test LW-"
 
 From Stereograph, copyright 71,0; ty L 'ndtrtvood & Under-wood 
 
 THE SIXTY-FIVE-FOOT PORTRAIT STATUES OF RAMESES II BEFORE ROCK HEWN 
 TEMPLE OF IPSAMBUL (ABU-SIMBEL), EGYPT
 
 LIBRARY of UNIVERSAL HISTORY 
 
 AND 
 
 POPULAR SCIENCE 
 
 A RECORD OF THE- HUMAN RACE FROM THE 
 
 EARLIEST HISTORICAL PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME; 
 
 EMBRACING A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF MANKIND 
 
 IN NATIONAL AND SOCIAL LIFE, CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 
 
 RELIGION, LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART 
 
 Complete in Twenty-jive Volumes 
 
 THE TEXT SUPPLEMENTED AND EMBELLISHED BY MORE THAN SEVEN HUNDRED 
 PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS AND CHARTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HUBERT HOWE B A N C R O F T 
 
 HISTORIAN 
 
 G r; (.) R ( ; E E n \v IN R i N i: s , 
 
 MANAGING r;i>IT"K 
 
 Reviewed and indorsed by Fifteen Professors in History and Educators in 
 American Universities, among whom are the following : 
 
 GEORC,!-: EMORY FELLOWS, Ph.D., 
 LL.D. 
 
 President, University of Maine 
 
 KEMP PLUMMER BATTLE, A.M., 
 LL.D. 
 
 Professor of History, University of North Carolina 
 
 AMBROSE P. WINSTON, Ph.D. 
 
 Assistant Professor of Economics, Washington Uni- 
 versity 
 
 WILLIAM R. PERKINS 
 
 Professor of History, University of Iowa 
 
 REV. GEO. M. GRANT, D.D. 
 
 lirflte Principal of Queen's University, Kingston, 
 Ontario, Canada 
 
 MOSES COIT TYLER, A.M., Ph.D. 
 
 Late Professor of American History, Cornell Uni- 
 versity 
 
 ELISIIA BENJAMIN ANDREWS, LL.D. 
 D.D. 
 
 Chancellor. University of Nebrasl a 
 
 WILLIAM TORRE Y HARRIS, Ph.D. 
 LL.D. 
 
 Formerly United States Commissioner of Educatior 
 
 JOHN HANSON THOMAS McPHER 
 SON, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of History, University of Georgia 
 
 RICHARD HEATH DABNEY. A.M. 
 Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of History, University 01 Virginia 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
 
 THE BANCROFT SOCIETY 
 
 1910
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY 
 GEORGE EDWIN RINE&
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STUDY OF HISTORY. 
 
 IN order to do justice to the claims of historical study, it can never be neces- 
 sary for us to depreciate those of any other branch of learning. Properly con- 
 sidered, there is no such thing as rivalry between different spheres of knowledge; 
 only emulation, a noble and helpful emulation. All real knowledge is good, being 
 in one way or another a source of power and happiness. The various realms of 
 things known or knowable are but co-equal and fraternal states in that vast con- 
 federation which we may call the republic of science. No single member of this 
 confederation is strong, none is sufficient, standing alone. Each is necessary to 
 all, all are necessary to each. 
 
 While, therefore, no one study may assert for itself the whole of what is valu- 
 able, every study doubtless has its own special value; and this value, as in the 
 case of a study like history, it may sometimes be worth our while to place clearly 
 before our minds, modestly, tolerantly, and for the rightful purpose of forming 
 a just idea of the particular good we ought to expect and to work for, in our pursuit 
 of it. 
 
 I. 
 
 Probably that use of the study of history which will first occur to most persons, 
 is the one suggested by the common conception of history as an enormous body 
 of facts about the past, the effort to know and retain a considerable number of 
 these facts being regarded as a fine gymnastic exercise for the faculty of memory. 
 It is, indeed, quite astonishing ho'w great a multitude of historical details dates, 
 names, and other precise items about persons, cities, nations, armies, political 
 parties, institutions, and so forth almost any person is capable of carrying in his 
 memory, if only he patiently stores and trains it in that way. Moreover, no one
 
 vi EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. 
 
 will deny that there is much convenience and delight in the possession of a memory 
 like that, a memory enriched with precise and various historical facts, all labeled, 
 and pigeon-holed, and ready for service at a moment's call. Certainly, a brilliant 
 accomplishment this for conversation; a weapon of victory for public speech; in 
 hours of loneliness and suffering, a great solace, all of which may be seen in the 
 cases of certain famous men in our country who had such a memory, as John 
 Quincy Adams, Theodore Parker, Charles Sumner, or James A. Garfield. 
 
 On the other hand, this particular use of historical study is somewhat discredited 
 among persons of mature sense, whenever it is associated with either of two prac- 
 tical mistakes, to which, indeed, young students of history are liable. One of these 
 mistakes arises from a lack of discrimination as to the relative value of different 
 historical facts; the other from the notion that the work of memorizing historical 
 facts is the principal part of historical study. It can hardly be wise to make the 
 memory serve the purpose of an old-fashioned garret in a country house, a re- 
 ceptacle for all sorts of odds and ends of property, precious and worthless. Surely, 
 such indiscriminate memorizing must be a waste of energy, and the perversion 
 of a noble faculty. What is the use of making an effort to remember what is use- 
 less ? Besides, however valuable it may be to store the memory with well-selected 
 dates and names and other historical items, this at best belongs among the lower 
 and more mechanic uses of history. 
 
 With these qualifications upon the primary claim put forward on behalf of 
 historical study, we may now pass on to consider some claims which point to mental 
 and even spiritual discipline of a far higher and more complex kind. 
 
 H. 
 
 One of these higher benefits may be described as that of training the critical 
 faculty, through the effort to test the evidence for and against particular historical 
 facts, or what are alleged to be such. Perhaps the very hardest thing to get at in 
 this world is the truth, the very truth, especially the very truth concerning the past 
 transactions of the human race. From this point of view, it is plain that the study 
 of history is something more than the passive reading of certain finished and fas- 
 cinating books, like Livy, for instance, or Gibbon, or Thiers, or Macaulay, or 
 Prescott, or Parkman; it is indeed, the resolute and attentive application of the 
 whole mind to an immense and complicated subject, a process which cannot be 
 carried on very long without our running up against questions of disputed fact. To 
 deal with these questions in a manner to satisfy a truth-loving mind, it will be 
 necessary for us to look keenly into problems of conflicting testimony, of personal
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. vif 
 
 character, of the validity of documents, of the meaning of words, of the right method 
 of construction. I am not now speaking of the labors of professional historians, 
 the intricacy and arduousness of which are admitted to be great, just in proportion 
 to the quality of their results. Even pupils at school, however, and college students, 
 and the members of historical clubs, and solitary readers of history, if they would 
 pursue this study in the wisest and most fruitful way, must all be, to some extent, 
 historical critics; must be alert, inquisitive, cautious, never credulous, always in- 
 tolerant of slovenly ways; and as far as possible, they must try the texts they are 
 reading by earlier texts, and especially by those nearest to the times that happen to 
 be under consideration. 
 
 Who is likely to overstate the educational value of such a method of study? 
 On the moral side, how great it must be! It is produced and is nourished by a 
 conviction of the incomparable worth and sacredness of mere truth in itself, as 
 against all baser stuff in the form of half-truth, guess work, fables, or lies, and 
 this conviction is sure to grow and to strengthen under such honest toil in its serv- 
 ice. On the purely mental side, how great must be the effect of such study, 
 since it calls forth and taxes powers so important as those of analysis and com- 
 parison, nicety of verbal sense, literary insight, logical acuteness and precision, 
 soundness of judgment, and saving common sense. 
 
 ni. 
 
 In the next place, it should not be overlooked that the mental and moral dis- 
 cipline involved in the study of history, is of a kind even broader and more complex 
 than that required for the ascertainment and verification of particular historical 
 facts. That alone, as we have just seen, is a great task, calling for fine and strong 
 powers of mind ; it is a task that can perhaps never be perfectly done by any finite 
 being; and yet, even that, when it is done as well as we can do it, is not the end of 
 historical study, but rather the beginning of it. For, after you have verified and 
 defined your facts, comes the still more subtle process of discovering their causal 
 relations, the great play of influence among human events, the interdependence 
 of events, the action and reaction and counteraction of events. Of course, to do 
 this sort of work hastily, recklessly, with that tone of easy infallibility which some 
 historical students have when passing judgment upon groups of facts in relation to 
 the past, is probably not very hard, at least for persons who can do it all; but to 
 one who realizes the worthlessness, the misleading character, of all mere assumption 
 in statements professing to be historical, and how hard it must be even approxi- 
 mately to discover the actual relations of events, it will be obvious that, aside from
 
 viii EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. 
 
 the intrinsic value of such generalizations, is the disciplinary value of the mental 
 and spiritual process of arriving at them. Certainly, to generalize wisely from 
 sound historical data, is a great exercise of the philosophic powers; it is a test and 
 a development of broad-mindedness, lucidity, and vigor in reasoning. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Another benefit from historical study will occur to us, when we [reflect that 
 such study compels one to investigate and to reason within the realm, not of the 
 exact and of the absolute, but of the approximate and the probable. 
 
 No doubt there is a peculiar educational value in the study of those sciences 
 in which the data are precise or absolute; in which the conclusions are so, like- 
 wise. History, however, deals with data of a different kind, with mixed deeds, 
 and mixed motives, and traits of character, and experiences of human beings; 
 looking back into the past, it draws some general conclusions from these data 
 and applies them to the present and the future; it aims to formulate some gen- 
 eral principles relating to the collective human life of this world, to government, 
 to the working of the social organism. But whatever history requires of its 
 student or does for him, it keeps him mostly within the sphere of the approxi- 
 mate and the probable. You cannot weigh a human motive or impulse as pre- 
 cisely as you can a chemical substance. In much of your work as an historian, 
 you have to balance one probability against another, to estimate the operation 
 of spiritual forces, to deal with the inscrutable mysteries of personal character. 
 In so many parts of your work, you are obliged to reason with caution, slowly, 
 circumspectly, not dogmatically; and to realize the limitations upon the definiteness 
 and certainty of many of your conclusions. 
 
 Well, is there any special value in such training as this? It seems to me 
 that, in a rather peculiar sense, this gives the very training required for real 
 life; since in real life we are in the sphere not of the absolute, but of the rela- 
 tive, and we have to deal with the very problems which the historian has to deal 
 with, human character, human feelings and motives, probabilities, and other 
 data more or less indefinite. I would say no word to imply any disparagement 
 of the educational value of mathematics, for example. It has its value, unri- 
 valed in its kind; but he who should apply the methods of mathematical reason- 
 ing to the questions which come up between man and man in real life, would 
 often make most absurd mistakes and go far astray Historical study, on the 
 other hand, is a study of human nature on a broad field, and for all ages; it is 
 exactly the sort of training which helps us to know persons and affairs in real
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. ix 
 
 life, the great types of human character, the limited worth of testimony, the play 
 of passion in interfering with reasonable and prudent conduct, the probable con- 
 sequences of any particular set of outward conditions. History is the great teacher 
 of human nature by means of object lessons drawn from the whole recorded life of 
 human nature. 
 
 V. 
 
 This brings us naturally to the fifth benefit to be got from historical study, 
 the cultivation of fair-mindedness as a habit, and the suppression of intellectual 
 partisanship with respect to all subjects whatsoever. 
 
 No one can pursue this study in the right way, or with any real success, who 
 does not learn to acquire the mental attitude, not of an attorney standing for 
 one side of the question, but of a judge standing for what is true on both sides. 
 The historical spirit is the judicial spirit. However vast may be his learning, 
 however splendid his style, whoever writes history in a partisan fashion, spoils 
 to that extent the genuineness and value of his work, as any one may observe by 
 the brilliant examples of Macaulay and Froude. 
 
 We must not, we cannot, tolerate in history, what we art obliged to tolerate 
 in contemporary comment. Such comment is almost inevitably colored by con- 
 temporary passion, is biased this way and that through contemporary prejudice, 
 through the stormy likes and dislikes that are irrepressible among men actually 
 engaged in the conflicts of their own time, and having great personal interests 
 at stake. But when it comes to history, we demand something different. History 
 is the comment made afterward, when the fight is over and ended and the com- 
 batants are cold in their graves; and the duty of history is to hear all sides and all 
 persons, to weigh all pleas, to sift all testimonies, to be fair to all. If, with re- 
 gard to living controversies, this attitude of fairness between opposite persons 
 and opinions is almost impossible to attain, it is by no means easy of attainment 
 even with regard to dead controversies; it is, for every topic in history, one of 
 the last and choicest results of spiritual discipline. 
 
 I do not know any other study more likely than the study of history, to help 
 us to acquire intellectual poise, justice in thought and word, freedom from the 
 warp of undue sympathy or antipathy, the judicial habit. And this, after all, 
 is a quality of great influence and esteem in this world, overriden, as it is, with 
 partisanship of all sorts, and yet conscious that there is a mental attitude nobler 
 and wiser.
 
 x liDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. 
 
 VI. 
 
 For the sixth benefit to be got from historical study, I would call attention to 
 its incomparable use in enlarging one's mental horizon. 
 
 He who doe? not know history must have a very limited mental horizon a 
 horizon as wide only as the time during which he has lived. The whole vast 
 realm of the past is to him as if it never had been; he knows only what has been 
 done and enjoyed and suffered by the human family since he arrived here. Even 
 in the case of the oldest man, what is that by comparison with all the years, decades, 
 centuries, epochs, which have rolled over this planet before the sound of his foot- 
 step was heard upon it, and which have been crowded with stupendous transactions 
 that he is totally ignorant of except by some sort of hearsay, by broken fragments 
 of knowledge picked up from casual tradition? 
 
 The man who knows only the time immediately around him, is in a mental 
 condition somewhat like that of the man who knows only the place immediately 
 around him the man who has never traveled, who knows nothing of other 
 neighborhoods and other peoples. Such a man must have a very false notion 
 of himself and others; his mind can hardly fail to be full of local prejudice 
 and conceit; he lacks the necessary standards by which to estimate his own size 
 and quality and that of the men and things around him. Such a man is neces- 
 sarily provincial, parochial; his intellect is the intellect of a villager. So, the 
 man who knows but little of human time, except what has elapsed since his own 
 birth, is provincial-minded with respect to vast tracts of human experience; his 
 mental horizon is necessarily limited to the petty circle of time which surrounds 
 his own life in the world. To such a man history comes with its power to en- 
 large his own horizon by annexing to it the horizons of all the generations 
 before him. History is for tune, what travel is for space; it is an intellectual 
 journey across oceans and continents of duration, and of ages both remote from 
 our own and vitalized and enriched by stupendous events. There is an old 
 aphorism to the effect that, " ignorance of what has been done in the world before 
 he came into it, leaves a man always a child." This, perhaps, is but a far-away 
 echo of the saying of the Chinese moralist, Lao-Tse: "Man is an infant born at 
 midnight, who, when he sees the sun rise, thinks that yesterday has never existed." 
 To him who has not studiously opened those books which tell of the world's yester- 
 day, it is as though the world had never had a yesterday as though the world had 
 begun only when he began. 
 
 There have been many attempts to define the essential difference between man 
 and the other animals known to us here. What is to be thought of this definition ?
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. xi 
 
 Man is the history-knowing animal the only animal that can know the past. 
 Therefore, our conscious and cultivated relation to the past, through historical 
 study, develops in us as human beings that very attribute which distinguishes 
 us from those animals that are called the brutes. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Perhaps the most impressive consideration touching the benefit to be derived 
 from historical study is the one which still remains to be mentioned: history 
 enables each generation of men to profit, if they will, by the experience of their 
 predecessors, especially to avoid their costliest and most painful mistakes. 
 Without history, the only complete record of human experiences, nearly all the 
 practical wisdom of mankind, gained through innumerable blunders and mishaps, 
 would be lost, and the same blunders and the same mishaps would have to be re- 
 peated and to be suffered over and over again on the part of successive generations 
 ignorant of what had happened before. A nation emerging from savagism, 
 until it has a written record makes little advancement. 
 
 Let us suppose that the human family should now agree that history is an 
 undesirable branch of knowledge; that it should no longer be cultivated or 
 taught; that all the books of history which have been written, from Herodotus 
 down to Ranke and Stubbs and George Bancroft, should be burned up, and that 
 no more should be written; that even the documentary sources of history should 
 be destroyed. What would be the effect of this gigantic piece of Vandalism? 
 Of course, before many years, the men who now know something of the past 
 would be dead, and would have left no successors to their knowledge; and, grad- 
 ually, nearly all remembrance of former times and of the men and the deeds and 
 the sufferings of former times, of their mistakes and triumphs and failures, would 
 be blotted out. Nearly all the lessons taught by the experience of the human 
 family would be forgotten. Consequently, to a large extent, progress would 
 cease; each generation, knowing but little of what men had learned before them- 
 selves, would have to begin nearly all experiments over again; and each generation 
 would be liable to keep on repeating the errors of its predecessors, treading over 
 again the same round of blundering attempts and disastrous failures. Life itself, 
 or what is called civilization, would still be a laborious march, but it would be a 
 march in a treadmill, wherein the feet seem to move, and steps seem to be taken, 
 but no advance is made. 
 
 Whenever one is inclined to rate very low the utility of historical study, it may 
 be well for him to recall the fact that all human progress depends on each gen-
 
 xii EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. 
 
 eration starting with the advantage of the wisdom gained and accumulated by all 
 previous experience, and that history is the temple in which the records of this 
 experience are stored. Burn down the temple, and you thereby destroy some of 
 the things that are essential to further progress. 
 
 People who do not know history, are apt to be presumptuous and rash in their 
 political methods. They go on advocating errors that were exploded ages ago; 
 trying political or industrial or financial experiments that have been tried and 
 found futile and disastrous times without number; taking false steps which their 
 ancestors had taken before them and had found to be steps toward folly and 
 misery; making civilization itself to seem no longer a stream of onward progress, 
 but a mere whirlpool, its currents spinning with men and institutions round and 
 round in a fierce motion, until at last they all go down and together into some 
 central gulf of darkness. 
 
 One of the greatest and most inspiring teachers of history known among us 
 during the past forty years has for his book-plate this motto: "Discipulus est 
 prioris posterior dies." "To-day is the pupil of yesterday." How much would 
 To-day know if it were not the pupil of Yesterday? But it is chiefly through 
 what we call history that Yesterday is able to communicate to its pupil the wis- 
 dom which it has hoarded. Moreover, it is because To-day learns wisdom from 
 Yesterday that it is able to teach wisdom to To-morrow; and it is, also, by the 
 same means. There are some people who have so intense an interest in the imme- 
 diate and tangible facts of life, that they are accustomed to sneer at the past, 
 calling it the dead past. After all, however, the past is not dead, except to persons 
 who are ignorant of it, or who are themselves dead in their own thinking con- 
 cerning it. Through the power of history the past does not die; it is gifted with 
 a perpetual life, and it reaches forward with a strong and helpful hand into the 
 times that now are and are to be. 
 
 I remember that once a student, in a thesis which he was reading, used a pretty 
 figure about history. "History," said he, "is only a stern light on the ship in 
 which we are making life's voyage." I asked him to consider whether he was 
 quite right in describing history as "only a stern light." Of course, even a stern 
 light is something, but it is not all that our life-ship needs. How about a bow 
 light, also, a light that may throw some gleam across the waters into which we 
 are advancing? So even though it might hurt the neatness of the image, we 
 should probably improve its accuracy, by saying, that history is not only a stern 
 light, but a bow light as well: it flashes its rays far back over those rough waters 
 through which our ship has been ploughing, and it throws at least some illumination 
 forward upon the deeps of time toward which we are about to sail.
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. xiii 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, it may fairly be said, that by withdrawing now and 
 then from the present, and by making tours of studious observation into the 
 past, we greatly enlarge our knowledge and our capacity for knowledge; we teach 
 ourselves toleration, and even sympathy, for types of person and society, for 
 opinions and for courses of action, quite unlike our own; we become more truly 
 catholic and cosmopolitan; we become more modest, too, by realizing that mighty 
 persons and mighty peoples have lived in this world and left it ages before we came 
 into it; we learn to understand better our own place in the general movement of 
 time and events, and how to adjust ourselves to both for the greater service, for 
 the more perfect happiness, of ourselves and others. 
 
 If, indeed, this be a just account of the matter, perhaps we shall not deem it 
 an extravagance to say, as was lately said by a sober-minded English critic, that 
 "history is the central study among human studies, capable of illuminating and 
 enriching all the rest." 
 
 IX. 
 
 I should be sorry to come to the end of this discussion without a word as to 
 the importance of arranging for the study of history upon a wise plan, that is, 
 upon a generous and a comprehensive plan. Perhaps in no other study are 
 pettiness and provincialism more incongruous than in this study. Not even 
 patriotism is a sufficient justification for limiting our historical readings to our 
 own country. We Americans have a right to be glad and proud over the strong 
 enthusiasm for the nation which now fills every part of it. One manifestation 
 of this robust patriotic ardor is to be seen in the extraordinary interest now felt 
 among us in American history. Never before has American history been so much 
 written, or so well written; never before has it been so eagerly studied. This is 
 well. History, like charity, should begin at home; but neither charity nor his- 
 tory should end there. Our present danger is of so magnifying the importance 
 of the history of our own country as to forget the importance of attending to 
 that of other countries also. The present popularity of American history is really 
 a thing of recent growth. I can well remember when it was difficult to convince 
 
 Americans that American history was not only important but fascinating, even 
 
 by comparison with the history of modern Europe, or of ancient and mediteval 
 times. Apparently, this truth has been at last so well learned by us, that another 
 truth is now liable to be forgotten, namely the intellectual harm of a too exclusive 
 study of American history. Our own country deserves our best thoughts, our 
 highest and holiest enthusiasm. But to study our own history unduly, and to the 
 exclusion of that of other times and nations, is to dwarf the mind, promote pro- 
 vincialism and breed ignorance. To the average Frenchman, the history of France
 
 xiv EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. 
 
 stands for a history of all the world. What happens or has happened outside of 
 France is of too little importance. So the Spaniard, and much so the Englishman 
 and the American. The egotism of ignorance is the result; the remedy, a general 
 knowledge of all times and places with that special attention to our own people 
 which a proper love of country incites. Even American history cannot be properly 
 learned, if learned altogether apart from other history. "Without clear notions 
 of general history," said Edward Freeman, "the history of particular countries 
 can never be rightly understood." To no other country, perhaps, is this remark 
 more applicable than it is to our own. Why our ancestors came to America, and 
 how, and what ideas they brought with them, and what sorts of people they were, 
 and what they did here, and how they fared in the land, and how they were in- 
 terfered with and helped or hindered by the peoples of western Europe from among 
 whom they had come, and how at last they threw off such interference, and how 
 they have got on since then with themselves and with the rest of the world, and 
 how they stand to-day as regards all these matters, are, indeed, the great topics 
 of what we call American history, but they are likewise topics of European history 
 as well. We commonly think of American history as beginning with the year 
 1492. These four centuries of American history cannot be truly known by any 
 one who does not also know something, really considerable, of the histories of 
 Spain, France, Holland, and England, during the same time. 
 
 If, however, we cannot understand American history without knowing modern 
 European history, neither can we know modern European history without a fair 
 knowledge of the history of Europe during the Middle Ages and in the ancient 
 times. But how shall we know the history of mediaeval and of ancient Europe, 
 unless we become acquainted with the remoter races from whom these earliest 
 Europeans were derived, and the countries from which they came, and the ideas 
 they brought with them thence, and their subsequent relations therewith ? 
 
 Thus, we reach the broad principle that, as there is a certain unity in the life 
 of the human family, so there is a certain unity in its history also; that no nation 
 has ever lived without an original kinship with other nations, without more or 
 less contact with other nations, without having its destinies interfered with and 
 influenced by other nations. Consequently, no part of history can be truly known 
 without knowing something of all parts. The ideal of the historical student 
 should be to know the life of his own country as a constituent part of the general 
 life of mankind. Thus, the study of American history must be preceded or at 
 least accompanied by the study of Universal History.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REVISED EDITION
 
 This " Library of Universal History " the last and greatest of the author's 
 series of works on the world's history first appeared in 1890, and was the result 
 of years of labor on the part of the author, who produced this work himself 
 wholly without assistance; and it is, therefore, entirely the author's own work, 
 he having had no assistants or colaborers in its preparation. In other words, 
 it is the author's life work. 
 
 This being a newly revised, enlarged and improved edition of the " Library 
 of Universal History " the work of revision being done wholly by the author 
 himself a few prefatory remarks by him may not be out of place in this con- 
 nection. Circumstances and events made necessary a complete revision and 
 remaking of the plates of the entire work, with many new and improved features, 
 among which is the analytical side index found on every page throughout the 
 work, which serves the purpose of a full and complete table of contents. 
 
 Other important features of improvement are the smaller-sized pages and the 
 single-measure pages instead of the original double columns, and the plan of 
 having every page of the text a full and solid page of reading matter, while 
 all the illustrations are also full page. The valuable historical maps many of 
 which were made from the author's own drawings are retained in this revised 
 work. 
 
 The new archaeological discoveries in the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valleys 
 are noted in their proper places in the sections on the histories of Egypt and 
 Chaldaea. The recent events in every part of the world are given their due 
 prominence the events embracing the closing years of the nineteenth and the 
 opening years of the twentieth century. 
 
 New historical matter has been inserted in the various portions of the entire 
 work, and every effort has been made to make it a work fully abreast of the 
 times. 
 
 The author has also made a new and improved arrangement of the entire book, 
 
 which will now consist of fifteen superb volumes of no less than five thousand 
 
 xvii
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 pages. The subjects of the work have been thoroughly rearranged in new divi- 
 sions under the system of chapters and sections, so as to make the plan of the 
 book more logical than in the previous editions. On the whole, the chapters are 
 more numerous and smaller than in the former editions, so as to make the work 
 more logical and convenient in its topical arrangement. With slight variations, 
 )the old chronological order of subjects has been retained in the revised work, and 
 the synchronistic plan of the book, instead of the ethnic plan, is also preserved, 
 as this is generally recognized as the better method of presenting the world's his- 
 tory to the general reading public, either as a work for general reading or for 
 reference, because this plan avoids the frequent repetition necessary in a work 
 on the world's history based on the ethnic plan, and because the contemporary 
 history of all branches of the human race can thus be held up to the view of the 
 general reader or the special student. 
 
 As to the educational value of Universal History there can be no dissenting 
 opinion. This fact has been recognized in all ages. A few quotations from 
 eminent men of various epochs may not be out of place in this connection : 
 
 " Not to know what happened before we were born is to remain always a child, 
 for what were the life of man did we not combine present events with the recol- 
 lections of past ages." CICEEO. 
 
 " Universal History makes a man a citizen of all nations, a contemporary of all 
 ages." HERSCHELL. 
 
 " Without clear notions of Universal History, the history of particular coun- 
 tries can never be rightly understood." FREEMAN. 
 
 " History gratifies the curiosity of the reader about the past, modifies his views 
 of the present, and his forecast of the future." SEELEY. 
 
 " History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and 
 wrong." FEOUDE. 
 
 " It is because to-day learns wisdom from yesterday that it is able to teach 
 wisdom to to-morrow." TYLER. 
 
 Lancaster, Pa., June 11,
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY. 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE STUDY OF HISTORY. ... v 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE xv 
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 CHAPTER I. ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 SECTION I. The Ancient Nile Valley 37 
 
 SECTION II. Sources of Egyptian History 40 
 
 SECTION III. Old and Middle Empires in Egypt 43 
 
 SECTION IV. The New Empire in Egypt 50 
 
 SECTION V. Egyptian Civilization 65 
 
 SECTION VI. Egyptian Religion and Mythology 92 
 
 SECTION VII. Ancient Ethiopia 107 
 
 CHAPTER II. CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 SECTION I. The Ancient Tigris-Euphrates Valley 113 
 
 SECTION II. Sources of Chaldee-Assyro-Babylonian History 122 
 
 SECTION III. Chaldaean, or Early Babylonian Empire 125 
 
 SECTION IV. Chaldaean Civilization 133 
 
 SECTION V. The Old Assyrian Empire 141 
 
 SECTIQN VI. New, or Lower Assyrian Empire 172 
 
 SECTION VII. Assyrian Civilization 218 
 
 SECTION VIII. The Later Babylonian Empire 243 
 
 SECTION IX. Babylonian Civilization 259 
 
 SECTION X. Chaldee-Assyro-Babylonian Cosmogony and Religion . . . 286 
 
 fac
 
 xx CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 SECTION I. Phoenicia and Its People 325 
 
 SECTION II. Tyre and Sidon 32g 
 
 SECTION III. Phoenician Commerce and Colonies 330 
 
 SECTION IV. Phoenician Arts and Civilization 333 
 
 SECTION V. Phoenician Religion 336 
 
 SECTION VI. Ancient Syria Damascus . . . . . .^. . . ,
 
 *^*&-rzz**z<*
 
 MAP OF THE 
 
 ANCIENT HISTORICAL WORLD 
 
 SHOWING THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS < 
 
 By I. S. Clare 
 SCALE OF MILES. 
 
 Aryan, or Indo European Nations Colored Red
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HISTOKY is a record of events which have occurred among mankind ; 
 embracing an account of the rise and fall of nations, and other great 
 mutations which have affected the political and social condition of the 
 human race. In a more limited sense, History is a record of the prog- 
 ress of mankind in civilization ; and, therefore, deals especially with 
 those nations which have performed great achievements and exerted a 
 commanding influence upon the fortunes of the human race. The 
 History of Civilization is that department of History which treats of 
 the progress of different nations in the arts, sciences, literature and 
 social culture. The Philosophy of History treats of the events of the 
 past in connection with their causes and consequences, and deduces 
 from them certain principles, which may serve as a guide to statesmen 
 in conducting the affairs of nations. Thus, History has been called 
 "philosophy teaching by example;" and, as a celebrated writer has 
 observed: "Social advancement is as completely under the control of 
 natural law as is bodily growth. The life of an individual is a minia- 
 ture of the life of a nation." Sacred History is that which is con- 
 tained in the sacred scriptures, as distinguished from Profane History, 
 as recorded in other books. Ecclesiastical History is the History of 
 the Christian Church ; while Civil or Political History deals with the 
 rise, progress and fall of nations. 
 
 Chronology is that department of History which treats of the pre- 
 cise time or date of each event with respect to some fixed time called 
 an era or epoch. Chronology and Geography have been called "the 
 two eyes of History." The one tells when, the other where, events 
 have occurred. Christian nations compute time from the birth of 
 Christ ; while Mohammedan nations reckon from the Hegira, or Mo- 
 hammed's flight from Mecca, which event occurred in the year 622 of 
 the Christian era. The Ancient Greeks dated from the first Olympiad, 
 776 years before the Christian era ; the Ancient Romans from the 
 founding of Rome, 753 years before the Christian era; and the An- 
 cient Babylonians from the Era of Nabonassar, 747 years before the 
 Christian era. No dates can be established with certainty for events 
 in Ancient History of any period more than five centuries before 
 
 Christ. 
 
 91 
 
 History 
 Defined. 
 
 History of 
 Civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Philos- 
 ophy of 
 History. 
 
 Sacred 
 
 and 
 
 Profane 
 History. 
 
 Ecclesi- 
 astical 
 and Civil 
 History. 
 
 Chronol- 
 ogy.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ethnol- 
 ogy, 
 
 Archaeol- 
 ogy, Phil- 
 ology, 
 Anthro- 
 pology. 
 
 Ancient, 
 Mediaeval 
 
 and 
 Modern 
 History. 
 
 Sources of 
 History. 
 
 Pre- 
 historic 
 Races. 
 
 Parian 
 Marble. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Canon. 
 
 Canon of 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 Concerning the human race outside of nations, there is much im- 
 portant and interesting knowledge furnished by different sciences. 
 Among these sciences, as aids to History proper, are Ethnology, or 
 the science of the various races or types of mankind; Archaeology, or 
 the science of the ancient works of man; Philology, or the science of 
 language; and Anthropology, or the science which deals with man in 
 natural history. 
 
 History is generally divided into three great epochs Ancient His- 
 tory, Mediaeval History and Modern History. Ancient History be- 
 gins with the first appearance of historic records, and ends with the 
 fall of the Western Roman Empire, A. D. 476. Mediaeval History, 
 or the History of the Middle Ages, extends from the fall of Rome, 
 A. D. 476, to the Discovery of America, A. D. 1492. Modern His- 
 tory embraces the period from the Discovery of America to the pres- 
 ent time. Sometimes, however, the world's history is divided into only 
 two great periods Ancient and Modern; Ancient History embracing 
 the whole period before the fall of Rome, A. D. 476, and Modern 
 History comprising the entire period since that event. This double 
 division is perhaps the more logical of the two, as ancient civilization 
 passed away with the extinction of the Western Roman Empire, while 
 modern nations and modern institutions took their rise from that point. 
 The triple division, however, is the more convenient, and for that 
 reason we shall follow it in this work. 
 
 The three sources of History are written records, architectural 
 monuments and fragmentary remains. Several races of men have dis- 
 appeared from the globe, leaving no records inscribed upon stone or 
 parchment. The existence and character of these people can only be 
 inferred from fragments of their weapons, ornaments and household 
 utensils, found in their tombs or among the ruins of their habitations. 
 Among these races were the Lake-dwellers of Switzerland; the pre- 
 historic inhabitants of the Age of Stone and the Age of Bronze of 
 the British Isles ; the builders of the shell-mounds of Denmark and 
 India, and the Mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 The discovery of monuments of great antiquity has aided vastly in 
 ascertaining the date of ancient events. The Parian Marble, brought 
 to England from Smyrna by the Earl of Arundel, contains a chrono- 
 logical arrangement of important events in Grecian history from the 
 earliest period to 355 B. C. The Assyrian Canon, discovered by Sir 
 Henry Rawlinson, the great English antiquarian, consists of a num- 
 ber of clay tablets, constructed during the reign of Sardanapalus, and 
 containing a complete plan of Assyrian chronology, verified by the 
 record of a solar eclipse which must have occurred June 15, 763 B. C. 
 The Canon of Ptolemy, a Babylonian record having important bear-
 
 CELTIC ORNAMENTS OF THE AGES OF BRONZE AND IRON
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ing upon Assyrian dates, is another trustworthy ancient document, 
 giving important dates in Babylonian and Assyrian history. The 
 Fasti Capitolini, discovered at Rome, partly in 1547 and partly in 
 1817 and 1818, contains in fragmentary records a list of Roman 
 magistrates and triumphs from the beginning of the Roman Republic 
 to the close of the reign of Augustus. The Rosetta Stone, discovered 
 by a French military engineer during Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt 
 in 1798, contains inscriptions in the Greek and Egyptian languages, 
 the deciphering of which has led to the discovery of a key to the 
 meaning of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the Egyptian monuments. 
 The fragmentary writings of Sanchoniathon give us some light on 
 Phoenician history ; those of Berosus on Babylonia and Assyria ; Mane- 
 tho's lists of the thirty dynasties of Egyptian kings afford us valuable 
 information; and the works of Herodotus, the "Father of History," 
 have given us a graphic account of the ancient nations their annals, 
 manners and customs, as well as a geographical description of the 
 countries which they inhabited. 
 
 The imposing temples and palaces of Egypt, Assyria and India 
 have only afforded historic materials since the diligent research of 
 European scholars and antiquarians has succeeded in deciphering the 
 inscriptions which they bore. Within the present generation the dis- 
 coveries of these European orientalists have added wonderfully to our 
 knowledge of primeval ages, and explained in a remarkable manner 
 the brief allusions of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus within the last 
 century the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the deciphering of the 
 Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the labors of those learned French Egyp- 
 tologists, Champollion and Mariette, have given us a flood of new light 
 upon ancient Egyptian times; while the exhumations and discoveries 
 of those celebrated English archaeologists and antiquarians, Layard 
 and Rawlinson, in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, have almost recast the 
 history of Assyria, Chaldaea and Babylonia; and the patient explora- 
 tions and exhumations of that German savant, Dr. Schliemann, upon 
 the site of ancient Troy, between the years 1869 and 1873, have been 
 rewarded with the discovery of many interesting architectural remains 
 and furnished new illustrations of the "tale of Troy divine." 
 
 In more recent times very many new archaeological discoveries have 
 been made in the Tigris-Euphrates region and in the Nile valley by 
 English, French, German and American antiquarians. Thus during 
 the last three decades of the nineteenth century many important facts 
 bearing upon Chaldaean and Assyrian cosmogony and the early history 
 of mankind were brought to light by the deciphering of inscriptions 
 upon Chaldaean and Assyrian tablets by those celebrated English 
 Assyriologists, Sayce and George Smith. The last years of the nine- 
 
 Fasti 
 Capi- 
 tolini. 
 
 Rosetta 
 Stone. 
 
 Sancho- 
 niathon, 
 
 Berosus, 
 Manetho, 
 
 Herod- 
 otus. 
 
 Re- 
 searches 
 of Euro- 
 pean Ori- 
 entalists. 
 
 Cham- 
 pollion 
 and 
 
 Mariette. 
 
 Layard 
 and Raw- 
 linson. 
 
 Dr. 
 
 Schlie- 
 mann. 
 
 Recent 
 Archaeo- 
 logical 
 Dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 Sayce and 
 George 
 Smith.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Petrie. 
 
 Hil- 
 precht. 
 
 Hebrew 
 Scrip- 
 tares. 
 
 Writ- 
 ings of 
 Berosus 
 
 The An- 
 cient His- 
 torians. 
 
 Grecian 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 Roman 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 OldTesta- 
 ment and 
 Josephus. 
 
 Church 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 teenth century and the first years of the twentieth were marked by 
 many important archaeological discoveries in Egypt, bearing upon the 
 antiquity of that renowned land, the most important being those of 
 the celebrated English Egyptologist, Professor William Flinders 
 Petrie, among the ruins of Abydos. The last years of the nineteenth 
 century and the first years of the twentieth were also signalized by 
 the wonderful archaeological discoveries on the site of the ancient Baby- 
 lonian city of Nipur, by the distinguished German American oriental- 
 ist, Dr. Herman Vollrath Hilprecht, in charge of the four Babylonian 
 exploring expeditions under the auspices of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The oldest remaining books are the Hebrew Scriptures, which, in the 
 Mosaic cosmogony, describe the origin of the universe and the creation 
 of the first pair, Adam and Eve, and their fall from a state of inno- 
 cence and purity ; the murder of their son Abel by his brother Cain ; 
 the genealogy of the patriarchs of the antediluvian period ; the destruc- 
 tion, by a great Deluge, of the whole human race, except Noah and 
 his wife and his three sons and their wives, and their salvation in the 
 Ark, which rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia ; the vain attempt 
 of Noah's descendants to avert a similar punishment by building the 
 great Tower of Babel, and the consequent Confusion of Tongues and 
 the Dispersion of the human race, which led to the peopling of every 
 quarter of the globe by the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham 
 and Japheth. The writings of Berosus, the Babylonian historian, also 
 describe the Creation, the Deluge and the Confusion of Tongues. 
 Every civilized nation and savage tribe has some vague idea of a 
 great flood that once covered the earth, but they all differ in their 
 details. 
 
 We have already alluded to the writings of Sanchoniathon, the 
 Phoenician historian; Berosus, the Babylonian; Manetho, the Egyp- 
 tian; Herodotus, the "Father of History," and the great Hebrew 
 lawgiver, Moses, the earliest sacred historian. Herodotus was the first 
 of Grecian historians. Other Greek writers of history were Thucyd- 
 ides, the great philosophic historian ; Xenophon, the writer of charm- 
 ing historical romances ; Ctesias ; Diodorus Siculus ; Polybius ; and 
 Plutarch, the charming biographer of antiquity. Ancient Rome pro- 
 duced Livy, Tacitus, Sallust and Cornelius Nepos, who have given us 
 the facts of Roman history. For the history of the ancient Hebrews 
 we are indebted to the books of the Old Testament and the works of 
 Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who wrote a complete his- 
 tory of his countrymen in Greek. Among early Christian church his- 
 torians were the Roman Eusebius and the Anglo Saxon, the "Venerable 
 Bede." The Frenchmen Comines and Froissart were celebrated chron-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 iclers of the Middle Ages. The Italian Machiavelli achieved fame 
 by his historical writings. Among modern historians have been many 
 who have acquired celebrity by their works. Such were the great trio 
 of British historians who lived in the eighteenth century Hume, Gib- 
 bon and Robertson whose works have ever since been regarded as 
 standards. In the nineteenth century England also produced many 
 famous writers of history; such as Macaulay, Carlyle, Grote, Thirl- 
 wall, Froude, Lingard, Arnold, Alison, Freeman, Rawlinson, Green, 
 Knight, Merivale, Milman, Hallam and others. France, in the eigh- 
 teenth century, had her Rollin and Voltaire ; and in the nineteenth 
 century she produced Thiers, Guizot, Sismondi, Mignet, Michelet and 
 the brothers Thierry. In the eighteenth century Germany had a great 
 ecclesiastical historian in the person of Mosheim ; and in the nineteenth 
 century a host of German historians gave to the world the benefit 
 of their scholarly researches, among whom we may mention Niebiihr, 
 Neander, Rotteck, Heeren, Schlosser, Mommsen, Curtius and Leopold 
 von Ranke. Among American historians the most renowned have been 
 Hildreth, Prescott, Bancroft, Motley, Lossing and Parkman. 
 
 All traditions and written accounts point to Asia as the cradle of 
 the human race. According to the prevalent belief of modern schol- 
 ars, mankind spent its infancy in the region between the Indus and 
 the Euphrates, the Arabian Sea and the Jaxartes. The exact location 
 of the Garden of Eden, or Paradise, is not known. The Oriental 
 nations reckon four Paradises in Asia one near Damascus, in Syria ; 
 another in Chaldam ; a third in Persia ; and a fourth in the island of 
 Ceylon, where there is a lofty mountain called Adam's Peak. 
 
 Mankind has been classed by different ethnologists into a variety 
 of races or types of humanity; the most generally accepted classifi- 
 cation for the last century being Blumenbach's division into five races 
 the Caucasian, or white race; the Mongolian, or yellow race; the 
 Ethiopian, or black race ; the American, or red race ; and the Malay, 
 or brown race. The only race which has figured in history is the 
 Caucasian. The history of the civilized world is the history of the 
 Caucasian race. The great historical nations have belonged to this 
 The only nations outside of the Caucasian race which have 
 
 race. 
 
 Mediaeval 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 The Mod- 
 ern His- 
 torians. 
 
 British 
 
 His- 
 torians 
 
 French 
 
 His- 
 torians 
 
 German 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 American 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 Asia, the 
 Cradle of 
 theEu- 
 
 manRace. 
 
 Races of 
 Mankind. 
 
 attained to any degree of civilization or played the least part in his- 
 tory have been several Mongolian nations, as the Chinese, the Japanese, 
 the ancient Parthians, and the modern Tartars, Turks and Magyars, 
 or Hungarians, and two American Indian nations, the ancient Peru- 
 vians and the Aztecs, or ancient Mexicans. The Ethiopian and 
 Malay races have never had any history or any civilization. 
 
 The origin of nations has been involved in obscurity, which has only 
 quite recently been removed by the diligent study and the patient 
 
 The Cau- 
 casian, 
 the His- 
 torical 
 Race. 
 
 Recent 
 Philolog- 
 ical Re- 
 searches.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Branches 
 of the 
 Cauca- 
 sian Race. 
 
 The 
 Aryans in 
 
 their 
 
 Primeval 
 
 Home in 
 
 Central 
 
 Asia. 
 
 research of modern European scholars. Investigation into the affini- 
 ties of the various languages has given us some new knowledge upon 
 this interesting and important subject. Comparing the languages of 
 most of the modern European nations with those spoken by the ancient 
 Romans, Greeks, Medes, Persians and Hindoos we observe that all 
 these languages had a common origin, entirely different from those 
 of the ancient Chaldees, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, 
 Arabs and Egyptians; these latter being related to each other, but 
 not to those of the nations previously named. The former of these 
 languages are called Aryan, the latter Semitic and Hamitic; while the 
 Central Asian Tartar nomads have a language called Turanian. 
 
 Because of these affinities of language, modern philologists have 
 divided the Caucasian race into three great branches the Aryan, 
 Indo-European, or Japhetic ; the Semitic, or Shemitic ; and the Hami- 
 tic. The Aryan, or Indo-European, branch embraces the Brahmanic 
 Hindoos, the ancient Medes and Persians, and all the European na- 
 tions, except the Laps and Fins of Northern Europe; the Magyars, 
 or Hungarians, the Ottoman Turks, and the Basques of Northern 
 Spain, all five of whom belong to the Turanian, or nomadic branch of 
 the Mongolian race. The descendants of Europeans and European 
 colonists in America and other quarters of the globe, of course, also 
 belong to the Aryan race. The Semitic branch comprises the He- 
 brews, or Israelites, the Arabs, and the ancient Syrians, Assyrians, 
 Babylonians, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. The Hamitic branch 
 included the ancient Chaldees, Egyptians and Ethiopians. The Aryan 
 branch is called Japhetic, because it has been supposed to be descended 
 from Japheth; while the Semitic branch is regarded as the posterity 
 of Shem, and the Hamitic branch as the children of Ham. 
 
 The name Aryan means tiller of the soil; wherein this race has dif- 
 fered from the Turanian, or nomadic races of Central Asia. The 
 ancestors of the Indo-European nations, the primitive Aryans in pre- 
 historic ages, occupied that region of Central Asia in which was located 
 the ancient city of Bactra, the modern Balk, in Turkestan. Here 
 this primeval race lived and attained to a considerable degree of civili- 
 zation; practicing agriculture and cattle-raising, and some of the 
 mechanical arts, such as weaving and sewing, metallurgy, pottery- 
 manufacture, etc. They were also somewhat skilled in architecture, 
 navigation, mathematics and astronomy. They considered marriage 
 a sacred contract; and, unlike other Asiatic peoples, they shunned 
 polygamy. Children were regarded as the light of the family circle, 
 as shown by the meaning of the names boy, bestoteer of happinest; 
 girl, she that comes rejoicing; brother, supporter; sister, friendly. 
 With regard to the Aryan, or Indo-European race it is found that
 
 INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 the names of many common objects are very much alike in all the 
 languages and dialects spoken by these people. Thus the word house 
 in Greeek is domos; in Latin domus; in Sanskrit, or ancient Hindoo, 
 dama; in Zend, or ancient Persian, demana; and from the same root 
 is derived our word domestic. The words for ploughing, grinding 
 corn, building houses, etc., are also found almost similar. This demon- 
 strates that these nations must have had a common origin, and that 
 they engaged in farming, making bread and building houses. They 
 also counted up to one hundred, and domesticated the most important 
 animals the cow, the horse, the sheep, the dog, etc. ; and were ac- 
 quainted with the most useful metals, and armed with iron hatchets. 
 The primitive Aryans were monotheists in religion and worshiped a 
 personal God. The Aryan, or agricultural races had the patriarchal 
 form of government, like the Turanian, or nomadic races of Central 
 Asia ; but the father, or head of the family, was sub j ect to a council 
 of seven elders, whose chief was king, and from whose decision there 
 was an appeal to heaven in the ordeal of fire and water. The Aryans 
 followed their leaders and kings, and fixed the distinction between right 
 and wrong by laws and customs. All these facts can be proven by 
 the evidence of language, on the authority of Max Miiller and other 
 eminent philologists. 
 
 The rapid increase of the Aryan population in its primeval home Aryan 
 led to a division of this primitive people into three branches one ^ons^n'to 
 crossing the Hindoo Koosh, overspreading the plateau of Iran and Persia, 
 laying the foundations of the great Median and Medo-Persian Em- Europe 1 
 pires ; another moving southeastward across the Indus and becoming 
 the ancestors of the Brahmanic Hindoos ; and a third migrating into 
 Europe in successive hordes, as represented by the Pelasgic, Celtic, 
 Teutonic and Slavonic nations, whose descendants now occupy the 
 greater part of Europe. These Aryan immigrants into Europe seized 
 the lands of the original Turanian inhabitants, whose descendants are 
 represented by the modern Basques of Northern Spain and the Laps 
 and Fins of Northern Russia and Scandinavia. 
 
 The Aryan immigrants into Europe occupied different portions of Aryans in 
 the continent. The Pelasgians settled in the Grecian and Italian Eur P e - 
 peninsulas of Southern Europe, and were the forefathers of the Hel- Pelas- 
 lenes, or Greeks, and the Latins, or Romans, the ancestors of the mod- g 14118 - 
 em Italians. The Celts spread over Western Europe, embracing the Celts. 
 Iberian, or Spanish peninsula, Gaul (now France and Belgium) and 
 the British Isles, and became the ancestors of the Lusitanians of ancient 
 Portugal, the Iberians and Numantians of ancient Spain, the ancient 
 Gauls and Belgae, and their respective Latinized descendants, the mod- 
 ern Portuguese, Spaniards, French and Belgians, as well as the Irish,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Teutons. 
 
 Sla- 
 vonians. 
 
 Leader- 
 ship of the 
 Aryans. 
 
 The Se- 
 mitic and 
 
 Hamitic 
 Nations. 
 
 Diversity 
 of Occu- 
 pations 
 and In- 
 dustries 
 
 the Highland Scotch, and the ancient Britons and their posterity, the 
 Welsh, the Cornish and the Bretons of Western France. The Teu- 
 tons, or Germans, occupied Central Europe and the Scandinavian 
 peninsula, and became the progenitors of the Goths and Vandals, and 
 the modern Germans, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Norman-French, 
 Dutch, or Hollanders, and the Anglo-Saxons, or English, and their 
 kindred in the British colonies and in the United States of America. 
 The Slavonians overspread the vast steppes of Eastern Europe ; and 
 their descendants are represented by the ancient Sarmatians and the 
 modern Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Servians, Bulgarians, Bosnians 
 and Croatians. 
 
 The Aryan, or Indo-European branch of the Caucasian race has 
 always played the leading part in civilization, and has been the most 
 active, enterprising and intellectual in the world's history. The Ar- 
 yans have always been peculiarly the race of progress, and have sur- 
 passed all others in the development of civil liberty, the perfection of 
 law, social advancement, and their progress in art, science, literature, 
 invention, and mode of living. The Aryans alone have originated, 
 developed and perfected constitutional, representative and republican 
 government. The present and the future belong wholly to this high- 
 est type of human development. The Semitic branch of the Caucasian 
 race has been noted for religious development, having given rise to 
 three great monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, 
 or Mohammedanism. The Hamitic branch were famous builders, and 
 their architectural structures in Chaldaea and Egypt were noted for 
 their massive grandeur. The Semitic and Hamitic nations, after at- 
 taining a certain degree of civilization, remained stationary ; and their 
 civilization has utterly perished. 
 
 After the dispersion of mankind into various quarters, men chose 
 different occupations and modes of living, according to the diversities 
 of their places of residence. The inhabitants of steppes and deserts, 
 interspersed only here and there with fertile pasture grounds, became 
 shepherds and roved from place to place, with their tents and herds, 
 thus becoming nomads, or wanderers ; and their occupation was the 
 breeding of cattle and sheep. Those who occupied favorable districts 
 on the sea-coast soon discovered the advantages of their situation, as 
 population increased and their resources developed. They accordingly 
 practiced navigation and commerce, and sought for wealth and com- 
 fort, in furtherance of which objects they erected elegant dwelling 
 houses and founded cities; whilst the inhabitants of less hospitable 
 shores subsisted by means of fisheries. The dwellers upon plains 
 adopted agriculture and the peaceful arts ; whilst the rude mountain- 
 eers gave themselves up to the chase, and, moved by a violent impulse
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for freedom, had their delight in wars and battles. By taming wild 
 cattle, man very early procured for himself domesticated animals. 
 
 Commerce was a mighty factor in the development and civilization 
 of the human race and in the intercourse among nations. Those who 
 occupied fruitful plains, or the banks of navigable rivers, carried on 
 an inland traffic. The inhabitants of the sea-shores conducted a coast- 
 ing trade. At first men exchanged, or bartered, one article for an- 
 other. At a later period they adopted the plan of fixing a certain 
 specified value upon the precious metals, and employed coined money 
 as an artificial and more convenient medium of exchange. The dwell- 
 ers in towns occupied themselves with mechanical employments and 
 inventions, and cultivated the arts and sciences for the comfort, happi- 
 ness and refinement of life and for mental culture and development. 
 
 In the course of time nations became divided into civilized and un- 
 civilized, as their intellectual development was furthered by talents and 
 commerce, or retarded and cramped by dullness and by isolation from 
 the rest of mankind. Uncivilized nations are either wild hordes, under 
 an absolute and despotic chief who wields unlimited power over his fol- 
 lowers, or wandering nomadic tribes, guided by a leader who, as father 
 of the family, exercises the functions of lawgiver, governor, judge and 
 high-priest. Neither the wild hordes, under their despotic chiefs, oc- 
 cupying the unknown regions of Africa (Negroes), the steppes and 
 lofty mountain ranges of Asia, the primeval forests of America (In- 
 dians), and the numerous islands of Oceanica (Malays), nor the 
 nomadic races with their patriarchal government, find any place in 
 history. This subject only deals with those nations who have attained 
 to some degree of civilization and have, from similarity of customs and 
 for mutual advantage, engaged in peaceful intercourse with each other, 
 and who have made considerable progress in the science of civil govern- 
 ment and the development of political institutions. 
 
 The earliest civilizations were those found in the Tigris-Euphrates 
 and Nile valleys, in the Hindoo peninsula, and in the remote empire 
 of China. The exact origin of the ancient nations and civilizations 
 is lost in the dimness of their remote antiquity. These regions were 
 richly endowed by nature with the resources necessary for sustaining 
 a dense population ; and the earliest historic empires accordingly took 
 their rise in the rich alluvial lands watered by the Tigris and the 
 Euphrates in South-western Asia and by the Nile in North-eastern 
 Africa. 
 
 Historical Asia is South-western Asia. There the Hamitic empire 
 of Chaldaea and the Semitic empires of Assyria, Babylonia, the Syrians, 
 the Hebrews and the Phoenicians played their respective parts in the 
 world's historic drama. There the Aryan race first came upon the 
 
 Com- 
 merce and 
 Human 
 Develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Civilized 
 and Un- 
 civilized 
 Nations. 
 
 TheEarli- 
 est Civil- 
 izations. 
 
 South- 
 western, 
 or Histor- 
 ical Asia.
 
 30 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Northern 
 and Cen- 
 tral, or 
 Turanian 
 Asia. 
 
 Southern 
 and East- 
 ern Asia, 
 or India, 
 China and 
 Japan. 
 
 Northern, 
 or His- 
 torical 
 Africa. 
 
 scene in the appearance of the great Median and Medo-Persian Em- 
 pires and the Grseco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and 
 his successors, followed by the Parthian, Eastern Roman and New 
 Persian Empires. There the Semitic race again prevailed in the sud- 
 den rise of Mohammed's religion and the great empire founded by his 
 successors. There the Turanian race first played a historic part in 
 the conquests by the Seljuk Turks from Tartary, the two centuries of 
 warfare between Christendom and Islam for the possession of the Holy 
 Land as represented in the Crusades, the terrible scourges of the con- 
 quering Mongol and Tartar hordes of Zingis Khan and Tamerlane, 
 and, lastly, the rise of the now-decaying Mohammedan empires of the 
 Ottoman Turks and the modern Persians. 
 
 All that part of Asia north of the Altai mountains, now known as 
 Siberia, is a comparatively barren region and was unknown in an- 
 tiquity. Central Asia, now called Tartary and Turkestan, was an- 
 ciently known as Scythia, and was then as now occupied by nomadic 
 hordes who have roamed over those extensive pastoral lands for count- 
 less ages, with their flocks and herds, having no fixed abodes or cities 
 and no other political arrangements than the patriarchal form of gov- 
 ernment. Accordingly, the Turanian races inhabiting that region 
 have played no part in history, except that the Tartar and Mongol 
 races inhabiting those vast steppes have at times overrun and conquered 
 the civilized countries of South-western and Southern Asia. 
 
 Thus, excepting Egypt and Ethiopia the two great Hamitic na- 
 tions of Africa all the ancient Oriental nations had their seat in Asia. 
 The populous empires of India, China and Japan though they con- 
 tributed their jewels, spices, perfumes and silks to the luxury of the 
 people of South-western Asia were almost unknown to the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans; and though their art and literature are vast, 
 these had no influence upon the general course of the world's progress. 
 China and Japan are two ancient empires which have continued to 
 exist to this day, the former with but little change. The nations of 
 Farther India are almost unknown to history; while Hindoostan, the 
 seat of a dense Aryan population from the earliest antiquity, and one 
 of the oldest civilizations, as attested by vast architectural remains and 
 a copious religious literature, was unknown to history until Alexander's 
 invasion, and became successively the prey of Arabian, Afghan, Tar- 
 tar, Mongol, Portuguese and British conquest. 
 
 The only historical part of Africa is Northern Africa, or that part 
 of the continent bordering on the Mediterranean sea and watered by 
 the Nile; and the only great nations of ancient Africa were Egypt, 
 Ethiopia and Carthage. All the rest of the vast continent was a dark 
 region wholly unknown to the ancient civilized nations of South-westem
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Asia and Europe ; and only within the last five centuries have Its West- 
 ern, Southern and Eastern coasts been discovered, explored, taken pos- 
 session of and colonized by Europeans ; while the interior has been but 
 partially visited by European explorers within the last hundred years, 
 and occupied by European nations only recently. 
 
 Southern Europe was the seat of the greatest two nations of antiq- 
 uity the Greeks and the Romans, the Pelasgic nations of the Aryan 
 race the former by their literature and philosophy and their political 
 freedom, and the latter by their laws and political institutions, influ- 
 encing all future European nations. The other nations of ancient 
 Europe were barbarians, many of whom were conquered and civilized 
 by the Romans. The overthrow of the Roman dominion in the fifth 
 century after Christ entirely changed the current of European history 
 by a redistribution of its population through the migrations and con- 
 quests of its vast hordes of Northern barbarians, who fourteen cen- 
 turies ago laid the foundations of the great nations of modern Europe. 
 America and Oceanica were wholly unknown to the ancient inhabitants 
 of the Old World, and have only occupied the field of history since 
 their discovery and settlement by Europeans within the last five cen- 
 turies. 
 
 History deals only with civilized man, and history proper only begins 
 with the origin of civilized nations and with the commencement of 
 historical records. Accordingly, the cradles of civilization if not 
 the cradles of the human race were the fertile alluvial Tigris-Eu- 
 phrates and Nile valleys, where, with the dawn of civilization, flourished 
 the old Chaldaean and Egyptian monarchies the most ancient of his- 
 torical states of antiquity. History begins with Egypt, the oldest of 
 historical nations. 
 
 Civilization and human progress have in the main followed the course 
 of the sun. In the East arose those great nations and cities from 
 which other lands have derived a part of their civil institutions, their 
 religion and their culture. In the East, the land of the camel, the 
 "ship of the desert," originated that caravan trade which contributed 
 so vastly to human progress. To protect themselves against the rude 
 Bedouins, the Oriental merchants traveled in large companies, often 
 armed, conveying their wares upon the backs of camels from place to 
 place. These commercial journeys gave rise to many commercial 
 cities and centers of trade, occasioned the erection of store-houses and 
 caravansaries, and led to intercourse between distant nations and to 
 an interchange of productions, religious institutions and social policy. 
 Temples and oracles of celebrity often served for markets and ware- 
 houses. 
 
 Ancient 
 Civilized 
 
 Europe, 
 
 or Greece 
 
 and 
 
 Rome. 
 
 America 
 
 and 
 Oceanica 
 
 The 
 
 Cradles ot 
 Civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Ancient 
 Oriental 
 Civiliza- 
 tion and 
 Institu- 
 tions. 
 
 Caravan 
 Trade.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Oriental 
 Religions 
 and Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Character 
 
 of the 
 Orientals. 
 
 Asia, the 
 Birth- 
 place of 
 Religions 
 and Des- 
 potism. 
 
 In the East all the great religions took their rise and gained their 
 full development, as the Orientals have always been the most contem- 
 plative on all that concerns man's relations to the Deity. In the 
 East the patriarchal and -despotic governments alone prevailed. 
 Where the systems of castes prevailed, the priests and soldiers con- 
 stituted the privileged classes, from both of which ultimately arose the 
 unlimited kingly power; and the officers of state were regarded as 
 slaves and menials, without personal rights or property. The king, 
 who was regarded with almost as much reverence as the Deity, dis- 
 posed of the lives and possessions of his subjects at will. He gave 
 and took away at his pleasure, and no one dared to appear before him 
 without prostrating his body on the ground. He lived like a god, in 
 the midst of pleasure and enjoyment, surrounded by hosts of slaves, 
 who obeyed his wishes, executed his orders and submitted themselves to 
 his pleasures ; and he was surrounded by all the wealth and possessions, 
 by all the pomp and splendor, of the world. In these Oriental gov- 
 ernments laws and human rights were nowhere ; despotism and slavery 
 prevailed ; and consequently there was no incentive to vital energy and 
 no capability of permanent civilization. For this reason all Oriental 
 states have become the easy prey of foreign conquerors, and their 
 early civilization has perished or remained stationary. 
 
 By original disposition, the Orientals are more inclined to contem- 
 plative ease and en j oyment than to active exertion ; and for this reason 
 they have never attained to freedom and spontaneous activity, but have 
 quietly submitted to their native rulers, or groaned under the yoke of 
 foreign oppressors. After reaching a certain degree of civilization 
 they submitted themselves to an unenterprising pursuit of pleasure, 
 and thus by degrees became slothful and effeminate. Their practice 
 of polygamy further promoted their effeminacy. Oriental architec- 
 ture was noted for its gigantic designs and its imposing grandeur ; but 
 it did not display the symmetry, harmony and utility characteristic 
 of the architecture of a free people. Slavery paralyzed every out- 
 ward manifestation of Oriental life. 
 
 Besides being the cradle of the human race, Asia is the birth-place 
 of the great religions and the home of absolute despotism. The two 
 great pantheistic religions Brahmanism and Buddhism ; also the great 
 monotheistic religions Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and 
 Mohammedanism arose in Asia ; while Asiatic governments to-day are 
 what they have been from time immemorial absolute monarchies, or 
 despotisms ; no republic or constitutional monarchy ever having flour- 
 ished on Asiatic soil, except the insular Empire of Japan in our own 
 time, which has recently become a constitutional monarchy, modeled
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 33 
 
 after the British government, and the little republic said to have been 
 discovered recently in Manchooria by the Russians. 
 
 Europe, on the contrary, inhabited by the progressive Aryan race, 
 has carried political institutions to the highest state of development ; 
 civil, political and religious liberty having had a steady growth. 
 Asiatic civilization has been stationary, while European civilization lias 
 been progressive. The Asiatics are passive, submissive, given to con- 
 templative ease and disinclined to active exertion. The Europeans 
 are active, energetic, vigilant and aggressive. Europe has also col- 
 onized other portions of the globe ; the greater part of the present 
 populations of North and South America being the descendants of 
 Europeans who settled in the New World, and drove away, or assim- 
 ilated with, the aborigines ; while Europeans have also settled in por- 
 tions of Africa, Asia and Oceanica. The Asiatics, on the other hand, 
 do not colonize; though in recent years large numbers of Chinese and 
 Japanese have migrated to various parts of Oceanica and America, 
 not as colonists, but settling among the people of the countries to which 
 they had migrated. 
 
 In the Prehistoric Ages that is, the ages before recorded history 
 the patriarchal form of government prevailed; each father, or head 
 of a family, governing the whole family. Since the formation of 
 nations there have been various forms of governments Autocracy, 
 despotism, or absolute monarchy, where the supreme power is vested in 
 the monarch himself, without any restraint or limitation; Limited, or 
 constitutional monarchy, where the power of the monarch is limited by 
 law or by constitutions giving the nobility, or aristocracy, and the 
 masses some share in the government; Aristocracy, or government by 
 nobles or aristocrats ; Theocracy, or government by the Church in the 
 name of the Deity ; Hierarchy, or government by priests ; Pure dem- 
 ocracy, or government by the people directly ; and Representative 
 democracy, or republicanism, or government by the people through 
 their chosen representatives. There have been several kinds of repub- 
 lics aristocratic, where the few have governed, and democratic, where 
 the masses, through their chosen representatives, are the rulers. The 
 best examples of pure democracy were the governments of ancient 
 Athens and ancient Rome, where the people themselves assembled in a 
 bodv for purposes of legislation. This form of democratic govern- 
 ment can only exist where a state consists of but a single city with its 
 surrounding territory, as in the cases of the two ancient republics just 
 cited; and is utterty impossible among a population distributed over 
 a vast extent of country. Late in the nineteenth century Switzerland 
 became practically a pure democracy by the adoption of the initiative 
 and referendum, by which the people petition for laws and vote for 
 
 VOL. 1. 3 
 
 Europe 
 and Asia 
 Com- 
 pared. 
 
 Forms of 
 Govern- 
 ment
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Savage 
 Govern- 
 ments. 
 
 Oriental 
 Despot- 
 isms and 
 Castes. 
 
 Varieties 
 
 of 
 Religion. 
 
 Monothe- 
 ism, Poly- 
 theism. 
 
 their approval or rejection. Monarchs are called by different titles, 
 as Emperor, King, Prince, Duke, Sultan, Czar, Shah or Khan, if a 
 male; and Empress, Queen, Princess, Duchess, Sultana or Czarina, if 
 a female. 
 
 The savage and barbarous tribes of Asia, Africa, America and 
 Oceanica are governed by their chiefs ; and their governments are 
 simple, as were those of all the original nations, the chiefs being vir- 
 tually absolute monarchs and their governments being despotisms. 
 Even the civilized Asiatic nations have always been despotisms, the only 
 exception being Japan in our time. It was only on the soil of Europe, 
 occupied by the progressive Aryan race, that civil liberty was born 
 and that the masses first obtained any share of political power. A 
 great hindrance to civil freedom among ancient Asiatic and African 
 nations was the system of castes, by which men were separated accord- 
 ing to their occupations and conditions, which were transmitted from 
 generation to generation without the slightest change. The priests, 
 who alone possessed a knowledge of religious customs and institutions, 
 and who bequeathed their knowledge to their descendants, comprised 
 the first caste. The soldiers constituted the second caste, and shared 
 with the priests the government of the people. The third caste were 
 the tillers of the soil, the fourth caste the artisans, and the fifth caste 
 the shepherds, who were universally despised. Any one who violated 
 the rules of caste became an outcast. The system of castes prevailed 
 in its purest state for the longest time in India and Egypt. 
 
 Man is naturally a religious being. A world-wide religious senti- 
 ment seems to prevail, but there have been many varieties or mani- 
 festations of this sentiment. Thus we have Monotheism, or the belief 
 in one God ; Polytheism, or the belief in many gods ; Pantheism, or the 
 system which regards the whole universe, with all its laws and the 
 different manifestations of nature, as the Supreme Being. Many 
 polytheistic and pantheistic nations have made idols, or images, as 
 figures or representations of their deities ; and for this reason have been 
 called idolators, pagans or heathen. The four great monotheistic re- 
 ligions of the world have been the ancient Persian religion of Zoroaster, 
 or the religion of the modern Parsees, or fire-worshipers of Western 
 India ; Judaism, or the religion of the Jews ; Christianity; and Islam, 
 or Mohammedanism. The leading polytheistic religions were those of 
 the ancient Egyptians, Chaldaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, 
 Greeks, Romans and Scandinavians. The chief pantheistic religions 
 have been the two great religions of Hindoo origin Brahmanism and 
 Buddhism. 
 
 It is believed that originally monotheism was universal, but that 
 sometime during the prehistoric ages, after the dispersion of mankind
 
 THE WORLD 
 
 JtCCOHDI KG TO 
 
 HtCAT/tUS.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 35 
 
 into various quarters, most nations fell into polytheism and idolatry. 
 Even the polytheistic religions recognize one Supreme Being, who is 
 superior to and above all the other deities ; and for this reason all 
 religions have been regarded as monotheistic to some extent. There 
 are also some polytheistic features about all monotheistic religions, as 
 the belief in the existence of angels, who, as dwelling in the celestial 
 world, are beings superior to mortals. Among ancient nations the 
 only truly monotheistic religions were those of the Hebrews and the 
 Medo-Persians the one a Semitic and the other an Aryan people. 
 
 From time immemorial, among pagan and polytheistic nations, there Idolatry 
 has prevailed the custom of making idols, or images of wood, stone, 
 metal or clay, to represent their deities ; and these have been fashioned 
 into a great variety of forms. The idol was only a visible symbol of 
 a spiritual conception or of an invisible power. Temples and altars 
 have been erected for the worship of these deities ; and sacrifices have 
 been offered to them, partly to appease their wrath, and partly to 
 obtain their favor. These sacrifices have varied in character with the 
 civilization of the people who have offered them. The ancient Greeks 
 and Romans, in their joyous festivals to their gods, socially consumed 
 the fruits of the earth and animals from the firstling of a flock to the 
 solemn sacrifice of a hecatomb (a hundred oxen). Savage tribes have 
 slaughtered human beings upon their altars, to appease by blood the 
 wrath of their offended deities. The Phoenicians and Syrians placed 
 their own children in the arms of a red-hot idol representing the god 
 Moloch. 
 
 To further delude the masses, the priests invented legends, fables and 
 myths about their gods, clothed them in poetic fancy, and thus orig- 
 inated mythology, or the science of their gods. In these legends, 
 fables and myths, the deeds of the different gods and their dealings 
 with men were described in enigmatical allusions, allegories and figura- 
 tive expressions. The nations with the greatest amount of creative 
 imagination and religious impulse possessed the richest mythology. 
 These stories of the gods incited the people to superstition; and the 
 solemn worship in the temples and sacred groves, with their mysterious 
 ceremonies and symbolical usages, maintained a feeling of veneration 
 and religious awe. To inspire in the people a feeling of the divine 
 presence, sacred places and temples were provided with oracles, from 
 which the superstitious multitude might get light into the mysteries 
 of the future, in obscure and ambiguous language. In this way and 
 by such means the priesthood swayed the masses in most countries ; and 
 thus secured power, honor and wealth for themselves. The people were 
 enslaved by ignorance, credulity, superstition and fear. 
 
 Legends, 
 Fables, 
 Myths.
 
 36 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BRANCHES OF THE CAUCASIAN, THE ONLY HISTORICAL RACE. 
 
 1. ARYAN, OR INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCH. 
 
 1. Hindoos. 
 
 2. Medes and Persians. 
 
 3. Hellenes, or Greeks. 
 
 4. Latin, or Romanic Nations. 
 
 1. Ancient Romans. 
 
 2. Italians. 
 
 3. French. 
 
 4. Spaniards and Spanish Ameri- 
 
 cans. 
 
 5. Portuguese and Brazilians. 
 
 6. Flemings, or Belgians. 
 
 7. Roumanians. 
 
 . Germanic, or Teutonic Nations. 
 
 1. Germans. 
 
 2. Danes. ~} 
 
 3. Swedes. 
 
 4. Norwegians. 
 
 5. Dutch, or Hollanders. 
 
 6. English and Anglo-Americans 
 
 (Anglo-Saxons). 
 
 7. Scotch Lowlanders. 
 
 8. Norman-French. 
 
 r Scandinavians. 
 
 6. Celtic Nations. 
 
 1. Ancient Britons, Gauls and 
 
 Spaniards. 
 
 2. Irish, Welsh, and Scotch High- 
 
 landers. 
 
 3. Bretons (West of France). 
 
 7. Slavonic Nations. 
 
 1. Russians. 
 
 2. Poles. 
 
 3. Bohemians. 
 
 4. Servians. 
 
 5. Bulgarians. 
 
 6. Bosnians. 
 
 7. Croatians. 
 II. SEMITIC BRANCH. 
 
 1. Hebrews, or Israelite*. 
 
 2. Arabs. 
 
 3. Syrians. 
 
 4. Assyrians and Later Babyloni- 
 
 ans. 
 
 5. Phoenicians and Carthaginians. 
 III. HAMITIC BRANCH. 
 
 1. Chaldees, or Early Babylonians. 
 
 2. Egyptians and Ethiopians.
 
 BaftrUtt It 
 
 ' thlopcs 
 b B*t**i ci SH"*" 
 
 ^j Dvrcedet la. 
 
 a B & 
 
 c 
 
 jl. cs ** 
 
 SoM M. 
 
 MAP OF 
 THE WORLD 
 
 According to 
 
 POMPOM IS MELA 
 
 jltouf A. 0. SO
 
 MAP OF 
 
 THE WORLD 
 
 ACCORDING TO 
 PTOLEHT 
 
 ABOUT A. D. 1.60
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 SECTION I. THE ANCIENT NILE VALLEY. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Asia was the cradle of the human race, the cradle of Egypt the 
 civilization was in the Nile valley, which, from the island of Elephan- civil. 
 tine, in the Nile, northward to the Mediterranean sea, a distance of ization. 
 five hundred and twenty-six miles, was the seat of ancient Egypt, "the 
 mother of the arts and sciences." In Egypt we first find a civil gov- 
 ernment and political institutions established ; and although Egypt may 
 not be the oldest nation, Egyptian history is the oldest history. The 
 monuments, records and literature of Egypt are far more ancient than 
 those of Chaldsea and India, the next two oldest nations. The ruins 
 and monuments of ancient civilization found in the Nile valley render 
 that country one of the most interesting on the globe. While the 
 progress of other nations from ignorance and rudeness to art and 
 civilization may be easily traced, Egypt appears in the earliest twi- 
 light of history a great, powerful and highly civilized nation ; and her 
 gigantic architectural works are the most wonderful, as well as the 
 most ancient in the world, showing a skill in the quarrying, transport- 
 ing, carving and joining of stone which modern architects may admire 
 but are unable to surpass. 
 
 From the earliest antiquity Egypt has been called "the Gift of the TheNile's 
 Nile." From time immemorial this renowned land, in the midst of overflow, 
 surrounding deserts, has been one of the most fertile regions of the 
 globe, and was in consequence the great granary of antiquity. This 
 unsurpassed fertility is attributable to the annual overflow of the Nile, 
 occasioned by the heavy rainfalls in the uplands of Abyssinia ; so that 
 this mighty stream, the only river of Egypt, in its whole course 
 through the country from south to north, by its mud deposits renews 
 yearly the soil of this narrow valley, which really constituted ancient 
 Egypt, and whose average width, from the modern city of Cairo south 
 to the First Cataract, does not exceed fifteen miles. The Nile dis- 
 charges its waters into the Mediterranean through three distinct chan- 
 
 37
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Geo- 
 graphical 
 
 Divi- 
 sions and 
 Cities. 
 
 Ancient 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 nels, which branch off from each other about ninety miles from the sea, 
 and which enclose the region called the Delta, from its resemblance in 
 form to the Greek letter of that name. The Delta has always been a 
 region of unsurpassed fertility. The spontaneous growth of the date- 
 palm furnished the people with a cheap and abundant article of food; 
 and the immense yield, with comparatively slight labor, of large crops 
 of cereals, because of the natural fertility of the soil, rendered this 
 region, from primitive times, capable of sustaining a dense population, 
 and made it the primeval seat of organized human society. 
 
 Ancient Egypt was divided into three geographical sections the 
 Thebai's, or Upper Egypt, in the south; the Heptanomis, or Middle 
 Egypt, in the centre; and the Delta, or Lower Egypt, in the north. 
 The chief city of the Thebai's was the "hundred-gated Thebes," whose 
 ruins, extending for seven miles on both banks of the Nile, astonish 
 the modern traveler, as he gazes upon the remains of magnificent tem- 
 ples, splendid palaces, colossal statues, obelisks, sphinxes, tombs hewn 
 in the solid rock, subterranean catacombs, and the gigantic statue of 
 Memnon. Karnak and Luxor are the portions of Thebes which pre- 
 sent the most stately ruins, the most imposing being the great temple 
 at the former place. The most ancient city of Upper Egypt was This, 
 afterward called Abydos. Other cities of this section were Lycopolis, 
 Latopolis, Antaeopolis and Ombos. The southernmost points of Egypt 
 were Syene and the island of Elephantine, in the Nile. The leading 
 city of the Heptanomis was Memphis, on the west side of the Nile, 
 founded by Menes, the first Egyptian king, and whose wonderful 
 ancient splendor is now attested by its ruins. In the vicinity of 
 Memphis was the famous Labyrinth, and here also are the great Pyra- 
 mids of Ghizeh the most imposing monuments ever erected by human 
 hands. Other famous cities of Middle Egypt were Heracleopolis, 
 Hermopolis and Letopolis. The Delta was, in ancient times, thickly 
 studded with cities, chief of which were Avaris, or Tanis, Sais, Bubas- 
 tis, Mendcs, Rameses, Heliopolis, Magdolon, Pelusium, Canopus and 
 Hermopolis. The famous Greek city of Alexandria, on the western 
 side of the Delta, was, in the later days of antiquity, the metropolis 
 of Egypt, and from its location it became the great commercial center 
 of the civilized world, while being also the seat of learning and civili- 
 zation. 
 
 To the south of ancient Egypt, in the region now embracing Nubia 
 and Abyssinia, was the ancient Ethiopia, whose people had also at- 
 tained a high state of civilization, as is fully proven by the existence 
 of ruins along that portion of the Nile valley similar to those of Egypt. 
 On the west of Egypt was the great Libyan Desert, now called the 
 Sahara.
 
 THE ANCIENT. NILE VALLEY. 39 
 
 The population of ancient Egypt is known to have been at least The 
 five millions, and may have been seven millions. They belonged to the E?VT^ 
 Hamitic branch of the Caucasian race, and originally came from Asia, tians. 
 being, according to the Hebrew account, the descendants of Misraim, 
 the grandson of Ham. They were a brown race, mild in their general 
 character, polished in their manners, and were by nature obedient and 
 religious. They were cleanly in their habits and food, and in conse- 
 quence were a healthy, hardy people. 
 
 The climate of the Nile valley is warm and dry. In Southern Egypt Climate, 
 the heat is excessive. In Northern Egypt several causes combine to 
 give a lower summer temperature. In the desert tracts the air is much 
 drier than in the Nile valley itself, with greater alternations of heat 
 and cold. In summer the air is suffocating, while in winter the 
 days are cool and the nights actually cold. Heavy rains and violent 
 thunder-storms are frequent at this season. At certain seasons green 
 herbage and flowers cover the torrent-beds after the water has flowed 
 into the Nile ; but the solar heat and the Khamseen, or hot desert wind, 
 wither the herbage and flowers at other seasons. 
 
 The vegetable productions of Egypt are trees, shrubs, esculent Vegetable 
 plants, grain, artificial grasses and medicinal plants. The trees are ( 
 the date-palm, the sycamore, the tamarisk, the myxa, the acanthus and 
 several kinds of acacias. Among shrubs and fruit-trees are the fig, the 
 pomegranate, the mulberry, the vine, the olive, the apricot, the peach, 
 the pear, the plum, the apple, the orange, the lemon, the banana, the 
 locust-tree, the persea, the castor-oil plant and the prickly pear. 
 These, excepting the orange, lemon, apricot and banana, are believed 
 to have all been productions of ancient, as well as of modern, Egypt. 
 The esculent plants which grew wild were the byblus, or papyrus, the 
 Nymphcea lotus and the Lotus ccerulea. The papyrus plant, which 
 was used for writing, is not now found in Egypt. The cultivated 
 vegetables are mainly the same as those of other countries. Artificial 
 grasses of ancient Egypt were clover, vetches, lupins and the gilbdn 
 of the Arabs, or the Lathyrus sat'mus of Pliny. 
 
 The wild animals indigenous in Egypt were the hippopotamus, the Animals, 
 crocodile, the lion, the hyena, the wolf, the jackal, the fox, the ich- 
 neumon, the hare, the jerboa, the rat, the mouse, the shrew-mouse, the 
 porcupine, the hedgehog, and perhaps the bear, the wild boar, the ibex, 
 the gazelle, three kinds of antelopes, the stag, the wild sheep, the 
 Monitor Niloticus, and the wild cat. The domestic animals were the 
 horse, the ass, the camel, the Indian or humped ox, the cow, the sheep, 
 the goat, the pig, the cat and the dog. 
 
 The birds of Egypt are the eagle, the falcon, the JEtolian kite, the Birds. 
 black vulture, the bearded vulture, the Vultur percnopterus, the osprey,
 
 40 
 
 Fish. 
 
 Minerals. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 the horned owl, the screech-owl, the raven, the ostrich, the ibis, the 
 pelican, the vulpanser or fox-goose, the Nile duck, the hoopoe, the sea- 
 swallow, the Eg} r ptian kingfisher, the quail, the oriental dotterell, the 
 benno, the sicsac, the swallow, the sparrow, the wagtail, the crested 
 plover, the heron and other wading birds, the common kite, the hawk, 
 the common vulture, the common owl, the white owl, the turtle-dove, 
 the missel thrush, the common kingfisher, the lark, and the finch. 
 
 There were different kinds of fish in the Nile; and various reptiles 
 were found in the country, such as turtles, iguanas, geckos or small 
 lizards, the horned snake, the asp, the chameleon, and others. The 
 most remarkable insects are the scorpion, the locust and the solpuga 
 spider. 
 
 Among minerals in Egypt are many excellent kinds of stone, such 
 as magnesian limestone, sandstone, porphyry, alabaster, granite and 
 syenite. The inexhaustible supply of stone made that gift of nature 
 the great building material of Egypt. The different kinds of stone 
 were conveyed from one end of Egypt to the other by being floated 
 on rafts along the Nile. It was easy to float down the river the gran- 
 ite and syenite of the far South of Egypt to Thebes, Memphis, and 
 the cities of the Delta. There were few metals in Egypt. Among 
 these were gold, silver, copper, iron and lead. Other mineral produc- 
 tions were natron, salt, sulphur, petroleum, chalcedonies, carnelians, 
 jaspers, green breccia, emeralds, agate, rock-crystal, serpentine, com- 
 pact feldspar, steatite, hornblende, basanite, actinolite and the sul- 
 phate of barytes. 
 
 Native 
 Myths. 
 
 Manetho. 
 
 SECTION II. SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 THE history of Egypt dates back to the most remote antiquity. 
 The early Egyptians believed that there had been a time when their 
 ancestors were savages and cannibals, dwelling in caves in those ridges 
 of sandstone which border the valley of the Nile on the east ; and that 
 their greatest benefactors were Osiris and Isis, who raised them into 
 a devout and civilized people, eating bread, drinking wine and beer, 
 and planting the olive. For this reason the worship of Osiris and 
 Isis became general throughout Egypt, while the different cities and 
 nomes had their own respective local deities. According to Manetho, 
 a native Egyptian historian of the later days of antiquity, the first 
 rulers of Egypt were gods, spirits, demigods, and manes, or human 
 souls ; which amounts to saying that the earliest history of Egypt, like 
 that of most other countries, is unknown or involved in the obscurity 
 and uncertainty of legend and fable.
 
 SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 41 
 
 The history of this great ancient people has been derived from sev- 
 eral sources the historical writings of the ancient Greek historians, 
 Herodotus and Diodorus, and the native Egyptian priest Manetho, and 
 in modern times from the deciphering of the inscriptions on the Egyp- 
 tian monuments and from the discovery of the records on rolls of 
 papyrus found in the tombs. 
 
 The ancient sources of Egyptian chronology are obscure and con- 
 flicting. The Greek historians represented the Egyptians as the first 
 race of men. When Herodotus visited Egypt, about the middle of the 
 fifth century before Christ, the native priests read to him, from rolls 
 of papyrus, the names of three hundred and forty-one kings, from 
 Menes, the founder of the monarchy, to Seti. In the great temple of 
 Thebes the priests showed Herodotus the wooden images of three hun- 
 dred and forty-five priests, who, from father to son, had held the sacer- 
 dotal office during the reigns of these kings. From these data Herod- 
 otus estimated the antiquity of Egypt to have been nearly twelve 
 thousand years, counting three hundred and forty generations from 
 Menes to Seti, with three generations to each century, and reckoning 
 a century and a half from the beginning of Seti's reign to the Per- 
 sian conquest of Egypt, B. C. 525, which latter event had occurred 
 about seventy-five years before the visit of the "Father of History" 
 to this celebrated land. According to this computation, based upon 
 the recorded traditions of the Egyptian priests, the founding of the 
 Egyptian monarchy by Menes occurred more than twelve thousand 
 five hundred years before Christ. 
 
 In the first century before Christ, Diodorus Siculus, another Greek 
 historian, also visited this renowned land, and to him the priests read 
 from their sacred books the names of four hundred and seventy kings, 
 beginning with Menes, with accounts of their appearance, stature and 
 actions. From the information he thus received, giving three genera- 
 tions to a century, Diodorus computed the founding of the kingdom 
 by Menes at nearly seventeen thousand years before his time. But 
 careful research revealed to him many errors in the traditionary rec- 
 ords, and his corrected accounts assign the founding of the Old Empire 
 by Menes at 4800 B. C. 
 
 About three centuries before Christ, the learned Greek antiquarian, 
 Eratosthenes, librarian of Alexandria, copied the names of thirty-eight 
 Theban kings from the holy books of Thebes, which list was finished 
 by Apollodorus by adding the names of fifty-three more, thus giving 
 a full list of ninety-one kings. 
 
 In the third century before Christ, an Egyptian priest, named 
 Manetho, compiled a history of his country in three volumes, giving 
 the reigns of all the kings from the founding of the monarchy by 
 
 Greek 
 Sources. 
 
 Herod- 
 otus. 
 
 Diodorus 
 Siculus. 
 
 Eratos- 
 thenes 
 
 and 
 
 Apolio- 
 dorus. 
 
 Manetho's 
 Thirty 
 Dynas- 
 ties.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Turin 
 Papyrus. 
 
 Hiero- 
 glyphics 
 
 Rosetta 
 Stone. 
 
 Menes to the first Persian conquest of Egypt, 525 B. C., through 
 twenty-six dynasties, and through four more dynasties until the final 
 Persian conquest in 346 B. C., making thirty dynasties in all. This 
 work was afterward lost, but fragments of it were transcribed by 
 Josephus, Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Syncellus, and other historians, 
 and thus handed down to future generations. According to Mane- 
 tho's calculation, the founding of the kingdom by Menes occurred in 
 the year 5706 B. C. in the Egyptian reckoning, and in the year 5702 
 B. C. of the Julian calendar. Manetho's record of the first seventeen 
 dynasties, embracing the periods of the Old Empire and the Middle 
 Empire, is very obscure, on account of facts and dates found recorded 
 in the monumental inscriptions of that long period of over twelve 
 centuries ; and it is hard to decide whether the thirty dynasties were 
 consecutive, or whether several of them were contemporaneous. This 
 fact has made it difficult to fix the exact or approximate date of the 
 establishment of the Old Empire by Menes. 
 
 A list of the names of kings was also preserved in the Turin Papy- 
 rus, recorded more than a thousand years before the Christian era. 
 Other sources of ancient Egyptian history are the allusions made to 
 that country in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 In the past century our knowledge of this famous land has been 
 immensely extended by the discovery of the art of deciphering the 
 inscriptions which this ancient people lavishly carved on their build- 
 ings and monuments, particularly their obelisks, painted on the fres- 
 coed insides of their tombs, and actually cut on nearly all objects of 
 art or use. These writings and carvings were in the character of what 
 are known as hieroglyphics, a Greek word signifying sacred carvings 
 or priestly writing. The knowledge of the reading of these inscrip- 
 tions perished with the decay of ancient Egypt, and for many centuries 
 the term "hieroglyphics" was synonymous with everything mysterious. 
 
 The unraveling of this mystery was brought about by an interest- 
 ing incident. During Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798, a 
 French engineer, while engaged in digging the foundation of a fort 
 near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, discovered a stone tablet about 
 three feet long, on which was carved an inscription in three different 
 characters. This tablet has become celebrated as the Rosetta Stone. 
 The lower of the three texts was Greek, and easily translated; the 
 upper text was in the hieroglyphic style, while the middle text was 
 in a character since styled demotic, meaning the writing of the com- 
 mon people (from demos, the people). Copies of this inscription were 
 circulated among the learned men of Europe, and after long and pa- 
 tient efforts the alphabet of the hieroglyphics was discovered; so that 
 these carved inscriptions on old Egyptian works of art and archi-
 
 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 
 
 4,3 
 
 tecture can now be easily and correctly read, thus giving an abundance 
 of new light on the history of this wonderful land of antiquity. The 
 Rosetta Stone was carved about 196 B. C., and was an ordinance of 
 the Egyptian priests decreeing honors to Ptolemy Epiphanes, one of 
 the famous Greek dynasty who governed Egypt during the first three 
 centuries before Christ, and that accounts for the existence of the 
 three texts on the tablet. The great task of deciphering these inscrip- 
 tions was chiefly the work of the noted French savant, Champollion. 
 
 On account of the obscurity and uncertainty of early Egyptian Modern 
 chronology, modern historians and Egyptologists have differed widely E <5ists 1 ~ 
 as to the antiquity of this most ancient monarchy. The French Egyp- 
 tologists, headed by M. Mariette, place the founding of the First 
 Dynasty by Menes at 5004 B. C. The German Orientalists and Egyp- 
 tologists differ, Bockh fixing the date at 5702 B. C., Dr. Brugsch at 
 4455 B. C., Lauth at 4157 B. C., Professor Lepsius at 3892 B. C., 
 Baron Bunsen at 3059 B. C., and Dr. Duncker at 3233 B. C. The 
 English Egyptologists, at the head of whom stands Sir Gardner Wil- 
 kinson, regard the year 2700 B. C. as about the approximate date; 
 and, as it is necessary to have some fixed chronological basis, we will 
 follow the English view in the present work. In the last few years 
 William Flinders Petrie, an eminent English Egyptologist, has made 
 a number of new and very wonderful discoveries in Egypt, thus bring- 
 ing to light many new facts regarding the antiquity of that renowned 
 land and the founding of the Old Empire by Menes. By deciphering 
 many inscriptions among the ruins of the ancient city of Abydos, 
 Petrie established the fact that the civilization of Egypt existed many 
 centuries before Menes, who only established a powerful monarchy by 
 uniting several hitherto separate and highly civilized kingdoms. 
 
 SECTION III. OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 
 
 THE history of ancient Egypt has been divided into three distinctive 
 periods. The Old Empire extended from the establishment of the 
 First Dynasty at Memphis by Menes, in the very earliest times, to the 
 conquest of all Egypt by the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, about 1900 
 B. C. The Middle Empire the epoch of the rule of the Hyksos over 
 the whole country embraced the period from 1900 B. C., to the expul- 
 sion of the Shepherd Kings in 1600 B. C. The New Empire lasted 
 over a thousand years, from 1600 B. C. to the Persian conquest of 
 Egypt in 525 B. C. ; since which time this famous land has not been 
 governed by a native prince. The New Empire was the most brilliant 
 period of Egyptian history, and may be subdivided into two sharply- 
 
 Three 
 
 Egypt.
 
 44 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 distinguished epochs the grand age, from 1600 B. C. to 1200 B. C. ; 
 and the age of decay, from 1200 B. C. to 525 B. C. 
 
 Nomes. Egypt was originally divided into a number of nomes or petty states, 
 independent of each other, and each having for its nucleus a temple 
 and an established priesthood. One historian mentions fifty-three 
 nomes, another thirty-six. The gradual absorption of the weaker 
 nomes by the more powerful finally resulted in the establishment of 
 this first consolidated monarchy of Africa. 
 
 Mene. The first mortal king of Misraim, the "double land," was MENES, 
 
 who, according to Manetho, founded the First Egyptian Dynasty at 
 This (afterwards Abydos), in Upper Egypt. This was the begin- 
 ning of the OL.D EMPIRE, which lasted from the earliest times to the 
 conquest of all Egypt by the Hyksos, about 1900 B. C. Menes, the 
 first Egyptian king, conquered and improved Lower Egypt, and on a 
 marshy tract which he had drained and protected by dykes against the 
 annual overflow of the Nile, he founded the great city of Memphis, 
 which, for many centuries, remained the capital of the flourishing king- 
 dom which he had established. At Memphis Menes built the temple 
 of Phthah, and there were won the first recorded triumphs of this very 
 oldest of ancient civilized nations. On the north and west sides of his 
 capital, Menes caused artificial lakes to be constructed for the defense 
 of the city, and on the south side a large dyke protected it against the 
 annual overflow of the Nile. The public treasures were established 
 in the city, the laws were revised and the civil administration improved. 
 After a reign of sixty-two years, Menes is said to have perished in a 
 struggle with a hippopotamus, and was deified by his admiring coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 Ateta. Menes was succeeded by his son ATETA called Athothis, or Thoth, 
 by the Greeks who was skilled in medicine and wrote works on anat- 
 omy, of which portions still exist, and who built the citadel and 
 Kenkenes. palace of Memphis. KENKENES, the third king, was succeeded by 
 Uenephes. UENEPHES, who built the Pyramid of Kokome, believed to be the oldest 
 of all those wonderful structures, and who bore the name of the Sacred 
 Calf of Heliopolis. Altogether the First Dynasty comprised eight 
 kings. 
 
 Third The Third Dynasty reigned at Memphis and embraced nine kings. 
 Dynasty, rjv^ rg j. Q ^hese was NECHEROPHES, who is said to have conquered 
 
 Necher- Libya, the superstitious Libyans having been frightened into submis- 
 
 op M ' sion by an eclipse of the moon as they were preparing for battle. 
 
 Tosor- TOSORTHRUS, the second king of this dynasty, encouraged writing, 
 ^ 8 ' medicine and architecture, and introduced or improved the art of build- 
 ing with hewn stone, previous structures having been made of rough 
 stone or brick. He was known to the Greeks as the " Peaceful Sesos-
 
 BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 From the Painting by G. Richter
 
 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 4,5 
 
 tris," the later two monarchs bearing that name being great warriors 
 and conquerors. 
 
 His son and successor, SASYCHIS, or Mares-sesorcheres, was a re- Sasychis. 
 nowned lawgiver, who is said to have organized the worship of the 
 gods, and to have invented the sciences of geometry and astronomy. 
 He is likewise said to have made the remarkable law that a debtor 
 might give his father's mummy as security for a debt. If the debt 
 was not discharged, neither the debtor nor his father could ever rest 
 in the family sepulcher, and this was regarded as the most disgrace- 
 ful fate that could befall a mortal. 
 
 The monumental and more certain history of Egypt commences with Second, 
 the Second, Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, which reigned contemporane- and 
 
 ously ; the Second at This, in Upper Egypt ; the Fourth at Memphis, Dynas- 
 in Middle Egypt ; and the Fifth in the Isle of Elephantine, in Upper 
 Egypt. Of these the Fourth Dynasty, established at Memphis about 
 2450 B. C., was the most powerful and exercised a certain degree of 
 supremacy over the other two. This Memphite dynasty consisted of 
 eight kings, and its greatness is fully attested by the gigantic struc- 
 tures of stone which it left in Middle Egypt between the Libyan 
 Mountains and the Nile ; so that it was the Fourth Dynasty that im- 
 mortalized itself as that of the Pyramid-builders, and this period is 
 one of the most brilliant in the history of ancient Egypt. 
 
 The great increase in the population had placed at the king's dis- Building 
 posal a large amount of unemployed labor, and the natural productive- 
 ness of the soil had given all ranks far more leisure than was enjoyed 
 by any other people of antiquity. The long duration of the yearly 
 overflow of the Nile caused a perceptible suspension in the various 
 industrial channels, and allowed the sovereigns larger opportunities to 
 employ the labor of the people in works which might carry their fame 
 to countless future ages. Such were the circumstances that led to the 
 building of the great Pyramids the most gigantic structures ever 
 erected by human hands, and which the kings designed for their tombs. 
 
 These Pyramids are in the vicinity of the site of the ancient Mem- Pyramids 
 phis, about ten miles west of the Nile, on a barren elevation, in the 
 sides of which were chambers hewn out of the solid rock, in which the 
 bodies of the ordinary dead were interred. The kingly sarcophagus 
 was assigned a more pretentious sepulcher under more imposing monu- 
 ments of stone. Gradually the heap of royal tombs assumed the form 
 of the Pyramids, the structure becoming, by degrees, more regular 
 internally and externally, so that the finished pile has been the wonder 
 of succeeding ages. Along the elevation west of Memphis about sev- 
 enty of these stupendous structures were erected. Of these, three were 
 specially celebrated because of their size and grandeur. These are
 
 4 fl ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 the Pyramids of Ghizeh, near which city they are located. They were 
 built in the twenty-fifth century before Christ. These three are more 
 conspicuous than the remaining seven of the same group in that vicin- 
 ity. The oldest and largest of the three great Pyramids of Ghizeh 
 is that of KHUFTT the Cheops of Herodotus who was the successor 
 of SENEFERU or Soris, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty, and the 
 builder of the northern Pyramid of Abousir. 
 
 Pyramid The Pyramid of Cheops was originally four hundred and eighty 
 feet high, but as the apex has been broken off it is now but four hun- 
 dred and fifty feet high. The base covers about thirteen acres, and 
 each side of the base is seven hundred and sixteen feet long, and the 
 inclination is five hundred and seventy-four feet. The vast structure 
 is located exactly on the thirtieth parallel of north latitude, and its 
 four sides face the cardinal points of the compass. On the north side, 
 exactly in the middle, a rectangular opening is cut, being the entrance 
 of a descending passage three feet wide and four feet high. The 
 passage leads downward to a chamber cut in the solid rock of the 
 foundation, over a hundred feet under the ground-level of the base. 
 The chamber is precisely under the apex of the pyramid, at a distance 
 of six hundred feet. At points in the main passage to this chamber 
 diverging passages lead to two other chambers, which also lie directly 
 under the apex of the Pyramid and above the first chamber. In these 
 chambers were placed the stone coffins containing the mummies of these 
 ancient monarchs. Upon the walls were sculptures recounting the 
 departed king's deeds. The door of the passage was sealed with a 
 stone, and the name of the dead sovereign was added to the list of 
 deities in the temple. Herodotus says that the building of the " Great 
 Pyramid" occupied thirty years, that one hundred thousand men were 
 forced to work upon it at a time, and that a new army of laborers was 
 employed every three months. 
 
 Pyramids rp^ secon( j o f ^ e three great Pyramids was built by Khufu's cele- 
 and Men- brated successor, SHAFRA, and was originally four hundred and fif ty- 
 *' seven feet high, and resembles the Pyramid of Cheops in general pro- 
 portion and internal structure. The third Pyramid of Ghizeh was 
 erected by MENKAURA, the successor of Shafra, and is only two hun- 
 dred feet high and thirty-three feet at the base, and the inclination is 
 two hundred and sixty-two feet. Some of the outside portions of this 
 Pyramid consist of polished slabs of granite. It has a double chamber 
 within, one behind the other. In the farther chamber was recently 
 found the sarcophagus containing the mummy of Menkaura himself, 
 by General Howard Vyse ; and the hieroglyphic inscription on the case 
 containing, with the monarch's name, the myth of the god Osiris, has
 
 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 
 
 4,7 
 
 been deciphered and translated into English. It is only in recent times 
 that other royal mummies have been found. 
 
 The Pyramids are built of successive layers of stone from two to six 
 feet thick, in proportion to the size of the structure. The layers 
 decrease in size from the ground upwards, so that the monument ap- 
 pears on each side in the form of a series of stone steps receding to 
 the top. Diodorus says he was informed by the Egyptian priests that 
 the gigantic masses of stone which were used in building the Pyramids 
 were brought from Arabia, and were put into place by building under 
 them vast mounds of earth, from which the blocks of stone could be 
 moved into their respective places. This statement seems to be sub- 
 stantiated by the fact that no stone of the kind used in the construc- 
 tion of these vast monuments can be found within many miles from 
 the place where the Pyramids were erected. 
 
 Khufu and his successor, Shafra, oppressed the people and despised 
 the gods, crushing the former by the severe toils required by these 
 great works, and closing the temples of the latter and putting an end 
 to their worship ; but Menkaura, who was the son of Khufu, and who, 
 as well as his father, reigned sixty -three years, differed from him in 
 being a good and humane sovereign. Menkaura reopened the temples 
 which his father had closed, restored the religious rites of sacrifice and 
 praise, and put an end to oppressive labors. He was, in consequence, 
 highly reverenced by the people, and his name was celebrated in many 
 hymns and ballads. After the reigns of four more kings, known to us 
 only by names and dates, the Fourth Dynasty, whose eight reigns 
 aggregated about two hundred and twenty years, ended about 2220 
 B. C. 
 
 The Second Dynasty, ruling Middle Egypt from This, or Abydos, 
 and the Fifth, ruling Upper Egypt from the Isle of Elephantine, were 
 probably related by blood to the powerful sovereigns ruling Lower 
 Egypt from Memphis, as the tombs of all three of these royal races 
 are found in the vicinity of Memphis. The Arabian copper mines 
 of the Peninsula of Sinai were worked by Egyptian colonies established 
 there by the Pyramid-kings, and at this period Egyptian arts and 
 
 architecture had attained their highest degree of perfection. Paint- 
 
 , , , ., . * j f r i 
 
 ing, sculpture and writing, as well as modes 01 living and general 
 
 civilization, were about the same as fifteen centuries later. The reed 
 pen and the inkstand are among the hieroglyphics employed, and the 
 scribe appears, pen in hand, in the paintings on the tombs, making 
 notes on linen or papyrus. In the tombs of Beni-Hassan, belonging 
 to this period, five different kinds of plows are shown, and agricultural 
 life is fully illustrated. Thus we have figures of sheep and goats 
 treading seed into the ground; of wheat bound into sheaves, threshed, 
 
 Structure 
 
 TheKings 
 
 Fourth 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Contem- 
 
 ties 
 
 Cir- 
 ilization. ,
 
 4g ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 measured, and carried in sacks to the granary; of bundles of flax on 
 the backs of asses ; of figs gathered ; of grapes thrown into the press ; 
 of wine carried into the cellar; of the overseer and laborers in field 
 and garden; and of the bastinado applied to the backs of laggards. 
 We also have scenes of flocks and herds, of bullocks, calves, asses, 
 sheep, goats; and also domestic fowl, such as geese and ducks. The 
 making of butter and cheese is likewise shown. Other works of sculp- 
 ture show us the spinners and weavers at their looms, the potter work- 
 ing the clay or burning his ware in the furnace, the smith making 
 javelins and lances, the painter at work with his colors, the mason with 
 his trowel, the shoemaker at his bench, the glass-blower plying his art. 
 The various grades of domestic life are illustrated, and we see ser- 
 vants at work, the kitchen implements used, also domestic apes, dogs, 
 cats, etc. In military life we have exhibited soldiers practicing in 
 arms, fighting battles, battering walls and storming towns. Various 
 sports and amusements are likewise depicted, and we have here ex- 
 hibited wrestlers, jugglers, musicians, male and female dancers, fishing 
 parties with hooks and spears and nets. Dwarfs and deformities can 
 also be seen, and every condition of human life is found represented 
 upon imperishable tablets of stone. 
 
 Sixth and The Fourth Dynasty at Memphis was succeeded by the Sixth Dy- 
 Contem- nasty a b ou t 2220 B. C. The Second Dynasty continued to reign at 
 Dynas- This or Abydos, and the Fifth in the Isle of Elephantine, while the 
 Ninth arose at Heracleopolis and the Eleventh at Thebes ; so that 
 Egypt was now divided into five separate kingdoms, the Theban grad- 
 ually becoming the most powerful, as the Memphite was losing its 
 preeminence. Thus weakened by division and exhausted by the great 
 architectural works which had withdrawn the people from the practice 
 of arms, the country easily fell a prey to the barbaroi s nomad hordes 
 from the neighboring regions of Syria and Arabia. These entered 
 Lower Egypt from the north-east by way of the Isthmus of Suez about 
 2080 B. C., and soon became masters of the country from Memphis 
 Hyksos or t the sea. They were called the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. They 
 'I Shepherd carried on their conquests in the most cruel manner, burning the cities, 
 razing the temples to the ground, slaying the inhabitants and reducing 
 the women and children to slavery. 
 
 Contem- The Hyksos founded the Fifteenth Dynasty at Memphis and the 
 Sixteenth at Avaris, in the Delta, near the site of the later city of 
 Pelusium. Native dynasties continued to reign in Middle and Upper 
 Egypt, the Ninth at Heracleopolis, the Fifth in the Isle of Elephan- 
 tine, while the Twelfth had succeeded the Eleventh at Thebes, and the 
 Fourteenth arose at Xois, in the Delta, in the very heart of the con-
 
 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 
 
 quests of the Shepherd Kings, and maintained its independence during 
 the whole period of the dominion of the Hyksos. 
 
 Under the vigorous rule of the Twelfth Dynasty, Thebes rapidly 
 grew into a powerful and prosperous kingdom and extended its su- 
 premacy over the kingdoms of Elephantine and Heracleopolis, con- 
 quered the peninsula of Sinai and carried its arms triumphantly into 
 Arabia and Ethiopia. USURTASEN I. reigned over all Upper Egypt, 
 and under USURTASEN II. and USURTASEN III. Thebes attained its 
 highest prosperity. Usurtasen III. enriched the country by numerous 
 canals ; and monuments of his power at Senneh, near the southern bor- 
 der of the kingdom, still excite the wonder of the traveler. His suc- 
 cessor, AMMENEMES III. the Marls or Loamaris of Manetho, and the 
 Moeris of Herodotus built the Labyrinth in the Faioom, the most 
 superb and gigantic edifice in Egypt, which contained three thousand 
 rooms, one half of which number were underground, and were the re- 
 ceptacle of the mummies of kings and of the sacred crocodiles, and are 
 known as the Catacombs. The walls of the fifteen hundred apart- 
 ments above ground were of solid stone and entirely covered with sculp- 
 ture. Herodotus, who visited this magnificent structure, declared that 
 it surpassed all other human works. He says: "The roof through- 
 out was of stone like the wall, and the walls were carved all over with 
 figures. Every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was 
 built of white stones exquisitely fitted together." 
 
 The same king constructed the Lake Moeris, a natural reservoir near 
 a bend of the Nile, which he so improved by means of a canal and 
 dykes as to retain, for purposes of irrigation, a large part of the 
 waters from the annual inundation, and thus increased the fertility of 
 the surrounding country. 
 
 Architecture and the arts flourished in Upper Egypt, and numerous 
 canals were constructed to increase the fruitfulness of the soil by irri- 
 gation, while Lower Egypt continued to groan under the oppressive 
 rule of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. The Thirteenth Dynasty, 
 which succeeded the Twelfth at Thebes, was compelled to give way 
 before the Shepherd Kings and to seek refuge in Ethiopia, thus leav- 
 ing Upper Egypt also to the mercy of the barbarous Hyksos, who 
 now ruled all Egypt, except Xois, in the Delta (B. C. 1900). The 
 barbarous conquerors burned cities, destroyed temples, and massacred 
 or enslaved the inhabitants. During the MIDDLE EMPIRE from 1900 
 B. C. to 1600 B. C. this barbarous race held the native Egyptians 
 in subjection; the Thirteenth Dynasty at Thebes, the Seventh and 
 Eighth at Memphis, and the Tenth at Heracleopolis, holding their 
 crowns as tributaries of the Shepherd Kings of the Seventeenth 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Twelfth 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Usurta- 
 sen I. ,11 
 and III. 
 
 Ammen- 
 emes III. 
 
 Laby- 
 rinth. 
 
 Lake 
 
 Moeris. 
 
 Rule 
 
 of the 
 
 Hyksos, 
 
 or the 
 
 Middle 
 
 Empire. 
 
 VOL. 1. 4
 
 50 
 
 Darkness 
 of this 
 Period. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 This was the darkest period of Egyptian history. The Hyksos 
 destroyed the monuments of their predecessors and left none of their 
 own, so that there is a gap of three centuries between the Old and the 
 New Empire, during which the Holy City of Thebes was in the hands 
 of the barbarians; the annals ceased, and the names of kings, either 
 native Egyptian or Hyksos, are for the most part unknown to us. 
 Late writers suppose the Hyksos to have been the same as the Hittites 
 of Syria. After their expulsion from Egypt some of them found ref- 
 uge in Crete, and reappeared in Palestine about the same time that the 
 Israelites entered that country from the west. It is believed by some 
 that Joseph and the family of Jacob settled in Lower Egypt during 
 the reign of one of the Shepherd Kings; others, however, place that 
 event a little later. 
 
 Expul- 
 sion of the 
 Hyksos. 
 
 Amosis. 
 
 High Civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 Amun- 
 oph I. 
 Thoth- 
 meg I. 
 
 SECTION IV. THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 AFTER their long humiliation under the oppressive rule of the Shep- 
 herd Kings, the Egyptian people rallied for a great national uprising 
 under the Theban king AMOSIS, Ames, or Aahmes ; and the Hyksos 
 were driven from Egypt, after a desperate contest, B. C. 1600. Then 
 began the NEW EMPIRE the most brilliant period of Egyptian his- 
 tory which lasted a little more than a thousand years (B. C. 1600- 
 525). Amosis united all Egypt into one kingdom, with Thebes for its 
 capital, and founded the Eighteenth Dynasty. He married Nefruari, 
 the daughter of the King of Ethiopia "the good and glorious wo- 
 man" who held the highest honor ever accorded a queen. 
 
 For the next eight centuries Egypt remained a single united king- 
 dom ; and during the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties 
 Egyptian sculpture and architecture reached their highest degree of 
 perfection. During this period the hundred-gated Thebes attained 
 the height of its splendor. Its great temple-palaces were then built; 
 and numerous obelisks, "fingers of the sun," pointed heavenward. The 
 horse and the war-chariot were now introduced into Egypt, and the 
 military caste for a time held a higher rank than the priestly. The 
 martial spirit wrought up by the struggle against the Hyksos dis- 
 played itself in warlike enterprises against neighboring nations, which 
 were again obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of Egypt, whose 
 arms were carried in triumph into Ethiopia, Arabia and Syria, and 
 even beyond the Euphrates. 
 
 Amosis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, reigned twenty- 
 six years. The next king, AMUNOPH I., married the widow of Amosis, 
 and reigned twenty-one years. THOTHMES I., the third king of the
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 51 
 
 Eighteenth Dynasty, won great victories over the Ethiopians and con- 
 quered the Canaanites of Palestine, and even carried his arms east- 
 ward against the Assyrians in Mesopotamia. He reigned twenty-one 
 years. 
 
 Royal women were held in higher esteem in Egypt than in any other 
 ancient monarchy. Thothmes I. was succeeded by his daughter, 
 AMENSET, Mesphra, or Hatasu, who acted as regent for her younger 
 brother, THOTHMES II., who died a minor. Amenset held the regency 
 for her next brother, THOTHMES III. Her reign of twenty-two years 
 was brilliant and successful. She completed the temple of Amun, and 
 her fame is commemorated by the two gigantic obelisks at Karnak. 
 
 After the death of Amenset, her brother, THOTHMES III., reigned 
 alone. Envious of his sister's fame, he caused her name and image to 
 be effaced from all the sculptures in which they had appeared together. 
 Thothmes III. reigned alone forty-seven years (B. C. 15101463). 
 He carried on wars in Ethiopia, Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and 
 defeated the Syrians in a great battle at Megiddo, in Canaan, twice 
 took Kadish, the chief city of the Kheta tribes, and led his armies as 
 far as Nineveh, from which city, according to inscriptions on his 
 monuments, he took tribute. Thothmes III. is no more distinguished 
 for his military exploits than for the magnificent temples and palaces 
 which he erected at Karnak, Thebes, Memphis, Heliopolis, Coptos, and 
 in every other city of Egypt and Ethiopia. The records of his twelve 
 successive campaigns are inscribed in sculpture upon the walls of his 
 palaces at Thebes. The two obelisks near Alexandria, which some 
 Roman wit called Cleopatra's Needles, one of which is now in London 
 and the other in New York, bear the name of this king. 
 
 Thothmes III. was succeeded by his son, AMUNOPH II., in the begin- 
 ning of whose reign the Egyptians took Nineveh. He is said to have 
 brought to Egypt the bodies of seven kings whom he had slain in 
 battle, and whose heads were placed as trophies upon the walls of 
 Thebes. After a short reign he was succeeded by his son, THOTHMES 
 IV., who is believed by some writers to have caused the carving of the 
 great Sphinx near the Pyramids. AMUNOPH III., the son and suc- 
 cessor of Thothmes IV., who ascended the Egyptian throne B. C. 1448, 
 reigned thirty-six years, and was one of the greatest monarchs of the 
 Eighteenth Dynasty. He conducted successful wars against the Lib- 
 yans and Ethiopians, and adorned his kingdom with many magnificent 
 architectural works, and improved its agriculture by the construction 
 of tanks or reservoirs to regulate irrigation. New temples were built 
 at Thebes, where also two great Colossi, one of which is known as the 
 Vocal Memnon, also belong to this reign; but the Amenopheum, of 
 which they were ornaments, is now in ruins. The two Colossi were 
 
 Amenset. 
 
 Thoth- 
 mes II. 
 and III. 
 
 Wars and 
 Works of 
 Thoth- 
 mes III. 
 
 Amun- 
 oph II. 
 
 Thoth- 
 mes IV. 
 
 Amun- 
 oph III. 
 
 His Wars 
 
 and 
 Works. 
 
 Vocal 
 Memnon.
 
 52 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 huge granite statues of Araunoph III., with his mother and queen in 
 relief on the die, in front of the sanctuary of Osiris, and may still 
 be seen among the surrounding ruins. The Vocal Memnon, according 
 to a Greek tradition founded on the story of travelers who visited the 
 spot, was said to utter a musical sound at sunrise like the twanging 
 Palaces of harp-strings. The pedestal is fifty-nine feet high from base to 
 
 Sphinxes, crown. The palaces of Luxor and Karnak, now among the most con- 
 spicuous of the ruins of those famous places, were connected by an 
 avenue of a thousand sphinxes, while at Thebes a colonnade in the same 
 style was lined with colossal sitting statues of the cat-headed goddess 
 Pasht, or Bubastis. In the monumental inscriptions of his times, 
 Amunoph III. is styled "Pacificator of Egypt and Tanner of the Lib- 
 yan Shepherds." 
 
 Poms. The reign of Amunoph III. was marked by great internal troubles, 
 in consequence of his unsuccessful efforts to change the national re- 
 ligion. His son, HOEUS, was his legitimate successor, but his claims 
 were disputed by many pretenders, most of whom were princes or 
 princesses of the blood royal, and for thirty years the kingdom was 
 in an unsettled and distracted condition. Horus ultimately triumphed 
 over and outlived all his rivals, and died after reigning seven years 
 in peace. He conducted successful wars in Africa and enlarged the 
 Resitot. palaces at Karnak and Luxor. With the next king, RESITOT, or 
 
 Rathotis, the Eighteenth Dynasty came to an end, B. C. 1400. 
 Ra- The Nineteenth Dynasty was founded B. C. 1400 by RAMESES L, 
 
 meses I. wno wag descended from the first two kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. 
 
 Seti. He reigned less than two years, and was succeeded by his son SETI, 
 
 or Sethos I., who inherited all the national hatred toward the Syrian 
 
 invaders of his country, reconquered Syria, which had revolted forty 
 
 years before, and extended his conquests as far as the borders of Cilicia 
 
 and the Euphrates. Seti built the great Hall of Columns at Karnak, 
 
 in which the whole Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, could stand 
 
 without touching walls or ceiling ; and his tomb is the most magnificent 
 
 of all the royal sepulchers of ancient Egypt. 
 
