of some other sheet of water in the hills, with which it is con- nected by an underground syphon.8 The lake, which is of au irregular shape, is about 300 paces in circumference. Its water, only ancient writer who distinctly re- | Ker Porter. Later travellers agree with cognises two Median Ecbatanas is the , him. Armenian historian above quoted. (Sec above, p., 209, note '.) 5 The ruins at Kileh Zohak, described by Colonel Mcnteith in such glowing terms (Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. iii. pp. 4, 5), arc in reality quite insignificant. • The best description of the Takht- * One of the peculiarities of the lake is, that whatever the quantity of water drawn off from it for purposes of irri- gation by the neighbouring tribes, it always remains at the same level. Sir H. Kawlinson thus explains the phe- nomenon: "I conclude," he says, "the lake to be connected by an underground i-Suleiman ruins will be found in the syphon with some other great fountain Geographical Journal, vol. x. pp. 46-53. j in the interior of the adjacent moun- Sir 11. K. Porter is both less complete tains, which is precisely at the same and less exact. (Travels, vol. ii. pp. 558- | level as itself, and which has other 561.) means of outlet." (Geographical Journal, 7 This theory was first broached by [ vol. x. p. 48.) Qup. L GAZA, THE XORTHERN ECBATANA. 271 notwithstanding the quantity of mineral matter held in solu- tion, is exquisitely clear, and not unpleasing to the taste.' Formerly it was believed by the natives to be unfathomable; but experiments made in 1837 showed the depth to be no more than 156 feet. The ruins which at present occupy this remarkable site consist of a strong wall, guarded by numerous bastions and pierced by four gateways, which runs round the brow of the hill in a slightly irregular ellipse, of some interesting remains Plan of Takht-i-Suleiman (perhaps the Northern Ecbatana). of buildings within this walled space, and of a few insignificant traces of inferior edifices on the slope between the plain and the summit. As it is not thought that any of these remains are of a date anterior to the Sassanian kingdom,10 no descrip- tion will be given of them here. We are only concerned with the Median city, and that has entirely disappeared. Of the seven walls, one alone is to be traced;" and even here the Median structure has perished and been replaced by masonry of a far later age. Excavations may hereafter bring to light • Geographical Joitrnal, vol. x. p. 50; | country, and is consequently on that Ker Porter, vol. ii. p. 558. i side only a little elevated above the "Geograph. Journ 'l, vol. x. p. 51. | adjacent ground. But as the water has "In its present condition the hill | now for some time been drawn off on could not receive seven complete circular' this side, the hill has probably grown walls, from the fact that towards the | in this direction. east it abuts upon the edge of the hilly | 272 Chap. L THE THIRD MONARCHY. some remnants of the original town, but at present research has done no more than recover for us a forgotten site. The Median city next in importance to the two Ecbatanas was Raga or Rhages, near the Caspian Gates, almost at the extreme eastern limits of the territory possessed by the Medes. The great antiquity of this place is marked by its occurrence in the Zendavesta among the primitive settlements of the Arians.1 Its celebrity during the time of the Empire is indi- cated by the position which it occupies in the romances of Tobit8 and Judith.3 It maintained its rank under the Persians, and is mentioned by Darius Hystaspis as the scene of the struggle which terminated the great Median revolt.4 The last Darius seems to have sent thither his heavy baggage and the ladies of his court,5 when he resolved to quit Ecbatana and fly eastward. It lias been already noticed that Rhages gave name to a district;6 and this district may be certainly identified with the long narrow tract of fertile territory intervening between the Elburz mountain-range and the desert,7 from about Kasvin to Kliaar, or from long. 50° to 52° 30'. The exact site of the city of Rhages within this territory is somewhat doubtful. All accounts place it near the eastern extremity; and as there are in this direction ruins of a town called Rhei or Rhey, it has been usual to assume that they positively fix the locality.8 But 1 Rhages occurs as Rnglia in the first Fargard of the Vendidad. It is the twelfth settlement, and one in which the faithful were intermingled with un- believers. (Haug in Bunseu's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 490, E. T.) 2 Tobit i. 14; iv. 1; iz. 1; tec. 3 Judith i. 5 and 15. * Beliistun Inscription, col. ii. par. 13. 5 Arrian, Exp. Alex, iii. 19. Arrian only mentions the Caspian Gates; but there can be little doubt that Rhages was the place where they wore to await Darius. Compare eh. 20. 0 Rhagiana occurs as a district in Isidore {Mans, l'arth. p. 6) as well as in Ptolemy. In the former the MSS. have Rhatiana (PATIANH for PAriANH), which Hudson perversely transforms into Matiana, a district lying exactly in the opposite direction. Strabo points to Rhagiana in his expression, t» T*pl Tat 'Pilyas Kat rat Kaff-wiovs vvs (xi. IS, § 7). Diodorus calls it an eparchy—rV iTrapxttf t^iv vpoaarfoptvofiiirnv 'Pay'is (xix. 44, § 5). 'Sec especially Isidore, 1. s. c; and compare C. Midler's Map to illustrate this author ( Tab. in Gcographos Minores, No. 10). C. Midler makes the boundary westward the Karagh'in hills, thus ex- tending Rhagiana half a degree to the west of Kasvin. He greatly exaggerates the rivers of the region. * Fraser, Khoraxm, p. 2S6; Morier, Second Journey, p. 365; Ousely, Trareis, vol. iii. p. 174; Ker Porter, Travels, ToL i. p. 357; Heeren, Asiatic Rations, vol. i. p. 233. E. T.; Ritter, EraVinnde, vol. viii. pp. 595-604; Winer, Realv Srter- buch, ad voc.; C. Muller, Tabula, 1. s.c; Geographical Journ. vol. xxxi. p. 38. Ciur. T. RHAGES. 273 similarity, or even identity, of name is an insufficient proof of a site;' and, in the present instance, there are grounds for placing Rhagea very much nearer to the Caspian Gates than the position of Rhei. Arrian, whose accuracy is notorious, dis- tinctly states that from the Gates to Phages was only a single day's march, and that Alexander accomplished the distance in that time«,10 Now from Rhei to the Girduni Sunlurrah pass, which undoubtedly represents the Pylae Casphe of Arrian,11 is at least fifty miles, a distance which no army could accomplish in less time than two days.12 Rhages consequently must have been considerably to the east of Rhei, about half-way between it and the celebrated pass which it was considered to guard. Its probable position is the modem Kaleh Erij, near Veramin, about 23 miles from the commencement of the JSudurrah p8ss, where there are considerable remains of an ancient town.13 In the same neighbourhood with Rhages, but closer to the Straits, perhaps on the site now occupied by the ruins known as Uewanukif, or possibly even nearer to the foot of the pass,14 vas the Median city of Charax, a place not to be confounded with the more celebrated city called Charax Spasini, the birth- place of Dionysius the geographer, which was on the Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Tigris.15 • Names travel. The modern Marn- main chain. This pass is one of a tre- thon is more than three miles from the mendous character. It is a gap five miles ancient site. New Ilium was still further long between precipices 1000 feet high, (six miles) from old Troy. The shores scarped as though by the hand of rajh, of the Black Sea have witnessed still its width varying from ten to forty feet, more violent changes. The ancient Eu- (Sir H. Rawlinson, MS. notes.) patoria was at Inkerman; the modern 12 Alexander's inarches seem to have is 50 miles to the northward. Chcrson averaged 190 stades, or about 22 miles, (or Chersonesus) was at the mouth of The ordinary ltoman march was 20 the Sevastopol inlet; it is now on the Koman miles, equivalent to 18', English Borysthenes or Dniepr. Odessus was . miles. at Varna; Odessa is three degrees to 13 Sir H. Rawlinson, MS. notes. In the north-east. 'Erij we have probably a corruption of "Ex/i. Alex. iii. 20. H/utg-es. 11 This point is well argued by Mr. 14 Uewanukif is six or seven miles Fraser (Klviratnn, pp. 291-21)3, note), from the commencement of the pass whose conclusion seems to be now gene- (Fraser, p. 291). Isidore places Charax rally adopted. Pliny's Pylae Caspiiv, on directly under the hill. (Jmb rb opos the other hand (//. X. vi. 14), would b KaAfi'rcu Kdtnrios, &a£. Hudson's identification of Cha- VOL. IL T 274 Chap. L THE THIBD MONARCHY. The other 3Iedian cities, whose position can he determined with an approach to certainty, were in the western portion of the country, in the range of Zagros, or in the fertile tract hetween that range and the desert. The most important of these are Bagistan, Adrapan, Concobar, and Aspadan. Bagistan is described by Isidore1" as "a city situated on a hill, where there was a pillar and a statue of Semiramis." Diodorus has an account of the arrival of Semiramis at the place, of her establishing a royal park or paradise in the plain below the mountain, which was watered by an abundant spring, View of the Hock of Behistun. of her smoothing the face of the rock where it descended pre- cipitously upon the low ground, and of her carving on the surface thus obtained her own effigy, with an inscription in rnx Spasini with Anthcmusias or Charax 1 BturTava) »<$\ij iw' ipot vctiu'n;. fr6a Siche (Isid. Mans. Forth, p. 2) is a strange 2r uipauift'is a~,a xai a"H)Ait. Com- crror. pare with Biarava the modern Bos tan "Mans. forth, p. 6. Bdirrwa (leg. | and Behistun. Chap. I. BAGISTAX. 275 Assyrian characters.17 The position assigned to Bagistan by both writers, and the description of Diodorus,18 identify the place beyond a doubt with the now famous Behistun, where the plain, the fountain, the precipitous rock, and the scarped surface are still to be seen,19 though the supposed figure of Semiramis, her pillar, and her inscription have disappeared.20 This remarkable spot, lying on the direct route between Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination of a copious fountain, a rich plain, and a rock suitable for sculp- tures, must have early attracted the attention of the great monarchs who marched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where they might conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. The works of this kind ascribed by the ancient writers to Semiramis were probably either Assyrian or Baby- . Ionian, and (it is most likely) resembled the ordinary monu- ments which the kings of Babylon and Nineveh delighted to erect in countries newly conquered.21 The example set by the Mesopotamians was followed by their Arian neighbours, when the supremacy passed into their hands; and the famous moun- tain, invested by them with a sacred character,28 was made to subserve and perpetuate their glory by receiving sculptures and inscriptions1 which showed them to have become the lords of Asia, The practice did not even stop here. When the Par- thian kingdom of the Arsacidaj had established itself in these parts at tile expense of the Seleucidee, the rock was once more called upon to commemorate the warlike triumphs of a new race. Gotarzes, the contemporary of the Emperor Claudius, after defeating his rival Meherdates in the plain between Diod. Sic. ii. 13, §§ 1-2. "Diodorus, as usual, greatly exag gerates the height of the mountain, 21 See vol. i. p. 484; vol. ii. pp. 97 216, &c. Bagistan is " the hill of Jove" (Aiis which he estimates at seventeen stades, fyot), according to Diodorus (ii. 13, § 1). 10,000 feet, whereas it is really j It seems to mean really "the place of •twit 1700 feet (Journal of Asiatic V-ij 9 276 Chap. I. THE THIRD MONARCHY. Behistun and Kermanshab, inscribed upon the mountain, which already bore the impress of the great monarchs of Assyria and Persia, a record of his recent victory.2 The name of Adrapan occurs only in Isidore,3 who places it between Bagistan and Ecbatana, at the distance of twelve schceni—36 Roman or 34 British miles from the latter. It was, he says, the site of an ancient palace belonging to Ecbatana, which Tigranes the Armenian had destroyed. The name and situation sufficiently identify Adrapan with the modern village of Arteman,4 which lies on the southern face of Elwend near its base, and is well adapted for a royal residence. Here, "during the severest winter, when Hamadan and the surrounding country are buried in snow, a warm and sunny climate is to be found; whilst in the summer a thousand rills descending from Elwend diffuse around fertility and fragrance."5 Groves of trees grow up in rich luxuriance from the well-irrigated soil, whose thick foliage affords a welcome shelter from the heat of the noonday pun. The climate, the gardens, and the manifold blessings of the place are proverbial throughout Persia; and naturally caused the choice of the site for a retired palace, to which the court of Ecbatana might adjourn, when either the summer heat and dust or the winter cold made residence in the capital irksome. In the neighbourhood of Adrapan, on the road leading to Bagistan, stood Cuncobar,6 which is undoubtedly the modem Kungawar, and perhaps the Chavon of Diodorus".7 Here, according to the Sicilian historian, Semiramis built a palace and lnid out a paradise; and here, in the time of Isidore, was a famous temple of Artemis. Colossal ruins crown the summit of the acclivity on which the town of Kungawar stands," which 2 The inscription, which is in the Greek character and language, is much mutilated; but the name of Gotarzes (mTAPZHC) appears twice in it. Hie rival, Moherdates. is perhaps mentioned under the name of Mithrates. (Sir H. Hawlinson, in Geograph. Joitm. vol. ix. pp. 114-1 IB.) 1 Mv afpoftpa tori Kat ndp.(popos.—Stbab. \i. 13. Media, like Assyria, is a country of such extent and variety, that, in order to give a correct description of its climate, we must divide it into regions. Azerbijan, or Atropatene", the most northern portion, has a climate altogether cooler than the rest of Media; while in the more southern division of the country there is a marked difference between the climate of the east and of the west, of the tracts lying on the high plateau and skirting the Great Salt Desert, and of those contained within or closely abutting upon tho Zagros mountain range. The differ- ence here is due to the difference of physical conformation, which is as great as possible, the broad mountainous plains about Kasvin, Koum, and Kashan, divided from each other by low rocky ridges, offering the strongest conceivable contrast to the perpetual alternations of mountain and valley, precipitous height and deep wooded glen, which compose the greater part of the Zagros region. The climate of Azerbijan is temperate and pleasant, though perhaps somewhat over warm,1 in summer; while in winter it is bitterly severe, colder than that of almost any other region iu the same latitude.2 This extreme rigour seems to be mainly owing to elevation, the very valleys and valley plains of the tract being at a height of from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea 1 Morier complains of the "opprcs- Boeotia, Corfu, Southern Italy, Sardinia, sive heat of the low countries" in Azer- I Southern Spain, the Azores,Washington, bijan during the summer (Second Journey, p. 295). He found the thermometer rise to 99J degrees at Miano early in June. Ibid. p. 208.) 2 The latitude of Azerbijan is that of and San Francisco. It is also that i Balkh, Yarkand, and Diarbekr. These last-named places, and some others in the same latitude in Tartary and Chini, are perhaps as cold. Chap. II. CLIMATE OF NORTHERN MEDIA. 285 level. Frost commonly sets in towards the end of November, or at latest early in December; snow soon covers the ground to the depth of several feet; the thermometer falls below zero; the sun shines brightly except when from time to time fresh deposits of snow occur; but a keen and strong wind usually prevails, which is represented as ''cutting like a sword,"3 and being a very "assassin of life."4 Deaths from cold are of daily occurrence ;5 and it is impossible to travel without the greatest risk. Whole companies or caravans occasionally perish beneath the drift, when the wind is violent, especially if a heavy fall happen to coincide with one of the frequent easterly gales. The severe weather commonly continues till March, when travelling becomes possible, but the snow remains on much of the ground till May, and on the mountains still longer.6 The spring, which begins in April, is temperate and delightful; a sudden burst of vegetation succeeds to the long winter lethargy; the air is fresh and balmy, the sun pleasantly warm, the sky generally cloud- less. In the month of May the heat increases—thunder hangs in the air—and the valleys are often close and sultry.7 Fre- quent showers occur, and the hail-storms are sometimes so Tiolent as to kill the cattle in the fields.8 As the summer advances the heats increase, but the thermometer rarely reaches y<3° in the shade, and except in the narrow valleys the air is never oppressive. The autumn is generally very fine. Foggy mornings are common; but they are succeeded by bright, plea- sant days, without wind or rain.9 On the whole the climate is pronounced healthy,10 though somewhat trying to Europeans, ■who do not readily adapt themselves to a country where the range of the thermometer is as much as 9 f or 100°. 5 Ker Porter, Travels, vol. i. p. 257. 'Ibid. p. 260. 1 Ibid. p. 247. "Scarcely a day passes," says the writer, "without one or two persons being found frozen to death in the neighbourhood of the town" (Tabriz). • Frascr speaks of the winter in Azerbijan as lasting six or seven months (Winter Journey, p. 332). Birds, he say9, are oftt-n frozen to drath (p. 341). According to Kinneir (Persian Empire, p. 158), the snow remains on the mountains for nine months. 1 Morier, Second Jotrneif, p. 303. * Kinneir, 1. s. c. G>mpare Morier, Second Journey, p. 309. • Morier, pp. 243, 297, &c. 10 Kinneir, 1. 9. c.; Chesney, Eu- phrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 221 ; Morier, p. 2 ;o. 286 Chap. IT. THE THIRD MONARCHY. In the part of Media situated on the great plateau—the modern Irak Ajemi—in which are the important towns of Teheran, Isfahan, Hamadan, Kashan, Kasvin, and Koum, the climate is altogether warmer than in Azerbijnn, the summers being hotter, and the winters shorter and much less cold. Snow indeed covers the ground for about three months, from early in December till March; but the thermometer rarely shows more than ten or twelve degrees of frost, and death from cold is uncommon.11 The spring sets in about the beginning of March, and is at first somewhat cool, owing to the prevalence of the baude Caucasan or north wind,12 which blows from dis- tricts where the snow still lies. But after a little time the weather becomes delicious; the orchards are a mass of blossom; the rose gardens come into bloom; the cultivated lands are covered with springing crops; the desert itself wears a light livery of green. Every sense is gratified; the nightingale bursts out with a full, gush of song; the air plays softly upon the cheek, and comes loaded with fragrance, Too soon, however, this charming time passes away, and the summer heats begin, in some places as early as June.15 The thermometer at midday rises to 90 or 100 degrees. Hot gusts blow from the desert, sometimes with great violence. The atmosphere is described as choking;14 and in parts of the plateau it is usual for the inha- bitants to quit their towns almost in a body, and retire for several months into the mountains.11 This extreme heat is, however, exceptional; in most parts of the plateau the summer warmth is tempered by cool breezes from the surrounding mountains, on which there is always a good deal of snow. At Hamadan, which, though on the plain, is close to the mountains, the thermometer seems scarcely ever to rise above 90and that degree of heat is attained only for a few hours in the day. The mornings and evenings are cool and refreshing; and altogether 11 An instance of death from cold in | 1J "The heats of Teheran," savs Mr. this region is recorded by Mr. Fraser Morier, "become insupportable by the (Khoras in, p. 144). middle of June.'' (Second Journey, p. 11 Kinneir, p. 121 ; Ker Porter, vol. i. 351.) 14 Ibid. p. 358. p. 291. According to the latter writer, 13 This is especially the practice at this wind ''continues to blow at inter- Teheran. (Kinneir, p. 119; Morier. vals till the end of May." p. 351 ; Ollivier, Voyage, torn. v. p. 91.) Chap. If. CLIMATE OF THE PLATEAU. 287 the climate quite justifies the choice of the Persian monarchs, who selected Ecbatana for their place of residence during the hottest portion of the year.1 Even at Isfahan, which is on the edge of the desert, the heat is neither extreme nor prolonged. The hot gusts which blow from the east and from the south raise the temperature at times nearly to a hundred degrees; but these oppressive winds alternate with cooler breezes from the west, often accompanied by rain; and the average highest temperature during the day in the hottest month, which is August, does not exceed 90°. A peculiarity in the climate of the plateau which deserves to be noticed, is the extreme dryness of the atmosphere.2 In summer the rains which fall are slight, and they are soon absorbed by the thirsty soil. There is a little dew at nights,3 especially in the vicinity of the few streams; but it disappears with the first hour of sunshine, and the air is left without a par- ticle of moisture. In winter the dryness is equally great; frost taking the place of heat, with the same effect upon the atmo- sphere. Unhealthy exhalations are thus avoided, and the salu- brity of the climate is increased;4 but the European will sometimes sigh for the soft, balmy airs of his own land, which have come flying over the sea, and seem to bring their wings still dank with the ocean spray. Another peculiarity of this region, produced by the unequal rarefaction of the air over its different portions, is the occurrence, especially in spring and summer, of sudden gusts, hot or cold,4 which blow with great violence. These gusts are sometimes accompanied with whirlwinds,6 which sweep the country in dif- ferent directions, carrying away with them leaves, branches, 1 See Morier, Second Journey, p. 270. Compare Kjnneir, Pcrsim Empire, p. 128 ; Ker Porter, Travels, vol. ii. p. 121; Ollivier, Voyage, torn. v. p. 53. OHivier ays: " En ete'le climat est le plus doux, If plus tempere de la Perse." ! Ker Porter, vol. i. p. 441; vol. ii. p-123; Morier, p. 153; OHivier, torn, r. pp. 199 and 209. The last-named *riter mentions as a proof of the dry- ness, that during a long stay in the region he never saw a single snnil! Morier, however, notes that he saw several (p. 154, note). * Morier, p. 154. 4 On the salubrity of Isfahan, see Morier, p. 153; Ker Porter, vol. i. p. 407. 5 See Morier, Second Journey, Ap- pendix, pp. 406-408; Ouscley, vol. iii. pp. 110-112; and the passages quoted in the next note. "Morier, First Journey, p. 174; Second Journey, p. 202; Ouseley, vol. iii. pp. 73 and 375. 2S8 Chap. II. THK THIRD MONARCHY. stubble, sand, and other light substances, and causing great annoyance to the traveller. They occur chiefly in connection with a change of wind, and are no doubt consequent on the meeting of two opposite currents. Their violence, however, is moderate, compared with that of tropical tornados, and it is not often that they do any considerable damage to the crops over which they sweep. One further characteristic of the flat region may be noticed. The intense heat of the summer sun striking on the dry sand or the saline efflorescence of the desert, throws the air over them into such a state of quivering undulation as produces the most wonderful and varying effects, distorting the forms of objects, and rendering the most familiar strange and hard to be recog- nised. A mud bank furrowed by the rain will exhibit the appearance of a magnificent city, with columns, domes, minarets, and pyramids; a few stunted bushes will be transformed into a forest of stately trees; a distant mountain will, in the space of a minute, assume first the appearance of a lofty peak, then swell out at the top, and resemble a mighty mushroom, next split into several parts, and finally settle down into a flat table- land.7 Occasionally, though not very often, that semblance of water is produced* which Europeans are apt to suppose the usual effect of mirage. The images of objects are reflected at their base in an inverted position; the desert seems converted into a vast lake; and the thirsty traveller, advancing towards it, finds himself the victim of an illusion, which is none the less successful because he has been a thousand times forewarned of its deceptive power. , In the mountain range of Zagros and the tracts adjacent to it, the climate, owing to the great differences of elevation, is more varied than in the other parts of the ancient Media. Severe cold' prevails in the higher mountain regions for seven months out of the twelve, while during the remaining five the heat is never more than moderate.10 In the low vallevs, on the con- 'Fraser, Khorasim, p. 165, note. 8 Morier, Second Journey, p. 282. "Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 80; Kinncir, p. 144; Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. x. pp. 20-22. "Chesney, 1. s. c In Ardelan, which Chap. II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 289 trary, and in other favoured situations," the winters are often milder than on the plateau; while in the summers, if the heat is not greater, at any rate it is more oppressive. Owing to the abundance of the streams and the proximity of the melting snows, the air is moist; and the damp heat, which stagnates in the valleys, breeds fever and ague.12 Between these extremes of climate and elevation every variety is to be found; and, except in winter, a few hours' journey will almost always bring the traveller into a temperate region. In respect of natural productiveness, Media (as already observed)13 differs exceedingly in different, and even in adjacent, districts. The rocky ridges of the great plateau, destitute of all vegetable mould, are wholly bare and arid, admitting not the slightest degree of cultivation. Many of the mountains of Azerbijan, naked, rigid, and furrowed,14 may compare even with these desert ranges for sterility. The higher parts of Zagros and Elburz are sometimes of the same character; but more often they are thickly clothed with forests, affording excellent timber and other valuable commodities. In the Elburz, pines are found near the summit,15 while lower down there occur first the wild almond and the dwarf oak, and then the usual timber- trees of the country, the Oriental plane, the willow, the poplar, and the walnut.16 The walnut grows to a large size both here and in Azerbijan, but the poplar is the wood most commonly used for building purposes.17 In Zagros, besides most of these trees, the ash and the terebinth or turpentine-tree are common; the oak bears gall-nuts of a large size; and the gum-tragacanth plant frequently clothes the mountain-sides.18 The valleys of this region are full of magnificent orchards, as are the low grounds and more sheltered nooks of Azerbijan. The fruit-trees ii much lower than many parts of the 13 See above, pp. 255, 256. range, Morier found the air quite " cool" "Fraser, Winter Journey, p. 853, in June (Second Journey, p. 272). Kin- 15 Moricr, Second Journey, p. 362. Heir notes that in the same region there j '* Ibid. L 8. c.; and see also p. 354. »'»s frost in July, 1810 (Persian Empire; "Morier, First Journey, pp. 274 and p. 144). 277; Second Journey, p. 262. The wood "As at Toosirkan (supra, p. 276, I of the plane is preferred for furniture, note '). 18 Ollivier, torn. v. p. 59: Chesney, l: See Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, i vol. i. p. 123. vol. i. pp. 159-165. VOL. II. t; 290 Ciur. n. THE THIRD MONARCHY. comprise, besides vines and mulberries, the apple, the pear, the quince, the plum, the cherry, the almond, the nut, the chesuut, the olive, the peach, the nectarine, and the apricot19 On the plains of the high plateau there is a great scarcity of vegetation. Trees of a large size grow only in the few places which are well watered, as in the neighbourhood of Hauiadan, Isfahan, and in a less degree of Kashan.80 The principal tree is the Oriental plane, which flourishes together with poplars and willows along the watercourses; cypresses also grow freely; elms and cedars are found,21 and the orchards and gardens contain not only the fruit-trees mentioned above, but also the jujuhe, the cornel, the filbert, the medlar, the pistachio nut, the pomegranate, and the fig.28 Away from the immediate vicinity of the rivers and the towns, not a tree, scarcely a bush, is to be seen. The common thorn is indeed tolerably abundant23 in a few places; but elsewhere the tamarisk and a few other sapless shrubs84 are the only natural products of this bare and arid region. In remarkable contrast with the natural barrenness of tin's wide tract are certain favoured districts in Zagros and Azer- bijan, where the herbage is constant throughout the summer, and sometimes only too luxuriant. Such are the rich and extensive grazing grounds of Khawah and Alishtar near Ker- manshah,25 the pastures near Ojan26 and Marand,87 and the cele- brated Chowal Moghan or plain of Moghan, on the lower course of the Araxes river, where the grass is said to grow sufficiently 10 Joufnal of the Geographical Society, vol. x. p. 3; Ker Porter, vol. i. p. 394; Rich, Kurdistan, pp. 105, 163, &o. It was probably from some knowledge of this tract that Virgil spoke of Media as "abounding in trees." (Georg. ii. 136. "Medorum silvse ditissima terra.") 20 On the verdure and shade of Isfa- han, sec Kcr Porter, vol. i. p. 411; on that of Hamadan, see Morier, Second Journey, p. 262, and Kcr Porter, vol. ii. p. 91. On Kashan, sec the last-named writer, vol. i. p. 389; and compare Ol- livier, torn. v. p. 169. 21 Ker Porter notes "a species of cedar not unlike that of Lebanon" at Kashan (I. s. c). Morier notices elms "with very thick and rich foliage." and a peculiarly "formal shape," near Isfa- han (First Journey, p. 169; compare Second Journey, p. 263). 22 Ollivicr.'tom. v. p. 191. 21 Morier, Sccni-p. 64. !torn. iii. p. 65; Morier, Second Journey, "Ouseley, Travels, vol. iii. pp. 21H, j p. 201); but they appear to have had 2IT, and 246; Morier, Second Journey, less satisfactory means of judging, p. 205. 296 CuiP. II. THE THIRD MONARCHY. delicacy. He appears to be the Asinus onager of naturalists, a distinct species from the Asinus hemippus of Mesopotamia, and the Asinus hemionus of Thibet and Tartary.88 It is doubtful whether some kind of wild cattle does not still inhabit the more remote tracts of Kurdistan. The natives mention among the animals of their country "the mountain ox;" and though it has been suggested that the beast intended is the elk,83 it is perhaps as likely to be the Aurochs, which seems certainly to have been a native of the adjacent country of Mesopotamia in ancient times.84 At any rate, until Zagros has been thoroughly explored by Europeans, it must remain uncertain what animal is meant. Meanwhile we may be tolerably sure that, besides the species enumerated, Mount Zagros contains within its folds some large and rare ruminant. Among the birds the most remarkable are the eagle, the bustard, the pelican, the stork, the pheasant, several kinds of partridges, the quail, the woodpecker, the bee-eater, the hoopoe, and the nightingale. Besides these, doves and pigeons, both wild and tame,25 are common; as are swallows, goldfinches, sparrows, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, linnets, magpies, crows, hawks, falcons, teal, snipe, wild ducks, and many other kinds of waterfowl. The most common partridge is a red-legged species (Caccabis chukar of naturalists), which is unable to fly far, and is hunted until it drops.86 Another kind, common both in Azerbijan and in the Elburz,87 is the black-breasted partridge (Perdix nigra)—a bird not known in many countries. Besides these, there is a small grey partridge in the Zagros range, 21 See the Anr-j/a ind Magazine of j Morier, First Journey, p. 155; Second Natural History, vol. vi. No. 34, p. 243 "Rich, Kurdistan, p. 237. "Supra, vol. i. pp. 226, 512, 513. "Tame pigeons are bred on a large , mainly for the sake of their dung, Journey, p. 140.) "liich says: "Hundreds of partridges are taken by parties of sportsmen sta- tioned on opposite hills, who frighten the covey by shouting as soon as it which is the favourite manure of the I comes in their direction. The birds at melon-grounds. All travellers remark last become alarmed and confused, and the numerous pigeon-towers, especially in the neighbourhood of Isfahan, some of which bring in an income of two or three hundred pounds a-year. (See Kinneir, p. 110; Chardin, torn. iii. p. 39; drop to the ground, when they are easily taken." (Kurdistan, p. 237.) Compare 1 Sam. xxvL 20. "Morier, StvorulJaurw;, pp. 234 and 359. Chap. II. BIRDS-FISH. 297 which the Kurds call seska.2g The bee-eater (Merojis Persicus) is rare. It is a bird of passage, and only visits Media in the autumn, preparatory to retreating into the warm district of Mazanderan for the winter months.29 The hoopoe (Upupa) is probably still rarer, since very few travellers mention it.30 The woodpecker is found in Zagros, and is a beautiful bird, red and grey in colour.31 V - — , - v X dm it Pigeon towers near Isfahan. Media is, on the whole, but scantily provided with fish. Lake Urumiyeh produces none, as its waters are so salt that they even destroy all the river-fish which enter them.1 Salt streams, like the Aji Su, are equally unproductive, and the fresh-water rivers of the plateau fall so low in summer, that fish cannot "Rich, Kurdistan, p. 143. ** Ollivier, Voyages, torn. T. p. 125. 'I have found a mention of the hoo- poe only in Morier, who saw it near Kasvin. (First Journey, p. 255.) 11 Rich, Kurdistan, p. 184. 1 Geographical Journal, vol. iii. p. 56; vol. x. p. 7; Morier, Second Journey, p. 288; Kinncir, p. 155. 298 Chap. 11. THE THIRD MONARCHY. become numerous in them. Thus it is only in Zagros, in Azer- bijan, and in the Elburz, that the streams furnish any consider- able quantity. The kinds most common are barbel, carp, dace, bleak, and gudgeons.2 In a comparatively few streams, more especially those of Zagros, trout are found, which are handsome and of excellent quality.3 The river of Isfahan produces a kind of cray-fish, which is taken in the bushes along its banks, and is very delicate eating.'' It is remarkable that fish are caught not only in the open streams of Media, but also in the kanats or underground con- duits, from which the light of day is very nearly excluded. They appear to be of one sort only, viz., barbel, but are abun- dant, and often grow to a considerable size. Chardin supposed them to be unfit for food ;4 but a later observer declares that though of no great delicacy, they are ''perfectly sweet and wholesome." * Of reptiles the most common are snakes, lizards, and tortoises. In the long grass of the Moghan district, on the lower course of the Araxes, the snakes are so numerous and venomous, that many parts of the plain are thereby rendered impassable in Ihe summer-time.7 A similar abundance of this reptile Dear the western entrance of the Girduni Siyaluk pass8 induces the natives to abstain from using it, except in winter.9 Lizards of many forms and hues10 disport themselves about the rocks and stones, some quite small, others two feet or more in length.11 They are quite harmless, and appear to be in general very tame. Land tortoises are also common in the sandy regions.'* In Kurdi*tau there is a remarkable frog, with a smooth skin and of an apple-green colour, which lives chiefly in trees, roost- 1 Morier, Second Journey, p. 253; | Exjxdition, vol. i. p. 82. Chardin, torn. iii. p. 44; Ouseley, vol. 'Sec above, p. 273, note ". iii. p. 50; Kich, Knrdistm, p. 60. | • Sir H. Rawlinson, MS. notes. Cora- 3 Rich, p. 67; Fraser, Travels in Kur- pare Pliny, H. N. vi. 14: "Prarterea distan, vol. i. p. 7. Trout occur also in scrpentium multitude), nisi hyeme, tran- the Elburz. (Ouseley, vol. iii. p. 125.) !situm non sinit." 4 Chardin, torn. iii. p. 44. "Un I 10 Kcr Porter, vol. i. pp. 390, 391. manger fort de'licat.' 11 Ker Porter measured one, and found 5 Ibid. i it exceed two feet (I. s. c). Chardin *»« • Fraser. Khorasan. p. 406. that some which he saw were an ell * Kinncir, p. 153, note; Morier, Second in length. ( Voyages, torn. iii. p. 38.j Jwirnej, p. 2."*0; Chcsney, Euphrates "Kcr Porter, 1. s. c. Chap. II. INSECTS. 299 The destructive locust (Acridium pcregrinum). ing in them at night, and during the day employing itself in catching flies and locusts, which it strikes with its fore paw, as a cat strikes a bird or a mouse.13 Among insects, travellers chiefly notice the mosquito,14 which is in many places a cruel torment; the centipede, which grows to an unusual size;15 the locust, of which there is more than one variety; and the scorpion, whose sting is sometimes fatal. The destructive locust (the Acridium peregrinum, probably) comes suddenly into Kur- distan 16 and southern Me- dia 17 in clouds that obscure the air, moving with a slow and steady flight, and with a sound like that of heavy rain, and settling in myriads on the fields, the gardens, the trees, the terraces of the houses, and even the streets, which they sometimes cover completely. Where they fall, vegetation pre- sently disappears; the leaves, and even the stems of the plants, are devoured; the labours of the husbandman through many a weary month perish in a day; and the curse of famine is brought upon the land which but now enjoyed the prospect of an abun- dant harvest. It is true that the devourers are themselves devoured to some extent by the poorer sort of people;18 but the compensation is slight and temporary; in a few days, when all verdure is gone, either the swarms move to fresh pastures, or they perish and cover the fields with their dead bodies, while the desolation which they have created continues. Another kind of locust, observed by Mr. Rich in Kurdistan, is called by the natives ahira-kulla, a name seemingly identical with the ehargol of the Jews,19 and perhaps the best clue which we possess to the identification of that species. Mr. Rich de- ,s Rich, Kurdistan, p. 173. M Ibid. p. 172; Chardin, torn. iii. p. :}8; Ouseley, vol. iii. p. 122. Is Chardin, I. s. c. This writer adds that its bite is dangerous, and has been known to prove fatal in some cases. But recent travellers do not confirm this statement. '« Rich, p. 171. "Kinneir, p. 43; Chardin, 1. 8. c. '• Chardin, torn. ii. p. 221. "Lev. xi. 22. The resemblance of the word slara-kuUn to ehargol (}3"in) is striking, and can scarcely be a mere accident. ,ihira-kulla, however, is trans- lated "the lion locust," a meaning which cannot possibly be given to ehargol. Chap. II. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 301 —the Bactrian or two-humped camel, which is coarse and low; the taller and lighter Arabian breed; and a cross between the two, which is called ner, and is valued very highly.8* The ordi- nary burden of the Arabian camel is from seven to eight hundred- weight; while the Bactrian variety is said to be capable of bearing a load nearly twice as heavy.27 Next to the camel, as a beast of burden, must be placed the mule. The mules of the country are small, but finely propor- tioned, and carry a considerable weight.1 They travel thirty miles a day with ease,2 and are preferred for journeys on which it is necessary to cross the mountains. The ass is very inferior, and is only used by the poorer classes.3 Two distinct breeds of horses are now found in Media, both of which seem to be foreign—the Turkoman and the Arabian. The Turkoman is a large, powerful, enduring animal, with long legs, a light body, and a big head.4 The Arab is much smaller, but perfectly shaped, and sometimes not greatly inferior to the very best produce of Nejd.s A third breed is obtained by an intermixture of these two, which is called the bid-pai, or " wind- footed," and is the most prized of all.6 The dogs are of various breeds, but the most esteemed is a large kind of greyhound, which some suppose to have been introduced into this part of Asia by the Macedonians, and which is chiefly employed in the chase of the antelope.7 The animal is about the height of a full-sized English greyhound, but rather stouter; he is deep-chested, has long, smooth hair, and the tail S! Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 82. "Ibid. p. 582. 'Chesney says that the ordinary burden of a mule in Persia is three hundred weight. (Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 81.) * Ibid. L s. c. 1 Chardin, Voyages, torn. iii. p. 33; Chesney. 1. s. c. 'Kinneir, Persian Empire, p. 40; Fraser, Khorasan, pp. 269, 270. I'rnser observes, that "on the whole the Tur- koman horses approach more to the character of the English horse than any other breed in the East." i Kinneir, 1. s. c. 6 Chesney, 1. s. c. 7 The antelope is commonly chased by the falcon and greyhound in combina- tion. The falcon, when loosed, makes straight at the game, and descending on its head, either strikes it to the ground, or at least greatly checks its course. If shaken off, it will strike again and ngain, at once so frightening and re- tarding the animal that the dogs easily reach it. (See Chardin, torn. iii. p. 42, and Kinneir, p. 42. Compare the similar practice of the Mcsopotamian Arabs, de- scribed in Layard's Nineveh and Babylon p. 482.) 302 Chap. U. THE THIRD MONABCHY. considerably feathered.8 His pace is inferior to that of our greyhounds, but in strength and sagacity he far surpasses them.9 We do not find many of the products of Media celebrated by ancient writers. Of its animals, those which had the highest reputation were its horses, distinguished into two breeds, an ordinary kind, of which Media produced annually many thou- sands,10 and a kind of rare size and excellence, known under the name of Nissan. These last are celebrated by Herodotus,11 (Strabo,12 Arrian,13 Ammianus Marcellinus,14 Suidus,15 and others. Persepolitan horse, perhaps Xisa>an. They are said to have been of a peculiar shape;16 and they were equally famous for size, speed, and stoutness.11 Strabo remarks that they resembled the horses known in his own time as Parthian ;18 and this observation seems distinctly to connect all Asia." (ax*ihv ivcurav XTlt" 'Aalcw. Polyb. x. 27, § 2.) "Herod, vii. 40. Compare iii 10* and i. 189. "Strab. xi. 13, § 7. '* Arrian, Exp. Alex. vii. 13. Arri»n gives the form Kvaawi. in plow of the Ni4, notes 9 and 1 Strab. xi. 13, § 2. At^v-nv %x€t rht' Iravrav, iy ^ aKts Intwdovvrts tt^t- TOtTOI. '//. If. xxxvii. 5. Compare Solinus, Polnhist. 20. s Pliny's name for this gem is "sap- phirus:" but it has been well shown by Mr. King that his "sapphirus" is the lapis lazuli, and his "hyocinthus" the wpphire. (Antique (Jems, pp. 44-47.) 'H. N. xxxvii. 8. Neither the lapis lazuli nor the emerald are now found within the limits of Media. The former abounds in Bactriu, near Fyzabad; and the latter is occasionally lotind in the same region. (Fraser, Khurasan, Ap- pendix, pp. 105, 106.) 'See Plin. II. N. xxxvii. 10 and 11. The narcissitis is mentioned also by Dionysius. (See the passage placed at the head of tile first chapter.) VOL. II. X 3o6 Our. in. THE THIRD MONARCHY. CHAPTER III. CHARACTER, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, ART, •( passim; Beh. Ins. col. i. par. 10, § 10; par. 11, §7; par. 12, § 3 ; par. 13, § 2; par. 14, § 7. Medes were fre- quently employed as generals by the Persians. (Sec Herod, i. 156, 162; vi. 94; Beh. Ins. col. ii. par. 14, §6; col. iii par 14, § 3.) The closeness of the connection is perhaps most strikingly Chap. III. ARIAN PHYSIOGNOMY. 307 belonged all to a single stock, differing from one another pro- bably not much more than now differ the various subdivisions of the Teutonic or the Slavonic race.6 Between the tribes at the two extremities of the Arian territory the divergence was no doubt considerable; but between any two neighbouring tribes the difference was probably in most cases exceedingly slight. At any rate this was the case towards the west, where the Medes and Persians, the two principal sections of the Arian body in that quarter, are scarcely distinguishable from one another in any of the features which constitute ethnic type. The general physical character of the ancient Arian race is best gathered from the sculptures of the Achsemenian kings,7 which exhibit to us a very noble variety of the human species— a form tall, graceful, and stately; a physiognomy handsome and pleasing, often somewhat resembling the Greek;s the forehead hiirh and straight, the nose nearly in the same line, long and well formed, sometimes markedly aquiline, the upper lip short, commonly shaded by a moustache, the chin rounded and gene- rally covered with a curly beard. The hair evidently grew in great plenty, and the race was proud of it. On the top of the head it was worn smooth, but it was drawn back from the fore- head and twisted into a row or two of crisp curls, while at the same time it was arranged into a large mass of similar small c!ose ringlets at the back of the head and over the ears. Of the Median women we have no representations upon the sculptures; but we are informed by Xenophon that they were remarkable for their stature and their beauty.9 The same qualities were observable in the women of Persia, as we learn * See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. fied; and if the expression is not full of 550-555, 2nd edition. life and genius, it is intellectual and 1 The only certain representations of indicative of reflection. The shape of actual Medes which the sculptures fur- the head is entirely Indo-European, and nish are the prostrate figure and the has nothing that recalls the Tartar or third standing rebel in the Behistun Mongolian." (Natural History of Man, Wrelief. But the artist in this sculp- p. 173.) ture makes no pretence of marking j • Xen. Anab. iii. 2, § 25. In accord- ethnic difference by a variety in the j ance with his statement in this place, physiognomy. 