 Ra- The most renowned king of Egypt was RAMESES II. (1388-1322 
 
 meses II., g C>.) 9 surnamed the Great, whom the Greek writers named Sesostris, 
 and who, during his father's lifetime, subdued both Libya and Arabia. 
 Upon ascending the throne he entered upon a career of conquest with 
 the ultimate design of universal dominion. Herodotus, Diodorus, and 
 Manetho relate, with some variation in their narrative, his subjugation 
 of the neighboring nations. After dividing his kingdom into thirty- 
 six nomes and assigning his brother Armais to the regency in his 
 absence, Rameses set out with an army of six hundred thousand foot-
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 soldiers, twenty-four thousand horse, and twenty-seven thousand war- 
 chariots, to conquer the world. 
 
 He first reduced Ethiopia under subjection and imposed upon that 
 country a heavy tribute of ebony, ivory and gold. He founded the 
 Egyptian navy by building a fleet of four hundred war vessels on the 
 Red Sea, and reduced under his dominion the islands and shores as far 
 as India. After carrying his victorious arms eastward beyond the 
 Ganges, he rapidly subdued Asiatic and European Scythia, and was 
 only checked in his conquering career in Thrace by the severity of 
 the climate and the scarcity of food. Wherever he conquered he 
 erected monuments with the inscription: "Sesostris, king of kings 
 and lord of lords, has conquered this territory by the power of his 
 arms." After nine years of conquest, this triumphant warrior-king 
 returned to his kingdom with a vast booty and captives from the 
 subjugated nations. 
 
 Modern investigation has shown the military exploits of Rameses 
 the Great, as narrated by Herodotus and Diodorus, to have been highly 
 exaggerated. By deciphering the inscriptions in the Rameseum at 
 Karnak, in the temple erected by Rameses in Ethiopia, in the ruins 
 of Tanis, and on the Rocks of Beyreut, it has been shown that the 
 principal scenes in his triumphant career were enacted in the neigh- 
 boring countries of Ethiopia, Arabia and Syria. 
 
 The noted works of Rameses the Great were the building of a great 
 wall from Pelusium to Heliopolis, to protect Egypt on the east against 
 the inroads of the Syrians and Arabs; the cutting of a system of 
 canals from Memphis to the sea; the completion of the famous Hall 
 of Columns at Karnak, begun by his father ; and the magnificent 
 temple of Amunoph III. at Luxor. Before this temple were placed 
 two sitting colossi of Rameses and two red granite obelisks, both of 
 which still remain with their hieroglyphic inscriptions as perfect as 
 when they were cut, one still standing on the original spot, and the 
 other greeting the eye of the beholder in the Place de la Concorde, 
 in Paris. 
 
 In every part of Egypt may be found monuments commemorating 
 the achievements and greatness of this celebrated monarch. At Ip- 
 sambul, in Nubia, in a valley with walls of yellow sandstone, two 
 temples are cut in the solid rock, one dedicated to Ra by Rameses 
 the Great, and the other to Hathor by his queen. Before the temple 
 of Rameses are four stupendous colossi of himself, over seventy feet 
 high, and seated on thrones. The shoulders of these colossal statues 
 are twenty-five feet wide, and they measure fifteen feet from elbow to 
 finger-tip. The image of Rameses stands conspicuous among those 
 of the long line of deified sovereigns of Ancient Egypt, on the walls 
 
 His Con- 
 quests. 
 
 Exag- 
 geration. 
 
 Works of 
 Rameses 
 the Great. 
 
 Rock 
 Temples 
 
 of Ip- 
 sambul.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Greatness 
 
 of Thebes. 
 
 Menepta. 
 
 His Op- 
 pression 
 
 of the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 Exodus. 
 
 Passage 
 
 of the 
 
 Red Sea 
 
 of the great temple of Abydos, while before the altar another image 
 represents Rameses as a mortal offering sacrifice to himself and his 
 ancestors. 
 
 Under the Nineteenth Dynasty, the magnificence and greatness of 
 Thebes, then the capital, surpassed the former splendor of Memphis. 
 In Thebes the wonderful works of Thothmes IV., Amunoph III., Seti, 
 Rameses II., and Rameses III., rose in majestic grandeur, on both 
 sides of the Nile, around a circle of fifteen miles. 
 
 MENEPTA, who succeeded Rameses the Great in 1322 B. C., and 
 reigned twenty years, is now generally regarded as -the Pharaoh of 
 the Exodus of the Israelites. In 1550 B. C., the family of Jacob, 
 the grandson of Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew race, had set- 
 tled in that part of Lower Egypt on the east side of the Delta, known 
 as the Land of Goshen, while Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, was prime 
 minister to the Egyptian king, a post to which he is said to have 
 been elevated on account of his services in saving the land from fam- 
 ine. Here the posterity of Jacob or Israel multiplied during a period 
 of two and a half centuries. For a while the new race of strangers 
 were highly esteemed by the Egyptian kings and nation, but during 
 the reigns of Seti I. and Rameses the Great, the Egyptian authorities 
 grew jealous of the rapidly increasing Hebrew race and began to 
 exercise a systematic oppression toward them. The strangers were 
 set to work at building and digging. Their labor enlarged the treas- 
 ure cities of Pithom and Rameses. They aided in the construction 
 of the great canal from the Nile, at Bubastis, to the Red Sea. They 
 toiled in the brickyards and were beaten by the Egyptian task-masters 
 until they rose in open rebellion. The revolt was heightened by the 
 withdrawal of religious privileges. Their great leader, Moses, who 
 had been compelled to save his life by flight to the Land of Midian 
 because he had slain an Egyptian whom he had seen ill-treating a 
 Hebrew, had now returned to his people and sought to obtain King 
 Menepta's permission to lead them in a three days' march into the 
 desert to sacrifice to Jehovah. It was only after Moses had performed 
 signs and wonders in the king's house that Menepta allowed the Israel- 
 ites to depart. 
 
 They followed the bank of the canal, gathering their people along 
 the route of the Hebrew towns, but upon reaching the Gulf of Suez 
 were hemmed in by the hosts of the Egyptian king. 
 
 By the receding of the waters at that shallow point of the sea, by 
 means of a "strong east wind," as told in Exodus, the fleeing Israel- 
 ites, numbering two millions, were enabled to cross the bare, sandy 
 bottom and reach the opposite shore in safety. But the hosts of
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 55 
 
 Menepta, while crossing the shallow bottom in pursuit of the fugi- 
 tives, were suddenly drowned by the returning waters. 
 
 The account of the Exodus of the Israelites, as related by Manetho 
 and quoted by Josephus, differs from the Mosaic account in detail. 
 Manetho states that Menepta desired to see the gods, and was in- 
 formed by a priest of the same name that his wish could only be 
 gratified when he cleansed the land of lepers. The Pharaoh Menepta, 
 therefore, cast eighty thousand of the lepers into the stone-quarries 
 east of the Nile. When the son of Papius heard that some priests 
 and men of learning had thus perished, he feared the displeasure of 
 the gods for having plotted to ruin or enslave holy men. But a 
 vision informed him that others would come to aid the lepers and 
 govern Egypt thirteen years. After writing this on a roll of papy- 
 rus, he committed suicide. 
 
 Menepta, becoming alarmed, liberated the lepers from the quarries. 
 He assigned them Avaris, which had remained in ruins since the expul- 
 sion of the Shepherd Kings. After rebuilding the city, the lepers 
 chose the priest Osarsiph, of Heliopolis, for their leader. He gave 
 them laws, one of which gave them permission to kill and eat the gods, 
 the sacred animals of the Egyptians. He then directed them to for- 
 tify Avaris, and also sent an embassy to Jerusalem to inform the 
 banished Hyksos of the course of events in Egypt, to invite them to 
 return, and to promise them the keys of Avaris. The Shepherd Kings 
 gladly availed themselves of the offer and returned with an army of 
 two hundred thousand men to recover the kingdom of their ancestors. 
 When informed of this invasion of the Hyksos, King Menepta, influ- 
 enced by superstition and fear, fled in terror into Ethiopia, there to 
 remain until the thirteen years of leper rule should have passed. 
 Thus Egypt was sacrificed to the unclean, who rioted in the sacred 
 places until King Menepta returned with an army of Egyptians and 
 Ethiopians and expelled the lepers and their allies, the Hyksos, from 
 the kingdom. The name of the priest-leader of the lepers had, in 
 the meantime, been changed to Moyses, or Moses. The Egyptian 
 historians always spoke of the Hebrews as lepers. 
 
 After the reigns of SETI II. and SIPHTHAH, the Twentieth Dynasty 
 ascended the throne of Egypt in 1269 B. C., in the person of SET- 
 NEKHT. The next king was RAMESES III., who, during a reign of 
 thirty-two years and in ten victorious campaigns, restored to Egypt 
 the glory which she had possessed under the elder kings of the pre- 
 ceding dynasty, subduing the Hittites and Amorites of Canaan and 
 the Ethiopians, Libyans and Negroes of Africa. Naval battles were 
 fought during this reign, as attested by hieroglyphic inscriptions. 
 Rameses III. built the palace of Medinet-Abu at Thebes, of which 
 
 Ma- 
 netho 's 
 Account 
 
 of the 
 Exodus. 
 
 His 
 
 Further 
 Account. 
 
 Twen- 
 tieth 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Rameses 
 III. 
 
 His Suc- 
 cessors.
 
 56 
 
 Decline of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Priest 
 Kings. 
 
 She- 
 shonk I. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 every pylon, every gate, and every chamber gives some account of his 
 brilliant exploits. Rameses III. had four sons, each named RAMESES, 
 who reigned in succession. RAMESES VIII., who succeeded them, 
 conducted some successful wars. He was followed by seven other 
 kings bearing the same name, but their reigns were short and un- 
 eventful. Egypt, which had reached the pinnacle of its greatness 
 under the Nineteenth Dynasty, rapidly declined during the Twentieth. 
 The hieroglyphic inscriptions no longer recount the grand military 
 exploits of kings, and art and architecture decayed. Egypt's con- 
 quests in Asia and Ethiopia were gradually lost. From its long con- 
 tact with Asiatic nations, Egypt had lost its national feeling, and 
 foreign influence was marked in the civil administration of the 
 kingdom. The Pharaohs at this time became allied by marriage with 
 foreign courts, and foreign colonies Assyrian, Babylonian and 
 Phoenician settled in the country; and the constant intercommuni- 
 cation between the Egyptians and the Semitic nations of Asia is 
 shown by the presence of Semitic names and the admission of Semitic 
 words to the Egyptian language, as well as by the admission of 
 foreign gods into the Egyptian sanctuaries, hitherto inaccessible to 
 any deity outside of the Egyptian pantheon. The overwhelming 
 predominance of the priesthood, whose influence pervaded all ranks, 
 from the highest to the lowest, was a barrier to thought and progress 
 of every kind. The people were slavishly held to the old forms of 
 religion, architecture languished, no new buildings were erected, nor 
 additions made to the magnificent structures of former ages. Sculp- 
 ture and painting derived no new life from the study of nature, 
 but confined themselves to slavish copies of old models or dull and 
 meaningless imitations. The priestly caste aimed to hold all things 
 at a certain Ievel 4 fixed and unchangeable. Thus, when progress 
 ceased, decay at once commenced. The later monarchs of the 
 Twentieth Dynasty were but instruments in the hands of the priestly 
 class. 
 
 During this period of general military and intellectual decline 
 the priestly order augmented its power and influence to such an 
 extent that it seized the throne, and the Twenty-first Dynasty riegn- 
 ing at Tanis, in the Delta, was a race of priest-kings. They wore 
 the sacerdotal robes and called themselves High Priests of Amun. 
 PISHAM I., one of this priestly race, gave his daughter in marriage 
 to Solomon. The seven kings of this dynasty generally hid short 
 and uneventful reigns (B. C. 1091-990). 
 
 SHESHONK I. the Shishak of the Old Testament and the founder 
 of the Twenty-second Dynasty married the daughter of PISHAM 
 II., the last king of the previous dynasty, and also called himself
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 57 
 
 High Priest of Amun. He made Bubastis, in the Delta, his capital, 
 and restored the military strength of the kingdom. It was to 
 Sheshonk that Jeroboam fled after his unsuccessful rebellion against 
 King Solomon; and Sheshonk espoused the cause of Jeroboam in 
 his revolt against Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam, and in- 
 vading Judah, took Jerusalem, plundered the treasures of the Temple 
 and the palace, and compelled Rehoboam to pay tribute. One of 
 the inscriptions at Karnak gives a list of one hundred and thirty 
 towns and districts reduced by Sheshonk in Syria. He made the 
 office of High Priest of Amun hereditary in his family. 
 
 Sheshonk died in 972 B. C., and was succeeded by his son OSOEKOK 
 I., who reigned fifteen years and was succeeded by his son PEHOR. 
 OSORKON II., the fourth king of this dynasty, is believed by some 
 writers to have been the Zerah of Scripture, who invaded Syria and was 
 defeated by Asa, King of Judah, in the battle of Mareshah (2 Chron. 
 xiv. 914). The remaining kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty, 
 which ended with TAKELOT II. in 847 B. C., were insignificant person- 
 ages ; and the process of decay and disintegration rapidly went on and 
 was aggravated by the employment of Libyan mercenaries in prefer- 
 ence to native soldiers. Semi-independent principalities sprang up in 
 different parts of the kingdom, successfully defying every effort of 
 the Pharaohs to preserve the unity of the nation. The utter decay 
 of the national spirit paralyzed both sovereign and people. 
 
 The Twenty-third Dynasty, (B. C. 847-758), which ruled at 
 Tanis, comprised four kings, none of them famous, and whose reigns 
 were characterized by revolutions and civil wars. The Northern 
 Ethiopian kingdom, which had Napata for its capital, was founded 
 by Piankhi, a descendant of the priest-kings of the Twenty-firs 
 Egyptian Dynasty. Piankhi became virtual master of Egypt, which 
 according to his stele found at Gebel-Berkal, was at this time 
 divided into seven kingdoms, each ruled by a native Egyptian prince, 
 who reigned under the suzerainty of Piankhi. Tafnekht, who ruled 
 in the Western Delta and held Sais and Memphis, endeavored to 
 cast off the yoke of Piankhi, and headed a revolt which was joined 
 by the other native Egyptian princes. Piankhi's army took Thebes, 
 defeated the rebel fleet, besieged and took Hermopolis, defeated the 
 rebel fleet a second time at Sutensenen and gained another great 
 victory on land. Namrut, the Hermopolitan king, besieged the 
 Ethiopian garrison in Hermopolis and recovered the city. There- 
 upon Piankhi, in person, led an army against Hermopolis, and laid 
 siege to the city, which he finally compelled Namrut to surrender. 
 Piankhi also forced Pefaabast, king of Heracleopolis Magna, to 
 surrender, and then attacked Memphis, which was defended by a 
 
 Osor- 
 konl. 
 Pehor. 
 Osor- 
 kon II. 
 
 Egyptian 
 Decay. 
 
 Ethiopian 
 Conquest 
 of Egypt.
 
 58 
 
 Sabaco. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Conquest 
 of Egypt. 
 
 Shabatok. 
 Tirhakah. 
 
 Destruc- 
 tion of the 
 Assyrian 
 Army. 
 
 Egypt 
 
 under 
 
 Ethiopia 
 
 and 
 
 Assyria 
 Alter- 
 nately. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 strong garrison devoted to Tafnekht. After a desperate resistance 
 and frightful slaughter Memphis was taken, and its fall hastened 
 the restoration of Piankhi's authority over all Egypt. The revolt 
 ended with the submission of Osorkon, king of Bubastis, and Tafnekht, 
 the rebel leader, both of whom were generously pardoned by Piankhi, 
 after taking a new oath of allegiance to the Ethiopian sovereign, who 
 allowed all the native rebel kings to retain their respective thrones. 
 But in a few years, Egypt revolted under the leadership of BEK-EN- 
 EANF, called Bocchoris by the Greeks, a native of Sais, who was the 
 only king of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty. Bocchoris, however, was 
 soon conquered by Sabaco, or Shabak, the Ethiopian king reigning 
 at Napata, and was burned alive in punishment for his rebellion. 
 
 SABACO, the Ethiopian, thus founded the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, 
 and is known in the Hebrew Scriptures as So, or Sevah. He entered 
 into an alliance with Hoshea, King of Israel, and the Syrian princes 
 against Sargon, King of Assyria, but was defeated by the Assyrian 
 monarch in the great battle of Raphia, near the eastern borders of 
 Egypt, B. C. 718. Sabaco fled to Ethiopia, retaining possession 
 of Upper Egypt; while the sway of the Assyrians was established 
 over the Delta and Middle Egypt, over which they placed tributary 
 native princes, their policy being to weaken Egypt by dividing it 
 as much as possible. Sabaco's son and successor, SHABATOK, for a 
 short time ruled all Egypt, but was deprived of the Ethiopian crown 
 by TIRHAKAH, or Tehrak; while the petty native Egyptian princes 
 formed an alliance with Hezekiah, king of Judah, against Sennacherib, 
 King of Assyria^ but the allies were defeated in the South of Pales- 
 tine and submitted to the sway of the victorious Assyrians. Instigated 
 by Tirhakah, the Egyptian princes and the King of Judah again 
 rose in arms against the Assyrian king. Again Sennacherib took 
 the field against the allies and advanced to Pelusium, in the eastern 
 part of Lower Egypt, but his army of one hundred and eighty-five 
 thousand men was destroyed by a strange panic which seized them 
 in the night, and which the Jews and Egyptians considered a miracu- 
 lous interposition, B. C. 698. Sennacherib fled in dismay to Nineveh 
 and abandoned his conquests. The Assyrian defeat enabled Tirhakah 
 to invade Egypt, kill Shabatok and reduce the whole land under Ethio- 
 pian dominion. Tirhakah was at once involved in a struggle with 
 Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, Sennacherib's son and successor, who, 
 in 672 B. C., invaded Egypt, captured Memphis and Thebes, drove 
 Tirhakah back into Ethiopia, and established the Assyrian sway once 
 more over all Egypt, whose twenty native princes were reduced to a 
 state of vassalage under the Assyrian monarch. A few years after- 
 ward, however, Tirhakah returned and expelled the Assyrian garri-
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 59 
 
 sons from Egypt, which again acknowledged the Ethiopian dominion ; 
 but his triumph was of short duration, as he was again deprived of 
 his Egyptian conquest by Esarhaddon's successor, Asshur-bani-pal, 
 who won the native Egyptian princes over to the Assyrian interest. 
 Being allowed more local freedom by the Assyrian king, they pre- 
 ferred his rule to that of the more oppressive Ethiopian monarch. 
 Tirhakah's stepson and successor, RUT-AMMON the Urdamane of 
 the Assyrian inscriptions endeavored to maintain the Ethiopian 
 power in Egypt; and descending the Nile, he re-occupied Thebes 
 and Memphis, drove the Assyrians out of Egypt and made himself 
 master of the country; but was soon driven back into Ethiopia by 
 Asshur-bani-pal. Rut-ammon's successor, MI-AMMON-NUT, tells us 
 that in the first year of his reign (about B. C. 660), he dreamed 
 that a serpent appeared on his right hand and another on his left, 
 and when he woke they had disappeared. The interpreters informed 
 him that this signified that he would rule all Egypt. Thereupon Mi- 
 ammon-Nut led a hundred thousand men into Egypt, being hailed 
 as a deliverer in Upper Egypt, against the Assyrians, who had 
 allowed the temples to go to decay, overturned the statues of 
 the gods, confiscated the temple revenues, and restrained the 
 priests from exercising their offices. Mi-ammon-Nut proclaimed 
 himself the champion of religion, visited the temples, led the images 
 in procession, offered rich sacrifices and paid every respect to the 
 priestly colleges. For this reason he was everywhere received with 
 acclamations in Upper Egypt. In Lower Egypt he was opposed, 
 but after a great victory at Memphis, he occupied that city and en- 
 larged and beautified the temple of Phthah. The chapel to Phthah- 
 Sokari-Osiris, recently uncovered by M. Mariette, is full of Mi- 
 ammon-Nut's sculptures and inscriptions, its stones being inlaid with 
 gold, its paneling made of acacia-wood scented with frankincense, its 
 doors of polished copper and their frames of iron. The princes of 
 the Delta submitted and were generously pardoned, governing their 
 towns as Ethiopian and no longer as Assyrian vassals. Mi-ammon- 
 Nut returned to Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian yoke was soon shaken 
 off by the Egyptians. The petty native Egyptian states for many 
 years remained tributary to Assyria, as the employment of foreign 
 mercenaries, which had so long prevailed in Egypt, had deadened 
 the national spirit and patriotism of the Egyptian people, and thus 
 made it easy for the Assyrians to hold the country in subjection. 
 
 PSAMMETICHTTS, one of the native viceroys under the Assyrian mon- 
 arch, encouraged by the growing weakness of the Assyrian Empire, 
 which was obliged to recall its garrisons from Egypt to defend itself 
 Against the destructive inroads of Scythian hordes from Central 
 
 Psam- 
 metichus 
 Recovers 
 Egyptian 
 
 Inde- 
 pendence.
 
 60 
 
 His Wise 
 Rule. 
 
 His Wars. 
 
 Migration 
 
 to 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 Neko. 
 
 Circum- 
 naviga- 
 tion of 
 Africa. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Asia, seized the opportunity to throw off his allegiance to Assyria, 
 and crushing the opposition of the native viceroys, founded the 
 Twenty-sixth Dynasty, thus placing Egypt once more under the 
 sway of its native kings, after a century of foreign dominion, Ethio- 
 pian and Assyrian, B. C. 632. Psammetichus conciliated the 
 Ethiopian party by marrying the daughter and heiress of the King 
 of Thebes, whom he had deposed, and thus secured the adhesion of 
 Upper Egypt, where the Ethiopians were still popular. He was a 
 wise and liberal sovereign, and under his rule the arts and sciences 
 began to revive. He constructed many great works throughout the 
 kingdom. The new culture was not purely native Egyptian. Foreign 
 wars, colonization and commercial intercourse had brought immense 
 numbers of foreign settlers Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Jews and 
 Greeks into the Egyptian cities. The new art was widely different 
 from the classic art of Old Egypt. The Egypt of the Pharaohs 
 was beyond resurrection, the old civilization had perished, and the 
 native tongue had been corrupted. 
 
 Psammetichus was also a great warrior. He reduced part of 
 Ethiopia and subdued the Philistines, but his continuance of the use 
 of foreign troops and his employment of Greek mercenaries offended 
 the warrior class of Egypt, of whom two hundred and forty thousand 
 emigrated to Ethiopia, rejecting every entreaty of Psammetichus to 
 return to their native land, and thus striking a fatal blow at the 
 reviving prosperity of Egypt. Psammetichus attempted the conquest 
 of Palestine and Syria, but was thwarted in his designs by the stub- 
 born resistance of the Philistine city of Ashdod, which endured a 
 siege of twenty-nine years before it was taken. He encouraged com- 
 merce and friendly intercourse with other nations. 
 
 Psammetichus died in 610 B. C., and was succeeded by his son 
 NEKO, under whom the navy and commerce of Egypt were largely 
 augmented. The great increase in the number of foreign colonists 
 in Egypt gave rise to a new class of interpreters, through whose 
 medium foreign intercourse was immensely facilitated. Neko endeav- 
 ored to reopen the great canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which 
 had been constructed during the reign of Rameses the Great, but aban- 
 doned because the oracle had instructed him that he was laboring for 
 the barbarian. Under Neko's auspices, an Egyptian fleet, manned 
 by Phanician seamen, sailed down the Red Sea, and after an absence 
 of three years, during which they twice landed, sowed grain and gath- 
 ered a harvest, they returned to Egypt by way of the Pillars of 
 Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) and the Mediterranean; thus making 
 the circumnavigation of Africa two thousand years before the famous 
 voyage of Vasco da Gama around the same continent.
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 61 
 
 Neko's military enterprises were blessed with but varied fortune. 
 The great empire of Assyria had already fallen before the conquer- 
 ing arms of Media and Babylon. Neko prepared to dispute the 
 dominion of the Avorld with the Babylonian monarch. After invading 
 Palestine and defeating and killing Josiah, King of Judah, at Me- 
 giddo, Neko conquered all the country eastward to the Euphrates ; 
 but Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, sent his son Nebuchadnezzar, 
 with a large army, to drive the Egyptians out of Asia. In the great 
 and decisive battle of Carchemish, Neko was totally defeated by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, and Egypt's power in the East was ended forever, 
 all of Neko's Asiatic conquests falling into the hands of Babylon, 
 
 B. C. 605. 
 
 Neko died in 594 B. C., and was succeeded by his son, PSAMMIS, 
 whose short reign of six years was only distinguished for an expedi- 
 tion into Ethiopia. His son and successor, UAHABEA the Pharaoh 
 Hophra of Scripture and the Apries of Herodotus who reigned nine- 
 teen years, renewed the warlike schemes of his grandfather, besieged 
 Sidon and fought a naval battle with Tyre, but failed in his attempt 
 to conquer Phoenicia. He formed an alliance with Zedekiah, King of 
 Judah, who endeavored to free himself from the Babylonian yoke ; but 
 the great Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, quickly invaded Pales- 
 tine, besieged and took Jerusalem, pillaged the city and the Temple, 
 and thus broke the power of the allies and put an end to the struggle 
 by driving the Egyptian monarch back into his own kingdom. Uaha- 
 bra was afterward defeated in an expedition against the Greek colony 
 of Cyrene, west of Egypt, in consequence of which his native soldiers 
 revolted and dethroned him; and the revolutionary leader, AMASIS, 
 with the aid of Nebuchadnezzar, who had twice invaded Egypt (B. 
 
 C. 581 and 570), was placed upon the Egyptian throne as king, tribu- 
 tary to the Babylonian monarch. 
 
 Amasis reigned forty-one years, at first as a tributary to Babylon, 
 but he afterward cast off this yoke and increased his influence by 
 marrying Nitocris, the sister of his predecessor. He adorned Sais, 
 his capital, with magnificent buildings; and numerous monuments of 
 his reign, found in all parts of the country, attest his liberal patron- 
 age of the arts ; while his friendly foreign policy toward Cyrene and 
 the other Greek states, and his encouragement to Greek merchants to 
 settle in Egypt, added immensely to the wealth of the country. He 
 conquered the island of Cyprus and reduced it to tribute. 
 
 Alarmed by the growing power of Persia under its renowned mon- 
 arch, Cyrus the Great, who had conquered Media and Babylon, Amasis 
 allied himself with Croesus, King of Lydia, and Polycrates of Samos ; 
 but before his policy was productive of any results, he died, B. C. 
 
 Neko's 
 Wars. 
 
 Battle of 
 
 Car- 
 chemish. 
 
 Psammis. 
 
 Uahabra. 
 His Wars. 
 
 Amasis. 
 
 His Long 
 Reign. 
 
 His 
 Works. 
 
 Alliance 
 against 
 Persia.
 
 62 
 
 Psam- 
 
 menitus. 
 
 Battle of 
 Pelu- 
 
 Persian 
 Conquest 
 of Egypt. 
 
 Egyptian 
 Revolts. 
 
 Egypt's 
 Fate. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 525, and was succeeded on the throne of Egypt by PSAMMENITUS. 
 Cambyses, King of Persia, the son and successor of Cyrus the Great, 
 was already on the march toward Egypt. The Egyptian army ad- 
 vanced to Pelusium to meet the invader, but was there defeated in a 
 pitched battle and driven back to Memphis, the capital, which was 
 besieged and taken by the Persian king. Psammenitus was taken 
 prisoner after a reign of only six months, and soon afterward put to 
 death by the hard-hearted Cambyses, who suspected him of a design 
 to recover his power. With the tragic end of Psammenitus perished 
 the ancient kingdom of Egypt, which had existed for over two thou- 
 sand years, from the time of the founding of the Old Empire by 
 Menes ; and the celebrated land of the Pharaohs became a mere prov- 
 ince of the vast Medo-Persian Empire (B. C. 525). 
 
 The tyranny and cruelty of Cambyses produced in the hearts of 
 the Egyptians the most implacable hatred of Persia; and during a 
 period of two centuries they constantly plotted against the Twenty- 
 seventh, or Persian Dynasty, and under three native dynasties the 
 Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth regained their inde- 
 pendence, which they as often lost. The accounts of these revolts 
 and short spasms of independence will be narrated in the history of 
 the Medo-Persian Empire. Since its conquest by the Persians, the 
 land of the Pharaohs has been successively under the sway of the 
 Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes, 
 and the Ottoman Turks ; the last of whom have held the country tribu- 
 tary for the last four centuries. 
 
 MANETHO'S THIRTY EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 
 OLD EMPIRE. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES FROM ABOUT B. C. 2700 TO ABOUT B. C. 2450. 
 
 FIRST DYNASTY (THINITE). 
 
 THIRD DYNASTY (MEMPHITE). 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 YEARS ACCORDING TO 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 YBARS ACCORDING TO 
 
 EUSEBIUS. 
 
 AFRICANUS. 
 
 EUSEBIUS. 
 
 AFRICANUS 
 
 Menes 
 
 60 
 
 27 
 39 
 42 
 20 
 26 
 18 
 26 
 
 62 
 57 
 31 
 23 
 20 
 26 
 18 
 26 
 
 Necherophes . 
 
 
 28 
 29 
 7 
 17 
 16 
 19 
 42 
 30 
 26 
 
 Athothis, or Thoth. . 
 Unephes 
 
 
 
 Tyreis 
 
 
 Kenkenes 
 
 Mesochris 
 
 
 Usaphffidus 
 
 Suphis 
 
 
 Miebidus 
 
 Tosertasis ......... 
 
 
 Semerapses 
 
 Aches 
 
 
 Bieneches 
 
 Sephuris 
 
 
 
 Kerpheres 
 
 
 
 258 
 
 263 
 
 
 298 
 
 214
 
 L0ngitu<l East fro. 
 
 SLEDIT&RRAXiEAX SEA 
 
 .MAP OE 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT
 
 THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY DYNAi 
 
 !TIES FROM ABOUT B. C. 2450 
 
 TO ABOUT B. C. 2220. 
 
 SECOND OR BRANCH DY- 
 NASTY (THINITE). 
 
 FOURTH OR CHIEF DY- 
 NASTY (MEMPHITE). 
 
 FIFTH OR BRANCH DY- 
 NASTY (ELEPHANTINE). 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Boethus, or Bochus.. 38 
 Koeechus, or Kekeou. 39 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Seneferu, or Sorus... 29 
 Khufu > RK 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Usercheres, or Osir- 
 kef 28 
 
 Binothris 47 
 Tlas 17 
 
 ohafra ) 
 Menkaura, or Men- 
 
 Sephres 13 
 Nephercheres, or 
 
 Sethenes 41 
 
 cheres . . 63 
 
 Nof r-ir-ke-re 20 
 
 Chaeres 17 
 
 Ratoises 25 
 
 Sisires, or Osir-n-r6. . 7 
 
 Nephercheres 25 
 
 Bicheris . 22 
 
 Cheres 20 
 
 Sesochris 48 
 
 Sebercheres 7 
 
 Rathures 44 
 
 Cheneres 30 
 
 Thamphthis . 9 
 
 Mencheres 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tancheres 44 
 
 302 
 
 221 
 
 Onnus, or U-nus 33 
 
 
 
 218 
 
 SoNtfcMPORARY DYNASTIES FROM ABOUT B. C. 2220 TO ABOUT B. C. 2080. 
 
 SECOND 
 DYNASTY 
 (THINITE). 
 
 SIXTH 
 DYNASTY 
 (MEMPHITE). 
 
 FIFTH 
 DYNASTY 
 
 (ELEPHANTINE.) 
 
 NINTH DY- 
 NASTY (HER- 
 ACLEOPOLITE ) . 
 
 ELEVENTH 
 DYNASTY 
 (THEBAN). 
 
 Continuing un- 
 der the last 
 three kings. 
 
 Othoes 30 
 
 Continuing. 
 
 Achthoes 
 the Antefs 
 and the 
 Mentu-hoteps. 
 
 Sixteen Kings. 
 
 Ammenemes or 
 Amun-m-h6. 
 
 Phios 53 
 
 Methosuphis 7 
 Phiops, or 
 Pepi 40 
 Menthesuphis 1 
 Nitocris, or 
 Neit-akret 12 
 143 
 
 CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES FROM ABOUT B. C. 2080 TO ABOUT B. C. 1900. 
 
 ^ ^H 
 
 U DO "^ * 
 
 H K ~ 
 
 ftji 
 
 v 
 
 NINTH 
 DYNASTY 
 (HERACLE- 
 OPOLITE). 
 
 ^+. 
 
 B & $ 
 
 % 3 
 
 III 
 
 FOURTEENTH 
 DYNASTY 
 (Xom). 
 
 B B? 
 
 H K Q 
 
 H 
 
 B * 
 
 E * * 
 
 fe^s 
 
 Q- 
 
 SIXTEENTH 
 DYNABTT 
 
 (HTXSOf). 
 
 Continuing 
 till about 
 B. C. 1850. 
 
 Continuing 
 
 Sesonchosis 
 
 Seventy-six 
 Kings in 
 484 years. 
 
 Salatis .... 19 
 Bnon 44 
 Apachnas . 36 
 Apophis . . 61 
 Jannas .... 50 
 Asses 49 
 
 259 
 
 Thirty- 
 Kings 
 in 518 
 years. 
 
 Usurtasen 1 46 
 
 Ammenemes II., 
 or Amun-m-h6 
 II 38 
 
 Usurtasen II 48 
 Moeris, or Amun- 
 m-h.6 III 8 
 
 Ameres 8 
 
 Ammenemes III., 
 or Amun-m-h6 
 IV 8 
 
 Skemiophris 4 
 
 ieb~ 
 
 THIRTEENTH DY- 
 NASTY ( THEBAN ) .
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 MIDDLE EMPIRE. (HYKSOS, oa SHEPHERD KINGS.) 
 
 CONTEMPORARY DYNASTIES FEOM ABOUT B. C. 1900 TO ABOUT B. C. 1600. 
 
 SEVENTH AND EIGHTH 
 DYNASTIES (MEMPHITE). 
 
 TENTH DYNASTY 
 ( HEHACLEOPOLITE ) . 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DYNASTY 
 (HYKSOS). 
 
 NEW; EMPIRE. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY THEBAN. 
 
 (B. C. 1600-1400.) 
 Amosis, Aahmes, or Ames, (B. C. 
 
 1600-1575). 
 Amen-hotep I., Amenophis I., or 
 
 Amunoph I., (B. C., 1575-1562). 
 Thothmes I. 
 Thothmes II., and Hatusa or Amen- 
 
 set, (B. C. 1562-1547). 
 Thothmes III., (B. C. 1547-1493). 
 Amen-hotep II., Amenophis II., or 
 
 Amunoph II., (B. C. 1493-1485). 
 Thothmes IV., (B. C. 1485-1477). 
 Amen-hotep III., Amenophis III., or 
 
 Amunoph III., (B. C. 1477-1441). 
 Amen-hotep IV., Amenophis IV., or 
 
 Amunoph IV. 
 Saanekht. 
 Ai. 
 
 Tutankhamen. 
 
 Horemheb-Merienammon, or Horus. 
 Resitot, or Rathotis. 
 NINETEENTH DYNASTY THEBAN. 
 
 (B. C. 1400-1280.) 
 Rameses I. 
 Seti I. 
 Rameses Meriamon, or the Great 
 
 (Sesostris). 
 
 Menepta, or Menephthah. 
 Seti II. 
 Siphthah. 
 TWENTIETH DYNASTY THEBAN. 
 
 (B. C. 1280-1100.) 
 Setnekht. 
 
 Rameses III., (B. C. 1269-1237). 
 Rameses IV. 
 Rameses V. 
 
 Rameses VI., and Meri-Tum. 
 Rameses VII. 
 Rameses VIII. 
 Rameses IX. 
 Rameses X. 
 Rameses XI. 
 Rameses XII. 
 Rameses XIII. 
 TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY TANITE. 
 
 (B. C. 1100-993.) 
 Pehor, Herhor, or Smendes. 
 Piankh, or Pisham I. 
 Pinetem I. 
 Men-khepr-ra. 
 
 Pa-seb-en-sha. 
 Pinetem II., or Pisham II. 
 Hor-Pasebensha. 
 TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY BUBASTITE. 
 
 (B. C. 993-847.) 
 Sheshonk I., or Shishak !., (B. C. 
 
 993-972). 
 
 Osorkon I., (B. C. 972-957). 
 Takelot I., (B. C. 957-956). 
 Osorkon II., (B. C. 956-934). 
 Sheshonk II. 
 Takelot II. 
 Sheshonk III. 
 Pimai. 
 
 Sheshonk IV. 
 TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY TANITE. 
 
 (B. C. 847-758.) 
 Petubastes, or Petsupasht, (B. C. 
 
 847-807). 
 
 Osorkon IV., (B. C. 807-799). 
 Psammus, or Psemut, (B. C. 799- 
 
 789). 
 
 Zet, or Seti III., (B. C. 789-758). 
 TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY SAITE. 
 
 (B. C. 758-730.) 
 Bekenhauf, or Bocchoris. 
 TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY ETHIOPIAN. 
 
 (B. C. 724-650.) 
 
 Sabaco, or Shabak, (B. C. 724-719). 
 Shabatok, (B. C. 712-698). 
 Tirhakah, or Tehrak, (B. C. 698-667.) 
 Rut-ammon, (B. C. 667-660). 
 Mi-ammon-Nut, (B. C. 600-S50). 
 TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY SAITE. 
 
 (B. C. 650-525.) 
 Psammetichus, or Psamatik L, (B. C. 
 
 665-610). 
 
 Neko, (B. C. 610-594). 
 Psammis, or Psamatik II., (B. C. 
 
 594-588). 
 Uahabra, Apries, or Pharaoh Hophra, 
 
 (B. C. 588-569). 
 Amasis, Aahmes, or Ames, (B. C. 
 
 569-525). 
 Psammenitus, or Psamatik I IL, (B. 
 
 C. 525). 
 TWENTY-SEVENTH DYNASTY PERSIAN. 
 
 (B. C. 525-332.) 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH DYNASTY NATIVE. 
 
 (B. C. 460-455.) 
 Amyrtaeus.
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 65 
 
 TWENTY-NINTH DYNASTY MENDESIAN. 
 
 (B. C. 405-384.) 
 Neferites, or Nefaorot, (B. C. 405- 
 
 399). 
 
 Achoris, or Hakar, (B. C. 399-386). 
 Psammuthis, (B. C. 386-385). 
 Nepherites II., (B. C. 384). 
 
 THIRTIETH DYNASTY SEBENNYTIC. 
 
 (B. C. 384-346). 
 Nectanebo I., or Nekht-nebef, (B. 
 
 C. 384-366). 
 
 Teos, or Tachos, (B. C. 366-364). 
 Nectanebo I., or Nekht-nebef, (B, 
 
 SECTION V. EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 MODERN ethnologists, in general, regard the ancient Egyptians as 
 of Asiatic origin, since they differed so much from other African 
 races, such as the Berbers and the Negroes, in language, the shape 
 of their skulls, and their physiognomy. The skulls of the ancient 
 Egyptians, and of their legitimate descendants, the modern Copts, are 
 eminently Caucasian ; while the Egyptian language has analogies con- 
 necting it with the Aryan and Semitic tongues. The conclusion that 
 the Egyptians, at least the upper and middle classes of them, were 
 Asiatic immigrants into the Nile valley, is therefore a safe one. They 
 are believed to have been kindred with other races of South-western 
 Asia, such as the Canaanites, the primitive Chaldaeans, and the South- 
 ern Arabs. We must accordingly conclude that Syria or Arabia was 
 the cradle of the Egyptian nation. 
 
 Some have maintained that the immigration was from the south of 
 the Nile valley, and that the Egyptians were of Ethiopian origin ; but 
 recent research has shown conclusively that the movement of the Egyp- 
 tians was from north to south. Says Mr. Birch, the latest English 
 historian of Egypt: "The study of the monuments furnishes incon- 
 trovertible evidence that the historical series of Egyptian temples, 
 tombs and cities, constructed on either bank of the Nile, follow one 
 upon another in chronological order, in such sort that the monuments 
 of the greatest antiquity, the Pyramids for instance, are situated 
 furthest to the north; while the nearer one approaches the Ethiopian 
 cataracts, the more do the monuments lose the stamp of antiquity, and 
 the more plainly do they show the decline of art, of beauty, and of 
 good taste. Moreover, in Ethiopia itself the existing remains present 
 us with a style of art that is absolutely devoid of originality. At the 
 first glance one can easily see that it represents Egyptian art in its 
 degeneracy, and that art ill understood and ill executed. The utmost 
 height to which Ethiopian civilization ever reached was a mere rude 
 imitation, alike in science and in art, of Egyptian models." 
 
 The color of the ancient Egyptians was brown, like that of the 
 modern Copts. For this we have the authority of the monuments. 
 The women were lighter than the men, being depicted on the monu- 
 ments as yellow. The hair was usually black and straight, though 
 
 VOL. 1. 5 
 
 Origin of 
 the 
 
 Ancient 
 Egyp- 
 tians. 
 
 Birch's 
 Opinion. 
 
 Color and 
 Hair-
 
 66 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Features. 
 
 Form and 
 Move- 
 ments. 
 
 Tribes. 
 
 Intellec- 
 tualRank. 
 
 sometimes it grew in short, crisp curls. Men generally shared botli 
 hair and beard, and went about with their heads perfectly bare, or 
 else wore wigs or a close-fitting cap. Women always wore their own 
 hair, and plaited it in long tresses, sometimes extending down to the 
 waist. The hair of the wigs, and that found sometimes on the heads 
 of mummies, is coarse. 
 
 The features of the Egyptians resembled those of their Syrian 
 neighbors. The forehead was straight, but low; the nose generally 
 long, though sometimes slightly aquiline. The lips were over full, 
 but the upper lip was short, and the mouth was seldom too wide. The 
 chin was good, being well rounded, and neither receding nor extend- 
 ing too far. The eye was a long, narrow slit, like that of the Chi- 
 nese, but placed horizontally, instead of obliquely. The eyebrow, like- 
 wise long and thin, shaded the eye. The coloring was always dark ; 
 the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard (where there was one), being 
 black, or nearly so, and the eyes black or dark brown. 
 
 The Egyptians resembled the modern Arabs in form. They were 
 tall, with long and supple limbs, and with the head well placed upon 
 the shoulders. Their movements were graceful, their carriage digni- 
 fied. Generally, however, their frames were spare, and their hands and 
 feet unduly large. The women were as thin as the men, and their 
 forms were almost similar. Children, however, were sufficiently 
 plump. 
 
 The Egyptians were divided into distinct tribes. We read in the 
 Mosaic account of Ludim ? Anamim, Lebahim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, 
 Casluhim and Caphtorim as distinct "sons of Misraim" as separate 
 tribes of the people who occupied the "two Egypts." 
 
 The Egyptians ranked high intellectually among the ancient na- 
 tions. In art they exhibited wonderful power. Mr. Birch says that 
 their architecture "was on the grandest scale, and dwarfs the Greek 
 in comparison." The Egyptians had a high moral standard theo- 
 retically, but practically their morals were very lax. Says Brugsch, 
 the eminent German Egyptologist: "The forty-two laws of the Egyp- 
 tian religion, contained in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead, 
 fall short in nothing of the teachings of Christianity." The same 
 authority further says that Moses, in compiling his code of laws, did 
 only "translate into Hebrew the religious precepts which he found in 
 the sacred books" of the Egyptians, among whom he had been brought 
 up. The Egyptian women were notoriously loose in their character, 
 exceedingly immodest and licentious. The men openly practiced im- 
 purity, and boasted of it in their writings. An inclination to luxu- 
 rious living was also a defect in the Egyptian character; and drunk- 
 enness was a common vice among both sexes, all the appeals and ex-
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 57 
 
 hortations of the priests in favor of temperance being unavailing to 
 stem the tide of general debauchery. Sensual pleasure and amuse- 
 ment seemed the ends of existence among the upper classes in general. 
 False hair was worn, dyes and cosmetics were used to produce artificial 
 beauty, magnificent dress was worn, equipages were splendid, great 
 banquets were frequently held, games and sports were constant, and 
 life was passed in feasting, sport and a continual succession of enjoy- 
 ments. The effect of self-indulgence is seen in the national decay of 
 these people, and their successive subjections to hardier races, such 
 as the Ethiopians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Macedonian 
 Greeks. 
 
 Their family affection is shown by the paintings, where husbands Character- 
 and wives are everywhere represented with their arms around each 
 other's necks. The Egyptians were industrious, cheerful and gay 
 even under hardships; but they were cruel, vindictive, treacherous, 
 avaricious, superstitious and servile. The use of the bastinado was 
 universal, being employed to inflict punishment for minor offenses, 
 while superiors freely beat inferiors. The poor peasantry were forced 
 by blows to yield to the extortions of the tax-gatherers, and slaves 
 were impelled to labor under fear of the rod, which the taskmaster 
 freely applied to the backs of laggards. The passions of the Egyp- 
 tians often broke out in riot, insurrection and murder. They were 
 extremely fanatical in religious belief, and ready to wipe out in blood 
 any insult to their religion. 
 
 They were at times timid, submissive and sycophantic. The lower Servility, 
 classes prostrated themselves before their superiors, tamely submitting 
 to blows. The great nobles were equally servile to their sovereign, 
 addressing him as a god, and ascribing to him their continued exis- 
 tence in this life. 
 
 Though successful in their early wars, when their disciplined troops Military 
 attacked undisciplined hordes, they were defeated whenever they en- DeflBCt8 - 
 countered a brave and skillful enemy. Their readiness to break en- 
 gagements when their fulfillment was inconvenient, made them unre- 
 liable allies ; and for this reason the Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of 
 Egypt as a "bruised reed, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his 
 hand and pierce it." 
 
 The government of Egypt was a theocratic monarchy, the king Govern- 
 being the earthly representative of the Deity. His body was consid- 
 ered sacred, and he was worshiped as a god. His title of Phrah, or 
 Pharaoh, signifying the Sun, ranked him as the emblem of Helios, 
 or Phrah, or Ra, the Sun-god. His right and duty was to preside 
 over the sacrifices and to pour out libations to the gods. He was 
 thus the head of the national religion, as well as the civil and political
 
 gg ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 head of the state. The kingly office was hereditary, but the monarch 
 was not an absolute ruler; and the political system was a combination 
 of theocracy, monarchy and hierarchy, the king's power being more or 
 less curtailed by the power of the priesthood, or hierarchical class. 
 In this respect Egypt differed from an Asiatic despotism, where the 
 sovereign was unlimited lord and master over his subjects. An Egyp- 
 tian Pharaoh did not possess unlimited power over the lives and prop- 
 erty of his people, but his authority was strictly defined and limited 
 by law, and nothing was left to passion or caprice. The monarch, 
 however, possessed the right to make new laws. The king's public 
 duties and personal habits were minutely defined by religious regula- 
 tions, the sacred books prescribing his food, drink, dress and the em- 
 ployment of his time, thus allowing him less individual freedom than 
 was enjoyed by the humblest and most degraded of his subjects. He 
 was not permitted to give way to excessive indulgence of any kind. 
 No slave or hireling was permitted to hold office about his person, for 
 fear that he might be contaminated by such unworthy presence, but 
 those of the highest rank only were accorded the privilege of attend- 
 ing him and ministering to his wants. The ritual of every morning's 
 worship constantly refreshed his memory with a knowledge of the vir- 
 tues of former kings, and reminded him of his own kingly and personal 
 duties. After his death his body was placed in an open court, where 
 any and every one of his subjects might bring accusations against 
 him; and if his conduct in life was proven to have been unworthy 
 his exalted station, he was forever excluded from the tombs of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 Castes. The ancient Egyptians were divided into classes or castes, distin- 
 guished by their ranks and occupations ; the priests forming the high- 
 est caste, the warriors the second caste, and husbandmen, gardeners, 
 boatmen and herdsmen the lowest caste. 
 
 Priest- The priesthood possessed great authority in the state and were the 
 "power behind the throne." So far as the sovereign was concerned 
 they used their power wisely and well. Their habits of life were sim- 
 ple and moderate. Their diet was plain in quality and limited in 
 quantity, and they abstained from fish, mutton, swine's flesh, beans, 
 peas, garlic, leeks and onions, which were articles of food among the 
 common people. They bathed twice a day and twice during the night, 
 some of the more strict in water tasted by their sacred birds, the ibis, 
 to make sure of being purged of all uncleanness. Their abstinence, 
 purity and humility, and their reputation for learning, enabled the 
 priests to hold the people in religious, political and mental subjection. 
 By their knowledge of physical science they could frighten and ter- 
 rorize the superstitious and ignorant lower classes by optical illusions
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 69 
 
 Soldiers. 
 
 and other tricks. By their power to try the dead they could decide 
 the fate of any man, from the king to the swineherd, by refusing 
 him a passport to the outer world. The priests prescribed the re- 
 ligious ritual of every Egyptian, from the king to the meanest of his 
 subjects. 
 
 The Egyptian priesthood embraced an order including many pro- Its Rank 
 fessions and occupations. They alone were acquainted with the arts 
 of reading and writing, and with medicine and the other sciences. 
 They cultivated the science of medicine from the earliest ages. The 
 universal practice of embalming was exercised by the physicians, thus 
 enabling them to study the effects of various diseases by examining the 
 body after death. Asiatic monarchs sent to Egypt for their physi- 
 cians, and the fertile soil of the Nile valley furnished drugs for the 
 whole ancient civilized world. Even in our own time the characters 
 used by druggists to denote drams and ounces are the Egyptian 
 ciphers adopted by the Arabs. 
 
 The soldiers, or military caste, which ranked next to the sacerdotal, 
 or priestly order, numbered about four hundred thousand persons. 
 When not engaged in military service, either in foreign wars, in gar- 
 risons or at the royal court, these were settled on their lands, which 
 were located principally on the east side of the Nile or in the Delta, 
 which portions of the country were the most exposed to hostile inva- 
 sion by a foreign foe. Each soldier was allotted about six and a 
 half acres of land, exempt from all taxation or tribute ; and from the 
 proceeds of this land he defrayed the expenses of his arms and equip- 
 ments. The soldier, however, could not engage in any art or trade. 
 The lands of the priests and soldiers were considered privileged prop- 
 erty, while all other lands were regarded as the king's property, and 
 were rented by him to farmers, who paid a yearly rent of one-fifth 
 of the produce. 
 
 Below the priests and warriors were the various unprivileged castes, 
 embracing husbandmen, gardeners, boatmen, artisans of various kinds, 
 and herdsmen, comprising shepherds, goatherds and swineherds. 
 These latter were intensely despised as the most degraded of human 
 creatures, and were not allowed to enter the temples. All castes below 
 the priesthood and the warrior class were deprived of all political 
 rights and disqualified from ownership in land. 
 
 The two privileged castes, the priests and warriors, are believed to 
 have been the descendants of the Asiatic conquerors and immigrants 
 into Egypt, while the lower classes were the descendants of the Ethi- 
 opian aborigines of the Nile valley. The Egyptian castes were not 
 as fixed as those of the Hindoos, as the educational system enabled 
 any one of superior talent to rise above his native rank. Says Rawlin- 
 
 Unprivi- 
 
 leged 
 
 Castes. 
 
 Origin and 
 Nature of 
 
 theCastes.
 
 70 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Land 
 Owner- 
 ship. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural 
 Laborers. 
 
 son: "Castes, in the strictest sense of the word, did not exist in 
 Egypt, since a son was not absolutely compelled to follow his father's 
 profession." Intermarriages sometimes occurred between members of 
 the priestly and warrior castes, and transitions between them were 
 common. The same was the case between members of the various 
 unprivileged orders. Still, in the main, the same rank, professions and 
 occupations remained in the same families for hundreds and hundreds 
 of years, and the evils of class distinction were almost equal to those 
 of the fixed castes of India. The upper classes despised all handi- 
 crafts, and "every shepherd was an abomination in the sight of an 
 Egyptian." There were many slaves who had been captives taken in 
 war. The class system tended to discourage personal ambition, and 
 thus to check all progress and improvement after the earliest high 
 state of civilization had been attained, and was the principal cause 
 of the final national decay of this renowned ancient people. 
 
 The land in Egypt belonged exclusively to the king, the priests and 
 the soldiers, during the period of the New Empire; all other land- 
 owners having surrendered their proprietorship to the king, while the 
 Hebrew Joseph was prime minister, occupying them only afterward 
 as tenants of the crown by paying an annual rental of one-fifth of 
 the produce. 
 
 The lot of the agricultural laborer in Egypt was a hard one. 
 There were few Egyptian peasants rich enough to rent their farms 
 and till them for themselves. Most of them were hired laborers work- 
 ing on the estates of others, under the supervision of brutal overseers 
 or taskmasters, who applied the bastinado to the backs of the idle or 
 refractory on the slightest pretext. The peasant farmer was not 
 much better off. Writes Amenemun to Pentaour: "Have you ever 
 represented to yourself the estate of the rustic who tills the ground? 
 Before he has put the sickle to the crop, the locusts have blasted a 
 part of it ; then come the rats and the birds. If he is slack in housing 
 his grain, the thieves are upon him. His horse dies of weariness as 
 it drags the wain. Anon, the tax-gatherer arrives; his agents are 
 armed with clubs ; he has Negroes with him, who carry whips of palm 
 branches. They all cry, 'Give us your grain!' and he has no easy 
 way of avoiding their extortionate demands. Next, the wretch is 
 caught, bound and sent off to work without wage at the canals ; his 
 wife is taken and chained; his children are stripped and plundered." 
 Tuaufsakhrat, in the "Praise of Learning," gives a similar account 
 in these words: "The little laborer having a field, he passes his life 
 among rustics ; he is worn down for vines and pigs, to make his kitchen 
 of what his fields have ; his clothes are heavy with their weight ; he is 
 bound as a forced laborer; if he goes forth into the air, he suffers,
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 7^ 
 
 having to quit his warm fire-place; he is bastinadoed with a stick on 
 his legs, and seeks to save himself; shut against him is the hall of 
 every house, locked are all the chambers." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the small cultivator was oppressed with Their 
 extortionate taxation, collected by the brutal tax-gatherers ; that Hard Lot 
 forced labors were exacted of him, and that he was bastinadoed with 
 a stick on the back or legs if he resisted. He was torn from his 
 family and homestead, and forced to labor under the hot Egyptian 
 sun at cleaning out or banking up the canals. No wages being paid 
 him, and insufficient food being furnished him, he often perished under 
 the hardships imposed upon him by a merciless government. If an 
 iron constitution saved him and he returned home, he frequently found 
 his family dispersed, his wife carried off, and his mud cabin in ruins. 
 He was regarded with contempt, not alone by the privileged classes, 
 but also by their servants, and even by their slaves. 
 
 The laws of Egypt were remarkable, and are another evidence of Laws, 
 the high civilization of the people. Bossuet has said that "Egypt 
 was the source of all good government." Perjury was considered the 
 most heinous of all crimes an offense alike against gods and men 
 and was punishable with death. Any one seeing a person defending 
 his life against a murderer, and failing to render him assistance, was 
 also capitally punished, as being equally guilty with the assassin. If 
 the witness were unable to assist the defendant, he was bound to report 
 the assailant to the lawful authorities. A person falsely accusing 
 another was punished as a calumniator. Every Egyptian was bound 
 to furnish the authorities with a written statement of his means of 
 livelihood; and any one giving a false account, or following an un- 
 lawful pursuit, was punished with death. A wilful murderer was like- 
 wise put to death. A judge who condemned an innocent person to 
 death was punished as a deliberate murderer. A soldier who deserted 
 his ranks was punished with infamy, but could recover his lost honor 
 by future gallant behavior. Making counterfeit money, false 
 weights, scales or measures, falsifying public records, or forging 
 documents, were crimes punished with the loss of both hands. A 
 man's property could be seized for debt, but not his person ; and if a 
 debtor swore that he owed nothing to a creditor who was without a 
 bond, the debt was void. The interest was never permitted to exceed 
 the principal. 
 
 The Egyptians were the first people to organize a regular army, Army 
 and thus to lay the foundation for the whole system of ancient war- 
 fare, including the military systems of the ancient Asiatic monarchies. 
 The war-chariots formed the most important part of an Egyptian 
 army, and were used instead of cavalry. These chariots were mounted Chariots.
 
 j ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 on two wheels, and were very carefully made. They were hung low, 
 were open behind to enable the warrior to step in and out with ease, 
 and had no seat. They were drawn by two horses, and usually con- 
 tained two warriors, one to manage the horses, and the other to fight. 
 The war-chariots of different nations differed from each other. The 
 harness and housings of the horses were elegantly decorated. A 
 quiver and bow-case, tastefully and skillfully decorated, were fixed to 
 the chariot on the outside. The Egyptian national weapon was the 
 bow, used by infantry and charioteers. 
 
 Archery. The Egyptians were the most skillful archers of antiquity. Their 
 bows were the most powerful, and their arrows, drawn to the ear, were 
 the best aimed, of those of all ancient nations. The children of the 
 military caste were trained to the practice of archery from the earliest 
 infancy. The heavy arms of the Egyptian infantry were a spear, a 
 dagger, a short sword, a pole-ax, a battle-ax, a helmet and a shield. 
 Some of the principal officers used coats of mail for protection. The 
 light troops were armed with swords, battle-axes, maces and clubs. 
 Every battalion had its standard, with some symbol or sacred object 
 represented thereon, generally the emblem of the nome or tribe. The 
 soldiers were called out by conscription, drilled to the sound of the 
 trumpet, and taught to march in measured time. In the most ancient 
 period cavalry were used as skirmishers, videttes and expresses. In 
 attacking walled cities battering-rams, besieging-towers and scaling- 
 ladders were used. The Egyptians, like other ancient nations, treated 
 their captives very cruelly, putting them to death or reducing them 
 to slavery. 
 
 Treat- The Egyptians readily gave quarter when an enemy submitted, and 
 
 ^ Hen thousands of prisoners were often taken in their military expeditions. 
 Foes. If they ran down an enemy's ship they exerted themselves to rescue 
 the men on board from the waves, and took them to their own vessels 
 at the risk of their own lives. Enemies who laid down their weapons 
 on land and sued for mercy were usually spared. Their arms were 
 bound together by a cord passed round them a little above the elbows, 
 and they were led from the field to the camp, usually in long strings, 
 each conducted by one Egyptian. Laggards were urged forward by 
 fear of the bastinado, which was freely applied by those in charge 
 of the captives. All captives were considered as belonging to the 
 king, and consequently became his slaves, being employed by him in 
 forced labors during the rest of their lives ; but sometimes the monarch 
 rewarded individual captors by allowing them to hold their own pris- 
 
 Mutila- oners, who thus passed into private servitude. 
 
 Slain ^e Egyptians, in order to ascertain the number of slain among 
 
 Foes. an enemy's army on the battle-field, mutilated them, cutting off and
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 73 
 
 carrying to the camp the right hand, the tongue or some other portion 
 of the body. Heaps of each of these are shown in the sculptures, 
 which the royal scribes are represented as counting in the king's pres- 
 ence, before registering them. Each soldier received a reward upon 
 showing these proofs of his prowess. 
 
 The fertilizing of the soil by the annual inundation of the Nile, 
 and the irrigation of the country by means of numerous canals, con- 
 tributed to make Egypt the great granary of antiquity, from which 
 other nations drew their supplies in times of famine. The naturally 
 fertile soil and the spontaneous growth of the date-palm furnished 
 the people with cheap and abundant food, and agriculture received 
 much attention. 
 
 The rapid increase and density of the Egyptian population, which, 
 as we have already said, was about seven millions, crowded in the nar- 
 row valley of the Nile, only seven miles in width, was due to the abun- 
 dance and cheapness of food and the readiness with which it could 
 be obtained. This fact accounts for the ease with which great public 
 works like the Pyramids, that were useless, could be built ; as the mon- 
 archs were thus enabled to employ the labor of hundreds of thousands 
 of men, who were not required by necessity to labor in any other 
 way. 
 
 The non-interference of the government with agriculture was an 
 advantage. The grain was sowed when the inundation had disap- 
 peared. In some parts of Egypt the husbandman only scattered the 
 seed upon the rich Nile deposit and caused it to be trodden in by 
 sheep, goats or pigs, and then simply awaited the harvest. Plows, 
 of a simple construction, and hoes were used in preparing the ground 
 in other portions of the country. The plows were drawn by two 
 oxen or two cows, yoked to it by the shoulders or by the horns. 
 Sometimes a single plowman guided the plow by holding one handle 
 in his left hand, and carrying a whip in his right ; but generally there 
 were two plowmen, one holding the two handles, and the other driving 
 the animals with the whip. In light and loose soils the hoe was used 
 instead of the plow. The hoes and plows were of wood. The grain 
 cultivated was wheat, barley, and what Herodotus called zea or olyra, 
 probably the modern doora. The wheat and barley were used by the 
 rich, and the doora by the poor. The wheat was cut with a toothed 
 sickle, a little below the ear, and put in baskets or bound in sheaves. 
 The filled baskets were carried in by men or donkeys to the threshing- 
 floor, and there emptied on a heap. Sometimes the corn was conveyed 
 from the harvest-field to the granary or storehouse, and kept there a 
 month. Threshing was done by means of cattle, which were driven 
 round and round the threshing-floor, while a laborer, with a pitch-fork, 
 
 Soil and 
 Agricul- 
 ture. 
 
 Farming 
 Imple- 
 ments. 
 
 Cultiva- 
 tion of 
 
 Wheat.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 threw the unthreshed ears into their path. The threshed corn was at 
 once winnowed, by being tossed into the air with shovels, in a place 
 where the draught of air would blow off the chaff as the corn fell. 
 After this operation the cleansed grain was carried in sacks to the 
 granary, and there stored until used. 
 Barley The cultivation of barley was similar to that of wheat, and barley 
 bread was in great demand. Beer was also brewed from the grain. 
 The door a was pulled up by the roots, and the earth was then shaken 
 off by the hand. It was bound in sheaves and carried to a storehouse ; 
 and after it was dry it was unbound and drawn by the hand through 
 an instrument, armed at one end with a set of metal spikes, which 
 separated the heads from the straw. These were, perhaps, then also 
 threshed and winnowed. Beans, peas and lentils were also raised. 
 Artificial grasses, such as clover, lupins and vetches, were grown to 
 furnish provender for the cattle during the inundation. Flax was 
 raised in great abundance for the linen out of which garments were 
 made. Cotton, indigo, safflower, sesame, the castor-oil plant, and vari- 
 ous medicinal herbs were also cultivated. Esculent vegetables, such 
 as garlic, onions, leeks, endive, radishes, melons, cucumbers, lettuces, 
 etc., were likewise raised in considerable quantities, and formed a large 
 element in the food of the people. The raising and harvesting of 
 these different crops employed the agricultural class for the greater 
 part of the year. In addition to the yearly overflow of the Nile, the 
 country was fertilized by irrigation in the form of a system of canals, 
 with embankments, sluices and flood-gates, by which the overflow was 
 retained in vast reservoirs, and thus utilized. This system of irriga- 
 tion was established at an early date, and was maintained with the 
 greatest care by the government. In the district of the Faioom, a 
 natural depression in the Libyan desert, eight or ten miles from the 
 Nile valley, a canal was cut from the Nile, thus filling this depression 
 with water, and forming an artificial lake, known as the "Lake 
 Moeris." From this immense reservoir, canals were cut in all direc- 
 tions to irrigate the surrounding desert. In this region, by this sys- 
 tem of irrigation, the cultivation of the olive was rendered possible. 
 In the edge of the Nile valley, toward the desert of Hdger, where the 
 soil was light and composed of sand mixed with gravel, the vine was 
 cultivated all the way from Thebes to Memphis. It was also grown 
 in the Faioom, and in the western part of the Delta. The fruit, after 
 being gathered, was carried in baskets to the storehouse, where the 
 juice was extracted by treading or squeezing in a bag. After fer- 
 mentation the wine was stored away in vases or amphorae of an elegant 
 shape, closed with a stopper and then hermetically sealed with moist 
 clay, pitch, gypsum or other substance.
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 75 
 
 In the large estates of the rich land-owners the herdsmen were Overseers, 
 under the supervision of overseers. The peasant who cultivated the 
 land on which the flocks and herds fed was responsible for their proper 
 support and for the exact account of the amount of food which they 
 consumed. Some persons were wholly employed in taking care of the 
 sick animals, which were kept at home in the farm-yard. The over- 
 seer of the shepherds attended, at stated periods, to give a report 
 to the scribes connected with the estate, by whom it was submitted 
 to the steward, who was accountable to his employer for this and all 
 his other possessions. The paintings represent the head shepherd 
 rendering his account, and behind him we see the flocks assigned to 
 his charge, consisting of the sheep, goats and wild animals belonging 
 to the person in the tomb. In one painting the expressive attitude 
 of this man, with his hand at his mouth, is imagined to convey the idea 
 of his effort to remember the numbers which he is giving, from mem- 
 ory, to the scribes. In another painting the numbers are written over 
 the animals. The oxen are numbered eight hundred and thirty-four, 
 the cows two hundred and twenty, the goats three thousand two hun- 
 dred and thirty-four, the asses seven hundred and sixty, and the sheep 
 nine hundred and seventy-four. These are followed by a man carry- 
 ing the 3^oung lambs in baskets slung upon a pole. The steward, in 
 a leaning posture upon his staff, and accompanied by his dog, stands 
 on one side ; while the scribes, writing out their statement, occupy 
 the other side. Another painting shows us men bringing baskets of 
 eggs, flocks of geese, and baskets full of goslings. An Egyptian 
 "Goose Gibbie" is represented as making obeisance to his master. In 
 still another painting we see persons feeding sick oxen, goats and 
 geese. The ancient Egyptians carried the art of curing diseases in 
 all kinds of animals to great perfection ; and the testimony of ancient 
 writers and paintings is sustained by a discovery of Cuvier, who 
 found the left shoulder of a mummied ibis fractured and reunited, 
 thus showing; that human art intervened in this case. 
 
 O 
 
 The ancient Egyptians of every class delighted in field-sports, and 
 the peasants considered it a duty, no less than amusement, to hunt and 
 kill the hyena and other wild animals which annoyed them. The 
 paintings show us numerous hunting scenes and various devices for 
 catching birds and beasts. The hyena is usually represented as 
 caught in a trap. Wild oxen were caught by a noose or lasso, in very 
 much the same manner as the South Americans catch horses and cat- 
 tle, though the Egyptians are not represented as riding on horseback 
 when they used it. The introduction of a bush in one painting, just 
 behind the man throwing the lasso, would seem to imply that the hunts- 
 man was concealed. Other wild animals hunted were the hippopota- 
 1-b 
 
 Hunting, 
 Fishing 
 
 and 
 Fowling.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Paintings 
 
 of Farm 
 
 Life. 
 
 Beasts of 
 Burden. 
 
 Memphis 
 
 and 
 Thebes. 
 
 mus, the jackal, the fox, the crocodile, the porcupine, the gazelle, the 
 ibex, the hare, the antelope, and even the ostrich. Wild cattle were 
 also hunted. Lions, upon the borders of Egypt, were hunted by a 
 few of the kings, but there is only one representation of a royal lion 
 hunt. Sometimes lions were tamed, and were used in the chase of 
 other animals, according to a single painting. One king is repre- 
 sented as having "hunted a hundred and twenty elephants on account 
 of their tusks." Fishing and fowling were also favorite sports among 
 the Egyptians. Hounds were likewise used in pursuing game. 
 
 All the departments of agriculture, farming, breeding cattle, etc., 
 are illustrated in the paintings with wonderful accuracy and detail. 
 We observe oxen lying on the ground, with legs pinioned, while herds- 
 men are branding marks upon them with hot irons, and other men are 
 heating irons in the fire. The paintings give us full accounts of the 
 king's kine, which are generally copied after the fattest specimens. 
 One of these represents the Pharaoh as himself a tolerably extensive 
 grazier, the king's ox being marked eighty-six. Another illustrates 
 a regular cattle-show; another the actual operation of the veterinary 
 art, cattle doctors being exhibited as performing operations upon sick 
 oxen, bulls, deer, goats and geese. The hieroglyphic denoting a 
 physician is the fowl whose cry is "Quack! quack!" 
 
 Egyptian beasts of burden were asses, cows and oxen. Horses were 
 used for riding, for drawing curricles and chariots, mainly by men 
 of the upper classes, and for drawing the plow. Multitudes were 
 required for the war-chariots and for the cavalry service. A brisk 
 trade in horses was carried on with Syria and Palestine, where they 
 were in great demand and commanded high prices. The horses of 
 ancient Egypt were kept constantly in stables, fed on straw and 
 barley, and were not allowed to graze in the fields. The larger land- 
 owners also possessed wild animals, such as wild goats, gazelles and 
 oryxes ; and also wild fowl, such as the stork, the vulpanser and others. 
 Egyptian farmers also bred large numbers of sheep, goats and pigs. 
 
 Egypt has been an object of interest to mankind in every age, as 
 the birth-place of civilization, art and science. In this narrow strip 
 of country, "the Gift of the Nile," only seven miles wide and five 
 hundred and twenty-six miles long, were seven million inhabitants. 
 The Nile valley is studded with the ruins of ancient cities. Memphis, 
 the chief city of Middle Egypt, or the Heptanomis, so called from 
 its seven nomes, was situated about twelve miles south of the apex of 
 the Delta, and as we have said, was founded by Menes, the first Egyp- 
 tian king. In the vicinity of Memphis are the most splendid of the 
 pyramids, which extend for seventy miles on the west bank of the 
 Nile, and among which are the famous Pyramids of Ghizeh, already
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. iyiy 
 
 Described. In this vicinity is also the Great Sphinx, or woman-headed 
 lion, one hundred and forty-six feet long and thirty-six feet wide 
 across the shoulders. Here are also the ruins of the famous Laby- 
 rinth, and miles on miles of rock-hewn temples. The magnificent and 
 stately Thebes, the hundred-gated city of Upper Egypt, or the The- 
 bai's, is said to have extended over twenty-three miles. On its site are 
 the villages of Karnak and Luxor, where the ruins of magnificent and 
 spacious temples, splendid palaces, colossal statues, avenues of obe- 
 lisks and lines of sphinxes, tombs of kings hewn in the solid rock, 
 subterranean catacombs and the gigantic statue of Memnon, still bear 
 witness to the immense size and splendor of this great and celebrated 
 city, whose ruins extend for seven miles along both banks of the 
 Nile. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians had a wonderful building instinct, and Architec- 
 architecture was the greatest of all their arts. The distinguishing e * 
 
 features were massiveness and grandeur, in which they have never 
 been surpassed. This great people delighted in pyramids, sphinxes, 
 obelisks and stupendous palaces and temples, with massive columns and 
 spacious halls of solemn and gloomy grandeur, in which our largest 
 cathedrals could stand, adorned with elaborately-sculptured colossal 
 statues, and connected with which were avenues of sphinxes and lines 
 of obelisks. Their pyramids are the oldest, as well as the largest 
 and most wonderful of human works yet remaining, and the beauty 
 of their masonry, Wilkinson declares, has never been surpassed. An 
 obelisk of a single stone now standing in Egypt weighs three hundred 
 tons, and a colossus of Rameses the Great nearly nine hundred tons; 
 and Herodotus describes a monolithic temple weighing five thousand 
 tons, which was carried hundreds of miles on sledges, as were also the 
 huge blocks of stone, sometimes weighing sixteen thousand tons each, 
 with which the pyramids were built. In one instance two thousand 
 men were employed three years in conveying a single stone from the 
 quarry to the structure in which it was to be placed. There is a 
 roof of a doorway at Karnak covered with sandstone blocks forty feet 
 long. Sculpture and bas-reliefs thirty-five or forty centuries old, in 
 which the granite is cut with exquisite delicacy, are yet to be seen 
 throughout this famous land. The pyramids were all built on strictly 
 scientific and mathematical principles. 
 
 The obelisks, so called on account of their peculiar shape, were tall Obelisks, 
 and slender monoliths erected at the gateways of temples, one standing 
 on each side. From the quarries of Syene they were floated down the 
 Nile on rafts during an annual overflow. They were formed in ac- 
 cordance with a certain rule of proportion, and were from twenty to 
 one hundred and twenty-three feet high. The names and titles of the
 
 78 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 kings who erected them were recorded in hieroglyphic carvings on the 
 sides. An obelisk at Luxor was taken to Paris in 1833 and erected in 
 the Place de la Concorde. Several others had previously been re- 
 moved to Rome. Two famous obelisks, after standing for eighteen 
 centuries at the gate of the temple of the sun at Heliopolis, where 
 they had been erected by King Thothmes III., were removed to Alex- 
 andria by the Romans just after their conquest of Egypt, in the time 
 of Augustus Caesar. These were known at Alexandria as Cleopatra's 
 Needles, and one was transported to London a few years ago. The 
 other was shortly after transported to New York, and is now one of 
 the objects of interest greeting the eye of the beholder in Central 
 Park. 
 
 Science. Egypt, renowned for its discoveries in art and science, was the 
 ancient world's university, where Moses, Lycurgus and Solon, Pytha- 
 goras and Plato, Herodotus and Diodorus lawgivers, philosophers 
 and historians were students. The ancient Egyptians had made 
 considerable progress in the sciences, particularly astronomy, geom- 
 etry, arithmetic, chemistry, medicine and anatomy. Their knowledge 
 of astronomy is proven by the accuracy with which they calculated 
 solar and lunar eclipses; by their mode of reckoning time and their 
 knowledge of the length of the year as being three hundred and sixty- 
 five days ; by their knowledge of the spherical shape of the earth ; and 
 by their ability to compute latitude and longitude, as demonstrated 
 by the fact that the tomb of Cheops, Suphis, or Khufu, the king who 
 built the largest of the three great Pyramids of Ghizeh, is located 
 exactly on the 30th parallel of north latitude. 
 
 Arts. The ancient Egyptians had attained great skill in many of the finer 
 
 mechanical arts, such as pottery, the manufacture of glass and porce- 
 lain, dyeing and the making of linen and cotton goods. They like- 
 wise excelled in the polishing and engraving of precious stones, and 
 in metallurgy. Mining was one of their industries. Their walls and 
 ceilings were painted in beautiful patterns, which moderns yet imitate ; 
 and in the production of useful and ornamental articles they have never 
 been surpassed, either in ancient or modern times. 
 
 Language. The language of the ancient Egyptians was related to the lan- 
 guages of the Semitic nations, but differed from them in many par- 
 ticulars. There were different dialects in Upper and Lower Egypt. 
 
 Writing. The Egyptians practiced the art of writing far more extensively 
 than any other ancient people. The pyramids and monuments, even 
 to the most remote antiquity, bear inscriptions, and it was the custom 
 to mark every article of use or ornament. There were three kinds 
 of writings in use. For monumental inscriptions hieroglyphics were 
 used. For documents the writing was executed on leaves of the papy-
 
 THE ROSETTA STONE 
 
 [About one-sixth the actual size]
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 79 
 
 rus plant, from which our word paper is derived. The third kind of 
 writing was the demotic, that of the common people, so called from 
 demos, the people. The writing was executed with a reed pen. The 
 hieroglyphics were traced in black, but commenced in red, and the 
 sculptured hieroglyphs were also embellished with colors. The hiero- 
 glyphic signs are pictorial, and are of four kinds representative, 
 figurative, determinative and phonetic. Much of this ancient litera- 
 ture has come down to us in a fragmentary and disconnected form. 
 Remnants of papyrus manuscripts of the most ancient Theban dynas- 
 ties about four thousand years old are still in existence. The pro- 
 fessional scribes were from the priestly class. 
 
 The discovery of the famous Rosetta Stone, during Bonaparte's Rosetta 
 Egyptian campaign, in 1798, led to the deciphering of the hiero- Stone, 
 glyphic inscriptions on the monuments, which has been the means of 
 throwing a flood of new light upon the history of ancient Egypt. 
 All three forms of hieroglyphic writing were unknown to the Greeks, 
 to whom the monumental inscriptions were interpreted by the Egyptian 
 priests. The key to these writings was lost, thus concealing the treas- 
 ures of Egyptian learning from the civilized world for centuries. 
 The copies of the three kinds of inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone 
 the hieroglyphic, the demotic and the Greek given to European 
 scholars, were the means of opening this long-sealed library on stones 
 and papyri. In 1815 Dr. Young, the English Egyptologist, dis- 
 covered the key to the texts, and the distinguished French Egyptolo- 
 gist, Champollion, made a successful application of the newly-dis- 
 covered key. The Rosetta Stone is now in the British Museum. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians surpassed all other nations in their love for Record*, 
 recording all human actions. They preserved in writing, on papyrus, 
 a record of all the details of private life with surprising zeal, method 
 and regularity. Every year, month, week and day had its record of 
 transactions. This inclination fully accounts for Egypt being the 
 monumental land. No other human records whether of Chaldaea, In- 
 dia or China go as far back into remote antiquity as do those of 
 2gypt. Bunsen says: "The genuine Egyptian writing is fully as 
 old as Menes, the founder of the Old Empire, perhaps three thousand 
 years before Christ." Lepsius saw the hieroglyph of the reed and 
 inkstand on the monuments of the Fourth Dynasty. Herodotus re- 
 marked: "No Egyptian omits taking accurate note of extraordinary 
 and striking events." Everything was recorded. Scribes are every- 
 where seen on the monuments, taking accounts of the products of the 
 farms, going into the most minute details, even so far as to giving 
 account of every single egg and chicken. Bunsen further says: "In 
 spite of the ravages of time, and though systematic excavation has
 
 80 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 scarcely yet commenced, we possess chronological records of a date 
 prior to any period of which manuscripts are preserved, or the art of 
 writing existed in any other quarter." 
 
 Their It is owing to their fondness for recording everything, both in pic- 
 
 State of t ures an( j J n three kinds of writing ; also to their fondness for building 
 tion. and excavating temples and tombs in imperishable granite ; and lastly, 
 to the dryness of the air which has preserved for us these paintings, 
 and to the sand which has buried the monuments, thus preventing 
 their destruction it is owing to all these circumstances that we have 
 so wonderfully preserved, for forty-five centuries, the account of the 
 everyday life, thoughts and religious belief of this renowned ancient 
 people. 
 
 High Civ- The most ancient mural paintings reveal a state of the arts of 
 ilization. civilization so perfect as to excite the wonder of archaeologists, who 
 therefore know how few new things there are under the sun. We find 
 houses with doors, windows and verandas, likewise barns for grain, 
 vineyards, gardens, fruit trees, etc. We also see pictures of march- 
 ing troops, armed with spears and shields, bows, slings, daggers, axes, 
 maces and the boomerang. We also notice coats of mail, standards, 
 war-chariots, and the assault on forts by means of scaling-ladders. 
 Sepul- The ancient Egyptian tombs likewise exhibit scenes of domestic life 
 Paintings anc ^ cus t ms similar to those of our own times. We observe monkeys 
 trained to gather fruit from the trees in an orchard, houses furnished 
 with a great variety of chairs, tables, ottomans, carpets, couches, as 
 elegant and elaborate as any used at the present day. There are like- 
 wise seen comic pictures of parties, where ladies and gentlemen are 
 sometimes represented as being the worse for wine; of dances, where 
 ballet-girls in short dresses perform pirouettes of the modern kind; 
 of exercises in wrestling, games of ball, games of chance like chess 
 or checkers ; of throwing knives at a mark ; of the modern thimble-rig, 
 wooden dolls for children, curiously-carved wooden boxes, dice and 
 toy-balls. We have likewise presented to our view men and women 
 playing on harps, flutes, pipes, cymbals, trumpets, drums, guitars and 
 tambourines. We find glass to have been in general use by this great 
 people nearly four thousand years ago, as early as the reign of Usur- 
 tasen I., and we can see pictures of glass-blowing and glass bottles 
 as far back as the Fourth Dynasty. The most skillful Venetian glass- 
 workers can not rival some of the old Egyptian glass-work ; as the 
 Egyptians could combine all colors in one cup, place gold between two 
 surfaces of glass, and finish in glass details of feathers, etc., which 
 can not be distinguished without the use of the microscope. This 
 last fact demonstrates that they must have understood the use of the 
 magnifying-glass. The Egyptians likewise imitated with success the
 
 EGYPTIAN TOILET ARTICLES, VASES, AMPHORA, ETC.
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 81 
 
 colors of precious stones, and were even able to make statues thirteen 
 feet high, closely resembling an emerald. They made mosaics in glass 
 of colors of wonderful brilliancy. They were able to cut glass in the 
 most ancient periods. Chinese bottles have also been found in pre- 
 viously-unopened tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, showing that 
 there must have been commercial intercourse as far back as that period. 
 The Egyptians could spin and weave and color cloth, and understood 
 the use of mordants, as in modern calico printing. Pliny described 
 this art as practiced in Egypt. 
 
 The art of making writing-paper from the papyrus, or paper- Arts and 
 plant, is as ancient as the Pyramids. The Egyptians tanned leather 
 and made shoes ; and the shoemakers are represented as working on 
 their benches precisely as do our own. Their carpenters used axes, 
 saws, chisels, drills, planes, rulers, plummets, squares, hammers, nails, 
 and hones for sharpening. They likewise knew the use of glue in 
 cabinet-making, and there are paintings in veneering, in which a piece 
 of thin, dark wood is fastened by glue to a coarser piece of light wood. 
 Their boats were propelled by sails on yards and masts, as well as 
 by oars. They used the blowpipe in making gold chains and other 
 ornaments. They had rings of gold and silver for money, and 
 weighed it in carefully-constructed scales. Their hieroglyphics are 
 carved on the hardest granite so delicately and accurately as to indi- 
 cate the use of metallic cutting instruments harder than our best steel. 
 The siphon was known to these people as early as the fifteenth century 
 before Christ. The wig was worn by all the higher classes, who con- 
 stantly shaved their heads, as well as their chins, and frequently wore 
 false beards. In the tombs are found sandals, shoes and low boots, 
 some of them very elegant. Loose robes, ear-rings, finger-rings, 
 bracelets, armlets, anklets and gold necklaces were worn by women. 
 Vases for ointment, mirrors, combs, needles, etc., are found in the 
 tombs. These people also had their doctors and drugs. The preva- 
 lence of the passport system is also shown by the careful descriptions 
 of the person contained in their deeds, in precisely the same style as 
 those required by travelers in Europe. The description of Egyptian 
 customs and manners here given is but a small part of that revealed 
 to us in painting or sculpture in the tombs, or, upon the walls of 
 Thebes or Beni-Hassan. 
 
 At their feasts, which were numerous among the rich, the host and Feasts. 
 hostess presided. The seats were single or double chairs, but num- 
 bers sat on the ground. The servants decked the guests with lotus 
 flowers, and placed meat, cakes, fruits and other articles of food on 
 the small tables in front of them. Hired musicians and dancers 
 entertained the company. Their games were something like our 
 VOL. l. 6
 
 gg ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 chess or checkers. The rich rode in chariots, or in heavy car- 
 riages drawn by oxen. Women received more respectful treatment 
 and enjoyed more freedom in Egypt than in any of the Asiatic 
 nations. 
 
 Games. Games of ball were played by females, as well as by males, and one 
 picture shows us that the loser was obliged to allow the winner to 
 ride on her back. 
 
 Shops. Egyptian shops furnished many curious scenes. Poulterers sus- 
 pended geese and other fowls from a pole in front of the shop, which 
 also supported an awning to shade them from the sun. Many of the 
 shops resembled our stalls, being open in front, with the goods set on 
 the shelves or hanging from the inner wall; a custom still prevailing 
 in the East. In the Egyptian kitchens were likewise exhibited singu- 
 lar scenes, among which we find representations of a cook roasting a 
 goose. He holds the spit with one hand, and blows the fire with a fan 
 in the other. Another person is seen cutting up joints of meat and 
 putting them into the pot, which is boiling close at hand ; while other 
 joints of meat are lying on the table. 
 
 Artists Egyptian artists and scribes put their reed pens behind their ears, 
 
 Scribes. wnen examining the effect of the painting or listening to a person 
 on business, as in a modern counting room. The paintings in some 
 instances represent the scribe at worl; with a spare pen behind his 
 ear, his tablet upon his knee, and his writing-case and inkstand on 
 the table in front of him. 
 
 Dress. The dress of the highest class consisted of the shenti, a short linen 
 or woolen garment, folded or fluted, and worn around the loins, being 
 fastened with a girdle. A fine linen robe, reaching to the feet, was 
 worn over this, being provided with long sleeves reaching to the elbows. 
 A second girdle fastened the outer robe to the waist. The arms and 
 lower parts of the legs were left bare. Sandals or shoes of leather, 
 or of palm-leaves or papyrus stalks, were worn by the rich of both 
 sexes. The Egyptian lords wore ornaments, such as collars of beads 
 or gold chains round their necks, armlets and bracelets of gold round 
 the arms, rings upon the fingers, and anklets round the ankles. The 
 Egyptian women wore a single garment, tied at the neck or fastened 
 by straps over the shoulders, p.nd reaching from the neck or breast to 
 the feet; but those of the upper class wore over this a colored sash, 
 passed twice around the waist and tied in front, and over this second 
 garment a large, loose, fine linen robe with full open sleeves, reaching 
 to the elbow. They wore sandals like the men, and the same orna- 
 ments, with the addition of ear-rings in the form of serpents or end- 
 ing in the heads of animals or of goddesses. Elegant head-dresses 
 were worn.
 
 EGYPTIAN HAIR-DRESSING AND HEADWEAR
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 83 
 
 The most important trades among the Egyptians were those of 
 building, stone-cutting, weaving, furniture-making, chariot-making, 
 glass-blowing, pottery, metallurgy, boat-building and embalming. 
 The builders worked in wood, stone and brick. The mechanical ex- 
 cellence of their works is fully attested by their continuance to the 
 present day. 
 
 The paintings frequently allude to the occupations of the mason, 
 the stone-cutter and the sculptor. Workmen are represented polish- 
 ing and painting statues of men, sphinxes and small figures. In two 
 cases are illustrated large granite colossi, surrounded with scaffolding, 
 on which are represented men employed in polishing and chiseling the 
 stone; the painter coloring the hieroglyphics which the sculptor had 
 engraved on the back of the statue. 
 
 Stone-cutting embraced the occupations of quarrying and shaping 
 blocks for the builder, and of cutting, polishing and engraving gems. 
 The Egyptians are still without rivals in the former branch. Blocks 
 of stone were usually cut with a single-handed saw in the hands of a 
 single sawyer. Sometimes the pick and chisel were used to a consid- 
 erable extent, after which wedges of dry wood were inserted ; and these 
 expanded on being wetted, and split off the required block from the 
 mass of stone in the quarry. The tools used were mostly of bronze. 
 Blocks of stone, obtained from the quarries, were finally smoothed and 
 prepared for use by means of the chisel and mallet. 
 
 The Egyptians carried on an extensive commerce with other coun- 
 tries ; importing gold, ivory, ebony, skins and slaves from Ethiopia 
 and Central Africa, incense from Arabia, and spices and gems from 
 India; and exporting, in exchange for these articles, grain and cloth. 
 As the Egyptians had not attained much skill in the art of ship-build- 
 ing, their trade was carried on principally by Greek and Phoenician 
 merchants. 
 
 Egyptian sculpture was designed to illustrate the religious faith of 
 the people, and for this reason was characterized by grandeur and 
 sublimity rather than beauty. Their peculiar taste was the outgrowth 
 of their religious ideas, for the aim was to inspire awe rather than 
 please the eye with graceful and elegant forms. This checked all 
 progress in art, for all inventive genius was fettered by conventional 
 rules founded on religious beliefs. Colossal statues, uncouth alle- 
 gorical figures and strange ideal forms of animals supplied the place 
 of nature and beauty in Egyptian art. Painting, as illustrated by 
 the specimens in the interiors of temples and sepulchers, was likewise 
 intended to serve the cause of religion, and was trammeled by the 
 same conventional rules, certain colors being strictly prescribed in rep- 
 resenting the bodies and draperies of the gods, thus sacrificing variety 
 
 Trades 
 and Occu- 
 pations 
 
 Masons, 
 Stone- 
 Cutters, 
 Sculptors. 
 
 Stone- 
 Cutting. 
 
 Com- 
 merce. 
 
 Sculp- 
 ture.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Statues, 
 
 Reliefs, 
 
 Intaglios. 
 
 Great 
 Sphinx. 
 
 Animal 
 Forms. 
 
 of form to an ideal monotony. The painting was often executed in 
 brilliant coloring, but the drawing lacked accuracy, exhibiting no 
 compliance with the rules of perspective or the plainest laws of vision. 
 The pigments used were characterized by durability and often by 
 brilliancy. 
 
 Ancient Egyptian sculpture embraces statuary; reliefs, or repre- 
 sentations of forms on a flat surface by means of a certain projection; 
 and intaglios, or representations by cutting the forms into stone or 
 marble, thus sinking them below the surface. Completely detached 
 statues are rare in Egypt. The statues were cut out of stone. There 
 are grotesque figures of Phthah and Bes, which produce disgust and 
 aversion. Egyptian statuary was distinguished for massiveness and 
 strength. The statuettes, in bronze, basalt or terra-cotta, are less dig- 
 nified than the statues, but possess more elegance and grace. The 
 Great Sphinx, near the Pyramids of Ghizeh, is a striking monument, 
 and impresses the beholder with its air of impassive dignity. Other 
 sphinxes have a certain calmness and grandeur. There are also stat- 
 uettes of bulls, monkeys and dogs, which are fairly good. 
 
 Animal forms are excellent, but the chief defects of Egyptian 
 drawings are improper proportion and incorrect perspective. The 
 bas-reliefs have the same defects in this respect as their statues and 
 statuettes ; and there is a frequent intrusion of hideous forms, as seen 
 in the three huge and misshapen figures, so frequently seen upon the 
 ceilings of temples, and which are supposed to represent "the heav- 
 ens." Bes in all his forms is fearful to behold; as are also Taouris, 
 Savak, Cerberus, Khem, and sometimes even Osiris. The forms of the 
 gods are all more or less repulsive; the stiff outlines, the close-fitting 
 robes, the large hands and feet, the frequent animal heads and im- 
 mense head-dresses, the ugly or inexpressive faces, recall the mon- 
 strosities of the religious representations of Brahmanism and Bud- 
 dhism. 
 
 Drawings. The drawings, mostly of a serious nature, are of four kinds 1, 
 religious, where worship, especially sacrifice, is offered to the gods, or 
 where the gods sustain the king, or where the soul passes through 
 scenes it will endure after death; 2, processional, where the monarch 
 goes in state, or where tribute is brought to him, or where the pomp 
 of a funeral, or the installation of an official, or some other civil cere- 
 mony, forms the subject; 8, war scenes, such as land and naval bat- 
 tles, sieges of forts, marches of armies, the return home with booty 
 and captives, etc. ; 4, scenes of ordinary life, as exclusively represented 
 in the tombs, where the houses and goods, the occupations, the hunting 
 scenes, the entertainments, and the amusements of the deceased are 
 depicted. These tomb scenes are the most numerous and the most
 
 From Sttrtofraph, copyright by Underwood &* L'ndcr-uiood 
 
 RUINS OF THE GRANITE TEMPLE NEAR THE SPHINX, WITH THE 
 GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 85 
 
 interesting; and here the Egyptians are sportive and amusing, exhib- 
 iting playfulness and humor, and even approaching caricature. 
 
 In painting the Egyptians drew figures of men and animals, and Painting, 
 also of other objects, in outline on a white background, and then filled 
 in the outline, wholly or partially, with masses of uniform hue, prac- 
 ticing no shading or softening of the tints. All the exposed parts of 
 a man's body were colored with a uniform red-brown; all the exposed 
 portions of a woman's body, with a lighter red or a yellow. Except 
 in the case of foreigners, the hair and beard were pitch-black. 
 Dresses were mostly white, with their folds marked by lines of red or 
 brown, and were sometimes striped or otherwise patterned, generally 
 red- or blue. Most large surfaces were more or less patterned, gener- 
 ally with small patterns of various colors, including much of white. 
 The stone on which the Egyptians painted whether sandstone, fos- 
 siliferous limestone, or granite was covered with a coating of stucco, 
 which was white or whitish and prevented the colors from being lost 
 by sinking into the background. Besides black, white, red, blue and 
 yellow, they used green, brown and gray, as colors in their paintings. 
 The black is a bone-black. The white is prepared from pure chalk 
 with a light trace of iron. The red and the yellow are ochres, the 
 coloring matter being iron mixed with the earthy substance. The 
 blue is derived from the oxide of copper combined with pulverized 
 glass. The green is the same preparation combined with yellow ochre. 
 The brown is a mixture of blue-black with the red. The colors were 
 mixed with water and with a moderate amount of gum, to make the 
 mixture adhesive and tenacious. They were applied to a stuccoed 
 flat surface, or to figures in relief or intaglio. 
 
 The great temple-palace of Rameses III. at Medinet-Abu fully illus- 
 trates the combined effects of painting and sculpture in Egypt. On 
 the north-east wall of this ruined structure is represented, in painting, 
 the king on a throne, inscribed with a hawk-headed figure leading a 
 lion and sphinx. Behind the king are the winged effigies of Truth 
 and Justice. Twelve royal princes bear the shrine, and high officers 
 of state wave their lobelia before their august sovereign, while priests 
 carry his arms and insignia. The monarch's sons bear the footstool 
 of his throne, and are accompanied by scribes and great warriors. 
 There is likewise seen a procession of scholars, fan-bearers and sol- 
 diers. A great scribe delivers a proclamation from a roll of papyrus, 
 and the high-priest burns incense before the shrine. Birds fly in every 
 direction, as if to spread Pharaoh's fame to every quarter of the world. 
 This is but a part of the elaborate sculpture, the effect of which is 
 heightened by the painter's art, on the inside walls of the great temple- 
 palace. The temples and palaces of Thebes exhibit a similar degree 
 
 Temple- 
 Palace of 
 Rameses 
 III.
 
 86 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Embalm- 
 ing and 
 Sepul- 
 ture. 
 
 Tombs. 
 
 Embalm- 
 ing. 
 
 of form and color, which appear almost as perfect as if they had just 
 come from the artist's hand. 
 
 As we shall observe, the belief of the future reunion of the soul and 
 body was the reason taken to preserve the latter from decay, as exem- 
 plified in the singular custom of embalming the dead, which was the 
 universal practice among this celebrated people, and also in the great 
 pains taken to ornament the insides of the rock-hewn supulchers, the 
 belief prevailing that the dead body in the tomb was not entirely 
 unconscious. 
 
 While other nations embellished the temples and palaces of the liv- 
 ing, the ancient Egyptians decorated their tombs, the receptacles of 
 the dead, with lavish splendor. Many of these highly-ornamented 
 sepulchral chambers seem only accessible through long, narrow and 
 intricate passages. The entrances to others seem to be closed with 
 the strictest care, and hidden with reverential sanctity. A necropolis, 
 or "city of the dead," belonged to each city or nome. In the rock- 
 hewn sepulchers of Memphis and Thebes were treasured up all the 
 scenes in which the living monarch and his subjects had figured. 
 Egypt abounds with immense tombs, whose walls, like those of the tem- 
 ples, are adorned with the most wonderful paintings, executed three 
 and four thousand years ago. In these paintings, the entire country, 
 with all its natural productions, its vegetables, animals, birds, fishes, 
 and the people in all their private and domestic occupations, are delin- 
 eated with a remarkable fidelity of outline and an extraordinary rich- 
 ness of coloring. 
 
 Religion was at the foundation of the extraordinary care which 
 the Egyptians bestowed upon their dead. The whole art of embalm- 
 ing the body the preparing, the bandaging, the anointing, in fact 
 the entire process of forming the mummy was a duty of the priests. 
 This remarkable custom was a universal national usage among the 
 ancient Egyptians, and had an inseparable connection with their re- 
 ligious dogmas and sentiment. The origin of this singular practice 
 has been traced to the local circumstances of the country. In Egypt 
 the customs of burning and burying the dead, which have prevailed 
 among other nations, were impracticable the first, because the coun- 
 try produces little timber, and its fruit-trees, such as the date-palm 
 and others, are too valuable for ordinary consumption; and the sec- 
 ond, because in the narrow Nile valley all the land available for agri- 
 cultural purposes was required for the sustenance of the dense popu- 
 lation, and also because the annual inundation of the Nile would have 
 washed up the bodies and generated pestilence. The rocky mountain 
 ranges on each side of the river seemed designed by nature for sepul- 
 chers ; but the multitudes of the dead could not with safety be heaped
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 87 
 
 Metem- 
 
 together in a state of decomposition, even in the inmost chambers 
 of their rocks, without breeding pestilence. Ancient Egypt was re- 
 markably free from the epidemic plagues which now desolate the Nile 
 land, on account of the universal practice of embalming the dead, 
 which cut off one chief source of noxious vapors. This peculiar cus- 
 tom was, therefore, a wise sanitary regulation, adopted by the priestly 
 lawgivers, and incorporated with the civil and religious institutions 
 of the nation. 
 
 The Egyptian lawgivers, having recognized this provision as essen- 
 tial to the public health, secured its universal and permanent practice ^ 
 by associating it with the doctrines of the soul's immortality and the 
 metempsychosis, or transmigration of the soul. It was believed that 
 every spirit, upon leaving the body, must pass through a predestined 
 cycle of three thousand years, entering successively into the bodies 
 of various animals, until it returned to the human body from which 
 it had departed. Whenever the body which it had last left became 
 subject to corruption the course of its migrations was suspended; the 
 end of its long journey and its ardently-wished-for return to more 
 exalted states of existence was delayed. For this reason the utmost 
 care was taken to preserve the bodies of human beings and animals, 
 and secure them forever from decomposition and putrefaction. Thus 
 this usage was enforced by stringent and sacred laws, and certain 
 orders of the priesthood were expressly empowered with the duty of 
 carrying it into execution. Embalming was performed with solemn 
 religious rites. Herodotus tells us that when a body was found seized 
 by a crocodile, or drowned in the Nile, the city upon whose territory 
 the body was cast was obliged to take it in charge and to cause it to 
 be embalmed and interred in a sepulcher. 
 
 The tombs of the wealthy consisted of one or more chambers, orna- Structure 
 mented with paintings and sculpture, the place and size of which "Vati^ " 
 depended on the expense which the family of the deceased incurred, 
 or on the wishes of the persons who purchased them during their life- 
 time. These sepulchers were owned by the priests ; and as a sufficient 
 number were always held in readiness, the purchase was made at the 
 shortest possible notice, even the sculptures and inscriptions being so 
 far complete as to require only the insertion of the name of the de- 
 ceased, and a few statements concerning his family and profession. 
 The numerous subjects illustrating agricultural life, the trades and 
 occupations of the people, their diversions, etc., were already intro- 
 duced. These were the same in all the tombs, differing only in their 
 details and the manner of their execution, and were probably designed 
 as a brief epitome of human life, being adapted equally to every future 
 occupant. In some cases all the paintings of the tomb were com- 
 
 of the
 
 88 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Family 
 Affection 
 Illus- 
 trated. 
 
 Apart- 
 ments of 
 
 the 
 Tombs. 
 
 pleted, and even the small figures representing the tenant were intro- 
 duced, only those of larger size being left unsculptured, because they 
 required more accuracy in the features to give a correct portrait. In 
 some instances even the large figures were finished before the tomb was 
 sold, only the hieroglyphic legends containing the names of the tenant 
 and his wife remaining to be inserted. The priests often sold old 
 mummy-cases and tombs belonging to other persons, altering the 
 hieroglyphics and giving the name of the new tenant. This was 
 especially the case when the purchaser was satisfied, from motives of 
 economy, with a second-hand tenement for the remains of his departed 
 friend. 
 
 The tomb was invariably prepared as a resting-place for the bodies 
 of a husband and his wife. Whichever died first was interred in the 
 sepulcher, or was kept embalmed in the house until the death of the 
 other. The manner in which husband and wife are always repre- 
 sented, with their arms around each other's waist or neck, illustrates 
 the affectionate disposition of the ancient Egyptians. The presence 
 of the different relatives, who are introduced in the performance of 
 some tender office to the deceased friend, shows the attachment of a 
 family to its departed relatives. 
 
 Besides the upper rooms of the Egyptian tombs, which were orna- 
 mented with the paintings already described, there were pits, from 
 twenty to seventy feet deep, at the bottom and sides of which were 
 recesses, like small chambers, for the reception of the coffins. The 
 pit was closed with masonry after the interment of the body, and was, 
 in some cases, reopened to receive the other members of the family. 
 The upper apartments were profusely ornamented with painted sculp- 
 tures, thus bearing the character of a monument in honor of the de- 
 ceased, rather than his sepulcher. These apartments served for the 
 reception of the friends of the deceased, who often met there, and 
 accompanied the priests when performing the services for the dead. 
 Tombs were built of brick or stone, or cut in the solid rock, accord- 
 ing to the position of the necropolis. The rock-hewn tombs were 
 preferred wherever the mountains were near enough to the Nile, and 
 these were usually the most elegant in design and variety of sculpture. 
 The sepulchers of the poorer classes had no upper chamber. The 
 coffins of these were laid in pits in the plain, or in recesses at the side 
 of a rock. Mummies of the lower orders were interred together in a 
 common repository, and the remains of those whose relatives were too 
 poor to defray the expenses of a funeral, after being cleansed and 
 kept in an alkaline solution for seventy days, were wrapped up in 
 coarse cloth, in mats or in a bundle of palm sticks, and laid in the 
 earth.
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 We have the following account of the funeral of Nophri-Othph, a Funeral 
 priest of Amun, at Thebes, from the walls of his tomb. The scene 
 of the funeral was on the lake, and on the way from the lake to the 
 sepulcher. At the head of the procession was a large boat conveying 
 the bearers of flowers, cakes and many things relating to the offer- 
 ings, tables, chairs and other articles of furniture, as well as the friends 
 of the deceased, these being conspicuous by their dresses and their 
 long walking-sticks, the distinguishing mark of Egyptian gentlemen. 
 Next came a small skiff, carrying baskets of cakes and fruit, with a 
 supply of green palm-branches, which it was the custom to strew in 
 the way as the body was being conveyed to the tomb ; the smoothness 
 of the palm-leaves and stalks making it easy for the sled to glide 
 over them. The love of caricature, so general among the Egyptians, 
 even in so serious a matter as a funeral, is exemplified in this portion 
 of the scene. A large boat having run aground and being pushed off 
 the bank, struck a smaller one with its rudder, and overturned a large 
 table, loaded with cakes and other things, upon the heads of the rowers 
 seated below, notwithstanding all the exertions of a man in the prow, 
 and the vehement cries of the frightened helmsman, whose alarm was 
 uncontrollable. 
 
 In another boat were men carrying bunches of flowers and boxes Scenes at 
 supported by yokes on their shoulders. Then followed two other p-un^ai 
 boats, one conveying the male mourners, and the other the female 
 mourners, standing on the roof of the cabin, beating themselves, utter- 
 ing cries and making other demonstrations of grief. At last came 
 the consecrated boat, carrying the hearse, around which were the chief 
 mourners and the female relatives of the deceased. Upon arriving 
 at the opposite shore of the lake, the procession marched to the cata- 
 combs. On their way, several women of the vicinity, carrying their 
 children in shawls, suspended from the side or back, joined in the 
 lamentations of the funeral train. The mummy was set in a standing 
 position in the chamber of the tomb; and the sister, wife or nearest 
 relative, embracing it, began a funeral dirge, calling upon the de- 
 ceased with every expression of affection, extolling his virtues and 
 bewailing her own great loss. The high-priest presented a sacrifice 
 of incense and libation, with offerings of cakes and other usual gifts 
 for the dead; and the male and female mourners continued the wail- 
 ing, throwing dust upon their heads, and making other demonstra- 
 tions of grief. 
 
 Another painting represents the judgment of a wicked soul, which Judgment 
 is condemned to return to earth in the form of a pig, having been -^ ic ked 
 weighed in the scales before Osiris and found wanting. It is put in Soul, 
 a boat, and, attended by two monkeys, is expelled from heaven, all
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Period of 
 Mourning 
 and Em- 
 balming. 
 
 Em- 
 balmers. 
 
 Expensive 
 Style of 
 
 Em- 
 balming. 
 
 intercourse with which is symbolically cut off by a man hewing away 
 the ground behind it with an axe. 
 
 During the whole period of seventy-two days of mourning for the 
 dead, the process of embalming the body was performed. This em- 
 balming was performed by the physicians, who, as we have observed, 
 were of the priestly order. Vast numbers of sacred animals bulls, 
 apes, dogs, cats, sheep, etc. were likewise embalmed. It is said that 
 more than four hundred million mummies of human beings were made 
 in Egypt. In recent years many of these mummies have been brought 
 from the land of the Pharaohs to our musuems. Tombs have been 
 opened revealing thousands of them in rows one upon another, without 
 coffins. Shiploads of them have been transported to England, and 
 ground up for fertilizers for the soil. 
 
 The embalmers of dead bodies constituted a numerous class among 
 the ancient Egyptians, and must have carried on a prosperous trade, 
 if the prices mentioned by Diodorus were actually those usually ex- 
 acted. According to the Sicilian historian, the most improved method 
 of preparing a corpse for interment cost a sum which, in our money, 
 would amount to about a thousand dollars. A secondary and much 
 inferior method required an expenditure amounting to about four hun- 
 dred dollars. The lowest and poorest classes had a third method, the 
 price of which was comparatively moderate; but the vast numbers of 
 this class must have made the profits to the embalmers considerable. 
 It has been estimated that between B. C. 2000 and A. D. 700, when 
 embalming ceased, there may have been interred in Egypt four hun- 
 dred and twenty million mummied corpses, averaging one hundred and 
 fifty-five thousand yearly. If five-sixths of these, or one hundred and 
 thirty thousand, belonged to the lower classes, while two-fifteenths, or 
 twenty thousand, may have been furnished by the middle classes, and 
 one-thirtieth, or five thousand, by the wealthy classes, and if the poor 
 man paid one-twentieth of the price paid by those of the upper middle 
 class, the annual amount received by the embalmers would have ex- 
 ceeded fifteen million dollars of our money. 
 
 The process of embalming was very ancient in Egypt, and by the 
 time of the Eighteenth Dynasty the art had reached a remarkable 
 degree of perfection. In the most expensive system, the brain was 
 extracted with great skill by a curved, bronze implement through the 
 nostrils, after which the skull was washed out with certain medica- 
 ments. The nostrils were plugged up, the eyes were removed and their 
 places supplied with artificial ones of ivory or obsidian, and the hair 
 was likewise sometimes removed and placed in a separate packet, cov- 
 ered with linen and bitumen. An opening was cut in the right side 
 with a flint knife, through which the entire intestines were removed
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 91 
 
 by the hand and deposited in sepulchral urns. The cavity was then 
 cleansed by an injection of palm-wine, and sometimes by a subsequent 
 infusion of pounded aromatics ; after which it was filled with bruised 
 myrrh, cassia, cinnamon and other spices. The whole body was then 
 immersed in natron for seventy days. The finger-nails were kept in 
 place with thread, or by means of silver gloves or stalls placed over 
 the fingers. A tin plate, inscribed with the symbolic eye, was laid 
 over the incision in the right side. The arms were arranged sym- 
 metrically along the sides, or on the breast or groins. The body was 
 then bandaged. Linen bandages were always used, and were gener- 
 ally three or four inches wide and several yards long. The coarser 
 linen was nearest the body, the finer towards the outside. In some 
 instances the bandages in which a single corpse was swathed were over 
 seven hundred, or, according to Pettigrew, over a thousand yards 
 long. The bandages were joined together and kept in place with 
 gum. After the bandaging, an outer linen shroud, dyed red with 
 the carthamus tinctorius, and ornamented with a network of porcelain 
 beads, was put over the entire body ; or the bandaged body was cov- 
 ered by a " cartonnage," composed of twenty-four layers of linen 
 tightly pressed and glued together, thus forming a kind of pasteboard 
 envelope, which was then thinly coated with stucco, and painted in 
 bright colors with hieroglyphics and figures of deities. The body was 
 then placed within a wooden coffin shaped similarly, and in most in- 
 stances similarly ornamented; and this coffin was often enclosed within 
 another, or within several, each just capable of holding the preceding 
 one. In the funerals of the wealthy the coffined body was placed 
 within a stone chest, or sarcophagus, which might be of granite, ala- 
 baster, basalt, breccia or other good material, and was either rectangu- 
 lar or in the form of the mummied body. Some sarcophagi were 
 plain, but many were adorned with sculptures in relief or intaglio, 
 embracing mainly scenes and passages from the most sacred of Egyp- 
 tian writings, the "Ritual of the Dead." 
 
 When the family or relatives were unable or indisposed to incur the Moderate 
 large expense required by this costly mode of embalming, a cheaper stvle - 
 method was adopted. The viscera, instead of being deposited with 
 spices in separate urns, could be returned into the body, accompanied 
 by wax images of the four genii. The abdominal cavity could be 
 only cleansed with cedar oil, and not filled with spices. The silver 
 finger-stalls and artificial eyes could be dispensed with. The bandages 
 could be reduced in number and made of coarser linen. The ornamen- 
 tation could be simpler. A single wooden coffin would be sufficient, 
 and the sarcophagus might be done without. Thus the expense of 
 funerals could be reduced within moderate limits. 
 19
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Cheap 
 Style. 
 
 A still cheaper mode was necessary for the poorer classes. Some- 
 times the bodies of the poor were submerged in mineral pitch. Often 
 they were only dried and salted. Bodies prepared in this manner are 
 in some cases swathed in bandages, but are frequently only wrapped 
 in coarse cloths or rags. These bodies are not enclosed in coffins, and 
 have been only buried in the ground, some singly, others in layers, 
 one above the other. The expense of these modes of embalming was 
 so trifling as to be within the reach of the poorest. 
 
 Religious 
 
 Character 
 
 of the 
 
 Ancient 
 
 Egyptians. 
 
 Religious 
 Univer- 
 sality- 
 
 SECTION VI. EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 CONCERNING the Egyptians, Herodotus says: "They are of all men 
 the most excessively attentive to the worship of the gods." Much of 
 the theology, mythology and ceremonies of the Hebrews and Greeks 
 had their origin in Egypt. Herodotus further says: "The names of 
 almost all the gods came from Egypt to Greece." He also states 
 that the Greek oracles, especially that of Dodona, were brought from 
 Egypt, and that the Egyptians first introduced public festivals, pro- 
 cessions and solemn supplications, which the Greeks learned from them. 
 He goes on to say: "The Egyptians are beyond measure scrupulous 
 in matters of religion." They invented the calendar and connected 
 astrology with it. Says Herodotus: "Each month and day is as- 
 signed to some particular god, and each person's birthday determines 
 his fate." He likewise says: "The Egyptians were also the first to 
 say that the soul of man is immortal and that it transmigrates through 
 every variety of animal." The Greek Mysteries of Eleusis were taken 
 from those of Isis, and the story of the wanderings of Ceres in pursuit 
 of Proserpine was borrowed from that of Isis in search of Osiris. 
 Modern writers agree with Herodotus. Wilkinson says : " The Egyp- 
 tians were unquestionably the most pious nation of all antiquity. The 
 oldest monuments show their belief in a future life. And Osiris, the 
 Judge, is mentioned in tombs two thousand years before Christ." 
 Bunsen says: "It has at last been ascertained that all the great gods 
 of Egypt are on the oldest monuments." He goes on to say: "It is 
 a great and astonishing fact, established beyond possibility of doubt, 
 that the empire of Menes, on its first appearance in history, possessed 
 an established mythology, that is, a series of gods. Before the empire 
 of Menes the separate Egyptian states had their temple worship regu- 
 larly organized." 
 
 M. Maury, the French Egyptologist, says that everything among 
 the Egyptians took the stamp of religion. Their writing was so full 
 of sacred symbols as to render it almost useless for any other purpose.
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 93 
 
 Literature, science and art were branches of theology and worship. 
 The most common labors of daily life were constantly interrupted by 
 some reference to priestly regulation. The future fate of every 
 Egyptian was perpetually before him, so that he only lived to worship 
 the gods. When the sun set, it seemed to die ; when it arose, it seemed 
 a symbol of the resurrection. Religion penetrated so deeply into the 
 people's habits that it became an instinct. It was of all polytheisms 
 the last to give way to Christianity, retaining its votaries as late as 
 the sixth century of the Christian era. 
 
 The ancient Egyptian religion was a perplexing mixture of mono- Corn- 
 theism and polytheism, of lofty and noble conceptions and of degrad- p e< a ^ r - 
 ing superstitions. 
 
 The sacred books of the ancient Egyptians contained the religion Priestly 
 of the priests, who were monotheists and considered it impious to rep- ( 
 
 resent the Supreme Being by images and idols ; but they made him 
 known to the masses by personifying his various attributes and mani- 
 festations, as Phthah the Creator, Amun the Revealer, and Osiris the 
 Benefactor and Judge, and so on through an innumerable list of pri- 
 mary, secondary and tertiary characters, which, to the untutored 
 masses, became so many separate deities, thus accounting for the poly- 
 theistic faith of the lower classes. Some portion of the divine life 
 was believed to pervade plants and animals, which were consequently 
 cherished and worshiped by the ignorant ; for what to the wise and 
 learned were merely symbols became to the people distinct objects of 
 adoration ; and the Egyptian priests, like other ancient philosophers, 
 disdained to enlighten the people, whom they despised and deemed in- 
 capable of comprehending their grand conceptions, and whom they 
 desired to hold in subservience to their own and the kingly authority. 
 
 Thus there were two kinds of Egyptian theology esoteric, or an Two 
 interior theology, for the initiated, and exoteric, or an exterior theol- Theoioev 
 ogy, for the uninitiated. The interior hidden theology for the priests 
 and the wise related to the unity and spirituality of the Deity. The 
 exterior theology for the masses consisted of mythological accounts of 
 Osiris and Isis, the judgment of the dead, the metempsychosis, or 
 transmigration of the soul, and everything pertaining to the cere- 
 monial worship of the gods. 
 
 Herodotus tells us that the Egyptian masses believed in three orders Three 
 of gods, and Bunsen and Wilkinson thought that they had succeeded 
 in tracing them from the monuments. Thus there were eight gods of 
 the first order, twelve gods of the second order, and seven gods of the 
 third order. The gods of the first order were of a higher and more 
 spiritual class ; those of the second order were a transition from the 
 first order to the third children of the first and parents of the third.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Third 
 Order. 
 
 First 
 Order. 
 
 Ammon, 
 or Amun. 
 
 Kneph. 
 
 The first order of gods was for the priesthood, and taught them the 
 unity, spirituality and creative power of the One True and Indivisible 
 Supreme Being. 
 
 The gods of the third order were for the masses of the people, and 
 were the personal agents which represented the forms and forces of 
 external nature, which was believed by the ignorant masses to work 
 through this third series of gods, the most popular of which were Osiris 
 and Isis. The gods of the second or intermediate order were neither 
 so abstract as those of the first order, nor so concrete as those of the 
 third order not representing either the spiritual characteristics of 
 the gods of the first class, or the natural qualities and forces of those 
 of the third class, but rather the powers and faculties of human beings. 
 For this reason most of the deities of this second class were adopted 
 by the Greeks, whose religious system was essentially founded on hu- 
 man nature, and whose gods and goddesses were mainly the imaginary 
 representations of human characteristics. 
 
 The eight gods of the first order were believed to constitute a pro- 
 cess of divine development, and were supposed to exercise the power 
 of revealing themselves. These eight divinities, according to Bunsen, 
 Avere arranged in the following order: 1. Amn, or Ammon; 2. Khem, 
 or Chemmis ; 3. Mut, the Mother Goddess ; 4. Num, or Kneph ; 5. Seti, 
 or Sate; 6. Phthah, the Artist God; 7. Net, or Neith, the Goddess of 
 Sais; 8. Ra, the Sun, the God of Heliopolis. According to Wilkin- 
 son, they are classed in a different order: 1. Neph, or Kneph; 2. 
 Amun, or Ammon ; 3. Phthah ; 4. Khem ; 5. Sate ; 6. Maut, or Mut ; 
 7. Pasht, or Diana ; 8. Neith, or Minerva. In Wilkinson's list, Pasht, 
 or Diana, is classed in the first order instead of the second, while Ra 
 is not classed in this series. 
 
 Ammon, or Amun, was "the Revealer," "the Concealed God," "the 
 Absolute Spirit," "the Father of all the other gods;" corresponding 
 to the Zeus of the Greeks. He is styled "the King of the Gods," 
 "the Lord of Heaven," "the Ruler," "the Lord of the Two Thrones," 
 "the Horus or God of the Two Egypts." His city was Thebes. 
 Manetho says his name signifies concealment. The root "Amn" sig- 
 nifies to veil or conceal. His original name, as standing in the rings 
 of the Twelfth Dynasty, was Amn. After the Eighteenth Dynasty 
 he was called Amn-Ra, signifying the Sun. Says Bunsen: "Incon- 
 testably, he stands in Egypt as the head of the great cosmogonic 
 development." 
 
 Kneph, the God of Spirit, was also called Knubis, or Num. His 
 name, according to Plutarch and Diodorus, means Spirit. At Esna 
 he was called "the Breath of those in the Firmament." At Elephan- 
 tine he was styled "Lord of the Inundations." He is represented as
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 95 
 
 Phthah. 
 
 wearing the ram's head with double horns, and was universally wor- 
 shiped in Ethiopia. The sheep were sacred to him, and large flocks 
 of them were kept in the Thebais for their wool. The serpent or asp 
 was also sacred to Kneph. He was called Creator, and was repre- 
 sented in the figure of a potter with a wheel. In Philae he is repre- 
 sented as forming on his wheel a figure of Osiris, bearing the inscrip- 
 tion: "Num, who forms on his wheel the Divine Limbs of Osiris." 
 He is likewise called "the Sculptor of all men," "the god who made 
 the sun and the moon to revolve." According to Porphyry, Phthah 
 sprang from an egg which came from the mouth of Kneph, and in this 
 declaration he is sustained by the authority of the monuments. 
 Phthah thus represents the Absolute Divine Being as Spirit, the Spirit 
 of God moving on the face of the waters, a moving spirit intertwined 
 and interwoven with the chaotic and shapeless mass of matter. 
 
 Phthah called Hephaestus by the Greeks, Vulcan by the Romans 
 represents creation by the truth, formation, stability; and is called 
 in the inscriptions "Lord of Truth," "Lord of the Beautiful Face," 
 "Father of Beginnings, moving the Egg of the Sun and Moon." 
 Horapollo and Plutarch considered the scarabseus, or beetle, the sign 
 of this god, as an emblem of the world and its creation. In an inscrip- 
 tion he is called "Creator of all things in the world." Says lambli- 
 cus: "The God who creates with truth is Phthah." He was also 
 related with the sun, having thirty fingers, representing the thirty 
 days of the month. He is also represented as a deformed dwarf. 
 
 Khem, whom the Greeks called Pan, the principle of generation, is 
 sometimes represented as holding a plowshare. Amun has no female 
 companion. Mut, the mother, is the partner of Khem, the father. 
 Seti, the Ray or Arrow, a feminine figure with the horns of a cow, is 
 the consort of Kneph. Neith, or Net, the Goddess of Sais, is the 
 companion of Phthah. The Greek Athene, Pallas, or Minerva, is 
 believed to be derived from Neith, and her name signifies : " I came by 
 myself." Clemens Alexandrinus says that her great shrine at Sais 
 has an open roof bearing this inscription: "I am all that was and is 
 and is to be, and no mortal has lifted my garment, and the fruit I 
 bore is Helios." This signifies her identity with Nature. 
 
 Helios, or Ra, or Phrah, the Sun-god, the God of Heliopolis (City 
 of the Sun), is the eighth and last of the first order of gods, accord- Qr plirai 
 ing to Bunsen. It is from Ra, or Phrah, that the name Pharaoh is 
 derived. As we have already seen, Wilkinson excludes Ra from the 
 first order, substituting Pasht, or Bubastis, the Diana of the Greeks, 
 instead. If we accept Bunsen's classification, taking the Sun-god as 
 the eighth and last of the first series, we shall then see in Ammon, the 
 Concealed God, the pure Spirit, from which emanates Kneph, the crea- 
 
 Khem. 
 
 Helios, 
 or Ra,
 
 96 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Reason 
 for Two 
 Theolo- 
 gies. 
 
 Egyptian 
 and 
 Greek 
 Panthe- 
 ons. 
 
 The 
 
 Popular 
 Deities. 
 
 tive power; followed by Khem, the generative power; followed by 
 Phthah, the artistic principle; after which come the three feminine 
 creative principles of Nature in Neith, the nourishing principle in Mut 
 the mother, the developing principle in the goddess Pasht, and the 
 completion of the whole cycle in Helios, or Ra, or Phrah, the Sun- 
 god. 
 
 The reason for the difference between the priestly and popular re- 
 ligions of Egypt is to be attributed to the difference of race origin 
 between the priesthood and the masses. The priests are believed to 
 have been the descendants of the Asiatic immigrants into the Nile val- 
 ley, while the great body of the people are supposed to have been 
 of Ethiopian extraction. The Asiatic immigrants and conquerors 
 brought with them the spiritual ideas represented by the first order 
 of gods, while the Ethiopian occupiers of the Nile valley held fast to 
 the African instinct of nature-worship. The combination of these 
 two principles formed the Egyptian religious system. The first order 
 of gods was therefore for the priests, the initiated; the third order 
 was for the people, the uninitiated ; while the second order was a transi- 
 tion between the first and third children of the first and parents of 
 the third. 
 
 As we have said, the second order of Egyptian gods was incorpor- 
 ated into the Greek pantheon. Thus Khonso, the child of Ammon, 
 was the same as the Greek Hercules, God of Strength; Thoth, child 
 of Kneph, was the equivalent of the Greek Hermes, God of Knowledge ; 
 Pecht, child of Phthah, was represented by the Greek Artemis, or 
 Diana, the Goddess of Birth, who protected women ; Athor, or Hathor, 
 was the same as the Grecian Aphrodite, or Venus, the Goddess of Love ; 
 Seb was the Greek Kronos, or Saturn, the God of Time; and Nutpe 
 was the Grecian Rhea, the wife of Kronos. 
 
 The third order of gods were the children of the second order, and 
 were manifestations of the Divine Spirit in the external universe. 
 These, as we have said, were the popular gods, though worshiped by 
 the untutored masses. The gods of the third class, though lowest in 
 the scale, had more of individuality and personality about them, and 
 their worship throughout Egypt was universal from the most remote 
 antiquity. Says Herodotus: "The Osiris deities are the only gods 
 worshiped throughout Egypt." Says Bunsen: "They stand on the 
 oldest monuments, are the center of all Egyptian worship, and are 
 perhaps the oldest original objects of reverence." Wilkinson says the 
 only change in the Egyptian religious system was during the four- 
 teenth century before Christ, when Amun, or Ammon, was made chief 
 of the third class of gods, in place of Typhon, or Seth, the God of 
 Destruction, who had previously held the first place and had been the
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 97 
 
 most highly reverenced of the popular deities. Seth's name was then 
 chiseled off the monuments, and Amun's substituted instead. This 
 religious revolution was the final result of the amalgamation of the 
 two races and religions in Egypt the Asiatic Semitic and Aryan 
 immigrants, with their higher spiritual ideas, and the Ethiopian Ha- 
 mitic aborigines, with their gross African nature-worship. It was very 
 natural that the priests, the descendants of the Asiatic immigrants, 
 should place their religion above that of the descendants of the abo- 
 riginal inhabitants, and that they should have permitted for a time 
 the external worship until the public was prepared for the reception 
 of a higher religious faith in the substitution of Amun, the Revealer, 
 for the God of Terror and Destruction. 
 
 The most popular of ancient Egyptian myths was that of Osiris Myth of 
 and Isis, as given us by Plutarch. Seb and Nutpe, or Nut the sl ^? 8 and 
 Kronos and Rhea of the Greeks, the Saturn and Cybele of the Romans 
 were the parents of the third group of deities. Seb is Time, and 
 Nut is Space. The Sun pronounced a curse upon them, in not per- 
 mitting them to be delivered on any day of the year. This symbolizes 
 the difficulty of the thought of Creation. But Hermes, or Wisdom, 
 who loved Rhea, won at dice, of the Moon, five days, the seventieth 
 part of all her illuminations, which he added to the three hundred and 
 sixty days, or twelve months. This implies the correction of the cal- 
 endar. The five days added were the birthdays of the gods. Osiris 
 was born on the first of these five days, when a voice proclaimed: "The 
 Lord of all things is now born." Arueris-Apollo, the elder Horus, 
 was born on the second of these days; Typhon on the third; Isis on 
 the fourth; Nepthys-Venus, or Victory, on the fifth. Osiris and 
 Arueris were children of the Sun; Isis was the daughter of Hermes; 
 and Typhon and Nepthys were children of Kronos, or Saturn, the 
 God of Time. 
 
 Osiris took Isis for his wife, and went through the world civilizing Ark of 
 and refining mankind by means of music, poetry and oratory. On Osiris, 
 his return Typhon took seventy-two men and likewise an Ethiopian 
 queen and constructed an ark as large as the body of Osiris, and at 
 a feast he offered it to the one whom it should fit. Osiris got into 
 the ark, and they closed the lid and soldered it fast, after which they 
 cast the ark into the Nile. Then Isis, putting on mourning, went to 
 look for the ark. As her inquiries were made to little children, these 
 were thought by the Egyptians to possess the power of divination. 
 She then found Anubis, child of Osiris by Nepthys, wife of Typhon, 
 who informed her that the ark was entangled in a tree which grew 
 up around it and concealed it from view. The king constructed from 
 this tree a pillar to support his house. Isis sat down and wept, where- 
 
 VOI. 1. 1
 
 98 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 upon the queen's women came to her, and she stroked their hair, thus 
 causing fragrance to pass into it. She became nurse to the queen's 
 child, feeding him with her finger, and burning his impurities by means 
 of a lambent flame during the night-time. After this she converted 
 herself into a swallow, and flying around the house, bewailed her fate. 
 The queen watched her proceedings and cried out in alarm, thus de- 
 priving her child of immortality. Isis then begged the pillar, and 
 taking it down, took out the chest and cried so loud as to frighten the 
 king's younger son to death. Then taking the ark and the king's 
 elder son she sailed away. Being chilled by the cold air of the river 
 she became angry and cursed it, so that it became dry. Then opening 
 the chest, she put her cheek to the cheek of Osiris, weeping bitterly. 
 The little boy coming and peeping into the chest, she gave him such 
 a terrible look as to frighten him to death. Then Isis went to her 
 son Horus, who was at nurse at Buto. Typhon, while hunting by 
 moonlight, saw the ark, with the body of Osiris, which he tore into 
 fourteen pieces and cast them around. Isis went in a boat made of 
 papyrus to look for the parts of her husband's body, and finding them, 
 buried them all in different places. The soul of Osiris then returned 
 from Hades to train up his son, Horus. Then Horus conquered Ty- 
 phon in battle, but Isis allowed Typhon to make his escape. It is 
 also said that Isis had another son by the soul of Osiris after his 
 death, the god Harpocrates, who is represented as lame and with his 
 finger on his mouth, signifying childhood. The myth of Osiris and 
 Isis was considered the most beautiful in Egyptian mythology. 
 Plu- Plutarch says that Osiris afterward became Serapis, the Pluto of 
 
 E X _ the under-world. Plutarch, in explanation of the myth of Osiris and 
 planation. l s i S) says that Osiris is the personification of Water, especially the 
 Nile, and that Isis is the Earth, especially the Nile valley of Egypt 
 overflowed by the river. Horus, the son, is the Air, especially the 
 moist, mild air of Egypt. Typhon is Fire, especially the summer 
 heat which dries up the Nile and parches the land. His seventy-two 
 companions are the seventy-two days of most intense heat, as viewed 
 by the Egyptians. Nepthys, Typhon's wife, sister of Isis, is the 
 Desert out of Egypt, but which, when overflowed by a higher inun- 
 dation of the Nile, becomes productive and has a child by Osiris, 
 named Anubis. The confinement of Osiris in the ark signifies the 
 summer heat drying up the Nile and confining it to its channel. The 
 entanglement of the ark in a tree means the division of the Nile into 
 many mouths at the Delta and the overhanging of the river by the 
 wood. Isis nursing the king's child, the fragrance, etc., signifies the 
 nourishment of plants and animals by the earth. The tearing of the 
 body of Osiris into fourteen parts by Typhon means either the division
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 99 
 
 of the Nile at its mouths or the pools of water left after the inunda- 
 tion has dried up. 
 
 Besides this geographical explanation of this allegory, Plutarch 
 gives a scientific and astronomical view. Thus Osiris is the productive 
 and creative principle in nature. Isis is the feminine quality in nature, 
 and for this reason is called by Plato the nurse. Typhon is the de- 
 structive principle in nature. Horus is the mediator between creation 
 and destruction. This gives us the triad of Osiris, Typhon and Horus, 
 corresponding to the Hindoo triad of Brahma, Siva and Vishnu, and 
 likewise to the Persian triad of Ormazd, Ahriman and Mithra. In 
 this way the Egyptian myth symbolizes the struggle between the prin- 
 ciples of good and evil in the world of nature. 
 
 The priests sought to turn the worship of Osiris and Isis into an 
 allegory of the struggles, trials, sorrows and self -recovery of the hu- 
 man soul. After death every human soul adopted the name and sym- 
 bols of Osiris, after which he retired to the under-world, there to be 
 judged by that god. Closely related with this was the doctrine of the 
 soul's transmigration through various bodies which doctrine Pythag- 
 oras brought from Egypt. These doctrines were taught in the 
 Mysteries. Herodotus says: "I know them, but must not tell them." 
 lamblicus, in his work on the Mysteries, says that they taught that 
 One God existed before all things, and that this One God was to be 
 venerated in silence. Then Emeph or Neph was god in his self -con- 
 sciousness. After this in Amun his mind became truth, diffusing light. 
 Phthah represents truth working by art, and Osiris symbolizes art 
 producing good. 
 
 Bunsen says that according to the monuments Osiris and Isis, besides 
 emanating from the second order of gods, are themselves the first and 
 second order. Osiris, Isis and Horus embrace all Egyptian mythol- 
 ogy, excepting Amun and Neph. In Lower Egypt Phthah was the 
 highest god, corresponding to the Greek Hephaestus, the Roman Vul- 
 can, the god of fire or heat, the father of the sun. In Upper Egypt 
 Amun was the chief god. According to Manetho, Phthah reigned 
 nine thousand years before the other gods, signifying that this was 
 the oldest worship in Egypt. Amun is the head of a cosmogony pro- 
 ceeding by emanation from spirit to matter, while Phthah is at the 
 origin of a cosmogony ascending by evolution from matter to spirit. 
 From Phthah, or heat, comes light; from light comes life; from life 
 proceed gods, men, plants, animals and all organic existence. In the 
 inscriptions Phthah is called " Father of the Father of the Gods," 
 "King of both Worlds," "God of all Beginnings," "Former of 
 Things." The egg, as containing the germ of life, is one of his sym- 
 bols. The scarabaeus, or beetle, which rolls its ball of earth, supposed 
 
 Scientific 
 View. 
 
 Priestly 
 Allegory. 
 
 Bunsen's 
 
 Ex- 
 planation.
 
 100 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Gods and 
 God- 
 
 Local 
 Deities. 
 
 Animal 
 
 Worship. 
 
 to contain its egg, is sacred to Phthah. Memphis was his sacred city. 
 His son, Ra, the Sun-god, had his temples at On, which the Greeks 
 called Heliopolis, meaning "City of the Sun," so named from Ra's 
 Greek name Helios. The cat was sacred to Ra. As Phthah is the 
 god of all beginnings in Lower Egypt, so Ra is the life-giving god, 
 the active ruler of the world, holding in one hand a sceptre and in 
 the other the symbol of life. 
 
 The goddesses of Lower Egypt were Neith at Sais, Leto, the god- 
 dess whose temple was at Buto, and Pasht at Bubastis. As we have 
 already said, the chief god in Upper Egypt was Amun, or Ammon, 
 the Concealed God; and next to him is Kneph, or Knubis, the Spirit 
 of God. Their companions were Mut, the mother, and Khonso. The 
 two oldest gods were Mentu, the rising sun, and Atmu, the setting 
 sun. 
 
 In Egypt, as in Greece, the earliest worship was of local divinities, 
 who were afterwards united in a Pantheon. As in Greece Zeus was 
 at first worshiped in Dodona and Arcadia, Apollo in Crete and Delos, 
 Aphrodite in Cyprus, Athene at Athens, and afterwards these local 
 deities were united in one company as the twelve great gods of Olym- 
 pus, so in Egypt the different early theologies were combined in the 
 three orders of gods, with Ammon at their head. But in Egypt, as 
 in Greece, each city and district retained the special worship of its 
 own local deity. As in Greece Athene continued to be the protecting 
 goddess of Athens, and Aphrodite of Cyprus, so, in Egypt, Set con- 
 tinued to be the god of Ombos, Leto of Buto, Horus of Edf u, Khem 
 of Coptos, etc. 
 
 The one great singular feature about the Egyptian religion was 
 animal-worship. Herodotus says: "All animals in Egypt are ac- 
 counted sacred, and if any one kills these animals wilfully he is put 
 to death." This account of Herodotus is not strictly correct, as many 
 animals were not considered sacred, though most of them were. Wil- 
 kinson mentions more than one hundred Egyptian animals, over one- 
 half of which number were sacred. Hunting and fishing being favor- 
 ite amusements of the Egyptians, the killing of some animals must have 
 been tolerated. If, however, any one killed any of the sacred animals, 
 either accidentally or willfully, he was immediately put to death. In 
 different parts of Egypt different animals were accounted sacred. Be- 
 sides the sacred bull at Memphis, the most striking sacred animals were 
 the Mnevis, or sacred calf at Heliopolis, the sacred sheep at Sais and 
 Thebes, and the sacred crocodiles at Ombos and Arsinoe. Thus the 
 animal sacred in one place was not so regarded in another. The cat, 
 the ibis and the beetle were particular objects of worship. The death 
 of a cat in a private house caused the whole family to shave their eye-
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 101 
 
 brows in token of their grief. The Persian king Cambyses was en- 
 abled to conquer the Egyptians by placing in the van of his army 
 multitudes of cats, which the Egyptians were fearful of killing, so 
 that they abandoned all resistance. 
 
 Cows were sacred to Isis, and this goddess was represented in the 
 form of a cow. The gods often wore animals' heads. Amun is rep- 
 resented with the ram's head. The worship of Apis, the sacred bull 
 of Memphis, the representative of Osiris, was one of the most striking 
 and imposing among Egyptian religious ceremonies. Plutarch de- 
 scribes him as a fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris. He 
 was a bull with black hair, a white spot on his forehead, and some other 
 distinguishing marks. He was kept in a magnificent temple at Mem- 
 phis. The festival in his honor continued seven days, during which 
 time a great multitude of people assembled. When he died his body 
 was embalmed and buried with great pomp, and the priests went in 
 quest of another Apis, which, when discovered by the distinguishing 
 marks, was taken to Memphis, fed with care and exercised, and con- 
 sulted as an oracle. The burial-place of the sacred bulls was in recent 
 years discovered near Memphis. It consists of an arched gallery cut 
 in the solid rock, two thousand feet long, twenty-five feet high and 
 twenty-five feet wide. On each side is a series of recesses, each of 
 which contains a large sarcophagus of granite, fifteen by eight feet, 
 in which the body of a sacred bull was deposited. In 1852 thirty of 
 these had been discovered. Before this tomb is a paved road, with 
 lions in rows on each side, and before this is a temple with a vestibule. 
 As we have previously remarked, the animals sacred in one place were 
 not so regarded in another, and this difference of worship often led to 
 bitter enmities between the several nomes. Thus at Ombos the croco- 
 dile was worshiped, while at Tentyra it was hunted and abhorred. The 
 ram-headed Amun was adored at Thebes, and the sheep was there a 
 sacred animal, while the goat was killed for food. In Mendes the goat 
 was worshiped and the sheep killed and eaten. Mutton was likewise 
 eaten at Lycopolis, in compliment to the wolf, which was there an 
 object of veneration. 
 
 The sacred animals at death were embalmed by the priests and 
 buried, and thousands upon thousands of mummies of dogs, cats, 
 wolves, sheep, crocodiles, birds and other animals are found in the 
 tombs. The sacred animals were reverenced as containing a divine 
 element. Says Wilkinson: "The Egyptians may have deified some 
 animals to insure their preservation, some to prevent their unwhole- 
 some meat being used as food." The cow, the ox, the dog, the cat, 
 the ibis, appeared to the Egyptians as gifted with supernatural pow- 
 ers. This people reverenced the mysterious manifestation of the Di- 
 
 Worship 
 of Apis. 
 
 Animal 
 Mum- 
 mies.
 
 102 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Religious 
 Festivals. 
 
 Daily 
 Life. 
 
 Priests. 
 
 Priestly 
 Duties 
 
 and 
 Customs. 
 
 vine presence in all external nature. Animals were considered expres-i 
 sions of Divine thoughts. This belief reached its extreme point in the 
 Egyptian reverence for animal life. This people saw something di- 
 vine and found Deity in nature. 
 
 The Egyptians had more religious festivals than any other ancient 
 people, every month and day being governed by a god. There were 
 two feasts of the New Year; twelve of the first days of the months; 
 one of the rising of the dog-star; and others to the great gods, to 
 seed time and harvest, to the rise and fall of the Nile, as the nine 
 days' feast in honor of Osiris, the Benefactor of men. The feast of 
 the lamps at Sais was in honor of Neith, and was observed throughout 
 Egypt. Other noted festivals were the feast of the death of Osiris, 
 and the feast of his resurrection, when the people exclaimed: "We 
 have found him! Good luck!" One of the feasts of Isis lasted four 
 days. The great feast at Bubastis was the most noted of all the 
 Egyptian festivals. On one of these occasions seven hundred thou- 
 sand persons sailed on the Nile with music. At another bloody con- 
 flicts occurred between the armed priests and the armed men who con- 
 veyed the image of the god to the temple. 
 
 The daily life of the people was an embodiment of the history of 
 the deities. The French Egyptologist, De Rouge, describes an old 
 papyrus which says: "On the twelfth of Chorak no one is to go out 
 of doors, for on that day the transformation of Osiris into the bird 
 Wennu took place ; on the fourteenth of Toby no voluptuous songs 
 must be listened to, for Isis and Nepthys bewail Osiris on that day. 
 On the third of Mechir no one can go on a journey, because Set then 
 began a war." None must go out on another specified day. The day 
 on which the other gods conquered Set was regarded as lucky, and the 
 child born on that day was believed to be sure to live to a good old 
 age. 
 
 The priests, of which every temple had its own separate body, did 
 not form an exclusive caste, though the priestly office was generally 
 continued by inheritance in certain families. Priests could be mili- 
 tary commanders, provincial governors, judges of architects. The 
 sons of soldiers were often priests, while soldiers frequently married 
 daughters of priests. Joseph, who was a foreigner naturalized in 
 Egypt, married the daughter of the High Priest of On, or Heliopolis. 
 The Egyptian priests were of different grades the chief priests, or 
 pontiffs, the prophets, the judges, the scribes, those who examined 
 victims, the keepers of the robes, the keepers of the sacred animals, 
 and others. Women also performed official duties in the temples. 
 
 The priests were exempt from taxation and were supported out of 
 the public stores. Their duties were to superintend sacrifices, proces-
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 103 
 
 sions, funerals, etc. They were initiated into all the religious mys- 
 teries, and were taught surveying. They were particular as to their 
 food, refraining from eating peas, beans, onions and garlic, while fish 
 and swine-flesh were strictly forbidden. They bathed twice a day and 
 twice during the night, and shaved the head and body every third day. 
 Their fasts, which lasted from one to six weeks, took place after their 
 purification. They offered prayers for the dead. 
 
 The priestly dress was simple, made chiefly of linen, and consisted Priestly 
 of an undergarment and a loose upper robe, with full sleeves, and the 
 leopard-skin above; while sometimes there were one or two feathers 
 in the head. 
 
 Chaplets and flowers were placed upon the altars, such as the lotus Invoca- 
 and papyrus ; likewise baskets of figs and grapes, and alabaster vases Thanks- 
 of ointment. Necklaces, bracelets and jewelry were also offered as in- givings. 
 vocations and thanksgivings. 
 
 Oxen and other animals were offered as sacrifices, and the blood was Sacrifices, 
 permitted to flow over the altar. Incense was offered to all the gods 
 and goddesses in censers. 
 
 Religious processions were another characteristic feature of the Religious 
 Egyptian system. In one of these shrines were carried on the shoul- 
 ders by means of long staves passed through rings. In others the 
 statues of the gods were carried, and arks overshadowed by the wings 
 of the Goddess of Truth were spread over the sacred beetle. 
 
 The most highly esteemed of the priestly order were the prophets, Prophets, 
 who studied the ten hieratical books. The stolists dressed and un- 
 dressed the images, attended to the vestments of the priests, and marked 
 the beasts chosen for sacrifice. The scribes served for the Apis, or 
 sacred bull, and their chief requirement was great learning. 
 
 The priests, whose life was full of duties and restrictions, had only Religious 
 one wife, and were circumcised like other Egyptians. They devoted 
 all their time to study or religious service. The gloomy character of 
 the Egyptian religion was in strong contrast with the cheerful wor- 
 ship of the Greeks. One Greek writer says: "The gods of Egypt 
 rejoice in lamentations, those of Greece in dances." Another says: 
 "The Egyptians offer their gods tears." 
 
 The Egyptian temples surpassed in grandeur all other architectural Temples, 
 monuments in the world. The temple of Amun, in the fertile oasis 
 of Siwah, in the Libyan desert, was one of the most celebrated oracles 
 of antiquity. Near this temple, in a grove of palm-trees, rose a hot 
 spring, the Fountain of the Sun, whose bubbling and smoking were 
 believed to betoken the Divine presence. The oasis was a stopping- 
 place for caravans passing between Egypt and Central Africa, and 
 many rich offerings were left in the temple by traveling merchants,
 
 104, 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Soul's 
 Transmi- 
 gration. 
 
 Soul's 
 
 Im- 
 mortality. 
 
 Em- 
 balming. 
 
 who thus showed their gratitude for escaping the perils of the desert, 
 or thus sought the favor of Amun for their journey when just begun. 
 
 The immortality of the soul and the belief in a future state, based 
 on rewards and punishments for good or evil in this life, formed a 
 cardinal point of Egyptian religious faith from the earliest period; 
 and the belief in the transmigration of the soul was closely connected 
 with the reverence for animals. Bunsen says the Egyptians viewed 
 the human soul and the animal soul as the same, and for this reason 
 the animal was considered sacred to man. The Egyptian doctrine of 
 transmigration differed from that of the Hindoos in one essential point ; 
 there being no idea of retribution in the Egyptian doctrine, as in the 
 Hindoo. The Egyptian doctrine, according to Herodotus, was that 
 every human soul must pass through all animals, fishes, insects and 
 birds, thus completing the whole circuit of animated existence, after 
 which it would again enter the human body from which it came. The 
 Hindoo doctrine regards transmigration as a punishment for sin and 
 wickedness, and that only those who lead an unholy life are subjected 
 to this punishment, from which the only release is the leading of a pure 
 and holy life. Herodotus further says that the complete circuit of 
 transmigration is performed by the soul in three thousand years, and 
 that it does not begin until the body decays. This explains the extra- 
 ordinary care taken in ornamenting the tombs, as the permanent rest- 
 ing-places for the dead during a long period. Diodorus says that the 
 Egyptians ornamented their tombs as the enduring residences of man- 
 kind. The doctrine of transmigration also accounts for the custom 
 of embalming the dead, in order to preserve the body from decay, and 
 to render it fit to receive the soul on its return. 
 
 Mr. Birch says that the doctrine of the soul's immortality is as old 
 as the inscriptions of the Twelfth Dynasty, of which many contain 
 extracts from the Ritual for the Dead. Mr. Birch has translated one 
 hundred and forty-six chapters of this Ritual from the text of the 
 Turin Papyrus, which is the most complete in Europe. Chapters of 
 it are seen on mummy-cases, on mummy-wraps, on the walls of tombs, 
 and on papyri within the sarcophagi. This Ritual is the only rem- 
 nant of the Hermetic Books constituting the library of the priests. 
 This liturgy represents Osiris and his triad as struggling with Set and 
 his devils for the soul of the departed, in the presence of the Sun-god, 
 the source of life. 
 
 The Egyptians believed that happiness in the future state depended 
 upon well-doing in this life. As we have seen, the belief that the soul, 
 after making the circuit of transmigration through the animal crea j 
 tion, would return to the body from which it had departed, caused the 
 universal national custom of embalming the dead to preserve their
 
 EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 105 
 
 bodies from decay. The period of mourning for the dead lasted sev- 
 enty-two days, during which the body of the deceased was in the charge 
 of the embalmers. After the process of embalming had been finished, 
 the mummy thus formed was returned to the house of its earthly abode, 
 where its friends kept it for a month or a year, and where feasts were 
 given in its honor, it being always present in the company of guests. 
 The mummy, in its stone chest, or sarcophagus, was then carried in 
 an imposing funeral procession to the borders of the sacred lake, where 
 occurred the trial of the deceased by a priestly tribunal of forty-two 
 judges, symbolizing the soul's trial before the judgment-seat of the 
 gods presided over by Osiris. Masked priests represented the gods of 
 the underworld. Typhon is represented as accusing the deceased and 
 demanding his punishment. The intercessors plead for him. Any one 
 was at liberty to bring accusations against the deceased. A large pair 
 of scales was brought forward, on one side of which was placed the 
 conduct of the deceased in a bottle, and on the other side was set the 
 image of truth. If it was clearly shown that the deceased had led 
 an evil life, the priestly judges pronounced an unfavorable verdict 
 upon it as to its future fate, in which case the body was denied the 
 privilege of burial with the just opposite the sacred lake and was re- 
 turned to its friends, who usually buried it on the side of the sacred 
 lake opposite the resting-place of the just. If, however, the verdict 
 of the judges was favorable, the lamentations of the funeral train gave 
 way to songs of triumph, and the deceased was congratulated upon 
 being admitted into the happy companionship of the friends of Osiris ; 
 and the body in its sarcophagus was ferried across the sacred lake and 
 interred with those of its ancestors in a tomb richly ornamented. 
 These ceremonies are represented on the funeral papyri. The forty- 
 two judges who tried the dead represented the forty-two nomes, or 
 provinces of Egypt ; and every nome had its sacred lake, across which 
 all funeral processions must pass on their way to the city of the dead. 
 On the sides of these sacred lakes nearest the abodes of the living have 
 been found the remains of great numbers who were rejected by the 
 judges at their trial, and whose bodies were in consequence returned 
 in disgrace to their friends, to be disposed of in the most speedy man- 
 ner possible. At death all became equal, and every one, from the king 
 and highest pontiff to the lowest swineherd, was subject to the same 
 solemn judgment passed at death, and the fear which it inspired exer- 
 cised a wholesome influence over all classes. 
 
 The soul's trial before the judgment-seat of the gods, as repre- i>he 
 sented in the papyrus Book of the Dead, and before which the soul Soul's 
 had to pass an acquittal before it could enter the abode of the blessed, 
 is described as follows: Forty-two gods occupy the judgment-seat,
 
 106 
 
 Hall 
 
 of the 
 
 Two 
 
 Truths. 
 
 Religious 
 Ideals. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 over which Osiris presides, and before whom are the scales, in one of 
 which is placed the statue of perfect Justice, while in the other is the 
 heart of the deceased. The soul of the departed stands watching the 
 balance, while Horus examines the plummet showing on which side the 
 beam inclines; and Thoth, the Justifier, records the sentence. If the 
 decision of this divine tribunal is favorable, the soul is sealed as "jus- 
 tified." 
 
 The Hall of the Two Truths, described in the Book of the Dead, 
 recounts the scene when the soul appears before the gods, forty-two of 
 whom are ready to feed on the blood of the wicked. The soul, address- 
 ing the Lord of Truth, denies having done evil, saying: "I have not 
 afflicted any. I have not told falsehoods. I have not made the labor- 
 ing man do more than his task. I have not been idle. I have not 
 murdered. I have not committed fraud. I have not injured the im- 
 ages of the gods. I have not taken scraps of the bandages of the 
 dead. I have not committed adultery. I have not cheated by false 
 weights. I have not kept milk from sucklings. I have not caught 
 the sacred birds." He then says to each god: "I have not been idle. 
 I have not boasted. I have not stolen. I have not counterfeited, nor 
 killed the sacred beasts, nor blasphemed, nor refused to hear the truth, 
 nor despised God in my heart." In other texts the soul is represented 
 as saying: "I have loved God. I have given bread to the hungry, 
 water to the thirsty, garments to the naked, and an asylum to the 
 abandoned." 
 
 Many of the virtues taught by Christianity appear to have been the 
 ideal of the ancient Egyptians. Brugsch tells us that a thousand 
 voices from the tombs declare this. One inscription in Upper Egypt 
 says : " He loved his father, he honored his mother, he loved his breth- 
 ren, and never went from his home in bad temper. He never preferred 
 the great man to the low one." Another says: "I was a wise man, 
 my soul loved God. I was a brother to the great men and a father 
 to the humble ones, and never was a mischief-maker." An inscription 
 at Sais, on a priest who lived in the days of Cambyses, says: "I hon- 
 ored my father, I esteemed my mother, I loved my brothers. I found 
 graves for the unburied dead. I instructed little children. I took 
 care of orphans as though they were my own children. For great 
 misfortunes were on Egypt in my time, and on this city of Sais." The 
 following is an inscription on a tomb of a nomad prince at Beni-Has- 
 san: "What I have done I will say. My goodness and my kindness 
 were ample. I never oppressed the fatherless nor the widow. I did 
 not treat cruelly the fishermen, the shepherds or the poor laborers. 
 There was nowhere in my time hunger or want. For I cultivated all 
 my fields, far and near, in order that their inhabitants might have food.
 
 Noted 
 
 ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 107 
 
 I never preferred the great and powerful to the humble and poor, but 
 did equal justice to all." A king's tomb at Thebes describes the relig- 
 ious creed of a Pharaoh thus : " I lived in truth, and fed my soul with 
 justice. What I did to men was done in peace, and how I loved God, 
 God and my heart well know. I have given bread to the hungry, water 
 to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and a shelter to the stranger. I 
 honored the gods with sacrifices, and the dead with offerings." A 
 rock at Lycopolis pleads for an ancient ruler in these words : " I never 
 took the child from its mother's bosom, nor the poor man from the side 
 of his wife." Hundreds of stones in Egypt declare the best gifts 
 which the gods bestow on their favorites to be "the respect of men, and 
 the love of women." 
 
 On a monumental stele discovered at Karnak by M. Mariette, and 
 translated by De Rouge, is an inscription recording the triumphs of 
 Thothmes III. in strains sounding like the song of Miriam or the 
 Hymn of Deborah, the king recognizing his power and triumph as the 
 work of the great god Amun. A like strain of religious poetry is 
 found in the Papyrus of Sallier, now in the British Museum. This is 
 an epic poem by the Egyptian poet Pentaour, celebrating the cam- 
 paigns of Rameses the Great, and was carved in full on the walls of 
 Karnak. It especially describes an incident in a war with the Kheta, 
 or Hittites, of Syria, who had revolted against Rameses. Rameses 
 being separated from his main force by a strategem, was in extreme 
 peril; and Pentaour describes him as calling upon Amun, God of 
 Thebes, for aid, recounting the sacrifices he had offered to the god, 
 and imploring the god not to leave him to the mercy of the cruel Syrian 
 tribes. Rameses is represented as pleading thus : " Have I not erected 
 to thee great temples? Have I not sacrificed to thee thirty thousand 
 oxen? I have brought from Elephantine obelisks to set up to thy 
 name. I invoke thee, O my father, Amun. I am in the midst of a 
 throng of unknown tribes, and alone. But Amun is better to me than 
 thousands of archers and millions of horsemen. Amun will prevail 
 over the enemy." After defeating his enemies, Rameses, in his song 
 of triumph, says: "Amun-Ra has been at my right and my left in the 
 battles ; his mind has inspired my own, and has prepared the downfall 
 of my enemies. Amun-Ra, my father, has brought the whole world 
 to my feet." 
 
 SECTION VII. ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 
 
 SOUTH of Egypt in the region now called Nubia and Abyssinia Location 
 lived the ancient Ethiopians, some tribes of whom were as highly civil- Ethiopia 
 ized as the ancient Egyptians, but we know very little of their history, 
 1
 
 108 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Various 
 
 Arab 
 
 Tribes. 
 
 Fertility 
 
 of 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 Meroe. 
 
 Ethiopian 
 Kingdom. 
 
 and their origin is involved in the impenetrable obscurity of a remote 
 antiquity. The ruins of splendid monuments, obelisks, sphinxes, colos- 
 sal statues, rock-cut temples, etc., along that portion of the Nile val- 
 ley, fully attest the progress of this ancient Hamitic people in the art 
 of architecture. 
 
 Besides the civilized Ethiopians, this region was occupied in ancient 
 times, as now, by various Arab tribes in different stages of advance- 
 ment from the complete savage to the hunting and fishing tribes, and 
 from these to the nomadic herdsmen and shepherds. The civilized 
 Ethiopians dwelt in cities, possessed a civil government and laws, were 
 acquainted with the use of hieroglyphics, and the fame of their prog- 
 ress in knowledge and the social arts had in the earliest ages spread 
 over a considerable portion of the earth. 
 
 The soil of the portion of the Nile valley occupied by the ancient 
 Ethiopians was in their day as fertile as the richest part of Egypt, 
 and where protected it yet continues to be so, but the hills on both 
 sides are bordered by sandy deserts, against which they afford but a 
 scanty protection. The navigation of the Nile is impeded by the wind- 
 ings of the river, and by the obstruction of cataracts and rapids, so 
 that intercourse is more generally maintained by caravans than by 
 boats. In the southern part of the valley the river incloses a number 
 of fertile islands. The productions of the Nile valley in Nubia are 
 essentially the same as those of Egypt. All along this portion of the 
 valley is a succession of stupendous monuments, rivaling in beauty 
 those of Thebes, and surpassing them in grandeur. 
 
 The island of Meroe so called because it was almost surrounded 
 with rivers possessed large numbers of camels, which were used in its 
 immense caravan trade; and the ivory, ebony and spices which the 
 Ethiopians sent down the river into Egypt were obtained by traffic 
 with the inhabitants of Central Africa. Meroe had better harbors for 
 commerce with India than had Egypt, as the Ethiopian ports on the 
 Red Sea were superior to the Egyptian, and the caravan-routes to 
 them were shorter and the perilous portion of the navigation of that sea 
 was entirely avoided. In the wild tracts of country in the vicinity 
 of Meroe are animals which were hunted by the ancient savage tribes, 
 as they are by the modern, such as the giraffe, or camelopard. The 
 elephant is found in Abyssinia, not far south of the neighborhood 
 of Meroe. 
 
 About one thousand years before Christ, Meroe was the seat of a 
 flourishing Ethiopian kingdom, which for a time held Upper Egypt 
 under sway, but its early history is shrouded in the obscurity of a dim 
 past. The monuments of Meroe are believed to have been modeled 
 from the wonderful architectural structures of Egypt; but cut off
 
 ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 109 
 
 from the rest of the civilized world by Egypt, the Ethiopians can only 
 be traced in history when their country is invaded, or when they them- 
 selves invade other lands. We have seen that several Egyptian kings 
 conquered Ethiopia and ruled the country for short intervals. The 
 fabled Assyrian queen, Semiramis, is said to have invaded Ethiopia in 
 the eleventh century before Christ. This is doubtful, but we have cer- 
 tain knowledge that the Ethiopians at this time were a powerful na- 
 tion, and that they aided Shishak, King of Egypt, in his war against 
 Rehoboam, King of Judah, in 957 B. C. Sixteen years later Zerah, 
 King of Ethiopia, is said to have invaded Judah with an immense 
 army, but was totally defeated. According to the Scripture narra- 
 tive, the Ethiopians had made considerable progress in the art of war, 
 controlled the Red Sea navigation, and held sway over a large portion 
 of Arabia. The expense of so vast and distant an expedition bears 
 evidence to the fact that the Ethiopian kingdom must then have been 
 in a flourishing condition. 
 
 The gradual increase of the Ethiopian power ultimately enabled Sabaco. 
 King Sabaco, or Shebak, to conquer Egypt, over which he and his two 
 successors, Sevechus and Tarakus, reigned successively. Sevechus, 
 called So in Scripture, was so powerful a monarch that Hoshea, King 
 of Israel, rose in revolt against the Assyrians, relying upon the aid 
 of So ; but, not being supported by his Ethiopian ally, Hoshea and 
 his subjects were carried into the Assyrian Captivity. Tarakus, the 
 Tirhakah of Scripture, was a more warlike sovereign, for he led an Tirkakah 
 army against Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who was then besieging 
 Jerusalem ; and the Egyptian traditions, preserved in the time of 
 Herodotus, give the account of the destruction of Sennacherib's army 
 of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in a night panic, as men- 
 tioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 In the reign of Psammetichus in Egypt, in the seventh century Egyptian 
 before Christ, two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of the war- Mi g^ tion 
 rior-caste, offended at their king's favor to Greek merchants whom he Ethiopia, 
 had invited to settle in Egypt, migrated to Ethiopia, and were settled 
 in the extreme southern part of that country, where they added im- 
 mensely to the prosperity of the state. These useful colonists in- 
 structed the Ethiopians in the improvements then recently made in the 
 art of war, and thus prepared them for resisting the formidable in- 
 vasion by the Persians. 
 
 No sooner had the Persian king, Cambyses, conquered Egypt, in Persian 
 525 B. C., than he invaded Ethiopia without preparing any store of Invasion - 
 provisions, ignorant of the deserts through which he had to pass, so 
 that when the invasion took place the Persian army was destroyed by 
 famine.
 
 110 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Ethiopian 
 Religion. 
 
 New 
 Religion. 
 
 Ethiopian 
 Queens. 
 
 Pyramids 
 of 
 
 Meroe. 
 
 Axume. 
 
 The religion of the ancient Ethiopians was in early times similar to 
 that of Egypt. Ammon was the chief of the Ethiopian gods, and 
 several temples were erected to his worship. The political power was 
 vested in a priesthood, who comprised a sacred caste. They chose the 
 king from one of their own number, and could take his life at pleasure 
 in the name of their gods. The Ethiopian priests possessed such in- 
 fluence over the superstitious African tribes that a solitary priest at 
 the head of caravan was able to secure a safe passage of untold wealth 
 through the countries occupied by the most ferocious savages. The 
 temples, also, were a safe place for the deposit of merchandise; and 
 here, under the shadow of an inviolable sanctuary, people of hostile 
 nations met to transact their business in absolute peace and security. 
 At any place where it was considered necessary to have a commercial 
 emporium a temple was built for its protection. 
 
 Whenever the Ethiopian priests became tired of their king they sent 
 a courier with orders for him to die. Ergamenes, who reigned early 
 in the third century before Christ and had been instructed in the Greek 
 philosophy, resisted this foolish custom, stormed the fortresses of the 
 priests, massacred many of them, and founded a new religion. 
 
 The sovereigns of Ethiopia were frequently queens. An Ethiopian 
 queen named Candace made war on Augustus Csesar about twenty years 
 before the birth of Christ, and, although the superior discipline of the 
 Romans brought them an easy triumph, Queen Candace obtained an 
 honorable peace. During the reign of another Queen Candace the 
 Jewish religion prevailed in Meroe, as a result of the change made 
 by Ergamenes ; and the queen's confidential adviser went to worship 
 at Jerusalem, and when he returned, A. D. 53, he was converted to 
 Christianity by St. Philip, and thus became the means of introducing 
 that religion into Ethiopia. Ever since that time the Christian re- 
 ligion has prevailed among the Ethiopians and their descendants, the 
 modern Abyssinians. 
 
 The pyramids of Meroe, though not as large as those of Middle 
 Egypt, exceed them in architectural beauty, and the Ethiopian sepul- 
 chers exhibit the greatest purity of taste. The use of the arch by 
 the Ethiopians fully attests their progress in the art of building. Mr. 
 Hoskins has asserted that the Ethiopian pyramids are more ancient 
 than the Egyptian, but this is disputed by the best authorities. The 
 Ethiopian vases depicted on the monuments, though not richly orna- 
 mented, exhibit a taste and elegance of form that has never been sur- 
 passed. In sculpture and coloring, the edifices of Meroe, though less 
 profusely adorned, rival the best specimens of Egyptian art. 
 
 Another famous Ethiopian kingdom was that of Axume, an offshoot 
 of Meroe. Its capital, Axum, is still in existence, and contains re-
 
 ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 markable antiquities, among which is an obelisk eighty feet high, in the 
 great square, beside forty others of smaller size. Some of the ruins 
 of Axum are believed by the inhabitants to be as old as the time of 
 Abraham. A stone slab, eight feet by three and a half, found here, 
 has an antique Greek inscription, which, translated, begins as follows: 
 
 "We Aeizamus, king of the Axomites, and of the Homerites, and 
 of Raeidan, and of the Ethiopians, and of the Sabeans, and of Zeyla, 
 and of Tiamo, and the Boja, and of the Taguie, King of Kings, Son 
 of God, etc." 
 
 Aeizamus was King of Ethiopia in the time of the Roman Emperor 
 Constantine the Great, who wrote him a letter. Adulis, the port of 
 Axume, was celebrated for its ivory trade. 
 
 All along the banks of the Nile in Nubia are strewn pyramids of 
 unknown antiquity, ruins of temples and monuments similar to those 
 of Egypt. Near the present Merawe are seven or eight temples, 
 adorned with sculpture and hieroglyphics. One of these temples is 
 four hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty-nine feet in extent. 
 Near Shendy are forty pyramids. 
 
 The most remarkable of all the monuments of Nubia is the rock- 
 temple of Ipsambul, near Derr. This temple is cut from a mountain 
 of solid rock, adorned inside with colossal statues and painted sculp- 
 tures, representing castles, battles, triumphal processions and religious 
 pageants. On the outside are four colossi, larger than any sculptured 
 figures in Egypt, except the Sphinx. One of these colossi is sixty- 
 five feet high. This temple is one hundred and seventy feet in depth, 
 and contains fourteen apartments, one of which is fifty-seven feet by 
 fifty-two, and is supported by images with folded arms, thirty feet 
 high. The rock in which this temple is built is six hundred feet in 
 height. 
 
 The great rock-temple of Ipsambul is said to resemble the famous 
 excavated structures on the island of Elephanta, near Bombay, on the 
 west coast of Hindoostan. The general plan is the same in both 
 massive pillars, stupendous figures, symbolic devices and mystic orna- 
 ments. It is also asserted that a frequent resemblance is discovered 
 between the religious vestiges of Egypt and Ethiopia and those of 
 India. 
 
 Among the numerous other remarkable antiquities of this region 
 we must mention those of Barkal, about a mile from the Nile, and 
 near the village of Merawe, the ancient Napata, the capital of Queen 
 Candace. Here is a rock rising four hundred feet perpendicularly 
 toward the river, at the foot of which are huge rock-hewn temples, 
 the walls of which are covered with hieroglyphics in high relief, rep- 
 resenting figures of kings and gods, among which we are able to dis- 
 
 Greek 
 Inciption. 
 
 Aeiza- 
 mus. 
 
 Ruins. 
 
 Rock 
 Temple 
 
 of Ip- 
 sambul. 
 
 Its Plan. 
 
 Ruins 
 
 of 
 Barkal.
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 
 
 Com- 
 merce of 
 
 Meroe. 
 
 tinguish Isis, Ammon, Apis, Horus and Mendes. There are other 
 gigantic ruins in this region. 
 
 Meroe, on account of its favorable situation for commercial inter- 
 course with India and Central Africa, by its location on the intersec- 
 tion of the leading caravan-routes of ancient commerce, was the em- 
 porium of trade between the north and the south, between the east and 
 the west, while the fertility of its soil enabled the Ethiopians to pur- 
 chase luxuries with native productions. Fabrics were woven in Meroe, 
 and the manufactures of metal were here as nourishing as in Egypt. 
 
 Cause of The great changes in the lines of trade, the ravages of successive 
 
 Ethio- 
 pia's Ex- conquerors and revolutions, the fanaticism of the Saracens, and the 
 
 Unction, ruin of the fertile soil by the moving sands of the desert, together 
 with the pressure of nomadic hordes, all contributed to the extinction 
 of this powerful ancient empire.
 
 '../ 
 
 O*""" 
 
 20 
 
 MAP OF THE 
 
 FIRST GREAT EMPIRES 
 
 B. C. 3000 - 500 
 
 By I. 8. CUre 
 .SCALE OF MILES. 
 
 M 100 
 
 Boundary Lines of Egypt and Ethiopia 
 t> The Assyrian Empire 
 ,, ,, .1 Babylonian, Lydian & Median Empires 
 i. it Kingdom of David & Solomon 
 it ii ii i. Territory of Carthage 
 Greece and Her Colonlc* 
 
 Llgtit 
 Bu
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CHALDjEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 SECTION I. THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES 
 
 VALLEY. 
 
 ASIA, as we have noticed, was the cradle of the human race. The Asia the 
 cradle of Asiatic history and civilization was the valley of the Tigris of^e 
 and Euphrates rivers. This region was early occupied by Semitic and Human 
 Hamitic tribes. The civilization which grew up in the Tigris-Eu- ce ' 
 phrates valley was almost as ancient as that which arose in the Nile 
 valley. There is an actual date in Chaldaean history as far back as 
 2234 B. C. ; while authentic Egyptian history the period of the 
 Pyramid-builders, the Fourth Dynasty antedates this date by only 
 two centuries, B. C. 2450. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures assign the beginning of the history of the Scrip- 
 human race in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Speaking of the imme- C0 unt, 
 diate posterity of Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, after 
 the Deluge, the Book of Genesis says: "And it came to pass, as they 
 journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the Land of 
 Shinar, and dwelt there." Shinar was the southern portion of the 
 Tigris-Euphrates valley. In this region the Scriptures place the 
 building of the Tower of Babel, and the "Confusion of Tongues" and 
 dispersion of the human race. The record of this event is preserved 
 in the Babylonian tradition, as well as in the Mosaic narrative ; and an 
 account of this has been recently discovered among the cuneiform in- 
 scriptions on the Babylonian tablets now in the British Museum. 
 
 The Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise in the highlands of Armenia Tigris 
 and unite near the head of the Persian Gulf, into which their waters " 
 
 empty after the Euphrates has flowed about 1780 miles and the Tigris Rivers. 
 about 1146 miles. Both these rivers, like the Nile, overflow their banks 
 in the lower part of their courses; and though these inundations do 
 not deposit a fresh soil, as in the case of the Nile, they are the cause 
 of the fertility of the plain of Mesopotamia, and in ancient times they 
 were conducted throughout its entire extent by a system of canals, by 
 VOL. l. 8 113
 
 114 
 
 CHALD^BA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Ancient 
 
 Geo- 
 graphical 
 
 and 
 
 Political 
 Divisions. 
 
 Ancient 
 Empires 
 in the 
 Tigris- 
 Eu- 
 phrates 
 Valley. 
 
 Grains 
 and Vege- 
 tables of 
 Chaldcea, 
 or Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 State- 
 ment of 
 
 Herodo- 
 tus. 
 
 which these overflows were utilized and the country thus irrigated. 
 The Tigris-Euphrates valley comprises a fertile region in the midst 
 of the great belt of desert extending from the western shores of Africa 
 almost to the northeastern coast of Asia. 
 
 This fertile valley anciently embraced a number of territorial and 
 political divisions, whose boundaries were often very indefinite. The 
 region between the two rivers was called Mesopotamia by the Greeks 
 (from mesos, midst, and potamoi, rivers). This was merely a geo- 
 graphical or territorial district, and not a political division. Chal- 
 dsea, or Babylonia, was a political as well as a territorial division, 
 situated between the lower course of the Tigris on the east and Arabia 
 on the west, and corresponding to the geographical region which the 
 Hebrews designated as the Land of Shinar. As the Persian Gulf in 
 ancient times extended about 120 or 130 miles farther north than at 
 present, ancient Chaldasa was quite a small section of country com- 
 pared with that region in our day. The district east of the lower 
 course of these rivers, immediately east of Babylonia, was a territorial 
 and political division called Susiana, or Elam, the chief city of which 
 was Susa. Assyria proper, as a territorial division, lay to the east of 
 the Euphrates, west of the Zagros mountains, north of Susiana and 
 Chaldaea, and south of Armenia; while Assyria as a political power, 
 or the Assyrian Empire, varied in territorial extent at different times, 
 and often comprised the entire region from the Mediterranean to the 
 plateau of Iran. 
 
 Three great empires successively flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates 
 valley the Chaldsean, or Early Babylonian Empire, from 2400 B. C. 
 to 1300 B. C. ; the Assyrian Empire, from 1300 B. C. to 625 B. C. ; 
 and the Later Babylonian Empire, from 625 B. C. to 538 B. C. 
 
 The Chaldaean, or Early Babylonian Empire, was the first great 
 monarchy of South-western Asia. As we have seen, its seat was the 
 great alluvial plain lying to the north-west of the Persian Gulf. The 
 population of this region increased very rapidly in the most ancient 
 times, because of the extreme natural fertility of the soil, which pro- 
 duced everything requisite for man's support. Groves of date-palm 
 lined the banks of the rivers, and such cereal grains as wheat, barley, 
 millet, sesame and vetches grew in luxuriant abundance, as did also 
 various other grains. Says a certain writer: "According to a native 
 tradition, wheat was indigenous in Chaldaea. Its tendencies to grow 
 leaves was so great that the Babylonians used to mow it twice, and 
 then pasture their cattle on it for a while, to keep down the blade and 
 induce the plant to turn to ear." Speaking of this country, Herodotus 
 says: "Of all the countries that we know of, there is none so fruitful 
 in grain. It makes no pretension indeed of growing the fig, the olive,
 
 THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY. 15 
 
 the vine or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful 
 as to yield two hundred fold. The blade of the wheat plant and barley 
 plant is often three or four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and 
 the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within 
 my own knowledge ; for I am not ignorant that what I have already 
 written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible 
 to those who have never visited the country." 
 
 Says another writer: "Babylonia, in the neighborhood of the Eu- Another 
 phrates, rivaled the fertility of the valley of the Nile ; the soil was m ent. 
 so peculiarly suited for corn that the husbandman's returns were some- 
 times three hundred fold, and rarely less than two hundred fold. The 
 rich oily grains of the pancium and sesamum were produced in luxu- 
 riant abundance ; the fig-tree, the olive and the vine were wholly want- 
 ing; but there were large groves of palm-trees on the banks of the 
 river. From the palms they obtained not only fruit, but wine, sugar 
 and molasses, as the Arabs do at the present time. Dwarf cypress- 
 trees were scattered over the plains; but these were a poor substitute 
 for other species of wood. To this deficiency of timber must be at- 
 tributed the neglect of the river navigation, and the abandonment of 
 the commerce of the Indian seas, by the Babylonians." 
 
 Chaldsea produced no stone or minerals of any kind. The stone Brick and 
 used in building was brought there from other lands. But the country 
 yielded an abundant supply of clay, from which were manufactured 
 excellent bricks for building purposes, while the wells of bitumen 
 afforded an inexhaustible amount of admirable cement. These mate- 
 rials supplied the place of wood, stone and mortar. Considering its 
 luxuriant yield of cheap and abundant food and its never-failing sup- 
 ply of building material, it is not surprising that Chaldaea in primeval 
 times became densely populated and abounded in great cities. Assyria 
 was better supplied with minerals than Chaldsea ; good qualities of 
 stone, iron, copper, lead, silver, antimony and other metals existed in 
 abundance ; while bitumen, naphtha, petroleum, sulphur, alum and salt 
 were also yielded. 
 
 As regards climate, the winters of Chaldaea are mild, frosts being Climate 
 light and snow unknown; while the summers are hot and dry; and * nd 
 heavy rains fall in November and December. The wild animals in- of 
 digenous in Chaldaea were the lion, the leopard, the hyena, the lynx, clialdaBa ' 
 the wild cat, the wolf, the jackal, the wild boar, the buffalo, the stag, 
 the gazelle, the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger and the porcupine. 
 The domestic animals of the country were the camel, the horse, the 
 buffalo, the cow, the ox, the goat, the sheep and the dog. 
 
 The Book of Genesis, in speaking of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter frxsai 
 before the Lord," says : "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Cities.
 
 HQ CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the Land of Shinar." The 
 southern tetrarchy of four cities consisted of Ur or Hur, Huruk, 
 Nipur, and Larsa or Larancha, which are believed to be identical with 
 the Scriptural " Ur of the Chaldees," Erech, Calneh and Ellasar. 
 The northern tetrarchy consisted of the cities of Babel or Babylon, 
 Borsippa, Cutha and Sippara. 
 
 Their Ur, or Hur, in the southern part of Chaldsea, between the Euphrates 
 
 and the Arabian border, was the early capital and metropolis of Chal- 
 daea, and is celebrated as the birth-place of Abraham. Its stately 
 ruins, now called Mugheir by the Arabs, and chief among which are 
 the remains of a great temple, consist principally of a series of low 
 mounds of an oval shape with the largest diameter running from north 
 to south. Thirty miles north-west of Ur, on the east bank of the 
 Euphrates, are the ruins of Larsa or Larrak, the Biblical Ellasar, 
 the Laranchse of Berosus, and the Larissa of Apollodorus ; now called 
 Senkereh or Sinkara. On the same side of the river, fifteen miles 
 north-west of Larsa, are the ruins of Huruk, the Scriptural Erech and 
 the Greek Orchoe, called by the present natives Urka or Warka, and 
 celebrated for the ruins of its massive temple. Sixty-five miles north- 
 west of Warka, thirty miles east of the Euphrates, are the ruins of 
 Nipur, called Calneh by Moses, and Niffer by the present inhabitants. 
 About sixty miles from Niffer, on the west bank of the Euphrates, are 
 the remains of the ancient Borsippa, chiefly its temple, whose modern 
 name is Birs-i-Nimrud. Fifteen miles north-west, on both banks of the 
 Euphrates, are the ruins of "Babylon the Great," which cover a space 
 three miles long by between one and two miles wide, and which con- 
 sist of three mounds now called Babil, Kasr and Amram by the Arabs. 
 The ancient Sippara, the Scriptural Sepharvaim, was twenty miles 
 north-west of Babylon, on the east bank of the Euphrates, and is 
 now called Sura. Dur-Kurri-galzu, now called Akkerkuf, on the 
 Saklawiyeh canal, was six miles from the site of the present Bagdad. 
 About twenty miles north-east of Babylon was Cutha, now Ibrahim. 
 Bii, or Ahava, was the modern Hit, about one hundred and twenty 
 miles north-west of Babylon, on the Euphrates. Chilmad was the 
 present Kalwadha, near Bagdad. Rubesi was probably Zerghul. 
 There were a large number of smaller cities in every part of Chaldasa, 
 of which nothing is known. 
 
 Grains Assyria, as we have seen, embraced the portion of the Tigris-Eu- 
 tablesoT phrates valley north of Chaldaea, or Babylonia the region now known 
 Assyria, as Kurdistan. The soil of Assyria was not so fertile as that of Chal- 
 daea, but was generally productive ; and careful cultivation and irriga- 
 tion brought luxuriant yields of various grains and vegetables; while 
 such fruits as the citron, the orange, the lemon, the date-palm, the
 
 THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY. 
 
 117 
 
 pomegranate, the olive, the vine, the fig and the apricot flourished in 
 profusion, and the mulberry gave nourishment to an unusually large 
 silk-worm found nowhere else; but ever since the fall of the Assyrian 
 Empire the country has been exposed to the ravages of plundering 
 nomad hordes and to the devastations of hostile armies, so that this 
 region is now almost a wilderness. 
 
 Unlike Chaldaea, which, as we have observed, produced no stone or 
 minerals of any kind, Assyria was supplied with an abundance of stone, 
 iron, copper, lead, silver, antimony and other metals; while bitumen, 
 naphtha, petroleum, sulphur, alum and salt were also yielded in suffi- 
 cient quantities. 
 
 Assyria has a varied climate, but on the whole the summers are 
 cooler and the winters more severe than in Chaldsea, because of moun- 
 tain breezes from the Zagros and from Armenia; while there is also 
 more moisture, and in portions of the country heavy rains, snows and 
 dews fall during the winter and spring. 
 
 The wild animals of Assyria were the lion, the leopard, the lynx, 
 the hyena, the jackal, the ibex, the gazelle, the jerboa, the bear, the 
 deer, the wolf, the stag, the buffalo, the beaver, the fox, the hare, the 
 badger, the porcupine, the wild cat, the wild boar, the wild sheep and 
 the wild ass. The rivers abounded with fish, and the marshy thickets 
 with wild fowl. The domestic animals were the camel, the horse, the 
 ass, the mule, the ox, the cow, the sheep, the goat and the dog. 
 
 The true heart of Assyria was the country close along the Tigris 
 between latitude thirty-five degrees and thirty-six degrees and thirty 
 minutes north. Within these limits were the four great cities marked 
 by the mounds of Khorsabad, Mosul, Nimrud and Kileh-Sherghat, 
 besides a multitude of cities of minor importance. Three of the four 
 great capitals of the Assyrian Empire were located on the east bank 
 of the river ; but the early capital, Asshur, now called Kileh-Sherghat, 
 was on the west bank. The Assyrian ruins strew the country between 
 the Tigris and the Khabour. Mounds exist along the Khabour's great 
 western affluent, and even near Seruj, in the country between Harran 
 and the Euphrates. But the remains on the east side of the Tigris 
 are more extensive and more important. Nebbi-Yunus, Koyunjik and 
 Nimrud which have furnished by far the most valuable and interest- 
 ing of the Assyrian monuments are all situated on the east side of 
 the Tigris, while the only places on the west side which have yielded 
 striking relics are Arban and Kileh-Sherghat. 
 
 In Assyria, as in Chaldaea, four cities were in early times preemi- 
 nent. The Book of Genesis in speaking of the Assyrian emigration 
 from Chaldaea, or the Land of Shinar, says: "Out of that land went 
 forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah 
 
 Minerals 
 
 of 
 Assyria. 
 
 Climate 
 
 of 
 Assyria. 
 
 Animals 
 
 of 
 Assyria. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Sites. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Cities.
 
 CHAIJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 and Resen." In the flourishing period of the Assyrian Empire we 
 find four cities Nineveh (or Ninua), Calah, Asshur and Dur-Sargina 
 (or City of Sargon) all of which were cities of the first rank. Be- 
 sides these four capitals, there were a vast number of minor cities and 
 towns, so numerous that the whole country is strewn with their ruins. 
 Among these minor places were Tarbisa, Arbil (or Arbela), Arapkha 
 and Khazeh, in the region between the Tigris and the Zagros moun- 
 tains, the ancient Assyria proper and the modern Kurdistan ; and Har- 
 ran, Tel-Apni, Razappa (or Rezeph) and Amida in the North-west; 
 Nazibina (or Nisibis), on the eastern branch of the Khabour; Sirki 
 (or Circesium), at the confluence of the Khabour with the Euphrates; 
 Anat on the Euphrates, a little below the junction; Tahiti, Margarisi, 
 Sidikan, Katni, Beth-Khalupi, and others between the lower course of 
 the Khabour and the Tigris. 
 
 Their Qn the east bank of the Tigris, opposite the present town of Mosul, 
 
 are the ruins of the once-mighty city of Nineveh, the celebrated and 
 magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire when that monarchy was 
 in the zenith of its greatness and splendor. The name Nineveh is read 
 on the bricks, and a uniform tradition from the time of the Arab con- 
 quest gives the mound this title. These are the most extensive ruins 
 of Assyria. As the city will be described in a subsequent part of this 
 book, we will not enter into any minute description of the place in this 
 connection. At the present town of Khorsabad, on the east bank of 
 the Tigris, about nine miles north of Nineveh, are the ruins of Dur- 
 Sargina (City of Sargon), chief of which are those of the magnificent 
 palace erected there by the famous Sargon, one of the most celebrated 
 of Assyrian monarchs. These ruins were brought to light in recent 
 years by the excavations of that enterprising French explorer, M. 
 Botta. The present town of Nimrud, on the east side of the Tigris, 
 about twenty miles south of the ruins of Nineveh in a direct line, and 
 about thirty miles by the course of the Tigris, occupies the site of 
 the ancient Calah, the second great Assyrian capital city, whose ruins, 
 among which are those of several royal palaces, cover an area of 
 nearly one thousand English acres, which is little over half the area 
 of the ruins of Nineveh. Forty miles south of Nimrud, at Kileh- 
 Sherghat, on the west bank of the Tigris, are the remains of the 
 ancient city of Asshur, the third great city and the early Assyrian 
 capital, whose ruins, marked by long lines of low mounds, are scarcely 
 less in extent than those of the renowned Calah. Four miles north- 
 west from Khorsabad are the ruins of Tarbisa, among which are those 
 of a royal palace and several temples. About twenty miles south-e^st 
 of Khorsabad is the ruin of Keremles. About halfway between the 
 ruins of Nineveh and Nimrud, or Calah, is Selamiyah, supposed by
 
 THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY. 
 
 119 
 
 some to be the Resen of Scripture. About forty miles east of Nimrud 
 was the famous city of Arabil, or Arbil, called Arbela by the Greeks, 
 and still retaining its ancient designation. Besides these principal 
 towns of Assyria proper, the inscriptions mention a large number of 
 cities whose site is not known. 
 
 The wonderful discoveries made in this field of ancient Oriental his- 
 tory within the last three quarters of a century by the patience and 
 diligence of such renowned explorers as Layard and Botta, and later 
 by the eminent English Orientalists, Sayce and George Smith, and in 
 the last few years by the truly remarkable discoveries of the renowned 
 German American explorer and archaeologist, Dr. Hilprecht, at the site 
 of the old Chaldsean city of Nipur, have almost recast the entire his- 
 tory of these ancient Oriental monarchies and have revealed the remote 
 antiquity of this old civilization and the early history of mankind. 
 
 Babylonia proper being almost identical in its situation and terri- 
 torial extent with the old kingdom of Chaldaea, it need not be described 
 here. It was located wholly west of the Tigris, and consisted of two 
 "vast plains, or flats, one situated between the two rivers (the Tigris 
 and the Euphrates), and thus forming the lower portion of the Meso- 
 potamia of the Greeks and Romans the other interposed between the 
 Euphrates and Arabia, a long but narrow strip along the right bank 
 of that abounding river." In area it was smaller than Scotland or Ire- 
 land. The country east of the Tigris constituted no portion of Baby- 
 lonia proper, but was Cissia, or Susiana a separate country called 
 Elam by the Jews and was occupied by an Aryan people. The 
 cities of Babylonia have been mentioned in connection with Chaldaea. 
 
 The small kingdom of Babylonia suddenly became the mistress of 
 an extensive empire in the latter half of the seventh century before 
 Christ. When Media and Babylonia overthrew Assyria in B. C. 625, 
 they divided the Assyrian Empire between them, as already related. 
 Babylonia obtained all that part of the Assyrian dominions west of 
 the Tigris and south of Armenia, along with Elam, or Susiana, east 
 of the Lower Tigris. Thus the countries included within the Later 
 Babylonian Empire, besides Babylonia proper, the heart of the em- 
 pire, were Elam (Elymais), or Susiana (Cissia), Mesopotamia proper, 
 Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Edom, Northern Arabia and part 
 of Egypt. There was a great variety of climate and productions in 
 this vast domain. 
 
 The soil and climate, products and animals of Babylonia have been 
 mentioned and described in our account of Chaldaea. The exceeding 
 fertility of its soil, which so richly rewarded the labors of the husband- 
 man, have there been noted. The testimony of Herodotus in that par- 
 ticular was sustained by Theophrastus, Strabo and Pliny, and also by 
 
 Recent 
 Dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonia, or 
 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 Extent 
 of the 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Empire. 
 
 Grains, 
 
 Fruits 
 
 and 
 
 Animals 
 of Baby- 
 lonia.
 
 1*0 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Products 
 
 of 
 
 Susiana, 
 Mesopo- 
 tamia and 
 Northern 
 Syria. 
 
 Products 
 
 of 
 
 Southern 
 Syria and 
 Palestine. 
 
 Minerals 
 of the 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Empire. 
 
 Berosus, who said: "The land of the Babylonians produces wheat a$ 
 an indigenous plant, and has also barley, and lentils, and vetches, and 
 sesame ; the banks of the streams and the marshes supply edible roots, 
 called gongce, which have the taste of barley cakes. Palms, too, grow 
 in the country, and apples, and fruit-trees of various kinds." The 
 chief article of food for the great mass of the people in Babylonia, as 
 in Egypt, was the date-palm, which flourished in luxuriant abundance. 
 
 The products of Susiana were mainly the same as those of Baby- 
 lonia proper ; the date-palm, wheat and barley growing in abundance. 
 The palm-tree also furnished building timber. The modern Khusistan, 
 the ancient Susiana, produces all the fruits which thrive in Persia. 
 In Northern Mesopotamia are found the walnut, the vine and pista- 
 chio-nut, while good crops of grain, oranges, pomegranates, and the 
 ordinary fruits are grown. In Northern Syria all kinds of trees and 
 shrubs grow in luxuriance, while the pasture is excellent, and much 
 of the land is adapted to the growth of cotton. Here the Assyrian 
 kings frequently obtained timber for building purposes, and here are 
 yet found dense forests of oak, pine, ilex, walnuts, willows, poplars, 
 ash-trees, birches, larches and locust-trees. Such wild shrubs as the 
 oleander, the myrtle, the bay, the arbutus, the clematis, the juniper, 
 and the honeysuckle abound; and such cultivated fruit-trees as the 
 orange, the pomegranate, the pistachio-nut, the vine, the olive and the 
 mulberry also thrive. The adis, an excellent pea, and the Lycoperdon, 
 or wild potato, grow in the vicinity of Aleppo. The castor-oil plant is 
 cultivated in the plain of Edib. Melons, cucumbers and most of the 
 common vegetables flourish in abundance all over Syria. 
 
 In Southern Syria and Palestine most of the same vegetable produc- 
 tions occur. The date-palm flourishes in Syria as far as Beyreut, and 
 formerly thrived in Palestine. The banana is also found on the Syrian 
 coast. The fig-mulberry, or true sycamore, also thrives in Southern 
 Syria, as do the jujube, the tamarisk, the wild olive, the gum-sty rax 
 plant, the egg-plant, the Egyptian papyrus, the sugar-cane, the scar- 
 let mistletoe, the liquorice plant, the yellow-flowered acacia, and the 
 solanum that produces the "Dead Sea apple." Here also flourishes 
 the celebrated cedar of Lebanon, several oaks and junipers, the maple, 
 the mulberry, the berberry, the jessamine, the ivy, the butcher's broom, 
 a rhododendron, and the gum-tragacanth plant. The same fruits 
 flourish in Southern Syria that thrive in the North, with the addition 
 of dates, lemons, almonds, shaddocks and limes. 
 
 / The principal mineral products of the Babylonian Empire were bitu- 
 men, with its concomitants, naphtha and petroleum, salt, sulphur, nitre, 
 copper, iron, perhaps silver, and several kinds of precious stones. The 
 springs of Hit, or Is, were famous in the time of Herodotus for their
 
 THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY. 
 
 121 
 
 great abundance of bitumen, which was likewise procured from Arder- 
 icca (now Kir-Ab), and probably from Ram Ormuz, in Susiana, and 
 also from the Dead Sea, in Palestine. Salt was procured from the 
 various lakes without outlets, especially from the Sabakhah, the Bahr- 
 el-Melak, the Dead Sea, and a small lake near Tadmor, or Palmyra. 
 The Dead Sea perhaps also furnished sulphur and nitre. The hills 
 of Palestine yielded copper and iron. Silver was probably found in 
 Anti-Lebanon. Gems and precious stones were most probably pro- 
 cured from Susiana, and from Syria and Phoenicia. Among these 
 precious stones were agates from Susiana, amethysts from Petra, ala- 
 baster from near Damascus, cyanus from Phoenicia, and gems found 
 in the cylinder-seals, such as cornelian, rock-crystal, chalcedony, onyx, 
 jasper, quartz, serpentine, syenite, haematite, green felspar, pyrites, 
 loadstone and amazon-stone, from the various provinces. 
 
 Building stone did not exist in Babylonia and the alluvial districts 
 of Susiana ; but abounded in other parts of the empire, being plentiful 
 in the Euphrates valley above Hit, in the mountain regions of Susiana, 
 and in Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia. Near to Babylonia was lime- 
 stone. In the vicinity of Haddisah, on the Euphrates, was a silicious 
 rock alternating with iron-stone, and in the Arabian desert were sand- 
 stone and granite. The stone used in the Babylonian cities was con- 
 veyed down the Euphrates, or transported by canals from the neigh- 
 boring districts of Arabia. But the inexhaustible supply of clay fur- 
 nished by their own country caused the Babylonians to prefer brick 
 almost exclusively for building purposes. 
 
 The principal wild animals of the Babylonian Empire were the lion, 
 the panther, or large leopard, the hunting leopard, the bear, the hyena, 
 the wild ox, the buffalo, the wild ass, the stag, the antelope, the ibex, 
 or wild goat, the wild sheep, the wild boar, the wolf, the jackal, the fox, 
 the hare and the rabbit. Other wild animals were the lynx, the wild 
 cat, the ratel, the sable, the genet, the badger, the otter, the beaver, 
 the polecat, the jerboa, the rat, the mouse, the marmot, the porcupine, 
 the squirrel and the alligator. Great varieties of birds, including 
 eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, hawks, crows, and many kinds of small 
 birds, abounded. Reptiles of many varieties prevailed. Fish 
 abounded in the Chaldaean marshes and in most of the fresh-water lakes 
 and rivers. The domestic animals were the camel, the horse, the mule, 
 the ass, the cow, the ox, the goat, the sheep and the dog. 
 
 The summer heat in Babylonia proper, or Chaldasa, in Susiana, or 
 Elam, in Philistia and in Edom was intense, but the winters here were 
 short and mild. In Susiana the cool breezes from the Zagros moun- 
 tains somewhat modified the heat ; while in Babylonia the sirocco, or hot 
 wind, from the Arabian desert was at times oppressive. In Central 
 
 Building 
 Ston. 
 
 Animals 
 of the 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Empire. 
 
 Climate 
 of the 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Empire.
 
 122 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Adjacent 
 Countries. 
 
 Great 
 Cities of 
 the Baby- 
 lonian 
 Empire. 
 
 Mesopotamia, in the Euphrates valley, in Syria, Palestine and Phoeni- 
 cia, the winters were longer and colder, but the summer heat was less 
 oppressive. In the northern portion of the empire, along the flanks 
 of the Masius, the Taurus and the Amanus, the climate was like that 
 of Media, the summers being milder, but the winters intensely severe. 
 Thus a variety of climate existed in the Babylonian Empire ; although 
 the region as a whole was the hottest and dryest outside the tropics, 
 because of the close proximity of the great Arabian desert, the small- 
 ness of the neighboring seas, the absence of mountains, and the scarcity 
 of timber. 
 
 On the east and north the Babylonian Empire was bounded by the 
 territories of the great Median Empire, including Persia and Media 
 on the east, and Armenia and Cappadocia on the north. On the south 
 lay the desert land of Arabia, and on the west was the Mediterranean 
 
 sea. 
 
 The great cities of the empire outside of Babylonia itself were 
 Jerusalem and Samaria in Palestine; Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia; 
 Damascus and Tadmor in Syria; Carchemish, in the land of the Hit- 
 tites, on the Euphrates; Ashdod, Ascalon, Ekron and Gaza in Philis- 
 tia; and Susa in Susiana, or Elam. 
 
 Berosus. 
 
 Hebrew 
 
 and 
 
 Greek 
 
 Sources. 
 
 Modern 
 
 Re- 
 searches. 
 
 SECTION II. SOURCES OF CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABY- 
 LONIAN HISTORY. 
 
 REGARDING the great antiquity of Chaldsea we have the authority 
 of Berosus, the native Babylonian historian, who was a priest of Bel 
 at Babylon, and flourished during the first half of the third century 
 B. C. Soon after Alexander the Great took Babylon, Berosus wrote 
 a History of Chaldcea in Greek, in three books, and dedicated the work 
 to Antiochus, King of Syria. Unfortunately this work has been lost, 
 excepting a few fragments which were copied by Apollodorus and 
 Polyhistor, two Greek writers of the first century before Christ, and 
 these fragments were afterwards quoted by Eusebius and Syncellus, 
 and from them we learn the Babylonian historian's account of his 
 country's annals. Other ancient sources of Chaldasan, Assyrian and 
 Babylonian history are the Old Testament and the writings of the 
 Greek historians, Herodotus, Ctesias and Diodorus Siculus. 
 
 As in the case of Egypt, our knowledge of the history of the three 
 great successive empires in the Tigris-Euphrates valley has been vastly 
 enlarged through the diligent research of modern historians, anti- 
 quarians and Orientalists. By the diligence of the great explorers, 
 beginning with Layard over half a century ago, Nineveh, Babylon
 
 SOURCES OF CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN HISTORY. 
 
 123 
 
 and the buried cities of the plain have been excavated; their temples 
 and palaces have been exposed to view; the mysterious inscriptions in 
 the cuneiform, or wedge-shaped and arrow-headed characters, which 
 were discovered on the slabs that lined the insides of the palaces and 
 temples, have, by a grand triumph of modern scholarship, been de- 
 ciphered, so that a new flood of light has been shed upon the dark- 
 ness of these famous ancient monarchies. Specimens of the cuneiform 
 inscriptions have been published in the British Museum Series, edited 
 by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. E. Norris. Many of these inscrip- 
 tions have been deciphered by M. Oppert, the French Orientalist. 
 The evidence of both classical writers and the monumental inscrip- 
 tions shows that the Chaldarans, Assyrians and Later Babylonians paid 
 great attention to chronology. The Canon of Ptolemy, which con- 
 tained an exact Babylonian computation of time from 747 B. C. to 
 331 B. C., is generally credited as a most authentic document. The 
 Assyrian Canon, discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson, and consisting 
 of a number of clay tablets, contains a complete system of Assyrian 
 chronology from 911 B. C. to 660 B. C., verified by the record of a 
 solar eclipse which must have occurred June 15, 763 B. C. ; and is 
 regarded as equally reliable. Among the eminent modern writers on 
 these ancient Oriental monarchies are the English historians, George 
 Rawlinson and P. Smith, and the renowned German historians and 
 Orientalists, Niebuhr, Bunsen and Duncker. 
 
 Our sources of Assyrian history are the Greek historians, Herodotus 
 and Ctesias, and the Assyrian monumental inscriptions. Little reli- 
 ance can be placed upon exact dates relating to the annals of most of 
 the very ancient nations. With Assyrian chronology, however, we can 
 depend upon the accuracy of the two trustworthy documents already 
 alluded to the Canon of Ptolemy, a Babylonian record having impor- 
 tant bearing upon Assyrian dates, and the Assyrian Canon, discovered 
 and edited by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1862, and which gives the suc- 
 cession of the Assyrian kings for 251 years, beginning with the year 
 911 B. C. and ending 660 B. C. These two documents not only har- 
 monize remarkably with each other, but they agree admirably with 
 statements of Berosus and Herodotus. According to Berosus, Assyria 
 became independent of Chaldsea about 1300 B. C., and according to 
 Herodotus half a century later, about the year 1250 B. C. From 
 these sources, and from the inscriptions on Assyrian tablets, bricks and 
 sculptures, we are able to fix the dates of Assyrian events with toler- 
 able accuracy. 
 
 With respect to the duration and antiquity of the Assyrian mon- 
 archy, the two original authorities are the Greek historians alluded 
 to at the beginning of the preceding paragraph, and between these 
 1 1 
 
 Cunei- 
 form In- 
 scriptions 
 
 Canon of 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Canon. 
 
 Modern 
 
 His- 
 torians. 
 
 Greek His- 
 torians 
 
 and 
 
 Assyrian 
 Monu- 
 mental 
 Inscrip- 
 tions. 
 
 The 
 Canons. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Dates. 
 
 Herodotus 
 
 and 
 Ctesias.
 
 124 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Their 
 Respec- 
 tive Fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 Reliabili- 
 ty of He- 
 rodotus. 
 
 Unre- 
 liability 
 
 ofCtesias. 
 
 Chronol- 
 ogy of 
 Herodo- 
 tus 
 
 two the judgment of the learned has since been divided. Ctesias 
 maintained that the Assyrian monarchy had an existence of 1306 or 
 1860 years, and that it had almost as remote an antiquity as had the 
 city of Babylon; while Herodotus asserted that the Assyrian Empire 
 had a duration of less than seven centuries, beginning about the year 
 B. C. 1250, when a flourishing Empire had already existed in Chal- 
 daa for more than a thousand years from the time of Nimrod. Ctesias 
 was followed by such writers as Cephalion, Castor, Diodorus Siculus, 
 Nicolas of Damascus, Trogus Pompeius, Agathias, Syncellus, Velleius 
 Paterculus, Josephus, Eusebius, and Moses of Chorene, among the 
 ancients, and by Freret, Rollin and Clinton, among the moderns. 
 Herodotus has been sustained by such modern writers as Volney, 
 Heeren, B. G. Niebuhr, Brandis, the two Rawlinsons and many others. 
 The English historians and Orientalists consider the Assyrian Empire 
 as having ended in 625 B. C., while the French regard the year 606 
 B. C. as the date of that event. 
 
 Herodotus wrote within two centuries after the fall of the Assyrian 
 Empire, and about thirty years before Ctesias. He had traveled ex- 
 tensively in the East, as well as in Egypt, and had availed himself of 
 all the accessible sources of information, consulting the Chaldseans of 
 Babylon and others. He was thoroughly honest and conscientious, 
 and implicit jeliance can be placed in the accuracy of his statements. 
 He had especially endeavored to inform himself fully and correctly 
 regarding Assyria, of which country he designed writing an elaborate 
 work entirely distinct from his general history. 
 
 Ctesias also visited the East, spending seventeen years at the court 
 of the Persian king. Being the court-physician to Artaxerxes Mne- 
 mon, he may have had access to the archives in the possession of the 
 Persian monarchs. He was a man of such temper and spirit as to be 
 disposed to differ with others. He flatly called Herodotus "a liar," 
 and was therefore resolved to differ with him. He continually differs 
 with Thucydides wherever they handle the same subject. He perpet- 
 ually disagrees with Ptolemy on Babylonian chronology, and with 
 Manetho on Egyptian dates. He is also constantly at variance with 
 the cuneiform inscriptions, which generally confirm the statements of 
 Herodotus. His Oriental history likewise contradicts the Old Testa- 
 ment, as he places the destruction of Nineveh at 875 B. C., long before 
 the time of Jonah. The judgment of Aristotle, of Plutarch, of Ar- 
 rian, among the ancients, and of Niebuhr, Bunsen and other modern 
 historians and Orientalists, is all on the side of Herodotus, whose chron- 
 ology is to be preferred, on every account, to that of Ctesias. 
 
 Herodotus assigns the year B. C. 1250 as the beginning of the As- 
 syrian Empire, which, according to his account, lasted six and a half
 
 CHALDEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 126 
 
 Chronol- 
 ogy of 
 
 Berosus. 
 
 centuries. During the first five hundred and twenty years of this 
 period, from B. C. 1250, to B. C. 730, the Assyrians maintained their 
 supremacy over Western Asia, after which the Medes revolted and 
 formed an independent kingdom east of the Zagros mountains. The 
 Assyrian monarchy, thus reduced, lasted one hundred and thirty years 
 longer, to the close of the seventh century before the Christian era, 
 when the Medes took and destroyed Nineveh (B. C. 603). These 
 dates, though nearer the truth than those of Ctesias, are not abso- 
 lutely accepted by modern historians and Orientalists. 
 
 The chronology of Berosus coincides more nearly with that of 
 Herodotus than with that of Ctesias. As his sixth Chaldaean, or Baby- 
 lonian dynasty, which was Assyrian in race, began to reign about 1300 
 B. C., and as the Assyrian monarchy became independent when this 
 dynasty was founded, it follows that the foundation of the Assyrian 
 Empire dates from that year. As Berosus also placed the fall of the 
 Assyrian Empire at 625 B. C., that empire must have existed six 
 hundred and seventy-five years. 
 
 Within the last quarter of the nineteenth century a number of Eng- 
 lish and French Orientalists had discovered interesting remains of 
 ancient Chaldaean and Assyrian civilization, the most prominent among 
 the English Assyriologists and antiquarians being Mr. Sayce and Mr. 
 George Smith, who, by deciphering some cuneiform tablets, had dis- 
 covered many new and interesting facts regarding the Chaldaean and 
 Assyrian cosmogony. 
 
 In recent years the several Babylonian expeditions of the Univer- Hilprecht 
 sity of Pennsylvania, under the charge of Dr. Herman Volrath Hil- 
 precht, have made a series of important discoveries by excavations at 
 the site of Nipur, unearthing about twenty-three thousand tablets, and 
 uncovering the remains of a dozen cities, thus revealing to us the 
 remote antiquity of Chaldaean civilization, which appears to have ex- 
 isted about six thousand years before Christ, or eight thousand years 
 before the present time. 
 
 Recent 
 Dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 SECTION HI. CHALDEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN 
 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 THE Chaldaeans were a Semitic and Hamitic race, and their origin Antiquity 
 is involved in the obscurity of an unknown antiquity. The Chaldaean 
 monarchy probably began about 2400 B. C., as we have an account 
 of astronomical observations dating back to 2234 B. C. Berosus as- 
 signs nine dynasties to Chaldaea and Babylonia from the Deluge to the 
 Persian conquest of Babylonia in 538 B. C. The first of these dynas-
 
 126 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Nimrod, 
 
 the 
 Founder 
 
 of 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 Migra- 
 tions from 
 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 ties is largely traditional, and ended, according to Rawlinson, in 
 the year 2286 B. C., and according to Duncker in the year 24*58 
 B. C. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures mention NIMROD, the son of Cush and the 
 grandson of Ham, as the founder of this most ancient Asiatic empire. 
 Says the Mosaic narrative: "And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to 
 be a mighty one in the earth ; he was a mighty hunter before the Lord ; 
 wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the 
 Lord; and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and 
 Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Nimrod's capital was the 
 celebrated "Ur of the Chaldees," which at this early period was a 
 greater city than the four which Nimrod is said to have founded. By 
 means of his personal prowess and strength, as "a mighty hunter be- 
 fore the Lord," Nimrod had earned the gratitude of his countrymen 
 by reducing the number of wild animals which roamed over that region 
 in primitive times. Evidently one of the greatest characters of an- 
 tiquity, Nimrod was deified by the Chaldaeans after his death, and was 
 worshiped by them and by the Assyrians and Later Babylonians for 
 two thousand years, under the title of Bilu-Nipru, or Bel-Nimrod, "the 
 god of the chase," or "the great hunter." Rawlinson thinks that the 
 title assigned by the Arab astronomers to the constellation of Orion 
 El Jabbar, "the giant" was in memory of Nimrod. The ignorant 
 people who occupy that region at the present day still remember Nim- 
 rod, Solomon and Alexander the Great as the three great heroes of 
 antiquity, while all others have been forgotten. Calah, one of the 
 Assyrian capitals, was regarded as Nimrod's sacred city, and the town 
 which now occupies its site bears his name slightly corrupted Nimrud. 
 Although the tradition concerning Nimrod is almost universal, his 
 name has not yet been found among any of the monuments or cunei- 
 form inscriptions. 
 
 We have no account of the immediate successors of Nimrod. Some 
 time after his death there followed a migration of Semitic and Hamitic 
 tribes from Chaldaea to the northward and westward. Thus the Assyr- 
 ians, a Semitic people, migrated to the middle portion of the Tigris 
 valley, where they laid the foundations of their kingdom; the Phoe- 
 nicians, a Hamitic race, descended from Canaan, a son of Ham, set- 
 tled on the western shores of the country afterwards called Canaan, or 
 Palestine, where they became the most famous commercial and coloniz- 
 ing people of antiquity ; while the Semitic tribe which produced Abra- 
 ham, the shepherd and native of "Ur of the Chaldees," and from whom 
 are descended the Hebrews and Arabs, passed into Northern Meso- 
 potamia, whence Abraham journeyed westward with his flocks and 
 herds into the "promised land" of Canaan.
 
 CHALDEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 127 
 
 One of the successors of Nimrod was URUKH, or Urkham. ! He is the 
 first Chaldsean king of whom any traces have been discovered in the 
 country. The exact time of his reign is uncertain. He erected many 
 stupendous edifices, which appear to have been designed as temples. 
 These structures are gigantic in dimensions, but rude in workmanship. 
 The bricks of which they are built are rough, and put together awk- 
 wardly, moist mud or bitumen being used for mortar. In speaking 
 of the works erected by this monarch, Professor Rawlinson says : " In 
 his architecture, though there is much that is rude and simple, there 
 is also a good deal which indicates knowledge and experience." As- 
 tronomy was cultivated during the reign of Urukh. Ur was still the 
 capital of the Chaldsean monarchy, Babylon having not yet risen into 
 importance. At Warka, on the site of the ancient city of Huruk 
 the Erech of the Book of Genesis is the famous mound called Bow- 
 ariyeh by the present inhabitants. The general form of the ruin is 
 pyramidal, but the ravages of ages have destroyed its symmetry. Re- 
 cent discoveries have brought to light the fact that this massive struc- 
 ture was a tower two hundred feet square at its base and two stories 
 high. The lower story was built of bricks baked in the sun and ce- 
 mented together with bitumen, in which were placed layers of reeds 
 every four or five feet. In the upper story, which is now in ruins, the 
 middle portion was likewise of sun-baked brick, but on the outside 
 were burnt bricks. As it now stands, this ancient temple is about one 
 hundred feet above the level of the plain, and not much is known of 
 the original dimensions of the massive edifice, but the ruins indicate 
 that it must have been of immense altitude and grandeur. All the 
 bricks of the buttresses are stamped with cuneiform inscriptions, and 
 the layers are strongly cemented with bitumen. The solid dimensions 
 of the whole structure have been estimated at three million cubic feet, 
 and the number of bricks used in its erection have been computed at 
 thirty millions. The name of its royal builder frequently occurs on 
 the burnt bricks of this ruined temple. In some places his name is 
 stamped in the baked clay, and in other places the inscription records 
 that "Urukh, King of Ur, King of Sumir and Accad, has built a tem- 
 ple to his lady, the goddess Nana," or that "Urukh has built the tem- 
 ple and fortress of Ur in honor of his Lord, the god Sin," or that 
 "The mighty Lord, King of Ur, may his name continue!" 
 
 The temple of Ur was also built by Urukh, and is like the one just 
 described. Recent excavations have unearthed the ruins of this old 
 Chaldaean structure after it lay buried for centuries beneath the mounds 
 of rubbish. In the portion of the structure which has escaped the 
 ravages of time may be seen the traces of the temple of Hurki, the 
 Moon-god. The four corners of the vast edifice, and not its f <aur sides, 
 
 Urukh 
 and his 
 Works. 
 
 Ruins of 
 
 Huruk. 
 
 Temple 
 of Ur.
 
 123 CHALJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 face the four cardinal points of the compass, and the ground-plan of 
 the structure is in the form of a parallelogram, with its longest sides 
 facing to the north-east and south-west. The foundation of this tem- 
 ple is raised twenty feet above the level of the plain. The longer sides 
 of the base measure one hundred and ninety-eight feet, and the shorter 
 sides one hundred and thirty-three feet. The first story above the 
 basement is about forty feet high, and is secured outside by a wall ten 
 feet thick, made of burnt brick cemented together with bitumen. The 
 second story, now mostly in ruins, had the same form and character 
 originally. According to a local tradition this immense structure had 
 a third story, said to be the shrine of the god to whose worship the 
 temple had been erected. Tiles glazed with a blue enamel and copper 
 nails have been found in such a position as to indicate that they were 
 used in the construction of this third story. 
 
 Ruins of Similar ruins have been discovered in other parts of Chaldaea, of 
 Larsa' w hich the most important are those of Calneh and Larsa. Heaps of 
 
 and Ur. rubbish, the ruins of wrecked temples, are seen in every part of this 
 famous land of remote antiquity. In Calneh the fragments of temples 
 erected during the reign of Urukh are buried beneath two mounds. 
 The first of these temples was dedicated to the goddess Beltis and the 
 other to Bel-Nimrod. In Larsa the ruins indicate that San, the Sun- 
 god, was adored as the tutelary divinity of that city. In the cunei- 
 form inscriptions of Ur, his capital, Urukh is sometimes called "King 
 of Ur," and also "King of Accad." It was chiefly at Ur that his 
 great architectural works were erected. The ruins of this once-famous 
 city his great capital display his inscriptions in greater profusion 
 than those of any other Chaldaean monardh. 
 
 ?# ana Urukh, at his death, was succeeded on the Chaldasan throne by his 
 Ring. son, ILGI, or Elgi, who also styled himself "King of Ur." The royal 
 seal or signet of the Chaldaean and Assyrian monarchs was formed in 
 the shape of a small cylinder, with figures and characters engraven 
 in the surface. When rolled upon wax or any other plastic material 
 this cylinder left the king's name and emblems in relief upon the sub- 
 stance employed in sealing. In one of the mounds near Erech, or 
 Orchoe, the signet-cylinder of Ilgi has been found, and is now in the 
 British Museum. The legend inscribed upon it has been deciphered 
 as follows: "For saving the life of Ilgi, from the mighty Lord, the 
 King of Ur, son of Urukh." Ilgi finished the great architectural 
 structures commenced by his father, and is reputed to have repaired 
 two of the great temples of Erech. The inscriptions testify to the 
 fame of both Urukh and Ilgi as architects and warriors. 
 
 Eiamite After Dgi's reign there is a blank in Chaldaean history, broken by 
 
 Dynasty, the conquest of the kingdom by a Susianian, or Eiamite dynasty, the
 
 CHALDEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 12 g 
 
 second in the lists of Berosus, about 2286 B. C. The first monarcK 
 of this dynasty was KUDUR-NAKHUNTA, who governed Chaldsea through Kudur- 
 viceroys, while he held his court at Susa, his capital. One of his sue- ^Q^ 
 cessors was KUDUR-LAGAMER the Chedorlaomer of Scripture who 
 likewise reigned at Susa, and divided Chaldasa into several provinces, Lagamgi- 
 which he governed by means of viceroys. Kudur-Lagamer, or Chedor- 
 laomer, was the first great Oriental conquerer. After conquering As- His Con- 
 syria he invaded Canaan, or Palestine, where he was opposed by the 
 Canaanitish princes, Bera, King of Sodom; Birsha, King of Gomor- 
 rah; Shinah, King of Admeh; Shemeber, King of Zeboiim; and the 
 King of Bela or Zoar. A great battle in the valley of Siddim, near 
 the Dead Sea the first great battle recorded in history resulted in First _., 
 a victory for Chedorlaomer, who for twelve years held the Canaanitish Battle, 
 kings in vassalage. At the end of this period these kings attempted 
 to free themselves from this yoke, whereupon Chedorlaomer again led 
 an expedition into Palestine, and defeated the Canaanites in a second 
 battle in the valley of Siddim, on which occasion Lot, Abraham's 
 nephew, was taken prisoner. After plundering the cities of Palestine, 
 the victorious Chaldees set out upon their march home ; but encumbered 
 by their captives and plunder, they were routed near Damascus by Chaldees 
 Abraham, who with a small band had made a night attack upon the AbrahamT 
 retreating Chaldsean host, and driven them in a panic across the Syrian 
 desert, recovering the booty they had taken. This repulse secured 
 Canaan against any further attack from the King of Chaldaea. 
 
 Only three of the succeeding Chaldaean kings of this Susianian, or 
 Elamite dynasty are known. The first of these, SINTI-SHILKHAK, is 
 known only by name. The second, KUDUR-MABUK, whom the inscrip- u ^ u " 
 tions call "Conquerer of the West," is credited with having enlarged 
 and beautified the city of Ur, which he made his capital, thus ingra- 
 tiating himself with his Chaldaaan subjects. Tradition also gives him 
 the honor of restoring the old Chaldaean religion, which his predecessors 
 of the Elamite dynasty had discouraged. The temples were repaired 
 "nd the worship of the old deities once more prevailed. Kudur-Mabuk 
 was succeeded by his son, ARID-SIN, the last of the known monarchs of Arid-Sin, 
 the Susianian, or Elamite dynasty, which ended in the year 2052 
 B. C. 
 
 Then came the third dynasty mentioned by Berosus, a dynasty con- Third and 
 sisting of eleven monarchs, whose aggregate reigns embrace a period Dy _ 
 of only forty-eight years ; but neither monumental inscriptions nor nasties, 
 tradition afford us any knowledge concerning the events of their 
 reigns. The fourth dynasty recorded by Berosus, one embracing 
 forty-nine native Chaldasan kings, reigned for four hundred and fifty- 
 seven years, from 2004 B. C. to 1546 B. C. 
 VOL. 1. 9
 
 130 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Ismi-Da- 
 gon. 
 
 Shamus- 
 Vul. 
 
 vJurguna. 
 
 Naram- 
 Sin. 
 
 Sin- 
 Shada. 
 
 Zur-Sin. 
 
 City of 
 
 Abu- 
 
 Shahrein. 
 
 Nur-Vul. 
 
 Rim-Sin. 
 
 Arab 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Kham- 
 murabi 
 and his 
 Works. 
 
 One of the first kings of the fourth dynasty was ISMI-DAGON, who 
 probably reigned during the first half of the nineteenth century before 
 Christ, and who subjected Assyria to the Chaldaean supremacy. His 
 son, Shamas-Vul, was the Chaldaean viceroy over Assyria, and built a 
 temple at Asshur. The monumental inscriptions prove the Chaldean 
 ascendency over Assyria at this early period, the last-named country 
 being governed by Chaldaean viceroys. Ismi-Dagon was succeeded on 
 the Chaldaean throne by his son, GURGUNA, who is chiefly distinguished 
 as the builder of the great cemeteries at Ur, among the most wonder- 
 ful of the ruins of Chaldaea. The next king was NARAM-SIN, who 
 erected the great temple at Agana and fixed his capital at Babylon, 
 which had at this time become the largest city of Chaldaea. Ur had 
 for some time ceased to be the Chaldaean capital; Erech, or Huruk, 
 having taken its place; but the latter city now gave way to Babylon, 
 which thenceforth remained the capital of the empire. 
 
 After Naram-Sin, who reigned about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century before Christ, followed the reign of SIN-SHADA, who built the 
 upper terrace in the temple of Erech, now the ruins of Bowariyeh, 
 already described. The next king was ZuR-SiN, the most celebrated 
 sovereign of his time. He founded the city of Abu-Shahrein, the ruins 
 of which testify to the adoption of a new style of architecture, much 
 in advance of the previous style, both in the character of its structure 
 and in its ornamental richness. Here also we get a better idea of the 
 simple arts of life prevalent among this celebrated people in the early 
 times. Stone knives, chisels and hatchets are everywhere found among 
 the ruins, and some samples of gold and bronze have also been dis- 
 covered. Ornaments for the person were also made out of iron. Of 
 NuR-Vui,, the next to the last of the kings of this dynasty, as men- 
 tioned by Berosus, no trace has been found on the monuments. RIM- 
 SIN, the last of this dynasty, is mentioned on a single tablet discovered 
 in the ruins of Ur. 
 
 In the year 1546 B. C., Chaldsea was conquered by an Arab chief 
 named KHAMMURABI, who founded the Arabian dynasty of Chaldaean 
 monarchs the fifth dynasty in the lists of Berosus, and in which he 
 includes nine kings ; but the names of fifteen monarchs of this race have 
 been deciphered from the cuneiform inscriptions and from the tablets. 
 Khammurabi reigned twenty-six years, and was a wise and able sover- 
 eign. He fully appreciated the benefits accruing to the country from 
 a proper system of artificial irrigation. He constructed a canal from 
 one of the rivers for this purpose ; and a white stone tablet, now in the 
 Louvre at Paris, bears an inscription which says that the canal cut 
 by Khammurabi proved a blessing to the Babylonians, that "it changed 
 desert plains into well-watered fields ; it spread around fertility and
 
 THE SUN GOD SHAMASH DICTATING TO KHAMMURABI THE CODE OF LAWS 
 The Lower Section Shows the Character of the Inscription 
 
 From a Stele found at Susa in 1002
 
 CHALDEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 131 
 
 abundance." Khammurabi also erected several important edifices, one 
 of which was a new palace at Kalwadha, in the vicinity of the present 
 city of Bagdad. He likewise repaired the great temple of the Sun 
 at Larsa, or Larrak (now Senkereh). He was succeeded by his son, 
 SAMSU-ILUNA, whose name has only been found on one series of in- 
 scriptions, and of whose immediate successors no traces can be found 
 for three quarters of a century. 
 
 The next known Chaldaean king is KARA-IN-DAS, the first of five 
 monarchs during whose reigns intimate relations were maintained with 
 Assyria, which was now gradually rising into importance, and which 
 eventually shook off the Chaldaean supremacy. Chaldaea and Assyria 
 were during this period sometimes united by treaties of alliance or by 
 royal marriages, and were sometimes at war with each other. When 
 the Chaldaean king, KARA-KHAR-DAS, was overthrown and killed in an 
 insurrection headed by Nazi-bugas, an Assyrian army destroyed the 
 insurrectionary chief and placed the brother of the murdered sover- 
 eign upon the Chaldaean throne. Some time afterward PURNA-PURI- 
 YAS, King of Chaldaea, married the daughter of Asshur-upallit, King 
 of Assyria. The last of the five kings just mentioned was KURRI- 
 GALZU, of whose reign relics have been discovered at Mugheir, the 
 ancient Ur, and at Akkerkuf , the latter of which cities is said to have 
 been founded by this monarch. The remaining kings of the fifth, or 
 Arabian dynasty are SAGA-RAKTIGAS, the builder of the temple of the 
 Sun at Sippara, AMMIDI-KAGA, and six others whose reigns were unim- 
 portant. 
 
 In the year 1300 B. C., Tiglathi-Nin, King of Assyria, invaded 
 Chaldaea, took Babylon, and extended his supremacy over this ancient 
 Asiatic kingdom. Thus ended the Arabian dynasty in Chaldaea; and 
 the sixth dynasty, according to Berosus, probably Assyrian, ascended 
 the throne of Chaldaea, which, with occasional intermissions, remained 
 in dependence upon Assyria thenceforth until 625 B. C., the forty-five 
 kings of the sixth dynasty being merely Assyrian viceroys. The As- 
 syrian conquest of Chaldasa in the year 1300 B. C. is generally re- 
 garded as the end of this most ancient of Asiatic empires this great 
 mother of Asiatic civilization. 
 
 For the next six hundred and seventy-five years Chaldaea thereafter 
 more frequently called Babylonia was for the most part a dependent 
 kingdom under the suzerainty of Assyria, the Chaldaean, or Babylonian 
 menarchs being vassals of the Assyrian sovereigns; this condition of 
 things being broken by short spasms of Babylonian, or Chaldaean inde- 
 pendence, until the final overthrow of Assyria by the united Median 
 and Babylonian armies in 625 B. C., after which the Later Babylonian 
 Empire was the ruling power in the Tigris-Euphrates region and 
 
 Samsu- 
 iluna. 
 
 Kara-in- 
 
 das. 
 
 Kara- 
 
 khar-das. 
 
 Purna- 
 puriyas. 
 
 Kurri- 
 galzu. 
 
 Saga- 
 raktigas. 
 
 Ammidi- 
 kaga. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Conquest 
 
 of 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 Subse- 
 quent 
 History of 
 Chaldasa.
 
 CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Western Asia for eighty-seven years, until its conquest by Cyrus the 
 Great of Persia in 538 B. C. 
 
 KINGS OF CHALDAEA. 
 
 DYNASTY. 
 
 B. C. 
 
 TO 
 
 B. C. 
 
 KlNC.S. 
 
 EVENTS, ETC. 
 
 I. 
 
 (Chaldaean). 
 
 II. 
 
 (Elamite). 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 (Chaldaean). 
 
 V. 
 
 (Arab). 
 
 2286 
 
 2052 
 2004 
 
 1546 
 
 2286 
 2052 
 
 2004 
 1546 
 
 1300 
 1300 
 
 Nimrod 
 
 Founded the Empire. 
 Built numerous temples. 
 Conquered Chaldaea B. C. 2286. 
 
 Contemporary with Abraham. Led 
 two expeditions into Syria. 
 
 Wars in Syria. 
 
 Reigned from about B. C. 1850 to 
 about B. C. 1830. 
 His brother, Shamas-Vul, ruled in 
 Assyria. 
 
 Reigned from about B. C. 1586 to 
 B. C. 1566. 
 Reigned from about B. C. 1566 to 
 B. C. 1546. 
 Reigned from about B. C. 1546 to 
 B.C. 1520. 
 Reigned from about B. C. 1520 to 
 B. C. 1500. 
 
 Contemporary with Asshur-bel-nisi- 
 su, B. C. 1440. 
 Contemporary with Buzur-Asshur, 
 B. C. 1420-1400. 
 
 Contemporary with Asshur-upallit, 
 B. C. 1400-1380. 
 
 Chaldaea conquered by Tiglathi-Nin. 
 
 * * * * 
 * * * * 
 
 Urukh 
 
 Ilgi (son). 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Kudur-Nakhunta 
 
 (Zoroaster). 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Kudur-Lagamer 
 
 * * * * 
 Sinti-shil-khak. 
 Kudur-Mabuk (son).. 
 
 Arid-Sin (son). 
 
 * * * # 
 
 * * * * 
 * * * 
 * * * 
 
 Ismi-Dagon 
 
 Gurguna (son) 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Naram-Sin. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Bilat * * at (a queen). 
 
 Sin-Shada (son). 
 
 # * * * 
 
 Zur-Sin. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Nur-Vul 
 
 Rim-Sin 
 
 Khammu-rabi 
 
 Samsu-iluna ( son ) . . . . 
 
 * * * 
 * * * * 
 
 Kara-in-das 
 
 Purna-puriyas 
 
 Kara-khar-das (son)"") 
 Nazi-bugas I 
 
 Kurri-galzu (brother f 
 of Kara-khar-das) J 
 
 * * * * 
 * * * *
 
 MAP OF THE 
 
 EARLIEST HISTORIC REGIONS 
 
 AND THE 
 BIRTHPLACE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 B.C. 3000 -1000. 
 By I S.CIar 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 25 50 100 
 The light part represents the cradle or civilization and history
 
 CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 133 
 
 SECTION IV. CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 THUS we have seen that the Chaldaean monarchy was the first civil 
 government in Asia, and that its three most illustrious characters were 
 Nimrod, the founder of the kingdom, "the mighty hunter before the 
 Lord"; Urukh, the great architect, the mighty temple-builder; and 
 Chedorlaomer, the warrior, the mighty conqueror, who nearly four 
 thousand years ago marched an army a distance of twelve hundred 
 miles, and held Syria and Palestine in subjection for twelve years, and 
 who was the first of all those great Oriental conquerors who within the 
 last forty centuries have built up vast empires in Asia, which have 
 in larger or shorter spaces of time successively crumbled to decay. 
 
 In speaking of this ancient empire, Professor Rawlinson says : " The 
 Chaldaean monarchy is rather curious from its antiquity than illustri- 
 ous from its great names, or admirable for the extent of its dominions. 
 Less ancient than the Egyptian, it claims the advantage of priority 
 over every empire or kingdom which has grown up upon the soil of 
 Asia. The Aryan, Turanian, and even Semitic tribes, appear to have 
 been in the nomadic condition when the Cushite settlers of lower Baby- 
 lonia betook themselves to agriculture, erected temples, built cities and 
 established a strong and settled government. The leaven which was to 
 spread by degrees through the Asiatic peoples was first deposited on 
 the shores of the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the 'Great River' ; and 
 hence civilization, science, letters, art, extended themselves northward 
 and eastward and westward. Assyria, Media, Semitic Babylonia, Per- 
 sia, as they derived from Chaldaga the character of their writing, so 
 were they indebted to the same country for their general notions of 
 government and administration, for their architecture, for their decora- 
 tive art, and still more for their science and literature. Each people 
 no doubt modified in some measure the boon received, adding more or 
 less of its own to the common inheritance. But Chaldsea stands forth 
 as the great parent and original inventress of Asiatic civilization, with- 
 out any rival that can reasonably dispute her claim." 
 
 It was believed by such eminent German scholars and antiquarians 
 as Heeren, Niebuhr, Bunsen, and Max Miiller, that the ancient Chal- 
 daeans belonged to the Aramaic, or Semitic race, and that they were 
 thus kindred with the Assyrians, Syrians, Hebrews and Arabs. Herod- 
 otus regarded the Assyrians and Babylonians, from the earliest times, 
 as belonging to the same race ; but Berosus, Diodorus and Pliny con- 
 sidered them as ethnologically different peoples. Classical and other 
 traditions sustained by such Greek poets as Homer, Hesiod and Pin- 
 dar represent the early inhabitants of the shores of the Persian Gulf 
 
 Chaldsea 
 and its 
 Great 
 Kings. 
 
 Rawlin- 
 son's 
 State- 
 ment. 
 
 Conflict- 
 ing 
 Views.
 
 134 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Scrip- 
 tural Ac- 
 count. 
 
 Philolog- 
 ical Dem- 
 onstra- 
 tion. 
 
 Early 
 Hamitic 
 Prepon- 
 derance. 
 
 Semitic, 
 Turanian 
 
 and 
 
 Aryan 
 
 Elements. 
 
 Later 
 Semitic 
 Prepon- 
 derance. 
 
 Early 
 Chaldaean 
 Architec- 
 ture. 
 
 and the occupants of the Nile valley as the same race, calling them 
 all Ethiopians. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures also regard the people of these two regions 
 as belonging to a kindred race, namely, Hamites, or Cushites; Cush, 
 the father of Nimrod, being a son of Ham ; and the ancient Ethiopians 
 being called the people of Cush; while the Egyptians were regarded 
 as the posterity of Misraim, also a son of Ham. Recent philological 
 investigations demonstrate the truth of the Scripture view of the na- 
 tional affinities of these primitive nations, and show the language of 
 the primeval Chaldees to have been Ethiopic or Cushite, thus ranking 
 them as belonging to the same Hamitic race as the Egyptians and 
 Ethiopians. Although the predominant portion of the early Chaldasan 
 population was Cushite, or Hamitic, there was an infusion of Semitic, 
 Aryan and Turanian elements. The Semites such as the Syrians, 
 Assyrians, Hebrews and others migrated from Chaldsea at a very 
 early period to the northward and westward. Accad was a Turanian 
 settlement, and the Aryans occupied the portions of the country bor- 
 dering on Cissia, likewise called Susiana, or Elam, whose people were 
 also Aryans. The name Chaldaeans was unknown to these early people, 
 but was given them by Berosus and has been used by writers ever since. 
 The Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah, Habakkuk and others spoke 
 of the Babylonians, even to the latest times, as Chaldseans. Isaiah 
 called Babylon the "daughter of the Chaldaeans," and "the beauty of 
 the Chaldees' excellency." In a restricted sense, the term Chaldceans 
 was applied to the learned men of Babylon to the latest ancient times. 
 After the Assyrian conquest of Chaldaea, in B. C. 1300, there was an 
 admixture of new Semitic elements from the north, so that in the pro- 
 cess of time the Chaldaeans became Semitized; and the preponderating 
 portion of the later Babylonian population was Semitic, while the 
 Hamitic, Aryan and Turanian elements occupied a subordinate place. 
 The language of the learned in Babylon in later times was the classic 
 Chaldee, while the national language of the Semitized Babylonians 
 was akin to that of the Hebrews. 
 
 At an early period earlier than 2,000 B. C. the Chaldees had 
 made considerable progress in the arts, especially in architecture, and 
 from the first they showed the building tendency which seemed to be 
 instinctive in other famous Hamitic nations, such as the Egyptians 
 and Ethiopians. The attempt to build a tower "which should reach 
 to heaven," made here, as mentioned in the Mosaic narrative, was in 
 accordance with the general spirit of the Chaldees. Out of such sim- 
 ple and rude building material as brick and bitumen they constructed 
 edifices of vast size, the ruins of which have recently been discovered 
 by the explorations of Layard and Botta. These vast structures were
 
 CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. I3 g 
 
 pyramidal in design, and were built in successive steps or stages to a 
 considerable altitude, and so placed as to face the four cardinal points 
 of the compass. 
 
 Speaking of the building material of the Chaldees, a certain writer Brick and 
 says: "Stone and marble were even more rare in this country than ]Jltumen - 
 wood, but the clay was well adapted for the manufacture of bricks. 
 These, whether dried in the sun or burnt in kilns, became so hard and 
 durable that now, after the lapse of so many centuries, the remains 
 of ancient walls preserve the bricks uninjured by their long exposure 
 to the atmosphere, and retaining the impression of the inscriptions in 
 the arrow-headed character as perfectly as if they had only just been 
 manufactured. Naphtha and bitumen, or earthy oil and pitch, were 
 produced in great abundance above Babylon, near the modern town of 
 Hit. These served as substitutes for mortar and cement; and so last- 
 ing were they, that the layers of rushes and palm-leaves laid between 
 the courses of bricks as a building material, are found at this day in 
 the ruins of Babylon as perfect as if a year had not elapsed since 
 they were put together." 
 
 The most imposing ruins of ancient Chaldasa are their temples, two Temple 
 of which have been described. The temple of Abu-Shahrein was sim- g^ahrein 
 ilar in character to those of Erech and Ur, and was one of the few 
 Chaldasan edifices built of stone, which may be accounted for by the 
 proximity of a stone-quarry in the neighboring Arabian hills. 
 In this massive structure are also marble, alabaster and agate, skill- 
 fully cut and polished, while gold plates and gilt-headed nails have 
 also been discovered in the ruins. In the sacred shrine of the 
 deity to whose worship the temple was consecrated, the wood-work 
 and images of the god were ornamented. Like the Egyptian 
 Pyramids, the Chaldaean edifices were chiefly remarkable for their 
 grandeur and massive proportions, while architectural beauty was 
 wanting. 
 