1 Xenophon makes the daughter of Cy- 'Dr. Prichard observes of the type J axares, whom he marries to Cyrus the in question: "The outline of the conn- Great, an extraordinary beauty. (Cyrop. tensnce is here not strictly Grecian, for viii. 5, § 28.) it is peculiar; but it is noble and digni- x 2 308 Chaf. in. THE THIRD MONARCHY. from Plutarch,10 Ammianus Marcellinus," and others. The Arian races seem in old times to have treated women with a certain chivalry, which allowed the full development of their physical powers, and rendered them specially attractive alike to their own husbands and to the men of other nations. Arian physiognomy (Persepolis). The modern Persian is a very degenerate representative ot the ancient Arian stock. Slight and supple in person, with quick, glancing eyes, delicate feature?, and a vivacious manner, "Plut. Fit. Akxand. p. 676, D. Pereide, tin feminarnm pitlchritvdo a- "Amm. Marc. xxiv. 14. "Ex vir- cellit," Compare Quint. Curt. Sii- Hi ginibus, qua' spcciosrc sunt caput, ut in Arrian, Exp. Alex. ix. 19, kc. Chap. 111. MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEDES. 309 he lacks the dignity and strength, the calm repose and simple grace of the race from which he is sprung. Fourteen centuries of subjection to despotic sway have lelt their stamp upon his countenance and his frame, which, though still retaining some traces of the original type, have been sadly weakened and lowered by so long a term of subservience. Probably the wild Kurd or Lur of the present day more nearly corresponds in physique to the ancient Mede than do the softer inhabitants of the great plateau. Among the moral characteristics of the Medes, the one most obvious is their bravery. "Pugnatrix natio et formidanda," says Ammianus Marcellinus in the fourth century of our era, summing up in a few words the general judgment of antiquity.12 Originally equal, if not superior, to their close kindred, the Persians, they were throughout the whole period of Persian supremacy only second to them in courage and warlike qualities. Mardonins, when allowed to take his choice out of the entire host of Xerxes, selected the Median troops in immediate suc- cession to the Persians.1 Similarly, when the time for battle came he kept the Medes near himself, giving them their place in the line close to that of the Persian contingent.2 It was no doubt on account of their valour, as Diodorus suggests,3 that the Medes were chosen to make the first attack upon the Greek position at Thermopylae, where though unsuccessful they evi- dently showed abundant courage.4 In the earlier times, before riches and luxury had eaten out the strength of the race, their valour and military prowess must have been even more con- spicuous. It was then especially that Media deserved to be called, as she is in Scripture, "the mighty one of the heathen"5 —"the terrible of the nations."6 Her valour, undoubtedly, was of the merciless kind. There was no tenderness, no hesitancy about it. Not only did her armies "dash to pieces" the fighting men of the nations opposed 15 Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. Compare Sic. Dam. Fr. 9; Diod. Sic. xi. 6; Herod, i. 95; kc 1 Herod, viii. 113. s Ibid. is. 31. 3 Diod. Sic. xi. 6, § 3. Ai' Imtpttcw wpoKplvas clvtovs. 4 Sec Herod, vii. 210. * Ezek. xxxi. 11. 6 Ibid, verse 12. 310 Chap. III. THE THIRD MONARCHY. to her, allowing apparently no quarter.7 but the women and the children suffered indignities and cruelties at the hands of her savage warriors, which the pen unwillingly records. The Median conquests were accompanied by the worst atrocities which lust and hate combined are wont to commit when they obtain their full swing. Neither the virtue of women nor the innocence of children were a protection to them. The infant was slain before the very eye of the parent. The sanctity of the hearth was invaded, and the matron ravished beneath her own roof-tree.8 Spoil, it would seem, was disregarded in com- parison with insult and vengeance; and the brutal soldiery cared little either for silver or gold,9 provided they could indulge freely in that thirst for blood which man shares with the hyaena and the tiger. The habits of the Medes in the early part of their career were undoubtedly simple and manly. It has been observed with justice that the same general features have at all times dis- tinguished the rise and fall of Oriental kingdoms and dynasties. A brave and adventurous prince, at the head of a population at once poor, warlike, and greedy, overruns a vast tract, and acquires extensive dominion, while his successors, abandoning themselves to sensuality and sloth, probably also to oppressive and irascible dispositions, become in process of time victims to those same qualities in another prince and people, which had enabled their own predecessors to establish their power.14 It was as being braver, simpler, and so stronger than the Assyrians, that the Medes were able to dispossess them of their sovereignty over Western Asia. But in this, as in most other cases of con- quest throughout the East, success was followed almost imme- diately by degeneracy. As captive Greece captured her fierce conqueror,11 so the subdued Assyrians began at once to corrupt their subduers. Without condescending to a close imitation of Assyrian manners and customs, the Medes proceeded directly 7 Isaiah xiii. 15 and 18. | 8 Sec verse 17. * Ibid, verse 1G. "Their children I "Grotc, History of Greece, vol. iii. f- also shall be dashed to pieces before their I 157, 2nd ed. eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and' "Horat. fCpist. ii. 1, 156. "Gnecis their wives ravished.'' j capta ferum victurem i-epit." Cuav. III. RKADY ADOPTION OF LUXURIOUS HABITS. 311 after their conquest to relax the severity of their old habits and to indulge in the delights of soft and luxurious living. The historical romance of Xenophon presents us probably with a trie picture, when it describes the strong contrast which existed towards the close of the Median period between the luxury and magnificence which prevailed at Ecbatana, and the primitive simplicity of Persia Proper,12 where the old Arian habits, which had once been common to the two races, were still maintained in all their original severity. Xenophon's authority in this work is, it must be admitted, weak, and little trust can be placed in the historical accuracy of his details; but his general statement is both in itself probable, and is also borne out to a considerable extent by other authors. Herodotus and Strabo note the luxury of the Median dress,13 while the latter author goes so far as to derive the whole of the later Persian splendour from an imitation of Median practices." We must hold then that towards the latter part of their empire the Medes became a comparatively luxurious people, not indeed laying aside alto- gether their manly habits, nor ceasing to be both brave men and good soldiers, but adopting an amount of pomp and mag- nificence to which they were previously strangers, affecting splendour in their dress and apparel, grandeur and rich orna- ment in their buildings,15 variety in their banquets,16 and attaining on the whole a degree of civilisation not very greatly inferior to that of the Assyrians. In taste and real refine- ment they seem indeed to have fallen considerably below their teachers. A barbaric magnificence predominated in their orna- mentation over artistic effort, richness in the material being preferred to skill in the manipulation. Literature, and even letters, were very sparingly cultivated.17 But little originality was developed. A stately dress, and a new style of architecture, 15 Xcn. Cyrop. i. 3, § 2, ct seq. seems to be implied by the mention in 11 Herod, i. 135; Strab. xi. 13, § 9. "Strab. L s. c 11 See above, p. 265. 14 Xen. Cyrop. i. 3, § 4. na»To!aira ♦ uSauuara Kal /fywpaTa. 17 The use of writing by the Medes is Esther of the "book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia" (x. 2). The actual work alluded to may perhaps have been a Persian compilation; but the Persian writer would scarcely have ventured to write the " chronicles of the indicated in the Book of Daniel (vi. 9). j kings of Media," unless he had Median The existence of a Median literature , materials to go upon. 312 Chap. HI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. are almost the only inventions to which the Medes can lay claim. They were brave, energetic, enterprising, fond of dis- play, capable of appreciating to some extent the advantages of civilised life; but they had little genius, and the world is scarcely indebted to them for a single important addition to the general stock of its ideas. Of the Median customs in war we know but little. Herodotus tells us that in the array of Xerxes the Medes were armed exactly as the Persians, carrying on their heads a soft felt cap, on their bodies a sleeved tunic, and on their legs trowsers. Their offensive arms, he says, were the spear, the bow, and the dagger. They had large wicker shields, and bore their quivers suspended at their backs. Sometimes their tunic was made into a coat of mail by the addition to it on the outside of a number of small iron plates arranged so as to overlap eacli other, like the scales of a fish.1 They served both on horseback and on foot, with the same equipment in both cases.2 There is no reason to doubt the correctness of this description of the Median military dress under the early Persian kings. The only question is how far the equipment was really the ancient warlike costume of the people. It seems in some respects too elaborate to be the armature of a simple and primi- tive race. We may reasonably suppose that at least the scale armour and the unwieldy wicker shields (yeppa). which re- quired to be rested on the ground,3 were adopted at a some- what late date from the Assyrians. At any rate the original character of the Median armies, as set before us in Scripture,4 and as indicated both by Strabo5 and Xenophon,6 is simpler than the Herodotean description. The primitive Medes seem to have been a nation of horse-archers.7 Trained from their early boyhood to a variety of equestrian exercises,8 and well 1 Herod, vii. 61. On the scale armour 4 Compare Isaiah xiii. 18; Jerem. I. of the Assyrians, see above, vol. i. pp. | 9, 29, li. 11, &c. 431-433, and 441-444. On that of the , 1 Strab. xi. 13, § 9. Egyptians, see Wilkinson in the author's fi Xen. Cyrop. ii. 1, § 6. Herodotus, vol. iv. p. 65, 2nd edit. 7 Of course the Medes had always J Herod, vii. 86. some footmen, but their strength was in * See above, vol. i. pp. 444-446; and their horse. I do not believe in their rompnrc Herod, ix. 62; Xen. Anab. i. 8, using chariots. (Nic. D. Fr. 10.) $ 9. &c. » Xen. Cyrop. i. 4, § 4. Compsr.- Chap. HI. MILITARY EQUIPMENT. 3'3 practised in the use of the bow, they appear to have proceeded against their enemies with clouds of horse, almost in Scythian fashion, and to have gained their victories chiefly by the skill with which they shot their arrows as they advanced, retreated, or manoeuvred about their foe. No doubt they also used the sword and the spear. The employment of these weapons has been almost universal throughout the East from a very remote antiquity, and there is some mention of them in connection with the 3[«les and their kindred, the Persians, in Scripture ;9 but it is evident that the terror which the Medes inspired arose mainly from their dexterity as archers.10 No representation of weapons which can be distinctly recognised as Median has come down to us. The general character of the military dress and of the arms appears, pro- bably, in the Persepolitau sculptures; but as these reliefs are in most cases representations, not of Medes, but of Persians, and as they must be here- after adduced in illustration of the military customs of the latter people, ouly a very sparing use of them can be made in the present chapter. It would seem that the bow employed was short and very much curved, and that, like the Assyrian,11 it was USIially Carried ill a bow-case, which Mede or Persian carrying a might either be slung at the back bo-.v in it, case (Per^jpoiis). or hung from the girdle. The arrows, which were borne in a quiver slung behind the right shoulder, must have been short, Strabo. who says (I. s. c.) that the famous 10 The fame of the Medes as archers Persian educational system was wholly ' passed on to the Persians, and even to copied from the Median. the Parthians, who with the tastes in- "The sword is mentioned in connec- herited the name of the earlier people, tion with the Medes and Persians in Hence the "horribilis Medusn (Hor. Jeremiah 1. 35-37. "The bow and the ! Od. i. 2U, 4) and the "Medi pharetra spear" arc united in vi. 23, aud again decori" of Horace (Orf. ii. 16, 6.) in 1. 42. I "Supra, vol. i. p. 451. 3'4 Chap. IH. THE THIRD MONARCHY. certainly not exceeding the length of three feet. The quiver appears to have been round: it was covered at the top, and was fastened by means of a flap and strap, which last passed over a button. Bow and quiver (Pcrsepolis). The Median spear or lance was from six to seven feet in length. Its head was lozenge-shaped and flattish, but strength- en — Persian or Median spear (Persepolis). ened by a bar or line down the middle.12 It is uncertain whether the head was inserted into the top of the shaft, or whether it did 12 Compare the Assyrian spearheads, vol. i. p. 457. Chap. III. DRESS. 315 Shield of a warrior (Persepolis). The oval not rather terminate in a ring or socket into which the upper end of the shaft was itself inserted. The shaft tapered gra- dually from bottom to top, and terminated below iu a knob or ball, which was perhaps sometimes carved into the shape of some natural object.13 The sword was short, being in I'act little more than a dagger.14 It depended at the right thigh from a belt which encircled the waist, and was further secured by a strap attached to the bottom of the sheath, and passing round the soldier's right leg a little above the knee. Median shields were probably either round or oval specimens bore a resemblance to the shield of the Boeotians, having a small oval aperture at either side, apparently for the sake of greater lightness. They were strengthened at the centre by a circular boss or disk, ornamented with knobs or circles. They would seem to have been made either of metal or wood. The favourite dress of the Medes in peace is well known to us from the sculptures. There cau be no reasonable doubt that the long flowing robe so remarkable for its grace- ful folds, which is the garb of the kings, the chief nobles, and the officers of the court in all the Persian bas-reliefs, and which is seen also upon the durics and the gems, is the famous "Median garment" of Herodotus, Xenophon, and Strabo.1 This garment fits the chest and shoulders closely, but falls over the arms in two large loose sleeves, open at the bottom. At the waist it is confined by a Median robe (Pem'- polis). "The lower end of the Persian spears terminated frequently in an apple or pomegranate (Herod, vii. 41; A then. xii. p. 514, B). According to Clearchus of Soli, this practice was •dopted by the Persians from the Medes, and was intended as a reproach to the latter lor their unmanly luxury. (Athcn. p 514, D.) 14 So Xenophon calls the Persian sword, p&xalPay ^ KovfBa. {Cyrop. i. 2, § 13.) 1 'EffflJjj MnSiK^j. Herod, i. 135; vii. 116; 2to*Jj MtjSik);. Xen. C,rvp. viii. 8, § 15; 2to\Jj Tltpauci). Strab. xi. 13, § 9. This, Strabo expressly says, was adopted from the Medes. 316 Chat. III. THE THIRD MONARCHY. Median shoe (Perscpolis). cincture. Below it is remarkably full and ample, drooping in two clusters of perpendicular folds at the two sides, and between these hang- ing in festoons like a curtain. It ex- tends down to the ankles, where it is met by a high shoe or low boot, opening in front and secured by buttons. These Median robes were of many colours. Sometimes they were purple, sometimes scarlet, occa- sionally a dark grey, or a deep crimson.2 Procopius says that they were made of silk,3 and this statement is confirmed to some extent by Justin, who speaks of their transparency.4 It may he doubted, however, whether the material was always the same; probably it varied with the season, and also with the wealth of the wearer. Besides this upper robe, which is the only garment shown in the sculptures, the Medes wore as under garments a sleeved shirt or tunic of a purple colour,5 and embroidered drawers or trowsers.6 They co- Median head-dress (Perscpolis). yered the head> not only Qut of doors, but in their houses,' wearing either felt caps (7u\ot) like the Persians, or a head-dress of a more elaborate character, * Xen. Cgrop. viii. .1, § 3. 'E{«'()>fpf 8ij Kal aAAuv M7)0ura? OToAaV ireuxiroA- Aas ykp Traptnufvaaaja. ovliiv iKTai. the king hunt in person. 'This, at least, is the account of Hero- I 9 See above, p. 295. dotus (i. 100). But it may be doubted * Xen. Cyrop. i. 4, § 7. Nicolas of whether he does not somewhat over-state Damascus mentions the wild boars, the the degree of seclusion affected by the stags, and the wild asses. (Fr. 10.) Chap. III. PRACTICE OF POLYGAMY. 319 were reckoned dangerous, the others harmless.7 It was cus- tomary to pursue tliese animals on horseback, and to aim at them with the bow or the javelin. We may gather a lively idea of some of these hunts from the sculptures of the Parthians, who some centuries Inter inhabited the same regions. We see in these the rush of great troops of boars through marshes dense with water-plants, the bands of beaters urging them on, the sportsmen aiming at them with their bows, and the game falling transfixed with two or three well-aimed shafts.8 Again we see herds of deer driven within enclosures, and there slain by archers who shoot from horseback, the monarch under his parasol looking on the while, pleased with the dexterity of his servants.9 It is thus exactly that Xenophon portrays Astyages as contem- plating the sport of his courtiers, complacently viewing their enjoyment, but taking no active part in the work himself.10 Like other Oriental sovereigns, the Median monarch main- tained a seraglio of wives and concubines;11 and polygamy was i-ommonly practised among the more wealthy classes. Strabo speaks of a strange law as obtaining with some of the Median tribes—a law which required that no man should be content with fewer wives than five.12 It is very unlikely that such a burthen was really made obligatory on any: most probably five legiti- mate wives, and no more, were allowed by the law referred to, just as four wives, and no more, are lawful for Mahometans. Polygamy, as usual, brought in its train the cruel practice of castration; and the Court swarmed with eunuchs, chiefly foreigners purchased in their infancy.13 Towards the close of the Empire this despicable class appears to have been all- powerful with the monarch.14 Thus the tide of corruption gradually advanced ; and there is : Xen. Ct/rop. L 8. c. | rffovraj. 'See the engraving in Ker Porter's "Strnb. xi. 13, | 11. Compare Nico- TraveU, vol. ii. opp. p. 175, or the more las of Damascus, Fr. 66 (fr. Hist. fit-. csrefnlly drawn representation in Flan- j vol iii. p. 403). din's Voyage en Perse, torn. i. pi. 10. "Strab. 1. s. c. 'Ker Porter, vol. ii. opp. p. 177; [ "Clearoh. Sol. ap. Athen. Deipn. xii. Flandin, torn. i. pi. 12. 2, p. 514, D. "Xen. Cyrop. i. 4, § 15. 'KBtaro , "Nic. Dam. Fr. 66 (fr. Hist. Gr. Toils apiXbafitvovs M tA Sr/pia. Kai vol. iii. pp. 398 and 402). ■piWctKoviTas, vol StwKoPTas, KaX okov~ j 320 Ciixr. III. THE THIRD MONARCHY. reason to believe that both Court and people had in a great measure laid aside the hardy and simple customs of their forefathers, and become enervated through luxury, when the revolt of the Persians came to test the quality of their courage, and their ability to maintain their Empire. It would be im- proper in this place to anticipate the account of this struggle, which must be reserved for the historical chapter; but the well- known result—the speedy and complete success of the Persians— must be adduced among the proofs of a rapid deterioration in the Median character between the accession of Cyaxares and the capture—less than a century later—of Astyages. We have but little information with respect to the state of the arts among the Medes. A barbaric magnificence charac- terised, as has been already observed, their architecture, which differed from the Assyrian in being dependent for its effect on groups of pillars rather than on painting or sculpture. Still sculpture was, it is probable, practised to some extent by the Medes, who, it is almost certain, conveyed on to the Persians those modifications of Assyrian types which meet us everywhere in the remains of the Achaemenian monarchs. The carving of winged genii, of massive forms of bulls and lions, of various gro- tesque monsters, and of certain clumsy representations of actual life, imitated from the bas-reliefs of the Assyrians, may be safely ascribed to the Medes; since, had they not carried on the tra- ditions of their predecessors, Persian art could not have borne the resemblance that it does to Assyrian. But these first mimetic efforts of the Arian race have almost wholly perished, and there scarcely seems to remain more than a single fragment which can be assigned on even plausible grounds to the Median period. A portion of a colossal lion, greatly injured by time, is still to be seen at Hamadan, the site of the great Median capital, which the best judges regard as anterior to the Persian period, and as therefore most probably Median.1 It consists of the head and body of the animal, from which the four legs and the tail have been broken off, and measures between eleven and twelve feet from the crown of the head to the point from which 1 Flandin, Voyage en Perse, p. 17. Sir H. Rawlinson is of the same opinion. Chap. III. MEDIAN SCULPTURE. 321 the tail sprang. By the position of the head and of what remains of the shoulders and thighs, it is evident that the animal was represented in a sitting posture, with the fore legs straight and the hind legs gathered up under it. To judge of the feeling and general character of the sculpture is difficult, owing to the worn and mutilated condition of the work; but we teem to trace in it the same air of calm and serene majesty that characterises the colossal bulls and lions of Assyria, together with somewhat more of expression and of softness than are seen in the productions of that people. Its posture, which is unlike that of any Assyrian specimen, indicates a certain amount of originality as belonging to the Median artists, while '° colossal size seems to show that the effect on the spectator still to be produced, not so much by expression, finish, or to nature, as by mere grandeur of dimension. v 322 Chap. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. CHAPTER IV. RELIGION. *ApiaroTfXrjs Bactria was an independent country, maneser (b.c. 858-823), who found Medes even at the height of the Assyrian and Persians beyond the Zagros range. power. (See above, p. 101.) * The mention of a serpent as the Dr. Uaug thinks that the Fargard is first creation of Angro-mainyus is anterior to B.C. 1200, because Bactria curious. Is it a paradisaical reminis- occurs in it accompanied by the epithet cence? tredhvS-drafsha," with the tall banner"' * Yendidad, Farg. i. § 5. — an expression indicating that it j 334 THE THIRD MONARCHY. - Chap. IV. groat struggle between human adversaries. The two kings required, in the first place, to have their councils, which were accordingly assigned them, and were respectively composed of six councillors. The councillors of Ahura-mazda — called Amesha Spentas, or "Immortal Saints," afterwards corrupted into Anishashpands *—were Vohu-mano (Bahman), Asha-vahista (Ardibehesht), Khshathra-vairya (Shahravar), Cpenta-Armaiti (Isfand-armat), Haurvatat (Khordad), and Ameretat (Amerdat). Those of Angro-mainyus were Ako-mano, Indra, Caurva, Xaon- haitya, and two others whose names are interpreted as " Dark- ness" and "Poison." 5 Vohu-mano (Bahman) means "the Good mind." Originally a mere attribute of Ahura-mazda,6 Vohu-mano came to be con- sidered, first as one of the high angels attendant on him, and then formally as one of his six councillors. He had a distinct sphere or province assigned to him in Ahura-mazda's kingdom, which was the maintenance of life in animals and of goodness in man. Asha-vahista (Ardibehesht) means "the Highest Truth"— "Veritas optima," or rather perhaps " Veritas lucidissima."' He was the "Light" of the universe, subtle, all-pervading, omni- present. His special business was to maintain the splendour of the various luminaries, and thereby to preserve all those things whose existence and growth depends on light. Khshathra-vairya (Shahravar), whose name means simply "possessions," "wealth," was regarded as presiding over metals and as the dispenser of riches. Cpenta-Armaiti (Isfand-armat)—the "white" or "holy Armaiti," represented the Earth. She had from the first, as we have already seen, a distinct position in the system of the Zoroastrians, where she was at once the Earth-guddess and the genius of piety.8 Haurvatat (Khordad) means "health"—"sanitas"9—and 4 Haug's Essays, p. 2G0. '" Vahista means originally 'most 1 Ibid. p. 203. Compare Windisch- splendid, beautiful,' but was afterwards mann's Zoroastrische Studien, p. 59, where used in the general sense of ' best.'" the original names are given as Taric (Haug, Essays, p. 261.) and Zaric. 'See above, p. 327. 1 See above, p. 326. * The most exact representative of 336 Chat. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. Naonhaitya, the fourth member of the infernal council, corre- sponds apparently to the Vedic Nasatyas, a collective name given to the two Aswins, the Dioscuri of Indian mythology. These were favourite gods of the early Hindoos,* to whose pro- tection they very mainly ascribed their prosperity. It was natural that the Iranians, in their aversion to their Indian brethren, should give the Aswins a seat at Angro-mainyus's council-table; but it is curious that they should represent the twin deities by only a single councillor. Taric and Zaric, "Darkness" and "Poison," the occupants of the fifth and sixth places, are evidently personifications made for the occasion, to complete the infernal council to its full com- plement of six members. As the two Principles of Good and Evil have their respective councils, so have they likewise their armies. The Good Spirit has created thousands of angelic beings, who everywhere perform his will and fight on his side against the Evil One; and the Evil One has equally on his part called into being thousands of malignant spirits, who are his emissaries in the world, doing his work continually, and fighting his battles. These are the Devaa or Divs, so famoue in Persian fairy mythology. They are "wicked, bad, false, untrue, the originators of mischief, most baneful, destructive, the basest of all beings."5 The whole universe is full of them. They aim primarily at destroying all the good creations of Ahura-mazda; but if unable to destroy they content themselves with perverting and corrupting. They dog the steps of men, tempting them to sin; and, as soon as they sin, obtaining a fearful power over them.6 At the head of Ahura-mazda's army is the angel Sraosha (Serosh). Serosh is "the sincere, the beautiful, the victorious, the true, the master of truth."' He protects the territories of * On the large share which the As- wins occupied in the early Hindoo worship, see Wilson, Rig-Veda §unAita, Introduction, • p. xxxv, and compare Jiig-Veda, toL i. pp. 8, 50, 94-97, 127, 306-325, &c. 5 Yafna, xii. 4. • Ibid. xxx. 6. 'See the Serosh Yasht, or hymn in praise of Serosh (i'acna, lvii. 2). The following particulars concerning Serosh are also contained in the hymn. He was the inventor of the barscm, and first taught its use to mankind. Be made the music for the five earliest Gathas, which were called the G&thas of Zoroaster. He had an earthly dwell- ing-place—a palace with 1000 pillars erected on the highest summit of £lburz Chap. IV. PRACTICAL ASPECT OF THE RELIGION. 337 the Iranians, wounds, and sometimes even slays the demons, and is engaged in a perpetual struggle against them, never slumbering night nor day, but guarding the world with his drawn sword, more particularly after sunset, when the demons have the greatest power. Angro-mainyus appears not to possess any such general-in- chief. Besides the six councillors above mentioned, there are indeed various demons of importance,as Drukhs, "destruction;" Aeshemo, "rapine;" Baivis, "deceit;" Driwis, poverty," &c.; but no one of these seems to occupy a parallel place in the evil world to that which is assigned to Serosh in the good. Perhaps we have here a recognition of the anarchic character of evil, whose attacks are like those of a huge undisciplined host—casual, fitful, irregular—destitute wholly of that principle of law and order, which gives to the resisting power of good a great portion of its efficacy. To the belief in a spiritual world composed of nil these various intelligences—one half of whom were good, and the other half evil—the early Zoroastrians added notions with respect to human duties and human prospects far more enlightened than those which have usually prevailed among heathen nations. In their system truth, purity, piety, and industry, were the virtues chiefly valued and inculcated. Evil was traced up to its root in the heart of man; and it was distinctly taught that no virtue deserved the name, but such as was co-extensive with the whole sphere of human activity including the thought, as well as the word and the deed.8 The purity required was inward as well as outward, mental as well as bodily. The industry was to be of a peculiar character. Man was placed upon the earth to preserve the good creation; and this could only be done by careful tilling of the soil, eradication of thorns and weeds, and reclamation of the tracts over which Angro-mainyus had spread the curse of barrenness. To cultivate the soil was thus a religious duty ; the (the peak of Demawend ?), which was religion. lighted within by its own light, and , 8 On the triad of thought, word, and w thout was ornamented with stars. I act, see }'«cn«, xii. 8; xxxii. 5; xxxiii. O.ie of his employments was to walk 2; xxxv. 1; xlvii. 1; xlix. 4; &c.; and round the world, teaching the true compare below, p. 338, note '*. VOL. II. Z 338 Chap. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. whole community was required to be agricultural; and either as proprietor, as farmer, or as labouring man, each Zoroastrian must " further the works of life" by advancing tillage." Piety consisted in the acknowledgement of the One True God, Ahura-mazda, and of his holy angels, the Amesha Spentas or Amshashpands, in the frequent offering of prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, in the recitation of hymns, the performance of the reformed Soma ceremony, and the occasional sacrifice of animals. Of the hymns we have abuudant examples in the Gathas of the Zendavesta, and in the Yagna haptanhaiti, or "Yacna of seven chapters," which belongs to the second period of the religion. A specimen from the latter source is subjoined below.10 The Soma or Homa ceremony consisted in the extrac- tion of the juice of the Homa plant by the priests during the recitation of prayers, the formal presentation of the liquid extracted to the sacrificial fire, the consumption of a small portion of it by one of the officiating priests, and the division of the remainder among the worshippers. As the juice was drunk immediately after extraction and before fermentation had set in, it was not intoxicating. The ceremony seems to have been regarded, in part, as having a mystic force, securing the favour of heaven,1 in part, as exerting a beneficial influence upon the body 'See Yacna, xxxiii. 3. beautiful and fertile fields, to the be- 10 "We worship Ahura-mazda, the licver as well as to the unbeliever, to pure, the master of purity. We worship him who has riches as well as to him who the Amesha spentas, the possessors of ! lias no possession." (Yacna. xxxv. 1-4. good, the givers of good. We worship i See Haug's A>*n/.«, pp. 162. 163.) the whole creation of the true spirit,' 1 See the Homa Yasht (Yacna, chs. both the spiritual and terrestrial, all • ix. and x.). It has sometimes been sup- that supports the welfare of the good | posed that the personal Homa creation and the spread of good tnazda- in his Yasht, and appearing elsewhere yacna religion. *' We praise all good thoughts, all good words, all good deeds, which are or shall be; and we likewise keep clean and pure all that is good. "O Ahura-mazda, thou true, happy being! We strive to think, to speak, as an object of worship to the Zoro&s- trians, represents the Moon-God (Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. xv. p. 254): and the author was formerly of this opinion (Herodotus, vol. i., p. 349, 2nd ed.). But further consideration has convince him that the Zendic Homa answers to and to do only such actions as may be ] one character only of the Vedic Soma, best fitted to promote the two lives" and not to both. Soma is at once tile (i.e. the life of the body and the life of Moon-God and the Genius of Intoxica- the soul). tion. (Rig- Veda Sanhita, voL i. p. 118; "We beseech the spirit of earth, for vol. ii. p. 311 ; &c.) Homa is the latter the sake of these our best works H (i>. only, our labours in agriculture), " to grant us | CHiP. IV. BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 339 of the worshipper through the curative power inherent in the Homa plant. The sacrifices of the Zoroastrians were never human. The ordinary victim was the horse;8 and we hear of occasions on which a single individual sacrificed as many as ten of these animals.1 Mares seem to have been regarded as the most pleasing offerings, probably on account of their superior value; and if it was desired to draw down the special favour of the Deity, those mares were selected which were already heavy in foal. Oxen, sheep, and goats were probably also used as vic- tims. A priest always performed the sacrifice, slaying the animal, and showing the flesh to the sacred fire by way of con- secration, after which it was eaten at a solemn feast by the priest and worshippers. The Zoroastrians were devout believers in the immortality of the soul and a conscious future existence. They taught that immediately after death the souls of men, both good and bad, proceeded together along an appointed path to "the bridge of the gatherer " (chinvat peretu).* This was a narrow road con- ducting to heaven or paradise, over which the souls of the pious alone could pass, while the wicked fell from it into the gulf below, where they found themselves in the place of punishment. The good soul was assisted across the bridge by the angel Serosh —"the happy, well-formed, swift, tall Serosh"4—who met the weary wayfarer and sustained his steps as he effected the difficult passage. The prayers of his friends in this world were of much avail to the deceased and greatly helped him on his journey." As he entered, the archangel Vohu-mano or Bahman rose from his throne and greeted him with the words—"How happy art thou who hast come here to us from the mortality to the im- mortality!" Then the pious soul went joyfully onward to Almra-mazda, to the immortal saints, to the golden throne, ! This practice remained among the Mahomet's famous " way, extended over Persian Fire-worshippers to a late date. , the middle of Hell, which is sharper than U is mentioned as characteristic of the ' a sword and finer than a hair, over which Persians by Xenophon (Ci/rop. viii. 3, all must pass." (Pocock, i-pec. Mist. Arab. § 24) and Ovid (tfwti, i. 3S5). p. 278.) 3 fup/i, xliv. 18. 5 Vcndidad, Farg. xix. 30. 'This is evidently the original of | • Haug, Esstiys, p. 156, note. z 2 34° Chap. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. to Paradise.7 As for the wicked, when they fell into the gulf, they found themselves in outer darkness, in the kingdom of Angro-mainyus, where they were forced to remain and to feed upon poisoned banquets. It is believed by some that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was also part of the Zoroastrian creed.8 Theopompus assigned this doctrine to the Magi;9 and there is no reason to doubt that it was held by the priestly caste of the Arian nations in his day. We find it plainly stated in portions of the Zend- avesta, which, if not among the earliest, are at any rate of very considerable antiquity, as in the eighteenth chapter of the Veudidad.10 It is argued that even in the Gathas there is an expression used which shows the doctrine to have been already held when they were composed; but the phrase adduced is so obscure, that its true meaning must be pronounced in the high- est degree uncertain.11 The absence of any plain allusion to the resurrection from the earlier portions of the sacred volume is a strong argument against its having formed any part of the original Arian creed—an argument which is far from outweighed by the occurrence of a mere possible reference to it in a single ambiguous passage. Around and about this nucleus of religious belief there grew up in course of time a number of legends, some of which possess considerable interest. Like other thoughtful races, the Iranians speculated upon the early condition of mankind, and conceived a golden age, and a king then reigning over a per- fectly happy people, whom they called King Yima—Yima- : VendidaJ, Farg. xix. 31, 32. "Haug, p. 266. • See Diog. Laert. Proccm. § 9. 0«f- vofjiiros avafSioxTioQat Kara rows Mdyovs tpyai tovs &.v6pwirous, Kal tfftodai aBit/a- Toi/f. And Mn. Gaz. Vial, de an. immort. p. 77: 'O Si ZupotwrTgTiJ irpoXe'Yf i, i>s fffrot irdr€ xpoJ'os iv $ ttAvtuv vcKpwv avdaraats l&Tar olSev 6 0fdVo/ifos. 10 And again in the Zemyad Yacht, §§ 89, 90. 11 llaug, J-.'ssays, pp. 143 and 266. The expression relied on is frasheni kerenaon ahum, which occurs in the Oatiut aAuvauaiii ■( lafmi, xxx. 9), and hi translated, " they perpetuate the life "— literally " they make the life lasting." Hence, it is said, was formed the sub- stantive frasho-kereti, which in the later Zend books becomes a verbum uiitittutn, designating the entire period of resur- rection and palingenesis at the end of time. But this only shows that the later Zoroastrians applied a phrase taken from the older books to their doctrines. It does r,ot prove that the phrase had origin- ally the meaning which they put upon it. In its literal sense the expression cleariy does not go beyond the general notion of a future existence. Our. IV. LEGENDS— YIMA—THBAKTOXA. 341 khshaeta12—the modern Persian Jemshid. Yima, according to the legend, had dwelt originally in Aryanem vaejo—the primitive seat of the Arians—and had there reigned gloriously and peace- fully for awhile; but, the evils of winter having come upon his country, he had removed from it with his subjects, and had retired to a secluded spot, where he and his people enjoyed un- interrupted happiness.13 In this place was " neither overbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither puniness nor deformity, neither huge teeth nor bodies beyond the usual measure."14 The inhabitants suffered no defilement from the evil spirit. They dwelt amid odoriferous trees and golden pillars; their cattle were the largest, best, and most beautiful on the earth; they were themselves a tall and beautiful race; their food was ambrosial and never failed them. No wonder that time sped fast with them, and that they, not noting its flight, thought often that what was really a year had been no more than a single day.15 Yima was the great hero of the early Iranians. His titles, besides " the king " (hhshaeta), are "the brilliant," "the happy," "the greatly wealthy," "the leader of the peoples," " the renowned in Aryanem vaejo." He is most probably identical with the Yarna of the Vedas,16 who was originally the first man, the progenitor of mankind and the ruler of the blessed in Paradise, but who was afterwards trans- formed into "the god of death, the inexorable judge of men's doiugs and the punisher of the wicked."17 Next in importance to Yima among the heroes is Thraetona —the modern Persian Feridun. He was born in Varena1— which is perhaps Atropatene, or Azerbijan2—and was the son ot l; With klishaetn, the cpitheton usita- \ habitually the title raja affixed to his turn of yima, which undoubtedly means name; Yima has the corresponding title "king"—corresponding to the >a,d, khshaet'i. Yama is the son of Vicasvat; which is the epithet of Yama in the Yima, of Vivanghvat. Yama is the first Vedas—may be compared the Achaime- Vcdic man; Yima is the first Iranic nian klis'tayabiiyn, which is the com- king. Yama reigns over a heavenly, monest term lor " king " in the Persian Yima over an earthly paradise, cuneiform inscriptions. "Haug, Ectag*, p. 234. 13 Vendilad, Farg. ii. §§ 4 to 41. 1 Vashts, xv. 23; xvii. 33; Vendidad, "Ibid. § 20. 11 Ibid. § 41. farg. i. § 18. '* This identification was first made, 2 The capital of Atropatene' was [believe, by Burnout It rests on the sometimes called Vera or Baris, whence following resemblances. Yama has perhaps Varena, Or V arena may pos 342 Chap. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. a distinguished father, Athwvo. His chief exploit was the destruction of Ajis-dahaka (Zohak), who is sometimes repre- sented as a cruel tyrant, the bitter enemy of the Iranian race,3 sometimes as a monstrous dragon, with three mouths, three tails, six eyes, and a thousand scaly rings, who threatened to ruin the whole of the good creation.4 The traditional scene of the destruction was the mountain of Demavend, the highest peak of the Elburz range south of the Caspian. Thraetona, like Yima, appears to be also a Vedic hero. He may be recog- nised in Traitana,5 who is said in the Rig-Veda to have slain a mighty giant by severing his head from his shoulders. A third heroic personage known in the early times6 was Keresaspa, of the noble Saina family. He was the son of Thrita —a distinct personage from Thraetona—and brother of Urvakh- shaya the Just,7 and was bred up in the arid country of Vehkeret (Khorassan). The "glory" which had rested upon Yima so many years became his in his day.8 He was the mightiest among the mighty, and was guarded from all danger by the fairy (joairika) Knuthaiti,9 who followed him whithersoever he went. He slew (,!ravara, the green and venomous serpent, who swallowed up men and horses.10 He killed Gandarewa with the sibly be Ghilan, since "the initial r of "Keresaspa is mentioned in the first the old Iranian usually becomes tj in Fargard of the Vendidad (§ 10); which modern Persian." (Haug in Bunsen's has been already shown to be older than K, which Haug assigns, on good grounds, to about B.C. 450-350. {Essays, p. 224.) Chap. IV. FIRST CONTACT WITH MAGISM. 345 tact with various Scythic tribes17 inhabiting the mountain regions of Armenia, Azerbijan, Kurdistan, and Luristan, whose religion appears to have been Magism. It was here, in these elevated tracts, where the mountains almost seem to reach the skies, that the most venerated and ancient of the fire-temples (TrvpaiOeta) were established, some of which remain, seemingly Fire-temples near Nakhsh-i-Kustem. in their primitive condition, at the present day.1 Here tradition placed the original seat of the fire-worship;2 and from hence many taught that Zoroaster, whom they regarded as the founder of Magism, had sprung.3 Magism was, essentially, the worship K The cuneiform inscriptions o*f Ar- I vol. xv. pp. 2.35. 236. menia, Azerbijan, and Elymais arc in' 1 See Ker Porter's Travels, vol. i. p. Scythic or Turanian dialects. The third 566. column of the trilingual inscriptions of j 2 Proofs of this are collected in Sir the Zagros range is also Scthic. On the I H. Rawlinson's Article '* On the Atro- various grounds for regarding the ante- j patenian Ecbatana " in the Journal of the Arian inhabitants of these parts as Geographical Society, vol. x. pp. 79-83. S 'yths,see Journal of Vie Asiatic Society, * Ctesias called Zoroaster an Armc- 346 Chap. IV. THE THIRD MONARCHY. of the elements, the recognition of fire, air, earth, and water as the only proper objects of human reverence/ The Magi held no personal gods, and therefore naturally rejected temples, shrines, and images, as tending to encourage the notion that gods existed of a like nature with man,6 i. e. possessing personality— living and intelligent beings. Theirs was a nature worship, but a nature worship of a very peculiar kind. They did not place gods over the different parts of nature, like the Greeks; they did not even personify the powers of nature, like the Hindoos; they paid their devotion to the actual material tilings them- selves. Fire, as the most subtle and ethereal principle, and again as the most powerful agent, attracted their highest regards;6 and on their fire-altars the sacred flame, generally said to have been kindled from heaven,' was kept burning uninterruptedly from year to year and from age to age by bands of priests, whose special duty it was to see that the sacred spark was never extinguished.8 To defile the altar by blowing the flame w ith one's breath was a capital offence ;9 and to burn a corpse was regarded as an act equally odious.10 When victims were offered to fire, nothing but a small portion of the fat was consumed in the flame.11 Next to fire, water was reverenced. Sacrifice was offered to rivers, lakes, and fountains, the victim being brought near to them and then slain, while great care was taken that no nian (Arnobius, Ade. Nationes, it 52). Moses of Chorcne regarded Ilim as a Mede (Hist. Armcn. i. 16). So Clemens of Alexandria in one place (Strom, i. p. 399). 