 In the cities the dwellings were built of brick, but in the rural dis- Chaldaean 
 tricts they consisted of reed huts plastered with slime. The houses of * ~ 
 even the rich seem to have been rude and coarse. The remains of a 
 dwelling-house have been found among the excavations at Ur, in which 
 the foundation was a brick platform raised above the surface, the floors 
 were of burnt bricks well cemented with bitumen, and the walls were 
 plastered with gypsum. In the apartments of a house discovered at 
 Abu-Shahrein the walls were frescoed with designs in red, black and 
 white; and figures of birds, beasts and men were skillfully drawn on 
 the plaster of the walls. The Chaldaean dwellings usually had flat 
 wooden roofs, though sometimes there were arched roofs built of bricks 
 cemented with bitumen.
 
 136 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Tombs. 
 
 Brick 
 Vaults. 
 
 Clay 
 Coffins. 
 
 Burial 
 Mounds. 
 
 Next to their architectural structures, the most remarkable remains 
 of the ancient Chaldaeans are their burial-places. The immense num- 
 ber of ancient tombs discovered in what was Chaldsea proper is truly 
 wonderful. Large sepulchers are filled with the bones and relics of 
 the dead. At Warka, the ancient Erech, except the triangular space 
 between the three principal ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, 
 the space within the walls, and a wide extent of the neighboring desert, 
 are filled with human bones and sepulchers. Coffins are heaped upon 
 coffins from thirty to sixty feet, and there are miles on miles of tombs 
 in portions of this once-famous land. The most striking of these 
 burial-places are those at Warka, the ancient Erech; at Mugheir, the 
 ancient Ur; at Abu-Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm. 
 
 The tombs are of three kinds brick vaults, clay coffins shaped like 
 a dish cover, and clay coffins formed of two large jars placed mouth 
 to mouth and cemented together with bitumen. The brick vaults, prin- 
 cipally found at Mugheir, are seven feet long, three and a half feet 
 wide, and five feet high. The floors and walls of these vaults were 
 made of sun-dried bricks cemented together with mud or bitumen, and 
 the side walls were closed in above with an arch. The body was laid 
 to rest on its left side on a matting of reeds spread upon the floor. 
 The fingers of the right hand were placed upon a copper bowl set in 
 the palm of the left. The head rested upon a brick for a pillow. 
 Articles of use and ornament were placed in the vault, and vessels with 
 food and drink were set near the head of the departed. The remains 
 of several bodies are in many cases found in the same vault, and one 
 vault contained eleven skeletons. It is believed from this that the 
 brick vaults were family sepulchers. 
 
 Where the dish-cover clay coffins were used, the body was laid on a 
 mat spread over a sun-dried brick platform, disposed of in the same 
 manner as in the brick vaults, and surrounded with articles of food 
 and ornaments. The large clay coffins shaped like a dish-cover, seven 
 feet long, two and a half wide at the bottom, and two or three feet 
 high, then covered the body, matting, utensils, ornaments and all. 
 Never were more than two skeletons, one male and the other female, 
 discovered under one cover. Children were interred under covers half 
 the size of those for adults. These tombs were found seven or eight feet 
 under ground at Mugheir. The clay coffins consisting of two large 
 jars, from two and a half to three feet deep and two feet in diameter, 
 and cemented together with bitumen, as found at Mugheir and Tel-el- 
 Lahm, readily contained a full-sized corpse and had an airhole at 
 each end to allow the gases generated by decomposition to escape. 
 
 The coffins containing the bodies of the dead were placed in rows, 
 and then covered with earth so as to form a mound. These mounds
 
 CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 137 
 
 were repeatedly covered with fresh earth, so that they were often ele- 
 vated to a height of sixty feet above the original level of the plain. 
 The mounds were carefully drained by means of tube-like shafts of 
 pottery, consisting of a succession of rings or joints, two feet in diam- 
 eter and a foot and a half wide, skillfully put together and cemented 
 with bitumen, and filled with masses of broken pottery to resist 
 external pressure. These drains reached from the surface to the 
 original ground-level; and by their means the sepulchral mounds 
 have been protected from dampness, and their utensils, ornaments 
 and skeletons have been preserved to the present day, and appear 
 perfect on opening the tombs, but usually crumble to dust when 
 touched. 
 
 Monuments have also been exhumed bearing inscriptions in the 
 cuneiform, or wedge-shaped characters, the deciphering of which, as 
 we have said, has given us new light on early Chaldsean history. This 
 kind of writing was used for monumental records, and was either hewn 
 or carved in rocks and sculptures, or impressed on tiles and bricks. 
 The legends stamped upon the baked bricks of this ancient period 
 prove the extent to which this kind of writing was in use. The earliest 
 date that can be assigned to its use was about 2000 B. C., and it was 
 little, if at all, used as late as 300 B. C. A vast deal of labor and 
 erudition have been spent in deciphering these cuneiform inscriptions. 
 The great inscription of Behistun, in Persia, is of special interest. It 
 is engraved in three forms of cuneiform writing, upon the perpendicu- 
 lar face of a mountain, at a height of three hundred feet; and gives 
 an account of the genealogy of Darius, his exploits, and the provinces 
 of his empire. This inscription was deciphered by Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson. 
 
 The writing of the Chaldees is well-nigh as abundant as that of 
 their Hamitic kinsmen, the Egyptians. The writing was impressed 
 on the clay while it was moist and plastic. The inscriptions on the 
 bricks record the history of the building in which they are found, the 
 name of the monarch who built it, his titles and his fame. The inscrip- 
 tions on the clay tablets are usually of a private character, relating 
 to such matters as deeds, contracts and personal records. The writing 
 is from left to right, except on signet-cylinders, on which it is reversed, 
 because of the manner in which it was stamped, as described in a pre- 
 vious section. The legend on the bricks was always stamped in the 
 form of a square in the center ; and was in some cases impressed upon 
 the clay, and in others was cut or engraved in the surface with some 
 implement. On many of the tablets the signet-cylinder of the maker 
 or contractor was rolled across the surface, showing the wearer's motto 
 and seal in relief. These tablets were preserved as family records, just 
 
 Cunei- 
 form In- 
 scrip- 
 tions. 
 
 Behistun 
 Inscrip- 
 tion. 
 
 Baked 
 Brick and 
 
 Clay 
 Tablets.
 
 138 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Pottery. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Arms, 
 Imple- 
 ments and 
 Orna- 
 ments. 
 
 Gem 
 
 Cutting, 
 Polishing 
 and En- 
 graving. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Com- 
 merce. 
 
 as moderns file important documents for preservation. These inscrip- 
 tions abound in all the ruins of ancient Chaldaea. 
 
 The earthenware coffins and drainage-shafting, besides the many 
 jars, vases and drinking-vessels, attest the skill of this ancient 
 people in pottery from the earliest ages of their history. On many 
 burnt-clay tablets are figures representing lions, bulls and men; in 
 most of which are illustrated deadly combats between men and 
 lions. 
 
 The Chaldees fashioned arms, implements and ornaments from vari- 
 ous metals. In the oldest ruins are discovered flint knives, hatchets, 
 stone hammers and occasional articles of bronze, such as arrow-heads, 
 knives, hatchets and sickles. Articles of iron, gold and copper have 
 been discovered in great abundance in the mounds. Ornaments were 
 usually made of iron or gold, while arms and weapons were generally 
 fashioned from copper or bronze. The primitive Chaldees were also 
 celebrated for the fine cloths and delicate textile fabrics manufactured 
 by their looms, showing that the spinner's and weaver's art had attained 
 a high degree of skill and perfection among this renowned primeval 
 race. 
 
 The Chaldees were also skillful in the art of cutting, polishing and 
 engraving gems, some of their work in this art rivaling the best mod- 
 ern specimens. The signets and seals were of this class, and several 
 of them have been deciphered and rendered in English. The inscrip- 
 tion on the seal of Urukh has been translated as follows: "The signet 
 of Urukh, the pious chief, King of Ur, High Priest of Niffer." On 
 Ilgi's seal was the following legend: "To the manifestation of Ner- 
 gal, King of Bit-Zida, of Zurgulla, for the saving of the life of Hgi, 
 the powerful hero, the King of Ur, son of Urukh * * * May his name 
 be preserved." A signet-cylinder of one of the Sin kings bears this 
 inscription: "Sin, the powerful chief, the King of Ur, the King of 
 the four races * * * his seal." Some of the cylinders bear neither 
 figures nor inscriptions ; while others have no legend, but bear figures 
 and symobls. They were usually of jasper or chalcedony, and were 
 used to impress the seals of their owners on clay tablets. They were 
 half an inch in diameter and three inches long. The cylinder was 
 rolled upon the tablet by means of a copper or bronze parallelogram, 
 one side of which was passed through a hole bored through its axis. 
 It was suspended from the owner's neck or waist by means of a string 
 or chain attached to a metal frame. The design of the wearer's seal 
 was cut in reverse on the surface of the signet, leaving the impression 
 in relief . 
 
 The Chaldees likewise engaged in commerce with other countries. 
 Their trading caravans journeyed to the Aryan and Turanian coun-
 
 CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 139 
 
 tries of Central Asia, and the "ships of Ur" navigated the Persian 
 Gulf and traded with the people on its shores. 
 
 The Chaldseans found cheap and abundant articles of food in the 
 luxuriant growth of the date-palm and the abundant yield of such 
 cereals as wheat, barley, millet and sesame; in addition to which the 
 wealthier classes indulged in animal food, such as fish, chickens and 
 the wild boar. 
 
 The worship of the heavenly bodies led the primitive Chaldees at 
 an early day to the study of astronomy and chronology. Diodorus 
 declares that the Chaldaeans were far in advance of all other ancient 
 nations in their knowledge of the starry heavens. This celebrated 
 people discovered and recorded the relation of the sun's circuit to the 
 other cycles of the solar system. They observed that the sun's ap- 
 parent course through the firmament equals about twelve rounds of 
 the moon, and for this reason they divided the year into twelve months 
 of thirty days each, and when they discovered the inaccuracy of this 
 system they introduced new calculations, rectifying the calendar so as 
 to agree with the sidereal year of three hundred and sixty-five days 
 and six hours. By their observation of the sun's course through the 
 heavens they were able to establish the twelve signs of the Zodiac ; and 
 by observing the variation of the orbits of the planets from that of 
 the sun they were enabled to fix the limits of the zodiacal signs, and 
 to divide each sign into thirty degrees by the progress of the sun. 
 By watching the moon's phases they adopted seven days as the length 
 of the week. They further divided each day into twelve hours; each 
 hour into sixty, or five times twelve, minutes; and thus established the 
 basis of the duodecimal method of calculation. Two times twelve, or 
 twenty-four, finger-widths was fixed upon as the measure of a cubit. 
 A cycle of sixty years was called a soss; ten times sixty was a ner; and 
 the square of sixty, or thirty-six centuries, was a sar. 
 
 They measured distances in the heavens by taking the width of the 
 sun's disc as a unit. By comparing the quantity of water discharged 
 through an orifice in a jar in the time occupied by the sun in crossing 
 the horizon on the morning of the equinox with the amount discharged 
 through the same orifice at the next sunrise, they discovered that the 
 amount discharged between the two risings of the sun was seven hun- 
 dred and twenty times the amount discharged during sunrise on the 
 equinoctial morning. They thus inferred that the sun's orbit meas- 
 ured seven hundred and twenty times his disc, and from this they 
 derived a unit to measure space and time. In regard to space this 
 unit constituted half a degree, and in the calculation of time the same 
 unit equaled two minutes, or one-thirtieth of an hour. A stadium was 
 
 the distance an active foot-courier could walk in one unit of time, or 
 112 
 
 Articles 
 of Food. 
 
 As- 
 tronomy. 
 
 Measure- 
 ment of 
 Space and 
 Time.
 
 140 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Astro- 
 nomical 
 Calcula- 
 tions. 
 
 Arithme- 
 tic, 
 
 Weights 
 
 and 
 Measures. 
 
 Chal- 
 
 daea's 
 
 Legacy to 
 
 Posterity. 
 
 The Later 
 Baby- 
 lonians. 
 
 two minutes; and the distance he could walk in thirty units, sixty 
 minutes, or one hour, at the same ratio of speed, was called a parasang. 
 The stadium was divided into three hundred and sixty cubits, and sixty 
 cubits was called a plethron. 
 
 The Chaldaeans discovered and recorded the fact that each cycle of 
 the moon's eclipses is completed in a period of two hundred and 
 twenty-three months, and from this discovery they computed the length 
 of the synodic and periodic months so accurately that modern astron- 
 omers have found the calculation to fall short of less than five seconds 
 of our time. They carefully recorded all the results of their observa- 
 tions. The Greek Callisthenes, who had accompanied the expedition 
 of Alexander the Great, sent to Aristotle from Babylon a series of 
 tablets on which were inscriptions recording astronomical observations 
 dating as far back as 1903 years before the year 331 B. C., the year 
 that Alexander entered that city. These observations would therefore 
 reach back 2234 years before Christ. 
 
 The Chaldaaans had also made considerable progress in arithmetic, 
 and they employed two systems of notation decimal and duodecimal. 
 They used cuneiform, or wedge-shaped and arrow-headed characters, 
 to represent numbers. Their system of weights was based upon their 
 system of measures. A cubit of water, which weighed sixty-six 
 pounds, was divided into sixty logs, each log measuring about five- 
 sixths of a pint. The log was the unit of measure ; and its weight, 
 called a mina, was the unit of weight. A duck-shaped stone belong- 
 ing to King Ilgi has been discovered bearing the inscription, "Ten 
 minae of Ilgi." Like most other nations, the Chaldaeans had one sys- 
 tem of weights for the ordinary articles of the market-place, and 
 another system for the precious metals and gems. Circular pieces or 
 rings, called talents, shekels, etc. names afterwards used by the He- 
 brews and the Greeks were taken as units in weighing gold and 
 silver. 
 
 Although the brilliant intellectual activity of Chaldsea ceased more 
 than three thousand years ago, and its massive architectural structures 
 have slumbered in eternal repose beneath the sands and dust of more 
 than thirty centuries, the grand mental triumphs of its venerable civ- 
 ilization yet remain, as a permanent legacy to posterity the ground- 
 work of the science and learning in which they have ever since been 
 recognized as the pioneers the wonder and admiration of the ages. 
 
 The partially Semitized descendants of the early Chaldaeans the 
 later Babylonians inherited from their Cushite, or Hamitic Chaldaean 
 ancestors their love of astronomy and other sciences, as well as their 
 skill in certain arts and manufactures, and their fondness for commer- 
 cial intercourse with the other nations of antiquity.
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 SECTION V. THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 THE history of Assyria is divided into three periods the period of Three 
 its subjection to Chalda:a, from the time of the settlement of the As- Periods 
 Syrians in the Tigris valley and Upper Mesopotamia to B. C. 1300 ; Assyria, 
 the Old Assyrian Empire (B. C. 1300-745); and the New or Lower 
 Assyrian Empire (B. C. 745-625). 
 
 The origin of the Assyrians is shrouded in obscurity, although it Assyria 11 
 is known that they were a Semitic tribe originally dwelling in Chaldaea, 
 the Scriptural Shinar, and that they migrated to the middle Tigris 
 valley during the general movement of Semitic and Hamitic tribes 
 from "the land of Shinar," some time after Nimrod's death. Says 
 the Mosaic account: "Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded 
 Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nine- 
 veh and Calah; the same is a great city." 
 
 It was before their settlement along the middle Tigris, and while Migration 
 they yet dwelt in the flat alluvial plain in the southern portion of the cjjja^a 
 Tigris-Euphrates valley that productive region where nature so 
 readily supplied everything requisite for the support of man, with so 
 little exertion on his part it was there that the Assyrians had grown 
 from a family into a tribe or nation, and had developed a religion arid 
 learned the most essential of the arts. The style and character of 
 the Assyrian architecture indicates that it originated in the low flat 
 alluvium where brick and bitumen were the only building materials. 
 The cuneiform writing of the Assyrians also shows its Chaldaean 
 origin ; while their religion was very nearly identical with that of their 
 southern neighbors, the only essential point of difference being that 
 the chief Assyrian god, Asshur, was unknown in Chaldaea. The monu- 
 mental and tablet inscriptions thus verify the statements of the Penta- 
 teuch, in representing the Assyrians as originally dwelling in Chal- 
 daea, and at an early period migrating northward to the middle Tigris 
 region. 
 
 It is not known whether the Semitic and Hamitic migrations from Settle- 
 Chaldaea, their mother country, were voluntary removals on the part m ^ 
 of the migrating tribes themselves, or compulsory colonizations inau- Assyria 
 gurated and carried out by the Chaldaean monarchs. One body led 
 by Terah, Abraham's father, removed from Ur to Harran; another 
 from the shores of the Persian Gulf to Syria, Canaan and Phoenicia; 
 and a third, the Assyrian branch, larger than either of the other two, 
 ascended the Tigris valley, occupied Adiabene, with the neighboring 
 districts, gave its own tribal name of Asshur to its chief city and 
 territory, and was known to adjacent peoples first as a separate tribe,
 
 14-2 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Viceroys 
 
 of 
 Assyria. 
 
 In- 
 dependent 
 Kingdom 
 
 of 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 bil-nisi- 
 
 su,Buzur- 
 
 Asshur 
 
 and 
 
 Asshur- 
 upallit. 
 
 Relations 
 with 
 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 Growth of 
 Assyria. 
 
 Bel-lush, 
 Pudil, 
 
 Vul-lush 
 I. and 
 
 Shalma- 
 neeer I. 
 
 and afterwards as an independent and powerful nation. The date 
 of their settlement in Assyria is uncertain, but it must have occurred 
 before the reigns of the Chaldaean kings, Purna-puriyas and Kurri- 
 galzu, in the fifteenth century before the Christian era. A temple to 
 Anu and Vul was erected on the site of Asshur, as early as the nine- 
 teenth century before Christ, by Shamas-Vul, the son and viceroy of 
 the Chaldaean king, Ismi-Dagon. 
 
 The Assyrians were likely at first governed in their new country 
 by viceroys under the Chaldaean sovereigns. Bricks of a Babylonian 
 description have been discovered at Kileh-Sherghat, the site of the 
 ancient Asshur, the early Assyrian capital, which are believed to be 
 older than any distinctly Assyrian remains, and which were in all 
 probability stamped by these viceroys. Very soon, however, the As- 
 syrians liberated themselves from the Chaldaean yoke and founded an 
 independent kingdom of their own in their new abode, while the old 
 Chaldaean Empire continued to flourish in the alluvial plain at the 
 head of the Persian Gulf. The co-existence of these two kingdoms 
 side by side is attested by a mutilated tablet of much later date, con- 
 taining a synchronistic record of Assyrian and Chaldaean annals from 
 a very remote antiquity. This tablet gives us the names of three of 
 the most ancient Assyrian monarchs ASSHUR-BIL-NISI-SU, BUZUR- 
 ASSHUR and ASSHUR-UPALLIT the first two of whom are recorded as 
 having concluded treaties of peace with contemporary Chaldaean, or 
 Babylonian sovereigns, while the third interfered in the domestic affairs 
 of Chaldaea, deposing a usurper and restoring the rightful claimant, 
 his own relative, to the throne. Intermarriages occurred between the 
 royal families of Assyria and Chaldaea at this early period; and As- 
 shur-upallit, the last of these three Assyrian kings, had given a daugh- 
 ter in marriage to the Chaldaean king, Purna-puriyas. On the death 
 of the latter, his son, Kara-khar-das, became king of Chaldaea, but lost 
 his life in attempting to put down a rebellion of his own subjects, and 
 was succeeded by a usurper, Nazi-bugas. Thereupon Asshur-upallit 
 marched an army into Chaldaea, defeated and killed the usurper, and 
 placed Kurri-galzu, another son of Purna-puriyas, on the Chaldaean 
 throne. 
 
 The tablet just referred to shows the power and influence of Assyria 
 at this early day as fully equal to that of her more ancient southern 
 neighbor. After the events just narrated Assyrian history is a blank 
 for sixty years, only the names of the kings being known to us. The 
 bricks of Kileh-Sherghat show us that Asshur-upallit was succeeded 
 as king by his son, BEL-LUSH, or Bellikhus, who was followed in suc- 
 cession by his son PUDIL, his grandson VUL-LUSH I., and his great- 
 grandson SHALMANESER I. All that is known of Bel-lush, Pudil and
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 14 g 
 
 Vul-lush I. is that they erected or repaired important edifices at As- Asshur, 
 shur (now Kileh-Sherghat), which remained the capital of Assyria for ca pita i y 
 several centuries later. This place, located on the west bank of the 
 Tigris, was not favorably situated, the most fertile region of Assyria 
 being on the east bank; but Calah and Nineveh were not yet built. 
 
 Shalmaneser I., who reigned from B. C. 1320 to B. C. 1300, is Calah, the 
 chiefly distinguished as the founder of Calah (now Nimrud), the second Capital 
 of those great cities which the Assyrian kings delighted to embellish 
 with magnificent edifices, and which in the course of several centuries 
 succeeded Asshur as the capital. Calah was advantageously situated 
 on the east bank of the Tigris, forty miles north of Asshur, in a region 
 of exceeding fertility and great natural strength, being protected on 
 one side by the Tigris and on the other by the Shor-Derreh torrent, 
 while it was defended on the south by the Greater Zab and on the 
 north-east by the Khazr, or Ghazr-Su. The inscriptions of Asshur- 
 izir-pal show us that Shalmaneser I. undertook expeditions against the Con- 
 tribes on the upper Tigris, and founded cities in that region, which ^aima^ 
 he colonized with settlers brought from other distant quarters. Shal- neser I. 
 maneser's extension of the Assyrian dominion to the northward ranks 
 him as the first known Assyrian conquerer. With the death of Shal- 
 maneser I. in B. C. 1300 ends the first period of Assyrian history the 
 period of its subjection to Chaldaea. 
 
 Shalmaneser I. was succeeded on the Assyrian throne by his son Tiglathi- 
 TIGLATHI-NIN I., the founder of the Old Assyrian Empire, which em- jr oun ci e ' r 
 braces the second period of Assyrian history (B. C. 1300-B. C. 745). of the Old 
 The date of this monarch is seen to synchronize with the time given Empire. 
 by Berosus as the beginning of the sixth Chaldaean, or Babylonian 
 dynasty, and by Herodotus to the founding of the Assyrian Empire. 
 The inscriptions mention Tiglathi-Nin as transferring to Assyria the 
 supremacy hitherto claimed and exercised by Chaldsea, or Babylonia, 
 in consequence of a successful war with the latter kingdom, which cir- 
 cumstance induced him to inscribe upon his signet-seal this title: 
 "Tiglathi-Nin, King of Assyria, son of Shalmanaser, King of Assyria, 
 and conquerer of Kar-Dunyas. Whoever injures my device or name, 
 may Asshur and Vul destroy his name and country." This signet- 
 seal, recovered six centuries later at Babylon by Sennacherib, shows 
 that Tiglathi-Nin I. reigned personally for some time in that city, 
 where he afterwards established an Assyrian dynasty of dependent 
 kings probably a branch of his own family. On a genealogical tab- 
 let he is called "King of Sumir and Accad," a title not bestowed on TJc^J 
 any of the other kings. with 
 
 Chaldaea, or Babylonia, was not, however, from this time perma- o 3 jfy.' 
 nently subject to Assyria. Nearly a century after Tiglathi-Nin's Ionia.
 
 144 
 
 CHALDJ3A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Suzer- 
 ainty over 
 Chaldaea. 
 
 Eight 
 Succeed- 
 ing Kings. 
 
 Bel-ku- 
 dur-uzur. 
 
 His De- 
 feat and 
 Death in 
 Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Win-pala- 
 
 zira. 
 
 conquest the Assyrian supremacy was shaken off, and Babylonian kings 
 with Semitic names, and perhaps of Assyrian descent, were engaged 
 in wars with the Assyrian monarchs. The Babylonian kingdom was 
 not permanently subjected to the Assyrian dominion until the time of 
 Sargon, in the latter part of the eighth century before Christ, and 
 even under the dynasty of the Sargonidae the Babylonians were con- 
 stantly in revolt, and were only reconciled to Assyrian rule when Esar- 
 haddon united the two crowns and reigned alternately at Babylon and 
 Nineveh. Nevertheless, from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's conquest As- 
 syria was recognized as the ruling power in the Tigris-Euphrates val- 
 ley, as is fully shown by its conquest of, and its imposition of a dynasty 
 upon, the southern kingdom. Its influence was therefore felt, even 
 while its yoke was rejected; and from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's con- 
 quest, throughout the whole period of Assyrian ascendency in the 
 Tigris-Euphrates valley, the process of Semitizing the Chaldaeans went 
 on; the names of the Babylonian kings during all this time being 
 Semitic, whether those kings recognized the domination of Assyria or 
 were at war with that power. 
 
 Tiglathi-Nin I., who was the eighth and last Assyrian king of the 
 line founded by Asshur-bil-nisi-su, died about B. C. 1280. After an 
 interval of half a century there followed another series of eight kings, 
 known to us chiefly through the celebrated Tiglath-Pileser cylinder, 
 which gives us the succession of five of them, but completed from the 
 united testimony of several other documents, the most important of 
 which are the Babylonian and Assyrian synchronistic tablet and the 
 mutilated statue of the goddess Ishtar now in the British Museum, 
 which bears an inscription giving the names and direct genealogical 
 succession of the last three of these monarchs. The combined reigns 
 of these eight sovereigns embraced about one hundred and sixty years, 
 from about B. C. 1230 to B. C. 1070. 
 
 BEL-KUDUR-UZUR, the first king of this second series, is only known 
 on account of his unsuccessful war with the contemporary king of 
 Babylon. The Semitic line of kings established at Babylon by the 
 Assyrians were dissatisfied with their state of vassalage; and during 
 Bel-kudur-uzur's reign in Assyria, Vul-baladan, the Babylonian vassal 
 ruler, attempted to throw off the yoke of his Assyrian suzerain, and 
 the war which followed ended in the defeat and death of Bel-kudur- 
 uzur in a great battle about B. C. 1210. 
 
 NIN-PALA-ZIRA was the second Assyrian monarch of this second 
 series. It is not certain whether he was related to his predecessor, but 
 he avenged his death. The inscriptions call him "the king who organ- 
 ized the country of Assyria, and established the troops of Assyria in 
 authority." Soon after he ascended the throne, Vul-baladan of Baby-
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 145 
 
 Ion, encouraged by his triumph over Bel-kudur-uzur, invaded Assyria 
 and attacked Asshur, its capital, but was completely defeated in a 
 battle under the walls of the city and fled into his own dominions, 
 leaving Assyria in peace during the remainder of Nin-pala-zira's 
 reign. 
 
 ASSHTTR-DAYAN I., the third king of the second series, enjoyed a long 
 and prosperous reign, according to the inscription of Tiglath-Pileser 
 I. He made a successful raid into Babylonia and returned to Assyria 
 with valuable spoils. He also tore down the dilapidated temple erected 
 by Shamus-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, at Asshur; and the structure 
 was not rebuilt until sixty years later. 
 
 MUTAGGIL-NEBO, the son and successor of Asshur-dayan I., reigned 
 from about B. C. 1170 to B. C. 1150. The Tiglath-Pileser inscrip- 
 tion informs us that "Asshur, the great Lord, aided him according to 
 the wishes of his heart, and established him in strength in the govern- 
 ment of Assyria." 
 
 ASSHUR-RIS-ILIM, the son and successor of Mutaggil-Nebo, reigned 
 between about B. C. 1150 and B. C. 1130; and the inscription of his 
 son, Tiglath-Pileser I., calls him "the powerful king, the subduer of 
 rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the accursed." The syn- 
 chronistic tablet of Babylonian and Assyrian history informs us that 
 he warred with Nebuchadnezzar I., or Nabu-kudur-uzur, of Babylon, 
 who began the struggle by invading Assyria by way of the Zagros 
 mountains, but was repulsed by Asshur-ris-ilim in person in this moun- 
 tain region, and driven back. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Assyria a sec- 
 ond time, directly from the south, but was defeated by Asshur-ris- 
 ilim's general, and driven back, leaving to the victorious Assyrians 
 forty chariots and a banner. 
 
 TIGLATH-PILESER I., the son and successor of Asshur-ris-ilim, who 
 died about B. C. 1130, was the first Assyrian king of whose history we 
 possess elaborate details. The discovery of his inscription on two 
 duplicate cylinders, now in the British Museum, and which was trans- 
 lated in 1857 by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks 
 and M. Oppert, has given us the record of events during the first five 
 years of his reign. 
 
 The Tiglath-Pileser inscription begins by naming and glorifying 
 the "great gods" who "rule over heaven and earth," and who are "the 
 guardians of the kingdom of Tiglath-Pileser." These deities 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, 
 
 VOL. 1. 10 
 
 Unsuc- 
 cessful 
 Baby- 
 lonian In- 
 vasion. 
 
 Asshur- 
 Dayan I. 
 
 Mutaggil- 
 Nebo. 
 
 Asshur- 
 ris-ilim. 
 
 Unsuc- 
 cessful 
 Baby- 
 lonian In- 
 vasions. 
 
 Tiglath- 
 Pileser I. 
 
 His In- 
 scription, 
 
 Glorifica- 
 tion of the 
 Gods.
 
 146 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Self- 
 Glorifica- 
 
 tion. 
 
 Victory 
 over the 
 
 Mos- 
 chians. 
 
 Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Victory. 
 
 the queen of victory, she who arranges battles." These gods, it is 
 said in this inscription, have placed Tiglath-Pileser upon his 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 preeminence, exaltation and warlike power" ; and are 
 invoked to make the "duration of his empire continue forever to his 
 royal posterity, lasting as the great temple of Kharris-Matira." 
 
 Then follows a self-glorification of the king with an enumeration 
 of his titles, thus: "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 Sun-god, being armed with the scepter 
 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." 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser then recounts his conquests during his first five years 
 as king. The first people he subdued were the Muskai, or Moschians 
 believed to be the Meshech of the Old Testament who were gov- 
 erned by five kings and inhabited the countries of Alzi and Purukhuz, 
 parts of Taurus or Niphates. The Moschians had neglected for fifty 
 years to pay the tribute due from them to the Assyrians; and at this 
 time, with a force of twenty thousand men, they had invaded the 
 neighboring country of Qummukh (afterwards Commagene), an As- 
 syrian dependency, and had subdued it; but were there attacked and 
 defeated by Tiglath-Pileser I., who then conquered Commagene, burned 
 its cities, plundered its temples, ravaged the country, and carried away 
 cattle and treasure as booty or tribute. 
 
 The following is a passage from this inscription: "The country of 
 Kasiyara, a difficult region, I passed through. With their twenty 
 thousand men and their five kings, in the country of Qummukh I en- 
 gaged. 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 movables, their wealth, and their valuables I plun- 
 dered to a countless amount. Six thousand of their common soldiers,
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 who fled before my servants, and accepted my yoke, I took and gave 
 over to the men of my own territory as slaves." 
 
 The Moschians still refusing to pay tribute, Tiglath-Pileser con- 
 ducted a second campaign in their country and again subdued them, 
 completely overrunning Commagene, which was annexed to the As- 
 syrian Empire. He also attacked the neighboring tribes in their fast- 
 nesses, burned their cities and ravaged their territories. He likewise 
 invaded the country of the Khatti (Hittites), because two of their 
 tribes had committed an aggression on Assyrian territory, and com- 
 pletely chastising them, carried away one hundred and twenty chariots 
 and much valuable booty. He also invaded the mountainous region of 
 the Zagros, reduced its stronghold and seized much treasure. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser's third campaign was against the Nairi tribes of the 
 Euphrates valley in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, the district sub- 
 sequently known as Commagene. These tribes were ruled by many 
 petty kings. Those east of the Euphrates were easily conquered, but 
 those west of the river were only subdued after a desperate and pro- 
 tracted struggle. The Assyrians gained a great victory, taking one 
 hundred and twenty chariots, and pursued the Nairi and their allies 
 to the Mediterranean. The country was frightfully ravaged, and the 
 vanquished were required to pay a tribute of twelve hundred horses 
 and two hundred cattle. 
 
 In his fourth campaign, Tiglath-Pileser attacked the Aramaeans, or 
 Syrians, who then occupied the narrow valley of the Euphrates for a 
 distance of two hundred and fifty miles, from the territories of the 
 Tsukhi, or Shuhites, between Anah and Hit on the south-east, to 
 Carchemish, the capital and stronghold of the Khatti, or Hittites, on 
 the north-west. Tiglath-Pileser says in his inscription that he re- 
 duced this region "at one blow." He first plundered the east bank 
 of the river, and then crossed the stream in boats covered with skins, 
 and burned six cities on the west bank and carried away a vast amount 
 of booty. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser's fifth and last campaign was against the land of 
 Musr, or Muzr, in the upper part of the present Kurdistan, which was 
 completely overrun, and its armies were defeated, its cities burned and 
 its strongholds taken. Arin, the capital, was spared because of its 
 submission, and a tribute was imposed upon the country. The Co- 
 mani, who, though Assyrian subjects, had assisted the inhabitants of 
 Musr, were punished for their defection by Tiglath-Pileser, who in- 
 vaded their country, defeated their army of twenty thousand men, and 
 took their towns and castles, some by storm and others without resist- 
 ance, burning the former and sparing the latter, but destroying the 
 fortifications of both; and the "far-spreading country of the Comani" 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Mos- 
 chians 
 and the 
 Hittites. 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Na'iri. 
 
 Conquest 
 
 of the 
 Syrians. 
 
 Conquest 
 of Musr 
 and the 
 Comani.
 
 148 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Total 
 
 Con- 
 quests. 
 
 Tiglath- 
 Pileser's 
 Hunting 
 Exploits. 
 
 His 
 
 Works. 
 
 His 
 Descent. 
 
 was soon reduced to submission and an increased tribute exacted 
 from it. 
 
 After this fifth campaign, Tiglath-Pileser's inscription sums up the 
 result of his wars thus: " 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 river Zab to the banks of the 
 river Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of 
 the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I took hos- 
 tages from them; and I imposed on them tribute and offerings." 
 
 The king next boasts of his hunting exploits. He says that he 
 killed with his arrows in the country of the Hittites, "four wild bulls, 
 strong and fierce"; and in the vicinity of Harran, on the banks of 
 the river Khabour, he slew ten large wild buffaloes and took four alive. 
 He took these captured animals, with the hides and horns of the killed 
 beasts, to Asshur, his capital city. He also says that he slew nine 
 hundred and twenty lions in his various journeys, and attributes all 
 these exploits to the protection of the gods Nin and Nergal. 
 
 This great monarch then gives an account of the buildings which 
 he had erected and of the improvements which he had introduced. 
 Among these buildings are the temples to Ishtar, Martu, Bel, II, and 
 the presiding deities of the city of Asshur, his own royal palaces, and 
 castles for the military defence of his dominions. Among his public 
 improvements he mentions the construction of works of irrigation, the 
 introduction of cattle and wild animals from other countries into As- 
 syria, as well as of foreign vegetable productions, the increase in the 
 number of chariots, the enlargement of his dominions, and the growth 
 of the population. 
 
 Before speaking of the restoration of two old temples in the city of 
 Asshur, Tiglath-Pileser gives an account of his descent from Nin-pala- 
 zira, the founder of the dynasty, as follows: "Tiglath-Pileser, the 
 illustrious prince, whom Asshur and Nin have exalted to the utmost 
 wishes of his heart ; who has pursued after the enemies of Asshur, and 
 has subjugated all the earth the son of Asshur-ris-ilim, the powerful 
 king, the subduer of rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the 
 accursed the grandson of Mutaggil-Nebo, whom Asshur, the Great 
 Lord, aided according to the wishes of his heart, and established in 
 strength in the government of Assyria the glorious offspring of 
 Asshur-dayan, who held the scepter of dominion, and ruled over the 
 people of Bel ; who in all the works of his hands and the deeds of his 
 life placed his reliance on the great gods, and thus obtained a long 
 and prosperous life the beloved child of Nin-pala-zira, the king who 
 organized the country of Assyria, who purged his territories of the 
 wicked, and established the troops of Assyria in authority,"
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 149 
 
 The temple torn down by Asshur-dayan I., the great-grandfather 
 of Tiglath-Pileser I., and which had stood for six hundred and forty- 
 one years, was not rebuilt; and, after its site had remained vacant for 
 sixty years, Tiglath-Pileser, soon after his accession, resolved upon the 
 erection there of a new temple to the old gods, Anu and Vul, believed 
 to be tutelary deities of the city of Asshur. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser relates the circumstances of the building and dedica- 
 tion of this new temple, as follows: "In the beginning of my reign, 
 Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, my lords, guardians of my steps, gave 
 me a command to repair this their shrine. So I made bricks ; I leveled 
 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 
 Anu and Vul. From its foundation to its roof I built it up better than 
 it was before. I also built two lofty towers in honor of their noble 
 godships, and the holy place, a spacious hall, I consecrated for the 
 convenience of their worshipers, 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 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 beautified the entire build- 
 ing. 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 honored purity, and the hearts of their 
 noble godships I delighted." 
 
 The other temple, which Tiglath-Pileser I. says he restored, was 
 one to Anu only, which, like the one just mentioned, was originally 
 built by Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon. This building had like- 
 wise fallen into decay, but had not been taken down like the other. 
 Tiglath-Pileser says that he "leveled its site," and then rebuilt it "from 
 its foundations to its roofs," enlarging and embellishing it. Inside the 
 building he "sacrificed precious victims to his lord, Vul." In the 
 temple he likewise deposited a collection of rare stones and marbles, 
 which he had procured in the country of the Nai'ri during his wars 
 there. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser's inscription ends with the following lengthy invoca- 
 tion: "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 successfully, 
 and have delighted the hearts of their noble godships, may Anu and 
 Vul preserve me in power! May they support the men of my gov- 
 
 Temple to 
 
 Anu and 
 
 Vul. 
 
 Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Building 
 
 Thereof. 
 
 Tiglath- 
 Pileser's 
 Invoca- 
 tion.
 
 150 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 ernraent ! 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 descend- 
 ants, 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 cylinders, 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 temples 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 be set them up again in their places, and may he 
 inscribe his name on them together with my name! As Anu and Vul, 
 the Great Gods, haye ordained, may he worship honestly with a good 
 heart and a full trust! Whoever shall abrade or injure my tablets 
 and cylinders, or shall moisten them with water, or scorch them with 
 fire, or expose 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 sculp- 
 tures 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 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 ! 
 May a scarcity of food and of the necessaries of life afflict his coun- 
 try! For one day may he not be called happy! May his name and 
 his race perish ! " 
 
 Date of The document is then dated: " In the month Kuzalla (Chisleu), OB 
 scription. the 29th day, in the year presided over by Ina-iliya-pallik, the Rabbi- 
 Turi." 
 
 The most striking feature of Tiglath-Pileser's inscription is its re- 
 ligious tone. His wars are not only wars of conquest, but they are 
 religious wars, designed to extend the worship of Asshur, as well as to 
 enlarge the dominion of the Assyrian monarch. All the king's suc- 
 
 Its 
 
 Religiout 
 Tone.
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. lfil 
 
 cesses in war and hunting are ascribed to the aid and favor of Asshur. 
 The wars were undertaken to chastise the enemies of Asshur, as the 
 Hebrews fought to punish the enemies of Jehovah. The commanding 
 position which religion occupied in the hearts of the Assyrian kings 
 and people is proven by the long and solemn invocation of the Great 
 Gods, the religious character and purposes of the wars, the account 
 given of the building and renovation of the temples, the dedication 
 of offerings, and the characteristic final prayer. The deep earnestness 
 of this religious faith of the Assyrians, in its outward manifestations, 
 displayed a zeal and fanaticism akin to that of the Israelites in their 
 wars with the Canaanites, Philistines and other nations, or to that of 
 the followers of Mohammed in their warfare against the foes of Islam. 
 The Assyrian king glorifies himself much, but he glorifies the gods 
 more. While fighting for his own credit and the extension of his 
 own dominion, he likewise fights for the honor and glory of Asshur, 
 the Great Lord, and the other Great Gods, whom the neighboring 
 nations reject. His buildings are temples for the worship of the gods. 
 His whole mind is deeply imbued with religious feeling, showing that 
 the gods are "in all his thoughts." This religious feeling is highly 
 exclusive and intolerant, like the religious feeling of the Hebrews, as 
 expressed in the Old Testament. 
 
 The king, while exalting himself, is still "the illustrious chief, who, Exalta- 
 under the auspices of the Sun-god, rules over the people of Bel," and ^g Gods, 
 "whose servants Asshur has appointed to the government of the four 
 regions." If his enemies fly, "the fear of Asshur has overwhelmed 
 them; if they refuse tribute, they withhold the offerings due to As- 
 shur." The king himself feels inclined to make an expedition against 
 a country ; " his lord Asshur invites him " to proceed thither ; if he 
 collects an army, "Asshur has committed the troops to his hand." 
 When a country not previously subject to Assyria is attacked, it is 
 because the people "do not acknowledge Asshur"; when its plunder is 
 carried off, it is to adorn and enrich the temples of Asshur and the 
 other gods; when it yields, the first thing is to "attach it to the wor- 
 ship of Asshur." The king hunts "under the auspices of Nin and 
 Nergal," or of "Nin and Asshur"; he puts his tablets under the pro- 
 tection of Anu and Vul; he attributes the long life of one ancestor to 
 his exceeding piety, and the prosperity of another to the protection 
 which Asshur bestowed upon him. The name of Asshur occurs in the 
 inscription almost forty times, or once in nearly every paragraph. 
 Shamas, the Sun-god, and the gods Anu, Vul and Bel, are mentioned 
 frequently; while Sin, the Moon-god, and the deities Nin, Nergal, 
 Ishtar, Beltis, Martu and II, are also acknowledged. All this is on 
 an historical inscription.
 
 152 
 
 CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Tiglath- 
 Pileser's 
 Energetic 
 Charac- 
 ter. 
 
 His Self- 
 Exalta- 
 tion. 
 
 Weakness 
 of 
 
 Assyria's 
 Neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 The energetic character of TigMh-Pileser I. is fully attested by his 
 military exploits during the first five years of his reign, as displayed 
 in the conquest of six neighboring nations and many petty tribes ; the 
 humbling of forty-two kings ; the traversing of difficult mountain re- 
 gions ; the victories in battle ; the sieges of towns ; the storming and 
 destruction of strongholds; the ravaging of countries; the incessant 
 employment of the monarch; his pursuit of the chase; his contests 
 with the wild bull and the lion, in which he rivaled "the mighty hunter 
 before the Lord," counting his victims by the hundreds ; while all this 
 time he was concerned for the welfare of his dominions, as shown in 
 the magnificent structures which he erected, the introduction of the 
 animal and vegetable products of other regions and climes, the fertil- 
 izing of the land by works of irrigation, and his measures in general, 
 "improving the condition of the people, and obtaining for them 
 abundance and security." 
 
 Asshur was still the Assyrian capital, and no other native city is 
 yet named, though mention is made of "fortified cities." In his in- 
 scription Tiglath-Pileser calls himself "king of the four regions," and 
 also "the exalted sovereign whose servants Asshur has appointed to 
 the government of the country of the four regions." The Assyrian 
 territory seems at this time to have been bounded on the east by the 
 Zagros mountains, on the north by the Niphates ranges, on the west 
 by the Euphrates, and on the south by Chaldsea, or Babylonia. The 
 plunder of other countries poured wealth into Assyria, the introduction 
 of enslaved captives cheapened labor, irrigation was improved, new 
 fruits and animals were introduced, fortifications were repaired, palaces 
 were renovated, and temples were embellished or rebuilt. 
 
 The countries bordering upon Assyria on the north, east and west 
 exhibited conditions of political weakness, and were divided into a 
 multitude of petty nations and tribes, the most powerful of which could 
 raise an army of only twenty thousand men. These nations lacked 
 the essential elements of unity, being divided into many separate com- 
 munities governed by their own kings, who in times of war united 
 against the common foe, but who were too jealous of each other to 
 even select a generalissimo. On the Euphrates, between Hit and 
 Carchemish, were, first, the Tsukhi, or Shuhites; next above them, on 
 both banks of the river, were the Aramaeans, or Syrians, who possessed 
 many cities ; and above the Aramaeans, also on both sides of the stream, 
 were the Khatti, or Hittites, who were divided into tribes, and whose 
 chief city was Carchemish. North and north-west of the Khatti were 
 the Muskai, or Moschi, a warlike people, who endeavored to extend 
 their dominion eastward into the territory of the Qummukh, or people 
 of Commagene. The Qummukh occupied and ruled the mountain re-
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 153 
 
 gion on both sides of the upper Tigris, and had many strongholds, 
 most of which were on the west bank of the river. East of the Qum- 
 mukh were the Kirkhi, while south of them were the Na'iri, who occu- 
 pied the region from Lake Van, along the line of the Tigris, to the 
 district called Commagene by the Romans. The Na'iri had, at least, 
 twenty-three kings, each of whom ruled his own tribe or city. South 
 of the eastern Nai'ri was the country of Musr, or Muzr, a mountain 
 region densely inhabited and abounding in strong castles. To the east 
 and south-east of Muzr were the Comani, or Quwana, the most power- 
 ful of Assyria's neighbors, like the Moschi, able to raise an army of 
 twenty thousand men. The Comani and the people of Muzr were at 
 this time close allies. Across the lower Zab, skirting the Zagros, were 
 the many petty tribes who offered little resistance to the Assyrian 
 arms. 
 
 Thus, late in the twelfth century before Christ, Assyria was a com- Assyria's 
 pact and powerful kingdom, surrounded on her eastern, northern and 
 western sides, by weak neighbors. Centralized therefore under one 
 monarch, Assyria, with a single great capital, was easily able to tri- 
 umph over foes, who, although united in confederations to resist their 
 common enemy, were easily dispersed after suffering a defeat. Only 
 on her southern border did Assyria have a powerful neighbor in the 
 ancient and venerable monarchy of Chaldasa, or Babylonia, whose 
 Semitic sovereigns, although established in that country by Assyrian 
 influence, had renounced all dependence upon their old protectors. 
 Chaldaea, almost equal in territorial extent and population to Assyria, 
 and as much centralized and consolidated in her government, served as 
 a check to her aggressive and vigorous northern neighbor, thus pre 
 serving some semblance of the balance of power in Western Asia. 
 
 In addition to the great cylinder inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., Tiglath- 
 five more years of his annals exist in fragments, which give us accounts P iles er's 
 of the continuance of his aggressive expeditions, principally in the quests, 
 direction of the north-west, during which he subdued the Lulumi in 
 Northern Syria, attacked and took Carchemish, and pursued the flee- 
 ing inhabitants across the Euphrates in boats. 
 
 Near the end of his reign Tiglath-Pileser I. marched an army into His Sue- 
 Babylonia, and ravaged its northern territories with fire and sword c essful 
 for two years, taking the cities of Dur-Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf ), of Baby- 
 Sippara of the Sun, and Sippara of Anunit (the Sepharvaim, or loma - 
 "two Sipparas" of the Hebrews), Hupa (or Opis), on the Tigris, 
 and finally the great capital, Babylon, itself. 
 
 After the capture of Babylon, Tiglath-Pileser I. led an army up the Baby- 
 Euphrates, and took several of the cities of the Tsukhi. But the * ian 
 Babylonian king, Merodach-iddin-akhi, captured some of Tiglath-
 
 154 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Hostility 
 between 
 Assyria 
 and Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Sculpture 
 
 of 
 Tiglath- 
 
 Pileserl. 
 
 Asshur- 
 bil-kala. 
 
 Monu- 
 ments and 
 Inscrip- 
 tions of 
 His Reign. 
 
 Shamas- 
 Vull. 
 
 Pileser's baggage during his retreat from Babylon. The images of 
 the gods which Tiglath-Pileser had carried with him in his expedition 
 against Babylonia, to secure him victory by their presence, were cap- 
 tured by Merodach-iddin-akhi, who carried them to Babylon, where 
 they remained over four centuries as mementoes of victory. The Syn- 
 chronistic Tablet, the chief authority for this war, says nothing of 
 the capture of these idols, but this fact is mentioned in a rock inscrip- 
 tion of Sennacherib's at Bavain, near Khorsabad. 
 
 Thenceforth a spirit of hostility and jealous rivalry marked the 
 relations between Assyria and Babylonia, and no more intermarriages 
 occurred between their royal families, while wars between them were 
 almost constant, nearly every Assyrian king of whose history we pos- 
 sess detailed knowledge leading one or more expeditions into Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 In a cavern from which rises the Tsupnat, or eastern branch of the 
 Tigris, near the village of Korkhar, about fifty or sixty miles north 
 of Diarbekr, is a bas-relief sculptured on rock smoothed for the pur- 
 pose, consisting of a figure of Tiglath-Pileser I. in his priestly dress, 
 with the right arm extended and the left hand grasping the sacrificial 
 mace, with the following inscription: "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 Akhiri" (the 
 Mediterranean) "to the sea of Nai'ri" (Lake of Van), "for the third 
 time have invaded the country of Nai'ri." 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser I. was succeeded on the Assyrian throne by his son 
 ASSHUR-BIL-KALA, of whom very little is known besides his war with 
 Merodach-shapik-ziri, king of Babylonia, the successor of Merodach- 
 iddin-akhi. This war is recorded on the Synchronistic Tablet, along 
 with the wars of Asshur-bil-kala's father and grandfather, but the in- 
 jured condition of this portion of the tablet prevents us getting details 
 from it. A monument of Asshur-bil-kala's time one of the oldest 
 Assyrian sculptures yet remaining bears witness that he was actuated 
 by the same, religious spirit displayed by his father, and that he also 
 adorned temples and set up images of the gods. A mutilated female 
 figure, supposed to be the image of the goddess Ishtar, discovered by 
 Mr. Loftus at Koyunjik, and now in the British Museum, bears a 
 dedicatory inscription, almost illegible, from which it appears to have 
 been set up by Asshur-bil-kala, the son of Tiglath-Pileser I. and grand- 
 son of Asshur-ris-ilim. 
 
 It is supposed that Asshur-bil-kala reigned from about B. C. 1110 
 to B. C. 1090. His successor seems to have been his younger brother, 
 SHAMAS-VUL I., of whom nothing is known except his building or
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 155 
 
 repairing a temple at Nineveh. He is thought to have reigned from 
 B. C. 1090 to B. C. 1070; being thus contemporary with Samuel or 
 Saul in Israel. During the eleventh century before Christ, Assyria 
 for a time passed under a cloud, and its ancient glories were then 
 eclipsed by the imperial splendor of the Israelitish kingdom under 
 David and Solomon. For two centuries, between the reigns of Shamas- 
 Vul I. and Tiglathi-Nin II., who, according to the Assyrian Canon, 
 ascended the throne of Assyria in B. C. 889, Assyrian history is a 
 blank. The very names of the kings are almost entirely unknown to 
 us for three-fourths of this period, from about B. C. 1070 to B. C. 930. 
 The inscription of Shalmaneser II., the Black-Obelisk king, speaks of 
 certain cities on the west bank of the Euphrates being taken from 
 ASSHUR-MAZUR, whose reign has been assigned to this period. 
 
 While Assyria, from the absence of records, at this time had ap- 
 parently sunk into insignificance, her influence seems to have extended 
 into Egypt, whose kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty beginning 
 with Sheshonk I., or Shishak, a contemporary of Solomon, married 
 Assyrian women of royal or noble birth, who gave Assyrian names to 
 their children, thus introducing Semitic names in Egyptian dynastic 
 lists. 
 
 When Assyria again emerged from darkness with the accession of 
 ASSHUR-DAYAN II. about B. C. 930, Asshur was still the capital of 
 the kingdom. Asshur-dayan II. was the first of a series of kings who 
 repaired and enlarged public edifices, which is recorded to their honor 
 in the inscription of a subsequent sovereign. Asshur-dayan II. 
 reigned from B. C. 930 to B. C. 911. His son and successor, VUL- 
 iusH II., occupied the throne from B. C/911 to B. C. 889. Nothing 
 is yet known of the history of these two kings, no historical inscrip- 
 tions of their reigns being yet found, and no exploits being recorded 
 of them in the inscriptions of later sovereigns. 
 
 TIGLATHI-NIN II., the successor of Vul-lush II., reigned only six 
 years ; but according to the inscriptions of his son and successor, 
 Asshur-izir-pal, on the Nimrud monolith, he recorded his military ex- 
 ploits and also the fact that he set up his sculptures at the sources 
 of the Tsupnat river beside the sculptures set up by his ancestors, 
 Tiglath-Pileser I. and Tiglathi-Nin I. The Assyrian Canon assigns 
 the reign of Tiglathi-Nin II. between the years B. C. 889 and B. C. 
 883. 
 
 ASSHUR-IZIR-FA:L, the son and successor of Tiglathi-Nin II., reigned 
 twenty-five years, from B. C. 883 to B. C. 858, which period is one 
 of the most flourishing in the annals of the Assyrian Empire. Asshur- 
 izir-pal was an active and energetic monarch, and did not allow him- 
 self any repose. The limits and influence of Assyria were expanded 
 1-13 
 
 Tempo- 
 rary 
 
 Eclipse of 
 Assyria. 
 
 Royal In- 
 termar- 
 riages 
 with the 
 Kings of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Asshur- 
 Dayan II. 
 
 Vul-lush 
 II. 
 
 Tiglathi- 
 Nin II. 
 
 Asshur- 
 izir-pal. 
 
 Sudden 
 Recovery 
 
 of 
 Assyria.
 
 156 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 
 Numi, 
 Elami and 
 Kirkhi of 
 Armenia. 
 
 Other 
 
 Con- 
 quests in 
 Armenia. 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Laki of 
 
 Mesopota- 
 mia. 
 
 Recon- 
 quest of 
 theNairi. 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 in every direction, and her progress in wealth and the arts was so rapid 
 that she suddenly attained a point not previously reached by any 
 people. The size, magnificence and excellent artistic embellishment 
 of Asshur-izir-pal's architectural structures, the high skill in the prac- 
 tical arts which they exhibit, the pomp and splendor of this reign 
 which they imply, have excited the wonder and admiration of modern 
 Europe, which has seen that the Assyrians nine centuries before Christ, 
 or nearly twenty-eight centuries ago, had reached a degree of advance- 
 ment in the inventions and arts of practical life equal to the boasted 
 achievements of the modern ages. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's first campaign was in the north, in portions of 
 Armenia, where he says he penetrated a region "never approached 
 by the kings his fathers." Here he easily subdued the mountaineers, 
 the Numi, or Elami, and the Kirkhi, from whom has been derived the 
 name of the modern Kurkh, as applied to some ruins on the west bank 
 of the Tigris, about twenty miles below Diarbekr, some remains of 
 which have been transferred to the British Museum. Asshur-izir-pal 
 took and destroyed the fortresses of these mountain tribes, and one 
 captive was taken to Arbela, where he was flayed and hung up on the 
 town wall. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's second expedition occurred in the same year as the 
 first, and was directed against the tribes to the west and north-west 
 of Assyria. He first overran the countries of Qummukh, Serki and 
 Sidikan, or Arban, and reduced them to tribute. Then he took the 
 field against the Laki of Central Mesopotamia, where the people of 
 the city of Assura had rebelled, killed their governor, and invited a 
 foreigner to govern them. The rebels submitted on Asshur-izir-pal's 
 approach and surrendered to him their city and their new ruler, who 
 was carried in fetters to Nineveh. The rebellious inhabitants were 
 cruelly punished by Asshur-izir-pal, who plundered the city, gave the 
 houses of the rebel leaders to his own officers, placed an Assyrian gov- 
 ernor over the city, crucified some of the inhabitants, burned others, 
 and cut off the ears and noses of the remainder. The other kings of 
 the Laki submitted, and sent in their tribute readily, though it was "a 
 heavy and much-increased burden." 
 
 In the second year Asshur-izir-pal undertook a third expedition. 
 Marching northward, he reduced to submission the kings of the Nai'ri, 
 who had recovered their independence, and exacted from them a yearly 
 tribute in gold, silver, horses, cattle and other commodities. Ascend- 
 ing the Tsupnat river, or Eastern Tigris, he set up his memorial 
 beside monuments hitherto erected on the same site by Tiglath-Pileser 
 I. and by the first or second Tiglathi-Nin. The inscriptions also give 
 Asshur-izir-pal's own account of his severe treatment of the revolted
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 157 
 
 city of Tela, upon retaking it, in the following words: "Their men, 
 young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and 
 hands ; of others I cut off the noses, ears and lips ; of the young men's 
 ears I made a heap ; of the old men's heads I made a minaret. I ex- 
 posed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male chil- 
 dren and the female children I burnt in the flames. The city I de- 
 stroyed, and consumed, and burnt with fire." 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's fourth campaign was in the south-east, where he 
 crossed the Lesser Zab and entered the Zagros range, ravaged the fruit- 
 ful valleys with fire and sword, took many towns, and exacted tribute 
 from a dozen petty kings. On his return, he built a city which the 
 Babylonian king Tsibir had destroyed at an early period, and named 
 it Dur-Asshur, in gratitude for the protection bestowed upon him by 
 Asshur, "the Great Lord," "the chief of the gods." 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's fifth campaign was directed to the north. Cross- 
 ing the country of the Qummukh and receiving their tribute, the war- 
 like king invaded the Mons Masius and took the cities of Maty at (now 
 Mediyat) and Kapranisa. He then crossed the Tigris and warred 
 along the Niphates ranges against the people of Kasiyara and other 
 enemies. He next invaded the country of the Nai'ri, where he says 
 he destroyed two hundred and fifty strong walled cities, and put to 
 death many princes. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's sixth campaign was in the west. He started from 
 Calah (now Nimrud), where he crossed the Tigris, marched through 
 Central Mesopotamia, received tribute from many subject towns, 
 among which were Sidikan (now Arban), Sirki and Anat (now Anah). 
 He then entered the territories of the Tsukhi, or Shuhites, took their 
 city Tsur, and compelled them to surrender, although they were aided 
 by the Babylonians; after which he invaded Babylonia, or Chaldaea, 
 and chastised its people. 
 
 His seventh campaign was likewise against the Shuhites, who had 
 rebelled against the Assyrian yoke and invaded the Assyrian terri- 
 tories, being aided by their north-eastern neighbors, the Laki. The 
 allied army numbered twenty thousand men, including many warriors 
 who fought in chariots. Asshur-izir-pal first reduced the cities on the 
 east bank of the Euphrates, and, as he says, "made a desert" of the 
 banks of the Khabour, and impaled thirty of the chief captives on 
 stakes, in punishment for the rebellion. He then crossed the river 
 on rafts and defeated the Tsukhi and their allies with great slaughter, 
 many of them being drowned in their flight across the river. Six 
 thousand five hundred of the rebels were killed in the battle, and the 
 west bank of the river was frightfully ravaged with fire and sword; 
 cities and castles were burned, men were massacred, and women, chil- 
 
 Con- 
 quests 
 in the 
 Zagros 
 Region. 
 
 Con- 
 quests in 
 Armenia. 
 
 Con- 
 quests in 
 Mesopota- 
 mia and 
 Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Tsukhi 
 and the 
 
 Laki.
 
 158 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Beth- 
 Adina. 
 
 Conquest 
 
 of the 
 Hittites 
 and the 
 
 Patena of 
 Syria. 
 
 Con- 
 quests in 
 the Upper 
 Tigris 
 Region. 
 
 Hunting 
 Exploits. 
 
 dren and cattle were carried away. One king of the Laki escaped, but 
 another was carried in captivity to Assyria. An increased rate of 
 tribute was exacted of the conquered people, and two new cities were 
 built by the Assyrian king, one on either bank of the Euphrates, the 
 one on the east bank being named after the king, and the one on the 
 west bank after the god Asshur. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's eighth campaign was higher up the Euphrates, 
 where the Assyrian monarch invaded the country of the Beth-Adina, 
 to punish its people for giving refuge to Hazilu, the king of the Laki 
 who had escaped capture after his defeat in the previous war. As- 
 shur-izir-pal beseiged the people of Beth-Adina in their chief city, 
 Kabrabi, which he soon took and burned. The part of Beth-Adina 
 east of the Euphrates, in the vicinity of the modern Balis, was over- 
 run and annexed to the Assyrian Empire, and two thousand five hun- 
 dred captives were settled at Calah. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's ninth and most interesting campaign was the one 
 against Syria. After marching across Northern Mesopotamia, and 
 receiving tributes from various nations and tribes on the way, the As- 
 syrian king crossed the Euphrates on rafts and entered the city of 
 Carchemish, where he received the submission of the Hittite king, 
 Sangara, whose capital was that city, and of many other princes, 
 "who came reverently and kissed his scepter." Then he "gave com- 
 mand to advance toward Lebanon." He entered the country of the 
 Patena, which embraced the region about Antioch and Aleppo, and 
 took their capital, Kinalua, located between the Abri (or Afrin) and 
 Orontes ; whereupon the rebel king, Lubarna, in alarm, submitted and 
 agreed to pay a tribute. The Assyrian monarch then crossed the 
 Orontes and destroyed some of the cities of the Patena, and marched 
 along the northern flank of Lebanon to the Mediterranean. In this 
 region he built altars and offered sacrifices to the gods, and then re- 
 ceived the submission of the leading Phoenician states, such as Tyre, 
 Sidon, Byblus and Aradus. He then went inland, and cut timber, set 
 up sculptured memorials, and offered sacrifice on the Amanus moun- 
 tains. Among the plunder which he carried to Assyria were cedar 
 beams for his public buildings at Nineveh. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's tenth campaign, and the last recorded, was in the 
 region of the Upper Tigris, where he defeated his enemies and over- 
 came all resistance, burned cities and carried away many captives. 
 The chief "royal city" which he assailed was Amidi, now Diarbekr. 
 
 During all his ten campaigns, which were prosecuted during the 
 first six years of his reign, Asshur-izir-pal indulged in the sports of 
 the chase. He records among his inscriptions that on one occasion 
 he killed fifty large wild bulls on the east bank of the Euphrates, and
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 159 
 
 captured eight of the same kind of beasts; while at another time he 
 slew twenty ostriches and captured as many. This monarch's sculp- 
 tures bear testimony that hunting the wild bull was a favorite recrea- 
 tion with him. He had a menagerie park in the vicinity of Nineveh, in 
 which he kept various strange animals. He received, as tribute from 
 the Phoenicians, animals called paguts or pagdts believed to be ele- 
 phants which were placed in this zoological enclosure, where he says 
 they throve and bred. A certain King of Egypt sent him a present 
 of curious animals when he was in Southern Syria. In an obelisk in- 
 scription, designed to commemorate a great hunting expedition, he says 
 he took all sorts of antelopes to Asshur and killed lions, wild sheep, red 
 deer, fallow deer, wild goats, or ibexes, leopards, large and small, bears, 
 wolves, jackals, wild boars, ostriches, foxes, hyenas, wild asses, and 
 other animals not yet identified. An inscription of his at Nimrud 
 informs us that in another hunting expedition he slew three hundred 
 and sixty large lions, two hundred and fifty-seven large wild cattle, 
 and thirty buffaloes ; and that he sent to Calah fifteen full-grown lions, 
 fifty young lions, some leopards, several pairs of wild buffaloes and wild 
 cattle, along with ostriches, wolves, red deer, bears, cheetas and 
 hyenas. Thus, like his distinguished ancestor, Tiglath-Pileser I., 
 Asshur-izir-pal was renowned alike as a warrior and a hunter. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal surpassed his predecessors in the grandeur of his 
 public edifices, and the profusion of sculpture and painting in their 
 embellishment. The structures of the earlier Assyrian kings at Asshur 
 were far inferior to the buildings of Assur-izir-pal and his successors 
 at Calah, Nineveh and Dur-Surgina. The mounds of Kileh-Sherghat 
 have not revealed bas-reliefs or traces of buildings which can be com- 
 pared with those which excite the wonder of the traveler at Nimrud, 
 Koyunjik and Khorsabad. Asshur-izir-pal's great palace was at 
 Calah (now Nimrud), which he raised from the condition of a pro- 
 vincial town to that of a metropolis of his empire. This palace was 
 three hundred and sixty feet long and three hundred feet wide, had 
 seven or eight large halls, and many more small chambers grouped 
 round a central court one hundred and thirty feet long and almost one 
 hundred feet broad. The longest hall faced toward the north, 
 was the first room entered upon coming from the city, and 
 measured one hundred and fifty-four feet in length and thirty- 
 three feet in breadth. The others were of different dimensions, some 
 almost as spacious as the largest one, while the smallest room had a 
 length of sixty-five feet with a breadth of less than twenty feet. The 
 chambers were nearly or altogether square, and none of them were more 
 than thirty feet in their greatest dimensions. The entire palace was 
 raised upon a high platform, constructed of sun-dried bricks, but 
 
 Asshur- 
 izir-pal's 
 
 Great 
 Palace at 
 
 Calah.
 
 160 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 cased on the outside with hewn stone. Of the two grand facades, one 
 faced the north, and on that side was an ascent to the platform from 
 the town; the other, in the opinion of Mr. Layard, faced the Tigris, 
 which in ancient times flowed at the foot of the platform toward the 
 west. On the northern front were two or three great gateways flanked 
 with andro-sphinxes, or sculptured figures representing the body of a 
 winged lion with the head of a man. These gateways led to the prin- 
 cipal hall or audience chamber, which was lined throughout with 
 sculptured slabs illustrating the king's various deeds, and which con- 
 tained at the eastern end a raised stone platform cut into steps or 
 stages, which Layard believes was designed to support the monarch's 
 carved throne. A grand portal in the southern wall of the chamber, 
 guarded on either side by sculptured representations of winged man- 
 headed bulls carved out of yellow limestone, opened the way into a 
 second hall much smaller than the first, and with less variety of orna- 
 ment. This second hall was about one hundred feet long by twenty- 
 five broad, and all the slabs which adorned it were ornamented with 
 colossal eagle-headed figures in pairs, facing one another and separated 
 by the sacred tree. This second hall was connected with the central 
 court by an elegant gateway towards the south, and communicated 
 likewise with a third hall towards the east. This third hall was one of 
 the most remarkable apartments of the palace, and was better propor- 
 tioned than most of the others, being about ninety feet long by twenty- 
 six wide. It ran along the eastern side of the great court, with which 
 it was connected by two gateways, and on the inside it was ornamented 
 with more elaborately finished sculptures than any other apartment in 
 the palace. Back of this eastern hall was another hall opening into it, 
 somewhat longer, but only twelve feet broad ; and this led to five small 
 chambers, which here bounded the palace. South of the great court 
 were also two halls communicating with each other, but these were 
 smaller than those on the north and west, and were less profusely 
 adorned. Mr. Layard believes that there were also two or three halls 
 on the west side of the court toward the river. Nearly every hall had 
 one or two small chambers adjoining it, which were generally at the 
 ends of the halls, and communicated with them by large doorways. 
 The grand halls of this palace, so narrow for their length, were deco- 
 rated on all sides, first with sculptures as high as nine or ten feet, and 
 then with enameled bricks or patterns painted in frescoes to the height 
 of seven or eight feet more. The rooms were sixteen or eighteen feet 
 high. The square chambers had no other embellishments than inscribed 
 alabaster slabs. 
 
 HisSculp- Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures display great boldness, force and spirit, 
 ures * but are usually clumsily drawn and roughly executed- Assyrian
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 161 
 
 mimetic art suddenly sprung up at this period, the only specimens 
 more ancient than this monarch being the rock-tablet of Tiglath-Pileser 
 L, already referred to, and the mutilated female statue brought from 
 Koyunjik to the British Museum and inscribed with the name of 
 Asshur-bil-kala, the son and successor of Tiglath-Pileser I. Asshur- 
 izir-pal's ornamentation was his own invention. Not a solitary frag- 
 ment of a sculptured slab has been found about the mounds of Kileh- 
 Sherghat, while bricks have been found in abundance. This monarch 
 was the first to use bas-reliefs on a large scale for architectural orna- 
 mentation, and to employ them to illustrate the history of the mon- 
 arch. This king likewise adorned his edifices by means of enameled 
 bricks and painted frescoes upon plaster. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures attest the surprising advance made in 
 manufactures by the Assyrians at this early period. The metallurgy 
 of the time is represented by swords, sword-sheaths, daggers, earrings, 
 necklaces, armlets and bracelets. The chariots, the harness of the 
 horses, and the embroidery which adorned the robes, further attest the 
 mechanical skill of the Assyrians in the age of this famous king. 
 The sculptures bear testimony to the fact that this ancient people at 
 this early day already reveled in luxury, and that in the useful arts, in 
 dress, furniture, jewelry, etc., they were not far behind the moderns. 
 
 Besides the splendid palace which he erected at Calah, Asshur-izir- 
 pal built many temples, the most important of which have already been 
 described. They occupied the northwestern corner of the Nimrud 
 platform, and consisted of two structures ; one precisely at the corner, 
 embracing the higher tower, or ziggurat, which stood out as a corner 
 buttress from the great mound, and a shrine with chambers at the 
 tower's base ; the other, a little farther to the east, comprising a shrine 
 and chambers without a tower. The tower of the first structure was 
 partly built by Asshur-izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmaneser II. 
 These temples were highly adorned with embellishments, both internally 
 and externally ; and in front of the larger one was an erection indi- 
 cating that the Assyrian kings received divine honors from their sub- 
 jects. On a plain square pedestal two feet high was raised a solid 
 limestone block cut in the form of an arched frame, within which was 
 carved a figure of the king in sacerdotal costume, with the sacred col- 
 lar encircling his neck, and the five chief divine symbols represented 
 above his head. In front of this figure was a triangular altar with a 
 circular top, resembling the Grecian tripod. A stele of Asshur-izir- 
 pal, resembling the figure just described, has been brought to Eng- 
 land from Kurkh, near Diarbekr, and is now in the British Museum. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal built a temple at Nineveh, which was dedicated to 
 the goddess Beltis. A white stone obelisk, set up as a memorial of his 
 
 VOL. 1. 11 
 
 Assyrian 
 Progress. 
 
 Asshur- 
 izir-pal's 
 Temples. 
 
 His 
 Obelbto.
 
 162 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 
 Tunnel 
 
 and 
 Canal. 
 
 He Makes 
 
 Calah the 
 Assyrian 
 Capital. 
 
 His 
 Death. 
 
 Shalma- 
 neser II. 
 
 reign, is now in the British Museum. The sculptures and inscriptions 
 which commemorated his military and hunting exploits, and which 
 covered the four sides of this monument, are now almost obliterated. 
 The obelisk is a monolith, twelve or thirteen feet high, and two feet 
 wide on the broader side of the base and less than fourteen inches on 
 the narrower side. It tapers slightly and is crowned at the top by 
 three steps or gradines. Fragments of two other obelisks erected by 
 this great monarch were discovered at Koyunjik by Mr. Loftus, and 
 are likewise now in the British Museum. One of these, in white stone, 
 had sculptures on one side only, being mostly covered by an inscription 
 recording his hunting exploits in Syria and the repairs of the city of 
 Asshur. The other, in black basalt, had sculptures on every side rep- 
 resenting the great king receiving tribute-bearers. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal constructed a tunnel and canal by which the water 
 of the Greater Zab was brought to Calah. He records this fact in his 
 annals, and Sennacherib, who repaired the tunnel two centuries later, 
 set up therein a tablet with an inscription commemorating Asshur- 
 izir-pal as its author. 
 
 Asshur-izir-pal's favorite capital was Calah, although he beautified 
 Asshur, the old capital, and the rising city of Nineveh. The continual 
 spread of the Assyrian dominion northward necessitated the removal 
 of the capital to a more central point than Asshur ; and for that reason 
 Calah, which was forty miles further north, on the opposite or east side 
 of the Tigris, was selected for the seat of government. Calah, located 
 in the fertile and healthy region of Adiabene, near the junction of the 
 greater Zab with the Tigris, was strongly protected by nature, being 
 defended on either side by a deep river. The new capital rapidly grew 
 to greatness, and palace after palace rose on its high platform, pro^ 
 fusely embellished with carved woodwork, gilding, painting, sculpture 
 and enamel; while stone lions, sphinxes, obelisks, shrines and temple- 
 towers also adorned the scene. The lofty ziggurat attached to the 
 temple of Nin stood forth preeminent amid the varied mass of royal 
 palaces and sacred temples, giving unity to the whole. 
 
 After his glorious reign of twenty-five years, Asshur-izir-pal who 
 styled himself " The conqueror 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 " 
 died at no advanced age, and was succeeded on the throne by his son, 
 SHALMANESEK II. 
 
 Shalmaneser II. inherited the warlike spirit and genius of his illus- 
 trious father ; and during his reign of thirty-five years, from B. C. 858 
 to B. C. 823, he conducted twenty-three military expeditions in person, 
 and entrusted four others to a favorite general. His twenty-three
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIA^ EMPIRE. 
 
 163 
 
 expeditions were undertaken during the first twenty-seven years of 
 his reign, and were directed against the territories of neighboring peo- 
 ples. Babylonia, Chaldasa, Media, the Zimri, Armenia, Upper Mesopo- 
 tamia, the country of the Upper Tigris, the Hittites, the Patena, the 
 Tibareni, the Hamathites, and the Syrians of Damascus, were attacked 
 by the armies of Shalmaneser II., their hosts defeated, their cities be- 
 sieged and taken, their kings reduced to submission and forced to pay 
 tribute. 
 
 Shalmaneser II. took tribute from the Phoanician cities of Tyre, 
 Sidon and Byblus ; from the Tsukhi, or Shuhites ; from the people of 
 Muzr, or Musr; from the Bartsu, or Partsu (believed to be the Per- 
 sians), and from the Israelites. He thus traversed the entire region 
 from the Persian Gulf on the south to the Niphates mountains on 
 the north, and from the Zagros range on the east to the Mediterranean 
 sea on the west. Over this whole vast domain he made his power felt, 
 while his influence extended beyond its limits, where the nations feared 
 and respected him and willingly sought his favor by placing them- 
 selves under his protection. In the closing years of his reign he 
 deputed the command of his armies to his favorite general, Dayan- 
 Asshur, in whom he reposed great confidence. Dayan-Asshur held 
 an important office in the fifth year of Shalmaneser's reign ; and in the 
 twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, thirtieth and thirty-first he was sent 
 with an army against the Armenians, the rebellious Patena, and the 
 people of the region included in modern Kurdistan. In his twenty- 
 ninth year the king himself led an expedition into Khirki, the 
 Niphates district, 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." 
 
 Shalmaneser's most interesting campaigns are those of the sixth, 
 eighth, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, eighteenth and twenty-first years of 
 his reign. Two of these campaigns were directed against Babylonia, 
 three against Ben-hadad of Damascus, and two against Khazail 
 (Hazael) of Damascus. 
 
 In his eighth year, while Babylonia was rent by a civil war between 
 King Merodach-sum-adin and his younger brother, Merodach-bel-usati, 
 Shalmaneser II. invaded that kingdom ostensibly to aid its legitimate 
 sovereign, but really for his own aggrandizement. He at once seized 
 several Babylonian towns, and in the following year he defeated and 
 killed the pretender to the Babylonian crown, entered Babylon and 
 invaded Chaldsea, the country along the Persian Gulf, then independent 
 of Babylon, and compelled its kings to become his tributaries. He 
 informs us in his inscriptions that " the power of his army struck 
 terror as far as the sea." 
 
 His 
 
 Twenty- 
 three Ex- 
 peditions 
 and Con- 
 quests. 
 
 His Ex- 
 tensive 
 
 Con- 
 quests. 
 
 Cam- 
 paigns 
 against 
 Baby- 
 lonia and 
 Damas- 
 cus. 
 
 Success- 
 ful Inva- 
 sion of 
 Baby- 
 lonia
 
 164* 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Defeat of 
 thePa- 
 
 tena, Hit- 
 tites, Da- 
 mascus 
 and the 
 Phoeni- 
 cians. 
 
 Defeat of 
 Damas- 
 cus, Ha- 
 math and 
 the Hit- 
 tites. 
 
 Great 
 
 Victory 
 
 over King 
 
 Hazael of 
 
 Damas- 
 
 Tribute 
 
 from 
 
 Jehu, 
 
 King of 
 
 Israel. 
 
 The wars of Shalmaneser II. in Southern Syria began in the ninth 
 year of his reign. He had extended his dominion in Northern Syria 
 over the Patena and most of the Northern Hittites. Alarmed at the 
 rapid growth of the Assyrian power, Ben-hadad, King of Damascus ; 
 Tsakhulena, King of Hamath ; Ahab, King of Israel ; the kings of the 
 Southern Hittites ; the kings of the Phoenician cities upon the coast, and 
 others, formed an alliance, but their combined forces were defeated by 
 the King of Assyria, with the loss of twenty thousand men killed in 
 battle, while many chariots and much war material fell into the hands 
 of the victorious Assyrians. 
 
 Five years later, in the eleventh year of his reign, Shalmaneser II. 
 again took the field against Hamath and the Southern Hittites. Sud- 
 denly invading their territories, he took many towns without resistance ; 
 but Ben-hadad of Damascus joined the Hittites, and though the allies 
 were again defeated by the Assyrian monarch, the latter did not suc- 
 ceed in extending his sway over Southern Syria. Three years after- 
 ward, Shalmaneser II. again attempted the conquest of Southern Syria. 
 Collecting his people " in multitudes that were not to be counted," he 
 crossed the Euphrates with an army of more than a hundred thousand 
 men and marched southwards. This time he gained a decisive victory 
 over the allied armies of Ben-hadad of Damascus, the Hamathites and 
 the Hittites, who fled in dismay, losing many chariots and implements 
 of war. The coalition at once fell to pieces, and the Hamathites and 
 Hittites submitted to the conqueror's yoke, Damascus being deserted 
 by her allies. 
 
 The next year Shalmaneser II. advanced against the Syrians of 
 Damascus, who were strongly posted in the Anti-Lebanon fastnesses, 
 and were under the leadership of their new king, Hazael, who had treach- 
 erously murdered Ben-hadad. Hazael raised an immense army, includ- 
 ing over eleven hundred chariots, and took a strong position in the 
 mountain range dividing the kingdoms of Damascus and Hamath, where 
 he was attacked and utterly defeated by the Assyrian king, losing six- 
 teen thousand men, eleven hundred and twenty-one chariots, a large 
 amount of war material and his camp. This blow completely broke 
 the power of Damascus, and three years later Hazael made no resist- 
 ance when Shalmaneser II. again invaded Syria and took and plundered 
 his towns. In his inscription ShalmaiiCoer II. says : " I went to the 
 towns of Hazael of Damascus and took part of his provisions." He 
 next says : " I received the tributes of Tyre, Sidon and Byblus." Jehu, 
 King of Israel " son of Omri," as he b called in the Assyrian inscrip- 
 tion sent a quantity of gold and silver, in bullion and manufactured 
 articles, as tributes to the Assyrian monarch. Sculptures at Nimrud 
 reoresent the Israelitish ambassadors presenting this tribute to Shal-
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. !6 
 
 maneser II., the articles appearing carried in the hands or on the 
 shoulders of the envoys. 
 
 Like his distinguished father, Shalmaneser II. had great taste for Salama- 
 architecture and the other arts. He completed the ziggurat of the piaceat 
 great temple of Nin at Calah, which his father had commenced. He Calah. 
 also built a more splendid palace than the one erected by his father on 
 the same lofty platform of that city, about one hundred and fifty yards 
 from the former palace. This is known as the " Central Palace" of the 
 Nimrud platform, and was discovered by Mr. Layard on his first 
 expedition. The ruined condition of this magnificent edifice rendered 
 it impossible for its modern discoverer to obtain a clear idea of its orna- 
 mentation. Two massive winged man-headed bulls partially destroyed, 
 in the grand portals of this great structure, and the sculptured frag- 
 ments of bas-reliefs, which must have adorned its walls, illustrate its 
 points of similarity to Asshur-izir-pal's great edifice. The sculptures 
 of Shalmaneser's palace were on a grander scale and more mythological 
 than those of his father's building. 
 
 A famous monument of Shalmaneser II. is an obelisk in black mar- Black 
 ble, in shape and general arrangement resembling that of his father g^ma^ 
 already described, but of a handsomer and better material. This obe- neser II. 
 lisk was discovered lying prostrate under the rubbish covering Shalman- 
 eser's palace. It contained bas-reliefs in twenty compartments, five on 
 each of its four sides, the space about them being covered with minute 
 cuneiform inscriptions ; the whole in an excellent state of preservation. 
 It is somewhat smaller than Asshur-izir-pal's obelisk, being only seven 
 feet high and twenty-two inches on its broad face. Its proportions 
 make it more solid-looking and taper less than the former obelisk. The 
 bas-reliefs represent Shalmaneser II., accompanied by his vizier and 
 other chief officers, receiving tribute from five nations, whose envoys 
 are ushered into the royal presence by officials of the court, and pros- 
 trate themselves at the feet of the Great King before they present their 
 offerings. The gifts are mostly articles of gold, silver, copper bars 
 and cubes, goblets, elephants' tusks, tissues, etc., and are carried in 
 the hand; but there are also animals, such as horses, camels, monkeys 
 and baboons of various types, stags, lions, wild bulls, antelopes, and 
 the rhinoceros and elephant. As already related, the Israelites are 
 one of the nations offering tribute. The others will now be noticed. 
 The people of Kirzan, a country adjoining Armenia, present gold, 
 silver, copper, horses and camels, and occupy the four highest com- 
 partments with nine envoys. The Muzri, or people of Muzr, or 
 Musr, as we have observed, almost in the same region, bring various 
 wild animals and fill the four central compartments with six envoys. 
 The Tsukhi, or Shuhites, from the Euphrates, are represented by thir-
 
 166 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 Capitals. 
 
 Rebellion 
 of the 
 Crown- 
 Prince. 
 
 Shamas- 
 Vul II. 
 
 Assyria's 
 Domin- 
 ions. 
 
 teen envoys, bringing two lions, a stag and various precious objects, 
 such as metal bars, elephant tusks, and shawls or tissues ; and are given 
 four compartments below the Muzri. The Patena, from the Orontes, 
 fill three of the lowest compartments, with a train of twelve envoys 
 bearing gifts similar to those of the Israelites. A stele of Shalmaneser 
 II., closely resembling those of his father, was brought to the British 
 Museum from Kurkh in 1863. 
 
 Calah, where he and his father built their great palaces, was the 
 usual capital of Shalmaneser II. ; but he sometimes held his court in 
 the new city of Nineveh, and also in the old capital, Asshur. At the 
 latter place he left a monument in the shape of a stone statue represent- 
 ing a king seated, which was found by Mr. Layard in a mutilated con- 
 dition. In his later years Shalmaneser II. was troubled by a dangerous 
 rebellion of his eldest son, the heir apparent to the crown, Asshur-danin- 
 pal. The rebellious prince had a powerful popular support, and was 
 proclaimed king at Asshur, at Arbela in the Zab region, at Amidi on 
 the Upper Tigris, at Tel-Apni near the site of Orfa, and in more than 
 a score of other fortified places. The aged monarch called his second 
 son, Shamas- Vul, to the command of the loyal troops, and this prince 
 reduced the rebellious cities in succession and soon completely crushed 
 the revolt. Asshur-danin-pal, the rebellious crown-prince, forfeited 
 his claims to the crown by this treason, and is supposed to have been 
 put to death; while his younger brother and conqueror, Shamas- Vul, 
 became the heir to his father's kingdom, to which he shortly afterwards 
 succeeded, upon Shalmaneser's death, in B. C. 823, after an active and 
 glorious reign of thirty-five years. 
 
 SHAMUS-VUL II. reigned thirteen years, from B. C. 823 to B. C. 810. 
 We will now briefly notice the extent of the Assyrian dominion at his 
 accession. Since the time of Tiglath-Pileser I. the limits of the As- 
 syrian Empire had been extended in different directions, but mainly 
 toward the west and the north-west. In this direction the Assyrian 
 limits had been pushed beyond the Euphrates over all Northern Syria, 
 over Phoenicia, Hamath, and Samaria, or the Israelite kingdom. These 
 countries were not, however, reduced to the condition of provinces ; they 
 still remained under their own native kings, and retained their admin- 
 istration and laws; but they were virtually subject to Assyria, as they 
 acknowledged the suzerainty of the Assyrian monarch, paid him an 
 annual tribute, and allowed his armies a free passage through their ter- 
 ritories. On the west the Assyrian Empire extended to the Mediter- 
 ranean, from the Gulf of Iskanderun to Cape Carmel or to Joppa. 
 The northwestern boundary was the Taurus mountain range beyond 
 Amanus, the region between the two belonging to the Tibareni 
 (Tubal), who had submitted as tributaries. The northern limits were
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 167 
 
 the Niphates range " the high grounds over the affluents of the Ti- 
 gris and the Euphrates " where Shalmaneser II. set up " an image of 
 his majesty." The eastern frontier was in the central Zagros region, 
 the tract between the Lower Zab and Holwan, then called Hupuska. 
 On the south the Assyrian kingdom was still bounded by the territories 
 of the Babylonians and Chaldaeans, who yet remained unconquered. 
 
 These conquests and changes, which converted Assyria's former ene- 
 mies into subjects, brought the empire into contact with new enemies 
 on her western, northern and eastern sides. In the west the Assyrians 
 came in collision with the Syrians of Damascus, and with the king- 
 dom of Judah, through their tributary, Samaria, or Israel. In the 
 north-west they found new foes in the Qui'n, or Coans, who occupied 
 the farther side of Amanus, near the Tibareni, in a portion of what was 
 subsequently called Cilicia, and the Cilicians also, who are now first 
 mentioned. The Moschi had migrated from this section. On the 
 north the Armenians were at this time Assyria's only neighbors. To- 
 ward the east were the Mannai, or Minni, about Lake Urumiyeh; the 
 Kharkhar, in the Van region and in North-western Kurdistan; the 
 Bartsu, or Persians, then in South-eastern Armenia; the Mada, or 
 Medes, east of the Zagros ; and the Tsimri, or Zimri, in Upper Luris- 
 tan. These new neighbors and enemies were all weak, and no power- 
 fully-organized monarchy at this time existed to contest with Assyria 
 the dominion of Western Asia. The Medes and Persians, afterwards 
 so celebrated as powerful nations, at this period were no more impor- 
 tant than the other insignificant tribes and nations upon the Assyrian 
 borders. Neither of these kindred Aryan peoples had yet a capital 
 city, neither was united under one sovereign, but each was divided into 
 many tribes, headed by chiefs, and dispersed in scattered and defence- 
 less towns and villages. They were thus in the same condition as the 
 Nai'ri, the Qummukh, the Patena, the Hittites and other frontier na- 
 tionalities whose comparative weakness Assyria demonstrated to the 
 world in a long course of wars in which she had uniformly triumphed 
 over her foes. 
 
 Like his father, Shalmaneser II., Shamas-Vul II. resided principally 
 at Calah, where he, like his father and grandfather, set up an obelisk, 
 or rather a stele, to commemorate his exploits. This monument, cov- 
 ered on three sides with an inscription in the hieratic, or cursive char- 
 acter, contains an opening invocation to the god Nin, conceived in the 
 usual terms, the king's genealogy and titles, an account of Asshur- 
 danin-pal's rebellion and its suppression, and Shamas-Vul's own an- 
 nals for the first four years of his reign. These inform us that he 
 exhibited the same active and energetic spirit as his father and grand- 
 father, conducting campaigns against the Nai'ri on the north, Media 
 
 Assyria's 
 NewFoes. 
 
 Stele of 
 Shamas- 
 Vul II. 
 
 His Con- 
 quests.
 
 168 
 
 CHAUXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Success- 
 ful Cam- 
 paign in 
 Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Descrip- 
 tion of the 
 Stele of 
 
 Shamas- 
 VulII. 
 
 Vul-lush 
 III. 
 
 His 
 
 Military 
 Expedi- 
 tions. 
 
 Conquest 
 of Damas- 
 cus, Tyre, 
 
 Sidon, 
 Israel, 
 Edom, 
 Philistia, 
 the Nairi, 
 Minni, 
 Media, 
 Persiaand 
 Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 and Arazias on the east, and Babylonia on the south. The people of 
 Hupuska, the Minni, and the Bartsu, or Persians, paid him tribute. 
 
 The fourth campaign of Shamas-Vul II. was against Babylonia, 
 which country he entered from the north-east. He took a strongly- 
 fortified position of the Babylonians after a vigorous siege, eighteen 
 thousand of the garrison being slain, and three thousand made prison- 
 ers, while the city was plundered and burned, and the Assyrian mon- 
 arch went in hot pursuit of the flying foe. Shamas-Vul II. next de- 
 feated the Babylonian king, Merodach-belatzu-ikbi, at the head of an 
 allied host of Babylonians, Aramaeans, or Syrians, and Zimri, on the 
 river Daban ; the allies losing five thousand killed, two thousand made 
 prisoners, one hundred chariots, two hundred tents and the Babylonian 
 royal standard and pavilion. The annals of Shamas-Vul II. here 
 abruptly terminate ; but it appears from other circumstances that from 
 this time, for over half a century, Babylonia, which had for a long 
 time been a separate and independent kingdom, was reduced to the 
 condition of a tributary. 
 
 The stele of Shamas-Vul II. contains one allusion to a hunting ex- 
 ploit, stating that he killed several wild bulls at the foot of the Zagros, 
 while leading his expedition against Babylonia. His stele consists of 
 a single figure in relief, representing the king in his priestly dress, 
 wearing the sacred symbols round his neck, standing with his right 
 arm upraised, and enclosed in the usual arched frame. This figure 
 is somewhat larger than life, and is cut on a single solid stone, and 
 then set on a larger block serving for a pedestal. The figure closely 
 resembles that of Asshur-izir-pal, already described. 
 
 Shamas-Vul II., upon his death, in B. C. 810, was succeeded on the 
 Assyrian throne by his son, VUL-LUSH III., who reigned twenty-nine 
 years, from B. C. 810 to B. C. 781. The scanty memorials of this 
 king consist of two slabs found at Nimrud, of a short dedicatory in- 
 scription on duplicate statues of the god Nebo, brought from the same 
 place, of some brick inscriptions from the Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nin- 
 eveh, and of short notices of the regions in which he conducted cam- 
 paigns, contained in one copy of the Assyrian Canon. 
 
 Vul-lush III. was as warlike as any of his predecessors, and extended 
 the Assyrian dominion in every direction. He led seven expeditions 
 across the Zagros mountains into Media, two into the Van region, and 
 three into Syria. He says that in one of his Syrian expeditions he 
 reduced Damascus, whose kings had defied the repeated attacks of 
 Shalmaneser II. He counts as his tributaries in this region, besides 
 Damascus, the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and the countries 
 of Khumri, or Samaria ; Palestine, or Philistia ; and Hudum (Edom, or 
 Idumaea). On the north he received tokens of submission from the
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Nairi, the Minni, the Mada, or Medes, and the Bartsu, or Persians. 
 On the south he ruled Babylonia like a sovereign, received homage from 
 the Chaldseans, and in the great cities of Babylonia, Borsippa and 
 Cutha, or Tiggaba, he was permitted to sacrifice to the gods Bel, Nebo 
 and Nergal. In one place he styles himself " the king to whose son 
 Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon ; " 
 from which it has been inferred that he appointed his own son viceroy 
 of Babylon. 
 
 Thus, by the time of Vul-lush III., early in the eighth century be- Assyria's 
 fore Christ, Assyria was master of Babylonia in the south, and of Phil- Domin- 
 istia and Edom in the west. Her dominion thus skirted the Persian ions - 
 Gulf on the one hand and came into contact with Egypt on the other. 
 At the same time she received the submission of some of the Median 
 tribes on the east; and held Southern Armenia, from Lake Van to the 
 sources of the Tigris, on the north. She was in possession of all 
 Northern Syria, including Commagene and Amanus, and had tribu- 
 taries beyond that mountain range. She ruled supreme over the entire 
 Syrian coast from Issus to Gaza ; and her sway was acknowledged by 
 all the tribes and kingdoms between the Mediterranean coast and the 
 Syrian desert, such as the Phoenicians, the Hamathites, the Patena, the 
 Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, the Israelites, or Samarians, and 
 the Edomites, or Idumaeans. In the east she had subjugated nearly 
 the whole region of the Zagros, and had tributaries in the highlands 
 on the east side of that range. On the south she had either absorbed 
 Babylonia, or made her influence supreme in that kingdom. Although 
 she had not attained the highest pinnacle of her greatness until a cen- 
 tury later, she was already, as described by the Hebrew prophet Eze- 
 kiel, " a cedar of Lebanon," whose " height was exalted above all the 
 trees of the field ; and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches be- 
 came long," and " under his shadow dwelt great nations." 
 
 Vul-lush III. calls himself the " restorer of noble buildings which Works of 
 had gone to decay." On the Nimrud mound, between the north-west- * u ^sh 
 ern and south-western palaces, are chambers built by him, and on the 
 Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nineveh are the ruins of a palace erected by 
 him. The walls of the Nimrud chambers were plastered, and then 
 painted in fresco with patterns of winged bulls, zigzags, squares, cir- 
 cles, etc. The superstitious regard of the natives for the supposed 
 tomb of the prophet Jonah has thus far thwarted all efforts of Euro- 
 peans to explore the Nebbi-Yunus palace. 
 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered two rude statues of the god Nebo Statues of 
 in a temple at Nimrud dedicated to that deity by Vul-lush III., along 
 with four colossal statues of the same god, and two others resembling 
 those now in the British Museum. These statues display no artistic
 
 170 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Inscrip- 
 tions 
 Thereon. 
 
 Sammu- 
 ramit, or 
 
 Semira- 
 znis, Wife 
 
 of Vul- 
 lush III. 
 
 Obscure 
 Period. 
 
 Shalma- 
 
 neser III., 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 Dayan 
 III., and 
 Asshur- 
 
 lush. 
 
 The 
 Scrip- 
 tural Pul. 
 
 merit, as Assyrian sculptors were trammeled by precedent and con- 
 ventional rules in religious subjects, and in representations of kings 
 and nobles, being thus limited by law or custom to certain ancient forms 
 and modes of expression, which we see repeated with uniform monotony 
 through all the periods of Assyrian history. 
 
 These statues are interesting as containing inscriptions showing 
 that they were offered to Nebo by an officer who was governor of Calah, 
 Khamida (Amadiyeh) and three other places for the life of Vul-lush 
 III. and of his wife, Sammuramit, " that the god might lengthen the 
 monarch's life, prolong his days, increase his years, and give peace to 
 his house and people, and victory to his armies." 
 
 This Sammuramit, wife of Vul-lush III., has been identified as the 
 legendary Semiramis, whom the Greek historians represented as a 
 woman of masculine qualities, the mightiest queen that ever reigned, 
 and whose conquests rivaled or surpassed those of Cyrus the Great or 
 Alexander the Great. This Sammuramit, or Semiramis, the Babylo- 
 nian wife of Vul-lush III., gave that king his title to the Babylonian 
 dominions, and reigned jointly with him both in Babylonia and As- 
 syria. The exaggerated stories of this princess, as transmitted to 
 modern times through the accounts of Herodotus and Ctesias, have 
 been exploded in the present century; the renowned German histori- 
 ans, Heeren and Niebuhr, first pronouncing the story of her conquer- 
 ing career a myth, and patient explorers in the field of Assyrian 
 antiquity substituting for the shadowy marvel of Ctesias a very pro- 
 saic Assyrian queen, a very commonplace Babylonian princess, who 
 never really executed great works or performed great exploits. 
 
 With the death of Vul-lush III., in B. C. 781, ended the brilliant 
 Calah line of Assyrian sovereigns ; and for a period of almost forty 
 years Assyrian history is again involved in partial obscurity. The 
 Assyrian Canon informs us that three monarchs reigned during this 
 interval SHALMANESER III. from B. C. 781 to B. C. 771, ASSHUR- 
 DAYAN III. from B. C. 771 to B. C. 753, and ASSHUR-LTTSH from 
 B. C. 753 to B. C. 745. During this short period Assyrian conquests 
 ceased, Assyrian glory for the time had passed away, and a general 
 decline seems to have set in. None of these three kings left any im- 
 portant buildings, memorials or monumental records. The onward 
 march of this great empire, which remained unchecked for over a cen- 
 tury, was thus brought to a sudden halt. 
 
 At this point there is an apparent contradiction between the native 
 Assyrian records and the incidental allusions to their history as found 
 in the Second Book of Kings. The Scriptural 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
 
 THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 171 
 
 him to confirm the kingdom in his hand " is not mentioned in the As- 
 syrian inscriptions, and is not named in the Assyrian Canon. The 
 Scripture records would make Pul the immediate predecessor of Tig- 
 lath-Pileser II. ; as his expedition against Menahem is followed, at 
 most, thirty-two years later, by an expedition by Tiglath-Pileser II. 
 against Pekah, King of Israel. Berosus represented P.ul as a Chal- 
 dsean king, whom Polyhistor calls Pulus, and who is believed to be the 
 Porus mentioned in the Canon of Ptolemy. 
 
 During this interval of Assyrian darkness and decay, under the first 
 three successors of Vul-lush III., the frontier kingdoms began to assert 
 their power and independence. Babylon, which had remained under 
 Assyrian sway since its conquest by Shamas-Vul II., the father and 
 immediate predecessor of Vul-lush III., reestablished its independence 
 under Nabonassar in B. C. 747, from which point thereafter known 
 as the Era of Nabonassar the Babylonians thereafter reckoned time. 
 Enterprising kings of Israel, such as Jeroboam II. and Menahem, also 
 cast off the Assyrian yoke and extended their own dominions, as did 
 the tribes of Armenia and the Zagros region. The reign of Asshur- 
 dayan III. was disturbed by three formidable rebellions in the heart of 
 Assyria itself one at the city of Libzu, another at Arpakha, the chief 
 town of Arrapachitis, and a third at Gozan, the chief city of Gauza- 
 nitis, or Mygdonia. The inscriptions do not inform us of the results 
 of these revolts, but the degeneracy of the military spirit, and the 
 voluptuous and luxurious disposition of the kings, give ground for 
 the belief that the attempts made to subdue the rebels were failures. 
 Asshur-dayan III. and Asshur-lush spent their reigns mostly in inac- 
 tion and inglorious ease at their rich and luxurious capitals. At the 
 close of this period of darkness and decline, Calah, the second city of 
 the kingdom, revolted, and thus inaugurated the dynastic and political 
 revolution which ushered in the brilliant period of the New or Lower 
 Assyrian Empire, founded by the great Tiglath-Pileser II. 
 
 It has been supposed that it was during this period of general na- 
 tional weakness and decay, when an unwarlike sovereign was reveling 
 in inglorious ease amid the luxuries and refinements of Nineveh, and 
 when the Ninevites had abandoned themselves to vicious indulgences, 
 that they were suddenly startled by a strange voice in their streets 
 uttering the solemn warning: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 
 overthrown ! " A strange wild man clad in a rude garment of skin a 
 traveler unknown to the inhabitants, pale, emaciated, weary pro- 
 claimed in every quarter of the great and luxurious city : " Yet forty 
 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown ! " Coming as this cry did, 
 when the glory of Assyria had departed, and when it had to defend its 
 own existence against the foes i!: had subdued in the days of its former 
 
 Tempo- 
 rary 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Independ- 
 ence. 
 
 Era of 
 Nabonas- 
 sar 
 
 Israel's 
 Tempo- 
 rary Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Rebell- 
 ions in 
 Assyria. 
 
 Dynastic 
 Revolu- 
 tion at 
 Calah. 
 
 The 
 Prophet 
 Jonah at 
 Nineveh.
 
 CHALDJtiA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 prosperity, the people were seized with consternation and alarm. This 
 dismay invaded the royal palace, and his frightened servants " came 
 and told the King of Nineveh," who then sat on his throne in the great 
 audience-chamber, surrounded by all the wealth, luxury, pomp and mag- 
 nificence of his court. The monarch at once " arose from his throne, 
 and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth 
 and ashes." After having an edict framed, he " caused it to be pro- 
 claimed and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and 
 his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any- 
 thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let man and beast 
 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." The fast thus commanded by royal authority was at once 
 proclaimed, and the Ninevites, fearing the Divine wrath, clothed them- 
 selves in sackcloth "from the greatest of them even to the least of 
 them." From joy and merriment, from revelry and feasting, the great 
 city turned to lamentation and mourning. The people abandoned 
 their vices and humbled themselves; they "turned from their evil way," 
 and by a sincere repentance of their past sins they sought to avert their 
 threatened doom. The haggard and travel-stained stranger who had 
 alarmed the inhabitants of this great capital and metropolis to repent- 
 ance, by announcing to them their threatened destruction, was the 
 Jewish prophet Jonah. He sat in vain outside the eastern limits of 
 the city, waiting to behold the destruction which he expected that the 
 Lord Jehovah would visit upon the " great city," which then is said to 
 have had "six score thousand persons that could not discern between 
 their right hand and their left." The expected doom was not inflicted 
 in forty days, and Nineveh was not overthrown until more than a cen- 
 tury later. 
 
 SECTION VI. NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Tiglath- WITH TIGLATH-PILJGSEB. II., who became King of Assyria in B. C. 
 745, began the New or Lower Assyrian Empire (B. C. 745-625) the 
 third and last, and the most brilliant period of Assyrian history. Tig- 
 lath-Pileser II. was thus the restorer of Assyrian greatness. The cir- 
 cumstances of his accession are unknown to us, but he was the founder 
 of a new dynasty, and Rawlinson thinks he was a usurper, and places 
 no reliance upon the story of Bion and Polyhistor that this monarch 
 rose from the humble station of a vine-dresser who had been employed 
 in keeping in order the king's gardens. In his inscriptions Tiglath- 
 Pileser II. is repeatedly represented as speaking of " the kings his
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 173 
 
 fathers," and as calling the royal palaces at Calah " the palaces of 
 his fathers," but he never gives the name of his actual father in any 
 record that has come to the eye of modern archaeologists and antiqua- 
 rians. This circumstance gives ground for the conclusion that he 
 owed his possession of the crown, not to the legitimate title of heredi- 
 tary succession, but to the fortunes of a successful revolution which 
 displaced the preceding dynasty. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser II. undertook to effect the restoration of the As- His Wars 
 Syrian Empire by a series of wars upon his different frontiers, seek- 
 ing by his unwearied activity and tireless energy to recover the losses 
 occasioned by the imbecility of his predecessors. The chronological 
 order of these wars, which was previously unknown, is now definitely 
 determined by the Assyrian Canon. Among his many military expe- 
 ditions only those undertaken into Babylonia and Syria are of any con- 
 sequence. The expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser II. against Babylon 
 occurred in the first and fifteenth years of his reign, B. C. 745 and 731. 
 As soon as he was firmly seated upon his throne he led an army against His First 
 Babylon, over which, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, Nabonassar *? ^f s ^ on 
 then reigned, and against the other petty Chaldaean princes, among lonia. 
 whom was Merodach-Baladan, who reigned in his father's city of Bit- 
 Yakin. After attacking and defeating several of these princes, and 
 taking the towns of Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf) and Sippara, or 
 Sepharvaim, and other places in Chaldsea, Tiglath-Pileser II. compelled 
 Merodach-Baladan to acknowledge him as suzerain and agree to pay 
 an annual tribute, whereupon the Assyrian monarch assumed the title 
 of " King of Babylon " and offered sacrifice to the Babylonian gods in 
 all the chief cities (B. C. 729). 
 
 The first Syrian war of Tiglath-Pileser II. began in the third His War 
 year of his reign (B. C. 743), and lasted five years. During its prog- Syria, 
 ress he conquered Damascus, which had recovered its independence Damascus 
 and was governed by Rezin. He also subdued Syria, where Men- Israel. 
 ahem, Pul's old foe, was still reigning. He likewise reduced Tyre, 
 whose reigning sovereign bore the common name of Hiram. The 
 Assyrian monarch also subjected Hamath, Gebal and the Arabs bor- 
 dering upon Egypt, who were ruled by a queen named Khabiba. He 
 also defeated a large army under Azariah, or Uzziah, King of Judah, 
 but failed to reduce him to submission. Tiglath-Pileser II. did not 
 conquer Judaea, Idumasa, Philistia, Phoenicia, or the tribes of the 
 Hauran, in his first war, and in B. C. 734 he renewed the struggle by 
 an attack on Samaria, whose king at that time was Pekah, 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," thus " lightly afflicting the land of Zebulun
 
 174 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 
 Conquest 
 of Syria, 
 Damas- 
 cus and 
 Israel. 
 
 His 
 
 Conquest 
 
 of Arabs, 
 
 Philis- 
 
 tines, 
 
 nicians, 
 
 Syrians, 
 
 Judah 
 
 and 
 Israel. 
 
 Tyre and! 
 Israel 
 Again 
 
 Subdued. 
 
 Works at 
 
 Calah. 
 
 and the land of Naphtali," or the more northern part of the Holy 
 Land, about Lake Merom, and thence to the Sea of Gennesareth. 
 
 Then followed the most important of the Syrian wars of Tiglath- 
 Pileser II. The common danger united Pekah, King of Samaria, and 
 Rezin, King of Damascus, in a close alliance; and when Ahaz, King 
 of Judah, refused to unite with them they invaded his kingdom and 
 attempted to dethrone him and put " the son of Tabeal " in his place. 
 Ahaz applied to the King of Assyria for help, offering to be his " ser- 
 vant " his vassal and tributary if he came to his relief. Tiglath- 
 Pileser II. gladly came to the rescue of Ahaz, and with a large army 
 he entered Syria, defeated Rezin and besieged him in Damascus 
 for two years, when he was taken captive and slain. The Assyrian 
 king then invaded Samaria; and the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and 
 the half -tribe of Manasseh, who occupied the provinces east of the 
 Jordan, were carried captive to Assyria and colonized in Upper Meso- 
 potamia, on the affluents of the Bilikh and the Khabour, from about 
 Harran to Nisibis. Some cities on the west bank of the Jordan, in 
 the territory of Issachar, but belonging to Manasseh among which 
 were Megiddo, in the plain of Esdraelon, and Dur, or Dor, upon the 
 coast were also seized and occupied by the conquering Assyrians; 
 and Assyrian governors were placed over Dur and the other leading 
 cities of Southern Syria. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser II. then marched southward and subdued the Philis- 
 tines and the Arab tribes of the Sinaitic peninsula as far as the bor- 
 ders of Egypt. He deposed the native queen of these Arabs, and put 
 an Assyrian governor in her place. Returning to Damascus, he there 
 received the submission of the neighboring states and tribes ; and before 
 he left Syria he received submission and tribute from Ahaz, King of 
 Judah; Mit'enna, King of Tyre; Pekah, King of Samaria; Khanun, 
 King of Gaza ; Mitinti, King of Ascalon ; and from the Moabites, the 
 Ammonites, the people of Arvad, or Aradus, and the Idumaeans. Thus 
 Tiglath-Pileser II. fully reestablished the Assyrian power in Syria, 
 and restored to his empire the territory from the Mediterranean on the 
 west to the Syrian desert on the east, and from Mount Amanus on the 
 north to the Red Sea and the frontiers of Egypt on the south. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser afterward sent another expedition into Syria, to 
 quell the disorders occasioned by the revolt of Mit'enna, King of 
 Tyre, and the assassination of Pekah, King of Israel, by Hoshea. 
 The Tyrian king quickly submitted, and Hoshea agreed to govern his 
 kingdom only as an Assyrian province; whereupon the Assyrian army 
 retired beyond the Euphrates. 
 
 Calah was the chosen residence of Tiglath-Pileser II. Here he 
 repaired and adorned the palace of Shalmaneser II, whose ruins are
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. ^5 
 
 now in the center of the Nimrud mound. Here he also erected a new 
 edifice, the most splendid of his structures. The sculptures which 
 embellished Shalmaneser's palace were afterwards used by Esar-had- 
 don to adorn his own palace. The new palace which Tiglath-Pileser 
 II. built was afterward ruined by some invader, and then built upon 
 by the last Assyrian king. The excavations of this place by Messrs. 
 Layard and Loftus have revealed the ground-plan of the edifice, show- 
 ing its arrangements of courts and halls and chambers, and the sculp- 
 tures which ornamented the walls, representing animal forms, such as 
 camels, oxen, sheep, goats, etc. 
 
 The Assj'rian Canon gives Tiglath-Pileser II. a reign of eighteen Shalma- 
 years, from B. C. 745 to B. C. 727. He was succeeded by SHALMAN- 
 ESER IV. It is not known whether this monarch was related to his 
 predecessor or not, but he is supposed to have been his son. Shal- 
 maneser IV. reigned only between five and six years (B. C. 727722). 
 Soon after he became king he terrified Hoshea, King of Judah, into a 
 renewal of his sub mission, so that " Hoshea became his servant and gave 
 him presents," or " rendered him tribute." The arrears of tribute 
 were rendered and the homage of the vassal king to his lord were paid. 
 But soon afterward Hoshea, disregarding his engagements, was seek- His Wars 
 ing the alliance of the King of Egypt. Says the Second Book of j u dahand 
 Kings : "And the King of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea ; for he Israel, 
 had sent messengers to So, King of Egypt, and brought no present to 
 the King of Assyria, as he had done year by year." The native Pha- 
 raohs of Egypt had been friendly to Assyria, but the Ethiopian dy- 
 nasty which had recently conquered Egypt was the natural foe of the 
 Assyrians, and gladly accepted the proposals of Hoshea for an alli- 
 ance against Shalmaneser IV. Hoshea then revolted against the As- 
 syrian monarch, withheld his tribute and declared his independence. 
 Shalmaneser at once invaded Judah a second time, and seized, bound 
 and imprisoned Hoshea. A year or two later Shalmaneser led a third 
 expedition into Syria and " came up throughout all the land," and laid 
 siege to Samaria, B. C. 724. But the siege lasted two years, on ac- Siege of 
 count of the heroic resistance of the inhabitants, aided by the Egyp- Samaria - 
 tians ; and the city was only taken after the reign of Shalmaneser IV. 
 had been ended by a successful revolution. 
 
 While engaged in the siege of Samaria, Shalmaneser IV. was like- Wars 
 wise prosecuting hostilities against the Phoenician cities, which had pj^j. 
 also revolted against Assyria after the death of Tiglath-Pileser II. cia. 
 Shalmaneser quickly overran Phoenicia in the first year of his reign, 
 and forced all the revolted cities to submit to the Assyrian yoke. In- 
 sular Tyre soon again revolted ; whereupon Shalmaneser reentered 
 Phoenicia, and collecting a fleet from the other Phoenician cities, Sidon,
 
 176 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Siege of 
 Tyre. 
 
 Sargon's 
 Usurpa- 
 tion. 
 
 His Wars. 
 
 Invasion 
 of 
 
 Susiana 
 and Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 Samaria. 
 
 Palae-Tyrus and Akko, he began the siege of Tyre. His sixty ves- 
 sels were manned by eight hundred Phoenician rowers, cooperating with 
 a smaller number of unskilled Assyrians. Shalmaneser's large fleet, 
 however, was easily routed and dispersed, with the loss of five hundred 
 prisoners, by. a Tyrian fleet of only twelve vessels manned by skillful 
 seamen. Shalmaneser thereupon abandoned active operations against 
 the devoted city, but left a body of troops on the main-land to cut off 
 the supplies of water which the Tyrians were in the habit of drawing 
 from the river Litany, and from the aqueducts which conducted the 
 water from springs in the mountains. The Tyrians heroically held 
 out against this pressure for five years, using rain-water, which they 
 collected in reservoirs, to quench their thirst. It is not known whether 
 they submitted, or whether the siege was abandoned, as the quotation 
 from Menander, our only authority on this point, here breaks off ab- 
 ruptly. 
 
 Before either of the two great military enterprises of his reign were 
 concluded, Shalmaneser IV. was hurled from his throne by a successful 
 revolution, which put the usurper SARGON in his place. The monu- 
 ments furnish us no knowledge of the circumstances concerning this 
 usurpation, beyond the mere absence of Shalmaneser in Syria ; but it 
 is believed that discontent, caused by the distress in consequence of the 
 king's long absence from the capital of his empire, and by his failure 
 to speedily reduce Samaria and Tyre, encouraged Sargon in his usur- 
 pation. The usurper's station must previously have been obscure, or, 
 at least, mediocre, as no inscription can be found in which he glories in 
 his ancestry, or even names his father, as was the custom with the legit- 
 imate heirs and successors of Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs, but 
 he only alludes to the Assyrian kings, in a general way, as his ances- 
 tors. Sargon, or Sargina, means " the firm " or " well-established 
 king." 
 
 Sargon determined to confirm his doubtful title to the throne by the 
 prestige of military success, and at once began a series of warlike expe- 
 ditions. He conducted successive wars in Susiana, in Syria on the 
 borders of Egypt, in the tract beyond'Amanus, in Melitene and South- 
 ern Armenia, in Media and in Chaldaea. His expeditions occupied the 
 whole of the first fifteen years of his reign. Immediately upon his 
 accession he invaded Susiana and defeated its king, Humbanigas, and 
 Merodach-Baladan, the old enemy of Tiglath-Pileser II., who had re- 
 volted and made himself King of Babylonia. Though an important 
 victory was thus gained, and many captives taken and transported to 
 the country of the Hittites, the Susianian and Babylonian kings were 
 not fully reduced to subjection. In the same year, B. C. 722, Samaria 
 surrendered to Sargon's generals, after its two years' siege begun by
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 177 
 
 Shalmaneser IV. Sargon punished the devoted city by deposing its 
 native king and placing an Assyrian governor over it instead, and by 
 carrying into slavery 27,280 of its inhabitants. On those who re- 
 mained he re-imposed the rate of tribute to which the city had been 
 subjected before its revolt. The next year, B. C. 721, Sargon was 
 obliged to lead an expedition into Syria to quell a formidable revolt. 
 The usurper, Yahu-bid, or Ilu-bid, King of Hamath, had headed a 
 rebellion, in which the cities of Arpad, Zimira, Damascus and Samaria 
 had participated; but the allied rebels were defeated by Sargon at 
 Karkar, or Gargar, Yahu-bid and the other revolted leaders being taken 
 prisoners and put to death. 
 
 Having crushed this revolt in Syria, Sargon marched southward 
 against the Egyptians, who had extended their dominion over a part 
 of Philistia. At Rapikh, on the Mediterranean coast, half-way be- 
 tween Gaza and Wady-el-Arish, or " River of Egypt " the Raphia 
 of the Greeks and Romans, and the modern Refah the united forces 
 of the Philistines under Khanun, King of Gaza, and those of Sabaco, 
 or Shabak, the Ethiopian King of Egypt, were defeated by the As- 
 syrian monarch ; Khanun being made prisoner, and Shabak seeking 
 safety in flight, B. C. ^20. Khanun was deprived of his crown and 
 carried a captive to Assj'ria by his conqueror. The battle of Raphia 
 is important as being the beginning of Egypt's subjection to the suc- 
 cessive dominion of Asiatic and European nations Assyrians, Babylo- 
 nians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens and Turks. 
 
 After conducting unimportant wars toward the north and north- 
 east, Sargon led another expedition toward the south-west in B. C. 
 715, five years after his victory at Raphia. He first chastised the 
 Arab tribes who had made plundering raids into Syria, during which 
 " he subdued the uncultivated plains of the remote Arabia, which had 
 never before given tribute to Assyria," subjected the Thamudites and 
 other Arab tribes, and settled a certain number of them in Samaria. 
 The surrounding princes sought the conqueror's favor by sending him 
 embassies and offering to become Assyrian tributaries. The King 
 of Egypt, as well as It-hamar, King of the Sabaeans, and Tsamsi, the 
 Arab queen, thus became vassals to Sargon and sent him presents. 
 
 Four years afterward, B. C. 711, Sargon conducted a third expe- 
 dition into this region to punish Azuri, King of Ashdod, who had re- 
 volted against the Assyrian monarch, withheld his tribute and incited 
 rebellion among the neighboring princes. Sargon deposed Azuri and 
 put his brother Akhimit on the throne of Ashdod in his stead; but the 
 people of this Philistine city refused to recognize Sargon's creature 
 as their king, and chose a certain Yaman, or Yavan, for their ruler, 
 who, to secure himself, entered into alliances with the other Philistine 
 
 VOL. 1. 12 
 
 Syrian 
 
 Revolt 
 
 Crushed. 
 
 War with 
 Egypt and 
 the Phil- 
 istines. 
 
 Battle of 
 Raphia. 
 
 Arabs 
 Chas- 
 tised. 
 
 Revolt of 
 Ashdod 
 Quelled.
 
 178 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Sabaco 
 Humbled. 
 
 Sargon's 
 Conquest 
 of Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Mero- 
 
 dach- 
 
 Baladan 
 
 Deposed. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonia, or 
 Chaldaea, 
 
 an 
 
 Assyrian 
 Province. 
 
 cities, and with Judah and Edom. Thereupon Sargon led an army 
 against Ashdod, but Yaman sought safety in flight, and " escaped to 
 the dependencies of Egypt, which were under the rule of Ethiopia." 
 The Assyrian king besieged and took Ashdod, and Yaman's wife and 
 children, with most of the inhabitants, were transported to Assyria, 
 while captives from other nations taken in Sargon's Eastern wars 
 were colonized in Ashdod, over which an Assyrian governor was also 
 placed. Shabak, or Sabaco, the Ethiopian King of Egypt, greatly 
 terrified, sent an embassy imploring his favor, and surrendered the 
 fugitive Yaman. In consequence of this suppliant attitude of the 
 Ethiopian sovereign of Egypt, " the Assyrian monarch boasts that 
 the King of Meroe, who dwelt in the desert, and had never sent ambas- 
 sadors to any of the kings his predecessors, was led by the fear of his 
 majesty to direct his steps towards Assyria and humbly bow down be- 
 fore him." 
 
 Sargon next led an expedition against Babylon, over which Mero- 
 dach-Baladan had been quietly reigning for twelve years. Having 
 established his court at Babylon, Merodach-Baladan formed alliances 
 with Sutruk-Nakhunta, King of Susiana, and the Aramaean, or Syrian 
 tribes above Babylonia, to resist any attack by the Assyrian monarch. 
 Nevertheless, when Sargon advanced against Babylon, Merodach-Bal- 
 adan fled to his own city, Beth-Yakin, leaving garrisons under his gen- 
 erals in the more important inland towns. At Beth-Yakin, which was 
 situated on the Euphrates, near its mouth, the Babylonian king pre- 
 pared for a stubborn resistance, summoning the Aramaeans to his assist- 
 ance. He posted himself in the plain in front of the city, and pro- 
 tected his front and left flank with a deep ditch, which he filled with 
 water from the Euphrates. Sargon soon appeared at the head of his 
 army, and defeated the Babylonian troops and drove them into their 
 own dyke, where many of them were drowned, while the allies were 
 also driven away in headlong flight. Merodach-Baladan shut himself 
 up in Beth-Yakin, which was besieged and taken by Sargon. The 
 Babylonian king himself became a prisoner, but his life was generously 
 spared by his conqueror, who, however, plundered the palace and burned 
 the city, and himself assumed the government of Babylonia, depriving 
 Merodach-Baladan of his throne. In the Canon of Ptolemy, Sargon 
 is called Arceanus. 
 
 Sargon then reduced the Aramaeans and conquered a portion of Susi- 
 ana, to which country he transported the Commukha from the Upper 
 Tigris, placing an Assyrian governor over the mixed population, 
 and making him dependent upon the Assyrian viceroy of Babylon. 
 Thus the Assyrian dominion was firmly established over Chaldaea, or 
 Babylonia, whose power was now completely broken. Thenceforth,
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 179 
 
 with a few brief interruptions, Chaldasa remained an Assyrian depend- 
 ency until the downfall of the Assyrian Empire in B. C. 625. Now 
 and then, for a short interval, the unwilling subject kingdom cast off 
 the conqueror's yoke only to be again reduced to a more humiliating 
 state of vassalage, until it eventually submitted to the hand of fate 
 and remained quiet. During the last half century of the Assyrian 
 Empire, from B. C. 680 to B. C. 625, Babylonia was one of the most 
 tranquil of its provinces. 
 
 While Sargon held his court at Babylon in B. C. 708 or 707, he 
 received embassies from two opposite quarters, both from islanders 
 dwelling " in the middle of the seas " that bordered on his domin- 
 ions. One embassy was sent by Upir, King of Asmun, the ruler of the 
 island of Khareg, or Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf; and the other by 
 seven kings of Cyprus princes of a country which was located " at the 
 distance of seven days from the coast, in the sea of the setting sun " 
 who offered the great Oriental sovereign treasures of gold, silver, vases, 
 logs of ebony, and the manufactures of their own country. By be- 
 stowing these presents the Cypriots acknowledged the suzerainty of 
 the King of Assyria; and they carried home with them an effigy of 
 their sovereign lord carved in the usual form, and bearing an inscrip- 
 tion recording his name and titles, which they set up at Idalium, near 
 the center of the island. This effigy of Sargon, found upon the site 
 of Idalium, is now in the Berlin Museum. In the inscriptions, " set- 
 ting 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. 
 
 Sargon's expeditions to the north and north-east also yielded suc- 
 cessful results ; and the mountain tribes of the Zagros, the Taurus and 
 the Niphates the Medes, the Armenians, the Tibarenians, the Mos- 
 chians and others were thus subdued. Ambris the Tibarenian, Mita 
 the Moschian and Urza the Armenian had become allies against their 
 common foe, the King of Assyria ; and their submission was only forced 
 after a long and fierce contest. Ambris was deposed, and an Assyrian 
 governor was placed over his country. Mita, after a resistance of 
 many years, only agreed to pay tribute. Uzra committed suicide, in 
 despair at his defeat. But this region was only brought quietly under 
 the Assyrian yoke when the King of Van was conciliated by the cession 
 to him of a large extent of country which the Assyrians had wrested 
 from Urza. Having rapidly overrun Media, Sargon seized a number 
 of towns and " annexed them to Assyria," thus reducing a large part 
 of that country to the condition of an Assyrian province. He erected 
 a number of fortified posts in one part of the country, and imposed 
 upon the Medes a tribute consisting wholly of horses. 
 
 Embas- 
 sies from 
 Bahrein 
 
 and 
 Cyprus. 
 
 Sargon's 
 Conquest 
 of Media, 
 Armenia, 
 Van, and 
 Mountain 
 Tribes.
 
 180 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 War with 
 Susian? 
 
 Whole- 
 sale 
 Deporta 
 
 tions. 
 
 Sargon's 
 Great 
 
 Palace a/ 
 DUT 
 
 After the fourteenth year of his reign, B. C. 708, Sargon resigned 
 the leadership of his armies entirely into the hands of his generals. 
 A disputed succession in Illib, a small country on the borders of Susi- 
 ana, in B. C. 707, afforded him an occasion for interference in that 
 quarter. Nibi, a pretender to the throne of Illib, had solicited the aid 
 of Sutruk-Nakhunta, King of Elam, or Susiana, who held his court at 
 Susa, from whom he received promises of support and protection. 
 The other claimant, named Ispabara, thereupon sought and received 
 the assistance of Sargon, who sent " seven captains with seven armies," 
 and these defeated the troops of the King of Susiana and established 
 Ispabara on the throne of Illib. The next year, however, Sutruk- 
 Nakhunta invaded Assyria, and took some of its cities and annexed 
 them to his kingdom. 
 
 In all his wars Sargon made use of the plan of wholesale deportation 
 of populations. Israelites were thus transferred from Samaria to 
 Gozan, or Mygdonia, and the cities of the Medes. Armenians were 
 colonized in Hamath and Damascus. Tibarenians were settled in As- 
 syria, and Assyrians were transported to the country of the Tibare- 
 nians. Mountaineers from the Zagros were likewise carried captive to 
 Assyria. Chaldaeans, Arabians and others were established in Samaria. 
 Medes and other Eastern people were placed in Ashdod. The Com- 
 mukha were removed from the extreme North to Susiana, and Chal- 
 daeans were brought from the far South to supply their place. In 
 every quarter of his dominions Sargon " changed the abodes " of his 
 subjects, with a view of weakening the more powerful nationalities 
 by dispersion, and of smothering all patriotic impulses in the feebler 
 races by severing at one stroke all the bonds of attachment to their 
 native land. Although this system had been practiced by former As- 
 syrian kings, none had carried it out on so extensive and so grand a 
 scale as Sargon. 
 
 The splendid palace which this monarch had erected at Dur Sargina 
 (City of Sargon), the modern Khorsabad, was the most striking of 
 his great architectural works. It was not as large as the palaces 
 built by previous or subsequent kings, but it surpassed all other royal 
 residences by its magnificence and grandeur, with the solitary excep- 
 tion of the great palace of Asshur-bani-pal at Nineveh. Its orna- 
 mentation was resplendent beyond description. It was literally cov- 
 ered with sculptures, both inside and outside, generally arranged in 
 two rows, one above the other, and illustrating the events in Sar- 
 gon's wars, his battles and sieges, his captives, his treatment of pris- 
 oners, etc. Above this it was embellished with enameled bricks, fash- 
 ioned in beautiful models. Leading to this magnificent edifice were 
 noble flights of steps ; and the structure stood by itself, so that its ap-
 
 I i 
 
 ,1 5 
 
 I // 
 
 H 
 
 n
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 pearance was not marred by the proximity of other buildings. Its 
 entrances and passages were guarded by colossal winged man-headed 
 bulls and lions. It was in many particulars the most interesting o f 
 Assyrian works. The city where this palace was located was sur- 
 rounded with strong walls, enclosing a square two thousand yards each 
 way. Assigning fifty square yards to each person, this space could 
 have accommodated eighty thousand people. The city, as well as the 
 palace, was wholly built by Sargon, whose name it bore until after the 
 Arab conquest in the seventh century after Christ. Sargon's palace 
 is the most complete of the Assyrian royal residences yet uncovered. 
 It exhibits the architecture, the decorative art and sculpture of the 
 Assyrians in their highest forms. Like all other Assyrian palaces, it 
 stands on the summit of an immense mound constructed of bricks. 
 The mound was arranged in two platforms of unequal height in the 
 form of the letter T The palace proper was built on the more ele- 
 vated mound, and consisted of a series of structures ranged around 
 immense courts. The main building occupied by the king was located 
 at the bottom of the principal court, and had a perfectly regular fa- 
 cade, with a magnificently-ornamented gateway in the middle. Two- 
 thirds of the northwest part of the palace was occupied by the grand 
 reception hall and its large and magnificent galleries, with walls cased 
 with bas-reliefs ; one-third, to the south-east, by the inhabited apart- 
 ments, with smaller and less decorated rooms. Passages led into two 
 of the sides of the large court; one on the north-west to a square es- 
 planade, or court, occupying the northern angle of the artificial mound 
 of the palace, in .front of a building joining the north-west face of the 
 seraglio, with which it had no communication internally. This edifice 
 was most profusely ornamented; it contained six immense halls deco- 
 rated with sculpture, and some other smaller rooms. It was a " sec- 
 ond palace grafted on to the first a second selamik, rivaling in splen- 
 dor that of the seraglio." The passage leading into the southeast side 
 of the reception hall of the seraglio opened to the lower platform, and 
 to the great court of the offices. The lower platform of the artificial 
 hill raised for the palace of Sargon was occupied by the khan and the 
 harem. This part of the structure faced towards the city, and com- 
 municated directly with it. In the midst was the khan proper, an 
 enormous square court, surrounded on every side by buildings, stables, 
 lodgings for grooms and for most of the slaves. It was reached from 
 the city by two immense flights of steps in the center of the south- 
 east face of the terrace. As we have observed, an elaborately-deco- 
 rated passage led from this court of the khan into the reception hall of 
 the seraglio. Two small doors likewise communicated directly with 
 the occupied rooms of the palace. To the right of the khan was the
 
 182 CHAUXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 khazneh, or treasury, with its many courts and chambers, constituting 
 some of the offices or common rooms of the palace. Here were the 
 stores of provisions for the royal household, and places for the cus- 
 tody of the valuables which Sargon informs us, in his dedicatory in- 
 scription, that he had acquired by his conquests and stored in his pal- 
 ace. Adjoining the khazneh was the harem, containing three courts, 
 the walls of one of them being covered with rich decorations in enam- 
 eled bricks. Besides the three courts, the harem had many long gal- 
 leries and many rooms for habitation. The harem was shut in in 
 the closest possible manner; all communication with the outside world 
 was intercepted, and the women were virtually imprisoned. A solitary 
 vestibule, guarded by eunuchs, led to it by two issues; one connecting 
 with the great court of the offices being from the outside; the other 
 opening to a long, narrow court leading to the inhabited apartments 
 of the seraglio, through which passage the king found access to the 
 harem without being exposed to the view of the public. Behind the 
 harem was the Temple Court, consisting of an immense tower, or pyra- 
 mid, in seven stages, nearly fifty yards high. The seven stages, 
 equally high, and each one smaller in area than the one below it, were 
 covered with stucco of various colors, thus exhibiting to view the colors 
 consecrated to the seven great celestial bodies, the least important being 
 at the base. This tower was the ziggurat, or observatory, on whose 
 summit the priestly disciples of the Chaldaeans endeavored to divine the 
 future in the stars. 
 
 Sargon's Before the construction of the great palace at Dur-Sargina, Sar- 
 w^k* g on ' s residence was at Calah, where he repaired the decayed palace of 
 Asshur-izir-pal. He also repaired the ruined walls of Nineveh, where 
 he built a temple to Nebo and Merodach. He likewise improved the 
 embankments at Babylon, thus controlling and directing the distri- 
 bution of the waters. The number of Assyrian scientific tablets, 
 shown by the dates upon them to have been written in his time, fully 
 attest his patronage of science. 
 
 Progress There was nothing significant in the progress of mimetic art during 
 ^rtsf Sargon's reign, but several branches of industry showed signs of im- 
 provement, while there was better taste in design and ornamentation. 
 At this time transparent glass was first brought into use, and intaglios 
 were first cut upon hard stones. The furniture of this period is far 
 superior in design to that of any former age represented, while the 
 models of sword-hilts, maces, armlets and other ornaments are singu- 
 larly tasteful and elegant. At this time the enameling of bricks had 
 attained its highest degree of perfection ; while the styles of vases, 
 goblets and boats indicate a decided advance upon the same class of 
 works of previous times. In sculpture the advance in animal forms
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 183 
 
 in the times of Tiglath-Pileser II. still went on under Sargon; and 
 the drawing of horses' heads, especially, shows very remarkable ac- 
 curacy. 
 
 Sargon died in B. C. 705, after a glorious reign of seventeen 
 years, and was succeeded on the throne by his son, SENNACHERIB, the 
 most renowned of all the Assyrian kings, and of whom we have such 
 long notices in the Old Testament. Sennacherib reigned twenty-four 
 years, from B. C. 705 to B. C. 681. The sources which we have 
 of the annals of his reign are the notices in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 some fragments of Polyhistor preserved by Eusebius, a passage from 
 Herodotus mentioning his name, and two records written during his 
 reign, giving descriptions of his military exploits and his buildings, 
 and known respectively as the " Taylor Cylinder " and the " Bellino 
 Cylinder." 
 
 The Canon of Ptolemy shows an interregnum of two years at Baby- 
 lon, from B. C. 704 to B. C. 702, and Polyhistor mentions three pre- 
 tenders to the throne of Babylonia during this brief interval. These 
 were a brother of Sennacherib ; a claimant named Hagisa ; and Mero- 
 dach-Baladan, who had escaped from captivity, murdered Hagisa and 
 resumed the throne of which Sargon had deprived him six years be- 
 fore. In B. C. 703 Sennacherib led an army into Babylonia and de- 
 feated the troops of Merodach-Baladan and their Susianian auxiliaries, 
 took Babylon and overran Chaldaea, plundering (according to his own 
 account) seventy-six large towns and four hundred and twenty vil- 
 lages. Merodach-Baladan again escaped from the country, and his 
 sons were afterwards found living as refugees in Susiana. Before 
 leaving Babylon, Sennacherib appointed as tributary king an As- 
 syrian named Belipni the Belibus of Ptolemy's Canon, and the Elibus 
 of Polyhistor. After returning from Babylon, Sennacherib ravaged 
 the country of the Aramaeans on the middle Euphrates, carrying into 
 captivity more than two hundred thousand inhabitants, and seizing 
 also large numbers of horses, camels, asses, oxen and sheep. The next 
 year, B. C. 702, Sennacherib attacked the mountain tribes of the 
 Zagros, driving from the country Ispabara, whom Sargon had ele- 
 vated to power, and reducing to subjection many cities, over which 
 he placed Assyrian governors. 
 
 In the fourth year of his reign, B. C. 701, Sennacherib engaged in 
 the most important of all his military expeditions. This was his in- 
 vasion of Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, during which he attacked 
 Luliya, King of Sidon, and also Hezekiah, King of Judah. With 
 an immense host he first invaded Phoenicia, where Luliya the Elu- 
 laeus of Menander had broken out into revolt during the early years 
 of Sennacherib's reign. Luliya had made himself master of most of 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib. 
 
 Sources of 
 
 His 
 Annals. 
 
 Royal 
 Pretend- 
 ers. 
 
 Defeat of 
 Mero- 
 dach- 
 Baladan, 
 Syrians 
 
 and 
 Zagros 
 Tribes. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 Phoeni- 
 cians and 
 Philis- 
 tines.
 
 184. 
 
 CHALJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 
 Victory 
 over the 
 
 Egyp- 
 tians and 
 
 Ethio- 
 pians at 
 Altaku. 
 
 His 
 
 Triumph 
 over 
 
 Hezekiah, 
 King of 
 Judah. 
 
 Phoenicia, including Tyre, Akko and many other leading cities. On 
 the approach of the Assyrian king, the Sidonian chief fled from the 
 main-land and found refuge in " an island in the middle of the sea," 
 probably the island of Tyre, or perhaps Cyprus. Sennacherib re- 
 ceived the submission of the Phoenician cities which Luliya had ruled, 
 and placed over them a tributary prince named Tubal. The King 
 of Assyria next marched southward into Philistia, and put an end to 
 the resistance of Sidka, King of Ascalon, who, with his wife, children 
 and brothers, were made captives; while the city was also taken and 
 another prince set up, the revolted chief being carried a prisoner to 
 Assyria. The towns of Hazor, Joppa, Bene-berak and Beth-Dagon 
 dependencies of Ascalon were soon afterwards taken and plun- 
 dered. 
 
 The conquering Sennacherib then took the field against Egypt, 
 whose Ethiopian king the Sevechus of Manetho, and the So of Scrip- 
 ture had come to the support of the revolted Philistine city of Ekron, 
 which had expelled its king, Padi, who had remained loyal to Assyria. 
 The Egyptian army, consisting of chariots, horsemen and archers, 
 was so large that Sennacherib called it " a host that could not be 
 numbered." At Altaku believed to be the Eltekeh of the Jews 
 was fought the second great battle between the Assyrians and the 
 Egyptians. Again the power of Asia triumphed over that of Africa. 
 The Egyptians and Ethiopians were defeated with frightful slaugh- 
 ter, many of their chariots, with their drivers, falling into the hands 
 of the conquering Assyrians. In consequence of their great victory, 
 the Assyrians immediately captured the towns of Altaku and Tamna. 
 Rebellious Ekron also at once submitted to Sennacherib, opening its 
 gates to the victorious monarch, who inflicted a terrible punishment 
 upon the rebels, whose leaders were put to death, their bodies being 
 exposed on stakes round the entire circuit of the city walls; while 
 large numbers of inferior rank were sold into slavery. Padi, the 
 expelled king who was friendly to Assyria, was restored to his author- 
 ity as king, tributary to the Assyrian monarch. 
 
 Besides the Egyptians and Ethiopians, the revolted city of Ekron 
 had Hezekiah, King of Judah, for an ally. When the Ekronites de- 
 posed Padi, they seized him, loaded him with chains, and sent him 
 to Hezekiah for safe keeping. To punish the King of Judah for his 
 complicity in the Ekronite revolt, " Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 
 came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. And 
 Hezekiah, King of Judah, sent to the King of Assyria to Lachish, 
 saying, I have offended; return from me; that which thou puttest on 
 me will I bear. And the King of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, 
 King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 185 
 
 gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the 
 house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that 
 time did Hezekiah cut off the doors of the house of the Lord, and the 
 pillars which Hezekiah, King of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to 
 the King of Assyria." Such is the short account of this expedition 
 of Sennacherib, as recorded in the Second Book of Kings. 
 
 We will now give the account recorded by Sennacherib himself in 
 these words : " Because Hezekiah, King of Judah, would not submit 
 to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the 
 might of my power I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities ; and of 
 the smaller towns which were scattered about I took and plundered a 
 countless number. And from these places I captured and carried off 
 as spoil two hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty people, old 
 and young, male and female, together with horses and mares, asses 
 and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah 
 himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, 
 building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of 
 earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. * * * Then upon 
 this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he 
 sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with thirty tal- 
 ents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures, 
 a rich and immense booty. * * * All these things were brought to 
 me at Nineveh, the seat of my government, Hezekiah having sent them 
 by way of tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power." 
 
 After wreaking his vengeance upon the people of Ekron, Sennac- 
 herib invaded Judah, directing his march toward Jerusalem, taking 
 many small towns and villages on the way, and carrying two hundred 
 thousand of their inhabitants into slavery and captivity. Upon reach- 
 ing Jerusalem he laid siege to the city in the usual way, erecting tow- 
 ers around it, from which stones and arrows were discharged against 
 the defenders of the fortifications, and " casting banks " were hurleo! 
 against the walls and gates. The fortifications of Jerusalem were 
 weak, and there had recently been many " breaches of the city of 
 David." The inhabitants had hastily fortified the city by pulling 
 down the houses near the wall. Great alarm was felt for the safety 
 of the holy places. Jerusalem was " full of stirs and tumult." The 
 people rushed to the housetops, and saw " the choicest valleys full of 
 chariots, and the horsemen set in array at the gates." Then followed 
 " a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity " a day 
 of " breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains." In the 
 midst of this consternation some were made reckless by despair; so 
 that there was a general " call to weeping, and to mourning, and to 
 baldness, and to girdling with sackcloth beholding joy and gladness, 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Account 
 Thereof 
 
 His 
 
 Invasion 
 of Judah 
 and Siege 
 
 of 
 
 Jerusa- 
 lem.
 
 186 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Heze- 
 kiah's 
 Humilia- 
 tion and 
 Submis- 
 sion. 
 
 Mero- 
 
 dach- 
 
 Baladan's 
 
 Revolt, 
 
 Defeatand 
 
 Flight. 
 
 Heze- 
 kiah's 
 Second 
 Revolt 
 
 and 
 Alliance 
 
 with 
 Egypt. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Demand, 
 Heze- 
 kiah's 
 Defiance 
 
 and 
 
 Isaiah's 
 Prophecy. 
 
 slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine ' Let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' ' Seeing the hopeless- 
 ness of further resistance, Hezekiah offered to surrender upon terms 
 which Sennacherib granted. It was agreed that Hezekiah should pay 
 an annual tribute of thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of 
 silver, and that he should also give up the chief treasures of the city as 
 a " present " to the Great King. To procure an adequate supply of 
 gold, Hezekiah was obliged to strip the walls and pillars of the Temple 
 of this precious metal, with which they were partly overlaid. He gave 
 up all the silver from the royal treasury and from the treasury of the 
 Temple, which amounted to five hundred talents more than the fixed 
 rate of tribute. Besides these sacrifices the Jewish king was obliged 
 to deliver up Padi, the Ekronite king whom he had held in captivity, 
 and was forced to surrender certain parts of his territories to the 
 neighboring Philistine kings. 
 
 After this triumph over Hezekiah, Sennacherib returned to Nin- 
 eveh, and in the following year, B. C. 700, he led an expedition into 
 Babylonia, where Merodach-Baladan, with the aid of Susub, a Chal- 
 dsean prince, had again risen in arms against the authority of the As- 
 syrian monarch. After defeating Susub, Sennacherib marched upon 
 Beth-Yakin, and compelled Merodach-Baladan to flee for refuge to one 
 of the islands of the Persian Gulf, leaving his brothers and adherents 
 to the conqueror's mercy. Upon returning to Babylon, Sennacherib 
 removed the viceroy Belibus, whom he blamed for disloyalty or incom- 
 petency, appointing in his stead his own eldest son, Asshur-inadi-su, 
 the Asordanes of Polyhistor, and the Aparanadius, or Assaranadius, 
 of Ptolemy's Canon. 
 
 The dates of the remaining events of Sennacherib's reign can not 
 be fixed with certainty, Ptolemy's Canon taking no account of any 
 subsequent event recorded in the inscriptions of this reign. It is 
 believed that his second expedition into Palestine occurred B. C. 699, 
 Hezekiah having again revolted against the Assyrian king, and en- 
 tered into an alliance with the Ethiopian King of Egypt, Tehrak, or 
 Tirhakah. Sennacherib directed his expedition first against his more 
 powerful foe, and marched his army through Palestine southward to 
 Libnah and Lachish, laying siege to the latter city, and sending a 
 detachment of his army, under a Tartan, or general, supported by two 
 high officers of his court the Rabshakeh, or Chief Cupbearer, and 
 the Rab-saris, or Chief Eunuch to demand the surrender of Jerusa- 
 lem. Hezekiah sent high dignitaries to treat with the Assyrians en- 
 camped outside the city walls, but the Assyrian envoys demanded the 
 unconditional submission of the Jewish king and people. The Rab- 
 shakeh, or Chief Cupbearer, familiar with the Hebrew language, took
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 137 
 
 the word and delivered the message in insolent phraseology, laughing 
 at Hezekiah's simplicity in relying upon Egypt, and at his foolish 
 superstition in depending upon a Divine deliverance, and defiantly ask- 
 ing the Jewish king to produce two thousand disciplined soldiers capa- 
 ble of serving as horsemen. Then the prophet " Isaiah said unto them, 
 Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, '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 rumor, and shall return to his own land ; 
 and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'" When 
 asked to speak in some other language rather than the Hebrew, for 
 fear that the people upon the walls might hear, the intrepid envoy, in 
 utter disregard of diplomatic courtesy, made a loud and direct appeal 
 to the fears and hopes of the people. 
 
 Finally, after seeing that they could make no impression upon the Sennac- 
 Jewish king or people, and regarding their military detachment as Letter, 
 
 inadequate for a siege, the Assyrian ambassadors returned to their Heze- 
 
 kiah's 
 sovereign at Libnah and informed him of their failure. Thereupon Prayer 
 
 Sennacherib sent other messengers with a letter to Hezekiah, remind- a ?* 
 ing him of the fate of other kingdoms and nations which had the hardi- Prophecy, 
 hood to resist the mighty Assyrian power, and again urging the Jew- 
 ish king to submit. Hezekiah took this letter into the Temple, where 
 he "spread it before the Lord," praying: "Lord, bow down thine ear, 
 and hear ; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see ; and hear the words of Sen- 
 nacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God." There- 
 upon the prophet Isaiah declared to his afflicted sovereign that Jehovah 
 would "put his hook in Sennacherib's nose, and his bridle in his lips, 
 and turn him back by the way by which he came." The prophet fur- 
 ther declared: "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the King 
 of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an awow there, 
 nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way 
 that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this 
 city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine 
 own sake, and for my servant David's sake." 
 
 After receiving the submission of Libnah, Sennacherib advanced herib's 
 toward Egypt, and had come within sight of the Egyptian army at March 
 Pelusium when Hezekiah received his letter and made the prayer to the 
 
 which Isaiah delivered the response. The immense host of the Egyp- , . E 27P~ 
 
 4 . . &<7 * tians and 
 
 tians and Assyrians encamped opposite each other for the night, the Destruc- 
 
 Egyptians and their king full of anxious alarm, and Sennacherib and n 
 his Assyrians in proud confidence of a victory on the morrow as grand by a 
 as those of Raphia and Altaku. But these bright hopes were des- p^f^ at 
 tined to sad disappointment. Ere the morrow appeared the immense Pelusium. 
 115
 
 188 
 
 CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 
 Victories 
 in 
 
 Armenia. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 
 Migration 
 
 to 
 
 Susiana. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Phoni- 
 cian Fleet 
 in the 
 Tigris. 
 
 Assyrian host was destroyed in a night panic. Says the Hebrew rec- 
 ord : " And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord 
 went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four- 
 score and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, 
 behold, they were all dead corpses." While the Hebrews ascribed this 
 destruction of Sennacherib's army to the miraculous interposition of 
 Jehovah, the Egyptians regarded their deliverance as the special in- 
 tervention of their own gods, and pursued the fleeing Assyrian hosts, 
 distressing their retreating columns and cutting off stragglers. The 
 haughty Sennacherib returned to Nineveh with the shattered remnants 
 of his mighty host, shorn of his' glory. The proud capital of Assyria 
 was plunged into such grief and despair as is beyond the power of 
 the historian to describe. The Assyrian annals say nothing of this 
 disastrous campaign. 
 
 According to Sennacherib's own annals, his fifth campaign was in 
 a mountainous country called Nipur, or Nibur, supposed to be near 
 Mount Ararat. He there took many towns, and then moving west- 
 ward toward the Taurus range bordering on Cilicia, he warred with 
 Maniya, King of Dayan, and, according to his own boast, plundered 
 and ravaged the country, burned the towns and carried away the in- 
 habitants, their flocks and herds, and their valuables. 
 
 His next contest was a fierce struggle of three years with the Baby- 
 lonians and Susianians. The Chaldaeans of Beth-Yakin, dissatisfied 
 with the Assyrian yoke, migrated in a body from their own city to the 
 territory of the King of Susiana. Carrying with them their gods and 
 their treasures, they set sail in their ships, crossed " the Great Sea of 
 the Rising Sun " the Persian Gulf and landed on the Elamite, or 
 Susianian coast, where they were kindly received by the Susianian mon- 
 arch, who allowed them to build a new city on his territory. This 
 voluntary desertion of Beth-Yakin by its own people aroused the anger 
 of the Assyrian king, who accordingly determined to bring back his 
 deserting subjects to their native city, and to his dominion, by force 
 of arms. 
 
 The suzerainty of Assyria over Phoenicia had placed at the Assyrian 
 king's disposal the most skilled shipwrights and the best sailors in the 
 world, and Sennacherib resolved to invade Susiana by sea to reclaim 
 his emigrant subjects. The shipwrights of Tyre and Sidon were 
 therefore set to work at building a fleet of war-galleys on the Tigris. 
 This fleet, manned by Phoenician sailors, descended the river to the 
 Persian Gulf, astonishing the inhabitants on the shores with a spec- 
 tacle never before seen in those waters. The Chaldaeans, who had 
 navigated those waters for many centuries, were far inferior as ship- 
 builders and mariners to the Phoenicians, whose ships, with their masts,
 
 ' 
 
 SHIPS OF SENNACHERIB ON THE TIGRIS 
 
 From a Sculpture found at Koyunjuk
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 189 
 
 sails, double tiers of oars and sharp beaks, were novelties to the nations 
 in these parts. 
 
 Sennacherib, in his Phoenician ships, crossed from the mouth of the 
 Tigris to the new settlement of the emigrant Chaldaeans, destroyed 
 their newly-built city, captured the deserters, ravaged the vicinity, 
 burned many Susianian towns, and transported his captives, Chaldaean 1 
 deserters and Susianians, across the gulf to Chaldaea, and thence took 
 them to Assyria. The Susianians, not expecting an invasion by sea, 
 had assembled an army near their north-western frontier, so that Sen- 
 nacherib had found no force to oppose him when he landed on the 
 Susianian coast. 
 
 Taking advantage of circumstances, the Babylonians now revolted 
 and set up a king of their own called Susub ; but the Babylonian army 
 was defeated by the Assyrian troops upon their return from Susiana, 
 Susub being captured ; and the Susianian army which had come to the 
 aid of the revolted Babylonians was routed. Susub and many other 
 captives were carried to Nineveh. 
 
 Kudur-Nakhunta, who was still King of Susiana, held the cities of 
 Beth-Kahiri and Raza, which Sennacherib regarded as part of his 
 paternal inheritance. The Assyrian king now easily retook these 
 towns, and leading his army into the heart of Susiana, took and burned 
 thirty- four large cities and many small villages. After besieging and 
 laking by storm Vadakat, or Badaca, the second city of Susiana, after 
 it had been abandoned by Kudur-Nakhunta, Sennacherib returned to 
 Nineveh with a large booty. 
 
 Susub, the Babylonian prince, having escaped from his captivity 
 at Nineveh, returned to Babylon, where he was again hailed as king 
 by the inhabitants. He secured the alliance of the new King of Susi- 
 ana, Ummanminan, the younger brother and successor of Kudur- 
 Nakhunta, by sending him as a present the gold and silver belonging 
 to the great temple of Bel at Babylon. The Susianian monarch at 
 once led an army to the Tigris, while many Aramaean, or Syrian, tribes 
 on the middle Euphrates, which Sennacherib had subjugated in his 
 third year, revolted, and their army joined that of Susub. Sennac- 
 herib defeated the allied host in a great battle at Khaluli, a town on 
 the Lower Tigris, both Susub and the Susianian king escaping, but 
 Nebosumiskun, a son of Merodach-Baladan, and many other chiefs, 
 being made prisoners. Sennacherib entered Babylon in triumph, de- 
 stroyed its fortifications, pillaged and burned its temples, and broke 
 to pieces the images of the gods. Either Regibelus, or Mesesimor- 
 dachus, whom the Canon of Ptolemy makes contemporary with the 
 middle part of Sennacherib's reign, is believed to have been placed 
 ever the rebel city as viceroy by the conqueror. 
 
 His 
 
 Forced 
 Return 
 of the 
 Emigrant 
 Chal- 
 daeans. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Revolt 
 Crushed. 
 
 Defeat of 
 
 Kudur 
 
 Nak- 
 
 hunta, 
 
 King of 
 
 Susiana. 
 
 Renewed 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Revolt 
 
 Quelled.
 
 190 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Conquest 
 
 of 
 Cilicia. 
 
 Founding 
 
 of 
 Tarsus. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Independ- 
 ence. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Great- 
 ness. 
 
 His 
 
 Inscrip- 
 tion. 
 
 Sennac- 
 herib's 
 Great 
 Palace at 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Sennacherib is said to have also led an expedition against Cilicia,j 
 and, according to Abydenus, a Greek writer, a Grecian fleet was beaten 
 by the Assyrian fleet on the Cilician shores ; while according to Poly- 
 histor, Sennacherib's army defeated a Greek land force in Cilicia itself ; 
 after which Sennacherib took possession of Cilicia, in which country 
 he built the city of Tarsus, afterwards renowned as the birth-place of 
 St. Paul. Among the inscriptions of Sennacherib's wars upon the 
 Koyunjik bulls is one stating that he " triumphantly subdued the men 
 of Cilicia inhabiting the inaccessible forests." 
 
 The Canon of Ptolemy marks an interregnum at Babylon for eight 
 years, from B. C. 688 to B. C. 680, the year of Esar-haddon's acces- 
 sion; from which circumstance it is evident that Babylonia had again 
 thrown off the Assyrian yoke and maintained her independence for 
 eight years. 
 
 Thus the military glory of Sennacherib, the greatest and best-known 
 of Assyrian kings, was tarnished by two great disasters the destruc- 
 tion of his army at Pelusium by a night panic during his war with 
 Hezekiah of Judah and Tirhakah of Egypt, and the successful revolt 
 of Babylon just mentioned. Still he was the most illustrious and the 
 most successful of Assyrian warrior kings. In his inscription Sen- 
 nacherib calls himself " the great king, the powerful king, the king 
 of nations, the king of Assyria, the king of the four regions, the dili- 
 gent ruler, the favorite of the great gods, the observer of sworn faith, 
 the guardian of the law, the embellisher of public buildings, the noble 
 hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the punisher of unbelievers,, 
 the destroyer of wicked men." 
 
 Sennacherib takes the first rank among Assyrian monarchs as an 
 architect and patron of art, as well as that of a warrior. The gigantic 
 palace erected by him at Nineveh surpassed in dimensions and grand- 
 eur all previously-built structures, and covered an area of more than 
 eight acres. The grand halls and smaller chambers of this vast and 
 magnificent edifice were arranged around at least three courts or quad- 
 rangles, which were respectively one hundred and fifty-four by one 
 hundred and twenty-five feet, one hundred and twenty-four by ninety 
 feet, and ninety-three by eighty-four feet. Small apartments were 
 grouped around the smallest of these courts. A narrow passage lead- 
 ing out of a long gallery, two hundred and eighteen by twenty-five 
 feet, opened the way to the king's seraglio. This gallery was entered 
 through two other passages, one leading from each of the two main 
 courts. The principal halls were immediately within the two chief 
 entrances, one on the north-east, and the other on the south-west front 
 of the palace. One of these seems to have been one hundred and sixty 
 feet long, and the other one hundred and eighty feet, while each was.
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 19 
 
 a little over forty feet wide. The palace had about twenty other 
 rooms, and from forty to fifty smaller chambers, about square, entered 
 from some hall or large apartment. Mr. Layard says he explored 
 seventy-one chambers, including the three courts, the long gallery and 
 four passages. Sennacherib's famous royal building, like other As- 
 syrian architectural works, was built on an artificial platform, eighty 
 or ninety feet above the plain, and covered with a brick pavement. It 
 is believed to have had three grand fa9ades, respectively on the north- 
 east, south-east and south-west sides. Its chief apartment was first 
 entered by the visitor. All the walls ran in straight lines, and all the 
 angles of the rooms were right angles. Although there were numerous 
 passages, the apartments in many instances directly opened into one 
 another, nearly half of the rooms being passage-rooms. The doorways 
 were usually towards the corners of the apartments. In many cases a 
 room was entered by two or three doorways from another room or from 
 a court. There were also many square recesses in the sides of rooms. 
 The walls were very thick. The apartments, never much over forty 
 feet wide, were comparatively narrow for their length, but the courts 
 were much better proportioned. Sennacherib's palace differed from 
 others in the size and number of its rooms, in its use of passages and in 
 its style of ornamentation. His principal state apartments were one- 
 third wider, though very little longer, and thus were in better propor- 
 tion. But one gallery, connecting the more public portion of the 
 building with the harem, or private apartments, formed a corridor, 
 two hundred and eighteen feet long by twenty-five feet wide, uniting 
 the two parts of the palace. This corridor communicated by passages 
 with the two public courts, which were also joined by a third passage. 
 Timber from Lebanon and Amanus was used in the roofing of this 
 palace. 
 
 Sennacherib's ornamentation was marked by the first general use its 
 of the background in completing each scene, as it really existed at "* men 
 the time and place of its occurrence. Mountains, rocks, trees, roads, 
 rivers and lakes were represented with the highest degree of perfection 
 which the ability of the artist and the means and facilities at his com- 
 mand would permit. In Sennacherib's bas-reliefs the species of trees 
 is distinguished; gardens, fields, ponds, reeds, etc., are portrayed with 
 great exactness; wild animals, such as stags, boars and antelopes, are 
 illustrated; birds are represented flying from one tree to another, or 
 standing over their nests feeding their young as they stretch up to 
 receive the food; fish swim in the water; fishermen, boatmen and agri- 
 cultural laborers are depicted ; the entire scene being striking and real 
 in appearance. On the walls of the passages of Sennacherib's palace 
 are depicted ordinary scenes of every-day life. Trains of servants
 
 192 CHAUXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 daily bring to the royal residence game and locusts for the monarch's 
 dinner, and cakes and fruits for his dessert, just as they walked through 
 the courts carrying the delicacies for which he displayed special fond- 
 ness. In another place is exhibited the work of carving and transport- 
 ing a gigantic bull of solid stone, from the removal of the material 
 from the quarry, to its elevated position on a palace-mound as part 
 of the great entrance-passage of the royal dwelling. The trackers 
 are shown dragging the huge rough block, supported on a low flat- 
 bottomed boat, along the course of a river, divided in gangs perform- 
 ing their work under taskmasters who ply their rods upon the most 
 trifling provocation. The trackers, three hundred in number, in their 
 national costumes, are each delineated with the utmost precision. We 
 next see the stone block conveyed to land, and carved into the rough 
 likeness of a bull, and in that shape it is set on a sledge and moved 
 along level ground by gangs of laborers, arranged very much as 
 before, to the base of the mound, at the top of which it must be located. 
 The building of the mound is illustrated in detail. Brick-makers are 
 represented moulding the bricks at the foot of the mound, and work- 
 men are seen with baskets at their backs, filled with earth, bricks, stones 
 or rubbish, climbing the ascent after the mound is partially raised, and 
 emptying their burdens upon the top. The bull on the sledge is then 
 drawn up an inclined plane to the summit by four gangs of laborers, 
 before the eyes of the king and his attendants. The carving is then 
 finished, and the gigantic figure is set into an upright position and 
 dragged along the surface of the platform to the place assigned it. 
 Sennac- Sennacherib also restored the old royal palace at Nineveh. He built 
 'other- 8 a brick embankment on the banks of the Tigris to confine the river to 
 Works, its channel, and supplied his capital with good water by constructing 
 for that purpose a system of canals and aqueducts. He strengthened 
 the defenses of Nineveh by the erection of colossal towers at some of 
 the brick gateways. Lastly, he erected a temple to the god Nergal 
 at Tarbisi (now Sherif Khan), on the Tigris, about three miles above 
 Nineveh. 
 
 His Sennacherib's conquering expeditions into other lands furnished him 
 
 mentof w ^ a sufficient amount of forced labor, which he employed in the con- 
 Forced struction of his great works. The Bellino Cylinder tells us that he 
 employed Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, or Syrians, Armenians, Cilicians, and 
 Quhu, or Coans, in this way. A bull-inscription informs us that in 
 one raid he carried into slavery two hundred and eight thousand 
 Aramaeans. By this means the colossal bulls of stone were transported 
 and elevated, the vast mounds built, the bricks moulded, the walls of 
 edifices erected, the canals excavated and embankments constructed. 
 They were forced to labor in gangs, under the rods of brutal and exact-
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 108 
 
 ing taskmasters, and in their respective national costumes. The work 
 was directed by Assyrian foremen, and the forced laborers were fre- 
 quently compelled to work in fetters, sometimes supported by a bar 
 fastened to the waist, and sometimes consisting of shackles around the 
 ankles. The king, standing in a chariot drawn by his attendants, 
 often witnessed the laborers at their task. 
 
 Sennacherib's glorious reign of twenty-four years experienced a sad 
 end. The great monarch fell a victim to a plot of assassination on 
 the part of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer. He was slain while 
 at worship in a temple ; and his son Nergilus, who claimed the crown, 
 was also soon murdered by his brothers, Adrammelech and Sharezer; 
 but these were soon overthrown by their brother ESAR-HADDON, who, 
 in command of the army on the Armenian frontier, marched to Nineveh 
 and was recognized as the rightful successor to his father's throne. 
 
 The year of Sennacherib's assassination and Esar-haddon's accession 
 was B. C. 681, according to the Assyrian Canon the year just before 
 his first year in Babylon on the authority of the Canon of Ptolemy. 
 This is to be accounted for by the fact that a king was not entered 
 on the Babylonian list until the Thoth which followed his accession, 
 and the Thoth in this instance occurred in February. Thus the Baby- 
 lonian dates are generally one year later than the Assyrian, and the 
 two Canons are seen to harmonize with remarkable precision. 
 
 Esar-haddon held the throne for thirteen years, and reigned alter- 
 nately at Nineveh and Babylon, thus placing the two great capitals 
 on an equality, and reconciling the Babylonians to the Assyrian rule. 
 Esar-haddon's inscriptions show that he was engaged for some time 
 after the opening of his reign in a civil war with his half-brothers, 
 who, at the head of large bodies of troops, contested his claims to the 
 Assyrian crown. Esar-haddon, who, at the time of his father's death, 
 was stationed on the Armenian frontier, at once marched upon Nine- 
 veh, defeated the army of his brothers in the country of Khanirabbat, 
 north-west of Nineveh, and entered the capital, where he was univer- 
 sally acknowledged king. Abydenus says that Adrammelech fell in 
 the battle, but better authorities state that both he and his brother 
 Sharezer escaped into Armenia, where the ruling sovereign treated them 
 with kindness, bestowing upon them lands, which long remained in the 
 possession of their posterity. 
 
 Our information of Esar-haddon's reign is mainly derived from a 
 cylinder inscription, existing in duplicate, which records nine cam- 
 paigns. A memorial which he set up at the mouth of the Nahr-el- 
 Kelb, and a cylinder of his son's, give us some additional knowledge 
 concerning the closing portion of his reign. The Ola Testament, in 
 several instances, connects him with Jewish history; and Abydenus al- 
 roi. 1. IS 
 
 Assassi- 
 nation of 
 Sennac- 
 herib. 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon. 
 
 Authority 
 
 of the 
 
 Two 
 
 Canons. 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon's 
 Civil War 
 
 with 
 
 His 
 
 Brothers. 
 
 Sources 
 
 of 
 
 Infonna 
 ticm of 
 
 His 
 Reign.
 
 194 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Phoeni- 
 cian 
 Revolt 
 Sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 Capture 
 and 
 
 Destruc- 
 tion of 
 Sidon. 
 
 Conquests 
 
 in 
 Armenia. 
 
 Cilician 
 
 Revolt 
 
 Quelled. 
 
 Con- 
 quests in 
 
 Syria, 
 Armenia, 
 
 Chaldaea 
 
 and 
 Bdom. 
 
 ludes to some of his foreign conquests. An incomplete cylinder in- 
 scription of Esar-haddon's reign contains accounts of his civil war with 
 his brothers and also his Arabian and Syrian expeditions. 
 
 Esar-haddon's first expedition was into Phoenicia. The civil dis- 
 sensions resulting from Sennacherib's murder encouraged a revolt in 
 that region on the part of Abdi-Milkut, King of Sidon, and Sandu- 
 arra, King of the neighboring portion of Lebanon, who had entered 
 into an alliance to cast off the Assyrian yoke. Esar-haddon first at- 
 tacked Sidon and soon took the city, and Abdi-Milkut sought refuge 
 in an island, either Aradus or Cyprus, but was pursued and made pris- 
 oner by Esar-haddon, who, it was said, traversed the sea " like a fish." 
 Esar-haddon next attacked Sandu-arra in his mountain fastnesses, 
 defeated his troops and took him prisoner. Both captive kings were 
 executed in punishment for their rebellion; the walls of Sidon were 
 destroyed, its inhabitants and those of the whole neighboring coast 
 were carried off into Assyria, and thence dispersed among the prov- 
 inces ; while a new city was built and named after Esar-haddon, which 
 was designed to succeed Sidon as the leading city in this region, and 
 Chaldaean and Susianian captives were colonized in the new city and 
 the adjacent country, over which an Assyrian governor was appointed. 
 
 Esar-haddon's second campaign was in Armenia, where he took a 
 city named Arza, which, he says, was in the neighborhood of Muzr, 
 and carried away its inhabitants, along with a number of mountain ani- 
 mals, settling the captives " beyond the eastern gate of Nineveh." At 
 the same time he received the submission of Tiuspa, the Cimmerian. 
 
 Esar-haddon's third campaign was in Cilicia and the adj acent re- 
 gions. The Cilicians, so recently subdued by Sennacherib, re-asserted 
 their independence at his death, and formed an alliance with the Tiba- 
 reni, or people of Tubal, who occupied the high mountain district 
 about the junction of Amanus and Taurus. After defeating the 
 Cilicians, Esar-haddon invaded the mountain region, where he took 
 twenty-one towns and many villages, all of which he plundered and 
 burned, carrying the inhabitants into captivity. 
 
 Esar-haddon next conducted a petty war in Northern Syria, and an- 
 other in South-eastern Armenia against the Mannai, or Minni. He 
 then made an expedition into Chaldaea, against Nebo-zirzi-sidi, Mero- 
 dach-Baladan's son, who, aided by the Susianians, had regained a foot- 
 ing on the Chaldaean coast; while his brother, Nahid-Marduk, sought 
 the favor of the Assyrian king, quitting his refuge in Susiana to pre- 
 sent himself before the Great King's footstool at Nineveh. After 
 subduing Nebo-zirzi-sidi, Esar-haddon bestowed the entire coast dis- 
 trict previously ruled by that prince on Nahid-Marduk. At the same 
 time the Assyrian king deposed Shamas-ipni, a Chaldaean prince, who
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 196 
 
 had extended his sway over a small town in the vicinity of Babylon, 
 putting Nebo-sallim in his place. Esar-haddon next engaged in a 
 war with Edom, where he took a city bearing the same name as the 
 country a city, which he says, had been previously taken by his father 
 transporting the inhabitants into Assyria, and carrying away cer- 
 tain of the Edomite gods. Thereupon the Edomite king, Hazael, sent 
 an embassy to Nineveh, to offer submission and presents, while he also 
 begged the Assyrian monarch to restore his gods and permit them to 
 be returned to Edom. This humble request was granted by Esar- 
 haddon, who restored the images to the envoy; but he increased the 
 annual tribute by sixty-five camels, and appointed to the succession, 
 or joint sovereignty of the throne of Edom, a woman named Tabua, 
 who had been born and brought up in his own palace. 
 
 Esar-haddon's next expedition was into a country named Bazu, said 
 to be " remote, on the extreme confines of the earth, on the other side 
 of the desert." This country was reached by traversing a hundred 
 and forty farsakhs (four hundred and ninety miles) of sandy desert, 
 then twenty farsakhs (seventy miles) of fertile land, and beyond that 
 a stony region. None of Esar-haddon's predecessors had ever pene- 
 trated so far " into the middle of Arabia." Bazu was located beyond 
 Khazu, the stony tract, and its principal city was Yedih, which was 
 ruled by a king named Laile. The country here noticed is supposed 
 to have been the region of the modern Arabian kingdom of Hira. 
 Esar-haddon boasts that he marched into the middle of this region, 
 that he slew eight of its kings, and carried their gods, their treasures 
 and their subjects into Assyria; and that Laile's gods were also con- 
 veyed to Nineveh, though Laile himself escaped. Laile, like the 
 Edomite monarch, went to Nineveh, and, prostrating himself at the 
 footstool of the Assyrian king, humbly requested the return of the 
 images of his gods. This request Esar-haddon granted, but only on 
 the condition that Laile became one of his tributaries. In this inva- 
 sion of Arabia, Esar-haddon led an army across the deserts which en- 
 close that country on the land side, and penetrated to the more fertile 
 tracts beyond them, a region of cities and fixed settlements, where he 
 took towns and carried off their plunder to Assyria. This invasion 
 was a most remarkable success, taking in account the natural perils of 
 the desert, and the warlike character of its inhabitants, who have never 
 fully bowed to the yoke of any foreign conqueror. The dangers of 
 the simoom and the aridity of the northern portion of Arabia, with 
 the difficulty of carrying water and provisions for a large army, and 
 the perils of plunging into the wilderness with a small one, have de- 
 terred most Oriental conquerors from even the thought of leading an 
 expedition into this dreary and desolate region. Esar-haddon is the 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon's 
 Success- 
 ful 
 Invasion 
 
 of 
 Arabia.
 
 196 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Suppres- 
 sion 
 of a 
 Syrian 
 Revolt. 
 
 Success- 
 ful 
 
 Invasion 
 of Media. 
 
 Other 
 Sources 
 of Esar- 
 haddon's 
 Annals. 
 
 His 
 Conquest 
 
 of 
 Egypt. 
 
 only monarch who ever ventured upon the hazardous undertaking of 
 penetrating in person into this vast desert land. 
 
 Esar-haddon next invaded the marshy region on the Euphrates, 
 where the Aramasan tribe of Gambulu dwelt, as he says, " like fish, in 
 the midst of the waters." The sheikh of this tribe had revolted, but 
 submitted on the approach of the Assyrian monarch, bringing in per- 
 son the arrears of his tribute and a present of buffaloes, thereby seek- 
 ing to propitiate his suzerain. Esar-haddon says that he forgave him, 
 and strengthened his capital with fresh works of defense and garri- 
 soned it, making it a stronghold to protect the country against the 
 attacks of the Susianians. 
 
 Esar-haddon's last expedition recorded on his principal cylinder, 
 which was not apparently led by the king personally, was against the 
 country of Bikni, or Bikan, a remote part of Media, supposed to be 
 Azerbijan. None of his predecessors had ever penetrated this region, 
 which was governed by many petty chiefs, each of whom ruled over his 
 own town and its surrounding territory, and whose names illustrate 
 their Aryan character. Esar-haddon carried two of these chiefs cap- 
 tive to Assyria, whereupon the others submitted, agreeing to pay trib- 
 ute and to share their power with Assyrian officers. 
 
 The various expeditions of Esar-haddon already described have been 
 made known to us from his cylinder inscriptions; but his conquest of 
 Egypt and his punishment and pardon of Manasseh, King of Judah 
 the greatest and most interesting events of his reign have been 
 brought to our knowledge from other sources. All that we know of 
 the circumstances of Esar-haddon's conquest of Egypt is derived from 
 an imperfect transcript of the Nahr-el-Kelb tablet, and the brief an- 
 nals of his son and successor, Asshur-bani-pal, who alludes to his fath- 
 er's proceedings in Egypt, for the purpose of making known the con- 
 dition of affairs when he himself invaded that country. 
 
 It thus appears that Esar-haddon led a large army into Egypt about 
 B. C. 670, won a great victory over the forces of Tirhakah, or Tehrak, 
 the reigning Ethiopian sovereign of that country, took Memphis, his 
 capital, and conquered the entire Nile valley as far southward as 
 Thebes, taking Thebes itself. Tirhakah fled into Ethiopia, leaving 
 Esar-haddon master of all Egypt as far as Thebes, the Diospolis of 
 the Greeks and the No, or No-Amon, of the Old Testament. The con- 
 quering Assyrian king weakened Egypt by dividing the country into 
 twenty governments, appointing a petty king in each town, but plac- 
 ing all the others under the rule of the prince reigning at Memphis. 
 This Memphite prince was Neko, the father of Psammetichus, or 
 Psamatik I., a native Egyptian mentioned both by Herodotus and 
 Manetho; and the other petty kings were also native Egyptians, with
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 197 
 
 a few exceptions where Assyrian officers were appointed governors. 
 After thus arranging the government of Egypt, and setting up his 
 tablet at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb beside that of Rameses the 
 Great, Esar-haddon returned to Assyria and began to introduce 
 sphinxes into the ornamentation of his palaces, at the same time add- 
 ing to his previous titles the following: " King of the kings of Egypt, 
 and conqueror of Ethiopia." This title does not occur on the cylin- 
 ders, but appears on the back of the slabs at the entrance of the south- 
 west palace of Nimrud, where the sphinxes are found, and also on a 
 bronze lion dug up at the Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nineveh, and on 
 the slabs of Esar-haddon's palace at Sherif-Khan. 
 
 The revolt of Manasseh, King of Judah, occurring about the time 
 of Esar-haddon's conquest of Egypt, was suppressed by the " cap- 
 tains of the host of the King of Assyria." These Assyrian generals 
 invaded Judah to subdue Manasseh, and " took and bound him with 
 chains, and carried him to Babylon," where Esar-haddon had erected 
 a palace for himself and frequently held his court. The Great King 
 at first treated his royal captive with severity, and Manasseh's afflic- 
 tion is said to have humbled his pride and to have led him to humiliate 
 himself before Jehovah and to repent of his cruelties and idolatries. 
 According to the Book of Chronicles, God " was entreated of him, and 
 heard his supplication, and brought him back again to Jerusalem into 
 his kingdom." Esar-haddon generously pardoned Manasseh for his 
 defection, and sent him back to Jerusalem, restoring him to his throne, 
 on the condition of paying an increased tribute to his Assyrian 
 suzerain. 
 
 To augment the Assyrian power in Palestine, Esar-haddon deter- 
 mined to strengthen the foreign element already introduced into the 
 country by Sargon, who, as we have seen, colonized Samaria with for- 
 eign settlers from Babylon, Cutha, Sippara, Ava, Hamath and Arabia. 
 Esar-haddon settled colonists in Palestine collected from Babylon, 
 Erech, or Orchoe, Susa, Elymais, Persia, and other surrounding na- 
 tions, and placed them under an officer of high rank " the great and 
 noble Asnapper." 
 
 When intelligence of Esar-haddon's illness reached Egypt in B. C. 
 669, Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king, whom Esar-haddon had driven out 
 of Egypt the previous year, at once descended the Nile from Ethiopia, 
 drove out the petty kings set over Egypt by the Assyrian monarch, 
 and reestablished his authority over all Egypt. Esar-haddon there- 
 upon resigned the crown of Assyria to his son Asshur-bani-pal, but 
 retained that of Babylonia, residing in Babylon until his death shortly 
 afterward, B. C. 668, when Asshur-bani-pal succeeded to the sover- 
 eignty of the whole empire. 
 
 Revolt 
 
 of 
 
 Manas- 
 seh, King 
 of Judah, 
 
 Sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 His 
 
 Captivity 
 and Res- 
 toration. 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon's 
 Coloniza- 
 tions in 
 Palestine. 
 
 Ethio- 
 pian 
 Recon- 
 quest of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon's 
 Resigna- 
 tion and 
 
 Death.
 
 198 CHALDiBA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His Esar-haddon was one of the most active of Assyria's royal builders 
 
 Palaces anc ^ arc hitects. During his short reign of thirteen years he erected 
 four palaces and more than thirty temples. Three of his great pal- 
 aces were located respectively at Babylon, Nineveh and Calah; but 
 that at Calah, or Nimrud, is the only one which has been explored 
 to any great extent, and even the ground-plan of that has been but 
 imperfectly traced. This palace had never been finished, its ornamen 
 tation had hardly been commenced, and the small portion of this that 
 was original had been so seriously injured by a destructive fire that it 
 perished immediately upon its discovery. We must therefore rely for 
 our knowledge of Esar-haddon's sculptures upon the report of persons 
 who saw them before they were destroyed, and upon one or two draw- 
 ings; and our only knowledge of the palace is derived from a half- 
 explored fragment of a half -finished palace destroyed by the flames 
 before its completion. 
 
 His Esar-haddon's palace at Calah was built at the south-western corner 
 
 Palace o f ^he Nimrud mound, abutting towards the west on the Tigris, and 
 Calah. towards the valley formed by the Shor-Derreh torrent. It faced 
 northward and was entered on this side from the open space of the plat- 
 form, through a portal guarded by two winged man-headed bulls. 
 The entrance led into a large court, two hundred and eighty by one 
 hundred feet, bounded on the north side by a mere wall, but surrounded 
 by buildings on the east, west and south sides. The chief building 
 was opposite, and was entered from the court by two gateways, one 
 directly facing the great northern portal of the court, and the other 
 slightly to the left, the former being guarded by colossal winged man- 
 headed bulls, and the latter only reveted with slabs. These gateways 
 both opened into the same room, the design of which was on the most 
 magnificent scale of all the Assyrian apartments, but it was so thor- 
 oughly broken up, through the architect's inability to cover the wide 
 space without sufficient supports, that this room virtually constituted 
 four chambers of moderate size rather than one grand hall. As one 
 apartment this room was one hundred and sixty-five feet long by sixty- 
 two feet wide. Viewed as a suite of four chambers, the rooms ap- 
 peared to be two long and narrow halls running parallel to each other, 
 and connected by a grand doorway in the middle, with two smaller 
 chambers located at the two ends, running at right angles with the 
 principal ones. The smaller chambers were sixty-two feet long, and 
 respectively nineteen feet and twenty-three feet wide. The larger 
 ones were one hundred and ten feet long, and respectively twenty feet 
 and twenty-eight feet wide. Fergusson's account of the grand apart- 
 ment of this palace is as follows : " Its general dimensions are one hun- 
 dred and sixty-five feet in length, by sixty-two feet in width; and it
 
 NEW. OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. igg 
 
 consequently is the largest hall yet found in Assyria. The architects, 
 however, 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 
 center by a wall supporting dwarf columns, forming a center gallery, 
 to which access was had by bridge galleries at both ends, a mode of 
 arrangement capable of great variety and picturesqueness of effect, 
 and of which I have little doubt that the builders availed themselves 
 to the fullest extent." The inner one of the two long parallel cham- 
 bers was connected by a grand doorway, guarded by sphinxes and 
 colossal lions, either with a small court or with a large chamber extend- 
 ing to the southern edge of the mound; while the two end rooms were 
 connected with smaller apartments in the same direction, but Mr. Lay- 
 ard's excavations here were incomplete. The buildings on the right 
 and left sides of the great court appear to have been wholly separate 
 from those at its southern end. Those on the left have not been 
 explored, but on the right several long narrow apartments, with one 
 or two passages, have been examined. Eastward the palace has not 
 been explored, and its extent northward, southward and westward is 
 not certain. Southward and westward the mound has been worn away 
 by the Tigris and the Shor-Derreh torrent. The walls of Esar-had- 
 don's palace were built of sun-dried bricks, reveted with alabaster slabs, 
 taken from the decayed palaces of his predecessors. Ere the new 
 sculptures on these slabs were completed Esar-haddon died, and the 
 work ceased, or the palace was ruined by fire. The only sculptures 
 finished were the winged man-headed bulls and lions at the various por- 
 tals, a few bas-reliefs near them, and some sphinxes within the span of 
 the two widest doorways. These sphinxes were Egyptian in idea, but 
 had the horned cap like those on the bulls, the Assyrian arrangement 
 of hair, Assyrian ear-rings, and wings like those of the bulls and lions. 
 The figures near the lions were mythic, and, according to Mr. Lay- 
 ard's representations, were more than ordinarily grotesque. 
 
 The inscriptions give us a full account of the character of Esar- Hia 
 haddon's buildings and their ornamentation. These inform us that ^?. lace * 
 the thirty-six temples which this king erected in Assyria and Baby- 
 lonia were profusely adorned with plates of gold and silver, making 
 them " as splendid as the day." His palace at Nineveh, located on 
 the Nebbi-Yunus mound, was said to have been built upon the site 
 of a former palace of the Assyrian kings. The materials for its con- 
 struction were procured from different countries; the Phoenician, Syr- 
 ian and Cyprian kings sending to Nineveh for this purpose great 
 beams of cedar, cypress and ebony, stone statues, and various works in 
 different kinds of metal. The size of this palace is said to have sur-
 
 200 
 
 Excava- 
 tions at 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Esar- 
 haddon's 
 
 Other 
 Palaces. 
 
 His 
 Death. 
 
 Asshur- 
 bani-pal. 
 
 His First 
 Conquest 
 
 of 
 Egypt 
 
 passed all the structures of former kings. Carved beams of cedar 
 wood were used in roofing this edifice, which was partly supported by 
 columns of cypress wood, ornamented with rings of silver and strength- 
 ened with iron bands. Winged man-headed bulls and lions guarded 
 the portals ; and the gates were made of ebony and cypress ornamented 
 with iron, silver and ivory; while the walls were adorned with sculp- 
 tured slabs and enameled bricks. 
 
 The prejudice of the present Mohammedan inhabitants against dis- 
 turbing their dead, and against violating the tomb of Jonah, has thus 
 far prevented satisfactory excavations of the Nebbi-Yunus mound. 
 Mr. Layard stealthily made a slight excavation in this mound, thus 
 discovering a few fragments bearing Esar-haddon's name. Turkish 
 excavations soon afterwards uncovered a long line of wall of one of 
 Sennacherib's palaces, and likewise a part of Esar-haddon's palace. 
 On the outside surface of the former were winged man-headed bulls in 
 high relief, sculptured seemingly after the wall was erected, each bull 
 covering ten or twelve distinct stone blocks. A slab-inscription ob- 
 tained from this palace was published in the British Museum Series. 
 A bronze lion with legend was obtained from Esar-haddon's palace. 
 
 We know nothing of Esar-haddon's palace at Babylon, which now 
 lies buried beneath the mounds at Hillah. Mr. Layard and Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson have carefully examined the Sherif-Khan palace, which was 
 found to be very much inferior to the ordinary Assyrian royal resi- 
 dences, being only a dwelling erected by Esar-haddon for his eldest 
 son, and it also is believed to have been unfinished when the king died. 
 
 After a reign of thirteen years, Esar-haddon, " King of Assyria, 
 Babylonia, Egypt, Meroe and Ethiopia," as he calls himself in his 
 later inscriptions, died in B. C. 668, and was succeeded on his throne 
 by his eldest son, ASSHUR-BANI-PAL, whom he had already associated 
 in the government. Asshur-bani-pal, upon his accession, appointed 
 to the viceroyalty of Babylon his younger brother, Saul-Mugina, 
 called Sammughes by Polyhistor, and Saosduchinus by the Canon of 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 Upon his succession, Asshur-bani-pal found himself involved in a 
 war with Egypt. Late in Esar-haddon's reign Tirhakah, the Ethio- 
 pian king, descended the Nile, recovered Thebes, Memphis and other 
 Egyptian cities, and expelled the princes and governors appointed by 
 Esar-haddon when he had conquered the country. Asshur-bani-pal, 
 soon after his accession, led an expedition through Syria into Egypt, 
 and defeated the Ethiopian and Egyptian army near the city of Kar- 
 banit. Tirhakah at once fled from Memphis, sailing up the Nile to 
 Thebes; and being pursued by the Assyrians to the latter place, the 
 Ethiopian king continued his retreat up the Nile valley, leaving all
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 201 
 
 Egypt north of Thebes in the possession of the Assyrian monarch. 
 Asshur-bani-pal restored the princes and rulers whom his father had 
 placed over Egypt, and whom Tirhakah had expelled; and, after a 
 short rest at Thebes, returned in triumph by way of Syria to Nineveh. 
 
 No sooner had the Assyrian king left Egypt than intrigues to re- His 
 store the Ethiopian power commenced. Neko and other Egyptian conquest 
 governors restored by Asshur-bani-pal deserted the Assyrian cause and of 
 sided with the Ethiopians. The governors who remained loyal to 
 Assyria tried to suppress the revolt; Neko and several other rebel lead- 
 ers were carried in chains to Assyria; and Sais, Tanis, Mendes and 
 other revolted Egyptian cities were punished. The revolt was, how- 
 ever, successful, and Tirhakah having reestablished himself at Thebes, 
 threatened to again extend his sway over the entire Nile valley. But 
 when Asshur-bani-pal forgave Neko and sent him back to Egypt with 
 a large Assyrian army, Tirhakah again fled to Upper Egypt, where 
 he died shortly afterwards. Tirhakah's stepson and successor, Urda- 
 mane believed to be the Rud-Amun of the hieroglyphics descended 
 the Nile valley with an army, defeated the Assyrians near Memphis, 
 forced them to seek refuge within its walls, besieged and took the city, 
 and regained possession of Lower Egypt. Upon hearing of this, As- 
 shur-bani-pal left Asshur, and leading an expedition personally against 
 the new Ethiopian monarch, drove him from Memphis to Thebes, 
 and thence to the city of Kipkip, far up the Nile. After entering 
 Thebes in triumph and sacking the city, and again placing governors 
 over the Egyptian cities and taking hostages to secure their loyalty, 
 Asshur-bani-pal returned to Nineveh with his plunder of gold, silver, 
 ebony, ivory, obelisks, precious stones, dyed garments, monkeys and 
 elephants of the Theban palace, male and female captives. 
 
 Between his first and second expeditions into Egypt, Asshur-bani- His 
 pal attacked Tyre, whose king, Baal, had incurred his displeasure, and, f xvre 
 reducing him to submission, exacted from him a large tribute, which and 
 
 he sent to Nineveh. About the same time Asshur-bani-pal married a 
 Cilician princess. Soon after his second expedition into Egypt, Ass- Minor. 
 hur-bani-pal invaded Asia Minor, crossing the Taurus mountains and 
 penetrating a region never before entered by an Assyrian king; and, 
 after reducing a number of towns, he returned to Nineveh, where he 
 received an embassy, of which he gives the following account : " Gyges, Sub- 
 King of Lydia, a country on the sea-coast, a remote place, of which m Q Si g 
 the kings my ancestors had never even heard the name, had formerly King of 
 learned in a dream the fame of my empire, and had sent officers to my 
 presence to perform homage on his behalf." The Lydian king now 
 sent a second time to Asshur-bani-pal and told him that since his sub- 
 mission he defeated the Cimmerians, who had formerly ravaged his
 
 202 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Conquest 
 of Minni 
 
 and 
 Paddiri. 
 
 Susia- 
 nian 
 
 Invasion 
 of Baby- 
 lonia 
 Repelled. 
 
 Dynastic 
 Revolu- 
 tion in 
 Susiana. 
 
 country, and he begged him to accept Cimmerian chiefs whom he had 
 taken captive in battle, along with other presents, which the Assyrian 
 monarch regarded as " tribute." About the same time Asshur-bani- 
 pal repulsed an attack by the " King of Kharbat " on a district of 
 Babylonia, and after taking Kharbat transported its inhabitants to 
 Egypt. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal next invaded Minni, or Persarmenia, the mountain 
 region about Lakes Van and Urumiyeh. Akhsheri, the King of Minni, 
 having lost his capital, Izirtu, and several other cities, was murdered 
 by his subjects; and his son, Vahalli, was forced to submit, and sent 
 an embassy to Nineveh to do homage, with tribute, presents and hos- 
 tages. Asshur-bani-pal received the envoys graciously, pardoned Va- 
 halli and kept him on the throne of Minni, but compelled him to pay 
 a heavy tribute. Asshur-bani-pal also conquered a region called Pad- 
 diri, which his predecessors had separated from Minni, but which he 
 annexed to his own dominion, placing an Assyrian governor over it. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal next engaged in a struggle of twelve years with 
 Elam, or Susiana. Certain tribes, pressed by famine, had passed from 
 Susiana into the Assyrian dominions, where they were permitted to 
 settle; but when, after the famine had ceased, they wished to return 
 to their former home, Asshur-bani-pal would not agree to their re- 
 moval. Urtaki, King of Susiana, resented this by invading Babylonia, 
 and was aided by Belu-bagar, King of the Gambulu, an important 
 Aramaean tribe. Saiil-Mugina, Asshur-bani-paFs brother and viceroy 
 at Babylon, greatly alarmed, sent to Nineveh for aid. Thereupon an 
 Assyrian army drove the Susianian monarch out of Babylonia, inflict- 
 ing upon him a severe defeat before he escaped and returned to Susa, 
 where he died within a year. 
 
 A dynastic revolution in Susiana now proved of great advantage to 
 the Assyrians. Urtaki had wrested the Susianian throne from his 
 elder brother, Umman-aldas. At his death, his younger brother, 
 Temin-Umman, usurped the crown ; and the sons of Umman-aldas and 
 those of Urtaki, who claimed the Susianian crown, only saved their 
 lives by fleeing to Nineveh with their relatives and adherents, and put- 
 ting themselves under the protection of the Assyrian monarch. Thus 
 Asshur-bani-pal, in the expedition which he now undertook, had a 
 party which favored him in Susiana itself ; but Temin-Umman strength- 
 ened himself by alliances with two descendants of Merodach-Baladan, 
 who had principalities upon the Persian Gulf coast, with two sons of 
 Belu-bagar, sheikh of the Gambulu, with two mountain chiefs, one a 
 blood relation of the Assyrian king, and with several inferior chief- 
 tains. Asshur-bani-pal defeated the allies, took Temin-Umman pris- 
 oner, executed him, and exposed his head over one of the gates of
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 203 
 
 Nineveh. He then divided Susiana between Urtaki's sons, Umman-ibi 
 and Tammarit, establishing the former at Susa, and the latter at a 
 town called Khidal, in Eastern Susiana. A son of Temin-Umman was 
 executed with his father. Several of Merodach-Baladan's grandsons 
 suffered mutilation. A Chaldaean prince and a chieftain of the Gam- 
 bulu had their tongues torn out by the roots. Another Gambulu chief 
 was beheaded. Two of Temin-Umman's principal officers were chained 
 and flayed. By these cruelties Asshur-bani-pal expected to strike 
 terror into his enemies. 
 
 No sooner, however, had the Assyrians returned to Nineveh than 
 fresh troubles broke out. Asshur-bani-pal's own brother, Saiil-Mu- 
 gina, dissatisfied with his subordinate position as viceroy of Babylon, 
 rebelled, and, declaring himself King of Babylon, obtained a number 
 of important allies. These were Umman-ibi, who, though he had re- 
 ceived his crown from Asshur-bani-pal, had been bribed by gift of 
 treasure from the Babylonian temples ; Vaiteha, a powerful Arabian 
 prince ; and Nebo-bel-sumi, a surviving grandson of Merodach-Bala- 
 dan. Saiil-Mugina's fair prospects of success were blighted by do- 
 mestic troubles in Susiana, where Umman-ibi was defeated and slain in 
 a civil war with his brother Tammarit, who thus became King of all 
 Susiana. Tammarit, however, entered into an alliance with Saiil-Mu- 
 gina; but while absent with his army in Babylonia, a mountain chief 
 from Luristan named Inda-bibi, or Inda-bigas, excited a revolt in 
 Susiana and seized the throne; and Tammarit, deserted by his army, 
 was obliged to flee and seek safety in concealment, while the Susianian 
 army returned home. While Saiil-Mugina thus lost the most impor- 
 tant of his allies, Asshur-bani-pal had overrun the northern Babylonian 
 provinces and besieged and took the Babylonian towns one after an- 
 other. Saiil-Mugina was taken prisoner by Asshur-bani-pal, who pun- 
 ished his rebel brother more terribly than any of his other captured 
 enemies, burning him alive. 
 
 A lull of some years in actual hostilities between Assyria and Susiana 
 followed. Inda-bibi having given refuge to Nebo-bel-sumi, and hav- 
 ing repeatedly refused to surrender the fugitive prince as demanded 
 by the Assyrian king, was killed by the commander of his archers, a 
 second Umman-aldas, who then usurped the Susianian throne. At the 
 same time many pretenders claimed the Susianian crown, and Asshur- 
 bani-pal again demanded the surrender of Nebo-bel-sumi, who would 
 have been given up had he not committed suicide. About B. C. 645 
 Asshur-bani-pal invaded Susiana, took the strongly-fortified town of 
 Bit-Imbi by siege, drove Umman-aldas into the mountain region of 
 Susiana, took Susa, Badaca and twenty-four other cities, and assigned 
 the government of Western Susiana to Tammarit, who, after his flight 
 116 
 
 Asshur- 
 bani- 
 pal's 
 First 
 Success- 
 ful Inva- 
 sion of 
 Susiana. 
 
 His 
 Brother 
 
 Saiil- 
 Mugina's 
 Revolt at 
 Babylon. 
 
 His 
 Allies. 
 
 His 
 Capture 
 
 and 
 Death. 
 
 Dissen- 
 sions in 
 Susiana. 
 
 Asshur- 
 bani-pal's 
 Second 
 Success- 
 ful 
 Invasion 
 
 of 
 Susiana.
 
 204 
 
 CHAIJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 
 Final 
 
 Conquest 
 
 of 
 
 Susiana. 
 
 Revolt of 
 
 Egypt 
 
 and 
 
 Lydia. 
 
 Resub- 
 
 mission of 
 
 Lydia. 
 
 Asshur- 
 bani-pal's 
 Success- 
 ful Cam- 
 paign in 
 Arabia. 
 
 from Babylonia, had become a fugitive at the court of Assyria. Um- 
 man-aldas was allowed to retain the sovereignty of Eastern Susiana. 
 
 Tammarit, in order to cast off his vassalage to the Assyrian mon- 
 arch, plotted to massacre all the foreign garrisons in his dominions, 
 but was carried a prisoner to Nineveh, and Western Susiana was put 
 under military rule. Umman-aldas, in his mountain fastness, collected 
 a new army, and took possession of Bit-Imbi the following spring ; but 
 unable to resist the Assyrian assaults, he soon evacuated the town, and 
 defended himself in his entire retreat to Susa, holding the different 
 strong towns and rivers in succession. But the Assyrians drove him 
 from post to post, and finally took both Susa and Badaca, thus again 
 placing Susiana at Asshur-bani-pal's mercy, all the towns making 
 their submission, while Umman-aldas was carried a prisoner to Nineveh. 
 Inflamed with rage on account of the revolt, Asshur-bani-pal plun- 
 dered the Susianian capital of its treasures, among which were eighteen 
 images of gods and goddesses, thirty-two statues of former Susianian 
 kings, including those of Kudur-Nakhunta and Tammarit. He also 
 gave the other Susianian cities to be pillaged by his soldiers for a 
 period of almost two months. He then annexed Susiana to the Assyr- 
 ian Empire, thus closing this Susianian war, after it had lasted, with 
 short intervals, for twelve years. 
 
 While Asshur-bani-pal was thus engaged in Susiana and Babylonia, 
 Psammetichus declared himself independent in Egypt and began a 
 war against the petty Egyptian princes who remained steadfast in 
 their loyalty to their Assyrian suzerain. In Asia Minor, Gyges, King 
 of Lydia, who had so recently done homage to Assyria, sent aid to 
 the Egyptian rebel. Egypt cast off the Assyrian yoke; but Gyges 
 was slain in a terrible struggle with the Cimmerians, who had spread 
 desolation throughout his dominions ; and Ardys, his successor on the 
 Lydian throne, renewed the homage to the Assyrian king which his 
 father had relinquished. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal next engaged in an important war with some Arab 
 tribes of the desert who had aided Saul-Mugina in his revolt against 
 his brother and suzerain. The Arab leader in this war was Vaiteha, 
 whose allies were Natun, or Nathan, King of the Nabathaeans, and 
 Ammu-ladin, King of Kedar. The whole border of Arabia from the 
 Persian Gulf to Syria, and thence southward by Damascus to Petra, 
 was the scene of military operations in this war. Petra, Moab, Edom, 
 Zoar and several other cities fell into the hands of the Assyrians. 
 The Arabs were defeated with great slaughter in the final battle at 
 Khukhuruna, in the mountains near Damascus ; and the two Arab 
 chiefs who had aided Saiil-Mugina were carried captives to Nineveh, 
 and there publicly executed.
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Thus ended the annals of Asshur-bani-pal, who was the most enter- 
 prising and the most powerful of Assyrian warrior kings, and who 
 extended the Assyrian Empire in every direction beyond its previous 
 limits. In Egypt he completed the task begun by his father Esar- 
 haddon, and established the Assyrian dominion for some years, not only 
 at Sais and Memphis, but likewise at Thebes. In Asia Minor he sub- 
 dud large sections never before invaded by any Assyrian king, and 
 carried his renown to the western extremity of the Asiatic continent. 
 In the north he held, not only the Minni, but the Urarda, or true 
 Armenians, among his tributaries. On the south he formally annexed 
 Susiana to the Assyrian Empire, and on the west he signally chas- 
 tised the Arabs. 
 
 Thus in the middle part of Asshur-bani-pal's brilliant reign Assyria 
 reached the culminating point of her greatness the zenith of her 
 power and the widest extent of her dominion being at this time para- 
 mount over the portion of Western Asia from the Mediterranean and 
 the Halys on the west to the Caspian Sea and the Persian desert on 
 the east, and from Arabia and the Persian Gulf on the south to the 
 northern frontier of Armenia and the center of Cappadocia on the 
 north. In Africa the authority of Assyria was at this time acknowl- 
 edged by Egypt as far south as Thebes. Thus the Assyrian influence 
 extended over Susiana, Chaldaea, Babylonia, Media, Matiene, or the 
 Zagros range, Mesopotamia; portions of Armenia, Cappadocia and 
 Cilicia ; Syria, Phanicia, Palestine Idumasa, part of Arabia and nearly 
 all of Egypt. The island of Cyprus may also have been a dependency. 
 But Persia proper, Bactria and Sogdiana, even Hyrcania, were beyond 
 the eastern limit of Assyrian power, which on the north did not on 
 this side extend farther than about the vicinity of Kasvin, and towards 
 the south was confined within the Zagros mountain range; while on 
 the west, Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, even Pamphylia, were independent, 
 the arms of Assyria having never been, so far as known, carried west- 
 ward beyond Cilicia or across the river Halys. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal was also noted for his love of hunting, especially 
 lion-hunting. On the banks of streams, and in his pleasure-galley 
 in mid-stream, he roused the king of beasts from his lair by means of 
 hounds and beaters, and slew him with his arrows. In his own park or 
 paradise large and ferocious beasts, brought from distant quarters, 
 were placed in traps about the grounds, and when he approached they 
 were released from confinement, while he drove among them in his 
 chariot, letting fly his arrows at each, seldom missing the marks at 
 which they were directed. With two or three attendants armed with 
 spears, he often encountered the terrific spring of the bolder beasts, 
 who rushed wild with rage at the royal marksman to tear him from 
 
 His 
 Extensive 
 
 minions. 
 
 Zenith of 
 Great- 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 Hun?ine 8 
 Exploits.
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 the chariot. On some occasions he left the chariot-board and engaged 
 in a close struggle single-handed with the brutes, without the protec- 
 tion of armor, in his usual dress, with only a fillet upon his head, and 
 would pierce them through the heart with sword or spear. He often 
 eneased in the chase of the wild ass, and hunted the stag, the hind 
 
 O o ^5' 
 
 and the ibex, or wild goat. His love of sport is also attested by the 
 figures of his favorite hounds made in clay, and painted and inscribed 
 with their respective names. 
 
 His Asshur-bani-pal was the only Assyrian king who exhibited any taste 
 
 Literary f or learning and literature. His predecessors only left to their pos- 
 
 and terity some records of the events of their reigns, inscribed on cylinders, 
 
 Royal tablets, slabs, winged man-headed bulls and lions, and a few dedica- 
 
 Libraryat ... 
 
 Nineveh, tory inscriptions, addresses to the deities whom they particularly wor- 
 shiped. Asshur-bani-pal displayed far more varied and all-embracing 
 literary tastes. He established a Royal Library, consisting of clay 
 tablets, at Nineveh, from which the British Museum has derived its 
 most valuable collection. Under the auspices of this monarch were 
 prepared comparative vocabularies, lists of deities and their epithets, 
 chronological lists of kings and eponyms, records of astronomical 
 observations, grammars, histories and various kinds of scientific works. 
 These treasures of learning were preserved in certain chambers of the 
 palace of Asshur-bani-pal's grandfather, Sennacherib, where they were 
 discovered by Mr. La yard. There are also a large number of religious 
 documents, prayers, invocations, etc., besides many juridical treatises, 
 the fines to be imposed for certain social offenses; and lastly, there 
 are all the contents of the Registry office, such as deeds of sale and 
 barter referring to land, houses, and all kinds of property, contracts, 
 bonds for loans, benefactions and other different kinds of legal instru- 
 ments. Selections from the tablets have been published in England, 
 being prepared for that purpose by Sir Henry Rawlinson and others. 
 The clay tablets on which they were inscribed lay here in such large 
 numbers, sometimes whole, but generally in fragments, that they cov- 
 ered the floors of the chambers for more than a foot high. Mr. Layard 
 truly says that " the documents thus discovered at Nineveh probably 
 exceed all that has yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt." 
 Among the interesting and valuable results which these documents have 
 recently yielded is the chronological scheme drawn from seven different 
 tablets, and known as " the Assyrian Canon." 
 
 His As a builder Asshur-bani-pal fully rivaled, if he did not surpass, 
 
 Great ^h e greatest of his predecessors. His magnificent palace at Nineveh, 
 
 .Nineveh, whose ruins are seen on the Koyunjik mound, within a few hundred 
 yards of his illustrious grandfather's splendid royal edifice, was built 
 pn a plan different from those of former kings. The main building
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 consisted of three arms branching from a common center, thus in its 
 general form resembling the letter T- The central point was entered 
 by a long ascending gallery lined with sculptures, leading from a gate- 
 way, with rooms attached, at a corner of the great court, first a distance 
 of one hundred and ninety feet in a direction parallel to the top bar 
 of the TJ a nd then a distance of eighty feet in a direction at right 
 angles to this, thus bringing it down precisely to the central point 
 from which the arms extended. The whole structure was thus shaped 
 like a cross, having one arm extending from the top towards the left 
 or west. The principal apartments were in the lower limb of the cross, 
 where a grand hall extended almost the entire length of the limb, no 
 less than one hundred and forty-five feet long by twenty-eight and a 
 half feet wide, opening towards the east on a great court, paved prin- 
 cipally with patterned slabs, and communicating with a number of 
 smaller rooms towards the west, and through these smaller rooms with 
 a second court, facing towards the south-west and the south. The 
 next largest apartment was in the right or eastern arm of the cross, 
 and was a hall one hundred and eight feet long by twenty-four feet 
 broad, divided by a wide doorway, in which were two pillar-bases, into 
 a square ante-chamber twenty-four feet each way, and an inner apart- 
 ment about eighty feet long. Neither arm of the cross was thoroughly 
 explored, and it is not known whether they reached to the extreme 
 edge of the eastern and western courts, dividing each into two, or 
 whether they only extended into the courts a certain distance. Only 
 one doorway has been discovered leading from the rest of the palace 
 to the western rooms. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal's great palace was especially remarkable for its Its 
 beautiful and elaborate ornamentation. The courts were paved with tation. 
 large slabs covered with elegant patterns. Some of the doorways had 
 arched tops highly adorned with rosettes, lotuses, etc. The chambers 
 and passages were lined throughout with alabaster slabs, which bore 
 reliefs designed with remarkable spirit, and executed with wonderful 
 detail and fineness. Here were represented interesting hunting 
 scenes, such as the wild ass, the stag, the hind, the dying wild ass, the 
 lion about to spring, the wounded wild ass seized by hounds, the 
 wounded lion, the lion biting a chariot-wheel, the king shooting a lion 
 with his arrow, the lion-hunt on a river, the king killing lions, the lion 
 let out of a trap, the hound held in leash, the wounded lioness, the 
 hound chasing a wild ass, the hound chasing a doe, the stag taking 
 the water, etc. In this part of the palace were likewise illustrated the 
 king's private life, the trees and flowers of the palace garden, the 
 royal galley with its two banks of oars, the libation over four dead 
 lions, the temple with pillars resting on lions, and different bands of
 
 208 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 bani-pal's 
 
 Other 
 
 Edifices 
 
 at 
 Nineveh. 
 
 His 
 Great- 
 ness. 
 
 Ezekiel's 
 Descrip- 
 tion of 
 Assyrian 
 Great- 
 ness. 
 
 musicians. A part of the ascending passage was adorned with various 
 scenes, such as a long train, with game, nets and dogs returning from 
 the chase. In combination with all the sculptures just enumerated 
 were many scenes of sieges and battles, illustrating Asshur-bani-pal's 
 wars. Reliefs resembling these last were discovered by Mr. Layard 
 in certain chambers of Sennacherib's palace which had been embel- 
 lished by Asshur-bani-pal. These reliefs were distinguished for the 
 large number and small size of the figures, for the variety and spirit 
 of the attitudes, and for the careful finish of all the minute details of 
 the scenes illustrated upon them. These give us a good representa- 
 tion of an Assyrian battle, showing us at one view the battle, the flight 
 and pursuit, the capture and treatment of prisoners, the gathering of 
 the spoil and the beheading of the slain. These reliefs are now in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal, as already observed, made additions to Sennacher- 
 ib's great palace at Nineveh, and erected some other buildings at the 
 same city, whose remains are seen on the Nebbi-Yunus mound, where 
 have been discovered slabs inscribed with his name and an account of 
 his wars. He also built a temple to Ishtar at Nineveh, whose ruins 
 are seen on the Koyunjik mound, and repaired a shrine of the same 
 goddess at Arbela. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal, undoubtedly, was one of the greatest of Assyria's 
 kings. He conquered Egypt and Susiana, held Babylon in quiet sub- 
 jection with the exception of the short revolt of Saiil-Mugina, extended 
 his conquests far into Armenia, led his armies beyond the Taurus, and 
 subjugated the barbarous tribes of Asia Minor. During the intervals 
 of peace he employed himself in hunting the lion, and in the erection 
 and embellishment of palaces and temples. 
 
 In Asshur-bani-pal's reign the Assyrian Empire attained its greatest 
 dimensions, Assyrian art reached its highest point, and the Assyrian 
 dominion appeared likely to extend itself over the entire East. Then 
 Assyria most fully answered the forcible description given her by the 
 Jewish prophet Ezekiel in these words : " The Assyrian was a cedar 
 in Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of 
 high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters 
 made him great ; the deep set him up on high with her rivers running 
 about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the 
 field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, 
 and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because 
 of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of the 
 heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all 
 the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow 
 dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 209 
 
 length of his branches ; for his root was by great waters. The cedars 
 in the garden of God could not hide him ; the fir-trees were not like his 
 boughs ; and the chestnut-trees were not like his branches ; nor any tree 
 in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty." 
 
 With all their advance in civilization, their progress in art and the v As . shu '" 
 . . bam-pal's 
 
 practical inventions, their ever-increasing literature, the Assyrians still Cruelty. 
 
 retained the cruel and vindictive spirit of the most barbarous ages and 
 nations in conducting their wars. Through the whole period of their 
 history their treatment of captured enemies continued to be of the most 
 barbarous brutality, which all their advancing culture and their prog- 
 ress in the arts of civilized life did not tend to mitigate or soften. 
 Sennacherib and Esar-haddon were more merciful than their prede- 
 cessors, frequently sparing their captives, even when rebels ; but Ass- 
 hur-bani-pal restored the old practice of executions, mutilations and 
 tortures, and was apparently the most cruel of all the Assyrian kings. 
 In his bas-reliefs we see the unresisting enemy pierced through with 
 the spear, the tongue torn from the mouth of the captive accused of 
 blasphemy, the rebel king beheaded on the battle-field, and the prisoner 
 led to execution with the head of a friend or brother hung round his 
 neck. We see the scourgers preceding the king as his regular attend- 
 ants, with their whips passed through their girdles. We observe liv- 
 ing and dead men subjected to the operation of flaying. We behold 
 scenes in which the executioner is represented as first striking in the 
 face with his fist those about to be executed. Thus we have all the 
 evidence of barbarous cruelty, such as had a brutalizing influence on 
 those who inflicted it, and also on those who witnessed it. Nineveh 
 was deservedly designated by the Jewish prophet Nahum as " a bloody 
 city," or " a city of bloods " ; and, in the language of the same 
 prophet, " the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and 
 strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens 
 with ravin." Asshur-bani-pal gloried in his vindictive and unsparing 
 cruelties, transmitting the record of them to posterity by representing 
 them in all their horrors upon his palace walls. 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal's glory was well known to the Greeks, who seem to Asshur- 
 have known more of him than of any other Assyrian monarch. He identified 
 was doubtless one of the " two kings called Sardanapalus," celebrated * s the 
 by Hellanicus ; and he must have been " the warlike Sardanapalus " p a ius 
 
 of Callisthenes. Herodotus alluded to his great wealth, and Aristoph- o f *&* 
 
 Greek 
 anes employed his name as a byword for magnificence. The well writers. 
 
 known account given by Ctesias of the voluptuous Assyrian monarch 
 whom he called Sardanapalus, and repeated from him by subsequent 
 authors, does not probably refer to Asshur-bani-pal, but rather alludes 
 to his successor, the last Assyrian king. Asshur-bani-pal, the van- 
 
 VOL. 1. 14
 
 210 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Alleged 
 Tomb of 
 Sardan- 
 apalus at 
 Tarsus. 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 bani-pal 
 
 Identified 
 
 as the 
 
 Cinnela- 
 
 danus 
 
 of the 
 
 Canon of 
 
 Ptolemy. 
 
 quisher of Tirhakah, the conquerer of the tribes beyond the Taurus, 
 the great warrior king whom the wealthy and prosperous Gyges, King 
 of Lydia, sought to propitiate by means of rich presents, was so unlike 
 the mere voluptuary who never ventured outside the palace gates, but 
 confined himself exclusively to the seraglio, performing woman's work 
 and often attired in female apparel. In one respect alone does Asshur- 
 bani-pal's character, as disclosed to us by the monuments, exhibit the 
 slightest likeness to that of the Sardanapalus of Ctesias. Asshur- 
 bani-pal obtained for himself a multitude of wives. Always upon the 
 suppression of a revolt, he required the conquered vassal to send to 
 Nineveh, along with his tribute, one or more of his daughters. These 
 princesses became inmates of his harem, or seraglio. 
 
 If Asshur-bani-pal was the monarch called Sardanapalus by the 
 Greeks, he was the founder of Tarsus, in Cilicia, and of the neigh- 
 boring city of Anchialus, on the authority of some classical writers, 
 though more reliable authors inform us that Tarsus was founded by 
 Sennacherib. It was believed generally by the Greeks that the tomb 
 of Sardanapalus was in this vicinity. They described this tomb as a 
 monument of some height, having a statue of the king on the top, 
 representing him as snapping his fingers. The stone base bore an 
 inscription in Assyrian characters, which they interpreted as follows: 
 " Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchialus in 
 one day. Do thou, O stranger, eat, drink, and amuse thyself; for all 
 the rest of human life is not worth so much as this " " this " signify- 
 ing the sound supposed to be made by the king with his fingers. Cle- 
 archus said that the inscription was simply the following: " Sardana- 
 palus, son of Anacyndaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day 
 yet now he is dead." Amyntas said that the tomb of Sardanapalus 
 was at Nineveh, and gave a very different inscription. Rawlinson 
 thinks that the so-called tomb of Sardanapalus was really the stele set 
 up by Sennacherib on his conquest of Cilicia and founding of Tarsus, 
 as related by Polyhistor. 
 
 It has been generally supposed that Asshur-bani-pal died about B. 
 C. 648 or 647, in which case his entire reign would have been a brilliant 
 and prosperous one ; but recent discoveries render it probable that he 
 lived and reigned until B. C. 626, and that he was the Cinneladanus 
 of the Canon of Ptolemy, who occupied the Babylonian throne from 
 B. C. 647 to B. C. 626. Asshur-bani-pal distinctly asserts that when 
 he subdued Babylon and put his brother Saiil-Mugina to death he 
 became King of Babylon himself; and many tablets remain, dated by 
 his regnal years at Babylon, while the eponyms which can be assigned 
 to his reign are at least twenty-six or twenty-seven. Polyhistor dis- 
 tinctly says that the successor of Sam-mughes, or Saiil-Mugina, on the
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Babylonian throne was his brother, and that he reigned twenty-one 
 years. Thus modern writers have identified Asshur-bani-pal with Cin- 
 neladanus, and have concluded that he reigned in all forty-two years, 
 from B. C. 668 to B. C. 626. In this case Assyria's decline com- 
 menced during the later years of Asshur-bani-pal's reign, so that dur- 
 ing this period she was obliged to exchange her former aggressive 
 course toward other nations for a defensive attitude to maintain her 
 own continued existence against the fierce assaults of the powerful 
 neighboring kingdom of Media and the destructive inroads of the wild 
 Scyths from the plains of Central Asia. 
 
 The centralized monarchy established in Media about B. C. 640 
 rapidly developed into a great military power. Setting aside the old 
 system of separate government and village autonomy, the Medes had 
 united themselves into a single consolidated monarchy, and about B. 
 C. 634, when Asshur-bani-pal had reigned over Assyria thirty-four 
 years, these people undertook an expedition against Nineveh, but failed 
 in this first attack. Phraortes, or the actual leader of this army of 
 invasion, was thoroughly defeated by the Assyrians, his host being 
 cut to pieces, and himself being among the slain. Nevertheless the 
 fact that the Medes had assumed the offensive was a potent cause for 
 alarm, as it illustrated a new state of affairs in Western Asia, fully 
 demonstrating that Assyria was no longer the arbitress of the destinies 
 of nations. Cyaxares, the next Median king, led an army against 
 Assyria about B. C. 632, defeated the Assyrians in battle, and at once 
 laid siege to Nineveh, but was recalled to the defense of his own coun- 
 try against a devastating barbarian torrent which threatened to engulf 
 the monarchy which had so suddenly grown up on the eastern borders 
 of Assyria. This new danger was an irresistible inroad of the Scyths, 
 or Scythians, from Central Asia, who swept with destructive force over 
 both Media and Assyria, threatening the utter annihilation of the 
 civilized nations of Western Asia. 
 
 Herodotus and Hippocrates described the Scythians as coarse and 
 gross in their habits, with large fleshy bodies, loose joints, soft swollen 
 bellies and scanty hair. They never washed themselves, only cleansing 
 their persons with a vapor bath, their women applying to their bodies 
 a paste which left them glossy after it had been removed. They 
 dwelt in wagons, or in rude tents consisting of woolen felts arranged 
 around three bent sticks inclined towards each other. They subsisted 
 on mares' milk and cheese, adding at times boiled beef and horse-flesh 
 as a delicacy. They drank the blood of their enemies slain in battle. 
 They cut off the heads of these dead foes, and showed them to their 
 kings to obtain each his respective share of the spoil. They also 
 stripped the scalps from the skulls and suspended them on their bridle- 
 
 Assyria's 
 Decline. 
 
 Median 
 Attacks 
 
 on 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Scythian 
 Inroad. 
 
 Descrip- 
 tion of the 
 Scythians 
 
 by 
 
 Herodo- 
 tus and 
 Hippocra- 
 tes.
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Scythian 
 
 Kings and 
 
 Royal 
 
 Tribe. 
 
 Scythian 
 Religion. 
 
 Scythian 
 Devasta- 
 tion of 
 Western 
 Asia. 
 
 reins as trophies. Occasionally they flayed the right arms and hands 
 of their slain enemies, and used the skins as coverings for their quivers. 
 The upper part of the skulls were usually converted into drinking- 
 cups. They spent the larger portion of each day on horseback, at- 
 tending on the vast herds of cattle which they pastured. They used 
 the bow, their favorite weapon, while riding, shooting their arrows 
 with unerring aim. They also each carried a short spear or javelin, 
 and sometimes also a short sword or battle-ax. 
 
 The Scythian nation embraced many separate tribes. At the head 
 of all was a royal tribe, corresponding to the " Golden Horde " of the 
 Mongols, surpassing in numbers and bravery any of the others, and 
 considering them all as slaves. The kings ruled by hereditary right, 
 and their families belonged to the royal tribe. Several kings fre- 
 quently ruled at the same time, but in great emergencies the supreme 
 power was always virtually vested in one man. 
 
 The Scythian religion embraced the worship of the Sun and Moon, 
 Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and a deity resembling the Greek Hercules; 
 but the chief object of adoration was the naked sword. The country 
 was divided into sections, in each of which was a vast pile of brush- 
 wood, serving as a temple to the vicinity, and having planted at its 
 top an antique sword or cimeter. On a specified day of each year sol- 
 emn sacrifices of human beings and animals were offered at these 
 shrines, and the warm blood of the victims was poured upon the sword 
 at the top. The human victims for sacrifice, who were captives taken 
 in war, were hewn to pieces at the foot of the mound ; their limbs were 
 wildly tossed into the air by the votaries, and the bloody fragments 
 were left where they had fallen. The Scythians had no priest caste, 
 but they believed in divination, the diviners comprising a distinct class 
 vested with important powers. When the king was ill he sent for 
 these diviners, to inform him of the cause of his illness, which they 
 generally ascribed to the circumstance that an individual, whom they 
 named, had sworn falsely by the Royal Hearth. Those accused of 
 this offense, if found guilty by several bodies of diviners, were be- 
 headed in punishment, and their property was given to their original 
 accusers. 
 
 Such were the chief characteristics of the Scythians, as described 
 by Herodotus, who tells us that they were the ruling race over a great 
 part of the steppe region extending from the river Ister (now Danube) 
 and the Carpathian mountains on the west to the eastern limits of the 
 region embraced by modern Turkestan on the east. Coarse and repul- 
 sive in appearance, ferocious in temper, savage in habits, and power- 
 ful on account of their vast numbers and a system of warfare not easy 
 tp withstand, and in which they had become expert, they could well
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 213 
 
 strike consternation even into the strong and warlike Median nation. 
 Successive hordes of Scyths swept through the passes of the Caucasus, 
 and spread ruin and devastation over the rich plains to the south of 
 them. Onward they pushed in swarms, overwhelming and irresistible, 
 overrunning Iberia and Upper Media, reducing the rich cultivated 
 country to a howling wilderness. They consumed the crops, carried 
 off or destroyed the herds, burned the villages and homesteads, massa- 
 cred or enslaved such of the inhabitants as did not escape to the lofty 
 mountain summits or other strongholds, sparing neither age nor sex, 
 and converted the whole country into a scene of desolation. The 
 strongly-fortified towns which resisted the invading Scyths, when not 
 starved into submission, escaped by consenting to pay a tribute. 
 Herodotus informs us that these barbarians were masters of all West- 
 ern Asia from the Caucasus to the frontiers of Egypt for a period 
 of twenty-eight years ; and their ravages spread over, not only Media, 
 but Armenia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine. 
 
 The resistless tide of barbarian invasion continued to roll on, sweep- 
 ing from one region to another, plundering and ravaging everywhere, 
 settling nowhere. When the savage hordes had reached Southern Pal- 
 estine, the course of invasion was stayed by the Egyptian king, Psarn- 
 metichus, who was then engaged in the siege of Ashdod. Upon hear- 
 ing of the approach of the Scythian host to Ascalon, Psammetichus 
 sent an embassy to their leader and bribed him by means of valuable 
 presents to abstain from an invasion of Egypt. 
 
 Thenceforth the power of the Scythian invaders declined, and the 
 nations whose armies they had beaten, whose lands they had ravaged 
 with fire and sword, began to recover themselves. Cyaxares, King of 
 Media, and the sovereigns of other nations, drove them beyond their 
 dominions, many of the barbarians returning across the Caucasus to 
 their home-land, large numbers being slain in battle or massacred, and 
 the remainder submitting and entering the service of the native Asian 
 monarchs. The only vestiges of this destructiye Scythic inroad were 
 the names of the Armenian province thenceforth called Sacasene and 
 the Syrian town known thereafter as Scythopolis, a Greek name sig- 
 nifying City of the Scyths. 
 
 Weakened by the severity of the Scythian attack, Assyria rapidly 
 declined from this time. The country had been ravaged and depopu- 
 lated, the provinces had been plundered, many of the great towns had 
 been pillaged, the palaces of the kings had been burned, and much of 
 the gold and silver had been carried away. Assyria was but the shadow 
 of her former self when the Scythians retired from the country. En- 
 feebled and exhausted, she was ready to fall before the arms of a con- 
 queror. Babylonia and the other provinces of the empire, from the 
 
 Checked 
 
 in 
 Palestine 
 
 by 
 
 Egyptian 
 Bribery. 
 
 Scyths 
 
 Driven 
 
 Back 
 
 by the 
 
 Medes. 
 
 Rapid 
 Decline 
 
 and 
 Weak- 
 ness of 
 Assyria.
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Asshur- 
 
 emid-ilin, 
 
 or 
 
 Saracus. 
 
 His 
 Palace at 
 
 Calah. 
 
 Median 
 and Susi- 
 anian In- 
 vasion of 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 force of habit and because they too had been exhausted by the bar- 
 barian inundation, continued loyal to Assyria to the very last. Thus 
 Asshur-bani-pal ruled over an extensive empire to the end of his life. 
 
 But Asshur-bani-pal died B. C. 626, after a reign of forty-two 
 years, and was succeeded by his son, ASSHUR-EMID-ILIN, called Sara- 
 cus by Abydenus. He was the last Assyrian king, and reigned but 
 one year. We have very few native records of this monarch, and the 
 only classical notices concerning him are the account given of him 
 by Ctesias, and a few sentences in the writings of Abydenus and Poly- 
 histor. A few legends on bricks inform us that he began the erection 
 of a palace at Calah, whose remains are now seen at the south-east 
 part of the Nimrud mound. The contrast between this unfinished edi- 
 fice and those grand royal residences of former Assyrian kings clearly 
 exhibited the waning glory of the mighty monarchy which had swayed 
 the destinies of Western Asia for nearly seven centuries. Instead of 
 the alabaster bas-reliefs which embellished the palaces of the prede- 
 cessors of this last Assyrian monarch, his edifice was adorned with 
 nothing better than coarse limestone slabs without sculptures or in- 
 scriptions ; and in place of the enameled bricks of elegant patterns 
 which ornamented the magnificent structures of Sargon, Sennacherib 
 and Asshur-bani-pal, we find in this building a simple plaster above 
 the slabs. A series of small chambers, none of which was over forty- 
 five feet long, nor more than twenty-five feet in its greatest width, was 
 sufficient for the last Assyrian sovereign, whose diminished court could 
 not now have filled the spacious halls of his predecessors. The Nimrud 
 palace of Asshur-emid-ilin, or Saracus, appears to have occupied less 
 than half the space covered by any other palace upon the mound. The 
 decline of taste is clearly demonstrated by its lack of grand faades 
 or magnificent gateways, its small and inconvenient rooms, running in 
 suites which communicated with one another without any entrances 
 from courts or passages, composed of sun-dried bricks faced with lime- 
 stone and plaster, and roughly paved with limestone flags. The mere 
 fact that Saracus should have entertained the thought of making his 
 residence in a structure of so poor and mean a character is the most 
 convincing evidence of Assyria's decadence and degeneracy on the 
 eve of her overthrow. The rude condition of this palace, and its 
 entire want of elegant ornamentation, is to be partially accounted for 
 by the circumstance that Saracus perished, along with his capital and 
 his empire, before he had time to complete the edifice. 
 
 While this building was undergoing erection Saracus held his court 
 at Nineveh, where he prepared to defend himself against the enemy 
 who, taking advantage of his powerless condition, lost no time in press- 
 ing forward the conquest of his rapidly-decaying and declining em-
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 215 
 
 pire. The Medes, favored by nature in their land of rocky hills and 
 inaccessible mountain chains, did not suffer as much from the ravages 
 of the Scyths as did the Assyrians in their defenseless plains ; and they 
 were the first of the nations exposed to the barbarian inundation to 
 recover from its destructive effects. Having repulsed the Scyths and 
 expelled them from his country, Cyaxares, the warlike monarch who 
 founded the great Median Empire, led a large army into Assyria from 
 the east; while his allies, the Susianians, entered the country in force 
 from the south. 
 
 To defend his country against this double invasion, Saracus, the 
 last of the great dynasty founded by Sargon, divided his forces, re- 
 taining a portion under his own command to oppose the Medes, while 
 he assigned the other part to his general, Nabopolassar, whom he 
 ordered to Babylon to check the advance of the Susianians. But 
 Nabopolassar, seeing his own opportunity in his sovereign's perilous 
 dilemma, turned traitor, and, instead of fighting loyally against the 
 foes of Assyria, he entered into secret negotiations with Cyaxares, 
 agreeing to an alliance with him against the Assyrians, and obtaining 
 the daughter of the Median king as a bride for his eldest son, Nebu- 
 chadnezzar. Uniting their forces, Cyaxares and Nabopolassar jointly 
 attacked Nineveh; whereupon Saracus, or Asshur-emid-ilin, unable to 
 defend his capital, and overcome by despair, set fire to his palace and 
 perished in the flames. The once-proud city of Nineveh was plun- 
 dered and destroyed by the conquering Medes and Babylonians (B. C. 
 625). 
 
 The account of the downfall of Assyria as related by Ctesias is so 
 fanciful that it is utterly discarded by the best modern historians. 
 He says that the Medes were accompanied by the Persians, and the 
 Babylonians by some Arab allies, and that the assailing army num- 
 bered four hundred thousand men. In the first engagement the As- 
 syrians were victorious, and the attacking army was driven to the 
 Zagros mountains. A second and a third attack likewise failed. The 
 tide of battle turned in favor of the assailants upon the arrival of a 
 strong reenforcement from Bactria, when a night attack upon the 
 Assyrian camp was crowned with complete success. The Assyrian 
 king sought refuge in his capital, leaving his army under the com- 
 mand of his brother-in-law, Salaemenes, who was soon defeated and 
 slain. The siege of Nineveh then began, and lasted over two years 
 without any result. An unusually wet season in the third year of the 
 siege caused an extraordinary rise in the Tigris, destroying more than 
 two miles of the city wall ; whereupon the king, who had been told by 
 an oracle to fear nothing until the river became his enemy, yielding 
 to despair, made a funeral pile of all his richest furniture, and burnt 
 
 Nabopo- 
 lassar's 
 Treach- 
 ery. 
 
 Self-im- 
 molation 
 
 of 
 
 Asshur- 
 emid-elin 
 
 and 
 
 Destruc- 
 tion of 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Account 
 of this 
 
 Event by 
 Ctesias.
 
 216 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 End of the 
 Assyrian 
 Empire. 
 
 Assyria's 
 Duration. 
 
 Assyria's 
 
 Ex- 
 tinction. 
 
 himself with his concubines and his eunuchs in his palace. The Medes 
 and their allies thereupon entering the city on the side laid open by 
 the flood, plundered and destroyed it. This description of the last 
 siege of Nineveh, as related by Ctesias, has been transmitted to pos- 
 terity through the writings of Diodorus Siculus, and, like most of his 
 statements, is unworthy of credit. 
 
 Thus fell the mighty Assyrian Empire, not so much from any in- 
 herent weakness as by an unfortunate combination of circumstances 
 the invasion of the powerful and warlike Medes when the empire had 
 been exhausted by the terrible inroad of the Scyths, and the treason 
 and perfidy of its leading general. With the destruction of the em- 
 pire the Assyrian race sank into oblivion, and Assyrian history ceased 
 forever. Assyria upon its downfall was divided between its conquer- 
 ors, the portion east of the Tigris falling to Media, and the part west 
 of the river being absorbed by Babylonia. 
 
 The independent kingdom of Assyria lasted about a thousand years, 
 but the empire covered a little less than the last seven centuries of this 
 period, from B. C. 1300 to B. C. 625, when it fell before the arms of 
 the Medes, or more properly only about five centuries, from B. C. 1150. 
 The power and extent of the empire culminated during the brilliant 
 reign of Asshur-bani-pal, just before its rapid decline and sudden 
 fall. 
 
 By successive changes in this part of Asia, the country has con- 
 tinually changed masters, being successively under the Medo-Persian, 
 Grasco-Macedonian, Syrian, Parthian, New Persian, Saracen, Seljuk, 
 Mongol, and for the last five centuries under the Ottoman Turkish, 
 dominion. The country now forms part of the Turkish province of 
 Kurdistan, and the half-savage modern Kurds are the direct descend- 
 ants of the renowned ancient Assyrians. The palaces in which Sar- 
 gon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon and Asshur-bani-pal dwelt in luxury 
 and splendor, after lying imbedded beneath the mounds and ruins of 
 twenty-five centuries, have in our day, thanks to the enterprise and 
 diligence of patient explorers like Layard and Botta, been brought 
 out of their long concealment to the light of the modern world; and 
 many wonderful sculptures from the great cities of ancient Assyria 
 now adorn the museums of London, Paris and Berlin. The great cities 
 of Asshur, Calah, Dur-Sargina and Nineveh, with their magnificent 
 royal residences, their busy shops and factories teeming with the prod- 
 ucts of industry, their crowded thoroughfares in which victorious war- 
 rior-kings were greeted with the applause of their subjects and the 
 triumphant shouts of their stalwart and invincible soldiery, now exist 
 only in the records and memory of their past glory and greatness, and 
 in the ruins on the mounds of Kileh-Sherghat, Nimrud, Khorsabad
 
 NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 217 
 
 and Koyunjik, only tenanted by the wandering Kurds watching their 
 herds and flocks, and resounding with the jackal's howl after the sun 
 in its daily course has sunk to rest beneath the western horizon. 
 
 KINGS OF ASSYRIA. 
 
 B. C. B. C. 
 
 Bel-sumili-kapi 
 
 [rba-vul 
 
 Asshur-iddin-akhi 
 
 About 1400 to 1420. 
 " 1420 to 1400. 
 " 1400 to 1380. 
 
 1380 to 1360. 
 1360 to 1340. 
 1340 to 1320. 
 1320 to 1300. 
 
 1300 to 1280. 
 
 1230 to 1210. 
 
 1210 to 1190 
 1190 to 11 70 
 1170 to 1150 
 1150 to 1130 
 1130 to 1110 
 1110 to 1090. 
 1090 to 1070. 
 
 Asshur-bil-nisi-su 
 
 Buzur-Asshur (successor) 
 Asshur-upallit (successor) 
 
 Bel-lush (his son) 
 
 Pud-il (his son) 
 
 Vul-lush I. (his son) 
 
 Shalmaneser I. (his son), 
 
 Tiglathi-Nin I. (his son) . 
 
 Bel-kudur-uzur 
 
 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-Pileser I. as 
 a former king. 
 
 Nin-pala-zira (successor) . 
 Asshur-dayan I. (his son) . 
 Mutaggil-Nebo (his son) . 
 Asshur-ris-ilim (his son) . 
 Tiglath-Pileser I. (his son) _ 
 Asshur-bil-kala (his son) . . . 
 Shamas-Vul I. (his brother) 
 
 Asshur-mazur 
 
 Mentioned on a synchronistic' 
 tablet, which connects them 
 with the time of Purna- 
 puriyas, the Chaldsean king. 
 Asshur-upallit mentioned on 
 Kileh-Sherghat bricks. 
 
 Names and succession found 
 on Kileh-Sherghat bricks, 
 vases, etc. Shalmaneser I. 
 mentioned also on a genea- 
 logical slab and in the stand- 
 ard inscription of Nimrud. . 
 
 Mentioned on a genealogical 
 tablet. Called " the con- 
 queror of Babylon," and 
 placed by Sennacherib 600 
 years before his own capture 
 of Babylonia in B. C. 703. 
 
 Mentioned on the synchronistic 
 tablet as the predecessor of 
 Nin-pala-zira. 
 
 Names and relationship given 
 in cylinder of Tiglath- 
 Pileser I. 
 
 I Mentioned on the synchron- 
 istic tablet above spoken 
 
 J of. Date of Tiglath-Pileser 
 I. fixed by the Bavian in- 
 scription. Dates of the 
 other kings calculated 
 from his at twenty years 
 to a generation. 
 
 Mentioned in an inscription of 
 Shalmaneser II.
 
 218 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 About 930 to 911. 
 
 " 911 to 889. 
 
 " 889 to 883. 
 
 " 883 to 858. 
 
 " 858 to 823. 
 
 " 823 to 810. 
 
 " 810 to 781. 
 
 " 781 to 771. 
 
 " 771 to 753. 
 
 " 753 to 745. 
 
 745 to 727. 
 727 to 722. 
 722 to 705. 
 705 to 681. 
 681 to 668. 
 668 to 626. 
 626 to 625. 
 
 Asshur-dayan II 
 
 Vul-lush II. (his son) 
 
 Tiglathi-Nin II. (his son) 
 Asshur-izir-pal (his son). 
 Shalmaneser II. (his son) . 
 Shamas-Vul II. (his son) . 
 Vul-lush III. (his son) . . . 
 