4 We sometimes find it said that the Magi worshipped fire and water only (Dino, Fr. 9); sometimes that their gods were fire, water, and earth (Diog. Laert. Proam. § C). But there seems to be no real doubt that their worship was actually paid to all the four elements. (Herod i. 132 ; Strob. xv. 3, § 13; Theo- dore";, Hist. Eccltt. v. 39; &c.) 1 See this reason assigned in Herod i. 132. * Hence the name TivpaiOoi borne by the Magi in Cnppadocia (Strab. xv. 3, {j 15). Compare the Atlirava of the Zendavesta, derived from dtar.11 fire." See also Strab. xv. 3, !} 14; Lucian, Jov. Trig. § 42; Clem. Alex. PrUrept. v. p. 56. 'Dio. Chrysost Oral. Bonjtih. p. 449, A.; Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6; Clem. liccognit. iv. 29; Agathias, ii. 25. 8 Tlvp &ffftttrrov s Artauis appears as a Median king in Ctesias (ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 32, § 6), as a Persian in Herod, (vii. 66). "Herodotus has both a Persian (ix. 122) and a Median Artembares (i. 114): both a Persian (vi. 2S) and a Median llarpagus (i. 108). Arbaces is probably the same name. According to Ctesias Chap. V. NAMES PROVE MEDIAN AKIN TO PERSIAN. 359 pagus, Arbaces, Tiridates, &c.ls Others which are not abso- lutely identical approach to the Persian form so closely as to be plainly mere variants, like Theodoras and Theodosius, Adelbert and Ethel be rt, Miriam, Mariam, and Mariamne. Of this kind are Intaphres,1' another form of Intaphernes, Artynes, another form of Artunes," Parmises, another form of Parmys,18 and the like. A third class, neither identical with any known Persian names, nor so nearly approaching to them as to be properly considered mere variants, are made up of known Per- siau roots, and may be explained on exactly the same principles as Persian names. Such are Ophernes, Sitraphemes, Mitra- phernes, Megabernes, Aspadas, Mazares, Tachiuaspates, Xathri- tes, Spitaces, Spitamas, Pihambacas, and others. In O-phernes, Sitra-phernes, Mitra-pliernes, and Mega-bernes, the second element is manifestly the pharna or frana which is found in Artaphernes and Inta-phernes (Vida-frana),1 an active parti- cipial form from pri, "to protect." The initial element in O-phernes represents the Zend hu, Sans, su, Greek ev, as the same letter does in O-manes, O-martes, &c.2 The Sitra of Sitra-phernes has been explained as probably Jchshatra, "the crown,"3 which is similarly represented in the £Wro-pates of Curtius, a name standing to Sitra-phernes exactly as Arta- patas to Arta-pliernes.'4 In Mega-bernes the first element is the well-known haga, "God,"5 under the form commonly pre- (ap. Died. Sic. ii. 32, § 5) it was borne by a Median king; according to Xeno- phon (Aruib. vii. 8, § 25) by a Persian tatrap. "Tiridates appears as the name of a Medc in Nicolas of Damascus (Fr. 66, P- 402); in Q. Curtius (v. 5, § 2) and -than (JJitt. I ar. xii. 1) it is the name; of a Persian. 11 See Uehittnn Inscription, col. iv. par. U, § 3. For the name of Inta- phemes, see Herod, iii. 70. "Artyncs is one of C'tcsias"s Royal Median names (Diod. Sic. ii. .'14, § 1); Artanes was a brother of Darius Hys- taspis (Herod, vii. 224). "According to Ctesiaa (Pers. Exc. § 3) Parmises was a sou of Astyages. Parmys, according to Herodotus, was a daughter of Smerdis, the son of Cyrus (iii. 88). 1 Ilehist. Itiscr. col. iv. par. 18, § 4. * See the author's llcruJolus, vol. iii. p. 451, 2nd edition. * Ibid. p. 453. 'Artapatas, a name mentioned by Xenophon (Anab. i. 6, § 11), means probably '" protected by fire." Arta- phernes (Herod, v. 30) means "pro- | tecting the fire." So Sutropatcs means "protected by the crown " — Sitro- phernes "protecting the crown." 1 See the Incriptions, pauim. The later ones almost all begin with the for- mula, Baga tazarka Auramazda, "Deus magnus [est] Oromasdes." Baga has been well compared with the Slavonic bog. 3<5o Chap. V THE THIRD MONABCHY. ferred by the Greeks;s and the name is exactly equivalent to Curtius's ifa^o-phanes,7 which only differs from it by taking the participle of pa, "to protect," instead of the participle 01 pri, which has the same meaning. In Aspa-das it is easy to recognise aspa, "horse" (a common root in Persian names, e.g. .48pa-thines, .4spa-mitras, Frex-aspes, and the like8), followed by the same element which terminates the name of Oromaz-<£es, and which means either "knowing " or "giving." 9 Ma-zares presents us with the root meh, " much" or "great," which is found in the name of the M-aspii, or " Big Horses," a Persian tribe,10 followed by zara, "gold," which appears in Ctesias's Arto-awre*,11 and perhaps also in Zoro-aster.12 In Tacbmas- pates,13 the first element is takhma, " strong," a root found in the Persian names Ar-tochmes and Tritan-tec7imes,u while the second is the frequently used pati, "lord," which occurs as the initial element in Pafo'-zeithes,15 Pafo'-ramphes, &c.,1$ and as the ter- minal in Pharna-pafes," Ario-peithes, and the like. In Xathri- tcs18 we have clearly khshaira (Zend khshaihra), "crown" or "king," with a participial suffix -ita, corresponding to the Sanscrit participle in -it. Spita-ces19 and Spita-roas20 con- tain the root spita, equivalent to spenta, "holy,"21 which is * The.Greeks having really no b, since their fl hail the sound of r, were always inclined to express a real 6 by the nearest labial, m. Thus they said Mardus, Mer- dis, or Smerdis for Bardius, Magseus for Bagwus, Marmaridfe for Berbers, and the like. On their frequent representa- tion of the Persian Baga by Mega—sec the author's Hero-lotus, vol. iii. pp. 450, 451, 2nd ed. Baga, however, retains its place sometimes. (See Herod, vii. 75; Ctes. Pers. Eic. § 'J; Q. Curt. Vit. Alex. v. 1.) 7 Q. Curt. Vit. Alex. l.s.c. 8 Compare the frequent occurrence of "tvnos, both as an initial and as a ter- minal element, in the names of the Greeks. 9 I'd in old Arian has this double meaning, corresponding both to Saw and to odo> (5'8«/*0 in Greek. 10 Herod, i. 125. On the animal cha- racter of many ethnic names, sec the author's Hcrvilotus, vol. iii. p. 450. 11 Ctes. Pcrs.ap. Phot. Bibliothccliiti. p. 127. la Various explanations have been given of the name Zoroaster. Some writers regard it as Semitic, and make it equal Ziru-Ishtar, " the seed of Ishtar" (Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. xv. p. 240). But most take it to be Arian. Bur- nout* suggests uhaving yellow camels," from zarath, and ustra; Brockhaus makes it "golden star," from zara and thustra. Windischmann inclines to this last explanation (Zoroastrteche Siudicn, pp. 46, 47), but still views it as very doubtful indeed (hochst problematisch). ■* Behist. Inner, col. ii. par. 14, J 6. "> Herod, i. 192; vii. 73. "Ibid. iii. 61. Ibid. vii. 40. 17 For Bagapates, see Ctes. Vers. Etc. § 9; for Pliarnapates, see Dio. Cass, xlviii. 41. Behist. Inscr. col. ii. par. 5. § 4. '» Ctes. Pers. Exc. § 2. * JbM. 11 The Iranians disliked the combina- Chap. V. ANALYSIS OF MEDIAN NAMES. 361 found in SpHho-bates, Spita-menes, Spita-des, &c. This, in Spita-ces, is followed by a guttural ending, which is either a diminutive corresponding to the modern Persian -eh, or perhaps a suffixed article.22 In Spit-amas, the suffix -mas is the common form of the superlative, and may be compared with the Latin •mus in optimua, inti?nw«, supremws and the like. Rhambacas23 contains the root rafno, "joy, pleasure," which we find in Pati- ramphes, followed by the guttural suffix. There remains, finally, a class of Median names, containing roots not found in any known names of Persians, but easily explicable from Zend, Sanscrit, or other cognate tongues, and therefore not antagonistic to the view that Median and Persian were two closely connected dialects. Such, for instance, are the royal names mentioned by Herodotus, Defaces, Phraortes, Astyages, and Cyaxares; and sucb also are the following, which come to us from various sources:—Amyt.is, Astibaras, Arma- initlires or Harmamithres, Mandauces, Parsondas, Ramates, Susiscanes, Tithseus, and Zanasanes. In Deioces, or (as the Latins write it) Dejoces, there can be little doubt that we have the name given as Djohak or Zohak in the Shahnameh and other modern Persian writings; which is itself an abbreviation of the Ajis-dahaka of the Zendavesta.24 DahaJca means in Zend "biting," or " the biter," and is etymo- logically connected with the Greek Bhkvco, Hd/cos, oSa£, k. t. X. Phraortes, which in old Persian was Fravartish,25 seems to be a mere variant of the word which appears in the Zendavesta as fravashi, and designates each man's tutelary genius.26 The derivation is certainly from fra ( = Gk. irpo-), and probably from a root akin to the German tvahren, French garder, English "ward, watch," &c. The meaning is "a protector." Cyaxares, the Persian form of which was 'Uvakhshatara,27 tion of the nasal with the dental, and said Hidush for ffendn (llimlu-stan), Haetumat for Etynuindrtis, cata for cen- tum, &c. So we have frequently, though not always, spita for spenta. "See above, p. 358, note '•. "■* Xen. Cyrop. V. iii. § 42. "See above, ch. iv. p. 342. Mirkhond (History, p. 123) derives Zohak from Ikh-ak, "ten vices''—which is hardly a name that a king would choose to bear. "Ikhist. Inscr. col. ii. par. 5, § 2. 28 See Uaug, Essays, p. 186. The fra- zashi are called fravt'Xo?), "fond of." If however the name should be read as Armamithres, the probable derivation will be from rdma, acc. of rdman, "pleasure," which is also the root of Rama-te*S Armamithres may then be compared with llheo- mithres, Siromitras, and Sysimithres,5 which are respectively "fond of splendour," "fond of beauty," and "fond of light." Mandauces6 is perhaps "biting spirit—esprit mordant," from mand, "cceur, esprit," and dahaka, "biting."7 Parsondas can scarcely be the original form, from the occurrence in it of the ** Brockhaus, Ycndidnd-Sndf', p. 401. I 21> Hid. Anncn. i. 29. A recent writer maintains that Astyages is a Greek translation of the Median name, of \ which Astibaras is "another slightly different rendering." He would derive the former from &eech of Medes were still insignificant. ', the subject population in Media and * Before this language had been ana- ■ Persia. 368 Chap. V. THE THIRD MONARCHY. which in respect of complexity holds an intermediate position between the luxuriance of the Assyrian and the simplicity of the Medo-Persic system, would seem in all probability to have intervened in order of time between the two. It consists of no more than about a hundred characters,10 and these are for the most part far less complicated than those of Assyria. If the Medes found this form of writing already existing in Zagros when they arrived, it may have assisted to give them the idea of making for themselves an alphabet so far on the old model that the wedge should be the sole element used in the formation of letters, but otherwise wholly new, and much more simple than those previously in use. Discarding then the Assyrian notion of a syllabarium, with the enormous complication which it involves,11 the Medes12 strove to reduce sounds to their ultimate elements, and to represent these last alone by symbols. Contenting themselves with the three main vowel sounds, a, i, and w,13 and with one breathing, a simple h, they recognised twenty consonants, which were the following, b, d,f, g,j, k, kh, m, n, h (sound doubtful), p, r, s, sh, t, v, y, z, eh (as in much), and tr, an unnecessary compound. Had they stopped here, their characters should have been but twenty- four, the number which is found in Greek. To their ears, how- ever, it would seem, each consonant appeared to carry with it a short a, and as this, occurring before i and u, produced the diphthongs ai and au, sounded nearly as e and 6,H it seemed necessary, where a consonant was to be directly followed by the sounds i or u, to have special forms to which the sound of a should not attach. This system, carried out completely, would have raised the forms of consonants to sixty, a multiplication 10 Sir H. Rawlinson, in the Journal of | Medes, their predecessors in the Empire. the Astatic Society, vol. x. p. 33. (See Herod, i. 134, 135; Xen. Cfrop. L 11 Sec above, vol. i. pp. 270, 271. 1 3, § 2; viii. 3, § 1; Strab. xi. 13,"§ 9.) 12 It is here assumed that the Medes 11 These were of course sounded were the originators of the system which broad, as in Italian—the a like a in was afterwards employed by the Persians. "vast;" the i like ee in "feed;" the u There is no positive proof of this. But like oo in "food." all the evidence which we possess favours "That is, as the Italian < and o the notion that the early Persian civili- aperto, or as the diphthongs themselves sation—and the writing belongs to the in French, e. g. fait, faux, &c. time of Cyrus—came to them from the C:up. V. MEDIAX ALPHABET. 369 that was feared as inconvenient. In order to keep down the number, it seems to have been resolved, (1.) that one form should suffice for the aspirated letters and the sibilants (viz. h, hh. eh, ph or /, s, sh, and z), and also for b, y, and tr; (2.) that two forms should suffice for the tenues, k,p, t, for the liquids n and r, and for v; and consequently (3.) that the full number of three forms should be limited to some three or four letters, as d, m, j, and perhaps g. The result is that the known alphabet of the Persians, which is assumed here to have been the inven- tion of the 3Iedes, consists of some 3G or 37 forms, which are really representative of no more than 23 distinct sounds.11 It appears then that, compared with the phonetic systems in vogue among their neighbours, the alphabet of the Modes and Persians was marked by a great simplicity. The forms of the letters were also very much simplified. Instead of conglomera- tions of fifteen or sixteen wedges in a single character, we have in the Medo-Persic letters a maximum of five wedges. The most ordinary number is four, which is sometimes reduced to three or even two. The direction of the wedges is uniformly either perpendicular or horizontal, except of course in the case of the double wedge or arrow-head, ( , where the component elements are placed obliquely. The arrow-head has but one position, the perpendicular, with the angle facing towards the left hand. The only diagonal sign used is a simple wedge, placed obliquely with the point towards the right, "\, which is a mere mark of separation between the words. The direction of the writing was, as with the Arian nations generally, from left to right. Words were frequently divided, and part carried on to the next line. The characters were inscribed between straight lines drawn from end to end of the tablet on which they were written. Like the Hebrew, they often closely resembled one another, and a slight defect in the stone "ill cause one to be mistaken for another. The resemblance is not between letters of the same class or kind; on the contrary', it is often between those which are most remote from one another. Ihus g nearly resembles u; ch is like d; tr like p; and so on: ls See Sir H. Rawlinson's analysis of the Persian Alphabet in the Journal of tie Asiitic Society, vol x. pp. 53-186. VOL. II. 2 B 370 Chap. T. THE THIRD MONARCHY. while k and kh, s and sh, p and ph (or /) are forms quite dissimilar. It is supposed that a cuneiform alphabet can never have been employed for ordinary writing purposes,1 but must have been confined to documents of some importance, which it was desirable to preserve, and which were therefore either inscribed on stone, or impressed on moist clay afterwards baked. A cursive cha- racter, it is therefore imagined, must always have been in use, parallel with a cuneiform one;* and, as the Babylonians and Assyrians are known to have used a character of this kind from a very high antiquity, synchronously with their lapidary cunei- form, so it is supposed that the Arian races must have possessed, besides the method which has been described, a cursive system of writing. Of this, however, there is at present no direct evi- dence. No cursive writing of the Arian nations at this time, either Median or Persian, has been found; and it is therefore uncertain what form of character they employed on common occasions. The material used for ordinary purposes, according to Nicolas of Damascus3 and Ctesias,4 was parchment. On this the kings wrote the dispatches which conveyed their orders to the officers who administered the government of provinces; and on this were inscribed the memorials which each monarch was careful to have composed giving an account of the chief events of his reign. The cost of land carriage probably prevented papyrus from super- seding this material in Western Asia, as it did in Greece at a tolerably early date.5 Clay, so much used for writing on, both in Babylonia and Assyria,6 appears never to have approved itself as a convenient substance to the Iranians. For public documents the chisel and the rock, for private the pen and the prepared skin, seem to have been preferred by them; and in the earlier times, at any rate, they employed no other materials. 1 The cuneiform is a very convenient character for impression upon clay, or inscription upon stone. In the former case, a single touch of the instrument makes each wedge; in the latter, three taps of the chisel with the hammer causi? the wedge to fall out. But characters composed of wedges are very awkward to write. * Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. x. pp. 31 and 42. 3 Frag. 10. See above, p. 365, note -. 'Ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 32, § 4. 5 Herod, v. 58. * Supra, vol. i. pp. 6" and 267. Chap. VI. ORIGIN OF MEDIAN NATION. 3/1 CHAPTEE VI. CHEONOLOGY AND HISTORY. Media .... quam ante regnum Cyri superioria et incrcmenta Persidos legimus Asije regiuam totius.—Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. The origin of the Median nation is wrapt in a profound obscu- rity. Following the traces which the Zendavesta offers, taking into consideration its minute account of the earlier Arian migra- tions,1 its entire omission of any mention of the Medes, and the undoubted fact that it was nevertheless by the Medes and Per- sians that the document itself was preserved and transmitted to ns, we should be naturally led to suppose that the race was one whicj^ in the earlier times of Arian development was weak and insignificant, and that it first pushed itself into notice after the ethnological portions of the Zendavesta were composed, which is thought to have been about B.C. 1000.2 Quite in accordance with this view is the further fact, that in the native Assyrian annals, so far as they have been recovered, the Medes do not make their appearance till the middle of the ninth century B.C., and when they appear are weak and unimportant, only capable of opposing a very slight resistance to the attacks of the Nine- vite kings.3 The natural conclusion from these data would appear to be, that until about B.C. 850 the Median name was unknown in the world, and that previously, if Medes existed at all, it was either as a sub-tribe of some other Arian race, or at 1 See the translation of the first Far- Margiana), Haroyu (Aria or Herat), gard of the Vetulhiad in the Appendix I Gau Sughdha (Sogdiana), and Qairizem to this "Monarchy." The only other (Chorasmia or Kharesm). Here again geographic notice of any considerable j there is no mention of Media, length which the Zendavesta contains, is s Huug, Essays, p. 224. In Bunsen's in the Mithra Yasht, where the countries | Rpjpt the date suggested is B.C. 1200 mentioned are Aiskata (Sagartia, Asa- (vol. iii. p. 478). garta of cuneiform inscriptions?), Pou- | * See above, pp. 101 and 113. rata (Parthia), Mouru (Meru, Merj, 2 b 2 372 Chap. VI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. any rate as a tribe too petty and insignificant to obtain mention either on the part of native or of foreign historians. Such early insignificance and late development of what ultimately becomes the dominant tribe of a race is no strange or unprecedented phenomenon to the historical enquirer; on the contrary, it is among the facts with which he is most familiar, and would admit of ample illustration, were the point worth pursuing, alike from the history of the ancient and the modern world.4 But, against the conclusion to which we could not fail to be led by the Arian and Assyrian records, which agree together so remarkably, two startling notices in works of great authority but of a widely different character have to be set. In the Toldoth Beni Noah, or " Book of the Generation of the Sons of Noah," which forms the tenth chapter of Genesis, and which, if the work of Moses, was probably composed at least as early as B.C. 1500,5 we find the word Madai—a word elsewhere always signifying "the Medes" — in the genealogy of the sons of Japhet.6 The word is there conjoined with several other im- portant ethnic titles, as Gomer, Magog, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech; and there can be no reasonable doubt that it is intended to designate the Median people.7 If so, the people must have had already a separate and independent existence in the fifteenth century B.C., and not only so, but they must have by that time attained so much distinction as to be thought worthy of mention by a writer who was only bent on affiliating the more important of the nations known to him. The other notice is furnished by Berosus. That remarkable 4 The Hellenes were an insignificant Greek race until the Dorian conquests (Herod, i. 58; Thuc. i. 3). The Latins 300 years earlier. • Gen. x. 2. 'Kalisch savs in his comment on the had originally no pre-eminence among 1 passage—" Madai—these are unfteMkm* the Italic peoples. The Turks for many uhly the Medes or inhabitants of Media." ages were on a par with other Tatars. The race which is now forming Italy into a kingdom has only recently shown itself superior to Lombards, Tuscans, and Neapolitans. (Commentary on Vic Old Testament, vol. i. p. 166.) Note that Gomer, Magog, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Ashkenaz. To- garmah, Elishah, Tarshish, and Kittim (or Chittim) are all elsewhere through The Exodus is indeed placed by Scripture undoubtedly names of nations Bunsen as late as B.C. 1320, and by Lep- or countries. Note, moreover, the plural sius as late as b c. 1314. But the balance form of Kittim and Dodanim (or Ro- of authority favours a date from 200 ;o , danim). Chap. VI. MEDES OF BEEOSUS. 373 liistorian, in his account of the early dynasties of his native Chaldsea, declared that, at a date anterior to B.C. 2000, the Medes had conquered Babylon by a sudden inroad, had esta- blished a monarchy there, and had held possession of the city and neighbouring territory for a period of 224 years.8 Eight kings of their race had during that interval occupied the Baby- lonian throne. It has been already observed that this narrative must represent a fact.9 Berosus would not have gratuitously invented a foreign conquest of his native land; nor would the earlier Babylonians, from whom he derived his materials, have forged a tale which was so little nattering to their national vanity. Soyiie foreign conquest of Babylon must have taken place about the period named; and it is certainly a most im- portant fact that Berosus should call the conquerors Medes. He may no doubt have been mistaken about an event so ancient; he may have misread his authorities, or he may have described as Medes a people of which he really knew nothing except that they had issued from the tract which in his own time bore the name of Media. But, while these are mere possibilities, hypo- theses to which the mind resorts in order to escape a difficulty, the hard fact remains that he has used the word; and this fact, coupled with the mention of the Medes in the Book of Genesis, does certainly raise a presumption of no inconsiderable strength against the view which it would be natural to take, if the Zeud- avesta and the Assyrian annals were our sole authorities on the subject. It lends a substantial basis to the theories of those who regard the Medes as one of the principal primeval races;10 who believe that they were well known to the Semitic inhabit- ants of the Mesopotamian valley as early as the twenty-third century before Christ—long ere Abraham left Ur for Harran— and that they actually formed the dominant power in Western Asia for more than two centuries, prior to the establishment of the first Chaldaean kingdom. 'Beros. Fr. 11. "Post hos, qui sue- ronnorum Medorum edisscrit octo, an- cessionc inconcussu regnum obtinuerunt, nosque coram viginti quatuor supra derepente Mcdos collectis copiis Baby- duccntos." • Supra, vol. i. p. 160. lonem cepisse ait, ibiquedc suis tyrannos I 10 As Bunsen. See his E'jypt, vol. iii. constituisse. Iliac nomiua quoque ty- J pp. 583-597. 374 Chit. VL THE THIRD MONARCHY. And if there are thus distinct liistorical grounds for the notion of an early Median development, there are not wanting those obscurer but to many minds more satisfactory proofs, wherewith comparative philology and ethnology are wont to illustrate and confirm the darker passages of ancient history. Recent linguistic research has clearly traced among the Arba IAsun, or "Four Tongues" of ancient Chaldaea, which are so often mentioned on the ancient monuments,1 an Arian formation, such as would naturally have been left in the country, if it had been occupied for some considerable period by a dominant Arian power. The early Chaldsean ideographs have often several distinct values; and, when this is the case, one of the powers is almost always an Arian name of the object represented.2 Words like nir, "man" (compare Greek avrjp), ar, " river" (compare the names Aras, Praxes, JEridanus, Rha, Ehodanus, &c, and the Greek peeiv, the Slavonic rika, " river," &c), san, "the sun" (compare German Sonne, Slavonic solnce, English "sun," Dutch zon, &c), are seemingly Arian roots; and the very term "Arian" (ariya, "noble ") is perhaps contained in the name of a primitive Chal- dasan monarch, "Arioch, King of Ellasar."3 There is nothing perhaps in these scattered traces of Arian influence in lower Mesopotamia at a remote era that points very particularly to the Medes; 4 but at any rate they harmonise with the historical account that has reached us of early Arian power in these parts, and it is important that they should not be ignored when we are engaged in considering the degree of credence that is to be awarded to the account in question. Again, there are traces of a vast expansion, apparently at a very early date, of the Median race, such as seems to imply that they must have been a great nation in Western Asia long pre- viously to the time of the Iranic movements in Bactria and the adjoining regions. In the Mat-ieni of Zagros and Cappadocia,1 1 See above, vol. i. p. 61. 1 Unless perhaps it be the name 1 As, for instance, the same ideograph , Arioch, which is Medo-lVrsic in form, ■—a rude representation of a hou9c—has ! and almost identical with Ariaces ('Apia- the three powers of e, bit, and mal—of K7js), the name of a Mede or Persian in which e is Hamitic, bit or beth Semitic, I Arrian. {Exp. Al. iii. 8.) and ma! Arian. * Herod, i. 72; v. 52; Hecat. Frs. » Gen. xiv. 1. | 188, 189; Xanth. Fr. 3. Chap. VL EARLY SPREAD OF THE MEDIAN RACE. 375 in the Sauro-mate (or Northern Medes) of the country between the Palus Maeotis and the Caspian,6 in the Mmtse or Maeotse of the tract about the mouth of the Don,' and in the Masdi of Thrace,8 we have seemingly remnants of a great migratory host, which, starting from the mountains that overhung Mesopotamia, spread itself into the regions of the north and the north-west at a time which does not admit of being definitely stated, but which is clearly ante-historic. Whether these races generally retained any tradition of their origin, we do not know; but a tribe which in the time of Herodotus dwelt still further to the west than even the Maadi—to wit, the Sigynnaa, who occupied the tract between the Adriatic and the Danube—had a very distinct belief in their Median descent, a belief confirmed by the resemblance which their national dress bore to that of the Medes.9 Herodotus, who relates these facts concerning them, appends an expression of his astonishment at the circumstance that emigrants from Media should have proceeded to such a distance from their original home—how it had been brought about he could not conceive. "Still," he sagaciously remarks, "nothing is impossible in the long lapse of ages."10 A further argument in favour of the early development of Median power, and the great importance of the nation in West- ern Asia at a period anterior to the ninth century, is derivable from the ancient legends of the Greeks, which seem to have designated the Medes under the two eponyms of Medea and Andromeda. These legends indeed do not admit of being dated with any accuracy; but as they are of a primitive type, and probably older than Homer,11 we cannot well assign them to an age later than B.C. 1000. Now they connect the Median name with the two countries of Syria and Colchis, countries « Herod. It. 21, 110-117; Strab. xi. 2, | § 15; Diod. Sic. ii. 42, § 6; Kin. H. 8. vi. 7. : Herod, iv. 123. In the Greek in- scriptions found in Scythia the Ma>ot fiaKptp 11 The story of the Argonauts seems to have been in its main particulars known to Homer. (See //. vii. 469; Od. x. 137-139; xii. 64-72.) To that of Perseus and Andromeda he does not allude; but its character is peculiarly primitive. Chap. VI. FIRST CONTACT OF MEDIA WITH ASSYRIA. 377 from B.c. 859 to B.C. 824—relates that in his 24th year (b.c. 835), after having reduced to subjection the Zimri, who held the Zagros mountain range immediately to the east of Assyria, and received tribute from the Persians, he led an expedition into Media and Arazias, where he took and destroyed a number of the towns, slaying the men, and carrying off the spoil.15 He does not mention any pitched battle; and indeed it would seem that he met with no serious resistance. The Medes whom he attacks are evidently a weak and insignificant people, whom he holds in small esteem, and regards as only deserving of a hurried mention. They seem to occupy the tract now known as Ardelan—a varied region containing several lofty ridges, with broad plains lying between them. It is remarkable that the time of this first contact of Media with Assyria—a contact taking place when Assyria was in her prime, and Media was only just emerging from a long period of weakness and obscurity—is almost exactly that which Ctesias selects as the date of the great revolution whereby the Empire of the East passed from the hands of the Shemites into those of the Arians.16 The long residence of Ctesias among the Persians gave him a bias towards that people, which even extended lo their close kin, the Medes. Bent on glorifying these two Ariaii races, he determined to throw back the commencement of their Empire to a period long anterior to the true date; and, feeling specially anxious to cover up their early humiliation, he assigned their most glorious conquests to the very century, and almost to the ry time, when they were in fact suffering reverses at the hands of the people over whom he represented them as triumphant. There was a boldness in the notion of thus inverting history which almost deserved, and to a considerable Arbel in the day of battle." Beth-Arbel i "Ctesias gave to his eight Median i» probably Arbcla, which was among kings anterior to Aspndas or Astyagis the cities that joined in the revolt at a period of 282 years. Assuming Ins the end of Shnlmancser's reign (supra, date for Astyages' accession to have p. 110), and which may therelore very been the same, or nearly the same, w ith probably have been sacked when the that of Herodotus (b.c. 5y:i), we have rebellion was put down. B.C. 875 for the destruction of the A "See above, p. 101; and compare Syrian Empire and rise of the Median the Black Obelisk Inscription (Vub- under Arbaccs. tin Lniv. Mag. Oct. 1853, p. 424). 3/3 Cup.VL THE THIRD MONARCHY. extent obtained, success. The "long chronology" of Ctesias kept its ground until recently, not indeed meeting with universal acceptance,17 but on the whole predominating over the "short chronology" of Herodotus ; and it may be doubted whether any- thing less than the discovery that the native records of Assyria entirely contradicted Ctesias would have sufficed to drive from the field his figment of early Median dominion.18 The second occasion upon which we hear of the Medes in the Assyrian annals is in the reign of Shalmaneser's son and suc- cessor, Shamas-Vul. Here again, as on the former occasion, the Assyrians were the aggressors. Shamas-Vul invaded Media and Arazias in his third year, and committed ravages similar to those of his father, wasting the country with fire and sword, but not (it would seem) reducing the Medes to subjection or even attempting to occupy their territory. Again, the attack is a mere raid, which produces no permanent impression.19 It is in the reign of the son and successor of Shamas-Yul that the Medes appear for the first time to have made their sub- mission and accepted the position of Assyrian tributaries. A people which was unable to offer effectual resistance when the Assyrian levies invaded their country, and which had no means of retaliating upon their foe or making him suffer the evils that he inflicted, was naturally tempted to save itself from molestation by the payment of an annual tribute, so purchasing quiet at the expense of honour and independence. Towards the close of the ninth century B.C. the Medes seem to have followed the example set them very much earlier by their kindred and neighbours, the Persians,1 and to have made arrangements for 17 The "long chronology" of Ctesias [ century by the Abbe' Sevin and Volney. was adopted, among the ancients, by Ce- > In the present century the "long chro- phalion, Castor, Folybius, .32milius Sura, nology " has had few advocates. Trogus Pompeius, K icolaus Daraascenus, 18 Long after the superiority of the Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Velleius Pater- scheme of Herodotus was recognised, cuius, and others; among the ecclesiasti- attempts continued to be made to recon- cal writers, by Clement of Alexandria, cilc Ctesias with him by supposing the Eusebius, Augustine, Sulpicius Severus, I list of the latter to be an eastern Medisn Agathias, Eustathius, and Syncellus; dynasty (Heeren's M'inwtl, p. 27, E. T.), among the moderns, by Prideaux, Freret, or to contain a certain number of vice- and the French Academicians generally, j roys (Clinton, F. //. vol. i. p. 261). Scaliger was, I believe, the first to die- "Compare above, p. 114. credit it. lie was followed in the last 1 The Persians paid tribute to Sh«l- Chap. VI. MEDES CONQUEEED BY SABGON. 379 an annual payment which should exempt their territory from ravage.3 It is doubtful whether the arrangement was made by the whole people. The Median tribes at this time hung so loosely together that a policy adopted by one portion of them might be entirely repudiated by another. Most probably the tribute was paid by those tribes only which bordered on Zagros, and not by those further to the east or to the north, into whose territories the Assyrian arms had not yet penetrated. No further change in the condition of the Medes is known to have occurred3 until about a hundred years later, when the Assyrians ceased to be content with the semi-iudependent position which had been hitherto allowed them, and deter- mined on their more complete subjugation. The great Sargon, the assailant of Egypt and conqueror of Babylon, towards the middle of his reign, invaded Media with a large army, and having rapidly overrun the country, seized several of the towns, and " annexed them to Assyria," while at the same time he also established in new situations a number of fortified posts.4 The object was evidently to incorporate Media into the empire; and the posts were stations iu which a standing army was placed, to over-awe the natives and prevent them from offering an effectual resistance. With the same view deporta- tion of the people on a large scale seems to have been prac- tised;5 and the gaps thus made in the population were filled up —wholly or in part—by the settlement in the Median cities of Samaritan captives.6 On the country thus re-organized and re-arranged a tribute of a new character was laid. In lieu of maneser II. (Black OWisk Inscription, p. 424), and again to Shamas-Vul. They Mem to have been at this time dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the Medes, probably somewhere within the limits of Media Magna. 2 See the Inscription of this king in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xix. p. 185. 3 There arc grounds, however, for sus- pecting that during the obscure period of Assyrian history which divides Vul- tributary by the last-named monarch. That monarch even sent an officer to exercise authority in the country. (Sir H. Kawlinson in the At/wiueum, Ho. 1869, p. 246.) 4 Oppert, Inscriptions des Sargonides, p. 25. Compare above, p. 151. 4 This is not stated in express terms; but Sargon says in one place that he peopled Ashdod with captives from the extreme East (Inscriptions, &c, p. 27), while in another he reckons Media the lush III. from Tiglath-Pilescr II. (B.C. most eastern portion of his dominions. "81-744), Media became once more in- J "2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11. dependent, and that she was again made 33o Chap. VI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. the money payment hitherto exacted, the Mede9 were required to furnish annually to the royal stud a number of horses.7 It is probable that Media was already famous for the remarkable breed which is so celebrated in later times ;8 and that the horses now required of her by the Assyrians were to be of the large and highly valued kind known as "Nissean." The date of this subjugation is about B.C. 710. And here, if we compare the Greek accounts of Median history with those far more authentic ones which have reached us through the Assyrian contemporary records, we are struck by a repetition of the same device which came under our notice more than a century earlier—the device of covering up the nation's disgraces at a particular period by assigning to that very date certain great and striking successes. As Ctesias's revolt of the Medes under Arbaces and conquest of Nineveh synchronises nearly with the first known ravages of Assyria within the territories of the Medes, so Herodotus's revolt of the same people and commence- ment of their monarchy under Deioces falls almost exactly at the date when they entirely lost their independence.' As there is no reason to suspect Herodotus either of partiality towards the Medes or of any wilful departure from the truth, we must regard him as imposed upon by his informants, who were probably either Medes or Persians.10 These mendacious patriots found little difficulty in palming their false tale upon the simple Hali- carnassian, thereby at once extending the antiquity of their empire and concealing its shame behind a halo of fictitious glory. After their subjugation by Sargon, the Medes of Media Magna appear to have remained the faithful subjects of Assyria for sixty or seventy years. During this period we find no notices of the great mass of the nation in the Assyrian records: only here and there indications occur that Assyria is stretching out t ' Oppert, Inscriptions, &c., p. 25. • Sec above, p. 302. • As Herodotus gives to his four Median kings a period of exactly 150 years, and places the accession of Cyrus 78 years before the battle of Marathon, he really assigns the commencement of the Median monarchy to B.C. 708 (since 480 + 78 + 150 = 708). 10 Herodotus speaks iu one place only (vii. 62) of deriving information from the Medes. He quotes the Persians as his authorities frequently (i. 1-5, 95; iii. 98, &c). Chap. TL FICTITIOUS MEDIAN KINGS. her arms towards the more distant and outlying tribes, especially those of Azerbijan, and compelling them to acknowledge her as mistress. Sennacherib boasts that early in his reign, about B.c. 702, he received an embassy from the remoter parts of Media—" parts of which the kings his fathers had not even heard"11—which brought him presents in sign of submission and patiently accepted his yoke. His son, Esar-haddon, relates that, about his tenth year (b.c. 671) he invaded Bikni orBikan,12 a distant province of Media, "whereof the kings his fathers had never heard the name," and attacking the cities of the region one after another forced them to acknowledge his authority.13 The country was held by a number of independent chiefs, each bearing sway in his own city and adjacent territory. These chiefs have unmistakeably Arian names, as Sitriparna or Sitra- phernes, Eparna or Ophernes, Zanasana or Zanasanes, and Kamatiya or Ramates.14 Esar-haddon says that, having entered the country with his army, he seized two of the chiefs and earned them off to Assyria, together with a vast spoil and numerous other captives. Hereupon the remaining chiefs, alarmed for their safety, made their submission, consenting to pay an annual tribute, and admitting Assyrian officers into their territories, who watched, if they did not even control, the government. We are now approaching the time when Media seems to have been first consolidated into a monarchy by the genius of an individual. Sober history is forced to discard the shadowy forms of kings with which Greek writers of more fancy than judg- ment have peopled the darkness that rests upon the "origines" of the Medes. Arbaces, Maudaces,1 Sosarmus, Artycas, Ar- 11 Fox Talbot, Journal of the Asiatic 1 "stock." In Zanasana we have the Soekty, vol. xix. p. 143. J common Medo-Persic termination -ana "Probably Azcr-bijan. See above, (= Gk. -av-qs) suffixed to a root which is p. 262. note i4. 'probably connected with '.(in. "to slay." "Fox Talbot, Assyrian Texts, pp. 15, j Kamatiya has for its first clement un- 16; Oppert, Inscriptions das Sarjonidcs, doubtedly rdm-ru (acc. rain <), " pleasant, p. 57. , agreeable." The remainder of the word "The termination pirnn may be , is perhaps a mere personal suffix. Or compared with the Old Persian fran i, j the whole word may be a contraction of «hich is found in Vidafrana (lnta- ] ramd-daitya, "given to be agreeable." phernes). The initial Sitir is perhaps (Brockhaus, Vendidad-Satle, p. 390.) tiushatra, "crown," or possibly chitri, j 1 So Diodorus (ii. 32) and Eusebius 382 Chap. VT. THE THIRD MONARCHY, bianes,2 Artseus, Deloces—Median monarchs, according to Ctesias or Herodotus, during the space of time comprised within the years B.C. 875 and B.C. 655—have to be dismissed by the modern writer without a word, since there is reason to believe that they are mere creatures of the imagination, inventions of unscrupulous romancers, not men who once walked the earth. The list of Median kings in Ctesias, so far as it differs from the list in Herodotus, seems to be a pure forgery—an extension of the period of the monarchy by the conscious use of a system of duplication. Each king, or period, in Herodotus occurs in the list of Ctesias twice3—a transparent device, clumsily cloaked by the cheap expedient of a liberal invention of names.4 Even the list of Herodotus requires curtailment. His Deloces, whose whole history reads more like romance than truth*—the organizer of a powerful monarchy in Media just at the time when Sargon was building his fortified posts in the country and peopling with his Israelite captives the old "cities of the Medes"—the prince (Chron. Can. i. 15). But Syncellus gives the name as Mandaaces (Clironoiraph. p. 372), and bo does Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armen. i. 21). 3 Moses of Chorene substitutes for Ar- bianes the entirely different name Car- diceas. (Hist. Artnen. \. 8. c.) Euscbius and Syncellus take only four kings from Ctesias, and then change to the list of Herodotus. 'This is manifest from the number of the years which Ctesias assigns to hi9 kings. See the subjoined table. Ctesias. Kings. Arbaces .... Maudaces .. Sosarmiu ... Artycas Arblanes ... Artajus Artynes Astlbaras... Hbrodotds. Yin. Kings, &c. Yrt. 28 = Interregnum.. — SO = 53 311 = Iniorregn'im .. — 50 = S3 22 = J'hraortes j.' 40 = 40 22 = I'hraortes .... 23 40 = 10 The first critic who noted this curious method of duplication, so far as I know, was Volney. (See his Rechcrches sur Vllistoirc ancienne, torn. i. pp. 144 et seq.) Hecren glanced at it in the Ap- pendix to his Manual (p. 476, E. T.). I myself noted it before I found it in Volney. The only weak point in the cose is with respect to the interregnum. I presume that Ctesias supposed Hero- dotus to reckon the interregnum at a generation—30 years, in round numbers —and introduced the change in the case of Arbaces, from 30 to 28, in order to make the principle of alternations, which pervades his list and furnishes the key to it, less glaring and palpable. 4 Ctesias shows no great talent or skill in his invention of names. He has not half the fertility of ^Eschylus. (See the Persai, passim.) In his Median list. Artycos, Artoeus, Artynes, are but vari- ants of one and the same name—modi- fications of the root art'is, "great-" (Hesych. *ApTas, utyas nai urp6s.) In his Assyrian list he mixes Greek and Persian witli Semitic names, and in one part flies off to geography for assistance. In his famous story of the joint con- spiracy of Arbaces and Belesis he simply took the actual names of the satraps of Media and Assyria during the time of his own residence in Persia. (See Xen. Anab. vii. 8, § 25.) This last fact has, I believe, never been noticed. 1 See Mr. Grote's History of Greece, vol. iii. pp. 307, 308. Chap. VT. GROWTH OF MEDIA IN POWER. 383 who reigned for above half a century in perfect peace with his neighbours,8 and who, although contemporary with Sargon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Asshur-bani-pal—all kings more or less connected with Media—is never heard of in any of their annals,7 must be relegated to the historical limbo in which repose so many " shades of mighty names;" and the Herodotean list of Median kings must, at any rate, be thus far reduced. Nothing is more evident than that during the nourishing period of Assyria under the great Sargonidae above-named, there was no grand Median kingdom upon the eastern flank of the empire. Such a kingdom had certainly not been formed up to B.C. G71, when Esar-haddon reduced the more distant Medes, finding them still under the government of a number of petty chiefs.8 The earliest time at which we can imagine the consolidation to have taken place, consistently with what we know of Assyria, is about B.C. 660, or nearly half a century later than the date given by Herodotus. The cause of the sudden growth of Media in power about this period, and of the consolidation which followed rapidly upon that growth, is to be sought, apparently, in fresh migratory movements from the Arian head-quarters, the countries east and south-east of the Caspian. The Cyaxares who about the year B.C. 632 led an invading host of Medes against Nineveh, was so well known to the Arian tribes of the north-east, that, when in the reign of Darius Hystaspis a Sagartian raised the standard of revolt in that region, he stated the ground of his claim to the Sagartian throne to be descent from Cyaxares.9 This great chief, it is probable, either alone, or in conjunction with his father (whom Herodotus calls Phraortes),10 led a fresh • Herod, i. 102. I • Sec above, p. 381. 