 Shalmaneser III 
 
 Asshur-dayan III 
 
 Asshur-lush . 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser II 
 
 Shalmaneser IV 
 
 Sargon 
 
 Sennacherib (his son) .... 
 Esar-haddon (his son).... 
 Asshur-bani-pal (his son) 
 Asshur-emid-ilin (his son) 
 
 The kings from Asshur-dayan 
 II. to Vul-lush III. are 
 proved to have been in direct 
 succession by the Kileh- 
 Sherghat and Nimrud monu- 
 ments. 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 determined 
 from the Canon of Ptolemy 
 by calculating back from 
 B. C. 680, his date for the 
 accession of Esar-haddon 
 (Asaridanus). They might 
 also be fixed from the year 
 of the great eclipse. 
 
 The years of these kings, 
 from Esar-haddon up- 
 wards, are taken from the 
 Assyrian Canon. The 
 dates accord strictly with 
 the Canon of Ptolemy. The 
 last year of Asshur-bani- 
 pal is to some extent con- 
 jectural. 
 
 Rawlin- 
 son's 
 State- 
 ment. 
 
 SECTION VII. ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 SAYS Professor Rawlinson : " The nature of the dominion estab- 
 lished by the great Mesopotamian monarchy over the countries in- 
 cluded within the limits above indicated, will perhaps be best under- 
 stood 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.' The first and most strik- 
 ing 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, but remain in all respects such as they were 
 before, with the simple addition of certain obligations contracted to- 
 wards the paramount authority. They keep their old laws, their old 
 religion, their line of kings, their law of succession, their whole inter- 
 nal organization and machinery ; they only acknowledge an external 
 suzerainty which binds them to the performance of certain duties to- 
 wards 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 
 
 '
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 219 
 
 when summoned, unless they have a reasonable excuse; must there 
 salute him as a superior, and otherwise acknowledge his rank ; above 
 all, they must pay him regularly the fixed tribute which has been im- 
 posed upon them at the time of their submission or subjection, the un- 
 authorized withholding of which is open and avowed rebellion. Fi- 
 nally, 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. Such are the earliest and most essential obli- 
 gations on the part of the subject states in an empire of the primitive 
 type, like that of Assyria ; and these obligations, with the correspond- 
 ing one on the part of the dominant power of the protection of its 
 dependents against foreign foes, appear to have constituted the sole 
 links which joined together in one the heterogeneous materials of which 
 that empire consisted. * * * 
 
 " Such, in its broad and general outlines, was the empire of the The 
 Assyrians. It embodied the earliest, simplest and most crude concep- c ntin- 
 tion which the human mind forms of a widely extended dominion. It ued. 
 was a ' kingdom-empire,' like the empires of Solomon, of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, of Chedorlaomer, 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 mon- 
 archies their strength in the extraordinary magnificence, grandeur, 
 wealth, and refinement of the capital; their weakness in the impover- 
 ishment, 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, sec- 
 onded by the skill and bravery of the people. Fortunate in having 
 for a long time no very powerful neighbors, it found little difficulty 
 in extending itself throughout 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. Fre- 
 quently endangered by revolts, yet always triumphing over them, it 
 maintained itself for five centuries, gradually advancing its influence, 
 and was only overthrown after a fierce struggle by a new kingdom 
 formed upon its borders, which, taking advantage of a time of exhaus- 
 tion, and leagued with the most powerful of the subject states, was 
 enabled to accomplish the destruction of the long-dominant people." 
 
 As in the case of the Chaldaeans, it was formerly a subject of dispute Semitic 
 as to what branch of the Caucasian race the Assyrians belonged ; but of f a _ 
 it has now been definitely determined by the evidence of language, as Syrians, 
 well as the testimony of the Hebrew accounts, that the Chaldaeans were 
 mainly a Hamitic, or Cushite race, fused slightly with Semitic, Aryan 
 117
 
 20 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 and Turanian elements ; while the Assyrians are found to have been 
 pure Semites, and therefore a kindred people with the Hebrews, or 
 Israelites, the Arabs, the Syrians, or Aramaeans, and the Phoenicians. 
 The Mosaic genealogies connected Asshur with Aram, Eber and Jok- 
 tan, the progenitors respectively of the Aramaeans, or Syrians, the 
 Israelites, or Hebrews, and the Northern, or Joktanian, Arabs. The 
 language, physical types and moral characteristics of these races were 
 well known, as they all belonged to a single family to what ethnolo- 
 gists and philologists call the Semitic family. The manners and cus- 
 toms, particularly the religious customs, of the Assyrians were iden- 
 tical with those of the Syrians and Phoenicians. The modern Chal- 
 daeans of Kurdistan, who consider themselves descendants of the ancient 
 inhabitants of the neighboring Assyria, still speak a Semitic dialect 
 a fact discovered and reported by the elder Niebuhr, and confirmed 
 by Mr. Ainsworth. These three circumstances are sufficient evidence 
 that the Assyrians were Semites, being closely allied in race with the 
 Syrians, the Later Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Israelites and the 
 Northern Arabs ; and recent linguistic discoveries have fully confirmed 
 this view. We now have in the engraved slabs, the clay tablets, the 
 cylinders and the bricks, excavated from the ruins of the great As- 
 syrian cities, abundant documentary testimony of the character of the 
 Assyrian language, and of the ethnic character of the people. All 
 who have examined this evidence have arrived at the conclusion that 
 the language of these records is Semitic, and that it is closely con- 
 nected with the Hebrew, the Syriac, the Later Babylonian and the 
 Arabic. 
 
 Physical '^ ne P n y s i cft l characteristics of the Assyrians, as disclosed to us by 
 Charac- their sculptures, also confirm this view. Their sculptured effigies bear 
 the most striking resemblance to the Jewish physiognomy. The low 
 and straight forehead, the full brow, the large and almond-shaped eye, 
 the aquiline nose a little coarse at the end and unduly depressed, the 
 strong and firm mouth with over-thick lips, the well-formed chin best 
 observed in the representation of eunuchs the thick hair and heavy 
 beard, both of black color all these, as exhibited by the Assyrian 
 sculptures, display a remarkable likeness to the striking peculiarities 
 of the Jewish head and face, and also bear somewhat of a resemblance 
 to the physiognomy of the Arabs, and to all branches of the Semitic 
 race. These traits are now common to the Jew, the Arab and the 
 Kurd, while in ancient times they characterized the Assyrians, Syr- 
 ians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and the minor Semitic nations. The Egyp- 
 tian sculptures of Amunoph III., as representing the Patena, or 
 people of Bashan ; the Asuru, or Assyrians ; and the Karukamishi, or 
 people of Carchemish, show us the same type of physiognomy, which
 
 TYPICAL ASSYRIAN HEAD 
 
 From a Figure found at Nineveh
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 221 
 
 the Egyptians regarded as common to all the nations of Western Asia. 
 In shape the Assyrians are most truly represented by their descendants, 
 the modern Chaldaeans of Kurdistan. Like the modern Kurd, the As- 
 syrian was robust and stalwart in bodily frame, with broad shoulders 
 and large limbs. The monuments of no other people show us so 
 strong a race in muscular development as the ancient Assyrian. The 
 large brawny limbs of this resolute and sturdy people, whom Rawlin- 
 son fitly calls " the Romans of Asia," indicate a physical power be- 
 longing to no other nation. 
 
 The mental and moral characteristics of the Jews and the Assyrians Religious 
 also bore the closest analogy. In each the religious sentiment was 
 peculiarly predominant. The inscriptions of Assyrian kings begin 
 and end with praises, invocations and prayers to their chief deities. 
 All the king's victories and conquests, his successful feats in the chase 
 of the lion and the wild bull, are ascribed to the protection and favor 
 of the gods. Thus Tiglath-Pileser I. says in his cylinder : " Under 
 the auspices of Ninip, my guardian deity, I killed four wild bulls 
 strong and fierce " ; and " Under the auspices of Ninip, one hundred 
 and twenty lions fell before me." One of Asshur-bani-pal's sculp- 
 tured inscriptions says : " I, Asshur-bani-pal, king of the nations, king 
 of Assyria, in my great courage fighting on foot with a lion, terrible 
 for his size, seized him by the ear, and in the name of Asshur and 
 Ishtar, Goddess of War, with the spear that was in my hand I ter- 
 minated his life." Wherever the Assyrian monarch led his conquer- 
 ing hosts, he " set up the emblems of Asshur," or of " the great gods " ; 
 and compelled the vanquished to render them homage. The most 
 precious of the spoils of conquest were dedicated as thank-offerings 
 in the temples. The temples themselves were adorned, repaired, beau- 
 tified, enlarged and multiplied numerically by most of the Assyrian 
 sovereigns. The kings worshiped in these temples in person and of- 
 fered sacrifices. They embellished their palaces with religious figures, 
 such as emblems of chief deities and illustrations of acts of adoration, 
 as well as with representations of their victories in war and their ex- 
 ploits in hunting. Their signets, and those of the Assyrians gener- 
 ally, are religious in character. In every respect religion occupies 
 an important place among the Assyrians, who fight more for the honor 
 of their gods than for their king, and aspire as much toward extend- 
 ing their religion as their dominion. 
 
 As in the Jewish religion, we perceive in the Assyrian system a Material- 
 sensuousness contending with a higher and purer element, which in this 1S 3 e ^ C y en 
 case reigns uncontrolled, giving a gross, material and voluptuous char- 
 acter to its religion. This practical people cared very little for the 
 spiritual and the ideal, and, not being satisfied with symbols, made
 
 222 
 
 CHALD/EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Warlike 
 Skill and 
 Personal 
 Courage. 
 
 Ferocity 
 and 
 Occa- 
 sional 
 Harsh- 
 
 idols, or images, of wood and stone to represent their gods ; and their 
 intricate mythological system, with its priestly hierarchy, its mag- 
 nificent ceremonial and lascivious ceremonies, resembled that of Egypt, 
 and thus differed from that of the Jews. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures represent the Assyrians as " a fierce people." 
 Their personal valor and courage, and their skill and superiority over 
 all other nations in the art of war, gave them their victories over their 
 less-civilized neighbors and enemies. The valor and courage of the 
 Assyrians, like that of the Romans, was kept up by constant wars, and 
 by the cultivation of their manly characteristics, developed in the pur- 
 suit and slaying of ferocious beasts. The lion and other fierce and 
 dangerous animals infested Assyria ; and, unlike other Asiatics, who 
 tremble with fear before the great beasts of prey and avoid an en- 
 counter with them by flight if possible, the ancient Assyrians hunted 
 the strongest and fiercest animals, provoked them to a collision and 
 engaged with them in close combat. The spirit of Nimrod, " the 
 mighty hunter before the Lord," which animated his own people, the 
 Chaldaeans, inspired to even a greater extent their northern neighbors, 
 the Assyrians, according to the evidence afforded us by the monuments. 
 The Assyrians, from the sovereign to the lowest subject, delighted 
 especially in hunting the lion and the wild bull, noted for their strength 
 and courage, and to attack either of which was to incur extreme peril. 
 
 The Assyrians were not only a brave and hardy people, but also 
 very fierce and ferocious in their nature. In the language of the 
 Hebrew prophet Isaiah, the Assyrian nation was " a mighty and a 
 strong one, which, as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a 
 flood of mighty waters overflowing, cast down to the earth with the 
 hand." The Israelitish prophet Nahum could well describe Nineveh 
 as " a bloody city," or " a city of bloods." In this fierce disposition 
 the Assyrians were not unlike other conquering races, few of which 
 have been tender-hearted, or inclined to spare a vanquished foe. Car- 
 nage, ruin and desolation marked the course of an Assyrian army, and 
 excited feelings of fear and animosity among their enemies. Assyrian 
 fierceness was, however, often tempered with clemency. The slain foe 
 was mutilated not by way of insult, but as a proof of the slayer's 
 prowess, perhaps to obtain a reward given for heads, as has frequently 
 been the case with Orientals. Scribes are often represented on the 
 sculptures taking an account of the heads cut off. Otherwise the 
 Assyrians had no actually cruel customs. They readily gave quarter 
 when asked for, and chose rather to take prisoners than to massacre. 
 They were very terrible foes to encounter in battle and to withstand 
 in an attack, but in the hour of triumph they forgave and spared the 
 fallen foe. The exceptions to this general clemency were in the cases
 
 LIONS OF OLD ASSYRIA 
 Upper Section : Sculptured Lion in Later Style 
 Lower Section : Sculptured Lion in Earliest Style
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. ggg 
 
 of the subjugation of rebellious towns, wherein the most guilty 
 of the rebellion were impaled on stakes, and in several instances pris- 
 oners are represented on the sculptures as being led before the king 
 by a rope fastened to a ring passing through the under lip, while occa- 
 sionally one appears as being flayed with a knife. But usually cap- 
 tives were either released, or transferred, without unnecessary suffer- 
 ing, from their own country to another part of the Assyrian Empire; 
 there being some exceptional cases, where the captives were urged on- 
 wards by blows, like tired cattle, and where they were heavily fettered. 
 Captive women were never manacled, but were treated with real tender- 
 ness, being frequently permitted to ride on mules or in carts. 
 
 The greatest vice of the Assyrians seems to have been their treach- Treach- 
 ery. Says the Hebrew prophet Isaiah : " Woe to thee that spoilest, 
 though thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, though they 
 dealt not treacherously with thee ! " The prophet Nahum declared 
 Nineveh to be " full of lies and robbery." Isaiah further declared, in 
 alluding to the Assyrian king : " He hath broken the covenant, he 
 hath despised thfe cities, he regardeth no man." But the denunciations 
 of the Assyrians for cruelty or treachery by Jewish prophets and 
 writers would carry more weight if the Hebrew history did not abound 
 with tales of barbarous cruelty, bloodshed, treachery and crime. 
 
 Another failing in the character of the Assyrians was their pride, Pride, 
 which is especially denounced in the Hebrew Scriptures, where it is 
 expressly declared to have called forth the Divine judgments upon the 
 nation. Says the prophet Ezekiel : " Because thou hast lifted up 
 thyself in height, and he hath shot his top among the thick boughs, 
 and his heart is lifted up in his height ; I have therefore delivered him 
 into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal 
 with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness." The prophets 
 Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zephaniah alike denounce Assyrian pride. This 
 characteristic everywhere pervades the Assyrian inscriptions. The 
 Assyrians considered themselves greatly superior to all other nations. 
 They alone were favored by the gods. They only were really wise 
 or actually brave. The armed hosts of their foes were chased before 
 them like chaff before the wind. Their enemies were afraid to fight, 
 or were at once defeated with ease. They carried their arms in tri- 
 umph wherever they pleased, and never acknowledged that they had 
 experienced a reverse. The only merit that they admitted other people 
 to possess was some skill in the mechanical and mimetic arts, and this 
 acknowledgment was only tacitly made by employing foreign artists 
 to ornament their edifices. Luxury 
 
 The Greek accounts as given by Ctesias, and transmitted therefrom g and 
 to the Romans and through them to the moderns, represented luxurious ality.
 
 224 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 living and sensuality as the predominant vice of Assyrian monarchs, 
 from Ninyas to Sardanapalus, from the origin to the overthrow of the 
 Assyrian Empire. The entire race of Assyrian sovereigns are thus 
 represented as voluptuaries, who carried into practice the principle 
 that human happiness consisted in freedom from all cares or troubles, 
 and in unrestrained indulgence in every kind of sensual pleasure. This 
 account is directly contradicted by the authentic records which the 
 Assyrian monuments and sculptures furnish us concerning the warlike 
 character and manly pursuits of so large a number of the monarchs. 
 Nevertheless in so flourishing a monarchy as Assyria luxury did grad- 
 ually advance; and when the Empire fell before the combined attack 
 of two powerful neighboring kingdoms, it had lost much of its old- 
 time vigor. There is only one passage in the Old Testament ascribing 
 luxury and sensuality as a cause of the downfall of Assyria. The 
 usual faults for which Jewish prophets generally denounced the As- 
 syrians are their violence, treachery and pride. When .Nineveh re- 
 pented in Jonah's time it was by each man having " turned from his 
 evil way and from the violence which was in their hands." When 
 Nahum announced the final overthrow, it was " the bloody city, full of 
 lies and robbery." In the figurative language of the prophet, the lion 
 was selected as the symbol of Assyria, even at the close of her history. 
 Thus Assyria is still represented as " the lion that did tear in pieces 
 enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his 
 holes with prey, and his dens with ravin." The chosen national em- 
 blem of Assyria is thus accepted as the true type of her people; and 
 blood, ravin and robbery are the Assyrian qualities in the view of the 
 Jewish prophet. 
 
 Mental The Assyrians were among the foremost Asiatic nations in mental 
 power. Though they derived the elements of their civilization orig- 
 inally from their mother country, Chaldaea, they excelled their instruc- 
 tors in many particulars, and rendered the old arts more valuable by 
 continual improvements. Their language, arts and government attest 
 their native genius, and are advances upon what had previously pre- 
 vailed in Mesopotamia and in the world. The Assyrians were the 
 superiors of the highly-lauded Egyptians in many essential particu- 
 lars. The progressive character and spirit of Assyrian art contrasts 
 most strongly with the stiff, lifeless and fixed conventionalism of the 
 Egyptian. The Assyrian language and alphabet are an advance upon 
 the Egyptian. The Assyrian religion is more earnest and less de- 
 graded than that of the Nile land. The courage and military genius 
 of the Assyrians were also superior to the same qualities in the Egyp- 
 tians, who were on the whole an un warlike nation. But in the grand- 
 eur and durability of her architecture Egypt surpassed Assyria. The
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 225 
 
 Physical 
 Vigor. 
 
 Assyrian palaces, with all their splendor, were inferior to the colossal 
 structures of Thebes. Neither Assyria, Rome or any other nation, 
 has rivaled Egypt in the vastness and the solemn grandeur of its edi- 
 fices. But with this solitary exception, the great kingdom of Africa 
 was decidedly the inferior of her powerful Asiatic rival, which was 
 truly described by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel as " a cedar in Leb- 
 anon, exalted above all the trees of the field fair in his greatness, in 
 the length of his branches so that all the trees of Eden, that were 
 in the garden of God, envied him and not one was like unto him in 
 his beauty." 
 
 The material and physical vigor of the Assyrians outran their intel- 
 lectual progress and development. The elements of their science and 
 literature, their cuneiform writing, their architecture and other arts, 
 they brought with them from their mother country, Chaldaea. Even 
 the Hamitic, or Cushite, dialect of the Chaldees became the language 
 of the Assyrian priests and scholars, and in this dead language were 
 preserved the records of the old Chaldsean kingdom and the early his- 
 tory of the Assyrian monarchy. It was not until the culminating 
 period of Assyrian greatness and glory, during the brilliant reign of 
 Asshur-bani-pal, just before the rapid decay and decline of Assyrian 
 power, that the works written in the Chaldee classic tongue were trans- 
 lated into the Assyrian vernacular. The Assyrian race manifested 
 its greatness in art and manufactures, and not in science and litera- 
 ture. 
 
 As we have before noticed, the same system of cuneiform, or wedge- inscribed 
 shaped, characters used in Chaldagan writing was employed in the writ- 
 ten language of Assyria. The mounds of Assyria and Mesopotamia 
 have yielded a mass of documents in the Assyrian language. Some of 
 these are stone slabs bearing long historic inscriptions with which the 
 walls of palaces are paneled, and which are wonderfully preserved to 
 this day. Other memorials are the hollow cylinders, or, more properly, 
 hexagonal or octagonal prisms, made of extremely thin terra-cotta, 
 and which the Assyrian kings inscribed with the records of their actions 
 and with many religious invocations, and deposited at the corners of 
 temples. These cylinders are from a half yard to a yard high, and 
 the inscriptions covering the outside face are arranged in columns, 
 one of which occupies each side, reading from top to bottom. This 
 writing was so wonderfully fine as to often require a good magnifying 
 glass to decipher it. The cylinder of Tiglath-Pileser I. contains 
 thirty lines in a space of six inches, or five lines to an inch, which is 
 almost as close as the type of this book. The cylinder of Asshur- 
 bani-pal has six lines to the inch. The durability of these cylinders 
 is attested by the fact that many of them still remain, and give us 
 
 VOL. 1. 15 
 
 Slabs 
 and Cyl- 
 inders.
 
 226 
 
 CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Inscribed 
 Sculp- 
 tures, 
 Bricks 
 and Clay 
 Tablets. 
 
 Black 
 Obelisk of 
 
 Shalma- 
 neser II. 
 
 Slab and 
 Tablet 
 Inscrip- 
 tions. 
 
 Rawlin- 
 son on 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Bas- 
 reliefs. 
 
 most of our knowledge of the annals of this great people, as recorded 
 by themselves twenty-five and thirty centuries ago. 
 
 Besides slabs and cylinders, the written records of Assyria were in- 
 scribed upon the stone bulls and lions, stone obelisks, engraved seals, 
 bricks and clay tablets. Both the sun-dried and kiln-burned bricks 
 are stamped with legends, to preserve them from the two great dangers 
 of flood and fire, to which Assyria was subject. Fire would only 
 harden the sun-dried bricks, and water could not affect those burned 
 in kilns. The clay tablets are numerous, and of sizes varying from 
 nine by six and a half inches, to an inch and a half by an inch. In 
 some cases they are wholly covered with writing, while in other in- 
 stances a portion of their surface is stamped with seals, mythological 
 emblems, etc. Thousands of these tablets have been found, many being 
 historical, many mythological, some linguistic, some geographic, some 
 astronomical. Such are the treasures of Assyrian literature. 
 
 The few stone obelisks are in a fragmentary condition, the only per- 
 fect one being the one in black basalt, discovered by Mr. Layard at 
 Nimrud, and which has now been for many years in the British Mu- 
 seum. This monument is about seven feet high, two feet broad at the 
 base, tapering slightly towards the top, which is crowned with three 
 low steps, or gradines. The inscription occupies the upper and lower 
 portions of each side, and is carried along the spaces between the bas- 
 reliefs, consisting of two hundred and ten clearly cut lines. It is one 
 of the most important of the remaining Assyrian memorials, and con- 
 tains a record of the victories won and the tribute brought to Shal- 
 maneser II., who set it up. 
 
 The many inscribed lions and bulls guarding the portals of palaces 
 are raised in a bold relief on alabaster slabs ; the inscriptions gener- 
 ally covering only the portions of the slabs not occupied by the animal, 
 and usually giving a detailed account of some important campaign. 
 Clay tablets were used in ordinary business affairs, and for literary 
 and scientific writings ; and, when wanted for instruction or evidence, 
 were carefully baked. That they exist to this day, in as legible a con- 
 dition, with letters as clear and sharp as any Greek or Roman legend 
 on stone, marble or metal, proves that the best clay, properly baked, 
 is as durable as stone or metal. 
 
 Says Professor Rawlinson : " Of all the Assyrian works of art which 
 have come down to us, by far the most important are the bas-reliefs. 
 It is here especially, if not solely, that we can trace progress in style ; 
 and it is here alone that we see the real artistic genius of the people. 
 What sculpture in its full form, or in the slightly modified form of 
 very high relief, was to the Greeks, what painting has been to modern 
 European nations since the time of Cimabue, that low relief was to the
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 227 
 
 Bas- 
 reliefs. 
 
 Assyrians the practical mode in which artistic power found vent 
 among them. They used it for almost every purpose to which mimetic 
 art is applicable; to express their religious feelings and ideas, to 
 glorify their kings, to hand down to posterity the nation's history 
 and its deeds of prowess, to depict home scenes and domestic occupa- 
 tions, to represent landscape and architecture, to imitate animal and 
 vegetable forms, even to illustrate the mechanical methods which they 
 employed in the construction of those vast architectural works of which 
 the reliefs were the principal ornamentation. It is not too much to 
 say that we know the Assyrians, not merely artistically, but histor- 
 ically and ethnologically, chiefly through their bas-reliefs, which seem 
 to represent to us almost the entire life of the people." 
 
 The bas-reliefs were sculptured on stone slabs, which were set in the Classes of 
 lower part of the walls of the palaces which they adorned. These 
 reliefs were of five different classes: 1. War scenes, such as battles, 
 sieges, devastations of an enemy's country, naval expeditions and tri- 
 umphant returns from foreign wars, with the trophies and fruits of 
 victory ; 2. Religious scenes, mythical and real ; 3. Processions, mostly 
 of tribute-bearers, carrying the products of their respective countries 
 to the Assyrian king; 4. Hunting and sporting scenes, such as the 
 chase of ferocious animals, and of animals hunted for food, the spread- 
 ing of nets, the shooting of birds, etc. ; 5. Scenes of every-day life, 
 such as the transportation and erection of colossal bulls, and land- 
 scapes, temples, interiors, gardens, etc. 
 
 Assyrian mimetic art is in the form of statues, bas-reliefs, metal 
 castings, ivory carvings, clay statuettes, brick enamelings, and intag- 
 lios on stones and gems. Assyrian statues are rare and imperfect. 
 The best specimens are two royal statues now in the British Museum; 
 also two statues of the god Nebo, one of the goddess Ishtar, and one 
 of Sargon all of which are now also in the British Museum. The 
 Assyrian clay statuettes, mostly images of deities, possess even less 
 artistic excellence than the statues. Small animal figures, mostly dogs 
 and ducks, in terra-cotta, have likewise been discovered. 
 
 In painting, as well as in sculpture, the Assyrians made great prog- Painting 
 ress, and many of the drawings on the prominent sculptures are ele- 
 gant. Everything indicates a taste for display. In architectural 
 designs, and in the grouping of flowers and animals for the purposes 
 of embellishment, great richness and variety of fancy are exhibited. 
 The dresses of the kings display gorgeous robes, elegantly and pro- 
 fusely embroidered, fringed and tasseled. Sandals made of wood or 
 leather were used for the feet, while caps and tiaras of silk were worn 
 on the head. Many articles of furniture likewise displayed great ele- 
 gance. Tables constructed of wood or metal, inlaid with ivory and 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Mimetic 
 
 Art.
 
 228 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Architec- 
 ture and 
 Sculp- 
 ture. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Palaces. 
 
 Royal 
 Scenes. 
 
 having legs gracefully carved, were in the dwellings of the wealthy. 
 Elegant baskets seem to have been in use. Ornaments, such as tassels, 
 fringes, necklaces, armlets, bracelets, anklets, ear-rings of various 
 forms and elegant workmanship, clasps, etc., were worn in profusion. 
 There were drinking-cups of gold and silver. Everywhere was mani- 
 fested a love of elaborate and gaudy decoration. 
 
 The excavations within the last half century at Khorsabad, Koyun- 
 jik, Nimrud and Kileh-Sherghat have revealed to us the fact that truly 
 did Assyria rank next to Egypt in monumental grandeur. The re- 
 mains of Assyrian art and architecture exhumed from these mounds 
 give a very considerable knowledge of their stupendous palaces in the 
 days of their splendor and glory. We can, by looking at the remains 
 of the sculptured and painted walls of their vast edifices, read the rec- 
 ords of Assyria its battles, its sieges, its conquests and its triumphs. 
 We see around the colossal images of the Assyrian gods, by which, in 
 monstrous yet striking emblems, the Assyrians endeavored to express 
 their conceptions of divinity. We are here introduced to the sem- 
 blances of monarchs who flourished from twenty-five to thiry centuries 
 ago. We see these in their costumes of state, in all the pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of war, in the pursuit of the chase, and in the solemn cere- 
 monials of religion. We are also enabled from these sculptures to 
 inform ourselves of many of the domestic customs of the Assyrians, 
 of their household furniture, their mechanical tools and implements, 
 their methods of agriculture, the crops of the husbandman, and in fact, 
 the occupations and amusements of this renowned Asiatic people in 
 the days of their preeminence. 
 
 Layard and Botta, the fortunate discoverers of these famous mink, 
 have given us glowing descriptions of the massive dimensions, the mag- 
 nificence and grandeur, of the Assyrian palaces, whose ruins they un- 
 covered from the Khorsabad, Koyunjik and Nimrud mounds. The 
 stranger who visited these splendid palaces in the flourishing periods 
 of the Assyrian Empire was ushered in through the portal, guarded 
 by colossal winged man-headed lions and bulls of white alabaster. In 
 the first hall he saw all around him the sculptured records of the empire 
 battles, sieges, triumphs, hunting exploits, religious ceremonies 
 all portrayed on the palace walls, sculptured in alabaster, and painted 
 in gorgeous colors. Under each picture he saw engraved, in charac- 
 ters filled up with bright copper, inscriptions descriptive of the scenes 
 thus illustrated. 
 
 Above the sculptures he observed paintings representing other events 
 the Assyrian king, attended by his eunuchs and his warriors, receiv- 
 ing his captives, negotiating alliances with other monarchs, or per- 
 forming some sacred duty; these representations being surrounded by
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 colored borders, of elaborate and elegant designs. He saw the em- 
 blematic tree, also winged man-headed bulls and lions, occupying con- 
 spicuous places among the ornaments. At the upper end of the hall 
 was a gigantic figure of the king, in adoration before Asshur, " the 
 Great Lord," or receiving from his eunuch the holy cup. He was 
 attended by warriors bearing his arms, and by the priests, or presid- 
 ing divinities. His robes and those of his followers were adorned with 
 groups of figures, animals and flowers, all painted with brilliant colors. 
 
 The visitor trod upon alabaster slabs, each bearing an inscription, 
 recording the titles, the genealogy and the achievements of the Great 
 King. Several doorways, guarded by gigantic winged man-headed 
 lions and bulls, or by the figures of guardian deities, led into other 
 apartments, which likewise opened into more remote halls. In each 
 of these apartments and halls were sculptures. On the walls of some 
 were processions of colossal figures armed men and eunuchs follow- 
 ing the king, or warriors laden with spoil, conducting captives or 
 bearing presents and offerings to the gods. On the walls of others 
 were portrayed the winged priests, or presiding divinities, standing 
 before the sacred trees. 
 
 The ceilings above the visitor were divided into square compart- 
 ments, painted with flowers or with figures of animals. Some were in- 
 laid with ivory, each compartment being surrounded with elegant bor- 
 ders and mouldings. The beams, as well as the sides of the chambers, 
 may have been gilded, or even plated with gold and silver; and the 
 most highly prized species of wood, prominent among which was the 
 cedar, were used in the wood-work. The palaces were lighted from 
 the roofs, which were of wood, the light being admitted through square 
 openings into the ceilings of the chambers. A pleasing light was thus 
 cast over the sculptured walls, and gave a majestic expression to the 
 human features of the colossal figures guarding the entrances. The 
 azure hue of the eastern sky was seen through these apertures, which 
 were enclosed in frames, whereon were painted in vivid colors the 
 winged circle, in the midst of elegant ornaments and the graceful fig- 
 ures of ideal animals. 
 
 These vast edifices were the great Assyrian monuments, upon whose 
 walls were represented in sculpture, or inscribed in cuneiform charac- 
 ters, the chronicles of the Assyrian Empire. The visitor who entered 
 these splendid structures might here read the annals and learn all about 
 the glory and triumphs of this great people. These memorials served 
 also to constantly remind those who assembled within the palace on 
 festive occasions, or for celebrating religious ceremonies, of the deeds 
 and prowess of their ancestors, and the power and majesty of the 
 Assyrian gods. 
 
 Royal 
 Inscrip- 
 tions and 
 Sculp- 
 tures. 
 
 Ornamen- 
 tation. 
 
 Historic 
 Chron- 
 icles.
 
 230 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Plan of 
 
 the 
 Palaces. 
 
 Brick and 
 
 Stone 
 Remains. 
 
 Ruins and 
 Mounds 
 
 of 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Koyunjik 
 Mound. 
 
 The palaces seem to have been one story, but of vast extent. Under 
 the floor of each room was a drain, consisting of a clay pipe. No 
 traces of the dwellings of the common people remain. The sculptures 
 inform us that the Assyrians used the arch in building. Assyrian 
 pillars in the temples and palaces rested on circular or globular bases, 
 or on animal figures. The temple towers, or ziggurats, were erected 
 in the form of steps or stages around their four sides, thus gradually 
 becoming narrower at the top. Such were the royal residences of 
 Assyria each of which was at the same time a temple and a palace 
 the dwelling of him who was at once the sovereign, the priest and the 
 prophet of his people. 
 
 The Assyrian ruins exhibit no tombs like those of Egypt, whose 
 painted interiors, protected from the ravages of the elements, have 
 transmitted to succeeding ages the thoughts, feelings and opinions of 
 their ancient builders. All that remain of Assyrian architecture are 
 scattered bricks, usually marked with inscriptions and with sculptures 
 and reliefs. The most interesting and valuable are the stone slabs 
 facing the inside walls of the temples. The Assyrian structures were 
 generally built of brick, which was preferred as a building material, 
 although stone was abundant in the country. The temples constructed 
 of stone have partly remained, though buried in heaps of rubbish for 
 twenty-five centuries. Marble, alabaster and basalt were used in the 
 palaces. The ancient Assyrian edifices, like the palaces, had no win- 
 dows, but were lighted through their wooden roofs. 
 
 So thoroughly was Nineveh destroyed that when Xenophon, about 
 two hundred and twenty-five years afterward, passed over its ruins the 
 very name of the place was unknown to the inhabitants ; and in the 
 time of Alexander the Great, nearly a century later, the city was 
 forgotten; so that for over two thousand years the very site of the 
 renowned capital and metropolis of Assyria was unknown. But the 
 wonderful discoveries of Layard in recent times have identified its 
 locality as the ruins opposite the present town of Mosul, on the Tigris, 
 consisting of two principal mounds, known respectively by their pres- 
 ent Arab names of Nebbi-Yunus and Koyunjik. 
 
 The Koyunjik mound is the larger and is located about nine hun- 
 dred yards, or a little over half a mile, north-west of the Nebbi-Yunus. 
 Its shape is an irregular oval, elongated to a point towards the north- 
 east, in the line of its greater axis. The surface is almost flat, and 
 the sides slope at a steep angle, being furrowed with many ravines, 
 worn in the soft material by the rains of twenty-five centuries. The 
 mound rises to its greatest height above the plain towards the south- 
 eastern extremity, there overhanging the small stream of the Khosr-su, 
 where the height is about ninety-five feet. The mound covers about
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 231 
 
 a hun^rerf acres. On this artificial mound the Assyrian palaces and 
 temples, now buried beneath heaps of earth and rubbish, were erected 
 in ancient times. 
 
 The Nebbi-Yunus mound is almost triangular at its base and covers 
 about forty acres. It is more elevated, and its sides are more precipi- 
 tous than Koyunjik, particularly on the west, where it abutted upon 
 the wall of the city. The surface is mostly flat, but is divided into 
 an eastern and a western portion by a deep ravine running nearly from 
 north to south. The supposed tomb of Jonah occupies a conspicuous 
 place on the northern edge of the western portion of the mound, and 
 the cottages of Kurds and Turkomans are grouped about it. The 
 eastern portion forms a general Mohammedan burial-ground for the 
 surrounding country. 
 
 Palaces and temples were raised on these two great mounds, both 
 of which are in the same line and abutted on the western wall of the 
 city. On this side Nineveh was thirteen thousand six hundred feet, 
 or over two and a half miles long, and in ancient times overhung the 
 Tigris, which is now a mile farther to the west, leaving a plain of 
 that width between the river and the old rampart of the city. This 
 rampart followed the natural course of the river bank. At its north- 
 ern extremity the western wall approaches the present course of the 
 Tigris, and is there connected, at exactly right angles, with the north- 
 ern or north-western rampart, which runs in a direct line to the north- 
 eastern angle of the city and measures exactly seven thousand feet. 
 At one third of the distance from the north-west angle this wall is 
 broken by a road, and adjoining this is a remarkable mound, which 
 covers one of the principal gates of the city. At its other end the 
 western wall forms an obtuse angle with the southern wall, which im- 
 pends over a deep ravine formed by a winter torrent, thus running in 
 a direct line about a thousand yards, when it is joined with the eastern 
 wall, with which it forms a slightly acute angle. The eastern wall, 
 the longest and most irregular of the ramparts, skirts the edge of a 
 rocky ridge, there rising above the level of the plain and presenting 
 a slightly convex course to the north-east. This wall is sixteen thou- 
 sand feet, or over three miles long, and is divided a little north of the 
 middle into two portions, by the Khosr-su, which flows through the 
 city ruins, running across the low plains to the Tigris. 
 
 Thus the entire enceinte of Nineveh forms an irregular trapezium. 
 Its greatest width, which is in its northern portion, is four-ninths of 
 its length, thus giving the city an oblong shape, as Diodorus described 
 it, though he greatly exaggerated its size. The circuit of the walls 
 is not quite eight miles, instead of being over fifty ; and the area thus 
 embraced is eighteen hundred English acres, and not one hundred and 
 
 Nebbi- 
 Yunus 
 Mound. 
 
 Walls of 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Shape, 
 Size and 
 Popula- 
 tion of 
 Nineveh
 
 232 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Size of 
 theWalls. 
 
 Masonry 
 
 and Gates 
 
 of the 
 
 Walls. 
 
 Rivers 
 
 Khosr-su 
 and Tigris 
 
 and 
 Canals. 
 
 twelve thousand. It has been estimated that populous Oriental cities 
 have a hundred inhabitants to the acre, or one to fifty square yards, 
 thus giving ancient Nineveh one hundred and seventy-five thousand 
 souls, a population exceeding that of any city of Western Asia at 
 the present time. 
 
 Diodorus described the wall with which Ninus surrounded his capital 
 as being one hundred feet high, and so wide that three chariots could 
 be driven abreast along the top. Xenophon, who passed near the ruins 
 while conducting the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, says that the walls 
 were one hundred and fifty feet high and fifty feet broad. The great- 
 est height at present appears to be forty-six feet ; but the great amount 
 of rubbish at the foot of the walls, and their ruined condition, have 
 led Mr. Layard to say: " The remains still existing of these fortifica- 
 tions almost confirm the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that the walls 
 were a hundred feet high." The walls in their present condition are 
 from one hundred to two hundred feet broad. 
 
 Xenophon says that the walls up to fifty feet were constructed of a 
 fossiliferous limestone, smoothed and polished on the outside, and that 
 above that height sun-dried bricks were used. The stone masonry, in 
 Mr. Layard's opinion, was ornamented along its top by a continuous 
 series of battlements, or gradines, of the same material, and it is prob- 
 able that a like ornamentation crowned the upper brick structure. 
 The wall was pierced at irregular intervals by gates, above which rose 
 high towers ; and lower towers occurred in the parts of the wall be- 
 tween the different gates. A gate in the north-western rampart, 
 cleared by excavation, seems to have consisted of three gateways, the 
 inner and outer being ornamented with colossal winged man-headed 
 bulls and other figures, while the middle one was only paneled with 
 alabaster slabs. Between the gateways were two large chambers, sev- 
 enty feet long by twenty-three feet wide, being thus capable of holding 
 a considerable body of soldiers. The chambers and gateways are 
 believed to have been arched over, similar to the castles' gates on the 
 bas-reliefs. The gates themselves have entirely ceased to exist, but 
 the rubbish which filled both the chambers and the passages contained 
 so much charcoal as to give rise to the belief that they were con- 
 structed of bronze. The ground within the gateway was paved with 
 large limestone slabs, which still bear the marks of chariot- wheels. 
 
 Besides its ramparts, Nineveh was protected on all sides by water 
 barriers, the west and south being defended by natural streams, and 
 the north and east by artificial canals beginning at the Khosr-su. 
 Skirting the northern and eastern walls was a deep moat, into which 
 the waters of the Khosr-su were turned by occupying its natural chan- 
 nel with a strong dam, carried across it in the line of the eastern
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 233 
 
 wall, and at the point where the stream now flows into the enclosure. 
 On coining in contact with this obstruction, of which some vestiges 
 yet remain, the waters separated into two parts, one flowing to the 
 south-east into the Tigris by the ravine immediately to the south of 
 the city, which is a natural water-course, and the other turning at an 
 acute angle to the north-west, washing the remainder of the eastern 
 and the entire northern wall, and emptying into the Tigris at the 
 north-west angle of the city, where a second dam kept it at a sufficient 
 height. On the eastern side, which seems to have been the weakest 
 and the most exposed, a series of outer defenses were constructed for 
 the further protection of the city. North of the Khosr-su, betweeen 
 the city wall and that stream, which there flows parallel to the wall 
 and forms a second or outer moat, are the remains of a detached fort 
 which, from its size, evidently added considerable strength to the city's 
 defenses in that quarter. The works are yet more elaborate to the 
 south and south-east of the Khosr-su. From a point where the stream 
 leaves the hills and reaches low ground, a deep ditch, two hundred feet 
 wide, was extended for two miles, until it connected with the ravine 
 forming the natural defense of the city on the south. On each side 
 of the ditch, which could be easily filled with water from the Khosr-su 
 at its northern extremity, was erected a high and wide wall ; the eastern 
 one forming the outermost defense, and rising even yet a hundred 
 feet above the bottom of the ditch on which it adjoins. Between this 
 outer barrier and the city moat was a kind of demi-lune, defended by 
 a double wall and a broad ditch, and joined by a covered way with 
 the city itself. Thus Nineveh was protected on its most vulnerable 
 side, towards the centre, by five walls and three broad and deep moats ; 
 towards the north by a wall, a moat, the Khosr-su and a strong out- 
 post ; towards the south by two moats and three lines of rampart. The 
 entire fortification on the eastern side is two thousand two hundred 
 feet, or nearly a half mile wide. 
 
 The accounts of Ctesias and Diodorus respecting the immense size 
 of Nineveh are highly exaggerated, and it is known that these writers 
 regarded the ruins of Nimrud, Keremles, Khorsabad and Koyunjik 
 as all being the remains of that renowned Assyrian capital. The Book 
 of Jonah also bears testimony to the immense size of this great city. 
 Unlike Ctesias, who only saw the ruins of Nineveh, Jonah saw the city 
 itself in its splendor. This Hebrew prophet tells us that Nineveh 
 was " an exceeding great city, of three days' journey," and also that 
 in it were " more than sixscore thousand persons that could not discern 
 between their right hand and their left." Though these passages are 
 very vague, they yet convey some idea of the vastness of the city. It 
 has been supposed that the one hundred and twenty thousand persons 
 
 Accounts 
 by 
 
 Ctesias, 
 Diodorus 
 and Jonah 
 as to the 
 
 Size of 
 Nineveh.
 
 234 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Warfare. 
 
 Accounts 
 
 by Isaiah, 
 
 Nahum 
 
 and 
 Ctesias. 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 War- 
 chariot. 
 
 " that could not discern between their right hand and their left " were 
 children, which would thus indicate a population of about six hundred 
 thousand. It has also been believed that the phrase " six score thou- 
 sand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their 
 left " alluded to the dense ignorance of the inhabitants, in which case 
 the number here mentioned included the entire population of the city. 
 
 The sculptures of the Assyrians furnish us with very complete rep- 
 resentations of their system of warfare. The Assyrians, like other 
 ancient nations, fought in chariots, on horseback and on foot. Like 
 the Egyptians, the early Greeks, the Canaanites, the Syrians, the Jews 
 and Israelites, the Philistines, the Hittites, the Lydians, the Elamites, 
 or Susianians, the Medes and Persians, the Hindoos, the Gauls, the 
 Britons, and other peoples of antiquity, the Assyrians looked upon the 
 chariot as most honorable. Their king invariably went to war and 
 battle riding in a chariot, only dismounting and shooting his arrows 
 on foot while besieging a town. The leading officers of state, and 
 other dignitaries of high rank, followed the same custom. The cav- 
 alry and infantry were composed of persons of the lower classes. 
 
 The Jewish prophet Isaiah, in warning his countrymen of the mis- 
 eries in store for them, described the Assyrians as a people " whose 
 arrows were sharp, and all their bows bent, whose horses' hoofs should 
 be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind." The same 
 prophet, in afterwards announcing Jehovah's displeasure with Sen- 
 nacherib on account of his pride, speaks of that king's reliance upon 
 " the multitude of his chariots." The prophet Nahum, in announc- 
 ing the coming overthrow of the haughty nation, declares that Jehovah 
 against her, and will burn her chariots in the smoke." In the 
 
 IS 
 
 fabulous Assyrian history by Ctesias the war-chariots of the mythical 
 king Ninus are represented as amounting to nearly eleven thousand, 
 and those of his wife and successor, Semiramis, are estimated at the 
 extravagant number of one hundred thousand. 
 
 The Assyrian war-chariot is believed to have been made of wood. 
 Like that of the Greeks and Egyptians, it seems to have been mounted 
 from behind, being there completely open, or only closed by means of 
 a shield, which could be hung across the aperture. It was richly orna- 
 mented, and completely paneled at the sides. The two wheels were 
 placed at the extreme hind end of the body, as in the Egyptian war- 
 chariot. The chariot-wheels of the early period had six spokes ; those 
 of the middle and later periods had eight. The felloes of the wheels 
 usually consisted of three distinct circles, the middle one being the 
 thinnest, and the outer one the thickest of the three. Sometimes there 
 'vas a fourth circle. These circles were fastened together with bands 
 of iron. The wheels were attached to an axle-tree fastened to the body
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 235 
 
 without any springs between them. They were furnished with bows, 
 quivers of arrows, spears, or javelins, hatchets, battle-axes and shields. 
 
 The chariots were drawn by two or three horses, two being yoked 
 together in front, while the third was hitched before the others by 
 means of a rope, and was designed as a supply in case of loss. The 
 harness and trappings of the horses were extremely rich and elegant ; 
 ribbons, tassels, fringes and rosettes, of gay colors, profusely deco- 
 rating the head, neck and sides. The bits and ornaments of the bridles 
 were of gold and silver. Embroidered robes were sometimes thrown 
 over the backs of the chariot -horses. 
 
 The chariots contained two persons at least, the driver, or chariot- 
 eer, and the warrior. Sometimes they contained in addition an at- 
 tendant who protected the warrior with a shield while he discharged 
 his arrows at the foe. In rare instances there was a second attendant 
 with a shield to protect the archer from behind, thus making four per- 
 sons occupying the chariot. The bow was the usual weapon of the 
 chariot warrior, as well as of the cavalry and infantry soldiers. The 
 chariot warrior was sometimes dressed in a long tunic confined at the 
 waist by a girdle, and sometimes in a coat of mail, like the Egyptian 
 chariot warrior. Sometimes he descended from the chariot to shoot 
 off his arrows on foot. 
 
 The Assyrian cavalry rank in importance almost equally with the 
 war-chariots. Ctesias made the number of horsemen in Assyrian 
 armies always greater than the chariots. The writer of the Apoch- 
 ryphal Book of Judith assigns Holof ernes twelve thousand horse-arch- 
 ers, and the prophet Ezekiel alludes apparently to all the " desirable 
 young men " as " horsemen riding upon horses." The Assyrian sculp- 
 tures represent the cavalry as far exceeding in number the chariots. 
 In the early period of Assyrian history cavalry were but little used, 
 but in the times of Sargon and Sennacherib the cavalry came to be 
 prominent in all battle scenes, the chariot being only used by the king 
 and high dignitaries. The cavalry were divided, according to their 
 weapons, into mounted archers, or bowmen, and mounted spearmen. 
 In the early period each cavalry archer was accompanied by an un- 
 armed attendant, who managed his steed, while the archer discharged 
 his arrows. 
 
 Assyrian armies, like others, consisted mainly of infantry. Ctesias 
 gives Ninus 1,700,000 footmen, 210,000 horsemen and 10,600 char- 
 iots. Xenophon showed the wide contrast between the immense host 
 of infantry and the scanty numbers of the cavalry and the chariots. 
 Herodotus says that the Assyrians in the great army of Xerxes were 
 all footmen. The Book of Judith assigns to Holofernes ten times as 
 many footmen as horsemen. The Assyrian monuments show the same 
 118 
 
 Chariot 
 Horses 
 
 and 
 Harness. 
 
 Chario- 
 teers and 
 Warriors. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Infantry.
 
 236 
 
 CHALD^KA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Weapons 
 
 and 
 Armor. 
 
 Military 
 Cos- 
 tumes. 
 
 Trophies 
 
 and 
 Spoils. 
 
 Scaling 
 
 Ladders. 
 
 proportion of infantry to cavalry, and represent a hundred footmen 
 to each chariot soldier. For their military successes the Assyrians 
 were chiefly indebted to the valor, discipline, solidity and equipment 
 of their infantry, which consisted mainly of foot archers, or bowmen, 
 and foot spearmen. Besides these the foot soldiers embraced swords- 
 men, mace-bearers, ax-bearers, and from Sennacherib's time, slingers. 
 Pioneers accompanied the army to clear away trees with their axes. 
 In Sargon's time the foot soldiers consisted of those of the light equip- 
 ment, those of the intermediate equipment, and those of the heavy 
 equipment. Sennacherib's foot archers embraced four classes, two 
 heavy-armed and two light-armed. 
 
 The offensive weapons were the bow and arrow, the spear, pike, or 
 javelin, the sword, the mace, the battle-ax and the sling. The de- 
 fensive armor consisted of a shield of metal or wicker-work ; a crested 
 or pointed helmet of metal; and a coat of mail, consisting of succes- 
 sive rows of iron scales in the early period and reaching to the feet or 
 knees, and in later times composed of larger metal plates and bands 
 fastened together and reaching only as low as the waist. 
 
 The warriors were variously costumed, those of the lighter equip- 
 ment only wearing a short tunic reaching from the waist to half-way 
 down the thigh, the rest of the person being bare ; those of the inter- 
 mediate equipment wearing a coat of mail to the waist and a tunic 
 thence to half-way down the thigh ; and those of the heavy equipment 
 wearing a coat of mail above the waist, and a robe thence down to the 
 feet. Both these latter classes wore helmets over the head, and sandals 
 on the feet. The arms were bare. When not covered by the robe the 
 legs were also sometimes bare, and sometimes covered by close-fitting 
 trousers and short greaves, or boots. The hilts of swords and daggers 
 were ornamented with gold chasings of elegant forms, and the points 
 of sheaths with the beaks of birds. The bow was the chief weapon of 
 war, alike among chariot, cavalry and infantry soldiers, and was richly 
 mounted. 
 
 The barbarous custom of rewarding those who carried back to camp 
 the heads of foemen, caused the heads of the dead, and even of the 
 wounded, the disarmed and the unresisting, of the enemy, to be car- 
 ried back to camp, in proof of the slayer's prowess. Quarter was 
 generally only given to generals and dignitaries of rank whom it was 
 desirable to spare. Scribes were always present to take an account 
 of the spoil at the close of the battle. The usual practice upon taking 
 a city or town was to plunder it of everything of value. 
 
 The strongly-fortified towns of an enemy were besieged and assailed 
 in three principal ways. The attack by escalade was by means of 
 ladders placed against the city walls. These ladders were mounted
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 337 
 
 by the spearmen, followed by the archers, while the bowmen and sling- 
 ers kept up a constant discharge of arrows and stones. The assailants 
 protected themselves with their shields. The besieged endeavored to 
 dislodge and break the ladders, and defended themselves by discharg- 
 ing their arrows and stones, or meeting their assailants spear to spear 
 and shield to shield. 
 
 If the escalade failed, or was impracticable, the battering-ram, an Battering- 
 engine mounted on four or six wheels, and having either a pointed or 
 blunt head, was driven with force against the walls to effect a breach. 
 In connection with the battering-ram a movable tower containing sol- 
 diers was sometimes employed, the besiegers being thus enabled to meet 
 the besieged on a level and protect the engine from attacks. The 
 besieged often tried to fire the battering-ram by casting upon it 
 torches, burning tow or other inflammable substances. To thwart 
 these attempts the soldiers in the battering-ram were furnished with a 
 supply of water which they directed through leather or metal pipes 
 against the combustibles. Sometimes they suspended a curtain of 
 cloth or leather from a pole in front of the battering-ram to protect 
 themselves. Sometimes the besieged attempted to catch the point of 
 the battering-ram by means of a chain suspended from the walls, but 
 the besiegers in turn tried to catch the chain by means of strong metal 
 hooks. The Assyrians in their sieges also used a catapult, a large 
 engine designed for throwing stones against fortified walls, the besieg- 
 ers working the engine from a mound or inclined plane, and the be- 
 sieged endeavoring to destroy it by fire. The besiegers also endeav- 
 ored to mine the foundations of the walls by means of crowbars and 
 pickaxes, protecting themselves by holding their shields above them. 
 Sometimes the besiegers would try to break open the gates with axes, 
 or fire them with the torch. When a city or town was taken it was 
 fired, its walls demolished and its treasures carried off. 
 
 The Assyrians had three modes of executing captives impaling Treat- 
 them on stakes in the ground, beating in their skulls with a mace, and (^^y^ 
 beheading them. Several bas-reliefs represent them flaying prisoners 
 with a knife. This may have been after death, as was the custom of 
 the Persians and the barbarous Scythians. Sometimes prisoners were 
 punished by mutilation instead of death. Cutting off the ears, blind- 
 ing the eyes with hot irons, cutting off the nose, and tearing out the 
 tongue by the roots, have always been favorite Asiatic punishments. 
 Asshur-izir-pal says in his great inscription that he frequently cut 
 off the noses and ears of captives ; and a slab of Asshur-bani-pal rep- 
 resents a captive in the hands of torturers, one holding the prisoner's 
 head, and another thrusting his hand into his mouth to tear out the 
 tongue. The captives consisted of men, women and children. The
 
 238 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Captured 
 Animals. 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Des- 
 potism . 
 
 Royal 
 Harem. 
 Royal 
 Dignity 
 
 and 
 Customs . 
 
 men were driven in bands under the conduct of brutal officers, who 
 hurried them on by blows to the Assyrian capital, where the kings em- 
 ployed them in labor. The skilled workmen were required to aid in 
 ornamenting palaces and shrines. The great mass of the unskilled 
 laborers were set to work, under brutal taskmasters, in quarrying and 
 transporting stone, in raising mounds, making bricks, etc. Some- 
 times the captives were only colonized in new regions, to prevent re- 
 bellion in their own native lands, and to keep down malcontents in 
 their new abodes. 
 
 Besides captives, the Assyrians carried off great numbers of domes- 
 ticated animals, such as oxen, sheep, goats, horses, asses, mules and 
 camels. Sennacherib, in his inscriptions, says that in one foray he 
 carried away from the tribes on the Euphrates " 7,200 horses and 
 mares, 5,230 camels, 11,000 mules, 120,000 oxen and 800,000 sheep." 
 Other Assyrian monarchs mention the captured animals as " too nu- 
 merous to be counted," or " countless as the stars of heaven." Pre- 
 cious metals were often among the spoils carried off. 
 
 As in all other Asiatic monarchies from time immemorial, the severest 
 form of despotism existed in Assyria. The sovereign's will was law, 
 and no code was in existence to restrict his judgments, even the ancient 
 customs and usages being set aside at his pleasure. The king was the 
 head of the church, as well as of the state, and claimed divine worship. 
 His palace was filled with as many wives and concubines as he chose 
 to collect, and these were placed under the guardianship of eunuchs, an 
 unfortunate class, first brought into use in Assyria. The portion of 
 the palace assigned to the kings' women was his harem, or seraglio. 
 
 A rigid etiquette separated the king from his subjects, no one being 
 allowed access to him except through the proper court officials, who 
 always accompanied him. No one but the vizier and the chief eunuch 
 were permitted to begin conversation with the king, who was seated 
 on his throne when he received them, they standing before him. As 
 a rule, the Assyrian kings led hardy and active lives. In times of 
 peace they superintended the public works, administered justice, and 
 found recreation in the dangerous pastime of hunting the lion and the 
 wild bull. In war the king generally rode in his chariot, though he 
 occasionally marched on foot, going into battle in the same manner. 
 The sovereign showed himself freely to his subjects, but maintained 
 his haughty dignity in everything, and was very seldom the effeminate 
 voluptuary that the Greeks supposed him to be. The Assyrian court 
 ceremonial was most elaborate and imposing. The monarch's dress in 
 peace and war was of the most exceeding magnificence, and while en- 
 gaged in the religious ceremonies prescribed for him he was clothed 
 in a special dress.
 
 ASSYRIAN DRESS AND WEAPONS 
 
 Upper Section: War and Hunting Chariots 
 
 Middle Section: The King and Attendant Pages Hunting 
 
 Lower Section: Royal Chariot and War Weapons
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 339 
 
 The musical instruments of the Assyrians were the harp, the lyre, Musical 
 the guitar, the pipe, the tambourine, the cymbal, the drum, the dul- mints' 
 cimer and the trumpet. Bands of musicians are represented in some 
 of the bas-reliefs, showing their employment on the occasions of public 
 ceremonials. 
 
 The usual apparel of the common people was a plain tunic, reaching Dress. 
 from the neck almost down to the knee, and held to the waist by a wide 
 belt or girdle. The sleeves were very short. The head and feet were 
 entirely bare. The king and his great officers wore head-dresses and 
 shoes. Laborers above the lowest grade wore sandals. The better 
 class of laborers wore close-fitting trousers and leather boots. The 
 lower classes wore no ornaments ; armlets and bracelets being worn only 
 by persons of rank, and ear-rings by soldiers and musicians. Men of 
 rank wore long fringed robes extending almost down to the feet, the 
 sleeves being short and barely covering the shoulders. This robe fitted 
 closely down to the waist, where it was confined to the body with a belt 
 or girdle, being loose below the waist. The jewelry of the higher 
 classes consisted of fillets, ear-rings, armlets and bracelets. Women 
 of the upper ranks were dressed in long fringed gowns, looser than 
 those of the men, the sleeves being long. Over this dress they fre- 
 quently wore a short cloak of a similar pattern, open in front and 
 falling over the arms, which they covered as far down as the elbows. 
 Their hair was arranged in short crisp curls, or carried back in waves 
 to the ears, from which it was in part twisted into long pendant ring- 
 lets, and in part curled, like that of the men, in three or four rows 
 at the back of the neck. A fillet frequently encircled the head. They 
 also wore girdles around the waist. Their feet were either bare or 
 protected by sandals. Women of the lower classes wore only a gown 
 extending down to the ankles, and a hood to cover the head. The orna- 
 ments and toilet articles of the upper ranks of Assyrian women ex- 
 hibited the high degree of luxury in their manner of living. The 
 chief dignitaries wore richly -figured robes. The men seem to have 
 prized their beards, which they dressed in long artificial curls. 
 
 The Assyrians were fond of entertainments, and these were con- Social En- 
 ducted with great pomp and luxury. Drinking scenes are represented tertain ~ 
 on the sculptures. They had vessels of gold and silver. Wine flowed 
 freely; while delicious fruits, rich viands, honey, incense, conserves of 
 dates, etc., were among the delicacies of the repast. Women, even 
 wives, danced naked before the guests ; while the music of stringed 
 instruments heightened the festivity of the occasion. 
 
 The Assyrians carried on an extensive commerce, principally by land Assyrian 
 and by means of caravans. At a later period their maritime traffic 
 
 U1CIC6* 
 
 was likewise considerable. They imitated the Phrenician ships, which
 
 240 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Sculpture 
 
 and 
 
 Manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Architec- 
 ture. 
 
 are also represented in the later sculptures. The first Assyrian ships 
 seem to have been round, with ribs of willow boughs covered with skins. 
 They had neither stem nor stern. They were used chiefly on rivers, 
 though large and strong enough to transport cattle. 
 
 The genius and greatness of the Assyrian people are displayed in 
 their art and manufactures, and not in the field of literature and sci- 
 ence. The works of their sculptors, and the products of their shops 
 and factories, bear testimony to the patience, diligence and care which 
 they exhibited in every field of material and practical activity. The 
 characteristics of their sculptures, and their manifest appreciation of 
 works of general utility, show their preference for the practical over 
 the theoretical, for the useful over the ideal, for the real over the 
 imaginary. 
 
 Architecture, the only one of the fine arts actually useful, consti- 
 tuted their greatest glory. Unlike the Egyptians, whose chief works 
 were their temples and tombs, the interest attaching to which is spirit- 
 ual and ideal, the Assyrians bestowed most attention on their palaces 
 and dwellings, the more useful structures. Assyrian sculptures aimed 
 to illustrate the real, the historically true; the only departure from 
 this rule being the representations of dragons fighting, and the colossal 
 winged man-headed bulls and lions guarding the entrances and pass- 
 ages of palaces, which are the symbols of strength combined with in- 
 telligence. With the exception of the few emblematic figures relating 
 to the Assyrian religion, the Assyrian bas-reliefs are closely cjpied 
 from nature. The imitation is always laborious, but in most case.' very 
 accurate. Even where the laws of representation are apparently de- 
 parted from, it is always done to impress correct ideas upon the be- 
 holder. Thus the gigantic stone bulls and lions have five legs, so that 
 they may appear from every point of view as having four. The lad- 
 ders are set edgeways against the walls of besieged cities, to show that 
 they are really ladders. The disproportionate smallness of city walls, 
 as represented in these sculptures, is designed to convey a full and 
 correct idea of the real fact. The spirit of faithfulness and honesty 
 pervading these sculptures is fully illustrated by the painstaking fin- 
 ish, the minute detail, the elaboration of every hair in a beard, and 
 every stitch in the embroidery of a dress. The Assyrian sculptures 
 have a grandeur and a dignity, a boldness, a strength, and a life-like 
 appearance, which render them intrinsically valuable as works of art, 
 and which excite our wonder and admiration ; though in conception, 
 in grace, and in freedom and perfection of outline, they are surpassed 
 by the wonderful productions of the Greek sculptors. Egyptian art 
 was confined to a lifeless religious conventionalism which checked prog- 
 ress; Assyrian art aimed to represent vividly the highest scenes of
 
 i 
 
 ROYAL ASSYRIAN COSTUMES AND FURNITURE
 
 ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 341 
 
 human activity. All phases of war the march of the army, the 
 battle-field, the pursuit of the fleeing foe, the siege of cities, the pass- 
 age of rivers and marshes, the submission and treatment of captives, 
 and the " mimic war " of hunting the chase of the lion, the stag, the 
 antelope, the wild bull and the wild ass constitute the chief subjects 
 of Assyrian sculpture ; and here all conventionality is utterly discarded. 
 Fresh scenes, new groupings, bold and strange attitudes, are contin- 
 ually seen; and the animal representations particularly exhibit an un- 
 ceasing advance with the progress of time, gradually becoming more 
 and more spirited, more varied, more true to nature, though propor- 
 tionately losing in the qualities of grandeur and majesty. This dis- 
 position to depict things in their reality continues to develop in per- 
 fection ; and the progress in grace and delicacy of execution fully 
 'testify to the progressive character of Assyrian art, which only cul- 
 minated in the closing years of the empire, during the brilliant reign 
 of Asshur-bani-pal. The art of Assyria was thoroughly national, and 
 developed by the inherent genius of the race. 
 
 In manufactures and the useful arts the Assyrians displayed a pre- Manufaft 
 eminence over all other ancient Oriental nations. The native indus- u se ful 
 trial skill of this great people produced in abxindance what was re- Arts, 
 quired for their comfort and happiness ; while the multitudes of skilled 
 workmen brought to Nineveh from the conquered nations by every 
 war, in accordance with the policy of the Assyrian monarchs, led to 
 the introduction of foreign fabrics and manufactures in the great 
 Assyrian cities, and thus contributed to the industrial development of 
 this active and practical race. The plunder, tribute and commerce 
 of the subject states united to enrich Assyria with the products of all 
 civilized lands. The vases, jars, bronzes, glass bottles, carved orna- 
 ments of ivory and mother-of-pearl, engraved gems, bells, dishes, ear- 
 rings, arms, working implements, musical instruments, etc., found In 
 recent years at Koyunjik, Nimrud and Khorsabad, were the products 
 of Assyrian skill and industry. Most of the weapons of warfare, 
 offensive and defensive, used by the stalwart warriors of Assyria, were 
 forged in abundance in the armories of this great military nation. 
 
 Most of the ornaments, utensils, etc., are of elegant forms, and dis- Metal- 
 play much knowledge of metallurgy and other arts, as well as a refined Glass- 
 taste; and some of these anticipate inventions supposed until recently blowing, 
 to have been modern. One of these was transparent glass, and glass- 
 blowing was one of the industries of Assyria, as it had been of ancient 
 Egypt. A lens discovered at Nimrud, together with the fact that 
 many of the Assyrian inscriptions are so minute that they can not 
 be read without the use of magnifying-glasses, proves that they must 
 have used such glasses in making these inscriptions. 
 
 VOL. 1. 16
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Ornamen- 
 tal Metal- 
 lurgy. 
 
 Other 
 
 Practical 
 
 Arts. 
 
 Rawlin- 
 sonon 
 Assyrian 
 Civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Con- 
 quests 
 
 and 
 
 Material 
 Great- 
 ness. 
 
 The ornamental metallurgy of the Assyrians displayed wonderful 
 skill ; and consisted of entire figures or parts of figures cast solid, cast- 
 ings in low relief, and embossed work wrought principally with the 
 hammer, " but finished by a sparing use of the graving tool." The 
 solid figures, most of which were small, comprised animal forms, chiefly 
 lions. Castings in low relief were principally used in the ornamenta- 
 tion of thrones and chariots, and embraced animal and human figures, 
 winged deities, griffins, etc. The embossed work was curious and ele- 
 gant, as displayed in weapons, ornaments for the person, household 
 implements and numerous other objects. The ornamental metallurgy 
 of the Assyrians was mostly in bronze, consisting of one part of tin 
 to ten parts of copper, which is yet regarded as the best proportion. 
 
 The Assyrians also understood other practical arts. Their build- 
 ings show that they were acquainted with the principle of the arch. 
 They constructed tunnels, aqueducts and drains. They knew the use 
 of the pulley, the lever and the roller ; and constantly used the inclined 
 plane in attacking fortified towns. They understood the arts of in- 
 laying, enameling and overlaying with metals; and they cut and en- 
 graved gems with a degree of skill and finish not excelled by the French 
 in our own day. The Assyrians excelled in the arts of weaving and 
 dyeing. They decorated their stuffs by introducing colored threads 
 and tissues of gold in the woof. They had indigo, cotton and silk in 
 abundance. Some Assyrian plows have been found. Irrigation was 
 common. Sesame, millet and corn were the chief articles of food. In- 
 deed, Assyrian civilization did not fall far behind the boasted achieve- 
 ments of the moderns. 
 
 Says Rawlinson concerning the civilization of this wonderful ancient 
 people : " 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 warn- 
 ing 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." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the inherent genius of the Assyrian people 
 displayed itself in centuries of continued conquest and in material 
 greatness. The glory of their arms and the grandeur of their art 
 gave them the ascendency over the nations of Western Asia for almost 
 seven hundred years. Their almost uninterrupted course of conquests 
 poured wealth into their great capitals, developed luxury, and made 
 them haughty and domineering. The mingled civilization and bar- 
 barism exhibited in the case of this mighty ancient Asiatic people has
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ever been the distinguishing characteristic of all the great Oriental 
 empires which have successively risen, flourished, decayed, and crum- 
 bled to pieces. 
 
 SECTION VIII. THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 THE history of the Babylonian Empire begins with Nabopolassar, 
 who ascended the throne of Babylon in B. C. 625. We have observed 
 in the history of Assyria, that from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's con- 
 quest of Chaldaea, in B. C. 1300, that country sunk into a state of 
 comparative insignificance, and remained, during the whole period of 
 Assyrian ascendency in Western Asia, subject to Assyria, or occupied 
 a secondary position among the Oriental nations. The Assyrians at 
 first governed Chaldaea from their own capital, but they soon placed 
 the country under an Assyrian dynasty, over which they claimed and 
 exercised a sort of suzerainty, but which was practically independent 
 and ruled its kingdom without interference. 
 
 The first monarch of the Assyrian dynasty in Chaldsea was NEBU- 
 CHADNEZZAR I., a contemporary of Asshur-ris-ilim, King of Assyria. 
 Nebuchadnezzar twice attacked Nineveh; first by way of the Diyaleh 
 and the outlying Zagros hills, the route of the great Persian military 
 road in subsequent times ; and secondly by crossing directly the Meso- 
 potamian plain. The Assyrian records say that both these attacks 
 were repulsed, and that after his second failure the Babylonian king 
 retreated hastily back into his own dominions. Tiglath-Pileser I., 
 King of Assyria, the son and successor of Asshur-ris-ilim, led an ex- 
 pedition into Babylonia, then ruled by MERODACH-IDDIN-AKHI, the suc- 
 cessor of Nebuchadnezzar I. After a struggle of two years, and tak- 
 ing Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf), the two Sipparas, Opis, and even 
 Babylon itself, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Assyria, harassed on his 
 retreat by the Babylonian monarch, who captured the Assyrian bag- 
 gage, along with certain Assyrian idols, which were carried as trophies 
 to Babylon. Babylonia and Assyria continued at war during the fol- 
 lowing reigns of MERODACH-SHAPIK-ZIRI in the former country and 
 Asshur-bil-kala in the latter, without any important result. 
 
 The period of these Assyro-Babylonian wars synchronizes with the 
 epoch of the judges in Israel, and was succeeded by an interval of 
 obscurity in the history of both Assyria and Babylonia. Assyria had 
 sunk into a declining condition ; while Babylonia was prosperous, and 
 according to the testimony of Asshur-izir-pal, the great Assyrian mon- 
 arch of the ninth century before Christ, conquered some of the Assyr- 
 ian territories, and according to Macrobius held communication with 
 Egypt, 
 
 Chal- 
 dsea's 
 Subjec- 
 tion to 
 Assyria. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar I. 
 
 His 
 Attacks 
 
 on 
 
 Nineveh 
 Repulsed. 
 
 Mero- 
 dach-id- 
 din-akhi. 
 
 Mero- 
 dach-sha- 
 pik-ziri. 
 
 Obscure 
 Period.
 
 244 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Invasions 
 of Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Mero- 
 
 dach- 
 sum- 
 adin. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Invasion. 
 
 Mero- 
 
 dach- 
 
 belatzu- 
 
 ikbi. 
 
 The 
 
 Scriptural 
 Pul. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Indepen- 
 dence 
 under 
 
 Nabonas- 
 sar. 
 
 Era of 
 
 Nabonas- 
 sar. 
 
 But after remaining for two centuries in a state of comparative 
 weakness and unimportance, Assyria entered upon another period of 
 prosperity and greatness, and made Babylonia feel the effects of her 
 vengeance. The Assyrian king, Asshur-izir-pal, invaded Babylonia 
 about B. C. 880, and recovered the territories which the Babylonians 
 had held during the period of Assyria's depression. Asshur-izir-pal's 
 son and successor, Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk king, led an 
 expedition into Babylonia while that country was distracted by a civil 
 war between its legitimate sovereign, MERODACH-STTM-ADIN, and his 
 younger brother. Shalmanaser took a number of Babylonian towns, 
 and was allowed to enter Babylon itself after defeating and slaying 
 the pretender to the Babylonian throne; after which he overran Chal- 
 daea, or the district upon the coast, which seems to have been then in- 
 dependent of Babylon and governed by a number of petty kings. The 
 Chaldsean chiefs were forced to pay tribute ; and, having " struck ter- 
 ror as far as the sea," the Assyrian king returned to his capital. Thus 
 all of Babylonia and Chaldaea was again under Assyrian influence ; and 
 Babylonia was once more a secondary power, dependent on Assyria. 
 
 About B. C. 821 the Assyrian king, Shamas-Vul II., the son and 
 successor of Shalmaneser II., invaded Babylonia, defeated its king, 
 MEEODACH-BELATZU-IKBI, in two pitched battles, and forced him to 
 submit to Assyrian suzerainty; though in the last battle he had been 
 aided by the Zimri of Mount Zagros, the Aramaeans of the Euphrates, 
 and the Chaldaeans of the South. Babylon remained under Assyrian 
 supremacy until the middle of the eighth century before Christ, when 
 it is supposed that PUL, seeing his opportunity in Assyria's weakness 
 under Asshur-dayan III., about B. C. 770, shook off the hated yoke 
 of Assyria and extended the Babylonian dominion over the Euphrates 
 valley and Western Mesopotamia, whence he proceeded to extend his 
 conquests into Syria and Palestine. But such obscurity rests upon 
 Pul that it is not positively known whether he was a Babylonian king. 
 The Jewish Scriptures call him " king of Assyria," and Berosus rep- 
 resents him as " Chaldseorum rex." 
 
 Soon after regaining its independence, Babylonia was disintegrated 
 into a number of independent sovereignties Nabonassar governing 
 Babylon; Yakin, the father of Merodach-Baladan, ruling the Chal- 
 dsean coast region ; and Nadina, Zakiru and other princes holding sway 
 in petty districts in Northern Babylonia. NABONASSAE, who became 
 King of Babylon in B. C. 747, is regarded as the restorer of Baby- 
 lonian independence ; and the year of his accession, known as the " Era 
 of Nabonassar," was the point from which the Babylonians thereafter 
 reckoned dates of events. According to Berosus, Nabonassar sought 
 to obliterate the memory of the previous epoch of Babylonian sub-
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 jection to Assyria by having " destroyed the acts of the kings who 
 had preceded him." 
 
 Nabonassar lived at peace with the contemporary King of Assyria, Relations 
 Tiglath-Pileser II., who early in his reign invaded the other portions 
 of Babylonia and Chaldsea, forcing Merodach-Baladan, the son and 
 successor of Yakin, to become his tributary. Nabonassar reigned over 
 Babylon fourteen years, from B. C. 747 to B. C. 733. It has been 
 generally believed that the time of Nabonassar's reign was the same as 
 that assigned by Herodotus to the reign of Semiramis, who, as the wife Queen 
 or as the mother of Nabonassar, governed Babylon on behalf of her ^^ ra " 
 husband or her son. But this is a mere conjecture, contradicted by 
 the native records. We have observed in the history of Assyria that 
 Semiramis was a Babylonian princess married to the Assyrian king, 
 Vul-lush III., who reigned from B. C. 810 to B. C. 781. Nabonassar 
 was followed on the Babylonian throne by NADIUS, who reigned only Nadius. 
 two years, from B. C. 733 to B. C. 731. Nadius is supposed to have 
 been one of the independent Babylonian princes reduced to subjection 
 by Tiglath-Pileser I. in his expedition into Babylonia. Nadius was Chinzinus 
 succeeded by CHINZINUS and PORUS, who jointly reigned from B. C. Porus. 
 731 to B. C. 726. Their successor was ELUL^EUS, identified with the 
 prince of that name called King of Tyre by Menander the Luliya Elulaus. 
 of the cuneiform inscriptions; but Rawlinson considers this theory a 
 mere conjecture and highly improbable. 
 
 MERODACH-BALADAN the successor of Elulaeus, and the son of Mero- 
 Yakin, the prince who established himself in authority over Southern 
 
 Babylonia, the ancient Chaldaea, and founded a capital city, naming 
 it after himself Beth- Yakin, or Bit- Yakin inherited the dominion of 
 Yakin upon the death of the latter. Being forced to become tributary 
 to the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser II., he remained in comparative 
 obscurity and quiet during the reigns of Tiglath-Pileser II. and Shal- 
 maneser IV. in Assyria ; but when Sargon usurped the Assyrian throne, 
 B. C. 721, Merodach-Baladan established his sway over Babylonia, of 
 which he was recognized as king. It was some time during his twelve His 
 years' reign over Babylon that Merodach-Baladan sent ambassadors ' ^ 
 to Hezekiah at Jerusalem to ascertain the particulars of the strange Hezekiah, 
 astronomical marvel, or miracle, accompanying the sickness and re- j u dah. 
 covery of that king. Hezekiah exhibited all his treasures to these 
 ambassadors. A coalition appears to have been formed against As- 
 syria by Babylon, Susiana, the Aramaean tribes, Judah and Egypt. In 
 B. C. 711 Sargon, King of Assyria, invaded Egypt and compelled its HisDefeat 
 Ethiopian king, Sabaco, to sue for peace. In the following year, 
 B. C. 710, Sargon led an army into Babylonia, defeated Merodach- 
 Baladan and his Aramaean and Susianian allies in a great battle, and
 
 24,6 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Revolts 
 against 
 Assyria 
 
 Hagisa. 
 
 Mero- 
 dach- 
 
 Baladan's 
 Escape, 
 Defeat 
 
 and Exile. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Subjec- 
 tion to 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Revolts 
 Crushed. 
 
 Nabopo- 
 lassar's 
 Revolt 
 against 
 Assyria. 
 
 took Bit-Yakin, making Merodach-Baladan prisoner and gaining pos- 
 session of all his treasures ; whereupon Babylonia submitted to Sargon, 
 who carried Merodach-Baladan captive to Assyria, and himself as- 
 sumed the title of " King of Babylon." 
 
 But when Sargon died, B. C. 704, the Babylonians cast off the As- 
 syrian yoke. A number of pretenders claimed the Babylonian crown. 
 A son of Sargon and a brother of Sennacherib restored Assyrian su- 
 premacy for a short time, but the Babylonians again revolted. HAGISA 
 reigned over Babylon about a month. Merodach-Baladan, escaping 
 from his Assyrian captivity, murdered Hagisa and seized the Baby- 
 lonian throne, of which he had been deprived seven years before. But 
 Sennacherib, King of Assyria, Sargon's son and successor, led an army 
 into Babylonia in B. C. 703, defeated Merodach-Baladan and drove 
 him into exile, after a reign of six months, and annexed Babylonia to 
 the Assyrian kingdom. Thenceforth, for seventy-eight years, until 
 the revolt of Nabopolassar, B. C. 625, Babylonia, with a few short 
 intervals, remained an Assyrian dependency. During this period the 
 Assyrian monarchs governed Babylonia by means of viceroys, such 
 as Belibus, Regibelus, Meses-imordachus and Saos-duchinus, or directly 
 and personally, as by Esar-haddon and by Asshur-bani-pal in his later 
 years. During Sennacherib's reign there were two Babylonian revolts 
 against Assyria, one headed by Merodach-Baladan in Chaldaea, and the 
 other by Susub at Babylon. These were soon suppressed by Sen- 
 nacherib, as related in the Assyrian history. While Asshur-bani-pal 
 was King of Assyria, his brother, Saiil-Mugina, also called Sam- 
 mughes, or Saos-duchinus, attempted to make himself independent, but 
 was subdued and burned alive, as also stated in the history of Assyria. 
 Thus ended the second period of Chaldaean, or Babylonian history 
 the period of Babylonian and Chaldsean subjection to Assyria, from 
 Tiglathi-Nin's conquest in B. C. 1300 to Nabopolassar's successful 
 revolt in B. C. 625. 
 
 We will now proceed to the history of the Babylonian Empire, first 
 relating the circumstances of its foundation. When the Medes under 
 their valiant king, Cyaxares, a second time crossed the Zagros range 
 and attacked Nineveh from the east, the Susianians menaced the great 
 capital from the south. In this extremity the last Assyrian king, 
 Asshur-emid-ilin, or Saracus, divided his forces, retaining a portion 
 under his own command for the defense of his capital against the 
 Medes, and sending .a portion under his general, Nabopolassar, or 
 Nabu-pal-uzur, to Babylon to oppose the advance of the Susianians 
 from the south. Taking advantage of the perilous straits of his sov- 
 ereign, Nabopolassar resolved to betray him in order to obtain for him- 
 self an independent kingdom. He therefore negotiated an alliance
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 247 
 
 with Cyaxares, the Median king, and obtained that king's daughter as 
 a bride for his own son, Nebuchadnezzar. The united Median and 
 Babylonian armies then besieged Nineveh, which was finally taken and 
 destroyed, B. C. 625, as already related in the histories of Assyria and 
 Media. In the division of the Assyrian Empire, which followed the 
 fall of Nineveh, Cyaxares obtained Assyria proper and all Assyria's 
 dependencies towards the north and north-west ; while the traitor Nabo- 
 polassar received Babylonia, Chaldaea, Susiana, Upper Mesopotamia, 
 Syria and Palestine. Thus arose the Babylonian Empire. 
 
 We know very little about the reign of NABOPOLASSAR. The Canon 
 of Ptolemy informs us that he dated his accession from the year B. C. 
 625, and that his reign lasted twenty-one years, ending in B. C. 604. 
 During most of this time Babylonian history is a blank. Babylon had 
 no inclination to jeopardize her position at the head of an empire by 
 aggression, and her peaceful attitude of course provoked no hostility 
 from her neighbors. Media, bound by dynastic interests and by for- 
 mal treaty, could be depended upon as a firm friend. Persia was too 
 feeble, and Lydia too distant, to be formidable. Egypt, though hos- 
 tile and powerful, was ruled by a sovereign whom misfortune and age 
 prevented engaging in any distant military enterprise ; so that as long 
 as Psammetichus was living Babylon had comparatively nothing to 
 fear from any quarter, and, in the language of the Jewish prophet 
 Isaiah, could " give herself to pleasure and dwell carelessly." 
 
 It was only as the ally of Media that Babylon was obliged to exert 
 herself during the first eighteen years of her empire, being bound by 
 treaty to aid Cyaxares in his wars and conquests after the capture and 
 destruction of Nineveh, the Babylonian contingents on these occasions 
 being led either by Nabopolassar or by his son, the crown-prince 
 Nebuchadnezzar. In a war between Media and Lydia, as the armies 
 of these two hostile nations were about to engage in battle, an eclipse 
 of the sun excited the superstitious fears of both, so that they were 
 disposed to reconciliation. Thereupon the Babylonian monarch acted 
 as peacemaker. Having discovered that Syennesis of Cilicia, the lead- 
 ing man of the Lydian side, was disposed to second his friendly offices, 
 Nabopolassar proposed the holding of a peace conference. The result 
 was that a treaty of peace and friendship, cemented by a royal inter- 
 marriage, was concluded between Media and Lydia ; thus giving West- 
 ern Asia almost half a century of peace, after almost perpetual warfare 
 and devastation. 
 
 After this successful attempt at mediation, Nabopolassar returned 
 to Babylon. He was prevented from ending his last years in peace 
 by the warlike attitude of Neko, King of Egypt, the son and successor 
 of Psammetichus, who sought to wrest Syria and Palestine from the 
 
 His 
 
 Alliance 
 
 with 
 Media. 
 
 Destruc- 
 tion of 
 
 Nineveh 
 
 and 
 End of 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Nabopo- 
 lassar, 
 Founder 
 
 of 
 
 the Baby- 
 lonian 
 Empire. 
 
 His 
 
 Peaceful 
 Reign. 
 
 Alliance 
 
 with 
 
 Media and 
 Lydia. 
 
 Egyptian 
 
 Invasion 
 
 of 
 
 Palestine 
 
 and 
 Victories 
 
 over 
 
 Judah.
 
 248 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Battle of 
 Carche- 
 
 mish. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Invasion 
 
 of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Acces- 
 sion. 
 
 OldTesta- 
 
 ment 
 Author- 
 ity. 
 
 Babylonian Empire. In B. C. 608 the Egyptian king led an army 
 into Palestine, where the Jewish king Josiah, in fulfillment of his duty 
 as vassal monarch to the King of Babylon, had assembled an army at 
 Megiddo to oppose his further advance in the territories of Nabopolas- 
 sar. Thereupon Neko sent an embassy to persuade Josiah that he 
 had no hostile feelings toward the Jews, and claiming divine approval 
 of his enterprise. But Josiah, loyal to his suzerain, remained firm in 
 his opposition to the advance of the invaders ; whereupon he was at- 
 tacked and defeated at Megiddo, and fled mortally wounded to Jeru- 
 salem, where he died. Neko followed up his victory by advancing 
 through Syria to the Euphrates, and extended his authority over the 
 whole region from Egypt on the south-west to the " Great River " on 
 the north-east. Returning three months later, Neko dethroned Jehoa- 
 haz, a younger son of Josiah, whom the Jewish people had made king, 
 and bestowed the Jewish crown on Jehoiakim, his elder brother. Dur- 
 ing this time Neko besieged and took the Philistine city of Gaza. 
 
 Three years later, in B. C. 605, Nabopolassar, now venerable for his 
 age, sent an army under his son, the crown-prince Nebuchadnezzar, 
 against the conquering hosts of the Egyptian king. The Hittite city 
 of Carchemish, on the right bank of the Euphrates, was then the key 
 of Syria; and at this place Nebuchadnezzar thoroughly defeated and 
 routed the Egyptians, who fled in dismay. Nebuchadnezzar rapidly 
 reestablished the Babylonian sway over Syria and Palestine, received 
 the submission of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, restored the frontier line, 
 and according to Berosus invaded Egypt itself. But upon receiving 
 news from Babylon of his father's death, Nebuchadnezzar hastily con- 
 cluded a peace with Neko, and speedily returned to his capital, in fear 
 of a disputed succession. 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR had no cause for his fears, as the priests had 
 assumed control of affairs in his absence, and the Chief Priest, or Head 
 of the Order, had kept the throne vacant for him until his return, while 
 no pretender disputed his claims. Nebuchadnezzar was the great mon- 
 arch of the Babylonian Empire, which continued but eighty-seven 
 years, from B. C. 625 to B. C. 538, and which for almost half that 
 period was ruled by him. The military glory of this empire is mostly 
 attributable to this renowned king, whose character and genius gave it 
 the constructive enterprise which was its essential characteristic. To 
 Nebuchadnezzar the prominent place of the Babylonians in history is 
 almost wholly due. Besides being an able general, Nebuchadnezzar 
 was one of the greatest builders of antiquity. 
 
 Our knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar's wars is almost entirely derived 
 from the Old Testament. Therefore we are only informed of his wars 
 in Palestine and its immediate vicinity, as related by the Jewish writ-
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 249 
 
 ers. We only possess a full account of his wars with the Jews, and 
 some knowledge of his campaigns against Egypt and Phoenicia, though 
 Berosus says he warred against the Arabs and conquered a part of their 
 country. 
 
 A few years after Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Neko, King of Revolt ol 
 Egypt, troubles once more distracted Syria. Tyre headed a rebellion *" 
 in Phoenicia, while Jehoiakim, the Jewish king, relying upon the prom- Judah. 
 ised aid of the Egyptian monarch, renounced his allegiance to his 
 Babylonian suzerain. Thereupon Nebuchadnezzar, in his seventh 
 year, B. C. 598, led into Palestine an expedition, consisting of his own 
 subjects and his Median allies. Polyhistor says this army numbered 
 10,000 chariots, 120,000 cavalry and 180,000 infantry. Having 
 invested Tyre and found that city too strong to assail with success, Siege of 
 Nebuchadnezzar left a part to continue the siege, while he himself yre ' 
 marched against Jerusalem. On the approach of the Babylonian king, 
 Jehoiakim submitted, as he was not supported by his Egyptian allies; 
 but Nebuchadnezzar put him to death, in punishment for his rebellion, Jehoia- 
 and treated his body with indignity. Says the prophet Jeremiah : ^^^ 
 " He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth Death. 
 beyond the gates of Jerusalem," and again, " His dead body shall be 
 cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost." 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar first placed Jehoiachin, the son of the unfortunate Captivity 
 Jehoiakim, upon the Jewish throne. The new Jewish king, a mere ^hin^ 
 youth, was deposed three months later by the suspicious Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and carried a captive to Babylon ; while his uncle, Zedekiah, a 
 brother of Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, was placed upon the Jewish throne. 
 The island city of Tyre, in the meantime, withstood a siege of thirteen Siege of 
 years against the forces of Nebuchadnezzzar ; during which Jerusalem 
 perished in a final effort for independence. 
 
 Zedekiah, King of Judah, remained a faithful vassal of the Baby- Revolt of 
 Ionian king for eight years, after which he sought an alliance with King O f ' 
 Uaphris, King of Egypt the Apries of Herodotus in order to strike Judah. 
 for independence. Says the prophet Ezekial, in speaking of Zedekiah 
 on this occasion : " He rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors 
 into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people." The 
 Egyptian king looked with favor upon the overture of Zedekiah, who 
 at once revolted from Babylon, and prepared to defend himself with 
 vigor. As this was the fourth time the feeble Jewish kingdom revolted 
 against him, Nebuchadnezzar resolved to crush it by a decisive blow. 
 " He and all his host " came against Jerusalem,, and, after conquering 
 and pillaging the open country, " built forts " and laid siege to the 
 city. Uaphris led an army from Egypt to the relief of his beleaguered 
 ally, whereupon the Babylonian army raised the siege and took the field
 
 250 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Siege and 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 
 Jerusalem 
 and Tyre. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Invasions 
 
 of 
 Egypt. 
 
 His Great 
 
 Tri- 
 umphs. 
 
 His 
 
 Deporta- 
 tions and 
 Coloniza- 
 tions. 
 
 against this new foe. Josephus says that the Egyptians were de- 
 feated in battle, but according to the prophet Jeremiah they avoided 
 an engagement by retreating to their own land. In either case the 
 attempted relief of the Jewish capital failed. After a short interval 
 the siege was renewed, the city was completely blockaded, and after a 
 siege and investment of eighteen months Jerusalem was taken by the 
 Babylonians, B. C. 586. Before the city fell, Nebuchadnezzar with- 
 drew in person to press the siege of Tyre, which, if it fell after its 
 thirteen years' siege, must have fallen the year after the capture of 
 Jerusalem, B. C. 585. 
 
 By the capture of Jerusalem and Tyre, the Babylonian king secured 
 the quiet possession of Palestine and Phoenicia. Four years after the 
 fall of Tyre, according to Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, 
 put its king, Uaphris, the friend and ally of Zedekiah, to death, and 
 bestowed the Egyptian crown upon a creature of his own, B. C. 581. 
 Herodotus, however, says that Uaphris was put to death by a rebellious 
 subject, and he is known to have reigned as late as B. C. 569. But 
 Nebuchadnezzar's second invasion of Egypt, B. C. 570, ended in the 
 deposition of Uaphris, whose successor, Amasis, was a mere vassal of 
 the Babylonian king. 
 
 Thus Nebuchadnezzar defeated Neko, recovered Syria, suppressed 
 the revolt of Judah, reduced Tyre and humbled Egypt. Megasthenes 
 says that he conquered North Africa, from which he invaded Spain and 
 subdued the Iberians, colonizing his Iberian captives on the shores of 
 the Euxine sea in the region between Armenia and the Caucasus. 
 Nebuchadnezzar was thus represented as reigning over an empire ex- 
 tending from the Atlantic ocean on the west to the Caspian sea on 
 the east, and from the Caucasus on the north-east to the great Sahara 
 on the south-west. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's military successes gave him that great command 
 of " naked human strength " by which he was enabled to prosecute 
 his great projects for beautifying and benefiting his kingdom without 
 unnecessarily oppressing his own people. From the start he carried 
 out the Assyrian system of forcible deportation of the entire popula- 
 tions of conquered lands, and colonized them in remote portions of 
 his dominions. Multitudes of captives taken in his wars Jews, Egyp- 
 tians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites and others were 
 settled in different parts of Mesopotamia, principally about Babylon. 
 By the forced labor of these captives the great works of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, which were the chief glory of the Babylonian Empire, were 
 erected. 
 
 Abydenus and Eusebius say that Nebuchadnezzar built the great 
 wall of Babylon, seventy-five feet high, and thirty-two feet wide, with
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 9,51 
 
 a circumference of three hundred and sixty-five stadia. This wall was 
 of solid brick masonry, the Babylonian bricks being about a foot square 
 and from three to four inches thick. Nebuchadnezzar, in the Standard 
 Inscription, only claims to have repaired the old wall of the city. He 
 erected a splendid new palace in the vicinity of the old royal residence. 
 He constructed the famous " Hanging Gardens " to delight his Median 
 wife, Amyitis, the daughter of Cyaxares. He repaired and beautified 
 the great temple of Bel at Babylon; and all the inscribed bricks thus 
 far discovered in the Babil mound bear Nebuchadnezzar's legend. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar constructed many gigantic public works of great 
 utility. He dug the immense reservoir at Sippara, which was said to 
 have been one hundred and forty miles in circumference, and one hun- 
 dred and eighty feet deep, providing it with flood-gates, through which 
 its waters might be drawn off for purposes of irrigation. He con- 
 structed many canals, among which was the Nahr Malcha, or " Royal 
 River," a wide and deep channel connecting the Euphrates and the 
 Tigris. He built quays and breakwaters along the shores of the Per- 
 sian Gulf, and founded the city of Diridotis, or Teredon, near that 
 gulf. According to Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions, or to existing 
 remains, he likewise erected the Birs-i-Nimrud, or great temple of 
 Nebo, at Borsippa ; constructed a vast reservoir in Babylon itself, called 
 the Yapur-Shapu, and a brick embankment along the course of the 
 Tigris, near Bagdad, the bricks of which bear his name and have 
 remained undisturbed ; and built many temples, walls and other public 
 buildings at Cutha, Sippara, Borsippa, Babylon, Chilmad, Bit-Digla 
 and other places. This indefatigable king either rebuilt or repaired 
 nearly all the Babylonian cities and temples. No less than a hundred 
 sites in the vicinity of Babylon testify, by inscribed bricks bearing his 
 legend, to his wonderful activity and energy. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar is also believed to have constructed the canal called 
 by the Arabs the Kerek Saideh, or canal of Sai'deh, and ascribed by 
 them to a wife of Nebuchadnezzar. This canal, four hundred miles 
 long, extended from Hit, on the Euphrates, along the extreme western 
 edge of the alluvium close to the Arabian frontier, to the head of the 
 Bubian creek, about twenty miles west of the Shat-el-Arab. Traces 
 of this canal yet remaining attest the magnitude of this great work. 
 The Pallacopas, or canal of Opa (Palga Opa), which flowed from the 
 Euphrates at Sippara (now Mosaib) to a great lake in the vicinity 
 of Borsippa, whence the neighboring lands were irrigated, is also be- 
 lieved to have been constructed by this great monarch. It was an old 
 canal, out of repair, in the time of Alexander the Great ; and is called 
 the Nahr Abba by the Arabs, who consider it the oldest canal in the 
 
 country. 
 
 119 
 
 Walls 
 
 and 
 
 "Hanging 
 Gardens" 
 
 of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 
 Other 
 Gigantic 
 
 Public 
 
 Works. 
 
 Two 
 
 Great 
 
 Canals.
 
 252 
 
 CHAUXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Brilliant 
 
 Court. 
 
 His 
 
 Wavering 
 Religion. 
 
 His 
 
 Angry 
 Outbursts 
 and Occa- 
 sional 
 Piety. 
 
 His 
 Cruel 
 Deeds. 
 
 The Old Testament gives us some knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 private life and personal character. The Book of Daniel represents 
 the great monarch at the head of a most magnificent court ; surrounded 
 with "princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, councilors, and 
 sheriffs " ; waited upon by carefully-chosen eunuchs, " well-favored " 
 and educated with care ; attended, at his desire, by a host of astrolo- 
 gers and other " wise men," who sought to reveal to him the divine 
 will. He was an absolute monarch, having the lives and properties of 
 his subjects, from the highest to the lowest, at his disposal; and dis- 
 pensing all offices at his pleasure. He could elevate a foreigner to a 
 second place in the kingdom, and even place him over the whole priest- 
 hood. His immense wealth is proven by the fact that he made an im- 
 age or obelisk of pure gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide. 
 
 This renowned Babylonian monarch wavered in his religion, some- 
 times acknowledging the Jehovah of the Jews as the only real deity, 
 sometimes relapsing into the idolatrous Babylonian polytheism, and 
 forcing his subjects to do the same. But his polytheism was charac- 
 terized by a special devotion to a particular deity, whom he designates 
 emphatically as " his god." Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions clearly 
 show that his favorite god was Merodach. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar was hasty and violent in temper, but not obstinate. 
 His fierce resolves were taken suddenly and repented of quickly. He 
 could occasionally give way to outbursts of gratitude and devotion. 
 He was as vainglorious as Orientals generally, but could bow in hu- 
 miliation before the divine castigation. He often showed a spirit of 
 sincere piety, self-condemnation and self-abasement, as the following 
 from the Book of Daniel clearly proves : " I blessed the Most High, 
 and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, Whose dominion 
 is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to 
 generation; and ah 1 the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as noth- 
 ing, and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and 
 among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or 
 say unto Him, What doest Thou? Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise 
 and extol and honor the King of heaven, Whose works are truth, and 
 His ways j udgment ; and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." 
 
 Another Jewish prophet, Jeremiah, gives a darker shade to the char- 
 acter of the illustrious Babylonian monarch. This writer tells us that 
 Nebuchadnezzar executed Jehoiakim and treated his body with indig- 
 nity, murdered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, put out the eyes of 
 Zedekiah himself, and kept Zedekiah and Jehoiachin in prolonged im- 
 prisonment. These acts of barbarous cruelty imply in the great Baby- 
 lonian king a disposition as ferocious as that of Sargon or Asshur- 
 bani-pal.
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 253 
 
 Berosus informs us that Nebuchadnezzar was devotedly attached to 
 his Median wife, Amyitis, whom his father had selected for him for 
 reasons of state. Solely to please her, he erected the celebrated 
 " Hanging Gardens " at Babylon. The rocks and trees of this de- 
 lightful artificial Paradise, where art strove to rival nature, were de- 
 signed to imitate the beautiful mountain scenery of Media. 
 
 In his later days Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a strange dream, the 
 meaning of which was interpreted to him by the Jewish prophet Dan- 
 iel, who, though carried into the Babylonian captivity with his nation, 
 had arrived at high honors under the Babylonian king. Daniel told 
 the king that his dream portended that he would for seven years be a 
 victim to a strange and rare kind of madness. A victim to this mal- 
 ady, called Lycanthropy, imagines himself a beast, does not talk, re- 
 jects the usual human food, and sometimes loses the erect attitude and 
 walks on hands and feet. Within a year of the warning, Nebuchad- 
 nezzar was stricken in the very hour in which he had exclaimed in his 
 pride : " Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of 
 the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my 
 majesty!" The great monarch became a helpless and wretched mad- 
 man. He lived in the open air day and night, " and did eat grass as 
 oxen," and went naked " till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, 
 and his nails like birds' claws." After suffering thus for seven years, 
 Nebuchadnezzar regained his reason, and his recovery was hailed with 
 rejoicing by his court. His councilors and lords greeted his presence. 
 He again resumed the government of his empire, issued his proclama- 
 tions, and discharged all his royal duties. He had now reached old 
 age, " but ' the glory of his kingdom,' his * honor and brightness ' re- 
 turned " ; " his last days were as brilliant as his first ; his sun set in an 
 unclouded sky, shorn of none of the rays that had given splendor to 
 its noonday." Nebuchadnezzar died in B. C. 561, in the forty-fourth 
 year of his reign, when almost eighty years old. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son EVIL-MERODACH, of whose 
 short reign of two years but very little is known. He seemed disposed 
 to favor the Jews. Upon his accession, he released Jehoiachin from 
 his thirty-five years' imprisonment, and treated him with kindness and 
 respect, recognizing his royal rank and giving him precedence over 
 all the captive kings residing at Babylon. Josephus says that he actu- 
 ally accepted Jehoiachin as one of his most intimate friends. After 
 Evil-Merodach had occupied the Babylonian throne but two years he 
 was accused of lawlessness and intemperance, a conspiracy was formed 
 against him, his own brother-in-law, Neriglissar, heading the malcon- 
 tents ; and Evil-Merodach lost both crown and life, B. C. 559. 
 
 Devotion 
 
 to His 
 
 Wife 
 
 Amyitis. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Dream 
 
 and 
 
 Daniel's 
 Interpre- 
 tation 
 Fulfilled. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Madness, 
 Recovery 
 
 and 
 Death. 
 
 Evil-Me- 
 rodach. 
 
 His 
 
 Release of 
 Jehoia- 
 chin. 
 
 His 
 Over- 
 throw and 
 Death.
 
 CHALDJEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Neriglis- NEBJGIJSSAR was at once recognized as King of Babylon. His real 
 sar> name, as seen on his bricks, was Nergal-sar-uzur ; and he is believed 
 to have been the " Nergal-shar-ezer, Rag-Mag," mentioned by the Jew- 
 ish prophet Jeremiah, and who held an important office among the 
 Babylonian nobles left to press the siege of Jerusalem when Nebu- 
 chadnezzar retired to Riblah. It is known that the king bore the office 
 of Rag-Mag, and that title is also upon his bricks. Neriglissar styled 
 himself the son of Bel-sum-iskun, " king of Babylon " a sovereign 
 whose name is not mentioned by the Canon of Ptolemy, but who was 
 perhaps a chieftain who took the royal title during the troubles pre- 
 ceding the fall of the Assyrian Empire. Neriglissar reigned only 
 three years and four months, and was engaged chiefly in the erection 
 His Great of the Western Palace at Babylon, an immense edifice at one corner 
 Palace. Q f ^ f or tifj e( } enclosure, directly opposite the old palace, and abutting 
 on the Euphrates. Diodorus described this structure as most magnifi- 
 cent, being elaborately ornamented with painting and sculpture in the 
 best style of Babylonian art, though it may have been smaller than the 
 ancient royal residence on the opposite side of the river. 
 
 Laboroso- Neriglissar died U. C. 556, after the short reign mentioned, and was 
 archod. succeeded by his son, LABOROSOARCHOD, so called by Berosus and the 
 Canon of Ptolemy. This monarch, a mere youth, only wore the Baby- 
 lonian crown a few months, when he was accused of showing many signs 
 His of a bad disposition, and was deposed and put to death, B. C. 555 ; and 
 throw and w ith him ended the dynasty of Nabopolassar, which had occupied the 
 
 Death. Babylonian throne seventy years, from B. C. 625 to B. C. 555. 
 Accession NABONADIUS, so called by the Canon of Ptolemy, and whom the con- 
 spirators chose from among their own number to succeed Laboroso- 
 
 dius. archod, was not related to his predecessor. He was called Nabonnedus 
 by Berosus. Thus Nabonadius, like Neriglissar, was a usurper; and, 
 like his father, held the important office of Rag-Mag, as on his bricks 
 and cylinders he styled himself " Nabonidus, the son of Nabu- 
 * * -dirba, the Rag-Mag." To secure his usurped throne, Nabo- 
 nadius married a princess of the royal house of Nabopolassar. 
 Cyrus the Soon after his accession, in B. C. 555, Nabonadius received an em- 
 Persiiu bassy from the remote North-west. Three years before, in B. C. 558 
 during the reign of Neriglissar at Babylon Cyrus the Great 
 founded the Medo-Persian Empire by deposing the Median king Asty- 
 ages and transferring the supremacy of the Aryan race from the Medes 
 to the Persians. Cyrus at once entered upon a career of conquest 
 which eventually brought all of Western Asia under the Medo-Persian 
 Alliance dominion. 
 
 lonhtand Fearing the rising power of Persia in the East, Lydian ambassadors 
 Lydia. were sent to Babylon in B. C. 555, the very year in which Nabonadius
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 255 
 
 
 ascended the Babylonian throne, proposing an alliance against the new 
 power which threatened the existence of the other Oriental monarchies 
 of the time. Nabonadius decided to unite in the proposed offensive 
 and defensive alliance with Lydia and Egypt to check the growing 
 power of his new eastern neighbor. 
 
 Aware that he thus provoked the hostility of a powerful foe by this Fortifica- 
 decisive course, and not knowing how soon he might be obliged to de- 
 fend his kingdom against the whole force of Persia, Nabonadius at once 
 began to strengthen Babylon. Herodotus ascribed these defensive 
 works to Nitocris, a queen whom he calls the mother of Nabonadius; 
 but Berosus says that they were erected by Nabonadius himself. These 
 works consisted partly of defenses within the city, intended to secure it 
 against an enemy who should enter it by the river, partly of hydraulic 
 works designed to obstruct the advance of an army by the usual route. 
 The river had thus far flowed in its natural channel through the middle 
 of the city; but Nabonadius confined the stream by a brick embank- 
 ment extended the whole way along both banks, after which he erected 
 on the top of the embankment a high wall, pierced at intervals by 
 gateways, in which were set gates of bronze. He also constructed 
 cuttings, reservoirs and sluices at some distance from Babylon towards 
 the north, designed to obstruct the march of a hostile army. Xeno- 
 phon likewise spoke of a rampart known as the " Median Wall " 
 extending across the tract between the two rivers a vast barrier a 
 hundred feet high and twenty feet thick intended to be insurmount- 
 able by an unskillful enemy, but this is generally doubted by modern 
 writers. 
 
 Nabonadius was permitted to complete his fortification of Babylon Conquest 
 unmolested; but his rash ally, Croesus, the wealthy King of Lydia, b Qy r |f s 
 rushed impetuously into a war with Persia without asking the assist- the Great. 
 ance of the Babylonian monarch. Cyrus promptly attacked Croesus 
 by invading Lydia, defeated him in the battle of Pteria, and besieged 
 and captured Sardis, the Lydian capital, before Nabonadius could 
 render his impulsive ally any aid. For fourteen years Babylon re- 
 mained unmenaced by the Persian king. 
 
 Finally, in B. C. 539, Nabonadius received tidings that Cyrus the 
 Great was marching from Ecbatana, the Median capital, in the direc- 
 tion of Babylon ; but as his defenses were completed and the city amply Babylon. 
 provisioned, the Babylonian monarch felt perfectly secure behind the 
 walls of his capital. Herodotus says that the Persian invader paused 
 half-way between Ecbatana and Babylon, because one of the sacred 
 white horses which drew the chariot of Ormazd had been drowned in 
 crossing a river. Declaring that he would punish the insolent stream, 
 Cyrus employed his soldiers during the whole summer and autumn of 
 
 Cyrus
 
 256 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 Victory 
 
 over 
 Nabona- 
 
 dius. 
 
 Siege of 
 Babylon 
 and Bel- 
 shazzar's 
 
 Feast. 
 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 
 Babylon 
 
 and Death 
 
 of Bel- 
 
 shazzar. 
 
 B. C. 539 in dispersing the waters of the stream into three hundred 
 and sixty channels. 
 
 Cyrus renewed his march upon Babylon in the spring of B. C. 538, 
 crossing the Tigris without opposition and soon appearing before 
 Babylon. The Babylonian army under Nabonadius himself was here 
 drawn up to oppose him. In the battle which ensued the Babylonian 
 king was thoroughly defeated, the greater part of his army seeking 
 refuge inside the walls of the capital, while he himself with a small 
 body of troops fled for safety into the important city of Borsippa, a 
 short distance south-west from Babylon. 
 
 In the meantime, the Babylonian crown-prince, Belshazzar, or Bel- 
 shar-uzur, the son of Nabonadius, and the grandson of the illustrious 
 Nebuchadnezzar supported by the counsels of his mother and the 
 officers of the court for a time successfully resisted all the Persian 
 assaults, so that Cyrus, almost reduced to despair, resorted to a strata- 
 gem whose failure might have cost him dear. Leaving a corps of 
 observation behind him, Cyrus, with the bulk of his army, marched up 
 the course of the Euphrates for some distance, and dug a new chan- 
 nel, or channels, from the river, by means of which a part of its water 
 could be drawn off. Cyrus awaited the arrival of a certain festival 
 at Babylon, when the entire Babylonian population would be engaged 
 in drinking and revelry. The festival on this occasion was held with 
 more than usual pomp and magnificence, and Belshazzar gave himself 
 up entirely to the delights of the season, entertaining a thousand dig- 
 nitaries in his palace. The rest of the population was occupied in 
 feasting and dancing; and in the midst of drunken riot and mad ex- 
 citement the siege of the city was wholly forgotten, and the usual 
 precautions were neglected. The Babylonians abandoned themselves 
 for the night to orgies characterized by a strange mingling of religious 
 frenzy and drunken excess. 
 
 While this was going on inside the city during this eventful night, 
 the Persians were silently watching outside at the two points where 
 the Euphrates entered and left the walls. They anxiously and cau- 
 tiously watched the gradual sinking of the river-bed, to discover if 
 their silent movements would be observed and cause alarm. Had they 
 entered the river channel to find the river-walls manned and the river- 
 gates locked fast they would have been caught in a trap. Flanked 
 on both sides by an enemy they could neither see nor reach they would 
 have been caught at a terrible disadvantage. In such a case they 
 would have been entirely cut to pieces without being able to make any 
 effectual resistance, or to escape from their perilous position. But 
 as they observed no signs of alarm, but only the shouts of riotous 
 revelry, on the part of the unsuspecting populace, the Persians grew
 
 THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 257 
 
 bolder, and, when the revelry was at its height, emerged from the deep 
 river-bed and seized the two undefended gateways. The frightened 
 Babylonians at once raised a war-shout and spread the alarm. Swift 
 runners hurried off to " show the King of Babylon that his city was 
 taken at one end " ; so says the Book of Jeremiah. In the darkness 
 and confusion of the night a frightful massacre occurred, says Xeno- 
 phon. The drunken revelers were unable to resist. Belshazzar, com- 
 pletely surprised and utterly helpless " at the awful handwriting upon 
 the wall," which appeared at this time, was warned of his danger when 
 too late, and could offer no check to the progress of the assailants, 
 who had the paralyzed populace completely at their mercy. A band 
 of Persians forced their way into the royal palace and slew the aston- 
 ished Belshazzar on the scene of his sacrilegious revelry. Such is the 
 testimony of Herodotus and Xenophon, of Daniel and Jeremiah. 
 Says the Book of Daniel : " In that night was Belshazzar slain." The 
 triumphant Persians destroyed right and left with fire and sword. 
 The dawn found Cyrus undisputed master of the mighty Babylon. 
 
 After ordering the fortifications of Babylon to be dismantled, Cyrus Captivity 
 marched against Nabonadius at Borsippa; but, seeing the folly of 
 resistance, the unfortunate Nabonadius surrendered himself upon the 
 approach of his triumphant foe. Cyrus kindly treated the captive 
 king, sparing his life, and, according to Abydenus, conferring on him 
 the government of the important province of Carmania. 
 
 Thus fell the mighty Babylonian Empire, after an existence of End of 
 eighty-seven years, from B. C. 625 to B. C. 538. For half a century ^ S? 
 did Babylon, along with Media and Lydia, control the destinies of Empire. 
 Western Asia. The Babylonian dominions then became a part of the 
 great Medo-Persian Empire, and the great city which had played so 
 important a part in Oriental history for centuries became the winter 
 capital of the Medo-Persian kings. 
 
 KINGS OF BABYLON. 
 
 
 dius. 
 
 
 
 CONTE MPORAEY 
 
 
 B. C. 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 KINGS OF 
 
 REMARKABLE EVENTS. 
 
 
 
 ASSYRIA. 
 
 
 1300 
 
 Assyrian Dynasty.... 
 
 Tiglathi-Nin I 
 
 * # * 
 
 The Assyrians conquer Babylon. 
 
 
 
 Bel-kudur-uzur. 
 
 
 
 iXin-pala-zira. 
 
 
 
 
 Asshur-dayan I. 
 
 
 
 
 Mutaggil-Nebo. 
 
 
 1150 
 1130 
 1110 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar I .... 
 Merodach-iddin-akhi . 
 Merodach-shapik-ziri . 
 
 Asshur-ris-ilim . . . 
 Tiglath-Pileser I.. 
 Asshur-bil-kala . . . 
 
 1 Wars between Assyria and 
 Babylon. 
 
 
 
 Shamas-Vul I. 
 
 
 
 * * 
 
 * * * 
 
 
 voi. 1. 17
 
 258 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 880 
 850 
 820 
 
 775 
 752 
 
 747 
 
 745 
 733 
 731 
 726 
 721 
 713(?) 
 
 709 
 704 
 703 
 
 702 
 699 
 
 696(?) 
 
 694(?) 
 693 
 692 
 
 688 
 680 
 
 667 
 647 
 
 626 
 625 
 605 
 
 561 
 
 559 
 556 
 555 
 538 
 
 Tsibir (Deboras) 
 * * 
 
 * * * 
 
 Asshur-Mazur .... 
 
 * # * 
 
 Asshur-dayan II. 
 Vul-lush II. 
 Tiglathi-Nin II. 
 Asshur-izir-pal . . . 
 
 Shalmaneser II.... 
 
 Shamas-Vul II.... 
 Vul-lush III. 
 Shalmaneser III. 
 Asshur-dayan III. 
 
 Asshur-lush. 
 
 Babylon in alliance with Egypt. 
 Takes territory from Assyria. 
 
 Assyria recovers her lost terri- 
 tory. 
 Civil war in Babylon. Assyria 
 helps the legitimate king. 
 Babylon conquered. Passes un- 
 der Assyria. 
 
 Babylon reestablishes her inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Embassy of Merodach-Baladan 
 to Hezekiah. 
 Babylon conquered by Sargon. 
 Babylon revolts. 
 
 Sennacherib conquers Babylon. 
 
 Babylon revolts. Revolt put 
 down. 
 Ditto. 
 Troubles in Babylon. Inter- 
 regnum of eight years, coin- 
 ciding with last eight years 
 of Sennacherib. 
 Babylon recovered by Esar- 
 haddon. 
 Babylon revolts and again re- 
 turns to allegiance. 
 
 Assyrian Empire destroyed. 
 Nebuchadnezzar carries the 
 Jews into captivity. 
 
 Babylon taken by Cyrus the 
 Great of Persia. 
 
 Merodach-sum-adin . . 
 
 Merodach-bela tzu-ikbi 
 
 * * * 
 
 Pul (?) 
 
 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser II. 
 
 Shalmaneser IV. 
 Sargon. 
 
 
 Chinzinus and Porus.. 
 Elulaeus 
 
 Merodach-Baladan ... 
 
 Arceanus ( Sargon) . . . 
 I nterregnum 
 
 
 Sennacherib 
 
 Hagisa ") 
 
 
 Merodach-Bala- 
 dan (restored) J 
 Belibus (viceroy) .... 
 Assaranadius (vice- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Regibelus (viceroy) . . 
 Mesesimordachus 
 
 
 
 Esar-haddon 
 
 Esar-haddon ... 
 
 Saos-duchinus (vice- 
 roy^ . 
 
 Asshur-bani-pal . . 
 Asshur-cmid-ilin. 
 
 Cinneladanus (or As- 
 shur-bani-pal) 
 Nebo-sum-iskun ( ?) . . 
 
 
 
 
 1. 
 
 
 Laborosoarchod 
 Nabonadius 
 
 Conquest of Babylon 
 by Cyrus the Great 
 of Persia. 
 
 f 

 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 259 
 
 SECTION IX. BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 SAYS Professor Rawlinson : " In its general character the Baby- 
 lonian Empire was little more than a reproduction of the Assyrian. 
 The same loose organization of the provinces under native kings rather 
 than satraps almost universally prevailed, with the same duties on the 
 part of suzerain and subjects, and the same results of ever-recurring 
 revolt and re-conquest. Similar means were employed under both em- 
 pires to check and discourage rebellion mutilations and executions of 
 chiefs, pillage of the rebellious region, and wholesale deportation of 
 its population. Babylon, equally with Assyria, failed to win the affec- 
 tions of the subject nations, and, as a natural result, received no help 
 from them in her hour of need. Her system was to exhaust and op- 
 press the conquered races for the supposed benefit of the conquerors, 
 and to impoverish the provinces for the adornment and enrichment of 
 the capital. The wisest of her monarchs thought it enough to con- 
 struct works of public utility in Babylonia proper, leaving the de- 
 pendent countries to themselves, and doing nothing to develop their 
 resources. This selfish system was, like most selfishness, short-sighted; 
 it alienated those whom it would have been true policy to conciliate and 
 win. When the time of peril came, the subject nations were no source 
 of strength to the menaced empire. On the contrary, it would seem 
 that some even turned against her and made common cause with the 
 assailants. 
 