'It has been supposed by some that! • Sec the Behistun Inscription (printed the Deioces of Herodotus is to be identi- in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. ad fin.), fied with a certain chief of the Manni, ■ col. ii. par. 14, § 4. or Minni, called Dayaukku, who was 10 The name Phraortes in this connec- made a prisoner by Sargon, and settled ! tion is suspicious. It was borne by a »t Hamath, B.C. 715. The close resem- Medc who raised the standard of revolt bianco of the names is certainly remark- 1 in the time of Darius Hystaspis; who, able; but there is no reason to regard however, Inid it aside, and assumed the the Manni as Medes; nor is it likely ; name of Xathrites (Zte/t. Inscr. col. ii. that a captured chief, settled at Hamath, par. 5, §4). If Phraortes had been a in Syria, B.C. 715, could in B.c. 708 found royal name previously, it would scarcely a great kingdom in Media. | have been made to give way to one 3§4 Chap. VI. THE THIBD MONARCHY. emigration of Arians from the Bactrian and Sagartian country to the regions directly east of the Zagros mountain chain; and having thus vastly increased the strength of the Arian race in that quarter, set himself to consolidate a mountain kingdom capable of resisting the great monarchy of the plain. Accepted, it would seem, as chief by the former Arian inhabitants of the tract, he proceeded to reduce the scattered Scvthic tribes which had hitherto held possession of the high mountain region. The Zimri, Minni, Hupuska, &c, who divided among them the country lying between Media Proper and Assyria, were attacked and subdued without any great difficulty;11 and the conqueror, finding himself thus at the head of a considerable kingdom and no longer in any danger of subjugation at the hands of Assyria, began to contemplate the audacious enterprise of himself attacking the Great Power, which had been for so manv hundred years the terror of Western Asia. The supineness of Asshur-bani-pal, the Assyrian king, who must at this time have been advanced in years, encouraged his aspirations; and about B.C. 634, when that monarch had held the throne for thirty-four vears, suddenly, without warning, the Median troops debouched from the passes of Zagros, and spread themselves over the rich country at its base. Alarmed by the nearness and greatness of the peril, the Aasyrian king aroused himself, and putting himself at the head of his troops, marched out to confe*nt the invaler. A great battle was fought, probably somewhere in Adiabene, in which the Medes were completely defeated: their whole army was cut to pieces; and the father of Cyaxares was among the slain." which had no great associations attached to it. On the whole it is very doubtful if the Phraortes of Herodotus ought not to be absolutely retrenched, like his De'ioces. The testimony of jTjfchylus. who makes Cyaxares found the Medo-Persian em- pire (/Vnt. 761), and the evidence of the Behistun Inscription that the Medes traced their royal race to him, and not any higher, seem to show that he was really the founder of Median indepen- dence. Still, it has not been thought I right wholly to discard the authority of Herodotus, where he is not absolutely contradicted by the monuments. 11 KartffTpttpfTO T^y 'Atrlriv [6 ♦paep- t»js], at' &\ov ^t* aXAo i'fc-r t$vot. (Herod, i. 102.) These wars may have been in other directions also, but they mtiBt have been in Zagros for Media to have come at the end of them into contact with Assyria. (See the continua- tion of the passage, is t arpaTtwifitm lirl tons '.\. the somewhat obscure passage, xa'p's 2 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the fiiv yap -rdv , 4to edition). '• 106.) 3 The Samnites seem to have had a Our. TI. SPREAD OF THE SCYTHS OVER WESTERN ASIA. 3S9 fairness, naturally leads to quarrels. The barbarous Scythians are not likely to have cared very much about fairness. They would press heavily upon the more fertile tracts, paying over- frequent visits to such spots, and remaining in them till the region was exhausted. The chiefs would not be able to restrain their followers from acts of pillage; redress would be obtained with difficulty; and sometimes even the chiefs themselves may have been sharers in the injuries committed. The insolence, moreover, of a dominant race so coarse and rude as the Scyths must have been very hard to bear; and we can well understand that the various nations which had to endure the yoke must have looked anxiously for an opportunity of shaking it off, and recovering their independence. Among these various nations there was probably none that fretted and winced under its subjection more than the Medes. Naturally brave and high-spirited, with the love of independence inherent in mountaineers, and with a well-grounded pride in their recent great successes, they must have chafed daily and hourly at the ignominy of their position, the postponement of their hopes, and the wrongs which they continually suffered. At first it seemed necessary to endure. They had tried the chances of a battle, and had been defeated in fair fight—what reason was there to hope that, if they drew the sword again, they would be more successful? Accordingly they remained quiet; but, as time went on and the Scythians dispersed them- selves continually over a wider and a wider space, invading Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine,4 and again Armenia and Cappadocia,5 everywhere plundering and marauding, con- ducting sieges, fighting battles, losing men from the sword, from sickness, from excesses,6 becoming weaker instead of stronger, as each year went by, owing to the drain of constant wars—the Medes by degrees took heart. Not trusting, how- right of this kind in Campania, which, ' the occupation of inferior tribes, probably, as much as anything, caused 1 * Herod, i. 105. the revolt of the Campanians and their s Strab. xi. 8, § 4. 2G. , Only a king could undertake to treat 11 "Copias auxiliares miait [Nabopo- : with a king, and to propose such a mar- lasarus], videlicet ut rilio suo Nabucho- . riage as that above spoken of. drussoro despondcret Aniuhiam e filinhns Asdahagis imam." (Polyhist. np. Euseb. Chron. Can. i. 5.) "Ut" seems to mean here iip' "on condition that." ""Misit." Polyhist. ap. Euseb. l.s.<\ "Contra Kinivem impetum ftcicbat.' Abyden. ap. eund. (i. 9.) Ciur. VI. SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF NINEVEH. 395 The siege of Nineveh by the combined Medes and Babylonians was narrated by Ctesias1 at some length. He called the Assyrian king Sardanapalus, the Median commander Arbaces, the Baby- lonian Belesis. Though he thus disguised the real names, and threw back the event to a period a century and a half earlier than its true date, there can be no doubt that he intended to relate the last siege of the city, that which immediately preceded its complete destruction.* He told how the combined army, consisting of Persians and Arabs as well as of Medes and Baby- lonians and amounting to four hundred thousand men, was twice defeated with great loss by the Assyrian monarch, and compelled to take refuge in the Zagros chain—how after losing a third battle it retreated to Babylonia—how it was there joined by strong reinforcements from Bactria, surprised the Assyrian camp by night, and drove the whole host in confusion to Nineveh— how, then, after two more victories, it advanced and invested the city, which was well provisioned for a siege and strongly fortified. The siege, Ctesias said, had lasted two full years, and the third year had commenced—success seemed still far off—when an unusually rainy season so swelled the waters of the Tigris, that they burst into the city, sweeping away more than two miles (!) of the wall. This vast breach it was impossible to repair; and the Assyrian monarch, seeing that further resistance was vain, brought the struggle to an end by burning himself, with his concubines and eunuchs and all his chief wealth, in his palace. Such, in outline, was the story of Ctesias. If we except the extent of the breach which the river is declared to have made, it contains no glaring improbabilities.3 On the contrary, it is a • 1 See Diod. Sic. ii. 25-28. I unprecedented height of 22} feet. . . . ! After this capture Arbaces, ac- Nedjib Pasha had, a few days previously, cording to Ctesias, destroyed Nineveh | summoned the population ai i/visse to to its foundations (j^v irikiv t!s (Stupos provide against the general danger by **Ti(TKa$tv). j raising a strong high mound completely 'The danger which the cities on the ! round the walls. Mats of reed were Tigris run from the spring floods may placed outside to bind the earth com- be illustrated from the recent history of I pactly together. The water was thus Baghdad. In the year 1849 Mr. Loftus, restrained from devastating the city— arriving at that place on May 5, found ! not so effectually, however, but that it the whole population "in a state of the i filtered through the fine alluvial soil, utmost alarm and apprehension. ... 1 and stood in the scrdabs, or cellars, The rise in the Tigris had attained the several feet in depth. It had reached 396 Chap. VI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. narrative that hangs well together, and that suits both the rela- tions of the parties4 and the localities. Moreover, it is confirmed in one or two points by authorities of the highest order. Still, as Ctesias is a writer who delights in fiction, and as it seems very unlikely that he would find a detailed account of the siege, such as he has given us, in the Persian archives, from whence he professed to derive his history,6 no confidence can be placed in those points of his narrative which have not any further sanction. All that we know on the subject of the last siege of Nineveh is, that it was conducted by a combined army of Medes and Babylonians,6 the former commanded by Cyaxares, the latter by Nabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar,7 and that it was terminated, when all hope was lost, by the suicide of the Assyrian monarch. The self-immolation of Saracus is related by Aby- denus,8 who almost certainly follows Berosus in this part of his history. We may therefore accept it as a fact about which there ought to be no question. Actuated by a feeling which has more than once caused a vanquished monarch to die rather than fall into the power of his enemies, Saracus made a funeral pyre of his ancestral palace, and lighted it with his own hand.' One further point in the narrative of Ctesias we may suspect to contain a true representation. Ctesias declared the cause of the capture to have been the destruction of the city wall by an unexpected rise of the river. Now, the Prophet Nahum in his within two feet of the top of the bank!; 'See besides Abydenus and Poly- On the riverside the houses alone.many histor, Tobit xiv. 15, and Joseph us (Jnl. of which were very old and frail, pre- Jutl. x. 5, § 1). vented the ingress of the flood. It was 'The book of Tobit makes Nebu- a critical juncture. Men were stationed chadnczzar the actual commander, night and day to watch the barriers. 'Sfe the passage quoted at length. If the dom or any of the foundations p. 229, note 6. had failed, Baghdad must have been 9 The closest parallel to the conduct bodily washed away. Fortunately the of Saracus is the self-destruction of pressure was withstood, and the inunda- Zimri (1 K. xvi. 18). The unheroic tion gradually subsided." (Loftus, Chal- spirit of the later Persians, not being data and Susvmi, p. 7.) | able to conceive of such an act of self- 4 There is nothing improbable in the immolation, ascribed the fire to a Modes inducing the Persians to help thunderbolt. (See the distorted story of them, or in the Babylonians getting the the fall of Nineveh in Xenophon; Jjuib. assistance of some Arab tribes. (See iii. 4, 11, 12; where the Assyrians above, p. 210.) The Bactrian contingent are called Medes, and the Medes Per- might be a fresh body of emigrant sians, and where the effeminate Sardana- Medeg arrived from those regions. pnlus becomes an actual woman—Mi)5m 4 See Diod. Sic. ii. 32, § 4. I ywii flotriAteos.) Chap. VL DIVISION OF THE SPOIL. 397 announcement of the fate coming on Nineveh, has a very re- markable expression, which seems most naturally to point to some destruction of a portion of the fortifications by means of water. After relating the steps that would be taken for the defence of the place, he turns to remark on their fruitlessness, and says:—" The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved; and Huzzab is led away captive; she is led up, with her maidens, sighing as with the voice of doves, smiting upon their breasts."10 Now, we have already seen that at the north-west angle of Nineveh there was a sluice or floodgate,11 intended mainly to keep the water of the Khosr-su, which ordi- narily filled the city moat, from flowing off too rapidly into the Tigris, but probably intended also to keep back the water of the Tigris, when that stream rose above its common level. A sudden and great rise of the Tigris would necessarily endanger this gate, and if it gave way beneath the pressure, a vast torrent of water would rush up the moat along and against the northern wall, which may have been undermined by its force, and have fallen in. The stream would then pour into the city; and it may perhaps have reached the palace platform, which being made of sun-dried bricks and probably not cased with stone inside the city, would begin to be " dissolved."12 Such seems the simplest and best interpretation of this passage, which, though it is not historical but only prophetical, must be regarded as giving an importance, that it would not otherwise have possessed, to the statement of Ctesias with regard to the part played by the Tigris in the destruction of Nineveh. The fall of the city was followed by a division of the spoil between the two principal conquerors. While Cyaxares took to his own share the land of the conquered people, Assyria Proper, and the countries dependant on Assyria towards the north and 10 Nahum ii. 6. 7. The authorised version is followed mainly in this trans- lation; but a few improvements are adopted from Mr. Vance Smith's Pro- phecies concerning Xinerek, pp. 242, 243. 11 See aboTe, vol. i. p. 259. 15 Mr. Vance Smith argues against this translation of the word 3103 here, though he allows that 310 is ordinarily "to melt, dissolve," because (he says) "the raised terraces or platforms were very solid and faced with stone." {Prophecies, p. 243, note".) But we do not know that they were ever so faced except when they formed part of the external defences of the town. 39» Chap. VL THE THIED MONABCHY. the north-west, Nabopolassar was allowed, not merely Babylonia, Chaldaea, and Susiana,1 but the valley of the Euphrates and the countries to which that valley conducted. Thus two considerable empires arose at the same time out of the ashes of Assyria—the Babylonian towards the south and the south-west, stretching from Luristan to the borders of Egypt, the Median towards the north, reaching from the salt desert of Iran to Amanus and the Upper Euphrates. These empires were established by mutual consent; they were connected together, not merely by treaties, but by the ties of affinity which united their rulers; and, instead of cherishing, as might have been expected, a mutual suspicion and distrust, they seem to have really entertained the most friendly feelings towards one another, and to have been ready on all emergencies to lend each other important assistance.8 For once in the history of the world, two powerful monarchies were seen to stand side by side, not only without collision, but without jealousy or rancour. Babylonia and Media were content to share between them the Empire of Western Asia—the world was, they thought, wide enough for both—and so, though they could not but have had in some respects conflicting interests, they remained close friends and allies for more than half a century. To the Median monarch the conquest of Assyria did not bring a time of repose. Wandering bands of Scythians were still, it is probable, committing ravages in many parts of Western Asia. The subjects of Assyria, set free by her downfall, were likely to use the occasion for the assertion of their independ- ence, if they were not immediately shown that a power of at least equal strength had taken her place and was prepared to claim her inheritance. War begets war; and the successes of Cyaxares up to the present point in his career did but whet his appetite for power and stimulate him to attempt further con- quests. In brief but pregnant words Herodotus informs us, that Cyaxares "subdued to himself all Asia above the Halys.'"3 1 The dependence of Susiana on zar. (Dan. viii. 2 and 27.) Babylon during tlie Median period is | 2 See below, pp. 409 and 414. shown by the Book of Daniel, where s Herod, i. 103. Ovt6s [Kua{apijs] the prophet goes on the king's business iarrir ... 4 tiu» "AXiioj rrora/ioi $>« to "Shushan the palace in the province | 'ActTfK vaffav avtrT-fjiras Itevry. of Elam," during the reign of Belshaz- Chap. VI. ADVANCE OF THE EMPIRE. 399 How much he may include in this expression, it is impossible to determine; but, prima facie, it would seem at least to imply that he engaged in a series of wars with the various tribes and nations which intervened between Media and Assyria on the one side and the river Halys on the other, and that he succeeded in bringing them under his dominion. The most important countries in this direction were Armenia and Cappadocia. 'Armenia, strong in its lofty mountains, its deep gorges, and its numerous rapid rivers—the head streams of the Tigris, Euphra- tes, Kur, and Aras—had for centuries resisted with unconquered spirit the perpetual efforts of the Assyrian kings to bring it under their yoke, and had only at last consented under the latest king but one to a mere nominal allegiance.4 Cappadocia had not even been brought to this degree of dependance. It had lain beyond the furthest limit whereto the Assyrian arms had ever reached, and had not as yet come into collision with any of the great powers of Asia. Other minor tribes in this region, neighbours of the Armenians and Cappadocians, but more remote from Media, were the Iberians,6'the Colchians, the Moschi, the Tibareni, the Mares, the Macrones, and the Mosy- noeci.6 Herodotus appears to have been of opinion that all these tribes, or at any rate all but the Colchians, were at this time brought under by Cyaxares,7 who thus extended his do- minions to the Caucasus and the Black Sea upon the north, and upon the east to the Kizil Irmak or Halys. It is possible that the reduction of these countries under the Median yoke was not so much a conquest, as a voluntary sub- mission of the inhabitants to the power which alone seemed strong enough to save them from the hated domination of the Scytks. According to Strabo, Armenia and Cappadocia were the regions, where the Scythic ravages had been most severely 'Wc can scarcely suppose that the to cover the whole of this district. That submission of Betat-Dwi (supra, p. 210, i he regards it as port of the Median note7) was more than this. , Empire, and as devolving upon Persia "The "Sapeirians" of Herodotus (i. by her conquest of Media, seems to 104; iii. 95; vii. 79). follow from his making no allusion to 'Herod, iii. 94; vii. 78, 79. the conquest of any part of it by Cyrus 'His expression "all Asia above the or his succesors. Halys" (supra, note *), is ample enough 400 THE THIBD MONARCHY. Chat. VI. felt.8 Cappadocia had been devastated from the mountains down to the coast; and in Armenia the most fertile portion of the whole territory had been seized and occupied by the invaders, from whom it thenceforth took the name of Sacassene. The Armenians and Cappadocians may have found the yoke of the Scyths so intolerable as to have gladly exchanged it for dependance on a comparatively civilised people. In the neigh- bouring territory of Asia Minor a similar cause had recently exercised a unifying influence, the necessity of combining to resist Cimmerian immigrants having tended to establish a hege- mony of Lydia over the various tribes which divided among them the tract west of the Halys.9 It is evidently not impro- bable that the sufferings endured at the hands of the Scyths may have disposed the nations east of the river to adopt the same remedy, and that, so soon as Media had proved her strength, first by shaking herself free of the Scythic invaders, and then by conquering Assyria, the tribes of these parts ac- cepted her as at once their mistress and their deliverer.10 Another quite distinct cause may also have helped to bring about the result above indicated. Parallel with the great Median migration from the East under Cyaxares, or Phra- ortes (?), his father, an Arian influx had taken place into the countries between the Caspian and the Halys. In Armenia and Cappadocia, during the flourishing period of Assyria, Turanian tribes had been predominant.11 Between the middle and the end of the seventh century B.C. these tribes appear to have yielded the supremacy to Arians. In Armenia, the present language, which is predominantly Arian, ousted the former * Strab. jti. 8, § 4. !Cyaxares by arrangement, and not on * See below, p. 406. I compulsion. "It was observed above, that primA I 11 This is especially indicated by the facie the words of Herodotus seem to i Turanian character of the names of imply a series of wars. We notice, how- | those who bear rule in these regions ever, when we look more narrowly at during the whole period covered by the the passage, that the expression used, Assyrian historical inscriptions (lb. avat^aas iavry, is unusual and am- j B.C. 1230-650). It is further proved by biguous. It might apply to a violent the Turanian character of the language subjugation, but it does not necessarily I in the cuneiform inscriptions of Ar- imply violence. It would be a suitable | menia. (See Sir H. Rawlinson in the expression to use if the nations of this | author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 537; vol part of Asia came under the power of | iv. p. 206.) Chap. VI. ADVANCE OF THE EMPIRE. 4° I Turanian tongue, which appears in the cuneiform inscriptions of Van and the adjacent regions. In Cappadocia, the Moschi and Tibareni had to yield their seats to a new race—the Katapatuka, who were not only Arian but distinctly Medo-Persic, as is plain from their proper names,1 and from the close connection of their royal house with that of the kings of Persia.2 This spread of the Arians into the countries lying between the Caspian and the Halys must have done much to pave the way for Median supremacy over those regions. The weaker Arian tribes of the north would have been proud of their southern brethren, to whose arms the queen of Western Asia had been forced to yield, and would have felt comparatively little repugnance in sur- rendering their independence into the hands of a friendly and kindred people. Thus Cyaxares, in his triumphant progress to the north and the north-west, made war, it is probable, chiefly upon the Scyths, or upon them and the old Turanian inhabitants of the countries, while by the Arians he was welcomed as a champion come to deliver them from a grievous oppression. Ranging themselves under his standard, they probably helped him to expel from Asia the barbarian hordes which had now for many years tyrannized over them; and when the expulsion was completed, gratitude or habit made them willing to continue in the subject position which they had assumed in order to effect it. Cyaxares within less than ten years3 from his capture of Nineveh, had added to his empire the fertile and valuable tracts of Armenia and Cappadocia—never really subject to Assyria—and may per- haps have further mastered the entire region between Armenia and the Caucasus and Euxine. The advance of their western frontier to the river Halys, which was involved in the absorption of Cappadocia into the 1 Among Cappadocian names are j of Cyrus the Great. Pharnaccs, Smerdis, Artamnes, Ari- ■ * The fall of Nineveh has been placed arathes, Ariaramnes, Orophernes, Ari- in B.C. 025 or a little later. If the eclipse obarzanes, &c. of Thales is considered to be that of a c. * According to Diodorus (ap. Phot. 610, the commencement of the Lydian Hihliolhec. p. 1158), Phnrnaces, king war will be B.C. 615. This war could of Cappadocia (ab. B.C. 650), married not take place till the frontier had been Atossa, sister of Cambyses, an ancestor extended to the Halys. VOL. II. 2 D 4<32 Chap. Vt THE THIRD MONARCHY. Empire, brought the Medes into contact with a new power—a power, which, like Media, had been recently increasing in great- ness, and which was not likely to submit to a foreign yoke without a struggle. The Lydian kingdom was one of great antiquity in this part of Asia. According to traditions current among its people, it had been established more than seven hundred years4 at the time when Cyaxares pushed his conquests to its borders. Three dynasties of native kings—Atyadae, Hera- clidae, and Mermnadre—had successively held the throne during that period.5 The Lydians could repeat the names of at least thirty monarchs6 who had borne sway in Sardis, their capital city, since its foundation. They had never been conquered. In the old times, indeed, Lydus, the son of Atys, had changed the name of the people inhabiting the country from Maeonians to Lydians7—a change which to the keen sense of an historical critic implies a conquest of one race by another. But to the people themselves this tradition conveyed no such meaning; or, if it did to any, their self-complacency was not disturbed thereby, since they would hug the notion that they belonged not to the conquered race but to the conquerors. If a Rameses or a Sesostris had ever penetrated to their country, he had met witli a brave resistance, and hud left monuments indicating his respect for their courage.8 Neither Babylon nor Assyria had ever given a king to the Lydians—on the contrary, the Lydian tradition was, that they had themselves sent forth lie 1 us- and Ninus from their own country to found dynasties and cities in Mesopotamia.9 In a still more remote age they had seen their colonists embark upon the western waters,10 and start for the distant Hesperia, where they had arrived in safety, and had * Three Mermnad kings had reigned 99 yenrs, according to Herodotus. 89 according to Eusebius. The Heraclidre had reigned 505 yenrs according to the former. The Atyadie, who had fur- Dished several kings (Atys, Lydus. Melrs, Moxus, tie.), must be assigned more than a century, 5 llerod. i. 7-14. * At least four Atyadoe (sec above, note4), 22 Heraclida; (llerod. i. 7), and four Mermnadn?, Gyges, Ardys, Sadyat- tes, and Alyattes. 'Herod, i. 7; vii. 74. 1 Ibid. ii. 106. Compare ch. 102. 9 This is theonly possible explanation of the mythic genealogy in Herod, i. 7. (See the author's JJervdottu, vol. i. p. 2i(2, 2nd edition.) 10 'Efl "Atum toD Muea flotriAfjoj. Herod, i. 94. Chap. VI. FIRST CONTACT OF MEDIA WITH LYDIA. 403 founded the great Etruscan nation. On another occasion they had carried their arms beyond the limits of Asia Minor, and had marched southward to the very extremity of Syria, where their general, Ascalus, had founded a great city and called it after his name.11 Such were the Lydian traditions with respect to the more remote times. Of their real history they seem to have known but little, and that little did not extend further back than about two hundred years before Cyaxares.12 Within this space it was certain that they had had a change of dynasty, a change pre- ceded by a long feud between their two greatest houses,13 which were perhaps really two branches of the royal family.1* The Heraclidse had grown jealous of the Mermnadse, and had treated them with injustice: the Mermnadae had at first sought their safety in flight, and afterwards, when they felt themselves strong enough, had returned, murdered the Heraclide monarch, and placed their chief, Gyges, upon the throne. With Gyges, who had commenced his reign about B.C. 700,15 the prosperity of the Lydians had greatly increased, and they had begun to assume an aggressive attitude towards their neighbours. Gyges' revenue was so great that his wealth became proverbial,16 and he could afford to spread his fame by sending from his superfluity to the distant temple of Delphi presents of such magnificence that they "Xantli. Lyd. Fr. 2.1; Nic Dam. Fr. 26. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe that very little confidence can be placed in any of these traditions. They are adduced here merely as help- ing us to understand the spirit and temper of the people. '• The Mermnadse had, I conceive, been on the throne nearly a century (8.'> years) when Cyaxares made his attack upon Lydin. The history of the Hera- clida? seems to have commenced with Ardys, the fifth ancestor of Candaules (Mc, Dam. Fr. 49), whom Eusebius makes the first king. (Curon. Cm. i. 15; ii. p. 318, ed. Mai.) These five Heraclide reigns would cover a space of about 115 years, at the (very probable) rate of reckoning indicated by Hero- dotus (i. 7. sub fin.). "Sec Nic. Dam. Fr. 28. An abstract of the passage has been given by the author in his Herodotus (vol. i. p. 295, note '). 14 The same names occur in both houses, as Ardys, Sadyattes, and Alyattcs(if that is equivalent to Adyattes). Ardys is common to both Mermnads and Hera- clides Ifeforc the usurpation of Gyges. (Nic. Dam. 1. 8. c.) 13 The date of Herodotus, B.O. 724, is upset by the discovery that Gyges was contemporary with Asshur-bani- pal. (See above, p. 203, note *.) The date of Eusebius is n.c. 698. (Chron. Can. ii. p. 323, ed. Mai.) "Gyges was known in his lifetime as 6 iroKvxpvaos. (Archiloch. ap. Arist. Rhet. iii. 17.) The epithet attached to him and to his city for ages afterwards. (See jEschyl. J'ers. 45; Alpheus in ,-ln- tiuloij.i. 12; F.urip. Tp't. in A'il. 786; Nicolaus ap. Stob. xiv. p. 87; &c.) 2 d 2 406 Chap. VI. THE THIBD MONARCHY. period of prostration. Sadyattes, the son of Ardys, and grandson of Gyges, following the example of his father and grandfather, made war upon Miletus;8 and Alyattes, his son and successor, pursued the same policy of aggression. Besides pressing Miletus, he besieged and took Smyrna,9 arid ravaged the territory of Clazomenje.10 But the great work of Alyattes' reign, and the one which seems to have had the most important consequences for Lydia, was the war which he undertook for the purpose of expelling the Cimmerians from Asia Minor. The hordes had been greatly w eakened by time, by their losses in w ar, and probably by their excesses; they had long ceased to be formidable; but they were still strong enough to be an annoyance. Alyattes is said to have "driven them out of Asia,"11 by which we can scarcely understand less than that he expelled them from his own dominions and those of his neighbours—or, in other words, from the countries which had been the scenes of their chief ravages—Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Cilicia.12 But, to do this, he must have entered into a league with his neighbours, who must have consented to act under him for the purposes of the war, if they did not even admit the permanent hegemony of his country. Alyattes' success appears to have been complete, or nearly so;13 he cleared Asia Minor of the Cimmerians; and, having thus conferred a benefit on all the nations of the region and exhibited before their eyes his great military capacity, if he had not actually constructed an Empire, he had at any rate done much to pave the way for one. Such was the political position in the regions west and south of the Halys, when Cyaxares completed his absorption of Cappa- docia, and looking across the river that divided the Cappadocians from the Phrygians, saw stretched before him a region of great fertile plains, which seemed to invite an invader. A pretext for ■ Herod i. 15 and 18. 0 Ibid. i. 1G: Nic. Dam. p. 52, ed. Orelli. 10 Herod. I. s. c. 11 Ktufiep'tovs £k tt}j 'Affltjs ttf- Aatrt. Herod. I. s. c. 12 On the Cimmerian invasion of Cilicia, see Strab. i. 3, § 21. '* According to Herodotus the Cim- merians made a permanent settlement at Sinopc (iv. 12); and according to Aristotle (Fr. 190) they maintained themselves for a century at Antandros in the Troad. Otherwise they disappear from Asia. Chap. VI. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE LYDIANS. 407 an attack was all that he wanted, and this was soon forthcoming. A body of the nomad Scyths—probably belonging to the great invasion, though Herodotus thought otherwise 14—had taken service under Cyaxares, and for some time served him faithfully, being employed chiefly as hunters. A cause of quarrel, however, arose after a while; and the Scyths, disliking their position or distrusting the intentions of their lords towards them, quitted the Median territory, and marching through great part of Asia Minor, sought and found a refuge with Alyattes, the Lydian king. Cyaxares, upon learning their flight, sent an embassy to the court of Sardis to demand the surrender of the fugitives; but the Lydian monarch met the demand with a refusal, and, fully understanding the probable consequences, immediately prepared for war. Though Lydia, compared to Media, was but a small state, yet her resources were by no means inconsiderable. In fertility she surpassed almost every other country of Asia Minor,15 which is altogether one of the richest regions in the world. At this time she was producing large quantities of gold, which was found in great abundance in the Pactolus, and probably in the other small streams that flowed down on all sides from the Tmolus mountain-chain.1 Her people were at once war- like and ingenious. They had invented the art of coining money,2 and showed considerable taste in their devices.3 They No. 1. No. 2. Lydian Coins. "Herod, i. 73. Herodotus seems to have imagined that these Scythians were political refugees from his European Scythia. "On the richness and fertility of this part of Asia, see Virg. ACn. x. 1*41; Strabo, xiii. 4, § 5; and compare Sir C. Fellows's Asia Minor, pp. 16-42. 1 Sec Herod, i. 93; Soph. 1'hilocf. I 393 : Plin. //. X. v. 29, 30 ; 8cc. Croesus had also mines, which he worked, near Pergamus. (See Aristot. Mirab. Auscult. 52.) 1 Xcnoph. Coloph. ap. Polluc. ix. 6, § S3; Herod, i. 94 ; Eustath. ad Dionyt, Periej. 840. The claim of the Lydians to be regarded as the inventors of coin- ing has been disputed by some, among others by the late Col. Leake. (iV'/m. Helltn. Appendix: Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, vol. iv. pp. 243, 244.) I have discussed the subject in my Hcrodot'is (vol. i. pp. 565, 566, 2nd edition). 3 Most Lydian coins bear the device of a crowned figure about to shoot an 4o8 Chap. VI. THE THIED MONABCHY. claimed also lo have been the inventors of a number of games, which were common to them with the Greeks.4 According to Herodotus, they were the first who made a livelihood by shop- keeping.5 They were skilful in the use of musical instruments,6 and had their own peculiar musical mode or style, which was in much favour among the Greeks, though condemned as effeminate by some of the philosophers.' At the same time the Lydians w ere not wanting in courage or manliness.8 They fought chiefly on horseback and were excellent riders, carrying long spears, which they managed with great skill.9 Nicolas of Damascus tells us that, even under the Heraclide kings, they could muster for service cavalry to the number of thirty thousand.10 In peace they pursued with ardour the sports of the field," and found in the chase of the wild-boar a pastime which called forth and exercised every manly quality. Thus Lydia, eveu by herself, was no contemptible enemy; though it can hardly be supposed that, without help from others, she would have proved a match for the great Median Empire. But such help as she needed was not wanting to her. The rapid strides with which Media had advanced towards the west had no doubt alarmed the numerous princes of Asia Minor, who must have felt that they had a power to deal with as full of schemes of conquest as Assyria, and more capable of carrying her designs into execution. It has been already observed that arrow from a bow—which seems to be the pattern from which the Persians copied the emblem on their Paries. A few have the head of a lion, or the fore- parts of a lion and a bull (as that figured above, No. 1, w hich is supposed to have been struck by Crusus). Both the animal forms are in this case rendered with much spirit. 4 Dice, huckle-bones, ball, fee. (Herod, i. 94). 4 npwTOi Kan-jjAot iyivomo. (Herod. ]. s. c.) 'Pindar related that the magtulis or jKctiSj a harp with sometimes as many as twenty strings, had been adopted by the Greeks from the Lydians, who used it at their banquets. ( \ p. Athen. Veipn. xiv. p. G35.) Herodotus speaks of the Lydians using both this instru- ment, and also the syrinx (Pan's pipe), and the double flute, in their military expeditions (i. 17). 7 Plato, Jtepub. iii. 10. Aristotle seems to have entertained an opposite opinion. {Pot. viii. 7, ad fin.) 8 Herodotus, speaking of the Ly- dians, so late as the time of Cnrsus. says, *Hf 5t ruvroy rbv XP°*0V oiitfv iv rp 'Atrip o6rt twlptiirtpo' otjTC k\Kifittir(pov roil Aviiuv (i. 79). They did not change their character till after the Persian conquest. v Herod. 1. s. c. '• Nic Dam. Fr. 49 {Fra,jm. Hat. Or. vol. iii. p. 382). "Herod, i. 36-43; Nic Dam. Fr. 49, p. 384. THE THIRD MONARCHY. Chai\ VT. inner Asia, be invaded the territory of the Western Powers, and began his attempt at subjugation. We have no detailed account of the war; but we learn from the general expressions of Hero- dotus that the Median monarch met with a most stubborn resistance; numerous engagements were fought with varied results; sometimes the Medes succeeded in defeating their adversaries in pitched battles; but sometimes, and apparently as often, the Lydians and their allies gained decided victories over the Medes.11 It is noted that one of the engagements took place by night, a rare occurrence in ancient (as in modern) times.15 The war had continued six years, and the Medes bad evidently made no serious impression,16 when a remarkable circumstance brought it suddenly to a termination. The two armies had once more met and were engaged in conflict, when, in the midst of the struggle, an ominous darkness fell upon the combatants and filled them with superstitious awe. The sun was eclipsed, either totally or at any rate con- siderably,17 so that the attention of the two armies was attracted to it; and, discontinuing the fight, they stood to gaze at the phenomenon. In most parts of the East such an occurrence is even now seen with dread—the ignorant mass believe that the orb of day is actually being devoured or destroyed, and that the end of all things is at hand—even the chiefs, who may have some notion that the phenomenon is a recurrent one, do not understand its cause, and participate iu the alarm of their followers. On the present occasion it is said that, amid the 14 Herod, i. 74. 11 Some regard this *' niijht engage- ment" as identical with tile battle stopped by the eclipse, when (to use the ] words of Herodotus) " the day became niijht " (sec Biihr. ad loc.). But. strictly taken, the words of Herodotus assign the night engagement to one of the first five years, whereas the eclipse is in the sixth. !* Aia^tiwvat 5t enpi 1*' tarji rbv -ndAf i.or is the expression of Herodotus (1. 8. R> "It has been customary to assume that the eclipse must h"Ve been a total one i and the enquiries of astronomers have been directed to the resolution of the question-—-What total eclipses were there in Asia Minor in the 50 years from B.C. G30 to B.C. 580? But, though a total eclipse would seem to be required by the descriptive language of Hero- dotus, no such phenomenon is requisite for the facts of his tale, which alone can be regarded as historical. If the eclipse was sujficient to be noticed, it would produce naturally all the supersti- tious awe, and so alt the other results, which Herodotus relates. It is not the mere darkness, but the portent, that alarms and paralyzes the ignorant Asiatic in such cases. Chap. VL rEACE BETWEEN ALT ATT ES AND CYAXARES. 411 general fear, a desire for reconciliation seized both armies.18 Of this spontaneous movement two chiefs, the foremost of the allies on either side, took advantage. Syennesis, king of Cilicia, the first known monarch of his name,19 on the part of Lydia, and a prince whom Herodotus calls "Labynetiis of Babylon,"—probably either Nabopolassar1 or Nebuchadnezzar —on the part of Media, came forward to propose an im- mediate armistice; and, when the proposal was accepted on either side, proceeded to the more difficult task of arranging terms of peace between the contending parties. Since nothing is said of the Scythians, who had been put forward as the ostensible grounds of quarrel, we may presume that Alyattes retained them. It is further clear that both he and his allies preserved undiminished both their territories and their inde- pendence. The territorial basis of the treaty was thus what in modern diplomatic language is called the status quo; matters, in other words, returned to the position in which they had slood before the war broke out. The only difference was that Cyaxares gained a friend and an ally where he had previously had a jealous enemy; since it was agreed that the two kings of 3Iedia and Lydia should swear a friendship, and that, to cement the alliance, Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis in marriage to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares. The marriage thus arranged took place soon afterwards, while the oath of friend- ship was sworn at once. According to the barbarous usages of the time and place, the two monarchs having met and repeated the words of the formula, punctured their own arms, and then sealed their contract by each sucking from the wound a portion of the other's blood.2 "Herod, i. 74. T^t /»oxi5 T« ivavrtaivro KaX txaWov Ti tavtvtray koI afi^>6rtpoi ftfrl]vrjv luvroitri ytvi- (T0ai. 13 The name occurs repeatedly in later (.'ilician history (JEtchyL Ptrs, 328; Herod, vii. 98; Xen. Atiah. I 2, § 23). Apparently it is either a royal title like Pharaoh, or a name which each king assumes when he mounts the throne. 1 If the true date of the eclipse is B.C. G10, it would fall into the reign of Nabopolassar, which covered the s &ce between b.c. 625 and B.C. (i04. If it was the eclipse of b.c. C03. of B.c. 597, of b.c. 585, or of B.c. 583, Nabopolassar would be dead, and Nebuchadnezzar would be king of Babylon. 2 Herod, i. 74, ad fin. A practice nearly similar is ascribed to the Eu- ropean Scyths by Herodotus (iv. 70), 412 Chap. VL THE THIRD MONARCHY. By this peace the three great monarchies of the time—the Median, the Lydian, and the Bahylonian—were placed on terms, not only of amity, but of intimacy and (if the word may be used) of blood-relationship. The Crown Princes of the three kingdoms had become brothers.3 From the shores of the Egean to those of the Persian Gulf, Western Asia was now ruled by interconnected dynasties, bound by treaties to respect each other 8 rights, and perhaps to lend each other aid in important conjunctures, and animated, it would seem, by a real spirit of mutual friendliness and attachment. After more than five centuries of almost constant war and ravage, after fifty years of fearful strife and convulsion, during which the old monarchy of Assyria had gone down and a new Empire—the Median— had risen up in its place, this part of Asia entered upon a period of repose which stands out in strong contrast with the long term of struggle. From the date of the peace between Alyattes and Cyaxares (probably B.C. 6'10),4 for nearly half a century, the three kingdoms of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia remained fast friends, pursuing their separate courses without quarrel or collision, and thus giving to the nations within their and to the Armenians and Iberians by Tacitus (Ann. xii. 47). One not very different is still found in S. Africa (Livingstone, Travels, p. 488). The rationale of the custom seems to be. as Dr. Livingstone explains, the notion that by drinking each other's blood the two parties become perpetual friends and relations. 3 The subjoined table will illustrate this statement:— Alyattes. I • Cyaxares. Nabopo- I I iubiam. Nebucbad- Crcesus Aryenls m. Asty- Ami Nebuchadnezzar and Croesus were both brothers-in-law of Astyages. 4 I am stiil unconvinced by the argu- ments of Mr. Bosanqnet, who regards the eclipse as positively fixed to the year b.c. 585. The grounds of our difference are two-fold. 1. I do not think the eclipse must necessarily have been total. (See above, p. 410, note ".) And 2. I do not regard astronomical science as capable of pronouncing on the exact line taken by eclipses which happened more than 2000 years ago. The motions of the earth and of the moon are not uniform, and no astronomer can say that all the irregularities which may exist arc known to him and hare been taken into account with exactness in his back calculations. Fresh irregu- larities are continually discovered; and hence the calculations of astronomers as to the lines of past eclipses are continu- ally changing. (See the long note in Mr. Grotc's History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 418, edition of 1862.) If, however, Mr. Hosanquet should be right, and the eclipse was really that of n.c. 585, there will be no need of de- ranging on that account our entire scheme of Oriental chronolcigy. The simple result will be that the battle must be transferred to the reign of Astyages, to which Cicero (De !