 " Babylonian civilization differed in many respects from Assyrian, 
 to which however it approached more nearly than to any other known 
 type. Its advantages over Assyrian were in its greater originality, 
 its superior literary character, and its comparative width and flexibil- 
 ity. Babylonia seems to have been the source from which Assyria drew 
 her learning, such as it was, her architecture, the main ideas of her 
 mimetic art, her religious notions, her legal forms, and a vast number 
 of her customs and usages. But Babylonia herself, so far as we know, 
 drew her stores from no foreign country. Hers was apparently the 
 genius which excogitated an alphabet worked out the simpler prob- 
 lems of arithmetic invented implements for measuring the lapse of 
 time conceived the idea of raising enormous structures with the poor- 
 est of all materials, clay discovered the art of polishing, boring, and 
 engraving gems reproduced with truthfulness the outlines of human 
 and animal forms attained to high perfection in textile fabrics 
 studied with success the motions of the heavenly bodies conceived of 
 grammar as a science elaborated a system of law saw the value of 
 an exact chronology in almost every branch of science made a be- 
 
 Rawlin- 
 son's 
 State- 
 ment. 
 
 The 
 Same 
 
 Con- 
 tinued.
 
 260 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Descent 
 of the 
 Later 
 Baby- 
 lonians. 
 
 New 
 
 Semitic 
 
 Elements. 
 
 Fusion of 
 Semitic, 
 Hamitic 
 
 and 
 
 Turanian 
 Elements. 
 
 Final 
 Semitic 
 Prepon- 
 derance. 
 
 ginning, thus rendering it comparatively easy for other nations to 
 proceed with the superstructure. To Babylonia, far more than to 
 Egypt, we owe the art and learning of the Greeks. It was from the 
 East, not from Egypt, that Greece derived her architecture, her sculp- 
 ture, her science, her philosophy, her mathematical knowledge in a 
 word, her intellectual life. And Babylon was the source to which the 
 entire stream of Eastern civilization may be traced. It is scarcely 
 too much to say that, but for Babylon, real civilization might not even 
 yet have dawned upon the earth. Mankind might never have ad- 
 vanced beyond that spurious and false form of it which in Egypt, 
 India, China, Japan, Mexico, and Peru, contented the aspirations of 
 the species." 
 
 The later Babylonians were a mixed race, as were the early Chal- 
 daeans, from whom they were mainly descended. The Chaldseans of 
 the First Empire were chiefly a mixed Hamitic, or Cushite, and Tura- 
 nian race, with a slight intermingling of Semitic and Aryan elements. 
 But the Babylonians of the later period called Chaldasans by the 
 Hebrew prophets were still more of a composite race, on account of 
 the colonization of foreigners in Babylonia in accordance with the 
 policy of the Assyrian kings, and because of the influence exerted upon 
 them by their Assyrian conquerors. The conquest of Chaldaea by the 
 Arabian dynasty B. C. 1546, and the Assyrian conquest of the same 
 country B. C. 1300, establishing an Assyrian royal race upon the 
 Chaldaean throne, tended to the fusion of new Semitic elements with 
 the old Chaldaean population, as both the Arabs and the Assyrians were 
 prominent branches of the Semitic race, which played so important a 
 part in ancient history. 
 
 Semitic dynasties reigning in Chaldaea would naturally tend to the 
 introduction of new Semitic blood into that old land, and bring along 
 Semitic customs and ideas, and causing the old Turano- Cushite lan- 
 guage of ancient Chaldaea to give way to a Semitic tongue. The orig- 
 inal Chaldaean population gradually became intermingled with the new 
 Semitic settlers, thus tending to the production of a nation composed 
 about equally of Semitic, Turanian and Cushite, or Hamitic elements. 
 The colonizations of the Sargonid dynasty brought, in addition, small 
 proportions of other foreign elements, so that the later Babylonians 
 could more appropriately be called a " mingled people " than any 
 other ancient nation of Western Asia. By the time of the Later Em- 
 pire the Babylonians had become thoroughly Semitized, as the vitality 
 and energy of the Semitic elements fused in the population predomi- 
 nated over the original Cushite and Turanian elements ; so that the 
 later Babylonians were scarcely distinguishable from their northern 
 neighbors, the. Assyrians. The Greek writers seem to have regarded
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 2gl 
 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians as one and the same race of people, 
 and as having a common civilization. 
 
 The Babylonian cylinders and three or four representations by Physical 
 Babylonian artists give us some scant idea of the physical characteris- t e mtics 
 tics of this renowned ancient people. Among these remains is the 
 representation of a Babylonian king, believed to be Merodach-iddin- 
 ahki, on a black stone in the British Museum ; also representations of 
 the warrior and the priest in the tablet from Sir-Pal-i-Zohab, the man 
 accompanying the Babylonian hound, and some imperfect figures on 
 a frieze. A few Assyrian bas-reliefs represent Assyrian campaigns in 
 Babylonia. The Babylonian cylinders represent the Babylonians as 
 of far slighter and sparer physical frames than the Assyrians ; but the 
 Assyrian sculptures show the Babylonians as having bodily forms as 
 brawny and massive as their northern neighbors, while the features of 
 the two peoples were very nearly alike. The Assyrian sculptures rep- 
 resent the physiognomy of the Babylonians as distinguished by a low 
 and straight but somewhat depressed forehead, full lips, and a well- 
 marked, rounded chin. The few remaining Babylonian sculptures sus- 
 tain the correctness of the Assyrian, but represent the eye as larger 
 and less almond-shaped, the nose as shorter and more depressed, and 
 the general expression of the countenance as more commonplace. 
 These differences are to be ascribed to the influence exerted upon the 
 physical form of the race by the primitive Cushite Chaldsean element. 
 Herodotus states that the Babylonians wore their hair long, and this 
 statement is sustained by the Babylonian sculptures. These sculp- 
 tures commonly represent the hair as forming a single stiff and heavy 
 curl at the back of the head, but sometimes they give it the form of 
 long flowing locks depending over the back, or over the back and 
 shoulders, extending almost to the waist. Sometimes we find types \ 
 
 closely resembling the Assyrian, the hair forming a round mass be- 
 hind the head, on which there appears to have been sometimes a slight 
 wave. The style mentioned by Herodotus was the national fashion, 
 and is represented by the three usual modes. The round mass was an 
 Assyrian style, aped by the Babylonians during their subjection to 
 Assyria. The Assyrian sculptures represent the hair of the Babylo- 
 nians as reaching below the shoulders, and as worn smooth on the top 
 of the head and depending from the ears to the shoulders in many 
 large, smooth, heavy curls. 
 
 The Babylonians are likewise often represented with a large beard, Long 
 usually longer than the Assyrian, and reaching almost down to the 
 waist. Sometimes it curls crisply upon the face, but below the chin 
 it depends over the breast in long straight locks, while in other cases 
 it droops perpendicularly from the cheeks and the lower lip ; but here
 
 262 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA* 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Women. 
 
 Intellec- 
 tual 
 Ability. 
 
 the Assyrian sculptures represent the Babylonian beard as little longer 
 than the Assyrian. Often there is no beard, as in the case of the 
 priests. 
 
 The Assyrian sculptures also represent the Babylonian women as 
 tall and large-limbed, with the Assyrian physiognomy, and with not 
 very abundant hair; but the Babylonian cylinders make the hair ap- 
 pear long and prominent, while the physical forms are as spare and 
 meagre as those of the male sex. 
 
 It is evident that altogether the physical types of the Assyrians and 
 Babylonians were very nearly alike, though the Babylonians had a 
 somewhat sparer form, longer and more flowing hair, less strong and 
 stern features, and a darker complexion. The last characteristic is to 
 be attributed partly to the infusion of Ethiopian elements in the popu- 
 lation, and partly to their more tropical location, Babylonia being four 
 degrees farther south than Assyria. The Cha'ab Arabs, who now 
 occupy the southern parts of the ancient Babylonia, are almost black ; 
 while the " black Syrians," mentioned by Strabo, were probably the 
 Babylonians. 
 
 The Babylonians were distinguished for their intellectual ability. 
 They inherited the scientific lore of their predecessors, the early Chal- 
 dseans, whose astronomical and mathematical knowledge they not only 
 retained, but advanced and enlarged by their exertions. The fame 
 of their " wisdom and learning " is recorded by the Jewish prophets. 
 In alluding to them, Isaiah said : " Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, 
 it hath perverted thee." Says Jeremiah : " A sword is upon the Chal- 
 daeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon 
 her princes, and upon her wise men." Daniel alludes to " the learn- 
 ing and the tongue of the Chaldaeans." Herodotus mentions their use- 
 ful inventions, and Aristotle was indebted to them for scientific data. 
 They were celebrated for their observations of astronomical phenom- 
 ena, and their careful records of these observations. They were also 
 famed as mathematicians. But unfortunately their astronomy was 
 corrupted by astrology; and they professed to cast nativities, inter- 
 pret dreams, and foretell future occurrences by means of the stars, thus 
 tinging their astronomy with a mystic and unscientific element ; though 
 there were always some who confined themselves to pure science and 
 repudiated all astrological pretensions. 
 
 The Babylonians were also a very enterprising people. Their active 
 prise and spirit led them to engage extensively in manufactures and commerce 
 by sea and land. The same commercial spirit which so distinguished 
 the ancient Phoenicians, and which has made the modern Jews such 
 successful merchants, characterized the Semitized Babylonians, whose 
 land the Jewish prophet Ezekiel called " a land of traffic," and whose 
 
 Enter-
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 chief city Isaiah described as " a city of merchants." The trading 
 
 spirit of the Babylonians developed in them the opposite vices of avar- 
 
 ice and fondness for luxury. They " coveted with an evil covetous- 
 
 ness," as we are informed by the Jewish writers Habakkuk and Jere- 
 
 miah. The " shameful custom " which Herodotus relates, requiring Shameful 
 
 of every Babylonian woman, rich or poor, high-born or humble, pros- 
 
 titution as a religious duty in the great temple of Beltis at Babylon tioned by 
 
 once in her life, was probably dictated by this spirit of greed, for the tus. 
 
 purpose of attacting strangers to the capital ; as was also the custom 
 
 of selling the marriageable virgins at public auction, which Herod- 
 
 otus also mentions. Quintus Curtius, the Roman writer, also says that 
 
 the avarice of husbands and parents induced them to sell the virtue 
 
 of their wives and daughters to strangers. 
 
 Both sacred and profane writers continually dwell upon the luxury Luxury 
 of the Babylonians. We are informed by Isaiah that the " daughter gensu- 
 of the Chaldagans " was " tender and delicate," " given to pleasures," ality. 
 disposed to " dwell carelessly." Ezekiel tells us that her young men 
 made themselves " as princes to look at exceeding in dyed attire upon 
 their heads." Nicolas of Damascus relates that these young men 
 painted their faces, wore ear-rings, and dressed in robes of rich and 
 soft material. Polygamy prevailed extensively. The pleasures of 
 the table were indulged in to excess, and drunkenness was a general 
 vice. Rich unguents, so celebrated by Posidonius, were likewise in- 
 vented. The tables were loaded with gold and silver plate, according 
 to Nicolas of Damascus. In short, the Babylonians utterly aban- 
 doned themselves to self-indulgence and luxurious living, reveling in 
 the utmost licentiousness. 
 
 They nevertheless were always brave and skillful in war, and in the Warlike 
 height of their glory they were one of the most formidable of the Bravery. 
 Oriental nations. The Jewish prophet Habakkuk speaks of them as 
 " the Chaldseans, that bitter and hasty nation," and also as " terrible 
 and dreadful their horses' hoofs swifter than the leopard's, and more 
 fierce than the evening wolves." Isaiah says that they " smote the 
 people in wrath with a continual stroke," and that they " made the 
 earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms." In their great enter- 
 prises they swept everything before them with irresistible force, in 
 spite of all opposition, and unmoved by the calls of mercy. Centuries 
 of warfare with the well-armed and well-disciplined Assyrians made 
 the Babylonians the worthy successors of the nation which had so long 
 held them in subjection, so far as the warlike virtues of energy, valor 
 and military skill are concerned. They extended their conquests from 
 the Persian Gulf on the east to the Nile on the west. Their invincible 
 hosts of sturdy warriors speedily crushed all resistance and rapidly es-
 
 264 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Brutal 
 Treat- 
 ment of 
 
 Van- 
 quished 
 
 Foes. 
 
 Cruel and 
 Despotic 
 Punish- 
 ments. 
 
 Pride. 
 
 tablished the Babylonian dominion, fully deserving the title of " the 
 hammer of the whole earth," given them by the prophet Jeremiah. 
 
 The Babylonians stained their triumphs in war with useless violence 
 and with the usual Oriental outrages. The Assyrian policy of whole- 
 sale deportation of conquered nations was practiced by them, regard- 
 less of the sufferings which resulted in consequence. Such needless 
 and inexcusable actrocities as the mutilation of captives, the long im- 
 prisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the execution of children 
 before the eyes of their fathers, disgraced the military annals of the 
 Babylonians, and exasperated more than they terrified the subjugated 
 nations, thus weakening instead of strengthening the empire. These 
 barbarous punishments indicate the general Asiatic temper a temper 
 inhuman and savage. The tiger-like thirst for blood which charac- 
 terized the Babylonians led them to sacrifice their national self-interest 
 and the peace of the empire to the promptings of a spirit of ven- 
 geance. 
 
 The Babylonian nobles stood in danger of losing their own heads 
 if by the most trifling fault they aroused the sovereign's displeasure. 
 The venerable " Chaldaeans," so famed for their " wisdom and learn- 
 ing," were at one time threatened with extermination because they 
 failed to interpret a dream forgotten by the king. If a monarch 
 incurred the displeasure of his court, and was considered as showing 
 a bad disposition, he was put to death by torture. Such punishments 
 as cutting to pieces and casting into a fiery furnace prevailed, as re- 
 lated by the prophet Daniel, who also informs us that the houses of 
 offenders were torn down and turned into dung-hills. These harsh 
 practices indicate the height of Eastern cruelty. When the prophet 
 Habakkuk denounced the final judgment against Babylon, it was 
 announced as being inflicted " because of men's blood, and for thft 
 violence of the land of the city, and all that dwelt therein." 
 
 Pride was another fault of the Babylonians, as it has ever been the 
 accompaniment of military success in a nation. The sudden transfer 
 of supremacy in the Mesopotamian region from Assyria to Babylonia 
 awakened a haughty spirit in the hitherto-subject kingdom. The 
 Babylonians in the zenith of their power and glory quite naturally 
 regarded themselves as the greatest nation on earth ; and this spirit was 
 distinctly manifested by Nebuchadnezzar, who, when walking in his 
 palace and viewing the splendid edifices which he had erected on all 
 sides from the plunder of his conquests, and by the forced labor of 
 his captives, exclaimed : " Is not this great Babylon, that I have built 
 for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the 
 honor of my majesty!" The arrogance of the Babylonians was as 
 intense and as deep-seated as that of the Assyrians, if not so offensive.
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 265 
 
 Truly did Isaiah say, in alluding to this people : " Thou that art given 
 to pleasure, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, 
 and none else besides me." 
 
 The Babylonians, in spite of their pride, cruelty, covetousness, and 
 fondness for luxury, were a very religious people. In Babylonia the 
 temple held nearly the same preeminence over other edifices which it 
 possessed in Egypt. The immense ruins of the Birs-i-Nimrud show 
 the degree of labor expended in the construction of sacred buildings, 
 and the costly ornamentation of these structures is more wonderful 
 than their vast dimensions. Immense sums were expended on the idols, 
 and the entire appendages of worship displayed indescribable pomp 
 and magnificence. The kings devoutly worshiped the various deities, 
 and devoted considerable attention to building and repairing temples, 
 erecting images of the gods, etc. The names given their children 
 showed their religious feeling and their actual faith in the power of 
 the gods to protect their devotees. Thus Nabu-kuduri-izzir means 
 " Nebo is the protector of landmarks " ; Bel-shar-izzir means " Bel 
 protects the king " ; and Evil-Merodach implies " Merodach is a god." 
 The people in general used names of the same kind, containing in 
 nearly every case the name of a god as an element, such as Belibus, 
 Belesis, Nergal-shar-ezer, Shamgar-nebo, Nebu-zar-adan, Nabonidus, 
 etc. The seals and signets worn by each man were almost universally 
 of a religious character. Even in banquets and entertainments, while 
 drinking, they uttered praises of the deities. Says the prophet Dan- 
 iel : " They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, 
 of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone." 
 
 Nicolas of Damascus tells us that the Babylonians specially culti- 
 vated the virtues of honesty and calmness. The fact that their trade 
 was flourishing, that their products were everywhere in demand, suffici- 
 ently proves their commercial honesty. 
 
 Babylon was perhaps the largest and most splendid city of the 
 ancient Eastern world. On its site great masses of ruins cover a space 
 much larger than those of Nineveh. Beyond this space in all direc- 
 tions are seen detached mounds, showing that there existed in past 
 times vast edifices, while spaces between the mounds indicate that there 
 also were buildings in former ages. Modern investigation and ex- 
 ploration give us no definite idea of the size of Babylon. 
 
 Herodotus says that the enceinte of Babylon was a square, one hun- 
 dred and twenty stadia (about fourteen miles) each way, so that the 
 whole circuit of the walls was fifty-six miles, and the area enclosed 
 within them less than two hundred square miles. Ctesias, who, like 
 Herodotus, saw the city itself, gave the circuit of the walls an extent 
 of three hundred and sixty stadia, or forty-one miles, thus represent- 
 
 Religious 
 Senti- 
 ment. 
 
 Commer- 
 cial 
 Honesty. 
 
 Ruins and 
 Mounds 
 
 of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Its Walls.
 
 266 
 
 The River 
 
 Euphra- 
 tes, and 
 its Quays, 
 Walls, 
 Bridge 
 
 and 
 Tunnel. 
 
 Temple of 
 
 Bel as 
 Described 
 by Herod- 
 otus. 
 
 Its Ziggu- 
 rat, or 
 Tower. 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 ing the area as little more than one hundred square miles. Clitarchus 
 gave the circumference as three hundred and sixty-five stadia ; Quintus 
 Curtius as three hundred and sixty-eight stadia; Strabo as three hun- 
 dred and eighty-five stadia. Quintus Curtius tells us that there was 
 a clear space of a quarter of a mile between the city and the wall. The 
 walls of the city were pierced with a hundred gates, and the streets or 
 roads led directly to these portals. The houses were usually three or 
 four stories high, and are said to have had vaulted roofs, unprotected 
 on the outside with any tiling, because the dryness of the climate ren- 
 dered such protection unnecessary. The beams of the houses were of 
 palm-wood, the only plentiful timber in the country. The pillars 
 were posts of palm-wood with twisted wisps of rushes around them, 
 covered with plaster and colored. 
 
 The Euphrates flowed through the city, dividing it into two almost 
 equal parts. Its banks were lined all the way with quays of brick laid 
 in bitumen, and were also guarded by two brick walls skirting them 
 along their entire extent. Each of these walls had twenty-five gates, 
 corresponding to the number of streets extending upon the river. Out- 
 side each gate there was an inclined landing-place, by which the 
 water's edge could be reached. Boats kept at these landing-places 
 conveyed passengers across the river. The river was also crossed by 
 a bridge consisting of a number of stone piers erected in the channel, 
 firmly held together with fastenings of iron and lead, and connected 
 only during the day by wooden drawbridges, on which people passed 
 over, and which were removed at night to prevent the use of the bridge 
 in the dark. Diodorus gives this bridge a length of five stadia (about 
 one thousand yards) and a width of thirty feet. He also says that 
 there was a tunnel under the river, connecting its two sides, and that 
 it was fifteen feet broad and twelve feet high to the spring of its 
 arched roof. 
 
 The most remarkable edifices of Babylon were its two palaces, one 
 on each side of the river, and the great temple of Bel. Herodotus 
 describes the great temple as surrounded by a square enclosure, two 
 stadia (almost a quarter of a mile) long, and as wide. Its main fea- 
 ture was the ziggurat, or tower, a gigantic solid mass of brick-work, 
 built in the same manner as all other Babylonian temple-towers, in 
 stages, with square upon square, thus forming a rude pyramid, with 
 a shrine of the god at the top. The basement platform of this temple- 
 tower, Herodotus says, was a stadium, or a little over two hundred 
 yards, each way. This tower had eight stages, and the ascent to the 
 highest, which contained the shrine of the god, was on the outside, and 
 consisted of a series of steps, or of an inclined plane, carried round 
 the four sides of the structure, and leading to the top in this way.
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 267 
 
 Strabo says that the tower was a stadium (six hundred and six feet 
 and nine inches) high, but this is evidently an exaggeration. About 
 midway up there was a resting-place provided with seats. The shrine Its Upper 
 on the summit of the structure was large and elegant. It had no im- SIuine - 
 age in the time of Herodotus, but only a golden table and a large 
 couch, covered with an elegant drapery ; but Diodorus says that before 
 the Persian conquest of Babylon the shrine contained gigantic golden 
 images of Bel, Beltis and Ishtar respectively. Two golden lions were 
 in front of the images of Beltis, and near these were two colossal ser- 
 pents of silver, each weighing thirty talents. The golden table was 
 forty feet long and fifteen feet wide, and was in front of the statues. 
 Two immense drinking-cups, as heavy as the serpents, were upon the 
 golden table. The shrine likewise had two vast censors and three 
 golden bowls for the three deities respectively. There was a second Its Lower 
 shrine, or chapel, at the base of the tower. In the time of Herodotus S hnne - 
 this shrine contained a sitting image of Bel, consisting of gold. There 
 was a golden table before the image, and a golden stand for the image 
 itself. The Babylonian priests informed Herodotus that the gold of 
 the image, table and stand together weighed eight hundred talents. 
 Before the Persian conquest this second shrine had a human figure of 
 solid gold twelve cubits high. The shrine was also well supplied with 
 private offerings. Within the sacred enclosure outside the structure 
 were two altars, the smaller one of gold on which to offer sucklings, 
 and the larger one of stone on which full-grown victims were sacri- 
 ficed, and whereon a thousand talents' weight of frankincense was 
 offered yearly at the festival of the god. 
 
 The great palace was larger than the great temple. Diodorus says Great 
 that it was located within a triple enclosure, and that the innermost c 
 wall was twenty stadia, the middle forty stadia, and the outermost sixty 
 stadia (almost seven miles) in circumference. The outer wall was 
 entirely built of plain baked brick. The other two walls were built 
 of the same kind of brick fronted with enameled bricks representing 
 hunting scenes. Quintus Curtius only knew of one enclosure, and this 
 corresponded to the inner wall of Diodorus, having a circuit of twenty 
 stadia. Curtius represented this wall as eighty feet high, and its 
 foundations as lying thirty feet below the surface of the ground. Dio- 
 dorus says that the figures in the hunting scenes were larger than life- 
 size, and that they embraced a large variety of animal forms, and like- 
 wise of human forms, one of a man thrusting his spear through a lion, 
 and another of a woman on horseback aiming a javelin at a leopard. 
 These last the later Greeks supposed to represent the mythical Ninus 
 and Semiramis. The palace was said to have had three gates, two of 
 bronze, which had to be opened and closed by a machine. 
 120
 
 268 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 "Hanging 
 Gardens " 
 
 as De- 
 scribed by 
 Ancient 
 Writers. 
 
 Smaller 
 Palace. 
 
 Walls of 
 Babylon 
 
 as De- 
 scribed by 
 Ancient 
 Writers. 
 
 Masonry 
 
 of the 
 
 Walls. 
 
 The " Hanging Gardens " regarded by the Greeks as one of the 
 " Seven Wonders of the World " were the chief glory of the great 
 palace, and constituted its pleasure-ground. This remarkable con- 
 struction was a square, each side measuring four hundred Greek feet, 
 according to Diodorus. It rested upon several tiers of open arches, 
 built one over the other, and bearing at each stage, or story, a solid 
 platform, from which arose the next tier of arches. The structure 
 was seventy-five feet high, and at the top it was covered with a vast 
 mass of earth, in which were grown flowers and shrubs, and even the 
 largest trees. Quintus Curtius says that the trunks of some of these 
 trees were twelve feet in diameter, and Strabo states that some of the 
 piers were hollowed and filled with earth to afford nourishment for the 
 roots of the trees. Water, conveyed from the Euphrates through 
 pipes, was said by Strabo to have been raised by a screw working on 
 the principle of Archimedes. There was a layer of reeds mixed with 
 bitumen, next a double layer of burnt brick cemented with gypsum, 
 and then a coating of sheet-lead, between the bricks and the mass of 
 soil, to protect the building against gradual decay by the moisture pene- 
 trating the brick-work. The garden was reached by steps. Stately 
 apartments were among the arches on which rested the structure, on 
 the ascent to the garden. The machinery which raised the water was 
 in a chamber within the structure. The object of the structure was 
 to produce an artificial mountain. 
 
 The smaller palace, on the side of the river opposite the larger one, 
 was also surrounded by a triple enclosure, the whole circuit, accord- 
 ing to Diodorus, measuring thirty stadia. This palace contained some 
 bronze statues, believed by the Greeks to represent the god Bel and 
 the legendary king and queen, Ninus and Semiramis, along with their 
 officers. Painted and enameled bricks representing war and hunting 
 scenes covered the walls. 
 
 The walls of Babylon, in connection with the " Hanging Gardens," 
 were among the " Seven Wonders of the World." Herodotus says 
 that they were fifty royal cubits (about eighty-five English feet) wide. 
 Strabo and Quintus Curtius gave the width as thirty-two feet. Herod- 
 otus assigned the walls a height of two hundred royal cubits, or three 
 hundred royal feet (about three hundred and thirty-five English feet). 
 Ctesias gave the height as fifty fathoms, or three hundred ordinary 
 Greek feet. Pliny and Solinus made the altitude two hundred and 
 thirty-five feet. Philostratus and Quintus Curtius assigned the walls 
 a height of one hundred and fifty feet. Clitarchus, according to Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, and Strabo gave the height as seventy-five feet. 
 
 The walls were made of bricks cemented with bitumen, with occa- 
 sional layers of reeds between the courses. Outside the walls were
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 269 
 
 protected by a wide and deep moat. Low towers, two hundred and 
 fifty in number according to Diodorus Siculus, and rising about ten 
 or fifteen feet above the walls according to Quintus Curtius and Strabo, 
 served as guard-rooms for the defenders. Herodotus says the space 
 between the towers was wide " enough for a four-horse chariot to turn 
 in." The height and thickness of the walls gave them their strength 
 and rendered scaling and mining utterly hopeless. 
 
 Such was the mighty Babylon in the day of its glory a great city, 
 irregularly built, surrounded by populous suburbs interspersed among 
 fields and gardens, the whole included within a large square strongly- 
 fortified enceinte, or wall of brick. There are at present few vestiges 
 of this vast and magnificent metropolis of the ancient Oriental world. 
 As Jeremiah foretold, " the broad walls of Babylon " are " utterly 
 broken." As Isaiah predicted, " the golden city ceased " ; truly is 
 " it a possession for the bittern, and pools of walls " ; it has been swept 
 " with the besom of destruction " ; and " Babylon, the glory of king- 
 doms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," has become " as when 
 God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." As Jeremiah prophesied, 
 Babylon has " become heaps," " an astonishment," and " without an 
 inhabitant." There are great " heaps " of shapeless and formless 
 mounds scattered at intervals over the whole region where ancient 
 Babylon was located, and the soil between the " heaps " is in many 
 instances composed of remnants of broken pottery and bricks, and 
 deeply impregnated with nitre, which indisputably proves that the site 
 was at one time occupied by an immense mass of buildings. On going 
 southward from Bagdad these remains gradually increase, and between 
 Mohawil and the Euphrates they are continuous, forming a region of 
 immense mounds. 
 
 These mounds commence about five miles above the modern town of 
 Hillah, extending more than three miles along the river from north 
 to south, and are located chiefly on the eastern bank. On the eastern 
 side the ruins consist mainly of three vast masses of ruined buildings. 
 The modern Arabs call the most northern of these mounds BABIL, 
 which was the real native name of the great ancient city, meaning 
 " the Gate of II," or " the Gate of God." The Babil mound is an 
 immense heap of brick-work shaped like an irregular quadrilateral, 
 having precipitous sides with ravines, and being flat on the top. The 
 southern side of the ruin is the most perfect, and extends about two 
 hundred yards directly east and west. At its eastern end it forms a 
 right angle with the eastern side, which extends almost due north in a 
 direct line for about one hundred and eighty yards. The western and 
 northern sides appear to be much worn away, and here are the prin- 
 cipal ravines. The Babil mound, whose greatest height is about one 
 
 Present 
 Ruins. 
 
 Prophe- 
 cies of 
 Jeremiah 
 
 and 
 Isaiah. 
 
 The BabU 
 Mound.
 
 270 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Adjacent 
 Ruins. 
 
 El Kasr 
 Mound. 
 
 hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty feet, consists chiefly of 
 sun-dried bricks, but appears to have been faced with fire-burned bricks 
 skillfully cemented with an excellent white mortar. Nebuchadnezzar's 
 name and titles are on the bricks of this outer facing. The little of 
 the building uncovered shows that the lines of the structure were per- 
 pendicular, and that the side walls were supported by buttresses at 
 intervals. 
 
 This great structure was situated within a square enclosure, the 
 northern and southern sides of which are yet clearly marked. A low 
 line of rampart extends four hundred yards parallel to the eastern side 
 of the building, about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and 
 thirty yards distant from it, and a line of mound a little longer runs 
 parallel to the northern side, but more distant from it. A third line 
 on the western side traced early in the present century is now obliter- 
 ated. On the western and southern sides are the remains of an ancient 
 canal. 
 
 The Babil mound stands isolated from the other ruins, and below 
 it are two mounds, the more northern of which the Arabs call EL KASR, 
 meaning " the Palace," and the more southern " the mound of Am- 
 ran," from the tomb of a prophet called Amran-ibn-Ali, crowning its 
 summit. The Kasr mound is an oblong square, about seven hundred 
 yards from north to south, and about six hundred yards from east to 
 west, the sides facing the cardinal points of the compass. The height 
 of this mound above the plain is seventy feet. The rubbish uncovered 
 by exploration is composed of loose bricks, tiles, and fragments of 
 stone. An underground passage, seven feet high, with floor and walls 
 of baked brick, and arched at the top with huge sandstone blocks, has 
 been discovered, and is believed to have been an immense drain. The 
 Kasr, or " palace " proper, is another important relic, and from it the 
 mound has received its name. This consists of excellent brick ma- 
 sonry, remarkably preserved, in the form of walls, piers and buttresses, 
 and in certain places ornamented with pilasters. The bricks are of a 
 pale yellow color and of excellent quality, and every one is stamped 
 with the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar. The mortar in which 
 they are laid appears like a fine lime cement, which so closely adheres 
 to the bricks that it is not easy to get a specimen whole. Many frag- 
 ments of brick, painted, and covered with a thick glaze or enamel, are 
 seen in the dust at the foot of the walls. Here, also, have been dis- 
 covered a few fragments of sculptured stone, among which is the frieze 
 discovered by Layard; and slabs giving an account of the erection 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's palace have likewise been found. Near the north- 
 ern edge of the mound, and half-way in its width, is a gigantic figure 
 of a lion, rudely carved in black basalt, standing over the prostrate
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 271 
 
 figure of a man with extended arms. A solitary tree has grown out 
 of the great ruin, which the Arabs say is of a species not found else- 
 where, and which they consider a remnant of the hanging garden of 
 Bokht-i-nazar. This tree is a tamarisk, with a strange growth and 
 foliage, on account of its great age and its exposed situation. 
 
 Very clearly, the Kasr mound indicates that it was the site of the 
 great palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Tradition has given the name of 
 Kasr, or " Palace," to this mound, and this is confirmed by the inscrip- 
 tions upon slabs found here, in which Nebuchadnezzar calls the struc- 
 ture his " Grand Palace " ; while all the bricks of that portion of the 
 ruin remaining uncovered bear that great king's name. Diodorus says 
 that the walls were ornamented with sculptured representations of 
 hunting scenes ; and modern exploration has brought to light from the 
 soil of the mound vast masses of fragments of enameled bricks with 
 various hues and containing portions of human and animal forms, such 
 as portions of a lion, of a horse, and of a human face. 
 
 The mound of Amran, or Jumjuma, about eight hundred yards south 
 of the Kasr mound, has an irregular and ill-defined triangular shape, 
 with its three sides respectively a little east of north, a little south of 
 east, and a little south of west. The south-western side, which runs 
 almost parallel with the Euphrates, appears to have been at one time 
 washed by the river, and is over a thousand yards long ; while the south- 
 eastern side is about eight hundred yards long, and the north-western 
 about seven hundred yards. Countless ravines traverse the mound on 
 all sides, extending almost to its center, while the surface is altogether 
 undulating. Sculpture or masonry can nowhere be seen, but only a 
 mass of rubbish ; no clear outlines of buildings being thus far discov- 
 ered. Bricks bearing the names and titles of some of the earlier Baby- 
 lonian kings are sometimes found, but not the slightest vestige of a 
 wall has been brought to light. 
 
 The Amran mound is believed to be the site of the old palace to 
 which Nebuchadnezzar's structure was an addition. Berosus says that 
 Nebuchadnezzar's edifice adjoined upon the old palace. On the Am- 
 ran mound monuments of the times previous to Nebuchadnezzar's day 
 have been found; and as the early Babylonian kings only left memo- 
 rials in the old palace, it is reasonable to infer that this mound is the 
 site of the ancient royal residence. The oblong-square enclosure with 
 an important building at its south-east angle is believed to have been 
 the second or smaller palace of Ctesias. 
 
 There are likewise many scattered and irregular heaps, or hillocks, 
 on both banks of the Euphrates ; most of them on the east bank, among 
 which is the mound called by the Arabs El Homeira, " the Red." This 
 mound is located about eight hundred yards due east of the Kasr 
 
 Identified 
 as Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Great 
 Palace. 
 
 Amran 
 Mound. 
 
 Identified 
 
 as the Old 
 
 Palace. 
 
 1 
 
 Homeira 
 Mound.
 
 272 
 
 CHALDJEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Low 
 Mounds. 
 
 Brick 
 Embank- 
 ment. 
 
 Walls on 
 the East 
 Bank of 
 the Eu- 
 phrates. 
 
 Walls on 
 the West 
 Bank of 
 the Eu- 
 phrates. 
 
 Unexca- 
 
 vated 
 Mounds. 
 
 mound, and is about three hundred yards long and one hundred wide, 
 and sixty or seventy feet high. It consists of baked bricks of a bright 
 red color, which are inscribed along their edges, and not, as the others, 
 on their lower face. 
 
 A low line of mounds can be traced between the western side of the 
 Amran and Kasr mounds and the present eastern bank of the Eu- 
 phrates, enclosing a narrow valley, in which the main stream, or a 
 branch of it, appears to have flowed in ancient times. 
 
 The remains of a brick embankment are also traceable on the east 
 bank of the river between the Babil and Kasr mounds, extending about 
 a thousand yards in a slightly-curved line and a general direction of 
 south by south-west. The bricks of this embankment are very hard, 
 of a bright red color, and are wholly laid in bitumen. They bear a 
 legend showing that the quay was constructed by Nabonidus. 
 
 Among other remarkable remains are some long lines of rampart on 
 both sides of the Euphrates, outside of the other ruins, enclosing all 
 of them, excepting the Babil mound. On the east bank of the river 
 are traces of a double line of wall, or rampart, running almost directly 
 north and south, and situated about a thousand yards east of the Kasr 
 and Amran mounds. Beyond this rampart is a single line of wall to 
 the north-east, which can be traced for about two miles, running in a 
 direction almost from north-west to south-east, and a double line of 
 rampart to the south-east, which can be traced for a mile and a half, 
 extending in a direction from north-east to south-west. The two lines 
 of this last rampart are between six hundred and seven hundred yards 
 apart, and diverge from each other as they extend out to the north- 
 east. The inner line connects with the north-eastern rampart almost 
 at a right angle, and is a part of the same work. 
 
 On the west bank of the river are ruins of the same kind. A ram- 
 part twenty feet high extends for almost a mile parallel with the gen- 
 eral line of the Amran mound, about a thousand yards from the ancient 
 course of the stream. Each end of the line of rampart turns at a 
 right angle, extending down towards the river, and can be traced to- 
 wards the north for four hundred yards and towards the south for fifty 
 or sixty. There are evidences that before the Euphrates flowed in its 
 present channel there was a rectangular enclosure, a mile long and a 
 thousand yards wide, opposite to the Amran mound; and at the south- 
 east angle of this enclosure appears to have been an important edifice, 
 the bricks here bearing the name of Neriglissar. 
 
 All the ruins of Babylon now traceable are found in a space not 
 much over three miles long and a mile and three-fourths wide. These 
 remains are surrounded on all sides by nitrous soil and low mounds 
 which have not been excavated, but which are believed to mark the
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 373 
 
 Bir-i- 
 
 locations of smaller temples and other public edifices of the renowned 
 ancient city. Such masses are most general to the north and east, and 
 often extend for miles. The mass of Babylonian ruins reaching from 
 Babil to Amran covers an area about as large as the Koyunjik mound 
 on the site of Nineveh. These Babylonian ruins appear to have been 
 " the heart of the city," " the royal quarter." Says Layard : " South- 
 ward of Babil for the distance of three miles there is almost an unin- 
 terrupted line of mounds, the ruins of vast edifices, collected together 
 as in the heart of a great city." Thus Babylon vastly exceeded Nin- 
 eveh in its dimensions. 
 
 The most remarkable of Babylonian ruins is that of the Birs-i- 
 Nimrud, or ancient temple of Nebo at Borsippa. Upon a crude brick 
 platform, a few feet above the level of the alluvial plain, was erected 
 the basement stage of the vast structure, an exact square, two hundred 
 and seventy-two feet each way, and twenty-six feet high. The second 
 stage was just as high, and a square of only two hundred and thirty 
 feet, twelve feet from the south-western edge of the first stage, and 
 thirty feet from the north-eastern edge. The third stage was placed 
 the same way upon the second, and was also twenty-six feet high, and 
 a square of one hundred and eighty-eight feet. The fourth stage was 
 fifteen feet high, and was a square of one hundred and forty-six feet, 
 and was placed upon the third in the same way as the others had been 
 upon those below them. The fifth stage was a square of one hundred 
 and four feet, the sixth a square of sixty-two feet, and the seventh a 
 square of twenty feet. These stages were each fifteen feet high. The 
 shrine or tabernacle was on the seventh and highest stage, which was 
 fifteen feet high and square. The entire structure was thus one hun- 
 dred and fifty-six feet high. 
 
 This temple was chiefly ornamented by means of color. The seven Its Orna- 
 stages represented the Seven Spheres in which the seven planets were 
 believed to move. Each planet was given a special hue or tint. The 
 sun was golden, the moon silver, the planet Saturn black, Jupiter 
 orange, Mars red, Venus a pale yellow, Mercury a deep blue. The 
 basement stage, assigned to Saturn, was blackened with bitumen. The 
 second stage, that of Jupiter, r/as faced with burned bricks of an 
 orange hue. The third stage, that of Mars, was made red with burned 
 bricks of a bright red clay. The fourth stage, that of the sun, was 
 covered with plates of gold. The fifth stage, that of Venus, was faced 
 with bricks of a pale yellow tint. The sixth stage, that of Mercury, 
 was given an azure tint by vitrifaction, the entire stage having been 
 subjected to a great heat after it was erected, which gave the bricks 
 a blue color. The seventh stage, that of the moon, was coated with 
 silver plates. The basement stage had a number of square recesses. 
 VOL. 1. 18 
 
 Other
 
 S74 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Identified 
 
 as the 
 
 Tempel of 
 
 Bel. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Art, Sci- 
 ence and 
 Architec- 
 ture as 
 Described 
 by the 
 Greek 
 Writers. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Temple*. 
 
 Temple 
 Towers, 
 
 or 
 
 The third stage was supported by a number of low buttresses. The 
 shrine was of brick, and is believed to have been richly ornamented. 
 The tower is believed to have fronted to the north-east, on which side 
 was the ascent, believed to have been a broad staircase extending along 
 the entire front of the structure. The side platforms, towards the 
 south-east and north-west, were occupied by a series of chambers abut- 
 ting upon the perpendicular wall. The side chambers communicated 
 with vaulted apartments within the solid mass of the edifice. 
 
 The ruin now known as the Birs-i-Nimrud, about eleven or twelve 
 miles from the Babil mound, has been supposed by some to be the site 
 of the old temple of Bel ; but the cylinders found by Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson in the Birs-i-Nimrud call the structure " the wonder of Bor- 
 sippa," and all the ancient authorities say that Borsippa was a city 
 by itself a town wholly distinct from Babylon. It has also been 
 believed that the Babil mound itself is the site of the old temple of 
 Bel the spot on which was built the Tower of Babel. The great 
 difficulty in identifying this site with the old temple is the statement 
 of Herodotus expressly asserting that the temple of Bel and the great 
 palace were upon opposite sides of the river, whereas the Babil and 
 Kasr mounds are both on the eastern side of the Euphrates. 
 
 The Babylonians were among the most ingenious of all ancient na- 
 tions, and made great progress in the arts and sciences. The classical 
 writers usually rank them with the Egyptians in this respect. The 
 Babylonians especially excelled in architecture and astronomy. The 
 primitive Chaldaeans, the ancestors of the later Babylonians, first ap- 
 pear in history as great builders ; and Nebuchadnezzar, the great king 
 of the Later Babylonian Empire, specially prided himself upon his 
 architectural works. Herodotus, upon visiting Babylon, was mainly 
 impressed with its wonderful edifices; and the glowing descriptions of 
 these structures by the Greek writers have mainly given to the Baby- 
 lonians their fame and their high rank among the great nations of 
 ancient Asia. 
 
 Their architecture appears to have culminated in the temple. The 
 temple in Babylonia occupied the same rank which it held in Egypt 
 and in Greece, and unlike in Assyria, where the temple was a mere 
 appendage of the palace. The temple was the great edifice of a city, 
 or a portion of a city, being higher and more conspicuous than any 
 other building. It rivaled the palace in every respect, being mag- 
 nificently adorned, and having offerings of enormous value deposited in 
 it. It inspired awe by its religious associations, and was not only a 
 place of worship, but a refuge to many on perilous occasions. 
 
 The Babylonian temple was usually surrounded by a walled en- 
 closure, a square of two stadia each way, or an area of thirty acres.
 
 ANCIENT BABYLON 
 
 Upper Section: The Ziggurrat of the Temple of Bel (6500 B.C.) 
 Lower Section: Pavement of Ur-Gur in Temple of Bel (2750 B.C.)
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 275 
 
 The temple commonly consisted of two parts. The ziggurat, or tower, 
 was either square or rectangular, and built in stages, as high as seven, 
 or as low as two, in number. A shrine or chapel containing altars 
 and images was at the top of the tower. The towers were ascended on 
 the outside by means of winding steps or an inclined plane. Either 
 the sides or the angles of the tower faced the cardinal points of the 
 compass. Diodorus Siculus said that the towers were used not only 
 for worship, but also as observatories. There was a second shrine or 
 chapel at the base of the tower, in which the images and furniture were 
 of gold and silver. In the vicinity of this lower shrine was a golden 
 altar, on which were sacrificed various kinds of victims. 
 
 The Babylonian palace stood upon a high mound or platform, like 
 the Assyrian and the Susianian palace. The palace mound was usu- 
 ally square, elevated about fifty or sixty feet. It was built chiefly of 
 sun-dried bricks, enclosed on the outside by burnt bricks, and also on 
 the inside. The whole was carefuly drained, and the waters were con- 
 veyed through underground channels to the level of the plain at the 
 base of the mound. The Babylonian palaces are so completely ruined 
 that no full description of them can be given with certainty. The 
 lines of the edifice were straight, the walls arose to a considerable height 
 without windows, and numbers of pilasters and buttresses broke the 
 flatness of the straight line. The palace was often ornamented with 
 sculptured stone slabs, on which were carefully-wrought figures of a 
 small size. Diodorus states that the general ornamentation consisted 
 of colored representations of war-scenes and hunting-scenes on brick. 
 Many such representations have been found on the Kasr mound. They 
 are alternated with cuneiform inscriptions, in white and on a blue 
 ground, or with a patterning of rosettes in the same colors. 
 
 The Babylonian domestic architecture was of a poor and coarse 
 style, and displayed little taste. The houses were three or four stories 
 high, but were of a rude construction ; the pillars were palm posts sur- 
 rounded with wisps of rushes, and then plastered and painted. 
 
 The only Babylonian building material was brick, consisting of two 
 kinds, sun-dried and kiln-burned, as was the case in ancient Chaldaea 
 and in Assyria. The Babylonians, however, only applied the sun-dried 
 bricks to the platforms, and to the interior of palace mounds and of 
 very thick walls, and never made that kind the only building material. 
 In all cases there was at least a revetement of kiln-dried brick, while 
 the more splendid edifices were entirely built of that kind. The baked 
 bricks were of several kinds and sizes. The finest kind were yellow, 
 another kind were blackish-blue, while the ordinary and coarser kind 
 were pink or red. The bricks were always shaped square, and were 
 twelve or fourteen inches long and wide, and from three to four inches 
 
 General 
 Descrip- 
 tion of 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Palaces. 
 
 Dwell- 
 ings. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Bricks.
 
 276 
 
 CHALD^EA. ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA. 
 
 Cements. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Mimetic- 
 Art. 
 
 Mechani- 
 cal Arts. 
 
 Metal- 
 lurgy. 
 
 thick. Half -bricks were used in alternate rows at the corners of build- 
 ings. They were always made with a mold, and were usually stamped 
 on one face with an inscription. They were commonly laid horizon- 
 tally, though sometimes vertically, separated from one another by 
 single horizontal layers. 
 
 The Babylonians used three kinds of cement in their buildings. One 
 kind was a crude clay, or mud, mixed with chopped straw. A better 
 material was bitumen; but the most common kind was mortar, or lime 
 cement. 
 
 There are few remaining specimens of Babylonian mimetic art, and 
 these are mainly fragmentary, and worn by time and exposure. Be- 
 sides the quaint and grotesque intaglios on seals and gems, there are less 
 than a half-dozen specimens of their mimetic art remaining. There 
 is a sculpture of a lion standing over the prostrate figure of a man, 
 yet seen on the Kasr mound. There are a few modeled clay figures. 
 One is a statuette of a mother with a child seated on a rough square 
 pedestal. The mother is naked, except a hood on the head, and a 
 narrow apron in front. The child sleeping on her left arm wears a 
 short tunic, gathered into plaits. The statuette is about three and a 
 half inches high. There is a figure of a king, principally remarkable 
 for the elaborate ornamentation of the head-dress and the robes en- 
 graved on a large black stone. This figure, supposed to represent 
 Merodach-iddin-akhi, is now in the British Museum. There are en- 
 graved animal forms on black stones, such as the figure of a dog sitting 
 and the figure of a bird. The engravings on gems and cylinders are 
 grotesque figures of men and animals, and men and monsters. The 
 most elaborate and artistic of the Babylonian works of art were the 
 enamelings on brick. According to the prophet Ezekiel " the images 
 of the Chaldseans, portrayed upon the wall, were vermilion." Other 
 colors were used in the adornment of palaces and public edifices, such 
 as white, blue, yellow, red, brown and black. 
 
 The Babylonians also made considerable progress in the mechanical 
 arts, such as cutting, boring and engraving hard stones, and the arts 
 of agriculture, metallurgy, pottery, weaving, embroidery, etc. Be- 
 sides the softer stones, such as alabaster, serpentine, and lapis-lazuli, 
 the Babylonian artisans worked the harder kinds, such as agate, quartz, 
 jasper, syenite, cornelian, lodestone, and green felspar, or amazon- 
 stone. The minuteness of the work in some of the Babylonian seals 
 and gems indicates that they must have been engraved with the aid of 
 a powerful magnifying-glass. The art of cutting glass was well un- 
 derstood. 
 
 The Babylonians used gold and silver for statues, furniture and 
 utensils, bronze for gates and images, and iron also for the latter.
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 277 
 
 They used lead and iron in building. The golden images were some- 
 times solid, and sometimes only plated. The silver images, ornamental 
 figures and utensils are also believed to have been solid. The city and 
 palace gates were of bronze. The metal-work of personal ornaments, 
 such as bracelets, armlets and dagger-handles, resembled the work of 
 the Assyrians. Small bronze figures of dogs, monsters and grotesque 
 figures of men, were cast as ornaments for houses, furniture, etc. 
 
 The Babylonian pottery was excellent, and the bricks were superior 
 to the Assyrian. The earthenware is of fine terra-cotta, usually of a 
 light red color, and slightly baked, but sometimes of a yellow hue, 
 tinged with green; and consists of cups, jars, vases and other vessels, 
 which appear to have been made upon the wheel. The Babylonians 
 had small glass bottles, several of which were found by Mr. Layard in 
 the Babil mound. Broken glass is found generally in the rubbish of 
 the mounds. 
 
 The textile fabrics of the Babylonians were the most celebrated of 
 all their productions. Their carpets had acquired a wide fame and 
 were largely exported to foreign lands. They were dyed in various 
 colors, and represented griffins and other monsters. They ranked 
 above all others in the ancient world, as those of the Turks and Per- 
 sians do in the modern. The Babylonian muslins were almost as cele- 
 brated as the carpets, and were formed of the finest cotton and dyed 
 with the most brilliant colors. The Orientals regarded them as the 
 best material for dress, and the Persian monarchs preferred them to 
 their own wear. Borsippa was the chief seat of the Babylonian linen 
 manufacture. Long linen robes were generally worn by this people. 
 
 In astronomy the Babylonians far excelled all other ancient nations, 
 as their Chaldaean ancestors were the great pioneers in this sublime 
 science. The first Greeks who made any advance in this science ac- 
 knowledged themselves the disciples of Babylonian teachers. Hip- 
 parchus, the first great Greek astronomer, mentioned the Babylonians 
 as astronomical observers from a dimly-remote antiquity. Aristotle 
 confessed that the Greeks were vastly indebted for astronomical infor- 
 mation to the Babylonians and Egyptians. Ptolemy made much use 
 of the Babylonian observations of eclipses. Sir Cornwall Lewis says 
 that " the Greeks were in the habit of attributing the invention and 
 original cultivation of astronomy either to the Babylonians or to the 
 Egyptians, and represented the earliest scientific Greek astronomers 
 as having derived their knowledge from Babylonian or from Egyptian 
 priests." 
 
 We have alluded to the progress of the early Chaldasans in astron- 
 omy. On the broad, flat plains of Chaldasa the clear sky, the dry 
 atmosphere, and the level horizon, afforded facilities for observation 
 
 Pottery 
 
 and Glass 
 
 Work. 
 
 Carpets, 
 Muslins 
 
 and 
 Linens. 
 
 Astron- 
 omy. 
 
 Greeks 
 
 Learned 
 
 from 
 
 Baby- 
 lonians. 
 
 Early 
 Chaldaean 
 Observa- 
 tions in 
 Astron- 
 omy.
 
 *78 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Origin of 
 Uranog- 
 raphy, or 
 Constella- 
 tion 
 Grouping. 
 
 The 
 
 Zodiacal 
 Constella- 
 tions. 
 
 Observa- 
 tion and 
 Calcula- 
 tion of 
 Eclipses. 
 
 Records 
 
 of 
 Eclipses. 
 
 and naturally first turned man's attention to the celestial hemisphere. 
 At a very early date the fixed stars were distinguished from five larger 
 luminaries which the Greeks called " planets," which are the only 
 movable stars that can be seen without the aid of a telescope of high 
 magnifying power. They also soon discovered that the moon was a 
 wandering luminary, and observed that the sun rose and set in the 
 vicinity of different constellations in different parts of the year. 
 
 They arranged the stars in groups, or " constellations," to mark 
 out the courses of the sun and moon among the stars. The names of 
 these constellations were derived from some real or fancied resemblance 
 of the groups to objects with which the early observers were familiar. 
 This department of astronomy is called uranography. Though these 
 groupings of the fixed stars is mainly fanciful, its utility is inestimable, 
 for by its means only are we enabled to point out individual stars and 
 retain in the memory a knowledge of their general arrangement and 
 relative positions. 
 
 This old Chaldaean, or Babylonian, uranography is to this day rec- 
 ognized by scientific astronomers, and is represented on our globes and 
 maps. The zodiacal constellations, especially those through which the 
 sun's course lies, originated, as we have said, with the Chaldaeans, and 
 many of them are represented on Babylonian monuments of a stellar 
 character. A Babylonian conical black stone now in the British Mu- 
 seum, and belonging to the twelfth century before Christ, is an ar- 
 rangement of constellations according to the forms assigned them in 
 Babylonian uranography. On this stone are recognized the Ram, the 
 Bull, the Scorpion, the Serpent, the Dog, the Arrow, the Eagle or Vul- 
 ture. There are similar forms on other monuments of a like character. 
 
 The Babylonians called the zodiacal constellations the " Houses of 
 the Sun," and distinguished them from another set of asterisms, which 
 they designated the " Houses of the Moon." They observed and cal- 
 culated eclipses, but their knowledge was empirical. We have noted 
 of the early Chaldseans that they discovered the period of two hun- 
 dred and twenty-three lunations, or eighteen years and ten days, after 
 which eclipses, particularly those of the moon, recur again in the same 
 order. Their knowledge of this cycle enabled them to foretell lunar 
 eclipses accurately for ages, and solar eclipses with little inaccuracy 
 for the next few cycles. 
 
 The Babylonians carefully noted and recorded eclipses. Ptolemy 
 had access to a continuous series of such observations dating back from 
 his own time to B. C. 747. From Babylonian sources Hipparchus 
 described eclipses of the moon for the years B. C. 721, 720, 621 and 
 523, the first of which was total at Babylon, the others only partial. 
 These observations are seen to answer every purpose of modern science.
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 279 
 
 Comets, 
 
 Eclipses 
 and Di8 " 
 
 sun, 
 
 **, on and 
 
 Plcincts 
 
 We have knowledge of Babylonian observations as far back as Nabo- 
 nassar, B. C. 747, as that king, according to the account by Berosus, 
 destroyed the previously-existing observations, so that exact chronol- 
 ogy might begin with his own reign. 
 
 The Babylonians arranged a catalogue of the fixed stars, which were Star 
 employed by the Greeks in compiling their stellar tables. They re- i^ 
 corded their observations upon occultations of the planets by the sun SunDials, 
 and the moon. They invented two kinds of sun-dials, the gnomon and i^th of 
 the polos, by means of which they could measure time during the day, Year. 
 and accurately establish the exact length of the solar day. They dis- 
 covered the length of the synodic revolution of the moon within a small 
 fraction. The exact length of the Chaldaean year was three hundred 
 and sixty-five days, six hours and eleven minutes; which is only two 
 seconds longer than the true sidereal year. 
 
 This renowned ancient people observed comets, and believed them to 
 be permanent bodies, revolving in orbits like those of the planets. 
 They believed eclipses of the sun to be due to the interposition of the 
 moon between the sun and the earth. They knew very nearly the rela- 
 tive distances of the sun, the moon and the planets from the earth. 
 Naturally adopting a geocentric system, they decided that the moon 
 was nearest to the earth; that Mercury was beyond the moon, Venus 
 beyond Mercury, Mars beyond Venus, Jupiter beyond Mars, and Sat- 
 urn beyond Jupiter. From the difference in the periodic times of these 
 luminaries the Babylonians inferred a corresponding difference in the 
 sizes of the orbits, and therefore their relative distances from the com- 
 mon center. 
 
 The astronomical achievements of the Babylonians thus far described 
 rest upon the authority of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. and 
 There are many Chaldaean and Babylonian astronomical tablets in the 
 British Museum, which are not yet thoroughly understood. It is said 
 that there is clear evidence that the Babylonians observed the four 
 satellites of Jupiter, and good reason for believing that they had a 
 knowledge of the seven satellites of Saturn. They so well understood 
 the general laws of the movements of the celestial bodies that they could 
 foretell the positions of the different planets throughout the year. 
 
 They must have employed some instruments to acquire the knowl- 
 edge which they possessed. We have observed that they invented sun- 
 dials to measure time during the day. The clepsydra, or water-clock, 
 commonly used by the Greeks as early as the fifth century before Christ, 
 is believed to have been a Babylonian invention. The astrolobe, an 
 instrument used to measure the altitude of the stars above the horizon, Astro- 
 and which was known to Ptolemy, is likewise believed to have been in- ^^^ 
 vented by this people. If, as believed, the satellites of Saturn are tiona. 
 
 
 and Baby- 
 xablete 
 
 Planetary 
 Satellites 
 
 Positions. 
 
 cl s . 
 dra,
 
 Authority 
 
 ana 
 Greek 
 
 and 
 Baby- 
 
 Tablets, 
 
 280 CHAIJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 mentioned upon the tablets, the Babylonian must nave had optical in- 
 struments like the telescope; as it is impossible, even in the clear and 
 vaporless sky of Chaldaea, to see the moons of that remote planet with- 
 out the aid of lenses. As we have said, a lens has been discovered 
 among the Assyrian ruins. A people with sufficient ingenuity to dis- 
 cover the magnifying-glass would naturally be able to invent its oppo- 
 site. The existence of two opposite kinds of lenses would furnish the 
 elements of a telescope. 
 
 Astrol- Though a class of pure astronomers existed among the Babylonians, 
 y> most of those engaged in the study of astronomy followed it because 
 they believed that the heavenly bodies had some mysterious influence 
 upon the seasons, and also upon the lives and fortunes of individuals, 
 and that this influence could be discovered and foretold by long and 
 careful observation. The ancient Jewish and Greek writers bear wit- 
 ness to this fact, and their testimony is confirmed by existing astro- 
 nomical remains. Most of the Babylonian tablets are of an astro- 
 logical character, recording the supposed influence of the celestial 
 bodies, singly, in conjunction, or in opposition, upon all earthly affairs, 
 from the fate of kingdoms and empires to the washing of hands or the 
 paring of nails. Says Rawlinson : " The modern prophetical almanac 
 is the legitimate descendant and the sufficient representative of the 
 ancient Chaldee Ephemeris, which was just as silly, just as pretentious, 
 and just as worthless." 
 
 Chaldee astrology was chiefly genethlialogical, inquiring under what 
 as P ec t f the heavens individuals were born or conceived, and pretend- 
 ing to ascertain the entire life and fortunes of men from the position 
 f the heavenly bodies at one or the other of these moments. Diodorus 
 says that it was believed that a particular star or constellation watched 
 over the birth of each individual, and thereafter exercised a special 
 malign or benignant influence over his life. His fortunes depended 
 on the whole aspect of the heavens, as well as upon this one star. Cast- 
 ing the horoscope was reproducing this aspect, and then reading by 
 its means the destiny of the individual. 
 
 Weather The Chaldaeans also pretended to predict changes of the weather, 
 
 a ^re^k- r *"gh winds and storms, great heats, the appearance of comets, eclipses, 
 
 tions. earthquakes, etc., from the stars. They published lists of lucky and 
 
 unlucky days, and tables indicating what aspect of the heavens por- 
 
 tended good or evil to particular nations. Sir Henry Rawlinson has 
 
 discovered both lists among the tablets. They considered their art as 
 
 confined to the countries occupied by themselves and their kinsmen; 
 
 they being able to foretell storm, tempest, good or poor crops, war, 
 
 famine, etc., for Syria, Babylonia and Susiana ; but unable to prophesy 
 
 concerning Media, Persia, Armenia or other countries. Like our 
 
 Chaldee 
 
 8 as 0gy 
 Described 
 
 Diodorus.
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 281 
 
 almanacs, their calendars predicted the conditions of the weather for 
 stated days. 
 
 The Chaldseans also possessed considerable mathematical learning, 
 and their methods seem to have been geometrical. The Greek mathe- 
 maticians are said to have quoted the works of such Chaldaeans as 
 Ciden, Naburianus and Sudinus. 
 
 Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo and Nicolas of Damascus have given 
 accounts of the Babylonian manners and customs. Herodotus tells us 
 that this people wore a long linen gown extending down to the feet, a 
 woolen gown or tunic over this, a short cloak or cape of a white color, 
 and shoes like those of the Boeotians. Their hair grew long, but was 
 confined to the head by a head-band or a turban, and they always car- 
 ried a walking-stick with some kind of a carving on the handle. This 
 description doubtless applies to the higher and wealthier classes. The 
 prophet Ezekiel thus alludes to these people : " Girded with girdles 
 upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them 
 princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldaea, 
 the land of their nativity." 
 
 The cylinders represent the poor worshiper bringing an offering to 
 a god as dressed in a tunic reaching from the shoulder to the knee, 
 ornamented with a diagonal fringe and confined to the waist by a belt. 
 Rich worshipers usually present a goat, and are attired in a tunic, 
 with a long robe without sleeves over it, and wear a fillet, or head- 
 band. Figures of hunters attacking a lion, a man accompanying a 
 dog, and a warrior conducting six captives, are represented on cylin- 
 ders as dressed in short tunics. These tunics had no sleeves, and were 
 seldom patterned. Rich worshipers are sometimes represented dressed 
 in coats without sleeves, fringed down both sides, and extending only a 
 little below the knees. They have also a fillet around the head. 
 
 The Babylonians are, with few exceptions, represented with bare 
 feet, though the soldiers wore low boots, and the king had a kind of 
 check-work patterned shoe. Herodotus, however, mentions them in his 
 time as wearing a " peculiar shoe." Herodotus states that every Baby- 
 lonian man carried a seal and a walking-stick. 
 
 The king wore a long gown, reaching to the feet, and elaborately 
 patterned and fringed. Over this he had a close-fitting sleeved vest, 
 reaching to the knees, and ending in a set of heavy tassels. The girdle 
 was worn outside the outer vest, and in war the king carried besides two 
 cross-belts. Both the upper and under vests were elegantly embroid- 
 ered. From the girdle depended in front a heavy tassel fastened by 
 a cord. 
 
 The Babylonian monarch wore a remarkable tiara, it being exceed- 
 ingly high, almost cylindrical, slightly tending to swell out toward the 
 
 Mathe- 
 matics. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Manners 
 
 and 
 
 Customs 
 as given 
 
 by 
 
 Ancient 
 Writers. 
 
 Cylinder 
 Scenes of 
 Hunters 
 and Wor- 
 shipers. 
 
 Royal 
 Costume. 
 
 Royal 
 Tiara.
 
 282 
 
 CHALJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Priestly 
 Costume. 
 
 Warlike 
 Weapons 
 
 and 
 Armor. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Armies 
 According 
 to Jewish 
 Prophets. 
 
 crown, which was adorned with a row of feathers around its whole cir- 
 cumference. The space below was patterned with rosettes, sacred trees 
 and mythological figures. A projection of feathers rose from the mid- 
 dle of the crown, rounded at the top. This head-dress was worn low 
 on the brow, and covered most of the back part of the head of the 
 wearer. 
 
 The Babylonian king also wore bracelets. Nicolas of Damascus 
 says that a Babylonian governor wore necklaces and ear-rings. The 
 priests wore a long robe or gown with flounces and stripes, over which 
 they wore an open jacket. A long riband or scarf hung down their 
 backs. They wore an elaborate crown or mitre on their heads, which 
 was likewise assigned to many of the gods. Sometimes a horned cap 
 was worn instead of the mitre. The priests wore their heads un- 
 covered in all sacrificial and ceremonial acts. 
 
 The Babylonian soldiers were armed with bows and arrows, spears, 
 daggers, maces or clubs, and battle-axes, for weapons of offense ; while 
 their defensive armor consisted of bronze helmets, linen breastplates 
 and shields. The prophet Ezekiel mentions the shields and helmets of 
 the Babylonians, and also their battle-axes; while Jeremiah mentions 
 their spears and swords, and their breastplates. The favorite weapon 
 of the Babylonians was the bow, as attested by the Old Testament and 
 the native monuments. The figure of a king is represented as carry- 
 ing a bow; while the soldier conducting captives has a bow, an arrow 
 and a quiver. An old Chaldsean monument represents a king with a 
 bow and arrow, a club and a dagger. There is a cylinder represent- 
 ing a lion disturbed in the act of feasting off an ox by two rustics, one 
 of whom attacks him in front with a spear, while the other, seizing his 
 tail, assails him from behind with an ax. 
 
 The Babylonian armies consisted of chariots, cavalry and infantry. 
 The cylinders sometimes represent a curious four-wheeled car, drawn 
 by four horses, with a raised platform in front and a seat behind for 
 the driver. The Jewish prophet Habakkuk, in speaking of the Baby- 
 lonian cavalry, said : " They are terrible and dreadful." He also 
 said : " Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more 
 fierce than the evening wolves ; and their horsemen shall spread them- 
 selves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the 
 eagle that hasteth to eat." Ezekiel, alluding to " the Babylonians 
 and all of the Chaldseans," referred to the " desirable young men, cap- 
 tains and rulers, great lords and renowned; all of them riding upon 
 horses." Jeremiah spoke of the Babylonian chariots and cavalry thus : 
 " Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a 
 whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we 
 are spoiled."
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 283 
 
 In the army of Xerxes the Babylonians were infantry, but Darius, 
 in the Behistun Inscription, alludes to Babylonian horsemen; and the 
 Babylonian armies which overran Syria, Palestine and Egypt consisted 
 chiefly of cavalry. The Babylonian armies, like the Persian, con- 
 sisted of immense hosts, poorly disciplined, comprising, besides native 
 Babylonian troops, contingents from the subject nations, such as Su- 
 sianians, Shuhites, Assyrians and others. They marched with great 
 noise and tumult, scattering over the country invaded, plundering and 
 destroying on every side. They assailed the weaker towns with bat- 
 tering-rams, and raised mounds before the stronger to the top of the 
 walls, which they then easily scaled or broke down. They were noted 
 for their determined persistence and unyielding perseverance in sieges, 
 only taking Jerusalem in the third year, and Tyre in the fourteenth. 
 Omens often decided which country was to be next attacked. 
 
 Diodorus described the Babylonian priests as a caste devoted to the 
 service of their gods and to the study of philosophy. He says that 
 they were highly esteemed by the people. They guarded the temples 
 and served at the altars of the gods, to interpret dreams and prodigies, 
 to understand omens, to read the warnings of the stars, and to inform 
 men how to escape the perils with which they were thus menaced, by 
 purifications, incantations and sacrifices. No one questioned their tra- 
 ditional knowledge transmitted from father to son. The people con- 
 sidered them as in possession of a wisdom of the highest importance 
 to the human race. 
 
 The Book of Daniel describes a class of " wise men " at Babylon, 
 chief of which were the Chaldaeans, who are noted for a particular 
 " learning " and a particular " tongue," and who expounded dreams 
 and prodigies. They were in high favor with the king, who frequently 
 consulted them. These " wise men " were of four classes, according 
 to their occupations " Chaldseans, magicians, astrologers and sooth- 
 sayers." Jews were enrolled among these " wise men," and the prophet 
 Daniel was made chief of the whole order by King Nebuchadnezzar. 
 As a distinct order, these " wise men " had considerable power in the 
 state. They had direct communication with the king, and were be- 
 lieved to be endowed with a supernatural power to foretell future 
 events, as well as in possession of human learning; and some of them 
 held high civil offices. 
 
 Herodotus mentions the Chaldaeans as " priests " ; and Strabo says 
 that they were " philosophers," employed chiefly in astronomy. 
 Strabo also states that they were divided into sects, differing from each 
 other in their doctrines. The Babylonian priests were an order, not 
 a caste; and, as in Egypt and Persia, they were an esteemed and im- 
 portant class. Priests may have brought up their sons to their own 
 121 
 
 Methods 
 of War- 
 fare. 
 
 Marches 
 
 and 
 Sieges. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Priests. 
 
 "Wise 
 Men "and 
 Chal- 
 daeans 
 
 as 
 Described 
 
 by 
 Daniel. 
 
 Daniel 
 
 and Other 
 
 Jews 
 
 among 
 
 " Wise 
 
 Men." 
 
 Chal- 
 daean 
 Priests 
 Described 
 by Herod- 
 otus and 
 Strabo.
 
 S84 
 
 CHAUXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Their 
 Learning. 
 
 Their 
 Social 
 Rank. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Manufac- 
 tures and 
 Com- 
 merce. 
 
 Authority 
 
 of 
 
 Ezekiel, 
 
 Isaiahand 
 
 JEachy- 
 
 lus. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Strabo's 
 Author- 
 ity. 
 
 occupation, but other* persons, even foreigners, were admitted to the 
 order and to its highest privileges. The Babylonian priesthood was a 
 sacerdotal and learned body, having a literature written in a peculiar 
 language, which its members were obliged to study. This language 
 and literature were inherited from the times of the early Chaldaean 
 Empire, and were thus transmitted to Assyria and later Babylonia. 
 
 They professed especially a knowledge of astronomy, astrology and 
 mythology, and may have also studied history, chronology, grammar, 
 law and natural science. They were dispersed over the country, but 
 had special seats of learning at Erech, or Orchoe (now Warka), at 
 Borsippa (the site of the present Birs-i-Nimrud), and at other places. 
 They were diligent and ingenious students, divided into sects with dif- 
 ferent doctrines, and given to speculation. They particularly culti- 
 vated astronomy with success, and the value of their knowledge in this 
 science was afterwards acknowledged by the Greeks. 
 
 The priests stood high socially, having access to the king, and being 
 feared and respected by the people. They were made wealthy by the 
 offerings of the faithful, and their occupation as interpreters of the 
 will of the gods secured them influence. The civil offices frequently 
 conferred upon them added to their wealth and to the esteem in which 
 they were held. 
 
 The Babylonians were a great manufacturing and commercial peo- 
 ple. Their commerce was both foreign and domestic. Many were 
 engaged in manufacturing the textile fabrics for which the Baby- 
 lonians were so famous, especially carpets and muslins. Many were 
 engaged as engravers on hard stone, with which the seal carried by 
 every Babylonian was adorned. The trades and handicrafts commonly 
 practiced in the East also flourished in Babylonia. An active and 
 constant import and export trade was kept up. The Jewish prophet 
 Ezekiel called Babylonia " a land of traffic," and Babylon " a city of 
 merchants." Isaiah said that " the cry of the Chaldaeans " was " in 
 their ships." The monuments show that the primitive Chaldaeans navi- 
 gated the Persian Gulf, and ^Eschylus calls the Babylonians in the 
 army of Xerxes " navigators of ships." 
 
 The Babylonians imported frankincense from Arabia; pearls, cot- 
 ton, and wood for walking-sticks from the Persian Gulf; dogs and 
 gems from India. Strabo says that they had a colony called Gerra, 
 on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, and this colony was a great 
 emporium through which the Babylonian trade to the north and the 
 south was conducted. The products of Western Asia were carried 
 down into Babylonia by the courses of the Tigris and Euphrates. 
 Wine, gems, emery and building stone were imported from Armenia 
 and Upper Mesopotamia ; tin and copper from Phoenicia ; and fine wool,
 
 BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 285 
 
 lapis-lazuli, silk, gold and ivory from Media and the distant East. 
 But these articles were brought to Babylon mainly by foreign mer- 
 chants. The Armenians and Phoenicians, and perhaps also the Greeks, 
 used the route of the Euphrates for the transportation of goods. The 
 Assyrians, the Medes and the Paretaceni floated their goods down the 
 Tigris and its tributaries. 
 
 A great portion of the Babylonian people were engaged in agri- Agricul- 
 culture. Babylonia was chiefly a grain-producing country, the won- * ure - 
 derful fertility of whose soil has been noted in our account of ancient 
 Chaldaea. The deep and rich alluvium was cultivated with the greatest 
 care. As before mentioned, wheat, barley, millet and sesame flourished 
 in luxuriant abundance. By means of canals the country was irri- 
 gated. Groves of date-palm furnished the chief article of food. Lit- The 
 tie beyond a proper water supply was needed for the cultivation of the 
 date. The female palm-tree can only produce fruit by the pollen of 
 the male palm coming in contact with its blossoms. Herodotus states Authority 
 that the Babylonians tied the branches of the male to those of the of 
 female palm. 
 
 Artificial means increased the yield of the date-palm in Babylonia. 
 The seeds and cuttings were planted in a sandy soil, to which salt was 
 applied if necessary. Abundant watering was required, and trans- 
 plantation was resorted to at the close of the first and second year. 
 The ground was broken with a plow drawn by two oxen. 
 
 Dates were the chief food of the Babylonians, and on this fruit and Foods, 
 goats* milk the poorer class mainly subsisted. Palm-wine was an oc- "i^ 8 
 casional beverage. In the marshy regions of the South fish was the Banquets, 
 principal food of some tribes of Chaldasans. The wealthy indulged in 
 luxuries, such as wheat bread, meats, luscious fruits, fish, game and 
 imported wine. The rich also drank to excess. They had magnificent 
 banquets, which usually ended in drunkenness. Bands of musicians 
 entertained the guests. The display of gold and silver plate, the mag- 
 nificent dresses of the guests, the beautiful carpets and hangings, the 
 many attendants, all contributed to the splendor of the scene. 
 
 The Babylonians and Susianians were both fond of music. Ctesias Music, 
 and Daniel testify to the musical taste of the Babylonians. Ctesias Authority 
 states that Annarus, or Nannarus, a Babylonian noble, enlivened a ban- ^| 
 quet with the music of a band of one hundred and fifty women, some Daniel. 
 singing and others playing on the pipe, the harp and the psaltery. 
 The prophet Daniel assigns the same instruments to the Babylonians, 
 along with the horn, the sambuca and the symphonia, or " symphony." 
 The Babylonians also used music in their religious ceremonies. Daniel 
 mentions their musical instruments in connection with Nebuchadnez- 
 zar's dedication of a gigantic idol of gold, when the worshipers were
 
 286 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Women. 
 
 Authority 
 of Herod- 
 otus 
 and the 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Cylin- 
 ders. 
 
 Tools and 
 Furni- 
 ture. 
 
 obliged to prostrate themselves before the idol upon hearing the music 
 begin. 
 
 Women were not kept in the same seclusion in Babylonia as in other 
 Oriental countries, as is apparent from the two curious customs men- 
 tioned by Herodotus the sale of the marriageable maidens at public 
 auction to the highest bidder, and the religious prostitution enjoined 
 in the worship of Beltis. On the Babylonian cylinders are frequently 
 found images of a goddess suckling a child, and also many represen- 
 tations of women engaged in different employments. Sometimes they 
 are represented in a procession visiting the shrine of a goddess, and 
 sometimes they are seen among birds and flowers in a garden, plucking 
 the fruit from dwarf palms and handing it to one another. They are 
 dressed in a long but scanty robe extending to the feet, and wear a 
 fillet, or band, round the head, confining the hair, which is turned back 
 behind the head, and tied by a riband, or held up by the fillet. The 
 modeled clay image represents bracelets and ear-rings as worn by the 
 women. A single representation of a priestess exhibits that class as 
 wearing petticoats only, thus exposing the entire body above the 
 waist. 
 
 A few Babylonian cylinders have been found representing saws and 
 hatchets, stools, chairs, tables, and stands for water-jars. The Baby- 
 lonian furniture was made from the wood of the palm-tree. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 
 Cos- 
 mogony 
 as Related 
 
 by 
 Berosus. 
 
 SECTION X. CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COS- 
 MOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 BEROSUS begins his history by recounting the Chaldaean traditions 
 regarding the creation of the world and the origin of the human race. 
 The following is an account of the Chaldaean cosmogony : " In the 
 beginning all was darkness and water, and therein were generated mon- 
 strous animals of strange and peculiar forms. There were men with 
 two wings, and some even with four, and with two faces; and others 
 with two heads, a man's and a woman's, on one body ; and there were 
 men with the heads and horns of goats, and men with hoofs like horses, 
 and some with the upper parts of a man joined to the lower parts of a 
 horse, like centaurs ; and there were bulls with human heads, dogs with 
 four bodies and with fishes' tails, men and horses with dogs' heads, 
 creatures with the heads and bodies of horses, but with the tails of 
 fish, and other animals mixing the forms of various beasts. Moreover, 
 there were monstrous fish and reptiles and serpents, and divers other 
 creatures, which had borrowed something from each other's shapes ; 
 of all which the likenesses are still preserved in the temple of Bel. A
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 287 
 
 woman ruleth them all, by name Omorka, which is in Chaldee Thalatth, 
 and in Greek Thalassa (or ' the sea '). Then Bel appeared, and split 
 the woman in twain; and of the one half of her he made the heaven 
 and of the other half the earth ; and the beasts that were in her he 
 caused to perish. And he split the darkness, and divided the heaven 
 and the earth asunder, and put the world in order; and the animals 
 that could not bear the light perished. Bel, upon this, seeing that 
 the earth was desolate, yet teeming with productive power, commanded 
 one of the gods to cut off his head, and to mix the blood which flowed 
 forth with earth, and form men therewith, and beasts that could bear 
 the light. So man was made, and was intelligent, being a partaker 
 of the divine wisdom. Likewise Bel made the stars, and the sun and 
 moon, and the five planets." 
 
 There is a remarkable likeness between certain Chaldaean and Jewish 
 legends, such as the traditions of the destruction of mankind by a 
 great Flood, because of its wickedness, and the Tower of Babel and 
 dispersion of the human race. Among some clay tablets brought from 
 Assyria to London by Mr. George Smith are a series of fragments 
 which, joined to some smaller pieces in the British Museum collection, 
 give the history of the world from the Creation down to some period 
 after the fall of man. Mr. Smith succeeded in translating these le- 
 gends in 1875, and the following is his brief account of the contents 
 of the tablets : " Whatever the primitive account may have been from 
 which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident 
 that the brief narrative given in the Pentateuch omits a number of in- 
 cidents and explanations for instance, as to the origin of evil, the 
 fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, etc. Such points as 
 these are included in the cuneiform narrative." 
 
 Mr. Smith then proceeds to give a sketch of the Assyrian cosmog- 
 ony, as follows : " The narrative on the Assyrian tablets commences 
 with a description of the period before the world was created, when 
 there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty state of 
 the universe and the generation by chaos of monsters are vividly given. 
 The chaos is presided over by a female power named Tisalat and Tia- 
 mat, corresponding to the Thalatth of Berosus ; but as it proceeds the 
 Assyrian account agrees rather with the Bible than with the short 
 account from Berosus. We are told, in the inscriptions, of the fall 
 of the celestial being who appears to correspond to Satan. In his 
 ambition he raises his hand against the sactuary of the God of heaven, 
 and the description of him is really magnificent. He is represented 
 riding in a chariot through celestial space, surrounded by the storms, 
 with the lightning playing before him, and wielding a thunderbolt as 
 a weapon. This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest 
 
 Chaldaean 
 
 and 
 
 Jewish 
 
 Legends. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Cosmog- 
 ony as 
 Revealed 
 
 by 
 Tablets
 
 288 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Antedilu- 
 vian 
 History 
 
 by 
 Berosus. 
 
 Chaldaean 
 
 Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Deluge as 
 
 Narrated 
 
 , by 
 Berosus. 
 
 of the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the universe in 
 stages, as in the Mosaic narrative, surveying each step of the work 
 and pronouncing it good. The divine work culminates in the creation 
 of man, who is made upright and free from evil, and endowed by the 
 gods with the noble faculty of speech. The Deity then delivers a long 
 address to the newly-created being, instructing him in all his duties 
 and privileges, and pointing out the glory of his state. But this con- 
 dition of blessing does not last long before man, yielding to tempta- 
 tion, falls; and the Deity then pronounces upon him a terrible curse, 
 invoking on his head all the evils which have since afflicted humanity." 
 
 After his mythical account of the Creation, Berosus mentions a 
 sea-monster, half man and half fish, named Oan, who came out of the 
 deep to teach men language and letters, astronomy, the arts, agricul- 
 ture and all that pertains to civilization. During the fabulous reigns 
 of the ten antediluvian kings of Chaldsea, there appeared at different 
 times six other fish-monsters who, like Oan, instructed mankind. The 
 ten kings whom Berosus mentions as reigning in Chaldaea during the 
 antediluvian period, and who correspond in number with the ten patri- 
 archs of the same period mentioned in the Mosaic record, will now 
 be named with the lengths of their reigns. Alorus, a Chaldaean, 
 reigned 36,000 years; Aloparus, son of Alorus, 10,800 years; Al- 
 melon, a native of Sippara, 46,800 years; Ammenon, a Chaldsean, 
 43,200 years; Amegalarus, of Sippara, 64,800 years; Daonus, of 
 Sippara, 36,000 years ; Edorankhus, of Sippara, 64,800 years ; 
 Amempsinus, a Chaldasan, 36,000 years; Otiartes, a Chaldaean, 28,000 
 years; and Xisuthrus, the Chaldaean Noah, 64,800 years the ten 
 reigns covering a period of 432,000 years. 
 
 The Chaldaean or Babylonian account of the Deluge, as narrated 
 by Berosus, is as follows : " The god Bel appeared to Xisuthrus 
 (Noah) in a dream, and warned him that on the fifteenth day of the 
 month Daesius mankind would be destroyed by a deluge. He bade 
 him bury in Sippara, the City of the Sun, the extant writings, first 
 and last; and build a ship, and enter therein with his family and his 
 close friends ; and furnish it with meat and drink ; and place on board 
 winged fowl, and four-footed beasts of the earth; and when all was 
 ready, set sail. Xisuthrus asked * Whither he was to sail? ' and was 
 told, ' To the gods, with a prayer that it might fare well with man- 
 kind.' Then Xisuthrus was not disobedient to the vision, but built 
 a ship fifteen stadia (3125 feet) in length, and six stadia (1250 feet) 
 in breadth; and collected all that had been commanded him, and put 
 his wife and children and close friends on board. The flood came; 
 and as soon as it ceased, Xisuthrus let loose some birds, which, finding 
 neither food nor a place where they could rest, came back to the ark.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 After some days he again sent out the birds, which again returned 
 to the ark, but with feet covered with mud. Sent out a third time, 
 the birds returned no more, and Xisuthrus knew that land had reap- 
 peared; so he removed some of the covering of the ark, and looked, 
 and behold ! the vessel had grounded on a mountain. Then Xisuthrus 
 went forth with his wife and his daughter, and his pilot, and fell down 
 and worshiped the earth, and built an altar, and offered sacrifice to 
 the gods; after which he disappeared from sight, together with those 
 who had accompanied him. They who had remained in the ark and 
 not gone forth with Xisuthrus, now left it and searched for him, and 
 shouted out his name; but Xisuthrus was not seen any more. Only 
 his voice answered them out of the air, saying, ' Worship the gods ; 
 for because I worshiped them, am I gone to dwell with the gods; and 
 they who were with me have shared the same honor.' And he bade 
 them return to Babylon, and recover the writings buried at Sippara, 
 and make them known among men ; and he told them that the land 
 in which they then were was Armenia. So they, when they had heard 
 all, sacrificed to the gods and went their way on foot to Babylon, and, 
 having reached it, recovered the buried writings from Sippara, and 
 built many cities and temples, and restored Babylon. Some portion 
 of the ark still continues in Armenia, in the Gordiaean (Kurdish) moun- 
 tains; and persons scrape off the bitumen from it to bring away, and 
 this they use as a remedy to avert misfortunes." 
 
 The Assyrian inscriptions discovered by George Smith give an ac- Assyrian 
 count of the Deluge much resembling the narrative of the same event Account 
 by Berosus. Among the ruins of the palace of the Assyrian king Deluge as 
 Asshur-pani-pal, tablets have been discovered from which the account D ^y C j^ s . 
 of the Deluge has been deciphered, agreeing in some particulars with scrip- 
 the Chaldaean tradition. The legend found recorded on the tablets " ons - 
 states that the god Hea commanded Sisit to build a ship of specified 
 size and to launch it on the deep, as he intended to destroy 
 the wicked. Then Hea said : " When the flood comes which I . 
 will send thou shalt enter the ship, and into the midst of it 
 thou shalt bring thy corn, thy goods, thy gods, thy gold and 
 silver, thy slaves male and female, the sons of the army, the wild and 
 tame animals; and all that thou hearest thou shalt do. And Sisit 
 gathered together all his possessions of silver and gold, all that he 
 had of the seeds of life, and caused all of his slaves, male and female, 
 to go into the ship. The wild and tame beasts of the field also he 
 caused to enter, and all the sons of the army. And Shamas, the Sun- 
 god, made a flood, and said : ' I will cause rain to fall heavily from 
 heaven ; go into the ship and shut the door.' Overcome with fear Sisit 
 entered into the ship, and on the morning of the day fixed by Shamas 
 VOL. 1. 19
 
 290 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 the storm began to blow from the ends of heaven, and Vul thundered 
 in the midst of heaven, and Nebo came forth, and over the mountains 
 and plains came the gods, and Nergal the Destroyer overthrew, and 
 Nin came forth and dashed down ; the gods made ruin ; in their bright- 
 ness they swept over the earth. The storm went over the nations ; the 
 flood of Vul reached up to heaven; brother did not see brother; the 
 lightsome earth became a desert, and the flood destroyed all living 
 things from the face of the earth. Even the gods were afraid of the 
 storm, and sought refuge in the heaven of Ana; like hounds drawing 
 in their tails, the gods seated themselves on their thrones, and Ishtar, 
 the great goddess, spake : ' The world has turned to sin, and there- 
 fore I have proclaimed destruction. I have begotten men, and now 
 they fill the sea like the children of fishes.' And the gods upon their 
 seats wept with her. On the seventh day the storm abated, which had 
 destroyed like an earthquake, and the sea began to dry. Sisit per- 
 ceived the movement of the sea. Like reeds floated the corpses of the 
 evil-doers and all who had turned to sin. Then Sisit opened the win- 
 dow, and the light fell upon his face, and the ship was stayed upon 
 Mount Nizir, and could not pass over it. Then on the seventh day 
 Sisit sent forth a dove, but she found no place of rest, and returned. 
 Then he sent a swallow, which also returned ; and again a raven, which 
 saw the corpses in the water and ate them, and returned no more. 
 Then Sisit released the beasts to the four winds of heaven, and poured 
 a libation, and built an altar upon the top of the mountain, and cut 
 seven herbs, and the sweet savor of the sacrifice caused the gods to 
 assemble, and Sisit prayed that Bel might not come to the altar. For 
 Bel had made the storm and sunk the people in the deep, and wished 
 in his anger to destroy the ship, and allow no man to escape. Nin 
 opened his mouth, and spoke to the warrior Bel : * Who would then 
 be left ? ' And Hea spoke to him : ' Captain of the gods, instead of 
 the storm let lions and leopards increase, and diminish mankind; let 
 famine and pestilence desolate the land and destroy mankind.' When 
 the sentence of the gods was passed, Bel came into the midst of the 
 ship and took Sisit by the hand and conducted him forth, and caused 
 his wife to be brought to his side, and purified the earth, and made a 
 covenant; and Sisit and his wife and his people were carried away 
 like gods, and Sisit dwelt in a distant land at the mouth of the rivers." 
 Tradi- Traditions of a great Flood have been prevalent in all countries 
 Great subject to overflows of rivers, with the exception of Egypt, where the 
 Flood> annual inundation was so regular. Legends like those of Chaldsea 
 and Assyria have been discovered among the inhabitants of Armenia, 
 Greece, India and all countries exposed to dangerous floods. The 
 account of the Deluge as narrated by Moses is a record of the same
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYIIO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 story as given by Berosus and as found inscribed upon the Assyrian 
 tablets. It is not known when the great Flood occurred in Chaldasa, 
 the dates assigned by Berosus being fabulous, as are his accounts of the 
 antediluvian dynasty and the first postdiluvian dynasty in Chaldsea. 
 
 " In a valuable contribution to the London Academy, in the year Phoeni- 
 1875, Mr. Sayce showed that the Phoenician legends form, as it were, Legends. 
 the link between the Chaldsean and the Hebrew so far as the so-called 
 Elohistic portion of Genesis is concerned; this being especially notice- 
 able in the legend of the Creation and the sacrifice of Isaac. Mr. 
 Sayce also explained the very close resemblance between the Baby- 
 lonian and Jewish legends of the Garden of Eden, the Deluge and 
 the Tower of Babel, the Phoenician analogies failing us here alto- 
 gether." 
 
 The following is the Chaldaean account of the Tower of Babel, as Chaldaean 
 related by Berosus : " The earth was still of one language, when the *%*' 
 primitive men, who were proud of their strength and stature, and Tower of 
 despised the gods as their inferiors, erected a tower of vast height, in Q^ e n y 
 order that they might mount to heaven. And the tower was now near Berosus. 
 to heaven, when the gods caused the winds to blow and overturned 
 the structure upon the men, and made them speak with divers tongues ; 
 whereupon the city was called Babylon." 
 
 Says Rawlinson, concerning Chaldasan mythology : " The striking 
 
 resemblance of the Chaldasan system to that of classical mythology son on 
 
 j j oJ Chaldsean 
 
 seems worthy of particular attention. This resemblance is too gen- Myth- 
 
 eral, and too close in some respects, to allow of the supposition that lo gy- 
 mere accident has produced the coincidence. In the Pantheons of 
 Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldasa, the same general grouping 
 is to be recognized; the same genealogical succession is not unfre- 
 quently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and 
 titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustrations and 
 explanations from Chaldaean sources. We can scarcely doubt but 
 that, in some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs a 
 passage in very early times, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to 
 the lands washed by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and 
 ideas. It is a probable conjecture that * among the primitive tribes 
 who dwelt on the Tigris and Euphrates, when the cuneiform alphabet 
 was invented, and when such writing was first applied to the purposes 
 of religion, a Scythic or Scytho- Aryan race existed, who subsequently 
 migrated to Europe and brought with them those mythical traditions 
 which, as objects of popular belief, had been mixed up in the nascent 
 literature of their native country,' and that these traditions were 
 passed on to the classical nations, who were in part descended from 
 this Scythic or Scytho-Aryan people."
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chaldaean The religion of Chaldaea, or Babylonia, was from the most ancient 
 Poly ti mes a gross polytheism, and was a kind of Sabaean worship, the 
 
 theism, heavenly bodies being objects of adoration and represented by their 
 special deities. Local divinities abounded, every town being under 
 the protection of some particular deity. The Chaldaean gods and 
 goddesses therefore dwelt in the sky. The deities of the first order 
 were grouped as follows : At the head of the Chaldaean Pantheon stood 
 El, or II, or Ra; after whom was named the great city, Babylon, or 
 Bab-El, meaning Gate of EL Next to the chief deity was a triad 
 of gods Ana, or Ann; Bil, or Bel, or Belus; and Hea, or Hoa who 
 corresponded to the classical Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune. Each of 
 these three gods was accompanied by a female principle, or wife ; 
 Anat, or Anata, being the wife of Ana ; Mulita, or Beltis, the wife of 
 Bel ; and Davkina, the wife of Hoa. These were followed by a second 
 triad of gods, consisting of Sin, or HurJci, the Moon-god; San, or 
 Sansi, the Sun-god; and Vul, or Iva, or Bin, the Air-god. Each of 
 this second triad was also accompanied by a feminine power, or wife; 
 a goddess called " the Great Lady," whose name is uncertain, being 
 the consort of Sin, or Hurki ; Gula, or Anunit, the companion of San ; 
 and STiala, or Tola, the wife of Vul. Next to these great gods and 
 goddesses at the head of the Pantheon were a group of five minor 
 deities representing the five planets then known Nin, or Ninip (Sat- 
 urn), Merodach (Jupiter), Nergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), and 
 Nebo (Mercury). All the deities thus far named constituted the 
 principal gods and goddesses, and after them were numerous divini- 
 ties of the second and third order. 
 
 Relation- The chief Chaldaean gods and goddesses were not all descended from 
 th hl God ^ e same parentage, like the Egyptian, or the Greek or Roman deities, 
 yet some relationship existed among them. Ana and Bel were broth- 
 ers, the sons of II. Vul was the son of Ana ; and Sin, or Hurki, the 
 Moon-god, was the son of Bel. Nebo and Merodach were sons of 
 Hoa. Among the many deities without parentage were II, the chief 
 god; Hoa; San, the Sun-god; Ishtar, the planetary Venus; and Ner- 
 gal, the representative of the planet Mars. Sometimes the relation- 
 ship is confused and contradictory ; Nin, the planetary Saturn, being 
 represented as the son and father of Bel, and as the son and husband 
 of Beltis. 
 
 El, or n, El, or II, is the root of the well-known Biblical Elohvm, and also of 
 
 Chtef 'cod ^ e Arabic or Mohammedan Allah. It is the name which Diodorus 
 
 of the represents as Elus; and Sanchoniathon, or rather Philo-Byblius, un- 
 
 daans c * er ^ e name of Elus, or Ilus. The meaning of the word El, or n, 
 
 and Baby- is simply " God," or " the God." Ra had the same meaning in Chal- 
 
 daea, but in Egypt it was the special designation of the Sun-god.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 293 
 
 The Semitic name of Babylon was Bab-Il, signifying " The gate of 
 II," or " the gate of God." Ra was a sort of fount or origin of deity 
 and had few attributes. He was not much worshiped, and does not 
 appear to have had any temple in early times. He was the common 
 father of Bel and Ana. Though Babylon, from its name Bdbil, was 
 originally under IPs protection, Bel was the god chiefly worshiped in 
 that city in early times, and Merodach in later times. El, or II, was 
 the lord of heaven. He was styled " the Warrior," " the Prince of 
 the gods," " the Lord of the universe." In an Assyrian tablet he is 
 styled " the Lamp of the divinities." In his anger at the wickedness 
 of mankind II sent the great Flood to destroy the human race, and 
 Sisit with the rest. 
 
 The residence of Ana, the first god of the first triad, was in the 
 concave dome of the sky, to which the other gods fled to escape the 
 ravages of the Flood, which the wrath of II had sent against the 
 wicked world. On some tablets Ana was called " the Old Ana," " the 
 Original Chief," " the Father of gods," " the Lord of spirits and 
 demons," " the King of the lower world," " the Lord of darkness," 
 "the Ruler of the far-off city," etc. The old city of Erech, or 
 Huruk (now Warka), was the chief seat of Ana's worship, and here 
 was a favorite burial-ground of the Chaldees, over which Ana was 
 believed to preside as a tutelary divinity. He was worshiped in the 
 most remote antiquity, and Urukh alluded to him as one of the gods 
 of Ur. King Shamas-Vul built a temple to Ana at Asshur (now 
 Kileh-Sherghat), about 1830 B. C. The temple of Erech bore the 
 name of Bit- Ana, or House of Ana; and the goddess Beltis, whose 
 worship superseded that of Ana, in this temple, was the companion 
 of Ana and was called " the Lady of Bit- Ana." 
 
 Anat, or Anata, the wife of Ana, was but a reflection of her hus- 
 band, and had no distinguishing characteristics, being nothing but 
 the feminine form of the masculine Ana. All his epithets were ap- 
 plied to her with only a distinction of gender, and she had no per- 
 sonality different from his, and is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the 
 historical or geographical inscriptions. One tablet represents Ana 
 and Anata as having nine children. Two of Ana's sons were Vul, the 
 Air-god, and Martu, the representative of " Darkness," " the West," 
 etc., corresponding to the Erebus of the Greeks. 
 
 Bel, also called Enu, and known as Belus by the Greeks, was the 
 second of the first triad of gods. His name Bit or Bel signifies 
 " Lord." He was called " the Supreme," " the Father of the gods," 
 " the Procreator," " the Lord," " the King of all the spirits," " the 
 Lord of the world," " the Lord of all the countries." When Nimrod, 
 " the mighty hunter before the Lord," the legendary founder of the 
 
 Ana, 
 
 Father of 
 Gods. 
 
 Ana's 
 
 Wife, 
 
 Anat, or 
 
 Anata. 
 
 Bel, or 
 Bil, or 
 
 Belus, or 
 
 Bel-Nim- 
 
 rod, or 
 
 Bilu- 
 Nipru.
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Deifica- 
 tion of 
 Nimrod, 
 
 the 
 
 Chaldaean 
 Founder. 
 
 Bel's 
 
 Wife, 
 
 Beltis, or 
 
 Mulita, or 
 
 Mylitta. 
 
 Chaldaean Empire, after his death was deified as Bel-Nimrod, or Bilu- 
 Nipru, " the Hunter Lord," his attributes and titles were mingled 
 with those of Bel. Calneh, or Nipur, the modern Niffer, was his 
 sacred city and the seat of his worship, and here was the great temple 
 consecrated to him. Many legends and traditions connect his name 
 with this ancient city, which was also dedicated to his wife Beltis. 
 Bel-Nimrod was called " Lord of Nipra," and his wife " Lady of 
 Nipra." His temple at Nipur, called Kharris-Nipra, and famed for 
 its wealth, magnificence and antiquity, was an object of intense ven- 
 eration to the Assyrian monarchs. Temples were likewise dedicated 
 to his worship at Calah (now Nimrud), and Dur-Kurri-galzu (now 
 Akkerkuf). He is sometimes said to have had four " arks " or " taber- 
 nacles." Inscriptions are found on Assyrian tablets, in which his 
 name is invoked as " the Lord of the world." This fact attests that 
 his worship was general throughout Chaldsea and Assyria. In Assyria 
 he was inferior only to Asshur, and in Chaldaea only to El and Ana. 
 Thus Bel and Bel-Nimrod were virtually the same god. Beltis was 
 his wife ; and Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, was their son, and was fre- 
 quently joined in their invocations. Sin, the Moon-god, is also said 
 to be Bel-Nimrod's son, in some inscriptions. His title " Father of 
 the gods " would indicate an almost infinite paternity. Bel-Nimrod 
 was worshiped during the whole period of the monarchy. Urukh 
 built him his temple at Calneh, or Nipur (now Niffer), and Kurri- 
 galzu erected the one at Akkerkuf. Urukh often mentions him in the 
 inscriptions in connection with Sin, or Hurki, the Moon-god, whom 
 he calls Bel-Nimrod's " eldest son." 
 
 Beltis, or Mulita the Mylitta of Herodotus as the wife of Bel- 
 Nimrod, presented a strong contrast to Anata, the wife of Ana. Bel- 
 tis was not only a female power of Bel-Nimrod, but was really a dis- 
 tinct and important deity. Her common title was " the Great God- 
 dess." Her Chaldaean name, Mulita, or Enuta, signifies " the Lady." 
 Her Assyrian name, Bilta or Bilta-Nipruta, were the feminine forms 
 of Bil and Bilu-Nipru. Her favorite title was " the Mother of the 
 gods," or " Mother of the great gods," likewise " Queen-mother of 
 the gods," " the Queen of the land," " the Great Lady," " the God- 
 dess of war and battle," " the Goddess of birth." Though usually 
 classed as the wife of Bel-Nimrod and the mother of his son Nin, she 
 is sometimes called " the wife of Nin," and in one place " the wife of 
 Asshur." She is likewise styled " the lady of Bit- Ana," " the lady of 
 Nipur." Her worship was general, and her temples were numerous. 
 At Erech (now Warka) she was worshiped on the same platform with 
 Ana. At Calneh, or Nipur (now Niffer), she shared fully in her 
 husband's honors. She had a shrine at Ur (now Mugheir), another
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 395 
 
 at Rubesi, and another outside the walls of Babylon. Some of these 
 temples were very ancient, those at Erech and Nipur being built by 
 Urukh, while that at Ur was either built or repaired by Ismi-Dagon. 
 One record makes Beltis the daughter of Ana, and as " Queen of 
 Nipur " she was " the wife of Nin." Beltis was " the Goddess of 
 fertility and birth," " the Lady of offspring." The worship of Beltis 
 was general throughout Chaldsea, and the magnificence of her temples 
 prove the adoration of the Chaldseans and the Later Babylonians for 
 her as the source of beauty and the dispenser of love. 
 
 Hea, or Hoa, the third of the first triad of deities, was the Sea-god, Hea, or 
 who, Berosus says, taught language and letters, art and science, and uj s Wife 
 agriculture to the primitive Chaldees. Though he is represented as a Davkina. 
 fish-monster, Berosus calls him " the Great Giver of good gifts to 
 man," and he also bears the title of " Lord of the abyss," and " Lord 
 of the great deep." He was adored as the dispenser of life and 
 knowledge, and as such his emblem was the serpent, which Eastern 
 races generally employed as the symbol of more than human wisdom. 
 Rawlinson considers the legend of Hea in the form of a serpent teach- 
 ing men wisdom, as bearing some relation to the story of the serpent 
 in the Garden of Eden, enticing Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden 
 fruit of the tree of knowledge by promising them extended wisdom. 
 The connection of Hoa with the introduction of letters is symbolized 
 in the arrow-head in the cuneiform inscriptions. The Assyrian kings 
 built him temples at Asshur and Calah. Davkina was the wife of Hoa, 
 and her name signifies " the Chief Lady." Like Anata, Davkina had 
 no distinctive titles or important position in the Pantheon, but took 
 her husband's epithets with a simple distinction of gender. Merodach 
 and Nebo were the sons of Hoa and Davkina. 
 
 Sin, or Hurki, the Moon-god, was the first deity of the second triad. Sin, or 
 He was called " the Powerful," " the Lord of the spirits," " He who the Moon- 
 dwells in the great heavens," " the Chief of the gods of heaven and 8 d > a d 
 earth," " the King of the gods," " the Bright," " the Shining," " the "the* *' 
 Lord of the month." As the patron and protector of buildings and 
 architecture, he was styled " the Supporting Architect," " the 
 Strengthener of fortifications," " the Lord of building." Bricks were 
 under his protection, and the sign of the month under his special care 
 was the one by which they were designated. His common symbol was 
 the crescent, or new moon. The monuments represent him in the form 
 of an aged bearded figure with illustrations of the different phases of 
 the crescent near his head. The signet-cylinder of King Urukh, now 
 in the British Museum, bears this representation of the Moon-god. 
 In this figure he is represented as offering one hand in salutation in 
 the presence of three worshipers standing before him. The Moon-god
 
 296 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 was the special object of kingly worship. Ur, or Hur, which derived 
 its name from Hurki, was his sacred city, and here was the great 
 temple built for his worship by King Urukh and his famous son and 
 successor, Hgi. This deity was likewise worshiped by the princes of 
 Borsippa and Babylon, and one dynasty of Chaldaean monarchs bore 
 the title of the Sin kings. The Moon-god was adored by the Chal- 
 dasans and Babylonians to the latest days of antiquity, through the 
 period of Assyrian supremacy to the times of Nebuchadnezzar and 
 Nabonadius, the last of whom restored his shrine at Ur and bestowed 
 on him high-sounding titles, such as " the Chief of the gods of heaven 
 and earth, the King of the gods, God of gods, He who dwells in the 
 great heavens." In some inscriptions the Moon-god is called the eld- 
 est son of Bel-Nimrod. His wife, the Moon-goddess, called " the 
 Great Lady," was often associated with him in the lists. Hurki and 
 his wife were the tutelary deities of Ur, or Hur, and a part of the 
 temple was dedicated to his wife. Her " ark " or " tabernacle," which 
 was separate from that of her husband, was also deposited in this 
 sanctuary. It was called " the lesser light," while his ark was styled 
 " the light." 
 
 San, or San, or Sansi, the Sun-god whose Semitic names were Samas, 
 Shamas 1 Shamas, and Shemesh was the second deity of the second triad. He 
 the Sun- was regarded as the lord of the daylight, and was represented as light- 
 godl ing the universe. His emblem was the circle. He was called " the 
 Lord of fire," " the Light of the gods," the Ruler of the day," " He 
 who illumines the expanse of heaven and earth," " the Regent of all 
 things," " the Establisher of heaven and earth." The Sun-god in- 
 spired warlike thoughts in the minds of kings, and directed and 
 favored their military expeditions. He caused the Chaldaean mon- 
 archs to assemble their chariots and warriors, and went forth with their 
 armies and defeated their foes in battle. He extended their domin- 
 ions, and brought them back to their own land as conquerors. He 
 chased their enemies before them and crushed all opposition. He 
 aided them to sway the kingly sceptre and to enforce their authority 
 over their subjects. He was thus called " the Supreme Ruler who 
 casts a favorable eye on expeditions," " the Vanquisher of the king's 
 enemies," " the Breaker-up of opposition." As the sun diffused light 
 and warmth throughout the realm of nature, so San lightened men's 
 minds and hearts with wisdom and inspiration. The chief seats of 
 the Sun-god's worship were at Larsa and Sippara. At Larsa was the 
 great temple to San, called Bit-Parra, built by Urukh, and restored 
 at times to as late a period as the age of Nebuchadnezzar. At Sip- 
 para the worship of this deity took precedence of all others, so that 
 the Greeks called this place Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. The
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 idolatry of the " Fire-king," Adrammelech, which the Second Book 
 of Kings mentions as being set up in Samaria, was the worship of 
 the Chaldaean Sun-god. At Sippara, called Tsipar sha Shamas, 
 " Sippara of the Sun," in the inscriptions, was the large temple to 
 the Sun-god which was repaired and adorned by many of the ancient 
 Chaldaean kings, as well as by Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonadius. 
 Most of the signet-cylinders of the Chaldasan monarchs have the em- 
 blem of the sun among their symbols of divinity. 
 
 Ai, Gula, or Anunit, the wife of San, as the female power of the 
 sun, was usually associated with the Sun-god in temples and invoca- 
 tions. Gula signifies " great." As a deity separate from her hus- 
 band, she presided over life and birth. She was worshiped with her 
 husband both at Larsa and Sippara, and her name appears on the 
 inscriptions at both places. She is believed to have been the Anam- 
 melech whom the Sepharvites adored in combination with Adram- 
 melech, the " Fire-king." In later times she had temples independent 
 of her husband at Babylon and Borsippa, as well as at Calah and 
 Asshur. Her emblem was the eight-rayed disk or orb, which is often 
 associated with the four-rayed orb in the Babylonian representations, 
 or sometimes an eight-rayed star, and frequently a star of only six 
 rays. 
 
 Vul, or Iva, the Air-god also variously translated as Bin, Yem, 
 Ao or Hu was the third god of the second triad. Like the Zeus of 
 the Greeks and the Jupiter of the Romans, Vul wielded the thunder- 
 bolt and directed the storm and the tempest. The Chaldaean account 
 of the great Flood represents Vul as thundering in heaven. He was 
 considered the destroyer of crops, and consequently the author of 
 famine, scarcity and pestilence. The " flaming sword " which he is 
 said to have held in his hand is represented as his symbol on the tablets 
 and cylinders, where it is figured as a thunderbolt. He was regarded 
 as " the Prince of the power of the air." His usual titles were " the 
 Minister of heaven and earth," " the Lord of the air," " He who 
 makes the tempest to rage." He was the great destroyer in the realm 
 of nature, but as the dispenser of rain he was adored as the source 
 of the fertility of the nourishing earth. He was regarded as the 
 protector of rivers, canals and aqueducts. Thus he was styled " the 
 Careful and Beneficent Chief," " the Giver of abundance," " the Lord 
 of canals," and " the Establisher of works of irrigation." The name 
 of King Shamus-Vul, son and successor of Ismi-Dagon, indicates that 
 Vul must have been worshiped in early times, as that king set up his 
 worship at Asshur (now Kileh-Sherghat), in Assyria, where a temple 
 was built to him and Ana conjointly. All through the period of 
 Assyrian ascendency and to the end of the Later Babylonian Empire 
 
 San's 
 
 Wife, 
 
 Gula, or 
 
 Anunit. 
 
 Vul, or 
 Iva, the 
 
 Air-god, 
 and His 
 
 Wife, 
 Shala, or 
 
 Tala.
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 the Air-god was highly venerated. Shala, or Tala, was the wife of 
 Vul, or Iva, and her usual title is sarrat or sharrat, meaning " queen," 
 the feminine of the word sar, which signifies " king," " chief," or 
 " sovereign." 
 
 Nin, or First among the deities who represented the five planets then known 
 Barf'or was Nin, or Ninip, also called Bar, or Adar, who was the representa- 
 Adar, the tive of Saturn. Bar, the Semitic name, and Nin, the Hamitic desig- 
 Planet ' nation, signify " Lord " or " Master." Ninip signifies " Nin by 
 Saturn, name," or " He whose name is Nin." Barshen signifies " Bar by 
 name," or " He whose name is Bar." In his character and attributes 
 Nin most nearly corresponded to the Hercules of the Greeks, as he 
 was adored as the god of strength and heroism, according to the tes- 
 timony of the inscriptions. He boldly faced the foe in battle, and 
 his name was invoked to encourage the warrior in the deadly conflict. 
 He was styled " the Lord of the brave," " the Champion," " the War- 
 rior who subdues foes," " He who strengthens the hearts of his fol- 
 lowers," " the Destroyer of enemies," " the Reducer of the disobedi- 
 ent," " the Exterminator of rebels," " He whose sword is good." In 
 character he thus very much resembled Bel-Nimrod and Nergal, and 
 also the Greek Ares, the Roman Mars, anr] the Scandinavian Odin. 
 The inscriptions call Nin, and not Hoa, the " Fish-god." His em- 
 blem was generally the fish; and on some beliefs he is represented as 
 part man and part fish, and beneath arc such titles as " the God of 
 the sea," " He who dwells in the deep," " the Opener of aqueducts." 
 On other tablets he is styled " the Powerful Chief," " the Supreme," 
 " the First of the gods," " the Favorite of the gods," " the Chief of 
 the spirits," and like titles. In his planetary character, he is called 
 *' the Light of heaven," " He who, like the sun, the light of the gods, 
 irradiates the nations." In the sculptured courts of the Assyrian pal- 
 aces, Nin is represented as a winged man-bull, the impersonation of 
 strength and power. He guards the palaces of the Assyrian kings, 
 who consider him their tutelary deity, and whose capital city, Nineveh, 
 is named in his honor. Nin does not rank with the most ancient of 
 the Chaldaean gods on the monuments; but as the Fish-god, whom 
 Berosus represented as coming out of the sea to teach the Chaldaeans 
 letters and science, he must have been an object of veneration from 
 primeval times. His oldest temples were the two at Calah (now Nim- 
 rud), and his temple at Nineveh was widely famed for its splendor, 
 and is noticed in the " Annals " of Tacitus. His worship was very 
 general throughout Chaldaea and Assyria, as is shown by the fre- 
 quency with which his emblems are found among the inscriptions. As 
 we have said, Nin was the son of Bel-Nimrod, and the inscriptions 
 represent him as the husband and son of Beltis. One tablet calls Nin
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 399 
 
 the father, instead of the son, of Bel-Nimrod. This contradiction 
 is the result of the double character of Nin, who, as Saturn, was the 
 father, but as Hercules, the son of Jupiter. 
 
 Merodach, or Bel-Merodach, represented the planet of Jupiter, and 
 was called "the Old Man of the gods," "the King of the earth," 
 " the Most Ancient," " Senior of the gods," " the Judge," and the like. 
 He was regarded as the god of judgment, justice and right. He was 
 believed to preside wherever justice was dispensed by kings sitting in 
 the gates, the early seats of justice. He was considered the most 
 spiritual of the Chaldasan deities, and in the Babylonian inscriptions 
 he is classed as superior to all celestial and terrestrial divinities, under 
 the title of Belrabu. The Tel Sifr tablets indicate that Merodach 
 must have been worshiped in the early Chaldasan kingdom. He is 
 believed to have been the tutelary deity of Babylon from the most 
 remote antiquity, and as the city grew into importance his worship 
 became more and more prominent. The Assyrian kings always asso- 
 ciated Babylon with Merodach, and in the Later Babylonian Empire 
 his worship took precedence of that of the other gods. Herodotus 
 minutely described his temple, and the prophet Daniel bore testimony 
 to the devotion with which he was worshiped by the Babylonians. 
 Nebuchadnezzar called him " the King of the heavens and the earth," 
 " the Great Lord," " the Senior of the gods," " the Most Ancient," 
 " the Supporter of sovereignty," " the Layer up of treasures," and 
 the like; and attributed to this god all his glory and success. His 
 emblem is not definitely known ; but Diodorus states that the great 
 statue of Merodach at Babylon was a figure " standing and walking," 
 and such a form frequently appears upon the Babylonian cylinders. 
 Merodach's wife, Zir-Banit, had a temple at Babylon, attached to her 
 husband's, and is believed to have been the goddess whose worship 
 was introduced into Samaria by the Babylonian colonists, and who is 
 called Succoth-benoth in the Old Testament. 
 
 Nergal, the War-god, was the representative of the planet Mars, 
 and his name, which is Hamitic, signifies " the Great Man " or " the 
 Great Hero." In the Assyrian account of the Deluge, Nergal is al- 
 luded to as the destroyer; but he was chiefly celebrated for his power 
 over the chase and the battle-field, thus partaking of the character 
 and attributes of Bel-Nimrod, with which deity he is compared in the 
 adoration bestowed upon him as the ancestor of the Assyrian mon- 
 archs. He was called " the King of battles," " the Champion of the 
 gods," "the Storm ruler," "the Strong Begetter," "the Tutelary 
 God of Babylonia," and " the God of the chase." He is usually 
 coupled with Nin, who also presides over battles and hunting. The 
 
 chief seats of Nergal's worship were the ancient cities of Cutha and 
 
 122 
 
 Mero- 
 dach. or 
 Bel-Mero- 
 dach, God 
 of Justice, 
 Planet 
 Jupiter. 
 
 Nergal, 
 the War- 
 god, God 
 of Eunt- 
 
 iag, 
 Planet 
 Mara.
 
 300 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Tarbissa. Cutha was the sacred city where he was said to " live," 
 and in which was his famous shrine. The " men of Cuth," when 
 transported as colonists to Samaria by the Assyrians, naturally " made 
 Nergal their god," introducing his worship into the land of their 
 forced adoption. Nergal's emblem was the famous winged man-lion, 
 the impersonation of human intelligence and physical strength, as 
 seen at the entrances of the great palaces of Susa and Nineveh. Of 
 Nergal's wife, called Lax, only her name is known. 
 
 Ishtar, or Ishtar, or Nana, was the representative of the planetary Venus, 
 Q^" and in character and attributes she mainly corresponded with the 
 
 of Spring, classical goddess whose name the planet bears. Ishtar was her As- 
 Venus* s y r i an name, and Nana was her Babylonian appellation. The Phoe- 
 nicians called her Astarte, and the Hebrews Astoreth. Ishtar is styled 
 in the inscriptions " the Goddess who rejoices mankind," and her most 
 common epithet is Asurah, " the Fortunate," or " the Happy." She 
 is also called " the Mistress of heaven and earth," " the Great God- 
 dess," " the Queen of all the gods " ; and also " the Goddess of war 
 and battle," " the Queen of victory," " She who arranges battles," 
 and " She who defends from attacks." In the inscriptions of one 
 monarch she is represented as " the Goddess of the chase." Her 
 worship was general, and her shrines were numerous. She is often 
 styled " the Queen of Babylon," and must have had a temple in that 
 city. She likewise had temples at Asshur, Arbela and Nineveh. Her 
 symbol, as represented on the cylinders, is the naked female form. 
 
 Account Ishtar, in her journey to the under-world, symbolized the disap- 
 
 DescenTto P earance i n winter of the Life in nature as ushered in at spring. 
 Hades. Ishtar is represented as going down to the House of Iskalla. Mr. 
 Fox Talbot, the English Orientalist, gives the following translation 
 of the descent of Ishtar to Hades, or the House of Iskalla: 
 
 " To the land of Hades, the land of her desire, Ishtar, daughter 
 of the Moon-god Sin, turned her mind. The daughter of Sin fixed 
 her mind to go to the House where all meet, the dwelling of the god 
 Iskalla, to the house which men enter, but cannot depart from the 
 road which men travel, but never retrace the abode of darkness and 
 of famine, where earth is their food, their nourishment clay where 
 light is not seen, but in darkness they dwell where ghosts, like birds, 
 flutter their wings, and on the door and the door-posts the dust lies 
 undisturbed. 
 