>>'■ '■ 49)'. Pliny (H. N. ii. 12), and Eusebius (Oir«n. Cm. ii. p. 331) assign it Chap. VI. LAST YEARS OF CYAXARES. 413 borders a rest and a refreshment which they must have greatly needed and desired. In one quarter only was this rest for a short time disturbed. During the troublous period the neighbouring country of Egypt, which had recovered its freedom,5 and witnessed a revival of its ancient prosperity, under the Psamatik family, began once more to aspire to the possession of those provinces which, being divided off from the rest of the Asiatic continent by the impassable Syrian desert, seems politically to belong to Africa almost more than to Asia. Psamatik I., the Psam- metichus of Herodotus, had commenced an aggressive war in this quarter, probably about the time that Assyria was suf- fering from the Median and then from the Scythian inroads. He had besieged for several years the strong Philistine town of Ashdod,6 which commands the coast-route from Egypt to Palestine, and was at this time a most important city. Despite a resistance which would have wearied out any less pertinacious assailant, he had persevered in his attempt, and had finally succeeded in taking the place. He had thus obtained a firm footing in Syria; and his successor was able, starting from this vantage-ground, to overrun and conquer the whole territory. About the year B.C. 608, Neco, son of Psamatik I., having recently ascended the throne, invaded Palestine with a large amy. met and defeated Josiah,7 king of Judah, near Megiddo in the great plain of Esdraelon, and, pressing forward through Syria to the Euphrates, attacked and took Carchemish, the strong city which guarded the ordinary passage of the river. Idumea, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Syria submitted to him, and for three years he remained in undisturbed possession of his conquests.8 Then, however, the Babylonians, who had received these provinces at the division of the Assyrian Empire, began 3 Psammetichus probably became an ! Such a story, however, would not have independent king about b.c. 647, at the arisen unless the siege had been one of time of the revolt of Saul-Mugina. He i unusual length. was previously governor under Assyria. I 7 2 Kings xxiii. 29; 2 Chr. xxxv. (See above, p. 203.) , 20-23. Compare Herod, ii. 159. ! Herodotus, who is the authority for i 8 2 Kings xxiv. 7 ; Berosus ap. Joseph, this siege, says that it lasted 29 years Ant.Ju>-t.x. 11. (ii. 157), which is most improbable. 4H Chat. VI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. to bestir themselves. Nebuchadnezzar marched to Cairhemish, defeated the army of Neco, recovered all the territory to the border of Egypt, and even ravaged a portion of that country.9 It is probable that in this expedition he was assisted by the Medes. At any rate, seven or eiixht years afterwards, when the intrigues of Egypt had again created disturbances in this quarter, and Jehoiakim, the Jewish king, broke into open insurrection, the Median monarch sent a contingent,10 which accompanied Nebuchadnezzar into Judasa, and assisted hirn to establish his power firmly in South-Western Asia. This is the last act that we can ascribe to the great Median king. He can scarcely have been much less than seventy years old at this time; and his life was prolonged at the utmost three years longer.11 According to Herodotus, he died B.C. 593, after a reign of exactly forty years,12 leaving his crown to his son Astyages, whose marriage with a Lydian princess was above related. We have no sufficient materials from which to draw out a complete character of Cyaxares. He appears to have pos- sessed great ambition, considerable military ability, and a rare tenacity of purpose, which gained him his chief successes. At the same time he was not wanting in good sense, and could bring himself to withdraw from an enterprise, when he had misjudged the fitting time for it, or greatly miscalculated its difficulties. He was faithful to his friends, but thought treachery allowable towards his enemies. He knew how to conquer, but not how to organize, an empire; and, if we except his esta- blishment of Magism as the religion of the state, we may say that he did nothing to give permanency to the monarchy which he founded. He was a conqueror altogether after the Asiatic model, able to wield the sword, but not to guide the pen, to 0 Jerem. xlvi. 2-26. I (Sec above, p. 383.) If he ascended 10 So Polyhistor related (Fr. 24). Like the throne b.c. 633, which is the date Ctesins, he called the Median monarch of Herodotus, he would consequently Astihares. be about 67 in B.C. 597, the date of 11 We cannot suppose Cyaxares to \ Jehoiakim's captivity. have been much less than thirty years ] 12 Herod, i. 106. This number is old at his accession—especially if he confirmed by Ctesias (ap. Diod. Sic ii. had previously led into Media a band 31, § 1). of emigrants from the Bactrian country. Chap. VI. ASTYAGES AND HIS COURT. subdue his contemporaries to his will by his personal ascendancy over them, but not to influence posterity by the establishment of a kingdom, or of institutions, on deep and stable founda- tions. The Empire, which owed to him its foundation, was the most shortlived of all the great Oriental monarchies, having begun and ended within the narrow space of three score and ten years1—the natural lifetime of an individual. Astyages, who succeeded to the Median throne about B.C. 5D3,2 had neither his father's enterprise nor his ability. Born to an Empire, and bred up in all the luxury of an Oriental Court, he seems to have been quite content with the lot which fortune appeared to have assigned him, and to have coveted no grander position. Tradition says that he was remarkably handsome,3 cautious,4 and of an easy and generous temper.5 Although the anecdotes related of his mode of life at Ecbatana by Herodotus, Xenophon, and Nicolas of Damascus, seem to be for the most part apocryphal, and at any rate come to us upon authority too weak to entitle them to a place in history, we may perhaps gather from the concurrent descriptions of these three writers something of the general character of the Court over which he presided. Its leading features do not seem to have differed greatly from those of the Court of Assyria. The monarch lived secluded, and could only be seen by those who asked and obtained an audience.6 He was surrounded by guards and eunuchs, the latter of whom held most of the offices near the royal person.7 The Court was magnificent in its apparel, in its banquets, and in the number and organization of its attendants. The courtiers wore long flowing robes of many different colours, amongst which red and purple predominated,8 1 The real 11 Empire" must date, j the former point certainly, on the not from the accession of Cyaxares, | latter probably, he followed the sus- but from his conquest of Nineveh, ' picious authority of Ctesias. •which was i».c 623 at the earliest. 3 Xen. Cyrop. i. 3, §2. From this to u.c. 5f>8—the first year of * jEschyl. Pcrs. 7G3. , koI ttjj opiausa-s' 5m who (it may be susjiocted) followed ri> rijr pin tvvaniv i^npynicfyat, avrbv Pino, the father of Clitarchus, a writer Si rpvipfr. (/W. v. 8, § 15.) of lair authority. VOL. II. 2 K Chap. VI. DOMESTIC RELATIONS OF ASTYAGES. 419 led him to contract those other marriages of which we hear in the Armenian History of Moses—one with a certain Anusia, of whom nothing more is known; and another with an Armenian princess, the loveliest of her sex, Tigrania, sister of the Ar- meuian king, Tigranes.3 The blessing of male offspring was still, however, denied him; and it is even doubtful whether he was really the father of any daughter or daughters. Herodotus3 and Xenophon4 indeed give him a daughter, Mandane, whom they make the mother of Cyrus; and Ctesias, who denied in the most positive terms the truth of this statement,5 gave him a daughter, Amytis, whom he made the wife, first of Spitaees the Mede,6 and afterwards of Cyrus the Persian, But these stories, which seem intended to gratify the vanity of the Per- sians by tracing the descent of their kings to the great Median conqueror, while at the same time they flattered the Medes by showing them that the" issue of their old mooarchs was still seated on the Arian throne, are entitled to little more credit than the narrative of the Shah-nameh, which declares that Iskander (Alexander) was the son of Darab (Darius) and of a daughter of Failakus (Philip of Macedon).7 When an Oriental crown pas>es from one dynasty to another, however foreign and unconnected, the natives are wont to invent a relationship between the two houses,8 which both parties are commonly quite ready to accept; as it suits the rising house to be pro- vided with a royal ancestry, and it pleases the fallen one and its partisans to see in the occuj>ants of the throne a branch of the ancient stock—a continuation of the legitimate family. Tales therefore of the above-mentioned kind are, historically speaking, valueless; and it must remain uncertain whether the second Median monarch had any child at all, either male or female. 'Mos. Chor. /fist. Armeii. i. 27 and 29. s Herod, i. 107. * Xen. Cyrop. i. 2, § I. 5 Ctes. Pen. Exc. § 2. 'Ibid. Compare >'ic. Dam. Fr. 66, p. 399. 8 See the attempts made to prove that Cambyses was the son of an Egyptian princess (Herod, iii. 2), and other still more wonderful attempts to show that Alexander the Great was the son of Nectanebus. (Mos. Chor. Hist. Armai. 7 See Atkinson's Shah-nimeh, pp. 493, 1 ii. 12; Syncell. Cttnmujniph. p. 487, U.) 134. | 2 e 2 420 Chap. VL THE THIRD MONARCHY. Old age was now creeping upon the sonless king. If lie was sixteen or seventeen years old at the time of his contract of marriage with Aryeuis, he must have been nearly seventy in B.c. 558, when the revolt occurred which terminated both his reign and his kingdom. It appears that the Persian branch of the Arian race, which had made itself a home in the country lying south and south-east of Media, between the 32nd parallel and the Persian Gulf, had acknowledged some subjection to the Median kings during the time of their greatness. Dwelling in their rugged mountains and high upland plains, they- had however maintained the simplicity of their primitive manners, and had mixed but little with the Medes, being governed by their own native princes of the Achsenienian house, the de- scendants, real or supposed, of a certain Achaemenes.9 These princes were connected by marriage with the Cappadocian kings;10 and their house was regarded as one of the noblest in Western Asia. What the exact terms were upon which they stood with the Median monarch is uncertain. Herodotus re- gards Persia as absorbed into Media at this time, and the Achremenida; as merely a good Persian family ;u Nicolas of Damascus makes Persia a Median satrapy, of w hich Atradates, the father of Cyrus, is satrap;12 Xenophon, on the contrary, not only gives the Achsemcnidre their royal rank,13 but seems to consider Persia as completely independent of Media;14 Moses of Chorene takes the suine view, regarding Cyrus as a great and powerful sovereign during the reign of Astvages.14 The native records lean towards the view of Xenophon and Moses. Darius declares that eight of his race had been kings before himself, and makes no diffeience between his own royalty and theirs.16 Cyrus calls himself in one inscription "the son of Cambyses, the powerful king." 17 It is ceitain therefore that * Herod, iii. 75, vii. 11; BelM. Inter, j "Sec tlie Ilchist >n Intcriptiim, col. i. col. i. par. 2, § fi. 'par. 4. § 2. "There are eight of bit "Diod. Sic. ap. Phot. Bibliothcc. p. race who have bceu kings before me. 1158. "Herod, i. 107. Oiki'tj o>obr,. I am the ninth." la Nic. Dnm. Fr. 66. p. -199. 1 IT This inscription has been foumi on }i Xen. Cyrop. i. 2, § 1. a brick brought Irom Senkerah. Si* "Ibid. i. 5, J§ 3-5. the author's Hcndutut, voL j. p. 200. "Mos. Chor. Hint. Arm. i. 24, 25. note 9 (2nd edition). Chap. VI. CAUSES OF THE REBELLION OF CYBUS. 421 Persia continued to be ruled by her own native monarchs during the whole of the Median period, and that Cyrus led the attack upon Astyages as hereditary Persian king. The Persian records seem rather to imply actual independence of Media; but. as national vanity would prompt to dissimulation in such a case, we may perhaps accord so much weight to the state- ment of Herodotus, and to the general tradition on the sub- ject,1* as to believe that there was some kind of acknowledgment of Median supremacy on the part of the Persian kings anterior to Cyrus, though the acknowledgment may have been not much more than a formality, and have imposed no onerous obliga- tions. The residence of Cyrus at the Median Court, which is asserted in almost every narrative of his life before he be- came king, inexplicable if Persia was independent,1* becomes thoroughly intelligible on the supposition that she was a great Median feudatory. In such cases the residence of the Crown Prince at the capital of the suzerain is constantly desired, or even required by the superior Power,20 which sees in the pre- sence of the son and heir the best security against disaffection or rebellion on the part of the father. It appears that Cyrus, while at the Median Court, observing the unwarlike temper of the existing generation of Medes, who Lad not seen any actual service, and despising the personal character of the monarch,21 who led a luxurious life, chiefly at Ecbatana, amid eunuchs, concubines, and dancing-girls,' resolved on raising the standard of rebellion, and seeking at any rate to free his own country. It may be suspec ted that the Persian prince was not actuated solely by political motives. To earnest Zoroastrians, such as the Achfcmenians are shown to have been by their inscriptions, the yoke of a Power which had so greatly corrupted, if it had not wholly laid aside, the worship of Ormuzd,2 must have been extremely distasteful; "Dino, Fr. 7; NJc Dam. Fr. 66; Justin, i. 4-6; &c. "Xenophons notion of a voluntary cwil is quite contrary to all experience, in the East or elsewhere. "Compare the policy of Rome as shown with respect to the Parthian and Armenian princes (Tscit. Ann. ii. l-3\ ami to the Herods (Joseph. Ant.Jud. xvi. 1, §2;&c> »' Arist. Pol v. 8, § 15. 1 'OpxWTp'S&S' Nfe. Dam. p. 403. ■ Sec above, pp. 348. 349. 422 Ciur. VL THE THIRD MOXABCHY. and Cyrus may have wished by his rebellion as much to vindi- cate the honour of his religion 3 as to obtain a loftier position for his nation. If the Magi occupied really the position at the Median Court which Herodotus assigns to them, if they "were held in high honour by the king, and sliared in his sovereignty" *—if the priest-ridden monarch was perpetually dreaming and perpetually referring his dreams to the Magian seers for exposition, and then guiding his actions by the advice tliey tendered him,' the religious zeal of the young Zoroastrian may very naturally have been aroused, and the contest into which he plunged may have been, in his eyes, not so much a national struggle as a crusade against the infidels. It will be found hereafier that religious fervour animated the Persians in most Lof those wars by which they spread their dominion. We may suspect, therefore, though it must be admitted we cannot prove, that a religious motive was among those which led them to make their first efforts after independence. According to the account of the struggle* which is most circumstantial, and on the whole most probable, the first diffi- culty which the would-be rebel had to meet and vanquish was that of quitting the Court. Alleging that his father was in weak health, and required his care, he requested leave of ab- sence for a short time; but his petition was refused on the fluttering ground that the Great King was too much attached to him to lose sight of him even for a day.1 A second appli- cation, however, made through a favourite eunuch after a certain interval of time, was more successful; Cyius received * The religions ground i* just touched 1 sequel to the romantic talc of Mundane. in one or two places by Nicolas. He Cyno, and llarpagus. which he prefers makes Cyrus assign as a reason for his I to three other quite different stories con- request to leave Ecbatana a desire to cerning the early life of Cyrus (i. 95) offer sacrifice for the king, which ap- The narrative of Nicolas (Fr. 60), which parently he cannot do anywhere but in is followed in the text, docs not come to his own country (p. 402). And he makes us on very high authority; but it it him claim that the gods have stirred graphic, thoroughly Oriental, and iti him up to undertake his enterprise i its main features probable. I susjicci (p. 404). that its chief incidents came not trim 4 Herod, i. 120. See above, p. 416, Ctcsias, but from Dino. (Compare Dino, note '». Fr, 7.) 1 Herod. L 107. 108. 121. I » Compare the behaviour of Uarius "The story told by Herodotus is quite Hystaspis towards Ilistiuua (Heiod. v, undeserving of credit. It is a mere 24). Chap. VI. CYRUS ESCAPES—WAR COMMENCES. 423 permission to absent himself from Court for the next five months; whereupon, with a few attendants, he left Ecbatana by night, and took the road leading to his native country. The next evening Astyages, enjoying himself as usual over his wine, surrounded by a crowd of his concubines, singing-girls, and dancing-girls, called on one of them for a soug. The girl took her lyre and sang as follows:8—" The lion had the wild- boar in his power, but let him depart to his own lair; in his lair he will wax in strength, and will cause the lion a world of toil; till at length, although the weaker, he will overcome the stronger." The words of the song greatly disquieted the king, who had been already made aware that a Chaldajan prophecy designated Cyrus as future king of the Persians.9 Kepenting of the indulgence which he had granted him, Astyages forthwith summoned an officer into his presence, and ordered him to fake a body of horsemen, pursue the Persian prince, and bring him back, either alive or dead. The officer obeyed, overtook Cyrus, and announced his errand; upon which Cyrus expressed his perfect willingness to return, but proposed that, as it was late, they should defer their start till the next day. The Medes con- senting, Cyrus feasted them, and succeeded in making them all drunk; then, mounting his horse, he rode off at full speed with his attendants, and reached a Persian outpost, where he had arranged with his father that he should find a body of Persian troops. When the Medes had slept off their drunkenness, and found their prisoner gone, ihey pursued, and again overtaking Cyrus, who was now at the head of an aimed force, engaged him. They were, however, defeated with great loss, and forced to retreat, while Cyrus, having beaten them off, made good his escape into Persia. When Astyages heard what had happened, he was greatly 1 Dino (l.s. c.) made the singer of the I a mntch for many hunters." pong a certain Angarcs, a professional ■ It is not unlikely that this 14 Chal- minstrcL The words of the song, ac- i da?an prophecy " hod for its basis the de- cording to him, were the following:— | claration of Isaiah (xlv. 1), which would "A mighty beast, fiercer than any wild have become known to the Chalda'ans hoar, has been let depart to the marshes; I by their intercourse with the Jews who, if he gain the lordship of the during the Captivity, country round, will in a little while be | 426 Our. VL THE THIRD MONARCHY. construct the closing scenes- of the war. It would seem from these that Astyages still maintained the offensive, and that there was a fifth hattle in the immediate neighbourhood of Pasargada;, wherein he was completely defeated by Cyrus, who routed the Median army, and pressing upon them in their flight, took their camp. All the insignia of Median royalty fell into his hands; and, amid the acclamations of his army, he assumed them, and was saluted by his soldiers " King of Media and Persia." Mean- while Astyages had sought for safety in flight; the greater part of his army had dispersed, and he was left with only a few friends; who still adhered to his fortunes.5 Could he have reached Ecbatana, he might have greatly prolonged the struggle; but his enemy pressed him close; and, being compelled to an engagement, he not only suffered a complete defeat, but was made prisoner by his fortunate adversary.8 By this capture the Median monarchy was brought abruptly to an end. Astyages had no son to take his place and continue the struggle. Even had it been otherwise, the capture of tlie monarch would probably have involved his people's submission. In the East the kin<; is so identified with his kingdom Uiat the possession of the royal person is regarded as conveying to the possessor all regal rights. Cyrus, apparently, had no need even to besiege Ecbatana; the whole Median State, together with its dependencies, at once submitted to him, on learning what had happened. This ready submission was no doubt partly owing to the general recognition of a close connection between Media and Persia, which made the transfer of Empire from the one to the other but slightly galling to the subjected power, and a matter of complete indifference to the dependent countries. Except in so far as religion was concerned, the change froni one Iranic race to the other would make scarcely a perceptible 5 If we may credit Piodorus, Astyages laid the blame of his defeat on his gene- rals whom he cruelly punished with death. This ill-judged severity pro- duced great discontent among the troops, who threatened to mutiny in conse- quence. (Diod. Sic. 1. s. c.) * Herodotus, Nicolas, and Justin all agree that Astyages was made prisoner after a battle. Ctesias said that he was taken in Ecbatana, where he had at- tempted to conceal himself in the palace (Persic. Kxc. § 2). Moses made him fall in battle with Tigranes the Ar- menian king (Hist. Armca. i. 28). Chap. VI. END OF THE MEDIAN MONARCHY.' 427 difference to the subjects of either kingdom. The law of tlie state would still be "the law of the Medes and Persians." 7 Official employments would be open to the people of botli countries,8 Even the fame and glory of Empire would attach, iu the minds of men, almost as much to the one nation as the other.' If Media descended from her pre-eminent rank, it was to occupy a station only a little below the highest, and one which left her a very distinct superiority over all the subject races. If it be asked how Media, in her hour of peril, came to receive no assistance from the great Powers with which she had made such close allianees—Babylonia and Lydia10—the answer would seem to be that Lydia was too remote froin the scene of strife to lend her effective aid, while circumstances had occurred in Babylonia to detach that state from her and render it un- friendly. The great king, Nebuchadnezzar, had he been on the throne, would undoubtedly have come to the assistance of his brother-in-law, when the fortune of war changed, and it became evident that his crown was in danger. But Nebuchadnezzar had died in B.C. 561, three years before the Persian revolt broke out. His son, Evil-Merodach, who would probably have main- tained his father's alliances, had survived him but two years: he had been murdered in B.C. 559 by a brother-in-law, Nergal- shar-ezer or Neriglissar, who ascended the throne in that year and reigned, till b.c. 555. This prince was consequently on the throne at the time of Astyages' need. As he had supplanted the house of Nebuchadnezzar, he would naturally be on bad terms with that monarch's Median connections; and we may suppose that he saw with pleasure the fall of a power to which pretenders from the Nebuchadnezzar family would have looked for support and countenance. In conclusion a few words may be said on the general cha- : Dan. vi. 8, Compare Esther, i. 19. | '"Thy kingdom is divided and given * On the high employments filled by to the Medes and Persians." Dan. v. 28. Medes under the Persian Kings, see vol. Compare the employment of the words iii. of this work, and compare Herod, i. 6 MrjSos, re MrjSixti, /urjo'icr/iot, k. t. a. by 156, 162; vi. 94; vii. 88; Dan. ix. 1; the Greek writers, where the reference l'-th, Inscr. col. ii. par. 14, § ti; col. iv. ' is really to the Persians, par. 14, § 6. | See above, p. 412. 428 Chap. VI. THE THIRD MONARCHY. meter of the Median Empire, and the causes of its early extinction. The Median Empire was in extent and fertility of territory equal if not superior to the Assyrian. It stretched from Rhagt-s and the Carmanian desert on the East11 to the river Halys upon the West, a distance of ahove twenty degrees, or about 1300 miles. From North to South it was comparatively narrow, being confined between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and the Caspian, on the one side, and the Euphrates and Persian Gulf on the other. Its greatest width, which was towards the East, was about nine, and its least, which was towards the West was about four degrees. Its area was probably not much short of 500,000 square miles. Thus it was as large as Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal put together. In fertility its various parts were very unequal. Portions of both Medias, of Persia, of Armenia, Iberia, and Cappadocin, were rich and productive ; but in all these countries there was a large quantity of barren mountain, and in Media Magna and Persia there were tracts of desert. If we estimate the resources of Media from the data furnished by Herodotus in his account of the Persian revenue, and compare them with those of tie Assyrian Empire, as indicated by the same document,11 »e shall find reason to conclude, that, except during the few year* 11 Some authorities, as Nicolas, extend the Median Empire much further east- ward. According to this writer, not only Hyrcania and Parthia, but Bactrin and Sacia (!), were provinces of the Empire governed by satraps, who sub- mitted to the victorious Cyrus. But better authorities tell us that Cyrus had to reduce these countries. (Herod, i. 153; Ctesias, PersL: Exc. §§ 2 and 3.) 12 According to Herodotus, Media itself furnished to Persia 450 talents, the Caspians and their neighbours in the Ghilan country 200. the Armenians 400. the Sapeirians or Iberians 200, the Moschi, Tibareni, and other tribes on the Black Sea 300. Babylonia and As- syria furnished 1000 talents between than; we may suppose in about equal shares. Allowing 500 talents to Assyria, this would give as the sum annually raised by the Persians from satrapies previously included in Media, 2050 talents. A further sum must be added for Cappa- docia (included in Herodotus's third satrapy)—say 200 talents; and finally, | something must be allowed for Persia, •ay .100 talents. We thus reach a total of 2550 talents. The satrapies contained within the Assyrian Empire at its most flourishing period were the 4th (Cilicia), the olh (Syria), half the 6th (Egypt, Cyrene. lie), the 8th (Susiana), the 9th (Assyria and Babylonia), and a part (say halt) I of the loth (Media> Cilicia gave 5W talents, Syria 350, Cissia 300, Assyria and Babylonia 1000; to which maybe added for half Egypt 350, and for half Media 225—total 2725 talents. 43° Chai\ YL THE THIRD MONARCHY. do not replace them by the less splendid virtues of peace. This tendency, which is fixed in the nature of things, admits of beinj; checked for a while, or rapidly developed, according to the policy and character of the monarchs who happen to occupy the throne. If the original conqueror is succeeded by two or three ambitious and energetic princes, who engage in important wars and labour to extend their dominions at the expense of their neighbours,8 it will be some time before the degeneracy becomes marked. If, on the other hand, a prince of a quiet temper, self-indulgent, and studious of ease, come to the throne within a short time of the original conquests, the deterioration Avill be very rapid. In the present instance it happened that the immediate successor of the first conqueror was of a peaceful disposition, unambitious, and luxurious in his habits. Dnring a reign which lasted at least thirty-five years he abstained almost wholly from military enterprises; and thus an entire generation of Medes grew up without seeing actual service, which alone makes the soldier. At the same time there was a general soft- ening of manners. The luxury of the Court corrupted the nobles, who from hardy mountain chieftains, simple if not even savage in their dress and mode of life, became polite courtiers, magnificent in their apparel, choice in their diet, and averse to all unnecessary exertion. The example of the upper classes would tell on the lower, though not perhaps to any very large extent. The ordinary llede, no doubt, lost something of his old daring and savagery; from disuse he became inexpert in the management of arms; and he was thus no longer greatly to lie dreaded as a soldier. But he was really not very much less brave, nor less capable of bearing hardships, than before;' and it only required a few years of training to enable him to recover himself and to be once more as good a soldier as any in Asia. But in the affairs of nations, as in those of men, negligence often proves fatal before it can be repaired. Cyrus saw his "Compare the case of Persia under Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes. • On the valour of tile Medes after the Persian conquest, so? Herod, viii. 113, and Diod. Sic. xi. 6. § 3; and com- pare above, pp. 309, 310. Chap. VI. CONCLUSION. 431 opportunity, pressed his advantage, and established the supre- macy of his nation, before the unhappy effects of Astyages' peace policy could be removed. He knew that his own Persiam possessed the military spirit in its fullest vigour; he felt that he himself had all the qualities of a successful leader; he may have had faith in his cause, which he would view as the cause of Ormazd against Ahriman,10 of pure religion against a corrupt and debasing nature-worship. His revolt was sudden, unex- pected, and well-timed. He waited till Astyages was advanced in years, and so disqualified for command; till the veterans of Cyaxares were almost all in their graves; and till the Babylonian throne was occupied by a king who was not likely to afford Astyages any aid. He may not at first have aspired to do more than establish the independence of his own country. But when the opportunity of effecting a transfer of Empire offered itself, he seized it promptly; rapidly repeating his blows, and allowing his enemy no time to recover and renew the struggle. The substitution of Persia for Media as the ruling power in Western Asia was due less to general causes than to the personal cha- racter of two men. Had Astyages been a prince of ordinary vigour, the military training of the Medes would have been kept up; and in that case, they might easily have held their own against all comers. Had their training been kept up, or had Cyrus possessed no more than ordinary ambition and ability, either he would not have thought of revolting, or he would have revolted unsuccessfully. The fall of the Median Empire was due immediately to the genius of the Persian Prince; but its ruin was prepared, and its destruction was really caused, by the shortsightedness of the Median Monarch. "Sec JJic. Dam. Fr. 66; pp. 404 and 406. Cyrus is represented as claiming a divine sanction to bis attempt; and Astyages is regarded as having been deprived of his kingdom by a god {bub Btwv tov)—query, Ormazd? ( 432 ) APPENDIX. NOTE A (p. 333). TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST FARGARD OF THE VEXDIDAD. § 1. Ahura-mazda said to the holy Zoroaster:—" I made, most buly Zoroaster, into a delicious spot what was previously quite unin- habitable. For had not I, most holy Zoroaster, converted into a delicious spot what was previously quite uninhabitable, all earthly life would have been poured forth after Aryanem Vaejo. [§ 2. "Tnto a charming region (I converted) one which did nut enjoy prosperity, the second (region) into the first: in opposition to it is great destruction of the living cultivation.] § 3. "As the first best of regions and countries, I, who am Aliuia-mazda, created Aryanem Vaejo of good capability. There- upon, in opposition to it, Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created a mighty serpent, and snow, the work of the Devas. § 4. "Ten months of winter are there—two months of summer— [seven months of summer are there—five months of winter; tlie latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees; there is mid-winter, the heart of winter; there all around falls deep snow; there is the direst of plagues.] § 5. "As the second best of regions and count)ies, I, who am Ahura-mazda, created Gaii, in which Sughda is situated. There- upon, in opposition to it, Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created pestilence, which is fatal to cattle, both small and great. § 6. "As the third best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created the strong, the pious Mouru. Thereupon Angr<>- uminyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, war and pillage. § 1. "As the fourth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created the happy Bakhdi with the tall banner. Thereupon Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, buzzing insects and poisonous plants. § 8. "As the fifth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- ArPEXDix. FIRST FARGARD OF THE VEXDIDAD. 433 mazda, created Isisai [between Moum and Bakhdi]. Thereupon Angro-mainyus created, in opposition to it, the curse of unbelief. § 9. "As the sixth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura-mazda, created Haroyu, the dispenser of water. Thereupon Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, hail and poverty. §10. "As the seventh best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created Vaekeret, in which Duzhaka is situated. There- upon Angro-mainyns, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it the fairy Khnathaiti, who attached herself to Keresaspa. §11. "As the eighth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created Urva, abounding in rivers. Thereupon Angro- mainyus created, in opposition to it, the curse of devastation. § 12. "As the ninth best of regions and countries, 1, Ahura- niazda, created Khnenta, in which Vehrkana is situated. There- upon Angro-mainyns created, in opposition to it, the evil of inex- piable sins, prederastism. §13. "As the tenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created the happy Haraqaiti. Thereupon Angro-mainyns, the Death-dealing, created the evil of inexpiable acts, preserving the dead. § 14. "As the eleventh best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created Haetumat, the wealthy and brilliant. Thereupun Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, the sin of witchcraft. [§ 15. "And he, Angro-mainyus, is endowed with various powers and various forms. Wherever these come, on being invoked by one who is a wizard, then the most horrible witehoiaft sins arise: then spring up those which tend to murder and the deadening of the heart: powerful ate they by dint of concealing their hideousness and by their enchanted potions.] § 16. "As the twelfth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura nwzda, created Ragha with the three races. Thereupon Angro- mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, the evil of unbelief in the Supreme. § 17. "As the thiiteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- raazda, created Kakra the strong, the pious. Thereupon Angro- mainyns, the Death-dealing, created the curse of inexpiable acts, cooking the dead. § 18. "As the fourteenth best of regions and countries I, Ahura mazda, created Varena with the four corners. There was bom Thraetona, the slayer of the destructive serpent. Thereupon vol. n. 2 f 434 Appetwx. THE THIRD MONARCHY. Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it. irregularly recurring evils (t. e., sicknesses) and un-Arian plagues of the country, § 19. "As the fifteenth best of regions and countries, I, Ahura- mazda, created Hapta Hindu, from the eastern Hindu to the western. Thereupon Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in opposition to it, untimely evils and irregular fevers. § 20. "As the sixteenth best of regions and countries, T, Ahnra- mazda, created those who dwell without ramparts on the sea-coast. Thereupon Angro-mainyus, the Death-dealing, created, in oppo- sition, snow, the work of the Devas, and earthquakes which make the earth to tremble. § 21. "There are also other regions and countries, happy, renowned, high, prosperous, and brilliant." [N.B.—I have followed, except in a few doubtful phrases, the translation of Dr. Martin Haug, as given in Chevalier Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iii. pp. 488-490.] THE FOUKTH MONAKCHY. BABYLONIA. CHAPTER I. EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE. "Behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great; the tree grew and was strong: and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth."—Dan. iv. 10, 11. The limits of Babylonia Proper, the tract in which the dominant power of the Fourth Monarchy had its abode, being almost identical with those which have been already described under the head of Chaldtea,1 will not require in this place to be treated afresh at any length. It needs only to remind the reader that Babylonia Proper is that alluvial tract towards the mouth of the two great rivers of Western Asia—the Tigris and the Euphrates —which intervenes between the Arabian Desert on the one side, and the more eastern of the two streams on the other. Across the Tigris the country is no longer Babylonia, but Cissia, or Susiaua—a distinct region, known to the Jews as Elam—the habitat of a distinct people.2 Babylonia lies westward of the Tigris, and consists of two vast plains or flats, one situated between the two rivers, and thus forming the lower portion of 'See vol. i. pp. 3-15. The only dif- , Arabian frontier, ference between Babylonia Proper under 2 The Susianians appear by their in- N'ebuchadnezzar, and Chalda>a under script ions to have been a Cushite race, Nimrod and Truth, is the greater size not distantly connected with the domi- of the former, arising in part from the nant race of ancient Chaldsea, But they gradual growth of the alluvium sea- , retained their primitive character, while wards (vol. i. pp. 4, S), in part from the the Babylonians changed theirs and bo- ejtended use of irrigation by Nebu- came Semitized. chadnezzar along the south- western or ( 2 p 2 436 Chaf.L THE FOURTH MONARCHY. the "Mesopotamia" of the Greeks and Komans—the other interposed between the Euphrates and Arabia, a long but narrow strip along the right bank of that abounding river. The former of these two districts is shaped like an ancient amphora, the mouth extending from Hit to Samarah, the neck lying between Baghdad and Ctesiphon on the Tigris, Mohammed and Mosaib on the Euphrates, the full expansion of the body occurring between Serut and El Khithr, and the pointed base reaching down to Kornah at the junction of the two streams. This tract, the main region of the ancient Babylonia, is about 1320 miles long, and from 20 to 100 broad. It may be estimated to contain about 18,000 square miles. The tract west of the Euphrates is smaller than this. Its length, in the time of the Babylonian Empire, may be regarded as about 350 miles.3 its average width is from 25 to 30 miles, which would give aii area of about 51000 square miles. Thus the Babylonia of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar may be regarded as covering a space of 27,000 square miles—a space a little exceeding the area of the Low Countries. The small province included within these limits—smaller than Scotland or Ireland, or Portugal or Bavaria—became suddenly, in the latter half of the seventh century B.C., the mistress of an extensive empire. Ou the fall of Assyria, about B.C. 625, or a little later, Media and Babylonia, as already observed,4 divided between them her extensive territory. It is with the acquisitions thus made that we have now to deal. We have to enquire what portion exactly of the previous dominions of Assyria loll to the lot of the adventurous Nabopolassar, when Nineveh ceased to be—what was the extent of the territory which was ruled from Babylon in the latter portion of the seventli and the earlier portion of the sixth century before our era? Now the evidence which we possess on this point is threefold. It consists of certain notices in the Hebrew Scriptures, contem- 3 From tile edge of the alluvium to I account of the growth of the alluvium the present coast of the Persian Gulf is during twenty-four centuries. (See vuL a distance of 430 miles. But 80 miles i. p. 4.) must be deducted from this distance on | 'Supra, p. 337. Chap I. EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE. porary records of first-rate historical value; of an account which strangely mingles truth with fable in one of the books of the Apocrypha; and of a passage of Berosus preserved by Josephus in his work against Apion. The Scriptural notices are contained in Jeremiah, in Daniel, and in the books of Kings and Chronicles.5 From these sources we learn that the Babylonian Empire of this time embraced on the one hand the important country of Susiana* or Elymais (Elam), while on the other it ran up the Euphrates at least as high as Carchemish,7 from thence extending westward to the Mediterranean,8 and southward to, or rather perhaps into, Egypt.9 The Apocryphal book of Judith enlarges these Limits in every direction. That the Nabucltodonosor of that work is a reminiscence of the real Nebuchadnezzar there can be no doubt.10 The territories of that monarch are made to extend eastward, beyond Sus:ana, into Persia;11 northward to Nineveh;12 westward to Cilicia in Asia Minor;13 and southward to the very borders of Ethiopia.14 Among the countries under his sway are enumerated Elam, Persia, Assyria, Cilicia, Ccele-Syria, Syria of Damascus, Phoenicia, Galilee, Gilead, Bashan, Judaea, Philistia, Goshen, and Egypt generally.15 The passage of Berosus is of a more partial character. .It has no bearing on the general question of the extent of the Baby- lonian Empire, but, incidentally, it confirms the statements of our other authorities as to the influence of Babylon in the West. It tells us that Ccele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt, were subject to Nabopolassar,16 and that Nebuchadnezzar ruled, * Jerem. ixvii. 3-7; xlvi. 2-26; xlix. I "Judith, i. 7. 18 Ibid, verse 1. 2S-33; Hi. 4-30; Dan. ii. 38: iv. 22; 13 Ibid, verse 7. "Ibid, verse 10. viii. 1-27; 2 K. xxiv. 1-7, 10-17; XXV. i ,J Except- in making JJabuchodonosor 1-21; 2 Chr. xxxvi. 6-20. rule at Mnereh, and bear sway over * See especially Dan. viii. 1, 2, 27. 'J'crsia and Cilicia, the author of the 7 Jerem. xlvi. 2; 2 Chr. xxxv. 20. I Book of Judith seems to apprehend cor- 1 Jerem. xxvii. 3-6. Compare Ezck. rectly the extent of his empire. It i9 xxix. 17, 18. j even conceivable that, as succeeding to * Jerem.xlvi. 1,1-26; Ezck.xxix. 19,20. Assyria in the south and west. Nebu- "The name alone is sufficient proof chadnezzar may have chimed an su- of this. There never was any other thority over both the Persians and the powerful king who bore this remarkable 1 Cilicians. appellation. And Nabuchodonosor is the 10 Beros. ap. Joseph, c. Ap. 19: 'Akou- exaet rendering of the name which the 1 f. 7 The word first occurs in Herodotus, who generally uses it as an adjective (ri naKaitrrivrj 2upiT(—Zi-'pot ol TTaAer- arlvoi KoAf(Sueroi), an 1 attaches it es- pecially to the coast-tract (ii. 104; iii. 5; vii. 89). It represents the Hebrew Philistim (QTIC'^B) letter for letter. Josephus always calls the Philistines no- Xaiartvoi. * Mr. Grove, in Dr. Smith's BiMienl Di'tionary, vol. ii. p. 663. This writer limits the name of Palestine to the tract west of the Jordan: but the present author prefers the wider sense which is more usual among moderns. (Stanley, pp. Ill, 112; Kobinson, vol. i.. Preface, p. ix. &c). Chat. I. PALESTINE. 447 Hermon, runs with a course which is almost due south from lat. 33° 25' to lat. 31° 47', where it is merged in the Dead Sea, which, may be viewed, however, as a continuation of the valley, prolonging it to lat. 31° 8'. This valley is quite unlike any other in the whole world. It is a volcanic rent in the earth's surface, a broad chasm which has gaped and never closed up.9 Naturally, it should terminate at Merom, where the level of the Mediterranean is nearly reached.10 By*sorae wonderful convul- sion, or at any rate by some unusual freak of Nature, there is a channel (avKcov) opened out from Merom, which rapidly sinks below the sea level, and allows the stream to flow hastily, down and still down, from Merom to Gennesareth, and from Gennesa- reth to the Dead Sea, where the depression reaches its lowest point,11 and the land rising into a ridge, separates the Jordan valley from the upper end of the Gulf of Akabah. The Jordan valley divides Palestine, strongly and sharply, into two regions. Its depth, its inaccessibility (for it can only be entered from the highlands on either side down a few steep watercourses), and the difficulty of passing across it (for the Jordan has but few fords), give it a separating power almost equal to that of an arm of the sea.12 In length above a hundred miles, in width varying from one mile to ten, and averaging some five miles, or perhaps six, it must always have been valuable as a territory, possessing, as it does, a rich soil, abundant water, and in its lower portion a tropical climate.13 On either side of the deep Jordan cleft lies a highland of moderate elevation, on the right that of Galilee. Samaria, and Judsea, on the left that of Iturea, Bashan, and Gilead. The right or western highland consists of a mass of undulating hills, with rounded tops, composed of coarse grey stone, covered, or * On the traces of volcanic action in 50 feet above that sea. (jicogr. Journal, the neighbourhood of the Jordan, see vol. xx. p. 228.) Robinson, vol. iii. p. 313; Stanley, p. 279; 11 The surface of the Dead Sea is in an Lynch. Xarrtitice, pp. Ill, 115, &c. ordinary season about 1300 or 1320 feet 19 The exact elevation or depression below the level of the Mediterranean, of the several parts of the Jordan valley Its bed is in places from 1200 to 1300 is perhaps not even yet fully ascertained, i feet lower. According to Van de Velde. the level of 12 Compare Stanley, p. 317. Merom is 120 feet above the Mediter- 13 Ibid. p. 292. ranean. According to others it is but , 448 Chai\ I. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. scarcely covered, with a scanty soil, but cap ible of cultivation in corn, olives, and figs. This region is most productive towards the north, barer and more arid as we proceed southwards towards the desert. The lowest portion, Juda?a, is unpieturesque, ill- watered, and almost treeless;14 the central, Samaria, has nume- rous springs, some rich plains, many wooded heights, and in places quite a sylvan appearance;15 the highest, Galilee, is a land of water-brooks, abounding in timber, fertile and beautiful1* Tiie average height of the whole district is from 1500 to 1800 feet above the Mediterranean. Main elevations within it vary from 2500 to 4000 feet.17 The axis of the range is towards the East, nearer, that is, to the Jordan valley than to the sea. It is a peculiarity of the highland that there is one important break in it. As the Lowland mountains of Scotland are wholly sepa- rated from the mountains of the Highlands by the low tract which stretches across from the Frith of Forth to the Frith of Clyde, or as the ranges of St. Gall and Appenzell are divided off from the rest of the Swiss mountains by the flat which extends from the Rhine at Ragatz to the same liver at Waldshut, so the western highland of Palestine is broken in twain by the famous '• plain of Esdraelon," which runs from the Bay of Acre to the Jordan valley at Beth-Shcan or Scytliopolis. East of the Joulan no such depression occurs, the highland there being continuous. It differs from the western highland chiefly in this—that its surface, instead of being broken up into a confused muss of rounded hills, is a table-land, consisting of a 14 "Those who describe Palestine as 11 Robinson, Riarnrches, vol. ii. pp. beautiful," says Dean Stanley, "must j 95, 90; Van tie Velde, Syria and talcs- either have a very inaccurate notion of tine, vol. i. p. 388; Grove, in Dr. what constitutes beauty of scenery, or j Smith's Bi'jlicul Dictionary, vol. ii. p. must have viewed the country through , 069. a highly coloured medium. . . . The "Stanley, p. 353; Van de Velde. tangled and featureless hills of the Low- vol. i. p. 386; Robinson, vol. iii. pp. lands of Scotland and North Wales are 306-383. perhaps the nearest likeness, accessible! 17 Jebel Jurmuk (in Galilee) is esti* to Englishmen, of the general landscape mated at 4000 feet; Hebron at 3029 of Palestine south of the plain of Es- feet; Safed (in Galilee) at 2775 feet: draelon." {Sinai and Palestine, p. 130.) the Mount of Olives at 2724 feet; Ebal Compare Beaufort, Egyptian Sepulchre* : and Gerizim at 2700; Sinjil at 2085; and Syrian Shrines, vol. ii. p. 97; and Neby Samwil at 2050; and Jerusalem ltusscgger, in Hitter's Erdkunde, vol. viii. 1 at 2010. (Biilimt Dictionary. voL ii. p. 495. J p. 665.) Chap. I. THE SHEPHKLAH. 449 long succession of slightly undulating plains.18 Except in Tra- ehonitis and southern Iturrea, where the basaltic rock everywhere crops out,19 the soil is rich and productive, the country in places wooded with fine trees, and the herbage luxuriant. On the west the mountains rise almost precipitously from the Jordan valley, above which they tower to the height of 3000 or 4000 feet. The outline is singularly uniform; and the effect is that of a huge wall guarding Palestine on this side from the wild tribes of the desert. Eastward the table-land slopes gradually, and melts into the sands of Arabia. Here water and wood are scarce; but the soil is still good, and bears the most abundant crops.20 Finally, Palestine contains the tract from which it derives its name, the low country of the Philistines, which the Jews called the Shephelah,1 together with a continuation of this tract north- wards to the roots of Carmel, the district known to the Jews as "Sharon," or "the smooth place."2 From Carmel to the Wady Sheriah, where the Philistine country ended, is a distance of about one hundred miles, which gives the length of the region iu question. Its breadth between the shore and the highland varies from about twenty-five miles in the south between Gaza and the hills of Dan, to three miles, or less, in the north between Dor and the border of Manasseh. Its area is probably from 1400 to 1500 square miles. This low strip is along its whole course divided into two parallel belts or bands—the first a flat sandy track along the shore, the Ramleh of the modern Arabs; the second, more undulating, a region of broad rolling plains rich in corn, and anciently clothed in part with thick woods,3 "Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 314 ' generally translate it by to niton or fi ("A wide table-land, tossed about in 1 ircSiF^; but sometimes they regard it wild confusion of unduinting downs' ); j as a proper name. (See Jerem. xxxii. Porter, //umlbook of Syria, p. 295; &c. 44; xxxiii. 14; Obad. 19; 1 Mac. xii. 18 Porter, pp. 465 and 506. 38.) *• A recent traveller (Rev. H. B. 1 Sharon (like Mishor, the term ap- Tristram) gave strong testimony to this plied to the trans-Jprdanic table-land) effect at the meeting of the British is derived from "IE" "just, straight- Association in Bath, September, 1864. forward," and thence "level." (See 1 Ha-Shephelah, "the Shephelah" or | Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 479, "depressed plain" (from ^SE>. "to de- Appendix.) _ . .. .. . ... I » Str»h press"), is the ordinary term applied to this tract in the original. The LXX. Strab. xvi. 2, § 27. EIto Spvpbs fityas Tty. VOL. II. 2 o THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chai\L watered by reedy streams,* which flow down from the great highland. A valuable tract is this entire plain, but greatly exposed to ravage. Even the sandy belt will grow fruit-trees; and the towns which stand on it, as Gaza, Jaffa, and Ashdod, are surrounded with huge groves of olives, sycamores, and palms,5 or buried in orchards and gardens, bright with pomegranates and orange-trees.6 The more inland region is one of marvellous fertility. Its soil is a rich loam, containing scarcely a pebble, which yields year after year prodigious crops of grain'— chiefly wheat—without manure or irrigation, or other cultiva- tion than a light ploughing. Philistia was the granary of Syria,* and was important doubly, first, as yielding inexhaustible supplies to its conqueror, and secondly, as affording the readiest passage to the great armies which contended in these regions for the mastery of the Eastern World.' South of the region to which we have given the name of Palestine, intervening between it and Egypt, lay a tract to which it is difficult to assign any political designation. Herodotus re- garded it as a portion of Arabia, which he carried across the valley of the Arabah and made abut on the Mediterranean." To the Jews it was "the land of the south"11—the special country of the Amalekites. By Strabo's time it had come to be known as Idumaea,12 or the Edomite country; and under this appellation it will perhaps be most convenient to describe it 4 The modern Arabs call the upper tract of Sharon by the name of Khassab, "the Reedy." (Stanley, p. 256.) In * The ordinary route of invaders from the south was along the maritime plain, and either round Carmel (which old times the reedy character of the is easily rounded), or over the shoulder streams was marked by the name of j of the hills, into the plnin of Esdraelon. Kanah (from HJp, "a cane"), given Hence the march was either through to one of them. (Josh. xvi. 8; xvii. 9.) Galilee to Coele-Syria, or across the plain 5 Kenrick, Bhicnicia, p. 28: Robinson, to Beth-Sheon (Scythopolis), and thence Researches, vol. ii. pp. 308, 370; Grove, by Apheca (F,k) and Neve (Sara) to in Smith's Biblical dictionary, vol. ii. p. Damascus. Invaders from the north 672. , followed the same line, but in the re- Stanley, p. ?53. r Thomson, The Land atul the Book, p. 552; Van de Velde, Travels, vol. ii. p. 175; Stanley, Sinai ami Palestine, p. 254. 'I.C grenicr de la Syrie." (Due de verse direction. 10 Herod, iii. 5. 11 Num. xiii. 29; Josh. x. +0; ffce. 15 Strab. xvi. 2, § 34. I think it probable that Scylnx placed IJumams between Syria and Egypt: but his work Rapuse, quoted in the Biolical Dictionary, is unfortunately detective in this place, vol. ii. p. 673, note.) j 'feripl. p. 102, ed. of 1700.) Chap. I. IDUM2EA. 451 here. Idumaea, then, was the tract south and south-west of Palestine from about lat. 31° 10'. It reached westward to the borders of Egypt, which were at this time marked by the Wady- el-Arish,13 southward to the range of Sinai and the Elanitic Gulf, and eastward to the Great Desert. Its chief town was Petra, in the mountains east of the Arabah valley. The cha- racter of the tract is for the most part a hard gravelly and rocky desert; but occasionally there is good herbage, and soil that admits of cultivation; brilliant flowers and luxuriantly growing shrubs bedeck the glens and terraces of the Petra range; and most of the tract produces plants and bushes on which camels, goats, and even sheep will browse, while occa- sional palm-groves furnish a grateful shade and an important fruit." The tract divides itself into four regions—first, a region of sand, low and flat, along the Mediterranean, the Shephelah without its fertility; next, a region of hard gravelly plain inter- sected by limestone ridges, and raised considerably above the sea level, the Desert of El-Tih, or of "the Wanderings;" then the long, broad, low valley of the Arabah, which rises gradually from the Dead Sea to an imperceptible water-shed,15 and then falls gently to the head of the Gulf of Akabah, a region of hard sand thickly dotted with bushes, and intersected by numerous torrent courses; finally, a long narrow region of mountains and hills parallel with the Arabah,16 constituting Idumaea Proper, or the original Edom, which, though rocky and rugged, is lull of fertile glens, ornamented with trees and shrubs, and in places cultivated in terraces." In shape the tract was a rude square "See 2 K. xxiv. 7. That the " river the Wady Ghurundel. {Syria and Palet- ot Egypt" here mentioned is not the tine, 1. s. c.) Nile, but one of the torrent-courses 18 This tract, which is the original which run from the plateau to the Edom or Iduma'a Proper, consists of Mediterranean, is indicated by the word three parallel ranges. On the west, used for "river," which is not "inj adjoining the Arabah, are low calcareous but bru. Of all the torrent-courses'at h'l's- To thesc succeeds a range of present* existing, the Wady-el-Arish is igneous rocks, chiefly porphyry, overlaid the best fitted to form a boundary. * ?™*T?\? "Palm-trees are found at Akabah helKh 1 <* «*» **. \« a (Stanley, p. 22); and again at the , range of Umnitone, 1000 feet higher, W^vi:hl,nrt .l (ih n sv> wh><* *tnks the pla- Wady-Ghurundol (ib. p. 85). 15 It is scarcely jet known exactly , , . , where the water-shed is. Stanley places j ^ctw^iry vol. 1. p. 488.) it about four hours (14 miles) north of | Stanley, p. 88. teau of the Arabian Desert. (Bihlicat 9.) 2g2 452 Chap. I. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. or oblong, with its sides nearly facing the four cardinal points, its length from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Akabah being 130 miles, and its width from the Wady-el-Arish to the eastern side of the Petra mountains 120 miles. The area is thus about 1500 square miles. Beyond the Wady-el-Arish was Egypt, stretching from the Mediterranean southwards a distance of nearly eight degrees, or more than 550 miles. As this country was not, however, so much a part of the Babylonian Empire as a dependency lyin? upon its borders, it will not be necessary to describe it in this place. One region, however, remains still unnoticed which seems to have been an integral portion of the Empire. This is Palmy- rene, or the Syrian Desert—the tract lying between Coele-Syria on the one hand and the valley of the middle Euphrates on the other, and abutting towards the south on the great Arabian Desert, to which it is sometimes regarded as belonging.18 It is for the most part a hard sandy, or gravelly plain, intersected by low rocky ranges, and either barren or productive only of some sap- less shrubs and of a low thin grass. Occasionally, however, there are oases, wliere the fertility is considerable. Such an oasis is the region about Palmyra itself, which derived its name from the palm groves in the vicinity;19 here the soil is good, and a large tract is even now under cultivation. Another oasis is that of Karyateiu, which is watered by an abundant stream, and is well wooded, and productive of grain.20 The Palmyrene, bow- ever, as a whole, possesses but little value, except as a passage country. Though large armies can never have traversed the desert even in this upper region, where it is comparatively narrow, trade in ancient times found it expedient to avoid the long detour by the Orontes valley, Aleppo, and Bambuk, and to proceed directly from Damascus by way of Palmvra to Thapsacus on the Euphrates. Small bands of light troops also occasionally took the same course; and the great saving of dis- "Chesnoy, Euphrates Expedition, vol. I thought to have had a similar meaning, i. p. 559. I But both derivations are doubtful. (See '" Such, at least, is the common [ Stanley, p. 8, note.) opinion; and the name Tadmor is | "Chesney, vol. i. pp. 522 and 580. 454 Chap. I THE FOURTH MONARCHY. south-east, have already been described at length ;s as have also the chief streams of the Mesopotamian district, the Belik and the Khabour.3 But as yet in this work no account has Leen given of a number of important rivers in the extreme east and the extreme west, on which the fertility, and so the pros- perity of the Empire very greatly depended. It is proposed in the present place to supply this deficiency. The principal rivers of the extreme east were the Choaspes, or modern Kerkhah, the Pasitigris or Eulaeus, now the Kuran, the Hedyphon or Hedypnus, now the Jerahi, and the Oroatis, at present the Tab or Hindyan. Of these, the Oroatis, which is the most eastern, belongs perhaps more to Persia than to Baby- lon; but its lower course probably fell within the Susianian territory. It rises in the mountains between Shiraz and Perse- polis,4 about lat. 29° 45', long 52° 35' E.; and flows towards the Persian Gulf with a course which is north-west to Failiyun, then nearly W. to Zehitun, after which it becomes somewhat south of west to Hindyan, and then S.W. by S. to the sea. The length of the stream, without counting lesser windings, is 200 miles; its width at Hindyan, sixteen miles above its mouth, is eighty yards,5 and to this distance it is navigable lor boats of twenty tons burthen.6 At first its waters are pure and sweet, but they gradually become corrupted, and at Hindyan they are so brackish as not to be fit for use.' The Jerahi rises from several sources in the Kuh Margun,* a lofty and precipitous range, forming the continuation of the chain of Zagros, about long. .r)0° to 51°, aud lat. 31° 30'. These head-streams have a general direction from NJ& to S.W. The principal of them is the Kerdistan river, which rises about fifty miles to the north-east of Babahan, and flowing south-west to that point, then bends round to the north, and runs north-west nearly to the fort of Mungasht, where it resumes its original direction, and receiving from the north-east the Abi Zard, or * See vol. i. pp. 6-14. » Ibid. pp. 187-188. * Kinneir, Persian Empire, p. 57; Ch«mey, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 202. • Kinneir, 1. s. c. • Chesney, 1. s. c. The T»b wa* ascended in 1836 by Lieut. Whitelocke, of the Indian Navy. 7 Kinneir, 1. s. c. • Chesney, vol. i. p. 200. Chap. I. THE JEEAHI —THE KUBAN. 455 "Yellow River "—a delightful stream of the coldest and purest' water possible9—becomes known as the Jerahi,10 and carries a large body of water as far as Fellahiyeh or Dorak. Near Dorak the waters of the Jerahi are drawn off into a number of canals, and the river is thus greatly diminished;11 but still the stream struggles on, and proceeds by a southerly course towards the Persian Gulf, which it enters near Gadi in long. 48° 52'. The course of the Jerahi, exclusively of the smaller windings, is about equal in length to that of the Tab or Hindyan. In volume, before its dispersion, it is considerably greater than that river. It has a breadth of about a hundred yards12 before it reaches Babahan, and is navigable for boats almost from its junction with the Abi Zard. Its size is, however, greatly re- duced in its lower course, and travellers who skirt the coast regard the Tab as the more important river.13 The Kuran is a river very much exceeding in size both the Tab and the Jerahi.1* It is formed by the junction of two large streams—the Dizful river and the Kuran proper, or river of Shuster. Of these the Shuster stream is the more eastern. It rises in the Zarduh Kuh, or "Yellow Mountain,"15 in lat. 32°, long. 51°, almost opposite to the river of Isfahan. From its source it is a large stream. Its direction is at first to the southeast, but after a while it sweeps round and runs con- siderably north of west; and this course it pursues through the mountains, receiving tributaries of importance from both sides, till, near Akhili, it turns round to the south, and, cutting at a right angle the outermost of the Zagros ranges, flows down with a course S.W. by S. nearly to Shuster, where, in consequence of a bund or dam1 thrown across it, it bifurcates, and passes in 1 Sir H. Rawlinson, in the Journal of I the Geographical Society, vol. ix. p. 81. 10 This name is commonly used in the country. It is unknown, however, to the Arabian geographers. "Chesney, vol. i. p. 201; Kinneir, p. 88. "Three hundred and fifty feet. (Chesney, vol. i. p. 200.) "This was the conclusion of Mac- dnnald Kinneir, who travelled from Bushire tollindyan, and thence to Dorak. j | (Persian Empire, pp. 56, 57.) "Kinneir, p. 87. This writer goes so far as to say that the Kuran, in [ its lower course, contains "a greater j body of water than either the Tigris I or the Euphrates separately considered.' (Ib. p. 293.) ,s Chesney, vol. i. p. 197; Geo- graphical Jo'u mtl, vol. xvi. p. 50. 1 This is the famous "Bund of Sha- pur," constructed by the conqueror of Valerian. The whole process of con« 456 Our. I. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. •two streams to the right and to the left of the town. The right branch, which carried commonly about two-thirds of the water,3 proceeds by a tortuous course of nearly forty miles, m a direction a very little west of south, to its junction with the Dizful stream, which takes place about two miles north of the little town of Bandi-kir. Just below that town the left branch, called at present Abi-Gargar,3 which has made a considerable bend to the east, rejoins the main stream, which thenceforth flows in a single channel. The course of the Kuran from its source to its junction with the Dizful branch, including main windings, is about 210 miles. The Dizful branch rises from two sources, nearly a degree apart,4 in lat. 33° 50'. These streams run respectively south-east and south-west, a distance of forty miles, to their junction near Bahrein,5 whence their united waters flow in a tortuous course with a general direction of south, foi above a hundred miles to the outer barrier of Zagros, which they penetrate near the Diz fort, through a succession of chasms and gorges.6 The course of the stream from this point is south- west through the hills and across the plain, past Dizful, to the place where it receives the Balad-rud from the west, when it changes and becomes first south and then south-east to its junc- tion with the Sliuster river near Bandi-kir.7 The entire course of the Dizful stream to this point is probably not less than 280 miles.9 Below Bandi-kir, the Kuran, now become "a noble river, exceeding in size the Tigris and Euphrates,"9 meanders across the plain in a general direction of S.S.W., past the towns of Uris, Ahwaz, and Ismaili, to Sablah, when it turns more to the west, and passing Mohammerah, empties itself into the struction hns been accurately described | * Geographical Journal, L ■. c. by Sir H. Rawlinson in the Geographical 7 Bandi-kir is erroneously called Journal, vol. ix. pp. 73-76. j Bundakeel by Macdonald Kinneir (f'er- 2 Hence called the Chahnr Dangah sian Empire, p. 87), and Benderghil by (four parts) by the historians of Timur, i Mr. Loftus. [Chaldaa and SusUina, Map while the left branch is called the Du | to illustrate journeys.) The word is TMngah (two parts). See Pe'tia dc la formed from kir, "bitumen," because in Croix, torn. ii. p. 18). the dyke at this place the stones an 3 Gmgraphicl Journal, vol. ix. p. 74. cemented with that substance. {Geo- 4 Chesney, Euj>hrates Expedition, vol. I graph. Journal, 1. s.c) i. p. 196; Geographical Journal, vol. ix. ( » This is the estimate of Col. Chesney. P> 67. I 'Eufihrutes Expedition, vol. i. p. 197.) s Bahrein means "the two rivers." ,; "Geographical Journal, vol. xvi. p. 5S. Chat. I. THE KEKKHAH. 437 Shat-el-Arab,10 about 22 miles below Busra. The entire course of the Kuran from its most remote source, exclusive of the lesser windings, is not less than 430 miles. The Kerkhali (anciently the Choaspes ") is formed by three streams of almost equal magnitude, all of them rising in the most eastern portion of the Zagros range. The central of the three flows from the southern flank of Mount Elwand (Orontes), the mountain behind Hainadan (Ecbatana), and receives on the right, after a course of about thirty miles, the northern or Singur branch, and ten miles further on the southern or Guran branch, which is known by the name of the Gamas-ab. The river thus formed flows westward to lie- histun, after which it bends to the south-west, and then to the south, receiving tributaries on both hands, and winding among the mountains as far as the ruined city of Itudbar. Here it bursts through the outer barrier of the great range, and, re- ceiving the large stream of the Kirrind from the north-west, flows S.S.E. and S.E. along the foot of the range, between it and the Kebir Kuh, till it meets the stream of the Abi-Zal, when it finally leaves the hills and flows through the plain, pursuing a S.S.E. direction to the ruins of Susa, which lie upon its left bank, and then turning to the S.S.W., and running in that direction to the Shat-el-Arab, which it reaches about five miles below Kurnah. Its length is estimated at above 500 miles; its width, at some distance above its junction with the Abi-Zal, is from eighty to a hundred yards.12 The course of the Kerkhah was not always exactly such as is here described. Anciently it appears to have bifurcated at Pai Pul, 18 or 20 miles N.W. of Susa, and to have sent a branch "Naturally, the Kuran has a course ! Persian Empire, pp. 104, 105; Chcsney, of its own by which it enters the Per- ' Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 204; sian Gulf. This channel runs south- ' Geographical Journal, vol. ix. pp. 87-9.1; east from Sablah, nearly parallel to the , vol. xvi. pp. 91-94; Loftus, Chuldcca and liah-a-Mishir, and is about 200 yards i Sttsiana, pp. 425-430. broad. (C'hcsney, p. 199.) But almost' 12 The course of the Kerkhah was all the water now passes by the llafar : carefully explored by Sir II. Rawlinson canal—an artificial cutting—into the | in the year 183G, and is accurately laid Shat-el-Arab. down in the map accompanying his "On the identity of these streams Memoir. (See Journal of the Qeus applied.15 The proper Eulaeus (Ulai) was the eastern branch of the Kerkhah (Cboaspes) from Pai Pul to Ahwaz; but the name was naturally extended both northwards to the Choaspes above Pai Pul16 and southwards to the Kuran below Ahwaz.17 The latter stream was, however, known also, both in its upper and its lower course, as the Pasitigris. On the opposite side of the Empire the rivers were less con- siderable. Among the most important may be mentioned the Sajur, a tributary of the Euphrates, the Koweik, or river of Alejipo, the Orontes, or river of Antioch, the Litany, or river of Tyre, the Barada, or river of Damascus, and the Jordan, with its tributaries, the Jabbok and the Hieromax. The Sajur rises from two principal sources on the southern flanks of Amanus, which, after running a short distance, unite a little to the east of Ain-Tab.18 The course of the stream from the point of junction is south-east In this direction it flows in a somewhat tortuous channel between two ranges of hills for a distance of about 30 miles to Tel Khalid, a remark- able conical hill crowned by ruins. Here it receives an im- portant affluent—the Keraskat—from the west, and becomes suitable for boat navigation. At the same time its course changes, and runs eastward for about 12 miles; after which the stream again inclines to the south, and keeping an E.S.E. direction for 14 or 15 miles, enters the Euphrates by five mouths in about lat. 363 37'. The course of the river measures probably about 65 miles. "Loftus, Chaldaa and Susiana, pp. I Ulai. 424 431. "Plin. H. N. vi. 31. "Ibid. pp. 424, 425. "Arrian, Exp. At. vii. 7. 11 See an article by the author on "For a full account of the Sajur. m this subject in Smith's Biblical />tc- Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. tiimjry, vol. iii. pp. 1586, 1587, ad voc. p. 419, Chap. I. THE KAEA SU-THE LITANY. to all the other streams of the country,11 or (more probably) from its violence and impetuosity.12 There is one tributary of the Orontes which deserves a cursory mention. This is the Kara Su, or "Black Eiver," which reaches it from the Aga Denghis, or Bahr-el-Abiyad, about five miles below Jisr Hadid and four or five above Autioch. This stream brings into the Orontes the greater part of the water that is drained from the southern side of Amanus. It is formed by a union of two rivers, the upper Kara Su and the Afrin, which flow into the Aga Denghis (White Sea), or Lake of Antioch, from the north-west, the one entering it at its northern, the other at its eastern extremity. Both are con- siderable streams; and the Kara Su, on issuing from the lake, carries a greater body of water than the Orontes itself,13 and thus adds largely to the volume of that stream in its lower course from the point of junetion to the Mediterranean. The Litany, or river of Tyre, rises from a source at no great distance from the head springs of the Orontes. The almost imperceptible watershed of the Buka'a runs between Yunin and Baalbek, a few miles north of the latter;14 and when it is once passed, the drainage of the water is southwards. The highest permanent fountain of the southern stream seems to be a small lake near Tel Hushben," which lies about six miles to the south- west of the Baalbek ruins. Springing from this source the Litany flows along the lower Buka'a in a direction which is generally a little west of south, receiving on either side a number of streamlets and rills from Libanus and Antilibanus, and giving out in its turn numerous canals for irrigation, which fertilise the thirsty soil. As the stream descends with numerous windings, but still with the same general course, the valley of the Buka'a contracts more and more, till finally it terminates in a gorge, down which thunders the Litany—a gorge a thousand feet or 11 This is Mr. Porter's explanation I 14 Porter, Handbook, p. 575< The (Handhoftk, p. 576.) , elevation of the watershed above the 11 So Schwarze, as quoted by Dean sca-level is about 3200 feet. Stanley (•S'mi/i and 1'alestinc, p. 275.) 15 Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p, l> Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i 10: Chcsney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 395. I i. p. 398. 462 Chap. I. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. more in depth, and so narrow, that in one place it is actually bridged over by masses of rock which have fallen from the jagged sides.16 Narrower and deeper grows the gorge, and the river chafes and foams through it," gradually working itself round to the west, and so clearing a way through the very roots of Lebanon to the low coast tract, across which it meanders slowly,18 as if wearied with its long struggle, before finally emptying itself into the sea. The course of the Litany may be roughly estimated at from 70 to 75 miles. The Barada, or river of Damascus, rises in the plain of Zebdany—the very centre of the Antilibanus. It has its real permanent source in a small nameless lake19 in the lower part of the plain, about lat. 33° 41'; but in winter it is fed by streams flowing from the valley above, especially by one which rises in lat. 33° 46', near the small hamlet of Ain Hawar." The course of the Barada from the small lake is at first towards the east; but it soon sweeps round and flows southward for about four miles to the lower end of the plain, after which it again turns to the east and enters a romantic glen, running between high cliffs,21 and cutting through the main ridge of the Antilibanus between the Zebdany plain and Suk—the Abila of the ancients.53 From Suk the river flows through a narrow but lovely valley, in a course which has a general direction of south-east, past Ain Fijeh (where its waters are greatly increased),21 through a series of gorges and glens, to the point where the roots of the Anti- libanus sink down upon the plain, when it bursts forth from the •mountains and scatters.2* Channels are drawn from it on either side, and its waters are spread far and wide over the Merj, which it covers with fine trees and splendid herbage. One branch "Porter, p. 571; Robinson, Later Researches, p. 423. "Ibid. pp. 386. 387. "Chpsney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 398. "Porter, p. 557. The elevation of the plain of Zebdany is about 3500 feet. 20 Col. Chesney makes this the proper source of the Barada {Eiphrntcs Expedi- tion, vol. i. p. 502). Its true character is pointed out by Mr. Porter (llaiulbook, p. 558). Compare Robinson, Later- Re- searches, p. 487- "Porter, p. 557. ** On the proofs of this identity sre Robinson, Later Researches, pp. 4S0-4S4. 2* Porter, p. 555; Robinson, p. 476. The quantity of water given out by this fountain considerably exceeds that carried by the Barada above it. ** See the excellent description in Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 402. Chap. L THE JORDAN. 463 passes right through the city, cutting it in half. Others irrigate the gardens and orchards both to the north and to the south. Beyond the town the tendency to division still continues. The river, weakened greatly through the irrigation, separates into three main channels, which flow with divergent courses towards the east, and terminate in two large swamps or lakes, the Bahret- esh-Shurkiyeh and the Bahret-el-Kibliyeh,25 at a distance of sixteen or seventeen miles from the city. The Barada is a short stream, its entire course from the plain of Zebdany not much exceeding forty miles.1 The Jordan is commonly regarded as flowing from two sources in the Huleh or plain immediately above Lake Merom, one at Banias (the ancient Paneas), the other at Tel-el-Kady, which marks the site of Laish or Dan.J But the true highest present source of the river is the spring near Hasbeiya, called Neba- es-Hasbany, or Kas-en-Neba.3 This spring rises in the torrent- course known as the Wady-el-Teim, which descends from the north-western flank of Hermon, and runs nearly parallel with the great gorge of the Litany, having a direction from north- east to south-west. The water wells forth in abundance from the foot of a volcanic bluff, called Bas-el-Anjah, lying directly north of Hasbeiya, and is immediately used to turn a mill. The course of the streamlet is very slightly west of south down the Wady to the Huleh plain, where it is joined, and multiplied sevenfold,4 by the streams from Banais and Tel-el-Kady, becoming at once worthy of the name of river. Hence it runs almost due south to the Merom lake, which it enters in lat. 33° 7', through a reedy and marshy tract which it is difficult to ,s Porter, in the Bihliotheca Sacra, I Robinson, Tetter Researches, pp. 390 and April, 1854. pp. 329-344; Robinson, | 40C; and Porter, Handbook, pp. 436 and Later Researches, pp. 450, 451. 445. 1 Mr. Porter estimates the course of \ 3 Robinson, p. 378; Porter, pp. 451, the Baruda. from the place where it 452; Lynch, Narrative of an Expedition leaves the mountains to the two lakes, | to the Dead Sea, p. 315. at 20 miles. (Handbook, p. 496.) Its * Dr. Robinson estimates the volume course among the mountains seems to be I of the Banias source as double that of of about the same length. I the Hasbeiya stream, and the volume 2 These sources have been described 1 of the Tel-el-Kady fountain as double by many writers. The best description , that of the Banias one. {Later Jie~ is perhaps that of Stanley (.S'mui and 1 searches, p. 393.) 1'alestine, pp. 386-391); but compare | 464 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. I penetrate.5 Issuing from Merom in lat. .33° 3', the Jordan flows at first sluggishly6 southward to "Jacob's Bridge," passing which, it proceeds in the same direction, with a much swifter current, down the depressed and narrow cleft between Merora and Tiberias, descending at the rate of fifty feet in a mile,7 and becoming (as has been said) a sort of "continuous waterfall."8 Before reaching Tiberias, its course bends slightly to the west of south for about two miles, and it pours itself into that "sea" in about lat. 32° 53'. Quitting the sea in lat. 32° 42', it finally eaters the track called the Ghor, the still lower chasm or cleft which intervenes between Tiberias and the upper end of the Dead Sea. Here the descent of the stream becomes compara- tively gentle, not much exceeding three feet per mile; for though the direct distance between the two lakes is less than seventy miles, and the entire fall above 600 feet, which would seem to give a descent of nine or ten feet a mile, yet, as the course of the river throughout this part of its career is tortuous in the extreme,9 the fall is really not greater than above indi- cated. Still it is sufficient to produce as many as twenty-seven rapids,10 or at the rate of one to every seven miles. In this part of its course the Jordan receives two important tributaries, each of which seems to deserve a few words. The Jarmuk, or Sheriat-el-Mandhur, anciently the Hieromax, drains the water, not only from Gaulonitis or Jaulan, the country immediately east and south-east of the sea of Tiberias, but also from almost the whole of the Hauran.11 At its mouth it is 5 Robinson, Researches, vol. iii. p. 340. 8 Sec Col. Wildenbruch's account in the Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. xx. p. 228; and compare Lynch, Narrative, p. 311; Porter, Hundliook, p. 427. Col. Chesney exactly inverts the real facts of the case. (Euphrates K pedition, vol. i. p. 400.) : The fall between the lakes of Merom anil Tiberias appears to be from 600 to 700 feet. The direct distance is little more than 9 miles. As the river does not here meander much, its entire course can scarcely exceed 13 or 14 miles. Ac- cording to these numbers, the fall would be between 43 and 54 feet per mile. * Col. Wildenbnich, in Geographical Journal, vol. xx. p. 228. Compare Porter, Jiamlhooi, p. 427; Lynch, A'arratwe, p. 311; Petermann, in Geographical Journal, vol. xviii. p. 103; &c. 9 The 70 miles of actual length are increased by these multitudinous wind- ings to 200. (Geographical Journal, voL xviii. p. 94, note; Stanley, Sinai ami Palestine, p. 277.) The remark of the English sailors deserves to be remem- bered—"The Jordan is the crookedest river what is." (Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xviii. p. 113.) 10 Stanley, p. 27t>. "Porter, Handbook, p. 321. 466 Chap. I. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Besides these rivers the Babylonian territory comprised a number of important lakes. Of these some of the more eastern have been described in a former volume: as the Bahr-i-Nedjif in Lower Chaldaea,17 and the Lake of Khatouniyeh in the tract between the Sinjar and the Khabour.18 It was chiefly, however, towards the west that sheets of water abounded: the principal of these were the Sabakhah, the Bahr-el-Melak, and the Lake of Antioch in Upper Syria; the Bahr-el-Kades, or Lake of Hems, in the central region; and the Damascus lakes, the Lake of Merom, the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias, and the Dead Sea, in the regions lying furthest to the south. Of these the greater num- ber were salt, and of little value, except as furnishing the salt of commerce; but four—the Lake of Antioch, the Bahr-el-Kades, the Lake Merom, and the Sea of Galilee—were fresh-water basins lying upon the courses of streams which ran through them; and these not only diversified the scenery by their clear bright aspect, but were of considerable value to the inhabitants, as furnishing them with many excellent sorts of fish. Of the salt lakes the most eastern was the Sabakhah. This is a basin of long and narrow form, lying on and just below the 36th parallel. It is situated on the southern route from Balis to Aleppo, and is nearly equally distant between the two places. Its length is from twelve to thirteen miles; and its width, where it is broadest, is about five miles. It receives from the north the waters of the Nahr-el-Dhahab, or "Golden River" (which has by some been identified with the Daradax of Xenophon1), and from the west two or three insignificant streams, which empty themselves into its western extremity. The lake produces a large quantity of salt, especially after wet seasons, which is collected and sold by the inhabitants of the surrounding country.2 The Bahr-el-Melak, the lake which absorbs the Koweik, or river of Aleppo, is less than twenty miles distent from Lake Sabakhah, which it very much resembles in its general cha- "See vol. i. p. 14. combats the view, and endcarours to "Ibid. p. 189. j show that the Daradax was a branch-of 1 8o Col. Chesney (Euphrates Expedi- \ the Euphrates. (Trme/s in the Trod, tion, vol. i. p. 415). Mr. Ainsworth | pp. 65, 66.) 'Chesney, L s. c Chap. I. THE DEAD SEA AND SEA OF TIBERIAS. 4C9 possible, in some seasons, to ford the whole way across from one side to the other.15 The peculiarities of the Dead Sea, as compared with other lakes, are its depression below the sea- level, its buoyancy, and its extreme saltness. The degree of the depression is not yet certainly known; but there is reason to believe that it is at least as much as 1300 feet,16 whereas no other lake is known to be depressed more than 570 feet.17 The buoyancy and the saltness are not so wholly unparalleled. The waters of Lake Uiumiyeh are probably as salt and as buoyant;18 those of Lake Elton in the steppe east of the Wolga, and of certain other Russian lakes, appear to be even Salter.19 But with these few exceptions (if they are exceptions), the Dead Sea water must be pronounced to be the heaviest and saltest water known to us. More thau one-fourth of its weight is solid matter held in solution. Of this solid matter nearly one-third is common salt, which is more than twice as much as is con- tained in the waters of the ocean. Of the fresh-water lakes the largest and most important is the Sea of Tiberias. This sheet of water is of an oval shape, with an axis, like that of the Dead Sea, very nearly clue north and south. Its greatest length is about thirteen, and its greatest width about six miles.20 Its extreme depth, so far as has been ascertained, is 27£ fathoms, or 165 feet.21 The Jordan flows into its upper end turbid and muddy, and issues forth at its southern extremity clear and pellucid. It receives also the waters of a considerable number of small streams and springs, some of which are warm and brackish; yet its own water is always sweet, cool, and transparent, and laving everywhere a shelving pebbly beach, has a bright sparkling appear- ls Seetzen, Works, vol. i. p. 428; vol. : Geographical Journal, vol. xiv. p. cxvl.) ii. p. 358; Lynch, Narratiee, p. 199; "Compare Geographical Journal, vol. Kobinson, Researches, vol. ii. p. 235. , x. p. 7. '" Setting aside a single barometrical '* The waters of Lake Elton (Iclion- observation—that of Von Schubert in sice) contain from 24 to 28 per cent, of 1857—all the other estimates, however solid matter, while those of the "Red made, give a depression varying between Sea " near Perekop contain about 37 per 1200 and 1450 feet. (See Mr. Grove's I cent. The waters of the Dead Sea con- note, Biblical M.tionary, vol. i. p. 1175.) tain about 26 per cent. "The lake Assal, on the Somauli M Porter, Handbook, p. 418; Stanley, coast, opposite Aden, is said to be de- , Sinai and Palestine, p. 362. pressed to this extent. (Murchison, in *' Lynch, Narrative, p. 95. 470 Chap. I. THE FOUBTH MONARCHY. ance.22 The banks are lofty, ami in general destitute of ver- dure. What exactly is the amount of depression below the level of the Mediterranean remains still, to some extent, un- certain; but it is probably not much less than 700 feet.23 Now, as formerly, the lake produces an abundance of fish, which are pronounced, by those who have partaken of them, to be " de- licious."1 Nine miles above the Sea of Tiberias, on the course of the same stream, is the far smaller basin known now as the Bahr-el- Huleh, and anciently (perhaps) as Merom.2 This is a mountain tarn, varying in size as the season is wet or dry,3 but never appa- rently more than about seven miles long, by five or six broad.4 It is situated at the lower extremity of the plain called Huleh, and is almost entirely surrounded by flat marshy ground, thickly set with reeds and canes, which make the lake itself almost unapproachable.' The depth of the Huleh is not known. It is a favourite resort of aquatic birds, and is said to contain an abundant supply of fish.8 The Bahr-el-Kades, or Lake of Hems, lies on the course of the Orontes, about 130 miles N.N.E. of Merom, and nearly the same distance south of the Lake of Antioch. It is a small sheet of water, not more than six or eight miles long, and only two or three wide,7 running in the same direction with the ** Porter, in Bi'tlical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 676. "Schubert estimated the depression of the Sea of Tiberias at 535 Paris feet (Beise, vol. iii. p. 231); Bertou at 230 3 metres, or about 700 feet {Bulletin de la Socvnifde Gtogr. Oct. 1839). Lynch, in his Karratite (ed. of 1852), Preface, p. vii, calls it 312 feetj and hence pro- bably Stanley's estimate of 300 (Sinai and Palestine, p. 276). Mr. Porter, in 1860, calls it 700 feet (UiUical IHc- tionary, vol i. p. 676). Mr. Ffoulkes, in the same year, says it is 653 feet (ibid, p. 1130). It is to be hoped that a scientific survey of the whole of Pales- tine will be made before many years are over, and this, with other similar questions, finally settled. 1 Lynch, A'arratke, p. 96. 8 This has been generally assumed; but there are really very slight grounds for the assumption. Merom is mentioned but in one passage of Scripture (Josh, xi. 5-7); and then not at all distinctly as a lake. Josephus calls the Bahr-rt- Huleh the Semechonitis. * See the remarks of Col. Wildenbruch in the Journal of the Geographical c*K.-iety, vol. xx. p. 228. 4 Dean Stanley gives the dimensions of the lake as 7 miles by 6 (Sinn and Pale-tine, p. 382); Col. Chesney as 7 miles by 3j (Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 399, note); Mr. Porter as 4J miles by 3} (Handiook, p. 435); Dr. Kobinson as from 4 to 5 geographical miles by 4 (Researches, vol. iii. p. 430); Mr. Grove as 3 miles in each direction (biblical Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 333). s See above, p. 464, note 5. 6 Chesney, vol. i. p. 400. 'Pocock gives the dimensions of the Lake of Hems as 8 miles by 3 (Detcrip- Chap. I. THE SEA OF ANTIOCH. 471 course of the river, which here turns from north to north-east. According to Abulfeda8 and some other writers, it is mainly, if not wholly, artificial, owing its origin to a dam or embankment across the stream, which is from four to five hundred yards in length, and about twelve or fourteen feet high.9 In Abulfeda's time the construction of the embankment was ascribed to Alex- ander the Great, and the lake consequently was not regarded as having had any existence in Babylonian times; but traditions The Sea of Antioch, from the East. of this kind are little to be trusted, and it is quite possible that the work above mentioned, constructed apparently with a view to irrigation, may really belong to a very much enrlier age. Finally, in Northern Syria. 115 miles north of the Bahr-el- Kades, and about GO miles N.W.W. of the Bahr-el-Xelak, is the Bahr-el-Abyad (White Lake), or Sea of Antioch. This sheet of Hon of the Fast, vol. i. p. 140); Col. 1 Researches, p. 549), or about C miles Chesney makes them 6 miles by 2 (En- by 3. phrates Ejcjtedition, vol. i. p. 394). Dr. * Tubu'a Syria?, ed. Kiihler, p. 157. Robinson says the lake is "two hours 9 Kobinson, Later Researches, I. s. c. in length by one in breadth" {Later 472 Ch.u-. I THE FOURTH MONARCHY. water is a parallelogram,10 the angles of which face the cardinal points: in its greater diameter it extends somewhat more than ten miles, while it is about seven miles across.11 Its depth on the western side, where it approaches the mountains, is six or eight feet; but elsewhere it is generally more shallow, not exceeding three or four feet.12 It lies in a marshy plain called El-TJmk, and is thickly fringed witli reeds round the whole of its circumference. From the silence of antiquity, some writers have imagined that it did not exist in ancient times ;13 but the observations of scientific travellers are opposed to this theory.1* The lake abounds with fish of several kinds, and the fishery attracts and employs a considerable number of the natives who dwell near it.15 Besides these lakes, there were contained within the limits of the empire a number of petty tarns, which do not merit parti- cular description. Such were the Bahr-el-Taka,16 and other small lakes on the right bank of the middle Orontes, the Birket- el-Limum in the Lebanon,17 and the Birket-er-Kam18 on the southern flank of Hermon. It is unnecessary, however, to pursue this subject any further. But a few words must be added on the chief cities of the Empire, before this chapter is brought to a conclusion. The cities of the Empire may be divided into those of the dominant country and those of the provinces. Those of the dominant country were, for the most part, identical with the towns already described as belonging to the ancient Chaldjea. Besides Babylon itself, there flourished in the Babylonian period the cities of Borsippa, Duraba, Sippara or Sepharvaim, Opis, Psittace, Cutlia, Orchoe or Erech, and Diridotis or Teredon. 