 " When Ishtar arrived at the gate of Hades, to the keeper of the 
 gate a word she spake : * O keeper of the entrance, open thy gate ! 
 Open thy gate, I say again, that I may enter in! If thou openest 
 not thy gate, if I do not enter in, I will assault the door, the gate I 
 will break down, I will attack the entrance, I will split open the por-
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 tals. I will raise the dead, to be the devourers of the living! Upon 
 the living the dead shall prey.' Then the porter opened his mouth 
 and spake, and thus he said to great Ishtar: ' Stay, lady, do not 
 shake down the door; I will go and inform Queen Nin-ki-gal.' So 
 the porter went in and to Nin-ki-gal said : ' These curses thy sister 
 Ishtar utters ; yea, she blasphemes thee with fearul curses.' And 
 Nin-ki-gal, hearing the words, grew pale, like a flower when cut from 
 the stem ; like the stalk of a reed, she shook. And she said, ' I will 
 cure her rage I will speedily cure her fury. Her curses I will repay. 
 Light up consuming flames ! Light up a blaze of straw ! Be her 
 doom with the husbands who left their wives; be her doom with the 
 wives who forsook their lords ; be her doom with the youths of dis- 
 honored lives. Go, porter, and open the gate for her; but strip her, 
 as some have been stripped ere now.' The porter went and opened 
 the gate. ' Lady of Tiggaba, enter,' he said : ' Enter. It is per- 
 mitted. The Queen of Hades to meet thee comes.' So the first gate 
 let her in, but she was stopped, and there the great crown was taken 
 from her head. ' Keeper, do not take off from me the crown that is 
 on my head.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon 
 its removal.' The next gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there 
 the ear-rings were taken from her ears. * Keeper, do not take off 
 from me the ear-rings from my ears.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen 
 of the Land insists upon their removal.' The third gate let her in, 
 but she was stopped, and there the precious stones were taken from 
 her head. ' Keeper, do not take off from me the gems that adorn my 
 head.' ' Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon their 
 removal.' The fourth gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there 
 the small jewels were taken from her brow. * Keeper, do not take off 
 from me the small jewels that deck my brow.' ' Excuse it, lady, the 
 Queen of the Land insists upon their removal.' The fifth gate let 
 her in, but she was stopped, and there the girdle was taken from her 
 waist. * Keeper, do not take off from me the girdle that girds my 
 waist.' ' Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon its 
 removal.' The sixth gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there 
 the gold rings were taken from her hands and feet. * Keeper, do not 
 take off from me the gold rings of my hands and feet.' ' Excuse it, 
 lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon their removal.' The seventh 
 gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there the last garment was 
 taken from her body. ' Keeper, do not take off, I pray, the last 
 garment from my body.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land 
 insists upon its removal.' 
 
 " After that Mother Ishtar had descended into Hades, Nin-ki-sral 
 
 * O. 
 
 saw and derided her to her face. Then Ishtar lost her reason, and
 
 30cj CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 heaped curses upon the other. Nin-ki-gal hereupon opened her 
 mouth, and spake : ' Go, Namtar, * * * and bring her out for pun- 
 ishment, * * * afflict her with disease of the eye, the side, the feet, 
 the heart, the head' (some lines effaced). * * * 
 
 " The Divine messenger of the gods lacerated his face before them. 
 The assembly of the gods was full. * * * The Sun came, along with 
 the Moon, his father, and weeping he spake thus unto Hea, the king: 
 ' Ishtar has descended into the earth, and has not risen again ; and 
 ever since the time that Mother Ishtar descended into hell, * * * the 
 master has ceased from commanding; the slave has ceased from obey- 
 ing.' Then the god Hea in the depth of his mind formed a design; 
 he modeled, for her escape, the figure of a man of clay. Go to save 
 her, Phantom, present thyself at the portal of Hades ; the seven gates 
 of Hades will all open before thee; Nin-ki-gal will see thee, and take 
 pleasure because of thee. When her mind has grown calm, and her 
 anger has worn itself away, awe her with the names of the great gods ! 
 Then prepare thy frauds ! Fix on deceitful tricks thy mind ! Use 
 the chief est of thy tricks! Bring forth fish out of an empty vessel! 
 That will astonish Nin-ki-gal, and to Ishtar she will restore her cloth- 
 ing. The reward a great reward for these things shall not fail. 
 Go, Phantom, save her, and the great assembly of the people shall 
 crown thee! Meats, the best in the city, shall be thy food! Wine, 
 the most delicious in the city, shall be thy drink! A royal palace 
 shall be thy dwelling, a throne of state shall be thy seat! Magician 
 and conjuror shall kiss the hem of thy garment!' 
 
 " Nin-ki-gal opened her mouth and spake ; to her messenger, Nam- 
 tar, commands she gave : ' Go, Namtar, the Temple of Justice adorn ! 
 Deck the images ! Deck the altars ! Bring out Anunnak, and let 
 him take his seat on a throne of gold! Pour out for Ishtar the water 
 of life ; from my realms let her depart.' Namtar obeyed ; he adorned 
 the Temple ; decked the images, decked the altars ; brought out Anun- 
 nak, and let him take his seat on a throne of gold; poured out for 
 Ishtar the water of life, and suffered her to depart. Then the first 
 gate let her out, and gave her back the garment of her form. The 
 next gate let her out, and gave her back the jewels for her hands and 
 feet. The third gate let her out, and gave her back the girdle for 
 her waist. The fourth gate let her out, and gave her back the small 
 gems she had worn upon her brow. The fifth gate let her out, and 
 gave her back the precious stones that had been upon her head. The 
 sixth gate let her out, and gave her back the ear-rings that were taken 
 from her ears. And the seventh gate let her out, and gave her back 
 the crown she had carried on her head." 
 
 Ishtar's return to earth symbolized the reappearance of spring.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 The god Nebo represented the planet Mercury, and was the last of 
 the five planetary deities. Nebo was the god of wisdom and intelli- 
 gence, the patron and protector of knowledge and learning, and the 
 teacher of mankind. His attributes were the same as those of the 
 Greek Hermes. He was styled " the God who possesses intelligence,'* 
 " He who hears from afar," " He who teaches," or " He who teaches 
 and instructs." He thus somewhat resembled Hoa, whose son he is 
 called in some inscriptions. Like Hoa, he had for his emblem the 
 simple wedge or arrow-head, the primary element in the cuneiform 
 writing, to signify his association with that god in the patronage of 
 letters. Nebo's other titles were " the Lord of lords, who has no equal 
 in power," " the Supreme Chief," " the Sustainer," " the Supporter," 
 " the Ever-ready," " the Guardian over the heavens and the earth," 
 " the Lord of the constellations," " the Holder of the sceptre of 
 power," " He who grants to kings the sceptre of royalty for the gov- 
 ernment of their people." Sometimes he is classed with the inferior 
 deities. His worship was more general in Chaldaea than in Assyria. 
 In the later ages Borsippa was the chief seat of Nebo's worship, and 
 there the great temple, called Birs-i-Nimrud, was consecrated to him. 
 The ruins of one of his shrines are found on the site of the ancient 
 Assyrian city of Calah (now Nimrud), whence imposing statues of. 
 this god have been transferred to the British Museum. He was a 
 favorite deity of the later Babylonian kings, many of whom were 
 named after him, such as Nabonassar, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar 
 and Nobanadius. Nebo's wife was Varamit, or Urmit, a name sig- 
 nifying " exalted," who was only a companion of her husband and 
 had no special attributes. Besides the deities described, the Chaldsean 
 Pantheon embraced a multitude of inferior divinities, of whom but 
 very little is known. 
 
 It is thus seen that the Chaldaean religion was, from the most re- 
 mote antiquity, an astronomical worship. The twelve constellations 
 of the Zodiac were the sun's " twelve houses," and his proper abode 
 was in the constellation of Leo. The planets likewise traversed twelve 
 stages in their course, and each sign or " house " passed by any one 
 of these celestial bodies was regarded as a seat of divine power, white 
 the planets themselves were considered gods. Thirty of the fixed stars 
 were associated with the planets as " counseling gods " ; and twelve 
 others in the northern heavens, and twelve in the southern firmament, 
 were designated " the judges." The twelve " judges " above the hori- 
 zon controlled the destinies of the living, while the twelve below were 
 masters of the fate of the dead. Each of the twelve months of the 
 year was assigned to one of the twelve great gods, beginning with 
 Ana. The seven days of the week were controlled by the seven great 
 
 Nebo, God 
 of Wis- 
 dom, 
 Planet 
 
 Mercury. 
 
 , 
 
 Astro- 
 nomical 
 
 Worship.
 
 30-1- 
 
 CHAIJXEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Cbaldaean 
 Astrol- 
 ogy- 
 
 Assyrian 
 and 
 
 Chaldasan 
 Religion 
 Almost 
 
 Identical. 
 
 Asshur, 
 
 the Chief 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 God. 
 
 heavenly bodies the sun, the moon, and the five planets then known. 
 The hours were assigned to certain stars. 
 
 Thus in the earliest twilight of Oriental history, more than four 
 thousand years ago, the Wise Men of ancient Chaldaea priests, bards, 
 sages and prophets by their observations of the heavens and their 
 explorations of the paths of the celestial luminaries, became the great 
 pioneers of astronomical science, and the founders of that semi- 
 mythical and semi-scientific learning which became diffused through- 
 out the whole West of Asia. The priests performed the task of 
 watching the courses, positions and phases of the celestial orbs and 
 luminaries, and estimating and calculating the influence of this ever- 
 varying aspect upon the destinies of men and nations. The seer and 
 the prophet endeavored to show how the ^ood and evil fortune of the 
 state was blended with conjunctions and oppositions in the starry 
 firmament. Thus astrology became mingled with astronomy. In the 
 Book of Daniel the Chaldaeans are mentioned as interpreters of stars 
 and signs. The following inscription has been deciphered from a 
 tablet found at Nineveh : " If Jupiter is seen in the month of Tam- 
 muz, there will be corpses. If Venus comes opposite the star of the 
 fish, there will be devastation. If the star of the great lion is gloomy, 
 the heart of the people will not rejoice. If the moon is seen on the 
 first day of the month, Accad will prosper." From that ancient period 
 to the present there has prevailed among the superstitious, in all ages 
 and nations, a belief that stars and astrological signs bear some rela- 
 tion to the fate of men and nations. 
 
 The Assyrian religion was almost identical with the Chaldasan, the 
 only essential point of difference being that the supreme national deity 
 of Assyria, Asshur, " the Great Lord," was unknown in Chaldsea, 
 where II was the chief god. With this solitary exception, the gods of 
 Chaldasa were also the gods of Assyria. The minor points of difference 
 were that certain deities prominent in the Chaldaean pantheon occupied 
 a subordinate position in the pantheon of Assyria, and vice versa. 
 Each pantheon began with the preeminence of a single god followed 
 by the same groupings of identically the same divinities, and, after 
 that, by a multitude of local deities. Each country had almost the 
 same worship temples, altars and ceremonies of a similar character 
 the same religious emblems the same religious ideas. But Assyria 
 furnishes us with a clearer knowledge of the material aspects of the 
 religious system so nearly common to the two nations. 
 
 Asshur, the head of the Assyrian pantheon, is usually called " the 
 Great Lord," " the King of all the Gods," " He who rules supreme 
 over the Gods." He is also called " the Father of the Gods," though 
 that title is more properly assigned to Bel. Asshur always has the
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 first place in invocations. The testimony of the Assyrian inscriptions 
 shows that Asshur was considered the special tutelary deity of the 
 Assyrian monarchs and of the nation. He put kings on the throne, 
 firmly established them in authority, prolonged their reigns, main- 
 tained their power, protected their fortresses and armies, made their 
 names famous, and the like. They turned to him for victory in war, 
 to give them all they desire, and to permit their thrones to be occu- 
 pied by their dynasty to the latest posterity. They usually spoke of 
 him as " Asshur, my Lord." They represented themselves as devot- 
 ing their lives to his service. They prosecuted their wars to extend 
 his worship. In his name they fought their battles and carried ruin 
 and destruction among their enemies. When they conquered a coun- 
 try they " set up the emblems of Asshur," and spread a knowledge 
 of his laws and his worship. 
 
 The tutelage of Asshur over Assyria is significantly indicated by 
 the identity of his name with that of their country. The god Asshur, 
 the country Asshur, and the city Asshur, and " an Assyrian " are all 
 represented by the same term, which is written both Ashur and Asshur. 
 This tutelage is likewise shown by the circumstance that Asshur had 
 no famous temple or shrine in any particular Assyrian city like the 
 other deities, and that his worship was general throughout Assyria. 
 The early Assyrian capital was named after this supreme national 
 deity ; and all the local temples and shrines in the land were open to 
 his worship, in addition to that of the divinities to whom they were 
 dedicated. The inscriptions continually describe the Assyrians as 
 " the servants of Asshur," and allude to their foes as " the enemies 
 of Asshur." No phrases of a like character have been employed in 
 referring to any other deity of the Assyrian pantheon. It is certain 
 that the ancestor and founder of the Assyrian nation, Asshur, the son 
 of Shem, had been deified after his death, as Nimrod had been; and 
 that he was thenceforth " the Great Lord " of the Assyrians the 
 supreme ruler over heaven and earth the chief object of Assyrian 
 adoration. 
 
 The favorite emblem of Asshur was the winged circle or globe, from 
 which is frequently seen issuing a figure in a horned cap, sometimes 
 holding a bow only, sometimes discharging arrows from a bow against 
 the enemies of Assyria. It has been conjectured that the circle sym- 
 bolizes eternity, that the wings signify omnipotence, and that the 
 human figure typifies wisdom or intelligence. There are numerous 
 varieties of this emblem. Sometimes the human figure has no bow, 
 and only extends the right hand. Sometimes both hands are extended, 
 and a ring or chaplet is held in the left. In one instance there is no 
 full human figure, but a pair of hands are seen issuing from behind 
 VOL. l. 20 
 
 The God 
 
 Asshur, 
 
 the City 
 
 Asshur 
 
 and the 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Anceotor 
 
 Asshur. 
 
 Deifica- 
 tion of 
 Asshur. 
 Son of 
 Shem. 
 
 Asshur's 
 Emblem.
 
 306 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Sculp- 
 tured 
 Represen- 
 tation of 
 Asshur's 
 Symbol. 
 
 Sacred 
 Tree. 
 
 Other 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Deities. 
 
 the winged disk, the right hand showing the palm, and the left hold- 
 ing a bow. In many cases the winged circle appears alone, with the 
 disk either plain or ornamented. Sennacherib's signet-cylinder bears 
 an emblem of Asshur having three human heads, that on the entire 
 human figure, and one on each side of it, resting on the feathers of 
 the wing. 
 
 The sculptures represent the winged circle in close connection with 
 the king, who has it embroidered upon his robes, engraved upon his 
 cylinder, represented over his head in the rock tablets on which his 
 image is carved ; and who stands or kneels in adoration before it, fights 
 under its shadow, returns in triumph under its protection, and assigns 
 it a prominent place in the scenes in which he himself is represented 
 on his obelisks. It is when the king is engaged in battle that Asshur 
 is represented as drawing the bow and aiming the arrow towards the 
 king's enemies. It is when he is returning in triumph from the field 
 of conquest that Asshur is represented as only carrying the bow in 
 his left hand, and holding out his right. In peaceful scenes Asshur 
 is represented without a bow. In representations of the king at wor- 
 ship Asshur extends his hand in aid. Where the monarch is repre- 
 sented as engaged in secular matters Asshur's presence is indicated 
 by the winged circle without the human figure. 
 
 The sacred tree is an emblem frequently seen, under various forms, 
 in connection with the symbol of Asshur. The simplest form consists 
 of a short pillar springing from a solitary pair of ram's horns, upon 
 which is mounted a capital consisting of two pairs of rams' horns, 
 with one, two or three horizontal bands between them ; while above this 
 capital is a scroll like that usually surmounting the winged circle, and 
 above the scroll is a flower like the Greek " honeysuckle ornaments." 
 In some cases the pillar is elongated, with a capital in the middle as 
 well as one at the top ; the blossom above the upper capital, and usu- 
 ally the stem also, throwing out many smaller blossoms of the same 
 kind, or fir-cones, or pomegranates. Sometimes there is likewise an 
 intricate network of branches forming an arch surrounding the tree. 
 This Assyrian sacred tree has been compared with the Scriptural " tree 
 of life." 
 
 In early times the Assyrians ranked Anu and Vul next to Asshur; 
 but later they accorded this honor to Bel, Sin, Shamas, Vul, Nin and 
 Nergal. Gula, Ishtar and Beltis were favorite goddesses. Hoa, Nebo 
 and Merodach were less worshiped in Assyria than in Chaldsea, or 
 Babylonia, though they were more esteemed in the later period of 
 Assyrian history. As the characteristics of these deities have been 
 described in our account of the religion of Chaldaea, we will here sim- 
 ply refer to their worship in Assyria and the temples dedicated to them.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. $07 
 
 The worship of Ami was introduced into Assyria from Babylonia Ami. or 
 during the period of Chaldaean supremacy before Assyria had become ^^y'^ 
 an independent kingdom. Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, King 
 of Chaldsea, erected a temple to Anu and Vul at Asshur, the early 
 Assyrian capital, about B. C. 1820. The Inscription of Tiglath- 
 Pileser I. says that this temple lasted six hundred and twenty-one 
 years, when, on account of its decayed condition, it was torn down 
 by Asshur-dayan I., the great-grandfather of Tiglath-Pileser I. Its 
 site remained vacant for sixty years, after which Tiglath-Pileser I. 
 rebuilt the temple more splendidly than before, and thenceforth it was 
 one of the principal shrines of Assyria. A tradition relating to this 
 ancient temple was the source from which the site of the city of 
 Asshur in later times derived the name of Telane, or " the Mound of 
 Asshur." Anu's name is no element in the names of monarchs or of 
 other prominent characters, and is not found in many solemn invoca- 
 tions ; but where his name occurs it is always placed next to that of 
 Asshur, and Tiglath-Pileser I. mentions him in his great Inscription, 
 as his lord and protector, in the place next to Asshur. Asshur-izir- 
 pal calls himself " him who honors Anu," or " him who honors Anu 
 and Dagon." Asshur-izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmaneser II., 
 gives Anu the second place in the invocation of thirteen gods with 
 which he begins his record. The monarchs of the New or Lower 
 Assyrian Empire did not usually esteem Anu very highly, with the 
 exception of Sargon, who glorified him, coupled him with Asshur, and 
 made him the tutelary god of one of the gates of his new city, Dur- 
 Sargina (now Khorsabad), uniting him in this capacity with the 
 goddess Ishtar. Anu did not have many temples in Assyria, having 
 none at Nineveh or Calah, the only important one being at Asshur. 
 
 Bel, or Bel-Nimrod, according to the testimony of the Assyrian Bel, or 
 monuments, was worshiped as extensively in Assyria as in Chaldaea, ^^i 
 or Babylonia. From the time of Tiglath-Pileser I. to the fall of the Assyria. 
 Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians, as a nation, were specifically denom- 
 inated " the people of Bel " ; and a certain part of Nineveh was desig- 
 nated " the city of Bel." The word Bel was an element in the names 
 of three Assyrian kings. In the invocation of the gods Bel's place 
 is next to Asshur*s when Anu's name is omitted ; but when Anu occupies 
 his proper place next to Asshur, Bel ranks third. In several places, 
 however, where Anu is omitted, Shamas is second and Bel third. Bel 
 was worshiped in early Assyrian times, as indicated by the royal names 
 of Bel-sumili-kapi and Bel-lush, as borne by two of the earliest Assyr- 
 ian monarchs. Bel had a temple at Asshur in connection with II, and 
 its antiquity is proven by the fact that as early as the time of Tiglath- 
 Pileser I., B. C, 1130, it had fallen into decay and was rebuilt by that
 
 308 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Eoain 
 Assyria. 
 
 famous king. Bel had also a temple at Calah, and four " arks " or 
 " tabernacles," whose sites are not identified. Sargon accorded high 
 honor to Bel, coupling him with Ami in his royal titles, and dedi- 
 cating to him, in conjunction with his wife, Beltis, one of the gates 
 of his city. In this dedication Bel is called " the establisher of the 
 foundations of his city " ; and in many passages Sargon attributes 
 his royal authority to the favor of Bel and Merodach. Probably the 
 horned cap, the general emblem of divinity, was the special symbol 
 of Bel. Esar-haddon says that he set up over " the image of his 
 majesty the emblems of Asshur, the Sun, Bel, Nin and Ishtar." The 
 other kings invariably mention Bel as one of the chief objects of 
 their worship. 
 
 Hoa was not prominently worshiped in Assyria. Asshur-izir-pal 
 says that Hoa alotted the senses of hearing, seeing and understanding 
 to the four thousand deities of heaven and earth ; and then, mentioning 
 that the four thousand deities had transferred these senses to himself, 
 he assumes Hoa's titles and identifies himself with this god. Asshur- 
 izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk king, 
 in his opening invocation, assigned Hoa his proper place, between Bel 
 and Sin. Sargon placed one of the gates of his new city under 
 Hoa's protection, in conjunction with Bilat-Ili, " the Mistress of the 
 Gods," believed to be Gula, the Sun-goddess. Sennacherib, after his 
 successful expedition across the Persian Gulf, offered sacrifice to Hoa 
 on the sea-shore, presenting him with a golden boat, a golden fish 
 and a golden coffer. Hoa's emblem, the serpent, was found on the 
 black stones on which were recorded benefactions, and on the Baby- 
 lonian cylinder-seals, but was not adopted by the Assyrian monarchs 
 among the divine symbols worn by them, nor among those inscribed 
 by them above their effigies. Hoa's name seldom occurs among the 
 royal invocations. His only two known temples in Assyria were the 
 one at Asshur (now Kileh-Sherghat) and the one at Calah (now Nim- 
 rud). The Assyrian devotion to Nin, the tutelary god of the Assyrian 
 monarchs and .of their capital, caused Nin's worship gradually to 
 supersede that of Hoa. 
 
 Beltis, " the Great Mother," the wife of Bel, ranked in Assyria 
 Belti^'or nex ^ to the triad embracing Anu, Bel and Hoa. She is usually men- 
 Mylitta, tioned in the Assyrian inscriptions in close relation with her husband. 
 The Assyrians particularly considered Beltis " the Queen of fertility," 
 thus resembling the Greek Deraeter, the Roman Ceres, who was also 
 known as " the Great Mother." Sargon put one of the gates of his 
 new city under the protection of Beltis, along with her husband, Bel; 
 and Sargon's great-grandson, Asshur-bani-pal, repaired and re-dedi- 
 cated to this goddess a temple at Nineveh, originally erected by As- 
 
 Hoa's 
 Wife, 
 
 in 
 Assyria.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 shur-izir-pal. She also had a temple at Asshur; and at Calah was a 
 temple dedicated either to Beltis or to Ishtar, the epithets used apply- 
 ing to either goddess. The goddess, though known in Assyria as 
 Beltis, was called Mylitta in Babylonia. 
 
 Sin, the Moon-god, occupied the next place to Beltis in the Assyrian 
 pantheon, the sixth place among the gods where Beltis was inserted, 
 and the fifth place wherever her name did not occur. His worship 
 in the early period of the Assyrian Empire is indicated by the invo- 
 cation of Tiglath-Pileser I., where he is mentioned in the third place 
 among the gods, between Bel and Shamas. Sin's emblem, the crescent, 
 was worn by Asshur-izir-pal, and is always seen among the divine 
 symbols which the Assyrian monarchs inscribed over their effigies. Sin 
 was one of the most highly esteemed of the Assyrian deities, and his 
 sign is found as often as any other among both Assyrian and Baby- 
 lonian cylinder-seals. His name is sometimes seen in the appellation 
 of kings and princes ; as in that of Sennacherib, signifying " Sin 
 multiplies brethren." Sargon was particularly devoted to the wor- 
 ship of Sin, after whom he named one of his sons, and to whom, in 
 connection with Shamas, the Sun-god, he erected a temple at his new 
 city, assigning to him the second place among the tutelary deities of 
 the city of Dur-Sargina. The Assyrians seem to have regarded Sin 
 as a very ancient god, and when they desired to mark a very old period 
 they would say : " From the origin of the god Sin." This was a 
 vestige of the old connection of Assyria with Chaldaea, whose primi- 
 tive capital, Ur, was under the special protection of the Moon-god, 
 and where the most ancient temple was dedicated to his worship. The 
 only two temples known to have been erected to Sin in Assyria were 
 the one dedicated to him, along with Shamas, by Sargon at his new 
 city, and the other to Sin alone at Calah. 
 
 Shamas, the Sun-god, ranked next below Sin, but was more popular 
 and far more generally worshiped in Assyria. Many passages would 
 seem to indicate that the Assyrian kings esteemed him next to Asshur, 
 as they really ranked him above Bel in some of their lists. The 
 emblem of the Sun-god, the four-rayed orb, was worn upon the neck 
 of the Assyrian king, and is seen more generally than most others upon 
 the cylinder-seals. In some cases the emblem of Shamas is even united 
 with Asshur's emblem, the central circle of which is marked by the 
 fourfold rays of Shamas. It is known that the worship of Shamas 
 in Assyria extended to a very remote antiquity. Tiglath-Pileser I. 
 mentions him in his invocation, and represents himself as ruling spe- 
 cially under his auspices. Asshur-izir-pal names Asshur and Shamas 
 as the tutelary gods under whose influence he conducted his wars. 
 Asshur-izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmanaser II., the Black Obe- 
 
 309 
 
 Sin, the 
 Moon- 
 god, in 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Shamas, 
 the Sun- 
 god, in 
 Assyria.
 
 310 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Gula, the 
 Wife of 
 Shamas, 
 
 in 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Vul, the 
 Air-god, 
 
 in 
 Assyria. 
 
 lisk king, gives Shamas his proper place among the gods whom he 
 invokes at the beginning of his long Inscription. The kings of the 
 New or Lower Assyrian Empire rendered him more devotion than their 
 predecessors. Sargon dedicated the north gate of his new city to 
 Shamas, along with Vul, the Air-god; and erected a temple to both 
 Shamas and Sin at the same city, assigning the Sun-god the third 
 place among the tutelary gods of the new city. Sennacherib and 
 Esar-haddon named Shamas next to Asshur in passages when men- 
 tioning the gods whom they considered their chief protectors. It 
 seems the only special temple dedicated to the worship of Shamas was 
 the one assigned to him and Sin j ointly at Sargon's new city ; but his 
 images are frequently seen among the lists of idols, so that he may 
 have been worshiped in temples consecrated to other deities. His 
 emblem is usually seen united with that of the Moon-god, either beside 
 or above it. 
 
 Gula, the Sun-goddess, the wife of Shamas, was not very highly 
 ranked among the Assyrian deities. It is true, her emblem, the eight- 
 rayed disk, was borne by the Assyrian kings, along with her husband's 
 symbol, and is often inscribed on the rock tablets, on the stones on 
 which benefactions are recorded, and on the cylinder-seals. But her 
 name is not often found in the inscriptions, and, where it does occur, 
 it is seen low down in the lists. Gula is the next to the last among 
 the thirteen deities named in the Black Obelisk invocation. The only 
 other places where she is mentioned is in inscriptions of a distinctly- 
 religious nature. At Asshur was a temple dedicated to Gula, Ishtar 
 and ten inferior deities. Gula's other Assyrian temple was at Calah, 
 where her husband likewise had a temple. Gula has been identified 
 with Bilat-Ili, " the Mistress of the Gods," to whom, together with 
 Hoa, Sargon dedicated one of the gates of his new city. 
 
 Vul, the Air-god, was known in Assyria from the earliest times; a 
 temple having been erected at Asshur, during the period of Assyria's 
 subjection to Chaldaea, by Shamas- Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, King 
 of Chaldsea; as well as the temple which the same king dedicated to 
 both Anu and Vul. As these edifices had fallen to ruin by the time 
 of Tiglath-Pileser I., that monarch rebuilt them from their base; and 
 Vul, being regarded as one of the special " guardian deities," was wor- 
 shiped in both temples. In Shalmanaser II.'s Black Obelisk invoca- 
 tion the intermediate place between Sin and Shamas is assigned to Vul, 
 and on that obelisk is recorded the fact that Shalmanaser II. held a 
 festival in honor of both Asshur and Vul. Sargon gave Vul the fourth 
 place among the tutelary deities of his new city, and dedicated to him 
 the north gate in connection with Shamas, the Sun-god. Sennacherib 
 spoke of hurling thunder on his enemies like Vul, and other Assyrian
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 311 
 
 monarchs say they " rush on the enemy like the whirlwind of Vul," or 
 " sweep a country as with the whirlwind of Vul." The Tiglath- 
 Pileser Inscription mentions Vul as " he who causes the tempest to rage 
 over hostile lands." The name Vul often occurred as an element in 
 the names of kings and other personages, as in Vul-lush, Shamas-Vul, 
 etc. The symbol of Vul, the double or triple bolt, is often seen among 
 the emblems worn by the Assyrian monarchs, and engraved above their 
 hoads on the rock tablets. Besides his two temples at Asshur, Vul had 
 a temple at Calah dedicated to him and his wife, the goddess Shala. 
 
 Nin was one of the most devotedly worshiped in Assyria among the 
 second order of gods. The oldest traditions mention Nin as the 
 founder of the Assyrian royal race, and the mighty city which finally 
 became so famous as the capital and metropolis of the Assyrian Em- 
 pire derived its name from this god. As far back as the thirteenth 
 century before Christ, Nin became an element in royal names. The 
 Ninus of the Greek writers has been regarded by moderns as the Nin 
 of the Assyrian inscriptions. Herodotus and Ctesias both consid- 
 ered Ninus as the founder of the Assyrian dynasty. Nin's name en- 
 tered as an element into the names of three Assyrian kings Nin- 
 pala-zira and the two Tiglathi-Nins. The principal temples dedicated 
 to Nin were at Calah. The vast edifice at the north-western corner 
 of the great Nimrud mound, including the pyramidal elevation con- 
 stituting the most conspicuous feature of the ruins, was a temple dedi- 
 cated to Nin by Asshur-izir-pal, who erected the north-west palace. 
 It has been supposed that this edifice was the " busta Nini " of the 
 Greek writers, where Ninus, whom the Greeks considered the hero- 
 founder of the Assyrian nation, was interred and specially worshiped. 
 This great temple was named Bit-zira, or Beth-zira, and from its fane 
 Nin had the title Pal-zira, " the son of Zira." Nin's other temple at 
 Calah was named Bit-kura, or Beth-kura, from the fane of which Nin 
 was called Pal-kura, " the son of Kura." 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser I., the first Assyrian king who has left us an his- 
 torical inscription, and who considered himself under Nin's guardian- 
 ship, is called " the illustrious prince whom Asshur and Nin have 
 exalted to the utmost wishes of his heart." This monarch mentions 
 Nin sometimes alone, and sometimes along with Asshur, as his " guard- 
 ian deity." Nin and Nergal are spoken of as sharpening weapons for 
 Tiglath-Pileser, and it is further said that under the auspices of Nin 
 the most ferocious animals fall beneath these weapons. Asshur-izir- 
 pal erected a splendid temple to Nin at Calah. Asshur-izir-pal's 
 grandson, Shamas-Vul I., dedicated to Nin the obelisk which he set 
 up at Calah to commemorate his victories. Sargon put the new city 
 which he founded under Nin's protection, and invoked this god spe- 
 
 Nin, the 
 Assyrian 
 Dynas- 
 ty's 
 
 Ancestor 
 Deified, 
 
 and 
 
 Honored 
 
 in the 
 
 Name 
 
 Nineveh. 
 
 TheNinus 
 
 of the 
 
 Greek 
 
 Writers. 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Kingly 
 
 Reverence 
 
 for Nin.
 
 312 
 
 CHALDvEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 His 
 
 Symbol, 
 Winged 
 
 Man- 
 headed 
 
 Bull. 
 
 Merodach 
 
 in 
 Assyria. 
 
 Nergal, 
 
 the 
 
 Assyrian 
 Dynas- 
 ty's 
 Divine 
 Ancestor. 
 
 His 
 
 Symbol, 
 Winged 
 Man- 
 headed 
 Lion. 
 
 cially to guard his gorgeous palace. Sargon's veneration for Nin 
 was strikingly indicated by the ornamentation of that magnificent 
 structure ; and Nin's emblem, the winged man-headed bull, stood guard 
 at all its principal gateways. The figure strangling a lion, occupy- 
 ing so prominent a place on the harem portal facing the great court, 
 represented this god. Sargon attributed his victories in war to the 
 favor of Nin, and for this reason he placed Nin's emblems on the 
 sculptures representing his military expeditions. Sennacherib, Sar- 
 gon's son and successor, had the same reverence for Nin, as he also 
 placed the winged man-headed bull at most of the doorways of his 
 magnificent palace at Nineveh, and assigned the figure strangling the 
 lion a prominent place on the grand fa9ade of the same splendid edifice. 
 Esar-haddon states that he continued in the worship of Nin, and that 
 he set up the emblem of that god over his own royal effigy, in connec- 
 tion with the symbols of Asshur, Shamas, Bel and Ishtar. 
 
 Merodach was a god mentioned by most of the early Assyrian kings 
 in their opening invocations, and an allusion in their inscriptions in- 
 dicates that he was regarded as a very powerful god. Shalmaneser 
 II., the Black Obelisk king, says in one place that " the fear of Asshur 
 and Merodach fell upon his enemies." But Merodach was not a popu- 
 lar deity in Assyria until the later times of the empire, Vul-lush III. 
 being the first monarch who assigned him a prominent place in the 
 Assyrian pantheon. Sargon and his successors continued the worship 
 of Merodach. Sargon constantly ascribed his power to the united 
 favor of Asshur and Merodach, and Esar-haddon sculptured the em- 
 blems of these two gods over the images of foreign gods presented to 
 him by a suppliant prince. But Merodach did not have any temple 
 in Assyria. 
 
 Nergal was a god highly reverenced, being regarded by the Assyr- 
 ian monarchs as their divine ancestor, Sargon having traced the line 
 of descent through three hundred and fifty generations. Nergal's 
 symbol was the winged man-headed lion, or the national lion, whose 
 figure enters largely into Assyrian architecture. The confident reli- 
 ance of the Assyrians on Nergal's protection is proven by the con- 
 spicuous place his emblems everywhere occupied in their palaces. Nin 
 and Nergal, as the gods of war and hunting, in which occupations the 
 Assyrian kings spent their lives, were tutelary gods of these monarchs ; 
 and these two deities are found equally associated in the royal inscrip- 
 tions and sculptures. Sennacherib dedicated a temple to Nergal at 
 Tarbisi (now Sherif-Khan) ; and he may have had one at Calah, as a 
 smaller temple with the lion entrance is found in the ruins on the 
 northwest corner of the Nimrud mound, and as he was mentioned as 
 one of the " resident gods " of Calah.
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 Ishtar was a favorite goddess of the Assyrian kings, who styled her Ishtar, or 
 " their lady," and sometimes coupled her with Asshur, " the Great 
 Lord," in their invocations. Ishtar had a very old temple at Asshur, 
 the primitive Assyrian capital, and this temple Tiglath-Pileser I. re- 
 paired and beautified. Asshur-izir-pal erected a second temple to her 
 at Nineveh, and she had a third at Arbela, which Asshur-bani-pal says 
 he restored. Sargon put the western gate of his new city under the 
 united protection of Ishtar and Anu. Sargon's son and successor, 
 Sennacherib, spoke of Asshur and Ishtar as about to " call the kings 
 his sons to their sovereignty over Assyria," and implored Asshur and 
 Ishtar to " hear their prayers." Sennacherib's grandson, Asshur- 
 bani-pal, the royal hunter, was devoted to Ishtar, whom he considered 
 the special patron of his favorite pastime, the chase of the lion and 
 the wild bull. Ishtar appears as one goddess divided into many; as 
 the Ishtar of Nineveh, the Ishtar of Arbela and the Ishtar of Baby- 
 lon are all distinguished from each other, a separate address being 
 made to each of them in the same invocation, as in that of Sennacherib 
 and in that of Esar-haddon. Thus though Ishtar was a general object 
 of worship throughout Assyria, she had a distinctly local character 
 in the various Assyrian and Babylonian cities. 
 
 Nebo was one of the most ancient of Assyrian gods, and his name 
 enters as an element into a king's name in the twelfth century before Assyria. 
 Christ, namely that of Mutaggil-Nebo. But he was not extensively 
 worshiped until VuK^h III. had given him a prominent place in the 
 Assyrian pantheon after leading an expedition into Babylonia, where 
 Nebo had always been highly honored. Vul-lush III. set up two 
 statues to Nebo at Calah, and perhaps erected to him the temple there 
 called Bit-Saggil, or Beth-Saggil, from which Nebo derived his name 
 of Pal-Bit-Saggil. Sennacherib and Esar-haddon held this god in 
 high veneration, the latter putting him above Merodach in an im- 
 portant invocation. Asshur-bani-pal also paid Nebo much reverence, 
 alluding to him and his wife, Warmita, as the deities under whose 
 auspices he engaged in some literary work. 
 
 After these chief deities, the Assyrians recognized and adored a The Chief 
 multitude of inferior divinities. Beltis, the wife of Bel ; and Gula, 8 s ^" 
 the wife of Shamas; also Ishtar, who is sometimes alluded to as the Assyria, 
 wife of Nebo, were all goddesses of exalted rank and importance. But 
 Sheruba, the wife of Asshur ; Anata, or Anuta, the wife of Anu ; Dav- 
 kina, the wife of Hoa; Shala, the wife of Vul; Zirbanit, the wife of 
 Merodach; Laz, the wife of Nergal; and Warmita, usually called the 
 wife of Nebo, did not occupy a place in the Assyrian pantheon at all 
 in comparison with the dignity and rank of their husbands. Nin, the 
 Assyrian Hercules, and Sin, the Moon-god, had wives also; but their
 
 314 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Their 
 Inferior 
 Position. 
 
 The 
 
 Minor 
 
 Gods in 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Good 
 Genii. 
 
 Bad Genii. 
 
 proper names are not known, Nin's wife being called " the Queen of 
 the Land," and Sin's wife " the Great Lady." 
 
 Thus the Assyrians usually combined in the same temple the wor- 
 ship of the male and the female principle; the female deities with 
 the exception of Beltis, the wife of Bel ; Gula, the wife of Shamas ; 
 and Ishtar, either as an independent goddess or as the wife of Nebo, 
 who are as strong and distinct as their husbands are in most cases 
 only the reflection of their husbands, thus having an unsubstantial 
 character, and occupying a very insignificant position in the pantheon. 
 Some minor goddesses, among whom was Telita, the goddess of the 
 great marshes near Babylon, stood alone, unassociated with any male 
 deity. Most of the minor male divinities likewise had no female com- 
 panions, the notable exceptions to this rule being Martu, whose wife 
 was called " the Lady of Tiganna," and Idak, God of the Tigris, 
 whose wife was Belat-Muk. 
 
 Prominent among the minor male divinities were Martu, called a 
 son of Anu and " the Minister of the deep," and corresponding to the 
 Greek Erebus ; Sargana, also ranked as a son of Anu, and from whom 
 Sargon is supposed to have derived his name ; Idak, God of the Tigris ; 
 Supulat, Lord of the Euphrates; and II, who, though the Babylonian 
 chief god, occupied an humble position in the Assyrian pantheon. 
 Tiglath-Pileser I. repaired a temple to II at Asshur about B. C. 1150. 
 Besides these just mentioned, there were a multitude of minor Assyr- 
 ian divinities, of whom but very little is yet known. 
 
 The Assyrians are supposed to have believed in the existence of 
 genii, some of whom they considered powers of good, others powers of 
 evil. The winged figure wearing the horned cap, usually represented 
 as waiting upon the king when he is engaged in any sacred capacity, 
 is believed to be his tutelary genius, the spirit carefully watching over 
 him and protecting him from the spirits of darkness. This figure 
 generally carries a pomegranate or a pine-cone in the right hand, and 
 sometimes holds a plaited bag or basket in the left, while at other 
 times this hand is free. The pine-cone, when carried, is always pointed 
 towards the king, as if signifying the means of communication be- 
 tween the protector and the protected, the instrument conveying grace 
 and strength from the genius to the human being whom he had taken 
 under his care. The sacred basket is often very elegantly and elabo- 
 rately ornamented, sometimes with winged figures in adoration before 
 the sacred tree, and they themselves holding baskets. The hawk- 
 headed figure, also found attending upon the king and watching his 
 actions, is likewise believed to represent a good genius. 
 
 Few representations of evil genii have been discovered. Among 
 these is the monster half lion, half eagle, driven into retreat by VuFs
 
 
 11 1 
 
 ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE 
 Figure of a Genius with head of an Eagle
 
 CHAJLDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 315 
 
 thunderbolts found among the sculptures at Nimrud, the ancient 
 Calah. Certain grotesque statuettes found at Khorsabad, represent- 
 ing a human figure having a lion's head with the ears of an ass, have 
 likewise been classed with these evil genii. In one case we see two mon- 
 sters with heads like the one just described, placed on human bodies 
 whose legs end in eagle's claws, both armed with daggers and maces, 
 and struggling with each other. This sculpture found in the ruins 
 of Asshur-bani-pal's great palace at Nineveh, and now in the British 
 Museum is believed to be a symbolical illustration of the tendency 
 of evil to turn upon itself and waste its strength by internal conten- 
 tion and turmoil. Instances are abundant in which a human figure 
 with the head of a hawk or an eagle threatens a winged man-headed 
 lion, the emblem of Nergal, with a strap or a mace; thus typifying 
 the spirit of evil attacking a god, or the hawk-headed genius driving 
 Nergal out of Assyria an emblematic representation of war. 
 
 The Assyrian religion had a strongly-idolatrous character in its 
 mode of worship. The different images of the same deity came to 
 be regarded as separate objects of worship in their different temples; 
 and thus we find the Ishtar of Arbela, the Ishtar of Nineveh and the 
 Ishtar of Babylon invoked by the same monarch in the same inscrip- 
 tion as separate divinities. The identification of the god with the 
 image is exemplified in the great Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., 
 where the king boasts that he set up Anu and Vul in their places, and 
 where he constantly identifies the images which he carries off from 
 foreign lands with their gods. In the same spirit Sennacherib in- 
 quires, through Rabshakeh: " Where are the gods of Hamath and 
 of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah?" 
 The meaning of these interrogatory expressions is that the gods of 
 those foreign lands had been carried captive to Assyria when their 
 idols were conveyed there. When Hezekiah, King of Judah, had de- 
 stroyed all the images throughout his dominions Sennacherib thought 
 that monarch had deprived his subjects of all divine protection. The 
 usual Assyrian custom of carrying off the idols of foreign countries 
 was designed to weaken the enemies of Assyria by depriving 1 them of 
 their divine protectors. These idols were not removed in an irreverent 
 or sacrilegious manner, and were deposited in the chief Assyrian tem- 
 ples, so that these gods would thereafter be among the celestial guard- 
 ians of the Assyrians. 
 
 Assyrian idols were made from stone, baked clay or metal. Some 
 images of Nebo and of Ishtar have been found among the ruins. 
 Those of Nebo are standing figures somewhat larger than the human 
 They show the marks of the ravages of time, and, like many 
 
 size. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Idolatry. 
 
 Inscrip- 
 tions of 
 Tiglath- 
 Pileser I. 
 and Sen- 
 nacherib. 
 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 
 Foreign 
 Idols. 
 
 Idols of 
 Nebo. 
 
 of the winged man-headed lions and bulls, are disfigured by several 
 123
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Clay 
 
 Idols. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Sacrifi- 
 ces. 
 
 Bas-relief 
 
 Scenes of 
 
 Animal 
 
 Sacrifices. 
 
 Lord 
 Aber- 
 deen's 
 Black 
 Stone 
 Repre- 
 senting a 
 Bull Sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 lines of cuneiform inscriptions, stating the fact that the statues rep- 
 resent Nebo, and relating the circumstances of their dedication. 
 
 The few clay idols found are usually of good material and of dif- 
 ferent sizes, smaller than the full human stature, but are commonly 
 mere statuettes less than a foot high. These statuettes are believed 
 to have been mostly intended for private use among the people in gen- 
 eral, while the stone idols were designed for public worship in the 
 shrines and temples. Idols in metal have not been found among the 
 Assyrian remains, but a passage from the Hebrew prophet Nahum 
 indicates that the Assyrians had images made of that material in their 
 temples. In alluding to Nineveh, Nahum says : " And the Lord hath 
 given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be 
 sown ; out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and 
 the molten image." 
 
 The Assyrian method of worship consisted mainly of sacrifices and 
 offerings. Tiglath-Pileser I. states in his long Inscription that he 
 offered sacrifices to Anu and Vul when he had finished repairing their 
 temple. Asshur-izir-pal states that he sacrificed to the gods after 
 having embarked on the Mediterranean. Vul-lush III. sacrificed to 
 Merodach, Nebo and Nergal in their respective temples at Babylon, 
 Borsippa and Cutha. Sennacherib offered sacrifices to Hoa on the 
 seashore after his expedition in the Persian Gulf against Susiana. 
 Esar-haddon " slew great and costly sacrifices " at Nineveh when he 
 had finished his great palace in that city. The Assyrian monarchs in 
 general considered sacrifice a duty, and this was the usual method by 
 which they propitiated the favor of the national deities. 
 
 The bas-reliefs give us scant information concerning the manner 
 of the Assyrian sacrifices, but they show that the animal specially 
 sacrificed was the bull. The inscriptions inform us that sheep and 
 goats were likewise used for sacrifice, and there is a representation of 
 a ram or wild goat being led to the altar. On Lord Aberdeen's Black 
 Stone, a monument of Esar-haddon's reign, a bull is represented as 
 brought up to a temple by the king. On a mutilated obelisk of As- 
 shur-bani-pal's time, now in the British Museum, the whole sacrificial 
 scene is presented to our view. The king and six priests, one of whom 
 carries a cup, while the other five are employed about the sacrificial 
 animal, advance in procession towards the front of the temple, where 
 the god with the horned cap on his head occupies a throne, while a 
 beardless attendant priest is paying adoration to him. The king 
 pours a libation over a large bowl, fixed in a stand, just in front of a 
 tall fire-altar, from which flames arise. The priest stands close be- 
 hind with a cup in his hand. The bull's advance is stayed by a 
 bearded priest just in front of the animal. Two priests walk behind
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 the bull and hold him with a rope fastened to one of his front legs 
 near the hoof. These two priests and two others behind them appear, 
 from the position of their heads and arms, to be engaged in a solemn 
 chant. The flame on the altar indicates that the sacrifice is to be 
 burned upon that altar, which is only large enough to burn a part 
 of the animal at a time. 
 
 Assyrian altars differed in form and size. Some were square and 
 not high, with the top ornamented with gradines, below which the sides 
 were plain or fluted. Others about the same height were triangular, 
 with a round top consisting of a plain flat stone, sometimes inscribed 
 round the edge. An altar of this form was discovered by M. Botta 
 at Khorsabad. Another of almost the same shape was found by Mr. 
 Layard at Nimrud, and is now in the British Museum. A third kind 
 of altar resembled a portable stand, narrow but reaching up to a man's 
 head. These kinds of altars the Assyrians carried about in their 
 expeditions, and in the entrenched camps priests are sometimes seen 
 officiating at them in their sacerdotal costume. 
 
 The Assyrian kings deposited in the temples of their gods, as thank- 
 offerings, many precious products from the countries which they in- 
 vaded with their armies. Various kinds of stones or marbles, rare 
 metals and images of foreign deities, are specially named in the Tig- 
 lath-Pileser Inscription as among such offerings. Silver and gold 
 so largely employed in the adornment of temples that they were said 
 to have been sometimes " as splendid as the sun " were thus dedicated 
 to the gods. 
 
 The sculptures, mostly monuments erected by the kings, represent 
 their own religious performances, but not those of the people. The 
 Assyrian kings thus exercised priestly functions, and in the religious 
 scenes which illustrate their acts of worship no priest is represented 
 as intervening between the king and the god, but all priests occupy 
 a very unimportant position. The king himself stands and worships 
 near the holy tree, pours out libations with his own hands, and may 
 himself have slain victims for sacrifice. As the Babylonians and all 
 other Oriental nations had their priesthoods, it is likewise probable that 
 the religious affairs of the Assyrian people were conducted under the 
 auspices of their priests, whom the cylinders represent as introducing 
 worshipers to the gods, and who are attired in long robes and wearing 
 mitres upon their heads. The worshiper is usually represented as 
 carrying an antelope or a young goat, intended to propitiate the deity. 
 The Assyrian sculptures generally represent the priests without 
 beards. 
 
 At the Assyrian festivals great multitudes, particularly of the chief 
 men, assembled; many sacrifices were offered, and the festivities con- 
 
 Assyria* 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Sculp- 
 
 g tured . 
 
 the 
 
 Worship 
 
 Assyriau 
 Jes a t ^ al! ' 
 Fasts
 
 318 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Religious 
 Senti- 
 ment. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Religious 
 Ceremo- 
 nial. 
 
 tinued several days. Many of the worshipers were afforded accom- 
 modations in the royal palace, to which the temple was commonly only 
 an addition, and were fed at the monarch's expense and given lodging 
 in the halls and other apartments. The Assyrian religion also em- 
 braced fasting, as attested exclusively by the Book of Jonah. When 
 a fast was proclaimed, the king, the nobles and the people attired 
 themselves in sackcloth, sprinkled ashes upon their heads, and abstained 
 from eating and drinking until the fast was ended. The animals 
 within the walls of the city where the fast was ordered were also robed 
 in sackcloth, and were likewise denied food and drink. Business was 
 suspended, and the entire populace united in prayer to Asshur, " the 
 Great Lord," thus imploring his pardon and seeking to propitiate his 
 favor. These were not simply formal ceremonies. On the occasion 
 alluded to in the Book of Jonah, the repentance of the Ninevites ap- 
 pears to have been sincere. Says this authority : " God saw their 
 works, that they turned from their evil way ; and God repented of the 
 evil that he said he would do unto them ; and he did it not." 
 
 Altogether the Assyrians were a strongly-religious people, although 
 not as intensely so as the Egyptians. Their temples, however, were 
 subordinated to their palaces, and the most imposing emblems of their 
 gods, such as the winged man-headed bulls and lions, symbolizing 
 respectively Nin and Nergal, were degraded to mere architectural 
 ornaments. Their religion was very gross and sensuous in its nature, 
 and its intensely-materialistic character is attested by the practice 
 of image-worship. The Assyrians worshiped more by means of sacri- 
 fices and offerings than by prayer, though in times of distress and 
 misfortune they could offer prayers of the deepest sincerity, which 
 goes to prove that they were actuated by honest motives and purposes 
 concerning their numerous solemn addresses and invocations, as read 
 in their public and private documents. The devotion of the learned 
 to religious subjects is shown by the many mythological tablets; and 
 the piety of the masses is indicated by the general character of their 
 names, and by the almost universal custom of inscribing sacred figures 
 and symbols upon their signets. 
 
 The sensuous nature of the religion consequently led to an osten- 
 tatious ceremonial, a taste for pompous processions, and the use of 
 gorgeous vestments ; the last being very elaborately represented in the 
 Nimrud sculptures. The costume of the priests was magnificent, their 
 robes being elegantly embroidered, mostly with religious figures and 
 emblems, such as the winged circle, the pine-cone, the pomegranate, 
 the sacred tree, the winged man-headed lion, etc. The officiating 
 priests wore armlets, bracelets, necklaces and ear-rings; and their 
 heads were encircled with an elegantly-adorned fillet ? or covered with
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 319 
 
 a mitre or a showy cap. In the religious processions the musicians 
 performed an imposing part. 
 
 The later Babylonian religion being almost identical with the old 
 Chaldasan, it will not be necessary to go into detail upon the subject 
 in this connection. The early Chaldaeans, and their successors in the 
 same country, the later Babylonians, worshiped the same gods in the 
 same temples and with the same rites, and had the same cosmogony, 
 the same religious symbols, and the same priestly costume. If Urukh 
 or Chedorlaomer could have risen from their graves, and again visited 
 the shrines in which they had offered sacrifices fourteen centuries be- 
 fore, they would have seen little difference between the ceremonies of 
 their own times and those of the ages of Nabopolassar and Nebuchad- 
 nezzar. In the later times the temples and the idols were more mag- 
 nificent, music was more extensively employed in the ceremonial, and 
 corruption concerning priestly impostures and popular religious cus- 
 toms made some advance; but in other respects the religion of Nabo- 
 nadius and Belshazzar was like that of Urukh and Ilgi, the religion of 
 both periods being the same in the objects and the mode of worship, 
 in the theological ideas entertained and the ceremonial observances 
 and practices. 
 
 The repair and restoration of the ancient temples by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and their rededication to the same deities, attests at once the 
 identity of the gods and goddesses worshiped, as do likewise the old 
 appellations of the gods as elements in the names of the later kings 
 and nobles. But with all this general uniformity, there was a fluctua- 
 tion of rank and place among the gods at various times, and distinct 
 deities were often confounded with each other. Nebuchadnezzar 
 showed special devotion to Merodach, bestowing upon him titles of 
 honor signifying his supremacy over all the other gods, and identify- 
 ing him with Bel, the ancient tutelary god of Babylon. Among the 
 titles which Nebuchadnezzar assigned to Merodach were the following: 
 " the great lord," " the first-born of the gods," " the most ancient," 
 " the supporter of sovereignty," " the king of the heavens and the 
 earth." Nabonadius, however, restored Bel to his former place among 
 the gods, as distinct from and above Merodach, and showed particular 
 devotion to the former. This is proven by the fact that in his day 
 the great temple at Babylon was known as the temple of Bel, and by 
 the aditional circumstance that Nabonadius named his eldest son Bel- 
 shazzar, meaning " Bel protects my son." 
 
 In the same way the goddesses Beltis and Ishtar, or Nana, are often 
 confounded, though the same was the case in this instance in the old 
 Chaldagan monarchy. The basis of this confusion of deities was the 
 esoteric doctrine known by the priests and taught by them to the kings, 
 
 Old 
 
 Chaldaean 
 and Later 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Religion 
 Almost 
 Identical. 
 
 Nebu- 
 chadnez- 
 zar's 
 Worship 
 
 of 
 Merodach 
 
 and 
 
 Nabona- 
 
 dius's 
 
 Favor for 
 
 Bel. 
 
 Con- 
 founding 
 of Ishtar, 
 or Nana, 
 
 and 
 
 Beltis, or 
 Mylitta, 
 in Baby- 
 lonia.
 
 320 
 
 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA. 
 
 Bel, 
 Mero- 
 dach, and 
 Nebo the 
 Chief 
 Later 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Gods. 
 
 Worship 
 of Nergal 
 in Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Local 
 Worship 
 of the 
 Various 
 Gods in 
 Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Idolatry. 
 
 showing the actual identity of the several gods and goddesses, whom 
 the more intelligent and better informed may have considered various 
 phases of the Divine Nature and not as separate and distinct deities. 
 The ancient polytheisms apparently had this origin among all na- 
 tions, the various names and titles of the Supreme Being designating 
 His different attributes or His different spheres of action gradually 
 coming to be misapprehended by the ignorant masses, who regarded 
 this seeming difference as appellations of a number of deities ; 
 
 Bel, Merodach and Nebo were the deities chiefly worshiped by the 
 later Babylonians, as attested by the native monuments, and confirmed 
 by the Jewish writers. Nebo, the special deity of Borsippa, was con- 
 sidered a kind of powerful patron-saint, under whose protection it was 
 regarded important to place individuals. Nebo's name is the most 
 common divine element in the names of the kings and courtiers of the 
 later Babylonian monarchy. Three of the seven monarchs of the 
 kingdom had names composed with Nebo's Nabopolassar, Nebuchad- 
 nezzar and Nabonadius. Among courtiers we find such names as 
 Nebu-zar-adan, Samgar-Nebo and Nebu-shazban. It is also believed 
 that Nebuchadnezzar's Master of the Eunuchs named one of the young 
 Jewish princes whom he was educating Abed-Nebo, " the servant of 
 Nebo " a name which the Jews afterwards corrupted into Abed- 
 nego. 
 
 Nergal was also highly reverenced by the Babylonians. He was 
 worshiped at Cutha as the tutelary divinity of the city, and was also 
 greatly esteemed by the nation in general. His name is often found 
 on cylinder seals ; and is sometimes an element in the names of men, 
 as in " Nergal-shar-ezer, the Rag-Mag," and in Neriglissar, the king. 
 
 The Babylonian religion had a strong local character. Bel and 
 Merodach were the special gods of Babylon; Nebo of Borsippa; Ner- 
 gal of Cutha ; the Moon-god of Ur, or Hur ; Beltis of Niff er ; Hea, or 
 Hoa, of Hit ; Ana of Erech, or Huruk ; the Sun-god of Sippara, etc. 
 These deities were particularly honored at their respective places, 
 though all were recognized in a general way throughout the land. 
 Each god was specially worshiped in his own city, where was located 
 his most magnificent shrine. A god was only respected to any account 
 out of his own city by such as considered him their special personal 
 protector. 
 
 The Babylonians worshiped their deities directly through their im- 
 ages, thus giving their religion the same idolatrous character bestowed 
 upon it by the Assyrians. Each shrine had one idol at least, and this 
 idol was most impiously reverenced by the ignorant, who identified it 
 in some way with the god whom it represented. Some of them appear 
 te have believed that the idol ate and drank the offerings ; while others
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 regarded the idol as a mere symbol of the god, who was supposed to 
 pay an occasional visit to the shrine where he was worshiped. Those 
 who held the last doctrine nevertheless entertained gross anthropo- 
 morphic views, as they regarded the god as coming from heaven to 
 earth to pass the night with the chief priestess in the inner shrine of 
 the temple of Bel, which was furnished by the priests with a magnifi- 
 cent couch and a golden table. 
 
 Some of the idols were of wood, others of stone, and others again 
 of metal, either solid or plated. The metals used were gold, silver, 
 brass or bronze, and iron. Sometimes the metal was laid over a clay 
 model. In some instances images of one metal were overlaid with 
 plates of another, as in the case of one of the great images of Bel, 
 originally of silver, but coated with gold by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 The Babylonian worship was conducted with great pomp and mag- 
 nificence. A body of priests in each temple conducted the ceremonies 
 and held custody of the treasures. The priests were married, and 
 lived with their families in the temple itself or in its immediate vicin- 
 ity. They were supported by lands belonging to the temple or by the 
 offerings of the faithful. These offerings were usually animals, 
 mostly oxen and goats, which are sacrificial animals represented on 
 the cylinders. The priest always intervened between the worshiper 
 and the deities, introducing him to them and making intercession in 
 his behalf with upraised hands. 
 
 In the temple of Bel at Babylon, and perhaps in most of the tem- 
 ples throughout Babylonia, a great festival was celebrated once a year. 
 Many victims were sacrificed on such occasions, and on the great altar 
 in the precinct of Bel at Babylon it was the custom to burn a thou- 
 sand talents' weight of frankincense. There were processions accom- 
 panied by music and dancing. The priests were magnificently cos- 
 tumed. The people were in holiday attire. Banquets were held, and 
 the city was given up to merry-making. The king entertained his 
 lords in his palace. There was dancing and revelry in private dwell- 
 ings. Wine was drunk freely, passion was aroused, and the day often 
 ended in wild orgies, in which the grossest sensual appetites were al- 
 lowed free indulgence under the sanction of religion. 
 
 In the temples of one deity such excesses occurred daily. Every 
 Babylonian woman was obliged once in her lifetime to visit a shrine 
 of Beltis, and stay there until some stranger cast money into her lap 
 and took her along with him. Herodotus witnessed this scene, which 
 he described as follows : " Many women of the wealthier sort, who 
 are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the 
 precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take 
 
 their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy 
 voi. 1. 21 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 
 Worship, 
 Priest- 
 hood, 
 
 Sacrifices 
 and 
 
 Offerings 
 
 Annual 
 Festival 
 to Bel a) 
 Babylon 
 
 Account 
 by Herod 
 otus of 
 the Re- 
 ligious 
 Prostitu* 
 tion at 
 
 the 
 
 Shrine o' 
 Beltis, 01 
 Mylitta, 
 
 at 
 Babylon.
 
 322 
 
 CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA, 
 
 Baby- 
 Ionian 
 Religious 
 Notions 
 of Clean- 
 liness. 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Religious 
 Symbol- 
 ism. 
 
 Various 
 
 Cylinder 
 
 Symbols 
 
 of the 
 
 Gods. 
 
 enclosure, with wreaths of string about their heads and here there is 
 always a great crowd, some coming and others going. Lines of cord 
 mark out paths in all directions among the women; and the strangers 
 pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken 
 her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws 
 a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy 
 ground. When he throws the coin, he says these words : ' The god- 
 dess Mylitta (Beltis) prosper thee.' The silver coin may be of any 
 size ; it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once 
 thrown it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws 
 her money, and rejects no one. When she has gone with him, and 
 so satisfied the goddess, she returns home; and from that time forth 
 no gift, however great, will prevail with her. Such of the women as 
 are tall and beautiful are soon released ; but others, who are ugly, have 
 to stay a long time before they can fulfill the law. Some have even 
 waited three or four years in the precinct." Thus prostitution was 
 enjoined as a religious duty, and its demoralizing tendency could not 
 well be exaggerated. The statement of Herodotus, that " from that 
 time forth no gift, however great, will prevail with a Babylonian 
 woman," is not repeated by Strabo, and is bluntly contradicted by 
 Quintus Curtius. 
 
 The Babylonian religious system had notions concerning legal 
 cleanliness and uncleanliness similar to those prevailing among the 
 Jews. They believed that both man and woman were made impure 
 by the consummation of the marriage rite, and also by every subse- 
 quent act of the same kind. Every vessel touched by either was con- 
 taminated with this impurity. In order to cleanse themselves of this 
 impurity, the pair were obliged first to sit down before a censer of 
 burning incense, and then to wash themselves thoroughly. Only by 
 these means were they able to again enter a condition of legal cleanli- 
 ness. A like impurity affected such as came into contact with a 
 human corpse. 
 
 The Babylonian symbolism in religion was quite extensive. First 
 they assigned to each god a special mystic number, which was used 
 as his emblem and might also stand for his name in an inscription. 
 To Anu, Bel, and Hea, or Hoa the gods of the First Triad were 
 given respectively the numbers 60, 50 and 40. To the Moon-god, 
 the Sun-god and the Air-god the gods of the Second Triad were 
 assigned the numbers 30, 20 and 10. To Beltis was attached the 
 number 15, to Nergal 12, to Bar, or Nin, 40, as to Hea, or Hoa, but 
 this last is uncertain. Other numerical emblems remain undiscovered. 
 
 There were likewise pictorial symbols of the various gods, as repre- 
 sented on the cylinders, many of these forms filling every vacant space
 
 CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 
 
 323 
 
 where room could be found for them. A certain number may be 
 given definitely to particular divinities. A circle, either plain or 
 crossed, symbolized San, or Shamas, the Sun-god ; a six-rayed or eight- 
 rayed star the Sun-goddess, Gula, or Anunit ; a double or triple thun- 
 derbolt the Air-god, Vul; a serpent probably Hea, or Hoa; a naked 
 female form Ishtar, or Nana; a fish Bar, or Nin. There is a multi- 
 tude of other symbols, whose meaning is obscure; such as a double 
 cross, a jar or bottle, an altar, a double lozenge, one or more birds, an 
 animal between a monkey and a jerboa, a dog, a double horn, a sacred 
 tree, an ox, a bee, a spear-head. The inscribed cylinders inform us 
 that these emblems do not refer to the god or goddess mentioned in 
 the inscription upon them. Each seemingly represents a distinct 
 deity, and their appearance upon a cylinder implies the devotion of 
 the man whose seal it is to other deities besides those whose particular 
 servant he regards himself. In some instances one cylinder has eight 
 or ten such emblems. 
 
 The principal Babylonian temples had special sacred names trans- Principal 
 mitted from the old Chaldaean times, and belonged to the Turanian \ on ^ 
 form of speech. The great temple of Bel at Babylon was known as Temples. 
 Bit-Saggath ; that of the same god at Niffer as Kharris-Nipra ; that 
 of Beltis at Erech (now Warka) as Bit- Ana; that of the Sun-god at 
 Sippara as Bit-Parra ; that of Anunit at the same place as Bit-Ulmis ; 
 that of Nebo at Borsippa as Bit-Tsida. These names seldom admit 
 of explanation.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 PHCENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 SECTION I. PH(ENICIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 PHCENICIA was the name anciently applied to a narrow strip of ter- Geog- 
 ritory bordered on the east by the mountains of Lebanon, and on the ra P h y- 
 west by the Mediterranean sea, being only about twenty miles wide 
 from east to west, and about one hundred and twenty miles long from 
 north to south. Near Sidon the Lebanon mountains are only two 
 miles from the sea, and at Tyre the Phoenician plain is only five miles 
 wide. The entire Phoenician plain was exceedingly fertile, being 
 abundantly watered. The coast abounded with good harbors, and the 
 cedars of Lebanon furnished material in great abundance for ship- 
 building. The most important and renowned cities upon the Phoeni- Cities, 
 cian coast were Tyre and Sidon. Tyre " the daughter of Sidon " 
 was the most southern city, and the only one whose political history 
 can be traced. Sidon, the most ancient city of Phoenicia, was twenty 
 miles north of Tyre, and its modern name is Saide. Berytus, now 
 Beyreut, was sixteen miles north of Sidon, and is now the principal 
 seaport of Syria. North of Berytus was Byblus, the Gebal of the 
 Bible, inhabited by seamen and caulkers. North of Byblus was Tripo- 
 lis, now called Tarabulus; and the most northern of all Phoenician 
 cities was Aradus, the Arvad of Genesis and Ezekiel. 
 
 The Phoenicians were a branch of the Semitic race, being therefore Origin 
 a kindred people with the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Syrians, the As- p^^*. 
 Syrians and the later Babylonians. They have sometimes, however, cians. 
 been considered as the Canaanites of the coast and descendants of 
 Canaan, a son of Ham ; in which case they would belong to the Hamitic 
 nations, but their Semitic language seems to identify them with the 
 other nations classed as descended from Shem. The Phoenicians mi- 
 grated from the plains of Chaldaea soon after the death of Nimrod. 
 They were never united under one government, being divided into a 
 number of petty states, or kingdoms, each Phoenician city with its 
 adjacent territory constituting a small independent state with an 
 
 325
 
 326 
 
 PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Phoenicia 
 a Prey to 
 Conquest. 
 
 hereditary sovereign at its head, the political power being shared with 
 the priests and the nobles. In certain emergencies the Phoenician 
 cities would unite in a confederacy, one of the cities being usually 
 recognized as the leader of the confederation. This supremacy was 
 only exercised in war, when a common danger threatened the existence 
 of the separate cities, or when a common interest demanded unity. 
 Each city was at all times allowed to manage its domestic affairs in its 
 own way. 
 
 Owing to its geographical situation and its sources of wealth, Phoe- 
 nicia was a prey to all the great conquerors who made Syria their 
 battle-ground in ancient times. For these reasons Phoenician inde- 
 pendence was of short duration, and only in their national infancy 
 were this renowned commercial people free from the yoke of foreign 
 masters. At an early period Phoenicia was forced to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of Egypt, and was successively reduced to subjection un- 
 der the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians and the Graeco- 
 Macedonians. 
 
 Sidon. 
 
 Origin 
 
 of 
 Tyre. 
 
 Its Early 
 History. 
 
 First 
 King 
 
 SECTION II. TYRE AND SIDON. 
 
 SIDON whose name is the same as the oldest son of Canaan, a son 
 of Ham was the oldest of the Phoenician cities, and the first which 
 became wealthy and powerful. It early engaged in commercial en- 
 terprises with other nations, by land and sea, and was the first to found 
 colonies, a system which afterwards became a distinctive feature of 
 Phoenician policy. Tyre was the first of Sidon's colonies. Sidon 
 enjoyed the supremacy over the other Phoenician cities until about 
 B. C. 1050, when the city was taken and destroyed by the Philistines 
 from the South of Palestine. The inhabitants found refuge in Tyre, 
 which became the leading city of Phoenicia, and so remained for seven 
 centuries. 
 
 It is not known exactly when Tyre was founded. The city orig- 
 inally was situated on the mainland, but in after years a new city was 
 erected on an island about half a mile from the shore. This insular 
 city soon eclipsed the old Tyre in wealth and splendor, and its name 
 became a byword for commercial greatness. 
 
 In the eleventh century before Christ, Tyre rapidly grew to be the 
 leading city and kingdom of Phoenicia. Under the government of 
 its own kings it advanced very fast in commercial wealth and internal 
 magnificence. The first known King of Tyre was ABIBAAL, who was 
 partly contemporary with King David. On his death, about B. C. 
 1025, he was succeeded on the Tyrian throne by his son HIRAM, who 
 reigned during the remainder of that century. Hiram was a great
 
 m Stereograph, copyright iqoo by Underwood <& Underwood 
 
 GREAT RESERVOIR, BUILT BY KING HIRAM AT TYRE
 
 TYRE AND SIDON. 
 
 friend of the illustrious Hebrew monarchs, David and Solomon, with 
 both of whom he entered into commercial alliances. He furnished 
 Solomon with a great part of the materials used in the construction 
 of the great Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, and with the workmen by 
 whom that grand edifice was erected. Hiram's reign of thirty-four 
 years was a period of wonderful prosperity for the great Phoenician 
 cities, Tyre's supremacy being acknowledged throughout the whole 
 of Phoenicia. The other Phoenician kings, profiting by previous ex- 
 perience, entered into a close confederation and recognized the suzer- 
 ainty of the King of Tyre, " the true and only monarch of the na- 
 tion," who, in consequence, was called " King of the Sidonians." This 
 title was not to be confounded with that of the King of Sidon, who 
 was the local sovereign of the early Phoenician metropolis. The King 
 of Tyre regulated the general interests of Phoenicia, its commerce and 
 its colonies, concluded treaties with other nations, and directed the 
 fleets and armies of the confederation. He was aided by deputies 
 from the other Phoenician cities. 
 
 On the death of Hiram, in B. C. 991, his son, BAALEAZAR, became Hiram's 
 King of Tyre. He died after a reign of seven years, and was sue- ^Uora 
 ceeded by his son ABDASTARTUS (or Abdastoreth), who, after reigning 
 nine years, fell a victim to a plot of assassination. A long period of 
 civil wars then distracted Tyre, in consequence of the claims of a 
 number of pretenders who disputed the throne in quick succession. 
 Order was restored about B. C. 941 when ETH-BAAL (or Ithobalus), 
 the High-Priest of Astarte, slew the last pretender, Phales, and seated 
 himself on the throne of Tyre as King of the Sidonians. He gave 
 his daughter Jezebel in marriage to Ahab, King of Israel. By her 
 force of character, Jezebel controlled her imbecile husband and ren- 
 dered Phoenician influence predominant in Israel during Ahab's reign. 
 Eth-baal died about B. C. 909, and was succeeded by his son BADE- 
 ZOR, who reigned six years, dying in B. C. 903, when his son, MATGEN, 
 became his successor. 
 
 Matgen died in B. C. 871, after a reign of thirty-two years, leav- Pyg- 
 ing a son named Pygmalion and a daughter named Elissar, or Elissa, 
 but better known as Dido; the daughter being then thirteen and the 
 son eleven years old. Matgen desired that his children should reign 
 jointly. The people wanting a change in the aristocratic form of 
 government, revolted and proclaimed PYGMALION king, excluding his 
 sister, who married Zicharbaal, the Sichaeus of Virgil. Zicharbaal 
 was High-Priest of Melkarth, next in rank to the monarch among 
 the Phoenicians, and the head of the aristocratic party. Shortly after- 
 ward he was assassinated by order of Pygmalion, whereupon Elissar 
 organized a conspiracy of the Phoenician nobles to avenge her hus-
 
 328 
 
 PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Flight 
 
 of 
 
 Dido 
 
 and 
 
 Founding 
 
 of 
 Carthage. 
 
 Sub- 
 jection 
 
 to 
 Assyria. 
 
 Second 
 
 King 
 
 Hiram. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Yoke. 
 
 Unsuc- 
 cessful 
 Assyrian 
 Siege 
 
 of 
 Tyre. 
 
 band's death and to dethrone her brother, but she was foiled in her 
 design by the vigilance of the popular party. Thereupon the con- 
 spirators, several thousand in number, seized a number of ships in 
 the harbor of Tyre and sailed away under the leadership of Elissar, 
 who was thereafter called Dido, " the fugitive." They landed on the 
 northern coast of Africa and founded Carthage, a city whose great- 
 ness, glory and prosperity eventually eclipsed that of the mother 
 country. 
 
 In consequence of the migration of the aristocratic party from 
 Tyre the Tyrian king was thereafter an absolute monarch. During 
 Pygmalion's reign the Assyrians under Asshur-izir-pal first appeared 
 on the Mediterranean coast. The Phoenician cities submitted to the 
 invaders and agreed to pay tribute a condition of dependence which 
 lasted almost a century. Pygmalion's reign ended in B. C. 824, but 
 we have no record of any Phoenician king until the middle of the next 
 century. The Phoenician cities were governed by native sovereigns 
 tributary to Assyria, but this vassalage did not apparently retard the 
 prosperity of Phoenicia, or weaken its maritime power and its commer- 
 cial glory and greatness. 
 
 The Phoenicians quietly bore the yoke of Assyrian supremacy until 
 the middle of the eighth century before Christ, when they became 
 restive. About B. C. 743, another HIRAM, King of Tyre, headed a 
 Phoenician revolt against the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser II., but 
 the Phoenicians were again reduced to submission and tribute when 
 the Assyrians advanced into Palestine. In B. C. 727, Phoenicia, un- 
 der the leadership of ELULJEUS, revolted against Shalmaneser IV., 
 King of Assyria ; whereupon the Assyrian monarch led an army into 
 the country, occupied Old Tyre, on the mainland, which made no oppo- 
 sition, but the Island Tyre withstood a siege. Shalmaneser was un- 
 able to assail the insular city from the land without the aid of a fleet, 
 and was obliged to content himself with a simple blockade of the city, 
 the most important feature being the cutting off of the water of the 
 island city which had been supplied by means of aqueducts from the 
 mainland. The besieged are said to have drunk rainwater during the 
 five years that they held out against the besiegers. While the siege 
 was in progress Shalmaneser IV. was hurled from the Assyrian throne 
 by the usurper Sargon, who continued the siege. The other Phoe- 
 nician cities had in the meantime submitted to the Assyrians, and Sar- 
 gon collected a fleet of sixty ships from these cities and attempted to 
 attack insular Tyre from the sea, but the Tyrians sallied out with 
 twelve ships and defeated and destroyed Sargon's fleet. Finally, after 
 the siege had lasted five years, the Assyrians relinquished it and re- 
 tired.
 
 TYRE AND SIDON. 
 
 329 
 
 Notwithstanding its successful resistance to the Assyrians, Tyre 
 emerged from the siege greatly exhausted. Its supremacy had been 
 shaken off by the other Phoenician cities, which had become tributary 
 to Sargon ; and finally, in B. C. 708, its flourishing colony of Cyprus 
 submitted to the Assyrians. In B. C. 704, just after Sennacherib 
 had ascended the Assyrian throne, Elulaeus reestablished Tyre's su- 
 premacy over Phoenicia and proclaimed the independence of the coun- 
 try. In B. C. 700 Sennacherib led a large Assyrian army into Phoe- 
 nicia, whereupon the Phoenician cities forsook Tyre and submitted to 
 the Assyrian king. Elulaeus retired to the Island of Tyre, relying 
 upon his usual good fortune, which, however, deserted him on this 
 occasion. Tyre was taken and Elulaeus was obliged to flee for safety. 
 Sennacherib spared the city, and made Tubal (or Ethbaal) king, as 
 his vassal and tributary. 
 
 The capture of Tyre by Sennacherib put an end to the supremacy 
 which that city had for some time exercised so oppressively over the 
 other Phoenician cities. Tyre had retained most of the profits of 
 Phoenician commerce for herself, and the other cities willingly aided 
 Sennacherib in reducing her to submission. All the cities of Phoenicia 
 were now placed on an equality as tributaries of Assyria. Upon the 
 assassination of Sennacherib, Sidon rebelled against Assyria, and en- 
 deavored to acquire the supremacy over Phoenicia formerly exercised 
 by Tyre. The revolt was mercilessly punished by Esar-haddon, who 
 destroyed Sidon about B. C. 681 and reduced its inhabitants to slavery. 
 At Esar-haddon's death the Phoenician cities cast off the Assyrian 
 yoke, and allied themselves with Egypt, the enemy of Assyria. But 
 the next Assyrian king, Asshur-bani-pal, after reestablishing the As- 
 syrian dominion over Egypt, suppressed the Phoenician revolt. About 
 B. C. 630, or B. C. 629, Phoenicia fell a prey to the ferocious Scythian 
 invaders, who devastated the open country, but did not take any of the 
 fortified cities. The overthrow of the Assyrian Empire in B. C. 625 
 gave the Phoenicians a temporary relief; but about B. C. 608 they 
 submitted to the yoke of Neko, King of Egypt. The Egyptian sway 
 over Phoenicia was ended by the defeat of Neko by Nebuchadnezzar 
 of Babylon at Carchemish in B. C. 605 ; and after a short respite from 
 foreign domination, the Phoenician cities found a new master in the 
 Babylonian king. In B. C. 598 Nebuchadnezzar led an army into 
 Phoenicia, quickly reducing the country, and besieging Tyre, which 
 resisted him for thirteen years, at the end of which he took the city 
 and reduced it to a heap of ruins. Most of the inhabitants fled to 
 their fleet and sailed to Carthage, carrying with them their wealth 
 and industry, but a miserable remnant of the population remained in 
 the city under a king named BAAL, whom the conquering Babylonian 
 
 Assyrian 
 
 Yoke 
 Cast Off. 
 
 Assyrian 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 Tyre. 
 
 Phoenicia 
 Tributary 
 
 to 
 Assyria. 
 
 Sidon's 
 Unsuc- 
 cessful 
 Revolt. 
 
 Scythian 
 Invasion 
 
 Sub- 
 jection 
 
 to 
 
 Egypt 
 
 and 
 
 Babylon 
 
 Baby- 
 lonian 
 Siege 
 and 
 Capture 
 
 of 
 Tyre.
 
 330 
 
 PHCENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Egyptian 
 Defeat. 
 
 Sub- 
 jection 
 
 to 
 Persia. 
 
 Alexan- 
 der's 
 Siege 
 and 
 
 Capture 
 of Tyre. 
 
 Sub- 
 jection 
 to 
 
 Macedon 
 
 and 
 
 Rome. 
 
 monarch had set up as his vassal. Some years afterward Uaphris, 
 King of Egypt, attempted to wrest Phoenicia from the dominion of 
 Babylon; but the Phoenicians remained loyal to Nebuchadnezzar, and, 
 aided by Cyprus, defeated the Egyptian fleet, which was manned by 
 Greek and Carian mercenaries. Uaphris was checked in his career 
 by this reverse, and after having taken and sacked Sidon and ravaged 
 the Phoenician coast, he returned to Egypt with a vast amount of 
 spoils. 
 
 Upon the subversion of the Babylonian Empire, in B. C. 538, Phoe- 
 nicia passed under the dominion of the Medo-Persian kings. The 
 greater portion of the naval forces in the expedition of Cambyses, 
 King of Persia, into Egypt consisted mainly of Phoenician ships and 
 seamen. Phoenicia remained a province of the great Medo-Persian 
 Empire for two centuries ; and in B. C. 332 Tyre was taken after a 
 vigorous siege and destroyed by Alexander the Great, who thus put an 
 end to the national existence of Phoenicia, and inflicted the death-blow 
 upon the Medo-Persian Empire in the memorable battle of Arbela the 
 following year. Phoenicia then became a part of Alexander's vast 
 empire and was absorbed in the dominions of his successors, sometimes 
 falling under the dominion of the Ptolemies of Egypt and sometimes 
 under the Seleucidse of Syria. In the first century before Christ it 
 shared the fortunes of Syria in being swallowed up by the overshadow- 
 ing power of Rome. It has ever since shared the fortunes of Syria 
 and Palestine, and has been under the Turkish dominion for almost 
 four centuries. 
 
 Manu- 
 factures, 
 Com- 
 merce, 
 Coloniza- 
 tion. 
 
 Colonies. 
 
 Cyprus. 
 
 SECTION III. PHOENICIAN COMMERCE AND COLONIES. 
 
 LARGELY because of the physical condition of their country and 
 other circumstances, the Phoenicians devoted their entire attention to 
 manufactures, commerce and colonization; and at a very early period 
 they became the greatest manufacturing, commercial, colonizing and 
 maritime people of antiquity. 
 
 The rapid growth of their commerce placed the carrying trade of 
 antiquity almost exclusively in the hands of the Phoenicians. They 
 extended their trade by establishing colonies and trading stations in 
 distant lands, and many of these became important cities in later times. 
 The location of these colonies indicates to some degree the extent of 
 Phoenician commerce, and the colonies were centers from which ven- 
 tures were made into more remote regions. The Phoenician colonies 
 proceeded from east to west along the Mediterranean coasts, occupy- 
 ing the chief islands. The island of Cyprus called Kittim, or Chit-
 
 PHOENICIAN COMMERCE AND COLONIES. 
 
 331 
 
 tim, in Scripture was a province, as well as a colony, of the Tyrians ; 
 and vestiges of their establishments on the island may yet be seen. 
 Their principal settlements on Cyprus were Paphos, Amathus, Tamisus 
 and Ammochosta. In the island of Rhodes were lalyssus and Cama- 
 rius. In the ^Egean sea the Phoenicians had stations on the islands 
 of Thera and most of the Cyclades, and also on Thasos. In the 
 island of Sicily were the flourishing Phoenician colonies of Lilyba^um 
 and Panormus (Mahaneth). Their establishments in Sicily and Sar- 
 dinia were only naval stations for vessels employed in the trade with 
 Western Europe, especially with Spain, " the Mexico or Peru of the 
 ancient world." Spain called Tarshish in Scripture was the coun- 
 try from which the Tyrians had the most lucrative trade; and in that 
 country they established on the Mediterranean the colonies of Carteia 
 and Malaca (now Malaga), and beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now 
 Straits of Gibraltar) several flourishing colonies, such as Tartessus, 
 on the Boetis (now Guadalquivir), and Gades (now Cadiz), on an 
 island near the Spanish coast; the latter of which is said to be the 
 oldest town in Europe. These colonies soon became independent 
 states, Tyre preferring a close alliance with them to retaining a polit- 
 ical supremacy over them. From Gades and Tartessus voyages were 
 made to the west coast of Africa for apes, to the mines of Cornwall 
 in Britain for tin, and to the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic 
 for amber. The principal Phoenician colonies on the Mediterranean 
 coast in North Africa, in the modern land of Tunis, were Leptis, 
 Hadrumetum, Utica and Carthage; which attained a degree of splen- 
 dor not reached by any other Phoenician cities, and eventually rivaled 
 Tyre itself in wealth and magnificence. The Phoenicians formed com- 
 mercial stations along the coasts of Asia Minor and the shores of the 
 Euxine, or Black Sea, before the Greeks ; thus establishing intercourse 
 with Thrace, Colchis and Scythia. In the Persian Gulf the Phoe- 
 nicians had trading stations on the islands of Tylos and Aradus (per- 
 haps Bahrein), from which their vessels descended the Persian Gulf 
 and traded with India and Ceylon, bringing diamonds and pearls from 
 those Eastern lands. At the head of the Red Sea they had a station 
 at Elath, or Ezion-geber, which was the starting-point for voyages 
 to Ophir, a rich country in the distant South or East, believed by 
 some to have been in the South-west of Arabia, or Arabia Felix (now 
 Yemen), by others to have been on the Eastern coast of South Africa, 
 in the modern Sofala, and by others still to have been on the peninsula 
 of Malacca, in the Southern part of Farther India. Ophir was famed 
 for its gold, which the Phoenicians brought from there in large quan- 
 tities. 
 
 124 
 
 Colonies 
 
 in 
 Sicily. 
 
 In Spain. 
 
 Carteia, 
 Malaca. 
 
 Gades, 
 
 or 
 Cadiz. 
 
 Trade 
 
 to 
 Cornwall 
 
 and 
 Baltic 
 Shores. 
 
 Commerce 
 
 with 
 the East 
 
 and 
 South. 
 
 With 
 Arabia 
 
 Felix 
 
 and 
 Ophir.
 
 S32 
 
 PHCENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Land 
 Trade 
 East, 
 North 
 and 
 Sooth. 
 
 Commer- 
 cial 
 Caravans. 
 
 Trade 
 
 with 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 With 
 Judaea 
 
 and 
 Syria. 
 
 Northern 
 Land 
 Trade. 
 
 The land-trade of the Phoenicians was divided into three great 
 branches the Egyptian and Arabian ; the Babylonian to Central Asia 
 and the far East; and the Armenian and Scythian. From Arabia 
 Felix (Arabia the Happy) now called Yemen caravans brought 
 through the desert such articles as frankincense, myrrh, cassia, gold 
 and precious stones. Before the Phoenicians had a port on the Red 
 Sea they brought by way of Arabia the products of Southern India 
 and Africa, particularly cinnamon, ivory and ebony. The Hebrew 
 prophet Ezekiel described this trade. The Arabian trade was mainly 
 carried by caravans. The Northern Arabs, especially the princes of 
 Kedar and the Midianites, were great traveling merchants; and the 
 Kingdom of Edom, afterwards Idumsea, in the North of Arabia, 
 reached a high degree of commercial prosperity. On the sea-coast 
 the Edomites were in possession of the ports of Elath and Ezion-geber 
 (now Akaba), at the head of the Red Sea; in the interior they had 
 the metropolis of Petra, whose magnificent remains were discovered in 
 the present century. As is characteristic of the immutable civilization 
 of Asia, the commercial caravans of antiquity resembled those of the 
 present day. Merchants traveled in bands organized like an army, 
 conveying their merchandise on the backs of camels, " the ships of 
 the desert." They were escorted by armed forces, sometimes fur- 
 nished from home, but more frequently consisting of some plundering 
 tribe, hired at a great price, to secure the caravan from the exactions 
 and attacks of other like marauding tribes. Most of the Phoenician 
 trade with Egypt was overland, at least so long as Thebes was the 
 capital and metropolis of Egypt; and when Memphis rose to preemi- 
 nence an entire quarter of the city was assigned to the Phoenician 
 merchants, and the trade by sea to the Delta became important and so 
 remained for centuries. 
 
 The first branch of the Phoenician trade in the East was with Judaea 
 and Syria. The Phoenicians depended on Palestine for their grain, 
 and this explains the cause of their close alliance and friendship with 
 the Hebrew nation in the days of David and Solomon. The most 
 important branch of Eastern trade was through Babylon with Central 
 Asia. A considerable portion of the route lay through the Syrian 
 desert ; and, to facilitate the passage of the caravans, two of the most 
 remarkable cities of antiquity Baalath (afterwards Baalbec, or 
 Heliopolis) and Tadmor (afterwards Palmyra) were founded in the 
 Syrian desert by King Solomon, who desired to procure for his sub- 
 jects a share in this lucrative traffic. 
 
 The Northern land-trade of the Phoenicians is thus described by the 
 Hebrew prophet Ezekiel : " Javan, Tubal and Meshech, they were 
 thy merchants ; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass
 
 PHCENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 333 
 
 in thy markets. They of the house of Togarmah, traded in thy fairs 
 with horses and horsemen and mules." 
 
 But the Mediterranean sea was the great commercial highway of the 
 Phoenicians. Spain was the richest country of the ancient world in 
 the precious metals. The Phoenician colonies reduced the natives to 
 slavery, and forced them to work in the mines. Says the prophet 
 Ezekiel : " Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of 
 all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy 
 fairs." From Spain the Phoenicians entered the Atlantic Ocean and 
 proceeded to the British Isles, where they obtained tin from the mines 
 of Cornwall ; and probably from the coasts of the Baltic they pro- 
 cured amber, which was considered more precious than gold in ancient 
 times. From their trading stations on the Red Sea and the Persian 
 Gulf, the Phoenicians traded with the coasts of India and the island 
 of Ceylon, and with Africa. During the reign of Neko, King of 
 Egypt, a Phoenician fleet, in a three years' voyage, discovered the pass- 
 age around the Cape of Good Hope, returning home by way of the 
 Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as we have seen in the history of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Concerning the ancient Phoenicians, a certain writer says : " Though 
 their voyages did not equal in daring those of modern times, yet, when 
 we consider that they were ignorant of the mariner's compass, and of 
 the art of taking accurate astronomical observations, it is wonderful 
 to reflect on the commercial enterprise of a people whose ships were to 
 be seen in the harbors of Britain and Ceylon." 
 
 Mediter- 
 ranean 
 Trade. 
 
 Tarshish. 
 
 Atlantic 
 Trade. 
 
 Oriental 
 Trade. 
 
 Phoe- 
 nician 
 Enter- 
 prise. 
 
 SECTION IV. PHCENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 BESIDES their carrying trade the Phoenicians derived great wealth 
 from their manufactures. The textile fabrics of the Sidonians, and 
 the purple cloths of the Tyrians, were celebrated from the most re- 
 mote antiquity. The " Tyrian purple," the chief product of the 
 Phoenicians, was a famous dye, obtained in minute drops from two 
 shell-fish, the buccinum and the murex. This purple was of a dark 
 red-violet, of various shades, according to the species of mussel em- 
 ployed. Cotton, linen and silk fabrics were dyed with this hue, but 
 the most beautiful effects were obtained from woolen goods. The dye 
 being very costly, it was used only for stuffs of the best quality. The 
 manufacture and use of this dye prevailed in all the Phoenician cities. 
 Homer represents his heroes as clad in Sidonian robes dyed with Tyrian 
 purple. 
 
 Vegetable dyes of exceeding beauty and variety were also in use, 
 the dyeing being always performed in the raw materials; and the art 
 
 Textile 
 Fabrics. 
 
 Tyrian 
 Purple. 
 
 Vegetable 
 Dyes.
 
 334 
 
 PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Glass 
 Blowing. 
 
 Pottery. 
 
 Jewelry- 
 
 Ivory 
 Carvings. 
 
 Agricul- 
 ture. 
 
 Wines, 
 
 Silk, 
 
 Fruits. 
 
 Alphabet. 
 
 Semitic 
 Origin. 
 
 of producing shot colors by using threads of various tints was only 
 understood by the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians claimed to be the 
 inventors of glass-blowing; and, though the Egyptians have as good 
 a claim to the discovery, the Phoenicians were the first to attain the 
 highest skill in the art. Sidon and Sarepta were the chief seats of 
 the glass manufacture. The sand used was procured from the banks 
 of the little river Belus, near the promontory of Carmel. Numerous 
 specimens of Phoenician glassware yet remain, and bear witness to 
 the skillful workmanship of this renowned ancient people. The Phoe- 
 nicians were likewise skilled in pottery ; and the Greeks acquired from 
 them the art of making painted vases, which they afterwards carried 
 to remarkable perfection. They largely exported pottery in exchange 
 for tin in their voyages to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. The Phoe- 
 nicians likewise achieved great skill in bronze-work and in jewelry. 
 The specimens of their jewelry found by modern explorers testify to 
 the wonderful skill and taste exhibited by these ancient people in this 
 branch of industry. They were also celebrated for their beautiful 
 carvings in ivory. 
 
 The Phoenicians also displayed some skill in agriculture. Excel- 
 lent wines were produced in the vicinity of Tyre, Berytus and Gebal, 
 and also in the Lebanon mountain region. Silk, then as at present, 
 was an important product. The fruits of this region were famed for 
 their excellence and abundance. 
 
 It was once thought that the Phoenicians invented letters, but recent 
 investigations and discoveries throw considerable doubt upon this claim. 
 But, while other ancient Oriental nations had ideographic systems of 
 writing as, for example, the Egyptians the Phoenicians had an al- 
 phabet of twenty-two letters apparently selected from the characters 
 of the Egyptian hieratic writing. Each letter of this alphabet in- 
 variably represented one articulation, and the Phoenicians seem to have 
 been the first people to use such a system. It is believed that the 
 Phoenician alphabet was invented about the time of Avaris, one of the 
 Shepherd Kings of Egypt, several centuries prior to the exodus of the 
 Israelites from that country. It is the first real alphabet which has 
 been thus far discovered; and whether the Phoenicians invented letters 
 or not, they were the first people to use them in their proper manner, 
 as a system different from hieroglyphic or ideographic writing. The 
 Phoenicians established their alphabet wherever they carried their com- 
 mercial enterprises, and thus they instructed other nations in the use 
 of letters. As M. Renan asserts, the alphabet was a Phoenician export. 
 
 According to the evidence furnished us by the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 the Phoenicians were descended from Canaan, a son of Ham, thus im- 
 plying that they were a Hamitic people; but they spoke a purely
 
 PHOENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 335 
 
 Semitic language a language akin to that of the Hebrews, the Syr- 
 ians, the Assyrians and the Semitic Babylonians. Says a certain 
 writer : " It is certain that the Phoenician idiom differed but slightly, 
 and in no important point, from that of the Hebrews. The identity 
 of grammatical forms and of the vocabulary are so complete between 
 the Hebrew and the Phoenician that they cannot be considered as two 
 distinct languages, but merely as two slightly differing dialects of 
 the same language." 
 
 The Phoenicians were a literary people at a very early day. Their 
 written law embraced the principles of their religion and their social 
 and political systems. They had books treating on religion, agricul- 
 ture and the practical arts; and the different Phoenician cities had 
 regular archives or records in writing, going back to very early times, 
 and preserved with wonderful care. They made remarkable progress 
 in the sciences. The Sidonian architects were regarded as the best 
 in Syria. In Phoenicia, particularly in Sidon, did astronomy, arith- 
 metic, geometry, navigation and philosophy flourish; and the Sido- 
 nians endeavored to atone for the loss of their political and commercial 
 supremacy among the Phoenician cities by their intellectual glory. 
 The eminent characters of ancient Phoenicia were the historian, San- 
 choniathon, of Tyre, and the philosopher, Moschus, of Sidon; both 
 of whom are said to have lived in the twelfth century before Christ. 
 
 The character of Phoenician architecture is shown by a few remain- 
 ing buildings. Its prominent characteristic, in the words of M. 
 Renan, " is its massive and imposing strength a want, indeed, of 
 finish in details, but a general effect of power and grandeur. In short 
 it is a monolithic art." The Phoenician buildings were constructed of 
 enormous stones, similar to those yet to be seen in the lower walls of 
 the Temple at Jerusalem, which were built by Phoenician architects 
 and masons, and like those still to be seen in the sea-wall of the ruins 
 of Tyre. The Phoenician tombs were original in design and grand in 
 construction. All their edifices seemed intended to last; and so dur- 
 able have they been that, notwithstanding the hard fate to which they 
 have been subjected, many monuments of the days of Phoenician glory 
 remain to give us some light on the antiquities of this famous race of 
 merchants and colonizers. 
 
 Phoenician statuary seems to be a mingling of the styles of Egypt 
 and Assyria, the general form being Egyptian, while the execution is 
 Assyrian. There were few large statues, but many small statuettes, 
 some of which display remarkable artistic skill, and are made of stone, 
 while others are constructed of baked clay and bronze, exhibiting 
 neither taste in design nor elegance in execution. Both kinds of 
 statuettes were designed as idols, of which one or more were in every 
 
 Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Science. 
 
 Sanchon- 
 iathon. 
 
 Moschus. 
 
 Architec- 
 ture. 
 
 Sculp- 
 ture.
 
 336 
 
 PHCENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Dress. 
 
 Phoenician dwelling. The first class were those belonging to the 
 wealthy ; while the rougher and coarser sort belonged to the poor. 
 
 The ancient Egyptian paintings represent the Phoenicians as hav- 
 Painting. ing dark, florid complexions, and well-formed, regular features, ap- 
 proaching the European cast. They are also represented with blue 
 eyes and flaxen hair. The hair, when dressed for ornament, was pow- 
 dered white and covered with a network of blue beads, or a close cap 
 wound around by a fillet of scarlet leather, with two long ends hang- 
 ing down behind, in the Egyptian style. 
 
 The Phoenician dress was usually a short cloak or cape thrown over 
 the shoulders and extending to the elbows, and fastened at the waist 
 by a golden girdle, which, in some cases, encircled the body many 
 times, and was tied in front with a large bow-knot. The inner gar- 
 ment was of fine linen, confined to the waist and extending almost 
 down to the feet. The Phoenicians also wore woolen mantles and 
 tunics, of fine texture and edged with gold lace. 
 
 The Egyptian paintings represent the Sidonians as allies of the 
 Pharaohs in their wars with the Canaanites. The statesmen and mer- 
 chants are represented as having long hair and beards, and with a 
 fillet around the head. The soldiers are depicted with short hair and 
 beard. The arms and accouterments of the Sidonians were very ele- 
 gant. The helmet was of silver, with a peculiar ornament at the crest, 
 consisting of a disk and two horns of a heifer, or of a crescent. The 
 breast-plate was also of silver, quilted upon a white linen garment, 
 which was laced in front and extended to the armpits, being held by 
 shoulder-straps. The shield was large and round, and made of iron, 
 rimmed and studded with gold. The sword was two-edged and made 
 of bronze. The spear was remarkably long. 
 
 It is believed that the Hebrews obtained their ornaments of dress 
 and their articles of domestic luxury from their Phoenician neighbors. 
 Says the Jewish prophet Isaiah : " In that day the Lord will take 
 away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and 
 their cauls, and their round tires like the moon ; the chains, the brace- 
 lets, and the mufflers ; the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and 
 the head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings ; the rings, and nose- 
 j ewels ; the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wim- 
 ples, and the crisping-pins ; the glasses, and the fine linen, and the 
 hoods, and the veils." 
 
 Military 
 
 Dress, 
 
 Arms, etc 
 
 Isaiah's 
 Prophecy 
 
 Poly- 
 theism. 
 
 SECTION V. PHOENICIAN RELIGION. 
 
 THE Phoenician religion was a gross polytheism, and is but imper- 
 fectly understood, as there is no sacred book, like the Old Testament
 
 PHOENICIAN RELIGION. $37 
 
 of the Hebrews, or like the Zend-Avesta of the Medes and Persians, or 
 the Vedas of the Sanskritic Hindoos, or the Ritual of the Dead of the 
 Egyptions, to spread before us a view of the system. Neither is there 
 any extensive range of sculptures or paintings to give us an idea of 
 the outward aspect of the worship, as in Egypt, Assyria and Greece. 
 Neither has any ancient writer given us any account of this religion 
 excepting Philo Byblius, a Greek writer of the first or second century 
 after Christ, and who was a native of Byblus. This author is quoted 
 by Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation " several centuries later. 
 But the work of Philo Byblius deals exclusively with Phoenician cos- 
 mogony and mythology, and thus gives us no light upon the real 
 character of the religion. We are obliged to rely mainly upon the 
 notices of the Phoenician religion by the writers of portions of the 
 Old Testament, upon incidental allusions by classical authors, upon 
 inscriptions, upon the etymology of names, and upon occasional repre- 
 sentations accompanying inscriptions upon stones or coins. These 
 are, however, so disconnected and vague as to give us but scanty and 
 unsatisfactory knowledge of the inner nature of the Phoenician re- 
 ligious system. 
 
 The Phoenician religion evidently was derived from the same source Origin, 
 from which the religions of Chaldaea and Assyria took their origin. It 
 was based on the conception of one Supreme and Universal Divine 
 IjBeing, " whose person was hardly to be distinguished from the mate- 
 rial world, which had emanated from his substance without any distinct 
 act of creation." The Universal Supreme Being was usually termed 
 Baal, meaning " the Lord." He represented the sun, which was re- Baal. 
 garded as the great agent of creative power. He was divided into 
 a number of secondary divinities, named Baalim, who emanated from 
 his substance and were simply personifications of his various attributes. 
 " The supreme god, considered as the progenitor of different beings, 
 became Baal-Thammuz, called also Adon, ' the Lord,' whence the Gre- other 
 cian Adonis. As a preserver, he was Baal-Chon ; as a destroyer, Baal- Gods. 
 Moloch ; as presiding over the decomposition of those destroyed beings Moloch, 
 whence new life was again to spring, Baal-Zebub." Other gods were 
 El, Elium, Sadyk, Adonis, Malkarth, Dagon, Eshmun, Shamas and 
 Kabiri. 
 
 Each divinity had his female principle, or wife. Each secondary Astarte. 
 Baal had a corresponding Baalath, representing the same god under 
 a different aspect. The female principle of the great god Baal at 
 Sidon was Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the representative of the moon, there- 
 fore corresponding to the Grecian goddess Artemis, or Diana. The 
 planets were worshiped under the generic title of Cabirim, the " power- 
 ful ones." Fire was likewise reverenced, and the sun and star deities 
 VOL. l. 33
 
 338 
 
 PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 Cruel 
 Sacrifices. 
 
 Fire Gods, were emphatically " fire gods." Movers describes the Phoenician re- 
 ligion as " an apotheosis of the forces and laws of nature ; an adora- 
 tion of the objects in which these forces were seen, and where they 
 appeared most active." 
 
 The most cruel and licentious ceremonies accompanied the worship 
 of the Phoenician deities. Children were burnt alive to appease the 
 wrath of Baal-Moloch ; a custom carried to great excess in Carthage. 
 There was a systematic offering of human victims as expiatory sacri- 
 fices to El and other gods. The reason for this shocking superstitious 
 custom is to be found in the words addressed by Balak to Balaam, as 
 follows : " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
 before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, 
 with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands 
 of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first- 
 born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my 
 soul ? " Philo Byblius says : " It was customary among the ancients, 
 in times of great calamity and danger, that the rulers of the city or 
 nation should offer up the best beloved of their children, as an ex- 
 piatory sacrifice to the avenging deities ; and these victims were slaugh- 
 tered mystically." The Phoenicians were instructed that at one time 
 the god El himself, under the pressure of extreme peril, had taken his 
 only son, clad him in kingly attire, set him as a victim upon an altar, 
 and killed him with his own hand. Thereafter it was the duty of 
 rulers to follow this divine example, and private persons, when sur- 
 rounded by difficulties, might offer up their children to appease the 
 divine anger. Porphyry says that " the Phoenician history was full 
 of instances in which that people, when suffering under great calamity 
 from war, or pestilence, or drought, chose by public vote one of those 
 most dear to them, and sacrificed him to Saturn." 
 
 The worship of Ashtoreth in Phoenicia and Syria was accompanied 
 with licentious rites. The worship of the great Nature-goddess 
 " tended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations between the sexes, 
 and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description." 
 " This religion silenced all the best feelings of human nature, de- 
 graded men's minds by a superstition alternately cruel and profligate, 
 and we may seek in vain for any influence for good it could have 
 exercised on the nation." The religion well illustrated the moral 
 character of the Phoenicians, who were generally insubordinate, but 
 also servile, gloomy and cruel, corrupt and fierce, covetous and selfish, 
 vindictive and treacherous. Being traders in everything they were 
 devoid of every kindly feeling and lofty impulse. 
 
 The Phoenicians did not worship images of their deities, and were 
 therefore not idolaters, in the usual acceptation of the term. In the 
 
 Licentious 
 Rites. 
 
 No 
 Idolatry.
 
 ANCIENT SYRIA-DAMASCUS. 339 
 
 temple of Melkarth at Gades there was no material emblem of the god 
 whatever, excepting a constantly-burning fire. In other places con- 
 ical stones, called bcetyli, were dedicated to the different deities, and 
 were honored with a limited adoration, being considered as possessing 
 a certain mystic virtue. These stones were sometimes replaced by 
 pillars, which were erected in front of the temples and had sacrifices 
 offered to them. The pillars were mostly of wood, though sometimes 
 of stone or metal, and were called asherahs, " uprights," by the Jews. 
 On festive occasions they were adorned with boughs of trees, flowers 
 and ribbons, and constituted the chief object of a worship of a sensual 
 and debasing nature. An emblem in the Assyrian sculptures is re- 
 garded as conveying a correct idea of the usual appearance of these 
 asherahs at such times. 
 
 Phoenician worship was conducted publicly, and included praise, Worship, 
 prayer and sacrifice. Animals were generally sacrificed, though, as Sacrifices. 
 we have observed, there were frequently human sacrifices. The vic- 
 tims were usually consumed entirely upon the altars. Libations of Libations. 
 wine were lavishly poured out in honor of the principal deities, and 
 incense was burnt in extravagant profusion. Sometimes an endeavor 
 was made to influence the deity by vociferous and prolonged cries, and 
 even by self-inflicted wounds and mutilation. Festivals were fre- 
 quently held, particularly one at the vernal equinox, on which occa- 
 sion sacrifices on a large scale were made, and vast multitudes of people 
 assembled at the leading temples. 
 
 Says Rawlinson : " Altogether the religion of the Phoenicians, while Rawlin- 
 possessing some redeeming points, as the absence of images and deep view, 
 sense of sin which led them to sacrifice what was nearest and dearest 
 to them to appease the divine anger, must be regarded as one of the 
 lowest and most debasing of the forms of belief and worship prevalent 
 in the ancient world, combining as it did impurity with cruelty, the 
 sanction of licentiousness with the requirement of bloody rites, revolt- 
 ing to the conscience, and destructive of any right apprehension of 
 the true idea of God." 
 
 SECTION VI. ANCIENT SYRIA DAMASCUS. 
 
 SYRIA at present a province of the Turkish Empire now em- Ancient 
 braces ancient Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia ; thus having an area of M a ? d 
 about seventy thousand square miles and a population of two millions. Syria. 
 It is located between the Arabian desert on the east and the Mediter- 
 ranean sea on the west. The Greeks regarded Syria as including 
 Palestine and Phoenicia, but the Jews always considered these three 
 countries as distinct from each other. Aram was the Jewish name
 
 840 
 
 Moun- 
 tains and 
 Rivers. 
 
 Products 
 
 and 
 Animals. 
 
 Syrian 
 Cities. 
 
 Ara- 
 maeans. 
 
 PHOENICIA AND SYRIA. 
 
 for Syria. Ancient Syria proper was bounded on the west by the 
 Mediterranean, on the north by Mount Amanus, on the east by the 
 Euphrates and Arabia, and on the south by Arabia. Its principal 
 geographical divisions in the time of the Romans were Syria proper; 
 Ccele-Syria, or Hollo w- Sy ria ; and Commagene, in the North. 
 
 The chief mountains of Syria were Amanus, now 'Al Lucan ; Casius, 
 now Cas ; Libanus and Anti-Libanus, the Mount Lebanon of Scripture, 
 whose summit is said to be perpetually capped with snow. The prin- 
 cipal rivers of Syria are the Euphrates, the Orontes and the Leontes. 
 The small river called Eleutherus was anciently said to be haunted by 
 a dragon, whose immense jaws could receive a mounted horseman. 
 The Sabbatum was represented as ceasing to flow on the Sabbath. 
 The Adonis, tinged with reddish sand in the rainy season, was believed 
 to flow with blood on the anniversary of the death of Adonis, who was 
 said to have been killed on its banks by a wild boar. The palm, the 
 plane-tree and the cypress are among the forest trees of Syria. 
 Grapes are produced in abundance, as are also the different kinds of 
 grain, and millet. The climate is delightful. The animals of Syria 
 are those usually found in South-western Asia. The Syrian goat is 
 remarkable for its long hair and its pendulous ears, the hair having 
 been a valued article of commerce for many centuries. The wolf, the 
 jackal and the fox are seen in the mountains. 
 
 Damascus the chief city of ancient, as of modern, Syria is be- 
 lieved by its people to be the original seat of paradise. Antioch, the 
 Greek capital of Syria, was celebrated for its beauty and magnificence. 
 In the famous grove of Daphne, near Antioch, Venus was worshiped 
 with licentious ceremonies. Hieropolis was renowned for its temple 
 of Venus, which was so rich that the Roman general Crassus was en- 
 gaged for several days in weighing the spoils when he captured the 
 city. Emessa had a temple to the sun. Other famous cities of ancient 
 Syria were Tadmor, in the desert, later known as Palmyra, and Baal- 
 bee, the Greek Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. 
 
 The earliest inhabitants are believed to have been the Aramites, or 
 Aramaeans, the descendants of Aram, Shem's youngest son. Some of 
 the posterity of Hamath, a son of Canaan, is also said to have dwelt 
 there in primitive times. The Hebrew Scriptures represent primeval 
 Syria as divided into a number of small kingdoms, among which were 
 Damascus, Hamath, Zobah and Geshur. Syria is believed to be one 
 of the earliest inhabited regions of the globe, and the modern Syrians 
 have traditions representing their country as the oldest in the world. 
 
 The Syrians were at first governed by numerous petty chiefs, called 
 kings, a title which the ancient writers applied to every ruler or leader, 
 or chief, of a community.
 
 ANCIENT SYRIA-DAMASCUS. 
 
 341 
 
 Previous to its organization into a satrapy of the Medo-Persian Em- 
 pire, Syria had never been united under one government. During the 
 period of Assyrian supremacy the country was divided into no less 
 than five leading states, some of which were mere loose confederacies. 
 The five states were the Northern Hittites, whose capital was Car- 
 chemish, on the Euphrates ; the Patena, on the Lower Orontes, whose 
 capital was Kinalua; the Hamathites, on ,the Upper Orontes, whose 
 capital was Hamath (now Hamah) ; the Southern Hittites, in the 
 region south of Hamath ; and the Syrians of Damascus, whose capital 
 was Damascus. 
 
 The history of Syria, like that of Asia Minor, has little political 
 unity. Since its petty ancient states have lost their independence the 
 country has been under the successive sway of the Assyrians, the 
 Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Graeco-Macedonians, the Romans, 
 the Saracens, the Seljuk Turks, the Mongol Tartars, and for the last 
 four centuries under the Ottoman Turks. Under its present masters 
 the country has everywhere fallen into decay, and can scarcely be 
 said to have any history ; though in ancient and mediaeval times it 
 was the theater of many important events, having witnessed the prow- 
 ess and martial deeds of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Pompey, Abu- 
 bekir and Omar, Godfrey of Bouillon, Saladin and Richard the Lion- 
 hearted, Zingis-Khan and Tamerlane. 
 
 Of all the petty states of ancient Syria just mentioned, the most 
 powerful and the best-known was Syria of Damascus. The city of 
 Damascus is the oldest known city of the world, its existence dating 
 far back before the time of Abraham, over four thousand years ago. 
 The kingdom of Damascus arose in the twelfth century before Christ, 
 after the Hebrew king Saul had vanquished the King of Zobah, one 
 of the most ancient Syrian kingdoms. HADAD, King of Damascus, 
 assisted Hadadezar, King of Zobah, against the great Hebrew king 
 David, but was defeated in a great battle by David, who captured 
 Damascus, Belah and Berothai ; and Hadad submitted to the suprem- 
 acy of his Hebrew conqueror. Near the close of the reign of Solo- 
 mon, David's illustrious successor, REZON, King of Damascus, who 
 had originally been a slave, revolted against the Hebrew rule and 
 reestablished the independence of the kingdom of Damascus. TAB- 
 EIMMON, King of Damascus, was contemporary with Abijah, King of 
 Judah, from about B. C. 960 to B. C. 950. BEN-HADAD I., his son 
 and successor, was contemporary with Baasha in Israel and Asa in 
 Judah, about from B. C. 950 to B. C. 920, and warred with Baasha 
 and his successor, Omri. BEN-HADAD II., son and successor of Ben- 
 hadad I., was contemporary with Ahab, King of Israel, about B. C. 
 900, and warred with that monarch. He was a powerful monarch, 
 
 Five 
 Syrian 
 States. 
 
 Damas- 
 cus. 
 
 Its 
 Hadad. 
 
 Rezon. 
 
 Tab-rim- 
 
 mon. 
 
 Ben- 
 hadad I. 
 
 Ben- 
 hadad II.
 
 Hazael. 
 
 Ben- 
 hadad III. 
 
 Rezin. 
 
 Fall of 
 Damas- 
 cus. 
 
 and had thirty-two vassal kings in his army. He adorned Damascus 
 with splendid edifices, and did much to advance the glory of his king- 
 dom. He was finally murdered treacherously by his servant HAZAEL, 
 who then usurped the throne of Damascus. Hazael was a great war- 
 rior and an able monarch, and reigned contemporaneously with Jehu, 
 King of Israel, and Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk King of As- 
 syria, about B. C. 850. He won several great victories over the armies 
 of Israel and Judah, wresting important territories from the kings of 
 both of those nations, and forcing them to pay him tribute. He also 
 seized Elath, on the Red Sea, and largely advanced the commercial 
 prosperity of his dominions. After his death the Syrians deified him, 
 and thus rendered him an object of worship. Hazael's son and suc- 
 cessor, BEN-HADAD III., contemporary with Jehoahaz and Joash of 
 Israel, about B. C. 840, oppressed the Israelites, but was three times 
 defeated by Joash, and lost the provinces which his father had wrested 
 from the Israelites. The Syrians of Damascus were now for some 
 time tributary to Jeroboam II., King of Israel. They, however, re- 
 covered their independence amid the dissensions which prevailed in 
 Israel upon Jeroboam's death. REZIN, the last King of Damascus, 
 became the ally of Pekah, King of Israel, against Ahaz, King of 
 Judah, for the purpose of dethroning the latter, and putting a stran- 
 ger named Tabael on the throne of David. The allied kings besieged 
 Jerusalem, but without success. They, however, carried on a preda- 
 tory war during the following year, and the Syrians returned to Da- 
 mascus with much valuable booty and many captives. Ahaz, in re- 
 venge, sent valuable presents to Tiglath-Pileser II., King of Assyria, 
 for the purpose of securing his aid against Damascus. The Assyrian 
 king at once led an army into Syria, took Damascus and put Rezin to 
 death. Most of the Damascenes were carried captive to Kir, in Media, 
 and the ancient kingdom of Damascus came to an inglorious end, 
 about B. C. 732. 
 
 KINGS OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 KNOWN KINGS. 
 
 TIME OF REIGN. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY KINGS. 
 
 Hadad 
 
 About B. C. 1040 . . 
 
 David in Israel. 
 
 Rezon 
 
 " 1000 . . 
 
 Solomon in Israel. 
 
 Tab-rirnmon 
 
 960-950 
 
 Abi j ah in Judah. 
 
 Ben-hadad I 
 
 " 950 920 
 
 Baasha in Israel and Asa in Judah 
 
 Ben-hadad II 
 Hazael 
 
 " 900 ... 
 " 850 ... 
 
 Ahab in Israel. 
 Jehu in Israel and Shalmaneser II. 
 
 Ben-hadad III 
 
 * * * 
 
 Rezin . 
 
 " " 840 .... 
 " " 745-732. 
 
 in Assyria. 
 Jehoahaz in Israel. 
 
 Ahaz in Judah and Pekah in Israel.