10 Chesney, vol. i. p. 396. 11 These dimensions, given by Rcnnell (Illustrations of the Expedition of Cyrus, p. 65), seem to be approved by Mr. Ainsworth ( Trarels in the Track, p. 62, note), who himself explored the lake. 12 Chesney, Euphrates Ex}>edition, vol. i. p. 396. '* Kcnncll, Illustrations of the Expedi- tion of Cyrus, p. 65. "Ainsworth, Researches in Mcsopo- • tamia, p. 299. "Chesney, vol. i. p. 397. "Famous for its abundant fish. (Chesney, vol. i. p. 395 ) "Robinson, Later Jtesearchet, p. 548. "Journal of Asiatic Society, voL xri. p. 8; Lynch, Official Report, p. 110. This is probably the ancient Phiale. which was believed to supply the foun- tain at Banias. (Joseph. B. J. iii. 10, Chap. L CHIEF CITIES OF THE EMPIRE. 473 The sites of most of those have been described in the first volume ;19 but it remains to state briefly the positions of some few which were either new creations or comparatively undistin- guished in the earlier times. Opis, a town of sufficient magnitude to attract the attention of Herodotus,20 was situated on the left or east bank of the Tigris, near the point where the Diyaleh or Gyndes joined the main river. Its position was south of the Gyndes embou- chure, and it might be reckoned as lying upon either river.21 The true name of the place—that which it bears in the cunei- form inscriptions—was Hupiya; and its site is probably marked by the ruins at Khafaji, near Baghdad, which place is thought to retain, in a corrupted form, the original appellation.22 Psittace or Sitace,23 the town which gave name to the province of Sitta- eene,24 was in the near neighbourhood of Opis, lying on the same side of the Tigris, but lower down, at least as low as the modern fort of the Zobeid chief. Its exact site has not been as yet discovered. Teredon, or Diridotis, appears to have been first founded by Nebuchadnezzar.25 It lay on the coast of the Persian Gulf, a little west of the mouth of the Euphrates, and protected by a quay, or a breakwater, from the high tides that rolled in from the Indian Ocean. There is great difficulty in identifying its site, owing to the extreme uncertainty as to the exact position of the coast-line, and the course of the river, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Probably it should be sought about Zobair, or a little further inland. The chief provincial cities were Susa and Badaca in Susiana; Anat, Sirki, and Carchemish, on the Middle Euphrates; Sidikan See pp. 20, 21. I by the Greeks (Xen. Anab. ii. 4, §13; 20 Herod, i. 189. Xenophon calls it J iElian, Jfist. An. xvi. 42; &c); but '•a great city " (toAis fwydATf, Anab. ii. i Stephen of Byzantium has Psittace'. 4, § 25). Strabo says it had a con* | In the cuneiform inscriptions the name siderable trade (xvi. 1, § 9). i is read as Pataita, without the Scythic 21 Herodotus, Strabo, and Arrian | guttural ending. (Ejq>. Altx. vii. 7) place it on the Tigris. 21 Sittaccne is made a province of Xenophon places it on the Physcus (//«- Babylonia by Strabo (xv. 3, (j 12). In puftus, Chaldeea and Siui mi, 1.9.C father (xv. 3, § 2). • Dan viii. 2. * Diod. Sic. ii. 22; iv. 75; Pausan. 7 Ibid, verse 27. Chap. I. BOEDER COUNTRIES—MEDIA AND PERSIA. 475 Among the other cities, Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates, Tyre upon the Syrian coast, and Ashdod on the borders of Egypt, held the highest place. Carchemish, which has been wrongly identified with Circesium,8 lay certainly high up the river,9 and most likely occupied a site some distance to the north of Balis, which is in lat. 36° nearly. It was the key of Syria on the east, commanding the ordinary passage of the Euphrates, and being the only great city in this quarter. Tyre, which had by this time surpassed its rival, Sidon,10 was the chief of all the maritime towns; and its possession gave the mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean to the power which could acquire and maintain it. Ashdod was the key of Syria upon the south, being a place of great strength,11 and commanding the coast route between Palestine and Egypt, which was usually pursued by armies. It is scarcely too much to say that the possession of Ashdod, Tyre, and Carchemish, involved the lordship of Syria, which could not be permanently retained except by the occupa- tion of those cities. The countries by which the Babylonian Empire was bounded were Persia on the east, Media and her dependencies on the north, Arabia on the south, and Egypt at the extreme south- west. Directly to the west she had no neighbour, her territory being on that side washed by the Mediterranean. Of Persia, which must be described at length in the next volume, since it was the seat of Empire during the Fifth Monarchy, no more need be said here than that it was for the most part a rugged and sterile country, apt to produce a brave and hardy race, but incapable of sustaining a large population. A strong barrier separated it from the great Mesopotamian lowland;12 and the Babylonians, by occupying a few easily * There never was much ground for 2-36; xxviii. 2-19; &c), which barely this identification, since Carchemish, I mention Sidon (xxviii. 21-23; xxxii. "the fort of Chemosh." is clearly quite 30). a distinct name from Cir-ccsium. The "The strength of Ashdod, or Azotus, latter is perhaps a moJe of expressing was signally shown by its long resist- the Assyrian Sirki. ance to the arms of Psammctichus I See above, p. 67. (Herod, ii. 157). The name is thought II The importance of Tyre at this to be connected with the Arabic shedued, time is strongly marked by the pro- "strong." phecies of Ezekiel (xxvi. 3-21; x.wii. n See above, vol. i. p. 205. Crap. I. ARABIA AND EGYPT. 477 pendence cherished by the several tribes indisposes them to union; the affection for the nomadic life, which is strongly felt, disinclines them to the occupation of conquests. Arabia, as a conterminous power, is troublesome, but rarely dangerous: one section of the nation may almost always be played off against another: if "their hand is against every man," "every man's hand" is also "against them;"14 blood-feuds divide and deci- mate their tribes, which are ever turning their swords against each other; their neighbours generally wisli them ill, and will fall upon them, if they can take them at a disadvantage; it is only under very peculiar circumstances, such as can very rarely exist, that they are likely even to attempt anything more serious than a plundering inroad. Babylonia, consequently, though open to attack on the side of the south as well as on that of the north, had little to fear from either quarter. The friendli- ness of her northern neighbour, and the practical weakness of her southern one, were equal securities against aggression; and thus on her two largest and most exposed frontiers the Empire dreaded no attack. But it was otherwise in the far south-west. Here the Empire bordered .upon Egypt, a rich and populous country, which at all times covets Syria, and is often strong enough to seize and hold it in possession.15 The natural frontier is moreover weak, no other barrier separating between Africa and Asia than a narrow desert, which has never yet proved a serious obstacle to an army.1 From the side of Egypt, if from no other quarter, Babylonia might expect to have trouble. Here she inherited from her predecessor, Assyria, an old hereditary feud, which might at any time break out into active hostility. Here was an "Gen. xvi. 12. 15 Egypt appears so have held Syria during the 18th and 19th dynasties (ab. B.c. 1500-1250), and to have disputed its possession with Assyria from about a.c. 723 to B.C. U70. In later times the Ptolemies, and in still later the Fati- mite Caliphs, ruled Syria from Egypt. In our own days the conquest was marly effected by Ibrahim Pasha. 1 The Egyptian armies readily crossed it during the 18th and 19th dynasties— the Assyrians under Sargon and his suc- cessors—the Persians tinder Cambvses, Darius, Artaxerxes Longimanus, Mnc- mon, and Artaxerxes Ochus—the Greeks under Alexander and his successors—the Arabians under Amrou nnd Saladin— the French under Najioleon. As the real desert does not much exceed a hundred miles in breadth, armies can carry w ith them sufficient lood, forage, and water. 478 Chap. L THE FOURTH MONARCHY. ancient, powerful, and well-organised kingdom upon her borders, with claims upon that portion of her territory which it was most difficult for her to defend effectively.3 By sea3 and by land equally the strip of Syrian coast lay open to the arms of Egypt, who was free to choose her time and pour her hosts into the country when the attention of Babylon was directed to some other quarter. The physical and political circumstances alike pointed to hostile transactions between Babylon and her south- western neighbour. Whether destruction would come from this quarter, or from some other, it would have been impossible to predict. Perhaps, on the whole, it may be said that Babylon might have been expected to contend successfully with Egypt— that she had little to fear from Arabia—that against Persia Proper it might have been anticipated that she would be able to defend herself—but that she lay at the mercy of Media. The Babylonian Empire was in truth an Empire upon sufferance. From the time of its establishment with the consent of the Medes, the Medes might at any time have destroyed it. The dynastic tie alone prevented this result. When that tie was snapped, and when moreover, by the victories of Cyrus, Persian enterprise succeeded to the direction of Median power, the fate of Babylon was sealed. It was impossible for the long straggling Empire of the south, lying chiefly in low, flat, open regions, to resist for any considerable time the great kingdom of the north, of the high plateau, and of the mountain-chains. * See above, p. 453. * For the naval power of Egypt at this time, see Herod, ii. 161 and 182. Chap. It. CLIMATE OF SUSIANA. 479 CHAPTER II. CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. 'AicpoKOfwi (poivucfs e'jnjp«pe'pov *u(rai, «v 7rpo|3oXi)f, oqSi^ruW evhoBi TreYpns. Kapnov tK(pip{iv.—Herod, i. 193. The Babylonian Empire, lying as it did between the thirtieth and the thirty-seventh parallels of nortli latitude, and consisting mostly of comparathely low countries, enjoyed a climate which was, upon the whole, considerably warmer than that of Media, and less subject to extreme variations. In its more southern parts—Susiana, Chaldsea (or Babylonia Proper), Philistia, and Edom—the intensity of the summer heat must have been great; but the winters were mild and of short duration. In the middle regions of Central Mesopotamia, the Euphrates valley, the Pal- myrene, Ccele-Syria, Judaea, and Phoenicia, while the winters were somewhat colder and longer, the summer warmth was more tolerable. Towards the north, along the flanks of Masius, Taurus, and Amanus, a climate more like that of eastern Media prevailed,1 the summers being little less hot than those of the middle region,2 while the winters were of considerable severity. A variety of climate thus existed, but a variety within somewhat narrow limits. The region was altogether hotter and drier than is usual in the same latitude. The close proximity of the great Arabian desert, the small size of the adjoining seas, the want of mountains within the region having any great elevation,3 and 1 Supra, pp. 284-289. ! See vol. i. p. 211. 3 The average elevation of the Mods Masius is estimated at 1300 feet. (Ains- 480 Chap. II. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. the general absence of timber, combined to produce an amount of heat and dryness scarcely known elsewhere outside the tropics. Detailed accounts of the temperature, and of the climate generally, in the most important provinces of the Empire, Baby- lonia and Mesopotamia Proper, have been already given,* and on these points the reader is referred to the first volume. With regard to the remaining provinces, it may be noticed, in the first place, that the climate of Susiana differs but very slightly from that of Babylonia, the region to which it is adjacent. The heat in summer is excessive, the thermometer, even in the hill country, at an elevation of 5000 feet, standing often at 107° Fahr. in the shade.5 The natives construct for themselves serdaubs, or subterranean apartments, in which they live during the day.6 thus somewhat reducing the temperature, but probably never bringing it much below 100 degrees.' They sleep at night in the open air on the fiat roof's of their houses.8 So far as there is any difference of climate at tin's season between Susiana and Babylonia, it is in favour of the former. The heat, though scorching, is rarely oppressive ;9 and not unfrequently a cool invigorating breeze sefs in from the mountains,10 which refreshes both mind and body. The winters are exceedingly mild, snow being unknown on the plains, and rare on the mountains, ex- cept at a considerable elevation.11 At this time, however— from December to the end of March—rain falls in tropical abun- dance; 12 and occasionally there are violent hail-storms,13 which worth, Researches in Mesopotamia, p. 29.) Persian Empire, p. 107. Some of its peaks are of course consider- 7 This is the temperature of the ser- ably higher. Amanus is said to obtain daubs at Baghdad, when the tempera- an elevation of 5387 feet (Chesney, ture of the open air is about 120°. (See Euphrates Expeditiun, \ol, i. p. 384.) vol. i. p. 28.) The greatest height of Lebanon is 10,200 "Kinnier, 1. s. c. feet (Nat. History Jieiieic, No. V. p. 11); | 9 Mr. Loftus says: "The temperature its average height being from 6000 feet was high, but it was perfectly delightful to >-00O. Hermon is thought to be not 1 compared with the furnace we had much less than 10,000. (Porter, Hand- i recently quitted at Mohammerah." //Oo;, p. 45.r>.) (C/ialda'a and Susiana. p. 307.) 4 See vol. i. pp. 28-30 and 210-212. I 10 Loftus, pp. 290, 307; Kinneir. p. 5 Loftus, Chaldcca and See Niebuhr, Description del'-irabn; i. p. 578. pp. 7, 8; Burckhardt, Travels, p. 191; 3 Wildenbruch, as quoted by Mr. Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, vol. Grove in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, pp. 579, 580. vol. ii. p. 6U2. Chap. II. PERMANENCY OF THE CLIMATE. 4§3 The climate of the entire tract included within the limits of the Empire was probably much the same in ancient times as in our own days. In the low alluvial plains indeed near the Persian Gulf it is probable that vegetation was anciently more abundant, the date palm being cultivated much more exten- sively then than at present;9 and so far it might appear reason- able to conclude that the climate of that region must have been moister and cooler than it now is. Eut if we may judge by Strabo's account of Susiana, where the climatic conditions were nearly the same as in Babylonia, no important change can have taken place, for Strabo not only calls the climate of Susiana "fiery and scorching,"10 but says that in Susa, during the height of summer, if a lizard or a snake tried to cross the street about noon-day, he was baked to death before accomplishing half the distance.11 Similarly on the west, though there is reason to believe that Palestine is now much more denuded of timber than it was formerly,12 and its climate should therefore be both warmer and drier, yet it has been argued with great force from the identity of the modern with the ancient vegetation, that in reality there can have been no considerable change.13 If then there has been such permanency of climate in the two regions where the greatest alteration seems to have taken place in the circumstances whereby climate is usually affected, it can scarcely be thought that elsewhere any serious change has been brought about. The chief vegetable productions of Babylonia Proper in ancient times are thus enumerated by Berosus. "The land of the Babylonians," he says, "produces wheat as an indigenous plant, and has also barley, and lentils, and vetches, and sesame; the banks of the streams and the marshes supply edible roots, • See the description of Dionysius the geographer at the head of this chapter, and compare Herod, i. 193; Aram. Marc, uir. 3; Zosim. iii. pp. 173-179. 19 'Eicvvpov Kai KavftaTTjpdy. Strab. it. 3, § 10. 11 Ibid, tot yovv aavpas Kal Tour vQfis, Oepovs itK/ia^ovTos rov ijKlov Kara fKJijfi$iiiay, tia$rjyai ftii s< Memoir on Babylon, pp. 63, 64.) * Herod, i. 179. Sir G. Wilkinson believes that he has found a mention of bitumen from Hit as early as the reign of Thothmes III. in Egypt. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 254, note 4, 2nd edition.) *' Herod, vi. 119; Journal of the Geo- graphical Society, vol. ix. p. 94. 28 Geotjraph. Journal, 1. s. c. »» Strab. xvi. 2, § 42; Tacit. Hist. v. 6; Plin. If. N. v. 16. »» Supra, p. 466. 1 Supra, p. 467. s The ridge of Usdum at the south- western extremity of the Dead Sea is a mountain of rock-salt. (Robinson, Re- searches, vol. ii. p. 482.) A little further to the north is a natural salt-pan, the Birkct el Khulil, from which the Arabs obtain supplies. The Jews say that the 488 Chat. IL THE FOURTH MONARCHY. or Palmyra.3 The Dead Sea gave also most probably both sulphur and nitre, but the latter only in small quantities.4 Copper and iron seem to have been yielded by the hills of Palestine.5 Silver was perhaps a product of the Anti-Lebanon.' It may be doubted whether any gems were really found in Babylonia itself, which, being purely alluvial, possesses no stone of any kind. Most likely the sorts known as Babylonian came from the neighbouring Susiana, whose unexplored mountains may possess many rich treasures. According to Dionysius,1 the bed of the Choaspes produced numerous agates, and it may well be that from the same quarter came that "beryl more precious than gold,"8 and those "highly reputed sards,"' which Babylon seems to have exported to other countries. The western provinces may, however, very probably have furnished the gems which are ascribed to them, as amethysts, which are said to have been found in the neighbourhood of Petra,10 ala- baster, which came from near Damascus,11 and the cyanus, a kind of lapis-lazuli,12 which was a production of Phoenicia.11 No doubt the Babylonian love of gems caused the provinces to be carefully searched for stoues; and it is not improbable that they yielded, besides the varieties already named, and the other unknown kinds mentioned by Pliny,14 many, if not most, of the materials which we find to have been used for seals by the ancient people. These are, cornelian, rock-crystal, chalce- Dead Sea salt was anciently in much request for the Temple service. It was known to Galen under the name of "Sodom salt" (fi\«t 2o!o/h)koJ, De Sitnpl. Med. Facult. iv. 19). Zephaniah (ab. b.c 630) mentions "salt-pits' in this neighbourhood (ii. 9). * Chesney, vol. i. p. 526. Salt was procurable also from the bitumen-pits at Hit (Ainsworth's Researches, p. 85) and Ardericca (Herod, vi. 119). 4 Balls of nearly pure sulphur are found on the shores of the Dead Sea not unfrequently. (Anderson, in Lynch's Official Re/iort, pp. 176, 180, 187, &c.) Nitre is found according to some travel- lers (Irby and Mangles, pp. 451, 453); but their report is not universally credited. (See Grove, in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 1183 d.) s Dcut. viii. 9. Compare Euseb. H. £ viii. 15, 17. 11 Silver has been found in the Anti- Lebanon in modern times. (See Burck- hardt. Travels, pp. 33, 34.) I Dionys. Perieg. 11. 1073-1077. 'Ibid. U. 1011-1013. • Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 7. "Sards laudatissima circa Babylonem." 10 Ibid, xxxvii. 9. II Ibid, xxxvii. 10 (§ 54). 15 See King, Antique Gems, p. 43. Some have regarded the Cyanus as the sapphire. 13 Theophrastus, De Lapid. 55 (p. 399, ed. Heins.). "As the Bucardia (Phin. B. -V. xxxvii. 10, §55), the Mormorion (ibid. § 63), and the Sagda (§ 67). Chap. II. BIRDS. 491 the alligator, if a denizen of the region at all, exists only in the Euphrates. The chief birds of the region are eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, hawks, many kinds of crows, magpies, jackdaws, thrushes, blackbirds, nightingales, larks, sparrows, goldfinches, swallows, doves of fourteen kinds, francolins, rock partridges, gray par- tridges, black partridges, quails, pheasants, capercailzies, bus- tards, flamingoes, pelicans, cormorants, storks, herons, cranes, wild-geese, ducks, teal, kingfishers, snipes, woodcooks, the sand- grouse, the hoopoe, the green parrot, the becafico, the locust- bird, the humming-bird (?), and the bee-eater.9 The eagle, pheasant, capercailzie, quail, parrot, locust-bird, becafico, and humming-bird are rare;10 the remainder are all tolerably com- mon. Besides these, we know that in ancient times ostriches were found within the limits of the Empire,11 though now they have retreated further south into the Great Desert of Arabia. Perhaps bitterns may also formerly have frequented some of the countries belonging to it,12 though they are not mentioned among the birds of the rejriou bv modern writers.13 There is a bird of the heron species, or rather of a species between the heron and the stork, which seems to deserve a few words of special description. It is found chiefly in Northern * See Mr. Ainsworth's account of the Mesopotamian birds in his Researches, pp. 42-45; and compare the list in Col. Chesney's work, Appendix to vol. i. pp. 730, 731. 10 The capercailzie or cock of the wood, and two kinds of pheasants, fre- quent the woods of northern Syria, where the green parrot is also found occa- sionally (Chesney, vol. i. pp. 443 and 731). Eagles are seen on Hermon (Porter, p. 453), Lebanon, nnd in UpperSyria (Ches- ney, vol. i. p. 731) ; locust-birds in Upper Syria (ib. p. 443) and Palestine (Robin- son, vol. iii. p. 252); the becafico is only a bird of passage (Chesney, vol. i. p. 731); the humming-bird is said to have been seen by Commander Lynch at the southern end of the Dead Sea (.Varratice, p. 209); but this fact requires confirma- tion. "Xen. Anab. i. 5, § 2. According to Mr. Tristram, the ostrich is still an occasional visitant of the Belka, the rolling pastoral country immediately east of the Dead Sea (see his Report on the Birds of Palestine, published in the Proceedings of the London Zoological Society, Nov. 8, 1864). 12 Mr. Houghton believes the bittern to be intended by the kip/ml of Scrip- ture, which is mentioned in connection with both Babylon (Is. xxxiv. 11) and Nineveh (Zeph. ii. 14). See Smith's Biblical Diction try, vol. iii. Appendix, p. xxxi. 11 The bittern was not observed by Col. Chesney or Mr. Ainsworth. Nor is it noticed by either Mr. Loftus or Mr. Layard. Col. II. Smith says he was 14 informed that it had been seen on the ruins of Ctesiphon" (Kitto. Biblical Cyclopadia, ad voc. Kippdd); but I find no other mention of it as a habitant of these countries. Chap. II. REPTILES - DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 493 silurus are taken in the Sea of Galilee.19 The black-fish is ex- tremely abundant in the Bahr-el-Taka and the Lake of Antioch.20 Among reptiles may be noticed, besides snakes, lizards, and frogs, which are numerous, the following less common species— iguanoes, tortoises of two kinds, chameleons, and monitors.21 Bats also were common in Babylonia Proper,23 where they grew to a great size. Of insects the most remarkable are scorpions, tarantulas, and locusts.23 These last come suddenly in countless myriads with the wind, and, settling on the crops, rapidly destroy all the hopes of the husbandman, after which they strip the shrubs and trees of their leaves, reducing rich districts in an incredibly short space of time to the condition of howling wildernesses. If it were not for the locust-bird, which is con- Locusts'from a O'111"1"- stantly keeping down their numbers, these destructive insects would probably increase so as to ruin utterly the various regions exposed to their ravages. The domestic animals employed in the countries which com- posed the Empire were camels, horses, mules, asses, buffaloes, cows and oxen, goats, sheep, and dogs. Mules as well as horses seem to have been anciently used in war by the people of the more southern regions—by the Susianians at any rate,24 if not also by the Baby- lonians. Sometimes they were rid- den; sometimes they were em- ployed to draw carts or chariots. mu • J l i* • Su9ianian mule (Koyunjik). Ihey were spirited and active am- v 3 J' mals, evidently of a fine breed, such as that for which Khuzistan 19 Robinson, Researches, vol. iii. p. 261. Commander Lynch speaks of five kinds of fish—all good—as produced by this lake (Narrative, p. 96); but he can only give their Arabic names. *• Chesney, vol. i. pp. 395 and 397. 21 Ainsworth, Researches, p. 4G. 22 Strab. xvi. 1, § 7. 23 Chesney, vol. i. p. 444. 24 See the sculptures of Asshur-bani- pal, which represent his campaigns in Susiana, especially those rendered by Mr. Layard in his Monuments, Second Scries, Fls. 45 and 46. '494 Cmr. IL THE FOURTH MONARCHY. is famous at the present day.25 The asses from which these mules were produced must also have been of superior quality, like the breed for which Baghdad is even now famous.26 The Babylonian horses are not likely to have been nearly so good; for this animal does not flourish in a climate which is at once moist and hot. Still, at any rate under the Persians, Babylonia seems to have been a great breeding-place for horses, since the Susianian horses (Koyunjik). stud of a single satrap consisted of 800 stallions and 16,000 mares.1 If we may judge of the character of Babylonian from that of Susianian steeds, we may consider the breed to have been strong and large limbed, but not very handsome, the head being too large and the legs too short for beauty. The Babylonians were also from very early times famous for their breed of dogs. The tablet engraved in a former volume,2 which gives a representation of a Babylonian hound, is probably of a high antiquity, not later than the period of the Empire. Dogs are also not unfrequently represented on ancient Babylonian stones and cylinders.3 It would seem that, as in ss Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. I valley, near Apamea. (Strab. xvL 1, 449, note. i § 10.) "Ibid. p. 472. | * See vol. 1. p. 235. 1 Herod, i. 192. Compare the 300 • Cullimore, Cylinders, No. 63; La- stallions and 30,000 mares, which Se- | jard, Cuite de Mithra, Pis. xviii 8; leucus Kicator kept in the Orontes xxxvii. 2; xxxviii. 1; &c. Chap. II. BEASTS OF BUEDEX. 495 Assyria, there were two principal breeds, one somewhat clumsy and heavy, of a character not unlike that of our mastiff, the other of a much lighter make, nearly resembling our greyhound. The former kind is probably the breed known as Indian,4 which was kept up by continual importations from the country whence it was originally derived.5 Babylonian dog, We have no evidence that camels were em- from a gcm' ployed in the time of the Empire, either by the Babylonians themselves or by their neighbours, the Susianians ; but in Upper Mesopotamia, in Syria, and in Palestine they had been in use from a very early date. The Amalekites and the Midianites found them serviceable in war;6 and the latter people employed them also as beasts of burden in their caravan trade.' The Syrians of Upper Mesopotamia rode upon them in their jour- neys.8 It appears that they were also sometimes yoked to chariots,9 though from their size and clumsiness they would be but ill fitted for beasts of draught. Buffaloes were, it is probable, domesticated by the Babylo- nians at an early date. The animal seems to have been indi- Oxen, from Babylonian Cylinders. genous in the country,10 and it is far better suited for the marshy regions of Lower Babylonia and Susiana11 than cattle of the ordinary kind. It is perhaps a buffalo which is repre- * Herod. I. s. c. * Ctesias, Mica, § 5. * Judg. vii. 12; 1 Sam. xxx. 17. 'Gen. xxxvii. 25. * Ibid. xxiv. 61; xxxi. 17. * Isaiah xxi. 7. 10 Among the beasts hunted by the Assyrian kings are thought to be wild bunaloes. (Supra, p. 91.) 11 On the bunaloes of these districts see Loftus, Chaldtra and Susuina, pp. 94, 392; Laya/d, A'inevch and Babyion, p. 566; Ainsworth, Researches, p. 137. 496 Chap. H THE FOUBTH MONARCHY. sented on an ancient tablet already referred to,13 where a lion is disturbed in the middle of his feast off a prostrate animal by a man armed with a hatchet. Cows and oxen, however, of the common kind are occasionally represented on the cylinders.15 where they seem sometimes to represent animals about to be offered to the gods. Goats also appear frequently in this capacity;M and they were probably more common than sheep, at any rate in the more southern districts. Of Babylonian sheep we have no representations at all on the monuments; but it is scarcely likely that a country which used wool so largely15 was content to be without them. At any rate they abounded in the provinces, forming the chief wealth of the more northern nations.16 11 Supra, p. 489, note". The tablet 1 &c.; Lajard, Pis. xxxvi. 13; xxxvii. 7: is figured by Mr. Loftus, p. 258. xxxviii. 3; &c "Cullimore, Cylinders, Nos. 36, 91, | ls See below, p. 570. 92, 138; Lajard, Culte de Milhra, Pis. J 16 See the Assyrian Inscriptions, pts- xiii. 7 ; xvi. 1; xviii. 5; &c. sim. Compare Gen. xziz. 3; Job. i. S; 14 Cullimore, Nos. 26, 29, 49, 52, xlii. 12. Chaiv III. THE BABYLONIANS. 497 CHAPTER III. THE PEOPLE. "The Chalda>ans, that bitter and hasty nation."—Habak. i. 6. The Babylonians, who, under Nabopolassar and Nebuchad- nezzar, held the second place among the nations of the East, were emphatically a mixed race. The ancient people, from whom they were in the main descended—the Chaldaians of the First Empire—possessed this character to a considerable extent, since they united Cushite with Turanian blood, and contained moreover a slight Semitic and probably a slight Arian element.1 But the Babylonians of later times — the Chakheans of the Hebrew prophets2 — must have been very much more a mixed race than their earlier namesakes—partly in consequence of the policy of colonisation pursued systema- tically by the later Assyrian kings, partly from the direct influ- ence exerted upon them by conquerors. Whatever may have been the case with the Arab dynasty, which bore sway in the country from about B.C. 1546 till B.C. 1300, it is certain that the Assyrians conquered Babylon about B.C. 1300, and almost certain that they established an Assyrian family upon the throne of Nimrod, which held for some considerable time the actual sovereignty of the country.3 It was natural that under a dynasty of Semites, Semitic blood should flowly freely into the lower region, Semitic usages and modes of thought become prevalent, and the spoken language of the country pass from a Turanian or Turano-Cushite to a Semitic type. The previous Chalda?an race blended, apparently, with the new comers, and 1 Sec above, vol. i. pp. 44, 45. I When the term is used, it designates the 1 The prophets very rarely use the I people of the capital: the inhabitants word "Babylonian." I believe it is of the land generally are "Chaldasans.'' only found in Ezek. xxiii. 15 and 17. | * See above, pp. 58, 59. VOL. II. 2 K 498 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chat. HI. I a people was produced in which the three elements—the Se- mitic, the Turanian, and the Cushite—held about equal shares. The colonisation of the Sargonid kings added probably other elements in small proportions,4 and the result was that among all the nations inhabiting Western Asia, there can have been none so thoroughly deserving the title of a "mingled people"' as the Babylonians of the later Empire. In mixtures of this kind it is almost always found that some one element practically preponderates, and assumes to itself the right of fashioning and forming the general character of the race. It is not at all necessary that this formative element should be larger than any other; on the contrary, it may be and sometimes is extremely small;6 for it does not work by its mass, but by its innate force, and strong vital energy. In Babylonia, the element which showed itself to possess this superior vitality, which practically asserted its pre-eminence and proceeded to mould the national character, was the Semitic. There is abundant evidence that by the time of the later Em- pire the Babylonians had become thoroughly Semitized; so much so, that ordinary observers scarcely distinguished them from their purely Semitic neighbours, the Assyrians.7 No doubt there were differences which a Hippocrates or an Aristotle could have detected—differences resulting from mixed descent, as well as differences arising from climate and physical geo- graphy; but, speaking broadly, it must be said that the Semitic element, introduced into Babylonia from the north, had so pre- vailed by the time of the establishment of the Empire that the race was no longer one sui generis, but was a mere variety of the well known and widely spread Semitic type. * The settlement of foreigners in Babylonia by the Sargonid kings is not expressly recorded; but may be as- sumed from their general practice, com- bined with the fact that they made room for such a population by largely deporting the native inhabitants. (See 2 K. xvii. 24; Ezr. iv. 9; and compare above, pp. 152, 183, &c.) a Jeremiah speaks of the "mingled people" in the midst of Babylon (1. 37); but the reference is perhaps rather to the crowds of foreigners who were there for pleasure or profit than to the Baby- lonians themselves. * Note the case of the Hellenic ele- ment in Greece—at any rate according to Herodotus—rb 'EWfivucbv . . . Hr itrSevls, ijri fffuxpov reo tV o<>xV bpntdficvoy, ati^rfreu Is TKrjUos t£f k6tuv abrf ml &Wav iiviuv fiapfiafmr 'Herod, i. 106,178; iii.92. 500 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. HI. Assyrian, while there is still such an amount of difference as renders it tolerably easy to distinguish between the productions of the two nations. The eye is larger and not so decidedly almond-shaped; the nose is shorter, and its depression is still more marked; while the general expression of the countenance is altogether more commonplace. These differences may be probably referred to the influence which was exercised upon the physical form of the race by the primi- tive or Proto-Chaldsean element, an influence which appears to have been considerable. This element, as has been already observed,1" Babylonian woman, wa8 predominantly Cushite; and there is from the same. r , , _^ . . reason to believe that the Cushite race was connected not very remotely with the negro. In Susiana, where the Cushite blood was maintained in tolerably purity—Ely- maeans and Kissians exist- ing side by side, instead of blending together11— there was, if we may trust the Assyrian remains, a very decided prevalency of a negro type of counte- nance, as the accompany- ing specimens, carefully copied from the sculptures, suoianians (Koyunjik). will render evident. The head was covered with short crisp curls; the eye was large, the nose and mouth nearly in the same line, the lips thick. Such a physiognomy as the Babylonian appears to have been would naturally arise" from an intermixture of a race like the Assyrian with one resembling 10 Supra, p. 497. 11 For the separate existence in Su- siana of Elyma'ans and Kissians, see Strab. xvi. i, § 17, and Ptolemy, vi. 3. That the Elymreans were Semitic seems to follow from Gen. x. 22. In the word "Kissian" we have probably a modifi- cation of" Cushite." Chap. III. THEIR ABUNDANT HAIR. that which the later sculptures represent as the main race in- habiting Susiana.12 , Herodotus remarks that the Babylonians wore their hair long;13 and this remark is confirmed to some extent by the native remains. These in general represent the hair as forming a single stiff and heavy curl at the back of the head (No. 3). Sometimes, however, they make it take the shape of long flowing locks, which depend over the back (No. 1), or over the back and shoulders (No. 4), reaching nearly to the waist. Occa- Heads of Babylonians, Head of an Elamitic chief from the cylinders. (Koyunjik.) sionally, in lieu of these commoner types, we have one which closely resembles the Assyrian, the hair forming a round mass behind the head (No. 2), on which we can sometimes trace indications of a slight wave. The national fashion, that to which Herodotus alludes, seems to be represented by the three commoner modes. Where the round mass is worn, we have probably an Assyrian fashion, which the Babylonians aped during the time of that people's pre-eminence.14 13 The sculptures of Asshur-bani-pal ] mitic countenance. It is comparatively exhibit two completely opposite types rare, the negro type greatly predomi- of Susianian physiognomy—one Jewish, nating. "Herod, i. 195. the other approaching to the negro. In "It will be observed that the Assy- the former we have probably the Ela- rian sculptures, while they give a pecu- 502 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. EL Besides their flowing hair, the Babylonians are represented frequently with a large beard. This is generally longer than the Assyrian, descending nearly to the waist. Sometimes it curls crisply upon the face, but below the chin depends over the breast in long, straight locks. At other times it droops perpendicularly from the cheek and the under lip.15 Fre- quently, however, the beard is shaven off, and the whole face is smooth and hairless.1 The Chaldfean females, as represented by the Assyrians,2 are tall and large-limbed. Their physiognomy is Assyrian, their hair not very abundant. The Babylonian cylinders, on the other hand, make the hair long and conspicuous, while the forms are quite as spare and meagre as those of the men. On the whole, it is most probable that the physical type of the later Babylonians was nearly that of their northern neigh- bours. A somewhat sparer form, longer and more flowing hair, and features less stern and strong may perhaps have charac- terized them. They were also, it is probable, of a darker com- plexion than the Assyrians, being to some extent Ethiopians by descent, and inhabiting a region which lies four degrees nearer to the tropics than Assyria. The Cha'ab Arabs, the present possessors of the more southern parts of Babylonia, are nearly black;3 and the "black Syrians," of whom Strabo speaks,4 seem intended to represent the Babylonians. Among the moral and mental characteristics of the people, the first place is due to their intellectual ability. Inheriting a legacy of scientific knowledge, astronomical and arithmetical, from the Proto-Chaldseans,5 they seem to have not only main- tained but considerably advanced these sciences by their own liar character to the Babylonian hair, always beardless. We cannot suppose do not make it descend below the , them to have been always, if indeed they were ever, eunuchs. Naoarus, a Babylonian prince, is said by Nicolas of Damascus to have been "right well shaven" (KUTtlupiHiivov tS fid, Fr. 10. shoulders. They generally represent it as worn smooth on the top of the head, and depending from the ears to the shoulders in a number of large, smooth heavy curls. (See the woodcut, p. 499.) I p. 360). 15 Here again the Assyrian artists tone down the Babylonian peculiarity, generally representing the beard as not much longer than their own. 1 The priests upon the cylinders are Layard, Monuments of Xinevek, Second Series, Pis. 25, 27, and 88. * Loft us, Chahixa and Susiana, p. 285. 4 Strab. xvi. 1, § 2. 4 See above, voL i. pp. 100-104. Chap. III. THEIR LEARNING. 503 efforts. Their "wisdom and learning" are celebrated by the Jewish prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel;6 the Father of History records their valuable inventions;7 and an Aristotle was not ashamed to be beholden to them for scientific data.8 They were good observers of astronomical phenomena, careful recorders of such observations,9 and mathematicians of no small repute.10 Unfortunately they mixed with their really scientific studies those occult pursuits which, in ages and countries where the limits of true science are not known, are always apt to seduce students from the right path, having attractions against which few men are proof, so long as it is believed that they can really accomplish the end that they propose to themselves. The Babylonians were astrologers no less than astronomers;11 they professed to cast nativities, to expound dreams, and to foretell events by means of the stars; and though there were always a certain number who kept within the legitimate bounds of science and repudiated the astrological pretentions of their brethren,13 yet on the whole it must be allowed that their astronomy was fatally tinged with a mystic and unscientific element In close connection with the intellectual ability of the Baby- lonians, was the spirit of enterprise which led them to engage in traffic and to adventure themselves upon the ocean in ships. In a future chapter we shall have to consider the extent and probable direction of this commerce.13 It is sufficient to observe in the present place that the same turn of mind which made the Phoenicians anciently the great carriers between the East and 6 See Isaiah xlvii. 10: "Thy vrisdom and thy knoirledije, it hath perverted thee." Jerem. 1. 35: "A sword is upon p. 101, note ». 0 P|in. H. X. vii. 56; Diod. Sic. ii. 30, § 2. the Chaldteans, saith the Lord, and' 10 Strab. xvi. 1, § 6. upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her viae men." Dan. i. 4: "The learning of the Chaldeans." T Herod, ii. 109. It is uncertain, however, if the Semitized Babylonians, or the early Chaldieans, are the people 11 Isaiah xlvii. 13; Dan. ii. 2; Diod. Sic. ii. 29, § 2; Strab. 1. s. c.; Vitruv. ix. 4; &c. 13 Strabo (1. s. c), after speaking of the Chaldamn astronomers, says—irpoir- Koytiv, o6s oh k ar at 4 x 0 * r al 0' intended by Herodotus. t irepoi. But, in reality, astrology was * See the famous passage of Simplicius i the rule, pure astronomy the rare cx- (ad Arist. De C'ah, ii. p. 123) quoted at I ception. length in the first volume of this work, j a Infra, ch. vl. Chap. III. THEIR VALOUR. 505 The tables groaned under the weight of gold and silver plate.27 In every possible way the Babylonians practised luxuriousness of living, and in respect of softness and self-indulgence they certainly did not fall short of any nation of antiquity. There was, however, a harder and sterner side to the Baby- lonian character. Despite their love of luxury, they were at all times brave and skilful in war; and, during the period of their greatest strength, they were one of the most formidable of all the nations of the East. Habakkuk describes them, drawing evidently from the life, as "bitter and hasty," and again as "terrible and dreadful—their horses' hoofs swifter than the leopard's, and more fierce than the evening wolves."28 Hence they u smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke "39— they "made the earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms " 30— they carried all before them in their great enterprises, seldom allowing themselves to be foiled by resistance, or turned from their course by pity. Exercised for centuries in long and fierce wars with the well-armed and well-disciplined Assyrians, they were no sooner quit of this enemy and able to take an aggres- sive attitude, than they showed themselves no unworthy succes- sors of that long-dominant nation, so far as energy, valour, and military skill constitute desert. They carried their victorious arms from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the banks of the Nile; wherever they went, they rapidly established their power, crushing all resistance, and fully meriting the remarkable title, which they seem to have received from some of those who had felt their attacks, of " the hammer of the whole earth." 1 The military successes of the Babylonians were accompanied with needless violence, and with outrages not unusual in the East, which the historian must nevertheless regard as at once crimes and follies. The transplantation of conquered races—a part of the policy of Assyria which the Chaldaeans adopted— may perhaps have been morally defensible, notwithstanding the celebrated by Posidonius (Fr. 30). Com- pare Herod, i. 195: Mfpvpurptvoi irav rh Ibid. 180. VOL. II. 2 L THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. IV, At the base of the tower was a second shrine or chapel, which in the time of Herodotus contained a sitting image of Bel, made of gold, with a golden table in front of it, and a stand for the image, of the same precious metal.12 Here too Persian avarice had been busy; for anciently this shrine had possessed a second statute, which was a human figure twelve cubits high, made of solid gold.13 The shrine was also rich in private offerings. Outside the building, but within the sacred enclo- sure, were two altars, a smaller one of gold, on which it was customary to offer sucklings, and a larger one, probably of stone, where the worshippers sacrificed full-grown victims.14 The great palace was a building of still larger dimensions than the great temple. According to Diodorus, it was situated within a triple enclosure, the innermost wall being twenty stades, the second forty stades, and the outermost sixty stades (nearly seven miles), in circumference.15 The outer wall was built entirely of plain baked brick. The middle, and inner walls were of the same material frouted with enamelled bricks, representing hunting-scenes. The figures, according to this author, were larger than the life, and consisted chiefly of a great variety of animal forms. There were not wanting, however, a certain number of human forms to enliven the scene; and among these were two—a man thrusting his spear through a lion, and a woman on horseback, aiming at a leopard with her javelin—which the later Greeks believed to represent the mythic Ninus and Semiramis.10 Of the character of the apart- ments we hear nothing; but we are told that the palace had three gates, two of which were of bronze, and that these had to be opened and shut by a machine.17 But the main glory of the palace was its pleasure-ground— 12 Ilcrod. i. 183. The Chaldoean priests told Herodotus that the gold of the image, table, and stand, weighed altogether 800 talents. "Herod. 1. s. c. "The great altar was also that on which a thousand talents' weight of frankincense was offered annually at the festival of the god. (Herod. 1. s. c.) 13 Diod. Sic. ii. 8, J 4. Quintus Curtius knows, however, of only one enclosure, which corresponds to the innermost wall of Diodorus, having a circuit of twenty stades. According to Curtius, this wall was 80 feet high, and its foundations were laid 30 feet below the surface of the soil. (//ist. Alex. Alaqn. v. 1.) "Diod. Sic. ii. 8, § 6. "Ibid. § 7. Chap. IV. THE HANGING GARDENS. 517 the "Hanging Gardens," which the Greeks regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world.18 This extraordinary construc- tion, which owed its erection to the whim of a woman,19 was a square, each side of which measured 400 Greek feet.20 It was supported upon several tiers of open arches, built one over the other, like the walls of a classic theatre,21 and sustaining at each stage, or story, a solid platform, from which the piers of the next tier of arches rose. The building towered into the air to the height of at least seventy-five feet, and was covered at the top with a great mass of earth, in which there grew not merely flowers and shrubs, but trees also of the largest size.1 Water was supplied from the Euphrates through pipes, and was raised (it is said) by a screw working on the principle of Archimedes.2 To prevent the moisture from penetrating into the brick-work and gradually destroying the building, there were interposed between the bricks and the mass of soil, first a layer of reeds mixed with bitumen, then a double layer of burnt brick ce- mented with gypsum, and thirdly a coating of sheet lead.3 The ascent to the garden was by steps.4 On the way up, among the arches which sustained the building, were stately apart- ments,5 which must have been pleasant from their coolness. There was also a chamber within the structure containing the machinery by which the water was raised.' Of the smaller palace, which .was opposite to the larger one, on the other side the river, but few details have come down to us. Like the large palace, it was guarded by a triple enclo- "Strab. xvi. 1, § 5. "See below, ch. viii. » Diod. Sic. ii. 10, § 2. 21 Ibid. Sot« tV npiaai/tv tlvou Bfarpotiiri. 1 Diod. Sic. ii. 10, § 5. Quintus Curtius says that the trunks of some of the trees were 12 feet in diameter. {Hist. Alex. Magn. v. 1.) Strabo relates that some of the piers were mode hollow, and filled with earth, for the trees to strike their roots down them. But few trees have a tap-root. 1 This is the explanation given of Strabo'I jcoxAjat, Si wv rb vbotp Hvijyov • is rbv nrjirov Airo rod £.\>$oKi . "It is more usual in Babylonia for the anjlcs of a temple-tower to face the cardinal points. But for the astro- nomical purposes which the towers sub- served (Diod. Sic. 1. s. c.) it was indif- ferent which arrangement was adopted. "See above, p. 515. 534 Chap. IV- THE FOURTH MONARCHY. tbe Euphrates with the palace. Herodotus expressly declares that the temple of Belus and the royal palace were upon opposite sides of the river,21 and states, moreover, that the temple was built in stages, which rose one above the other to the number of eight.22 Now these two circumstances, which do not belong at present to the Bubil mound, attach to a ruin distant from it about eleven or twelve miles—a ruin which is certainly one of the most remarkable in the whole country, and which, if Babylon had really been of the size asserted by Herodotus, might possibly have been included within the walls. The Birs-i-Nimrud had certainly seven, probably eight stages, and it is the only ruin on the present western bank of the Euphrates which is at once sufficiently grand to answer to the descriptions of the Belus temple, and sufficiently near to the other ruins to make its original inclusion within the walls not absolutely impossible. Hence, ever since the attention of scholars was first directed to the subject of Babylonian topo- graphy, opinion has been divided on the question before us, and there have not been wanting persons to maintain that the Birs-i-Nimrud is the true temple of Belus,1 if not also the actual tower of Babel,2 whose erection led to the confusion of tongues and general dispersion of the sons of Adam. With this latter identification we are not in the present place concerned. With respect to the view that the Birs is the sanctu- ary of Belus, it may be observed in the first place, that the size of the building is very much smaller than that ascribed to the Belus temple ;3—secondly, that it was dedicated to Nebo, who 21 Herod, i. 180, 181. "Ibid. 1 This opinion was first put forward by Mr. Rich. Sec his First Memoir on Babylon, pp. 51-50; Second Memoir, pp. 30-34. His views were opposed by Major Rennell in an article published spoke favourably of them in his lec- tures ( Yortriige, vol. i. p. 30). Recently they have been maintained and co- piously illustrated by M. Oppert (Expe- dition scientifii/ue, torn. i. pp. 200-216). 2 So Ker Porter, vol. ii. p. 317; liee- ren, As. Xat. vol. ii. p. 174; Oppert, in in the Arcliceologia, London, 1810. They Dr. Smith's Biblical //iutiunary, vol iii. were reasserted and warmly defended by Sir R. Ker Porter in 1822 (Travels, vol. ii. pp. 310-327). Heeren adopted them in 1824, in the fourth edition of his licjtections (Ascitic Nations, vol. ii. pp. 172-175); and about 1820 Niebuhr p. 1554. a Rich, measuring the present ruins, supposed that the dimensions of the Birs would correspond sufficiently with those of the Belus temple (First Memoir, p. 49); but Sir H. Rawlinson found, on tun- 536 Chap. IV. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. noticed. The Babil mound has no appearance of stages such as the Birs presents, nor has it even a pyramidical shape. It is a huge platform with a nearly level top, and sinks, rather than rises, in the centre. What has become, it is asked, of the seven upper stages of the great Belus tower, if this ruin repre- sents it? Whither have they vanished? How is it that in crumbling down they have not left something like a heap towards the middle? To this it may be replied, that the destruction of the Belus tower has not been the mere work of the elements—it was violently broken down either by Xerxes, or by some later king,10 who may have completely removed all the upper stages. Again, it has served as a quarry to the hunters after brinks for more than twenty centuries ;11 so that it is only surprising that it still retains so much of its original shape. Further, when Alexander entered Babylon more than 2000 years ago, 10,000 men were employed for several weeks in clearing away the rubbish and laying bare the foundations of the building.12 It is quite possible that a conical mass of crumbled brick may have been removed from the top of the mound at this time. The difficulty remains that the Babil mound is on the same side of the Euphrates with the ruins of the Great Palace, whereas Herodotus makes the two buildings balance each other, one on the right and the other on the left bank of the stream. Now here it is in the first place to be observed that Herodotus is the only writer who does this. No other ancient author tells us anything of the relative situation of the two buildings. We have thus nothing to explain but the bald statement of a single writer—a writer no doubt of great authority, but still one not wholly infallible. We might say, then, that Herodotus probably made a mistake — that his memory failed him in this instance, or that he mistook his 10 Arrian says by Xerxes (tovtov rbv vt&v e.tp£r)s KartGKatytv, 1. s. c). So Strabo (xvi. 1, § 5) But Herodotus Beems to have found the building intact; and his visit must have fallen in the reign of Artaxerxes. Xerxes plundered the temple (Herod, i. 183j, and may there- fore in after times have been thought to have destroyed it, though the destruc- tion was by a later king. "Rich, First Menioir, p. 81; Layarti, Xincveh and Ba)>ylon, p. 506; Loftus. Chaldaa and Susiatta, p. 18. ° Strab. Ls.c. Compare Arrian. Lie. 538 Chap. IV. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Or, possibly, their true site is the modern El Homeira, the remarkable red mound which lies east of the Kasr at the distance of about 800 yards, and attains an elevation of sixty- five feet. Though tins building is not situated upon the banks of the Euphrates, where Strabo and Diodorus place the gardens,1 it abuts upon a long low valley into which the Euphrates water seems formerly to have been introduced, and which may therefore have been given the name of the river. This identi- fication is, however, it must be allowed, very doubtful. The two lines of mounds which enclose the long low valley above mentioned are probably the remains of an embankment which here confined the waters of a great reservoir. Nebu- chadnezzar relates that he constructed a large reservoir, which he calls the Yapur-Shapu, in Babylon,3 and led water into it by means of an "eastern canal"—the Shebil. The SJtebS canal, it is probable, left the Euphrates at some point between Babil and the Kasr, and ran across with a course nearly from west to east to the top of the Yapur-Sluipu. This reservoir seems to have been a long and somewhat narrow parallelogram, running nearly from north to south, which shut in the great palace on the east and protected it like a huge moat. Most likely it communicated with the Euphrates towards the south by a second canal, the exact line of which cannot be deter- mined. Thus the palatial residence of the Babylonian kiugs looked in both directions upon broad sheets of water, an agreeable prospect in so hot a climate; while, at the same time, by the assignment of a double channel to the Euphrates, its floods were the more readily controlled, and the city was preserved from those terrible inundations, which in modern times have often threatened the existence of Baghdad.4 The other lines of mound upon the east side of the river may either be Parthian works,6 or (possibly) they may be the remains of some of those lofty walls6 whereby according to * Strab. xvi. 1, § 5; Diod. Sic. ii. 10, 4 SeeLoftus, Chaldcra and fusiann p. 7. § 1. 5 This is the opinion of Sir H. R*v- 3 See the translation of the Standard linson. Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, which is • So M. Oppert (EspfJition scimti- given in the Appendix, Jiote A. Mw^ torn. i. p. 195). ClIAP. IV. ANCIENT BABYLON. 540 Chap. IV. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Piodorus the greater palace was surrounded and defended.1 The fragments of them which remain are so placed that if the lines were produced they would include all the principal ruins on the left bank except the Babil tower. They may therefore be the old defences of the Eastern palace; though, if so, it is strange that they run in lines which are neither straight nor parallel to those of the buildings enclosed by them. The irregularity of these ramparts is certainly a very strong argu- ment in favour of their having been the work of a people considerably more barbarous and ignorant than the Baby- lonians. : Diod. Sic. ii. 8, §§ 5 and 6. Our. V. THE BIRS-I-NIMRUD. 545 Birs-i-fiimrud, near Babylon. thirty feet from the other. The third stage, which was im- posed in the same way upon the second, was also twenty-six feet high, and was a square of 188 feet. Thus far the plan had been uniform and without any variety; but at this point an alteration took place. The height of the fourth stage, instead of being twenty-six, was only fifteen feet.6 In other respects however the old numbers were maintained; the fourth stage was diminished equally with the others, and was conse- quently a square of 146 feet. It was eniplaced upon the stage below it exactly as the former stages had been. The remaining ■ It will be found hereafter that this fourth stage was that of the Sun, and that it was probably covered with thin plates of gold. This would give a reason VOL. II. for the diminution of height at this point, since thereby would be effected a saving of more than two-fifths of the gold. * 2 N Chap. V. THE BIRS TEMPLE RESTORED. 5 5° THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. V. existing ruin is prolonged in an irregular manner; and it is imagined that this prolongation marks the site of a vestibule or propylanrm, originally distinct from the tower, but now, through the crumbling down of both buildings, confused with its ruins. As no scientific examination has been made of this part of the mound, the above supposition can only be regarded as a con- jecture. Possibly the excrescence does not so much mark a vestibule as a second shrine, like that which is said to have existed at the foot of the Belus Tower at Babylon.* Till, how- ever, additional researches have been made, it is in vain to think of restoring the plan or elevation of this part of the temple.' From the temples of the Babylonians we may now pass to their palaces—constructions inferior in height and grandeur, but covering a greater space, involving a larger amount of labour, and admitting of more architectural variety. Unfortu- nately the palaces have suffered from the ravages of time even more than the temples, and in considering their plan and cha- racter we obtain little help from the existing remains. Still, something may be learnt of them from this source, and where it fails we may perhaps be allowed to eke out the scantiness of our materials by drawing from the elaborate descriptions of Diodorus such points as have probability in their favour. The Babylonian palace, like the Assyrian8 and the Susianian.' stood upon a lofty mound or platform. This arrangement pro- vided at once for safety, for enjoyment, and for health. It secured a pure air, freedom from the molestation of insects, and a position only assailable at a few points.10 The ordinary shape of the palace mound appears to have been square ;11 its eleva- tion was probably not less than 50 or 60 feet.12 It was coni- 'Herod, i. 183. I "As the sides of the platform were "M. Oppert attempts this restoration ' perpendicular, the only places at which (sec his Plates, E sai de Restauration dc it could be attacked were its staircases. la tour des sept Pltinetes), but accom- "The square shape of the Kasr plishes it in a manner which is very mound is very decided. See the plan, unsatisfactory. j supra, p. 524. Assyrian platforms were 8 Supra, vol. i. pp. 278-280. in general rectangular (supra, vol. i. p. • See the author's Herodotus, vol. iii. I 280). pp. 207, 208, 2nd edition. Compare 11 It is difficult to reconcile the state- Loftus, C/tatdira mid Susiana, pp. 343-345. ( ments of different writers as to the Chap. V. BABYLONIAN PALACES. 551 posed mainly of sun-dried bricks, which however were almost certainly enclosed externally by a facing of burnt brick, and may have been further strengthened within by walls of the same material, which perhaps traversed the whole mound.13 The entire mass seems to have been carefully drained, and the collected waters were conveyed through subterranean channels to the level of the plain at the mound's base.14 The summit of the platform was no doubt paved, either with stone or burnt brick—mainly, it is probable, with the latter; since the former material was scarce, and though a certain number of stone pavement slabs have been found,15 they are too rare and scat- tered to imply anything like the general use of stone paving. Upon the platform, most likely towards its centre,16 rose the actual palace, not built (like the Assyrian palaces) of crude brick faced with a better material, but constructed wholly of the finest and hardest burnt brick laid in a mortar of extreme tenacity,1' with walls of enormous thickness,18 parallel to the sides of the mound, and meeting each other at right angles. Neither the ground plan nor the elevation of a Babylonian palace can be given; nor can even a conjectural restoration of such a building be made, since the small fragment of Nebu- chadnezzar's palace which remains has defied all attempts to reduce it to system.18 We can only say that the lines of the height of the Babylonian mounds, which have seldom been ascertained scienti- fically. Rich estimates the Amran mound at 50 or CO feet (First Memoir, p. 21); M. Oppert at 30 metres (Expedition, torn. i. p. 158), or nearly 100 feet. The exact height of the Kasr mound I do not find estimated; but Rich says that one of its ravines is "40 or 50 feet deep" (First Memoir, p. 23). I assume it therefore to be higher than the Am- ran mound; and I imagine that both attain, in places, an elevation of 80 or 90 feet. Of this height I conceive that at any rate not more than 3U feet can be assigned to the de'bris of the actual palace, and that the remainder must be the height of the mound or platform on which it stood. 11 Such wulls seem to occur wherever the internal structure of the Kasr mound is laid bare. (Rich, First Memoir, p. 24; Ker Porter, Travels, vol. ii. p. 359, 360; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 506.) H See above, p. 524. ls Oppert, Expedition scientifiquc, torn, i. p. 149. These pavement slabs were square, about 20 inches each way. w The existing remains of building are situated towards the centre of the Kasr mound. (See the plan, p. 5U4). 1T Rich, p. 25; Ker Porter, vol. ii. p. 360; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 506. The existing walls of the Kasr arc eight feet thick. (Rich, 1. s. c.) 19 Layard, Nin. and Bab. 1. s. c. "I sought in vain for some clue to the general plan of the edifice." Even M. Oppert, who is seldom stopped by a difficulty, can only venture to represent the building as a huge square covering not quite one-fourth of the mound. Chap. V. THE HANGING GARDEN. 553 were built similarly; but no ancient author tells us that this was so. The fact that the walls which exist, though of con- siderable height, show no traces of windows, would seem to imply that the lighting, as in Assyria,86 was from the top of the apartment, either from the ceiling, or from apertures in the part of the walls adjoining the ceiling. Altogether, such evidence as exists favours the notion that the Babylonian palace, in its character and general arrangements, resembled the Assyrian, with only the two differences, that the Babylonian was wholly constructed of burnt brick, while in the Assyrian the sun-dried material was employed to a large extent; and, further, that in Babylonia the decoration of the walls was made, not by slabs of alabaster, which did not exist in the country, but mainly— almost entirely—by coloured representations upon the brick- work. Among the adjuncts of the principal palace at Babylon was the remarkable construction known to the Greeks and Romans as "■ the Hanging Garden." The accounts which Diodorous, Strabo, and Q. Curtius give of this structure1 are not perhaps altogether trustworthy: still, it is probable that they are in the main at least founded on fact.2 We may safely believe that a lofty structure was raised at Babylon on several tiers of arches,3 which supported at the top a mass of earth, wherein grew, not merely flowers and shrubs, but trees of a considerable size. The Assyrians had been in the habit of erecting structures of a some- what similar kind, artificial elevations to support a growth of trees and shrubs; but they were content to place their garden at the summit of a single row of pillars or arches,4 and thus to give it a very moderate height. At Babylon, the object was ** See above, vol. i. pp. 304-307. I lonians to have been unacquainted with 27 The frieze above given (p. 552) is i the arch, and therefore supposes, instead the only fragment of stone ornament of arches, piers roofed in with long that has been found. I blocks of stone (Traccls, vol. ii. p. 363). 1 Diod. Sic. ii. 10, §§ 2-6; Strab. xvi. But Sir H. Rawlinson found the internal 1, § 5; Q. Curt. v. I. chamber in the Birs covered in with a * Strabo and Curtius both clearly de- vaulted roof (Journal of As. Society, vol. scribe the "Hanging Garden" (rbv xviii. p. 11); and arches have been KptfitHrrbv Kfproy) as still existing in | found even in the early Chaldasan build- their time. Curtius expressly declares, ings. (See above, vol. i. p. 82.) —" Usee moles inviolata durat." • 4 Supra, vol. i. pp. 310, 585. 3 Ker Porter imagines the Baby- 554 Chw. V. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. i to produce an artificial imitation of a mountain.5 For this purpose several tiers of arches were necessary; and these appear to have been constructed in the manner of a Eoman amphitheatre, one directly over another, so that the outer wall formed 1'rom summit to base a single perpendicular line.6 Of the height of the structure various accounts are given,7 while no writer reports the number of the tiers of arches. Hence there are no sufficient data for a reconstruction of the edifice.8 Of the walls and bridge of Babylon, and of the ordinary houses ^ of the people, little more is knowh than has been already reported in the general description of the capital.9 It does not appear that they possessed any very great architectural merit. ^ / \ Some skill was shown in constructing the piers / \ % °^ bridge, which presented an angle to the current and then a curved line, along which the water slid gently.10 The loftiness of the houses, which were of three or four stories,11 is cer- tainly surprising, since Oriental houses have very rarely more than two stories. Their con- struction, however, seems to have been rude; and the pillars especially—posts of palm, sur- rounded with wisps of rushes, and then plastered and painted" —indicate a low condition of taste and a poor and coarse style of domestic architecture. The material used by the Babylonians in their constructions seems to have been almost entirely brick. Like the early Chaldajans,13 they employed bricks of two kinds, both the ruder "Berosus, Fr. 14; Diod. Sic. L s. c.; Q. Curt. L s. c. * Thia is, I think, the moaning of Diodorus, when he says that the appear- ance was that of a theatre. ("Eoti 5' d irapdZtiaos .... ray oiKoiofiias SA- Aas 4£ a A Acx'C ^Xuvi S Chap. V. THE FOUETH MONARCHY. The single figure of a king, which we possess6 is clumsy and ungraceful. It is chiefly remarkable for the ela- borate ornamentation of the head-dress and the robes, which have a finish equal to that of the best Assyrian specimens. The general proportions are not bad; but the form is stiff, and the drawing of the right hand is pe- culiarly faulty, since it would be scarcely pos- sible to hold arrows in the manner represented.7 The engraved animal forms have a certain amount of merit The figure of a dog sitting, which is common on the "black stones,"8 is drawn with spirit; and a bird, sometimes regarded as a cock, but more re- sembling a bustard, is touched with a delicate hand, and may be pro- Figure of a Babylonian king, probably Merodach- nOUHCed Superior to any iddin-akin. Assyrian representation 6 This figure is engraved on a large black stone brought from Babylon, and now in the British Museum. It probably represents the king Merodach-iddin-akhi, who warred with Tiglath-Pilcser I. about B.C. 1120. (See above, pp. 77, 78.) 7 The artist has somewhat improved the drawing of this hand in the wood- cut. In the origina more is seen of the fingers; and the thumb does not touch the arrows. 'The dog probably represents a con- stellation or a star—perhaps theDog-star. The type is a fixed one, and occurs on seals and gems no less than on the " black stones." (See Ker Porter, vol. ii. pL 80, fig. 2; Lajard, Culte da ifithra, pi. xlvi. figs. 23 and 24; pi. liv. B, fig. 15.) S62 Chap. V. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. nondescript animals do the same with their jaws. The entire drawing of this design seems to he intentionally rude. The faces of the main figuresare evidently intended to be ridiculous; and the heads of the two animals are extrava- gantly grotesque. On another cylinder12 three nondescript ani- mals play the prin- cipal part, One of them is on the point of taking into his mouth the head of a man who vainly tries to escape by flight, Another, with the head of a pike, tries to devour the third, which has the head of a bird and the body of a goat. This kind intention seems to be disputed by a naked man with a long beard, who seizes the fish-headed monster with his right hand, and at the same time Grotesque figures of men and animals (from a cylinder), administers from be- hind a severe kick with his right foot. The heads of the three main monsters, the tail and trousers of the principal one, and the whole of the small figure in front of the flying man, are exceedingly Animal forms (from the cylinders). 12 Lajard. pi. xiii. No. 5. 564 Chap. V. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Tlie artistic merit of these works can only be conjectured. The admiration of the Jews, or even that of Diodonis,3 who must be viewed here as the echo of Ctesias, is no sure test; for the Jews were a people very devoid of true artistic appreciation; and Ctesias was bent on exaggerating the wonders of foreign countries to the Greeks. The fact of the excellence of Assyrian art at a somewhat earlier date lends however support to the view that the wall-painting of the Babylonians had some real artistic excellence. We can scarcely suppose that there was any very material difference, in respect of taste and aesthetic power, between the two cognate nations, or that the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar fell very greatly short of the Assyrians under Asshur-bani-pal. It is evident that the same subjects— war-scenes and hunting-scenes4—approved themselves to both people; and it is likely that their treatment was not very different. Even in the matter of colour the contrast was not sharp nor strong; for the Assyrians partially coloured their bas- reliefs.5 The tints chiefly employed by the Babylonians in their coloured representations were white, blue, yellow, brown, and black.6 The blue was of different shades, sometimes bright and deep, sometimes exceedingly pale. The yellow was somewhat dull, resembling our yellow ochre. The brown was this same hue darkened. In comparatively rare instances the Babylonians made use of a red, which they probably obtained with some diffi- culty. Objects were coloured, as nearly as possible, according to their natural tints—water a light blue, ground yellow, the shafts of spears black, lions a tawny brown, &c.7 No attempt was made to shade the figures or the landscape, much less to produce any general effect by means of chiaroscuro; but the artist trusted for his effect to a careful delineation of forms, and a judicious arrangement of simple hues. Considerable metallurgic knowledge and skill were shown in * Diod. Sic. ii. 8, § 6. Zwo irairo- ii. 8, § 7. Sairo

i/p7)Ta. Diod. Sic. ii. 9, § 5 • Supra, p. 548. 'Nebuchadnezzar states frequently that the walls of his buildings arc "clothed with silver." • Herod, i. 179; Diod. Sic. ii. 8. § 7. * They are said to have been opened by a machine. (Diod. Sic. 1. s. c.) 10 Like those made by Herod the Great for the Temple (Joseph. Bell. ./ml. v. 5, § 3), which required 20 men to close them (ibid. vi. 5, § 3). We have no certain representations of Babylonian town-gates; but those drawn by the Assyrians are always solid. "This gate and gateway are repre- sented upon a cylinder figured by Iji- jard. (C't/.'fe de Mithra, pi. xli. fig. 5.) Chap. V. SCIENCE — ASTRONOMY. 571 It is probable that they were sometimes embroidered with delicate patterns, such as those which may be seeu on the gar- ments of the early Babylonian king (figured page 5G0). Besides woollen and cotton fabrics, the Babylonians also manufactured a good deal of linen cloth, the principal seat of the manufacture being Borsippa.28 This material was pro- duced, it is probable, chiefly for home consumption, long linen robes being generally worn by the people.29 From the arts of the Babylonians we may now pass to their science—an obscure subject, but one which possesses more than common interest. If the classical writers were correct in their belief that Chaldrea was the birthplace of Astronomy, and that their own astronomical science was derived mainly from this quarter,1 it must be well worth enquiry what the amount of knowledge was which the Babylonians attained on the subject, and what were the means whereby they made their dis- coveries. On the broad flat plains of Chaldsea, where the entire celestial hemisphere is continually visible to every eye,2 and the clear transparent atmosphere shows night after night the heavens gemmed with countless stars, each shining with a brilliancy unknown in our moist northern climes, the attention of man was naturally turned earlier than elsewhere to these luminous bodies, and attempts were made to grasp, and reduce to scientific form, the array of facts which nature presented to the eye in a confused and tangled mass. It required no very ** Strab. xvi. 1, § 7. I cracy of the later Greeks, which in his *• Herod, i. 195. own mind seems to have rested on a 1 See Plat. Epinom. p. 987; Ilipparch. conviction that the lively intelligent ap. Procl. in Tim. p. 71, ed. Schneider; I Greeks could not have been so indebted Phoenix Coloph. ap. A then, lieipn. xii. as they said they were to '■ the obtuse, p. 530. E; Diod. Sic. ii. 31 ; Cic. De iJic. uninventivc, and immovable intellect of i. 1; Plin. If. N. vi. 26; Manil. i. 40- i Orientals." (Astronomy of t/ic Ancients, 45; &c. The late Sir Cornewall Lewis I pp. 2H0, 291.) questioned the truth of this belief, and 2 Compare Cic. Be Die. 1. s. c. "Prin- asserted that "the later Greeks appear cipio Assyrii, ut ab ultiinis auctoritatem to have been wanting in that national repetarn, propter plamtiem maymtudi- spirit which leads modern historians of ntw/fK? reykmum qwis incolektnt, cum science to contend for the claims of their calum ab omni parte patens atquc own countrymen to inventions and dis- apertum intuerentur, trn;ectiones mo- coveries." But he failed to adduce any tusque stellarum observitaverunt.' sufficient proof of this strange idiosyn- 572 Chap. V. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. long course of observation to acquaint men with a truth, which at first sight none would have suspected—namely, that the luminous points whereof the sky was full were of two kinds, some always maintaining the same position relatively to one another, while others were constantly changing their places, and as it were wandering about the sky. It is certain that the Babylonians at a very early date3 distinguished from the fixed stars those remarkable five, which, from their wandering pro- pensities, the Greeks called the "planets," and which are the only erratic stars that the naked eye, or that even the tele- scope, except at a very high power, can discern. With these five they were soon led to class the Moon, which was easily observed to be a wandering luminary, changing her place among the fixed stars with remarkable rapidity. Ultimately, it came to be perceived that the Sun too rose and set at different parte of the year in the neighbourhood of different constella- tions, and that consequently the great luminary was itself also a wanderer, having a path in the sky which it was possible, by means of careful observation, to mark out. But to do this, to mark out with accuracy the courses of the Sun and Moon among the fixed stars, it was necessary, or at least convenient, to arrange the stare themselves into groups. Thus, too, and thus only, was it possible to give form and order to the chaotic confusion, in which the stars seem at first sight to lie, owing to the irregularity of their intervals, the difference in their magnitude, and their apparent countlessness. The most uneducated eye, when raised to the starry heavens on a clear night, fixes here and there upon groups of stars: in the north, Cassiopeia, the Great Bear, the Pleiades—below the Equator, the Southern Cross—must at all times have impressed those who beheld them with a certain sense of unity. Thus the idea of a "constellation" is formed; and this once done, the mind naturally progresses in the same direction, and little by little * The cosmogony of the Babylonians, The planetary character of the five gods, as described by Berosus, has the air of Nin, Merodach, Nergal, lshtar, and a very high antiquity about it. In this ' Nebo, belongs even to Proto-Chaldwn document the "five planets" are dis- times. (See above, vol. i. pp. 131-1;. tinctly mentioned. (Bcros. Fr. 1, § 6.) I Chav. V. ASTRONOMY. 573 the whole sky 4 is mapped out into certain portions or districts to which names are given—names taken from some resemhlance, real or fancied, between the shapes of the several groups and objects familiar to the early observers. This branch of practical astronomy is termed "uranography " by moderns; its utility is very considerable; thus and thus only can we particularise the individual stars of which we wish to speak;5 thus and thus only can we retain in our memory6 the general arrangement of the stars and their positions relatively to each other. There is reason to believe that in the early Babylonian astronomy the subject of uranography occupied a prominent place. The Chaldamn astronomers not only seized on and named those natural groups which force themselves upon the eye, but artificially arranged the whole heavens into a certain number of constellations or asterisms. The very system of uranography which maintains itself to the present day on our celestial glohes and maps, and which is still acknowledged— albeit under protest7—in the nomencla- ture of scientific astronomers, came in all probability from this source, reaching us from the Arabians, who took it from the Greeks, who derived it from the Baby- lonians. The Zodiacal constellations, at any rate, Or those through which the Top of conical stone, bearing , i. ,i , i i j figures of constellations. sun s course lies, would seem to nave had 6 this origin; and many of them may be distinctly recognised on 'Excepting certain insignificant por- tions which intervene between one con- stellation and another. The stars in these portions arc called "unformed stars" s The letters of the Greek alphabet are assigned to the several stars in each constellation; a to the largest, $ to the next largest, and so on. Thus astro- nomers speak of "# Virginia," ''7 Pis- cium," '* 5 Lyra?," and thereby indicate to each other distinctly the particular star about which they have something to say. (See Fergusson's Astronomy, p. 332.) * Sir John Herschel observes that a proper system of constellations is valu- able "as an artificial memory." (Out- lines of Astronomy, p. 181, note.) T Astronomers are said at the present dayT to "treat lightly or altogether to disregard" the outlines of men and monsters which figure on our celestial globes; and the actual arrangement is said to cause confusion and incon- venience. (Herschel, 1. s. c.) But the terminology is still used, and a Lconis, /3 Scorpii, 8cc, remain the sole expres- sions by which the particular stars can be designated. 574 Chap. V. THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Babylonian monuments which are plainly of a stellar character.5 The accompanying representation, taken from a conical black stone in the British Museum, and belonging to the twelfth ?ntury before our era, is not perhaps, strictly speaking, a ce Babylonian Zodiac (?) zodiac, but it is almost certainly an arrangement of constella- tions according to the forms assigned them in Babylonian urano- graphy. The Ram, the Bull, the Scorpion, the Serpent, the Dog, * The stellar character of such monu- ments as that engraved above is suffi- ciently indicated by the central group, where the male and female sun and the crescent moon are clearly represented. Chap. V. THE ZODIACAL CONSTELLATION'S. 575 the Arrow, the Eagle or Vulture, may all be detected on the stone in question, as may similar forms variously arranged on other similar monuments. The Babylonians called the Zodiacal constellations the "Houses of the Sun," and distinguished from tliem another set of asterisms, which they denominated the "Houses of the Moon." As the Sun and Moon both move through the sky in nearly the same plane, the path of the Moon merely crossing and recrossing that of the Sun, but never diverging from it further than a few degrees, it would seem that these " Houses of the Moon," or lunar asterisms,9 must have been a division of the Zodiacal stars different from that employed with respect to the sun, either in the number of the "Houses," or in the point of separation between "House " and "House." The Babylonians observed and calculated eclipses; but their power of calculation does not seem to have been based on scientific knowledge, nor to have necessarily implied sound views as to the nature of eclipses or as to the size, distance, and real motions of the heavenly bodies. The knowledge which they possessed was empirical. Their habits of observation led them to discover the period of 223 lunations or 18 years 10 days,10 after which eclipses—especially those of the moon— recur again in the same order. Their acquaintance with this cycle would enable them to predict lunar eclipses with accuracy for many ages, and solar eclipses without much inaccuracy for the next cycle or two. That the Babylonians carefully noted and recorded eclipses is witnessed by Ptolemy,1 who had access to a continuous series of such observations reaching back from his own time to B.C. 747. Five of these—all eclipses of the moon—were described by Hipparchus2 from Babylonian sources, and are found to answer all the requirements of modern science. They belong to the years B.C. 721, 720, 621, and 523. One of them, that of B.C. 721, was total at Babylon. The others were partial, • The "Houses of the Moon," or di- I 10 Geminus, § 15. The exact period visions of the lunar Zodiac, are said 1 is 18 years, 10 days, 7 hours, and 4M to have been known also both to the j minutes. 1 Mtjn. Synt'ix. iii. G. Chinese and the Indians. , * lb. iv. 5, 8; v. 14. Chap. V. ASTRONOMICAL ACHIEVEMENTS. 577 from the truth with respect to the relative distance from the earth of the sun, moon, and planets. Adopting, as was natural, a geo- centric system, they decided that the Moon occupied the position nearest to the earth;13 that beyond the Moon was Mercury, beyond Mercury Venus, beyond Venus Mars, beyond Mars Jupiter, and beyond Jupiter, in the remotest position of all, Saturn." This arrangement was probably based upon a know- ledge, more or less exact, of the periodic times which the several bodies occupy in their (real or apparent) revolutions. From the difference in the times the Babylonians assumed a corresponding difference in the size of the orbits, and consequently a greater or less distance from the common centre. Thus far the astronomical achievements of the Babylonians rest upon the express testimony of ancient writers—a testimony confirmed in many respects by the monuments already de- ciphered. It is suspected that, when the astronomical tablets which exist by hundreds in the British Museum come to be thoroughly understood, it will be found that the acquaintance of the Chaldaean sages with astronomical phenomena, if not also with astronomical laws, went considerably beyond the point at which we should place it npon the testimony of the Greek and Boman writers.15 There is said to be distinct evidence that they observed the four satellites of Jupiter, and strong reason to believe that they were acquainted likewise with the seven satel- lites of Saturn. Moreover, the general laws of the movements of the heavenly bodies seem to have been so far known to them that they could state by anticipation the position of the various planets throughout the year. In order to attain the astronomical knowledge which they seem to have possessed, the Babylonians must undoubtedly have employed a certain number of instruments. The invention of sun-dials, as already observed,16 is distinctly assigned to them. "Diod. Sic. ii. 31, § 5. 14 The arrangement of the great temple at Borsippa already described, is a sufficient proof of the statement in the text. 15 The astronomical tablets discovered in Mesopotamia have now for some time VOL. II. occupied the attention of Sir H. Rawlin- son. It is to be hoped that he will give to the world, before many months are past, the results of his studies. They cannot fail to be highly interesting. 18 Supra, p. 576. 2 P S78 THE FOURTH MONARCHY. Chap. V. Besides these contrivances for measuring time during the day, it is almost certain that they must have possessed means of mea- suring time during the night The clepsydra, or water-clock which was in common use among the Greeks as early as the fifth century before our era,17 was probably introduced into Greece from the East, and is likely to have been a Babylonian inven- tion. The astrolabe, an instrument for measuring the altitude of stars above the horizon, which was known to Ptolemy, may also reasonably be assigned to them. It has generally been assumed that they were wholly ignorant of the telescope.18 But if the satellites of Saturn are really mentioned, as it is thought that they are, upon some of the tablets, it will follow—strange as it may seem to us—that the Babylonians possessed optical instruments of the nature of telescopes, since it is impossible, even in the clear and vapourless sky of Chaldaea, to discern the faint moons of that distant planet without lenses. A lens, it must be remembered, with a fair magnifying power, has been discovered among the Mesopotamian ruins.19 A people ingenious enough to discover the magnifying-glass would be naturally led on to the invention of its opposite. When once lenses of the two contrary kinds existed, the elements of a telescope were in being. We could not assume from these data that the discovery was made; but, if it shall ultimately be substantiated that bodies invisible to the naked eye were observed by the Babylonians, we need feel no difficulty in ascribing to them the possession of some telescopic instrument. The astronomical zeal of the Babylonians was in general, it must be confessed, no simple and pure love of an abstract science. A school of pure astronomers existed among them;1 but the bulk of those who engaged in the study undoubtedly pursued it in the belief that the heavenly bodies had a mysterious influence, not only upon the seasons, but upon the lives and actions of men—an influence which it was possible to discover 17 See Aristoph. Acharn. 653; Vesp. 93, 827. "Sir G. C. Lewis went so fsr as to deny to the Babylonians, in general terms, the use of any instruments what- soever. (Astronomy of the Ancients, pp. 277, 278.) 19 See above, vol. i. p. 390. 1 Strab. xvi. 1, § 6. Chap. V. CHALDEE ASTROLOGY. 579 and to foretell by prolonged and careful observation. The ancient writers, Biblical and other,2 state this fact in the strongest way; and the extant astronomical remains distinctly confirm it. The great majority of the tablets are of an astrological character, recording the supposed influence of the heavenly bodies, singly, in conjunction, or in opposition, upon all sublunary affairs, from the fate of empires to the washing of hands or the paring of nails. The modern prophetical almanack is the legitimate descendant and the sufficient representative of the ancient Chal- dee Ephemeris, which was just as silly, just as pretentious, and just as worthless. The Chaldee astrology was, primarily and mainly, geneth- lialogical.3 It enquired under what aspect of the heavens persons were born, or conceived,4 and, from the position of the celestial bodies at one or other of these moments, it professed to deduce the whole life and fortunes of the individual. According to Diodorns,5 it was believed that a particular star or constel- lation presided over the birth of each person, and thencefor- ward exercised over his life a special malign or benignant influence. But his lot depended, not on this star alone, but on the entire aspect of the heavens at a certain moment. To cast tbe horoscope was to reproduce this aspect, and then to read by means of it the individual's future. Chaldee astrology was not, however, limited to genethlialogy. The Chaldaeans professed to predict from the stars such things as the changes of the weather, high winds and storms, great heats, the appearance of comets, eclipses, earthquakes, and the like.6 They published lists of lucky and unlucky days, and • See Diod. Sic. ii. 30, § 2; 31, § 1; Cic. De Din. i. 1; ii. 42; Clitarch. ap. Diog. Laert. Proem. § 6; Theophrast. ap. Procl. Comment, in Plat. Tim. p. 285, F.; and compare Isaiah xlvii. 13; Dan. ii. 2; &c. 'Strab. L s. c.; Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. v. 27; Vitruv. ix. 4 j Cic. Be Da. ii. 42; &c. in reference to that point of time. (See Letronne, Observations sur un Zodiaque e~gyptien, p. 84, note '2.) 1 Diod. Sic. ii. 31, § 1. Compare Sext Emp. 1. s. c.: Censorin. § 8; Hor. Od. ii. 17, 17-22; Juv. Sat. xiv. 248. « Diod. Sic. ii. 30, § 5. Uori piy yap irytv/xdruv fitytfrn S-nhovv avrolis (1. e. Toi;t Airrt'paj), iroTi Si tjl&pwr ft * Many of the ancient astrologers re- Kaufidray fonp0o\ds, ftrri Si 8re KOfirj- garded the moment of conception as the ray itrrtpuy iirtTo\ds, tn Si fi\lou rf true natal hour, and cast the horoscope Kal ot\A iis iicKttytis, koI